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Kosovo Serbs Leave Kosovo Transitional Council Gracanica, Kosovo September 22 Today on Sep 22 on the session of the Kosovo Transitional Council the representatives of the Serbian national commuity, Bishop Artemije and Mr. Trajkovic officially resigned from their positions within the KTC. They explained their leaving of the Council with the fact that after three months of KFOR andUNMIK presence in Kosovo the multiethnic concept in Kosovo has failed. This failure was crowned by the transformation of the KLA into a monoethnic and armed Kosovo Protection Corps which is directly violating the UN Security Council Resolution 1244. After three months of peace the results are catastrophic for the Serbs in the province: about 200.000 expelled, more than 350 killed, 450 abducted, thousands of burned and looted Serb houses as well as 70 destroyed churches and monasteries in the presence of almost 50.000 international peace forces. In Kosovo there is not...

FRY NGOs: Aid for Reconstruction and Transition 14. september 1999 INTRODUCTION This is the Executive Summary of a proposal for AID AND RECOSTRUCTION IN YUGOSLAVIA – NEED AND NECESSiTY, which was prepared by the expert teams of five Belgrade independent, think tanks and NGOs: CENTER FOR POLICY STUDIES (coordinating body focused on social and political part of the project); GROUP 17 (reformist economists focused on economic aspects); PALGO CENTER (Center for Public Administration and Local Government: in depth analysis of case studies of several Serbian cities); EUROPEAN MOVEMENT (working on developing concepts and relations with neighboring countries); AAEN (Alternative Academic Educational Network: preparation of maps and data bases); ECOLOGICAL CENTER (ecological research and mapping). Work on this complex project was initiated while NATO bombing was ongoing. In difficult conditions, the authors found this task as the best way to give some sense to their professional responsibility and to contribute to...

U.S. Officials Expect Kosovo Independence The emphasis, national security adviser Sandy Berger says, is on creating democratic model in Kosovo. (Susan Biddle ˜ The Washington Post) By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Foreign Service September 24, 1999 PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Sept. 23 ˆ Senior U.S. officials have privately dropped their opposition to Kosovo’s independence from Yugoslavia and say the Clinton administration increasingly sees the province’s secession as inevitable. Officials say the emerging consensus, which amounts to a major shift for the United States, is already having a significant impact on the international peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. The United States has become a leading advocate for the creation of independent institutions and legal structures that tend to isolate the fledgling United Nations protectorate from Yugoslavia’s manifold economic problems and political troubles. U.S. officials deny that the administration’s approach is meant to engineer the further breakup of Yugoslavia, as the Belgrade government claims....

KLA Demilitarization and the Kosovo Protection Force September 24, 1999 Introduction by Dr Kouchner, Special Representative of the Secretary General: Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for coming and let me tell you first that we, Mike Jackson and I, are very happy to be facing you to answer to you questions after 2 little very light statements. It is a good day for us. But, this is not an end, but a beginning. Demilitarisation is not necessarily accomplished by simply dismantling military structures and collecting soldiers’ arms. The concept of complementing demilitarisation through the transformation of former fighting forces, is well established in peacekeeping practice. It became an integral part of the Kosovo peace process. As a result of the KLA undertaking on demilitarisation and transformation presented to KFOR Commander, Mike Jackson in June. In close consultation with UNMIK, KFOR subsequently developed a concept for a civilian, disciplined, uniformed and...

We Helped Them Descend Into Hell New Statesman, September 13 1999 It had been a long night of waiting for the Indonesian troop convoy to pass. Two of us then crossed the border into East Timor clandestinely, through a forest of dead, petrified trees that appeared as silhouetted needles around which skeins of fine white sand drifted, like mist. As the sun rose, there stood the surreal crosses. They were almost everywhere; great black crosses etched against the sky, crosses on peaks, crosses in tiers on the hillsides, crosses beside the road, overlooking white slabs. They littered the earth and crowded the eye. As we trudged through dense scrub, we came upon them: on a riverbank, an escarpment, commanding all before them. The inscriptions on some were normal: those of generations departed in proper time and sequence. However, the dates of these were all prior to 1975, when proper time...

“RAMBOUILLETAVTALET” Texten, förhandlingarna, bakgrunden Av: Kjell Magnusson. Current Issues Reports from Centre for Multiethnic Research Uppsala University. Av Sören Sommelius Kulturredaktör, Helsinborg Dagblad, TFF:s konfliktläkningsgrupp NATOs flyg gick till angrepp mot Jugoslavien för snart ett halvår sedan, den 24 mars, som inledning till 78 dagars bombkrig med stor materiell förödelse och långsiktiga destruktiva konsekvenser för fred och säkerhet i världen. Tusentals människor dödades. Först flydde och fördrevs bortät en miljon albaner genom serbisk vedergällning och bomber. Därefter flydde och fördrevs över 200.000 albaner och zigenare i albansk vedergällning. I dag är läget på Balkan betydligt värre än det var innan NATO började bomba. Utsikterna för en varaktig fred på Balkan är knappast ljusa. Anledningen till att NATO gick i krig var formellt att Jugoslavien vägrade skriva under det så kallade Rambouilletavtalet, ett 80-sidigt dokument, om vilket parterna förhandlade under februari på ett franskt slott. Förhandlade är inte rätt ord. Det...

Fra sag til sag: Kosovo, ikke Østre Timor Albanske ekstremister har nu afsluttet en etnisk rensning af omkring 90% af Kosovos sigøjnere, serbere og jøder, proportionelt den største hidtil på Balkan. Beograd hverken planlagde eller gennemførte at fordrive 90% af albanerne. NATO hævdede det var uacceptabelt at Beograd havde 40.000 tropper i området for blandt andet beskytte det serbiske mindretal, men ingen har givet os et svar på hvorfor lige så mange NATO-soldater med mere avanceret teknik og efterretningsfolk ikke har kunnet forhindre denne aldeles forudsigelige humanitære katastrofe. Det jugoslaviske militær fik 10 dage til at trække alt tilbage men har i strid med Sikkerhedsrådets resolution 1244 ikke fået lov til at vende tilbage med grænsevagter. Den albanske befrielseshær, UCK, fik 90 dage til at indlevere sine våben, men har nu i strid med resolutionen ikke blot overtaget lokaladministration og politivæsen, men også fået lov til at oprette en slags...

Letter to TFF 24 Aug 1999 Dear TFF, I have read with interest your call for world wide Reconciliation Institutes. Your proposal brings to mind a number of precedents. You undoubtedly know that is was "The Fellowship of Reconciliation" who established after World War I the first Civilian Service which brought together (mostly young) people from former enemy countries for the purpose of both reconciliation and reconstruction. The FOR policy seems sound in that it links reconciliation with reconstruction. The FOR’s Civilian Service of 1919 seems to me a forerunners of today’s Civilian Peace Service project. Are you planning to work with the FOR and NGOs such as the Mothers in Black? I have virtually no idea about the present state of those Kosovo/ Albanian and Serbian NGOs who resisted the armed conflict. Are you planning to write a post-mortem of your attempt to help resolve the Serb – Albanian...

Skapa försoningscentra Kommer du ihåg den lilla vietnamesiska flickan som springer ifrån amerikanska napalmbombar? Piloten kunde inte bära vad han hade gjort och blev präst. För ett par år sedan träffades de två, hon förlät honom omedelbart och kramade om honom med ett leende. Och – inom kort – visas i USA en film om Pete Peterson, en annan bombpilot som satt i vietnamesisk fängelse i 6 år, kom hem och blev medlem av kongressen och deltog i försoningsarbete mellan de två länderna – “jag kan inte göra om det som hände, men jag kan hjälpa till att bygga framtiden.” Han blev USA:s ambassadör i Hanoi 1996 och gifte sig förra året med vietnamesiskan Vi Ly. Tillåt mig påståendet att vi aldrig kommer att lyckas med att hjälpa krigförande och krigsdrabbade till fred, med mindre vi sätter de mänskliga dimensionerna av konflikter, krig och återuppbyggnad i centrum. Förstörda hus och...

Jakarta’s Godfathers By John Pilger From The Guardian September 7, 1999 Having finally discovered East Timor, most of the media have now left, blaming a “descent into violence”. The long, silent years mock these words. The descent began almost a quarter of a century ago when Indonesian special forces invaded the defenceless Portuguese colony. On December 7, 1975, a lone radio voice rose and fell in the static: “The soldiers are killing indiscriminately. Women and children are being shot in the streets. This is an appeal for international help. This is an SOS – please help us.” No help came, because the western democracies were secret partners in a crime as great and enduring as any this century; proportionally, not even Pol Pot matched Suharto’s spree. Air Force One, carrying President Ford and his secretary of state Henry Kissinger, climbed out of Indonesian airspace the day the bloodbath began. "They...

BBC on Nato’s Inner Kosovo Conflict From BBC London, Newsnight Friday, August 20, 1999 Published at 03:34 GMT 04:34 UK General Clark: “didn’t always defer to those who wanted targets withheld” In a special Newsnight programme Mark Urban investigates Nato’s handling of the Kosovo crisis. Interviewing the key players he finds that the Allies were far from united. (Newsnight – BBC Two – 10.30pm – Friday 20 August). Talk to the people running Nato’s war against Slobodan Milosevic and many will tell you it was a "near run thing". Strobe Talbott: “A good thing that the conflict ended when it did” Strobe Talbott, the American Deputy Secretary of State, told BBC’s Newsnight Kosovo Special "there would have been increasing difficulty within the alliance in preserving the solidarity and the resolve of the alliance" had the Serbian leader not given in on 3 June. Mr Talbott, regarded as the man closest...

Opret forsoningscentre! Husker Du den lille vietnamesiske pige, der løb fra amerikanske napalmbomber? Piloten kom aldrig over sin ugerning og blev præst. For et par år siden traf de to hinanden, hun tilgav ham på stedet og omfavnede ham med et smil. Og – om kort tid vises i USA en film om Pete Peterson, en anden bombepilot, som sad i vietnamesisk fængsel i 6 år, kom hjem og blev medlem af kongressen og deltog i forsoningsarbejdet mellem de to lande – “jeg kan ikke gøre det om der skete, men jeg kan hjælpe til med at bygge fremtiden.” I 1996 blev han USAs ambassadør i Hanoi og sidste år giftede han sig med vietnamesiske Vi Ly. Tillad mig den påstand at vi aldrig vil lykkes at hjælpe krigsførende til fred, medmindre vi sætter de menneskelige dimensioner af konflikter, krig og genopbygning i centrum. Ødelagte huse og infrastruktur er det principielt...