Ethnic Cleaning of Serbs in Kosovo Continues
By Milovan Mitrovic, Ph D, University of Belgrade

Belgrade, December 15th, 1998

Albanian terrorists, who call themselves KLA, have stepped up their criminal activities over the past couple of days, synchronising their raids with the announced visit of Richard Hallbrooke to Serbia and Yugoslavia. Richard Hallbrooke has established personal contacts with these terrorists. Several hundreds of innocent Serbs are being held hostage by the Albanian terrorists ( that is, if they have not been already killed). Most hostages are farmers, abducted from their homes and farms, but there are also women, children, health workers and journalists among the Serb hostages held by the KLA terrorists. The aim of KLA terrorist activities is ethnic cleaning of the remaining Serbs from the territory of Kosovo and Metohia and occupation of their homes, lands and villages, which should in turn become a part of the Fascist ("ethnically cleansed") Great Albania, for which KLA strives for.

The Serb antiterrorist police units were forced to leave Kosovo and Metohia under the threats of US and NATO bombers, abandoning all the loyal citizens of Serbia (beside Serbs, many Albanians, Turks, Gypsies, Gora Muslims and others) and leaving them at the mercy of KLA terrorists. Encouraged by such a support from abroad, the Albanian terrorists from villages began entering cities as multiethnic environments, intent on continuing their Fascist project of ethnic cleaning of Kosovo and Metohia. The most recent - December 14th 1998 - massacre of Serbian teenagers in a cafe in city of Pec, when 6 youths were shot dead and several more seriously wounded, is directed towards increasing already high degree of insecurity among Serbs and forcing them to flee from Kosovo and Metohia.

The attack of Albanian terrorists on the Yugoslav - Albanian border is also synchronised with the visit of Hallbrooke to Yugoslavia on December 15th: over one hundred terrorist from Albania had attempted to cross the border to Yugoslavia illegaly. They were trained in Albania and equipped with the modern German weapons, many of which had been captured. The Yugoslav border guards units have prevented this illegal and forceful attempt of incursion of terrorists to Kosovo and Metohia. One must bear in mind that some officials of international organizations such as William Walker and Havier Solana, have not condemned Albania for this breach of international peace and security (sending armed groups across the border is one of the clasical types of agression against a sovereign state, condemned by international public law), nor for the threat to the regional stability. The recent criminal activities of Albanian terrorist in countryside and cities of Kosovo and Metohia has not been condemned either. Instead of condemning the Albanian agression and crimes, these officials call for "a restraint" on behalf of Serbian police and Yugoslav army and force Serbia and Yugoslavia into political concessions which de facto legalize the forcefull secession of Kosovo and Metohia from Yugoslavia. Thus, US and NATO de facto assume the role of mentors and guardians of the terrorist KLA, but also provide an amnesty for all the crimes Albanian Fascists have committed so far against Serbs in their own state Serbia.It is highly cynical when such a policy is presented in democratic Western states as "a result of concern for the peace in region". Was the genocide commited against Serbs in Croatia and planned against them in Bosnia not a warning enough to the "peace in region"?

How long do the Western democracies, in the name of "policy of peace" which only leads to religious and ethnic conflicts, ferocious wars and bestial crimes, intend to impose the peace in the Balkans at the price of yet another genocide against Serbs, this time in Serbia?

In the interest of true peace in the Balkans, especially in Serbia and Yugoslavia, we expect that the most powerful members of the international community, and therefore the ones bearing the greatest responsibility, will finally realize that "peace in the region" cannot be secured by the means of one - sided pressures against Serbia and Yugoslavia.