From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Tue Nov 6 18:49:22 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 18:49:22 -0500 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL/US Senate Calls for Release of Albanian Prisonersin Serbia Message-ID: ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY NOVEMBER 6, 2001 A-PAL STATEMENT We are very pleased to pass along the announcement that the US Senate has taken a strong stand regarding the ongoing detention of 220 Albanian prisoners. The Senate approved a bill making the release of $115 million in aid to Serbia conditional on their release. We would like to thank the National Albanian American Council in Washington, and cite Senators MCConnell, Leahy, Helms, Smith and Leahy for their advocacy and factfinding efforts. Staff of Senator Smith met with Albanian prisoners in Cuprija and Nis Prisons in August. We would also like to thank the Coalition for International Justice for their support during the past two years. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who authored the amendment in the Bill to include the release of prisoners as a condition for aid, stated on the floor of the Senate, "I urge the democrats and reformers in Belgrade to take notice of our actions, and to release the political prisoners immediately." Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) echoed that sentiment: "I find it incomprehensible for a government that claims to be democratic and just to sustain this cruel vestige of the Milosevic era." Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who chairs the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, also cosponsored the amendment. We would also like to thank everyone who, at one time or another, worked to advocate for the release of gravely injured prisoner, Bedri Kukalaj, who is now home in Kosova. ************************************************************************* PLEASE JOIN US IN URGING EUROPEAN OFFICIALS TO FOLLOW THE U.S. LEAD IN DEMANDING ACTION FOR THE RELEASE OF THE PRISONERS. **************************************************************** > > > >NAAC Hails Senate Vote on Albanian Prisoners in Serbia; > >Calls on Djindjic to Release Them Immediately > >Washington, DC, November 5, 2001: The National Albanian American >Council (NAAC) issued the following statement regarding Albanian >prisoners being held in Serbia. > >On October 24, the Senate called on the Serbian government to >release all remaining political prisoners who are being held in >Serbia. The 2002 Foreign Appropriations Bill, which was passed by >the Senate, conditions $115 million in aid for Serbia to "steps, >additional to those undertaken in fiscal year 2001, to implement >policies which reflect a respect for minority rights and the rule of >law, including the release of all political prisoners from Serbian >jails and prisons." These conditions must be met by March 31, 2002. > >Over 200 Albanians remain in Serbian prisons since the end of the >war in Kosova over two years ago. Despite the recent Kosova-Serbia >agreement to transfer all Albanian prisoners held in Serbian jails >to Kosova, the Serbian government has done little to fulfill the >agreement. > >Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who authored the amendment in the >Bill to include the release of prisoners as a condition for aid, >stated on the floor of the Senate, "I urge the democrats and >reformers in Belgrade to take notice of our actions, and to release >the political prisoners immediately." Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) >echoed that sentiment: "I find it incomprehensible for a government >that claims to be democratic and just to sustain this cruel vestige >of the Milosevic era." Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who chairs the >Foreign Operations Subcommittee, also cosponsored the amendment. > >NAAC joins the Senate and calls on Prime Minister Djindjic and >Serbian authorities to release all remaining Albanian prisoners >immediately. Their continued imprisonment is an affront to the >American people, on whose behalf millions of dollars were spent to >overturn the Milosevic government. There can be no enduring peace >or reconciliation between Kosova and Serbia until all the prisoners >are released. If they are not release, the U.S. should immediately >begin reducing its aid to Serbia and cut if off completely after >March 31st of next year. > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 4163 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20011106/a1aa9e61/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Wed Nov 7 09:12:32 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 09:12:32 -0500 Subject: [A-PAL] URGENT A-PAL UPDATE 11/6/01 Message-ID: ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY November 6, 2001 A-PAL:URGENT UPDATE: CHANGE IN TRANSFER AGREEMENT Monday night, November 5, 2001 It was announced that Hans Haekkerup and Nebosja Covic have signed a document that changed the original terms of the transfer of Albanian prisoner agreement agreed upon in principle on September 12. This happened without any discussion or notification of the proposed changes with the general public nor with any input from human rights groups or any input from the families of the detained. The new agreement is both vague and misleading, and worse, the Serbs have managed once again to link the issue of the release of these prisoners, whose cases were tried in artificially created courts under the Milosevic regime--now to be "reviewed by international standards"--but by whom? when? And why should such ludicrous cases "be reviewed" at all, when the entire process under which these people were arrested, tortured and tried in artificial courts was in total violation of every possible international standard and even the Yugoslav Constitution? This is democratization? Never have the Albanians been allowed any direct participation in this process. At the same time, the US Senate voted to withold $115 million dollars in aid to the FRY until the prisoners are transfered to Kosova. While on Tuesday, the American office in Prishtina announced its support for the agreement. Do American officials even know what is happening in Kosova? They must. For all of us who have been wondering what has happened to Secretary of State Colin Powell(last seen in an undisclosed location adjacent to Cheney's) President Bush, Colin Powell and Condeleeza Rice met with Zoran Djindic on Monday. And who was there to represent the interests of the 1.8 million Albanians? No one. Is this democratization? It is the result of careless, distracted, and contradictory signals from the Bush administration. We abandon enforcing an equitable human rights agenda in the Balkans at our peril. Human rights equity is our national and international interest. If we had not abandoned the rights of millions of Afghani women who pleaded for our help, we might not be in the dire situation we face today. **************************************************************** Dramatic change on the fate of Kosovo Albanian prisoners held in Serbia On September 12,2001, FRY/Serb and UNMIK officials reached an agreement that guarantees the transfer of the approximately 200 remaining Albanian prisoners to the jurisdiction of UNMIK in Kosovo. It was agreed that the UNMIK Justice Pillar would oversee the transfer. Prisoners' cases would be reviewed by UNMIK. Those who - after review of their sentence - need to be kept in detention would be placed in the renovated Dubrava Prison, where they will have immediate access to family members, lawyers, and friends. The Dubrava Prison would be run in accordance with international humanitarian standards. *************************************************************** On 5 November 2001 an UNMIK - FRY Common Document has been adopted by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Kosovo, Mr. Hans Haekkerup, and the Special Representative of for the FRY and Serb government, Mr. Nebojsa Covic. In this document it is said that "the Kosovo Albanian detainees held within the prisons and detention centers of the Republic of Serbia for offenses that they are alleged to have committed in Kosovo should, after a review of their cases according to international standards, be transferred to Kosovo and the authority of the UNMIK prison system as soon as possible." This means that the Albanian prisoners stay in Serbia for the time being, that the judicial system in Serbia would review the sentences, and not UNMIK as agreed upon on 12 September 2001. This leaves room for a possible confirmation or shortening (but not abolishing) of the prison term for those convicted of "endangering territorial integrity of the FRY" -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 4639 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20011107/5ba48892/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Sun Nov 11 16:12:42 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001 16:12:42 -0500 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL--nonvoting prisoners and an article by M. Woollacott,The Guardian Message-ID: >Albanian Prisoner Advocacy November 12, 2001 A-PAL STATEMENT Let the Albanian Prisoners vote at home! UNMIK is conducting elections, but these UNMIK prisoners, who are still in Serbia, cannot vote-- despite their guaranateed right to do so. If this makes no sense, read on! The recently signed transfer document (it was apparently not an agreement) for the Albanian prisoners had a tone of surreal strangeness about it. Without saying much of anything, it seemed that somehow Serb leaders had backed into acknowledging that UNMIK was indeed the administrator of Kosovo, which is still called Kosovo and Metohojia in Serbia, indicating their future intention of not only re-occupying it but preventing the 90% Albanian population from using their name for the embattled place. It will be interesting to see if and when this transfer document produces any meaningful action. In the meantime, Kosova's other citizens--and perhaps the prisoners,who have the right to vote but not the means so far as we know even though we have been asking that they have absentee ballots since September-- will be participating in elections. These citizens will elect representatives, who ultimately cannot represent them anywhere! This will be interesting, too. So, two years after the end of the NATO war, the Kosovars remain the only undemocratically governed people in Europe, while under supervision of the UN, an organization formed to protect individual rights and freedoms worldwide. This is extraordinary. It cost the USA some $90 billion dollars to fight a war that now has maintained a strange status quo--the occupation of Kosovo by outsiders, who have blocked self-determination while touting the supremacy of protecting human rights (when NATO does so but not when Albanians demand human rights or the transfer of their own citizens to the proper courts) while at the same time, protecting the sovereignty of an abusive dictatorship whose federation no longer exists. (for further obfuscation, please read the excellent article below.) >********************************************************************* > > "There is a dangerous lack of clarity on Kosovo's future-" > >The international community does have other responsibilities > >Martin Woollacott >Friday November 9, 2001 >The Guardian > >Bernard Kouchner, the founder of Med?cins Sans Fronti?res, was >rewarded for years of effort in the humanitarian field by being >handed a whole country to run. His experience as head of the United >Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (Unmik), he said, >was out of Alice in Wonderland. You had to believe in six impossible >things before breakfast and you had to run very hard just to keep in >one place. The man whose innovation had been to project humanitarian >aid across the frontiers of states in ingenious ways now had to >operate as ingeniously as he could in a society with frontiers but >without a state. The statelessness of Kosovo is an even more >pressing problem today. >Kosovo and Bosnia are among the many responsibilities acquired by >the international community during the 1990s which risk being >overlooked in the understandable but frantic reordering of >priorities after September 11. The independent international >commission on Kosovo produced, in its Kosovo report late last year, >a thorough and balanced analysis of the causes of the Kosovo war, >the justifications for it, and the problems that followed the Nato >victory. The commission has now issued a follow-up report in which >it stresses again that some of the justifications for the war lie in >the future rather than in the past. "It would be a tragic sequel to >the war of 1999," the authors write, "if Kosovo was once more >forgotten ... the status of Kosovo has not yet been decided and ... >leaving this issue unresolved is both cruel to the Kosovans and >dangerous for the stability of the Balkans." > >The problem of Kosovo indicates the power of fiction in >international affairs. The fiction is that Kosovo is part of a >country called Yugoslavia, itself now a fictional concept. The >reality is that there is not a sane head anywhere who believes that >Kosovo will ever again be part of a political entity of which Serbia >is also a part. Yet independence continues to be out of bounds for >the Kosovans, because of a desire not to disturb Serbia's internal >political balance, because of the precedent it might offer >elsewhere, and because of a general reluctance to dispose in a >cavalier way of anybody's sovereignty, however tattered it may have >become. > >There is, no doubt, some risk that independence for Kosovo might be >used to argue for the independence of the Serbian entity in Bosnia >or in Kosovo itself, or for an Albanian entity in Macedonia. But >they are minor compared to the risks involved in keeping Kosovo in a >permanently retarded condition. > >Another recent report on Kosovo, from the International Peace >Academy, notes the dangers of difficult peace agreements "evolving >into a constitutional framework that is both unworkable and >impossible to change". That danger is well illustrated by Bosnia, >which is formally a state, but does not have the real attributes of >one and labours under arrangements which, if not changed, may >prevent it ever acquiring them. In Kosovo by contrast, there is a >readiness for a state and a degree of competence to run one but no >readiness, so far, to permit statehood. In the negotiations between >the UN mission and the Kosovans on a framework agreement for Kosovo >after the elections, the UN ruled out any unqualified reference to >the "the will of the people". > >The result is an oddity: free and fair elections not intended to >express the will of the people, or at least not the full extent of >that will. The Peace Academy report quotes an international official >as saying "elections are what we do". In similar situations, the >formula of troops on the ground, aid to the community flowing in, >and elections completed and approved has been abused, particularly >by the US, to claim progress where not much has in reality been >registered, and to provide a justification for departure. That is >not on the cards in Kosovo, since the denial of independence entails >a continued presence. But a different kind of contradiction is >evident. > >Kosovans will be voting in just over a week for a full array of >representative figures and institutions. There will be an assembly, >a president of the assembly, a prime minister appointed by that >president, ministers and, it seems, also a president of Kosovo. Yet >Unmik will continue to control the foreign affairs, defence, >interior, and justice portfolios, and the head of Unmik will have >the final say even on those matters which the Kosovans decide >themselves. Even in the short term, this is a recipe for confusion >and confrontation. The Kosovans, the Kosovo commission follow up >report suggests, "will have the illusion of self-rule rather than >the reality". In effect, Kosovo will have two governments, one >democratic and legitimate but with limited powers, and one unelected >and imposed, but with almost unlimited powers. > >Politics after the elections will be difficult. Hans Haekkerup, >Kouchner's successor, appears to have succeeded in persuading Serbs >to vote in the elections, which is heartening. But the result may be >that Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic Alliance, the LDK, which is >expected to win but not to get an outright majority, will have to >rule in coalition with Serbian and other ethnic minority parties. >Rogova's rivals, Hashim Thaqi and Ramush Haradinaj, could push >Rugova into that position by refusing to bring their parties into a >coalition government. From a position in opposition they might be >able to snipe at Rugova for his relatively soft position on the >independence issue and, in the event of Rugova having to form a >coalition with them, for working with Serbs who want a partition ist >or quasi-partitionist solution for Kosovo. > >It is true that immediate independence for Kosovo is not a practical >proposition. It would antagonise still further the Serbian minority >and would be opposed by neighbouring states. That is why conditional >independence offers the best available, if imperfect, solution. The >Kosovo commission suggested that the powers now exercised by the UN >mission should pass in an orderly way to the new Kosovo >institutions. This process would be conditional on a commitment by >the Kosovans to the sanctity of existing borders, a guarantee of >human rights to all citizens, and the renunciation of the use of >violence internally or externally. Paper promises would not do, and >the handover of powers could be slowed or halted if necessary. At >the end of such a process international responsibilities would be >confined to the protection of minorities, human rights, and the >integrity of the borders. > >The commission is not alone in arguing that the coming elections >must be followed by a decision, or at least a greater degree of >clarity, on Kosovo's final status. Unless some sense of movement >toward an agreed end is created, Kosovo will fester, and the >prospects for the region as a whole will be diminished. > >m.woollacott at guardian.co.uk > >Special report >Kosovo > > > > > > > > >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 9422 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20011111/26c6dc3d/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Wed Nov 21 10:38:13 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 10:38:13 -0500 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL newsletter 11/21/01 Message-ID: > ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY (A-PAL) November 21, 2001 A-PAL STATEMENT: 205 Remain We would like to thank all our advocates from around the world who have helped us with this effort to obtain justice for the Albanian prisoners. Unfortunately, as this ICRC notice states, there are still 205 Albanian prisoners held in Serb prisons--despite the signed transfer document, agreed upon in September, 2001 and signed November 5, 2001. Their release and /or transfer was stated to happen "as soon as possible." What does that mean? What does it mean to release one person and not to transfer ALL the prisoners as stated in the document? Please, as you celebrate Thanksgiving Day, Flag Day, or the start of Ramadan, remember these 205 individuals, whose welfare and safe-keeping depends on you. > ______________________________________________________________________ >ICRC PRESS RELEASE > Pristina, 21.11.2001 > > ICRC ACCOMPANIES A DETAINEE FROM A SERBIAN JAIL > > Today the ICRC accompanied to Kosovo one person released by the > authorities in Serbia. The person released from Sremska Mitrovica > prison comes from Pej?/Pec. > > To date 1832 detainees have been released of whom 1673 were > accompanied back home by the ICRC. During the detention visits the > ICRC delegates have exchanged more than 34,000 Red Cross Messages > between the detainees and their family members. > > 205 detainees will continue to be visited by the ICRC until their > final release by the authorities. > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 1646 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20011121/751f206b/attachment.bin From aki at alb-net.com Tue Nov 27 16:50:07 2001 From: aki at alb-net.com (AKI News) Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 13:50:07 -0800 Subject: [AKI] Advocates for Kosova Independence (AKI) Newsletter Message-ID: We welcome you to the Advocates for Kosova Independence (AKI) Newsletter. The Advocates for Kosova Independence was formed in November, 2001. It is an advocacy effort coordinated by Kosova Action Network* to aid in the stabilization of Kosova in the Balkans. The AKI newsletter: Features: Articles, Op-Ed pieces, Reports and Discussion on the pros and cons of independence for Kosova. Purpose: To create a useful archive of reliable information to be used for lobbying, petitions, speaking, and research on the issue of creating a safe and stable future for the people of Kosova. Distribution: Newsletters will distributed throughout our list several times per month highlighting various topics that pertain to Kosova's political status and political reforms in the region. The newsletters will also be archived for future reference. If you are interested in participating, please send/write articles and information pertaining to the issue to: aki at alb-net.com or if you would like us or remove your email address from our list, please send an email to: aki at alb-net.com with the words "remove" in the subject line. The AKI website will be available soon. The URL web address will be posted on our newsletter in December. The AKI website will serve as a tool for easy accessibility to our database of articles, documents, newsletters and any other pertinent information relating to the issue of Kosova's Independence. We hope you appreciate and participate in our efforts. We look forward to seeing Kosova's citizens free of fear and free of oppression. And this newsletter is an effort to ensure this freedom. This independence. Sincerely, The AKI Team ---------------------------------------------------------- * History of the Kosova Action Network efforts focused on: 1) Specific human rights issues 2) Rights of the University of Prishtina to be open to Albanian students 3) Rights to liberty and freedom for the 2,300 Albanian prisoners detained in Serbia ---------------------------------------------------------- ### -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: winmail.dat Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 2464 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20011127/cd88fb08/attachment.bin From aki at alb-net.com Tue Nov 27 18:22:29 2001 From: aki at alb-net.com (AKI News) Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 15:22:29 -0800 Subject: [AKI] Kosova's UNMIKians : A Protectorate without a Vision Message-ID: Advocates for Kosova Independence (AKI) November 17, 2001 On the day of Kosova's historic turning point, during the difficult process of establishing the rule of law throughout the tumultuous central Balkan peninsula, a new action campaign was formed to advocate for the right to self-determination for the people of Kosova. Sponsored by the Kosova Action Network, the Advocates for Kosova Independence (AKI) has been created for the purpose of providing a forum for discussion and research to evaluate as to what form that self-determination should take. During the past 5 years, Kosova Action Network has advocated for human rights and principles of equality first by supporting the Independent Student's Union (UPSUP) demand for education and then by advocating for the release of 2,300 illegally detained Kosova Albanian prisoners, some 200 of whom still remain in Serb prisons. ================================= ** AKI Newsletter, Issue 1 ** ================================= News: November 17, 2001 : Elections held in Kosova Elections held in Kosova on November 17 for the first time since 1989. After twelve years without elected representation, the Kosovars elect representatives with limited power. Real power will remain with UNMIK leaders. News: November 16, 2001 : Macedonia adopts a new constitution Arben Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians, welcomed the constitutional changes. "We repaired the constitution and now we have to repair the mentality that created ethnic conflicts." -- Kosova's UNMIKians: A Protectorate Without a Vision There are many reasons for beginning this effort. Kosova's future cannot be left vulnerable and dependent upon such random factors as: 1) The half-hearted inattention and fluctuations of the US political leadership regarding a vision for Kosova and a stable future for the Balkans 2) The recalcitrance of Russia and China's veto power on the UN Security Council and their steadfast lack of concern for human rights, subverting the very principles the UN was formed to protect fifty years ago. 3) The hypocrisy implicit in the EU's haphazard application of principles of sovereignty they consistently award to the tattered remnants of the Former Yugoslavia while stating in all their by-laws that protection of minorities and human rights is the priority of every member of the EU and Council of Europe 4) Kosova and Serbia's political leadership vacuum and absolute lack of tolerance, generosity, and moral vision 5) The failure of Kosova's citizens to understand the expectations of Western leaders regarding protection of minorities, the rule of law, and fundamental human rights. These factors spiral around and around each other. Each sector points a finger of anger and blame at the other instead of acknowledging and shouldering the responsibilities needed to create a shared vision that is safe and meaningful for all citizens. This fact remains: Kosova is unique. It lies at the geopolitical center of the Balkans and therefore, if for no other reason, will always be crucial in establishing a stable region. The large Albanian population has never enjoyed full representation or legal equality in the way that other European ethnic groups have during the past fifty years. The freedom that arose from the collapse of Communism never reached Kosova. In 1989 they slipped into an imposed totalitarian repression. The strange borders drawn up at the collapse of the Ottoman Empire did not reflect the needs of the Albanian population and divided them from each other. The Albanians have never had a chance to formally express these historic wrongs in a setting where they have representation. This is one stream of experience. In Kosova there is a confluence of historic and present-day expectations. Here is another stream, the international one. We are all familiar with the difficulties that surrounded NATO's decision to intervene in Kosova. The decision marked a historic change in the status of principles of human rights. It signaled a historic end to totalitarianism. It marked a turning point away from the laissez-faire policy of non-intervention in the affairs of sovereign states (which resulted in the terrible disasters in Bosnia and Rwanda). Kosova was supposed to be the test case, in which international policy-makers decided that the world need NOT stand idly by watching ethnic, intra-state slaughter of thousands on CNN. The people of Kosova did not deserve to die at the hands of an army that had already killed 250,000 others. We took the responsibility of intervening. But we, all five parties mentioned above, avoided the responsibility of structuring a legitimate, planned solution. The result has been so far - defacto partitioning (like Mitrovica) or enclaves or the location of a semi-permanent Russian tank at the Prishtina airport. UNMIK is forced to lurch from crisis to crisis dragging a reluctant population behind it. But what to do? Kosova cannot remain for long as a protectorate without a future while Serb politicians ludicrously bluster about now being the time to plan to re-enter Kosova. And the Bush administration pays no attention to either the significance of this region nor what America has invested in it so far. And the EU considers Serbia and Macedonia to be the two significant countries, with their rights and principles a priority to Kosova's. That leaves a political power vacuum at the center of a region where minorities now know for a fact that only violence gets the attention of outsiders. The peaceful method, the referendum stated in UN1244, for now, has been postponed. Until when? By denying Kosova the chance for self-determination, are we denying a population the right to freedom of speech? Are we then creating a defacto country called UNMIK? Will UNMIKians some day vote in the FRY legislature? Will that make FRY an international protectorate as well? ---------------------------------------------------------- RECOMMENDED ACTION: Read the Kosovo Report by the Independent International Commission on Kosovo. Oxford University Press. 2000. or visit them on the web at www.kosovocommission.org ---------------------------------------------------------- ### From aki at alb-net.com Fri Nov 30 18:03:12 2001 From: aki at alb-net.com (AKI News) Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 15:03:12 -0800 Subject: [AKI] Statement - November 26, 2001 Message-ID: Advocates for Kosova's Independence November 26, 2001 ================================= ** AKI Newsletter, Issue 2 ** ================================= To no one's surprise, Ibrahim Rugova won the recently held elections in Kosova, though LDK will share parliamentary seats with PDK, AK, and the Serb party, which won eleven per-cent of the votes. Then, oddly, President Rugova sent out a statement saying that Kosova should now be recognized as independent by the international community. Internationals sputtered. Kostunica vowed to retain KosMet (this is not an abbreviation for the name of a life insurance company but an abbreviation for the Serbian term Kosovo Metohija). Does Kostunica know that he lost the NATO war? Does NATO know the FRY lost? If this all sounds contradictory and confusing, it is. If this sounds like once again, international powers are ignoring this high level of semi-institutionalized conflict regarding the final status of Kosova in the Balkans, they are. Somehow following the NATO war, which NATO "won", there was no peace agreement. The Serbs were allowed to retain their entire army as well as sovereignty over the province they had just been driven out of, thus creating an imbalance of power weighted towards Serbia that now cannot be addressed by any particular current organization. The Albanians, realizing that their only real advantage is not military but a population imbalance of 90 per-cent, seek the elusive referendum that was promised them in 1999. Now it seems that "the will of the people" has been reneged on at meetings they were not invited to. Isn't "the will of the people" the true meaning of sovereignty in the year 2001? Or are we now promoting a unilateral statehood based on hegemony and repression, similar to the states involved in the Cold War? Where do charters for the UN and NATO state this as a goal? Nowhere. What's missing behind this hodge-podge of mismanagement is, step one: Accountability. Actions should result in meaningful consequences. Under the Clinton/Holbrooke expediency method embodied in the Dayton Peace Accord of 1995 this never happened. Instead, short-term deals were substituted for just, principled, long-term strategies. Milosevic, now in The Hague, was treated as the Balkan "peacemaker." So he suffered some consequences. But nearly all others involved in these murderous acts still go free. The ICTY cannot and should not be a substitute for all levels of appropriate consequences. Certainly more than four Serb leaders were involved in killing and torturing Albanians. But only four have been indicted. Mladic and Karadzic go free. In the same vein, following ten years of armed conflict during the break-up of Yugoslavia, the Serbs were allowed to keep the Yugoslav Army - an army that had brutally killed its own countrymen in three separate wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosova. There was no disarmament for the Serbs in 1999, only for the Albanian KLA. Thus the FRY, the most violent nation in the Balkans, has been allowed to remain heavily armed. Even when mass graves were being excavated in the Serb capital, Belgrade, there was no discussion of any consequences. Instead, a country that drove hundreds of thousands into the mountains, destabilized neighboring countries, deceived its own citizens, murdered Kosovar civilians and hid the evidence in its capital is allowed to retain sovereignty over the population it tried to drive from its jurisdiction. In this instance, sovereignty was not used to defend and protect a group of citizens within its borders, but the opposite. At the same time, sovereignty for Serbs has been used by the Milosevic regime and to an extent by the Kostunica government as a shield to hide behind, to perpetrate murder, social chaos, crime and an ongoing injustice from which ordinary people must feel that they will never escape. Internationals have clung to the principle of sovereignty of the FRY (a former country that is still a country) causing: an exhaustion of diplomacy, severe strains in the NATO alliance, failure to promote human rights by the UN Security Council, the economic destruction of an entire region resulting in smuggling, weapons trafficking, and drug running. This is not a protection of the principle of sovereignty. Sovereignty means that a nation will lawfully defend and protect all its citizens. It is, instead, half-hearted international intervention followed by a wish that the problems would simply go away. Well they won't. Not until an equitable sovereignty is redefined and redistributed among all citizens. That should have been done in a Kosova Peace Accord in June, 1999. ### Questions/Comments, email us at aki at alb-net.com