Many Gov'ts Claiming Kosovo Rule
Sunday, 4 July 1999
P R I S T I N A , Y U G O S L A V I A (AP)
FOR A place where many government offices have been bombed
and most of the rest have been looted, Kosovo suffers from an odd
affliction: too many governments.
There's the government of Hashim Thaci, the Kosovo Liberation
Army chief who says a coalition of political parties picked him as
"prime minister" to lead the province to freedom.
There's the government of Bujar Bukoshi, since 1991 the "prime
minister" of the unrecognized "Republic of Kosovo." And there's
the government of Zoran Andjelkovic, the Yugoslav governor of
Kosovo before the bombing started.
And then there's the U.N. administration of Sergio Vieira de
Mello, backed by an international peacekeeping force, which says
none of the others has any claim to power at all.
"A number of politicians in Kosovo have self-styled titles such as
prime minister," said Brig. Jonathan Bailey, the peacekeeping
official in charge of making sure both Serbia and the rebels stick
to their pledges.
"The only government of Kosovo that we recognize as legitimate is
that of the United Nations," he said.
The peace plan for Kosovo calls for elections to be held in about
nine months, with the United Nations administering the province
until then.
But in the meantime, the other would-be leaders are increasingly
finding themselves at odds with the U.N. mandate. That friction
raises troubling questions about how long the United Nations
will be able to have its way - and how long it will need
NATO-led soldiers to enforce its will.
The greatest challenge so far has come from the KLA, which
unilaterally named Thaci prime minister and has tried to set up an
administration in the province.
An official of the peacekeeping force said the rebels have tried to
establish municipal governments in the three largest cities -
Pristina, Prizren and Pec - but have backed off in all cases after
peacekeepers intervened.
Thaci, who is trying to win support from the West, has appeared
almost daily with Vieira de Mello, urging Kosovo Albanians to
stop attacking Serbs and defusing at least one standoff in the
northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Thaci said he accepted
the U.N. mandate, but also suggested he is bitter that the
international community doesn't recognize him as prime minister.
In the margins of a peace accord signed in France by the ethnic
Albanians but not the Serbs, a coalition of Kosovo political parties
agreed on a new government with the KLA at its head. Thaci said
that gave him the authority as prime minister.
"That is an agreement which was signed and is legitimate," he
said. "The international community took part in that agreement.
They saluted it and supported it, because that agreement showed
a unification between Kosovo political forces, a unification which
the international community was eager to see."
He said the United Nations can't run Kosovo without him.
"The United Nations, by itself, cannot do much in Kosovo," he
said. "That is the reason they have increased cooperation with our
government."
Vieira de Mello said he was glad to be cooperating with Thaci,
but stressed that the rebel chief has no claim to power.
"We are the only source of authority in Kosovo," he said. "We are
not excluding them (the KLA), but we are not recognizing a
government."
Other KLA leaders are less diplomatic - and even threatening.
Pleurat Sejdiu, the rebels' diplomatic representative in London,
said there will be trouble if the United Nations doesn't let the
rebels' self-proclaimed rebel government operate.
"We have so many problems because the U.N. doesn't give the
KLA the right to police the streets of Kosovo," he said. Asked
what will happen if they don't, he said: "There will be chaos. ...
You will find that the war can start again."
Rrustem Mustafa, a hard-line rebel leader known as Commander
Remi, said the KLA is already forming an army, even though the
agreement with the rebels calls only for the international
community to consider such an army.
"We do not intend to be without a defense force, and our youths
have a right to be trained," he said.
Some of the other would-be governments are less threatening
toward U.N. administration, although they also want the
international force to recognize their claims to power.
Andjelkovic, whose government agreed after 78 days of NATO
bombing to let the United Nations administer the province,
worked with U.N. administrators in the early days of the
peacekeepers' presence, when only he had institutions in place
for Kosovo to function on a daily basis.
But the Yugoslav government insists on retaining sovereignty in
Kosovo, putting guards on international borders and trying to
prevent the use of the German mark, which is quickly replacing
the Yugoslav dinar as the Kosovo currency.
Bukoshi, who hasn't appeared publicly in Kosovo since the
bombing began, also is willing to respect the U.N. administration
- but not if anyone else makes a play for power, according to a
top official in his party.
"Legally, Bukoshi is prime minister of Kosovo," said Naim Jerliu,
vice president of Bukoshi's Democratic League of Kosovo. "But we
accept the government structure established by the international
community."
Most independent Kosovo politicians support the U.N.
administration, and say the new leaders need to acquire
experience while working toward elections.
Azem Vllasi, who was Kosovo's first political leader until his arrest
in 1989, said the young aspirants to power are overly eager.
"In Kosovo there is not enough space for two or three
governments, or two or three police forces," he said. "We have
one government, the temporary U.N. administration. These new
people with political aspirations ... have to know that a
government has to be elected." |
