6 January 2003 Morning Edition

Kosovo Stories

· Police try to find killers of three Rugova's party officials (Tanjug)
· Three shot dead in Kosovo revenge ambush (Reuters)
· Former ethnic Albanian guerilla commander shot dead in Kosovo (AFP)
· Former rebel commander and two others killed in Kosovo shooting (AP)
· Former Military Commander Assassinated in Kosovo (Balkan Times)
· Ivanovic says UNMIK wants to intimidate Kosovo Serbs (Tanjug)
· Kosovo Serb leader arrested and released (B92/Beta)
· Kosovo Serb group seeks Belgrade meeting (Beta)
· Kosovo budget up thirty per cent (Beta/Hina)
· Kosovo PM provocative, says Covic (Beta)
· Milutinovic says he is not responsible for war crimes in Kosovo (AFP)
· Serbia's former president says he won't resist arrest on war crimes charges (AP)

Regional News

Serbia

· Yugoslav police seize 44 kilos of heroin at Bulgarian border (AFP)

Bosnia

· Bosnia presents report on arms factory's illegal trade with Iraq (dpa)

Albania

· Italian priests' passports stolen in Albania (AFP)

Police try to find killers of three Rugova's party officials

PRISTINA, Jan 5 (Tanjug) - Police in Pristina said on Sunday that the killers of three ethnic Albanians, who had formerly been KLA members and were Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) officials until their death, had not been arrested yet.

One of the KLA commanders, Tahir Zemaj, his son Emif and their relative Hasan Zemaj were killed near the Druri complex in Pec late on Saturday. Police said that the victims' car had been ambushed and that the identity of the killer(s) was unknown, despite the fact that several witnesses had been taken in.

Three shot dead in Kosovo revenge ambush

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Three ethnic Albanian men were shot dead in western Kosovo on Saturday in what appeared to be the latest round of a feud between rival wings of the now disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army.

The killings occurred in the centre of Pec, Kosovo's second city. The scene was quickly sealed off by United Nations and local police, and a spokesman said the city was calm.

The attack was the gravest act of violence in several months in Kosovo, whose ethnic Albanian leaders are striving to assert the rule of law in order to win international backing for their drive to make the Serbian province an independent state.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations mission UNMIK since NATO military intervention in 1999 forced Serbia to withdraw its army from the province, ending an uprising by the ethnic Albanian majority.

U.N. police said the three were killed late on Saturday afternoon when two vehicles stopped another vehicle which then came under fire.

``I can confirm that three people were killed in Pec,'' said United Nations police spokesman Barry Fletcher.

Local sources in Pec told Reuters that one of the dead was Tahir Zemaj, a prosecution witness in a recent high profile trial of five members of the now disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) who were convicted of murdering four members of a rival armed group led by Zemaj.

They said the other two victims were Zemaj's son and his nephew.
Zemaj was a UCK commander in the guerrilla war against Serbian authorities in Kosovo in 1998-99 and was close to the Democratic League of Kosovo, the dominant party led by President Ibrahim Rugova.

A Rugova aide was assassinated a year ago and a provincial mayor close to Rugova was slain in October.

An UNMIK spokesmen for Pec region, Chuck Runnon, said: ``We have a witness and we are interviewing him, but we are not releasing details for now.''

``UNMIK police and the KPS (Kosovo Police Service) are now reinforcing the area not only in Pec but also in Decane, Istok, Klina and Djakovica (all in Western Kosovo) and are searching for suspects,'' he added

Former ethnic Albanian guerilla commander shot dead in Kosovo

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 4 (AFP) - A former ethnic Albanian guerrilla commander and two other persons were shot dead in Kosovo's western town of Pec on Saturday, a UN spokesman said.

"There was a drive-by shooting in Pec this afternoon. Two persons died on the scene and one died later at the hospital," a spokesman for the UN mission in Kosovo Christian Lindmeier said.

The incident was believed to be politically motivated, but there has been no official confirmation of this.

Police said no arrests had been made after the shooting. Lindmeier said one of the victims was Tahir Zemaj, who had fought with the ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

In the latter part of the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict Zemaj commanded the troops known as the Armed Forces of the Kosovo Republic (FARK), an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group and a rival of the KLA.

During the war with Belgrade security troops of former president Slobodan Milosevic, Zemaj and his troops were active in the western Kosovo region, Dukagjini, controlled at the time by Ramush Haradinaj, a former KLA commander who turned politician after the conflict.

Last month, Haradinaj's brother Daut and four other former rebels were convicted for the murder of four fellow ethnic Albanians, members of the FARK, commanded by Zemaj.

Zemaj was a witness for the prosecution during the trial. Earlier last year Zemaj narrowly escaped an attempt on his life when an unknown assailant threw a rocket propelled grenade at him.

Albanian dominated Kosovo has been under UN and NATO control since June 1999.

Former rebel commander and two others killed in Kosovo shooting

By GARENTINA KRAJA

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Gunmen killed three people, including a well-known former rebel commander, in a drive-by shooting Saturday in the western part of Kosovo.

The three were slain in the town of Pec, 50 miles west of provincial capital, Pristina, said Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the U.N. mission in Kosovo.

Lindmeier said one of those killed was Tahir Zemaj, a former ethnic Albanian rebel leader. The other two were identified by local media as Zemaj's 20-year-old son, Enis, and a relative, Hasan Zemaj.

Tahir Zemaj headed a rebel faction fighting Serb forces in western Kosovo during the province's 1998-99 war. That faction was allied with the party of Ibrahim Rugova, now Kosovo's president.

Hostilities between Zemaj and some members of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army continued through the postwar years _ a legacy of their tense relationship during the conflict.

Zemaj had escaped an earlier attempt on his life in August, when attackers launched a rocket at a restaurant where he was sitting. He escaped with light injuries.
Zemaj, who did not have a political position in the province, testified recently against five former senior KLA rebels who were convicted of unlawfully detaining four men who are presumed dead. The captives belonged to the brigade that Zemaj commanded.

Kosovo, a province of the Serbian republic that dominates Yugoslavia, has been administered by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, following an alliance air war that ended a crackdown by Serb forces against ethnic Albanians seeking independence.

Hostilities persist between the ethnic Albanians and the Serb minority, but rivalries among different ethnic Albanian factions have also resulted in violence.

U.N. police in Pec declined to comment on a motive.

Former Military Commander Assassinated in Kosovo

(Balkan Times) PRISTINA, Kosovo, Yugoslavia -- A prominent former military commander and two other men were shot dead in Pec on Saturday (4 January), a UN spokesman reported. Tahir Zemaj was killed when attackers opened fire on his car early in the morning, eyewitnesses said. Zemaj testified for the prosecution in a recent trial against five former Kosovo Liberation Army members, including the brother of one of the province's top politicians, and narrowly escaped an attempt on his life earlier last year. The other two victims were identified as Zemaj's 20-year-old son, Enis, and a relative, Hasan Zemaj. Police in Pec would not comment on the motives for the killings, pending an investigation.

Ivanovic says UNMIK wants to intimidate Kosovo Serbs

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA , Jan 5 (Tanjug) - Speaking after his release from detention in Pristina, official of the Serb People's Council of northern Kosovo-Metohija Nebojsa Jovic on Sunday voiced doubt that his arrest had been a mistake, as UNMIK police said.
Speaking at a news conference in Kosovska Mitrovica, Jovic voiced concern that this case would have a negative effect on the local population's position towards UNMIK.

Kosovo Serb leader arrested and released | B92, Beta

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Sunday - The president of the Serbian National Council of Northern Kosovska Mitrovica, Nebojsa Jovic, was arrested by UN police yesterday and released at about midnight.

Lawyer Ljubomir Pantovic confirmed today that his client had been released, and described the arrest as a gross error by the judicial organs of UNMIK.

Pantovic quoted a prosecutor as saying that Jovic had been arrested because of his role in riots in Kosovska Mitrovica on April 8, last year.

He was released immediately because after it was confirmed that UNMIK had failed to advise police that the warrant for his arrest had been withdrawn, said the lawyer.

The leader of the northern Kosovo Serb Natioanl Council, Milan Ivanovic, told Radio B92 that the arrest was a deliberate provocation by UNMIK.

"Nebojsa Jovic was arrested bececause of the well-known events of April 8 last year when his brother Slavoljub was brutally beaten and arrested, and Nebojsa suffered a leg injury.

"After that the UNMIK police opened an inquiry and made a series of unfounded arrests as part of a repressive project which lasted until the arrival of [UNMIK chief Michael] Steiner.

Ivanovic added that Jovic had spent more than four months outside the province because of the threat of arrest and returned only two weeks ago after receiving assurances that he would have an opportunity to defend himself against UNMIK's allegations.

The arrest was obviously a result of the failure of UNMIK's police, bureaucracy and judiciary to communicate among themselves, said Ivanovic.

Kosovo Serb group seeks Belgrade meeting | Beta

CAGLAVICA -- Sunday - Scant progress has been made in solving the problems of Serbs, three and a half years after the international protectorate was established in Kosovo, the Movement for Kosovo and Metohija said today.

The movement has called for an urgent meeting with the DOS presidency to discuss the situation in the province and to propose measures to ease those conditions.

The movement's leader, Momcilo Trajkovic, has been authorized to negotiate with the Serbian Government.

Kosovo budget up thirty per cent | Beta, HINA

PRISTINA -- PRISTINA, Saturday - Kosovo's deputy governor, Charles Brayshaw, has ratified the province's budget for next year.

Kosovo's 2003 budget is 489 million euros, up from 375 million last year.

Adoption of the budget has been delayed three months by disagreements between international representatives and Kosovo institutions.

Kosovo PM provocative, says Covic | Beta

JAGODINA -- Saturday - Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi's statement that Belgrade will be an observer at negotiation's on Kosovo's future status is an outright provocation, Deputy Serbian Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic said today.

Covic, who head's Belgrade's Kosovo Coordination Centre said that statements such as Rexhepi's should be ignored, because they were provocations which would not work either with Belgrade or with the international community.

Milutinovic says he is not responsible for war crimes in Kosovo

Belgrade (dpa) - Former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic, who is wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal, said he was neither guilty of or responsible for war crimes in an interview on Serbian state television on Saturday.

Milutinovic, a close ally of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, said he was not responsible for the actions of the army or police in the conflict in Kosovo during his term of office.

The U.N. war crime tribunal's indictment against him was ``bombastic and all too quickly'' prepared and even former U.N. prosecutors were surprised by it, Milutinovic said. He made no comment about his proposed extradition to The Hague.

``Everything is very unpleasant, but I pose no problem'', he said concerning the possibility of his arrest, adding that he has comprehensive documentation prepared for his defense.

Milutinovic lost his immunity from prosecution on December 29, 2002 when his five-year term as president ended. It is unclear whether he will hand himself over to tribunal or wait to be arrested.

Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic in the past week said that any hand-over would not take place before mid-January.

Milutinovic was indicted in May 1999 along with the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and three other top officials but was allowed to remain in Belgrade until the end of his term, in an apparent concession by the international community to Belgrade.

Milosevic was delivered to The Hague last year and two of his co-defendants turned themselves in after a new law this year made their extradition imminent.

Serbia's former president says he won't resist arrest on war crimes Charges

By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Serbia's former president declared Saturday that he would not resist arrest to face war crimes charges before a U.N. tribunal.

Milan Milutinovic insisted that he posed no danger to anyone who might try to detain him on crimes allegedly committed in Kosovo during the 1998-1999 conflict.

But he refused to speculate as to whether he might surrender voluntarily. Milutinovic could theoretically fight any move to extradite him in local courts.

``I will not cause troubles to (Serbian) police,'' he said during a televised interview _ the first since he left the office at the end of 2002. His term as president of Yugoslavia's dominant republic expired Sunday, ending his immunity.

Though regarded as merely a figurehead, Milutinovic was a member of the inner circle of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Any testimony he might offer could prove damaging to the former Yugoslav leader, who is facing genocide charges before the U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands.

Milutinovic, the president of Yugoslavia's largest republic since 1997, is one of a handful of prominent suspects still awaiting extradition to the tribunal. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic _ both of whom are at large _ round out the most wanted list.

Western countries have been pressing Yugoslavia to hand over suspects _ and any information on those at large _ if the country wants to hang on to lucrative loans intended to restore the Balkan country's devastated postwar economy.

During the wide-ranging interview, Miluntinovic denied he had any role in war crimes in Kosovo, arguing that he didn't have control over security forces accused of atrocities in the southern Yugoslav province.

``I was not in command over the police forces there (in Kosovo),'' he said.

His remarks come only days after a district court in Yugoslavia's capital, Belgrade, asked Serbia's government for permission to enact a U.N. tribunal arrest warrant and extradite Milutinovic.

Under Yugoslav law, the government of Serbia must approve the request. The government could refuse to do so if it deems that a handover endangers state security.

The government is unlikely to even consider the matter until after Orthodox Christmas and New Year holidays end on Jan 7.

Yugoslav police seize 44 kilos of heroin at Bulgarian border

BELGRADE, Jan 5 (AFP) - Yugoslav police on Sunday seized 44 kilograms of heroin, hidden in a car, at the Bulgarian border, the Beta news agency reported.

Two Bulgarian nationals were arrested when customs officials found the drugs, worth more than two million euros (dollars), hidden in a fake seat of the vehicle, the agency quoted local customs chief Ivan Dencev as saying.

The two Bulgarians said they had been en route to Germany, the agency said.
The border between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria is on the main Balkans drug smuggling route from central Asia to western Europe.

Bosnia presents report on arms factory's illegal trade with Iraq

Sarajevo/Banja Luka (dpa) - Bosnian Serb President Dragan Cavic on Saturday presented a report on the illegal export of military components to Iraq by a Bosnian Serb factory.

Speaking at a press conference in the Bosnian Serb capital Banja Luka, Cavic said that the 1,614 page report confirmed that the Bosnian Serb Orao factory was in severe breach of the United Nations arms embargo against Iraq.

The Orao affair started in October 2002 after the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia, following U.S. intelligence reports, conducted an unannounced search of Orao premises in the northern Bosnian Serb town of Bijeljina, finding evidence of the company's illegal trade with Iraq.

The evidence showed that the Orao factory was providing Iraq with spare parts needed to refurbish Soviet-era MiG 21 combat aircraft.
According to Cavic, an investigation launched last year discovered that the cooperation between Orao and Iraq started in 1997.

He said the Bosnian Serb civil authorities had not known about the illegal trade, but some high-positioned Bosnian Serb Army officers were directly involved in it.

The main organiser of the trade between Bosnian Serbs and Iraq was Yugoslav company Jugoimport.

Cavic said there were indications that companies from the Bosnian Moslem-Croat Federation, Yugoslavia and Croatia were also involved in illegal weapon trade with Iraq.

The report, which is not yet fully completed, was delivered to the office of the international community's high representative in Bosnia, as well as to the country's presidential and SFOR offices.

Commenting on the Orao report, SFOR said it was too early to comment about the case until the report was completed.

Last month the International Community established a Task Force in Bosnia led by SFOR to monitor the Bosnian Serb authorities investigation into the Orao affair.
The Task Force was to ensure the investigation would be serious, comprehensive and transparent.

Italian priests' passports stolen in Albania

TIRANA, Jan 5 (AFP) - A group of 36 priests from the Italian Catholic community of Sant'Egidio had their passports stolen from the hotel where they were staying in the Albanian capital Tirana, hotel staff told AFP on Sunday.

The passports were deposited at the reception of Tirana's oldest hotel, the Daiti, and were apparently taken when the receptionist left his post to show a room to a potential guest late on Saturday, they said.

The police were immediatelly informed of the theft, which occurred two days after unknown thieves stole electric organs from Tirana's Saint Paul cathedral in Tirana on Thursday, according to various sources.
The Italian priests arrived in Tirana on Friday to attend a celebration marking 10 years of cooperation between the Sant'Egidio community and the Albanian authorities.

The Sant'Egidio community played an important role in reconciling the Albanian authorities and the opposition from 1991 to 1997.

Catholics makes up around 10 percent of the Albanian population of 3.5 million. Muslims make up some 65 percent and Orthodox Christians form the remaining 25 percent.