THE WASHINGTON TIMES
October 27, 2000

Election rivals united in
desire for Kosovo
independence

By David Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Despite the ouster of Yugoslav strongman Slobodan
Milosevic in Belgrade, all the leading ethnic Albanian parties
in Kosovo contesting tomorrow's closely watched local
elections still want the same thing - out.

Seen by the United Nations
and NATO as a major milestone
on the road to democratic reform
in Kosovo, the campaign for seats
in 30 municipal assemblies around
the province has only underscored
the desire by Kosovo's ethnic
Albanian leader for a separate
state -regardless of what the
international community thinks.

The democratic revolt in Serbia
that brought Vojislav Kostunica to
power earlier this month has
complicated the Kosovo situation,
but not changed any minds.

"I think that, whichever party you are talking about, it is
very unlikely the Albanians in Kosovo will ever accept being
a part of Yugoslavia," said Aleksa Djilas, a Belgrade
sociologist and writer who is serving as public-policy scholar
at the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

"And it's very unlikely Kostunica will ever allow Kosovo
to break free. So the problem definitely didn't end with
Milosevic," he said.

A U.N. administration and a NATO-led peacekeeping
force of 40,000 troops remain the effective authority in the
province, which still is recognized internationally as a part of
Yugoslavia.

U.N. administrators even tried to ban the display of the
distinctive red Albanian flag with the eagle emblem at all
election sites, but eased that restriction yesterday by
forbidding the flags inside the polling stations.

About 900,000 Kosovo voters are expected to go to the
polls tomorrow, choosing from a list of 19 parties. The vote is
seen as a precursor to elections for a provincial parliament
that could come as early as next spring, moving toward the
"substantial autonomy" for Kosovo called for in U.N.
Resolution 1244.

But only about 1,000 of Kosovo's remaining 100,000
ethnic Serbs have even registered to vote, threatening the
legitimacy of the vote and U.S. hopes for a multiethnic
Kosovo government.

More than half of the ethnic Serb population in Kosovo
fled the province in the wake of NATO's successful 78-day
air war last year, facing reprisals from Albanians for their role
in Mr. Milosevic's ethnic cleansing campaign.

Bernard Kouchner, the Frenchman who runs the U.N.
mission in Kosovo, said this week he would appoint Serbs to
serve in the municipal assemblies after the vote.

The election itself provides the first public gauge of the
support of the two main rival ethnic Albanian factions - the
Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) under 56-year-old
academic and pacifist Imbrahim Rugova and the Democratic
Party of Kosovo (PDK) of 31-year-old Hashem Thaci, who
gained international notice as the voice and chief strategist of
the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army.

Mr. Rugova, who led a decade-long nonviolent campaign
against Mr. Milosevic, is considered the "moderate" in the
race, but he and Mr. Thaci are united in their ultimate desire
to break free of Yugoslavia.

"We have worked for 10 years for independence," Mr.
Rugova told a rally of about 20,000 in the Kosovo capital of
Pristina Wednesday.

"During this campaign you have shown that you are still for
independence," he said to cheers from the crowd.

Mr. Thaci and his PDK held their own rally yesterday, the
final day of campaigning before tomorrow's vote. He said
Mr. Kostunica's election had not changed his party's
separatist ambitions.

"We did not fight to make changes in Belgrade," Mr.
Thaci said. "Kosovo has its own identity and will be
independent."

While opinion polls in Kosovo are not the most reliable,
many expect Mr. Rugova's party to attract the most votes.
That has many worried about how the PDK and other more
militant ethnic Albanian separatist groups will react.

Richard Holbrooke, ambassador to the United Nations,
obtained pledges from five leading ethnic Albanian parties
during a Kosovo visit Tuesday that they would respect the
results of tomorrow's vote.

Even as the Kosovo campaign was concluding,
Yugoslavia was formally welcomed yesterday into the Balkan
Stability Pact, set up by the United States and its European
Union allies to funnel billions of dollars in reconstruction aid to
the region.

The prospect that the Kosovo elections will only fuel
ethnic Albanian independence dreams has angered Mr.
Kostunica and worried Kosovo's neighbors, many of whom
fear their own borders would be called into question.