B92 Open Serbia, Belgrade Daily News Service

NEW SANCTIONS THREATENED

BELGRADE, SERBIA. The international community is threatening to reimpose sanctions on Yugoslavia unless the Milosevic regime takes steps to resolve the increasing tension in Kosovo.

25 The US special envoy for the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, said in Washington on Tuesday that the US is seriously concerned about the situation in Kosovo. Gelbard said that he had offered Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic two options during his recent visit to Belgrade. One was to join the international community and 30 accepts some small but significant concessions. The other was to lose power.

Gelbard said that the economic situation in Yugoslavia was desperate and that the US could make it even worse. He added that the US was prepared to reimpose international sanctions.

35 British Foreign Secretary Robin Cooke will meet Milosevic in Belgrade on Thursday. Also attending the meeting will be Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic. Cooke is expected to advise on possible ways out of the Kosovo crisis. He is also expected to visit Pristina.

40 The French ambassador to Yugoslavia, Stanislas Filiol met Serbian authorities in Kosovo on Tuesday. Filiol said that the problem of Kosovo must be resolved.

Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos is due in Belgrade on Friday to discuss the situation in Kosovo. A spokesman for the 45 Greek government said on Tuesday that Greece would support any initiative to start a dialogue between Serbs and Albanians.

The European commisioner for foreign affairs, Hans Van den Broek, said in Brussels on Tuesday that Yugoslavia should give Kosovo's Albanians a wide level of autonomy. If Kosovo was an internal 50 affair of Yugoslavia, said Van den Broek, then Milosevic as president must do something about it. If he does not, the European foreign affairs commissioner added, then he should not be surprised if someone does it for him.

While the international community was discussing the near-war 55 situation in Kosovo, Serbian President Milan Milutinovic on Tuesday discussed the Kosovo education system with Education Minister Jovo Todorovic. An agreement on Albanian language education was signed by then Serbian President Milosevic in 1996, but until last month no action has been taken to implement it.

60 Pavle Bulatovic, the Yugoslav Defence Minister, said on Tuesday that the situation in Kosovo was calm and that there was no reason for the Supreme Defence Council to discuss the problem. He added that the situation in Kosovo could be controlled by the Serbian police.

65 Zoran Lilic, the Yugoslav deputy prime minister, told reporters that Yugoslavia could not allow the Kosovo situation to be internationalised. This, he said, would run counter to the principle of sovereignty. He welcomed the police action to break up protests in Kosovo, saying that the police had not reacted in 70 an inadequate matter.

YUGOSLAVIA LOWERS MOBILISATION AGE

BELGRADE, SERBIA. The Yugoslav Government has lowered the qualifying age for compulsory military service. A decree published in the Government Gazette permits the army to recruit eighteen, 75 nineteen and twenty year olds. Previously the youngest age for recruitment was 21. The decree will come into force later this year.

EXTRACT FROM INTERVIEW BY FCO MINISTER OF STATE, MR TONY LLOYD, FOR BBC R4, MONDAY 2 MARCH, 1998

VIOLENCE IN KOSOVO

INTERVIEWER: Why do you think the situation in Kosovo has anything to do with us?

MR LLOYD: Of course we know that the situation throughout the whole of the Balkans exploded around ethnic tensions, and it certainly isn't our ambition to see tensions between the Serbs in Yugoslavia and the Albanians in Yugoslavia flare up into serious violence. We must not only deplore it, but take practical steps to bring pressure to bear to prevent it.

INTERVIEWER: Do you believe that we are looking potentially at another Bosnia?

MR LLOYD: I don't think anybody wants to talk it up at that level. What we do know is that ethnic tension in the region is of the kind that causes us real concern about its capacity to deteriorate into a very serious situation. I think it is incumbent upon us all to bring pressure to bear to prevent that happening.

INTERVIEWER: Pressure to bear on whom?

MR LLOYD: Pressure to bear on both the government in Belgrade and on the Albanians from Kosovo. The violence that we saw in this recent incident is such that we think that it was the Belgrade authorities who over-reacted, but of course we are also concerned that the Albanians from Kosovo recognise that they need to get into dialogue with Belgrade and that Belgrade need to get into dialogue with them to resolve the underlying issues.

INTERVIEWER: The problem, surely, is that you want President Milosevic to be amenable to Western wishes in Bosnia. There are some signs that relations between countries like the UK and President Milosevic are better now than perhaps they were in the past. If, on the other hand, you start saying 'we don't like what you are up to in Kosovo', could you put Bosnia at risk?

MR LLOYD: In the end we don't want the situation inflamed in any part of the region. Within those terms the simple reality is that there are Albanian minorities in Macedonia, and obviously Albania has strong views about the future of Albanians in Yugoslavia. It is right and proper that President Milosevic is helping in Bosnia, but we will obviously want to bring pressure upon him so that he wants to help within his own country.

INTERVIEWER: In the past, pressure meant sanctions. Is that what we are talking about again?

MR LLOYD: Initially I am planning to represent the President of the European Union by making a visit to Belgrade and to Pristina. I will be calling on all parties to attempt to defuse the tension, to abjure violence and to look for a negotiated settlement: that is the practical role that we ought to be trying to play this week.

INTERVIEWER: How soon are you going to be doing that?

MR LLOYD: The day after tomorrow looks likely. It is important that we show that throughout the whole of Europe there is a sense of urgency and that we want to act in a constructive way. Nevertheless, we want to act in a way that brings pressure on all parties to look for a peaceful resolution.

ENDS

The Times, 4 MArch 1998

Massacre by the 'ethnic cleansers'

FROM TOM WALKER IN LIKOSHANI

THE secretive Serb police unit blamed for the "ethnic cleansing" that appalled the world after the break-up of Yugoslavia was accused yesterday of massacring Albanians in Kosovo. As more than 40,000 people gathered in the mountain village of Likoshani to bury their dead, survivors of one attack spoke of black-uniformed police units - a clue that members of the notorious "anti-terrorist" SAJ were involved in the killings.

"The Serbs have been killing, beating and arresting here and across Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia," Zylfije Hundozi, a psychiatrist in the front ranks of the mourners, said.

Western diplomats, too, believe that the SAJ is active again in Kosovo, where at least 20 people were slaughtered in police raids at the weekend. One said that he believed the unit was being run by a trusted henchman of President Milosevic, who was accused of starting a fresh wave of ethnic cleansing to preserve his power.

The Serbian police claim that four policemen and 16 "terrorists" were killed when a patrol ran into an ambush in the separatist bastion of Likoshani. But yesterday, as the mourners came across the parched hills in their thousands, the silent pain and oppression was matched by an anger at a Serb police state that Albanians refuse to recognise.

On this windswept site were born the beginnings of an ethnic struggle that will make or break Europe's last great dictator. And in a land where Albanians outnumber Serbs nine to one, Mr Milosevic may finally have precipitated a war of ethnic hatred that could engulf the whole Balkan region.

In bright sunshine they came, forming a procession across the vast landscape made a cinematographer's dream: hundreds of tractors, each pulling trailers packed by local Albanians, crawling in a single file towards a green hilltop stained black with the funeral throng.

At the top of the hill designated as the funeral site, 21 graves were still being dug as politicians addressed the gathering crowd. Ten bodies draped in Albanian flags lay on a makeshift dais; another 11 were on their way from the state morgue in the capital Pristina but had been held up at a Serb police roadblock.

Long lines of silent mourners passed the bereaved, shaking hands, their heads bowed. Many of the older men wore suits and their traditional white plis hats, while swarms of young men preferred jeans and leather jackets. The mood among the younger men was of revenge. "I have never carried a gun, but now I will, a 17-year-old student from Likoshani declared. "I have never been a terrorist but now I will become a freedom fighter. Another young Albanian back from Germany, said: "I want to kill some Serbs, I want to spill blood." And already there were reports of reprisal with the shooting of a Serb policeman in the village of Drenica.

As they paid their respects to the victims and vilified the Serbs, details filtered out of the fate of the eleven men whose funeral cortge was held up by the police. They were members and guests of the prosperous Ahmeti family, aged between 16 and 50, who had apparently been taken from their home in Likoshani, beaten and executed.

As the mourners made their way with the bodies through the woods to Likoshani, journalists who avoided the Serb police and navigated the back streets were taken to the family compound, which caps the hill opposite the funeral site.

Outside the bullet-ridden and twisted metal gates was a stack of brushwood, around which the earth was stained dark by patches of blood. Scores of empty shell casings from AK-47s and heavy calibre handguns were scattered on the ground, while human teeth and shreds of scalp completed the grisly spectacle. Inside the compound, the tracks of two armoured personnel carriers led to the house.

The family described how police units had smashed their way in on Saturday and separated the women from the men, whom they then beat for four hours - with at least two police to every man, according to the widow of the patriarch, Ahmet Ahmeti.

Merci Ahmeti, 30, said: "A police armoured personnel carrier broke down the gate. Our father walked out of the house with his hands raised high and said 'What do you want? We have nothing.'

"All of our men walked out to protect the rest of us. The police beat them unconscious. Then they told us to lie on the ground and kept some policemen to watch over us for the next four hours. We heard screams outside and shots. We do not know what happened, but I knew then that they were no longer alive."

Other family members then showed where Serb snipers had taken up positions in nearby houses, and pointed out an Orthodox Serb cross scrawled on the wall of the Ahmeti house, with the inscription: "Next time it will be the same" beneath.

Why the family was targeted remains a mystery, although it had business links with Switzerland, from where the Kosovo Liberation Army is probably funded. The psychiatrist Ms Hundozi said that many of the family were under sedation after the attack and that the local population in general was numb with fear.

The Ahmeti family's descriptions of police in black uniforms added to suspicions that the SAJ - a 500-strong unit created by Mr Milosevic - was responsible.

The composition of the unit remains a secret, although it is known that many of the troops are part-timers and in the past members have been recruited from among the ranks of thugs used specifically for cleansing operations throughout the former Yugoslavia.

One diplomat in the area said he believed the SAJ was being run by Frenki Simatovic, one of the most feared members of the state security hierarchy, who has been spotted in Kosovo over the past month. "Look into his eyes and you shiver," a former Serb marine said.

_______________________________________________________________________

The Yugoslav conflict began in the Albanian-dominated province, and may end there, James Pettifer writes

Unrest ignites fuse of Kosovo timebomb

Land of ancient bitter enmity IN THE past ten years of Yugoslav crisis, Kosovo has been the bomb that has never gone off. The 90 per cent ethnic Albanian province has seemed a prime candidate for conflict, with its grinding poverty, grim human rights record and Serbian martial law. But until last year a kind of peace prevailed, if it was only the peace of violent forays into picturesque mountain villages, beatings in jails and deaths in custody.

Now the fuse has been lit. After last year's spring rising, Albanians gained access to light weapons so that they can fight a long, low-level guerrilla struggle against the Serbian security apparatus.

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has begun the fightback, and in dangerous circumstances. In nearby northern Albania, chaos reigns, with local warlords, often loyal to ex-President Sali Berisha, in charge.

Over hundreds of miles, from the Adriatic to central Macedonia, authority is breaking down. The responsible but struggling Kosovo leadership of Ibrahim Rugova is calling for the internationalisation of the conflict to prevent a bloodbath. But all Serbs, not just the Milosevic regime, see Kosovo as their heartland. Kosovo was "old Serbia", the heart of the original medieval nation.

The central issue that the West has also evaded is that Kosovo is at the heart of the rise to power of Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav President. The tragedy of the past ten years began in Kosovo and it may end there. Ethnic Albanians controlled it in the 1980s and displaced the Serbian minority. The Milosevic regime was built on a promise to defend them and to remove the rights of Albanians under the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution.

Current Western policy is for the restoration of those rights in the new third Yugoslavia, but it is futile. The simple fact is that the overwhelming majority of Kosovans do not want to live in any Yugoslavia, let alone one run by President Milosevic. The Albanian communities are becoming increasingly radical and many sympathise with the Liberation Army guerrillas. Current Western policy hit the buffers in Pristina last week when Robert Gelbard, the US Balkan emissary, offered virtually nothing to the Albanians. President Milosevic can, in effect, blackmail the US with threats to pull out of the Dayton process and withdraw his support for Bosnian Serb moderates.

Most Belgrade insiders believe there is a covert understanding at work, a trade-off for Mr Milosevic between Bosnia and Kosovo. As success in Bosnia with Dayton is central to US prestige in the region, the grim arithmetic of power gives Mr Milosevic the capacity to increase dramatically the level of violence. But this disastrous path of short- term deals with Belgrade needs to be questioned before Kosovo is swept into a maelstrom of violence. The past few years show conclusively that short-termism in the Balkans achieves nothing. Kosovo needs its own independent United Nations rapporteur to try to bring the moderate parties together.

This is not an impossible dream. Most Kosovo Serbs are poor, fairly tolerant of Albanians and desperately fearful of a war in which most of them would be massacred. Every Kosovo community has a few Serbs. If war comes they will pay the price for the misdeeds of their northern brethren.

Most Albanians still support Dr Rugova, even if that support is eroding daily. This UN initiative is needed to prevent chaos that, even by local standards, is likely to be particularly bloody and will almost certainly spread to Macedonia. The international community must recognise the centrality of Kosovo, and the UN must have a proper role in the Balkans.

Land of ancient bitter enmity

Why is Kosovo the new Balkan flashpoint?

Albanians have protested against Yugoslav rule since the 1920s.

Thousands of Albanians fled to Turkey after an abortive uprising from 1946 to 1948.

Riots in which more than 50 Albanians died took place between 1981 and 1989.

Slobodan Milosevic rode to power in Yugoslavia in 1987 on a promise to protect Kosovo's Serbian minority and abolished its regional autonomy.

The population of ethnic Albanians increased dramatically in recent years to 90 per cent as Serbs fled.

The majority ethnic Albanians now seem prepared to fight for independence. Contested history lies at the heart of many Balkan conflicts and in Kosovo there is no shortage of it (James Pettifer writes). Even the name is an issue between Serbs and the 90 per cent Albanian majority, with Albanians saying Kosova and Serbs, Kosovo-Metohija. To the Serbs, it is at the heart of the original Serbian nation, with its patriarchate at Pec. The town of Prizren was the seat of the medieval Nemanjic dynasty that believed a national state needed a national church, and in 1219, St Sava became the first Archbishop of Serbia.

But the mainly Muslim Albanians have also always lived in Kosovo and are descended from the ancient Illyrians who, with the Greeks, were early Balkan inhabitants. Albanians say the Serbs occupied their land in the Slav invasions when the Roman Empire collapsed.

The defeat of the Serbs by the Ottoman invaders at Kosovo Polje in 1389 led to 500 years of Turkish rule, and sowed the seeds of today's Serb refusal to give up the province. After a failed anti-Turkish revolt, thousands of Serbs left Kosovo in 1690 and trekked north. Albanians stole their land, Serbs say, and the scene was set for intractable ethnic conflict.

_______________________________________________________________________

EU will press Serbs to halt killing

BY MICHAEL BINYON DIPLOMATIC EDITOR

ROBIN COOK is to confront President Milosevic tomorrow over his crackdown on the Albanian majority in Kosovo.

The Foreign Secretary, who arrived in Bosnia last night, will fly to Belgrade for talks on the growing tension that has already led to at least 20 deaths. Mr Cook, representing the European Union, will tell the leader of what remains of Yugoslavia that the EU is deeply concerned about the outbreak of violence, which it has condemned unreservedly.

He is expected to warn Mr Milosevic that Yugoslavia could face fresh international sanctions if Serbian police use unreasonable force or if reports of random killings are proven.

Mr Cook is also trying to arrange a meeting with leaders of the opposition and of the Albanian students who have called for protests against the ruling Serbs. He will tell them that the EU condemns the use of terror and shootings by the Kosovo Liberation Army to achieve the Albanians' political ends.

Today he will have talks in Sarajevo with leaders of the collective presidency. A main topic will be the urgency of containing the violence in Kosovo, which Britain fears could quickly involve other Balkan neighbours.

Mr Cook will also go to Banja Luka, where he will discuss the military situation in Bosnia with the commanders at the headquarters of the British Nato forces in former Yugoslavia.

He visited Bosnia last June and gave a warning then that all parties must settle their differences and make the collective presidency work. He also warned the factions that corruption was undermining international support for the rebuilding of Bosnia.

Since then Britain has been encouraged by the election of a more moderate Bosnian Serb Government, the commitment by the Bosnian Serbs to carry out the Dayton accords and the voluntary surrender of several Serbs wanted by the International War Crimes Tribunal.

London: Refugee agencies coping with an increasing number of asylum seekers from Kosovo have predicted an imminent mass migration after last weekend's violence (Victoria Fletcher writes). Last year, almost 1,000 ethnic Albanians fled to Britain from Kosovo. Other countries have been less sympathetic. Germany and Switzerland have repatriated many of the refugees.

________________________________________________________________________

Albanian pacifist leader exposed in eye of storm

BY JAMES PETTIFER

FEW Balkan leaders have the image of the "sea green incorruptible" pacifist, but Ibrahim Rugova, the 54-year-old leader of the Kosovo Albanians has. He is the man in the eye of the new Balkan storm and his commitment to peace will be tested in the next few weeks.

The tall, thin, bespectacled structuralist literary critic, with the inevitable black suit and loose scarf, looks more at home at the Sorbonne than in Pristina's mean and bitter streets. The ever-present cigarette, gentle ironic humour and dandyish elegance belong on the grand boulevards.

Dr Rugova spent several years at the University of Paris in the circle of Roland Barthes, and married a fellow Albanian teacher. But with the end of the old Yugoslavia, politics took over and he has been Kosovo's leader for the past ten years.

His bodyguard and adviser, Adnan Merovci, is rarely far from his side. Mr Merovci once told me: "I create respect for Dr Rugova."

But there is little respect for him in Belgrade. Yugoslavs take him for granted and some foreign diplomats find him inflexible. However, his pledge of an independent Kosovo republic by peaceful means kept Albanians united behind his Democratic League until the rival Kosovo Liberation Army appeared last year.

There is steel under the academic exterior. As so often in the Balkans, his attitudes were moulded by the Second World War. When he was a baby in 1945, Dr Rugova's father and grandfather were executed in front of the family home by Serbians. He thinks of Yugoslavia as a foreign culture and has been engaged in a long quest for revenge.

It remains to be seen if he can survive the current turmoil. In Pristina last week, the Democratic League leadership was purged and power concentrated in Dr Rugova. Whether that will be enough to prevent Albanians choosing the violent option, after years of patience and broken promises by the international community, no one can tell.

The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 4 March 1998

Vows of revenge as Albanians bury their dead By Philip Smucker in Kosovo

TENS of thousands of Albanian clansmen travelled by cart, tractor and on foot to a mass funeral on a hillside above the scene of one of the worst slaughters in the Balkans since the end of the Bosnia war.

They had to use hill tracks to avoid roadblocks set up by Serb police units anxious to stop a second day of mass gatherings of ethnic Albanians.

Police held members of the family of Ahmed Ahmeti as they tried to bring bodies back to Cirez from a morgue in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. Their action came as evidence mounted of a summary execution of 11 people, nine from the Ahmeti family, in the village of Lokoshane, near Cirez. As graves were dug on the hill at Cirez, some young men vowed revenge.

Western journalists circumvented police blockades to reach the funeral. Two days of investigation in Cirez and Lokoshane strongly suggested that 11 men aged between 17 and 50 were summarily executed after being separated from their womenfolk in the walled compound of the Ahmeti family.

The evidence contradicted the Serbian Ministry of the Interior's account that police units were engaged in a search-and-seize operation that led to the death of 16 "terrorists". Ethnic Albanians have become increasingly restive in their efforts to gain independence from Yugoslavia. But Serbian police units have mounted increasingly brutal attacks against suspected militants and civilians.

Several women in the Ahmeti family who remained face down in the front yard during the violence on Saturday said their menfolk were beaten for four hours before being marched through the gate of the courtyard and out into the village.

Outside the compound there was blood on the ground at several points around a huge pile of wood where the bodies were apparently piled on Saturday night. Teeth, skull fragments and spent cartridges could also be seen.

Although the accounts of the murders could not be independently verified the consistency of the eyewitness accounts suggested that they were authentic.

The 11 men, including two guests, who passed through the gate were identified by family members in a morgue in Pristina yesterday morning. But when family members tried to move the bodies to Cirez, the armed Serb police units intervened.

As darkness fell a crowd of 50,000 ethnic Albanians glared down at the Ahmeti family compound from a hillside, many of them in tears. Accounts of Saturday's killing, taken by several Western journalists, suggested the likelihood of a summary execution on the woodpile.

"My husband left the house with his hands up," said Shoha Ahmeti, the wife of Ahmed, the patriarch of the clan. "There were no beatings inside the house."

She pointed to one bloodstain on the stairs leading into the home and said it was the spot where her husband and 10 other men had been beaten. Some time after 5 pm, when the men were led through the gates, according to the women, they were executed. This matched the accounts of three men who hid beneath and in the attic of an adjacent house and heard screams and gunfire at the same hour.

"We know if they return, the same thing will happen again," said a cousin, Haksin Nezeri. He pointed to the symbol of Serbian unity scrawled on a rear wall of the house. He said that he had jumped over the wall to crawl away from Serbian police snipers who had taken up position in a neighbouring house.

Western diplomats said last night that they were pessimistic about any political resolution to Kosovo's rising tensions after hearing evidence pointing to a summary execution. They said that Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president, had misinterpreted last week's labelling of the Kosovo liberation army as a terrorist organisation by the US special envoy, Robert Gelbard, as a signal to crack down on the ethnic Albanians.

Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, is to fly to Belgrade after visiting Bosnia today for talks with Mr Milosevic and ethnic Albanian leaders on the situation in Kosovo. He will reiterate a statement agreed by all 15 members of the European Union condemning the Serb police units that clashed with demonstrators in Pristina.

Athens, Greece, 04/03/1998 (ANA)

NEWS IN DETAIL Athens reiterates call for dialogue to defuse Kosovo crisis Greece yesterday called for a solution to the Kosovo crisis through dialogue which respected the rights of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians and secured the unity and sovereignty of Yugoslavia.

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas, expressing the government's concern at the recent violence in Kosovo, said that apart from Prime Minister Costas Simitis' telephone conversations with his Albanian counterpart Fatos Nano on the issue, Foreign Unders ecretary Yiannos Kranidiotis had a meeting yesterday with the Yugoslav embassy's charge d'affaires. Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos' visit to Belgrade at the end of this week would also be a good opportunity for a discussion and finding a solution to the problem, said Mr. Reppas, adding that Greece was ready to offer its good services.

The spokesman was non-committal on reports that a meeting on Kosovo was being planned for the end of March, to take place in Athens. Mr. Reppas simply said in response to questions that many initiatives were under way but that it was premature to speak of scheduled meetings between the region's leaders.

Mr. Pangalos is also to visit Podgorica,the capital of Montenegro, Mr. Reppas added.

The New York Times

Serbia Police Crush Protest by Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo

By CHRIS HEDGES

PRISTINA, Serbia—Serbian police used truncheons, water cannon, and tear gas on Monday to disperse some 30,000 ethnic Albanians who were marching to protest the killing over the weekend of more than 20 civilians by paramilitaries. Serious unrest in Kosovo province, where 90 percent of the people are ethnic Albanians, erupted on Friday when four Serbian policemen were killed in an ambush by rebels from the Kosovo Liberation Army. Serbian authorities responded by sending out police reinforcements and heavily armed paramilitary units to track down the assailants. Most of those who died, according to human rights officials, were civilians shot by enraged policemen moving through the area where the guerrillas are said to operate. Western diplomats, who were quick to condemn the behavior of the Serbian police, appealed to the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, to negotiate with the ethnic Albanian leadership, an appeal that was swiftly rejected by senior government officials in Belgrade. Police blocked streets in the center of town early Monday. Once protesters began to gather in side streets, squads of heavily armed policemen charged into groups to break them apart. A group of police, apparently angered over the efforts of a photographer to take pictures from the window of the daily newspaper Koha Ditore, entered the offices of the paper, ransacked the premises, beat reporters and staff, and threw the photographer from the second-story window, breaking his leg. Scores of others were wounded in the assaults as police chased protesters down side streets and left those they caught beaten, bloodied, and stunned. Veton Suroi, the editor of Koha Ditore, was attacked by police in a separate assault outside Pristina's radio station. Several Western reporters were also beaten. "Milosevic has created a situation where there is no political response, where he does not know what to do next," said Suroi, seated in his ransacked office here. "He responded this weekend to the ambush on his police officers by the Kosovo Liberation Army with enormous violence," he said. "There were at least 20 executions of unarmed civilians, and we fear we do not yet know the final number of victims. Reports say there may be some 10 more dead. In the face of today's nonviolent protests, he sent his police in to beat us. I fear that this may all unleash a cycle of violence by both sides that could spread throughout Kosovo." There were reports that a police sweep outside Pristina to track down members of the Kosovo Liberation Army was entering its third day. Roads outside the city were closed to reporters by police roadblocks, but those traveling into Pristina said special paramilitary troops had surrounded the area of Vranjavac after shots were exchanged. Milosevic's representatives warned Western governments that the trouble in Kosovo was "an internal affair," and the Yugoslav defense minister, Pavle Bulatovic, told the federal parliament Monday that there could be "no talks with terrorists in Kosovo." Albanian political leaders, who have led a campaign of civil disobedience to win back Kosovo's autonomy, which Milosevic revoked in 1989, have seen an erosion of support since the emergence this year of the rebel force. A series of daring attacks on police stations and patrols have won widespread support for the Kosovo Liberation Army, which calls for an independent Kosovo. The attacks, however, also have permitted Belgrade to justify more repression in Kosovo, which has been beset by violence in recent months. Western diplomats fear that Serbian forces might begin the kind of wholesale attacks on civilians that occurred during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia. "These attacks may be used by Milosevic as a green light to begin wholly unacceptable repression in Kosovo," a Western diplomat said.

USA Today

Police break up 30,000-strong protest

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - Clubbing demonstrators as they fled into side streets, Serb police used water cannon and tear gas Monday to break up a march by tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians protesting the killings of their compatriots. The melee - following a weekend of ethnic violence that killed at least 20 people - heightened fears of an all-out war over the province of Kosovo, where the ethnic Albanian majority is pushing increasingly hard for autonomy from Serbia. "If this problem expands into a military conflict, it will not remain within the boundaries of Kosovo," warned Tito Petkovski, head of parliament in neighboring Macedonia. Monday's protesters - estimated to number 30,000 - waved their fists at a police helicopter hovering overhead and chanted: "We'll give our lives, but we won't give up Kosovo." Firing water cannons and tear gas, hundreds of helmeted riot police charged the demonstrators. The protesters hurled back stones and bottles, then fled with police on their heels. Some of the demonstrators were left bleeding on the ground. Local Serbs waved to the police from house windows, congratulating them on the swift action. Ethnic Albanian political parties had called for the protests after a weekend in which Serb police killed at least 16 Albanians in retaliation for an ambush Saturday that killed four policemen. Police said the slain Albanians had been "terrorists." But a statement from the ethnic Albanians's self-styled government said Serbian police and paramilitary forces had attacked unarmed Albanian civilians, including women and children, in several villages. It was the worst violence since the emergence of a clandestine militant organization - The Kosovo Liberation Army - in 1996. The group has since claimed responsibility for attacks in which over 30 people were killed. The Yugoslav Parliament in Belgrade opened Monday's session with a minute of silence for the slain policemen. Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic said the situation in Kosovo was "under control." A police statement carried by Yugoslavia's Tanjug news agency said two demonstrations - in Pristina and Podujevo, 20 miles to the north - were "efficiently cleared up." "No demonstrations or similar acts supporting terrorism will be allowed," the statement warned. The United States expressed concern Sunday and appealed for restraint but did not strongly criticize the Serbian authorities. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who clamped down on Kosovo in 1989 while Serbian president, warned against outside interference, saying Kosovo's problems could be solved "only in Serbia." "Terrorism, aimed at internationalization of the problem, will mostly damage those who undertook it," he said. Ninety percent of Kosovo's 2 million residents are ethnic Albanians. Tension has been high in Kosovo since Serbia - the most powerful of two republics remaining in Yugoslavia - revoked the province's autonomy and introduced virtual martial law in 1989, deploying massive police and army reinforcements.

Los Angeles Times

Police Beat Albanians Protesting Killings Kosovo: Serbs cheer as authorities swing their way through crowd estimated at 30,000.

From Associated Press PRISTINA, Yugoslavia—Cheered on by Serb onlookers, riot police used water cannons, tear gas and clubs Monday to chase away tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians gathered to protest the killings of their compatriots. It was the third day of ethnic violence in Serbia's Albanian-majority Kosovo province, raising fears of a broader conflict that could draw Balkan nations into new fighting. Hundreds of police swung their way into the crowd, estimated at 30,000, beating the protesters as they ran into the side streets of Pristina, Kosovo's provincial capital. Some demonstrators were left bleeding on the ground while Serbs waved to police from their windows, congratulating them on their swift action. Television cameras caught one older man, his head bloodied, protesting, "I'm a professor, a professor at the university." Witnesses said 41 people were injured in Monday's clash. The melee followed a violent weekend in which Serbian police killed at least 14 Albanians in retaliation for an ambush that killed four police officers. The growing ethnic violence alarmed international leaders. In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin condemned the violence and said the ranking U.S. diplomat in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and Yugoslavia, has protested to authorities of both. "The United States expects the Serbian police in Kosovo to act with maximum restraint," Rubin said. He also said U.S. sanctions against Belgrade will remain in place until authorities there "have taken meaningful steps to address the legitimate grievances" of Kosovo's Albanian community. The European Union called for increased international pressure to push Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic into negotiating a peaceful solution to the crisis. "If this problem expands into a military conflict, it will not remain within the boundaries of Kosovo," warned Tito Petkovski, head of parliament in neighboring Macedonia, which has its own restive ethnic Albanian minority. Kosovo Albanians, who make up more than 90% of the province's 2 million people, have been pushing for independence from Serbia, which abolished the province's broad autonomy in 1989.

Cable News Network

Serbian police break up mass protest in Kosovo

In this story: U.S. concerned

Albania calls for intervention

NATO to discuss Kosovo

March 2, 1998 Web posted at: 9:28 a.m. EST (1428 GMT) PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Police in the Serbian province of Kosovo on Monday used tear gas and water cannons to break up a demonstration by thousands of ethnic Albanians who protested against what they called Serbian police terror and weekend violence that killed 20 people. Monday's demonstrations in Pristina, Kosovo's capital, had been called by ethnic Albanian parties, trade unions and students. The crowd—which some estimates put as high as 50,000 -- waved their fists at a police helicopter overhead and chanted: "We'll give our lives, but we won't give up Kosovo." Firing water cannon and tear gas, hundreds of helmeted Serbian riot police charged the demonstrators, driving them apart, then chasing and beating them as they fled. Some of the demonstrators were left bleeding. A number of local Serbs waved to the police from house windows, congratulating them on the swift action. The demonstration, described as the biggest since Kosovo was stripped of its autonomous status in 1989 by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, swamped streets in defiance of patrols of police in riot armor. The demonstration came after a weekend of ethnic violence in which at least 20 people -- 16 Albanians and four Serbs—were killed, heightening fear of all-out war in the province, which borders Albania and is seeking autonomy from Serbia, the dominant republic in Yugoslavia. That weekend bloodshed began on Friday evening, when security forces intercepted a car that they said was carrying members of the clandestine Kosovo Liberation Army (LAK) in central Kosovo. Deadly clashes between police and armed locals ensued in the village of Kilosane and the nearby towns of Srbica and Glogovac. On Saturday, Serbian police said officers on regular duty were ambushed with grenades, automatic weapons and mortars near Glogovac. Four Serbian policemen were killed and two were seriously wounded. Police then killed 16 Albanian "terrorists" and arrested five, police said in a statement. But a statement from the ethnic Albanians' self-styled government said Serbian police and paramilitary forces had attacked unarmed Albanian civilians, including women and children, in several villages. Albanian protesters put the death toll at 30. Gunfire and explosions could be heard Sunday while police combed the area of the clashes in armored vehicles and helicopters. Police said they found a large quantity of weapons, including grenades, mortar shells and explosives. Official Serb sources said there were more incidents early on Monday, with grenades thrown at Serb houses in towns and villages in central Kosovo. No casualties were reported. The United States appealed Sunday for restraint but did not strongly criticize Serb authorities. Milosevic warned against outside interference, saying Kosovo's problems could be solved "only in Serbia."

In condolences to the families of the dead policemen, Milosevic urged Albanians to abstain from bloodshed and said that "terrorism aimed at the internationalization (of the Kosovo) issue would be most harmful to those who had resorted to these means." U.S. concerned The flare-up occurred less than a week after U.S. Balkans envoy Robert Gelbard visited the province to try to reopen a dialogue between the two communities. Voicing Washington's "extreme interest and concern over the rising cycle of violence," Gelbard condemned both the Serbian police and the LAK, which he called "without a question a terrorist group." He urged democratic Albanians to condemn the LAK "to show whose side they are on." Albania calls for intervention Albania's opposition Democratic Party urged the West on Monday to intervene immediately to prevent a conflict in Kosovo and also called for restraint from ethnic Albanians. In a statement, the Democrats said recent violence in the province, where Albanians make up 90 percent of the population, could spark a dangerous conflict in the southern Balkans. Albania urged Yugoslavia on Sunday to halt what it called escalating violence against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and called on the West to intervene to prevent war. NATO to discuss Kosovo NATO ambassadors were expected to discuss the latest political violence at their regular meeting on Wednesday. Some diplomats were quoted as saying Milosevic was making a big mistake if he thought he could launch a violent crackdown in Kosovo province with impunity. NATO, which leads the 34,000-strong Stabilization Force in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, has been receiving weekly intelligence reports on Kosovo for some time. The 15-member European Union on Monday condemned the violence and the loss of life.

DEPUTY SPEAKER OF UPPER HOUSE ON KOSOVO Tanjug, 1998-03-02 Asked whether the complex situation in Kosovo and Metohija would be put on the Yugoslav parliament's agenda, newly-appointed Deputy Speaker of the Yugoslav Parliament Upper House Gorica Gajevic said this was Serbia's internal affair and that there was no reason why the issue should be put on the federal parliament's agenda. "Serbia will fight against terrorism the way the entire world does meaning that it will take all measures it has at its disposal," she said. She said this was what the entire world did, saying it was the only way to eliminate terrorism. She also said Serbia, like all other states in the world, would take energetic and efficient measures to cope with the problem. Praising Serbian police for their courage and dedication, Gajevic said she was confident that ethnic Albanians in the province would respond in the right way and oppose terrorism because it was primarily detrimental to their interests.

VICE-PREMIER: SOLUTION TO KOSOVO ISSUE LIES IN DIALOGUE Tanjug, 1998-03-02 Yugoslav Vice-Premier Zoran Lilic said Monday that, as regards terrorism in any part of the world, all measures that a state ruled by law could take were allowed, saying this referred also to Serbia. Lilic told reporters at the Yugoslav parliament that, "I am confident that the solution lies somewhere else and that it primarily depends on ethnic Albanian secessionists." He said the solution did not lie in new conflicts, calling on all ethnic Albanians to condemn terrorism and back a dialogue because he said this was the only solution. Asked whether the Army of Yugoslavia should be engaged in fighting against terrorism in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija, Lilic said there was not a single reason why this should be so. "I do not urge escalation of clashes and do not think that is a solution," he said adding that the army would take necessary measures to defend the Yugoslav border in line with its constitutional powers, protecting the constitution and Yugoslavia's security. "A dialogue and a peaceful solution primarily benefit ethnic Albanians. It is our duty to equally protect the rights of Serbs, Montenegrins and loyal ethnic Albanians," he said. He ruled out the possibility of the issue of Kosovo and Metohija being internationalised, saying this directly violated Yugoslavia's and Serbia's sovereignty. He said the issue exclusively Serbia's internal affair.

ANOTHER TERRORIST ATTACK IN KOSOVO Tanjug, 1998-03-02 Another terrorist attack was perpetrated Monday afternoon by an armed gang of ethnic Albanians in the Donji Ratis village in the Decani municipality in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo-Metohija. Three people, Slobodan Prascevic, Igbala Tahiraj and her son, were wounded in the attack. Pensioner Slobodan Prascevic succumbed to injuries sustained, Tanjug learned at the general hospital in Pec. The other two people injured in the attack, Igbala Tahiraj, who sustained severe leg injuries and her son who was lightly injured, were taken care of at a health care centre in Decani. This was the tenth attack by ethnic Albanian terrorists Monday on the homes of Serbs, Montenegrins and ethnic Albanians loyal to Serbia and Yugoslavia in three municipalities of the Pec district.

POLICE PREVENT ILLEGAL ETHNIC ALBANIAN PROTEST IN KOSOVO Tanjug, 1998-03-02 In a brief and efficient action, the Serbian police Monday prevented Kosovo ethnic Albanians' attempt to hold a protest rally in Pristina, staged by a coordination committee of ethnic Albanian political parties in solidarity with residents of Drenica, the site of incidents that took place at the weekend. Among parties making up the Committee are the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo (DSK) led by Ibrahim Rugova, the Union of students of the (illegal) ethnic Albanian university and the Union of ethnic Albanian independent trade unions. Before the beginning of the rally in Pristina's main street Monday morning, the police warned the protesters that the rally was illegal because it had not been reported beforehand. At that point, protesters pelted the police with stones and the latter responded by using tear gas and water canons to disperse the crowd. The demonstrators were led by president of the ethnic Albanian university teaching staff trade union Zekerija Cana, chief editor of the Koha Ditore daily paper Veton Suroji, DSK Secretary-General Fatmir Sejdiju and head of the Islamic religious community Redzep Boja. The police were forced to intervene also in several other city districts in order to disperse smaller groups of protesters. A large group of protesters moving towards Pristina's Suncani Breg district threw stones at the Student Centre, smashing several windows of a hostel. Law and order was restored in Pristina by 11 a.m. local time. Traffic was normalized and the situation in the entire city is peaceful.

DEFENSE MINISTER: THERE WILL BE NO TALKS WITH TERRORISTS Tanjug, 1998-03-02 Yugoslav Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic told parliament on Monday that there would be no negotiations with terrorists in Kosovo and Metohija. Bulatovic said prior to the opening of the parliament's spring session that no separate initiative for resolving the problem of Kosovo and Metohija would be raised, adding "it is always there." He said there was always an initiative to bring circumstances in the province back to normal, but emphasized that "there can be no negotiations with terrorists."

US State Department Daily Briefing March 3, 1998

QUESTION: Yes, I would now like to --

MR. RUBIN: Please.

QUESTION: Kosovo, we didn't talk about it yesterday.

MR. RUBIN: We did.

QUESTION: We did?

MR. RUBIN: I read a statement about that, yes.

QUESTION: Oh, okay. Currently, Jamie, the - Mr. Bulatovic, the defense minister of Serbia, has said - stated that Kosovo separatists are supporting - getting support from part of the international community; that's why there has been this terrorism and killing in Kosovo. Once again, where does the US stand on the implementation of - or putting in SFOR troops or does that have to be NATO troops or what?

MR. RUBIN: I'm not familiar with any proposal to send in military forces into Kosovo on the ground. Let me say this - we are appalled by the recent violent incidents in Kosovo. We continue to call on all sides to enter into an unconditional dialogue, and for authorities in Belgrade to implement immediately the education agreement on an effective basis. This would be a way to reduce tensions.

We have also called on the leaders of the Kosovar-Albanians to condemn terrorist action by the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, noting that violence does not contribute to a just and durable solution to the problems there.

As the events over the weekend demonstrated, however, the vast majority of violence in Kosovo is due to actions of government authorities. We expect the Serbian police in Kosovo to act with maximum restraint, and the Yugoslav army to take no action that will further incite violence there. We have made these views clear to the authorities in Belgrade. Special Representative Robert Gelbard has communicated directly with President Milosevic, making clear the consequences that will ensue if they don't turn around. And Secretary Albright spoke today on the phone to Foreign Minister Cook and Foreign Minister Primakov about the situation. So we're seized with the subject. We have grave concerns in this area, and we're continuing to act.

QUESTION: Did Albright, when she talked with Cook and Primakov on this subject, discuss the possibility of the need for a foreign ministers', foreign secretaries' meeting, perhaps of the Contact Group or anything of that sort?

MR. RUBIN: I wouldn't rule that out.

QUESTION: When would you not rule that out? Would that be not ruled out in London?

MR. RUBIN: Not ruling out is the best I can do for now.

QUESTION: Before you change the subject, did they discuss the continuation of the force in Macedonia?

MR. RUBIN: I don't know the full extent of the conversation. I know that the main topic was Kosovo, however.

EU/KOSOVO: COOK TO BELGRADE

(ANSA) - Brussels, March 3 - British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook is flying to Belgrade today to voice the European Union's concern over the recent wave of violence in Serbia's largely ethnic-Albanian province of Kosovo, British diplomatic sources said here this morning. Britain currently holds the EU's rotating presidency. Yesterday Serb police used water cannons, tear gas and batons to disperse some 30,000 ethnic Albanians in the capital Pristina protesting the killing of more than 20 people in the Drenica region at the weekend. At least 100 people were injured in yesterday's clashes, sources in Tirana said. The violence began Friday when Serb police were ambushed by Kosovo rebels fighting for the independence of the province, which is close to the Albanian border and whose population is 90-percent ethnic Albanian. Serb authorities executed at least 20 civilians in the area of the ambush, an incident which could light tinder that has been smouldering across the province over the last two years. Violence has been mounting for weeks ahead of the March 22 elections in Kosovo called by the Albanian majority but not recognized by Belgrade authorities. (MORE).

GEE 03-MAR-98 11:02 NNN EU/KOSOVO: COOK TO BELGRADE (2)

Yesterday international bodies urged Slobodan Milosevic, the president of the Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro, to start talking to the Kosovo rebels, but he rejected the appeals. The European Commission, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OECD) and concerned countries including Italy and Albania all called for an end to the violence. Italy said talks would be helpful, but a more immediate signal aimed at defusing the situation would be restoring ethnic Albanian schooling. Milosevic banned the use of the Albanian language when unrest began to grow at universities 18 months ago, and about 500,000 students and schoolchildren have taken part in a separatist boycott to protest the move. Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano yesterday called for ''immediate'' talks as the only solution to the crisis, while the Albanian parliament voted last night to welcome Nato or UN forces if they were deemed necessary to restore peace in the Balkans. Albania's near neighbours Greece, Slovenia, and Macedonia also expressed concern and called for action. (MORE).

GEE 03-MAR-98 11:02 NNN EU/KOSOVO: COOK TO BELGRADE (3)

The resolution of tensions in Kosovo has been listed as one of the conditions for lifting the final international sanctions on Belgrade, imposed during the Bosnian war. Some fear that if the Kosovo erupts into civil war, the flames could spread back to Albania, where supporters of the opposition led by ex-president Sali Berisha have been up in arms of late, and even briefly took control of a northern city not far from the border with Kosovo last week. Berisha, who was replaced last year by a (formerly Communist) Socialist administration, has vowed to give Albania a ''spring of discontent.'' Part of Berisha's strategy of regaining power could be to play up nationalist sentiment by exploiting the Kosovo issue, analysts in Tirana say. Albanians battled Yugoslav troops at the end of World War II for control of the Kosovo region but lost, and the region became part of Tito-controlled Yugoslavia in 1945. With the break-up of Yugoslavia at the turn of the 90s, Milosevic tried to snuff out Albanian separatism by dissolving Kosovo's ethnic Albanian government in 1989 and restoring Serbian control over the region. Most Albanian activists today call for a return to that form of autonomy granted in 1974, but a minority have urged joining neighboring Albania.(END). GEE 03-MAR-98 11:02 NNN EU/KOSOVO: COOK...FIRST ADD

(ANSA) - Brussels, March 3 - The British duty presidency later issued a statement voicing ''unreserved condemnation'' of the violence of the last few days. A clarified death toll released here cited 16 ethnic-Albanian civilians and four Serb policemen in Friday's clashes in the Drenica region, a mountainous area south-west of the capital. Kosovo rebels - viewed by some as freedom fighters, by others such as Belgrade and Russia as terrorists - have recently been stepping up attacks on Serb police. (In Tirana, the Albanian press today reported a toll of ''at least'' 289 injured in yesterday's clashes in Pristina, some of them with serious fractures or concussion.) The EU statement issued here voiced ''deep concern'' and ''regret'' over the violence. It urged all sides to refrain from further violence and called on ''Serb organisations to fully respect human rights in carrying out their duties.'' Much of Kosovo, especially near the Albanian border, is mountain terrain where rebels find it easy to find refuge and have no difficulty in finding support from the populace. The rest of the province is mainly given over to subsistence farming. There is no large industry. GEE 03-MAR-98 11:27 NNN EU/KOSOVO: COOK...SECOND ADD

(ANSA) - Brussels, March 3 - EU Commissioner for External Relations Hans van den Broek issued a stern warning to Milosevic to restore autonomy in Kosovo or face the possibility of others ''doing it for him.'' Talking to journalists here, van den Broek said Milosevic should start talking to leaders of the separatist movement in Kosovo and restore the pre-1989 autonomy of the province. ''If he does not do so, he should not be surprised if others do it for him,'' van den Broek said. GEE 03-MAR-98 12:14 NNN ALBANIA/ITALY: COOPERATION AGREEMENT SIGNED IN ROME

(ANSA) - Rome, March 3 - Italy and Albania today signed a cooperation agreement aimed at strengthening democratic institutions in the Balkan country, the foreign ministry announced here. The agreement was signed during a meeting of Albania's Minister for Cooperation and Economic Development Ermelinda Meksi, Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, Foreign Undersecretary Piero Fassino and Albanian aid commissioner Franco Angioni. The protocol puts into effect one of the fundamental parts of Italy's strategy to help Albania, contained in the Declaration of Intents signed by Dini December 18 in Tirana, the statement said. It involves the efforts Italian ministries will make to strengthen the Balkan country's democratic institutions and various areas of its public administration. The protocol will release 60 billion lire (33 million dollars) to Italian ministries to fund efforts to assist Albania's institutions, as called for in the 1998 budget. (MORE).

KHV 03-MAR-98 15:59 NNN ALBANIA/ITALY: COOPERATION AGREEMENT SIGNED IN ROME (2)

Ministries will provide goods, services and expert advice to the following areas of the Albanian public administration: interior, justice, finance, health, transport, education, economy and privatizations, agriculture and statistics. Dini said this latest agreement is confirmation of Italy's commitment to help stabilize Albania. Meksi expressed the Albanian government's appreciation Italy's assistance. (END). KHV

US/ITALY: ALBRIGHT TO MEET ITALIAN LEADERS AND POPE

(ANSA) - Rome, March 3 - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will meet with Italian leaders and Pope John Paul II when she visits here Friday and Saturday. Albright will first see President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro at the Quirinale on Friday afternoon, followed by meetings Saturday morning with Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini and Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Before seeing Prodi at Palazzo Chigi, she will be received by Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. The Pope and Albright will discuss the situations in Iraq and Cuba, especially in light of his trip to the Caribbean nation in January. In her meeting with Dini, Albright is expected to discuss the Italian minister's trip this week to Iran, the first by a high-level official since the European Union lifted a ban on visits there last week. Dini will suggest to his American counterpart that the US encourage Iran's opening to the West and be ''patient'' because the Iranian President Mohamed Khatami may have to slow his opening in the face of criticism at home, foreign ministry sources said. (MORE).

KHV 03-MAR-98 19:13 NNN US/ITALY: ALBRIGHT TO MEET ITALIAN LEADERS AND POPE (2)

They will also discuss the recent Iraqi crisis and how it was averted, with the US looking for assurances that Italian bases will be available in the future if they are needed. Key members of the coalition supporting the Prodi government had threatened to withdraw their support if the US were allowed to use Italian bases to attack Iraq. Albright will also visit the Saint Egidio community, the Rome-based Catholic group known for its role in conflict resolution around the world. Albright's visit here is part of a five-day tour that will also take her to Ukraine, Germany, France, Great Britain and Canada. The trip is aimed at strengthening relations with ''some of our closest allies, especially in the wake of the recent events in Iraq,'' State Department spokesperson James Rubin said in Washington yesterday. (END). KHV 03-MAR-98 19:13 NNN EU/KOSOVO: COOK...THIRD ADD

(ANSA) - Brussels, March 3 - After meeting with top officials in Belgrade, Cook may travel on to Pristina tomorrow or Thursday, British diplomatic sources here said. Meanwhile, Van den Broek stressed the urgency of finding a solution to the violence in Kosovo. ''The clock is ticking, and it's almost 12 o'clock,'' he said following a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Milorad Dodic. Van den Broek blamed Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic for the tensions. ''Milosevic clearly bears a very great responsibility in this situation'' for continuing to insist that the Kosovo situation is part of Serbia's internal affairs. ''Maybe that's true, but in that case, Milosevic should take the initiative and find a peaceful solution with the Albanians of Kosovo,'' van den Broek said. ''The Kosovo crisis risks degenerating into a war,'' he said. ''I can't imagine that the international community can tolerate a further worsening of the situation in the southern Balkans with the risk of setting fire to the entire region,'' he said. (MORE).

KHV 03-MAR-98 19:57 NNN EU/KOSOVO: COOK...THIRD ADD (2)

As the EU condemned the violence, one thousand Albanians protested in Brussels against the recent bloodshed, asking Nato to intervene as it did in Bosnia. Socialists in the European Parliament called for a ''neutral'' police force for the region under the direction of the EU or the Western European Union. Yugoslavia's trade minister, Borislav Vukovic, said his government ''hopes to quickly restart an open and constructive dialogue to find an acceptable solution.'' Belgrade had made several attempts recently to restart the dialogue, but ''the impatience of law enforcement forces in Kosovo has disturbed the process,'' he said. Vukovic asked the EU to condemns ''acts of terrorism'' in the region. In Athens, the Greek government offered to mediate a solution to the problem. In Geneva, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, appealed to Belgrade to ''do everything possible to avoid violence.'' ''The problems of Kosovo will not be resolved with violence,'' Robinson said. (END).

03-MAR-98 21:26 NNN KOSOVO/ITALY: FOREIGN MINISTRY ON UNREST IN KOSOVO

(ANSA) - Rome, March 3 - Tensions in the stricken Serbian province of Kosovo must be relaxed and, said the Rome Foreign Ministry, priority must be placed on ''convincing the sides that they must take on their responsibilities for averting a worsening of the crisis.'' In the wake of weekend of violence in the largely-ethnic Albanian province in which 20 people were killed, a Foreign Ministry communique said the first step to take is to ''halt the escalation of violence, whether its origins are in terrorist activities or Serbian police repression.'' The sides involved ''must refrain from all actions and statements which might exacerbate the situation.'' The communique said Italy has been urging Belgrade and Pristina to open urgent talks aimed at coming to grips with the problem ''at its roots (and) provide adequate responses to problems linked to human and cultural rights, to civil coexistence and successively to the status of the province within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.'' Italy is convinced that this process must ''begin with the school system.'' In this connection, the ministry cited a 1996 agreement sponsored by the Sant' Egidio Community in Rome ''which provides a suitable basis for an accord which must now be put into practice by the sides involved.'' (MORE).

GY 03-MAR-98 22:23 NNN KOSOVO/ITALY: FOREIGN MINISTRY ON UNREST IN KOSOVO (2)

The progressive re-instatement of Albanian students in schools and universities is, ''in fact, a crucial measure of confidence at this particular time.'' Italy's contacts within the European Union, the Contact Group and those forthcoming at the meeting of G-8 political directors at the end of the week are based on these concepts. Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, it was learned, voiced these views in consultations and messages exchanged with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook on the eve of Cook's departure for Belgrade today for meetings with Serbian President Milan Milutinovic and Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo. These concepts were also expressed in stepped up contacts with the United States on unrest in Kosovo, ahead of Dini's meeting here with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright scheduled for Saturday. It was also learned that Dini asked the Italian ambassador to Belgrade to again travel to Pristina ''to illustrate the Italian line in favor of dialogue and in support of negotiations on schools.'' (END).