DIOCESE OF RASKA AND PRIZREN CONDEMNS CONTINUING
ALBANIAN VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS

Gracanica, October 15, 2002

The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren most strongly condemns the latest in a series of attacks on the Serb population of Kosovo and Metohija which occurred this afternoon in the village of Klokot and resulted in the death of a Serb woman, Svetlana Stankovic, the mother of two children. After last week's attack on Serb pensioners in Pec and the stoning of Serbs traveling by train on the route Lesak-Kosovo Polje, Albanian extremists continue unhindered in their campaign of violence while international representatives continue to clain that the situation in Kosovo and Metohija is improving.

In today's (October 15) edition of the Albanian language newspaper "Zeri" there is a statement by UNMIK spokeswoman Susan Manuel in which she says: "We want to stress that regardless of some reports, the position of the Serbs is not same as last year. Their position has greatly improved and claims that the position of the Serbs is worse than last year or that it is equal to zero are untrue."

This claim and others like this are deeply insulting to the Serb people. Covering up Albanian crimes or their diminuation is a kind of collaboration in these crimes by which the international mission in Kosovo is attempting to cover up its own accountability for continuing ethnic violence against Serbs and other non-Albanian communities. It is in the interests of the Serb people in Kosovo and Metohija for safety for all citizens to improve but it is completely clear that this is impossible as long as there is a silent tolerance of extremism by one community in order to avoid a clash between extremist Albanians and members of KFOR and UNMIK.

Latest News report on the incident

In the opinion of local Serbs Kosovo and Metohija is increasingly being tailored to the needs of only one ethnic group. Serb leaders feel that they do not have the moral right to participate in institutions which are working on the destruction of their people. which they feel are denied to them in the UN administered Province. This is why Kosovo Serbs are now justifiably raising their voices and demanding urgent and radical changes in UNMIK policies in order to bring the process of building democratic institutions back within the framework of UN Resolution 1244. MORE

"What could this mob possible have been thinking it would achieve by attacking a group of elderly people who were simply applying for their pension? I'll tell you what it achieved: serious damage to Kosovo's image in the eyes of the world."

“How can I encourage foreign businessmen to invest in Kosovo if there is no security and when there is violence against citizens who have equal rights like everyone else,”

BEIRUT OR SOMALIA SCENARIO HOVERING IN THE AIR

As this marriage of convenience slowly dissolves, KFOR, to include its U.S. elements, becomes increasingly threatened. Two serious scenarios are likely to develop. One parallel Beirut, the other is Somalia.

In September 1982, US Marines began landing in Beirut as part of the Multinational Force (MNF) requested by the Lebanese government. The MNF was a peacekeeping force designed to provide an interposition force and a multinational presence. Initially the Marines received a warm welcome. However, the internal political situation in Lebanon quickly changed. Militant Shia Muslim groups eventually accused the US forces of being in league with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), the very forces the Marines were supposed to protect the Lebanese population from. The militant Hizb Allah committed itself to a jihad against Israel and its sponsor, the US. Adjustments made to the Marines' mission, location, rules of engagement (ROE), force protection measures, and security posture were inadequate in light of the changing situation. The Marines presented a vulnerable target and on 23 October, 1983, 241 US servicemen died in a terrorist attack on the USMNF's headquarters and barracks.

The same situation could develop in Kosovo. Like the USMNF, KFOR received an initial welcome upon its arrival in Kosovo. The Kosovar Albanians are clearly appreciative of the work done by NATO to halt Serb aggression, but their gratitude does not curb their passion for an independent Kosovo, one in which the ex-UCK constitutes the dominant political, military, and administrative authority. The Kosovar Albanians will eventually see KFOR as an unwanted impediment just as the militant Shia Muslims viewed the MNF. This development may be accelerated if a political movement of ex-UCK hardliners coalesces along the lines of the militant Shia movement. The awkward relationship between the Russian KFOR troops, who the Kosovar Albanians view as being in league with the Serbs, and U.S. KFOR also has uneasy parallels with the U.S. and Israeli forces in Beirut.
The Kosovar Albanians accuse KFOR of expending too much effort on protecting the few remaining Serbs in Kosovo while KFOR's objective to demilitarize the UCK and install the UNMIK is clearly perceived by the PGOK as a threat to its own power. Tensions are already high between the Kosovar Albanians and KFOR in several places and are getting worse. Left to their present course, they will eventually reach Beirut proportions.

In Somalia, U.S. forces were well-received initially when they were primarily associated with the humanitarian assistance mission. Disaster followed when the nature of the mission changed to the capture of Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed. U.S. forces in Kosovo face the same vulnerability to mission creep and a similar environment of high profile clan-based or warlord-type personalities that may someday become the objects of U.S. action. KFOR forces have already arrested two key UCK leaders for carrying weapons in unauthorized manners. Certain hardline ex-UCK commanders continue to resist demilitarization and are challenging both PGOK Prime Minister Hashim Thaqi and the UNMIK. UCK and other Kosovar Albanian ties to criminal activity and murder of ethnic Serbs may also place KFOR in a position of taking direct action against a powerful Kosovar leader. Such action would cause KFOR to be perceived as the enemy of the Kosovar Albanians just as the U.S. forces in Somalia became the enemies of Aideed and his followers.

The Difficulty. The problem with Kosovo is that the changes in the situation that could lead to a Beirut or Somalia-type disaster may be incremental and inconspicuous enough to sneak up undetected. The Kosovar Albanians viewed KFOR as being initially pro-Kosovar Albanian, but this view will eventually become somewhat neutral or ambivalent, and ultimately pro-Serb or at least anti-Kosovar Albanian. The key for KFOR is to understand how the Kosovar Albanians perceive its actions. Since the Kosovar Albanians have a markedly different agenda than our own, tensions are inevitable.

Source: Kosovo: Long-term Impacts of Short-term Policy, LTC Kevin Dougherty, Foreign Area Officers Association, 2000 (the text is analysing NATO options in 2000 when Milosevic was still in power in Belgrade).

UNMIK, Coordinating centre fail to reach agreement on Kosovo local elections

October 11, 2002

Belgrade, Oct. 11, 2002 - Representatives of UNMIK and the Coordinating centre for Kosovo-Metohija, at a meeting of the High-Ranking Working Group today, failed to reach an agreement on Kosovo Serbs participating in local elections due on Oct. 26

Deputy Head of the Coordinating centre for Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic told press that both the Coordinating centre and Kosovo Serbs "were expecting cooperation" with UNMIK concerning the decentralisation of the province, but that such cooperation "has not been established so far, although the Coordinationg centre had put forward its plan for the decentralisation in Kosovo as early as in July this year."

Deputy Chief of UNMIK Charles Brayshaw said everybody in Kosovo-Metohija are concerned about yesterday's assault on Serbs in Pec.

"Such incidents cause inconvenience for everyone, and those who did that are a disgrace for Kosovo," said Brayshaw, and added that UNMIK expects Albanian leaders to condemn the incident.

Decani, October 11, 2002

The thirty-three monks of Visoki Decani Monastery, the only remaining Serbs in the municipality of Decani, did not vote in the latest Kosovo municipal elections which have already begun with pre-election voting of communities without freedom of movement and access to official polling booths. The brotherhood took this step because for the past three years, the monks of this monastery have lived in complete isolation without any freedom of movement or civil rights. The local Albanian municipal authorities have not only done nothing to show their readiness to help the monastery and encourage the return of expelled Serbs but continues to apply pressure to take from the monastery property lawfully belonging to it in order to finally extinguish the last Serb hearth in this part of Metohija.

Three years have already passed since the end of the war in which the monastery selflessly assisted not only Serb refugees from surrounding villages but also the Albanian population. During the NATO bombing almost 200 Albanian civilians, women and children found sanctuary within the monastery walls and received protection from persecution and violence. Many Albanian families received regular humanitarian packages and medicine from the monks. After the end of the war and with the continued suffering of the Serbs under the protectorate of the UN Mission, Serb refugees, about 50 Roma and a Gorani Muslim family 2ho fled from their homes to escape the terror of the KLA again found sanctuary in the monastery. Unfortunately, the local Albanian authorities and population have never publicly shown any sign of respect towards the monastery; instead, provocations, stoning and verbal attacks against the monks and guests of the monastery continue on almost a daily basis. The nearby Orthodox cemetery has been desecrated no less than three times, and all Serb houses and monuments in the municipality have been leveled with the ground. Visoki Decani Monastery remains under the strong protection of Italian KFOR troops which are protecting this Serbian shrine from Albanian extremists. Without the help of God and the protection of these Italian troops, the survival of this more than 600 year old monastery would not be possible.

For all these reasons, deeply dissatisfied with the new Kosovo institutions which protect the interests of only people, the Albanians, the brotherhood of Visoki Decani Monastery has decided not to vote in this year's municipal elections. This position was clearly communicated to OSCE representatives who performed their duty and set up a temporary polling booth within the confines of the monastery for a few hours. By this gesture the brotherhood wishes to draw the attention of the international and domestic public to the fact that the future of Kosovo and Metohija cannot be built for only one people and one religion but should rest on the principles of equality of all, regardless of their nation or religion.

COMMUNIQUE OF THE DIOCESE OR RASKA AND PRIZREN AND THE SERB NATIONAL COUNCIL OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

Gracanica, October 11, 2002

The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren and the Serb National Council of Kosovo and Metohija most strongly condemn yesterday's attack by over 600 Albanians with stones and Molotov cocktails against a bus transporting elderly Serbs from the nearby village of Osojane to Pec where they were to receive social assistance payments and pensions from UNMIK. Even though the bus was under the military protection of Spanish KFOR soldiers, the Albanian masses broke all the windows on the bus and injured several of the passengers. After the Serbs were sheltered in the building of the UN Mission, the Albanians continued to stone the UN police and KFOR until the intervention of a special riot squad broke up the crowd with tear gas. The Serbs were evacuated after two hours of siege in the UN building. According to information from Osojane, three Serbs were seriously injured while others sustained less serious injuries. Official UN Mission spokespersons have confirmed that several policemen were also injured in clashes with the Albanians. According to the innitial information the attack was planned beforehand because the rioters had their Molotov cocktails ready.

This latest attack on Serb residents of Kosovo and Metohija and international forces clearly shows that three full years after the war in Kosovo and Metohija there is still no freedom of movement or security for the Serb population. Only two months ago Albanians armed with guns attacked a group of Serbs and KFOR soldiers in the nearby village of Gorazdevac, which represents an alarming signal to the international community that its policies towards Albanian extremism in the southern Serbian province must be changed urgently. Tolerating extremist and radical leaders and their armed paramilitary groups which are constantly encouraging violence toward Serbs are increasingly pushing Kosovo and Metohija towards ethnic violence and collective lynchings of the helpless Serb population. Such incidents seriously undermine the confidence of the Serbs in Kosovo institutions and even further discourage the Serb population from participating in upcoming local elections. As long as still armed Albanian extremists continue their unobstructed activities, Kosovo institutions represent only a façade of false and nonexistent democracy in which Serbs cannot participate.

The Diocese of Raska and Prizren and the Serb National Council of Kosovo and Metohija therefore appeal to the UN Mission and KFOR to undertake as sson as possible concrete and firm measures for the protection of the remaining Serb population from Albanian violence and to enable the building of Serb institutions in enclaves where Serbs live by adopting the decentralization program for the Province. It is absolutely immoral to insist on Serb participation in joint Kosovo institutions as long as ethnic discrimination and violence against the Serb population reign throughout the Province.

Nevertheless, it is highly surprising that Mr. Steiner has not found it necessary to create similar plans for the other cities in Kosovo and Metohija where for more than three years basic human rights have been denied to non-Albanian communities, primarily the Serbs, under an international protectorate. In those cities the Serbs lack not only freedom of movement but access to educational and health institutions. The inability to secure basic freedoms for Serbs in urban settings in three years represents a great failure for the UN mission which seriously mars undeniable successes in other fields. MORE

"By taking use of the multiethnic structure of the government and the parliament, they are taking out the stands which are opposite to the strategy and political goals of Povratak coalition deputies. We have entered the parliament with the aim of establishing multiethnic institutions and the rule of order and not to work on the independent Kosovo project by any means," she said.

According to her, Povratak coalition demands that Kosovo parliament should decide on those matters and "in case they support such policy, there will be no place for Povratak coalition in such a parliament, since that decision will be opposite to 1244 UN Security Council Resolution and Constitutional frames."

Trajkovic confirmed the unity of all Povratak coalition deputies regarding this matter.