Human Rights Violations against Non-albanian Kosovars

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# UN refugee agency reports increasing violence against Kosovo Serbs in Pristina.
# Kosovo: Repression on the non-Albanian minorities continues
# Orthodox Press: Kosovo and Metohija Chronicle, August 11

UN Kosovo news reports

UN refugee agency reports increasing violence against Kosovo Serbs in Pristina.

AUGUST 11 -- With attacks against Serbs in Kosovo's capital on the rise, the situation for some 2,000 Serb Kosovars remaining in Pristina has noticeably worsened over the last few weeks, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Wednesday.
According to UNHCR, there have been at least nine murders and seven serious assaults against Serbs in Pristina during the past week. Meanwhile, the KFOR security force said that bomb attacks had occurred regularly against Serb homes, churches and businesses.
UNHCR has also reported a pattern of intimidation against the remaining Serbs. In many cases of harassment, Serbs are first receiving warning letters ordering them to leave their homes. Then threats are delivered in person, followed, in several days, by physical assault and, in some cases, murder.
Increasing numbers of Serbs still in Pristina are being forced, before fleeing, to sign letters transferring their property rights to Albanians, UNHCR says. These practices are being applied to whole blocks of apartments, triggering the simultaneous departure of tens of Serb families.
During the past two months, the number of Serbs in Pristina has dwindled from an estimated 20,000. Since the end of the NATO bombing and the arrival of KFOR in June, nearly 130,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo, mostly for other parts of Serbia and Montenegro.
The situation in Pristina is particularly disturbing because most Serbs remaining there are vulnerable persons, many of them elderly, disabled or isolated without family support, UNHCR says. As a result, case-by-case assistance is needed involving visits to individual homes.
To address the situation, UN aid workers are delivering humanitarian assistance directly to Serb homes, which proves to be a time-consuming and manpower-intensive process, according to UNHCR. The UN agency has also set up several distribution points for the Serb population, often in the basement of Serb buildings.

Wednesday, August 11st, 1999

Kosovo: Repression on the non-Albanian minorities continues

One person was killed, many were wounded, and 78 arrested in Kosovo, in the last 24 hours. The most tragic incident happened last night around 9 p.m. when KFOR patrol found wounded woman and her 4-year old child, near one village in Kosovo. Mother died on the road to hospital and the health condition of the child is stable, KFOR spokesman, Jan Joosten said on today's briefing in Pristina.
According to Joosten, yesterday in the French sector KFOR arrested 10 people for burning houses, and found two guns and four bombs in their possession. KFOR spokesman added that one house of Kosovo Serbs was burnt in Obilic, and that KFOR arrested three Albanians, after the incident.
Four men and a woman were arrested for the attempt of abduction and threats in Prizren. Joosten also said that the village Grabovac was shelled with nine missiles yesterday, when two civilians suffered lighter injuries.
After the search of a building occupied by 60 people, some of which were wearing KLA uniforms, KFOR troops in Gnjilane found 15-20 pieces of arms, batons, poles, knifes and a lot of other equipment, Joosten said, and added that all 60 persons found in the building were arrested, while 10 of them were detained for further investigation.
Ljubica Stevanovic, 76-year old from Kosovska Kamenica was murdered, while her son Bozidar (40) was seriously wounded, late Tuesday, Church Board of Gnjilane announced today. Mother and the son were collecting the hay from the field, when two armed Albanians in black uniforms attacked them. The Board said that looting and burning of Serbian property in Gnjilane continues, and that three of such cases were reported during the last 24 hours.
One of the officials in Serbian National Council of Kosovska Mitrovica, Marko Jaksic, said that the situation in the town today is quiet but tense. In a phone statement for the Beta news agency, Jaksic said that explosions near the bridge in the northern part of the town, which has mostly Serbian residents, upset the citizens and caused panic, but he added that Serbs are determined to stay in Kosovska Mitrovica.
The KFOR representatives, announced today that four shells were fired last night on the Serbian part of Kosovska Mitrovica, and that French soldiers found two launchers in the Albanian part of the town, but they haven't found those responsible for shelling. After the explosions, Albanians again tried to march into the Serbian part of the town, but French solders prevent them of doing so, by blocking the bridge on the river Ibar, Jaksic said and added that Albanians thrown stones on French soldiers, and burnt French flag yesterday.
The UNHCR representative Ron Redmond condemned the violence against Serbs in Kosovo and said that Serbian population in Pristina is in very alarming situation. He emphasized that of 40.000 Serbs, only 2.000 are still in Pristina, and added that UNHCR has evidence that deportation of non-Albanian population is systematic and organized.

Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church
PRAVOSLAVLJE PRESS

Kosovo & Metohia Events

Belgrade, August 11, 1999

We report today the following sad news from Kosovo and Metohia. In Dolac village the Orthodox church, whose interior had been previously burned, was blown up with the mine.
     Last night, nine shells were fired at the Serbian village Gorazdevac in Metohia, which the Serbs did not leave. Thereat, one Serbian woman was killed.
     In Luzane village, on Monday, August 9, KFOR found Dragojla Lazovic killed from the firearms; that was an old Serbian woman aged 89, late Miodrag's widow.
     Not until four days ago, did the representatives of the German KFOR sector make known that 5 Serbs were killed and 17 kidnapped in the burned Serbian village Dojnice, near Prizren, on July 24. Priest of Prizren parish - Ilija Smigic says that two days ago an Orthodox Serb Ratko Popovic, nickname Carli (born in 1942), was killed in Prizren, while his wife Ljiljana (born in 1948) was seriously wounded. Naturally, the Albanians committed this crime. Ljiljana was first transported to Prizren hospital and then to a hospital in Pristina. An old woman, Stanka Martic has been attacked today in Prizren in her apartmant, by a group of the Albanians. Two of them were strangling her by a pillow and maltreating her in other ways, and the others were taking plunder - the valuables. Three Serbian families from Prizren, Ortokol part of town, have left their houses today, since they got afraid, after many threats and maltreating, that they would share the destiny of many Serbs who were killed in this town. Those families moved to Prizren seminary.
     There is again a large number of Serbs in Prizren seminary, 200 of them. The number increases daily, since the scared Serbs leave their houses, being fiercely pressured to do that. However, both those who are still in their houses and those who moved to the seminary want to get out of Prizren and reach the central Serbia.
     In Dobrocane village, municipality of Gnjilane, three young male Serbs from Vrbovac village, aged between 22 and 23, were kidnapped: Jovanovic Goran, Mitrovic Dragan, Gajic Radovan.
     In Obilic, on August 7, the Albanians barged into the house belonging to the Serbian woman Desa Pijevac, and thereat they maltreated her and her paralysed mother, and finally robbed her. Today, one Serbian house has been set on fire in Obilic, and after that, three Albanians have been arrested.
     In Lipljan, two days ago, grenades were cast at the house of Bogoljub Popovic and Zika Spasic, and Dobrila Bacevic was beaten.
     In Kisnica village, a grenade was cast at the house of Stojan Stolic, and thereat Stojan and his son were badly hurt.
     Late last night, in Kosovska Kamenica, two armed Albanians in black uniforms attacked, shooting from firearms, Ljubica Stevanovic and her son Bozidar while they were haying. Ljubica was killed and Bozidar has been seriously wounded.
     The plundering of the apartments and houses which are owned by the Serbs continues to happen in Gnjilane.
     UNHCR representative, Rod Redmond, admitted that the position of the Serbs in Pristina is really alarming. As he has said, the method of "disturbing" of the Serbs is very worrying: first, they get the written message ordering them leave the apartment, and what follows afterwards is - threats, assaults and, in some cases, killings. Redmond has said that UNHCR has the evidence that the expelling of the non-Albanian population from Pristina has been carried out in an organized and systematic manner.
     Redmond has said that the same method that was applied on the Albanians two months ago has now been applied on the Serbs. This intentional equalizing of the Albanian and Serbian afflictions seems to us tendentious and therefore worrying, because it does not give sufficient guarantees that the Serbs will be protected.
     Last night, at 21:00, near Donje Komorane village, KFOR patrol found a wounded woman and her four-year old child. The mother died on the way to hospital, while the child's health condition is stable.
     Within the French zone in KFOR, 10 persons who set Serbian houses on fire have been arrested today.
     Albanian killers and robbers systematically take over the control in many municipalities in Kosovo and Metohia.
     Rt. Rev. Artemije, the Bishop of Raska and Prizren, has met Mr Carl Bildt, the high UN official, in Gracanica monastery today. On that occasion, Bishop Artemije has pointed out that the present state in Kosovo and Metohia, after two-month presence of the peace-keeping forces, is not encouraging at least. About 160.000 Serbs have been expelled, several hundreds of the Serbs were killed, an enourmous number has been kidnapped, over 40 Orthodox churches and monasteries have been destroyed, several thousands of houses were burned down - and all of that happened very often in front of KFOR eyes. Many Orthodox churches in Kosovo and Metohia dating from 14th century, said Bishop Artemije, existed for 500 years under the Turkish oppression , but they could not remain in existence for two months under the protection of the International community!!!

Bishop Atanasije
Rakita

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