_______________________________________________________________ RIGHTS-YUGOSLAVIA: KLA Extends Its Power In Kosovo

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Wes Jonasson

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Aug 28 1999 (IPS) - The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)-backed Interim Government of Kosovo (IGK) has extended its power throughout most of this province amid continuing violence against ethnic-Serbs and confusion by UN-NATO authorities.

In the latest stand-off, on Friday KLA-led villagers were still blocking Russian troops from entering the town of Ohorovac, in southern Kosovo, to replace a Dutch contingent. Moscow believes the move was planned by the KLA.

On Thursday, Serbian villagers staged a protest against US-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) forces in the town of Gnjilane, at the burial of 15 people – four of them identified as Serbs – found at mass graves in the village of Ugljave last month.

The discovery was kept from the public until this week. Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic said that “this crime was conducted under the auspices of the United Nations” and accused the United States of developing “an industry of death” along with the KLA.

The invitation extended by the US Secretary State Madeleine Albright to the KLA political leader and self-appointed “prime minister” of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, to visit Washington in September has only added to Russia’s and Yugoslavia’s mistrust about the fate of Kosovo.

Supported by the ethnic Albanians, and in the words of a spokesman, running the province according to their expectations, Thaci is increasingly acting as the man in charge, with little resistance from KFOR or the UN mission supposed to be the province’s governing body.

On 20 August, for example, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) announced that the second session of its Kosovo Transition Council would meet on the following day, bringing Thaci and president Ibrahim Rugova of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), together for the first time.

Thaci failed to show up and his secretary told IPS that he was in Tirana and would return to Pristina only the following Monday.

However, chaired by Special Representative of the UN Secretary General Bernard Kouchner, the council did meet Rugova and representatives of the Turkish and Serbian communities, and Bishop Artemije of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Breaking up after three hours, Kouchner said that the meeting had focused on security concerns — but then immediately expressed hope that the next session would be conducted on a more businesslike basis. Kouchner did not provide specifics regarding what if anything had been agreed upon.

The session was stormier than the Keuchner was willing to admit since Serb representative Trajkovic had proposed that Kosovo be partitioned between Albanians and Serbs, a proposal everybody else has rejected, but which continued to be discussed behind closed doors this week.

RugoEJ-6Eû¿IPS’ query oA”rtition by saying that he immediately rejected the proposal when it was tabled — adding that in his opinion it would be bad for the Serbs as well. He said they did agree on the urgent need to improve security conditions, but provided no specific suggestions.

Rugova looked tired and somewhat frail when assisted by his security men into his black Mercedes automobile. He has yet to replace his burned-out party office and works from his home in Pristina. Thaci, on the other hand, has appropriated office space in the centre of the city.

Kouchner deflected a question by IPS whether in his judgement Albright’s invitation to Thaci and other IGK members to visit Washington will unduly influence the political balance in Kosovo before elections scheduled for next March.

Underscoring the political significance of the Thaci trip, in recent days IGK Finance Minister Adem Grabovci met with Paul Davis of USAID (US Agency for International Development). This suggests that, either through acquiescence, or design, Washington has decided to back Thaci.

Although the UN office insists that the security situation is stabilizing, gunfire can be heard nightly in Pristina.

Dejan Backovic, director of the Centre for Peace and Tolerance said Thursday that 65 Serbs had been killed by ethnic Albanians in Pristina since the arrival of KFOR in June. He said that 720 houses and apartments in Pristina have been assaulted and 262 people were abducted.

He predicted that by the end of this week there would be no Serbs left in the Kosovo capital.

On the evening of 20 August, an elderly Serb couple were murdered in their apartment in Przen (southern Kosovo). An Irish military liaison officer stated that shootings of non-Albanians have become routine — with two, or three, occurring nightly.

The forced takeover of non-Albanian property continues. A US teacher from California described how he had been sleeping in a “dirt cheap” apartment recently evacuated by Serbs.

It is now “owned” by an Albanian who runs a sidewalk kiosk in Pristina who had supplied his rental with a mattress and new locks. This correspondent went to a restaurant formerly owned by a Roma gypsy and a Serb and found that it was now a cafe run by an Albanian who insisted that it had never been anything other than a cafe.

Sister Katerina at the Serbian monastery at Gracanica, now crammed with refugees, said that some 30 churches in Kosovo had been burned, or otherwise damaged. She herself had been forced to leave her monastery located elsewhere.

An Irish aid worker from Pec in western Kosovo near the Albanian border said that shootings continued to occur at night – that Serbs are being guarded by KFOR troops as arrangements are made for their evacuation.

A conversation with three retired US police officers who will run a new police school suggests that it will be some time before a Kosovo force is on the ground in strength.

They said of 27,000 applicants, 19,000 look good after initial background checks were completed. Following their final selection, batches of 50 will be taught – in their words – “democratic police methods” before actually going on duty.

In addition to security problems, conflict developed between the KLA “government” and the UN administration over what laws are in force in Kosovo. The UN initially wanted to retain those Yugoslav laws that met internationally accepted standards.

Kosovo lawyers and jurists wanted to go back to pre-1989 laws established in the then self-ruled autonomous province. When the new Kosovar members of a special Joint Advisory Council on Legislative Matters threatened to quit, Kouchner proposed that they formulate a new legal code.

This was accepted and the council will meet periodically while working groups grind out a suitable legal framework for Kosovo — law by law, which will further undermine the terms of the peace agreement, in which the territory remains part of Serbia (which integrates Yugoslavia with Montenegro).

Meanwhile, the IGK has announced a series of laws affecting residency and citizenship. This situation has caused confusion among Kosovars wanting to acquire property as well as Albanian nationals who are flooding into KLA-controlled territory.

The latter, according to a German aid worker, include “mafia” types who have already set-up networks to control business.

Bekim Collaku is a young former KLA member whom Thaci has appointed to run the Media Centre of Kosovo in Pristina’s Grand Hotel — exactly where the Serb Media Centre had been located. Collaku claimed that the KLA and its “government” now run 90 percent of Kosovo.

Everything, he said, except the Serb-controlled part of Mitrovica, the north, and a few remaining Serb enclaves. He said that they are trying not to antagonize UNMIK, but that they are administering affairs at the expectation of its population.