Die vergessenen Albaner Serbiens
Zur Lage der ethnischen Albaner in Südserbien außerhalb des Kosovo


The forgotten Albanians in Serbia
The situation of ethnic Albanians in South-Serbia out of Kosovo

mit ERGAENZUNG aus: AP-news on  January 29, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  AFP-news on  January 29, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  AFP-news on  January 30, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  AFP-news on  January 31, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  FreeB92-news on  January 31, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  UPI-news on  February 1, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  Kosovapress on February 3, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  CDHRF-reports 478, 479,  481, received on Feb 05, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  The Financial Times on  February 16, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  Free Serbia on  February 17, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  Kosovapress on February 17, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  Reuters on  February 21, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  The New York Times on  February 22, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  The Times on  February 22, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  This is London on  February 22, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  AP on  February 22, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  Kosovapress on February 24, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  AIM  on Feb 11, published on  February 24, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  AFP on  February 26, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  IWPR on  February 26, 2000
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  CDHRF-ANNUAL REPORT-1999
mit ERGAENZUNG aus:  CDHRF-MONTHLY REPORT-JANUARY 2000

Albanians Lost in Neutral Zone

By Melissa Eddy
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, Jan. 29, 2000; 4:19 a.m. EST

DOBRASIN, Yugoslavia –– This village of 1,000 ethnic Albanians lies just inside Serbia, overlooking the boundary with Kosovo. NATO-led peacekeepers aren't allowed to come here. Serb police aren't supposed to, either.
     But they do.
     Three days ago, villagers say, a dozen of them came over the hillside beyond the schoolhouse. Shots rang out and the Serbs raced away. Hours later, villagers found the bodies of Isaj Saqipi and his brother, Shaip, beneath their tractor, each shot through the head.
     Under an agreement signed by NATO and Serb generals last June, the three-mile swath of land ringing Kosovo's boundary just inside Serbia is supposed to be off limits to both Serb police and peacekeepers who patrol the province. But Dobrasin residents say Serb police are ignoring the agreement, leaving them unprotected in a no man's land.
     "We don't have any defense or anything," said Adem Saqipi, 37. "They (NATO forces) have to do something to protect us, or we have to abandon the village."
     The situation in the Dobrasin region today – where about 70 percent of the 100,000 people are ethnic Albanians – echoes the ongoing conflict that in March provoked NATO to intervene in Kosovo with a massive air campaign. Moved by the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees, NATO bombarded Serbia for 78 days to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end his crackdown on ethnic Albanian militants.
     Naime Saqipi remembers the pictures on TV from Kosovo last year, the accounts from villagers who described how Serb police stormed villages. The bloody bodies, shot and disfigured were so fearful, she said, they made her cry.
     This time the victim was her husband, killed in the raid three days ago. One of his eyes had been gouged out; his hands cut into strips.
     "I never thought I would see my own husband like that," she sobbed, as her 7-year-old daughter clung to her neck.
     The family's father brought the corpses to Kosovo's main morgue in Pristina, fearful the Serbian authorities would not bother to return them, even if they conducted an autopsy.
     U.N. police won't conduct an investigation, either, because they have no jurisdiction over the neutral zone and no border agreement with Serbian authorities, U.N. police spokesman Bruce Lloy said.
     It is not the first time the people of Dobrasin have had troubles with Serbia's police, who send patrols of blue armored vehicles over the hillside near the schoolhouse. The police even harass the Albanians when they make the simplest of trips – such as a shopping excursion a few miles up the road to the market town of Bujanovac, the villagers said.
     "They have even taken people from Dobrasin off the bus and thrown them in the river and left them there for hours in freezing temperatures," said Adem Saqipi, a cousin of the victims.
     State-run Serbian media, for its part, has reported several explosions and armed attacks in the border area around Dobrasin, located 170 miles southeast of Belgrade. They attributed the attacks to "ethnic Albanian bandits and terrorists."
     Stojan Arsic, the Serb mayor of Bujanovac, said the incidents are the work of "Albanian terrorists (who) cross over and attempt to provoke incidents here."
     NATO-led peacekeepers say they know about the attacks, but won't do anything about them.
     "Our mandate ends at the boundary – beyond which Belgrade must bear the responsibility for the security of its citizens," said British Warrant Officer Mark Cox, a spokesman for the peacekeepers in Pristina. "We hope that they are actively ensuring the security that their citizens deserve, also regardless of their ethnicity."
     The sentiments don't comfort people in Dobrasin, who remain trapped by lines on the map. Panicked people fearing for their safety already have fled to Kosovo or Bujanovac, to stay with family there.
     "We don't know what to do," said a young man from Dobrasin, who gave his name only as Isa, for fear of retaliation. "We can't get anything from this side (Serbia) and we can't get anything from the other (Kosovo)."

© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press

Source: Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Date: 29 Jan 2000

Double slaying sparks fears on Kosovo-Serbia boundary

by James Hider

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 29 (AFP) - The killing of two ethnic Albanian brothers on Serbia's boundary with Kosovo is the latest attack by Serbian police on Albanians cut off from protection by international peacekeepers, according to relatives of the victims.
     Ferat Ariti arrived in Pristina Saturday to collect the bodies of Isa Saqipi, 35, and his brother Shaip, 31, who between them had nine children. They were cousins of Ariti's wife.
     Ariti said the men were murdered Wednesday by some 30 Serbian police while chopping wood near their village of Dobrosin, 300 metres (yards) from the internal boundary with Kosovo.
     "They were returning on their tractor with a trailer of firewood. Their father was on a nearby path when he heard shots. He went to investigate and saw the Serb police, but no tractor," Ariti said.
     The father, Saqip, went home but when his only sons failed to return he began searching for them. He eventually found them further along the road, both shot in the head and propped against their trailer, Ariti said.
     He added that a 12-year-old child in a nearby house witnessed the killings.
     Dobrosin lies in a five-kilometre (three mile) demilitarised zone on the boundary, banned to Yugoslav troops and special police as well as to peacekeepers -- but still open to local police under an accord between NATO and Belgrade.
     The family brought the bodies on Thursday to Pristina, the capital of the UN-administered province of Kosovo, for an autopsy by international police.
     "If we had taken the bodies to any of the local towns they would have killed us too," said Arifi, an administrator in the village of Bilinic on the Kosovo side of the boundary.
     UN police in Kosovo said the two men were shot dead but are still investigating the case.
     Ariti planned to return the bodies to Dobrosin for burial on Sunday, but said he feared the police would be out in force for the ceremony.
     He said that 80 percent of Dobrosin's residents had fled since Serbian police first maltreated the villagers three months ago.
     Intimidation included a checkpoint where Serb police force strip searches on ethnic Albanians -- the majority in the region -- and told men to bring their daughters along to have sex with policemen, Ariti said.
     Paula Ghedini of the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Pristina said her group had received reports of "direct intimidation" in the region.
     "The atmosphere there is similar to Kosovo a year ago. The fear and tension is quite high but we are not seeing the same number of incidents" as in Kosovo, she said.
     "Even though they are not an ethnic minority in the region the Albanians feel like one, the (Serb security) presence is so strong," she said.
     The UNHCR has registered 5,000 people who have fled the region since June, known to Kosovars as 'East Kosovo' and with up to 100,000 ethnic Albanian residents, but said the number is probably much higher.
     She said often only the men stay behind to look after the homes and animals. Ariti said the only people who stayed behind were those fit enough to run when the police show. He said 30,000 people had fled the region.
     "The situation is getting worse day by day. In spring it could be a disaster like Kosovo," he warned.
     Ariti said that before NATO's three-month air campaign to end Serbian oppression in Kosovo last March, the police in the area had been "professional and respected." Since then, they had been replaced by new forces, including special units that had been active in Kosovo, he said.
     A resident of Presevo, one of the area's main towns, said that in the last two weeks 200 well-armed special police had arrived and were patrolling aggressively by night in groups of 50.
     The new units had beaten up at least three Presevo Albanians and locals were scared to go out night in the town, which 95 percent ethnic Albanian, the man said, speaking by telephone on condition of anonymity.
     "We never wanted war, we have tried to solve our differences through dialogue," said Ariti. "But the Serbs are forcing us into it. If it comes to war, we'll fight."

jh/gj AFP
Copyright (c) 2000 Agence France-Presse

Thousands mourn brothers killed on Kosovo-Serbia boundary: witnesses

BILINICA, Yugoslavia, Jan 30 (AFP) - Thousands of ethnic Albanians turned out Sunday for the funeral of two brothers allegedly shot dead by Serbian police near the boundary between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, witnesses said.
     Mourners returning to this Kosovo village, a few hundred metres (yards) from the eastern boundary, said that between 3,000 and 5,000 people had paid their last respects to the Saqipi brothers, who left behind them nine children.
     Relatives and local inhabitants said the ethnic Albanian brothers, Isa, 35, and Shaip, 31, were shot dead Wednesday by Serbian police while chopping wood near their home village of Dobrosin, a few hundred metres inside Serbia.
     The two men were buried in Dobrosin Sunday with Albanian flags draped over their coffins. Mourners included 10 men in Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) uniforms, said Bilinica shopkeeper Seljer Zenuni, 42, who attended the funeral.
     Other mourners said some of them had come to the burial from as far away as Kosovo's central Drenica region.
     They said that Serbian police stayed away from the funeral but had stopped ethnic Albanians from the southwestern region of Serbia from attending, putting up checkpoints on the roads.
     Zenuni said he had been afraid to cross the demarcation line.
     "Everyone is scared. But if something like this happens you have to go," he said, adding that the situation for ethnic Albanians on the Serbian side was deteriorating.
     "It's a catastrophe. The only reason they were killed is because they were ethnic Albanians," said Rexhep Selmani, a resident of Bilinica.
     He said that Dobrosin, normally home to some 1,000 people, had virtually emptied in recent months. Those few men who had stayed on to look after their homes fled across the boundary to Kosovo every time police approached, he said.
     The region of Serbia is home to up to 100,000 ethnic Albanians, thousands of whom have fled to Kosovo since June for fear of intimidation by Serbian police, rights groups in Kosovo said.
     Ethnic Albanians call the area "East Kosovo" and have regularly reported human right abuses they say are committed by Serbian police.
     The Democratic Action Party (PDD), which heads the council in Presevo, one of the main towns in the area, published a statement Wednesday calling for the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to send verification missions to the region.
     Dobrosin lies in a five-kilometre (three-mile) demilitarised zone on the boundary, banned to Yugoslav troops and special police as well as to peacekeepers, but still open to local police under an accord between NATO and Belgrade.
     Ferat Ariti, a relative of the brothers who brought the bodies to Kosovo for an autopsy by international police, said things were getting worse in Serbia with the recent arrival of special police active in oppressing ethnic Albanians in Kosovo last year.
     "The situation is getting worse day by day. In spring it could be a disaster like Kosovo," he told AFP Saturday.
     A human rights worker in Presevo said that in the past two weeks 200 well armed special police had arrived and were patrolling aggressively by night in groups of 50.
     The new units had beaten up at least three Presevo Albanians and locals were scared to go out night in the town, which is 95 percent ethnic Albanian, the man said, speaking by telephone on condition of anonymity.

Story from AFP / James Hider   Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)

Ethnic Albanians want peacekeepers deployed in southern Serbia

BELGRADE, Jan 31 (AFP) - A political party grouping ethnic Albanians has demanded the deployment of international peacekeepers in southern Serbia near the boundary with Kosovo, Beta news agency reported Monday.
     The Democratic Action Party (PDD), also demanded "the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army and Serbian special police forces" from the regions of Medvedja, Presevo and Bujanovac, which border Kosovo, the agency said.
     "The situation (in these regions) is difficult and is deteriorating," the party said in a statement, issued following the death of two ethnic Albanians whose relatives alleged they had been killed by the Serbian police.
     Relatives said that Isa and Shaip Saqipi were shot dead Wednesday while chopping wood near their home village of Dobrosin, a few hundred metres (yards) inside Serbia and were buried on Sunday, in the presence of several thousand ethnic Albanians.
     The PDD noted "mysterious exposions in Presevo, Bujanovac and Biljaca, armed attacks on the police, the deaths of a school principal and the Saqipi brothers in Dobrosin," and said the incidents "strengthened the feeling of insecurity among the local population."
     The attacks have multiplied since October.
     The party, which heads the council in Presevo, one of the main towns in the area, said "the Albanians have increasingly become the victims of illegal and anti-constitutional acts committed by the Serbian police."
     Some 100,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, live in this southern Serbian region, part of which is a five-kilometre (three-mile) demilitarised zone on the boundary, which is out of bounds to Yugoslav troops and special police as well as to the NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers who are based in Kosovo.
     But it is still open to local Serbian police under an accord between NATO and Belgrade.
     Riza Halimi, the mayor of Presevo and head of the PDD, told AFP by telephone that there had been an increased presence of Serbian special police forces, armed with automatic guns, since last December.
     "Although the zone is demilitarised, groups of between 10 and 15 policemen, in full war gear, cut across local roads, even those not leading to Kosovo," Halimi said.
     Halimi said that, whenever he had asked the Belgrade authorities for an explanation for the increased police deployment they said it was because of "a possible influx of terrorists from Kosovo."
     The police presence only "rises tensions in this region," Halimi said, but confirmed that there had been incursions by Kosovo Albanians into the area, mostly former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
     Considered as "terrorists" by Belgrade, the KLA was officially demilitarised and transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) last September.
     Witnesses said that 10 men in KLA uniforms were present at the funeral of the Saqipi brothers in Dobrosin on Sunday.
     According to the Belgrade branch of the Helsinki Human Rights Committee, some 25,000 Albanians fearing Serb reprisals have fled the regions of Medvedja, Bujanovac and Presevo since last June, when Belgrade troops pulled out from Kosovo following an 11-week long NATO bombing campaign.

Story from AFP  Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)

FREEB92 DAILY NEWS  FROM THE B2-92 NEWSROOM – BELGRADE

Jan 31, 2000 18:42 CET

Kosovo border incident

PRISTINA, Monday – Two Albanians were killed and a policeman wounded in an attack on a police patrol near the Kosovo border last week, sources in south Serbia said today. Relatives of brothers Isa and Saip Sacipi, who were buried today, claim that they were killed by police on January 26. Serb sources say that a large group of Albanians from the village of Dobrosin opened fire on police, who responded. Police officer Zarko Buberinic was wounded in the clash. The same sources say that the Albanian attackers had come from the direction of Kosovo.

Albanians in Serbia seek international observers

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The Party for Democratic Action, which represents some 100,000 ethnic Albanians, mainly from three southern Serbian towns on the border with Kosovo, has called for U.N. and OSCE observers in the region. An increasing number of armed clashes, murder and explosions have necessitated the observers' presence, the party says.
     The absence of international observers is forcing the Albanian population to flee across the borders to Kosovo, the party said.
     In a statement, the party demanded the withdrawal of the special Serb police force from the towns of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.
     Industrial, cultural and educational facilities in these towns have been "usurped by the Yugoslav Army and the Serbian ministry of the interior," the party said. It demanded that the Serbs leave these facilities.
     Without directly accusing the Serbs, the statement said that the local population was intimidated by the "conspicuous movements of special police troops" and by police checkpoints. Recent explosions in the region and the murder of a local headmaster added to the tensions, it said.
     The Kumanovo agreement, which was signed by the Yugoslav army and NATO, "ignored the very sensitive question of Albanians in Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja," according to the statement. Under the agreement, the Yugoslav military and Serb police forces would withdraw from Kosovo and would be replaced by the international force, KFOR. The provision, however, did not include Albanian-dominated regions Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja that are within Serbia.
     Serbian sources, however, blamed the violence on ethnic Albanians. According to Serbian sources, armed ethnic Albanians have been crossing into the region from the 5-km buffer zone dividing Kosovo from the rest of Serbia.

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On Monday, two Albanians were killed and a policeman wounded in the region, according to reports.

Story from UPI  Copyright 2000 by United Press International (via ClariNet)

Many inhabitants moved from village Dobrosin

Gjilan, February 3 (Kosovapress)
On the last two days the inhabitants from village Dobrosin moved down in to Kosova region at their relatives and to the humanitarian organizations after the murder of brothers Isa and Shaip Saqipi. They were killed by Serb polices and since that day the villagers are scared to stay at their native place. They have been threatened by Serb polices that they will kill all the Albanians as they killed brothers Saqipi. The KFOR has decided to employ some forces near the border Kosova-Serbia, said Colonel Snov as a reason to protect the rest of the inhabitants who intent to live at this village.

Nebi Nuhiu is kidnapped

Prishtinë, February 3 (Kosovapress)
Yesterday about 18:00 hrs, some unknown persons in Presheva city kidnapped Nebi Nuhiun the owner of petrol station "Neza". It is supposed that he is kidnapped by Serb gangsters where and before some of the serbs forced him to give petrol even he had the last reserves for urgent cases. All the other petrol stations in Serbia are monitored by two three polices but this private Albanian petrol station is not, that means nobody cares about the Albanians properties but the authorities make them and give them a good chance to do everything on the Albanians. Also, yesterday at the village called Samolica near Bujanoc, there were seen many military forces with the pretext of military maneuver, but not they want to fear the inhabitants of this area. At the village Dobrosin, where happened the murder incident by Serb polices, today there was no schooling at the elementary school "29 Nëntori" while many of the pupils left their village and they do not want to see the same scenes as they saw last week.

Eastern Kosova (Presheva, Bujanoc, Medvegja)

     BUJANOC:  A police checkpoint was set up in the building of the “Svetlost” shop in the vicinity of the village of Tërnoc. Thus, the roads leading to Malësia were blocked. Due to this, the pupils from the village of Maltërnoc did not attend school for the last 2 days.

Eastern Kosova (Presheva, Bujanoc, Medvegja)

     PRESHEVA: On January 4, at noon, the 8th session of the legal proceedings against Riza Halimi, the chairman of the municipal assembly in Presheva and of the Party for Democratic Action, continued in the Municipal Court in Presheva. He was accused of preventing police officials from doing their work during the peaceful protests against the massacres in Drenica, on March 5, 1999. The following witnesses were cross-examined: Behlul Nasufi, Naser Haziri, Dr. Eshref Aliu and Jetullah Kamberi. Igor Olujiq, a lawyer representing the Humanitarian Law Fund from Belgrade, attended the trial. The next session was scheduled for February 2.
     BUJANOC: On January 4, a group of Serb policemen and paramilitaries arrested Feriz Mehmeti (28) from the village of Osllar near Bujanoc. The incident occurred at the place called Kodra e Dudijes.On January 5, the 22nd session of the legal proceedings against Sevdail Hyseni continued in the Municipal Court in Bujanoc. He was accused of insulting “the Serbs and the other nations in Yugoslavia” in his poem “Me shajkaçë në Evropë”. The trial was postponed on the suggestion of Igor Olujiq, the representative of the Humanitarian Law Fund from Belgrade, who requested that the troublesome poem be translated at the Department of Albanian Language and Literature of the Philosophical Faculty of the University in Belgrade. The next session was scheduled for January 18.
     Serb policemen stationed at the checkpoints on the border with Kosova are looting truck drivers, bus drivers as well as other passers by. They are forced to give money, gasoline or food to the policemen. Otherwise, they are insulted on national and family bases or are physically ill-treated.

Eastern Kosova – (Presheva, Bujanoc, Medvegja)

     BUJANOC: On January 17, at about 7 a.m., Qemal Mustafa (53) from the village of Gjergjec, the principal of the “Migjeni” Primary School in Muhoc, and the vice-chairman of the SPS branch in Bujanoc, was killed on the road between Muhoc and Gjergjec.
     The very same day, at about 2.30 a.m., unidentified persons threw an explosive device at the house of Trajko Dimiq in the village of Levosoja. His mother Blagica (75) was injured and considerable material damage was caused.
     The trial against Sevdail Hyseni, who was accused of “insulting the feelings of the Yugoslav people” was postponed due to the fact that the accused, the witnesses and the interpreter did not show at the District Court in Bujanoc. The next session was scheduled for February 10, 2000.
     The trial against 15 Albanian workers of the “Svetlost” Enterprise in Bujanoc, who were dismissed from work during the NATO air campaign against the Serbian police, military and paramilitary forces in Kosova and Serbia, began at the District Court in Bujanoc. The next session was scheduled for February 17, 2000.
     On January 22, at about 2 a.m., there was a powerful blast in the police station in the village of Bilaç near Bujanoc. The station was considerably damaged as well as the nearby houses. Serbian police searched the houses of Shukri Maliqi and Bedri Hasani. All those who were in the local teashop were interrogated.

Bloodshed continues for Serbs

By Irena Guzelova in southern Serbia - 16 Feb 2000 00:48GMT

For Liljana Milovanovic, a Serb teacher from Kosovo, the war is not over. She says armed Albanians are crossing the border into Serbia and attacking the village she moved to when Nato forces took control of Kosovo last June.
     What started with occasional harassment last year has become more serious. Ms Milovanovic and fellow villagers in Merdare say Albanians from adjacent hamlets in Kosovo are shooting at them from the woods and setting fire to their property.
     "The provocation is coming all the time," said Ms Milovanovic. "We know spring is coming and we need to till our land but we are afraid."
     Bertie Williams, a British army captain from the Nato-led peacekeeping force stationed just across the border, is concerned that the number of incidents will increase as the winter snow melts. This would add to the problems of a force already struggling to contain a renewed wave of violence in Kosovo.
     The inhabitants of neighbouring Tacevac have moved to the relative safety of Kursumlija, a small town 24km into Serbia because, they say, Albanians kidnapped and murdered a villager, setting his house alight. Several other settlements also emptied after similar attacks.
     Nato's peacekeepers stepped up surveillance after a group of Albanians attacked a checkpoint with automatic fire in November, according to Serb police. A two-hour gun battle ensued and the police withdrew to gather reinforcements. On their return one of their vehicles hit a landmine and exploded, killing three and injuring six. Though the level of violence remains low compared with that in Kosovo, police say the increasing use of explosives indicates that the attacks are organised.
     Milos Ivanovic, a journalist, says a faction of the pro-independence Albanian army refused to hand over its arms to the Nato-led peacekeepers and remains active across the border. The region witnessed some of the most vicious fighting between Serb forces and the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army last year.
     Ms Milovanovic and her neighbours say Nato's peacekeepers do not control the border adequately, so they have organised their own armed guard.
     To the south in Bujanovac and Presevo, where Albanians form the largest ethnic group, the atmosphere is also tense.
     Mr Pucnik says Bujanovac belongs to the region many Albanians openly refer to as Eastern Kosovo. Posters in Kosovo urge Albanians to go and claim the territory.
     Locals say pro-independence Albanians from Kosovo are targeting some of their more moderate brethren in Serbia. Cemail Mustafi, the Albanian vice-president of the local Socialist party, was killed last month.
     Riza Halimi, the Albanian leader in Presevo, admitted to the presence of groups of armed men who "are outside the control of official forces". But he said the Serb military presence had intensified in the area. Many of them had come over from Kosovo and were bitter at having lost their land and property. "When the army arrived they brought with them a war atmosphere. Tension in the area is increasing," said Mr Halimi.
     "We are feeling ghetto- ised. If people could sell their property they would all leave for Kosovo in two or three months."

© Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2000

Thursday, February 17th, 2000

Liberation: Albanian extremists prepare separation of Presevo

Paris daily Liberation wrote today that NATO was very concerned because in Presevo area the "army for liberation of eastern Kosovo" was formed, anonymous NATO official said. "Groups of Albanian extremists", said those NATO official after regular session of Alliance Permanent Council, "tried to rise around 80.000 Albanians living in Presevo valley", Liberation wrote.

Protest for the prisoners and for the resolving of the issue of Mitrovica

Klinë, February 17 (Kosovapress) – In Klina, thousands of protestors have protested in the center road "Mujë Krasniqi", who were gathered to rise the voice and to appeal to the International Community to do something more for the release of the Albanian political prisoners that are still kept in the horrible conditions in the Serb jails, and for the resolving of the issue of Mitrovica. Zeqir Morina, former Commander of KLA and Adelina Krasniqi, student in the high school made a speech to the protestors. The protestors held transparencies "Mitrovicë is Kosova ","KFOR, the bordering line is Ibri bridge ", "Release Ukshin Hoti", "Flora must return to her ordinance and not to be kept in prison " etc. " We are gathered here" –said Mr. Morina, to tell to the |International Community and Serbia once for all that here will be not any stability at all in the Balkan without the release of about 7000 Albanian prisoners and without the freedom in Mitrovica, Presheva, Medvegja and e Bujanovci. Without the resolving of those very large problems and without the resolving of the Albanian issue in Balkan there will be not any peace and stability in the region.

Monday February 21, 1:52 pm Eastern Time

FOCUS-NATO sees fresh trouble over Kosovo border

(Updates with MUP report, Belgrade denial, Clark paras 4-6)

By Douglas Hamilton

BRUSSELS, Feb 21 (Reuters) - NATO is monitoring a build-up of Yugoslav forces in ethnic Albanian areas of southern Serbia and will not tolerate fresh conflict, alliance Secretary-General George Robertson warned on Monday.
     ``There is clearly rising tension in the southern part of Serbia and large numbers of additional Yugoslav troops have moved into the area,'' Robertson told a news conference after a meeting with the Western European Union in Brussels.
     Robertson was apparently referring to areas inside Serbia proper, in particular the Bujanovac-Presevo-Medveda region, lying just east of Kosovo, which is home to 100,000 ethnic Albanians.
     NATO sources said the report concerned four companies of well-armed Interior Ministry special police (MUP) which had been moved into the region, where recent local reports have warned of mounting fear and violence.
     In Belgrade, the MUP was not available for comment. A Yugoslav Army (VJ) officer told Reuters that ``only regular and planned activities are going on in the region.''
     NATO Supreme Commander General Wesley Clark, visiting Tirana, also expressed concern about possible conflict in the Presevo area and urged ethnic Albanians to remain calm.
     Albanians say they are being driven out of the area while Serb authorities there say they face Albanian terrorism. The confrontation has been partly obscured in the West by the focus on violence in the divided north Kosovo city of Mitrovica.
     Robertson warned ``anybody who seeks to be provocative in that part of the world, on whatever side of the divide they may be, that again we will not tolerate action being taken.''
     NATO was monitoring ``flashpoints in Kosovo and the surrounding areas'' and would act if required, he added.
     Albanian reports in the past three weeks speak of bombings, police harassment of ethnic Albanians and villages being mined to prevent the return of Albanian inhabitants. The Presevo valley borders the sector of Kosovo patrolled by U.S. troops.
     Belgrade says it is facing a campaign by armed ethnic Albanian extremists to take over the mainly Albanian area. On February 2, two Albanians were killed in what Serbian sources said was a guerrilla attack on a police patrol.

SILVER BULLET CLAUSE

``It's still considered random violence there at this point. Mitrovica is just more actual, more overt,'' a NATO diplomat said. ``But there seems to be radicalisation and there may be activities planned, and that's why we're concerned.''
     Kosovo Albanian leaders were warning that Presevo could be a staging ground for Yugoslav action to test KFOR's cohesion, and NATO was making contingency plans in case trouble worsened and threatened to spill over, the diplomat said.
     But intervening would be a highly sensitive political issue.
     Under a ``Military-Technical Agreement'' signed by Belgrade and NATO last June, when Serb troops withdrew from Kosovo after 11 weeks of NATO bombing, no Yugoslav Army units are permitted in five-km-wide (three mile) ``ground safety zone'' around Kosovo's borders and only local police are allowed.
     The agreement includes a ``silver-bullet clause'' which allows NATO to compel withdrawal of any forces or order the cessation of any activities that pose a potential threat to the mission.
     After talks in Tirana with Kosovo Albanian leader Hashim Thaqi and Macedonia's ethnic Albanian leader Arben Xhaferri, General Clark asked Albanian leaders to use their influence to prevent any flareup in southern Serbia.
     ``Clark was deeply worried about the possibility of a conflict breaking out in Presevo and Bujanovac,'' Xhaferri told Reuters after the surprise one-hour meeting.
     The ethnic Albanian mayor of Presevo was quoted this month as saying Serbian police had tripled their strength in the area, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of Kosovo a year ago.
     Yugoslav 3rd Army commander General Vladimir Lazarevic, however, accused NATO of failing to stop guerrilla infiltration and penetration of the security zone.
     He said Albanian ``terrorists'' infiltrators had carried out attacks on Yugoslav police in the Kursumilja and Leskovac areas north and west of the Presevo valley.
     Asked about reports of a ``Liberation Army of Presevo, Medveda and Bujanovac,'' NATO peacekeeping commander in Kosovo General Klaus Reinhardt said last week that ``this could become a problem in the spring if they launch attacks into Serbia.''

Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited.

February 22, 2000

Yugoslav Troops Mass Around Kosovo Borders

By STEVEN ERLANGER

The NATO secretary general, Lord Robertson, said yesterday in Brussels that the alliance was monitoring what he called a buildup of Yugoslav troops in areas bordering Kosovo and that it would not be tolerated.
     "There is clearly rising tension in the southern part of Serbia, and large numbers of additional Yugoslav troops have moved into the area," he said at a news conference today.
     "I would warn anybody who seeks to be provocative in that part of the world, on whatever side of the divide they may be, that again we will not tolerate action being taken," he said. "Clearly, there are flash points in Kosovo and the surrounding areas. We monitor them on a daily basis, and we take what robust and contingency action is required."
     While the apparent influx of Serbian forces may be intended to provide psychological support for the Serbs in the northern part of Mitrovica, the ethnically divided Kosovo city where Serbs have been fighting Kosovo Albanians and peacekeepers have been attacked, Serbian villagers in the strip of land between Serbia and Kosovo have complained of armed attacks by Albanians.
     There is a negotiated three-mile-wide zone along this internal border that Serbian troops are not supposed to enter. But Serbian villagers in the zone, especially around the town of Merdare, say they feel unprotected.
     In November, a group of Albanians attacked a checkpoint with automatic fire, the Serbian police said. In a two-hour gun battle, the police called in reinforcements and a police vehicle hit a mine, killing three people.
     Farther south, near the Serbian towns of Bujanovac and Presevo, where many people of Albanian background live, Albanians say they are being driven into Kosovo against their will by Serbs, some of whom moved there when they fled Kosovo.
     But there is some Albanian irredentism here, too. Some Albanians in this part of Serbia say they feel under pressure from more radical Albanians in Kosovo, the southernmost province of Serbia, and armed Albanians from Kosovo sometimes enter the area.
     Serbian forces have moved into this region, too, supposedly to stop the influx of armed Albanian groups, Serbian officials say.

Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company

February 22 2000

Nato tells Serbs to halt build-up

NATO gave a formal warning to Belgrade yesterday over the harassment of ethnic Albanian communities in southern Serbia, bordering Kosovo, after a build-up of Serb paramilitary units in the area (Michael Evans writes).
     Concerned that rising tension in the Presevo Valley region might lead to confrontation with the alliance's Kosovo Force, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, the Nato Secretary-General, said that violent action against the Albanians across the border from Kosovo would not be tolerated.
     Nato sources said that four paramilitary Ministry of Interior police units had been deployed to the Presevo area in the past two weeks, and there were fears that they might begin an "ethnic cleansing" operation against Albanians there. The build-up of Serb forces in southern Serbia has taken place while the main focus for the alliance has been on the ethnic violence between Albanians and Serbs in Mitrovica, northern Kosovo.
     Lord Robertson said: "I would warn anybody who seeks to be provocative in that part of the world, on whatever side of the divide they may be, that we will not tolerate action being taken."
     Belgrade is claiming that it has had to act to counter attacks from armed members of the disbanded UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army) from within Kosovo. It has blamed Albanian extremists for trying to take over the mainly Albanian Bujanovac-Presevo-Medveda area that borders the southern edge of Kosovo.

Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd

Nato warning as Serbia masses troops

by Sue Masterman

Nato has issued a strong warning to Serbia to stop its build-up of troops on the Kosovo border or face possible military action.
     It came after a day of confrontation when 200 British Royal Green Jackets, backed by Canadians, held the line on the critical Mitrovica bridge against a surging mass of 70,000 Kosovar Albanians determined to march into the town's Serb-majority north.
     Nato Secretary General George Robertson has warned that Nato is watching "flashpoints in Kosovo and the surrounding areas" and will act if required. It has spotted four companies of Yugoslav interior ministry troops in the bordering area of Serbia. Some of the 100,000 ethnic Albanians there are said to have been forced to flee across into Kosovo.
     "The problem here comes from Belgrade," said Richard Holbrooke, the US representative to the UN. "This is being stirred up by the Yugoslav authorities."
     Mitrovica has been divided since K-For moved into Kosovo. The Serbs want it partitioned and joined to Serbia. K-For, Nato and the UN say this is not an option.
     But US and German troops pulled back from north Mitrovica on Sunday under a hail of Serb stones, and then the ethnic Albanian marchers converged from across Kosovo. The crowd had already walked through French troops who tried to stop them outside the city. Four were reported injured.
     In such numbers they could have taken the bridge and attacked the jeering crowd of 4,000 Serbs on the other side but their own organisers called them back.
     The Green Jackets occasionally fell back before the surge, partly because of tear gas fired by French troops behind the armoured cars blocking the bridge.
     The few protesters who got past the Green Jackets were wrestled to the ground by the Canadians.
     "Please don't clash with the Englishmen!" an Albanian interpreter yelled at the crowd from atop an armoured car. The protesters finally heeded their own security officials and melted away into the night.
     Most were welcomed into local Albanian homes. As the Mitrovica curfew lapsed at dawn today, the city was eerily quiet, but K-For was taking no chances and Green Jackets were still patrolling the bridge.
     K-For was set to continue today with a sweep for weapons in southern Mitrovica, where the Albanians live. The search had to be broken off yesterday because all 2,300 K-For troops brought in for it were needed to control the crowds of demonstrators.

This is London
© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 22 February 2000

NATO: Serbia Orchestrating Violence

By Jeffrey Ulbrich
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2000; 3:28 p.m. EST

BRUSSELS, Belgium –– Intelligence reports have reinforced NATO's belief that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's government is behind the rising violence in a divided city in northern Kosovo.
     NATO also says it has detected radio contacts between police units in Serbia and Serbs in the city of Kosovska Mitrovica.
     In Southern Serbia, meanwhile, ethnic Albanian guerrillas are believed to have conducted small-scale infiltration of the Presevo Valley, an ethnic Albanian enclave where Serbian special police are said to have begun an aggressive crackdown.
     The Yugoslav army, for its part, has begun new training, and NATO intelligence has observed a great deal of military movement in the Kosovo border area. For the moment, the activity appears to be routine training, NATO officials say, but they suggest it doesn't take much to transform training into something more aggressive.
     The rising tensions in Mitrovica over the past three weeks, as well as these other reports in and around the province, prompted the North Atlantic Council, NATO's governing body, to call a special meeting for Friday to discuss Kosovo, the southern province of Serbia from which Yugoslav forces were pushed by a NATO bombing campaign last spring.
     NATO and the United States have accused Milosevic's government of being behind the nearly three weeks of violence in Kosovska Mitrovica, which has the largest remaining Serb enclave in Kosovo.
     On Wednesday, a senior Yugoslav commander, Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic, called the allegation "nonsense" aimed at diverting attention from NATO's failure to bring peace to the province.
     But the 19-nation defense alliance expects Milosevic to begin stirring up trouble in Kosovo, a NATO official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
     The official said NATO intelligence is keeping track of the disposition of the various forces, cross-border movements and insuring that new weapons don't replace the guns being seized by the peacekeepers.
     Intelligence officials believe that Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, Milosevic's right-hand man for Kosovo affairs who is under indictment by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for alleged atrocities, is personally running the stepped-up Yugoslav campaign.
     There are 30,000 NATO troops and 7,000 soldiers from non-NATO countries now attempting to keep the peace in Kosovo. Others are stationed in neighboring Macedonia.
     Concerned the unrest could expand to areas outside Kosovo, Macedonia has put part of its armed forces stationed near the joint Kosovo-Serbia border on a higher alert because of violence and tension in Kosovo, army spokesman Gjorgji Trendafilov said Wednesday.
     "The soldiers and officer of this part of the army have intensified their guard and monitoring," Trendafilov said.
     Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander in Europe, and NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson have made it clear they believe the Yugoslav leader is behind the current tensions in Kosovo. Both pledge to get tough on any party, Serb or ethnic Albanian, that attempts to stir unrest.
     The large Serbian population of Mitrovica, located near the border with Serbia, makes it a flashpoint for violence and a likely place to infiltrate agents from the north, NATO officials say. American, British and Canadian troops have been dispatched to the city to help the French, who have been under increasing pressure.
     In the Presevo Valley, just east of the Kosovo border and home to as many as 80,000 ethnic Albanians, Belgrade is believed to have moved in more than 200 additional paramilitary police. The police allegedly have begun house-to-house searches, mine-laying and beatings.
     Though the ethnic Albanians' rebel force, the Kosovo Liberation Army, has been officially disbanded, NATO says small military units continue to operate.
     The presidency of the European Union, meanwhile, issued a statement Wednesday urging political leaders in Kosovo to exert their influence to stop the violence and "to play a restraining role in order to avoid the spread of disorder."

© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press

Tensioned situation in Eastern Kosova

Preshevë, February 24 (Kosovapress) - The Political situation and security in the Eastern Kosova is very tensioned. The road that links Presheva town with Gjilan town is continuing to be blocked since January 16and because of that the passengers are forced to travel through Bujanoc.
The military Serb forces intended to be deployed in the bordering line with Macedonia, close to the villages of Miratoc, Leran and Bushtran, the district of Presheva. But, the Serb forces were discovered by the International NATO troops so they were forced to escape in panic.
A very tensioned situation is right now in Bujanos municipality so, the Albanian population is coping with serious difficulties by the Serb terror and check-points in the administrative borders with Kosova. As a consequence, from six Albanian ethnic municipalities have been expelled 3.122 inhibitions while from Malësia e Bujanocit have been expelled about 3.000 inhibitions.
Serb Police checkpoints have been placed also in Gryka e Konçulit, in the village of Tërnoc, in the forest's road Tërnoc- Breznicë,in the village of Luçan, in the forest's road Luçan - Dobrosin and in the village of Nasalcë.
The Serb media is using a psychological war as the strategy to do ethnic cleansing in the districts of Presheva, Bujanoci and Medvegja.

Copyright: The following text is for personal information only. Any professional use or publication in written or electronic form is subject to an agreement with AIM, 17 rue Rebeval, F-75019 Paris, France

THU, 24 FEB 2000 19:32:03 GMT

Troubles in the South of Serbia

LET THERE NEVER BE ANOTHER KOSOVO

Sporadic incidents which are becoming increasingly frequent taking a toll in human lives, scared people thirsty for a peaceful life, tension which threatens with escalation of violence, all these are daily occurrence in the southernmost communes of Serbia - Bujanovac and Presevo

AIM, PODGORICA, February 11, 2000
(From AIM Correspondent from Belgrade)

Both communes are located along the administrative border of Serbia and Kosovo and are mostly populated by Albanians. Over 100 thousand Albanians make 70 percent of the population. Bujanovac is truly a mixed environment in which Albanians account for 95 of the population of the town and surrounding 59 villages.
     Fear of Kosovo and of the possibility of "Kosovo happening here" in Bujanovac and Presevo came to the surface late last fall when the first armed incident occurred. Just like once in Kosovo, when the victims were  Albanians "loyal to the state of Serbia", the target was Vice-President of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) in Bujanovac and Director of Elementary School in the village of Djurdjevac, Mustafa Dzamilj, whose house was bombed and fired at. And this Socialist was the first victim to lose his life in these communes. Several months later, on Orthodox Christmas this year, Dzamilj was killed on the road between his and the neighbouring village of Muhovac. According to investigation authorities,  he had about 60 shotgun wounds.
     From the time when this first bomb was thrown at Dzamilj's house till the beginning of February there were some ten incidents in which, apart from explosive devices thrown at state buildings, several policemen were  wounded. Among the latest is the murder of two Albanians on January 26, in the village of Dobrosin. The family accuses the police for this murder, while the Serbs in the south of the Republic say that a police patrol was attacked in the region of this village and that one policeman  was killed on that occasion. Serbs say that the Albanians used large calibre automatic weapons and that they came from the direction of Kosovo. According to witnesses, apart from several thousands of civilians, some ten uniformed men with insignia of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), also attended the funeral of these two Albanians in the village of Dobrosin, which is located in the demilitarised zone along the administrative border between Serbia and Kosovo. These witnesses also claim that some Albanians from Drenica also attended the funeral.
     That someone "only" wanted to cause the "Kosovo" psychosis in the south of Serbia, perhaps sounds even more convincing taking into account the fact that there were no casualties in these incidents when the explosive  was planted near houses, schools, police stations or barracks and that they occurred during the night, in the small hours. "These incidents were only intended to intimidate" claim sources close to the investigation authorities.
     And while the Serbs in Bujanovac and Presevo have no doubts that the perpetrators in these incidents "are Albanian terrorists and gangs from Kosovo which want to transfer the conflict to the south of Serbia", the Albanian representatives are unable to pinpoint the culprits.
     "Either 'Albanian terrorists' or 'groups of Serbs' could be responsible for these attacks. I think that both alternatives are possible, but on the other hand, maybe the state needed these incidents as an excuse to send strong police forces to this region after several years", said Riza  Halimi, the Albanian leader in the south of Serbia and President of the Party of Democratic Action (PDD), as well as the only Albanian president  of a commune.
     For this incident, the Albanian leader also blames some seven to eight thousand Albanians who have left Bujanovac and Presevo have gone to Kosovo and who are revolted because they had to leave their houses. "These people are embittered because they have been living outside their  homes for months. They had to flee because of police and army harassment and have thus lost every security a man feels in his home and  state. The perpetrators most probably belong to this group as they can be very easily abused", speculates Halimi.
     On the other hand, Stojanca Arsic, President of the neighbouring commune of Bujanovac thinks: "The Albanian terrorists cross over to the territory of our commune and try to provoke conflicts". The Communal Board of the Yugoslav Left (JUL) in Bujanovac agrees with him and states  that "by incursions into the Serbian territory and terrorist acts the Albanian terrorists try to provoke conflicts among the local population".
     "We call upon the Albanian population of the commune of Bujanovac not to give in to manipulations of separatists from outside and their NATO sponsors. Our state will take every possible measure to guarantee safety  and peaceful life to the Albanian population in this multi-ethnic community" reads the message of JUL Bujanovac.
     While representatives of the authorities in these communes appeal to Albanians not to allow their fellow-countrymen to manipulate them, one of the Serbian leaders in Kosovo and Metohija, Momcilo Trajkovic, asks the representatives of the Belgrade ruling parties to urgently resolve "the growing problems" in these three mixed communes in the southernmost  part of Serbia as the escalation of conflicts in these parts would directly reflect on the Kosovo Serbs.
     "Unless the authorities urgently find a solution for the growing problems in the communes of Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja populated by  both Serbs and Albanians, that will have direct consequences on the Kosovo Serbs as well" warns Trajkovic and sent a message to the authorities that if "Serbia's jurisdiction in Kosmet has been suspended,  that is no excuse for the impotence it has shown in the southernmost parts of Serbia".
     Like Trajkovic, the Serbs in Presevo and Bujanovac also think that the "Albanian extremists" cross over from Kosovo to the territory of Serbia proper on purpose, with the aim of provoking incidents in villages along  the administrative border between the Republic and Province, and creating an impression that "their fellow nationals are endangered in these three southern communes of Serbia" and so that they could thus "justify their participation in the expulsion of Serbs from the Serbian enclaves round Kosovo Polje and the Morava river valley in Kosovo".
     "They are the taking advantage of the closeness of the international presence so as to expand the territory under its control and transfer its jurisdiction outside Kosovo. It is therefore, up to the Serbian authorities to prevent that process on time, and thus avoid having to face a fait accompli in future and then accuse others of treason", says President of the Serbian Resistance Movement of Kosovo and Metohija.
     The PDD leaders also express a wish to see UN forces or an OSCE Monitoring Mission in the territory of their communes. They warn that the situation in the south of Serbia could easily escalate and demand the presence of these factors in these three communes in the south of Serbia, with prior approval of the Government of Yugoslavia and Serbia and withdrawal of all special police forces from that area.
     The largest Albanian party in the South of Serbia thinks that the Kumanovo Agreement "ignores a sensitive problem of Albanians in Presevo,  Bujanovac and Medvedja, by imprecise definition of the demilitarised zone. In practice this allowed large scale militarisation of this region  because of which the Albanian population left for Kosovo in great numbers" claims PDD. President of this party points out that increased police forces can be observed in this area, which the Albanians interpret as state's intention to accuse them for these incidents.
     "Large police forces will have the effect of psychological pressure on local Albanians. During the war, the presence of the Army and police was  justified, but the war has ended more than eight months ago", said Halimi.
     While, the Albanians on the one hand, see internalisation as the way to ease this tense atmosphere in Bujanovac and Presevo, the Serbs on the other, are again silent and once again avoiding to resolve the problem by ignoring and maintaining tense situation. The problem of Kosovo best shows how disastrous this method is for the Serbian side.

Zoran KOSANOVIC
(AIM)

Blast in a heating plant near Kosovo border

Saturday, 26-Feb-2000 8:50AM

BELGRADE, Feb 26 (AFP) - An explosive device went off in a heating plant in the southern Serbian town of Bujanovac, near the border with Kosovo, the state news agency Tanjug reported Saturday.
     More than 36 tons of heating oil poured into the streets of Bujanovac after the blast late Friday in the town's main heating plant, the agency said, adding that there were no casualties.
     Local authorities blamed ethnic Albanian "terrorists" of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), "who want to create a psychosis of panic and fear," the agency said.
     Since the withdrawal of Belgrade troops from Kosovo last June, tensions have risen in the region bordering the province.
     Some 100,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, live in the Bujanovac region. There is a five-kilometre (three-mile) demilitarised zone on the boundary, from which Yugoslav troops and special police as well as NATO-led peacekeepers based in Kosovo (KFOR) have been banned.
     The zone remains open to local Serbian police under an accord between NATO and Belgrade.
     Since last June, some 25,000 Albanians have fled the region of Medvedja, Bujanovac and Presevo to avoid Serb reprisals, the Belgrade branch of Helsinki Human Rights Committee said in its 1999 report.

Story from AFP  Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)

WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 119, February 25, 2000
 

NEW KOSOVO CONFLICT BREWING

Fears are rising of renewed conflict between Serbs and Albanians along Kosovo's eastern border with Serbia proper.

By Tim Judah in eastern Kosovo

Lurching down a muddy lane, high in the hills of Kosovo's eastern border, comes a Lada Niva stuffed to bursting with 12,500 packets of cigarettes. Cheaper in Kosovo, the cigarette dealers buy here to sell in Serbia proper. Since, technically speaking, the two are still part of the same country, this cannot be smuggling. The US soldiers slitting the cartons open are however not after lost duty - they are hunting for weapons.
     At one of their checkpoints, NATO troops say they regularly see former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) members, now part of the Kosovo Protection Corps, or TMK, drive across the border. They are in plain clothes, they carry no arms, they show TMK documents for identification and say they are "visiting friends." This, of course, might be true. About 300 Albanians from these regions were KLA members during the war and, according to a recent report in Belgrade's Nin magazine, one of them is now operating up here with a ten-man unit.
     While Mitrovica has been hitting the headlines, another conflict is already on the boil. Just over Kosovo's eastern border, inside Serbia proper, lie the predominantly Albanian municipalities of Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja. During the war Serbian forces ethnically cleansed several areas. Those who remain fear more conflict is on the way and some are moving to Kosovo for safety.
     While the US troops search the Lada, another man drives across the border on his tractor with his niece and nephew. Their trailer is weighed down with their possessions. They come from the village of Vrban. The night before seven Serbian policemen visited the village demanding to know who was coming and going. "There's no safety there," said the man. As part of their agreement with NATO, Yugoslav troops are banned from a 5 kilometre buffer zone along the border, but the police are allowed here.
     Captain Eric McFadden, of the US 82 Engineer Battalion, whose 100 troops are supposed to control this area, says that two weeks ago refugees from Vrban told him that Serbian police had specifically threatened people, telling them to leave.
     A mile down the road, on the Serbian side of the border is the village of Dobrosin. On 26 January a shoot-out between Serbian police and Albanians left two people dead. Immediately afterwards women and children fled Dobrosin and now it is controlled by between 30 and 50 armed Albanians. As of yet, the Serbian police have not returned to the village. McFadden says, "We've already told the Albanians in Dobrosin that if there is a conflict there we won't allow them to bring it to Kosovo." McFadden says that his "hunch" is that arms are flowing over hidden trails into Serbia.
     Over the last few weeks small numbers of Serbs and Albanians have died on both sides of the border. Two men from one of a string of Serbian villages near the Kosovo municipality of Gnjilane were killed recently, execution style, on the road by the border. So called "loyal Albanians", for example members of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party, have also been murdered recently inside Serbia.
     Shaban Shala, the head of the TMK for Gnjilane, says that a month ago a member of a Serbian "special unit" was shot dead by the Konculj gorge on the Kosovo side of the border. He claims that documents relating to the mining of the border and the blowing up of certain buildings were found on his body.
     Since the TMK is supposed to be a civil emergency force helping out in case of earthquakes and recently clearing ice from city streets, Shala's admission that the TMK "were involved" in the Konculj incident is intriguing. For many years Shala worked as a leading human rights activist in Pristina, but, especially in the last few years before the war, this was a cover for his links to the KLA. In fact Shala is a veteran of the armed struggle, having first taken up arms in 1983 and having been a senior commander in Drenica from 1998.
     Shala says rather enigmatically that unless the West pressures Belgrade into stopping what he calls "its war policy" in the border regions, then he expects, as if by magic, that "at any moment a force could be born, which could come out and openly protect its people and land."
     Bardhyl Mahmuti, vice-president of the Party of Democratic Prosperity of Kosovo, the main post-KLA political party, which is led by Hashim Thaci, goes even further. He says that he wants KFOR's mandate to be extended to cover Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja or "Eastern Kosova" as they are being called in Pristina nowadays.
     Although cloaked in secrecy, it is clear that some sort of internal debate is going on at the top of the party, the TMK and the other parts of the post-KLA elite. Some believe that Albanians are being quietly cleansed from the region, that a stand needs to be made and that the West roped into protecting Albanians there.
     By contrast, one of Thaci's advisers says that he is counselling caution, "There is no point in starting a conflict you cannot win. We have told them to cool it and not to expect military help from us."
     Belgrade too is caught in a dilemma. If it does not clamp down on rebel villages like Dobrosin, then it will rapidly lose control of the buffer zone and beyond. But if it does strike back, the situation could explode, tens of thousands of Albanians will flee and Yugoslav forces could again find themselves in conflict with NATO.
     On the face of it, none of this has anything to do with what is happening in Mitrovica. In fact, both conflicts are inextricably linked. Putting aside the question of Mitrovica town and the Trepca mines, most Kosovo Albanians would be happy to exchange Serbian-inhabited northern Kosovo for these three municipalities. The Serbs on the other hand want to keep both - that is, if they ultimately fail to restore their rule over the whole of Kosovo.
     On February 21, Lord Robertson, the NATO secretary-general, warned Serbs and Albanians not to start a conflict in the borderlands. "I would warn anybody who seeks to be provocative in that part of the world, on whatever side of the divide they may be, that we will not tolerate action being taken there." This is the same language NATO used in the run up to the war in Kosovo itself.

Tim Judah is the author most recently of "Kosovo: War & Revenge", forthcoming from Yale University Press.

KËSHILLI PËR MBROJTJEN E TË DREJTAVE E TË LIRIVE TË NJERIUT
COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
Rr. Zdrini, 38000 Prishtinë-Kosovë; tel. 381 (0) 549006  fax: 381 (0) 38 549007
E-mail:  kmdlnj@albanian.com      cdhrf@albanian.com     http://www.albanian.com/kmdlnj

Report on the violation of the human rights and freedoms in Kosova in the course of 1999
(...)

Brutal anti-Albanian campaign in Presheva, Bujanoc and Medvegja

The deportation and the expulsion of the Albanians from the municipalities of Presheva, Bujanoc and Medvegja (in Serbia proper) continues as a consequence of the free reign violence of the Serbian police, military and paramilitary forces stationed in the villages on the border between Kosova and Serbia (contrary to the military agreement signed in Kumanova between NATO and the Yugoslav army, which envisages that a buffer zone is to be established 5 km from the border of Kosova, article 1, para. 3e and 4a).
Many cases of looting as well as of usurpation of Albanian houses, apartments and shops were reported.

==>  CDHRF-ANNUAL REPORT-1999

KËSHILLI PËR MBROJTJEN E TË DREJTAVE E TË LIRIVE TË NJERIUT
COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
Rr. Zdrini, 38000 Prishtinë-Kosovë; tel. 381 (0) 549006 fax: 381 (0) 38 549007
E-mail:kmdlnj@albanian.com   cdhrf@albanian.com   http://www.albanian.com/kmdlnj

REPORT ON THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS IN KOSOVA DURING JANUARY 2000
(...)

The situation of human rights in the municipalities of Presheva, Bujanoc and Medvegja

The situation in this region continues to be very grave due to the frequent interventions of the Serbian police forces and after the killing of brothers Isa (1964) and Shaip Saqipi (1968) from the village of Dobrosin (Bujanoc), while they were on their way back from the forest (where they had gone to cut wood). After this incident, many inhabitants fled their homes. On 5 January, the District Court in Bujanoc started the trial against Sevdail Hyseni for the 22nd time. He is accused of insulting the “Serbian people and the other nationalities of Yugoslavia” in his poem “With Saikaca (a Serb cap) towards Europe” from his book “When fate is on you side”. The trial was postponed for later on the suggestion of the defendant of the accused party. On 4 January, at 12, the District Court in Presheva continued the trial against Riza Halimi, the mayor of Presheva and chairman of the Party for Democratic Action, for the 8th time, under the charges that during the peaceful protests against the Serbian massacres in Drenica on 5 March 1998, he had prevented officials to carry out their work.
Many drivers are looted at the Serbian police checkpoints on the border with Kosova. They are forced to give money, petrol and food to the policemen in order to pass the checkpoints without any trouble. Otherwise, they cannot pass; they are insulted on a national and family basis and are physically ill-treated.

==>  CDHRF-MONTHLY REPORT-JANUARY 2000

==>  back370b.htm

Manifesto 2000 for a culture of Peace and Non-violence Because the year 2000 must be a new beginning, an opportunity to transform - all together - the culture of war and violence into a culture of peace and non-violence. more ==> Manifesto-000226.htm

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