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Subject: [kcc-news] FBI Says Ready To Back Stories Of Kosovo Massacres (fwd)
From: Kosova Crisis Center News and Information <mentor@alb-net.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 10:53:57 -0400
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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19990916/ts/kosovo_fbi_1.html
Thursday September 16 4:48 PM ET
FBI Says Ready To Back Stories Of Kosovo Massacres
By David Lawsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI forensic specialists said Thursday they were
ready to buttress the stories of massacres told by local people to the
International Criminal Tribunal after examining the bodies of 124 victims in
Kosovo.
The findings of the FBI experts were due to be combined with the work of
teams from more than 10 other countries to help prosecutors in The Hague
make their cases concerning alleged war crimes committed by Serbs against
ethnic Albanians in the former Yugoslavia.
In all, the FBI teams worked at 21 sites to uncover the 124 bodies, with the
help of a sketch artist, an anthropologist and a pathologist, officials
said.
``This evidence will help support witness statements,'' Arthur Eberhart,
section chief of the investigative response unit at the FBI Academy, said at
a news conference.
The FBI teams examined the bodies to determine the cause of death and
recorded their findings with sketches, videotape, still cameras, charts, and
satellite readings to identify the exact location of the sites. One grim
find was made outside the town of Gornje Obrinje, roughly 19 miles northwest
of provincial capital Pristina, where the bodies of 23 members of the same
extended family who had been killed in April were uncovered.
``They were aged 2 years to 94 years old,'' Eberhart said.
He said 12 of the 23 family members were women, including five girls under
17.
Clothing and effects were used to identify the victims, officials said. For
example, a red snowsuit containing unidentifiable remains was all that was
left of a 4-year-old boy, they said.
William Rodriguez III, chief deputy medical examiner for the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology in Rockville, Maryland, said that the 4-year-old had
been shot.
Rodriguez said a 2-year-old boy in the group had been killed by a
``blunt-force trauma,'' which occurred when the boy was hit in the head with
the butt of a rifle.
Rodriguez said his examinations showed that others at sites around the
country had been shot or, in some cases, had their throats slit ``so that
they were nearly decapitated.''
The experts said that family members stood by and watched as they worked --
which made their task different from performing similar work in the United
States. They also said they identified some of the remains by examining
clothing and physical effects.
``They wore five to eight layers'' of clothing, Rodriguez said.
He said the people of Kosovo needed the clothing to keep from freezing
because they feared that fires that could have kept them warm would give
away their positions in the woods.
Eberhart said that one 6-year-old boy had pretended to be dead and survived
the massacre of the 23 other members of his family while being buried under
their bodies.
``Of course it's emotional,'' Eberhart said, adding that when he left, ``the
6-year-old just looked into my eyes.''
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Subject: [Kcc-news] U.S. Officials Expect Kosovo Independence
From: kcc-news-admin@alb-net.com
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 09:25:34 -0400
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1. WASHINGTON POST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/balkans.htm
2. CNN
http://cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9909/24/kosovo.us/
WASHINGTON POST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/balkans.htm
U.S. Officials Expect Kosovo Independence
The emphasis, national security adviser Sandy Berger says, is on creating
democratic model in Kosovo. (Susan Biddle — The Washington Post)
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 24, 1999; Page A1
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Sept. 23 – Senior U.S. officials have privately dropped
their opposition to Kosovo's independence from Yugoslavia and say the Clinton
administration increasingly sees the province's secession as inevitable.
Officials say the emerging consensus, which amounts to a major shift for the
United States, is already having a significant impact on the international
peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. The United States has become a leading
advocate for the creation of independent institutions and legal structures that
tend to isolate the fledgling United Nations protectorate from Yugoslavia's
manifold economic problems and political troubles.
U.S. officials deny that the administration's approach is meant to engineer the
further breakup of Yugoslavia, as the Belgrade government claims. They say it is
meant only to ensure that Kosovo becomes a viable, self-governing democracy with
a successful economy. But they add that sovereignty issues should not be allowed
to stand in the way of Kosovo's progress because it will likely gain its
independence anyway.
"Nobody in Washington expects this not to happen," said a U.S. official who
spoke on condition he not be named. "Our attitude before the war was, it's
better if it doesn't happen. Now, we know it's clearly on the way. . . . It's
the mostly unspoken assumption" of all U.S. policymakers.
Top foreign policy spokesmen in Washington declared that the administration has
not altered its policy.
"Our policy on Kosovo independence has not changed. We support the creation of
democratic institutions and a market economy, and that's the focus of our
effort," national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger said through a
spokesman.
State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said, "We have always said we do not
support independence for Kosovo, and we do not support independence for Kosovo
now."
But numerous Western diplomats who follow the situation in Kosovo closely say it
is clear that Washington has adopted a more tolerant attitude since the NATO air
war earlier this year toward the aspiration of an overwheleming number of
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority for independence, an event the United States
has previously discouraged out of concern it will destabilize the region.
Although officials in the National Security Council are said to be more
hesitant, key State Department and Pentagon officials have concluded that Kosovo
will one day be independent.
Washington has been less cautious than some European capitals about pursuing
policies in Kosovo that Yugoslavia claims are accelerating the province's drift
toward independence. These include the recent adoption of a new currency and
special border tariff within Kosovo, as well as the creation of an independent
police force and a Kosovo "protection" corps that includes former ethnic
Albanian guerrillas who fought for Kosovo's independence from Yugoslavia and
Serbia, its dominant republic.
The United States is pressing – with support from some European nations and from
Bernard Kouchner, the U.N. administrator in Kosovo – for approval of a U.N.
regulation giving the U.N. office here the right to issue temporary travel
documents to Kosovo residents.
A senior U.S. official said Washington still accepts that Kosovo's future legal
status is to be resolved after an international conference, which will be held
sometime after the Clinton administration leaves office and probably after
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is out of power.
"The issue of eventual status for Kosovo – what their relationship to Serbia
will be, what their relationship to Yugoslavia will be, what their relationship
to the whole region will be – will be taken up in the future," an administration
official said.
Differences within the Western alliance about Kosovo's independence are "a
constant factor" in the peacekeeping effort now, a U.S. official said. A U.N.
official said the differences stem from "an irreconcilable mix of two
principles" embodied in Resolution 1244, which provides the legal underpinning
for the deployment of more than 50,000 NATO troops and a U.N. civil
administration inside Kosovo.
"On the one hand, it calls for a civil administration and says you can do
anything. On the other hand, it says you can do nothing if the state
[Yugoslavia] disagrees. But so far, it has disagreed with everything . . . and
we have to make sure that this place works," the official said.
The NATO deployment followed a 78-day allied bombing campaign against Yugoslavia
that ended with an agreement by Belgrade to withdraw its army and police forces,
which had been battling separatist ethnic Albanian rebels for 16 months.
U.N. administrator Kouchner, a French humanitarian aid official who was
initially viewed with suspicion in Washington but is now regarded as a valuable
ally, faces decisions in coming weeks about whether and how to privatize a mine
in the town of Trepce, several large power plants on the outskirts of Pristina,
the Kosovo capital, and the local cellular telephone network – all owned by the
Yugoslav state.
The United States favors moving swiftly on privatization to attract foreign
investment and create jobs, but the United Nations is still unsure of its legal
footing, several officials said.
Senior U.N. officials have objected to some of Kouchner's proposals. His
decision last month to grant the German mark status as the province's official
currency was "a mistake," one official said. Another U.N. official said the
proposal to issue U.N. travel documents, akin to temporary passports, to Kosovo
residents has also met with opposition at U.N. headquarters.
More controversy is expected over a U.N. decision that phone numbers registered
under the province's new cellular network will not retain the "38" Yugoslav
country code.
The Yugoslav government is angry that such measures are even being considered.
Stanimir Vukicevic, its top representative in Pristina, says that Kouchner has
weakened Yugoslavia's links with Kosovo.
"The customs service employs not even one Serb. There is no Yugoslav flag at
border crossings . . . or any other symbol that would mark the territory of the
state," he said. Similarly, the decision on the German mark "is making it a
habit within the population that the dinar is not the local currency any more. .
. . Currency is a part of sovereignty."
Russia, an ally of Belgrade that has 3,600 soldiers in Kosovo as part of the
peacekeeping force, has also objected to any moves that weaken Yugoslav
sovereignty.
An illustration of the new U.S. attitude was on display earlier this week, when
Washington was more supportive than its European allies of a plan to allow
Kosovo Liberation Army members to form a new Kosovo corps that ostensibly will
be responsible for humanitarian tasks but also will be allowed to train with
weapons. The KLA's leaders have said they view the organization as Kosovo's
future army.
A senior U.S. official indicated that discussion of independence was premature,
but left open the possibility that it would happen. He said the administration
wants the Kosovo Albanians to focus immediately on the hard work of building
democracy and a free economy. "There's no reason to skip ahead and talk about
independence when you don't have the institutions that
would make the place viable," the official said.
CNN
http://cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9909/24/kosovo.us/
Report: U.S. officials expect Kosovo independence
September 24, 1999
Web posted at: 5:28 a.m. EDT (0928 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senior U.S. officials have privately dropped their
opposition to Kosovo's independence from Yugoslavia, Friday's Washington Post
reports.
The newspaper says the shift comes with an emerging consensus within the Clinton
administration that the secession of the province is inevitable.
The report quotes a U.S. official, speaking on the condition that he not be
named, saying "Nobody in Washington expects this not to happen. Our attitude
before the war was, it's better if it doesn't happen. Now, we know it's clearly
on the way."
Administration denies policy shift Leading foreign policy spokesmen told the
Post that the administration had not changed its policy.
"We have always said we do not support independence for Kosovo, and we do not
support independence for Kosovo now," State Department spokesman James Rubin
said.
"Our policy on Kosovo independence has not changed," said a spokesman for White
House National Security Adviser Samuel Berger. "We support the creation of
democratic institutions and a market economy, and that's the focus of our
efforts."
But other officials told the newspaper that the belief that Kosovo would
eventually gain independence has become "the mostly unspoken assumption" of all
U.S. policymakers.
Consensus said to be impacting policy The report says the new consensus in
Washington is already having a significant impact on the international
peacekeeping operation in Kosovo.
The United States has become a leading advocate for the creation of independent
institutions and legal structures that tend to isolate Kosovo from Yugoslavia's
economic and political troubles, the newspaper says.
The report points to Washington's support of a plan to allow members of the
Kosovo Liberation Army to form a new Kosovo corps as an illustration of the
changing view.
The Yugoslav government and Russia have lashed out at the agreement setting up
the Kosovo Protection Corps, which leaders of the KLA have said they see as the
nucleus of a future independent Kosovo army.
The organization will ostensibly be responsible for humanitarian tasks, but will
also be allowed to train with weapons. Serb leaders in Kosovo said Wednesday
they had quit the Kosovo Transitional Council to protest the plan.
Differing opinions among U.N. officials Some senior United Nations officials are
reported to be in disagreement with some of the recent proposals from Bernard
Kouchner, the U.N. administrator in Kosovo.
Kouchner is a French humanitarian aid official who was viewed with suspicion in
Washington initially, but is now highly regarded.
One official said his decision last month to make the German mark the official
currency of the province was "a mistake." Another U.N. official told the Post
that Kouchner's proposal to issue U.N. travel documents was also opposed at
United Nations headquarters.
Similar controversy is expected over a decision not to retain Yugoslavia's
country code in phone numbers registered under Kosovo's new cellular telephone
network.
The Yugoslav government charges that these and other measures are designed to
weaken Yugoslavia's links with the province.
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Subject: [Kcc-news] KosovaTaskForce: Time to Support Kosovar Independence
From: kcc-news-admin@alb-net.com
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 17:03:19 -0600
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Kosova Task Force, USA
Action Alert
9/24/99
Senior US officials have shown of signs of possible change in their stance
opposing independence for Kosova, reported the Washington Post and CNN today.
According to the articles, although nobody is saying this out loud, there is a
definite attitude shift towards favoring Kosova's independence marked by such
actions as giving Kosova a different telephone code, a different currency and
supporting a proposal that the KLA form a Kosova "protection" corps. These
unnamed officials reportedly say that Kosova's indepedence is, more than likely,
just a matter of time.
Now is the time to act to help the Kosovar's achieve their dream of
independence.
Action Requested
€ Contact your policymakers and support independence for Kosova.
It is necessary to support positive moves and attitudes because those opposed to
Kosova's independence, most notably the Serbians and the Serb lobby, will be
calling to voice their opposition to the independence of Kosova
Talking Points
€ The independence of Kosova is what the Kosovars have been demanding all along.
€ Kosova's independence is the only viable long term solution to the current
situation in the Balkans.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
ph: 202-647-6575
e-mail: secretary@state.gov
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman
Senator Jesse Helms
ph: 202-224-4651
e-mail: jesse_helms@helms.senate.gov
==========================================
Justice For All
730 W. Lake St., Suite 156
Chicago, IL 60661, USA
Phone: 312-829-0087 Fax: 312-829-0089
Email: kosova@justiceforall.org
Internet: http://www.justiceforall.org
Visit our website for news and information
==========================================
The following organizations constitute the Kosova Task Force, USA:
Albanian Islamic Cultural Center, American Muslim Council,
Balkan Muslim Association, Council of Islamic Organizations of Chicago,
Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, Council on American
Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America ( ),
Islamic Council of New England, Islamic Medical Association, Islamic
Shura Council of Southern California, Islamic Society of Greater
Houston, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Majlis Shura New York,
The Ministry of Imam W.D. Muhammad, Muslim Students Association of US
and Canada, The National Community.
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