[ALBSA-Info] Kostunica better of two evils, Kosovo Albanians say

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Kostunica better of two evils, Kosovo Albanians say

By Jeremy Gaunt

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanians  in Kosovo said on 
Saturday the West was moving too quickly to embrace Vojislav Kostunica as 
Yugoslavia's new president and he was little different from his predecessor. 

Newspapers in the provincial capital ran comments from ethnic Albanian 
officials saying that Serbs had chosen the better of two evils in defeating 
Slobodan Milosevic but that only the faces would change, not the politics. 

``I am surprised by the unconditional promises from the West to Kostunica, 
not waiting to see what positive steps he will take before lifting 
sanctions,'' Naim Maloku, leader of the liberal PQLK party told the Koha 
Ditore daily. 

Newspapers portrayed Kostunica as a man who opposed the peace accords that 
ended the Bosnia war, NATO intervention in Yugoslavia and United Nations 
resolutions putting Kosovo under international administration. 

Koha Ditore ran a front page photograph of Kostunica posing with an automatic 
rifle in front of what the paper said were Serb paramilitaries. 

``Democracy in Serbia is still not on the horizon,'' it said in an editorial. 
Kostunica, it said, was only a stop-gap politician whose main use was to 
depose Milosevic. 

INDEPENDENCE STILL THE GOAL 

Most ethnic Albanians in Kosovo want little to do with Yugoslavia after years 
of conflict with Belgrade and now want the province -- administered by the 
international community since last year's NATO-led war -- to become 
independent. 

The West says Kosovo should remain a part of Yugoslavia with broad autonomy. 

``Serbia cannot be democratic and a stability factor if it retains the 
illusion that it will ever come back to Kosovo,'' Agim Ceku, commander of the 
official Kosovo Protection Corps, told the Epoka e Re daily. 

Concern that the West had been too quick to accept Kostunica as a democrat 
who would change Serbia was echoed on the streets of Pristina. 

Sokol Blakaj, general secretary of the Liberal Party of Kosovo, said the West 
would make the same mistake it did with Milosevic if it embraced Kostunica 
before he proved himself. 

``He has to prove he is democratic, give up his colonial ideas about Kosovo, 
apologise to the nations of former Yugoslavia for the crimes committed 
against them,'' Blakaj said as he bought newspapers on Pristina's Mother 
Theresa Street. 

``Then the West should lift sanctions.''