Tagesnachrichten 4. August 1998
von ALBANEWS und anderen
weitere Presse-Meldungen
further press news
Tagesnachrichten 4. August 1998
APPEAL ADDRESSED TO:
UN SECURITY COUNCIL
UNHCR
EUROPEAN UNION
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON
Tirana, August 4, 1998
Referring to the sources from the battlefield, the already full scale war in Kosova, causes that an average of 20 civilians, mainly women, children and elderly people are losing their lives every day as a consequence of the active military offensive of the Serb military paramilitary and police forces, as well as due to other reasons such as hunger, lack of medicine, shortage of water and the heat.
Given that the local and international humanitarian organizations, are not allowed since a long time ago by the Serb forces to enter this region, the situation is now very close to humanitarian calamity.
LIFE IN ALL ITS DIMENSIONS IN KOSOVA IS SENTENCED TO DEATH.
Bearing in mind your possibilities and influence in the international arena, the Youth Forum of the Democratic Party, joins in solidarity with the Independent Students' Union of the Prishtina University and calls on you to exercise your authority to impose the immediate interruption of the Serb state offensive and genocide, by thus creating a favorable situation to the opening of humanitarian corridors. This would make possible the passing of the humanitarian convoys for the civil population in the surrounded areas and would help in the hopeless efforts of innocent people for survival.
SAVE LIFE IN KOSOVA!
Reassuring you for our respect and highest consideration, we express our conviction in your engagement to the immediate solution of this problem.
Respectfully yours,
Gent Strazimiri,
Chairman
YF-DPA
--
Democratic Party of Albania
http://www.albania.co.uk/dp
e-mail. dpa@albania.co.uk
News from:
CONGRESSMAN ELIOT ENGEL
Seventeenth District, New York
3655 Johnson Avenue, Bronx, NY 10463 --
718 796-9700
2303 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington,
DC 20515 -- 202 225-2464
***********************************************************
For release: Tuesday, August 4, 1998
Contact: Jason Steinbaum 202 225-2464
ENGEL AND FOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
CALL FOR KOSOVA'S SELF-DETERMINATION
Congressman
Eliot Engel and four other members of Congress today (8/4) called for the
United States to support the right of self-determination for Kosova where
2 million Kosovars who are ethnic Albanians face repression and ethnic
cleansing at the hands of the Serbs.
"Right now there are 200,000 refugees in Kosova, made homeless by Serb
repression, to say nothing of the thousands killed, wounded or imprisoned
by Serb forces under the orders of the dictator, Slobodan Milosevic," Rep.
Engel said. "Belgrade must end its siege of Kosova so that food and other
humanitarian supplies can reach those in dire need."
Rep. Engel, with Reps. Peter King (R-NY), James Moran (D-Va), Sue Kelly
(R-NY), and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), spoke at a press conference in support
of a resolution in Congress (H.Con.Res. 313) calling on the United States
to support the right of self-determination for Kosova. "We can no
longer deny to the people of Kosova the same right of self-determination
which we have accepted for Bosnia, Slovenia, Croatia, and FYR Macedonia,"
Rep. Engel said.
The resolution notes that in 1990, in a referendum on the question of independence,
some 87 percent of the those eligible to participate voted and 99 percent
of them voted for independence. "The reality is clear," he said.
"Kosova has the right to determine its own destiny."
It also says that "the United States should support any resolution of the
question of the status of Kosova, including independence, if such resolution
is arrived at by means of legitimate acts of self-determination, including
a free and fair referendum in Kosova."
"I do not seek to dictate the outcome of negotiations or to tell the Kosovars
what is best," said Rep. Engel. "I simply want the people of Kosova, not
Milosevic, to determine their own future."
At the press conference, the Alliance for a Free Kosova released a letter
to President Clinton signed by representatives of nine ethnic groups calling
for the establishment of a 'no-fly zone' over Kosova to prevent the use
of attack helicopters on civilians and supported "intensified planning
at NATO headquarters" for a military response to the crisis. "Given
the ongoing acts of ethnic cleansing," they wrote, "and the massacre of
civilians, military operations such as air strikes may be necessary if
Serbian aggression persists."
Rep. Engel is Co-Chair of the Albanian Issues Caucus and represents areas
of the Bronx and Westchester.
WHITE HOUSE REPORT, MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 1998
EXCERPTS
TRANSCRIPT: WHITE HOUSE DAILY BRIEFING, MONDAY,
AUGUST 3, 1998
EXCERPTS
TRANSCRIPT: STATE DEPARTMENT NOON BRIEFING, AUGUST
3
EXCERPTS
_______________________________________________
03 August 1998
WHITE HOUSE REPORT, MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 1998
(Kashmir, Kosovo, Castro/Caribbean; Japan) (630)
Deputy Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Colonel
Philip J. Crowley, briefed the press on foreign policy issues at morning
and afternoon sessions.
.....
US URGES POLITICAL SETTLEMENT IN KOSOVO
The United States believes continued violence
in Kosovo between Kosovar Albanians and Serbs "will not lead to any resolution
of that conflict, that the only outcome should be a political settlement,"
Crowley said. He noted that US Ambassador to the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia Chris Hill "has been fully engaged in recent days and weeks
with the situation in Kosovo. We've made some progress in terms of the
Kosovar Albanians agreeing in principle to conduct negotiations."
Crowley said Ambassador
Hill met July 31 with the President of "the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,"
Slobodan Milosevic, who "also indicated a willingness to negotiate. Obviously,
the fighting suggests that they aren't quite there yet."
Crowley said the situation
remains "very serious" and that the United States believes that "ultimately
the two sides will have to negotiate a settlement that will bring greater
autonomy to Kosovo."
He added that over the
weekend of August 1-2, the Kosovar diplomatic observer mission had somewhat
greater access to various parts of the region.
_______________
03 August 1998
TRANSCRIPT: WHITE HOUSE DAILY BRIEFING, MONDAY,
AUGUST 3, 1998
EXCERPTS
(Campaign finance reform, Clinton, Lewinsky, Lindsey, courts, Kashmir, Kosovo, Iraq, IMF, fast track, Asian financial crisis, appropriations bills, Reno) (5710)
White House Deputy Press Secretary Barry Toiv briefed; NSC Staff Assistant Press Secretary P.J. Crowley handled the foreign policy issues.
Following is the White House transcript:
(begin transcript)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
August 3, 1998
PRESS BRIEFING BY BARRY TOIV
....
Q: Kosovo.
COLONEL CROWLEY: Kosovo?
Q: They're fighting some more, once again. Is the U.S. now going to press toward a U.N. resolution? Is NATO going to do anything?
COLONEL CROWLEY: We continue to think that the
violence that has continued in Kosovo will not lead to any resolution of
that conflict; that the only outcome should be a political settlement.
Ambassador Chris Hill has been fully engaged in recent days and weeks with
the situation in Kosovo. We've made some progress in terms of the Kosovar
Albanians agreeing in principle to conduct negotiations. Chris Hill had
a meeting on Friday with President Milosevic; he also indicated a willingness
to negotiate. Obviously, the fighting suggests that they aren't quite there
yet.
The Kosovar diplomatic
observer mission has had some greater access over the weekend to various
parts of Kosovo. It continues to be a very serious situation and we believe
that ultimately the two sides have to negotiate a settlement that will
bring greater autonomy to Kosovo.
...
___________
03 August 1998
TRANSCRIPT: STATE DEPARTMENT NOON BRIEFING,
AUGUST 3
EXCERPTS
(Kosovo, India/Pakistan/US sanctions) (7210)
State Department Spokesman James Rubin briefed.
KOSOVO -- Rubin announced that NATO has now approved
"a range of contingency plans for the use of military force" in dealing
with the Kosovo crisis. He declined to be specific, but said the United
Nations Secretary General has requested "further refinement" of those plans.
"We expect that work to further refine the options to be done very, very
quickly," the spokesman said.
Rubin noted that Serb
security forces conducted at least three "significant operations" involving
tanks and artillery in Kosovo in the past few days. "The actions of the
Serbs are creating the possibility of humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo,"
he said.
The United States is
working with international organizations to alleviate the plight of Kosovo
civilians displaced by military actions there, Rubin said. Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic has improved access by humanitarian organizations, "but
it is not sufficient," according to spokesman.
....
Following is the State Department transcript:
(begin transcript)
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING INDEX
Monday, August 3, 1998
Briefer: James P. Rubin
STATEMENT
1 Diversity Immigrant
Visa Program SERBIA
1-4 Additional refugees/mediator for ethnic Albanians/access
to diplomatic observer/Ambassador Hill's meeting/US assessment/negotiations/use
of force/ humanitarian catastrophe
....
DPB # 94 MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 1998 1:10 P.M. (ON
THE RECORD UNLESS
OTHERWISE NOTED)
...
Q: Jamie, the Serbs are on the move, which probably
doesn't surprise the State Department, and at one or two towns now have
been taken; tens of thousands of additional refugees two questions, please.
The obvious how do you ever expect to get Milosevic to hold his fire? Is
this possibly a play to be in the best position to negotiate? And what
happened to that drive to find a mediator for the ethnic Albanians? Apparently
he doesn't even want the job one of the possible guys.
RUBIN: With respect to the Serb offensive, it
is correct that Serb security forces conducted significant operations in
at least three separate regions of Kosovo over the weekend. Their claims
on Friday are obviously nonsense that the offensive had stopped. The fiercest
fighting was in the Decani-Djakovica area, but there were also clashes
between Serb forces and the Kosovar Albanian forces in the Drenica and
Malisevo regions. We have reports that tanks and artillery were involved
in the attacks in Drenica, including clashes along the Pristina-Pec highway.
The key point right
now is that the actions of the Serbs are creating the possibility of a
humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo. We condemn and deplore the Serb offensive.
Our first task right now is to coordinate closely with international agencies
on steps that can be taken to improve the situation on the ground. We have
to get access to the displaced persons. There are problems in that effort,
and we are making it clear to the Serbs that access must be guaranteed
for both diplomatic observers and humanitarian agencies.
After Ambassador Hill's
meeting last week on Friday with President Milosevic, access did improve;
but it is not sufficient. For example, over the weekend, diplomatic observers
and relief agencies reached persons displaced from Malisevo and Ambassador
Hill met today with persons who had fled Orahovac. The second step is to
get these people to safe locations. They are quite understandably very
uncomfortable about the prospect of returning to their homes where the
Serbs have taken these outrageous actions.
Ambassador Hill, with
observers, will visit Orahovac and Malisevo and other locations to see
what must be done to allow persons to return home. President Milosevic
has promised that he will create conditions in which those displaced can
return home; and we will hold him to that promise. I expect Ambassador
Hill to be in touch with Milosevic in the coming days.
With respect to the
question of the Kosovar Albanian executive group, that work is going on.
Ambassador Hill is in Pristina today and when I spoke to him, he has been
working and trying to arrange that process. We are not surprised there
are different words coming out of different people's mouths in Pristina
with respect to what they will or won't do. But we still believe there
has been an agreement in principle. The hard part is now to nail down exactly
how the all-party executive will work. That is what Ambassador Hill is
doing in Kosovo.
Q: When you say agreement in principle, agreement in principle that there will be --
RUBIN: An all-party executive.
Q: -- and that there will be a mediator, essentially, or a new prime minister. There have been various accounts that Prime Minister Hajriozi doesn't care to live in Yugoslavia; so apparently, you're looking for a successor. And he would also be the chief mediator, by most accounts. The names keep changing and besides, nobody has said yes yet; have they?
RUBIN: Well, I am not underplaying the difficulty
of working this out; on the contrary, I think I've been very clear that
one of the big problems on the negotiating front has been to get a credible,
organized process built around Dr. Rugova. We did have an agreement in
principle last week from the various officials that they wanted to create
this all-party executive. We are working on it. We want it to be Pristina-based,
and that continues to be our view.
There are difficulties
in working out these arrangements, but that's what Ambassador Hill is doing
right now. We certainly believe that one of the difficulties and the primary
difficulty is a direct result of the Serb offensive. It is very hard for
the Albanian side to want to organize itself in a negotiating context at
the very time the Serb side is conducting these offensives that are displacing
tens of thousands of people.
Q: Looking also last point, if I could. What is the State Department's assessment of Milosevic's you said last week you can't creep into his brain nor would you like to live there. But what is the US assessment? One account is that he's trying to gain maximum advantage before negotiations. You just spoke in terms of how difficult it is for the Albanians to negotiate while there's an offensive. Those two contradict each other, of course. Is there any thinking here of what he is up to besides killing people?
RUBIN: Other than causing the potential humanitarian
catastrophe, the rest is speculation, obviously. I'm not saying that the
relevant officials aren't speculating as to what his motivations are and
they are speculating my point is that if he thinks it is improving his
negotiating standpoint to have taken these offensives, he's sadly mistaken;
because it has made it harder for there to be a negotiation. You can't
improve your negotiating posture if there isn't a negotiation.
We believe that Milosevic
is coming to understand over recent weeks that there has to be a negotiation
in order for the situation to be rectified in the best interests of Yugoslavia
as well as the Kosovar Albanians. In short, it's fully possible that Milosevic
is shooting himself in the foot again acting tactically in contradiction
to what his stated objectives are. But again, it's not very useful for
us to try to speculate what has motivated this person. What's important
is to demand access for the international organizations; to get the access
so that the humanitarian catastrophe that's threatening doesn't occur;
and to make clear that this can only be solved through negotiations.
Q: Jamie, at what point does NATO live up to its threat to intervene in this, what is clearly a catastrophe? I mean your lack of access to information probably is the reason you're downplaying it, but I don't think there's any analysis that it's not already become a catastrophe.
RUBIN: The living conditions are clearly deplorable in the cases where our diplomatic observers got access to the displaced persons from Malisevo, for example holed up in forests surrounding the town. And let me very clear, it is deplorable now. What I'm talking about is the humanitarian catastrophe that could occur in a matter of weeks if we don't get the aid to the people who are in desperate need.
With respect to NATO, let me say this and I hope President Milosevic understands this. NATO has now approved a range of contingency plans for the use of military force in this regard. The Secretary General has requested further refinement of those initially approved plans that were approved in the recent days and that effort is continuing apace; and we would expect that work to further refine the options to be done very, very quickly.
Q: NATO has approved a number of things they might be willing to do militarily. Can you tell us give us any idea what the range of those things are?
RUBIN: I don't care to get into the job of detailing
military planning that is not for us here at the State Department. I think
it's important to note that a set of contingency plans has now been approved
by NATO, and that is an important development. But further refinement is
ongoing.
With respect to what
will generate a decision, again, that is a prerogative for the Commander-in-Chief
and the other political leaders of the NATO alliance. I can say this the
two factors that have obviously made it justified for NATO to go about
doing its planning are getting worse; and that is the fact that the refugee
situation and the internally displaced situation are worse that is humanitarian
concerns and the humanitarian situation is worse. As the fighting continues,
the risk of causing instability in the region also becomes greater. What
will trigger a decision by the decision-makers and the political leaders
I do not care to speculate. The factors that made us begin this planning
continue and, as I indicated, if there is a humanitarian catastrophe, that
would be quite important. The NATO contingency plans have now been approved;
there is some further refinement; and that's the situation that's where
we are.
Q: Is there any thought of convening a Contact Group meeting to talk over the options?
RUBIN: I haven't heard that is in the works. Again, the vehicle for this discussion of the options has been the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the North Atlantic Council.
Q: I'm talking about the political decisions.
RUBIN: I have not heard. I wouldn't presume that the fact there isn't a Contact Group meeting necessarily means that is a necessary prerequisite for decision-making; other than to say that we've been in touch with the Contact Group on the negotiating front. Ambassador Hill has been working with his Russian counterparts and briefing them in Belgrade and Pristina about what he's been doing. But I'm not aware of a Contact Group meeting scheduled at this time.
Q: Is there unity among the countries that are trying to manage this conflict? In other words, is Russia on board for all these military options?
RUBIN: Well, I don't think it will come as any surprise to you that we've long known the Russians have not supported that option.
Q: Another topic, another issue I understand that the president-elect of Colombia, Mr. Pastrana was here to meet with Mrs. Albright. Were you present, Jamie? Do you have anything you can report from those meetings? And how much longer will they go on?
RUBIN: President-elect Pastrana is visiting the Department today to meet with presidential advisor McLarty and to attend an inter-agency meeting chaired by Under Secretary Pickering to discuss the entire range of US-Colombian bilateral relations. Secretary Albright is scheduled to host a luncheon in his honor. With respect to the meetings that he held at the White House, I expect there to be a briefing later this afternoon, and would rather leave those questions to the White House on the subject of what transpired with the Administration with the President of Colombia.
Q: Okay.
RUBIN: Do you want to go back to Kosovo?
Q: I think you're saying is it correct to assume, then, that NATO military action is closer since Milosevic lied and broke his promise and sent thousands of refugee? Is it closer now than it was, say, on Thursday?
RUBIN: I am not going to be in a position to write leads for your stories.
Q: If your intention is to warn Milosevic then --
RUBIN: I've made that clear; I've told you the
state of play. The state of play is different, as stated publicly today,
than it was last week. The decision to use force, i.e., the ultimate being
close to using force and using it, is a subject that I am not going to
entertain at this point, because it's far above my pay grade.
.....
The Times
A scorched-earth policy has left the Albanian
guerillas divided and in disarray,
writes Tom Walker in Belgrade
Serbs hail victory over Kosovo rebels
THE Serbian state media machine yesterday confidently
predicted the end of the Kosovo Liberation Army as security forces mopped
up the last pockets of guerrilla resistance.
They carried out their scorched-earth policy
against ethnic Albanian towns oblivious to the negative publicity of Western
television pictures showing an ever-larger exodus of Kosovan villagers.
The United Nations refugee agency said thousands
more were made homeless at the weekend. It put the total number displaced
since the conflict in Kosovo began in March at more than 180,000.
Despite calls by the European Union and Washington
for an immediate ceasefire, Serbian artillery continued a bombardment and
columns of smoke from burning villages were visible against the skyline
in the territory cut off to the media.
In Belgrade there was little contrition over
the destruction and hardly any mention of the looming humanitarian catastrophe.
The regime believes it has safely circumvented the threat of Nato intervention
and many of those entitled to speak to the media were away on holiday.
The Information Minister was watching basketball in Greece; the Socialist
Party spokesman was on a three-week break, and neither the Kosovo republic
authorities nor Federal Yugoslav ministries could explain how President
Milosevic's apparent willingness last week to halt the offensive was transformed
into fresh attacks along several fronts.
"The Albanians are in great confusion," crowed
Politika, the main government daily. "They are nearly entirely defeated."
The newspaper praised the police and Yugoslav Army, and derided the KLA
as having only a few units capable of effective action, usually trained
by foreign mercenaries. "Otherwise, they are just groups of villagers who
attack police patrols," it declared.
The paper quoted Ljubisa Stevanovic, the Mayor
of Prizren, as saying: "The Serbian people of Kosovo and Metohija have
shown once more the heroism they have never lacked in their history."
Checking just what was going on was too hazardous
or rendered impossible by police roadblocks, which stopped monitors of
the five-nation Contact Group, UN personnel, aid workers and journalists
from venturing outside Pristina on either the main roads west or south.
"The West was naive in thinking that it could
just let [Mr Milosevic] tip the military balance and then call a halt,"
said Dejan Anastasievic, a journalist with the Belgrade independent magazine
Vreme. "A military offensive is not a car and you can't just apply the
brakes."
There is intense speculation as to the KLA's
strategy after this series of setbacks. The guerrillas are thought to have
put too much faith in Washington, especially after Richard Holbrooke, America's
leading Balkan peace envoy, visited the KLA border command at Junik.
The KLA is also bitterly divided between pragmatists
and Marxist- Leninist ideologues who are pushing for a greater Albania.
The latter faction is said to have opposed all
negotiations, and made the error of electing to attack Orahovac, the first
town targeted by the KLA in Kosovo, two weeks ago. That gave the Serbs
the excuse for a counter-offensive.
"The boat sank for these Marxist-Leninist types
a long time ago," an American diplomat said. "There are a lot of bitter
people out there, some of whom have worked in Europe. They come back from
a shoe factory in Denmark or somewhere as poets and wannabe warriors."
However, Mr Anastasievic gave a warning that
the ragtag band, far from disappearing, could now emerge as a real terrorist
group, involved in kidnappings and planting car bombs. "You'll get a type
of Kosovo PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation]," he said.
In the meantime President Milosevic is left with
the same problem - a Kosovo in which 90 per cent of the population is ethnic
Albanian and hostile to Serb rule.
"Does the state of Serbia want to keep its Albanian
citizens, and does it want to keep Kosovo? There's a basic contradiction
there," Mr Anastasievic said.
The Daily Telegraph
Serb forces level six villages in Kosovo
By Philip Smucker in Poljance
FIGHTING was reported throughout Kosovo yesterday, and six villages were said by Albanian sources to have been levelled by Serb forces in their battle against ethnic Albanian militants.
President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia promised
a European Union delegation last week that the offensive against the Kosovo
Liberation Army was over. Ethnic Albanian leaders of the KLA say that they
will stop at nothing to gain independence from heavy-handed Serbian rule.
Already, 500-700 Albanian civilians and scores of Serbs are believed to
have been killed in the fighting. But both sides do their best to cover
up losses. Yesterday, there was no trace of eight Serb fighters whom Albanian
rebels claimed to have killed in Poljance, 24 miles north-west of Pristina.
When fighters on either side fall, they are almost always taken away quickly
and given private or closed state funerals.
Fearing heavy infantry losses, the Serb forces
have demolished village after village in their effort to uproot the Albanian
popular uprising. More often than not they have killed civilians rather
than liberation army fighters, often burying them without handing them
back to relatives.
Late on Sunday night, the Serb media centre in
Pristina said Serb forces had "neutralised" or killed 10 "armed Albanian
extremists" in clashes near the town of Smonica in western Kosovo. The
KLA commanders in central Kosovo did not confirm or deny the alleged losses.
They said, however, that the Serb policy of "mass destruction" was playing
into their hands.
Paradoxically, as villages are shelled and burned
down, the KLA appears to be gloating over its success in building a larger
guerrilla force.
Kommandanti Shabanshala, a senior KLA commander
in central Kosovo, said: "For every village they destroy, we gain 200 to
300 recruits."
Yesterday, the Serbs shelled villages three miles
from the rebel headquarters of Likovac. Smoke billowed from homes as guerrillas
watched the Serbs creeping up a hill towards their command centre. A deputy
KLA commander said: "So what if they shell us? How can they ever control
Kosovo like this?"
KOSOVO: New fighting blocks UN aid
By Guy Dinmore in Belgrade
Thousands of ethnic Albanians fled heavy fighting
in Serbia's Kosovo province yesterday, just days after the Yugoslav president,
Slobodan Milosevic, assured western envoys in Belgrade that government
forces had halted their latest offensive against separatist rebels.
Serbian police yesterday also blocked a UN aid
convoy from reaching refugees near the central town of Malisevo and prevented
other aid workers from going to the village of Ade, near the provincial
capital Pristina.
Mr Milosevic had promised international relief
workers full access to tens of thousands of refugees. Two small convoys
got through on Saturday. Aid agencies fear an outbreak of cholera and other
epidemics soon.
The UN refugee agency estimates that some 150,000
people, mostly ethnic Albanians, have been displaced in the five-month
conflict. Many of those fleeing on foot and aboard tractors yesterday had
already been forced to evacuate burning villages during earlier offensives.
Diplomats and foreign reporters in Kosovo said
government forces were attacking Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rebels on
several fronts in the south-west near the border with Albania, around the
central village of Nekovce and further north in the Drenica area where
several settlements had been burned by police.
Large numbers of Yugoslav army tanks were seen
moving to the front line around the Drenica towns of Glogovac and Srbica.
The main road from Pristina to the western town of Pec, used by aid workers
on Saturday to get to Malisevo, was cut off again.
The Serbian authorities blamed the renewed fighting
on attacks by the KLA but western diplomats said it appeared the police
and army were resuming their "scorched earth" tactics. Diplomats were dismayed
at the extent of the operation so soon after Mr Milosevic had assured European
Union envoys on Thursday and US ambassador Chris Hill the next day that
the week-long offensive was over.
Despite what western envoys described as the
wanton destruction of villages over the past week, the US and its European
allies have shown little inclination to match their threats of Nato intervention
with action.
The KLA and leaders of the Kosovo Albanian majority
accuse western governments of giving Mr Milosevic the "green light" to
attack the pro- independence rebels in order to weaken their position ahead
of the possible resumption of peace talks.
· The death in custody of Milan Kovacevic,
a Bosnian Serb accused of genocide against Croats and Moslems, has prompted
a protest by his Belgrade lawyer, Igor Pantelic, who said the UN war crimes
tribunal in The Hague had refused to give him adequate medical treatment.
Mr Kovacevic, who was known to be in ill health, died in his cell on Saturday
of a heart attack.
The Independent
Thousands flee fighting in Kosovo
By Anne Thompson in Pristina, Yugoslavia
Serb forces overran another ethnic Albanian stronghold,
Smonica, and pressed their attacks elsewhere in Kosovo yesterday, after
a weekend of fighting that displaced tens of thousands of people.
The UN relief agency estimated 35,000 people
fled their homes during the weekend. The Red Cross reported finding twice
that number in one area alone.
US envoy Christopher Hill called the offensive,
which came a week after Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic promised that
fighting against the Kosovo Liberation Army was over, a setback to peace
efforts and said: "We are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe."
The renewed clashes have disrupted communications
and UN workers are unable to reach pockets of refugees cut off by the fighting.
Ethnic Albanian sources reported widespread fightingthroughout
Kosovo and said six villages had been levelled.
Serb sources said that troops had shelled Smonica
for days and continued yesterday to lay siege to another border village,
Junik. Independent media in Belgrade said most KLA fighters had slipped
out of the village for sanctuaries in nearby Albania.
The Guardian
'Cleansing' of Kosovo accelerates
Aid workers and officials witness new aggression
by Serb forces reminiscent of Bosnian offensive
By Peter Beaumont in the Drenica enclave
Tuesday August 4, 1998
A massive campaign of ethnic cleansing of Kosovan
Albanians by Serb forces is underway, with aid workers, Western officials
and journalists testifying yesterday to widespread destruction of villages,
the shelling of civilian centres and the burning of crops and houses by
police and special forces.
The similarities to the Bosnian campaign are
striking. But this is ethnic cleansing with a new twist, driven by the
Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic's caution as to how far he can go before
the watching world intervenes.
This time he is using terror, rather than large-scale
killing, to stampede civilians from their homes. Serb forces are indiscriminately
shelling towns and villages, then occupying them as residents flee.
Strongholds of the separatist Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) have been sealed off by the Yugoslav National Army and Serb
police. The troops aim to stop food reaching them. In the Drenica enclave,
refugees driven from their villages are being pushed from pillar to post
as they try to find sanctuary from Serb tanks, artillery and rockets.
They also described columns of refugees riding
tractor carts passing each other on narrow mountain tracks in their desperate
efforts to find safety.
In the Drenica villages yesterday, heavy fighting
continued. The region resounded to the rumble of artillery and machine-gun
fire. Refugees pouring over the mountains described how they had been driven
from their homes 10 days ago by Serb police, special forces and Yugoslav
army soldiers.
In one battered car crowded with possessions,
Ferat Kenjaki, aged 45, and his cousin Nezir Cuni, aged 65, from the village
of Lecina Citok, said their homes and crops had been torched.
"We fled when the soldiers came," Mr Kenjaki
said. "But we watched from nearby as they burnt our houses. The civilians
were fleeing but they still fired on them."
Their ordeal was not over. After taking refuge
for two days in a primary school at Likovc, they were driven out after
it, too, came under fire.
Western military analysts who have visited the
region say the Serb operation aims to clear pro-KLA villages from vast
swaths of land. The Serbs want to create a "soft corridor" between areas
of heavy fighting, to encourage ethnic Albanians to cross the borders into
Albania and Montenegro.
One source said yesterday: "They seem determined
to clear out not only KLA but everyone who supports it. They want to create
a wasteland out of KLA territory."
The efforts to push out civilians with the fighters
have come in the third week of the offensive, which has seen the retaking
of the towns of Orhovac and Malisevo.
"The Serbs are not choosing to attack military
targets. They are attacking everywhere. We are in a state of war," said
Sabrit Kadriu, chairman of the local human rights organisation in Drenica.
"The Serbs are using everything they have got
against us. We are urging the humanitarian organisations to do everything
they can to help us. Why is Europe shutting its eyes and not seeing the
tragedy that is taking place?"
"They have given the green light to everything
the Serbs are doing. That you are witnessing this tragedy at the end of
the 20th century in the centre of Europe is absurd."
"But we will not give up. We have nowhere else
to go. We are on our land and in our homes. It is the Serbs who have come
shelling."
ITN News
Pressure mounts on Serbia to halt Kosovo offensive
Western powers have stepped up the pressure on
Serbia to halt its offensive in the strife-torn province of Kosovo.
A State Department spokesman in Washington said
NATO was fine-tuning its contingency plans for possible military use in
Kosovo which could be ready "very, very quickly".
Fearing a humanitarian catastrophe, the European
Union and the United States ordered Belgrade to stick to its promise to
end a fierce drive against ethnic Albanian guerrillas fighting for independence
in the Serbian province as thousands of refugees sought shelter in hills
and hamlets.
Clashes continued across Kosovo and both key
roads leading west from Pristina, Kosovo's provincial capital, were closed
and reporters were turned back on both roads.
U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin refused
to say what NATO's plans were, but NATO foreign ministers in late May asked
military experts to look at possible preventive deployments in Albania
and Macedonia which border Kosovo.
"NATO has now approved a range of contingency
plans for the use of military force in this regard," Rubin said. "The secretary-general
(Javier Solana) has requested further refinement of those initially approved
plans that were approved in recent days."
"I hope (Yugoslav) President (Slobodan) Milosevic
understands this," he added. Rubin said it was up to NATO's political leaders
to decide whether action was needed, but noted that the two factors which
had made the planning necessary -- the refugee dilemma and the risk of
regional instability - were getting worse. Macedonia said it may soon need
help patrolling its border with Albania if crossings by armed groups and
smugglers increased, the Yugoslav official news agency Tanjug reported.
Russia, a traditional Serb ally which opposes
foreign military intervention in Kosovo, is to send its deputy foreign
minister to Belgrade on Wednesday to step up diplomatic efforts, Belgrade
television reported.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said
that the offensive leading up to the weekend fighting had displaced as
many as 30,000 people, taking the total number of refugees and displaced
persons to 180,000 since February.
U.S. envoy Chris Hill said Kosovo was on the
"edge of a humanitarian catastrophe" if refugees don't return to their
homes in the next week or two.
"We have an extremely serious situation here.
There have been tens of thousands of displaced people in recent weeks and
the latest offensive against the KLA has caused even more people to flee
from their homes," Hill told Reuters.
Hill, Washington's ambassador to nearby Macedonia,
has been conducting shuttle diplomacy in a hitherto fruitless bid to get
the two sides to talk.
European Union president Austria, which extracted
the pledge from Milosevic last week that his offensive was over, urged
him in a letter to stick to his promise. Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang
Schuessel said he wrote
to Milosevic on Friday appealing to him to stop
the fighting. "The most important issue is to tackle the humanitarian situation
and then arrange a ceasefire to allow talks to take place," Schuessel told
state radio. At one checkpoint in Kosovo on Monday, where heavily armoured
security vehicles had been seen on Sunday, smoke could be seen rising in
the distance. Attempts to reach the central Kosovo village of Nekovce,
which had come under Serbian shelling on Sunday, were also thwarted. Reporters
were told by police it was too dangerous. Tanjug reported that "terrorists"
- its usual name for Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas - were "neutralised"
early on Monday by security forces in Smonica, a tiny village in the far
west.
Ethnic Albanian sources said there had been heavy
shelling in the region, which is near Junik, a besieged KLA stronghold.
Fighting erupted across Kosovo, a Serbian province with a 90 percent ethnic
Albanian majority, on Sunday after a couple of days of relative quiet.
Saudi Arabia joined the growing demand for an
end to the violence against Kosovo's largely Moslem Albanian population,
the official Saudi Press Agency said. The kingdom is the birthplace of
Islam and home to the religion's two holiest sites.
NATO call on Serbs and Albanians to agree Kosovo ceasefire
NATO Secretary General Javier Solana has called
on Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian separatists to agree a ceasefire
and said the Western defence alliance was ready to help police it. "The
latest events in Kosova are very troublesome.
Negotiations should start as soon as possible,"
said Solana, who is on vacation in Poland. He urged both sides to start
talks on a political agreement to end the confict, which has displaced
an estimated 150,000 people.
After several days of relative quiet fighting
erupted across Kosovo on Sunday despite a pledge by Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic to end a fierce drive against Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) guerrillas fighting for independence.
NATO's willingness to intervene in the conflict
between ethnic Albanians fighting for independence and Serbian security
forces has eased amid a recognition of the thorny political issues involved.
NATO diplomats are due on Wednesday to review
the options for action prepared by the alliance's military planners. "The
solution of this problem is not only military, the solution has to be political...
We are prepared for the possibility of helping with a ceasefire," Solano
told reporters after meeting Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek.
Solano added NATO was preparing for military
exercises later in August and in September in countries neighbouring the
region. The European Union has appealed to Milosevic to halt the offensive
by Serbian security forces in Kosovo, a Serbian province with a 90 percent
ethnic Albanian majority
BBC NEWS
Tuesday, August 4, 1998 Published at 10:10 GMT
11:10 UK
US renews threats over Kosovo
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has been
warned that the renewed Serbian offensive in Kosovo may prompt a Nato military
response. As thousands more ethnic Albanians fled their homes to escape
the Serbian advance, the US State Department said Nato had approved a range
of contingency plans for the possible use of force.
Without giving details, spokesman James Rubin
said the plans were being fine-tuned at the request of Nato Secretary-General
Javier Solana. Mr Rubin said they could be ready "very, very quickly".
He added: "I hope President Milosevic understands
this."
But Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel
- whose country holds the European Union presidency - insisted: "There
is no military solution possible - only the possibility of a negotiated
solution.
"The earlier Mr Milosevic gets this idea, the
better."
Mr Schuessel said he feared a humanitarian disaster
in the province.
"We have to send a clear message to President
Milosevic. "What he promised to do was to end excessive violence against
civilians - and he did the contrary. You cannot trust him."
Mr Rubin said it was up to Nato's political leaders
to decide whether action was needed. But he said that the two factors which
had made the military planning necessary - the refugee problem and the
risk of regional instability - were worsening.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) estimates
that at least 30,000 people have fled their homes over the weekend, bringing
the total number displaced to almost 200,000.
Nato foreign ministers asked military experts
in May to look at possible preventive deployments in Albania and the former
Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. But correspondents say the West has backed
away from talk of force since then, partly because Russia opposes it.
Doubt over ceasefire
Last week Mr Milosevic told EU diplomats that
Serbian military operations in Kosovo would end. But fighting in the province
flared up again over the weekend.
A BBC correspondent in Kosovo, Jeremy Cooke,
says it is clear the Serbian offensive is continuing and that Kosovo Liberation
Army defences and trench lines have again been overrun.
Serb authorities have invited refugees to return.
But the BBC's correspondent says that several
hundred who went back to their homes in the village of Arahovac found them
burned down or destroyed by shelling.
--
Kosova Information Centre - London
Clinton administration: NATO has approved military plan for Kosovo
Copyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (August 3, 1998 5:10 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com)
--
NATO has approved plans to use firepower against
Serb forces in Kosovo, the Clinton administration said Monday, adding its
concern that the latest Serb offensive could generate a "humanitarian catastrophe"
for tens of thousands of people forced from their homes.
The plans -- focused
on an aerial assault -- are being fine-tuned by the NATO Council, which
sought to demonstrate its resolve to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
by postponing its usual August vacation, State Department officials said.
There was no immediate
word on what would trigger an attack by NATO -- U.S. State Department spokesman
James P. Rubin said that was up to President Clinton and the other NATO
political leaders. Nor was it clear whether this was mostly an attempt
by the administration to unnerve Milosevic by raising the threat again
publicly.
Rubin did indicate an
attack was not imminent, saying "further refinement is ongoing."
And a NATO official,
speaking on condition of anonymity from the organization's headquarters
in Brussels, Belgium, played down the possibility of military intervention,
saying that at this stage NATO is simply putting the final touches on a
number of possible actions in Kosovo and the region.
In Kosovo, a weekend
of fighting displaced tens of thousands of people, some of them taking
refuge in forests outside towns and now beyond the immediate reach of relief
organizations. The U.N. relief agency estimated that 35,000 people fled
their homes during the weekend. The Red Cross reported finding twice that
number in one area alone.
"The living conditions
are clearly deplorable," Rubin said. "What I'm talking about is the humanitarian
catastrophe that could occur in a matter of weeks if we don't get the aid
to the people who are in desperate need."
The offensive broke
a pledge by Milosevic to halt Serb attacks so U.S. and European diplomats
could try to arrange talks for a settlement between Belgrade and ethnic
Albanian insurgents in the Serbian province.
State Department officials
declined to say whether they thought Milosevic was trying to strengthen
his negotiating hand with gains on the ground or trying to rupture the
diplomatic drive.
Instead, they pointedly
raised a threat that NATO could come to the assistance of beleaguered ethnic
Albanian civilians. "I think it's important to note that a set of contingency
plans has now been approved by NATO, and that is an important development,"
Rubin said.
A NATO bombardment helped
drive Milosevic and the Yugoslav Republic into negotiations to end an ethnic
war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995.
But Croats and Muslims
in that conflict had already fought Serb insurgents to a virtual draw on
the ground, proving to Belgrade that it could not win a clear-cut victory
in Bosnia.
A senior U.S. official
emphasized that the current planning is focused on an air attack. The use
of ground forces could be far more controversial and difficult to put in
place.
Rubin said an attack
would not have to be approved by all of the six countries that make up
the contact group on the former Yugoslavia -- the United States, Russia,
Britain, France, Germany and Italy. He noted Russia's opposition to using
force against the Serbs was well-known.
At the White House,
meanwhile, national security spokesman P.J. Crowley said Milosevic had
indicated a willingness to negotiate during a meeting on Friday with U.S.
ambassador Christopher Hill.
Hill and other American
diplomats were working last week to set up an ethnic Albanian negotiating
group. The idea was to reflect a diversity of views, including those of
ethnic Albanians who would secede from Yugoslavia even though U.S. policy
supports only limited self-rule.
Rubin said Milosevic
had begun to realize negotiations were in the best interest of Yugoslavia
as well as the Kosovar Albanians.
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
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