PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

The Serb population of Kosovo had totally condemned everything that had happened to Kosovo Albanians under repression by President Slobodan Milosevic's regime and during the subsequent Allied bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia last year, the head of a Kosovo Serb delegation to the United Nations said at a Heaquarters’ press conference on Friday.

Bishop Artemije Radisavlje said, however, that it was inconceivable that all that had happened to the Kosovo Albanians during a time of war could be happening to Kosovo Serbs and other non-Albanians a year after the signing of the peace accord and in the presence of 50,000 Kosovo Force (KFOR) troops and of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

The Kosovo Serb delegation had attended Friday's briefing to the Security Council by Bernard Kouchner, the Secretary-General's Special Representative in Kosovo and head of UNMIK. On Thursday, the delegation had met Jean-David Levitte (France), the Council President, to explain their suspension of participation in joint administrative bodies and to demand improved security following increasing anti-Serb violence and intimidation in Kosovo.

Bishop Radisavlje described the violence as an escalation of systematic, organized ethnic cleansing against Serbs and other non-Albanians. It was perpetrated by extremists belonging either to the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) or to other groups. A year after the arrival of UNMIK and KFOR, peace, tranquility and freedom had come to the Kosovo Albanians but not to the other inhabitants of the province.

He said there had been more than 900 murders in Kosovo and 1,200 kidnappings this year, all targeting the Serb and other non-Albanian communities. At the time the peace accord had been signed, more than 10,000 Serb homes had been burned and over 80 Orthodox churches completely destroyed. That had happened in just five months last year, from June to October.

He said the Kosovo Serbs had shown their goodwill by participating as observers in the Kosovo Transitional Council and other administrative bodies, anticipating that in three months, the international community would do something concrete to give the Serb population a greater sense of security and to make possible the return of all exiles as foreseen in Security Council resolution 1244 (1999). The reason the delegation was in New York was because terror and violence against the Serbs and other non-Albanians was continuing in full force.

Kosovo Serbs were asked to participate in October's municipal elections when they could not even walk the streets of their cities or visit their monasteries in safety, the Bishop said. As long as practical security was not guaranteed and as long as they did not have equal rights and freedom of movement, it was not realistic to expect them to participate in elections. That would only legitimize ethnic cleansing of Serbs in a province where they had lived for more than 1,000 years.

Bosnia & Herzegovina Press Conference - 2 - 12 June 2000

A correspondent asked how the Permanent Mission of Bosnia and Herzegovina had come to sponsor the press conference. Why had Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic of the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia hinted at his press conference on Thursday that the delegation represented only a minority of Serbs?

Bishop Radisavlje replied that the Kosovo problem was the problem of all Serbs, regardless of whether they lived in Kosovo, central Serbia, the Republic of Serbia, Montenegro or anywhere else in the world.

Milos Prica, Deputy Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, also present at the press conference, said his Mission had offered to facilitate the press conference for the Kosovo Serb delegation.

In response to the second question, the Bishop said he did not want to open a polemical agenda. Where were the representatives of the majority of Serbs? he asked. A year ago they had left Kosovo. By what right could they continue to represent Kosovo Serbs when their repressive regime had placed those Serbs in their present position?

Responding to another question, he said an entire people could not be blamed for the evil deeds of individuals. What the Serbs did not accept was that the entire Serbian people must be blamed for what the regime of one man had done for the past 10 years.

Criminals in Kosovo had gone unpunished for a year, the Bishop continued. That gave the Albanian extremists and terrorists the impression that the international community had gone to Kosovo to enable them to cleanse the province of Serbs. The Serbian people had the same impression, because even a year later, the presence of international forces had not resulted in a peaceful and secure life for all Kosovo's people.

Asked about the possibility of the partitioning of Kosovo, he said he had never supported that idea. It was impossible to divide the province because it was the heart of the Serbian people. There could be no partition of Kosovo; however, there must be life for all of its inhabitants. That was all the Serbs were asking, and had asked even before and during the conflict.

Could elections be postponed until all the Serbs returned to Kosovo? another journalist asked.

The Serbs could not postpone the elections, the Bishop replied, but they could not and would not participate. The Serbs could not be expected to return and immediately turn towards an intimate cooperation with the international community.

The Serbs wanted the process of return to begin now, and for that process to be evident for Serbs in Kosovo, he said. That would give Serb leaders credibility in the eyes of their own people. Without that, the Serbs' continued existence in the administration of Kosovo would lose every semblance of meaning.

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