24 October 2003 UN-Holiday

Kosovo News

· Hague prosecutor says new indictments for Kosovo likely by end of 2004 (BBC)
· Kosovo rejects all Serbian arrest warrants (Beta)
· Austrian parliament votes to extend its peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (AP)
· No more indictments against Serbs for Kosovo war (SRNA)
· Nachkriegsberichterstattung (FAZ)

Regional News

· Kostunica criticises Hague policy (B92)
· Covic: “Should we be punished for the next 100 years?” (B92)
· Bosnian war crimes fugitive Mladic eludes Serbian police search (AFP)
· Serb war crimes suspect to surrender to The Hague (AP)
· Ex-Yugoslav officer wanted for Croatian war crimes transferred to UN court (AFP)
· Del Ponte demands better cooperation from Bosnian Serbs (dpa)

10/24/2003 04:11:59
Hague prosecutor says new indictments for Kosovo likely by end of 2004
BBC MONITORING INTERNATIONAL REPORTS via NewsEdge Corporation : Pristina, 23 October: The ICTY [Hague tribunal] chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said in Pristina on Thursday [23 October] that new indictments against members of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) [UCK in Albanian] could be expected at the end of next year.
Del Ponte, who recently told the UN Security Council and European Union ministers that investigations against two former KLA members had been launched on suspicion of committing crimes during the war in Kosovo, said today that she did not bring any new indictment against people in Kosovo suspected of war crimes.
During her one-day visit to Pristina, Del Ponte held talks with representatives of international peacekeepers (Kfor) [Kosovo Force] and UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo].
She said that witnesses were the biggest obstacle in investigations into war crimes in Kosovo, because they were afraid to turn themselves in, they were intimidated and did not feel safe. That's why, Del Ponte said, the ICTY was doing all it could to protect the witnesses.
She said the second big obstacle was access to necessary documents.
Del Ponte and UN civil administrator in Kosovo Harri Holkeri confirmed close cooperation between the Hague tribunal and the UNMIK.

Kosovo rejects all Serbian arrest warrants | 17:23 | Beta
PRISTINA -- Thursday – Parliament in Kosovo has adopted a decree declaring null and void all arrest warrants and court rulings issued by Serbian institutions against the province’s citizens.

The move comes after the arrest and later release of former rebel leader Agim Ceku, who was detained in Slovenia on an arrest warrant issued in Belgrade.

The decree, which was opposed by the parliament’s Serb deputies, demanded that all international institutions in Kosovo, including Interpol and Europol “refuse to recognise” warrants issued by the Serbian authorities against Kosovo citizens. Kosovo, it says, “comes under the jurisdiction of the United Nations and has its own democratic institutions”.

10/24/2003 04:10:02
Austrian parliament votes to extend its peacekeeping mission in Kosovo
VIENNA, AUSTRIA - AP World News via NewsEdge Corporation : Lawmakers have voted to continue Austria's participation in the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, a news agency reported Thursday.
A parliamentary committee voted unanimously overnight to approve a request by Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner to extend Austria's participation in the international mission.
The new commitment is to last through Oct. 31, 2004, the Austria Press Agency reported.
The vote did not require the approval of all lawmakers.
Austria has a contingent of about 560 infantry soldiers in the 21,000-strong NATO-led mission.
Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations and NATO peacekeepers since 1999. At that time, a U.S.-led air war put an end to attacks by Serb forces against the province's ethnic Albanian majority.
10/24/2003 04:09:33

No more indictments against Serbs for Kosovo war | 17:39 | SRNA
BELGRADE -- Thursday – The prosecution at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague said today it had finished issuing indictments against the Serbian armed forces for the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo.

Prosecution spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said that the indictments disclosed this week against four top police and army generals were the last that would be issued against members of the Serbian armed forces suspected of war crimes in the province.

“Now that these four indictments have been issued we no longer have any police officers or army members from Serbia linked to war crimes in Kosovo”, Hartmann told Radio Belgrade 202.

Hartmann accused Belgrade of openly refusing to arrest the four men, three of whom are known to be in Serbia, including incumbent public security chief Sreten Lukic.

Nachkriegsberichterstattung

Zum ersten Mal: Serbische und albanische Journalisten treffen einander im Kosovo

BELGRAD, 23. Oktober

Schon die Anreise der Gäste zeigte, daß es sich nicht um einen normalen Besuch handelte. Aus Belgrad kommend, mußten sie an der Verwaltungsgrenze zwischen Serbien und dem Kosovo das Fahrzeug wechseln; mit Belgrader Nummernschildern umherzureisen, empfiehlt sich dort seit Kriegende im Sommer 1999 nicht. Die Weiterreise in die kosovarische Hauptstadt Prishtina wurde daher von einem lokalen Reiseunternehmen aus dem Kosovo organisiert, dessen Fahrzeuge mit von der UN-Verwaltung der Provinz herausgegebenen Nummernschildern fahren.

In Prishtina trafen sich in dieser Woche erstmals seit dem Krieg - und in dieser Form überhaupt zum ersten Mal - albanische Journalisten aus dem Kosovo mit ihren serbischen Kollegen. Nicht zufällig fanden die Gespräche in zeitlicher Nähe zum "echten", dem "großen" Gipfel von Wien in der vergangenen Woche statt. Internationalem Druck folgend, hatten sich dort erstmals führende Politiker aus Belgrad und Prishtina an einen Tisch gesetzt und gezielt aneinander vorbeigeredet. Das geschah in Prishtina nicht. Weil Journalisten nicht um ihre Wiederwahl bangen müssen, verlief der serbisch-albanische Mediengipfel offener. "Hetzberichterstattung in den Medien - einst und jetzt" war das schwierige Auftaktthema der von der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung initiierten Gespräche, auf dem der kosovarische Journalistenverband bestanden hatte. Schließlich seien es die serbischen Medien gewesen, die im Regime von Slobodan Milosevic eine Schlüsselrolle spielten. Das hätten die Albaner des Kosovos nicht vergessen, erläuterte Naser Miftari, der Vorsitzende des kosovarischen Journalistenverbandes. Tatsächlich war die veröffentlichende Zunft auf serbischer Seite zu Teilen auch eine hetzende, die verzerrte und vor der politischen Wende vom Oktober 2000 gehorsam die staatlichen Lügen verbreitete. So sahen sich die aus Serbien angereisten Journalisten gleich zu Beginn der Gespräche mit harscher Kritik konfrontiert, darunter sogar mit dem absurden Vorwurf, noch heute überwiege die aus Milosevics Herrschaftszeiten bekannte Art der Berichterstattung in ihrem Land. Es wurde auch verlangt, die anwesenden Serben sollten sich entschuldigen für die nationalistischen Ausfälle, die noch vor wenigen Jahren in Serbien gedruckt und gesendet wurden.

Doch dazu kam es nicht. Die serbische Journalistendelegation fühlte sich für eine solche Geste nicht zuständig, denn ihre Mitglieder waren ausnahmslos erwiesene Milosevic-Gegner, die sich mit ihrer unerschrockenen Arbeit schon gegen dessen Semi-Diktatur gewandt hatten, als deren Zusammenbruch noch nicht absehbar war. Die Serben wollten nicht mehr über die Kriegsberichterstattung von einst, sondern über Mittel und Wege für eine bessere Nachkriegsberichterstattung diskutieren. Es ging ihnen um eine Professionalisierung der Art, in der man heute übereinander berichtet. Was Serben aus ihren eigenen Medien vom Kosovo und die dortigen Albaner über Serbien erfahren, ist nämlich jenseits der politischen Tagesberichterstattung nicht viel. Auch wenn es Ausnahmen gibt wie bei dem liberalen Belgrader Sender B92: Es berichten nur wenige serbische Journalisten aus eigener Anschauung über die Geschehnisse im Kosovo. Für die kosovarische Berichterstattung über serbische Ereignisse gilt das erst recht.

Wenn berichtet wird, kann mitunter schon die Wortwahl problematisch sein: Sie dürften das Kosovo nicht länger als "südserbische Provinz" bezeichnen, forderten die albanischen Journalisten von ihren Belgrader Kollegen. Dabei ist die Bezeichnung de jure nicht falsch: Formal gehört das Kosovo zu Serbien und Montenegro, dem Staat, der an die Stelle von Milosevics Jugoslawien trat. Doch tatsächlich ist das internationale Protektorat dem serbischen Einfluß längst entzogen und wird ihm in der alten Form auch nie wieder untergeordnet werden können. Das, so forderten die albanischen Journalisten, sei in Belgrad endlich auch sprachlich anzuerkennen.

Diese und andere Forderungen brachten die albanischen Journalisten während des öffentlichen Teils der Veranstaltung, als die Kameras und Mikrofone des kosovarischen Fernsehens noch eingeschaltet waren, ausschließlich in ihrer Muttersprache vor. Doch später, bei den privaten Essen, wurde wie selbstverständlich serbisch gesprochen. Alle Albaner im Kosovo, von der jüngsten Generation abgesehen, beherrschen das Serbische. Die meisten serbischen Journalisten hingegen können der Berichterstattung ihrer Kollegen schon deshalb nicht folgen, weil sie die albanische Sprache nicht verstehen. Die einseitige Sprachbarriere hat auch zur Folge, daß man unterschiedlich gut über die Arbeit der anderen informiert ist.

Höhepunkt der drei Tage dauernden Veranstaltung waren jedoch nicht die Gespräche der Journalisten untereinander, sondern die Interviews der serbischen Medienvertreter mit Hashim Thaçi und Ramush Haradinaj. Neben Präsident Rugova sind sie die wichtigsten politischen Führer der Provinz. Vor wenigen Jahren standen sie noch an der Spitze der "Befreiungsarmee Kosovo" (UÇK). Nicht zu Unrecht rechnen die ehemaligen Freischärlerführer es sich als politische Lebensleistung an, über die UÇK den Widerstand der Albaner gegen die serbischen Repressalien in gewalttätige Bahnen gebracht und so erst das Interesse der Staatengemeinschaft auf das Problem gelenkt zu haben. Erst die blutige Gegenwehr der UÇK habe schließlich das Eingreifen der Nato und dieses dann den Rückzug der serbischen Truppen aus dem Kosovo bewirkt, ist die offizielle und durchaus zutreffende Lesart der Anhänger von Thaçi und Haradinaj.

Daß Thaçi, der frühere Führer der UÇK, noch immer nicht vom Haager Kriegsverbrechertribunal angeklagt ist, gilt in Serbien schon als Beweis für die angebliche antiserbische Voreingenommenheit des internationalen Gerichts. Ob er, sollte eine Anklage kommen, nach Den Haag reisen werde, wurde Thaçi von den serbischen Interviewern denn auch prompt gefragt. Er antwortete darauf wie stets, wenn diese Frage an ihn gerichtet wird: daß es eine solche Anklage nicht geben werde. Thaçi gilt als wendiger und glatter Gesprächspartner, und auch die Serben konnten ihm keine neuen Einsichten entlocken. Anders sein ehemaliger Kampfgefährte Haradinaj. Als ihn die Journalistin Zeljka Jeftic von der Belgrader Zeitung "Balkan" fragte, ob er wohl den Mut habe, nach dem Interview mit den serbischen Journalisten öffentlich einen Kaffee zu trinken, oder ob er sich fürchte, in diesem Fall Wählerstimmen zu verlieren, erklärte Haradinaj sich sogar zu einem gemeinsamen Mittagessen bereit. Das ist angesichts der öffentlichen Meinung im Kosovo keine Selbstverständlichkeit. Hätte auch ein serbischer Politiker den Mut, sich mit kosovoalbanischen Journalisten in einem Café der Belgrader Innenstadt sehen zu lassen? Bis zum Beweis des Gegenteils darf das bezweifelt werden. Noch im November werden albanische Journalisten aus Prishtina Gelegenheit haben, das zu prüfen. Dann sind sie zu einer Gegenbesuch nach Belgrad eingeladen.

MICHAEL MARTENS

Kostunica criticises Hague policy | 11:08 | B92
BELGRADE -- Friday – Former Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica yesterday lashed out at the government’s handling of Hague Tribunal indictments, calling for a tougher approach to the Tribunal.

“The Hague Tribunal is dispensing selective justice and we should have taken a different, more aggressive approach, making it clear that we would cooperate, but not in such a way as to support the view that only one side was to blame for the war,” he told B92.

Asked whether he would protect the four senior army and police offers now indicted if he were in a position to do so, Kostunica said that he and his Democratic Party of Serbia had already urged such protection some years ago.

“I was being attacked over it as recently as six months ago when there was talk of some anti-Tribunal lobby.

“Who is the anti-Tribunal lobby now? I’m not in any pro-Tribunal lobby either, although I understand that there are people here who could virtually form a Friends of the Tribunal society.

“But I’m not in any anti-Tribunal lobby either,” he said.

Kostunica said that the policy he advocated was one which would protect the country financial and national interests in the case of charges brought in the International Court of Justice by Croatia and Bosnia.

“None of this has been done,” he added.

Covic: “Should we be punished for the next 100 years?” | 21:18 | B92
BELGRADE -- Thursday – The head of Belgrade’s Coordination Centre for Kosovo has complained of double standards after the release of former rebel leader Agim Ceku.

Ceku was arrested yesterday in Slovenia on an indictment issued in Belgrade. He was released today after the United Nations governor in Kosovo intervened, insisting the mission had sole jurisdiction over such matters.

“An Interpol indictment applies to some, but not others”, Nebojsa Covic claimed today. “Are we a state or are we not a state?” the deputy prime minister asked. “Are we relevant people or should we be punished for the next 100 years?”

Bosnian war crimes fugitive Mladic eludes Serbian police search
AFP English Wire via NewsEdge Corporation : by Katarina Subasic
BELGRADE, Oct 23 (AFP) - Serbian police launched a search for Bosnian Serb genocide suspect Ratko Mladic in response to an anonymous tip-off this week but failed to find him, Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic said on Thursday.
But in the clearest admission yet from a Serbian leader that Mladic -- the Bosnian Serb wartime military commander -- could be hiding in Serbia, as repeatedly alleged by United Nations war crimes prosecutors, Zivkovic said his arrest was a "priority" and the search would continue.
"The action showed that Mladic was not at the address we had been given," Zivkovic told reporters without giving details of Wednesday's operation or the nature of the information police had received.
The prime minister said the raid was "nothing new" and similar police operations had been carried out on a weekly basis in line with Belgrade's obligation to cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
"We have given ourselves a priority ... and this is Ratko Mladic. There is a continuous search for him and everyone in the world knows that," Zivkovic told a press conference.
Mladic is one of the top fugitives from the UN tribunal at The Hague, which has indicted him for genocide and other war crimes for his alleged part in atrocities committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.
Together with his former political boss, Radovan Karadzic, he is accused of genocide for allegedly ordering the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995, Europe's worst single atrocity since World War II.
Officials in Belgrade have until now dismissed allegations that Mladic is hiding in Serbia, saying he was probably in the mountainous east of Bosnia near the Serbian border.
Zivkovic's comments come four days after the UN tribunal issued four fresh indictments against Serbian generals for crimes committed during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo.
They also coincide with a visit to the region by chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, an outspoken critic of Belgrade's failure to arrest Mladic.
The new indictments, issued on Monday, infuriated the Serbian government.
Zivkovic initially said The Hague should not expect the generals to be handed over any time soon but on Thursday he promised Belgrade would continue to work with the tribunal.
"We are not questioning our cooperation with The Hague tribunal. We are not halting our cooperation," he said.
The four generals are accused of having taken part in "a campaign of terror and violence against Kosovo Albanians" in 1999. They include Deputy Interior Minister Sreten Lukic and former Yugoslav army chief Nebojsa Pavkovic.
Serbian police are planning a protest rally in Belgrade on Friday to show their support for Lukic.
The US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper, indicated on Monday that Belgrade might be allowed to try the four generals in local courts if Mladic were arrested.
But Del Ponte said the accused officers were too senior to be trusted to Serbian justice.
"From the level of criminal responsibility I don't think that it is possible that Belgrade will have this case back. But they will have many other cases," she told reporters in Pristina.
"It is possible that cases from low-level or mid-level perpetrators can be trasfered to Serbia."

10/24/2003 04:12:05
Serb war crimes suspect to surrender to The Hague
BELGRADE, SERBIA-MONTENEGRO - AP World News via NewsEdge Corporation : A former Yugoslav army officer wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for alleged atrocities during the war in Croatia will surrender to the court Thursday, his lawyer said.
Capt. Vladimir Kovacevic has been charged by the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for the 1991 shelling of the Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik.
Kovacevic, 43, faces charges of violating the laws or customs of war, including the murders of 43 civilians, cruel treatment and the destruction of cultural or religions landmarks.
``Kovacevic will be in The Hague today,'' said his lawyer, Borivoje Borovic.
Kovacevic, of Montenegrin ethnicity, was arrested on Sept. 26 by a special Serbian police unit in central Serbia.
Large sections of the medieval part of Dubrovnik were destroyed during the Yugoslav army's siege, which took place shortly after Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in July 1991, early in what was to become a decade of bloodshed that spread to Bosnia and Kosovo.
Kovacevic, also known as Rambo, was indicted in 2001 by the tribunal along with the commander of the Dubrovnik operations, Gen. Pavle Strugar, and navy Adm. Miodrag Jokic. Both voluntarily surrendered, and Jokic pleaded guilty in August.
About two dozen other Serbs and Montenegrins indicted by the U.N. court for alleged crimes during the Balkan wars in the 1990s remain at large.
Among them are the two most-wanted: former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his wartime commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic. Serbian authorities claim they are not in the country.

10/24/2003 04:10:24
Ex-Yugoslav officer wanted for Croatian war crimes transferred to UN court
AFP English Wire via NewsEdge Corporation : THE HAGUE, Oct 23 (AFP) - A former Yugoslav army officer indicted for alleged war crimes in Croatia was transferred to the UN court for the former Yugoslavia on Thursday, a court spokesman said.
"Vladimir Kovacevic has arrived and is being held in the detention centre of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)," spokesman Jim Landale told AFP.
The Serb authorities arrested Kovacevic, also known as Rambo, last month. He and three other officers --Pavle Strugar, Miodrag Jokic and Milan Zec-- were indicted for war crimes for their alleged role in attacks on the Croatian city of Dubrovnik in the first year of the 1991-1995 Balkans wars.
Prosecutors at the ICTY based in The Hague later dropped the case against Zec due to insufficient evidence.
Jokic, a retired vice admiral, pleaded guilty to six counts of war crimes on August 27 for his role in the siege of Dubrovnik.
The trial against Strugar, former commander of the Yugoslav navy, was scheduled to begin in October but after Jokic's guilty plea the court adjourned the start of the trial to a date yet to be fixed.
Kovacevic will appear in court next Monday to enter a plea to the charges against him.

10/24/2003 06:33:35
Del Ponte demands better cooperation from Bosnian Serbs
Sarajevo (dpa) - Bosnian Serb authorities continue to do nothing to help the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal to get closer to indicted Bosnian Serb war criminals eight years after the war in Bosnia, the Tribunal's Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said Friday in Sarajevo.
Del Ponte, who arrived late Thursday in Bosnia-Herzegovina, said one of her tasks while in Bosnia would be to warn the Bosnian Serb authorities that they should do much more in cooperating with The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
``Particularly in (the Bosnian Serb capital) Banja Luka we have a lot of problems. They are not cooperating in arrest of fugitives. Even access to documents or to witnesses is difficult for us (ICTY) in the Bosnian Serb entity,'' Del Ponte told reporters in Sarajevo.
She also said she would repeat her demand to Bosnian Serb authorities that the most wanted Bosnian Serb war criminal, former leader Radovan Karadzic, be apprehended soon.
The ICTY indicted Karadzic twice, charging him with war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanities and severe breaches of the Geneva Conventions, during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The ICTY was constantly working on arresting Karadzic and former army commander general Ratko Mladic, she said, adding she was ``frustrated, but still confident'' that Karadzic and Mladic would be eventually be in The Hague,'' said Del Ponte.
The Tribunal, she said, would not close its doors without having Karadzic and Mladic in trial there.
Del Ponte also said she had an idea where Karadzic could be. ``I have some good information, but I do not want to make it public now. Let me obtain the arrest of Karadzic and afterwards we will discover who was protecting him,'' she said.
Besides talks with international representatives in Sarajevo, Del Ponte is due to meet with the Bosnian Serb authorities in Banja Luka later in the day. dpa zl emc sc