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Betreff:         [ALBANEWS] Info: White House Report-Kosova.
Datum:         Thu, 1 Oct 1998 13:44:46 -0400
    Von:         Sokol Rama <sokolrama@sprynet.com>

01 October 1998
WHITE HOUSE REPORT, OCTOBER 1, 1998
(Kosovo)  (700)

CLINTON'S TOP FOREIGN POLICY TEAM TO BRIEF SENATE ON KOSOVO

     President Clinton's top foreign policy team was to brief the US Senate on the situation in the Balkans in closed session late in the afternoon of October 1, McCurry said.
     Briefing the Senators will be Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen, National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Ralston.
     "They will brief on our understanding of whether or not" Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic "has met the commitments that he's publicly said he would make to the status of his compliance, as we understand it, with UN Security Council Resolution 1194," McCurry said.
     They will also brief the Senate "on prepatory work that's been conducted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in recent weeks and the action that has been under consideration at the meetings in the last day or two of the North Atlantic Council (NAC)."
     Senator John Warner, (Republican-Virginia) a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked that administration officials conduct the classified briefing for the Senate.
     "There has been extensive consultation" by administration foreign policy principals with the leadership of Congress and others on Kosovo, McCurry said, "but we are at a fairly critical moment. The activation warning has been made to allied capitals by NATO.
     "The next step in the process would be an activation request in which forces would be provided for a pending military action. That is a serious piece of business. Because the US leads NATO and because we have obligations there, it would involve -- one way or another -- putting people in harm's way, and that's a very serious obligation."
     "As horrible as the slaughter" was of the family over the weekend in the Kosovo village of Gornje Obrinje, there have been thousands of others in Kosovo killed "by artillery attacks, by mortar fire -- and perhaps as many as 250,000 have been displaced by fighting because of the Serb security forces. The momentum for addressing this aggressively was building in the Security Council before these reports of this horrible incident over the weekend," McCurry said. "This horrible event underscores the importance of that work that had been under way all along."
     The contingency planning being done by NATO under the direction of the Supreme Allied Commander has been "very precise and very focused on the mission at hand," the Press Secretary said. As described in Brussels by Secretary General Solana, the planning "has been focused on air options," McCurry said.
     Asked if diplomatic discussions had been exhausted, McCurry said "there continues to be discussions at fairly high levels with Belgrade authorities. US Ambassador Christopher Hill has remained fully engaged with the Contact Group, which has been having a series of meetings on the situation in Kosovo, and the larger question of the compliance with the Dayton Accords in Bosnia and the aftermath of the elections in Bosnia."
     Asked what Milosevic has to do to stop NATO from acting, McCurry said "he has to fully comply with UN Security Resolution 1194 which insists upon an immediate ceasefire; withdrawal of Serb security forces; immediate access for international humanitarian relief groups; immediate negotiations with the Kosovar Albanians."
     "There can be no doubt that the international community intends to fulfill those obligations," McCurry said.
     "He needs to act very quickly to remove the security forces that have been deployed in Kosovo, who could very likely be responsible for some of the atrocities that have been committed there," McCurry said.
     The British, who currently chair the UN Security Council, have called an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Kosovo for late in the afternoon of October 1.
     Asked if there are any nations on the Security Council opposed to NATO's plans, McCurry said Russia, because of its historic ties to the Serbs has had "a profound reluctance to consider military options, but recent statements by Russian authorities indicate that they understand the failure of Milosevic to meet the terms of the Security Council resolution that Russia voted for."

30 September 1998
UNITED NATIONS REPORT, SEPTEMBER 30, 1998
(Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq) (690)

ANNAN "OUTRAGED" AT KOSOVO MASSACRE

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, "outraged" over reports of atrocities in Kosovo by witnesses, said the incidents were "particularly shocking" since Yugoslavia had denied such actions during a meeting with him yesterday, a UN spokesman said September 30.
     Annan had met with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic September 29. The Yugoslav said at a news conference following the meeting that the fighting in Kosovo had stopped.
     UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said that "the Secretary General is outraged by eyewitness reports of atrocities perpetrated by security forces in Kosovo under the authority of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."
     "The Secretary General utterly condemns these actions and renews his strong representations to the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, made directly to the foreign minister to desist from repeating them," Eckhard said.
     The United Kingdom, which assumes the presidency of the UN Security Council October 1, has called a meeting of the council for the afternoon of October 1 to discuss developments.
     While Yugoslav authorities have the right to maintain public order, the actions of Kosovar Albanian separatist extremists "can never justify the pattern of terror, including the burning of houses, looting, killing of livestock and wanton killing that have been reported these past few days," the Secretary General said in a statement issued through his spokesman.
     "Such actions are totally unacceptable to the international community. It is the duty of security forces to protect citizens, not to intimidate them," Eckhard said.
     The Secretary General "once again calls upon all parties to cease violence and to concentrate on the search for a negotiated solution to the crisis in Kosovo according to law," the spokesman said

30 September 1998
WHITE HOUSE REPORT, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1998
(India/Pakistan trip, Kosovo, Malaysia, Iraq) (1130)

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry answered reporters' questions
at early morning and early afternoon sessions.

MCCURRY COMMENTS ON ATROCITIES IN KOSOVO

With respect to reports of a massacre of civilians in a pine forest in Kosovo, McCurry said it is important that "international forensic experts be allowed to inquire further on these events. But these atrocities are part and parcel of the horror that has been underway in the Balkans for years, and in Kosovo since Serb authorities moved in a very dangerous and very outrageous way against those Kosovar Albanians who are attempting to get some freedom of expression with respect to their own political rights.
     "That has led to the actions that you're familiar with both at the United Nations in the Security Council, and the work that NATO is doing even today with respect to additional measures which might be under consideration if Milosevic, the Belgrade authorities fail to heed and comply with the requirements put forward by the Security Council."
     McCurry said "last week, in furtherance of the UN Security Council resolution, NATO took the final step necessary to begin preparing for action," in Kosovo. He added that discussions are underway about the next steps to be considered if the effort to bring about some diplomatic resolution fails and to ensure that the Serbs honor their pledge to comply with the Security Council resolution to withdraw their security forces from Kosovo.
     NATO and "the use of military force as an option should come if we've exhausted the efforts to resolve this on diplomatically," said McCurry.
     "There is a high degree of resolve both within the Security Council and within the Alliance to see that we deal with what is going to be an unspeakable tragedy, especially as winter proceeds -- what is already an unspeakable tragedy," he said.
     The United States wishes to "see the Serbian authorities take the steps necessary to remove security forces from Kosovo and to allow those who are now displaced to safely return to their homes," said McCurry. He added that "the President is well satisfied that NATO has been doing the hard work necessary to prepare for other options, should they need to be considered."

Taken without permission, for fair use only.

New Kosovo Killings Alleged as Diplomats Urge Massacre

Bonn Welcomes UN Moves on Kosovo Massacre Reports

Solana Asks U.N. to Send Milosevic ''Clear Message''

UK Pressing for Armed Action Over Kosovo Massacres

Administration Briefs Senate as it Prepares for Possible Action in

Force Must Not Be Used to Solve Kosovo Problem -Russian diplomat.

__________________________________________________

New Kosovo Killings Alleged as Diplomats Urge Massacre
AP   01-OCT-98

GOLUBOVAC, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Reports of massacres of ethnic Albanian civilians in the embattled province of Kosovo have heightened the likelihood of NATO airstrikes against military targets in Yugoslavia.
     Britain has called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, and the United States and other leading powers were to meet today at U.N. headquarters to discuss the fighting that has left hundreds dead and forced at least 275,000 to flee.
     On Wednesday, residents of Golubovac said Serb forces surrounded a pocket of refugees last Saturday and singled out at least 13 men to kill. They said the victims were already buried, but pointed to saucer-sized pools of dried blood and empty cartridges in front of a fence where they said the refugees were shot.
     Farmer Naim Hodzaj said in addition to the executions, Serb police had killed several other men individually, including his 37-year-old brother Ramadan, who was doused with gasoline and set on fire. His brother's burned body lay on a path on the edge of the woods.
     Earlier this week, diplomats, journalists and human rights workers saw as many as 18 mutilated bodies in nearby Obrija, five miles north of Golubovac, including those of women and children.
     The mass killings last weekend in the Drenica region, where Serb-led forces are trying to crush ethnic Albanian rebels, are among the most gruesome developments since the offensive began in February. The rebel Kosovo Liberation Army is seeking independence for Kosovo, whose population is mostly ethnic Albanian.
     "We rule out any possibility that our members did something like this," Serb police Col. Bozidar Filic said. "In that area, we had clashes with terrorists and a number of them have been arrested."
     There was no way to corroborate the ethnic Albanian accounts. Both sides have been accused of massacres in Kosovo.
     Britain and Austria urged an international investigation into what Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel called the "bestial" massacre at Obrija, which the Serbs call Gornje Obrinje.
     "This was not an act of war, it was plain cold murder," British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said later in calling for the Security Council meeting.
     The government's Tanjug news agency called Western reports a "media farce," and said the Obrija killing was staged to generate more pressure on Serbia, the main republic in Yugoslavia.
     Serb authorities promised earlier this week that troops would retreat to their barracks after claiming victory over the KLA.
     A U.N. spokesman in Belgrade said fighting was still going on near Suva Reka, southwest of Pristina, but the pullback was continuing. "It appears there is a methodical, gradual withdrawal of the military under way," said the spokesman, who gave his name as J. Carter.
     Only occasional gunshots could be heard in Drenica. But Fernando del Mundo of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said he saw Serb troops coming out of a western village where houses were ablaze.
     The pro-Serb Media Center reported that attackers from Albania ambushed Yugoslav army border forces northwest of Djakovica. There was no immediate information on casualties.

Copyright 1998& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

Bonn Welcomes UN Moves on Kosovo Massacre Reports
Reuters   01-OCT-98

BONN, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Germany's outgoing Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel on Thursday welcomed Britain's request for an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to weigh what to do about reports of massacres of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
     But Germany's future ruling alliance of Social Democrats and ecologist Greens, now meeting to hammer out a coalition pact, look as though they might disagree over how Bonn should respond to moves toward military intervention in Kosovo.
     British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said London would seek agreement of the international community for military action against the authorities of Yugoslavia.
     "The latest eyewitness reports about atrocities of Yugoslav security forces against civilians in Kosovo are deeply shocking," Kinkel said in a ministry statement.
     "As far as we know, these were not against armed Kosovo Liberation Army rebels but the cold-blooded murders of innocent children, women, men-- all civilians who had been trying to escape."
     Kinkel did not comment on Cook's specific aim-- a pact to allow long-deliberated military action to go ahead.
     He said he was in constant contact with his counterparts in the Big Powers' Contact Group which includes the United States, Britain, France, Russia and Italy, to consider how to proceed. Top diplomats from the group meet in London on Friday.
     Germany's outgoing centre-right government will remain in power as caretakers another few weeks until the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens complete their coalition accord.
     Gerhard Schroeder's SPD, swept to power in general elections on Sunday, have sought to reassure Germany's western partners that Bonn's foreign policy will remain consistent.
     SPD foreign affairs spokesman Guenter Verheugen, seen as a possible future defence minister, has said that under certain circumstances the party might agree to NATO action without a mandate from the five-nation Security Council.
     But the Greens, the SPD's aspiring junior coalition partners who grew out of the 1960s pacifist movement, ruled out military action as long as Security Council members Russia and China continued to veto such action.
     "If we pursue this path (without mandate), we would have nothing to fall back on," Angelika Beer, the Greens defence spokeswoman, told Berlin-based Deutschlandradio.
     "When one decides not to take the international community seriously, then it is just as if the Americans decide without a mandate to bomb a pharmaceuticals factory they suspect is making poison gas," she said, referring to bombings in Sudan in retaliating for attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa.
     Beer criticised outgoing Defence Minister Volker Ruehe for hinting at possible military action without such a mandate. But she omitted to mention that her future SPD partners in government had also suggested the same.
     Kinkel, unlike Ruehe, has insisted that the international community needs a U.N. mandate for any military action.
     In response to a NATO request, Germany has formally offered NATO 14 Tornado aircraft and 500 soldiers for use in any military intervention to stop fighting in Kosovo, a province of Serbia within federal Yugoslavia.
     The Greens, founded in 1979 as an umbrella for disparate peace, ecological and left-wing groups, proposed to disband NATO early in its campaign, but recently softened its line to say it would only seek to reorganise the body.

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

Solana Asks U.N. to Send Milosevic ''Clear Message''
Reuters  01-OCT-98

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct 1 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary General Javier Solana appealed to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to send a "very clear message" to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to stop his military crackdown in Kosovo.
     In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the Azeri capital Baku, Solana said it was clear that Milosevic was not complying with a United Nations resolution passed last week demanding a halt to fighting.
     "I would like to see that the members of the Security Council recognise that Milosevic is not complying with the previous resolution and that a very clear message has to be given to President Milosevic that he has to stop immediately, and comply with the U.N. resolution," he said.
     Solana, speaking during a tour of former Soviet republics of the Caucasus region, said he could not predict whether Russia would support any kind of ultimatum, but indicated he thought Moscow might fall into line.
     "I cannot tell what would be the postion of Russia, but I think that the activities that have taken place in Kosovo deserve a common reaction of the international community, and I am sure that Russia would not be isolated if the massacres we have seen become true," he said.
     Britain wants an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council convened later on Thursday to look into the alleged massacre of more than 30 Albanian civilians in Kosovo by Serbian security forces.
     Belgrade has denied responsibility for the killings.
     Thursday's council meeting is unlikely to go further than an initial condemnation of the massacres. Any addition action must await a report next week by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on whether Milosevic has been complying with the U.N. resolution.
     The Security Council resolution demanded that Milosevic call a ceasefire in Kosovo, pull out troops and start serious dialogue on real autonomy for the province, where ethnic Albanians make up about 90 percent of the population.
     Russia, which opposes NATO intervention due to traditional ties with its fellow-Orthodox Christian Slavs in Serbia, supported the resolution, but said any intervention would require further authorisation by the Secruty Council.
     Solana said NATO was ready to intervene if called upon.
     "NATO is prepared to act, it has a plan and it has the means assembled to do it, so from a technical point of view NATO is prepared to act if the international community and the situation on the ground is such that action is needed," he said.
     "We are prepared to act to stop a massacre, if that were the case, and also to help the political solution, to promote the political solution that we think is the only way to stop this conflict."
     Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

UK Pressing for Armed Action Over Kosovo Massacres
Reuters   01-OCT-98

BLACKPOOL, England, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday it was seeking international community agreement for military action against Yugolslav authorities after two recent massacres of ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo province.
     Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told BBC radio: "Next week we get the (United Nations) report, next week if that report makes clear that (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic is not complying with the Security Council resolution, then NATO is ready to act with air strikes."
     Britain on Wednesday called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the massacres.
     "Britain is ready to act. We now to seek the agreement of the international community," Cook added. NATO was completing plans for possible military action. Those possible attacks "may not stop in Kosovo," Cook said, hinting that air strikes may extend to other targets in Serbia.
     Belgrade has denied responsibility for the killings at the weekend of 30 Albanians at two sites in Kosovo and said its military operation against ethnic Albanian separatists is over.
     Britain is calling for a report from the Secretary General of the United Nations on the massacres by early next week: "That report can provide the basis for the next step," Cook said.
     He said the Yugoslav authorities continued to fall short of the U.N. resolution passed last week which demanded an immediate halt to fighting in Kosovo and negotiations to resolve the crisis in Serbia's mainly ethnic Albanian province.
     "The central part of that resolution, whilst calling for the immediate stop of hostilities...is we've got to have a political solution. Unless Milosevic gets down to dialogue, he will not have complied with that resolution," he said.

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________

Administration Briefs Senate as it Prepares for Possible Action in
AP   01-OCT-98

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Clinton administration, laying the groundwork for possible NATO military intervention in Kosovo, is briefing senators on Serb atrocities against ethnic Albanians and on international efforts to stop the slaughter.
     "Clearly, the clock is ticking," State Department spokesman James Foley said Wednesday after Secretary of State Madeleine Albright endorsed a British call for a special U.N. Security Council meeting today to deal with repression in Kosovo.
     Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen and Sandy Berger, the president's national security adviser, were scheduled to give senators a closed-door briefing late today in a secure room at the Capitol.
     NATO has completed plans for possible airstrikes to halt Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's troops, who have since February been fighting a guerrilla movement seeking independence for the Serbian province. The pressure to act increased this week upon discovery of fresh massacres by Serbian security forces of 18 ethnic Albanians, including women and children.
     "This was not an act of war. It was plain cold murder," British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said from Blackpool, England, as he called for a special Security Council meeting.
     U.S. officials also were talking tough, noting that Milosevic has ignored a U.N. resolution approved by the Security Council a week ago calling for a cease-fire and for withdrawal of Serbian troops and threatening the use of force if fighting continues.
     Foley conceded that Serbs have withdrawn some military units from Kosovo but said other units have rotated into the province.
     "We certainly have no evidence of a net drawdown of forces," Foley said, adding, "The actual decision to use force, though, may not be far away if indeed the situation doesn't change rapidly."
     On Capitol Hill, lawmakers have expressed frustration that action hasn't already been taken against Milosevic, who also is accused of atrocities during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.
     Further, GOP leaders contend that President Clinton's credibility overseas has been undermined due to the Monica Lewinsky affair, and that enemies will continue to test the United States.
     Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., is among congressional leaders who have called for a firmer U.S. stance in Kosovo.
     "He's expressed his concerns about what's going on in Kosovo," said a spokeswoman Susan Irby. "He agrees with (former) Senator (Bob) Dole."
     Last week, Dole, the former majority leader and Clinton's GOP opponent in 1996, said NATO allies must use "major force" against the Serbs if Yugoslav authorities don't agree to a cease-fire in Kosovo and withdraw their military and police by a set date.
     The time is overdue for the United States to embrace a policy that will end the "reign of terror" of Milosevic, Dole said in a speech. "Let me be clear," he said, "the only language Milosevic understands is force."
     A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. officials also are losing patience in seeking a diplomatic solution.
     "As it becomes apparent that President Milosevic is not getting the message to stop the violence, military action is becoming more likely," said the official. "NATO has finished its plans. ... We're entering a real critical phase."
     Still, the official did not say military intervention was imminent. And military planners at the Pentagon, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said there is a dilemma about what to do after initial NATO airstrikes, which would likely first take out Serb anti-aircraft batteries.
     "What are the military targets after that?" asked one defense official. "You can go after the tanks, but then the Serb forces can hide in the mountains."
     That could further endanger thousands of the more than 275,000 refugees who have fled the fighting, including many living in makeshift tents with winter on the way.

Copyright 1998& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
---------------

Force Must Not Be Used to Solve Kosovo Problem Diplomat.
Itar-Tass   01-OCT-98

MOSCOW, October 1 (Itar-Tass) - A high-ranking official of the Russian foreign ministry expressed Russia's stand on the settlement of the Kosovo issue. "Russia believes the Kosovo problem cannot be solved through the use of force. UN Security Council Resolution No. 1199 does not sanction the use of force and there cannot be any ambiguous interpretations in this context," said director of the Russian foreign ministry press and information department Vladimir Rakhmanin.
     Rakhmanin told a briefing that the main task today is the implementation of Resolution No.1199 of the UN Security Council.
     "It is necessary to join efforts and influence the conflicting sides so that they immediately cease hostilities, take necessary measures to overcome the humanitarian crisis, immediately start a dialogue without preliminary conditions for an earliest political settlement," Rakhmanin said.
     Ambassadors of the member-countries of the Contact Group on the former Yugoslavia conveyed this stand to Belgrade and Pristina this week. "It is necessary to proceed from the fact that Resolution 1199 is really a serious warning, but it is a serious warning to Belgrade, to Pristina and to those who encourage terrorism," Rakhmanin said.
     The situation around Kosovo remains very difficult and causes a serious concern, he said. "On the one hand, NATO continues studying versions of the use of force in the Balkans. Regrettably, there is such a danger. On the other hand, the diplomat said, the Serbian prime minister said about the withdrawal of the law-and-order forces to places of their permanent stationing.
     International observers monitor the situation on the spot, they register the troops withdrawal and movement."
     There was a tragic incident in Kosovo: fifteen civilians were killed, including six children and a pregnant woman. The murder of innocent people deserves a most resolute accusation, Rakhmanin said. The tragedy is being investigated by international observers, including Russian ones, but there is no full picture yet, he believes.
     In connection with this incident, Britain demanded a convocation of a special session of the UN Security Council. The Contact Group is to meet in London on Friday. Russia will be represented by the special envoy for a settlement in the former Yugoslavia Boris Mayorsky.
     It is planned next week the UN secretary general will submit a report on the progress of the implementation of the resolutions No 1160 and No 1199.
     It is necessary to seriously resist any manifestations of terrorism and discontinue its support from the outside.
     The subject of terrorism was emphatically discussed at the ministerial week at the session of the UN General Assembly when all participants in the world community were resolutely against any manifestation of terrorism, and favoured joint struggle with this evil, Rakhmanin said.

      Click below TO SEE the NEW YORK TIMES' PHOTO ESSAY ON THE LATEST VICTIMIZATION OF THE ALBANIANS BY THE SERB COLONIZING MILITARY MACHINE.

http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/093098kosovo-massacre.1.htm

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Taken without permission, for fair use only.

September 30, 1998
New Massacres by Serb Forces in Kosovo Villages
By JANE PERLEZ

GORNJI OBRINJE, Yugoslavia -- The bodies of 15 women, children and elderly members of the Deliaj clan lay slumped among the rocks and streams of the gorge below their village in Kosovo province Tuesday, shot in the head at close range and in some cases mutilated as they tried to escape advancing Serbian forces.
     In village houses, three men, including Fazli Deliaj, the 95-year-old patriarch, who was paralyzed, were burned to death by Serbs who torched the buildings.
     Down the dirt track a few miles at Donji Obrinje, three more elderly people lay dead on their backs in their gardens, shot in the head as they apparently came out to plead for their lives. Ali Kolludra, 62, still gripped his hooked walking stick Tuesday as he lay dead on the ground.
     Local villagers said the massacre took place on Saturday morning, two days after the village came under siege by the Yugoslav army and the police of Serbia, the republic that makes up the major part of Yugoslavia and includes Kosovo.
     On Monday, monitors from the United States and the European Union inspected the bodies of the Deliaj clan in the gorge. That night they submitted a graphic written report of what they saw to their embassies in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital.
     Besides the 21 dead in the neighboring villages, there were other deaths four miles away in Golubovac. A survivor there showed a reporter the pools of blood left by a separate attack on Saturday that he said left 13 dead.
     The killings appeared to show as definitively as anything that the forces of the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, have been conducting a campaign of terror and destruction against ethnic Albanian civilians which is intended to intimidate them, but which appears instead to be inspiring even stronger defiance.
     Senior officials in Washington and at NATO last week stepped up their threats of military force against Milosevic and demanded that his forces stop their rampage.
     The Serbian government, whose driving force is Milosevic, announced on Monday that it had ended its tank and artillery offensive against separatist guerrillas in Kosovo. But ambassadors visiting Kosovo Tuesday from Belgrade said they saw no sign that the army and police had withdrawn to barracks.
     Here in the lower Drenica Valley, where the Kosovo Liberation Army has been most resilient, it appeared that the executions were intended to send a particularly stark message of terror before winter sets in and the Serbian forces face more difficulty in moving around. The spate of killings on Saturday appeared to occur as Serbian forces wound up their current operations in the area.
     A State Department official in Washington said that American diplomats, including Defense Department personnel, had seen the bodies and reported their observations, but that they "are not forensic experts."
     The American special envoy for Kosovo, Ambassador Christopher Hill, told CNN that "there have been a number of these reports" of massacres. "This is a very brutal conflict," he said. "It's one more reason why we need to get international forensic experts in there," to better judge the causes of the deaths.
     About 250,000 ethnic Albanians -- who outnumber Serbs nine to one in Kosovo -- have been forced from their homes since the spring. Many of their homes were burned and looted by the Serbs.
     Western governments and human rights groups say they cannot definitively enumerate the number of civilians -- on either the ethnic Albanian or the Serbian side -- executed since the start of the conflict in March. But Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, is scheduled to issue a report that documents two major incidents, in the villages of Prekaz, Likoshe and Cirez, where Serbian forces shot 80 Albanian civilians in the spring.
     At the site of the other execution, in Golubovac, Adem Hoxhaj, 63, described to a reporter Tuesday how 13 men were lined up against the fence of his house on Saturday morning and shot with a machine gun from a mound of earth about 10 feet away. There were separate pools of blood for each body along the fence Tuesday and the casings of about 80 bullets on the mound.
     Hoxhaj said the men, between 18 and 35 years old, were all brought to his house by Serbian police from the nearby forest where they had been hiding. The rest of the villagers were also brought in from the forest but were herded into a house and detained, he said.
     Hoxhaj said he escaped from the house and could see the execution from hedges on the other side of the garden. His description fit closely with that given to diplomats Tuesday by another survivor, whose account they said they considered "very credible."
     In Gornji Obrinje Tuesday, the bodies of the dead were slowly being brought up from the gorge. Two of the ethnic Albanian men arranging the burial wore holsters with pistols.
     From the way some of the bodies lay on a rocky path, it was evident that the women and children had tried to escape and had run straight into police. Zahide Deliaj, 27, lay on the rocks, shot in the face, and behind lay her two daughters, Gentiana, 7, and Donieta, 5, their yellow rubber boots still on their feet.
     A few feet behind Mrs. Deliaj, on the same path, lay Mejhane Deliaj, 27, and her 4-year-old daughter, Menduhije. Behind her lay Lumnije Deliaj, 30, who relatives said was seven months pregnant. Her abdomen had been slit open.
     The report by the diplomatic monitors, who include former military officers, was very precise in its descriptions of how the women and children were shot at close range.
     The monitors also said in their report that they found an elderly couple "heavily mutilated." The report said, "The man was decapitated, his brain removed and left 'displayed' beside his wife's corpse." The woman's throat had been slit and her left foot mutilated in an apparent attempt to cut it off, the monitors noted.
     On Tuesday, a puddle of blood remained on the foam mattress where the woman, Hava Deliaj, 68, was found, and the brain of Pajazit Deliaj remained on the adjacent mattress. Both were buried Tuesday.
     One of the clan's elders, Sadri Deliaj, 56, who managed to elude the attacking Serb forces, described Tuesday how, last Thursday, large numbers of Serbian troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers that had been in the area surrounded the village. Armed members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, underarmed and outgunned, apparently left the area, fleeing the Serbs, the monitors said.
     The more vulnerable members of the family -- about 16 women, children, aunts and uncles -- were sent down to the gorge where it was thought they would be safer. There they set up the tarpaulin shelter for sleeping and fashioned a makeshift kitchen for cooking.
     Deliaj said that on Saturday, both soldiers and police approached the village. "They came on foot and I heard armored personnel carriers," he said. "There were all kinds of uniforms."
     Deliaj said that as the armed Serbs approached the gorge he ran away. "I heard the screaming, and I heard the shooting," he said.
     As the body of one victim was carried out of the rocks on a wooden stretcher Tuesday, her niece, Halime Hajdari, 15, wept. "I always hated the Serbs and I hate them now," she said.
     A young man, Arsim Deliaj, 19, also wept as the bodies of Gentiana and Donieta Deliaj, who were his nieces, were arranged side by side on a stretcher. "If they found me, they'd cut me up too," he said.
     Was he angry that the Kosovo Liberation Army couldn't better defend his relatives? "Not at all," he said. "They didn't have a chance, they didn't have the weapons."
     Muslim custom requires that the dead be buried as soon as possible. In this case, the Deliaj family members said they had to wait until the Serbian forces had left and it was safe to come and look for the dead and the missing.
     By Tuesday morning, 18 graves had been dug at the top of a shady green field near the village. Enough blankets had been found to drape around the bodies.
     By 2 p.m., they were burying the 14th body, the pregnant Lumnije Deliaj, who was slid into the ground wrapped in a red throw and then covered with the soft ocher soil.

Diplomats call for investigation into Kosovo massacres
The Associated Press

GOLUBOVAC, Yugoslavia (September 30, 1998 4:50 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -- Pressure mounted Wednesday to stop the war in Kosovo following the grisly discovery of bodies from one massacre and claims that 13 people were slain in another killing frenzy.
     Accusing security forces of trying to wipe out ethnic Albanians in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, Britain called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to condemn the killings.
     The latest allegations of massacres by Serb police and the Yugoslav army came after diplomats, journalists and human rights workers saw as many as 18 mutilated bodies earlier this week in nearby Obrija (Oh-BREE-ya), including those of women and children.
     Five miles to the south, residents of Golubovac said Wednesday that Serb forces surrounded a pocket of refugees there last Saturday and singled out the men to kill.
     They said the victims were already buried, but pointed to saucer-sized pools of dried blood and empty cartridges in front of a fence where they said the refugees were shot.
     "They pointed to the men and took them beside my house," said Naim Hodzaj, a 53-year-old farmer in the village about 20 miles west of Kosovo's capital Pristina. "They shot them all."
     The ethnic Albanians' Kosovo Information Center claimed late Wednesday 18 more bodies had been found nearby in the area around Glogovac, showing clear signs of torture and three shot in the back of the head. The claim could not be confirmed, and it was possible it referred to the Golubovac site.
     Britain and Austria called Wednesday for an international investigation into what Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel called the "bestial" massacre at Obrija, which the Serbs call Gornje Obrinje.
     "This was not an act of war, it was plain cold murder," British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said in calling later for the Security Council meeting.
     The mass killings last weekend in the Drenica (DREY-neat-sah) region, where Serb-led forces were on their latest offensive against ethnic Albanian rebels, are among the most gruesome developments reported in eight months of all-out fighting. The Serbs are trying to crush the Kosovo Liberation Army, which is seeking independence for Kosovo, where the population is 90 percent ethnic Albanian.
     There was no way to corroborate the ethnic Albanians' accounts. Both sides have been accused of massacres in Kosovo, and Serb police denied responsibility for the killings in Obrija.
     The government's Tanjug news agency called Western reports a "media farce," and said the Obrija killing was staged to generate more pressure on Serbia, the main republic in Yugoslavia.
     Serb authorities promised earlier this week that troops would retreat to their barracks after claiming victory over the KLA.
     A U.N. spokesman in Belgrade said fighting was still going on in the Suva Reka area southwest of Pristina but there was evidence the pullback was continuing.
     "It appears there is a methodical, gradual withdrawal of the military under way at the present time," said the spokesman, who gave his name as J. Carter.
     Only occasional gunshots could be heard in Drenica, northwest of Kosovo's capital, Pristina. But Fernando del Mundo, the Kosovo spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said he saw Serb troops coming out of a village west of Pristina where houses were ablaze.
     The pro-Serb Media Center reported that attackers from Albania staged an hours-long attack on Yugoslav army border forces northwest of Djakovica. There was no immediate information on casualties.
     The Serbs have been accused of hindering efforts to get outside humanitarian aid to some of the estimated 275,000 people who have been driven from their homes since the conflict exploded in February.
     In Golubovac, Hodzaj said that in addition to the executions, Serb police had killed several other men individually, including his 37-year-old brother Ramadan, who was doused with gasoline and set on fire. His brother's body lay curled up on a path on the edge of the woods. The torso was badly burned but the legs and head were untouched.
     The body of a 70-year-old man also lay prepared for burial in a nearby cemetery. Villagers said Serb snipers shot the man in the side as he tried to collect food from a nearby field.
     Many of the houses of Golubovac are gutted by recent fire, and the town's perimeter is dotted by small piles of artillery shells and empty tins of food.
     The slayings of the Obrija victims, whose bodies were seen this week by diplomats and journalists in a Drenica forest, inflamed tensions in Kosovo. Some were carved up with knives, limbs hacked off; a 10-year-old boy had his throat slit.
     "We rule out any possibility that our members did something like this," Serb police Col. Bozidar Filic said. "In that area, we had clashes with terrorists and a number of them have been arrested."

By ADAM BROWN, Associated Press Writer

Germany confirms it will join possible airstrikes in Kosovo
Copyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press

BONN, Germany (September 30, 1998 08:03 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -- Germany's outgoing Cabinet today offered 14 fighter planes for possible NATO airstrikes in Kosovo -- although a decision on whether they actually leave the ground will probably fall to the newly elected government.
     The action by Chancellor Helmut Kohl's government sends "a clear signal" to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that Germany remains focused even as Gerhard Schroeder forms a new government, outgoing Defense Minister Volker Ruehe said.
     NATO officials had asked all member states for commitments of military equipment to raise the pressure on Milosevic to resolve the Kosovo crisis peacefully. But even if they all come through, NATO ratification of the plan is needed before airstrikes could be carried out.
     That means approval of the actual deployment will probably fall to the Social Democrats, who defeated Kohl in Sunday's election. The new parliament is expected to convene Oct. 20 or 21.
     The Social Democrats and their likely coalition partner, the Greens, have said they want a U.N. mandate for NATO strikes before allowing the German Tornado fighters to take off. The parties have left unclear how explicit the U.N. mandate must be.
     Hundreds of people have been killed and about 275,000 have fled their homes since Milosevic's forces began cracking down on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in February.
     Ninety percent of Kosovo's 2 million people are ethnic Albanians, who seek independence from Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia.

CHARLES A. KUPCHAN and DENKO MALESKI:
Saving Macedonia
The Christian Science Monitor

(September 30, 1998 08:55 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -- Macedonia should feel like a country that is about to blow. The ongoing fighting between Serbs and Albanians in bordering Kosovo threatens to upset the uneasy balance between Albanians and Macedonians in Macedonia. And with Bulgaria to its east, Greece to its south, and Albania to its west, Macedonia has lingering disputes over territory and identity. If the fighting in Kosovo spills over into Macedonia, war may well spread throughout southeast Europe.
     Yet a strange calm prevails in this country of 2 million. Although the capital Skopje is only 20 miles from Kosovo, cafes are full, and life goes on as usual. Macedonians and Albanians - comprising 30 percent of the population - live side-by-side, but without the tension and hostility in other multiethnic Balkan states.
     Should the war in Kosovo continue, the flow of Albanian refugees into Macedonia could rapidly scuttle Macedonia's fragile multiethnicity. Even if the fighting in Kosovo stops before it polarizes ethnic relations in Macedonia, the two communities here risk growing apart unless the government takes deliberate steps to deepen integration and beat back growing nationalist sentiments. It is precisely because Macedonia could turn from a fire wall against the southward spread of ethnic conflict into the corridor for a wider war that the international community must urgently take three steps.
     The United States and its main European allies must move quickly to stop the war in Kosovo. If Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic continues to reject political resolution of the conflict, NATO should carry out air strikes against Serb forces in Kosovo. To ensure that separatist Albanian forces don't take advantage of NATO intervention to pursue a greater Albania, air strikes should be coupled with the deployment of NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo. Ground troops would help return refugees to their homes and patrol Kosovo's border with Macedonia and Albania. The endpoint to which diplomacy and force should work is an autonomous Kosovo within Yugoslavia.
     The international community needs to encourage the Macedonian government to move ahead with domestic reforms and take steps to prevent the social marginalization of the Albanian community. Political power should be decentralized and municipal government strengthened to give Albanians more say in local governance. Skopje should also legalize the Albanian-language university in Tetovo, a predominantly Albanian town. In return for official recognition and state funding, Tetovo University must ensure its programs meet national standards and that its graduates pass a standardized exam demonstrating fluency in Macedonian. An educated Albanian community capable of participating in the mainstream life of the country is preferable to one that becomes a permanent underclass.
     The international community must help develop an integrated regional economy in the south Balkans, including a transportation infrastructure linking Macedonia to its neighbors. This wouldn't just improve relations among the states of the region, it would foster a middle class. This would help to moderate strains of extremist nationalism that have proven so deadly in the Balkans.
     Over the past seven years, Macedonia hasn't just survived as a peaceful, multiethnic state, but helped to ensure that the third Balkan war of the 20th century, unlike the first two, not turn into a regionwide conflict. At this critical moment, however, regional turmoil again appears ready to engulf Macedonia and its neighbors. Shutting down the war in Kosovo and setting Macedonia on a course that will promote multiethnicity and prosperity are the best ways to ensure that the Balkans finally escape their past.

(Charles A. Kupchan is a professor of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Denko Maleski, a former foreign minister of Macedonia, is a professor of international politics at the University of Skopje, Macedonia.)
 

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