Illyria Nov. 3, 1997 U.S. Backs Kosova Students After Their Talks in the U.S. By Isuf Hajrizi WASHINGTON The U.S. has reiterated its support for Albanian students in their campaign to gain back Kosova school buildings confiscated by the Belgrade regime seven years ago.   Two student leaders, Bujar Dugolli, president of the Students Independent Union of the University of Prishtine, and Albin Kurti, who met with State Department officials on Monday, said Washington is fully behind their peaceful protests.   Another student leader, Driton Lajci, was scheduled to visit Washington, but was denied a passport by Serb authorities. No reason was given for Belgrade's action.   The two students also met with aides of Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.) and are scheduled to return to Kosova over the weekend after a visit to Worcester, Mass., where there is a large Albanian-American population. It was not clear why the U.S. has not slated a visit for them to the New York area, the center of the largest Albanian community in the country.   "We expressed our determination to continue our peaceful protests and Mr. [Robert] Gelbard reiterated the support that he and the U.S. [government] have for our issue," said Dugolli after meeting with Gelbard, who is President Clinton's envoy responsible for the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement for Bosnia.   Clean-cut, but with facial scars still evident from a Serb police beating during the Oct. 1 rally in Prishtine, Dugolli said the students will continue their peaceful fight until they get their schools back. He announced that another rally will take place around Christmas. No date has been set.   "He [Gelbard told us he was going to meet with members of St. Egidio, [the Italian-based humanitarian group which mediated the education agreement signed last September between Serb and Albanian leaders] to urge them that the issue be resolved as soon as possible," he said. Gelbard allegedly told the student leaders that he will urge the so-called Contact Group to hold on meeting on Kosova.   Last week, Germany and France -- both members of the Group -- asked Belgrade they be given a bigger role in resolving the Kosova impasse, but Serb leaders responded negatively, saying the Kosova problem is an internal matter for Serbia that no outsider will be allowed to meddle in.   Meanwhile, the international community, including the U.S., believes Kosova needs international attention. The U.S. is so far the only country to have opened an information office in Prishtine, Kosova's capital, although European Union has announced it will follow suit.   Asked if the U.S. will itself get involved in helping to implement the education agreement, Dugolli responded: "The U.S is already involved in this process and is working so we can have our rights back."   Dugolli said the student movement will continue to grow and get stronger but said a bigger international presence is needed to avoid a conflict.   For those who fear that the protests may lead to an open conflict, Dugolli said "our protests will not radicalize the situation because they are non-violent and peaceful." But the 28-year-old leader warned that if the Serb police intervened with force to crush the students, the possibility of "other forces" -- supportive Albanians -- getting involved to defend the students could not be excluded.   Dugolli was expelled from the university in 1989 because his brother was sentenced to 11 years in prison for helping organize the 1981 demonstrations in Prishtine that demanded more freedom from Serbia. The same brother, Dugolli said, was again arrested this year and sentenced to another five years. This time, he said, police found on him copies of a "radical" newsletter that called for Kosova's independence.   Dugolli himself was beaten by police during the Oct. 1 rally . He was kicked in the face and kidneys, which left him urinating blood and suffering deep cuts above and below his right eye. He spent several days in one of the Prishtine's clinics before he could travel to Belgrade to meet with Gelbard as part of a student delegation. A Kosova daily newspaper, Bujku, showed photos of Dugolli in the clinic bandaged and bruised.   A radical group called the Kosova Liberation Army has surfaced in the last two years and claimed responsibility for several killings of both Serb officials and Albanian "collaborators." Last week some members of the organization, wearing masks and carrying arms, attended a funeral and urged the Albanians to join them in their struggle, saying, "We are the only people fighting for the independence of Kosova."   Many Albanians say power is slipping away from Kosova President Ibrahim Rugova, who has urged peaceful resistance on his people since 1990, vowing this was the best way to gain independence for Albanians who make over 90 percent of the population but are ruled by a small minority of Serbs.   In a recent meeting with other leaders of the Democratic League of Kosova, the largest party in Kosova, Rugova came under intense criticism for not doing enough to move the issue of independence forward.   A tape recording of the heated LDK meeting was leaked to the Kosova weekly magazine Zeri. The transcript of the tape showed Rugova being impatient with his colleagues in the party, often cutting them off and telling them to make their comments brief. He did not make any attempt to address any of the questions they put to him.   LDK and Rugova in particular came into conflict with the students when they refused to abide by Rugova's recommendation not to rally. The Kosova president later expressed support for the "well-organized rally," criticizing the Serb police for using force.   The students say their rallies are being held in the context of the nonviolent movement in Kosova.   "Between war and giving up, there is room to act, and that's what we are doing," Dugolli said.   Both Dugolli and Kurti said they were particularly upset with the Rugova-Milosevic education agreement "because it was confusing and did not include the specific date of when it would be implemented and did not specify whether the University of Prishtine was part of the agreement."   "But the thing that we were most annoyed with was the exclusion of the people of the university from the agreement," Dugolli said.   Rugova had nominated three people from his party to negotiate with the Serbs but did not offer any role for the university leadership. As a result, several months later, the students declared the agreement invalid.   "We asked to meet with Rugova to discuss the agreement before we decided to rally, but the president refused," Dugolli complained. He said there is a general feeling in Kosova now that the belief in Rugova's peaceful policies is quickly diminishing.   "People now seem to have pinned their hopes on two main groups," Dugolli said. "On the students and on the more radical groups."   Asked if they would feel responsible if the student rallies ignite an open conflict, which some analysts believe would be worse than the one in Bosnia, Dugolli responded: "Yes, we have thought of the worst, but the responsibility will not only fall on us but everybody who has ignored the Kosova issue until now." He said the student leaders have not forced anyone to come out and rally.   "The students have never been more united," he said. In the October rally, a small group of students, reportedly closer to Rugova, split from the main group.   "But after the first rally, they came and apologized and now they are on our side," Dugolli said.  Asked what do they expect the U.S. to do, in addition to giving verbal support, Dugolli said they want Washington to come out with a "specific project" to make it clear to Milosevic that there is no negotiation on the school agreement and that it must be enforced immediately.  He said the students do not have "the slightest trust" in organizations like St. Egidio.  The reason: "The university and the schools are not a humanitarian issue, and St. Egidio is a humanitarian organization and has no political muscle."  Accusations by some in the LDK that the student demands might be "compartmentalizing" the Kosova independence issue, Dugolli says, "Look who's talking."   "If anyone has compartmentalized the issue, it is Rugova who signed the agreement with Milosevic to begin with. We are only asking for our rights. Tomorrow the workers who lost their jobs on ethnic grounds should do the same and then others should follow suit."  His friend Kurti agreed.   "The political parties and Rugova were elected through an independence referendum and they still have that to accomplish. They still have to answer to the people for their promises. We are only asking for education," Kurti said. The long-curly-haired, 22-year-old student of electrochemistry who was seen in photos in Albanian newspapers being dragged through the streets of Prishtine by the police at the Oct. 1 rally, said the students are aware of the dangerous road they have embarked on in rallying for freedom of the education. But that, he added, is not going to stop them.   "If we are beaten up and killed in the street doing something that we consider noble, then we are not victims. But if we get beaten and killed while doing nothing, which has happened systematically in Kosova, then we are victims."