From ngapeja at rocketmail.com Mon Aug 1 13:05:46 2005 From: ngapeja at rocketmail.com (Isa Blumi) Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 10:05:46 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [NYC-L] Burning Albanians, we heard this all before In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20050801170546.9716.qmail@web51704.mail.yahoo.com> Twice before--in 1999 and then again in 2001 when Public Radio Minnesota did a report--I brought to your attention, among others, the fact that Serbia systematically burned hundreds if not thousands of bodies to destroy evidence of murder and a program of "ethnic cleansing." Now Natasha Kandic is pushing the issue at great risk to her own safety with not one bit of support from the LDK/PDK travesty that festers in Kosova today. Do we not have the ability to mobilize any bit of outrage as human beings, let alone Kosovars, in response to the fact that this has happened and not one mainstream media outlet has covered the story. Just think of it, of its parallels to World War II. That our friends in the State Department has in its program the policy of sitting on this story as well..."not helpful to the current situation" only compounds the insult to Kandic and those few people who reported this story--all on death lists today. This "burying" of this story, which that bombastic prick Solanas and his entourage in Brussels belittle with their pompous air of superiority, stands for a lurking wave of intolerance and systemic state oppression that awaits continental Europe. Brown-skinned people and Muslims will become the new victims of the European arrogance that had let the Balkans fester for generations. And Kandic's unacknowledged efforts among Kosovars who were collectivly targeted by this policy is all about the current situation...it is about a society that looks the other way, makes excuses for the unexcusable and now with Eide's report saying Kosovars are incapable of taking the necessary steps, along with a recent Cato "report" which stoops to cheap rhetorical ploy of accusing Muslim Albanians of cleansing Jews from Kosova as well: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4038 should there not be some mobilization of Kosovars in the places where they have access to politicians, news agencies/outlets? Is the New York Community, let alone those in Switzerland, Germany, Austria etc. so inept that it cannot get this story onto the "big screen?" I say this all with my own ready-made answers as to why nothing will be done. And to just anticipate the "why don't you do something about it..." well physically I am not living anywhere near a community to look eye-to-eye on this matter, a secondly, I write history, my days of making it are over. Instead of trying to belittle my contributions in academic and policy journals, call others as hysterical or even suggest that I, or anyone else are bigots and homophobes, something that I will address privately to Jeton, it may be helpful to contemplate what happened in 1998-1999 on a larger level; what sticking Albanians into furnaces should say about what is the "real" picture and why the UN, Cato institute and a growing number of otherwise sympathetic people think is an internal Serbian problem is of fundamental importance to how humanity functions in this world. It is about arresting the developing scourge of religious fanaticism in Kosova, instigated in closed-off corners by Wahhabis and Evangelicals, as well as the unmitigated racism, criminality and spiritual corruption that infects Europe's and the US's political and economic elite. The horrors of Niger are far more traumatic than anything Kosovars could have felt at one level--those callous statistical abstractions used by social scientists and analysts--but if one were to really scratch the surface of what the following is saying, Kosovars were reduced to ashes and no one, not even those targeted for such destruction, can muster an organized word of collective outrage. http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200504_553_1_eng.txt Investigation: Serbia: More Mackatica Body Burning Revelations New eyewitnesses are helping to piece together a crime that still awaits justice. By IWPR reporters in Surdulica and Belgrade Eyewitness accounts obtained by IWPR contain dramatic new evidence of how police working for Slobodan Milosevic burned truckloads of ethnic Albanian corpses in a factory in southern Serbia during the 1999 NATO conflict. IWPR sources have presented fresh testimony on the chronology of the crime, the way it unfolded and the key role played by the police in both the burnings and the cover-up that followed. Their accounts will increase pressure on the courts to resolve the mystery surrounding who these people were and who ordered their incineration. Natasa Kandic, director of the Humanitarian Law Centre, HLC, first revealed the grisly secrets of the Mackatica aluminum complex, near Surdulica, in the Pcinj district of southern Serbia, last December. In an article in daily Danas newspaper on December 24, 2004, she said the factory's blast furnaces were used to burn the bodies of Albanians killed in Kosovo on May 16 and May 24, 1999 - during the NATO conflict. An IWPR source - a shift worker in the factory - says the whole affair started with the unexpected arrival at night of a number of unknown trucks. "Trucks with mysterious freight kept entering the factory with their lights off. Third-shift workers, like myself, were sent home at the factory entrance," the source said. The IWPR source confirmed seeing the bodies arrive on two separate occasions, "at the middle and end of May" in 1999. "No one told us what was being transported and none of the workers had access [to the place of burning]," he told IWPR. "But I know many people who took part in it and saw some of it myself. "Direct participants confirmed to me what I had seen. Bodies were brought to the factory and burned there. I was not the only one who watched it. "I was not present at the very act of the burning of the bodies but I could see the trucks being unloaded.? A second IWPR source, whose status and occupation we cannot disclose, confirmed the shift worker's version of events, saying he also witnessed the bodies being unloaded. This source added that the bodies were transported from western Kosovo, mainly from Prizren, Djakovica and Pec, and surrounding villages. "When the trucks left [after the burning] so-called 'cleaners' took over and checked whether any body parts or their personal belongings had fallen onto the tarmac by the entrance to the plant,? he said. "For days afterwards, you could smell burned flesh in Surdulica. I know what this smell is like, as I have been on all the battlefronts in [the former] Yugoslavia." This second source said Mackatica was chosen as a site because it was close to Kosovo, only around 170 kilometres from Prizren, and was relatively anonymous - few people few people outside the factory even knew it had blast furnaces. Kandic?s Danas article said both incinerations took place around midnight under tight security provided by the police's Special Operations Unit, JSO, then based at Bele Vode, near Vranje, in southern Serbia. It said the then JSO commander, Milorad ?Legija? Ulemek, now the prime suspect for the 2003 murder of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, escorted one convoy of bodies to the site and was present as they were burned in "furnaces numbers four and five". According to the HLC, top police officials - some of whom are still at their posts - organised the burnings, while other trusted Milosevic officials organised the subsequent "cleansing of the terrain". NEW INFORMATION ON ROLE OF MILOSEVIC?S POLICE IN THE CRIME A third IWPR source, a former inspector in Milosevic's secret police, was active at the time of the events at Mackatica, and has assured IWPR that the police possess "precise and systematised information" on how the bodies were burned at Mackatica. "There is clear data on this in local police archives, marked 'strictly confidential'," this source said, referring to the two burnings. "The people who participated in the whole action were staying at the Theranda Hotel in Prizren. Such a job had been prepared for a long time and could not be completed in a day or two. "The local public and secret police know everything but this is being concealed also because current as well as former police officials and ordinary operatives were involved. "Everything is contained in the police documentation - from the code name of the action to the list of people who stayed at the Theranda Hotel and worked on the 'sanitation of the terrain', to those who loaded the trucks and drove them to the Mackatica factory, where Legija and his team took over the whole thing. "It is also known exactly who drove and who escorted the trucks with the bodies, who was in charge of covering up the action at the factory itself and who directly handled the furnaces during the burning." "The names of those who were later in charge of eliminating the traces at the factory and those whose job it was to conceal the truth from the local public are also known. Finally, there is a list of politicians who were familiar with all of this, when the action was being planned." The former police officer claimed he knew most of these names himself but was fearful of divulging them publicly. Along with all those who possessed direct knowledge of the burnings, he had encountered strong pressure to keep quiet. "All those in any way connected to the events at Mackatica in May 1999 are being exposed to threats, pressures and blackmail," he said. "I fear for my safety and for that of my family," he said. "The participants in the crime in Mackatica would know it was me who revealed the secrets, which they are doing their utmost to hide." IWPR's first source, the shift worker at Mackatica, says several other witnesses who saw the trucks with bodies entering the factory are still out there. "Other people know what was done, although everything was done for the operation to be carried out in the utmost secrecy," he said. They were all subject to threats and blackmail, he added, to prevent the story from getting further out. In spite of that, this source said he was ready to testify in public. IWPR has also spoken to a fourth direct source on the events at Mackatica. This source did not want either his residence or job divulged but insisted he was present at both burnings in May 1999. "Everything took place after midnight, but I remember there was a clear sky and moonlight," he said. "I saw, for a few minutes and from a distance of about ten metres, bodies being unloaded from a truck and transported in a large factory push-cart to the part of the factory where the furnaces are located." This source said he "knew for sure" that some of the bodies were or women and children. He insisted he did not participate in the burning. None of IWPR's sources was able to estimate the exact number of bodies unloaded and burned at Mackatica, though one said they had been transported in "more than ten trucks," which suggests a large number. THE LIST OF NAMES BEHIND THE BURNINGS In her article in Danas, Kandic cited several of Milosevic's most trusted associates as key figures behind the operation. She named ex-police minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic; a former deputy prime minister Nikola Sainovic; the then head of the public and state security Vlastimir ?Rodja? Djordjevic, and Radomir Markovic, former chief of secret police. Sainovic, charged by the Hague war crimes tribunal for crimes committed in Kosovo in 1999, voluntarily surrendered to the authorities in spring 2003. He was released in mid-April 2005 pending trial. Markovic is currently in jail in Belgrade's central prison, facing criminal proceedings. Stojiljkovic, also on The Hague's list of persons indicted for crimes in Kosovo, committed suicide on April 11, 2002. Among all the names Kandic mentioned, the most interesting was that of Djordjevic. One of four generals wanted by the Hague tribunal for war crimes in Kosovo in 1999, he was born in Koznica, only miles from Mackatica. Djordjevic is known to have been a key figure in the area whose word was virtually law. He kept all the local power structures, especially the police, under his control. After the Milosevic regime fell on October 5, 2000, Djordjevic reportedly fled the country and is believed to be hiding in Russia. THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR STARTS TO INVESTIGATE For several months, after the publication of the groundbreaking article in Danas, neither the authorities nor the courts in Serbia reacted publicly to any of the grave claims that it revealed. However, in mid-April 2005, Vladimir Vukcevic, the special state prosecutor for war crimes, visited Surdulica. Acting on Vukcevic's request, the investigating judge of the district court in Vranje, the deputy special prosecutor and a team of specially trained court experts also visited Mackatica. Vukcevic told B-92 radio he had talked to witnesses, but stressed that most things were still in the stage of "complete secrecy, owing to the serious nature of the procedure". The prosecution was awaiting the result of forensic reports, he said. Detailing the extent of the investigation thus far, he added, "The blast furnaces at the Mackatica complex were inspected, as were the places where waste is deposited." He underlined that only experts' findings would confirm whether traces of human remains were in the waste. Vukcevic did not conceal the fact that his decision to personally oversee the process implied a lack of confidence in the ability and willingness of the local police to investigate the case. He also said he regretted that a special police unit had not yet been set up to investigate such war crimes and help the prosecution team. An IWPR source close to the police in the Pcinj district confirmed that the special war crimes prosecutor's initial field work in Mackatica had upset members of the local police force. "The police of the Pcinj district still operates according to the same principles and mostly with the same people as it did in 1999," this source said. IWPR has also learned that the case would never have come to light at all if one former and one active operative from the Security and Information Agency, BIA - successor to the State Security, DB - had not sent Kandic the evidence. Zoran Stosic, head of the regional DB at the time of the Mackatica case, was dismissed just over a month ago as general inspector of police in Pcinj district and replaced by Vujica Velickovic, also a key figure in the regional police over the past decade. IWPR's third source, the former secret police inspector, reiterated that local police records contained exact data on the entire affair. "All it takes is political will for it to be disclosed," he said. A WALL OF SILENCE IN SURDULICA Surdulica is a small town of around 10,000 people, some ten km from the motorway that runs from Belgrade to Skopje. It is less than an hour's drive either to Bulgaria, or to Macedonia and Kosovo. People in Surdulica whom IWPR interviewed either did not want to speak about the body burnings, or defended them. No one denies something happened, but in the town itself, where the hard-line nationalist Serbian Radical Party is in power, there is a conspiracy of silence. In the cafe in the centre of town, a large piece of graffiti proclaims "Serbia for the Serbs". "So what if they did burn Shiptars [a derogatory name for Albanians]?? one man said. "They deserved nothing better. Why don't you write about the crimes against Serbs in Kosmet [a Serb nationalist expression for Kosovo] today?" A shop saleswoman was more conciliatory. "Hardly anyone dares to speak publicly about it," was all that she would say on the grim events in the nearby factory. But the arrival in Surdulica of the special state prosecutor for war crimes suggests that however much the local population wants to a draw a veil over the affair, the judicial authorities are determined to confront this painful issue. Whether justice will ever be done for what happened at Mackatica remains to be seen. Bruno Vekaric, spokesperson for the war crimes prosecutor, said it would not be easy. The facts that the crimes were committed long ago and that the police and justice ministry were far from cooperative were just some of the obstacles they faced, he told IWPR. The reporters who contributed to this report are members of BIRN, IWPR's newly localised Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. AND For your reference, this is what I sent to this same discussion forum in 2001 I request that everyone reading this, take the time to actually understand what I am writing and read the entire message. Following my brief tirade, I will provide you with two articles, the first from AP reporting on the NPR (National Public Radio) story aired last week and the second, reporting the OSCE?s response. (Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe one of the two pillars of the administrative body governing Kosova today). I wish to give you some background so when you do decide to take action, which any human being (Muslim, Catholic, Leftist, Serb, Albanian or Palestinian) will feel compelled to take, you can adequately address the pertinent issues at play. When I was working for Kosovapress during the war, we were trying to push the story of Serb attempts to destroy evidence of massive human rights abuses by shipping the bodies of its victims in Kosova to Serbia-proper for disposal. We had a witness report to us, from his hideout in Italy, how he drove a refrigerated truck on several occasions from a Serb military base outside Prishtina to a smelter inside Serbia. Despite the top-secret atmosphere he was compelled to investigate just what he was transporting and arranged for his friends to help him open the back of his truck and then flee Serbia (knowing full well his life was in danger). Inside he found the refrigerated truck packed with bodies, he surmised that he was taking these bodies to a smelter where the to bodies would be burned. That is before NATO bombing! Throughout the war I was pestering NATO, US military officials and journalists to watch for such activities, clearly the Serbs learned from Bosnia and recognized they needed to destroy evidence that could lead to their indictment. Sure enough, throughout the war, we were receiving reports of the burning of whole families inside homes, the detailed effort to avoid mass graves whenever possible, burying people (using Roma gravediggers) in individual graves (the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague does not count individual graves, that is why apologists for Serbia constantly site the Hague statistics which only counts bodies identified in mass graves.) There were also frequent ?leaks? to the media thanks to the brave work of Kosovars and sympathetic elements inside NATO of mass graves discovered by satellite. That these graves were eventually emptied suggests the bodies were disposed of in some way. That was during the war. Again, during the Kumonova meetings to end hostilities I was screaming mad as I was receiving reports from inside Kosova that while Serb negotiators stalled at Kumanova (remember the talks would be delayed for many days) Serb teams worked night and day to empty as many mass graves as possible. We supposedly have video tape of one dump truck carrying bodies away from a site, I know people watched from neighboring hills and forests, witnesses are around who could testify, clearly there are some Serbs who want to talk. When we returned to Kosova, I immediately pressed journalists coming in to go to Trepca because we knew they were burning bodies there. The few journalists who attempted were turned back by first Serb paramilitaries who guarded the roads well after they were supposed to have left, and then by French troops. Eventually, with enough pressure, but about two to three weeks after the French (and Serbs) secured the area, a few journalists were allowed to visit some parts of the site. Of course they reported nothing conclusive. I asked the former head prosecutor of the tribunal, when she came to Pristhina after the war ended about what I had been trying to get journalists to report, she could not reveal what evidence the court was going to use against those indicated but added (and this was a clear sign to all of us that the court knew about these activities) that ?destroying evidence is an admission of guilt.? This leads us to today [2001] and what I think is a very brave gesture by a man with no real interest in helping Kosovars. A journalist for NPR, Montgomery is his name, has risked his life to travel in Serbia and interview those who actually participated in burning human bodies in Trepca. I know a bit about Montgomery and I know he does not love Kosovar Albanians, he did this because there is a story, a disgusting travesty which could potentially shake the foundations of the last two years. Of course, the OSCE and the UN are actively engaged in shutting this news out. Why? They have spent the last year and a half demonizing Kosovar Albanians, accusing them of conducting ?ethnic cleansing in reverse? when they fully know that the overwhelming majority of the Serbs who were administrating Kosova for Belgrade, left with the Serb military. The international community, (remember China, France and Russia are actively against Kosova?s independence for their own reasons) has worked towards delegitimizing Kosova?s claims to independence, and the news of Serbs committing mass murder and then burning the bodies would be such a compelling argument for Kosovars to live independently from the Serb state that such information had to be repressed. I am bringing this issue to you today for one simple reason. This is a second chance for Kosova. Montgomery has risked his life to get the story out and now the OSCE is pulling out the stops to suppress it by saying French teams ?looked at the mines.? French forensic teams have an interest in not finding evidence people, it is scandalous that this international body would resort to such a level of cover up to deflect a potential earth-shaker. It is like the allies suppressing news of concentration camps during World War II. If the world got wind and were properly stimulated, this could get Kosova back on the agenda. Montgomery has given Kosova that second chance, a chance that neither Rugova, Thaci nor any other Kosovar has been able to give. We Kosovars lost the game because, as I warned almost two years ago, we are not fighting the PR war. Very few influential people wanted to listen to me back then, they were too important and had their own ambitions. Now most of them are finished, but Kosova is also a dead issue. Kosova?s independence is not going to happen unless we take to the streets. This is our last chance. Those reading on the various lists did not get my point in the last message about the need to protest Serb nationalist gestures by two players in the NBA. Instead of getting together and writing letters of protest, contacting the media, etc., most elected to fight petty little battles about whether or not it was acceptable to be associated with Muslims or if we should be communicating in one language or another. That last task was easy compared to this one. You clearly did not catch on. Let me make this as clear as possible. IT IS UP TO ALL OF YOU IN THE WEST, IN YOUR COMFORTABLE DIGITALIZED WORLDS TO GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND MOBILIZE! DON?T LET A CNN-ARTICULATE MORALITY/WORLD VIEW KEEP YOU FROM FIGHTING FOR YOUR COUNTRY?S FREEDOM!! If you do not take advantage of this opportunity, this will be the last chance to lose. I purpose that all of us abandon the petty ego-trips, rally around the idea of Kosova being free, and get to the streets, set up daily protests in front of the UN and Serb consulates in the US, Australia and Europe. How can there be people marching against the Turkish state after 85 years (The Armenian issue), kids throwing stones and dying in Palestine, people still fighting in Chechneya and tens of thousands protesting against Abortion rights and Kosovars cannot organize to demand their independence! There should be a person standing in protest for every hostage still in Serb prisons, that makes more than a thousand, every day until they are free. How can Kostunica be allowed to travel with these people still in prisons, being auctioned off to the family with 50,000 DM!!???. Do not feel powerless. Look what several hundred anti-globalization protesters can do, look at the press they get when they get within fifty miles of Davos. And here are the Kosovars, content with being vilified as drug dealers and terrorists. This is your chance to do justice to the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of our ancestors who died for their dignity over the centuries. If not for them, then for your own self interests. It is in your own self interest because what we have now is the utter lack of dignity, the world does not recognize our right to self-determination, to justice, to freedom and security. All that silly debate about one?s faith and Albanian/Kosovar identity means nothing if you cannot stand up and defend honor and demand to have your fellow Kosovars? life treated equally as a Europeans. Are you content with the idea that Serbs or Russians can burn our bodies to hide the fact that they tortured and murdered us? Are you happy with being polluted to death, to be ignored and not permitted to travel? If we cannot mobilize public opinion about the fact that the great powers are trying to cover up the incineration of human bodies, after ?WORLD GENOCIDE DAY? was just observed in Europe, then I swear, I will never take up the cause of Kosova again. I have spent too many days of my life fighting this battle, often alone. I no longer want to go to conferences throughout Europe and be the only one fighting, arguing and ultimately screaming for Kosova. I have tarnished too much of my academic career with associations of being a ?terrorist? and ?radical? to continue this alone. People are already tired of me because to them, Kosova is finished, a done deal. I want to see this issue brought to the surface so I can go to Berlin, Florence and London and point to the newspapers, to the streets outside. ACT RESPONSIBLY FOR ONCE DAMNIT!!. DO THIS RIGHT!!! There are Jewish organizations that will have to support our fight just because of the nature of the crimes and the people who are covering it up, there are members in the US Senate and Congress who have supported our cause and will publicize this if you articulate the arguments for them, most of all, you have to get the press involved who will always want a good story. You get their attention by taking to the streets, and I do not mean some pathetic dozen kids carrying misspelled banners that lasts two hours, but thousands, every day. And for those of you in Kosova right now, there should be a day-long strike organized immediately. All those disgusted by what has happened, no matter if you are American, German, Kosovar Albanian or Serb, you should participate in protesting the burning of human bodies and then its cover up by the international community. The Kosovar newspapers and radio programs should universally call on a one-day strike, screw the OSCE sanctions, if you are intimidated by threats of your radio show being closed down, if you do not want to lose your job, then you just answered the question for the world, there is a price for your freedom, and a pretty low one at that. I am especially addressing all employees of NGOs, the OSCE and UNMIK. You should organize to not show up for work, close Kosova down!!!! This is the opportunity, it has come from an unlikely source, the Serbs themselves. The men who burned human bodies for Serbia?s political leaders felt disgusted by what they did and risked their lives talking to Montgomery, the least you could do is do this last, desperate act to save Kosova from itself. Do not wait for Thaci, Rugova or Haradinaj, they will not be there, Kouchner, Albright and Clinton are gone, it is up to everyone single one of you. Please, look at what the world should know about what happened and look at what the OSCE and UNMIK are trying to do to silence it. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, MOBILIZE! Friday, January 26 6:03 AM SGT Report: Serbs Burned Victims' Bodies VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Special forces loyal to former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic burned the bodies of hundreds of ethnic Albanians in a blast furnace before pulling out of Kosovo ahead of NATO troops, says a National Public Radio report airing Thursday. Men involved in the clandestine operation, which was intended to cover up atrocities that could lead to war crimes charges, said up to 1,500 bodies were burned at the Trepca lead refinery, the report says. That accounts for about half the Kosovo Albanians still missing more than a year and a half after Milosevic's forces pulled out of the province. The men, identified only by their first names, described how bodies were unearthed from freshly dug graves later identified by NATO satellites gathering evidence of possible Serb atrocities in Kosovo. Because they were too big to fit in the furnace, the bodies were first put in a grinder used for ore processing before being placed on the furnace conveyor belt, said one man involved in the operation. Milosevic is under indictment by the U.N. tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands, for alleged involvement in the Kosovo atrocities. Carla Del Ponte, the tribunal's senior prosecutor, failed in three days of talks that ended Thursday to convince the new Yugoslav leadership to agree to his extradition and trial. Milosevic pulled his forces out of Kosovo in mid-1999 in exchange for an end to months of NATO bombing, as part of a Kosovo peace treaty. Although the ethnic Albanian majority province formally remains part of Serbia, Yugoslavia's larger republic, it is run by the United Nations and a NATO-led peacekeeping force. A man identified only as Dusko, a member of Serbia's special forces, told NPR the campaign was an attempt to hide evidence of atrocities - whole villages destroyed and their inhabitants killed. ``I think our people understood that, sooner or later ... The Hague Tribunal might come into Kosovo,'' he was quoted as saying in the script, made available to The Associated Press. Others said the bodies - mostly men, but also including women and children - were transported at night in refrigerated vehicles to Trepca's Zvecan lead refinery just outside Kosovska Mitrovica, about 20 miles north of Pristina, Kosovo's capital. The blast furnaces ``burned at extremely high heat,'' said one of the drivers, identified as Branko. ``And that's where the bodies got destroyed.'' About 120 of the bodies disposed of this way came from Izbica, near Mitrovica, said the documentary. After the bodies were dug up, NATO spy satellites captured the rows of freshly opened graves and they became part of the tribunal's evidence against Milosevic. ``This was a horrible scene because there were so many - like a factory assembly line - but with bodies,'' Branko was quoted as saying of the mass burnings. ########################## Saturday, January 27 5:23 AM SGT Kosovo Mass Burnings Alleged By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's forces burned bodies of victims of Serbian atrocities in Kosovo in a campaign to destroy the evidence of crimes, the State Department said Friday. Information obtained by the U.S. government beginning in 1999 confirms there were massive killings ``and there were attempts to burn bodies and otherwise cover up evidence at places throughout Kosovo,'' spokesman Richard Boucher said. In a documentary aired Thursday that used interviews from men who said they were involved, Minnesota Public Radio and National Public Radio news reported up to 1,500 bodies were burned at a lead refinery in Trepca. That would account for about half of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo still missing more than a year and a half after Milosevic pulled out of the province under U.S. and NATO pressure. ``The information that we had and continue to have corroborates the broad outline of the campaign by Milosevic's forces to destroy evidence of their crimes,'' Boucher said. Asked specifically about Trepca, Boucher said, ``We knew that this was one of the places that we were concentrating on, where there was activity going on. But if we were actually able to say in our report, `They burned bodies at this site,' I don't know.'' Earlier, a spokeswoman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said investigators had found no evidence that would substantiate the report that elite forces loyal to Milosevic burned the bodies in a blast furnace at Trepca. ``Our people have had a report of this, but they found no evidence to substantiate it,'' OSCE spokeswoman Claire Trevena said. Along with the United Nations and NATO, the 55-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe plays a key role in running the Serbian province of Kosovo. Trevena said a French forensic team with sophisticated equipment that was called to search for remains of any bodies at Trepca found nothing there. Boucher said the United States, in May and June 1999, briefed the international war crimes tribunal for Yugoslavia in The Hague, The Netherlands, ``on the Serb campaign to destroy the evidence.'' Boucher added: ``It's a fact that we know of and that we've reported on in the past.'' On Thursday, the Bush administration said through Boucher that it was disappointed Yugoslavia did not work out an agreement with the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor to put Milosevic on trial for war crimes. ``These things need to be worked out, and the obligation flows from the government to the tribunal,'' he said. Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte rejected Yugoslavia's position. Still, she said in Belgrade she remains ``cautiously optimistic'' that Milosevic would be extradited to the Netherlands for trial on charges of involvement in atrocities by Serbian troops against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. He was indicted nearly two years ago, but like several other Serb leaders accused of war crimes in the Balkans, he has not faced trial. In 1999, senior French police officials in Kosovo said the furnace at Trepca stopped operating shortly after the start of the crackdown on Kosovo's ethnic Albanians in late March 1999 and remained unused after Milosevic's forces pulled out. Ashes at the site examined by the team also showed no traces that would back up the report, they said. In Thursday's radio report, the men, identified only by their first names, said bodies were unearthed from freshly dug graves that were identified by NATO satellites after the French study was done. At The Hague, Graham Blewitt, the U.N. tribunal's deputy prosecutor, said tribunal investigations at the Trepca mine ``couldn't confirm'' bodies had been disposed of by burning but suggested it was extremely difficult to arrive at a definite conclusion. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From ericaweitzman at yahoo.com Sun Aug 7 20:04:09 2005 From: ericaweitzman at yahoo.com (Erica Weitzman) Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 17:04:09 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [NYC-L] nj? pyetje prej nj? amerikaneje Message-ID: <20050808000409.55113.qmail@web52707.mail.yahoo.com> hello, i apologize for breaking into your list like this. i'm an american student living in new york who is interested in aspects of albanian language and literature. i learned albanian to some extent when i was in kosovo (feb. 2000- june 2001), but i've forgotten a lot of it, and never knew it perfectly in the first place. i'm looking for an albanian language tutor/conversation exchange partner. i'm well beyond the "mir?dita...si jeni?" level: i need someone who can explain the ablative case to me. i've looked all over: this seems like a place where at least one person who would know someone who would be interested. i'm also working on some translations, so an interest in literature/poetry and a willingness to have me ask some questions about that would be helpful. i could pay (a reasonable rate) or provide english/french/german tutoring in exchange. please contact me at ericaweitzman at yahoo.com shum? falemnderit, erica ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs From FJag2025 at aol.com Mon Aug 8 07:20:38 2005 From: FJag2025 at aol.com (FJag2025 at aol.com) Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 07:20:38 EDT Subject: [NYC-L] nj? pyetje prej nj? amerikaneje Message-ID: <218.66ebfd0.30289a06@aol.com> Sent your request onto a good friend of mien who translates Albanian into English. He sometimes checks with me to make sure words and grammar going into English are correct. I figure he will be your best option. Have a nice day -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From eb246 at columbia.edu Wed Aug 24 01:16:03 2005 From: eb246 at columbia.edu (Erkanda Bujari) Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 01:16:03 -0400 Subject: [NYC-L] Soros Funded Graduate Fellowships for Non-US Nationals Message-ID: <430C0293.20303@columbia.edu> Subject: CASannc- Soros Funded Graduate Fellowships for Non-US Nationals >Fellowships for New Americans >Sponsor: Soros (Paul and Daisy) Fellowships for New Americans >SYNOPSIS: >The Fellowships are grants for up to two years of graduate study in >the United States. The program is open to individuals who retain >loyalty and a sense of commitment to their country of origin as well >as to the United States, but is intended to support individuals who >will continue to regard the United States as their principal residence >and focus of national identity. A Fellow may study at any accredited >graduate program in the United States. Thirty fellowships will be >awarded each year. > >Deadline(s): 11/01/2005 >Established Date: 07/10/2002 >Follow-Up Date: 09/01/2006 >Review Date: 08/15/2005 >Contact: >Address: 400 West 59th Street >New York, NY 10019 >U.S.A. >E-mail: pdsoros_fellows at sorosny.org >Program URL: http://www.pdsoros.org/fullapp.pdf >Tel: 212-547-6926 >Fax: 212-548-4623 >Deadline Ind: Receipt >Deadline Open: No > > >Award Type(s): Fellowship > >Citizenship/Country of Applying Institution: >U.S. Non-Citizen National >U.S. Permanent Resident >U.S.A. Citizenship (including U.S. Territories) >Locations Tenable: U.S.A. Institution (including U.S. Territories) > >Appl Type(s): Graduate Student >Undergraduate Student > >Target Group(s): NONE >Funding Limit: $0 SEEBELOW >Duration: 2 YEAR(s) >Indirect Costs: Unspecified >Cost Sharing: No >Sponsor Type: Miscellaneous Non-Federal > >Geo. Restricted: NO RESTRICTIONS >CFDA#: >OBJECTIVES: >The Fellowships are grants for up to two years of graduate study in >the United States. A Fellow may pursue a graduate degree in any >professional field (e.g., engineering, medicine, law, social work, >etc.) or scholarly discipline in the Arts, Humanities, Social >Sciences, and Sciences. The Fine and Performing Arts are included. >The sponsor strongly encourages applications from candidates who have >not yet begun their graduate studies, but full consideration will be >given to candidates in the first or second years of graduate studies >in their current program. > >ELIGIBILITY >Eligible applicants are "New Americans." A "New American" is an >individual who is a resident alien; i.e., holds a Green Card or, has >been naturalized as a U.S. citizen or is the child of two parents who >are both naturalized citizens. The applicant must either have a >bachelor's degree or be in her/his final year of undergraduate study. >Those who have a bachelor's degree may already be pursuing graduate >study and may receive Fellowship support to continue that study. >Individuals who are in the third, or subsequent, year of study in the >same graduate program are not eligible for this competition. Students >who have received a master's degree in a program and are continuing >for a doctoral degree in the same program are considered to have been >in the same program from the time they began their work on their >master's degree. The applicant must not be older than thirty years of >age as of November 1, 2005. > >FUNDING >Each year the Fellow receives a maintenance grant of $20,000 (paid >in two installments) and a tuition grant of one-half the tuition cost >of the U.S. graduate program attended by the Fellow. The Fellowship >Program pays the tuition grant directly to the institution. The size >of the tuition grant depends on the cost of tuition at the institution >the Fellow attends. Fees are not included in calculating tuition. If >the program pursued is less than two years (e.g., Public >Administration), the Fellow receives the amount to cover the period >required for the degree. It is expected that the Fellow will complete >the cost of tuition from such other sources as summer employment, >public and private grant and loan programs for advanced education, or >matching funds from the graduate institution the Fellow attends. The >Fellow will be asked to inform the Program of other awards that she/he >has been offered and may be asked to accept a total award package that >does not exceed full tuition and required fees, plus $30,000 for >maintenance from the sponsor. A Fellow may not work during the period >of the Fellowship without the permission of the Director. (bjv) To unsubscribe from this list, follow the instructions here: http://ias.berkeley.edu/africa/listserv.html --- You are currently subscribed to sie as: unknown lmsubst tag argument: '' To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-sie-3138469J at listserv.tc.columbia.edu -- Milagros Nores Ph.D. Program in Education and Economics Teachers College, Columbia University --- You are currently subscribed to see as: eb246 at columbia.edu. To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-see-3905687M at listserv.tc.columbia.edu