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CONTENTS: AUGUST 6, 2001 MALIQI: MILOSEVIC'S POLITICS WITH DIFFERENT MEANS
Koha Ditore carried on page three a comment by Shkelzen Maliqi on the current politics in Serbia toward Kosovo. Maliqi noted: Now it is clear what the Serbs want and where they are. Momcilo Trajkovic, naïve politician that he is, stated in an interview all the Serb aspirations. According to him KFOR and UNMIK with their up-to-date politics, which he considers to be wrong, have created Serb enclaves in Kosovo. Serb political aspirations supported by the Belgrade authorities is to legalize the current situation or to say it bluntly the developing of these enclaves into autonomous entities or cantons. Mitrovica and northern Kosovo is divided, it has its own unofficial governmental structures and the enclaves have their own parallel structures and now the aim is for this situation to become legal and for the Serbs have their own protective forces. Even though the mutual body that was formed under Nebojsa Covic's leadership calls itself a coordinating body, in reality it represents a political movement whose aims are to have the role of a parallel Serb government in Kosovo. This coordinating body has gathered all the stray cats and dogs of the previous Milosevic Belgrade regime. Covic declared openly that the forming of this body is to prevent "the slipping" of Kosovo toward independence. The aim is to obstruct the project of the international community and Kosovar political subjects who represent the majority of the Kosovo population to form local institutions whose aim is to administer the entirety of Kosovo. If until now UNMIK tolerated the Serbs obstructionist measures in Kosovo to prevent a mass exodus of Serbs from the province, Belgrade is conscious that after the November elections the law will be applied in a more harsh way, no matter if the Serbs participate in these elections or not. Their main condition for participating in the Kosovo political life is the legalizing of the Serb entities into autonomous zones or another mode of independence such as parallel, ethnically based structures. Kostunica and the whole Serbian political specter without any opposition have joined together around Dobrica Cosic's old project of dividing Kosovo. Serbs understand that in the long run Kosovo is lost for Serbia. However, they want to use as soon as possible the fact that enclaves exist so they can at least save for themselves a part of Kosovo. Covic and his ideologues talk of the "balance between the historic and ethnic right" Albanians can administer the parts where they are a majority, however there are parts with Serb monasteries which Serbs consider they are entitled to forever. The nationalistic Serb madness goes so far as the projects to displace some of the medieval churches for which objectively they cannot "reach for the historic right". I considered that it is not needed to restart useless Serb debates regarding the historic and ethnic rights, even though there is much to be said against the ancient hegemonic Serb arguments. What is important for the moment is the fact that today Kosovo's status is that it is a territory protected by KFOR and UNMIK and cannot be liable to any revision from the historic point or ethnic point of view. Kosovo belongs to those that are living in it and is undivided with all of its natural and cultural riches. Kosovo could have looked differently however developments in the 20th century have formed the reality of Kosovo's borders and in the last year of this century after a macabre attempt by Serbia to annihilate the Albanian population from Kosovo, the international community intervened and placed an interim administration which has the aim of forming local democratic institutions without prejudicing the final status. It is a fact that Kosovo is slipping toward independence because more than 90% of the population more than once expressed their will to secede from Serbia and Yugoslavia (the latter only exist on paper) something that all Serbs are conscious of after the failure of the project for a greater Serbia now has become a "reality". Currently the Serbs have gathered all the forces around the minimalist project for autonomy for the Kosovo Serbs.. The idea itself for Serb autonomy is not heresy. It is something that can be discussed. This would be one of the models of solving the problem, for Kosovo Serbs who want to live in Kosovo and have not committed crimes. They would be guaranteed the right for representation of special interests and defending of their political and national rights through the forming of autonomous institutions which would be a part of Kosovo's democratic institutions and not the extended Serbian institutions. However, the idea of autonomy clearly lacks consistency. That would be acceptable only if Serbia recognized the same rights to its own minorities in Serbia. If this issue was opened with orders from Belgrade, is Belgrade ready to start an open debate for the autonomy of eastern Kosovo and Sanxhak? It is well known that governments in Belgrade have opposed any talk of autonomy within Serbia. We are a democratic and civil state used to say the authorities in Belgrade and that every individual has guaranteed national and religious rights. Why cannot Kosovo become a democratic and civil state offering its citizens all the rights that Serbia offers for its own citizens? Serbian politics continue to be hypocrital and narrow-minded. Milosevic is in The Hague, however his politics is still alive in different ways. They do not want to annex the whole of Kosovo only a part of it. If Albanians submit to the democratic Serbia then that is all right but for Kosovo Serbs to submit to Kosovo's democratic institutions that is not all right. Why? Because the Serb "democrats" still feed on racist prejudices toward Albanians.
Zëri on page one carried a column by its editor-in-chief Blerim Shala commenting on the negotiations in Ohrid and the mediators. Shala wrote: "The main lesson learned during Dayton and Rambouillet, international conferences, which brought peace to Bosnia and Kosovo, was that the negotiations should have a due date. Otherwise, the negotiation sides will go on displaying new requests for weeks and months. Even though the internationals are convinced that the desire of Macedonia's Prime Minister is failure of the negotiations in order to return to war, the lesson is not applied in Macedonia. It seems as if this is the reason why the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Javier Solana took with him the Chief of the Ukrainian Diplomacy, who should announce the end of the military business between Skopje and Kiev. Pardew and Leotard came to the evaluation that there will be no war as long as the negotiations are going on. But if three sides are necessary (two fighting sides and a mediation side) to gain peace, it only takes one to restart a war. Another important lesson is the implementation of the agreement. There should be someone to guarantee that the signed document will come to life. It would be a great illusion if someone believes that the three main issues, the demilitarization of the NLA and Macedonian civilians, great constitutional changes and the establishment of a new police force can be achieved without international guarantees. The Ohrid agreement will not last for long if the international community does not guarantee its implementation."
UNMIK has been administering Kosovo for more than two years and although the number of vehicles that entered Kosovo is enormous, the number of people who have a driving license has remained as it was before the war, reported Zëri on page five. Although they do not have the possibility to take the preliminary exams, the number of candidates interested in driving licenses has also increased and we can say that an army of youngsters are waiting to have them. After two years of its presence here, we are left with the hope that the international administration will do something in this direction. But all we have is hope. A policeman "rewarded" a driver named Besnik with a fine of 70 DM. In an attempt to console him, he told him that the drivers' licenses will be issued in the next few months. However, Coordinator of the Program for Drivers License and Vehicle Registration Gilbert Dumas rebuked this. He stressed that this information might have been a result of the announcements made several months ago. "I do not know whether this information is a result of the announcements made previously where we predicted and promised that the drivers licenses will be issued by the end of July," stated Dumas. Officials of the Driving School and the candidates welcomed the promises. Nevertheless, they were never more than promises. International administrators kept saying that nothing was being done in this direction due to the lack of money to organize this process. Meanwhile this obstacle is out of the way due to a donation from Switzerland in the amount of 1 million DM. Officials responsible for this field find other reasons why the licenses were not issued. "The municipal elections and the lack of identification cards impeded this process," stated Dumas, adding that the two processes required a great engagement the same as the process for issuing driver's licenses. The latest promise is that the driver's licenses will be issued at the end of September. But we should take this promise with reserve because according to these officials, there are many more obstacles, so taken all means; this process will most probably be postponed for next year. "There are several factors that slow down this process," stressed Dumas. According to him, UNIMK is focusing on the general elections, which are supposed to take place in November. Therefore many things such as computer equipment and the technical personnel are very busy with this process. The process of issuing the drivers' licenses requires all these," stated Dumas, adding, "nevertheless, I hope we will be issuing them on the second part of September. But there are chances that we will not be able to do this until the electoral process comes to an end." Considering what was said until now, the candidate cannot be supplied with drivers' license for another five months, because he has to take the written and the practical exam first. On the other hand, there are many driving schools in Kosovo, which train the candidates, who in return pay 400 DM. Although these schools function, they do not have the proper licenses. The directors of the schools are very irritated with the delay. Several Kosovar associations offered a project to the international administration. The purpose of the project is to organize driving schools and issue drivers' licenses in Kosovo. "It was promised to us that all driving schools which fulfill the conditions will receive their license on the second part of January. But unfortunately this did not take place," stated President of the Association of Driving Schools in the region of Prishtina Qazim Krasniqi. He also said that irresponsible people have made ridiculous statements. Do the driving schools have the right to train candidates if they do not have the proper license? There are cases when the driving schools issue documents, which are supposed to prove that the driver was trained at a proper driving school. But this was not the case with Besnik, who was mentioned earlier on. Dumas considers that the schools are to blame for this. Although he believes that the schools have done a great thing by training the candidates, he thinks that they do not have the right to issue such documents. Dumas is optimistic that a regulation, based on which driving schools can receive their licenses, might be issued in September. Krasniqi was informed that the regulation is already compiled and after several additions it will be signed in the Security Council and returned to Kosovo to be implemented here. The Serb Administration in Serb residencies continues functioning even after the war came to an end. This administration issues such documents and nothing has been done to prevent this. Word has it that training takes place in these residencies and the international personnel supervises them. This is supposed to be taking place in Gracanica, Fushe Kosove and Mitrovica, where the license plates KS, issued by UNMIK, are not accepted. Krasniqi said that this issue was discussed with UNMIK Official Gerard Fischer, however "he said that this is a political issue and higher levels decide on it." The greatest irony is when an Albanian receives such a driver's license from the Serb Administration, people suspect that he bought it. After thinking about it for a while, Dumas said that the Judicial Department should give an explanation regarding this issue. "What can I say, my personal opinion is that UNMIK is an interim administration in Kosovo. Issuing drivers license is an administrative act and the Judicial Department should give an explanation on it." HAEKKERUP REQUESTED BELGRADE'S AID FOR THE MITROVICA PROBLEM UNMIK Chief Administrator Hans Haekkerup said that he requested Belgrade's aid to solve the problem of the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica and added that any proposal of dividing Kosovo into entities is unacceptable reported Epoka e Re on page five. "We would like to have Belgrade's support to change the current situation. Our aim is the exclusion of parallel structures and the forming of security structures that would give Serbs in Kosovo greater security," said UNMIK Chief Administrator Hans Haekkerup for the German news agency DPA. Belgrade has accused Haekkerup for lack of consideration for the
problems of the Kosovo Serbs and especially the fate of 1,300 missing
Serbs who have disappeared after NATO entered Kosovo in 1999.
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