[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=AB?=ALBEUROPA=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BB?=} Ex-KLA Chief Wants Proof Kostunica is Democrat

[Nikoll A Mirakaj]

Ex-KLA Chief Wants Proof Kostunica is Democrat 

PRISTINA, Oct 11, 2000 -- (Reuters) The former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) said on Tuesday that Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica should prove he is a democrat and release prisoners from the Kosovo war.

"If Mr Kostunica is a democrat as he claims, he should release all Albanian prisoners and the kidnapped," Hashim Thaci told Reuters in an interview.

He also said the new Yugoslav president, hailed by the West as a breath of democracy in Belgrade, should apologize to ethnic Albanians for atrocities committed by the Serb police and the Yugoslav army last year in Kosovo.

"Kostunica should cooperate with the Hague tribunal," he said, referring to the international war crimes body that has indicted Kostunica's predecessor Slobodan Milosevic.

Thaci, who now heads the Democratic Party of Kosovo, said the European Union had been too quick to lift sanctions on Belgrade on Monday and should have first considered issues such as prisoners and the missing.

By some estimates up to 5,000 people are missing from last year's conflict in Kosovo, when a crackdown by Belgrade against the KLA and ethnic Albanians seeking independence triggered a NATO-led bombing campaign.

Still officially a Serb province, Kosovo is now administered by the international community and protected by 40,000 foreign troops.

INDEPENDENCE THE GOAL

Thaci, who with rival Ibrahim Rugova of the Democratic League of Kosovo is one of Kosovo's leading politicians, said Kostunica's election was good for the Balkans but not specifically relevant to Kosovo's future.

"Kosovo fought a war for freedom and independence," he said. "The changes in Belgrade can certainly have a positive reflection on democratic developments in the region.

"(But) Kosovo's fate does not depend on Kostunica. Kosovo's fate depends on the Kosovars and the international community."

Thaci diplomatically avoided saying whether ethnic Albanians would again take up their weapons if the international community tried to return the province to Belgrade control.

But he said it would be "very dangerous" for Serbia and the region if Kostunica insisted on bringing Kosovo back into Yugoslavia's fold.

"He and Serbia should once and for all give up the policy of rule over Kosovo," he said.

He was asked whether he thought he would ever put on his fighter's uniform again.

"We shouldn't think about wars. I think about peace, and as you can see I am wearing a uniform of peace," he said, pointing to his politician's grey suit.

(C)2000 Copyright Reuters Limited

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