[ALBSA-Info] Today's Articles on Albanian Issues, August 30, 2001

[National Albanian American Council - NAAC]

National Albanian American Council
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August 30, 2001

KOSOVALIVE

Rail Journey by UNMIK and KFOR Chiefs Symbolizes Return to Normalcy in Kosova
PRISHTINA (KosovaLive) - A rail journey to symbolize the return to normal life in Kosova was organized for Wednesday by UNMIK, KFOR and UNMIK Police. UN Special Representative of the Secretary General Hans Haekkerup boarded a train Wednesday afternoon in Lipjan for the short trip to Fushe Kosova/Kosovo Polje. Kosova's chief administrator was accompanied by COMKFOR Thorstein Skiaker and UNMIK Police Commissioner Christopher Albiston. According to KFOR, the journey illustrates the continuous process towards normalcy in the region. Journalists were invited to join the tour and chat with Kosova's top three international officials. Perhaps surprisingly, the rail system has been little used since the end of the war, mainly by Serbs traveling from Leposavic to Fushe Kosova/Kosovo Polje. However, more than two years after the arrival of NATO troops, UNMIK and KFOR consider the security situation satisfactory, which bodes well for rail travel in Kosova.

Every Third Candidate for Kosova Assembly Should Be Female, says OSCE
PRISHTINA (KosovaLive) - Traditionally, few Kosovar women have been involved in politics.  The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) aims to change that picture.  The OSCE is looking forward to one in three candidates for the new Kosovo Assembly to be female.  In support of this goal, the OSCE launched a seminar Wednesday for female candidates running for the post of deputy in the Kosovo Assembly.  
The point of the seminar it is to empower female candidates to join political parties, coalitions and citizens initiative, according to Carolyn McCool, Director of the OSCE's Department of Democratization.  Speaking to journalists on Wednesday in Prishtina, McCool said that a further goal was to train women candidates to take the leadership in political activities and to hold down the post, once elected.
McCool said that females are in the majority in Kosova and OSCE was taking the correct steps to raise the number of females working in the political sphere.  The OSCE has decided that one-third of the first 67 percent of political candidates designated by each party must be women.  This means every third candidate should be female.
"We do trust that Kosovar females will be able to take over the duties in the political sphere as well as in the social sphere," said seminar leader Audrey McLaughlin, adding that women can bring new meaning to politics.
Jennifer Mauro, who has previous experience in Canadian elections, said despite progress since the municipal elections, Albanian females are still involved very little in the political process.
"This is a long process and we need involvement from political parties and from the voters," she said.
The three-day seminar headed by McLaughlin, a member of the Canadian Parliament until 1997, and Jennifer Mauro, former adviser to the prime minister of the Yukon.

NEW YORK TIMES

A Macedonian Hawk Vows to Extend Pursuit of Rebels
By CARLOTTA GALL
SKOPJE, Macedonia, Aug.29 - Macedonia's interior minister, Ljube Boskovski, said today that NATO's operation to collect weapons from rebels was only a "symbolic disarmament," and he warned that his anti-terrorist police would seize any remaining illegal weapons as soon as NATO was finished with its 30-day mission.
While Mr. Boskovski promised to deal definitively with any continuing threats from the rebels, it was not clear if Macedonia's coalition government would ultimately take such action. Mr. Boskovski wields considerable influence in the government, particularly through his association with the prime minister, Ljubco Georgievski, who shares his views.
But Mr. Boskovski, who is a founding member of the nationalist Macedonian party that leads the government coalition, also represents the hard-line faction within that coalition. Ultimately, the government might not go along with Mr. Boskovski's ideas as it tries to find common ground in carrying out a peace plan with the rebels.
Despite the government's backing of the peace plan, Mr. Boskovski and Mr. Georgievski have continued to criticize international efforts to head off a civil war here, and they have blamed the West for supporting the ethnic Albanian insurgents. They have also been seen to encourage anti-Albanian sentiment in Macedonia and among the police, which Mr. Boskovski, through his ministry, has the power to order into action.
Mr. Boskovski, 40, made it clear today that he would use that power to begin anti-terrorist operations against rebel bases after NATO finished its operation to disarm the insurgents.
"Basically we have to clear the field of weapons according to our laws," Mr. Boskovski said, "and take weapons away from those who illegally possess them. That would be done and is done by every democratic state, because weapons threaten the stability of democracy." 
His comments, of course, were not expected to go down well with the rebels, or with NATO mediators, who have already complained that his hard-line positions have only complicated the peace process. A NATO task force of 4,500 troops is trying to help that process along by collecting 3,300 weapons in the next 30 days. NATO hopes that its operation will defuse tensions and end the rebel insurgency.
Mr. Boskovski is a hawk who has supported a military solution to the ethnic Albanian insurgency, and who has been accused of allowing his police forces to inflict violence on ethnic Albanian civilians. Human rights organizations and even government officials have criticized him for arming thousands of Macedonian Slav reservists, encouraging attacks on ethnic Albanian properties and the Macedonian Parliament, and organizing paramilitary units that, among other things, have hindered NATO troop movements around the country.
Mr. Boskovski's promise of further action against the rebels came as NATO's secretary general, Lord Robertson, was visiting Macedonia today to assess the NATO operation. Lord Robertson, who met with Mr. Boskovski, urged Macedonian politicians to adopt political changes that are a crucial part of the internationally mediated peace plan to end the six-month conflict.
After the meeting, Lord Robertson said that Mr. Boskovski had agreed to prevent any illegal paramilitary groups from operating in the country - something the secretary general stressed was an important commitment. 
In an interview today, Mr. Boskovski voiced support for President Boris Trajkovski's peace plan and for NATO's presence in Macedonia.
"There are no dilemmas regarding this issue," he said. But he said he would pursue the rebels "to the end," because, he said, they were set on creating a greater Albania and seizing control of territory from the government.
He expressed his distrust of NATO's special envoy in Macedonia, Pieter Feith, who has negotiated with the ethnic Albanian rebels in southern Serbia and in Macedonia. He blamed Mr. Feith and the rebel leader, Ali Ahmeti, for failing to ensure that the July cease-fire agreement was observed by the rebels, and for allowing attacks on as many as 20 Macedonian Slav civilians in western Macedonia.
And one diplomat made it clear that Mr. Boskovski was not trusted, saying: "We are concerned about him and his stunts and tricks. There is a lot that could knock this thing off its tracks."

German Troops Head to Macedonia
BERLIN, Aug. 29 - Chancellor Gerhard Schröder won a large majority in Parliament today on a vote to send 500 German soldiers to help NATO troops in Macedonia.
Parliament must approve any troop deployments outside Germany, and in special session voted 497 to 130, with 8 abstentions, to support the government. 

WASHINGTON POST

Worried Macedonians Weigh Public Vote on Peace Accord 
Officials Fear Legislative Rejection of Pact, Seek Alternative 
By Peter Finn, Washington Post Foreign Service
SKOPJE, Macedonia, Aug. 29 -- Phase one of NATO's effort to disarm ethnic Albanian rebels ended today at an army base in a small Macedonian town. But in the capital, opponents of the country's peace plan signaled they will try to vote it down when it is put before parliament in coming days.
Western and moderate Macedonian officials, fearful this effort might succeed, are examining the possibility of stalling the vote in the legislature and taking the agreement directly to the people in a referendum.
That could force NATO to prolong its operation, which is supposed to be limited to the collection of arms over a strict 30-day period. A referendum could take at least 60 days to organize after a parliamentary vote authorizing one, or the collection of 150,000 signatures from among the population.
A referendum is "an option we're looking at," said a source close to President Boris Trajkovski, whose aides have indicated that approval of the peace accord is on a razor's edge in the 120-member parliament. Western officials have discussed the possibility of a referendum with Trajkovski and say public opinion is swinging toward support of the peace agreement.
Political leaders of the Slavic majority and the ethnic Albanian minority signed the accord two weeks ago. It calls for Albanian guerrillas, who have launched sporadic attacks on Slav-dominated government forces since February, to turn in their arms to NATO in return for enactment of a package of measures meant to increase rights for ethnic Albanian citizens.
A telephone opinion poll of 1,055 adults conducted last weekend by the Skopje-based Institute for Democracy, Solidarity and Civil Society showed that a bare majority of respondents, 50.3 percent, support the agreement. But it represented a significant jump from a poll conducted by a different organization immediately after the accord was signed.
A U.S.-funded media campaign to build support among Macedonians for the agreement began this week with television, radio and print advertisements. A Western-sponsored voter survey showed there is very little understanding in both ethnic groups of what the agreement actually says or means, and a major goal of the campaign is to increase public knowledge about the terms.
Among Macedonian Slavs, support for the agreement stands at 43.7 percent, according to the weekend poll; opponents generally contend the deal gives too much to the Albanians and that a full military assault against the guerrillas is the best alternative. Seventy-eight percent of ethnic Albanians favor the deal, the poll found.
Members of parliament, meanwhile, are coming under intense pressure to support the agreement or risk full-scale civil war and the country being globally isolated. Western diplomats are visiting with legislators and municipal leaders to build support for a yes vote.
"The pressure is overwhelming," one lawmaker said today.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson visited an army base in the town of Krivolak in southern Macedonia, where some of the 750 weapons surrendered so far by guerrillas of the National Liberation Army were displayed, and pronounced the program on track. "It is not just the number of weapons that matters," Robertson told reporters today, referring to claims that the guerrillas are giving up only a tiny portion of their cache, "it is the fact that the so-called NLA is handing over these weapons and disbanding as an organization."
"The members of parliament hold the future of this country in their hands," Robertson said, following lengthy talks with political leaders. "I can't tell whether this historic project is going to succeed, but the alternative will be horrifying."
The rebels are meant to disarm completely in three phases under the agreement, while parliament simultaneously initiates a three-step legislative process to adopt constitutional amendments, prepare drafts of the amendments, then vote on each amendment. The first step begins Friday and its successful conclusion requires a yes vote by 80 members of the 120-member assembly. The vote is to follow a debate that could extend into next week.
Attempts to scuttle the accord in parliament focus on a rump group in the party of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, according to Western officials, local leaders and a key legislator.
"I would not like it to be my destiny that a Macedonian killed me because I betrayed the nation," Danilo Gligorski, a member of Georgievski's governing party, said in an interview today. He described himself as leaning strongly toward voting against the agreement. "If I choose to be killed, I would rather be killed by a terrorist in the mountains."
According to Gligorski, the overwhelming majority of his colleagues in parliament oppose the accord, and its defeat is likely. 
He estimated that the agreement will get only 50 to 55 favorable votes.
Western officials and other analysts dismissed those figures as exaggeration and said a group of about 10 young hard-line members of Georgievski's party could defy the leadership and vote no. But that would still allow the agreement to squeak through, analysts said.
"This is a small country not known for defiance," said Edward P. Joseph of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels research organization. "At the end of the day, they always roll."
And Ivica Bocevski, executive director of the democracy and solidarity institute, said parties here are disciplined and hierarchical, and that Georgievski can secure enough votes for passage while allowing a small group to dissent for symbolic purposes.
The prime minister, a reluctant signatory to the agreement, plans to meet with his parliamentary group Thursday night to urge them to at least allow the process to go forward from Friday even if they reserve the right to vote no at the end, legislators said. That would provide some breathing space for further lobbying and allow the return of displaced refugees to their homes, a critical issue for the dissenters.




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