29 October 2003 Morning Edition

Kosovo News

· U.N., NATO Arrest Five in Balkan Crimes (AP)
· Belgrade asks UNMIK to investigate Ceku (Beta)
· Kosovo Trust Agency continues illegal privatization (Serbian Government)
· NATO Secretary-General to Visit Bush (AP)
· U.S. Representative Christopher H. Smith (R-Nj) Holds Briefing (AP)

Regional News

· Schroeder on key Balkans visit (BBC)
· Serbian minister protests at "unacceptable" war crimes indictment of deputy (AFP)
· Women Still Victims of Trafficking in the Balkans (SE. Times)

U.N., NATO Arrest Five in Balkan Crimes

By FISNIK ABRASHI

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) U.N. police and NATO-led peacekeepers arrested five former ethnic Albanian rebels for alleged war crimes in Kosovo, officials said Tuesday.

The five were arrested Monday in the town of Kacanik, 36 miles south of Pristina, said Chris Thompson, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo.

They have been charged by a local U.N.-run court with the illegal detention, torture and killing of four fellow ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with Serb authorities during Belgrade's 1998-1999 crackdown on Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, local media said. They are also charged with torturing a fifth victim who survived.

All five were low-ranking members of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, which battled Serb forces during the war. One is a member of Kosovo's police service, media said.

The arrest of the five ethnic Albanians in Kosovo was the second time a U.N.-run court in the province moved against the former rebels and their alleged involvement in war crimes committed in the province.

Earlier this year, a court in Pristina convicted and sentenced four former rebels to prison terms ranging from five to 17 years for ordering the killing, illegal arrest and torture of fellow ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with the Serbian regime of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

The United Nations and NATO have administered Kosovo since June 1999, following an alliance bombing campaign that ended the crackdown of Serb forces on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.

Belgrade asks UNMIK to investigate Ceku (Beta)

BELGRADE -- Tuesday – Belgrade has called on the United Nations to launch an urgent investigation against former rebel leader Agim Ceku, accusing him of command responsibility for the murder and kidnapping of Serbs and other non-Albanians following the arrival of international peacekeepers to the province.

Vladimir Bozovic, a lawyer in Belgrade’s Coordination Centre for Kosovo, confirmed that the Centre had issued a request with the judicial body of the United Nations mission in Kosovo.

Ceku is currently in charge of the Kosovo Protection Corps, a civil defence organisation created by the UN from the disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army. He was arrested last week in Slovenia on a warrant issued in Belgrade on charges including genocide. He was later released after UN mission chief Harri Holkeri intervened.

Kosovo Trust Agency continues illegal privatization

Serbian Government

Belgrade, Oct 28, 2003 - The Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA) has resumed illegal privatization of socially-owned companies in Kosovo-Metohija by announcing the launch of a third tender to sell local companies, said Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija economic development and reconstruction department head Milena Vasic.

The decision to resume sell-off activities in the province came in response to pressure from ethnic Albanian officials in Kosovo-Metohija's interim institutions, the Kosovo media and Albanian lobbies abroad, Vasic told a press conference.

According to Vasic, KTA said it will launch a third tender after it reviews the current privatization decrees and procedures, as well as the two previous tenders.

KTA managing board will ask for UN immunity from prosecution by international courts, said Vasic, noting that the move reflects KTA's concerns and confirms the stand that the issue here is illegal sale of Serbia's property.

The Coordinating Centre will press ahead with efforts to prevent illegal sales of socially-owned assets in the province, Vasic went on to say, stressing that the Centre will also challenge the first provincial tender in a court.

NATO Secretary-General to Visit Bush

WASHINGTON (AP) NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson is paying President Bush a visit next month to discuss Iraq, Afghanistan and peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Robertson's White House meeting and lunch with Bush on Nov. 12 marks his final U.S. visit as secretary- general of NATO, the White House said Tuesday.

Bush and Robertson also were to plan for the 2004 NATO summit, being held in Istanbul, Turkey.

``NATO remains central to America's security, to our ties with Europe and to our common efforts to support peace and freedom in Europe and beyond,'' Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said in a statement. ``Under Lord Robertson's leadership, NATO has embarked on a major transformation aimed at addressing the security challenges of the 21st century.''

U.S. Representative Christopher H. Smith (R-Nj) Holds Briefing

U.S. Representative Christopher H. Smith (R-Nj) Holds Briefing: OSCE Police-Related Activities

(AP) On top of that, we also have a code of conduct that you're informed about. You're expected to understand it and you also sign forms indicating that you have understood it and accept the consequences and the responsibility.

So -- now is that foolproof? No. Are there people being people? Will we have things happen in the future? Possibly. But we're doing everything that we can do to eliminate this.

I think a lot of questions like yours are based on some of the things that happened in the Bosnia mission.

I was in Kosovo for a year, which came later. And I know from my own experience, when I was in the training portion before I went to Kosovo, that they were very keen about talking about human trafficking and don't do it -- that these places that we know about are under constant surveillance. You will be photographed. If you're caught doing something like that, at the very least, you're going home. You may even be prosecuted.

So from the time that Richard was running Bosnia to the time I went to Kosovo, there had already been an evolution or an improvement on how this was addressed. Again, foolproof? No. I don't think anything is, but I think people certainly are aware of this situation and everybody is trying to do the best they can.

But as Richard mentioned earlier, I think a lot of you might be confusing these Bosnia missions and Kosovo missions with what we're anticipating will take place in Central Asia and the Caucasuses.

We might be looking at hiring somebody in their late 50s, early 60s who was maybe a forensic chemist or somebody that worked in latent fingerprint parts of this job.

They might go to a country alone. It's not going to be 500 cops getting off an airplane and looking for a good time. It's a little different outlook on how we're going to manage these issues.

So hopefully, I think, just that aspect alone will probably allay a lot of your concerns that, you know, the Vikings aren't going to arrive in Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan and just tear the town apart. And again, we're certainly attuned to the problem of -- and we're going to keep an eye on these people.
I think everybody in these missions is very alert to the situation. And as certain establishments become identified as being involved in this, you know, they get on the list and people do watch them. Again, foolproof? No.

And what can we do from a police aspect? Well, I know a lot of meetings get held, a lot of conferences get held and a lot of grand resolutions get passed and we float a lot of beautiful ideas. But then it boils down to does that police department have the capacity to do all the wonderful things that we expect them to do? And I'll be very honest with you, no.

They'll tell you: ``I don't have the training. I don't know how to talk to a sex-crime victim. I never had that kind of training. How do you do that? Oh, you want me to build a case without a witness? I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to conduct an undercover investigation. I don't know how to do electronic surveillance. I don't know how to do controlled buys.''

These are all things that they're asking for us to provide them. We want to help them out.

Schroeder on key Balkans visit

By Ray Furlong

BBC correspondent in Berlin

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder leaves on Wednesday for a groundbreaking two-day tour of the Balkans.

It will be the first visit by a German chancellor to Zagreb and Belgrade since the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Germany played a prominent role in supporting Croatian independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, and also supported Nato military action against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo crisis in 1999.

But the main focus of the trip, which also takes in Slovakia, will be economic.

Chancellor Schroeder visits Slovakia first and he will provide moral support to a government pushing through unpopular economic reforms ahead of EU membership next year - and also visit a Volkswagen factory.

This will set the tone for the more important part of the journey: visits to Belgrade and Zagreb.

Latent animosity
His three-way talks with the presidents of Serbia and Montenegro will focus very much on economic co-operation, as both these countries need all the help they can get right now.

But there is also a symbolic element: overcoming the animosity felt towards Germany for supporting Croatian and Bosnian independence in the early 1990s, and backing Nato military action during the Kosovo crisis.

On Thursday, in Croatia, Mr Schroeder will praise the progress made since a pro-European government took over from nationalists four years ago but he will also warn that more needs to be done before negotiations on EU membership can begin.

In both Belgrade and Zagreb, he will call for more co-operation in sending war crimes suspects to the international tribunal in The Hague.

Serbian minister protests at "unacceptable" war crimes indictment of deputy

BELGRADE, Oct 28 (AFP) - Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said in remarks to be published on Wednesday that the indictment of his deputy, Sreten Lukic, for war crimes by the United Nations court in The Hague was "unacceptable" and would have a demoralising effect on Serbian police.

If Lukic, a police general, was transferred to The Hague it would leave Serbia "without a real army and police", Mihajlovic warned in an interview with the Vecernje Novosti daily newspaper.

He said police in Serbia would stop wanting to work to protect the country if Lukic was handed over to the tribunal.

Some 4,000 uniformed officers protested in Belgrade on Monday against Lukic's indictment.

"I think they (the charges) are unacceptable. Officials from The Hague said there would not be mass indictments but these last ones make me doubt their intentions," Mihajlovic said.

The minister said he would resign rather than be involved in the transfer of his deputy to the tribunal.

Police General Lukic was one of four generals, including former Yugoslav army chief Nebojsa Pavkovic, whose indictments were announced on Monday by the UN tribunal.

They are accused of taking part in "a campaign of terror and violence against Kosovo Albanians" during the 1998-99 war in the southern Serbian province.
An estimated 800,000 Kosovo Albanians were driven from their homes during the war, when rebels from the province's ethnic Albanian majority fought for independence from Serbia.

Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is on trial in The Hague for his role in the 1990s wars in Kosovo, Bosnia and Coratia.

Women Still Victims of Trafficking in the Balkans

By Dimitris Agrafiotis for Southeast European Times in Athens - 28/10/03

Human trafficking and prostitution remain among the most difficult problems facing Southeastern Europe. Balkan countries function as source, transit and destination countries, and while governments are taking steps, progress has been slow.

Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and to a lesser extent Serbia-Montenegro export young women to more developed countries. Greece is a destination for prostitutes and a crossroad to other European countries. A common procedure is to enter Greece and then to sail to Italy. Bulgaria appears to be the most serious source of concern among Western officials. Bulgarian victims of organized crime are trafficked to at least 15 countries, especially within the EU.

One of the Bulgarian cities where there is an extended network of women trafficking is Sandanski. Greek traffickers visit the city and "buy" women for less than 2,000 euros, recalling the transatlantic slavery of previous centuries.

According to human rights associations, Bulgaria has not managed to reduce its role either as a source or transit country for human trafficking. France, the Netherlands and Belgium have warned that failure to address the issue will affect Sofia's EU accession procedure.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarian government has established two institutions to fight trafficking: the School's Liaison Programme of the National Police and the Interagency Task Force on Trafficking.

The sex trade in the Balkans is part of a worldwide problem. US President George W. Bush recently called attention to the dangers of international trafficking in humans. "Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than a century after slavery was officially ended in its strongholds, the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time," he said.