MILOSEVIC'S ULTIMATE GOAL IS NOT TO UNDERMINE OVK - BAKALI

( Editorial: --> 6272 ) PRISTINA, Aug 27 (Hina) - The ultimate goal of the Serbian intervention in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo is not to destroy the Kosovo Liberation Army (OVK). Rather, it is directed against the Albanian people, a part of which the Serbians want to destroy, and turn the rest into loyal citizens of Serbia, Mahmut Bakali, former member of the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team told Hina on Thursday. During the past five months, 600 Albanians have been killed in Kosovo, 90 per cent of whom were civilians, mostly elderly persons, women and children, and only ten per cent armed members of the OVK, Bakali said. Some 200 villages with about 14,000 Albanian homes have been devastated. Military and police forces are using appalling violence over civilians in order to fight an armed group, Bakali said. The conflicts in Kosovo will not cease until the international community calls for a military intervention and imposes a cease- fire, which would then be followed by negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade. The Kosovo Albanians are neither asking for, nor expecting NATO to deliver freedom and independence to Kosovo, but to help the establishment of peace. The status of Kosovo will be determined in negotiations between the Albanian and Yugoslav sides, he stressed. The issue of Kosovo will not be solved through a military option and war, which must be clear to both sides. Political pathways of its resolving must be found, primarily though negotiations. A precondition for this is a cessation of the Serbian offensive and cease-fire, Bakali said. In the newly-created circumstances in Kosovo, this can only be accomplished by the arrival of NATO forces. Otherwise, conflicts will continue, he said. Speaking about the civilian victims, Bakali stressed that the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo was threatening to become a true catastrophe, which is consolidated by Europe's political failure to resolve the Kosovo problem. Assessing that Milosevic would not order a cease-fire in Kosovo, and that Rugova, although he wishes to, has not got sufficient power to do so, Bakali said this again proves the necessity of the presence of a third party. An international military presence and temporary civilian monitoring should contribute to the establishment of stability and trust, and the consolidation of certain basic democratic political institutions in Kosovo with the aim of continuing the negotiation process. Bakali said he believed that Adem Demaqi, as a political representative of the OVK, would act in a politically rational manner and support the OVK's aspirations for liberation, but not its aggressive methods, and thus, successfully defend the aspirations of the people and the OVK for Kosovo's independence. The overcoming of the split in the Albanian political leadership and the truce between the two indisputable Kosovo leaders - Rugova and Demaqi, and the establishment of a coalition government should certainly accelerate the process of resolving the Kosovo crisis, Bakali said. The Serbian attacks have not diminished the OVK, but have harmed the Albanian people, he added. The creation of so-called free areas was, according to Bakali, wrong tactics. Kosovo does not need free areas nor a divided Kosovo, but the Albanians and all those who live there need an integral and free Kosovo, he said. Despite the fact that recent events had significantly affected Rugova's position, he is a dominant political personality for Albanians, the West counts on him, not excluding other factors, such as sections of the OVK, Bakali said. (hina) lml 271748 MET aug 98