PRISTINA (Yougoslavie), 22 mai (AFP) - Héros il y a un an, l'ancien chef politique de l'ex-Armée de libération du Kosovo (UCK) Hashim Thaçi, dont l'image s'est quelque peu ternie, a tenté de reprendre la main ce week-end, en organisant pour son parti un premier congrès conciliant héritage du passé combattant et modernité.

Hashim Thaçi était revenu dans la province lors du retrait des troupes de Belgrade, en juin dernier, auréolé du prestige conféré par son rôle d'interlocuteur de la communauté internationale. Au même moment, le leader modéré Ibrahim Rugova restait, à l'étonnement général, éloigné plusieurs semaines du Kosovo.

Mais Hashim Thaçi a vu peu à peu sa popularité éclaboussée par les écarts d'anciens compagnons de lutte accusés de crimes et de racket.

Au point qu'un sondage Gallup, non encore publié, réalisé pour le compte de l'Organisation pour la sécurité et la coopération en Europe (OSCE) et cité par l'hebdomadaire Newsweek, le crédite de moins de 20% des intentions de vote aux élections municipales prévues en octobre.

Dès l'ouverture du congrès de son Parti démocratique du Kosovo (PDK), samedi, il s'est posé en successeur légitime de l'UCK, s'empressant cependant de rassurer: "aucune structure issue de l'UCK n'est impliquée dans des activités illégales au Kosovo", a-t-il affirmé.

Pourtant, de source occidentale, on remarque que "si la Ligue démocratique (LDK) de Rugova est aujourd'hui plus populaire que le PDK, elle le doit plus aux agissements autour du parti de Thaçi qu'à l'activité" de Rugova, très peu présent. "Il y a un an, personne n'aurait pensé que l'UCK perdrait sa popularité si vite", relève ce diplomate, qui préfère garder l'anonymat.

De fait, selon l'enquête d'opinion de Gallup, la LDK recueillerait 50% des voix.

A l'approche du scrutin, Thaçi, âgé de 31 ans, doit aussi faire avec un nombre croissant de rivaux, dont il est difficile de se différencier tant les programmes tournent d'abord et avant tout autour du même thème : l'indépendance.

Thaçi, qui a trouvé un adversaire particulièrement sérieux en Ramush Haradinaj (32 ans), ancien chef de l'UCK à la tête d'une nouvelle Alliance pour l'avenir du Kosovo (AAK), est à la recherche de soutien dans les villes et semble viser les jeunes générations, selon un observateur occidental.

D'ailleurs, si l'aigle à deux têtes albanais était toujours en toile de fond dans la salle des congrès du Grand Hôtel de Pristina, ce sont des affiches au graphisme très contemporain qui avaient été déployées dans les rues pour annoncer l'événement.

En décembre dernier, Thaçi avait choisi la voie pragmatique en acceptant de participer à l'administration conjointe avec l'ONU. Devant des centaines de délégués -anciens portant le "plis", traditionnel bonnet blanc albanais, mais aussi jeunes gens et représentants de la diaspora- qui l'ont réélu président à une large majorité, il a de nouveau martelé son credo: "la lutte pour l'indépendance par des moyens démocratiques".

De sources occidentales, on veut croire que ce congrès, le premier organisé par une formation politique dans le Kosovo de l'après-guerre, est de bon augure à quelques mois d'élections cruciales. Mais la fragile situation de la province incite à la prudence.

L'administrateur de l'ONU Bernard Kouchner a ainsi profité de l'assemblée du PDK pour appeler, samedi, l'ensemble des leaders kosovars à "la création d'un climat démocratique et à une campagne digne".

BELGRADE, May 22, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Two Serb men, both of them 70 years-old, were killed by Kosovo Albanians, Serb sources said Friday.

Milan Milovanovic was killed Thursday night by six unknown people, who fled towards Kosovo, said the victim's brother, Milorad, who was at the scene.

His body was found Friday near the northern Kosovo village of Vukojevac, near the administrative line between the province and the rest of Serbia, Serb police said.

The police said they could not carry out a full investigation because those responsible, who they described as "extremist Albanians from Kosovo", fled to Kosovo which is under the control of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force.

Dragan Peric was killed Friday night near the town of Kosovska Mitrovica, in the north of Kosovo, the Tanjug news agency reported, adding that the presumed murderer was an Albanian.

PRISTINA (AP) -- Un enfant est mort et deux autres ont été blessés dimanche au Kosovo par l'explosion d'une bombe qu'ils avaient trouvée au bord d'une des principales routes de la province, ont annoncé des soldats de la force de maintien de la paix de l'OTAN et des responsables de l'ONU.

La déflagration a tué un enfant de 7 ans et en a blessé deux autres âgés de 7 et 10 ans au bord d'une route reliant la ville d'Urosevac, dans l'est de la province, à la ville de Strpce.

On ignore le nombre de bombes et d'autres engins non explosés qu'il reste au Kosovo depuis les 78 jours d'attaques aériennes de l'OTAN qui visaient à mettre un terme à la répression du président yougoslave Slobodan Milosevic sur les albanophones.

U.N. police, NATO peacekeepers still working out their troubles

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, May 22 (Reuters) - Hashim Thaqi, a former commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army, was confirmed as leader of the main political party to emerge from the guerrilla group, according to election results released on Monday.

At its first congress, the Democratic Party of Kosovo gave Thaqi an easy victory over his two rivals, winning more than 300 of the 376 valid votes cast. Thaqi was first appointed leader when the party was set up late last year.

The three-day party congress, which began on Saturday, was the first held by a major political party in post-war Kosovo.

Thaqi was voted in as party president as part of elections on Sunday to set up a leadership council of around 60 members. Officials spent hours counting the votes and only released the results in the early hours of Monday morning.

Also on Sunday, delegates decided to change the party's name to Democratic Party of Kosovo, rather than the more cumbersome Party for the Democratic Progress of Kosovo chosen by leaders when it was founded in October last year.

The party sees itself as the natural political home for former fighters in the KLA, the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force which fought for more than a year to end Serb rule in Kosovo. The group officially disbanded after NATO-led troops took over the running of the province last year.

As political leader of the KLA, Thaqi had a high international profile during the Kosovo crisis.

Some former KLA commanders have broken away to form their own parties, however, ahead of local elections due to be organised later this year by Kosovo's United Nations-led administration.

The Democratic League of Kosovo, which long advocated a policy of passive resistance towards Serb repression, currently enjoys a big opinion poll lead over all other parties.

International officials have cautioned, however, that voter surveys can only be of limited use at the moment in Kosovo, where the political landscape is still in a state of flux.

NIS, Yugoslavia, May 22 (Reuters) - A Serb court on Monday sentenced 143 ethnic Albanians to jail terms ranging from seven to 13 years for terrorism.

Following the largest Yugoslav mass trial ever held, Judge Goran Petronijevic said the accused had been sentenced because they committed the criminal act of terrorism during last year's NATO air war.

He said 49 of them were jailed to 13 years imprisonment each, 51 to 12 years, 20 to 10 years each, and 11 to nine years and 10 of them to seven years each. Two juveniles were sentenced to seven years each in juvenile detention.

The group was accused of forming a unit of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the western Kosovo town of Djakovica in April 1999, which was involved in attacks on Serb forces. The accused have denied the charges.

The prosecution charge sheet said the men took part in three attacks against Serb forces in April and May 1999, in which a policeman and an army officer were killed, one soldier was fatally wounded and six policemen seriously injured.

Human rights lawyers have said the defendants were picked up arbitrarily during a sweep of Djakovica by Serb forces that began a day after fighting with the KLA had ended and the guerrillas had taken to the hills.

Petronijevic said the court's decision was unanimous. Paraffin tests had established beyond reasonable doubt that those sentenced had used weapons, he said.

"There might have been shortcomings in the test, but the results must be accepted as valid because they were conducted in wartime conditions. It is impossible to determine your individual guilt, but that is not necessary," he said after the verdict was read out.

Peki Boksi, the defendants' lawyer, said: "This is a purely political decision, which certainly won't help ease the tension in Kosovo."

"This will make the situation more difficult for us struggling for human rights," he told Reuters. "This will play into the hands of the extremists."

Boksi added he did not believe that the ruling would be confirmed by the Supreme Court. "I hope it will be guided by legal rather than political arguments."

ANCONA, May 22, 2000 -- (Reuters) Montenegro's Foreign Minister Branko Lukovac said on Saturday his republic could not wait forever and would have to go it alone if Serbia's opposition failed to oust Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

"We have proposed a new basis for our future relations with Serbia...If they don't accept this, then the question is, do we have the time to wait for a new democratic alternative in Serbia?" Lukovac told Reuters in an interview.

"We have decided to keep the proposal open but we cannot wait indefinitely," he said, speaking in English after a conference in the Italian port of Ancona on Adriatic stability and development.

Montenegro was invited as an observer but Serbia was told it was not welcome until democracy was in place.

Lukovac said Montenegro was waiting to see if opposition parties could oust Milosevic in early elections which they are seeking.

"If they don't prevail in Serbia, we don't have any chances with the existing regime in Serbia to find a common ground. Then we go our own way..."

"We can't afford to lose another decade, not even a year. So we will see what will be the outcome of the present drive of the democratic alternative to take power. If they fail, then it is for us to turn towards our people and to say: 'Are you willing to lose more years or decades or to go our own way'," he added.

His words appeared to suggest putting Montenegro's future to a referendum - the spark that lit the Balkan tinderbox in 1992 when Bosnians voted to split from Yugoslavia.

Such a path would almost certainly ignite fresh conflict - Serbia, already isolated internationally and hit by sanctions, is landlocked without Montenegro.

Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini said earlier that the international community was not encouraging Montenegro to split. "We are asking Montenegro to maintain an attitude of moderation," Dini told reporters.

FEAR OF OVERSPILL

Lukovac said Montenegro lived in fear that a new crisis in its bigger neighbor would affect it too.

"There is of course a permanent fear that any kind of conflict can spill over," he said, adding relations with Belgrade were now at their lowest ever ebb.

Tension increased in Serbia this week after Milosevic pulled the plug on influential independent television station Studio B, his harshest crackdown to date on the opposition media.

Lukovac said he believed the tougher stance was linked to upcoming local elections in Montenegro's capital Podgorica and Herceg-Novi on June 11.

He agreed with NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson, who said last Thursday the crackdown could be a sign Milosevic's days were numbered.

"I fully agree it is an act of desperation, a kind of panic. The regime is feeling increasing pressure," Lukovac said.

But he said he had no idea how long it would take for Milosevic, indicted by the West as a war criminal for his policies in Kosovo, to go. He has dominated Yugoslav politics since 1987 and is blamed for a series of wars.

"I thought in 1991-92 it can last only one year. We have a decade behind us already," he said.

BELGRADE, May 22, 2000 -- (Reuters) President Slobodan Milosevic has vowed that Yugoslavia, made up of Serbia and pro-Western Montenegro, will remain intact and denounced those he said wanted to break it up, a pro-government daily said on Saturday.

The daily Politika quoted Milosevic as telling his Socialists and the Socialist People's Party in Montenegro that the two parties were fighting to preserve values such as independence and the pursuit of peace.

"We will succeed in the defense of these values despite the concerted actions of Yugoslavia's enemies, from outside and from within, aimed at breaking up the country through armed, media and other aggression, terrorism, sanctions, treachery, domestic servants and other pressures," Milosevic said.

Montenegro, headed by President Milo Djukanovic, has been pulling away from Serbia and threatening to break away altogether unless its demands of reform of the joint federation are met.

Milosevic's comments came amid opposition-led street protests against the government's seizure of Studio B, the most influential non-government television station.

The seizure of Studio B was the harshest crackdown on non-government media by leftist nationalist authorities under Milosevic, who is isolated internationally as a U.N.-indicted war criminal for his policies in Kosovo.

Serbian ruling parties, which include the Yugoslav Left of Milosevic's wife Mira Markovic and the ultra-nationalist Radicals, have branded opposition parties and media as Western servants who carry out orders to destabilize the country.

They have accused Studio B television of calling for insurrection, accusations the station has rejected. Studio B is run by Belgrade city hall currently controlled by Serbia's biggest opposition party - the Serbian Renewal Movement.

Milosevic said that the policy of his Socialist party and the Socialists of Montenegro expressed the interest of the majority of Serbs and Montenegrins to live in a joint state.

"Hundreds of thousands of members of these parties are consistently fighting for the pursuit of a policy of peace, equality of citizens and people...independence and successful economic and cultural development of our country," he said.