[Kcc-News] Kosovo Independence Demand Still Stands (Reuters, Oct 20, 2000) (fwd)

[Mentor Cana]

http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=211551

Kosovo Independence Demand Still Stands

PRISTINA, Oct 20, 2000 -- (Reuters) Ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim
Rugova said on Thursday his party would accept nothing less than
independence for Kosovo despite the coming to power of pro-democracy
reformers in Belgrade.
     The leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, the territory's
largest political force, said he welcomed the downfall of Slobodan
Milosevic as Yugoslav president but stressed this did not change his
party's stance.
     "Independence is the only solution for Kosovo," said Rugova, whose
party is favorite to emerge as the strongest from Kosovo local elections
due a week on Saturday.
     Milosevic, who has been indicted by a UN court for Serb atrocities
committed against members of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, was
forced by a mass uprising to admit defeat to Vojislav Kostunica in last
month's elections.
     Kosovo legally remains part of Serb-dominated Yugoslavia but has
been run as a de facto international protectorate since June last year,
when NATO bombing drove out Serb forces.
     Rugova said the West would come to recognize the desire of the
overwhelming majority of ethnic Albanians for independence and suggested
Serbian leaders should do the same.
     "It is clear to everybody that the independence of Kosovo is
inevitable," he told reporters in the Kosovo capital Pristina.
     "It would certainly be good if Belgrade recognized the fact.
Otherwise the international community will at some point recognize the
independence."
     Rugova said Milosevic and his opponents in Belgrade had long shared
a similar stance over Kosovo but added he was open to meeting Kostunica
if he proved his democratic credentials.
     "Of course, why not meet with Kostunica? But we have to wait a
little bit and see what direction they are taking and how democratic and
pro-European those changes are," he said.

(C)2000 Copyright Reuters Limited.

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