Kosovo

The following articles were written by BPT-Kosovo/a team members for the BPT Newsletters No. 19 and No. 20

Balkan Peace Team - Kosovo/a Monthly Report, May 2000 I. WORK OF THE TEAM 1. BPT Coordinating Committee Meeting

The quarterly meeting of the Balkan Peace Team's Coordinating Committee (CC) was held in Prishtina from 5 May through 7 May. The meeting provided an opportunity for team members to update CC members on the work in Kosovo/a and to plan future strategies.

President Milosevic of Yugoslavia has engaged in ruthless oppression of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. This must be halted.

The bombings by NATO forces must also be halted. They are cruel, immoral, and engender even greater violence. War cannot be resolved by waging yet another war.

We, Jewish and Palestinian women, all Israeli, all too familiar with the ways of war, demand an end to the use of violence as a legitimate tool. Those who profit from war are politicians and weapons manufacturers.

Let us not lend our hand to this unconscionable act.

By Andreas Speck

Since June the war that was not called a war is officially over. After 79 days of bombing Yugoslavia agreed to withdraw its forces from Kosov@ and to accept NATO to lead KFOR within Kosov@.

(This report is compiled of excerpts from talks that Bojan Toncic, a journalist of Belgrade daily "Danas" conducted with various experts and concerned persons in Belgrade.)

Yugoslav public was recently shocked with the information that father of the soldier who died in the war, killed the man who brought to his son a draft call. That is how the duty of people who were delivering draft calls during the war, with more or less responsibility, got another dimension.

CONTENTS

I. WORK OF THE TEAM

Women in Black Conference Richardson Institute Workshop Community Centre Project Assessment Oral History Project Assessment

II. OBSERVATIONS & IMPRESSIONS

B2-92: Today we're going to talk about things nobody has talked about yet, but which must be discussed if we want to move forward. To begin with I'll read you a story. This is an account by Natasa Kandic of events that took place in the Kosovo village of Cuska:

The idea for the project was born in May this year among Yugoslav deserters and draft evaders who found refuge in Hungary. Since the escalation of war in Kosovo and the consequent NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, thousands of people fled to surrounding countries, Hungary being the most frequent destination for people from Serbia, especially the draft evaders and deserters.

The Work of BPT-FRY Following the Outbreak of War in Kosovo Introduction

In late March, when NATO planes began to bomb Serbian targets, and Yugoslav soldiers began forcing masses of Kosovo Albanians to flee their homes, a number of people asked whether the Balkan Peace Team project in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (BPT-FRY) would end its operations.

Peace in Kosov@?

On 9 June, NATO General Sir Michael Jackson and representatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia signed the Military Technical Agreement that put an end to the 78-days bombing campaign of the country. The day after, Security Council Resolution 1244 gave UN backing to the agreement. Media around the world have presented these documents as cornerstones of a "peace" process.

by Robin Blackburn (extract)

To get information about the Kosov@ conflict, apart from the website of WRI, you can check the following:

Women in Black: Documents in English and Spanish from womens point of view.

http://wib.matriz.net

Institution for War and Peace Reporting: Regular reports on the situation in Yugoslavia, many of them from people on the ground.

http://www.ipwr.net

The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research: Excelent reports from the ground, from a pacifist point of view.

http://www.transnational.org