From kosova at jps.net Fri Apr 5 11:57:03 2002 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 08:57:03 -0800 Subject: [Prishtina-E] The Albanian Victims of War -- Where Are They Now? by Alice Mead Message-ID: The Albanian Victims of War -- Where Are They Now? By Alice Mead (Special to Zeri, Prishtine 4/1/ 2002) By July 6, 2001, approximately 800 bodies -- many of them women, children, and the elderly -- had been found in mass graves in Serbia. On July 6th, 2001, the Serb Minister of the Interior, D-- Mihajlovic told CNN: "We want to identify the victims and return them to their families. No one in Serbia will sleep in peace until the truth is found out and justice done." There must be a lot of insomniacs in Serbia by now, as there are in Kosova but for different reasons. Because, except for the three American brothers who, with the help of the FBI and $15,000 in shipping fees, and have now been returned to New York, the Albanian families in Kosova have no idea what has happened to this point with the remains of their loved ones. Initial questioning of UNMIK officials in the judicial pillar revealed only that the bodies were in the MUP morgues in Belgrade, where they were being checked for identification. In other words, the bodies were in the hands of those responsible for their deaths. The Serb special police are doing the autopsies and identity checks. UNMIK is involved in some part of the investigation, but it's not clear how. In April, 1999, barely two weeks into the NATO war, a diver investigated a freezer truck floating in the Danube River. When he pulled open the back door, he was shocked to discover bodies of women and children. The discovery was officially hushed up for two years -- until April, 2001. The bodies had been removed from hastily dug graves near Gjakova, Suhareka and Prizren. Another group of bodies was found in Lake Perucac in southern Serbia in 1999. They were removed from the lake and reburied. The bodies found in the Danube freezer truck were reburied in Batajnica. Other graves were found in the yard of the Belgrade police training compound. Once Milosevic was taken to the Hague for trial, in April, 2001 rumors about the grave sites resurfaced and spread quickly, and a series of mass graves was then discovered. Three weeks later, on April 25, 2001, CNN in a follow-up story reported that over 200 Yugoslav army officers had reportedly been charged with war crimes during the war in Kosova. However, officials refused to tell reporters what the penalties were or what convictions might mean or even where these trials might take place. After that, there was silence. No one advocated for the rights of the Albanian families to have the autopsies done in Kosova. No one told them of their right to prosecute the criminals involved in these killings, which violate every international treaty and civil law. Nor did any officials -- in either UNMIK or Serbia -- deal publicly with the crime of repeatedly covering up these crimes, removing bodies, reburying them, hiding evidence, and so on. The question that needs to be addressed is: Who killed these people and then went through such an elaborate process to hide their bodies in Serbia, even in Belgrade itself? No one has asked this for the people of Kosova or Serbia. And no one has volunteered an answer. The silence was briefly broken in June, 2001, when a squabble broke out between the Interior Minister Mihajlovic and Chief of the Yugoslav army, Pavkovic. The latter was in charge of the Third Army VJ which was the lead military unit in the Kosova war, and he is a close ally of President Vojislav Kostunica. Pavkovic claimed ignorance of Kosova war crimes. Mihaljovic accused him of lying. Helsinki Human Rights Watch in Belgrade commented: "We now have nationalism in democratic disguise. Why does Kostunica keep Pavkovic? It's because he likes his backing." >From the extraordinary report published by Human Rights Watch called "Under Orders," the answer starts to emerge in Chapter 3. "The Yugoslav Army, Serbian police, and paramilitaries were all responsible for war crimes in Kosovo. In general, however, paramilitaries appear to have been more extensively involved in the most violent abuses, specifically the executions and rapes....But paramilitary forces were not operating on their own. On the contrary, paramilitary units were operating in close concert with the police, army, and secret police.... In general, it appears that the Yugoslav Army was in command during the war, although top officials of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs exercised significant influences over the campaign. The army controlled the main roads and borders, facilitating the ethnic cleansing. The police and paramilitaries were more directly involved in expulsions and the destruction of villages....this section (of the report) identities the key political and military leaders in Serbia and Yugoslavia, who have the highest level of responsibility for the war crimes committed in Kosovo. These people either directed the campaign against the ethnic Albanians or in full awareness of the events, did nothing to stop it. They can be held legally accountable for both." If Mihaljovic was not involved in orchestrating these crimes, he is now very involved in the process of collecting evidence to convict those who did. Due to the highly political nature of the Ministry of Justice, the secret police, the special police, and so on, he must be a very worried person. Meanwhile, in Prishtina, how can it be that UNMIK has no criminal investigative department, no FBI, as it were? How can it take one year to identify bodies, many of whom had their ID documents with them? Why does this have to happen in secret? Who from Kosova made the agreement to let the bodies stay in the police morgues in Belgrade and for how long? Where is the transparent process of justice that is needed to restore basic dignity and civil rights in Kosova? UNMIK has a missing persons department. It has 42 employees. But you cannot make an appointment to discuss this situation. In fact, you cannot go there and find out what is going on at all. You are simply informed by two young soldiers -- one from Egypt and one from Scandinavia -- "the director isn't here." Is that what they say to the mothers of the missing? If so, then that's too bad. Because the truth is: No one in Kosova or Serbia will sleep in peace until justice is done. Alice Mead is an American author and a human rights activist. Ky shkrim mund te ribotohet me kusht qe te theksohet autori dhe gazeta Zeri, Prishtine. From kosova at jps.net Thu Apr 11 02:43:25 2002 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 23:43:25 -0700 Subject: [Prishtina-E] Layers of Problems in Kosova, by Alice Mead Message-ID: Layers of Problems in Kosova How to Solve Them? Start at the Bottom and Work Up By Alice Mead Special to Zeri, Prishtine, 04/02/02 During its entire history, this has never happened: the people of Kosova have never had the inviolable right to a government by the will of the people and, now that they have suffered a long-term genocide, this issue deserves extra careful consideration--not less consideration. With internationals on the scene, an extra layer of expectations has been added to an already layered situation, so that there are multiple layers of needs, none of them well-defined, objectively discussed, or planned for. The resulting obscurity and mess is blamed on the Albanian population only probably because they are at the moment the least represented at high levels, the least enfranchised of all the groups involved. What are some of the layers? The Supranational Level: Kosova is now a struggle in post-cold war alliances of Nato vs Russia, US vs Russia, Democracy vs Communism, and EU vs Balkan region, Partnership for Peace vs locally funded military groups. The future of Kosova is discussed informally on many occasions, in many places, about which the people have no knowledge or power. The Historical Level: Boundary problems -- dating from 1912/1913 the lack of resolution about the boundaries of Albania leads to perpetual modern-day accusations of Greater Albanianism from Slavs and Europeans as a reason to keep self-determination from Kosova's citizens. Corrections for this historical wrong should be made in other, constructive ways. The International Definition of Sovereignty: The continued conflict at the UN and EU level about the rights of sovereign nations, which used to, and still do have the right to commit genocide or mass murder of certain populations within their own borders without compromising the principle of sovereignty. In other words, the right to expel a people by force or to mass murder them is legal, the right to secede by representative vote following genocide is not. This is an astounding definition of statehood, one which sanctions destroying the inviolable rights of its citizens. One that led implicitly to the situation now. Top levels of international governments disregard the recommendations of scholars and research groups regarding a final status for Kosova. The Legal level: Lack of peace treaties, lack of justice -- Kosova is without redress or justice or reparations for the 50 years or 10 years of 2 years of wrongs it suffered under FRY rule. The lack of a peace treaty following the 1999 war or a "Dayton Conference" to organize and settle the layers of issues is a major contributor to the lack of success of UNMIK to rule as a protectorate with the full confidence of the people that it represents their best interests. Internationals stubbornly fail to understand their role in the confusion. The Local Nationalist Level: Ethnic aspirations are seen as a struggle for liberation -- unacknowledged by internationals who claim to be free of nationalism. The Albanian dream to be free of Slav rule has not been acknowledged nor has the historic pattern of Slav domination and hegemony been acknowledged. General Pavkovic remains in power. Karadzic goes free. While we all pretend that the former Yugoslavia exists. The UNMIK Level: The undefined, a democratic UN protectorate that rules Kosova without representation and expects an instant, imposed multiethnicity that is now predefined as already a failure based on the development of enclaves in Kosova (do we have a Chinatown in every large American city? a Harlem? A Spanish Harlem? We even had slavery, genocide of native peoples, but never mind) and the crimes of passion that took place against Serbs during the first 3 months following the war. This was wrong. The murderers should be punished. The population should not be held collectively guilty. But tomorrow is not a new day in Kosova; according to EU and UN, and the future will be predetermined by this undefined past. This is the basis being used to determine Kosova's final status? That reverse ethnic cleansing precludes self-determination? Wouldn't the logical conclusion be, then, to withdraw self-determination from Serbia and make it a UN protectorate? The Human Level: Here is the weakest link -- a lack of empowerment and representation of those whom these issues are being "fought" over. There is the problem from the top down. To truly solve it, start at the bottom and work up. Empower the least powerful to create just solutions. To repress this confusion, to ignore it, not address it, blaming those without power for it, is to set the stage for smoldering violence that becomes intractable -- like Palestine or Northern Ireland. We created those realities and we are in the process of creating this one by our own lack of principles. The Bush regime has made known that it is clearly not interested in the Balkans -- so, while US attention wanes, quick and cheap solutions that do not meet even the simplest criteria for equality, transparency, or justice, are hurried through in cobbled-together inventions, like the High Group, or in embassy meeting rooms in Belgrade and Prishtina in the hopes that the people will be none the wiser. - Alice Mead is an American writer and human rights activist. All rights reserved. Republication or redissemination of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of Zeri, Prishtine. From askakosovo at hotmail.com Thu Apr 11 07:57:46 2002 From: askakosovo at hotmail.com (Skenderaj ASKAKOSOVO) Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 07:57:46 Subject: [Prishtina-E] Looking for Apartment in Prishtina/Skenderaj Message-ID: Dear friends in Kosovo-Prishtina! ASKA-local based NGO is looking for one small apartment in Prishtina and Skenderaj (or MItrovica) with one bedroom/kitchen/bathroom very urgently, from now on till end of July 2002. Mainly our representative will stay for accomodation, yet time to time, International visiter might stay together with us. Expected price is 250euro/month, since currently we have rent with this price. Please return by email. In case we get the same condition, first offer will be priority. ASKA-KOSOVO Akane. _________________________________________________________________ ????????????????????????????? http://photos.msn.co.jp/ From askakosovo at hotmail.com Thu Apr 11 10:32:48 2002 From: askakosovo at hotmail.com (Skenderaj ASKAKOSOVO) Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 10:32:48 Subject: [Prishtina-E] Looking for Apartment in Prishtina/Skenderaj Message-ID: Woops! I am sorry that I forgot to note the contact; askakosovo at hotmail.com or fejz at hotmail.com We have gotten 350euro's offer, already... Regards. _________________________________________________________________ ??????????????????????? MSN ?????? http://shopping.msn.co.jp/