PEACE ENVOY DESCRIBES SITUATION IN KOSOVO AS DIFFICULT, INTOLERANT

INTOLERANT $ PRISTINA, Jan 18 (Hina) - An international peace envoy with the International Conference on Former Yugoslavia visited Kosovo's capital of Pristina on Thursday to discuss position of Kosovo Albanians and the possibilities of an Albanian-Serbian dialogue. #L# Ambassador Geerth Ahrens met Albanian leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo party, Ibrahim Rugova, who told him that Albanians opted to solve their problem peacefully, provided the will of the people is respected. The Albanian leaders said they wanted the talks to be mediated by a third party, which would guarantee for the results of the negotiations. The representatives of Serbian authorities, who had also met Ahrens, said the Albanians had the same rights as all other people in the region, but they refused to consume it. "The international community will do everything to overcome the Kosovo problem. During today's and yesterday's talks the Serbian side has stressed its willingness to solve the problem through dialogue," Ahrens said. Stressing that the situation in Kosovo was very difficult and intolerant, he voiced hope that some of the problems would be gradually solved. He could not say when this mediated Serbian-Albanian dialogue would start. "We are working on it," he said. (Hina) mm bk 182109 MET jan 96