Kosova Daily Report #1690, 99-02-11
Kosova Information Center
KOSOVA DAILY REPORT #1690
Prishtina, 11 February 1999
CONTENTS
[01] 40 Re^ak Massacre Victims Buried at Long Last
[02] "An Evil Visited Re^ak", Says Walker in Funeral Oration
[03] Two Albanians Found Killed in Western Kosova
[04] Agreement on Kosova without Plebiscite and NATO Guarantees Would Be of
No Avail
[01] 40 Re^ak Massacre Victims Buried at Long Last
The occupation Serbian authorities delayed the burial of the 40 massacred
Albanians by not releasing their bodies for weeks
PRISHTINA, Feb 11 (KIC) - Thousands of Albanian mourners attended today
(Thursday) afternoon the funeral of 40 Albanians massacred by Serbian
forces on 15 January. Representatives of Albanian political and military
organizations were attending, as well as international monitors, including
Ambassador William Walker, the OSCE KVM head.
Amongst the speakers were Walker himself, who made an emotional funeral
oration, as well as Xhemail Mustafa, President Ibrahim Rugova'a aide, Dr.
Pajazit Nushi, chairman of the major Kosovar human rights council (CDHRF),
representatives of the Kosova Liberation (U^K) in the area, and local
community leaders.
The religious part of the funeral was chaired by the Great Mufti of Kosova,
Dr. Rexhep Boja.
The Men's chorus from Gjakova sang the mortal song "Farewell" at the end of
the funeral.
The occupation Serbian authorities delayed the burial of the 40 massacred
Albanians by not releasing their bodies, which underwent lengthy post-
mortem examinations in the Serb-run morgue in Prishtina.
The OSCE KVM head, William Walker, called the Re^ak killings a 'massacre'
on 16 January, which led to the Serb regime threatening to expel him from
the country for having merely told the truth.
[See related item "An Evil Visited Re^ak"...]
[02] "An Evil Visited Re^ak", Says Walker in Funeral Oration
PRISHTINA, Feb 11 (KIC) - "I'm not here to make a political statement nor
to speak on behalf of the OSCE", but rather "I would like to speak to you
from the heart as a human being", Ambassador William Walker, the director
of the OSCE Kosova Verification Mission (KVM) said at the outset of his
statement at the Re^ak funeral of 40 Albanians slain by Serbian forces on
15 January.
"Four weeks ago I was shocked, the world was shocked, by the images
broadcast from this village [Re^ak, less than 30 km south of Prishtina,
KIC]. Images of an atrocity; images of death; images of grief", Ambassador
Walker said.
"Whatever their political views, whatever their ethnicity or culture and
whatever their dreams for the future of this land, there is no possible
justification for what happened here in Re^ak", Walker said. "Today we
stand united against those who committed this crime against humanity", he
added.
Even in the midst of conflict and war certain rules of decency and humanity
should be observed, Mr. Walker said, adding that by "the manner of their
treatment before death, by the way they met their deaths, by what befell
their mortal remains in the aftermath, these rules were repeatedly
violated".
"An evil visited Re^ak. Light and life was extinguished", said he in his
emotional speech. "It is right that you bury your loved ones in the village
where they lived and where you will again live," Walker said.
"Today the world will see your grief and they will see also the images of
hope in Paris. Re^ak and Rambouillet are directly connected," the OSCE
mission head said. "Notwithstanding the understandable grief and anger
today, we must not lose sight of this hope for a better future", Ambassador
Walker said at the conclusion of his funeral oration in Re^ak today
afternoon.
[03] Two Albanians Found Killed in Western Kosova
Haki R. Hoti was found killed in an Istog village; Qerim Sykaj in a Peja
village
PRISHTINA, Feb 11 (KIC) - Haki R. Hoti (30), resident of Dubrava village of
Istog, was found killed in the Zalla^ village today (Thursday) morning,
local sources said.
Haki's body was found in a brook, with his head dipped into the water, LDK
sources in Istog said.
Mr. Hoti was last seen alive yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, around 17:30
hrs, on the Istog-Rakosh roadway.
Family members said Haki probably had died of a gunshot to the face. Other
details surrounding his murder have not been made available.
Meanwhile, sources from Peja reported that another Albanian, Qerim Mus&
Sykaj (50), resident of Novosella e Radavcit village of Peja, was found
killed Wednesday evening half a km away from his home. He is reported to
have died of a gunshot to the head, LDK sources said.
Mr. Sykaj had left for work yesterday - he was an employee of the Beer
Factory in Peja - but was killed on the way, in still unknown circumstances,
LDK sources reported.
[04] Agreement on Kosova without Plebiscite and NATO Guarantees Would Be of
No Avail
Says the powerful Chapter of the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK) for the
Diaspora in a letter to the Rambouillet Conference
PRISHTINA, Feb 11 (KIC) - The Chapter of the Democratic League of Kosova
(LDK) for the Diaspora has sent a letter to the Co-Chairmen of the
International Conference on Kosova, Mr. Robin Cook, Foreign Secretary,
United Kingdom, and Mr. Hubert Vedrine, Foreign Minister of the Republic of
France, pressing that the interim agreement on Kosova being deliberated
upon in Rambouillet enshrines "the conducting of a plebiscite at the close
of the three-year-period in which the people of Kosova would freely
determine the future of Kosova", and that NATO is made guarantor of the
outcome of the agreement.
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprised of eight co-founding federal
units, each and everyone enjoying veto rights at the federal level, has
ceased to exist, Mr. Hafiz Gagica, chairman of the LDK chapter for the
Diaspora said at the outset of his letter to the Conference co-chairmen.
The former Yugoslavia was declared dissolved by the decisions of the
Badintaire Commission, which, "turning a blind eye on the fact that the
autonomous provinces of the ex-Federation were also its constitutive parts,
recognized the right to secession to the republics only".
The rump "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" created thereafter, "laying claim
to being the sole successor to the former one, was created without and
against the will of the Albanians of Kosova as a two-entity federation, in
which the constitutional, human, civic and national rights of the Kosovars
and the Albanians have been brutally trampled upon", the letter said.
Serbia has employed the decisions of the Badintaire Commission as a cover
to underpin the legalization of the unconstitutional and ferocious
suspension of the Kosova autonomy, the violation of all rights of the
Albanians and the imposition of the most brutal terror the world has ever
known, Gagica said in the letter."A fairly large number of Albanians have
come to think this was going to be the second time the European powers
would become accomplices in the misfortunes that have befallen Albanians,
who have been coerced to remain under Serbian rule. It goes without saying
that the Albanians would view this as a reimposition of the Serbian
colonial status, the only one in Europe".
The LDK chapter leader for the Diaspora recalls that based on the rights
enshrined in the 1974 Constitution of the Yugoslavia and Kosova, pursuant
to the inalienable right of peoples to self-determination, in full respect
of the certain and orderly break-up of their formerly joint state into its
constitutive units, "Kosova and the Albanians decided back in 1991 in a
plebiscite to build an independent state of Kosova, in which all the
citizens and ethnic communities would enjoy equal rights".
"The political forces of Kosova, first and foremost the Democratic League
of Kosova (LDK), undertook to implement this popular political will by
peaceful means and on a democratic path. Pursuing such a course, Kosova set
up its own system of institutions of a civic society, which entailed also
functions of a system of survival. In such a pursuit, the international
community's support for the peaceful movement and its actions vis-a-vis the
power of violence and terror that Serbia was instituting, not only in
Kosova, was needed".
The Milosevic regime pursued overt and publicized schemes to ethnically
cleanse Kosova of its Albanian population, and has exploited the lack of
serious international support for the realization of the peaceful goals of
the Kosovar Albanian movement, Gagica said. Slobodan Milosevic's regime
embarked on an unprecedented campaign of brutal suppression of the
Albanian people, killing thousands of them, forcing hundreds of thousands
of others to flee their country, he added.
"Last year's massacres, killings, and destruction of entire villages and
regions in Kosova - some of them done in the full presence of international
observers - have amounted to sheer genocidal dimensions. Against such a
background, it was but inevitable that the Kosova Liberation Army (U^K)
emerge, an organization which strives, legitimately enough, to defend the
people of Kosova against Serbian terror, and to liberate the country", the
letter said, citing the "utterly inadequate response to the systematic
Serbian state-sponsored terror, the barbarian repression of a people for
decades on end".
Serbia's brutal and genocidal actions against the Albanians in the heart of
Europe is the element that has made all too real the danger of an
escalation of the Kosovar crisis into a fully-fledged regional conflict,
the letter goes on to say.
The LDK chapter for Diaspora leader cherishes the hope that this time the
international community will take into consideration all the suffering of
the Albanians of Kosova who have been forced to remain under Serbian rule
against their own will and with the imposition by the international
community at the beginning of this outgoing century.
"Confident that you are fully aware of the occupation and genocidal nature
of Serbian claims over Kosova; confident that you will take into account
and respect the political and liberation will of the Albanians; confident
that you will not put an equality mark on the aggressor and the victim;
confident that in this process of the making and imposition of peace, you
will duly acknowledge that the Albanians have by now made a substantial
compromise by accepting in principle an interim solution for a three-year-
long period, We herewith urge You [the Conference on Kosova organizers) to
do all that is necessary so that the interim agreement enshrines the
conducting of a plebiscite at the close of the three-year-period in which
the people of Kosova would freely determine the future of Kosova, the
letter of the LDK chapter for the Diaspora said, addressing their
excellencies Robin Cook and Hubert Vedrine.
NATO should be made guarantor of the outcome of the agreement, the LDK in
the Diaspora said, concluding that "it goes without saying that without
these elements the Conference's achievements would be of no avail".
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