UN appeals against speeding up return of refugees to Kosovo
SPECIAL ADMINISTRATOR KOUCHNER DISCOURAGES FORCED REPATRIATION
By DAVID BUCHAN
Financial times - April 18, 2000
Bernard Kouchner, the United Nations administrator in Kosovo, has appealed to European governments not to accelerate the return of their Kosovo refugees to a rate the province's strained resources cannot absorb.
In an open letter to governments, Mr Kouchner urged those that have hosted refugees since the Kosovo war last year to "minimise the practice of forced returns" - especially of those from minority communities or with a police record - and to help his UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (Unmik) cope with the reception of the refugees.
Unmik officials yesterday paid tribute to the generosity of countries such as Germany and Switzerland in giving temporary refuge to many Kosovo Albanians last year. They also acknowledged that the arrival of spring made return possible for many refugees.
But officials complained that in recent weeks, Germany and Switzerland have started to return refugees under duress. They included some former prisoners in handcuffs and a few families of the Roma community, which was seen to have sided with Serbs during the war and is thus vulnerable to harassment by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.
Britain, which last year took in about 4,400 refugees under the temporary evacua tion programme, this week indicated it might forcibly repatriate the 3,000 refugees who have not yet returned to Kosovo. The UK has organised an "explore and prepare" programme for refugees to check out the states of their homes in Kosovo, but only a minority of these refugees who have gone out to Kosovo have committed themselves to staying there.
Temporary UK residence permits for the Kosovo refugees will run out this summer, and Jack Straw, the home secretary, has warned that those who overstay their permits could lose benefits and face deportation.
Unmik officials yesterday estimated that as many as 250,000 refugees might still be outside the country.
Meanwhile, the Europeans are stepping up their contribution to reconstruction and security in Kosovo. Javier Solana, the European Union's high representative for foreign policy, and Chris Patten, the European external affairs commissioner, arrived in Kosovo yesterday for two days of talks on better co-ordination of EU aid.
Au Kosovo, l'Eurocorps prend le commandement de la KFOR
Un test pour la future défense européenne
By Jacques Isnard
Le Monde - 19 avril 2000
LE GÉNÉRAL ESPAGNOL Juan Ortuno devait prendre, mardi 18 avril, à Pristina, le commandement de la force multinationale de maintien de la paix (KFOR) au Kosovo, en remplacement du général allemand Klaus Reinhardt. Depuis novembre 1999, le général Ortuno commande le corps européen à Strasbourg et il s'installe à Pristina avec une grande partie de son état-major, soit quelque 350 cadres, dont une majorité d'officiers français. C'est la première fois qu'une force de paix de l'OTAN sera commandée, à partir d'une initiative franco-allemande, par un quartier général spécifiquement européen qui n'est pas intégré dans l'Alliance atlantique. Mais l'Eurocorps prendra ses ordres, au Kosovo, comme les deux corps d'armée alliés qui l'ont précédé, auprès de l'OTAN et du commandement suprême des forces alliées en Europe (Saceur) à Bruxelles.
Créé en 1993 et déclaré opérationnel en 1995, l'Eurocorps rassemble 60 000 hommes de cinq pays : l'Allemagne, la Belgique, l'Espagne, la France et le Luxembourg. Les quatre divisions blindées ou mécanisées qui le composent restent sous commandement national en temps de paix. A ce jour, elles n'ont été engagées nulle part. Au Kosovo, aucune troupe nouvelle ne sera déployée : la KFOR continuera de manoeuvrer avec les 37 200 hommes qui servent actuellement sous son étendard, dont 30 000 sont fournis par des pays appartenant à l'OTAN.
Les conditions d'un emploi, sur le terrain, de l'Eurocorps par l'OTAN on été fixées, en janvier 1993, par un accord signé entre, d'un côté, les armées françaises et allemandes et, de l'autre, le Saceur de l'époque.
A la tête de son état-major, qui est donc seul à avoir fait le déplacement à Pristina et qui sera renforcé par des cadres britanniques, italiens, turcs et norvégiens, le général Ortuno, âgé de soixante ans, aura, comme le général Reinhardt jusqu'ici, une mission de six mois sous le contrôle de l'actuel Saceur : dans un premier temps, le général Wesley Clark, puis de son remplaçant en mai, le général Joseph Ralston, un aviateur américain qui était, avant sa désignation, le numéro deux de la hiérarchie militaire au Pentagone.
Le général Ortuno n'est pas un inconnu à l'OTAN. De 1992 à 1994, il a présidé le groupe de travail interne à l'Alliance atlantique qui est chargé d'évaluer les risques en Méditerranée. Il a ensuite exercé des responsabilités européennes, puisque, avant de commander l'Eurocorps, il a mis sur pied, en 1996-1998, une force multinationale, l'Eurofor, qui réunit des détachements espagnols, français, italiens et portugais.
MISSION D'ENVERGURE
Si l'on exclut sa participation, restée modeste, en 1998, à la force de paix (SFOR) en Bosnie, le Kosovo est la première mission d'envergure de l'Eurocorps. C'est fin janvier 2000 que la candidature du corps européen a été retenue par l'OTAN, après bien des tergiversations de plusieurs pays, à commencer par les Etats-Unis et la Turquie, qui avaient émis le souhait de confier la KFOR à un autre corps d'armée - celui des forces alliées du Sud-Europe à Naples - relevant directement du Saceur. Au demeurant, selon des propos récents de la secrétaire d'Etat américaine, Madeleine Albright, la mission de l'Eurocorps devrait être « un test pour la capacité de l'Union européenne à conduire une politique extérieure et de défense qui ne soit pas seulement commune, mais aussi efficace».
Outre les difficultés qui l'attendent, notamment dans le secteur « français », Mitrovica et le nord du Kosovo, l'Eurocorps joue une grosse partie dans cette opération. Il s'agit de sa crédibilité opérationnelle à l'heure où les Européens envisagent d'en faire le noyau central d'une force commune de réaction rapide. Lancé en décembre 1999 à Helsinki, ce projet, qu'il est prévu de faire aboutir en 2003, vise à édifier un corps de projection terrestre de 60 000 hommes, appuyé le cas échéant par des formations aériennes et navales. Ce corps de réaction rapide devrait regrouper des forces de tous les pays de l'UE, et non plus de cinq Etats. Il sera placé sous l'autorité des nouvelles institutions politico-militaires - un comité politique et de sécurité, un comité militaire et un état-major - que l'Europe tente d'instaurer depuis mars.
OBITUARIES / Auguste Lindt, 94, Swiss Diplomat, Headed UN Refugee
Newsday - April 18, 2000
Geneva - Auguste R. Lindt, a Swiss diplomat who served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the 1950s, has died, the refugee agency announced yesterday. He was 94.
Lindt died in his sleep in Switzerland over the weekend, the agency said. The cause of death was not given.
Lindt was appointed to head the UN refugee agency in 1956, and days later he began to mobilize an assistance program for some 200,000 Hungarians who fled to Austria and Yugoslavia to escape Soviet repression.
The following year, he oversaw the agency's involvement in helping more than 260,000 Algerian refugees in Morocco and Tunisia.
He served as the UN's top refugee official until 1960.
The present high commissioner, Sadako Ogata, said in a statement that she was saddened by the news of Lindt's death.
The years in which he led the agency were "marked by his dynamic and forceful leadership, shaping and broadening the scope of UNHCR's mission on behalf of refugees," she said.
Born in the Swiss capital of Bern, on Aug. 5, 1905, into the Lindt family of chocolate makers, Auguste Lindt studied law in Geneva and Bern. He then worked for eight years for several European newspapers, reporting from places including Manchuria in northern China, Liberia, Jordan, the Persian Gulf and Tunisia.
He served in the Swiss Army from 1940-45 and worked for International Committee of the Red Cross in postwar Berlin.
Lindt was a permanent observer for neutral Switzerland at the United Nations from 1953 until his appointment to the refugee agency.
After his term at UNHCR, Lindt went to Washington as Switzerland's ambassador. He later served as ambassador to the Soviet Union, Mongolia, India and Nepal.
Lindt is survived by his second wife, Manjula, and three children by his first marriage. The funeral service is to be held tomorrow in Bern's cathedral.
Fledgling European army faces Kosovo challenge
By Tim Butcher, Defence Correspondent
The Telegraph - 19 April 2000
EUROCORPS, Europe's fledgling military organisation, took command from Nato of the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo yesterday.
It is the first time the combat unit has had full command of such a large operational commitment and its commander, Lt Gen Juan Ortune of Spain, pledged to maintain the standards set by Kfor since its arrival last June. Taking over for his six-month tour from the German general Klaus Reinhardt, 60-year-old Gen Ortuno said his priority was "the provision of a secure environment in Kosovo and to allow the continued return of refugees".
Although the handover in Pristina will give ammunition to those who support proposals for a European army, defence experts said Eurocorps would require huge budgetary and policy commitments to turn it into a significant military force. Eurocorps will provide the Kfor commander and 350 of the 1,000-strong headquarters staff. All other components will continue to be provided by Nato, with the United States having de facto control of the whole operation.
Britain remains cautious about Eurocorps being the best way to develop Europe's military capability, and only one British liaison officer is within its structure. Eurocorps was set up as an exclusively Franco-German initiative in the early Nineties. Spain, Luxembourg and Belgium joined later and created a permanent headquarters in Strasbourg.
The headquarters has no permanent military assets, although in theory it can call on military forces and equipment committed by the five nations. Eurocorps personnel were deployed in Bosnia as part of the Nato
Les radio-amateurs relient les Serbes du Kosovo
Par Elena Becatoros
18 avril 2000
ZVECAN, Yougoslavie (AP) -- Les radio-amateurs ont acquis une importance cruciale pour les populations serbes enclavées au Kosovo, où les lignes téléphoniques sont rares. Ils permettent d'avoir des nouvelles de proches et informent la communauté et les médias serbes sur les violences dans la province.
''Avant la guerre, c'était un hobby. Aujourd'hui, c'est une nécessité'', assure Pero Kulic, un réfugié serbe, dans la petite pièce qui fait office de siège au club de radio-amateurs de Zvecan, dans le nord du Kosovo. Les Serbes restés dans la province vivent dans des enclaves disséminées et protégées par les soldats de la Kfor.
''Pour le moment, les amateurs sont le seul lien entre les enclaves'', explique le père Justin, un opérateur radio au monastère orthodoxe de Gracanica, à huit kilomètres au sud de Pristina. Leur aide est devenue essentielle après la fin des frappes de l'OTAN, ajoute-t-il. ''Lorsque l'exode des Serbes a débuté, nous avons commencé à échanger des messages humanitaires pour mettre en relation des familles''.
Désormais, la plupart des appels résultent de demandes de personnes qui souhaitent prendre des nouvelles de proches, notamment après que des violences ou des attaques ont été signalées. Les personnes qui demandent aux radio-amateurs de passer ces appels n'ont souvent pas d'autres moyens de savoir comment vont ces amis ou parents, dit Ljubisa Brkljac, un membre du club de Zvecan. En un mois, il y a eu quelque 3.000 appels de ce type, ajoute-t-il.
Les radio-amateurs se donnent également pour mission d'informer la communauté et le monde extérieur sur les attaques contre les Serbes ou d'autres minorités au Kosovo. ''Il est dans notre intérêt que les gens connaissent la vérité, que nous l'aimions ou pas'', assure le père Justin.
Avant les frappes de l'OTAN l'an dernier, le club de Zvecan (35 membres) comptait deux Albanophones. Mais désormais, de leur côté, c'est le silence radio.
''Manifestement, il faut attendre que la tension baisse'', reconnaît le père Justin. ''Je rêve du jour où nous pourrons faire un vrai travail de radioamateur: former les gens, organiser des clubs où Albanais et Serbes pourront travailler côte à côte''.
Les monastères du Kosovo ont été parmi les premiers à organiser un réseau de radio-amateurs il y a environ trois ans, lorsque la fiabilité des lignes téléphoniques a commencé à souffrir du conflit armé naissant entre Albanais du Kosovo et les autorités serbes, explique le religieux. Les radio-amateurs avaient déjà démontré leur efficacité durant la guerre en Bosnie, où ils étaient parfois la seule source d'information sur des villes assiégées comme Srebrenica et Gorazde.
Grenade attack in Pristina
BBC - 18 April, 2000
There has been a grenade attack on an apartment building in the centre of the Kosovo capital, Pristina.
Two people are reported to have been injured in the explosion that took place late last night.
Both victims were ethnic-Albanians, but United Nations police say the target of the attack may have been an adjoining flat used by four Serbian journalists.
The explosion followed the killing on Monday of a former commander of the ethnic-Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army.
It is not known who carried out the attack. A man has been arrested for illegal possession of rocket-propelled grenades, but international officials could not say if the case was linked to the attack.
Kosovo Albanians in mass trial
BBC - 18 April, 2000
Almost 150 Kosovo Albanians have gone on trial in Yugoslavia accused of terrorism.
The men are charged with carrying out attacks against Serbian security forces stationed in Kosovo last year, including the killing of three Serb policemen and the wounding of at least seven.
The trial, which is taking place in the Serbian town of Nis, is the biggest of its kind.
If convicted, the 144 defendants could face jail sentences of up to 15 years.
The men, all from the southern Kosovo town of Djakovica, were arrested during Nato's air strikes last year.
'Political trial'
They were driven to the heavily-guarded courtroom on Tuesday, where the court established their identity before adjourning.
The trial will resume on 19 April, when the first 30 men will appear in
court.
Verdicts and sentencing are expected later in the week.
The trial has drawn criticism from human rights groups, which say the men were arrested at random.
"These Albanians are innocent civilians who were not involved in armed actions and were kidnapped on the streets of Djakovica," the head of the Belgrade Fund for Humanitarian Law, Natasa Kandic, said.
"This is a political trial," she said
The BBC's Jacky Rowland in the capital Belgrade says the words "terrorist activity" on the charge-sheet indicate that the authorities suspect the men of being former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
When Nato-led peacekeepers took control of Kosovo last year, Serbian security forces withdrew, taking hundreds of Kosovo Albanian prisoners with them.
A number of prominent figures have already been convicted of terrorism, while hundreds more prisoners remain in Serbian jails.
Former KLA Commander Shot Dead in Kosovo Capital
PRISTINA, Apr 18, 2000 -- (Reuters) A former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army was shot dead in the center of the provincial capital Pristina on Monday, the successor force to the guerrilla group said.
Besim Mala was shot in circumstances which were not yet clear, the Kosovo Protection Corps said.
Kosovo's United Nations-led administration confirmed that one man had been killed in a shoot-out in Pristina. It said another man had been seriously injured and one person had been arrested shortly after the incident.
Although incidents of violent crime are more common in postwar Kosovo than in Western countries, the killing of a well-known figure in broad daylight in Pristina shocked and surprised many local people and international residents here.
The KLA fought a guerrilla campaign for more than a year against Serb rule in Kosovo before NATO began bombing to drive Serb forces out of the Yugoslav province.
The group was officially transformed into a civilian emergency relief organization, the Protection Corps, after the end of the conflict last June.
The corps said in a statement Mala served during the KLA's campaign as a special forces senior officer in its heartland of the Drenica region, scene of some of the heaviest fighting.
He had then served as the commander of a rapid reaction battalion of the protection corps, the statement said.
Belgrade Protests Kosovo Visit by Jordan's Queen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 18, 2000 -- (Reuters) Yugoslavia has protested to the Security Council over a March 27 visit to Kosovo by Queen Rania of Jordan without Belgrade's approval, saying this was a violation of its sovereignty over the Serbian province.
"The visit of the Queen of Jordan to the sovereign part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia without approval of its authorities is yet another negative precedent in a row that has taken place of late," Yugoslav UN envoy Vladislav Jovanovic said.
In a letter to the president of the council circulated on Monday, he said visits of foreign dignitaries to Kosovo "without prior notification to, and approval by, the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are contrary to Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) ... in particular its provisions relative to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."
The resolution, adopted in June 1999, authorized a UN interim administration and a NATO-led force to enter Kosovo.
This followed an 11-week NATO bombing campaign that forced Belgrade to halt repression of Kosovo's mainly ethnic Albanian inhabitants and allowed the return of hundreds of thousands of those who had fled, mainly to Albania and Macedonia.
The same resolution reaffirmed the commitment of all UN members to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.
Belgrade has repeatedly complained that this provision is constantly violated through various actions usurping Yugoslav sovereignty
Stoyanov says Kosovo hampers Bulgaria's EU drive
April 18, 2000
BERLIN, April 18 (Reuters) - Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov, visiting Germany to muster political backing and private investment, said on Tuesday that Kosovo's problems were hampering efforts to prepare Bulgaria for EU membership.
"Kosovo's illness is threatening to become chronic and will take up a lot of energy that we need diverted to the integration process started 10 years ago," he told reporters.
Bulgaria's efforts to strengthen ties with the European Union had been hit by its separation from the West by the war-torn former Yugoslavia during the past decade, he said, speaking at a reception given by the German Council on Foreign Relations.
Stoyanov said he hoped to have begun talks by the end of the year on 17 of the 31 areas designated by the European Union as a condition for entry to the 15-nation bloc.
Bulgaria, which wants to complete EU membership talks by 2006, is among 12 East European and Mediterranean countries in membership talks with the EU.
Stoyanov stressed the psychological importance of the European Union's offer to begin membership talks, a decision analysts saw as a reward for Bulgaria's backing of NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia last year.
He said the promise of EU membership would also lead to closer cooperation with Western governments, which he said was critical to future Balkan stability.
Minister sues Serb media for libel
BELGRADE, April 18 (Reuters) - The Yugoslav information minister on Tuesday sued the independent Beta news agency and highest circulation opposition daily newspaper Blic for libel in a Belgrade magistrate's court.
The cases under Serbia's strict information law were the latest in a spate of similar court actions over the past few weeks.
Minister Goran Matic sued over reports which he said were damaging to his honour and reputation.
Matic took them to court for publishing the slogan of a protest by the student movement Otpor in Sremska Mitrovica, "Goran Matic, who killed Slavko Curuvija?," an editor whose killing is one in a long list of unresolved murders over the past few years.
Curuvija, chief editor and owner of Dnevni Telegraf daily and Evropljanin periodical, whose texts were highly critical of Yugoslav and Serbian authorities, was gunned down outside his home on April 11 last year.
Matic also accused Beta and Blic for falsely reporting that he owned Radio M in Sremska Mitrovica, outside which the student protest was staged on the anniversary of Curuvija's death.
Both Beta and Blic rejected the charges and called for the case to be
dismissed.
Neither Blic, which has faced similar action before, nor Beta,
for whom this was a first, were optimistic of the outcome.
"We don't have too many illusions. They will fine us for certain, because that law exists so they can collect their bounty," Beta director Radomir Diklic told Reuters after the hearing, referring to recent court action against other media in Serbia.
Under the information law, which mandates speedy proceedings, the verdict is due in 24 hours.