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September
13, 2003
ERP KIM Newsletter
13-09-03
IN EXPECTATION OF
BELGRADE-PRISTINA NEGOTIATIONS
CONTENTS:
 CONTINUED
UN SC SUPPORT FOR KOSOVO "CRUCIAL" - UN OFFICIAL
12 September - Concerned by the
mounting tensions and insecurity in Kosovo, a senior United Nations
official today descried a number of violent attacks in the province during
the past two months, primarily targeting Serbs, and said the continued
support of the Security Council would be "crucial" to maintaining the rule
of law.
SPECTATOR
(UK) - HOW WE TRAINED AL-QAEDA
Indeed, for all the
Clinton officials' concern about Islamic extremists in the Balkans, they
continued to allow the growth and movement of mujahedin forces in Europe
through the 1990s. In the late 1990s, in the run-up to Clinton's and
Blair's Kosovo war of 1999, the USA backed the Kosovo Liberation Army
against Serbia. According to a report in the Jerusalem Post in 1998, KLA
members, like the Bosnian Muslims before them, had been 'provided with
financial and military support from Islamic countries', and had been
'bolstered by hundreds of Iranian fighters or mujahedin ...[some of whom]
were trained in Osama bin Laden' s terrorist camps in Afghanistan'. It
seems that, for all its handwringing, the USA just couldn't break the pact
with the devil.
PRISTINA
DIALOGUE DECISION ON SEPTEMBER 23
The time and place for the beginning
of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will be set at the next meeting
of the Contact Group on September 23, UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri told
Kosovo Serb political leaders in Pristina yesterday.
SITUATION
COMPLICATED, FIRST RESULTS SOON
The Council for State Security of
Serbia evaluated that "the new escalation of terrorism, wounding and
killing children, in addition to the threatening and persecution of the
remained Serbs from Kosovo, also expresses a sign to the international
community that would not be given up from the temporary goals of the
Albanian terrorist, which can only lead towards destabilization of the
security situation in the Balkan region".
ANALYSIS:
US, NATO PLACED THEIR STAKE IN ALBANIAN SEPARATISM
-"The trouble is
that the USA and NATO put their stakes in the Balkans on Albanian
separatism," says Prof. Vladimir Volkov, a prominent Balkans expert and
director of the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Russian Academy of
Sciences....Besides, NATO is still entertaining hopes of using Albanian
separatism for putting pressure on maverick Balkan countries.
INET
- KOSOVO AND METOHIJA FLASH NEWS, SEP 11
INET
- KOSOVO AND METOHIJA FLASH NEWS, SEP 12
PERPETRATORS OF GORAZDEVAC MASSACRE STILL NOT ARRESTED - DAY 30...
More News Available on our:
KOSOVO DAILY NEWS LIST (KDN)
KDN Archive
This newsletter is available on our
ERP KIM Web-site:
/erpkiminfo.html
ERPKIM
Editorial
Fr. Sava Janjic
In expectation of
the beginning of Belgrade-Pristina dialogue on Kosovo and Metohija,
the situation in the UN-administered southern province of Serbia is
deteriorating. With escalation of violence in North Macedonia and continuation
of ethnically motivated attacks on remaining Kosovo Serbs, Albanian
extremists in the Balkans have demonstrated that they still have not
relinquished their old dreams of reshaping the state borders of the
Balkan states.
While ethnic Albanians
normally and freely move through central Serbia and Montenegro, even
opening their businesses in Belgrade, Kosovo Serbs still live an isolated
life in their tiny enclaves in constant fear of new attacks on their
children. Many Serb schools still have not started because parents have
not received enough guarantees from KFOR that their children will be
safe from extremists. Perpetrators of the recent massacres in Obilic
and Gorazdevac have not been arrested yet despite constant promises
by new UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri. The main reason for the unsuccessful
investigations remains the "Albanian conspiracy of silence",
which does not allow criminals to be brought to justice. Even those
Albanians who do not see the future of Kosovo in violence and crime
become targets of their extremist compatriots, like a Kosovo policeman
recently killed in Djakovica, inhabeted solely by ethnic Albanians.
On the other hand,
Kosovo Albanian political leaders have shown a complete lack of political
responsibility in recent weeks. Instead of demonstating their sincere
commitment to building a multiethnic society by visiting vulnerable
communities and their Albanian neighbors, they continue sitting in their
Pristina offices issuing sterile statements and lamenting the blurred
image of Kosovo. In such a situation Kosovo Serbs have no other choice
but to strengthen their ties with their government in Belgrade, which
has recently demonstrated its clear committment to keep Kosovo within
state borders and not to allow the creation of an ethnically clean Albanian
banana republic.
In fact,
the total lack of any kind of responsibility is becoming a chronic Kosovo
disease that has not even spared the internationals, many of whom behave
as if recurring acts of violence and murder are happening on some other
continent and not in front of their own eyes. The policy of persistently
ignoring the basic provisions of UNSC Res. 1244 must change; otherwise,
the Province will slide even more toward chaos. Kosovo Serbs and their
Governement in Belgrade therefore see the forthcoming negotiations as
an opportunity to route the process of ethnic cleansing and repression,
which has ruled Kosovo for the last four post-war years, toward full
implementation of the UN SC Resolution and establishment of Kosovo as
a substantial autonomy within the multiethnic state union of Serbia
and Montenegro. The secession of the Province, which will inevitably
lead to the final exodus of remaining Serbs and minorities, is simply
not considered by any serious and responsible Serb leader to be an option
for negotiations.
CONTINUED SECURITY COUNCIL SUPPORT FOR KOSOVO "CRUCIAL" - UN OFFICIAL
12 September - Concerned by the mounting
tensions and insecurity in Kosovo, a senior United Nations official today
descried a number of violent attacks in the province during the past two
months, primarily targeting Serbs, and said the continued support of the
Security Council would be "crucial" to maintaining the rule of law.
TOP
UN
NEWS CENTRE
September 12, 2003
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=8241&Cr=kosovo&Cr1=
12 September - Concerned by the mounting tensions and insecurity in
Kosovo, a senior United Nations official today descried a number of
violent attacks in the province during the past two months, primarily
targeting Serbs, and said the continued support of the Security Council
would be "crucial" to maintaining the rule of law.
In an open briefing on the situation in Kosovo, Hédi Annabi,
Assistant-Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping Operations, said the
recent attacks had not only been directed at the Kosovo Serb community but
at law enforcement authorities attached to the UN Mission in the province
(UNMIK). Property used by the police and the judiciary, including an UNMIK
police station, had been damaged in explosions and other attacks, he
added.
No one had claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, Mr. Annabi
noted, and the situation had prompted UNMIK and the international security
force (KFOR) to reassess and enhance security measures. Some of the
attacks had come after the conviction on 16 July of four former Kosovo
Liberation Army members for war crimes committed primarily against fellow
Kosovo Albanians during 1998 and 1999.
Regarding political developments, Mr. Annabi said that the Kosovo Assembly
had reconvened last Thursday. Since July, the government had focused on
legislative development and the security situation, but it had not taken
up the initiation of direct dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
The Serbian Parliament, for its part, had endorsed a "Declaration on
Kosovo and Metohija" at the end of August and adopted a resolution on the
matter on 5 September, Mr. Annabi said, noting that Kosovo Albanian
leaders had been critical of those documents, particularly the references
to Kosovo's status. On 3 September, the Kosovo government had publicly
expressed concern over the decision to adopt the Serbian declaration and
stated its intention to build an independent state.
Mr. Annabi also pointed out that the new head of UNMIK, Harri Holkeri had
reaffirmed the "standards before status" principle and its focus on
progress towards achieving concrete benchmarks. Currently, Mr. Holkeri was
overseeing the development of an operational plan for the implementation
of the benchmarks, which was being drawn up jointly by UNMIK and the
Kosovo Provisional Institutions. He was also planning to propose
modalities for the dialogue between the provisional institutions and
Belgrade, which should focus on concrete issues for the benefit of the
people.
UNMIK would remain committed fully implementing Council resolution 1244 of
1999 - which called for the setting up of provisional self-government
institutions in the war-ravaged province, and was working with all
interlocutors to achieve progress on the benchmarks within the "standards
before status" policy framework, Mr. Annabi said.
TOP
SPECTATOR (UK) - HOW WE TRAINED AL-QA'AEDA
Indeed, for
all the Clinton officials' concern about Islamic extremists in the
Balkans, they continued to allow the growth and movement of mujahedin
forces in Europe through the 1990s. In the late 1990s, in the run-up to
Clinton's and Blair's Kosovo war of 1999, the USA backed the Kosovo
Liberation Army against Serbia. According to a report in the Jerusalem
Post in 1998, KLA members, like the Bosnian Muslims before them, had been
'provided with financial and military support from Islamic countries', and
had been 'bolstered by hundreds of Iranian fighters or mujahedin ...[some
of whom] were trained in Osama bin Laden' s terrorist camps in
Afghanistan'. It seems that, for all its handwringing, the USA just
couldn't break the pact with the devil.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old§ion=current&issue=2003-09-13&id=3499&searchText=
TOP
THE SPECTATOR (UK)
12 September 2003
Brendan O'Neill says the Bosnian war taught
Islamic terrorists to operate abroad
For all the millions of words written about al-Qa'eda since the 9/11
attacks two years ago, one phenomenon is consistently overlooked - the
role of the Bosnian war in transforming the mujahedin of the 1980s into
the roving Islamic terrorists of today.
Many writers and reporters have traced al-Qa'eda and other terror groups'
origins back to the Afghan war of 1979-1992, that last gasp of the Cold
War when US-backed mujahedin forces fought against the invading Soviet
army. It is well documented that America played a major role in creating
and sustaining the mujahedin, which included Osama bin Laden's Office of
Services set up to recruit volunteers from overseas. Between 1985 and
1992, US officials estimate that 12,500 foreign fighters were trained in
bomb-making, sabotage and guerrilla warfare tactics in Afghan camps that
the CIA helped to set up.
Yet America's role in backing the mujahedin a second time in the early and
mid-1990s is seldom mentioned - largely because very few people know about
it, and those who do find it prudent to pretend that it never happened.
Following the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 and the collapse
of their puppet regime in 1992, the Afghan mujahedin became less important
to the United States; many Arabs, in the words of the journalist James
Buchan, were left stranded in Afghanistan 'with a taste for fighting but
no cause'. It was not long before some were provided with a new cause.
From 1992 to 1995, the Pentagon assisted with the movement of thousands of
mujahedin and other Islamic elements from Central Asia into Europe, to
fight alongside Bosnian Muslims against the Serbs.
The Bosnia venture appears to have been very important to the rise of
mujahedin forces, to the emergence of today's cross-border Islamic
terrorists who think nothing of moving from state to state in the search
of outlets for their jihadist mission. In moving to Bosnia, Islamic
fighters were transported from the ghettos of Afghanistan and the Middle
East into Europe; from an outdated battleground of the Cold War to the
major world conflict of the day; from being yesterday's men to fighting
alongside the West's favoured side in the clash of the Balkans. If Western
intervention in Afghanistan created the mujahedin, Western intervention in
Bosnia appears to have globalised it.
As part of the Dutch government's inquiry into the Srebrenica massacre of
July 1995, Professor Cees Wiebes of Amsterdam University compiled a report
entitled 'Intelligence and the War in Bosnia', published in April 2002. In
it he details the secret alliance between the Pentagon and radical Islamic
groups from the Middle East, and their efforts to assist Bosnia's Muslims.
By 1993, there was a vast amount of weapons- smuggling through Croatia to
the Muslims, organised by 'clandestine agencies' of the USA, Turkey and
Iran, in association with a range of Islamic groups that included Afghan
mujahedin and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah. Arms bought by Iran and Turkey
with the financial backing of Saudi Arabia were airlifted from the Middle
East to Bosnia - airlifts with which, Wiebes points out, the USA was 'very
closely involved'.
The Pentagon's secret alliance with Islamic elements allowed mujahedin
fighters to be 'flown in', though they were initially reserved as shock
troops for particularly hazardous operations against Serb forces.
According to a report in the Los Angeles Times in October 2001, from 1992
as many as 4,000 volunteers from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe,
'known as the mujahedin', arrived in Bosnia to fight with the Muslims.
Richard Holbrooke, America's former chief Balkans peace negotiator, has
said that the Bosnian Muslims 'wouldn't have survived' without the help of
the mujahedin, though he later admitted that the arrival of the mujahedin
was a 'pact with the devil' from which Bosnia is still recovering.
By the end of the 1990s State Department officials were increasingly
worried about the consequences of this pact. Under the terms of the 1995
Dayton peace accord, the foreign mujahedin units were required to disband
and leave the Balkans. Yet in 2000, the State Department raised concerns
about the 'hundreds of foreign Islamic extremists' who became Bosnian
citizens after fighting against the Serbs, and who pose a potential terror
threat to Europe and the United States. US officials claimed that one of
bin Laden's top lieutenants had sent operatives to Bosnia, and that during
the 1990s Bosnia had served as a 'staging area and safe haven' for
al-Qa'eda and others. The Clinton administration had discovered that it is
one thing to permit the movement of Islamic groups across territories; it
is quite another to rein them back in again.
Indeed, for all the Clinton officials' concern about Islamic extremists in
the Balkans, they continued to allow the growth and movement of mujahedin
forces in Europe through the 1990s. In the late 1990s, in the run-up to
Clinton's and Blair's Kosovo war of 1999, the USA backed the Kosovo
Liberation Army against Serbia. According to a report in the Jerusalem
Post in 1998, KLA members, like the Bosnian Muslims before them, had been
'provided with financial and military support from Islamic countries', and
had been 'bolstered by hundreds of Iranian fighters or mujahedin ...[some
of whom] were trained in Osama bin Laden' s terrorist camps in
Afghanistan'. It seems that, for all its handwringing, the USA just
couldn't break the pact with the devil.
Why is this aspect of the mujahedin's development so often overlooked?
Some sensible stuff has been written about al-Qa'eda and its connections
in recent months, but the Bosnia connection has been left largely
unexplored. In Jason Burke's excellent Al-Qa'eda: Casting a Shadow of
Terror, Bosnia is mentioned only in passing. Kimberley McCloud and Adam
Dolnik of the Monterey Institute of International Studies have written
some incisive commentary calling for rational thinking when assessing
al-Qa'eda's origins and threat - but again, investigation of the Bosnia
link is notable by its absence.
It would appear that when it comes to Bosnia, many in the West have a
moral blind spot. For some commentators, particularly liberal ones,
Western intervention in Bosnia was a Good Thing - except that, apparently,
there was too little of it, offered too late in the conflict. Many
journalists and writers demanded intervention in Bosnia and Western
support for the Muslims. In many ways, this was their war, where they
played an active role in encouraging further intervention to enforce
'peace' among the former Yugoslavia's warring factions. Consequently, they
often overlook the downside to this intervention and its divisive impact
on the Balkans. Western intervention in Bosnia, it would appear, has
become an unquestionably positive thing, something that is beyond
interrogation and debate.
Yet a cool analysis of today's disparate Islamic terror groups, created in
Afghanistan and emboldened by the Bosnian experience, would do much to
shed some light on precisely the dangers of such intervention.
TOP
PRISTINA DIALOGUE DECISION ON SEPTEMBER 23
The time and
place for the beginning of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will be
set at the next meeting of the Contact Group on September 23, UNMIK chief
Harri Holkeri told Kosovo Serb political leaders in Pristina yesterday.
TOP
Pristina, 12
Sep (B92, Belgrade)
The time
and place for the beginning of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will
be set at the next meeting of the Contact Group on September 23, UNMIK
chief Harri Holkeri told Kosovo Serb political leaders in Pristina
yesterday.
The leader of the Serb delegation which met Holkeri yesterday, Dragisa
Krstovic, told B92 that there was a plan for the first meeting between the
Belgrade authorities and the temporary Kosovo government would be held
abroad.
Subsequent meetings would take place in Belgrade and Pristina alternately.
Krstovic said that the Kosovo Serb leaders had not yet responded to
Holkeri's request that the Kosovo Serbs be included in the Pristina
delegation for the meetings.
"That’s his position and his opinion, and we will make our response known
in the next few days," said Krstovic.
"This is a delicate issue, but one on which me must make a decision," he
added.
TOP
SITUATION
COMPLICATED, FIRST RESULTS SOON
The Council for State
Security of Serbia evaluated that "the new escalation of terrorism,
wounding and killing children, in addition to the threatening and
persecution of the remained Serbs from Kosovo, also expresses a sign to
the international community that would not be given up from the temporary
goals of the Albanian terrorist, which can only lead towards
destabilization of the security situation in the Balkan region".
TOP
Free
Serbia, Belgrade
Belgrade, 12 September
The Council for State Security of Serbia evaluated that the measures that
had been achieved after the recent attacks on the Serbian population in
Kosovo, "give the first result" and very soon "some of the perpetrators of
the criminal acts will be arrested".
Despite everything, the security situation has been evaluated as
complicated, which "requires improving of the level of vigilance of the
all bearers of security functions and citizens", stated the Government
Bureau for communications after the Council session, in which attended
Goran Svilanovic, minister of foreign affairs of Serbia and Montenegro,
Boris Tadic, minister of defense of SCG and Branko Krga, chief of the
headquarters of the Army of SCG.
Considering the realization of the measures agreed on at the previous
session, the members of the council evaluated that there has been
significant progress achieved in cooperation with international community
on following and identification of the perpetrators of terrorism".
The council at the previous session ordered the responsible departments to
identify the network of organize crime, which is behind the terrorist
organizations and activates in Kosovo as soon as possible in cooperation
with the partners in foreign countries, stated the government.
Those measures were required after a few attacks of the Albanian
extremists on the Serbian population in Kosovo and the military facilities
on south Serbia, including the attack on a group of Serbian children in
Gorazdevac near Peja in Kosovo.
The Council then evaluated that "the new escalation of terrorism, wounding
and killing children, in addition to the threatening and persecution of
the remained Serbs from Kosovo, also expresses a sign to the international
community that would not be given up from the temporary goals of the
Albanian terrorist, which can only lead towards destabilization of the
security situation in the Balkan region". (Beta)
TOP
ANALYSIS: US, NATO PLACED THEIR STAKES ON ALBANIAN SEPARATISM
COMMENTARY: THE
SITUATION IN MACEDONIA IS DETERIORATING
-"The
trouble is that the USA and NATO put their stakes in the Balkans on
Albanian separatism," says Prof. Vladimir Volkov, a prominent Balkans
expert and director of the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Russian
Academy of Sciences....Besides, NATO is still entertaining hopes of using
Albanian separatism for putting pressure on maverick Balkan countries.
TOP
RIA Novosti, September 10th 2003 (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)
Valery Asriyan, RIA Novosti analyst
The question is: Could the Macedonian government react differently to such
an ultimatum? Agreement to honour the demand would have amounted to
withdrawal of national jurisdiction from a part of the country's
territory. The example of Kosovo, which Albanians actually tore away from
Serbia with NATO assistance, is too fresh and convincing to disregard it.
-It [the Ohrid Framework Agreement] did not and could not restore peace
and international accord in Macedonia because the goal of one of the sides
-Albanians - was to split the country. They accepted peace only as a
tactical manoeuvre allowing them to regroup for continued "struggle for
independence."
-ANA units, well armed and replenished with members of the so-called
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), waged hostilities against the Macedonian
security forces.When the Macedonian government decided to use regular army
[forces] against the rebels, NATO interfered in the process and actually
tied the hands of President Boris Trajkovski.
-In short, yielding to NATO and US pressure, Macedonia took actions that
can eventually turn it into a federal state of two ethnic groups....
-"[D]isarmament" was carried out just as in Kosovo,where nearly all KLA
members kept their weapons and the KLA was not dissolved but changed its
name to the Civil Defence Corps. [Kosovo Protection Corps]
-"The trouble is that the USA and NATO put their stakes in the Balkans on
Albanian separatism," says Prof. Vladimir Volkov, a prominent Balkans
expert and director of the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Russian
Academy of Sciences....Besides, NATO is still entertaining hopes of using
Albanian separatism for putting pressure on maverick Balkan countries.
-In a few years Macedonian Albania[ns] will announce secession from
Macedonia and, joining forces with the Kosovo, Greek and Montenegrin
Albanians, attempt to create a new state. In fact, it is an old plan of
creating [a] Greater Albania, which clearly poses[a]serious threat to the
Balkans.
The situation in Macedonia has deteriorated again. The Front for Albanian
National Unification, under whose cover the illegal Albanian National Army
(ANA) is operating, has announced emergency mobilisation of its units.
Albanians say they were forced to do this because the Macedonian
government refused to react to the ANA ultimatum on the withdrawal of all
security forces from Kumanovo.
But the question is: Could the Macedonian government react differently to
such an ultimatum? Agreement to honour the demand would have amounted to
withdrawal of national jurisdiction from a part of the country's
territory. The example of Kosovo, which Albanians actually tore away from
Serbia with NATO assistance,is too fresh and convincing to disregard it.
The ANA ultimatum and mobilisation order mean that the Ohrid Agreement
signed by Albanian fighters and Macedonian authorities two years ago
turned out to be a fragile and unreliable instrument, just as many experts
had predicted. It did not and could not restore peace and international
accord in Macedonia because the goal of one of the sides - Albanians - was
to split the country. They accepted peace only as a tactical manoeuvre
allowing them to regroup for continued "struggle for independence."
That struggle began in the spring of 2001, when the Albanian minority of
Macedonia (or rather, its most aggressive part nurturing separatist
plans), inspired by the example of Kosovo, took up arms to fight for
independence and secession of the north-western part of Macedonia that
borders on Kosovo. ANA units, well armed and replenished with members of
the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), waged hostilities against the
Macedonian security forces. When the Macedonian government decided to use
regular army against the rebels, NATO interfered in the process and
actually tied the hands of President Boris Trajkovski.
It was at NATO initiative that the Ohrid Agreement was assigned. Under it,
the Macedonian authorities made major concessions to Albanians. Though the
Albanian majority had never been discriminated in Macedonia,the agreement
granted it additional rights. Five Albanians were put on the Macedonian
cabinet as ministers and Albanian was granted the status of an official
language in Albanian regions and actually became a second state language.
The number of Albanians in police units was increased and the method of
making parliamentary decisions was changed to take into account Albanians'
demands. All of these changes were reflected in the amended Macedonian
Constitution.
In short, yielding to NATO and US pressure, Macedonia took actions that
can eventually turn it into a federal state of two ethnic groups,
something which Albanians have long demanded and which President
Trajkovski resisted, as he saw this, with good reason,as a threat to the
territorial integrity and sovereignty of Macedonia.
The thing is that the Macedonian authorities had to announce an amnesty
for those who had fought government troops. The amnesty was to be preceded
by the liquidation of Albanian bandit groups and surrender of their
weapons, which the NATO group deployed in Macedonia undertook to
supervise. But"disarmament" was carried out just as in Kosovo, where
nearly all KLA members kept their weapons and the KLA was not dissolved
but changed its name to the Civil Defence Corps.
In Macedonia, the ANA, now called the Front for Albanian National
Unification, kept its weapons and its fighters, after a brief respite,
resumed their actions by presenting the aforementioned ultimatum to the
Macedonian government. As you see, the policy of appeasing extremists in
Kosovo and Macedonia did not do any good.
"The trouble is that the USA and NATO put their stakes in the Balkans on
Albanian separatism," says Prof.Vladimir Volkov, a prominent Balkans
expert and director of the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Russian
Academy of Sciences. He told this correspondent that the NATO leadership
probably sees the dangers of Albanian extremism for the Balkans and the
rest of Europe but does not want to admit this.And it does not do anything
to amend the situation.Why? Because the bloc, which used the Albanian card
as the trump in the game against Yugoslavia of Milosevic,cannot retrace
its steps to disavow its actions and admit the failure of its Balkans
policy that destabilised the situation in the region, said the scientist.
Besides, NATO is still entertaining hopes of using Albanian separatism for
putting pressure on maverick Balkan countries.
According to Volkov, if NATO continues to nurture Albanian extremism and
allows the creation of a two-subject Macedonian state, the outcome of
regional developments will be easily predictable. In a few years
Macedonian Albania will announce secession from Macedonia and, joining
forces with the Kosovo, Greek and Montenegrin Albanians, attempt to create
a new state. In fact, it is an old plan of creating Greater Albania, which
clearly poses serious threat to the Balkans.
NATO must decide now. Either it closes its eyes to the ethnic re-carving
of the Balkans (which nationalists of all stripes want), or works to
stabilise the situation in the Balkans with due respect for the interests
of all regional nations. The latter can be done if NATO accepts the
Russian initiative, under which all Balkan countries must sign an
agreement on the mutual recognition of sovereignty, territorial integrity
and inviolability of existing borders.
TOP
INET
- KOSOVO AND METOHIJA FLASH NEWS, SEP 11
TOP
INET,
KOSOVO AND METOHIJA NEWS
Thursday 11 September 2003
22:00 Serbia and Montenegro parliamentary speaker Dragoljub Micunovic said
today that he received assurances from Council of Europe parliamentary
assembly president Peter Schieder and secretary general Walter Schwimmer
that the agenda of the autumn session of the Council of Europe will
include the status of human rights in Kosovo and Metohija.
20:20 Serbian premier Zoran Zivkovic and Russian foreign minister Igor
Ivanov agreed today that dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina should
begin as soon as possible, and that talks should focus on conditions for
the return of displaced persons, i.e., security and freedom of movement.
19:20 "I have two clear messages for the leaders of the provisional
institutions in Kosovo and Metohija and Serbia and Montenegro officials:
neither the declaration for independence nor the one against it will
influence the final status of the province," stated EC foreign affairs
commissioner Chris Patten during his visit to Pristina.
19:00 Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov once again, during his talks
today with Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) leader Vojislav Kostunica,
reiterated the willingness of Russia, a permanent member of the UN
Security Council and the Contact Group, to work in cooperation with the
European Union and the USA in assisting in the resolution of the issue of
Kosovo and Metohija.
18:00 The Serbian government is ready to begin its dialogue with Pristina
today; when it will in fact begin depends on the Albanian side and the
international community, announced Serbian premier Zoran Zivkovic.
14:00 Kosovo parliamentary deputy speaker Oliver Ivanovic said last night
that Serb political representatives in the province were not invited to
meet with EU foreign affairs commissioner Chris Patten upon his arrival
yesterday in Pristina. "The Serb side expected to meet with Patten but was
not invited despite the fact that it had a great deal to tell him,
especially with regard to security because in just the past month eight
Serbs were killed in Kosovo and many more were wounded," said Ivanovic.
13:40 EU foreign affairs commissioner Chris Patten stated last night in
Pristina that the goal of the European Union is the beginning of dialogue
between Belgrade and Pristina as soon as possible. After meeting with
UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri, Patten emphasized that the talks should focus
on technical questions of mutual interest to the citizens of Kosovo and
Metohija, and Serbia.
13:00 Establishing dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina with an emphasis
on refugee returns and security in Kosovo and Metohija is of great
importance, assessed Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov after meeting
last night in Belgrade with Serbian deputy prime minister Nebojsa Covic.
12:20 Former US president Bill Clinton will arrive in Kosovo on September
19 for a one-day visit, report Albanian-language media in Pristina.
According to the same sources, Clinton will come to Kosovo after visiting
Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he will attend the opening of the Srebrenica
memorial center dedicated to the victims of the [alleged] massacre in
1995. The Pristina sources state that during his brief visit to the Kosovo
capital, Clinton will receive a honorary doctorate from the University of
Pristina. One of the main public squares in Pristina was [re-]named after
Clinton and a large portrait of him is prominently placed there. The
Kosovo Albanians consider Clinton a great friend and emphasize that during
the time of his presidential mandate, he made a great contribution to the
internationalization of the Kosovo problem.
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INET -
KOSOVO AND METOHIJA FLASH NEWS, SEP 12
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News, Belgrade
KOSOVO AND METOHIJA NEWS
Friday 12 September 2003
20:20 UNMIK advised today that the free trade agreement between Kosovo and
Albania will go into effect on October 1 of this year.
20:00 Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will gradually lead to a
change in relations between Serbs and Albanians, assessed Democratic Party
of Serbia president Vojislav Kostunica after meeting last night in
Belgrade with EU foreign affairs commissioner Chris Patten.
19:40 In accordance with the determination of the international community
for the beginning of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina as soon as
possible, UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri has already received an agenda for the
first meeting, said Kosovo minister Goran Bogdanovic.
13:20 Kosovo Police Service spokesman Refki Morina stated that a civilian
was killed and a member of the KPS wounded after being ambushed and
attacked with automatic weapons on Wednesday night in the village of
Maticani near Pristina.
13:00 Serbian premier Zoran Zivkovic and Russian foreign minister Igor
Ivanov agreed that dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina should begin as
soon as possible and that one of the main topics to be resolved is the
issue of displaced persons, their security and freedom of movement.
12:40 The US is consistent in its efforts to guarantee peace and stability
in the Balkans and be an active participant in peacekeeping operations
under the leadership of NATO in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in
Kosovo and Metohija, stated Mark Grossman, the assistant secretary for
political affairs in the US Department of State.
12:20 Some of the NGOs concerned with issues such as ethnic conflict and
human rights have advised that they wish to be an active part of future
talks between Belgrade and Pristina.
12:00 Serbian deputy premier Nebojsa Covic expressed the expectation that
dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina on resolving problems in Kosovo
will start at the beginning of November.
11:40 The time and the place for the beginning of dialogue between
Belgrade and Pristina will be fixed at the next meeting of the Contact
Group on September 23, which will most probably be held in the US, it was
said at a meeting of UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri with the political
representatives of the Kosovo Serbs held in Pristina.
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ERP KIM
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