YUGOSLAVIA: ETHNIC ALBANIANS SPEND A SECOND NIGHT BEHIND BARRICADES TO PREVENT RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPING TROOPS TAKING UP POSITION IN ORAHOVAC

Record ID: 565979

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: ETHNIC ALBANIANS SPEND A SECOND NIGHT BEHIND BARRICADES TO PREVENT RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPING TROOPS TAKING UP POSITION IN ORAHOVAC
  • Date: 24th August 1999
  • Summary: ORAHOVAC, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (AUGUST 24, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV VIEWS OF BARRICADE AT 0300 GMT TUESDAY MORNING (3 SHOTS) 0.19 2. SV (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER SAYING: "We'll stay here for as long as is needed. Last night the Russians tried to get in here three times - once between eight and nine o'clock, once an hour later and once again a bit later. We told them we don't want them, and now we are waiting for NATO to tell us what to do." 0.41 3. SV PROTESTERS SITTING AROUND FIRE (4 SHOTS) 0.54 4. LV ORAHOVAC CENTRE SHOWING DEVASTATION AND SOLDIERS PATROLLING STREET 1.06 5. SV GERMAN TANK ON PATROL 1.12 6. SV SMALL CHILDREN IN EMPTY STREETS STANDING IN DOORWAYS AFRAID TO VENTURE TOO FAR OUT 1.16 7. SCU SMALL CHILD LOOKING SCARED 1.22 8. GV DESTROYED BUILDINGS IN TOWN (2 SHOTS) 1.30 9. VARIOUS OF TWO OLD ALBANIAN MEN STOCKING UP ON WATER AT CENTRAL COLLECTION POINT. THIS IS NORMALLY FULL OF PEOPLE (3 SHOTS) 1.46 10. LV/PAN SHOPS SHUT WHEN THEY WOULD NORMALLY OPEN FOR BUSINESS 1.53 11. SLV REFLECTION OF MOSQUE IN WINDOW OF CLOSED SHOP 1.58 12. SV'S CLOSED SHOPS, SHUTTERS PULLED DOWN (2 SHOTS) 2.09 13. SETUP SHOT OF HALIL AND SHEME HASANI, AN ALBANIAN COUPLE WHO VENTURED OUT TO FIND AN OPEN PHARMACY FOR MEDICINES. 2.15 14. SV (SOUNDBITE) (ALBANIAN) HALIL HASHAMI SAYING: " I'm telling you that the young and the old alike are afraid of the Russians. 2.23 15. SV (SOUNDBITE)(ALBANIAN) SHEME HASANI SAYING: We just came out to buy medicines. But look. I'm leaving with an empty bag. Just as I came. There's nothing. The shops shut yesterday." 2.46 16. GV EMPTY SQUARE, DUTCH SOLDIERS PATROLLING EMPTY STREET, MOSQUE IN BACKGROUND (2 SHOTS) 3.01 17. VARIOUS OF BARRICADES OUTSIDE ORAHOVAC SHOWING PROTESTERS AND VEHICLES USED TO BLOCK ROADS (5 SHOTS) 3.24 18. VARIOUS OF MEDICAL TEAM FROM ORAHOVAC WHICH HAS SET UP A STATION TO TREAT PROTESTERS WHO ARE FALLING ILL FROM EXPOSURE (3 SHOTS) 3.43 19. SV (SOUNDBITE)(ALBANIAN) HAMZE RIFA, A DOCTOR FROM ORAHOVAC, SAYING: "The people here are at risk. There will probably be an epidemic. But we're doctors and we can deal with it." 3.54 20. GV MORE OF PROTESTERS 3.59 PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA (AUGUST 24 1999)(REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 21. GV/CU EXTERIOR UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS (2 SHOTS) 4.05 22. SV BRITISH GENERAL SIR MIKE JACKSON, COMMANDER OF KFOR IN KOSOVO ARRIVES 4.18 23. GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER JOSCHKA FISCHER AND FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER HUBERT VEDRINE ARRIVE/GREETED BY OFFICIALS/C/A MEDIA (4 SHOTS) 4.49 24. VARIOUS OF ROUNDTABLE TALKS (5 SHOTS) 5.07 25. SLV ETHNIC ALBANIAN LEADER, IBRAHIM RUGOVA ARRIVES FOR TALKS 5.14 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 8th September 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ORAHOVAC, PRISTINA, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVA12CB12PCQD2ZU98PQHOV6PS2W
  • Story Text: Several hundred ethnic Albanians have spent a second
    night in the open behind barricades, to prevent Russian
    peacekeeping troops from taking up positions in the ethnically
    divided town of Orahovac.

    Meanwhile, the German and French foreign ministers,
    Joschka Fischer and Hubert Vedrine, have arrived in Pristina
    for consultations with international officials and a
    helicopter tour of Kosovo.

    Kosovo Albanians maintained a blockade around their
    town on Tuesday (August 24) to prevent Russian peacekeepers
    taking over from the Dutch soldiers who currently patrol
    there.

    Columns of stationary vehicles blocked seven different
    roads into Orahovac, said Warrant Officer Ruud Mutters at the
    Dutch forces' operations room just outside the town.

    Local residents set up the roadblocks on Monday (August
    23) to stop the Russians, telling an advance party they were
    not welcome in the town because Russian mercenaries had taken
    part in Serb murders and massacres of ethnic Albanians in the
    area.

    One of them said they would stay as long as needed to keep
    the Russians out.

    "Last night the Russians tried to get in here three times -
    once between eight and nine o'clock, once an hour later and
    once again a bit later.We told them we don't want them, and
    now we are waiting for NATO to tell us what to do," he said.

    Mutters said the protest was peaceful although the
    demonstrators were making clear that no Russians would be
    allowed into the town and the Dutch would not be allowed to
    redeploy to their new base in the town of Suva Reka.

    But soldiers going on leave and people requiring medical
    treatment were being allowed out of the town, 40 km (25 miles)
    southwest of the provincial capital Pristina.

    Russian and Dutch officers planned to meet later on
    Tuesday to discuss ways to solve the dispute.

    The Russians face general hostility across Kosovo for
    their traditionally close ties to Serbia and their opposition
    to the NATO bombing that drove Serb forces from the province.

    The animosity seems particularly strong in Orahovac, an
    area which saw heavy fighting between Serbs and Albanians and
    where many residents have tales of alleged Russian
    participation in Serb atrocities.

    Albanians also fear the Russians would let suspected war
    criminals in the Serb enclave of Orahovac slip away to safety.

    Orahovac became a ghost town on Tuesday, as the ethnic
    Albanian majority maintained a blocade on all the roads
    leading into town to prevent the entry of Russian
    peacekeeping troops.

    For the inahbitants of Orahovac, it was like a return to
    the dark days of the NATO bombing campaing, when no-one dared
    venture outside.

    But this time, the citizens are scared because of the
    imminent arrival of Russian peacekeepers, which the men of
    Orahovac are trying to keep out.

    Shops were closed and the normally busy water distribution
    point was nearly deserted.Only a few people were there,
    stockpiling water.

    German and Dutch troops patrolled deserted streets,
    virtual prisoners in the town that they are supposed to keep
    the peace in.

    It was a further nightmare for Halil and Sheme Hashani, an
    old Albanian couple who had survived the horrors of two months
    of ethnic cleansing in the area.

    They had ventured out to buy some medicines but found that
    all the pharmacies in the area had closed.

    On the hills surrounding Orahovac, the men of the town
    continued their vigil, fearful that the Russians would try to
    force their way in.

    Negotiations are under way between the Dutch, the Russians
    and the Albanians as to how to resolve the conflict.

    Doctors, worried that some people may begin suffering from
    exposure, set up a medical station.With no sign of a let-up
    in the protest, they fear they may have many more clients.

    In Pristina, Fischer and Vedrine met Bernard Kouchner,
    chief of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the
    man who currently administers the southern Serbian province
    under a U.N.Security Council mandate.

    Ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova also attended the
    talks.

    The two ministers were also expected to visit Pec and
    Djakovica in Western Kosovo by helicopter before leaving the
    province later on Tuesday (August 24).

    Both Germany and France have troops deployed in Kosovo as
    part of the NATO-led "KFOR" peacekeeping mission, commanded by
    British General Mike Jackson.


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