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Daily Media Monitoring Summary: Tuesday 11 December, 2001 **FIRST SESSION OF KOSOVO ASSEMBLY TURNS INTO DICTATE
LEADERSHIP (1) **COLUMNS AND COMMENTARIES ON THE FIRST ASSEMBLY SESSION
(2) Why did Haekkerup plan to turn off PDK's microphone? Hans Haekkerup has foreseen the whole development of the events in the Assembly. A transcript letter says that if PDK tried to make trouble during the work of the session, one of the solutions could be to turn off microphones. The letter makes clear how Haekkerup planned to lead the first Kosovo Parliamentary Session. "If PDK representatives try to dispute procedure issues then the microphone should be turned off," this is written in bold letters in the transcript. This transcript of Haekkerup's speech was handed to journalists, however, when UNMIK Press Officers noticed that, they tried to get the transcript from the journalists and in some cases were very aggressive. PDK complains to Kofi Annan for anti-democratic session Thaçi justified the walk out of the PDK deputies from the first
Assembly session. He informed the journalists that PDK sent a letter to
Kofi Annan to inform him about the developments of the first Kosovo's
parliament. We did not believe this session would go against all democratic principles "We feel sorry. We accepted and agreed that this Assembly session should be a solemn and a historic one. We did not expect that this session could go against all believes and against all democratic norms. First, it was Mr. Hans Haekkerup who acted in this manner. Then he was followed by the President of the Parliament," said AAK parliamentarian Muhamet Kelmendi. He said that AAK members in the parliament did not vote for or against: "We simply abstained from voting. We decided that the election of Dr. Nexhat Daci as the President of the Parliament would not have our support and backing". On the question of co-governance Kelmendi said that the way towards a wide coalition for co-governance "has narrowed", however, AAK was "open for constructive deeds". LDK Chairman Dr. Ibrahim Rugova met with the journalists after the
session ended. He said that this was a great day, a historic day for the
Kosovo's Parliament. We managed to elect the President of the Parliament
and the Presidency. The session will continue on Thursday, December 13,
where hopefully Kosovo's President will be elected. Rugova said that in
the talks with PDK and AAK for the coalition for co-governance, LDK
offered these two parties five ministerial posts and the Parliament's
vice-presidency. They did not accept. Rugova concluded by saying: "We will
talk, and reach an agreement. However, if we do not reach an agreement, we
shall go forward".
We will not allow a boycott that others aspire "Regarding Haekkerup and the way he conducted the opening session of the Parliament, it can be clearly seen that he was not interested to have Kosovo institutions functioning in its proper way. He was also not interested to see Albanian political parties reaching an agreement which would give a good guarantee for Kosovo's future", said Thaçi in a press conference after the session. "We left the session to have some consultation amongst the PDK members. After the consultation all PDK deputies returned to the session. The aim of this consultation was to request a minute of silence to honor all those that died. We believe that it is not honorable that Kosovo's first Parliamentary session started without showing respect to Kosovo's martyrs who are amongst the most responsible and who also played a role in making these elections possible. We also requested a member of the Jashari family to be present among the guests, because we all know that this family is an institution for Kosovo's citizens," emphasized Thaçi. Thaçi informed the journalists that he had prepared a statement on human rights given the fact that 10 December is the International Day of Human Rights. "We were not allowed to read this statement. We had another statement regarding the release of all Albanian prisoners held in Serb prisons." Thaçi added that PDK sent a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan describing the anti-democratic procedures an absence of respect to procedures during the parliament session
These are words of consolation that can follow the first inaugural session of the Kosovo Assembly. Some western diplomats, surely friends of Kosovo, mentioned the words during numerous meetings they had with the politicians of our three main political parties. Surely, this is only the beginning of the parliamentarian democracy in Kosovo and many deficiencies are a result of the past years and decades which left marks in the history of Kosovo that by all means present an obstacle for the establishment of a democratic government. Furthermore, despite what happened, the first session of the Kosovo Assembly deserves the quality of a great event for Kosovo. However, we expected something else. I guess we optimistically exaggerated looking at the happy faces of our leading politicians after the first meeting which initiated the issue of co-governance. Maybe, we believed that our political parties would understand the burden of responsibility and reach a compromise. Nonetheless, we all deserved another session of the Kosovo Assembly, one which would be characterized by the willingness and cooperation of our politicians and which would specify the political consensus for major issues that await us in the coming three years. It was a sad day for all of us. Zëri on page three carried an editorial commentary on the first session of the Kosovo Assembly. The commentary says: The first democratic assembly in the history of Kosovo, in its first day of session, unfolded the true political situation in Kosovo. First of all, the meeting was organized very poorly, in all aspects. UNMIK announced that the inaugural session would be held at 10 o'clock. However, as we all witnessed on Monday morning, the session was supposed to start at 11 o'clock. It seems that UNMIK used the logics of airports: the passengers should be present at the airport one or two hours before the flight. However, due to various reasons, the session started at 11.45 with an agenda that proved Haekkerup's insistence to move rapidly in the very first meeting with the election of the Assembly's chairmanship, the President of the Assembly and the President of Kosovo. Such an agenda, while having in mind the failure of negotiations for co-government between the LDK, PDK and AAK, couldn't help but created the turmoil which was broadcast live. As the inter-party compromise couldn't be reached for days, and it was politically naïve to expect an agreement within a few minutes at the Kosovo Assembly's beginning. Some might say that by proposing such an agenda Haekkerup respected the procedures foreseen by the Constitutional Framework. In this case, on could reply that the results of parliamentarian elections led to the situation in which election procedures mostly depend on the political agreement between the main Kosovar parties. The danger of the politics of eventual intrusion and obstruction in the election procedures at the Kosovo Assembly were evident on 19th November, when OSCE announced the preliminary results of 17th November general elections. Thought the first democratic government in Kosovo had the full electorate legitimacy, it cannot be functional if there is no political agreement which would give support of the majority of Kosovar parliamentarians to the Kosovo government and the President. Kosovo needs a stable and powerful government to unite the majority of Kosovar entities, to overcome huge tensions in the work of the Assembly, to enable an active policy of the Kosovar executives in all important fields. Kosovo does not need a fragile government with a powerful parliamentarian opposition, a government which in reality cannot face the challenges of the most important three-year period in the history of Kosovo. However, what we saw on Monday 10th December at the Kosovo Assembly is the true political situation in Kosovo. With the UNMIK administration which is incapable of organizing the session of the assembly, with the chief administrator Haekkerup who continues ignoring the Kosovar political scene, with the Kosovar main political parties which lack the willingness to overcome their disagreements and with the relation of powers which - as a result of the election - unfolds the powerlessness of these parties; it is difficult to believe that things will go well in Kosovo. Koha Ditore on page ten carried a commentary by Shkelzen Maliqi, titled "The bad taste dictate". Maliqi wrote: The idea for a solemn first session of the Kosovo Assembly has not been brought to life. Neither the internationals, nor the party that won the majority of votes in the elections were interested on the matter. Kofi Annan's Special Representative, the chief Administrator of Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup was not at all impressed by the historic importance of the event. As a cold pragmatic, he only followed the procedure foreseen by the Constitutional Framework and the regulations that he himself prepared and endorsed. Thus, Haekkerup once again demonstrated his powerful position of a monarch of Kosovo, showing that he will still be the landlord, even in the conditioned Kosovarization of the institutions. Haekkerup did not even think twice of postponing the first session, though it was clearly seen on Sunday that there wouldn't be an agreement between the three Albanian political entities. One thing, however, remains enigmatic: did he have the support of the great offices in Prishtina, or did he act on his own? Nonetheless, the first session of the Kosovo Assembly had the flavor and the taste of intrusion that can be compared with the last session of the Kosovo Assembly of the communist rule which was held at the entrance of the renovated parliament building. In that meeting, the Albanian deputies at least had the chance to read the historic statement regarding the will of the people for the independence of Kosovo. Whereas, yesterday in the first session of the parliament in the Kosovo liberated from Serbia (can this still be said?) we witnessed a silent reconciliation with the Serbs. Haekkerup's refusal to allow any remarks and the election procedure of parliamentarian bodies was not the best sample of democracy. The chairman of the session could eventually limit the length and the time of the speeches, and then present counter-arguments and reasons, but he simply wasn't in the mood for any kind of a debate. Thus, he left us to believe that he was above the law and would not allow any question on the procedure. In a true democracy, the opponent has the right to contest the procedure even having wrong arguments - one should listen first. In places where you cannot ask questions and be wrong there is no democracy - it is a dictate. Therefore, in the first day we witnessed the failure of the project of co-governance between the three entities, which had the support of the majority in Kosovo. However, the idea for co-government has not failed. The Democratic League of Kosovo, the party that won most of the votes in the elections, has decided to co-govern with some of the minority parties and with the Serb coalition "Povratak", rather than with the other Albanian political parties. This was made clear by the election of parliamentarian bodies. The President and chairmanship of the parliament couldn't have been elected with such a majority of votes without the votes of the Serb deputies. Rugova and the LDK have most probably chosen the same procedure to elect the Kosovo President, in the session due to be held on Thursday. Only after the election of the two main posts, the LDK and Rugova will initiate the procedure of electing the government of Kosovo, thus not leaving room for negotiations with the other Albanian political parties, the Kosovo Democratic Party and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. Rugova hopes that the majority he has, including the "Povratak" votes, would enable him to take all governing posts, given the fact that the President of Kosovo should propose the Prime- Minister. In the third stage, Rugova will maybe once again offer the basic proposal of four ministries for the PDK and one for the AAK, as a formula of co-governance, however the Prime-Minister would be from the LDK. But this will be hardly accepted by the PDK and AAK, because it puts them in a completely inferior situation, in which they would share the responsibility for the administration of Kosovo but they wouldn't have the slightest influence on the decision-making posts. Therefore, it is clear that the PDK and AAK were forced into opposition, a thing that will noticeably harden Rugova and LDK's governance, because they don't have the majority in the parliament, and can hold on to power in the future thanks to the votes of the "Povratak". If in any case, it would have the full support of minority parties, the LDK could count on 61 votes, but this implies a fragile and unstable government. With his latest maneuver, Rugova continues with his small-minded and hypocritical policy, while saying one thing to the Albanians and another thing to the foreigners and the Serbs. Rugova and the LDK, as the winners of the elections, have the legitimate right to form a coalition with whomever they want, even with the Serb coalition "Povratak", if they think it is in the interest of Kosovo and its citizens. However, the people of Kosovo want transparency for every coalition and its platform and conditions. Even if he counts on the silent support of the Serbs, he should explain the true price of it to the Kosovar opinion? Nonetheless, Rugova is heading toward a very dangerous direction. It is still not clear where this direction leads. However, it is clear that in the end he will have to pay the price of hypocrisy. And this could very easily happen before the next parliamentarian elections. A fragile government such as Rugova's cannot have a long life.
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