Post by Bozur on Feb 17, 2005 18:12:14 GMT -5
Serbia rejects ethnic Albanian demand for foreign troops
AP
Ethnic Albanians display photos on Monday in Presevo, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Belgrade, showing ethnic Albanian Dashnim Hajrulahu, just 16, who was shot by Serbian security forces on Friday trying to illegally cross the border from neighboring FYROM.
BELGRADE (Combined reports) - The government of Serbia and Montenegro has rejected a demand from ethnic Albanian leaders for international troops to be deployed in the tense southern Serbian region of the Presevo Valley, a report said yesterday.
Serbia-Montenegro Defense Minister Prvoslav Davinic said the demand, made Monday after a 16-year-old ethnic Albanian boy was shot dead by a Serbian soldier, was an “unnecessary political request,” the Blic daily reported.
“There is no need for their presence, as the police and army can perform their duty well,” the minister was quoted as saying.
A Serbian border guard shot and killed Dashnim Hajrulahu on Friday as he tried to illegally cross the border from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) into Serbia, in an area of tension between Serbian security forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.
The boy’s family told AFP he was returning to Serbia from a trip to see his mother in FYROM.
The shooting prompted a rise of interethnic tension in the troubled region, near the UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo where some 10,000 people died in fighting between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in 1998-1999.
US delegation
Meanwhile, a senior US military delegation opened a series of talks with Belgrade officials yesterday, focusing on cooperation and ways to advance bilateral ties.
Both sides in the talks expressed hope the main obstacle to improving the two countries’ relations — Serbia’s lack of cooperation with the Netherlands-based UN war crimes tribunal — would soon be removed, according to a press release from Davinic’s office. During its four-day visit, the US delegation is also to travel to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, for talks with Montenegro’s President Filip Vujanovic.
The US delegation is led by Rear Adm. Donald P. Loren, the deputy director for political-military affairs in Europe at the Joint Staff. (AFP, AP)
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=51639
AP
Ethnic Albanians display photos on Monday in Presevo, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Belgrade, showing ethnic Albanian Dashnim Hajrulahu, just 16, who was shot by Serbian security forces on Friday trying to illegally cross the border from neighboring FYROM.
BELGRADE (Combined reports) - The government of Serbia and Montenegro has rejected a demand from ethnic Albanian leaders for international troops to be deployed in the tense southern Serbian region of the Presevo Valley, a report said yesterday.
Serbia-Montenegro Defense Minister Prvoslav Davinic said the demand, made Monday after a 16-year-old ethnic Albanian boy was shot dead by a Serbian soldier, was an “unnecessary political request,” the Blic daily reported.
“There is no need for their presence, as the police and army can perform their duty well,” the minister was quoted as saying.
A Serbian border guard shot and killed Dashnim Hajrulahu on Friday as he tried to illegally cross the border from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) into Serbia, in an area of tension between Serbian security forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.
The boy’s family told AFP he was returning to Serbia from a trip to see his mother in FYROM.
The shooting prompted a rise of interethnic tension in the troubled region, near the UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo where some 10,000 people died in fighting between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in 1998-1999.
US delegation
Meanwhile, a senior US military delegation opened a series of talks with Belgrade officials yesterday, focusing on cooperation and ways to advance bilateral ties.
Both sides in the talks expressed hope the main obstacle to improving the two countries’ relations — Serbia’s lack of cooperation with the Netherlands-based UN war crimes tribunal — would soon be removed, according to a press release from Davinic’s office. During its four-day visit, the US delegation is also to travel to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, for talks with Montenegro’s President Filip Vujanovic.
The US delegation is led by Rear Adm. Donald P. Loren, the deputy director for political-military affairs in Europe at the Joint Staff. (AFP, AP)
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=51639