Note: Place names rendered primarily in Serbian spelling-----------------------------
"We see buses and trains. People are from a wide area of eastern Kosovo... It's inclusive, entire neighborhoods, men, women, children, the elderly...everyone is being pushed."
UNHCR spokesman in Macedonia Ron Redmond
Quoted by Reuters, May 25 - Skopje
"Suva Reka is empty."
Unnamed ethnic Albanian refugee fleeing Kosovo for Albania
Quoted by Agence France Presse, May 22 - Morina, Albania
"For the first time, malnutrition has been diagnosed among the refugees."
World Food Program spokeswoman Susan Manuel
Quoted by The Independent, May 25 - Skopje
"They treated us like animals. They beat us. They cut some men's ears. They beat us in front of our families."
Bahri Hyseni, Kosovo Albanian refugee released from Smrekovnica prison
Quoted by Reuters, May 23 - Morina, Albania
"The campaign of ethnic cleansing will end. You will return."
President Bill Clinton, in taped message to Kosovo Albanian refugees
May 26 - Washington
"So far there have been 10 children who were already dead when their relatives brought them here... If the refugees are still here in the winter, when the temperature drops to -20C and there is a [foot] of snow, there will not be just 10 dead children, but hundreds."
Bajram Cena, the director of Kukes hospital
Quoted by The Sunday Times (London) , May 23 - Kukes, Albania
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I. SERBIA OPENS REFUGEE FLOOD INTO MACEDONIA AGAIN
Refugee flows stop again today after 30,000 cross Macedonia border in four days * Reuters reported today "the United Nations refugee agency said... it was concerned about the safety of thousands of ethnic Albanians waiting to leave Kosovo after a sudden halt to a mass exodus to Macedonia. 'Even more suddenly than it began, the outflow has stopped and we are very concerned about the fate of the people who are still on the other side,' UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news conference. About 30,000 people passed through the Blace border checkpoint over a four day period at the start of the week, but only 61 men had crossed over at the same point in the past 24 hours, he said. Another 239 refugees arrived at the Jasince border crossing further west. 'We are not sure exactly what the problem is, why there was this very sudden and precipitous drop in new arrivals,' Redmond said."
* Reuters reported yesterday that UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) spokesman in Macedonia Ron Redmond "warned that Serbs might be making a final push for complete ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. 'We see buses and trains. People are from a wide area of eastern Kosovo... It's very organized.' " UNHCR reported yesterday that "some refugees said that only those with proper documents were permitted to leave Kosovo. They said that in the last few days, as people were being expelled, police were forcing them to sign certificates stating they were leaving their residence and renouncing their citizenship of their own free will." Associated Press reported May 24 that "UN officials... today spoke of what looked like a final drive to clear ethnic Albanians out of the province. 'You could call it the last push,' said Astrid Van Genderen Stort. 'We don't know for certain how many people are left in Kosovo, but we've seen a massive influx.' When asked yesterday how many civilians were still inside Kosovo, US
General Charles Wald replied: "I've seen estimates of around 580,000. I am not sure; I don't think anybody is totally sure."
* Reuters reported Sergio Viero de Mello, head of the UN mission charged with assessing humanitarian needs in Yugoslavia, after spending three days in Kosovo "said on Monday the situation there was worse than he expected: 'In a word -- it's pretty revolting... We have seen enough evidence and heard enough testimony to confirm that indeed there has been an attempt at displacing internally and externally a shocking number of civilians.' "Agence France Presse reported yesterday that the mission in its only deviation from the Serbian government's official itinerary had visited "the village of Muhadzeri Babu whose population was apparently unscathed [by NATO bombing]. None of the houses was damaged but the entire village was empty and had been looted. A 'silent confirmation,' de Mello commented. Serb officials refused permission for him to visit other villages." The Daily Telegraph noted that de Mello said "those we have seen who are still inside [Kosovo] are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, but, perhap
s more important, of security and confidence." Agence France Presse reported May 22 that "the UN mission encountered several civilian vehicles carrying soldiers. At Kosovo Polje, de Mello spotted a military truck painted with the blue emblem of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. He observed to Serb officials present that only UN vehicles were authorized to use the UN emblem."
Arkan's Tigers again terrorize Pristina; more massacres, expulsions
* The Daily Telegraph reported yesterday "independent accounts suggested that Pristina was now in the grip of a second wave of terror aimed at flushing out those ethnic Albanians who refused to or could not leave during the first heavy push two months ago... In one area [of Pristina], aid workers say, young girls were taken away and held until ransomed by their families... By some estimates there are 100,000 residents left in Pristina, but with almost no reliable reports coming out of the city the picture is murky." Associated Press reported that recently arrived refugees from Pristina May 25 "described a broken city, where paramilitary police wearing black masks ruled [the] streets." The New York Times reported May 25 that "refugees reported that Serbian paramilitaries, some wearing patches identifying them as members of a gang known as Arkan's Tigers, are moving from neighborhood to neighborhood and systematically emptying Pristina...and its suburbs."
* UNHCR reported May 24 that "one refugee [entering Macedonia] told UNHCR that police had blocked off several quarters of Pristina and forced people from their homes, separating young men out from the rest."
* Human Rights Watch reported May 24 that "Serbian forces forcibly separated and then summarily executed tens of ethnic Albanian men traveling in a convoy near the town of Vucitrn (Vushtri in Albanian) on May 2 and 3, Kosovar Albanian refugees have told Human Rights Watch. The total number of dead may exceed 100. Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed six Kosovar Albanians from the Vucitrn region in refugee camps in Kukes last week. The witnesses, interviewed separately, provided consistent accounts of how Serbian police and paramilitaries pulled ethnic Albanian men from a convoy of internally displaced persons, demanded money, and then shot some of the men in their custody."
* The New York Times reported that ethnic Albanians fleeing Kosovo for Macedonia yesterday included "hundreds of women from the town of Kacanik...many of whom accused Serbian forces of separating hundreds of fighting-age men from their group before expelling it. Almost no men between the ages of 15 and 50 were among the group of people from the Kacanik area that arrived today."
* Agence France Presse reported May 24 that "several hundred exhausted and emaciated Kosovo refugees, mainly women and children, crossed into Albania Monday after a two-week march during which they had no food for the last two days. Most were from Drenica in the center of Kosovo and Orahovac in the southwest. Only a few men, mainly elderly, were in the group. Those from Drenica reported having been stopped and obliged to turn back several times by Yugoslav security on the way before finally getting to this Albanian border town. Weeping women described how armed Serb civilians had demanded money off them and then beaten them because they had none to hand over. One carried a week-old baby born during the migration."
* UNHCR reported May 24 that "another group of refugees from Gjylekare (Djelekare) near Vitina reported that on May 15th they had seen six people gunned down by Serbian militiamen as the village was being 'cleansed.' The six allegedly included two women (one over 60 years old), two children aged 5 and 10, and two men, who were shot as they tried to run from their house."
Ethnic cleansing odyssey: 2,000 separated men who got out
* UNHCR reported May 24 that in mid-afternoon [of May 22], "an... influx [into Albania] took place. Seven batches of men crossed. The first consisted of middle-aged men, but younger men followed. They were in pitiful condition -- emaciated, exhausted and confused. Many had contusions and other signs of severe beatings... The men had been part of a large group of Kosovars which was trying to flee from the Kosovska Mitrovica area to Albania in mid-April. On 16 April, which was the 3rd day of their trek toward the border, they were stopped by Serbian forces at Gremnik (Grebnik in Serbian), just south of Klina. They were forced to remain for 6 days at Gremnik and then told to return to Mitrovica. On the way back they were stopped at Srbica where most of the fighting-age men were separated out from the group. The main group was ordered to return to Mitrovica. The men were initially held in a nearby school. Then they were moved to the prison at Smrekovnica (southeast of Mitrovica town) where they were held until t
heir unexpected release on 22 May. They said there were 2,000-3,000 men in the prison, but that around 50 men were at one point kept in a police station and then taken to the front line to be used as human shields. The men said they had not received any food during the first 50 hours of their captivity, and thereafter received mostly just bread and water. One man said they were beaten when they ate. Others spoke of daily interrogations, beatings and torture. They said that early on Saturday (May 22) some names of prisoners were read out. They feared they would be taken out and shot.
Instead they were taken to the border area by bus and ordered to walk across." Fatmir Gashi, a prisoner in the camp who fled to Albania, told a NATO press briefing May 24 that "I was told from some men that there are concentration camps all over Kosovo."
* Reuters reported May 23 that "several men interviewed separately described daily beatings to the hands, kidneys or knees... all the men interviewed said that many hundreds more were still being held when they left... several men [said they had been] deprived of food for days at a time and held in rooms where they could only sit down by hugging their knees close to their chests." The New York Times reported May 24 that some refugees "[said] their Serbian captors had given them broomsticks and forced them to fight one another, sometimes pitting sons against fathers."
* UNHCR reported today that "the refugees arriving on foot included 200250 exdetainees, released from the prison at Smrekovnica in Kosovska Mitrovica municipality. So far, more than 2,000 prisoners have arrived in Albania after being freed from Kosovo jails, apparently to make room for new detainees, according to previous arrivals."
Disease, starvation killing remaining civilians in Kosovo
* The Scotsman (Edinburgh) reported yesterday that "reports of Serbian police interfering with food supplies in Kosovo were corroborated by a spokeswoman for the World Food Program [WFP]. 'A picture is emerging of shortening food supplies,' said Lyndsey Davies. 'The Serb military are causing the shortages.' She said the WFP had widespread reports of Serb officers entering homes and contaminating food supplies by pouring detergent on flour and urinating on food. There were also reports that shops in Kosovo were operating a Serbs-only policy. Albanian women were said to be dressing as Serbs in an effort to buy provisions. In desperation, Albanian families had resorted to using animal feed to make meals, reports said... A spokesman for the International Medical Corporation said that while it is normal for some young children [fleeing Kosovo] to be underweight, many [refugees] were showing signs of malnutrition."
* Agence France Presse reported May 22 that while in Urosevac, members of the UN Mission charged with assessing humanitarian needs in Yugoslavia "saw aid parcels which had been sent by the UN World Food Programme, on sale in a shop. Questioned by WFP officials, local Red Cross workers said they were unaware how the parcels came to be in the shop."
UN agency finds widespread rape
* The United Nations Population Fund yesterday noted in a statement that "a report prepared for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) by an expert in sexual violence [Dominique Serrano-Fitamant] found alarming accounts of rape and abduction among Kosovar women refugees. The report is the first attempt by a United Nations organization to verify the accounts and nature of sexual violence among the refugees... The women, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Serrano-Fitamant of rape, abductions, detentions and torture in a number of different sites. [Serrano-Fitamant noted that] 'The villages of Djakovica, Pec and [the region of] Drenica were often indicated as places where kidnaping and collective rapes took place... The women reported being individually raped by many men, during a few hours but sometimes even for days. Women who were released had lacerations on their chests, evidence of beating on their arms and legs, and they had been burned... Some of the kidnaped women who were taken to unknown pl
aces have not yet reappeared, according to their families and neighbors... It is primarily the young women who are rounded up in villages and small cities.
The soldiers take groups of 5 to 30 women to unknown places in trucks or they are locked up in houses where the soldiers live. Any resistance is met with threats of being burned alive." The report itself noted that "in Berlenic, women told of soldiers separating the men from the others.
Soldiers wearing masks encircled the young boys and women. The young boys had their throats slit one at a time, but only after their ears and sometimes theirs noses had been cut off. The torturers sharpened their knives in front of the women and terrorized children. They then cut open the stomachs of many pregnant women and skewered the fetus on their blades."
II. REFUGEE CONDITIONS UNDER NEW STRAIN, DANGER IN MACEDONIA, ALBANIA, MONTENEGRO
Newly arrived deportees, in "deplorable health," coerced by Macedonia; Skopje demands massive refugee airlift out of country * Associated Press reported yesterday that "UN officials have been negotiating with Macedonia's reluctant government for permission to expand the seven main refugee camps. Macedonia, with its own substantial minority of ethnic Albanians, worries that the arrivals... could possibly lead to unrest... McNamara... said the government has apparently agreed 'in principle' to open at least one new camp but details remained to be worked out." The New York Times reported yesterday that "Macedonian officials... [in return for agreeing to new camps] are asking that the airlift of roughly 2,000 refugees out of Macedonia each day be dramatically expanded and that more refugees be sent to Albania... Human rights advocates accuse the Macedonians of dragging their feet on new camp construction as a way to force concessions from the United Nations." Deutsche Presse Agentur May 25 reported UNHCR spokes
man Kris Janowski "[said] the agency understood the concerns of the Macedonian authorities that large numbers of refugees might cause destabilization. 'We have to keep the Macedonian government on board.' "
* The Financial Times reported on May 25 that "Macedonia still hosts 240,000 Kosovar Albanians. [Minister of Finance Boris] Stojmenov believes it cannot cope with more than 40,000 in the long term...Saso Ordanoski, editor in chief of Forum, the local political magazine, fears a crisis will be sparked by rising tensions in the overcrowded refugee camps when summer temperatures exceed 40 degrees centigrade. 'There will be a sampede on the police guards, who will have to shoot, and there will be an immediate radicalization. People will be forced to take sides,' he says."
* Deutsche Presse Agentur reported May 25 that "Macedonian border officials were reported at [between Sunday and Monday] to have forced refugees in no-man's land to sign papers saying they agreed to be taken on to Albania."
The Guardian May 25 quoted UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond: " 'People were told they could come through the border if they were prepared to get on a bus to Albania'... The UNHCR negotiated a halt to the forced transfer." Associated Press reported May 24 that as "Macedonian officials had loaded at least three buses with about 200 refugees each for the trip to Albania, when workers with the UN refugee agency blocked one bus with a UN sedan... [as the Macedonian government and UNHCR negotiated] 3,000 to 4,000 refugees stood or sat in driving rain in the area between the border crossings."
Associated Press May 24 noted UNHCR envoy Dennis McNamara "said it was the third time he had rushed to the border 'in the middle of the night' to prevent the Macedonians from transporting Kosovo Albanians out of the country. He did not say when the other two times were." The New York Times May 25 noted that "Western diplomats here, who are eager to keep Macedonia stable, played down the dispute. 'I think it's kind of getting into the minutiae,' said a Western diplomat." (As noted in Kosovo Briefing #73, US
Assistant Secretary of State Julia Taft said May 17 that "one of the things that was really quite comforting this past weekend was to see how the higher comfort level that the Macedonians have now about the refugees that are present in their country." Taft made the statement the same day Macedonia's President Kiro Gligorov said that "it is important for the international community to take refugees out - 100,000 refugees.")
* The BBC's media monitoring service cited a May 24 report by Albania's state television that "soldiers donned in Macedonian uniforms shot against refugees trying to cross [the] border to Macedonia... two refugee women [were] killed."
* Reuters reported yesterday that UNHCR spokesman in Macedonia Ron Redmond "said a new tide of at least 23,000 refugees entered Macedonia in the past three days." Associated Press yesterday quoted UNHCR's Balkans envoy, Dennis McNamara, on the influx into Macedonia: "If this continues, the camps will be full tonight." UNHCR noted yesterday that "those who entered at Blace had been at the noman's land for more than 12 hours. As soon as the area was cleared, the Serbian authorities at the Kosovo side of the border sent over another large group of Kosovars. They said that thousands had massed at the Serbian side, waiting to cross into Blace." Deutsche Presse Agentur reported UNHCR officials "[said] Serb troops on Wednesday closed the Kosovo border to Macedonia after some 6,500 new refugees left the Yugoslav province during the past 24 hours... Refugees earlier told UNHCR officials that up to 15,000 more refugees were at or nearing the border." The Daily Telegraph (London) reported yesterday that "Macedonian off
icials said that around 150,000 refugees are now on their way out of Kosovo headed towards their country. They did not say how they arrived at their estimates but it is understood that Macedonia and Serbia have open channels of communication." The New York Times reported yesterday that "at least one elderly man died in the cold [while in no-man's land between Serbia and Macedonia] during the night, refugees said, and an elderly woman and two children died on a sweltering, overcrowded train from Pristina yesterday."
* The Independent (London) reported May 25 that refugees arriving in Macedonia Sunday "are the first to arrive in deplorable health, posing an extra problem to aid agencies and raising the danger of epidemics tearing through dangerously swollen refugee camps... Their plight is in many cases the result of long forced marches or exposure to the elements for weeks, after hiding from the fighting in woods and gorges."
Serbian forces detain more Kosovo refugees in Montenegro
* Agence France Presse reported May 25 that "some 500 ethnic Albanians arrived from Kosovo at an area near the eastern Montenegrin town of Rozaje, the biggest influx in recent weeks, a local police source told AFP Tuesday. Refugees said around 500 more people were heading to Montenegro, adding most of them were from the western Kosovo village of Jablanica, the source said... Witnesses told AFP that the Yugoslav army was separating men from women and children as they entered Montenegro, but the police source could not confirm that. 'I saw some men among the refugees, ' he said, adding that the army 'can do whatever it wants, the police can do nothing.' "
Reuters reported May 25 that "the mayor of Rozaje, an eastern logging town close to the Kosovo border, said local police had seen the soldiers take away the men but could do nothing to help them. 'They couldn't intervene. If they had, civil war would have broken out and we can't let that happen,' Nusret Kalac told reporters. The UNHCR said one of its employees had seen troops at Montenegro's Dacic border crossing stop an estimated 490 refugees as they walked over the mountains into this small Yugoslav republic. Women and children were eventually allowed to travel to nearby Rozaje, but around 50 men were detained. 'We are concerned that (the refugees) do not have free access. What we want to know is what happened to the men,' said a UNHCR spokesman in Montenegro's capital Podgorica."
Weather, gangs, Serbian forces threaten refugees in Albania
* The Los Angeles Times reported May 24 that "in the miserable camps and shelters for Kosovo refugees, the notorious [smugglers] who for years have spirited Albanian women across the Adriatic Sea to lives of prostitution have found lucrative new prey for their nocturnal crossings. At least six young women have disappeared from the squalid camps here in Vlore during the past month... Five women ages 16 to 18 disappeared from the Italian-run camp at the airport May 3 after being visited the previous weekend by 'men dressed like police and carrying Kalashnikov rifles,' confirms Italian navy Capt. Giovanni Caradonna of the San Marco Battalion posted here. He intimates that the camouflage-clad men were mafia masquerading as local authorities... At the State Reservists' Camp controlled by local Albanian police just north of the airport, refugees say they have had recent visits by men offering restaurant jobs or work as nannies... One teenage girl disappeared from the camp earlier this month [one refugee said], soo
n after an old man on a bicycle was seen approaching young women on behalf of local 'businessmen' to offer them domestic work abroad. In Kukes... one young woman was abducted at gunpoint by two Albanian men early this month, says Sevim Arbana, head of an organization that has been active in fighting the human trafficking. That kidnaping was foiled by a helicopter crew from the United Arab Emirates."
* Reuters reported yesterday that "more than 100,000 refugees remain in the ramshackle Albanian town of Kukes...despite the efforts of aid groups to move them further south...Yugoslav forces are capable of shelling Kukes and have already hit several border villages. NATO and the Albanian army both have troops in and around Kukes, adding to the volatility." Reuters reported yesterday that "three Albanian villages near the main border crossing [of Morina] were shelled from Yugoslav territory on Wednesday, international monitors said... Local police said two villagers died [in Cahani village] but the report could not be independently confirmed." In a separate report, Reuters noted that "NATO intends to get the daily evacuation up to 1,000 people a day by next week... 'There's going to be a water shortage this summer, a major water shortage here,' [NATO] General John Reith told reporters."
* Agence France Presse reported May 24 that "the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday said it was concerned by Kosovo separatist military activities in Albanian refugee camps and vowed not to tolerate such actions. 'We have seen Kosovo Liberation Army ( KLA) activities in some refugee camps, but we will not tolerate military activities in refugee areas. Combatants by definition are not refugees,' said the UNHCR's Tirana spokeswoman, Melita Sunjic. She would not comment on what type of KLA 'activities' the UNHCR was most concerned about, but camp workers and non-governmental aid agencies told AFP that KLA recruitment in the camps was widespread. Armed security in camps run by the UNHCR is provided solely by the local authorities. Discussions are currently underway between the UNHCR and the Albanian government on ways to upgrade the security presence. The talks come as the UNHCR on Sunday entered a stand-off with the rebels, as the KLA tried to talk to more than 500 recently arrived
male refugees who had formerly been held prisoner in a Yugoslav prison. As the men were being moved to a refugee camp on Sunday morning, the ' KLA attempted to stop the first bus, demanding to speak with the former detainees and take their names,' the UNHCR said in a statement. The UNHCR blocked the move, but the situation has now been resolved, Sunjic said."
* The Sunday Times (London) reported May 23 that "while Albania and Macedonia basked in sunshine last week, aid workers were preparing for the snow. About 80 camps are now under construction in central and southern Albania to receive refugees from Kukes and Macedonia. By the end of this month there will be 160,000 new places in camps with insulated tents and gas stoves. 'We will also have to prepare foodstuffs; the calorific count needs to be higher in the winter,' said Lyndall Sachs, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in London. 'Respiratory diseases also become a problem.' "
III. SITUATION INSIDE KOSOVO
Reports of Serbian troop reinforcements, toxic gas use, mixed KLA fortunes
* Associated Press reported May 24 that "the Yugoslav military has increased its forces inside Kosovo by at least 10,000 soldiers, many of them settled into bunkers with their dwindling artillery hidden in burned-out homes and haystacks, U.S. and allied officials say... When the NATO attacks began in mid-March, U.S. military intelligence estimated the Yugoslav fighting force inside Kosovo at about 40,000. U.S. and allied officials say the Serbs have since deployed at least 10,000 more troops to the province in what NATO believes was an effort to prepare for a possible ground attack and to better combat strengthening Kosovar rebel forces."
However, US Admiral Thomas Wilson said today that "We still estimate about 25,000 army troops deployed into Kosovo, which includes reservists, and around 15,000 police forces, which includes reservists as well."
* The Toronto Star reported May 25 that "Serbian forces used gas against the Kosovo Liberation Army in northeastern Kosovo earlier this month, and the gas also sickened civilians there, according to KLA sources and refugees who say they witnessed the incidents. The accounts of gas use in two villages could not be independently verified and were somewhat contradictory, because they seemed to describe two different types of gas.
In one incident, the descriptions suggested use of a gas called BZ, a hallucinogen that is disorienting and occasionally lethal, according to foreign scientists and human rights specialists. Serbian are believed to possess BZ and used it in the Bosnian war, the experts said. NATO said military intelligence officers operating near the Kosovo border have picked up reports of the use of BZ gas by Serbian paramilitary forces, but that the reports haven't been confirmed by agents inside Kosovo. Three refugees interviewed at the refugee camp here said that on May 2, Serbian forces attacked a KLA encampment near the village of Dobratin with gas. They said civilians became ill and fled the village as a result. Separately, and at different times, three KLA sources gave the same information... The accounts of a second gas attack, in the village of Lupce, did not indicate use of BZ gas, the experts said. Five refugees interviewed separately described a white, hazy gas. They said it smelled like fertilizer and gave peop
le headaches, vomiting and diarrhea."
* The Guardian (London) reported yesterday that "the Kosovo Liberation Army engaged in intense fighting with Serbian forces as reports suggested they had succeeded in opening a new supply route from Albania. Serbian artillery rained down on the Kosovo border village of Rasaj, a key post for the KLA guerrillas who were attempting to take the town of Junik, international monitors reported. The KLA, which opened one supply route into Kosovo last month, took advantage of the NATO attacks on Serb troop concentrations to open another. The road the KLA al ready controlled in the area, running past a former barracks at Kosare, was bombed in a blunder by NATO last week. The KLA does not get direct air support from western warplanes and has achieved only modest successes in their fight for independence since the NATO campaign. But the reported breakthrough yesterday boosted their confidence."
* The Washington Post yesterday reported from Washington that "recent assessments by some Western officials that the KLA stands a chance of turning its fortunes around after being pummeled by Serb-led Yugoslav forces in Kosovo over the past two months. 'The KLA has bottomed out . . . and is clearly in the ascendancy right now,' said a State Department official who watches the Balkans closely and just returned to Washington from a week-long visit here. Western officials also cite the recent appointment of Agim Ceku, a battle-tested former Croatian army general, as the rebels' senior commander, and their access to fresh arms."
* The Chicago Tribune reported May 22 that "the inability of the KLA to defend thousands of displaced civilians in their forested redoubt near Suhareke flies in the face of recent NATO assertions that the lightly armed rebels are regrouping and even making a battlefield comeback in the province... The Yugoslav army's starvation tactics took a devastating toll on the guerrillas in the hills east of Suhareke, say the villagers who staggered out of the mountains last Wednesday.... Exhausted refugees told grim tales of living in the rain and mud for weeks while being constantly bombarded by mortar fire from Yugoslav troops, who launched a decisive attack against the KLA stronghold early last week... Refugees holed up in the KLA redoubt said the turning point in the defense of the mountain refuge came when advancing Yugoslav troops discovered and burned the rebels' meager food cache."
IV. KOSOVO ALBANIAN LEADERS STILL JOCKEYING FOR POWER
* The Financial Times reported May 27 that "the Kosovo Liberation Army, backed by the Albanian government, is seeking to re-establish its leadership of the Kosovo Albanians and make a diplomatic offensive in the west to challenge Ibrahim Rugova, the western-backed moderate Kosovan.
Hashim Thaci, the KLA's 30-year-old political leader and prime minister of the provisional government agreed at the Paris peace talks in March, plans to travel to western capitals to argue against any halt to NATO air strikes. His decision to travel from Kosovo follows growing concern in the KLA leadership - and in Albania's Socialist-led coalition government - that the rebel army's cause is being undermined by Mr Rugova. Mr Rugova, leader of the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK) was overwhelmingly re-elected as 'president' of the self-declared Republic of Kosova one year ago, but he has seen his authority steadily eclipsed by the rebels. Mr Rugova's waning popularity has not been helped by his absence from the region for the past three weeks. He ended that absence yesterday with his first trip to Macedonia to visit refugees, and was greeted with rapturous applause and chanting." The Washington Post reported that during Rugova's trip, people chanted, " 'Rugova, Rugova'... but they also chanted, 'KLA, KLA'...
Across the way, Milazim Parduzi, 54, said: 'Why didn't he come here before? We liked him. We loved him. All of us gave him our vote. We were ready to die for him. But he doesn't care about us.' When Rugova passed by the tent he now calls home, he was one of the ones chanting, 'KLA.' "
* The Daily Telegraph (London) reported May 22 that "Kosovo Albanians are anxious to hear first hand what happened during the time he was being held in Serb custody at the start of the NATO air war and what was the nature of his discussions with Slobodan Milosevic. So far he has given only a hazy account of his experiences." Agence France Presse reported May 22 that "Baton Haxhiu, editor of Koha Ditore, a Kosovo newspaper relaunched in Macedonia, bluntly calls Rugova a 'traitor' for reportedly trying to deal with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in the first weeks of NATO's air war against Serbia, before the Yugoslav president released him from house arrest in Pristina to live in exile abroad. 'If the international community supports Rugova, it will create a split among the (Kosovo) Albanians,' Haxhiu said, adding that it was essential to make the Kosovo Liberation Army ( KLA) a part of any peace agreement."
* The Financial Times report also noted "the divisions between the KLA and the LDK have been widened by the refusal of the LDK to provide badly needed funds to finance the rebel army. 'We have not got any help from them,' said Mr Thaci yesterday."
* Reuters reported May 22 that "Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Saturday backed a proposal by Albanian Prime Minister Pandeli Majko for Kosovo's divided ethnic Albanian leadership to form a national security council. Majko made the suggestion during talks with Kosovo Liberation Army leader and selfstyled prime minister of the wartorn province's provisional government Hashim Thaqi during talks in Tirana Friday. 'I want to welcome and encourage your efforts to bring the political leadership together, and in particular your concept of a 'National Security Council' comprised of a broad spectrum of Kosovar leaders,' Albright said in a letter to Majko... Western diplomats fear feuding between Kosovo Albanian leaders could wreck plans to install selfrule in the province once the war with Yugoslavia ends and NATO has been pressing all factions, and the Albanian government, to heal the rifts... Under Majko's plan, the security council would be made up of all members of the Kosovo Albanian delegation to the peac
e conference at Rambouillet in France, including the KLA, Rugova's LDK and the United Democratic Movement (UDB) of Rexhep Qosja." The Financial Times reported May 27 that "while [KLA chief Hashim] Thaci said he welcomed any move to unify the Kosovar groups, he reiterated that his provisional government would continue with its executive functions."
* The Washington Post reported May 22 that KLA political chief Hashim Thaci "warned [May 21] that a diplomatic solution to the crisis in the Serbian province is not possible without the approval of the rebels, suggesting they will not disarm if any peace agreement falls short of independence. 'Without the participation of the interim government of Kosovo in any political process which will decide the future . . . of Kosovo there could not be a solution for the problem of Kosovo, ' said Hashim Thaci, who led the ethnic Albanian delegation at the failed Kosovo peace talks in France in March and has since been named prime minister of a KLA-led government-in-exile. 'It is the interim government that has organized and led and is continuing to lead the war in Kosovo'... Thaci's remarks were a direct challenge to a framework peace plan for Kosovo agreed to by the Group of Seven industrial powers and Russia, which would grant Yugoslavia and Serbia, its dominant republic, continued sovereignty over Kosovo."
V. INDICTMENT BY THE PROSECUTOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA, OF SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC, MILAN MILUTINOVIC, NIKOLA SAINOVIC, DRAGOLJUB OJDANIC AND VLAJKO STOJILJKOVIC WITH CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND VIOLATIONS OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR (EXCERPTS):
Louise Arbour, May 27 - The Hague
Beginning in January 1999 and continuing to the date of this indictment, Slobodan MILOSEVIC [President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia], Milan MILUTINOVIC [President of Serbia], Nikola SAINOVIC [Deputy Prime Minister of FRY], Dragoljub OJDANIC [Chief of General Staff of VJ-Yugoslav National Army], and Vlajko STOJILJKOVIC [Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia] planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in a campaign of terror and violence directed at Kosovo Albanian civilians living in Kosovo in the FRY [Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]. The campaign of terror and violence directed at the Kosovo Albanian population was executed by forces of the FRY and Serbia acting at the direction, with the encouragement, or with the support of Slobodan MILOSEVIC, Milan MILUTINOVIC, Nikola SAINOVIC, Dragoljub OJDANIC, and Vlajko STOJILJKOVIC.
The operations targeting the Kosovo Albanians were undertaken with the objective of removing a substantial portion of the Kosovo Albanian population from Kosovo in an effort to ensure continued Serbian control over the province. To achieve this objective, the forces of the FRY and Serbia, acting in concert, have engaged in wellplanned and coordinated operations...
The forces of the FRY and Serbia, have in a systematic manner, forcibly expelled and internally displaced hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians from their homes across the entire province of Kosovo. To facilitate these expulsions and displacements, the forces of the FRY and Serbia have intentionally created an atmosphere of fear and oppression through the use of force, threats of force, and acts of violence.
Throughout Kosovo, the forces of the FRY and Serbia have looted and pillaged the personal and commercial property belonging to Kosovo Albanians forced from their homes. Policemen, soldiers, and military officers have used wholesale searches, threats of force, and acts of violence to rob Kosovo Albanians of money and valuables, and in a systematic manner, authorities at FRY border posts have stolen personal vehicles and other property from Kosovo Albanians being deported from the province.
Throughout Kosovo, the forces of the FRY and Serbia have engaged in a systematic campaign of destruction of property owned by Kosovo Albanian civilians. This has been accomplished through the widespread shelling of towns and villages; the burning of homes, farms, and businesses; and the destruction of personal property. As a result of these orchestrated actions, villages, towns, and entire regions have been made uninhabitable for Kosovo Albanians.
Throughout Kosovo, the forces of the FRY and Serbia have harassed, humiliated, and degraded Kosovo Albanian civilians through physical and verbal abuse. Policemen, soldiers, and military officers have persistently subjected Kosovo Albanians to insults, racial slurs, degrading acts, beatings, and other forms of physical mistreatment based on their racial, religious, and political identification.
Throughout Kosovo, the forces of the FRY and Serbia have systematically seized and destroyed the personal identity documents and licenses of vehicles belonging to Kosovo Albanian civilians. As Kosovo Albanians have been forced from their homes and directed towards Kosovo's borders, they have been subjected to demands to surrender identity documents at selected points en route to border crossings and at border crossings into Albania and Macedonia. These actions have been undertaken in order to erase any record of the deported Kosovo Albanians' presence in Kosovo and to deny them the right to return to their homes.
Beginning on or about 1 January 1999 and continuing until the date of this indictment, the forces of the FRY and Serbia, acting at the direction, with the encouragement, or with the support of Slobodan MILOSEVIC, Milan MILUTINOVIC, Nikola SAINOVIC, Dragoljub OJDANIC, and Vlajko STOJILJKOVIC have perpetrated... actions... which have resulted in the forced deportation of approximately 740,000 Kosovo Albanian civilians...
Beginning on or about 1 January 1999 and continuing until the date of this indictment, forces of the FRY and Serbia, acting at the direction, with the encouragement, or with the support of Slobodan MILOSEVIC, Milan MILUTINOVIC, Nikola SAINOVIC, Dragoljub OJDANIC, and Vlajko STOJILJKOVIC, have murdered hundreds of Kosovo Albanian civilians. These killings have occurred in a widespread or systematic manner throughout the province of Kosovo and have resulted in the deaths of numerous men, women, and children."
"As the President of the FRY, the Supreme Commander of the VJ, and the President of the Supreme Defense Council, and pursuant to his de facto authority, Slobodan MILOSEVIC is responsible for the actions of his subordinates within the VJ and any police forces, both federal and republican, who have committed the crimes alleged in this indictment since January 1999 in the province of Kosovo.
Milan MILUTINOVIC has held numerous high level governmental posts within Serbia and the FRY. Milan MILUTINOVIC was a deputy in the SocioPolitical Chamber and a member of the foreign policy committee in the Federal Assembly; he was Serbia's Secretary for Education and Sciences, a member of the Executive Council of the Serbian Assembly, and a director of the Serbian National Library... [He] was elected President of Serbia on 21
December 1997, and remains President as of the date of this indictment. As President of Serbia, Milan MILUTINOVIC is the head of State. He represents Serbia and conducts its relations with foreign states and international organizations. He organizes preparations for the defense of Serbia. As President of Serbia, [he] is a member of the Supreme Defense Council of the FRY and participates in decisions regarding the use of the VJ... As the President of Serbia, and a member of the Supreme Defense Council, and pursuant to his de facto authority, Milan MILUTINOVIC is responsible for the actions of any of his subordinates within the VJ and within any police forces who have committed the crimes alleged in this indictment since January 1999 within the province of Kosovo.
Colonel General Dragoljub OJDANIC ... was the Deputy Commander of the 37th Corps of the JNA, later the VJ, based in Uzice, Serbia... Under his command, the Uzice Corps was involved in military actions in eastern Bosnia during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina... Dragoljub OJDANIC was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the VJ on 26 November 1998. He remains in that position as of the date of this indictment. As Chief of the General Staff of the VJ, Colonel General Dragoljub OJDANIC commands, orders, instructs, regulates and otherwise directs the VJ, pursuant to acts issued by the President of the FRY and as required to command the VJ. As Chief of the General Staff of the VJ, [he] determines the organization, plan of development and formation of commands, units and institutions of the VJ, in conformity with the nature and needs of the VJ and pursuant to acts rendered by the President of the FRY... As the Chief of the General Staff of the VJ , Colonel General Dragoljub OJDANIC is responsible for the action
s of his subordinates within the VJ and for the actions of any federal and republican police forces, which are subordinated to the VJ, who have committed crimes since January 1999 within the province of Kosovo.
Vlajko STOJILJKOVIC has served as director of the PIK firm in Pozarevac, vicepresident and president of the Economic Council of Yugoslavia, and president of the Economic Council of Serbia. He is also a member of the main board of the SPS... [He] was named Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia on 24 March 1998... As head of a Serbian government ministry, [he] is responsible for the enforcement of laws, regulations and general acts promulgated by Serbia's Assembly, Government or President... As Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia, [he] directs the work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and its personnel. He determines the structure, mandate and scope of operations of organisational units within the Ministry of Internal Affairs...
As Minister of Internal Affairs, he is responsible for the actions of his subordinates within the police forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia who have committed crimes since January 1999 in the province of Kosovo...
Nikola SAINOVIC chaired the commission for cooperation with the OSCE Verification Mission in Kosovo, and was an official member of the Serbian delegation at the Rambouillet peace talks in February 1999. Prior to December 1998, Slobodan MILOSEVIC designated Nikola SAINOVIC as his representative for the Kosovo situation. A number of diplomats and other international officials who needed to speak with a government official regarding events in Kosovo were directed to Nikola SAINOVIC. He took an active role in the negotiations establishing the OSCE verification mission for Kosovo and he participated in numerous other meetings regarding the Kosovo crisis. From January 1999 to the date of this indictment, [he] acted as the liaison between Slobodan MILOSEVIC and various Kosovo Albanian leaders. Nikola SAINOVIC was most recently reappointed Deputy Prime Minister of the FRY on 20 May 1998.
