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ETHNIC ALBANIANS WRITE TO PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC
Ninety ethnic Albanians from the Prizren district of Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province have written to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic expressing their indignation at the ethnic cleansing being perpetrated in the province by terrorist gangs of the self-styled Kosovo Liberation Army.
This has caused great concern among ethnic Albanians who are citizens of Serbia and Yugoslavia and who want ethnic co-existence in the province and now fear for their own survival, as the UN civilian mission and its head Bernard Kouchner are unable to halt the KLA rampage, the letter says.
The 90 ethnic Albanians asked President Milosevic to take all measures in line with the Security Council Resolution 1244 for the return of the Yugoslav Army and police to the province as only they can guarantee security to its population.
SERBIAN OIL INDUSTRY DIRECTOR ANNOUNCES BETTER SUPPLY OF FUELS SHORTLY
Director of Serbian oil industry Jugopetrol and Serbian parliament Speaker Dragan Tomic said Tuesday that sufficient quantities of fuel oil and diesel would be ensured for the winter heating season and for agriculture, and that the supply of gasoline would be normalised by December, when coupons should no longer be necessary.
In a statement carried by Serbian TV, Tomic said the Pancevo refinery capacity now stood between 7,000 and 7,500 tons, and that of the Novi Sad refinery at 1,200 tons, which is normal output.
However, the refineries are still unable to produce enough gasoline due to heavy damages they sustained during the NATO aggression last spring, he said.
Vital sections of the Pancevo refinery were reconstructed in only three and a half months, Tomic said, and underlined that reconstruction works underway would be completed according to plans.
The NATO aggression had caused damages to the value of one billion 100 million dollars to the Serbian oil industry, Tomic said.
A Belgrade fuel depot has been reconstructed and works are underway on depots in Smederevo, Prahovo and Nis, eastern and south-eastern Serbia, Tomic said.
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS KILL ONE, INJURE AT LEAST 20 SERBS
Ethnic Albanian terrorists on Tuesday launched two attacks on Serbs at the locality of Supkovac near Kosovska Mitrovica, killing one and injuring at least 20 Serbs, of whom eight sustained serious injuries, while three were listed missing, the Serb National Council for the Kosovska Mitrovica district has reported.
Seven French gendarmes and four Russian troops participating in the UN peacekeeping force KFOR were also injured while they were trying to prevent the terrorists' attacks on Serbs.
The terrorists first attacked two vehicles with Serbs on the trunk road near Supkovac. Only a few minutes later, they attacked at the same locality a convoy of two lorries and two passenger vehicles, escorted by Russian peacekeepers.
Physicians at the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica, in the north of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, have told Tanjug that the injured Serbs are in intensive care and the surgical and orthopaedic wards.
France's KFOR command has said that the terrorists set the Serbs' and the Russian peacekeepers' vehicles on fire.
The command has also said that the seven gendarmes, who were called to help by the Russian peacekeepers, were injured in fierce clashes with the terrorists, adding that the gendarmes' commander and his deputy were also injured.
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS OPEN FIRE ON HOSPITAL IN KOSOVSKA MITROVICA
Ethnic Albanian terrorists opened early Wednesday mortar fire on the hospital in the northern, Serb-populated section of Kosovska Mitrovica, the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province.
Two shells exploded just behind the hospital.
The hospital staff told Tanjug that the detonations had shook the windows on the hospital but had caused no damage.
The terrorists appear to have opened fire from Tamnik, located at the outskirts of the town's southern section.
UN ADMINISTRATOR: TERRORISTS WILL BE PUNISHED SEVERELY
Those who killed a Serb on Tuesday and attacked innocent Serb passengers near Supkovac, close to Kosovska Mitrovica, will be brought before justice and severely punished, Kosovska Mitrovica district main administrator Martin Garrod said commenting yesterday's ethnic Albanian terrorist attack on Serb passengers.
The official UNMIK report says that one person was killed, and 29 wounded when ethnic Albanians attacked Serbs in several vehicles and a Russian transporter. A total of eight Serbs were injured, of whom one seriously. Also wounded were four Russians, 11 French gendarmes and three UNMIK police officers.
SERBS DEFEND SCHOOL IN VILLAGE AT PRISTINA FROM BRITAIN'S KFOR TROOPS
Serbs in the village of Plemetina at Pristina, Kosovo and Metohija's chief city, have forced British troops participating in the UN peacekeeping force KFOR to leave the local school which they seized late Monday.
The troops claimed that their intention had been to enable ethnic Albanian children to attend the school as well, Plemetina Serbs told Tanjug on Wednesday.
Embittered by the troops' attempt to seize the only Serb school shared by both primary as well as secondary school pupils, the pupils' parents demanded that the troops leave the building.
Tensions between the local Serbs and the troops, during which several persons were lightly injured, eased after talks between officials of the UN civilian mission to the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's province (UNMIK) and the locals in which it was agreed that the school be attended by Serb and Romany children only and that different premises be secured for ethnic Albanian children as of next Monday.
The school in Plemetina will also be closed until that time.
KFOR ARRESTS SERBS ON BASIS OF ETHNIC ALBANIAN INSTANT TESTIMONIES
Members of the German peace-keeping troops within KFOR last Friday arrested four Serbs - Novica Krstic, Danilo and Radisav Misic, and Ceda Jovanovic, Krstic's wife Miloratka said in Orahovac on Tuesday.
She explained that KFOR took the four off a UNHCR bus transporting Serbs from this town to Belgrade at a check point near Velika Hoca. They were immediately arrested and charged with murder and rape.
All Serbs older than 18 years are frightened and dare not leave Orahovac fearing immediate arrest on charges of alleged murder and rape.
UNHCR is in charge of checking and approving all who want to leave Orahovac, but several ethnic Albanian witnesses usually turn up at the first checkpoints and recognise the Serbs, who are them arrested by KFOR, said Zlata Krkotic from Orahovac.
She stated that nine Serbs had so far been arrested in this manner.
GEN. PONCET TO HEAD FRENCH KFOR CONTIGENT REPLACING GEN. CUCHE
General Henry Poncet has been appointed the commander of the multinational KFOR brigade deployed in northern Kosovo and Metohija, replacing General Bruno Cuche, the French Army headquarters in Paris said on Tuesday.
In question is a usual rotation on KFOR command positions, already carried out in the other sectors.
Gen. Poncet, 50, who headed the 11th paratroopers in Toulouse since July 1, 1999, will be stationed in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Poncet graduated at the French military academy Saint-Syr and spent most of his career in the navy.
POSITION OF SERBS AND OTHER NON-ALBANIANS UNBEARABLE
The position of Serbs, Montenegrins and other non-Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija has become unbearable due to the continuing actions of the ethnic Albanian nationalists and separatists, the Presidency of the Serbian National Assembly said in Kosovska Mitrovica on Wednesday.
"Unless UNMIK and KFOR take adequate measures for the protection of the remaining Serbs, Montenegrins and other non-Albanians, in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 1244, they will be directly responsible for the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and Metohija," the Assembly said in a statement,
The Assembly also demanded that UNMIK and KFOR secure peace and safety for all citizens of Serbia's southern province regardless of their nationality and religion and to create conditions for the return of all Serbs and Montenegrins who were driven out and for the return of the property which was seized, because the right to life and the right to private property are universal rights protected by the United Nations and the entire international community," the Assembly said.
ETHNIC ALBANIAN PARTY LEADER MEETS WITH UN OFFICIAL, ANOTHER PARTY LEADER
Leader of the ethnic Albanian Democratic Reformism Party (DRPA) Sokolj Cuse met Tuesday with spokesperson for the UN civilian mission to Kosovo and Metohija (UNMIK) Susan Manuel and leader of the ethnic Albanian Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Ibrahim Rugova, the DRPA press section said.
A statement issued by the DRPA said that Cuse had informed Manuel that a systematic ethnic cleansing of Serbs was continuing in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's southern province and that, in cooperation with the UN peacekeeping force KFOR and UNMIK, the ethnic Albanian terrorist organisation calling itself Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was performing many administrative duties that UNMIK had been entrusted with.
He said that reports by the Washington Post newspaper that Kosovo and Metohija will become an independent state, did not contribute to the stabilisation of the situation in the province but encouraged ethnic Albanian terrorism, because UN Security Council Resolution 1244 guarantees Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Stressing that the demilitarisation of KLA had been nothing but a farce and that it had only increased the threat posed to Serbs, Montenegrins and ethnic Albanians urging a multiethnic Kosovo, Cuse said that the head of the local DRPA board in Prizren, in the south of the province, had been murdered just because his wife was a Serb.
Commenting on the meeting with Rugova, Cuse only said that it had been successful.
KOUCHNER'S AIM - AN ETHNICALLY CLEAN JUDICIARY IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA
Contrary to UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and his own statements, UN Civilian Mission head Bernard Kouchner is doing everything for the judiciary in Kosovo and Metohija to become ethnically clean.
Jankovic recalled that only in the past few days, the remaining Serbs, elected by Kouchner as members of the temporary judicial councils and public prosecutors in Kosovo and Metohija, resigned to these posts.
"In Pristina resigned have investigative judge Zoran Tabakovic and district public prosecutor Aleksandar Obradovic, in Kosovska Mitrovica judges Nebojsa Avramovic and Ljubomir Pantovic and public prosecutor Stojanka Kasalovic - all of whom were appointed by the Serbian National Assembly to their posts," Jankovic set out.
He added that since the lives and property of all these people were seriously threatened, they were forced to follow many of their colleagues and temporarily abandon their homes and jobs in Kosovo and Metohija.
"The main reason for their resignation is the flagrant violation of the laws and regulations of judicial procedure and Kouchner's tolerance of the biased and biased conduct of ethnic Albanian judges who even disregard the decisions of judges and courts appointed by Kouchner when they rule in favour of imprisoned Serbs, Jankovic stated.
ILLEGITIMATE DEMANDS OF KOUCHNER AND THE CIVILIAN MISSION
The International Union for Telecommunications has sent to the UN Civilian Mission in Kosovo and Metohija a response to the Mission's request for a special, international telephone code for Kosovo and Metohija, the Yugoslav Ministry of Telecommunications said Wednesday.
The International Union for Telecommunications, referring to the regulations of that international organisation, said in its response that the request of the UN Civilian Mission in Kosovo and Metohija cannot be taken into consideration.
It was stressed that a request for a telephone code can be made only by a country recognised by the International Union for Telecommunications, or the United Nations, and that is why Kosovo and Metohija cannot have a special telephone code.
It was noted that only the competent authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as a sovereign country, could pursue contacts with the International Union for Telecommunications, the statement said.
RUSSIA INSISTS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF RESOLUTION 1244
Russia will undertake all measures for UN Security Council Resolution on Kosovo and Metohija to be implemented consistently and without double standards, said Wednesday in Moscow Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev.
He said that the implementation of the resolution must become the main condition for resolving the problem of Kosovo-Metohija.
UN Security Council Resolution 1244 must be implemented fully, given that the document clearly and concretely defines the goals and tasks of the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and Metohija, Marshall Sergeyev told journalists, following a meeting of the joint collegium of the defense ministries of Russia and Belarus.
RUSSIA WARNS WEST AGAIN OVER KOSOVO-METOHIJA ISSUE
Russia reiterated Tuesday that the only way Moscow and the West can cooperate regarding Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province is through a strict respect of the letter and spirit of the Security Council Resolution 1244, which guarantees Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The activities of some officials of the international peace mission in Kosovo-Metohija give cause for concern, an unnamed Russian foreign ministry official told Interfax.
The diplomat directly criticized representatives of some western countries, whose statements indicate that there are plans for reconsidering agreements on the inviolability of Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Attempts that might lead to Kosovo's secession from Yugoslavia would have very difficult consequences for the entire region and Europe, the official said.
If no understanding is reached in this regard, Russia will have no choice but to halt its participation in the peace operation in Kosovo-Metohija, he said, but added that this would be a last resort and that Moscow would do everything in its power to prevent a total failure of the international community endeavour in Serbia's province.
Russia has already issued a similar warning to the West through its defence ministry international military cooperation department chief General Leonid Ivashov.
At that time, however, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov indicated that this was the general's personal opinion, not Moscow's official stance.
The warning is not formally official this time either, but has now come from a diplomatic source, from what Ivanov had described as the place where Russia's foreign policy is defined.
Moscow has also rejected the West's attempts at linking the future status of Kosovo-Metohija with Yugoslavia's internal political affairs.
Kosovo-Metohija must not be a pawn in political games, the Russian official said.
INVESTIGATION ON DEATH OF SPO OFFICIALS IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENT
Investigation is underway on the traffic accident last Sunday, in which three officials of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) Zvonko Osmajlic, Dragan Vusurovic and Vucko Rakocevic and Belgrade city official and SPO member Veselin Boskovic were killed.
Investigating magistrate Krsto Bobot said the accident occurred on a straight section of the Ibarski road about 20 km south of Belgrade, when a truck suddenly swerved to the left lane and hit the two cars in which the victims were riding.
As the truck driver had fled the site, a warrant was issued for his arrest and search is also underway for the truck owner. An autopsy was performed on the bodies of the victims and the vehicles involved in the accident were also examined, Bobot said.
MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT ADMITS TO DIVISIONS
Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic attempted at a press conference Tuesday to convince the public of the need for changing relations between Montenegro and Serbia within the Yugoslav federation.
Djukanovic described the platform on redefining relations within Yugoslavia proposed by his government as a realistic and honest offer to Serbia to create a new democratic joint state in the interest of both its member-republics.
This is not a political manoeuvre towards Montenegro's secession, Djukanovic said, although he used to say during his visits to European capitals at the time of the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia that Montenegro would chose its own road if its demands are not met.
Asked whether he was advocating a sovereign Montenegro, Djukanovic said he wanted a Yugoslavia in which Montenegro would have equality.
Djukanovic admitted there were divisions within Montenegro regarding the platform and urged for patience as the Podgorica authorities allegedly do not want to realise important political projects by rejecting the minority.
EXCLUSIVE: FULVIO GRIMALDI, CROWN WITNESS IN A TRIAL TO THE PRESENT COMMANDER OF KFOR IN KOSMET MICHAEL JACKSON FOR THE CRIME AGAINST CIVILIANS
Michael Jackson will be remembered in history as "the butcher"
Following the announcement that Sir Mike Jackson, Commander of KFOR in Kosmet, shall stand trial in UK, charged with commanding the crime over civilians in Northern Ireland, as far back as January 30, 1972, we asked Fulvio Grimaldi, the crown witness in this tragedy for a comment.
Considering the delicacy of the statements of this participant in the aforementioned bloody protests in Londondery, we decided not to interpret but to quote him. So, Fulvio Grimaldi's comment is as follows:
" I am not sure that United Kingdom's expert on slaughter will really be sentenced. It is true that Mr. Blair's government, in order to avoid complete disgrace, restarted the investigation on the "bloody week" in Londondery, Northern Ireland, when the British battalion of paratroopers killed 14 and wounded 16 civilians who, unarmed, peacefully protested against violation of human rights.
This investigation has, unfortunately, been restarted after full 25 years of "silence", after an independent TV broadcast my footage and documents of some other people. The former investigative committee, chaired by Lord Vidgers, "established" that "paratroopers had just reacted to the action of the Irish sniper-shooters", however, no one, including myself, saw those killers from the roofs.
Interrogation of the witnesses about this tragic event lasted for two years. I was among the witnesses, as I was the only foreign journalist present with the demonstrators at the time of massacre. I am satisfied that the newly-formed committee for the interrogation, headed by Lord Savilte has already made it plane that conclusions of the previous interrogators were not valid and that many witnesses confirmed that civilians were killed although there was no provocation.
It has also been found out that it was written in the documents of the Chief Commander of the British troops in Northern Ireland that "it is necessary to shoot at the leaders of the manifestation of the Catholic-Republic people in order to kill them." And assistant of the Colonel Willford was Mike Jackson, who killed fourteen people and wounded sixteen, without hesitation shooting at women, children and the elderly.
Jackson successfully lied to the press about the whole event, and he was soon rewarded for the "well done job". He was promoted to the general, then he was given the title of knight, and finally he became the chief commander of KFOR for Kosmet. There he continued his favorite, bloody profession, the function of the butcher and dealer of KLA, of those who leave bloody trails and ethnically clean territory.
The families of the victims and I, with several unknown soldiers of the death squad who have the "privilege" in court to be called by a number instead of revealing their identity, will be witnesses at the trial. However, I think that it will all be a well planned farce, because Jackson works in Kosmet with the same kind of soldiers, who have already been tried for murders in Ireland and some other countries. It should not be forgotten that some of Jackson's friends were killed in Angola, where they were well paid to fight for imperialism. These "nice" and "moral" people are ideal for ethnic cleansing in Kosmet, not only of the individuals, but of the entire nation. Some soldiers might be punished for their crimes, and commander Jackson will become a Field Marshal or even the Prime Minister of the country such as Great Britain, the country specialized for bloodshed. Sir Jackson will be remembered in history only as a "butcher-man", which is how I will called him in British court."