> www.beta.co.yu > > Beta News Agency, Belgrade > April 6, 2004 > > Covic: New Kosovo laws a continuation of ethnic cleansing > > BELGRADE - Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija head Nebojsa > Covic assessed that the enactment of two new Kosovo laws represents "the > continuation of legalized ethnic cleansing". > > "I think that this represents the continuation of legalized ethnic > cleansing and the last phase of taking away the most elementary rights > of Serbs, the right to defend themselves, their property and their > existence, without the possibility of going back," said Covic. > > The new Kosovo criminal law and law on criminal administration which > harmonizes provincial laws with international and European standards > went into effect on April 6. > > These laws replaced the previously applicable criminal legislation in > Kosovo - the criminal code of the Republic of Serbia and the Serbian law > on criminal administration dating back to the former Socialist Federal > Republic of Yugoslavia, that is, pre-1989. > > Covic emphasized that "all political structures in Belgrade" should > react energetically to the adoption of these two laws. > > "Show me a Serb willing to go to court in a province where churches are > torched like haystacks and Serb cemeteries dug up like fields?" he > asked. > > Covic also asked kind of rights Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija can expect > from courts that are "under the control of criminal clans and their > leaders, while the provisional institutions are only puppets of those > clans and mafia structures". > > Covic accused UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri and Albanian leaders of > "ignoring everything that happened" during the March violence against > Serbs, assessing that they are "encouraged by certain views that > relativize what happened on March 17, 18 and 19." > > "Albanians are taking advantage of the situation to mark the property of > expelled Serbs as their own; there is a process with respect to the law > and it is simply unfathomable that none of this can be prevented," said > Covic.