KLA Militias Terrorize Kosovo Serbs

by Vesna Peric-Zimonjic

Last week, one of those weary caravans almost crossed paths with another convoy on the highway linking Belgrade and the southern town of Nis. They did not meet and it will thus forever remain a mystery what they had to say to each other.

One was the motorcade of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who went to the town of Aleksinac, touring provincial Serbia. The other, stopped by police until the official group had passed, was a column of some 40 vehicles carrying Kosovo Serbian refugees.

They were part of the stream of more than 50,000 that have already left Kosovo, according to the latest figures provided by UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees), fleeing the ethnic-Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

"They carry weapons, they act like NATO has liberated Kosovo for them and they seek revenge" a Serb from Kosovo town of Suva Reka told IPS at a highway near Belgrade.

"Most of them have relatives and stay with them, but some are really in bad need of help" a Red Cross official from Novi Sad said. "Like most of the other towns, we already have a large number of refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and no possibilities to host more."

Some 600,000 Serbs from the two former Yugoslav republics have fled wars since 1991, seeking shelter in Serbia proper.

Dennis McNamara, UNHCR's special envoy to Albania and Yugoslavia, told journalists in the Kosovo capital of Pristina that it would be "a terrible formula" if the return of some 750,000 ethnic Albanian refugees to Kosovo would be parallel to the exodus of 200,000 Serbs.

"We don't want 750,000 people back in their homes and another 200,000 leaving" he said.

A security vacuum was created by the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces and entrance of NATO peacekeepers over the weekend, which enabled KLA members to appear "out of woods, from the mountains and following NATO troops" as one of the refugees in Belgrade puts it.

NATO troops have reportedly disarmed some KLA groups and negotiations are underway to "persuade" the rebels to disarm.

Not even the Orthodox Church, eager to retain its strong historical ties with the province, has been strong enough.

Earlier in the week, Orthodox Patriarch Pavle chose Pec, a town 290 kilometers south of Belgrade and seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church for five centuries, to remind Serbs how important their presence in Kosovo was.

Addressing a crowd of some 2,000 Serbs, from the balcony of the 14th century Gracanica monastery, near Pristina, the Patriarch said that Kosovo Serbs should stay "where our ancestors survived for centuries both in freedom and in slavery."

"If all Serbian people leave, this holy land is worthless," he said.

The province is considered by Serbs to be the cradle of the Serbian medieval state, which fell under Turkish rule after a battle in Kosovo in 1389 and got its independence five centuries later.

But now many Serbian refugees from Kosovo simply say they have lost faith in everyone.

"First they (the government) told us that they would never give Kosovo away" says Darinka Milicevic, a refugee from Prizren. "Now they act as if nothing has happened and we see the army leaving and the KLA coming together with NATO soldiers."

"People are being killed, abducted, how could we stay? Who are we to believe? Yes, the Archbishop told us to stay, but look what happened to him" she says.

Artemije, the Archbishop of Kosovo was forced to leave the southern town of Prizren after KLA fighters surrounded his monastery. He arrived in Pristina June 17 escorted by KFOR troops, along with a number of priests and some 200 Serbs.

He said that several monasteries had been burnt and accused the KLA of "targeting Kosovo's churches as revenge" against Serbs for the violence suffered in the previous weeks.

Only a week ago, the Archbishop had advised Kosovo Serbs to remain "and find a way to survive."

"Leaving our homes and this sacred land, at this historical moment... would be an irresponsible, unpardonable act," he said in a message sent to several churches in the province.

Meantime, those Serbs who can only access the state TV do not know that the Yugoslav army and police are due to withdraw from Kosovo completely, as stipulated in the peace agreements and the United Nations Security Council Resolution that followed.

The Yugoslav minister for refugees, Bratislava Morina said that "internally displaced persons (Kosovo Serbs) will soon go home, after KFOR (NATO-led international forces) establishes proper control over security matters in Kosovo."

But Momcilo Trajkovic, chairman of the Serbian Resistance Movement in Kosovo, told journalists that "many officials are no longer in Kosovo now, when they are most needed by the Serbian people."

The Holy Synod of Serbian Orthodox Church called Milosevic to step down. It is quite clear "to any reasonable person that the numerous internal problems and contradictions, as well as the isolation of our state on the international scene cannot be resolved and overcome by a government such as this," the church leaders said.