[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} PRESS: Kosovo's Albanians grow impatient (Financial Times, February 7 2001)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3QWAGEXIC&live=true&tagid=ZZZAFZAVA0C&subheading=europe

Kosovo's Albanians grow impatient

By Irena Guzelova in Belgrade
Published: February 7 2001 21:44GMT | Last Updated: February 7 2001
21:58GMT

Ruzhdi Feka hunched his shoulders against the biting wind and looked
across the river that runs through the ethnically divided town of
Mitrovica in Kosovo. "It's the same as last year, nothing's changed," he
said, gesturing towards the barricaded bridge that crosses to the
predominantly Serbian north of the town. 
    A few hours later, several hundred young ethnic Albanians vented
their frustrations on French peacekeepers, hurling Molotov cocktails,
stones and pieces of wood at a cordon of soldiers preventing access to
the bridge. 
    The riots were the latest to hit Mitrovica, which has been one of
the worst troublespots in the region. The town separates the mainly
Serbian northern tip of Kosovo from the bulk of the province, which is
predominantly Albanian. 
    But the latest clashes marked a new level in the violence directed
against Nato-led peacekeepers. Twenty soldiers were injured,
underscoring the increasing impatience among many Albanians with what
they perceive as the international community's slowness to grant them
control over their own future. 
    Eighteen months after Nato kicked Serbian troops out of Kosovo, new
and potentially more explosive issues have risen to the fore to test the
international community's resolve. 
    "We are entering a much less certain situation. The coming year has
potentially many more booby traps and difficulties than last year," said
Bob Churcher, director of the International Crisis Group in the
province's capital, Pristina. 
    While Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was in power, Kosovo's
majority Albanian population and its international administrators were
united in their distrust of Serbia. But democratic changes in Belgrade
have ended Serbia's pariah status and opened the door to dialogue
between the province's United Nations administrators and Serbian
politicians. 
    "Last year was a bit like the cold war. All the time Milosevic was
in Belgrade and we were here things were a bit more stable," said Mr
Churcher. 
    Albanians are concerned that in its rush to prop up the new
government in Belgrade, Kosovo will be sidelined. Many bilateral donors
already plan to re-allocate funds to Serbia in 2002. 
    The Albanians are eager to move quickly towards self-rule, and hold
province-wide elections for a legislative assembly. 
    Bajram Krasniqi, an ethnic Albanian lawyer, expressed a view held by
many Albanians: "Elections are imperative. We need to take
responsibility for our own future." He argued that, without power,
Kosovo's moderate politicians, who won a landslide in October's
municipal elections, could be sidelined by the criminal gangs running
the province's smuggling rackets. 
    The ethnic Albanian youths gathered around Mitrovica's bridge were
more blunt: "This is our country, and the sooner the UN realises that,
the better," said one. 
    The issue of when to hold elections is rapidly becoming one of the
most pressing on the agenda of the province's newly appointed
administrator, Hans Haekkerup. 
    His predecessor, Bernard Kouchner, warned that violence could surge
unless elections are held this year. He urged leading powers to be "more
precise with the future of Kosovo, otherwise you will get other attacks
and murders and other reactions". 
    Mr Kouchner maintained that voter registration, which the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe says will take six
months to organise, should begin as soon as possible. 
    But Mr Haekkerup takes a more cautious line. He wants to establish
the assembly's powers before announcing an election date. "I want
elections as soon as possible, but people have to know what they are
voting for," he said in an interview. 
    This could take months to decide and can only be finalised after
discussions with Albanian and Serbian leaders, as well leading members
of the UN. 
    Mr Haekkerup must also draw up a document that avoids challenging
Kosovo's final status, a topic that everyone but the Albanians wants to
avoid. The UN resolution that ended the Kosovo conflict envisages
"substantial autonomy" for the province, but leaves it a part of
Yugoslavia. 
    Striking a balance between Albanian and Serbian demands will present
an added challenge. The two communities are deeply suspicious of each
other and inter-ethnic violence remains high. Serbs south of Mitrovica
live in enclaves under heavy guard from Albanian attack. They demand
information about Serbs murdered since Nato troops took over the
province. 
    The ethnic Albanians call for the immediate release of their 670
countrymen arrested in Kosovo in the run-up to the 1999 war, who
languish in Serbian prisons. They are not convinced that Belgrade has
changed its policy towards their ethnic kin. 
    That distrust has also made many reluctant to condemn the
aspirations of separatist ethnic Albanian guerrillas who have
intensified attacks on Serbian military in southern Serbia, along the
border with Kosovo. 

© Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2001


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