From mentor at alb-net.com Tue Dec 17 10:31:10 2002 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 10:31:10 -0500 (EST) Subject: [Struga-L] [AMCC-News] MACEDONIA: ALBANIAN STUDENTS IN POISONING SCARE (Balkan Crisis Report No. 391) Message-ID: >>>>>>>>>>>>> PLEASE READ & DISTRIBUTE FURTHER <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< --------------------------------------------------------------------- Human Rights Violations in Macedonia http://www.alb-net.com/amcc/humanrights.htm http://www.alb-net.com/amcc/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 391, December 16, 2002 http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200211_391_1_eng.txt MACEDONIA: ALBANIAN STUDENTS IN POISONING SCARE Parents vow to keep their children away from two Kumanovo schools after hundreds of pupils inexplicably fall ill. By Laura Papraniku in Skopje There are fears a mysterious poisoning scare in a north-eastern Macedonian town could undermine country's delicate inter-ethnic balance. More than 200 ethnic Albanian high school students - the majority of whom are female - claim they have been poisoned in their Kumanovo schools. But a number of medical examinations have so far failed to pinpoint the cause. For the past fortnight, hundreds of Albanian youngsters have been kept at home by concerned parents, who are refusing to allow their children to return to school until the matter is resolved. Meanwhile, the Macedonian media has accused the students of pretending to be ill to score political points. The case has implications for Macedonia's sensitive ethnic balance, and has prompted comment from members of the international community. At a press conference held in Skopje on December 11, European Union spokesperson Irena Guzelova and NATO's Mark Laity described the case as "full of speculation". On the same day, Wolfgang Greven, a spokesperson for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said this was a "typical example of manipulation to raise tensions and to destroy the agreement for (the) stabilisation of inter-ethnic relations in Macedonia". The scare began on November 30, when 84 students from the Bajram Sabani school were sent to Kumanovo hospital showing symptoms of poisoning. While the majority were later sent home, 24 were admitted to the Skopje state hospital's toxicology department for further treatment. At first, it was believed that the students were suffering from food poisoning contracted from a fast food stall. But fours days later, a number of pupils from the nearby Naim Frasheri high school also started to complain that they'd been poisoned. "In the classroom, we noticed a pleasant smell like a rose perfume," Ilire Islami, one of the affected students, told IWPR. She said that she began to feel weak and dizzy, and passed out shortly after, "I remember that I was breathing heavier than normal." Medical staff told IWPR that the students had mostly complained about headaches, dizziness and painful stomach cramps as well as vision impairment and psychological instability. However, the medical examinations carried out on the youngsters showed no evidence of poisoning. "The students have had blood and urine analyses as well as brain scans. Poisoning could not be proved in any of the cases," said Dr Jordan Dzimrevski, director of the infectious diseases department at Skopje medical faculty. The last 15 Kumanovo students were released from the city hospital's toxicology department after their condition was deemed to have improved. But local parents are still looking for answers. Lulzim Ahmeti told IWPR that he will not allow his children Sadie and Adile to return to school until the type of poison allegedly used - and the people responsible - are discovered. Parents are also demanding a meeting with representatives of the education, health and interior ministries, claiming that no government official visited their school during the scare. "What has happened in Kumanovo is very mysterious," said health minister Rexhep Selmani of the Albanian Democratic Union of Integration party. He told the media that a group of experts from the World Health Organisation was expected to visit Macedonia this week and would investigate the alleged poisoning incidents. "While there have been no positive results from any of the tests carried out on the students so far, it is not always possible to detect every kind of chemical agent in Macedonia," Selmani added, referring to the country's old-fashioned laboratory equipment. This is not the first poisoning scare to affect the Albanian community. In 1995 and 1996, 100 students from schools in Tetovo complained of similar poisoning symptoms. At the time, medical examinations failed to establish the cause of their illness. In Kosovo in the late Eighties, when tensions between Serbs and Albanians were rising, thousands of Albanian schoolchildren suffered health problems and alleged that they had been poisoned. Again, medical examination failed to support their claim. To this day, the Albanians continue to insist that the pupils' symptoms were genuine and that the Serbs were responsible, while the Serbs believe the episode was invented by the Albanians for propaganda purposes. Laura Papraniku is a journalist at the Albanian language newspaper Fakti in Skopje ______________________________________________________________ If you wish to unsubscribe, send a blank message to: amcc-news-unsubscribe at alb-net.com , or visit AMCC-NEWS's page at: http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/amcc-news From mentor at alb-net.com Tue Dec 24 10:16:16 2002 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 15:16:16 -0000 Subject: [Struga-L] [Kcc-News] "LEGALISED" DIVISION OF MITROVICA; GOVERNING MITROVICA: A CRITICAL CROSSROADS (Balkan Crisis Report No. 393, Part I) Message-ID: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> READ & DISTRIBUTE FURTHER <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< --------------------------------------------------------------------- Kosova Crisis Center (KCC) News Network: http://www.alb-net.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 393, Part I, December 23, 2002 COMMENT: "LEGALISED" DIVISION OF MITROVICA The UN Mitrovica agreement effectively legitimises the Serbian parallel structures it claimed it wanted to remove. By Nexhmedin Spahiu in Mitrovica. http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200212_393_3_eng.txt COMMENT: GOVERNING MITROVICA: A CRITICAL CROSSROADS What lies in store for northern Mitrovica - gradual reintegration into the rest of Kosovo or institutionalised separation? By Valerie Percival in Pristina. http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200212_393_4_eng.txt COMMENT: "LEGALISED" DIVISION OF MITROVICA The UN Mitrovica agreement effectively legitimises the Serbian parallel structures it claimed it wanted to remove. By Nexhmedin Spahiu in Mitrovica A much-trumpeted UN sponsored agreement to reunify Mitrovica in northern Kosovo now appears to have practically legalised the division of the town instead. The chief of United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNIMK, Michael Steiner, signed the accord with Serbian deputy prime minister Nebojsa Covic on November 25. Ostensibly, it was intended to loosen Belgrade's grip on northern Mitrovica, which is predominantly populated by ethnic Serbs, and open a way for the return of ethnic Albanians who form a majority in the rest of Kosovo. The ethnic division emerged after the NATO intervention, when Serbs expelled from other parts of Kosovo fled to northern Mitrovica and pushed Albanians into the southern half of the town. A closer look at the agreement shows that it stripped the largely Albanian municipal assembly of its powers in the north of the town. In addition, the UNMIK administration due to be formed in the north has been designed to discourage Albanians from seeking jobs on it. The accord also provided no framework to encourage Albanians to go back to homes they used to occupy before the war. Many Albanians in Mitrovica have been slowly waking up to realise the effects that Steiner's document will have on our community. On the day it was signed, I received hundreds of phone calls from different parts of Kosovo and from all over the world congratulating me on the "reunification" of Mitrovica, my hometown. At first sight, the agreement sounded revolutionary. For three and a half years since the arrival of NATO troops in Kosovo, the divided town has been a black mark on the international community's record in Kosovo. This was because UNMIK controlled only the southern, Albanian populated side of the town while Belgrade ran parallel structures for Serbs north of the river Ibar. Now, Steiner tells us he has managed to convince Covic to give up the control over northern Mitrovica. But, the question is, to what cost? My scepticism was first aroused when I found out that Faruk Spahia, chairman of the Local Council of Mitrovica, was informed about the "great news" of reunification by journalists of the from RTK national television. You'd expect the head of UNMIK to have been the first to break this news to the elected local government! Steiner eventually did invite the local council leaders for dinner, only to tell them that, in order to achieve the reunification of Mitrovica, they had to refrain from using their powers over the northern part of the city. Confusion was reinforced by the fact that the Local Council of Mitrovica was stripped of the formal powers given to it by UNMIK decree in 2000. With this agreement, UNMIK is basically telling them that they will not have the means to do the job they were elected to do. I wanted my international friends in Mitrovica to explain what this agreement actually meant. One of them was kind enough to explain that Steiner had, in fact, given way to Covic, who was negotiating on behalf of the Serbs living on the north of Mitrovica. He showed me the agreement, signed by Steiner and Covic, which confirmed my worst fears. I found out Covic had demanded that, if Belgrade is to halt its support for parallel structures in the south of Mitrovica, UNMIK will have to convince Mitrovica's local council, dominated by Albanians, to give up their authority over the Serbian side of the town. Steiner went along with this condition. Practically, with this agreement, north Mitrovica is again going to get a special treatment compared with the rest of Kosovo. The governing procedures which are applied to all municipalities in the region will not be applied in north Mitrovica. This means that the south will, de facto, be functioning as a parallel entity, only this time supported by UNMIK. The organisation called the United Nations has served to divide the town. To find out what the Serbs were thinking about the agreement, I turned to TV Most, a local TV station based in Zvecan, a Serbian enclave near Mitrovica. I heard the Covic statement promising Mitrovica Serbs that all the present employees of the parallel administration will be employed in the same position by the UNMIK administration that is due to be established in the north. TV Most was founded by the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's party. This time it was telling the truth. The details about employment in northern Mitrovica administration were confirmed in the document I had been shown earlier. To make matters worse, the job openings for local administrators in north Mitrovica were advertised only in the Serbian language, making it clear that UNMIK did not want Albanians applying for the posts. After the TV debate organised by Koha Vision and by me, as the director of Radio- Television of Mitrovica, I asked John Rogers, the International Administrator of Mitrovica, why the openings were not advertised with the local Albanian media. His reply was laughable - that all the money earmarked for advertising the jobs had been used up due to the high cost of Serbian newspaper advertisements. It's no wonder local Kosovars are fed up with UNMIK's biased policies and double standards. The limiting of job opportunities to just one community is one more proof of that. Despite all this, some of my friends still don't understand what is going on. They are optimistic about the latest developments. Halil, who used to live in the north before the war and whose house is occupied by a Serb family, says, "We will be back in our homes in no time ... we are run by internationals and international standards will not allow the occupation of other people's homes." But a person sitting next to us chimed in, "The same people who stopped you returning home will stop you again, only now they have the backing of international community to do it." This is what actually happened to Murat Shabani, an Albanian who decided to go back to his house in northern Mitrovica, a few days after the agreement was reached. On the day he arrived with his family, a grenade was hurled at the house. We believe it was thrown by the paramilitary group known as the "Bridgewatchers", young men paid by the Serbian ministry of interior, MUP, to keep Albanians out of northern Mitrovica. Another issue stemming from the agreement is the fate of Albanian houses, which were destroyed in northern Mitrovica. If Albanians decided to go back, despite the great security risks, it's highly unlikely they would be granted rebuilding permits by the Serbian local authorities. Three weeks after the joyful media frenzy over the "reunification of Mitrovica", Kosovo Albanians are only now beginning to realise the real consequences of the agreement. Most of the local Albanian media, especially the most watched Radio-Television of Kosovo, RTK, interpreted the agreement as a triumph over Serbian parallel structures. This comes hardly as a surprise considering that RTK is financed by UNMIK and its managing board was appointed by Steiner's predecessor, Hans Haekkerup. Other Albanian language media, apart from Koha Vision and the Radio-Television of Mitrovica, also waxed enthusiastic over the "liberation" of northern Mitrovica, churning out patriotic songs in celebration. However, it is clear to me that, by signing this agreement, Steiner has, in fact way given legitimacy to the Serbian parallel structures in the north of the town. In the TV debate, John Rogers did not rule out the possibility that the UNMIK administration in northern Mitrovica might turn into a municipality of its own one day. Veton Surroi, the editor of the biggest daily newspaper in Kosovo, was also sceptical about the latest turn of events in Mitrovica. "Belgrade finally removed a lot of pressure coming from the international community and in the meantime reinforced its position in northern Mitrovica," he wrote in his column. It seems most people are waiting to see the first practical effects of the Steiner-Covic agreement. As of now, things do not look good. I fear that Belgrade's plan for eventual partition of Kosovo has taken a step forward. with Steiner's signature on an agreement which, in effect, legalises the old Serb parallel structures that UNMIK was claiming it wanted to remove. Mitrovica has been divided again, but it is not official yet. I am convinced that Kosovar Albanians can expect similar "blunders" from UNMIK when it starts negotiating on the future status of Kosovo. Nexhmedin Spahiu is a political analyst and the director of Mitrovica Radio Television. COMMENT: GOVERNING MITROVICA: A CRITICAL CROSSROADS What lies in store for northern Mitrovica - gradual reintegration into the rest of Kosovo or institutionalised separation? By Valerie Percival in Pristina For almost three and a half years, the troubled city of Mitrovica has been a thorn in the side of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK. Rocked by frequent uprisings and an apparently unbridgeable gulf between Albanians and Serbs, the city epitomises the ethnic fault-line that characterises Kosovo. The northern part of the city has been run by an illegal parallel administration supported by Belgrade, and is viewed by Albanians as an island of unchallenged Serb power, influence and control. On November 25, the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Kosovo, Michael Steiner, announced an agreement reached with Belgrade whereby illegal administrative and security structures in the north of the city will replaced with direct UNMIK rule. The agreement represents a victory for UNMIK, which can finally claim to run the whole province, and a setback for those in Belgrade who hoped that the continued division of Mitrovica would provide them with an invaluable argument for the partition of Kosovo during final status talks. It has placed Mitrovica - and maybe even Kosovo - at a critical juncture, and so deserves the support of the international community. But such support cannot be unequivocal until UNMIK demonstrates that this agreement will form a pragmatic step towards the reintegration of Serbs and Albanians, and not serve to institutionalise the existing separation of the two communities. In a report issued in June this year, the International Crisis Group, ICG, argued that the continued division in Mitrovica was enabling Belgrade to stake out a de facto partition of the province. Such a partition would be destabilising for Kosovo and would set a dangerous precedent in a region already torn apart by a decade of conflict. We argued that concrete steps to tackle the division in Mitrovica were possible, with the right combination of political will and international muscle could be brought to bear. We recommended that the international community put pressure on Belgrade to play the role of honest broker in the north and outlined a multi-track approach that addressed security issues, recommended the establishment of a specially-administered area governed by UNMIK assisted by a local council, and outlined a plan for a gradual integration of this area into the larger municipality. The November agreement followed months of difficult negotiations between the deputy prime minister of Serbia, Nebojsa Covic, and Michael Steiner. Both deserve credit for demonstrating the courage and will to tackle the Mitrovica problem. Mitrovica's Serbs were initially offered a substantial decentralisation of existing municipal powers, plus various economic development initiatives, on condition that they turned out to vote at the October 26 local elections. When less than one hundred people in north Mitrovica cast a vote, UNMIK's strategy failed. Instead, a fall-back plan was implemented, with UNMIK assuming administrative control in the north of the city. Michael Steiner hopes the new administrative arrangements will bring normality to the north. The barbed wire checkpoints on the bridge over the Ibar river which divides the city have already been dismantled. The notorious paramilitary-style Bridgewatchers, who guarded the bridge from the Serbian side, will be replaced by the Kosovo Police Service - whose officers will include both former Bridgewatchers and Serbian police. KFOR will adopt a less visible and less intrusive presence in the area and UNMIK is relocating some of its own institutions to the north. These include the new Kosovo Trust Agency that will oversee the privatisation of formerly state-owned enterprises, which should provide a small economic boost to the area. The new UN Deputy Municipal Administrator for Mitrovica will have 70 employees, and an advisory board composed of local Serb, Albanian and Bosniak representatives. This arrangement closely reflects the recommendations outlined by the International Crisis Group. With Belgrade's cooperation, UNMIK has established a special UN-administered area in the north, set up a council composed of local leaders and brought local Serb police officers into the new fold. But UNMIK's move into north Mitrovica may have come at the price of legalising a previously de facto division. It remains unclear what relationship north Mitrovica will have with the rest of the municipality, what strategy exists to reintegrate it into the wider area, or what will replace the parallel services, currently provided by Belgrade in sectors such as health or education. The future of parallel institutions such as the Mitrovica hospital run by Milan Ivanovic has not been clarified. UNMIK has even offered assurances that there are no plans to take control of the education and health departments in north Mitrovica. This begs the question of what level of authority UNMIK will exercise in practice. Mitrovica was intended to become UNMIK's decentralisation showcase, as the mission embarks on a wider decentralisation programme across the province. When the Serbs in north Mitrovica did not vote, thereby forfeiting the decentralisation package on offer, direct UNMIK rule followed. This is undoubtedly a step forward, but as Michael Steiner understands only too well, it cannot be the final step. UNMIK's efforts to govern Mitrovica must not come at the price of sacrificing the goals of multi-ethnicity and integration. Since 1999 the entire thrust of international effort in Kosovo has been to create a unified multi-ethnic province under the provisions of Security Council Resolution 1244, which sealed the end of the NATO action. Kosovo Serbs would like nothing better than to redraw the municipal boundaries in Kosovo along ethnic lines, arguing that only ethnic segregation can guarantee them a future in the province. Mitrovica is now at a critical crossroads. Northern Mitrovica could begin a gradual process of reintegration into the rest of the municipality and into Kosovo. Or it could be granted an institutionalised separation from the rest of the municipality, laying the foundations for the cantonisation of the province. If the aim of integration is abandoned here, the impact will be felt in other municipalities facing similar, albeit less daunting, ethnic tensions. If multi-ethnicity remains our goal in Kosovo, we must not let this provisional solution in Mitrovica, however well-intentioned, become the first step towards institutionalising the ethnic divide. Valerie Percival is Kosovo Project Director for the International Crisis Group. ______________________________________________________________ If you wish to unsubscribe, send a blank message to: kcc-news-unsubscribe at alb-net.com , or visit KCC-NEWS's page at: http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/kcc-news