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Kosova Daily Report #1642, 98-12-21

Kosovo Information Center: Kosova Daily Report Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Kosova Information Center <http://www.kosova.com/>

Kosova Information Center
KOSOVA DAILY REPORT #1642
Prishtina, 21 December 1998

First Edition: 12:10 CET
Second Edition: 17:00 CET

CONTENTS

  • [01] Heavy Serbian Troops Crack Down on Podujeva Area Monday Morning
  • [02] President Rugova Returns from European Trip
  • [03] FEATURE - Western Aborted 'Credible Threat' Replaced by 'Democratization of Serbia' Mantra
  • [04] First Report: Heavy Serbian Troops Hold Podujeva Under Virtual Siege
  • [05] Updated Report: Serb Police Seals Off Town, Raids Households, Arrests Albanians
  • [06] Serb Police and Army Movements in Kosova
  • [07] Shooting from Serb Positions in Suhareka Sunday Evening
  • [08] Serb Police Seals Off Another Peja Neighbourhood on Sunday
  • [09] Police Shoots at Car, Arrests Albanians in Malisheva Area

  • [01] Heavy Serbian Troops Crack Down on Podujeva Area Monday Morning

    Four shells landed initially, to be followed by machine-gun fire north of Podujeva late in the morning; neighborhood in town sealed off

    PRISHTINA, Dec 21 (KIC) - A heavy Serbian convoy of military troops and hardware headed from the north-eastern town of Podujeva northwards in the direction of K&rpimeh village today (Monday) morning, local LDK sources said.

    At around 10:30 intermittent automatic weapons fire was reported occurring, at a time a number of Serb military vehicles advanced towards the village of Dobratin, which was the target of a Serb military crackdown back in September, when scores of Albanian houses were destroyed and burned down, and a number of local people slain.

    Four shells were reportedly heard, to be followed by continued machine-gun fire, sources in the area said.

    A couple of tanks were said to be on the Podujeva-K&rpimeh asphalt road, whereas other tanks had made entry onto the roadway leading to Dobratin.

    Serbian police forces have swarmed the Podujeva-K&rpimeh roadway and the Podujeva-Letanc roadway. (Letanc is a village adjacent to the town of Podujeva). Police are roaming the streets of the town.

    OSCE verifiers are said to be present in town, too.

    Latest reports said a convoy of 15 Serbian police armored personnel carriers (APCs), originating from Prishtina, arrived the town of Podujeva at 11:40 hrs. They were stationed at the police station at midday.

    All roads leading in and out of the town of Podujeva are under a severe Serb police grip. Albanians are being routinely harassed and beaten up, local LDK sources said.

    Local sources confirmed that the local Albanian population from Baj^in&, Dobratin and the outlying villages half a dozen km north of Podujeva started fleeing their homes in panic today morning.

    Meanwhile, sources in the town of Podujeva said the Hospital area in the town has been sealed off by heavy Serb police troops, equipped with an armored vehicle. Some sources spoke of shooting last night in Podujeva and its suburbs. There was word of shooting in the Hospital area today at 7:30 a.m. Serbian sources have reported the killing of a Serb policeman and the wounding of a Serb administration employee in town.

    LDK sources said members of the OSCE Kosova Verification Mission arrived in Podujeva today. Some of them were said to have followed the Serb convoy in the direction of K&rpimeh, to only return back by 11:00 hrs.

    A highly explosive situation has been reported in the northeastern municipality of Podujeva in the wake of the deployment of around Serbian troops, backed up by around military vehicles, including 20 tanks, in the village of Dumosh, namely a sports airstrip, on Saturday morning.

    The Serbian troops and equipment paraded the streets of Podujeva and moved back and forth in the countryside on Sunday.

    The Podujeva area is a 99 percent ethnic Albanian populated area, with one percent of the population having all the administrative power accorded to them by the Serbian occupation authorities.

    [02] President Rugova Returns from European Trip

    PRISHTINA, Dec 21 (KIC) - The President of the Republic of Kosova, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, returned back home in Prishtina today (Monday) at the conclusion of a European trip, during which time he had senior level meetings with French and Czech leaders, as well as European Parliament officials.

    President Rugova met in Paris with French President Jacques Chirac, for a second time in half a year, and received a French prize for human rights.

    In Strasbourg, the Kosova leader received the prestigious Sakharov '98 Prize accorded to him by the European Parliament, whereas in Prague the Homo Homini prize of the Czech-based People in Need Foundation.

    [03] FEATURE - Western Aborted 'Credible Threat' Replaced by 'Democratization of Serbia' Mantra

    Kosova is a country under Serbian occupation, which should be reversed if a resolution to the crisis is sought, writes Muhamet HAMITI, the KIC English Section's editor

    PRISHTINA, Dec 21 (KIC) - 'Maximum threat for a minimum intervention', a German journalist defined the Western failing approach to the Kosova situation this past autumn.

    Some 450 NATO aircraft were assembled in Aviano, Italy, and elsewhere to produce a 'credible threat', which was a mock threat to Milosevic and his military. "We will only issue a credible threat, but not carry it out", was the unambiguous message Western allies were giving the unbending Balkan dictator, Slobodan Milosevic. Between 25,000 and 30,000 Serbian military and police troops were authorized by the West/NATO to stay in Kosova, which has just over 2 million people, 90 percent of whom ethnic Albanians. This was hailed as a Serbian troop withdrawal from Kosova, and a huge concession by Belgrade! Milosevic is closing down independent media outlets because he does not want the Serbian public to know about the substantial concessions he had made, including the deployment of an intrusive, unarmed observer mission in Kosova, Ambassador Holbrooke said, criticizing Milosevic and boasting on his own achievement.

    Some 200 American and British aircraft sufficed to produce a four-day strike against Iraq (Desert Fox Operation), aimed at degrading the weapons capabilities and threats to his neighbours and the international community posed by Saddam Hussein. A normal threat for a maximum intervention, one might argue this time.

    Slobodan Milosevic occupied Kosova in 1989/90, Saddam Husein occupied Kuwait in 1990. The Western allies, led by the Americans, launched the Desert Storm to undo Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in January 1991. They launched the Desert Fox Operation to degrade Iraqi weapons and military and intelligence command structures.

    The military occupation in Kosova continues unchecked for almost a decade. And, outrageously enough, pains have been taken in the West to define Kosova not as a matter of Serbian occupation, but rather a matter of Serbia's democratization. Democratization of Serbia as a remedy to the Kosova issue is the bizarre mantra of the Western approach now.

    Western prevarication to act in Kosova, lack of unity of purpose on the part of the international community, has been off-handedly translated by the Western diplomacy into an alleged disunity amongst the Albanians of Kosova.

    The Kosova Albanians have shown an exemplary unity of purpose in the past decade. They engaged in a decade-long struggle for a peaceful and democratic implementation of their wishes, duly "admired" by the West and duly let down by them. The Kosovars want recognition of their right to self-determination in their bid for an independent homeland, outside of Serbian rule.

    What the West has been cynically asking has been for Kosova Albanians - all the spectrum from President Ibrahim Rugova to the newly emerged military wing of the independence struggle (UÇK) - to unite behind an autonomy-within-Serbian rule. This is what the latest international draft plan for Kosova seems to be about.

    The international officials urge unity among Kosova Albanians, an Associated Press (AP) news story was entitled, referring to a meeting Wolfgang Petritsch, the Austrian ambassador to Belgrade and EU envoy for Kosova, along with the French ambassador to neighboring Macedonia, Jacques Huntzinger, and other diplomats of the six-nation Contact Group had Saturday in Prishtina with Fehmi Agani, head of the Kosova negotiating team.

    Serbian troops out of Kosova, not out of Prishtina hospital, is the solution

    "Agani represents Rugova's camp, which has said it will accept broad autonomy within Serbia", the Associated Press concludes, which, put in the mildest terms, is untrue. Put in the strongest terms - it is a blatant lie.

    President Ibrahim Rugova's camp, just like the opposition camp and the UÇK (the Kosova Liberation Army), are committed to independence as their ultimate goal. Political parties in Kosova, those associated with the President of the Republic and others in opposition to him, have said they would accept an interim solution arrangement for Kosova outside of Serbia, which does not preclude independence. This is the truth, which even prestigious world news agencies - operating in Kosova for many long months now - have not come to learn.

    The Contact Group should get better acquainted with the complexity of the Kosova issue and adopt a more principled stance in search of an interim solution for Kosova, the chief Kosova negotiator, Fehmi Agani, stressed during the meeting with the Group's representatives of Saturday.

    The failing Western approach to the Kosova, referred to at the outset of this feature article, is best seen by the incoherent reading by Western officials of the reality of Kosova and the Serbian regime's behaviour here.

    The U.S. KDOM (Kosova Diplomatic Observer Mission) reported the Serbian police "performed professionally" in a sweep of two villages in Deçan allegedly in search for those responsible for the killing of six young Serbs in Peja last week. "Police told KDOM there were no casualties in the operation and that no villagers were detained except the three arrested", KDOM Daily Report of December 17 said.

    In the same report, KDOM said referring to the police huge operation in a Peja Albanian neighbourhood, four people were arrested.

    Scores of Albanians were arrested by Serb forces, using heavy hardware to surround Albanian neighbourhoods of Kapeshnica and Zatra and raid some 100 households in Kapeshnica alone late last week, local Albanian sources said, giving the names of those arrested. (See KIC Daily Reports of the past week).

    Ambassador William Walker, the U.S. diplomat heading the OSCE Kosova Verification Mission (KVM), was quoted as saying to a group of local and foreign media representatives on Saturday not many police forces in the world use tanks in campaigns to arrest people. He was apparently referring to the Serb force's pattern of action. (Ambassador Walker himself was threatened by a drunken armed Serb policeman on Saturday morning in Prishtina. He slammed the embarrassing Serb police reaction to the incident.)

    An outrageous feature of the behaviour of the Serb regime in Kosova was exposed by Harold Hongju Koh, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour. "I saw Serbian police stationed outside of Pristina Hospital's intensive care unit", Harold Koh, who visited Prishtina on Friday, said in a statement to the press that day.

    Albanian medical staff still working with the public hospitals and clinics in Prishtina, now run by the Serb regime, have cried foul in vain for months about the Serb police presence inside the medical facilities and the outrageous ill-treatment Albanian patients ( routinely referred to as 'terrorists' by Serb police, and sometimes the Serb medial staff) have received in the hands of Serb police/security.

    Remove the police from the hospitals, and everything will be O.K.? No. That would be a sort of democratization of the Prishtina Hospital, in a sense. "Normal citizens of Kosovo continue to be treated as military targets", Mr. Koh said Friday. In their houses, on the streets, everywhere.

    Serbian troops out of Kosova, not out of the Prishtina hospital, is the solution to the problem here.

    Serbia cannot be democratized in Kosova. An independent Kosova may pave the way for Serbia to democratize one day.

    [04] First Report: Heavy Serbian Troops Hold Podujeva Under Virtual Siege

    Four detonations were heard initially, to be followed by machine-gun fire north of Podujeva late in the morning; neighborhood in town sealed off

    PRISHTINA, Dec 21 (KIC) - Heavy Serbian military and police troops launched a large-scale operation in Podujeva area. Serb forces backed up by military equipment, including tanks, headed from the north-eastern town of Podujeva northwards in the direction of Kërpimeh village today (Monday) morning, local LDK sources said.

    At around 10:30 intermittent automatic weapons fire was reported occurring, at a time a number of Serb military vehicles advanced towards the village of Dobratin, which was the target of a Serb military crackdown back in September, when scores of Albanian houses were destroyed and burned down, and a number of local people slain.

    Four detonations were reportedly heard, to be followed by machine-gun fire, sources in the area said.

    A couple of tanks were said to be on the Podujeva-Kërpimeh asphalt road, whereas other tanks had made entry onto the roadway leading to Dobratin.

    Serbian police forces have swarmed the Podujeva-Kërpimeh roadway and the Podujeva-Letanc roadway. (Letanc is a village adjacent to the town of Podujeva). Police are roaming the streets of the town. OSCE verifiers are said to be present in town, too.

    Latest reports said a convoy of 15 Serbian police armored personnel carriers (APCs), originating from Prishtina, arrived the town of Podujeva at 11:40 hrs. They were stationed at the police station at midday.

    All roads leading in and out of the town of Podujeva are under a severe Serb police grip. Albanians are being routinely harassed and beaten up, local LDK sources said.

    Local sources confirmed that the local Albanian population from Bajçinë, Dobratin and the outlying villages half a dozen km north of Podujeva started fleeing their homes in panic today morning.

    Meanwhile, sources in the town of Podujeva said the Hospital area in the town has been sealed off by heavy Serb police troops, equipped with an armored vehicle. Some sources spoke of shooting last night in Podujeva and its suburbs. There was word of shooting in the Hospital area today at 7:30 a.m.

    Serbian sources have reported the killing of a Serb policeman and the wounding of a Serb administration employee in town.

    LDK sources said members of the OSCE Kosova Verification Mission arrived in Podujeva today. Some of them were said to have followed the Serb convoy in the direction of Kërpimeh, to only return back by 11:00 hrs.

    A highly explosive situation has been reported in the northeastern municipality of Podujeva in the wake of the deployment of around Serbian troops, backed up by around military vehicles, including 20 tanks, in the village of Dumosh, namely a sports airstrip, on Saturday morning.

    The Serbian troops and equipment paraded the streets of Podujeva and moved back and forth in the countryside on Sunday.

    The Podujeva area is a 99 percent ethnic Albanian populated area, with one percent of the population having all the administrative power accorded to them by the Serbian occupation authorities.

    [05] Updated Report: Serb Police Seals Off Town, Raids Households, Arrests Albanians

    PRISHTINA, Dec 21 (KIC) - The Serb military convoy, including tanks, which headed earlier in the day towards Kërpimeh, north of the town of Podujeva, returned to the Podujeva-Prishtina highway at 13:30 hrs, LDK sources said.

    No information about the possible damage caused in the morning crackdown in the area has been made available by local sources in Podujeva.

    Heavy Serb police forces patrolled the streets of the town of Podujeva, hugely restricting the movement of the Albanian population. Armored vehicles were stationed at key communications sites. Schoolchildren were prevented from going to schools in some parts of the town, with police aiming weapons at them.

    Serbian police raided the "Te Beli" (Beli's) bakery, smashed it up, and arrested its proprietors, brothers Xhemajl, Arif, and Blerim Arifi. Later, the police raided the house of their brother, Samet Arifi, in the town center. The "Xhema pharm" pharmacy in downtown Podujeva was searched by police, too, LDK sources said.

    Later in the day, LDK sources reported that Serb police conducted a sweep for half an hour, raiding many Albanian households on the "29 Nëntori" street in town. Members of the Kosova Verification Mission observed the sweep, they added.

    Amidst a heavy, intimidating and repressive Serbian police presence in Podujeva, several Albanian-language schools were closed down today.

    The LDK chapter presidency concluded in a meeting in Podujeva today the Serb military-police crackdown in the area has added further to the already volatile situation.

    The LDK organization in Podujeva called on the Kosovar institutions to sensitize the international community about Serbia's schemes of ethnic cleansing of this part of Kosova.

    [06] Serb Police and Army Movements in Kosova

    PRISHTINA, Dec 21 (KIC) - This past week-end and indeed the entire week saw a stepped up movement of Serbian military and police forces all over Kosova.

    Huge Serb troops went to the Podujeva area over the weekend, and were engaged in a huge crackdown on the local Albanian population today (Monday).

    Heavy Serb troops sealed off entire Peja neighbourhoods, raiding over 100 Albanian households, arresting and brutalizing scores of people last week.

    Military and police forces were deployed today in the village of Planejë of Prizren. A ubiquitous Serb troop presence is reported along the Kosova-Albanian border in the area, in the municipality of Prizren. Three dozen Albanians were killed by Serb military in the area last week. The area has been reportedly mined by Serb troops.

    A convoy of Serbian troops involving 7 lorries, 3 jeeps, 2 APCs and a Land Rover, left Mitrovica for Skenderaj early in the morning today (Monday).

    Serb police forces on board three APCs and a Land Rover went to the villages of Sllatinë and Tarllabuq of Vushtrri Sunday afternoon, causing panic in the Albanian population

    Serb uniformed policemen and armed Serbs in plain clothes have been patrolling the town of Vushtrri today (Monday), local LDK sources said.

    [07] Shooting from Serb Positions in Suhareka Sunday Evening

    PRISHTINA, Dec 21 (KIC) - A volatile situation has been reported amidst a continued presence of Serbian forces in the municipality of Suhareka - police in Reshtan, Mohlan and Grejçec villages, and military in Qafë e Duhlës, Bajrak and the Biraq mountains.

    The LDK chapter in Suhareka reported that Serbian police forces opened fire from their positions from 22 through 24:00 hrs on Sunday. Shooting was reported in the village of Mushtisht, too.

    Serb police stopped cars and searched passers-by in the town of Suhareka today.

    LDK sources said Avni Veli Bytyçi (27), resident of Nishor village of Suhareka, was arrested in Kaçanik while returning home from abroad, where he is a guest-worker.

    [08] Serb Police Seals Off Another Peja Neighbourhood on Sunday

    PRISHTINA, Dec 21 (KIC) - Heavy Serbian police forces, backed up by armored vehicles and APCs, sealed off the Haxhi Zeka neighbourhood in the western town of Peja on Sunday, LDK sources said. All Albanian households in the neighbourhood were raided, and scores of civilians physically abused.

    Two arrested Albanians, Nazmi Shala (22) and Eroll Muhaxheri (23) are being held still in Serb custody.

    The LDK chapter said the health situation of Albanians arrested and brutalized by police last week in Peja is very bad.

    [09] Police Shoots at Car, Arrests Albanians in Malisheva Area

    PRISHTINA, Dec 21 (KIC) - Two Albanians, Zejnullah Sopi (49), a secondary school teacher in Prizren, and Eshref Muçaj (51), both residents of Prizren, were arrested yesterday in Mleçan village of Malisheva.

    The Albanians were in their car on their way to take part in the funeral of 33 Albanians killed by Serbian troops a week ago when Serb police shot towards their Opel Vectra car. The car was badly damaged, and the two Albanians arrested. Sopi was taken to the police station in Klina, whereas Muçaj is suspected to have been seriously injured by Serb fire, the LDK chapter in Prizren reported.

    Meanwhile, LDK sources from Malisheva reported three University of Prishtina students were arrested on 19 December. They were taken off a bus travelling Prishtina-Peja roadway at Gjurgjicë near the village of Orllat. The students have been unaccounted for ever since, the LDK chapter said, failing to give the names of the Albanian students.

    Two Albanians, Muhamet Rr. Kastrati (36) and Haxhi L. Kastrati (36), both residents of Domanek village, were abused physically on 19 December at Pishat e Llazicës in Malisheva area. They suffered body injuries, LDK sources said.

    Kosova Information Center

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