ListBot mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Belgrade Blames West For Kosovo Violence >BELGRADE, Feb 25, 2000 -- (Reuters) Yugoslav officials blamed the West >on Thursday for this month's violence in Mitrovica, rejecting >accusations that Belgrade was fomenting trouble in the ethnically >divided Kosovo city. >"The sequence of events clearly showed that it was a planned and >coordinated scenario," Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic >told a news conference. >Giving his view of events in the flashpoint city, he said: >"First the terrorists (ethnic Albanians) threw bombs at a cafe, wounding >16 people of whom one child died, and then the tune 'Serbs are guilty' >was played." >He accused U.S. soldiers of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force of >conducting what he described as a brutal search for weapons in schools >and other buildings in the Serb-dominated northern part of the city. >A Serbian ultra-nationalist leader took a similar line at a separate >news conference. >"The American anti-Serb strategy in Kosovo and Metohija has been >completely exposed," said Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj, >who also heads the Radical party. >Sainovic, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and three other top >Yugoslav officials were indicted last May by a U.N. court for alleged >war crimes in Kosovo during NATO's March-to-June bombing campaign >against Yugoslavia. >Western officials have accused the Belgrade leadership of stirring up >trouble in Mitrovica, where ethnic violence has claimed nine lives this >month, most of them Kosovo Albanians. >NATO military chief Wesley Clark said in an interview published on >Thursday: "Mitrovica is going to be multi-ethnic, and that means ending >the intimidation and other dirty work of the military units, gangs and >thugs who have been sent there by Belgrade." >American U.N. Envoy Richard Holbrooke accused Milosevic of trying to >partition Kosovo with a line through Mitrovica, describing it as the >most dangerous place in Europe. >In response, officials in Belgrade said the West was cooperating with >Albanian "terrorists" seeking to expel remaining Serbs from Kosovo. >"The Americans are planning, instructing and coordinating their >actions," Seselj said. >Sainovic said events in Mitrovica were in fact orchestrated by those who >blamed Belgrade for destabilizing the city. >"In the end, the same tune under the same slogan comes from Clark, >Robertson, Holbrooke: 'Belgrade destabilizes Mitrovica'." >Milosevic last week called on KFOR and the U.N-led administration of >Kosovo to leave, saying they had failed to bring peace and that Belgrade >authorities should take over control of the troubled province. > > >______________________________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >______________________________________________________________________ >http://www.listbot.com/links/winfreestuff2 > __________________________________ 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] ___________________________________
