Kosovo Albanians Say Statehood Is Inevitable

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia —  As Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica struggles to consolidate power in Belgrade, Kosovo is heading toward its first United Nations-supervised elections, with its ethnic Albanian leaders confident that their fight for independence already has been won.

Leaders of ethnic Albanian parties say that even if Kostunica tries to use his ties with the West to restore Serbian authority in Kosovo, they see no risk that such an effort would succeed.

Ethnic Albanians across the political spectrum say Kosovo will be able to move from U.N.-supported self-governance to full independence. This belief in the inevitability of independence is reflected in a strong commitment by former leaders of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army to participation in municipal elections Oct. 28 and in Kosovo-wide elections expected next year.

Many among the small Serb minority still hope that Kostunica’s rise to power will permit Yugoslavia to reassert sovereignty--and allow the return of Serbs who have fled and the stationing of Yugoslav troops at Kosovo’s major border crossings with neighboring countries.

Some Serbs predict that the ultimate solution will be to divide Kosovo at the town of Kosovska Mitrovica, with the Serb-dominated region north of the Ibar River belonging to Serbia while the rest becomes independent.

Ethnic Albanians, however, say that any attempt to permanently divide Kosovo or to bring back Yugoslav troops would trigger such a violent reaction that it is extremely unlikely.

A decision to partition Kosovo “would mean restarting the war, because Mitrovica for Kosovo is like Jerusalem for Israel,” said Fatmir Limaj, a former KLA commander who is now a candidate for mayor of Pristina from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, headed by former KLA chief Hashim Thaci.

“I think that there will not be any war in Kosovo, and that the international community did not invest in Kosovo to start a cycle of violence, but to end it,” Limaj added. “I’m convinced the international representatives have this on their mind. That’s why I believe division of Kosovo is impossible. I believe they are here to end crises and not start new ones.”

Oliver Ivanovic, head of the Serb National Council in the northern, Serb-dominated part of Kosovska Mitrovica, said he believes it is possible to reach a compromise that would maintain Yugoslavia’s current borders.

“Kostunica used to be for dividing Serbia into regions, and I think that concept will still be alive, and I think Kosovo will be included in that regionalization,” he said. “That prevents the separation of Kosovo.”

But many ethnic Albanian leaders say democracy in both Serbia and Kosovo can only lead to Kosovo’s independence, and that key countries in the U.N. administration and the multinational peacekeeping force known as KFOR already understand this, even if they cannot say so publicly.

“The upcoming Oct. 28 elections are seen by the people as the beginning of getting responsibility for the future,” said Naim Jerliu, vice president of the Democratic League of Kosovo, the party headed by longtime pacifist pro-independence leader Ibrahim Rugova. “I think this process of building democratic institutions will confirm our democratic potential and our abilities to be part of Europe as an independent country governing ourselves.”

Kosovo already “is independent now, but with a U.N. presence,” said Baton Haxhiu, editor in chief of Koha Ditore, Kosovo’s most widely respected Albanian-language newspaper.

It is impossible, he added, to bring Yugoslav troops back to Kosovo’s external borders as demanded by Kostunica and envisioned in the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the international presence here.

“I am sure if they come, every day one will be killed,” he said. “If you bring 2,000 Yugoslav army troops to the border, you will need 100,000 KFOR troops to protect them.”

In public statements, the foreigners who currently control Kosovo’s fate remain deliberately ambiguous about its future, even while pledging to promote democracy and autonomy.

Bernard Kouchner, the Frenchman who heads the U.N. mission in Kosovo, or UNMIK, has offered what he calls a “pact” to its people: “Offer me democratic elections without violence and discrimination, and I’ll help you find money to rebuild Kosovo, [and] UNMIK will help you to get self-governance.”

Kosovo technically remains a province of Serbia, the dominant of Yugoslavia’s two republics. It has been under U.N. administration since June 1999, when peacekeeping forces entered after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. The U.N. resolution authorizing the international presence makes reference to Yugoslav sovereignty but is not clear on Kosovo’s ultimate status.

Virtually all ethnic Albanians, who now make up about 95% of Kosovo’s population of roughly 1.6 million, favor independence.

“It is no secret that every Albanian I have met, whether moderate or not, wants independence,” Kouchner said Monday in a report to a European Union meeting in Luxembourg. “Therefore, to try to solve the final status of Kosovo now could lead anew to open conflict. We have to accelerate the process of defining substantial autonomy and developing institutions of self-government.”

U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Walter Slocombe, speaking at a NATO defense ministers meeting in Birmingham, England, on Tuesday, said that dealing with the question of Kosovo’s independence or renewed ties to Belgrade, the Yugoslav and Serbian capital, will be a gradual process.