24 June 2002 Morning Edition

I - News wires/services /broadcast

AFP
· Three years after their exodus, Kosovo Serbs impatient to return
· Split confirmed in Milosevic's Yugoslav Socialists
· Croatian Serbs say they are still victims of discrimination

AP
· Serbia's Socialist Party Ousts Milosevic As Leader

B92
· Severing ties
· Odd couple
· Man killed and young child wounded in shooting
· Banovic will quit if charter deviates from agreement
· Army chief of staff feeling the heat?

Balkan Times
· United States Supports Minority Return Projects in Kosovo

dpa
· Serbian Socialists replace Milosevic, name successor
· Albanian parties nominate former general as presidential candidate

Reuters
· Serbian town shows price of Western-praised reforms

II - Newspapers/magazines

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
· Waffentragende Esel/Der Kampf gegen den Schmuggel im Kosovo

Independent
· This Europe: Welcome to Serbia

The New York Times
· Sovereignty Debate With U.S. Limits U.N. Support for Bosnia Force

Three years after their exodus, Kosovo Serbs impatient to return

by Aleksandar Mitic

BELGRADE, June 24 (AFP) - Three years after the beginning of their exodus in June 1999, some 200,000 Serbs displaced from Kosovo are impatient to return to their homes and rebelling against the international community's inertia on this thorny issue.
"Serbs from Kosovo have been cheated, they believed the UN mission's (UNMIK) promises that they would launch their return, but it did absolutely nothing," Zvonimir Trajkovic, an official of the Committee for Return in Kosovo, a non-governmental organization, said.
Serb forces' withdrawal from Kosovo in June 1999, following the NATO bombing campaign, has opened the door to ethnic Albanian extremists who wanted to expel Serb civilians from the province. Just a few non-Albanians who have fled the province were able to come back so far.
The UN administration and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) justify a small figure of returnees by "lack of security for the Serb population," considering that a threat of violence by ethnic Albanian extremists still exists.
More than 80,000 Serbs live mainly in enclaves strongly protected by NATO-led peacekeeping forces (KFOR) with quite a restrictive freedom of movement.
On the other hand, Serbs very often cannot manage to take back their houses and apartments in Kosovo, occupied by ethnic Albanians after their departure.
According to the Housing and Property Directorate, a organization in charge of restitution of property in Kosovo, only some 200 illegal occupants of the apartments had been evicted so far, out of 16,000 mainly Serb requests.
"Enough of excuses! Three years have passed, people cannot stand it any more," stormed Trajkovic.
In Kraljevo, Krusevac and Leskovac, towns in central and southern Serbia where the biggest number of those displaced from Kosovo are situated, protests of refugees who want to go home multiply.
Trajkovic's committee hopes to organize soon a "big march accross the administrative border" that separates Kosovo from the rest of Serbia.
He intends to organize this summer an action of "encircling Kosovo with 50,000 displaced to show the world the tragedy of the Serb community."
"I know that those people have suffered a lot and that they have a right to go back home," said Nebojsa Covic, Serbian deputy prime minister in charge of Kosovo, after being informed about the project.
But the return has to be "organized," Covic added. He again appealed his compatriots to be patient and let Serbian authorities "exhaust all possibilities of an accord with UNMIK."
For UNMIK, the return of Serbs is the "main priority." The UN administration called for a return during this summer and autumn in order to "change the climate and build a favorable environment for more significant return in 2003 and 2004," according to an UNMIK report.
And at a Balkans Stability Pact meeting in Geneva next week Covic is to submit a Serbian strategy for solving the issue of refugees and displaced people.
The meeting is aimed at presenting a plan for return and collecting funds to prevent a "humanitarian catastrophe" next winter for the Serbs displaced from Kosovo as well as for more than 500,000 Serb refugees from Bosnia and Croatia who are currently in Serbia.

Split confirmed in Milosevic's Yugoslav Socialists

BELGRADE, June 23 (AFP) - A split was confirmed Sunday in Yugoslavia's opposition Socialist Party (SPS) when members seeking to depose Slobodan Milosevic as party chieftain elected a leader of their faction in a major challenge to the authority of the former Yugoslav president.
But the group immediately attempted a reconciliation gesture with Milosevic -- currently on trial before a war crimes tribunal in The Hague -- by deciding to give him a new post of "honorary party president for life."
Branislav Ivkovic, 50, a key figure in negotiating Milosevic's arrest and departure for The Hague, was voted chairman of a group within the party which wants reform and has opposed keeping on Milosevic as party leader despite his present plight.
However, Ivkovic personally paid a fulsome tribute to his mentor in a speech following his election.
The meeting took place despite fierce opposition by a rival faction loyal to Milosevic, which wants him to continue in office.
The unknown factor in the present situation is the balance of power between the competing groups. But Sunday's election confirmed the schism within Yugoslavia's main opposition party.
Milosevic created the SPS in its present form in 1990 out of the old Yugoslav Communist Party.
Since he was handed over to The Hague in June last year, Ivkovic has campaigned for SPS reform and a new leader.
He obtained 1,534 votes of 1,900 delegates present Sunday.
"We have accomplished a great deal today, not only for the SPS but for Yugoslavia and Serbia," he later told delegates. "We have a clear conscience towards Slobodan Milosevic, who is the reason why we all joined the SPS," he added.
"He is the founder of the SPS and he led it in the best way possible under the most difficult conditions," Ivkovic added, stressing the party's "moral support" for the former president.
Ivkovic also called on the Serbian government "to provide guarantees urgently so that Slobodan Milosevic can defend himself as a free accused," before the Hague tribunal.
Milosevic has been trying from his remand cell to maintain his influence on the SPS, which for a decade was the most powerful party in Serbia.
He has denounced Ivkovic as a fifth columnist within the party, and the party's main committee, loyal to Milosevic, carried out his order to expel Ivkovic, accusing him of damaging the party's unity.
But Ivkovic and his backers refused to acknowledge the expulsion and convened a special congress.
Meanwhile the pro-Milosevic group has summoned a sixth, regular party congress for September, at which it intends to re-elect Milosevic.
The Belgrade sports hall hosting the meeting was decorated with party symbols, flags and a Milosevic picture above the main stage.
After being ousted from a decade in power after elections in 2000, the SPS found itself in serious disarray after Milosevic was arrested and handed over to the UN tribunal last year.
Milosevic is currently on trial on more than 60 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo that tore apart the Balkans in the 1990s.

Croatian Serbs say they are still victims of discrimination

by Jean-Pierre Altier

ZAGREB, June 23 (AFP) - Seven years after the end of the Serbian-Croatian war, and two years on after the death of nationalist president Franjo Tudjman, Croatian Serbs say they are still treated as second-class citizens.
"In the course of the last 12 years, Croatia's policy has been a policy of discrimination," said Milorad Pupovac, president of the Serb National Council which groups Croatia's Serb associations.
"Croatian Serbs were chased out of their jobs, particularly in the public sector. They were chased out of their apartments, particularly in the big cities and were stigmatised in a country of war criminals," he told AFP.
Pupovac and other Croatian Serb leaders have also demanded a revision of the Balkan country's first census since independence, asserting that it seriously exaggerated the post-war decline in the country's ethnic Serb population.
Pupovac said more Serbs than listed were living in Croatia, claiming that results had been flawed by faulty methodology and failure to include returning refugees.
The new census showed that ethnic Serbs -- the country's second largest group -- had dropped to 4.54 percent of the population in 2001, down from 12.16 percent in the last survey in 1991 when Croatia was still part of the former Yugoslavia.
The census said more than 200,000 Serbs were living in the country but Pupovac said the actual figure is somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000, making it closer to six percent of the population.
In addition, there are some 300,000 Serbs living as refugees in other countries including 250,000 in Serbia and Montenegro.
"For the most part, the young hide their identity," he said citing as an example figures from Split, Croatia's second-largest city, which has more than 450,000 residents but where only nine people declared themselves to be Serbian Orthodox.
Pupovac said the biggest problem for Croatia now is the rehousing of those Serb refugees returning.
"We have tried very hard for the restitution of our properties since 1997 but with very little success," Pupovac said. "The current occupants, who are Croatians, have more rights than the owners and in practice, our right of ownership is not recognised."
He said another contentious issue is the rebuilding of Serb homes destroyed in Croatia by either military or para-military groups and the battle for compensation from the Croatian government.
In May, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) urged Croatia to step up efforts to encourage the return of ethnic Serb refugees, asking it create a more favourable climate for their return.
According to United Nations figures, only 95,000 out of 280,000 Serbs who fled during the war have returned so far.
Pupovac said while the current government is not anti-Serb, it has not done enough to ensure its Serbian citizens are treated equally or offer them protection as a minority group.

Serbia's Socialist Party Ousts Milosevic As Leader

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP)--Moderates in Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist party voted to remove the former Yugoslav president as party leader on Sunday, a year after he was extradited on war crimes charges.
The moderates replaced him with a reform-minded official from their ranks, although they did give Milosevic the title of honorary president. The future of the Socialist Party of Serbia remained unclear despite the vote; Milosevic supporters did not attend its congress and dismissed the results.
The moderates chose Branislav Ivkovic as the new party leader. Ivkovic had been a close ally of Milosevic before he turned reformist after the former president was ousted two years ago. A year ago, Milosevic was extradited to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
However, he remained the party's official leader and controlled party affairs by phone from his detention cell in the Netherlands, where he is on trial for atrocities committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
Zivorad Igic, a key Milosevic loyalist, called the decisions at the congress in Belgrade Sunday "outrageous and illegal." Igic said he and others loyal to Milosevic would not recognize those elected and would continue to act as the "legal" Socialist party.
Ivkovic had been a target of intra-party feuding that has shaken the party over the past months. He was attacked earlier this year by Milosevic for attempting to carve out a new party from the Socialists.
Milosevic loyalists tried to oust Ivkovic in April, but he resisted, calling for a special party meeting - Sunday's congress - to settle the issue.
About 1,500 delegates of some 2,000 present at the party congress voted for Ivkovic. Some 500 party members - those most loyal to Milosevic - weren't present.
In what amounts to the day's most serious blow for Milosevic, moderates also filled the party's top posts with reform-minded officials.
After being sent to the U.N. court in June 2001, Milosevic nominated another party member, Mirko Marjanovic, to act as his deputy. Marjanovic's position within the party remained unclear after Sunday's vote.
Mihajlo Markovic, a party official who pushed for the change in leadership, opened the convention earlier in the day with harsh words for Milosevic.
"The Socialist party has lost its way," Markovic said. "It was overwhelmed by dictatorial and authoritarian policies and corruption."
After the vote, however, he struck a more conciliatory tone.
"He united people and the country," Markovic said. "And now he defends them at The Hague."
Milosevic helped found the Socialist Party of Serbia in 1990 from the remnants of Serbia's branch of the communist party, which had ruled Yugoslav for nearly five decades.

Severing ties

B92 - Jun 23, 2002

16:51 BELGRADE, Sunday - Serbia's governing coalition and the Democratic Party of Serbia "are no longer connected by any kind of coalition agreement," party leader and Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica said today.
At a meeting of the party's main committee, Kostunica accused the party of his archrival Zoran Djindjic of following a "Milosevic methodology" in implementing authoritarian and "anti-democratic ideas and plans."
Djindjic's Democratic Party is using "threats and corruption" to impose its will on the rest of DOS, said Kostunica.
The president's party withdrew from the Serbian parliament two weeks ago after DOS succeeded in sacking 21of its members from the assembly. The party had already quit the Serbian government and no longer attends the coalition's policy-making sessions.
Kostunica claimed his party colleagues had been expected to "rubber-stamp every one of the premier's ideas" and to "close their eyes to obvious violations of the basic principles of parliamentarianism."
The president said it was essential the country follow an agreed series of steps - "the constitutional charter, federal elections, the Serbian constitution, presidential and parliamentary elections."

Odd couple

B92 - Jun 23, 2002

16:50 PODGORICA, Sunday - Montenegro's pro-Yugoslav opposition will most probably accept the offer of the pro-independence Liberal Alliance to join forces in local government, Socialist People's Party deputy leader Zoran Zizic said today.
"That way Together for Yugoslavia and the Liberal Alliance will exercise authority in two-thirds of Montenegro," said Zizic. (Beta)

Man killed and young child wounded in shooting

B92 - Jun 23, 2002

13:22 PANCEVO, Sunday - A man was killed and an eighteen month old child seriously wounded in a shooting incident last night in the centre of Pancevo, just north of Belgrade, reports Beta news agency.
Goran Gruban, 25, from Pancevo was killed, reports Beta quoting police sources.
The child was operated on in Belgrade's emergency centre having been hit by a ricocheting bullet. The child is said to be in a critical condition.
According to Beta, the police know the identity of the killer and are conducting an intensive search.
The shooting took place outside the packed Blic café in the centre of Pancevo. (Beta)

Banovic will quit if charter deviates from agreement

B92 - Jun 23, 2002

13:21 PODGORICA, Sunday - A member of the commission charged with drafting the constitution for the future state of Serbia and Montenegro has threatened to walk out if the text begins to deviate from the March 14 agreement.
"If in its writing the constitutional charter deviates from the essence of the agreement, I will not be a part of it," Borislav Banovic, a representative of Montenegro's Social Democratic Party, told Beta news agency.
He predicted the constitutional charter would be completed quickly if the commission interprets the agreement correctly.
The commission agreed on its standing rules on Friday and will meet again on Wednesday in Podgorica. (Beta)

Army chief of staff feeling the heat?

B92 - Jun 23, 2002

13:21 BELGRADE, Sunday - Yugoslavia's army chief of staff has said he is surprised the Supreme Defence Council has decided to discuss personnel changes in the army leadership during tomorrow's meeting.
"It's not clear to me why this issue is being discussed now. I don't know in whose interest it is," General Nebojsa Pavkovic told Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti. "The state has far more important things to resolve right now," he added.
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has reportedly pushed for Pavkovic's dismissal in previous Council sessions, only to be vetoed by the presidents of Serbia and Montenegro.
He remains a controversial choice to lead the armed forces having originally been appointed by former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. Media reports claim his dismissal is a must if Yugoslavia wants to join NATO's Partnership for Peace.
Pavkovic said he would respect a decision to replace him "only if it is taken in the spirit of the law and regulations" and he is given a good reason why. (Beta)

United States Supports Minority Return Projects in Kosovo

By Tatjana Matic for Balkan Times in Pristina - 21/06/02

The US State Department provided $5.5 million to four American based NGOs -- United Methodist Committee On Relief (UMCOR), American Refugee Committee (ARC), International Catholic Migration Committee (ICMC) and Mercy Corps -- that have been providing humanitarian assistance in the former Yugoslav areas for several years.
Over the last decade, during the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, nearly one million people were forced to leave their homes. By the time NATO action ended in June 1999, nearly 200,000 Serbs and other minorities had fled Kosovo. While 1999 witnessed the return of Kosovo Albanians, it was only recently that UNMIK chief Michael Steiner announced that security conditions were favourable for minority returns.
Opening a briefing for potential donors, Steiner said roughly 3,500 non-Albanians have returned to Kosovo. Classifying it as partial success, he said the international community "must achieve breakthroughs in minority returns during the summer and autumn of 2002 and build momentum for more significant numbers during 2003 and 2004".
There are still fears among Albanians in Kosovo that mass minority returns would mean a return to a status quo that favoured the Serbs. However, UNMIK insists "on voluntary and informed choices of displaced individuals or families to come back home, rather than politicaly driven mass returns that are bound to fail", said Steiner.
The three NGOs with offices in Kosovo and Serbia and Montenegro will launch their projects in July and August, mostly in eastern Kosovo. Apart from favourable security conditions, the reason for choosing that area is that people "can start farming their land immediately just with some seeds, and few cows and pigs", said Kristina Koch, a refugee co-ordinator in the US State Department's Bureau for Population Refugees and Migrations (BPRM) office in Belgrade. "That's enough for their family to survive."
UMCOR will assist in rebuilding houses. ARC will provide "necessary legal help, social protection, medical services, and all that's needed in order to assure return sustainability during the first months until people become stabilised in their homes", said Domagoj Nikolic, head of the ARC office in Belgrade. Mercy Corps will support agricultural projects and small businesses, especially those connected with inter-community co-operation.
The organisations identify possible returnees and link them with local partners. Co-operation with local NGOs plays a huge role because local people in the field are developing close relationships with the refugees. Visiting collective centres in Serbia and Montenegro, the NGOs have first-hand information about the lives of displaced people and their needs.
According to ARC's Domagoj Nikolic, there are currently about 70 to 90 families ready to return. "We expect the largest returns to occur in eastern Kosovo during July and August," he said.
"When people get used to being with people they were seeing earlier without surprise and hear the language they understand very well, differences disappear," an ARC representative said."Life starts to function and people start looking at what is most important to them -- their existence, their future, the children -- and less about some political issues that are not that important to everyday life.

ROUNDUP: Serbian Socialists replace Milosevic, name successor

Belgrade (dpa) - The opposition Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) replaced as its leader Sunday former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic almost one year after the politician was extradited to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, reports said.
The special congress of the SPS however made Milosevic honorary chairman, the Belgrade BK-TV reported. The delegates named Branislav Ivkovic, a former minister and senior SPS official, who had been expelled from the party several months ago, as Milosevic's successor.
The congress, attended by 2,000 delegates, was organised by SPS officials who had been removed from their posts at the request of Milosevic. The pro-Milosevic faction of the party is to hold its own congress in September, cementing the split in the former ruling party.
The vice-chairman of the ``official'' SPS, Zarko Obradovic, described the party congress as a ``failed putsch attempt'' and termed the gathering as a ``private meeting'' of Ivkovic's.
Speaking to the radio Studio B, Obradovic also said Ivkovic was a ``false and self-named party chief''.

Albanian parties nominate former general as presidential candidate

Tirana (dpa) - Albanian parties proposed Alfred Moisiu, a former army general, as the country's new president on Sunday.
The proposal, backed by both the ruling and the opposition parties, was formally submitted to the country's parliament and will be voted on Monday.
If elected, Moisiu, 67, will replace President Rexhep Meidani, whose five-year term of office ends on June 24.
The parties' agreement on Moisiu is generally believed to have finalized the week-long political negotiations on finding a president acceptable to both the ruling Socialists and the opposition.
Moisiu was deputy defence minister from 1974 to 1981. After the democratic changes in 1991, he was appointed defence minister in 1991 and adviser to the defence minister from 1992 to 1997.
He is currently chairman of Albanian North Atlantic Association, a non-governmental organization working to promote links between Albania and NATO.
Moisiu needs to win 84 votes of the 140-seat parliament for his election. With both the ruling and the opposition parties supporting him, the parliamentary vote appeared to be a formality.
The parties had earlier agreed to propose Albania's E.U. Ambassador Artur Kuko as their joint presidential candidate. However, Kuko announced on Saturday that he could not accept the offer.
He gave no reasons for his decision, but Albanian newspapers alleged on Sunday that Kuko had been a collaborator of the former Communist secret police Sigurimi at the end of 1980s.

FEATURE-Serbian town shows price of Western-praised reforms

By Fredrik Dahl

KRAGUJEVAC, Yugoslavia, June 24 (Reuters) - Serbia's reformist government, winning strong Western support for its pro-market economic policies, says living standards have surged since they ousted former President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
But such boasts ring hollow for Radmilo Spasojevic, who like many others lost his job last year in the restructuring of crisis-hit carmaker Zastava, once a thriving industrial giant in old socialist Yugoslavia and its dominant republic Serbia.
``I became unemployed after 23 years and two months. I was declared redundant,'' Spasojevic said.
He scoffed at the government's claim that living standards had jumped 50 percent since it took office early last year.
``Maybe it did for them,'' the 46-year-old father of two said bitterly. ``Life has not become better.''
Spasojevic is not alone in Kragujevac, a dilapidated industrial town of around 180,000 people in central Serbia which in better times was known locally as the Detroit of Yugoslavia and whose decline in the 1990s mirrored that of the country.
Serbia's young, Western-educated reformers have launched an ambitious drive to revive an economy virtually bankrupt after a decade of warfare, mismanagement and sanctions under Milosevic, now standing trial at the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague.
They have won crucial backing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United States, whose ambassador to Belgrade has described them as the best economic team in the region.
Official statistics say the average monthly salary has trebled to 140 euros ($132.80) -- still a fraction of Western wages -- since Milosevic was toppled in a peaceful ``revolution'' on October 5, 2000, and old people now get pensions on time.
But a visit to Kragujevac makes clear the government faces an uphill task in bringing back better times for many ordinary Serbs who enjoyed relative prosperity until the 1980s but sank into poverty during Milosevic's rule.
RED CROSS HELPS THOUSANDS
The Red Cross branch in Kragujevac, which assists 18,000 people every month, says more people are now asking for help and it is appealing to international donors for assistance.
Daily living costs here and elsewhere in Serbia jumped after the authorities removed price controls on goods such as milk, bread and heating -- offsetting any salary rises for many people.
Thousands of Serbian workers face unemployment as socialist-era corporate dinosaurs either close down or radically restructure in a bid to survive and attract the foreign investors the economy desperately needs to recover.
Opinion polls show most people still believe they are either worse off or have seen no improvement, even though a growing minority says their situation is better than a year ago.
``Life has not become much easier for the people at all,'' said Robert Hauser, senior emergency coordinator in Belgrade of the United Nations food aid agency, the World Food Programme.
Asked whether living standards had improved, he said:
``The government says yes. If you look at supplies in shops you would say yes. If you look into the pockets from which the money has to be pulled out to pay for all of that, I would say -- not yet.''
In Kragujevac, Spasojevic said he took a cash offer of 100 euros ($97) for each year he worked for Zastava -- a fifth of his monthly salary twenty years ago -- because he had to pay accumulated electricity bills of 800 euros.
Now supporting his unemployed wife and two children with whatever odd jobs he can find, he is struggling to cope. ``My monthly electricity bills amount to 45 euros. How am I supposed to pay for this without running into debt again?''
But few people here or anywhere in Serbia want a return to the Milosevic era.
``We were completely destroyed during his time,'' said 79-year-old Todor Todorovic, a retired lawyer. ``The situation is definitely better than it was. People should be realistic in their expectations.''
YUGOSLAV DECLINE UNIQUE IN EUROPE
Old socialist Yugoslavia was relatively prosperous in eastern and central Europe during the Cold War, partly due to Western credits it received for standing up to the Soviet Union and an open-door policy that allowed tourism to thrive.
But this was reversed in the 1990s when the federation collapsed in bloodshed at the same time as other ex-communist countries introduced market reforms to catch up with the West.
Mired in poverty, many Serbs were forced to turn to the grey economy, selling smuggled cigarettes and petrol on street corners. Mafia-style crime flourished, enriching a few.
Serbian Finance Minister Bozidar Djelic, a 37-year-old educated at Harvard in the United States, said gross domestic product plunged 60 percent during those years.
``One can find a few African countries that have lost the same proportion of resources in such a short time, but something of the sort has never happened to a European country,'' he said.
``Also, it should be stressed that no country has entered the process of transition with a third of its population under the poverty line,'' he said on the government's official Web site.
The reformers received a major boost in May when the IMF approved a three-year $829 million loan, saying it was impressed by what Yugoslavia had achieved in stabilising the economy.
``The authorities moved with impressive speed to implement key structural reforms,'' it said, forecasting economic growth of four percent this year after a 5.5 percent rise in 2001.
Djelic later the same month outlined plans to boost per capita GDP by almost 30 percent to $1,800 in three years' time, catching up with neighbouring Romania and Bulgaria by 2005, but still well below the levels Yugoslavia once enjoyed.
The IMF cautioned that daunting challenges lie ahead, such as restructuring the ``decapitalised and overstaffed'' enterprise sector, which includes groups like Zastava, maker of the compact no-frills Yugo car.
Kragujevac Mayor Vlatko Rajkovic suggested many of those who had now lost their jobs at Zastava had increasingly been left with nothing to do as car output plunged in the last decade.
It was better to come clean and tell them there was no work and help them find new employment.
``Many were attending work only to register. After a while they stopped going there because nobody called them,'' he said.

Waffentragende Esel/Der Kampf gegen den Schmuggel im Kosovo

Von Michael Martens

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - 22.06.2002

PRIZREN, im Juni. Lägen die Ortschaft Verbnice und ihre Umgebung nicht im Kosovo, hätten ihre Bewohner wohl ein passables Auskommen. Sie könnten wählen, ob sie durch Zimmervermietung, Kutschfahrten in die pittoreske Umgebung oder bei der Kurverwaltung ihr Brot verdienen wollen. Doch weil Verbnice (serbisch Vrbnica) nahe der Grenze zwischen dem Kosovo und Albanien liegt, etwa 15 Kilometer südwestlich der Bezirkshauptstadt Prizren, stellen sich derlei Fragen nicht. Auf den zweiten Blick ist die Landschaft um Verbnice auch eher martialisch als malerisch. Direkt an der Grenze zu Albanien liegt ein Außenlager des deutschen Kontingents der internationalen Friedenstruppe (Kfor), dessen etwa 150 Soldaten den Auftrag haben, illegale Grenzübertritte in ihrem Abschnitt zu verhindern und Schmuggel zu unterbinden. Auf den Hügelketten links und rechts des Lagers befinden sich noch Reste der im Frühjahr 1999 zerbombten Stellungen der serbischen Artillerie, die von dort aus die Einfallstraße ins Kosovo sichern sollte.

Südlich des deutschen Lagers, wo sich die Bergkette der Sar-Planina als kosovarischer Keil zwischen mazedonisches und albanisches Territorium schiebt, haben etwa 850 türkische Kfor-Soldaten den Auftrag, die Grenzen zu sichern und die Schmuggelrouten durch das unwegsame Berggelände zu kontrollieren. Daß sie gerade in dieser abgelegenen Gegend stationiert sind, hat seinen Grund. Der Ort Kukes auf albanischer Seite und die Region Tetovo, wo die Kämpfe zwischen der albanischen "Nationalen Befreiungsarmee" (UÇK) in Mazedonien und der mazedonischen Armee im vergangenen Jahr ihren Ausgang nahmen, liegen in kaum 50 Kilometer Luftlinie Entfernung von einander westlich und östlich der Berge. Die Kämpfer der mazedonischen UÇK nutzten die Berge der Sar-Planina als Rückzugsgebiet und erhielten über die durch das Gebirge verlaufenden Schmuggelpfade Nachschub an Waffen und Munition aus dem Kosovo.

Fast täglich seien im vergangenen Jahr Schmuggler gefaßt worden, berichten deutsche Militärs in ihrem kosovarischen Hauptstandort Prizren, der zweitgrößten Stadt im Kosovo. Des öfteren habe man abgerichtete Esel abgefangen, die in Albanien auf den Weg gebracht werden und dann selbständig ihren Weg zu einem Hof oder einer Futterstelle im Kosovo finden, wo man sich ihrer Fracht annimmt. Während der Kämpfe in Mazedonien seien auf diese Weise Mörsergranaten, Panzerfäuste und Handfeuerwaffen für die mazedonische UÇK über die Grenzen gebracht worden.

Doch sowohl bei der Kfor als auch bei der Polizei der Übergangsverwaltung der Vereinten Nationen (Unmik) in Prishtina gibt man zu, daß sich vor allem die kleinen Fische in den Netzen verfangen, nicht die großen. Die professionellen Schmuggelbanden arbeiten, was Ausrüstung und Ausbildungsstand betrifft, auf gleicher Höhe mit den Ermittlern. Daß beispielsweise ihre Nachtsichtgeräte mindestens so gut sind wie die der Bundeswehr, wissen die deutschen Soldaten seit einem Zufallsfund vor einiger Zeit. In dem unwegsamen Gelände an der albanischen Grenze können die Kfor-Soldaten den Schmugglern auch deshalb selten folgen, weil viele Gebiete entlang des Grenzstreifens noch nicht als minenfrei gelten. Doch meist stoßen die Kfor-Patrouillen gar nicht erst auf professionelle Schleichhändler, denn die haben in jeden Dorf der Gegend ihre Zuträger. Daran ändern auch die durch ein Abkommen zwischen der Kfor und der albanischen Regierung ermöglichten regelmäßigen Patrouillen der Schutztruppe auf albanischen Gebiet wenig.

Immerhin gibt es seit März dieses Jahres eine Bestimmung des Unmik-Chefs Michael Steiner, die verdeckte Maßnahmen von Ermittlern der Unmik-Polizei - wie Telefonüberwachungen oder Videoaufzeichnungen - rechtlich absichert. Die Bewohner des Kosovos könnten nicht erwarten, daß die Europäer großes Interesse an Investitionen in ihrer Region zeigen, bevor das Kosovo nicht aufhöre, ein Exporteur von Verbrechen nach Europa zu sein, gab Steiner unlängst zu Protokoll. Doch wie andere Fachleute warnt er davor, das Kosovo als Stätte einer die europäische Stabilität bedrohenden Großkriminalität darzustellen. Er bezeichnet den Kampf gegen Korruption und die organisierte Kriminalität als das "populärste Politikfeld" der Unmik. Beobachter bestätigen ihn in dieser Einschätzung.

Doch auch wenn über Korruption und organisiertes Verbrechen neuerdings in den kosovarischen Zeitungen berichtet wird, bleibt die Angst der Gesellschaft vor öffentlichen und halböffentlichen Aussagen zu diesem Thema. Zudem könne die Unterstützung der Bevölkerung für den Kampf der Unmik gegen Korruption und die organisierte Kriminalität abebben, wenn dieser nicht bald sichtbare Ergebnisse zeige, warnt Steiner. Zwar gibt es laut Aussage des Deutschen Stefan Feller, seit März dieses Jahres Chef der Unmik-Polizei im Kosovo, Zeugenschutzprogramme, über die notfalls bedrohte Personen auch ins Ausland verbracht werden können, doch trauten sich dennoch wichtige Zeugen oft nicht, in heiklen Fällen auszusagen. Die kosovo-albanischen Spitzenpolitiker haben sich indes beeilt, der Unmik Unterstützung in ihrem Vorgehen gegen Korruption und die organisierte Kriminalität zuzusagen - ob aus innerer Überzeugung oder aus taktischen Erwägungen vor den Kommunalwahlen im Oktober, bleibt dahingestellt. Hashim Thaçi, der Führer der aus der kosovoalbanischen UÇK hervorgegangenen Demokratischen Partei, der zweitstärksten Kraft im Kosovo-Parlament in Prishtina, habe ihm gesagt, er unterstütze ein juristisches Vorgehen gegen alle, gegen die Beweise vorlägen, unabhängig von ihrer Stellung oder Parteizugehörigkeit, berichtet Steiner.

This Europe: Welcome to Serbia

Independent - 24 June 2002

By Raymond Whitaker in Pristina

"Welcome to Serbia," says the text message that travellers receive on their mobile phones when they fly into Kosovo's only airport. If it bemuses the international peace-keepers and UN officials who run the Balkan province, it infuriates the Albanians who had to be rescued from Serbia's control.
The message comes from the aptly-named Mobtel company, a prime example of the crony capitalism that flourished under Slobodan Milosevic. When the Serbs ran Kosovo, it was the only network. Mobtel survived, patchily, during 78 days of Nato bombing in 1999.
Three years on, Mobtel is still going and is still used by most of Kosovo's Albanians, even though they now have a choice. They could use the network built by the French firm Alcatel but many say it is more expensive and gives poorer coverage.
Mobtel was founded by the flamboyant Bogoljub Karic, who became a close associate of Mr Milosevic and one of the richest men in Yugoslavia. He is under investigation for his alleged help in siphoning the Milosevic clan's funds abroad but he is still making deals, including acquiring the rights to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Some of the money from theircalls may still go into Mr Karic's pocket, but Kosovo Albanians are taking a pragmatic attitude. Convenience and cost have won out, at the price of receiving a text message that concludes: "We wish you pleasant stay in Serbia!"

Sovereignty Debate With U.S. Limits U.N. Support for Bosnia Force

The New York Times - June 22, 2002

By SERGE SCHMEMANN

UNITED NATIONS, June 21 - The Security Council, locked in a dispute with the United States over the legal liability of American troops overseas, agreed today to extend the mandate of the international force in Bosnia for only nine more days.
The new deadline, June 30, is also the last day before the new International Criminal Court comes into being. The Bush administration and conservative Republicans in Congress are adamantly opposed to the court, which they perceive as an infringement on American sovereignty, and have pressed for explicit guarantees that American military personnel abroad will not be subject to it.
The Council normally extends the mission every six months, but the standoff prevented a six-month extension. Diplomats said various proposals were under discussion to resolve the dispute.
The United States has demanded that the Council pass a resolution explicitly exempting American peacekeeping forces from international prosecution. More immediately, the United States has demanded a clause to that effect in the resolution extending the mandate of the force in Bosnia.
The other members of the Security Council, led in this case by France and Britain, have been just as adamant in refusing to issue such an exemption. They contend that the treaty establishing the court offers ample protection for peacekeeping forces and that they are unwilling to dilute the spirit of a court, which the European Union regards as a major breakthrough in the global rule of law.
Earlier this week, the United States warned that it would not take part in peacekeeping missions unless it had its way. Only about 700 Americans are directly involved in United Nations peacekeeping forces now. But the NATO forces in Kosovo and Bosnia, which include about 8,000 Americans, function with the endorsement of the Security Council.
The Bosnia vote was the first test of the American resolve. Though a Security Council mandate is not necessary for the existence of the force, which is controlled by NATO, some other participants - notably Germany - agreed to take part only with official United Nations support.