Kosova Daily Report #1313, 98-01-06

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From: Kosova Information Center <kic_pr@zana-pr.ztn.apc.org>

Kosova Information Center

KOSOVA DAILY REPORT #1313

Prishtina, 6 January 1998

CONTENTS

[01] Serb Civilian Shoots Dead an Albanian in Prishtina

[02] Testimonies of Albanian Student Tortured by Serb Police

[03] Unidentified Gunmen Attack Albanian Family in Gjakova

[04] Students of the University of Prishtina Respond to Serb Patriarch

[01] Serb Civilian Shoots Dead an Albanian in Prishtina

Quoting the Prishtina-based Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms Bujku said that Ibrahim Dragusha was shot dead yesterday at around noon in one of the corridors of the "Boro e Ramizi" trade center in downtown Prishtina. The motive of the killing seemed to have been a court dispute over a car bargain between the Serb and the late Dragusha. The assassin being unsatisfied with a court verdict and had asked Ibrahim Dragusha to drop the charges against him. Dragusha insisted that the dispute be only resolved in a court, said Bujku.

[02] Testimonies of Albanian Student Tortured by Serb Police

The Prishtina-based Bujku newspaper has quoted Hasan Xhakolli as saying that on 30 December a around 11:30, following the hone-hour protest of the Prishtina University student he was arrested by the Serb police and was subjected to several-hour maltreatment. "I was sent to a caller in Prishtina where I was kept tied to a hot central heating pipe until around 16:00 hrs. Eight Serb policemen beat me outrageously during the whole time. They hit me with truncheons and kicked me until I fainted. Then, they twined my fingers in a machine I had never seen before", he said.

Hasan Xhakolli said he was questioned and intimidated by the police over his participation in the student protest.

The Protest Committee of the Prishtina University said at least 82 persons suffered injuries during the Serb police brutal crack-down against peaceful protesters in Prishtina and Gjakova alone on 30 December. Scores of other protesters were subjected to various forms of maltreatment, the Committee said.

[03] Unidentified Gunmen Attack Albanian Family in Gjakova

The report says that the four persons were armed with machine-guns and hand grenades. The family noticed the burglars immediately.

Having foud out that they were seen, the burglars began shooting towards the house and throwing grenades in the yard.

The burglars left after two-and-a-half hour attempt to enter the house.

The family members told LDK sources there were no casualties, but they had been caused a lot of material damage.

The Mehmeti family was attacked by robbers twice before, in May and November of last month, says the report.

[04] Students of the University of Prishtina Respond to Serb Patriarch

The Albanian students explained in their letter that they were not seeking the return to a 'Serbian state University but to University buildings and premises - the University which had been established in 1970 as the University of Kosova."

Following is the text of the letter addressed to Serbian Patriarch: (begin text) First, we clarify for the public opinion that His Holiness, Patriarch Pavle, has addressed the Albanian Student Movement of the Prishtina University through the media. Therefore, our response to Patriarch Pavle will also go through print media.

Secondly, his Holiness expressed his concern about the barbaric behavior of the Serbian police towards the peaceful protestors - the Albanian students, who were asking nothing else but return to University buildings and premises - the University which was established in 1970 as the University of Kosova, and was therefore built in 1991 as the University of the Republic of Kosova. Our University buildings were occupied violently in 1991 by the Serbian regime following the occupation of Kosova in 1989, at the time when all of you together on the "Sveti Sava" [Saint Sava] day celebrated it pompously.

We would have been grateful if You in your letter had also denounced not only the use of truncheons against the students, but also the systematic inhuman persecution the Serbian state has been exercising against the Albanian people of Kosova, through the use of medieval methods. We wish to remind You that the times when the Kosova issue could be solved through medieval methods and policy and based on medieval mythology have past and are long overdue.

These are different times we are living in now. It is the end of the 20th century and we are stepping on the 21st century, and the open questions such as the Kosova issue may and should be solved only through new methods of democratic policy, by recognizing the right of all the people to freely conceive to their will. This is the only way and the best for the settlement of open issues and for a good neighborly and multilateral relations.

Since in your letter You have risen several other questions which are not directly linked to the protests and to our demands, we will shortly expose on some of them, and hope to gain you understanding, Your Holiness.

Thirdly, we wish to reiterate some of the issues known to You. None of our demands says that we want to return to Serbian state university, as You have put it. Our University has been functioning for 28 years. Since 1991, when the University was occupied, we have been working in extremely difficult conditions, uncommon in the history of universities. In such conditions too, we built the University of the Republic of Kosova which has its status. A status and all other normative acts; very modern legislative acts based on European experience; the University has transformed entirely in concept and its structure as well as curricula and future plans; it has gained an European identity.

Therefore, all we have been requesting is to free our occupied University buildings and premises. We request nothing more from the current Serbian government. We demand the cessation of abuse with our University building and premises. We are resolute about it.

Your Holiness, we believe that You may best explain the erection of the Serbian Orthodox church building in our University campus.

Fourth, we wish to remind You of the documents You have referred to, and that we too "are forced to respect the violence" as You have put it, be it the most savage one.

Finally, it is in the being and the nature of the world of youth, and in particular of the students to work perpetually for the future of the University, its people and humanity, and to believe in the future. We also are very convinced for our future.

Hoping that You too believe in our future, we Your Holiness express our thanks for the concern You have shown for the police violence.

(end text) The Serb Patriarch Pavle sent a letter to the Prishtina University students last weekend in which he expressed the views of the Serbian Church regarding demands of Albanian students for free access to the University premises they were forcefully expelled from by the Serb regime half a dozen years ago.

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