[Kcc-News] 1) Third Mass Grave Reported Found in Serbia; 2) Putin backs Kostunica's 'obstructionist' policy towards democratisation of Kosovo

[Mentor Cana]

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.