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IN
FOCUS
POST-WAR HUMAN
RIGHTS ABUSES AGAINST THE SERBS AND OTHER NON-ALBANIANS IN KOSOVO
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Targets due to their
ethnic and
religious origin - Serbs in post war Kosovo
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REPRESSION
SUPPLANTED BY REPRESSION IN KOSOVO
Supplanting
of one repression by another in Kosovo, after the NATO intervention,
is one of the most disturbing evidences of an essential failure
of the international community to secure peace and manifest
true credibility and leadership - Fr.
Sava
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PART
I
Part
II  Part
III
Drive-by kills
Kosovo Serb teenager
(photo: the
body of the murdered Serb teenager after he was shot)
Dimitrije
Popovic, a Serb teenager killed by Kosovo Albanian extremists
in a hamburger shop in Gracanica, June 5, 2004
PRISTINA --
Saturday, 5 June 2004 -- A Serb teenager was shot and killed
today in a drive-by shooting just outside Pristina.
Witnesses told police shots were fired from a white vehicle
killing the 16-year-old, Dimitrije Popovic, a spokesman for
the UN police told AFP.
Kent Stica said Kosovo's police force set up checkpoints soon
after the shooting and spotted a suspicious vehicle which was
then stopped and the occupants arrested.
"Two males were arrested and the vehicle seized in Pristina,"
Stica said, without disclosing the identities or the nationality
of the suspects.
A UN police spokesman in charge of the capital Pristina however
said the two arrested were ethnic Albanians.
"They are both ethnic Albanians," Malcolm Ashby told AFP.
He said police seized two weapons suspected of having been used
in the shooting.
Police said the road towards Gracanica, where the shooting occurred,
was blocked off by local and UN police and would remain closed
until Monday as NATO-led peacekeepers and local police stepped
up patrols in the area.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian president, Ibrahim Rugova expressed
his condolences to the family of slain boy and called upon the
authorities to rapidly bring the perpetrators to justice.
The outgoing chief UN administrator, Harri Holkeri condemned
the shooting and called upon Kosovo's people to renounce violence.
"Is that what the people of Kosovo really want? No, it can not
be true," Holkeri, who on May 25 said he was stepping down from
his post for health reasons, told journalists at Pristina airport.
A similar shooting in March had sent hundreds of Serbs protesting
in the streets of Gracanica blocking the road for several days,
irking ethnic Albanians who attempted to break through police
barricades into the Serb-inhabited enclave.
The March violence left 19 dead and over 900 injured and pitted
the two sides into deeper mistrust nearly sinking the United
Nations' five-year efforts to reconcile the two ethnic groups.
Kosovo has been under UN and NATO control since June 1999.
Bishop
Artemije and Serb political representatives from Belgrade
at the funeral of the killed Serb teenager in Gracanica
|
KOSOVO
SERB DIES OF STARVATION
"He
was completely devastated by hunger and physically resembled
the inmates of [the WWII concentration camp] Auschwitz. Although
he lived in downtown Urosevac, he had eaten nothing for more
than 15 days because his Albanian neighbors stopped bringing
him food and he did not dare venture out on the street,"
said Dr. Nebojsa Srbljak, the internist who treated Velikinac.
Beta
News Agency, Belgrade
October 17, 2003
Urosevac
Serb dies of starvation
(photo
Beta: Today there are some 15 Serbs living in Urosevac and formerly
there were 10,000. Once a week they are escorted by international
forces to do their shopping in the closest Serb town, Strpce)
 KOSOVSKA
MITROVICA - Zivorad Velikinac (65) of Urosevac passed away at
Kosovska Mitrovica Hospital after being brought to the hospital
two days ago by KFOR members for treatment for starvation.
"He was completely devastated by hunger and physically
resembled the inmates of [the WWII concentration camp] Auschwitz.
Although he lived in downtown Urosevac, he had eaten nothing
for more than 15 days because his Albanian neighbors stopped
bringing him food and he did not dare venture out on the street,"
said Dr. Nebojsa Srbljak, the internist who treated Velikinac.
After Velikinac's demise last night, his body was claimed by
relatives. He had no children. He will be buried in Kraljevo.
Today there are some 15 Serbs living in Urosevac and formerly
there were 10,000. Once a week they are escorted by international
forces to do their shopping in the closest Serb town, Strpce.
ELDERLY
KOSOVO SERBS BETWEEN CHOICE OF BEING MURDERED OR STARVED OF
HUNGER
SERBIAN ORTHODOX
CHURCH SHOCKED BY LACK OF CARE FOR ELDERLY SERBS IN MAJOR KOSOVO
CITIES
ERPKIM
Info-service
Gracanica, October 17, 2003
 Bishop
Artemije expressed today his shock and deep regret because of
death of Zivorad Velikinac, one of 15 remaining elderly Serbs
in Urosevac who died of starvation.
"It is incomprehensible that no one in Kosovo cares
for these poor people who are left to slow dying. Regrettably,
Serbian Orthodox Church and its clerics do not have freedom
of movement and cannot regularly visit their isolated parishioners.
Our pastoral work is limited only within Serb enclaves. Most
of our isolated elderly people do not have normal access to
shops and medical institutions, Albanian hooligans break their
windows and threaten to kill them every day. Sometimes their
Albanian neighbors give them some food to survive but these
are rare examples because such good minded Albanians can suffer
themselves for showing solidarity with Serbs. I am afraid, this
will not be the only case of starvation because humanitarian
organizations mostly employ local Albanian personnel who simply
want all Serbs to die or leave their homes. Such silent ethnic
cleansing of Kosovo cities in front of eyes of the democratic
world deserves utmost condemnation", said Bishop Artemije
to the ERP KIM Info-Service. Such inhuman society, which we
have in Kosovo today, is unique in Europe and the civilized
world, and I am at the loss to find a proper word how hatred
can conquer the hearts of so many that they even do not show
mercy towards the elderly and children.
An
elderly Kosovo Serb, Janko Jankovic (72) who was beaten in Prizren
two weeks ago and Mrs. Sofijana Jovanovic (72) who was shot
and wounded in Gnjilane a few days later are only some of the
recent attacks on elderly Kosovo Serbs who are deprived of basic
security and social care. Direct responsibility for such indifference
towards these poor people who struggle to survive in their homes
desite ethnic hatred and overall discrimination lies on UNMIK
and local Albanian structures which build society only to serve
the needs of ethnic Albanians", added Bishop Artemije.
Once
again I appeal on all responsible institutions in UNMIK not
to allow ethnic cleansing of our remaining elderly people who
have done no harm to anyone but only want to stay in their homes
and spend their last years in peace and dignity. |
MASSACRE
OF SERB CHILDREN IN GORAZDEVAC, AUG 13
One of Serb children
seriously wounded by
Albanian terrorists
More news and
photos
TWO
SERB CHILDREN DEAD AND FOUR WOUNDED IN A COWARDLY ATTACK
OF KOSOVO ALBANIAN TERRORISTS,
August 13, 2003
Gorazdevac
victims laid to rest
| 17:24 -> 19:28 | Beta
(cross
in hands of the younger brother of Panta Dakic)
GORAZDEVAC -- Friday -- Kosovo's Serb community
today laid to rest two Serb youths shot dead whilst swimming
in Kosovo's River Bistrica two days ago.
First
to be buried was Pantelija Dakic, whose funeral was attended
by around 1,000 local citizens.
The
funeral, in the village of Gorazdevac near Pec, was also
attended by Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, deputy
Serbian Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic, deputy UNMIK head
Charles Brayshaw, Kosovo Minister Nenad Bogdanovic and the
majority of MPs from the Kosovo-Serb Return Coalition.
Montenegrin
and Coastal Bishop Amfilohije Radovic and members of the
Raska and Prizren eparchy led the service and prayer of
remembrance, while representatives of international missions
have already signed a book of remembrance opened in the
village centre.
Bidding
farewell to 11-year-old Pantelija, a school friend said
the "hand of a criminal pulled the trigger and the
burst of fire brought unavoidable death and snuffed out
a life which had only just begun".
Wreaths
were laid at the grave by relatives, friends and representatives
of the Serbian Government and UNMIK.
The
village, secured on all sides today by heavily armed international
troops, later hosted the funeral of the second victim of
the attack – twenty-year-old Ivan Jovovic.
Bishop
Amfilohije said that while other Europeans harvest wheat
from their fields "we are in Kosovo fields harvesting
nothing but death for the last 600 years", he added
that the death of the innocent is beginning once again in
the province and that a warning should be heeded by minded
people and Kosovo's honourable Albanian community.
Speaking
at Jovovic's graveside, PM Zivkovic noted that this was
the first time Serbian officials had visited Kosovo for
four years, saying that the occasion for the visit was"horrifying"
and only added to centuries of Serb death.
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NEW
TERRORIST ATTACK IN KOSOVO
Stanica Savic, the mother of
killed Kosovo Serb school teacher Miomir Savic, mourns over
a coffin with his remains during a funeral in the village
of Cernica, September 2, 2003. Savic died in a hospital at
the U.S. Army's Camp Bondsteel from wounds sustained when
a hand-grenade exploded, outside a shop in the village of
Cernica on Sunday. REUTERS/Stringer Reuters - Sep
02 3:33 PM
ONE
SERB DIED AND FOUR WOUNDED IN LATEST KOSOVO ATTACK
ERPKIM
Info-service
Gracanica, September 01, 2003
Last night,
the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren received
urgent news of a new attack on Serbs in ethnically mixed village
of Cernica (pr. Tsernitsa) near Gnjilane (pr. Gneelaneh),
40 km southeast from the Provincial capital Pristina.
First
explosion occurred around 19.50, Sunday evening. Local sources
claim that unknown person hurled an explosive device from
a deserted house on a group of Serbs who were standing in
front of the local village store, in the centre of the village.
Five Serb males sustained wounds in this explosion.
One of
the injured, Miomir Savic (born 1968) was transported by KFOR
helicopter with very serious injuries to the U.S. Camp Bondsteel,
three males were transported with unknown injuries to Vranje
hospital (South Serbia) and another male was hospitalized
in Gnjilane regional hospital.
Five minutes
after the first explosion, around 19.55, another explosion
was heard in the lower (Serbian) part of the village. In this
attack no one was injured.
Members
of U.S. KFOR, in which area of responsibility the attack occurred,
have been searching the village. According to the local sources
they have found a larger quantity of explosives in the deserted
house which was ready to be exploded. If the explosives had
been detonated number of victims could have been much higher,
local sources say.
Yesterday's
attack is not the only attack on members of Serb community
in Cernica village. Kosovo Albanian extremists have made several
attacks in the last four years on their Serb neighbors. On
May 28, 2000 Albanian extremists killed three Serbs (among
them one child) and wounded five more in Cernica. This was
the hardest blow this little Serb community suffered after
the deployment of the peacekeeping forces in June 1999.
Serbian
population in Kosovsko Pomoravlje (Eastern part of the UN
administered Province) and the rest of Kosovo and Metohija
are in shock and alarm after the yesterday's attack in Cernica.
Presently,
in Cernica village there are 450 Serbs and 3000 Kosovo Albanians
who live in separate parts of the village.
Kosovo Serbs look at blood on a road
September 1, 2003, after a hand-grenade explosion outside
a shop in the ethnically mixed village of Cernica, Kosovo,
which killed onen Serb man and injured four on Sunday evening.
REUTERS/Hazir Reka
|
MASSACRE
IN OBILIC
ENTIRE SERB FAMILY BUTCHRED BY KOSOVO ALBANIAN EXTREMISTS,
June 4, 2003
The
house in which three elderly Serbs were murdered and burnt
THREE
SERBS MURDERED IN KOSOVO: UN
"This is a heinous act, a perfidious crime which
was directed against multi-ethnicity in Kosovo," Steiner
told the gathering, which booed him.
Source:
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Date: 4 Jun 2003
OBILIC,
Serbia-Montenegro, June 4 (AFP) - An elderly Serb couple and
their son were axed to death and their house was set on fire
Wednesday in one of the worst incidents of violence in Kosovo
in recent months, a United Nations official said.
Slobodan
Stolic, 80, his wife Radmila, 78, and their son Ljubinko, 53,
were murdered in their house at Obilic, some 15 kilometers (nine
miles) northwest of the Kosovo capital Pristina around 2:30
am (0030 GMT), UN spokesman Andrea Angeli said.
The house
was then set alight by the unknown attackers, he said.
The murders
came hours before the European Union's foreign policy chief,
Javier Solana, was due to arrive in the southern Serbian province
in an apparent bid to win support for a meeting of Serb and
Albanian leaders at an upcoming EU summit in Greece this month.
The violence
is likely to further fuel the deep animosity between the two
communities and complicate UN efforts to find political common
ground between the Albanian government in Kosovo and the Serbian
authorities in Belgrade.
UN mission
chief Michael Steiner and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian prime minister,
Bajram Rexhepi, rushed to the town after news of the attack
reached Pristina. They were jeered by a crowd of angry Serbs.
"This
is a heinous act, a perfidious crime which was directed against
multi-ethnicity in Kosovo," Steiner told the gathering,
which booed him.
"We
need justice here and to find those who are responsible,"
he added, promising to set up a special UN police task force
to investigate the murders.
Rexhepi
condemned the slaughter as a "base and barbaric act."
Beta news agency reported that Serbian Deputy Prime Minister
Nebojsa Covic was also on his way here Wednesday.
Kosovo has
been under UN control since the end of a NATO bombing campaign
in June 1999 which forced Belgrade forces to withdraw from the
southern Serbian province and end a brutal crackdown on the
Albanian majority.
Hundreds
of Serbs and non-Albanians have been killed or have gone missing
since the end of the war, while more than 200,000 Serbs have
fled the province fearing reprisals from Albanian extremists.
Serbs accuse
the UN of bias toward the Albanians and of failing to provide
security for the return of the refugees.
Novica Stolic,
a cousin of the slain family, said the murders highlighted the
ineffectiveness of UN and NATO security for the targeted minority.
"There
were threats last night made against the family and pressure
from Albanians for the family to leave Obilic," Stolic
said.
"Earlier
Molotov cocktails were thrown at the house and their car was
stolen. It just goes to show the lack of security."
But Angeli
said it was too early to say whether the murder was motivated
by ethnic hatred.
"It's
a murder and we are still investigating this horrendous crime,"
he said, adding that "a large crowd of Serbs has gathered
in Obilic and they are very nervous."
Nenad Radosavljevic,
a Serbian advisor to Steiner for minority and refugee issues,
told B92 radio in Belgrade that there could be no doubt that
the murders were a hate crime.
He said
the UN, NATO and Albanian authorities in Kosovo must bear the
responsibility.
"I
will demand the suspension of all local authorities in Kosovo
and the introduction of an absolute protectorate. I will also
ask for the resignation of Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi,"
he said.
The mayor
of Obilic, local police leaders and the commanders of NATO peacekeepers
in central Kosovo should also resign, he said.
"Somebody
has to bear responsibility for this," Radosavljevic said.
|
AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL REPORT
KOSOVO
MINORITIES UNDER THREAT
Poleksija
Kastratovic, with four other elderly Serbwomen
lives in an old parish home in Djakovica under KFOR protection
Read their story: "For whom the bells toll in Djakovica"
full story: http://www.kosovo.net/poleksija_e.html
|
KOSOVO:
NO PROTECTION IN CAPITAL FOR ATTACKED ORTHODOX CHURCH AND PRIEST
Fr.
Miroslav Popadic |
Despite
repeated requests for protection, including requests made personally
two weeks ago to the KFOR commander, adaquate protection for a
Serbian Orthodox Church and its priest in Kosovo's capital Pristina
has not been provided since the removal of KFOR guards at the
end of 2002. Attacks have become frequent and on 10 May many church
windows were broken. Parish priest Fr Miroslav Popadic told Forum
18 News Service that "I open the church gates only on Sunday
mornings and on major holidays for the faithful to come to liturgy,
otherwise, if someone comes to church without a call in advance
I do not open the gates. When I visit local villages, I make the
sign of the cross, sit in my car and drive fast at my own risk".
KFOR's commander told Fr Popadic he "cannot give any more
troops for the protection of churches". No arrests have been
made since for the attacks on Orthodox churches since 1999 and
KFOR has not replied to Forum 18 News Service's questions on this
latest attack, or to questions about the security of Orthodox
churches and monasteries. |
Report
by the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren
Information Service
ETHNIC
TERROR CONTINUES IN KOSOVO, May 11, 2003
| In
Kosovo and Metohija there are still two realities, which have
little in common. On the one hand, there are official statements
by some international representatives and Kosovo Albanian leaders
describing the continuous improvement of the situation and the
need to transfer UNMIK competencies to the local population as
quickly as possible. On the other hand, for the Kosovo-Metohija
Serbs and largely for other at-risk minority communities continuing
to live under a state of siege, the situation is not improving
but life is actually becoming increasingly difficult and the future
more and more uncertain. |
City
of Ghosts - Empty houses of expelled Serbs from Prizren, the area
is protected and surrounded by KFOR barbed wire
 The
Commissioner for Human Rights publishes a report on the situation
in Kosovo
[17 OCT 2002] Alvaro Gil-Robles has just released a report entitled
''Kosovo : the human rights situation and the fate of persons
displaced from their homes''. The report was prepared in response
to Recommendation 1569 (2002) of the Parliamentary Assembly
on the ''Situation of refugees and internally displaced persons
in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia'' and is based on the
findings of two visits in the region.
KOSOVO
- THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION, Oct 16, 2002
Full text of the report (pdf) |
 |
|
 |
The
situation of residents of Kosovo who are not of Albanian ethnicity
remains very difficult. Many, in particular Serbs and Roma remain
isolated in ghettos and face great danger should they venture
out of those ghettos without armed international escorts. Their
extremely restricted freedom of movement has serious repercussions
on all aspects of normal life – access to employment, medical
care, schools, and public services generally. The provision of
public utilities (electricity, water, etc.) to these ghettos is
at a much lower standard than to the rest of the population. MORE
IN MS WORD |
Attack
on Elderly Serbs in Pec - Reports, News, Video....
TWO
VIDEO REPORTS
Ethnic Albanians Protest Serb's Return To Kosovo (Reuters Video)
- Oct 11 10:46 AM ET
Ethnic
Violence in Kosovo Injures Two (AP Video)
- Oct 10 5:56 PM ET
Communique
of the Serbian Orthodox Church and SNC
POLITIKA:
Serbs and UN Police Stoned, Oct 12, 2002
BLIC: We barely made
it out alive, Oct 12
GLAS: Three Serb returnees
injured, Oct 12
AFP, UN police, ethnic
Albanians clash in western Kosovo, Oct 10
AP: NATO, UN police
clash with ethnic Albanians in Kosovo
Other Reactions
Marek Antoni Nowitzki
- Kosovo's Ombudsperson
Serbs
Cannot Survive in Kosovo Under Present Conditions
April 2, 2002
| There
is no freedom of movement. Human rights are not respected and
are endangered in all their facets. Generally, the situation is
becoming increasingly difficult with every new day. Serbs are
increasingly shutting themselves off in their enclaves. Many say
that there are improvements, but not to the extent that would
allow anyone to claim with clear conscience that there is evidence
of any tangible changes. The main problem, and everyone is aware
of that, is that there is no freedom of movement, there is no
freedom in general, private property has been usurped... Serbs
are weighing whether to stay or leave, and so far they haven't
been told how they can stay in Kosovo. We are far from any semblance
of freedom, or at least minimal conditions for decent life. If
there are no basic human rights, then we cannot discuss any human
rights, and that is why it is necessary not only to change the
attitude of the international mission with respect to the problems
in Kosovo, but also, and more importantly, the attitude of a narrow
circle of ethnic Albanians. MORE |
Victims
of Albanian Terrorism in Kosovo and Metohija
1998-2001 - full text and links
larger
size graph
Serb refugees in Serbia request to go back to their
homes in Kosovo
KOSOVO
OMBUDSPERSON:
HOPELESS FUTURE FOR MINORITIES
July 2002
| Position
of the non-Albanian population in Kosovo is very difficult. Many
of them, especially Serbs and Romas, are remaining isolated in
ghettos and are faced with great risk if they go out from a ghetto
without armed escort. Their extreme limit of freedom of movement
have serious consequences on all aspects of new life - possibility
of employment, medical care, education and generally, all public
services," said Marek Nowicki in his July report to be forwarded
to UNMIK Chief Michael Steiner. |
Etnicaly divided society - KFOR
protects the Serb worshipers from the provoking Albanian crowd
Zociste Monastery, July 14th 2002
 |
IS
THERE A FUTURE FOR THE SERB CHILDREN IN KOSOVO?
Kosovo
- A place where freedom of children depends on
their ethnicity and religion - Europe 2002 or 1941? In an
Albanian Moslem dominated province Serb children are the only
children in Europe today who cannot have normal and free childhood,
who live in constant fear that they would be murdered or blown
up in a bus just because they do not speak Albanian and do not
pray to Alah. Although KFOR is making tremendous efforts to
provide a minimum of freedom for the Serbs, the province three
years after the war remains a region ruled by ethnic discrimination,
indimidation, crime and destruction of old Christian monuments.
Quo vadis Europa?
|
Kosovo
2002 - Serb Reservations - Did you come to see a zoo?
Counterpunch, by James T. Phillips, June 20, 2002
"They
turned it into a desert and called it peace"
Tacitus describing Roman Empire
The
Ottawa Citizen: 'The most dangerous place on Earth'
Secret guerrilla armies. Neighbours stoning schoolbuses. Two peoples
living in terror and hatred: Three years later, war-ravaged Kosovo
remains a powderkeg.
June 22, 2002
"With
the exception of several thousand Serbian citizens who live in
NATO-protected enclaves, Kosovo remains essentially a lawless
society, completely intolerant of ethnic minorities and one of
the most dangerous places on Earth." James Bisset, the
former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia
|
| "The
housing program also illustrates the vast discrepancy between
the allocation of funds to Albanian Kosovars and other ethnic
minorities. Throughout the Albanian sectors "monster"
homes -- many larger than 7,000 square feet -- are being built.
Along the main roads are dozens of new hotels and service centres,
complete with car washes, supermarkets and cafés. By contrast,
inside the isolated minority enclaves there has been little reconstruction,
and the residents buy their gas from black marketeers who sell
it in plastic bottles from their car trunks." |
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