ALBANIA MIGHT HAVE
BEEN INVOLVED IN KOSOVO
RIOTS - TIRANA PAPER
April 10, 2004 - BBC Monitoring
Service
Text of Drini Gjata report entitled "Volunteers from Albania in
Kosovo riots" published by the
Albanian newspaper Tema on 7 April
At least six corpses of people killed in the recent riots have not yet been
identified at Prishtina (Pristina) morgue. Meanwhile, UNMIK (UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo) has
brought down the official number of the people killed in them from 28 to 19.
According to the latest UNMIK communique, 11 Albanians and 8 Serbs were killed
in the riots, reducing the official number given earlier by nine persons. The
difference of nine persons has caused major suspicions in Kosova, while there
are at least six unidentified dead people at the Prishtina morgue. UNMIK refuses
to make any official statements on this scandal with figures, but sources in it
say that the unidentified corpses, at least six of them, have clear
identification signs of being residents of Albania. Their involvement in the
last riots in Kosovo is unclear and raises many suspicions. The Albanian media
wrote about the possible implication of a political group in Kosova (Kosovo),
close to Prime Minister Fatos Nano, in the recent riots in Kosova. A private
television station in Tirana broadcast supporters of Prime Minister Nano from
Kosova calling for support for the riots in Kosova and for an end to protests
against Nano in the country.
The Albanian secret intelligence service has not confirmed the presence of any
of its agents in Kosova or their possible implication in the events there.
However, the suspicion is not denied that groups linked with Prime Minister Nano
in Kosova may have been used to incite unrest there in order to shift attention
from the events in Albania.
The unidentified dead at the Prishtina morgue are neither Serbs nor Albanians
from Kosova, because the respective families have identified their dead. They
may be Albanians from Albania and there are signs and things belonging to them
which prove that they had come from Albania.
The silence that prevails in Prishtina about this scandal is incited also by
political circles in Kosova which are interested in hiding the links between
these riots and official Tirana.
However, the leader of the Albanians of Kosova, Ibrahim Rugova, raised clear
suspicions about such an implication of Albanians in his latest interview to the
British media. He called on the international authorities to rein in the
interference of neighbouring states in the internal affairs of Kosova and it is
clear that he meant Albania and Serbia.
The involvement of Albanians from Albania into the riots in Kosova and their
eventual killing there, make up a suspicious chapter about the role that Albania
plays in the stability of the region, which until now has been the most
favourable card that the Nano government has been using to win international
support. The engagement of Nano's allies in Kosova in favour of the protests and
the forced silence of the international authorities there regarding the identity
of the dead, the scandal with the figures of the dead, and a transfiguration of
Prime Minister Nano after his visit to Washington seem to herald new
developments in this respect.
Source: Tema, Tirana, in Albanian 7 Apr 04
Copyright 2004 Financial Times Information
All rights reserved
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2004 BBC Monitoring/BBC
BBC Monitoring International Reports
Posted for Fair Use only.