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Kosova Daily Report #1469, 98-06-23

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 #1469
Prishtina, 23 June 1998

First Edition: 13:00 CET
Second Edition: 17:00 CET

CONTENTS

  • [01] Residents of Bellaqevc Leave Homes in Fear of Serb Attack
  • [02] Shelling of Klina Villages Continues
  • [03] President Rugova Meets with Ambassador Holbrooke in Shkup Today
  • [04] LDK Condemns Collective Punishment of Kosova Population
  • [05] Three Albanians Wounded in Drenica Today
  • [06] Serbian Forces Extend Attacks in Gjakova District
  • [07] Serb Artillery Shells Bllac& Village of Suhareka on Monday
  • [08] ON RECORD: Serbia's Unchanged Pattern of Violence in Kosova

  • [01] Residents of Bellaqevc Leave Homes in Fear of Serb Attack

    PRISHTINA, June 23 (KIC) - An extremely grave situation has been reported today (Tuesday) in the small municipality of Obiliq, near Prishtina, capital of Kosova.

    In the early hours, beginning at 3 a.m. today, a large number of residents of the village of Bellaqevc i Madh left their homes fearful of an attack by Serbian forces.

    Hundreds of women, children and elderly run for safety in the direction of the neighbouring village of Lismir ('Dobri Dub') as well as Fush&-Kosova ('Kosovo Polje') and Prishtina, local LDK sources in Lismir and Fush&- Kosova said.

    An open pit of lignite used for the power plants in Obiliq is situated in the village of Bellaqevc, some 10 km west of the Kosova capital Prishtina.

    Serbian air jets and helicopters have been flying overhead Prishtina since the morning today.

    A large part of Prishtina, a city of 150,000, has had electricity cut today, reports said.

    [02] Shelling of Klina Villages Continues

    PRISHTINA, June 23 (KIC) - For three consecutive days, Serbian forces have been shelling the Klina villages of Dush, Gjurgjevik i Madh, Jashanic&, Jellovc, Cerovik and other villages in the vicinity, local sources said.

    Serb attacks are reported taking place today, too.

    Local Albanians have been resisting Serb forces in a bid to defend their homes.

    Information about what has been happening in this area has been filtering out slowly.

    Local sources said Pranvera Prenaj, a first year high school student, has been wounded in her native village of Gjurgjevik i Madh, whereas at Shtaric& another Albanian teenager, a 13-year-old child, has been reported wounded during Serb attacks in the past few days.

    [03] President Rugova Meets with Ambassador Holbrooke in Shkup Today

    The Kosova leader to meet with Solana and Kinkel on Wednesday and Thursday PRISHTINA, June 23 (KIC) - The President of the Republic of Kosova Dr. Ibrahim Rugova met today morning in Shkup/FYROM with the newly nominated U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, to discus the situation in Kosova.

    Rugova was in Shkup today, en route to Brussels, where he will have talks tomorrow with Nato Secretary General Javier Solana.

    President Rugova and Ambassador Holbrooke exchanged views about the current developments and the steps that should be taken in order to create the preconditions for a negotiated resolution to the Kosova question.

    The situation in Kosova is extremely dangerous amidst the continuing offensive operations by the Serbian military and police against the Albanian people, Ibrahim Rugova said.

    He said the resumption of negotiations with 'FRY' representatives is necessary, but stressed that Belgrade should first comply with all the demands of the Contact Group.

    Ambassador Holbrooke said the international community will exert pressure to ensure that conflicts are halted and that the situation is de-escalated, so that preconditions for a negotiated solution to the Kosova crisis are created.

    President Rugova of Kosova will meet tomorrow (Wednesday) in the NATO seat in Brussels with Javier Solana, the Secretary-General of the Alliance.

    In Brussels, Rugova will have talks also with Ambassador Robert S. Gelbard, the U.S. Special Representative for former Yugoslavia.

    On Thursday, President Rugova will visit Bonn to meet with German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel.

    [04] LDK Condemns Collective Punishment of Kosova Population

    PRISHTINA, June 23 (KIC) - The Presidency of the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK), the main political force in the country, said in a meeting today the Serbian aggression has created a critical situation with potentially unprecedented implications.

    Having embarked on a campaign of killing of the unprotected Albanians on a massive scale, Serbia has now resorted to a collective punishment of the population of Kosova, the LDK said in a statement, referring to the cutting of electricity to entire regions, such as Podujeva and Gollak, and, today, most of the city of Prishtina, capital of Kosova.

    The LDK Presidency said this retaliatory campaign is aimed at further escalating the situation in Kosova, imbued with terror against the Albanians.

    An eventual destruction of the Kosova Electrical Power Industry complex (Elektroekonomia) would mean paralyzing the life of the population: hospitals, waterworks, the food industry, would be left without their strategic source, the LDK warned.

    The Presidency of the party called on the international community to undertake urgent measures to prevent such a catastrophe, which might have been designed by Serbia.

    The LDK called also on the Albanians to show prudence and caution, not to fall prey to ill-advised action which can be used as a pretext for intervention [by Serbia] and further escalation of the situation.

    A statement issued by the LDK said the party leadership was briefed today on the fate of Kosovar refugees in Albania. A LDK delegation visited the area last week.

    Meanwhile, the LDK reiterated its call for an end to Serbian aggression and an unconditional pull-out of Serb forces from Kosova.

    The LDK Presidency urged the United States, the European Union, and the Contact Group to pressurize Belgrade into accepting international presence in Kosova and the creation of conditions for a fully-mediated meaningful dialogue on Kosova.

    The LDK demands an immediate release from Serb prisons of the Albanian political and humanitarian activists, a statement signed by Kol& Berisha, the LDK vice-chairman, said.

    [05] Three Albanians Wounded in Drenica Today

    PRISHTINA, June 23 (KIC) - Heavy fighting was reported in the area dividing Drenica and Rrafshi i Dukagjinit between Serbian military and police troops and Albanian resistance forces on Monday evening, local sources said.

    In retaliation, Serb troops set ablaze the entire village of Jellovc as well as parts of the village of Jashanic&, local sources in Skenderaj of the Prishtina-based Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF) said.

    Today (Tuesday), Agron (Murtez) Brahimi (26), resident of the Korrotica e Poshtme village, was seriously wounded by Serb snipers during the passage of a Serb convoy from Komoran to Prishtina.

    Likewise today, Adem Brahimi (60) and Petrit Brahimi (14) were wounded in their homes at Zabel i Ul&t of Gllogovc, CDHRF sources said.

    [06] Serbian Forces Extend Attacks in Gjakova District

    Serbian military builds up in the area

    PRISHTINA, June 23 (KIC) - Overnight and today morning, Serbian military forces continued shelling villages of the Reka e Keqe region in Gjakova, especially targeting Morin& and Smolic& villages in the border area with Albania, local sources said.

    In the morning hours yesterday, there was considerable material damage caused by Serbian shelling of the villages of Nec, Smolic&, Stub&ll, Berjah, LDK sources in Gjakova said.

    The area under Serbian shelling extended further yesterday, including the village of Ramoc, where many houses suffered damages. The house of Zef Ndrejaj was levelled to the ground.

    The Albanian population of the threatened area has been on the move.

    In the wake of a huge Serbian military buildup, the population of the Has region has been moving out, too.

    The Serb troops, heavily armed, have been stationed near the village of Rogov&, in the lands of the Muhadri family compound at Demjan village, as well as in the Pnish and Ujz villages.

    The town of Gjakova, which has been the destination of tens of thousands of Albanians displaced from villages in the border area, cannot cope with so many people.

    It simply does not have enough room for them, nor can it cater for their needs, local Albanian authorities in Gjakova said.

    There is an increased movement of police and military forces in the town of Gjakova today.

    Around midday yesterday (Monday), heavy Serbian military forces with tens of tanks, lorries and guns, and some 300-400 soldiers, left Prizren for Demjan village of Gjakova.

    The Serb forces were reportedly stationed in the schoolyard and the premises of the elementary "Pjet&r Bogdani" school in the village.

    At a location called 'Kodrat e Ujzit' (The Ujz hills), not far away from the Muhadri family compound, Serbs set up a strong military base, from where they can pound villages in the Hasi region and the area along Drini river, local sources said.

    [07] Serb Artillery Shells Bllac& Village of Suhareka on Monday

    PRISHTINA, June 23 (KIC) - For an hour, from 16:30 through 17:30 hrs yesterday (Monday), Serbian forces attacked with artillery the village of Bllac& in the municipality of Suhareka.

    Two Albanian family compounds (Bajraktari and Suka) suffered damage.

    Reportedly, the gas station in the village, as well as the local health centers, were damaged during the Serb attack. The owner of the gas station, Rifat Bekteshi, was lightly wounded when a grenade exploded in the vicinity.

    Despite the Serbian attack, the inhabitants of the village have not fled, sources said.

    Meanwhile, a Serbian army convoy passed through the Duh&l mountain pass, heading for Suhareka, at 9:10 hrs today, reports said.

    [08] ON RECORD: Serbia's Unchanged Pattern of Violence in Kosova

    In 1912 and 1998, Serbs kill Albanians in Kosova, destroy their houses, plunder their property

    PRISHTINA, June 23 (KIC) - The appalling atrocities committed by Serbs against Albanians in Kosova, the dirty Serbian war of ethnic cleansing, has assumed a status of notoriety.

    Two accounts, given below, are evidence to the unchanging and outrageous pattern of Serb violence in Kosova, at the beginning and at the end of the 20th century.

    1. Leon Trotsky, a war correspondent for 'Pravda' during the Balkan Wars (1912-13), was given the following account by a Serbian army officer: "The horrors actually began as soon as we crossed into Kosovo.

    Entire Albanian villages had been turned into pillars of fire, dwellings, possessions accumulated by fathers and grandfathers were going up in flames, the picture was repeated the whole way to Skopje. There the Serbs broke into Turkish and Albanian houses and performed the same task in every case: plundering and killing. For two days before my arrival in Skopje the inhabitants had woken up to the sight of heaps of Albanian corpses with severed heads. Among the mass of soldiers you see Serb peasants who have come from every part of Serbia on the pretext of looking for their sons and brothers. They cross the plain of Kosovo and start plundering, from the area around Vranje the population has crossed over en masse into the Albanian villages to pick up whatever may catch the eye. Peasant women carry away even the doors and windows of Albanian houses." (See Leon Trotsky,The Balkan Wars - 1912-1913, New York, 1980, f.267)

    2. The story of a Kosova Albanian, relayed by the Reuters writer Kurt Schork on Monday, 22 June 1998 - 86 years after the Serb occupation of Kosova - offered a fresh account of the predicament of Albanians and their property in the hands of Serb forces, here and today.

    A month ago, 31-year old Bahtir Kastrati was holed up with his extended family in the village of Kladernica inside the Drenica triangle, a wedge of land surrounded by Serbian security forces west of the capital of Prishtina, Reuters writes from Broj&, a village in Drenica, Kosova.

    Then the story goes on: "The Kastratis had fled their homes in Broje, on foot, on March 5 after Serbian security force attacks on nearby villages in the Drenica area killed 80 people, including 25 women and children.

    As luck would have it, Serbian police established a massive checkpoint and observation post in Broje, immediately adjacent to the Kastratis' abandoned family compounds - walled enclosures of modest homes."

    After Serbian forces pulled out from there, Bahtir Kastrati and his family walked home from Kladernica on June 2, and found their property a shambles.

    "What the Serbs didn't steal they destroyed," the distraught father of five told Reuters on Monday.

    "The took all the furniture, the clothes and appliances.

    They even stole the doors and the windows. We lost 11 tractors and two automobiles from the 34 Kastrati houses. They set some houses on fire."

    "The bastards spoiled our winter stores of pickled vegetables by pouring paint on them. Savages."

    Kastrati took reporters on a tour that confirmed his description.

    The main house was gutted and an adjacent building largely burned.

    The owner's mother, sister, wife and young children sheltered from the weather sitting outside under a concrete overhang because the house was uninhabitable, Kurt Schork of the Reuters agency wrote.

    3. Hundreds of such and even more tragic stories remain dormant in De^an and Gjakova districts, in the sealed off area where Serb military and paramilitary forces razed entire Albanian villages and the town of De^an itself in the past three weeks.

    Meanwhile, Milosevic's government poured some screen smoke ten days ago, in a bid to mislead the world: 'The Government will pay for the houses destroyed and burned by terrorists' in Kosova.

    It is indeed terrorists who destroyed Albanian towns and villages this spring in Kosova.

    But they are Serb-orchestrated atrocities for which Belgrade will hopefully pay war reparations one day.

    Kosova Information Center

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