Labour Ministry vehicles carried stones and paint bottles for protesters

KiM Info Newsletter, 01-12-06

MORE DETAILS ABOUT FLAG DAY RIOTS IN PRISTINA - SOME GOVERNMENTAL CIRCLES APPARENTLY INVOLVED IN RIOTS

(Koha Ditore, December 1, Kosovo Albanian daily from Pristina)
Media Monitoring Dec 1, 2006

Koha Ditore sources stated that bottles and stones were carried with Labour Ministry’s vehicle of the type KIA, of white colour, with target plates 233-KS-779. Another vehicle of this Ministry, a Suzuki Jeep, with target plates 468-KS-805, has been filmed when it visited “Vetëvendosja” seat prior to the protests. Ministry officials admit that the said vehicles belong to it.

According to these sources, Ministry’s vehicle was parked in front of the parliament building prior to the protest and bottles have been taken out from it.

“There are video recordings where demonstrators are seen taking the bottles and sacks with stones from Ministry’s vehicle,” said a source who prefers to remain anonymous.

Labor Ministry is headed by Ibrahim Selmanaj, one of highest officials of Ramush Haradinaj's party - AAK.

Kosovo Premier Leaves for Moscow Carrying Albanian Passport

KiM Info Newsletter, 01-12-06

Pristina, 30 Nov. (Tanjug) - Kosovo Premier Agim Ceku has left for Moscow carrying an Albanian passport, the media in Pristina reported on Thursday, adding that a group of Kosovo journalists, who accompanied the premier, had been returned from the airport in the Russian capital because of their improper papers.

Russia does not accept the documents issued by UNMIK, stated Ceku’s spokesperson Ulpiana Lama. Ceku has a Croatian citizenship, and receives Croatian retirement, and has Croatian passport, but he applied and obtained Albanian passport.

Belgrade calls for compromise over Kosovo

Associated Press, Saturday, December 02, 2006 8:39 AM

BELGRADE, Serbia-Serbia's foreign minister called for a compromise solution over the breakaway province of Kosovo, saying in comments published Saturday that this would be the only way to reconcile the opposing positions of Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

In an interview to Belgrade-based Beta news agency, Vuk Draskovic said any solution should be a compromise between respecting Serbia's territorial integrity and accommodating the demands by Kosovo's ethnic Albanians for full independence.

Although still formally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by a U.N. administration as an international protectorate since 1999, after NATO airstrikes ended a crackdown by Belgrade on separatist ethnic Albanian rebels. The U.N. has been mediating talks on the province's future status.

"Serbia is focused on defending integrity of its territory," Draskovic was quoted as saying, reiterating Belgrade's insistence that it cannot agree to a complete secession of Kosovo.

Draskovic said that the opposing positions "must be bridged by a compromise solution."

The ethnic Albanian's demand to control Kosovo is "legitimate" Draskovic said, "but so is Serbia's demand that there must be no change of borders."

He did not elaborate on a possible compromise, but acknowledged that the ongoing negotiations, steered by Western powers and Russia, could produce a result that would be "difficult and painful for Serbia."

Serbs see Kosovo as an integral part of their nation and want Belgrade to retain some form of control. They also fear discrimination against the province's Serb minority, much of which fled to the rest of Serbia after 1999, fearing reprisal attacks. Those who remain live in enclaves that are heavily guarded by NATO-led peacekeepers.

But the ethnic Albanians, who comprise about 90 percent of Kosovo's population, hope to see the last link with Belgrade removed.

"A compromise solution would be in the interest of both sides, it would be the only sustainable solution," Draskovic said, reiterating Belgrade's offer of a broad autonomy for the province.

A conclusion of the talks, originally expected by the end of the year, has been postponed until after Jan. 21 elections in Serbia, due to fears that an outcome could incite anti-Western sentiment in Serbia and play into the hands of right-wing and nationalist groups.

Some Serb hard-liners have called for Belgrade to sever diplomatic ties with any country that might recognize Kosovo as an independent state. Draskovic warned against such a move.

"Severing diplomatic relations would only mean a step back for us, a return to isolation," he said, referring to Serbia's pariah status during 1990s under former president Slobodan Milosevic.

Kosovo Police Service physically abuses citizens

KIM Radio, Caglavica, December 2, 2006

On November 27 in the village of Firaja near Strpce a special unit of the Kosovo Police Service stopped Nenad Kapetanovic and Miodrag Ristic from Gusterica and physically abused them. The two Serb men were then taken to Urosevac where they were detained for about two hours, one of the victims told KIM Radio.

"They looked at our documents and searched the car. Then they told us to get out of the car. My friend got out first and I followed. This physical abuse lasted about two and a half hours. Then they took us to the detention facility and released us at about 11. First they beat us up thoroughly, and then they said sorry. They asked us where we lived. We said in Gusterica, and they said, no, not in Gusterica but in the country of Kosovo," said Nenad Kapetanovic.

KPS spokesman Veton Elshani said he was not familiar with this incident. He added that when something like this does occur the police follows general police principles and investigates the case.

"In cases such as these, we at the KPS have a special procedure. Citizens to whom something like this happens are responsible for reporting incidents to the nearest police station. Then we investigate the case. Disciplinary measures are initiated against members of the police who commit such acts," said Elshani.

Kapetanovic said that he tried to report the case to the police station in Lipljan but administrators there refused to file the report and sent him to complain to the police station in Urosevac.

"I went to Lipljan and no one there wanted to hear me out. We went outside and they told me that I couldn't file a complaint there but in Urosevac. Today I was visited by police from Lipljan who took my statement," said Kapetanovic.

However, representatives in the police station in Lipljan claim that the incident was not reported. According to KPS spokesman Veton Elshani an investigation will be initiated immediately tomorrow.

Kosovo PM tries to win Russia over on independence

Reuters, 30 Nov 2006 19:18:39 GMT By James Kilner

(Updates with invitation to visit Zagreb)

MOSCOW, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku courted the Russian government on Thursday to persuade it to drop resistance to independence for Kosovo, Serbia's breakaway province of 2 million Albanians.

Ceku, a former guerrilla commander, was the first Kosovo leader to visit Russia -- a traditional ally of Serbia -- since NATO expelled Serb troops and the United Nations started governing the region in 1999.

Kosovo, with the sympathy of Western powers, wants independence and has promised to protect the rights of the Serb minority living in the province.

"We just don't want to be ruled by Belgrade any more," Ceku told reporters. "But we do want the Serbs to remain in Kosovo."

Serbia has sought to play down the significance of Ceku's trip to Russia. But adding a new diplomatic feather to Ceku's cap, his spokeswoman said the interim premier had received an invitation while in Moscow from Croatia's President Stipe Mesic and would fly direct to Zagreb for talks on Friday.

Serbia says Ceku is a war criminal, and called it an unfriendly act when former sister state Montenegro hosted him this month.

Russia holds a veto in the U.N. Security Council which means it can block any motion granting Kosovo independence. The Kremlin says independence can be granted only through official negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina.

"If we have a package (presented to the Security Council) which ensures all the rights of minorities in Kosovo then personally I don't see the need for Russia to use its veto," Ceku said.

About 2 million people live in Kosovo, of whom about 100,000 are Serbs, many living in isolated enclaves. Serbs have been the target of revenge attacks and discrimination since the war.

Ceku met Russian deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov and members of parliament's foreign affairs committee, but despite his enthusiasm a statement by Russia's Foreign Ministry suggested there had been no change in its position.

"It was noted that the Kosovan-Albanian leadership has the bulk of responsibility of making sure there are no extremist campaigns on Kosovan territory which could only complicate the process of stabilisation," the statement said.

It insisted that only direct talks could bring independence.

Russia has said independence would set a precedent for pro-Russian separatist drives by parts of Moldova and Georgia.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has warned that any state which recognises an independent Kosovo in the future will suffer consequences in its relations with Belgrade.

Croatian government sources confirmed the visit of Ceku. Ceku's aides said it would be an official visit to discuss "bilateral relations". But Croatian sources would not confirm that, saying the Kosovo leader "might" meet President Mesic. (Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina and Zoran Radosavljevic in Zagreb)

Kosovo's PM Visits Zagreb

FOCUS ENGLISH NEWS (BULGARIA), 1 December 2006 10:40

Pristine. Kosovo's PM Agim Ceku is paying a two-day visit in Zagreb at the invitation of the Croatian President Stipe Mesic and PM Ivo Sanader, the Serbian TANJUG agency informs. In the Croatian capital Ceku is to meet President Mesic and PM Sanader and discuss the situation in Kosovo before the new region's status is determined.

Kosovo Albanian PM says no Serbia accord

United Press International, November 30, 2006

MOSCOW, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian prime minister says no compromise can be reached with Belgrade on a future status of the Serbian province.

Kosovo interim Prime Minister Agim Ceku, in Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Ministry officials, Thursday said though Belgrade claims Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia, the arrangement is impossible, the Serbian news agency Tanjug reported. Ceku told reporters ethnic-Albanians do not want Belgrade govern Kosovo any longer, Tanjug said.

However, a Russian statement on the talks with Ceku said it is essential Serbian authorities in Belgrade and leaders of ethnic-Albanians work toward a compromise on Kosovo's future.

Martti Ahtisaari, the U.N. envoy chairing the Kosovo talks, is expected to announce early next year a decision on who will govern Kosovo once U.N. administrators and NATO troops leave the province.

The Belgrade government, representing 100,000 Serbs who live in Kosovo, says the province will always be part of Serbia, while leaders of ethnic-Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population, insist on independence from Belgrade.

Russia calls on authorities to determine Kosovo's status by talks

XINHUA (CHINA), 2006-12-01 04:45:33

MOSCOW, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The status of Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province should be determined by talks instead of extremist actions, Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Russia "stressed the significance of Belgrade's and Pristina's efforts to determine Kosovo's status by talks and continue international actions in order to search for mutually acceptable decisions on the base of UN Security Council Resolution No. 1244 and the Contact Group documents," the ministry said.

Kosovo Albanian leaders bear responsibility for preventing extremist actions in Kosovo that may hamper the settlement, it said following visiting Kosovar Prime Minister Agim Ceku's talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov on Thursday.

The sides "urged Pristina to comply with international standards in order to ensure rights of ethnic minorities and return Serbian refugees to the province," the ministry said.

Kosovo, a Serbian province which was torn apart by a conflict between the Serbian authorities in Belgrade and ethnic Albanian separatists, has been run by a UN mission since 1999, when NATO bombing drove out Serbian forces in response to a military crackdown against the province's 90-percent ethnic-Albanian population.

Kosovar leader says normalcy will come only through independence

Deutsche Presse Agentur, Thursday November 30, 2006

Moscow- The only way to achieve normalcy and a lasting peace in the Albanian-majority Serbian province of Kosovo is through independence, Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku said Thursday in Moscow. The Kosovar leader, speaking on Russian television channel Vesti- 24, also said he was "disappointed" by a United Nations decision to delay publication of a report on the province's status.

Ceku was in Moscow to meet for a meeting earlier in the day with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov - the first official visit the Kosovar leader had made to traditionally pro-Serbian Moscow.

The meeting was considered by analysts to be an attempt to drum up support in Moscow for full Kosovar independence.

The province has been under UN control since 1999, when NATO troops drove out the federal troops of what was then Yugoslavia amid ethnic fighting.

Since that time, Kosovo has officially been a part of Serbia, the Yugoslav successor state. Its status is expected to be definitively decided by the UN Security Council in 2007.

Ceku, a former militant, is the head of the government that has de facto ruled the province alongside UN officials who oversee a substantial range of the region's administrative functions.

The UN's special representative in Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, earlier this month delayed publication of proposals to guide Kosovo, Serbia and the so-called Contact Group of the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Italy and Britain in determining the province's status.

Ahtisaari said he would release the report after Serbian elections on January 21.

"For the province (the delay in publication) means economic and political stagnation," Ceku said Thursday on Russian television.

Ceku added that he thought Kosovo's future would be decided "a month or two" after the report's release.

The right of ethnic Serbs to return to the province, he said, is a "priority task" for the Kosovar government. Independence, he stressed, would not imperil the province's multiculturalism.

Moscow has generally favoured the Serbs, who, like Russians, are Orthodox Christian and Slavic.

The Kremlin's willingness to meet with Ceku, some analysts say, may be a sign Russia - a Security Council member that could thwart Kosovo's national aspirations - is warming to the idea of the province's independence.

Russia supports breakaway regions in the former Soviet states of Georgia and Moldova, and Kosovar independence could be used to set a precedent.

Ceku said Thursday on Vesti-24 that he hoped Moscow would help convince Belgrade to "show more realism with us." He also expressed a desire for Russia to "consider the (Kosovar) government a reliable and legitimate partner on the international arena."

The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, meanwhile, released a statement saying it had urged a diplomatic solution in Kosovo, as well as stressed the right of Serb refugees to return.

"It was especially noted," the statement said, "that the main responsibility for the prevention of extremist activities on the territory of Kosovo lies with the Albanian-Kosovar leadership."

Kurti: Serb returns could lead to war

Beta news agency, Belgrade, Wednesday, November 22, 2006 18:03

Leader of the Self-Determination movement Albin Kurti said that decentralization, extraterritoriality and mass returns of Serbs to Kosovo will not bring independence but unrest and war in Kosovo.

At a press conference in Pristina Kurti presented a brochure by the movement emphasizing the harmful effect of proposed decentralization and extraterritoriality through which Serbia is doing everything possible to leave the people of Kosovo without a government.

Kurti said that Kosovo is losing territory through the decentralization process and, referring to the existence of Serb enclave, that it would become like Palestine.

He believes that decentralization is nothing other than the beginning of a civil war that Kosovo will lose.

"Self-Determination believes that the proposal of the Kosovo side of 5+1 municipalities with a Serb majority (population) is unacceptable because it gives the Serbs a large territory that Serbia wants to have under (its) control, which at the same time can lead to division," said Kurti.

According to Kurti, the people of Kosovo should rise to their feet as in the March 2004 riots not to attack others but the Kosovo Government and UNMIK. He accused Kosovo politicians of lying to their people with statements that the independence of Kosovo is a foregone conclusion.

Ceku gets cold shoulder in Moscow over independence

ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL (ITALY), Nov-30-06 18:30

Moscow, 30 Nov. (AKI) - Kosovo prime minister Agim Ceku got a cold shoulder from Russian leaders on Thursday in an effort to rig support for independence of the province which has been under United Nations control since 1999. Ceku's visit got a low profile treatment, aimed not to offend Belgrade, which opposes independence of the province in which ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs by 17 to one. He met with deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov and president of the foreign policy committee of the Russian parliament, Konstantin Kosacov, but failed to get Moscow's commitment for independence.

Kosacov suggested that the dispute should be solved in direct negotiations with Belgrade and offered Moscow's support in "establishing direct dialogue". He said unilateral proclamation of independence, without Belgrade's consent, would be a "dangerous precedent, contrary to European standards established after the Second World War". Kosacov told journalists, after meeting with Ceku, that these standards don't allow the change of state borders without the consent of all involved.

He actually echoed Belgrade's stand that any change of borders, or unilateral recognition of Kosovo independence, would destabilize the entire region and violate the UN Charter. "Russia could help in establishing such a dialogue which would lead to a compromise that would satisfy the Serbian and the Kosovo side," he said.

Belgrade has no authority in Kosovo since its forces were pushed out of the province by NATO bombing in 1999 and is offering ethnic Albanians a large autonomy. But ethnic Albanian leaders have said they would settle for nothing short of independence, hinting they might even resort to violence to achieve that goal.

Kosacov said Ceku has repeatedly stated the interest "to maintain open and constructive relations with Serbia, but only as two sovereign states". Titov said the search for a compromise solution, based on the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 should remain the basis for solving the Kosovo dispute.

Resolution 1244, which put Kosovo under UN control with strong international civilian and military presence, states that Kosovo is officially a part of Serbia. But the international community has been gradually moving towards granting Kosovo independence and, after eight failed rounds of negotiations, it is expected to make a final status decision early next year.

Russia is the only member of a six-nation Contact Group for Kosovo that has openly opposed independence. Other members of the group, which should make a final status proposal, are the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany.

Flag Day demonstrations in Pristina turn into riots against UN

KiM Info Newsletter 29-11-06

Albanian Flag Day demonstrations in Pristina turn into open riots and destruction of UN property

Reminiscences of March 2004 riots. This time Pan-Albanian Flag Day"celebration" turned only against internationals but Serbs now even more fear for their future in such violent Kosovo (riots in front of UN HQ building in Pristina, Nov 28)

KIM Info-service, November 29, 2006

U.N. police in Kosovo fired teargas to disperse ethnic Albanian protesters lobbing stones at the U.N. HQ on Tuesday. Thousands of protesters demonstrating against U.N.-led efforts to decide the fate of the breakaway province, smashed windows and threw red paint on the UN HQ building during a rampage through the capital. The crowd was dispersed after U.N. riot police fired teargas from inside the U.N. compound.

According to the  Kosovo police statement the demonstrations led by Albin Kurti, the leader of the radical organization "Self-Determination" (Vetevendosje) turned into open riots in front of the UN Mission builiding in Pristina. The rioters violently removed the 4m high protecting fence and began throwing incineratinf devices on policemen in front of the building. The rioters threw rocks and the red paint on office windows. In order to prevent further damage to the UN property and attacks on its personnel the UN riot police used teargas to disperse the crowd.

However, the police did not report that anyone has been arrested after the riots as the international police remained barricaded in the UN compound area. KFOR vehicles and soldiers were not noticed during the violent events.

UN HQ building after the visit of Albin Kurti's "peaceful protesters", Nov 28, Pristina, Kosovo Is this gratitude of Kosovo for billions of euros invested into the Province after 1999 war?

Self-determination movement is a radical organization which is supporting proclamation of Kosovo's independence without negotiations and international mediation. Their activists have organized dozens of rallies throughout Kosovo openly speaking against negotiations with Serbia and against decentralization, return of refugees and protection of Serbian holy sites which they brand as "partition, recolonisation and extrateritoriality".  Self-determination acts ususally together with most radical elements of the former KLA and many of their activists have been arrested by Kosovo police for their violent actions and destruction of the international property. "They gave us hope that they could grow into a constructive youth movement but I am afraid they are turning into an open faschist organization", said one high international representative in Pristina expressing serious fears that Self-determination is acting in a counter-productive way for the Albanian population in Kosovo too.

Political analysts think that the Self-Determination together with most radical right-wing Albanian organizations in Kosovo want so called "unification of all Albanian lands (Ethnic Albania)" and see Kosovo's independence as only one step in that direction. Their rethoric, aggressive methods, open hatred against non-Albanian communities and internationals as well as glorification of most extreme KLA elements give a grim picture of ideals of at least one part of Kosovo Albanian youth. Self-determination has never condemned any post-war crime against Kosovo Serbs nor has shown that in their vision of Kosovo's future exists anyone else but ethnic Albanians. On the other hand their rethoric is following the old patterns of Communist time anti-Western ideology presenting the international community as the enemy of Albanians, neo-colonisers and imperialists.

Kosovo Serb organizations lodged a protest to the UN Mission because the Flag Day was proclaimed a non-working day in Kosovo. "This holiday does not reflect the tradition of all Kosovo's citizens and gives a wrong message for the Province's future" Kosovo Serb politicians advised.

Hardly any window on the UN building remained intact after the riots

Pristina, Nov 28, 2006

Here is a part of Self-determination proclamation distributed before the Flag Day explaining why this holiday is celebrated by Albanians:

"The 28th November has a special symbolism in the national history of Albanians. The first ‘28th November’ was the liberation of Krujë by Gjergj Kastrioti ‘Skenderbeu’ 563 years ago. Throughout a quarter of a century he led the Albanian war against the greatest empire of that time, the Ottoman Empire. The second marked the declaration of independence on Flag Day by what remained of Albania in 1912. Over half of Albanian lands remained outside the official Albanian state. The conference of Ambassdors in London in 1913 legalized this fragmentation.

Nine years ago, was the third great ‘November’. On 28th November, the KLA publicly appeared. And the legendary commander of the KLA, Adem Jashari, was born on 28th November 1952. Despite all our unending suffering through the centuries, the bloody wars and losses suffered, the Albanian people face another danger. Albanian lands outside official Albania have been subjected to fragmentation and to the control of our unrelenting enemy, Serbia. The people of Kosova are now oppressed by the political institutions of UNMIK. They are trampling our rights in every field of social life: politics and education, economy and health.

Serbia is the one that continues her hegemonic aggression towards Kosova, she is making plans to fragment our homeland through decentralization. Our enmity with this criminal state is not a matter of history: it belongs to the present and therefore endangers us in the future. With ‘ext-erritoriality’, decentralization and recolonization, Serbia is intending the consolidation and institutionalization of her state inside Kosova...The three projects through which the government of Serbia is intending the institutionalization and strengthening of the participation of its state in over 1/3 of our country are decentralization, ‘exterritoriality’ of Orthodox churches and monasteries and the recolonization of Kosova" (quoted from Self-Determination bulletin 19, November 26, Pristina)

UN personnel and journalists found refuge on the top of the building  while at least 5000 rioters smashed the windows and painted the building red

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Albanians in South Serbia Remove Serbian, Display Albanian Flag

Preševo, 28 Nov. (Tanjug)

Albanians in Preševo removed the Serbian flag and instead displayed three Albanian flags.

Serbian flag was taken off the municipal building as part of the Albanian national holiday celebrations in the south of Serbia. Preševo municipal president Ragmi Mustafa told journalists that the display of Albanian flags instead of the Serbian should ”not be viewed as an incident”, adding that ”Albanians in Serbia have the right to their own symbols”.

Democratic Union president Skender Destani meanwhile expressed his dissatisfaction with the act, and said it left him “surprised, depressed and offended”. He told journalists that had he seen the flag removed and replaced, he would’ve left the Albanian Flag Day celebrations. He also asked for the authorities to establish who is responsible for the event.

Some 2,000 local Albanians, mostly elementary and high school students took part in the ceremonies in Preševo.

The organizers played the Albanian national anthem, after which the gathering paid tribute to the dead members of the officially disbanded Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac Liberation Army (UCPMB).

The stage holding the choir collapsed at the end of the ceremony, but no one was injured.

Blast damages Serb school in Kosovo

KiM Info Newsletter 22-11-06

Explosion in Serb school in Veliko Ropotovo, no one hurt

KOSOVSKA KAMENICA, November 21, 2006 (Beta news agency, Belgrade)

An explosion occurred this morning at about 8:00 a.m. in a classroom at the Trajko Peric Elementary School in the village of Veliko Ropotovo near Kosovska Kamenica but none of the pupils or teachers were hurt.

The head of school administration for the Kosovsko Pomoravlje region Zivorad Tomic told Beta news agency that, according to some reports, an explosive device was thrown into the stove in a fifth grade classroom.

"At the time of the explosion none of the students was in the classroom. They were in an adjoining classroom because their teacher was absent for his patron saint's day, and consequently a tragedy was avoided," said Tomic.

The explosion completely demolished the classroom and was so strong that the door was blown out of its frame, said Tomic.

He said that an investigation by members of UNMIK police is in progress.

Classes in the school have been cancelled for the day and will not resume until every corner has been checked and it is established that the school is now safe.

The elementary school building also houses extension sections of the general secondary school and the technical secondary school from Kosovska Kamenica. A total of 450 students of Serb nationality attend classes there in two sessions.

The preschool center "Pcelica Maja" located close to the school has also been closed, said Tomic.

He added that all appropriate officials of Serbia have been notified of the explosion.

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Police: School explosion probably caused by a hand grenade

KOSOVSKA KAMENICA, November 21, 2006 (Beta news agency, Belgrade)

Kosovo Police Service spokesman Veton Elsani said today that on the basis of collected evidence it is suspected that the explosion in the school in Veliko Ropotovo near Kosovska Kamenica was caused by a hand grenade thrown into a stove in a fifth grade classroom.

An investigation is in progress and on the basis of collected information it is suspected that the explosive device thrown into the stove was a hand grenade, Elsani said in a statement for Beta news agency.

None of the students or teachers was hurt in the explosion that occurred this morning at 7:50 a.m. in the Trajko Peric Elementary School, representatives of the KPS confirmed, adding that the explosion destroyed the heating stove and damaged a part of the classroom wall.

Police have taken statements from three school employees, said Elsani.

The Trajko Peric Elementary School building also houses extension sections of the general secondary school and the technical secondary school from Kosovska Kamenica. A total of 450 students of Serb nationality attend classes there in two sessions.

Before the explosion occurred students were transferred from that classroom to another because their teacher was absent because of his patron saint's day.

Classes in the school begin at 7:30 a.m. and assistant employees came to work at 6:30 a.m.

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School bus transporting Serb and Roma children stoned

OBILIC, November 20, 2006 (Beta news agency, Belgrade)

A group of Albanians stoned a school bus transporting Serb and Roma children in the center of Obilic today, the Coordinating Center has advised.

According to a written statement, none of the students from Crkvene Vodice and Obilic taking the bus to school in Plemetina was hurt. The thrown stones made dents in the bus.

Since a wave of Albanian violence on March 17, 2004, there are no more Serbs living in Obilic.

Obilic municipal coordinator Mirce Jakovljevic said that the attack on the bus is proof that the portrait of the alleged security the Kosovo government and members of the international community wish to show is false.

"The stoning of a bus with Serb children in front of the Obilic Municipal Assembly building shows that standards have not been met and that Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija do not have freedom of movement," said Jakovljevic in a statement for the Coordinating Center's International Press Center.

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Humanitarian Disaster Threatens Kosovo Serb Enclaves

Brussels, 21 Nov (Tanjug)

Deputy President of the Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija and head of the Economic Team for Kosovo and southern Serbia Nenad Popovic told EU officials in Brussels on Tuesday that humanitarian disaster threatened Kosovo Serb enclaves if power cuts continued during the winter and unless Serbian government's assistance of 50 million kW of electricity per month were not accepted.

The situation in Kosovo is dramatic because humanitarian disaster is threatening in view of the fact that Serbs in enclaves do not have electricity several hours per day, which is not normal for the 21st century and is a human rights violation, Popovic said after a meeting with EU special envoy to negotiations on Kosovo Stefan Lehne.

''We insisted the most on the Serbian government's humanitarian assistance, based on the letter which Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has sent to Javier Solana,'' on the assistance of 50 million kW per month for mostly Serb-populated settlements, Popovic said. He voiced hope that UNMIK and authorities in Pristina would take this offer.

''Unless this is done soon, humanitarian disaster may occur,'' Popovic sand and added that ''discrimination against Albanians is out of the question, because they will use this assistance too.''

Popovic informed his interlocutors in Brussels about nine Serbian government initiatives for Kosovo-Metohija - primarily in the electric power, trade, transport and telecommunications sectors. ''All interlocutors generally received all ideas positively,'' Popovic said and added that he had insisted that all initiatives be in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and to be coordinated with UNMIK.

He said that the Economic Team would arrive in Brussels again in late December and present a long-term strategy for the economic development of Kosovo-Metohija.

Popovic warned his EU interlocutors that ''independent Kosovo would be not economically viable.''

''This would be an economic disaster and would result in major instability throughout the region in the long run,'' he said.

''From the economic point of view, essential autonomy for Kosovo would be the optimum solution and would offer a possibility for the attraction of foreign direct investments,'' Popovic said.

He also met in Brussels on Tuesday with head of the European Commission's West Balkans Directorate Theresa Sobieski and head of the delegation for South-East Europe at the European Parliament Doris Pack.

Popovic will on Wednesday meet with European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs.

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Kosovo Serbs: Humanitarian Catastrophe

Kosovska Mitrovica, 19 Nov (B92)

Kosovo Serb representatives Marko Jakšić and Milan Ivanović say there is a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Kosovo today.

In a press conference called in reaction to power cuts that lasted for hours and to what he called vandalism toward Telekom’s equipment in Kosovo, Jakšić said that UNMIK chief Joachim Ruecker was acting like "a Kosovo government member, rather than a high UNMIK official".

"He [Rucker] is one of those who authored the looting privatization and the economic discrimination against Serbs and Serb-owned companies, and is charged with driving everything that even reminds of Serbs and the Serb state away from Kosovo", Jakšić said.

In his words, "out of 190 privatized companies in Kosovo not a single one is owned by a Serb, which means that the property belonging to one nation is taken and given to another".

Jakšić said that beside the physical violence and persecution that the Serbs suffer at the hands of the Albanians, UNMIK is undertaking "torture on the economic level", and called on Rucker to "stop jeopardizing Serb interests making the lives of Serbs impossible."

Serb National Council (SNV) president Milan Ivanović said that the situation in the province has deteriorated and dubbed it a humanitarian catastrophe.

Ivanović said the Montenegrin opposition leaders would be visiting Kosovo on Monday, as well as that he expected them to, after being acquainted with the situation in Kosovo, "support the only just solution, Kosovo’s future as a part of Serbia".

Goran Bogdanovic, member of the Serbian negotiation team, remarked UNMIK representatives that in the past seven years they have failed to provide return for the dispersed and freedom of movement for the ones that remained in the province.

In economical sense UNMIK failed to equally distribute funds it received from the international community, so great majority of the money went to places inhabited by Kosovo Albanian majority, said Bogdanovic.

He also said UNMIK failed to crack down crime and corruption, at the same time pointing out that there are people in side UNMIK who are susceptible to corruption.

Oliver Ivanovic, president of the Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija, stated that in its first phase UNMIK attempted to present Bosnian recipe in Kosovo, but failed it this. Second phase was between 2001 and 2004 when UNMIK was confused because there was no Milosevic and no basis for anti-Serbian moods, at the same time having hard time changing that mood. 17th of March of 2004, marked the third UNMIK phase when they realized they were in cooperation with the wrong people. They drew out two conclusions. First is that Serbian community is threatened and the second one is that there immediately have to be Kosovo status talks.

Ivanovic concluded that UNMIK representatives came to Kosovo in order to routinely resolve problems in spite the fact that Kosovo problems are much more complicated then the ones in Bosnia and other similar missions.

-----

Kosovo Police station opened in Velika Hoca, Serbs unhappy

VELIKA HOCA, November 20, 2006 (Beta news agency)

Representatives of Orahovac municipality and the international community opened a Kosovo Police Station substation today in Velika Hoca in the presence of members of KFOR and the Kosovo Protection Corps, which has caused unhappiness among local Serbs.

None of the local residents of the medieval Serb village in Metohija attended the ceremony because, as some of them said, now is not the time to open a KPS substation in Velika Hoca.

During the opening, local residents went to the office of Orahovac deputy mayor Ljubisa Djuricic and Orahovac coordinator Dejan Baljosevic to protest the presence of members of the KPC at the opening of the police substation, local residents Bojan Nakalamic, Strahinja Stasic and Zoran Petkovic emphasized.

In their statements the local residents blamed their representatives for allowing the opening of the substation with two Serb and two Albanian employees without the knowledge of the villagers.

Coordinator Dejan Bajosevic told Beta that there was talk at the municipal level last year regarding opening a police substation to employ 60 percent Serbs and 40 percent members of other nationalities.

Bajosevic said that necessary conditions for this have not yet been created because not one Serb from Velika Hoca has succeeded in passing the entrance exam for the KPS School since the year 2000.

Orahovac police chief Adem Krasniqi emphasized in a statement for Beta after learning that the citizens of Velika Hoca disagreed with the move that KPS members would try to do its job but that the station can always be closed if there is considerable resistance among the citizens.

Baljosevic said that currently 22 young men from Velika Hoca have registered for the police course to take place in March so that they could assume duty at the beginning of 2008.

U.S. Expert Warns That Kosovo Independence Would Affect Montenegro

FOCUS ENGLISH NEWS (BULGARIA), 29 November 2006 15:41

Washington. U.S. political analyst John Zevales on Wednesday warned that a possible independence of Kosovo would have an effect on the demands of the Albanians in Montenegro and the government of the Republic of Srpska (RS), whose aspiration is to get united with their motherlands, the Serbian Tanjug agency comments.

Earlier he has stated that if the European Union soon assumes formal responsibility for Kosovo, one should not rule out a possibility that Brussels may have its own plan for the future status of the province.

Protesters Paint-bomb Kosovo Government Seat And Assembly Buildings

Deutsche Presse Agentur, 04:15 PM, November 28th 2006

Thousands of Albanian demonstrators threw bottles with red paint at the Kosovo government seat and parliament buildings in Pristina, demanding immediate independence for the province and protesting at ongoing talks with Serbia.

The protest, led by the Vetevendosje (Self-determination) group of the former Kosovo Albanian student leader Albin Kurti, had snowballed into a large crowd of at least 5,000 an hour after it began.

The protest was called on the Flag Day in Albania proper, a national holiday. Several windows on either building in central Pristina were smashed by the paint-filled bottles.

Kurti wants an immediate end of any talks with Serbia, which still claims sovereignty over Kosovo, and the departure of the UN mission that has been governing the province since NATO ousted Belgrade's security forces from it in 1999.

Virtually all leaders representing the vastly dominant Kosovo Albanian majority want full independence quickly, but have agreed to talks with Serbia, launched 10 months ago, in a bid to secure sovereignty with the blessing of the international community.

The talks failed to bring the two sides any closer. A UN envoy, Martti Ahtisaari, is due to reveal his proposal for the resolution of the Kosovo issue after the January 21 parliamentary polls in Serbia.

Several Vetvendosje activists were arrested on the Albanian Flag Day last year after they smeared UN buildings and vehicles with paint.

So far Tuesday, there have been no arrests in Pristina.

Balkan reality intrudes on NATO's grand plans

SERBIANNA (USA), November 28, 2006 8:24 AM

 

RIGA, Latvia-NATO leaders are preoccupied with the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and an effort to transform their alliance into a global security organization. But it's still dogged by problems closer to home: the possibility of renewed unrest in the Balkans if Kosovo gains independence as expected next year.

 

Speaking before a summit in the Latvian capital, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer made it clear that NATO could not afford to neglect Kosovo.

 

"I can assure anybody who wants to spoil things there that ... KFOR is there to prevent anything from happening," he said, referring to the NATO force that has been keeping the peace between majority ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs in the province since 1999.

 

On Tuesday, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Gen. James L. Jones, held up the flexibility of alliance forces in Kosovo as an example of how they need to be used in Afghanistan, where a number of contributing nations have placed restrictions, or caveats, on their use in the Taliban's southern strongholds.

 

"We have 16,000 NATO troops (in Kosovo), and there are virtually no restrictions no national caveats," he told a security conference.

 

"Kosovo was (also) overwhelmingly restricted by caveats, but we learned a lesson," Jones said, referring to deadly rioting by ethnic Albanians that shook the region in March 2004.

 

The need to keep a large NATO garrison in Kosovo has caused problems for Jones, who has been calling for the alliance to come up with 2,500 additional soldiers to beef up its 32,800 troops in Afghanistan.

 

Kosovo is the final unresolved problem stemming from the series of wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, which claimed the lives of about 200,000 people.

 

The province has been an international protectorate since NATO forced the Serbian army to cede control following a short war seven years ago. The international community is now awaiting a proposal by U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari on its future status.

 

Belgrade, which insists that the province must not gain independence, has already indicated it will not accept any proposal that severs its links to the province. But ethnic Albanians, who comprise 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million population, are equally adamant that they will only accept full independence.

 

Complicating matters further for NATO is the likelihood that any precedent created by the breakup of an existing European state will almost certainly be exploited to justify secessionist moves elsewhere. This is particularly true of Georgia, whose breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are also intent on independence.

 

After a series of delays, Ahtisaari's ruling on Kosovo's status has been delayed until after Serbian elections in January. Expecting trouble, NATO recently dispatched reinforcements to the Serb-inhabited north of the province and reopened two army bases there.

 

"There is a real potential for renewed violence in Kosovo," said Tim Judah, a Balkan expert. "If there is a delay or if the resolution is unclear, Albanian hard-liners will start to lose patience and bust out their Kalashnikovs."

 

Judah predicted an "intermediate solution" for the province. "This in effect is that Serbia loses Kosovo, but Kosovo loses the north, a sort of Cyprus in the middle of Europe," he said.

 

Paradoxically, although NATO bombed Serbia in 1999, and although Belgrade remains outside NATO's Partnership for Peace program to groom potential candidates for membership, it is now preparing to welcome the first Serbian contingent in Afghanistan.

 

In Belgrade, a defense ministry spokesman said that 20 army doctors will join a Norwegian field hospital in the town of Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.

 

Serbia, along with Bosnia-Herzegovina and tiny Montenegro, expects to be inducted into the PFP next year. Meanwhile, two other ex-Yugoslav states, Croatia and Macedonia, are hoping to join NATO in 2008, along with Albania.

 

"By 2008, I hope we will have less NATO in the Balkans, but more Balkans in NATO," de Hoop Scheffer said Tuesday.

Kosovo: The Next Yugoslav War

STRATFOR (USA), November 28, 2006 21 50 GMT

 

Summary

 

Approximately 3,000 ethnic Albanians protested outside the U.N. headquarters in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, on Nov. 28. The impatience illustrated by this protest is likely to precipitate another conflict in the Balkans after the United Nations grants Kosovo its independence.

 

Analysis

 

U.N. police fired tear gas to disperse some 3,000 ethnic Albanian protesters who surrounded the U.N. headquarters of the Kosovar capital of Pristina on Nov. 28.

 

After getting NATO support in 1999 to secure their provisional break from Serbia, Kosovar Albanians have grown weary of waiting for full and official independence from Belgrade. Serbs consider Kosovo to be the birthplace of their national identity and view Kosovar Albanians as little more than a recent infestation, though the province's population is now more than 90 percent Albanian and less than 5 percent Serbian. The Albanians want nothing less than independence, and for the Albanians the Serbs want anything shy of it.

 

A final U.N. decision -- which will almost certainly recommend some version of independence for Kosovo -- has been delayed so as to not offend Serbian sensibilities. On Jan. 21, Serbia will hold national parliamentary elections in which the current (relatively) pro-Western government coalition will likely be trounced by the Serbian Radicals, the party that once formed the junior (and heavily nationalist) partner in the government run by former strongman Slobodan Milosevic. The U.N. hope is that if a decision on Kosovo is delayed from late 2006 to early 2007, the Serbs will elect anyone but the Radicals. That is, at best, a long shot, but for the international community it is really the only option for shaping the Serb environment.

 

The waiting, however, is not something the Kosovars are particularly appreciative of and protests like those of Nov. 28 are likely to be repeated -- often -- until the United Nations finally cuts Kosovo loose.

 

And that is when things will get interesting -- and probably bloody. At that point the Serbs will have lost control of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo, making their national humiliation complete. At that point they will also likely be sporting a government led by a party that Milosevic himself considered a bit too rabid, and whose leader is currently undergoing trial in The Hague for war crimes. Armed with the tools of state, it would be, well, radical for the Radicals to not take radical steps to address and compensate for these defeats.

 

In the past when Belgrade has intervened in (or initiated) conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, it has favored informal militias, a tool that certainly remains within the toolbox. The Serb-populated half of Bosnia -- Republika Srpska -- is vehemently pro-Serbia and packed with people who would be willing to take up arms for the Serbian cause. In fact, Republika Srpskan leaders have regularly threatened to secede from Bosnia proper and merge with Serbia should Kosovo be allowed to go its own way. The next logical step would be a conflict supported, or even initiated, by Belgrade to redraw Republika Srpska's borders to include Serbian lands that were lost in the 1990s.

 

A similar process could occur in Montenegro, where a referendum resulted in independence from Serbia in May. There, more than 40 percent of the population voted against independence, mostly among those who -- like in Republika Srpska -- still consider themselves ethnically Serbian.

 

Finally, there is Kosovo itself. There, the Serbs do not make up nearly a high enough percentage of the population to attempt any meaningful military or paramilitary operations. But Belgrade has means other than local militia to work its will in Kosovo. When Serbia decided in 1999 that the time had come to reassert full central control over the rebellious province, it did not support local Serb militia. It sent in the army.

 

Although European and U.S. forces maintain a presence in both Bosnia and Kosovo, those forces are a shadow of what they were years ago and are barely enough to assist in police actions, much less fight off a dedicated Serbian effort. The last time conflict wracked the region, in the 1990s, the carnage persisted for four years before the West managed to intervene and impose the Dayton Accords. This time around -- with most of the West's deployable forces bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the question is much starker: Can NATO and/or the United States even attempt to counter what will likely be near-simultaneous Serbian moves in Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo?

U.N. police fire tear gas at protesters in Kosovo

Associated Press, Tuesday, November 28, 2006 10:55 AM

PRISTINA, Serbia-United Nations police in Kosovo fired tear gas Tuesday to disperse protesters who overturned a concrete barrier shielding the U.N. headquarters in the capital Pristina.

Some three thousand ethnic Albanians rallied outside the building to protest ongoing talks with Serbia on the future of the province, which is currently part of Serbia but under U.N. administration.

Before reaching the U.N. premises protesters pelted the provincial  government's building with stones and splashed red paint, symbolizing blood,  on its walls. No injuries or arrests were immediately reported.
The demonstration was called by a group known as "Self-determination" that is opposed to U.N. brokered negotiations between Kosovo leaders and Serbia's officials.

Kosovo has been run by the U.N. since 1999, when NATO bombing ended a crackdown by Belgrade on separatist ethnic Albanian rebels. Since February, the U.N. has been mediating talks to determine the province's final status. The majority ethnic Albanians want independence, but its Serb minority and Belgrade want Kosovo to remain part of Serbia.

Tuesday's rally came a day after police increased security measures following unspecified threats against U.N. personnel serving as part of the administration that runs the province. The organization said the threats were serious and credible.

Members of "Self-determination" have vandalized U.N. vehicles and the headquarters building in the past. The head of the group, former student leader Albin Kurti, has been apprehended several times.

Recently, Kurti held rallies in Kosovo's rural areas calling for an end to the status talks, claiming that decentralization - a central part of the negotiations aimed at improving the rights of minorities - would split the province into an ethic Albanian part and a Serb-controlled part.

"We believe Kosovo does not lack status, but the people of Kosovo lack freedom and that is freedom to self-determination," Kurti told AP.

Kosovo Albanians attack UN; police fire teargas

Reuters, 28 Nov 2006 17:35:54 GMT By Matt Robinson (Adds quotes, background)

PRISTINA, Serbia, Nov 28 (Reuters) - U.N. police in Kosovo fired teargas on Tuesday to disperse ethnic Albanians who smashed the windows of parliament and stoned U.N. headquarters, angry at a delay to their demand for independence from Serbia.

Thousands of protesters converged on the main symbols of authority in the capital, Pristina, throwing red paint on the buildings of the U.N. mission and Kosovo's interim government.

They dispersed after U.N. police fired teargas from inside the U.N. compound, a fortified square on the site of a former Serb military headquarters.

It was the first sign of a violent backlash since Western powers and Russia this month decided to delay a U.N. decision on the Albanian majority's demand for independence until next year.

The United Nations, which has run Kosovo since NATO bombs drove out Serb
forces in 1999, on Monday reported "credible threats" to its personnel and property. It stepped up security but did not link the warning to Tuesday's demonstration.

Protest leader Albin Kurti, a former political prisoner in Serbia, promised more rallies in the capital.

"Pristina is the centre and source of all the bad things that are happening to Kosovo," he told the crowd.

Albanians greeted NATO and the United Nations as saviours when they wrested control of Kosovo from Serbia in 1999, ending a Serb counter-insurgency campaign that the West said was becoming a bloodbath. But the mood has soured over seven years of political limbo and economic stagnation.

The Kosovo government called for calm, and for people to "distance themselves from such acts". A U.N. spokesman refused to comment on the violence.

DELAY

The West had promised a decision on Kosovo's final status this year, but opted to delay until after a general election in Serbia on Jan. 21, hoping to spare pro-Western parties the impact of a decision that may go against their country.

Diplomats say Kosovo ultimately is likely to win some form of independence, supervised by the European Union. But the timeframe and path to statehood remain unclear.

Kurti's followers say Kosovo should simply vote for its independence, rather than negotiate with Serbia.

Serb-Albanian talks began in February, but have produced little sign of compromise. U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari is expected to present his proposal on "final status" by February. But a new U.N. resolution could take months longer still.

U.N. veto holder and sometime Serb ally Russia insists the solution must satisfy Serbia, which says the amputation of Kosovo -- its religious cradle -- would violate international law.

Serbia lost control of Kosovo in 1999, when NATO intervened to halt atrocities by Serb forces in a two-year war with guerrillas. Some 10,000 Albanians died and 800,000 fled.

Around 100,000 Serbs remain, many in isolated enclaves watched over by a 17,000-strong NATO-led force of peacekeepers whose main task is now to prevent violence by Albanian extremists. (Additional reporting by Shaban Buza and Fatos Bytyci)

Kosovo protesters attack UN site

BBC (UK), Tuesday, 28 November 2006, 19:26 GMT

UN police and local security forces have used teargas to disperse thousands of ethnic Albanian protesters in the Kosovan capital, Pristina.

Protesters smashed windows and threw red paint at the Kosovo parliament, government building and UN compound.

The pro-independence Vetvendosja (Self-Determination) movement held the rally to show opposition to further negotiations on Kosovo's future status. 

Kosovo is still legally part of Serbia, but is run by a UN administration.

The demonstrators want the right to vote on independence from Serbia.

The international negotiating countries - the Contact Group - have delayed a decision on Kosovo's status until after Serbia's general election on 21 January.

Serbian voters have already approved a new constitution asserting that Kosovo is an integral part of the country.

Kosovo has been under UN control since 1999 - the year that a Nato bombing campaign forced Serbia to pull its forces out of the province.

Nato's action was prompted by Belgrade's harsh crackdown on ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo. Serb violence against civilians triggered a huge exodus of ethnic Albanians to neighbouring countries.

The Contact Group is made up of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the US.

UNHCR: The Balkans at a crossroads

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Date: 28 Nov 2006

The Balkans at a crossroads: Progress and challenges in finding durable solutions for refugees and displaced persons from the wars in the former Yugoslavia

Introduction

Over ten years after the signature of the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, steady progress has been made in finding durable solutions for the hundreds of thousands of persons displaced by the wars in the former Yugoslavia. By September 2004, returns to and within Bosnia and Herzegovina reached the one million landmark figure. The number of persons in need of durable solutions (refugees and internally displaced) in the former Yugoslavia, which peaked at over two million during the Bosnian crisis in 1992-95 and the Kosovo crisis in 1999, decreased to less than one million by the end of 2003 and to approximately 560,000 by mid-2006.

Yet, behind these encouraging trends, the picture is more nuanced. Most of the refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who found durable solutions were those displaced by the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in the first half of the 1990s. But the majority of the IDPs and refugees who fled the Kosovo province of Serbia and Montenegro after the ousting of the Yugoslav army and the return of the ethnic Albanian majority in mid 1999 are still in their places of displacement and the situation of the minorities remaining in Kosovo is still precarious, as the analysis below shows. From an institutional point of view, there is still some "unfinished business" (1) in the Western Balkans: in June 2006 Montenegro declared independence and was admitted to the UN, spelling the end of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, a loose confederation that replaced the remnants of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The final status of the Kosovo province of Serbia is also being discussed, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1244.

As result of this situation, UNHCR's operations in the Western Balkans are centred on two themes: "Post-Dayton" refugees and IDPs (from the wars in Croatia and Bosnia) and refugees and IDPs from Kosovo. A third theme, beyond the scope of this paper, is the development of asylum legislation and procedures in accordance with international standards, in line with UNHCR's traditional mandate.

Note:

(1) See for example, "Unfinished Business in the Balkans", by James Dobbins, Rand Corporation, Testimony Presented to the US Committee on Foreign Relations, 14 July 2004.

Full report (pdf* format - 86.4 KB)

Kosovo: Calm Now, But Nervously Approaching Final Status

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS, November 2006, pages 48-49 By Peter Lippman

Graffiti on the walls of Prizren, courtesy of Vetevenjosje ("self-determination") activists, proclaim, "12:44: Time's Up-UNMIK Go  Home," a reference to the U.N. resolution establishing Kosovo as a U.N. protectorate (Photo P. Lippman).

SEVEN YEARS have passed since the 1998-99 war in Kosovo and NATO's intervention, which forced the withdrawal of Serbian troops. Today, the atmosphere on the streets of Kosovo towns is noticeably less tense than it was a few years ago, when in the spring of 2004, widespread anti-Serb riots caused great damage. Since then, however, the anger of the post-war period has been replaced by other, milder feelings. During a recent visit to Kosovo, I learned from friends that they enjoy greater freedom of movement within the protectorate than before. A growing confidence in the future of Kosovo as an independent country is accompanied by impatience with the U.N. administration and the slow pace of change.

Kosovo's capital, Pristina, is bursting at the seams with new construction. The Hotel Victory, near the bus station on the outskirts of town, sports a replica of the Statue of Liberty at least 20 feet high. A main road leading into the city is named "Bil Clinton Road." Hundreds of new shops, NGOs and businesses with bright storefronts liven up the visage of the formerly rather shabby city. In Prizren, meanwhile, Kosovo's most attractive city and one which escaped great damage during the war, a fifth annual documentary film festival was held in early August, lending a worldly atmosphere to the town.

While citizens of Kosovo struggle to rebuild their province, or simply make ends meet, since the beginning of the year officials from Pristina, Serbia and the international community have been holding negotiations in Vienna on Kosovo's "final status." On the surface, this phrase refers to the question of independence for the former "autonomous province" of Serbia. Despite the fact that Kosovo has been independent of Serbia since the NATO intervention, this status remains to be legalized.

The international community, in the form of a "Contact Group" of six nations, is putting strong pressure on Belgrade to relinquish its former province. Since 1999, when Serbia accepted NATO conditions, no Albanian has expressed willingness to settle for anything less than complete separation from Serbia. Given these factors, it is widely recognized that the future of Kosovo is independence. Although Serbian politicians are not blind to this eventuality, none of them has stepped forward to accept it publicly.

In an early 2006 statement, the Contact Group emphasized that "there should be: no return of Kosovo to the pre-1999 situation, no partition of Kosovo, and no union of Kosovo with any or part of another country." The international position on independence could not be much clearer than this. Stated Lutfi Hazire, head of the Albanian delegation to the negotiations, "The start of this dialogue is a preparation for Kosovo's road to independence."

During a round of negotiations in May, however, Serbian representatives offered Kosovo "extensive autonomy," but simultaneously demanded continuation of Serbia's sovereignty over the province.

Behind the contentious issue of  sovereignty for Kosovo lies the very concrete problem of minorities. Albanians now comprise some 90 percent of Kosovo's population, at whose hands Serbs and Roma, particularly, have at times suffered serious mistreatment. While this problem has been under greater control in the past few years, the international community is not about to hand over power to an Albanian-dominated government without very solid guarantees for the safety of minorities.

U.N. envoy and mediator Martti Ahtisaari was expected to present a final proposal regarding status and minority issues in a September round of negotiations. This has turned out to be overly optimistic, but commentators in Kosovo are now saying that Ahtisaari's proposal should be accepted by the beginning of next year. If negotiations remain deadlocked, a decision for independence will most likely be taken by the U.N. Security Council. Any resolution will have to include strong guarantees for minority rights not only from an Albanian-dominated government, but also from some manner of continued international supervision during a phased transition to independence and stability.

Albanians I've spoken with in Kosovo say it would be in the best interests of Serbs in the province to throw in their lot with a independent country, rather than continually looking to a meddlesome, politically crafty Serbian government for guidance. They say that Albanian mistrust of Kosovo Serbs, based on the memory of atrocities committed during the war, should subside with independence, because Kosovo Serbs then would not be regarded as a threat.

Albanian Opposition

Entering Pristina or Prizren, however, one is struck by the prevalence of anti-negotiations messages spraypainted on city walls. "No Negotiations!" the graffiti shout, and, cleverly, "12:44: Time's Up-UNMIK Go Home" (1244 refers to the U.N. Security Council Resolution that, upon the expulsion of Serb forces, established Kosovo as a U.N. protectorate.) These graffiti are courtesy of the Pristina-based grassroots organization Vetevendosje ("Self-determination"), led by Albin Kurti. Kurti is a young activist with a history of brave leadership of the anti-Milosevic student movement in the late 1990s. During the NATO intervention he was arrested by the Serbs, and spent over two years in jail.

Vetevendosje's deep mistrust of UNMIK (U.N. Mission in Kosovo), the protectorate administration, reflects the common frustration that promised changes over the last seven years have taken place very slowly. Vetevendosje's objection to the negotiations stems from the concern that the Contact Group will allow passage of a resolution compromising Kosovo's independence-specifically, agreeing to Belgrade's demands that Kosovo Serbs, who comprise a majority in five Kosovo municipalities, be given control of around 10 more. Kurti fears that this group of municipalities could constitute a territorially autonomous unit that would annex itself, in some fashion, to Serbia. While he does not oppose Kosovo's eventual political decentralization, he insists that such an arrangement must take place after independence, and without the participation of the Serbian government.

Everyday Problems

Criticisms of extremism leveled at Vetevendosje are common in Kosovo, where many wish that Kurti would concentrate on more concrete issues such as local corruption and unemployment. Putting aside the drives for independence, sovereignty and protection of minorities, there are serious problems that more immediately afflict the lives of Kosovars-Albanians and minorities alike. Electrical shortages are endemic in the protectorate, where over two-thirds of the labor force is out of work. Poverty is pushing 40 percent, and "extreme poverty" has risen to 15 percent. Only 5 percent of domestically consumed goods are produced locally. "I don't care about independence," one Albanian told me. "The problem here is that we are exporting money."

The imbalance in foreign trade has been faulted for hurting local agriculture, causing hundreds of thousands of villagers to flock to the cities-where they still don't have work. This scenario provides more-than-usual support to one of Vetevendosje's campaigns, a boycott of Serbian imports which are flooding the stores. Even much of the construction material for rebuilding post-war Kosovo comes from Serbia. More dispassionate, business-oriented people note that the bulk of the post-war construction already has taken place-making the boycott campaign somewhat belated. Moreover, they point out, such a campaign could face opposition from local (Albanian) businessmen, who are developing thriving business relationships with Serbs.

In the end, the economic and political problems are connected. Without the stability afforded by final status, international lending institutions will not guarantee loans for Kosovo, and foreign investors will steer clear. The hope is that the international community can push through a resolution in Vienna in the quickest way possible, with guarantees for safety for all people in Kosovo, leading to a time of calm, cooperation, and development. Unfortunately, the possibilities for disruption from various forces are great, both during and after any resolution of negotiations.

Peter Lippman is an independent human rights activist based in Seattle.

Kosovo independence a 'nightmare' for Serbia

Financial Times, UK, Updated: 5:41 p.m. ET Nov. 23, 2006 By Tom Burgis in Brussels

 

Independence for Kosovo would visit a "nightmare" on Serbia's government by bolstering supporters of the late dictator Slobadan Milosevic, the country's foreign minister has warned.

Vuk Draskovic said the centre-right administration could be outflanked by nationalists if the final status of the province is imposed on Belgrade by the international community.

"I am very afraid of the consequences of an imposed solution," Mr Draskovic told the Financial Times in an interview. "It will strengthen the hands of the [ultra-nationalist] Radicals. This is my nightmare." There was already pressure to cut ties with any state that recognises an independent Kosovo, he said.

Kosovo has been a ward of the United Nations since Nato troops drove Serb forces from the Albanian-dominated province in 1999. Martti Ahtisaari, the UN's special envoy to Kosovo, has delayed making his recommendations on the province's future until early next year after Belgrade called snap elections for January. In October, Serbs voted to adopt a new constitution describing Kosovo as an "intergral part" of the nation.

Mr Draskovic said there remained time to find a compromise solution that would see Kosovo gain full autonomy but remain within Serbian territory without the right to join Nato or the UN.

However, the Contact Group of nations marshalling negotiations has promised a solution "acceptable to the people of Kosovo". One Western diplomat said yesterday that "any Belgrade proposal offering autonomy is unlikely to fulfil that".

Belgrade argues that allowing the 2m Kosovans - among them 100,000 Serbs - to secede would set a precedent. "An imposed solution will have to respect the right to self-determination of Kosovans," Mr Draskovic said. "But what happens when the next day the Serbs in Bosnia say: 'We also want to use that right'?" Separatists in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Taiwan might follow suit, he added.

In a meeting with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato secretary general, in Brussels on Wednesday, Mr Draskovic will demand unconditional Serbian entry to a Partnership for Peace cooperation agreement. A pact with the treaty body could hasten the arrest of former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic by demonstrating to his supporters that "they have lost the battle for the future", Mr Draskovic said. However, Nato has made Serbian compliance with the tribunal a precondition of partnership.

The European Union has frozen talks with Belgrade on an accession agreement, widely seen as a waystation to membership, while Mr Mladic - wanted by the UN's war crimes tribunal for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre - remains at large.

Kosovo: Serb minister resigns over misuse of funds

ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL (ITALY), Nov-27-06 15:45

Pristina, 27 Nov. (AKI) - Slavisa Petkovic, the only Serb minister in the Kosovo government, resigned on Monday, government spokeswoman Ulpijana Lama said. Petkovic was the bminister for the return of refugees and minority rights and his resignation has been rumoured for some time. The minority Serbs have also reserved for themselves the ministry of agriculture, but their representatives refused to take the post, protesting ethnic Albanian domination.

According to Kosovo Albanian language media, Petkovic was under pressure to resign after international auditors discovered a misuse of funds in his ministry. "The problems have accumulated and made impossible further functioning of this ministry," Ceku said on Friday, after meeting with Petkovic.

"The ministry with Petkovic as its head simply cannot function, which is a sufficient reason for his dismissal,"Ceku said. It was not clear who might replace Petkovic from the Serb ranks, but another Kosovo Serb leader, Oliver Ivanovic, he would consider taking the post, if offered and if Belgrade approved it.

Ethnic Albanians, who outnumber Serbs in Kosovo by 17 to one, demand independence, which Belgrade opposes. The province has been under United Nations control since 1999 and the international community is expected to make the decision on its final status early next year.

UN police in Kosovo increase security after unspecified threat

Associated Press, Monday, November 27, 2006 6:19 AM

PRISTINA, Serbia-U.N. police in Kosovo increased security measures Monday after receiving an unspecified but credible threat.

The U.N. police, part of a larger international force that has patrolled Kosovo since the end of the war in 1999, did not specify the nature of the threat or provide any details about how the information was received.

"This current threat is being taken seriously by authorities, and citizens will see an increase in police activity and presence," the force said in a written statement. NATO-led peacekeepers also said they will be more visible on the streets.

A demonstration by opponents of negotiations with Serbia is planned for Tuesday in Kosovo's provincial capital, though the U.N. statement did not directly link the threat to the scheduled rally.

The organizer of the demonstration, a group called Self-determination, has in the past vandalized U.N. vehicles and buildings, and the group's leader, Albin Kurti, has been apprehended several times.

The U.N. statement said attacks against U.N. personnel or property would be "destructive and counterproductive" and would be a setback for Kosovo at a critical stage in the negotiations with Serbia.

The U.N. has been mediating talks since February aimed at determining Kosovo's final, postwar status. The province's ethnic Albanians want independence from Serbia, while Belgrade is insisting on keeping at least some control over the province.

The two sides fought a war over the province in 1998-1999. Bombing by NATO aircraft ended the Serb crackdown on Kosovo's separatists.

US envoy: NATO will curb Kosovo violence

United Press International, November 26, 2006

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Under Secretary Nicholas Burns says NATO will not allow violence in Serbia's predominantly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province, Serbian media said Thursday.

Addressing reporters in Washington, Burns, under secretary for political affairs in the U.S. Department of State, said NATO's 15,000 troops in Kosovo would put down any riots, demonstrations or violence, the Serbian news agency Tanjug reported.

Burns said Kosovo will be among issues to be discussed at the NATO summit in Latvia on Nov. 28-29.

Martti Ahtisaari, chief U.N. envoy chairing the Kosovo talks, is to announce a decision on the province's future status in January or February.

Serbs claim Kosovo will always be an integral part of Serbia, while ethnic-Albanians insist Kosovo should be independent of Serbia.

About 100,000 Serbs live in Kosovo, while ethnic-Albanians make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population.

U.N. administrators and NATO protection troops have been deployed in Kosovo since 1999 ethnic conflicts.

UN to withdraw from Kosovo next year

United Press International, November 26, 2006

PRISTINA, Serbia, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- The United Nations plans to withdraw its mission from Serbia's mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo republic in mid-2007, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Neeraj Singh, spokesman of the U.N. civil mission in Kosovo, told reporters in Pristina that U.N. administrators are to pull out from the province in three to six months after a solution to Kosovo's future status is announced, the Serbian news agency Tanjug reported.

Earlier reports said teams of the European Union would replace the U.N. teams. U.N. administrators and NATO protection troops have been deployed in Kosovo since ethnic armed conflicts in 1999.

U.N.-led talks began in February in Vienna to decide who will govern Kosovo once foreign personnel leave the province.

No breakthrough in the talks has been achieved as the Serbian government in Belgrade, representing 100,000 Kosovo Serbs, says Kosovo will always be an integral part of Serbia. Leaders of ethnic-Albanians that make up to 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 1.8 million insist on independence from Belgrade.

No agreement on humanitarian delivery of electricity to Kosovo

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

Source: Government of Serbia
Date: 24 Nov 2006

Pristina, Nov 24, 2006 - Head of the Economic team for Kosovo-Metohija and southern Serbia Nenad Popovic and president of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija Sanda Raskovic-Ivic failed to reach agreement today with UNMIK deputy chief Steven Schook on a donation from the Serbian government worth 50 million kilowatt-hours of electricity to Serbian enclaves in the province.

Speaking to the press after the meeting held in Pristina, Popovic said that technical conditions of delivery had not been agreed with UNMIK representatives, but he voiced hope that a solution to that problem will be found before December 1 at the latest.

He warned that due to delays, the problem of electricity supply of all households in Kosovo-Metohija, especially Serbian ones, is getting complicated.

Participants in the meeting also discussed turning on again the transmitters of mobile operators Telenor and Telekom Srbija in the southern Serbian province. Representatives of the European Union and UNMIK stuck to their position that these two companies are illegal operators.

According to Popovic, it was agreed that telecommunications experts try to find a solution during the next week, and added that EU and UNMIK have to accept the fact that Telekom Srbija and Telenor have licences for the territory of entire Serbia.

Serb school in Kosovo blown up

SERBIANNA (USA), November 21, 2006 1:23 PM

PRISTINA, Serbia-An explosion shook an elementary school in the breakaway province of Kosovo early Tuesday, minutes after the classroom was cleared of children, an official said. No one was reported injured in the blast, which police believe was caused by a hand grenade being put in a stove.

The Kosovo Serb school, in the village of Ropotovo, in eastern Kosovo, was damaged, police said.

Three Kosovo Serb men were being questioned about the explosion, police spokesman Veton Elshani said, but no arrests had been made.

"We believe the hand grenade exploded as the stove was heated in the morning hours," Elshani said. Police did not provide an explanation of how the grenade was placed inside the stove.

Police said no warning was given before the blast, but they did not say why the children were moved out of the classroom.

Investigators do not believe the incident was ethnically motivated, citing internal problems with the school management as the motive behind the blast.

Tension has been running high between the minority Serbs and majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo as the province seeks to sever all ties with Serbia and become an independent state, an option Belgrade is opposed to.

Sustainable economic growth, condition for Kosovo's stability

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

Source: Government of Serbia
Date: 21 Nov 2006

Belgrade/Brussels, Nov 21, 2006 - Head of the Economic team for Kosovo-Metohija and southern Serbia Nenad Popovic talked today with European parliament officials in Brussels about the current economic situation in the province and the Economic team's future strategy for its economic development.

Popovic acquainted the participants in the meeting with current economic problems in Kosovo and underlined that it is necessary to resolve the energy and telecommunication crises as soon as possible.

He also presented the dynamics of implementation of the National Investment Plan for Kosovo-Metohija, which provides the sustainable economic development of Serbian communities in the province.

Popovic said that citizens in areas with a majority Serb population in Kosovo every day face inhumane electricity cuts and added that their appeals are completely justified, as well as the Serbian government's requests that the disastrous energy situation in the province be resolved as soon as possible.

He reiterated that the Economic team has submitted three initiatives for stabilisation of the energy situation in Kosovo-Metohija to UNMIK and added that consultations are underway on the technical details of the proposal.

Popovic said that the blockade of the equipment of Telekom Srbija in Kosovo is economically unjustified and that it violates most directly human rights and living conditions first of all of the Serbian community, but also the interests of market-oriented ethnic Albanians who largely use the services of Telekom.

Participants of the meeting stressed the need for more frequent dialogue between representatives of the Serbian and ethnic-Albanian sides and the UNMIK on all questions, and especially on economic problems which directly affect lives of people in Kosovo-Metohija.

The collocutors jointly concluded that sustainable economic growth is the condition for stability in Kosovo-Metohija and that the newest initiatives of the Economic Team could become a good starting point for future dialogue.

In the first round of talks in Brussels today, Popovic talked with Chairperson of the European parliament for south eastern Europe Doris Pack, Director of the Directorate-General for Western Balkans Therese Sobieski, and with researcher of the EU Institute for Security Studies and professor of the Centre for the Politics of Central and South East Europe and the Centre for Russian and East European Studies Judy Batt.

Later today, Popovic will also meet with Stefan Lehne, EU special envoy for negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija and special advisor of EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Javier Solana, and Director of the Working table II for economy of the Stability Pact for South East Europe Laurent Guye, reads the statement.

Grenade explodes in Serb classroom in Kosovo

Reuters, Tue Nov 21, 2006 8:47 AM ET

 

PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - A grenade exploded in a classroom used by Serb children in Kosovo on Tuesday, but the elementary school pupils escaped injury, police said.

 

A Kosovo police spokesman said the grenade exploded in a stove used to heat the classroom shortly after lessons began at around 7.50 a.m. (0650 GMT) at the Trajko Peric school in the village of Veliko Ropotovo near the eastern town of Kamenica.

 

"The stove was completely destroyed and some parts of the classroom as well," said spokesman Veton Elshani.

 

A Kosovo Serb education official said the children had been moved to another classroom minutes earlier because their teacher was absent, leaving the room empty. "So tragedy was avoided," Zivorad Tomic told the Serb state news agency Tanjug.

 

Kosovo is braced for a possible rise in ethnic violence following a move by major powers this month to delay a United Nations decision on the ethnic Albanian majority's demand for independence from Serbia.

 

The breakaway province has been run by the U.N. since NATO bombing forced Serbian troops out in 1999 and peacekeepers led by the Western alliance took over. Kamenica lies in the part of Kosovo patrolled by U.S. units of the NATO-led KFOR mission.

 

Some 100,000 Serbs live in Kosovo, many in isolated enclaves.

 

At least half the prewar Serb population fled a wave of revenge attacks after the NATO deployment in 1999. U.N. officials say attacks on Serbs are falling, but their freedom of movement remains restricted.

 

A U.N. envoy says he will make his proposal on Kosovo's "final status" -- widely expected to set the province on the path to independence -- after a Serbian parliamentary election on January 21.

 

Some 10,000 ethnic Albanians died and 800,000 fled during Serbia's 1998-99 war against separatist guerrillas.