Kosova Daily Report #1469, 98-06-23
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
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