[ALBSA-Info] Rugova on La Stampa

[Agron Alibali]

Albanian leader Rugova says Belgrade staging depleted
uranium "campaign" 

Source: La Stampa, Turin, in Italian 6 Jan 01 p 2 

[2] 

Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the main Kosovo Albanian
party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, has suggested
that the Belgrade authorities orchestrated the rising
concern over the impact of depleted uranium bombs used
by NATO in the former Yugoslavia. He said that those
responsible had opposed NATO intervention in 1999 and
were opposed to NATO's continued presence in the area.
He denied that depleted uranium ordnance might have
led to about 1,000 deaths among the civilian
population in Kosovo. The following is an excerpt from
an interview with Rugova by "G. Ru." in Pristina,
"Rugova: An orchestration to discredit allies",
published by the Italian newspaper La Stampa on 6
January: 

Pristina: Ibrahim Rugova, the Gandhi of the Balkans
and "president" of the Albanian community in Kosovo,
as well as the undisputed winner of the recent round
of local elections in the region, sees a plot
orchestrated by Belgrade (both the Belgrade of [former
Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic and the
Belgrade of [Yugoslav President Vojislav] Kostunica)
underlying the depleted uranium affair. Rugova, who is
a moderate leader, does not believe in the new Serbian
path being pursued by Kostunica, a man in whom the
international community on the other hand has placed
its trust. "We have yet to understand Belgrade's line
on Kosovo. Kostunica's statements are not a move in
the direction that we had been hoping for." This is
what Rugova told [Italian] Defence Under Secretary
Marco Minniti when the latter met him in his home
yesterday. At the end of the Italian under secretary's
visit, Rugova reiterated his suspicion that there is a
Serbian conspiracy behind all the alarm over
contamination from depleted uranium. 

[La Stampa] Mr Chairman, international public opinion
is following with some concern the affair of military
personnel who have come down with leukaemia, a disease
that they may have contracted after coming into
contact with depleted uranium. Have any instances of
death or of pathologies that could be linked to
uranium contamination been reported here in Kosovo
among the civilian population? 

[Rugova] Not as far as I am aware. I am sorry that
this alarmist campaign has been triggered. It is a
campaign designed to discredit NATO intervention in
Kosovo. It would have been better to wait for the
results of the various medical inquiries and for those
provided by the military experts before triggering
this kind of alarm. I repeat, there could well be some
kind of orchestration behind this campaign. 

[La Stampa] An orchestration on whose part? 

[Rugova] On the part of those who do not accept the
situation that has come into being in Kosovo; on the
part of those who were opposed to NATO intervention
back then and who are opposed to NATO's ongoing
presence in the area today. 

[La Stampa] But Milosevic is no longer in power in
Belgrade. Is Kostunica "guilty" too? 

[Rugova] Also those who are in power now may well have
an interest in fomenting this campaign that seeks to
bar the road to progress in Kosovo. 

[La Stampa] According to a number of sources, depleted
uranium may have led to about 1,000 deaths among the
civilian population in Kosovo. 

[Rugova] Not as far as I am aware. This is nothing but
propaganda spread around by Belgrade to bar the way to
stability in the region, to the independence of
Kosovo, and to democracy... 



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