>BELGRADE, 13 August 2000 SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA ETHNIC >ALBANIANS STEEL 250 WAGGONS FROM YUGOSLAV RAILWAYS > >KOSOVO-METOHIJA - TERRORISM ETHNIC ALBANIAN EXTREMISTS START FOREST FIRES IN >KOSOVO-METOHIJA > >* * * SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA ETHNIC ALBANIANS STEEL 250 >WAGGONS FROM YUGOSLAV RAILWAYS KOSOVO POLJE/DOBREVO, Serbia, Aug 13 (Tanjug) - >Ethnic Albanian bandits, in collusion with international force KFor officials, >have for more than a month been hauling off rolling stock from U.N.-run >Kosovo-Metohija to Macedonia, according to reports on Sunday. Amateur radio >operators in that U.N.-run Serbian (Yugoslav) province say that railway >waggons are being taken from Kosovo Polje to the iron works in Skopje, >probably to be sold as scrap iron, thus causing heavy losses to the Yugoslav >railway company. More than one-half of the 450-plus old and decommissioned >waggons parked on the track between Dobrevo and the Kisnica mine have been >hauled away. Since the Kosovo-Metohija section of the Yugoslav-Macedonian >border is controlled by KFor, the greatest responsibility for the theft rests >with the international force. > >UNMIK IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA OFFERS UNTRUTHS RATHER THAN FACTS - TREPCA KOSOVSKA >MITROVICA, Aug 13 (Tanjug) - The U.N. civilian mission to Kosovo-Metohija >(UNMIK) is spreading disturbing untruths about pollution from the Trepca >mining complex in order to put Trepca out of commission, according to a >statement from Trepca on Sunday. The sole purpose of UNMIK's allegations about >high levels of pollution in Kosovska Mitrovica is "to prevent Trepca, which >gives their livelihood to a large number of people in Kosovska Mitrovica and >beyond, to go on working", the statement said. The statement was prompted by a >recent UNMIK pamphlet distributed in Pristina and alleging excessive air, >water and soil pollution with lead from the Trepca smelting plant in Zvecan, >in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's U.N.-run Kosovo-Metohija province. "We >call this a pamphlet, because UNMIK offered untruths and false care for our >health and our fate instead of giving the true facts", said the statement, >addressed by the mining, chemical and metallurgical complex to the people in >divided Kosovska Mitrovica. The Zvecan lead smelting plant has been in >operation since 1939, not 1991, as claimed by UNMIK, and has stopped work only >for occasional overhauls and during NATO's aggression from March to June 1999. >The 306-metre smoke-stack, built in 1972, as well as equipment and >installations for purifying waste gases, in which more than 10 million German >marks have been invested, are best evidence that the people's health was a >consideration long before UNMIK's deployment. Thousands of Trepca's employees >- workers, experts and executives - work at and live in the immediate vicinity >of the Zvecan lead smelting plant, and they certainly care much more about >their own health than UNMIK ever could, the Trepca statement said. Daily >sampling of the air, water and soil shows that these are protected from >pollution by lead, gas and dust and that there is no reason for UNMIK's >so-called "concern". In its statement, Trepca quoted results of tests for the >presence of heavy metals in the air at several checkpoints in Kosovska >Mitrovica in the June-July period. According to these results, there was .12 >milligrams of lead per cubic metre (permitted level .15 mg), .019 mg of zinc >(permitted level .4 mg), copper .004 mg (permitted level .01 mg), iron .002 mg >(permitted level .2 mg), etc. "If UNMIK experts are concerned for the children >and pregnant women in Kosovska Mitrovica, they should take care of the waste >gases from their own heavy-duty vehicles that throng our roads at all hours >and poison the people", the statement said. On the other hand, it is a >well-known fact that NATO's merciless bombing of Kosovo-Metohija last year and >use of banned weapons, such as depleted uranium and cluster bombs, have caused >an environmental disaster with unforeseeable long-term consequences, it added. >Regrettably, UNMIK has shown not the least concern for the people suffering >the consequences of the horrors of war strewn all over our land, Trepca said >in Kosovska Mitrovica. __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
