[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=AB?=ALBEUROPA=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BB?=} Wary Kosovo Ponders Life after Milosevic

[Nikoll A Mirakaj]

Wary Kosovo Ponders Life after Milosevic 

PRISTINA, Sep 28, 2000 -- (Reuters) Kosovo Albanians on Wednesday began coming to grips with the prospect of change in Serbia - by no means an obvious cause for celebration here.

Grasping a subject dismissed as irrelevant, even injurious, to Kosovo's will to independence, political analysts reluctantly started pondering life after Slobodan Milosevic.

Yugoslavia's veteran president officially lost to his rival Vojislav Kostunica in the first round of Sunday's presidential election. Milosevic wants a runoff contest, but Kostunica refuses, saying he has already won an absolute majority.

Kosovo Albanians needed no encouragement from their leaders to ignore the Yugoslav election. They shunned it as a purely Serbian affair that made no difference to their lives or future, since they vow never to be part of Yugoslavia again.

Western sponsors of self-government in Kosovo, most of them NATO allies whose bombing compelled Milosevic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo last year, view that stance as short-sighted, selfish, suspicious and naive, and hope it will change.

"They have to be mature and think of the stability of the region. It's wrong to think their neighbor's problems are somehow a good thing for Kosovo," a European Union analyst said.

LOSING THE PERFECT FOIL

But foreign powers in the ethnically-divided Balkans have a long way to go to convince people whose wounds are still fresh that the Serbian leopard can change his spots. Many think the West is the one that is naive.

As Serbs awaited the next act in their tense political drama, Kosovo Albanians broached the subject warily and in typical Balkans fashion, zeroing in on the alleged background of the man on whom the international community focuses its hopes.

Some warned that victory for Kostunica would rob Kosovo of its perfect foil in Milosevic, a murderous neighbor who no people could reasonably be expected to live with. Such a victory could also siphon off millions in international aid from Kosovo to Serbia.

The leading daily, Koha Ditore, echoing a charge now making the rounds, called Kostunica a "man who had his picture taken with Serb paramilitaries in Kosovo holding a Kalashnikov, who supported (Bosnian Serb hard-liner) Radovan Karadzic and who refuses to collaborate" with the international war crimes court.

The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the political offspring of the KLA guerrilla movement, also sounded cynical.

"While it would be in our interest if a democratic force won there, Milosevic's victory would be a more favourable position, because the crimes he committed in Kosovo are known to the whole world," said PDK general secretary Jakup Krasniqi.

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), led by veteran pacifist Ibrahim Rugova, took a wait-and-see stance, saying a lot would depend on the stand a new Belgrade would take towards Kosovo's right to self-determination. But it too saw no evidence that Kostunica would be different from Milosevic.

The smaller AAK coalition was one of the few on Wednesday to express views that will be applauded in Western capitals.

"We will welcome the defeat of the dictatorial regime by a democratic force that would contribute to stability in the region...A candidate suitable for negotiation with the West would be good also for the people of Kosovo and for the others in the region," said Bujar Dugolli of the AAK.

VOICES OF PRAGMATISM

Much of what the party leaders say is tainted by campaigning for municipal elections on October 28, Kosovo's first test in democracy since the United Nations established a protectorate in the former Serbian province in June 1999.

Westerners who told Kosovars to take Kostunica's stump speeches with a pinch of salt argued that it would be impossible for him to get elected in Serbia on a pro-Kosovo independence plank. Similarly, it will be very hard to draw votes here on any platform favouring rapid reconciliation with Belgrade.

But pragmatic voices are making themselves heard.

Koha Ditore publisher Veton Surroi, a respected independent voice of Kosovo, recalled satirical suggestions that Milosevic statues be erected in all the Yugoslav republics which his Serbian nationalist had propelled to independence.

"With him next door two things were almost guaranteed: one, that he would work on destabilizing operations in Kosova, second, that whatever we might be, we would still be cuter than Milosevic's Serbia," Surroi said.

"But let's see things otherwise: why shouldn't we be happy for any possible change in Serbia?" Surroi wrote.

"Firstly, the main person responsible for 10 years' crimes in Kosova will step down. Second, whoever comes after should be more reasonable, and Kosova, looking from a perspective of future negotiations on its final status, needs such people for discussion."

Columnist Milazim Krasniqi, of Kosova Sot newspaper, identified crucial changes which Kosovo should look for from a new Serbian leadership, starting with the removal of fascism and recognition of the rights of their neighbors.

"Kostunica's possible victory is a double-edged blade: it can be favorable for the beginning of a process of in-depth changes in Serbia and for the relaxation of the region, but it can also encourage the project for the reintegration of Kosova in some (federal) scheme with Serbia and Montenegro.

"Albanian policy in Kosova should work on strengthening the political, state and national identity of this country, towards full independence, internationally recognized, and not to be overtaken by 'integration projects' in the Balkans."

(C)2000 Copyright Reuters Limited

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