[ALBSA-Info] Rilindja

[Agron Alibali]

 Kosovo  Albanian  daily advocates cultural,
territorial autonomy for
Serbs

SOURCE: Source: 'Rilindja', Pristina, in  Albanian  8
Jun 00 p 2

 BODY:
   [2]

   An editorial in a Kosovo  Albanian  daily has
condemned violence against the 
province's Serbs, saying that it is inexcusable and
harms Kosovo's interests.
The editorial advocated different types of political
and territorial autonomy
for the Kosovo Serbs. The following is the text of an
editorial by Ramush
Tahiri, "Serbs are citizens of Kosovo", published by
the Kosovo  Albanian 
newspaper 'Rilindja' on 8th June:

   Organized attacks against the Serb population in
Kosova [Kosovo], which have 
claimed the lives of dozens of people of all ages,
reflect the bitter reality of
Kosova, which is facing enormous difficulties in
becoming pacified and being
able to build a safe future for all its citizens. The
killings and attacks are
condemned by all Kosovar political entities, and they
disgust the common
citizens, who perceive all this with anguish, who see
it as violence that is
being tolerated, dangerous to all Kosova citizens
regardless of their
background, and dangerous for Kosova itself. There
have been persistent calls to
bring the culprits to justice and give them the
punishment they deserve. There
has been suspicion that this is a deed of the extended
hand of the Serbian
security forces, which by choosing any means to
achieve its goals and by
victimizing the people are intent on seeing tensions
run high in Kosova, are
willing to see that the insecurity and psychoses of
conflicts prevail in Kosova,
and are trying to prove that Kosova is not and cannot
be different from Serbia, 
but with violence now targeting the other side. Crimes
can be committed by
irresponsible  Albanians  as well, who, encouraged by
someone else or on their
own think that in so doing they could scare the Serbs
and make them leave Kosova
amidst wild violence against all.... ['Rilindja'
ellipsis]

   No matter where political analyses or analyses of
any kind can lead us, the
consequences of unchecked violence against the Serb
citizens of Kosova will be
very severe. Kosova cannot gain the sympathy and
support of the international
community if only  Albanians  stay in it and others
leave, whether they be
Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma or others. Kosova cannot
exist any other way but the
way it was: multiethnic.

   It is utterly wrong to condemn the Serbian policy,
which was adamant about
changing Kosova's ethnic structure through the use of
force and other methods,
while on the other hand supporting the policy,
conditionally speaking, of
 Albanians,  which aims at driving out all non-
Albanians  by exploiting various
methods.

   Kosova cannot be supported either today or
tomorrow, if it fails to become
qualitatively different from what Serbia was and is
today; if it fails to offer 
more to the nationalities than what Serbia offered and
is offering. The
international community did not intervene in Kosova
because it accepted or
denied  Albanian  or Serb concepts, but rather it did
so to thwart and stop the 
policy of genocide, extermination, ethnic cleansing
and usurpation of
territories and properties. In so doing, the NATO
forces were not led by Serb or
 Albanian  historic rights, by the "national"
political programme of either of
the sides, but rather it reacted against a situation
in time and space. On such 
a basis, NATO and UNMIK are natural allies of neither
the  Albanians  nor the
Serbs.

   A rule that has already been acknowledged by all is
that it is not a wise
policy by any state if it favours one nation and
suppresses the other, even
though such a policy at first sight could seem
efficient and stable. You cannot 
say that a state that aspires to national, religious,
cultural or any other kind
of hegemony is a righteous one, but a state with
multiplicity of ethnicities,
beliefs, cultures, etc. All modern states and
civilizations aspire to
integration of cultures, not differences, alienation
and exclusivity. Now when
we are about to mark the anniversary of the return of
people to their homes,
there are many of those who aspire to impose their own
influence for dubious
profits. Efforts are being made to demonstrate that 
Albanians  and Serbs cannot
live together in these areas, that they will live in
enmity everlastingly, and
that solutions can only be found by dividing
territories and by erecting iron
boundaries. But no one seems to bother that even that
kind of division between
two hostile peoples would not provide stability in the
region, but rather new
and even more dangerous hostilities and regroupings.

   Another tendency, almost as dangerous as the one
mentioned above, is the
tendency to equate the two ethnicities in Kosova, the
tendency to develop
consensual government in Kosova with the right to veto
for Serbs even though the
Serbs as a people make up less than 10 per cent of
Kosova's overall population. 
Such a political objective is meant to serve any other
national community
tomorrow so that it may be seen as being on a par with
the  Albanians  in
Kosova, and with the international community too. The
effect of such a concept
(elaborated by the group led by Serb Vice-President
Markovic during the farcical
talks on Kosova) aims at making any kind of governance
in Kosova as a distinct
international entity impossible.

   US President Bill Clinton told the Russian
parliament members that there will
be a government of the majority and there will be
minority rights in Kosova,
which is precisely the principle all civilized
contemporary democracies are
built on, a basis that provides for stability,
equality and mutual cooperation. 
It remains for this principle to be put into effect in
Kosova. Kosova as a new
international entity should employ the experiences of
advanced states in working
out its internal arrangements. By eliminating the
Leninist concept of peoples'
rights to self-determination and secession, the Serbs
should be courageously
offered models of political and territorial autonomy.
One should not repeat
Serbia's mistakes; nor there should be room left for
parallelisms, for two
concepts, enclavization, divided life, separate
administrative systems,
self-defence as the Serb leaders in Kosova have been
offering. They are
responsible for the escalation of the situation to the
level it is today, as
well as for the consequences the Serb people have been
facing.

   Without pretending to offer ready-made and solid
models, it should be said
that it is quite understandable that there should be a
different kind of
autonomy for Leposavic and Zubin Potok where the Serbs
dominate as a population 
and as a territory, and another kind for small Serb
settlements in Sterpce
[Strpce], Sredcka, Gorazdec, Gracanica, etc, and again
a different kind of
autonomy for Serbs in bigger Kosova cities where they
are in relatively large
numbers, but are the minority in terms of percentage.
There should be specific
rights for cultural-historic monuments too, and there
should also be an adequate
solution for the entire territory of Kosova, so that
one could be free in every 
place.

   In offering solutions we have to come up openly
with arguments, because this 
way we help Kosova, and stability and peace in the
region.

   [Note: The Pristina daily 'Rilindja' is an
independent publication which has 
ties to Kosovapress, the news agency originally
founded by the Kosovo Liberation
Army .]

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