[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: Rugova's Party Says "Too Soon" to Talk to Kostunica about Kosovo (AFP, Nov 1, 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=215970&section=Kosovo

Rugova's Party Says "Too Soon" to Talk to Kostunica about Kosovo

PRISTINA, Nov 1, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) An offer from Yugoslav
President Vojislav Kostunica to meet Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim
Rugova was given a polite rebuff by the moderate nationalist's party
Tuesday.
     "We will certainly see him, but it's still too soon," Skender
Hyseni, spokesman for the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), told AFP.
     While the LDK is not opposed to such a meeting, there are no plans
for the time being to accept the invitation, Hyseni said.
     "We are not considering the possibility right now. We should wait
until after the spring elections" he said, referring to a Kosovo-wide
legislative poll promised by the Yugoslav province's UN chief, Bernard
Kouchner.
     Kostunica said in Norway earlier that he was open to talks with
Rugova after his party won a massive victory in Kosovo's first post war
municipal election Saturday, but he rejected the idea of independence
for the province.
     "I am open to all sorts of talks. There is not a single door that I
will not knock on in order to solve the problems within my country, so
of course I'll have a dialogue" with Rugova, Kostunica said at a press
conference in Oslo after talks with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens
Stoltenberg.
     On Sunday, Kostunica had said that Belgrade could not recognize the
election as legitimate because Kosovo's 100,000-strong Serb population
had not participated.
     But while his willingness to discuss Kosovo appeared to signal a
softening stance, he stressed that sovereignty remained "out of the
question."
     "In political and strategic terms this would be very dangerous for
the region," he said.
     Kosovo is still legally a province of Yugoslavia but has been run
by a UN mission since a NATO-led peacekeeping force arrived in the
province in June last year.
     Rugova's LDK won Kosovo's first election since last year's NATO
bombing campaign, taking 58.13 percent of the vote. 

((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)


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