[Menu] [dDH]

Kosova reports 1998
Kosov@ Situation Report 20 September, 1998

Report from independent source

Situation in Kosov@

The Kosova Information Center reports heavy shelling in the area between Mitrovica, Vushtrri/Vucitrn and Podujevo. As many as 40,000 refugees have been driven from their homes in central Kosov@, according to Hajrullaaga of KIC. Reportedly the local population which tried to return to their homes in Malisevo were met with Serbian violence and intimidation, so that they had no choice but to flee again.

Thirty activists were detained in Gjilan/Gnjilane and questioned by police about their activities of their political parties and human rights groups in their areas. All of them were forced to tell about UCK army.

According to figures by Serbian Ministry of Interior Affairs, 156 people died in 1998 as a consequence of terrorist attcks . Albanian terrorists carried out 1,132 terrorist offences in which 75 policemen, 47 Albanians, 30 Serbs and Montenegrins, three Roma and one so far unidentified person lost their lives.

B92 reported on the US draft agreement for Kosovo which was published in Koha Ditore. According to the report, the agreement calls for:

  1. A Parliament, executive body and a governor, as well as an ombudsman to be appointed from a list offered to the Serbs from the OSCE.
  2. There should also be an autonomous municpal police force, trained to international standards and relecting the ethnic commposition of the territory.
  3. The agreement refers to Kosov@ as a territory and doesn t define its political status.
There is some question as to which political parties are being represented in the negotiations. If all political parties don't agree a referendum would be called for.

B92 qoutes Socialist Party leader, Ivica Dacic, who declined to comment on a proposed agreement for stablilizing Kosovo. He accused the Albanians of using delay tactics and to allow estremists in the international community time to put more pressure on the Yugoslavian government.

According to B92, the President of the Serbian parliament, Dragan Tomic, announced today that the Serbian governement had been successful in its struggle to stabilize the situation in Kosovo. He announced that all displaced people had been returned to their homes and that terrorists had either been either eliminated or brought to justice.

According to the Belgrade daily DANAS, the Yugoslavian Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a protest note to the German Embassy, following statements by German Defense Minister Volker Ruehe about a possible NATO intervention in Kosov@. The Yogoslavian Federal Ministry of Defense accuses Germany of leading a destructive policy of supporting secessionism and terrorism in Kosovo and Metohija .
Belgrade Daily Nasa Borba quotes Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, who invoked Serbia's historical experience in how to deal with the Germans and said that Germany and all its allies had to be defeated . JUL party spokesman Ivan Markovic said that Germany was genetically obsessed with the Balkans and accused this country of trying to launch another attempt at creating a new world order .
Belgrade independent dailies also report about a demonstration in front of the German embassy in Belgrade. The protest meeting was organised by the Patriotic Federation of Belgrade and gathered some thousand people. In response to the statements by the German Defense Minister, the president of the Patriotic Federation called on all Germans and Serbs living in Germany to stand up against fascism .

University

In its Information Bulletin No 12 the Belgrade Center for Human Rights reports that three more Belgrade University law professors have been dismissed. The rector dismissed Dragoljub Popovic, Dragor Hiber and Mirjana Stefanofski on grounds of absence from work as a consequence of the three professors' protest against the previous dismissal of professor Vladimir Vodinelic. The decision to sack just these three out of fifteen professors who had been on strike came after a long faculty session in the presence of Radical Party leader and Serbian Vice President Vojislav Seselj.

Civil Society

Some fifty people gathered in the park between the Parliament of Serbia and the Belgrade town coucil building to observe the Kosov@ Action Day initiated by Amnesty International. The manifestation had begun at a more visible spot near the main road but was then urged by the police to withdraw to the parking lot behind the town council building. After one hour the meeting started to disperse, and the Women in Black received press representatives at their Belgrade office.

Media

The editors of B92's English language e-mail news service have been calling on their international readers to make a contribution towards B92's new transmitting tower. The ND 400,000 investment became necessary after the Ministry of Telecommunications had indicated that it would cancel the lease for B92's present transmitter, which is RTS property. Potential supporters are asked to make their checks payable to the Media Development Loan Fund for the Benefit of Radio B92 in New York.

The Information Center of the Bosnjak National Council of Sandjak reports that several TV and radio stations were closed down by the federal telecommunications authorities. Among the stations was Radio Sjenica which had been founded by the Novi Pazar district council. The closures followed an inspection by agents of the Federal Telecommunications Ministry who found that the stations did not have a license to broadcast.

Belgrade independent dailies report that local authorities in Negotin had removed the transmitting tower of STV Negotin on grounds that the station had not asked for a building permit. With the assistance of the Independent Electronic Media Network ANEM, the programme is now available in some surrounding villages.

Nasa Borba reports that a third Albanian language daily has appeard at Prishtina s news agents . The paper is called Kosova Sot (Kosova Today). According to its owner, the business man Ruxhia Kadriu, the daily is independent and it is the first of its kind that is exclusively financed by sources in Prishtina and without the help of political parties or foreign funders. The director of the daily is Kadriu's daughter Margarita, and the editor-in-chief is Ibrahim Rexhepi.

menu | dDH