RSK
03-19-2004, 07:46 PM
Svilanovic demands acknowledgement of ethnic cleansing | 21:25 | Beta
WASHINGTON -- Friday – Federal Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic today demanded that the US acknowledge that this week’s violence in Kosovo is an orchestrated attempt at the ethnic cleansing of the province.
Meeting representatives of the US Administration in Washington today that Albanian extremists are also attempting to stop direct dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, to intimidate international community representatives and to prevent the arrest of Albanians accused of war crimes.
“But the essence is the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo,” he said.
Russia demands return of Serb troops to Kosovo | 19:00 | AP
Moscow -- Friday -- The Russian parliament today unanimously passed a resolution saying the Serbian-Montenegrin military should be allowed to help defend the Kosovo Serbs.
The resolution also condemned the failure of international organisations to stem the ethnic violence between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo.
The lower house of parliament, the Duma, said a new UN resolution on Kosovo should be passed to reaffirm the Belgrade government's sovereignty over Kosovo and that "the military units of Serbia-Montenegro should take part in defence of the Serb population of the region, of Orthodox churches and guarding borders."
"So far all measures taken by KFOR and the UN mission have in fact brought nothing but a temporary freeze of the conflict," the Duma said.
The lawmakers, who passed the resolution by a 397-0 vote, said they were also ready to offer "any necessary assistance on Russia's part, including emergency measures to evacuate Serbs from the conflict zone and humanitarian aid" if Serbs are forced to flee Kosovo.
Russia's Emergency Situations Minster Sergey Shoigu was to travel to the Balkans soon to discuss the situation in Kosovo, said the head of the Duma's international affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, Interfax news agency reported.
Russia has strong cultural ties to the Serbs, sharing the Orthodox religion and Slavic roots.
Kosovo events near ethnic cleansing: NATO | 18:24 | *******
PRISTINA -- Friday -- A senior NATO commander said today that Kosovo Albanian attacks on Serb villages this week were not far from turning into "ethnic cleansing".
Almost a thousand Serbs living in isolated villages among the majority Albanian communities in Kosovo have fled in the last three days as houses and churches were torched by Albanians despite a heavy presence of international peacekeepers.
"This kind of activity actually almost amounts to ethnic cleansing and it cannot go on," US commander of NATO forces for Southern Europe, Gregory Johnson, told reporters in Kosovo's capital Pristina.
"That's why we came here in the first place."
NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to stop attacks by Serb troops on pro-independence Albanians and has since took over control of the province together with the United Nations, though it remains legally a part of Serbia. Britain, Germany, France and Denmark sent reinforcements for NATO-led peacekeepers on Friday to quell the violence which has killed 31 people this week, both Serbs and Albanians.
Violence “aimed at expelling Serbs” | 21:05 | BBC
PRISTINA -- Friday – Noted Kosovo Albanian journalists Veton Surroi said today that the current wave of violence in Kosovo had been organised by Albanians with the aim of expelling the Serb population.
Surroi, who published Pristina daily Koha Ditore, said that the violence had entered a second phase which is obviously organised and orchestrated.
“The aim is to intimidate the Serb population and expel them from central Kosovo by destroying their homes and churches.
“There is also accumulated rage directed towards UNMIK and KFOR which would have been unthinkable before yesterday,” said Surroi.
Former guerrilla leader calls for halt to violence | 18:53 | B92
PRISTINA -- Friday – The leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Hashim Thaqi, has called on Kosovars to stop protests and violence, appealing to them not to forget the help they have received from NATO.
Thaqi, the former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, was speaking after a meeting with UN governor Harri Holkeri and NATO commander for South-East Europe Gregory Johnson.
Pristina daily Zeri writes today that Thaqi cut short a visit to the US after the wave of violence broke out in the province on Wednesday.
“Kosovo, NATO and the West have not fought for Kosovo only for Albanians, nor for a Kosovo ruled by violence,” said Thaqi. “Violence is not the way to solve problems, violence only creates problems,” he added.
However, said the former guerrilla leader, neither NATO nor UNMIK were in favour with the idea of partitioning Kosovo along ethnic lines as proposed by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.
“None of us agrees with the functioning of parallel Serbian structures and none of agrees with the proposals for cantonisation of Kosovo, but nor do we agree with having violence in Kosovo,” said Thaqi.
Noting that the West had given strong support to Kosovo Albanians during the war in the province and later during the return of Kosovar refugees to their homes, Thaqi called on Kosovo Albanians not to forget that the province is free today thanks to the sacrifice of its people and the West.
UN translators evacuated | 18:44 | B92
MERDARE -- Friday – Translators from Serbia employed by international administrators in Kosovo have been escorted by KFOR to the Serbian border at Merdare.
About thirty translators were evacuated from Pristina at 2.00 p.m. today.
UNMIK advisor Novica Radosavljevic told journalists that all Serbs working in the temporary Kosovo institutions have left their posts but have still not been evacuated because UNMIK and KFOR are unable to offer them safe transfer from Podujevo to Merdare.
Mitrovica police station closes | 20:20 | B92
PRISTINA -- Friday – The police station in southern Kosovska Mitrovica was closed late this afternoon, with UNMIK and Kosovo police being evacuated to a KFOR base.
UNMIK spokesman Derek Chappell declined to confirm that a state of emergency had been introduced to Mitrovica, saying only that KFOR was patrolling the streets of the town.
A spokesman for KFOR, Piper Horst, told B92 that the commander of the multinational North-East Brigade in Northern Mitrovica had been given a free hand to decide on the level of force required to contain violence in the town.
He added that the Kosovo Protection Corps would not be included in peacekeeping operations because it is strictly a civilian organisation.
Chappell denied reports that members of UNMIK and its police force had died in the violent clashes in Kosovo in the past two days.
“No members of the UNMIK police force have lost their lives, although we have hundreds of injured,” he told journalists in Pristina.
UNMIK press representatives Izabella Karlowicz told the same press conference that the civilian mission in the province that the UN mission is coordinating a team from international agencies to supply food and other essentials to people in isolated enclaves and refugee camps.
NATO uses explosives to enter Mitrovica apartment | 13:55 | SRNA
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – NATO troops have used explosives to break down the door to an Albanian apartment in southern Kosovska Mitrovica, SRNA news agency reports.
The explosion caused in the apartment and several Albanians were injured.
SRNA reports that strong gunfire has come from the apartment block in the past two days.
NATO troops raid Albanian apartments in Mitrovica | 11:09 | *******
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – About 300 French troops and gendarmes of NATO's Kosovo peacekeeping force raided Albanian apartment blocks in the flashpoint city of Mitrovica on Friday after apparently coming under fire from the location.
A ******* cameraman said about 15 French armoured personnel carriers blocked the bridge over the river that divides Serb and Albanian communities. Heavily armed troops began raiding three buildings and setting up rooftop gun positions.
There had been sporadic gunfire from the area around midnight, he said, and NATO soldiers were firing back at an unseen target. A helicopter was seen evacuated an injured man.
But local reports that a Danish member of the KFOR peacekeeping force had been killed were denied in Copenhagen.
The three 11-storey apartment towers sit just across the Ibar River, protected by concrete blocks, barbed wire and tank traps and accessible from the Albanian south bank by a pontoon bridge but not from surrounding Serb districts.
Albanian residents of the high-rises were initially given NATO protection to remain in their homes after the alliance took over Kosovo in 1999, but recently Kosovo's own Protection Force has provided security.
Mitrovica was reported quiet in the hour following the French deployment.
NATO troops kill sniper | 15:40 | *******
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – NATO troops returned fire and killed a sniper in Kosovo's northern flashpoint town of Mitrovica on Thursday, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force said on Friday.
The incident occurred in the town's north, populated mainly by Serbs but which also has some Albanian inhabitants.
"A sniper in Mitrovica was shot and killed by KFOR soldiers," Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Moran told *******, adding that the sniper had opened fire from a building.
In Belgrade, Tanjug news agency, quoting Serbian sources, said the sniper killed was an Albanian.
Separately, a ******* reporter in Mitrovica said he saw an injured man brought to hospital on Friday. A local official in a Mitrovica district inhabited mainly by Muslim Slavs, or Bosniaks, said he had been hit by sniper fire shortly before.
"Sporadic sniper fire has been going on for the last two hours," said Adem Mripa, a councillor of the Bosniak Mahala (Little Bosnia) district in northern Mitrovica.
About 31 Serbs and Albanians have been killed in ethnic clashes that erupted earlier this week. The situation had seemed much calmer on Friday as NATO-led peacekeepers were bringing in reinforcements to quell the violence.
Loud blast in Mitrovica | 12:53 | *******
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – A loud blast was heard in Kosovo's northern flashpoint town of Mitrovica on Friday, a ******* reporter at the scene said.
The blast appeared to come from the mainly Serb-populated northern part of the ethnically-divided town. "It was really big," ******* reporter Shaban Buza said, adding he could not see any smoke.
About 31 Serbs and Albanians have been killed in ethnic clashes that erupted earlier this week. The situation had seemed much calmer on Friday as NATO-led peacekeepers were bringing in reinforcements to quell the violence.
Central Kosovo calmer | 17:47 -> 17:59 | B92
BELGRADE -- Friday – There have been no reports of attacks on Serbs today in the central part of Kosovo, which is under heavy protection of international peacekeepers. The Serb population has been evacuated from a number of towns, but Serbs remain in the villages of Caglavica, Gracanica and Lipljan.
The funeral of two boys drowned near Kosovska Mitrovica this week has been postponed under pressure from the US office in Pristina, amid fears that it could spark further attacks.
All Serbs have been evacuated from the village of Obilic to the KFOR base in Pristina, from where they are expected to be transferred to Gracanica.
One Obilic resident, Novica Stolic, told B92 that the four hundred Serbs could not return to Obilic because their houses have been burnt down.
“We don’t want to be transferred to Gracanica, we want to go either to Mitrovica or to Serbia proper. They are refusing this because their powerlessness and unwillingness to act under Resolution 1244 is obvious,” he said.
Finnish KFOR troops evacuated three hundred Serbs, including ninety children from the village of Rabovce last night, transferring them to the premises of the church in Donja Gusterica.
“Our houses have been set on fire, after being looted. This has mostly been done by our neighbours or Albanians from neighbouring villages. We have been moved to some kind of safe place, but we still have no food or water, no medicine, no Red Cross, no assistance,” said one of the evacuated Serbs, Slobodan Micic.
KFOR soldiers had told the Obilic residents that they could no longer guarantee their safety and gave them twenty minutes to pack their belongings.
Serbs from Lipljan are near the church of St Vavedenje under heavy KFOR protection. They have not been attacked today, but are without food.
The deputy mayor of Lipljan, Borivoje Vignjevic, said that between thirty and forty houses in Lipljan are believed to have been burnt to the ground.
“The situation has calmed down since midnight. We heard three explosions this morning at about 9.00 but everything is under control now. The people of Staro Gradsko are in their homes, the carabinieri have come to their rescue. People in Lipljan have organised themselves, but the southern part of Lipljan, which suffered the most damage, is still not secure,” he said.
In Kosovo Polje, B92 learnt that KFOR and UNMIK have the situation under control.
Local journalist Naim Breznica said that police had moved Serbs into the municipal building during yesterday.
“Minister Jakup Krasnici said that during two years of conflict between the Kosovo Liberation Army and the Serbian Army and police during 1998 and 1999, not a single brick was damaged on schools and churches. But what is happening right now with the churches isn’t being done by the same people, but from the young ones who don’t care much about the consequences,” he said.
Police patrol comes under fire | 17:10 | FoNet
NOVO BRDO -- Friday – A Kosovo Police Service patrol came under fire last night in the village of Dostane, where a bomb was also thrown at the local municipal offices, FoNet reports.
Shots were fired at the patrol, which included Serb officers, when it attempted a routine check on two vehicles passing through the village.
Dostane is populated solely by Serbs, but roads to Albanian villages lead through it and Albanian residents use the roads freely.
According to local police, neither KFOR nor UNMIK have secured the village or patrolled the roads, since the present wave of anti-Serb violence began.
Gracanica calm, but in fear of siege | 16:59 | B92
GRACANICA -- Friday – The situation in Gracanica is calm today, Rada Trajkovic, of the Serb National Council of Central Kosovo has told B92.
Trajkovic said that no Serbs are planning to flee the town, despite what she described as very difficult living conditions.
“Unfortunately, I fear that the Albanians are preparing new tactics, which are to cut food and water supply channels. We’re trying to find accommodation for everyone whose houses have been burnt and we are asking the Serbian Government to somehow send food through KFOR to the enclaves so that Serbs can survive,” she said.
Clashes in Prizren | 15:30 | Beta
PRIZREN -- Friday – German KFOR troops and large groups of ethnic Albanians have clashed near the town of Prizren.
Beta news agency reported “loud explosions” from the area.
Six orthodox churches and 26 Serb houses have been set on fire in the town over the past two days. A regional police spokesman said some 20 UN vehicles had been set ablaze outside the town’s UN headquarters.
Kosovo PM appeals for end to violence | 15:36 | B92
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi has appealed for calm, during a visit to southern Mitrovica.
“I ask you to stop all kinds of protests that could additionally aggravate the already serious situation,” said Rexhepi.
A spokesperson for the Kosovo government said political leaders and members of the Kosovo Protection Corps had joined efforts to stabilise the situation. Mimoza Kusari said members of the KPC had managed to prevent large groups of Kosovo Albanians from setting fire to the Orthodox Church in Urosevac.
“Political dialogue is the only way to a solution for the problems in Kosovo and we in the government expect an end to this violence, which can bring nothing good to anyone in Kosovo or the region,” she said.
Serbs evacuating to Serbia proper | 13:00 | Beta
MERDARE -- Friday – Serbs from Kosovo are being evacuated to Serbia proper through the border crossing in Merdare, Beta reports.
“As we were leaving the houses they were setting fire to them,” one elderly Serb man from Kosovo Polje told a Beta reporter.
Dozens of evacuees are reported to have arrived in Merdare this morning, mainly from Kosovo Polje.
Red Cross providing shelter for Serb refugees | 13:37 | B92
KURSUMLIJA -- Friday – The municipal Red Cross in Kursumlija, southern Serbia, has provided accommodation for 32 Serbs from Kosovo since last night and is expecting more to arrive.
Red Cross secretary Miki Nikolic said they had readied several school in around Merdare, on the administrative border with the province, as collective centres for refugees, which are expected in large numbers, B92’s correspondent reports.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is to provide humanitarian aid from Kraljevo in central Serbia.
NATO chief in warning to violence leaders | 15:25 | *******, BBC
BRUSSELS/PRISTINA -- Friday – Albanians in Kosovo are wrong if they believe they can use violence to get what they want, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told the BBC today.
“If Kosovo Albanians think that by orchestrating this violence, they will get what they want, then they are very wrong,” said Scheffer. “My message is that the people who are organising this violence will lose the international community’s trust.”
The NATO chief said international troops would do all they could to prevent the violence from spreading, and appealed to Serbs to show restraint.
******* quoted a western official today saying it is clear that “Albanians are trying to cleanse the Serbs and create a fait accompli before any talks.”
"Anyone with some political experience can see that,” said the official.
Tadic meets NATO regional commander | 13:05 | Beta
RASKA -- Friday – Serbia-Montenegro Defence Minister Boris Tadic met this morning with NATO’s Southeast Europe commander near the ground safety zone bordering Kosovo.
Tadic and Gregory Johnson spoke for more than an hour, following which a statement was issued saying the joint aim was to calm the situation in the province and provide security for all people, particularly Serbs and other non-Albanians.
The meeting was also attended by General Branko Krga, chief of staff of the Serbia-Montenegro armed forces.
WASHINGTON -- Friday – Federal Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic today demanded that the US acknowledge that this week’s violence in Kosovo is an orchestrated attempt at the ethnic cleansing of the province.
Meeting representatives of the US Administration in Washington today that Albanian extremists are also attempting to stop direct dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, to intimidate international community representatives and to prevent the arrest of Albanians accused of war crimes.
“But the essence is the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo,” he said.
Russia demands return of Serb troops to Kosovo | 19:00 | AP
Moscow -- Friday -- The Russian parliament today unanimously passed a resolution saying the Serbian-Montenegrin military should be allowed to help defend the Kosovo Serbs.
The resolution also condemned the failure of international organisations to stem the ethnic violence between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo.
The lower house of parliament, the Duma, said a new UN resolution on Kosovo should be passed to reaffirm the Belgrade government's sovereignty over Kosovo and that "the military units of Serbia-Montenegro should take part in defence of the Serb population of the region, of Orthodox churches and guarding borders."
"So far all measures taken by KFOR and the UN mission have in fact brought nothing but a temporary freeze of the conflict," the Duma said.
The lawmakers, who passed the resolution by a 397-0 vote, said they were also ready to offer "any necessary assistance on Russia's part, including emergency measures to evacuate Serbs from the conflict zone and humanitarian aid" if Serbs are forced to flee Kosovo.
Russia's Emergency Situations Minster Sergey Shoigu was to travel to the Balkans soon to discuss the situation in Kosovo, said the head of the Duma's international affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, Interfax news agency reported.
Russia has strong cultural ties to the Serbs, sharing the Orthodox religion and Slavic roots.
Kosovo events near ethnic cleansing: NATO | 18:24 | *******
PRISTINA -- Friday -- A senior NATO commander said today that Kosovo Albanian attacks on Serb villages this week were not far from turning into "ethnic cleansing".
Almost a thousand Serbs living in isolated villages among the majority Albanian communities in Kosovo have fled in the last three days as houses and churches were torched by Albanians despite a heavy presence of international peacekeepers.
"This kind of activity actually almost amounts to ethnic cleansing and it cannot go on," US commander of NATO forces for Southern Europe, Gregory Johnson, told reporters in Kosovo's capital Pristina.
"That's why we came here in the first place."
NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to stop attacks by Serb troops on pro-independence Albanians and has since took over control of the province together with the United Nations, though it remains legally a part of Serbia. Britain, Germany, France and Denmark sent reinforcements for NATO-led peacekeepers on Friday to quell the violence which has killed 31 people this week, both Serbs and Albanians.
Violence “aimed at expelling Serbs” | 21:05 | BBC
PRISTINA -- Friday – Noted Kosovo Albanian journalists Veton Surroi said today that the current wave of violence in Kosovo had been organised by Albanians with the aim of expelling the Serb population.
Surroi, who published Pristina daily Koha Ditore, said that the violence had entered a second phase which is obviously organised and orchestrated.
“The aim is to intimidate the Serb population and expel them from central Kosovo by destroying their homes and churches.
“There is also accumulated rage directed towards UNMIK and KFOR which would have been unthinkable before yesterday,” said Surroi.
Former guerrilla leader calls for halt to violence | 18:53 | B92
PRISTINA -- Friday – The leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Hashim Thaqi, has called on Kosovars to stop protests and violence, appealing to them not to forget the help they have received from NATO.
Thaqi, the former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, was speaking after a meeting with UN governor Harri Holkeri and NATO commander for South-East Europe Gregory Johnson.
Pristina daily Zeri writes today that Thaqi cut short a visit to the US after the wave of violence broke out in the province on Wednesday.
“Kosovo, NATO and the West have not fought for Kosovo only for Albanians, nor for a Kosovo ruled by violence,” said Thaqi. “Violence is not the way to solve problems, violence only creates problems,” he added.
However, said the former guerrilla leader, neither NATO nor UNMIK were in favour with the idea of partitioning Kosovo along ethnic lines as proposed by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.
“None of us agrees with the functioning of parallel Serbian structures and none of agrees with the proposals for cantonisation of Kosovo, but nor do we agree with having violence in Kosovo,” said Thaqi.
Noting that the West had given strong support to Kosovo Albanians during the war in the province and later during the return of Kosovar refugees to their homes, Thaqi called on Kosovo Albanians not to forget that the province is free today thanks to the sacrifice of its people and the West.
UN translators evacuated | 18:44 | B92
MERDARE -- Friday – Translators from Serbia employed by international administrators in Kosovo have been escorted by KFOR to the Serbian border at Merdare.
About thirty translators were evacuated from Pristina at 2.00 p.m. today.
UNMIK advisor Novica Radosavljevic told journalists that all Serbs working in the temporary Kosovo institutions have left their posts but have still not been evacuated because UNMIK and KFOR are unable to offer them safe transfer from Podujevo to Merdare.
Mitrovica police station closes | 20:20 | B92
PRISTINA -- Friday – The police station in southern Kosovska Mitrovica was closed late this afternoon, with UNMIK and Kosovo police being evacuated to a KFOR base.
UNMIK spokesman Derek Chappell declined to confirm that a state of emergency had been introduced to Mitrovica, saying only that KFOR was patrolling the streets of the town.
A spokesman for KFOR, Piper Horst, told B92 that the commander of the multinational North-East Brigade in Northern Mitrovica had been given a free hand to decide on the level of force required to contain violence in the town.
He added that the Kosovo Protection Corps would not be included in peacekeeping operations because it is strictly a civilian organisation.
Chappell denied reports that members of UNMIK and its police force had died in the violent clashes in Kosovo in the past two days.
“No members of the UNMIK police force have lost their lives, although we have hundreds of injured,” he told journalists in Pristina.
UNMIK press representatives Izabella Karlowicz told the same press conference that the civilian mission in the province that the UN mission is coordinating a team from international agencies to supply food and other essentials to people in isolated enclaves and refugee camps.
NATO uses explosives to enter Mitrovica apartment | 13:55 | SRNA
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – NATO troops have used explosives to break down the door to an Albanian apartment in southern Kosovska Mitrovica, SRNA news agency reports.
The explosion caused in the apartment and several Albanians were injured.
SRNA reports that strong gunfire has come from the apartment block in the past two days.
NATO troops raid Albanian apartments in Mitrovica | 11:09 | *******
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – About 300 French troops and gendarmes of NATO's Kosovo peacekeeping force raided Albanian apartment blocks in the flashpoint city of Mitrovica on Friday after apparently coming under fire from the location.
A ******* cameraman said about 15 French armoured personnel carriers blocked the bridge over the river that divides Serb and Albanian communities. Heavily armed troops began raiding three buildings and setting up rooftop gun positions.
There had been sporadic gunfire from the area around midnight, he said, and NATO soldiers were firing back at an unseen target. A helicopter was seen evacuated an injured man.
But local reports that a Danish member of the KFOR peacekeeping force had been killed were denied in Copenhagen.
The three 11-storey apartment towers sit just across the Ibar River, protected by concrete blocks, barbed wire and tank traps and accessible from the Albanian south bank by a pontoon bridge but not from surrounding Serb districts.
Albanian residents of the high-rises were initially given NATO protection to remain in their homes after the alliance took over Kosovo in 1999, but recently Kosovo's own Protection Force has provided security.
Mitrovica was reported quiet in the hour following the French deployment.
NATO troops kill sniper | 15:40 | *******
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – NATO troops returned fire and killed a sniper in Kosovo's northern flashpoint town of Mitrovica on Thursday, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force said on Friday.
The incident occurred in the town's north, populated mainly by Serbs but which also has some Albanian inhabitants.
"A sniper in Mitrovica was shot and killed by KFOR soldiers," Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Moran told *******, adding that the sniper had opened fire from a building.
In Belgrade, Tanjug news agency, quoting Serbian sources, said the sniper killed was an Albanian.
Separately, a ******* reporter in Mitrovica said he saw an injured man brought to hospital on Friday. A local official in a Mitrovica district inhabited mainly by Muslim Slavs, or Bosniaks, said he had been hit by sniper fire shortly before.
"Sporadic sniper fire has been going on for the last two hours," said Adem Mripa, a councillor of the Bosniak Mahala (Little Bosnia) district in northern Mitrovica.
About 31 Serbs and Albanians have been killed in ethnic clashes that erupted earlier this week. The situation had seemed much calmer on Friday as NATO-led peacekeepers were bringing in reinforcements to quell the violence.
Loud blast in Mitrovica | 12:53 | *******
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – A loud blast was heard in Kosovo's northern flashpoint town of Mitrovica on Friday, a ******* reporter at the scene said.
The blast appeared to come from the mainly Serb-populated northern part of the ethnically-divided town. "It was really big," ******* reporter Shaban Buza said, adding he could not see any smoke.
About 31 Serbs and Albanians have been killed in ethnic clashes that erupted earlier this week. The situation had seemed much calmer on Friday as NATO-led peacekeepers were bringing in reinforcements to quell the violence.
Central Kosovo calmer | 17:47 -> 17:59 | B92
BELGRADE -- Friday – There have been no reports of attacks on Serbs today in the central part of Kosovo, which is under heavy protection of international peacekeepers. The Serb population has been evacuated from a number of towns, but Serbs remain in the villages of Caglavica, Gracanica and Lipljan.
The funeral of two boys drowned near Kosovska Mitrovica this week has been postponed under pressure from the US office in Pristina, amid fears that it could spark further attacks.
All Serbs have been evacuated from the village of Obilic to the KFOR base in Pristina, from where they are expected to be transferred to Gracanica.
One Obilic resident, Novica Stolic, told B92 that the four hundred Serbs could not return to Obilic because their houses have been burnt down.
“We don’t want to be transferred to Gracanica, we want to go either to Mitrovica or to Serbia proper. They are refusing this because their powerlessness and unwillingness to act under Resolution 1244 is obvious,” he said.
Finnish KFOR troops evacuated three hundred Serbs, including ninety children from the village of Rabovce last night, transferring them to the premises of the church in Donja Gusterica.
“Our houses have been set on fire, after being looted. This has mostly been done by our neighbours or Albanians from neighbouring villages. We have been moved to some kind of safe place, but we still have no food or water, no medicine, no Red Cross, no assistance,” said one of the evacuated Serbs, Slobodan Micic.
KFOR soldiers had told the Obilic residents that they could no longer guarantee their safety and gave them twenty minutes to pack their belongings.
Serbs from Lipljan are near the church of St Vavedenje under heavy KFOR protection. They have not been attacked today, but are without food.
The deputy mayor of Lipljan, Borivoje Vignjevic, said that between thirty and forty houses in Lipljan are believed to have been burnt to the ground.
“The situation has calmed down since midnight. We heard three explosions this morning at about 9.00 but everything is under control now. The people of Staro Gradsko are in their homes, the carabinieri have come to their rescue. People in Lipljan have organised themselves, but the southern part of Lipljan, which suffered the most damage, is still not secure,” he said.
In Kosovo Polje, B92 learnt that KFOR and UNMIK have the situation under control.
Local journalist Naim Breznica said that police had moved Serbs into the municipal building during yesterday.
“Minister Jakup Krasnici said that during two years of conflict between the Kosovo Liberation Army and the Serbian Army and police during 1998 and 1999, not a single brick was damaged on schools and churches. But what is happening right now with the churches isn’t being done by the same people, but from the young ones who don’t care much about the consequences,” he said.
Police patrol comes under fire | 17:10 | FoNet
NOVO BRDO -- Friday – A Kosovo Police Service patrol came under fire last night in the village of Dostane, where a bomb was also thrown at the local municipal offices, FoNet reports.
Shots were fired at the patrol, which included Serb officers, when it attempted a routine check on two vehicles passing through the village.
Dostane is populated solely by Serbs, but roads to Albanian villages lead through it and Albanian residents use the roads freely.
According to local police, neither KFOR nor UNMIK have secured the village or patrolled the roads, since the present wave of anti-Serb violence began.
Gracanica calm, but in fear of siege | 16:59 | B92
GRACANICA -- Friday – The situation in Gracanica is calm today, Rada Trajkovic, of the Serb National Council of Central Kosovo has told B92.
Trajkovic said that no Serbs are planning to flee the town, despite what she described as very difficult living conditions.
“Unfortunately, I fear that the Albanians are preparing new tactics, which are to cut food and water supply channels. We’re trying to find accommodation for everyone whose houses have been burnt and we are asking the Serbian Government to somehow send food through KFOR to the enclaves so that Serbs can survive,” she said.
Clashes in Prizren | 15:30 | Beta
PRIZREN -- Friday – German KFOR troops and large groups of ethnic Albanians have clashed near the town of Prizren.
Beta news agency reported “loud explosions” from the area.
Six orthodox churches and 26 Serb houses have been set on fire in the town over the past two days. A regional police spokesman said some 20 UN vehicles had been set ablaze outside the town’s UN headquarters.
Kosovo PM appeals for end to violence | 15:36 | B92
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi has appealed for calm, during a visit to southern Mitrovica.
“I ask you to stop all kinds of protests that could additionally aggravate the already serious situation,” said Rexhepi.
A spokesperson for the Kosovo government said political leaders and members of the Kosovo Protection Corps had joined efforts to stabilise the situation. Mimoza Kusari said members of the KPC had managed to prevent large groups of Kosovo Albanians from setting fire to the Orthodox Church in Urosevac.
“Political dialogue is the only way to a solution for the problems in Kosovo and we in the government expect an end to this violence, which can bring nothing good to anyone in Kosovo or the region,” she said.
Serbs evacuating to Serbia proper | 13:00 | Beta
MERDARE -- Friday – Serbs from Kosovo are being evacuated to Serbia proper through the border crossing in Merdare, Beta reports.
“As we were leaving the houses they were setting fire to them,” one elderly Serb man from Kosovo Polje told a Beta reporter.
Dozens of evacuees are reported to have arrived in Merdare this morning, mainly from Kosovo Polje.
Red Cross providing shelter for Serb refugees | 13:37 | B92
KURSUMLIJA -- Friday – The municipal Red Cross in Kursumlija, southern Serbia, has provided accommodation for 32 Serbs from Kosovo since last night and is expecting more to arrive.
Red Cross secretary Miki Nikolic said they had readied several school in around Merdare, on the administrative border with the province, as collective centres for refugees, which are expected in large numbers, B92’s correspondent reports.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is to provide humanitarian aid from Kraljevo in central Serbia.
NATO chief in warning to violence leaders | 15:25 | *******, BBC
BRUSSELS/PRISTINA -- Friday – Albanians in Kosovo are wrong if they believe they can use violence to get what they want, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told the BBC today.
“If Kosovo Albanians think that by orchestrating this violence, they will get what they want, then they are very wrong,” said Scheffer. “My message is that the people who are organising this violence will lose the international community’s trust.”
The NATO chief said international troops would do all they could to prevent the violence from spreading, and appealed to Serbs to show restraint.
******* quoted a western official today saying it is clear that “Albanians are trying to cleanse the Serbs and create a fait accompli before any talks.”
"Anyone with some political experience can see that,” said the official.
Tadic meets NATO regional commander | 13:05 | Beta
RASKA -- Friday – Serbia-Montenegro Defence Minister Boris Tadic met this morning with NATO’s Southeast Europe commander near the ground safety zone bordering Kosovo.
Tadic and Gregory Johnson spoke for more than an hour, following which a statement was issued saying the joint aim was to calm the situation in the province and provide security for all people, particularly Serbs and other non-Albanians.
The meeting was also attended by General Branko Krga, chief of staff of the Serbia-Montenegro armed forces.