US Accused of Siding With 'Criminals and Jihadists' in Kosovo

CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE (USA), July 21, 2006 By Nathan Burchfiel

(CNSNews.com) - A prominent Serbian Orthodox bishop Thursday said the U.S. was allowing Islamic extremists to wage war on Christians in Kosovo by deciding not to oppose Kosovo's independence.

Kosovo is an autonomous province in Serbia with a population of about 2 million, most who are ethnic Albanian and Muslim. It is currently administered by the United Nations Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), but negotiations which began this year are expected to eventually result in independence for the province.

However, Dr. Artemije Radosavljevic on Thursday issued a warning about the prospect of and independent Kosovo.

"At a time when America is leading the free world in a global struggle against jihad terror, Kosovo-Metohija must not continue to be an exception, where for reasons we do not understand, American officials have taken the side of the criminals and jihadists," Artemije said during a news conference in Washington, D.C.

Artemije, the bishop of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija, has traveled to the United States on several occasions to meet with government officials and urge them to oppose independence for Kosovo.

He told reporters that the region has become a "black hole of corruption and crime" since it became a protectorate of the United Nations in 1999, following NATO bombings that were intended to encourage then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosovic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.

Since 1999, the Kosovar Albanians have targeted Serbian Orthodox Christians, according to Artemije, allegedly burning down more than 150 churches, driving more than 220,000 Christians from the region and killing thousands more.

Granting Kosovo independence from Serbia would make Serbian Christians more vulnerable to violence from the region's Muslim majority.

"Detaching Kosovo from democratic Serbia," Artemije said, "would mean a virtual sentence of extinction for my people in the province and create a rogue state in which the terrorists are the government."

He added that there have been thousands of Christians captured and killed by Muslim extremists, including numerous videotaped beheadings. "Why are jihad beheadings an outrage in the rest of the world, but not when they're happening in Kosovo to Christian Serbs?" Artemije asked.

Artemije said he has had several meetings with Bush administration officials and members of Congress during his current visit, but a spokesman declined to name the individuals with whom the bishop met. Artemije told reporters that his current trip to the U.S. has been more successful than the one he took in February of this year.

"There certainly has been movement forward judging by the number of meetings, the quality of meetings, the atmosphere in which the talks where held and the obvious presence of a desire to help," he said.

In an October 2005 report titled: "Why Independence for Kosovo?" prepared by Muhamedin Kullashi and Besnik Pula - intellectuals from the city of Prishtina -- they argued that independence is the "only historically justified and politically viable solution that will guarantee peace, stability and development in the Balkans."

"Placing sovereignty in Prishtina's hands will finally enable Kosovo's integration into regional, European and global institutions, and allow its emergence from the institutional, political and diplomatic isolation imposed by the international administration of UNMIK, as a result of the unresolved status," they wrote.

Muhamedin and Besnik also claimed that "the key generator of conflict in Kosovo was Serbia's aggressive and repressive policy against the local Albanian population, and not any hatred or lack of trust between ethnic communities."

"With its aggression and campaign of ethnic cleansing in 1999, Serbia lost any legitimacy to rule over Kosovo in any shape or form," they wrote.

U.S. State Department spokesman Terry Davidson told Cybercast News Service that the United States has "not said explicitly that we're for independence or against independence. It just has to be something that takes the various interests into account and protects the minority populations as well."

He said further information could be found in the remarks that Ambassador Frank Wisner, the U.S. representative to the Kosovo Status Talks, made during interviews with Voice of America radio on June 23.

"The issue today is to put in place the structure of a Kosovo that will be stable," Wisner said last month, one that "will provide the basis of a functioning society that can evolve into a full partner in a greater European and Western community."

Wisner told Voice of America that, "Whatever the future will be in terms of final status -- whether Kosovo will be independent or something else -- Kosovo Serbs are going to need protections that will guarantee them their full rights."

He also declined to offer an opinion on whether Kosovo should be granted independence from Serbia, but said the region's final status would be addressed "during 2006."

Vittrup: Kosovo mafia is threatening me with death

Radio Television Serbia, Belgrade, Friday, July 21, 2006 13:49

The head of the international police in Kosovo, Kai Vittrup, confirmed in an interview for Danish television's channel one that the Kosovo Albanian mafia is threatening him with death and that as a result his security has been reinforced. "One gets used to threats and if I was afraid of them, I would not still be in Kosovo. A threat against me represents a general threat to UN staff, and we are conducting an investigation and undertaking increased security measures as a result," he said.

"My wife has left Kosovo and we made the decision together. No threat can be allowed to lead to a situation where the police chief leaves Kosovo," added Vittrup.

The UNMIK police chief pointed out that the types of crime in Kosovo are diverse - from classic forms such as looting and disregard for the law, including murder, to organized smuggling of drugs and arms. "What we have is a mafia run by families according to the clan system. It's a very closed system that's difficult to reveal but there has been progress," said Vittrup.

Lead roof stolen from St. George Runovic Church in Prizren

KiM Info Newsletter 20-07-06

DESECRATION OF SERBIAN ORTHODOX HOLY SHRINES CONTINUES

KIM Info Service, 20 July 2006

Unknown persons have stolen the lead roof during the course of the past month from the church of St. George Runovic (sv. Georgija Runovica), which is located immediately next to the torched Orthodox cathedral of St. George the Great-martyr in central Prizren. The damage to the church was observed by the chairwoman of the Commission for Church Restoration, Emma Carmichael from the Council of Europe, who visited Prizren with the head of the British mission in Pristina, Mr. David Blunt. After establishing that the desecration of Serbian Orthodox holy shrines in Prizren is continuing, Mr. Blunt immediately went to see Prizren municipal head Mr. Eqrem Kryeziu to demand that the municipality prevent further acts of destruction and protect the valuable cultural heritage for which this city is known.

St. George's Church (the endowment of Runovic) was built in the 15th century and was known for its valuable and well-preserved frescoes. During the course of the March 2004 pogrom Albanian rioters set fire to the church, irreparably damaging the valuable frescoes, forced open the tomb of Archbishop Mihajlo and damaged the building itself. On that occasion a swastika was drawn in red paint above the entrance door (see below), which was removed the very next day by members of German KFOR.

During the period between autumn 2004 and spring 2005 perpetrators removed the entire lead roof from the church, which survived the March violence. During the course of autumn 2005 the Committee for the Renewal of Serbian Orthodox Holy Shrines damaged in the March pogrom installed a new lead roof, and cleaned the facade and interior of the church so that in the course of this year and next year further work could be attempted on the conservation and cleaning of the seriously damaged frescoes. The most recent attacks on the church have once again proved that not even rebuilt churches are protected, and that the Kosovo provisional authorities are not able to provide adequate protection for these sites. After the theft of the room from Bogorodica Ljeviska (Most Holy Theotokos/Holy Virgin of Ljevis) Cathedral, the repeated desecration of Holy Apostle Andrew Church in Podujevo, and the theft of the crosses from the domes of Most Holy Theotokos Church in Obilic, this is yet another example that demonstrates that despite rhetorical promises by Kosovo officials attacks on the sites of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Province continue to occur.

Bishop Teodosije, the representative of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Committee for Restoration, has most strongly condemned this most recent act of destruction and once again requested from representatives of UNMIK and KFOR that they find ways of protecting the surviving Serbian Orthodox holy shrines in Kosovo and Metohija. "It is incomprehensible that our churches are being left without any protection whatsoever even though it is known that they have been repeatedly targeted by attacks," said Bishop Teodosije.

According to information obtained by the Commission for the Restoration of Serbian Orthodox Holy Shrines, the removal of tin from the roofs of older buildings is becoming a frequent occurrence. Recently it was observed that a part of the tin roof had also been removed from the Turkish bath (Hammam) in the very center of town. Municipal authorities claim that they cannot provide full security for all sites.

RUNOVIC'S CHURCH IN PRIZREN

The church dedicated to St. George is also known as "Runovic's Church" by the family name of its patron and founder. Since it endured significant rebuilding several times during the course of its history, its exterior does not give us enough information to establish a precise date. It is assumed that it was build during the period between the 14th and 16th centuries. St. George Church is a single nave building covered by a half-circular dome with one apse on the east side. Its paintings originate in the second half of the 16th century. The iconostasis was painted by Petar Filipovic from Gara in 1829. The frescoes and icons were restored and conserved in 1995. After the arrival of KFOR the church served as a warehouse for firewood and barbed wire.

Whiffs of mystery, visions of glory

FINANCIAL TIMES, 15 July 2006 By Eric Jansson

"Just be quiet for a moment. Try to smell it," whispers Milan, a black-robed novice at the monastery church of Jesus Christ the Pantocrator in Decani, western Kosovo. So I close my eyes and inhale.

The eyes of a thousand painted saints watch us as we stand silently in the central nave. White light pours in through a high window, then glows blue as it bounces off the 14th-century church's richly frescoed arches and walls. Directly above, the intense face of the Panto­crator - the omniscient Christ - stares down from the interior of the great dome.

"Now do you smell it?" Milan asks. The sweet odour of the wax candles burning behind us mingles with what must be the scent of myrrh. "Yes, that's the smell of incense left over from this morning's service," I reply.

"No. It is almost exactly like incense but it isn't that," he says. "I have learnt to tell the very slight difference between the smell of incense and the smell of the king."

Every Thursday the monks raise the body, clad in crimson and gold and lain in an ornamental sarcophagus, and venerate it. Since the death of King Stefan Decanski in 1331, his majesty's complexion has darkened somewhat and the royal hands have thinned. Even Milan, faithfully in awe, admits that the old monarch looks "like he has lost some water". But the "miracle" of the saintly monarch's uncorrupted body, housed in Decani's magnificent, Unesco-listed monastery church, still powerfully fuels the faith of the monastery's Serbian Orthodox believers.

"God has kept his body from decay to show us that saintliness and holiness are possible, to show us that the kingdom of heaven is here," the novice says.

The emanation of the scent of myrrh from the king's body is one of many enduring medieval marvels in Kosovo that strike the modern heart and mind like unwelcome lightning - flashbacks from a rejected age of faith. Do they illuminate, or do they blind? They certainly disarm and dazzle the visitor, just as the holy places in Serbia's breakaway province have always done, by defying the spiritual pretensions of the outside world and demanding an answer.

One could stomp out through the monastery gate, cursing, and drive away, calling it all a hoax. But standing toe to toe in that glorious nave with gentle Milan, the mere thought of such a reaction seems flagrantly presumptuous, wildly proud.

He asks me if I believe in the uncorrupted body of the saint. Pressure. Either it is a hoax or it is real. Either the shaggy-bearded brothers working quietly in the monastery yard outside the church's walls are liars or they are deluded or they are guardians of a genuine holy relic. I am tempted to cop out. Relativist instincts whirr into motion and suggest a noncommittal reply: "Why shouldn't we believe it when the universe is full of so many wonders?"

But discipline kicks in. A leap of faith is a truer option. "Yes, I do believe it," I say, looking Milan straight in the eyes. He looks back with a mild, sceptical grin.

Now am I the liar? It is something to ponder as I walk out of the monastery grounds, past the group of Italian soldiers stationed at the whitewashed stone gate.

I drive past the tank traps and barbed wire that protect Decani against the Albanian militants who would see it burnt down. I go back out into the anguished secular landscape of this pretty land of fertile fields, grand mountain ranges and exotic fables.

The Orthodox monasteries of Kosovo are diamonds scattered in this moral scrapyard. They count among the places, so rare in the present age, where one's agnosticism and relativism seem to blow away. These places demand focus and reckoning.

If for some visitors the uncorrupted body of Stefan Decanski fails to force the big issue of personal faith, then the constant state of danger in which the monks live inevitably does. These havens of prayer and joy have become the most threatened places in Kosovo since the 1998-1999 war.

On any ordinary day, profound peace prevails in the cloisters. Order becomes beauty as life moves to the rhythm of bells and the low tone of the semantron, a wooden board that strikes the call to prayer. The patterns, colours and shapes of Byzantine, Romanesque and Balkan aesthetics fuse seamlessly in ancient buildings and immaculate gardens amid the muffled clamour of labour from the workshops.

The sheer pleasantness of the scene causes some visitors to doubt that these communities live in genuine danger. But no one can dispute the reality of the routine attacks against Orthodox religious communities in Kosovo, none worse than the 2004 pogrom in which more than 30 churches were destroyed and Decani came under mortar attack.

The diamond metaphor comes to mind again, for the gems are formed under massive pressure. So is the kind of peace that prevails here. The monks and nuns speak no ill word of the ethnic Albanians outside their cloister walls and some even dare to muse, in unreason­ably good humour, that someday the monasteries in Kosovo may all be overrun by militants. "Temples fall. It happens. What matters is that we preserve the community of prayer," a monk says.

So fearless and infectious is this disposition - tempered by what the monastics call harmolipi, "joyful mourning" - that the modern western traveller who ventures here risks departing as a pilgrim, even if he has arrived as a tourist.

I drive onward to the famous monastery at Gracanica, two hours from Decani. The road crumbles into a wilderness of potholes as I cross into the small Serb enclave where the 14th-century monastery stands. The location means security is a smaller problem. A lone Swedish soldier at the modest gate, a member of the same Nato force to which Decani's Italian guards are attached, dreams away the hours with a rifle cradled in his arms.

Admirers call Gracanica "the queen of Kosovo churches". Standing in the middle of her broad yard, she appears regal but petite. Yet beneath her multitude of little domes is a vast blue and gold universe of iconography in which to wander.

Beneath an image of the Hebrew prophet Elijah, fed by ravens in the desert, I am greeted by a nun. Sara approaches me, clad in black from head to toe, bubbling with enthusiasm and keen to chat in whatever combination of Serbian, English and French suits me best.

"What's in the golden box next to the altar?" I ask.

"The relics!" she exclaims. "One of them is a bone from the body of St George. You know it is the saint because it still smells beautiful!"

Surprised, I ask: "St George, the famous one? The dragonslayer?"

"Yes," she says. "Come on St George's Day. You can see it for yourself."

Bishop Artemije: My country's answer to all forms of pressure will be "No"

Radio Television Serbia, Belgrade, Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:15

My country's answer to your request that we renounce Kosovo will be - no, regardless of pressures from Washington or from London or from Brussels. All our parties will say: The hand that will sign the surrender of Kosovo does not exist, said Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren in Washington.

He asked his hosts, before whom he testified regarding the situation in the Serbian province under the UN protectorate, to ask their government to again reconsider its policies, "which are bad for both Serbia and for America". The Bishop of Raska and Prizren, who is heading a delegation which arrived in Washington a few days ago, testified upon the invitation of the World Heritage Foundation before some 50 representatives of non-governmental organizations and members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

According to the Diocese of Raska and Prizren's press office, the Bishop noted that he had come to seek help in the effort for a change in US policy which, if it remains unchanged, will condemn his "people to extinction and create another country of evil - in the middle of Europe".

The Serbian bishop said that under the eyes of the UN and NATO Kosovo has become a black hole of corruption and organized crime, including trafficking in drugs, arms and white slaves. He reminded that the day after the arrival of international forces 220,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians were forced to leave Kosovo and Metohija, that more than 1,000 Serbs have been killed and more than 150 churches and monasteries, many of them dating back to the Middle Ages, destroyed.

"With each passing day Kosovo and Metohija are losing more and more of the physiognomy of a Christian land with many churches and monasteries, and increasingly coming to resemble a Muslim country overflowing with mosques. This transformation is the direct result of the violence that has been committed, and threats that violence will occur. In the meanwhile, hundreds of Wahhabi mosques have been built and are still being built, mostly with funding from Saudi Arabia and the countries of the Persian Gulf. And now, implementing the policies inherited from the previous administration, some officials of the American are asking for, and increasingly demanding, that my country, Serbia, turns over a part of its territory to this extremist Islamicist movement," said the Bishop. "The separation of Kosovo and Metohija, an integral part of democratic Serbia, from its motherland, would mean condemning my people to extinction in that part of the land, and the creation of a country of evil, whose government will be in the hands of terrorists," he added.

"I cannot understand why official representatives of America desire this. Perhaps they think that by doing so they will leave a good impression on the Islamic countries," said the Bishop.

He warned that this is not just a Serbian problem but also an American one and that recently an accused war criminal, Agim Ceku, who is now the head of the [Kosovo] Albanian administration, was received in the White House by the State Department with high honors. Bishop Artemije pointed out that Kosovo should not be an exception to the American global battle against jihad terror. "By sacrificing our country and our blood, you cannot protect yourselves from jihad."

"It is a fact that my country's answer to your request that we renounce Kosovo will be - no, regardless of pressures from Washington or from London or from Brussels. All our parties will say: The hand that will sign the surrender of Kosovo does not exist, emphasized Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren.

No progress made in Kosovo-Metohija decentralisation talks

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

Source: Government of Serbia
Date: 19 Jul 2006

Belgrade, July 19, 2006 - Decentralisation talks between Belgrade and Pristina ended with no agreement, as in the previous seven rounds. The two delegations did not manage to make an agreement even concerning criteria or the number of new municipalities with the Serb majority.

Decentralisation expert at the UN office Bernard Schlagek, who presided over the meeting, told a press conference that talks were guided in a different way this time and explained that international mediators talked separately with delegations of Belgrade and Pristina, after which a plenary session was held.

He said that this meeting showed that there are misunderstandings in many areas, but that it helped identify those misunderstandings.

The UN official announced that the two sides agreed to hold the next meeting on decentralisation talks on July 24, when top officials will meet.

Advisor to Serbian President Leon Kojen said that this new form of talks is more useful than the previous one as it allows better and a clearer exchange of stands between the two sides.

According to him, the main issue was not the number of new municipalities, but their territory and size, especially when Kosovska Mitrovica is concerned.

Advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister Slobodan Samardzic said that Belgrade seeks 12 municipalities and that Pristina's offer of five municipalities is insufficient.

According to them, seven municipalities are not negotiable as they meet all criteria, whereas the remaining five can be negotiated.

Blind Eyes over Kosovo

AMERICAN SPECTATOR (USA), 7/20/2006 12:07:14 AM By Doug Bandow

PRIZREN, Kosovo -- Being a monk is never easy. But Brother Benedict, a friendly 29-year-old with the ever-present beard that characterizes Orthodox Christian clerics, cheerfully welcomed three foreign visitors to his humble abode.

The original Monastery of the Holy Archangels was destroyed in the 16th Century by the invading Turks. Four centuries later the Orthodox Church constructed a small church, residence, and workshop among the ancient ruins. Two years ago a mob of 600 descended from Prizren, just 1.5 miles away, burning down the buildings and destroying anything that remained. Earlier they wrecked churches, the presiding bishop's residence, a seminary, and private Serbian homes in town.

Although the monastery was nominally guarded by German soldiers serving in the international Kosovo Force (KFOR), most of them packed up when the crowd began crossing the shallow creek separating the monastery from the road. They took the monks along but left the buildings and contents unprotected; a few remaining soldiers played tourists, photographing the monastery's destruction. This shocking behavior was the norm on a day of violence around Kosovo. Complained Rachel Denber of Human Rights Watch: "In too many cases, NATO peacekeepers locked the gates to their bases, and watched as Serb homes burned."

Since then the Church has built a small two-story building on the site of the workshop, where Brother Benedict and five other monks worship, eat, and sleep. The site is now surrounded by barbed wire, though Brother Benedict has little confidence in his supposed protectors. After the monastery's destruction the German commander downplayed a mob attack on one of his units as it guarded a German TV crew. After the monks publicized the incident, their "protectors" left them isolated for two weeks. Even now the KFOR soldiers refuse to escort the monks to buy food in Prizren, suggesting instead that they turn to the Kosovo Police Service -- which includes many former Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas. Instead, the monks drive substantially further to the nearest Serbian community for supplies.

Unfortunately, any Serb who travels outside of few remaining enclaves does so at his own risk. At the quasi-border dividing Serbia from Kosovo (which nominally remains part of Serbia), drivers routinely replace their Serbian license plates with ones marked Kosovo to disguise their identities. To do otherwise would risk not only their cars but their lives.

Even foreigners are at risk. Some British tourists recently were roughed up and their car was destroyed because the vehicle had been rented in Belgrade. Had they been Serbian their lives probably would have been forfeited. More than 900 Serbs have been murdered since the allies took control and ethnic killings continue in the territory. But you will look long and hard to find an ethnic Albanian jailed for committing the crimes.

HIGHLIGHTING THE PLIGHT OF THE MONKS at the monastery, as well as other Christians in Kosovo, is a delegation led by Bishop Artemije (Radosavljevic) of Raska and Prizren, which is visiting the U.S. this week at the invitation of the Religious Freedom Coalition. The visitors are hoping to slow the apparent administration rush to grant independence to Kosovo.

Kosovo is an unpleasant bit of unfinished business that the West would prefer to forget. A fair and sensible resolution is well nigh impossible, especially since the behavior of Washington and NATO has been truly disgraceful. Far from creating a tolerant democracy, the allies have presided over one of the largest episodes of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. And if the U.S. continues on its present course, virtually everyone expects the ethnic majority to complete the job in just a few more years, if that long.

Like most of the Balkans, the problem of Kosovo goes back centuries. Serbian identity is rooted in both Kosovo's military history, particularly the 1389 defeat by the Turks in the Battle of the Blackbirds, and spiritual significance, represented by ancient churches and monasteries.

Over the years history was unkind to the Balkans, torn by conflict as the Ottoman Empire declined and in both World Wars, and then mostly dominated by communist regimes until the end of the Cold War. During the 1980s the territory (in Yugoslavia) enjoyed substantial self-rule and resulted in ethnic Albanian mistreatment of Serbs (behavior covered in the New York Times, among other publications). Roughly two decades ago Slobodan Milosevic launched his grab for power with a speech in Kosovo that played upon Serb nationalism. Then it was Albanians who suffered, leading to an increasingly bitter guerrilla war and NATO military intervention in March 1999.

The 78-day air war never made sense. Over the years most European states had mirrored Yugoslavia in fighting to suppress secessionist movements.

Although the conflict was ugly, it was nothing compared to the simultaneous humanitarian disaster in Sierra Leone, which killed a quarter of a million people but was ignored in the U.S. and Europe. Moreover, it was NATO intervention that sparked the worst Serbian crackdown and the mass Albanian exodus.

In any case, Western officials, starting with American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, developed policy in a dream world. They thought that a couple days of bombing would bring Belgrade to heel, completely missing the nationalism that animated most Serbs, even democrats and human rights advocates. Worst, the allies believed that they would be able to concoct a multi-ethnic Kosovo in which Albanians and Serbs would join hands singing Kumbaya around communal campfires. In fact, having used their American-supplied air force to eject the Serb military units, the victorious ethnic Albanians saw no need to compromise.

After the war -- under the occupation of the West -- the Albanian community kicked out a quarter million Serbs, Roma, Jews, and non-Albanian Muslims. Over the next five years isolated Serbs were killed, beaten, and kidnapped. Even Serbian enclaves were vulnerable to drive-by shootings.

Although Serbs disappeared from much of Kosovo -- roughly 40,000 in the capital of Pristina turned into about 120 mostly terrified elderly residents today -- around 100,000 remain, with many concentrated in the north, around the town of Mitrovica. In March 2004 a series of coordinated riots and assaults broke out, killing 19 people, injuring about 1,000 more, displacing 4,000 Serbs, destroying 36 churches and monasteries, torching numerous homes and farms, and despoiling cemeteries. (All told, about 150 churches, monasteries, and seminaries have been destroyed since 1999. "They destroy them, we rebuild them," commented one determined Church member.) With good reason many Serbs called the March violence Kristallnacht, after the infamous Nazi assault on Jews the presaged the eventual attempt to exterminate the entire people.

Human Rights Watch's Rachel Denber observed that "This was the biggest security test for NATO and the United Nations in Kosovo since 1999, when minorities were forced from their homes as the international community looked on. But they failed the test." The events two years ago resulted in much hand wringing, but little else. No one was prosecuted and jailed for their crimes. Today many Serb refugees remain in small camps, unemployed and living in containers turned into homes.

The Albanian political leadership includes guerrilla leaders almost certainly guilty of atrocities. No one denies the explosion of organized crime, including sex trafficking, in Kosovo, which has been called the "black hole" of Europe. Radical Islam, too, may be on the rise -- more than 200 mosques have been built since 1999, and some unashamedly fly the Saudi Arabian flag. "Sex, crime, terrorism, it's all there," opines one U.S. diplomat stationed in Belgrade.

AS A POLITICAL ENTITY, KOSOVO is less ready for independence today, based on its commitment to a multi-ethnic republic with human rights guarantees, than when it was "liberated" in 1999. Warns Joseph Griebowski of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, "the present record of rule of law, protection of the rights of religious and ethnic minorities, and the return/resettlement of internally displaced people by the Provisional Authority of Kosovo -- all of which are indispensable for democratic governance -- have been gravely unsatisfactory."

So what to do? Final (or future) status negotiations have begun under the tutelage of UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, and it is obvious that officials in the West would like to take credit for their "success" in Kosovo, run a victory lap, and go home. The U.S. and Europeans have been pressuring the Serbs to voluntarily yield Kosovo and collect EU membership as their reward. Tod Lindberg of Policy Review reflects the conventional wisdom when he argues that "Serbia needs to decide whether its future is Western integration or instead a return to dead-end nationalist politics." Some Europeans have spoken of finding a win/win, or at least win/no lose, solution.

However, it doesn't exist. Roughly two million ethnic Albanians now live in Kosovo -- it's hard to know how many for sure, since the local authorities have no incentive to prevent a large in-migration, further strengthening their hold over the land. Understandably, none of them want to live under Serbia.

But Serbs, no less than Americans and Europeans, want to amputate historic lands from their country. On his visit last week Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica indicated that independence was not an option, instead offering "the greatest possible autonomy." Belgrade may not be able to prevent the allies from dismembering a sovereign nation, but it will not acquiesce in the act.

Moreover, no sane Serb (or Roma) in Kosovo wants to live under Albanian rule. Indeed, the Serbs who now dominate Mitrovica, north of the Irba River and close to the rest of Serbia, probably would forcibly resist Albanian rule. Even the Crisis Group, which remains dedicated to the mythical ideal of a multi-ethnic Kosovo, admits that the allies would have to make integration happen, somehow (the group suggests -- and I am not making this up, to quote humorist Dave Berry -- a PR campaign.)

Allied officials continue to talk in grand terms. Last year
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told Congress that "Failure to secure a multi-ethnic Kosovo would be a failure" of years of effort. Yet the likely result of full independence is clear. A top U.S. official told me on my visit that he figures not a Serb will remain within five or ten years after independence, or even the status quo. That is, granting Kosovo independence means completing the process of ethnic cleansing that started seven years ago. Worse, since the West has been in charge, granting independence means ratifying the very process that the allies went to war to prevent.

IN ORDER TO GET AROUND this rather embarrassing dilemma, Western governments are talking about conditional independence, that is, independence only after ethnic Albanians meet certain standards. Perhaps proponents of this perspective are so naive as to verge on the delusional; more likely, they are cynically maneuvering to get out of Kosovo with a minimum of public embarrassment.

After all, if things are, as claimed by Kosovo's allied occupiers, better today than in 1999 or 2004, it is mostly because so many Serbs and other minorities have fled. The easy ethnic cleansing already has been done. There is less opportunity and reason to target minorities.

However, despite all the right public promises from Albanian officials, there is little reason to believe popular attitudes have changed. Bishop Artemije sadly observed simply: "Crimes happened not just seven years ago but are happening now as we speak." One resident of a refugee camp who fled deadly mobs two years ago told me that "we see people living in our homes and sleeping in our beds talking about how good democracy is."

And if seven years of tutelage by the allies under military occupation isn't enough to teach the majority Albanian community good human rights manners, how will a few verbal promises and some corresponding paper threats do the job? Nor will any conditions be enforced. The idea that the allies would get tough and block independence, or even return the territory to Belgrade, if the standards were not met is a fantasy. The West has done little to protect the Serbian community over the last seven years; to the contrary, the allies have allowed the Albanians to ethnically cleanse most of the land. Today the heroic humanitarian crusaders of 1999 simply want to finish the occupation, withdraw their 17,000 troops, and move on.

At the same time, conditional independence, by leaving the issue formally open while effectively dispossessing the Serbs, is likely to radicalize both parties. Ethnic Albanians have been growing impatient. The group Self-Determination! has been leading non-violent protests against UN targets (for which some demonstrators actually went to jail, in contrast to those who murdered Serbs). More ominously, there have been attacks on allied vehicles, and resentment at more years of apparent indecision could spark more serious assaults on KFOR and UN personnel. Leading Kosovar political figure Adam Demaci has threatened the allies with "violence of such dimensions that 17 March 2004 will be forgotten."

As for Serbia, detaching Kosovo is likely to bring down the Kostunica government. Waiting in the wings is the Serbian Radical Party, a populist-nationalist movement headed by Vojislav Seselj, now awaiting trial for war crimes at The Hague. The U.S. will not even allow diplomatic personnel to meet with Radical members of parliament, terming the party "undemocratic." Yet some polls show it with 40-plus percent support, putting it within easy reach of dominating a new coalition government.

What a pretty picture this all would be. Ethnic Albanians step up attacks on Serbs and begin targeting allied forces in Kosovo. Serbs in Mitrovica fortify their enclave and look north to Belgrade for support. Hard-core, anti-Western nationalists take power in Serbia. Then what?

Like so many conflicts, it was a lot easier to get into Kosovo than it will be to get out. But there's still time to draw back from the brink. The West should insist on a genuine negotiation in which a variety of options are freely considered. An allied diktat, especially one mandating independence, will not be fair. Nor will it bring the regional stability that everyone desires. Only the residents of Kosovo and the rest of Serbia can find a lasting solution.

Doug Bandow is the author of Foreign Follies: America's New Global Empire (forthcoming, Xulon). A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the American Council for Kosovo.

Belgrade-Pristina meeting to take place next week

ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL (ITALY), Jul-19-06 16:42

Belgrade, 19 July (AKI) - Serbian president Boris Tadic said Wednesday that a meeting between senior officials from Belgrade and Pristina will take place next week. Tadic, who made the announcement after meeting NATO officials, including Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, in Brussels said that he was told by the UN's Kosovo status envoy Martti Ahtisaari that all of the technical problems with scheduling the meeting had been resolved.

The meeting between the Serbian and Kosovar officials would take place on 24 July in Vienna, Tadic said.

On that day, Ahtisaari would hold a news conference at 5 pm local time when the meeting is expected to be over, Tadic said.

At a joint press conference with Tadic, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that he received reassurances from the Serbian President that Belgrade will participate constructively in the Kosovo discussions.

Tadic said that a large part of his discussions with NATO officials was dedicated to the protection of Serbs in Kosovo.

"I received reassurances that our community in Kosovo will be protected. And that was my main demand", Tadic said, adding that he informed NATO officials of the difficult situation in which Kosovo Serbs find themselves in.

CoE gains access to NATO-run prison in Kosovo

SERBIANNA (USA), July 19, 2006 6:30 AM

STRASBOURG, France-The Council of Europe said Wednesday that NATO gave the human rights watchdog's inspectors permission to visit a detention facility in Kosovo run by the military alliance's peacekeeping force.

The decision ends a long-standing dispute between both organizations.

The council had been trying to reach agreement with NATO for years to inspect a KFOR-run prison at Camp Bondsteel, the only detention facility in Europe where the watchdog's inspectors have not had unlimited access. The NATO-led peacekeeping force is known as KFOR.

Camp Bondsteel will be inspected by the council's anti-torture committee, which visits prisons, juvenile detention centers, holding camps for immigrants and other detention centers in the council's 46 member states and examines the treatment of detainees.

"The inspection can happen any time from now," said Council of Europe spokesman Matjaz Gruden, adding that the anti-torture committee will not make the inspection date public.

Under a legally binding European human rights treaty, the committee has unlimited access to places of detention and the right to move inside such places without restriction.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since a 1999 NATO bombing campaign halted a Serb crackdown on the province's majority ethnic Albanian community.

The Council of Europe has unlimited access to all prisons run by the U.N. mission in Kosovo. NATO's permission for the council to access Camp Bondsteel comes at a time when various European countries and institutions are investigating reports of secret CIA prisons on European territory.

"We have succeeded in resolving a long-standing anomaly in the human rights enforcement system in Europe. This arrangement will help us to ensure that there are no exceptions to the absolute prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment throughout the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, Council of Europe chairman Terry Davis said.

Camp Bondsteel is the main U.S. camp in Kosovo. NATO insists no prisoners are being held there.

600 German troops to be deployed in Kosovo to reinforce NATO-led peacekeepers

Associated Press, Wednesday, July 19, 2006 10:44 AM

PRISTINA, Serbia-Hundreds of additional troops will be deployed in Kosovo over the next few weeks to reinforce the NATO-led peacekeeping force in the province, an alliance official said Wednesday.

The troops, part of NATO's quick reaction force, will be deployed throughout Kosovo and conduct province-wide operations, said Col. Pio Sabetta, a spokesman for the alliance's peacekeeping force, known as KFOR.

They will join some 17,000 NATO-led peacekeepers patrolling Kosovo since mid-1999, when an alliance air war halted Serb forces' crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians and forced Serbia to relinquish control of the province.

The battalion of some 600 German troops began its deployment in Kosovo on Monday and will stay in the province temporarily, Sabetta said.

The deployment "is not linked to any specific situation, but it's aimed to show NATO's willingness in keeping the commitment to Kosovo," he said.

The reinforcement comes as U.N. mediators intensify their efforts to solve the dispute over Kosovo. The envoys are scheduled to conduct the first high-level meeting between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian and Serbia's leaders in the Austrian capital, Vienna next week.

The two sides are to meet for first face-to-face talks with ethnic Albanian leaders of the breakaway Kosovo province's status on Monday in efforts to get the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians to agree on the future status of the province.

There have been fears of rising tensions between Kosovo's communities during the talks, which Western officials hope to wrap up by the end of the year.

Kosovo officially remains part of Serbia, although it has been run by the United Nations and patrolled by international peacekeepers since 1999. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority insists on full independence, but the Serb minority and Belgrade want to retain some control over the province.

The U.N. police in Kosovo also announced Wednesday it will increase the presence of international police officers in two northern boundary crossings, both in predominantly Serb areas, between the province and Serbia, while keeping the local police officers in place there.

The move was agreed in a meeting between U.N. police commissioner Kai Vittrup and local Serb leaders in the northern municipalities, a police statement said.

Last month, an additional 500 U.N. police officers were deployed in Kosovo's troubled Serb-dominated north to increase security after the area saw a rise in ethnic tension.

Serbian, ethnic Albanian officials meet in Austria over Serb minority self-rule in Kosovo

Associated Press, Wednesday, July 19, 2006 6:04 AM

VIENNA, Austria-Serbian and ethnic Albanian officials were meeting in the Austrian capital Wednesday to negotiate the number of new Serb municipalities in Kosovo to give the province's minority more rights in running their affairs.

The Serbian delegation has suggested as many as 13 new municipalities, a proposal based on the ethnic composition of Kosovo before the 1998-99 bloody conflict in the province. Kosovo's Deputy Prime Minister Lutfi Haziri told reporters Wednesday morning his delegation will offer the creation of five Serb-run municipalities.

Ethnic Albanians make up about 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 2 million, but some 200,000 Serbs fled the province after Serb troops were driven out by the 78-day NATO bombardment in 1999.

Serbian officials are also expected to suggest that Kosovo Serbs and non-Albanians should be allowed to run their own communities, maintain special ties to Belgrade, control their own local police and receive guarantees for the security, freedom of movement and right of return of Serb refugees.

Wednesday's talks will be the eighth time that both sides have met to discuss the province's status. In the past, negotiators have tried to resolve the number of municipalities. Negotiations in May failed to produce an agreement.

Haziri said that his delegation will now a present a plan on the decentralization of the province that will "try to accommodate" the minorities.

"We want to give as much as we can ... we want happy communities," Haziri said before the talks.

Ethnic Albanians want full independence for the province, but Serbia insists Belgrade must retain some control over the province.

A key stumbling point in the talks is the fate of Kosovska Mitrovica, an ethnically divided city where there have been clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs.

Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu has rejected any division of Kosovska Mitrovica.

On Tuesday, both delegations failed to finalize an agreement on the protection of Serbian Orthodox religious sites in Kosovo.

The first top-level direct talks to address the province's status, independence or some Serb control, are scheduled for July 24.

The Kosovo Albanian delegation has confirmed that it would participate in the talks. Serbian negotiator Leon Kojen said, however, that top Serbian officials in Belgrade were still awaiting a "proper invitation."

Unlike previous meetings, talks on Wednesday are not face-to-face, but U.N. mediators will shuttle between both delegations in separate rooms.

Serbs, ethnic Albanians fail to agree over status of Serbian Orthodox sites in Kosovo

Associated Press, Tuesday, July 18, 2006 12:10 PM

VIENNA, Austria-Ethnic Albanian and Serbian negotiators failed Tuesday to finalize an agreement on the protection of Serbian Orthodox religious sites in Kosovo, officials said.

It was the seventh time that both sides have met in Vienna this year for U.N.-mediated negotiations, which aim to determine whether Kosovo remains part of Serbia or becomes independent.

"We will sit with the experts to work on a compromise," a U.N.-appointed mediator, Petr Ivantsov, said after the meeting, which deadlocked over the protected perimeters around 39 Serbian Orthodox religious sites in Kosovo.

Albanian representatives suggested the Serbs were at fault. Ylber Hysa, the head of the ethnic Albanian delegation, said "the Serbian side was not at all open" to compromise.

Kosovo's minority Serbs, whose communities have been attacked by ethnic Albanians several times since the end of the war, want guarantees that their religious and cultural sites will be protected. They also want more say in running their own affairs.

Serbian negotiator Slobodan Samardzic was less critical. "We did not expect marvelous results ... this is a part of a process," he said.

Serbs consider Kosovo to be central to their history and culture, and important Serbian religious and historic sites are located there. In March 2004, more than 30 medieval churches and monasteries were destroyed or damaged in anti-Serb riots.

In late May, the two delegations reached a tentative agreement on the protection of Serbian Orthodox religious sites, leading to hopes that this round would be able to work out some details.

Under the deal, Serbian Orthodox dioceses in Kosovo would have the right to maintain special ties with the patriarchate in Belgrade and would also enjoy tax privileges, freedom of movement and the right to run other affairs. Ivantsov said that details about these issues were on the agenda, but that the negotiators focused on protected areas.

Tension between the two communities has remained high since the end of the war between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian separatists.

The province officially remains part of Serbia, although it has been run by a U.N. administration and patrolled by international peacekeepers since a 1999 NATO aerial bombardment halted the Serb military crackdown.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority insists on full independence, but Belgrade wants to retain some control over the province.

A separate negotiating session on Serbian self-rule in the province is scheduled for Wednesday.

On Monday, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian negotiators announced they will consider increasing the number of new Serb municipalities to give the province's minority more rights in running its affairs.

The Serbian delegation will ask for 13 new municipalities in addition to the existing five.

Ethnic Albanians make up about 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 2 million. Some 200,000 Serbs fled the province after Serb troops were driven out by the 78-day NATO bombardment.

The first top-level direct talks to address the province's status, independence or some Serb control, are scheduled for July 24.

The Kosovo Albanian delegation has confirmed that it would participate in the talks. Serbian negotiator Leon Kojen said however that top Serbian officials in Belgrade were still awaiting a "proper invitation."

"When we get one we will decide," he said, but refused to elaborate.

A Serbian negotiator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, has said that the key stumbling point was the apparent "lack of agenda and unclear methodology of talks." He said that the Serbian delegation has met the top U.N. mediator Marti Ahtisaari early on Tuesday, but that the meeting "produced little results."

Serbia says independent Kosovo would serve as model for breakaway regions worldwide

Associated Press, Tuesday, July 18, 2006 8:42 AM

BRUSSELS, Belgium-Serbia's president warned Tuesday that if the province of Kosovo is allowed to secede, it could create instability in the Balkans and set a precedent for independence movements around the world.

President Boris Tadic also indicated he had not decided whether to attend an unprecedented round of direct talks with Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders next week in Vienna, as proposed by U.N. mediator Martti Ahtisaari.

Belgrade strongly opposes the possible independence for the region of two million people, which has been a de facto international protectorate since NATO forced Serbia's then-dictator Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his troops from the province in a brief war in 1999.

But ethnic Albanians, who account for 90 percent of the province's people, are demanding independence, insisting they can never again be ruled by Belgrade.

Serbia's new democratic government has proposed granting the province self-rule backed by international guarantees, while formally retaining it within the borders of Serbia.

"From my point of view (independence) is not going to be a useful solution," Tadic said at a news conference with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

"An independent Kosovo would be a precedent, it is going to be a problem for regional stability not only for the Balkans but for other regions in the world," Tadic said.

Analysts have said that if Kosovo is allowed to break away from Serbia, whose province it has been since the early Middle Ages, this would almost certainly be used by many other territories to justify their own secessionist designs.

These potentially include regions as diverse as Spain's Catalonia and the Basque country, Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia statelets, Moldavia's rebellious Trans-Dniester, Azerbaijan's disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, and Indonesia's war-torn provinces of Aceh and West Papua.

Ahtisaari, the U.N. envoy, is currently trying to bridge the differences in talks on Kosovo's future status being held in Vienna. On Monday, he said he would try to bring the presidents and prime ministers of both Kosovo and Serbia together for the first time to discuss political issues.

Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku have agreed to attend, but Tadic and Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica have not yet confirmed.

"We are expecting that Mr. Ahtisaari will send us some conditions for the talks," Tadic said without elaborating. "We will then decide whether to participate."

Tadic visited Brussels a day after Kostunica briefed EU leaders on the details of a new plan to track down and arrest fugitive war crimes suspect Gen. Ratko Mladic.

Serbia's failure to arrest Mladic, wanted on charges stemming from the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, and hand him to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, led the EU to suspend talks on a so-called Stabilization and Association agreement. This is a stepping stone to possible membership in the bloc, and is considered crucial for the country's stability and economic growth.

Although no details of the new three-page plan were released, officials said it details measures to apprehend Mladic, who is wanted on charges of involvement in genocide during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. It also calls for the appointment of a government coordinator to put the plan into effect, who would have daily contact with U.N. prosecutors.

The plan is closely modeled on a similar document presented by neighboring Croatia last year, when Zagreb's talks with the EU were jeopardized by its failure to catch an army general indicted for crimes against humanity.

Belgrade is hoping the bloc will accept its assurances and restart negotiations even if Mladic remains at large, just as it did in Croatia's case.

Barroso welcomed the plan, but stopped short of endorsing a resumption of talks before Mladic's capture.

He underlined, however, that if full cooperation with the U.N. court is achieved, "there is still time to achieve the Stabilization and Association Agreement by the end of the year."

"It is not fair for the Serbian people that because of one or a few (individuals) that are accused of being war criminals, that the democratic and European future of Serbia is put on hold," Barroso said.

Albanians refuse to grant safety to Christian sites in Kosovo

SERBIANNA (USA), July 18, 2006 12:10 PM

VIENNA, Austria-Ethnic Albanian and Serbian negotiators failed Tuesday to finalize an agreement on the protection of Serbian Orthodox religious sites in Kosovo, officials said.

It was the seventh time that both sides have met in Vienna this year for U.N.-mediated negotiations, which aim to determine whether Kosovo remains part of Serbia or becomes independent.

"We will sit with the experts to work on a compromise," a U.N.-appointed mediator, Petr Ivantsov, said after the meeting, which deadlocked over the protected perimeters around 39 Serbian Orthodox religious sites in Kosovo.

Albanian representatives suggested the Serbs were at fault. Ylber Hysa, the head of the ethnic Albanian delegation, said "the Serbian side was not at all open" to compromise.

Kosovo's minority Serbs, whose communities have been attacked by ethnic Albanians several times since the end of the war, want guarantees that their religious and cultural sites will be protected. They also want more say in running their own affairs.

Serbian negotiator Slobodan Samardzic was less critical. "We did not expect marvelous results ... this is a part of a process," he said.

Serbs consider Kosovo to be central to their history and culture, and important Serbian religious and historic sites are located there. In March 2004, more than 30 medieval churches and monasteries were destroyed or damaged in anti-Serb riots.

In late May, the two delegations reached a tentative agreement on the protection of Serbian Orthodox religious sites, leading to hopes that this round would be able to work out some details.

Under the deal, Serbian Orthodox dioceses in Kosovo would have the right to maintain special ties with the patriarchate in Belgrade and would also enjoytax privileges, freedom of movement and the right to run other affairs. Ivantsov said that details about these issues were on the agenda, but that the negotiators focused on protected areas.

Tension between the two communities has remained high since the end of the war between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian separatists.

The province officially remains part of Serbia, although it has been run by a U.N. administration and patrolled by international peacekeepers since a 1999 NATO aerial bombardment halted the Serb military crackdown.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority insists on full independence, but Belgrade wants to retain some control over the province.

A separate negotiating session on Serbian self-rule in the province is scheduled for Wednesday.

On Monday, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian negotiators announced they will consider increasing the number of new Serb municipalities to give the province's
minority more rights in running its affairs.

The Serbian delegation will ask for 13 new municipalities in addition to the existing five.

Ethnic Albanians make up about 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 2 million. Some 200,000 Serbs fled the province after Serb troops were driven out by the 78-day NATO bombardment.

The first top-level direct talks to address the province's status, independence or some Serb control, are scheduled for July 24.

The Kosovo Albanian delegation has confirmed that it would participate in the talks. Serbian negotiator Leon Kojen said however that top Serbian officials in Belgrade were still awaiting a "proper invitation."

"When we get one we will decide," he said, but refused to elaborate.

A Serbian negotiator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, has said that the key stumbling point was the apparent "lack of agenda and unclear methodology of talks." He said that the Serbian delegation has met the top U.N. mediator Marti Ahtisaari early on Tuesday, but that the meeting "produced little results."

EU will not press Serbia to give up Kosovo, Barroso says

DPA, Jul 18, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Brussels - The European Union will not press Serbia to grant independence to Kosovo, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said Tuesday.

\'Nobody is trying to impose a solution on Serbia,\' Barroso told reporters after a meeting with Serbian president Boris Tadic.

The commission chief said that the EU was fully backing United Nations\' efforts to steer negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Tadic said Serbia was ready to participate in Kosovo status negotiations, but expected the UN Kosovo envoy Martti Ahtisaari to set Belgrade \'normal conditions for this kind of talks.\'

\'We are not satisfied with talks in the past, we expect more,\' Tadic said, adding that Serbia was trying to achieve a compromise in the hot issue.

\'We are trying to preserve the legitimate integrity of our territory, of our country,\' he said, adding that independence for Kosovo would be a threat to security in the region.

The European Union Monday presented new plans aimed at making itself the \'driving force\' in the development of independence-seeking Kosovo. EU support would include a security and defence policy operation which will focus on the justice and police sector.

The seventh round of talks on the future of Kosovo is being held in Vienna on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo are stalled with Pristina demanding full independence for the Serb province inhabited mostly by ethnic Albanians who want independence Kosovo, and Belgrade refusing it and instead offering some sort of autonomy for the province.

Belgrade is supported by Moscow in keeping intact Serbian territory following a recent breakup with Montenegro.

Kosovo tensions rise as pressure increases

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR (USA), July 19, 2006 By Beth Kampschror

Officials meet in Vienna this week for final status talks, which the West hopes will wrap up by year end.

PRISTINA AND KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, KOSOVO - Albin Kurti knows jail. The 31-year-old activist has been arrested more than 30 times in the past year and a half in his quest to bring independence to Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanian population.

But he takes it in stride.

"In June I was only arrested twice," says Mr. Kurti, whose Self-Determination movement has scattered leaflets decrying the UN mission to Kosovo (UNMIK), showered Serbian leaders' convoys with rotten eggs, and spray-painted slogans on the concrete barriers surrounding the UN's fortresslike building in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

Kurti's movement - which he says has grown by a third in recent months - is just one thorn in the side of UNMIK, which has administered the southern Serbian province since NATO bombing drove out the Serbian military seven years ago. Simmering tensions in the region are threatening to reach a boiling point as UN-appointed envoy Martti Ahtisaari hosts a seventh round of negotations in Vienna this week, aimed at settling the province's final status: Albanian Kosovars favor independence, while Serbia is pushing for the province to remain under its control.

Kosovo's minority Serbs, concentrated in the north, have ended cooperation with the Pristina government. Just over half of ethnic Albanians, meanwhile, support to some extent Kurti's Self-Determination movement. The latest UNMIK head resigned last month. And a rift between governments of the West, which advocate a solution by the end of the year, and the government of Russia, which fears that an independent Kosovo would set a precedent for its own breakaway provinces, could further stall the process.

Four municipalities in the Serb-dominated north, the part of Kosovo that rubs shoulders with Serbia proper, announced in June that because of the Kosovo police's failure to solve several murders there, they would no longer cooperate with the Pristina-based Kosovo government or other institutions. Rumors soon abounded that the Serbs had organized their own security by mobilizing former Serb army reservists.

"Don't get me wrong and think this means forming paramilitaries," says Momir Kasalovic, who heads a regional coordination office in the north's main town, Kosovska Mitrovica, that serves as a liaison between Kosovar Serbs there and the Serbian government. "Rather, people are being watchful. They're surveilling and following the movements of suspicious people, people who don't have good intentions."

But Mr. Kasalovic says that though some Serbs, like some ethnic Albanians, may have held on to their weapons from the 1990s, most are unarmed.

"A rifle is not a cellphone - you can't hide it in your pocket," he says, adding that it would be "technically impossible" to form a paramilitary group, given the presence of international forces. In addition to the UN presence, the 17,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force here, KFOR, has reopened a base in the northern town of Leposavic.

Still, when asked what would happen if Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians tried to take over the north, which has Serbian-funded hospitals, schools, and telephone infrastructure, Kasalovic says, "It would be bloody."

Hotel owner Bratislav Pantujevic - a former "bridge watcher'" who kept ethnic Albanians from crossing into Serbian north Mitrovica in the years after the NATO war - agrees.

"I'm staying here until the end. If there are any problems, if it comes to that, the Albanians won't get everything they want."

The rumblings from the Serb north are nothing new, says Steven Schook, who has been acting head of UNMIK since Soren Jessen-Petersen vacated the post at the end of June. A new head should be appointed this month.

"What is new are the political statements of these municipality presidents, that have said they'll no longer be connected to or supportive of or driven by the government in Pristina," Mr. Schook says.

"It's very irresponsible and it's horrible timing to be conducting these kinds of statements and these kinds of assembly proceedings right now."

Schook says the line from the UN is firm: no partition of the province, and a solution by the end of the year. Any solution will come from recommendations made by Mr. Ahtisaari, which would then form the basis for a UN Security Council resolution that would replace the 1999 resolution outlining UNMIK's role.

Passing a new resolution could take months, as Russia - a veto-wielding Security Council member - isn't keen to see Kosovo formally break away from Serbia.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, recently warned against "precipitous" moves toward Kosovo independence, saying it would stir up pro-independence forces in other territories. Meanwhile, advance teams from the European Union are on the ground in Kosovo, scoping out a possible follow-on mission that could take over as soon as mid-2007.

But UNMIK is certainly not leaving now, much to the chagrin of the Self-Determination activists such as Kurti, whom Schook recently ran into.

"I'm always respectful of anybody who has convictions and beliefs, but I find it difficult to understand the targets of their message," he says wryly. "I said to him, 'It makes no sense to me that you let the air out of our tires if you want us to leave quickly. You should be going around checking the air and making sure it's good.' "

Kosovo Albanian kidnaps daughter of Montenegrin official

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 13, 2006 Thursday

Excerpt from report by S.S. entitled "Sehu was pretending that he was also kidnapped" published by Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti on 12 July

Podgorica - The Montenegrin and Kosovo police are looking for Perparim Sehu, aged 34, resident of Djakovica [town in Kosovo], who is suspected of organizing and carrying out last month's kidnapping of Aleksandra Gvozdenovic, daughter of Miodrag Gvozdenovic, director of the [Montenegrin] port of Bar company. The Montenegrin police directorate has informed border posts that Sehu is wanted for kidnapping and that he frequently uses forged papers to cross the border.

The Kosovo police first tried to use a ruse and last week they announced that Sehu has been missing since June. The police asked citizens to report everything they know about him. However, the UNMIK [UN Mission in Kosovo] trick has failed. Perparim Sehu is obviously not a naive man, particularly considering the fact that he probably has 200,000 euros Gvozdenovic paid him in ransom for his daughter.

According to the details of the kidnapping the two police forces managed to uncover so far, and they are worthy of a thriller, Sehu was playing a double role - he had lured Aleksandra to the kidnappers and then to her he pretended he was another victim of kidnapping until the money arrived from Bar.

[Passage omitted: Details of the kidnapping]

Source: Vijesti, Podgorica, in Serbian 12 Jul 06 p8

Rights body condemns arrests of Kosovo citizens in transit through Montenegro

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 13, 2006 Thursday

Text of report in English by independent internet news agency KosovaLive

Prishtina [Pristina], 12 July: The Council for Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms of Kosova [Kosovo] [KMDLNj] called on the Montenegrin authorities to end the arrests of the Albanians who use Montenegro as a transit country, whereas it is recommending the Albanians to be more careful before they decide to travel through Montenegro.

The KMDLNj released a statement, reading that the arrests of the Kosovar Albanians by the Montenegrin police and their handover to the Serbian authorities have become a frequent issue.

According to the KMDLNj, the Montenegrin police in Herceg Novi have arrested Shpend Musliu, travelling from England to Kosova. Afterwards he was handed over to the Serbian authorities, whereas his fate is unknown for the moment.

"This is not the first time that the Montenegrin authorities have arrested Kosovar citizens, because they arrested another citizen from Kosova and handed him over to the Serbian authorities. These arrests are taking place regardless of the facts that the Montenegrin authorities have stated that Kosovar citizens should feel free and safe to travel within the Montenegrin territory," reads the statement.

KMDLNj evaluates that these acts do not contribute to the building of trust between the two countries.

Source: KosovaLive website, Pristina, in English 12 Jul 06

Serbs, ethnic Albanians resume Kosovo talks

Associated Press, Tuesday, July 18, 2006 5:41 AM

VIENNA, Austria-Ethnic Albanian and Serbian officials met Tuesday for a new round of negotiations on Kosovo's postwar status, focusing on the protection of Serbian Orthodox religious sites and the creation of Serb-run municipalities.

It was the seventh time the two sides have met in Vienna this year for U.N.-mediated negotiations that ultimately aim to determine whether Kosovo remains part of Serbia or becomes independent.

Tuesday's talks again focused on issues where little progress was made in the early rounds of discussion. Kosovo's minority Serbs, whose communities have been attacked by ethnic Albanians several times since the end of the war, want guarantees that their religious and cultural sites will be protected. They also want more say in running their own affairs.

"We will not back off from our positions presented during previous talks about our religious and cultural heritage," said Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, a Serb negotiator and government official responsible for Kosovo.

Serbs consider Kosovo to be central to their history and culture, and important Serbian religious and historical sites are located there. In March 2004, more than 30 medieval churches and monasteries were destroyed or damaged in anti-Serb riots.

In late May the two delegations reached a tentative agreement on the protection of Serbian Orthodox religious sites and on protection zones that would be guarded by international peacekeepers.

Under the deal, Serbian Orthodox dioceses in Kosovo would have the right to maintain special ties with the patriarchate in Belgrade and would also enjoy tax privileges, freedom of movement and the right to run other affairs.

"We believe that the economic sustainability of monasteries depends on the protection of their assets," said Dusan Batakovic, a Serb negotiator.

Tension between the two communities has remained high since the end of the war between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian separatists.

The province officially remains part of Serbia, although it has been run by a U.N. administration and patrolled by international peacekeepers since a 1999 NATO aerial bombardment halted the Serb military crackdown.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority insists on full independence, but Belgrade wants to retain some control over the province.

A separate negotiating session on Serbian self-rule in the province is scheduled for Wednesday.

On Monday, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian negotiators announced they will consider increasing the number of new Serb municipalities to give the province's minority more rights in running its affairs.

Raskovic-Ivic has said that the Serbian delegation will ask for 13 new municipalities in addition to the existing five. "I don't know how many we will get," she said.

Ethnic Albanians make up about 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 2 million. Some 200,000 Serbs fled the province after Serb troops were driven out by the 78-day NATO bombardment.

The first top-level direct talks to address the province's status are scheduled for July 24.

"We are ready to talk on that or any other day," said Skender Hyseni, a Kosovo Albanian negotiator.

Kosovo Albanians give chase to would-be Serb returnee - Kosovo Serb radio

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 14, 2006, Friday

Text of report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 14 July

[Announcer] A group of Albanians from Srbobran village near Istok yesterday attacked Dragi Malikovic, dean at the [Kosovska Mitrovica-based] Pristina University Philosophy Department, who was visiting his family property with his friends. Jelena Markovic has a detailed report.

[Reporter] I heard that an Albanian had built a four-storey house on my family's property. I went there with some of my friends to see for myself, and I saw that it was true. I entered the other part of my courtyard which this Albanian had also usurped and prepared for the construction of another house. While I was visiting the property, the owner of the aforementioned house spotted me and immediately went somewhere with his tractor. Just ten minutes later, two vans carrying around 15 Albanians arrived. We got into our vehicle and departed for [Kosovska] Mitrovica but they followed us for more than 10 kilometres with various shouts and threats, Dragi Malikovic told the International Press Centre in Kosovska Mitrovica.

Until 1999, Srbobran was a purely Serb village with 59 households whose owners have been keenly waiting to return to their hearth and home for over seven years. Currently, work to restore five houses in the village is nearing its end. Recent attacks against Serb returnees demonstrate that Albanians from neighbouring villages, helped by the Pristina authorities, want an ethnically pure Kosovo-Metohija without a Serb presence. This is also confirmed by the fact that six multiple store houses owned by Albanians from neighbouring villages had been built on village land which belongs solely to the Serbs exiled from Srbobran.

Despite the attacks and large sums of money which Albanians offer for our property, we are determined and will persist in our wish to return and begin our lives anew on this Kosovo-Metohija land, Dragi Malikovic said.

Source: Kontakt Plus, Kosovska Mitrovica, in Serbian 1400 gmt 14 Jul 06

Raskovic-Ivic: Kosovo and Metohija will not be independent

Glas Javnosti daily, Belgrade, Thursday, 13 July 2006

Interview: Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, president of the Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija

No one serious in the world favors the option of an imposed solution, which is supported only by Albanian lobbyists and those who support them for various reasons. First there will be negotiations on future status

By Jelena Jevremovic

BELGRADE - Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, the president of the Serbian Government's Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija, said in an interview for "Glas Javnosti" that today's session of the UN Security Council, where Serbian premier Vojislav Kostunica and Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiju will confront each other for the first time, is important, just like every session of this body of the world organization. However, said Raskovic-Ivic, much more important than this session is establishing the course and direction of travel for the entire process of defining future status and also adjusting our strategy accordingly. The problem of Kosovo and Metohija is very complex to resolve in a single session.

What do you expect from the upcoming session of the UN Security Council? Will it be a key session for defining the final status of Kosovo and Metohija, all the more so because both the Serbian premier and the Kosovo president will be presenting their positions?

- Every session of the Security Council is important. This session will be important, too. I think it is far more important, however, to establish the course and direction of travel for the entire process of defining future status and also to adjust our strategy accordingly. The problem of Kosovo and Metohija is very complex to resolve in a single session.

Is it possible that premier Vojislav Kostunica's visit to Washington may bring some move in our favor?

- There was never any question of that. All of our senior state officials have had very significant and successful diplomatic initiatives. The prime minister is certainly ahead in these efforts. Many things have changed for the better. The visit to Washington is important and I am certain that it will be followed by improvements for the Serb side.

There is increasing public discussion that the UN Security Council will impose a final solution. Is this more likely than finding a solution by negotiations?

- That's not the issue. No one serious in the world favors the option of an imposed solution. An imposed solution is supported by Albanian lobbyists and those who support those lobbyists for various reasons. The increase in public discussion about an imposed solution, as you say, began the moment it became clear that the strong arguments are on the Serb side. Then the "spin doctors" paid by the Albanians and their lobbies tried to prove, at least virtually, that the discussion about Kosovo and Metohija was already finished.

One of the options being mentioned is "conditional independence"? What does that really mean and can we accept it?

- The members of the Serbian negotiating team, the prime minister and the president and all the relevant political parties have been repeating practically every day that no form of independence will be accepted. Moreover, we have emphasized that every form of independence will be rejected. From this it is clear that we will not and cannot accept this.

Should the prime minister and the president of Serbia negotiate with the leaders of the Kosovo Albanians jointly or separately?

- So far we have demonstrated a consensus with respect to Kosovo and Metohija, the negotiating platform, the team, the talks. This has obviously been achieved by common effort.

When do you expect the final status of Kosovo and Metohija to be announced?

- First there will be negotiations on future status, not on final status. There may be a wait of decades for the final status.

Is any of the Serbian officials ready to sign a decision if it's for independence?

- I think I already answered a variant of that question when I emphasized that independence will not be accepted, and that if something like that is discussed, then it will be rejected.

Are you afraid of a new exodus of Serbs if Kosovo and Metohija becomes independent?

- Kosovo and Metohija will not be independent.

There have been unofficial claims by both Serbs and Albanians from Kosovo and Metohija that in the event of independence, UNHCR is preparing to transfer Serbs to the southern part of central Serbia, and to relocate the Albanians from that region to Kosovo and Metohija. Is this in Serbia's best interest and will you accept such a scenario?

- Kosovo and Metohija will not be independent.

Is it possible for Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija to have all human and civil rights and freedoms, and when?

- Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija have civil rights and freedoms. Namely, their rights and freedoms are no longer being violated but there are still consequences from previous violations of rights and freedoms. Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija do not have those rights, and that is alarming because their rights and freedoms continue to be violated. They will have both human rights and civic freedoms when the Albanian authorities and the Albanians stop violating their rights directly and indirectly. Serbs will have all rights when the authorities in Kosovo and Metohija govern in the spirit of the rule of law, and when those who hold offices in Kosovo and Metohija demonstrate that it is in their interest to build a society without discrimination, terror, ethnic cleansing, organized crime, trafficking, drug mafia, arms smuggling...

SERB PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING

Is it good that Milorad Pupovac is advising Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija and can the experience of their compatriot from Croatia help them not to make the same mistakes?

- I think that the situation in Croatia and the situation in Kosovo and Metohija is not the same. That is, the situations are paradoxically both the same and different and everything depends on from which angle you view the problem. Unfortunately, what they have in common, no matter what angle you are looking from, is that the Serb people are suffering. It's true that the Serbs made mistakes. Other peoples made mistakes, too. I think that the point, in this case, is not so much whether someone made mistakes but to what extent those mistakes have to be paid for. The Croats, the Bosnian Muslims, even the Slovenians, who should not be forgotten, made big mistakes, in some cases bigger mistakes than the Serbs but they were not punished for their mistakes. On the contrary.

DAYTON AGREEMENT IS BINDING

Is there a possibility that the fate of Republika Srpska will be tied to the final status of Kosovo and Metohija?

- Republika Srpska is confirmed and guaranteed by the Dayton Agreement which, just like Resolution 1244, is an international and binding document. Everyone must respect that so we don't have a situation where no one respects anything. Serbia is advocating respect for all agreements, signed international agreements, contracts, resolutions and we will never approach them in a selective manner. On the contrary, our approach will always be a principled one.

(Translated by sib on 17 July 2006)

The dream of a Greater Albania

LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE (FRANCE), July 2006 By Jean-Arnault Dérens and Laurent Geslin

Kosovo gone, Montenegro gone: what is left for Belgrade?

The Albanian minister of foreign affairs, Besnik Mustafaj, caused alarm when he said in March, "If Kosovo is divided, we can no longer guarantee its borders with Albania, or the border of the Albanian part of Macedonia" (1). Kosovo's changed status has raised again the question of Balkan borders: nobody can predict what will happen.

On the evening of 21 May Montenegrin and Albanian flags flew side by side in Ulcinj, the southernmost town of the Montenegrin coast. Montenegro has become independent mostly because of the way the national minorities voted. The 50,000 Albanians living in the tiny republic have long been convinced citizens of the Montenegrin state.

According to Ibrahim Cungu, former police commissioner for Ulcinj and local leader of the Social Democratic party: "It is possible to be Albanian and a citizen of Montenegro."

But the Montenegrin Albanians are an exception in the Balkans. In Macedonia, Albanians and Macedonians view each other with suspicion. The political and cultural rights of the Albanians have been recognised, and the Ohrid agreement of August 2001 ended the violent conflict between Macedonian security forces and the ethnic-Albanian National Liberation Army of Macedonia. Like the Macedonian Slavs, the Albanians are now considered a "second constitutive people" of the Macedonian republic. Albanian is the second official language in any commune where Albanians are over 20% of the population. "Before 2001 Albanian high school pupils had trouble getting into university, but the situation has improved since then," said Afrim Kerimi, headmaster of the Albanian high school in Kumanovo.

The 2001 conflict has left deep scars, however. Many people are disappointed by the peace agreement and the guerrillas are itching to fight again. An elastic amnesty further feeds resentment and small guerrilla groups, often linked to criminal interests, are constantly springing up. One group formed in 2003 is led by Avdil Jakupi,"Commander Cakalla"; another, headed by Agim Krasniqi, occupied the village of Kondovo outside Skopje for six months in 2004.

Albanians living in Serbia's Presevo valley are also dissatisfied with the peace. They want to take part in the Kosovo negotiations as they fear they may be completely passed over in a regional settlement.

Albanian guerrilla movements arose in Macedonia and the Presevo valley in 2001 because of Kosovo. By igniting local conflict, radical militants and supporters of a Greater Albania sought to remind the world that the international protectorate did not solve the Kosovo question. If future international decisions on Kosovo do not suit them, they will have no problem inflaming the whole region.

The Albanian nationalist movement developed only at the end of the 19th century, far later than those of the other Balkan peoples. After the Balkan war of 1912-13 Kosovo was divided between Montenegro and Serbia, with Serbia also getting a large area of Macedonia. The Treaty of London established "little Albania" on approximately the territory now occupied by Albania, but it left many Albanian people outside the new state.

There are two distinct ideas in Albanian nationalist rhetoric: Greater Albania and ethnic Albania. Greater Albania designates the lands that at various times were peopled by Albanians or their supposed ancestors, the Illyrians. Ethnic Albania corresponds to the regions where Albanians are the majority of the population (2). The nationalists tend to forget an important factor: that other communities live side by side with the Albanians in those regions.

After the dangerous ambitions of a Greater Serbia and a Greater Croatia, is it now the time for a Greater Albania? A number of radical, but marginal, militant networks openly campaign for it, but they may not have much popular support. There is still considerable distrust between the citizens of the republic of Albania and the Albanians from former Yugoslavia, long separated by history.

The only response to the challenge of a Greater Albania, as with a Greater Serbia, is full European integration. The prospect of a national unity that requires border changes is potentially dangerous for the region. Nevertheless the issue of a national trans-border "Albania" is a reality.

It should be possible for anyone writing a book in Shqiptari to address likely readers in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, while an ethnic Albanian student should be free to study in Tirana, Tetovo or Pristina. But the borders will have to be far wider open than they are today.

Translated by Krystyna Horko

(1) See Bashkim Muça, Kosovo: Besnik Mustafaj veut-il la Grande Albanie?, 21 March 2006.

(2) See Rexhep Qosja, La Question Albanaise, translated by Christian Gut, Fayard, Paris, 1995. Qosja is an eminent Albanian literary critic, novelist and scholar.

No breakthrough expected at next week's top-level Kosovo talks, UN envoy says

Associated Press, Monday, July 17, 2006 10:14 AM

BRUSSELS, Belgium-The U.N. mediator for Kosovo said Monday he did not expect any breakthroughs at next week's unprecedented talks between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo on the future status of the disputed territory.

The conference will be the first meeting between the presidents and prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo, since the 1999 NATO bombing campaign that turned the province of two million people into a de facto international protectorate.

"It is the first occasion where high-level politicians will present their views," U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari said after meeting with EU foreign ministers.

Ahtisaari said he did not expect the talks to generate any concrete results, adding that would likely have to wait until after the next U.N. General Assembly session in September.

An EU statement said the grouping intended to remain involved in the resolution of Kosovo's future status after the phasing out of the U.N. administration there at the end of this year.

Ethnic Albanians, who account for 90 percent of the impoverished region's population, want full independence, while Belgrade is insisting that Kosovo must formally remain part of Serbia, albeit with wide-ranging internal autonomy.

"The EU intends to become the driving force within the future international presence" after the phasing out of direct U.N. rule, said the statement released by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and Olli Rehn, its commissioner for enlargement.

"Provided Kosovo reaches a sufficient degree of democratic and institutional stability ... the prospect of contractual relations with the EU" should be made available to the territory," the statement said.

Raskovic-Ivic: Kosovo dominated by fear and dread

Radio Television Serbia, Belgrade, Sunday, July 16, 2006 19:32

President of the Coordinating Center Sanda Raskovic-Ivic said that in all the locations she visited in Kosovo and Metohija the Serb population is dominated by feelings of fear and dread but also of hope. After a four-day visit to Kosovo Raskovic-Ivic assessed the situation on the ground as extremely difficult, and she confirmed that there is no freedom of movement and that the environment in which the Serbs are living "encourages disorganization".

"People have almost become inured to the fact that they are not safe but they are afraid of stories about an independent Kosovo," said Raskovic-Ivic at a press conference in Kosovska Mitrovica. She conveyed the expectations of Kosovo Serbs "that the Serbian state team for negotiations on future status and the state of Serbia will protect them, and retain Kosovo and Metohija within its borders".

"I did not see any progress on the ground. Security has not improved, which is the responsibility of KFOR and UNMIK, but it is our state that is responsible for economic prosperity," she said. "Young people have no jobs, there is a housing shortage, houses are destroyed, meadows are usurped and in addition to all this there are a lot of administrative problems that are making the lives of the Serbs even more difficult," she said.

Raskovic-Ivic emphasized that the question of decentralization has an important place, saying that "there was not one place that she had visited in the past four days that people had not asked whether their village or their location would be a part of the decentralization process because they see this as the key to their own survival".

Serbs barely escaped being lynched

Politika daily, Belgrade, Saturday, 15 July 2006

New attacks in Srbobran near Istok

SRBOBRAN, ISTOK - Serbs who two days ago went to visit their properties in the village of Srbobran near Istok barely escaped after they were attacked by a group of Albanians from the same village. According to Dragi Malikovic, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Pristina, who went to visit his ancestral hearth with friends, after he arrived in the village and saw that the stories that an Albanian was building a four-story house on his property was true, he encountered "Albanians who had lost their heads and were ready for a lynching".

Malikovic confirmed for the International Press Center of the Coordinating Center in Kosovska Mitrovica that while visiting the property he was seen by the owner of "the aforementioned house" who left on his tractor only to return some ten minutes later followed by to vans with about 15 Albanians.

"We got into our vehicle as headed for Mitrovica as quickly as we could. They started out after us, threatening us, swearing and chasing us for more than 10 kilometers. I'm not sure myself how we managed to get away from them and they turned back," said Malikovic.

Only days ago the Albanians looted the house of returnee Svetomir Vukovic, which is currently being rebuilt, after previously setting a fire which caused significant material damage. In this village work on the rebuilding of five [Serb] houses is nearing completion, out of a total of 59 houses here prior to 1999.

By B. R.