Finding the Guilty

The "Finding the Guilty" stage of Kosovo pogroms has arrived.

Its sound could be predicted from hints by the representative of OSCE, Solomon Passy, for example, who blamed the "press" instead of orgs like his own, who are (ir)responisble for peace and security.

Nobody is asking who at KFOR and UNMIK allowed the pre-planned
pogroms to take place, despite perfect intelligence. In many instances,
according to the victims, armed KFOR troops stood by ildly and watched
the pogroms.

Unreformable Albanian extremists are pointed the finger at officially, as if
nobody, including the media, knew how ingrained is their hatred of Serbs.
Radical Islamist money is always welcome into the Balkans, as are the
mujahedin head hunters and al Qaida, as long as they help exterminate the
Serbs. Whatever the religion of Albanian extremists, they played into the
plans of global Islamist centres, and should be labeled Jihadists as well.
Any other rhetoric means pushing this European security problem under the carpet. As long as it suits their own goals, Western power circles, greedy for their own turf, foolishly allow Jihadist expansion into Christian domain (yes, Orthodox Serbs predate all the other Christian faiths!).

Only local Serb witnesses talk about KFOR troops doing nothing to stop the Abanian nationalist Jihad. Come on, BBC, Guardian, Independent, NYT, Washington Post and CNN -- spill the goods. Did the Albanian
narco-terrorists become some kind of a sacred cow in the West?

Where are you, Human Rights Watch and other Soros-funded orgs to condemn the atrocities of your 1999 proteges and demand a 180 degree turn from mistaken policy in Kosovo?

The esteemed "international community" decided to squarely blame a member of the terrorist KLA, a president of a human rights council (of course), for inciting the carnage! (see item 0).

I am afraid I can't share the confidence of the Serb Orthodox Church: "The Church remains confident that the International peacekeeping forces and UNMIK police will trace down the organizers of this unrest and crimes which have been committed and bring them to justice." Criminals never prosecute themselves.

From globalists' excesses in the Balkans and elsewhere, the next stage, the "Punishing the Innocent", will be prepared for Serbs to play a major role, finally, but in form of forced leaving of their craddle, Kosovo.

Piotr Bein
Co-editor
"Info nurt" www.infonurt.com

=================
Quotes of the day:

"Five years on, nothing is normalised. Quite the contrary. If neither NATO
nor the UN can defend us, they must allow forces from Belgrade to
return." -- Father German, whose monastery in Southern Kosovo was burnt to
the ground

"It's a shame for France!" -- Ilinka Simic of Svinjare accused the French
soldiers of "doing nothing to stop the Albanians from setting fire to
everything... It's unbelievable."

"I ask Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov and Foreign Ministry head
Sergei Lavrov to clearly formulate Russia's position on the problem."
Russian president Putin, stressing that Russia cannot indifferently watch
what is happening in Kosovo.

All material, including int'l press agency and independent dispatches,
assembled from http://www.kosovo.com/erpkiminfo.html

0. Berani arrested for deceiving media and inciting violence
1. Albanians blamed for Kosovo unrest, Serbs abandon homes
2. Russia to provide aid for Serbs
3. The fruits of neglect
4. Serb prince asks U.N. to help stop Kosovo violence

0000000000000000000000000000000000
March 21, 2004
ERP KiM Newsletter 21-03-04g
Halid Berani arrested for deceiving media and inciting violence - the truth
of manipulation with the case of drowning of three Albanian boys unfolding

[photo] Additional KFOR troops are deployed in Kosovo Province to prevent
further ethnic attacks on Kosovo Serbs and their holy sites

ERP KIM Info-Service
Gracanica, March 21, 2004 (15:27)

International forces arrested HALID BERANI (Kosovo Albanian), the president
of the so called "Council for protection of human rights and freedoms in
Kosovo", confirmed KFOR sources to B92 Radio reporter Tanja Matic, it is
said on the Web site of B92 Radio (14:02 CET). Berani supplied Kosovo
Albanian media at the beginning of this week the news that three Albanian
boys were drowned in the Ibar river "because they were chased by Serb
youths". This misinformation triggered public unrest and was used as an
excuse by so far unidentified Albanian extremist groups and individuals to
activate a pre-planned operation of ethnic persecution of all Serbs from
Kosovo.
KFOR sources informed B92 that in Berani's house documentation was found
which was taken by KFOR. During the armed conflict in Kosovo in 1998-1999
Berani was an active member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK). It is
believed that Berani might be involved in the plan of ethnic cleansing of
Kosovo which had to be presented to the world media as a "justified anger of
Albanian population after the alleged killing of three Albanian boys".

Serbian Orthodox Church is shocked that this false information and
manipulation with the tragic death of Albanian children, which was denied by
the UNMIK police spokesman Derek Chapel the next day, was so easily picked
up not only by media in Albanian language but also by some professional and
trustworthy international agencies without previous confirmation of the
information. This regrettable example of media manipulation encouraged the
extremists and contributed to the suffering of many civilians and deaths of
dozens of innocent people.

However, no matter how much this manipulation contributed to the
deterioration of the security situation international sources in the
Province say that there are many reliable indicators that the plan of
expulsion of all Serbs and destruction of all Serbian Orthodox churches in
Kosovo was a strategy planed beforehand, which was even admitted by some of
the Kosovo Albanian political analysts like Veton Surroi.

The Church remains confident that the International peacekeeping forces and
UNMIK police will trace down the organizers of this unrest and crimes which
have been committed and bring them to justice.

1111111111111111111111111111111111
March 21, 2004
ERP KiM Newsletter 21-03-04f
Washington Post: Albanians blamed for Kosovo unrest
Many indications that the unrest was organized and well coordinated
Veton Surroi, the Albanian editor of Koha Ditore newspaper, wrote about a
situation "dictated by figures almost anonymous in our institutional life."
Their "organizing capacity was confirmed by the number of weapons that
emerged immediately in the 'peaceful demonstrations.' " In analyzing the
violence, police officials said several incidents exhibited a high level of
organization. In Mitrovica on Wednesday, the size of a crowd trying to cross
a bridge to the Serbian north side of the city quickly swelled as convoys of
buses from Pristina began arriving with supporters. Large mobs also gathered
within a half-hour of each other in the western town of Pec, the eastern
city of Gnjilane and several towns in between, suggesting that orders had
been conveyed to groups already prepared to move, a police official said.

On Thursday, police intercepted three busloads of Albanians leaving Pristina
for the nearby hamlet of Caglavica shortly after a group of Albanians were
blocked by barbed wire and peacekeepers from entering the village. A U.N.
official said attacks on neighborhoods to the west and south of Kosovo built
especially for Serbs who returned since 1999 also indicated "coordination."
(Washington Post)

3.500 Kosovo Serb civilians are brutally expelled from their homes by
Albanian extremists in their attempt to create an ethnically clean Albanian
state of Kosovo and impose to the international community a final solution
of the Kosovo's status without negotiations

CONTENTS:
Washington Post: UN and NATO Criticize Extremist - Albanians blamed for
Unrest
The violence that convulsed Kosovo last week, leaving 28 people dead and
driving 3,500 Serbs from their homes, was partially orchestrated by
extremist ethnic Albanian groups, according to U.N. and NATO officials and
Albanian observers. The groups, which mobilized supporters to reinforce
violent protests and attack specific targets, made it more difficult for
international and Kosovo police to contain the situation, they said. An
initial reluctance by international peacekeeping forces under NATO command
to use deadly force against assailants allowed the marauding to intensify,
U.N. officials say.

Washington Post: Kosovo's latest ethnic strife threatens future of Serbs
there
Nonetheless, signs of renewed Serbian insecurity were everywhere. Three
busloads of Serbs left Kosovo Polje, Kadic's home town, eastward toward
larger Serb settlements. An entire apartment block in Pristina, the Kosovo
capital, was devoid of the 200 Serbs who lived there until rioting broke out
Wednesday. They are hiding in U.N. compounds in and around the city. Kadic
traveled north to Serbia in a car driven by an Albanian friend, for fear of
traveling alone or with other Serbs.

IWPR (London) Serbs abandon homes
Three days after the worst violence Kosovo has seen since UN took control in
1999, fears were growing that most of the remaining Serb enclaves had been
effectively wiped out, after dozens f houses and more than 20 churches went
up in flames. The international community began deploying over 1,000 fresh
troops to bolster the existing force of 17,500, which has failed to prevent
what look like well-organised groups of Albanians attacking almost every
place where Serbs still live in Kosovo. Several Serb villages were entirely
abandoned by remaining local Serbs, including Obilic, Staro Gradsko and
Svinjare. Nuns at an isolated medieval monastery at Devic, in northern
Kosovo, were also evacuated by helicopter and the building reportedly
burned.
Smouldering village in Kosovo gutted in sight of NATO peacekeepers
Yesterday hailed by the 600 or so Serb villagers for their kindness and
geniality, the soldiers are today the target of scathing criticism. "It's a
shame for France!" screams one Svinjare resident, Ilinka Simic, who was out
shopping in Kosovska Mitrovica when the village came under attack. Simic,
seething with anger, accused the French soldiers of "doing nothing to stop
the Albanians from setting fire to everything... It's unbelievable."

-------------------------------
Washington Post: UN and NATO Criticize Extremists - Albanians blamed for
Kosovo unrest
The violence that convulsed Kosovo last week, leaving 28 people dead and
driving 3,500 Serbs from their homes, was partially orchestrated by
extremist ethnic Albanian groups, according to U.N. and NATO officials and
Albanian observers. The groups, which mobilized supporters to reinforce
violent protests and attack specific targets, made it more difficult for
international and Kosovo police to contain the situation, they said. An
initial reluctance by international peacekeeping forces under NATO command
to use deadly force against assailants allowed the marauding to intensify,
U.N. officials say.

By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 21, 2004; Page A18

One of elderly Kosovo Serb women from Obilic who was beaten by Kosovo
Albanian mob after she was expelled from her home which was set on fire

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, March 20 -- The violence that convulsed
Kosovo last week, leaving 28 people dead and driving 3,500 Serbs from their
homes, was partially orchestrated by extremist ethnic Albanian groups,
according to U.N. and NATO officials and Albanian observers.
The groups, which mobilized supporters to reinforce violent protests and
attack specific targets, made it more difficult for international and Kosovo
police to contain the situation, they said. An initial reluctance by
international peacekeeping forces under NATO command to use deadly force
against assailants allowed the marauding to intensify, U.N. officials say.

"Maybe this began spontaneously, but after the beginning, certain extremist
groups had an opportunity to orchestrate," said Harri Holkeri, the special
U.N. representative who is the chief international administrator of Kosovo.
"That is why we urgently have to work to get the perpetrators."

The violence began Wednesday after reports that three Albanian children had
drowned in a river in the ethnically divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica,
north of Pristina, the capital. Ethnic Albanians accused Serbs of chasing
the boys into the river. By Thursday, anti-Serb violence had spread across
the province.

In 1999, the Albanians were the victims of mass expulsions, which ended when
NATO intervened with airstrikes and drove Serbian forces from the province.
Since then, Kosovo has effectively been separate from Serbia proper and from
Montenegro.

Talks to forge a final peace between Serbia and its erstwhile province have
yet to take place. Under a U.N. framework, Serbs and Albanians would live as
equals in Kosovo, regardless of whether the province is declared
independent, as the Albanians want, or if it remains under Serbian control.
But U.N. administrators in Kosovo say the recent attacks have undermined
chances for reconciliation.

U.N. police and officials with the NATO-led peacekeeping force said the
mayhem this week took on characteristics of ethnic cleansing of Serbs. Homes
were burned, sometimes with occupants inside. Mobs also torched schools and
Serbian Orthodox churches. Other ethnic minorities were also driven from
their communities.

Holkeri said Saturday that the situation had calmed down but added, "I
cannot say the situation is over."

But Lt. Col. Jim Moran, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force, said: "I
don't think we will have any more problems."

U.N. officials were cautious about saying who was responsible for the
violence. Some suggested the People's Movement of Kosovo, an anti-Serb party
that wants independence for Kosovo, was behind it. The movement issued a
statement during the rioting that laid out conditions for halting the
violence. The demands included a reduction or end to the U.N. role in the
province and abolishment of autonomous Serbian authority that currently
exists in Serbian enclaves.
But a leader of the party, Emrush Xhemajli, said that the United Nations
should stop "spreading rumors" about his group.

Veton Surroi, the Albanian editor of Koha Ditore newspaper, wrote about a
situation "dictated by figures almost anonymous in our institutional life."
Their "organizing capacity was confirmed by the number of weapons that
emerged immediately in the 'peaceful demonstrations.' "
In analyzing the violence, police officials said several incidents exhibited
a high level of organization. In Mitrovica on Wednesday, the size of a crowd
trying to cross a bridge to the Serbian north side of the city quickly
swelled as convoys of buses from Pristina began arriving with supporters.
Large mobs also gathered within a half-hour of each other in the western
town of Pec, the eastern city of Gnjilane and several towns in between,
suggesting that orders had been conveyed to groups already prepared to move,
a police official said.

"There has definitely been orchestration," said Col. Horst Pieper of
Germany, a spokesman for the peacekeepers.

Pieper said the peacekeepers initially made protecting their own forces a
priority, a decision that delayed the aggressive pursuit of gunmen and
rioters.

He added that the arrival Friday and Saturday of more than 2,000 NATO
reinforcements, including Americans from Bosnia, would send a "message" that
NATO meant business. Pieper said, however, that the increase would not be
permanent. Since 1999, the number of peacekeepers in Kosovo has fallen from
48,000 to 17,000 as responsibility for security was transferred to police.

Holkeri, the U.N. administrator, rebuked Albanian leaders for initially
failing to speak out against the rioting. "At least now," he said, "they
have spoken out quite clearly." Another U.N. official argued, however, that
as late as Friday, top Albanian leaders had condemned only the attacks on
international peacekeepers, civilians and religious sites but not on Serbs.
The expulsion of Serbs from Kosovo has presented the United Nations with a
new problem: caring for displaced people and eventually finding housing for
them. About 1,100 Serbs are living in the peacekeeping force's compounds;
the rest are in Serbian safe areas or in hiding.

3.500 Serb civilians, many elderly and children were brutally forced out of
their homes by Kosovo Albanian mob. After expulsion of Serbs their homes
were looted, set on fire and their churches burned.

[photo] Serb woman crying after being evacuated from her farm.

------------------------
Washington Post: Kosovo's latest ethnic strife threatens Serbs' Future there

NATO officials said they believed the violence was not solely the result of
spontaneous outbursts of emotion, and might have been orchestrated by ethnic
Albanian activists seeking to remove Serbs from the province. "There are
still elements that seek to destroy progress in Kosovo," warned Col. Horst
Pieper, spokesman for the international peacekeeping force.
NATO is dispatching about 1,000 reinforcements to supplement 18,500
international peacekeepers and 10,000 police officers in Kosovo, but no one
was certain that even that would be enough to keep order. "We do think that
our willingness to use fire has given us added authority," Piper said.
TOP
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 20, 2004; Page A20
MERDARE, Serbia and Montenegro, March 19 -- Vesna Kadic crossed the frontier
from Kosovo into Serbia, two estranged regions of the shattered former
Yugoslavia, and shrugged as if she were relieved. "I promised myself never
to flee my home and now I am here," she said as she arrived in this border
town. "It all happened so quickly, it was like dying suddenly. I don't feel
anything."

Kadic is one of more than 1,000 Kosovo Serbs driven from their homes during
three days of assaults by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority. Her flight
illustrates the threat created by this week's violence to the future of a
multi-ethnic Kosovo, to reconciliation between Serbs and Albanians and to
the chances for regional peace.

U.N. officials say that unless the ethnic strife stops and Serbs such as
Kadic stay, this week will have marked the beginning of the end of the
Serbian presence in Kosovo, technically a province of the Serb republic.
"Tremendous damage has been done by this," said Isabella Karlowicz, the
chief U.N. spokeswoman.

On Friday, calm prevailed in most of Kosovo where, in the days and nights
before, armed Albanian gangs had torched 110 Serbian houses and 16 Serbian
Orthodox churches.
More than 1,000 Serbs took refuge in NATO military bases, in U.N. compounds,
with trusted Albanian friends and in the homes of Serbian relatives in
regions spared violence. U.N. officials say the Serbs will be returned to
their homes or, in the case of those whose houses were burned, given shelter
during rebuilding. "We want them to stay in Kosovo," said Mechthild Henneke,
a U.N. spokeswoman.

Kadic, a hairdresser, doesn't believe it. "They let it happen," she said of
the U.N. and NATO-led forces charged with keeping the peace in Kosovo. "If
they wanted us to stay, there would be a lot more Serbs in Kosovo than there
are now."

The number of Serbs made refugees by this week's violence is only a fraction
of the number of people who fled Kosovo four years ago after NATO airstrikes
forced the retreat of Serb forces from the province. NATO acted then to end
a mass expulsion of ethnic Albanians at the hands of Serbs. The Serb
population in Kosovo is now about 100,000, down from more than 300,000
before 1999.

This week's violence, the worst in almost five years, was set off by the
drowning of two children and Albanian accusations that Serb bullies forced
the two into a raging river in the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. U.N.
officials on Friday reduced the death toll of the ethnic clashes from 31 to
28. They said there had been some double-counting in the confusion of the
past few days.
"This kind of activity, which essentially amounts to ethnic cleansing,
cannot go on," said Adm. Gregory G. Johnson, who commands NATO forces in
southern Europe. "That's why we came here in the first place."

Most of the deaths were in Kosovska Mitrovica, where at least 10 people were
killed as Serbs and ethnic Albanians clashed Wednesday on a bridge that
divides the city. Violence subsequently spread to all corners of Kosovo, and
even to other parts of Serbia. Anti-Albanian mobs torched mosques in
Belgrade and Nis. More than 600 people have been wounded, including 61
peacekeepers and 55 police officers.

Nonetheless, signs of renewed Serbian insecurity were everywhere. Three
busloads of Serbs left Kosovo Polje, Kadic's home town, eastward toward
larger Serb settlements. An entire apartment block in Pristina, the Kosovo
capital, was devoid of the 200 Serbs who lived there until rioting broke out
Wednesday. They are hiding in U.N. compounds in and around the city. Kadic
traveled north to Serbia in a car driven by an Albanian friend, for fear of
traveling alone or with other Serbs.

She had stayed in Kosovo Polje through the 1999 war, the flight of Serbs
afterward and the last five years of limbo in Kosovo. The ethnic Albanians
want independence; Serbs maintain that Kosovo is still a part of Serbia and
Montenegro. Talks on resolving the status of Kosovo are not scheduled to get
underway until next year at the earliest.

"I thought that by waiting, time would heal the problems. I see that time
healed nothing. So what is there to wait for?" Kadic said. She said she
would arrange for a broker to sell her little house in Kosovo Polje, a step
taken by tens of thousands of Serbs from all over Kosovo since 1999.

"It is possible things won't ever be the same," said Henneke, the U.N.
spokeswoman. "What perspective is there for a multiethnic society if in a
day, 110 houses and 16 churches can be burned down? The message was clear:
There is no home for the Serbs here."
Oliver Ivanovic, a Serb leader in Kosovska Mitrovica, warned: "The ethnic
cleansing of Serbs is about to be completed. Small enclaves in central
Kosovo will not be saved. Talk about a multicultural life is rubbish."

[photo] Kosovo Serbs pray at today's holy Mass in the medieval Monastery of
Gracanica. A commemoration service was held by Bishops Artemije and
Atanasije for all who were killed in the three day pogrom orchestrated by
Kosovo Albanian extremist throughout the volatile Province (click for a
large photo)

-----------------------------------
IWPR (London): Serbs abandon homes
Three days after the worst violence Kosovo has seen since UN took control in
1999, fears were growing that most of the remaining Serb enclaves had been
effectively wiped out, after dozens f houses and more than 20 churches went
up in flames. The international community began deploying over 1,000 fresh
troops to bolster the existing force of 17,500, which has failed to prevent
what look like well-organised groups of Albanians attacking almost every
place where Serbs still live in Kosovo. Several Serb villages were entirely
abandoned by remaining local Serbs, including Obilic, Staro Gradsko and
Svinjare. Nuns at an isolated medieval monastery at Devic, in northern
Kosovo, were also evacuated by helicopter and the building reportedly
burned.

IWPR (Institute for war and peace reporting)

Peacekeeping reinforcements look to have come too late to save Serb
enclaves.
By Tanja Matic in northern Mitrovica, Jeta Xharra in Pristina and Dragana
Nikolic Solomon in Belgrade (BCR No 487, 19-Mar-04)

[photo] Serb women cry in dispair

Three days after the worst violence Kosovo has seen since UN took control in
1999, fears were growing that most of the remaining Serb enclaves had been
effectively wiped out, after dozens of houses and more than 20 churches went
up in flames.
The international community began deploying over 1,000 fresh troops to
bolster the existing force of 17,500, which has failed to prevent what look
like well-organised groups of Albanians attacking almost every place where
Serbs still live in Kosovo.
The death toll has risen to 31 people, according to UNMIK, while over 600
reported injured. Serbs and Albanians are among the casualties.

The protesters also turned on international forces in the capital. Michael
McClellan, of the US Office in Pristina, said,"Today, American troops were
attacked by Albanian protesters - this has never been heard of before."

While world leaders expressed shock and the UN Security Council condemned
the violence as "unacceptable", Serbia angrily protested against the
international community's apparent inability to protect Kosovo's 100,000
remaining Serbs and called for huge, peaceful protests.
In Kosovo itself, the only Serb church in Pristina was ransacked and damaged
by fire and the capital's last 200 or so Serb residents, most of whom lived
in a an apartment block near the church, were evacuated from the city.

The protesters seen in and around Pristina, some wearing anti-tear gas
masks, appeared more organised than either KFOR or the police, in some
places stopping fire engines from approaching the places they were busy
torching.

In one incident in Obilic, near Pristina, the protesters stopped a fire
engine, opened the door and threatened the driver, saying, "Why go there?
We're not burning your house!"

Several Serb villages were entirely abandoned by remaining local Serbs,
including Obilic, Staro Gradsko and Svinjare. Nuns at an isolated medieval
monastery at Devic, in northern Kosovo, were also evacuated by helicopter
and the building reportedly burned.

In Lipljan, in central Kosovo, local Serb officials called on peacekeepers
to ensure the peaceful evacuation of some 200 children and old people from
the divided town.

Lipljan's entire Serb community spent the night in a Finnish KFOR military
base, fearing their houses would be burned, as Finnish soldiers battled
Albanian youths trying to attack the local Orthodox church.

Local Serbs said they had been assured that more international forces were
on the way to the town.

In Caglavica, a small village near Pristina which Albanians stormed on March
17, burning down several houses, a handful of remaining Serbs stayed in
doors protected by US Marines.
In Gnjilane, a curfew was imposed and local Kosovo police appeared to be
guarding the church from attack.

Mitrovica remained tense and on edge after several explosions rocked one of
the last areas in the Serb-held northern side of town where Albanians and
Bosniaks live.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or who was responsible.

Earlier, Oliver Ivanovic, a local Serb leader, had warned of potential
trouble from three blocks of flats whose Albanian residents, he said, were
armed and had been shooting from balconies.
He said local Serbs had asked KFOR to move the Albanians from the buildings.
"I hope KFOR will move them out of there today. Otherwise I fear that the
Serbs will do that," he said.
Mitrovica was where the first ethnic clashes started earlier this week,
following the unexplained drowning of two Albanians children who were
allegedly chased into the water by Serbs.
A column of 15 Italian and French APCs was seen moving north from Pristina
towards Mitrovica to beef up the existing French-led international force
guarding the bridge that divides the Serb and Albanian sectors of the town.

Armored vehicles sealed the bridge over the Ibar as troops put up barbed
wire to prevent further Albanian attempts to break into the Serb-held
northern sector. The UN was reported to have withdrawn its staff from the
southern, Albanian, part of town.

Kosovo's prime minister, Bajram Rexhepi, visited the southern side and urged
local Albanians there to show more confidence in KFOR's peacekeeping
ability.

>From the early hours of March 19, packed buses left the northern side for
Serbia, taking away men, women and children who feared more violence might
be on the way.

Since the UN and NATO took control of Kosovo in 1999, Mitrovica has been
the principal flashpoint for ethnic violence in the region.

Ivanovic told IWPR, "The latest events show that the project of a
multi-ethnic Kosovo has definitely failed." He added that the international
community was more to blame for this than the local Albanian leaders, though
he hoped KFOR reinforcements would calm the situation.
In Belgrade, outraged Serbs remained glued to television and radio,
following the unfolding drama in Kosovo.

Most heavily criticised the international community for its inability to
protect Kosovo's Serbs. "How is it possible thousands of KFOR soldiers
cannot protect Serbian minority? The Serbs were disarmed by KFOR and now
they cannot protect their lives," one man said.

Church bells rang all over Serbia as about 10,000 gathered for a march
towards the city's main Sveti Sava church, headed by the prime minister,
Vojislav Kostunica.

"The international community is condemning the violence but is not lifting a
finger," said one of the marchers.

Some analysts said the government was trying to assert control over popular
demonstrations in order to channel people's discontent positively after the
torching of the city's main mosque on the night of March 17.

In another disturbing sign that hooligans were infiltrating the protests,
thugs in Novi Sad attacked the Hungarian theatre building and an area mainly
inhabited by Roma. In Belgrade, the Croatian embassy also came under attack.

TV screens went black in response to the government's call for a
three-minute silence in solidarity with Kosovo Serbs.

While serious papers have covered developments responsibly, some of the
tabloid media have inflamed passions. One daily, Kurir, ran with the banner
headline, "Slaugher of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija -SERBIA ARISE!"

Tanja Matic and Jeta Xharra are IWPR's progamme coordinator and project
manager in Pristina respectively. Dragana Nikolic Solomon is IWPR's country
director in Belgrade.

-----------------------------------------------------
AFP: Smouldering Serb village in Kosovo gutted in sight of
NATO peacekeepers

Yesterday hailed by the 600 or so Serb villagers for their kindness and
geniality, the soldiers are today the target of scathing criticism. "It's a
shame for France!" screams one Svinjare resident, Ilinka Simic, who was out
shopping in Kosovska Mitrovica when the village came under attack. Simic,
seething with anger, accused the French soldiers of "doing nothing to stop
the Albanians from setting fire to everything... It's unbelievable."

Agence France Presse, March 21, 2004
by Jean-Eudes Barbier

The village of Svinjare abandoned by French KFOR burned by gangs of Ethnic
Albanian extremists - Ethnic cleansing in front of the NATO eyes

Houses in the Serb village of Svinjare in northern Kosovo continue to
smoulder days after an attack by ethnic Albanians in plain view of a NATO
peacekeeping base.

Smoke rises from the ruins of the village - situated between two ethnic
Albanian towns three kilometres (two miles) south of Kosovska Mitrovica -
where not one of the 130 houses was spared by Albanian extremists in the
attack on Thursday afternoon.

It was destroyed in a matter of hours. The Albanian flag flaps above some of
the soot-blackened houses in a sign of defiance by the arsonists.

On some walls graffitti had been scrawled: the word "Drenica", the central
Kosovan region where the Albanian separatist movement was born.

The carcass of a pig lies in the middle of the street, another in a grass
ditch.

Ethnic Albanian men and children continued to pick through the carnage and
loot what they can. The animals have already gone.

One boy wheeled off a wheelbarrow loaded up with plastic bags, another a
satellite dish.

Less than one kilometre away is a base housing a French contingent of the
NATO peacekeepers that have been deployed in Kosovo since the end of the
1998-99 war.

Yesterday hailed by the 600 or so Serb villagers for their kindness and
geniality, the soldiers are today the target of scathing criticism.

"It's a shame for France!" screams one Svinjare resident, Ilinka Simic, who
was out shopping in Kosovska Mitrovica when the village came under attack.

Simic, seething with anger, accused the French soldiers of "doing nothing to
stop the Albanians from setting fire to everything... It's unbelievable."

As the violence escalated, Simic said the French troops evacuated his son,
daughter and her two small children "at the last minute" to their camp.

"They saw everything from the hill, the destruction of all our worldly
goods," Simic said.

"We were friends," he said of the French troops. "We knew they were there to
protect us. Unfortunately, when the biggest problem arose, they turned their
backs on us."

"We survived for five years but were chased out in 30 minutes," lamented
Simic, one of 80,000 Serbs living in UN-adminsitered Kosovo, which has an
ethnic Albanian population of 1.8 million.

"All I ask is that they give me a tent which I can pitch in my garden, that
they allow me to rebuild my house, that they protect me. Svinjare is where I
belong and I'm not going anywhere," he said.

Father German, an Orthodox priest whose monastery in southern Kosovo was
burnt to the ground, thinks only of returning there as quickly as possible.

"I'm going back to Prizren at the first chance," Father German told AFP,
adding that the church had taught him "not to hate its enemies."

"I would maybe have been able to live one day in an independent and truly
democratic Kosovo, but after all that's happened over these last few days,
that's no longer possible," he said in reference to the inter-ethnic clashes
that have left at least 28 dead and more than 600 injured.

"From now, I will fight all my life against this province's independence
from Serbia," he said.

The seven monks in the monastery were evacuated by NATO peacekeepers just
before the attack late Wednesday, said the priest, currently in Kosovska
Mitrovica, which has a 15,000-strong Serb population.

Father German said that 22 Orthodox churches and monasteries have been
reduced to rubble since Wednesday and 19 Serb villages have been forcibly
evicted.

The priest said NATO peacekeepers have never been in a position to stop the
actions of extremist Albanians, whom he accused of having either partially
or totally destroyed some 130 religious buildings since 1999, not including
the latest wave of violence.

"Five years on, nothing is normalised. Quite the contrary," he said. "If
neither NATO nor the UN can defend us, they must allow forces from Belgrade
to return."

222222222222222222222222222222222222
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=574530&PageNum=0
ITAR TASS (RUSSIA)
Russia to provide aid for Serbs
20.03.2004, 14.53

MOSCOW, March 20 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Vladimir Putin
has described the Kosovo developments as ethnic purges.

The Russian Security Council and the Foreign Ministry must clearly
formulate Russia's position on the situation, he said during the meeting
with key ministers regularly held on Saturdays.

"I ask Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov and Foreign Ministry
head Sergei Lavrov to clearly formulate Russia's position on the
problem," Putin said.

Russia cannot indifferently watch what is happening there, the
president stressed.

As Western colleagues admit, it is nothing else, but an ethnic
purge, and there must be an appropriate tough reaction in defence of
Serbs in this case, the Russian president said.

This Saturday's meeting was held in a broader format with the
participation of Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu and Moscow Mayor
Yuri Luzhkov.

Putin noted that Shoigu would go to Serbia and Montenegro on a
trip that was earlier planned. At present, there are severe developments
and many people are suffering.

In this connection, the president asked the emergencies minister
to inform on measures to be taken to provide aid for the refugees.

Shoigu said his earlier planned trip to Serbia and Montenegro was
connected with economic cooperation between Russia and the country. The
situation is seriously complicated at present. Refugees already leave 20
settlements in Serbia.

Prompt measures are needed to ensure life support for the people,
Shoigu said.

Tent camps must be set up and medicines and food must be provided,
and most probably there is a need to set up a hospital.

The situation is still more complicated since the refugee flow is
added to the previous one, but residents of the existing camps are not
settled in other places yet, Shoigu noted.

The minister said he would study the situation for two days and
take appropriate measures that would be discussed with Serbia-Montenegro
authorities.

3333333333333333333333333333333333333333
http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/opinion/10796925451
37870.xml?oxedi
THE PLAIN DEALER (Cleveland, OH)
Editorials

The fruits of neglect

03/19/04

You don't have to be an expert on the Balkans to know
that the spasm of ethnic violence that has again
engulfed Kosovo, claiming more than 30 lives over the
last three days, has deep roots. The currents of
hatred and fear have surfaced in recent years in
repeated ethnic murders and expulsions. Most of the
130,000 remaining Serbs and other non-Albanians live
as virtual prisoners in their homes.

What has been most galling is the silence and
passivity of international authorities in the face of
growing Albanian extremism.

Despite hundreds of deaths and disappearances since
they took over five years ago, U.N. officials have
solved none of the major cases of ethnic murder or
found ways for Serbs to reclaim jobs, work their
fields or travel to hospitals. Most Serbian enclaves
owe their continued survival and that of remaining
medieval churches and monasteries to the work of NATO
guards.

The latest violence has changed the equation further
by wresting control of part of the province from U.N.
hands. There are unconfirmed reports that hundreds of
homes and a handful of churches have been torched. In
Serbia proper, enraged mobs, including many displaced
people from Kosovo, have burned two of the country's
oldest mosques.

NATO is rushing more than 1,000 reinforcements to join
the 18,500 peacekeepers in Kosovo, but they cannot be
everywhere.

By letting ethnic extremists operate with impunity,
U.N. overseers in Kosovo have encouraged the
province's most violent and unscrupulous elements to
think they can achieve an independent, all-Albanian
homeland through murder and intimidation. They've also
radicalized Serbs to think the rules will always be
stacked against them and that the world is determined
to deny them justice, even in the province they
consider the cradle of their nation.

If Kosovo is not to become a new launching pad for
ethnic war and extremism, NATO and U.N. authorities
must arrest ethnic trouble-makers and lawbreakers. The
international community must stand firm to see that
violence does not yield political benefits, and that
"final status" talks will now be delayed indefinitely.
The gradual NATO troop withdrawals of recent years
must end.

It's not exactly back to square one in the Balkans,
but it's close.

444444444444444444444444444444444444444
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/
107979452796410.xml
THE PLAIN DEALER (Cleveland, OH)
Serb prince asks U.N. to help stop Kosovo violence
03/20/04

Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia requested more
security and appealed for help to quell the spiraling
violence in Kosovo when he met Friday in New York with
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Alexander condemned the recent violence committed
against Serb enclaves in central Kosovo. The violence
in the last two days has killed 28 people and
destroyed 110 houses and 16 Serbian churches,
according to a news release issued Friday by the
United Nations Mission in Kosovo.

Reuters news service reported Friday that nearly 1,000
Serbs have been driven from their homes by the
violence. NATO countries, including the United States,
France, England, Germany and Denmark, have sent more
troops to beef up the existing 18,500-member Kosovo
protection force in the region.

Alexander asked Annan to consider allowing the Serbian
police to provide security for the Serbs in Kosovo. He
also appealed for help in rebuilding homes, churches
and property.

Annan said he will see what can be done and that the
situation must be improved.