NIS, Yugoslavia -- A day after their release from a U.S.-run military
prison, a Serb father and his two sons acquitted of murdering an ethnic Albanian in Kosovo
expressed relief at being free - but bitterness over 13 months in jail.

"Gone is the wealth we once had, all we now own are just our bare lives,"
Miroljub Momcilovic, 60, said Thursday at the home of friends in Nis, Serbia's
third-largest city.

Momcilovic and his sons, Jugoslav, 32, and Boban, 26, were released from a
U.S. Army prison in Kosovo on Wednesday. Instead of returning home to the
province's eastern town of Gnjilane, they left for Serbia, joining tens of
thousands of other Serbs who have fled Kosovo for fear of persecution by the ethnic
Albanian majority.

Their acquittal weakened arguments that Serbs could not expect a fair
trial in Kosovo. Still, critics say, the three men received due process only after
they became the focus of international attention.

A judicial panel of four ethnic Albanians and one French judge acquitted
them in the slaying of Afrim Gagica outside their home.

"We were not guilty and yet we have been persecuted," Momcilovic said of
the ordeal that began July 10, 1999, when ethnic Albanians attacked their home
and car repair shop. Gagica was among the attackers, Momcilovic said, as was
another wounded Kosovo Albanian.

Momcilovic believes his family was targeted because they were well off and
their car shop was the "best for miles around."

The Momcilovics fired back at their attackers, using arms left by Yugoslav
troops before they retreated from Kosovo, handing the province over to NATO and
U.N. peacekeepers after last year's 78-day NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

The shootout in Gnjilane drew the attention of U.S. peacekeepers, who fired to
"disperse the bandits," Momcilovic said. Then he and his sons were arrested.

After three months, they charged with murdering one Albanian and wounding
another. And, although five security cameras showed the ethnic Albanians
attacking, "the Albanians claimed the tape had been rigged, edited,"
Jugoslav Momcilovic said.

While they were jailed, their home and shop were burned and looted.

"Not a brick is left standing," Gorica Momcilovic, 58, said with a sigh as
she served coffee to visitors. After her husband and sons were arrested, she fled
Kosovo.

The acquittal came a day after a U.S. soldier testified about American
involvement in the shootout, which occurred in the American-controlled sector of
Kosovo. His testimony and related evidence showed U.S. troops shot at Gagica.

"Four NATO soldiers confirmed they had shot at the assailants, seeking to
stop the attack," Jugoslav said.

Although acquitted of murder, the three were convicted of illegal firearms
possession and sentenced to time served.

               © Copyright 2000 The Associated Press

August 11, 2000

Kosovska Mitrovica, August 10 -
Members of the Yugoslav Committee
Liaising with the U.N. mission, Jovica
Jovanovic and Radovan Redzic, were
harassed by Belgian KFOR troops at
a KFOR checkpoint in Donje Jerinje.

According to Jovanovic, the KFOR
troops stopped the Yugoslavs' car,
demanded personal identification papers from the two passengers, and
then proceeded to search the vehicle, including the two Yugoslav
diplomats' personal belongings.

The Belgians then insisted on taking photos of the Yugoslavs, dragged
Redzic to a barrack a few meters away, kicked him, put him up against
the wall and forcefully took his photo.

    ZVECAN -- Hundreds of NATO-led peacekeepers
wearing surgical masks against toxic smoke swept into
a Serb-run metal smelting complex in Kosovo on Monday
and shut it down, then used tear gas and rubber
bullets to disperse protesters.
    Yugoslav officials called the closing of the
communist-era complex an "anti-Serb" action, but the
chief of the U.N. administration that runs Kosovo said
the peacekeepers were acting against an environmental
danger.
    Scuffles broke out outside the plant's gates when
outraged residents, mostly women, threw stones at NATO
peacekeepers who had blocked the center of the town of
Zvecan, 25 miles from Kosovo's capital, Pristina.
    Peacekeepers used rubber bullets and tear gas to
disperse crowds who tried to interfere, NATO
spokeswoman Capt. Kath Hurley said.
    Three British soldiers suffered head injuries and
were transported to Pristina, while one British
soldier had a hand injury, Maj. Angus Forbes said. At
least one Serb civilian received a head wound, though
it was not serious, NATO said. Serb media reported six
injuries.
    About 900 peacekeepers cordoned off a
200-square-yard area around the huge facility before
swooping into the mining complex, which is seen by
some as vital to the economic survival of Kosovo.
    Kosovo's top U.N. administrator, Bernard Kouchner,
said 160 people had been hospitalized in the past year
because of lead poisoning.

The arrogant behavior of members of KFOR and the UNMIK police in the
northern part of Kosovo during "routine" controls at permanent and temporary
check-points has exceeded all measure in recent days. For three days now hardly anyone can
pass along the main road from Kosovska Mitrovica - Leposavic by the newly formed
checkpoint at the spot called "Kod Simonide" ("At Simonida's"), held by Danish
soldiers, without being subjected to mistreatment, a detailed search and beatings as well. Danish
soldiers at this check-point are especially rough toward the clergy.
Recently they stopped the prioress of Sokolica Monastery, Mother Dr. Makarija
(Obradovic), who was returning from Kraljevo to the monastery, and forced her to get out of the
automobile by beating her.

"They stopped me and since I could not understand what they were saying,
I answered that I could communicate with them in either Serbian, or in the English,German,
Greek or Slovenian languages and I simply did not understand what they
were saying.
At that moment, one of the soldiers swung his arm and struck me on the neck.
Humiliated, in pain which caused me to see stars in the middle of the
day, I reacted humanly, as any elderly woman would. I cried while they searched my
automobile," the prioress of Sokolica Monastery, Dr. Makarija, told us.

An artist herself and a former professer of Byzantine art at the Swedish Royal
Academy, Dr. Makarija was a professor of physical chemistry at the
University of Belgrade prior to taking her vows; for the past ten years, she has been
the head of the one of the most renowned schools of iconography, besides Krska, which
is located inside Sokolica Monastery, seven kilometers from Kosovska Mitrovica.

Even more ironically, she subsequently received a cynical explanation
from KFOR that the Danish soldiers thought she was an Egyptian woman because women of
that country wear black dresses similiar to the robes worn by Christian Orthodox nuns.

M. L.

 DATELINE: PRISTINA, Yugoslavia
Holding Yugoslav elections in Kosovo, would put the delicate
security situation in the province at risk and could also hinder the
democratic progress here, the top U.N. administrator for Kosovo said
Friday.

Bernard Kouchner told reporters that he cannot see Yugoslav elections
being held in Kosovo on September 24, ''without destabilizing the
security situation, and without disturbing political process toward
building democracy'' in the province.
Kosovo remains part of Yugoslavia although it has been under
international administration since NATO ended its air war against
Yugoslavia last June, following a crackdown on the province's ethnic
Albanian majority led by the government of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic.
Kouchner also pointed out the difficulty of organizing the election in
Kosovo, where the U.N. hopes to hold provincial elections a month
after the Yugoslav vote.
''(We) have been working hard over the last year to prepare municipal
elections,'' he said. ''But I cannot see at the moment, how (Yugoslav)
federal elections could take place ... in a fair, open and transparent
way.''
Belgrade has said that no outside observers will be allowed to monitor
the elections.
Milosevic's government has criticized the decision to slate Kosovo's
local elections for October 28 and urged the dwindling Serb community
in the province to boycott the ballot.
''Rather than effort to create democratic institutions in Kosovo,
Kouchner has ... proven himself to be an accomplice of ethnic Albanian
separatists and terrorists who have ethnically cleansed the province
of Serbs since his arrival there,'' the government said in a statement
carried by state-run Tanjug news agency.

http://www.albaniannews.com
Albanian Daily News
September 7, 2000
 
["Western officials and Yugoslav opposition leaders
are concerned that Milosevic could manipulate the
Kosovo vote...." As opposed to Kouchner and his KLA
henchmen, who 'manipulate' the provincial vote by
expelling and murdering anyone they can't intimidate
into voting their way. Presumably Hashim Thaci,
narco-terrorist and pogromist extraordinaire, picked
up some new electioneering techniques while he was a
guest of honor at last month's Democratic Party
convention in Los Angeles.]
 

PRISHTINA - The UN has put Kosovo public buildings off
limits for use as polling stations during this month’s
Yugoslav elections, leading organisers to say they
will be set up in homes.

The move, by Kosovo administrator Bernard Kouchner,
appears to be in line with his decision to permit the
September 24 elections but offer no international help
in staging them.

Local Serbs have criticised the move. Slobodan Ilic, a
local leader of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic’s Socialist Party, said: “If he doesn’t
allow us, we are going to set up polling stations in
private houses.”

Western diplomats and Yugoslav opposition leaders are
concerned that Milosevic could manipulate the Kosovo
vote to stay in power in the presidential vote and
help his supporters in the parliamentary elections.

Only a limited number of votes are expected to be cast
- Serbs remaining in the province number only in the
tens of thousands, and Kosovo’s Albanians will
probably boycott the process. (Ananova)

Special report: Kosovo

Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Tuesday September 19, 2000
The Guardian

Soldiers in a US army unit whose motto was "shoot 'em
in the face" beat and abused civilians in Kosovo,
according to an official army report prepared
published yesterday.

It found that the soldiers had violated the basic
standards of decency and humanity because they had not
been prepared properly for a peacekeeping role in the
area.

The report comes in the wake of the conviction last
month of Staff Sergeant Frank Ronghi for rape and
murder. Ronghi has been sentenced to life for killing
a young girl while he was on peacekeeping duty in
Kosovo, and the case has severely damaged the
reputation of the US troops in the area.

The army released the 1,100-page report into the
behaviour of A company, 3rd battalion, 504th parachute
infantry regiment yesterday.

The army said all the main conclusions and findings of
the investigation by Colonel John Morgan were being
made public. A limited number of details were being
withheld for reasons of security or privacy.

The report amounts to a devastating indictment not
only of the way in which members of the unit behaved
in Kosovo but also of the way in which they were
prepared for their assignment.

"Unit members violated the limits and terms of their
military assignments by interrogating, abusing and
beating Albanians," the report concluded. It suggested
that the unit's members had "violated basic standards"
of what was expected of soldiers in the US forces.

It concluded that the commanders of the unit should
have been aware of what was being done by their
troops. The failure of the senior officers to put a
brake on the activities of their men meant that they
effectively "perpetuated a volatile situation".

At the root of the problem, the report found, was the
way in which the men were prepared for their
assignment before they left the US in July last year.
Many of the men interviewed during the investigation
said they had been prepared as though they were about
to enter a high-intensity combat zone rather than a
peacekeeping role which depended on winning the
confidence of a civilian population.

As a result, the report said, the men "experienced
difficulties tempering their combat mentality for
adapting and transitioning to peacekeeping duties".

The unit's slogan, "shoot 'em in the face", was an
indication of the attitude the soldiers took with them
on their duties. The soldiers were found to lack the
necessary skills for intelligence-gathering and
interrogating civilians about the situation, one of
the key roles of a peacekeeping force.

Nine other men were disciplined and received
administrative punishment after Ronghi's arrest.

The report, which is highly critical of the command
structure and training of the unit, could be used as
ammunition in the presidential campaign. The
Republican candidate, George W Bush, has criticised
the Clinton administration, and by implication his
rival Al Gore, for supposedly running down the
military and allowing it to become demoralised and
underfunded.

A report that backs up such accusations could be used
in the debate on which party is better equipped to
handle the armed forces.

by Stella L. Jatras
[email protected],

http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a39d0f6e31d6c.htm

26 September 2000

It is interesting to note that former Maryland police officer Vincent duCellier, who
was recently suspended as the director of the prison where Serb war crimes suspects
staged a mass breakout, is now seeking to "Look for a new Kosovo job." (Washington
Times, 8 Sep 00). The first article published in The Washington Times was a
touching letter written to his wife, titled, "Lessons of a lifetime," (3 August
editorial page). The second article published in The Metropolitan Section of The Times
is dated 21 August and titled, "'We are the police' in war-torn Kosovo, Maryland cop
learns the value of America from volunteer mission," and was almost identical to
the first article, which peaked my curiosity as to why The Washington Times would give
double coverage to identical reports in so short a time.

One would assume from reading both articles that Office duCellier was in Kosovo
strictly on humanitarian concerns where he "learned the value of America from [his]
volunteer mission." Or is it possible that another more compelling factor enters the
picture besides Officer duCellier's compassion for the "War-Torn" victims in
Kosovo? Is it because he is being so well-paid for his services that he would want to
remain in Kosovo by extending his tour to 2001 even under not-so-flattering
conditions? It is estimated that "volunteer" salaries for Americans average in the
$100,000 a year range. If that's the case, I don't begrudge him what is probably a
substantial and tax-exempt salary but why imply that his motives are strictly
humanitarian?

Officer duCellier alluded many times in both letters to the "hatred that is clearly
evident between Serbians and Albanians." However, what appears to have made the
greatest impression on him, and perhaps caused the pro-Albanian sentiments his letter
conveyed, was the tragic fate of a young 16-year old Albanian boy who was totally
paralyzed on the right side as the result of a beating by the Serbian police a year
earlier, which left him with only limited use of his left side. Officer duCellier
writes, "He is Albanian. This was his crime, and so the Serbian police under
[Slobodan] Milosevic broke his neck." I certainly do not defend this act of cruelty,
but Officer duCellier neglected to relate even one act of atrocity where Serbs and
others were the victims.

HERE ARE BUT A FEW EXAMPLES.

One is the case of the tragic death of the Bulgarian staffer working for the U.N.
civilian mission in Kosovo who was shot and killed after his first day on the job. The
victim was attacked by a group of ethnic Albanian youths who kicked, punched and shot
him after he was asked the time. And what was his crime? He was killed because
"He spoke a simple phrase in Serbian." (The Guardian, 13 October 1999).

Another example of injustice is the case of a Serbian man and his two sons who spent
over a year in prison [was it in Officer duCellier's prison?] even after American
soldiers had reported that they were responsible for the death of the ethnic Albanian
which the Serbs had been accused of killing. The Washington Times reported on 9
August, "Serbian man, two sons acquitted, slaying case seen as a test of Kosovo
justice for minorities." "Kosovo justice for minorities?" This is an oxymoron and if
these innocent Serbien men were incarcerated in Officer duCelllier's prison, he had to
have known that they were innocent as evident by the report by the American soldiers
who had admitted to the killing in a three-way firefight a year earlier. Or is this
what the officer considers "Kosovo justice for minorities?"

Staff Sgt. Frank Ronghi, the U.S. soldier who received a life sentence without parole
for raping and killing an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl while on peacekeeping duty
in Kosovo, bragged to his fellow soldiers that he was going to pin this one on the
Serbs. If the Sergeant had not taken one of his buddies to help dump his young
victim's body in a field, innocent Serbs would be rotting in jail for the rest of
their lives at this very moment and Sgt. Ronghi would be walking around scot-free to
perhaps rape and murder another young girl and blame it on Serbs. Why not? After all,
considering how successful it has been to accuse Serbs of other atrocities they didn't
commit, the name of the game is, "Blame it on the Serbs!"

A further assault by ethnic Albanians on Serbs was reported by Associated Press on 5
December 1999 when an American of Serbian descent, a Professor from Berkeley, was
murdered. AP reported, "NATO peacekeepers and U.N. police only realized later what had
happened: A crowd of ethnic Albanians had pulled [Professor] Basic, his 51-year old
wife and her 74-year-old mother from the car, flipped it over and set it on fire. The
mob kicked, punched and pummeled them. Basic was shot. Firecrackers were jammed in the
mouths of the terrified women. Basic died en route to the hospital. The two women
suffered critical injuries and remain hospitalized in the Serbian city of Nis." The
Associated Press also reported that "His [Professor Basic's] face looked as if it had
been dragged across gravel. The medic who was present began mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation but couldn't hear Basic's breathing over the crowed's shouting. He
ripped open the man's shirt. That's when he saw the bullet's entry wound." The
question should then be asked, where was the outrage from Professor Basic's
congressman and senators over his violent death and the brutality displayed against
his family? There was certainly no shortage of condemnation on the part of Congress
for alleged Serbian atrocities.

"The killer stood ankle-deep in the mud of a stream bed on Sunday night two weeks ago
and poked his AK-47 through a metal fence covered with camouflaging vegetation. He was
close enough to get a clear view of 4-year-old Milos Petrovic and four Serbian men
milling in front of the tiny grocery in this Kosovo village. Milos had come for an ice
cream cone with his uncle, but his presence was no deterrent to the gunman who fired
21 shots at the group and then fled along the stream. Milos' head was nearly gone, and
two of the men also died quickly." (R. Jeffrey Smith, The Washington Post Foreign
Service, 12 June, 2000). Young Milo's crime? He was a Serb.

Agence France Presse (AFP) reported from Pristina on 27 August that "a Kosovo Serbian
child was killed and three others seriously injured when a car hit them Sunday, UN
police spokesman Richard Graham told AFB. A car leaving the scene was stopped by KFOR
peacekeeping troops and two Kosovo Albanian men were arrested by UN police in relation
to the incident." On the same day the Serbian child was killed, a 75-year-old Serb was
also killed by a machine gun fire from an unidentified car which immediately
disappeared in direction of Albanian dominated Obilic.

NATO TERRORISM RESULTS IN AMPUTATION FOR INNOCENT CIVILIANS.

Not only can Serbs expect little justice from the supposedly neutral NATO
peacekeepers, they are often the victims of NATO's unwarranted and disproportional use
of force. NATO's use of stun grenades against the Serbian population resulted in the
amputation of limbs as reported in the Associated Press of 16 March, 2000.
"Seizing control of a key bridge in a first step to reunite this ethnically divided
city, NATO peacekeepers clashed Wednesday with angry Serbs in a confrontation during
which two people lost limbs to stun grenades." It continues: "At least 15 Serbs and an
undetermined number of peacekeepers and journalists were injured. Nine of
the injured were hospitalized, said Dr. Radomir Jankovic, a chief surgeon at the Serb-
controlled hospital. A mother of three and a diabetic man each had one foot amputated
because of injuries suffered when stun grenades fired by French peacekeepers exploded
near them, Jankovic said." Have charges been brought against the French
peacekeepers for inflicting such pain and suffering on their Serbian victims?

In another case of NATO brutality, Danish soldiers struck the prioress of Kokolica
Monastery in Mitrovica because she was unable to communicate with them at a
checkpoint. "At that moment, one of the soldiers swung his arm and struck me on the
neck. Humiliated, in pain which caused me to see stars in the middle of the day, I
reacted humanly, as any elderly woman would. I cried while they searched my
automobile." NATO's pathetic explanation was that they thought the prioress was an
Egyptian woman because such women dress like Orthodox nuns. Apparently, beating up on
Egyptian women is OK with Danish troops.

In an incredibly revealing report, The Washington Times of August 22, World Section
wrote that "Violence against minority groups is so common place it appears to be
regarded as normal, often met with a resigned shrug of the shoulders from U.N. police
officers and members of the NATO-led Kosovo Force (Kfor) peacekeeping."
The "civilized" community was more than willing to accept some retribution, some form
of revenge by ethnic Albanians against the minorities who were left in Kosovo, as
though two wrongs DO make a right, but the question should be asked over and over
again, revenge for what? Retribution for what? And for how long? More and more reports
are finally beginning to surface that there were no mass graves in Kosovo, nor was
there a genocide and that rumors of atrocities committed by Serbs had been greatly
exaggerated.

Were none of the above horror stories that I related regarding atrocities against the
Serbian minority worthy of mention in Officer duCellier's letters home to "Mom?"

Extreme hatred and fanaticism of Serbs even extended to a dog when a group of
Albanians demanded in November of 1999 that the mascot that had been adopted by United
Nations police be put down because it was Serbian, according to UN sources in Kosovo.
A Serbian dog?

In a letter to The Washington Times (15 Sep), Tika Jankovic of San Jose, California,
after recently visiting the prison in Mitrovica, wrote, "The U.N.-run prison is
shameful. It is a smelly, filthy, inhumane dungeon where the accused -- not tried --
inmates live for months. Vincent de[u]Cellier, the Maryland man who was prison
director, has been replaced by another American."

By now, most of you have heard the joke of how the war in the Balkans began. It was
during a meeting of Madeleine Albright with the all-male NATO ministers, she asked the
question, "Well gentleman, do we make love or do we make war?" Of course, the answer
was unanimously for war.

And what a lovely war it is, Officer du Cellier.