From mentor at alb-net.com Wed Jun 6 06:53:55 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2001 06:53:55 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Kcc-News] Belgrade mass grave report confirmed Message-ID: "The witnesses also described events surrounding the killings, saying a the bodies had been loaded onto a refigerator truck by Serbian forces. This truck was then driven into the Danube River in April 1999 and later pulled out and the bodies were burned and dumped into mass grave. Mihajlovic said investigators believe two or three additional mass graves exist somewhere around Belgrade. It is believed that those graves also contain unidentified bodies of more ethnic Albanians killed during the 1999 Kosovo conflict." http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/06/05/belgrade.grave/index.html Belgrade mass grave report confirmed June 5, 2001 Posted: 2:27 PM EDT (1827 GMT) BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic has announced the existence of a mass grave in one of Belgrade's districts believed to contain the bodies of 86 ethnic Albanians. The bodies were believed to have been victims buried during the 1999 Kosovo conflict. Serbian investigators did not provide hard evidence as to the identity of the victims, however, eyewitness accounts described clothing typical of ethnic Muslim Albanian dress. The witnesses also described events surrounding the killings, saying a the bodies had been loaded onto a refigerator truck by Serbian forces. This truck was then driven into the Danube River in April 1999 and later pulled out and the bodies were burned and dumped into mass grave. Mihajlovic said investigators believe two or three additional mass graves exist somewhere around Belgrade. It is believed that those graves also contain unidentified bodies of more ethnic Albanians killed during the 1999 Kosovo conflict. An investigating judge appointed by a Belgrade district court is leading the investigation. The court issued an order on May 31 to begin exhumation of the first mass grave. According to justice sources, the exhumation will take weeks. Mihajlovic said on Tuesday that the investigation would show whether former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was connected to the crimes, underlining that Milosevic would be the key witness, if and when a trial begins. The official police investigation of the mass grave has implicated Milosevic in ordering the cover up of war crimes committed in Kosovo by Serbian police forces in 1999. The Serbian Chief of Public Security Sretan Lukic also announced that according to their investigation, a total of 830 crimes against ethnic Albanians were committed by members of the Serbian police force from January 1 to June 10, 1999. Up to now, 774 members of the Serbian police force have been accused, 244 have been detained and 66 have been charged. From freenaithasani at yahoo.com Thu Jun 7 14:33:12 2001 From: freenaithasani at yahoo.com (freenaithasani at yahoo.com) Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 14:33:12 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Kcc-News] Freedom for Nait Hasani, a political prisoner in Serbia Message-ID: <20010607183312.347928C3F@alb-net.com> PRESS RELEASE: Freedom for Nait Hasani, a political prisoner in Serbia The Organization Council of released prisoners in Prishtina is announcing the opening of a new web-site dedicated to obtaining the release of Nait Hasani. The web-site features photographs, a biography, and links to sites set up to aid in obtaining the freedom of those Albanians still languishing in Serb prisons. http://www.alb-net.com/nait-hasani/ On June 10, 1999, the Serb Ministry of Justice illegally took over 2,000 Albanian political prisoners to prisons in Serbia. One of these prisoners is Nait Hasani. He is currently being held in Belgrade Central Prison, serving a 20-year term under appalling and inhumane conditions. Nait is 37 years old. He was brutally abducted by the Serb special police in 1997 and tried for terrorism after being severely tortured. During the NATO war, shrapnel from a NATO bomb at the Dubrava prison wounded him. He survived the massacre there only to be later taken back into Serbia, where he was repeatedly tortured. Despite repeated promises to EU leaders, US leaders, the UN Security Council, and other international organizations, the Serb regime continues to illegally detain 140 Albanian political prisoners two years after the end of the war in Kosova. Only through intense international pressure has the freedom of these prisoners been achieved. Visit the our web-site to find out how you can help. http://www.alb-net.com/nait-hasani/ From mentor at alb-net.com Wed Jun 20 15:25:00 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 15:25:00 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Kcc-News] 1) Third Mass Grave Reported Found in Serbia; 2) Putin backs Kostunica's 'obstructionist' policy towards democratisation of Kosovo Message-ID: 1. Third Mass Grave Reported Found in Serbia 2. Putin Offers Kosovans Little: Putin backs Kostunica's 'obstructionist' policy towards democratisation of Kosovo ### 1. ### http://www.europeaninternet.com/yugoslavia/news.php3?id=497781 Third Mass Grave Reported Found in Serbia Belgrade, Jun 20, 2001 -- (dpa) Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic has confirmed the existence of a third mass grave of victims from Kosovo during the war in the province two years ago, the Belgrade radio B-92 reported Tuesday. The location of the grave, with bodies brought from Kosovo after "battlefield cleansing" will soon be announced," the radio quoted Mihajlovic as saying. He directly accused the deposed Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic of responsibility for the efforts to remove traces of atrocities committed against ethnic Albanians. "It definitely was an action organized by Slobodan Milosevic, whowanted to remove all evidence which could have been interesting for TheHague Tribunal investigators," Mihajlovic said. Yugoslav investigators, observed by the International War CrimesTribunal, have begun the work on a mass grave with 86 bodies, found nearBelgrade. The bodies from that grave, mostly of women, children and elderlypeople, were first dumped into the Danube in March 1999, in arefrigerator truck, and secretly reburied after the truck resurfaced. The finding of another grave with 25-30 mostly male corpses, in thesame area in eastern Serbia, was announced last week. Milosevic, under arrest since April 1 on corruption charges, wasindicted by the war crimes tribunal in May 1999. (C)2001. dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH ### 2. ### http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr/bcr_20010620_3_eng.txt Putin Offers Kosovans Little Putin backs Kostunica's 'obstructionist' policy towards democratisation of Kosovo By Shkelzen Maliqi in Prishtina (BCR No. 257, 20-Jun-01) Russian President Vladimir Putin's surprise visit to Kosovo last week brought few new ideas on solving the region's problems. And although Putin stressed Russia's interests in the Balkans, he put forward no plausible argument for Moscow exerting more influence here. Putin is mirroring his predecessor Boris Yeltsin in his support of Belgrade - the only ally of the conservative and nationalist elements who, parading themselves as moderates, are effectively heirs to the former regime. Both Yugoslav and Russian presidents claim international toleration of Albanian extremism in the region is to blame for the current instability. Putin also lashed out at elections due to go ahead in November which he said are premature and will work against the Serb minority in the province. The Russian leader agrees with Kostunica that Kosovo's Serbs should boycott the elections, that they should not participate in the setting up of joint democratic institutions in Kosovo. Such an obstructionist attitude towards the democratisation of Kosovo clearly shows how they remain hostage to the past. Both presidents then proposed the organisation of a regional conference aimed at charting the future of the Balkans. Implicit in this, they say, is the maintenance of all current borders and the continued Serbian dominated Yugoslav federation. This, despite the fact such a structure has effectively ceased to exist. Their insistence on maintaining federal institutions is both undemocratic and hypocritical. By obstructing elections in Kosovo, Belgrade is actually committing itself to the continuation of ethnic tensions in the region. For Moscow, as Serbia's patron, the greater the area under the latter's sway the bigger Russia's influence. But there is no sense to any conference looking at the future of the region without Kosovan democratic institutions. Back in 1990 Slobodan Milosevic insisted that Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo needed to be secured prior to holding free elections. Everyone knows how that policy worked out. Kostunica is himself now trying to secure sovereignty over Kosovo as a precondition of Serb participation in the elections. Isn't that just an echo of old-style thinking? That democracy can wait or even be suspended until Kostunica is assured that Serbia holds the cards? But what is he going to do with a federation if Montenegrins and Kosovars don't want to be a part. In any case, who wants to put democracy on hold in the name of the federation. Shklzen Maliqi is Radio Free Europe's chief correspondent in Kosovo.