Ivo Skoric on Fri, 7 Sep 2001 00:01:16 +0200 (CEST)


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<nettime> ivogram [x2: SFOR<->karadzic+mladic, macedonian abuses]


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"Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
     Re: SFOR 'locates' Karadzic and Mladic
     (Fwd) HRW: Macedonian Troops Commit Grave Abuses

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
To: Andras Riedlmayer <riedlmay@FAS.HARVARD.EDU>,
        International Justice Watch Discussion List              <JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 15:13:58 -0400
Subject: Re: SFOR 'locates' Karadzic and Mladic

Karadzic and Mladic might tried to use Macedonia as well, I 
believe. Macedonia is sparsely populated and its government 
currently has other worries, so there are probably parts in the 
Eastern Macedonia that would be at risk for being targeted by 
suspected Serb war criminals as potential safe havens (buy local 
officials, build a bunker, etc.).
ivo

date sent:      	Tue, 4 Sep 2001 15:47:11 -0400
send reply to:  	International Justice Watch Discussion List
             	<JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
from:           	Andras Riedlmayer <riedlmay@FAS.HARVARD.EDU>
subject:        	SFOR 'locates' Karadzic and Mladic
to:             	JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 15:29:36 -0400
from: Eric Witte <EWitte@abaceeli.org>

I can't imagine that they really mean Macedonia.  I bet they meant
Montenegro, and either the spokesman or CNN got confused...

=========================================================================
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/09/04/ponte.belgrade/index.html
CNN | September 4, 2001 Posted: 2:47 PM EDT (1847 GMT)

NATO 'locates' Karadzic and Mladic

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- The head of the NATO stabilisation force in
Bosnia has said he knows where top war crimes suspects Radovan Karadzic
and Ratko Mladic are located.

The spokesman of SFOR, Captain Daryl Morrell, quoting Lieutenant General
Michael Dodson who is the outgoing head of the force, added that it was
"only a matter of time" before they were arrested.

Karadzic and Mladic are "moving in and out of Bosnia," although he would
not reveal their exact whereabouts, he added.

Karadzic, the ex-political leader, and Mladic, the ex-military chief,
have been indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for their role in
the Bosnian war between 1991 and 1995, most notably for the massacre of
an estimated 7,000 Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica in 1995.

Morrell said he expected arrests to be made sometime soon by authorities
in Macedonia, Yugoslavia or Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"General Dodson said that it was only a matter of time before they are
arrested by officials in Macedonia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
or agencies inside of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Once detained, these people will
be brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia,"
Morrell said.  Morrell emphasised that while SFOR's mandate is to
maintain a safe and stable environment for Bosnia, having war criminals
on the loose is not "compatible" with that goal.

It is the first time SFOR has acknowledged knowing the whereabouts of
the two Bosnian Serb leaders.

The announcement was made as Carla Del Ponte, the tribunal's lead
prosecutor, was expected to visit Bosnia.

Earlier, Del Ponte said Albanian leaders in Kosovo may be indicted
for crimes against ethnic Serbs.

Del Ponte was in the Yugoslav capital with a "shopping list" of
15 key Serb war crimes suspects.

Following talks with Yugoslav government officials, however, she said
the Hague tribunal was also considering charging ethnic Albanians
with crimes committed against minority Serbs in Kosovo after it came
under international control in 1999.

"We are investigating crimes committed after June 1999 in Kosovo,"
she said in a statement reported by Reuters. She said that she was
concentrating on crimes with Serb victims.

It is Del Ponte's first visit to Belgrade since the extradition of
former President Slobodan Milosevic in June.

Chief on her list is Serbian figurehead president Milan Milutinovic,
who with Milosevic and three other leaders of the former Belgrade regime
was indicted by U.N. prosecutors for their role in the 1998-99 conflict
with ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

As well as Milutinovic, former army chief of staff Col. Gen. Dragoljub
Ojdanic, former Serbian Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic and
former Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic were also indicted.

All four live openly in Belgrade despite the indictments.

After Milosevic was ousted, Milutinovic was allowed to remain president
of Serbia as long as he refrained from appearing in public or exerting
influence.

Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic told independent B-92 radio:
"Del Ponte can demand whatever she wants, but the Serbian government
doesn't have to discuss it."

Del Ponte's spokeswoman Florence Hartmann responded by saying: "The
obligation of the state of Yugoslavia is for Mr. Milutinovic and all
the indictees living on the territory of Yugoslavia to be transferred
to The Hague.

"There is no immunity before the international tribunal and it does not
protect him."

It seems likely Del Ponte's decision to investigate Albanian war crimes
will help soften the stance of the Serbia's rulers.

They have often accused leaders of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) of committing atrocities against Serbs following the
withdrawal of the Serb Army in 1999.

Albanian leaders dismissed Del Ponte's accusations. Former KLA leader
Ramush Haradinaj told Reuters his troops had merely been fighting
against Serbian "terror, genocide and repression."

Ivo Skoric
1773 Lexington Ave
New York NY 10029
212.369.9197
ivo@balkansnet.org
http://balkansnet.org

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
To: Ed Agro <edagro@bellatlantic.net>
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 15:15:19 -0400
Subject: (Fwd) HRW: Macedonian Troops Commit Grave Abuses

Macedonian interior minister Boskovski immediately reacted to this 
report calling HRW "international mercenary organization" and 
argued that the report equalizes the victim with the aggressor - a 
tired argument we heard gazillion times over the past decade from 
various Croat, Bosnian, Serb and Albanian commanders. I guess, 
Boskovski is on his way to join them playing poker in 
Scheveningen. ICTY is already investigating what happened in 
Ljuboten.

ivo



------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Human Rights Watch

For Immediate Release

Macedonian Troops Commit Grave Abuses
Role of Interior Minister in Ljuboten Abuses Must be Investigated

(New York, September 5, 2001)-Macedonian government troops committed
grave abuses during an August offensive that claimed ten civilian lives
in the ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten, Human Rights Watch charged
in a new report released today.

The report, titled Crimes Against Civilians: Abuses by Macedonian Forces
in Ljuboten, August 10-12, 2001, charges that Macedonian police troops
shot dead six civilians and burned at least twenty-two homes, sheds,
and stores in the course of their August 12 house-to-house attack on
the village.

The rights group pressed for an immediate investigation, including
an inquiry into the role of Macedonian Minister of Interior Ljube
Boskovski, who was present in the village on August 12, the day the
worst violations occurred.

"The Macedonian government must answer to the people of Ljuboten,"
said Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's
Europe and Central Asia division.  "It is deeply disturbing that
the Minister of Interior appears to have been so intimately involved
in one of the worst abuses of the war.  We demand an immediate and
impartial investigation."

Human Rights Watch called on the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe to make public the results of its investigation
into the events in Ljuboten.  Human Rights Watch pressed for a separate
investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia, which has jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the
Macedonia conflict.

Based on a two-week in-depth investigation, including a visit to
Ljuboten, interviews with victims and witnesses, and examination of
photographic evidence, the report also documented indiscriminate
shelling that claimed another three lives in Ljuboten.  Contrary to the
government's account of the offensive, researchers found no evidence
that the ethnic Albanian rebel National Liberation Army was present
in the village.

Hundreds of ethnic Albanian civilians who tried to flee Ljuboten faced
further abuse.  Ethnic Macedonian vigilantes beat three men unconscious
in full view of the Macedonian police on August 12.  One of the men
was shot in the head by the Macedonian police as he attempted to flee
the beating.  Police separated over one hundred men and boys from their
wives and children and took them to police stations in Skopje, where
they were subjected to severe beatings.  Atulah Qaini, aged thirty-five,
was taken away alive from the village by police officers, and his badly
beaten and mutilated corpse was later recovered by family members from
the city morgue.  According to their relatives, at least twenty-four men
from Ljuboten, including a thirteen-year-old boy, remain in police
custody after suffering serious beatings from the police.

The police abuse suffered by ethnic Albanians fleeing Ljuboten is
consistent with patterns of systematic abuse Human Rights Watch has
documented in Macedonia over the past six months.  Human Rights Watch
urged international monitors to make a priority of monitoring and
reporting on the conduct of Macedonian police.

"Endemic police abuse is a potential spark that could re-ignite the
conflict in Macedonia," Andersen said.  "We can't wait for a gradual
restructuring of the police over the next three years.  Immediate
steps -- including monitoring and accountability -- are needed to
curb abuse."

The complete report is available on the Human Rights Watch website at:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/macedonia/

To access the photo gallery accompanying the report, please see:
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/macedonia/photos/

==================================================================

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