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August 31,
2003
ERP KIM Newsletter
31-08-03b
HELP FIND THE MISSING
- FAMILIES OF MISSING SERBS FROM KOSOVO IN SEARCH FOR THEIR DEAR ONES
Families of missing Serbs who
were abducted by
Kosovo Albanian extremists in Kosovo during and after the 1998-1999
conflict
staged a protest on the Republic Square in Belgrade, Aug 30,
requesting
truth about the fate of their dear ones
CONTENTS:
 FAMILIES OF MISSING SERBS FROM KOSOVO REQUEST TRUTH
ABOUT THEIR DEAR ONES - INCIDENT WITH NATASA KANDIC
NO INDEPENDENCE WITHOUT NEW BORDERS
INET - KOSOVO AND METOHIJA NEWS
PERPETRATORS OF GORAZDEVAC MASSACRE STILL NOT ARRESTED - DAY 18...
More News Available on
our:
KOSOVO DAILY NEWS LIST (KDN)
KDN
Archive
This newsletter is available on our ERP
KIM Web-site:
http://www.kosovo.net/erpkiminfo.html
HELP FIND
THE MISSING - FAMILIES OF MISSING SERBS FROM KOSOVO REQUEST TRUTH ABOUT
THEIR DEAR ONES
Participants of the
gathering called upon the international community and the authorities in
Belgrade to establish institutions that would initiate a true
investigation on 1.300 missing and kidnapped Serbs.
TOP
Radio
Serbia-Montenegro
Belgrade, August 30, 2003
The
International Day of Missing Persons - August 30, has been marked today in
Belgrade, by the meeting entitled HELP FIND THE MISSING, organized by the
Association for Missing and Kidnapped Persons in Kosovo-Metohija.
Participants of the gathering called upon the international community and
the authorities in Belgrade to establish institutions that would initiate
a true investigation on 1.300 missing and kidnapped Serbs. The gathering
also demanded for the opening of dossiers and mass graves and for the
beginning of a real process of resolving fates of missing and kidnapped
persons, as well as the honouring of the UN Security Council Resolution
1244.
TOP
NATO
- KFOR - UNMIK
WHERE ARE 1.300 SERBS
Hundreds of friends and relatives of some 1,300
Serbs who have disappeared in Kosovo since 1998, hold pictures of their
loved ones at the rally on the main square in Belgrade, Saturday Aug.
30 2003. Marking the International Day of the Disappeared, the group
holds the banner demanding from the NATO (news - web sites)-led Kosovo
Force and U.N. officials, who run the current international protectorate
in Kosovo, to reveal what happened to the missing people. The banner
reads: 'NATO-KFOR-UNMIK, where are 1300 Serbs.' (AP Photo/Mikica Petrovic)
Families
of missing and kidnapped persons chase Natasa Kandic away from gathering
Actress Ivana Zigon attempted to calm passions, addressing Kandic by
saying that she was obviously unwelcome among those who had lost their
dearest ones and that it would be fundamentally appropriate for her "to
show respect for their pain."
Tanjug News
Agency, Belgrade
August 30, 2003
BELGRADE - Humanitarian Law Fund director Natasa Kandic was literally
chased away from a gathering in Belgrade's Republic Square today organized
by the Association of Families of Missing and Kidnapped Persons from
Kosovo and Metohija to commemorate International Missing Persons Day.
The embittered family members, who for years have not known whether
their closest relatives are dead or alive, greeted Kandic with shouts
of "Serbian traitor," "Get out of here," "Go
to Thaci." She was protected from assault and possible beating
from the most embittered by the intervention of several policemen protecting
the gathering.
Angrily looking Kandic in the face, excited and irritated by her very
presence, the people accused Kandic of waging an anti-Serbian policy
in the middle of Serbia, which resulted in the genocide of Serbs and
other non-Albanians. They asked her where she was and what she was doing
when the Albanians stopped being loyal to their country.
In response to Kandic's comments "You are shaming Serbia"
and "You are representing Serbia in the most vulgar and primitive
manner," the people responded with "You should be ashamed,"
"That's what you are doing," asking her why she continues
to justify the Albanians despite all the facts concerning crimes committed
against Serbs.
When asked "what she was doing at their gathering anyway,"
Kandic
replied: "It's none of your business. It's not your day. It's a
UN day." Someone from the crowd observed that, in that case, she
could have organized a similar gathering herself.
When asked how she commented on these attacks, Kandic said: "Instead
of being here for a reason, they are making a spectacle. Instead of
going somewhere, doing something, creating documents, they still don't
have a list of missing persons."
This managed to provoke several reporters present as well, who asked
her "Is gathering because of the tragic disappearance and abduction
of 1,300 people then a spectacle to you?"
"Today is not just the day of persons missing in Kosovo. Today
is the day of persons missing everywhere. And then it is a day dedicated
to remembering," she said. "Where are the names of the missing
and the abducted?" she asked. "Why aren't you reading them?"
"Are you suggesting that those names don't exist?" someone
shouted, reminding Kandic that those names have been read many times
in the streets of Serbia during the past years but without results.
"They're not listening to us because they're paying you to say
what they want to hear."
Actress Ivana Zigon attempted to calm passions, addressing Kandic by
saying that she was obviously unwelcome among those who had lost their
dearest ones and that it would be fundamentally appropriate for her
"to show respect for their pain."
When an insulted Kandic told the participants of the gathering that
they had to "behave politely" and that she was there "to
protect the law because she heads a human rights organization,"
the response she got was that "it is a sad state indeed that protects
a monster like her." bs/br
An unidentified woman holds a picture of her missing
sons and relatives at the protest rally held by several hundred Serbs
demanding to know the fate of some 1,303 Serbs missing since the Kosovo
war in 1998, marking the International Day of the Disappeared, on the
main square in Belgrade, Saturday Aug. 30, 2003. (AP Photo/Mikica Petrovic)
TOP
Police
request prosecution proceedings against Natasa Kandic
Beta
News Agency, Belgrade
August 30, 2003
BELGRADE - Belgrade police advised today that they will submit a request
for initiation of prosecution proceedings against the director of the
Humanitarian Law Fund because of her behavior at today's gathering in
Belgrade's Republic Square commemorating International Missing Persons
Day.
"The gathered people were joined by Natasa Kandic who became involved in a
verbal altercation with them. After two policemen who were present asked
her to withdraw for her own safety, she did so but remained standing on
the side," it is said in the police statement.
The statement goes on to add that Natasa Kandic was then approached by
Nikola Popovic from Pec, a participant of the gathering, who asked her to
introduce herself "in response to which she slapped him." After that, a
verbal altercation between Natasa Kandic and the gathered persons ensued.
"The police took Mrs. Kandic to the side, protecting her because she
continued to insult those present. When they asked her to present her
identity card, she refused to do so, calling them 'Milosevic's police' and
demanding 'that she be given the identities of the participants of the
gathering,' " it is said in the statement of the Serbian police. mdc/flu
TOP
COVIC - NO
INDEPENDENCE WITHOUT NEW BORDERS
It
would be unthinkable for Serbs to live in an independent Kosovo, and
unthinkable for Kosovo to be independent unless there is a shift of
borders in the region, Nebojsa Covic said today.
TOP
Vesti, Belgrade
August 30, 2003
FRANKFURT -- Saturday – It would be unthinkable for Serbs to live in an
independent Kosovo, and unthinkable for Kosovo to be independent unless
there is a shift of borders in the region, Nebojsa Covic said today.
The deputy Serbian prime minister told Frankfurt daily Vesti that this
week’s Kosovo Declaration in the Serbian Parliament was a problem for
people who did not want a peaceful resolution to the situation in the
western Balkans.
He was responding to a statement by Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano
that Kosovo "must not return to Serbia".
TOP
INET
- KOSOVO AND METOHIJA NEWS, AUGUST 31, 2003
TOP
www.inet.co.yu
I*Net News, Belgrade
Sunday 31 August 2003
22:00 International forces in Kosovo called on all Kosovo citizens today
to turn in their illegal weapons and take advantage of a one month-long
amnesty, beginning tomorrow, during which persons turning in weapons will
not be arrested or criminally charged.
19:20 Serbian police in Belgrade advised yesterday that a request to file
charges against Humanitarian Law Fund Director will be turned in for her
behavior at yesterday's gathering on the occasion of International Missing
Persons Day in Belgrade's Republic Square. Natasa Kandic joined the
gathered members of the Association of Families of Missing and Kidnapped
Persons from Kosovo and Metohija and became involved in a verbal
confrontation with them. She slapped Nikola Popovic from Pec, an older
participant of the gathering, and accused the police who asked her to
present her identity card of being "Milosevic's police."
18:40 UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri said that Belgrade and Pristina are
sending immoderate messages in connection with Kosovo. "Some strong
statements have been made. The decision of the Serbian parliament was a
strong statement but it is irrelevant because the future of Kosovo and its
final status will be decided on exclusively by the Security Council in
accordance with Resolution 1244. There have been other strong statements,
too, made by Kosovo Albanians, but they are also irrelevant," said
Holkeri.
17:40 On the occasion of the commemoration of International Missing
Persons Day, members of families of missing persons from Kosovo called on
authorities to shed light on the fate of their dearest ones four years
after the end of the conflict. At a gathering in Kosovo Polje near
Pristina, families of the missing pointed out that not enough has been
done in the last four years to shed light on the fate of the missing, and
that little has been done with respect to returning the remains of
Albanians found in mass graves [sic] in Serbia. The chairman of the Kosovo
Human Rights Commission Pajazit Nusi said that failure to resolve the fate
of the missing is affecting the return of displaced persons and increasing
the crime rate in Kosovo.
17:20 Serbian deputy premier and Coordinating Center for Kosovo and
Metohija head Nebojsa Covic stated last night that "the Province cannot be
granted independence without a change in borders in the Balkans." Reacting
to the statement of Albanian premier Fatos Nano that "Kosovo cannot be
given back to Serbia," Covic emphasized that this statement represents
meddling in the internal affairs of Serbia and Montenegro and that the
state union government needs to react.
17:00 Speaking at the Dialogue between Civilizations conference in Ohrid
yesterday, the head of the UN civil mission in Kosovo and Metohija Harri
Holkeri assessed that one of his priorities will be the return of all
displaced persons to the southern Serbian province. Holkeri confirmed that
efforts on establishing dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina were being
made but was unable to specify when those contacts would begin.
TOP
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
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Daily News (KDN) News List
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