Taken without permission, for fair use only.
KLA demand political recognition as Kosovo army
FOCUS-Russia firm over Kosovo force, KLA speaks
Serbs shell village
Serb Forces Pound Rebel Stronghold
We have had a very alarming report from northern
Albania
Refugees tell UN Kosovo villages under heavy
fire
_________________________________
KLA demand political recognition as Kosovo army
08:43 a.m. Jul 11, 1998 Eastern
By Douglas Hamilton
PRISTINA, Serbia, July 11 (Reuters) - The Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA) is demanding that all ethnic Albanian political parties
recognise it as a national military force which is operating in a state
of war, a spokesman for the guerrillas was quoted on Saturday as saying.
"These are two preconditions
without which we cannot have talks or make contacts (with ethnic Albanian
political leaders)," KLA spokesman Jakup Krasniqi told the Kosovo daily
Koha Ditore.
In the space of a few
months, the KLA has mounted the most serious challenge to Yugoslav authority
ever seen in the province of Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs
by nine to one.
It has replaced a fruitless
non-violent campaign for autonomy with an armed rebellion demanding outright
independence and now controlling 40 percent of the land, according to the
spokesman.
Krasniqi said the KLA
rejected all attempts to turn one of Kosovo's existing political parties
into the voice of the guerrilla movement. If Albanian leaders were to open
peace negotiations with the Yugoslav government without the KLA, "we would
continue our fight," Krasniqi told the newspaper.
Rejecting reports that
the army is in reality no more than a loosely connected patchwork of guerrilla
groups, the spokesman said the KLA ..."does not have multiple commands
(but) a common command structure and a hierarchy that is respected."
The two-page interview,
at an undisclosed location, was the guerrilla force's first response to
suggestions by foreign envoys trying to broker peace negotiations that
the KLA could be represented in talks by established leaders of Kosovo's
ethnic Albanian majority.
Krasniqi made no reference
to current efforts to secure a ceasefire paving the way for talks, but
condemned the international community for equating the KLA with the Yugoslav
security forces.
Major powers have shifted
ground in the past two weeks, muting threats of NATO military coercion
against Yugoslavia and stepping up warnings that they will not allow the
guerrillas to exploit international peace efforts for their own political
ends.
Ibrahim Rugova, who
was elected 'president' of Kosovo in a ballot not recognised by Serbia
or the Yugoslav federal government, is considered by major foreign powers
involved in peacemaking diplomacy as the legitimate representative of the
Albanian-speaking population.
But Krasniqi said the
KLA does not accept Rugova as president and would not accept him as its
commander, because his policies had failed and had divided the Albanian
people.
The KLA would also reject
the idea of Balkania, a Balkan Confederation of Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro
as three sovereign states free to secede, he said. This proposal is championed
by the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo, headed by Adem Demaci who unlike
Rugova has recognised the KLA and has been touted as a possible voice of
the guerrillas in political negotiations.
Asked if the KLA itself
would negotiate with the government in Belgrade, Krasniqi said the KLA
"have always been in favour of negotiations."
But they would have
to be well prepared, with an agreed lineup of legitimate representatives
backed by international supervision. And, he said, they could only take
place once all Serbian troops had been removed from the province and all
prisoners released.
Under international
pressure, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has offered to re-open
stalled peace talks with Rugova, leading to a form of autonomy for Kosovo.
But he has refused to withdraw his forces on the grounds that Kosovo is
Serbian territory, and that its Serb population would be forced to leave
if they had no protection. He also rejects the role of an international
mediator.
Rugova, who now also
demands independence although this aim is flatly rejected by the major
powers, has refused to resume the dialogue with Milosevic until Yugoslav
army and special police units are withdrawn.
The KLA spokesman repeated
that his movement was seeking independence, saying there could be "no continuing
connection to Serbia after all that has happened in Kosovo."
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
__________________________________
FOCUS-Russia firm over Kosovo force, KLA speaks
03:00 p.m Jul 11, 1998 Eastern
BELGRADE, July 11 (Reuters) - Russia refused on
Saturday to drop its opposition to possible military intervention in Kosovo,
where separatist guerrillas insisted they would not allow ethnic Albanian
politicians to represent them in any peace talks.
German Foreign Minister
Klaus Kinkel failed during a visit to Moscow to persuade Russia to change
its stance over the troubled Serbian province, where ethnic Albanians outnumber
Serbs by nine to one. Russia remained opposed to authorising the use of
force through the United Nations charter if a political solution could
not be reached.
As diplomatic efforts
continued, Serbian police raided the village of Lodje in western Kosovo
in a vain attempt to recover two men missing in action, Serb sources said.
The ethnic Albanian-run
Kosovo Media Centre accused the Serbs of launching a heavy assault with
artillery and ground-to-ground missiles on the village near the main western
town of Pec. It said one elderly man was killed.
The Serb sources in
Pristina said the police regained control of local roads from the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA) but did not find the missing men.
A KLA spokesman was
quoted as saying that it was demanding that all ethnic Albanian parties
recognise it as a national military force in a state of war.
"These are two preconditions
without which we cannot have talks or make contacts (with ethnic Albanian
political leaders)," KLA spokesman Jakup Krasniqi told the Kosovo daily
Koha Ditore.
The KLA has challenged
Yugoslav authority in the province, replacing a fruitless non-violent campaign
for autonomy with an armed rebellion for outright independence.
Krasniqi said the KLA
rejected all attempts to turn one of Kosovo's existing parties into the
voice of the guerrilla movement. If Albanian leaders were to open peace
negotiations with the Yugoslav government without the KLA, "we would continue
our fight," Krasniqi told the newspaper.
Rejecting reports that
the army is no more than a loosely connected patchwork of guerrilla groups,
the spokesman said the KLA "does not have multiple commands (but) a common
command structure and a hierarchy that is respected."
More than 300 people
have been killed in Kosovo this year during a Serbian police crackdown
on guerrillas.
The six-nation Contact
Group on Wednesday agreed the outline of a peace plan to present to the
warring parties, adopting a carrot-and-stick approach to the province's
guerrillas. It said it would put forward its plan confidentially.
Ibrahim Rugova, who
was elected 'president' of Kosovo in a ballot not recognised by Serbia
or the Yugoslav federal government, is considered by major foreign powers
involved in peacemaking diplomacy as the legitimate representative of the
Albanian-speaking population.
But Krasniqi said the
KLA does not accept Rugova as president and would not accept him as its
commander.
Russia, a member of
the Contact Group with France, Germany, the United States, Britain and
Italy, is a traditional ally of fellow-Orthodox Yugoslavia.
Kinkel on Friday stressed
that military intervention would be used only as a last resort and that
it was impossible at present without a mandate from the U.N. Security Council
-- something both Russia and China oppose.
The peace plan drafted
by senior diplomats from the Contact Group calls for a ceasefire and provides
a blueprint for establishing autonomy for Kosovo within the present borders
of Yugoslavia.
NATO's top military
officer told politicians they would need to provide a clear goal for any
military mission in Kosovo.
"Before every military
operation we need a clearly defined political aim and an unambiguous legal
basis," General Klaus Naumann, the head of the alliance's military committee,
told a seminar in Munich.
The prime ministers
of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey discussed the conflict in Kosovo at a meeting
on regional cooperation on Saturday.
Among regional cooperation
steps, defence officials agreed to speed up the formation of a regional
peacekeeping force that would be available to support NATO or West European
Union peacekeeping troops in the region, government sources said.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
_________________________________
ABCNEWS
WIRE:July 11, 10:35 a.m.
Kosovo mission would need clear aim - NATO general
MUNICH, July 11 (Reuters) - NATO's top military
officer told politicians on Saturday they would need to provide a clear
goal for any military mission in the embattled Serbian province of Kosovo.
"Before every military
operation we need a clearly defined political aim and an unambiguous legal
basis," General Klaus Naumann, the head of the alliance's military committee,
told a seminar in Munich.
Naumann told the defence
policy gathering, organised by Germany's Christian Social Union party,
that the clear political goal had not yet been defined for Kosovo.
He also cautioned against
the belief that military intervention alone could bring peace to the Balkans.
"No one should believe
we can solve by military means the problems of hate and intolerance which
have built up over hundreds of years."
NATO could, however,
create a stable environment within which to solve Kosovo's intractable
conflict.
Ethnic Albanian guerrillas
are battling for the independence of Kosovo, where Albanians outnumber
Serbs by nine to one, and have gained at least nominal control over at
least a third of the territory.
Serbian security forces
launched a brutal crackdown against Albanian rebel bands last February,
escalating what had been sporadic armed violence into what is now approaching
full-blown war.
Tens of thousands of
Kosovo Albanians have fled devastating Serbian bombardments of towns alleged
by Belgrade to be bastions of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
NATO has threatened
intervention against Serbian interests unless Belgrade's forces stop targeting
civilians in ways resembling the vicious "ethnic cleansing" campaigns of
wartime Bosnia.
But major powers have
shifted ground in the past two weeks, muting threats of NATO coercion and
stepping up warnings that they will not allow the KLA to exploit international
peace efforts for military gain.
The West and Russia
want Kosovo Albanians to settle for autonomy within federal Yugoslavia
short of independence, which they fear would destabilise nearby countries
with restive Albanian and other minorities.
^REUTERS@
__________________________________
ABCNEWSWIRE
OSCE backs UN-sponsored military action in Kosovo
COPENHAGEN, July 10 (Reuters) - OSCE parliamentarians
on Friday backed military action to end the conflict in the Serbian province
of Kosovo if the United Nations Security Council endorsed such an operation.
"NATO...with the explicit
endorsement of a relevant U.N. Security Council resolution, may take such
military measures as to ensure the termination of aggression and the protection
of the population of Kosovo and its neighbours," the OSCE resolution said.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian
leaders have called on the international community to intervene in the
conflict that has claimed 300 lives and uprooted as many as 80,000 people
since fighting broke out earlier this year between separatist rebels and
Serbian security forces.
Javier Ruperez, outgoing
president of the parliamentary assembly of the Organisation for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said the Security Council should make
a move next month if peace negotiations led nowhere.
"If the situation continues
to deteriorate, there will be eventually a military intervention authorised
by the U.N. Security Council," Ruperez told reporters after a four-day
meeting of more than 300 MPs from the 54 OSCE countries.
"If by the end of this
month we do not see any concrete measures of pacification in the area,
then the U.N. Security Council should take the matter up for consideration
and consider all the options, including the military one."
The West fears that
victory for the Kosovo Liberation Army, which now claims to control more
than half of the Serbian province, could risk a wider war across the southern
Balkans.
Ruperez said military
intervention should have two main purposes -- to stop the aggression and
separate the contenders.
The OSCE resolution
said the United States, the European Union and others should impose "comprehensive
and effective economic sanctions" against Belgrade until it halted the
aggression.
While recognising the
territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the OSCE parliamentarians
also supported "strong autonomy" for Kosovo.
Helle Degn of Denmark,
elected as new president of the assembly for a one-year term, told reporters
the resolution was in tune with efforts by the Contact Group of major powers
to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
"It is a very important
signal that if we don't see any achievement we are willing to consider
also the possibility of military action," she said.
"But this is not the
first thing we want to do. We would certainly not like to send our sons
and daughters to war."
REUTERS@
__________________________________
Saturday, July 11, 1998 Published at 23:48 GMT
00:48 UK
BBCNEWS
Serbs shell village
Serbian forces have shelled a village controlled
by guerrilla forces fighting for independence.
Eyewitnesses saw smoke
rising from Lodje as shelling continued for several hours.
The village, controlled
by the Kosovo Liberation Army, is on a strategic road leading deeper into
KLA territory.
The Independent Yugoslav
station, Radio B92, said Serb forces were trying to recover the bodies
of two policemen killed in the village last Monday.
Lodje is just 3km from
Pec, Kosovo's second-largest city, where residents are reported to be leaving
in droves to escape the fighting.
The League of Democratic
Kosovo, the ethnic Albanians' main political party, urged international
observers to rush to the area to witness the fighting.
Nato threat
The party, led by Ibrahim Rugova, called on foreign
powers to intervene with the Yugoslav Government to stop the attack.
Hundreds of people have
been killed since February, when Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
launched a crackdown on the KLA.
Major world powers oppose
independence for Kosovo, fearing it could trigger rebellions in other Balkan
countries with substantial ethnic Albanian communities.
But they have also condemned
President Milosevic's hardline crackdown.
The Contact Group with
Yugoslavia, made up of the US, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy,
has called for an immediate ceasefire followed by peace talks that could
discuss autonomy for Kosovo.
Apart from Russia, the
Contact Group nations also support Nato action if the fighting does not
stop.
Talks between the German
and Russian foreign ministers, Klaus Kinkel and Yevgeny Primakov, on Saturday,
appear to have failed to change Moscow's stance regarding Nato's involvement.
Mr Primakov said: "The
two principles of our plans are based on the fundamentals of the territorial
sovereignty of Yugoslavia and the provision of some form of real autonomy
to the Kosovo Albanians."
Mr Kinkel added: "We
are also completely agreed that we must do everything possible to find
a political resolution to this conflict."
__________________________________
Saturday July 11 11:57 AM EDT
Serb Forces Pound Rebel Stronghold
ADAM BROWN Associated Press Writer
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Brushing aside international
calls for a cease-fire, Serb forces pounded Albanian rebels Saturday outside
Kosovo's second-largest city. Hundreds of terrified civilians crowded bus
stations and gassed-up their cars to flee the fighting.
The ethnic Albanian
Kosovo Information Center said Serb troops began shelling the town of Lodja,
just outside the western city of Pec, about dawn Friday. At the height
of the barrage, shells were falling at the rate of about one a minute.
An independent radio
station in the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade said the barrage ended at midday.
Serb forces were trying to retrieve the bodies of two Serb policemen killed
in fighting there three days ago, Radio B92 said.
There was no official
government statement on the fighting. But reporters at the scene confirmed
the attack and said smoke could be seen rising from Lodja, a stronghold
of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The KLA is fighting for independence from
Serbia, which is part of Yugoslavia.
Journalists in Pec,
47 miles southwest of the provincial capital Pristina, said Serb and Albanian
civilians were trying to flee the area, jamming bus stations and gas stations.
Many of the Albanians
were believed to be headed for Montenegro, about 10 miles to the north.
It has a large Albanian population.
The League of Democratic
Kosovo, the ethnic Albanians' main party, urged international observers
to rush to the area to witness the fighting. The party, led by moderate
politician Ibrahim Rugova, called on foreign powers to intervene to stop
the attack.
Most of Pec's 120,000
residents are ethnic Albanians. But the population has swelled in recent
months as villagers throughout the region have sought shelter from the
war. Ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs in Kosovo 9-to-1.
Lodja is considered
a center for arms smuggling from Albania, about 15 miles to the south.
The KLA reported heavy losses when Serb forces shelled the village Tuesday
and Wednesday.
Hundreds of people have
been killed in Kosovo since February, when Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic launched a crackdown on Albanian separatists who had been attacking
Serb police and military facilities.
The fighting raged despite
a demand by the Contact Group - the United States, Russia, Britain, France,
Germany and Italy - for an immediate cease-fire followed by peace talks
between Kosovo's Albanians and Milosevic.
Following the Contact
Group meeting Wednesday in Bonn, Germany, France and Britain said they
would introduced a resolution in the U.N. Security Council to threaten
new measures against the warring sides if they did not halt the fighting.
But diplomatic efforts
have so far foundered because of divisions within the Albanian community
and the refusal of the KLA to accept Rugova as their leader in future talks.
Rugova has disavowed violence.
On Saturday, an Albanian
language newspaper quoted a self-styled KLA spokesman as saying the rebels
would keep fighting if they are excluded from peace talks with the government.
Russia and Yugoslavia have ruled out including the KLA.
"If anybody holds talks
with Serbia without our consultation, we shall continue fighting," Jakup
Krasniqi told the daily newspaper Koha Ditore. "We are against any secret
talks."
In the interview, Krasniqi
rejected Rugova as a leader who "has not fulfilled conditions to be president
of Kosovo. ...We need to free ourselves first, and then form political
pluralism and later call for elections."
Rugova also supports
independence, and on Friday he called on Washington and the Europeans to
back that call. He is considered an acceptable negotiating partner because
of his nonviolent stand.
Major world powers oppose
independence for Kosovo, fearing it could trigger rebellions in other Balkan
countries with substantial Albanian communities.
_________________________________________
We have had a very alarming report from northern Albania
06:57 a.m. Jul 10, 1998 Eastern
"We have had a very alarming report from northern
Albania about a group of refugees crossing the border including four wounded
telling us that another group of 12 got lost on the Kosovo side of the
border," Janowksi told Reuters in Geneva.
"They said the town
of Pec was under very heavy shelling. But only a small group has been able
to cross the border."
It was the first time
that people from Pec, in the southwest part of the troubled Serbian province
near the border with Albania, had crossed over, according to the spokesman.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees have fled to Albania and
Montenegro since fighting broke out earlier this year between separatist
rebels and Serb forces.
"That is all we know.
They report hundreds of people are fleeing. God knows what has happened
to them," he said.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
________________________________________
Refugees tell UN Kosovo villages under heavy fire
08:50 a.m. Jul 10, 1998 Eastern
GENEVA, July 10 (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanian refugees
reaching northern Albania on Friday told United Nations officials that
villages around the town of Pec had been under heavy shelling and up to
300 people had fled, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
Kris Janowski, spokesman
for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said a group of 14
Kosovo refugees, including four with gunshot wounds, had crossed over into
Albania.
The refugees, who included
three children separated from their parents as crowds dispersed after reportedly
coming under gunfire, reported that 12 more Kosovo refugees had gotten
lost near the border.
But there was confusion
about the exact site of the shelling and whether it had been overnight
or also continued on Friday, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said in Geneva.
Initially, Janowski
said Pec, one of the largest towns in Kosovo, an Albanian-majority province
of Serbia, was under fire but he later told Reuters: "I think the original
report was wrong, they might have been too quick.
"Our office in Bajram
Curri, northern Albania, says the people came from villages near Pec. Those
villages were under fire. Our original report said the town came under
fire. I think it now more likely that it was villages around Pec," he said.
"But they (UNHCR officials)
stand by the report that several hundred people fled. Crowds were attacked
by machine guns and fired on as they moved along the border," he added.
"Only a small number
has been able to cross the border."
The refugees had fled
overnight, according to Janowski.
"There was fighting
and shelling overnight, whether it is still going on today we don't know,"
he added.
Many thousands of Kosovo
Albanians have fled to Albania and Montenegro since fighting broke out
earlier this year between Albanian separatist rebels and Serbia security
forces in the troubled province.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
BACK to PAGE ONE
BACK to PAGE ONE_______________________________________________________________________
|
Homepage
Inhaltsverzeichnis - Contents Seite erstellt am 13.7.1998 |
||
Dillinger
Straße 41
86637
Wertingen
|
|||
Telefon
08272 - 98974
Fax
08272 - 98975
|
|||
E-mail
wplarre@dillingen.baynet.de
|