PRISTINA, Feb 16 (Hina) - The third attempt in the recent history of Kosovo Albanians to accomplish their goal of declaring this southern Serbian province as independent has been thwarted this time due to the pressure of the
international community.
PRISTINA, Feb 16 (Hina) - The third attempt in the recent history of
Kosovo Albanians to accomplish their goal of declaring this
southern Serbian province as independent has been thwarted this
time due to the pressure of the international community. #L#
Three major Albanian parliamentary parties and a group of MPs who
represent minorities (except the Serb community) in Kosovo's
Assembly on Thursday supported an initiative launched by 42
deputies for the adoption of a declaration on Kosovo's
independence, but they decided to postpone the passing of the
document for some of their future session.
They agreed that before the adoption they should hold comprehensive
consultations with representatives of Kosovo institutions.
Last week, members of the Serb coalition "Povratak (Return)"
announced that they would consider a counter-declaration in case
the province's parliament adopts the said declaration.
The international community has not backed the initiative of 42
MPs, stressing that it is still too premature for talks on the final
status of Kosovo.
The United Nations' Civil Administrator, Michael Steiner, has
called on Kosovo leaders not to spend time on such documents, urging
them to commit themselves to building the province as a tolerant
society which may offer equal rights and opportunities to all of its
citizens.
The third largest Albanian party - the Alliance for the Future of
Kosovo - started promoting the said initiative at the end of 2002,
when it asked local institutions to prepare plans for the
declaration of Kosovo's independence.
Leading Kosovo politicians, however, do not share the same view on
the initiative. Premier Bajram Rexhepi unequivocally expressed
reserves towards the initiative. Kosovo President and the leader of
the biggest party - Democratic Alliance of Kosovo (DSK) - Ibrahim
Rugova, and Hashim Thaqi, who is at the helm of the second strongest
party, have not yet clearly expressed their stand, i.e. whether
they are for or against the initiative.
The latest attempt to organise Kosovo as an independent state, and
thus solve its status, is being made simultaneously with the
process of the disintegration of the last Yugoslavia and with the
process of defining of roles of Kosovo institutions after general
elections in this province.
The initiative is parallel with Belgrade's bids to have Kosovo back
within the former constitutional frameworks, when this province
was under the direct Serbian rule.
The recent history of Kosovo saw several attempts of the
establishment of the sovereignty of this province.
Well-known demonstrations by ethnic Albanian students in 1968,
1981 and 1989 were the most conspicuous way of the expression of the
local population's aspirations to having Kosovo, which was at the
time an autonomous province, on the equal footing with other
republics in the then Yugoslav federation.
In 1989 the then Socialist Republic of Serbia, ruled by Slobodan
Milosevic, adopted a new constitution in which it annulled the
autonomous status of Kosovo as province. The assembly in Pristina,
surrounded by tanks of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), had to
endorse the relegation of the status. In early 1990s local Albanian
again took to the streets, and on 2 July that year, deputies to the
Kosovo assembly adopted a separate declaration on Kosovo's
exclusion form Serbia and its independent position. Five days
later, the assembly passed Kosovo's constitution. The response of
the Serbian assembly was to dissolve Kosovo's parliament.
The Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, the then leading movement of
local Albanians, organised a referendum in 1991 at which a majority
of voters opted for the independence. In 1992, illegal elections
for the assembly and president of the "Republic of Kosovo" were
held.
The Slobodan Milosevic regime conducted measures of police
repression and fired Albanian workers from local companies and
factories and all "disobedient" Albanian politicians.
In 1999, when the repression came to a head with rivers of Albanian
refugees fleeing the area, Western countries decided to put an end
to it, and first launched a military operation. After NATO wrapped
up a campaign of airstrikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia,
Kosovo became and an international protectorate.
(hina) ms