-----Original Message----- From: Institute for War & Peace Reporting <info at iwpr.net> To: Institute for War & Peace Reporting <info at iwpr.net> Date: Friday, February 09, 2001 11:51 AM Subject: IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 217
>
>
>WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 217, February 9, 2001
>
>PRESEVO PEACE PLAN REJECTED Albanian guerrillas operating in southern
Serbia
>reject Belgrade peace proposals amid renewed fighting. Dragana Nikolic
>reports from London
>
>************ VISIT IWPR ON-LINE:
><http://www.iwpr.net>******************************************************
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>**************
>
>PRESEVO PEACE PLAN REJECTED
>
>Albanian guerrillas operating in southern Serbia reject Belgrade peace
>proposals amid renewed fighting.
>
>By Dragana Nikolic in London
>
>Ethnic Albanian guerrillas have dismissed as "unacceptable" Belgrade's
>proposals to calm tensions in the disputed Presevo region of southern
>Serbia.
>
>The rebels' response comes only days after an upsurge in violence in the
>area. On February 5, ethnic Albanian guerrillas exchanged artillery fire
>with Serbian police and Yugoslav army forces across the internationally
>imposed buffer zone, which runs along Serbia's administrative border with
>Kosovo.
>
>The clashes were the heaviest since November 2000 when four Serbian police
>officers were killed during a guerrilla attack.
>
>The Belgrade plan, presented earlier this week, follows the creation two
>months ago of a government coordinating body for Presevo, Medvedja and
>Bujanovac, with the aim of finding a peaceful solution to the crisis.
>
>The plan, which received the immediate backing of the United States,
offered
>Albanians in the Presevo valley a larger role in local political life but
>stopped short of the autonomy sought by the self-styled Liberation Army of
>Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, UCPMB - named after the three main towns
in
>the Albanian-dominated area.
>
>Zeqirja Fazliu, president of the Unified Albanian Democratic Party, the
>political wing of the UCPMB, said the plan did not provide a basis for
talks
>with Belgrade because they would settle for nothing less than becoming a
>part of Kosovo.
>
>The plan envisaged a three-stage approach to resolving tensions in the
area.
>
>
>First, ethnic Albanians would be integrated into the social fabric and
>observance of human rights in accordance with European standards would be
>guaranteed.
>
>Next, the buffer zone, starting with the villages of Lucani and Veliki
>Trnavac, would be gradually demilitarised. Joint Serbian and Albanian
police
>forces would patrol the area.
>
>And lastly, the economic, social and political infrastructure would be
>revitalised. Washington has already earmarked $5 million for reconstruction
>work in southern Serbia.
>
>"The international community should convince the Albanians to abandon any
>idea of autonomy in southern Serbia, or a special status for the region and
>any change of borders," the plan said.
>
>Nebojsa Covic, a former mayor of Belgrade and deputy president in the
>Serbian government, who took the lead in devising the peace plan, said his
>initiative would respect the human rights of the Albanian population while
>preserving the basic interests of the Serbs in the region, including
Kosovo.
>
>
>It is the first time that creative and inclusive thinking has taken
>precedence over the barrel of the gun when it comes to Belgrade
>policy-making towards the Albanian minority.
>
>It's insistence on seeking a political solution to the crisis in southern
>Serbia has earned the new government several brownie points with the
>international community and regional peacekeeping forces.
>
>US and EU officials praised the plan. US Balkans envoy James Pardew said
the
>proposals offered an important step towards "the creation of conditions for
>the Albanian minority to enjoy all civil rights".
>
>Riza Halimi, the mayor of Presevo and political representative of ethnic
>Albanians in the area, welcomed the call for talks, especially after the
>Serbian authorities agreed to meet representatives of UCPMB, an
organisation
>Belgrade has labelled as "terrorist".
>
>With their rejection of the plan, however, the UCPMB and its political
>allies have made clear their intention to push for a recognition of the
>results of an unofficial Albanian referendum in 1992, which backed an
>independent Kosovo, including Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, in the event
>of Yugoslavia's disintegration.
>
>But with Montenegro and Kosovo already likely to slip from Belgrade's
grasp,
>the new Serbian government cannot afford to make any further territorial
>concessions.
>
>Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said "those not ready to be
reasonable
>will suffer the consequences."
>
>The tension in the Presevo valley, home to around 70,000 ethnic Albanians,
>intensified after former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic redeployed
>Yugoslav forces from Kosovo to the region following the signing of the
>Kumanovo Agreement in June 1999.
>
>Local Albanians were radicalised by the heavy-handedness of some members of
>the Serbian security forces, especially those from Kosovo who began a
>campaign of terror against the civilian population.
>
>People in the area welcomed the formation of the UCPMB as a form of safety
>net against repression. It is thought the organisation came into being at
>the funeral of two young Albanian men killed in a village in Presevo.
>
>The UCPMB attracted members from the discontented local population and from
>among former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters.
>
>Keen not to repeat the mistakes of the Milosevic government, the new
>administration in Belgrade has favoured diplomatic, rather than military
>means to resolve the crisis.
>
>After a tour of the Yugoslav army and police positions, which came under
>fire on Monday, Rasim Ljajic, federal minister for religious and national
>minorities, said the government would not be discouraged by the continued
>violence, but would "persevere in [seeking] a political solution to the
>crisis".
>
>European Union security chief Javier Solana yesterday called on the
>guerrillas to lay down their weapons. "We hope that we will find a
political
>solution," he said. " No other solution is possible. The time for violence
>is over."
>
>Shawn Sullivan, political adviser to the commander of the international
>peacekeeping force in Kosovo, called upon Serbs and Albanians to show
>restraint. He expressed concern over the level of militarisation on both
>sides, especially, as in some places, the forces were only a few hundred
>metres apart.
>
>In a recent report presented to United Nations Secretary General Kofi
Annan,
>Carl Bildt, UN special envoy to the Balkans warned "there was no region in
>the whole of Europe more likely to endanger peace on the continent than the
>Presevo valley".
>
>He said the conflict could spark a new wave of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo
>and even spread to neighbouring Macedonia.
>
>A convoy of diplomats, including US Ambassador to Yugoslavia William
>Montgomery and James Perdew, came under fire near the Albanian-held village
>of Lucani while on a tour of police checkpoints in the Bujanovac area on
>February 6.
>
>The incident brought home to Washington, perhaps intentionally, just how
>inflammable the Presevo crisis is. US troops make up the Kosovo Force,
>K-For, contingent stationed just over the border in the UN-administered
>province. Washington originally chose this area of Kosovo to patrol because
>it was thought to be the least troublesome.
>
>US policy is led by a strong desire to avoid being sucked into a military
>conflagration. Avoiding US casualties in the short term and extricating
>itself from the Balkans altogether in the longer term, are clear aims of
the
>new Bush administration.
>
>Dragana Nikolic is a regular IWPR contributor.
>
>************ VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: <http://www.iwpr.net>******************
>
>IWPR's network of leading correspondents in the region provides inside
>analysis of the events and issues driving crises in the Balkans. The
reports
>are available on the Web in English, Serbian and Albanian. They are also
>available via e-mail. For syndication information, contact Anthony Borden
><tony at iwpr.net>.
>
>Balkan Crisis Report is supported by the Department for International
>Development, European Commission, and Swedish International Development and
>Cooperation Agency and other sources. IWPR also acknowledges general
support
>from the Ford Foundation.
>
>For further details on this project and other information services and
media
>programmes, visit IWPR's Website: <http://www.iwpr.net>.
>
>Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan. Associate
>Editor: Gordana Igric. Assistant Editors: Alan Davis and Heather Milner.
>Editorial Assistant: Mirna Jancic. Kosovo Project Manager: Nehat Islami.
>Translation: Alban Mitrushi, Dragana Nikolic, Denisa Kostovic and others.
>
>The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based
independent
>non-profit organisation supporting regional media and democratic change.
>
>Lancaster House, 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, UK Tel: (44 171)
>713 7130; Fax: (44 171) 713 7140 E-mail: info at iwpr.net; Web: www.iwpr.net
>
>The opinions expressed in "Balkan Crisis Report" are those of the authors
>and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR.
>
>Copyright (C) 2000 The Institute for War & Peace Reporting
>
>*** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: http://www.iwpr.net ***
>
>IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 217
>
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