https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/ Disaster Message Service Discussion Board en-US Mon, 04 May 2026 01:17:58 +0000 wpForo 60 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/3/#post-6434 Sun, 17 Oct 1999 04:01:00 +0000
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 17, 1999; Page A1

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Oct. 16 –
Just four months after they
descended from the hills as
conquering heroes and declared
themselves the new masters of
Kosovo, the political leadership that
emerged from the Kosovo
Liberation Army is suffering a collapse of its support, according to voter
surveys, interviews with ordinary ethnic Albanians and even senior figures
in the rebel movement.

The former guerrillas are ensnared in a deep political crisis, caused by
popular unhappiness with their heavy-handed power grabs, rising disgust
about the violence plaguing Kosovo and the rebels' underestimation of
their political rivals. The political party formed this week by Hashim Thaqi,
the political leader of the former guerrilla force, would be crushed in
provincial elections at all levels, according to Western and Albanian
analysts here.

And if presidential elections were held today, Thaqi would be easily
defeated by Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate ethnic Albanian political leader
who led a 10-year, nonviolent resistance campaign against the Belgrade
government. Only months ago, the KLA and some Western observers
were dismissing Rugova as a politician of little influence who had been
overtaken by events.

Rugova has the vote of Lumnie Musa, who comes from the village of
Prekaz, the scene in February 1998 of the first major Serbian assault on a
KLA stronghold, and home to the fallen national hero, Edem Jashari.

"He's more democratic, more civilized," said Musa, whose house was
leveled by Serbian forces.

A scientific opinion poll that was commissioned by a Western organization
and has not been released found 4-to-1 support for Rugova over Thaqi.
A recent, unscientific survey of 2,500 voters by an independent media
organization here found that Rugova would win 92 percent of the vote in a
two-way race with Thaqi. And the rebels' support in former KLA
strongholds, such as the Drenica area in central Kosovo, Thaqi's home
base, has withered to single digits.

Even allowing for a large margin of error in the surveys, the results
represent a stunning reversal of fortune for the rebels, who have quickly
wasted much of the political capital they enjoyed after NATO troops
entered Kosovo on June 12.

The first elections in Kosovo are still months away and will probably be
held only at the municipal level, according to U.N. officials, who want to
put off province-wide contests. But a senior Thaqi adviser said that the
rebel leader realizes the scale of his political problems and now needs to
initiate radical changes if his new political party – the Party for the
Democratic Progress of Kosovo – is to have any chance of governing.

"Hashim lost a lot of friends in the war and made a lot of sacrifices," said
an adviser. "He believes he is a better leader than Rugova, so it's very
bitter and disappointing to know that Rugova would win."

Much to the former rebels' disbelief, Rugova has large residual support
among ethnic Albanians. Interviews with potential voters found they
seemed to compartmentalize the two major political elements, viewing
Thaqi as a military man and Rugova as their natural leader.

"Rugova is a mysterious, mystical figure for people," said independent
analyst Ylber Hysa, who noted that Rugova became a distant but revered
figure partly because he was banned from Serbian television except when
he was pilloried. An intellectual who can be indecisive and isn't known for
his charisma, Rugova has never had his political weaknesses exposed,
Hysa said.

Rugova's strategy of "doing nothing" is working for him, Hysa said.
"People have had very little concrete contact with his politics. Their
contact with the KLA, on the other hand, is through war and destruction."

After the war, the KLA generally abandoned rural areas and carried out a
high-handed assumption of power in the cities that left many devastated
families bitter.

On April 2, during the second week of NATO bombing, Thaqi formed
the interim or Provisional Government of Kosovo , a KLA-dominated
structure. And within days of NATO entering Kosovo in June, it
established a series of national departments in Pristina, including ministries
of Reconstruction, Interior and Finance. By late July, the provisional
government had established local authorities, including "mayors" in major
municipalities.

This power play, often crudely executed, has been a disaster for Thaqi,
said one of his advisers and other independent observers. By declaring
itself the only legitimate government of Kosovo, the KLA unrealistically
raised expectations that it could get things done.

But real power, through its command of Western purse strings, lies with
the United Nations. It is administering the territory under a Security
Council resolution and does not recognize Thaqi's government.

Ethnic Albanians had unrealistic expectations of how quickly the country
would be rebuilt, said U.N. officials. And with winter looming and
hundreds of thousands of people facing the cold in temporary shelter,
resentment has rebounded on Thaqi's government as well as the United
Nations.

"They claimed to be some kind of government," said Hysa. "If you say
you're the government, people expect you to govern."

The KLA also set up an Interior Ministry with shadowy policing powers,
but Kosovo has been scarred by a wave of vicious violence against Serbs.
Human rights groups and others believe members of the KLA – now
transformed into a lightly armed and uniformed civil emergency force
called the Kosovo Protection Corps – are involved. And many ethnic
Albanians blame Thaqi, despite his public condemnations of the violence.

Some in Thaqi's circle now believe the interim government was an illusion
that bestowed only the trappings of power – fancy cars and bodyguards –
on the KLA leadership. And they believe Thaqi should concentrate on
building a grass-roots political organization and jettison the fiction that he
is head of a government. But that is a hard sell within the government.

"It's hard to tell the minister that maybe it's better if he's not minister
anymore," said the Thaqi adviser. Thaqi is said to be dispirited and in a
recent meeting with Western officials wisecracked that he wouldn't mind a
job in Washington.

The former rebels' problems are even more pronounced at the local level.
Young rebel soldiers, many with wads of German marks and late-model
Audis, swept into towns and installed themselves in municipal buildings.
They often excluded longtime and more moderate elements in the
community from participating in reconstruction.

"Thaqi's people are more arrogant and aggressive, acting like they are the
big bosses," said Bekim Mazreku, a shopowner in Malisevo. Mazreku
said he respects what the rebels did during the war, but now he is
disillusioned.

"The big jeeps and the fast cars are irritating people," said Xhafer
Murtezaj, 51, an activist for Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo in
Srbica, also a onetime KLA stronghold. "They got the Serb flats, and the
people who suffered a lot don't have anything."

In the southern town of Kacanik, for instance, an Albanian-American
restaurant manager from Greenwich, Conn., who fought with the KLA has
set himself up as "mayor" – to the consternation of many locals.

Rugova's party has not challenged these kinds of power plays, but is
instead registering new members and priming its parish-pump politics.

"They're going to weddings and funerals," said the Thaqi adviser. "That's
what we should be doing."

Violence at the local level – including the intimidation of political
opponents, particularly members of Rugova's party, and threats against
ethnic Albanian women who date international workers – have also
rippled through communities.

In August, at a meeting of all political parties in the eastern city of Vitina, a
KLA commander warned that anyone who engaged in anti-KLA
propaganda would be "punished." Thaqi's government, he said, would
begin "registering" political parties that could participate in the political
process, according to internal reports by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.

"Their arrogance is catching up with them," said one U.N. official.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/balkans.htm]]> Kosovo War daniela https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/3/#post-6434 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/3/#post-6433 Sun, 17 Oct 1999 03:41:00 +0000 NATO Bombed Chinese Embassy Deliberately -UK Paper

LONDON (Reuters) - NATO deliberately bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade after the Western alliance discovered the mission
was being used to transmit Yugoslav military communications, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

An official at NATO headquarters in Brussels denied the Observer newspaper's report but it is likely to rekindle diplomatic tensions on
the eve of a visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin to alliance hawk Britain this week.

The Observer quoted an unnamed intelligence officer as saying "NATO had been hunting the radio transmitters in Belgrade," including
one at President Slobodan Milosevic's house, during its air war against Yugoslavia.

"When the president's residence was bombed on 23 April, the signals disappeared for 24 hours," said the NATO officer, who monitored
Yugoslav broadcasts from neighboring Macedonia.

"When they came back on the air again, we discovered they came from the (Chinese) embassy compound."

The three cruise missiles that slammed into the mission on May 7 killed three Chinese and opened a diplomatic chasm between NATO
and Beijing, which holds one of five permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council.

Senior U.S. and NATO officials blamed the attack on a targeting error caused by outdated maps.

That explanation brought incredulity from Chinese leaders and the bombing sparked three days of government-backed protests
against the U.S. and British embassies in Beijing.

The Observer said it had been told by a NATO flight control officer in Naples that the Chinese mission was correctly located on a map
of "non-targets" which included churches, hospitals and embassies.

It said the Chinese embassy had been removed from the list after NATO electronic intelligence detected it was rebroadcasting
Yugoslav Army communications to units in the field.

The Observer speculated the Chinese might have helped Milosevic as a means of gaining access to radar-evading technology aboard
a U.S. F-117 Stealth bomber that went down in Yugoslavia in the first few days of NATO's air campaign.

"The Chinese were also suspected of monitoring the cruise missile attacks on Belgrade, with a view to developing effective
countermeasures against U.S. missiles," it said.

The NATO official in Brussels said of the Observer story, written in cooperation with Denmark's Politiken newspaper, "as far as I know
is not true."

"I can only go by the statements that have been made in Washington," he told Reuters.

A spokesman at Britain's Ministry of Defense said the story was not a new one after "wide speculation that it was a conspiracy, even
at the time of the incident."

"Apologies were given by the United Kingdom," he told Reuters. "In light of the Chinese visit next week, it is clearly muddying the
waters. I think they are throwing firecrackers in there."]]> Kosovo War daniela https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/3/#post-6433 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/3/#post-6432 Sun, 17 Oct 1999 03:23:00 +0000 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_454000/454770.stm

World: Europe

Eyewitness: Serbia after the
war


The war is over, but life does not return to normal.
While Kosovo is part of an international plan to
reconstruct the Balkans, Serbia remains, in the
eyes of many, the pariah state, with an indicted
war crimes suspect at its head.

But there are some 11 million
ordinary people trying to repair their
lives, all against a backdrop of larger
and larger protests against the
Milosevic regime.
Kolja Novakovic, 19, is a student
studying in Novi Sad, Serbia's
second city and one of the hardest hit in the Nato
bombing campaign. BBC News Online asked him to
reflect on the war, how his contemporaries viewed it, and
the state in which Serbia now finds itself:

What are your feelings about the war now that
it's over?

My opinion about the war? I think it was a lost cause
and now we are in an even worse state than we were
before.


Before the Nato countries
bombed us, I assumed and
hoped that they would be
able to bring us some
justice, to understand the
situation in which the
Yugoslav people found themselves. But when the
bombing began, I felt betrayed. I simply did not believe it
could come to that.

The worst thing is, I don't feel it achieved anything, at
least nothing positive for the people of this country.

One of the worst things from my point of view was the
way politicians in other countries kept saying the
bombing was directed against Milosevic and not against
the people of Yugoslavia.

I simply cannot see how they harmed him. On the
contrary, the moment the bombing started, Milosevic
increased his power to such an extent that no-one could
touch him.

He wasn't harmed by anything, unlike the people.
Bridges and factories were destroyed, people lost their
livelihoods, homes and some lost their lives.

Weren't the losses mainly confined to the
military?

One of the assistant lecturers at my university was
called up into the army when the war began. He was
killed by a bomb as he manned a radar post.


What choice did he have?
Did he ignore the call-up and
thereby officially become a
traitor with all the
consequences that brings, or
did he answer and simply
pray that he would come
back in one piece.

He is one of those who didn't
make it. He was certainly not
pro-Milosevic, but he simply
had no choice.

He was 26 years old. It could have been me, or anyone
else.

So the war affected everyone?

Two of my friends came back from Kosovo completely
emotionally devastated.


I tried to talk to them about
what they had been through,
but they didn't want to talk
about it at all. I don't think I'd
want to if I were in their place
either.

Now that it's all over, I don't
think anything here has
changed. Or, if it has changed, it has only been for the
worse.

They didn't get rid of Milosevic with their bombs. He has
come out of it once more as a "victor" and been made
even stronger.

Tell us about Novi Sad. What state is it in?

In a word: Terrible. Novi Sad was one of the cities where
the greatest number of civilian targets was hit, despite
the fact that the opposition had won elections there and
most of its inhabitants were anti-Milosevic.


Before the bombing, Novi
Sad had three bridges over
the Danube. Now, they say,
the Danube flows over the
bridges, which would be
funny if it weren't so sad.

Freedom Bridge (Most
Slobode) was one of the few
bridges built at a gradient
and the second largest
suspension bridge in Europe.

Now more than half of the
bridge is lying in the river, one of the pillars is completely
destroyed, hit when about a dozen people were actually
on it.

As for the other two bridges - nothing is left of them -
they have completely disappeared into the Danube.
People cross the river now on rafts.

The large number of people who live on the far side of the
river have to cross it so they can get to work and the
children to school.

But you have to wait up to an hour for a raft across and
when it was hot people would pass out from waiting.

Up to 200 people get packed onto a raft, like cattle. I
was passing by once, in the rain, and I felt so sorry for
them. I can't imagine what it will be like in the winter.

What else was hit?

Novi Sad saw its oil refinery destroyed. It was hit about
80 times.


You cannot imagine the
extent of the pollution it
caused. There was a black
cloud above the town for
days, you couldn't eat
vegetables, there was acid
rain and the streets were
covered in soot.

One bomb fell in the
populated part of town near
the refinery, another literally a few yards from the student
hall of residence, but luckily it buried itself into the bank,
creating a huge crater.

I saw and heard this one fly over my house and land
500m away from me. Again, I don't even want to imagine
what would have happened had it hit the hall of
residence.

An unexploded missile was found near the house of a
friend of mine. I am afraid there will be more in the future.

Surely things must be returning to normal?

At the moment, there is no fuel, so the buses don't run
regularly. Lorries don't collect rubbish and the streets are
almost empty because there are no cars.

Bicycles have become the main means of transport. We
were also told that there will not be enough electricity,
gas or oil in the winter, so we'll have long power cuts.
We are all worried about the winter.

Has it changed the way that you and others
think about the future?

It was bad before, but it is going to be even worse now.
A good salary, which is about 200 DM a month (£65)
cannot cover living expenses, electricity, telephone,
taxes.


Looking for a job in this
situation is impossible. There
are no possibilities here for
young people - most only
think about how to get away
from here. They can't see
anything changing for the
better in the next 10 years or so.

One of my friends says it's better not to have children
here, because there hasn't been a generation that has
not experienced war, so the chances are our children will
experience it as well.

But isn't it always darkest before the dawn?

The worst of all is that nobody thinks this is the end.


Everybody thinks the worst is
still to come. The protests
against Milosevic have
begun, so we are afraid of
civil war. There are signs that
what happened in Kosovo
may happen in Vojvodina. I
really hope it won't come to
that, but who knows?

After so many years under
Milosevic, people have
become completely
financially and emotionally
impoverished. If it came to another war after all this, this
country would become poorer than the poorest African
countries.

Already, the health service is in dire straits. People only
go to the doctor if they absolutely have to.

There are no medicines, the hospitals, the ones still in
one piece after the bombing, are in a desperate state,
and their staff are totally unmotivated since their salaries
are months in arrears.

What do young people think of it all?

People say the programme in the universities has
deliberately been changed so it won't be recognised in
other countries - in an effort to stop qualified students
from leaving for the West.

Because of this many, including me, are wondering
whether it's even worth studying.

Many would like to leave for the West. But the problem
with that is that it's extremely hard to get visas,
something which makes prospects even more limited.

The queues for visas outside the embassies are huge
and the vast majority of those waiting are under 30 years
old.

What would you ideally like to do?

Without a doubt - I'd like to get out. I'd like to be able to
live a normal life and do a job which interests me in the
field that I am studying, computer science.

But I am slowly beginning to wonder whether I will ever
be able to. I don't think I will have either the money or the
will to stay for several more years in this country - which
is what I need to do to complete my studies.

Even if I did, I'm not sure my degree would be recognised
in the West.

And if I did go to the West I would have to do the worst
kind of menial work for years before I could get
established.

It would be difficult for me to get enough money together
to study there, but who knows? We'll see.]]> Kosovo War daniela https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/3/#post-6432 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/3/#post-6431 Sun, 17 Oct 1999 03:13:00 +0000 U.N. Leader Unhappy With Treatment of Kosovo Minority

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 15, 1999; Page A23

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Oct. 14—U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
called today for an end to the violence against Kosovo's dwindling Serbian
community and told senior U.N. officials here that they need to step up
their efforts to involve the local Serbian leadership in reconstruction.

The moderate Serbian leadership, led by the Serbian Orthodox Church,
has boycotted efforts to create a multi-ethnic transitional council for
Kosovo since the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was
transformed last month into a lightly-armed, uniformed civil defense force
as part of Yugoslavia's agreement with NATO.

Anti-Serb violence by ethnic Albanians has also radicalized the local
Serbian community and led most Serbs to look to the government in
Belgrade for leadership. Kosovo, a province of Serbia, the dominant
republic of Yugoslavia, has been run by the United Nations and a
NATO-led peacekeeping force since Yugoslav army and Serbian police
forces withdrew in June as a condition for ending the NATO air campaign.

Some Western officials here expressed exasperation with the suggestion
that Bernard Kouchner, the U.N. special representative in Kosovo, could
do more to involve Serbian officials, who have refused his entreaties to
return to the negotiating table, in the reconstruction process. The political
leadership of the former KLA, which fought a 16-month war-- starting in
February 1998--against Serbian forces for Kosovo's independence, also
takes part in the transitional council. Even after meeting with Annan
Wednesday, Serbian officials refused to say if they would participate in
U.N.-created councils.

On a two-day visit, which ended today, Annan and Kouchner had what
U.N. officials described as tense discussions over U.N. policy in Kosovo.
Annan argued that Kouchner has made decisions--such as recognizing the
German mark as the province's legal currency--that infringe upon the
sovereignty of Yugoslavia.

Annan urged Kouchner to slow down his decision-making process and
consult more with U.N. headquarters in New York.

Western officials here dismissed Annan's complaints as an attempt to
micromanage the administration of Kosovo. On a recent visit, the U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, Richard C. Holbrooke, urged officials
to make decisions quickly without worrying about the reaction of the U.N.
bureaucracy--an approach Annan frowned upon during his visit.

Among the Western allies, U.S. officials in particular have complimented
Kouchner for his willingness to take decisive action.

At a news conference today, Annan made it clear that symbols of
embryonic independence, such as the Kosovo Albanians' demand for a
seat or observer status at the United Nations, do not have his support.

"The mandate makes clear that we should
administer this territory as an autonomous region, but within the boundaries
of the former Yugoslavia," Annan said. "Therefore, from our point of view,
we are not here to prepare the people for independence. . . . And I hope
this is understood by all."]]> Kosovo War daniela https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/3/#post-6431 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/3/#post-6430 Sun, 17 Oct 1999 03:09:00 +0000 > > Dutch newspaper
> >
> > The Dutch weekly "Elsevier" (in its latest issue)
> > made the following
> > points:
> >
> >
> >
> > Although overwhelming propaganda in the West
> > demonizes Serbs as
> > responsible for "ethnic cleansing", the facts are
> > that all former
> > Yugoslav
> > republics have remained ethnically cleansed, except
> > for Serbia.
> > Elsevier made public the facts that in
> > "Slovenia there never
> > have
> > been national minorities in significant numbers,"
> > that "Croatia has
> > expelled
> > 100,000 Serbs, that Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the
> > use of violence,
> > has
> > been divided into three ethnically cleansed
> > territories, and that from
> > Kosovo ethnic Albanians have expelled 90 percent of
> > the non-Albanian
> > population." At the same time, the daily added, "in
> > Serbia live 26
> > ethnic
> > communities and minorities."
> > "According to still unpublished data of the
> > federal institute
> > for
> > statistics, one third of the non-Albanian population
> > in Serbia and
> > ethnic
> > Albanians, one fourth are Slav Muslims, 350,000 are
> > Hungarians, 150,000
> > are
> > Romanians, and following are Gypsies, Wallachs,
> > Croats, Slovenians,
> > Macedonians, Montenegrins and Goranies," Elsevier
> > said and added that
> > "in
> > the years when in Croatia every form of Serbian
> > culture was
> > systematically
> > destroyed... Croats in Serbia were able to live
> > there peacefully and in
> > full
> > security."
> > "Serbs are a people who have been demonized
> > by the media, who
> > despite
> > the fact they were drawn into four wars and bombed
> > two times by NATO in
> > the
> > past ten years, have resisted the wave of
> > nationalist hatred and
> > preserved a
> > state as the only real multiethnic community in the
> > region," the Dutch
> > paper
> > said and illustrated this by the words of Muslim
> > Idriz Krahimirovic, a
> > hairdresser from Novi Pazar, that "it is easier to
> > be a Muslim in
> > Serbia,
> > than a Serb in Sarajevo."
> > "In Serbia, a minority population was never
> > isolated into a
> > ghetto,
> > and they all live in mixed communities," the paper
> > said, adding that
> > until
> > recently that had also been the case in Kosovo.
> > Although the world thinks that Serbs are
> > "aggressors" who
> > recognize
> > only their own culture, in the largest store of CD
> > discs and cassettes
> > in
> > Belgrade, heading the list of sales is the Croatian
> > pop group Magazin
> > and
> > the Muslim singer Haris Dzinovic, the weekly said
> > and added that "in
> > Croatia
> > listening to Serbian music means running the risk of
> > being killed."
> >
> >]]> Kosovo War daniela https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/3/#post-6430 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/2/#post-6429 Sat, 16 Oct 1999 19:45:00 +0000 I don't need to look that up. Your behaviour Unfortuanetly speaks for itself. And of course the people you attracked]]> Kosovo War emina https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/2/#post-6429 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/2/#post-6428 Sat, 16 Oct 1999 02:07:00 +0000
Howya' doin? Haven't heard from you in a while. Glad you're back.

Re: Venik

I think you slightly missed the point. Venik was using this particular incident and the coinciding circumstances as an example of why it's often difficult to take NATO's information releases as factual. He asks, why such secrecy surrounding this crashed helicopter, when other similar incidents are routinely reported. Could it have had some connection to other activities occurring nearby at the same time.

I seem to have lost my link to Venik's site, otherwise I'd post it for you. BTW - I'm NOT recommending it, because I don't think it's very reliable, but he's kind of an interesting weapons and war planes groupie.

Suitboy (aka tommygunns)]]> Kosovo War suitboy https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/2/#post-6428 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/2/#post-6427 Sat, 16 Oct 1999 01:36:00 +0000
Source: Reagan.com
Published: 10/14/99 Author: Max Sinclair

Commander Remi - The Man Who Insults Gen. Jackson and Gets Away With It

"Murders occur at a frightening rate"

What Happened in Kosovo?

Since General Jackson's military occupation began on June 12th it has become
increasingly clear that something is going terribly wrong inside Kosovo and
Metohija.

Murders occur at a frightening rate. Little old ladies get strangled while
taking a bath. Young girls are kidnaped and sent to European brothels.
Children get blown up by unexploded cluster bombs. Whole residential streets
are looted, then torched. Nuns are raped. More than a dozen Farmers tending
their crops get their throats slit by thugs dressed in British army uniforms.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

We were told by Washington that the tyrant Milosevic and his evil henchman
must be kicked out of Kosovo to stop hundreds of thousands from being killed.
We were told by Washington that NATO occupation would bring peace and
stability to Kosovo. We were told by Washington that the Kosovo Liberation
Army (UCK) represented the desires of 99.95% of the people.

Somehow what we were told by Washington and the reality unfolding in Kosovo
doesn't appear to jive. Why is that? Why is the situation so chaotic in
Kosovo? Why have things got worse since the 'NATO liberation'?

Perhaps these questions can be answered by taking an in depth look at the UCK.
This is the very same UCK whose leaders' Madeline Albright has feted in
Paris, Washington, and now in Pristina. Numerous reports have indicated the
US has secretly armed and advised the UCK. One such leader is Commander Remi.

This article presents information about Remi and how he appears to have spent
most of his time in killing fellow Albanians who disagreed with his extremist
position.

Commander Remi

Rrustem Mustafa is a leading UCK commander. Using the nom de guerre Commander
Remi, he was responsible for UCK actions in the so-called Llap operational
zone. This vital zone includes Pristina, the strategic highway linking Kosovo
with Serbia, and the market town of Podujevo. At 27, Remi had a hard line
reputation and a flair for media posturing. He frequently gave interviews to
naive reporters driving up for the afternoon from Pristina. His
political views are therefore quite well known. What is not as quite well
known are the methods he used to carry out his rigid political programme?

Remi seems to have believed that any person would not support the UCK was a
traitor and deserved to be treated that way. Remi rejected the Rambouillet
Peace agreement signed by the UCK leadership describing it as a betrayal by
'business patriots' and criticized the 'fraud' and 'manipulation' which went
into the agreement. (source Reuters Tuesday March 16 12:31 PM ET ; Yugoslav
Army Advances: By Sean Maguire) The day to day work of leading Remi's
fighters appears to have been the responsibility of Kadri Kastrati, deputy
commander of the Llap zone.

Kastrati was a 39 year old seasoned mercenary from the Croatia Army who spent
the early 1990's with the paramilitary group "Vangas" ethnically cleansing
the Dalmatian coast from Zadar to Dubrovnik. (source: Vecernji List (Zagreb)
9 March 1999; Some 300 Former Croatian Army Members Fighting in Kosovo ; by
Sonja Hodak).

Remi, the 20 something failed law student and Karrati, the unemployed
paramilitary from Croatia organized a focused campaign against moderate
Albanians within their zone beginning with the kidnapping of Hajif Hoti on
December 1st , 1998.

Remi's Campaign Against Moderate Albanians

The fifty-six year old Hajif Hoti, was kidnaped by a group of people wearing
UCK uniforms near Podujevo and never heard from again. Hoti's case is typical
of what happened to moderate Albanian villagers in Remi's zone. They go about
trying to avoid all conflict and find themselves disappeared (source Pristina
Media Center 3.December)

Moderate villagers were not the only victims of Remi's wrath. Two days later
on the 3rd of December, Remi's fighter's assassinated Hizri Tala and his two
companions; the journalist Afrim Malici, and the student Iljir Durmisi when
their car was machine gunned in Pristina's University district. Albanians who
attended multi-ethnic Yugoslav schools were by definition traitors becuase
they refused to attend UCK run nationalist schools.
(source Pristina Media Center)

The next day, Remi ordered two of his fighters to sneak into the Pristina
hospital for unknown reasons. When confronted with a request to show
identification inside a hospital corridor, Remi's fighter's opened fire woundi
ng 4 Albanians: Semsija Ceri, Dzevat Ceri, Jeton Muljaj, and Shuban Beahimaj.
There are conflicting stories about what happened next. One version states
that the female UCK threw a grenade forgetting to pull the pin. Her UCK
companion then shot her while berating her for her incompetence. ( numerous
sources )

Remi's attacks against Albanians seemed to quiet down until 10:30 on the
night of 23rd of December when his fighters shot up the "Melisa" cafe in
Kosovska Mitrovica killing 24 year old Naser Haziri and wounding 20 year old
Ljulzim Ademi. Ademi was an Albanian member of the local Yugoslav police and
therefore a target for assassination by Remi. (source Pristina Media Center
23.December)

Moderate Albanian intellectual leaders were a particular target of Remi . For
example, on the 9th of January at 4:00 in the afternoon Enver Maloku was shot
and fatally wounded while stepping out of his car in front of his home in
Prishtina. Maloku was a leading member of the Albanian nationalist political
party known as the LDK as well as a prominant publisher. The LDK was the
chief political rival of the UCK. Maloku's crime in Remi's eyes was
that he advocated a peaceful struggle for independence. Remi considered that
traitorous and therefore assassinated Maloku. (Sources Kosovo Information
Service, Pristina Media Center 10. January)

Even driving a cab using Yugoslav registration was enough to earn a guilty
verdict from Commander Remi. On the morning of January 21s, Fatmir Sheqiri,
21, was found killed at LivaxhÎ, on the Prishtina - Ferizaj roadway. The body
of Fatmir was found in the trunk of his car. It seems he was shot with two
bullets on the neck, whereas signs of violence were all about his body,
according to reports issued by the Pristina Association of Taxi
Drivers. Fatmir was guilty of two crimes the first was working within the
Yugoslav system. The second was to be a 21 year old Albanian and not fighting
with the UCK under Commander Remi. (Source Kosovo Information Service 22.Jan)

Commander Remi seemed to specialize in the bombing of cafes which were
frequented by ethnically mixed groups of youth. At 8:45pm on January 29th ,
Remi's fighters threw a Chinese made hand grenade into the downtown Pristina
"Galerija" Cafe wounding Gordana Miladinovic, Milovan Vujosevic, Milenko
Stojanovic, his sister Mirjana Stojanovic, Miodrag Markovic and Alma
Beljulji, while Nikola Gavrilovic was lightly wounded. The Albanian girl, Alma
Beljuli, was 21 years old and presumably attacked because she was mixing with
Serbians.

Another middle aged Albanian writer was shot and wounded by Remi at the end
of January. Selman Konjusha (50), a Pristina writer, was shot in the entrance
to his flat in downtown Pristina. Konjusha was shot twice - in the chest and
his kidneys - and was taken to the Yugoslav run Pristina surgery clinic in a
critical condition. When operated upon, he had one of his kidneys removed.
(Source Kosovo Information Center)

Two days after the "Galerija" grenade attack, Remi's fighters struck yet
again. This time they attacked two cafes frequented by young Albanians who
were more interested in drinking Fantas and flirting with girls than joining
the UCK extremists shivering in the hills. At 10:00pm a bomb was tossed in
the courtyard of the "GÎzimi II" cafe in downtown Pristina. Luckily it caused
no injuries and only light damage. The Albanian proprietor, Rrahman Ismaili
may also have gotten a little warning from Remi to pay his UCK taxes on time.

Twenty minutes later, an Albanian student was killed, and six other young
Albanians were wounded at 10:20pm on Sunday when a bomb was hurled in the
"Beqa" grill bar in Vellusha street in downtown Pristina, The killed
university student was Osman Ibrahim Gashi (23). An eye-witness, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said a tall man with a black overcoat was seen
leaving the scene and being driven away by a waiting car a few meters away. (
sources
Center for Defense of Human Rights and Freedom, Kosovo Information Center,
and Pristina Media Center 1st February)

The next weekend Remi's fighters were at it again, this time bombing the
"Almir" convenience store in Pristina's Ulpijana suburb and killing 3
Albanians. Storeowner Enver Salja (52) and Viljora Kumoli (16) were killed
outright, while Arton Ajeti (20) died on his was to the hospital. A powerful
explosive device, planted outside the store, went off at around 7 PM local
time, shattering windows of a post office some 100 m away. The BBC reported
that
"those killed were ethnic Albanians who were loyal to Serbia and had
apparently been targeted by separatists." Particularly grisly footage of
Remi's handiwork was shown on CNN with the voiceover " A leg with the shoe
still on and other pieces of mangled bodies were scattered on the city's main
road, and a trail of blood ran along the gutter," The LDK condemned in the
strongest terms "the terrorist attack".

Interestingly, the UCK made no comment on this attack. The attack coincided
with the start of the international conference in Rambouillet, France which
Remi was adamantly against. The day before there had been another bomb attack
in Pristina, this time on a Serb owned bar causing no casualties. It has been
suggested that Remi intended these bombings to undermine the peace talks. (
Reuters, Kosovo Information Center, BBC, CNN 7th Feb)

By the first week of February, the OSCE monitors were deployed throughout
Remi's zone of Operations. One of their reports describes how Remi's men
operated when accosting Albanian villagers. The monitors reported that on
February 5 Arben Rahmani was accosted by three men, one dressed in UCK
uniform, in a vineyard at Pashki Dol Teca. After checking his identity
papers, one of the men used his radio to ask whether the man should be killed
or released.
Before releasing him, the three questioned Rahmani about his relations with
Serbs, how many Serbs were in his village, and what arms the Serbs have. He
was warned not to return to the vineyard on penalty of death (source: KDOM
report 8.Feb)

Remi's methods in harassing Albanian villagers are illuminated by another
OSCE dispatch in which a female resident of Vucitrn reported that on February
6 four "terrorists," one sporting a UCK badge, broke into her home and beat
her with a rifle butt. The "terrorists" allegedly searched the home and took
a rifle, saying they would kill her if she reported to police. ( source: KDOM
report 9. Feb )

Remi's depredations around Vucitrn increased dramatically in the next few
weeks. On Tuesday the 23rd of February at 9:00am an Associated Press
photographer was wounded by UCK fighters in an attack designed to expel
non-Albanian residents of Bukos village near Vucitrn. The previous day, 32
year old Mirko Milosevic was murdered while working in front of his
farmhouse. On Thursday, UCK snipers wounded Milorad Milic also near Vucitrn.
On Saturday, Milan
Milosevic died from torture wounds he received while he was kidnaped on
February 22nd by Remi. ( Kosovo Media Center, Radio Yugoslavia, Kosovo
Information Center, UPI, AP, and AFP)

By the end of February, Remi's fighters turned again to terrorizing Albanians
in Pristina. Automatic gunfire killed Ekrem Gashi and seriously wounded Fahri
Bejti and Genc Nuha as they shopped at a group of Serb owned shops early
Sunday evening on the 28th February. (Kosovo Information Center 1.March)

The next weekend, Remi's attacked the "Kovac" restaurant in the Pristina
suburb of Vranjevac, killing one and wounding seven Albanians who remained in
the city and refused to join the UCK: Agim Revuci was killed, and Saban
Zeciri, Bajram Zakupi, Gani Ismailji, Isa Krasnici, Avdulj Musica, Ismet
Labljani and Arben Tahiri were wounded. (Reuters 6.March)

Nine miles north of Pristina, Remi's men shot two middled aged Serbian
brothers Ljubisa and Radivoje Mitrovic in the back as they tried to escape
being kidnaped on March 3rd . ( March 4th By ANNE THOMPSON (AP) MIJALIC,
Yugoslavia )

Remi did not forget to continue the silencing of the UCK's main rivals the
LDK. On Thursday, March 11th , His fighters assassinated Enver Feka chairman
of the Velika Reka chapter of the LDK outside Vucitrn. Feka was guilty of two
capital offenses in Remi's eyes. First, he led a political party which
advocated peaceful transition to autonomy and Second, he owned a shop which
was frequented by Serbs. ( source: Thursday March 11 6:50 AM ET; By Deborah
Charles Reuters)

Up until now, Remi had spent most of his resources in minor attacks on
moderate Albanians and terrorizing non-Albanians of every persuasion. These
minor attacks and individual murders appeared to be part of a strategy
designed to support a UCK offensive in the Summer. However, events began to
unfold quickly in mid-March and the threat of a Peace Agreement loomed at
Rambouillet.

Remi was adamantly against the Rambouillet Peace Agreement and therefore
attempted to destabilize the situation in the most dramatic fashion. After
meeting with his UCK counterparts who departed on Friday to sign the
Rambouillet Agreement, Remi undertook a bombing campaign of a ferocity
heretofore unknown in Kosovo.

Remi tries to scuttle Peace Talks through bombing campaign Remi's first
series of bombs were set off on Saturday , March 13th ,in the crowded town
marketplaces of Mitrovica and Podujevo. In Podujevo, Remi set two bombs to
blow up 15 minutes apart which would inflict maximum damage to rescue workers
arriving at the scene. The Mitovica bomb exploded only 750 meters from the
OSCE mission there. On this day, Remi killed at least 8 innocent shoppers and
wounded more than 58. At least 40 of the injured in the bombing were
Albanians. The wounded included a eight year old girl who lost both her legs.
10 people were listed in critical condition. Reporters described pools of
blood which lay amid the pulped remains of fruit and vegetable stalls..
Discarded shoes and torn clothing were strewn amid the metal stalls.
(Sources: The Guardian, The Times, UPI, Reuters, AP, March 13th - 15th )

One of Remi's last acts before the UCK demanded cluster bombing of Kosovo
started on March 24th was the drive by machine gunning of 4 traffic cops in
Pristina. (Source Reuters 21st March) This wanton act of violence again
betrayed his remarkable cold blooded attitude towards killing.

However, once the bombing began, Remi proved that while he professed to be
attacking the hated Serbs, his true acts were the expulsion of more than
220,000 Albanians from his zone of operations.

Remi expels the Albanian population Remi began expelling Albanians from the
Llap region once the international monitors pulled out. The sole intent of
this strategy seems to have been to provoke a refugee crisis. Evidently, the
UCK knew it could only rise to power through the maximum suffering of the
very people it purported to be defending.

Chris Bird of the Guardian filed a story on Saturday March 20 which described
how the UCK knocked on people's doors in Srbica telling them they had to
"leave immediately, at one in the morning" as the UCK spread landmines
throughout the village. The villagers then had to walk miles through a wind
swept snowy night.

The tide of UCK induced refugees grew until it reached 160,000 as described
by Lirak Qelaj. Qelaj acted in part as an information officer for Commander
Remi and one of his jobs was to film the plight of displaced Albanian
civilians with a video camera. Qelaj " disclosed that it was KLA advice,
rather than Serbian deportations, which led some of the hundreds of thousands
of Albanians to leave Kosovo" as reported by Jonathan Steele of the Guardian
on
June 30th

In one episode, around 160,000 displaced people were stranded near the
village of Kolic on the east side of the Pristina-Podujevo road. Qelaj said
the UCK " urged the people to go on to the main road and start walking to
Pristina."

Sometime in late April, in the north of the Llap region, the KLA urged
another crowd hiding from the bombing and numbering almost 60,000 to leave
for Macedonia and Albania according to Qelaj.

In Remi's zone of operations alone, the UCK expelled 220,000 Albanians. This
is keeping with the pattern Remi established prior to the bombing. Albanians
were only worthy of decent treatment if they were actively supporting the
UCK. Those who stood on the sidelines were to be used for propaganda purposes
or worse.

After the military occupation of Kosovo by forces led by English General Sir
Micheal Jackson, Remi opened a UCK information center in Pristina. A few
weeks later Remi personally insulted Gen. Jackson for his " lack of respect
for KLA soldiers" and issued veiled threats against the occupation troops. .

Remi Attacks General Jackson

PrishtinÎ, July 3, (Kosovapress)

Following last night's incident in which KFOR soldiers killed two Albanian
civilians and injured two others, KFOR commander Mike Jackson expressed to
the commander of the Llap operative zone, Rrustem Mustafa-Remi his profound
regrets. They met today upon the request of General Jackson. Agim «eku, Chief
of Staff of the KLA also attended the meeting.

Commander Remi expressed his concern over the uncontrolled behavior of some
KFOR soldiers towards Albanian citizens, in particular, towards KLA soldiers
and their superiors. Some incidents between KFOR troops and Albanian
civilians and personnel have been categorically stated as unacceptable. Remi
added that these acts increase the tension between KFOR and Albanians.

In relation to the incident last night which resulted in the death of two KLA
soldiers, Fahri Bici and Avni Liman Dudi, and the injury of two other
civilians, Commander Remi, said this was an undisciplined attacked and was
unacceptable coming from the allies of the Kosovar people.

These actions are not necessary, said Remi, "because, based on information
gathered from eyewitnesses, KFOR soldiers were not in danger. Last night
thousands of citizens were in the streets to celebrate the victory over a
common enemy. Our citizens were celebrating together with KFOR soldiers. This
joy turned to death due to an irresponsible act taken by the KFOR patrol.

"I expect from you that those who committed this act to be held responsible.
I am afraid that among your soldiers there is a lack of respect for KLA
soldiers. It is in our common interest to work together in a mutually
respectful atmosphere between the KLA, the Kosovar civilians and KFOR troops.
We must do everything to make sure these acts will not be repeated again."

KFOR commander Jackson expressed his regrets and apologized for last night's
incident. "Our soldiers did not know that they were KLA soldiers. They felt
they were in danger and they opened fire. "Commander Jackson promised the
case would be investigated fully with all necessary measures taken.

Commander Remi also wanted to clarify with his counterpart the process of
transforming the KLA into a regular army. "We insist, as the people of
Kosova, to keep the continuity of our army. We will not disband our troops
under no condition but we will maintain this organization until we are able
to transform ourselves into a regular army as the agreement stipulated." (End
of Kosovapress release)

Not only does Remi feel he can insult Gen. Jackson directly to his face, Remi
apparently continues to hold fast to the idea that his troops will never
disband. Since the time of Remi's last communique reprinted above, there has
been little news about him. However, the increasing number of mass graves
which are being uncovered in North-East Kosovo seem to be his handiwork.
These mass graves are filled with bodies of civilians murdered after Yugoslav
forces left Kosovo. Remi may be as active as ever, but just not as willing to
grant interviews.]]> Kosovo War daniela https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/2/#post-6427 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/2/#post-6426 Sat, 16 Oct 1999 01:30:00 +0000 Yugoslavia."

Daniella, where in the world did you ever find this person? There are tens of thousands of reports not made public by the UN, NATO and other military organizations. And they sould not be made public. Just because Vink whines about them not being made public in no way supports his fantasy or his belief that they should be made public. My god, can't you do better than this? phil]]> Kosovo War philtr https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/2/#post-6426 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/2/#post-6425 Fri, 15 Oct 1999 21:31:00 +0000
The following was the answer to your question "when did you become a supporter of mass murderers".

>> I challenge you to point out when and where I have ever expressed support for ANY of the belligerents in the Balkan Wars.

You just didn't get it. The question is false. Can you say the same for mine?

Suitboy]]> Kosovo War suitboy https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-october-17-1999/paged/2/#post-6425