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NewsPro Archive
December 2000
Montenegro wants independence, looser Yugoslavia
PODGORICA, Dec 29, 2000 -- (Reuters) Tiny Montenegro said on Thursday it wanted to divorce Serbia and become independent -- but then remarry immediately under a looser Yugoslav nuptial contract.
"Independence and the (new) alliance will be determined in a referendum of citizens of Montenegro and Serbia," a Montenegrin government statement said.
President Milo Djukanovic's government approved the blueprint for the future of the Yugoslav federation and said it would send it straight away to Serbian leaders in Belgrade.
A junior partner walked out of his three-party coalition in protest, saying Djukanovic was sparking a political crisis. But the defection will not harm his hold on power.
"The People's Party will leave the ruling coalition tonight. We are still in favor of...a democratic Montenegro in a European Yugoslavia," party deputy leader Predrag Popovic said.
Djukanovic, who has warmed to independence since taking power in 1997, suggests sovereignty for both republics under the umbrella of an alliance far looser than the current federation.
The proposal envisages one army -- but with the leader of each republic in complete charge of forces on his territory.
The new alliance would pool embassies and have one convertible currency, a single market and a customs area -- as do those European Union members who adopted the euro currency.
Djukanovic has said both republics should have a separate seat at the United Nations.
TOO LOOSE?
Critics say such loose ties are practically meaningless. Serbian opponents accuse Djukanovic of wanting his own state but with help from Serbia's nine million people to pay for it.
The two republics are very close and many Montenegrins also consider themselves to be Serbs.
Their republic of 600,000 people has little industry but a stunning coastline that could draw in tourists if peace lasts.
It has stayed with Serbia whilst Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia all seceded from the old Yugoslav federation.
Kosovo, a province that was controlled by Serbia until last year, is still officially part of Yugoslavia but its majority ethnic Albanians want full independence too.
Its status would be even less clear if Yugoslavia dies.
If that happens, new Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica -- who beat Slobodan Milosevic in September elections -- would lose his job and might set his sights on the Serbian presidency.
Djukanovic wants to discuss his proposal with the new Serbian government which premier-designate Zoran Djindjic is forming after reformists won Saturday's general election.
The Montenegrin leader once favored autonomy and blamed Milosevic's autocratic policies for alienating Montenegro, which has operated almost as a separate state for two years.
He opposed Milosevic over repressing Kosovo and has since made the German mark the main currency in use.
He is now pursuing independence although the strongman was forced out of office in street protests in October.
The most recent opinion survey by DAMAR pollsters found that 43 percent of Montenegrins favored independence, 16 percent a loose confederation, 23 percent the status quo and nine percent a total fusion with Serbia.
It is less clear what Serbs now think of keeping Yugoslavia.
NO GOVERNMENT CRISIS
The walkout of Montenegro's mainly pro-Serb People's Party, which has four ministers and just six seats in parliament, will not change the balance of power.
The pro-independence opposition Liberal Alliance said it would support a minority government of Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists and the smaller Social Democratic Party.
The main opposition, the Socialist People's Party (SNP), accused Djukanovic on Thursday of trying to sacrifice the Yugoslav federation because of his personal ambitions.
"He poses a threat to stability in Montenegro. Because of his interests, he is prepared to destabilize the entire region," deputy leader Predrag Bulatovic told Reuters.
The SNP, long-time Milosevic allies, are now part of the reformist-led Yugoslav government.
(C)2000 Copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters Limited.
The New York Times: Montenegro OKs Automony from Serbia
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:20 p.m. ET, December 28, 2000
PODGORICA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Montenegro's pro-Western government on Thursday endorsed a plan that would give it greater autonomy from Serbia, the larger of the two republics that make up Yugoslavia.
The proposal envisages Yugoslavia as a loose union of Serbia and Montenegro, each with their own seat in the United Nations, but with a common army, monetary and financial policies.
Yugoslavia's new President Vojislav Kostunica is seeking to preserve the federation as Montenegro pushes for more autonomy, and international officials have urged Montenegro to go slowly in any independence bid.
Four ministers from the People's Party, a key ally of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic's three-party ruling coalition, walked out in opposition to the move, triggering the collapse of the coalition.
Montenegro's deputy prime minister, Dragisa Burzan, said, that the People's Party walkout would not prevent the proposal from passing the 78-seat Montenegrin parliament.
Support is expected to come from the Liberal Party, which is considered strongly pro-independence and has five seats in the legislature -- enough to get the vote through.
Liberal spokeswoman Vesna Perovic told reporters late Thursday that her party was ready to back Djukanovic's minority government.
Ties between Serbia and Montenegro were almost severed during former strongman Slobodan Milosevic's autocratic rule. Montenegro's leaders boycotted federal elections in protest.
After years of drifting away from Milosevic's Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, the Montenegrin government is now impatient for more independence.
Earlier this month, Djukanovic and Kostunica agreed to open talks on future ties.
Montenegro plans to propose the deal to Serbian representatives by mid-January, Burzan said.
If the talks with Serbia fail, Djukanovic has said that Montenegro would hold an independence referendum by mid 2001.
Independent: The cold, dark legacy of the Milosevic years
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
29 December 2000
The people of Belgrade are preparing to spend New Year's Eve in darkness. The new governments of Yugoslavia and Serbia are grappling with the latest legacy of the Milosevic era – the country's worst energy crisis.
In some areas, power cuts last 10 hours or more. Belgrade, a city of 2.5 million, is divided into four sections and the cuts are rotated,with electricity turned off in each sector for nine hours, twice a day.
"I drive the kids from one friend to another," says Mirjana Savovic, 35, who has two children. "We take turns among ourselves during the day. I don't go to the office. There is no electricity during working hours."
In the evening, parts of Belgrade are a ghostly black because the street lights are not working. Some people walk with torches, stumbling along the pavements.
Sales of candles are booming but people sit in their homes shivering. Without electricity, heating pumps are dead. Taps in high-rise blocks are dry, because water pumps have ceased. Getting into an elevator is a game of roulette. Only hospitals and other essentials such as bakeries have electricity 24 hours a day.
Srboljub Antic, Serbia's Energy Minister, says: "We are facing a catastrophe caused by nature. After nine months of drought and the lowest water level in the rivers, this is the result."
The drought has reduced hydro-electric output to record lows. Serbia relies heavily on hydro power, although there are several big thermal plants. But they are unable to meet the needs of some 7.5 million people in Serbia. The average age of the hydro-electric plants is 26 years and the thermal ones are at least 20 years old.
Serbia's power monopoly, Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), warned this week of increased blackouts and inevitable price rises. During years of sanctions, wars and rising impoverishment, the Milosevic regime kept energy prices low to buy social peace. Serbs turned to cheap electricity for heat. But in the past decade, overall investment in the power system has equalled the investment of one year in the Eighties.
To make matters worse, power stations were targeted during last year's Nato bombing. Then Mr Milosevic temporarily solved the energy crisis by importing electricity from neighbouring countries.
Experts blame the scale of this crisis on the officials who run the monopoly. Loyal to the former regime, they kept silent on the emergency they must have known would hit in mid-winter. The West has promised humanitarian aid for energy purchases, but that takes time to materialise.
The mood in the capital is deteriorating rapidly. Late on Wednesday 100 protesters, saying they had been without electricity for 40 hours, set up roadblocks, claiming "unfair" distribution of power cuts.
"This is a humanitarian catastrophe," one told me. "I don't care who caused this, Milosevic or others. We just want some electricity."
The highway that leads from Hungary through central Belgrade was a nightmare. In the thick darkness, there were no familiar signs. The traffic lights were out, huge buildings were just a sketch in the black sky.
As I drove up to the toll booth it plunged into darkness. "The machine is off, just go," said the man in the cubicle, waving his hand in exasperation.
The New York Times: Yugoslavia Tells U.N. to Crack Down on Guerrillas
By REUTERS
Filed at 1:10 p.m. ET, December 28, 2000
BELGRADE (Reuters) - The Yugoslav parliament passed a declaration Thursday calling on the United Nations to take urgent steps to clear ethnic Albanian guerrillas from a violence-plagued buffer zone bordering Kosovo.
It said that if the United Nations, which runs Kosovo together with a NATO-led peacekeeping force, did not get the guerrillas out, Yugoslavia would have to get rid of them by itself.
The parliament passed the resolution after a debate on the situation in the buffer zone, where four policemen were killed last month in clashes with guerrillas who have staged attacks on Serb security forces in the area throughout the past year.
Only lightly armed local Serb police are allowed into the so-called Ground Safety Zone, set up in June 1999 as part of a deal between Belgrade and NATO which governed the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo after 11 weeks of NATO bombing.
The zone is a (three-mile-wide strip of land inside Serbia proper running alongside the boundary with Kosovo, Serbia's southern province.
The U.N. and NATO have stepped up security along the boundary and say their efforts have hindered the guerrillas. But the Yugoslav parliament insisted they should take more concrete action to secure the area.
``The Federal Assembly demands of the U.N. Security Council to set the shortest possible deadline and take measures for an urgent withdrawal of Albanian terrorists from the Ground Security Zone,'' the declaration said.
``Otherwise, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will invoke its legal and legitimate right to solve the problem on its own by applying all internationally permitted measures in fighting terrorism,'' it said.
It did not specify what actions Yugoslavia might take. Western governments have praised Belgrade's new reformist rulers for respecting the zone so far and declaring a desire to solve the crisis through dialogue and diplomacy.
The U.N. Security Council earlier this month condemned ethnic Albanian extremist violence in the area and called for an immediate and complete cessation of fighting, but has so far stopped short of making changes to documents defining the zone.
Yugoslav officials have expressed some frustration with international authorities in Kosovo.
President Vojislav Kostunica earlier this month called for the zone to be narrowed to allow Yugoslav security forces to ''cleanse'' the area of ethnic Albanian rebels because NATO and the U.N. had failed to do the job.
The guerrillas say they are fighting to protect local Albanians from harassment by Serbian police. Belgrade insists they are separatists intent on joining the Pressevo Valley area of Serbia to ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo.
The parliament declaration also called for the international authorities running Kosovo to ensure the safe return of all expelled Serbs to the province and condemned the destruction of a Yugoslav government office in a bomb attack there last month.
Electronic Telegraph: Milosevic's men flee chorus of arrest threats
By Alex Todorovic in Belgrade, Friday 29 December 2000
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC'S henchmen are beginning to disappear from Belgrade as time runs out for them to flee the country.
The democratic reformers who won an overwhelming victory in elections for the Serbian parliament last Saturday take power early next month, and are already trying to outdo one another with promises of investigations, arrests and trials.
Once the new government is formed, it will take control of Belgrade's airport and the last escape route for corrupt officials will be blocked. Federal police, under the authority of President Vojislav Kostunica, already control the country's land borders.
Hadzi Dragan Antic, the former director of Politika, Belgrade's oldest daily newspaper, and a one-time companion of Milosevic's daughter Marija, has bought tickets for Cuba and fled. A senior member of Politika's staff said he had resurfaced in Moscow, where he has connections.
Mr Antic's defenders in the Socialist Party said he had gone for "therapy". One editor at his former paper laughed: "It's more like permanent therapy." Miodrag Zecevic, the former director of Jubmes, a bank with close ties to Milosevic, has also vanished and is being sought by police, while Mihail Kertes, the former head of Yugoslav customs, has been arrested and charged with abuse of office. Such scenes are likely to be repeated in coming weeks.
An aide to Zoran Djindjic, the Serbian prime minister-elect, said: "Those with dirty laundry in their political past may prefer to face the future in Tajikistan than jail sentences at home."
Nebojsa Covic, a key leader in Mr Kostunica's reformist coalition, said: "You can arrest any of Milosevic's inner circle, give him 10 years in prison, and you simply can't go wrong. Forget The Hague [war crimes tribunal]. They have to answer to their own people, and that satisfaction shouldn't be given to anyone else."
Vladan Batic, Serbia's next justice minister, promised that Milosevic would soon lose his police protection. In a newspaper interview, Mr Covic said he wished the government could arrest Milosevic before the new year, but added: "Realistically, we can expect his arrest in January."
With Serbia in the grip of power cuts and state bank accounts looted, a bitter public seems eager for justice and retribution. Dusana, a housewife at an open-air market in the capital, said: "They've lived high and mighty for the past decade while the average person struggled to make ends meet. I want to see them all behind bars."
Those who won seats in parliament will not be excluded from investigation. One likely target is Vojislav Seselj, the radical nationalist leader in the Milosevic regime who filed countless lawsuits against the independent media and threatened reporters.
In view of the enthusiasm for arrests and trials in the incoming government, more and more of Milosevic's supporters are likely to follow the trail to Belgrade airport blazed by the dictator's son at the time of his father's overthrow in September.
Marko Milosevic bid farewell to his past in the VIP lounge before boarding a Moscow-bound plane, disappearing into an anonymous future with his wife and son. "Our airport will soon look like that last scene in Casablanca," said an aide in the Kostunica coalition. "Those who have something to hide have a short time left to board a plane, then it's over."
Kostunica Rules out Milosevic Prosecution Soon
BERLIN, Dec 27, 2000 -- (Reuters) Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said on Wednesday sorting out difficult ties with Montenegro was a far more pressing task than prosecuting his predecessor Slobodan Milosevic.
Kostunica, a reformist who beat Milosevic in a presidential election in September, told German Radio that the legal and institutional framework was not yet in place for the former leader and his coterie to be tried on corruption charges.
Kostunica was propelled to power in early October after a mass uprising forced Milosevic to concede defeat.
His comments come just as other leaders in Serbia's disparate pro-democracy movement, who triumphed in a parliamentary election at the weekend, have been talking increasingly of Milosevic going on trial soon.
Kostunica said judges and prosecutors would have to be replaced before any criminal proceedings could be opened, and laws dating back to the Tito era would have to be overhauled.
"We need to create the institutional conditions to put questions of responsibility on a legal basis, rather than using revolutionary justice," Kostunica told German Radio in Belgrade in remarks which were dubbed into German. Kostunica added that the state, justice system and media were not ready to deal with a possible prosecution of Milosevic, who is still believed to be living in a heavily guarded residence in a Belgrade suburb.
"The people are hungrier for food than they are hungry for revenge or justice," Kostunica added.
Reformers have been talking of trying Milosevic for corruption. Western governments want him prosecuted in a UN tribunal for war crimes committed in Kosovo and see him as the leader most responsible for a decade of Balkan bloodshed.
Kostunica said one of Belgrade's more pressing tasks was to stabilize relations with Montenegro, Serbia's estranged far smaller partner in what remains of the Yugoslav federation.
Relations between Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic's government and Serbia were strained to breaking point under Milosevic and the coastal republic moved increasingly towards independence.
Despite Milosevic's departure, the republic's government has kept up its drive to distance itself from Belgrade.
Kostunica said this reflected an obsession with power on the part of the Montenegrin regime.
"We have to resolve this problem in a democratic way," he said, calling for orderly changes to the constitution which reflected the will of citizens.
The Chicago Tribune:Nato Troops in Kosovo tested for uranium exposure
By Ciaran Giles
Associated Press
December 27, 2000
MADRID -- European NATO allies have begun checking whether their soldiers may have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation from depleted uranium ammunition used by U.S. warplanes in Kosovo last year. Spain said Tuesday that initial tests were proving negative.
Spain's Defense Ministry confirmed it would examine all 32,000 soldiers who have served in the Balkan region since 1992. A spokesman said none of the first 5,000 soldiers screened in recent months has tested positive.
Portugal said Tuesday that it would send a team of experts to Kosovo to check radiation levels on spent rounds, but did not foresee screening its 330 troops there.
Spain has just over 2,000 troops stationed in the Balkans, half of them in Kosovo.
Fears arose after NATO acknowledged this year that U.S. warplanes operating in Kosovo fired armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium during the alliance's 78-day bombing campaign in 1999.
Italian Defense Minister Sergio Mattarella said last week that Italy was investigating cancer cases among its soldiers from Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina to see if there is a link with the ammunition.
A UN team that went to Kosovo in November is conducting a similar study and is expected to report its findings in February.
Twelve Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans have developed cancer. In addition, three peacekeepers who served in Bosnia died of leukemia last year. Four soldiers involved in aircraft maintenance have also died of cancer.
Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner said Tuesday that there have been no such problems among U.S. troops who served in the Balkans.
The New York Times:A Dimmed Belgrade Gets a Plan to Ration Energy
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 27 — Officials coping with a power crisis called on the nation today to save electricity — a day after downtown holiday illuminations were finally turned off in response to residents' complaints.
Consumers in the dominant Yugoslav republic, divided into four categories, will be without electricity in six-hour shifts, said Slobodan Petrovic, of the state utility company E.P.S.
Prime Minister-elect Zoran Djindjic called on the people to accept the "critical situation," Beta news agency reported. "Residents will be informed hour-by-hour what the situation is," Mr. Djindjic was reported as saying, "and they will see there are no privileges, that we are all in the same troubles."
But some residents who had their doubts complained about the brilliantly lit main thoroughfare earlier this week. Decorative lights there were switched off late Tuesday. The president's home, too, is now doing without festive lights.
Power shortages have become a crucial challenge for democratic reformists, who this weekend followed up President Vojislav Kostunica's federal victory in September with a landslide success in Serbia's parliamentary polls. They have pledged to rebuild the country after a decade under the autocratic regime of Slobodan Milosevic.
Beta quoted an energy company official as saying he was preparing further austerity measures in conjunction with the city authorities.
The energy company said it would disconnect about 150 city enterprises and shorten the list of priority consumers like hospitals and schools, which have been exempt from cuts.
Mr. Djindjic said on Tuesday that there would be no power cuts during New Year celebrations.
The European Union and the United States have pledged to help Serbia's ruined energy system, with the union already donating more than $70 million to help meet energy needs.
Thanks to relatively high December temperatures — an average of 43 degrees predicted for midweek in Serbia — the E.P.S. expected that consumption would be lower. But temperatures as low as 14 degrees are predicted for coming days.
Odd Couple Leading Serb Democracy Clash over Style
BELGRADE, Dec 27, 2000 -- (Reuters) The odd couple leading Serbia's democratic transformation may see their marriage of convenience come under severe strain now that the last bastion of their common adversary has fallen.
With the rout of Slobodan Milosevic's authoritarian leftists by democratic reformers in parliamentary elections, a battle to be boss in Belgrade looms between a phlegmatic legalist with tremendous popularity and a dashing deal maker with momentum.
There is no love lost between Vojislav Kostunica and Zoran Djindjic.
Kostunica is the folk hero who trounced Milosevic in Yugoslav presidential elections three months ago and took office after Milosevic's refusal to recognize defeat triggered a popular revolt.
Djindjic devised the DOS reform alliance campaign behind Kostunica's victory and his negotiating skill helped dissuade secret police and army commanders from a bloody crackdown on opposition protesters before Milosevic conceded, insiders say.
As federal president, Kostunica can convene or dismiss parliament and is commander-in-chief of the army. He has few other constitutional powers but his 75 percent popularity rating gives him unparalleled authority -- based in part on his record of integrity in a political scene sodden with corruption.
Djindjic, prime minister-designate of the 18-party coalition elected on Saturday to take over the Serbian government, will oversee the police, public media, treasury and market reforms in Yugoslavia's dominant republic.
POPULARITY COUNTS
"Because of the mutual dislike between the two men, relations between a Serbian government headed by Djindjic and a federal government under Kostunica will be difficult," the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a report.
"Djindjic would like to make sure that real power accrues to him, but thanks to Kostunica's enormous popularity he will find this difficult," the London-based IISS remarked.
Despite leadership squabbles within the broad spectrum of the DOS, Djindjic maintains the alliance can survive for a year or two if it switches its focus from toppling Milosevic to introducing reforms to improve Serbs' ruined quality of life.
How the Kostunica-Djindjic rivalry will affect the pace and nature of Serbian reform may ultimately hinge on the attitude of Montenegro, Serbia's estranged small partner in the federation.
If Kostunica fails to dissuade Montenegro from holding a referendum on independence next year, he might be out of a job.
In that case, however, Kostunica could become president of Serbia. The incumbent is a discredited Milosevic protege and U.N.-indicted war criminal who is likely to be dumped before his term expires in 2002.
Kostunica and Djindjic have been skirmishing virtually since the morning after Milosevic threw in the towel.
Their disputes pit Kostunica's attachment to legal procedure and aversion to violence against Djindjic's inclination for no-nonsense pragmatism where speed is of the essence.
In the chaotic aftermath of Milosevic's downfall, Djindjic formed "crisis committees" that wrested the national bank, customs service and state enterprises from Milosevic allies.
Djindjic argued for swift action to "consolidate the revolution" but was accused by other reformers including Kostunica of a lunge for power aping Milosevic's methods.
Kostunica's intervention forced the committees to take in members from outside Djindjic's circle and retain expert managers in the public bodies to keep them running pending reforms to be decided by a future, duly elected government.
Another row was sparked by Djindjic's demand for the immediate sacking of Serbian security police czar Rade Markovic.
Kostunica, saying he feared a breakdown in law and order in the fluid interim before December's vote, opposed the move but Djindjic will get his way once installed as prime minister.
THEY AGREE ON ONE THING -- TRY MILOSEVIC AT HOME
Analysts say the only thing Kostunica and Djindjic agree on unequivocally is that Milosevic should not be handed over to the U.N. war crimes tribunal for trial. Both think Milosevic should be judged at home.
Every public tiff between Serbia's two democratic reform leaders is fuelled by their incompatible temperaments.
Kostunica, 56, is an introspective constitutional law scholar who likes to appear above the political fray. He is a religiously devout, conservative Serb patriot who spends holidays at a cottage in rural Serbia.
Both Kostunica and Djindjic come from a 1970s circle of anti-communist academia suppressed by then-dictator Josip Broz Tito. But Djindjic always coveted a starring role in revolution that, after a few false starts, finally came in October.
"Sleek, poised, strutting, he'd prepared for this moment his whole life. One got the sense (as Milosevic fell) that Djindjic had to protect the revolution from Kostunica's existential doubt," Balkans scholar Misha Glenny wrote in the New Yorker.
But while Djindjic is telegenic, eloquent, energetic and flexible, a professed liberal and at ease with Western leaders on whom Serbia will rely for reconstruction aid, he is not popular among average, impoverished Serbs, analysts say.
The New York Times:Aboard the 'Serb Train,' Bitterness, and Hope Too
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
KOSOVO POLJE,December 27 Kosovo — At 5 a.m. the train station is empty, save for a Norwegian peacekeeper swinging his assault rifle in a slow arc, checking for trouble in the pools of light beneath the few remaining bulbs. The smell of creosote hangs heavily.
By 5:15 a castoff East German locomotive drags five cars with dark compartments lurking behind shattered windows into the station, where a mere dozen people wait. By 5:25 there is a scuttling of nervous shadows from the parking lot, and within minutes the "Serb train," as it is known to locals and the United Nations officials who run it, is full.
The train connects this grimy town, which takes its name from the field where the Serbs' defining battle was fought in 1389, to other Serbian communities in northern Kosovo.
In between is territory populated by the majority Albanians, who have staged almost daily revenge attacks on the minority Serbs since NATO troops entered Kosovo in June 1999.
As the train creaks out into the darkness, Greek infantrymen in flak vests fill its doorways, scanning the streets and fields. When tensions are high, a helicopter or an armored personnel carrier races ahead, scanning for angry mobs or anything placed on the tracks to derail the train.
More peacekeepers guard all 10 stations between Kosovo Polje and Zvecan, the village near Mitrovica where the passengers disembark; they are now in "Serbian land," running all the way to Belgrade. The ride to Zvecan is free, but in "Albanian towns" like Vucitrn, no one gets on or off.
The United Nations and military officials who have run this train since February are proud of themselves. To them it is a secure artery connecting cut-off pockets of Serbs. To many Albanians, remembering their mistreatment at the hand of Serbs, it is anathema; the train is regularly stoned or shot at and has been attacked by crowds, and last summer its tracks were blown up.
The driver, Sgt. Karlheinz Hauser of Germany's 104th Armored Division, says grown men make throat- slitting signs as he passes, "and every one or two days, another broken window is normal." The stone-throwers, he adds, are mostly children.
"Serfs in the Middle Ages had more freedom of movement than we do," said Diana Ivanovic, a Serbian woman riding the train one recent day. "I don't bring my children with me, because there is no civilization left here."
The one time she did, she said, a bomb was found on the tracks. The train backed away, and the passengers slept in it all night.
Mrs. Ivanovic, 30, has moved north but comes back to see her parents, toting bags of canned vegetables, coffee and pie crusts. She is a bookkeeper, and with her glossy black hair, black sweater and gold rings, looks severe and prosperous beside Stanja Radovanovic, who is 44 and in a coat that matches her flyaway gray hair. Mrs. Radovanovic has stayed and is carrying empty shopping bags.
Mrs. Ivanovic's thoughts escaped her tightly pressed lips singly, like razor blades, while Mrs. Radovanovic's sloughed out with a weary shrug, but the words they used were identically cruel.
Even Mrs. Radovanovic's pleasant 10-year-old daughter, Maria, said she no longer played with her childhood Albanian friends and could not imagine ever having another, "because Albanians are evil."
There was one difference. Unaware that the multilingual translator she was speaking through was Albanian, Mrs. Ivanovic routinely referred to Albanians using a common insult.
Mrs. Radovanovic's mother is a retired textile worker, her father a civil servant who now will never finish earning his pension, because, she said, "he cannot get to Pristina to work with Albanians each day — he'd probably be killed."
The Guardian: Serbia Plunges Into Energy Crisis
Tuesday December 26, 2000 8:00 am
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - In a season when much of the world is bedecked in festive lights, Yugoslavs are coping with a severe electricity shortage as the country struggles with its worst energy crisis in years.
The power company in Yugoslavia's main republic Serbia - home to more than 90 percent of the country's 10 million people - announced eight-hour blackouts Monday throughout the country because of ``the alarming state of production and supply systems.''
As if that weren't enough, the power company warned that additional cuts may be necessary because of frequent outages at two key power plants
Officials cite several reasons for the energy shortage. A summer drought and an abnormally mild winter has lowered the levels of the Danube and Sava Rivers, cutting back on hydroelectric production.
Yugoslavia and other countries of the Balkans are tied together in a regional power grid, which allows them to import electricity from the other in times of need. However, because of high demands elsewhere and Belgrade's severe economic problems, officials say imports can make up only about 20 percent of the shortfall.
The power grid was poorly maintained during the administration of ousted President Slobodan Milosevic, when the government was severely strapped for cash because of international sanctions imposed in response to the ethnic wars in the Balkans.
As a result, only about a third of the necessary maintenance was conducted on the network this year, officials admit.
In addition, power stations were targeted during last year's NATO bombing campaign, launched to force Milosevic to end his crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.
Power cutbacks, coming at a time when temperatures hover around freezing, have not been well-received by a public eager for improvements in life after Milosevic's ouster in October and rise of a democratic government under President Vojislav Kostunica.
In Nis, Serbia's third-largest city, protesters hurled stones Monday at the local power company offices. Residents of another Nis neighborhood blocked streets, burned tires and set fire to garbage containers to protest power outages.
The Nis police chief, Jovan Milic, said the protesters were asking for shorter outages, even if they were more frequent. He said police did not intervene, in part because they sympathized with the demand.
Meanwhile, about half of the capital Belgrade was without electricity for most of Monday. Power company workers tried to keep service uninterrupted to hospitals and other high priority customers.
The New York Times: Montenegrin Pays Visit to Belgrade After 2 Years
By STEVEN ERLANGER, December 26, 2000
PRAGUE, Dec. 25 — The Montenegrin president, Milo Djukanovic, made his first visit to Belgrade in two years today, another indication that the era of Slobodan Milosevic is truly over.
But Mr. Djukanovic's visit is also a reminder that the status of a post- Milosevic Yugoslavia is still uncertain, with both Montenegro and Kosovo pressing for independence from even a newly democratic Serbia. An 18-party, anti-Milosevic coalition won a landslide victory in elections on Saturday for a new Serbian Parliament and government.
Mr. Djukanovic, who broke with Mr. Milosevic in 1997, arrived to attend a meeting of Yugoslavia's Supreme Defense Council, led by the man who defeated Mr. Milosevic for federal president, Vojislav Kostunica. Mr. Djukanovic is eager to have Mr. Kostunica replace the Yugoslav Army commanders that Mr. Milosevic placed in Montenegro and to disband a special militarized police battalion that Montenegrins considered a threat to their government.
Now that Serbia will have a new democratic government, to be led by Zoran Djindjic as prime minister, talks will begin in earnest among the Serbian, Montenegrin and Yugoslav federal authorities on the future of the state. Any resolution will require constitutional changes and referendums in both Serbia and Montenegro, the two remaining republics in Yugoslavia.
But Mr. Djukanovic has already set up his own army-like police force with Western help, and he appears to be pressing harder for independence now than when Mr. Milosevic was in power. His position has angered Mr. Kostunica, who beat Mr. Milosevic in the Sept. 23 federal elections despite a boycott of the vote by Mr. Djukanovic and his supporters.
Mr. Kostunica is eager to keep tiny Montenegro inside Yugoslavia on better and fairer terms, so long as, he said in an interview last week, "there are the minimal standards of a federal state."
He sees those as including a joint federal government and military establishment, and an overall foreign policy, currency and central bank. But Mr. Djukanovic has already moved to make the German mark Montenegro's currency, even now that the Yugoslav dinar has been made convertible. Montenegro also has its own Central Bank, even without a currency of its own to manage.
Montenegro has also pressed for diplomatic representation abroad, and Mr. Djukanovic now talks of a confederation of two sovereign states, both with seats at the United Nations and other international bodies, an idea that the United States and the European Union oppose.
The West, Mr. Kostunica and now Mr. Djindjic, too, are concerned that an independent Montenegro could increase pressure from the Albanian majority in Kosovo, the Serbian province run by the United Nations and patrolled by NATO-led troops, for rapid independence. New border changes in the Balkans could continue, undermining Macedonia and Bosnia, as well.
Serbs got another reminder today that the elections are over, when they were hit with long new power cuts of up to 12 hours and the news that electricity prices will rise. The Serbian energy minister, Srboljub Antic, said emergency blackouts would increase, affecting as many as 75 percent of consumers for longer periods.
Serbia has been "borrowing" electricity from neighboring countries without authorization, Mr. Antic said, and must stop. Otherwise, it could be cut off from the regional grid and be unable even to purchase extra electricity with the millions of dollars of emergency energy aid being provided by Europe nations and the United States.
War damage and a long drought have compounded the problem, with rivers too shallow to provide cooling at coal-power stations or much hydropower. Russia also is cutting back on natural gas supplies because of Serbia's debts, putting more strain on the electric grid for heating.
Today, Mr. Djindjic repeated warnings that Mr. Milosevic will be the subject of rapid investigation by the new authorities on charges ranging from tax evasion and corruption to conspiracy to murder. Mr. Djindjic, while insisting that politics would not affect the workings of justice, suggested that Mr. Milosevic would find himself behind bars in a matter of weeks.
"He will first have to answer in Serbia for all the terrible things he has done — starting from corruption, crime, election fraud and ordering murders," Mr. Djindjic said.
Cedomir Jovanovic, a close Djindjic aide, said there was a pile of incriminating material against the old government, which is already being leaked through newspapers close to Mr. Djindjic. "Milosevic is the person all roads lead to, and it is realistic to expect that he will soon be answering some questions," Mr. Jovanovic said. "There won't be vengeance, but no one who broke a law can count on an amnesty either."
Electronic Telegraph: Milosevic to go on trial after poll humiliation
By Alex Todorovic in Belgrade, Tuesday 26 December 2000
SERBIA'S government in waiting has pledged to put Slobodan Milosevic on trial following its trouncing of his Socialist Party in parliamentary elections.
Slobodan Milosevic: future will be decided in the courts
President Vojislav Kostunica's 18-party coalition took 64 per cent of the vote while Milosevic's party was left with a mere 13.5 per cent, marking the official end of more than a decade of his dominance of Serbia. Zoran Djindjic, the new prime minister, said: "Milosevic's future will be decided in the courts."
His comments signalled the beginning of a new and dangerous phase for the former Yugoslav strongman. He has been manoeuvring in the political shadows since October when a popular uprising forced him to step down after he refused to concede defeat in the presidential election.
The authorities are expected to pursue corruption investigations of former Milosevic allies, climaxing with a trial of Milosevic sometime next year. This, however, would be in Belgrade and not in The Hague, where he is wanted for war crimes. Mr Djindjic said Rade Markovic, the head of the Yugoslav secret service, had already left his office.
Mr Djindjic said: "We must clean [our] house and remove the people who represented the former regime." Milosevic would not be given amnesty once evidence was uncovered, he said. The Yugoslav United Left, the party led by Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic, got just 0.33 per cent of the vote. Her party was the single most powerful institution in Serbia before October.
Mr Kostunica's coalition won more than two thirds of the seats in parliament.
The New York Times:New Serbian Leader Vows Fast Improvements
By STEVEN ERLANGER
BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 24 — Promising swift work to better the lives of Serbia's people and to root out injustice, Serbia's democratic coalition celebrated today after a landslide victory in parliamentary elections on Saturday, as partial but official results confirmed the collapse of Slobodan Milosevic's 13-year rule.
Zoran Djindjic, the 48-year-old German-educated politician who will become Serbia's prime minister, said he would complete his cabinet by Jan. 10, three days after the Serbian Orthodox Christmas.
"This is going to be the first government that will not be fighting for itself but for the interests of the citizens, and people will soon see an improvement," Mr. Djindjic said.
The 18-party coalition that supported the new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, won 64.5 percent of the vote and more than two-thirds of the 250 seats in the Serbian Parliament, according to results from more than 93 percent of the vote counted today by the Republican Election Commission.
So long as the coalition holds together, it can govern nearly unchallenged and easily alter Serbia's Constitution with the 176 seats it is expected to hold.
Another leader in the coalition, Nebojsa Covic, signaled that the new government would move rapidly to indict Mr. Milosevic and key aides on domestic charges that could range from tax evasion to conspiracy to murder, saying, "A precondition for the rule of law is to immediately call to account the very top of the former authorities."
But Mr. Djindjic, like Mr. Kostunica, opposes sending Mr. Milosevic to the United Nations tribunal in The Hague to face war crimes charges over Kosovo.
For the new Serbian government, a more urgent topic will be talks to try to keep Serbia's tiny sister republic, Montenegro, in the Yugoslav federation. Montenegro's president, Milo Djukanovic, is moving rapidly toward independence and promises a referendum before the summer. Mr. Kostunica, as president of Yugoslavia and a constitutional lawyer, will play a role in the talks, concerned that a deal between Mr. Djindjic and Mr. Djukanovic could leave the Yugoslav federation almost meaningless, undermining his own position.
The major surprise of this election was the showing of strongly nationalist parties, aided by a lower turnout than expected, some 60 percent of the electorate. The Serbian Radical Party of Vojislav Seselj won more than 8.5 percent of the vote and an estimated 23 seats. Another nationalist coalition, built around the Party of Serbian Unity, founded by the late paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, appears to have taken 5.3 percent of the vote, just over threshold required to win seats in Parliament, getting 14.
The nationalist coalition was probably aided by the prominence given to attacks by ethnic Albanian militants in areas of Serbia bordering Kosovo, which Mr. Djindjic himself emphasized during the campaign as a threat to the Serbian state. The coalition was also helped by publicity from two popular television stations owned by one of its leaders.
"The fact that such a party will be represented in Parliament is just one more proof of how carefully society must be healed and radical demagogy avoided," Mr. Djindjic said.
Adrian Severin, the chief representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitored this election, said, "The forces of extreme nationalism are still alive, and the danger they represent should not be forgotten or underestimated."
The nationalist coalition and Mr. Milosevic's Socialists together won 27.4 percent of the vote and 74 seats, which could be important if the democratic coalition fractures — something that many Serbian experts expect to happen next year.
The Socialists won about 13.5 percent of the vote and 37 seats, but the Yugoslav United Left party of Mr. Milosevic's unpopular wife, Mirjana Markovic, was humiliated, winning less than 0.4 percent of the vote. Mr. Milosevic was described today as "calm and cool" when told of his party's results on the telephone by an aide, Dusan Bajatovic. "He told me to be patient because the time for our renovated party is yet to come," Mr. Bajatovic said.
Vuk Draskovic, once the main opposition figure to Mr. Milosevic, paid dearly for his refusal to back Mr. Kostunica in the Sept. 24 federal election that defeated Mr. Milosevic. Mr. Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Party won only 3.3 percent of the vote, under the threshold for seats.
The Washington Post:Serbian Voting Validates New Leaders' Clout
Milosevic's Exit Was No Cure-All
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 25, 2000; Page A30
BELGRADE, Dec. 24 -- In the end, no one drove a stake through Slobodan Milosevic's heart. No one had to. The "butcher of the Balkans," the autocrat who started and lost four wars, nearly destroying his multi-ethnic country in the process, was felled by the ballot in an election that for all the poisoned history here was sublimely boring.
The democratic coalition that cracked the foundations of Milosevic's rule through a popular and bloodless revolution on Oct. 5 coasted to victory Saturday in elections for the powerful Serbian parliament, where the old regime had clung to the dregs of power.
For the first time in 50 years, non-Socialists will govern Serbia, the dominant republic in Yugoslavia. Early results showed the Democratic Opposition of Serbia reform bloc that backed Vojislav Kostunica for the Yugoslav presidency this fall won 65 percent of the vote, giving it 177 of 250 seats in the Serbian parliament. Milosevic's Socialists had 14 percent.
"This is the biggest change in the order of Serbia since World War II," declared the Belgrade daily Politika. The newspaper is itself a symbol of that change; while it now trumpets the power of the vote, for 10 years it pumped out government propaganda, demonizing the regime's domestic and foreign enemies.
It is easy to forget that just six months ago Milosevic appeared to be as entrenched as ever as Yugoslav president. And despite the seemingly seismic events, it is just as easy to forget that Milosevic's political passing is not the tonic many had long predicted.
The fallout from NATO's 1999 air assault on Yugoslavia -- and the unsettled status of ethnic Albanians in Serbia, including the U.N.-administered province of Kosovo, as well as in Macedonia and Montenegro -- will continue to dog the Balkans.
Already, ethnic Albanian insurgents in southeastern Serbia, hard by the border with the U.S.-patrolled sector of Kosovo, are attacking Serbian forces. In their irredentism, they are drawing NATO into ever closer cooperation with the country it bombed for 78 days.
Moreover, according to Western officials, there are worrying signs that arms are flowing from Kosovo to Macedonia, which has a large ethnic Albanian minority. So the longtime Serbian assertion that the danger in the Balkans was not a "Greater Serbia" but a "Greater Albania" is beginning to gain currency in Western circles where it was long dismissed as cant.
Despite the occasional bellicosity of their language, the new leaders in Belgrade seem loath to seek a unilateral solution to rid their territory of guerrillas and seem only too happy to have NATO engage them. With a collapsed economy and a pressing need for Western aid, they see no percentage in Yugoslav guns shelling ethnic Albanian villages and rekindling the excesses of the former government.
For the incoming administration in Washington, the Balkans may prove as complicated as ever. In that environment, Europeans will fiercely resist any withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Balkans, as Condoleezza Rice, President-elect Bush's designated national security adviser, has suggested. European diplomats argue that NATO's role in Kosovo remains as critical as ever and that the United States shares responsibility for the region.
NATO continues to walk a delicate line with the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo, a province of Serbia. It speaks softly about the U.N. resolution that confirms Serbian sovereignty and elicits all the right noises about the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the province. But it effects no real change and is not squeezing the radical remnants of the disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army to force them to clamp down on their violent brethren within and outside the province.
The unspoken rationale for this unstated policy is a desire not to inflame the province. But, ultimately, the desire of Kosovo Albanians for independence will have to be faced, and with it a plethora of difficult issues, including the status of minorities and borders across the region.
There are, nonetheless, reasons to hope that politics can trump extremism. In Kosovo, as recent local elections showed, moderates are ascendant at the ballot box even though political thugs stalk the streets. In the Presevo Valley, where ethnic Albanian guerrillas are operating in the safety zone between NATO and Yugoslav forces, there is strong anecdotal evidence that the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medveda and Bujanovac is not as popular among the local people it purports to defend as it would like to believe.
In the end, the willingness of ethnic Albanians to tolerate the use of a strong arm to build a multi-ethnic democracy may be underestimated, just as the invincibility of Milosevic was long overestimated. And as diplomacy grinds toward the final settlement of a host of political issues, it won't have Milosevic to kick it around anymore.
Milosevic's Socialist Party may be the second-largest party in the newly elected Serbian parliament, but like all losers, he is prey for the picking. The new government may prosecute him for crimes committed within the kleptocracy he created in the past 10 years. The West would like to whisk him off to the international tribunal in The Hague to stand trial for war crimes in Kosovo, charges that could be broadened to cover atrocities that took place during earlier ethnic wars in Bosnia and Croatia. And his party, looking to reconstitute itself as a real post-authoritarian alternative, may dump him.
As he voted Saturday, Milosevic wished everyone "a happy New Year." For him, sooner or later, the season's greeting may be the clang of a prison door followed by a deafening silence.
Serbs Vote in Poll Likely to Rout Milosevic Party
BELGRADE, Dec 23, 2000 -- (Reuters) Serbs voted on Saturday in an election expected to sweep Slobodan Milosevic's Socialists out of government, prevent the former Yugoslav president from contemplating a comeback and fix their country's new course towards democracy.
Voting started in cold weather at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT). Around 6.5 million registered voters will be able to cast their ballots until 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) at some 8,700 polling stations across impoverished Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic.
The first projected results are due during Saturday night.
Serbs pushed the Balkan demagogue off his pedestal in a street uprising in October, after he lost elections for the federal Yugoslav presidency and parliament but refused to go.
All opinion polls indicate they will now vote en masse to send his Socialist underlings packing in the Serbian election.
"We have to finish them off completely," said 26-year-old Srdjan, voting in Belgrade.
Venceslav Dionic, 40, said he hoped the elections would lead to better times, blaming the country's devastated economy on almost five decades of communist and socialist rule. But, he added, "I know it will not change for the better overnight."
The alliance behind new President Vojislav Kostunica is predicted heading for a 60-80 percent share of the vote -- more than Milosevic got in 13 years in power.
That would give Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) a firm grip on Serbia's government, the key Yugoslav power center.
But they face daunting tasks -- to stem economic collapse, stop Kosovo unrest spreading into Serbia proper, face up to war crimes and demands for Milosevic to face an international trial, and keep DOS and Yugoslavia from falling apart.
In Kosovo, in U.N. hands since 1999 when NATO bombing drove out Yugoslav forces, Serb officials aim to organize polling stations for some of the 100,000 beleaguered Serbs there.
The move has enraged members of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority who want independence for the formerly Serbian- controlled province. NATO-led peacekeepers will be on alert for violence sparked by the poll.
SERBS START JOURNEY LATE
For many Serbs the journey towards Western democracy, that most of their neighbors began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, is 11 years late.
They once prided themselves on belonging to eastern Europe's most progressive and prosperous country, the former Yugoslavia. But they have regressed, while neighbors who envied them are in NATO and readying for talks on joining the European Union.
Serbia dwarfs Montenegro, its only remaining partner in a Yugoslavia that has shrunk after a decade of war and break-up as Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia all left the federation.
Montenegro is now considering pulling out too.
Milosevic, blamed by Serbs for their descent into corrupt economic chaos and by the West for fomenting a decade of Balkan wars, miscalculated by calling September's federal poll.
Shocked by his foes' unprecedented unity under the DOS umbrella, he denied his defeat until forced out by the historic Belgrade mass protests.
This time, the Socialists' fate should be clear in hours, and provisional official results are likely by Monday, a normal day for Orthodox Serbs who celebrate Christmas on January 7.
Polls give the Socialists just 10-to-20 percent in the proportional representation vote to elect 250 deputies.
The ultra-nationalist Radicals, one party with whom they have shared power since the 1997 general election that many DOS parties boycotted, are battling to stay above the five percent of the national vote needed to get back in.
The Serbian Renewal Movement, the main opposition last time under the erratic Vuk Draskovic, and the United Left (JUL) run by Milosevic's wife Mira Markovic, may not even make the cut.
TRANSPARENT VOTING
The vote will be observed by monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and local groups.
Novelties in what many observers say will be modern Serbia's first truly free and fair vote are transparent ballot boxes, an invisible security spray and compulsory signing of voter lists.
DOS is confident enough to have sketched out a new cabinet, with vocal opposition leader Zoran Djindjic as prime minister.
The 18-party group's surge seems largely due to the personal popularity of Kostunica, a constitutional lawyer who has put Belgrade on the fast track back to the international community.
He is more popular than Milosevic ever was, despite the latter's nationalist populism and wily control of the media.
But Kostunica's "honeymoon" reflects desperate hopes that a better life is just round the corner for ordinary Serbs -- hopes that are all too likely to turn to disappointment before long.
The Times:Kosovo Santas aim to deliver gift of peace
FROM JANINE DI GIOVANNI IN PRISTINA
IT’S Christmas in Pristina. Shops and windows are decorated with cheap coloured lights and plastic fir trees.
Albanian families are preparing dishes and buying presents and trees for their families. International aid workers are travelling to Gracanica, a nearby Serb village, to buy pork in the market for dinner.
Santa Claus — in the shape of a Finnish Nato soldier — has arrived by helicopter on the outskirts of town and children run through the streets, clutching wrapped presents given to them by soldiers from the peacekeeping force, Kfor.
Expectation bathes the devastation and grimness of this postwar city, Kosovo’s provincial capital, in a festive glow. Hope, however, is sparse.
It is the second Christmas since Nato-led troops "liberated" ethnic Kosovo Albanians from repression by Slobodan Milosevic, yet they now risk hostilities from the very people they fought so hard to save.
An Albanian war leader in the south of the region said: "If they come here without first reaching an agreement, we would resist them as we resist the Serbs. We know we could not win, but we would take some of their men with us."
Increasingly it seems that Kfor will have to join forces with the Serb military to curb the activities of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, operating within the three-mile security buffer zone.
There is a great sense of activity in the town. In a kindergarten called Our Happiness, Royal Marines are giving out wrapped presents, books and toys to tiny children whose parents watch gratefully.
In the Illeria School, in southeast Pristina, soldiers are still determined to break the cycle of ethnic violence that has defined Kosovo’s pivotal Balkan role as they hand out football strips to traumatised Albanian children, many of whom witnessed relatives being killed during the war.
"I haven’t got a present in a long time," said Osman, 12, whose mother died during the Nato bombing. His friend, Ramsi, whose father and grandmother were "massacred", said that seeing the British soldiers quietened the fear that had remained with him since the war. "I used to think men in uniforms meant Serb police who were going to hurt me on the way to school," Osman said. "Now it is the English soldiers, who are friends."
Despite the football strips and the fence that the British are building round the school to protect the children, Osman cannot recall the days of the bombing campaign without bursting into tears. "I do feel safer now," he said. "Because the soldiers are here, but I can’t forget what happened."
Although the soldiers, who work closely with the Pristina community, both Serb and Albanian, are anxious to promote a sense of healing and reconciliation in the battered city, it is a mammoth task. The wounds of the war that opened 21 months ago, and the years of ethnic conflict leading up to it, are still far too close.
On the other side of town a small group of Royal Marines is holding out against the freezing winter in a half-built Orthodox church to protect it from Albanian extremists who would destroy it were they not there. The four sleep in a tent inside the church. The tent has a lopsided Christmas tree, decorated with baubles, a television and a copy of the video Good Will Hunting. Christmas dinner will be rations.
In another part of town, a group of Royal Marines is working on a trickier operation. A grim community centre known as Dardagna has opened in time for the holidays; the Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas and New Year on January 6 and January 14. It is an enclave for 180 terrified Serbs left in Pristina, but there is little sense of festivity. They cannot leave without soldiers escorting them; they cannot go to buy a pint of milk without being harassed by ethnic Albanians. They cannot go to the clubs and bars that they went to all their lives.
Their children must be bused to Gracanica to go to school. But since the British troops arrived, the crime rate has been reduced by 55 per cent and the next project is to get a full-time doctor and dentist. The Serbs cannot be treated at the Albanian hospital. "They would get harassed or ignored," one soldier said.
Major Dave Wilson is with 45 Commando Group; it is his job to try to provide a sense of hope for the Serbs, who numbered about 45,000 before the war. "Our goal is to let the people live safely in the city," Major Wilson said. "But it isn’t easy. People know this is where Serbs live and it is a target for Albanian extremists."
There are 600 to 700 Serbs in Pristina. Those living outside Dardagna run the greatest risk; the soldiers have to check on them every 48 hours.
Diana, a 29-year-old geological engineer who now works with the British soldiers, lost her job at a big mine in Kosovo during the war and left the province. She returned with her two children because she refused to be a refugee. Diana has left her old life, including her flat on the other side of the city, and her Albanian former friends. The former mine director manages the Dardagna community centre.
Some British troops will be celebrating on Kfor hill, where parties are planned, but for the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment which conducted a highly successful operation this week, capturing 13 armed Albanians just after setting up camp near the Presevo Valley at Camp Sobroan, it will be a cold and foggy Christmas.
A few miles away, up to 2,500 fighters from the liberation army have virtually declared war on them. Lieutenant-General Carlo Cabigiosu, the Kfor commander, has hinted that after today’s Serbian parliamentary elections the agreement with Belgrade could be changed, to allow Serb forces into the buffer zone to protect themselves against the Albanian militia.
Officially, the agreement cannot be changed; but the reality is that in just 18 months the face of the Kosovo enemy has changed. Mr Milosevic’s autocratic regime has been replaced by democracy; and both Nato forces and Serbs face attacks from Albanians determined to secure the independence that they came so close to in June 1999.
The Guardian: Serbian voters prepare to heap more humiliation on Milosevic
Gillian Sandford in Belgrade, Friday December 22, 2000
The last bastions of parliamentary power held by ex-president Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist party are expected to fall to reformist candidates in Serbia's elections tomorrow.
Supporters of President Vojislav Kostunica are forecast to win a landslide victory and secure control of Serbia's government, the most important power centre in Yugoslavia.
The election should give Serbia its first government for more than 50 years not led by the Socialists or their communist predecessors. It will be a fresh humiliation for Slobodan Milosevic who was removed from power following a popular uprising.
He remains controversially protected by a special army unit and police guard in Beli Dvor (White Palace), which was once the home of Marshal Tito, in the Belgrade suburb of Dedinje.
The man who ought to live in the palace, the new federal president Mr Kostunica, is busy travelling around the world re-establishing ties that Mr Milosevic severed.
In just two months since the 5 October uprising, when Serbia overthrew Mr Milosevic, Mr Kostunica has brought Yugoslavia back into the world community, rejoining the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and raising its long term aim of joining the European Union.
During this time his popularity has soared to an unprecedented 91% approval rating.
According to many opinion polls, members of the anti-Milosevic coalition, DOS (the Democratic Opposition of Serbia), will gain more than 70% of the vote.
The latest survey showed DOS with 63% - which would translate into a larger majority in parliament, because some parties will not clear the 5% threshold.
The Socialists, with a projected 13% of the vote, look set to win a few seats in parliament, but not to have any serious power. Two splinter parties will further divide the leftwing vote and the Yugoslav Left party of Mr Milosevic's wife Mira Markovic is not expected to gain a single seat.
Rebeka Srbinovic, vice-president of the DOS party New Democracy, said it was important that in the elections, DOS wins more than two thirds of the seats in parliament. This would give them the mandate to change the Serbian constitution and jettison the one that Mr Milosevic tailor-made for himself.
On Serbia's streets, people see the elections as being their chance to stamp out Mr Milosevic. Car mechanic Vladimir Dacevic, 62, hurrying home from work on 27 March Street in central Belgrade, said: "These elections are very important. We need to finish the changes that we started on 5 October and to get rid of the Reds [Socialists], to put normal, young people into jobs - and not old thieves."
The DOS coalition has already announced that the Democratic party leader, Zoran Djindjic, will be prime minister and parties in DOS have agreed a share-out of seats in the parliament and in the cabinet.
Mr Djindjic has named the key cabinet positions and the only top post still in question is that of minister for police.
The new police chief will take over from an ally of Milosevic, Rade Markovic, whom Mr Kostunica controversially kept in power.
The minister will be responsible for overseeing the secret police and so will control access to the files that Mr Milosevic's secret service gathered on his political enemies - many of whom are now DOS leaders.
A Balkan disaster in the making
21 December 2000
The fact that ethnic Albanian separatist guerrillas have finally turned their weapons against American and Russian troops in Kosovo should come as no surprise to regular readers of Jane's Intelligence Digest (JID). Our leading Balkan analyst examines the escalating risk to the whole UN mission.
JID has been warning since early 1999 that the lack of a coherent long-term policy over the future of Kosovo -- which remains internationally recognised as an integral part of Federal Yugoslavia -- would leave KFOR, the multi-national peace-keeping force, exposed once the ethnic Albanian militants realised that their aims of independence were effectively blocked by the presence of the UN administration.
Having entered Kosovo as the perceived 'liberators' of the ethnic Albanians from the Serbs, KFOR troops have come into increasingly bitter conflict with the heavily armed guerrillas, many of whom are closely linked to the officially disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). However, although the KLA ceased to exist on paper on 30 September 1999, the frequency with which illegal arms caches are being uncovered by KFOR proves beyond all doubt that the KLA -- or at least its more militant wing -- is still armed and active.
Albanian guerrillas attacked KFOR troops on 17 December on the border between Kosovo and southern Serbia. That this location would be the next Balkan flashpoint was made clear in a JID article last year (1 October 1999) when we warned that the Albanian-speaking areas of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja in southern Serbia would be the scene of further conflict. Now, with the rise of the Albanian Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB), our warnings have proved correct.
The nightmare scenario of a fresh Balkan war cannot be ruled out. Links between the ethnic Albanian guerrillas of Kosovo and the substantial Albanian minority in neighbouring Macedonia could easily lead to further destabilisation and possible disintegration of Macedonia itself -- precisely the disaster which Western strategy has been aiming to avoid at all costs.
JID predicts that there will be further attacks against KFOR targets as the troops attempt to neutralise the threat posed by the UCPMB. This may include the planting of bombs like the one that was found, and defused, close to the British military headquarters in Pristina in August along with more gun battles near the southern Serbian border. With around 50,000 international peacekeepers in Kosovo, the prospect of a conflict with a local guerrilla force that knows its own territory and has the sympathy of at least a significant section of the Kosovan Albanian population may well end in a bloody fiasco.
Democratic Bloc Vows Clean Govt. Before Serb Vote
By Mark Heinrich
BELGRADE,December 20 (Reuters) - The leader of the 18-party reformist bloc poised to sweep Serbia's parliamentary election vowed Wednesday to forge ``modern, uncorrupted'' government that will crack down on endemic graft and gangsterism.
After a decade of wars, U.N. sanctions, the impoverishment of millions and the enrichment of a few ten thousand in ruling circles, polls show reformists will crush long-dominant nationalists in Saturday's parliamentary election.
Zoran Djindjic, premier-designate of the Democratic Alliance of Serbia (DOS), told its final campaign rally that Yugoslavia's main republic could expect honest government dedicated to democracy, the rule of law and peace with neighbors.
``Let us try to win in peace, we don't want wars any more. Let's make the 21st century an era of peace in the Balkans,'' Djindjic, 48, told thousands of supporters in Belgrade's main Sava convention center.
``We first have to change ourselves ... we should not make compromise with our shortcomings. We should start with our home, and that is our government, and it must be clean and uncorrupted and must be capable,'' he said.
``Then we will clean the institutions to make this country an example of a modern, organized state.''
Djindjic said there would be no campaign of vengeance against figures from the fallen authoritarian regime of Slobodan Milosevic , ``but there won't be any amnesty either.''
Among the overriding priorities of a DOS government would be rooting out networks of corruption linking senior state officials, police and business figures which have bled state coffers dry over the past decade, Djindjic has said.
Milosevic's tenure was marked by the rise of a politically connected elite enriched by black marketeering and import monopolies while most Serbs were driven by hyper-inflation and international sanctions into poverty.
Billions Of Dollars Missing
Yugoslavia's new reformist central bank governor Mladjan Dinkic said recently that several billion dollars were spirited abroad during Milosevic's rule in the 1990s.
Milosevic was toppled in a popular uprising 10 weeks ago sparked by his attempt to annul the victory of DOS challenger Vojislav Kostunica in Yugoslavia's presidential election.
When the dust cleared, the new federal rulers found the cupboard bare -- empty bank accounts, food warehouses vacant and oil reserves dry. Belgrade is counting on European Union aid and local improvisation to get through the winter.
But the key to rebuilding and modernizing Yugoslavia over the longer term will be wholesale economic and legal reform in its dominant republic, Serbia, whose size and 10 million people dwarf its federal partner Montenegro.
``If our country is to be successful it must have determined political leadership and stable democratic institutions,'' Djindjic told the DOS gathering.
``For us Serbia is not just a territory, not just a population, for us Serbia is a great idea and a great obligation,'' he said to applause.
The latest poll by Belgrade's Strategic Marketing agency put DOS support in Saturday's election at 62.8 percent with Milosevic's Socialist Party (SPS) far behind at 12.7 percent.
Milosevic, indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for alleged atrocities in Kosovo, has lashed out against ``foreign intelligence services'' he says are now running Yugoslavia. But the SPS eschewed campaign rallies for ``security reasons.''
A former SPS coalition partner, the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party, attracted eight percent, the poll found.
The Serbian Renewal Movement, whose firebrand leader Vuk Draskovic once co-led Serbia's opposition bloc with Djindjic but dropped out over largely personal differences, bordered on the minimum five percent needed for parliamentary seats.
BBC: Serbian election campaign closes
Official campaigning ends on Wednesday ahead of Serbia's parliamentary election on 23 December.
The elections are the first since the new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, took office.
It is still not clear whether voting will take place in Kosovo. There is confusion over whether the United Nations authorities who run the province will provide facilities for the vote.
Though the 18-party Democratic Opposition alliance led by Mr Kostunica is expected to win convincingly, observers say it may struggle to maintain unity after the election and will be under pressure to deal quickly with ethnic violence in Kosovo.
The election could see the final removal from power of the Serbian Socialist Party of former president Slobodan Milosevic.
New start?
BBC central European reporter Nick Thorpe says that much has changed in Serbia in the 11 weeks since the dramatic fall of Mr Milosevic and his regime.
There is a new mood in the country, spearheaded by a media freed of the restraints placed on it by the old authorities.
A new dinar, the Yugoslav currency, has been launched.
Some officials have been replaced, but far fewer than the more radical voices in the Democratic Opposition would like.
Gas and oil shortages have been alleviated by deliveries from Russia and European countries, but the longer-term energy crisis remains.
International community
In foreign affairs, the country has been re-admitted to international bodies, including the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
And difficult talks have begun with other republics of the former Yugoslavia over the division of assets and debts.
Our correspondent says the real power in this country rests with the Serbian Government, not with the Government of the Yugoslav Federation - making this election more important in some ways than the vote in September which ended with Mr Milosevic's fall from power.
In a further sign of the changing times, Mira Markovic, the wife of ousted former president, has complained about the about bias in the state media - once firmly under the control of the Milosevic regime.
Mr Milosevic himself complained at a party congress last month that the media was now in the hands of "foreign intelligence services".
The Times: British forces seize Kosovo guerrillas
FROM JANINE DI GIOVANNI IN PRISTINA,THURSDAY DECEMBER 21
BRITISH troops sent to quell tensions near the Serbian-Kosovo border seized 13 armed Albanian guerrillas and an arms cache near the village of Draghibac Mahala.
“It is an unprecedented and extremely successful operation,” Major Tim Pearse, spokesman for the Multinational Brigade Centre, said.
The suspects were observed moving in four vehicles and two tractors in and out of the “ground safety zone”, a three-mile wide buffer zone between Serbia and Kosovo. They were detained inside Kosovo, about 35 miles southeast of the capital, Pristina.
The British troops, from the 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, were deployed into the American-controlled Kfor sector in southeastern Kosovo on Tuesday following a skirmish between American and Russian troops and Albanian rebels, believed to be part of an armed group known as UCPMB (Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedaj and Bujanovac). The group claims to represent the 70,000 ethnic Albanians living in southern Serbia, near the Kosovo border.
The British troops, who have set up a temporary base at Camp Sobroan, seized a cache of weapons, including two light machineguns; seven long-barrelled weapons; five AK47 rifles; 30 rocket-propelled grenade warheads; two rocket launchers; 50 hand grenades; eight anti-tank mines; two pistols; two 12.7mm machineguns; three .50 calibre machineguns; one box of explosives; four rocket launchers with warheads; as well as ammunition and military uniforms.
The successful British operation will embarrass the Americans who claim joint victory. It is widely agreed that the British troops were sent to the Presevo region this week because the Americans have been largely unsuccesful at curbing the Albanian guerrillas.
There are reports of tension between the Americans and their Russian counterparts, who are under US command. “The Americans are not used to working in this kind of environment, and we have been doing it for a long time,” explained one Briton who refused to be identified. Reporters working in the region have criticised the heavy-handed approach of the Americans and their lack of confidence in dealing with civilians.
The Britons, under Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen Kilpatrick, were deployed from their base in Podujevo on Monday. The 150 men have been monitoring thousands of paths and trails leading into the buffer zone between Serbia and Kosovo, setting up observation posts and patrolling the region. The success of the British operation in so short a time is a testament to its skill at adjusting to unfamiliar and remote terrain, as well as its confidence and ability.
The Presevo Valley, largely inhabited by Albanians, has become a flashpoint in the past few months as the UCPMB and other Albanian rebel groups have been building up arms. The area lies within the boundaries of Serbia, but sovereignty has been contested since the 1999 United Nations Security Council resolution declared it a buffer zone and out of bounds to Yugoslav forces.
Lieutenant-Colonel Kilpatrick, speaking to The Times on Tuesday, said that the British troops were confident of weeding out the rebels. He said: “We’ve already stopped them getting arms and food.
“It’s nothing dramatic, but it’s a sensible approach. British forces bring a fresh approach to these problems and have different skills.”
Major Pearse said: “Soldiering at a personal level is one of their strengths. It’s a balance of technology and individual skills. The British are recognised as having those personal skills.”
The suspects arrested by the British are being detained and interrogated by the Americans at Camp Bondsteel, the American base.
The Herald Tribune: Angry Yugoslav Colonel Traces Ethnic Killers
R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Service,Thursday, December 21, 2000
Trial Reflects a New Attitude by Belgrade
NIS, Yugoslavia In late March 1999, as NATO warplanes streaked over Kosovo, a Yugoslav Army colonel named Ljubisa Micic, based in Kosovo, heard what to him was alarming talk: Soldiers had murdered civilians in two villages outside Pristina, the capital.
He decided to investigate.
Colonel Micic knew he would find trouble after seeing a young man's body lying in the road on the outskirts of Saskovac, a farming village. And soon afterward he came across two more bodies, both severely burned.
Soldiers he met in the village told him that members of a military water supply unit had boasted about burning a house with five ethnic Albanian civilians trapped inside.
But he could not find out who was responsible. So he went on to the neighboring village of Susica, and there things were clearer. A soldier led him to the grave of two elderly ethnic Albanians who, he was told, had been shot because they had refused the military's order for a general evacuation.
Thus began a remarkable crusade in which Colonel Micic learned who had killed the pair, obtained written confessions and lodged criminal charges with the army prosecutor.
A year and a half later, the charges have led to the trial of three Yugoslav soldiers here in Nis.
The trial suggests that under the two month-old government of President Vojislav Kostunica, Belgrade is taking some tentative first steps toward coming to terms with the crimes of a decade of ethnic war.
And it also shows that even during the repressive rule of President Slobodan Milosevic until October, people like Colonel Micic took great risks to oppose ethnic crime and tried to use the legal system to uphold their beliefs.
Military officials said the trio appeared to be headed for conviction, a verdict that would be the Yugoslav Army's first official acknowledgment that any of its men had committed an atrocity during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, which included a powerful NATO air assault on Yugoslavia.
The case involves the deaths of just two ethnic Albanians, an elderly couple named Feriz and Rukija Krasniqi. When measured against the claims of international prosecutors that Mr. Milosevic and other political and military leaders engineered crimes against humanity on a massive scale in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, the trial seems small.
But human rights activists see it as an important precedent, in particular for ethnic Albanians. "It's important that they know one military judge wants to see justice for victims," said Natasa Kandic, director of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, which monitored the case.
In the five-week trial, which opened only after President Milosevic was deposed in early October, there has been no hint that anyone above the rank of captain was involved in the slayings. The charges, moreover, are murder and not war crimes.
But Colonel Radenko Miladinovic, the presiding judge, said that more trials like this were likely soon. "I am telling people, and some people just don't want to believe it, but it may be that men in the army did things like those we have heard about," he said in an interview. The new cases will take time to emerge. "People were trying to cover their tracks; war is a good way of covering tracks."
"These were children," he said. "Bombs were falling. People were afraid. Under those conditions, things were done that would ordinarily never be done."
One of the Krasniqi sons, Agron, sent the judge an emotional letter on Nov. 12, saying he hoped the probe would help disclose where his parents' bodies were buried. He also said he wanted "to salute all the honorable men in the court."
A farming village with about 200 homes, Susica before the war was a peaceful community populated by Kosovo's two main ethnic groups, Albanians and Serbs.
In 1998 and 1999, ethnic Albanian militants who wanted Kosovo to secede from Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, stepped up attacks on government installations. The Yugoslav Army responded with a brutal crackdown, leading NATO to start its bombing on March 24, 1999.
Colonel Micic was stationed at the time in Pristina. He was a political officer, a remnant of the Communist world's system of putting party members into army units to guard against ideological heresy. Killing civilians did not fit his idea of military honor.
When he heard rumors of the killings in the two villages, he was eager to investigate, he told the court here several weeks ago, standing before the judge in civilian clothes. "I wanted to prevent things like that from happening in our army."
Court records, testimony and interviews with some of the principals indicate that the incident began when the Yugoslav Army's Fifth Bakery Platoon, composed of dozens of men whose job was to bake bread in the field and who had never seen battle, moved to Susica from the Serbian town of Gracanica on March 27 to hide from NATO warplanes.
Others in their battalion, known as War Unit 5778, arrived March 28 following a NATO strike on the army barracks in Pristina. Two soldiers died in that attack and seven others were wounded.
Many of Susica's ethnic Albanians had already fled. The bakery platoon's first mission was to "cleanse" the village of the rest so soldiers could hide there. They got orders to shoot at anything that moved. They threw a grenade onto the top floor of one house to force a cousin of the elderly Krasniqis and his wife out of the basement. The cousin left but Feriz Krasniqi did not.
Wearing a dark blue suit and standing in the front yard of his home, he told the soldiers his wife, Rukija, was paralyzed and unable to leave her bed. So Captain Petrovic, the bakery platoon's 33-year old commander, turned to two reservists and said that if they refused to leave "shoot them," according to accounts given by two soldiers at the scene.
Tomica Jovic, one of the reservists, fired a burst from an automatic rifle into the man's back; then the other, Nenad Stamenkovic, shot the woman point blank on her bed, a soldier named Nebojsa Dimitrijevic, who was at the scene, told the investigative judge. "Two people were cleansed today," he wrote in his diary that night, an event he later said triggered months of nightmares.
UN Council Condemns Extremist Violence in Southern Serbia
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 20, 2000 -- (Reuters) The UN Security Council on Tuesday condemned violence by ethnic Albanian extremists in southern Serbia and called for such groups to be dissolved and their members to leave the area.
The session had been called at the request of Belgrade's new president, Vojislav Kostunica, on the crisis along a buffer zone between Yugoslavia's Kosovo and Serbia. Under UN resolutions the zone, known as the Ground Safety Zone, is to be demilitarized.
In a statement read at a formal meeting, the council said it "strongly condemns the violent action by ethnic Albanian extremist groups in southern Serbia and calls for an immediate and complete cessation of violence in this area."
Kostunica said on Tuesday that the buffer zone should be narrowed to give Yugoslavia more means to "cleanse" the area of ethnic Albanian rebels because NATO, which along with the United Nations controls Kosovo, had failed to do the job. He also suggested Serb security authorities should be allowed to use heavier weapons to neutralize guerrillas infiltrating from Kosovo.
The guerrillas say they are fighting to protect local Albanians from harassment by Serbian police. Belgrade insists they are separatists intent on joining the Presevo Valley area of Serbia to ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo.
Yugoslavia's Foreign Affairs Minister Goran Svilanovic, who traveled to New York, told council members that since June 10, 1999, "Albanian terrorists" had committed more than 400 armed attacks on the zone's lightly armed Yugoslav police, killing 11 police officers and eight civilians.
"More than 1,000 terrorists ... equipped often with heavy weapons, have entered the zone and are still there," Svilanovic said.
The buffer zone in southern Serbia was set up in June 1999 to prevent Yugoslav forces from threatening the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.
The United Nations and NATO took control of Kosovo in June 1999 after the Western alliance conducted an 11-week bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, aimed at thwarting Milosevic's drive to expel ethnic Albanian separatists from the province.
Svilanovic said the guerrilla presence was dissuading Serbs from returning home who had fled Serbia's southern Kosovo province after former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic launched a crackdown there against ethnic Albanian separatists.
Yugoslavia was committed to pursue an end to the violence through dialogue and negotiation but a worsening of the situation could "lead to unforeseeable consequences" and "jeopardize the democratic process in Yugoslavia and the stability of the region as a whole," he added.
Kostunica took power after his Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) alliance defeated Milosevic in September elections and a mass uprising later forced Milosevic to quit.
The council, in the statement read by Russian ambassador Sergei Lavrov, this month's council president, said it "welcomes the start of a dialogue between the Serbian and Yugoslav authorities and representatives of the affected communities which could facilitate a lasting settlement to the problem."
It also urged Kosovo Albanian leaders "to contribute to the stability of the situation."
The Times:Britons dig in at Kosovo flashpoint
FROM JANINE DI GIOVANNI IN CAMP SOBROAN, IN THE OSTROVICA HILLS, KOSOVO,DECEMBER 20
AS BRITISH troops moved in to seal off a potential new flashpoint on the Serbia-Kosovo border, President Kostunica of Serbia demanded yesterday that the buffer zone be narrowed to allow Belgrade to “cleanse” the area of Albanian rebels.
The President wants the 1999 ceasefire pact with Nato revised to allow Serbs to carry more than sidearms in their struggle to keep out Albanian guerrillas infiltrating from Kosovo.
In this remote corner the newly arrived British troops are setting up camp ready to tackle the very problem that concerns the President. Home for the 60 men of the 1st Battalion the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment for the forseeable future are two unheated tents with hay floors where they will sleep when not patrolling the trails and backwoods of these freezing hills.
A little more than 4 miles away is the Serbian border, straddling the hotly contested Presevo Valley, scene of mounting tensions since the highly ambiguous 1999 Security Council Resolution that helped to end hostilites declared this area a buffer zone.
Kosovan Albanian separatists, armed and gaining both momentum and popularity, demand that the region be part of Kosovo. It has been inhabited largely by Albanians since the Tito-era, but after July 1999 it fell within Serb boundaries. Serb villagers here feel under threat from the “terrorists”, as they call them, and are demanding an end to the build-up. Last Friday a group of Serbs driving near by had their windshield sprayed with bullets. Since Sunday, after a firefight involving troops with Kfor, the Nato-led force in Kosovo, and rebels, there is fear among experts and locals that this 3-mile wide region may be the spark that triggers yet another bloody Balkan conflict.
Mr Kostunica’s calls for action are all the more urgent because he is facing crucial elections at the end of the week. He is under increasing pressure at home to try to rein in the Albanians. While he has listened to Western calls for patience, it is clear that the Serb President is anxious to solve the Presevo dilemma.
“We face problems,” he said. “Before our domestic public and even before history, whether the Albanian terrorists will remain in the ground safety zone or not. We cannot let them stay.”
Hence the arrival of the British troops who, within 24 hours, have set up a base camp on top of this chilly hill.Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen Kilpatrick, heading the operation, believes they will mount operations in “a low-key, out of the way, self-contained way. We want to spread our influence right across the valley. Although we don’t need to be everywhere, we want to give the impression that we are everywhere”.
In all, 150 men were deployed early on Monday morning. While some are based further down the mud-trail near an American base, others will be closer to the front line, going on patrols in the hills, trying to block off supply routes and confront the rebels.
Although this is technically the American Kfor sector, the British were called out because of their expertise and skill in handling difficult terrain and obstacles. “We work 25-hour days,” says Corporal Marcus Daniel. Hill patrols, each of eight men in teams of four, will set up observation posts to watch the Albanians, and the VJ (Yugoslav Army), apparently massing on the Serbian border.
The Americans, unfamiliar with the terrain and dealing with civilians who may be armed, use a more heavy-handed approach. On the road to the British camp, a group of Albanian civilians were lined up in the wet and cold, having been herded out of their cars to be searched.
“We stopped doing that years ago,” one Briton says. “We learnt from our mistakes. That kind of thing just intimidates the local population.”
Ex-Yugoslav States Hold Talks on Dividing Up Assets
BRUSSELS ,December 19 (Reuters) - Officials from rump Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia have held talks on dividing up an estimated $100 billion worth of assets of the old Yugoslav Federation, officials said on Tuesday.
The division of former Yugoslavia's assets and liabilities has been a stumbling block for years in establishing full relations between rump Yugoslavia, which comprises Serbia and tiny Montenegro, and its four newly independent neighbors.
So-called succession talks are also an imperative for Belgrade to rejoin the International Monetary Fund .
``All delegations have shown a willingness to resume negotiations... and to reach an agreement fairly quickly,'' said Arthur Watts, who represents an international Peace Implementation Council formed to mediate in the assets row.
``The atmosphere was constructive and full of hope,'' he told reporters after two days of talks in Brussels.
He added that the delegations had not yet got down to detailed negotiations on the division of the assets but had tentatively agreed to hold further talks in February, probably in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.
It was the first time that the delegations had met since the start of NATO 's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia over the Kosovo crisis.
The recent democratic changes in Belgrade, which swept President Slobodan Milosevic from power, enabled the delegations to resume their talks.
The disputed property includes embassies abroad and the whole range of state assets including factories, shipyards, pipelines and railways.
Belgrade puts the value of the state property at around $220 billion, while other republics say it is worth $100 billion.
The new Yugoslav leader, Vojislav Kostunica , has signaled that he will drop Belgrade's former insistence that it is entitled to the assets of the old Yugoslavia -- a claim unacceptable to the other countries.
On Tuesday, Watts commended Yugoslavia's change of stance.
``The prospects for a constructive move from the Yugoslav delegation are good,'' he said.
Belgrade Will Respond With "All Possible Means" if Attacked in South
BELGRADE, Dec 20, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Belgrade will respond with "all possible means if attacked by terrorists" in the tense southern Serbian region bordering Kosovo, deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic said Tuesday, quoted by the Beta news agency.
"This is not a threat, but a statement," said Covic, who heads a recently created government body overseeing the region, where ethnic Albanian separatists have recently stepped up attacks on Belgrade police.
Covic said that Belgrade's security forces have counted "1,600 terrorists" in the demilitarized zone five kilometers (three miles) wide between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, noting that snipers were also seen in one of the villages.
On Monday, the rebels opened fire on Serbian police from two villages within the demilitarized zone, but the security forces did not return fire, Covic said.
Only lightly armed Serbian police can enter the buffer zone, under an accord signed between NATO and Belgrade after the Atlantic alliance bombed Yugoslav troops out of Kosovo in 1999.
The guerrillas of the self-proclaimed Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) want these three towns and their hinterlands, which have a large ethnic Albanian population, to be part of an independent Kosovo, currently under UN administration.
Belgrade is keen for the UN to help solve the crisis in the zone, where ethnic Albanian separatists have clashed violently with police in the last month, killing three policemen and taking control of several villages.
As part of a wide diplomatic initiative launched by Belgrade, Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic was to attend a UN Security Council session Tuesday focusing on the situation in the region.
And former army chief Momcilo Perisic, one of the leaders of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), the coalition backing reformist President Vojislav Kostunica, said he was convinced the problems in the area would be solved "by diplomatic means."
But he insisted that the Yugoslav army and the police "could solve it in couple of hours," Beta reported.
"Diplomatic pressure has been exerted on the international community to obtain the withdrawal of the Albanians terrorists, since it was them who enabled them to be armed and to cross" into the territory of Serbia proper, Perisic said.
"If they fail to do so, we will have to do it after the elections" in Serbia, to be held on Saturday, Perisic said.
Kostunica said Tuesday that NATO-led peacekeepers were unable to solve the unrest in the region and called for other ways of tackling the situation to be considered, including a possible reduction in the size of the buffer zone.
Ex-Yugoslav States Discuss Division of Assets
BRUSSELS,December 18 (Reuters) - Officials from Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia began talks Monday on the thorny issue of how to divide an estimated $100 billion worth of assets of the old Yugoslav Federation.
``This is the first meeting of all the delegations since March 1999. They are meeting to discuss the way forward,'' said a spokeswoman for Bosnia's mission to the European Union in Brussels, where the two-day talks were taking place.
NATO launched a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in March 1999 over the Kosovo crisis.
The recent democratic changes in Belgrade, which swept President Slobodan Milosevic from power, have enabled the delegations to resume their talks.
The division of former Yugoslavia's assets and liabilities has been a stumbling block for years in establishing full relations between rump Yugoslavia, which comprises Serbia and tiny Montenegro, and its four newly independent neighbors.
So-called succession talks are also an imperative for Belgrade to rejoin the International Monetary Fund .
The disputed property includes embassies abroad and the whole range of state assets including factories, shipyards, pipelines and railways.
The spokeswoman said the delegations would hold bilateral talks Monday with Sir Arthur Watts, who represents an international Peace Implementation Council formed to mediate in the row over the division of the assets.
The delegates will then hold a plenary meeting Tuesday.
Belgrade puts the value of the state property at around $220 billion, while other republics say it is worth $100 billion.
The new Yugoslav leader, Vojislav Kostunica , has signaled that he will drop Belgrade's former insistence that it is entitled to the assets of the old Yugoslavia -- a claim unacceptable to the other countries.
The Times:British troops sent to quell Kosovo rebels
BY JANINE DI GIOVANNI IN PRISTINA AND MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR, TUESDAY DECEMBER 19
BRITISH soldiers were sent to southern Kosovo yesterday to protect the border after rebel Albanian separatists fired at American and Russian troops from within the five-kilometre buffer zone between the Yugoslav province and Serbia.
As Belgrade said that another Balkans war could erupt if the Nato-led Kosovo force (Kfor) failed to stop attacks from within the security zone, 150 troops from The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment took up positions near the southern Kosovo border, overlooking the disputed Presevo Valley.
The British reinforcements were dispatched after shots were exchanged between the ethnic Albanian rebels and American and Russian troops which control the southern section of Kosovo.
The gunmen opened fire after Kfor soldiers destroyed a road near Gornje Karacevo, used by rebels of the so-called Liberation Army of Presevo, Medveda and Bujanovac (UCPMB) to smuggle arms from Kosovo into the security zone. The UCPMB is fighting to unite three largely ethnic Albanian regions of southern Serbia with Kosovo.
None of the peacekeepers was injured during the exchange — believed to be the first time American and Russian troops opened fire jointly against a “common enemy” since the Second World War.
The Russian troops come under the tactical command of the Americans in the southeastern sector of Kosovo. They first served together under the same command when Nato-led troops were deployed to Bosnia in the mid-1990s.
After the latest gunfire from within the security zone on Sunday, Zoran Djindjic, a pro-democracy leader in Belgrade who could become Vice-Prime Minister after the Serbian parliamentary elections this weekend, said: “The situation in southern Serbia has the potential for a new Balkans war.”
The security zone separating Kosovo from Serbia was set up as part of the militarytechnical agreement signed by the Serbs after the end of Nato’s 78-day bombing campaign last year. Only lightly-armed Serb police are allowed in the zone and they have been repeatedly attacked by the UCPMB rebels, armed with mortars and machineguns.
British military sources said that although there were about 8,000 American and Russian troops in the southern Kosovo sector, it was a hilly area and impossible to close all the cross-border points. The presence of British troops with Warriors and other armoured vehicles would allow American units to carry out mobile patrols along the border.
The United Nations Security Council is meeting today to discuss the latest Balkans flashpoint. Last week Nato foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, condemned the violence by the “extremists”. Last month the rebels killed four Serb policemen and seized several villages inside the buffer zone.
Mr Djindjic said that if the rebels tried to cut off the main road that led to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece, “it would trigger new clashes in the Balkans”.
Vladan Batic, another pro-democracy leader, said that Yugoslavia might be forced “to take things into its own hands and clean the terrorists from every inch of its territory”.
Nato sources said that although Kfor had “put a lid on the troubles”, they were not yet resolved. Serbian intelligence sources said they had information that the UCPMB was planning an offensive on December 27. According to Lieutenant-General Vladimir Lazarevic, a rebel offensive of “several thousand terrorists” was being planned.
Nato is looking forward to this weekend’s elections in Serbia in the hope that prodemocracy representatives will win. “When we have a government in Serbia which we’re confident is not interested in invading Kosovo, then we can start taking a different approach towards the security zone,” one Nato source said.
The possibility of joint Kfor and Serb military patrols in the security zone has been discussed at Nato, although the prevailing view in the alliance is that the more likely option will be to allow the Serb Ministry of Interior police (MUP) into the zone, monitored by observers from the European Union or the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. During the Serb “ethnic cleansing” of Albanians in Kosovo last year, MUP forces were blamed for much of the violent suppression.
The New York Times:Belgrade Presses NATO to Let Its Forces Into Serbia Buffer Zone
By STEVEN ERLANGER
BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 18 — The Yugoslav government is urging NATO to let Belgrade's military and police forces move more freely in a security zone that borders Kosovo, to beat back Albanian militants, President Vojislav Kostunica said today.
Belgrade has proposed renegotiating the military agreement that ended the 1999 Kosovo war to narrow the three-mile-wide security zone, where the Albanian militants operate with near impunity. The Yugoslav Army and NATO forces are not allowed in the zone, which is in Serbia.
With crucial elections for a new Serbian government less than a week away, Mr. Kostunica and his allies are under domestic pressure to react with force against Albanian militants, connected to the former Kosovo Liberation Army, who are conducting attacks in southern Serbia.
Mr. Kostunica has heeded Western calls to respond with patience and not violate the zone that separates the Yugoslav Army from the NATO- led peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Just the Serbian police, with light weapons, may enter the zone, and they have been attacked by an Albanian militia called the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, three heavily Albanian towns in Serbia that the militants want to annex to Kosovo.
In an interview, Mr. Kostunica said Belgrade had proposed to American officials that the zone be narrowed "to one or two kilometers" from the current five kilometers, to squeeze the militants and keep them farther from major towns and a main road.
A senior Western official said today that "the zone must be fixed" but that to renegotiate or narrow it would take time and had to be coupled with "confidence-building measures" for the Albanians who live there, including aid programs and efforts to recruit them for the local police.
The zone itself is an issue for the alliance, not just Washington, the official said. While praising Mr. Kostunica's restraint, the official said any obvious concession to the Serbs, if not carefully handled, could be explosive in Kosovo, which is "already volatile."
On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council is to meet to discuss Kosovo and the problems in the security zone. In a statement, the Yugoslav and Serbian governments demanded that the Council issue a condemnation of the Albanian attacks and set "the shortest possible deadline for measures for an urgent pullback of Albanian terrorists," or Yugoslavia "will invoke its legitimate right to solve the problem itself."
Although the threat is considered largely for domestic consumption before the election, a senior American official, James Pardew, visited Kosovo to warn Albanian leaders of the dangers if they did not restrain the militants.
American and NATO officials acknowledged that the buffer provided a haven for the militants, who have killed Serbian police officers and attacked villages and that NATO forces — Americans and British — had increased their efforts in the last two weeks to seal the border.
Mr. Kostunica and his government have begun regular contacts with the peacekeeping force and the United Nations administration in Kosovo. "We face problems," Mr. Kostunica said, "before our domestic public and even before history whether the Albanian terrorists will remain in the ground safety zone or not. We cannot let them stay."
The Guardian:UN quits key area of Kosovo
Local Serbs assume control of law and order after days of unrest
Special report: Kosovo
Nicholas Wood in Leposavic
Tuesday December 19, 2000
The United Nations appears to have lost control of a key part of northern Kosovo after a weekend of violence in which a Serb man was shot dead by Belgian peacekeeping troops.
The UN Mission in Kosovo has ordered its international and locally recruited police service and all UN personnel to withdraw from the town of Leposavic.
Late yesterday afternoon the town and surrounding villages had no international presence - troops from the Nato-led peacekeeping force, K-For, had been confined to barracks.
An improvised roadblock of logs had been erected by locals outside the town's UN police station.
Responsibility for the enforcement of law and order appeared to have been assumed by local Serbs.
Serbian parliamentary elections are due throughout Serbia - including Kosovo - on Saturday.
The UN staff were pulled out after Milan Jokovic, 20, was shot outside the police station late on Saturday as a crowd of 200 people surrounded the building. Soldiers used teargas and fired warning shots in attempt to disperse the crowd.
A Belgian officer admitted on Sunday that Jokovic had been struck by a bullet which ricocheted off a wall. K-For officials now say they do not know who fired shot.
Earlier on Saturday six Belgian soldiers and a civilian had been seized by the crowd and held hostage. Two guns and 150 rounds of ammunition were stolen in the process. The hostages were released three hours later, after negotiations with a senior Belgian officer.
UN officials say the violence was sparked off by the arrest of a Serb man for reckless driving.
Jokovic's funeral, on a hilltop three miles to the south of Leposavic, was attended by more than 500 people. A trailer towed by a mechanised plough carried his coffin between the trees and funeral plots marked by Orthodox crosses and the Serbian flags.
The presence of four foreign journalists attracted the attention of a stout man, dressed in a black leather jacket. As we moved away from the cemetery he demanded to see identity cards. An American photographer working for the Liaison photo agency saw the man move a pistol to his pocket. He then produced what appeared to be a police badge.
"This is a people's revolution," he explained as he demanded the right to see our papers. "This is Serbia, not Kosovo. Kosovo is part of Serbia."
For 20 minutes he walked alongside us back to our car, with one hand placed in his pocket. He said the victim of the shooting was the son of a fellow policemen. "If it happened to him it could happen to my son". He eventually let us go after two of us produced out-of-date Serbian press accreditation.
A senior British UN official based in nearby Mitrovice said later that dozens of policemen were believed to be employed in the region, paid by Serbian government officials north of the border. The official, who refused to be named, admitted that the policemen had considerable control over the local population.
A UN spokesman, Frank Benjaminson, denied that the UN had lost control of the area.
"We will return them [the UN police and staff] as soon as possible. We still have K-For in the area, even though you can't see them," he said.
South of Leposavic, on the road to Mitrovice, a check point previously manned by Belgian soldiers was guarded by Greek troops, who are seen by the Serb community as more sympathetic.
In the south of the province K-For was coming under increased pressure after an attack on a joint Russian and American patrol on the boundary with Serbia.
The shooting followed the destruction by the troops of a road believed to have been used by Albanian guerrillas for smuggling arms and men into Serbia.
The troops returned fire and then retreated. There were no casualties.
It is not clear who fired the shots, though K-For officials suspect the rebel group of ethnic Albanians fighting for the independence of three Albanian municipalities in Serbia and their attachment to Kosovo.
Independent:Showdown time for Milosevic after Serbia goes to the polls
By Raymond Whitaker
17 December 2000
Yugoslavia's former dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, is facing his final showdown. On Saturday Serbia holds parliamentary elections in which his socialist SPS party is expected to suffer a crushing defeat, bringing closer the day when he may be put on trial.
Opinion polls show the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, the 18-party coalition which supports President Vojislav Kostunica, is likely to win 70 per cent of the vote. The SPS, which reaffirmed Mr Milosevic as its leader after a "people's revolution" ousted him from power in October, is far behind at 20 per cent. On these figures, the coalition will gain the decisive victory it needs to bring the Milosevic era to an end.
For the October revolution was far from complete. While Mr Kostunica took over the presidency, real power resides with the security forces, ministries and state-owned companies of Serbia, which have remained in the hands of Milosevic allies.
Despite many changes that would have been unthinkable only weeks ago, such as the establishment last week of full diplomatic relations with Bosnia, the new president has had to tread carefully.
But on Friday police arrested Mihalj Kertes, the former head of Yugoslav customs, on suspicion of defrauding the nation of millions of pounds. He was the first close Milosevic ally to be detained, but his former boss may soon be in the dock beside him.
Zoran Djindjic, likely to be Serbia's prime minister by next weekend, said Mr Milosevic would face proceedings soon after the election to examine "three issues: election fraud, the issue of his wealth and the way he acquired it, and the question of who ordered the several murders and assassinations [in Yugoslavia]".
What this list leaves out are war crimes and genocide in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, for which The Hague tribunal has indicted Mr Milosevic. The US-based Human Rights Watch said Saturday's election should end the international "grace period" for Mr Kostunica.
This implies that Western governments should start pressing him on issues such as the release of Albanian prisoners and the extradition of his predecessor and other war crimes suspects to The Hague. But Mr Kostunica is a strong Serbian nationalist who will insist that Yugoslavia can tryits own.
The new government is likely to see other matters as more pressing, not least Yugoslavia's economic collapse. Mr Milosevic, shamelessly ignoring his own responsibility for years of corruption and decline, is attempting to blame his successor for power cuts and bread shortages as another freezing Balkans winter sets in.
Mr Kostunica is also struggling with the ethnic hatreds bequeathed to him, which have led to armed clashes between Serbs and Albanians near Kosovo. US peacekeepers in Kosovo said two cars carrying Serbs were raked with gunfire on Friday across the border in the Presevo valley. One man was wounded. Albanian militants staged an offensive in the area last month, killing four Serb policemen and seizing several villages in a buffer zone along the Kosovo border.
Last week, Serbs blocked the main road and rail routes to Macedonia and Greece demanding that Belgrade crack down on the rebels, but they lifted their barricades after an appeal from President Kostunica.
It showed a drastic change of style from that of Mr Milosevic, who rarely missed an opportunity to exploit ethnic tension, but Mr Kostunica can expect no reward from Albanian militants, who want the area to be incorporated into Kosovo. Mindful of such problems, Western governments are unlikely to bring their honeymoon with the new Yugoslavian president to a close as soon as the elections are over, as Human Rights Watch wants.
The organisation said a new election law and the presence of foreign monitors should ensure the poll was free and fair. For the international community that will probably be enough to be going on with.
The New York Times:Milosevic's Servile Network Now Bows to Its New Masters
By STEVEN ERLANGER
BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 16 — Bombed by NATO during the Kosovo war and then burned by pro-democracy demonstrators, Serbia's state television and radio network remains an enormous prize for the new authorities as they work toward consolidating power in elections for a new Serbian government on Dec. 23.
How they handle the bloated and degraded network is also a test of whether the new leaders, and the journalists themselves, can really break with the authoritarian past.
Initial signs are discouraging. The new leaders, gathered in a broad 18- party coalition still known as the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, or DOS, have applied considerable political pressure on the temporary managers of the broadcasting empire. In general, even without the obvious abuses of the past, the journalists have slipped easily into being cheerleaders for the new democrats.
Along with the police and the army, state television was considered an essential pillar of Slobodan Milosevic's 13-year rule. Its newscasts glorified the government, smeared the opposition, demonized the West, distorted facts and history and helped inspire Serbs to patriotism, paranoia, nationalism, conquest and war crimes against their neighbors.
The network, owned by the government of Serbia and known by its initials, RTS, was among the first targets of the demonstrators who pushed Vojislav Kostunica into power. On Oct. 5, the downtown studios were seized and burned and the network's director, Dragoljub Milanovic, was nearly beaten to death.
About 9 p.m., with the police capitulating and army troops remaining in their barracks, it was on Serbian state television that Mr. Kostunica wanted to show his face, to symbolize that he and his allies were now in charge. He was driven to a suburban studio with a handpicked interviewer, cameraman and editor. His words were not especially memorable, but for many Serbs his appearance was the real confirmation that Mr. Milosevic's power had crumbled.
The overstaffed, underequipped and much derided network is an emblem of who is in charge in Serbia, and how much — or how little — has changed.
"RTS represents not just a media problem but a problem of the whole society," said Snjezana Milivojevic, who has studied RTS for over a decade. "We need a new legal and moral framework, with institutional guarantees, to ensure that the last 10 years can never happen again."
Ms. Milivojevic, who is on a panel compiling new media regulations, said the future of the media in Yugoslavia would depend on the way RTS reorganized. But despite talk in the first days of the revolution about a "new" RTS — democratic, open and free from undue political influence — the new leaders seem reluctant to allow much independence.
They have provided political advice and instructions on what to cover and whom to invite from the very first night, Oct. 5, said Gordana Susa, the acting editor in chief of news at RTS. She heads an independent television production company and is president of the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia.
"Some leaders of the opposition act in the old way and want to put everything under their control," Ms. Susa said. "Every day there is pressure from the political parties."
The open pressure is especially troubling, Ms. Susa said, because the network's employees are so accustomed to toadying to power and so frightened for their jobs that they would favor the new authorities without even being asked. In the meantime, she admits, the news is awful: boring, predictable and uncritical.
Zarko Korac, leader of a party in the coalition that unseated Mr. Milosevic, said the television presented "a Darwinian problem of natural selection." Current employees "can't think and just follow political instructions — they couldn't make good programs even if they wanted to."
Milivoje Mihajlovic, who worked for RTS, said it remained Serbia's worst television. "It's obvious they still work in the same way. They've just changed their master."
The problems are similar at Politika, the once respected state newspaper that became a mouthpiece for Mr. Milosevic. "Of course people in RTS and Politika do what they are used to doing," said Aleksandar Nenadovic, 72, who was fired as Politika's editor by Tito, Yugoslavia's Communist ruler for 35 years. "It's a function of the level of political evolution here. Everything is in ruins, so everyone is trying to reserve a place for themselves, and with the elections it's crucial to maintain control."
Ms. Susa said the problems stemmed in part from the appointment of Nenad Ristic as acting director. Mr. Ristic, 60, ran RTS from 1985 to 1990 and then moved, under political pressure, to producing harmless shows, he said, about "ecology, bugs and insects."
Ms. Susa said, "DOS called an old man to be the new general manager who accepts all their requests." The station's crisis committee, acting like a temporary management board, has fired him four times, but "each time," she said, "DOS tells them to calm down and not create chaos" before the elections.
The new authorities also put pressure on RTS to stop a documentary about the way the station had been used to foment war and hatred, and then urged that further segments be shown late at night. "It was DOS's first effort to censor us," Ms. Susa said.
Mr. Ristic says he is doing his best with a bad situation. He has brought key editors back from 1990 and urged about 60 people, editors and prominent reporters most associated with the old regime, not to come to work "for their own safety." He has banned well-known faces from the air. He has also stopped stealing new movies and television shows without benefit of copyright. The result has been a run of cheap talk shows, films from the 1930's and archival material.
As for the news, Mr. Ristic said, "there is slavishness, and it's true that DOS gets most of the airtime." As the election nears, with other parties more active, there has been some improvement in balance.
Mr. Ristic is presiding over a damaged, sick elephant built for a much larger and differently run country, Tito's Yugoslavia, with three state television channels and numerous radio stations. The equipment is old, most of it dating from the late 1970's and 1980's.
RTS currently has 8,018 employees on its books, Mr. Ristic said — twice as many as CNN employs worldwide. While salaries for all but the loftiest were meager — between 2,000 and 3,000 dinars a month, about $33 to $50 — RTS had become a kind of social welfare agency for journalists too untalented or afraid to seek work elsewhere.
Caught between a vague desire to modernize and a stronger wish to avoid violence, Mr. Ristic seems reluctant to let go even the most incompetent or compromised journalists.
"The first night we agreed there would be no revenge" against those who served Mr. Milosevic, Mr. Ristic said. "Most journalists here felt they had to do it. They didn't do it because they believed in it."
December 17, 2000 Single-Page Format
Milosevic's Servile Network Now Bows to Its New Masters
But Mr. Mihajlovic says that too many journalists were working for the Milosevic regime, and journalists must take responsibility for their own profession. "We have a dirty yard, and someone has to clean it. It would be better if journalists did, to teach people not to let it happen again. I think there is already too much forgiveness."
Mr. Mihajlovic was an editor at Radio Pristina, and says there was both censorship and self-censorship. He has been asked to return to work in nearby Prokuplje to help cover Kosovo. "They said to me, `You were kicked out, you were not theirs.' But I said: `I have to be honest. I worked as honestly as I could, but I was their editor. I don't have the moral right to pretend otherwise. I stayed. I needed the money to feed my family. I know I have to pay for that in one way or another.' "
Mr. Mihajlovic's candor is rare.
Ruzica Vranjkovic, 35, was an editor of the last evening news while covering energy. She still covers energy, but she is not allowed to have her face on television. "It's silly," she said, but doesn't argue. "Everything's unsettled, and there's a lot of fear.People treated it like a job. It was hard to stay, but I worked to live."
Ms. Milivojevic, the media critic, said that journalists must be held to professional account for falsifying news and history and fomenting conflict. She and Ms. Susa agree that RTS must be taken away from the government, and politicians should not serve on its board. They feel one channel should be a public service news channel, the second more commercial and the third should be privatized.
But it is not clear that the new Serbian government will go along. Even Mr. Kostunica has decided to keep open the federal television, YU- Info, started less than two years ago by Mr. Milosevic and his Information Minister, Goran Matic. New top editors will be named by the parties in the ruling coalition, just as in the past.
"The crisis in journalism is similar to the crisis in the judiciary and the universities and other institutions," Ms. Milivojevic said. Even after 10 years of writing about RTS, "I was shocked when the doors finally opened at how old, unprofessional and poor the whole thing was — it was like a virtual reality, a cover for a regime that had rotted from within."
Washington Post:Kosovo Still Seethes as U.N. Official Nears Exit
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 18
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Dec. 17 –– A huge poster behind Bernard Kouchner's desk here in Kosovo portrays three men--an ethnic Albanian, a Serb and a Gypsy--sharing a cup of coffee above the words: "Let's talk about us; the future starts with tolerance."
The poster was crafted for a U.N. campaign of tolerance in Kosovo's schools, but it is a fantasy for this Serbian province at large; it is the kind of conversation that never occurs here, even after 18 months of international peacekeeping and nation-building under Kouchner's leadership as the top U.N. official in Kosovo.
It has been a wearying and frustrating assignment for Kouchner, who plans to resign next month; Danish Defense Minister Hans Haekkerup will succeed him.
For Kouchner, today was hardly different from any other over the past year and a half. There were frantic morning phone calls from the U.N. representative in the northern Kosovo town of Leposavic about rioting Serbs, an overnight arson attack on the U.N. police station and the seizure of some Belgian soldiers for seven hours at a NATO base. He also heard from an aide in the northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica that an ethnic Albanian was found shot to death in a Serbian neighborhood.
Serbs in Leposavic, he learned, were angry about two things: the death of a Serbian nationalist who was injured during ethnic riots in Mitrovica nearly a year ago, and the arrest Saturday by U.N.-hired Serbian police of a former member of a Serbian militia, who was charged with speeding and possession of illegal communications equipment. In the resulting riot, two Serbs reportedly were killed; the Belgrade government blamed NATO soldiers for firing irresponsibly, while NATO blamed the Serbs for interfering with law enforcement.
Those reports came in before U.S. troops assigned to the NATO peacekeeping operation here reported being shot at around lunchtime, purportedly by ethnic Albanians. The soldiers were in the process of blowing up a road used by ethnic Albanian militants to smuggle arms from Kosovo into southern Serbia, where they have been challenging government security forces. No Americans were wounded in the incident, the first use of force against the militants since the U.S. military promised to seal Kosovo's eastern boundary early this month.
There have been many ethnically inspired shootings, arsons and riots throughout Kouchner's tenure, during which he and his U.N. colleagues have struggled to obtain adequate financing and manpower to stabilize Kosovo--a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic. Lacking sufficient numbers of trained police and impartial judges, they have failed to halt a succession of violent attacks by Kosovo Albanians on the province's Serbs and other minorities--an ethnic cleansing in reverse by those whom the Serb-led Yugoslav government sought to drive from the province at gunpoint, leading to NATO military intervention and the present U.N. administration.
Kouchner has endured furious criticism from the Yugoslav government and its Russian allies with each step the United Nations has taken to help Kosovo govern itself, including municipal elections in October that brought political moderates to power and displaced ethnic hard-liners. And Kouchner said he and other U.N. officials here have watched with amazement as the Western countries that fought to protect Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanian population from the Yugoslav government last year have rushed to embrace its newly elected leader, Vojislav Kostunica. Kouchner said he expected more reticence until Belgrade granted amnesty to ethnic Albanians in Serbian jails or made other efforts to atone for its bloody repression of the Kosovo Albanians.
But Kouchner said in an interview that he remains optimistic a better future awaits Kosovo, the only U.N. protectorate in Europe and a territory that is neither independent nor subject to the dictates of Belgrade, capital of both Serbia and Yugoslavia.
"It is a dream to make peace right now," Kouchner said when asked what message he wanted to send President-elect Bush and his advisers, who have expressed skepticism about keeping U.S. troops in the Balkans for a long time. "It is our common dream. But we need to be realistic. . . . It is not possible for Serbs to have freedom of movement at the moment [because of security risks]. . . . This is a long run and not a sprint."
"We need the Americans," Kouchner said. "We need the forces we have. . . . This [peacekeeping] is a common aim for all those involved in fighting [former Yugoslav president Slobodan] Milosevic," whose policies of Serbian nationalism stoked animosities and led to a decade of bitter divisions and human rights abuses. Milosevic, defeated for reelection by Kostunica in October, was ousted in a subsequent popular uprising.
Those who think that Kosovo's residents will be adequately protected by the arrival of democracy in Belgrade after Kostunica's victory are naive, Kouchner said. "I'm sorry, that's not the way it works," he said, calling such notions disturbingly "colonial." Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo demand independence, and their bitterness over the war remains so great that any of their leaders who try to talk with Kostunica's government would risk being killed by extremists, he said. "Intolerance is a . . . political fact," not easily or quickly remedied, he said.
Kouchner, a physician who helped found the humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders, says he is leaving Kosovo because he is restless. He unsuccessfully sought the position of U.N. high commissioner for refugees and is now headed for an unspecified French government assignment in Paris. His obvious empathy for human suffering and openly emotional style have won him many supporters among Kosovo residents, but many locals and Westerners have accused his team of being disorganized and faulted its slow repair of utilities and other basic services.
Kouchner says he has made mistakes but feels the United Nations performed better in Kosovo than in other peacekeeping assignments, particularly because its territory and citizenry were so damaged by the fighting here. He added that he hopes his experience will guide the United Nations to do a better job in similar circumstances in the future.
The first and most important lesson to be learned from Kosovo, he said, is that peacekeeping missions need a judicial or law-and-order "kit" made up of trained police officers, judges and prosecutors, plus a set of potentially draconian security laws or regulations that are available on their arrival. This is the only way to stop criminal behavior from flourishing in a postwar vacuum of authority, Kouchner said.
"We did not succeed with the police," Kouchner said, noting that more than 50 countries contributed officers to the 4,000-member force but that they never trained for the mission. He acknowledged that his own staff had repeatedly spurned proposals to bring in foreigners who could prosecute crimes impartially. His staff was "absolutely wrong," he said, adding that Kosovo needs more such foreign judges and prosecutors now.
Kouchner says he has no regrets about moving as quickly as possible to organize elections and begin handing power back to the citizens of Kosovo.
After decades of authoritarian or communist rule, he said, they needed to learn it was their own responsibility.
With backing from the Clinton administration, Kouchner has been pressing for additional elections soon after he departs, this time for a Kosovo-wide parliamentary assembly. Belgrade has opposed the idea, arguing that the balloting would make Kosovo Serbs feel even more excluded from the political process, but Kouchner argues that if such an election is postponed, ethnic Albanian militants will stoke new violence.
Kouchner says that peace will be more secure in Kosovo after new elections are held, more jobs are created, ethnic Albanian prisoners are freed from Serbian jails, and missing Kosovo Serbs are accounted for. But he also says that Serbia needs to see Kosovo's majority population not simply as terrorists but as people "like they are, normal people."
Milosevic's Wife Has No Regrets
By MISHA SAVIC, Associated Press Writer
BELGRADE,December 15 Yugoslavia (AP) - Expressing no regrets about her husband's years in power, Slobodan Milosevic's wife pledged Friday to stick to communist principles while leading her party in the upcoming Serbian elections.
At her first news conference since Milosevic's ouster from the presidency in October, Mirjana Markovic denounced the U.N. tribunal in The Hague that has indicted her husband for war crimes, calling it the ``Gestapo of the late 20th century.''
``Its prisons are concentration camps and gas chambers'' intended for ``people of different political persuasion and unruly nations,'' Markovic said.
Markovic is a highly controversial figure in Yugoslavia as the power behind the throne during Milosevic's 13-year reign. The couple went into hiding in a heavily guarded Belgrade villa after Oct. 5 riots made Milosevic concede defeat to Vojislav Kostunica in the Sept. 24 election.
Markovic, dubbed by her enemies as ``the Lady Macbeth of the Balkans'' and ``the Red Witch,'' played a key role in Milosevic's climb to power.
When Milosevic's popularity plummeted in 1993 because of his shift from communism to nationalism, Markovic formed her own party, the Yugoslav Left, to keep dedicated Marxists behind her husband.
The party - which suffered widespread losses in the September elections - is in turmoil ahead of Dec. 23 Serbian parliamentary balloting after several of its top officials deserted the ranks.
Polls show it may not win any seats in the Serbian parliament, especially since Milosevic's Socialists decided to run alone without its former coalition partner.
During the news conference, Markovic accused Serbia's new leadership of repression and working in the interest of foreign powers. She claimed her party was ``being satanized in the media now and almost excluded from coverage.''
Speaking in her party's sumptuous downtown mansion, Markovic dismissed allegations of incompetence, belligerence, corruption and manipulation leveled against the former regime.
``My family hasn't gotten rich,'' she said. ``I can't say that everything we did was the best in the world. But there was great effort to make the circumstances more bearable, more humane.''
Serb Police Nab Milosevic Ally for Suspected Fraud
BELGRADE,December 15 (Reuters) - Police on Friday detained a close ally of ousted president Slobodan Milosevic on suspicion of fraud involving millions of dollars, the Serbian interior ministry said.
It was the first arrest of a senior figure in the Milosevic administration, whose decade in power was marked by conflict, economic mismanagement, and sanctions which fuelled smuggling.
The ministry said Mihalj Kertes, former head of Yugoslav customs, was suspected of having deprived the Yugoslav government budget of $1.84 million and of $597,000 through abuse of power.
``There is well-founded suspicion that Kertes had also charged and made illegal payments in the amount of $1.32 million and $462,000 for unlawful customs duties while he was the federal customs office director,'' the statement said, without elaborating.
Earlier this week police took Kertes in for questioning as part of efforts to unveil corruption and power abuses during the Milosevic era.
The new Belgrade leadership has promised they will break with the old system and bring all those involved in corruption before the courts.
Kertes was a senior member of the Socialist Party (SPS) of Milosevic, ousted from power in early October after a popular uprising forced him to concede defeat to Vojislav Kostunica in presidential elections on September 24.
He was forced to resign from the position as director of the Yugoslav customs office immediately after Milosevic's downfall.
He was quoted earlier this month saying his office had financed the Socialists.
``It is true that the federal customs office financed the SPS through me. I believe that parties forming occasional coalitions with the SPS were financed from the same source through the SPS,'' he told the Nedeljni Telegraf weekly.
The interior ministry said police would continue to investigate the responsibility of other individuals whose work was directly or indirectly related to the federal customs office, its property and resources.
Protesters Lift Road Blockade in Southern Serbia
BELGRADE,December 15 (Reuters) - Serbs demanding that ethnic Albanian guerrillas be expelled from a buffer zone bordering Kosovo ended a three-day blockade of a key road in a tense area of southern Serbia on Friday, Beta news agency reported.
The roadblock, set up on Wednesday near the town of Bujanovac, was lifted after Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic addressed the protesters.
He told them that the Serbian and Yugoslav governments -- formed after the downfall of former President Slobodan Milosevic in October -- would hold a joint session in Bujanovac on Saturday to discuss the situation in the area.
The boundary area near Bujanovac saw an upsurge in ethnic Albanian guerrilla activity last month when four Serbian police died.
The guerrillas say they are fighting to protect local ethnic Albanians from harassment by Serbian police. Belgrade insists they are separatists intent on appending the Presevo Valley area of Serbia to ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo.
The protesters had also demanded that the road linking Bujanovac with the Kosovo town of Gnjilane be re-opened to all traffic. The road passes through territory where the guerrillas are believed to hold positions and Serbs do not dare to use it.
In addition, they called on Yugoslav authorities to make solving the situation in Kosovo itself their priority and demanded an urgent meeting with President Vojislav Kostunica .
Backers of Kostunica have accused Milosevic's Socialist Party of organizing the blockade, saying it was part of their campaign for a Serbian parliamentary election on December 23. The protesters have angrily denied the allegation.
One of the organizers of the blockade read out a letter from Kostunica to the protesters, saying the new authorities were doing everything in their power to resolve the situation through diplomacy rather than by force.
``There are many people willing to capitalize on the misery of others for their cheap political objectives. The terrorists are intimidating both the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians in this area,'' Kostunica's letter said.
``We expect the NATO secretary-general to come up with concrete proposals on how the situation could be improved,'' it said. ``We mustn't make any hasty decisions, to avoid the sort of no-choice situation the former regime put us in so many times.''
The buffer zone was created as part of the deal last June which ended NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia. It governed the withdrawal of Yugoslav and Serb security forces from the province and the deployment of NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo.
According to the deal, no Yugoslav army soldiers or Serb special police are allowed inside the three-mile (five-km) wide buffer zone which runs along the Serbian side of the boundary.
ABC:Yugoslavia, Bosnia establish diplomatic ties
BELGRADE,12/16/2000 Yugoslavia (AP) Nine years after Yugoslavia began cracking apart a breakup that triggered a string of bloody ethnic wars one of the four republics that broke away has followed its neighbors and agreed to renew ties with the Yugoslav government. Bosnia, whose 3{-year war was the deadliest conflict spawned by Yugoslavia"s collapse, established diplomatic ties with what remains of the Yugoslav nation on Friday. For some here, the move bolstered hopes for lasting peace in the fragile Balkans. The diplomatic agreement "creates conditions for wars to become unthinkable in the future," Bosnian Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic said after a signing ceremony Friday in Belgrade. Slovenia established diplomatic ties with Yugoslavia a week ago; Croatia did so in 1996. Macedonia, the only ex-republic to break away peacefully, agreed to formal ties with Belgrade in 1994. The newest agreement is among the signs of change in the Balkans following the October ouster of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and the rise of pro-democratic leaders. Milosevic is widely blamed for fomenting four wars in the Balkans during his 13-year rule. His successor, Vojislav Kostunica, has pledged to carry out democratic reforms and improve ties with his neighbors and the West. Yugoslavia, where ethnic identity and nationalism were stifled for years after World War II, began to crack along ethnic lines as the communist era came to a tumultuous end in Eastern Europe a decade ago. The fighting started in 1991, when the Yugoslav army launched an unsuccessful 10-day war to prevent tiny Slovenia from seceding. In Croatia, more than 10,000 people died in a war sparked when ethnic Serbs rebelled against a 1991 declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia. The next year, Bosnian Serb troops launched a three-year war to prevent Bosnia"s split from Yugoslavia. Some 200,000 died. The U.S.-brokered Dayton agreement ended the Bosnian war in 1995 and required Bosnia and Yugoslavia to establish diplomatic ties, but Milosevic demanded that Bosnia first drop charges of aggression and claims of war reparations against Yugoslavia at the World Court. Bosnia has said it will continue pressing those charges. Milosevic"s regime also insisted that present-day Yugoslavia now made up of Serbia and Montenegro should be the only successor to the old federation"s assets, a claim the other four ex-Yugoslav countries have fiercely disputed. Kostunica dropped that claim, paving the way for mutual recognition. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic, who signed the agreement on diplomatic ties with Prlic, said issues of succession and ownership would remain open and subject to further talks. Svilanovic said Yugoslavia will guarantee Bosnia"s territorial integrity but will insist on "special relations" with the Serb entity within Bosnia. Those special ties are provided for under the Dayton agreement, although they are not well defined. Bosnia is divided into a Muslim-Croat Federation and a Bosnian Serb republic tied together by a federal parliament, a three-member presidency and other federal institutions as well as an international administration. Five years after the Dayton accord, divisions among the three communities remain deep. On Saturday, Mirko Sarovic of the Serbian Democratic Party was to assume the presidency of the Bosnian Serb republic. The November election of Sarovic, whose party was founded by indicted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, was a setback for the United States and its Western allies, who had hoped for a better showing by multiethnic parties and candidates committed to the Dayton accord. In the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, the chief international official, Wolfgang Petritsch, welcomed the establishment of relations with Yugoslavia as "long overdue" and important step. Petritsch said it will allow the countries to tackle problems including refugee return, trade, illegal immigration, the prosecution of indicted war criminals and cross-border travel.
ABC News: For post-Milosevic era, Yugoslavia launches new bank notes, coins
WIRE:12/14/2000 13:43:00 ET
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Cutting one of the last ties to Slobodan Milosevic"s era, Yugoslavia on Thursday issued new currency notes and ended restrictions on holding dollars and other foreign money. "The breach with Milosevic"s old monetary policies must be both in theory and in practice," National Bank governor Mladjan Dinkic said. "What better way is there but to have a new, different dinar?" Constantly cash-starved, Milosevic"s government had frozen hard currency savings in personal bank accounts and imposed other obstacles to free circulation of dollars, German marks and other foreign currencies. In a drastic reversal, the state bank announced that starting Friday, Yugoslavs would be allowed to exchange unlimited amounts of dinars into foreign money. "This is a historic day for Yugoslavia," Dinkic said. "It will help the world to see us as a serious country, in the process of important economic reforms." Dinkic, appointed bank governor by the new pro-democracy government of President Vojislav Kostunica after Milosevic"s ouster in October, is pushing for monetary reforms to bring the country closer to mainstream Europe and the International Monetary Fund. But Montenegro, the junior republic in the Yugoslav federation after Serbia, abandoned the dinar earlier this year and set its own monetary policy as a step closer to independence. Milosevic"s restrictions on hard currency prompted a money black market that included exchanges and illegal street trading in foreign currency, mostly German marks to which the dinar had been pegged. By allowing individuals to exchange and purchase hard currency legally, the state bank hopes to channel black-market cash back into the national economy and motivate black marketeers to open legal exchanges. The new bank notes and coins will be introduced gradually as old dinars are being withdrawn, Dinkic said. The process is unlikely to be completed before February next year. Dinkic also said he hoped that the new dinar _ smaller and with different colors from the Milosevic-era money _ will be exchanged at exchange offices and banks in pro-Western Montenegro. However, that was up to Montenegrin authorities, he said. The new 20-, 50- and 100-dinar bank notes come in hues of green, violet and blue, each with yellow highlights _ unlike the former versions of ochre, blue and gray. A former Serbian ruler, reformer and poet have been replaced with a Serb composer, a Serb scientist and a Montenegrin poet-ruler on the motif. The new 2-dinar coin bears the relief of the Serbian Christina Orthodox monastery of Gracanica in Kosovo, the southern province now run by NATO and a U.N. mission but which Serbs consider their ancestral spiritual heartland.
ABC News: Milosevic's party urges continued blockade of roads near Kosovo border
WIRE:12/15/2000 02:34:00 ET
BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Allies of deposed President Slobodan Milosevic are urging daily protests at the tense border with Kosovo, where Serbs have blockades major roads to demand that the government drive ethnic Albanian rebels from the area. A Thursday statement from the Socialist Party office in Bujanovac demanded that the Yugoslav government "urgently solve problems" created by the rebels, who launched attacks and seized police posts here. The move by the local branch of Milosevic"s party appears aimed at undermining Yugoslavia"s democratic government ahead of Dec. 23 elections in Serbia, the nation"s main republic. It also reflects the government"s complicated dilemma in dealing with Kosovo and the surrounding areas, where Serbs and ethnic Albanians have been clashing for years. Ethnic Albanians make up the vast majority of the population in Kosovo, a province of Serbia. Kosovo has been under international control since last year, and many residents want full independence for not only Kosovo but also the heavily ethnic Albanian Presevo Valley region in nearby Serbia proper. In an offensive last month, the rebels killed four Serb policemen and took control of several villages in a three-mile demilitarized zone where Kosovo and the rest of Serbia meet. They have refused to pull out, triggering fears of renewed clashes in the area _ and sparking anger from Serbs, who make up much of Yugoslavia"s population but are the minority in this region. Pressure is mounting on President Vojislav Kostunica, who succeeded Milosevic following an uprising in October, to use force against the rebels. However, Yugoslav forces are not allowed to move heavy weapons into the zone. They are banned from doing so under agreements which ended last year"s bombing of Yugoslavia and handed over Kosovo to U.N. and NATO administrators. NATO-led peacekeepers also are not authorized to enter the zone, which is inside Yugoslav-controlled territory. That has enabled the ethnic Albanians to operate there with impunity. Several thousand Serbs stayed through the night Thursday near parked trucks, garbage containers and burning tires blocking roads to Bujanovac. The protesters, who put up the blockades Wednesday, also shut down the rail line and main roads linking Serbia with Macedonia and Greece to the south. The protesters denied their blockade was politically motivated, despite reports that they included Milosevic supporters. Milosevic is hoping to stage a political comeback in this month"s elections. His aides have repeatedly accused Kostunica and his pro-democracy coalition of selling out Serb national interests, and drawing attention to the impasse in the zone threatens to portray Kostunica as weak and inept. The situation in the zone also has created a rift within Kostunica"s camp. Kostunica has urged restraint and appealed for help from NATO to stop the rebel attacks. But his key ally, Zoran Djindjic, said Thursday it is "imperative" to react "immediately and without compromise." Djindjic, who is likely to become the new Serbian prime minister after the December vote, warned that the ethnic Albanian extremists are preparing a new offensive next week which could enflame the whole Balkans. In neighboring Macedonia, NATO troops stepped up border patrols to prevent arms from being smuggled to the Kosovo-area militants. Maj. Gen. Volker Loew said some weapons and ammunition for the militants had come from Albania through Macedonia.
Los Angeles Times: Bosnian Serb War Crimes Suspect Pleads Guilty, Drops Arrest Charge
Thursday, December 14, 2000
THE HAGUE--A former Bosnian Serb police chief Wednesday admitted to war crimes, then dropped complaints that U.S. troops had illegally arrested him.
The plea bargain between Stevan Todorovic and prosecutors ended a legal standoff that had threatened to incapacitate the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
The U.N. tribunal relies on U.S. and other NATO-led peacekeepers to arrest suspects. Todorovic had alleged that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization illegally paid mercenaries to capture and turn him over to U.S. forces.
Todorovic, 40, is only the third suspect to plead guilty before the U.N. court since it convened war crimes trials in 1996. Fourteen convicts have been sent to prison for terms ranging up to 45 years.
Under the plea bargain, prosecutors agreed to withdraw 26 counts--including torture, sexual assault and murder--in exchange for Todorovic's guilty plea on a single count of persecution as a crime against humanity. He had pleaded innocent in 1998.
He faces a maximum sentence of life, although prosecutors agreed to recommend no more than 12 years.
The court still must consider whether Todorovic's plea was made "on a voluntary and informed basis" before issuing its final finding Jan. 12.
Prosecutors allege that, as the former police chief of Bosanski Samac in northern Bosnia-Herzegovina, Todorovic planned the detention and forced deportation of thousands of Muslims and Croats during the nation's 1992-95 war.
The New York Times: NATO Won't Allow Serbian Use of Force in Three-Mile Buffer
By CARLOTTA GALL, December 15, 2000
PRISTINA, Kosovo, Dec. 14 — International peacekeepers and administrators here said today that they would not tolerate Serbian police or army use of force to reassert control of a three-mile-wide buffer zone along Kosovo's eastern border that ethnic Albanian rebels control.
Brig. Gen. Dennis E. Hardy, the American who commands peacekeepers, including 6,000 American troops, in the eastern part of Kosovo, said in an interview, "That's not the way to solve it."
General Hardy explained that the Serbs in the many villages and enclaves in the area under his command would immediately suffer retaliatory attacks from ethnic Albanians. He also said he would not like to see fighting over villages that are in some cases just yards from American troops posted on the boundary.
The commander commented as a prominent member of a new governing party warned that Albanian rebels were preparing to attack Serbian police positions in the period around Serbia's parliamentary elections, on Dec. 23. Cedomir Jovanovic, an aide to the leader of the Serbian Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic, warned that the authorities would not tolerate further police or military casualties. Mr. Djindjic is quite likely to be prime minister of the new government after the elections.
Four Serbian police officers were killed on Nov. 20 in a skirmish with Albanian militants who seized virtually the whole buffer zone. Belgrade then moved army units, with tanks and artillery and special police forces, to the edge of the zone. Serbia has asked NATO to let those forces enter the zone to regain control.
Under the military agreement that ended the war in Yugoslavia last year, only lightly armed Serbian police officers can patrol the area, 16 of whose 17 villages are Albanian.
"We have a lot of patience and understanding for the world's sympathies," Mr. Jovanovic said. "But with all these sympathies, we are losing state territory. So we are sending a clear warning to all that we will not allow the situation of Nov. 20 to repeat. This is not war drums beating."
Mr. Djindjic has issued similar statements, warning that he will order the police into the region after the elections.
The two men's remarks contrast with the approach of the Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, who has put the onus to contain the rebels on the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo and who advocates a political solution. Last week, after Mr. Djindjic's comments, he warned, "This is not the time for war drums."
Mr. Djindjic and Mr. Kostunica joined forces to oust Slobodan Milosevic and are still running together in their 18-party alliance, DOS, for the elections. But their differences appear to be developing into a power struggle. Whether or not Mr. Djindjic's statements about force are serious, members of the peacekeeping effort called the idea unacceptable. Although they have been quick to condemn the Albanian militants, the peacekeepers say any use of force would only worsen the problem.
"The most important thing is to talk to the leaders and tell them it is not in their best interest," Gary Carell, the United Nations police chief of eastern Kosovo, said of the Albanian rebels.
Peacekeepers have sealed the border, increased border patrols and detained more than 30 suspected rebels and supplies of weapons.
Asked whether they would allow Serbian forces to flush out the rebels if that could be carried out in a quick clean operation, a Western diplomat said, "I don't think the Serbian forces are capable of that."
The Christian Science Monitor:Milosevic: Yugoslavia's unresolved problem
By Alex Todorovic
Special to The Christian Science Monitor
BELGRADE,THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2000
More than two months after a mass uprising forced former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to step down Oct. 5, he doesn't seem to have noticed.
The indicted war criminal continues to occupy the presidential palace built by Communist dictator Josip Broz Tito. Mr. Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic, still attends sessions of the federal parliament, where she represents their home town of Pozarevac.
Last month, Milosevic was reelected chief of his Socialist Party, and on Tuesday a private Belgrade television station broadcast a defiant two-hour interview, in which he claimed the uprising - which forced him to recognize defeat in September's tainted presidential elections - was a "coup."
Milosevic insisted he had "struggled to preserve peace" and denounced the United Nations war-crimes tribunal as an illegitimate institution that is "one of the means for carrying out genocide against the Serb people.
"I can sleep peacefully, and my conscience is completely clear," he declared.
The appearance was another reminder for the government of new President Vojislav Kostunica, of the lingering problem his predecessor represents, and the need to sweep away remnants of the former regime. Though he no longer poses the kind of security risk that he did immediately following the revolution, Milosevic still wields a degree of influence in the judiciary and police, say analysts. Many business leaders also owe their positions to Milosevic.
More worrisome, say members of the new government, is that Milosevic remains an international liability. "Though Milosevic is no longer a security threat, he and others are a moral and political liability in dealing with the international community," says Zarko Korac, a leader in Kostunica's ruling coalition. "It does not help the country's new democratic image to have an indicted war criminal appearing on television and involved in the country's political life," says another coalition leader, who requested anonymity.
Despite Milosevic's denials that he was campaigning, the interview came as Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, prepares for elections Dec. 23. Though Milosevic is not a candidate, his party is the largest opposition to Kostunica's 18-party coalition. It is not expected to fare well, according to opinion polls.
The Hague war crimes tribunal wants Milosevic arrested and extradited, and strongly objects to his casual public appearances. "It's unbelievable to see someone who is under an international arrest warrant appearing so obviously," says Florence Hartmann, a spokeswoman for the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte.
Milosevic may be hoping for an eventual comeback, fueled by discontent over recent price hikes, say analysts. "Is there anyone who does not see how much worse it is now than it was at the end of September?" Milosevic asked during Tuesday's interview. Prices for many staples have risen between 30 and 50 percent.
The overwhelming local reaction to Milosevic's first post-revolution TV appearance was that the fallen leader had lost touch with reality. "When someone speaks for two hours about his successes, contrary to all objective facts, something is wrong with that personality. He has a difficult time understanding the problems he's created," says Ratko Bozovic, a political author.
Corruption investigations of Milosevic officials began this week, including the former head of customs and three members of the federal election commission, which opponents say tampered with September's elections results. In Pozarevac, Milosevic's son, Marko, is under investigation for alleged assault.
The West's priority so far has been to stabilize Kostunica's uneasy coalition, but local leaders and Western diplomats say next year pressure will be applied to deal with war criminals. "I think aid will eventually be conditioned on a Milosevic trial and trials of other indicted war criminals in Belgrade," says Mr. Korac.
What kind of trial remains to be seen. A corruption trial would beg the moral issues surrounding the former regime, say critics. "According to Milosevic, nothing wrong has happened. Unlike this view of the world, the country has to ask what has happened over the past 10 years," says Bozovic.
Kostunica Allies Warn of New Guerrilla Attacks
BELGRADE, Dec 14, 2000 -- (Reuters) Allies of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica warned on Wednesday that ethnic Albanian guerrillas were planning new attacks to co-incite with this month's Serbian parliamentary elections.
A spokesman for the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) bloc, which has a clear lead in opinion polls, said they had information the attacks would come between December 20 and 30.
The election is on December 23.
The area by the Kosovo boundary saw an upsurge in guerrilla activity last month that left four Serb police dead and alarmed both the new Yugoslav government and Western capitals hoping for stability after the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic.
The spokesman, Cedomir Jovanovic, told a news conference the DOS had launched an urgent diplomatic initiative.
This, he said, aimed at gathering support from neighboring countries for Yugoslavia's demand that the international community take a more active role in dealing with what he called Albanian extremism in Kosovo.
"The most important thing for us is that other countries from the region join Serbia in protecting ourselves from that kind of extremism that can have disastrous effects not only for Serbia but for this (whole) part of the Balkans," he said.
Zoran Djindjic, a DOS leader and tipped to become new Serbian prime minister, warned of a new Balkan war.
"The situation is very, very critical and we could face a new war in a few months if we do not react quickly," Djindjic told Reuters while campaigning in the eastern town of Pozarevac.
"We are trying now to involve regional states, Macedonia and Greece, to help us," he added.
He was speaking as some 3,000 Serbs blocked a key road in southern Serbia demanding that the guerrillas be expelled from a buffer zone bordering Kosovo.
The guerrillas say they are fighting to protect local Albanians from harassment by Serbian police. Belgrade insists they are separatists intent on joining the Presevo Valley area of Serbia to ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo.
The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force, blaming the guerrillas for last month's violence, has stepped up monitoring and surveillance of the boundary to stop any support from Kosovo.
A KFOR spokesman, asked about Jovanovic's statements, said the peacekeeping force had not monitored any violation of a ceasefire it helped broker after last month's violence.
"From our perspective it appears that the ceasefire is holding," said KFOR spokesman Major Steven Shappell.
ABC News:Angry residents in southern Serbia block major roads
DAVIDOVAC,12/13/2000
Yugoslavia (AP) _ Thousands of angry Serbs blocked key roads near the Kosovo border Wednesday, demanding that authorities drive out the ethnic Albanian militants entrenched in the area. Some 3,000 people used cars, trucks and tractors to shut down routes in and out of the town of Bujanovac, as well as the railway line and all the roads that link Serbia with Macedonia and Greece to the south. The blockade _ set up by Serbs from Kosovo and local residents _ intensifies pressure on President Vojislav Kostunica"s government to use force against the ethnic Albanian rebels fighting for the region"s independence from Serbia. In the village of Davidovac, which lies on the road to Macedonia, protesters said they will continue their demonstration until the rebels are pushed out. Protesters include Kosovo Serbs who cannot return to their homes because ethnic Albanian are in control of key roads leading into the province. On Wednesday, Kostunica appealed for an emergency Security Council meeting on the issue, saying in a letter to the council that the people of Yugoslavia need to know that the international community will protect them. Council members issued a statement, proposed by council president Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov, saying they "condemned acts of violence by armed groups in southern Serbia and reiterated their call for immediate cessation of violence in this area." Also Wednesday, ethnic Albanian militants opened fire on Serb police in the village of Lucane, just outside the buffer zone, state television reported. Police did not return fire, and there were no casualties. In an offensive last month, the rebels killed four Serb policemen and took control of several villages in a three-mile demilitarized zone with Kosovo. They have refused to pull out, triggering fears of renewed clashes. So far, Kostunica"s pro-democracy government has shown restraint, launching a diplomatic initiative to gain international support in its struggle against the rebels. But its reluctance to use force could backfire at home ahead of crucial elections later this month. Kostunica"s pro-democracy coalition ousted former President Slobodan Milosevic in October. Kostunica has been eager to distance himself from Milosevic"s belligerent policies, which led to NATO"s bombing campaign last year and establishment of the joint U.N. and NATO administration in Kosovo. Pro-democracy official Cedomir Jovanovic warned that the ethnic Albanian rebels are preparing a new offensive after Dec. 20, around the time when parliamentary elections are held on Dec. 23. Any new attacks could play into the hands of Milosevic"s hard-liners at the polls.
The Telegraph:My conscience is clear, says Milosevic
By Alex Todorovic in Belgrade,Wednesday 13 December
THE deposed Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, struck a defiant and self-righteous tone last night in his first interview since the country's revolution two months ago.
Milosevic said: "I can sleep peacefully and my conscience is completely clear." Milosevic, an indicted war criminal, referred to the mass uprising that swept him from power in early October as a "coup", adding that he doubted whether his successor, President Vojislav Kostunica, had won a first-round victory in September's elections.
Milosevic was toppled by crowds of pro-democracy supporters in October after he insisted on a second round of elections against Mr Kostunica despite evidence that he had lost the first. Though Milosevic's name is synonymous with wars and corruption, he claimed that he had struggled for peace. He defended his actions during the past blood-stained decade which left hundreds of thousands dead.
Milosevic relaxed on a black couch while speaking on a wide range of subjects. He denounced the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which has indicted him for atrocities in Kosovo, and claimed he had nothing to fear from the courts in Serbia. Milosevic said: "That institution is a political institution which is one of the means for carrying out genocide against the Serbian people."
Milosevic praised the assassinated warlord and gangster, Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, as a patriot. He suggested that the militia leader's murder, nearly one year ago, was part of a wider plot against Serbia. Milosevic said: "He would have stood against the events that were about to happen. It is the only way for me to explain the political background of this murder."
A generally staid Milosevic appeared most animated when he defended his son, Marko, who has been accused of physically attacking enemies in his hometown, Pozarevac, and being involved in Yugoslavia's criminal underworld. Milosevic said: "Marko has done nothing wrong." Marko fled Yugoslavia with his girlfriend and son the day after his father was toppled.
In an already outlined strategy to return to power on a wave of economic discontent, Milosevic claimed that the country was going to rot. He said: "Is there anyone who does not see how much worse it is now than it was at the end of September?"
Milosevic's appearance is likely to further annoy western leaders who want to see him removed from Yugoslavia's political stage and eventually placed behind bars. With Serbian elections less than two weeks away, polls show Milosevic's party lagging far behind Mr Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia. Yet the disgraced president still wields enough influence to be a thorn in the side of the new government.
Yugoslavia Pledges 'No More War' at Donors Meeting
By Nick Antonovics
BRUSSELS,December 12(Reuters) - Yugoslavia's government appealed on Tuesday for international aid to help rebuild the country's shattered economy, promising no more war in the Balkans.
``Our vision is to break with the past. There will be no more war in the Balkan region. There will be no more isolation of my country,'' Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus told a news conference midway through talks with donors in Brussels.
``We need some assistance from abroad to break with the past, and we are ready to pursue adequate policies for that,'' he said.
The donors meeting, hosted by the World Bank and European Commission, was the first to which Yugoslavia had been invited since President Slobodan Milosevic quit in October, following elections won by Vojislav Kostunica.
Labus said Yugoslavia used to be a donor country itself, and the government's aim was to ``exit from this situation'' in which the country was dependent on foreign aid.
He admitted, however, that political and economic obstacles were considerable.
``Open political issues'' threatened the macroeconomic outlook, he said, citing fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Presevo.
``My government is strongly committed to solving all of these issues by peaceful and democratic means,'' Labus said.
Yugoslavia's $11.7 billion in foreign debt, much of which is in arrears, could be larger than its gross domestic product (GDP), he said, although a reliable measure of the size of the economy was not yet available.
A World Bank official said $2.8 billion in debt was to the private sector, while $4.6 billion was toward other governments. The balance was owed to international financial institutions, including the World Bank, he said.
Debt Arrears
At the talks, donors added $160 million to $240 million in emergency aid already pledged to pay mostly for food and energy supplies that were identified in a recent United Nations report.
A further $110 million was pledged to meet unspecified needs, the EC and World Bank said in a statement.
The statement said that, following the talks, unmatched needs, likely to have to be met in the next five months, totaled
$300 million, of which $120 million was for natural gas supplies from Russia.
A resolution of the arrears issue is one of the conditions that international lenders have set for disbursement of longer-term reconstruction assistance.
However, Labus was optimistic that Yugoslavia would join the International Monetary Fund by the end of December and also rejoin the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The statement reiterated that the donors aim to meet again next spring to discuss longer-term needs on the basis of a joint EC/World Bank report expected to be ready by April.
ABC News: Serbian Court Finds Group Guilty of Kidnapping
WIRE:12/12/2000 00:11:00 ET
BELGRADE (Reuters) - A Serbian regional court found nine men guilty of kidnapping a war crimes suspect in Serbia who was later handed over to NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia, Serbia"s Beta news agency reported. The court in the central town of Uzice sentenced the group to a total of 46 years in prison for kidnapping Stevan Todorovic, who was transported from Bosnia to the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague in September 1998. The alleged leader of the group, Ignjatije Popovic, was tried in absentia and sentenced to seven years. Others were present at the trial and received sentences ranging between 8-1/2 and 1-1/2 years. The war crimes tribunal has asked the NATO-led Stabilization Force in Bosnia for details of the arrest after Todorovic said he was captured by mercenaries at his holiday home in central Serbia. In 1995, the tribunal indicted Todorovic, former police chief in the Bosnian town of Bosanski Samac, and five other men accused of orchestrating a campaign to ethnically purge the town during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. A SFOR spokeswoman said at the time of the arrest Todorovic had been in Bosnia when he was detained. The Serbian court"s presiding judge said it was clear the defendants had received $22,900 for kidnapping Todorovic, Beta reported. Relatives of the defendants said the verdict was politically motivated and the court was under the influence of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who has himself been indicted by the Hague tribunal on war crimes charges. The court convicted the group on kidnapping charges but not of terrorism as prosecutors had demanded.
Kostunica Says He Backs Autonomy for Kosovo
ROME, Dec 12, 2000 -- (Reuters) Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said on Monday he supported future autonomy for the province of Kosovo within the borders of federal Yugoslavia.
"I am for a common state of Serbia and Montenegro, for the essential autonomy of Kosovo in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia -- a truly multinational state with all human and minority rights," he said in an address to Italian parliamentarians during his first official visit to Rome.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, whom Kostunica replaced after disputed elections in September, revoked Kosovo's autonomy in 1989.
The ethnic Albanian majority in the province, who outnumbered Serbs by almost nine to one, came under severe repression by Serb military forces, which led to the bombing of Yugoslavia last year by NATO.
Referring to the bombing campaign, Kostunica said: "These are things you cannot forget, but you must live looking to the future."
A United Nations resolution set up to provide a mandate for Kosovo stated that the territory remained under Yugoslav sovereignty but said nothing about it being part of Serbia.
Three possible solutions have been flagged for Kosovo -- an independent, mainly ethnic Albanian state, a Yugoslav federal republic with full autonomy or as a province of Serbia.
Kostunica did not elaborate on his ideas for Kosovo but vowed to secure democracy throughout Yugoslavia.
While Kostunica and his political allies have largely secured control of Yugoslav institutions, the outcome of Serbian parliamentary elections slated for December 23 will be the key to cementing his grip across the federation.
Kostunica told Italian parliamentarians that his country needed foreign capital to protect and develop its fledgling democratic political system.
"The new democratic institutions in Yugoslavia should be strengthened with the necessary economic aid," he said, adding that Italy had understood that need and was helping to meet it.
Kostunica earlier met President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, who welcomed Yugoslavia's transition to democracy and pledged Italy's support and investment in the country.
The foreign ministers of both countries signed a raft of economic deals, including an agreement to protect and promote each other's economic investments.
KOSTUNICA MEETS POPE
Kostunica, whose country is predominantly Christian Orthodox, also had an audience with Pope John Paul following his address in the Italian parliament.
"(President) Kostunica expressed the desire to work for peace in Yugoslavia and the Balkans," Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement after the meeting.
"During the talks, the two men discussed the efforts made by the Holy See during these difficult and tragic years, and (both) wished that the situation will reach a meeting of minds and social peace," he added.
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Yugoslav Army Expects New Guerrilla Attacks
BELGRADE, Dec 12, 2000 -- (Reuters) The Yugoslav army said on Monday that ethnic Albanian "terrorists" were still infiltrating southern Serbia from Kosovo and it expected new attacks.
Army spokesman colonel Svetozar Radisic accused the international community of failing to take sufficient action to deter the guerrillas, who operate mainly in a five km (three mile) wide buffer zone bordering Kosovo.
"The conflict may spread and destabilize the situation in that part of Serbia which can cause wider geostrategic problems," he told a news conference.
Guerrillas killed four Serbian police in the border area last month.
Radisic said the situation was now under control, but he warned that guerrillas were trying to provoke an escalation and draw the army into a conflict.
Army positions are now only about 300-400 meters from the "terrorists" in a part of the security zone near the village of Konculj, he said. "The Yugoslav army is practically touching with the terrorist forces now."
He added that the army could prevent the rebels from entering Serbia beyond the buffer zone. But inside the zone, only local Serb police are allowed to patrol, according to the terms of the agreement which ended NATO's air war against Belgrade last year.
The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo has stepped up security along the administrative boundary between Serbia proper and Kosovo, but was still not fully stopping the armed guerrillas from crossing into the buffer zone, he said.
"It is obvious the Kosovo Albanian terrorists entered the ground security zone with the permission of KFOR troops," Radisic said.
Radisic said that the present status quo situation favored the guerrillas.
"Terrorists are fortifying positions in the areas they have taken over, organizing communication, establishing links and conducting training," Radisic said.
"The longer this lasts the better they will be organized and the greater potential they will have to make problems in the area. Time is not working for Yugoslavia," he said.
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Slovenia And Yugoslavia Establish Diplomatic Ties
LJUBLJANA (Reuters),December 9 - Slovenia and Yugoslavia on Saturday established diplomatic ties, nine years after Slovenia's declaration of independence from former Yugoslavia triggered off a brief war that killed 64 people.
The agreement on establishing diplomatic relations was signed during the first official visit of Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic to Slovenia.
The move is one of the steps by the government of new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica to end Belgrade's international isolation and normalize relations with its neighbors after a decade of war.
Yugoslavia already has diplomatic relations with the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Macedonia and plans to establish ties with Bosnia next week.
The agreement is expected to lead to more economic cooperation between the two countries.
Trade with Yugoslavia at present represents only about one percent of Slovenia's total trade.
Milosevic Blames KFOR for Conflict in Southern Serbia
BELGRADE, Dec 10, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic blamed NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo for the recent clashes between police and ethnic Albanian rebels in southern Serbia, the news agency Beta said on Saturday.
Milosevic, who was taking part in a meeting of his Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), said that under UN resolution 1244, KFOR had to disarm the ethnic Albanian guerrilla movement, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
"I can still remember the day when a KFOR general announced in the name of UN forces that the UCK (KLA) had been disarmed," Beta quoted Milosevic as saying.
"These disarmed people use heavy armaments against Serb villages in Kosovo and come into Serbia in brigades with full military equipment, crossing the security zone under the surveillance of American helicopters," he said.
Milosevic was linking the KLA to a new ethnic Albanian separatist group, the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB), which has emerged since has emerged since KFOR troops moved into Kosovo at the end of the NATO bombing on Yugoslavia in June 1999.
In recent weeks, the UCPMB, which wants the mainly ethnic Albanian communities of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac to become part of an independent Kosovo, has clashed with Serbian police, killing at least three, inside a buffer zone established after the war to separate Kosovo from Serbia proper.
On Friday, the Yugoslav parliament interrupted a two-day meeting on the conflict in southern Serbia, near the demarcation line with UN-administered Kosovo, without reaching any conclusions.
The Washington Post:U.S. Advice Guided Milosevic Opposition
By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 11, 2000; Page A01
BELGRADE –– In a softly lit conference room, American pollster Doug Schoen flashed the results of an in-depth opinion poll of 840 Serbian voters onto an overhead projection screen, sketching a strategy for toppling Europe's last remaining communist-era ruler.
His message, delivered to leaders of Serbia's traditionally fractious opposition, was simple and powerful. Slobodan Milosevic--survivor of four lost wars, two major street uprisings, 78 days of NATO bombing and a decade of international sanctions--was "completely vulnerable" to a well-organized electoral challenge. The key, the poll results showed, was opposition unity.
Held in a luxury hotel in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, in October 1999, the closed-door briefing by Schoen, a Democrat, turned out to be a seminal event, pointing the way to the electoral revolution that brought down Milosevic a year later. It also marked the start of an extraordinary U.S. effort to unseat a foreign head of state, not through covert action of the kind the CIA once employed in such places as Iran and Guatemala, but by modern election campaign techniques.
While the broad outlines of the $41 million U.S. democracy-building campaign in Serbia are public knowledge, interviews with dozens of key players, both here and in the United States, suggest it was much more extensive and sophisticated than previously reported.
In the 12 months following the strategy session, U.S.-funded consultants played a crucial role behind the scenes in virtually every facet of the anti-Milosevic drive, running tracking polls, training thousands of opposition activists and helping to organize a vitally important parallel vote count. U.S. taxpayers paid for 5,000 cans of spray paint used by student activists to scrawl anti-Milosevic graffiti on walls across Serbia, and 2.5 million stickers with the slogan "He's Finished," which became the revolution's catchphrase.
Regarded by many as Eastern Europe's last great democratic upheaval, Milosevic's overthrow may also go down in history as the first poll-driven, focus group-tested revolution. Behind the seeming spontaneity of the street uprising that forced Milosevic to respect the results of a hotly contested presidential election on Sept. 24 was a carefully researched strategy put together by Serbian democracy activists with the active assistance of Western advisers and pollsters.
In the long run, many people here say, Milosevic's overthrow was inevitable, if only because of the economic and military disasters that befell Serbia during his 13 years in power, first as head of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, and then as head of Yugoslavia itself. But there was nothing inevitable about the timing or the manner of his departure.
"Without American support, it would have been much more difficult," said Slobodan Homen, a student leader who traveled to Budapest and other European capitals dozens of times to meet with U.S. officials and private democracy consultants. "There would have been a revolution anyway, but the assistance helped us avoid bloodshed."
"The foreign support was critical," agreed Milan Stevanovic, who oversaw the marketing and message development campaign for the opposition coalition, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia. "In the past, we did what we intuitively thought we should do. This was the first campaign where our strategy was based on real scientific research."
Had Yugoslavia been a totalitarian state like Iraq or North Korea, the strategy would have stood little chance. But while Milosevic ran a repressive police state, he was never a dictator in the style of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. His authority depended on a veil of popular legitimacy. It was this constitutional facade that gave Serbian opposition leaders, and their Western backers, an all-important opening.
A Unified Opposition
The fall of 1999 was a difficult time for the Serbian opposition. Although Milosevic had long been unpopular, he appeared to have had some success in tapping into the upsurge of patriotic feeling caused by the Kosovo war a few months before. The 59-year-old Yugoslav president was seeking to depict himself as the rebuilder of the country following NATO bombing raids. Attempts by some opposition parties to topple Milosevic through street protests were getting nowhere.
Milosevic's strongest political card was the disarray and ineffectiveness of his opponents. The opposition consisted of nearly two dozen political parties, some of whose leaders were barely on speaking terms with one another. While the opposition politicians recognized the need for unity in theory, in practice they were deeply divided, both on the tactics to use against Milosevic and the question of who should succeed him.
It was against this background that 20 opposition leaders accepted an invitation from the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) in October 1999 to a seminar at the Marriott Hotel in Budapest, overlooking the Danube River. The key item on the agenda: an opinion poll commissioned by the U.S. polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates.
The poll reported that Milosevic had a 70 percent unfavorable rating among Serbian voters. But it also showed that the big names in the opposition--men such as Zoran Djindjic and Vuk Draskovic--were burdened with negative poll ratings almost as high as Milosevic's.
Among the candidates best placed to challenge Milosevic, the poll suggested, was a moderate Serbian nationalist named Vojislav Kostunica, who had a favorable rating of 49 percent and an unfavorable rating of only 29 percent.
Schoen, who had provided polling advice to former Yugoslav prime minister Milan Panic during his unsuccessful 1992 campaign to depose Milosevic, drew several conclusions from these and other findings of the poll.
First, Serbian voters were receptive to simple anti-Milosevic messages focusing on the terrible economic situation. Second, they wanted change to come through the ballot box, not demonstrations. Finally, and most important, only a united opposition had a chance of deposing Milosevic. "If you take one word from this conference," Schoen told the delegates, "I urge it to be unity."
The unity message did not catch on immediately with Serbian opposition leaders. "They had seen Milosevic rise before," recalled Debra Alexander, who was in charge of the National Democratic Institute polling operation. "There was a sense they were going up against insuperable odds."
In the following months, however, the opposition politicians came to believe the polling evidence and shape a strategy for defeating Milosevic with the help of the Western consultants. Djindjic, leader of the largest, best-organized opposition party, agreed to set aside his presidential ambitions in favor of a less polarizing candidate and serve as coalition campaign manager.
Things moved into high gear in July, when Milosevic called elections. For the first time in Serbian political history, Western advertising techniques were used to test political messages. The messages were tested in a similar way to soft drinks or chewing gum, according to Srdan Bogosavljevic, head of the Strategic Marketing firm, which ran a series of focus groups on behalf of the opposition coalition and the Otpor student resistance movement with financial support from Western democracy groups.
"We approached the process with a brand to sell and a brand to beat," said Bogosavljevic, one of Serbia's best known pollsters. "The brand to sell was Kostunica. The brand to beat was Milosevic."
According to Stevanovic, the coalition marketing expert, every word of the opposition's one-minute and five-minute core political messages used by opposition spokesmen across the country was discussed with U.S. consultants and tested by opinion poll. Coalition candidates running for the Yugoslav parliament and tens of thousands of local government positions received extensive training on how to stay "on message," answer journalists' questions and rebut the arguments of Milosevic supporters.
Visa restrictions imposed by the Milosevic government made it impossible for the U.S. consultants to travel to Serbia, so they organized a series of "train the trainers" sessions in Hungary and Montenegro. The trainers then went back to Serbia to spread the word.
Kostunica's selection as the opposition presidential candidate in August was shaped, in large measure, by the opinion polls. "The polls showed that Kostunica could defeat Milosevic in the easiest possible way," recalled Dusan Mihajlovic, leader of the New Democracy party, one of 18 political parties that made up the coalition. Part of Kostunica's appeal, the polls showed, was that he was widely perceived as anti-American. Because he was an outspoken critic of the NATO bombing of Serbia, it was difficult for the Milosevic government to label him a Western stooge or a traitor to Serbian interests.
Kostunica was also the one opposition leader strongly opposed to accepting U.S. campaign assistance. "I was against it, never got any myself, and thought it was unnecessary," he said in an interview.
To many opposition activists, Kostunica's denials ring a little hollow. While it is true that his own party, the Democratic Party of Serbia, rejected anything that smacked of U.S. aid, his presidential campaign benefited enormously from the advice and financial support the opposition coalition received from abroad, and particularly from the United States.
Lessons in Resistance
The U.S. democracy-building effort in Serbia was a curious mixture of secrecy and openness. In principle, it was an overt operation, funded by congressional appropriations of around $10 million for fiscal 1999 and $31 million for 2000.
Some Americans involved in the anti-Milosevic effort said they were aware of CIA activity at the fringes of the campaign, but had trouble finding out what the agency was up to. Whatever it was, they concluded it was not particularly effective. The lead role was taken by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government's foreign assistance agency, which channeled the funds through commercial contractors and nonprofit groups such as NDI and its Republican counterpart, the International Republican Institute (IRI).
While NDI worked closely with Serbian opposition parties, IRI focused its attention on Otpor, which served as the revolution's ideological and organizational backbone. In March, IRI paid for two dozen Otpor leaders to attend a seminar on nonviolent resistance at the Hilton Hotel in Budapest, a few hundreds yards along the Danube from the NDI-favored Marriott.
During the seminar, the Serbian students received training in such matters as how to organize a strike, how to communicate with symbols, how to overcome fear and how to undermine the authority of a dictatorial regime. The principal lecturer was retired U.S. Army Col. Robert Helvey, who has made a study of nonviolent resistance methods around the world, including those used in modern-day Burma and the civil rights struggle in the American South.
"What was most amazing to us was to discover that what we were trying to do spontaneously in Serbia was supported by a whole nonviolent system that we knew nothing about," said Srdja Popovic, a former biology student. "This was the first time we thought about this in a systematic, scientific way. We said to ourselves, 'We will go back and apply this.' "
Helvey, who served two tours in Vietnam, introduced the Otpor activists to the ideas of American theoretician Gene Sharpe, whom he describes as "the Clausewitz of the nonviolence movement," referring to the renowned Prussian military strategist. Six months later, Popovic can recite Helvey's lectures almost word for word, beginning with the dictum, "Removing the authority of the ruler is the most important element in nonviolent struggle."
"Those Serbs really impressed me," Helvey said in an interview from his West Virginia home. "They were very bright, very committed."
Back in Serbia, Otpor activists set about undermining Milosevic's authority by all means available. Rather than simply daubing slogans on walls, they used a wide range of sophisticated public relations techniques, including polling, leafleting and paid advertising. "The poll results were very important," recalled Ivo Andric, a marketing student at Belgrade University. "At every moment, we knew what to say to the people."
The poll results pointed to a paradox that went to the heart of Milosevic's grip on power. On one hand, the Yugoslav president was detested by 70 percent of the electorate. On the other, a majority of Serbs believed he would continue to remain in power, even after an election. To topple Milosevic, opposition leaders first had to convince their fellow Serbs that he could be overthrown.
At a brainstorming session last July, Otpor activist Srdjan Milivojevic murmured the words "Gotov je," or "He's finished."
"We realized immediately that it summed up our entire campaign," said Dejan Randjic, who ran the Otpor marketing operation. "It was very simple, very powerful. It focused on Milosevic, but did not even mention him by name."
Over the next three months, millions of "Gotov je" stickers were printed on 80 tons of imported adhesive paper--paid for by USAID and delivered by the Washington-based Ronco Consulting Corp.--and plastered all over Serbia on walls, inside elevators and across Milosevic's campaign posters. Printed in black and white and accompanied by Otpor's clenched-fist emblem, they became the symbol of the revolution.
A Fair Vote Count
Had Yugoslav border officials been paying attention last summer, they would have observed an extraordinary increase in the number of Serbian students visiting a revered Serbian shrine in southern Hungary. "Making a pilgrimage to Saint Andrija" became the favorite excuse for opposition activists en route to another U.S.-funded program, this one in the Hungarian town of Szeged, just 10 minutes' drive from the Serbian border.
Its purpose was to train election observers. "We set up mock polling stations with ballot boxes and went through the balloting process in detail with them," recalled John Anelli of the Republican institute, describing what became a key component in Milosevic's downfall. "We trained about 400 election monitors who went back to Serbia and trained another 15,000 monitors."
Without a massive monitoring operation, and an equally massive parallel vote count organized by the Serbian Center for Free Elections and Democracy, this fall's effort to unseat Milosevic would almost certainly have failed. Opposition parties suspected him of stealing previous elections, most notably in 1997, but were unable to offer conclusive proof. This time, they made sure they had the means to detect election fraud.
Drawing on their experience of elections in such places as Indonesia and Mozambique, IRI consultants simulated vote-counting scams and ballot-stuffing techniques. "They trained us to spot fraud and react quickly," said Goran Rapoti, an opposition election monitor from the town of Backa Palanka, who attended the seminar. "It was really useful."
The United States paid for the training in Szeged and the second level of training back in Serbia. By Election Day, the opposition parties were able to place at least two trained monitors at every polling station in the country. Each monitor received about $5 in Western-provided money, a significant sum in a country where the average monthly wage is less than $30.
"Without the monitors, Milosevic's people would have stolen the elections again," said Alexander Trkulja, the coalition campaign manager in Backa Palanka. "They are masters in stealing elections."
An iron rule for both the coalition and Otpor was never to talk about Western financial or logistical support. To have done so would have played straight into the hands of the Milosevic propaganda machine, which routinely depicted opposition leaders as "traitors" or "NATO lackeys."
"It was dangerous to be connected publicly with the American authorities," said Randjic, the Otpor activist, recalling a 12-hour police interrogation in which he was grilled about his "Washington controllers."
Even today, nearly two months after Milosevic's fall, the topic is sensitive. Although the U.S. effort was clearly aimed at Milosevic, the Clinton administration prefers to depict it as a neutral democracy-building operation. "Our job was to level the playing field," said Paul Rowland, head of the Democratic institute's Serbia program. "We worked with parties that wanted to make Serbia a genuine democracy."
Serbian opposition leaders, meanwhile, view the U.S. support as atonement for past mistakes. They note that for many years U.S. officials treated the Yugoslav president as the linchpin of America's Balkan diplomacy, an indispensable interlocutor for Bosnia peace negotiator Richard C. Holbrooke and other high-level emissaries. Far from undermining Milosevic's grip on power, U.S. policy had actually served to strengthen it, they contend.
"In the past, we had the impression that the West was supporting Milosevic," said Homen, a 28-year-old lawyer who served as Otpor's intermediary with Western diplomats and aid organizations. "This was the first time that we felt that Western governments were actually trying to get rid of Milosevic."
Serb Police Say Fired on by Albanian Guerrillas
Friday December 8 3:18 PM ET
VRANJE, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanian guerrillas attacked a Serbian police patrol on Friday in a tense area of southern Serbia, but pulled back after fire was returned, a local police chief said.
Novica Zdravkovic, police chief in the southern town of Vranje, said the attackers used automatic weapons and grenade launchers in a buffer zone bordering Kosovo.
The area saw an upsurge in guerrilla activity last month that left four Serbian police dead.
``The terrorists carried out another of their actions today around 2 p.m. (8 a.m. EST),'' Zdravkovic told Reuters. ``The police responded to the attack and the terrorists withdrew after that.''
The attack took place as the Yugoslav parliament discussed the situation in southern Serbia for a second day in Belgrade.
Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic told the assembly about the incident, saying there had been no injuries, B-92 radio reported.
``A group of around 20 terrorists opened fire from personal arms on a 12-man police patrol. Nobody was injured,'' he said.
The incident, which occurred about 10 km (six miles) north of the town of Presevo, appeared to be the most serious in the boundary area since the outbreak of fighting two and a half weeks ago that left the four police dead.
Serb police earlier this week reported three separate incidents between Sunday and Tuesday with guerillas firing at police or army positions, saying they had not returned fire and that there were no casualties.
Zdravkovic said Friday's incident had been the fourth involving the guerrillas since the police were killed and the first police had responded to. He said the area was now calm.
A spokesman for the NATO (news - web sites)-led KFOR peacekeeping force told Reuters on Tuesday it still had confidence in a cease-fire it helped broker after last month's clashes.
The guerrillas say they are protecting local Albanians from harassment by Serbian police. Belgrade insists they are separatists intent on joining the Presevo Valley area of Serbia to independence-minded Kosovo.
In response to last month's violence, Yugoslav army and special Serb police reinforcements were sent to the area without entering the security zone itself, where only local police are allowed to patrol under a 1999 accord between NATO and Belgrade.
KFOR, trying to cut off any supplies and other support to the guerrillas from inside Kosovo, has stepped up monitoring of the boundary in recent weeks.
Milosevic's Wife Speaks Out Against New Yugoslavia
Friday December 8 3:13 PM ET
BELGRADE (Reuters) - The wife of ousted Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) complained on Friday about media bias, bringing a bitter smile to former opposition journalists who chafed under her husband's firm control of the state media.
Mirjana Markovic made her comments, her first in public since her husband was ousted two months ago, in an unprecedented meeting with the media during a break in a session of the Yugoslav parliament, where she is a deputy.
Her remarks are likely to be viewed with more than a little irony by the couple's opponents in the West and at home, who found Yugoslavia under Milosevic a country filled with state-run propaganda and authoritarian restrictions.
Markovic is leader of the small Yugoslav Left party and is seen as a major political influence on the former president.
Asked about proposals by her husband's political foes to file charges against him, she said: ``You cannot have such a conversation with me. I have accepted a correct conversation and please keep the agreement we have.''
Although he has been indicted by the U.N. war crimes court, some Serbian politicians have suggested putting Milosevic on trial at home for corruption and electoral fraud during more than a decade in power.
She said she doubted that her party would stage protest rallies ahead of December 23 parliamentary elections, saying there was ``no freedom of thought or freedom of movement'' necessary for organizing such a campaign.
Markovic was elected to public office for the first time on September 24, the same day as Milosevic lost the presidential vote to opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica (news - web sites).
She represents the eastern region around Pozarevac, the couple's home town.
She complained about the state media, which now side overwhelmingly with Kostunica and his allies. ``I think that parties which do not express the opinion that is dominant in the state media are not represented at all,'' she said.
Markovic did not allow television cameras to take part in her chat with reporters.
She also lamented the break-up of the old coalition government involving her party and Milosevic's Socialist Party.
``I still think the Left needs to be united. Not only in one country, but in the region, in the world, on the planet.''
Slovenia, Bosnia Reach to Belgrade
By ALI ZERDIN, Associated Press Writer, Friday December 8 2:13 PM ET
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) - The last two of Yugoslavia's former republics to break away in bloodshed announced Friday they would establish diplomatic relations with Belgrade just over two months after a new, pro-democracy leadership replaced Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites).
The separate announcements by the governments of Slovenia and Bosnia appeared to reflect rapidly improving ties between what is left of Yugoslavia and former republics that declared independence starting in 1991.
Slovenia's government said in a statement broadcast on national television that an agreement to establish relations is to be signed on Saturday during the visit of Yugoslavia's Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic.
In Sarajevo, Bosnian Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic said in a statement that he will meet with Svilanovic in Belgrade on Dec. 15 for the expected signing of a protocol formally establishing ties. The statement, carried by the state-run Onasa news agency, said the Bosnian presidency decided Thursday to establish diplomatic relations.
Svilanovic will be one of the most senior Yugoslav officials to come to Slovenia since 1991, when Yugoslav army launched a 10-day war here trying to prevent Slovenia's secession. The fighting then spread to other ex-Yugoslav republics, Croatia and Bosnia.
Croatia and Yugoslavia established diplomatic ties in 1996. Macedonia, the only ex-republic to break away peacefully, agreed to formal ties with Belgrade in 1994.
Svilanovic already visited Bosnia late last month.
During the war, the Bosnian Serbs, backed by the Yugoslav Army, tried to secede from Bosnia and join Yugoslavia.
A peace agreement ending the conflict, also signed by Yugoslavia, ordered both countries to recognize each others borders and establish diplomatic relations.
But the regime of Milosevic insisted that Bosnia must first drop charges of aggression and claims of war reparations against Yugoslavia at the World Court. Friday's statement from Bosnia said the country continued pressing those charges.
Slovenia also had shown interest in establishing relations before Milosevic's fall. The former dictator had refused, saying Slovenia was the first to ``stab'' Yugoslavia in the back.
Milosevic's regime also insisted that present-day Yugoslavia should be considered the only successor of the old federation's assets - a claim Slovenia and other ex-Yugoslav countries have fiercely disputed.
Milosevic's successor, Vojislav Kostunica (news - web sites), had dropped that claim, paving the way for mutual recognition.
Slovenia's Cabinet, however, has insisted on a clause stating that today's Yugoslavia - composed of Serbia and Montenegro - and Slovenia are equal heirs to the old federation's assets. Millions of dollars, gold bars and real estate are at stake.
Talks on Yugoslavia's succession are to reopen later this month in Belgium.
Slovenia's parliament also said it would continue cooperating with Montenegro, a pro-Western Yugoslav republic, and would keep its consulate there. Slovenia had supported Montenegro's attempts to develop closer ties to the West during Milosevic's regime.
The new Yugoslav government said this week that it has nothing against Slovenia having its consulate in Montenegro.
Both Bosnia and Slovenia stand much to gain by closer ties with Yugoslavia, whose 11 million people represent a potentially strong market for their products.
Milosevic regime funneled 4 billion dollars abroad: central bank chief
Friday, December 8 7:50 PM SGT
BELGRADE, Dec 8 (AFP) -
Former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic's regime funneled at least four billion dollars into foreign bank accounts during its 13-year rule, central bank chief Mladjan Dinkic was quoted as saying Friday.
"According to my estimates, just during the period of hyperinflation, about 4 billion dollars were taken out of the country," Dinkic told the Belgrade daily Politika.
Federal Yugoslavia was struggling with a bout of hyperinflation during 1992-1993.
Dinkic said that "a part of that money was spent, the other was returned to the country, while the remainder is still in private accounts and the former regime's leaders have no intention of giving it back."
Last week, Dinkic said that US treasury officials informed the central bank that they had tracked down one billion dollars that the former regime had transferred to Cyprus and then to other countries.
Dinkic told Politika that the bank has set up a "special commission tasked only with returning the money which was illegaly taken out," estimating the total loss during Milosevic's rule at "several billion dollars."
He added that former officials had said that the funds were transfered to help the country deal with the financial situation under sanctions imposed on Belgrade.
"The problem is that no one knows where the money is since it has been put into the accounts of private individuals," Dinkic said.
The money "was taken out in sacks" mostly to Cyprus, from where it was later transferred to other countries.
"The search for that money starts immediately, but this is not an easy process," Dinkic said.
Dinkic, a 36-year old neo-liberal economist, was elected governor of the central bank by the Yugoslav parliament on November 28 after getting the nod from reformist President Vojislav Kostunica.
Before being elected for central bank chief, Dinkic was at the reins of the G17 think tank which has produced an economic programme for Kostunica and his political backers in the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS).
The reformers have accused Milosevic and former influential political figures of moving the country's financial reserves abroad and using it for their own personal enjoyment.
Switzerland and Cyprus officials have already pledged to help the new Yugoslav authorities find the funds.
Milosevic stepped down from the Yugoslav presidency in October following a popular revolt that followed elections won by Kostunica.
The New York Times: Serbian Coalition Reaches Accord on Power
By CARLOTTA GALL, December 8, 2000
BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 7 — Anticipating a sweeping victory in Serbian parliamentary elections in two weeks, the leaders of an 18-party coalition that toppled Slobodan Milosevic in October have agreed on how they plan to share power in a new government.
The Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic heads the coalition's list of candidates and would be in line to become prime minister and thereby responsible for forming a government, coalition leaders said today. Mr. Djindjic also confirmed he has named five deputy prime ministers, all leaders of parties belonging to the alliance, known as the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, which supported Vojislav Kostunica for the presidency against Mr. Milosevic.
But strains do exist within the coalition, in particular between Mr. Kostunica and Mr. Djindjic, and may be the reason no one has yet been chosen to head the Interior Ministry, which controls the Serbian police forces that, under Mr. Milosevic, became a tool of political control and repression. Mr. Djindjic said that he and Mr. Kostunica would have to decide on the post together, and he suggested that it might not happen until after the Dec. 23 elections, perhaps not until January.
Mr. Djindjic said he would prefer a judge or lawyer for the post. "I would like a moderate who would gain the confidence of the public, a lawyer or a judge," he said. "The Ministry of Police should become a public service in which the citizens believe."
The alliance and Mr. Kostunica are both so overwhelmingly popular now that the Democratic Opposition of Serbia is expected to win in a landslide and have no trouble forming a government, which will be a mixture of opposition party politicians, technocrats and business professionals, Mr. Djindjic said.
Opinion polls have found that the coalition leads with 61 percent, while Mr. Milosevic's Socialist Party continues to fall, at 16 percent in a recent survey. The Radical Party of the nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj may get just 5 percent, while the other once powerful opposition figure, Vuk Draskovic, is polling only some 3 percent. Meanwhile, Mr. Kostunica had an approval rating of 74 percent last week, the highest rating that Srdjan Bogosavljevic, director of Strategic Marketing and Media Research Institute, said he had ever seen for a politician in Serbia.
Mr. Kostunica has used his popularity to demand the same number of parliamentary seats as Mr. Djindjic's much larger party. Their parties will both take 26 percent of the total seats won by the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, and the smaller parties will divide the rest.
Mr. Djindjic has insisted on forming a government ahead of the elections, so that no time is lost afterward. "Time is our biggest problem," he said at a news conference on Wednesday. "Serbia is at its lowest possible level in history."
So far, he has appointed deputy prime ministers for finance, states issues, crime and culture. The fifth deputy prime minister post, in charge of the judicial system has been offered to the leader of the Serbian Christian Democratic Party, Vladan Batic, but he has yet to accept, Mr. Djindjic said.
Mr. Djindjic promised change. "We have to completely dismantle the system of power," he said. "Our plan is to be a government of change and not just to take power." He also promised transparency in government and to explain Serbia's precarious situation: "People do not want to face reality. People are hoping for a magic wand to annul 10 years of history."
The Guardian: Serb Police Becoming More Cordial
Friday December 8, 2000 9:50 am
LUCANE, Yugoslavia (AP) - The hulking Serb policeman secured his Kalashnikov rifle across his back, stooped over, gently took the hands of two children and led them across the street. Then he pivoted, readjusted his gun and returned for two others obediently waiting their turn.
This is the new face of the Special Units, the once-dreaded Serbian police force known for its ruthlessness during the rule of former President Slobodan Milosevic. Now that he's out - and a democratic government is in - the police are sprucing up their image.
The transformation is taking place throughout Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic. It's part of a concerted effort at all levels to adapt to the pro-democracy vision of President Vojislav Kostunica. Serbia's Interior Ministry announced the broad action shortly after the new government came to power in October.
The new policy includes trials for police brutality and the establishment of units responsible for fighting organized crime and corruption within the police forces.
Early reports say it is working, with some opinion surveys indicating that the level of trust among the people is rising rapidly.
The policy has even made its way down to Milos, a commander of a crack unit sent to this tiny village near Kosovo to drive out ethnic Albanian gunmen who had seized the territory weeks before. He spoke on condition that only his first name be used.
``You are not allowed to shoot indiscriminately,'' he said, wagging his finger. ``You are not allowed to damage any private property unless in dire need.''
Such restraint has not always been the hallmark of the Serb special police. In the province of Kosovo, just over the hills from this southern Serb village, Serb police are widely accused of burning houses and killing anyone who got in their way while they tried to crush the Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian rebel group.
Those heavy-handed tactics provoked the 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia last year. The clashes ended with war crimes indictments against Milosevic and others.
The police's change in attitude stems in part from the change in government. Unwilling to subject Yugoslavia to the pariah status it faced under Milosevic, Kostunica must handle ethnic Albanian extremists launching attacks in southern Serbia without provoking international condemnation.
``We are the police of the country that is fighting for its international recognition and we have to be immaculate,'' Milos said.
The police did not have to fire a shot in retaking Lucane, a tiny village in the tense region that lies between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.
Still, they didn't know what to expect. Supported by two armored vehicles and armed with automatic weapons, police zigzagged from house to house, entering the village with caution.
They found only a few elderly ethnic Albanians. Most of Lucane's estimated 1,000 inhabitants had fled earlier, fearing the onset of fighting.
Instead of shooting, the elderly villagers were summoned to attention by knocks at their doors.
``Greetings to you and your family,'' one officer cheerily told two frightened couples holed up in a shack. ``Feel safe. We come in peace.''
They exchanged cigarettes and struck a deal: Village elders promised to urge others to return, and the police pledged they would be safe.
``We have to move into a house or two, but the state will compensate all costs,'' Milos told the ethnic Albanians, who looked shocked and nodded.
During the Lucane operations, lesser trained police reservists did break holes in the wall of a house to fire though. But the owner complained, and they were ordered to buy cement and a bucket of paint. They repaired the damage.
The new style has not faced a major test, because the ethnic Albanian extremists here have not chosen to fight since a spate of attacks last month killed four Serb policemen. But Milos insisted the change is genuine.
``For the first time ever, I have a feeling that I have a firm state behind us,'' he said.
Later, as he stood at his checkpoint, a family of ethnic Albanians appeared, asking if it was safe to come home.
``People, I beg you, return to your homes,'' he said. ``We are running out of bread to feed your chickens.''
ABC News: Yugoslav parliament appoints c-bank deputy governor
WIRE:12/07/2000 10:22:00 ET
BELGRADE, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Yugoslavia"s parliament appointed a Montenegrin deputy central bank governor on Thursday, ending a row over the post that threatened to postpone Belgrade"s return to the International Monetary Fund this month. The parliament"s approval of Radivoje Rasovic as the deputy governor came some two weeks before the country was expected to rejoin the IMF, the key to helping Yugoslavia attract fresh foreign funding. The fund had been due to meet on December 14 to discuss Yugoslavia"s membership but Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus had said it had been nervous about the row. Central bank governor Mladjan Dinkic, chosen by the bloc backing Milosevic"s successor Vojislav Kostunica, had objected to the initial proposal of Vuk Ognjanovic, also a Montenegrin, because Ognjanovic had been governor in 1993 when the state faced hyperinflation. Ognjanovic was chosen by former Milosevic allies in the Socialist People"s Party (SNP) of Montenegro, Yugoslavia"s smaller republic, as part of a power-sharing arrangement agreed after Milosevic"s fall from power in October. The SNP says its main goal is to preserve Yugoslavia as the federal state of Serbia and Montenegro. Since Kostunica beat Milosevic in September"s presidential election, the Montenegrin government has ditched the Yugoslav dinar for the mark and set up its own central bank. "We have had constructive talks with the National Bank of Yugoslavia governor and members of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS)," Predrag Bulatovic, vice-president of the SNP, told reporters. Earlier this week the SNP said it also wanted the posts of the vice-governor in charge of currency operations, general manager for the credit-monetary policy and general manager of the bank control sector. "We have made a small compromise and instead of having the post of the general manager of the bank control sector we have got the post of the treasury sector," Bulatovic told reporters.
Financial Times: Milosevic's bank delivers secrets
Beogradska Banka funded the Yugoslav dictator's cronies and paid off potential foes. Irena Guzelova glimpses the dealings
December 7 2000 20:29GMT
A loan to the president's hairdresser; an advance to his daughter's radio and television station; credits to ministers for flat renovations.
The collapse of Slobodan Milosevic's regime in Serbia is starting to reveal a web of transactions through which he supported family, friends and political associates.
While most of the regime's finances remain secret, documents shown to the Financial Times provide a glimpse of the internal workings of Mr Milosevic's 13 years in power.
Within his administration state-controlled financial institutions were as important as the security forces. They acted as sources of money and as channels for diverting funds to recipients, both within Serbia and overseas. At the heart of the network was Beogradska Banka, one of the largest in Belgrade and known as Mr Milosevic's personal bank.
Documents from Beobanka, a Beogradska Banka subsidiary, describe about 100 credits given to regime members and their families. The loans include DM1m (E511,000, $446,000) lent to "Studio Kosava", the station owned by Mr Milosevic's daughter Marija. On another occasion, the bank lent DM500,000 to Snezana Radosevic, the Milosevic hairdresser, to redecorate her chrome and marble-lined salon.
Among other recipients were Mihajl Kertes, federal customs director, and Nada Popovic-Peresic, minister of culture. The loans were made in cash without any form of guarantee and were granted to "refurbish" business premises or apartments. "There were some 800 loans granted and these are probably the least important. That's why we could get our hands on them," says one Beobanka employee. Most of the credits have not been repaid, leaving Beobanka with bad debts of $1bn.
Miroljub Labus, the deputy prime minister, estimates that Yugoslavia owes $12bn overseas. Economists say Mr Milosevic and his associates accumulated as much domestic debt, nearly half owed to ordinary citizens, such as savers whose foreign currency deposits were sequestrated in the early 1990s. "Every time I open a file I'm surprised, the debt keeps going up," says Mr Labus.
Much of the money was used to pay salaries in Serbia's vast industrial complexes to prevent workers going on strike and demanding political change.
The appointment of former opposition economist Mladjan Dinkic to head the central bank last week has reinvigorated attempts to recover money taken illegally by Mr Milosevic. Mr Dinkic says much of the money was taken abroad - transported in cash in aeroplanes, trains and buses to destinations as far afield as China. Bank notes were allegedly packed into suitcases and hand luggage and sent out as diplomatic post.
Authorities in Switzerland, Austria and the US have frozen accounts belonging to associates of Mr Milosevic. Investigators for Vojislav Kostunica, the new president, are looking into reports that the main route for illicit funds ran through Cyprus where 7,500 Yugoslav offshore companies are registered.
Last Friday Mr Dinkic announced that the US Treasury had traced $1bn transferred to Cyprus and that the central bank would work with the US Treasury to repatriate the funds.
Mr Milosevic ran Beogradska Banka himself in the early 1980s and later maintained close ties through its chairwoman, Borka Vukic. Beogradska's role grew steadily under Mr Milosevic's rule, notably in 1999 when Beogradska took over Beobanka and 21 other banks. "Beogradska Banka was like a mother bee who took all the honey from the other banks," says the Beobanka employee.
Beogradska Banka also had a branch in Nicosia. Mrs Vukic, a tough-minded 74-year-old, was a frequent visitor until the Cypriot authorities closed the branch in June this year.
After Mr Milosevic's defeat, Mrs Vukic too was ousted. She was seen leaving the bank with two large bags, the contents of which have since been the subject of much speculation.
However, despite her departure Beogradska employees are frustrated at the slow pace of change. Most of the old management remains, allowing them to destroy evidence.
Bank employees suspect a deal was struck between supporters of Mr Kostunica and the old management not to expose too much.
Others remain suspicious of the lingering power of Mr Milosevic and are too scared to talk. "I have two children to feed and you know the phones are bugged," says one manager.
Ethnic Albanians Returning to Tense Serbian Area
Thursday December 7 8:41 AM ET
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanians who fled to Kosovo after an upsurge in violence in southern Serbia last month have started returning home, partly reflecting an easing of tension, the U.N. refugee agency said on Thursday.
Maki Shinohara, spokeswoman for the United Nations (news - web sites) High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Belgrade, said that 400 people had gone back on Wednesday alone to their villages in Serbia proper near the Kosovo boundary.
She said that about 3,600 of those who had left remained in Kosovo, compared to nearly 5,000 following an increase in ethnic Albanian guerrilla activity more than two weeks ago that left four Serbian police dead.
``They heard positive news about the situation in the area, therefore they decided to return,'' Shinohara told a news conference, adding that a cease-fire had been holding and that there had not been recent clashes.
The guerrillas say they are protecting local Albanians from harassment by Serbian police. Belgrade says the guerrillas are separatists intent on joining the Presevo Valley area of Serbia to independence-minded Kosovo.
Some of those who had gone back to Serbia proper had also said they could not stay too long in Kosovo, feeling they would become a burden to their host families, she said.
In response to the guerrilla attacks, Belgrade sent army and police reinforcements to the area about a fortnight ago.
Villagers had referred to some harassment and intimidation by police. ``However, we have not heard of any reports of atrocities or attacks against civilians by these police and army,'' Shinohara said.
ABC News:Serb says not involved in killing Kosovo Albanians
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA,12/06/2000 Yugoslavia (Reuters) - A Kosovo Serb man accused of genocide denied Wednesday involvement in the killing of 26 ethnic Albanians, saying he had stayed inside when special police rounded up his Albanian neighbors. Igor Simic, 24, and five other Kosovo Serbs are charged with killing the Albanians on April 14, 1999, in Kosovska Mitrovica, the northern Kosovo town where their trial is being held. Simic pleaded not guilty when the trial started Tuesday. The five others, charged with killing the Albanians during NATO"s March-to-June bombing campaign last year, escaped from a Mitrovica jail earlier this year. The presiding international judge, Sweden"s Christer Karphammar, said it was the most important war crimes trial so far in Kosovo following last year"s conflict. "This is not the first, but this is the first big case when it comes to the number of killed people," he told Reuters in the courthouse. As the trial continued in a chilly, makeshift courtroom Wednesday, Simic took the stand in his own defense. With his family watching, he recounted events on that day almost 20 months ago in a calm voice. In response to questioning, he said a special Serbian police unit dressed in camouflage uniforms and helmets rounded up Kosovo Albanians from his apartment building. He said he had been able to see what was happening by looking in a reflection of the window of his apartment. "I did not see the separation (of men from women and children), but I saw special police taking Albanians out of the building," Simic said. "We were confused and frightened because of screaming and crying in the street, so we stayed in the apartment," he said. "I didn"t want to think about what was going on outside." PRESSED ABOUT EVENTS Pressed as to why he had not tried to find out what was happening outside, Simic grew agitated. "There was a threat directed to us by a person checking us, saying if he found we were hiding an Albanian, our lives could be in danger," he said, his voice rising. "It was a warning that something could happen to us, too." Simic said he had believed the Kosovo Albanians would be "exiled" by the special police unit. A court indictment said French investigators were told where to find the graves of those who were killed. Michael Hartmann, international prosecutor in the case, said he expected 11 witnesses to take the stand when the case resumes on Dec. 13. "We have 11 witnesses who claim to have seen Mr. Simic -- masked or unmasked -- assisting, aiding or abetting in the eventual death of these people," he told Reuters. Kosovo remains legally part of Yugoslavia but has been a de facto international protectorate since June 1999, when NATO-led peacekeepers and a U.N.-led civilian administration replaced Yugoslav forces and authorities in the province. The NATO alliance launched the bombing campaign in March 1999 to halt Belgrade"s repression of Kosovo"s ethnic Albanian majority.
Yugoslav Prime Minister Stresses Diplomacy In Tense Serbian Area
BUJANOVAC, Dec 7, 2000 -- (Reuters) Yugoslavia's prime minister visited a tense area of southern Serbia on Wednesday, declaring that ethnic Albanian guerrillas could be eliminated quickly but that his government preferred a diplomatic solution.
Prime Minister Zoran Zizic said the situation in the area near the border with the majority Albanian province of Kosovo had stabilized after an upsurge in guerrilla activity last month that left four Serbian police dead.
But he also stressed that the situation should be resolved soon and that the government would not let it drag out, emphasizing that the rebels must leave a five kilometer (three mile) wide buffer zone inside Serbia proper bordering Kosovo.
"Those terrorists who infiltrated here can be eliminated in two days, army and police readiness is so high, even better than I expected," Zizic told reporters by Yugoslav army positions near the southern town of Bujanovac in the boundary area.
"But the federal government wants a diplomatic solution, by using political means," he said.
Zizic said this was why it sent a letter on Tuesday to the UN Security Council calling for urgent steps to have the "terrorists" return where they came from.
NATIONAL PRIDE IN QUESTION
He said a small group of guerrillas held part of the security belt, where they are believed to be based.
"They (the international community) have to understand it is our national interest -- our national pride is in question. We certainly did not give even a centimeter of our territory," he said.
The guerrillas say they are protecting local Albanians from harassment by Serbian police. Belgrade insists they are separatists intent on joining the Presevo Valley area of Serbia to independence-minded Kosovo.
The upsurge in violence about two weeks ago alarmed both the new Yugoslav government and Western capitals hoping that the downfall of ex-President Slobodan Milosevic would usher in an era of stability in the volatile Balkans.
In response, Yugoslav army and special Serb police reinforcements were sent to the area without entering the security zone itself, where only local police are allowed to patrol under a 1999 agreement between NATO and Belgrade.
Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic, accompanying the prime minister, said there were now sufficient army and police forces to act against the guerrillas and force them back.
"We are patient, but we shall certainly not spend the whole winter under such a serious threat if diplomacy does not succeed," he said.
The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, trying to cut off supplies and other support to the guerrillas from inside the province, last week said both sides had agreed to suspend fighting indefinitely.
Despite this, Serb police sources reported three separate incidents between Sunday and Tuesday in which they said guerrillas fired at either police or army positions.
But local police chief Novica Zdravkovic told Reuters on Wednesday that there had been no incidents in the past 24 hours.
Kostunica Pardons Milosevic Murder Plot Suspects
NIS, Dec 7, 2000 -- (Reuters) Three Serb men accused of planning a revolt and plotting to kill then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic walked out of jail on Wednesday, saying they had been pardoned by new President Vojislav Kostunica.
"We were not expecting anything like this. Our families were not here to wait for us," said Milutin Pavlovic, holding a document from Kostunica's office on their release.
The Beta news agency said Kostunica had pardoned the three on a proposal from the Justice Ministry supported by Yugoslav army chief-of-staff Nebojsa Pavkovic.
The three men had also been accused of plotting to kill Pavkovic.
Pavlovic said wardens at the prison in the southern town of Nis had told him, Boban Gajic and Radovan Djurdjevic "to pack our bags and go".
After his release, he took a taxi to his home town 50 km (30 miles) away. "I wanted to surprise my family."
The three were sentenced by a Serb military court last April to five years in jail for conspiring to carry out hostile activities. Three other men received less harsh sentences, and were later freed.
At a new trial at the supreme military court in November, the sentences for those released on Wednesday were cut by up to two-and-a-half years.
The six were members of a shadowy group called the Serb Liberation Army. They were arrested in December last year and charged with forming a terrorist organization with the aim of toppling the constitutional order by force.
The group had also been accused of plotting to assassinate Milosevic and Pavkovic, but the judge made no mention of this when he read out the sentence seven months ago.
The defendants denied during the trial that they had planned to kill Milosevic and to overthrow the state, saying they only wanted to protect Serb territory in Kosovo, now under de facto international rule after last year's NATO air war.
Pavlovic said the former Yugoslav authorities had arrested them in order to frighten people. "They wanted to use this trial to scare the other people and to show that one cannot speak or think freely in this country."
A popular uprising two months ago forced Milosevic to accept defeat in September presidential elections won by Kostunica.
The New York Times:Serb on Trial For Genocide Of Albanians In Kosovo
By CARLOTTA GALL
BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 5 — A Serbian law student went on trial today in the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica for genocide in the killings of 26 Albanian men during the NATO bombing campaign last year.
The case remains one of the most painful episodes for the Albanian residents of the bitterly divided town.
French gendarmes who investigated the case last year managed to trace the missing men to a mass grave and arrested six Serbian men. At the time it was celebrated as a case of swift and good investigative work that promised justice for the Albanian victims.
But the trial that began today appeared to fall short on several counts. Only one defendant appeared in court: Igor Simic, 24. The other five Serbs charged with him in the original indictment escaped from the United Nations-run prison in Mitrovica several months ago and remain at large, probably in Serbia. Mr. Simic had tried to escape with them but was caught.
None of the families of the victims attended the trial. The courthouse is in the northern, Serbian-dominated part of town, where few Kosovo Albanians dare to go. And Mr. Simic appeared before a panel consisting mainly of Albanian judges, a practice that has been severely criticized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as unfair in such highly charged trials of ethnic- related crimes.
The prosecutor in the trial, Michael Hartmann, is an American, and a Swedish judge, Christer Karphammer, is presiding. But the other four members of the judicial panel — one other judge and three citizens who deliberate with the others as lay judges — are Kosovo Albanians.
Courts in Kosovo are staffed almost entirely by the ethnic Albanians who make up most of the population. Serbs have been wary of taking part because they accuse the United Nations-led administration of being biased against them.
Those courts have begun to try Serbs for genocide and other war crimes, but after blatant evidence of ethnic bias, the United Nations administration has started to include judges from outside Kosovo in the system.
The European security organization, in a damning report released in October, contended that such serious cases should be tried by international panels of judges or a panel on which a majority of judges are from outside. Mr. Simic, like most of the Serbs being tried for war crimes, has been in custody nearly a year and a half awaiting trial, which raises serious concerns about human rights violations and about the efficiency and competence of the United Nations- run legal system in Kosovo.
Mr. Simic is accused of taking part in the killings of the 26 Albanian men, who were forced out of their apartments, with their families, by masked gunmen on April 14 of last year, at the height of the killings and expulsions of Kosovo Albanians by Serbs in Kosovo.
The men were separated from the women and children and made to lie face down in a line along an alley leading from the street. The families were then ordered to leave and never saw the men again.
The men were killed shortly afterward and buried in a mass grave 10 miles away. French investigators, through witnesses, traced the grave and found the bodies. Some had been shot, some stabbed.
The investigators arrested six Serbian men, including a father and son and Mr. Simic, all of whom lived in Popovic Street and were neighbors of the victims. All six men were local and were still living in Mitrovica, in the northern, Serbian-dominated side of the town.
Mr. Simic pleaded not guilty today. He testified that he had been aware of the events that occurred, but did not take part, said a United Nations official who attended the trial. The trial will continue on Wednesday, when the first witness, a Kosovo Albanian, will be called. It is expected to continue into January.
Yugoslav Army, Serb Police Shot At
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer
VRANJE,December 5 Yugoslavia (AP) - Ethnic Albanian militants fired at Yugoslav army positions and Serbian police in two attacks near the rebel-controlled buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, police said Tuesday.
No one was injured, Vranje police chief Novica Zdravkovic said.
Several shots were fired at army positions on the Serbian side in the first attack around midnight Monday, he said. The army did not return fire. The shots reportedly came from the ethnic Albanian village of Grabe, located within the three-mile buffer zone.
In the second attack early Tuesday, a machine gun was fired at Serbian policemen near Sveti Ilija, also in the buffer zone, Zdravkovic said.
The shootings occurred despite an unofficial cease-fire between Yugoslav forces and the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja - known by its Albanian-language acronym UCPBM.
The midnight attack marked the first time the rebels had fired at the Yugoslav army. Last month, the insurgents killed four Serb policemen, who unlike soldiers are allowed in the buffer zone.
On Monday, Serbian officials claimed the militants fired mortars at a Serbian police patrol in the buffer zone. There were no casualties in that incident.
The zone was set up in June 1999 to prevent Yugoslav forces from threatening the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo. The United Nations and NATO took control of the province in June 1999 after the Western alliance's 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
That campaign was launched to stop a crackdown by former President Slobodan Milosevic against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.
It is believed that some leaders of the separatist insurgency are behind the current clashes in the Presevo Valley.
The Yugoslav army cannot enter the buffer zone, even though it is Yugoslav territory. Ethnic Albanian militants have exploited the ban by setting up their own positions inside the zone.
In Kosovo, the U.S. Army announced Tuesday that peacekeepers arrested eight Kosovo Albanian men after they tried to evade a checkpoint and sneak across the boundary last weekend.
Troops found UCPMB identification cards, uniform patches and small amounts of ammunition in their vehicle, the U.S. military said.
The NATO-led peacekeeping force promised to step up security along the boundary after Yugoslav authorities complained the alliance had failed to curb infiltration of armed men into Serbia.
In wake of the attacks, Momcilo Perisic, former head of Yugoslav army and an ally of President Vojislav Kostunica, urged that the buffer be extended by additional three miles into Kosovo territory and that NATO peacekeepers step up control.
Perisic, who toured police positions at the buffer's edge, said Tuesday the international community should pressure ethnic Albanian ``terrorists'' to leave the area.
The militants want to drive Serbs from the zone, which is just outside the boundary of Kosovo and therefore not under U.N. and NATO control. The militants have urged ethnic Albanians who fled the area to return to maintain a presence there.
In Geneva, Kris Janowski, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said about 600 people have returned to the area in the last three days.
In Belgrade, the daily newspaper Blic, citing a state security document, said special units of Serbian police have been sent to the Presevo Valley to bolster Serb forces.
``Albanian terrorists probably managed to sneak behind (NATO's) Kosovo Force checkpoint on the road to Presevo Valley ... and smuggled in heavy artillery, rocket launchers and machine guns,'' Blic quoted the document as saying.
ABC News: Mortars fired at Serb police, no casualties
WIRE:12/04/2000 17:34:00 ET
LUCANE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Ethnic Albanian militants fired mortars at a Serbian police patrol in a tense area next to Kosovo in the first reported breach of an unofficial cease-fire, police said Monday. There were no casualties in the Sunday incident, said police Col. Novica Zdravkovic. He blamed the attack on ethnic Albanian "terrorists" operating in the buffer zone along the Kosovo boundary with southern Serbia. A key ally of President Vojislav Kostunica warned Monday that Yugoslavia must be prepared to use force if peaceful efforts fail to persuade ethnic Albanians to stop the attacks. "Time is working against us," Zoran Djindjic told the Beta news agency. "The terrorists have dug in along the whole boundary and there is a status quo there. Each day that passes strengthens their position and weakens ours. Therefore, we have to act with determination and swiftly." Djindjic voiced similar warnings on Sunday _ but he was quickly contradicted by Kostunica, who said it was not the time for "war cries" and urged restraint. Although allied in the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, Djindjic and Kostunica have been at odds since the collapse of Slobodan Milosevic"s authoritarian regime in October. Djindjic is expected to become Serbian prime minister after Dec. 23 elections in Yugoslavia"s main republic. Their recent statements have suggested a possible rift in the Belgrade leadership over how to deal with the rash of attacks by ethnic Albanian militants in the Presevo Valley on the frontier between Kosovo and Serbia. The crisis has presented a difficult challenge to the new Yugoslav government. It must show the public, police and army it is willing and able to defend the country, while avoiding the brutality that marked Milosevic"s crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo. The crackdown led to international isolation and a 78-day NATO bombing campaign, which ended with Yugoslavia handing Kosovo over to the United Nations and a NATO-led peacekeeping force in June 1999. Under the 1999 peace agreement, a three-mile-wide buffer zone was established between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia. Ethnic Albanian militants from Kosovo have been operating in the zone in an attempt to drive the Serbs from predominantly Albanian areas. Sami Azemi, a leader of the rebels, said his men will not retreat or compromise, urging Serbian police to observe an unofficial cease-fire that has been in place in recent days. "For the moment, our soldiers are very vigilant, and they are watching every movement of the Serbian police and army. If they try to come toward our positions, they will be confronted with fire, with all the power that we have," Azemi said. "I would appeal to the Serb side that after they agreed to the cease-fire they should respect it, otherwise confrontation is inevitable," he added. Referring to what he called "Djindjic"s threats," Azemi said, "The moment we took up weapons we knew we would be threatened. And we will not put down our weapons without a solution to the problem of this region." Kostunica, meanwhile, warned Monday that an independence declaration by ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo itself could touch off new wars in the Balkans. In an interview with the Athens, Greece, daily Ta Nea, Kostunica insisted that any attempt to change the region"s borders would trigger violence. "Any change in the existing borders would drive us to new conflicts, new wars and new adventures in the Balkans," Kostunica said.
ABC News: Kostunica says Yugoslavia won't rely on foreign aid
WIRE:12/04/2000 15:44:00 ET
ATHENS, Greece (Reuters) - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said Monday his country needed humanitarian aid after a decade of wars and international isolation but would not become dependent on it. He also called for more economic cooperation with Greece during a visit to the EU"s only Balkan member state. Greece has had historically good ties with fellow Orthodox Christian Serbia, the main republic in federal Yugoslavia. "Yugoslavia at this time, due to sanctions, the (1999 NATO) bombing, the difficult situation, needs humanitarian aid but it is not among our intentions for our country to depend on humanitarian aid," Belgrade"s first democratic leader told reporters. "We believe cooperation with Greece is more than important, it has been traditionally close and it will contribute to stability in the region," he said, speaking after visiting the all-male monastic community of Mount Athos in northern Greece. U.N. agencies appealed Monday for $181 million in 2001 to meet humanitarian and other needs in Yugoslavia, citing widespread poverty, inadequate basic services and one of the largest displaced populations in Europe. Kostunica arrived in Greece Sunday and spent the night at one of the several Byzantine monasteries, the predominantly Serbian Orthodox Hilandariou where women have been banned for centuries. Foreign Minister George Papandreou was among the first European officials to visit Belgrade after Kostunica swept to power by a popular uprising that forced predecessor Slobodan Milosevic to admit election defeat. Kostunica said he would return to Greece for an official visit later, after his country began to return to normalcy. "There is much to be done in Yugoslavia to return my country to Europe and international organizations."
The New York Times: Warning by U.N. Kosovo Envoy
By CARLOTTA GALL,December 5, 2000
BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 4 — A United Nations envoy urged the Serbian government and the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo today to act fast to prevent tensions from worsening on the border.
Eric Morris, who represents the United Nations high commissioner for refugees in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, spoke on his return from the Presevo valley in southern Serbia. Albanian militants attacked the Serbian police there 10 days ago and seized control of a three-mile-wide buffer zone along Kosovo's eastern boundary.
The police, meanwhile, reported another attack and a member of President Vojislav Kostunica's Yugoslav coalition called for the police to use force to rout the militants.
Mr. Morris told reporters in Belgrade: "It is urgent that all the concerned parties, including the Yugoslav government, act as quickly as possible so that the Presevo region does not get out of hand, because the consequences are potentially very, very great."
People on both sides of the fight want the situation to explode, he said, and that means there is an urgent need for extra measures. "We are very concerned about a large-scale exodus," he said. "There are a number of Albanians living close to the concentration of security forces."
On Sunday, Serbian policemen came under mortar attack while on patrol just inside the buffer zone, said Novica Zdravkovic, the regional police chief. No one was injured.
On a visit to the region today, the Democratic Party leader, Zoran Djindjic, vowed to send troops into the region immediately after the Dec. 23 Serbian parliamentary elections if NATO-led peacekeepers fail to check the rebel activity. Mr. Djindjic, a leading member of the coalition that supported Mr. Kostunica for president, is expected to be appointed prime minister if the coalition, as expected, wins the elections.
"We need to ask the international community if those goals can be reached by putting pressure on the Albanians," Mr. Djindjic said. "If not, then Serbian forces should enter the buffer zone and sweep out the terrorist formations."
The New York Times: The Balkans Are Still Trouble
By STEVEN ERLANGER, December 3, 2000
VIENNA -- When Slobodan Milosevic emerged in public last week, live and in color, to be re-elected president of his Socialist Party of Serbia, he sent a little shiver down a lot of spines.
But Mr. Milosevic is today considered more of a spent force than a threat, less the evil plotter than someone who still doesn't understand quite what hit him on Sept. 24, when Serbs voted for Vojislav Kostunica and then banded together to pull down the old regime.
Nonetheless, the Socialists are still expected to be the largest opposition party after Serbia's crucial elections on Dec. 23, getting up to 15 percent of the vote. But even senior American officials believe that having Mr. Milosevic as its president will delay any revival of the party.
In fact, Yugoslavia has moved to a new stage, with a new, hidden drama: the effort of Mr. Kostunica, the federal president, to translate his extraordinary popularity as a hero of democracy into enduring political power in Serbia, where real power lies.
According to all the opinion polls, the 18-party coalition behind Mr. Kostunica should gain a big majority in the December voting. But it is a diverse bunch, and strains between Mr. Kostunica and his coalition ally and political rival, Zoran Djindjic, are expected to break the coalition apart within a year.
Ever since the Serbs forced Mr. Milosevic to resign on Oct. 6, however, the West has been tripping over itself to help Mr. Kostunica and the prospect of a normal, benign Serbia. Western leaders have provided him quick emergency aid and swallowed any criticism of his performance.
In Vienna, at last week's meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the slightly rumpled Mr. Kostunica was greeted like a star, with even Austria's Jorg Haider attending a lunch in his honor.
But as federal president, Mr. Kostunica is formally in charge of the military, foreign relations and the air-traffic system, and not much else. The Serbian government controls most of everyday life, including the police (both secret and regular), and it is Mr. Djindjic, as the leader of the largest party in the coalition, who is expected to become Serbian prime minister.
Mr. Kostunica has already succeeded in demanding the same number of seats on the coalition's parliamentary list for his once-marginal party as Mr. Djindjic will get for his much larger one. But Mr. Kostunica will be able only to influence events in Serbia, not control them.
That is because Mr. Kostunica is the president of a legal entity, Yugoslavia, whose existence is something of a collective illusion, and whose main constituent parts are restive or in flux:
¶ Kosovo, the majority-Albanian province of Serbia run by the United Nations and NATO-led troops, is increasingly explosive, with armed Albanian militants infiltrating Serbia and killing policemen.
¶ Montenegro, Serbia's sister republic, is still pressing for independence despite Mr. Milosevic's fall, to the intense annoyance of the same West that backed Montenegro so lavishly when it seemed a little anti- Milosevic aircraft carrier.
¶ Serbia, with 95 percent of the population, is being run by a shaky provisional government full of Milosevic supporters, which is why the elections matter so much.
Washington and the West do not want Yugoslavia to fall apart. First, because it would leave Mr. Kostunica, whose probity has impressed them, essentially jobless. And second, because its further breakup would create new crises and expectations for independence in the region — not just in Kosovo and Montenegro, but in the Republika Srpska (the Serb-dominated part of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and a deeply divided Macedonia.
"The battle to come is still Djindjic-Kostunica," said a senior European diplomat in Belgrade, where the parlor game is to guess along what lines the democratic coalition will split. "Come January, with an active, functioning government in Serbia, Kostunica and the federal government are going to look very pale. A lot of the donor community, including governments, might prefer to deal with Djindjic."
Mr. Djindjic is also a democrat with a history of opposition, so what's the problem? In fact, the two men distrust each other intensely, with the quiet, legally minded Mr. Kostunica regarding the elegant, entrepreneurial Mr. Djindjic as unreliable and even unscrupulous. That is a worry shared by many who admire Mr. Djindjic's organizational skills and who fear, along with Mr. Djindjic, that Mr. Kostunica is too professorial and indecisive, and has not moved quickly enough to dismantle the old regime.
Aleksandar Tijanic, a slashing writer and analyst, summarizes the problem neatly, if a bit unfairly. "Kostunica regards Parliament as a cathedral," Mr. Tijanic said. "Djindjic regards it as a casino."
For the moment, however, the test for Mr. Kostunica has been Kosovo, where Albanian militants in the Presevo Valley of Serbia have been trying to provoke him into overreacting with military force, as Mr. Milosevic did so often, undermining Belgrade's newly friendly relations with the West.
Mr. Kostunica's enemies, like Mr. Milosevic, were quick to exploit the violence and call it a sign of Serbia's new weakness. Mr. Djindjic, too, unpopular for his ties to NATO countries in the Kosovo war, was quick to portray himself as a Serbian patriot, warning loudly that Serbia would defend itself.
Mr. Kostunica understood he had to be seen to threaten force, but could not use it. So the army moved tanks to the border of the security zone from which the Kosovo peace agreement bans them and brought journalists down to film their resolve. Next, he tried to turn the crisis into a test for the West. In Vienna, he criticized NATO and the United Nations for failing to do their job in Kosovo while urging them to seal the border.
NATO and Western officials, eager to help him and nervous about renewed Albanian militancy, promised a new crackdown. Even Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, whom Serbs regard as the champion of the bombing campaign against them, a campaign Mr. Kostunica opposed, praised him. She assured his foreign minister that American forces would do all they could to rein in the very fighters they called allies less than a year ago in Kosovo.
"Everyone wants to get Kostunica and the democrats past this election," a senior Western official said. "If anyone says they're thinking much beyond Dec. 23, they're lying."
The Independent:Ceasefire breaks down as Belgrade forces drive out Albanian rebels
By Christian Jennings in Muhoc, Yugoslavia
4 December 2000
Serb troops and policemen have attacked Albanian rebels fighting inside a pocket of disputed Serbian territory on the boundary between Serbia and the province of Kosovo, wounding two, in contravention of a ceasefire agreed between the two warring factions, Albanian rebel leaders claim.
Muhamet Xhemaili, a commander of ethnic Albanian rebels in the tiny south Serbian village of Muhoc, 2km across the Kosovan border, said yesterday Serb forces wounded two of his men in an attack on Friday. "Even during the ceasefire the Serbs have been attacking," he said. "Two days ago, using silenced weapons, they attacked our positions, wounding two men.
"They attack at dusk and dawn; they have fired with mortars during the ceasefire and are breaking the accord by advancing into the territory that we leave when we withdraw. We are ready to respond should Serb units move forward."
In a small farmhouse in Muhoc, Mr Xhemaili sat surrounded by Albanian fighters armed with Chinese belt-fed machine-guns and 82mm mortars, as well as Russian anti-tank rocket-launchers and automatic rifles.
Four Serb policemen were killed last month by the rebels of the Liberation Army for Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, or UCPMB, who name their year-old breakaway guerrilla group after three local towns which lie inside Serbia but are home to many of the 70,000 ethnic Albanians living in this rural part of southern Serbia.
Attacking with mortars, anti-tank rockets and automatic weapons, the Albanian rebels, estimated at some 200-strong, occupied three local villages, driving the Serb forces back to the town of Bujanovac.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said more than 4,600 displaced people had fled the area of the Presevo valley into neighbouring Kosovo in the past 10 days, fleeing fighting and an increasing build-up of Serb forces.
The Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, has blamed Nato peace-keepers in Kosovo for failing to comply with their obligation to provide security in the area. He says the Albanian rebels are operating inside the internationally agreed 5km-wide security buffer zone between Serbia and Kosovo, which was put in place after the peace-keepers entered Kosovo last June.
Serb forces are not allowed to deploy heavy weapons, troops or forces other than local police within this area, known as the Ground Safety Zone, which runs along the Serb side of the Kosovo boundary.
The Albanian rebels in the Presevo valley want their area to be united with Kosovo, which though formally part of Serbia is no longer under Belgrade's effective control.
They are unlikely to get their way. Although economically undeveloped, the valley is strategically significant.
The Independent:British soldiers charged over killing of Albanians
By Kim Sengupta, Andrew Buncombe and Richard Lloyd Parry
4 December 2000
Three British paratroopers are to be court-martialled over the killing of two armed Albanians in Kosovo last year.
The decision to court-martial the three 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment soldiers, who claim they acted in self-defence, has outraged soldiers and the Opposition. The shadow Defence Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, described it as "an utterly disgraceful move". He said: "The proceedings should be stopped, and an apology made to these men who are heroes, not villains."
The legal proceedings will also be highly embarrassing to the Government, which has been promoting the peace-keeping role of the Army abroad.
The investigation into the deaths of Fahri Bici, aged 20, and Avni Dudi, 24, members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, had been a closely guardedsecret within the Ministry of Defence. Senior military personnel say they are aware of the political sensitivity of the matter. The MoD would confirm only that charges had been laid and that they could involve murder or manslaughter.
The Independent has learnt that a pre-trial hearing has already been held and a full court martial is due to take place soon.
Although the inquiry into the killings was carried out by the MoD, the final decision to charge the men involved local prosecutors in the Kosovan capital, Pristina, appointed by the United Nations.
The three soldiers have been under investigation by the MoD's special investigation branch over the shootings in Pristinaon 3 July 1999, when ethnic Albanians celebrated their "independence day". There has been little reaction or demand for retribution by Albanians in Kosovo.
There has been widespread publicity about the case of another Nato peace-keeper charged over a killing in Kosovo – the US Army sergeant Frank J Ronghi, who was convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old Kosovan girl. The incident led to the US Army ordering a full investigation into the role of American forces in Kosovo.
The rules of engagement in Kosovo for British soldiers are broadly similar to Northern Ireland. K-For soldiers carry a green card authorising them to kill in self-defence, but only after a verbal warning.
BBC:Serbian election campaign kicks off
By Jacky Rowland in Belgrade
Serbian political parties begin campaigning on Friday for parliamentary elections at the end of December, amid signs that the alliance headed by the Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, could win by a landslide.
The alliance hopes to consolidate on its gains in federal elections more than two months ago.
Most market research suggests that the pro-Kostunica alliance, calling itself the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, will win by a wide margin.
A list of election candidates will be submitted under President Kostunica's name. The man who would form a potential Serbian Government would be the leader of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic.
Despite its strong showing in the polls, the coalition is not resting on its laurels and officials will be unveiling their election campaign on Friday.
Political limbo
President Kostunica and other leaders have been in a political limbo since Yugoslav elections at the end of September, because real power lies at the Serbian level.
They do not feel that currently they have the power or the mandate to make fundamental reforms.
All that could change with a convincing win in Serbian parliamentary elections.
The Socialist Party, which was defeated in September, is hoping to stage a comeback.
The party re-elected Slobodan Milosevic as its president last week - a decision which is widely regarded as a vote loser.
The Washington Post:Milosevic Cronies Took $1 Billion, U.S. Learns
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 2, 2000; Page A20
U.S. Treasury investigators have concluded that at least $1 billion was spirited out of Yugoslavia by associates of ousted president Slobodan Milosevic and flowed through banks in Cyprus to other destinations, Yugoslavia's central bank governor told reporters in Belgrade yesterday.
"It is apparently the money which the former regime had transferred to Cyprus in the course of 1990s," central bank governor Mladjan Dinkic said at a news conference. Investigators do not yet know where the money may have ultimately gone.
The new Yugoslav leadership has frequently accused Milosevic and his ruling elite of transferring state funds abroad, but the Treasury investigation has apparently provided the first major evidence of large-scale money transfers.
The investigation, which is about eight months old, involved a detailed examination of bank accounts and internal bank records in Yugoslavia and Cyprus. Both Yugoslav and Cypriot authorities are cooperating in the probe, which is being conducted by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The office administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions against targeted foreign countries. Until recently it monitored compliance with the sanctions imposed on the Milosevic government by the United States.
Dinkic, a prominent opposition economist during the Milosevic era, this week became central bank governor. "Our aim is that the money, which belongs to the Yugoslav people, is repatriated," he said.
Dinkic indicated that the Yugoslav government would seek technical assistance from Treasury as it seeks the funds.
The Washington Post:Rebels With a New Cause
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 2, 2000; Page A19
MALI TRNOVAC, Yugoslavia, Dec. 1 –– At a former Yugoslav police checkpoint at the bottom of a wooded ravine outside this village, Commander Hairy, so named because of his thick beard and hair, pulls up in a black Yugo car.
A cluster of young uniformed men--who, with automatic weapons and hard stares, now man the sandbagged shack--are under Hairy's command. And their presence on this patch of brown earth, about a mile from hardened Yugoslav troops on one flank and a mile from NATO on the other, is testament to the growing confidence of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medveda and Bujanovac. The ethnic Albanian guerrilla group is known as UCPMB, its initials in Albanian.
"People feel much safer with us here," said the 36-year-old commander, who refused to give his real name. The people he claims to protect are the ethnic Albanians of Serbia's Presevo valley, which runs along the U.S.-patrolled section of eastern Kosovo.
The valley is the latest flash point in the Balkans. Last week, the guerrillas took this checkpoint in a brief firefight. Elsewhere, they ambushed and killed four Serbian Interior Ministry policemen.
Things were calm today, but in places the valley felt eerily like Kosovo in the months before NATO bombed Yugoslavia in response to its brutal counterinsurgency campaign against the Kosovo Liberation Army: pillaged farmhouses, refugees in tractor-drawn farm wagons, cocky guerrillas and, in the near distance, Yugoslav troops.
The difference is that this time NATO and Yugoslavia are united in trying to prevent another Balkan conflict. The Yugoslavs are holding back their attacks; NATO troops are trying to cut off a flow of weapons to the guerrillas from Kosovo, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic.
"Our cooperation is better than before, and there is a will to improve it," said Stevan Nikcevic, co-head of the Serbian Interior Ministry. "We are exchanging information" with NATO.
"This is a very real problem," said a senior Western diplomat in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital. "But we have been very pleased with everything we have heard from the government of [new, democratically elected President Vojislav] Kostunica. That's the good news."
Still, the UCPMB's numbers have swollen to close to 1,000, and it appears to have a ready supply of small arms, including grenade launchers and mortars. Most appear to come from hidden caches of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the ethnic Albanian militia group that--despite its claims to have disbanded after NATO's entry--maintains a shadow presence in the province.
The paradox for NATO is that the agreement it signed with Yugoslavia to end the bombing last year spawned the UCPMB. A demilitarized buffer zone that the deal set up between NATO and Yugoslav forces has come to provide an almost perfect vacuum in which the guerrillas can build their organization. Only lightly armed Yugoslav police can legally enter the zone, and those who do are killed.
A drive along mountain roads in the buffer zone today suggested that the guerrillas, some of them teenagers, were in firm control, manning checkpoints, standing guard with old AK-47 assault rifles, grenades strapped to their waists.
"What business do Serb police have here?" asked Xhevat Hasani, a 39-year-old guerrilla in the village of Muhovac, where a dozen or so UCPMB members gathered at a farmhouse serving as their local headquarters with a map on the wall, binoculars on the desk and AK-47s leaning against the wall.
The local commander in Muhovac, Muhamed Xhemaili, wore a uniform with KLA insignia, as did a number of other guerrillas in the valley. And many admitted they had fought in Kosovo and were spoiling for another fight with the Serbs.
"I've been in the war for 2 1/2 years," said a fighter named Isuf, who said he was from near Prizren.
And Kaltaima Pajaziti, a 16-year-old from the Kosovo capital, Pristina, said she was here to "maybe kill a Serb" when asked why she was in uniform in a place that was not her home.
Many of the guerrillas want to unite the area with Kosovo. They argue that the Presevo valley was part of the province until the internal borders of the former Yugoslavia were redrawn in 1957.
"Between the dictatorship of Milosevic, and the dictatorship of Kostunica, the only difference is the outside sheen," said Isuf Bajrami, who sympathizes with the group. "Since the borders were put there without the approval of the people, you can't blame the people for wanting to change them."
But some, including Commander Hairy, suggested that they could find a place within a democratic Serbia. "We want to live as the rest of the world lives, without hurting people," he said. "The Serbs of Bujanovac never did any harm to Albanians, and I have great respect for them."
The Yugoslav authorities have complained that Serbia's border with Kosovo, some of which is rough, forested terrain, is not adequately guarded by NATO and that the guerrillas move personnel and weapons into the valley at will. Many outside analysts agree, saying that Western governments, fearing casualties, have been loath ever since last year to use NATO troops aggressively to root out the KLA and its arms.
NATO has said it recently stepped up security at the border to stop the infiltration of guerrillas and weapons. Today it announced that 250 British troops will join the effort. At major crossings, U.S. and Russian troops work together and search almost every car. But elsewhere, the scrutiny is much more slack. At a crossing manned by Russian troops, cars drove in and out without being stopped, including one Audi that dropped an armed man within sight of the soldiers, who were lounging in chairs.
For now, the Yugoslavs have chosen to wait, though their army could probably rout the guerrillas in 48 hours. Commander Hairy acknowledged as much today, saying, "we know our limits." Kostunica's government, which is courting Western support, wants to avoid the brutality of the rule of former president Slobodan Milosevic.
"They realize they have to be smarter than they were in Kosovo," said the Western diplomat in Belgrade. "The tactic of seeing guerrillas shoot[ing] from a farmhouse and then destroying the village is not going to work."
When Yugoslav forces reentered the village of Lucane, just outside the buffer zone, this week, they acted with restraint, firing no shots and assuring elderly people whose relatives had fled that it was safe to return. They even allowed Western news agencies to accompany them when they moved into the village.
That approach contrasts sharply with a raid on Mali Trnovac this summer when Yugoslav special forces entered the village where the UCPMB had been active. Several months later, most homes in the village still have broken windows, smashed furniture and graffiti on the walls. With the UCPMB now in control, residents have begun to trickle back, further bolstering the guerrillas' reputation as the people's only defense against the government in Belgrade.
To press the point that the Milosevic era is over, Kostunica has visited the area and sent representatives to meet with local ethnic Albanians in an effort to resolve the crisis and address some of the genuine grievances of the Albanian population.
In Bujanovac, for instance, voting districts are gerrymandered to ensure Serbian control of the region even though ethnic Albanians are in the majority. There are no ethnic Albanians in the local police or judiciary. Their numbers in the local administrations are minuscule, and there is clear discrimination in the allotment of services to Serbian and Albanian villages. Moderate local ethnic Albanian leaders here said Kostunica could sideline the UCPMB with genuine political reform coupled with military restraint.
"What we have in mind is that the democratic authorities of Serbia acknowledge that we are equal citizens of this state living here," said Galip Beqiri, president of the village of Veliki Trnovac. "What we are hearing [from Belgrade] would give us some hope, but we have not felt any change here yet."
Belgrade wants "to expel terrorists" from southern Serbia: PM
Friday, December 1 1:42 AM SGT
BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia, Nov 30 (AFP) -
Belgrade wants "to expel Albanian terrorists" from the buffer zone between southern Serbia and Kosovo "as soon as possible," acting Serbian Prime Minister Milomir Minic said Thursday.
Minic, an ally of ousted strongman Slobodan Milosevic, also condemned NATO-led peacekeepers for failing to disarm ethnic Albanian separatists operated in the buffer zone.
Speaking during a visit to the troubled region, he said: "Our goal is to expel Albanian terrorists from the ground security zone as soon as possible and to be able to ensure peace and security again for all the citizens."
Separatists from the ethnic Albanian Liberation army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) -- named after towns in southern Serbia with a strong ethnic Albanian population -- aim to "transfer the crisis from Kosovo" to this region, Minic warned.
He condemned NATO-led multinational forces in Kosovo (KFOR), which "have failed to accomplish their mandate and disarm the terrorist gangs in Kosovo."
"What is positive is the reaction of the international community which also notes these as terrorist acts," said Minic, who since October has headed the interim Serbian government put into place until elections are held next month.
But he stressed that Belgrade "is awaiting concrete action" by the international community against Albanian separatists.
Meanwhile, Yugoslav Minister for Minorities Rasim Ljajic, who is an ally of reformist President Vojislav Kostunica and who also visited the area, called on KFOR to "halt" the infiltration of UCPMB guerillas into the buffer zone.
Trouble erupted in the area last week when three Serbian policemen were killed after ethnic Albanian guerillas launched a surprise offensive in the narrow zone on Serbia's side of the border.
Under an accord with NATO last year, only lightly armed Serbian police are allowed into the zone, which is also closed to NATO-led Kosovo peacekeepers.
The five-kilometer wide (three-mile) strip was set up as a buffer between Serbia proper and the Albanian-populated province of Kosovo, currently administered by the UN.
Ljajic also urged local residents, mostly ethnic Albanians, who have fled their homes in recent weeks, to return to the area.
"Serbian state institutions must guarantee security both for the Serbs and the Albanians, and to integrate local Albanians into political and social life in Serbia as soon as possible," Ljajic said.
More than 4,000 ethnic Albanians in the area have fled to Kosovo in fear of renewed fighting between Kosovo separatist rebels and Serbian forces, the UN refugee agency said Thursday.
Serbia's Albanians warn of discrimination behind rebel attacks
Friday, December 1 12:06 AM SGT
VELIKI TRNOVAC, Yugoslavia, Nov 30 (AFP) -
Moderate Albanians in southern Serbia have called on Belgrade to put an end to the ethnic discrimination of the Slobodan Milosevic era, or risk facing an upsurge of armed separatist attacks.
"I am one of those who think the political options for solving the problems of Albanians are far from exhausted," Galip Beqiri, mayor of the Albanian-populated town Veliki Trnovac told AFP.
The town is in an ethnic Albanian area of southern Serbia, currently the focus of attacks by rebels, calling themselves the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB), seeking to unite the area with UN-run Kosovo.
Beqiri acknowledged that not everyone in his area had the same outlook, and among 8,000 inhabitants of the town, there was a number who "have joined the guerrillas and have taken up arms."
Seeking to bolster influence in the area, much of which is located in a demilitarised buffer zone, the guerrillas have found they can still count on lingering resentment of Milosevic-era nationalism.
And, local leaders say, this will have to change if Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica is to avoid further violence.
"Sixty-two percent of the 50,000 inhabitants of Bujanovac are Albanians, but they are under-represented in the public institutions," a local leader from the Party for Democratic Action (PDD) explained.
Albanians "are non-existent in the police forces, they have no radio station or newspapers, and the availability of education for the young is limited."
Kostunica, who took office in October, has already shown a will for a dialogue with the minorities living in Serbia, a move which has raised hopes here.
But for the Albanians, time is running out, and the complaints of Milosevic-era discrimination continue to rear their head. Most complaints have centered on the behaviour of police towards them, and an alleged increase in humiliation, harassment and, sometimes, beatings.
The Belgrade leadership may be new, local leaders argue, but its make-up has yet to change.
"Some of these policemen are criminals who have sullied their names in Kosovo" during the 1998-99 war, one Veliki Trnovac official said.
"We want to be equally represented in the local police units," he insisted.
But Colonel Novica Zdravkovic, the chief of the Serbian police in the region, admits that the behaviour of some of his men has not always been in accordance with the demands of the service.
"We have recently taken disciplinary measures against five of them," he told AFP.
Zdravkovic said that the priority was to secure the region and normalise the traffic on the road leading to Kosovo, controlled for almost a fortnight by the UCPMB guerrillas.
He noted that in recent months, some 90 serious incidents between the guerrillas and his units were recorded, in which about a dozen people were killed.
Acts of terrorism, notably bomb attacks, have also multiplied in southern Serbia, he said.
And moderate Albanians recognise this has not created an atmosphere that is conducive to cohabitation. The two communities live almost entirely separately. Albanians and Serbs have their own areas, meeting places, shops and schools.
"The guerrillas are causing fear among moderate Albanians, but if our right to work, movement and a normal life is not respected, the UCPMB might gain on the ground," one PDD official warned.
But there are some glimmers of hope, albeit few and far between. This week, one rumour was spread in Bujanovac that the house of the only Serbian resident in a nearby village was burned down by the Albanians.
But the house of 80-year-old Obrad Ristic was still standing, and, in absence of its owner, who has fled following increased tensions in the area, an Albanian neighbour has been feeding the chickens and a dog belonging to the old Serb.
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