BETA
news agency, Belgrade
Sept. 30, 1997
ALBANIAN STUDENTS WILL PROTEST PEACEFULLY ON OCT. 1.
Students of the alternative albanian university
in Pristina, on Sep. 29, rejected appeals from
Kosovo ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova
and foreign diplomats to postpone protests
announced for Oct. 1. The independent union of
ethnic Albanian students of Pristina University late
in the evening decided to go ahead with peaceful protests on Oct. 1.
The protest will start from the Pristina suburb
of Velania at 10:30 a.m. Several alternative
albanian colleges and university administration
are housed in private homes in the suburb.
More information on the protest, including how
long it will last, will be announced on Sep. 30.
DIPLOMATS SAY ALBANIAN STUDENT PROTEST COULD FUEL TENSIONS.
Western diplomats stationed in Belgrade, voiced
concern over the expected protest by ethnic
Albanian students, saying it could fuel rising
tensions in Kosovo.
The Western diplomats stationed in Belgrade, representing
12 embassies, including U.S.
charge d'affaires Richard Miles; and in the name
of the EU, the Royal Dutch Ambassador, Jan Sizoo;
visited Pristina on Sep. 29.
In Kosovo's administrative center and major city,
the diplomats met with local (ethnic)
Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, representatives
of local Serbian authorities, and
representatives of the independent union of ethnic
Albanian students.
"We are very concerned with the protests the (ethnic)
Albanian students have announced for
Oct. 1," said Miles at a press conference in
Pristina. He said he could understand the need for
people to protest peacefully and make demands
of their authorities. But, he said, that the time
was not right, because of the second round of
Serbian presidential elections, and continuing
dialogue to normalize education in the Albanian
language in Kosovo.
"We have warned the Serbian authorities in Kosovo
to restrain from using force and we were
given guarantees it would not be applied against
demonstrators, unless they break the law,"
said Sizoo. He also said that Rugova and other
ethnic Albanian leaders were cautioned to
avoid using force. The Albanian students also
said that their protest would be peaceful and that they
would go out of their way to avoid violence.
Rugova had urged Albanian students to delay the
protest which they describe as aimed at
improving the education system in the province.
The premier of the Kosovo Albanian cabinet in
exile, Buyar Bukoshi, said he was against
delaying the demonstrations.
On Sep. 28, Albanian students staged another peaceful,
two-hour evening walk in several
Kosovo towns, in the presence of strong police
forces.
No incidents were recorded, according to Albanian
sources, except in Kosovska Mitrovica,
where the police "mistreated" a number of Albanians.
GELBARD AND ISCHINGER TO VISIT KOSOVO.
U.S. special envoy Robert Gelbard and German foreign
ministry political department head
Wolfgang Ischinger will visit Kosovo soon. The
goal of the visit is to "decisively urge" the
resolution of the Kosovo issue and prevent the
worsening of the Kosovo situation from
endangering regional stability.
This was stated to BETA by sources in the U.S.
mission to NATO, and by German foreign
ministry officials in Bonn. The American representative
to NATO stressed that the U.S.-
German initiative was based on estimates by Contact
group members that "the Kosovo
situation's slipping out of hand" could jeopardize
peace and stability in the Balkans.
STUDENT CLUB ASK FOR U.S. MEDIATION IN TALKS WITH KOSOVO STUDENTS.
The Belgrade Student Political Club will ask for
U.S. mediation during their meeting with
Kosovo Albanian students.
The club president, Cedomir Jovanovic, told BETA
that he will ask U.S. Embassy charge
d'affaires Richard Miles to enable Belgrade students
to meet with their Albanian counterparts
as soon as possible, to "prevent further worsening
of Kosovo's political situation."
Police Attack Albanian Students In Kosovo
PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA -- Just after midday
on Wednesday several hundred riot police
attacked more than 10,000 ethnic Albanian
students demonstrating peacefully in Serbia's
bitterly disputed province of Kosovo.
The police used water cannons and tear gas to crush
the student protest. Police then rounded
up and arrested student leaders and professors.
The ethnic Albanian student movement decided
to plow ahead with the action in spite
of calls from western envoys and the local
Albanian political leadership to delay. A
13-member diplomatic mission told students
earlier this week that they feared the protest
would be used as political ammunition
in the run up to Serbia's presidential runoff this
Sunday.
Student unions are demanding university
premises for Albanian-language lectures.
Students are frustrated because they say
Serbian and Albanian political leaderships are
stonewalling on an agreement intended
to normalise the province's divided schooling
system.
Without permission for fair use only
U.S.,
EU faults Milosevic for violence in Serbia
02:47 p.m Oct 01, 1997 Eastern
WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuter) - The United States and the European Union on Wednesday condemned the use of violence against demonstrators in Belgrade and the Serbian region of Kosovo and held Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic responsible.
``The EU presidency and the U.S. government
strongly condemn the use of force against
peaceful demonstrators in Kosovo today and during
last night's rally in Belgrade and call on the international community
to join in condemning this action,'' they said in a joint statement.
Gazeta Albania
"Albania's Leading Independent Newspaper"
2 October 1997
ALBANEWS Version
Serb police chase, beat and arrest peaceful protesters.
Unconfirmed reports say University leaders, including the rector Dr. Ejup Statovci, as well as student leaders, have been arrested A 1000-strong, heavily armed, Serb police force cracked down against the peaceful protesters at Velania quarter in Prishtina at 11.50 a.m., sources from the scene said.
The Students Union of the Albanian-language University of Prishtina staged peaceful manifestations to protest the six-year-long Serb regime seizure of the University premises, from which Albanian students and teachers were forcefully kicked off.
Reporters have put the number of protesters at
Velania today at around 50.000.
Scores of thousands of Albanian
citizens, most of them Prishtina residents, have flocked
to streets in the city in solidarity with the student
demands. The police used truncheons and lots
of tear-gas to disperse the huge crowd of Albanian students,
teachers and citizens at Velania. The police blocked all the streets
leading in an out of the Velania quarter.
The police crackdown has been very brutal, the KIC reporters said.
Some journalists, who happened to be in the offices of the Information Service of the Independent Students Union (UPS) of the University of Prishtina, told the Kosova Information Center (KIC) around 12:30 the Serb police was chasing, beating and arresting peaceful protesters.
Scores of injured students and citizens
have been sheltered in the houses of the Velania neighborhood. Police intervened
against Albanian citizens in several parts of Prishtina,
sources said. Police interventions were reported near
the building of the Kosova Parliament, near the Health Center in downtown
Prishtina, as well as near the Xhevdet Doda high
school, opposite the Faculty
of Philology of Prishtina.
Sources from other parts of the town say
that the Serbian police has been beating
up Prishtina residents. Serb helicopters have been
flying low over Prishtina, especially over the Velania
neighborhood. Hundreds of fully equipped Serb police
forces have been stationed in key areas of Prishtina,
like the building of the Parliament of Kosova, the University
of Prishtina campus and dormitories. Police squads have been stationed
in virtually every hundred meters in downtown Prishtina, but also the part
of Prishtina around the Velania neighborhood. Sources from
Velania speak of dozens of police vehicles full of Albanian
detainees. Latest reports, which could not be confirmed by KIC, say University
leaders, including the rector Dr. Ejup Statovci, as well as student
leaders, Albin Kurti and Driton LajÞi, have been
arrested. Meanwhile, protests have been staged
in other towns of Kosova.
Gazeta Albania
"Albania's Leading Independent Newspaper"
3 October
1997
ALBANEWS Version
Tanks to suffocate Kosova
Serbia again attacked Kosova with tanks. The peaceful protests of tens of thousands of Albanian students in all the towns of Kosova were again oppressed violently by tanks and other blinded means of the Serb police. The world media reported on hundreds of wounded people as well as the detaining of the Rector of the University Stativcki and the leaders of the Students' Independent Union, who were the organizers of the protests. The pre-announced protests of the students in Kosova were strangled from the very first day by means of tanks. Hundreds of thousands of Kosova citizens have been violently prevented from joining the student protests.
The political leadership of Kosova remained divided in front of the students' request for education, schools and the University which have been blocked to them. While President Rugova incited the students to postpone the beginning of the protests. Belgrade had started the siege of the Kosova towns with the army and its tanks.
In front of a people and its civil request for education in its own mother language, Serbia offered violence and blood to Kosova.
But violence and the bloodstain of Kosova were forewarned during the most recent developments. The announcement for the beginning of the Albanian students' protests in Kosova had alarmed the International Community. Since the signing of the so-called Agreement on Education, a year ago, the International Community (including all the western chancelleries and institutions) had invested to preserve the statuesque in Kosova ( a statuesque meaning the continuation of the Serb oppression ).
The so-called Agreement on Education signed by Rugova and Miloshevic, which was so much proclaimed as a signal of Belgrade to Kosova, has not failed. Being signed only one month before the lifting of sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro, as a matter of fact it helped the Serb leadership and suspended for a year later the problem of education in Kosova.
The pre-announcement of the protests of the Albanian students in Kosova put in motion the international machine of diplomacy with the USA at the head trying to stop these peaceful protests from being held. Since a year ago from the signing of the Agreement this machine of the international diplomacy is engaged only with the Dayton, so that its accords were not endangered. In many cases the man that has been glorified as the man of peace has put the Balkans in a bloody mess. Half of the Albanian nation is forced to protest for its education rights, while in order to stop this protest from being held is engaged all the international powers -- at a time when in Europe or the US, Europeans or the Americans protest for the rights of animals. Three days before the protests were to start in Kosova, while the tanks were arriving, the diplomatic offensive of the European Union, the USA and the OSCE led by the chief of the US mission in Belgrade Richard Miles began.
The vice-chief of the American mission Jack Zetkulic, warned the Kosova political leaders to take measures for preventing the protests from being held because as he put it, "there was information that the Serb government of Belgrade would not react to the protests of the Albanians in Kosova the same way as it reacted to the protests of the opposition in Belgrade". This double-folded stand is the not the first one. And here we do not mean the Serbs only. The policy Serbia has followed in Kosova has always been the use of tanks. The international community, the USA, the European Union should react for Kosova.
The Albanian students were attacked by the police. Their protests were oppressed violently. The students were left alone. At a time, which may be considered almost critical, the students of Kosova do not have even the moral support of Albania. On the contrary, the official Tirana has declared that it joins the viewpoint of Belgrade that Kosova is an inner affair of Serbia.
senden