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November 05,
2003
ERP KiM Newsletter
05-11-03
Even the last remnants
of former multiethnicity disappear in Kosovo today
Ethnic and Religious Coexistence
which lasted for centuries is rapidly disappearing in Kosovo Province,
regrettably despite the UN Administration
Serbian Orthodox church and an Albanian mosque share the same courtyard in
the city of Urosevac. Once a home of 9.000 Orthodox Serbs Urosevac town,
now known under the Albanian name of Ferizaj (according to Ottoman Feriz
Pasha) is one of the most ethnically pure parts of Kosovo and Metohija Province.
Only 12 elderly Serbs live isolated in their homes and are under medical
and humanitarian care of the Greek KFOR. In June 1999 ethnic Albanian
extremists looted and damaged the interior of the church. Since then the
church is under constant KFOR protection.
CONTENTS:
 Only
12 Serbs Left in Urosevac
The municipality of
Urosevac is now the most ethnically pure part of Kosovo and Metohija: with
the exception of 12 Serbs living in the town of Urosevac itself, there are
no other Serbs in the entire municipality.
COVIC:
It is Time for Timeframes For Fulfilling Standards
"It is very
important that all the standards be defined so that there is no place for
slacking. Standards have to be clearly set, well profiled and measurable,"
stated Covic.
Del
Ponte: Kosovo Witnesses Being Threatened
"Witnesses with
whom we have already spoken are now refusing to testify out of fear," she
added, noting that the tribunal does have a witness protection system.
However, this system often entails moving entire families, which is very
difficult, she explained.
Kosovo
Status Talks Could Start in 2005: US Official
US Under
Secretary for Political Affairs Marc Grossman, referring to UN-set targets
including the return of minorities, economic reform and rule of law, said:
"If the Kosovars can meet these standards ... there will be a review of
where they stand in mid-2005.
Belgrade
Offers "Evidence" Of Albanian War Crimes in Kosovo
Serbian
Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic released a book Tuesday on "Albanian
terrorism and organized crime" in Kosovo in the hope that it will lead to
war crimes charges against ethnic Albanians.
CSM:
For Refugees in Kosovo Long Way Back Home
Although four years have passed since they
were chased from their homes by ethnic-Albanian militants seeking revenge
for atrocities committed by the Serbian Army, many Kosovo Serbs, like
young Yeton, have not given up hope that they might one day return.
This newsletter is available on our
ERP KIM Web-site:
/erpkiminfo.html
Elderly
Kosovo Serbs are usually targeted by the Albanian extremists. Many elderly
people have been killed, or they starved confined in their flats (out of
fear). Some have been just simply evicted from their homes and damped in
the street like these two ladies in Urosevac - a city which has been
almost completely purged from Serbs (US sector)
- archive photo ERP KIM
June 1999
Only 12
Serbs Left in Urosevac
The municipality of Urosevac is now the most ethnically pure part of
Kosovo and Metohija: with the exception of 12 Serbs living in the town of
Urosevac itself, there are no other Serbs in the entire municipality.
TOP
Borba
daily, Belgrade
November 4, 2003
Only 12 Serbs left in Urosevac
No Serbs in any of 20 formerly Serb villages in Urosevac municipality and
the town of Urosevac itself has been renamed Ferizaj by the Albanians
The municipality of Urosevac is now the most ethnically pure part of
Kosovo and Metohija: with the exception of 12 Serbs living in the town of
Urosevac itself, there are no other Serbs in the entire municipality.
Prior to the deployment of KFOR in June 1999, there were approximately
60,000 Albanians and 20,000 Serbs in the municipality, 9,000 of the latter
within the town of Urosevac.
In June 1999 the entire Serb population fled. Today the municipality has a
population of almost 100,000 Albanians, the majority of them immigrants
from the Republic of Albania, and a few Ashkalis who remained in the town
of Urosevac.
So far Urosevac Serbs have sold 85 percent of their real property -
apartments, houses and land - to Albanians. Those who have not managed to
do so say that the reason is fewer customers or low offers by the
Albanians, who are aware that the Serbs will not return to Urosevac.
Last weekend on All Saints' Day (Zadusnice), a group of 50 Urosevac Serbs
visited the village cemetery for the first time since 1999. The cemetery
is now under KFOR protection but vandals had previously broken the tomb
covers and removed the crosses.
The town is a living hive with walkways that have been transformed into
fruit and vegetable stands and general merchandise stores, and every
square meter is occupied by newly built houses or what appear to be
businesses.
All the streets now have new names and every trace of Serbs here has been
systematically destroyed.
Serbian Orthodox monastery of St.
Uros V near Urosevac. St. Uros was the founder of the
Urosevac town and one of Serbian royal saints (end 14th century).
St Uros Monastery
with the church of the Ascension of the Holy Virgin in Sarenik, Gornje
Nerodimlje (near Urosevac). The monastery and the church were built by the
Serbian Empress Helen in the 14th century, west of Gornje Nerodimlje. It
was completely destroyed by Albanian extremists in summer 1999 after the
arrival of US
KFOR troops in the area.
It
is Time For Timeframes For Fulfilling Standards
"It is very important
that all the standards be defined so that there is no place for slacking.
Standards have to be clearly set, well profiled and measurable," stated
Covic.
TOP
Free
Serbia, Belgrade
04 November, 2003
Nebojsa
Covic, vice president of the Serbian Government, announced that Kosovo
would be presented with timeframes for fulfilling of standards.
"It is very important that all the standards be defined so that there is
no place for slacking. Standards have to be clearly set, well profiled and
measurable," stated Covic.
Announcing that time will come when there will be public and other
processes during which the extend of the fulfillment of standards will be
evaluated, Covic stated that it is very important that there be some
criteria's under which it will be evaluated if standards have been
fulfilled or not. In reference to this Covic mentioned the example of the
return of the dispersed, which is one of the eight internationally set
standards for Kosovo, by saying "if the standard does not say how many
people are returning, how are they returning, how many bricks are needed
for their houses, how many houses are needed, then that it not a
standard".
"Standards must clearly determine what is the UNMIK role, what is the role
of Harri Holkeri, or if his mission was only to initiate dialogue, which
did not actually start," stated the Serbian vice prime-minister and
emphasized that he believes "UNMIK chief has sincere and fair attitude in
solving of the Kosovo problem".
TOP
Del
Ponte, Kosovo Witnesses Being Threatened
"Witnesses with
whom we have already spoken are now refusing to testify out of fear," she
added, noting that the tribunal does have a witness protection system.
However, this system often entails moving entire families, which is very
difficult, she explained.
TOP
Borba
daily, Belgrade
November 4, 2003
Speaking about Kosovo, the chief prosecutor of the Hague tribunal Carla
del Ponte stated today in Vienna that the trial of an Albanian suspect is
to start at the beginning of next year, that three indictments are ready
and that investigations are in progress in two other cases.
Just before addressing the Permanent Council of the Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe, Del Ponte told reporters that she has
problems collecting evidence because Kosovo witnesses are being
threatened, feel afraid and are living in great danger.
"Witnesses with whom we have already spoken are now refusing to testify
out of fear," she added, noting that the tribunal does have a witness
protection system. However, this system often entails moving entire
families, which is very difficult, she explained.
Del Ponte also said that she was waiting for Kosovo documentation promised
by Serbian justice minister Vladan Batic.
"I hope I will receive the documentation soon, as he promised me during
our recent meeting," she said.
TOP
Kosovo Status Talks Could Start in 2005: US Official
US Under
Secretary for Political Affairs Marc Grossman, referring to UN-set targets
including the return of minorities, economic reform and rule of law, said:
"If the Kosovars can meet these standards ... there will be a review of
where they stand in mid-2005.
TOP
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Tuesday, 04-Nov-2003 8:01AM
BRUSSELS, Nov 4 (AFP) - Talks on the final status of the UN-run province
of Kosovo could start in 2005 if Kosovars meet certain standards, a senior
US official said Tuesday.
US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Marc Grossman, referring to
UN-set targets including the return of minorities, economic reform and
rule of law, said: "If the Kosovars can meet these standards ... there
will be a review of where they stand in mid-2005.
"And if they can meet these standards we will also be prepared to begin
the processus of discussion on the final status for Kosovo," he said.
"If however they can't meet these standards or don't meet these standards
then the contact group would set a new date," he added, referring to the
six-member group comprising the United States, Russia, Britain, France,
Germany and Italy which has overseen efforts to resolve conflicts in
ex-Yugoslavia.
Grossman, visiting the Brussels headquarters of NATO -- which coordinated
the US-led bombing of the province in 1999 that forced Serb forces out of
the predominantly Albanian-populated province -- underlined the desire for
further progress.
"One of the things we discussed was the great importance in finishing the
job ... with getting Kosovo right," he said, after talks with NATO's
decision-making North Atlantic Council (NAC).
He added that he would be travelling to Serbia and Pristina "to talk about
a plan that the contact group has achieved to have Kosovars meet standards
more quickly.
TOP
AFP:
Belgrade Offers "evidence" of Albanian War Crimes in Kosovo
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic released a book Tuesday on "Albanian
terrorism and organized crime" in Kosovo in the hope that it will lead to
war crimes charges against ethnic Albanians.
TOP
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Tuesday, 04-Nov-2003 9:20AM
BELGRADE, Nov 4 (AFP) - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic released a
book Tuesday on "Albanian terrorism and organized crime" in Kosovo in the
hope that it will lead to war crimes charges against ethnic Albanians.
"With this book, we want to help NATO and the UN in Kosovo to fight
terrorism and organized crime," Zivkovic told a press conference.
He said the white book should also "help" the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to "present new indictments
against Albanian terrorists."
The book, jointly prepared by the police, the army and the foreign
ministry, includes the names of some 156 members of ethnic Albanian
extremist groups seen by Belgrade as responsible for war crimes against
Serbs in Kosovo.
It also shows the alleged "chain of command" of the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA), ethnic Albanian guerrillas who fought an independence war against
the forces of former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic from 1998-99.
The KLA was officially disbanded after the conflict but many of its
fighters now serve in the Kosovo Protection Force, a UN-supervised unit
which was established after the world body took control of Kosovo in 1999.
Milosevic has been on trial at the ICTY in The Hague since February last
year, facing more than 60 charges of war crimes and crimes against
humanity for his role in the 1990s wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
Belgrade accuses the UN tribunal of bias against Serbs and has demanded
that war crimes indictments be brought against Kosovo Albanians accused of
carrying out atrocities against the Serb minority in the southern
province.
So far no ethnic Albanians have been indicted by the UN court, although
four were convicted in a Kosovo court in July of war crimes committed
against other Kosovo Albanians.
Serbia's white book also fingers the Albanian National army (ANA), a rebel
group which has been declared as a "terrorist" organization by the UN
mission in Kosovo.
"The ANA presents a factor of instability and (is) linked with organized
crime in Kosovo," Zivkovic said.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic said he had informed Harri
Holkeri, chief of the UN mission in Kosovo, about a photograph of KLA
fighters holding severed heads which was published Monday in a Belgrade
daily.
The graphic image shows several men in KLA uniforms, smiling and holding
two decapitated heads said to be from Serbian soldiers.
The KLA soldiers in the photo are now members of the Kosovo Protection
Corps, according to the Vecernje Novosti daily.
"I have contacted Mr Holkeri and he has assured me that we will get the
details of the case," Covic said.
More than 200,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since June 1999, fearing ethnic
Albanian reprisal attacks for the brutality of Serbian rule under
Milosevic.
Some 1,300 Serbs have been missing since the war.
TOP
For
Refugees From Kosovo, a Long Way Back Home
Although four years have passed since
they were chased from their homes by ethnic-Albanian militants seeking
revenge for atrocities committed by the Serbian Army, many Kosovo Serbs,
like young Yeton, have not given up hope that they might one day return.
TOP
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1105/p07s01-woeu.html
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
from the November 05, 2003 edition
By Arie Farnam | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
CAGLAVICA AND BELO POLJE, KOSOVO - When he was 5 years old, Yeton saw his
grandmother gunned down by black-uniformed Kosovo Liberation Army
soldiers. Then, his mother picked him up and ran out of the village toward
the Montenegrin border.
"I wish we could go back to our house and our friends," he says, now
standing on a road outside a refugee shelter. "I wish we didn't have to be
hungry anymore."
Although four years have passed since they were chased from their homes by
ethnic-Albanian militants seeking revenge for atrocities committed by the
Serbian Army, many Kosovo Serbs, like young Yeton*, have not given up hope
that they might one day return.
Last summer, leading ethnic-Albanian politicians signed an open letter
welcoming minority communities forced to flee Kosovo after the 1999 war
here to come back home. The message briefly revived hope among refugees
like Yeton and his extended family, who have lived in refugee camps in
Serbia since the war. This year Yeton and an aunt tried to return to their
village of Gorni Petric in western Kosovo.
But their road home quickly hit a dead end. "I went to visit our home, and
our neighbors threatened me with knives and said we will be killed if we
try to return," says Yeton's aunt, Vera Isaku. "Our houses have been
burned and destroyed."
It's a common tale among the 240,000 refugees and internally displaced
persons from Kosovo, mostly Serb and Roma (Gypsy) minorities, who found
refuge in Serbia, Montenegro or Macedonia. Another 60,000 minority
refugees from Kosovo are scattered across the rest of Europe. In the past
four years only about 7,000 non-Albanian refugees have returned to Kosovo.
Kosovo was historically the poorest Serbian province, and Serbs have been
drifting away for decades in search of better economic opportunities.
However, it was once a haven for other minorities, such as the Roma, who
often face discrimination elsewhere in Europe. The Kosovar town of
Mitrovica once boasted the largest and most prosperous Romany settlement
in the former Yugoslavia - 7,000 people, many of them skilled craftspeople
and educated professionals. Today, not one of them is left, and their
homes are rubble.
Sadima Toska once had a cozy home in that Romany neighborhood but now she
and her seven children live in a refugee camp in the Serb-controlled town
of Svechin. After four years of UN rations, these camps, which still hold
tens of thousands of refugees, are being cut off from food and water aid
as international attention turns toward the Middle East. "Of course, I
would go back home at the first opportunity," Ms. Toska says. "But I am
afraid we would be killed. KFOR [the NATO-led peacekeeping force here]
says they can't guarantee our safety."
Attacks against minorities continue on a regular basis in Kosovo -
everything from stone throwing to grenade attacks, arson and shootings -
and most of the 100,000 Serbs and other minorities remaining in Kosovo are
confined to isolated enclaves. Peggy Hicks, director of the Office of
Returns under the UN administration of Kosovo, rates lack of security as
the greatest obstacle to returning refugees, but the 70 percent
unemployment rate in Kosovo does not help to bring émigrés back either.
Serb leaders call the invitation by ethnic-Albanian politicians
propaganda, but Ms. Hicks and other international officials say it is a
sign of progress. "Until recently, no politician here would say anything
positive about returns,"she says. "Now, Kosovar politicians have realized
that minority returns are key to their own future."
Kosovo's future remains in doubt. It is administered as a UN protectorate,
though it is technically still a Serbian province, and Kosovar Albanians
desperately want independence. Serbian and Kosovar Albanian officials have
spoken recently of a date sometime in 2005 for final status talks, and a
senior US official said Tuesday that such talks could begin in mid-2005 if
Kosovo meets rule-of-law, democracy and other standards by then.
The return of minority refugees tops the list of conditions for
independence set by international officials. As a result, Kosovo's
Albanian political elite issued the open letter welcoming the refugees
back, although most of the population opposes the returns. "Kosovo is for
Albanians," says Palaj village resident Azem Dedinca, voicing a typical
view. "Serbs and Roma have no place here. They killed Albanians or they
collaborated with those who did."
In August, gunmen fired on Serb children swimming in a river near the Serb
enclave of Gorazdevac in western Kosovo. The attack, which killed two
youths, was timed just before 200 Serb refugees were expected to return to
the area. The return was quickly aborted.
Only 24 men managed to return to the nearby village of Belo Polje before
the attack, and they have set up camp amid charred ruins of their former
homes, guarded constantly by Italian KFOR soldiers. "It is like living in
a prison," says Radomir Kostic, a returnee who left his family in Serbia
to help rebuild his village. "How can I consider bringing my daughters and
grandchildren back to a place like this? On the other hand, what choice do
I have? We have no chance living as refugees. We are not welcome in
Serbia. They call us Albanians and refuse to give us jobs. Faced with two
kinds of nothing, I choose my nothing, and this is the only home I have
ever known."
TOP
*It is very probable that
Yeton might be a misspelled Serb name, or a name of a Roma refugee who
also found refuge in Serbia proper together with more than 200.000 Serb
refugees from Kosovo Province (ERP KIM Info Service Editor)
ERP KIM
Info-Service is the official Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox
Diocese of Raska and Prizren and works with the blessing of His Grace
Bishop Artemije.
Our Information Service is distributing news on Kosovo related issues. The
main focus of the Info-Service is the life of the Serbian Orthodox Church
and the Serbian community in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija. ERP KIM
Info Service works in cooperation with
www.serbian-translation.com as well as the
Kosovo
Daily News (KDN) News List
Disclaimer:
The views expressed by the authors of newspaper articles or other texts
which are not official communiqués or news reports by the Diocese are
their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Serbian
Orthodox Church
Additional
information on our Diocese and the life of the Kosovo Serb Community may
be found at:
Copyright 2003, ERP KIM Info-Service
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