Subject: Milosevic defeat will not lessen Kosovo wish for independence: Kouchner
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 18:20:12 PDT
From: C-afp@... (AFP / Robert Holloway)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Newsgroups:
clari.world.europe.balkans,clari.world.organizations.un,clari.world.europe,biz.c\
larinet.sample,clari.world.organizations
Followup-To: biz.clarinet.sample


UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27 (AFP) - Defeat for President Slobodan
Milosevic in Yugoslavia's election will not weaken Kosovo's desire
for independence, the top UN official running the province said
Wednesday.
"Certainly Kosovars want democracy in Serbia, but at the same
time, the majority in Kosovo want independence," Bernard Kouchner
told reporters here.
Yugoslav opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica "is perceived by
Kosovars as a strong nationalist," Kouchner said.
Preliminary figures from the Federal Electoral Commission gave
Kostunica 48.2 percent of the vote in Sunday's elections, to 40.2
percent for Milosevic.
On Wednesday night, 200,000 people demonstrated in Belgrade to
press the claim of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) that
Kostunica had won 52 percent. Kostunica told them there would be no
second round of voting.
Kouchner was in New York to brief the UN Security Council on the
situation in Kosovo, which holds municipal elections on October 28.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, told
the public council session: "We are in the middle of a period of
immense historic importance in Yugoslavia."
He added that "the brave voters of Serbia have made it clear
that they wish to end Yugoslavia's isolation ... by electing a
government that is neither feared by, nor fears, its people."
But Kouchner said it was "very difficult" to forecast the impact
of the election on Kosovo, which has been under UN administration
since NATO forces drove the Yugoslav army out of the province in
June 1999.
"In the depth of their hearts," he said, the ethnic Albanian
majority in Kosovo might want Milosevic to hang onto power in order
to keep the spirit of independence strong.
But, he said, "the difference between Kostunica and Milosevic is
not so high" in the opinion of Kosovars.
He said a photograph had been published of Kostunica holding a
Kalashnikov automatic assault rifle.
"I don't know if it was a fake," he said.
During the briefing, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Sergei
Lavrov, accused Kouchner of making an "absolutely inadmissible"
statement in favour of Kosovo's independence in an interview with
the Financial Times on September 16.
"Mr. Koucher has been given extensive powers," Lavrov said, "but
they are not without limit. He must abide strictly by Security
Council resolutions."
Koucher replied that he had been misunderstood by the
interviewer.
"Never did I speak of independence," he said. "I think we should
implement Resolution 1244 which speaks of substantial autonomy."
The municipal elections were not enough to create that autonomy,
he said, adding: "We should develop interim institutions of
self-government."
Although the minority Kosovo Serbs had decided to boycott the
municipal elections, "they are willing to participate in the elected
municipal structures, and the Albanians have already accepted such a
process," he said.
He recalled that the Kosovo transitional council, set up last
December, comprised 36 members from all communities.
But Lavrov said the municipal elections were designed to create
"a mono-ethnic Kosovo".
He challenged Kouchner's assertion that one million people had
applied to register as voters, saying the figure was no higher than
900,000.
Kouchner told the council he thought it was a political mistake
for the Serbs not to take part.
"These elections will be just the first of many elections," he
said,
"Nothing will be prejudiced through participating in them,
neither on the Albanian side nor on the Serb side," he said.