Kosova Daily Report #1504, 98-07-28

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From: Kosova Information Center <http://www.kosova.com/>

Kosova Information Center
KOSOVA DAILY REPORT #1504
Prishtina, 28 July 1998

CONTENTS

[01] Serb Troops Execute 20-Member Albanian Family in Junik

[02] Extremely Volatile, Dangerous Situation Prevailing in Malisheva

[03] Serb Police Takes 7 Human Bodies to Gjakova Town Morgue

[04] One Albanian Killed, One Wounded, by Serb Police in Bardh i Madh ('Belacevac')

[05] Fierce Fighting Reported in Reka e Keqe Region

[06] Serbs Attack Nine Villages in De^an Area

[07] Serb Army Officer, Two Soldiers Killed in Clashes in Kosova

[08] Serb Troops Resume Bombarding Llapushnik Tuesday Morning

[09] Three Suhareka Villages Under Renewed Serb Artillery Fire Tuesday

[10] Albanians Flee Ferizaj Villages Fearing Imminent Serb Crackdown

[11] Serbs Pound Blindly Klina Villages, Scores of House in Flames

[12] Serb Police Raids Premises of Relief Agency in Prishtina

[01] Serb Troops Execute 20-Member Albanian Family in Junik

The family had been surrounded by Serb military and police troops, it surrendered, but Serbs shot them dead any way, in clear violation of universally-acknowledged standards of behavior in such cases.

Reportedly most of the family members were children, Cacaj said.

Well into the third day if Serb attack on Junik and villages in the vicinity, Serbs have been using artillery, motorized and infantry units.

Junik and the outlying villages are being attacked from three strategic direction, the LDK Information Commission said, adding that at least one member of Albanian resistance forces has been killed and 15 others wounded.

Serb forces have suffered three killed policemen, and two tanks destroyed.

Junik and the other villages are being shelled by Serb forces positioned in Podi i G&shtenjave, Suka e Baballoqit, Suka e Biteshit and Kodra e ^abratit.

Reports said the medical center in Junik was hit by shells today.

Some 15 wounded, being treated there, were not injured.

The reported execution of the 20-member Albanian family in Junik today comes after several witnessed executions of Albanian families or groups of rounded up people by Serb forces since end of February: Likoshan, Qirez, Lubeniq, and Poklek are house-hold names by now for this.

Latest Report: 17:00 hrs Tens of Thousands of People Surrounded by Serb Forces in Two Malisheva Villages

PRISHTINA, July 28 (KIC) - Xhevdet Bajraj, a writer from Rahovec, who has found refuge in a village of Malisheva in the aftermath of the Serb crackdown in his native Rahovec, told the KIC at 16:30 that members of the U^K (Kosova Liberation Army) had fled Malisheva. Tens of thousands of people have found themselves surrounded by Serbian forces in two villages of the Malisheva municipality, he said.

Bajraj described the situation as dramatic there. There is danger of the Albanians being massacred by Serb forces, he said to the KIC by phone.

Tens of thousands of people are in one of the village, in Ponorc.

Serb forces have shelled the villages of Llazic&, Balinc&, V&rmic&, Bubavec, Drenoc, Lubizhd&, Turjak&, Carrallluk&, Domanec, and Bub&l, Xhevdet Bajraj said, adding that the population has been driven out of these villages.

The village of Ponorc is a dozen km north-west of Malisheva, in the direction of Klina.

Serb forces are said to have been advancing towards Ponorc, and got half a dozen km near, according to Bajraj.

The sound of gunfire and shelling targeting the villages of Turjak& e Madhe and Turjak& e Vog&l, Lubizh& and Domanek, can be heard. The rest are in flames, Xhevdet Bajraj said.

[02] Extremely Volatile, Dangerous Situation Prevailing in Malisheva

The population in the area has been on the move since the last weekend, when Serb police and army forces mounted a huge offensive against Albanian settlements and positions in central Kosova and on the Prishtina-Peja highway.

People live in panic and constant fear of new Serb onslaughts.

LDK activists in Malisheva described the situation in the municipality as highly explosive today. With Serb/Yugoslav army aircraft flying overhead and the a siege imposed on all sides, it looks as if Serbs are intent on launching an all-out attack there, they said.

Dozens of thousands of uprooted people from other parts of central and south-west Kosova, who have sought refuge in Malisheva outnumber the local population, several times. However, the most vulnerable are the villages in the fringes of the municipality surrounded by Serb forces' checkpoints, local LDK activists said.

A great number of farmsteads and homes of Albanians have been destroyed or leveled to the ground in many villages in the area, including the villages of Mleqan, Llazic&, Bubavec, Carralluk&.

[03] Serb Police Takes 7 Human Bodies to Gjakova Town Morgue

It was impossible to obtain further details, as the hospital area, where the morgue is, was sealed off, they added.

Serb regime sources said earlier in the day Monday seven Albanian fighters of the U^K had been killed in Junik, near the Kosova- Albanian border.

Names of Five Albanians Killed in Fighting with Serb Forces Revealed PRISHTINA, July 28 (KIC) - Ymer Alishani, resident of Komoran, and Halit Bobaj, resident of Lladrovc village of Malisheva, members of Albanian resistance forces were killed in fighting with Serb forces in the Gryka e Llapushnikut, local sources said.

On Saturday, near Rahovec, Ali Zogaj and Ruzhdi Biliqi, both residents of Maliesheva municipality, died in clashes with Serbian forces, sources close with the Albanian resistance sources said.

Meanwhile, sources from Peja said Demush Shala (34), who was killed a few days earlier in clashes with Serb forces in a suburb in Peja, was buried yesterday in the town cemetery as an 'unidentified' person. Police ordered the Peja Muslim Community bury him.

[04] One Albanian Killed, One Wounded, by Serb Police in Bardh i Madh ('Belacevac')

Police shot at them from a half-kilometer distance while they were herding cattle in a location called Kalaja, local sources told the KIC.

The village of Bardh i Madh has been sealed off by Serb police, which mans five check-points around the village, ill-treating Albanians on a daily basis.

The Albanians were trickling back to their homes in Bardh i Madh.

Yesterday's incident has made some returnees flee their homes for a second time in a month.

[05] Fierce Fighting Reported in Reka e Keqe Region

Reports indicated an increase in the intensity of fighting which stretches in a area from Nec, Smolic&, Stub&ll, Berjah, Nivokaz in the Gjakova municipality to the suburbs of Junik, the huge village in the municipality of De^an.

Serbian troops are pounding the Albanian villages with heavy artillery, while infantry units have closing in, all this amounting to a frontal offensive.

Local Albania resistance forces have been putting up a strong resistance, sources said.

Last night, the Serb military shelled the border villages in the region of Has, such as Goden, Prush and Zylfajn. Serbs positioned in the Suka e Godenit pounded the villages, in the border belt with Albania, for two hours, local sources said.

Reports said an increasing number of people have been moving out of the villages under direct Serb attack, seeking refuge in relatively safer areas.

Meanwhile, Serbian police has set up a new police check-point in the suburbs of the town of Gjakova.

The population lives under a virtual curfew imposed by the Serb police, with a threatening presence of an increasing number of snipers in town.

[06] Serbs Attack Nine Villages in De^an Area

One Albanian was reported wounded, and considerable material damage suffered by Albanian settlements.

The village of Kodrali was shelled by Serbs for the first time in the past two days.

Meanwhile, fighting was reported in Strellc i Ep&rm, Carrabreg i Posht&m, Prejlep and L&bush& villages.

Albanian farmhouses are being plundered by Serb forces. The latter have suffered two dead in action in these villages, reports said.

At lunchtime, heavy fighting was going on today in the village of Strellc i Ep&rm. Many houses were on fire, smoke billowing from them, local sources said.

[07] Serb Army Officer, Two Soldiers Killed in Clashes in Kosova

The Serb newspaper said it had learned Mikicevic died in last week- end's fighting in Kosova.

A Serb army captain and two Serb soldiers died and half a dozen others were wounded, some press reports said Sunday.

There has been a notable omission of the casualty-toll suffered by the 'Yugoslav' in the reports of news agencies or reporters (mainly Serbs) keen on advancing the Serb regime's propaganda that the Serbian army is not involved in the offensive in central Kosova.

A Serb reporter with a Western state-run broadcasting news organization, while reporting from the Serb regime Media Center in Prishtina, referred Sunday all the time to 'Serb police' fighting Albanian insurgents.

[08] Serb Troops Resume Bombarding Llapushnik Tuesday Morning

Llapushnik and a number of Albanian villages on both sides of the highway have been successively pounded by heavy Serb artillery and mortar fire since the last weekend.

The LDK chapter in Gllogovc said Serbian troops, backed up by heavy artillery and tanks, have attempted again today to advance in the direction of the Gryka e Llapushnikut. The villages around the mountain pass are being bombarded from several Serb positions. The loud echo of blasts can be heard in the town of Gllogovc, local LDK activists said this morning.

The LDK Information in Commission in Gllogovc said two Albanian shepherds from Llazica village of Malisheva were released today morning after having been tortured badly in Serb police station in Gllogovc overnight. The two men were apprehended by Serbs retreating from the fighting Monday afternoon.

[09] Three Suhareka Villages Under Renewed Serb Artillery Fire Tuesday

The LDK chapter in Suhareka reported the Serb attack against Bllac& and Duh&l was kicked off in the small hours today. The two villages are being pounded from two Serb bases, at Qafa e Duhl&s mountain pass on Shtime- Suhareka road and the "Kryqi i Belincit" near Shtime. The third village - Reshtan - has been fired upon from Maja e Hisarit (the Hisar upland) military and police base.

Local sources said the village of Bllaca came under a heavy Serb fire last evening for over two hours, 20 through 22:30 p.m. Several houses in the village were damaged or burned to the ground in the shelling yesterday and last night, including the ones of Shaban ^allaku, Mehmet Bllaca, Selim Bllaca, Rexhep Lumi, Osman Hoxha, as well as some in the Sukaj and Bajraktari extended families.

A 60-year-old Albanian Abaz Ndrecajt (60) from Ma^iteva has been missing since Monday morning. Sources said he was seen last when he returned to his village to evacuate a local resident who was believed trapped in the village after the Serbs had shelled it.

[10] Albanians Flee Ferizaj Villages Fearing Imminent Serb Crackdown

Local LDK sources said besides Jezerc village, which has been intermittently attacked by Serb police for over a week now, the villages of Nerodime e Ep&rme, Nerodime e Poshtme and Manastirc were attacked yesterday, too.

The LDK chapter in Ferizaj said armed Serb civilians were involved again yesterday in the attack against Jezerc, Nerodime e Ep&rme, Nerodime e Poshtme and Manastirc. The villages were fired upon with heavy machine-guns and mortar shells.

No immediate report about possible casualties has been available, but material damage in the houses and property of the Albanians has been immense, the LDK said.

Fearing new Serb attacks and possible massacres, the local population in the four villages, Jezerc in particular, have been quickly fleeing homes, witnesses said.

[11] Serbs Pound Blindly Klina Villages, Scores of House in Flames

Ismet Raci, head of the LDK chapter in Klina, described the situation in the area as exceptionally dramatic this morning. Serb forces have been bombarding villages in the area with heavy artillery. He mentioned several villages under Serb fire today, including Gjurxheviku i Madh, Pograxha, Jashanica, K&puzi, Jellovc, Gllareva, Rixheva and Stapanica.

The local LDK leader said the Serb have been blindly pounding villages, their aim being to drive the Albanians population from their homes.

Serb forces in the Kijeva checkpoint and base have been shelling the outlying villages of Bubavec, Le^an and Drenoc. Yugoslav army aircraft have been flying overhead Klina and the neighboring municipalities since 5 a.m. today, sources said.

Ismet Raci said scores of houses on both sides of the Prishtina- Peja road are in flames. On behalf of the local population in Klina municipality, he appealed on the Red Cross International and other humanitarian organizations and agencies to intervene with food and hygienic supplies as the civilian population is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.

[12] Serb Police Raids Premises of Relief Agency in Prishtina

Over a dozen of Serbs in uniforms and plain clothes broke into the offices of the Council at around 10:30 a.m. The Serb police sealed off the area, and until afternoon, access was denied to everyone there. A couple of foreign reporters who happened to be in the vicinity of the offices said they were shouted at with a 'Get lost!' order by the police.

Witnesses said that several activists and officials of the Emergency Relief Council, including its chairman Selatin Novosella, were inside before the police intruded.

Three activists of the Council, who are also members of the recently-formed Kosovar political part, the Albanian Democratic Movement (LDSH) lead by Rexhep Qosja, have been in Serb custody since last Saturday.

Isa Kastrati, Hazir Borovci, and Gani Sopi, were arrested by police in Prishtina, but the Serb police authorities have refused so far to say where they are being held, the party said on Monday.

Isa Kastrati is head of the Prishtina chapter of the Emergency Council.

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