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STATEMENT ON PLANE CRASH NEAR SLAVKOVAC IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
The Yugoslav Ministry of Transportation released a statement late Saturday, saying an ATR 72 aircraft, en route from Rome to Pristina according to information available to the ministry, crashed near the place Slavkovac on Nov 12, 1999.
Twenty one passengers and three crew members were on board the plane when it crashed.
At present, the federal ministry, as the authorized organ for air traffic in the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, has no data about possible causes of the crash, but it can be concluded already at this time that one of the main reasons was the illegal flight of the plane in Yugoslav air space over Kosovo and Metohija province.
The ministry said its respective services had not been asked for permission for this fight, it had not been approved, and the plane had not been under guidance of the Flight Control Service of Yugoslavia.
With their unilateral decisions which are in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, and denying the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the KFOR and UNMIK made it impossible for authorized air traffic organs of Yugoslavia to execute their rights and obligations with regard to security of air traffic, having thus assumed full responsibility for this tragic event.
The federal ministry had pointed out on several occasions the problems which demand immediate resolving in order to establish a joint system of the KFOR, UNMIK and authorized organs of Yugoslav air traffic, which would enable safe flying in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija.
The ministry once again expressed its readiness to establish full authority in the area of air traffic over the entire territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, at any time when this is made possible.
The Yugoslav government expresses its regrets over this tragic incident and sends its deepest condolences to the families of the victims, the statement said.
YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE FOR COOPERATION WITH UNMIK EXPRESSES CONDOLENCES
The Yugoslav committee for cooperation with the United Nations mission in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province (UNMIK) has sent a letter to the World Food Programme office, expressing condolences over the crash of the UN plane over Kosovo.
The committee offered help and Cupertino on behalf of the federal government, to the international forces KFOR in combing the field for possible survivors in the Friday crash.
SERBS IN SUVI DO SEEK KFOR ASSISTANCE FOR RELEASE OF ABDUCTED SERB
Serbs in Suvi Do, near the Kosovo and Metohija town of Lipljane, Monday officially called on the KFOR and the UN civil mission to help secure the release of Serb Zoran Dukic, who was abducted by ethnic-Albanian terrorists last week.
Suvi Do villagers said they had learned from KFOR members that Dukic was alive and in good health, as well as that they knew where he was being held.
The villagers called on the international forces to get Dukic released within seven days, or they said they would otherwise blockade the Pristina-Skopje road.
KFOR OFFICIAL SHOUTS AT, THREATENS SERB WOMEN SEEKING HELP
Official of the UN peacekeeping force KFOR Eric Torp of Norway has shouted at and threatened a group of Serb women who have rallied in front of KFOR's headquarters in Obilic to ask for help after being left without power supply for days, the Centre for Peace and Tolerance in Pristina said Monday.
Obilic is located near Pristina, chief city of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province.
Nine apartment buildings with 220 flats where 450 non-Albanians, mainly children and the elderly, live, have for days had no electricity due to a failure in the local power supply system. They have no heating or light and cannot cook their meals.
The Serb women sent a protest letter to the KFOR commander in Obilic and officials of the UN civilian mission to Kosovo and Metohija (UNMIK) urging them to show more respect in future for Serbs and other non-Albanians in the province.
ETHNIC ALBANIANS CONTINUE PREVENTING RETURN OF SERBS
The return of Serbian refugees to Gnjilane is fiercely opposed by ethnic Albanians, ham radio operators quoted the Church and Lay Council of Gnjilane as saying.
Serbian returnee Aleksandar Peric Sunday reported that he had found his apartment taken over by the family of ethnic Albanian Abudlah Sasuvarija, who refused to move out, allegedly since they had nowhere else to go, the Council said.
Vera Stosic, another Serb returnee, found her apartment looted and ethnic-Albanian colonists living in it. The same has happened to returnee Mileva Djordjevic.
UNMIK representatives in Gnjilane are taking no measures to help the Serbian returnees move back into their homes, according to the Council.
UNMIK, KFOR FAIL TO RESPECT RESOLUTION 1244
Kosovska Mitrovica district chief Zdravko Trajkovic said in the central Serbian town of Jagodina on Saturday that international forces (KFOR) in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province and the United Nations civilian mission (UNMIK) had not shown with a single gesture in five months that they are for a just resolving of the situation there.
Trajkovic told Tanjug that UNMIK's role was absolutely contrary to that described under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.
"They are arrogant and have been on the side of ethnic Albanians since the very first day," Trajkovic said of the UNMIK.
Although in charge of peace, security and human rights, the KFOR and UNMIK have failed to secure elementary rights for people in Kosovska Mitrovica or elsewhere in the province, such as the right to work, let alone safety, he said.
There is absolutely no way for Serbs and Montenegrins, but also citizens loyal to their state in the district of Kosovska Mitrovica, to take even one step into the southern part of this Kosovo town, Trajkovic said.
There are over 500 Serb apartments or houses from which Serbs have been banished in the southern part of the town that is controlled by ethnic Albanian separatists, he said.
"It is pointless now to speak about multiethnic Kosovo and Metohija. Serbs are now murdered, kidnapped, robbed. Multiethnic Kosovo had existed until March 24. That is the truth. If anyone had cared for multiethnic Kosovo, they would not have bombarded Yugoslavia...Multiethnic Kosovo existed when Serbia established its statehood in its entire territory - that is the truth. The painful truth which the west is now facing," Trajkovic said.
KOUCHNER WANTS TO LEGALIZE FALSE ETHNIC IMAGE OF KOSOVO-METOHIJA - SPS
Head of the UN civilian mission in Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province Bernard Kouchner continues ruthlessly violating the Security Council Resolution 1244 and other relevant documents, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) provincial committee said Sunday in a statement.
Kouchner's decrees, which are not based on any UN documents on Kosovo-Metohija, are aimed at totally albanizing the province prior to its administrative and legal separation from Serbia and Yugoslavia, the statement says.
Kouchner's announcement of elections next spring without a prior civilian agreement is not serious, and his announcement of a census is meaningless, the statement says.
Such a census in a province from which over 330,000 people have been expelled under untold violence and terror and to which nearly half a million foreign nationals have come illegally would constitute an attempt to legalize a false ethnic image of the province and would be an illegal administrative act in the territory of the sovereign and internationally recognized Yugoslavia, the statement says.
The SPS believes that Kouchner's mission in Kosovo-Metohija is a failure, as he has not yet succeeded in creating even a single multiethnic local authority as envisaged by UN documents.
CULTURAL LIFE IS NOT EXTINGUSHED IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA - MINISTER
Numerous cultural events being organized or planned in Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province will demonstrate to the international community that the province remains part of Serbia, Serbian Minister of Culture Zeljko Simic said Saturday in Belgrade.
Meeting participants of the second meeting of cultural workers held from November 4 to 6 in Leposavic, northeastern Kosovo-Metohija, Simic said that the battle for the province, that the Serb people have already won through the Security Council Resolution 1244, was also being fought on the practical, existential level through numerous artistic events in the province.
Thanking the ministry of culture for its support, Director of the Leposavic Cultural Center said that many institutions were organizing cultural and artistic programs for displaced Serbs who had found sanctuary in the town, to help them forget for a while their plight and the horrors of war and to encourage them to defend the homeland by preserving their cultural traditions.
YUGOSLAVIA LODGES SHARP PROTEST WITH MACEDONIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
Yugoslav Ambassador in Skopje Zoran Janackovic on Saturday lodged a sharp protest with the Macedonian foreign ministry over statements by presidential candidates and Macedonian government coalition partners Boris Trajkovski of the VMRO and Muarem Nedzipi of the Democratic Party of ethnic Albanians (DPA).
The statements by Trajkovski and Nedzipi present interference in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia and unfoundedly accuse, insult and slander Yugoslavia and its President Slobodan Milosevic, the embassy said.
Speaking at rallies in Bogdanci, Gevgelija and Kavadarci on Nov 8, Deputy Foreign Minister Trajkovski unfoundedly accused and slandered Yugoslavia and its policy, and, at rallies in Stip and Radovis on Nov 9, grossly interfered in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia, thus violating the agreement on regulating relations and promoting cooperation between Yugoslavia and Macedonia, the embassy statement said.
In a speech at an election rally in Kicevo on Oct 17, Nedzipi tried to make bargains with Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, which presents flagrant interference in Yugoslavia's internal affairs and a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 on Kosovo and Metohija, and other relevant international documents, the statement said.
Yugoslavia also protested against insinuations and false reports presented in a double issue of the daily Nova Makedonija of Nov 6 which were insulting to the renown and dignity of Yugoslavia and its ambassador in Macedonia and showed aspirations toward Yugoslav territory.
ITALY'S DINI SAYS SANCTIONS ARE INADEQUATE METHOD
Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini said in Milan, Italy, on Monday that sanctions, an instrument that the international community had frequently used in the past, had proved to be an inadequate method.
Dini said that the sanctions against Serbia should be eased, stressing that speedy efforts to this effect should be made in order to alleviate the critical humanitarian situation in this Yugoslav republic.
Referring to the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, Dini said that the restoration of democratic, free and multiethnic society to Serbia's southern province remained the international community's priority.
He said that U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright confirmed this in a recent meeting with him in Washington.
PAPOULIAS - AGGRESSORS FAILED MILITARILY AND POLITICALLY
We should find a way through cooperation and work of regional governments and states to prevent and stop the aggressiveness of the United States, Greek parliament Foreign Policy and Defense Committee President Karolos Papoulias said in an interview to the Belgrade daily Borba on Saturday.
There must be wide cooperation in the Balkans in order further to cement peace and cooperation in the region. I believe we have the possibility, as peoples with great histories and a developed sense of patriotism, to oppose the policy which is set by certain circles, said Papoulias, underscoring that this aggressive policy was not practised by all of Europe.
Although the Greek and Serb peoples have lived to see German tanks drive into the Balkans, he said he did not believe the type of tank had been made yet which could enslave them forever.
The former foreign minister said the aggressors had failed to achieve any military or political victory with the air strikes on Yugoslavia last spring. They also failed to side-track, let alone eliminate, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from political life, Papoulias said.
Greece has always been in favour of abolishing sanctions since they affect the people, he said.
Asked about the upcoming visit of U.S. President Bill Clinton to Greece, Papoulias said the strong reaction of the Greek people was a consequence of the mistakes made by various circles in the United States.
NATO LIED ABOUT NUMBER OF VICTIMS TO COMMIT AGGRESSION ON YUGOSLAVIA
The recently announced results of long-term investigations conducted by a team of experts from 14 countries - that slightly more than 2,000 bodies have been exhumed in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, and not hundreds of thousands, as the advocates of the air strikes on Yugoslavia had claimed early this year, and that bodies of ethnic Albanians are less numerous - have caused great attention among the Russian public.
Local media pointed out that manifold exaggerations of the number of victims among ethnic Albanians, which served as a pretext to NATO to launch its three-month brutal aggression against Yugoslavia, have shown that those who had given their support to this action had been victims of a great deception.
The focal part of this week's central news broadcast Vremja of Russia's TV station ORT entitled "Here and Now" was devoted to accusations by British MPs that Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and other western leaders had presented false, highly exaggerated reports about the number of ethnic Albanian victims in Kosovo and Metohija and alleged ethnic cleansing of local ethnic Albanians, of which NATO had made use for its unjustified air campaign against Yugoslavia.
During the broadcast, British MP and inter-party Committee for Peace in the Balkans President Alice Mann commented live that there was no longer any doubt that the public had been deceived about the number of victims in Kosovo. She said the figures had been increased several times in order to justify the air strikes.
Mann pointed out that a Spanish expert team which visited Kosovo and Metohija had not found a single mass grave, while English experts had previously announced that large numbers of victims had been determined on the basis of aerial photographs.
An authorized commission which came to Kosovo and Metohija did not find anything remotely similar, she said. Mann also spoke about her recent visit to Serbia, where she said she had seen the terrible devastation caused by NATO.
SERBIAN DEPPUTY PM RECEIVES DELEGATION OF CHICAGO MEDICAL EXPERTS
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Milovan Bojic on Monday received a delegation of medical experts of Chicago's Rush University at Belgrade's Dedinje Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, the Serbian Information Ministry said in a statement.
The delegation's visit is aimed at promoting cooperation in the sphere of medicine.
Bojic informed the delegation about conditions in which the Yugoslav health care system has been functioning since NATO's March 24-June 10 aggression on the country.
The statement said that, in circumstances when it was vital to reconstruct all that had been damaged or destroyed by NATO, Yugoslavia's health care system had not only managed to offer adequate services but had also maintained contacts with the world's leading medical institutions.
Bojic welcomed the U.S. experts' proposals on further diversification and promotion of cooperation in the domain, the statement said.
WILL THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL FINALLY CONSIDER CROATIAN CRIMES
It seems that the horrendous crimes committed against Serbs in Croatia from 1991-1995 will finally be considered by the prosecutor's office after many years of stalling and ignoring by The Hague International Tribunal for war crimes committed in former Yugoslavia.
In keeping with the general policy of pressures practised in recent months by the international community toward the current Croatian authorities, there are increasingly louder and stronger demands from The Hague for documents in connection with crimes against Serbs and for permission for its investigative team to work in the field.
Prosecutor's office spokesman Paul Resley told the Zagreb daily Jutarnji list that several investigations were currently under way in connection with Croatia.
According to reports in Croatian media, tribunal investigators have already visited the area of Gospic. Another team is expected to visit the area soon, pending approval of a tribunal demand for exhumation of localities in this area. It seems new Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte had raised this issue during her recent visit to Zagreb.
The Hague Tribunal was founded in 1993, but it set up investigative teams, three of them, for crimes against Serbs in Gospic, the Medacki Dzep pocket, and Operation Storm as late as in March 1998.
As the chief suspects in these crimes the Tribunal could indict Croatian Gen. Tihomir Oreskovic, who headed the Gospic Operation Headquarters in 1991, and Gen. Mirko Morac, then Gospic defense commander.
These crimes were committed against Gospic Serbs before any shots had been fired in Croatia, so that the Tribunal decision to launch an investigation is an opportunity for the world to find out the truth about the first and real victims of Croatia's secession from the former Yugoslav federation.
In the night between Oct 16 and 17, 1991, a so-called crystal night was staged in Gospic, when over 100 of the most prominent Serbs disappeared in an action of "cleansing" conducted by the Croatian army and special police units under the command of Tomislav Mercep.
The Croatian weekly Slobodni tjednik printed already in January 1992 the names of 76 Serbs murdered or disappeared in Gospic. However, only Tihomir Oreskovic was arrested after the resulting uproar in Croatian and foreign papers, but he was released after a few days with an explanation by then Croatian interior minister Ivan Vekic that someone had intervened "from higher up."
In late December 1991, Croatian authorities delivered to Serb territory 24 bodies of murdered Gospic Serbs. There is a detailed report about this (photographs, protocols with descriptions of injuries, witness testimonies), as well as a 105-minute film. The film was shown on Serbian Radio Television RTS on Jan 4, 1992, but Croatian President Franjo Tudjman described it as "Serb propaganda."
The Tribunal decision to launch an investigation into crimes in the Medacki Dzep pocket is of particular importance since the area had been a so-called United Nations Protected Area (UNPA) and under UN force UNPROFOR control for 16 months by that time.
In the Croatian army and police "scorched earth" action in the Medacki Dzep pocket in September 1993, 88 Serbs were murdered or disappeared, and the villages Divoselo, Citluk and Pocitelj were burned to the ground.
Mirko Norac, Rahmi Ademi and Mladen Markac could be found responsible for the crimes in the Medacki Dzep pocket.
Norac was the commander of the Gospic area and the commander in chief of Operation Medacki Dzep pocket (he is also responsible for crimes committed against Serbs in Gospic in 1991 and in Operation Storm in 1995).
Ademi crossed over to the Croatian side in 1991 as a major of the former Yugoslav army JNA. He was Norac's deputy during Operation Medacki Dzep pocket and in direct command of Croatian Army units (as well as during Operation Storm). Ademi holds the office of deputy chief of the Knin area.
Markac is a police general. He held a command post on Mt. Velebit with 500 policemen since 1991, from where "cleansing" actions were launched against Serbs (the massacre of 22 Serbs in Mali Alan, the Maslenica Bridge massacre, operations Flash and Storm).
The Tribunal team in charge of crimes committed during Operation Storm, in which over 2,500 Serbs were murdered and 330,000 others expelled, has visited Yugoslavia five times already, requesting insight into documentation and taking statements from potential witnesses.
The Hague Tribunal, as well as the former UN commission for war crimes, were repeatedly sent documentation on crimes committed by Croats against Serbs, from Gospic, Pakracka Poljana, Marino Selo village, to the Medacki Dzep pocket and operations Flash and Storm, but the Tribunal procrastinated and tried to avoid opening cases of Croatian crimes under the pretext of insufficient evidence or a tight budget.
BOOK ON NATO CRIMES PRESENTED IN CANADA WITH TV BROADCAST
The Yugoslav Embassy in Ottawa held a press conference on the occasion of the presentation of the Yugoslav government Memorandum and the second book on NATO crimes in Yugoslavia to the Canadian public, which was broadcast live by TV channels CBC and CTV.
Yugoslav Ambassador to Canada Pavle Todorovic presented in detail the Memorandum sent to the United Nations Security Council in connection with the implementation of Resolution 1244 in Kosovo and Metohija province. He underscored that, with the passing of time, it was becoming evident that it had been pure propaganda when NATO officials had spoken during the air campaign against Yugoslavia about hundreds of thousands of killed ethnic Albanians and a humanitarian disaster of ethnic Albanian civilians, as this had evidently served solely to justify the aggression on a sovereign country.
Ambassador Todorovic said that certain countries were unfortunately continuing the aggression against Yugoslavia, but now using other means. He urged media which had accepted stands and reports by NATO officials during the aggression without reservations, now to make a contribution to true informing of the Canadian public about developments in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province, where non-Albanian civilians are being terrorized, most of all Serbs.