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Yugoslavia Protests KFOR Seizure of Trepca Plant in Kosovo
Yugoslavia Tuesday lodges "the strongest protest" against the August 14 "massive armed attack" and occupation of the Trepca plant in northern Kosovo by the international peacekeepers, called KFOR, a Yugoslav province currently under the U.N. administration.
The protest came as Vladislav Jovanovic, charge d'affaires of the Yugoslav Mission to the United Nations, was making remarks at a press conference in the United Nations.
The NATO-led KFOR on August 14 forced closure of the Zvecan smelter furnace in the Trepca metals complex just north of Mitrovica, touching off clashes between the peacekeepers and local Serbs. The shutdown was made on the ground that it causes high-level air pollution.
"The Yugoslav Government has denied it," Jovanovic said, "because the measurement of air pollution which was daily corresponded to the regulations of the measurement which the Yugoslav Government has issued some seven years ago."
"But even if it was a case, the air pollution was high, it was not sufficient to justify ... the use of military force because there are other" ways to check air pollution, he said.
The NATO forces dropped "some 30,000 bombs with uranium" in Kosovo in its air strikes on Yugoslavia from March to June last year, but the United Nations "never received from NATO detailed explanation about those bombs, their location, and the degree of their danger for the population and others," he said.
Jovanovic also wrote to the president of the U.N. Security Council to protest the shutdown, saying that the KFOR action violated its mandate and the Security Council resolution 1244 "in the most flagrant way so far." The letter is being circulated Tuesday.
"KFOR used armed force against peaceful employees and the management of Trepca and the official state representative, as well as the peaceful Serbian population in that part of the province," he said.
"The attack on and the occupation of Trepca by KFOR constitutes the most drastic violation of its mandate and the provision of Security Council resolution 1244 so far," he said. "This is a unique case of forces acting under a mandate of the United Nations being massively engaged against a peaceful population for the protection of which they have been dispatched by the Security Council and accepted by the government of my country."
The closed-down smelter is part of the Trepca group of 40 mines producing gold, silver, lead and zinc. It is the main source of employees for local Serbs.
Meanwhile, Jovanovic also accused KFOR of the failure in sending troops to protect local non-Albanians from terrorist actions, he said. "It was more than evident that the action against the Serbian-owned structure, a smelter plant, was aimed at intimidation and expulsion of the Serbian population, continuation of the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and other non-Albanians."
He said, "6,000 Serbs living there remain jobless as a result of the military action. They cannot feed their families."
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