KOSOVO: SERBS PROTEST AGAINST KIDNAPPINGS

(23 Jan 1999) Eng/Serbo-Croat/Nat

Serbs in the town of Vucitrn, Kosovo, on Saturday held a meeting to protest against the kidnapping of five elderly Serbs taken on Friday morning by the members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

The men, kidnapped from their homes in the village of Nevoljane, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Pristina are still in the hands of the separatist guerillas.

The meeting was held indoors and journalists were not allowed in.

On Saturday the family of one of the kidnapped men spoke about his abduction.

Meanwhile, the head of the OSCE mission to Kosovo, William Walker received a warm welcome when he went on a tour of the Kosovo countryside.

He visited one Kosovar Albanian village which was virtually destroyed in the Serbs' summer offensive.

Here he met Tahir Merlaka, a miner who told Walker of the hardships his family has endured.

Walker told the man he hoped he wouldn't let him down.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"When they showed up, they entered through that gate and his wife was at that other gate, so she managed to run away and save herself. They have taken my brother away, they have beaten him, he was covered in blood. Now I don't know where he is."
UPER CAPTION: Milutin Bigovic, Brother of Miodrag Bigovic, kidnapped Serb
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"As far as we've heard from the police, he called twice yesterday and he is well. How well I don't know. The OSCE told me they are doing everything they can to save him and get him back."
SUPER CAPTION: Milutin Bigovic, Brother of Miodrag Bigovic, kidnapped Serb

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"I saw him all bloodied, all over here (showing where the blood was on her husband). I asked him why he came in the middle of the night while there were terrorists everywhere and he just said he was ill. He was not allowed to say anything else. When I opened the door, the terrorists burst in with guns, I almost fainted."
SUPER CAPTION: Ljubinka Bigovic, Wife of Miodrag Bigovic, kidnapped Serb

UPSOUND:
(Kosovar Albanian Miner with English translation) "I don't have a house, I have 23 members of my family, I am living in squalor now. What am I supposed to do. Do I have any hope?"
(Walker responds) "This is why the mission is here trying to bring some hope, I can't at this point give you much evidence of why you should have hope."

UPSOUND:
"I hope I don't disappoint you, I hope the international community doesn't disappoint you."

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Four thousand five hundred people, over 50 per cent of the houses destroyed by the violence and even with that they've got another five hundred people in from neighbouring villages that have fled those villages so they've got more people and less than half the houses. And yet he's saying come spring time we hope that we can go on picnics and such with our kids, which is what people are going to be doing in the rest of Europe and we hope to share in that."
SUPER CAPTION: William Walker, Head of OSCE Mission to Kosovo

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