CROATIAN PRESIDENT ON KOSOVO'S FUTURE

PRISTINA, Oct 25 (Hina) - The future of Kosovo depends on several factors, but its future will be created to the greatest extent by its citizens, Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic said in an interview with a local weekly in the Albanian language, called "Zeri". #L# The largest part of Mesic's interview focused on his recent testimony at the trial of a former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, before the UN war crimes tribunal. "The indictment (issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY) against Milosevic was no surprise to me," the Croatian head of state added. Mesic reiterated that he had previously predicted that Milosevic would be tried for all crimes he and his regime had done. He added that Milosevic's plan was to persecute ethnic Albanians and force them to flee Kosovo so that he might make it possible for Croatian Serbs to colonise the area. Milosevic intended to destabilise Albania and Macedonia with the persecution of two million Albanians from Kosovo, Mesic said. Commenting on his testimony before the ICTY, Mesic said this was his duty as a citizen of Croatia. The political weekly "Zeri" described President Mesic as an exceptional figure on the political scene in the region in the past ten years.