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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Lacelle who wrote (13993)	8/13/1999 2:38:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

when the heads of states and governments depart after their summits and the pledges need to be transformed into actual payments, the Balkans will be confronted with a more mundane reality. The vast sums of money promised at the height of the Kosovo conflict are unlikely to materialise, and many of the treaties currently negotiated as part of the "stability pact" are basically irrelevant. Stability promised Throughout the Kosovo campaign, Nato promised a new Marshall Plan for the Balkans, reminiscent of the effort made at the end of World War II in reconstructing Europe. Such talk produced good headlines in the media, but remains misconceived news.bbc.co.uk

To: John Lacelle who wrote (13993)	8/13/1999 4:39:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Kosovo Albanians Jeer, Demand Exit Of Russians KOSOVSKA KAMENICA, Serbia, Aug 13, 1999 -- (Reuters) About 2,000 ethnic Albanian protesters jeered Russian peacekeepers and thumped their vehicles on Thursday, demanding that they leave the volatile southeast of Kosovo. Anti-Russian sentiment among ethnic Albanians, bred by Moscow's longtime support for Serbia's attempt to crush self-rule aspirations in Kosovo, threatens to boil over after the fatal shooting of an Albanian near a Russian checkpoint. Ethnic Albanians say a Russian soldier gunned down their kinsman, execution-style, early on Monday. The U.S. military, in charge of Kosovo's southeast zone, is investigating the murder in the village of Koretin but says there is no evidence a Russian was involved. The ethnic Albanians reject U.S. insistence that Russian conduct has been impartial and professional. They claim the Russians have intimidated them at checkpoints and allowed local Serbs to join in, and are protecting paramilitaries in Serb villages. Russian army checkpoints have come under fire at night from suspected ethnic Albanian gunmen several times. Kosovska Kamenica, an ethnically mixed municipality close to the provincial border with the rest of Serbia, is a cauldron of tension between Albanians and Russian peacekeepers. Protesters marched past the main Russian base in Kamenica, then split into two columns which converged like a pincer on two Russian armored personnel carriers (APCs) and a troop truck with soldiers standing nearby. As they surged past, demonstrators beat on the APCs and truck with their fists and the shafts of protest banners. They chanted "Russians Go Home", "Russians No, NATO Yes", and "Amer-ee-ka", punctuated by rhythmic clapping. The Russians, in the midst of street patrols or circulating in and out of their base, were hemmed in by the throng for several minutes but only watched impassively until it moved on. "We just try to endure it, turn our head away sometimes. We've got used to this. It happens every day. It's mostly kids, not many adults," said one Russian soldier. About a dozen ethnic Albanian men approached a few Russian soldiers in an aggressive manner but were quickly pushed back by crowd stewards with red armbands. Some protesters carried a banner: "Accomplices in War Crimes Cannot Be Peacekeepers". They also shouted "UCK, UCK", the Albanian-language acronym for the KLA, and carried KLA emblems. Organizers denied they were from the KLA, but rather a Kamenica council of civic-minded ethnic Albanians. "We are deeply concerned with the establishment of the Russian contingent and the retreat of ... the American contingent which has eroded the security of this municipality," council member Ismet Shabani said in a speech to the crowd. Kosovo's interim U.N. and NATO authorities believe a Russian presence is vital to safeguard Serbs from "ethnic cleansing in reverse" by Albanian nationalists that would dim prospects for democracy in Kosovo. ((c) 1999 Reuters)