[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: To talk or not to talk - a dilemma for moderate Albanian leader Rugova (AFP, 5 Dec 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/001205/world/afp/To_talk_or_not_to_talk_-_a_dilemma_for_moderate_Albanian_leader_Rugova.html

Tuesday, December 5 4:37 PM SGT 

To talk or not to talk - a dilemma for moderate Albanian leader Rugova

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Dec 5 (AFP) - 

The rejection by Ibrahim Rugova this weekend of an offer of dialogue
with Belgrade highlights the tightrope the leader of Kosovo's moderate
ethnic Albanians has to walk to keep hardline members of his own
community as well as his international supporters at bay.
    The arrival in power of reformist President Vojislav Kostunica in
Belgrade in October, and then the victory of moderate separatist
Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) in the province's municipal
elections later in the same month, had raised hopes of an early start to
dialogue over Kosovo's status. 
    But caught between calls from the international community for
dialogue as the only way forward and pressure from ethnic Albanians at
home, many of whom maintain a deep distrust of the Yugoslav authorities,
Rugova has given priority to local concerns by keeping Belgrade at arm's
length.
    The assassination of his right-hand man Xhemajl Mustafa in Pristina
at the end of November provided a stark reminder that despite strong
overall support in Kosovo, his election victory was far from popular
with extreme ethnic Albanian elements.
    Kostunica has twice held out an olive branch to Rugova, offering to
discuss the status of the province which has been under UN control since
the end of the NATO bombardments of Yugoslavia in June 1999.
    But the Yugoslav president has made it clear that independence is
out of the question, citing UN resolution 1244 which envisages
substantial autonomy for Kosovo within the Yugoslav Federation.
    Rugova, a pacifist, kept Kostunica waiting for almost a week before
announcing that for now at least, he would not be taking up the
invitation.
    "We have to wait a little. It's necessary that they themselves (the
Serbs) change, that they have new ideas...confidence will develop if
they want it to," he said Saturday at a two day conference in Cavouri,
Greece, entitled "Albanians as a majority and Albanians as a minority."
    By standing firm but without ruling out dialogue in the future,
Rugova avoids for the moment having to clash political swords with
Hashim Thaci, leader of the more radical Democratic Party of Kosovo
(PDK) -- a movement spawned from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which
fought a guerrilla war against Serbian rule in Kosovo before the NATO
bombardments.
    The KLA was disbanded under an agreement with NATO in September
1999, but there is still a body of opinion in Kosovo which secretly
wishes former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic had held onto the
presidency.
    They believe they had a better chance of wresting independence from
an arch rival than negotiating it with democratically elected Kostunica.
    The PDK received less support than it had hoped in Kosovo's
municipal elections, but still won a significant 27.3 percent of the
vote.
    International observers in Kosovo do not believe Rugova can keep a
foot in both camps for long. They say he risks distancing himself from
the international community if he resists dialogue for too long, and
meanwhile Kostunica has made a series of accomodating gestures. 
    He has said he is ready to assume responsibility for warcrimes
commited by the Milosevic regime in Balkans region, and he sent Rugova
his condolensces after the murder of Xhemajl. 
    He has offered dialogue and he has pardoned and released the
53-year-old poet and paediatrician Flora Brovina, the most famous ethnic
Albanian prisoner in Serbia.
    She was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Milosevic regime for
terrorist activities and having links with the KLA.
    But aside from the central issue of independence, two major
obstacles to dialogue remain for the ethnic Albanians: Kostunica's
unwillingness to hand Milosevic over for trial before the UN warcrimes
tribunal in the Hague, and the continued imprisonment of around 800
ethnic Albanians in Serbia.
    For many, agreeing to talks before such issues are resolved would be
seen as tantamount to treason.
    Ethnic Albanians have accused Rugova of treason once already, for
meeting Milosevic and shaking him by the hand during the NATO
bombardments. They subsequently showed a forgiving face at the ballot
box in October, but Rugova can ill afford to face the charge a second
time.

Copyright © 2000 AFP.


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