Friday, 28 July 2000 13:08 (ET) UN suspends Kosovo Albanian newspaper By LULZIM COTA TIRANA, Albania, July 28 (UPI) - An Albanian-language newspaper was ordered shut Friday for violating a Kosovo press law. The temporary media commissioner in Kosovo ordered the Dita newspaper shut for publishing an article on July 4 in which two Serbs were accused of committing war crimes. The publication of the allegations reportedly violated laws set up by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Douglas Davidson, the interim media commissioner in Kosovo, ordered Dita to publish the Serbs' rebuttal of the newspaper's story. Davidson also ordered Dita to pay a fine of DM 25,000 for repeatedly publishing pictures and personal details about alleged Serb war criminals. In June, Dita was banned for 10 days by the United Nations. At least one man, a Serb U.N. worker was killed following the publicity surrounding the story. Dita's editor, however, condemned the ban. "With this measure, the international community is trying to control the media in Kosovo," Belul Beqja, Dita's editor, said. Roland Bless, an OSCE spokesman in Kosovo, warned that if Ditar did not respect the media commissioner's order, force would be used to close the newspaper. Bless said the order did not try to restrict information on crimes. But, he said, stories must not put people's lives at risk. Beqja, however, accused the U.N. administration in Kosovo of protecting alleged war criminals and giving them jobs in UNMIK. In April, Dita published many personal details and pictures of Petar Topolskij, 25, a Serb UNIMIK worker in the provincial capital, Pristina. The stories described him as a war criminal. Three weeks later, Topolskij was found murdered with multiple stab wounds. http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=105723
