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April
04, 2003
ERP KIM Newsletter
04-04-03
CONTENTS:
 SERBIA
AND MONTENEGRO
MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL
OF EUROPE More
Editorial:
HUMANITARIAN DOUBLE STANDARDS
Why does the international
authorities in Kosovo insist on building multiethnicity in Serb-inhabited areas while
allowing the Albanians to create an ethnically pure Albanian society
elsewhere?
SERB
DEMONSTRATIONS IN MITROVICA - NO TO INDEPENDENT KOSOVO (photos)
At least 2000 Serbs protested in
North Mitrovica against Steiner's decision to transfer vital
administrative authorities to Kosovo institutions...
KOSOVO SERBS WILL NOT
APPROVE POWER TRANSFER AT THIS POINT
Kosovska Mitrovica, April 1, 2003
- Kosovo Serbs will abandon Kosovo institutions if UNMIK head Michael
Steiner continues to transfer powers to the local level, said Kosovo
Assembly presidency member Oliver Ivanovic.
SERBIAN HOLY LAND IS NOT
FOR SALE, Vecernje Novosti daily
During the
past four years the international community has built and rebuilt 39,000
houses in Kosovo and Metohija for Albanians. With a few individual
exceptions almost nothing has been done for the Serbs and the
Montenegrins...
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO - MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE
STRASBOURG - Following the
accession ceremony, the playing of the national anthem of the former
Yugoslavia and the raising of the flag, the state union of
Serbia-Montenegro has become a full member of the Council of Europe.
COLIN POWELL: US Will help
Serbia-Montenegro Become Integral Part of Europe
Powell said
he was impressed by what he heard from officials in Belgrade, by the
dedication to reforms initiated by Zoran Djindjic and actions against
criminals. He emphasized that Washington was ready to help reforms in
Serbia and Montenegro in every possible way.
UNCONTROLLED EXTREMISTS, PEOPLE OF POLITICAL GROUPS OF ANA
Even though there are not many cases reported at
the police station in Decan, residents of the villages of Lluke, Pozhare,
Lumbardh…speak with low voices about meeting with uniformed and masked
people, especially during the last two-three weeks.
More News Available on our:
KOSOVO DAILY
NEWS LIST (KDN)
KDN Archive
This newsletter is available on our
ERP KIM Web-site:
/erpkim04apr03.html
HUMANITARIAN DOUBLE STANDARDS
Why does the international
authorities in Kosovo insist on building multiethnicity in Serb-inhabited areas while
allowing the Albanians to create an ethnically pure Albanian society
elsewhere?
TOP
ERPKIM Info-Service
Gracanica, April 04,
2003
 After the end of the conflict in Kosovo and Metohija in June 1999,
millions of German marks and euros were invested in the rebuilding of
Kosovo Albanian houses and infrastructure which today are used almost exclusively
by one ethnic community. At the same time that numerous international humanitarian
organizations were rebuilding damaged Albanian houses, thousands of Serb
houses were burned down despite the presence of over 40,000 NATO troops in
this region. At the same time more than a hundred Serbian Orthodox churches were blown
up in the name of the new Kosovo "Kalashnikov democracy". While the
international community worked on building "a multiethnic society", the
Province under their eyes became the most ethnically pure territory in
Europe where even today the freedom of its citizens depends on their
nationality, language and religion. It is paradoxical that the worst
violations of human rights in Europe today happen on the territory which
is under the direct rule of the UN.
In the meanwhile, the most of humanitarian organizations have already left
Kosovo on their way to new crisis areas in the Near East. Nevertheless,
humanitarian assistance has begun to slowly make its way into
Serb-inhabited areas, too. However, international organizations have
suddenly begun implementing standards which were rarely or never adhered to with respect to assistance which is arriving in
ethnically pure Albanian areas. All humanitarian aid and the construction
of every building, school and primary health care facility in a Serb area
must have a "multiethnic use" or the Serbs will not get it, insist
representatives of UNMIK and local Albanian administration. Of course, there is nothing wrong with insisting
on multiethnicity but the fact that Serbs today live for the most part in
their own reservation-like enclaves leaves the Serb community without most
of these already waning humanitarian funds. The UN international mission
together with Kosovo Albanian authorities
continues to disregard that the Serbs live in these enclaves or ghettoes
not because they like living in isolation and poverty but because outside
of these areas they lack minimal human rights and freedoms despite the
fact that four years have passed since the end of the war.
While expelled Serbs are persistently encouraged to return, Serb returnees
in the Metohija (Western Kosovo) villages of Osojane and Bicha and newly
arrived returnees in the village of Novake near Prizren and Sredacka Zupa
live at an existential minimum. Their security in the majority of cases
continues to depend exclusively on the presence of KFOR while conditions
for employment and living of the working-age population are nowhere close
to being realized. Serb returnees are very vocal in their criticism of
international organizations which either ignore them or set impossible
bureaucratic conditions. Returnees are most grateful for KFOR which is
solely responsible for enabling these isolated communities to continue to
function.
Serbian children with Spanish soldiers in Crkolez
Local UNMIK and Albanian authorities do not
allow these children to have their school
"MULTIETHNICITY" IN
FUNCTION OF ETHNICALLY CLEAN SOCIETY
Examples of humanitarian double standards, mostly due to UNMIK orders, are
numerous. We will cite only two or three for purposes of illustration:
CRKOLEZ
(ISTOK)
For example, in the Serb village of Crkolez, Istok municipality, home to
86 Serbs and surrounded by Albanian villages, a school is needed for 15
Serb children because children are currently receiving instruction in a
dilapidated private house. UNMIK, under pressure from local Albanian
authorities, is insisting that if a new school is built it must also
accept Albanian children from surrounding villages -- despite the fact
that there are dozens of monoethnic Albanian schools in the surrounding
Albanian villages and towns, built without insisting that they also
include Serb or other non-Albanian students in their student body.
BABIN MOST
(OBILIC)
The situation is similar with the school in the village of Babin Most near
Obilic where 980 local Serbs, despite a series of attacks and provocations
in recent years, have managed to consolidate and convince village
inhabitants not to leave. Now international representatives are insisting
that Albanian children from surrounding ethnically pure Albanian villages
attend the new school so that it is "multiethnic" -- despite the fact that
not one Serb child is able to attend any Albanian school in the area. Of
course, in this case the criterion of multiethnicity was not applied when
assistance was given to the surrounding ethnically pure Albanian villages;
however, with respect to the Serbs in Babin Most, everything must be
multiethnic.
PRISTINA -
ETHNICALLY CLEAN CITY
In Pristina there are dozens of schools and educational institutions where
Albanian is the sole language of instruction. Approximately 20 Serb
children out of about 300 remaining Pristina Serbs are forced to leave the
city each day to attend classes in the neighboring Serb village of Laplje
selo because the Albanians will not permit them to receive instruction in
the Serbian language nor ensure freedom of movement outside the small
ghetto where they have lived for the past four years. At the same
time, enormous international funds have been invested in monoethnic
Albanian schools and the University of Pristina, which serve only one
ethnic community.
The situation
is similar in the Pristina Medical Center where before the war 50%
of medical personnel were Serb. Today it is an exclusively Albanian
institution in which Serbs cannot receive medical care. Local Pristina
Serbs are compelled to seek their medical services either in Serb run
clinics in Kosovo Polje or Gracanica. It is interesting that there are
hospitals in other cities in Kosovo and Metohija where medical treatment
is unavailable to Serbs solely because of their ethnicity. There are many
cases that solely ethnic Albanian facilities would receive ample funds
under the pretext of "multiethnicity" although practically these
facilities remained in monoethnic use and control. International donors
would often invest money to help "Kosovars" although the money on the
ground would eventually go into the hands of one ethnic community only.
Due to their lack of free movement and security Serbs are not in position
to use the most of infrastructure in Kosovo, primarily in urban areas
dominated by Albanians.
KOSOVO POLJE
In Kosovo
Polje there is a school "St. Sava" which is attended by Serb speaking
children of Serbian and Roma ethnicity. Although all other schools in this
city are Albanian, local Albanian municipal authorities and UNMIK insist
that this Serb school should also become "multiethnic" although it is
already functioning as multiethnic school.
Taking over
the building or bringing in Albanian students can cause new wave of
removal of Serbian families from this area. They say if there is no
possibility for their children safely and not too far away to go to
school, they will try to find better place for living. Serbian parents,
also consider unacceptable the possibility to make a "multiethnic" school
in the building. Their opinion is that primary topics for discussion is
return to schools, to University and to apartments in nearby Pristina. If
multiethnicity is not possible in Pristina, it's useless to speak about it
in Kosovo Polje. In that case they would simply withdraw also because they
do not feel their children would be safe in school attended by Albanians
as well. It's well known that several attacks and stoning of Serbs
happened near by primary and secondary school in Kosovo Polje (close by
Post Office). According to statements of attacked persons, the ones who
have committed those attacks were Albanian school children.
This is yet
another example how under the pretext of "multiethnicity" ethnically clean
Albanian institutions are created and the remaining Serbs forced to leave.
"BALANCE PROGRAM" ONLY WHEN FUNDS GO TO SERBS
When
humanitarian or a reconstruction project was given to purely Albanian inhabited villages
international authorities never insisted on "balance program" in the
neighboring Serb villages. But this is not the case now when Serb villages
receive assistance, because certain amount of money allocated for the
Serbs has to go to Albanians in order to make them more receptive of the
Serb community. In this way those already inadequate funds for Serbs
become much smaller because of these "imbalanced" programs.
Through great efforts conditions were satisfied for the only Serb primary
health care facility in the enclave of Gorazdevac (pop. 850 Serbs, 20
Roma) near Pec to get a single ambulance vehicle. However, local Albanian
authorities and UNMIK (under their pressure) keep insisting that the vehicle be based in the city of Pec where
there is a hospital which Serbs have not been able to access for years due
to lack of basic security for Serbs in this city. In Pec there is not a
single Serb resident left, out of a pre-war population of over 10,000. An
attempt to bring a bus with Serb pensioners to receive their pensions in
Pec last November resulted in a public uproar in which a bus was
demolished by rocks and petrol bombs. After this incident it is very hard
to expect Serbs from Gorazdevac to use medical facilities in that city.
Serb enclaves are the poorest areas in Kosovo and
Metohija
FORCEFUL "INTEGRATION"
THROUGH DOUBLE HUMANITARIAN STANDARDS
These are just a few examples of how local Albanian dominated institutions
and UNMIK in Kosovo
and Metohija are abusing the standards of multiethnicity and putting
political pressure on the Serb community using humanitarian aid and
reconstruction projects. Using
every possible means UNMIK is attempting to force the Kosovo Serbs who
have barely managed to survive in their enclaves to "integrate" by force
into an Albanian society which for its part does not even offer minimal
security and rights for Serb citizens. The Serbs are faced with the choice
of continuing to live without assistance in their sad and poor villages or
moving out of the Province as soon as possible. Thus, the real outcome of
UNMIK's "multiethnic policy" will be an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo
which, in all honesty, is what has already been established here under
international administration.
It is interesting to note that the most multiethnic areas in Kosovo today
are those areas where political authority is not held by Kosovo Albanians.
Therefore, the question that must be asked is why UNMIK and humanitarian
organizations are persistently insisting on building multiethnicity only
in Serb-inhabited areas while not bothering to create basic security
conditions for Serbs in areas dominated by Albanians? Why are double
standards being used to apply pressure on the Serb community and
indirectly force the remaining Serbs to leave Kosovo and Metohija?
Finally, why were millions of euros and dollars spent on ethnically pure
Albanian institutions benefiting only one ethnic community and serving to
create an ethnically pure Albanian society and state in Kosovo and
Metohija?
It is likely that someone will one day have to answer these questions. In
the meanwhile, Kosovo Serbs will continue living on the edge of existence
and being forced to gradually move away. The UN mission in Kosovo and
Metohija, incapable of creating a multiethnic society throughout the
Province, will attempt to do this at least in the Serb-inhabited areas.
Gradually, the Albanians will extend their rule to the Serb enclaves and
implement their own monoethnic "standards" already in effect throughout
most of he Province. When this occurs the smokescreen UNMIK has been kept
in place for the past four years in order to rationalize its own failures
will finally disappear. Unfortunately for the many Serbs who will be the
new "collateral damage" of UNMIK's erroneous policies, any apologies will
come too late.
Fr. Sava
Janjic
Editor-in-chief
ERP KIM Info-Service
TOP
KOSOVO
SERBS PROTEST OVER TRANSFER OF AUTHORITY
No to independent Kosovo - No
to Greater Albania, say Kosovo Serbs
TOP
BETA NEWS
AGENCY
April 03, 2003
(photo: Dr. Rada
Trajkovic speaks to the gathered Serbs in Mitrovica)
 KOSOVSKA
MITROVICA -- Thursday – About two thousand Serbs today demonstrated in
Mitrovica under a banner reading "For Serbia – No to independent
Kosovo".
The protesters said that their message to the international community was
that Serbs would not allow yet another Albanian state to be formed in the
Western Balkans.
They claim that UNMIK chief Michael Steiner has failed to implement UN
Security Council 1244, which ended the 1999 war and established an
international protectorate in Serbia’s southern province.
Kosovo Serbs claim that the transfer of powers from the UN mission to
Kosovo’s transitional government is the first step to independence for the
province.
 Serb
representative Milan Ivanovic told the rally that Serb Kosovars would use
all democratic means available to might the governor’s decision.
He also accused Steiner of being responsible for the lack of refugee
repatriations, failure to implement regional decentralisation and the lack
of investigation of the fate of Serbs missing in the province.
Ivanovic was today sharply critical Belgrade’s Kosovo Coordination Centre,
saying its strategies were not serious.
(photo: Unanimous message
from the rally - No independent Kosovo, No Greater Albania)
TOP
KOSOVO
SERBS WILL NOT APPROVE POWER TRANSFER AT THIS POINT
Kosovska Mitrovica, April 1, 2003 - Kosovo Serbs will abandon Kosovo
institutions if UNMIK head Michael Steiner continues to transfer powers to
the local level, said Kosovo Assembly presidency member Oliver Ivanovic.
TOP
Serbian
Government, Belgrade
April 01, 2003
(Serb rally in Mitrovica:
NATO - KFOR - UNMIK Where are 1.300 (missing) Serbs. During the UN/KFOR
mission since June 1999 Albanian extremists have killed or kidnapped 1300
Serb civilians)
 Kosovska
Mitrovica, April 1, 2003 - Kosovo Serbs will abandon Kosovo institutions
if UNMIK head Michael Steiner continues to transfer powers to the local
level, said Kosovo Assembly presidency member Oliver Ivanovic.
Speaking at a press conference in Kosovska Mitrovica, Ivanovic called on
Steiner to temporarily freeze the transfer of authorities to interim
Kosovo institutions, which, he said, are neither multiethnic nor
politically or professionally capable of taking over powers.
"It is necessary to include Serbs in interim institutions as well, in
accordance with the agreement made between Covic and Haekkerup in November
2001. If Steiner fails to desist from power transfer, that will increase
tensions, force Serbs to withdraw from interim institutions and encourage
the formation of parallel institutions," Ivanovic said.
He added that all this can diminish the already minute chances for the
return of Serbs to Kosovo-Metohija and further endanger the safety of the
Serbs who have remained in the province.
If Serbs are forced to form parallel institutions, which will be done by
Serb representatives who were given legitimacy not only from their people,
but from international organisations and the OSCE, which organised
elections in Kosovo, said Ivanovic. They include 22 deputies of the
Coalition Povratak in the Kosovo Assembly, 93 municipal councillors and 6
members of the Advisory Body for Kosovo-Metohija.
TOP
SERBIAN
HOLY LAND IS NOT FOR SALE
During the
past four years the international community has built and rebuilt 39,000
houses in Kosovo and Metohija for Albanians. With a few individual
exceptions almost nothing has been done for the Serbs and the
Montenegrins.
TOP
Vecernje
Novosti Daily, Belgrade
March 23, 2003
 PEC
- When the representatives of the international community in Pec received
a list of 100 Serb family names ready to return on April 1 to three
villages in Istok municipality - Srbobran, Lukavac and Kosh - to live
under tents, they were very surprised. And when Milivoje Ribac, the
coordinator for returns, called them two days ago to announce that he had
the names of 2,000 more families ready to return to their homes, the
foreigners could not simply shrug their shoulders as they had done in the
past. They were almost speechless. The intent of the expelled and
displaced to return is reaching the critical point and it is becoming
increasingly evident that the international community will finally have to
make good on what it has been promising -- enabling the return of Serbs in
considerably greater numbers.
THEY WILL NOT BE ALONE
Osojane, Bicha, Grabovac, Cerkolez, Suvo Grlo, Banje... The Istok plateau
and Klina Valley, where 97 families have returned so far, will not remain
a small oasis in the once wide belt of Serb villages in Metohija for long,
judging from the present disposition of the expelled. There are
approximately 15,000 on the lists who want to return immediately to the
land of their ancestors, with but a single condition: security for all
families!
"Now we have confirmation that not an inch of land has been sold in
Metohija. Even though we were offered enough money to buy 100 hectares in
Vojvodina. This is church land which the Orthodox Church since the time of
St. Sava gave to its believers for their use and which our ancestors
subsequently bought," says Milivoje Ribac, the coordinator of the expelled
from Metohija.
"Metoh" means church estate. The natives of Metohija say they have no
right to sell this land. Their predecessors did not leave it even during
the time of the Great Migration under Arsenije Carnojevic. Even the
Ottoman Empire had some degree of understanding towards them and the
church property. And today?
"On the threshold of the 21st century our Christian brothers did not hear
our pleas to protect the local population. We were forced for the first
time in our history into a collective migration," adds Dr. Svetomir
Samardzic, a member of the Return (Povratak) Coalition, who was also
expelled from Metohija. He does not hide the fact that people have had
enough of life in collective shelters, expensive apartments and with
relatives. "We all have our property and in our own country we have no
right to it. That is why we are demanding that we return to our
centuries-old home this spring."
"We want to go home. If necessary we will live in tents like Gypsies. On
the foundation of our destroyed homes we will build new ones. We believe
that Christian Europe and America should help us do this. If it is really
true that the world wants a multiethnic Kosovo and Metohija, they have to
help us," says Rade Zivkovic of Klina.
"I
am convinced that some representatives
of the international community in the Province
are carrying out the wishes of the Albanian leaders
to prevent Serbs from returning", Dr. Milan Ivanovic
DRSNIK AND
DOLAC
 The
announcement of the mass return of Serbs to Kosovo is serious this time.
The 2,000 families mentioned above registered just in the office in
Kraljevo. The situation is similar in other locations in Serbia and
Montenegro. However, the lists of names and places are still incomplete.
The Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija is also doing everything
possible for displaced persons to return. The latest announcement of the
Serbian government that it will demand that late Serbian premier Zoran
Djindjic's proposal for the return of expelled persons and their freedom
of movement be given priority placement on an upcoming UN session agenda
have encouraged the Kosovo and Metohija Serbs.
"Someone wanted us to become the Kurds of the Balkans after everything
that has happened to us," claims Dr. Sava Stanojevic of Djakovica. "You
see our status today for yourself. We have our property. We cannot get to
it without an escort. None of us is asking for anything that doesn't
belong to us. Why is the world not more just toward its allies from World
War II and toward a nation which has made a considerable contribution to
world civilization."
UNMIK and KFOR still don't know what to do. In the meanwhile, the Serbs
from the village of Drsnik near Klina yesterday announced the return of
120 families. Two days ago, the residents of Dolac, slightly more numerous
than nearby Drsnik, announced the same intention. A final list, which is
being added to each day, will be submitted on March 27 of this year to Mr.
Mistrija Adiji of India at the UNMIK office in Pec. This will be done by a
delegation of Metohija Serbs headed by Milivoje Ribac.
29 plus 39 plus 31
The lists of returnees include, besides the given and family names of the
family members, their age and occupation, and accurate information
regarding their real property, the names of the villages where their
property and destroyed homes are located. So far there are 29 villages
just in the municipality of Pec; 39 villages in the municipality of Istok;
and 31 villages in the municipality of Klina, not counting the villages
and hamlets of the municipalities of Djakovica and Decane, nor the town of
Prizren where the international community expects the return of about
1,000 Serbs.
"For now we are dealing with rural locations. We will address urban
centers later on," says Milivoje Ribac, adding that some of the families
wishing to return left their native land two or three decades ago.
39,000 HOUSES FOR THE ALBANIANS
During the past four years the international community has built and
rebuilt 39,000 houses in Kosovo and Metohija for Albanians. With a few
individual exceptions almost nothing has been done for the Serbs and the
Montenegrins.
"I am convinced that some representatives of the international community
in the Province are carrying out the wishes of the Albanian leaders to
prevent Serbs from returning. The reasons for this are numerous. And we
will soon be discussing them," emphasizes Dr. Milan Ivanovic, the chairman
of the Serb National Council of Northern Kosovo. He adds that Serbs in
northern Kosovo are busy building houses and business and that none of
them has any intention of leaving.
TOP
COUNCIL OF
EUROPE WELCOMES SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO FROM
TODAY A REGULAR MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE
TOP
Beta
News Agency
03 April 2003
(photo: Walter Schwimmer
and Svetozar Marovic in Strassbourg)
 STRASBOURG
-- Thursday – Following the accession ceremony, the playing of the
national anthem of the former Yugoslavia and the raising of the flag, the
state union of Serbia-Montenegro has become a full member of the Council
of Europe.
In his opening speech in the main hall of the Palais de l’Europe, CoE
Secretary General Walter Schwimmer said "Serbia-Montenegro is welcome
home", adding that members would help the state union to develop democracy
and the market.
Union president Svetozar Marovic handed over accession documents to the
Statute of the Council of Europe and, together with Schwimmer, signed the
contract of obligations.
Following Schwimmer’s insistence that the assassination of PM Djindjic
would not halt the flow of democracy in the country, Union President
Svetozar Marovic assessed that the day of accession sends a "clear message
that Serbia and Montenegro wants peace, stability, democracy and full
integration".
 Federal
Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said, among other things, that today’s
act must be a reminder to all of the "responsibility of everyone in the
government to bring war criminals to justice".
Svilanovic finalized the accession by signing the European Convention on
Human Rights, Protocol Nos. 6 and 13 on the abolition of the death
penalty, and Protocol Nos. 1, 4, 7, and 12 to the Convention.
Council of
Europe Press Release
Spokesperson and Press Division
April 03, 2003
(photo: Walter Schwimmer
and Svetozar Marovic in Strassbourg)
 Strasbourg,
03.04.2003 - On the occasion of the accession of Serbia and Montenegro as
the 45th Council of Europe member State, the leaders of the Organisation
today praised this historic event as an opportunity for the country to
build a new future in the midst of Europe.
The Chairman of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers and Maltese
Foreign Minister Joseph Borg said that the country had overcome the worst
and found the courage to leave the heritage of the past behind it.
"Serbia and Montenegro, which rid itself of a tyrannical regime, barely
three years ago, has made considerable progress in a very short time. It
is no easy task to confront the past when it is as painful as that of
Serbia and Montenegro, but the new authorities have tackled it most
courageously," he said.
Parliamentary Assembly President Peter Schieder praised Prime Minister
Zoran Djindjic, killed on 12 March, as a courageous and visionary leader
and recalled that on that day, the remnants of the Milosevic regime had
made
their last desperate attempt to return the country to the darkness of its
past. "Instead, the resolute response of the authorities and, above all,
the citizens has catapulted Serbia and Montenegro into the future," he
said.
 "This
is what we are celebrating here today. A tribute to what is best in Serbia
and Montenegro. A tribute to its people, who have decided to
break,irreversibly, with the past. We are welcoming a country which is
oriented towards Europe, and which is strongly committed to our common
ideals," he concluded.
Secretary General Walter Schwimmer praised the impressive work done by
Serbia and Montenegro, and stressed that Council of Europe membership
would help the country face the tremendous challenges yet to come.
"Today, we add the missing link in the chain of our south-east European
member States. The road towards further integration into Europe is now
open for the whole region," Mr Schwimmer said.
"My wish is to continue to see a vibrant, vital and attentive society,
ready also to tackle the painful question of looking at the past in order
to be able to look with more confidence and optimism to the future," he
added.
TOP
POWELL: U.S. WILL HELP SERBIA-MONTENEGRO BECOME INTEGRAL PART OF EUROPE
Washington is ready to help reforms in serbia and
Montenegro in every possible way
TOP
Radio
Yugoslavia, Press Review
April 3, 2003
(photo: U.S. State
Secretary and the new Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic)
 The
DANAS daily quotes US Secretary of State Colin Powell as saying that the
US will do everything to help Serbia and Montenegro become an integral
part of Europe. The improvement of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal is
an important element of international obligations of Serbia and
Montenegro. After fulfilling those obligations, the state union of Serbia
and Montenegro can expect faster admission to the Partnership for Peace
and the European Union, Powell said after talks with the highest state and
republican officials in Belgrade. T
 The
US secretary of state praised the normalization of trade relations between
the US and Serbia and Montenegro and said that the Army of Serbia and
Montenegro would receive full support of the Pentagon and NATO. Powell
said he was impressed by what he heard from officials in Belgrade, by the
dedication to reforms initiated by Zoran Djindjic and actions against
criminals. He emphasized that Washington was ready to help reforms in
Serbia and Montenegro in every possible way.
(photo: Colin Powell
with the family of the late Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic in their home)
TOP
UNCONTROLLED EXTREMISTS, PEOPLE OF POLITICAL GROUPS OF ANA
MASKED EXTREMISTS APPEAR IN DECANI MUNICIPALITY
TOP
KOHA
DITORE, Pristina daily in Albanian (Front Page)
April 03,
2003
 The
sickness of his four-year nephew made Nezir from the village of Llukë,
Decan, to travel to a neighbouring village at 3 a clock in the morning. He
never experienced what his co-villagers spoke about the way he had to
travel. "They were masked and uniformed. They were five and were armed,"
said Nezir. Masked people stopped the car with which they were travelling.
"They just asked me who I am and where we are going. I told that that we
were going to see a doctor and then they left us." […]
Even though there are not many cases reported at the police station in
Decan, residents of the villages of Lluke, Pozhare, Lumbardh…speak with
low voices about meeting with uniformed and masked people, especially
during the last two-three weeks. Local government and political parties in
Decan say that there is no need for masked people, but they do not exclude
the possibility that they came from political groups. A source close to
the Albanian National Army said that there is no need for them to appear
in this region. "It has been said in Decan that masked and uniformed
people have started to appear. Also, I have information that these people
did not make evil things. I have never met them," said Ibrahim Selmanaj,
the president of Decan municipality. "However, the fact itself that they
are masked is not ok. I see no need for their existence," said Selmanaj.
The police are very limited in giving any information because of
investigations. "We are aware that masked people terrorise people," said
Bobby Baeker, the chief of investigation unit at the police station in
Decan. "The thing is that we posses more unofficial information than
direct ones as it was the case of last week when these people stopped and
identified a person. People do not report much cases," said Bob
Richardson, the chief of Peja regional police.
(translation
from the OSCE Monitoring Bulletin)
TOP
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