WHY IS THIS MAN IGNORED ? Does he have nothing to contribute ?
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From Agence France Presse :
Kosovo President Rugova calls for end of bombing, new round of negotiations
Synopsis Rugova, healthy and except, calls with the stop of strike
Wednesday 31 Mars 1999 - Paris 23h11 time
PRISTINA (AFP) - Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate head of the Albanians of Kosovo, appeared healthy and except, Wednesday evening in its residence kept by the Serb font with Pristina (chief town of Kosovo) where, in front of journalists, it invited NATO to stop its strike and invited Belgrade " to cooperate ".
" I only wanted to say that I am alive, because the people are worried ", declared Mr. Rugova with these journalists, of which a representative of the AFP, a Russian correspondent and teams of several Greek chains of television (Mega, Antena TV, ERT, Star, Sky, Channel-5) and Turkish ATV.
Various rumours had circulated on its fate. Tuesday in Bonn, the representative abroad of its party, Hafiz Gagica, had declared that Mr. Rugova had been wounded and that its " fate " remained unknown. Sunday, the military spokesman of NATO, the British General David Wilby, had declared that Mr. Rugova " is in escape and hides " and " its house was burned ".
" I am here in my house. I am there since my return of Paris with my family ", it specified. **time-out** " It there have be some speculation according to which I have be kill or wound and my house have be destroy ", have it note.
The house of Mr. Rugova, in the residential district of Velanija, with the periphery of the city, was intact Wednesday. The " president " kosovar indicated that the Serb font had proposed to him to ensure its safety and that it " had accepted ".
Journalists who, these last days, had tried to approach his residence, had been driven back by police officers posted to about thirty meters of its house.
Heads of the Serb Information center (MC) in Pristina ensured for their part that Mr. Rugova was " at his place ". Wednesday, the MC organized this meeting with the press, to which one of its representatives assisted. It was the first time that Mr. Rugova expressed himself since the beginning, March 24, of strike NATO.
Mr. Rugova had returned in Pristina on March 20, after the failure of the talks on Kosovo in Paris and had not been seen since.
In front of its house, a half-dozen of police officers assembled the guard. On arrival of the journalists, they were put in position of shooting: " in a house not far from here, there are snipers of the UCK (Armed with release of Kosovo) ", they affirmed. Shootings of automatic weapon resounded with far.
No police officer was inside during the press conference. The Albanian bodyguard of Mr. Rugova, who carried around the neck his usual silk scarf, had sat at his sides.
Mr. Rugova appeared deeply worried by the gravity of the situation. " should be stopped the bombardments. Should be stopped all. It is necessary to work on top. Is needed that Belgrade also cooperates ", has it says.
" It is necessary that Belgrade engages on a diplomatic way and accepts an agreement which is on the diplomatic way from Rambouillet. It is also necessary that Belgrade accepts intermediaries like (the American diplomat Richard) Holbrooke and (Russian the Prime Minister Evgueni) Primakov ", it estimated.
**time-out** " I have ask in Belgrade to cooperate, as well as with Union European, with Group of contact, with Russia and with all that which be engage in the question of Kosovo ", have affirm Mr. Rugova, himself express sometimes in French, sometimes in English.
Questioned on Albanian the massive exodus of Kosovo, it qualified the situation of " tragedy " and underlined the need for "arrêter that ".
" I worked during ten years so that people, Serbes and Albanian, remain here. I never regarded the Serb ones in Kosovo as a minority ", it ensured.
" I have a message for Belgrade: to cooperate ", have it says, " and for NATO, to include/understand the other part (Serb). Not to kill out of people and to help to find a solution. "
According to Mr. Rugova, " one needs a negotiator, but the base exists ", it is that which was created at the time of the talks from February in Rambouillet (France). " But above all, I am interested to put fine at this situation tragic for the people of Kosovo, Serb and Albanian ", it underlined. |
