Uroen har økt dramatisk i Jugoslavia den siste tida, ifølge Institute for
War & Peace Reporting (IWPR). Folk frykter et nytt krigsutbrudd i
løpet av våren, ville rykter sirkulerer, og panikken sprer seg. Regimet i
Beograd bidrar sitt til å øke spenningen, og opposisjonen er lamslått.
Myndighetene har de siste ukene utstedt over 100 000 innkallinger til
militæret,
for det meste i Sør-Serbia. KFOR skal holde militærøvelser senere denne
måneden, og det jugoslaviske regimet "tester" ut luftverns-sirenene, for å
ytterligere piske opp panikkstemningen.
Mens folk flest fortsatt er redde for krig mellom montenegrinere og serbere,
eller mellom tilhengere og motstandere av regimet, har nå en ytterligere
faktor
kommet til: det nye KLA-utskuddet, "Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedje
and Bujanovac", som ønsker å innlemme deler av Serbia i Kosovo. Steven
Erlanger i New York Times skrev 2.mars følgende om denne gruppa:
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a38be800c7b22.htm
'By ordering the ambushing of Serbian police officers and
sometimes the intimidation of Serbian farmers, the leaders
of this new army "are hoping that the Serbs will retaliate with
excessive force against civilian populations and create a wave
of outrage and pressure on KFOR to respond," said a United
Nations official. "
(...)
"KFOR is being played with by these guys," said a senior
United Nations official, who is assuming that their leadership
is based in Kosovo and tied to parts of the supposedly
disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army. In particular, the official
says he believes that the leaders are associated with Rexhep
Selimi, who headed the rebel group's ministry for public order
and security. But no one seems to know for sure.
Lt. Col. James Shufelt, in an interview at the American military
headquarters at Camp Bondsteel, said: "The concern here isn't
that the Serbian police will come across, but that Albanian
attacks on Serb police and army will inspire a response great
enough to cause public clamor for a KFOR response."'
En talsmann for den amerikanske hæren, Scott Olsen, har betryggende nok
uttalt at "the only thing that would cause KFOR to intervene inside Serbia
would be atrocities". (Se IWPRs artikkel nedenfor). Hva som kvalifiserer til
å være ugjerninger er uklart.
IWPR skriver:
"Kosovo's Albanian political leaders have yet to voice
any real condemnation of the incidents in the area. They
fear Milosevic may exploit the situation to cause trouble
inside Kosovo itself. A new influx of Albanian refugees
could only worsen the already unstable situation in the
province.
A conflict would serve Milosevic's ends, distracting
international and domestic attention from the escalating
tensions between Belgrade and Montenegro. And it would
surely have a knock-on effect in neighbouring Macedonia,
where unrest is brewing. Indeed, Skopje has already tightened
border security"
Vesten har ført en idiotisk og ansvarsløs politikk i Kosovo etter krigen:
Manglende midler til FNs politistyrker, for dårlig beskyttelse av minoriteter,
uklarheter når det gjelder Kosovo's framtidige status, intet reelt oppgjør med
UCK, fortsatte økonomiske sanksjoner ovenfor Jugoslavia. Sikkerhetsrådets
resolusjon 1244 respekteres ikke.
Så snart bombinga var over, ble pengekrana skrudd igjen i vest, og
politikerne som hisset til krig viste seg å være særdeles lunkne til å
bidra til
å skape fred. Vesten og NATO har latt kosovoalbanerne drive ut serbere,
sigøynere, jøder og ikke-albanske muslimer fra Kosovo i perioden etter
krigen. Det er ikke rart at konflikten spisser seg til igjen.
Øistein Holen
----------
IWPR rapporterer i sitt siste nyhetsbrev:
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl5?archive/bcr/bcr_20000303_3_eng.txt
"Serbs Braced for War
(...)
Panic has gripped Belgrade. This week rumours of a new round of NATO
bombing swept through the city like wildfire. Suddenly people fear
conflict on
several fronts - between Albanian guerrillas and Serb forces in southern
Serbia, between pro-separatist and pro-federal forces in Montenegro and,
perhaps most ominously, between pro-government forces and people on the
streets of Belgrade.
(...)
Albanian guerillas operating in southern Serbia, along the border with
Kosovo, have intensified attacks on Serbian forces in recent weeks,
killing
one police officer last weekend and wounding a UN worker on Tuesday. This
growing confrontation has prompted concerns that NATO could intervene in
Serbia proper on behalf of the ethnic Albanian community around Presevo,
Medvegje and Bujanovac.
Such suspicions are reinforced by the frequent repetition of news footage
from northern Kosovo showing US troops manhandling Serbs during search
operations last week.
Recent comments by US State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin that
Milosevic
does not have the right to beef up his military forces along the
Montenegrin
border with Albania, has merely fuelled outrage at a perceived assault on
Yugoslav sovereignty. Milosevic moved the troops to the region following a
decision by Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic to open the frontier
last
week.
In recent weeks, the government has issued over 100,000 army call-up
papers,
mostly in southern Serbia, adding to the feeling of a nation mobilising
for
yet another war.
The recent murders of Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic and defence minister Pavle
Bulatovic have created a sense of impending anarchy, that Belgrade
itself is
on the brink of uncontrolled street violence.
Faced with such an atmosphere of crisis, Serbian opposition parties appear
to have slumped into a state of confusion. Opposition visibility and
resolve
have dropped considerably in the past month. Security guards for Serbian
Renewal Movement leader Vuk Draskovic say he has not appeared at his
office
for three weeks.
"Draskovic is terrified," said the student leader. "He has entirely
disappeared. We are in offices across the street from his party, and you
always see a bunch of security guys outside when he is in the office. They
haven't been there for weeks now."
(...)"
----------
IWPR rapporterer i sitt siste nyhetsbrev:
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl5?archive/bcr/bcr_20000303_1_eng.txt
ALBANIAN FIGHTERS ON THE MARCH AGAIN
A new Kosovo-based guerrilla force says it is prepared to go to war to unite
Albanian populated areas of southern Serbia with the province.
By Llazar Semini in Pristina
A United Nations worker, shot and wounded near Dobrasin on Tuesday, February
29, became the latest victim in a fierce conflict which is brewing in a
predominantly Albanian region of southern Serbia, close to the Kosovo
border.
Marcel Grogan was driving a UN vehicle when Albanian guerrillas opened fire.
Grogan, now recovering from gunshot wounds in a US military hospital in
Kosovo, said the gunmen appeared embarrassed when they realised he was a UN
official - they claimed to have mistaken his vehicle for Serbian one.
There's concern that increasing clashes between Albanian guerrillas and
Serb forces in Presheve, Medvegje and Bujanoc are fuelling the flight of
Albanian refugees into Kosovo. The International Rescue Committee, one of
the largest refugee agencies operating in Kosovo, estimates 1,300 refugees
have trickled into Gjilan - the nearest town inside Kosovo - in the last two
months. Over 100 have arrived in the last three days alone.
Last Saturday night, a group of armed Albanians - allegedly members of a new
guerrilla group, the Presheve, Medvegje and Bujanoc Liberation Army (UCPMB)
- attacked a Serbian police patrol in Kocul, killing one officer and
injuring three others.
An Albanian killed in the clash was wearing the insignia of the Kosovo
Protection Force, TMK -- a civilian force formed by the United Nations
mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, from former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army,
UCK. Both UNMIK's spokeswoman, Susan Manuel, and TMK commander, Agim Ceku,
denied the Albanian casualty was a member of the protection force.
Rumours have long been circulating that spring will bring renewed violence
to the region. Some have pointed accusing fingers at Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic, arguing that by provoking trouble in Kosovo he achieves
two ends - undermining UN efforts to govern the province and distracting
attention from his on-going bid to crush any moves by Montenegro towards
independence.
NATO and the United States have warned Milosevic not to increase the
Yugoslav military and police presence in and around Presheve, Bujanoc and
Medvegje, home to some 75,000 ethnic Albanians. US troops from Camp
Bondsteel near Ferizaj (Urasovac in Serbian) have intensified their 24-hour
patrols to prevent Albanian extremists and weapons crossing the frontier
into Serbia.
The UCPRM was allegedly formed in January following the killing of two
Albanian youths from Dobrasin. The organisation claims to be made up of men
from eastern Kosovo. It welcomes volunteers from other parts of the
province. They wear insignia similar to the UCK, replacing the K for Kosovo
with PMB for Presheve, Medvegje, Bujanoc - the three major towns in the
Albanian border enclave."Someone had to come out and protect the Albanian
population of this area from Serb paramilitaries," one UCPMB commander said
in an interview with the Albanian daily Zeri.
The UCPMB made their first public appearance at the funeral of the two young
Albanians, just as the UCK did at the beginning of the Kosovo conflict
following the murder of an Albanian teacher in Llaushe."At the moment our
soldiers control the area of Dobrasin. If the population is endangered in
other parts we are ready to defend them," the UCPMB commander said.
The UCPMB want the region to unite with Kosovo. "We do not ask for much,
just the right of self-determination," they say. The new force aims to
achieve this by harassing Serb forces and generally stirring up trouble in
the border region. The new force is "hoping that the Serbs will retaliate
with excessive force against civilian populations and create a wave of
outrage and pressure on KFOR to respond," a UN official told the New York
Times. "It's explosive and dangerous, and we hope KFOR uses restraint."
Kosovo's Albanian political leaders have yet to voice any real condemnation
of the incidents in the area. They fear Milosevic may exploit the situation
to cause trouble inside Kosovo itself. A new influx of Albanian refugees
could only worsen the already unstable situation in the province.
A conflict would serve Milosevic's ends, distracting international and
domestic attention from the escalating tensions between Belgrade and
Montenegro.And it would surely have a knock-on effect in neighbouring
Macedonia, where unrest is brewing. Indeed, Skopje has already tightened
border security
NATO involvement in the intensifying conflict in southern Serbia seems
unlikely, at least in the short term. On Monday KFOR spokesman, Henning
Philipp, said there was concern over the security situation in Kosovo, but
insisted there was no evidence of Belgrade breaching the Kumanovo agreement
by deploying troops within the five-kilometer buffer zone along the border.
US army spokesman, Scott Olsen, said the only thing that would cause KFOR to
intervene inside Serbia would be atrocities. He said the US military had
asked KFOR command to make clear what constituted an atrocity. Meanwhile,
KFOR announced plans on Monday to hold military exercises in Kosovo from
March 19 to April 10 aimed at reinforcing its commitment to the defence of
the province.
Llazar Semini is IWPR's Kosovo Project Manager in Pristine.
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