France to transform its Kosovo force

France to transform its Kosovo force

January 29, 2009 – 11:25 am

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that France will seek to transform the KFOR troops that are keeping peace in Kosovo into a “reassurance force”.

Fillon said that such transformation needs to occur quickly.

Fillon comments came during a parliamentary debate on the French troop reduction in Kosovo, Chad, Central African Republic and Ivory Coast.

French Prime Minister did not specify whether French will pull out of Kosovo all together.

France has 1,800 soldiers in Kosovo and 146 civilians working with the EUs EULEX mission.

The French parliament and Senate should state their view on the extension of military missions abroad by the end of the day.

Earlier this month, NATO expressed willingness to redraft the military agreement they made with Serbia in 1999 that governs NATOs presence in the region.

Yesterday, Serbian and Danish Defense Ministries announced that they will continue their successful cooperation in the field of civilian military relations.

In 2009, Denmark will provide assistance to the development of the search and rescue service in Serbia and realization of a project for the specialization of redundant military staff.

Kosovo Army commander a war criminal, official

The chief of the so-called Kosovo Security Force, or the KSF, is a war criminal says the leader of Serbia’s Demochristian Party Vladan Batic.

The commander of the KSF troops, Sulejman Selimi also known as the Sultan, is a man with a criminal past and is involved in numerous war crimes says Vladan Batic.

In 2001, says Batic, the Hague war crimes court approached the Serbian Ministry of Justice for evidence on crimes Selimi committed.

THe Hague court at the time, told the Serbian ministry that they are investigating Selimi for crimes committed while he was in the Kosovo Liberation Army or the KLA.

KLA was on the US list of terror organization until suddenly Washington decided that they are not.

Batci says that Selimi was a commander of the KLA units in the village of Lipovac.

KLA was engaged in murder, torture and ethnic cleansing of Serbs through out Kosovo.

Selimi was approved by NATO to lead the KSF.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai has welcomed Serbs to join the KSF and has a plan to find a Serb who can act as a deputy commander of the force.

The head of the KSF recruitment team, French Major Stephan Mari, has stated that no Serb has registered for the new formation.

KFOR Commander Lieutenant General Giuseppe Emilio Gay stated that dissatisfaction and open reacting against the manner in which the candidates were recruited was demonstrated only a few days after the forming of the Kosovo security forces.

Gay said that all ethnic communities in Kosovo have a “moral obligation” to join KSF.

In past few days, three ethnic Albanians have resigned from the KSF claiming lack of recruitment “transparency”.

NATO insists that KSF is not a Kosovo army. Kosovo Albanian separatist media, however, refers to the new military formation as an Albanian army.

Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Konuzin said that the formation of the KSF means remilitarization of Kosovo and said that only the UN Security Council could regulate the organization of the system in Kosovo, including security.

Konuzin expects the Security Council “to discuss the so-called Kosovo security forces when considering the UN secretary-general’s next declaration on Kosovo’s status,”

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic has said that he will hold consultations in New York regarding the scheduling of a Security Council session to discuss the regular United Nations report on the developments in Kosovo.

“The Kosovo Security Force would be one of the most important items on the agenda of this session,” Jeremic said.

Famous Kosovo Actor Emigrates To Albania

Kosovo actor Enver Petrovci, one of the most prominent actors of the former Yugoslavia, said he would be moving to Albania for a better life as he doesn’t see any future for himself in Kosovo.

Petrovci lived in Belgrade for most of his life, acting in numerous plays and films. Towards the end of his career he returned to Pristina to found Dodona Theatre and teach at the Art Faculty of the University of Pristina. After the end of the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict, he founded Teatrin e Babes (Daddy’s Theater), but today is largely unemployed.

“The situation in our cultural environment is my primary reason which pursued me to take this step. I don’t see any perspective in Kosovo and I hope I will make use of my ambitions in Albania”, Petrovci told reporters.

Petrovci said he has been offered to work in a play at the National Theater of Tirana. He also asked the Art Academy of Tirana about work there as a professor.

A senior official from the Ministry of Culture told Balkan Insight that the decision to leave the country is a personal choice.

“The ministry cannot prohibit anybody from leaving the country. I don’t know why this issue is getting blown up, as Petrovci will still be within the Albanian community”, said the official who wanted to remain anonymous.

Last of alleged criminals from Kosovo war being tried in Hague

The trial against Vlastimir Djordjevic, former Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs and Head of the Department for Public Safety in the Government of Serbia began yesterday at the International War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY) in the Hague.

Djordjevic is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes against Kosovo Albanian civilians in a broad campaign of terror committed during 1999. The prosecution initially read the accusations against Djordjevic saying that he has voluntarily participated in the joint criminal undertakings of the Serb forces, killing hundreds and expelling 800,000 Albanians from Kosovo.

After almost four years on the run, Djordjevic was arrested on 17 June 2007 in Montenegro and transferred to the Tribunal.

The charges read that Djordjevic has commanded and effectively controlled Serb police units acting in Kosovo.

The charges give details of hundreds of murders of Albanian civilians amongst which the killings which took place in 1999 in Theranda (Suva Reka) near the southern city of Prizren.

Serb forces led a group of 50 members of the Berisha family into a coffee shop and opened fire towards the people and then threw explosive devices inside the shop killing at least 47 people, including women, children, babies and old people. Others were severely wounded. The remains of the victims were then dumped in several places, one being the Batajnica mass grave near the Serbian capital Belgrade.

It is also stated that forces commanded by Djordjevic have raped women, robbed and burned, dynamited, and shelled many houses, cultural monuments and Muslim sacred sites.

The prosecution is also accusing Djordjevic for other crimes against Albanians in the Meja massacre where more than 300 Kosovo Albanian men went missing and other locations throughout Kosovo.

The accused Vlastimir Djordjevic in his opening statements denied the accusations saying that he did not know of the crimes Serb forces committed and that, according to him, the army, police and the Serb leadership defended national interests to prevent the creation of the Republic of Kosovo.

The trial is continuing today with the first of the witnesses of the prosecution, Kosovo publicist Veton Surroi. Surroi is reporting on the general political situation in Kosovo starting with the time the constitutional status of Kosovo was abolished by Serbia, the expulsion of Albanian students from educational institutions, attempts for negotiations with Milosevic and the beginning of war crimes and crimes against hummanity.

Serbia seeks backing in international campaign against Kosovo independence

Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic, who will be in New York on January 29 2009 for talks with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and other top UN officials, has sent letters to about 80 countries asking them to write to the International Court of Justice stating their rejection of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence.

At the UN, Jeremic will also meet the permanent representatives of a number of countries, Serbian news agency Tanjug reported.

It was expected that at his meeting with the Secretary-General, Jeremic would raise the issue of the newly-formed Kosovo Security Force, a move that Serbia rejects as an unacceptable military force and as tantamount to the "remilitarisation" of Kosovo.

In 2008, Serbia, from which Kosovo unilaterally broke away on February 17 2008, won UN General Assembly backing for a resolution asking the International Court of Justice for its opinion on the validity or otherwise of Kosovo independence.

Serbian daily Vecernje Novosti reported that Jeremic's letter told recipients: "I would kindly ask you to consider submitting a written statement to the Court of Justice expressing your country's official position on this matter of paramount importance by April 17 2009, at the latest".

The ICJ's ruling would "establish a powerful premise with far-reaching ramifications for the UN system," Jeremic said in the letter.

"The outcome will: either strongly discourage other separatist movements from attempts at secession, or will bring a result that could encourage them to act similarly," he said.

The "attempt at secession by the Albanian authorities is a clear violation of the UN Charter that guarantees sovereignty and territorial integrity to all internationally recognised states, including Serbia," Jeremic said.

The newspaper said that Spain and Russia had confirmed officially that their legal teams were preparing statements for the ICJ, while Venezuela and Cyprus were also about to follow suit.

Central and local institutions in Kosovo remain the most corrupted

Corruption continues to be a reality in Kosovo, mainly affecting central and local institutions, judiciary and public enterprises, said the head of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Hasan Preteni, during a debate on the subject: “Corruption in Kosovo”.

This round-table was organized by the media center in Caglavica.

Kosovo Minister for Labor and Social Welfare, Nendad Rasic, backed up the government by confirming its engagement for zero tolerance towards corruption and other negative phenomena.

Corruption is one of the most concerning phenomena’s in Kosovo. The head of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Preteni said that the energies and the activities of all should be focused in the war against corruption since it is known that this occurrence is frequent in Kosovo.

He said that his agency will be engaged maximally to become a barrier against corruption and it will direct its work towards the completion of the legislation, the fighting and preventing of corruption.

Preteni also said that the officials of the agency will be working with the officials of the government for the amendment of the law against corruption, the law for the declaration of wealth and control of ownership as well as the one for the preventing of the conflict of interest.

Kosovo Minister of Labor on the other hand said that unfortunately, for now there are no adequate legal measures against corruption since after all that the people of Balkan’s have been through, a number of people thinks that corruption is normal.

But what can be done through the government is to ratification of laws and in this direction, all the segments of the government will be engaged in the war against corruption.

Minister Rasic added that the motto of the government is zero tolerance for corruption and other negative phenomena and it will continue in the future.

On the other hand the representative of the Kosovo Democratic Institute Merita Mustafa said that some international organizations are more credible through their reports they have come to conclusions that corruption is a very serious problem.

According to the head of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Preteni, during the first six months of the previous year the agency has forwarded 68 information to the prosecution. Meanwhile the reformations which have began in the Kosovo judiciary is considered very important in favor of the war against this phenomenon.