[ALBSA-Info] Hope for smooth Kosovo transition

[Iris Pilika]

Hope for smooth Kosovo transition

Albanian Democratic League party leader Ibrahim Rugova claims victory in 
Kosovo municipal elections.
October 30, 2000
Web posted at: 1616 GMT


BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Western allies hope Kosovo's "surprisingly normal" 
election will be capped by a smooth transition of power as former guerrillas 
cede local government offices to the moderates who won, NATO sources have 
said.

"It really was very good, the high turnout, zero trouble, it was a 
surprisingly normal election," said a NATO official.

"The next issue is a safe transition. In those places where the KLA (Kosovo 
Liberation Army) just moved in last year, they're going to have to move 
aside. If they are democrats they have to show they can take defeat 
gracefully," he added.

Official results were not expected until later on Monday at the earliest, 
but Ibrahim Rugova, veteran leader of the ethnic-Albanian Democratic League 
(LDK), had already claimed a clear victory over Hashim Thaci's Democratic 
Party (PDK).

While both want Kosovo's independence from Serbia, Thaci's PDK is the 
political outgrowth of the KLA, which took up arms to drive Serb forces out, 
whereas Rugova earned the unofficial title of "Gandhi of the Balkans" for 
his non-violent course.

Saturday's municipal election was described by Western officials as the 
first genuinely free vote the province has had.

"The situation in the days to come should be as calm and orderly as it was 
for the election itself," said a European diplomat.

"This was a free and fair vote and there is no expectation other than that 
its results, when made public officially, will be respected."

NATO and United Nations administrators have contingency plans to enforce a 
handover of local city halls in case of any resistance by ex-KLA fighters, 
who ran "free" Kosovo during the crisis before and after NATO's bombing 
campaign last year.

Thaci's supporters say the guerrillas, not Rugova's civil disobedience 
movement, deserve credit for putting Kosovo on the road to independence and 
may feel cheated by what they see as a reflex vote for the best-known 
ethnic-Albanian politician.

In the West, governments supplying millions of dollars in aid, and 45,000 
peacekeeping troops, look hopefully on a Rugova majority as a vote for 
peace, moderation and stability.

"The best way to prove their democratic credentials and further the 
democratic aspirations of Kosovo is to see that the decision of the voters 
is fully respected," the EU diplomat said. "No other possibility is being 
considered."

Independent analysts, most recently in the "Kosovo Report" issued by an 
international panel, have warned the West it would be foolhardy to try to 
force Kosovo Albanians back into some federation with Serbia, whoever leads 
them.

Meanwhile a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in 
Europe did not dispute Rugova's claim that his party had won in most of the 
30 municipalities.

Rugova's victory claim was based on figures compiled by independent 
monitoring groups and his own party, the Democratic League of Kosovo.

Some 900,000 ethnic Albanians were eligible to vote and turnout was reported 
heavy on Saturday.

But the office of Yugoslavia's newly elected president, Vojislav Kostunica, 
on Sunday said it could not recognise the elections.

KACI, an independent Kosovo elections monitoring group, said Rugova's party 
won a controlling majority in the province's major cities, including 
Pristina, the capital.

Releasing its own preliminary results, Rugova's party said it had won about 
68 percent of the vote in Pristina and over 50 percent in other key cities.

In its first comment on the vote, Kostunica's office said the poll was void 
because it applied only to the province's predominantly ethnic Albanians 
population. Most of the remaining Serb minority -- about 80,000-strong -- 
boycotted the elections.

Rugova's nearest rival, Hashim Thaci, was head of the guerilla Kosovo 
Liberation Army whose fight for the province's independence led to the Serb 
crackdown that precipitated NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

Thaci's militant nationalist Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) claims it was 
leading in five municipalities -- all former KLA strongholds.

Ramush Haradinaj, head of the third major party running, said he would 
respect any official result.

Although Saturday's voting was for seats on town and city councils, the 
results will widely be interpreted as a sign of how Rugova and Thaci compare 
in popularity and how well their parties would fare in any national 
elections.

Full official results are expected to be announced within eight to 12 days.

Although more moderate than his chief rivals, Rugova shares their agenda of 
independence for Kosovo, which still formally remains part of Serbia despite 
its more than 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.


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