Posted on 03/26/2004 7:23:53 PM PST by MarMema
BELGRADE, March 18 (Itar-Tass) - “We strongly condemn the instigators of the current riots in Kosovo and want them to be stopped immediately, since they may explode the situation both within the territory and in the entire region,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Razov stated here on Thursday, commenting on the current situation in Kosovo. “The Russian side is ready to take part in the search for ways to settle this problem by means of the instruments it possesses,” Razov stated. The Russian deputy foreign minister had planned to visit Kosovo in the course of his three-day visit to Serbia and Montenegro. However, in reply to a request from Head of the U.N. Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo Harry Holkeri, the visit had to be put off due to the dangerous situation there.
The situation in Kosovo is still very tense – Albanian extremists are attacking the Serbs, the U.N. police and International KFOR units. Dozens of houses in the predominantly Serbian villages were burned down. The U.N. police and KFOR soldiers are waging real battles against throngs of Albanians. At least fifteen men were killed and not less than three hundred others were wounded during the Wednesday clashes of Albanian extremists with Serbs, KFOR soldiers, and U.N. policemen. These figures were released by the Crisis HQ of the Clinical Centre of Pristina University.
The most dangerous situation is in the village of Chaglavica, not far from Pristina, where approximately one thousand Serbs had lived. The Albanians broke through the U.N. police cordons into the village forcing Serbian women and children to flee to the neighbouring Serbian village of Laple-Selo. About ten U.N. police vehicles are aflame on the road into Chaglavica. About thirty armoured cars of the American KFOR contingent were moved into the village. The Americans were able to save the lives of at least ten wounded servicemen of the international force. Serbian houses are aflame in the village.
Albanians attacked on Wednesday afternoon the several dozens of Serbians, still remaining in Pristina. Their apartments were stoned and incendiary bombs were hurled into them. A curfew was clamped down on the city on Wednesday. However, according to a report of the Serbian BETA News Agency, about two thousand armed Albanians were moved towards the city from other districts of Kosovo.
Albanian extremists have set fire to the Holy Archangel Orthodox Monastery near the town of Prizren. The Monastery had celebrated the 650th anniversary of its foundation two years ago. The St. George Church in Prizren is also on fire. The Albanians ransacked a Serbian Orthodox Church in Djakovica, where five women had sought asylum. The fate of about two hundred Serbs from Gnilan in eastern Kosovo is still unknown. All the Serbian houses there were burned down. The population of Gnilan tried to flee to Serbia, but only five burned automobiles were so far found on the Bujanovac-Gnilan road with no bodies inside. The Albanians had most likely captured them all.
The Belgrade television describes the Kosovo events as an “ethnic purge”. There are about two million Albanians and 70-100 thousand Serbians and people of other nationalities living in Kosovo today. Increasing numbers of Serbian politicians believe Kosovo will shortly be “ethnically clean” due to the Wednesday massive exodus of Serbians from their lands, which can be expected to continue in the next few days. After that the Albanians will be able to declare their independence from Serbia.
Head of the Serbian Government’s Coordination Committee on Kosovo Affairs Neboija Chovic has accused the U.N. police in Kosovo and KFOR for “guarding only themselves”. For his part, Head of the Interim U.N. Administration Mission in Kosovo Harry Holkeri described Wednesday as “a black day for Kosovo”. He called on the population to keep the peace and to give the U.N. police and KFOR soldiers a chance to guarantee “safety for every citizen”.
It was learned that an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the situation in Kosovo would be held in New York on Thursday.
Also I read last night that the mobs attacked and destroyed the quarters of the Bulgarian troops, burning the house.
The more I read the more it sounds more horrid and dangerous than I had originally thought. One source said they burned some ten Kfor vehicles.
Organizers expect the rally to draw several thousands of participants from across Ontario. The rally will be hosted with the united efforts of various Canadian-Serbian organizations in co-operation with the Serbian Orthodox Church.
What: A Rally in support of intervention to end Albanian terrorism and ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo
When: Sunday March 28th, 2004, 3:00 p.m.
Where: General Consulate of Serbia and Montenegro 337 Spadina Rd., Toronto
Details: Press kits will be provided at the event.
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans is a non-profit, Toronto-based NGO involved in the collection and sharing of information related to the Balkan region.
For further information: Natalia Dzeletovich, Director, Centre for Peace in the Balkans at (905) 464-2100.
AN OFFER WITH SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE
The burning of churches and mosques, does not promote justice and peace, and certainly neither progress. On the contrary, it is a return to times and practices which led the Balkans to stagnation, divisions and tragedies.
Indeed, those who involve religion in the violence are essentially violating the spirit of religion. No matter how much one is in the right, he must respect the sanctity and the purpose of sacred places of worship. These should become centers of reconciliation and peace and not breeding-grounds for maintaining animosities.
It is only with peaceful coexistence of the religious communities that genuine social progress can take place. This is the principal that we Christians and Muslims alike have adopted in Albania: to live together and to cooperate with each other in harmony.
The sobriety of religious tolerance and courage of love must overcome the blind hatred that can only lead to an escalation of conflicts. In the 21st century, worldwide and particularly in the Balkan region, we are called -independent of the national or religious community, in which we were born- to work hard to coexist peacefully, with mutual respect and solidarity.
With this conviction, the Orthodox Archdiocese of Tirana has made the following decision:
We offer $600,000 -for the restoration of a church and a mosque in Kosovo, or the construction of a youth center there that will promote peaceful coexistence. This sum comes from the funds that, with great effort, we have raised for the construction of the Orthodox Cathedral in Tirana. It will be dispatched appropriately, so that it be used equitably, according to the special significance of this initiative.
Tirana, 26.3.2004
+ Anastasios Archbishop of Tirana, Durres and All Albania
UPDATE 1: One Bulgarian policeman lightly injured in separate clashes in Kosovska Mitrovica
SOFIA (bnn)— Rampaging Albanians in Serbia’s UN-run province of Kosovo destroyed several houses sheltering Bulgarian military and police serving in international peace forces, the BGNES news agency reported Thursday.
No Bulgarians have been hurt in the attacks the report said. The houses were located in Caglavica, some 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Kosovo’s administrative center of Pristina.
The assailants set the houses on fire and looted them, the agency quoted the Kosovo civil administration as saying. It said the attacks were not directed against the Bulgarian staff, but against the house owners, who were ethnic Serbs.
One Bulgarian policeman was lightly injured Thursday in separate clashes between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovska Mitrovica, the Interior Ministry said.
The foreign ministry warned Bulgarians to refrain from traveling to Kosovo.
A total of 110 Bulgarian police and military serve in Kosovo.
--------------------------------
Ten Irish soldiers were slightly injured yesterday while trying to prevent clashes between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Around 80 Irish peacekeepers were drafted in to prevent some 3,000 ethnic Albanians from storming the Serb town of Kaglavica, close to Pristina.
A Defence Forces spokesman said the injuries suffered by the Irish troops were minor and their families had no reason to be concerned.
The attempted attack on Kaglavica came amid clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs throughout Kosovo yesterday.
Twenty Norwegian soldiers were slightly wounded on Wednesday, when 250 soldiers from the Norwegian KFOR unit in Kosovo became engaged in serious disturbances.
One man was killed when he tried to drive a car through a road-block south of the capital Pristina, and the Norwegian soldiers opened fire.
Two soldiers were slightly wounded when they were hit by the car.
The road block was put up in order to stop angry Albanians from reaching the Serbian village of Caglavica.
The UN has ordered a curfew in the province, following Wednesday's clashes in which at least 10 people were killed and 250 wounded.
The clashes between Albanians and Serbs began in Mitrovica, and threatened to spread.
The commander of the Norwegian KFOR unit says to NRK that his troops are prepared for the possibility of having to face further disturbances on Thursday.
At least one hand grenade also was thrown in the clash. Among the worst instances of Serb-Albanian bloodshed since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999, the violence starkly reflected the failure of UN and NATO efforts to replace ethnic hatreds with tolerance.
Initial reports by UN police spokeswoman Angela Joseph that a French peacekeeper had died of gunshot wounds were later denied by NATO and the French military.
Lt. Col. Jim Moran, a NATO spokesman, said a French and a Danish soldier were "seriously wounded," but reports that a peacekeeper had died were "completely not true."
Hospital personnel on the Serb and ethnic Albanian sides of divided Kosovska Mitrovica said four ethnic Albanians had died, apparently of gunshot wounds. Initial reports had said three Serbs were shot to death, but hospital personnel later revised that to two.
Capt. Athanasios Zormbas, a NATO spokesman, said 11 peacekeepers were injured.
Hospital employees on Kosovska Mitrovica's southern side, dominated by ethnic Albanians, counted more than 200 hurt, among them several who were shot. Xhelal Ibrahimi, an ethnic Albanian witness covered by the blood of a victim he carried to the hospital, said gunfire came from the Serb-dominated part of the town, and he saw several people falling in front of him.
On the Serb side, hospital physician Milan Ivanovic said 80 Serbs were wounded, including an unknown number shot; some were in critical condition.
In a separate hot spot, near Pristina, hundreds of ethnic Albanians broke through barricades erected by UN police and NATO-led peacekeepers to march on the Serb village of Caglavica. Joseph, the UN spokeswoman, said there were reports that hand grenades had been thrown and that two Serb houses were on fire.
Later, a town resident who spoke on the telephone but asked not to be named told The Associated Press that the situation had calmed down, with police separating Serbs and Albanians in the village centre.
But in a live radio broadcast from Caglavica heard in Belgrade, an unidentified witness said people were attacking each other with sticks and stones in village streets, amid the sound of explosions and gunfire.
In the western village of Belopolje, ethnic Albanians drove out Serb residents and set fire to their houses, said Joseph. And in Pec, 80 kilometres west of Pristina, ethnic Albanians had attacked the regional UN headquarters and damaged UN vehicles.
There was no immediate word on the injured in those confrontations.
The violence in Kosovska Mitrovica was the worst of its kind since February 2001, when ethnic Albanian terrorists blew up a bus carrying Serbs, killing 11 and injuring 40.
In other ethnic violence in the past year, three members of a Serb family were axed and clubbed to death in their home in the village of Obilic, their bodies then set on fire; a 43-year-old Serb died after being shot in the face while he was fishing near the village of Skulevo; and a hand grenade exploded in a shop in an ethnically mixed village in eastern Kosovo, killing one Serb man and injuring four others; and two Serb teenagers were shot to death while swimming in a lake.
The fact that most recent victims have been Serbs reflects how they have gone from Kosovo's Belgrade-backed rulers to a besieged minority, subject to attacks from members of the ethnic Albanian majority who continue exacting revenge for the 1999 Kosovo war.
In Kosovska Mitrovica, clashes similar to Wednesday's violence left nine people dead in 1999, shortly after the end of wholesale warfare between ethnic Albanians and Serbs.
Then, as now, the two sides squared off on opposite sides of the main bridge spanning the Ibar River and separating the two communities.
The hospital on the ethnic Albanian side of town was a scene of chaos Wednesday, with doctors urging people to give blood in crowded corridors. Their voices were occasionally drowned out by the cries of relatives looking for loved ones among the victims.
"I just felt pain and went down on the ground," said Ridvan Lahu, 41, who was shot in the stomach.
The bloodshed is a blow to the so-called "internationals," the UN and NATO officials running the province and struggling to get ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs to live together in peace.
The violence flared shortly after authorities recovered the bodies of two missing children from a river and just hours after reports that they were chased into the water by local Serbs. A third child remained missing. The three children were aged nine, 12 and 13.
The bodies were found after dozens of soldiers, police and civil emergency workers searched the Ibar River near the village of Cabra, some 40 kilometres north of the province's capital Pristina, said Joseph.
The search was launched after reports that three ethnic Albanian children had disappeared in the swirling waters Tuesday afternoon.
Fitim Veseli, 13, who said he was with the missing children, claimed they were being chased by local Serbs and the boys jumped into the river to escape a dog set on them by two Serbs from a neighbouring village. Veseli's nine-year-old brother, Florent, was among the them.
The drownings occurred a day after a 19-year-old Serb was shot and wounded in central Kosovo, in what Serbs blamed on unknown ethnic Albanian perpetrators.
Canadian peacekeepers are no longer posted in Kosovo; the majority in the region are stationed in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Less than half of the 40,000 NATO troops originally in Kosovo now remain, including about 2,000 Americans.
The Kosovo war ended in mid-1999 after a NATO air campaign drove Serb-dominated troops loyal to former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic out of the province and stopped a crackdown on the independence-minded Kosovo Albanian majority. An estimated 10,000 people died in that war, most of them ethnic Albanians.
With Orthodox Christian Serbs regarding Kosovo as their ancient homeland and mostly Muslim ethnic Albanians seeking independence, hatreds between the two sides continue to boil over into violence, with each act of bloodshed leading to revenge from the other side.
The province itself is UN-administered but remains part of Serbia-Montenegro, the successor state to Yugoslavia, with its final status to be decided by the United Nations.
Of course, the UN has disproved this story but the supporters of Clinton's Kosovo Quagmire in the press keep repeating in anew.
I thought about omitting the story but figured that anyone I pinged already knew it had been manufactured.
"Beta News Agency, Belgrade
March 26, 2004
Construction of Orthodox church begins in northern Mitrovica
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Construction work began today on a Serbian Orthodox church dedicated to the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius near the foundation of the former church of St. Demetrius on a hill overlooking northern Mitrovica.
The foundation was laid in mid-September of last year. Crosses will be in place on the domes and the church consecrated by the Feast of St. Demetrius (Nov. 8). An iconostasis for the church is being made by the monks of Visoki Decani and is expected to be completed by the beginning of November, said Fr. Milija Arsovic.
"We are not building the church out of spite but to meet the needs of the Serbs living in Kosovska Mitrovica, especially now that the Albanians have set fire to the church of St. Sava in southern (exclusively Albanian) Mitrovica," said the priest. He added that chaplains from French KFOR had promised him they would bring the remaining holy relics from the destroyed church.
"We are not doing this out of spite and we are not provoking anyone; we are building a church because it is necessary for the Serbs here but also because it sends the message that our roots here are far deeper than the Albanian extremists suspect," said the president of the committee for the construction of the church, Nebojsa Avramovic.
Avramovic expressed the hope that all Serbs expelled and displaced from Kosovo would eventually return.
Ahh the only Industry of Kosovo!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.