YUGOSLAVIA: SECURITY IN KOSOVO HAS TO BE IMPROVED BEFORE THE EUROPEAN UNION CAN BOOST AID TO VICTIMS OF CIVIL STRIFE

Record ID: 646338

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: SECURITY IN KOSOVO HAS TO BE IMPROVED BEFORE THE EUROPEAN UNION CAN BOOST AID TO VICTIMS OF CIVIL STRIFE
  • Date: 18th August 1998
  • Summary: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (AUGUST 18, 1998) (RTV) 1. LAS BELGRADE AIRPORT 0.06 2. SV EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER EMMA BONINO ARRIVING, GREETED 0.19 PRISTINA, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (AUGUST 18, 1998) (RTV(A)) 3. SLV/SV UNITED STATES INFORMATION SERVICE BUILDING/FLAG (2 SHOTS) 0.29 4. SV U.S. ENVOY CHRISTOPHER HILL ARRIVING FOR MEETING 0.37 5. CU SIGN 'UNITED STATES INFORMATION SERVICE' 0.41 6. MCU HILL SAYING "WE HAD SOME DISCUSSIONS HERE NOT ONLY WITH THE NEGOTIATING TEAM BUT I MET WITH DR RUGOVA AND I WANT TO EMPHASISE THAT HE IS TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR MOVING THIS PROCESS AHEAD, THIS IS ONE OF THE KEY THINGS THAT NEEDED TO BE DONE WE NEEDED SOMEBODY TAKING RESPONSIBILITY. WE ALSO BRIEFED SOME OTHER PEOPLE TO TRY AND KEEP THEM INFORMED. DR RUGOVA SAID THE DOOR IS OPEN FOR ANYBODY ELSE WHO WANTS TO COME IN AND WE INTEND TO MAKE THIS A VERY OPEN PROCESS AND HOPE THAT OTHERS WILL PARTICIPATE." (ENGLISH) 1.28 7. SLV MEDIA 1.34 BICA, YUGOSLAVIA (AUGUST 18, 1998) (RTV) 8. GV HILLS AROUND BICA 1.40 9. LV PIGS WANDERING AROUND VILLAGE (2 SHOTS) 1.51 10. MCU ALBANIAN MAN MOVING OUT OF VILLAGE WITH HIS FAMILY SAYING WE DON'T WANT THE WAR, WE WANT TO LIVE IN PEACE. WE WANT TO SLEEP AT NIGHT AND I DON'T WANT MY CHILDREN TO GO CRAZY (ALBANIAN) 2.05 11. MCU/CU WOMAN WITH BABY (2 SHOTS) 2.18 12. SV OLD SERB VILLAGERS WITH GUN 2.22 13. SLV YOUNGER SERB MAN ON PATROL 2.27 14. MCU SERB IN BUNKER WITH GUN SAYING "THEY (ETHNIC ALBANIANS) ARE SHOOTING AT US ALL THE TIMES. THEY ATTACKED US LAST NIGHT AND THERE WAS FIERCE FIGHTING THROUGH THE NIGHT. I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY OF THEM THERE ARE, BUT THEY WERE ALL OVER THAT HILL." (SERB-CROAT) 2.55 15. LV/SLV BURNT-OUT HOUSES (2 SHOTS) 3.04 16. SLV MACHINE GUN POSITIONED IN FIELD 3.11 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BELGRADE, BICA AND PRISTINA, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVA9AVPPZ63OMZCXY9FXJRUIHFMI
  • Story Text: Security in Kosovo has to be improved before the European Union can boost aid to victims of civil strife there, a top EU humanitarian affairs official has said.

    EU Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Emma Bonino said on Tuesday (August 18) that the European Union was ready to increase aid to people made homeless by six months of fighting in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

    Bonino is in Belgrade on a fact-finding mission to Kosovo and Montenegro.

    U.S.envoy Chris Hill, who is ambassador to Macedonia, arrived in Pristina for more talks with ethnic Albanians to try to get the peace talks going, U.S.diplomatic sources said.

    Hill, Washington's main Kosovo coordinator, was expected to meet a negotiating team appointed last week by Ibrahim Rugova, political leader of the majority ethnic Albanian community.

    The U.S.and other Western countries have been exerting pressure on the Kosovo Albanians to resume talks which Rugova suspended last June as a Serb military build-up began.

    But the West has also held out the threat of NATO action unless the Serbs eased off in its military crackdown.

    In a rare twist to the war in Kosovo a Serb village is reported to be surrounded by rebel ethnic Albanian seperatists.The inhabitants of Bica, 60 km West of Pristina, say they have been under attack for the last seven nights.The villagers have now armed themselves and set up trenches in a bid to defend their homes.

    "They are shooting at us all the time.They attacked us last night and there was fierce fighting through the night.I don't know how many of them there are, but they were all over that hill," said a Serb man armed with a gun in a bunker.

    There are four Albanian families in the village of over 300.

    They say they are being forced out of their homes for their own safety.The attacks happen during late evening and early morning.

    "We don't want the war, we want to live in peace.We want to live in peace.We want to sleep at night and I don't want my children to go crazy," said one Albanian man on his way out of the village with his family.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register