Daily Media Monitoring Summary: Friday 7 December, 2001

**RUGOVA AND THAÇI MEET AT UNMIK HQ (1)**IMERI WAS PHYSICALLY ABUSED TO ADMIT INDICTMENT (2)**KRCMAREVIC CLAIMS TRAJKOVIC IMPEDED ELECTIONS (3)**PRIVATIZATION REMAINS FORBIDDEN ISSUE FOR KOSOVO'S PARLIAMENT (4)

(1) All daily papers carried front-page reports on the meeting held between LDK leader Ibrahim Rugova and the leader of the Kosovo Democratic Party (PDK), Hashim Thaçi.
 
Koha Ditore reports that the meeting between the two leaders was constructive, tolerant and peaceful and that neither of the two put forward conditions nor concretely mentioned the posts in the new government. Quoting its sources, the paper added however that the two parties agreed that LDK should put forward the Kosovo President, i.e. that Rugova be given the post, and that the LDK should offer the Prime Minister post to the PDK. Subsequently, the post of Assembly President would be offered to the Haradinaj-led Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. Although based on the constitutional framework and the election results, the Alliance cannot hold the above-mentioned post, it is believed that the matter could be arranged after an agreement between the three leading parties.

On the other hand, Kosova Sot reported that during the meeting, the PDK asked for the post of prime minister and at least one ministry in the new government. Quoting analysts, the paper also said that a final agreement for the creation of the coalition government would be reached in the next meeting between the three leaders.

Koha Ditore also reported that the LDK has formed its parliamentary group for the Kosovo Assembly. According to the Kosovo Information Center, Sabri Hamiti will head the group. It was also reported that the party has proposed Nexhat Daci, the chairman of the Kosovo Academy of Arts and Science, for the post of Kosovo Assembly President.

Zëri, on page one, carried an editorial by its editor-in-chief Blerim Shala, in which he commented on the Rugova - Thaçi meeting. Shala wrote that everything regarding the meeting would invite comments, starting from gestures, words and mimics up to public statements. "A huge interest following the meeting is a result of the grave importance of the agreement between the two leaders and their parties for creating a powerful government in Kosovo. Similar to three years ago, now the LDK - PDK - AAK coalition comes up as a precondition to enliven the vote of the Kosovar citizens. Rugova, Thaçi and Haradinaj are surely well aware of this. However, there are a lot of things unknown to us acting as obstacles before the eventual agreement: personal ambitions, poor relations between the leaders and the lack of a strategic concept for Kosovar politics in the coming three years. In the past two days, we also witnessed the idea for the first assembly session to be a critical one. This solemnity can be of two kinds: according to one version the first session of the assembly would verify the agreement of the three parties, and the allocation of posts. According to the other possibility, the meeting wouldn't be problematic at all, or better to say it would be only constituted, without getting into the key issues."

(2) Press officers at Kosovo Protection Zone Four and the lawyer of KPC official Gani Imeri, who was recently charged with serious crimes, claim that Imeri is currently undergoing grave physical mistreatment to make him admit to the charges raised against him, the dailies report. KPC press officers were quoted as saying that Imeri, who is a war invalid, was offered medical care by a Serb doctor "who during their first meeting told Imeri about the reasons of the arrest and that they know every detail of his past."

(3) Zoran Krcmarevic, deputy chairman of the Vitia Municipal Assembly, claims that Momcilo Trajkovic has impeded the flow of general elections in Kosovo, Koha Ditore reports. The paper also quoted Krcmarevic as saying that Trajkovic was the main obstacle even during the election day. "He created problems and prevented a certain number of people from participating in the elections. We don't recognize his policy and every Serb that shares Trajkovic's ideas and thinks of a connection with Serbia will not be welcome in Kosovo," he added.

(4) The international administration in Kosovo has prepared a draft regarding the fund of Kosovo enterprises, or the Kosovo Trust Fund, which would bear all competencies for the privatization of social, public and state enterprises in the country, Koha Ditore reports. The paper quoted the articles of the draft, and the only commentary that it made on the matter was that the draft itself would make privatization a forbidden matter for the Kosovo Assembly.