13 November 2003 Morning Edition

Kosovo News

· Kosovan protesters call for independence (dpa)
· Protest rally held against arrest of former KLA officers (Tanjug)
· Problem in state cannot be resolved by renouncing part of state, Covic (Tanjug)
· 100,000 Kosovo inhabitants register for Serbian presidential election (Xinhua)

Regional News

· Belgrade accuses Hague tribunal of ``disrespect'' (Reuters)
· Presidential Candidate Hopeful for Serbia (AP)

World News

· Iraq suicide bomb kills 17 Italians, eight Iraqis at military base (AFP)
· Pick the UN's best for a wider Iraq role (IHT)

Kosovan protesters call for independence

Pristina (dpa) - An estimated 2,000 protesters gathered in the Kosovan capital on Wednesday calling for the international community to grant independence to Kosovo, according to reports.

The peaceful protest also urged the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to leave the country. Since the end of the Balkan war in 1999, the country has been a U.N.-run protectorate, with its final status yet to be decided.

The mission has performed a range of essential administrative functions and services in Kosovo. These cover such areas as health and education, banking and finance, post and telecommunications, and law and order.

``UNMIK, thank you, you helped us enough, go home'', read one banner visible at the protest. Pro-NATO banners were also carried.

The protestors also called for the international authorities in Kosovo to end their cooperation with Serbia. Various groups within Kosovo have been demanding payment of war reparations by Serbia.

The protest appears to have been co-ordinated by a number of organisations. Two small nationalist parties, LPK and LKCK, the students' union of Pristina university, and a number of groupings of war veterans and invalids are said to have been involved.

Protest rally held against arrest of former KLA officers

PRISTINA, Nov 12 (Tanjug) - About 1,000 people rallied outside the National Theatre in Pristina on Wednesday, protesting against the UNMIK policy in Kosovo-Metohija and arrest of former KLA officers.

The protests were organized by the Union of Students, the People's Movement of Kosovo party and three associations of former KLA members.

Problem in state cannot be resolved by renouncing part of state, Covic

BELGRADE, Nov 12 (Tanjug) - Kosovo and Metohija Coordination Center chief Nebojsa Covic asked on Wednesday, explaining his recent statement that "there have been attempts to make deals" with Kosovo and Metohija, whether "someone thinks that the problem in a state can be resolved by renouncing a part of it."
"Then one day you come to that the state has become the Belgrade pashalic," Covic pointed out at a news conference of his Democratic Alternative. Reiterating the position that no deals will be made for entering the European Union according to the principle - give Kosovo and Metohija in exchange for entering the EU.

100,000 Kosovo inhabitants register for Serbian presidential election

BELGRADE, Nov 12, 2003 (Xinhua) -- A total of 94,454 Kosovo inhabitants have registered for the Serbian presidential election, the Beta news agency reported Wednesday.

The registered inhabitants in UN-administered Kosovo will vote in the coming election, which is scheduled for Nov. 16. There are 241 voting sites in the province, Beta reported, citing official statistics form Kosovo.

The Nov. 16 election is the third for Serbia to elect a president of the Republic. The previous two failed due to the turnout didn't reach 50 percent as required by the law. Eight candidates will run for the coming election.

Kosovo is a province of Serbia. It was placed under the UN Interim administration in the summer of 1999, following 11 weeks of NATO bombing. About 2 million people live in the province before the war, with most being Kosovo Albanians.

Belgrade accuses Hague tribunal of ``disrespect''

BELGRADE, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Serbia and Montenegro on Wednesday accused the United Nations war crimes court of showing it disrespect by refusing to release, pending trial, suspects who have surrendered voluntarily.

Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said The Hague tribunal had rejected most of Belgrade's requests to release suspects pending trial even though the ruling reformers had guaranteed they would not go into hiding.

``We consider this to be a gesture of disrespect to the government,'' he said, speaking at a workshop on domestic war crimes trials organized by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

``This has contributed to considerable mistrust,'' he said.
Svilanovic said former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic as well as late Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and his successor Zoran Zivkovic had offered personal guarantees to the tribunal.

The reformers who ousted Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 had hoped that such guarantees would encourage indictees to give themselves up to a court which many Serbs see as biased.

Milutinovic, accused of atrocities in Kosovo in 1999, surrendered to the U.N. tribunal after his five-year term as head of state expired last December, joining his former boss Slobodan Milosevic who was extradited two years ago.

Chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte last month said relations between the tribunal and Serbia were difficult and heavily politicized. Svilanovic said the government was ``often completely falsely'' accused of failing to cooperate.

The OSCE said in its report on local war crimes trials the authorities must do more to fully meet international standards.

The body promoting human rights and democracy welcomed a new law setting up a war crimes prosecutor but noted failure so far to try senior officials as well as lack of witness protection.

Presidential Candidate Hopeful for Serbia

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) The front-runner in this week's Serbian presidential elections pledged Wednesday to cooperate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal and put an end to the ghosts of the Slobodan Milosevic era.

``If I become the president, I would absolutely remove the remnants of Milosevic's regime,'' former dissident Dragoljub Micunovic told The Associated Press in an interview at his campaign headquarters.

Micunovic held his final election rally in Belgrade Wednesday.

Serbia has been without a president since Milan Milutinovic, a Milosevic ally, stepped down in January and surrendered to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Several other Milosevic proteges, however, remain influential in Serbia.

Milosevic is being tried by the tribunal for his alleged complicity in atrocities committed in the Balkan wars over the last decade as president of Serbia and later Yugoslavia, Serbia-Montenegro's predecessor.

Micunovic, 73, is a veteran politician who has often served as mediator between feuding factions within the Serbian reformist bloc that ousted Milosevic. His main rival at the polls Sunday is Tomislav Nikolic, an ultra nationalist ally of Milosevic.
``I believe I can win,'' Micunovic said. ``Serbia has a clear choice: democracy and reforms, or the restoration of the old regime.''

Pre-election polls had Micunovic as a clear favorite Sunday with 56 percent of those surveyed supporting him and 28 percent backing Nikolic. Candidates from three minor parties are also running.

Micunovic said he would urge cooperation with The Hague tribunal, which is seeking more than two dozen Serb war crimes suspects still at large.

Among those suspected of hiding out in Serbia is Gen. Ratko Mladic, who served Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader indicted in 1995 for genocide in neighboring Bosnia and who is still believed to be in hiding there.

``Every crime has to be punished,'' Micunovic said. ``That's the only way to reconcile these regions.''

The government has been faced with dwindling support since ousting Milosevic in 2000. It also has been been under pressure from nationalists and Milosevic supporters to move up elections from the end of 2004.
At Wednesday's rally, sources in Serbia's Cabinet told the AP that the government planned to announce early parliamentary elections for December or January.

Two presidential elections in Serbia, the pivotal republic in Serbia-Montenegro, failed last fall because turnout was below the 50 percent minimum required by law.
Polls indicate Sunday's election could again founder because of boycott calls by the opposition and widespread voter apathy. Political instability, slow reforms and reports of corruption among top government officials three years after the ouster of Milosevic have soured voter sentiment.

The assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic early this year, apparently by underworld figures opposed to a crackdown on crime, has further shaken confidence in democracy.

The Strategic Marketing polling agency said that turnout could be as low as 45 percent. But it also said that about 23 percent of the electorate has not decided whether to vote. The margin of error was about 3 percent.

Micunovic said he was optimistic.

``This time, people want to elect their president to stop the paralysis of the government and the parliament,'' he said. ``It is a crucial time for Serbia.''

Iraq suicide bomb kills 17 Italians, eight Iraqis at military base

By Nawfal Hashem
NASIRIYAH, Iraq, Nov 12 (AFP) - A massive suicide bomb killed 17 Italians and eight Iraqis, and left dozens wounded at an Italian base in southern Iraq Wednesday, in the worst single attack on the US-led coalition.

"We have four soldiers, two civilians and 11 carabinieri killed," Italian spokesman Gianfranco Scalas said just outside the bombed headquarters in this town, 380 kilometers (230 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

The coalition death toll exceeded the 16 US dead in a November 2 missile strike on a Chinook military transport helicopter.

The attack, marking the worst casualties suffered by Italy's military since World War II, was also the first major strike on the US-led coalition outside the Sunni Muslim heartlands that spread north and west from the capital.

In Rome, Italian Defence Minister Antonio Martino confirmed the Italian and Iraqi dead and said another 20 Italians and 59 Iraqis were wounded.

A spokesperson for the multinational force in Iraq said 21 Italians were wounded in the attack.

An Iraqi police officer at the scene told AFP two suicide bombers drove a booby-trapped tanker lorry into an Italian police base at 10:50 am (0750 GMT).

"One of them opened fire on the guards at the entrance to one of the three Italian army posts in Nasiriyah while the other drove the vehicle," he said.
"The explosion went off at the entrance, destroying 70 percent of the three-storey building."

A thick pall of smoke rose into the sky above the riverside building, which was largely destroyed. Dozens of vehicles, some civilian and others belonging to the Italian force, were completely burnt.

As night fell, Italian forces were still blocking access to the area as they combed it with torch lights in search of survivors in the rubble as well as human remains and possible clues.

Loud screams and moaning emanated from the entrance of the central General Hospital, as the wounded awaited treatment in hallways and as families searched for lost loved ones
.
Marina Catena, political counsellor at the Italian embassy in Baghdad, said the base belonged to the 300-strong Multi Specialised Unit (MSU) of the carabinieri set up three years ago and which had already served in Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Commanded by Colonel Georg di Pauli, it occupied twin bases on either side of the Euphrates River, while 1,700 Italian soldiers are housed in another camp outside Nasiriyah.

"This attack really surprised us," Catena said. "The contingent had received no threat.

"On the contrary, last week we received a threat against the Baghdad embassy and we went down to Nasiriyah and stayed with the carabinieri for several days as a security measure."

The attack prompted calls from the opposition in Rome for the 2,400 Italians in Iraq to be brought home but, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed they would stay.
"No intimidation will change our desire to help this country to rebuild and form a government, in security and freedom," he said.

Berlusconi voiced his deep sadness at "the lives cut short by terrorism during a humanitarian and freedom operation to help the Iraqi people and defend stability and security in the Middle East.

"It was perhaps inevitable that the terrorists would target our much-loved soldiers," he said.

Just last month, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was believed to have issued a threat against the United States and Italy.

Spain, Portugal and Poland also vowed to keep their 6,000 troops in Iraq as part of the US-led coalition that has been ruling Iraq since a spring invasion that ousted president Saddam Hussein on April 9.

In Washington, US President George W. Bush paid tribute to the dead Italians.

"We appreciate their sacrifices ... I appreciate the steadfast leadership of Prime Minister Berlusconi, who refuses to yield in the face of terror," Bush said at an award ceremony for NATO chief George Roberston.
After the massive US military force of 130,000 troops in Iraq, and Britain's 9,900 soldiers, Italy has the third-largest coalition presence in the country.

Pick the UN's best for a wider Iraq role

Charles Wolf Jr. IHT

Postwar rebuilding

SANTA MONICA, California Depending on whom you talk to, the United Nations is either an obstacle to more effective security and reconstruction efforts in Iraq, or an opportunity to advance precisely these goals.

Adherents of the view that the United Nations is an obstacle cite its propensity for dilatory political wrangling, semantic hairsplitting, and diplomatic horse-trading - all much in evidence in the two months required for the United States to obtain Security Council approval on Oct. 16 of an artfully-worded resolution endorsing an accelerated process of security, reconstruction, and movement toward a sovereign Iraqi state.

Like other UN endeavors, this one involved U.S. negotiations not only with the four other veto-wielding permanent Security Council members, but also with the 10 rotating members who, in turn, engaged in discussions with others among the remaining 176 members of the General Assembly.

Adherents of the view that the United Nations provides a significant and valuable opportunity present a very different perspective. They argue that the Security Council process is essential as both inducement and political cover if several countries are to be politically enabled to provide military and paramilitary forces and other assistance in Iraq. Some of these countries - including India, South Korea, Bangladesh and perhaps Russia and Indonesia - disagreed with the coalition's original decision to invade Iraq in March, and thus would need the endorsement of a Security Council resolution to change course now. So, the argument goes, the Security Council process is an opportunity to obtain the participation and assistance that the coalition seeks.

In the U.S. policy community, protagonists of the obstacle view are concentrated in the Pentagon, while adherents to the opportunity view populate the State Department.

In any event, there may be a way to resolve this dilemma - a way that can add muscle to the Security Council resolution. This alternative lies in directly expanding the role of a select few specialized UN agencies to pursue in Iraq the humanitarian and reconstruction activities in which they are competent and experienced. This approach not only complements the UN resolution of Oct. 16 but also constitutes a more effective means of inducing other countries to provide military and paramilitary forces to strengthen security in Iraq.

The UN family consists of nearly two dozen specialized agencies, some of which have highly creditable track records for providing effective as well as efficient services, despite the fact that others among the UN agencies are cumbersome, cost-ineffective bureaucracies. The high-performance agencies include the World Health Organization, the Food and Agricultural Organization, UN International Children's Emergency Fund, UN Development Program, UN Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommunications Union.

Now, suppose the Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraq's Governing Council, together with such other financially able governments as those of Japan, Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, perhaps South Korea, China, and others, proposed to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, to augment significantly the core budgets of these agencies - say, by 20 percent - to support resumption and expansion of their reconstruction efforts in Iraq. This would bolster children's vaccination and nutrition programs, technical assistance in agriculture and water supply, rehabilitation and repair of electricity and telecommunication systems, and training of telecom technicians.

The annual budgets of these six UN agencies amount to about $2.6 billion. So, shared among the financially able donors, the annual costs of the proposed 20 percent increased UN effort would be about $500 million - whose U.S. share would fit within, rather than add to, the $18.3 billion for Iraq's reconstruction which the Bush administration has obtained from the Congress.

In light of the unanimous and permissive Resolution 1511, it is likely that the secretary general would be inclined to accept this proposal, both because it would advance reconstruction in Iraq, and also would ease the UN's budgetary woes - which Annan frequently bemoans, both inside and outside UN corridors. In the wake of the Aug. 19 bombing of the UN compound in Baghdad, Annan's acceptance would no doubt be conditional on assurance of enhanced security for UN personnel

Anticipation of such a substantial expansion of the UN presence in Iraq would constitute a more powerful de facto UN mandate than does Resolution 1511 alone, thereby facilitating provision by certain key countries of forces to enhance security on the ground.

Acceptance of the proposal would, of course, also carry with it retention by the United Nations of its authority and responsibility to assure that the expanded role of the selected UN agencies was exercised in full conformity with established UN humanitarian and nation-building missions.

Thus, the expanded UN activities would palpably reinforce the case for additional forces to enhance security for the conduct of these activities.

The result would be a compelling synergy: Expansion of the UN role in Iraq's reconstruction would encourage contributions of forces to enhance security in Iraq, and the improved security would contribute to a more effective UN role in Iraq's reconstruction.

The writer is a senior economic adviser and corporate fellow in international economics at RAND, and a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution.