-> SNETNEWS Mailing List ....the Russian-German Peace Proposal? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 21:22:20 -0700 From: Michael Eisenscher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: LABNEWS - News and Organizing about the Labor Movement <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Multiple recipients of list LABNEWS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Yugoslav Government Hi, your list seems to be running a LOT of stuff against the NATO bombings, so I wanted to pose the next article to those who argue that NATO should stop bombings and engage solely in diplomacy. -s Friday April 16 8:30 PM ET Yugoslavia Turns Down Annan's Peace Proposal By Anthony Goodman UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Yugoslavia rejected Friday a week-old Kosovo peace initiative by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and criticized the United Nations for failing to condemn ''aggression'' by NATO. ``Nothing but NATO bombs threatens peace in Kosovo,'' Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic said in a letter to the U.N. chief. He complained that, despite repeated appeals for urgent action by the Security Council, ``nothing has been done thus far to condemn and halt this brutal aggression against my country.'' An annex to the letter disputed, point by point, the elements of the peace proposal that Annan sent to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on April 9 in hopes of resolving the crisis that witnessed the flight of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from the Serbian province of Kosovo. Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said the secretary-general ''was not surprised by Yugoslavia's response,'' delivered by Yugoslavia's U.N. envoy, Vladislav Jovanovic. ``He (Annan) feels that we are involved in a difficult, dangerous and intractable situation. As he said in Brussels this week, do not expect quick results. We are only at the beginning stage of our search for a diplomatic solution,'' the spokesman added. Annan, whose proposals were endorsed by European Union leaders at a meeting in the Belgian capital Wednesday, had said he would urge NATO to suspend its air attacks on Yugoslavia, if Yugoslav leaders accepted five conditions. They were: an immediate end to the ``campaign of intimidation and expulsion of the civilian population'' from Kosovo; a halt to all activities by Yugoslav military and paramilitary forces there; unconditional acceptance of the return of all refugees; acceptance of an international military force to ensure a secure environment for the refugees' return; and to permit the international community to verify compliance with those undertakings. Jovanovic wrote: ``There had not been, and there is no campaign of 'intimidation' or 'expulsion' of civilian population.'' He said the ``NATO aggression and bombing'' that started March 24 and caused ``enormous destruction of civilian buildings and mass civilian casualties,'' also caused ``an increased number of refugees and displaced persons.'' Kosovo was ``an inseparable part'' of Serbia and Yugoslavia and the police and military forces there ``perform their duties in accordance with our constitution and the law.'' All activities against ``the terrorist so-called KLA'' (Kosovo Liberation Army) ceased at 8 pm on April 6, he said, referring to a unilaterally announced cease-fire that he added was still in force. ``NATO daily mass bombings represent the only obstacle to the stabilization of life and to the return to the course of political process,'' Jovanovic said. Yugoslav forces in Kosovo represented ``a defense against the NATO aggression and serve as a shield against NATO troops built up in Albania and Macedonia and against aggression carried out from ...Albania under the protection ad with the assistance of NATO,'' he said. Once the ``aggression is ended and NATO troops are withdrawn from the Yugoslav border,'' the level of military and security forces would immediately be reduced ``to peacetime conditions.'' ``It is incomprehensible to request the withdrawal of the legitimate forces of a sovereign state from its own territory, instead of calling for an urgent ending of foreign military aggression, killing of civilians and destruction of civilian targets,'' Jovanovic declared. He said the safe return of refugees and displaced persons was ``the priority of our policy.'' On April 6 the governments of Yugoslavia and Serbia ``invited all citizens to stay on their land and those who fled to return safely.'' Their return was hampered by ``the systematic destruction of towns such as Pristine, Djakovica, Prizren, Decani and many other'' by NATO, he added. Jovanovic said Yugoslavia was continuing efforts to find a peaceful solution through direct dialogue with ``the legitimate representatives of the national communities of Kosovo'' and referred to talks with ethnic Albanian politician Ibrahim Rugova. ``The state is guaranteeing security to all its citizens and is also able to guarantee the implementation of a ratified peace agreement. International military or police forces are not necessary and are unacceptable on Yugoslav territory,'' he said. ============================================== please post Friday April 16 12:51 PM ET Serbs Aim To Push Out All Albanians - UNHCR By Andrew Gray GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations refugee agency said Friday Yugoslavia had resumed mass expulsions of ethnic Albanians ``with full force'' and seemed intent on driving all of them out of the province. UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said at least 12,000 people had streamed out of the Serbian province into Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro in 24 hours from Thursday to Friday morning. About 10,000 were expected to have crossed into Albania alone by the end of the day, he said. ``The expulsions which were put on hold or slowed down over the last two weeks have now resumed with full force,'' he told a news briefing in Geneva. ``The effort by the Serb authorities to expel the entire ethnic population of Kosovo is again under way,'' he said. ``A couple of months ago it would have seemed unbelievable to the civilized world that the Serbs would actually expel the entire civilian population but this seems to be reality now.'' UNHCR, the Geneva-based office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, estimates 700,000 people have fled Kosovo since fighting began there in March last year, the overwhelming majority of them in the past few weeks, Janowski said. He said UNHCR could only guess at how many ethnic Albanians remained inside Kosovo but estimated at least 400,000. The agency was prepared for ``between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands'' of new refugees in the coming weeks, he said. The new influx could prompt UNHCR to organize air evacuations from Macedonia, which is concerned that its delicate balance may be upset by the large refugee influx, to countries much further away from the Balkans. So far, Europe and Turkey have been the main destinations for around 15,000 refugees who first arrived in Macedonia. Citing testimony from the latest wave of refugees to leave the Serbian province, Janowski said: ``It's a brutal expulsion of the civilian population.'' The World Food Program (WFP) said the physical state of some of the new refugees in Albania raised concerns that food may be scarce for many ethnic Albanians still in Kosovo. Janowski quoted the account of one woman who had arrived in northern Albania who said she had seen the center of her home town of Mitrovica burning and 50 bodies lying in the streets. U.N. Human Rights chief Mary Robinson also recounted tales of atrocities from refugees, gathered by her investigators. ``In the last few days there have been alarming reports of summary executions in four identified locations,'' she told the U.N. Human Rights Commission. ``Cases of arbitrary killings continue to be reported.'' UNHCR was skeptical of a Greek initiative to try to arrange humanitarian aid for people still inside Kosovo. ``We don't see how the situation in Kosovo can be improved with the continued presence of the Serbian military and police forces and without the presence of international troops with a credible, strong mandate,'' Janowski said. ``We've heard the ideas of humanitarian corridors being floated. For the time being, we're seeing the corridors of terror into Montenegro, into Macedonia and Albania,'' he added. Christiane Berthiaume, Geneva-based spokeswoman for the WFP, said the health of the new refugees ``tends to confirm our biggest fears about the current food situation in Kosovo.'' ``It was the first time we had received refugees in such a poor state, greatly weakened by lack of food,'' she said. Many refugees had told WFP staff that others had been unable to travel to the border because they were too weak, she said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Looking to expand your world? http://www.ONElist.com ONElist has over 115,000 e-mail communities from which to chose! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ** message brought by yugoslavia-discuss. Unsubscribe/view archives at http://www.onelist.com -> Send "subscribe snetnews " to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -> Posted by: Franklin Wayne Poley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
