CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2000

Kosovo vote energizes Albanians,
worries Serbs

Minority Serbs plan to boycott tomorrow's poll, which could mark a
step toward Albanian self-rule.

By Scott Peterson
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

KOSOVO MITROVICA, YUGOSLAVIA

In what many see as a popular referendum on independence from
Yugoslavia, majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo go to the polls
tomorrow to choose municipal leaders in the Serbian province's
first-ever internationally supervised elections.

But minority Serbs plan to boycott
the vote, in part to protest attacks
against them, 16 months after
American-led NATO airstrikes
sought to reverse the "ethnic
cleansing" of Albanians by Serb
leader Slobodan Milosevic.

The significance of the vote - and
of Kosovo's final status - has been
thrust to the top of the Balkan
agenda this week. Yugoslavia's
new president, Vojislav
Kostunica, has conceded that
Serbs committed war crimes in
Kosovo - but also insists that Yugoslav troops must be allowed to
return to the province, if only symbolically.

But a report commissioned by the United Nations on Monday
recommended eventual independence for Kosovo if certain
conditions - such as guaranteed safety for minorities - are met. "It's
not realistic or justifiable to expect the Albanians in Kosovo to accept
rule from Belgrade," the report said.

"They don't want to live together anymore. I'm very sorry for that, but
this is my personal, day-to-day reality," says Bernard Kouchner, the
UN's top official in Kosovo.

"This is normal after centuries of confrontation. You cannot change it,
as if with a miracle, in 16 months," says Mr. Kouchner, the former
French minister. "How long has it taken in Beirut, Cyprus, in
Londonderry [Northern Ireland]?"

The divisiveness that prevails is easy to see in Mitrovica, a city split
along ethnic lines. Despite the presence of heavily armed French
peacekeeping troops to prevent ethnic Albanian retaliation against
Serbs, a bridge over the Ibar River linking the two sides is a regular
flashpoint.

Skendar Hoti could be called one of the sparks. Three times in the
past year, he pushed the limits of tolerance by setting up an office for
his firmly pro-independence Albanian political party on the northern,
Serb side of town. Three times, that office was burned to the ground.
"There is no democracy in even one Serb," he says. "They never
showed a shred of proclivity to live with other people."

Serb officials dismiss Mr. Hoti as a provocateur. After weapons were
found in one office, he was detained briefly by UN police. Now he is
prohibited from visiting the north.

"He put a red [Kosovo Albanian] flag in the north," says Oliver
Ivanovic, a Serb community leader in Mitrovica. "It's like waving a
[matador's] cape in front of a bull.

"Nationalism is a destructive force, and they are playing the nationalist
card," adds Mr. Ivanovic, a moderate.

But Albanians are wary of the new president, a moderate nationalist,
and concerned that Western aid money once destined for Kosovo
might go to bolster Mr. Kostunica's pro-democracy position. "People
in Kosovo are afraid because of the changes, and some politicians
say it was better with Milosevic," says Baton Haxhiu, editor of Koha
Ditore, Kosovo's largest-selling Albanian-language newspaper. "But
this means they are not ready to be face to face with democratic
Serbia. Kostunica has toppled Milosevic, but he has not changed
Serbia. Now we have 'rational nationalists.' "

Moreover, the "substantial autonomy" called for by the UN Security
Council decisions also require, eventually, the presence of federal
Yugoslav troops - the same forces responsible for last year's
ethnic-cleansing campaign that prompted NATO's involvement.

But "It is a provocation" for Yugoslav troops to return anytime soon,"
the UN's Kouchner says. "Kostunica knows they would be killed,
that it would start a bloodbath."

He goes on to say that "Serbs have to discover that [Albanian]
Kosovars are not criminals or terrorists. They are people."

Tomorrow's vote comes as Kosovo's final status is again in the
spotlight. Meeting other Balkan leaders in the Macedonian capital of
Skopje, Kostunica said on Tuesday that he sees a "symbolic
presence of the Army [in Kosovo] and one day, when the situation
allows it, the issue of the return will come up on the agenda."

In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes II" that aired Tuesday, he
also admitted that Serbs were involved in atrocities in Kosovo and
during three other Balkan wars of the past decade. Milosevic and
four senior officials have been indicted for war crimes by the
international tribunal in The Hague. "For what Milosevic had done,
and as a Serb, I will take responsibility for many of these, these
crimes," Kostunica said.

Kosovo's election pits Ibrahim Rugova - a longtime pacifist, who was
tarnished by a wartime meeting with Milosevic - against three main
parties that emerged from armed factions of the Kosovo Liberation
Army, the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force. KLA commanders hurt
their reputation in the months after the NATO air campaign by
abusing civilians, forcibly extracting taxes, and other unpopular acts of
thuggery. "The vote is for legitimacy, to know who is who in
Kosovo," says Mr. Haxhiu, the newspaper editor.

The vote is likely to help clarify Kosovo's future, though many
problems remain, says Llazar Semini, head of the Kosovo office of
the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, in Pristina. "At the
moment, all Albanians will say: 'There should be no Serbs here.' But if
you ask: 'Why? Has every Serb committed a crime?' they will say
'No, not every individual.' "

The risk of failure is high. The UN's Kouchner says he believes the
"way ahead" is the continued presence of 36,000 NATO-led troops
in Kosovo, huge economic assistance, and "substantial autonomy."

"This is what we have to do if we want to avoid a Middle East
conflict, a new Palestinian crisis, in the heart of Europe," he said.