[CTRL] If They Find Me They Will Kill Me, 1/4

[Mrs. Jela Jovanovic, Secretary General]

 -Caveat Lector-

===========================
The Committee for National Solidarity
Tolstojeva 34, 11000 Belgrade, YU
Part 1/4: Interview with Faik Jasari

=====================================
IF THEY FIND ME, THEY WILL KILL ME:
Interviews with pro-Yugoslav Albanian
Refugees from Kosovo

Transcribed and edited by Gregory Elich

Interviews with Faik Jasari, Corin Ismali, and Fatmir Seholi, members of the
Kosovo Democratic Initiative.
Comments by Biljana Koteska, First Secretary of the United Nations Law
Projects Center in Belgrade, Bajram
Haliti, Secretary of the Republic of Serbia Secretariat for Development of
Information on the Languages of National
Minorities, and editor of "Ahimsa", and Jovan Damjanovic, President of the
Roma organization in Yugoslavia

Interviewed by Barry Lituchy, Joe Friendly, Ayman El-Sayed, Ken Freeland,
Jeff Goldberg and Gregory Elich,
members of the North American Solidarity with Yugoslavia Delegation

Belgrade, August 9, 1999

[Lituchy] Please introduce yourself and tell us what your position is in the
government.

[Jasari] Faik Jasari, from Gnilane. I was a member of the Temporary
Executive Board [in Kosovo] and I was a
representative [at peace negotiations] in Rambouillet. I am also president
of a political party, the Kosovo Democratic
Initiative.

[Lituchy] Would you tell us a little bit about that organization?

[Jasari] Anyone can join this political party, because it is open. Not only
Albanians, but also people from other ethnic
groups may join.

[Lituchy] Did this political party run in the previous elections in Kosovo?

[Jasari] No, this is a new political party, formed only last year, so we
have not yet run in elections.

This was the only Albanian party to stand by the government, and our
political position was for Kosovo-Metohija to
stay in Yugoslavia, organize humanitarian aid for people, and to oppose
secession.

[Freeland] How many people does this party represent?

[Lituchy] What kind of support does it have?

[Jasari] We have 30,000 members. We helped people with food, medicine,
blankets and so on. During the NATO
aggression, we tried to encourage people to stay in Kosovo, not to leave. If
anyone had trouble, we tried to help
them.

[Lituchy] Where are the supporters now from this political party? Are they
living in Kosovo, or are they in exile from
Kosovo?

[Jasari] About 10,000 members of this party have left Kosovo, and about
20,000 remain in Kosovo. Many of them
have been kidnapped or tortured by the KLA. The refugees from Kosovo went to
Serbia and also to Montenegro.

[Lituchy] Are you also a refugee, or an exile from Kosovo?

[Jasari] Yes, of course. I had to leave Kosovo on June 18th, along with
other members of my political party.

[Lituchy] Tell us how you left or were forced out of Kosovo.

[Jasari] Members of the KLA were showing photos of my family and me to
people, trying to find us. I am now at the
top of the list of people the KLA is looking for.

[Freeland] Did they post these pictures around, where everyone could see
them?

[Koteska] No, no. They were only taking the pictures, from home to home.

[Jasari] One of my colleagues in our party was kidnapped, and we still do
not know anything of his fate.

[Lituchy] What was his name?

[Jasari] Cafre Cuka. He is from Pec.

[Lituchy] And he's missing?

[Jasari] He was kidnapped two months ago.

[Lituchy] And he was a member of your organization?

[Koteska] Yes.

[Lituchy] Tell us, on June 18th, did you then leave with your family?

[Jasari] Yes.

[Lituchy] What did you leave behind?

[Jasari] We left our flat, along with all of our furniture and belongings.
My wife and I worked for 34 years, and now
we have nothing. Nothing. My son and daughter-in-law are now in Nis. My wife
and I are in Belgrade. We have
nothing to wear. We have nothing from our flat.

[Lituchy] No assistance from the United States?

[Jasari] We received no assistance from any organization. We live in [name
deleted for Jasari's safety]. The
government of the Republic of Serbia arranged that. Three members of my
family live in Nis, and they live on their
own.

[Lituchy] Were any members of your family killed, injured, or attacked?

[Jasari] No, no one from my family. The KLA did not have time because we
escaped from Kosovo. I had
bodyguards, so that was helpful.

[Lituchy] Are you afraid for your life, even now?

[Jasari] Yes. I am afraid. I've already told you that the KLA is looking for
me, even now.

[Lituchy] Have they asked for you to be executed? Is there a death warrant
on you?

[Jasari] If they find me, they will kill me.

[Freeland] This is a question asked for the sake of formality. Was KFOR made
aware of this situation or the
situation with any of your family members?

[Jasari] I think KFOR does nothing to protect us. They don't do their job.

[Lituchy] Did you have any discussions with KFOR at all?

[Jasari] I sent an open letter to Mr. [UN special representative for Kosovo
Bernard] Kouchner. I wanted to visit
with him and discuss the situation in Kosovo and with my party, but I
received no response. Where is democracy
and pluralism in Kosovo? I can't go there. I can't take part in the
political process. Where is democracy?

[Lituchy] Approximately how many Albanians were forced out of Kosovo by the
KLA?

[Jasari] About 150,000 Albanians were forced out of Kosovo by the KLA. We
don't know the number of people
who were killed or kidnapped by the KLA.

[Lituchy] Is there an approximate number?

[Jasari] I think about 200 Albanians were killed by the KLA.

[Lituchy] What do you think was KFOR's purpose in coming to Kosovo?

[Jasari] They have no good reason to be there. Given the way KFOR operates
now, they can do nothing.

[Lituchy] Tell us a little bit about the KLA. What do you know about the
KLA, its origins…?

[Jasari] Initially, the KLA was a separatist organization, and then grew
into a military organization. They killed loyal
Albanians, Serbs, and all people who wanted Kosovo to stay in Serbia. They
also killed Albanians who held public
office.

[Lituchy] Who are the leaders of the KLA?

[Jasari] The leader is Hasim Thaci, but [Ibrahim] Rugova, [Bujar] Bukoshi
and [Adem] Demaci have the same
politics. Mr. Thaci performed a role at Rambouillet, to carry out orders
from the US. The U.S. gave him that role.

[Lituchy] What about Demaci? Who is he and where does he come from?

[Jasari] Mr. Demaci was the president of the KLA. He appointed himself to
the position.

[Lituchy] Did you ever meet his man?

[Jasari] No.

[Lituchy] He was in jail for some time.

[Jasari] Twenty-eight years.

[Lituchy] How old is he? About 50?

[Jasari] About 65 years old.

[Lituchy] Were his parents Nazis in World War II?

[Jasari] No, I don't know.

[Lituchy] But he is from the Decani region.

[Jasari] Mr. Demaci is from Podujevo.

[Seholi] The village Ljubce. We met each other about three months ago.

[Lituchy] You and Demaci?

[Seholi] Yes.

[Lituchy] And what happened at that meeting?

[Seholi] In my profession as journalist, I had a conversation with him on
March 23rd this year. Mr. Rugova saw my
video on television, and asked me to speak with him personally.

[Lituchy] What did he want to know?

[Seholi] He wanted to be on television, to ask Serbian people not to leave
Kosovo.

[Lituchy] Demaci?!

[Seholi] And he wanted 10,000 Deutsche Marks for that interview…..
[laughter] It's true. We didn't give him that
money because we didn't have money ourselves. I think all of them worked
that angle for money.

[Lituchy] Before we interview these two gentlemen, I'd like to ask one or
two more questions of the President here,
about Rambouillet. What happened at Rambouillet?

[Jasari] The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was always for peace. During
1998, the government attempted to meet
with KLA leaders 17 times, but the KLA leaders refused to attend. When
Western countries asked Yugoslavia to
meet the KLA in Rambouillet, Yugoslavia sent representatives.

[Lituchy] Did the representatives from Yugoslavia and the representatives
from the KLA ever meet face-to-face?

[Jasari] Only once, at the first meeting with Jacques Chirac, did the two
delegations meet.

[Lituchy] That was like an introductory meeting?

[Koteska] Yes.

[Lituchy] Why were there no negotiations?

[Jasari] Our representatives attempted, every day, to meet them
face-to-face, but they refused.

[Lituchy] Why?

[Jasari] Because they did only what the United States told them to do.

[Lituchy] So that in other words, the United States was deciding how the
negotiations were going and who was to
meet with whom. Did you ever walk up to one of the KLA people and say, 'why
can't we discuss this'?

[Jasari] No, we couldn't even meet them in the hotel. We only had meetings
with American and British officials, but
not with them. We could only talk with their Western mentors.

.[Lituchy] Who did you meet with from the United States?

[Jasari] We met with Ms. [Madeleine] Albright, Mr. [James] Rubin and Mr.
[James] Hill.

[Lituchy] What did they talk about, what did they tell you?

[Jasari] They told us to sign our names to the paper drafted by the United
States. In this paper it was written that
Kosovo must be a republic. The paper had the same aim as what the KLA
representatives told them. At first, they
thought that the delegation from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would
not go to Rambouillet. Later, they saw
that was not true, and when they also saw that not only Serbs, but also
Roma, Albanian and Egyptian representatives
were in our delegation, they were shocked.

[Lituchy] The Americans were shocked?

[Koteska] Yes.

[Jasari] Only three Serbian representatives and one Montenegrin were in our
delegation.

[Lituchy] Did you have any personal discussion or conversation with Albright
or Rubin?

[Jasari] No, not alone, but also with Nikola Sainovic, Ratko Markovic, our
whole delegation.

[Lituchy] What was your impression of Albright or Rubin?

[Jasari] I think they are not human people, they are not democratic.

[Lituchy] What was the purpose of the Rambouillet accord?

[Jasari] The representatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia went to
Rambouillet to find a peaceful solution,
but that was not the result.

[Lituchy] Did Yugoslavia make the right decision not to sign?

[Jasari] The Yugoslav government, many years ago, gave to the Albanian
people all rights: human rights, right to
education, property rights, all rights that every nation in Yugoslavia had.
They were denied only the possibility of
secession. All Albanian political parties could freely function in Kosovo,
but not separatism. [French Foreign Minister
Hubert] Vedrine, [British Foreign Secretary] Robin Cook and Albright told
secessionist Albanians in Kosovo that
everything will be fine in Rambouillet, and that any agreement will be in
their favor, and they will get everything they
want. But they didn't ask other nationalities in Kosovo what they want. I
told them that the KLA does not represent
the opinion of all Albanian people, and that there are three other Albanian
political parties who have a different view,
as do Romas, Serbs, Muslims and other nationalities. They would not listen
to me. They would not listen to anyone.

[Elich] When you returned for the Paris conference, would you discuss what
kind of negotiations took place there?

[Jasari] In Paris, the representatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
did not sign the paper, but the KLA
representatives did sign. Albright told them, whether you sign or not,
Kosovo will be a republic. We saw that when
Albright was in Kosovo, she embraced and gave a kiss to Hasim Thaci, the
leader of the terrorists. The Albanian
representatives did not speak English, Serbo-Croatian, or any language other
than Albanian in Rambouillet, so most
people did not know what they were saying.

[Lituchy] Tell us what you think the reason was for the United States to
launch this war.

[Jasari] I think the United States wants to establish military bases here,
and extend its occupation of the Balkans.

[Lituchy] For what reason? What is the motive?

[Jasari] The United States wants to dictate to all countries in Europe.

[Elich] As a member of the Executive Council, what special problems did you
have governing Kosovo during the
period of the bombing?

[Jasari] During the NATO bombs, all members of the council carried out our
duties. We helped people, supplying
medicine, assisting refugees whose homes had burned down. We did everything
we could. In Yugoslavia, there is the
first degree of democracy in the whole world. Every ethnic minority has the
same right in Yugoslavia, no ethnic group
has more rights than another.

[Lituchy] What do you have to say to groups and individuals who, perhaps out
of ignorance or maybe out of false
motives, claim that Yugoslavia was like a police state oppressing the
Albanian people?

[Jasari] It is not true. It is not true. I am Albanian, and I have all the
same rights as any Serbian. Every country must
hold onto its own territory, and not give it away to other countries, or to
an ethnic minority. One third of the people in
Yugoslavia are ethnic minorities. Why do we have problems only with
Albanians, and not other minorities? This
problem did not arise only yesterday. After the Second World War, many
Albanian people wanted to secede from
Yugoslavia, but that was not so well known. They were preparing for
secession. I asked Albanians from Albania and
Albanians from Kosovo, who has a better life? All the knowledge and property
Albanians have is in Kosovo, not in
Albania. The Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, and the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia wanted to help them, to support
them. You can find Albanian doctors, professors, engineers, and all
professions. Our government wanted and still
wants to provide education, to help them. Education was free, they did not
have to pay anything.

[Lituchy] What do you see as for the future of the rights of Albanians in
Kosovo under the KLA?

[Jasari] The Albanians must have the same rights as all other people in
Yugoslavia. They cannot have a separate
country.

[CONTINUED...]

http://www.iacenter.org/elich3.htm

Secretary General
Mrs. Jela Jovanovic
Art  historian
===========================

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