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BELGRADE -- Assistant Yugoslav Foreign Minister Miroslav Milosevic informed foreign diplomats in Belgrade on Tuesday that the United States has prepared a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Kosovo and Metohija to be submitted to the Third Committee at the current 54th U.N. General Assembly session.
"We believe that the way in which the situation in Kosovo and Metohija is being interpreted in the U.N. draft resolution is unacceptable both in its essence and its form," Milosevic said.
The draft only formally quotes reports by Special Human Rights Rapporteur Yiri Dienstbier "but in fact it imposes assessments and views which are malicious or generally have no basis in the real situation in the field, i.e. in the reports quoted," Milosevic set out.
He stated that "the draft distorts and consciously conceals the truth, instead of revelaing the real essence of the current situation in the sphere of human rights in Kosovo and Metohija which is marked by the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and other non-Albanians, as well as other cirmes committed by the ethnic Albanian terrorists and separatists with compliance of KFOR and UNMIK."
According to Milosevic, this is why the majority of demands and criticism of the situation in Kosovo and Metohija are sent to the Yugoslav authorities, although it is well known that after June 10, 1999 only KFOR and UNMIK are responsible for security in the human rights sphere.
"The draft resolution avoids presenting in an objective manner the situation and the mass violation of human rights of the Serbs and other non-Albanians, only giving dim general formulations that all ethnic groups are at jeopardy," Milosevic set out.
The draft resolution hardly makes any mention of the crimes by the ethnic Albanian terrorists and separatists and the role of the so-called KLA, although there is sufficient evidence about this in the reports submitted by Dienstbier and various non-goverment organizations which visited Kosovo and Metohija - such as Amnesty International (AI) and Helsinki Watch, Milosevic recalled.
He said that latest AI reports about missing and kidnapped persons in Kosovo and Metohija, dating from October 1999, say that the so-called KLA, although it has been officially disarmed and disbanded, is in possession of large quantities weapons, and that the newly-established Kosovo Protection Corps is headed by ex-KLA leaders and members who are responsible for the violation of the human rights of Serbs and Romanies, as well as ethnic Albanians.
The AI report said that the withdrawal of the Yugoslav Army forces and police from Kosovo and Metohija was accompanied by an escalation of the abuse of human rights by a part of armed groups of ethnic Albanians, Milosevic said.
According to him, in question is a report which illustrates that the remaining Serbs in Serbia's southern province have become the victims of serious human rights abuses, including murder, kidnappings, harrasment and expulsions which are taking place despite the presence of the international forces and that the crimes are committed on a daily basis by groups of or individual ethnic Albanians, of whom many claim that they are members of the so-called KLA.
Milosevic set out that "if there exists a concern about the state of human rights in Kosovo and Metohija, then it is necessary to introduce stands which correspond to the real situation in the field, rather than fabricated accusations."
"This issue also should not be discussed separately from the overall issues which are already being reviewed as part of the usual omnibus resolution on the state of human rights in the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which should be prepared on the basis of Dienstbier's report," Milosevic stated.
The United States has also prepared the draft of this omnibus resolution in order to submit it to the U.N. General Assembly Third Committee, and this resolution also totally overlooks the situation in the field, Milosevic said.
"This is yet another attempt to accuse the Yugoslav authorities for the sitaution in Kosovo and Metohija although it is quite clear that the ethnic Albanian separatists and terrorists are carrying out the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs and other non-Albanians and are violating human rights on a daily basis," Milosevic noted.
The U.S. draft omnibus resolution ignors Dienstbier's remarks who said in his report to the U.N. General Assembly and to the Third Committee that the ethnic cleansing is being carried out in the presence of UNMIK, KFOR and OSCE. Dienstbier demanded in his report for a halt to the usurping of the private property of Serbs, a control of the border with Albania and Macedonia, a ban on the arrival of criminals to Kosovo and Metohija, the immediate lifting of all economic sanctions against Yugoslavia and sending relief aid to this country.
"Unfortunately, the authors of this draft resolution failed to demonstrate readiness to take into consideration the facts from Dienstbier's report although they were obliged to do so in keeping with the resolution itself. Furthermore, the draft resolution repeates meaningless charges against Yugoslavia and at the same time praises NATO for its military intervention in Kosovo and Metohija aimed at prevneting an alleged humanitarian catastrophe, which is cynicism at its most extreme," Milosevic set out.
According to him "this is an unprecendented case because it is an attempt to justify the use of force, i.e. an aggression conducted in the name of preserving allegedly threatened human rights."
"Attempts are being made to involve in these dirty dealings the international community's most influential forum - the U.N. General Assembly. Yugoslavia expects the U.N. members to see through the real intentions of those who submitted those resolutions and to oppose this," Milosevic said.