Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (14138)	8/22/1999 5:16:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Albanians Threaten To Block Russians Sunday, 22 August 1999 O R A H O V A C , Y U G O S L A V I A (AP) ETHNIC ALBANIANS threatened to block all three main access roads to this southern Kosovo town Sunday to prevent the arrival of Russian peacekeepers. About 1,500 ethnic Albanians gathered on the city's main square, chanting "NATO yes, Russians no." Dutch soldiers, stationed here for weeks, are scheduled to hand the town over to the Russians in the next few days. Ethnic Albanians accuse Russian militants of collaborating with Serb paramilitaries, who swept through Kosovo during the 78-day NATO bombing campaign, attacking ethnic Albanians. But there have been no accusations against Russian peacekeepers since their arrival in Kosovo. "The Russians who took part in the most inhumane massacres and criminal acts are not welcome in Orahovac," Agim Hasku, a local leader told the crowd, referring to the suspected militants. For their part, many Serbs believe only the Russians can protect them from reprisal attacks by ethnic Albanians. Two different speakers at the ethnic Albanian rally announced extended protests to begin Monday. The demonstrations will include blocking the three main arteries leading into the town, said the speakers, who urged people with tractors, cars and buses to block off the roads. Also Sunday, Dutch peacekeepers in Orahovac began taking stock of the hundreds of weapons they had ordered Serbs to hand in by a Sunday noon deadline. The weapons crackdown came after Friday's arrest of three Serbs on suspicion of committing atrocities against ethnic Albanians. The next day, German and Dutch troops posted signs throughout the Serb neighborhood listing names of people who were given weapons by Serb police. "If you respond to this, you will be freed of punishment," the signs said. The warning added that peacekeepers would begin house-to-house searches after the deadline, and "if we find any weapons, you will be arrested." Elsewhere, one Kosovo Serb was kidnapped Sunday around 10 a.m. on a road in northern Kosovo, the Tanjug news agency reported. Srdajan Jokic, 32, was abducted by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army while driving on the road west to Kosovska Mitrovica, the agency reported. The report could not be independently confirmed. Meanwhile, one of two Serb brothers wounded on Saturday when ethnic Albanians attacked Banje village in central Kosovo died overnight in a French military hospital, Tanjug said. It said villagers demanded a meeting with French officers and threatened to leave the province if they could not be protected. Reprisal attacks against Serbs by the majority ethnic Albanians have prompted most of Kosovo's former 200,000-member Serb community to seek sanctuary in other parts of Yugoslavia. Also Sunday, the Kosovo Liberation Army reburied 55 KLA soldiers killed in fighting with Serb forces last spring throughout the province. About 10,000 people, including some of KLA's top figures, attended the ceremony in the village of Poljance. As thousands of cars, tractors and people poured in from surrounding villages, 55 freshly dug graves awaited the soldiers' coffins on the so-called Hill of Martyrs. The hill overlooks the small village in the central Drenica region.