[Kcc-News] Kosovars still at political impasse one year after Serb withdrawal (fwd)

[Mentor Cana]

Kosova Task Force, USA
News Update
June 15, 2000

As the first anniversary of Serb withdrawal approaches 
(June 20), journalists  in leading newspapers are suffering 
from a serious bout of collective amnesia.  Critics in 
alliance with the Serb lobby are questioning whether NATO 
intervention on humanitarian grounds was justified.  Instead 
of acknowledging NATO¹s role in the heroic resistance waged 
by the people of Kosova against genocide,  the focus is on 
whether the number of Serb tanks hit were worth the costs of 
intervention. 

The following facts need to be remembered and brought forward 
to the media's attention.

1   Kosova is still not free.  Serbia continues to have 
political sovereignty over Kosova despite the overwhelming 
vote for independence by Kosovars in 1991.  To deny the 
aspirations of Kosovars is to ensure new wars and further 
atrocities.

2   The UN Security Council assigned UNMIK the impossible 
task of creating a multi-ethnic Kosova subject to Belgrade. 
Any talk of reconciliation and creation of a multiethnic society 
is futile so long as there is no acknowledgment of the wrongs done, 
and if not amends then at least a sense that some measure of 
justice is being done. 

3   NATO went to war against Belgrade not to create some 
multiethnic and democratic nirvana but to prevent an escalation
of Serb attacks against Kosovo's civilian population.

4   Albanian relief from Serb tyranny cannot depend simply on 
the presence of international forces providing border security. 
A political settlement with ethnic Albanians as full partners 
is needed.

5   The upcoming municipal elections are no more than a UN 
plan to assuage Kosovars and a bid for time in the hope that 
some sort of compromise short of Koosovar independence will emerge. 

6   French peacekeepers in Kosova have been repeatedly accused of
cooperating with Serb paramilitaries controlling access to northern
Mitrovica. French forces sympathetic to Belgrade have allowed a 
defacto partition of the mineral-rich region of Mitrovica by the Serbs.
 
7   War criminals have not been arrested. KFOR and UNMIK civilian 
police force have deliberately failed to pursue indicted war 
criminals. Kosova still has no court that can deliver impartial 
judgments regarding war crimes.  

8    About 1200 Albanians are still being illegally held in 
Serbian prisons, subjected to mock trials that make a parody of 
justice.   Last month, 143 of these prisoners were sentenced to a 
total of 1632 years in prison. Another 5000 Kosovars are reported
missing. The weak international response has fostered a profound 
cynicism among Kosovars regarding the prospects for realizing 
other Western promises such as self-governance or real peace. 

9   An estimated 20,000 Kosovar women were raped by Serbs. None of 
these criminals have been arrested. Few services are available for 
these women to deal with their personal traumas.  Local humanitarian 
groups, including the Red Cross, have estimated that 100 rape-babies 
were born in January  alone. 

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The following organizations constitute the Kosova Task Force, USA:
Albanian Islamic Cultural Center, American Muslim Council,
Balkan Muslim Association, Council of Islamic Organizations of Chicago,
Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, Council on American
Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America ( ),
Islamic Council of New England, Islamic Medical Association, Islamic
Shura Council of Southern California, Islamic Society of Greater
Houston, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Majlis Shura New York,
The Ministry of Imam W.D. Muhammad, Muslim Students Association of US
and Canada, The National Community.