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May 12, 2006
KiM Info Newsletter 12-05-06
ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL (ITALY) Belgrade, 11 May (AKI) - Medics were on Thursday fighting to save the lives of two Serbian youths seriously injured in an attack late on Wednesday in Kosovo's ethnically-divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. Jovan Milosevic (19) and Jablan Jeftic (21) were working at a petrol station near the town when unknown attackers armed with automatic weapons opened fire on them, the Serbian news agency Tanjug reported. In ongoing talks on Kosovo's future status, ethnic Albanian and Serb negotiators failed to resolve the fate of Kosovska Mitrovica, split into Serb and ethnic Albanian areas since June, 1999, and where ethnic tensions still flare. Regional police spokesman Sami Mehmeti said that their investigation of the incident was continuing, and that the motive of the attack seemed to be a robbery, since a large sum of money was taken away from the station. Earlier this week in the same area, a vehicle carrying Serbian priest Srdjan Stojkovic and his family came under fire but they escaped injury. UN-mediated talks on Kosovo's future status have failed to resolve the fate of Kosovska Mitrovica. Serbs want to create their own municipality in the north, while Albanians said the towns should be re-united and organised into two sub-municipalities. Nearly three thousand Serbs and non-ethnic Albanians - who form a minority in the province - have been killed or listed as missing since Kosovo was put under United Nations control, according the International Red Cross and other sources. Serbian forces withdrew from the province after the ethnic Albanian uprising and the NATO bombings in 1999. Over 200,000 Serbs have since fled Kosovo. The number of armed incidents has recently increased as the UN-sponsored talks have seemed to make little progress in bringing the two sides closer. The fourth round of talks ended last Friday without any agreement being reached over the creation of new non-Albanian municipalities - particularly Serb-majority ones - and their boundaries. The approximately 100,000 Serbs remaining in Kosovo form a tiny minority compared with its 1.7 ethnic Albanians - most of whom are Muslim and want independence, a move which Belgrade continues to oppose. The fifth round of talks is scheduled for 23 May, and will tackle the issue of protection of Serb religious sites in the province. The UN-mediated talks aim to finalise Kosovo's status by the end of the year.
Armed attack on gas station near Kosovska Mitrovica Two young Serbs wounded Blic daily, Belgrade
May 11, 2006 Kosovska Mitrovica - Jovan Milosevic (19) and Jablan Jevtic (21), employees of the gas station in the village of Grabovac near Kosovska Mitrovica, were seriously wounded when unknown persons wearing hooded masks fired 12 rounds at them at about 3:30 a.m. Milosevic and Jevtic were transferred to Kosovska Mitrovica Hospital in the vehicle of Kosovo police, which founded the wounded workers immediately after the attack. The two young men have undergone surgery in the hospital in northern Mitrovica. "Jevtic has bullet wounds in both thighs. In the left leg the artery has been completely severed. He lost a lot of blood and has undergone surgery but he is still in critical condition. Milosevic hs seven wounds to his body, primarily from ricochetting bullets. We removed one deformed bullet from his left groin. The groin is intact. Milosevic also has a shattered elbow on his right arm and wounds to the chest and abdomen," said Dr. Radomir Jankovic, the head of the department of surgery who operated on the young men. At the moment of the attack Milosevic was outside and Jevtic was in the building. Milosevic said yesterday that he noticed an attacker wearing a hooded mask shooting at them from the road right next to the gas station. Only minutes after the attack a KPS patrol found the wounded young men and transferred them to the hospital. Radasin Pavlovic, the owner of the gas station, said that the armed attack on the workers did not appear to be a robbery because "the attackers did not even try to enter the gas station and take any money". "It's more like an act of classic terrorism," said Pavlovic. However, Ranko Stanojevic, the spokesman of the Kosovo Police Service, said that it was a case of armed robbery because after wounding the young men "a certain amount of money was removed from the cash register of the gas station". Stanojevic said that the Kosovo police had conducted an on the scene inspection and begun an investigation. By Z. V. Vlaskalic
Two Serbs wounded in Kosovo petrol pump attack Thu 11 May 2006 4:46 AM ET MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro, May 11 (Reuters) - Two Serb men were shot and wounded on Thursday in an attack on a petrol station in the tense, mainly Serb, north of Kosovo, police sources said. A police spokesman said two men were seriously wounded in the incident on the main road a few kilometres north of the flashpoint town of Mitrovica, which has been divided since the 1998-99 war between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. Police sources and hospital officials said they were two Serbs aged 19 and 21 who were working at the petrol station when shot at from an automatic weapon at around 3.00 a.m. (0100 GMT). "They have been operated on and are no longer in danger," said Doctor Vladimir Adic of the north Mitrovica hospital. The owner of the petrol station said no money was missing. Police said the motive was unclear. Kosovo's 100,000 Serbs have been targeted by sporadic violence since the United Nations took control of the Serbian province in 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces accused of ethnic cleansing in a two-year war with Albanian rebels. Mitrovica has seen some of the worst violence since the end of the war and the NATO deployment, when around half Kosovo's Serb population fled a wave of revenge attacks. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is due to visit Kosovo on Thursday as a decision nears on its future. The 90-percent Kosovo Albanian majority is pushing for independence in U.N.-mediated talks that began in February in Vienna. The major powers want a deal on "final status" within the year but Serbs reject independence. NATO has around 17,000 soldiers stationed in Kosovo.
Glas Javnosti: Tension in Kosovo Escalates 11 May 2006 | 09:03 | FOCUS News Agency Pristina. As the talks on Kosovo's status progress there are more and more people in the region who try to stop them for different reasons, sources from UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) central office in Pristina state commenting the latest attacks on Serbs in the region, Serbian newspaper Glas Javnosti reads today. The situation is becoming more and more critical and management of UNMIK police decided to start preparing for "unforeseen circumstances". The evening after a UN bus transporting Serbs was pelted with stones the police started testing its ability to react in unexpected situations, UNMIK police spokesperson Kelly Collins McMurry told the newspaper and added their goal was to protect all Kosovo citizens.
Church of St. Elijah in Podujevo vandalized again Radio Television Serbia, Belgrade
Thursday, May 11, 2006 19:07 Unknown perpetrators have damaged the church of St. Elijah in Podujevo, where restoration work began after the church's destruction in the March 2004 violence against Serbs, KIM Radio in Caglavica reported. The attackers broke down the recently replaced door and broke a number of windows. The office of the spokesperson of the Kosovo Police Force could not provide more information about this latest attack, KIM Radio said. As part of the restoration project for the church, which is led by the Council of Europe, the altar (sanctuary) was repaired, and windows and doors installed. The church bells from the church were stolen and were subsequently found by Czech KFOR troops.
The Attack In The Property Of Serbian Orthodox Church Is Condemned
Podujeva, 11 May (Zeri) On Wednesday, the Podujevo Municipality Vice-President, Hazir Raci, condemned the attack in the Serbian Orthodox church in Podujevo and described it as a disgusted act for the society of the Podujevo Municipality.
This is someones bad act is said in this declaration where it is asked from KFOR and KPS to do anything for this case and ensure that such cases never happen again. We are filled with indignation that again touched our culture and religion in the religious building, and for our citizens the respect of culture, religion, and historical identity are the majoritys value that should be respected.
The Podujevo municipality is devoted in successfully realizing its goals in fulfilling the standards and creating the conditions for a quiet life for everyone without distinction of ethnicity, is said in the signed declaration by Podujevo Municipality Vice-President, Hazir Raci.
NATO seeks to break Kosovo impasse PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, May 11 (UPI) -- NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrived Thursday for talks with ethnic-Albanians on the future status of Serbia's Kosovo province. Scheffer met with leaders of Kosovo's ethnic-Albanians and Serb minority officials and Serbian Orthodox church dignitaries to see whether deadlocked talks on Kosovo's future could be salvaged, the Belgrade Beta news agency reported. Serbs and ethnic-Albanians have been conducting U.N.-led talks to decide who will govern Kosovo once U.N. civilian and NATO personnel leave. Four rounds of the talks, which began in February, produced no results and the fifth round is scheduled May 23 in Austria. Kosovo leaders of the 90 percent ethnic-Albanian province publicly advocate independence of the Serbian government in Belgrade, while the Serbs demand high-level autonomy for their enclaves in Kosovo. Formally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been under U.N. administration and NATO protection since 1999, when NATO air attacks stopped reported terror by military and police troops of the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic against ethnic-Albanian separatists.
Potential Kosovo Spoilers Have No Chance: NATO By REUTERS, PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro NATO warned May 11 it would not let extremists endanger talks between Belgrade and Pristina aimed at solving the future status of the UN-run Serbian province of Kosovo. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO-led peacekeepers, deployed in the province since 1999, have been "here to facilitate that process in the framework of creating on the ground the situation of security and stability showing the potential spoilers that they will not have a chance." Scheffer, who led the North Atlantic Council's one day visit to the province, said that NATO has been keeping "about a 17,000 strong force to see that this climate has been created." "Anybody who would like to spoil the process or harm it, would be defeated by KFOR," he told reporters at the end of the visit. The North Atlantic Council is the senior decision-making body of NATO, comprising the 26 NATO permanent representatives, chaired by the secretary general. Scheffer said he hoped that "the status talks will result in a situation where there is not hope and expectations for one and frustration for another side." "But everybody can have expectations and everybody can have hope," he said. "Such a status process can only come and can only be successful with compromise of the majority and minority. Everybody has to compromise," Scheffer said. After a series of meetings with senior international and local officials in the capital Pristina, the NATO delegation visited 14th-century Serb Orthodox monastery of Visoki Decani in western Kosovo, under UNESCO protection. "Religious freedom and protection of patrimony sites, monasteries and churches is one of the basic values of any democratic and multi-ethnic society," Scheffer said. Kosovo became a U.N. protectorate in 1999 after NATO bombing ended a brutal Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists who took up arms against the regime of then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to demand independence. UN-backed talks between Belgrade and the government of majority ethnic Albanian Kosovo started in February on issues such as decentralization and guarantees for minority rights in the province, which Belgrade wants to remain part of Serbia, while the Albanian population seeks independence.
NATO's Secretary General urges compromise between Kosovo and Serbia Released : May 11, 2006 2:15 PM PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-NATO's Secretary General on Thursday urged Serbs and Albanians to be ready to compromise at U.N.-mediated talks on the disputed province of Kosovo. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that the alliance's 17,000 troops which patrol the disputed province are ready to "show the spoilers that they do not have a chance" in derailing the process spearheaded by the former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari. There have been fears of an increase in tension between ethnic Albanian and Serb communities as the U.N.-mediated talks taking place in Austria near their conclusion by the end of the year, with the two sides still far apart. Ethnic Albanians insist the province becomes independent, while Serbia is offering broad autonomy. "Everybody has to compromise," de Hoop Scheffer said at the end of the visit of the alliance's senior decision-making council to the province. But he also acknowledged that the "process is very difficult." The North Atlantic Council, consisting of NATO's 26 permanent representatives and chaired by the NATO's Secretary-General de Hoop Scheffer met with U.N. and local leaders Thursday and it toured the task forces of the Kosovo peacekeeping force, known as KFOR. The senior officials from NATO also held discussions with Serb religious leaders in the 14th-century Decani monastery, one of the best preserved Orthodox sites in the region and which is protected round-the-clock by NATO soldiers. "NATO is here to protect every single Kosovar be it a majority or a minority," de Hoop Scheffer said after meeting in the monastery. "This monastery is here for ages and I want it to stay here for ages and ages." Bishop Teodosije asked the alliance to continue with their protection until it was necessary. Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since a 1999 NATO air war halted a crackdown by Serb forces on separatist ethnic Albanians.
NATO's decision-making body to inspect security in Kosovo Associated Press: May 11, 2006 4:31 AM PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-NATO's senior decision-making council will arrive in Kosovo on Thursday to inspect security and the alliance's peacekeepers deployed in the disputed province since the end of the conflict. The North Atlantic Council, consisting of NATO's 26 permanent representatives and chaired by the Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, will meet with U.N. and local leaders, but it will also tour the task forces of the Kosovo peacekeeping force, known as KFOR. The visit to Kosovo comes as the U.N. conducts talks which are aimed at steering ethnic Albanians and Serbs toward settling the disputed status of the province by the end of the year. Some 17,000 NATO-led peacekeepers are currently stationed in the province, and discussions on the alliance's role once the status is resolved are also under way. NATO is currently putting finishing touches to streamlining and restructuring of its force in Kosovo, to make it more flexible in addressing threats across the province, but has pledged not to reduce its troops during the reorganization. There have been fears of an increase in tension between the communities during the talks. Before the visit to Kosovo, de Hoop Scheffer issued a warning to extremists on both sides to refrain from using violence to set the course of the process. "They will face a strong response from NATO, so our message to them will be not to try it," de Hoop Scheffer told Kosovo's daily newspaper Koha Ditore in an interview days before the visit. The senior officials from NATO also planned to discuss the future of the disputed territory with Serb religious leaders in the 14th century Decani monastery, one of the best preserved Orthodox sites in the region. Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since a 1999 NATO air war halted a crackdown by Serb forces on separatist ethnic Albanians. The province remains formally part of Serbia-Montenegro, but its ethnic Albanian majority wants independence, while Serbs living in Kosovo demand that it remain part of Serbia. .
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