Belgrade demands increased jurisdiction for Serb municipalities in Kosovo-Metohija

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

Source: Government of Serbia
Date: 27 Feb 2007

Vienna, Feb 27, 2008 - Coordinator of the Serbian state team for talks on Kosovo-Metohija's future status Slobodan Samardzic stated that today, just as many times before, Belgrade has put forth a plethora of objections to UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposal regarding the province's decentralisation.

Following the morning talks in Vienna, which focused on financing and jurisdictions of the province's municipalities, Samardzic told the press that Ahtisaari's plan does not envisage special jurisdiction for Serb municipalities, which is what Belgrade demands.

He recalled that last spring, during nine rounds of negotiations, there was talk of six groups of jurisdictions for municipalities which Ahtisaari cleverly evaded in his proposal and instead only proposed some special rights.

Namely, he proposed that the University in Kosovska Mitrovica remains, as well as the right of Serbian municipalities to three hospitals, which rounds up the circle of these special rights or jurisdictions, said Samardzic.

"We think that what is given to Serbs resembles the privileges issued by local rulers in the Middle Ages to certain areas and which the ruler had the right to withdraw. In the modern sense of words, these are by no means unalienable and constitutionally guaranteed rights", explained the coordinator.

He also specified that Belgrade's position implies that whatever Serbia demands should be guaranteed by the agreement being discussed in Vienna, as well as by the constitution. In other words legislation must not be allowed to annul or degrade these rights, he added.

As for municipal financing, Samardzic said that Belgrade demands increased financing of Serbian municipalities in line with their expanded jurisdictions.

According to Samardzic, municipalities must have larger income sources than proposed by UNOSEK and Belgrade insists on a special formula for the distribution of assistance on behalf of provincial organs, which the ethnic Albanian delegation did not accept.

The Serbian team's coordinator Leon Kojen said that the Belgrade team began a discussion on local police and asked for much wider and coherent authority in this sector.

Kojen stressed that Belgrade demanded that the law on police be adopted only with the agreement of the majority of Serbian parliament members in the province's parliament, namely, that heads of local police be chosen at local municipal assemblies.

"It is also very important that we demanded that provincial or special police forces may not enter the territory of Serbian municipalities unless they fulfill special conditions which will be duly presented", stressed Kojen.

Talks on decentralisation will resume at the afternoon session which will focus on inter-connectedness of Serbian municipalities and their number.

More witnesses withdraw from testifying against ex-Kosovo PM in Hague trial

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - February 24, 2007, Saturday

Text of report in English by Belgrade-based Radio B92 text website on 24 February

Pristina, The Hague, 24 February: Two more witnesses decided not to testify at the [Ramush] Haradinaj trial citing fear for personal safety, the Hague tribunal has said.

The trial of Ramush Haradinaj, former KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army - UCK in Albanian] commander accused of war crimes against Kosovo Serbs and Roma, is set to start on 5 March. He is set to return to the Scheveningen detention unit on 26 February.

Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte's team on Thursday [22 February] asked the court to prevent UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] chief Joachim Ruecker from meeting Haradinaj, as well as to block Haradinaj's interview with the Associated Press.

The prosecution claimed that otherwise the Kosovo public might have been led to believe UNMIK was backing Haradinaj, at the same timer displaying no willingness to protect the lives of the witnesses in the case.

However, the Tribunal rejected the prosecution's request and Haradinaj met with UNMIK and Kosovo officials yesterday.

Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 0928 gmt 24 Feb 07

Ramush Haradinaj has eliminated the majority of witnesses

Radio KIM, Caglavica, February 25, 2007

The majority of witnesses in the court case against Ramush Haradinaj being conducted before the Hague tribunal have changed their mind or decided not to give testimony, Radio KIM and Glas Juga have learned.

The Tribunal's prosecutor's office had a relevant number of witnesses at its disposal until the moment when it became clear that Ramush Haradinaj would return to Pristina and defend himself while at liberty, that is, be allowed to take part in political and public life. Despite the fact that UNMIK claimed that Haradinaj was not a danger to witnesses and their testimony, the number of those willing to appear in the courtroom is negligible. This applies especially to witnesses of crimes, and pressure is being put on families involved in this case which have been transferred from Kosovo.

A characteristic example is that of the family of Skender Kuci, who was abducted and killed by the Kosovo Liberation Army in the Pec area. The members of his family have changed their statements and do not wish to testify. They are rejecting cooperation with the Tribunal with the explanation that Skender was killed by Serbs.

Ramush Haradinaj's defense has in the recent past visited the majority of witnesses prepared to speak against him in The Hague. It is the opinion of some attorneys close to the Tribunal that this has resulted in compromising the families of the victims, which today are no longer willing to testify.

Some of the witnesses have in the recent past died a natural death, while others, such as Tahir Zemaj, have been murdered. Recently Kujtim Berisha died recently in a traffic accident in Podgorica. Some potential witnesses have, in the meanwhile, received large sums of money, switched sides and become members and officials of [Haradinaj's] Alliance for the Future of Kosovo.

UNMIK's protection of these witnesses has demonstrated the inability of this institution in instances not relating to The Hague, too. Hasan Rrustemi, an UNMIK protected witness, was murdered at the farmer's market in Mala Krusa near Prizren with the message that all those working against the KLA would fare similarly.

The Hague Tribunal and its prosecutor Carla del Ponte have stated that they know that Haradinaj is influencing witnesses but UNMIK could not successfully limit the authority and activities of the former Kosovo Liberation Army commander for the Dukadjini region.

Kosovo blast KLA's attempt to put pressure on Vienna talks - Serbian paper

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - February 23, 2007, Friday

 

Text of report by B. Mitrinovic: "The return to KLA terrorism" by Serbian newspaper Politika on 21 February

 

The negotiating teams from Belgrade and Pristina will begin their talks in Vienna today on the proposed solutions offered by UN Kosovo Status Envoy Martti Ahtisaari with the knowledge that the Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA] has been reactivated in Kosovo-Metohija.

 

The members of the organization that embarked on a war for Kosovo's independence about 10 years ago caused a bomb blast in the centre of Pristina that damaged three UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] vehicles two nights ago.

 

This act of terrorism against the representatives of the international community in Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] was obviously a calculated message from Pristina to the people participating in the Vienna talks on the future status of Kosovo, which Ahtisaari has assessed as "giving one more chance." The terrorist attack was a grim reminder to Serbia of the pressure that was made against Serbia's negotiating position on 17 March 2004, when the Kosovo Albanians organized riots that resulted in 19 people getting killed, 4,500 being banished, and 35 Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries burned down.

 

In a statement in which they assumed responsibility for the bomb attack, the members of the KLA - which was formally disbanded after the fighting had stopped although the majority of its members went over into the Kosovo Protection Force - said yesterday that they would "avenge every injustice that would be done to the people." They described their terrorist act as a sign of revenge for the killing of two demonstrators and the wounding of 80 Kosovo Albanians in the recent demonstrations staged by the Self-Determination Movement. This movement, headed by Albin Kurti, protested because Ahtisaari's plan did not call for an independent Kosovo right away.

 

The similarities with the violence of three years ago do not end here. Then as well as now they used the same argumentation in order to step up the adoption of independence under threat of violence and terrorism, and then as well as now, the international officials justified their haste with the ominous hostility that could not easily be kept under control.

 

Last Friday in the US Congress Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the negotiators would be facing a difficult issue and would have to work on the ways to avoid an "explosion."

 

"We do not want the last piece of the puzzle of uniting Europe along democratic principles to blow up on the issue of Kosovo," Rice said.

 

Yesterday's message sent by the unexpectedly "revived" OVK wants to stir up such fears. The international forces in Kosovo know they are safe in Kosovo only for as long as the Albanians are extending them their hospitality. "The aim of these explosions was to destroy the UNMIK vehicles, not to cause human casualties, as the UNMIK Police did (during the Self-Determination demonstrations)," the statements issued by the terrorists said.

 

The two-day violence of the Kosovo Albanians in 2004, when their rage towards the Serbs spilled over and turned on the Kfor troops, compelled UN Secretary General Kofi Anan's special envoy for Kosovo Kai Eide to inform the UN Secretary General that "prolonging the uncertain status of Kosovo should not be an option, in other words, the temporary status of the Kosovo institutions should be terminated and its status should be resolved." Haste in resolving the Kosovo problem was at that time also expressed by US Under Secretary Nicholas Burns, who said that "the people of Kosovo deserve to know what their future will be."

 

Today this sentence is not used only by civil servants in the US Administration, but it is also one of the arguments used by UN Kosovo Status Envoy Martti Ahtisaari and his deputy Albert Rohan, who themselves give the talks in Vienna virtually no chance at all.

 

In an interview to the Vienna tabloid Kurier, two days before the start of the negotiations, Rohan announced that there was "little likelihood" of the talks leading to a compromise.

 

"There is no realistic alternative to the UN proposal, and the continuation of the current situation is impossible," Rohan said and concluded that "without a plan for the future of Kosovo, the two opposing sides would almost inevitably bring the situation to a destabilization of Kosovo, creating disorder that could potentially jeopardize the entire region."

 

And so the same protagonists used the same formulation and identical methods so as to express dissatisfaction with the slowness of making the necessary decisions. Seeing as how the Western powers have reacted to the Albanian frustrations in the past, yesterday's statement made by the Chief of the US Office in Pristina Tina Kaidanow that "violence of any sort, whether aimed at international organizations, ethnic communities or political groups, will endanger the status process" does not seem very convincing.

 

Source: Politika, Belgrade, in Serbian 21 Feb 07

KLA letter admitting attack on UNMIK cars sent from Tirana - Kosovo paper

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - February 23, 2007, Friday

Excerpt from report by Nebih Maxhuni and Jeton Musliu: "UCK letter 'made in Tirana'" by Kosovo Albanian newspaper Express on 22 February

Prishtina [Pristina], 21 February: A letter through which the organization calling itself the Kosova [Kosovo] Liberation Army [KLA] claimed responsibility for damaging UN vehicles in Kosova two days ago was written in Albania. The statement, circulated to Kosovar media, was written on a Tirana computer with IP address 217.24.246.71, with which it was registered as an internet consumer.

Express sources have said that a computer with that number was used for writing the letter advising that, with the attack on UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] vehicles, the UCK wanted to take revenge for the two people killed during the 10 February demonstration, organized by the Self-Determination Movement. But except for the IP address, it is not known who sent the email or who uses that specific IP.

Only the authorities of Albania's Albtelecom, a company that offers telecommunication, fixed telephony, and internet services in Albania, can identify the user. IP addresses from 217.24.245.0 to 217.24.249.255 belong to Albtelecom. The IP used for sending the email is 217.24.246.71, meaning that it belongs to Albtelecom. Express made efforts to contact Hysen Hoxha and Vilma Tomaco, officers in charge of IP addresses in that company, to confirm the origin of that email message, but it was impossible to get in touch with them, as neither of them would answer the phone.

In the meantime, it has been learned that the explosive device that damaged three UNMIK and one private vehicle in Prishtina was TNT. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a police source has confirmed this, explaining that 100 grams of TNT was used and that it was activated from a remote control device. "Preliminary investigations show that the device used to damage the UNMIK vehicles was trotil [TNT]," he said. [passage omitted]

Source: Express, Pristina, in Albanian 22 Feb 07 pp 8, 9