[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=AB?=ALBEUROPA=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BB?=} PRESS: Kosovo's hopes for independence may be hurt (National Post, October 7, 2000)

[Nikoll A Mirakaj]

http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20001007/423114.html

October 7, 2000

Kosovo's hopes for independence may be hurt

Isabel Vincent
National Post

Members of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority had mixed reactions to
Vojislav Kostunica's victory this week.
     On the one hand, many said they were pleased to see Slobodan
Milosevic resign as Yugoslav president. The headline in one of the main
ethnic Albanian dailies yesterday was "The parliament was burning.
That's justice because Milosevic's men burned our villages."
     Mr. Milosevic is generally despised by ethnic Albanians because his
paramilitary forces were responsible for ethnic cleansing and
large-scale human rights abuses in the southern province of Serbia
during the NATO bombing campaign last year.
     On the other hand, many ethnic Albanians feel that without Mr.
Milosevic, who has become an international pariah despised by the West,
in Belgrade, their hopes for independence will never be realized.
     "We would have preferred Milosevic to stay in power because the
international community would soon have been forced to recognize
Kosovo's independence," said Sali Berisha, vice-president of the
Democratic League of Kosovo, told Agence France-Presse yesterday.
     Mr. Kostunica has campaigned on a pro-nationalist platform over
Kosovo and favours keeping the province within Yugoslavia. One of his
first acts as the new Yugoslav leader will likely be to draw up a new
constitution, enshrining minority rights, say members of his 18-party
opposition coalition, Democratic Opposition of Serbia.
     In the past, Mr. Kostunica supported Kosovo Serbs, who currently
number about 100,000 in the region, in their struggle against ethnic
Albanians to keep the province within Serbia. When Serbia pulled out of
Kosovo after 78 days of NATO bombing last year, he condemned Mr.
Milosevic for his "shameful capitulation."
     Since the NATO campaign, Kosovo has been under an interim United
Nations administration backed by a NATO-led military force.

Copyright © 2000 National Post Onlin

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