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Kosova Daily Report #1579, 98-10-11
Kosova Information Center
KOSOVA DAILY REPORT #1579
Prishtina, 11 October 1998
CONTENTS
[01] "Kosova Is Asking Vociferously for and Looking Forward to NATO's
Intervention"
[02] Qosja Slams Interim Accord Plan for Kosova, Agani Says It Is
Unacceptable
[03] Serbs Start Burning Cerovik Village, Klina, Sunday Afternoon
[04] Shooting Reported in Skenderaj Villages, Albanian Houses Ablaze in
Mak&rmal, Sunday
[05] Albanian Dies After Being Tortured in Serb Hands
[06] Women and Children Die in Refugee Camping Sites
[01] "Kosova Is Asking Vociferously for and Looking Forward to NATO's
Intervention"
Summary of Informatori daily's leading article
PRISHTINA, Oct 11 (KIC) - The international community has been entreating
Milosevic to comply with the demands of the UN Resolution and the Contact
Group over Kosova, but the entreaties have fallen on deaf ears so far,
Enver Maloku, the editor in chief of the Informatori evening newspaper
maintains in a leading article on Sunday. Milosevic has been refusing to
accept what are "extremely soft" demands put forward by international
factors, Maloku writes.
What has done the Contact Group since March 1998? How many lives have been
saved by the UN Security Council? Has the political process made any
headway since Ambassador Holbrooke's engagement?
Have statements by Clinton, Blair, Chirca, Anan, Kohl thwarted at all the
Serb killing machinery? - to these questions the Informatori writers
answers negatively. "Therefore, it is futile for the world to continue to
threaten and plea Serbia as heretofore, and it is pointless for leading
diplomats to continue kneeling down to the man who is responsible for the
most menstruous crimes this half century".
It is high time for the Western diplomacy to give up such futile efforts,
to accept defeat, Maloku writes. The Western world, including the United
States, have made many mistakes and undermined their authority and
credibility by "being fooled from a petty dictator", the Informatori writer
notes. "It is hard to believe diplomacy will be able to achieve anything
without force backing it."
In their continued entreaties to Milosevic, the international community is
giving signs of its willingness to accept his plans for Kosova, which,
summed up, mean subjugation, violence and terror, Enver Maloku writes.
"Therefore, the arrival of U.S. diplomats in Prishtina (on Saturday), was
seen with dread here, because the problem of Kosova is not in Kosova, but
in Belgrade!
The possibility of averting (NATO) military intervention against Serb
targets should not be sought in the Kosovar politics, but rather in
Belgrade, which can prevent it by allowing Kosova to be free".
Mr. Maloku concludes his leading article in the conviction that the Western
diplomats have been persuaded once more that "Kosova is asking vociferously
for and looking forward to NATO's intervention".
[02] Qosja Slams Interim Accord Plan for Kosova, Agani Says It Is
Unacceptable
It could become a permanent status for Kosova within Serbia/Yugoslavia,
opposition leader maintains
PRISHTINA, Oct 11 (KIC) - Rexhep Qosja, leader of the United Democratic
Movement (LBD), a political coalition of four opposition parties in Kosova,
said the interim accord plan for Kosova which has been presented to the
Kosovar side was unacceptable.
Mr. Qosja, who met with Chris Hill, the U.S. envoy for Kosova, on Saturday,
told the Koha Ditore daily the plan, which was drafted by the Contact Group,
envisages that Kosova remain within both Yugoslavia and Serbia.
"The interim accord, the transitional agreement, the provisional status,
such as it is envisioned in the document, can become a permanent resolution
for the Kosova issue, rather a permanent status. Naturally enough, such a
status for the LBD is utterly unacceptable", Rexhep Qosja said.
The Parliamentary Party of Kosova (PPK), the Albanian Democratic Movement
(LDSH), the Party of National Unity (UNIKOMB), and the Albanian Liberal
Party (PLSH) formed last week a coalition named the United Democratic Union
(LBD) under Qosja's leadership.
A plan for an interim accord for Kosova, referred to sometimes as only a
set of ideas for further discussion, was presented early last month by U.S.
envoy Chris Hill and published by the Koha Ditore daily in Prishtina. It
has been harshly criticized in Kosova as being unacceptable, pro-Serb, some
even cynically suggesting it had been drafted by the Serb side itself.
Veton Surroi, the Koha Ditore editor, was the first to slam the draft plan
as unacceptable. A former Kosova negotiating team member, Surroi met
yesterday with visiting U.S. diplomats in Prishtina.
Meanwhile, Dr. Fehmi Agani, the chief Kosova negotiator, told the Serb Blic
daily, the revised U.S. plan for Kosova was unacceptable.
"In principle, this proposal is unacceptable, because it sees solution (for
Kosova) within Serbia and Yugoslavia". Kosovar Albanians will not give up
their independence bid, Agani said, according to Beta news agency.
[03] Serbs Start Burning Cerovik Village, Klina, Sunday Afternoon
PRISHTINA, Oct 11 (KIC) - Early afternoon today (Sunday), Serb forces
entered Cerovik village of Klina, central Kosova, and embarked on a large-
scale arson campaign in the village, local sources reported.
Serbs have been deliberately setting afire Albanian farmhouses, witnesses
told the LDK chapter in Klina.
The local population has never returned to the Cerovik village in the wake
of Serb attacks during summer months, the LDK said. It added that a foreign
television crew who happened to be in the area was able to film the burning
houses in Cerovik today.
[04] Shooting Reported in Skenderaj Villages, Albanian Houses Ablaze in
Mak&rmal, Sunday
PRISHTINA, Oct 11 (KIC) - Serb forces set several farmhouses in the
Markermal village of Skenderaj ('Srbica') on fire today (Sunday) morning,
local sources reported.
The Skenderaj chapter of the Prishtina-based Council for the Defense of
Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF) said around midday toady that plumes of
smoke were billowing from houses in Mak&rmal since morning. The CDHRF
failed to provide other details regarding the extent of the Serb forces'
attack in the village or possible casualties there today.
The human rights group said, however, that there was increased movement of
Serb forces in the area since last evening. At around 18:30 yesterday, a
convoy of Serb forces consisting of 19 vehicles, trucks and tanks, drove
through Mitrovica and Skenderaj, and headed for Likovc village. Shooting
was heard in the area around Likovc after 19:00 hrs, it said.
Shooting from machine-guns was heard today morning around the village of
T&rstenik village in the neighboring municipality of Gllogovc. The LDK
chapter in the town could not tell still by early afternoon today what had
happened in the area around T&rstenik.
[05] Albanian Dies After Being Tortured in Serb Hands
PRISHTINA, Oct 11 (KIC) - A 58-year-old Albanian, Sherif Buzhala, resident
of Budakova village of Suhareka, died on Saturday after having been
tortured by Serbs the previous day.
The LDK chapter in Suhareka said Serb forces cracked down on Budakova
village, terrorizing and arresting local Albanians.
The now late Sherif Buzhala fell unconscious when assaulted by the Serb
policemen. He died the next morning.
The LDK said the Serb police rounded up several villagers in Budakova on
Friday, including Gani Sallauka (29) and Arif Daka (27), whose whereabouts
have been unknown ever since.
[06] Women and Children Die in Refugee Camping Sites
PRISHTINA, Oct 11 (KIC) - Two Kosvar Albanian women died in makeshift
refugee camps in Drenica region, central Kosova, on Saturday and Sunday.
Emine Kurtaj (1962) resident of A^areva (Gllogoc), died last evening in
T&rstenik village where her family had found shelter earlier this year. The
late Mrs Kurtaj died in a childbed, while her baby survived, sources said.
Rahime Brahimi (30), resident of Plluzhina (Sk&nderaj), died today morning
in T&rdefc village. The chapter of human rights Council in Skenderaj said
Rrahime Brahimi, mother to four children, had fled her village three months
ago.
The LDK chapter said two children died in refugee camping sites in the area
in the past couple of days. Rrahman Muhamet Byty^i (3) died in Sllapuzhan
village on Friday. Another infant, Mihrije Sahiti died in a camping site at
Karvansari valley.
Kosova Information Center
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