30 October 2003 Morning Edition

Kosovo News

· Kosovo coal miner crushed and killed by pit machinery (dpa)
· Progress in Kosovo not encouraging, U.N. official says (dpa)
· Covic urges donors to back Kosovo repatriation (Beta)
· Special prosecutor will prosecute Thaçi, Haradinaj and Ceku - Batic (Tanjug)

Regional News

· Schroeder pledges EU support, urges Belgrade on reforms (dpa)
· Germany's Schroeder backs reforms on Balkan trip (AFP)
· Schroeder in Belgrade (Beta)
· NATO still backbone of European defense: Schroeder (Xinhua)
· U.S. at odds with The Hague on Serbian generals (Reuters)
· Serb cabinet defies Hague tribunal's arrest orders (Guardian)
· Bosnia wants to join UN peacekeepers (F.T)

Other News

· U.N. report finds women especially hard-hit in Congo's brutal five-year civil war (AP)

Kosovo coal miner crushed and killed by pit machinery

Pristina (dpa) - A coal miner has died after he was crushed by heavy machinery at a coalmine near Pristina, United Nations police in Kosovo said Wednesday.
The 40-year-old Kosovo Albanian was found dead Tuesday in a pit at the Bardhi Madh coal mine, about 15 kilometers west of Pristina.
``He was run over by a heavy machinery and crushed'', Derek Chappell, the U.N. police spokesperson told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The coal mine, which employs about 1,000 workers, provides coal for Kosovo's two power plants, situated near the mine.

Progress in Kosovo not encouraging, U.N. official says

New York (dpa) - The transformation of Kosovo into a democratic society under the rule of law has been slow, the United Nations special envoy in that territory said Wednesday.
``This is not a rosy bed at all,'' said Harri Holkeri, a former Finnish prime minister who now heads the U.N. mission in Kosovo and is the special envoy of Secretary-General Kofi Annan there.

Holkeri said in an interview before he was to appear before the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to report on his work that the local economy is making progress, but unemployment rates are high and a privatization programme instituted by the U.N. has met difficulties.

Asked what the 15-nation council should do, Holkeri said, ``I will ask for support of the international community, for without that support, one can hardly see any progress on any issues.''

Holkeri said the security situation and rule of law are ``vulnerable'' to multi-ethnic tensions in Kosovo, which is dominated by Albanians who form 90 per cent of the total population. The remainder is made up of Serbs, Roma gypsies and other minorities.
Despite ethnic tensions, security has improved and crime and murder rates have decreased, he said.

Holkeri said what unifies the Kosovars is the desire for independence from Serbia. But the government in Belgrade is opposed to Kosovo becoming an independent state and the Serbian Parliament in September voted unanimously to declare Kosovo an ``indivisible'' part of Serbia.

But Holkeri dismissed any moves by Belgrade against Kosovo independence as ``irrelevant,'' saying that only the U.N. Security Council has the final say in the future status of that territory.

``The decision will be made by the council, no one else,'' he said. He described U.N. efforts to democratize Kosovo as an ``uphill battle, but not a mission impossible.''
``You see progress here and there, but Kosovo is not any kind of heaven on earth overnight,'' he said.

He said the future status of Kosovo would be determined by progress made in implementing benchmarks to transform it into a democratic society under rule of law and with good governance.

Holkeri said his mission is being downsized as progress is scored in establishing a police force in Kosovo. There are now fewer than 4,000 international police and close to 6,000 Kosovo police officers. NATO, which is responsible for security, is also downsizing, he said.

In order to ease tensions between Belgrade and Pristina, the Kosovo capital, dialogue began this month in Vienna between representatives of both sides, Holkeri said. But he pointed out that the talks have been downgraded to working groups focusing on the return of refugees, missing persons, energy, transportation and communication.

Covic urges donors to back Kosovo repatriation (Beta)

BELGRADE -- Wednesday – The head of Belgrade’s Kosovo Coordination Centre, Nebojsa Covic, today called for international support for projects aimed at facilitating the repatriation of refugees from Kosovo.

At a briefing for donors in Belgrade today, Deputy Prime Minister Covic warned that Serbs were still fleeing the province.

Today’s conference was organized by the Coordination Centre, together with the UNHCR mission in Belgrade and the local International Red Cross office.

Covic asked for support for housing, education, business and health projects for Serbs and other refugees from Kosovo currently accommodated in other parts of Serbia and Montenegro.

Mass repatriation in 2004 will only happen if property and other assets seized from refugees are returned and the conditions for normal living established in Serbia’s southern province, said Covic.

The ambassadors of about thirty foreign countries attended the conference, together with the head of the OSCE mission in Serbia-Montenegro and local officials.

Special prosecutor will prosecute Thaçi, Haradinaj and Ceku - Batic

BELGRADE, Oct 29 (Tanjug) - Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic said on Wednesday that he would propose to the special prosecutor for war crimes to press charges against leaders of former Liberation Army of Kosovo (OVK) Hashim Thaçi and Ramus Haradinaj, and present commander of the Kosovo protection corps Agim Ceku.
I shall propose that Thaçi, Haradinaj and Ceku stand trial in Serbia for terrorism and genocide, said Batic.

Schroeder pledges EU support, urges Belgrade on reforms

Belgrade (dpa) - Gerhard Schroeder, the first German Chancellor to visit Belgrade since 1985, on Wednesday pledged Berlin's support to Serbia and Montenegro on their way to Europe, but also warned that it must shore up stability and economy though ``energetic'' reforms.

``Germany will wholeheartedly support Serbia and Montenegro in stabilization and association talks (with the European Union),'' Schroeder said after meeting President Svetozar Marovic.

Marovic declared his country was ``definitely on the road of a European democracy'' and called for more German investments, but Schroeder said that promotion of business in the Balkan country hinges on political stability and investment protection.

With bilateral trade worth 1.18 billion euros (1.39 billion dollars), Germany was Serbia's second-largest trade partner in 2002, after Russia.

Schroeder was to meet Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic and attend the founding meeting of a council promoting business cooperation between Germany and Serbia-Montenegro later Wednesday.

On Schroeder's agenda in Belgrade was also the issue of Kosovo, nominally Serbia's province that has been under a virtual United Nations and NATO protectorate since mid-1999, it was announced earlier in Berlin.

The majority Albanian population wants independence for Kosovo, while Belgrade wants to retain sovereignty over it. Some 3,300 German troops were assigned to the peacekeeping mission.

In Belgrade, it was also expected that Schroeder would want to discuss Serbia's troublesome cooperation with The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Officials of The Hague tribunal have been pressing for the arrest and extradition of all suspects, as well as better access to witnesses and documents relevant for ongoing trials, but Belgrade remained reluctant to start cooperating fully.

Schroeder arrived in Belgrade after a stopover in Slovakia Wednesday for talks with Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda and President Rudulf Schuster.

On Thursday he is due in the Croatian capital Zagreb on the first visit of a German chancellor to Zagreb since Croatia proclaimed independence from the former Yugoslavia more than 12 years ago.

He is to meet his counterpart Ivica Racan, also Social Democrat, and President Stipe Mesic. The sides are expected to discuss bilateral relations, situation in the Balkans, international security and Iraq, as well as reforms of the United Nations.

According to the Croatian sources, economy would also be on the agenda, as Germany, with 1.7 billion dollars, is the second biggest foreign investor in the Croatian economy after Austria.

In interviews to Croatia media ahead of his visit, Schroeder announced that Germany would continue to support Croatia on its path towards the European Union.

EU membership, for which Zagreb applied this February in Athens, is Croatia's most important foreign policy goal and the support in the country is overwhelming.

Germany's Schroeder backs reforms on Balkan trip

BELGRADE, Oct 29 (AFP) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday promised to support Serbia and Montenegro's integration with Europe, as he became the first German leader to visit Belgrade for almost 20 years.

But he stressed that the authorities here had to work hard to create a "stable environment" for foreign investment after the wars, isolation and economic turmoil of the former regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

"On a political level relations between Serbia-Montenegro and Germany are without major problems and we will do everything to keep it that way," Schroeder told a press conference after meeting Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic.

"On the economic side Serbia-Montenegro is a very important market for Germany with its 10 million inhabitants, but we will have to do more in this field than we have in the past.

"It is important that the government continues with its success in creating a stable environment for investment."
Schroeder held talks with Marovic immediately after his plane touched down in Belgrade. He is expected to meet Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic later Wednesday before heading to neighbouring Croatia on Thursday.

Marovic told the German leader that Belgrade was determined to create the "conditions for German investment", underlining the importance of Germany as Serbia-Montenegro's biggest commercial partner.

He also said that after a decade of nationalist rule under Milosevic in the 1990s, the state formerly known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) had "decisively turned toward European integration."

The FRY was dissolved earlier this year but the challenges for the new state remain the same, namely the painful transition to an open economy, cooperation with the United Nations war crimes tribunal and the future of the UN-administered province of Kosovo.

Schroeder earlier told the Politika daily that Belgrade had a special "responsibility" to preserve the fragile stability of the Balkans, a region still wracked by ethnic hatred from the wars of the 1990s.

Germany has 5,000 troops serving in Bosnia, the breakaway southern Serbian province of Kosovo, and Macedonia.

The European Union last year forced the Montenegrin government to delay its plans to declare independence from Serbia until 2006 at the earliest, fearing that a split here would inflame other separatist movements in the Balkans.

Schroeder is also expected to remind leaders in Belgrade and the Croatian capital Zagreb that the road to Europe will be blocked if they do not give their full cooperation to the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague.

It is a routine message from visiting European dignitaries, but it will have added significance amid the ongoing furore in Belgrade about four fresh war crimes indictments against Serbian police and army generals issued last week.

Croatia is also under strong pressure to hand over retired general Ante Gotovina, a war crimes suspect wanted in connection with a massacre of ethnic Serbs, who is regarded by many Croats as a hero of the 1991-95 war.

Schroeder in Belgrade (Beta)

BELGRADE -- Wednesday – Gerhard Schroeder arrived in Belgrade late this afternoon, becoming the first German Chancellor to visit Belgrade in eighteen years.

Schroeder’s brief visit is aimed at furthering bilateral relations and discussing the situation in the Western Balkans.
After separate meetings with federal President Svetozar Marovic and Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, Schroeder was scheduled to address the founding meeting of the Council for Economic Cooperation between Serbia-Montenegro and Germany this evening.

He was expected to conclude his visit with a dinner in the Federation Palace with senior officials and opposition leaders.

NATO still backbone of European defense: Schroeder

PRAGUE, Oct 29, 2003 (Xinhua) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is still the backbone of European defense, but the Europeans must have an independent defense capability, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Wednesday.

At a joint news conference after meeting his Slovak counterpart Mikulas Dzurinda in the Slovak capital of Bratislava, Schroeder said Europe's interventions should be made within the framework of NATO and be those the Western alliance is not ready to make.
Nevertheless, NATO is indubitably the backbone of regional defense, said the chancellor, who was on a one-day visit to Slovakia.

On the draft European Union constitution, Schroeder admitted he had differences with Dzurinda over the issue. The European Commission should improve the "efficiency of voting" and the number of commissioners who have voting rights must be restricted to 15 even after the EU's enlargement, he said.

Meanwhile, he expressed understanding for the new members' desire to have their own seats on the commission.

Schroeder and Dzurinda said they hoped their differences could be ironed out at the EU intergovernmental conference in December.

After Slovakia, Schroeder will also visit Serbia and Montenegro and Croatia.

U.S. at odds with The Hague on Serbian generals

By Nedim Dervisbegovic

SARAJEVO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday Serbia may not have to hand four indicted generals over to The Hague tribunal if it delivers top fugitive General Ratko Mladic, contradicting the U.N. court's own prosecutors.
U.S. war crimes envoy Pierre-Richard Prosper said ``there was no deal made'' to this effect as Serbia has claimed, but he made clear it was not ``impossible,'' as U.N. war crimes chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte insisted in Kosovo last week.
``What was understood (was that) if they catch Mladic then it creates a whole new environment that allows for transferring cases back home,'' Prosper told reporters in Sarajevo after a meeting with Bosnia's peace overseer Paddy Ashdown.

``This case and other cases fall within that category,'' he added, referring to the four new indictments disclosed by the Hague last week, against two army and two police generals who held command positions during the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict.

Del Ponte has dismissed any idea of the indicted generals being tried in Serbia in return for Mladic, saying their alleged crimes and seniority ruled out trying the cases in local courts.

Prosper, however, suggested such a tradeoff was not totally ruled out, saying: ``That's something they (Belgrade) will have to work on with the Hague tribunal.''

The softer line may reflect a U.S. desire for Mladic's speedy arrest, paving the way for the Yugoslavia war crimes process to begin winding up and avoiding further internal strains delaying Serbia's lengthy postwar renaissance.

One such setback was the assassination of reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic last March, allegedly by conspirators opposing cooperation with The Hague and above all his handover of former Serbian nationalist strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Failure to catch Mladic and wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has greatly embarrassed the Hague Tribunal's international backers. Washington may threaten to sever 2004 aid to struggling reformist Serbia if Mladic is not delivered.

Mladic, who commanded the Bosnian Serb Army in the 1992-95 Bosnia war, is believed by The Hague to have been sheltered by sympathisers in the Yugoslav army and to be still at large inside Serbia.

He is wanted for genocide in the siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995.

The four new indictees are former army chief of staff Nebojsa Pavkovic, former corps commander Vladimir Lazarevic, former police chief Vlastimir Djordjevic and Serbia's current head of public security Sreten Lukic.

Serb cabinet defies Hague tribunal's arrest orders

Ian Traynor in Zagreb

The Guardian

The Serbian government yesterday refused to arrest four senior police and army officers wanted by the Hague tribunal on war crime charges, saying that doing so would turn the police and army against it.

"Serbia would be left without a real army and police if the generals go to the Hague," the interior minister, Dusan Mihajlovic, told the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti.
"Everything is at stake here."

Other government sources said it would be "political suicide" to arrest the four.

The four officers, whose indictments were published by the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, last week, include Mr Mihajlovic's deputy, Streten Lukic, who commanded Serbian police operations in Kosovo in the 1998-99 campaign, and the former chief of army staff General Nebojsa Pavkovic

Thousands of police officers demonstrated in Belgrade at the weekend in support of General Lukic.

Yesterday thousands of workers, organised by a trade union controlled by supporters of the former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic - who is on trial at the Hague - stepped up the pressure on Zoran Zivkovic's government by protesting on the streets of Belgrade.

Mr Zivkovic became prime minister in March, in succession to the assassinated Zoran Djindjic.

The government blames the assassination on Djindjic's determination to apprehend and extradite indicted war criminals.

It is afraid that it will be toppled if it bows now to the Hague's demands.

Bosnia wants to join UN peacekeepers

By ERIC JANSSON
Financial Times

Bosnian officials want to contribute troops to the new United Nations peacekeeping force in Liberia in what would be Bosnia's first foreign military mission since its own war ended eight years ago.
The proposal follows Serbia's offer to put troops under US or Nato command in Afghanistan. Both Bosnia and Serbia aim to win membership next year in Nato's club for non-members, the Partnership for Peace. Eric Jansson, Sarajevo

U.N. report finds women especially hard-hit in Congo's brutal five-year civil war

By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ Women in the Congo have suffered extensively during the country's five-year civil war, from massive rape and sexual violence that goes unpunished to the breakdown of family life, a U.N. adviser told a Security Council meeting Wednesday.

``The law of the gun has devastated the condition of women,'' said Amy Smythe, the adviser on gender issues to the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo.

The civil war in Congo officially ended this year with the creation of a power-sharing government that includes rebel leaders. The vast central African nation's north and east remain volatile, however, with deadly attacks and ethnic fighting.

The United States organized a Security Council meeting on women, peace and security to mark the third anniversary of a U.N. resolution that committed governments to include women at peace talks while protecting them from the abuses of war.

``It's important in terms of consciousness-raising to highlight this resolution and the things that can be done,'' said U.S. Ambassador John Negro Ponte. ``In modern warfare ... women and children are much more affected than they used to be.''

Smythe and other speakers cited some progress in sensitizing governments and U.N. peacekeepers to the plight of women caught up in conflict and the need to include them in postwar decision-making. But it was clear that much more needs to be done to implement the resolution.

In eastern Congo, for example, Smythe said data collected by the U.N. peacekeeping mission, other agencies and local communities showed that tens of thousands of women and girls, and possibly hundreds of thousands, were sexually assaulted during the civil war.

``The consequences for women throughout the Congo have been devastating, as they have suffered the most'' from the war, she said, citing the breakdown of all institutions starting with the family, widespread displacement, the inability to grow crops, ``massive rape and sexual violence and complete impunity for perpetrators of these heinous crimes.''
Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno said gender experts have been included not only in the U.N. mission in Congo but in peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, East Timor and Afghanistan _ and similar posts have been authorized for Liberia and Ivory Coast.

While these experts ``are playing an active role, putting gender issues at the center of peacekeeping,'' he said only 4 percent of U.N. civilian police are women ``and figures are equally low for the military.''

He urged member states that contribute police and soldiers to U.N. peacekeeping operations to provide more women. He also called for the inclusion in U.N. missions of women and men experienced in gender-based crimes ``to help us address the high rates of violence against women that are common in post-conflict situations.''

In Congo, Smythe said only three of the 69 U.N. police officers were women at a time when they were dealing with the victims of sexual violence.

``Victims, usually female, have repeatedly intimated that the sight of a male officer in uniform makes them relive the experience of the violation all over again,'' she said. ``Thus there is a serious need for women military and civilian police officers.''

On a positive note, Smythe said, her office helped sensitize the former combatants to the U.N. resolution, which was translated into the four major languages used in Congo.

Gender experts also promoted the inclusion of women delegates in peace negotiations _ though there were only 37 women alongside 516 men, and in Congo's current transition, only 7 percent of the representatives in government, parliament and institutions supporting democracy are women.