23:49 I can`t believe my ears! german ZDF TV news at 21:45 reports on demolishion of the monument of Vuk Karadzic by Kosovo Albanians. Vuk Karadzic described as a chetnik and criminal ravaging in the Balkans in 1839.
23:20 A Serbian house was burnt down today near the church St.George in
Pristina.
22:50 Someone reported Russians would reconstruct the damaged power plants in
Yugoslavia, in return for becoming owners of the reconstructed facilities. Well,
brothers Russians, thanks, but no, thanks. Will it be allowed to give ownership
over in return for help and give over the little still had?
22:00 KFOR members drove a KLA commander, Mahmut Ljatifi, out from the building
of Pristina police today.
22:00 About 30-40 Romes (Gypsies), Gorans and Serbs are expected to move out to
Monte Negro today; they were sheltering in Pec Archbishopry by now.
21:45 President of the International Commission for missing persons in the
territory of former Yugoslavia and former US senator Bob Dole is coming to
Kosovo tomorrow.
21:28 TV Monte Negro broadcasts live Music Festival of Croatian Adriatic
Coast.
21:25 Power outage in New Belgarde.
21:15 Today`s issue of the Russian newspaper "Komersant" reports that
Russian Army HQ, deciding to send 200 Russian soldiers from Bosnia to kosovo
without NATO`s knowledge, primarily wished to take hold of the secret
underground airport in Pristina. The article also states that there is only one
such airport more in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, in Bihac, which is
now under NATO control.
20:45 German KFOR soldiers showed the journalists a mass grave in the village
Celina, 20 km from Prizren. Leutenent-colonel Ditmar Jeseric stated 109 bodies
were found in the grave, mostly women and children, who were
allegedly killed when the village was under control of Serbian forces.
20:45 In a shooting, when fire was opened from a car onto the former
building of Serbian Government in Pristina. where cca 50 Serbs live now,
soldiers of the British KFOR killed 2 and wounded 2 persons, supposedly
Albanians, "because they felt they were in danger".
20:30 Protests of reservists have continued today; they blocked the Ibar highway
near Raska and Biljanovac, requesting to be paid for the time they spent in the
YU Army during the NATO attack on FRY.
20:10 DPS will contact all parties in Serbia that accepted DPS initiative
for the talks regarding redefining of the relations between Serbia and Monte
Negro in a federal state, at the beginning of next week, and set dates for
meetings, said today the president of the Executive board of this party. He
added that they have already received replies from SPS, SRS, SPO, Coalition
"Vojvodina" and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians.
20:05 Russian KFOR soldiers were loading arms and other military equipment today
into 2 transport planes IL-76. In the industrial town Ivanovo, 320 km northeast
from Moscow, Russians prepare to send the first larger contingent of soldiers to
Kosovo in the next couple of days. Russian Prime Minister, Sergei Stepasin,
stated Moscow would ensure Russian soldiers to receive the same salaries as
their colleagues from the West. According to the agreement of Russia and NATO,
this country will send 3,600 soldiers to Kosovo.
19:55 "It was mostly peaceful in Kosovo in the last 24 hours, except for
several incidents, including the last night`s shooting in the streets of
Pristina", said Ian Iosten, KFOR spokesman, today, adding that a group of
people tortured an Albanian in the north sector under the control of French
KFOR, and this ended when a French soldier shot a warning bullet into the
sky.
19:53 TV Monte Negro broadcasted pictures of agency APTN from last night
celebration of the 9th anniversary of proclaiming the independent state of
Kosovo. Yugoslav flags were burnt, Albanian songs sang, and the climax of
madness was demolishion of Vuka Karadzic`s monument. It was demolished, and
beaten, and finally draged by a tractor along the streets of Pristina.
19:52 KFOR freed 5 YU Army members today, who were captured yesterday in Kosovo.
KFOR accepted the official statement of YU Army that its members got lost
because of incorrect map reading.
19:50 UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, arrives to Kosovo Monday.
19:45 KFOR command in Pristina informs that 2 Albanians were killed and 2
wounded in last night`s demonstrations, held in honour of the 9th anniversary of
proclaiming the constitution of the "Republic of Kosovo". One of the
killed died on the spot, while the other died in a hospital.
19:40 "Kosovoleaves behind it a dangerous and important crossroads,
war, destruction and opens a new page of history, peace and creation of
preconditions for the return of refugees", said the deputy Foreign Minister
of the self-proclaimed `Provisional Government of Kosovo`, Hidaet Hiseni.
18:20 Moscow paper "Sevodnia" says that Russia intends to have
priority in the reconstruction of FRY, by having the firm "Gasprom"
deliver to Yugoslavia 1 million cubic metres of gas per day, paid by the Russian
Finance Ministry. The article also says Russian firms intend to reconstruct the
damaged power installations in FRY, under the condition they become owners of
the reconstructed facilities in future.
17:30 YU won the bronze medal at the European Basketball Championship
in France, having won France with the score 74:62
16:55 "Four Serbian houses near Suva Reka have been burnt down, one person
gave 6 kg of explosive over to KFOR, one person was arrested for stealth",
said a spokesman of peacekeeping forces in Kosovo today, adding that 70 persons
have been arrested up to now in Prizren, for the same reasons.
16:15 Last night Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Zivadin Jovanovic, sent a
letter to UN Security Council, asking for approval for the return of
a part of Yugoslav security forces to Kosovo. More details in - Agency reports.
15:27 NATO is preventing the transport of Russian troops to Kosovo by planes.
The reason for that, according to US functionaries, is that the role of Russians
in the peacekeeping forces under NATO leadership has still not been elaborated,
reports Saturday`s issue of New York Times. Russia has already asked Hungary,
Romania and Bulgaria for permission to fly over them this weekend, but did not
get; they refused to give it, in agreement with NATO countries. In the Belgium
town Monse last week talks were held about the role of Russia, but were
interrupted and are to be continued only some time next week. The issue has been
stalled for 2 weeks now.
14:45 The ship carrying cca 80 Romes (Gypsies) refugees from Kosovo to
Italy was was stranded early this morning near the Italian coast, south of
Brindizi. The refugees were accomodated in a refugee centre in Brindizi port.
14:10 Havier Solana, NATO Secretary General, sent a message from Sarajevo
yesterday to the authorities in Belgrade that, in case of an attempt to depose
the authorities in Monte Negro, they would face a new confrontation with NATO.
13:30 Dutch radio reports that Milo Djukanovic has condemned NATO countries
which took part in bombing of Monte Negro, requesting an indemnity. Minister of
Tourism (I don`t know his name) says tourism has stopped because of the bombing
and Monte Negro is suffering a loss of nearly 100 million DEM.
12:04 Last night in Pristina British KFOR soldiers killed 1 and wounded 3
Albanians who opened fire from machine guns onto a building in which Serbs live.
11:50 Thousands of Kosovo Albanians demonstrated last night in Pristina,
in celebration of the day 9 years ago when the constitution of the so-called
"Republic of Kosovo" was made and independence of the province
proclaimed.
The demonstrators demolished the monument of Vuk Karadzic and pulled it with a
tractor along the streets of Pristina. Some time before midnight, KFOR ended the
demonstrations, by blocking with armoured vehicles the access to the centre of
the town and switching off the street lights.
11:42 Podgorica - Command of the YU Army in Monte Negro announced, with regard
to pulling its tanks out at some Montenegrin roads recently, that it would
"perform its tasks and use all communications it wished in future as
well", and that the army is "not guilty for some people in Monte Negro
preferring to see some other army". The Army also demands Monte Negro
police forces to be reduced to peace time volume, instead of them, as the
statement reads, "walking around armed over their heads".
11:42 Sabac - Serbian police arrested yesterday 3 activists of the
Democratic party in Sabac, who were organizing signing of the petition for
deposition of Slobodan Milosevic. Western correspondents report on the statement
of local opposition representatives, who said the petition was signed by cca 150
people up to the moment the police took the organizers of the action and put
down the names of all persons who signed the petition.
11:30 Today`s issue of the German paper "Die Welt" says that the
person deciding about the future of the present Yugoslavia is the Monte Negro
President Milo Djukanovic, who is expected to depose Milosevic and establish a
democratic government in Belgrade. If this does not happen, Monte Negro could,
in a several months time, separate, and the federation would not exist any more,
which would only be at the cost of Serbia, concludes the article.
09:19 Washington - EU presiding country, Finland, stands for the international
community begin removing at least some of the sanctions against Yugoslavia
quickly, first of all the embargo on import of oil and on air traffic, stated
the political director of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Perti Torstila.
09:19 New York - UN Secretary General, Koffi Annan, appointed Friday the French
Health Minister, Bernard Kushner, as chief of the civilian administration of the
UN mission in Kosovo. UN spokesman, Fred Ekhart, said Kusner`s deputy would be
James `Jock` Covy, former US diplomat in charge for the Balkans in the White
House and UN.
09:19 New York - Newly appointed chief of the UN civilian mission in Kosovo,
French Health Minister, Bernard Kushner, stated he was honoured to be appointed,
and that he was ready to leave for the province at once. "Nothing is
functioning in Kosovo, not schools, not hospitals, not garbage collecting. My
first thought is for the poor people suffering for months in Kosovo", said
Kushner.
09:07 Last night army reservists blosked the road near Raska, asking to be
payed for the time they spent in YU Army when mobilized. Reservists from Uzice
protested as well.
03:48 Teletext, ANSA: "Finland, presiding member of EU, is requesting a
quick revoke od at least a part of the sanctions against Yugoslavia".
"Revocation of the war sanctions is our first objective", especially
of those most troublesome for the serbian people, explained P.Torstilla from
Foreign Affairs Ministry. "
"Belgrade is requesting the return of its troops to Kosovo, in order to
stop the chaos; Yugoslav Foreign Affairs Minister asked for permission from UN
Security Council to return at least a part of Yugoslav security forces to
Kosovo, to deal with the disorders dominating the province. Serbs reminded that
UN Resolution planns for several hundred YU soldiers to return to the province
to protect Serbian holy objects and help control border zones."
01:38 KLA members gave over about 7 trucks full of arms, said major Jon
Josten, KFOR spokesman.
01:20 According to major Jon Josten, KFOR spokesman, 15 people were arrested
near Lipljane and 13 near Vitine, suspected for robbery.
00:20 At a press conference, held by the Russian and the French Prime Minister -
Stepasin and Jospen - jointly after the talks, the Russian official said:
"Although I talked to my French colleague privately about Milosevic`s
disposition, Russia`s stand is still that sending of humanitarian aid must not
depend on his deposition".
00:10 I`m writing from Pristina. Radio Zagreb reports tonight that "5
thousand Albanians have peacefully and in a dignified way celebrated the
anniversary of the Declaration on Kosovo Independence, the so-called Kacanik
Constitution." Well, this is real hell. They have demolished the monuments
(of Vuk, Njegos, Dositej) `in a dignified way` and are "peacefully"
shooting from all kinds of arms. NATO helicopter also peacefully and in a
dignified way flies over the town from time to time. God help us tonight.