28 October 2003 Morning Edition

Kosovo News

· Kosovo Serb farmers under fire (Beta)
· Kosovo on Security Council agenda this week (SRNA)
· U.N. Security Council on Kosovo on Oct. 30 (Beta)

Regional News

· Schroeder to Visit Serbia-Montenegro on Oct. 29 (SRNA)
· Seven ethnic Albanian high school students jump out windows after (AP)
· Serbian privatization exceeds expectations (F.T./B92)

The apple orchards are located near a village populated exclusively by Albanians.

Village leader Milutin Kovacevic told media that the group was fired on from several different directions, adding that it was pure luck that no one was killed.

The Serbs hid in a nearby forest until Danish KFOR troops came to their rescue and escorted them home.

Banje and the neighbouring Suvo Grlo are the only two villages in the Srbica municipality still inhabited by Serbs.

They are completely cut off from the surrounding region and subject to frequent attacks by their Albanian neighbours.

Kosovo on Security Council agenda this week (SRNA)
NEW YORK -- Monday – The UN Security Council has scheduled an open session on Kosovo for this Thursday.

On the agenda will be a review of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s report on UNMIK’s work and a verbal report by UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri.

Serbia-Montenegro’s ambassador to the UN, Dejan Sahovic, is also expected to speak at the session.

U.N. Security Council on Kosovo on Oct. 30

BELGRADE, Oct. 27, 2003 (BETA) - The U.N. Security Council will convene on Oct. 30, to discuss the situation in Kosovo, in the light of the quarterly report by Secretary General Kofi Annan.

In his regular quarterly report on UNMIK's activities to the Security Council, Annan condemned the violence against the minorities in Kosovo and called on the Belgrade and Pristina authorities to work together so as to improve every day life in the province.

In the report for the July 1 till Oct. 1 period, Annan commended the efforts of the Kosovo interim administration aimed at meeting the needs of the Kosovo population, but stressed that the security of the Serbian population was still very disturbing.

According to announcements from Belgrade, the Serbian vice premier and head of the Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija, Nebojsa Covic, is to attend the debate on Anna's report before the U.N. Security Council.

Schroeder to Visit Serbia-Montenegro on Oct. 29

BERLIN, Oct. 27, 2003 (BETA) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will be paying a visit to Belgrade on Oct. 29, making him the first German head of government to visit the country in 18 years.

Schroeder is also expected to attend the founding of a Serbian-German business cooperation council.

The trip is intended to show that despite the fact that international attention is currently focused on the Near and Middle East, Berlin has not lost interest in the Balkans nor does it consider the absence of armed conflict in the region as a portent of lasting peace.

Relations between Berlin and Belgrade have been improving ever since the regime of Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from power three years ago.

German officials have told Belgrade repeatedly that they believe Serbia-Montenegro cannot hope for EU membership without a stable and democratic government, while stressing that the future of Europe is a top priority issue.

The biggest problem for architects of German foreign policy has been Kosovo. Diplomatic circles in Berlin say that the U.N. could bring up the province's final status in 2006 if a referendum on Montenegro's status is held by then. Few people in Germany believe that Kosovo will ever again be a part of Serbia.

Furthermore, German politicians like to stress that matters such as national borders and sovereignty will lose importance once new countries and regions begin entering the EU. Meanwhile, German political analysts have termed as unrealistic Belgrade's ambition to join the EU before the decade is out.

Seven ethnic Albanian high school students jump out windows after brawl with Macedonian students

By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) _ Seven ethnic Albanian teenagers jumped out second-floor windows at a high school Monday after a brawl with Macedonia students sparked in part by the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
One girl was admitted to Skopje's main hospital with serious back injuries, said Kosta Matev, a hospital official. Six others were treated and released.
Police spokeswoman Mirjana Konteska confirmed the incident at the Arseni Jovkov High School, but refused to provide more details.
The high school has two shifts _ one in the morning for Macedonian students and one in the afternoon for ethnic Albanian students _ in order to accommodate the two languages.
Monday morning, as Ramadan and a dawn-to-dusk fast began, ethnic Albanian students came to school saying they would be too tired to attend afternoon classes after fasting all day.
Macedonian students refused to switch, witnesses said, and the two groups began a fight that developed into a brawl.
Lejla Mustafa, 15, said she and her friends leaped out of a second-floor window after Macedonian students and some Macedonian teachers burst in her classroom.
``They shouted insults, we got scared, and we jumped,'' she told Macedonian state-run TV.
Of Macedonia's 2 million people, ethnic Albanians comprise roughly a third _ most of whom are Muslims. During Ramadan, observant Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex during daylight hours.
Relations have been tense between the country's two main ethnic groups since an insurgency in 2001 threatened to break up the country. Ethnic Albanian rebels eventually agreed to disarm in exchange for broader rights and some self-rule for their community.
A state-funded Albanian-language university has opened in the northern part of the country to accommodate ethnic Albanians, but students of both ethnic groups attend the same high schools, often in separate Macedonian-language and Albanian-language classes.

Serbian privatization exceeds expectations (Financial Times/B92)
BELGRADE -- Monday – Serbia is set to beat its original target of one billion euros from state sell-offs this year, the Financial Times reports today.

The newspaper quotes Privatisation Minister Aleksandar Vlahovic as saying that receipts from the privatisation deals this year would reach 1.3 billion euros.

Most of the revenue comes from three deals, the paper reports: Serbia made 605 million euros two months ago by selling controlling stakes in its two largest cigarette-rolling plants to Philip Morris International and British-American Tobacco. And in September, Russian oil giant Lukoil bid 207 million euros to buy Beopetrol, Serbia’s second-largest retailer of oil products.

Vlahovic said he expected an additional 400 million euros from a series of smaller sales later this year.