From mentor at alb-net.com Sun Feb 6 00:04:27 2000 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Sun Feb 6 00:04:27 2000 Subject: [Kcc-News] KOSOVA: Sectarian violence leaves seven dead in Kosovo (AFP, February 5, 2000) (fwd) Message-ID: ____________________________________________________________________ RELEASE THE KOSOVAR POLITICAL PRISONERS FROM SERBIA NOW! Sign the petition at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/app_online.htm ____________________________________________________________________ http://www.excite.com.au/news/story/aap/20000205/10/international/kosovo-unrest-eur.inp Sectarian violence leaves seven dead in Kosovo 10: 26 AM AEST February 5 International peacekeeping troops evacuated ethnic Albanians from the mainly Serb northern half of Kosovska Mitrovica today after seven died in sectarian violence. Soldiers of the NATO-led Kosovo Force(KFOR), who clashed with furious Albanian protesters today, imposed a curfew and closed both bridges over the Ibar river which splits the town after the worst ethnic clashes in months. The violence broke out late Thursday between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in the north of the town after a grenade was thrown into a Serb cafe and an elderly ethnic Albanian couple were found shot in their apartment. UN spokeswoman Susan Manuel described the flare-up as a "terrifying and appalling increase in multi-ethnic violence". KFOR troops evacuated international aid workers and UN staff from northern Mitrovica overnight and were moving many of the 4,500 ethnic Albanians thought to live there to the Muslim south. The evacuation was expected to continue beyond the 8pm to 5am (0600 AEST to 1500 AEST) curfew announced by KFOR. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it moved its offices south of the river after three of its vehicles in the north were destroyed by mobs, together with two vehicles of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The unrest erupted a day after two elderly Serbs were killed and three wounded when unidentified attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a UNHCR bus full of Serbian refugees escorted by KFOR troops. UNHCR spokeswoman Paula Ghedini said Albanians from the Serb sector had told "horrifying stories" of having doors "blown in by plastic explosives" and being physically abused and warned to leave the area or be killed. KFOR helicopters were flying over the town dropping leaflets in Serbian, Albanian and English alerting the population about the curfew. Peacekeepers put the death toll at six ethnic Albanians, while another six were injured, two seriously. Three were initially reported killed, including an elderly couple shot dead in their apartment, but another two bodies were found today by peacekeeping troops, KFOR officials said. A boy of 14 later died of his wounds in a Moroccan run hospital in the south. But surgeon Aleksandar Belovic in the northern hospital said another ethnic Albanian woman had died of grenade injuries, bringing the total to seven dead. At least 15 Serbs were reported injured in the unrest, KFOR officials said, after a grenade was lobbed into the Belami cafe late yesterday. Hospital sources said 11 young Serbs were still fighting for their lives late today. Five French peacekeeping soldiers were slightly hurt early today when some 400 ethnic Albanians, furious at the deaths, pelted the bridge dividing the town with stones and bottles. The French troops responded with tear gas but the crowd was calmed by members of the Kosovo Protection Corps, the civilian successor of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army. A similar number of Serbs gathered on the other side of the bridge but remained calm, troops and witnesses said. Some of the Albanian protesters later told AFP of their anger. "We think we must liberate the town and cross to the other side as soon as possible," said Seser Shapbani, 17, who said that ethnic Albanians would have to "take up arms and make war". Shahim Shapare, 38, said that "if the international community does not act to free the town we will have to organise ourselves and liberate it by our own means". Mitrovica has been divided between the rival communities since KFOR troops replaced Serbian forces last June, after a NATO air war to end Serbian oppression of the ethnic Albanian majority. From mentor at alb-net.com Sat Feb 19 02:09:02 2000 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Sat Feb 19 02:09:02 2000 Subject: [Kcc-News] 1,600 Kosovars still held by Serbs / U.N. Council Told 1,600 Kosovars Still Held By Serbs (UNHCR to name envoy for prisoners?) (February 18, 2000) Message-ID: ____________________________________________________________________ RELEASE THE KOSOVAR POLITICAL PRISONERS FROM SERBIA NOW! Sign the petition at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/app_online.htm ____________________________________________________________________ http://www.dailystarnews.com/200002/18/n0021813.htm#BODY8 The Daily Star - Volume 3 Number 174 Fri. February 18, 2000 1,600 Kosovars still held by Serbs UNITED NATIONS, Feb 17: An estimated 1,600 people from Kosovo are still being detained in other parts of Serbia while about 3,500 inhabitants of the mainly ethnic Albanian Serb province are listed as missing, the Security Council was told on Wednesday, reports Reuters. UN Assistant-Secretary-General for peacekeeping operations Hedi Annabi, who gave these figures during a closed-door briefing for council members, added that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, former Irish President Mary Robinson, was considering appointing a special envoy to deal with the issue of detainees and the missing. "The status of people from Kosovo detained in Serbia proper remains a matter of concern," Annabi said, according to his briefing notes obtained later. "The most accurate count of Kosovo detainees in Serbia proper is approximately 1,600," he said, citing a survey by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of all civilian and some military prisons. He also said there were "approximately 3,000 missing persons from the NATO bombing period and 400 to 500 persons reported missing since mid-June 1999." NATO conducted 11 weeks of air strikes against targets in Yugoslavia, including Kosovo, from March to June last year to force Belgrade to halt the oppression of ethnic Albanians. Hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians fled during this period, mainly to Albania and Macedonia, though most returned after the bombing ended and a UN administration backed by the NATO-led KFOR entered Kosovo in June. "The appointment of a special envoy to deal with the issue of detainees and the missing is being considered by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights," Annabi said. Part of his briefing summerised a recent upsurge of violence in Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. Although centred on the mixed city Mitrovica, "this has affected inter-ethnic relations in other regions of Kosovo and has led to an increase in tension throughout the province," he said. Annabi said the ability of the UN interim administration to maintain the pace of its achievements largely depended on making good a serious lack of financing for Kosovo's budget. _______________________________________________________________________ Betreff: UNHCR to name envoy for prisoners? Datum: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 12:00:26 -0500 Firma: International Crisis Group U.N. Council Told 1,600 Kosovars Still Held By Serbs UNITED NATIONS, Feb 17, 2000 -- (Reuters) An estimated 1,600 people from Kosovo are still being detained in other parts of Serbia while about 3,500 inhabitants of the mainly ethnic Albanian Serb province are listed as missing, the Security Council was told on Wednesday. U.N. Assistant-Secretary-General for peacekeeping operations Hedi Annabi, who gave these figures during a closed-door briefing for council members, added that the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, former Irish President Mary Robinson, was considering appointing a special envoy to deal with the issue of detainees and the missing. "The status of people from Kosovo detained in Serbia proper remains a matter of concern," Annabi said, according to his briefing notes obtained later. "The most accurate count of Kosovo detainees in Serbia proper is approximately 1,600," he said, citing a survey by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of all civilian and some military prisons. He also said there were "approximately 3,000 missing persons from the NATO bombing period and 400 to 500 persons reported missing since mid-June 1999." NATO conducted 11 weeks of air strikes against targets in Yugoslavia, including Kosovo, from March to June last year to force Belgrade to halt the oppression of ethnic Albanians. Hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians fled during this period, mainly to Albania and Macedonia, though most returned after the bombing ended and a U.N. administration backed by the NATO-led KFOR entered Kosovo in June. "The appointment of a special envoy to deal with the issue of detainees and the missing is being considered by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights," Annabi said. Part of his briefing summarized a recent upsurge of violence in Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. Although centered on the mixed city Mitrovica, "this has affected inter-ethnic relations in other regions of Kosovo and has led to an increase in tension throughout the province," he said. Annabi said the ability of the U.N. interim administration to maintain the pace of its achievements largely depended on making good a serious lack of financing for Kosovo's budget. "As it now stands, the cash available for the 2000 Kosovo consolidated budget ... will be exhausted by early March, even after allowing for revenue collection," he said. While DM 21.4 million ($10.8 million) had been received out of 28 million ($14.1 million) needed for the Kosovo Protection Corps, an emergency force established last month, and for a population registration program, a 46 million mark ($23.2 million) deficit remained for unspecified budget support. From mentor at alb-net.com Sun Feb 27 23:32:29 2000 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Sun Feb 27 23:32:29 2000 Subject: [Kcc-News] Kosovo Albanian mayor blames Milosevic for destabilisation Message-ID: ____________________________________________________________________ RELEASE THE KOSOVAR POLITICAL PRISONERS FROM SERBIA NOW! Sign the petition at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/app_online.htm ____________________________________________________________________ http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/000226/world/afp/Kosovo_Albanian_mayor_blames_Milosevic_for_destabilisation.html Saturday, February 26 4:07 AM SGT Kosovo Albanian mayor blames Milosevic for destabilisation KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia, Feb 25 (AFP) - The ethnic Albanian leader in this divided town blamed Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for recent troubles here Friday and called for British and US troops to patrol the Serb-dominated north. Bajram Rexhepi also demanded demonstrations be banned following a march by tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians on Monday which raised tension in the town and led to scuffles with KFOR international peacekeepers. The self-appointed major of the ethnic Albanian southern sector said the situation in the town was "really dangerous," but added that it was only in such situations that the international community was moved to act. "We know that it takes a long time to have any action. Always we have promises, promises, promises and only if we have major incidents and the situation is very dangerous will the international community finally do something concrete," he said. "Following the provocation and destabilisation initiated by the Milosevic regime, the international community recognises the new dangerous situation," he said. He welcomed recent proposals for up to 2,000 ethnic Albanians driven from homes in the north to start a gradual return under KFOR protection. But said he would not negotiate with Mitrovica's Serbian leader Oliver Ivanoic to push the issue forwards. "For the time being I am not ready to talk with him. I talked with him enough for seven months and we had no kind of success," he said. He stressed that after the the "massacre" of February 3, when a grenade attack on a Serb cafe sparked a night of rioting that left at least six Albanians dead, he could not resume contact with Ivanovic, accusing him of organising armed groups in the unrest. "I am ready to talk even with the devil to improve the situation, but after this massacre I cannot talk with him," he said. He said French troops had lost credibility by failing to control the violence and called for more "neutral" forces such as British and US troops to patrol the north, a move vehemently opposed by the Serbs. "Maybe they would prefer to see Serbian soldiers or Russian or maybe Greek, but it is impossible in this moment, they must accept this reality," he said. He blamed the clashes which marked the end of Monday's mass demonstration on out-of-town "troublemakers" driven by unemployment and frustration at the exodus of Albanians from the north. He said he had opposed the march, preferring to allow KFOR to "concentrate all their energy and attention on the security situation." Copyright ? 2000 AFP