YUGOSLAVIA: ETHNIC ALBANIANS IN PRISTINA MARK SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF START OF NATO'S BOMBING CAMPAIGN AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA

Record ID: 566152

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: ETHNIC ALBANIANS IN PRISTINA MARK SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF START OF NATO'S BOMBING CAMPAIGN AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA
  • Date: 24th March 2001
  • Summary: PRISTINA, KOSOVO; YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 24) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: NATO HELICOPTERS FLYING OVER FUEL TANKS 0.06 2. VARIOUS OF FUEL TANKS DESTROYED BY NATO BOMBING (2 SHOTS) 0.16 3. LV: VJ VEHICLE ON TOP OF BUILDING BY FUEL TANK 0.19 4. WIDE/LV OF DESTROYED VJ BARRACKS (2 SHOTS) 0.30 5. VARIOUS DESTROYED VEHICLES 0.34 6. SLV: DESTROYED POLICE BUILDING 0.39 7. GV/LV'S: PRISTINA SKYLINE/ DAMAGED BUILDINGS (3 SHOTS) 0.52 8. WS/LV: PRISTINA STREET/ PEOPLE ON THE STREET (2 SHOTS) 1.03 9. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (ALBANIAN) ETHNIC ALBANIAN RESIDENT SHABAN KUQI SAYING: "Two years after the bombing life here is good, but it could be better. We need reconciliation between political leaders and between all the nations no matter what their religion or nationality is." 1.37 10. MV: PEOPLE ON STREET 1.43 11. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (ALBANIAN) WORKER NEXMEDIN LLAPASHTICA SAYING: "We have to mark the 24th of March not in history only as a bombing, but for the first time the international community realised that sometimes you need to use violence to prevent violence and the world needs more 24 March because sometimes you need to use violence when diplomacy doesn't work." 2.07 12. CU: NEXMEDIN LLAPASHTICA SHOWING PICTURES HE TOOK AT THE TIME OF BOMBING 2.14 13. SV'S: PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET (2 SHOTS) 2.30 14. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (ALBANIAN) WORKER LUTSIJA BLLANA SAYING: "Two years ago, when the bombing started, I felt relieved. We were under big pressure and the bombing made me very relieved." 2.43 NEAR KOSOVO-SERBIA BORDER, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 23, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 15. SLV: BRITISH KFOR BASE NEAR BORDER 2.49 16. SV/LAS: BRITISH SOLDIERS PATROLLING (2 SHOTS) 2.58 17. SV/SLV: BRITISH TANK NEAR THE BORDER (2 SHOTS) 3.16 18. LV/SACU/LV: BRITISH HELICOPTER FLYING OVERHEAD AND LANDING (3 SHOTS) 3.32 19. SLV: RUSSIAN AND BRITISH VEHICLES 3.37 20. SV/MV/SCU: BRITISH SOLDIERS CHECKING PAPERS OF SERB CIVILIANS CROSSING BORDER (3 SHOTS) 3.54 21. VARIOUS: SOLDIER WITH SNIFFER DOG CHECKING CAR (3 SHOTS) 4.16 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 8th April 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PRISTINA AND NEAR KOSOVO-SERBIAN BORDER; YUGOSLAVIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVA3CRO0OBTMANWU3QYAWSJ32YA1
  • Story Text: Ethnic Albanians in Pristina have marked the second
    anniversary of the start of NATO's bombing campaign against
    Yugoslavia.

    The air war helped topple Slobodan Milosevic, the Serb
    leader blamed for much of the past decade's Balkan bloodshed,
    but many believe that the bombing set the stage for the ethnic
    Albanian insurgencies now seen in Western eyes as the biggest
    threat to stability in the region.



    Most of the ethnic Albanians in Pristina believe that
    NATO's bombing campaign was the only means of stopping former
    Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's repression of the
    ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo.

    "Two years ago, when the bombing started, I felt relieved.

    We were under big pressure and the bombing made me very
    relieved," Lutsija Bllana, a Pristina resident said
    recollecting the first days of the air war.

    "We have to mark the 24th of March not in history only as
    a bombing, but for the first time the international community
    realised that sometimes you need to use violence to prevent
    violence and the world needs more 24 March because sometimes
    you need to use violence when diplomacy doesn't work, "
    Nexhmedin Llapashtica, a worker from Pristina said.

    Many feel the time has come to forget the old wounds and
    start working to improve their lives.

    "Two years after the bombing life here is good, but it
    could be better. We need reconciliation between political
    leaders and between all the nations no matter what their
    religion or nationality is, " Shaban Kuqi, a resident of
    Pristina said.

    NATO waged the air war against Yugoslavia from March 24 to
    June 12, 1999, to halt the repression of ethnic Albanians in
    southerly Kosovo province by the security forces of then
    President Slobodan Milosevic.

    Two years later, NATO officials can take comfort from a
    belief in many quarters that the air war at least indirectly
    helped topple Slobodan Milosevic, the Serb leader blamed for
    so much of the past decade's Balkan bloodshed and ousted in a
    mass uprising last October.

    But there is also a growing feeling that the bombing set
    the stage for the ethnic Albanian insurgencies now seen in
    Western eyes as the biggest threat to stability in the region.

    Many Western officials argue Milosevic's repression of the
    ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo left them no choice but to
    unleash the bombing, and the results should be blamed on him.

    But the bombing rewarded an ethnic Albanian guerrilla
    force, the Kosovo Liberation Army, making it hardly surprising
    that similar movements should emerge in Serbia's Presevo
    Valley and more recently in Macedonia.

    Questions about the precedent set by the bombing and the
    way Kosovo has been run by NATO and the U.N. since the end of
    the air war in June 1999 are increasingly common in the West.

    Around 180,000 Serbs left Kosovo in the months after it
    came under international control. Few have come back.
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