SPECIALE E DIELLIT NGA PRISHTINA- RAPORTIMI I MASAKRES PARA 20 VITEVE/

Serb forces attack Shtimje areas/

PRISHTINE, Jan 15 – ATA correspondent Behlul Jashari reported that Serb police and army forces had started early on Friday an offensive against Recak village, Shtimje area.Sources of the Council for the Human Rights said that heavy artillery was bombing the village while Serb infantry was attacking Albanian villages.

There are no reports on the consequences of the attack but the population is fleeing the area. /pta/ak/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

Rugova urges deployment of NATO forces to calm situation

PRISHTINE, Jan 15 – ATA correspondent Behlul Jashari reported that President of Kosova Ibrahim Rugova told a news conference on Friday that the situation in Kosova was worse, dangerous and tragic and deployment of NATO troops would calm it.

Rugova condemned the attempted assassination of the chief of the Kosova Information Office Enver Maloku calling it an attempt against the independent institutions of Kosova. He added that a “new climate of violence with unclear killings” was created in Kosova.

He called “dramatic” the presence of the Serbian army in Prishtina and blocking of access to Prishtina by Serb armed groups.

Rugova hailed the intervention of the OSCE chairman -in-office Knut Vollebaek and chief of the OSCE mission there William Walker and his staff in calming the worse situation created during the week.

But “the deployment of NATO troops in Kosova will calm the situation and guarantee safety for citizens and that part of Europe and world,” Rugova said. /pta/ak/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

80 Albanians killed, massacred in Shtimje

PRISHTINE, Jan 16 – ATA correspondent Behlul Jashari reported that some 60 to 80 Albanians were killed and massacred by Serb forces in Recak village, according to sources of the Kosova Democratic League in Shtimje.

Most of them were women, old men and children. They were killed while trying to flee the attack and found dead out of the village. Killed and massacred people were also found in houses with 24 persons killed in a room.

Eight out of all killed and massacred in Recak are KLA members. LDK sources in Shtimje said that there were no reports on casualties in Mollopolc and Petrove villages, which were the targets of the attack of large Serb military, police and paramilitary forces.

Sources said that identification of those killed and massacred was continuing. /lh/ak/

Kosova leader urges NATO immediate intervention

PRISHTINE, Jan 16 – ATA correspondent Behlul Jashari reported that the president of Kosova Ibrahim Rugova urged on Saturday an urgent intervention of NATO forces in compliance with the decision on immediate activation of the alliance.

Rugova said that an energetic and decisive international intervention could stop the Serb military and police machine and create preliminaries for a political solution to the Kosova issue. Rugova made the statement after yesterday’s massacres of Serb forces in Shtimje region.

He strongly denounced the massacre of the Albanian population and said that the heavy attack of Serb forces against the Shtimje region was undertaken while the international factors were engaged in finding a political solution to the Kosova issue.

The attack against the civilian population was a flagrant opposition to these efforts, Rugova said in his statement.

He urged international energetic intervention in Kosova in today’s meetings with an extensive delegation of the Foreign commission of the Norwegian parliament and Swiss ambassador to Belgrade Pol Vilfi.

Many political parties and organisations condemned the massive execution of Albanians in villages of Shtimje and asked for urgent deployment of NATO forces in Kosova. /lh/ak/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

 

[26] Kosova president declares mourning day

PRISHTINE, Jan 16 – ATA correspondent Behlul Jashari reported that the Kosova president Ibrahim Rugova declared Sunday a day of mourning in Kosova.

Sources of the presidency said that “following the massacres of dozens of Albanians in the commune of Shtimje by Serb military and police forces, the president of the Republic of Kosova declares Sunday, January 17, 1998 a mourning day in Kosova to honour the victims.” lh/ak/

 

http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/ata/1999/99-01-17.ata.html

[01] Massacres in Recak – monstrous crime against innocent people

TIRANA, Jan 16 (ATA) – Albanian Foreign Ministry condemned on Saturday the latest massacre in Recak, Shtimje, of Kosova, with over 40 innocent Albanians mostly women, children old men, executed by the Serb military forces.

The Ministry said in its statement that this new act of fascist type committed by the grand Serb chauvinism units represented not only a monstrous crime against innocent people who were asking for their freedom and rights but it also was a crime against humanity as well as a worse challenge against the international community.

Massacres in Recak showed once again that Belgrade regime was increasingly engulfing in a deep crisis. It was committing the most monstrous crimes and was experimenting fascist methods of massive extermination against Albanians in Kosova, the statement said.

The new crime of the Serb chauvinism was at the same time a great challenge against international organisations which were engaged in finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Kosova.

The statement said that this act showed that the regime of Milosevic (Slobodan, president Yugoslavia) had never been and would not be for a peaceful solution to conflicts and that this regime was a product of the most aggressive nationalism which lived in mid of continuous generation of conflicts.

The Albanian Foreign Ministry urged the international community, international institutions, government of the United States and those of the European Union to immediately intervene to stop the massive exterminating campaign against Albanians in Kosova and find a right solution as soon as possible to this bloody conflict. /dast/ak/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency