Tagesnachrichten 29. Juli 1998
von ALBANEWS und anderen
weitere Presse-Meldungen
further press news
Tagesnachrichten 29. Juli 1998
_______________________________________________________________________28 July 98
The TimesRebels in Kosovo fall back from main base
Malisevo: The Kosovo Liberation Army, in disarray in the face of encroaching Yugoslav tanks, abandoned yesterday their main base here and melted back towards the central Drenica region, where the Kosovo rebellion began in March (Tom Walker writes). Malisevo was once the hub of the KLA's undeclared republic.
Last night the Serb-run media centre organised a press trip along the highway to Pec, Kosovo's main east-west axis, signalling a turning point in the conflict. The road has been under the control of the rebels since May. But the open involvement of the Yugoslav Army has now tipped the military balance.
Police manning checkpoints were in good spirits, boasting to reporters that the war was nearly over. The reporters, under Serb escort, reached Kijevo, the Serb village which Richard Holbrooke, the US mediator, recently described as "the most dangerous place in Europe", in time to see triumphant Serbian troops fresh from battle celebrating the relief of a two-month siege.
Geneva: Police raided the homes of Kosovo Albanians in Switzerland and froze bank accounts on suspicion that they were being used to fund Kosovo's rebels. The action was the first of its kind by a Western state since February's outbreak of fighting in the Serbian province. (Reuters)The Daily Telegraph
KOSOVO: Serbs 'seize KLA base'
By David Buchan in London
Serb armed police claimed yesterday to have captured a stronghold of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) straddling supply lines to government forces on the province's western border with Albania.
The government said its forces had taken Lapusnik, which lies on the road from Pristina, the provincial capital, to the western city of Pec. It made its claim on the fourth day of a Serb counter-offensive against armed ethnic Albanian separatists seeking Kosovo's independence from Serbia.
The tide of the war appears to be turning against the KLA guerrillas, whose military momentum faltered after their first attempt to seize a sizeable town, Orahovac, was beaten back a week ago by police and army. The KLA have survived past Serb offensives and can draw on the support of the overwhelming number of Kosovars, 90 per cent of whom are ethnic Albanians, in the face of the Serbs' superior fire-power and equipment. Serb state television yesterday aired footage of KLA positions at Lapusnik, which it described as a "notorious terrorist base".
The Albanian government protested yesterday that Serb forces had lobbed several shells on to Albanian territory on Sunday night.
Western diplomats have, vainly, been trying to interest Mr Milosevic and the Kosovar separatists in a compromise giving Kosovo considerable autonomy.
Amid concern that the Kosovo conflict could spread, Robin Cook, the UK foreign secretary, is due to visit neighbouring Macedonia and Albania this week.The Independent
Serbs claim victory at Kosovo road link
Serbian security forces announced yesterday they had captured a stronghold of Kosovo Albanian guerrillas in a campaign to regain control of main transport routes across the province.
Serbian state television broadcast what it described as footage of ex- Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) positions in Lapusnik, "a notorious terrorist base", which it said security forces had won back on Sunday. The footage showed trenches, ammunition, communication equipment, a heavy machine-gun, rebel uniforms and a makeshift surgery.
The Serb Media Centre in Pristina, the Kosovo regional capital, said the security forces had unblocked most of thePristina-Pec road at the weekend, eliminating several dozen KLA barricades along the way.
If true, Lapusnik's capture would underline a shift in fortunes for the KLA, which has seized up to half of Kosovo since February only to get knocked back by a recent Serbian counter-offensive.
The KLA's momentum began to falter when it was repelled by superior Serbian firepower in an attempt to take its first big town, Orahovac, a week ago.
The Serbian offensive has coincided with an increase in shooting incidents along Serbia's border with northern Albania, a backwater used by the KLA to muster fighters and weapons.
The Albanian Interior Ministry said Serbian troops fired on the Albanian police building at the border checkpoint in Morini early on Sunday, then tried to shoot their way through.
In Tirana, the Albanian government denounced Serb "provocations" of Albanian forces along its border with Kosovo and called on Belgrade to respect its territorial integrity. Tirana said Serb artillery shells have landed on its territory four times in just over a week, branding the incidents as attempts to engulf it in a wider war.
In Brussels, it was announced that three senior officials from the European Union will go to Belgrade today for talks with the Yugoslav Foreign Minister, Zivadin Jovanovic, about the Kosovo crisis. A request to meet Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic remained unanswered.
--
Kosova Information Centre - London
TRANSCRIPT: ALBRIGHT, PRIMAKOV PRESS CONFERENCE
IN MANILA JULY 27
EXCERPTS
(SecState says proliferation tops upcoming Summit agenda) (2150)
Manila -- Secretary of State Albright says proliferation
will top the agenda of the upcoming Clinton-Yeltsin Summit in Moscow, "not
only because of the threat it poses to our security, but because of the
special responsibility as nuclear powers to minimize the dangers weapons
of mass destruction pose for the entire world."
At a July 27 joint press
conference with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgenyi Primakov prior to their
meeting to discuss preparations for the US-Russia Summit in early September
in Moscow, Albright said the success of these events should be measured
by "progress we make in improving the lives of our people and in strengthening
our security."
Albright and Primakov
were participating in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
conference in Manila.
According to the Secretary
of State, the US Summit agenda includes ways to reduce potential nuclear
confrontation between India and Pakistan, Iran's recent missile tests,
the NATO-Russia relationship and the situation in Kosovo.
Following is the State Department transcript:
(begin transcript)
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and
Russian Foreign Minister Primakov
Joint Press Conference
Manila, Philippines, July 27, 1998
As released by the Office of the Spokesman U.S. Department of State
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I am happy as always to have
this opportunity to meet with Foreign Minister Primakov. The basic purpose
of our meeting tonight will be to prepare for the Moscow Summit which begins
in five weeks. We will be following up on the discussions that took place
Thursday and Friday between Vice President Gore and Prime Minister Kiriyenko
which laid the ground work for what I think will be a very successful meeting
between Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin.
The very fact of the
summit between our countries used to be seen as an achievement, but we
have a mature partnership now. Its success is measured by the progress
we make in improving the lives of our people and in strengthening our security.
So my message tonight is that the American people are not just looking
forward to another reunion between our Presidents; we are looking forward
to the summit's results. At the top of our agenda will be proliferation,
not only because of the threat it poses to our security, but because of
the special responsibility as nuclear powers to minimize the dangers weapons
of mass destruction pose for the entire world.
We'll be talking about
our efforts to encourage India and Pakistan to take concrete steps to meet
the benchmarks that were set forth in Geneva by the P-5 and in London by
the G-8. I will express my concerns about the recent missile test in Iran
which underscored the urgency of our joint effort to prevent the flow of
dangerous technology to that country. We'll be discussing European security
and the NATO-Russia relationship. We will talk about Kosovo as well. The
violence there has escalated tragically and we have to hold President Milosovic
to the commitment he made to President Yeltsin. He must start working with
the Kosovar-Albanians to stop the fighting. We have a great deal more to
discuss today and in the weeks ahead -- from arms control to regional issues,
to the Caucasus and Mediterranean, and to our economic relationship. And
there is a lot of work to be done but by the same token, there will be
many opportunities to make concrete progress.
......
TRANSCRIPT: STATE DEPARTMENT NOON BRIEFING,
JULY 27, 1998
EXCERPTS
.......
KOSOVO
7 US deeply concerned
about increased fighting over the weekend
7 Intense fighting has
occurred on Pristina-Pec road
7-8,9-10 Belgrade government today tried to inspect
diplomatic cargo bound for Diplomatic Observer Mission
8 Sec. Albright has had discussions with counterparts
on stemming flow of weapons
.......
Q: Do you have anything on the fighting in Kosovo? There seems to be a major battle going on.
RUBIN: We are deeply concerned about the increased
fighting that has taken place in Kosovo over the weekend. We are concerned
in particular about the increased involvement in the fighting by the Serb
army. We are especially concerned about the large number of displaced persons
this new fighting has caused, and that they are currently inaccessible
to humanitarian assistance because of the fighting.
We urge both sides in
the strongest possible terms to cease the fighting and work towards a negotiated
settlement. Neither side can afford to think that the status of Kosovo
is something that can be resolved on the battlefield; it simply cannot.
We believe it can only be resolved at the negotiating table, and that is
why Ambassador Hill has been meeting with officials in Belgrade; he'll
be in Pristina today for meetings with the Kosovar Albanian leaders and
Belgrade again tomorrow to meet with US allies and Serb officials.
Beginning on Saturday,
there was a Serb-initiated operation to open regained control of several
major roads. This operation appears to have a Serb military component to
it, and there are reports of villages being shelled and destroyed. The
most intense fighting has occurred on the road between Pristina and Pec.
Fighting also continues around the town of Orahovac, which is now under
Serb control. We surmise that the fighting is retaliation by the Serbs
for recent activities by the Kosovar rebels over the past week. It is our
view that both sides must realize that to continue the fighting is only
going to damage the prospects for the people there.
With respect to an additional
incident, we do understand there was an incident at the Morina border checkpoint
over the weekend in which FRY security officials that is, Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia security officials fired across the border into Albania.
At this point, t is unclear whether Albanian border guards returned fire.
We have seen reports which were yet unable to confirm that the military
authorities from Serbia have apologized to the Albanian Government for
the incident. We're investigating it and will provide more details as they
become available.
Q: Can you say whether Hill has made any headway in his efforts to --
RUBIN: Well, he's working very hard; it's hard
to give you a snapshot. Certainly, one of the examples of the problem we're
dealing with here is that earlier today in contravention of a prior understanding,
Belgrade customs authorities insisted on inspecting a shipment of diplomatic
materials to be used in support of the Kosovo diplomatic observer mission.
Our embassy refused to accept this breach of diplomatic protocol, and the
shipment was returned to Stuttgart.
This, again, is an example
of Belgrade's actions at odds with its commitments. They indicated they
would give the international community the support and access it needed
to send observers to the region. The materials in the shipment returned
to Germany are essential for the observer mission to become fully operational.
It is our view that Belgrade's clear intent here is to restrict the ability
of the United States and other members of the international community to
observe developments in Kosovo and collect real-time information about
events on the ground.
This is in violation
of both the Contact Group demands and President Milosevic's personal commitment
to Russian President Boris Yeltsin to allow the international community
free and unrestricted access. This is unacceptable.
Q: Does the involvement by the Yugoslav army mark a kind of turning point in this conflict?
RUBIN: I would not regard it as a turning point. Clearly, there have been Serbian forces that include heavy equipment in the Kosovo region for some time. They were involved early in the year when we first began to condemn these activities and develop a sanctions policy with our European allies to demonstrate our abhorrence of this policy. There continued to have been the use of heavy equipment by the Serb side. So it is not a turning point, but it is a major problem.
Q: Has the United States enlisted any of its allies to try to restrict the flow of arms and money to the KLA? And is there any money coming from this country that has raised concern?
RUBIN: Well, I will have to look into the specifics of what we believe is coming from the various countries. I know Secretary Albright has had discussions with her counterparts about the importance of making sure that the outside support doesn't outstrip the desire by our countries to get a peace agreement; and that we should try to discourage the kind of outside support that will only redown to the disadvantage of the people there that is, postpone the day when we can get a peace agreement and accelerate the fighting. That is something we think is not in the interest of the Kosovar Albanians. I know she's had discussions with her counterparts about that; and I'll try to get you some more detail later.
Q: To follow on that so if the Swiss are arresting Kosovars there and freezing bank accounts, is that something the US would approve of?
RUBIN: Well, we certainly don't want to see funds going to extremist organizations that are not interested in making peace. That has been our view for some time.
Q: Jamie, are you surprised by the actions of the customs officials?
RUBIN: Well, let me say as follows surprised, I don't know if we can ever be surprised by the gap between President Milosevic's words and President Milosevic's actions. But so far, there has been cooperation prior to this time in the setting up and working of that observer group. So this certainly put a stop to that cooperation.
Q: Can you say where the inspection took place?
RUBIN: In the Belgrade airport.
.......
"The Serbs may want to take the roads back, but they will massacre people to do it, That is the essence of the Serb tactics. They kill and then they talk and then they kill again. It was the same in Bosnia, but in Kosovo we will fight until we win."
Ferat Imeri, An Albanian economist turned KLA Fighter.
NYTIMES.July 27, 1998.
___________________________________
Taken without permission, for fair use only.
Serbs report rebel counter-offensive in Kosovo
Kosovo rebels strike back at strategic road
Albanians Strike at Serbs in Kosovo
Hunger Striking 'Angel' Unconscious In Prison
Hospital
Albania still sees chance for Kosovo peace
FOCUS-Milosevic agrees to meet EU delegation
FOCUS-Albania demands halt to Serb provocations
Powers want to see scale of latest Kosovo violence
Russia to join NATO exercises in Albania
___________________________________
Tuesday July 28 11:13 AM EDT
Serbs report rebel counter-offensive in Kosovo
By Douglas Hamilton
PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanian rebel
guerrillas have struck back at Serbian forces who had recaptured a vital
highway in the disputed province of Kosovo, state media reported on Tuesday.
Yugoslav federal troops
and Serbian security police had dealt a stinging blow to the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) when they reclaimed a large area of central Kosovo along the
major east-west road after four days of heavy fighting.
But not long after security
forces escorted reporters along the road on Monday to prove it was open,
KLA guerrillas reappeared and assaulted Serbian units in the central village
of Kijevo, the official news agency Tanjug reported.
"Strong groups of Albanian
terrorists attacked police positions in Kijevo around 10.30 p.m. (2030
GMT) last night, using automatic weapons, machine guns and mortars," it
said.
"Police forces responded
to the attack, and according to the local authorities...there were no casualties
amongst police or local defenders." It did not say what the result of the
battle was or give other detail.
But the highway was
closed once again on Tuesday morning, suggesting that the area was not
secure with guerrillas still at large in the hilly rural area.
Kijevo, a Serb enclave
midway along the highway that leads west from Pristina to Pec, had been
sealed off by the KLA for over two months.
A Reuters news team
that tried to reach Kijevo from the provincial capital Pristina, about
40 km (25 miles) away, was turned back at a Serbian police barricade a
few km (miles) outside Pristina.
The KLA is fighting
for the independence of Kosovo, an Albanian-majority province of Serbia,
and had taken effective control of around half the region before Yugoslav
federal and Serbian police forces went on the counter-offensive on Friday.
Observed without notable
protest from Western states keen to bring the Kosovo Albanians to the negotiating
table, the Serbian offensive was aimed in part at recouping key roads cut
by the KLA, which held wide areas of the center and west of Kosovo.
The setback for the
KLA was clear. But diplomatic sources said the insurgent force should by
no means be counted out, since they could revert to classic guerrilla warfare.
They also said the major
powers were paying attention to the offensive and intended to closely examine
how much force had been applied to repulse the rebels and whether or not
there had been excessive "collateral damage" to civilians.
European Union senior
diplomats were expected to visit the area on Wednesday and possibly tour
recent combat zones.
Serbia's vastly superior
military strength had driven 20 km (12 miles) deep into KLA-held territory,
using tanks, artillery and paramilitary police infantry to sweep the rebels
from the highway.
They have left a combat
zone landscape resembling central Bosnia, with burnt-out houses, shot-up
vehicles, abandoned trenches, roads littered with spent bullet casings,
wandering farm animals and the ever-present danger of sniper fire.
Many of the rural ethnic
Albanian population have fled, adding to a mounting humanitarian crisis
in the countryside. Around 150,000 people have been displaced in five months
of conflict, according to U.N. refugee agency estimates.
___________________________________
CNN
Kosovo rebels strike back at strategic road
In this story:
•Refugees flee, path of destruction
•Junik still under siege
July 28, 1998
Web posted at: 9:41 a.m. EDT (1341 GMT)
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Ethnic Albanian
guerrillas on Tuesday counterattacked Serbian forces near a major road
that Serbian paramilitary police had recaptured the previous day.
There were also reports
Tuesday that 20,000 people had fled their homes to escape the fighting.
And Serbian and Yugoslav forces were still said to be besieging the rebel
Kosovo Liberation Army stronghold of Junik, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest
along the Albanian border.
Serbian security police
backed by Yugoslav federal troops had dealt a stinging blow to the KLA
on Monday, when they reclaimed a large area of central Kosovo along the
major east-west road after four days of heavy fighting.
But not long after security
forces escorted reporters along the road to prove it was open, KLA guerrillas
reappeared and assaulted Serbian units in the central village of Kijevo,
the official news agency Tanjug reported.
"Strong groups of Albanian
terrorists attacked police positions in Kijevo around 10:30 p.m. (local)
last night, using automatic weapons, machine guns and mortars," it said.
"Police forces responded
to the attack, and according to the local authorities...there were no casualties
among police or local defenders."
The highway was closed
once again Tuesday morning, suggesting that the area was not secure and
that guerrillas were still at large in the hilly rural area.
Refugees flee, path of destruction
Fighting along the strategic highway, which bisects
the heart of KLA-controlled territory, prompted an estimated 20,000 ethnic
Albanian civilians to join the tens of thousands of others who have left
their homes since Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic launched a crackdown
on ethnic Albanian separatists in February.
Refugee families, some
on foot and others crowded onto flatbed carts pulled by small tractors,
lined the road Monday between Pristina and Pec, heading for KLA strongholds
deeper in the rugged mountains.
In military terms, Serbia's
push was not surprising since its troops enjoy superior military strength.
They pushed deep into KLA-held territory by using tanks, artillery and
paramilitary police infantry to sweep the rebels from their territory.
The government troops
left a combat zone landscape reminiscent of scenes from the conflict in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, with burned-out houses, shot-up vehicles, abandoned
trenches, roads littered with spent bullet casings, wandering farm animals
and the ever-present danger of sniper fire.
In Geneva, the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees estimated there are about 100,000 refugees
in Kosovo. Another 25,000 have fled to Montenegro and 13,000 to Albania.
Junik still under siege
The situation also appeared to be critical at
Junik on Tuesday.
Serbian police and Yugoslav
troops were still reported to be sealing off this stronghold of the KLA,
which is fighting for the independence of Kosovo, whose population of 2
million people is 90 percent ethnic Albanian.
Kosovo is located in
southern Serbia, the dominant of two republics that make up what remains
of Yugoslavia.
Camouflaged government
armored vehicles prowled the hills above Junik late Monday, with loudspeakers
demanding "surrender, surrender." But the Albanians refused.
Serbian police estimate
that about 2,000 people were trapped in the village, including about 1,000
"highly trained" KLA troops.
The rest are residents
and refugees who fled recent fighting elsewhere.
Reporters who reached
Junik late Monday saw eight bodies near a small stream. Police said they
were shot earlier Monday trying to flee into Albania from Kosovo.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to
this report.
___________________________________
Tuesday July 28 8:31 AM EDT
Albanians Strike at Serbs in Kosovo
ANNE THOMPSON Associated Press Writer
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Ethnic Albanian guerrillas
have struck back at government forces in a battle for a key road to the
capital of Kosovo province. More than 20,000 refugees were on the move
today to escape the fighting.
The Yugoslav government's
Tanjug news agency said Kosovo Liberation Army fighters launched an attack
late Monday near Kijevo, just south of the highway linking the capital,
Pristina, with Pec, 50 miles to the west.
Serb police had pushed
the KLA from the road earlier Monday, lifting a two-month rebel blockade.
Elsewhere, Serb police
and Yugoslav troops sealed off the rebel stronghold of Junik, 50 miles
southwest of Pristina, along the Albanian border.
Loudspeakers mounted
on government camouflaged armored vehicles prowled the hills above the
village late Monday, demanding "surrender, surrender." But the ethnic Albanians
refused.
Serbian police estimate
that about 2,000 people were trapped in Junik, half of them KLA troops.
The rest were local residents and refugees who had fled fighting elsewhere.
Reporters who reached
Junik late Monday saw eight bodies lying near a small stream. Police said
they were shot trying to flee into Albania from Kosovo.
The Kosovo Information
Center, controlled by ethnic Albanians, reported battles today on three
major fronts and said Serbs were shelling and burning ethnic Albanian villages.
The report could not be confirmed
On Monday, police regained
control of the Pristina-Pec road from KLA fighters, who had erected barricades
in early May. But today, police turned back reporters who tried to drive
along the road westward from Pristina, indicating the route was not fully
secured.
Fighting along the strategic
highway, which bisects the heart of KLA-controlled territory, has prompted
some 20,000 more Albanian civilians to flee.
In Geneva, the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees estimated there are now about 100,000 refugees
in Kosovo. Another 25,000 have fled to Montenegro and 13,000 to Albania.
Fighting began when President Slobodan Milosevic launched a crackdown on
Albanian separatists in February.
"Unless it all ends,
we're going to end up with a huge mess on our hands and a major humanitarian
disaster come winter," UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said today.
Albanian families, some
on foot and others crowded on flatbed carts pulled by small tractors, lined
the road between Pristina and Pec, heading for KLA strongholds in the rugged
mountains.
The rebels are fighting
for the independence of Kosovo, whose population of 2 million people is
90 percent ethnic Albanian. Kosovo is located in southern Serbia, the dominant
of two republics that make up Yugoslavia.
According to the Kosovo
Information Center, at least five KLA members were killed in the latest
Serb offensive, launched Friday. The Yugoslav Army said three of its soldiers
had been killed since Saturday.
Albanian analysts believe
Milosevic wants to deliver a blow to the rebels before agreeing to talks
with moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova on the fate of the
province.
So far, the rebel organization
has refused to endorse Rugova's leadership because he opposes violence
to gain independence for Kosovo.
Special U.S. envoy Christopher
Hill returned to Pristina on Monday to try to cobble together an ethnic
Albanian delegation for talks with Milosevic.
Hill, the American ambassador
to neighboring Macedonia, said the new fighting "simply increases the urgency
of a political solution."
Milosevic has offered
to restore Kosovo's autonomy, which he abolished in 1989, but he opposes
independence for the province.
The Americans and Europeans
want autonomy but not independence for the region, fearing it will lead
to greater demands by the ethnic Albanians to unite with Albanian communities
in other Balkan countries, thereby destabilizing the entire region.
Russian Foreign Minister
Yevgeny Primakov said today Russia also favors autonomy for Kosovo.
_________________________________________________
Tuesday July 28, 12:31 PM
Hunger Striking 'Angel' Unconscious In Prison Hospital
Jailed aid worker Sally Becker is unconscious
in a prison hospital after collapsing during a hunger strike in war-torn
Kosovo.
Supporters of the 37-year-old
Briton, dubbed the Angel of Mostar, said she had been put on an emergency
fluid drip by doctors after five days of refusing food and drink in protest
against the conflict in the Balkan state.
Miss Becker is being
held near the Kosovan capital, Pristina, after she was sentenced last week
by the Serbian authorities to 30-days in prison for crossing into the country
without a visa.
Her spokesman in Britain,
Mike Mendoza, said that friends and relatives were hopeful an appeal against
the jail term on humanitarian grounds would lead to the charity worker
being released soon.
Mr Mendoza said: "Sally
is seriously ill, she was put on an intravenous drip after collapsing unconscious
in her cell.
"It was not a matter
of her giving consent or deliberately ending her protest, it was a medical
emergency.
"She is still unconscious
in the prison hospital although we believe that is due to exhaustion and
her weakened condition. She should recover with proper medical help."
Miss Becker, from Hove,
East Sussex, is understood to be too poorly to return home immediately.
Her father Jack Becker
is due to fly out to Kosovo after being granted a visa by the Serb authorities.
___________________________________
Albania still sees chance for Kosovo peace
07:30 a.m. Jul 28, 1998 Eastern
TIRANA, July 28 (Reuters) - Albanian President
Rexhep Meidani said on Tuesday there was still a chance of achieving a
peaceful solution to the conflict in the crisis-stricken Serbian province
of Kosovo.
In an interview with
the Albanian daily Gazeta Shqiptare, Meidani said the province was in the
middle of a real war and he denounced Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
for ethnic cleansing and genocide against Kosovo Albanians.
"Although achieving
peace in Kosovo via diplomatic means seems almost impossible at the moment,
there are still options and ways of exerting pressure to reach a compromise,"
Meidani said.
Fighting in the Albanian-dominated
province has escalated in recent days with Yugoslav troops and Serbian
security police launching offensives to retake control of a large area
of central Kosovo from the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army.
Senior EU officials
are due in Belgrade on Tuesday to put forward the bloc's concerns about
the deteriorating situation and try to help international efforts to secure
a diplomatic solution.
Ethnic Albanians make
up 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 1.8 million. More than 500 have
been killed in the last five months, another 300 are missing and thousands
more displaced.
Albania on Monday denounced
Serb "provocations" of Albanian forces along its border with Kosovo, and
called on Belgrade to respect its territorial integrity.
It said Serb artillery
shells and bullets have landed on its territory four times in just over
a week, branding the incidents as attempts to engulf it in a wider war.
Serbia has denied firing
shells into Albanian territory.
Meidani called on all
sides in the conflict to get used to the idea of co-existence but added
that the international community must realise that the war was being fought
along lines laid down by Milosevic.
"In defending or preserving
peace, people should learn not only the art of compromise but also that
of sacrifice and co-existence based on normal economic and social development
without which their life and freedom would be endangered."
"This war should be
understood by the international community and associated with the bloodshed
of the innocent people who love freedom and peace, with ethnic cleansing
of Albanians, even with genocide," he said.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
___________________________________
FOCUS-Milosevic agrees to meet EU delegation
07:43 a.m. Jul 28, 1998 Eastern
BELGRADE, July 28 (Reuters) - Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic agreed on Tuesday to meet a European Union delegation
for talks after the group visits ethnic Albanian leaders in strife-torn
Kosovo, Austrian diplomats said.
Senior officials from
Austria, Britain and Germany were due to begin a three-day visit to Yugoslavia
on Tuesday evening with a meeting in Belgrade with Yugoslav Foreign Minister
Zivadin Jovanovic.
They were then to head
for Kosovo to confer with ethnic Albania leaders, including the most prominent,
Ibrahim Rugova. An official at the Austrian Embassy said the delegation
would also now meet Milosevic in Belgrade on Thursday.
Diplomats played down
the meeting with Milosevic as unsurprising, but it had not been certain
that the president would meet the group when the trip was initially announced.
Austria said on Monday
that a request for the group to meet Milosevic had not been answered.
The arrival of the group
-- the so-called troika of present, past and future EU presidencies --
marks a renewed effort by the 15-nation bloc to find a solution to the
five-month old conflict in the Serbian province.
Separately, Greece --
Belgrade's closest ally in the 15-nation EU -- said Prime Minister Costas
Simitis had urged Milosevic to solve the crisis and allow more Western
observers into the region.
A Western diplomat in
Belgrade said the delegation was trying to get some new ideas about how
to solve the conflict.
The troika team consists
of senior government officials from the three countries and is led by Albert
Rohan, secretary general of Austria's foreign ministry.
On Monday, Milosevic
met a senior Greek foreign ministry official who handed him a letter from
Simitis urging a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Fellow Orthodox Christian
Greece has been a traditional ally of Serbia and is trying to use this
link in conjunction with EU moves to ease a situation it fears is threatening
regional stability.
The conflict in Kosovo
has cost more than 500 lives and displaced around 150,000 people in the
past five months.
Copyright 1998 Reuters
Limited. All rights reserved.
___________________________________
FOCUS-Albania demands halt to Serb provocations
10:31 a.m. Jul 27, 1998 Eastern
By Llazar Semini
TIRANA, July 27 (Reuters) - Albania on Monday
denounced Serb "provocations" of Albanian forces along its border with
Kosovo, and called on Belgrade to respect its territorial integrity.
Albanian Foreign Minister
Paskal Milo told a news conference that the government had summoned the
Yugoslav charge d'affaires in Tirana to formally protest at Serbia's activities
along the frontier.
"We have convened the
Yugoslav charge d'affaires in Tirana to hand an official protest note about
the incidents, and to ask the Yugoslav authorities to stop these provocations
against Albania's state border and territorial integrity," Milo said.
Albania says Serb artillery
shells and bullets have landed on its territory four times in just over
a week, branding the incidents as attempts to engulf it in a wider war.
Ethnic Albanian guerrillas
fighting for Kosovos independence from Serbia have turned lawless northeast
Albania into a virtual rear base for slipping weapons and men across into
the Serb province. Serbia, however, denies that it has fired shells into
Albanian territory.
Milo said Albania had
the full support of its "international partners," who had sent a clear
signal to Belgrade to stop further provocations.
"Our international partners
have clearly and strictly sent signals to Belgrade not to dare undertake
attacks or provocations on the Albanian border so as to spill the conflict
beyond its state borders," he said.
But Milo also reiterated
Tirana's policy of self-restraint on the Kosovo crisis. Albania's policy
was "not to throw petrol onto the fire but also not to let Belgrade put
in doubt our readiness to defend our national integrity and sovereignty."
The minister denounced
recent actions by the Serb army and police as ethnic cleansing, aimed at
clearing all ethnic Albanians out of the Kosovo-Albanian border area.
"The Serbs operate every
weekend when the attention of international opinion and governments falls,
and in these moments they find the appropriate time to make open, genocidal
attacks on Albanian villages," he said.
Milo said that Kosovo
ethnic Albanians should set about creating representative political institutions
while the international community is working out options for the province's
future status.
Ethnic Albanians make
up 90 percent of Kosovos population of 1.8 million. More than 500 have
been killed in the last five months, and at least 300 are missing.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
___________________________________
Powers want to see scale of latest Kosovo violence
12:50 p.m. Jul 27, 1998 Eastern
By Douglas Hamilton
PRISTINA, Serbia, July 27 (Reuters) - Major powers
scrambled to assess the latest surge of violence in Kosovo on Monday to
judge if Yugoslavia was going beyond legitimate anti-guerrilla operations.
They were also attempting
to find out whether a reported clash on the border between Albanian and
Yugoslav forces was a deliberate provocation by Belgrade or an accident
in an area where the frontier is not clearly defined.
The U.N. refugee agency
(UNHCR) said clashes in recent days between Yugoslav security forces and
guerrillas of the independence-seeking Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had
forced many more people to flee their homes in the Serbian province.
The UNHCR said at least
107,000 people were now internally displaced and a total of 150,000 had
fled since fighting began five months ago, including those who left Kosovo
to become refugees in neighbouring Albania and Montenegro.
U.S. envoy Christopher
Hill met ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova in the provincial capital
Pristina on Monday for a further round of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire
and re-starting stalled negotiations on a political settlement.
Hill said there was
no breakthrough to report "but we have some ideas cooking, we're working
on it. We're very concerned about the violence. It's quite widespread.
"We have some monitors
out in the field right now so we don't have a definitive count but it seems
to be rather significant," he told reporters before the talks.
"No one is going to
win this by fighting," Hill said.
Ethnic Albanians outnumber
Serbs nine-to-one in Kosovo. The West favours a settlement that would give
them autonomy but stop short of outright independence from Yugoslavia.
Diplomatic sources said
the major powers, in judging whether to intervene in the conflict, would
draw a distinction between fighting the KLA and attacking the civilian
population.
As long as the Yugoslav
security forces carefully avoided "collateral damage" there would be some
international tolerance for going after the KLA, a diplomatic source said.
For the international
community, there was a crucial distinction between counter-insurgency tactics
and a return to the kind of indiscriminate use of force seen in the Kosovo
conflict in March.
Reports of indiscriminate
force targeting Albanian-populated areas at that time led to calls abroad
for NATO intervention against Belgrade.
The source said it also
remained to be seen whether Belgrade had ordered an all-out offensive against
the KLA or was pursuing limited goals such as opening major highways closed
by the guerrillas.
"We're bedevilled by
lack of information. It is just too early to say," the diplomat told Reuters.
The UNHCR's estimate
of internally displaced leapt by 25,000 over its last figure, and there
were many more we dont know of, said Nicholas Morris, UNHCR special envoy
to the former Yugoslavia.
"The armed conflict
must be stopped. It is affecting civilians, the majority of them women
and children, of all ethnic groups. There is no justification for the wanton
destruction of civilian homes," he said in a statement.
The agency said at least
20,000 people had fled major fighting for the town of Orahovac 10 days
ago for the KLA-held village of Malisevo. The situation in villages around
Orahovac was very worrying, it added.
"They are cut off from
the main road and basic food items, medication and electricity are lacking
because no private and commercial traffic can reach the area," the UNHCR
said.
The U.N. agency said
it had begun shuttling aid trucks from Belgrade to Pristina. Systematic
delivery of aid to affected villages was expected to begin soon, security
permitting.
Heavy weekend fighting
in and around villages near the main highway from Pristina to the western
city of Pec had probably sent yet more people fleeing, but numbers were
not yet known.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
___________________________________
Russia to join NATO exercises in Albania
02:22 p.m Jul 27, 1998 Eastern
TIRANA, Albania (Reuters) - Russia will join NATO
military exercises in Albania from August 17 to 22, a NATO official in
the capital Tirana said Monday.
The exercises, agreed
to by the alliance in May, are being brought forward amid growing concern
over ethnic conflict in Serbia's neighboring province of Kosovo, which
the West fears could destabilize the Balkans.
"Russia asked to come
and NATO said yes but now they are defining which troops to send because
of financial matters," said Paolo Tonegutti, head of the NATO office in
Tirana.
"They are trying to
find the best and most economical way to send troops," he told Reuters.
The exercises, dubbed
"Cooperative Assembly," are expected to involve around 1,200 troops from
the United States, Britain, Germany, Greece, Spain, France and Italy, along
with Albanian soldiers.
They will include air
support, search and rescue and airlift and airdrop operations, and small
unit training in peace support skills such as security and checkpoint operations.
Several other countries
will send observers.
"Cooperative Assembly
is a peace support operation and humanitarian assistance exercise in cooperation
with Albanian forces and to demonstrate NATO resolve and support for the
government of Albania," said U.S. army spokesman Richard Passow.
He said NATO expected
final confirmation of the kind of troops Russia was planning to send on
Tuesday.
NATO is keeping all
its options open for future involvement in helping stem the violence in
Kosovo. More than 500 people have been killed this year in fighting between
Serb forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA), which wants independence from Yugoslavia.
Russia, which has traditional
links to Serbia as a fellow Orthodox Slav nation, has consistently opposed
Western military intervention against the Serbs.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
Despair in West as prospects for peace diminish
Bitter fighting in Kosovo offensive
Kosovo faces all-out war as Serb tanks shell
rebels
Serbs seal off main area of shelling
Kosovo Rebel `Hunts Serbs Very Well'
US Says Yugoslavs Violated Protocol
Kosovo Fighting Spills Over Into Albania, Raising
Fears
___________________________________
Tuesday, July 28, 1998
KOSOVO
Despair in West as prospects for peace diminish
By GEOFF KITNEY
Widespread fighting in key parts of the Kosovo
region of Yugoslavia over the past few days has left Western diplomats
despairing at the lack of progress towards a ceasefire and formal peace
talks.
In what is being described
as the largest offensive since April, Serb security forces and the Yugoslav
army were reported to have launched operations on at least three fronts
to open vital roads which had been captured by rebels from the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) and which had helped them take control of up to a third of the
Kosovo region.
The fighting included
a major operation near the Yugoslav border with Albania where the Albanian
Government claimed Serb police had fired on Albanian border guards.
Diplomats in Europe
have conceded that outside attempts to resolve the crisis and to prevent
it growing into a war which threatens the entire Balkans region have made
little impact.
The situation has become
much more complicated since the international community first attempted
to intervene.
In the early stages
of the conflict, when Serb security forces launched a series of offensives
against what it said were rebel strongholds - which killed large numbers
of civilians - the international community was prepared to intervene to
protect the ethnic Albanian population. Plans were drawn up for NATO air
strikes on key Serb positions.
But widespread and surprisingly
successful military operations by the KLA forced NATO to review its plans.
The KLA proved to be a much more significant military force than the West
had believed and its goal - independence from Yugoslavia - was unacceptable
to the international community.
Western sources now
say military intervention by NATO is unlikely because it would only reinforce
the KLA's independence push. But the diminishing prospects of NATO intervention
now appear to be a significant factor in the decision by the Serb authorities
to launch a major offensive against the KLA.
A spokesman for the
political leader of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Dr Ibrahim Rugova,
said yesterday that the latest Serb offensive appeared to be a move by
President Slobodan Milosevic to gain a clear advantage on the battlefield
before making a new offer to talk.
Even so, Western sources
believe the KLA is unlikely to agree to talks. A key KLA leader said at
the weekend that the KLA did not recognise the political leadership of
Dr Rugova and would continue to fight for independence.
___________________________________
Monday July 27 9:49 AM EDT
Bitter fighting in Kosovo offensive
MALISEVA, Yugoslavia, July 27 (UPI) - There is
intense fighting in Kosovo as Serb police, helped by Yugoslav army tanks
and heavy weaponry, continue an all-out offensive against ethnic Albanians.
Yugoslav radio reports
Serb police and army forces have achieved "significant breakthroughs" against
the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army during the weekend, freeing
many sections highway.
Analysts of the fighting
in central and southern Kosovo surmise Yugoslav President Milosevic hopes
to eliminate most KLA strongholds, especially Malisevo, before the West
intervenes.
Today's offensive is
described by British and French news reports as the most widespread and
coordinated Serb operation since April.
At issue are three strategic
roads _ one westward from Pristina to Pec; another south to the town of
Prizren and a third along the Albanian border in western Kosovo.
There are widely varying
accounts of casualties. Two British newspapers, the Times of London and
Daily Telegraph, report at least 30 dead and wounded.
The British Broadcasting
Corp. has a far lower count confirmed.
French radio says the
tally of dead and wounded surpasses 40.
The push against the
rebel stronghold Malisevo comes a week after Serb forces lost and then
recaptured the largely KLA-defended southern town of Orahovac.
This morning, the party
of the ethnic Albanian leader, Ibrahim Rugova, condemned the Serbian offensive
and called on the United States and NATO forces to intervene against "outright
aggression."
Senior European Union
officials, led by Austria's Foreign Ministry General Secretary Albert Rohan,
are to visit Yugoslavia this week, hoping to try to secure a cease-fire
in the province, an independent republic in Yugoslavia.
Copyright 1998 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
___________________________________
Telegraph
Monday 27 July 1998
Issue 1158
Kosovo faces all-out war as Serb tanks shell rebels
By Julius Strauss in Pristina
THE southern Serb province of Kosovo was on the
brink of all-out war last night as Yugoslav tanks and heavy artillery pounded
rebel Albanian positions for the second day running.
The offensive was the
most widespread and co-ordinated Serb operation since April. It appeared
to be aimed at clearing Kosovo Liberation Army fighters from three strategic
roads: one westward from Pristina to Pec, another south to the town of
Prizren and a third along the Albanian border in western Kosovo. The crisis
posed a new dilemma for Western governments, which are coming under renewed
pressure to send in an intervention force to prevent a wider Balkan war.
Last night there was
no reliable word on casualties, but there were reports that two Serbian
policemen and eight Albanians had been killed. Eye-witness reports and
a tour behind the front lines suggested that Yugoslav tanks were making
gains at the expense of the rebels in many central Kosovan villages. But
in other areas lightly equipped guerrilla fighters were reported to be
putting up stern resistance.
The Serbian push against
the rebel capital, Malisevo, comes a week after Serbian forces won an important
battle against the rebels for control of the southern town of Orahovac.
If the Serbs take Malisevo,
rebels will be left with only areas in western Kosovo alongside the Albanian
border and scattered outposts in the forests. That would exacerbate a humanitarian
crisis that worsened last week when more than 15,000 Albanians fled advancing
Serbian forces in the south. Those refugees, with tens of thousands already
in the enclave, are now wandering the hills in searing temperatures to
try to escape the Serbian shell-fire. Most have neither food nor water.
A KLA fighter aims his
AK-47 assault rifle from a position in southern Kosovo The party of the
ethnic Albanian leader, Ibrahim Rugova, has condemned the Serbian offensive
and called on the United States and Nato to put an end to the "outright
aggression". But a Western diplomat said yesterday that the latest fighting
was being explained by Serbs as an attempt to clear major road routes before
the winter.
Western governments
may even see the campaign as providing an opportunity to coax the Kosovo
rebels to the negotiating table with the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic.
More than nine out of
10 Kosovans are ethnic Albanian, but European and American diplomats fear
that allowing the Albanians to secede from Serbia would set a dangerous
precedent in the region.
• Senior European Union officials are to visit
Yugoslavia this week to try to secure a ceasefire in Kosovo and bring about
talks between Mr Milosevic and the Kosovo Albanians. The delegation will
be headed by Austria's general secretary in the foreign ministry, Albert
Rohan, and will include Britain's Foreign Office political director, Emyr
Jones Perry, and Wolfgang Ischinger, of Germany. It will meet government
officials and leaders of Kosovo Albanian political parties in Pristina.
___________________________________
Telegraph
Monday 27 July 1998
Issue 1158
Serbs seal off main area of shelling
By Julius Strauss in Pristina
CENTRAL Kosovo was ringed with Serbian police
and army checkpoints yesterday aimed at preventing word escaping of the
battles raging within the cordon. But huge palls of smoke and the distant
boom of shelling showed where fighting was continuing for a second day.
An ethnic Albanian family
of refugees flee from a Yugoslav army offensive On Saturday morning, President
Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia sent in his army and police to try to
knock out important Albanian rebel positions that have disrupted key roads
in the province for months. They are also thought to be intent on taking
the rebel capital, Malisevo.
By late yesterday a
picture was beginning to emerge pieced together from the accounts of refugees
fleeing the fighting on foot and by tractor and from observers who had
sneaked up close to the frontline. Malisevo was reported to be almost deserted
as tens of thousands of civilians headed into the mountains to avoid artillery
attacks by the Serbian forces. A witness said: "It was eerie in the city.
As soon as the grenades started falling on Saturday, everybody left the
town and headed for the hills. It happened almost instantly."
Only rebel soldiers,
carrying the black and red insignia of the Kosovo Liberation Army, stayed
to organise the defence of their capital. Commanders rushed along deserted
roads leading to outlying positions to try to rally a defence. But the
KLA was heavily outgunned by the Serbian forces and had only automatic
guns and a limited number of anti-tank weapons.
At Dulje, 15 miles east
of Malisevo, rebel soldiers were seen unloading fresh crates of shoulder-held
grenade launchers, and it was there that they put up some of the strongest
resistance. Five miles south, in the deserted town of Suva Reka, the Yugoslav
army had mobilised an anti-aircraft gun and we saw dozens of soldiers,
brought in to boost the Serb police forces, bunkered down behind sandbags.
Fifteen miles north,
near Stimlje, Yugoslav tanks pounded villages on Saturday, leaving houses
burning and plumes of black smoke spiralling into the air. Yesterday, men
in civilian clothes were seen setting fire to homes.
This area has been controlled
for months by a rebel commander, with the nom de guerre of "The Lion",
who has prevented the Serbs from using the main road between the Kosovan
capital, Pristina, and the southern town of Prizren. One witness who reached
the area yesterday said this band of rebels had succeeded in knocking out
two Serbian tanks. The corpse of a policeman was seen lying nearby.
Resistance was also
strong near Komorane, on the road between Pristina and Pec. Refugees fleeing
the area reported around a dozen Albanian bodies by the roadside.
Last week a large barricade
made of cars and lorries had blocked the road there. When we visited on
Thursday, nervous Albanian rebels fired warning shots in the air to make
us stop. By yesterday those defences, staffed by young volunteers from
Pristina, had apparently been breached by Serb armour. Serb forces also
attacked from Orahovac, a town that rebel forces failed to take a week
ago after a four-day battle.
On Friday we saw army
lorries laden with ammunition moving into the damaged town to prepare for
the attack. Yesterday, soldiers waited near the frontline in lorries with
sheet metal sides to protect them against snipers. From there to the rebel
capital is only a 10-mile drive but Albanian fighters have blown up the
road and built earthen barricades to try to slow the advance.
____________________________________
Monday July 27 2:25 PM EDT
Kosovo Rebel `Hunts Serbs Very Well'
ANNE THOMPSON Associated Press Writer
ON THE ROAD TO PRIZREN, Yugoslavia (AP) - It's
another sweltering day in Kosovo province. Hills rise green in the distance,
and cornstalks in the valley stand still in the heat.
Suddenly a black Mercedes
zooms around the bend and blocks an approaching car. Out jump four men
wearing camouflage and brandishing Kalashnikov rifles. Their green berets
sport the black eagle patch of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Commander Lion is on
the prowl.
Every day, this KLA
leader and his men patrol a 13-mile stretch of road, watching for Serb
attacks. His visitors this time are friendly, though, and after a peace
offering of cigarettes, the Lion consents to a brief audience.
He gives only his nom
de guerre. His identity is secret, along with the name of his village and
the size of his fighting unit.
Still, he freely offers
details of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian rebel movement, its roots and how it
grew. His hard-line goals illustrate why foreign diplomats are having such
a struggle negotiating an end to the war between ethnic Albanians and Serb
forces.
Kosovo Albanians seeking
independence from Serb-led Yugoslavia stand on three sides. There's political
leader Ibrahim Rugova, the pacifist. There's a mellower branch of the KLA
that leans toward joining Rugova in a deal for autonomy.
And then there's the
extremist branch of the KLA - the Lion's side.
They want nothing short
of independence. They despise Rugova as much as they hate Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic. For them, winning Kosovo is just a step toward more
fighting, toward the ultimate goal of redrawing Europe's borders to absorb
parts of Macedonia and Montenegro into "Greater Albania."
"I don't know if Rugova
is even Albanian. He could be a Serb. For me, he's dead. I'd kill Rugova
before Milosevic," says the Lion, flashing his quirky smile of stained,
crooked teeth. His men laugh.
The Lion's sun-baked
wrinkles make him look older than his 36 years. He is slight, slender and
about 5-foot-8. But he has the ease and charisma of a natural leader.
"I don't look like a
lion," he admits. "But if I go out hunting, I hunt Serbs very well."
Back in 1981, the Lion
was a biochemistry student at Pristina University when Serbs cracked down
on an Albanian uprising, leaving 80 people dead. That same year, he and
his friends started planning to free Kosovo from Serb control.
By 1991 - seven years
before the war started - KLA cells were training as guerrillas. In Kosovo,
the Lion and his friends would drill in the woods after soccer games. He
also says rebels were training in Germany and Albania.
He joined Rugova's party
for three months, but found it too soft. So to raise money for a tougher
cause, the Lion went to Germany in 1994 and worked construction in a town
near Munich.
He was making $2,500
a month and spending most of it on KLA propaganda and support-seeking trips
to Albanian communities in France, Switzerland, Slovenia and the Netherlands.
Then this spring, he
opened a newspaper and saw pictures of the conflict back home: The date
was March 6, one day after a Serb police crackdown in Prekaz village killed
50 Albanians, including women, children and KLA leader Adam Jashari.
He left his wife and
child in Germany, came back to Kosovo and became the Lion.
"If I die, so what?"
he says. "It's not important because I won't die sitting in Germany. If
I die - which hopefully won't happen - I'll die as a liberator of my country."
The Lion spoke Thursday
on one of two KLA-controlled roads to Kosovo's capital, Pristina. Over
the weekend, Serbs forces regained one road - but not the Lion's.
It was impossible to
know if the Lion's unit was involved in the weekend combat, but he claimed
his snipers have repelled Serb tanks in the past. The Lion is also a kidnapper:
He once seized a passenger bus, freeing women but keeping Serb police to
trade for KLA prisoners.
Stopping vehicles is
his regular activity. He drives around in his Mercedes with his guns and
his boys, listening to patriotic Albanian folk music until the time is
right to pounce.
When a truck of aid
workers pulls up, the Lion stops them for a few minutes. He checks passports,
jots names in a worn notebook and sends them off with a big wave.
Some journalists get
hassled, though, because their car comes from the Serb capital. And the
Lion has warned them already.
"Why the (expletive)
are you still driving around with Belgrade plates," the Lion roars.
"It's a rental car,"
one man says sheepishly.
"This time, it's OK,"
says the Lion. "But next time, watch out."
___________________________________
Monday July 27 5:18 PM EDT
US Says Yugoslavs Violated Protocol
WASHINGTON (AP) - Calling it a breach of protocol,
the State Department said Monday Serbian authorities insisted on inspecting
a shipment of diplomatic materials intended for an international observer
mission in Kosovo.
Rather than acquiesce
in an inspection, the shipment of communications equipment and other gear
was returned from the airport in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to Stuttgart, Germany,
spokesman James P. Rubin said.
"This, again, is an
example of Belgrade's actions at odds with its commitments," Rubin said.
"They indicated they would give the international community the support
and access it needed to send observers to the region. The materials in
the shipment returned to Germany are essential for the observer mission
to become fully operational."
Rubin said it was the
U.S. view that Belgrade's clear intent is to restrict the ability of the
United States and other members of the international community to observe
developments in Kosovo.
He said Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic had promised unrestricted access for such materials.
Similar promises had been made to the Contact Group of nations that are
attempting to bring peace to Kosovo.
Observers from the United
States and several European countries are in Kosovo as part of the peace
effort.
Rubin expressed deep
concern about the increased fighting over the weekend in Kosovo, especially
the stepped-up involvement by the Serb Army.
"We are especially concerned
about the large number of displaced persons this new fighting has caused,
and that they are currently inaccessible to humanitarian assistance because
of the fighting," he said.
"We urge both sides,
in the strongest possible terms, to cease the fighting, and work toward
a negotiated settlement. Neither side can afford to think that the status
of Kosovo is something that can be resolved on the battlefield. It simply
cannot."
___________________________________
Monday, July 27, 1998
Kosovo Fighting Spills Over Into Albania, Raising Fears
By RICHARD BOUDREAUX, Times Staff Writer
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia--One of the government's
broadest assaults on separatists in Kosovo province spilled into neighboring
Albania on Sunday as Yugoslav and Albanian troops traded gunfire across
their border for more than two hours.
The predawn shooting
at a mountain crossing produced no casualties but underscored concern in
Western capitals over the possibility of a wider war across the southern
Balkans.
Most of the fighting
in the region Sunday occurred well inside Yugoslavia along three roads
that have been barricaded for weeks by ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the
Kosovo Liberation Army. The rebels were resisting a drive by Yugoslav army
troops and Serbian police to clear the roads with tanks and bulldozers
to empty rebel-held villages along the way.
The 3-day-old offensive
by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's forces appeared aimed at splintering
the heart of rebel territory, which embraces one-third of the province,
and blocking routes to sanctuaries in Albania from which the guerrillas
smuggle arms.
Both sides reported
casualties as explosions and shooting rattled dozens of red-roofed villages
in the hills west of Pristina, the provincial capital. At least two Serbian
police officers and five ethnic Albanians were listed as killed.
Police closed the battle
zone to reporters and foreign relief workers. More than 300 dazed and exhausted
villagers escaped the area by foot and tractor-drawn cart to Bujance. Three
children came with severe shrapnel wounds, officials in the village said.
At least 400 people
have died since the eruption last February of open guerrilla warfare. Kosovo
is part of Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic. But 90% of the province's
2 million people are ethnic Albanian, and the growing rebel army's demand
for independence has wide support.
The insurgency has been
fed by Milosevic's brutal police crackdown in Kosovo and the flow from
Albania of weapons that were looted from government arsenals during a collapse
of civil order there last year.
Reluctant to crack down
on its ethnic kin, Albania's government has ignored the Kosovo rebel bases.
Western officials say Albania's depleted armed forces, far smaller than
the Kosovo rebel army, are too weak to act in any case.
Sunday's border shooting
erupted as Yugoslav army troops pursued a rebel group that was retreating
through the mountains toward Albania.
The Yugoslav troops
and their border post came under machine-gun fire from somewhere on the
Albanian side of the border, according to Yugoslavia's state news agency.
It said the troops managed to prevent the rebels from crossing the border.
* * *
Albania's Interior Ministry
said the Yugoslav troops tried to shoot their way through an Albanian border
checkpoint at Morini, 50 miles southwest of Pristina, but were driven back
by prolonged gunfire from Albanian border troops, local police and armed
civilians in the village.
It was the first reported
clash between the two governments' forces during the Kosovo fighting but
not the first incident to cause alarm. On June 16, Yugoslav troops on the
border shot to death an Albanian shepherd inside Albania, dragged his body
into Yugoslav territory and shot at relatives trying to retrieve it.
Albania periodically
accuses Yugoslav forces of lobbing shells over the border, as they reportedly
did last week to help thwart a major infiltration by about 750 rebels.
Western governments
are concerned that fighting could engulf not only Albania but also neighboring
Macedonia, which has a large, restive ethnic Albanian minority.
To prevent that, the
United States and its European allies first tried to threaten Milosevic
with intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, hoping to
force a withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from Kosovo. But the rapid growth
of the rebel army--and its approach in favor of peace talks aimed at a
cease-fire.
As part of that strategy,
U.S. officials are seeking support among their NATO allies for increased
military aid that would help Albania assert control of its territory and
deprive the Kosovo rebels of their bases.
Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved
BACK to PAGE ONE
BACK to PAGE ONE_______________________________________________________________________
 |
|
Homepage
Inhaltsverzeichnis - Contents Seite erstellt am 29.7.1998 |
|
|
Dillinger
Straße 41
86637
Wertingen
|
|||
|
Telefon
08272 - 98974
Fax
08272 - 98975
|
|||
|
E-mail
wplarre@dillingen.baynet.de
|
