[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: BBC/AP: Kosovo independence decision urged / Panel: Kosovo Should Be Independent (October 23, 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_987000/987291.stm

Monday, 23 October, 2000, 21:56 GMT 22:56 UK 

Kosovo independence decision urged

Kosovo's Albanians want independence from Yugoslavia

An independent international commission has questioned the viability of
Kosovo's future within the Yugoslav Federation. 
     The commission, set up by Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson and
led by the former head of the International War Crimes Tribunal, Judge
Richard Goldstone, is due to hand in a special report on Kosovo to UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 
     The report said that the world should consider moving the mainly
Albanian populated province to what it calls conditional independence. 
     Under this arrangement, world powers would guarantee the security
of Kosovo, oversee the protection of minority rights and make sure that
it was integrated in a Balkan stability pact. 
     The BBC's Genc Lamani says that the future status of Kosovo is one
of the hardest for the international community and the world powers have
so far avoided tackling it head on. 
     The province has been administered by the UN since the end of the
Nato bombing campaign against Yugoslavia last year. 
     Differences with Serbia 
     Ethnic Albanians no longer want to live under Serbian rule and some
leaders have called for parliamentary and presidential elections leading
to independence. 
     But the new Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, maintains that
Kosovo must remain part of Serbia. 
     International experts are urging the UN to act quickly to sort out
Kosovo's status and not leave the issue to fester. 

Hardline threat 

The report is reinforced by a separate study by a high-profile
think-tank, the International Crisis Group. 
     It said that support for hardliners in Kosovo would rise if a
decision on the future of the province was not accelerated. 
     It also said that the west should be careful not to compromise
Kosovo's desire for independence for the sake of better relations with
Yugoslavia. 
     And provisions under UN resolution 1244, which ended the war in
Kosovo, allowing for the eventual return of a limited contingent of
Yugoslav troops to the province would be "catastrophic".
_______________________________________________________________________
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001023/wl/un_kosovo_report_2.html

Monday October 23 11:04 PM ET

Panel: Kosovo Should Be Independent 

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Kosovo, the Serbian province that has been under
international control since last year, should become an independent
country after it fulfills a host of conditions, a commission recommended
Monday.
     The international commission's report recommended that the province
become a separate state when it can guarantee safety for its minorities
and after it takes part in negotiations with other Balkan states on its
future independence. Fulfilling those and other conditions could take
years, the head of the commission said.
     The report, delivered to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was
likely to stir up disagreement: Nationalists in Serbia, Yugoslavia's
main republic, have long opposed any formula which would loosen Serbia's
claim over Kosovo. No country publicly supports independence for Kosovo,
and diplomats here noted that the report's recommendation went beyond
what Annan has been authorized to consider by the Security Council.
     Commission members had been scheduled to deliver the 297-page
report personally to the secretary-general but he canceled the meeting
at the last minute to make phone calls related to the Mideast crisis,
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
     Kosovo's future has been the subject of international debate since
the end of NATO (news - web sites)'s 78-day bombing campaign in
Yugoslavia last year.
     The province has a large ethnic Albanian population, and many of
the ethnic Albanian residents do not want to be ruled by the
Serb-dominated Yugoslav government. Independence sentiment reached a
high point in 1997 when a rebel group called the Kosovo Liberation Army
began ambushing Serb police in the province.
     Now-ousted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites)
responded in 1998 with a massive crackdown on Kosovo Albanians, killing
thousands and triggering the NATO bombing campaign. The bombing ended in
June 1999 with an agreement under which Yugoslav forces left the
province and handed it over to the United Nations (news - web sites) and
a NATO-led peacekeeping force.
     The U.N. Security Council resolution enshrining that peace
agreement reaffirmed Yugoslav sovereignty over Kosovo. The council
authorized the U.N. administration to set up an interim democratic
government in Kosovo that would have ``substantial autonomy'' within
Yugoslavia - and to facilitate ``a political process designed to
determine Kosovo's future status.'' But it never mentioned the word
independence, which was vehemently opposed by Milosevic and his
supporters on the Security Council, Russia and China.
     The Independent International Commission on Kosovo - the group that
issued Monday's report - was formed at the initiative of Swedish Prime
Minister Goran Persson.
     The NATO intervention, the group concluded, was ``illegal but
legitimate'' - illegal because it did not receive approval from the
Security Council but legitimate because all diplomatic avenues had been
exhausted and there was no other way to stop the killings in Kosovo.
     Commission head Richard Goldstone, a South African judge and former
war crimes prosecutor, said the 11-member group recognized that Kosovo's
future status is controversial but felt it had ``a moral obligation'' to
make recommendations.
     Considering Serb forces' ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians,
``it's not realistic or justifiable to expect the Albanians in Kosovo to
accept rule from Belgrade,'' Goldstone told a news conference launching
the report.
     But the commission rejected immediate, unconditional independence
because Kosovo Serbs, Roma and other minorities have been subject to
serious human rights violations as well. Kosovo also lacks key
ingredients of statehood - the means to defend itself and the ability to
guarantee internal order, domestic safety, and interethnic peace, the
commission said.
     ``For these functions normally exercised by states, Kosovo will
remain dependent, for years to come, on some form of international
security presence, both police and military,'' the commission said.
     Goldstone said the commission therefore recommended a new status of
``conditional independence - that Kosovo should become independent
subject to the fulfillment of a number of conditions which may take many
years to fulfill.'' 

Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press


-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/8/_/920292/_/972425857/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

Nëse don të çregjistrohesh nga ALBEUROPA, dërgo një Email në:

albeuropa-unsubscribe at egroups.com