Syndicate: International Crisis Group Briefing on Kosovo, Skopje 29 March

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

source: http://www.crisisweb.org/

Atrocities In Kosovo Must Be Stopped

International Crisis Group Briefing

Skopje, 29 March 1999

Since the start of NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia on 24 March 1999,
the situation in Kosovo - bad as it had been over the past year - has
deteriorated drastically. Details of events on the ground in Kosovo remain
sketchy and unconfirmed by independent sources, mainly because independent
media in Kosovo and in Serbia proper have been silenced, foreign
journalists expelled, and the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) left
Kosovo on 20 March. Most international organisations and foreign NGOs have
also withdrawn their staff for security reasons. Nevertheless, a pattern
is reportedly developing of ethnic cleansing and mass killing of young
men. With thousands fleeing their homes and heading for Kosovo's borders,
neighbouring countries are coming under ever greater pressure and will
need additional assistance from the international community to help them
deal with the influx of refugees from Kosovo.

International Crisis Group (ICG) analysts are monitoring events from field
bases in Yugoslavia and on the Kosovo/Macedonia border. The following
assessment of the situation is based on first-hand conversations with
refugees, international organisations, local and foreign media and NGO
representatives:

Tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of ethnic Albanians are on the run in
Kosovo, in constant fear for their lives. NATO spokesman Jamie Shea put
their number at over 500,000, or around one quarter of Kosovo's
population. In many places throughout Kosovo, ethnic Albanians have been
ordered at gunpoint to leave their houses or face being killed. In many
cases, the houses are burnt down after the local population has been
chased out.

Some 20,000-30,000 Kosovars are trapped in the Drenica area, moving from
one place to another in order to avoid reprisals by Yugoslav and Serbian
security forces and irregulars. Another 30,000 Kosovars are said to be on
the run in the Pec region in western Kosovo, making their way north. There
are further reports of large numbers of internally displaced persons
(IDPs) in other parts of Kosovo.

Serbian and Yugoslav security forces and paramilitaries appear to be
conducting a wholesale crackdown on the Kosovar Albanian elite.
Reportedly, a prominent human rights lawyer, Bajram Kelmendi, and his two
sons - one of whom was only 16 years old - were taken from their home on
24 March and found dead the next day near a petrol station between
Pristina and Kosovo Polje. Many prominent Kosovo Albanians have gone into
hiding - their fate unknown. They include the leader of the Democratic
League of Kosovo (LDK), Ibrahim Rugova; KLA political spokesman Menduh
Thaci; Veton Surroi, one of the signatories of the Rambouillet agreement
and editor-in-chief of the independent Albanian-language Koha Ditore; and
Dukadjin Gorani, editor of Koha Ditore's English-language edition KD
Times. According to latest reports, Fehmi Agani, the LDK's Number Two, was
executed on 28 March.

Security forces also seem to be targeting ethnic Albanian teachers and
other members of the local Albanian intelligentsia. In the village of
Goden, 20 teachers were reportedly executed in front of their students.
Apparently, the intention is to exterminate the ethic Albanian elite and
thereby get rid of the most vociferous advocates of independence for
Kosovo.

In a pattern reminiscent of the darkest days of the war in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbian and Yugoslav security forces reportedly
separated men from women and children in a number of places. The women and
children were either arrested or driven away, while the fate of the men
remains in most cases unknown. If past experience from the Bosnia war is
any guide, there is a real risk that these men are no longer alive.
Indeed, there are eyewitness reports from a number of places of groups of
men being killed. In one instance, the male population of a village was
reportedly locked in a building that was subsequently set on fire.

The LDK headquarters in Pristina, the offices of the Kosovo Information
Center, located in the same building, and the house of Ibrahim Rugova have
all reportedly been burned to the ground.

There have been reports of reprisals against people who worked for
international organisations in Kosovo, most notably the KVM. Also, the
Tiffany bar, which was frequented by the international community in
Pristina, was torched, as were other restaurants and private businesses.

Increasing numbers of irregulars and paramilitary units from Serbia are
apparently moving into Kosovo. Among others, the infamous "Tigers" of
Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, are said to be active in the
province. Arkan is notorious for war crimes allegedly committed in Bosnia
and Croatia and is wanted by Interpol on a number of criminal charges.
According to Reuters, several thousand volunteers have signed up with the
"Tigers."

Refugees who crossed the border with Macedonia on 29 March 1999 claim that
in one hospital in Pristina, all Albanian personnel and patients were
ordered out to make way for Serb families to be accommodated at the
hospital.

There are reports that the Serb residents of the town of Djakovica were
evacuated to a hotel last weekend. If this is true, it could signal that
reprisals against the ethnic Albanian population of this town are being
prepared or are already underway.

Meanwhile, there were unconfirmed reports from refugees and people in
Kosovo on 28 March 1999 that Serb forces are seeking to use ethnic
Albanians as human shields by forcibly concentrating IDPs around military
installations - actions which, if true, would amount to war crimes.

While most refugees currently fleeing to Macedonia come from the region
close to the border between Kosovo and Macedonia, many are from Pristina,
Drenica, Vitina, and elsewhere. The number of refugees from the border
region is constantly diminishing as many villages along the border are
deserted and houses there have been set alight.

At the same time, tens of thousands fled to Albania over the last weekend,
some 20,000 on 27 March alone. Albanian government sources put the total
number at 60,000 thus far.  According to OSCE reports from Tirana,
Yugoslavia closed the border on 29 March as some 4,000 refugees an hour
were trying to leave. The British Ambassador to Albania was cited by CNN
as saying that as many as 150,000 refugees might be waiting on the Kosovar
side of the border.

According to reports from Kacanik on 28 March, at least 300 refugees were
trapped in Kosovo close to the border with Macedonia, barred from entering
Macedonia through the official border crossings because many of them have
no valid passports.

Thus far, the number of refugees who have entered Macedonia is estimated
to be in excess of 20,000. Macedonian Interior Ministry figures released
on 28 March claim that some 12,500 refugees have officially been
registered by the Macedonian authorities. The Skopje-based humanitarian
organisation El Hilal, which provides refugees with assistance in relation
to registration, accommodation and other forms of humanitarian assistance,
had registered over 17,000 by 28 March, although they believe the total
number of refugees to be higher. El Hilal believes that the vast majority
of refugees came to Macedonia before the beginning of NATO air strikes.
The head of the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje, Ambassador
Faustino Troni, said as early as 24 March that his mission believed that
there were some 20,000 refugees from Kosovo in the country. The number of
refugees crossing the border into Macedonia on a daily basis, but on 28
March 1,250 crossed the two main border crossings, according to the
Interior Ministry.

In Macedonia, the government has so far mainly limited itself to
monitoring the situation and trying to register incoming refugees. Plans
to set up refugee camps are in the works. The government has asked for
assistance from the US, the European Union, and other international
organisations.  To date, a large part of the costs associated with the
influx of refugees has been footed by international organisations such as
UNHCR. The European Commission has pledged financial assistance, as have
the governments of Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Republic of China
(Taiwan)  and Greece. This international aid, according Macedonian media
reports, exceeds $15 million. Up to this point, though, the brunt of the
weight has been carried by organisations such as El Hilal and
international organisations and NGOs.

While accommodating the refugees has not been a problem in Macedonia thus
far -mostly thanks to the willingness of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia to
put up refugees - there are problems related to the provision of food and
other basic items to the refugees. In the medium to long term,
accommodation is likely to emerge as an increasingly important problem.
Greek Mega TV on 28 March visited a six-room house in Skopje in which a
total of 56 refugees from Kosovo were living. Many other houses are also
said to be filled with refugees, who often live ten to a room.  Clearly,
this situation is not sustainable. If the situation in Kosovo continues to
deteriorate, the international community will need to provide further
assistance to the Macedonian and Albanian governments to set up refugee
camps and provide food and other badly needed necessities.

In light of the latest events in Kosovo, ICG recommends:

NATO must destroy or at least limit the capability of the Yugoslav Army,
special police units, and paramilitary organisations to commit further
crimes against the civilian population of Kosovo.

NATO must be prepared to send ground troops into Kosovo if air strikes
alone do not stop the violence against Kosovo Albanians. In order to avoid
a worsening of the humanitarian catastrophe already under way, NATO should
be prepared to take such a step even in a non-permissive environment if
there is no viable alternative.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
should immediately send staff to Albania and Macedonia to gather evidence
from refugees for possible future indictments of those responsible for war
crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo.

In order to facilitate the ICTY's work, NATO - in keeping with British
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's announcement on 29 March - should make the
necessary information available to the tribunal as long as that does not
pose a security risk to ongoing NATO operations.

The international community should cripple the Yugoslav regime's
capability to disseminate propaganda by destroying the transmitter network
of the state-controlled electronic media and should launch a campaign in
Yugoslavia to inform the population there of the real situation in the
country and of the objectives of NATO's military intervention.

The international community should help Macedonia and Albania - as well as
other countries in the region which might accept refugees in the future or
have already stared doing so (such as Turkey) - to cope with the challenge
of absorbing large numbers of refugees. Most of the countries affected by
the exodus of refugees from Kosovo have serious economic and social
problems of their own. International support should include financial,
logistical and humanitarian assistance and should be made available
swiftly and with the minimum of bureaucracy. Aid should be given not only
to national governments but also to humanitarian organisations and NGOs
dealing with refugees. This is necessary not only to ease the plight of
refugees from Kosovo and the burden placed on their host countries, but
also to avoid further destabilisation in the region.

The international community must support democratic and civic forces
Yugoslavia at large in order to facilitate the reconstruction of a civil
society in the country after the end of the current conflict.