KOSOVO NEWS WIRE March 21

KOSOVO NEWS WIRE
March 21, 2004

21:40 (INET - March 21, 2004) Serbian Deputy Premier Miroljub Labus said late on Saturday that ethnic cleansing in Kosovo-Metohija had been halted and that a 'loose balance' had been established. 'By committing acts of terrorism in the past three days, ethnic Albanians in Serbia's southern province have not achieved their political goal and the issue of Kosovo's independence is no longer on the agenda and will not be on the agenda in the next few years,' Labus told the Serbian state television.

21:20 (INET - March 21, 2004) Head of the coordination centre for Kosovo-Metohija Nebojsa Covic said late on Saturday that Kosovo-Metohija Serbs had been pushed into an even smaller area in a very short period of time. The aim of ethnic cleansing and violence, which started on March 17, was to push Serbs into the smallest possible area, rather than to reduce their number, 'which means to win territory and then this process will move forward,' he said.

20:20 (INET - March 21, 2004) The latest burning of the Serbian churches was reported on the night between Saturday and Sunday when unknown persons set on fire a church in the village of Zivinjane near Prizren. The village is populated with Bosniaks, Raska and Prizren Eparchy says.

20:10 (INET - March 21, 2004) KFOR has arrested, and later released, Protection of human rights and freedoms in Kosovska Mitrovica Board President Halid Berani, UNMIK spokesman Derek Chapel said. Berani has told Kosovo reporters on March 17th that the death of three Albanian boys who drowned in the Ibar river was 'Serbs' revenge for the incident which had happened in Caglavica, when a Serbian young man got injured.'

20:00 (INET - March 21, 2004) More than 3,700 Serbs from seven villages, towns of Pristina, Obilic, Prizren and Lipljan and other settlements were expelled during a three-day ethnic Albanian persecution campaign against Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija last week. During the violence, more than 420 Serb houses, flats and other facilities were destroyed and torched, but these are not final figures.

19:00 (INET - March 21, 2004) Chief of the UNMIK police for Northern Kosovo-Metohija Barry Polin has said that there is no proof for claims that three ethnic Albanian boys drowned in the Ibar River because they were fleeing Serbs, the AFP news agency reported late on Saturday. The story that the boys aged 9, 11 and 12 drowned after Serbs and their dogs forced them to enter the river, which divides Kosovska Mitrovica into two parts, was told by the fourth boy from the group.

18:00 (INET - March 21, 2004) Among western diplomats and analysts the recent events in Kosovo are dubbed 'Operation Matchstick', which had three main objectives: Expulsion of the non-Albanian civilian population from Kosovo, prevention of the non-Albanian civilian population from returning to their homes and destruction of Christian religious shrines.

17:50 (INET - March 21, 2004) Jonathan Eyal, Director of Studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London stated 'I have absolutely no doubt that it was all pre-orchestrated. Someone decided that this was an excellent moment for the Albanians to rise and try to solve certain issues quickly. It is rather symptomatic that Kosovo leaders are silent and showing no desire whatsoever to end Albanian violence against the Serbs. It was all arranged to attract the US attention and force them to urgently solve the Kosovo status.'

17:40 (INET - March 21, 2004) Commander of the Multinational Brigade South-West Italian General Alberto Primeceri stated: 'I believe that a plan to devastate Kosovo by fire and sword has been prepared in advance for a long period of time'.

17:20 (INET - March 21, 2004) Nato Commander in Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe Admiral Gregory Johnson told the press in Pristina that the ongoing violence in Kosovo was ethnic cleansing. 'Such activities are actually ethnic cleansing that must be prevented, that is why we came here, to Kosovo. I am convinced that the citizens of Kosovo are better than what we have seen in the past two days of unrestrained violence and criminal acts'.

Funeral of Albanian boys passes peacefully | 17:47 – March 21, 2004 | Beta

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Sunday – The funeral of two Albanian boys who drowned in the River Ibar on Tuesday has finished in the village of Cabra, south of Mitrovica.

Between six and seven thousand Albanians attended the funeral, led by Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi.

Heavy international police and military forces ringed the village, with helicopters circling overhead, but the Albanian crowd dispersed soon after the funeral.

More than seven hundred KFOR troops in dozens of armoured vehicles have secured the area throughout the day.

Violence orchestrated, says Holkeri | 15:36 – March 21, 2004 | SRNA

PRISTINA -- Sunday – Kosovo governor Harri Holkeri today added his voice to a growing chorus of international officials acknowledging that this week’s violence in Kosovo has been an orchestrated and planned campaign.

“Perhaps just at the beginning the violence was spontaneous, but after that certain extremist groups had the opportunity to manipulate the situation and because of that we are now working on bringing them to justice as soon as possible,” said Holkeri.

“About 1,100 Serbs are under the protection of KFOR after being forced out of their homes during Wednesday and Thursday. Another 2,500 Serbs and members of other minority communities are gathered in places such as Gracanica where they are in the majority.

Almost four thousand Serbs homeless | 15:56 – March 21, 2004| B92

BELGRADE -- Sunday – During this week’s violence in Kosovo, more than 3,600 Serbs and other non-Albanians have been forced to leave their homes, UNMIK has announced.

UNMIK representative Peggy Hicks said earlier today that about 1,100 people were being accommodated in KFOR bases while others had escaped into Serb areas where there is less violence.

Governor Harri Holkeri described the situation today as gradually calming down, but warned that it was still unstable.

“There is some progress, but it is not yet over,” said Holkeri, adding that Albanians and Serbs were still working together in local UN offices, which he described as a good sign.

“I have received information that there are a lot of Kosovo Serbs who want to stay here despite having many problems in the enclaves in which they live.

“That means that we can continue to live and work together. These events are extremely regrettable but we will move on. Some extremists still have support to continue the violence and because of that it is urgent that those who want to do that are brought to justice,” said Holkeri.

A Personal Account Of Ethnic Cleansing, Terror: "They Wanted to Burn Us"
Blic, March 20, 2004

They wanted to burn us

'I heard a terrible noise. I looked through a window and saw our church in fire. I took the children to Hranislav's yard so quickly. The children did not ask me 'Mama will they kill us?' because they are too small to ask something like that', Verica Mladenovic says.

She is 40. She is from Obilic. She lived in Cerska Street only several gardens from the Stolices house. The Stolices were killed and burnt last year. Two days ago while rushing children into armored UNMIK jeep she saw smoke from the direction of her house. She has three sons, Milosh 11, Milorad 8 and Nikola 5.

We are dialing the number of her mobile telephone.

'Is that Belgrade', she says and begins to tell her story immediately.

'The first night when the violence started we all were sitting in front of our houses. The situation with us was peaceful, but nobody went to bed. Then all of a sudden it began. About 8 a.m. after our church, three white skyscrapers were set on fire. Kosovo Police arrived and took us into the station. We ran away to Hranislav Radovanovic, the man that has bees. There were 50 adults and 11 children. My neighbor, that Albanian is not telling me whether I should stay or leave. He was only watching. When I left I did not know that I would never see my house again. . Very soon Kosovo Protection Corpus arrived to tell us that we should leave Obilic', Verica says.

Since they refused to leave, later on they were taken to a barracks in Pristina where Italian soldiers are.

'We have decided to leave. Italian soldiers told us that everything that belonged to Serbs had burnt in fire. We all shall leave from here as soon as possible'.

March 21, 2004 Sunday

SECTION: International News

LENGTH: 655 words

HEADLINE: Smouldering Serb village in Kosovo gutted in sight of NATO peacekeepers

BYLINE: JEAN-EUDES BARBIER

DATELINE: SVINJARE, Serbia, March 21

BODY:
Houses in the Serb village of Svinjare in northern Kosovo continue to smoulder days after an attack by ethnic Albanians in plain view of a NATO peacekeeping base.

Smoke rises from the ruins of the village -- situated between two ethnic Albanian towns three kilometres (two miles) south of Kosovska Mitrovica -- where not one of the 130 houses was spared by Albanian extremists in the attack on Thursday afternoon.

It was destroyed in a matter of hours. The Albanian flag flaps above some of the soot-blackened houses in a sign of defiance by the arsonists.

On some walls graffitti had been scrawled: the word "Drenica", the central Kosovan region where the Albanian separatist movement was born.

The carcass of a pig lies in the middle of the street, another in a grass ditch.

Ethnic Albanian men and children continued to pick through the carnage and loot what they can. The animals have already gone.

One boy wheeled off a wheelbarrow loaded up with plastic bags, another a satellite dish.

Less than one kilometre away is a base housing a French contingent of the NATO peacekeepers that have been deployed in Kosovo since the end of the 1998-99 war.

Yesterday hailed by the 600 or so Serb villagers for their kindness and geniality, the soldiers are today the target of scathing criticism.

"It's a shame for France!" screams one Svinjare resident, Ilinka Simic, who was out shopping in Kosovska Mitrovica when the village came under attack.

Simic, seething with anger, accused the French soldiers of "doing nothing to stop the Albanians from setting fire to everything... It's unbelievable."

As the violence escalated, Simic said the French troops evacuated his son, daughter and her two small children "at the last minute" to their camp.

"They saw everything from the hill, the destruction of all our worldly goods," Simic said.

"We were friends," he said of the French troops. "We knew they were there to protect us. Unfortunately, when the biggest problem arose, they turned their backs on us."

"We survived for five years but were chased out in 30 minutes," lamented Simic, one of 80,000 Serbs living in UN-adminsitered Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian population of 1.8 million.

"All I ask is that they give me a tent which I can pitch in my garden, that they allow me to rebuild my house, that they protect me. Svinjare is where I belong and I'm not going anywhere," he said.

Father German, an Orthodox priest whose monastery in southern Kosovo was burnt to the ground, thinks only of returning there as quickly as possible.

"I'm going back to Prizren at the first chance," Father German told AFP, adding that the church had taught him "not to hate its enemies."

"I would maybe have been able to live one day in an independent and truly democratic Kosovo, but after all that's happened over these last few days, that's no longer possible," he said in reference to the inter-ethnic clashes that have left at least 28 dead and more than 600 injured.

"From now, I will fight all my life against this province's independence from Serbia," he said.

The seven monks in the monastery were evacuated by NATO peacekeepers just before the attack late Wednesday, said the priest, currently in Kosovska Mitrovica, which has a 15,000-strong Serb population.

Father German said that 22 Orthodox churches and monasteries have been reduced to rubble since Wednesday and 19 Serb villages have been forcibly evicted.

The priest said NATO peacekeepers have never been in a position to stop the actions of extremist Albanians, whom he accused of having either partially or totally destroyed some 130 religious buildings since 1999, not including the latest wave of violence.

"Five years on, nothing is normalised. Quite the contrary," he said. "If neither NATO nor the UN can defend us, they must allow forces from Belgrade to return."

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Serbia-Kosovo-unrest-village-scene

LOAD-DATE: March 21, 2004

Copyright 2004 Financial Times Information
All rights reserved
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2004 BBC Monitoring/BBC
BBC Monitoring International Reports

March 21, 2004

LENGTH: 122 words

HEADLINE: SERBIAN GOVERNMENT PRESS CENTRE SAYS 3,700 SERBS DISPLACED IN KOSOVO

BODY:

Kosovska Mitrovica, 21 March: More than 3,700 Serbs from seven villages, towns of Pristina, Obilic, Prizren and Lipljan and other settlements were expelled during a three-day ethnic Albanian persecution campaign against Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija last week.

During the violence, more than 420 Serb houses, flats and other facilities were destroyed and torched, but these are not final figures.

The press centre in Kosovska Mitrovica said that 25 mostly Medieval Serbian Orthodox churches, monasteries and convents were destroyed in the violence, raising the number of Serbian Orthodox religious sites destroyed since 1999 to 139.

Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 1738 gmt 21 Mar 04

) BBC Monitoring

JOURNAL-CODE: WBMS

LOAD-DATE: March 22, 2004

Copyright 2004 Financial Times Information
All rights reserved
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2004 BBC Monitoring/BBC
BBC Monitoring International Reports

March 21, 2004

LENGTH: 125 words

HEADLINE: KOSOVO SERB CHURCH BLOWN UP NEAR PRIZREN

BODY:

Prizren, 21 March: Unknown perpetrators have blown up the abandoned Serb church in the village of Zivinjane near Prizren, Serbian Orthodox Church sources have said.

The village is locate about 10 kilometres inside the mixed, mainly Bosniak (Muslim Slav) and Serb, Sredska Zupa district.

The police have inspected the site of the crime.

It is suspected that mines have been laid in the Orthodox chapel in the neighbouring village of Drajcici, still inhabited by some 20 Serbs.

The police and a Kfor mine-clearing team are investigating these suspicions.

The district had been spared during the Albanian terrorist operations.

Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1551 gmt 21 Mar 04

) BBC Monitoring

JOURNAL-CODE: WBMS

LOAD-DATE: March 22, 2004

Copyright 2004 Financial Times Information
All rights reserved
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2004 BBC Monitoring/BBC
BBC Monitoring International Reports

March 21, 2004

LENGTH: 133 words

HEADLINE: NATO PEACEKEEPERS ARREST KOSOVO ACTIVIST WHO SPREAD DROWNING NEWS

BODY:

March

Pristina, 21 March: International forces have arrested Halit Berani, the chairman of the Council for Protecting the Human Rights and Freedoms in Kosovo, Kfor (NATO-led Kosovo Force) has confirmed for B92's correspondent in Pristina.

Berani had passed on the information to the Kosovo Albanian media at the beginning of the week that the drowning of three (ethnic) Albanian boys in the River Ibar was caused by Serb youths chasing them.

As we have learnt, certain documents were found in Berani's possession which were confiscated by Kfor.

During the conflict in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999 Halit Berani was active in the Kosovo Liberation Army in the Kosovska Mitrovica region.

Source: Radio B92 text web site, Belgrade, in Serbian 1512 gmt 21 Mar 04

) BBC Monitoring

JOURNAL-CODE: WBMS

LOAD-DATE: March 22, 2004

March 21, 2004

LENGTH: 312 words

HEADLINE: UN SAYS NO PROOF KOSOVO CHILDREN DROWNED BY SERBS

BODY:

site on 21 March

Pristina, 21 March: Investigators in Kosovo have not been able to confirm the allegation that Serb attackers drowned three children in a river, thus sparking the latest inter-ethnic violence in the province, a UN official said Saturday (20 March).

Wide local publicity for the story that the ethnic Albanian children had drowned when pursuers from the rival Serb community pushed them into a river triggered riots and arson that led to 28 deaths and more than 600 wounded in the UN-administered territory in Serbia.

The sole source for this version of what happened was a fourth child who escaped.

"All the things the Albanian child has said have never been corroborated or confirmed by proof," said Barry Pollin, head of the UN police force in Kosovo. "We don't have any tangible elements to confirm his claims".

According to the story, the victims, aged 9, 11 and 12, drowned when they were pushed into the River Ibar dividing the town of Kosovska Mitrovica into separate ethnic zones.

UNMIK police spokesman Derek Chappell confirmed for B92 that investigators had spoken with the fourth boy but said the probe was ongoing. The results of the investigation will depend on other evidence and witness testimony, Chappell told B92's Pristina correspondent.

The funerals of two of the children whose bodies have so far been recovered were set to take place Sunday with a special detachment of the NATO-led KFOR multinational stabilization force on standby to prevent further disturbances.

General Xavier Michel, commanding the KFOR northeastern brigade, said KFOR had established a so-called interposition zone on both sides of the Ibar in Kosovska Mitrovica to prevent direct contact between the two warring communities on Sunday.

Source: Radio B92 text web site, Belgrade, in English 1213 gmt 21 Mar 04

) BBC Monitoring

JOURNAL-CODE: WBMS

March 21, 2004

LENGTH: 863 words

HEADLINE: RUSSIAN MINISTER CRITICIZES KFOR IN KOSOVO, URGES END TO IRAQ "OCCUPATION"

BODY:

Western peacekeepers in Kosovo ignore the dangerous ambition of Kosovo Albanian leaders to force people of other nationalities out of the province, and this results in the exacerbation of ethnic tensions in the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said in a TV interview. He said UN resolution No 1244 on Kosovo must be observed. As regards the situation in Iraq, he urged the coalition to stop "the occupation of that country as soon as possible and restore its sovereignty and the rights of the Iraqi people". The following is the text of the interview broadcast by Russian Channel One TV on 21 March. Subheadings have been inserted editorially:

(Presenter Petr Marchenko) What is Moscow going to do (in connection the events in Kosovo)? We are now going to discuss the issue with Russia's newly appointed foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. This is his first long TV interview after the appointment.

Good afternoon, Sergey Viktorovich. Please accept my congratulations on your appointment to the post of foreign minister.

(Lavrov) Thank you.

Kosovo

(Q) Let us begin with the most acute problem - the situation in Kosovo. How can it be settled, and what should and can Russia do in this situation?

(Lavrov) The situation in Kosovo, which has really become extremely inflamed, can only be settled by one means - along the ways of full and comprehensive implementation of the Kosovo settlement plan which was approved under UN Security Council resolution No 1244.

Unfortunately, the leaders of Kosovo Albanians were far from always observing the demands put forward by the Security Council and, unfortunately, some of our partners from among Western countries were trying to close their eyes to this. They were trying not even to close their eyes, I think, but they were trying not to call them (Kosovo Albanians) to order in time. They preferred not to irritate them in order to give them a chance to improve and embark on the road of observing the UN Security Council resolutions.

The latest events in Kosovo Mitrovica confirm our long-standing apprehension that conniving with the ambition of Kosovo Albanian leaders to cleanse the territory of people of other nationalities is harmful and dangerous.

Russia is now demanding that the sides should return to the basics of Kosovo settlement, which were approved by the UN Security Council by way of consensus.

Iraq

(Q) Is it realistic to refer to UN resolutions, taking into account the fact that when the UN protested against the war in Iraq one year ago, the war was started anyway?

(Lavrov) The UN did not protest against the war in Iraq. The UN did not endorse that war and I remember quite well the mood of diplomats at that time. Their mood reflected mixed feelings - on the one hand, it was bitterness over the fact that another war had broken out at the very beginning of the 21st century, the century which we all would like to see as the century of peace and prosperity; on the other hand, these sentiments within the UN circles and my colleagues also reflected pride, if you like, that the UN had not agreed to endorse the unnecessary and unjustified military action and therefore preserved its prestige in the world.

(Q) What is happening in Iraq at the moment hardly looks like resistance. They say all that is happening there - explosions and terrorist acts - are acts staged by international terrorists. Can you agree with this? How can the USA break the deadlock?

(Lavrov) You know, any act aimed at intimidating innocent people, particularly aimed at destroying innocent people, an absolutely indiscriminate act, can be qualified as an act of terror. On the other hand, there were no terrorists in Iraq before it was occupied, and all assertions to the contrary have not been confirmed. Moreover, they have been disproved by various experts, including US specialists.

Perhaps, you are right when you say that it is important now to think of ways out of the situation because no-one is keen to see the permanently degrading situation in Iraq. We believe that the main task now is to stop the occupation as soon as possible and restore Iraq's sovereignty and the rights of the Iraqi people.

(Q) Can Russia's previous experience in Iraq and its influence on that country be employed?

(Lavrov) You know, we have never avoided the issue of whether or not we will be ready to help (Iraq) if the Iraqi people wish us to do so. We will not impose our advice on anyone but our assessments and our forecasts of the future developments in Iraq are being confirmed on a daily basis. And this proves that we know that country. We can analyse and forecast the processes taking place there, and when the UN, at the request of the Iraqi people, assumes the central role in finalizing the political settlement - an this will happen after the occupation comes to an end - I believe that Russians will be definitely invited to join UN efforts and they will definitely accept the invitation.

(Q) Thanks a lot for finding time to answer questions from our programme.

(Lavrov) Thank you.

Source: Channel One TV, Moscow, in Russian 1800 gmt 21 Mar 04

) BBC Monitoring

JOURNAL-CODE: WBMS

LOAD-DATE: March 22, 2004

March 21, 2004

LENGTH: 805 words

HEADLINE: SERBIA'S COVIC SAYS KOSOVO SITUATION A "NEW HISTORIC MOMENT"

BODY:

(Presenter) BKTV's guest this evening is the chief of the Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija, Mr Nebojsa Covic. Mr Covic, tell us what lies ahead of us over the coming days?

(Covic) Well, we now have a somewhat better situation in Kosovo-Metohija, somewhat more peaceful, but it is still highly uncertain. Nobody can guess with certainty as to what could happen. Of course, I expect from the international community to establish full control over Kosovo-Metohija but we have sensitive dates coming up. Today we have this date related to the burial of Albanian children -

(Presenter, interrupts) What other dates do we have?

(Covic) 24 March is a very sensitive date as this is the fifth anniversary of NATO's bombing (of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and also the beginning of many things that have been taking place in the territory of Kosovo-Metohija.

On the other hand, Halit Barani, who has full documentation of how the whole scenario of the ethnic cleansing of Serbs in the territory of Kosovo-Metohija was organized and created, has been arrested (by Kfor on 21 March). This scenario is very similar to Racak (in 1999 which prompted NATO's campaign). The international forces must establish the exact information as to who organized, led and manipulated this large number of people, and in what manner they did it - who are these people, these groups and whether there is some international factor in this.

The manner in which the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) acted was appalling. Literally, the whole system collapsed within 48 hours. In some cases, the KPS went forward, in front of everybody, and literally took part in the ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija. Who now can trust such a KPS? Our side, even before all this happened, characterized the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) as the perpetrator of a series of terrorist acts as well as other things. We are talking about a very dangerous and deliberate activity here. And how did the Albanian politicians react? First they kept silent. Some of them, like (Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, leader Hashim) Thaci blamed the Serbs. Then this whole story about dogs (allegedly chasing the three Albanian children before they drowned) was planted and then, when they saw stances by the international community changing, the way they were changing, only then they began condemning the violence.

I think that they are now preparing a strategy to cover everything up so that everything is forgotten. They will now say: you know, 24 Albanians got killed and only seven Serbs - you see, this is interethnic violence. Well, no Serb killed a single Albanian. Twenty-four Albanians were killed by the international community's intervention. So we must put this whole thing in a very precise and analytical manner, very professionally, and not allow room for such manipulations.

(Presenter) What would the stance by the international community be towards a change of opinion among Albanians? How would they react in the coming 24 hours?

(Covic) I expect the international community to pursue this problem to its very end. On our side, this is a new situation, so to speak, a completely new historic moment. Look, this is the first time that during peacetime - to put it this way because the war ended five years ago - we have had an ethnic cleansing of Serbs, or any people, but in this case it is the Serbs. For the first time we have an ethnic cleansing of the Serbs or some other people under the protectorate of the international community. They saw it with their own eyes. We have been telling them for three years: Gentlemen, paramilitary formations are being set up in front of your very noses, and they will eventually begin the final settling of scores.

For instance, consider the case of a church in Djakovica, which the Italians defended. At one point, the Italians found themselves completely surrounded and under fire coming from all directions. Could the international community suppose something like this would happen? This cannot be swept under the carpet. We now need a new nation-wide concept. There are also differences on our side, too, but I think that this time we showed unity in our response. We now need to sit down and draft a joint national strategy, a wide consensus in which both the parliament and all Serbian intellectuals would take place, also the church and the Academy (of Arts and Sciences) and universities and institutes, everything we have so that a unified concept would be drafted which the government would implement.

I am convinced that all those differences will disperse and be surmounted and that we will use this very difficult moment for the Serbian people - that we will know how to lay out a right strategy.

Source: BKTV, Belgrade, in Serbian 1755 gmt 21 Mar 04

) BBC Monitoring

JOURNAL-CODE: WBMS

LOAD-DATE: March 22, 2004

March 21, 2004, Sunday

LENGTH: 87 words

HEADLINE: Kosovo: Kfor said to be searching Serb village

SOURCE: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1552 gmt 21 Mar 04

BODY:
Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet

Gnjilane, 21 March: Members of Kfor NATO-led Kosovo Force this morning searched the village of Straza, largely populated by Serbs, looking for hidden weapons, UNMIK UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo sources have confirmed to FoNet.

The arms have not been found but Kfor is constantly receiving anonymous tip-offs that armed Serbs are in the village.

This act by the international forces has embittered the inhabitants of the village.

LOAD-DATE: March 21, 2004

March 21, 2004 Sunday

LENGTH: 408 words

HEADLINE: 3,700 Serbs flee in ethnic cleansings in Kosovo

BYLINE: By Ivan Ivanov

DATELINE: BELGRADE, March 21

BODY:
3,700 Serbs were driven away from seven Kosovo villages, Pristina, Obilic, Prizren and Lipljana as a result of large-scale Albanian attacks on the UN police, KFOR servicemen and civilians earlier this week.

More than 420 houses of Serbs and other facilities were destroyed or burned down in the ethnic cleansing launched by Albanian extremists. A total of 139 Orthodox churches, many of which were under the UNESCO protection, have been destroyed in Kosovo since 1999, the Serb press center in Kosovska Mitrovica reported on Sunday.

Albanian attacks on UN police officers, KFOR servicemen and Serbs in Kosovo this week claimed 28 lives and wounded 851, the UN interim Administration Mission (UNMIK) in Kosovo reported earlier in the day.

The wounded include 98 servicemen of the UN administration and the Kosovo police force, and 55 KFOR servicemen. Twenty-seven vehicles of the United Nations and 19 police cruisers were destroyed in the attacks.

Up to 7,000 Albanians attended the burial of two Albanian children, who were found dead in the Ibar River on Tuesday, near Kosovska Mitrovica on Sunday afternoon. The Albanian newspapers wrote on Wednesday morning that Serbian children forced the small Albanians to go into cold water under the threat of violent dogs. The death of the Albanian children triggered the large-scale disturbances.

KFOR controlled security at the burial. More than 700 soldiers on armored vehicles and helicopters provided for order.

Several dozens of Serbs, who were evacuated to KFOR bases during the clashes, are coming back to their villages in the center of Kosovo. All in all, 3,600 Serbs were evacuated to safe places during the week.

Serbia and Montenegro have a day of mourning for the victims and sufferers in the attacks of Albanian extremists in Kosovo.

It is quiet in Kosovo at present. There was only one incident - three hand grenades were tossed into the yard of a Serb house in Lipljana. Nobody in the house was hurt.

Lipljana and adjoining villages, where refugees have been accommodated, are on the threshold of a humanitarian catastrophe, the Serbian Tanjug news agency reports. There are about 5,000 Serbs, refugees and people who taken residence in the area after the war of 1999, in the Lipljana zone.

Humanitarian aid from Serbia is being supplied to Lipljana and other Kosovo localities. The government has collected about 100 tonnes of cargo for sending to Kosovo.

LOAD-DATE: March 22, 2004

March 21, 2004 Sunday

LENGTH: 144 words

HEADLINE: Situation in Kosovo grows extremely tense - Russian FM

BYLINE: By Yelena Pankratyeva

DATELINE: MOSCOW, March 21

BODY:
The situation in Kosovo has grown extremely tense, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday.

The crisis can be resolved "only through comprehensive implementation of the Kosovo settlement plan approved in resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council," he said on Channel 1. "Unfortunately, Kosovo Albanian leaders have failed to abide by the requirements of the UN Security Council sometimes," the minister said. "Certain Western partners tried to close their eyes to that. The latest developments in Kosovska Mitrovica confirm our fears that indulgence for the striving of Kosovo Albanian leaders to clear the territory from people of other nationalities is harmful and dangerous."

"Russia demands the return to the initial fundamentals of the Kosovo settlement, which were approved at the UN Security Council by consensus," Lavrov said.

LOAD-DATE: March 22, 2004