ALBANIAN SHATRI SPEAKS ABOUT SITUATION IN KOSOVO

( Editorial: --> 8490 ) GENEVA, Dec 15 (Hina) - The situation in Kosovo is, due to the police and military terror of Serb authorities, continually getting worse, Xafer Shatri, director of the "Information Centre of the Republic of Kosovo", said in Geneva Monday. The current policy of the local Albanian leadership has been brought into question, he said, adding this has been helped by years of indifference on the part of the international community to resolve the Kosovo issue. Shatri, who belongs to the radical wing of Albanian political emigrants, has openly spoken about the existence of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and believes it is an "unavoidable political factor in Kosovo." Half a million mostly young Kosovo Albanians nowadays live in European countries, Shatri said, adding some 180,000 were in Switzerland. In the current situation their political views, even activities, could be radicalised, Shatri believes, adding they might start joining the Kosovo Liberation Army. Shatri believes the international community should exert decisive pressure on Belgrade in order to preserve regional and international security. A Yugoslav delegation left a recent meeting of the Peace Implementation Council in Bosnia-Herzegovina when the Kosovo issue was mentioned in the final document of the Bonn conference. Shatri warned that further escalation of the situation in Kosovo and the "flaring up of a liberation war" could spread wider. (hina) ha 151544 MET dec 97