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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Supplement Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Rugova at large
By Samia NkrumahThe release of the moderate Kosovo leader Ibrahim Rugova, together with his immediate family members, from Yugoslavia and their arrival in Rome earlier this month, was seen as a sign that Belgrade was edging closer to a peaceful solution of the Balkan crisis. Rugova's release came hard on the heels of the release of the three American servicemen captured at the beginning of the air strikes against Yugoslavia.
But since his release, Rugova, who is regarded by NATO as a key political player in the Kosovo conflict, has said little to dispel confusion over his TV appearance with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and what many see as his lenient stance towards the latter.
Paradoxically, though, it is Rugova's pacifist stance and his commitment to dialogue rather than violence that has earned him the respect of many in Europe and which undoubtedly played a role in securing his release in the first place.
The Kosovo leader has been to Italy on a number of occasions in the past. He has frequently visited the Community of Sant'Egidio, the influential Rome-based Catholic organisation that facilitated his release. A private voluntary organisation, this is not the first time Sant'Egidio has engaged in such crucial political dialogue. It has acted as mediator in a number of conflicts worldwide, most notably in bringing the Mozambican civil war to an end in 1992. It also engaged in dialogue with a number of political forces in Lebanon in the 1980s, and more recently in Algeria and Sudan.
Shortly after the NATO bombing raids began on 24 March, Sant'Egidio had managed to contact Rugova by telephone and asked him if he would agree to come to Rome. "When the authorities [Belgrade] release me," Rugova promised. "He was the same Rugova we knew, but he had no freedom of movement," Mario Marazziti, spokesman for the Sant'Egidio Community, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
After lengthy and at times tough negotiations, Belgrade accepted that Rugova could play a role in a diplomatic solution and his release might therefore further Serbian interests. Belgrade eventually informed Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini that Rugova wanted to come to Rome and that the Italian authorities should arrange to pick him up. An Italian jet was dispatched to bring Rugova to the city, where he remained as a guest of the Italian government until leaving again for Bonn last week. "Sant'Egidio's mission was helped by international pressure, as well as diplomatic efforts by Russia, Italy and the Vatican," said Marazziti, who confirmed that Sant'Egidio had access to Italian government resources to help them accomplish their mission.
In Italy, the Kosovo leader met with Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema and Pope John Paul II. Rugova's release smoothed the ruffled feathers of the Greens and communists in the governing coalition, who have been calling for a search for a negotiated settlement with Belgrade even as Italy continues to back NATO.
In none of his public statements made while in Italy did Rugova declare his support for the NATO air raids. However, he has stated that he is in favour of stationing an international force in Kosovo that would include NATO troops. The priority, as he sees it, is for the Kosovar refugees to get the assistance they need in order to return to their land. Addressing Belgrade, his language was remarkable above all for its lack of force. Instead, he appealed to the Serbian leaders not to oppose the rest of the world and to help end the crisis. The Kosovo leader was also reluctant to clarify his relationship with Milosevic, indicating he preferred to talk to governments directly, rather than the media, in order to avoid misinterpretation.
However, there was no such reticence when it came to describing the situation on the ground in Kosovo. He told the Pontiff that Kosovo is dead and Pristina, its capital, is a ghost town where there are only soldiers and police.
Another issue that Rugova is keen to address is the reorganisation of the province's political movements. The Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) has been critical of the moderate Albanian leader since his appearance on Serbian TV with Milosevic, a meeting which apparently took the UCK by surprise. The UCK is also suspicious of Rugova because he accepts the demilitarisation of the province of Kosovo and the disarmament of the UCK.
These differences have resulted in the creation of two rival ethnic-Albanian governments both claiming to represent the Kosovars. The first, a Rugova-allied government, was established in Germany in the early nineties with Bujar Bukoshi as prime minister. The second is headed by Hisham Thai, the UCK founder who led the Kosovo team at the Rambouillet talks, and is based in Albania. Thai announced his new government following the failure of the Rambouillet talks last February.
At Rambouillet, the two factions agreed to put aside their differences, and hence it was possible for them both to agree to the conditions proposed, thus helping trigger the NATO strikes when Yugoslavia failed to follow suit.
In the early nineties, Rugova, as president of Kosovo, had promised his people independence from Yugoslavia. Later, he seemed to accept the reduced aim of provincial autonomy, in accordance with the wishes of the international community. This proposal would effectively turn the clock back to the situation that obtained before Milosevic deprived Kosovo of its autonomy in 1989. The exact nature of the authority that will govern Kosovo when the strikes against Yugoslavia end is still to be decided.
But last week in Rome, Rugova maintained that the best option would be independence, and that the Kosovars should be able to vote on this. The UCK agrees that the Kosovars deserve independence and that this move is now indispensable. But while Rugova is against violence as a means of achieving this aim, the UCK is prepared to fight for the liberation of the province, and they continue to repel Serbian incursions along the Albanian-Yugoslav border.
The UCK also wants NATO to arm it so that it is established as the alliance's proxy on the ground in Kosovo. It is currently recruiting thousands of Kosovars from the US and Europe to this end. The UCK gets most of its arms from Serbian troops who abandon their positions. The army says that the morale of its fighters, who are mostly students and educated recruits, is high. They claim they have a strong chain of command and highly effective soldiers.
The Kosovo Liberation Army has also not been happy about the West's courteous treatment of Rugova since he arrived in Italy on 8 May, while an official arms embargo against the UCK is still in force. The UCK also denounced the peace proposals recently put forward by the Western governments and Russia, because while the conditions included the disarmament of the UCK, there was no mention of independence for Kosovo.
It is of course possible that Belgrade may be deliberately seeking to drive a wedge between the two Kosovar camps. While Rugova was in Italy, his political associate Fehmy Agani was killed. At first, Serbian officials said that the UCK was responsible for his death, but Agani's family have claimed that he was taken from Pristina by Serbian police, and that was the last time he was seen alive. UCK leader Thai declared that Agani's killing was an attempt to create a split within ethnic Albanian ranks.
With a million Kosovar refugees abroad and displaced, it is uncertain how much support each camp still commands inside Kosovo, or who can claim to speak for the majority of the Kosovars. Nevertheless, the enthusiastic welcome Rugova is getting in European capitals suggests that he enjoys a degree of political clout that will stand him in good stead whenever the time is ripe for negotiations.
Since leaving Italy, Rugova has met with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Victor Chernomyrdin, Russia's special envoy to the Balkans. He has also attended the European Union foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels last Monday.
Expectations remain high that he will be able to play a greater role in resolving the crisis now that he is no longer trapped in Serbia; after all in Brussels Rugova did almost reluctantly give his consent to NATO's airstrikes.
