20 April 2002 Saturday Edition

AP
· U.N. May Indict Kosovo Albanian
· Yugoslavia's top war crimes suspect to surrender to U.N. court early next week
· U.S. renews appeal for arrest of Yugoslavs facing war crimes
· Dutch agree to send 400 peacekeepers to Macedonia three days after Cabinet resigns over Srebrenica
· Chief war crimes prosecutor to indict the first ethnic Albanian this year
· Montenegrin prime minister resigns amid government crisis over EU-brokered deal with Serbia
· Secretary-General appoints chief prosecutor and registrar for Sierra Leone civil war tribunal

BBC
· Kosovo rebels investigated for war crimes

CNN
· Belgrade vows war crime crackdown

DPA
· Belgrade extends deadline for surrender of war crimes suspects

IWPR
· Mayor to Lift Lid on Kosovo Corruption
· Macedonia: EU Scolds Georgievski
· Albania: Breaking Cycle of Prostitution
· Bosnia: Ashdown Faces Huge Challenge
· Serbia: Census Deal Resolves Presevo Crisis
· Croatia: Serb Property Restitution Held Up

B92
· Arrest Milosevic and you can arrest anyone
· Ojdanic packing his bags for the Hague
· Constitutional court asked to rule on the Hague cooperation law
· HLC: Kraljevo mayor "inciting intolerance" of Kosovo Serbs
· Albanian families evicted at gunpoint, says witness
· Several indictees discussing surrender
· Berlin backs closer ties between Yugoslavia and EU
· Del Ponte announces probe into former Kosovo rebels
· NATO planning troop cuts in Kosovo and Bosnia
· Jovanovic: surrender talks in progress
· Grenade attack in south Serbia
· Djindjic to meet Blair on Tuesday
· 1,000 missing in Croatian army offensive, says Zagreb
· No one is above the law, says Kosovo premier
· Djindjic: Karadzic and Mladic beyonbd Serbia's grasp
· Svilanovic meets German counterpart
· Spasci: International community "blind" to Serb tragedy

Balkan Times
· Del Ponte Says She 'Now Expects Results' in Yugoslavia
· Robertson Pledges Continued International Commitment to Bosnia
· Announcement of BiH Election Date Postponed
· US Envoy Calls on Macedonia to Pass Legislation Related to Ohrid
· Regional Cooperation Key in Series of Meetings
· Croatia Speeds up Legal Reforms Under EU Association Agreement
· Society: Minority Returns Increase in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Economist
· A model for nation-building?

UPI
· Zoran vs world: entrepreneur in transition
· Trading from a suitcase: Shuttle trading

The Guardian
· Montenegro PM quits in row over independence

Financial Times
· LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Albanian postal service knew no borders

Reuters
· World News Digest at 0600 GMT, Apr 20

U.N. May Indict Kosovo Albanian

By GARENTINA KRAJA, Associated Press Writer
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - The chief U.N. prosecutor said Friday that a Balkan war crimes tribunal that has so far focused on Serbian suspects may finish investigations into ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo later this year and hand down indictments.
Carla del Ponte met top Kosovo officials at the end of a three-day Balkan tour in which she pressed governments in Bosnia and Serbia to hand over indicted suspects for trial in The Hague, Netherlands.
The U.N. war crimes tribunal has been criticized for alleged bias against Serbs. Most of those indicted for crimes in the Croatian, Bosnian and Kosovo wars are Serbs held responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. No ethnic Albanian has been publicly indicted so far for wrongdoing.
But Del Ponte said her investigators hoped to finish probes later this year into three cases involving suspects from the Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel group that fought for independence of the Yugoslav province.
"I'm sure that this year we will issue the first indictment," she said.
Standing at her side, Michael Steiner, the top U.N. official running the province, said his mission will offer full support to prosecute those responsible for war crimes, regardless of their origin.
"There is no nationality when it comes to war crimes," Steiner said.
Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova and Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi pledged their support.
"We have said before that no one stands above the law," Rexhepi said. "The tribunal has the right to investigate in every place where the fighting took place."
NATO's air war in 1999 ended former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians that left at least 10,000 of them killed. Milosevic is currently on trial in the Hague.
A committee gathering information on crimes against humanity and violations of international law in Belgrade says 3,276 Serbs and other non-Albanians are missing since the 1998-2001 conflict in Kosovo.
Most of the victims were killed or abducted after NATO-led peacekeepers and the United Nations took over the province in June 1999, according to the committee.
On Friday, assailants hurled a hand grenade into the last Serb-owned restaurant in the predominantly ethnic Albanian town of Presevo in southern Serbia, near the Kosovo border. No one was injured, but the restaurant was ruined, a Yugoslav government statement said

Yugoslavia's top war crimes suspect to surrender to U.N. court early next week

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Yugoslavia's former army commander, indicted for war crimes during the Kosovo conflict, was quoted Friday as saying he will surrender to a U.N. court as early as Monday.
Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic, who led government forces against ethnic Albanians and NATO during the 1998-99 war over Yugoslavia's Kosovo province and was charged for crimes against humanity during the conflict, said in an interview he would voluntarily show up at the Netherlands-based U.N. war crimes tribunal next week.
"I am packing, slowly. I will probably travel to The Hague by plane on Monday or Tuesday," Ojdanic told the Vesti daily in an interview for publication Saturday and obtained in advance by The Associated Press.
Ojdanic, who was commander under former President Slobodan Milosevic, is among 23 war crimes suspects sought by The Hague court and known to live in Yugoslavia.
Under a U.S. threat to hand over suspects or else lose crucial Western financial support, cash-strapped Yugoslavia recently amended its laws to remove legal obstacles for the extraditions. On Wednesday, the government published the list of the 23 indictees, including Ojdanic, and gave them three days to surrender voluntarily or face arrest.
The deadline expires Saturday noon, but officials have suggested they would allow some more time to negotiate the terms of surrender with suspects willing to turn themselves in in exchange for some privileges during planned proceedings.
Reportedly interviewed in his Belgrade home and surrounded by two grandsons and other family members, Ojdanic strongly denied that his forces committed atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
"I have read all points of the indictment and found nothing that has any foundation." Ojdanic was quoted as telling the Serbian-language paper published in Frankfurt, Germany.
He expressed confidence he will prove his innocence before the international court.
After signaling recently his willingness to stand trial, Ojdanic was criticized by hard-liners for giving in to the Western pressure.
Milosevic was extradited last June and is now on trial for major crimes against humanity in three Balkan wars.
"I am not a traitor!" Ojdanic reportedly said. "Just as I fulfilled my oath to the country when I defended it against the NATO aggression ... I also adhere now to norms and international laws" by going to The Hague to face the charges.

U.S. renews appeal for arrest of Yugoslavs facing war crimes

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The State Department urged Yugoslavia on Friday to arrest all fugitives indicted by the international war crimes tribunal and transfer them to The Hague.
Spokesman Richard Boucher said publication by the Yugoslav government of a list of 23 suspects was a further sign that the authorities recognize their obligation to improve cooperation with the tribunal.
``The next necessary step is for the Yugoslav government to take those indicted into custody and transfer them to The Hague,'' he said.
He added that persons indicted for war crimes, including Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, must answer the charges against them.
The chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, is giving high priority to the arrest of Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb general who is wanted in connection with a massacre of up to 8,000 people in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.
Mladic is widely believed to be in Yugoslavia's larger republic, Serbia, under protection of the military. Authorities in Serbia insist they do not know where he is, which complicates efforts to arrest him.
The United States has conditioned financial aid to Yugoslavia on its cooperation with the U.N. tribunal.
Boucher said Secretary of State Colin Powell has not decided whether to certify that Yugoslavia has met U.S. conditions.
The administration's authority to write aid checks to Yugoslavia expired March 31. At the time, Powell deferred a decision whether to certify.

Dutch agree to send 400 peacekeepers to Macedonia three days after Cabinet resigns over Srebrenica

Fri Apr 19,12:58 PM ET
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Three days after the Dutch government resigned over its failures in Srebrenica in 1995, the country agreed Friday to take over command of a German-led peacekeeping operation in Macedonia, government officials said Friday.
On Tuesday, the Cabinet stepped down over a damaging report on the fall of the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in Bosnia. The report from the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation partly blamed the Dutch government for not preventing the execution of at least 7,500 men and boys by Serb forces.
The caretaker government under Prime Minister Wim Kok pledged its soldiers to Amber Fox, now a German-led force.
Last month, Germany said it wanted to reduce its participation in the mission because the U.S.-led war against terrorism was stretching its military resources. The Dutch troops could leave for the Balkan country as soon as June and will stay for a maximum of six months.
The Dutch were in charge of peacekeeping operations in eastern Bosnia when the area was overrun by Serb forces under the command of Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic. The outgunned and outnumbered Dutch peacekeepers stood by while Serb soldiers segregated the men from the women and bused them off to killing sites. The women were deported.

Chief war crimes prosecutor to indict the first ethnic Albanian this year
By GARENTINA KRAJA, Associated Press Writer
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - The chief U.N. prosecutor announced Friday that the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, is expected to issue later this year the first indictment against former ethnic Albanian rebels for atrocities committed in Kosovo.
Carla del Ponte met the province's top international and local officials, wrapping up her three-day Balkan tour, after she pressed governments in Bosnia and Serbia to hand over indicted war crimes suspects held responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the Balkan wars.
In Kosovo, Del Ponte said her investigators in the province were hoping to finish their probes later this year into three cases involving suspects from Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel group that fought for independence of the Yugoslav province.
"I'm sure that this year we will issue the first indictment," she said.
Standing at her side, Michael Steiner, the top U.N. official running the province, said his mission will offer full support to prosecute those responsible for war crimes, regardless of their nationality.
"There is no nationality when it comes to war crimes," Steiner said.
Both Kosovo's new President Ibrahim Rugova and Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi pledged to support the tribunal's work in Kosovo. "We have said before that no one stands above the law," Rexhepi said. "The tribunal has the right to investigate in every place where the fighting took place."
Since the conflict in Kosovo between January 1998 and November 2001, 3,276 Serbs and other non-Albanians have been missing, said a committee gathering information on crimes against humanity and violations of international law in Belgrade.
The majority of the victims were killed or abducted after NATO-led peacekeepers and the United Nations took over the province in June 1999.
In the past, the U.N. war crimes tribunal has been criticized for alleged bias against Serbs. Most of those indicted for crimes in the Croatian, Bosnian and Kosovo wars are Serbs. No ethnic Albanian has been publicly indicted so far for wrongdoing in the Kosovo conflict.
During previous visits to Kosovo, Del Ponte said the international tribunal was investigating former commanders of an ethnic Albanian rebel group for alleged atrocities against Serb civilians.
NATO's air war in 1999 ended former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians that left at least 10,000 of them killed.

Montenegrin prime minister resigns amid government crisis over EU-brokered deal with Serbia

By ALEN MLATISUMA, Associated Press Writer
PODGORICA, Yugoslavia - The prime minister of Yugoslavia's junior republic resigned Friday amid a government crisis over a European Union-brokered deal designed to prevent the final breakup of Yugoslavia.
Filip Vujanovic said he was returning his mandate after unsuccessful attempts to preserve a coalition government split over the independence issue.
Last month, leaders of the two remaining republics in Yugoslavia agreed to the EU deal that restructures the federation into a loose alliance with a new name - "Serbia and Montenegro."
Although Vujanovic's resignation is unlikely to jeopardize the deal, it could destabilize tiny Montenegro, the smaller republic of 600,000 people, and lead to early parliamentary elections.
Vujanovic said he had to resign because the radically pro-independence Liberal Alliance had withdrawn support from his Cabinet last month.
The small but influential separatist party protested that the EU-brokered deal deprived Montenegro of outright independence. Its move left Vujanovic's Cabinet without the necessary majority in parliament.
"Although I am deeply convinced that this government did everything possible under the circumstances, the refusal by the Liberals to preserve the coalition left me with no other choice," Vujanovic said.
Montenegro's President Milo Djukanovic has 60 days to name a new prime minister who could form a Cabinet with sufficient support in parliament. If this fails, early parliamentary elections would be called in three to four months.
Until then, Vujanovic will remain caretaker prime minister.
His opponents welcomed the resignation.
Vesna Perovic, parliament speaker from the Liberal Alliance, said the move was "tardy and forced under pressure but nevertheless a positive step toward democratic reforms." She said that parliament confirmation of Vujanovic's resignation was a "mere formality."
Another opposition legislator, Predrag Drecun from the National Party, said early elections were the "most honest way to resolve the crisis."
The deal that sparked the crisis in Montenegro was signed last month by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, Djukanovic and the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.
Fearing further attempts at secession in the Balkans, the EU succeeded to keep the two republics loosely together - in a reformed union.
In the reformed union, Serbia and Montenegro would have common defense and foreign policies but separate economies, currencies and customs services. After three years, the republics could hold respective referendums on full independence.
The accord has already been approved by both republics' assemblies and a debate on it began Thursday in the federal assembly in capital Belgrade where Kostunica urged legislators to endorse it.
The once six-member federation of Yugoslavia began to unravel along ethnic lines in the late 1980's. By 1992, republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia had declared their independence.
Serbia and Montenegro then remained together, forming the rump Yugoslavia, but their alliance began to crumble in 1997, with Djukanovic distancing himself from the then president Slobodan Milosevic and began advocating independence.
Under the EU deal, the two republics have until June to complete the makeover of the country and proclaim a new constitution.

Secretary-General appoints chief prosecutor and registrar for Sierra Leone civil war tribunal

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed
a top U.S. Defense Department lawyer as chief prosecutor for the U.N.-Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal. He also named a retired British court administrator as registrar for the court.
David Crane, currently the Defense Department's senior inspector general for national security organizations, will be in charge of prosecutions at the tribunal created to try war crimes committed during the brutal 10-year civil war.
Robin Vincent, who spent nearly 40 years working for British courts and had a brief stint at the Rwanda war crimes tribunal, will be in charge of administering the new U.N. court. He retired last year as director of 32 court centers in northwest England.
The appointments were announced Friday, three day after Sierra Leone's deputy ambassador Allieu Ibrahim Kanu and U.N. legal counsel Hans Corell exchanged documents that brought into force an agreement signed on Jan. 16 establishing the tribunal.
The court will try serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law since Nov. 30, 1996 _ when rebels and the government signed a peace accord that later collapsed.
The Revolutionary United Front launched its insurgency in 1991 to take control of the country and its diamond fields. By the late 1990s, rebels had begun targeting civilians, making a trademark out of hacking off the limbs of those victims they allowed to live.
The civil war ended in January with the decisive intervention of U.N. and British forces. The nation's first post-war elections are scheduled for May 14.
Rebel leader Foday Sankoh, whose supporters killed, maimed and raped thousands of civilians during the insurgency, is expected to be among the first to go to trial. He was imprisoned in May 2000.
Unlike the war crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, which are entirely run by the United Nations with an international staff, the Sierra Leone tribunal will have a mix of local and international prosecutors and judges.
Annan is expected to appoint the majority of judges, while Sierra Leone will name a deputy prosecutor and other judges. Most of them will be from Africa.
Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Ralph Zacklin said last month the court will be functioning by the third quarter of this year and is expected to begin handing down indictments by the end of the year.

Kosovo rebels investigated for war crimes

BBC
The United Nations' chief war crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, says investigations into alleged atrocities by ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo should lead to indictments later this year.
Mrs Del Ponte - who has just completed a three-day tour of the Western Balkans - said three suspected perpetrators, all members of the now disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, were being investigated.
More than 3,200 Serbs and other non-Albanians went missing between January 1998 and November 2001.
The Kosovo President, Ibrahim Rugova, and Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi, have both offered to support the Hague tribunal's work, saying that no one is above the law.
During her trip, Mrs Del Ponte also pressed governments in Bosnia and Serbia to hand over war crimes suspects indicted for their role in other Balkan wars.

Belgrade vows war crime crackdown

CNN
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic has said he believes his country will soon begin handing over suspects to the United Nations war crimes tribunal.
Yugoslavia passed a law last week regulating cooperation with the tribunal and setting out a procedure for the handover of suspects.
U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said on Thursday she now wanted results.
She was speaking during a visit to Belgrade after the government published a list of 23 suspects -- 10 Yugoslav citizens, the rest are from Croatia or Bosnia -- wanted by the tribunal.
It includes two of the world's most wanted men, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic. All 23 were on Wednesday given 72 hours to surrender to The Hague tribunal.
Svilanovic said: "The law has been passed, the law is in force and I believe that in the coming weeks the law is going to be implemented."
Yugoslav government officials said they published the list to give those on it the opportunity of giving up voluntarily.
Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic suggested all on the list would be hunted down if they do not surrender.
Meanwhile, del Ponte announced on Friday that the war crimes tribunal is expected to issue its first indictments against former ethnic Albanian rebels for atrocities committed in Kosovo this year.
Del Ponte said her investigators in the province were close to concluding investigations into three cases involving suspects from the Kosovo Liberation Army.
"I'm sure that this year we will issue the first indictment," she said.
Kosovo's Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi said: "We have said before that no one stands above the law."
In the past, the U.N. war crimes tribunal has been criticised for alleged bias against Serbs.
Most of those indicted for crimes in the Croatian, Bosnian and Kosovo wars are Serbs. No ethnic Albanian has been publicly indicted for atrocities committed during the Kosovo conflict.

Belgrade extends deadline for surrender of war crimes suspects

Belgrade (dpa) - The Yugoslav government has extended from Saturday until noon Monday the deadline for the surrender of suspected war criminals, the Belgrade newspaper Glas javnosti reported Saturday.
Deputy Justice Minister Nebojsa Sarkic said the measure was taken so that suspects had the weekend to think things over and hand themselves in voluntarily to the authorities.
Sarkic confirmed that several people facing war crimes charges in connection with activities in Kosovo, Croatia or Bosnia had indicated a willingness to surrender, but he revealed no names.
The Belgrade radio station B92 quoted Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic as saying that police would begin arresting suspects once the deadline had passed.
In an interview released Friday, the former chief of the Yugoslav Army General Staff, Dragoljub Ojdanic, said that he was ``slowly packing'' to turn himself in to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
``I will most probably fly to The Hague on Monday or Wednesday,'' he told Saturday's edition of the Frankfurt-based Serbian daily Vesti.
He said he would obey the authorities and show up for the trial, now that Yugoslavia had adopted a law on cooperation with The Hague tribunal.
Ojdanic was indicted for alleged war crimes in Kosovo, along with the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and three other top officials of the former regime.
One of the five, the former Serbian interior minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic, shot himself in the head in public last week and succumbed to injuries two days later.
In the same group is the current Serbian President, Milan Milutinovic.
The Yugoslav government had on Wednesday called indicted suspects to turn themselves in within three days, by Saturday afternoon, or face arrest and extradition. It also named 23 persons under indictment, 10 of whom are Yugoslavs, 12 Bosnian Serbs and one Croat Serb.
On Friday, the United States praised Yugoslav authorities for enacting the new law allowing for the extradition of indicted war criminals to The Hague but said the suspects still need to be arrested before U.S. aid to Belgrade could resume.
The law was enacted last weekend after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell earlier this month suspended about 40 million dollars in U.S. aid because Belgrade was not fully cooperating with the tribunal.
But State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington still wants to see the suspects, especially Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadic and Ratko Mladic, arrested and transferred to the tribunal.
And he indicated some U.S. displeasure with the Yugoslav measure, which covers only those suspects already indicted by the tribunal. Yugoslav authorities said they want to conduct any future trials in Yugoslav courts.

Mayor to Lift Lid on Kosovo Corruption

IWPR
The western administrator of Pristina has caused a storm by threatening to publicise the names of officials involved in an epidemic of illegal house building.
By Nehat Islami in Pristina
The international official heading the Pristina administration has alarmed Albanian colleagues by threatening to publish a list of politicians who built homes without planning permission or engaged in other forms of corruption.
Ivo Sanc, from the Czech Republic, last week announced he had "accurate and reliable information on corruption within the city municipality" and said an investigation was under way.
The gauntlet he has thrown down nettled the local administration, dominated by members of Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK. Berim Ramosaj, the Albanian leader of the city council and a LDK member, admitted individual cases of fraud but insisted it did not apply to the authority as a whole.
Corruption over building permits is nothing new in Kosovo. Illegal construction was widespread in Pristina long before the international community deployed in the region three years ago, after Serb forces were forced out.
But the problem has visibly got worse, largely because of a huge influx of people from the countryside. The city housed about 250,000 before the 1999 conflict. The population has now soared to half a million, causing an accommodation crisis.
Illegal house construction is not the only problem. Large-scale immigration has had a knock-on effect on all local utilities. The demand for electricity has jumped and drinking water is in short supply. About 150,000 cars clog roads designed for far less traffic, leading to gridlock.
Pollution is severe. The city's sanitation infrastructure was unprepared for such an influx, as a result of which Pristina is coated in outpourings from the nearby power station, which releases up to 20 tonnes of dust a day - 70 per cent more than is allowed.
The burden of solving all these problems falls on the local authority. The international personnel are there to monitor or correct the council's decisions. The western administrator can veto them but rarely does so.
Since 2000, local building inspectors have noted some 4,000 buildings without planning permission. There are suspicions that many were built after the owners bribed municipal officials not to interfere. Others lack permits because their applications were not processed properly.
One illegal builder, Enver Sadiku, an electrical power worker, said he went ahead without a permit because the delays were too long. "The municipality is inefficient," he said. "I waited a whole year for a permit and when I saw everyone else building without one, I decided to do the same".
Sanc said unauthorised use of government properties was a particular problem and that Ramosaj had failed to give him a list of appropriated premises. Naser Krasniqi, an official dealing with municipal property, estimated that about 10,000 buildings had been illegally occupied, though most had not been built on.
Little effort has been made to stop the rot. Sanc has already complained of a widespread nepotism in the municipal administration. A report on illegal construction in the Pristina daily Koha Ditore revealed that Nebih Zariqi, a deputy leader of the municipality, co-owned a building company that had put up an illegal extension. But more mundane factors also play a part. The local administration is short of staff and low salaries encourage a culture of bribery and corruption.
Although city officials have warned they will demolish illegal buildings, few take the threat seriously. The authorities seem hardly likely to flatten 4,000 properties in a municipality where housing is in such short supply. The council has, in fact, obtained demolition equipment. But the machinery has a habit of breaking down when used - which is not often. Only 30 buildings have been levelled so far.
Given the fact that wholesale demolition is unfeasible, the council is considering alternative strategies. One is to impose a tax on buildings erected without a permit on privately-held land, and to only get rid of structures built on state property.
In the meantime, Sanc and the local council trade accusations about who is to blame. The former wants more qualified professionals to join the administration. "I know people at Pristina University and within many companies who could help solve the municipality's problems," he said, "but they don't like the politics and will not take part in the existing structures."
He said council inertia was also to blame for lack of foreign investment, "Nothing is being achieved because of the municipality's lack of interest."
So far, the local government has blamed all its problems and shortcomings on the legacy of the 1999 conflict. But this may not work for much longer. The ball is in Mayor Sanc's court and his list of fraudulent officials is awaited with great interest. Ordinary people hope the city's widespread corruption, rising crime, illegal building and general air of chaos will be tackled at last.
Nehat Islami is IWPR project manager in Pristina

Macedonia: EU Scolds Georgievski

Brussels tells Macedonia's prime minister to honour peace commitments
By Svetlana Jovanovska in Brussels
The European Union is bringing strong pressure on Macedonia to speed up implementation of laws promised under last year's Ohrid agreement which ended a seven months uprising by the country's Albanian minority.
EU representatives accused Prime Minister Ljupco Georgievski of dragging his feet over legislation to widen the official use of the Albanian language and to allow equal Macedonian-Albanian representation in state institutions. The Ohrid agreement in August stipulated that these and other reforms should be introduced within the lifetime of the current parliament but little sign of movement has been detected so far.
The rebuke was delivered at a meeting in Luxembourg on April 16 of delegations headed by Georgievski and the EU Commissioner Javier Solana. The ostensible purpose of the meeting was to review the progress of last April's Stabilisation and Association Agreement, a forum for charting Macedonia's progress towards integration with the EU.
"Of course," said David Daly, head of the EU Balkans Office, "we cannot force anybody to do what we think is right. We merely offer an overview of what is necessary for European integration." Since Macedonia's main hope for the future lies in joining Europe, Brussels' "advice" cannot easily be ignored.
Only one of the laws proposed at Ohrid has been enacted so far, a measure concerning local self-government. Even that was pushed through only under pressure from a conference of donor nations who provide economic aid. Another proposal to schedule new national elections has also been sidelined.
"The Luxembourg meeting was an informal political breakfast during which we offered friendly advice on how the country could return to normal development," said EU spokesperson Ema Advin." A brief press conference afterwards gave scant details of what EU delegates said to Georgievski.
An European diplomat told IWPR, "Solana's authority has special weight in Macedonia. He told Georgievski that it was high time to push through the necessary changes."
The package of laws prescribed by Ohrid included one to permit use of the Albanian language in parliament and for ethnic Albanians to have their identification documents in two languages.
Solana's spokesperson, Cristina Goljac, said the Luxembourg meeting demanded action on three fronts. First, the Macedonian premier should ensure that all the required legislation be in place by mid-May. Second, national elections should be immediately scheduled. And third Solana stressed that President Boris Trajkovski should continue to play a leading role in government. The last stems from concern that the president had for some time been under attack by persons close to Georgievski.
Ema Advin, spokesperson for the EU's external affairs commissioner Chris Patten, said Brussels believed Macedonian elections should be held on September 15. That would allow the presence of 700 EU monitors who after that would be required in Kosovo and Bosnia.
Others demands were issued by Commissioner Patten. He called for a serious fight against corruption, reforms in public administration, freedom of the press and an overhaul of the security system. In particular, Patten urged the disbanding of the police paramilitary unit known as the Lions - a group accused by humanitarian organisations of suppressing ethnic Albanians.
Daly said the EU had raised security issues that normally would not be its task because "we believe the paramilitary organisations represent an obstacle to democracy, civil society and political system".
Svetlana Jovanovska is the Brussels correspondent for Skopje's daily Dnevnik

Albania: Breaking Cycle of Prostitution

A few brave individuals are tackling the trade in women that's devastating rural communities.
By Agim Kanani in Tirana
In the arrivals hall at Rinas International Airport, young Albanian women hurry past, showing telltale signs of beatings by pimps. They are caught in the cycle of international prostitution. No sooner are they flown home than they have to return to red light districts in Western Europe.
The women are not keen to talk, still less to explain their bruises. "I had a car accident," said one with two missing teeth and a bruise on her cheek. A second, named Silvana, will not explain the scar on her lip and her bruised jaw. Another with similar injuries said, "I slipped in the bathroom".
Aid agencies estimate 30,000 Albanian prostitutes work across Europe. They comprise almost 1 per cent of Albania's population. At least 60 per cent are children, most abducted or tricked into prostitution in one of the worst trafficking rackets on the continent.
"Do not expect them to tell you the truth," a policeman at the airport says. "Each returnee wants to go back to Italy. This is not just because of their pimps' threats, it is because their families won't accept them. One of them told me, 'I don't want to return home as my father would beat me up'."
These women have few prospects back in Albania. In the Albanian section of its annual report last year, the US State Department said they faced "significant stigmatisation from their families and society". It went on, "Given the scope of the trafficking problem and limited resources to address reintegration, most victims of trafficking receive little or no assistance."
Many border police show no sympathy to such women, seeing them as criminals rather than victims. As soon as they get off the plane, most are already preparing to travel back to Italy on clandestine speedboats. With 10 to 15 such vessels leaving each night from the port of Vlora alone, the right payment always secures a seat.
But some shelters are now opening to help these women break out of the cycle of prostitution and reintegrate with the community. Secret refuges have opened in Tirana and Vlora. In Fier, central Albania, the local police chief, Xhavit Shala, has built a basic refuge in his station compound.
"Albanians need to learn to treat these women as victims and not prostitutes," said Shala, who is keen to break the power of the traffickers. He held meetings with teachers, business leaders and residents to explain how the traffic in prostitutes is wrecking village life.
The results were startling. Complaints against pimps and traffickers jumped by almost 400 per cent. Shala started his temporary shelter in the police compound to safeguard women while police developed cases against their pimps.
When the government declined to fund the refuge, he raised the 18,000 US dollars he needed from local businesses. The three metal edifices hold only a few bunk beds and school desks. But the rooms are clean and the surrounding wire fence protects a small yard.
One problem facing Shala is that some of those in his care leave because the courts take too long to bring their pimps to trial. He has asked the justice ministry to speed up the cases but has yet to receive a response.
The authorities also refused to pay for the women's food at the shelter. "I am no longer asking officials for any help," Shala said. "I am only asking them to stop putting obstacles in our way."
His refuge tries to persuade the women's families to take them back. "We tell them it is not only their daughter's responsibility for falling into prostitution but their own," Shala explained. "The statistics show that their daughters were deceived into becoming prostitutes. We ask why their families permitted them to be deceived."
Since it opened last December, the Vlora project has cared for 40 girls and reunited most with their families.
But the shelter's benefactor, who asked not to be named, said the pimps' influence should never be underestimated and she herself had been directly threatened. "The job horrifies me," she said.
Even when families take their daughters back, it is rarely a long-term solution. "Sometimes I visit the girls and I don't find them at home anymore," she continued. "Girls trafficked in this way have little hope of re-establishing a normal life."
Agim Kanani is a freelance journalist in Tirana.

Bosnia: Ashdown Faces Huge Challenge

The new High Representative's top task is to weed out widespread fraud and lawlessness.
By Daniel Korski from Sarajevo
When Paddy Ashdown, former leader of Britain's opposition Liberal Democrats, takes over in June as High Representative in Bosnia, he faces a morass of corruption and social ills that have blighted the country's post-war transition towards democracy.
Armed with sweeping powers by the international community, Ashdown has only a limited time to achieve reforms. The general belief is that within three years, the West's interest in Bosnia will have waned to the point where financial and military assistance will dry up. He is, therefore, under pressure to set goals that can be achieved in that time.
A major task will be to weed out the lawlessness and corruption linking key echelons of government to organised crime. A first step on this path should be a thorough audit of public sector institutions to examine how public funds are channelled into illegal hands.
The Office of the High Representative, OHR, was set up under the Dayton agreement, which ended the Bosnian war in 1995. Its mandate was to supervise implementation of the accord's civilian aspects, a task severely hindered by the rampant corruption infecting public services.
Examples of graft abound. In Mostar, public money has long been diverted to local authorities controlled by the HDZ, a Croat nationalist party that opposes everything Dayton stands for.
In western Herzegovina, cars, mobile phones and other equipment in the hands of police have been quietly transferred to HVIDRA, the main Bosnian Croat association of war veterans, renowned for its anti-Dayton stance.
Certain government departments have been particularly prone to misusing funds. In 2000, a flat owned by the interior ministry of the Muslim-Croat Federation mysteriously found its way into the hands of a former local minister in Herzegovina-Neretva canton.
In the same year, western Herzegovina authorities paid an enormous bill of 500,000 konvertible marks - the official Bosnian currency - for the maintenance of their 24 cars. This amounts to 20,000 marks per car. The total sum was enough to buy more than 20 new cars.
Other examples include the scandal of the Hercegovacka Bank and the battle over Aluminium Mostar, the bank and company used by HDZ hardliners to launder money and finance their parallel institutions.
At the root of the problem is dishonesty in the judiciary. Without its reform, the system cannot be put right. Over the past five years, all efforts by the United Nations and OHR to achieve this have been thwarted.
One reason is that public sector reform has largely been left to technical missions while the OHR concentrated on fraud in banking, energy and forestry.
If financial abuse is bad in the Federation, things are even worse in the other half of Bosnia, Republika Srpska, RS. Officials estimate the latter is two years behind the former in investigating and prosecuting corruption. So far, the RS authorities have filed only 31 charges against former officials for abuse of office and corruption, involving sums of only a few hundred thousand marks. Cases in which hundreds of millions of marks are thought to have been siphoned out of the exchequer still await attention.
Priority must be given to stamping out public sector fraud if Bosnia is to become a functioning democracy. The first step is to investigate all ministries with an OHR-appointed team of auditors. Everything from pay rolls to fuel receipts must be examined to establish where the money is going.
Local authorities must be impressed with the absolute need to adhere to the findings of the investigation. If they do not, international funding should be suspended. If that does not work, the West must enforce the changes while it still has the power to do so.
Politicians found guilty of financial and other misdeeds should face prosecution on such a scale that public servants will be deterred from graft in future.
Money for prosecution could come from the European Commission. The actual work should be carried out by the OSCE, or by a beefed-up anti-fraud unit.
This is not just a question of preparing Bosnia's public sector for integration into Europe but of ensuring that the goals set at Dayton are achieved in full. Three years should be enough time to see the job through.
Daniel Korski works for the International Crisis Group in Sarajevo.

Serbia: Census Deal Resolves Presevo Crisis

Hardliners among Serbs and Albanians have lost out in southern Serbia, where a remarkable political deal has dampened down the fires of ethnic conflict
By Jim Adams in Presevo, southern Serbia
Moderate ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia have marginalised former guerrilla commanders in the region through an historic decision to switch their allegiance from Kosovo to Belgrade.
In what many see as a political milestone, local Albanian leaders in the Party for Democratic Action, PDD, and Party for Democratic Union, PDU, agreed to take part in Serbia's nationwide census later this month.
The decision appears to mark the end of a decade-long campaign to join the three municipalities of Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja and their 70,000 or so Albanians to Kosovo.
The Albanians in the area, known as the Presevo valley, have boycotted every Serbia census since 1981.
The agreement was hatched in Belgrade earlier this month in OSCE-brokered talks, where the Serbs side showed considerable flexibility.
Belgrade accepted the ethnic Albanian demand for an OSCE role in the census. The Serbs also agreed to admit Albanians who had been displaced from their homes under the Milosevic regime to the headcount. In Bujanovac, 3,200 Albanians still have not returned home.
It is hoped that the census will end a rumbling dispute in Bujanovac over which community is largest. The Albanians insist they form 60 per cent of the 55,000 population while the Serbs say they are only 47 per cent.
Armed struggle erupted in the valley in the winter of 2000, when large numbers of Serbian troops, forced out of Kosovo by NATO's air strikes, deployed in the area.
An Albanian guerrilla group, the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, UCPBM, soon sprouted and grabbed control of the security zone between Kosovo and Serbia, set up under international peacekeepers after the Kosovo conflict.
After Milosevic fell from power in 2000, a radically new approach spearheaded by the new Serbian deputy premier Nebojsa Covic defused the crisis in May 2001.
The local guerrilla forces under Sefqet Musliu agreed to disarm and the international community allowed Serb forces back into the security zone.
Since then, the Serb authorities have tried to bolster the agreement by increasing investment, setting up a multi-ethnic police force and withdrawing the armed forces to barracks.
They also agreed to extraordinary elections in this region to enable ethnic Albanians to join local government in proportion to their numbers. They boycotted the last local elections under Milosevic.
The new approach has paid political dividends for Belgrade, isolating the hardliners in the former UCPBM and creating a new bloc ready to engage with Belgrade and put aside the demand for union with Kosovo.
"After 21 years we have made moves towards having a proper census in this area and we hope displaced people can take part in the forthcoming extraordinary local elections as well," said Riza Halimi, the ethnic Albanian mayor of Presevo on April 2, when the deal was signed.
"We are not totally satisfied," said Naser Aziri, head of the Presevo municipal census committee, "but the new authorities in Serbia are not like the ones under Milosevic."
After years of repression, the new authorities in Belgrade are slowly gaining the trust of local Albanians, though they still want to see more Albanians take part in the new police force, for example.
Albanian enthusiasm for the census is not shared by the Serbian community in the Presevo valley. They fear it will reveal that the Albanian population is bigger than they thought and will herald an Albanian take-over in local government.
Serbs protesting in Bujanovac earlier this month denounced the government for setting the local census deadline for April 25, ten days later than the one for Serbia as a whole. They are also condemned the move to include displaced Albanians.
But Belgrade - intent on finishing the census and the local elections in the region - ignored them. Instead, deputy premier Covic accused the protesters of creating new discord between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
The former UCPBM commanders are, of course, the other main losers in the affair. They have largely lost their old following among the population, which has turned to moderate civilian parties.
For each community there is loss and gain. The Albanians will have to forgo their dream of unification with Kosovo and accept that their future lies in Serbia. The Serbs, for their part, will have to accept the end of their absolute dominance over local ethnic Albanians.
Jim Adams is a pseudonym for a freelance journalist based in Serbia

Croatia: Serb Property Restitution Held Up

Government efforts to return property to Serbs who fled the Krajina region are dogged with problems.
By Sanja Vukcevic and Branko Galic in Split
Croatia is finding it harder than expected to make good its offer to give Serbs back the homes they lost when they were chased out of the country seven years ago.
Economic hardship, corruption and a continuing refugee movements have frustrated Prime Minister Ivica Racan's invitation for Serbs to return to the Krajina region, where they once formed a majority.
A military operation by late president Franjo Tudjman prompted some 200,000 Croatian Serbs - almost the entire population of the Krajina - to flee to both Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska.
The motive for the premier's offer is believed to be a desire to gain respectability in the eyes of the European Union. Croatia hopes to join the EU and Racan feels he must demonstrate respect for the principle of private property.
Racan called on Croats living in homes once owned by Serbs to move out by the end of the year.
About 10,000 displaced Bosnian Croats went to Krajina at the invitation of Tudjman to take over dwellings vacated by the Serbs. And recently, several hundred Croat families came to Krajina from western Bosnia.
Most originally lived in other parts of Bosnia before the 1992-1995 war. They moved to the western areas of the republic after the Serbs lost control of the region. Now they have been forced out again, as Serbs return to towns such as Drvar and Bosansko Grahovo and reclaim their property.
If the Croats move out of Krajina, Racan must find them somewhere else to live. This could mean resettling some 9,000 people at a cost of about 600 million kuna (100 million euros), a sum Croatia can ill afford.
Most Croatian refugees from Bosnia do not intend to go back there, according to Tomo Aracic, president of the Association of Croatian Refugees, ZUNH. He said this was confirmed in a recent poll by the organisation.
Josip Stanic a Bosnian Croat from Knin in central Krajina, told IWPR he did not want to leave. He said he had bought land and asked for government help to build a house on it. "If they help me, I will leave the house where I live at the moment," Stanic said. But he would not move if it meant a prolonged stay in a refugee detention centre.
Another problem is widespread corruption, aggravated by poor economic prospects and high unemployment. Bosko Kablar, a deputy of the Serbian Peoples Party in Knin's municipal assembly, is still unable to reclaim his property even though he returned in 1996. He said passing a restitution law was one thing, implementing it quite another.
Kablar said some houses were returned to their owners only after they had paid bribes of between 250 and 500 euros to the Bosnian Croats living there.
Bosnian Croats claim that when they first arrived in Krajina they had to bribe housing officials to move into vacated Serb homes. Now, they said, they are simply trying to get their money back. On top of that they would have to pay bribes of 500 or 1500 euros to regain the houses they left in the Bosnian Federation or Republika Srpska, RS.
Asked about this the RS deputy minister for refugees and displaced persons, Drago Vuleta, shrugged and said, "We cannot beat corruption".
So far only a few Krajina Serbs have reclaimed their property. Dragan Bukorovic, 30, from the village of Biskupije, near Knin, has been waiting since January 1999 to reclaim his family home from Croatian refugees. He handed the Croats a government expulsion order but they ignored it.
Despite all the problems Bukorovic is optimistic. He told IWPR, "I don't expect anything from the government, but I expect it to return what belongs to me". He is prepared to wait until the end of the year after which he will take the government to the European Court in Strasbourg.
The director of the local OSCE office, Jeremy Ainslie, blamed Croatia's financial problems for the failure of Serbs to return home. "Once the good will and actions of the government are recognised," he said, "the international community will offer assistance."
The overall security situation in Knin and Krajina is stable. The two communities avoid conflict, realising that their problems can be resolved only through cooperation.
Zeljko Komic, ZUNH deputy president, said his association had signed a document on mutual cooperation with the Serbian National Council - a new political alliance set up local Serbs. It stressed that the restoration of property to its original owners and the provision of shelter for evicted families must go hand in hand.
It is not clear if the security situation will deteriorate once expulsions get underway. For now Knin is empty during weekends. The Bosnian Croats say the Serbs leave for Serbia to spend their pensions on cheaper goods. The Serbs say the Bosnian Croats work on their lands in neighbouring Bosnia.
Sanja Vukcevic and Branko Galic are journalists working for the independent news agency Stina.

Arrest Milosevic and you can arrest anyone

B92
BELGRADE, Friday - Serbia's interior minister warned today that no one is above the law, or beyond the reach of the Serbian police.
"If this police force was capable of arresting Slobodan Milosevic, I don't know who else in this country it would be unable to arrest," said Dusan Mihajlovic.
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said in a newspaper interview today that the arrest of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic is not up to the Serbian police.

Ojdanic packing his bags for the Hague

(Beta)
BELGRADE, Friday - Yugoslavia's former army chief of staff, Dragoljub Ojdanic, has announced he will leave for the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague at the beginning of next week.
"I'm slowly packing my things. I'll most probably fly to the Hague on Monday or Tuesday," Ojdanic told tomorrow's edition of Frankfurt Serbian-language daily Vesti.
The former army chief was indicted alongside Slobodan Milosevic for alleged crimes in Kosovo in 1999.
Ojdanic said he was ready to commence battle: "Till now I've waged war with men and went successfully to the end. I guess now I'll with a women, Carla del Ponte."

Constitutional court asked to rule on Hague cooperation law
(B92)
BELGRADE, Friday - A group of 51 professors and assistants at Belgrade's Law Faculty have filed a request with the federal constitutional court to rule on the constitutionality of Yugoslavia's law on cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.
A statement asked that the court urgently suspend the implementation of the law until a final ruling can is made.
Among the signatories to the request are Oliver Antic, the Milosevic-era dean of the Law Faculty, and Ratko Markovic, a former deputy Serbian prime minister.

HLC: Kraljevo mayor "inciting intolerance" of Kosovo Serbs
BELGRADE, Friday - A Belgrade human rights group has accused the mayor of the central Serbian town of Kraljevo of "inciting intolerance" of Serbs displaced from Kosovo.
In a statement issued today, the Humanitarian Law Centre said it was "deeply concerned" by an interview with Ljubisa Jovasevic published in Pravi Odgovor, a periodical dealing with issues of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP).
The statement claims Jovasevic protested at the hiring of Kosovo Serbs by the local public authorities when 13,500 Kraljevo citizens are listed a jobless.
The Humanitarian Law Centre quoted the mayor:
"The Kosovo Serbs have brought with them some customs and habits which are directly opposed to the customs and mentality of the local population. They have brought a large quantity of weapons, which is now in the refugee centres. Many of them have brought large sums of money, either from selling their property or looting, and are buying up houses, apartments and business premises. At the same time, they receive relief aid in food from the Red Cross, most of which ends up being sold up at the marketplaces. All this irritates the people of Kraljevo and I'm afraid of the possibility of major clashes."
The Centre statement warned that the local population already resents the Serbs from Kosovo and other refugees, blaming them for the drop in the standard of living, the mounting crime rate and violence in schools.
"Ljubisa Jovasevic is the mayor of all the inhabitants of Kraljevo, including the refugees and IDPs," said the statement. "If he openly demonstrates intolerance toward some of his fellow-citizens, the tension in the town, already high, could erupt into violence."

Albanian families evicted at gunpoint, says witness
B92
THE HAGUE, Friday - A witness in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic has told the court how Kosovo Albanian families were evicted from their homes at gunpoint by Serb forces in 1999.
"The Serb police knocked on the door and gave us five minutes to leave for Albania. Anyone left behind would be shot," Kosovo Albanian teacher Xhafer Beqari told the UN tribunal in the Hague.
Beqari said he and his family were escorted by Serbian police and military to the Albanian border.
"We were in danger and we didn't know what was happening to us. They made gestures of cutting our throats and they insulted us," he testified.
Milosevic, during his cross-examination, was reprimanded by presiding judge Richard May for repeatedly asking the witness if he thought the exodus was caused by the 11-wekk NATO bombing campaign.
"Mr Milosevic you might not like the evidence you are getting, but there's no point arguing about it," May told him

Several indictees discussing surrender, reports
BELGRADE, Friday - A number of indicted war crimes suspects have contacted the federal justice ministry today to discuss their voluntary surrender, Radio B92 reports.
According to B92's source within the ministry, final agreement has not yet been reached with any of the Hague indictees but intensive negotiations are continuing.
B92 reports that although the government's deadline for indictees to surrender officially expires at 12 on Saturday, the offer will remain open until noon on Monday.
The state has said it will offer guarantees for the temporary release of all indictees who voluntarily surrender. "We won't withhold from any of them the right to receive guarantees in the event they make contact a few hours late," said B92's source.

Berlin backs closer ties between Yugoslavia and EU
(B92)
BERLIN, Friday - German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has pledged Berlin's full support for Yugoslavia's attempts toward European and international integration.
Following a meeting in Berlin with his Yugoslav counterpart, Fischer said Germany supported Yugoslavia's bid to join the Council of Europe and the Partnership for Peace, as well as to begin negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU.
He welcomed Belgrade's adoption of a law on cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal as "a decisive step," and called for its full implementation.
Fischer hailed the agreement on the new state of Serbia and Montenegro as "a factor of stability for the entire region."
Germany will "support Yugoslavia on the road to inclusion in the European Union and transatlantic structures," he said.

Del Ponte announces probe into former Kosovo rebels
(B92)
PRISTINA, Friday - The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague is investigating three former members of the disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, the court's chief prosecutor announced today in Pristina.
Carla del Ponte refused to name three ethnic Albanians but said she was certain one would be indicted by the end of this year. The prosecutor said she hoped the investigations into the other would also be completed within the year.
Belgrade has repeatedly called on the tribunal to investigate alleged crimes committed against the province's minority Serb population.
Del Ponte made the announcement following talks with the head of the United Nations administration in Kosovo, Michael Steiner. The Kosovo governor said the tribunal would have the full support of UNMIK.
Del Ponte is currently in talks with Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi, and will later meet President Ibrahim Rugova, as well as the speaker of the Kosovo parliament and the commander of the international peacekeeping force.

NATO planning troop cuts in Kosovo and Bosnia
BRUSSELS, Friday - NATO is planning to pull at least 10,000 soldiers from its 58,000-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo and Bosnia, according to officials at Alliance headquarters in Brussels.
NATO defence ministers will give the official go ahead in Brussels in early June, reports AFP.
"We already have recommendations from NATO's military experts on the table, and we are examining them," one NATO official said, requesting anonymity. "We intend to stay in the region, but we want to be more efficient about it."
One source said that KFOR, the peacekeeping force deployed in Kosovo following the NATO bombing, would be cut by some 5,000 troops. Another said a quarter of the total 40,000-strong force could be withdrawn by June 2003.
AFP reports that NATO wants to reduce the number of operational sectors in the Yugoslav province from five to three. "At the present time, splitting KFOR into five brigades no longer reflects the mission on the ground. It corresponds to the situation at the time the soldiers arrived in June 1999," a NATO diplomat explained. (AFP)

Jovanovic: surrender talks in progress

(Beta)
BELGRADE, Friday - Serbian government officials are in contact with individuals indicted by the Hague Tribunal with regards their possible surrender, a senior member of the governing coalition said today.
Cedomir Jovanovic, a deputy leader in Zoran Djindjic's Democratic Party, said the relevant republic bodies were in contact with war crimes suspects wanted by the UN tribunal.
Jovanovic said he could not say whether "these persons" would respond to the government's invitation and turn themselves in within the three-day deadline. (Srna)

Grenade attack in south Serbia
PRESEVO, Friday - Unknown assailants threw a hand grenade at a café in the south Serbian town of Presevo last night, Belgrade's Coordination Centre for the region said today.
A statement from the centre claimed a "Chinese-made hand grenade" was tossed into the building shortly before 1.00am. The brother of the owner was inside at the time but escaped unhurt. The explosion caused significant material damage, the statement said.
The statement said that Vranje district court was conducting an investigation into "this terrorist act" with the participation of the Coordination centre and representatives of the EU and OSCE missions.

Djindjic to meet Blair on Tuesday
(Beta)
BELGRADE, Friday - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic will meet Tony Blair next week during a two-day visit to London.
On Monday, a delegation of the Serbian government will talk with foreign office officials and representatives of British investors. Djindjic will then meet the British prime minister on Tuesday.
He will be joined on the trip by Trade Minister Slobodan Milosavljevic and Foreign Economic Relations Minister Goran Pitic.
The Serbian premier is due to give a lecture at the London School of Economics entitled "Serbia on the road to Europe."

1,000 missing in Croatian army offensives, says Zagreb
(FoNet)
RIJEKA, Friday - A Croatian government official has said that according to latest information, 1,001 persons went missing during and after the 1995 Croatian army offensives "Flash" and "Storm."
Colonel Ivan Grujic, the head of the government's bureau for missing and captives, said the figure was arrived at by comparing information from the International Committee for the Red Cross and the Croatian Red Cross.
The number proves wrong the "absolutely unacceptable" figures banded about by "certain non-governmental organisations and other states" of up to 5,000 missing, said Grujic.

No one is above the law, says Kosovo premier
PRISTINA, Friday - Kosovo's prime minister told the BBC today that all those who committed war crimes must be brought to justice.
"We uphold one principle that no one can be above the law. If someone committee a crime it will atoned for," Bajram Rexhepi told the BBC Serbian-language service.
He nevertheless pointed out that war crimes issues were under the jurisdiction of the United Nations administration, not his government.
The prime minister is due to meet the UN's chief war crimes prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia today. Carla del Ponte will also hold talks with President Ibrahim Rugova and UNMIK chief Michael Steiner.

Djindjic: Karadzic and Mladic beyond Serbia's grasp
(Beta)
FRANKFURT, Friday - Serbia's prime minister said today it is up to international forces to arrest the Hague's most wanted - Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
Zoran Djindjic, in an interview for a Frankfurt newspaper, claimed Serbia was not in a position to seize the former Bosnian Serb leader. Serbia has just 20,000 poorly armed police, he said, pointing out that the 50,000-strong stabilisation force in Bosnia has had five years to track them down.
Prosecutors at the UN war crimes court believe former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic is in Serbia, under the protection of the Yugoslav army. Belgrade again denied the claims yesterday during the visit of chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte.

Svilanovic meets German counterpart
Beta
BERLIN, Friday - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic meets his German counterpart today in Berlin to discuss bilateral cooperation and Yugoslavia's integration with Europe.
Svilanovic and Joschka Fischer will also discuss the situation in the Balkans.

Spasic: International community "blind" to Serb tragedy
(FoNet)
BELGRADE, Friday - An association of families of missing Serbs in Kosovo has accused the international community of being "blind" to their tragedy, following talks yesterday with the chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal.
Association head Simo Spasic said Carla del Ponte had failed to offer any answers.
"They owe us many answers, but didn't tell us anything. The international community is blind to our tragedy," he last night.
Over 1,300 Serbs are believed still missing from the conflict in Kosovo.

Del Ponte in Pristina
(B92)
BELGRADE, Friday - The chief prosecutor at the Hague Tribunal travels to Pristina today where she will meet local leaders and international officials.
Carla del Ponte is due to meet the head of the UN administration, Michael Steiner, the commander of the KFOR international peacekeeping force, Marsel Valentin, and the president and prime minister of the province, Ibrahim Rugova and Ibrahim Rexhepi.
During her trip to Belgrade yesterday, the chief prosecutor held talks with the head of Belgrade's Coordination Centre for Kosovo, Nebojsa Covic.
Covic told Studio B last night that he expected "progress" in Kosovo and for all those who committed crimes, "regardless of nationality," to be transferred to the UN war crimes tribunal.
He said it was "absurd" to believe only Serbs were responsible for the crimes committed in the province. - "They were on all sides," said the deputy Serbian prime minister.

A model of nation-building?
Economist
From The Economist Global Agenda
Xanana Gusmao's landslide victory in East Timor's presidential election marks an important step on the road to formal independence next month. The United Nations, which has been running East Timor as a protectorate since Indonesia's chaotic withdrawal in September 1999, managed a smoothly-conducted and peaceful election. The UN operation is seen in some quarters as an unmitigated success and a potential model for other exercises in "nation-building". This is only partly true
XANANA Gusmao, guerilla fighter, resistance hero, political prisoner and national icon, will make an enormously popular if reluctant president. He will take office when the country achieves statehood on May 20th. Just two and a half years after Indonesia pulled out, leaving it thoroughly trashed, East Timor seems ready to start life as an independent nation with the rare blessings of political cohesion and almost universally admired leadership.
For the United Nations, this looks a triumph. Of recent international efforts to put failed states or contested territories under some kind of international trusteeship, East Timor seems among the most successful. It is hence tempting to see it as a kind of model for other such operations. But East Timor's situation is so unique that the lessons to be learnt from it may in fact be quite limited.
A first reason for this is symbolised by Mr Gusmao himself, with his enormous popularity, and his consistent emphasis on reconciliation rather than revenge. In Sunday's elections he won 83% of the votes. His opponent at the polls, Francisco Xavier do Amaral was the country's president for 10 days in 1975, between declaring itself independent after Portugal, the colonial power, abandoned it, and being invaded by Indonesia. He only stood in these elections, he said, to ensure there was at least a token choice.
Mr. Gusmao himself for many years swore he would never accept high political office, on the ground that "good resistance leaders don't make good presidents". As it is, his powers will be limited, and shared with a legislature elected last August, dominated by Fretilin, the party that led political resistance to the Indonesian occupation. Mr Gusmao was once a Fretilin member but has of late been squabbling with it.
Even so, the vote for Mr Gusmao demonstrates more than just the power of his personal charisma. It is also evidence of a shared sense of national identity and purpose that survived-and was in large measure forged by-the Indonesian occupation. Other war-torn territories, notably Afghanistan, do not have this advantage, but are riven by social, ethnic, and religious tensions.
Second, the role which foreign "nation-builders" in East Timor should play was made clearer-if more daunting-by the sheer extent of the arson, vandalism and looting that accompanied the Indonesian withdrawal. Indonesia took with it the people needed to run an administration, but also destroyed much of the country's infrastructure. The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) had to start from scratch.
A recent study of "the international administration of war-torn territories"*, published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London think-tank, compares the experience of four places that have recently been, in effect, under international trusteeship: East Timor, and three in the Balkans-Eastern Slavonia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The study's argument is that such transitional administrations work better when they are "in possession of full executive, as opposed to supervisory authority", though they should devolve as much responsibility to the local population as feasible.
In East Timor, there was little local or foreign resistance to giving UNTAET such sweeping powers. There was no choice. The country was wrecked; some 300,000 refugees had fled or been driven out (even now, more than 50,000 are still in squalid camps across the border in Indonesian-ruled West Timor); and, at first, the Indonesian-backed militias that had wreaked this havoc still posed a security threat.
But it is debatable that there are many other countries where the sort of comprehensive foreign administrations seen in, say, Kosovo and, especially, East Timor, could be replicated. East Timor only has about 800,000 people and even so has stretched the UN's human resources. Afghanistan, to take the most obvious example of a failed state, has a population of over 20m. Not only might foreign countries be unwilling to pay for an UNTAET-style operation in Afghanistan, its task would also be complicated by the competing demands of neighbouring countries and the local factions they support.
But even if international administrations with the sweeping powers possessed by UNTAET will be rarities, foreign trusteeship in some form seems to be becoming more common. As the IISS paper points out, such arrangements have been suggested at various times for places as diverse as Somalia, Kashmir, Sierra Leone, and the city of Jerusalem, as well as Afghanistan.
In his election campaign in 2000, President George Bush was dismissive of the previous American administration's involvement in "nation-building". Even last year, his chief foreign-policy adviser, Condoleezza Rice, sounded scornful about the sort of work involved in cleaning up after a conflict and putting a country back on its feet: "We don't need to have the Eighty-Second Airborne escorting kids to kindergarten." But the administration has since changed its emphasis. In a speech on April 17th, Mr Bush went so far, in the context of Afghanistan, as to invoke the name of George Marshall, architect of the lavish American plan for the reconstruction of Europe after the second world war. Even critics of "nation-building" have recognised there is little alternative to extensive foreign involvement in the rebuilding of failed states, if they are not to become international liabilities and, potentially, breeding grounds for terrorists.
So it would not be true to say that future operations have nothing to learn from UNTAET. But the lessons may be more mundane, to do with providing them with the right sort of staff and resources. Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of UNTAET, has complained that his mission had arrived with "a bunch of generalists", when what he needed were people with experiences of the nuts and bolts of running public services. "An inadequate number of UN personnel with inadequate means work long hours at fire-fighting and improvising, while trying to uphold the good name of the UN," he has complained. Remedying that particular problem, at least, should not be beyond the wit or means of the international community.
*"A New Trusteeship? The international administration of war-torn territories", Richard Caplan, Adelphi Paper 341, IISS 2002

Zoran vs world: entrepreneur in transition
By Sam Vaknin
UPI Senior Business Correspondent
SKOPJE, Macedonia, April 11 (UPI) -- Technologically, it is probably the most advanced printing facility in the Balkans. It cost almost $2.5 million. It was constructed in less than a year. And it is in dirt-poor, war-torn Macedonia.
Behind this incredible tale of entrepreneurship, uncommon in these nether-regions, stands Zoran Rosomanov. A stereotypical visionary -- mane, blazing eyes, imposing physique -- this man, against nightmarish odds undreamt of by his Western counterparts, constructed, single-handedly, an impressive, Star-Trek like, factory.
Literally single handedly: digging the muddy soil, hoisting bricks onto cranes, driving earth-removal heavy machinery. He begged, cajoled, and persevered. And he made it. His story serves a lesson to all the forlorn dreamers in the sad countries of the East.
Thirty-six-year old Zoran represents a new breed of "can-do" businessmen in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. His philosophy is the outcome of first-hand exposure to Western management techniques and ideology. He does not rely on the state to provide for him or for his enterprise. He actively seeks foreign inputs -- in capital, contacts, and know-how. He is well-traveled, polyglot, affluent, a consumerist. He is enamored with technology and gadgets.
Still, he likes to think of himself as a creator, or an artist -- rather than a money machine. He emphasizes the design-related portions of his company. He brags of his hobbies: photography, interior design and music. His home and office serve to advertise not his wealth -- but his aesthetically informed talents. He is smartly dressed and well mannered, indistinguishable from his colleagues in the West. Though he loves Macedonia, his homeland, he is, in essence, a citizen of the world.
Zoran started off as a TV music editor in the Macedonian state-owned channel. The highlight of this brief phase in his career was a human-rights concert in Budapest. But he soon discovered his true calling: business. He joined a Belgrade-based musical instruments trading firm as a traveling salesman. At the age of 21, he was put in charge of 185 people as head of the Sales Department.
But Yugoslavia was disintegrating. Yugoslavs lost their common identity overnight and woke up as Macedonians, Croats, Serbs, or Bosnians. Zoran went back to Skopje, where he opened, with his savings, a chain of 11 stores of electronic consumer goods.
He noticed that how you sell is at least as important as what you sell. He discovered marketing. After a stint of studies in Milan, Italy, he came back to Macedonia and, in 1992 he established "Divajn" (pronounced "Divine")
"I noticed that everyone in Italy asked me about Macedonia. They were interested. So, I decided to connect people," he said.
The company was the first to offer a vertical, marketing-campaign orientated service: from poster ads to sales force, a turnkey solution.
He also noticed that, the paperless office notwithstanding, there was a great demand for paper products. In a typical move, Zoran bought an expensive computer and began to design such products for his contacts.
"But I noticed that, following a first satisfactory order, they circumvented me and went directly to the printer."
So, he decided to become a printer as well -- by merging with a print shop. He placed an ad and settled on one of the applicants. They have been inseparable ever since. Their joint company, "Bato and Divajn." owns the new facility and Zoran's partner supervises the daily work there.
"Wealth is in people -- not in money", says Zoran.
His secretary has been with him for 11 years. Miki, the talented head of the pre-press division and quality control, has been working with him for a decade. Zoran values loyalty. He trains his staff personally. Every single one of his 40 workers (soon to increase to 55) has gone through a 6-month period of apprenticeship. Then they are on their own.
"I believe in delegating," says Zoran, "though I never lose sight of the details. And I am very demanding."
When the combined business expanded, Zoran needed new machines. He tried to find investors, both domestic and foreign, but failed. So, he approached a friend of a friend in Holland. The friend owned an envelope factory and was interested in selling one of the used machines for about $180,000.
With typical irresistible gall, Zoran offered him $13,000 as an advance payment.
"I will pay you the rest over 3 years" -- he pledged earnestly.
"What is your guarantee?" asked the shocked seller. "Your trust," responded Zoran. The stunned Dutchman accepted. Zoran paid him back in two years.
This pattern of unmitigated self-confidence, infectious optimism, and non-conformism pervades Zoran's way of doing business. He won an order for a million labels simply by waltzing in and producing samples he scanned off empty beer bottles. He is now the exclusive printer for this brewery.
Last April, as he was visiting another client -- his firm supplies all the Macedonian blue-chip companies -- he overheard a discussion about problems with a Slovenian supplier.
"If I were to establish my own factory here, will you buy from me?" he asked.
They said "yes," and so did many others.
"It was my market research," he grins. Why import from Slovenia if there is a quality alternative in one's backyard?
Zoran is a great believer in import substitution and buying local. It is not only patriotic, but it makes economic sense.
He proceeded forthwith to find land. His firm designed the construction project. All he lacked was the printing presses. He had less than $100,000 in cash. He needed another $2.4 million. Others in an economy like Macedonia would have regarded this deficiency as insurmountable. Not Zoran. He decided to get the best equipment money could buy, and that meant "Heidelberg." So, he picked up the phone and called Alexander Hufnagel, Heidelberg's director of East Europe. When he asked to buy on credit, they naturally demanded a bank guarantee. Zoran prepared a business plan and went to Komercijalna Banka, Macedonia's second-largest retail bank.
He asked for $1 million, partly from International Finance Corporation funds dedicated to small and medium enterprises.
Macedonia's economy has been in dire straits since long before its independence in 1992. Nearly one-third of the workforce are unemployed. The heavily politicized and under-capitalized banking system is largely dysfunctional. Lending to business is almost at a standstill. Zoran's was an unprecedented application.
When Zoran dug the first foundations in an industrial park at the outskirts of Skopje, a civil war between Macedonians and Albanians had erupted. Fighter planes and helicopters buzzed above his head, as police and army streamed to the Aracinovo, a besieged village, not far from the site. There was palpable panic in the air.
Komercijalna Banka asked for collateral and Zoran offered the new equipment.
"Title will revert to me only when I finish paying you", he explained.
Unbeknownst to him he has reinvented leasing. He then turned around and offered Komercijalna's money to Heidelberg as his equity. After a grueling few days of due diligence, Heidelberg agreed to give him supplier credit amounting to the rest. They asked him to guarantee the credit personally. He willingly accepted.
Zoran then proceeded to convince them to establish a maintenance center, replete with spare parts, in his new factory.
"I don't charge them rent," he discloses impishly "My machines must work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is useful to have a maintenance crew and spare parts handy." The next logical step is to become their representative in Macedonia. "I am working on it. But I want them to provide me with revolving credit so as to be able to offer financing together with the equipment."
However, this financial wizardry has depleted Zoran's resources. He resorted to an old communist stratagem: the barter ("compensation" in East European argot). He traded print jobs for building materials. It was one of the worst arctic winters in memory with temperatures often dropping to way below freezing point. But construction continued, the shivering workers spurred on by Zoran's personal example.
When the equipment finally arrived, Zoran was presented with a $450,000 bill -- for Macedonia's newly imposed Value Added Tax. In a complex financial somersault, Zoran borrowed against future VAT refunds and overcame this obstacle as well. The NASA-like control panel, the printers, cutters, and templates for different cigarette brands -- all were finally installed in the half completed structure.
"This is my country" -- Zoran toggles an unlit smoke -- "It is beautiful. We just need help. I could never have done it without the help extended to me by Heidelberg, Komercijalna, the IFC, my clients. My wife stood behind me. This network of support is indispensable. There can be no entrepreneurship and initiative without it!"
"Aren't you afraid to fail?" I asked.
"I have no fear. With all our problems, we still must exist. We must survive. Many say I am crazy -- but time will tell who will succeed. You must persevere. If the bank had said no, I would have gone elsewhere. There is always a solution. My advice: get your suppliers involved. Heidelberg now has a stake and they will refer clients to me. I said to them: you want me as a client? Then give me credit!"
"Operating in Macedonia is not easy ... A country should be run like a business and politicians should act like CEO's. Macedonia has the potential to be this region's Switzerland, though it must concentrate on exploiting its natural endowments: climate and soil. Agri-business is its future. All we have to do is encourage foreign investment by safeguarding property rights and overhauling the court system and law enforcement. We have to learn from foreign investors and emulate them."
"But foreign investors are potentially your competitors ..."
He tilts his head back and laughs uproariously: "The Slovenians tried to arm-twist my clients, slander me, and spy on my operations. I can now easily compete with them in the Serb market. My transport costs are much lower. My machinery is so advanced that I can work for the strictest multinational anywhere from Switzerland to Turkey. We are getting the ISO quality certificate shortly. So, they are scared. What has been my response? I bought more land for future expansion ..."

Trading from a suitcase: Shuttle trading
By Sam Vaknin
Senior Business Correspondent
SKOPJE, Macedonia, April 3 (UPI) -- They all sport the same shabby clothes, haggard looks, and bulging suitcases bound with frayed ropes. These are the shuttle traders.
You can find them in Mongolia and Russia, China and Ukraine, Bulgaria and Kosovo, the West Bank and Turkey. They cross the border as "tourists," sometimes as often as 10 times a year, and come back with as much merchandise as they can carry in their enormous luggage. Some of them resort to freight forwarding their "personal belongings."
They distort trade figures, smuggle goods across ill-guarded borders, ignore international treaties and conventions and, in short, revive moribund economies. They are the lifeblood and the only manifestation of true entrepreneurship in swathes of economic wastelands. They meet demands for consumer goods unmet by domestic manufacturers or by officially sanctioned importers.
In recognition of their vital role, the worried Kyrgyz government held a roundtable discussion last summer about the precarious state of Kyrgyzstan's shuttle trade. Many former Soviet republics have tightened their borders. In May, Russian officials seized half a million dollars worth of shuttle goods belonging to 1,500 traders. When two million dollars worth of goods was confiscated in a similar incident last fall, eight Kyrgyz traders committed suicide.
The number of Kyrgyz shuttle traders dropped to 300,000 from 500,000 in 1996. Most of those left are insolvent and many immigrated to other countries. The shuttle traders asked the government to legalize and regulate their vanishing trade and save them from avaricious customs officials.
Even prim international financial institutions recognize the survival value of shuttle trade to the economies of developing and transition countries. It employs millions, boosts investments in transport and infrastructure, and encourages grassroots capitalism. The International Monetary Fund, in the 11th meeting of its Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics in 1998, officially recognized shuttle trade as a business activity to be recorded under "goods."
But there is a seedier and seamier side to shuttle trade where it entwines with organized crime and official corruption. Shuttle trade also constitutes unfair competition to legitimate, tax- and customs duties-paying enterprises -- manufacturers of textiles, shoes, cigarettes, alcoholic drinks, and food products. Shuttled goods are not subject to health and safety inspections, nor quality control.
According to the March 27 issue of East West Institute's Russian Regional Report, the value of Chinese goods shuttled into the borderlands of the Russian Far East is a whopping $50 million a month. China benefits from the serendipitous proceeds of these informal exports but is unhappy at the lost tax revenues.
The East West Institute claims Russian banks in the region, such as DalOVK, Primsotsbank, and Regiobank, are already offering money transfer services to China. DalOVK alone transfers $1 million a month -- a fortune in local terms. But even these figures may be a serious underestimate. The trade between Khabarovsk Territory in Russia and Heilongjiang Province in China -- most of it in shuttle form -- was $1.5 billion in 2001. The bulk of it was one way, from China to Russia.
Shuttle trade is even more prominent between Iraq and Turkey. The Anatolia News Agency expects it to increase to $2 billion this year. By comparison, the official exports of Turkey to Iraq amount to $800 million. Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit himself told the Ankara Anatolia news agency, "We have provided necessary support to increase shuttle trade".
The Economist details the flourishing "petty trade" between China and Vietnam. Western and counterfeit goods are smuggled to bazaars in Vietnam, which are owned and operated by Chinese nationals. The border between these two erstwhile enemies opened in 1990. This led to the rise of criminal networks that involve border guards and policemen.
Another hot spot is the Balkans. In a report dated July 2001, the Balkans Information Exchange describes the "Tulip Market" in Istanbul. Vendors are fluent in Russian, Bulgarian and Romanian and most of the clients are Eastern European. They buy wholesale and use special vans and buses to transport the goods, mainly textiles, north -- frequently to destinations in the Balkans. This kind of trade is estimated to be worth $8 billion a year, more than one quarter of Turkey's official exports.
Bulgarian customs officials, border patrols, and police officers form part of these efficient rings, as do their Macedonian and, to a lesser extent, Greek counterparts. The Sofia-based Center for the Study of Democracy thinks that a third of the Bulgarian workforce, approximately 1 million people, may be involved. Many of the traders maintain mom-and-pop establishments or stalls in public bazaars, where members of their family sell the goods.
Some of the merchandise ends up in Serbia, which had been subject to U.N. sanctions until lately. Fuel smuggling and other forms of sanctions busting have largely ended but smugglers have now turned to cigarettes, alcohol, firearms, stolen cars, and mobile phones.
The Serbian authorities often round up and deport Bulgarian shuttle traders, provoking furious resentment in Bulgaria. Headlines like "(Serbian) policemen take away our countrymen's money" and "Serbs searching (Bulgarian) women's genitals for money" are pretty common. The Bulgarians are embittered. They used to smuggle medicines and fuel into embargoed Serbia -- only to be abused by Serb officials, now that the embargo has been lifted.
East European buyers used to reach as far as India where they shopped wholesale in winter. Russians used to buy readymade clothes, leather goods, and cheap jewelry in New Delhi and elsewhere and sell the goods in the numerous flea markets back home.
To finance their purchases, they used to sell Russian cosmetics and consumer goods such as watches, cameras, or hair dryers to Indian buyers. But the 1998 financial crisis and sub-standard wares offered by unscrupulous Indian traders put a stop to this particular venue.
Governments are trying to stem the shuttle trade.
Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reports that Sergei Stepashin, the dynamic chairman of the Russian Audit Chamber, and a former short-lived prime minister of Russia, is bent on tightening the cooperation between member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The audit agencies of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will exchange information and strive to control the thriving shuttle trade across their porous borders. China and Russia are poised to sign a bilateral accord regarding these issues in October.
The WPS Monitoring Agency reported in November that the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Russia intends to treat cargos of more than 50 kilos as a consignment of commercial goods, subject to import tariffs on top of the current tax of 30 percent.
The ministry claimed shuttle trade accounts for as much as 90 percent of all imported goods "in certain spheres," such as furs. As late as 1994, Russians were allowed to import up to $5,000 of duty-free goods in their accompanied baggage -- a relic of communist days when only the privileged few were allowed to travel.
As many as 2 million Russian citizens may be engaged in shuttle trade and the value of 'gray' goods may be as high as $10 billion annually. Goods from Turkey alone amounted to $1.5 billion to $2 billion, according to Vice Premier Viktor Khristenko, but shuttle traders also operate in the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Israel, Pakistan, India, China, Poland, Hungary, and Italy.
A set of figures published for the first quarter of 2001 shows shuttle trade amounted to $2.6 billion, or 8 percent of Russia's total foreign trade. Shuttle traded goods made up 1.5 percent of exports -- but a full quarter of imports.
But the shuttle trade's coup de grace may well be EU enlargement. Already a new "iron curtain," comprised of visas and regulations, is rising between EU candidates and other East European and Balkan countries.
Consider the EU's future eastern boundary. More than a million people cross the busy Ukrainian-Polish border every month. Enhanced regulation on the Polish side and new, IMF-inspired, tax laws on the Ukrainian side led to a massive increase in corruption and smuggling. Truck owners already bribe customs officials to the tune of $300 per vehicle, according to a January 2001 report by CEPS.
The results are grave. Following the introduction of these new measures, cross-border traffic fell by 50 percent and unemployment in the Polish border zones jumped by 40 percent. It has since doubled. The IMF and the European Union are much derided by the Polish minority now trapped in Western Ukraine.
The situation is likely to be further exacerbated with the foreseen introduction of a reciprocal visa regime between the two countries. Shuttle trade may be decimated by the resulting bureaucratic bottlenecks.
It may not be needed by the time Poland accedes in 2004 or 2005. Shuttle trade thrives on poverty. It arbitrates between inefficient markets. It satisfies unrequited demand for goods. The single market ought to rid Europe of all these distortions -- and, thus, most probably of this makeshift though resilient solution, the shuttle trader.

Del Ponte Says She "Now Expects Results" in Yugoslavia
Balkans Times
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Chief UN Prosecutor Carla del Ponte says she is prepared to wait and see whether any Yugoslav war crimes indictees heed the government's 20 April deadline for surrender. Del Ponte spent Thursday in Belgrade meeting with Federal Justice Minister Savo Markovic. She commended the adoption of the federal law on war crimes co-operation but asserted, "We are now expecting first results from the law." Markovic says they also discussed issuing indictments against former Kosovo Liberation Army officials.
A local court in Serbia, meanwhile, charged a Serbian soldier with war crimes in connection with the 1999 killings of two ethnic Albanians. Ivan Nikolic had previously been indicted for murder, but the charges were changed to war crimes.
In Sarajevo, US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Pierre-Richard Prosper told reporters that the United States and NATO were committed to finding indictees and bringing them to justice. He warned that Republika Srpska will continue to suffer the consequences of international isolation until the entity starts co-operating. (FoNet - 19/04/02; AP, AFP, Reuters, Tanjug - 18/04/02)

Robertson Pledges Continued International Commitment to Bosnia
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) -- NATO Secretary General George Robertson wrapped up a two-day visit to Bosnia Friday (19 April), during which he tried to reassure those concerned about anticipated cuts in SFOR. "NATO will remain in big enough numbers, with sufficient flexibility, to be strong enough and robust enough to make sure that the violence that started and continued in the 1990s does not start again," he said. Robertson urged BiH authorities to continue implementing military reforms in order to receive full membership in the Partnership for Peace programme. He called on the governments of the two entities to reduce their armed forces, saying it was "scandalous" for the country to spend 10 per cent of its budget on the army. The international community envisages a single army.

Announcement of BiH Election Date Postponed
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) -- The announcement of the date of BiH general elections has been postponed, after the two entity parliaments failed to adopt constitutional amendments by the Thursday (18 April) deadline set by Wolfgang Petritsch. Earlier this week, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) conditioned holding the elections on 5 October, as initially scheduled, on the passage of these amendments which ensure equal status to all peoples. Under the BiH Election Law, the election date should be announced no later than 170 days before the vote itself.
Although approved by the House of Peoples of the Federation of BiH's (FBiH) Parliament, the draft constitutional changes were rejected by the House of Representatives, as the nationalist Bosniak Party of Democratic Action and the Croatian Democratic Union of BiH refused to grant their support. The draft never even made it on parliament's agenda in the other entity, Republika Srpska. Petritsch will now decide the next step the international community can take.

US Envoy Calls on Macedonia to Pass Legislation Related to Ohrid
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- US envoy James Holmes called Thursday (18 April) for the urgent passage of key laws envisaged in the Ohrid peace agreement. He stressed that the legislative package should be passed before parliamentary elections this fall. He also strongly condemned the recent acts of violence within Macedonia's ethnic Albanian bloc, and urged all political leaders to explicitly condemn violence, adding that there is no difference whether the violence is multiethnic or occurs within one ethnic group. "Violence is violence and should be rejected," Holmes said.
In other news, war crimes investigators exhumed the bodies of a child and an elderly man in the village of Ljuboten near Skopje. Local residents insist they were murdered by Macedonian troops during last year's fighting. Investigators have so far excavated eight graves containing the remains of ethnic Albanian civilians. They are to release their initial findings within a week.

Regional Co-operation Key in Series of Meetings
SNAGOV, Romania -- President Ion Iliescu met Friday (19 April) with his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov and Greek Prime Minister Simitas Costas, as part of the regional co-operation initiative within the Southeast European Co-operation Process. The talks were to focus on economic collaboration, efforts to increase security and stability and Greek support for Romania and Bulgaria's Euro Atlantic integration.
Meanwhile, Thursday, Greece hosted a conference that included the prime ministers of Albania and Macedonia. They stressed that economic development is the key to building stability in the Balkans, and called for more economic assistance from international institutions, coupled with closer co-operation at the regional level. But as Albanian Prime Minister Pandeli Majko focused on his government's commitment to fight organised crime, the newspaper of his Socialist Party ran a story describing trafficking and pervasive smuggling in Albania, complete with a mafia wielding substantial influence over politicians.
The defence ministers of Bulgaria and Macedonia met in Athens, and discussed whether Sofia might supply Skopje with weaponry and a radar station, and train Macedonian officers. (Nine O'clock, ACT Media Daily Bulletin, Dnevnik - 19/04/02; Rompres, Mediafax, BTA, AP, AFP, MIA - 18/04/02)

Croatia Speeds up Legal Reforms Under EU Association Agreement
ZAGREB, Croatia -- The government adopted a report on implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU during a regular session Thursday (18 April). Some 68 measures have been implemented in the past three months, but EU Integration Minister Neven Mimica urged Croatia to speed up the process and adopt 73 new legal acts related by the end of June. Mimica stressed that the progress benchmarks with deadlines of June and December would be crucial.
In a related story, Croatia organised an international conference on the SAA Thursday. Domestic and international experts urged Zagreb to accelerate reforms in state administrations and learn from the experiences of more advanced applicant countries. (Vjesnik, Vecernji List - 19/04/02; HINA - 18/04/02)

Society: Minority Returns Increase in Bosnia and Herzegovina
By Beth Kampschror for Balkan Times in Sarajevo - 19/04/02
Their new house is just the basics right now -- unplastered orange bricks and carpets laid directly on top of the cement floor -- but the Gajices are overjoyed to have come back to their tiny northern Bosnian village after nearly seven years as refugees.
"In our own place it's beautiful," said Ljubica Gajic of being back in Borice, 25 km west of Tuzla. "The tears come, but they're tears of joy."
Mrs. Gajic and her husband Vaskrsije are part of an increasing number of minority returnees -- refugees displaced by the 1992-1995 war that have returned to areas in which they are now a minority ethnic group. The Bosnian war left 200,000 dead and forced 2.2 million citizens, over half of the country's population, to flee their homes.
Under pressure from international agencies in BiH, local authorities have pressed on with the eviction of illegal occupants, thus enabling pre-war owners to repossess their property. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), minority returns made up about 90 per cent of the 100,000 returns in 2001. The number has been increasing every year since 1999.
The Gajices recently returned to what used to be a 35-house village in the municipality's largest Serb community. Most of the men worked in factories in nearby Lukavac, did a bit of farming and raised livestock. The Federation Army overran the area in 1995. Many of the original villagers fled to Doboj, a few kilometres away in Republika Srpska (RS).
But where only a year ago the valley was a wasteland of destroyed houses, plum orchards are in bloom and two-story orange brick houses are in various stages of construction along the gravel road. The works are part of an International Rescue Committee (IRC) project. IRC field co-ordinator Ivica Nisandzic said IRC tried to propose a project here in 1998 but many people were not interested in coming back.
"But then there was still the Federation Army here," said Vaskrsije Gajic, of when he first visited the ruined village in 1996. Time and moving from place to place in RS, however, made a difference.
"We always felt humiliated [living] on someone else's property, because the biggest riches are the ones that are your own," he said. Among their riches are two pigs and a cow in a small barn. Just under a dozen half-grown chicks scratch around outside.
Others throughout BiH don't want to return home. In some areas, minority returnees face discrimination or even violent attacks. But jobs and education are many returnees' main concerns, said a couple that once again lives down the road from the Gajices.
"[Those who have] children that need to go to school won't come back," said Dusan Tomic, who left Borice in 1993. He said one of his former neighbours wants to stay in Doboj so his children can go to school there.
Tomic's wife Mirjana said that for those that have returned, life is resuming where it left off before the war."One morning [the neighbours] are at our house, another morning we're at theirs," she said.
"These are our former neighbours and cousins, and we're living nicely and in friendship like we did before. We help each other and work together," Vaskrsije Gajic said.

Montenegro PM quits in row over independence

Ljubinka Cagorovic in Podgorica
Saturday April 20, 2002 
The Montenegrin prime minister, Filip Vujanovic, resigned yesterday, bowing to pressure from the Liberal Alliance party, which withdrew its support from his minority government in protest at a decision to shelve independence plans for the coastal Yugoslav republic.
Mr Vujanovic wrote in a resignation letter to President Milo Djukanovic, a close ally: "The government was left without support from the Liberals and, therefore, without a majority in parliament."
Under pressure from the European Union, which wants an end to Balkan disintegration, the two men signed a deal last month to keep Montenegro in a single state with its larger neighbour Serbia for at least another three years.
His resignation, which brings down the whole government, was widely expected. The Liberals announced soon after the agreement was signed that they would withdraw their support, and another small pro-independence party left the government last week.
But the Liberals have also indicated that they would be willing to take part in talks on the formation of a fresh government, and analysts believe that a new coalition involving the parties now in power is more likely than an early general election.
Dragan Soc, leader of the opposition People's party, said the fact that the prime minister had quit at the Liberals' insistence showed that the Djukanovic camp was anxious to placate the key party in the hope of forming a new administration with them.
"Mr Djukanovic wants to avoid elections at all costs," he said.
Montenegro, which has a population of about 650,000, distanced itself from Serbia while Slobodan Milosevic was Yugoslav president.
After he was overthrown in 2000, Mr Djukanovic plotted a course for independence.
But the west feared that Montenegrin independence might trigger fresh breakaway moves in Kosovo, Bosnia and Macedonia.
Under the deal signed last month, Yugoslavia is to be renamed simply Serbia and Montenegro, and each of the member republics will be given broad autonomy But the details have yet to be worked out.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Albanian postal service knew no borders
Financial Times
By RONALD BEST 04/20/2002
Sir, I was fascinated by Simon Kuper's article "Albania's new model army of post orphans" (FT Weekend April 13-14).
I went to Tirana in April 1987, a time when it was difficult to get a visa (we got ours via the Albanian Office/Delegation in Paris) and flew via Titograd in (then) Yugoslavia. As we crossed the border, on foot, in the middle of the night, all possessions were scrutinised and all printed matter taken from us (for return as we left - and this was done to the letter). We were told we would not be able to take any literature or printed papers out of Albania.
This was a time when there was virtually nothing there. A colleague commented on how clean the streets were, but this was because there literally was nothing to throw away. He bought cigarettes, for example, loose - available upwards from one single cigarette.
Enver Hoxha (pronounced "Hodger") could have been the name of the country. One stayed in a Hoxha Hotel, in Hoxha Strasse, by Hoxha Square etc etc, so on finding one of his many books (Laying Foundations of the New Albania) printed in English I asked how I might get it home if I bought it.
"Post it," was the reply.
"How?" I asked. "One cannot purchase any packing materials."
"We can do it," said my translator, and we walked to a shop, bought some rope (rope, not string), tied it round and posted it. I couldn't believe I hadn't wasted my money - but when I got home, my book awaited. The stamps and sticky paper bearing my address remain souvenirs.
One hopes their postal services will prosper even more in the future.

Reuters World News
JERUSALEM - The U.N. Security Council voted for a U.N. fact-finding mission on Israel's devastating military assault in the Jenin refugee camp, getting the green light from Israel which said it had nothing to hide.
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JERUSALEM - Besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat offered on Friday to try in a Palestinian court the suspected killers of an Israeli cabinet minister.
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OTTAWA - Canadian and U.S. military police were on the ground in Afghanistan on Friday to find out why a U.S. jet mistakenly bombed and killed four Canadian soldiers as the public here, confronted by the pictures and words of grieving friends and families, clamored for answers.
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WASHINGTON - Finance ministers from the world's wealthiest nations met over dinner at the U.S. Treasury on Friday night for talks that included an update on efforts to curb terror groups' ability to move money, dinner participants said.
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GENEVA - Russia escaped censure of its record in separatist Chechnya on Friday when the U.N.'s top human rights forum defeated an attempt to condemn Moscow for alleged executions, torture and other violations.
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THE HAGUE - Kosovo Albanian families were evicted from their homes at gunpoint by Serb forces during a 1999 crackdown in the disputed province, a witness told Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial on Friday.
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ATLANTA - Scientists and beef industry officials said on Friday there was no reason for U.S. consumers to be concerned about a report that health authorities were investigating the first suspected case of the human form of mad cow disease in the United States.
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CRESCENT CITY - The engineer of an ill-fated Amtrak train in Florida thought he saw damaged track coming up fast just before he hit the emergency brakes and the train derailed, killing four passengers and injuring 159 others, investigators said on Friday.
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STUTTGART, Germany - Germany moved closer to its first major strike in seven years on Friday when wage talks in the engineering industry collapsed, dealing a potential blow to recovery hopes in Europe's largest economy.
ANALYSIS/FEATURES
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NEW YORK - New head of Venezuela's powerful state oil firm, Ali Rodriguez, will have his work cut out to resolve the company's running battle with the Venezuelan government, which this month culminated in President Hugo Chavez' brief removal from power, analysts said.
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AMMAN - Jordan's King Abdullah has come through the most testing period of his three-year reign with an unflinching commitment to the Middle East peace process despite popular anger at Israel, diplomats and analysts say.
PEOPLE/LIFESTYLE
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LOS ANGELES - To some he was an affable, aging celebrity who gave to charity, frequented jazz clubs, shot pool at the Playboy mansion and had a pasta dish named after him at his favorite Italian restaurant.