[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: Kosovo Vote "Important Step" Towards Independence (AFP, Oct 29, 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=214694

Kosovo Vote "Important Step" Towards Independence

PRISTINA, Oct 29, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) A Kosovar Albanian
leader, dubbed the "Gandhi of the Balkans" because of his decades-long
passive resistance to Serb rule, hailed elections in the province
Saturday as an "important step" towards independence.
     Ibrahim Rugova, the respected but uncharismatic "president" of the
breakaway Yugoslav province during 10 years of pacifist opposition to
Belgrade, is not a candidate in the UN-administered province's municipal
elections.
     But his party is seen as a clear favorite to win a majority of the
900,000 votes being cast by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority in 30
municipalities.
     "This is a great day for Kosovo, we are holding our first free
elections, in a free Kosovo, and it's a step towards liberty,
independence and democracy," said the 56-year-old academic after voting
Saturday near his home overlooking Pristina.
     Rugova is expected to stand in a Kosovo-wide legislative or even
presidential poll next year, but the success of his Democratic League of
Kosovo (LDK) in the municipal elections depends on his standing as
"father of the nation."
     His main rival, former guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci, who is vying
for political office in Kosovo, also declared Saturday that the vote was
just a step on the road to full independence from Yugoslavia.
     "I have complete confidence that the international community will
soon be persuaded that it must recognize Kosovo's right to full
independence," Thaci said as he cast his ballot early Saturday in
central Pristina.
     Polling stations opened at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) throughout the
province for the first vote to be held in Kosovo since the end in June
1999 of NATO's 78-day bombing campaign. Polls were to close at 7:00 PM
(1700 GMT).
     The outcome of the municipal elections could prompt Kosovo's ethnic
Albanian majority to step up the drive for independence.
     However, Kosovo's Serb 100,000-strong Serb minority is boycotting
the elections, which are being supervised by the Organisation for
Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE). 

((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)


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