5 November 2003 Afternoon Edition

Kosovo News

· US envoy outlines Kosovo strategy (AP)
· Standards before status, U.S. undersecretary says (dpa)
· US State Department in Kosovo talks (B92)
· Serbia launches investigation against Albanian rebel leaders (dpa)

Regional News

· Karadzic, Mladic ``protected by powerful networks'', says prosecutor (dpa)
· Elections in December? (Glas Javnosti)
· Belgrade's state news agency Tanjug marks 60th anniversary (dpa)

US envoy outlines Kosovo strategy

By MISHA SAVIC

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ Resolving Kosovo's problems would allow countries in the region to move closer to their goals of joining NATO and the European Union, a top US diplomat suggested Wednesday.

``Getting Kosovo right is key to having the Balkans integrated into European and Euro-Atlantic structures,'' said U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, alluding to the two multinational organizations.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO air attacks forced Serbian-led troops to end their crackdown on independence-minded ethnic Albanians. Belgrade continues to claim the province but has no say over its affairs, and Kosovo's final status remains open.

Before any final status is decided, ``there must be rule of law and security for all ethnic groups in Kosovo,'' Grossman stressed, reflecting the joint stance of the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy.

``We cannot address Kosovo's future status until the standards are met,'' Grossman said, flanked by ambassadors of the six countries that form the so-called Contact Group dealing with the Balkan hotspot.

Since the end of the war, Kosovo's dwindling Serb community and minorities associated with them have often been targeted by extremist ethnic Albanians.

A safe return of more than displaced 200,000 Serbs and others is also among the standards that must be fulfilled, Grossman said.

``If the standards are met, we would be prepared ... to determine Kosovo's future status,'' he added, but declined to say if it would be outright independence as demanded by Kosovo Albanians.

Last month, top Serbian and Kosovo Albanian delegations met directly for the first time since the 1999 violence, in Vienna, Austria. Grossman urged more such contacts, for the sake of ``our vision of Europe as a whole, free and at peace.''

Reflecting a shift of U.S. priorities to the world's other trouble spots, Grossman said efforts to establish normality in the region are meant to ``hasten the day when we will be able to leave behind a stable, peaceful, multiethnic democracies'' in the Balkans.
Grossman spoke after meeting Serbian government leaders. A government statement expressed general support of Grossman's views, but also asked for a time frame for determining the future of Kosovo _ independence or something else.
Grossman, however, declined to give a deadline. ``There will be evaluation of Kosovo's progress ... in mid-2005, and sooner, if sufficient progress is made,'' he said. ``If the progress is insufficient, we'd be prepared to set another date.''

Standards before status, U.S. undersecretary says

Belgrade (dpa) - The status of Kosovo would be discussed after it achieves standards set by the international community, the United States undersecretary of state, Mark Grossman, said Wednesday in Belgrade.

Speaking to reporters before going on to Pristina, Grossman said that the date for evaluation of the standards in place was mid-2005.

``There can be no talk of status before the standards are met,'' local media quoted him as saying. Grossman had previously met the Serbian deputy premier in charge of Kosovo, Nebojsa Covic, and other officials.

Under international pressure, Belgrade and Pristina tentatively opened a direct dialogue last month in Vienna and have set up working groups to discuss issues such as persons still missing since the 1999 war, the return of refugees, transport and energy.

Kosovo has been a virtual United Nations and NATO protectorate since 1999, but is still plagued by ethnic violence. Following the Vienna meeting, the U.N. administrator in the province, Harri Holkeri, also said that standards come before status.

Ethnic Albanians, who make up the vast majority in Kosovo, previously refused to discuss anything but independence, while Belgrade insisted on retaining sovereignty over it, as well as on security for Serbs and returning refugees.

Between March and June 1999, NATO bombed Yugoslavia until the former president Slobodan Milosevic ordered security forces - accused of terrorizing the Albanian population - out of Kosovo and accepted a NATO-led peacekeeping presence.

US State Department in Kosovo talks (B92)

BELGRADE -- Wednesday – Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic met US State Department representative Marc Grossman in Belgrade last night.

The talks focused on the situation in Kosovo and UNMIK’s “standards before status” policy.

A statement issued after the meeting said the Zivkovic and Grossman had agreed on the necessity to precisely define standards and the deadlines by which they must be reached.

The head of Belgrade’s Kosovo Coordination Centre, Nebojsa Covic, also attended the meeting.

He told media later that the standards must be measurable so that agreement would be reached in evaluating them.

Serbia launches investigation against Albanian rebel leaders

Belgrade (dpa) - The Serbian special war crimes prosecutor launched an investigation Wednesday against four top former Kosovo Albanian military leaders accused by Belgrade authorities of genocide and terrorism, the justice ministry said.
Newly appointed war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic opened investigations against Hashim Thaci, Agim Ceku, Ramush Haradinaj and Daut Haradinaj - all prominent in the 1999 ethnic Albanian rebellion.
Thaci and Ramush Haradinaj became Kosovo's top politicians after the demilitarisation of Kosovo Liberation army (UCK) in 1999, leading their parties into province's provisional assembly.
Ceku, a former Croat General, was appointed a chief of internationally sponsored disaster relief organization called the Kosovo Protection Corps (TMK).
Fourth on the list, Ramush's brother Daut Haradinaj, is serving a five-year sentence in Kosovo for war crimes against his fellow Albanians during the 1999 conflict.
Under Serbian law, the prosecutor is authorised to conduct proceedings against the members of UCK for crimes committed in Kosovo.
But Kosovo's United Nations administration claims to have an exclusive right to handle justice-related issues in the province, run by U.N. mission and NATO-led peacekeepers since the end of war in June 1999.
Serbian government Wednesday also released a report - a so-called ``White Book'' - on Albanian terrorism in Kosovo, which high-ranking officials in Belgrade claim shows the ``genesis of terrorism-related problems'' in Serbia's breakaway province.
The Serbian government named 156 former ethnic Albanian rebels, including almost all the prominent commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), blaming them for ``running drug smuggling networks and human trafficking in Balkans''.
The list of names includes both Thaci and Ceku - who were described as organizers of criminal groups controlling more than 20 per cent of Kosovo drug traffic.
Thaqi and Ceku were also blamed for ``orchestrating the campaign of threats and intimidations against Serbs in Kosovo, aimed towards the ethnic cleansing of province''.
Both Thaqi and Ceku were recently detained by the police in Hungary and Slovenia, based on international arrest warrants issued by Belgrade authorities. They were released at the behest of Kosovo's United Nations administration.
Kosovo has been a virtual United Nations and NATO protectorate since 1999, but is still plagued by ethnic violence.
Between March and June 1999, NATO bombed Yugoslavia until the former president Slobodan Milosevic ordered security forces - accused of terrorizing the Albanian population - out of Kosovo, and accepted a NATO-led peacekeeping presence.

Karadzic, Mladic ``protected by powerful networks'', says prosecutor

Vienna (dpa) - The U.N. War Crimes Tribunal's two most wanted men, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, are protected by ``powerful networks'', said chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte during a visit to Austria, newspapers reported Wednesday.

Quoted by the newspapers Kurier and Presse on Wednesday, del Ponte condemned the Serbian part of Bosnia-Herzegovina as ``a haven for war criminals''.

She also accused Belgrade of obstructionism in the current trial of Serbian ex-president Slobodan Milosevic by withholding necessary documents.

Del Ponte said former Bosnian-Serb president Karadzic and his military commander-in-chief Mladic were protected not only by state institutions, but the military, police, secret services, and clergy.

There was no other explanation why Karadzic and Mladic had not yet been arrested and extradited to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, said del Ponte in remarks to the permanent council of the OSCE on Tuesday, quoted by the two newspapers.

Del Ponte charged that war criminals were ``seen by the greater part of the population as heroes''. There was still aggressive nationalism in the successor states of the former Yugoslavia. ``The wounds of the past have not yet healed,'' she said.

Also, there was no ``truth and reconciliation process'' which would have been so important for the future. All attempts to set up a commission of this kind had failed.
On the contrary, said del Ponte, children were taught nationalism at school, and ``the seed of future hatred is sown.''

Del Ponte said that from now on she would concentrate on investigations against ``a small number of people who have committed major crimes''. In all there would be a further 13 indictments concerning all ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia.
After that there would be no more new cases. ``Small and medium crimes'' should be taken over by courts at national level, said del Ponte.

Elections in December? (Glas Javnosti)

BELGRADE -- Wednesday – Early parliamentary elections will be called this Friday to be held on either December 21 or December 27, Glas Javnosti writes today.

The Belgrade daily quotes cabinet sources as saying that the election will go ahead in December despite claims by Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic that the date has not yet been set.

If elections are called this Friday, the latest date they can be held by law is January 7.

Glas javnosti also claims that a number of the governing coalition parties will join forces under the leadership of the Democratic Party. The new coalition would included the Civil Alliance of Serbia, the Sandzak Democratic Party and the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians.

Information published by another Belgrade daily, Blic, contradicts the Glas Javnosti report, quoting sources within the DOS coalition as saying that the prevalent opinion is that March would be best time for elections.

Belgrade's state news agency Tanjug marks 60th anniversary

Belgrade (dpa) - The state news agency of Serbia and Montenegro, Tanjug, celebrated its 60th anniversary on Wednesday.

Started by Joseph Broz Tito's partisans during World War II, the news agency had high-ranking communist party officials as its first editors.

At its peak, in the former socialist Yugoslavia, the agency had around 1,000 employees and 50 foreign correspondents, but after the country fell apart in violence in the early 1990's, it served as the Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic's mouthpiece.

Since Milosevic's fall three years ago, Tanjug, now with 130 journalists and 170 other employees, embarked on a transition process aimed at creating a fully professional and profitable news agency.

Tanjug and Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa have been cooperating for nearly four decades.