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Subject: IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 116 
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WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 116, February 15, 2000

MILOSEVIC TIGHTENS HOLD ON KOSOVO SERBS. Milosevic is trying to use the
Kosovo Serbs to scupper the province's administration. Zvonko Tarle in
Pristina charts the old strategies at work anew.

MITROVICA ALBANIANS FURIOUS WITH FRENCH. Albanians in the riot-hit town of
Mitrovica no longer trust French peackeeping troops. By Llazar Semini
reports from the divided town.

COMMENT: I KNOW WHO KILLED BULATOVIC. A defence minister has been killed,
and the question has now been opened: Who, in fact, rules Serbia? Aleksandar
Tijanic in Belgrade has an idea.

MESIC SPURNS GREATER CROATIA. Croatia's dream of securing part of Bosnia is
fading fast in the wake of Stipe Mesic presidential victory. Janez Kovac in
Sarajevo follows the beginnings of a new policy.

BOSNIAN REFUGEES IN LIMBO. Bosnian refugees in Slovenia are being made to
feel unwelcome but are unable to return home. Andrea Accardi in Ljubljana
reports.

****************** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net ******************

MILOSEVIC TIGHTENS HOLD ON KOSOVO SERBS

Milosevic is trying to use the Kosovo Serbs to scupper the province's
administration. 

By Zvonko Tarle in Pristina

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is stepping up his efforts to turn the
Kosovo Serbs against the new administration. 

The Belgrade leader is using his political allies, economic assistance and
the media to derail attempts by the administration to integrate the
90,000-strong Serb minority. 

Milosevic is telling his ethnic kin in the province, who live largely in
small enclaves within predominantly Albanian towns and villages, that
backing for the new authority is tantamount to support for an independent
Kosovo. 

The ruling party in Belgrade the, Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), has been
drumming up support for Milosevic by holding conferences in all the main
Serb enclaves in Kosovo, during which delegates sing the praises of the
Serbian leader and denounce the international organisations helping to
govern the province. 

The gatherings are told that Milosevic is the "guarantor of Serbia's
sovereignty and integrity, while the head of the UN mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK), Bernard Koucher, "works together with the Albanian narco-mafia
towards the separation of Kosovo." 

UNMIK appears to tolerate the Belgrade interference, even providing security
for conference delegates. 

Meanwhile, the Interim Executive Council of Kosovo, an administrative body
loyal to Milosevic, which governed Kosovo prior to the NATO conflict, is
re-establishing itself in the province's Serbian enclaves. The authority,
said to have its headquarters in Kopaonik in southern Serbia, serves as a
parallel Serb authority in the region, issuing salaries, pensions and
humanitarian aid. 

The authorities have also begun organising a Serbian assembly for Kosovo,
whose deputies are either members of the extremist Serbian Radical Party or
the SPS. The body's decisions are being implemented as if they were legal
directives. 

The council and the assembly are beginning to mirror the parallel
institutions set up by the Albanians when Belgrade administered the
province. Then as now these political structures were symbols of resistance.


The presence of Milosevic-controlled authorities in Kosovo is undermining
the influence moderate Serb representatives. The Serbian National Council,
which preaches reconciliation between Serbs and Albanians, is struggling to
get a foothold in some of the larger enclaves, such as Mitrovica, Leposavic,
Kosovo Polje and Zubin Potok. 

National Council leaders Bishop Artemije and Momcilo Trajkovic, who work
closely with the UN, even have difficulty attracting support in their own
backyard. Gracanica, the home of Bishop Artemije, is adorned with pictures
of Milosevic. And when foreign diplomats visit the bishop, crowds chant
pro-Milosevic slogans. 

Milosevic exploits the media to reinforce his influence over the Serb
minority. Belgrade already controls seven radio stations in Kosovo and more
are planned, with the Interim Executive Council of Kosovo playing a key role
in helping to set them up. 

Belgrade is hoping to broadcast television programmes from Mitrovica and
Pristina. The output is to be edited in Belgrade at a station founded by the
SPS and managed by Milosevic aide Zoran Andjelkovic. 

Newspapers too are being mobilised in the propaganda offensive. The
pro-Belgrade Novo Jedinstvo, the only weekly magazine in the Serbian
language in Kosovo, censors the activities of Bishop Artemije and Momcilo
Trajkovic. Both are regularly attacked for collaborating with "Albanian
terrorists and NATO aggressors". 

So far the international community has done little to try to curb
Milosevic's influence in Kosovo. But if he is allowed to continue to hold
sway over the Serbian enclaves, the minority's more moderate
representatives, who are crucial to Serb integration, will find themselves
increasingly marginalised and ineffectual. 

Zvonko Tarle is the director and editor-in -chief of Radio Contact in
Prisitna. 


MITROVICA ALBANIANS FURIOUS WITH FRENCH

Albanians in the riot-hit town of Mitrovica no longer trust French
peackeeping troops.

By Llazar Semini in Mitrovica

Albanians who fled ethnic riots in the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica two
weeks ago have added weight to claims that French KFOR troops failed to
protect them.

Up to 300 Albanian families abandoned the Serb-dominated district earlier
this month after a terrorist attack on a United Nations bus and a Serb café
unleashed a wave of street violence. Two Serbs were killed in the bus attack
while around 10 Albanians are thought to have died in the ensuing riots. 

French KFOR troops were later accused of ignoring a plea from local police
to take decisive action against rampaging Serb gangs - a charge they
strenuously denied.

Halit Berani, head of the Council for the Defence of Human Rights in
Mitrovica, said French soldiers had lost the trust of the local population
and should be replaced by units of mixed nationality. 

The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has meanwhile dramatically
stepped up its military presence on the roads into Mitrovica. Tanks and
armoured personnel carriers have been stationed on the bridges across the
Sitnica and the Iber rivers whilst reinforcements have been posted at vital
checkpoints. 

But this has done little to quell Albanian anger over KFOR's behaviour
during the riots. Berani cited the case of Avni Haredinaj, hit by a sniper
as he crossed the Iber River with a friend. "If they had treated him at a
French field hospital, they could have saved his life," said Berani. "By the
time they got him to the Maroken hospital, it was too late." 

An Albanian resident of northern Mitrovica, Sherme Peci, had a similar story
to tell. "We were in the Boshnjak quarter on Sunday morning [February 6]
when a group of Serbs threw a grenade. At first we thought it was a stone.
Seven of us were injured." 

Peci claimed that French troops who arrived on the scene seemed to take the
side of the Serbs while the wounded Albanians were turned away from the
French hospital.

The tension between French forces and Albanians was reflected in initial
statements earlier this week by KFOR spokespersons suggesting that sniper
attacks against French soldiers in Mitrovica had been the work of Albanians.
But in a notable back-tracking, a few days later, spokespersons were taking
great pains to stress that the ethnicity of the snipers was unknown.

Although the majority of Mitrovica's Albanians are desperate to return home,
the fear from the riots is still fresh in their memories. One elderly
Albanian woman, Zeliha Kalaja, said that, as the violence escalated, a gang
of Serbs made repeated attempts to break down her door.

"They shouted, 'Where are the Albanians? We've come to strangle them!' After
they had tried to kick the door down, they started shooting at the lock with
a pistol." she said. "We left the next morning. Some of the French soldiers
tried to hold us back but we just pushed our way through." 

Isa Syla said he and his wife fled their home after Serbs made three
attempts to smash their way through the front door. "We spoke to the UNMIK
police," he said, "but they told us to leave our home as quickly as possible
as they were unable to guarantee our safety. A unit of Italian policemen
took us across the Iber Bridge this morning." 

Ismet Pestova, leader of the Albanian Republican Party in Mitrovica, said
local people were told by the KFOR troops that they were obliged to protect
the Serbian minority in northern Mitrovica. "But it's the Albanians who are
in the minority here," he said. "And when they call the police, it can be up
to four hours before anyone arrives." 

Pestova said the situation in Mitrovica could be "resolved in 24 hours".
"They should first disarm the Serbian paramilitaries and then enforce the
law. Serbs who have lived here for years can come back and live in peace. 

"We have nothing against living with Serbs who have not stained their hands
with Albanian blood," he said.

Llazar Semini is IWPR's Kosovo Project Manager.


COMMENT: I KNOW WHO KILLED BULATOVIC

The death of a defence minister has raised the question: Who rules Serbia?

By Aleksandar Tijanic in Belgrade

The death of a single individual no longer constitutes a tragedy here. In
today's Serbia, the death of anyone, no matter how important, is just
another statistic.

A reporter dies - it is just a drastic form of censorship. A businessman is
liquidated - it is just the Serbian custom of dividing the spoils. A
politician is killed - it is just a payback for a broken promise to a
businessman.

But what does it mean when a defence minister is killed?

Speculation over the culprits has been rife, with Albanian radicals and
Montenegrin separatists suspected. The most likely perpetrator of the
Bulatovic job, however, may be a private internal grouping - a secret
brotherhood - combining that special Serbian mix of political, business and
security interests stirred up through a decade of war and black-market
profiteering.

There is no evidence pointing to Albanians, who would probably not put
Bulatovic first on their list anyway, and Montenegrins have never been so
rash. 

The aim of the Bulatovic assassination, if it is indeed a Serbian group, is
clear - namely to raise the question of who, in fact, rules Serbia?

The state's monopoly control on physical violence has been destroyed. The
decade's violence and hatred has been brought home. Now every Serb is at
risk of summary judgement by some hidden source of power, which passes only
one, incontestable ruling.

With these power groups, there will be no negotiation. The killers eliminate
people according to their own criteria and act with a complete lack of fear
or hesitation. The indicted are provided with no judge, no jury, no attorney
and no right to appeal. The death of the accused, evidently, is merely the
cheapest and surest variant of achieving one's aims, whether to protect
business interests, revenge a betrayal or simply defend honour or
reputation.

Everyone is fair game. After Bulatovic, there are no immortals, no
untouchables, no protected family names. No one involved in the creation of
this latest Serbia has been absolved of paying their dues.

The killers are looking beyond the current regime. They are staking out
their turf, and establishing contacts with those who could form part of some
new Serbian government. Such groups, rejected by their former patrons, may
even offer support for the opposition during a turbulent transfer of power -
to expiate their sins, secure their assets and legitimise themselves as
businessmen who came up from the underground.

Bulatovic's tragedy is to have served as the bearer of this message. He was
known as a large and gentle man, temperate in his politics and accommodating
- the kind of person who would always lend a hand when he could. He liked to
sit with friends, relaxing in cafes, drinking and holding his own. Eschewing
that essential symbol of all prominent Serbs, even generals, Bulatovic went
about town without a bodyguard, and indeed died with no one to protect him.

Rare among Montenegrins, he did not display great ambition. Those who knew
him say he was mobilised for all his high positions, rather than actively
seeking them. Having served as a pliable federal police chief, he may have
been called to his new position by Milosevic to pull the army together again
after several years of internal tensions.

Media reports have stressed that he was the uncle of Darko Asanin, an
underworld figure murdered in 1998. Yet Asanin made a career for himself,
such as it was, well before his uncle. He had already become rich, reached
the pinnacle of the kitsch, moneyed and violent world of Yugoslavia, while
Bulatovic was still a petty professor in Podgorica.

Some fact may emerge to provide a definite motive. But until then, the
inscrutability of the case may itself be the clue. A seemingly senseless
killing with a very sharp message that will not go unnoticed by those who
matter.

But for the rest, Bulatovic will pass. In any European state, the
assassination of a defence minister would cause a storm. In a Serbia
anaesthetised by evil, the story will last a week. After a decade of hatred
and thievery, the collapse of the state and nearly every institution within
it, all that is left is indifference. The struggle against the New World
Order, the heroic reconstruction, the historical mission - all are in vain,
and Serbia itself is now a great morgue, in which the barely alive bewail
the recently dead.

It is in this environment that such a secret brotherhood can thrive.
Violence has been introduced into every form of public life: politics,
economics, the media, the judicial system, hospitals, schools, the street,
elections, the cafe, the hotel. Damned and despairing, we Serbs merely stand
in line. The news of Bulatovic is that there is no other choice. Behind
every success, all wealth and power, the henchman is there, and his
judgement awaits.

Aleksandar Tijanic is a leading journalist, editor and commentator in
Belgrade. A version of this article originally appeared in the Banja Luka
newspaper Nezavisne Novine, translated by Snezana Lazovic.


MESIC SPURNS GREATER CROATIA

Croatia's dream of securing part of Bosnia is fading fast in the wake of
Stipe Mesic presidential victory. 

By Janez Kovac in Sarajevo

Stipe Mesic's election last week as Croatian head of state spells defeat for
the nationalists who pressed for the country's annexation of Croat populated
areas of Bosnia. 

Just hours after taking office, Mesic made it clear that he plans to sever
all ties with the hard-line Bosnian Croats supported by his predecessor
Franjo Tudjman. 

"We are not going to support a policy which failed and which worked against
the interests of both Croats and Bosnian Croats," said the new president as
the preliminary election results were announced last Tuesday morning. 

Two days later, the Croatian leadership's new foreign minister, Tonino
Picula, visited Sarajevo with assurances that any future aid sent to Bosnian
Croats would be ploughed into social security, education and culture, rather
than military expansion. 

Mesic's tough stance marks a dramatic departure from the Tudjman regime,
which refused to recognise Bosnian independence and dreamed of incorporating
Bosnian Croat territory into a Greater Croatian state. 

To achieve this goal, Tudjman poured an estimated $100 million a year into
equipping the Bosnian Croat militia - although much of the money is believed
to have ended up in the pockets of warlords, tycoons and criminals in both
states. The president also granted Bosnian Croats the right to hold a
Croatian passport and to vote in Croatian elections. 

Tudjman's death in December last year effectively choked off Croatian
support for the hard-line nationalists in Bosnia. His Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ) was promptly defeated in the parliamentary elections while the
HDZ candidate, Mate Granic, failed to make the second round of the
presidential race. 

Bosnian Croat voters were left to choose between the remaining moderate
candidates who shared a similar position on the Bosnian Croat question. More
than 80 per cent voted for Drazen Budisa as "the lesser of two evils", after
Budisa was quoted as saying that Croatia would only withdraw funding from
Bosnian Croat troops if Bosnian Muslims refused to accept military aid from
Islamic states. 

In interviews prior to the elections, Mesic stated that he would outlaw
secret deals signed with the Bosnian Croats, proposing that Croatia should
lend its support to Bosnia as a whole and take part in reconstruction
projects that would benefit both countries. 

Ivo Komsic, a prominent Bosnian Croat intellectual and opposition leader,
said that he believed Budisa would have made a better president for Croatia
while Mesic's victory would better serve Bosnia's interests. 

Most analysts believe the HDZ will be unable to survive the series of
crippling blows it has suffered since Tudjman's death. One Western observer
commented, "It is not a question of if, but when and how fast the HDZ will
crumble." 

Another Bosnian Croat opposition leader, Kresimir Zubak, commented, "There
will now be serious changes within the HDZ." However, he said the changes
would not take place until the party congress in April when HDZ moderates
under Mate Granic are expected to form their own political faction. 

Without financial support from Zagreb, it is unlikely that the Bosnian
Croats will be able to maintain their state-within-a-state for more than a
few months. 

The Croat Deputy Defence Minister of the Bosnian Federation, Miroslav Prce,
insisted last Wednesday that any Croatian government had an ethical
obligation to fund Bosnian Croat units within the federal army. Prce
admitted that these units would probably be disbanded if starved of money
from Zagreb. 

In the wake of Mesic's election victory, the HDZ sent its official
congratulations to the new president through gritted teeth. Meanwhile, at a
press conference in the southern town of Mostar, HDZ spokesmen expressed
repeated hopes that Mesic would not turn his back on his ethnic kin. 

But Mesic himself gave them little cause for optimism. The Bosnian Croat's
"fatherland is Bosnia-Herzegovina and that's where they should seek a secure
future," he said. 

Janez Kovac is a regular contributor to IWPR from Sarajevo. 


BOSNIAN REFUGEES IN LIMBO

Bosnian refugees in Slovenia are being made to feel unwelcome but are unable
to return home. 

By Andrea Accardi in Ljubljana

Safija is an 18-year-old Bosnian refugee from Doboj. Although she arrived in
Slovenia eight years ago, she is still yearning for some semblance of a
normal life. 

Safija is one of just over 3,000 refugees who fled to Slovenia at the height
of the Bosnian war. They received a generally warm reception, but the
generosity soon began to wane. 

The Law on Temporary Refuge, introduced in April 1997, condemned the
refugees to perpetual limbo, denying them indefinitely the rights of full
residents. The legislation entitles them to accommodation, education,
medicine and humanitarian assistance, but omits other key provisions -
particularly the right to full-time employment. 

Though trained as a nurse, Safija is not permitted to work more than eight
hours a week. Unable to find a part-time job, she wanders aimlessly around
her neighbourhood, bored and frustrated. 

On a more mundane level, refugees cannot, for example, take their driving
test because the temporary collective centres where they live are not
recognised as permanent addresses. 

The refugees say these restrictions have left them in legal limbo and
prevented their integration into Slovene society. People like Safija are
left wondering whether they will ever be able to settle down. Their
acceptance as permanent residents seems as distant as a safe return to
Bosnia. 

For many of the 3,200 refugees, returning home to Bosnia is still not an
option. Almost 90 per cent of them come from the Republika Srpska. The
security situation in the region remains a problem and obstacles are still
put in the way of would-be returnees reclaiming their homes and jobs. 

Discussions have been ongoing for the last few months between the Slovene
office for immigration and refugees and the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees (UNHCR) to find a solution for the unsatisfactory status of the
Bosnian refugees. 

Legal officer for the UNHCR in Ljubljana Annabel Roig said that after either
years, they are pressing for an end to temporary status. She said the UNHCR
has received a mixed response from government officials: some favoured an
end to temporary status but others still insisted on repatriation as the
best solution for the refugees. A final decision is expected before the
summer. 

Although repatriation could be acceptable for some, Roig said it was still
very difficult, particularly for Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) to return to
their homes in Republika Srpska. 

Refugees are often confronted by harassment and intimidation when they
return. Reclaiming their old homes and finding employment are made
especially difficult by uncooperative and often hostile local authorities. 

In June 1999, for example, the local government in Banja Luka intervened to
prevent the burial of the city's local mufti on the site of the demolished
Ferhadija mosque. The UN High Commission for Human Rights ruled that the
Islamic community had been discriminated against. 

While returning home seems a distant prospect, there is not much hope of the
refugees settling in Slovenia even if the dispute over their status is
resolved. 

The ability of Bosnian refugees' to integrate into Slovenian society were
they to be granted permanent residence is being steadily undermined by their
total dependency on the state. Nongovernmental organisations like Slovenska
Filantropija insist that temporary refugee status is seriously affecting the
Bosnians self-sufficiency. 

The refugees, meanwhile, are being made to feel unwelcome by Slovenes, who
see them as an increasing burden on the state. During the Bosnian war,
people were sympathetic to the plight of those fleeing the conflict and
persecution. But there is now a growing hostility towards them. Nowadays, it
is not unusual to read "Bosnians Go Home" scrawled on the walls around
Ljubljana.

Andrea Accardi is a journalist in Ljubljana.

***********************************************************

IWPR's network of leading correspondents in the region provides inside
analysis of the events and issues driving crises in the Balkans. The reports
are available on the Web in English, Serbian and Albanian; English-language
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Anthony Borden <tony@iwpr.net>.

Balkan Crisis Report is supported by the Department for International
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Cooperation Agency and other sources. IWPR also acknowledges general support
from the Ford Foundation.

For further details on this project and other information services and media
programmes, visit IWPR's Website: <www.iwpr.net>.

Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan. Associate
Editor: Gordana Igric. Assistant Editors: Christopher Bennett, Alan Davis
and Heather Milner. Kosovo Project Manager: Llazar Semini. Translation:
Alban Mitrushi and others.

The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based independent
non-profit organisation supporting regional media and democratic change.

Lancaster House, 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, UK
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The opinions expressed in "Balkan Crisis Report" are those of the authors
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Copyright (C) 2000 The Institute for War & Peace Reporting 

*** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net ***

IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 116

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