June 09, 2006

KiM Info Newsletter 09-06-06

Bus transporting Serbs stoned again

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, June 8, 2006 (Tanjug news agency)

The UN bus which transports Serbs from the Metohija villages of Bica and Grabac to Kosovska Mitrovica every Thursday was stoned again this morning in the Albanian-inhabited village of Rudnik in north Kosovo but none of the passengers was hurt.

Dragoljub Perunicic, who was on the bus, confirmed that the incident occurred at 9:45 a.m. in Rudnik when a sizeable group of local Albanians broke the back windshield on the bus and cracked several of the windows on the sides despite the fact they were reinforced.

At the time of the attack there were approximately 50 passengers on the bus, including a large number of children and elderly persons, added Perunicic.

He said that today's incident was not the first on this route but it was the fiercest.

The incident was reported to representatives of the Kosovo Police Service in Srbica who questioned the Serbs two hours about what happened, said Perunicic.

The bus that was targeted this morning by the Albanians in Rudnik was without a police or KFOR escort.

About ten days ago an explosion damaged the bridge between the Serb villages of Bica and Grabac.

UN Bus Attacked

Kosovska Mitrovica, 08 Jun (B92) – A group of Albanians attacked a United Nations vehicle which transports Serbs from the Metohija villages of Bica and Grabac to Kosovska Mitrovica on Thursdays. The attack happened in the village of Rudnik, located in Northern Kosmet.

"About fifteen Albanians, slightly older than the age of 20, jumped out onto the road. I had to slow down the bus to make sure that I would not run anyone over. They used this move to approach the bus, kick it and hit it with sticks and throw rocks at it. I was able to get the bus out somehow, by swerving on the road and trying to escape," said bus driver Aleksandar Trajković.

The back window of the vehicle was broken during the attack, but no one was injured.
This same bus was already attacked twice in the same village of Rudnik. One attacked occurred on May 9th and the other one was on May 12th. Since these incidents, the Kosovo police have been escorting the vehicle on its trips, though on Thursday the police were, for unknown reasons, not present.

Land Mine On The Orthodox Cemetery In Staro Gracko

Staro Gracko, 08 Jun (KIM Radio)

Two days prior to the commemorating of the day of the dead, while cleaning the village cemetery, a citizen of Staro Gracko, noticed a land mine, and immediately informed the Kosovo Police (KPS) about it. Then, KPS and Finish KFOR immediately came to the site and deactivated the explosive device.

Disturbed by this, the citizens of Staro Gracko, reached a decision not to visit the cemetery during the celebration.

The KPS told KIM Radio it has no information regarding this incident.

Fear Governs Over Kosovo

Washington, 08 Jun (Politika)

Around 40 ex American ambassadors, professors, and analysts signed a resolution for the need for the world and the American public to pay attention to the protection of religious freedom of the holy religious sites in Kosovo and Metohija. The first to sign this resolution, which will be sent to the White House, was Tomas Milady, ex United States ambassador to the Vatican, and a State Department advisor.

While the international community is dealing with the political issue regarding the future of Kosovo and Metohija “we want to talk about the basic rights to freedom of religion. Many wonderful monasteries, mosques, and synagogues, pointed in the text, are located in Kosovo and Metohija and have been built a couple of hundred years ago. During interethnic collisions, many of them have been destroyed, points out the text, and calls on the international community to undertake measures with the goal of stopping the destruction of the religious heritage”, states the resolution.

Two Serb Suspects Arrested For Murder in North Kosovo

Mitrovica, 8 Jun (Koha Ditore) – Two Kosovo Serbs have been arrested by the Kosovo Police Service because they are the main suspects for a murder which happened earlier in a village of the Leposavic municipality.

The police spokesperson in Mitrovica, Larry Miller, emphasized that the KPS members of the Regional Criminal Unit arrested two men from the Duboke village of the Leposavic municipality, for killing a 41-year-old from the same village on March 25th 2004.

After the investigations, two brothers, one of which is 41 years old and the other 37, have been arrested because the information given by one of them has made it possible for the officers to find the body of the victim that was buried in a nearby mountain of their village. The body has been sent to the Orahovac morgue for an autopsy.

The two suspects are known by the police and it is believed that they have been involved in some other crimes. They are kept under arrest by the order of the prosecutor, emphasized the police spokesperson in Mitrovica.

Two Kosovo Serb policemen suspended for an armed attack on a Serbian Orthodox priest and his family

(from Media monitoring report, Koha Ditore, June 7th 2006)

Bojan D. a KPS policeman from Mitrovica and one more Serbian cadet from the Police Academy in Vucitn have been suspended from their duty under suspicion of being involeved in the attack on Serbian Orthodox priest Fr. Srdjan Stanojevic on May 6 2006. This attack was characterized as an attempt of murder by the police.

The authors of the article in Koha Ditore Zija Miftari and Musa Mustafa wonder why these two policemen have not been arrested and charged for the attempt of murder but only suspended. However UNMIK police officials claim that the investigation is still continuing.

According to the police investigation the suspects blocked the road in front of the vehicle in which Fr. Srdjan was with his wife and two little daughters. While the priest managed to turn his car and run away two Serb policemen shot at the car with their revolvers. Two bullets were later found in the baggage compartment of the priest's car. The investigation has also proved that they used their official guns although the ammunition was bought on the black market. Koha Ditore journalists made a question who is protecting these two suspects from been officially accused for an attempt of murder of an Orthodox priest and why.

Seven years since the end of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

BELGRADE, June 8, 2006 (Tanjug news agency)

Tomorrow will be the seven-year anniversary of the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement and Saturday it will be seven years since the end of the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the establishment of an international protectorate over Kosovo and Metohija whose status according to the international community is expected to be resolved by the end of the year.

The official end of the bombing was preceded by the signing of the Military-Technical Agreement in Kumanovo between representatives of NATO, the Yugoslav Army and Serbian police.

On June 9, 1999 Generals Svetozar Marjanovic and Obrad Stevanovic and General Michael Jackson signed a document which ordered Yugoslav state defensive forces to withdraw from Kosovo and Metohija within a period of 11 days.

The bombing began on March 24 and the first projectiles fell at 7:45 p.m. in Pristina and the last on June 9 in the vicinity of the village of Bljac in Dragas municipality at 3:30 p.m.

The NATO air campaign lasted 79 days. The exact number of civil victims has not yet been determined; the number of approximately 2,000 civilians is cited while, according to official information, 1,002 members of the Yugoslav Army and police were killed.

Inflicted material damage is estimated at several tens of billions of dollars.

The first units of the Yugoslav Army began to withdraw from Kosovo and Metohija on June 10 in accordance with the Kumanovo Agreement. Later the same day the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1244, with China abstaining from voting, which legalized the arrival of international military forces, primarily from the NATO countries.

This document in several instances cites the Rambouillet Agreement, which was rejected by the Serbian side, which was one of the reasons why the bombing began.

The Security Council Resolution, which establishes an international "civil and security presences" in the province, emphasizes the commitment of all member states" of the world organization to "the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the other states of the region as set out in the Helsinki Final Act".

At the same time, it calls for "substantial autonomy and meaningful self-administration for Kosovo".

Since June 1999 to today approximately 60 percent of Serbs and other non-Albanians have been expelled from Kosovo and Metohija and they are still unable to return to their homes. Their houses have been destroyed or illegally occupied, their apartments moved into by force.

All cities in the province, with the exception of Kosovska Mitrovica, were ethnically cleansed seven years ago and remain so today.

About 150 monasteries and churches of the Serbian Orthodox Church have been destroyed and damaged.

In Kosovo even today there is no basic freedom of movement for the remaining Serbs and other non-Albanian community.

Direct negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina on the future status of Kosovo began at the end of February this year. So far six rounds of talks have been held, which concluded without significant results. Belgrade is advocating the essential autonomy of Kosovo within the framework of Serbia, giving priority to a consensual solution between legitimate representatives of Serbia and Kosovo provisional institutions, while Pristina insists on independence.

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