HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------1. US spreads Euro word in Kosovo (Associated Press, AP)
2. Turkey criticizes EU on terror lis (AP)
3. Southern Serbia still tense despite end of conflict (Reuters)
4. Turkish troops go after PKK in northern Iraq (Reuters)
5. Balkan territories slip quietly into Euro party (Reuters)
U.S. Spreads Euro Word in Kosovo
By GARENTINA KRAJA
.c The Associated Press
ROGANE, Yugoslavia (AP) - U.S. soldiers and other NATO-led peacekeepers - in Kosovo to prevent violence - have taken on an unusual new task: heading out on the worst roads into the most remote areas to spread the word about the new European currency, the euro.
Kosovo - still a province of Yugoslavia - isn't part of the European Union, but since 1999 it has depended on the German mark as its currency. So when the euro replaces the mark in Germany on Tuesday, it does the same in Kosovo.
The territory, which is run by international administrators since Yugoslav troops were forced out, is the first place to officially adopt the euro outside the 15-nation European Union. Twelve EU nations start using the currency Tuesday.
American, British, French and German soldiers - and others in the 39-nation peacekeeping force - are pitching in to inform Kosovars about the new currency and how to change their money.
``It's different,'' says Capt. Andrew Zacherl, 32, from Denver, at the idea of an American soldier ``selling'' the European currency here.
Soldiers of the 9th Psychological Operations Battalion, from Fort Bragg, N.C., have for weeks been defying some of Europe's worst winter weather, lugging euro pamphlets, euro calendars, wallet-size exchange rate cards and other paraphernalia linked to the currency changeover.
Normally the unit hands out fliers urging parents not to buy war toys for their kids or helps organize call-in radio shows - part of an effort to nudge majority ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs away from confrontation and toward cooperation.
The euro operation has ``long term U.S. benefits,'' Zacherl said. ``If Europe has a stable economy, that means the economy in the States will be stable.''
After coming under U.N. and NATO control in June 1999, Kosovo's unstable Yugoslav dinar was replaced with the German mark to keep inflation in check. Even before that, the mark was king among most Kosovo residents. With the mark one of the currencies being displaced by the euro early next year, there is no other choice for Kosovo but to go along.
Like villagers elsewhere, locals in Rogane village, some 50 miles east of province's capital, Pristina, have for weeks been exposed to information preparing them for the changeover starting Jan. 1 and ending Feb. 28.
Peacekeepers have put up euro fact sheet posters, with euro-mark exchange rates and other information to remind people that the clock is ticking down on the Deutschmark. Radio messages and television spots with the same message are aired dozens of times a day.
Like members of the other euro nations, Kosovo residents will head to the bank to turn in their marks for the new currency. Many look forward to the change, hoping it will bring them closer to Europe's more prosperous economies.
Shaban Bajrami, a 28-year-old jewelry store owner, had kept his life savings buried in his garden for years. Now, he plans to open a bank account in euros.
``Finally I have the feeling that we are part of Europe,'' Bajrami said. ``At least now we get to do business like they do.''
Village teacher Gani Basha sounds a similar chord. ``I'm excited,'' he said. ``We are joining Europe.''
Although Kosovo is traditionally a cash-based society, part of the euro campaign has focused on encouraging residents to deposit money long kept hidden at home. That has led to about 100,000 new bank accounts being opened in the last month alone, compared to 1,000 new accounts over all of the rest of 2001, says EU spokesman Mike Todd.
There are also hopes that a common currency will encourage European nations to invest in an economy shattered by years of political repression and months of war pitting forces loyal to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic against ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
AP-NY-12-29-01 1631EST
Turkey Criticizes EU on Terror List
By BEN HOLLAND
.c The Associated Press
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Turkey on Saturday criticized the European Union's failure to include militant leftist and Kurdish groups that have carried out attacks in Turkey on its list of terrorist organizations.
The European Union's omission of the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, and a militant leftist group that is leading a hunger strike against prison conditions was incomprehensible, according to Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit.
``Nobody has any doubt that these are terrorist organizations,'' Ecevit said. ``The fact that the EU has not included these two groups on its terrorism list is beyond comprehension.''
The EU made public Friday a list of organizations accused of terrorist activity, including the Basque separatist organization ETA and the Greek far-left group November 17.
The list was part of an EU anti-terror package that includes a freeze on the assets of radical Palestinian groups and measures to deny safe haven to terrorists and enhance cooperation against terrorism among the 15 EU member countries.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it understood the EU was working on a further list of groups that ``comprise a threat to EU candidate countries,'' which would address Turkish concerns over Kurdish and leftist groups.
European Commission spokeswoman Beata Gminder said the EU list was a ``work in progress and something that will be looked at regularly,'' but could not confirm whether any move was being made to add the PKK.
Turkey, which aims to join the EU, has long criticized the bloc for not acting strongly enough against Kurdish, Islamic and leftist groups plotting attacks in Turkey.
Turkey fought a 15-year war against the autonomy-seeking PKK in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast. Some 37,000 people, mostly Kurdish rebels and civilians, have been killed as a result of the fighting.
The EU has called on Turkey to grant wider cultural rights, including the right to education and broadcasting in their native language, for Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds.
Turkey accuses EU countries of providing safe havens for a group recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front or DHKP-C, also mentioned by Ecevit, has carried out assassinations and attacks in Turkey in the past three decades. The group is leading a hunger strike that has seen over 40 people starve to death.
AP-NY-12-29-01 1726EST
Southern Serbia still tense despite end of conflict
By Fredrik Dahl
RAJINCE, Yugoslavia, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Peace may have returned to southern Serbia's Presevo Valley since a 16-month-long ethnic Albanian guerrilla insurgency ended last May, but the region just east of Kosovo remains volatile.
Local Albanians complain that the Serbian state continues to discriminate against them and a mysterious leaflet has called for a war of liberation. Serb police have been targeted in sporadic attacks and maintain a strong presence.
"We don't have war any more. But otherwise there is no improvement," said one middle-aged Albanian man in Rajince, a small village where a police guardhouse was blown up last month.
Nobody was injured in the explosion, but a visit to Rajince a few weeks later highlights feelings of mutual mistrust.
A Serb policeman has little doubt who was responsible.
"Albanians, obviously," he said, smoking a cigarette in the winter cold.
"They don't want any police here," a colleague said.
The Albanian man meeting his friends in a store nearby suggested police planted the explosive device to give them an excuse to ill-treat people.
"We have to be careful all the time," he said.
Belgrade media reported that two former fighters in the guerrilla force which fought Serb police in 2000-2001 were arrested in connection with the explosion but later released.
The now disbanded Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac had the declared aim of fighting the repression of the area's Albanians, a minority in Serbia but a majority in the valley region, which has about 100,000 inhabitants.
WEST BROKERS PEACE
The rebel group, known as the UCPMB after its Albanian acronym and modelled on the rebel force which fought Serb rule in Kosovo, agreed to disarm under a NATO-brokered deal in return for political measures to boost their community's status.
The conflict in many ways mirrored events just to the south in Macedonia, where an ethnic Albanian movement staged a February-August rebellion which also ended with a Western-sponsored deal to bolster the rights of the minority.
Although Albanian leaders in southern Serbia acknowledge that the situation has improved since the 2000 downfall of Slobodan Milosevic as Yugoslav president, they make clear they are not satisfied with the speed of change.
While welcoming the establishment with the help of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of a multi-ethnic police force with Serbian and Albanian officers patrolling side by side, they say progress elsewhere is slow.
They complain the presence of special police and the army is too heavy, frightening people, and also want municipal elections to give Albanians a fairer share in local power.
"The population is not happy with the pace of reforms," said Shaip Kamberi, an ethnic Albanian human rights activist.
Presevo Mayor Riza Halimi said the presence of security forces prevented locals from living normally.
Many Albanians see the police as a symbol of harassment from Milosevic's heavy-handed nationalist rule.
Serbia's new reformist leaders have pledged an end to such behaviour but, said Halimi, "even if there were no incidents people are afraid because of their reputation."
Yugoslav officials reject Albanian criticism, saying they have addressed the community's complaints and also fixed roads and other infrastructure in the under-developed region.
"The police and army treat all citizens equally," said Mica Markovic, a senior official in the Yugoslav Interior Ministry.
SERB POLICE ATTACKED
In the most serious development since the conflict ended, two policemen were killed in August just outside the ethnic Albanian village of Muhovac, a former rebel stronghold near Kosovo.
Serbian officials were quick to blame former guerrillas, a charge their old commanders rejected.
Among other events, Markovic said a police vehicle was blown up in early September. In November, two mortar grenades fired from the Kosovo side of the boundary landed about 250 metres (yards) from a police checkpoint in Muhovac, he said.
In addition, a pamphlet purportedly distributed by the Liberation Army of Eastern Kovoso, which called for an armed struggle to link the area with ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo, appeared in the remote region about two months ago.
Markovic said he believed the Liberation Army of Eastern Kosovo existed. "They want to separate this area and connect it with Kosovo."
Rights activist Kamberi said he had seen the pamphlet but did not take it seriously.
He saw no possibility that fighting would start again, but did not rule out protests and other action to put pressure on the authorities to move forward on reform.
Halimi said only minor radical groups saw a solution in armed conflict, in contrast to the situation during the insurgency when the guerrillas enjoyed wider support. "There is no chance this will turn into something similar to last year."
The journey up to Muhovac shows that police and army take no risks, keeping a visible presence on the winding and bumpy dirt road covered in ice and snow at this time of the year.
Serb police carrying assault rifles and wearing flak jackets stop travellers and demand to see identification papers.
"The situation is not more tense than usual but we have to be careful," said one officer.
21:03 12-29-01
Turkish troops go after PKK in northern Iraq
TUNCELI, Turkey, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Turkish soldiers have pushed into northern Iraq in the past two days in pursuit of rebel Turkish Kurds of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), military and customs officials said on Monday.
The officials told Reuters trucks carrying around 800 Turkish commandos had passed through the Habur border gate.
"There are PKK bases in the region which constitute a threat to Turkey. That is why they entered the northern Iraqi territory," said one military officer.
The officials said the troops went to Behdinan region controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two rival Iraqi Kurd factions that control northern Iraq.
Turkish troops regularly pursue separatist Kurdish rebels from southeast Turkey into northern Iraq, which Iraqi Kurds wrested from Baghdad's control after the 1991 Gulf War.
Ankara says some 5,000 Turkish Kurd separatists have been based in northern Iraq and Iran since fighting in their campaign for independence dropped off dramatically after the 1999 capture of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the PKK.
U.S. and British warplanes based in Turkey patrol a no-fly zone over northern Iraq established in 1991 to protect the Kurds in the area.
The PUK and the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have both agreed not to allow the PKK to base themselves in northern Iraq and receive economic help from Turkey in return for their support against the PKK.
06:17 12-31-01
Balkan territories slip quietly into euro party
By Andrew Gray
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 1 (Reuters) - As official members of Europe's single currency club celebrated the launch of euro notes and coins on Tuesday, Kosovo and Montenegro slipped in to join their New Year party by adopting the new money too.
Both Yugoslav territories have been using the German mark as their official currency of preference in an effort to bring economic stability to their parts of the volatile and impoverished Balkans and are now making the switch to the euro.
Kosovo's Banking and Payments Authority opened on the January 1 public holiday to let customers change marks and get their hands on the new currency but business was slack, with most people taking things easy after New Year revelry.
"The euro is coming, the German mark is leaving -- the value remains," assures a poster in Albanian at the central bank-like agency, part of a campaign to inform people about the changeover in the internationally administered province of Serbia.
But despite posters, leaflets and television adverts, some of the region's two million people are unfamiliar with the euro.
Of the few shops open in Kosovo's snow-covered capital Pristina, none had taken any euros by early afternoon and reporters gave staff their first glimpses of the new money.
"It looks very good," said Drita, a cashier examining the coins and notes in a general store which has been displaying its prices in euros as well as marks for the past couple of weeks.
Another store, "Lucky Beni's," was still displaying prices only in marks. Shopkeeper Ekrem Durmishi saw little point in posting euro prices before customers had the new money.
"The paper is very good quality," he said, holding the notes up to the light. "The only question is how to get more and more of them," he grinned.
Many people across the Balkans have developed a strong affinity for the mark, often earned by friends or relatives working in Germany, and see the currency as a rock of economic stability during turbulent times of war and hyperinflation.
A study by Germany's Deutsche Bank released in August estimated about 15 billion marks in cash was in the republics of the old Yugoslavia which broke apart in bloodshed in the 1990s.
Western police officials have voiced fears criminal gangs in the Balkans could exploit unfamiliarity with the new money to flood the market with fake euros. But officials in Kosovo say financial workers have been well trained to spot counterfeits.
SLOW START IN MONTENEGRO
Montenegro, the small coastal republic which remains part of the Yugoslav federation although its leaders want independence, also had a fairly slow start to its euro changeover.
In the main city of Podgorica, stores were shut and only the Podgoricka Banka was open. Bank employees said around 70 people had changed their money since the early morning: "People did ask some questions but I had the impression they were well informed in principle," bank official Radojka Basovic told Reuters.
Bankers across the Balkans are hoping the switchover will boost efforts to get more people to open bank accounts.
In Bosnia, people have been queuing up at banks in recent weeks to deposit their German mark savings into euro accounts.
Bosnia's own post-war marka currency has been pegged at a rate of one-to-one to the mark and is often used interchangeably with the German currency in shops and restaurants.
Some Bosnians doubted the euro would prove to be as stable as the German mark. Mechanical engineer Zoran Martina, 34, said he had changed his mark savings into dollars: "We are still not sure about euro," he said in central Sarajevo.
(Additional reporting by Shaban Buza in Pristina, Ljubinka Cagorovic in Podgorica and Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo)
11:28 01-01-02
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