[FormerLib]

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.

Of course, the UN has disproved this story but the supporters of Clinton's Kosovo Quagmire in the press keep repeating in anew.

[starys]

It is old blueprint again and again. It is stunning to see how easy is to set and sell PR story (Burning Reichstag, Kuwait babies, Racak massacre ...)

[MarMema]

Thanks for commenting. I knew that the officials had found the story to be a lie, and in fact have admitted that the pogrom had been planned for some time before it happened.

I thought about omitting the story but figured that anyone I pinged already knew it had been manufactured.

[MarMema]

No quitters here...

"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.