Murders Yugoslavia

Two months after NATO bombs cut short Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's systematic effort to purge Kosovo of ethnic Albanians, mounting evidence suggests that some Albanians are now engaged in an "ethnic cleansing" campaign of their own--in this case, with the province's remaining Serbs as its victims.

Further dampening prospects for a diplomatic solution to the Kosovo crisis, ethnic Albanians blamed Serbian police for another fatal shooting Wednesday even as visiting U.S. diplomats pressed for an end to the violence. Relatives of 46-year-old Qerim Muriqi say he died of a chest wound after being shot by Serbian police who fired on a crowd at a peaceful demonstration in Pec, 30 miles west of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, a province of Serbia.

A guard at the former rebel Kosovo Liberation Army headquarters at the edge of this provincial capital was shot and killed at 9 a.m. Sunday in an attack that also left an attendant at a nearby gas station wounded, NATO officials said. Two hours later, Serbs blocked the major road between Pristina and the western part of the province to protest an earlier weapons raid on an apartment.

Gun battles between Croatian police and militant Serbs killed at least 16 people in what the Croatian president warned Friday might have been the opening salvo of a Yugoslav civil war. Thirteen Croatian police officers and three civilians, believed to be Serbian rebels, died in the worst day of ethnic violence suffered by the crisis-racked federation since World War II.

Thousands attended the funeral of a 13-year-old Roma boy allegedly killed by skinheads. The mourners then marched through downtown in the capital, Belgrade, to protest right-wing violence. "Knowing what skinheads do in other countries, we are terrified," said Dragoljub Ackovic, an activist representing the estimated 80,000 Gypsies--or Roma, as they prefer to be called--in the republic of Serbia.

An American soldier serving with the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo was charged Sunday with sexually assaulting and killing an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl, the U.S. military announced. Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi is accused of murder and indecent acts with a child, Col. Ellis Golson told reporters. It is the first time a peacekeeper from any country has been accused of such serious crimes since the 50,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force entered the province June 12.

In sharp contrast to the long, confused buildup to last month's confrontation with Saddam Hussein, the Clinton administration has moved with great speed to halt the latest crackdown by Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the province of Kosovo. The swift response came about for several reasons, including the relatively solid common ground shared by the U.S. and its allies on issues related to the troubled region, U.S. and allied officials say.

A week after the slaying of the Serbian warlord known as "Arkan," police announced the arrests of three suspects Saturday and implied that the killing was probably a gangland hit, not a political move to silence the victim. The announcement came after widespread rumors that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's security services had killed Arkan, whose real name was Zeljko Raznatovic, because the warlord knew too much about alleged government involvement in war crimes.

A U.S. soldier charged with raping and murdering an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl will face a second hearing next week in Germany, the U.S. military said Thursday. The hearing, similar to a grand jury under U.S. criminal law, will determine whether there is enough evidence to court-martial Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi, who could face the death penalty if convicted. It will take place Wednesday at an Army base in Vilseck, Germany, according to a statement from the U.S.

In Kosovo, what happened in Dojnice is hardly unusual. At most, 16 people were killed. But the story of this "dead village" is significant nonetheless. The apparent slaughter here--authorities suspect everything breathing, including the animals, was killed--didn't happen during NATO's 11-week air war against Yugoslavia. It wasn't carried out by members of a Serbian paramilitary group. What happened, authorities say, was most likely neighbors killing neighbors. Details are scant.