HAS WAR IN KOSOVO ALREADY STARTED?

AIM Pristina, 31 January, 1998

The investigative judge of the District Court in Gnjilane, Zivorad Stankovic, claims that member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) of Serbia in Kosovska Kamenica, Sasa Markovic, on 27 January, around 21.30 hours, wounded "involuntarily" Avdi Neziri (16.5 years old), and pronounced the punitive measure of 30 days in custody. This is the information carried by the press in Albanian referring to sources of Belgrade Politika. This time, there was no comment on the news, because it is generally known that it is impossible to kill somebody "involuntarily" with a gun pointed at the back of his head. Young Avdi Neziri, street cigarette vendor, died the following day in the hospital in Pristina.

The day after, high officials of the Kosovo Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), headed by Vojislav Zivkovic, promised their compatriots in a local community in Kosovska Kamenica that the "state would square accounts with Albanian terrorists" and that there is no need for any kind of national self-organizing.

However, concerning the numerous victims either among the policemen or persons considered to be close to the Serb regime, for which the so-called Liberation Army of Kosovo assumed responsibility, state institutions and the judiciary, despite many trials they have organized in the past two years and severe punishments pronounced, as stated, for terrorist activities, have not been able to prove their guilt, and there is even founded suspicion that the persons tried were not the real perpetrators of these crimes. MUP of Serbia recently presented the datum that last year 40 persons (!?) were killed in Kosovo, but it seems that the Pristina Committee for Human Rights was slightly more precise when it stated that 35 Albanians (!) were killed, but that in 18 cases circumstances in which they had lost their lives remained unknown (?). The question of the remaining five victims remains open. The first month of this year added new victims to this black chronicle. Two Serbs, Djordje Belic from Klina and Desimir Vasic from Zvecani, according to the official sources, were killed by "Albanian terrorists". Three Albanians - one taxi-driver, one shop manager in Pristina and the young cigarette vendor - were killed by persons of Serb nationality... On the one hand, at the illusively peaceful Kosovo, the citizens of Serb origin are organizing protest gatherings again, demanding to be armed "if the state is not capable to protect them". In the region of Drenica, on the other hand, many eye-witnesses say, masked and armed (mostly in tennis shoes, leather softsoled shoes or rubber boots), members of the Liberation Army of Kosovo, as they themselves present themselves, are already regularly patrolling. It seems, however, that another "army" has also appeared over there, also in (police) uniforms and masked. Journals Koha ditore and Bujku carry experiences of passengers of Albanian nationality who travelled in certain directions in Istok and Klina municipalities, who say that they were searched and had their identity checked by men who "spoke Serbian". Surrounding of villages in the region of Drenica by the police, searching of houses, various cruel forms of physical and psychological torture, destruction of furniture and arrests, have become an everyday routine in the past week. The question hovering in the air constantly is whose nerves will be the first to break down: of the citizens of Albanian origin who wish to preserve their dignity at any cost or of those who are carrying out orders of their bosses.

At least one important question has been clarified - whether the Liberation Army of Kosovo exists. All the assessments come down to the fact that there are certain armed groups of persons who are believed by some analysts and relevant political circles to be frustrated due to long years of repression and hopelessness, and who are, as claimed by natives of Serb origin in Srbica municipalities to some Belgrade journalists, to be their neighbours. However, speculations about the Liberation Army of Kosovo do not end there. Certain foreign diplomats state that these groups do not count more than the total of about one hundred armed men, but warn that their sympathizers are counted by thousands and that nobody knows exactly what kind of weapons and how much of them they have at their disposal. It is also known that none of the political parties which gather Kosovo Albanians stand in the background of these armed groups. Although they mostly speculated that the "Serb regime" stood behind the so-called Liberation Army of Kosovo, the logical possibility is not eliminated that the natives have organized themselves, not wishing to tolerate any more "state terrorism", as stressed in Albanian circles. If this assumption is further elaborated, it is belived that they have realized that they had gone too far, that they do not enjoy the expected mass support for this form of "defence" or "attaining the cause", but that for the time being, it is not easy for them to withdraw. Because...

The western press, and an increasing number of diplomats are lately concentrated on Kosovo, in the light of the appearance of the Liberation Army of Kosovo. There are warnings that it will be registered on the list of terrorist organizations of the American administration. This would mean that Belgrade would be given a free hand to "fight against terrorism on its territory". Cynics say that in that case it would not shrink from inviting "international experts" to help it eliminate terrorists.

On the other hand, there is much talk in Kosovo about Arkan and Captain Dragan who are "for weeks staying in the hotel in Zvecan" and that they are "seen with their supporters in a village near Kosovska Mitrovica carrying out their drills". The local press does not conceal fear of creation of major "organized chaos", reminding of their role in the previous wars in the former Yugoslav space, as well as their unclarified relations with "legal" police and military groups. Political analysts lay the responsibility for the development of the apparently uncontrolled violence, latent war and state of emergency the entire population of Kosovo is held in at the door of Slobodan Milosevic and his "fiendish schemes", with which like in the case of Drenica (indirect stimulation of Albanian radicalism), by "creating" and "abolishing" reality, and even a possible war, he is trying to impose his vision of the solution of the issue of Kosovo and to keep all strings of power in his hands, of course.

Due to all that it can be stated with certainty that the question of terrorism in Kosovo will be open until a decision to really sit down at a table and talk about Kosovo is not reached. Until that moment, even more repressive (if that is possible) "state terrorism" will continue to exist, which will certainly establish more firmly the "Albanian terrorism". And that will be a good immediate cause for perhaps a major intervention of the military and police apparatus, which has already been the subject of various speculations for days. Therefore, in Kosovo, there is plenty of reason to put the question: has not the war already started?

AIM Pristina

Arben KRASNIQI