YUGOSLAVIA: ALBANIANS GATHER IN THE VILLAGE OF DONJE PREKAZ TO MARK THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE KILLING OF SEPARATIST LEADER ADEM JASHARI

Record ID: 565837

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: ALBANIANS GATHER IN THE VILLAGE OF DONJE PREKAZ TO MARK THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE KILLING OF SEPARATIST LEADER ADEM JASHARI
  • Date: 6th March 1999
  • Summary: PRISTINA, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 6, 1999) (REUTERS) 1. SV EXTERIORS OF THE BAR/PEOPLE LOOKING THROUGH WINDOW 0.05 2. SLV/CU WINDOW RIDDLED WITH BULLET HOLES (2 SHOTS) 0.14 3. SLV INTERIOR OF THE BAR - BLOOD SMEARED ON FLOOR 0.20 4. CU BLOOD ON FLOOR 0.24 5. CU PLATES OF FOOD 0.29 6. SV PEOPLE LOOKING THROUGH WINDOW 0.34 PRISTINA, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 5, 1999) (REUTERS) 7. MCU ENVOY WOLFGANG PETRITSCH SAYING: "Overall the Yugoslav side is not very forthcoming. They would like to drag out the whole negotiations which of course is absolutely not acceptable." 0.45 8. SV PETRITSCH LISTENING TO REPORTER'S QUESTION 0.49 9. MCU (English) PETRITSCH: "The situation on the ground is further deteriorating - a sign how important it is to come to an early conclusion of the accords and we will definitely not allow any further deterioration of the ceasefire. This is of great concern and has to be tackled." 1.02 DONJE PREKAZ, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 6, 1999) (REUTERS(A) 10. SLV KLA SOLDIERS WALKING TO PREKAZ CARRYING FLAGS 1.10 11. SV VILLAGERS WATCHING 1.12 12. SLV SOLDIERS MARCHING 1.19 13. SV FLAG GOING UP THE FLAGPOLE (2 SHOTS) 1.29 14. MCU KLA COMMANDER STANDING TO ATTENTION 1.32 15. MCU KLA SOLDIERS STANDING TO ATTENTION 1.35 VRNICA, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 6, 1999) (REUTERS) 16. SLV FLOODED ROAD LEADING INTO VRNICA 1.40 17. SLV OSCE CAR ON ROAD 1.43 18. LV/SLV SERB SPECIAL FORCES GATHERED AROUND VILLAGE (4 SHOTS) 2.03 19. SV/CU SERBIAN TANKS AIMING AT VILLAGE (2 SHOTS) 2.12 20. SV ARMED SPECIAL POLICE TAKING UP POSITIONS OVERLOOKING VILLAGE (2 SHOTS) 2.21 21. LAS/SLV SERB SPECIAL FORCES MARCHING DOWN A VILLAGE ROAD (2 SHOTS) 2.29 22. SLV SERB SPECIAL FORCES TAKING POSITIONS AT A VILLAGE FIELD 2.33 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 21st March 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PRISTINA, VRNICA AND DONJE, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVA38U6AU5O9XTNFITERPJC4O7G1
  • Story Text: Thousands of ethnic Albanians have gathered in the
    village of Donje Prekaz to mark the anniversary of the
    killing of separatist leader Adem Jashari and 50 other ethnic
    Albanians a year ago.

    Their deaths have ignited a popular rebellion that has
    convulsed not just Yugoslavia, but NATO and the West for the
    past year.

    For Adem Jashari, the war for an independent Kosovo
    ended the week it began.

    Serbian forces intended to deliver a knock-out blow
    against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian separatist guerrillas when
    they attacked the Jashari family compound on March 5, 1998.

    Witnesses say they struck at dawn, killing separatist
    leader Jashari and 50 other ethnic Albanians.

    Donje Prekaz is now an abandoned ruin.The Jashari
    compound, roofless and bullet-riddled, stares out across a
    desolate bog at a hill on which the dead were buried with
    little ceremony.

    But far from eliminating the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA),
    Jashari's death and the ferocity of the Serbian assault
    ignited a popular rebellion that has convulsed not just
    Yugoslavia, but NATO and the West.

    It was the sudden rise of the KLA and the guerrillas'
    commitment to armed struggle that internationalised the Kosovo
    problem by raising the spectre of a wider Balkan war.

    By the time the fighting in Donje Prekaz subsided on March
    7, last year, the death toll of what is now seen as the first
    week of the war had climbed to 82 ethnic Albanians, of whom at
    least 25 were women and children, and six Serbian police.

    A year later, the toll stands at more than 2,000 and seems
    likely to grow.

    On Friday (March 6) one ethnic Albanian has been killed
    and six wounded after gunmen opened fire on a bar in central
    Pristina, the capital of the province.

    The unidentified gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons
    from a passing car, leaving 54 bullet holes in the building
    and killing one person.

    Six people, including the owner of the bar, were injured
    in the attack, the latest in a series of unexplained killings
    that have raised tension in Kosovo, where ethnic Albanian
    guerrillas are fighting for independence.

    Eyewitnesses standing in front of the blood-streaked bar
    said a black Volkswagen with no licence plates drove down the
    road, sprayed the building with bullets then sped away.

    In Kosovo itself, the year-old violence raged on.At least
    11 Serbian policemen and two ethnic Albanian rebels were
    reported wounded in fighting and attacks on Friday (March 5).

    Meanwhile international envoys piled pressure on Serbians
    and ethnic Albanians to agree to a big-power peace plan for
    Kosovo as a last-chance conference loomed in 10 days' time.

    But there was no sign that Belgrade, which has refused to
    accept a NATO-led peacekeeping force which the West says is
    crucial to the plan, was preparing to buckle.Yugoslav
    President Slobodan Milosevic appeared to be preparing his
    country for war.

    European Union mediator Wolfgang Petritsch told Reuters
    after meeting Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic
    in the Kosovo capital Pristina the Yugoslav side did not
    appear ready to sign the peace agreement.

    "Overall the Yugoslav side is not very forthcoming.They
    would like to drag out the whole negotiations which of course
    is absolutely not acceptable."
    Petritsch, who was the EU negotiator at the Rambouillet
    talks, said the situation on the ground was deteriorating
    further, which necessitated early agreement even more.We will
    not allow a further deterioration of the ceasefire, he said.

    With Belgrade adamant in rejecting the deployment of
    28,000 NATO ground troops in Kosovo, the prospects for signing
    the internationally sponsored peace plan looked grim.

    Meanwhile, Suleiman Selimi, the KLA's (Kosovo Liberation
    Army) supreme military commander, told a crowd gathered at the
    ceremony in Donje Prevoz that KLA rejected partial political
    solutions and reaffirmed independence as the guerrillas' goal.

    Saturday marked the first public appearance of Suleiman
    Selimi, also known as "Sultan", since he was announced as
    supreme military commander of the KLA last month.


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