Post by radovic on Nov 15, 2007 10:42:23 GMT -5
Serbia Official Dismisses Paramilitary Claims
14 11 2007 Belgrade _ A senior Serbian official dismissed Wednesday the recent appearance of Albanian paramilitaries in Northern Kosovo and their warnings about the presence of Serb militia near the border as media manipulation.
Milivoje Mihajlovic, head of the Serbian government’s Bureau for Information, claimed that the coverage of the so-called Albanian National Army, ANA, was "a media stunt."
Mihajlovic’s remarks came after Serbian media quoted an ANA commander who claimed that his guerillas were patrolling Kosovo’s north to deter a putative incursion by the Serbian Czar Lazar Guard, which he described as a paramilitary unit.
Mihajlovic said the so-called Czar Lazar Guard, a group of Serbian nationalist who want to keep Kosovo in Serbia, was “nothing more than a fiction”
“The Albanian paramilitaries are using the so-called Czar Lazar Guard to create media equivalency ahead of the elections and as a manipulation tool that works to the advantage of pro-independence lobbyists," Mihajlovic said, adding that "Albanian paramilitaries know this all too well."
Tensions in Kosovo are rising as the negotiating process over the territory's long-term status approaches its United Nations-imposed December 10 deadline.
Kosovo's Albanian majority wants independence for the province, which has been an international protectorate since 1999.
The Serbian government is offering broad autonomy, and the internationally-sponsored talks remained deadlocked.
Several Kosovo Albanian leaders have called for their parliament to declare independence, regardless of the outcome of the talks.
The ANA, also known as the AKSH, has been branded a terrorist organization by the UN Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK.
On Tuesday, Serbian Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac said the country’s military will not allow any spillover of potential violence from Kosovo to Serbia's volatile southern region.
"We will not waste a moment if anyone tries to spark violence in Southern Serbia. We will be swift and we will not allow spillover of terrorism from Kosovo or Macedonia,” Sutanovac said in a broadcast on Serbia’s RTS TV.
Sutanovac’s remarks came days after Serbian security forces strengthened their presence in districts of southern Serbia bordering Macedonia, in response to recent skirmishes between police and an armed ethic Albanian group near Macedonia’s second-largest city of Tetovo.
During a visit to a military compound in Serbia’s north Sutanovac said that “military and civilian security agencies are monitoring the situation in southern Serbia and keep the state leadership informed.”
Southern Serbia still bears the scars of an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2000-2001 which ended in a NATO-brokered peace agreement. However, tensions have persisted and are marked by occasional flareups.
14 11 2007 Belgrade _ A senior Serbian official dismissed Wednesday the recent appearance of Albanian paramilitaries in Northern Kosovo and their warnings about the presence of Serb militia near the border as media manipulation.
Milivoje Mihajlovic, head of the Serbian government’s Bureau for Information, claimed that the coverage of the so-called Albanian National Army, ANA, was "a media stunt."
Mihajlovic’s remarks came after Serbian media quoted an ANA commander who claimed that his guerillas were patrolling Kosovo’s north to deter a putative incursion by the Serbian Czar Lazar Guard, which he described as a paramilitary unit.
Mihajlovic said the so-called Czar Lazar Guard, a group of Serbian nationalist who want to keep Kosovo in Serbia, was “nothing more than a fiction”
“The Albanian paramilitaries are using the so-called Czar Lazar Guard to create media equivalency ahead of the elections and as a manipulation tool that works to the advantage of pro-independence lobbyists," Mihajlovic said, adding that "Albanian paramilitaries know this all too well."
Tensions in Kosovo are rising as the negotiating process over the territory's long-term status approaches its United Nations-imposed December 10 deadline.
Kosovo's Albanian majority wants independence for the province, which has been an international protectorate since 1999.
The Serbian government is offering broad autonomy, and the internationally-sponsored talks remained deadlocked.
Several Kosovo Albanian leaders have called for their parliament to declare independence, regardless of the outcome of the talks.
The ANA, also known as the AKSH, has been branded a terrorist organization by the UN Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK.
On Tuesday, Serbian Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac said the country’s military will not allow any spillover of potential violence from Kosovo to Serbia's volatile southern region.
"We will not waste a moment if anyone tries to spark violence in Southern Serbia. We will be swift and we will not allow spillover of terrorism from Kosovo or Macedonia,” Sutanovac said in a broadcast on Serbia’s RTS TV.
Sutanovac’s remarks came days after Serbian security forces strengthened their presence in districts of southern Serbia bordering Macedonia, in response to recent skirmishes between police and an armed ethic Albanian group near Macedonia’s second-largest city of Tetovo.
During a visit to a military compound in Serbia’s north Sutanovac said that “military and civilian security agencies are monitoring the situation in southern Serbia and keep the state leadership informed.”
Southern Serbia still bears the scars of an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2000-2001 which ended in a NATO-brokered peace agreement. However, tensions have persisted and are marked by occasional flareups.