ZAGREB, April 18 (Hina) - Kosovo publisher of the "Koha Ditore" weekly Veton Surroi on Thursday testified at the trial of former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, in regard to crimes committed in Kosovo. Surroi said that Serbian
authorities systematically rejected to resolve a series of Albanian demands, including education for Kosovo Albanians. All this was done in an effort to prevent the solving of Kosovo's status, Surroi said.
ZAGREB, April 18 (Hina) - Kosovo publisher of the "Koha Ditore"
weekly Veton Surroi on Thursday testified at the trial of former
Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, in regard to crimes
committed in Kosovo. Surroi said that Serbian authorities
systematically rejected to resolve a series of Albanian demands,
including education for Kosovo Albanians. All this was done in an
effort to prevent the solving of Kosovo's status, Surroi said. #L#
"The postponement of implementing the agreement (on education) was
a tactic by which the resolution of the Kosovo issue could be
postponed", he said. Surroi participated on behalf of Kosovo
Albanians in negotiations that were sponsored by the international
community in an attempt to resolve the problem of Kosovo
Albanians.
In negotiations that followed during 1998 and 1999, Surroi said
that he never saw any signs of sincerity in the Serb side to come to a
solution. What is more, the Serbs utilised any appearance by
Albanians in the international public and just intensified their
pressure and violence in Kosovo.
Surroi began his career as a journalist in the Pristina "Rilindje"
daily and was fired when he interviewed Croatian economist Branko
Horvat who said that Kosovo should become a republic within the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After that he created the "Koha"
weekly and registered it in Croatia. Serb authorities attempted on
several occasions to have the weekly quashed.
Surroi described the pressure his weekly was exposed to in Kosovo,
including a court ruling to prohibit the publication on the Sunday
just prior to NATO bombing operations when the police forcefully
entered the weekly's offices and burnt them down.
Speaking about his one and only encounter with Milosevic in May
1998, Surroi said that the former Yugoslav presented tried to
create a tolerant atmosphere with the meeting with an Albanian
delegation headed by Ibrahim Rugova.
After returning from the meeting though a 'food boycott' began in
Kosovo. Trucks carrying food were stopped at the border with
Kosovo. Later the border area was cleared under the guise of
attempting to prevent terrorism. In May and June already the first
refugee waves to the mountains began when about five thousand
civilians fled.
Surroi described how in 1999, the police took away and murdered an
attorney and human rights fighter, Bajram Kelmendi who also legally
represented Surroi's weekly.
(hina) sp sb