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Kosova reports 1998
Kosov@ Situation Report 14 August 1998

Report from independent source

Rugova's New Negotiating Team

Belgrade dailies feature as a main item news about the new Albanian negotiating team which was presented by Ibrahim Rugova yesterday. The team is made up of members of parties represented in Kosov@'s parallel parliament, which means that there are no representatives of the parties that boykotted the elections in March, and no representatives of the KLA. Rugova's team has Fehmi Agani, Fatmir Sejdiju, Edita Tahiri, Tadej Rodiqi and Illijas Kurteshi. The vice president of the Parlamentarian Party Bajram Kosumi, and the secretary general of the Albanian Democratic Movement Mehmet Hajrizi have turned down Rugova's invitation to join the team.

Meanwhile, the HQ of the "Kosova Liberation Army" has issued a statement to Albanian language newspapers, in which the KLA invites the leader of the Parlamentarian Party Adem Demaci to "freeze" his party function and represent the KLA in the talks with the Serbian government. As the other political representatives in such talks the statement named Jakup Krasniqi, Xhavid Haliti, Bardul Mahmuti, Hashim Taci, Faton Mehmetaj and Sokol Bashota.

Future Status of Kosov@

Belgrade dailies also quote international media with suggestions on Kosova@'s future status. Among the five suggestions is the status of a republic within Yugoslavia but with no right suggestions use the status of South Tyrol or Tartarstan as models. And the fifth proposal, allegedly preferred by the USA, is about a "tacit protectorate" modelled on the example of Mostar. Quoting Deutsche Welle radio, the papers say that the UK ambassador in Belgrade Brian Donelly met with positive responses to these suggestionns in Belgrade, while Prishtina has not answered yet.

International Military Intervention

In a press conference in Belgrade, Dusan Janjic, the co(c)ordinator of the NGO "Forum for Ethnic Relations" stated that the international community would conduct a military intervention in Kosov@ within the next ten days. According to Janjic, a representative of the contact group said that the public opinion in Europe and America concerning the Kosov@ issue puts a lot of pressure on the governments of the respective countries to act, and that a consensus on the possible intervention has already been achieved. Janjic also uttered his thought that August represented the "magic period" within which the refugee issue has to be resolved before the winter breaks. His guess for the solution to the status question is that Kosov@ will be given a "special status" lasting during the next fifteen to twenty years, with the permanent threat of "terrorist activities". The refugee situation in Montenegro he commented with the words that there were deliberate attempts to direct refugees there in order to "destabilise" the political situation in Montenegro. His estimate is that there are between 26,700 and 35,000 Kosovar refugees in Montenegro now.


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