Press Conference
by the Head of the Albanian Mission to NATO,
Ambassador Kuko
Ambassador Kuko: The ongoing diplomatic efforts aiming
at putting an end to the genocide and ethnic cleansing that is still going
on in Kosovo are welcomed by my government. However, I want to emphasise
our attitude that if those efforts are to produce success it will be because
of the military action of NATO and we insist that the military pressure
and air strikes should be maintained until Milosevic backs down and clearly
accepts the five conditions of the Alliance in a verifiable way.
Yesterday's and today's news from Belgrade is not cause for over-optimism,
the graves of Kosovo are full of the broken promises of Milosevic and
we still think that the road towards peace will indeed be a very long
one. We are under no illusions - any agreement approved by Belgrade will
not be the end of the crisis but rather the beginning of the end. Milosevic
will spare no efforts in order to make extremely difficult, if not impossible,
the implementation of a peace for Kosovo.
A demonstration of this is the fact that his troops are very busy at
this very moment placing mines and booby-trapping many villages and roads
all over Kosovo. Serbian troops are also heavily engaged in deleting the
tracks of their crimes and massacres in Kosovo. Yesterday morning, the
Serbian Army has transported with trucks the corpses of 130 men they had
massacred in the village of Staradan a couple of days ago, they were buried
separately in the village of Rakosh.
As of this morning, the Serbian forces were still continuing their offensive
in the Drenica area where more than 200,000 internally-displaced people
are located. We do not have confirmed figures but it is to be expected
that as a result of the shelling the casualties must be very high.
Talking about the internally-displaced persons, according to our information
their situation is desperate. None of the humanitarian assistance that
has entered Kosovo so far has reached them, all this assistance has been
used on a "Serbs only" basis. We hope that the humanitarian air-drop operation
due soon will help to address this issue.
The difficult situation also applies to those few Albanians still remaining
in the cities and villages of Kosovo, they have no access to the hospitals.
In the hospitals of Pristina, Per and Jakova they are told that the hospital
serves the military only.
As there are no Albanian-owned shops in Kosovo any more, the Serbian-owned
shops sell to Serbians only; those shopkeepers who deviate from this rule
do it in a very expensive way: 1 litre of cooking oil is sold for 25 deutschmarks,
1 kilo of sugar 30 deutschmarks, 1 kilo of salt 10 deutschmarks and so
on.
Thousands of Albanians remain in the prison of Metrovica, there are
reports of executions in this place as well, this was confirmed by at
least 162 people that crossed the Albanian border with Kosovo yesterday
who were incoming from this prison.
In short, the atrocities of Milosevic's troops will only be known when
NATO troops enter Kosovo but Milosevic will have no excuse for that. There
are unconfirmed reports that the public administration employees in Belgrade
but also people from the private sector in Belgrade are asked to sign
loyalty documents in which they support their government's policy and
endeavours in Kosovo; those who do not sign do not have very good prospects!
With regard to the excuse that the Belgrade regime might be looking
for after this conflict is over, I have already told you that 1.5 million
Albanian deportees stand ready to testify against him. On the other hand,
the people of Yugoslavia themselves do not want to share the same responsibility
with their leaders. Two days ago, 26 families from Montenegro crossed
to Albania and asked for political asylum because they don't want their
sons killed for a lost cause. This is becoming an almost every day phenomenon,
there were reports also of several Montenegran families that crossed into
Albania yesterday.
Finally, I want to be very clear in repeating again that Albania stands
at the same front with NATO and we will spare no efforts in order to see
the Alliance's five conditions met.
Questions & Answers
Question: Could you elaborate on the issue you reported
about Serb forces trying to hide the victims of massacres and spell the
names of the villages?
Ambassador Kuko: Yes. There has been a massacre a couple
of days ago in the village of Staradran and the corpses of those massacred
there were transported by the Serbian Army in trucks and also civilian
tractors and were buried yesterday separately in the village of Rakosh.
Question: Where are the villages located in Kosovo?
Ambassador Kuko: That would be difficult for me, I
only have the names here, I don't have a map here and it would be difficult
for me to tell you whether it is north or south or whatever.
Question: And was this information from refugees?
Ambassador Kuko: Yes.
Question: So you are seeing this and also the mining
of villages that you told us about as preparations by the Serbian troops
because they themselves seem to think that they will withdraw soon?
Ambassador Kuko: I don't know. I don't know whether
it is on orders from the bosses in Belgrade or wherever they are, they
want to leave as many problems behind them as possible, they are aware
that sooner rather than later they will have to leave - all of them. I
must emphasise, all of them will have to leave Kosovo.
Question: Do you have news of humanitarian trucks entering
Kosovo and being held or not being able to perform their duties? You mentioned
also the air drop of food for refugees. Do you know when this might happen?
Ambassador Kuko: In respect of the second question,
I know what Jamie already told you that operations were supposed to start
but there were some technical problems with the air drop and it was postponed.
The feeling is that it will resume as soon as possible, I am not able
to confirm any timing for that.
The humanitarian convoys have been in several cases hindered from getting
access to Kosovo as was the case with a humanitarian convoy trying to
enter from Bulgaria a couple of days ago. This is the most recent information
that I have with regard to this issue.
Question: Have you asked NATO to alter their strategy
after they dropped bombs on Albanian territory away from the border?
Ambassador Kuko: To be very frank, I was amazed at
the reaction of the media with regard to that incident. If somebody wants
to complain about that, it should have been Albania because those bombs
were dropped on Albania. Albania is not complaining, Albania considers
itself at the same front with NATO, this is an incident. We are fully
aware that we have to pay a dividend in our efforts and the efforts of
the international community to bringing an end to the crisis and this
is an incident that does not touch in any way the relations between Albania
and NATO.
We are paying the price - and I am not referring to this particular
incident, it is only part of the price that we are paying. We are hosting
more than half a million deportees from Kosovo, the Americans have lost
two pilots as you know in a training mission, the German lost the other
day an officer of the German Army who was engaged in a humanitarian mission
within Albania so we never thought this would be a risk-free endeavour,
we never thought it would be a risk-free operation. This is an incident
and it is not worth mentioning it any more.
Question: What is Albania's position regarding the
dispute between Uteca, especially Mr. Tashi and Mr. Rugova?
Ambassador Kuko: I don't think there is a dispute,
I wouldn't word it the way that you mention.
Same Questioner: Mr. Tashi qualified Mr. Rugova as
a traitor.
Ambassador Kuko: When was that?
Same Questioner: Recently, a few days ago.
Ambassador Kuko: I don't think that is accurate. I
have seen several interviews that Mr. Tashi has given to the Western media,
one of them was in "Le Monde" the other day, another was with Reuters
and all the Albanian political parties and factions in Kosovo do agree
on their basic aim. Disagreements are more personal or on the ways they
intend to achieve their goal rather than on a political basis. The Albanian
government is doing its utmost in order to foster the efforts and assist
the Albanian political figures and the political parties of Kosovo to
forge a common front. Albania does not follow a paternalistic policy and
I can tell you that you will very soon see tangible results about this.
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