Nachrichten von der Nacht
zum 21. August 1998
von ALBANEWS und anderen
News from night
to August ,21 1998
Nachrichten von der Nacht
Erneut 62 Serben und Kosovo-Albaner nach Belgrad abgeschobenDüsseldorf (dpa) - Die nordrhein-westfälische Regional-Regierung hat am Mittwoch erneut gemeinsam mit dem Bundesland Niedersachsen 62 Serben und Kosovo-Albaner von Düsseldorf nach Belgrad abgeschoben. Dies teilte der Sprecher des Innenministeriums, Ludger Harmeier, mit. Aus Nordrhein-Westfalen seien sieben straffällig gewordene Kosovo-Albaner und 37 weitere abgelehnte Asylbewerber aus Jugoslawien an Bord eines Flugzeugs der jugoslawischen Fluggesellschaft «JAT» gebracht worden. Unter den Abgeschobenen sei auch eine Mutter mit vier Kindern gewesen.
Bereits Ende Juli hatte Nordrhein-Westfalen gemeinsan mit Niedersachsen 93 abgelehnte jugoslawische Asylbewerber nach Belgrad abgeschoben.
7. to call on the Commission and the Council to provide all necessary humanitarian aid to the victims of and the refugees from the acts of violence and call on member states to stop returning refugees and asylum seekers to Kosova where protection cannot be guaranteed;________________________________________________________________________
KOSOVA (shelling – Prizren)
One Albanian killed and another wounded as
a result of the shelling
Prizren, 20 August (ARTA) 1600CET --
The shelling of the villages of Përdrinë,
Zoçishtë, Opterushë, Reti and Bellacerkë, today,
was of a lower intensity.
Mejdi Bytyqi, an Albanian in his mid sixties
was killed and Nijazi Bytyqi (60) was wounded as a result of yesterday's
shelling in the village of Brestovc, municipality of Rahovec. There are
reports that many people were also harassed during their attempt to flee
the village.
On the other hand, the flux of dislocated people
from Rugovë of Has, due to panic, has increased after Serb forces
threatened to shell the village.
Over 10.000 residents of Rugovë and the
villages in the region of Përdrinë settled in Krushë e Madhe,
tripling the number of the residents.
KOSOVA (massacre - Rahovec)
The corpse of Tafil Zyberaj from Drenoc found
Prizren, 20 August (ARTA) 2040CET --
Although it has been a month since Serb forces
conducted a massacre in Rahovec, a considerable number of people have no
knowledge of the whereabouts of their close ones.
The corpse of Tafil Zyberaj (33) from the village
of Drenoc, municipality of Rahovec, who was missing since 19 July, when
Serb units shelled Rahovec and Bellacerkë, was finally found after
one month. The funeral of the victim was held on 18 August, in the cemetery
of Drenoc.
On the other hand, the family Isma still knows
nothing about their son Kujtim Isma (19), from Rahovec. Mihrije Avdyli
from Rahovec is still searching for his son Nysret Avdyli (18), as Behije
Hajde knows nothing about her husband Bashkim. Nothing is also known of
the whereabouts of a five-member family of Gazmend Jakupi, among which
there is three children.
KOSOVA (Serb attack – Suharekë)
Four killed and eight wounded
Suharekë, 20 August (ARTA) 1530CET --
Sources from the ground notify that the Serb
military\police undertook an onslaught against the municipal villages of
Rahovec and Suharekë, respectively against the villages of Zoçishtë,
Opterushë, Reti, Samadraxhë, and Zojs, starting from yesterday
and the whole day today. A whole fighting arsenal was discharged. As a
result, many of the villages are now on fire. There are reports that KLA
units are resisting these attacks.
During these attacks, Bekim Bekteshi, a soldier
from the village of Samadraxhë was killed. It has been claimed that
he was buried later during the day. According to the latest reports, the
following were wounded: Bajram Bekteshi, KLA officer, from Samadraxhë,
Muharrem Kryeziu from Pagarushë, Nexhat Cikaçi, Fatmir Bala,
Osman Cikaçi and Visar Bala from the village of Dobërdolan
and Selim Kushaj and Ibrahim Mamaj from Samadraxhë.
KLA sources, on the other hand, report that Serb
units also suffered losses in human lives as well as fighting technique.
CDHRF sources in Suharekë notified that
Hazir Selimaj (42), Zenel Curraj (25) and Sabit Lushaj (23), from the village
of Grejkoc, who were killed a day before in the village of Gorozhupë,
municipality of Prizren, were buried in their home village, late last night.
The shelling which took place in the village
of Samadraxhë, recommenced at 1100CET, as there are no reports about
eventual consequences, "KOHA Ditore" sources inform.
KOSOVA (shelling - Vushtrri)
Serb forces shelled Pantinë and the surrounding
villages
Vushtrri, 20 August (ARTA) 2045CET --
Sources from the ground claim that Serb forces
shelled the village of Pantinë, municipality of Vushtrri, using heavy
artillery. LDK Information Commission sources claim that the Serb forces
shelled other villages surrounding Pantinë. Due to the difficulties
of reaching the region, there are still no reports on the consequences
of the attack. There are claims that this attack resulted with much material
damage and a considerable number of victims.
KOSOVA (sniping - Fushë Kosovë)
Serb snipers wound Fejzullah Sogojeva
Fushë Kosovë, 20 August (ARTA) 2000CET
--
Fejzullah Sogojeva (60), from Graboc i Ulët,
was severely wounded by Serb snipers, at around 1700CET yesterday. There
are reports that Serb snipers are posted in the plain called "Kërshi".
Sources notify that he is in a very critical health condition and that
he is presently being treated in one of the hospitals situated in KLA controlled
territory.
Selim Berisha, another Albanian from the same
village, claims to have been threatened by the police with physical termination,
while he was inside his house collecting some of his personal belongings.
"I was very lucky, because just as one of the
policemen raised the gun to hit me with the riffle batt, one of their commanders
called in the walkie-talkie telling them to go elsewhere..."
KOSOVA (looting and burnt land – Klinë)
Serb villagers loot and burn the Albanian
houses
Klinë, 20 August (ARTA) 1900CET --
Serb forces have conducted a large-scale attack
against a part of the dislocated population during the last couple of days.
Sources claim that Serb forces attacked the villages of Çabiq and
Cerrovik in a sign of the revolt after KLA units killed 7 Serb police officers,
the past two days.
These Serb policemen were killed while they broke
in and looted houses belonging to Albanians in the neighborhoods of Buzhalë,
Çabiq and Ali Kurtëve in Cerrovik. Not daring to enter with
infantry, the Serb forces started shelling from the positions they were
previously stationed at. The material damages are claimed to be enormous,
as no human victims were reported. The people, who had spent the last few
days in the forests of Çabiq, were forced to move temporarily in
the direction of the "Tuneli i Bajicës" and Tërdevc.
On the other hand, clashes between KLA units
and Serb forces in the villages of Leskoc, Kosh and Ramoc, continued with
lower intensity throughout the day yesterday. No casualties were reported,
but the material damage was claimed great. 3 houses were burnt to the ground
in the village of Leskoc, as the locals fled to less threatened regions
in panic.
No shooting was reported today, although frequent
Serb force movement was evidenced in the direction of the villages of Lugu
i Drinit. The local population of the region feels very insecure as many
houses in the village of Dollc were looted and set on fire. Their Serb
neighbors conducted all these actions.
KOSOVA (KD reporter arrested - Gjakovë)
Musa Kurhasku - at the police station
Gjakovë, 20 August (ARTA) 2030CET --
Musa Kurhasku, the "KOHA Ditore" correspondent
from Gjakovë, was taken to the police station Wednesday, some time
after 1500CET. On this occasion, the police raided his house and shop.
They confiscated much of his important working documentation, including
the phone book and fax machine.
Five policemen raided the house as three others
stayed outside.
Kurhasku was summoned to the police station earlier
and was told to go to Rahovec and get information on a person that was
caught by the KLA. He refused to do so saying that he is a journalist and
his task is to inform and not to investigate such cases. It has been claimed
that Kurhasku also told the police that the Red Cross is competent for
carrying out such tasks.
KOSOVA (waves of raids and arrests – Gjilan)
Several Albanians were arrested
Gjilan, 20 August (ARTA) 1830CET --
A campaign of arrests and taking-ins for so-called
"informative talks" took place in Gjilan today as well.
An expedition of 50 police officers raided many
houses in the municipality of Gjilan today. The pretext of the raids was
searching for weapons and KLA panoplies.
There are reports that five families were raided
early this morning in Gjilan municipal village of Malishevë. There
are also claims that one Albanian was arrested during the raid.
Sources say that Ahmet Demiri (1964), a former
political prisoner was arrested at 1230CET yesterday.
He was caught in the police roadblock installed
near a place called "Kulla e Sahit Agës", while he was driving home
together with his brother Bekim.
He was sent in the police station immediately
after he was identified. In addition, Bekim was arrested in front of police
station allegedly for counterfeiting the documents of his car. He was kept
in the police station until 0800CET of today. There is no information about
Ahmet after that.
KOSOVA (wave of arrests – Mitrovicë)
Serb police arrests three youngsters from
Drenica
Mitrovicë, 20 August (ARTA) 1500CET--
There was an upturn of violence by the Serb police
towards escapees in Mitrovicë lately. Moreover, the owners of houses
in this town, who sheltered escapees, are being persecuted.
The Serb police arrested Bexhet Sejdiu (23) and
Bekim Sejdiu (24) from the village of Runikë, Zekim Istogu (25) from
Polluzhë and Bahtir Hyseni from Izbicë at 1100CET, yesterday.
All of the above-mentioned had been evacuated from fighting zones, and
were accommodated in the neighborhood of "Bair", where the police arrested
them.
KOSOVA (trials – Prizren)
The trial of 9 Albanian students began
Prizren, 20 August (ARTA) 2100CET --
The trial against 9 Albanian students began in
the Serb Court in Prizren today. These students are all activists of the
Independent Students Union of the University of Prishtina (ISU of UP).
The above-mentioned students were arrested on 23 May 1998, accused of "terrorism".
Nijazi Kryeziu, Aqif Iljazi, Bylbyl Duraku, Behar Pashallari, Jehona Krasniqi,
Leonora Morina, Dëfrim Rifaj, Sejdi Bellanica and Sherif Iljazi were
kept in detention in the district prison of Prizren since the day of their
arrest.
This trial expected to take place earlier, but
was postponed twice for "security reasons" in order to be held today. The
trial was presided by Jovica Mitrovic.
Initially, the students of the Pedagogical College
in Prizren, "Xhevdet Doda", Behare Tasallari, Jehona Krasniqi, Leonora
Morina and Dëfrim Rifaj are charged of crimes as restricted with paragraph
136 article 1 in conjunction with article 125 of Yugoslav Code.
The two other students, Iljiaz and Sejdi Bellanica,
who were previously accused according to article 136 in conjunction with
article 125, are now accused according to paragraph 33 of article 1 – code
for Arms and Ammunition.
All of the indicted are accused of KLA membership,
even though according to the testimonies and the statements of their attorneys,
there is no grounded proof to charge them.
The sentence will be made public on 24 August.
It is believed that these students will be released in custody.
KOSOVA (US Ambassador to Macedonia)
Hill:" Things are going pretty well"
Prishtina, 20 August (ARTA) 2000CET --
The US Ambassador to Macedonia, Christopher Hill,
who is mediating between Prishtina and Belgrade, declared today that "things
are going pretty well".
He was in Prishtina again today, where he met
with the President of the Republic of Kosova, Ibrahim Rugova, and Albanian
negotiating team member, Fehmi Agani.
"We talked about the negotiating process," said
Hill, commenting the meetings.
"One cannot say we are totally dissatisfied,
because things are moving forward pretty good", said Ambassador Hill.
"The American delegation and the team from Prishtina
held extremely important talks today", said Hill.
"The overall humanitarian situation and our deep
anxiety for the dislocated people who cannot return to their homes, were
some of the topics we discussed " stressed Hill.
"Apparently there is a lot of work in restoring
houses since many of them are damaged", said Hill. "The possibilities to
accelerate this process will be scrutinized because the end of summer is
approaching and the process of people returning to their homes must be
carried out as soon as possible", he added.
Asked whether he will also meet with other political
and national representatives of Kosova Albanians, who are not members of
the negotiating team, Hill answered that, he has met with them and informed
them about the general framework of his activity.
"We are doing this because, as I stressed last
week and will continue to do so, the door is open", he claimed. "We will
welcome others in the process as well".
According to him, Rugova once again confirmed
his readiness to "include the others" in negotiating team.
"We have a long way ahead of us. It will provide
results and it is not easy to follow, but this is the way we support and
will succeed in, and I hope others will join us", claimed finally Hill.
KOSOVA (negotiating team member)
Agani: "The talks are being held"
Prishtina, 20 August (ARTA) 1900CET --
Negotiating team member, Fehmi Agani also met
with the US Ambassador to Macedonia, Christopher Hill, today. Agani commented
the meeting he held with the American Ambassador, who was appointed mediator
between Prishtina and Belgrade by the Contact Group and the Albanian-Serb
negotiations saying: "We are as close as any other date".
The Albanian negotiating team member said that
this is the beginning of, as he evaluated, "an attempt to resolve the problem
through talks and negotiations".
He also said, " the talks between Albanian and
Serb side are under way".
According to Agani, the talks also took place
the day that Markovic invited them, as well as the day he was in Prishtina."
In any case, Hill was in contact between Prishtina and Belgrade so the
talks went on regardless the weird correspondence", stated Agani.
KOSOVA (Germany on intervention)
Klose: "NATO has not drawn a decision yet"
Bonn, 20 August (ARTA) 1830CET --
According to last week's reports, the German
Green Party "League '90", which is expected to be a coalition partner in
a possible future Red-Green Government, requested holding for the Parliamentary
Commission for Defense to hold a debate on the situation in Kosova. It
was also reported that the Green Party requested for the Commission to
contemplate the possible military engagement of the German Bundeswehr.
The German Bundestag vice-chairman, Hans-Ulrich
Klose, replied to the head of the Parliamentarian group of the greens,
saying, "there is no need to rush in urging the debate about the Bundeswehr
engagement, since NATO has reached no decision on the issue ". Klose also
informed the Parliamentarian fraction of the greens, that the above mentioned
issue will most probably be discussed in the plenary session of Bundestag,
scheduled to take place on 2 and 3 September. "This session will contemplate
many other aspects of the issue in question", states a communiqué
Klose issued.
Green representative, Angelika Beer, who is also
the spokesperson of the fraction and a member of the Parliamentarian Commission
for Defense, responded stating that this fraction has the right to call
the assembly. She also overruled the idea of both commissions meeting in
September: the one of the defense and the one of the foreign policy, where
the issue of a possible engagement of Bundeswehr in Kosova would be discussed.
KOSOVA (EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Issues
- briefing)
" Other initiatives must be undertaken "
Prishtina, 20 August (ARTA) 0830CET--
"If the political solution is not found soon,
the humanitarian crisis will turn into a humanitarian catastrophe", said
Emma Bonino, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Issues on a press briefing
held at the EU office in Prishtina yesterday.
Bonino had previously visited the regions, which
were encompassed in the clashes in Kosova. Besides the meetings held with
local authorities of the villages of Kosova, she also met with President
Rugova and "the coordinator of the Serb Government affairs in Kosova"-
Andreja Milosavljevic.
"I think we ought to remind the Serb authorities
and the international community that no humanitarian solution can be found
for the upcoming winter", assessed Bonino, stressing that an immediate
halt of hostility is vital.
"Other initiatives must be undertaken, otherwise
the crisis will turn into a humanitarian catastrophe", stated Bonino.
"This crisis is one of the most serious ones
we are facing at the moment, and because of winter, it is very clear that
we are heading from a humanitarian crisis toward a catastrophe", added
the UNHCR assistant, Soren Jessen - Pettersen. He said that in order to
"facilitate this crisis, it is necessary to undertake the following steps:
To put an immediate end to hostilities and begin
political dialogue;
To take a more determined approach and upgrade
the level of safety;
3. Let all escapees return to their homes."
"According to our data (UNHCR), 170.000 people
have fled their homes, and 50.000 out of them are without any shelter.
However, we need reliable guarantees from Serbs, to return these people
back to their properties. International presence in the places where the
people return is also necessary", said he.
Austrian Ambassador to Belgrade Wolfgang Petrich
said, "the EU fully supports upholds the humanitarian efforts ".
"There is an urgent need for stopping enmities,
and we appeal the 'Yugoslav’ authorities to do so and to establish immediate
dialogue" said Petrich.
NEWS: KOSOVA UPDATE, AUGUST 20, 1998/B
Taken without permission, for fair use only.
U.S. envoy pushes Kosovo peace, clashes reported
Reuters, August 20, 1998
Direct Kosovo talks not practical now - US envoy
Reuters, August 20, 1998
Kosovo Rebellion Shows Signs of More Pacifist
Tilt
The Christian Science Monitor, August 20, 1998
Kosovo Warfare Imperils Macedonia's Fragile Peace
LATimes, August 20, 1998
Serbian Attacks Turn Villagers Into Refugees
WPost, August 20, 1998
----------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. envoy pushes Kosovo peace, clashes reported
11:52 a.m. Aug 20, 1998 Eastern
By Julijana Mojsilovic
PRISTINA, Serbia, Aug 20 (Reuters) - U.S. envoy
Chris Hill held another round of meetings with key political figures in
the Kosovo crisis on Thursday to try to restart stalled peace talks.
Hill, the ambassador
to Macedonia who serves as the chief U.S. Kosovo coordinator, met Ibrahim
Rugova, the ethnic Albanian political leader who advocates passive resistance
to Serb rule in the southern Serbian province, and Fehmi Agani, head of
Rugova's peace talks team, diplomatic sources said.
Hill also was expected
to meet Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic and Russian ambassador
Yuri Kotov.
His latest attempt to
get the talks back on track to end six months of fighting between separatist
ethnic Albanian rebels and heavily armed Serb security forces was set against
a background of reports of fresh clashes in the southern Serbian province.
It also followed a three-day
mission to Yugoslavia by Emma Bonino of Italy, the European Union's humanitarian
affairs commissioner, who reiterated in Belgrade a warning that some of
the estimated 200,000 people displaced by fighting were certain to die
unless they got back to their homes by winter's onset.
She said that in the
morning she had visited Montenegro, the small republic which along with
Serbia makes up what is left of Yugoslavia, and found some 30,000 displaced
Kosovo Albanians living there, and 250 to 300 more arriving daily.
"We strongly urge the
Yugoslav authorities to deliver on their promises to cease fire and cease
the action of their security forces," Bonino told a news conference.
"We hope that meaningful
dialogue can start because without change in the political landscape there
is no way that the humanitarian community can avert a major humanitarian
crisis," she said.
Belgrade has been widely
condemned by the United States and other Western countries for the use
of massive firepower, heavy weaponry and scorched-earth tactics in its
battle to put down a rebellion by separatist rebels of the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA).
Bonino said she and
other diplomats touring Kosovo had seen "ghost villages where really there
is no one there and you can see a lot of destruction and houses which are
completely burned and where even if people could go back it would be very
difficult."
Austrian ambassador
Wolfgang Petritsch, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency,
said he was "deeply shocked" by what he saw in Kosovo.
"The destruction is
out of all proportion when it comes to the claim that the security forces
are chasing down terrorists or bandits," he said.
Rugova agreed last week
to resume peace talks with Belgrade after Serb forces pushed KLA rebels,
whom Rugova says he does not control, out of most of the towns and villages
the rebels had taken since February.
But Serb forces remain
active in the province, whose two million inhabitants are 90 percent ethnic
Albanians. Rugova has made a cessation of fighting a precondition of starting
talks.
A Reuters reporter travelling
southwest from the Kosovo provincial capital Pristina passed a one kilometre
(half a mile) long convoy of Serbian military vehicles, including tanks,
troop carriers and armoured combat vehicles.
The reporter was prevented
from following the convoy when it turned off the main road at a checkpoint
near Komorane, but as the convoy moved away smoke could be seen coming
from several houses along the road the Serb units were taking.
Police at a checkpoint
said that two policemen had been killed overnight on Wednesday by a KLA
ambush in a pass on the road east of Suva Reka.
At Likovac, in the Drenica
area, ethnic Albanians said they had heard about the army convoy headed
their way and feared there would be shelling over the weekend.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Direct Kosovo talks not practical now - US envoy
02:59 p.m Aug 20, 1998 Eastern
By Mark Heinrich
PRISTINA, Serbia, Aug 20 (Reuters) - U.S. envoy
Chris Hill said on Thursday he was not trying to set up direct peace talks
between Serbian authorities and separatist Kosovo Albanians but to narrow
their differences first via shuttle diplomacy.
He was briefing reporters
after the latest in a series of intensive consultations with Kosovar and
Serbian negotiators on possible solutions to Kosovo's guerrilla uprising.
Hill, the U.S. ambassador
to nearby Macedonia who is spearheading mediation efforts in Kosovo, met
ethnic Albanian political leader Ibrahim Rugova, his negotiating team's
chief Fehmi Agani and Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic.
He also saw Russian
Ambassador Yuri Kotov, whose country is regarded with favour by fellow
Orthodox Christian Serbs, and is a potentially important peace broker in
Kosovo.
Hill said he wanted
to correct a mistaken impression that he was striving to coax negotiators
for Serbia, the main republic in federal Yugoslavia, and Kosovo, a Serbian
province with a 90 percent Albanian majority, into face-to-face talks.
"I want to emphasise
that we are not trying to bring the parties together, rather we feel it's
more productive to shuttle between them," Hill said in the Kosovo capital
Pristina.
"Right now we are working
on very specific ideas for a political solution and doing it by indirect
means. We will continue to do so for some time. The (indirect) negotiating
process is moving ahead and it's very active."
Western diplomats close
to Kosovo's fledgling peace process said there was no point pursuing face-to-face
talks when the two sides' positions remained so far apart and the atmosphere
was fouled by continued fighting.
"The Serbs and the Albanians
each have some ideas about what a political solution would be. We took
some of the Serb proposals to the Albanians and vice versa this week, and
obviously they did not match," said one senior diplomat.
Kosovo Albanian leaders
hold fast to their demand for outright independence from Yugoslavia whereas
Belgrade is prepared to offer only undefined autonomy.
"Beyond that...nerves
continue to be raw over the Serb offensive. The atmosphere for talks continues
to be difficult," the diplomat added.
Serbian security forces
used overwhelming tank and artillery firepower in a month-long offensive
from mid-July to drive Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas off main
roads back into isolated hill enclaves.
The KLA's pell-mell
retreat suggests it will never be able to win Kosovo by force of arms alone
but the guerrillas, still spurning peace talks, continue to harass and
kill Serbian personnel in ambushes.
An obstacle to direct
talks is the lack of KLA representation, even though many Kosovars now
believe only violence will free them from repressive Serbian police rule.
Prolonged passive resistance
led by Rugova extracted no concessions from Serbian authorities.
Adem Demaci, a former
long-time Kosovar political prisoner and head of the Parliamentary Party
of Kosovo, has refused to join Rugova's Western-sponsored negotiating team.
"He has told us that
he feels armed struggle is a more fruitful course than negotiations and
we have respectfully but firmly disagreed with him," said the senior Western
diplomat.
"We continue to keep
non-participating parties informed about what we are doing with the negotiating
team, to show that the door is open to them, but we won't hold up the process
so every last person can get on the bus."
Any negotiating process
was vital to help facilitate a return of more than 200,000 ethnic Albanian
refugees to their homes before the freezing Balkan winter begins, diplomats
say.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1998
INTERNATIONAL
Kosovo Rebellion Shows Signs of More Pacifist Tilt
• Rebels, battered by Serbs, now find ethnic Albanians looking for a conciliatory leader.
Justin Brown
Special to The Christian Science Monitor
LIKOSANE, YUGOSLAVIA
The armed rebels who once guarded the gateway
to this village in central Kosovo have quietly slipped into the hills.
Their rebel checkpoint,
set up months ago to prevent Serbian infiltration, has been replaced by
two boys selling goods from a roadside stand.
It was not the Serbs
who drove the Kosovo Liberation Army away but local ethnic Albanians, who
say they are beginning to see the KLA as a magnet for danger.
"The people made us
leave," says a winded KLA soldier after he scurries from a nearby farmhouse
to flag down a passing car.
A month into a crushing
offensive by forces of the Yugoslav Army and the Serbian Interior Ministry,
the KLA has been marginalized, not only here in Likosane, but in international
diplomatic circles, where the focus of negotiations has shifted back to
mainstream ethnic Albanian political leaders.
US diplomats, who are
spearheading international peace efforts between the Serbs and separatist
ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, have for the moment abandoned the KLA in favor
of pacifist ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova.
Like the KLA, Mr. Rugova
favors independence. But he is seen as being more likely to compromise
and accept internationally supported plans for broad autonomy within Yugoslavia.
The US strategy, diplomatic
sources say, is to build momentum with a Rugova-backed negotiating team
and hope the KLA joins at a later time.
On Tuesday the Kosovo
Albanians' team rejected an offer by the Serbs to begin talks immediately,
saying Serb attacks must first cease. Yesterday the European Union's human
rights commissioner, Emma Bonino, toured refugee areas.
Meanwhile, some 1,700
NATO troops are conducting exercises in neighboring Albania. But armed
intervention in Kosovo seems unlikely, with Western powers emphasizing
that a diplomatic solution is preferable.
In Likosane, once a
KLA stronghold, there are signs that the US strategy may be working. Although
the KLA still has a presence here, villagers seem more concerned with caring
for refugees than parading around with machine guns.
"The KLA should be under
the control of Rugova, just as the international community wants," says
Sahit Zymeri, calling himself the village's leader. "We've prepared a letter
of support for Rugova and will send it to him soon."
It was here in Likosane
that the six-month-old conflict began, when Serbian troops attacked on
Feb. 28 and killed 24 ethnic Albanians, some of whom were clearly civilians.
Today, with more than
400 dead and an estimated 231,000 internal refugees across Kosovo, villagers
in Likosane have focused on survival. More than 100 refugees are crammed
into the local school building.
"Many of the children
are sick," says Sinan Simanaj, a refugee from the nearby village of Acarevo
who was overseeing the makeshift camp. He says the homes of most of the
refugees were destroyed during the recent Serbian offensive, in which the
rebels lost almost all of the land they once held.
Not far away, a white
four-wheel-drive truck barrels over the bumpy dirt roads. It stops to pull
over a visitor's car, and the truck's driver, a bearded KLA commander,
questions journalists - but not with the bravado that the KLA used to have.
The Serbs have rolled
through the region in the past month and part of their mission has been
to crush civilian support for the guerrillas. They have done so by burning
buildings, destroying crops, and killing farm animals.
Politically, the KLA
has recently thrown in its lot with Adem Demaci, a fringe politician who
has the reputation of being more a critic than a leader.
Mr. Demaci, a political
prisoner for nearly three decades, has been a longtime rival of Rugova.
But he has never been able to garner the support of the populace or the
international community.
While Rugova has consistently
stood behind a nonviolent approach, Demaci has at times espoused armed
resistance.
The Serbs, led by Slobodan
Milosevic, revoked Kosovo's autonomy in 1989. Since then they have controlled
the region's 2 million people as if Kosovo were a military state. It was
not until this year that the 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority took up
arms.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, August 20, 1998
Kosovo Warfare Imperils Macedonia's Fragile Peace
Balkans: Regional instability only fuels internal
friction between country's ethnic Slavs, Albanians.
By RICHARD BOUDREAUX, Times Staff Writer
OHRID, Macedonia--Kiro Gligorov is due to retire
next year with a claim to Balkan fame: He's the only statesman who led
his people to independence from the Yugoslav federation without a shot
fired.
But with combat raging
in what's left of Yugoslavia, Macedonia's 81-year-old president admits
to worrying about whether that legacy will outlive him.
"The situation at the
moment does not permit me to be calm and assured," Gligorov said here at
his breezy lakeside presidential villa--an escape from the heat of Skopje,
the capital, but not from the hourly updates he gets on the fighting in
Kosovo province next door.
Outlining a worst-case
scenario, he said he fears that warfare between Yugoslav military forces
and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian separatists could spill across the border,
swamping Macedonia and its 2 million people with up to 100,000 Albanian
refugees.
"In light of our economic
capacities, this would be excruciating for us," Gligorov said. Tensions
between his country's ruling Slavic majority and restive Albanian minority
could turn violent, he added. "This is something I am constantly preoccupied
with."
According to recent
bulletins on the president's desk, the 5-month-old conflict in Kosovo is
starting to tear at this landlocked mountain country's borders and its
fragile sense of security.
Macedonia borders Kosovo--a
province of Serbia, the dominant of Yugoslavia's two remaining republics--as
well as Albania, Greece and Bulgaria. The ethnic Albanians fighting for
independence make up 90% of Kosovo's population. They have relatives in
Albania, where the guerrillas have sanctuaries, and in the heavily Albanian
settlements of northwest Macedonia.
In late July, about
80 smugglers hauling weapons from Albania on a mule train exchanged gunfire
with Macedonian border guards for more than two hours before turning back.
It was the boldest apparent attempt yet--one of several reported each week--to
move guns across Macedonia to the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, whose more
direct supply routes over the Albania-Kosovo border are under Yugoslav
attack.
The Yugoslav army has
reacted by mining Kosovo's border with Macedonia in several places, a Macedonian
defense official said. Norwegian troops of the U.N. Preventive Deployment
Force, in Macedonia to discourage such acts, found seven land mines in
two places along the border this month.
Nine bombs have exploded
harmlessly in Macedonia since December, most of them at police stations
and at an army barracks. Gligorov, who survived an unsolved bombing attack
in 1995 but lost his right eye, said he suspects that the recent explosions
"have the aim of sending us a message that similar developments in Macedonia
as those in Kosovo are possible."
At Gligorov's request,
the U.N. Security Council has extended by six months--until Feb. 28--the
U.N. force's mission to monitor Macedonia's borders. It is also adding
300 troops to the force, now made up of 750 troops from the United States
and four Scandinavian countries.
The Macedonian leader
helped win peaceful independence in 1991 by renouncing claims to all property
of Yugoslavia's 3rd Army and negotiating its removal from his new nation.
Having avoided the ethnic wars that bloodied the independence of former
Yugoslav republics Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and to a much lesser
extent Slovenia, Gligorov is trying to keep the peace with a 15,000-strong
Macedonian defense force built from scratch on U.S. aid and close ties
with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
But it is Macedonia's
internal friction that makes violence across the border so threatening.
Critics fault Gligorov for failing to achieve tolerant coexistence between
Slavic Macedonians, who make up about two-thirds of the population, and
Albanians, who make up at least 23% and say they feel like second-class
citizens.
"We didn't suffer the
Balkan wars, but we didn't learn anything from them either. Our leaders
behave in the same ways," said Iso Rusi, a columnist for the weekly magazine
Focus. "We have been lucky so far, but there's a feeling here that we're
living in a temporary country."
Born to a Macedonian
mother and an Albanian father, Rusi, 47, is sensitive to Macedonia's divide,
which ethnic nationalism has widened over the past two decades. "We live
in closed circles of Macedonians and Albanians with large spaces in between,"
he said. "It's not so comfortable to be just a citizen."
Political parties, women's
groups and even human rights agencies form along ethnic lines. Children
study in ethnically segregated classrooms, usually in different shifts.
Of 14,000 marriages registered in Macedonia in 1996, only 22 joined Albanians
and Macedonians.
In Skopje, most Macedonians
live south of the Vardar River and shop in Western-style malls. Most Albanians
live north of the river and go to the Bit Bazaar, a Middle Eastern-style
warren of outdoor stalls.
The city does boast
a mixed philharmonic orchestra. But few multiethnic institutions achieve
much harmony.
Macedonia's army, for
example, is plagued by fistfights between Albanian and Macedonian conscripts,
veterans from both sides say. They even wear different uniforms--drab Yugoslav
leftovers for Albanians, new camouflage for Macedonians.
Some question whether
the army, which is 25% Albanian, could hold together under real pressure.
Nadi Terzia, 21, who served last year, said he and other Albanian conscripts
repeatedly refused orders by Macedonian officers to open fire on Albanians
trying to sneak across the border.
The government's ability
to cope with ethnic conflict got its biggest test last summer. Ethnic Macedonian
police officers pulled down an Albanian flag from the City Hall in Gostivar,
a mostly Albanian town, and crushed a local demonstration, killing three
Albanians and injuring 186.
A parliamentary panel
that included Albanian lawmakers found that the police were justified in
taking action but used excessive force. The government quietly dismissed
two Interior Ministry officials and six police officers but ignored the
panel's recommendation to prosecute them--leaving Albanians with a sense
of unfinished justice.
Macedonia is calm this
year, and its long-depressed economy is finally growing, but news from
Kosovo has sharpened the ethnic divide.
Ethnic Macedonians sitting
in outdoor cafes read Serbian accounts of the war and gloat over Yugoslav
victories. Albanians in other cafes read Albanian-language propaganda for
the Kosovo separatist cause. According to one survey, more than half the
ethnic Albanians in Macedonia would support a family member joining Kosovo's
guerrilla army.
The two groups also
differ over whether Macedonia, which is sheltering about 2,000 Kosovo refugees,
should accept larger numbers.
"What I'm worried about
is a long-range polarization where the Albanian community here comes more
in line with the radicalized Kosovo Albanian community and where the ethnic
Macedonian community lines up more behind the tough Serb response," said
a Western diplomat in Skopje.
So far, however, Macedonia
is less polarized than Kosovo, where Albanians boycott all government institutions
and elections to protest Serbian police repression.
Gligorov brought Albanians
into his first Cabinet, and they now hold five of the 20 posts. In return
for the promise of minority rights and a fair share of government jobs,
moderate Albanian leaders here set aside their demand for autonomy.
Seven years later, they
are disappointed. A private university formed by the Albanian community
in 1994 has yet to gain government recognition, leaving the 300 men and
women of its first graduating class without credentials for public service.
Albanians account for no more than 3% of all police and no more than 5%
of all government workers.
Western officials in
Macedonia expect no progress on inter-ethnic issues before parliamentary
elections in October. They say the election campaign has hardened positions
on both sides.
But they note that the
most radical Albanian political party, which is not represented in the
Cabinet, is running in the election and denying any separatist aims.
"We accept the existence
of the Macedonian state, but we want to share in it and not live in a ghetto,"
said the party's leader, Arben Xhaferi. He warned, however, that Albanians'
loyalty to the state would crumble if all-out fighting spilled from Kosovo
into Macedonia.
"In that case, we don't
give a damn about Macedonia," he said. "If our brothers in Kosovo are being
eliminated, we would join the war. Macedonia wouldn't stand a chance."
Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Serbian Attacks Turn Villagers Into Refugees
By Stacy Sullivan and Guy Dinmore
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, August 20, 1998; Page A20
VRANOC, Yugoslavia—The old woman sitting on a
wool blanket near a stream outside this village in western Kosovo said
she wanted to tell her story, but when she started recounting what had
driven her into the woods to hide, she started to cry.
Until last week, Fatmira,
75, lived with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and six grandchildren
in Ratish, a village near the city of Pec. Then Serbian forces attacked
the town.
Fatmira's 80-year-old
husband was too weak to flee and said he would rather die in his home than
on the run. So Fatmira, her daughter-in-law and grandchildren loaded a
tractor with whatever they could and fled to a neighboring village, while
her son took to the hills to fight with the Kosovo Liberation Army, the
rebel band seeking independence for this Serbian-dominated republic of
Yugoslavia where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbians 9 to 1. But somewhere
in the confusion of flight, Fatmira got separated from the rest of her
family.
"My husband is surely
dead, and I don't know the fate of my grandchildren," she said. "I never
thought I would end up alone in the forest at 75." Fatmira, who asked that
her last name not be used, and about 500 other refugees are now camping
along a riverbank in tents made of plastic and tree branches.
A six-month-old Serbian
military offensive has routed guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army
from large swaths of western and southwestern Kosovo. It also has spawned
a refugee crisis that international aid officials say could become a humanitarian
catastrophe as another Balkan winter approaches.
The U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees estimates that about 230,000 people -- more than 10 percent
of the population -- have been forced from their homes since late February.
About half of them have sought shelter with friends or relatives, but an
estimated 100,000 are stranded in hills and valleys, and aid organizations
say they are ill-equipped to provide adequate assistance to them.
"The scale of the emergency
is way beyond the ability of the relief agencies to deal with it," said
Paul Kirwan, director of emergency operations for the International Rescue
Committee.
The U.N. refugee agency
estimates that 20,000 refugees, living under trees or in crowded farmhouses,
are trapped in western Kosovo, surrounded by government forces. Surrounding
villages are still smoldering from an attack that began on Saturday when
helicopters and jets of the Yugoslav air force attacked their homes near
Pec, a garrison city.
"They shell the villages
to make civilians flee," said Brim Sokalaj, 57, a builder. "Then come the
tanks. They loot and put everything in trucks and then set fire to the
houses."
In the surrounding fields,
corn is waiting to be harvested but villagers are too afraid to go back.
The rotting carcasses of cattle and burned-out haystacks give testimony
to what diplomats call the "scorched-earth" tactics of the Serbians as
they try to eradicate popular support for the guerrillas.
The refugees camping
out with Fatmira, many of them children, had some pots and pans, some wood
from the village, onions and peppers. Some had brought mattresses and other
supplies with them. But aid workers say most of those in the hills do not
have access to safe drinking water, and they fear epidemics of diarrhea,
cholera and typhus.
"It will take a massive
effort to keep these people alive where they are at the moment," said Richard
Acland, a field officer for the U.N. refugee agency.
Although agencies such
as the International Red Cross and International Rescue Committee have
delivered convoys of flour, oil, water-purification tablets and other supplies,
none of the refugees interviewed said they had received any aid. "We've
only reached a drop in the ocean, and we're typical," Kirwan said.
A local cease-fire was
negotiated by the Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission around Pec on Monday,
giving aid agencies a chance to bring in doctors and supplies. They were
hampered, however, by poor roads, bad maps and an inability to communicate
with one another because the Yugoslav government forbids the use of two-way
radios.
Musa Berisha, a local
human-rights activist, said he was trying to secure agreement for a corridor
to evacuate the refugees out of Kosovo, either to the small Yugoslav republic
of Montenegro to the west, or south to Albania and Macedonia.
The rebels, however,
want the local population to stay put while Western diplomats fear that
a mass exodus of refugees would further destabilize neighboring countries.
Tim Boucher, mission
head for Doctors Without Borders, said the relief organization is making
plans for winter shelter for refugees. But many aid workers acknowledge
the international response to the crisis has been slow and claim it has
been badly coordinated by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The
U.N. agency contends it is understaffed and poorly funded.
Relief workers estimate
that up to 1 million people in Kosovo will need aid this winter unless
the situation improves soon. Western governments, already struggling to
cope with more than 2 million refugees left over from the break-up of the
former Yugoslavia, are unwilling to foot the bill.
In addition to those
camped outside, nearly every household in western Kosovo has swelled to
several times its normal size as tens of thousands of the displaced seek
shelter with family or friends.
In normal times Vranoc
is home to about 1,000 people, but it is now providing shelter to more
than 6,000. It was attacked by Serb forces at the end of May, and several
grenades have landed in the village over the past few days. The town has
been without electricity or water for nearly two weeks, and residents fear
it may come under attack again.
"We've taken in all
we can," said a resident, Shefaet Krasniqi, 24. "We're starting to run
short of food and supplies."
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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