[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} PRESS: Future of Kosovo dominates Balkan summit (Scotsman, 26 OCTOBER 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/world.cfm?id=TS00172148&d=World&c=world&s=0&keyword=the

THURSDAY 26 OCTOBER 2000

Future of Kosovo dominates Balkan summit

Christian Jennings in Pristina 

THE thorny question of Kosovo's independence and the problematic past of
the ousted Yugoslav leader, Slobodan Milosevic. dominated a Balkans
stability summit yesterday in the Macedonian capital, Skopje. 
     The stars of the meeting, which saw regional leaders declare
themselves committed to increased regional stability, were the new
Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, and the US Ambassador to the
United Nations, Richard Holbrooke. 
     "With sensible, good-willed dialogue, without accusations and
self-accusations in advance, patiently freeing ourselves of pent-up
predjudice, we will be able to solve the problems that burden our
relations," said Mr Kostunica, in his first meeting with Balkan leaders
since assuming power in Belgrade earlier this month. 
     The summit included leaders and senior governmental officials from
Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, Romania, Bosnia and
Croatia, as well as the European Union's high representative foreign and
security policy, Javier Solana. 
     Key items on the one-day agenda were atonement for the past regime
of Mr Milosevic, and independence for Kosovo. 
     Croatia's deputy prime minister, Goran Granic, said that the rule
of Mr Milosevic, under which more than 230,000 Bosnians, Croats,
Albanians and Serbs died during ten years of war since 1991, had been
the region's "main source of instability and generator of crisis". 
     While the Balkan leaders welcomed moves by Mr Kostunica to embrace
democracy and the values of the European Union, Kosovo, which goes to
the polls on Saturday for the first time in its history, is proving to
be a fly in the political ointment of regional stability. 
     Mr Kostunica has affirmed Yugoslavia's territorial claims to Kosovo
while all the province's 19 political parties and most of its two
million predominantly ethnic Albanian inhabitants want independence. 
     Ibrahim Rugova - a moderate Kosovar political leader from the
Democratic League of Kosovo, who is expected to scoop up to 50 per cent
of the vote - told more than 20,000 supporters gathered in Pristina
yesterday that a vote for the LDK was a vote for independence. 
     Some 20 per cent of the votes are expected to go to the Democratic
Party of Kosovo (PDK), led by a former guerilla leader, Hashim Thaci,
and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), led by another former
rebel fighter, Ramush Haradinaj. Both parties sprang out of the former
Kosovo Liberation Army and are determination to acheive independence. 
     The final status of Kosovo will be discussed at a regional summit
in Zagreb next month. 
     Mr Holbrooke said province-wide spring general elections may be
possible in Kosovo, but officials from the Organisation for Security and
Co-Operation in Europe, responsible for organising polling, say that a
spring deadline is too early. 
     Kosovar leaders have indicated that if independence is denied them,
they might be tempted to return to an armed struggle against Serbia .

The Scotsman


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