Yesterday, five Albanians beat up Stana Pesic at the village market in Kosovska Kamenica. The attackers mistreated and beat the old woman for 15 full minutes. The Church National Council of Kamenica will submit a request for an investigation to UNMIK and KFOR.
The KFOR press service confirmed that two days ago a group of 300 to 400 hundred Serbs stoned Danish and French troops in Grabovac. Two French units were later deployed to reinforce the French troops, and a call was made to leaders of the Serb National Council and Oliver Ivanovic to come to Grabovac to reduce tensions. During the incident one Serb was injured, said KFOR spokesperson Philip Anido. Ivanovic warned yesterday that "while Serb houses are being searched, uniformed members of the KLA are still moving freely through Kosovo and expelling the non-Albanian population".
Two nights ago, in immediate proximity to the municipal administration building in Obilic, the house of the Marinkovic family was set on fire. After the incident in which everything Serb was broken in this town, UNMIK and KFOR commands agreed to establish eight check-points in the town and to secure more than 2,000 square meters of glass, as all windows and store fronts were broken on houses and businesses owned by Serbs. According to Zlatko Selic, the UNMIK police had arrested the leader of the attack, Mirsad Kurteshi. He is one of 50 persons accused of participating in the stoning, as filmed by the cameras of the UNMIK police.
In the region of Rugovo near Pec one Albanian accused of murder and rape was arrested. A second suspect fled from the Police.
The frequency of incidents in this region and the announced NATO maneuvers have caused fear and concern in the Kursumlija area. The local population is afraid of larger scale conflicts. Local officials have not addressed citizens regarding the tension in the region. Instead of this, representatives of the local government stated that "they are not responsible for commenting on such rumors".
Williamson stated that in Podujevo, the zone for which his contingent is responsible, 20 armed incidents were recorded in just the last six weeks. He expressed KFOR's concern about a series of organized protests in which Albanians expressed disapproval of the return of Serbs to Kosovo, and demanded that KFOR stop providing protection for the convoy of Serb returnees.
"The proposal foresees organized transit to stop the flow of refugees toward Tetovo and Gostivar [large ethnic Albanian population centers in Macedonia]," writes "Dnevnik" It is assessed that the escalation of the conflict may prompt about 20,000 Albanians to flee, continues the paper, commenting that the potential crisis was the major topic at the meeting of the national defense council two days ago. A contingency plan has already been presented to U.S. state secretary Madeleine Albright and to the government in Tirana.
Parties close to Rugova's party have not yet issued statements but other parties have reacted with sharp criticism. The former political representative and spokesperson of the now former KLA, Jakup Krasniqi, stated that Rugova's request was unacceptable.
"The LDK is not the only party which is trying to separate out the heroes and fighters for the freedom of our people but Rugova's case is the most glaring," said Krasniqi, who is a member of the leadership of the Democratic Progressive Party of Kosovo, whose president is the former leader of the KLA, Hashim Thaci.
"This is punishable and extremely unacceptable because it has elements of political short-sightedness and arrogance, elements of political schism and continuous anti-Albanian policy," added Krasniqi.
The request was also criticized by the UDP of Rexhep Qosje and the PPK of Bajram Kosumi, who assessed it as an attempt by Rugova to win as many points as possible on the eve of the fourth congress of the LDK. After several delays, the congress is scheduled to take place at the end of the month.
A group of Albanian intellectuals who are former senior officers of the KLA, as well as the majority of former leaders and members of the Albanian association "Migjeni" in Ljubljana advised yesterday in Pristina that they have formed a new political party in Kosovo, the Liberal Centrist Party of Kosovo. The president of the founding board of that party, former KLA senior officer Naim Malloku, has announced that the Liberal Centrist Party of Kosovo will be an opposition party, and that it will represent the constructive opposition which has yet to be formed.
"First they drove through all the streets and parts of the town several times in their cars to let us know that they were going to do whatever they wanted," said Djordjevic, adding that the Albanian extremists were led by "a certain Cerkez".
He said that members of the international police then went from house to house to warn the Serbs to be cautious and do not open doors. "They advised most of the Serbs to go with them to the KFOR military base because there was no other way of guaranteeing our safety. Those who rejected this offer lived through the most difficult night since the arrival of peacekeeping forces in Oblic," said Djordjevic. According to him, more than one hundred Albanians attacked the houses of the remaining Serbs in Obilic with stones and other hard objects.
"Even though there were soldiers on every corner, they did not move a finger to protect us. They filmed the movement of the criminals and outlaws from the air and their cameras allegedly filmed every individual who stoned Serb houses," said Djordjevic.
He added that in KFOR's opinion there was no reason for intervention "because none of the Serbs allegedly was in a life-threatening situation." Milenko Timsa says that the Serbs in Obilic are disappointed in the peacekeeping forces, as well as in the representatives of the state institutions of Serbia and Yugoslavia.
"Since local state officials took more than 80 percent of Serbs with them, it would be fair for them to also tell those of us who have nowhere to go what to do. To stay or to go. We are sitting ducks on whom the Albanians are venting all their anger," says Timsa.
According to the Obilic Serbs, Albanian women also participated in yesterday's celebration in honor of the killed founder of the terrorist KLA, Adem Jashari. "They also formed several groups. They used stones and scrap metal to inflict damage on several dozen Serb apartments," say the residents of Obilic. Djordje Dosljak says that KFOR did not intervene in this incident either but that "everything was on film" and that the Serbs were promised that five Albanian women would be arrested.
"However, nothing will come of that arrest because the judges, the prosecutor and the translator are all ethnic Albanians. They released the leader of street attacks on Serbs, Mirsad Kurteshi, who was the main organizer of the latest wave of violence, 12 times," emphasizes Dosljak.
Gorans residing in the area of Dragas reported to the center that Albanians from neighboring Albania are moving freely through their municipality. They have broken into and moved into all houses and apartments owned by Gorans who were forced to flee to the villages of Globocica and Recane to save themselves.
Reuters reported that at least 7 KFOR soldiers and 14 Serbs were injured in shootings in the northern part of the city. Reuters reporter on the scene advised that he saw "at least six French soldiers and an officers injured when the Albanians tossed two explosive devices at them, at a point where they had surrounded an Albanian house in the northern part of Mitrovica". "It appears that the grenades were thrown by Albanians and that Serbs and French soldiers were injured. None of our people was seriously hurt but I don't have information regarding how many of them have been injured," a KFOR officer told Reuters.
The Albanian attackers threw a bomb from a moving truck at Serbs near the bridge by the railway station, Serb sources reported. Immediately after this, three more bombs were thrown and shots were fired from an automatic weapon. 17 people were injured, three of whom sustained serious injuries. Dragoslav Spasojevic, Dragan Avramovic and Radoje Stevic were admitted to the department of surgery at Mitrovica Hospital with serious injuries. Jovan Murganic, Aleksandar Elezovic, Aleksandar Micevski, Milan Nikolic, Boban Janicijevic, Ivo Milosavljevic, Marko Jevremovic, Darko Milentijevic, Zoran Arsic, Dragoslav Arsic, Nenad Mihajlovic, Srjdan Radojevic, Nebojsa Milunovic, Mihailo Jeresko, Dragan Vasovic, Borislav Radojevic, Dragisa Galjak and Predrag Djukic all sustained lighter injuries. None of the injured are in critical condition.
The attack was carried out in immediate proximity to German soldiers, and after an attempt of French soldiers to get to the place of the bombing attack, a hand grenade was thrown at them. According to ham-radio operators' reports, nine soldiers were injured by shrapnel, three of them seriously. They were immediately transferred to the military hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica.
The KFOR spokesperson in Pristina, lieutenant colonel Neville Clayton, confirmed that new disturbances between the Serbs and the Albanians had broken out yesterday around noon in the northern part of Mitrovica. According to Clayton, in Bosnjacka Mahala "there were no explosions but only the use of firearms".
The military spokesperson in Paris advised that "several French soldiers sustained shrapnel injuries in Mitrovica in attempt to prevent clashes between the Serbs and the Albanians".
Beta's source further stated that the Serbs attacked in Bosnjacka Mahala had gathered there due to a previous incident in which a Serb had been attacked by an Albanian with a baseball bat. Two bombs were thrown and shots fired from a hunting rifle at the gathered Serbs from the surrounding Albanian houses.
International military and police forces have reinforced their presence in both parts of the city. Approximately 2,000 Serbs gathered in protest but strong KFOR forces blocked them from the area of Bosnjacka Mahala.
Yesterday trucks loaded with belongs were awaiting KFOR accompaniment, reported ham-radio operators, but it had not arrived by the time of publication of this edition. Three kilometers north of Makres, in the village of Trnicevce, municipality of Novo Brdo, the remaining Serb families have also packed. 20 Serb households from the village of Culjkovci are also preparing to move out, and the approximately 3,000 Serbs in Novo Brdo are also upset. Representatives of UNMIK and KFOR attempted yesterday to discourage them from moving, according to ham-radio operators, but the local Serbs refuse to give up the idea of temporarily moving to the territory of Serbia proper. The ultimatums to the Serbs in Novo Brdo and Makres appear to be connected with the alleged expulsion of approximately 3,000 Albanians from Presevo and Bujanovac. "They are registered on the lists of the KLA and humanitarian organizations, even though the majority of them continues to reside in the region of these municipalities in the south of Serbia," claim ham-radio operators.
Last night at about 10:00pm two bombs fell on the Serb village of Cernica near Gnjilane. There were no casualties. The bombing, Blic has learned, took place after an incident, which occurred at about 5:00pm. Namely, several Albanians in two automobiles tried to run over Serbs who were on the road. After they were stopped, the windows on their vehicles were broken; then, approximately 700 Albanians from neighboring Albanian villages started toward Cernica. KFOR patrols met and stopped the column and beat up two of the leaders. A few minutes later Cernica was bombed. The UNMIK police has organized a search and investigation.
A representative of the French gendarmes confirmed that a detonation was heard in the city but added that the place where the explosion occurred has not yet been determined. KFOR special forces and civil police have been investigating since yesterday morning. It is assumed that a projectile was launched from a hand-held rocket launcher.
Ham-radio operators reported a strong detonation in Kosovska Vitina two days ago in the morning in which the house of Srecko Dajic, which he recently sold to an Albanian, was destroyed. Serb sources in the Kosovo Pomoravlje region claim this was an "a settling of accounts among Albanians".
Albanian extremists threw a bomb in the yard of Nedeljko Stolic in Orahovac two nights ago at 22:20pm; fortunately, no one was hurt, report ham-radio operators. This was the second attack on Stolic's house, which is the most exposed Serb house in the so-called separation zone between the Serb and Albanian parts of Orahovac. Albanian extremists in this zone attacked another Serb house at 12:30am, which is separated from the first Albanian houses by only a street. The UNMIK police and KFOR reacted quickly after both attacks and concluded that the attackers used the same kind of hand grenade but did not know whether the attacks were carried out by the same group of terrorists, it is said in the statement. During the night another detonation echoed in the Roma part of the settlement of Orahovac. Information regarding human casualties and material damage is not available at this time.
"In frank conversation we discussed the issues of security and possibility of the Serbs joining the provisional administrative council of Kosovo. Special attention was paid to Kouchner's report given to UN regarding Kosovo status. The talks were very useful and frank", hieromonk Sava Janjic said for "Blic" daily.
According to Janjic American representatives have come to fulfill Madeleine Albright's promise about return of the Serbs to Kosovo.
Bishop Artemije said that the meeting in Gracanica was a continuation of the talks they had in America in February.
"I was pleasantly surprised that Washington immediately reacted in regard to agreement about concrete projects. The American administration accepted our remarks given to the Congress and State Department. They clearly said to Albanian leaders that the violence against non-Albanian population would not be tolerated. American envoy father Milan Sturdges has already arrived. His duty is to implement the programs for improvement of security in the field together with us. He is our man, a Serb, an orthodox priest from the highest circles of the American administration. In that context, we shall certainly do everything in our power to convince Serbs to take their place in the provisional administrative council of Kosovo, since we are aware that without cooperation with the International Community we cannot do anything to improve the situation and position of our people in Kosovo", Bishop Artemije said.
In all his public statements, Bishop Artemije always pointed out that Kouchner and UNMIK worked on settlement of Albanian issues only. After the meeting with Rubin and Hill, he expects to start new talks with Kouchner "in the same spirit as with the American officials".
After the meeting in Gracanica, Rubin gave the following statement:
"The most important issue we talked about is participation of the Serbs in the work of Provisional administrative council of Kosovo (PACK). It is very important that Serbs expressed their readiness to take their seats in this body. Ms Albright sent me to give two messages: to speed up the process of Serbs joining PACK and give serious warning to the Albanians that USA shall not tolerate violence and that the Albanians should stop forcing minorities to leave Kosovo". The Serb representatives presented Rubin with the book "Kosovo Crucified" about destroyed Serb Orthodox churches and monasteries.
"Our attitude, and I believe also the attitude of the majority of members of the U.N. Security Council, is that the U.N. Resolution 1244 will be extended until the conditions for self-rule of Kosovo are established. We carried out the action in Kosovo in order to stop Milosevic's ethnic cleansing, and not to support actions of Albanians against Serbs," stressed James Rubin.
His message to the Serbs was that the USA would do everything to prevent attacks on the Serbs. "The Serbs should not listen to the messages of hatred from Belgrade since they are leading them into bad future", Rubin said.