Ahtisaari’s Proposal Will Not Mention Independence
Voting in the Serbian parliamentary elections has begun: Deputy President of the Serbian Radical Party, Mr. Tomislav Nikolic casting his vote.
Ahtisaari’s Proposal for Serbian Province — No Independence
LONDON, VIENNA, Jan. 20, 2007 (Source: KIM Radio) — Martti Ahtisaari’s Kosovo status proposal will not contain the word “independence”, diplomats have reportedly said.
KIM Radio cites several diplomats well acquainted with the content of the UN special envoy’s proposal due to be presented to the Contact Group on January 26, and to Belgrade and Pristina on February 2, as saying that the document does not include independence for southern Serbian province.
“Speaking symbolically, Ahtisaari’s proposal will not mention the i-word. At the same time, there are not entirely irrelevant fears about the Kosovo Albanian reaction to such a proposal. The proposal will recommend a higher degree of decentralization, as well as a transfer of jurisdiction to Kosovo province’s institutions, but that’s it,” a diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told KIM radio.
There is a belief that avoiding the inflammatory terminology would stabilize the situation and bring the two diametrically opposed views to some form of compromise.
New Round of Negotiations in February
Earlier, it was reported that a two-week round of fresh talks between Belgrade and Priština could take place in Vienna in February.
The BBC’s Albanian language service reported the news, quoting high international officials in Serbian province’s capital, Priština. According to the same source, the negotiation’s framework will be determined during the January 26 Contact Group meeting in Brussels, to be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Albanian Muslim KLA Members Indicted for Massacring Serbian Christians
BELGRADE, Serbia, Jan. 19, 2007 — Belgrade war crimes prosecution has issued indictments against the terrorist Albanian Muslim Orahovac group, responsible for abduction, torture, rape and execution of 29 Serbian men, women and children, including an entire 11-member family in Kosovo in 1998.
Prosecution spokesman Bruno Vekaric stated that the Belgrade District Court War Crimes prosecution considers Sinan Morina, currently in custody, as one of the persons responsible for the crime.
The murdered Kosovo Serbs, whose remains were identified last year, lived in the villages of Opterusa and Retimlje, Orahovac municipality, in southern Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province. The prosecution charges that the gruesome crime took place in the nights between July 17 and 19, 1998.
Twenty nine victims were forced out of their homes, subjected to beatings and torture, stripped of their belongings, including their money and jewelery. The men and boys were then separated from the women and taken to Volujak, where they were further tortured and abused, and in the end executed. Their dismembered bodies were then thrown into a nearby cave.
The women and girls were taken to a different location, where they were raped, abused and imprisoned in a school in the village of Samodraze, Suva Reka municipality. Terrorist KLA Orahovac group members burnt the houses in both villages, after which they demolished and destroyed both Orthodox Christian churches in the two villages.
The prosecution suspects 35 persons of having committed the crime, but believes more may be involved. One of the suspects, Sinan Morina, is in custody, while others are believed to be in Serbian Kosovo province, which could present a problem as the process evolves.
“The prosecution suspects that the person recently transferred from Montenegro on terrorism charges is also among those responsible for the crimes committed against Kosovo-Metohija Christian Serbs near the Volujak cave, when 29 children and grown-ups were brutalized and executed”, Vekaric said.
“We expect the case to be taken over by the War crimes prosecution and that a request for the start of the investigation into the crime will ensue shortly,” concluded Serbian war crimes prosecutor, Vekaric.