Kfor vehicles

A year after NATO won the war US troops are once again on combat alert.

00:00

Right on the border.  This is about as frontline as it gets

00:12

Lieuteneant Chris Sullivan is one of 40 000 foreign troops in the NATO lead peace keeping force called Kfor.  His unit patrolls the boundary between Serbia and  Kosovo proper.  And in the 5km no man's land between Kfor and Serb forces paramilitary fighting is beginning again. 

00:20

If you look out along this ridge line you can see that they have dug up a trench line the UCBMPhas dug and theres a bunker at the far end of it to the south

Campbell:  Albanian guerillas calling themselves the UCBMP are using this demilitarized zone to mount new attacks on Serb troops.  About 140 fighters, out of reach of Kfor, have occupied the boundary village of Dobrison.  Their aim is to liberate other Albanian villages in Serb held territory, and they are already drawing blood.

Kfor officer

There is a series of fire fights mixed with automatic weapons fire and explosions and this would have 3 or 4 times a day and from that you could determine that they were doing a search and attack operation.  The UCBMP claimed it a victory claiming that they had killed 5 MUP policeman.

01:25

Campbell: NATO occupies a land on the edge of war.  Just as Serbs once drove out Albanians, Albanians are now trying to emplty the land of Serbs.  Inside Kfor territory where there are no Serb soldiers.  The targets are civilians

Vision grieving women around coffin/people at funeral

Campbell:  Today the village of Babenmos is farewelling the latest casualty.  Thirty-three year old Milutin Trajkovic was gunned down outside his house by unknown assailants.  Like most victims, he appears to have been picked at random -- his only crime was being Serb.  Milutin's father Marko nearly suffered the same fate.

02:01

Marko in front of bullet ridden wall

Marko:  I was sitting here with my son and a  car drove up with an automatic gun inside. It shot across here and hit my son sitting here _ and this is from the bullet that killed him. It went through him and came out here. I was sitting here and the bullet caught me here.

02:26

Fade up on map of Serbia. Location of Kosovo highlighted in red with the towns of Pristina and Mitrovica shown

Singing

02:50

What happened in Babenmost is heappening to every Serb enc;lave in Kosovo.

02:58

Vision of people in funeral procession

Campbell: Over the past two months, 22 Serbs have been murdered and dozens more seriously injured. The attacks have ranged from drive-by shootings to tossed hand grenades --the victims include a grand-mother and a four-year-old child.  There is no talk here of a peaceful, multi-ethnic Kosovo. The only question for these Serbs is whether they can live here at all.  Marko:  If it doesn't change in one or two months...

03:01

Marko

Marko:  life will become impossible here_ for Serbs or other nationalities. Not with things like this.

03:30

Campbell: A year ago NATO troops entered Kosovo to end ethnic violence.  It was a time of extraordinary jubilation.  Ethnic Albanians welcomed them as liberators from Serb terror.  For 78 days as NATO  had bombed Yugoslavia, Serb forces had expelled Albanians from their homes.  Hundreds  of thousands were forced to cross the border, thousands were executed and buried in mass graves.  NATO has now ended the attacks on Albians but seems powerless to stop revengbe attacks on Serbs.

03:41

Albanians like Abdullah Hasani see no reason to forgive them for the terror their families suffered.

04:15

Abdullah

Abdullah:  We didn't attack them, we didn't abuse them, we didn't beat them up, we didn't steal from them, we didn't burn them. They did all of this to us. I had nothing to do with any of them. They came in and burnt everything just because I was Albanian. So that's why we can't be neighbours with them or be good to them, or friends with them. There is no way we can live with them or they can live with us.

04:30

Vision of refugees on back of truck and others on road into Pristina

A year ago we joined Abdullah's family as they came home to the capital, Pristina.  Serb paramilitaries had expelled them from their house on the first night of the bombing.  The entire extended family crammed into this tractor to return -- ecstatic that KFOR had made Kosovo safe. But their joy was short-lived.

04:46

Abdullah inspects remains of his house/family members cry in ruins of house

As they arrived in drenching rain, they found Serbs had burnt their house the night the peace deal was signed.

It was a sight even the youngest will never forget.

05:18

Campbell greets Abdullah and family in rebuild home

Campbell:  This month we came back to see how the family had fared.

05:48

Aid agencies have helped them rebuild their home.  But what pleases them most is that their Serb neighbours have gone.

Abdullah

Abdullah:  No Serbs live in this area_ We are very calm_ we haven't got problems. The only problems are financial problems_ with rebuilding, living, clothing and food.

06:05

Adbullah's wife

Abdullah's wife :  We're not afraid inside the family but further out there are Serbs, and they frighten us.

06:18

Convoy of cars and tractors carrying refugees/burning house/houses behind barbed wire/ houses separated by river and bridge

Campbell:  More than 200,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo in fear of Albanian reprisals.  Fighters from the KLA -- the Kosovo Liberation Army -- burnt their homes so they could never return. The remaining Serb minority has hunkered down in ethnically-cleansed enclaves -- the largest in the northern city of Mitrovica.  Once a mixed community, it has been split in two by ethnic hate.

06:23

Military vehicles on bridge/soldiers on bridge/Keats and Campbell by barbed wire

Campbell:  The French Foreign Legion is supposed to ensure safe passage. But in reality, there is almost no contact between Serbs on the northern side and Albanians on the south.  The UN's Mitrovica spokesman, Michael Keats, concedes there has been no reconciliation.

07:00

Keats

Keats:  It's always very hard, you say you know Rome wasn't built in a day and Mitrovica certainly wasn't built in a year. So we've got nearly a thousand years of ethnic conflict to overcome so it's a bit difficult to say it will happen in a year, two years, three years.

07:16

Campbell:   Or even longer?

Keats:   Or even longer, indeed.

07:30

Campbell:  Personally, is it a bit depressing working here, seeing how incremental the progress is?

Keats:  Yes, unfortunately it's always the one step forward, two steps back, and that's been the situation for the last six months. I just hope the next six months will be better.

07:40

Zdravko and friends in café

Campbell:  For now, any Albanian brave enough to cross risks being met by the so-called bridge-watchers -- Serb vigilantes like Zdravko, armed with a black-belt in karate and a baseball bat,

07:54

Zdravko

Zdravko:  We follow what goes on continuously. We let people come across with no problem_ but when a separatist comes_ an Albanian terrorist_ we let him through but with KFOR, we escort them to the south.

08:11

Campbell:  And you have a baseball bat?

08:31

Zdravko: This is the 21^st century. People all over the world fight by pushing buttons and we fight Albanian separatists and chauvinists with baseball bats and stones. We have baseball bats, they have bombs...they have automatic weapons.

08:40

Woman rings church bell/church surrounded by tanks/Serbs in church/ Soldiers guard church/ Father Nojic leads church service

FX:  Church bells

08:58

Campbell:  Life for Serbs on the Albanian side is even more dangerous.  Only 15 Serbs have dared to stay here.

09:03

All of them live in a barbed-wire compound around the Orthodox Church. Polish KFOR troops guard their enclave 24 hours a day.

09:19

Father Svetislav Nojic takes Sunday mass before a handful of Serbs and one Russian peace-keeper.

09:27

He now plans to leave the south side, the other Serbs are likely to follow.

09:34

Father Nojic

Father Nojic:  We are trapped in a camp_ barbed wire all around us...soldiers on this side, soldiers on that side... We cannot go to the northern part of Mitrovica except with a vehicle _ and we have to come back. We are provoked... we have no life here at all.

09:41

Angry men on street gesture at KFOR soldiers/people around road block

Campbell:  And Serbs accuse KFOR of allowing the attacks to continue.  On the northern side of Mitrovica, Serbs blockade their streets against KFOR vehicles.

10:04

Oliver Ivanovic is the local representative of the Serb National Council, a body now demanding that the whole of Kosovo be partitioned into Serb and Albanian sectors.

10:13

Ivanovic

Ivanovic: We exactly need that, to organise ourselves, to protect ourselves, because KFOR are not able or probably KFOR don't like to protect the Serbs.

10:26

KFOR soldiers patrol crowded street/civilians on street

Campbell:  The local KFOR commander insists they are doing all they can, but admits they cannot give the Serbs the protection they demand. 

Bonnell:  The opposition between both sides here is very tough. We cannot stop all the attacks.

10:33

Bonnell

Super:  Colonel Philippe BonnellKFOR

Bonnell:  And in the south side where the Serbs are in minority, I understand the Albanians want to get complete possession of their territory. We can't stop attacks against the Serbs, it's very difficult.

10:49

Civilians on street/French soldier amongst crowd

Campbell:  Adding to KFOR's problems, is that neither side will apologise for the violence both have suffered.

11:06

Father Nojic at the pulpit

Even this man of God believes Serbs did nothing wrong.

11:18

Father Nojic

Father Nojic:  Firstly, NATO brought us to this condition... secondly, the Albanians had everything... everything... but they wanted Kosovo to be a separate republic and everything that's happening _ and will happen_ is linked to a Kosovo Republic- not an autonomous Kosovo.

11:22

Campbell and Nojic

Campbell:  What is your view of what the Yugoslav States did to the Albanians, driving them out of the country?

11:47

Father Nojic

Father Nojic:  They had to move. This has to do with the previous question_ if they hadn't asked for a republic it wouldn't have come to all this. They didn't want to compromise and they didn't want a solution. The most fault lies with the Albanians who want to break away from Yugoslavia.

11:53

Father Nojic in military vehicle

Campbell:  But Father Svetislav at least admits the Albanians were forced out. There is no such admission from the regime accused of ordering the ethnic cleansing.

12:21

Vision of Belgrade

The Serbian capital, Belgrade, is just five hours drive from Mitrovica.  But officials here speak of a very different Kosovo -- a place where kindly Serbs protected their Albanian brothers.

12:35

Popovic and Campbell

Super:  Miodrag Popovic

Serbian Dep. Information Minister

Popovic:  Ethnic Albanians were not driven by Serbian or Yugoslav police, but they were driven by and with the bombs of NATO. Kosovo was heavily bombarded, civilian infrastructure was most heavily bombarded, much more than the rest of the country, so the people fled.

12:50

Campbell:  So NATO bombs destroyed the homes, smashed the furniture, painted Serbian graffiti on the walls, defecated on the floor, that was NATO smart bombs?

13:16

Popovic:  No those were not NATO smart bombs. Anyway, when NATO overtook the province, all the pictures I saw with those things you are now mentioning have been pictured or used as proof only after Serbian and Yugoslav troops left the province.

13:22

Soldiers on truck chant slogans/traffic on street/burnt and looted shops/

Chanting: Serbia! Serbia!

Campbell:  These were some of the pictures we recorded during the first days of NATO entering Kosovo.  Serb homes and shops were almost untouched. But Albanian districts bore unmistakable signs of violent ethnic cleansing.

13:42

Serbia insists these and other pictures were part of a Western media conspiracy that included hiring actors to pose as refugees.

13:59

Popovic

Popovic:  For instance you have a column of 1,000 people going to Macedonia and a reporter of one of Western media agencies is going straight forward to one man who to my surprise speaks perfect English, and he's perfectly dressed, even I think I saw some make up on his face.

14:10

News report

Campbell:  The same sense of denial appears every night on State television.

14:33

News:  ??

Campbell:  In this broadcast about a new war memorial, a general assures the public that Serbia won the war.

14:44

General on news:  Our moral victory is today recognised by the whole peaceful world. They recognise also, the fact that we have revived the United Nations and brought the again onto the international stage. We also destroyed NATO's plan to punish the disobedient in the 21^st century. And as our President and Supreme Commander, Slobodan Milosevic said, ‘we won, not because we were stronger, but because we were better.'

14:50

Campbell:  It may not be believed, but it's the only version Serbs are seeing.

15:27

Sasa at computer/pictures from web site

This is all that's left of Belgrade's independent broadcast media -- a website filled from secret locations around the city.

15:33

Over the past two months, the Government has taken over or shut down every critical television and radio station. Independent journalists like Sasa Mirkovic, continue to struggle on. But he admits there is little public spirit to defend them.

15:50

Sasa

Sasa:   You will try to win at the end you know and to show that it is possible that changes will happen in this country. But on the other side as I said the problem is that you are having less and less people who are ready for this kind of approach and I cannot blame people because of that. You know, they are tired, they are disappointed. Ordinary people are looking for the possibilities to leave the country.

16:03

Men distribute leaflets on street/Military traffic and soldiers on street

Campbell:  In Belgrade, the last visible opposition is a student group. Called Otpor, meaning "resistance", it does what it can to keep the flame of resistance burning.  But the formal opposition parties are weak, divided and discredited.

16:40

Popovic

Super:  Miodrag Popovic

Serbian Dep. Information Minister

Popovic:  We do think that KFOR and the United Nations mission altogether should leave the province. Because the rate of killings, the rate of looting and the rate of anarchy, if we look at it from the perspective of one year that has passed, already passed, is that high that they should leave. They didn't do anything to establish law and order and that famous multi-ethnicity does not exist.

17:15

Vision excavation of mass grave

Campbell:  But this work site  south of Mit shows why Albanians will never accept Serb rule.  With the coming of summer the UN War Crimes Tribunal has resumed excavating of Kosovo's killing fields

17:45

The UN War Crimes Tribunal has now resumed excavation of hundreds of mass graves. One of the chief investigators is former Sydney homicide detective, Steve Leach.

17:53

Leach

Leach:  There was approximately 2,000 exhumed up to November last year which were civilians, the majority have been identified by family members and they have given explanations as to how their relatives were killed.  There was a lot of old people, I mean we've got ranges between six months and 90 years of age and over. So they definitely couldn't be KLA fighters.  Witnesses that have come forward have described graphically how relatives/friends, whatever had been shot either  by snippers or they had been dragged out of homes, dragged out of columns, taken away to a location by Serb paramilitaries, heard gun shots.

18:07

Funeral gathering/Marko speaks at funeral as body is wrapped in blanket/mourners/coffin lowered and covered

Marko:  Today I have lost what is most important in my life... pray to God that this does not happen to any of you. Let this be his testament. God rest his soul.

18:58

Campbell:  These Serbs may not be responsible for the crimes of war. But they are paying for what their State did and would do again.  Kosovo has become a land that refuses to forgive or forget.  NATO may end up staying here for decades.  The desire for revenge will stay for generations.

END

19:11

19:35

KOSOVO

Reporter

ERIC CAMPBELL

Camera

DAVID LELAND

Editor

DAVID LELAND