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Interim government session begins, Serbs send observer |
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April 12, 2000
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, APR 11 (AP) - Ending a more than four-month boycott, moderate Kosovo Serbs sent a representative on Tuesday to a session of the province's interim government in a sign that they are ready to renew cooperation with rival ethnic Albanians.
The U.N.-supervised government meeting was attended by Bernard Kouchner, the U.N. administrator of Kosovo, as well as ethnic Albanian leaders Ibrahim Rugova and Hashim Thaci. Observing on behalf of Kosovo's moderate Serbs was Rada Trajkovic. None of them spoke to reporters outside the meeting.
But the move left Serb moderates and hard-liners more split than ever before. The hard-liners, opposed to any cooperation with Kosovo's Albanians, have condemned the moderates' decision to attend the meeting as hurting the Serb cause.
Kosovo's Serbs walked away from the interim government late last year, accusing it of pro-Albanian bias. Radical Serbs say that working together with the Albanians on the council only hastens the ultimate Albanian goal of independence for Kosovo, which formally remains part of Serbia, even though it is now run by the United Nations and NATO-led peacekeepers.
Moderate Serbs said Monday their decision to participate in the U. N.-led interim council heralded a better future for all citizens of Kosovo, but cautioned that the rival ethnic Albanian community also had to play its part for reconciliation.
"We are determined to focus our attention on building a better future for all the citizens of Kosovo," said spokesman Aleksandar Vidojevic. "Our joint task of building democratic institutions ... (is) a great test for all ethnic communities." Tensions between ethnic Albanians, who make up more than 90 percent of the population and the estimated 100,000 Serbs remaining in Kosovo are still running high almost a year after the end of the NATO air war, which led to the withdrawal of forces loyal to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
On Monday, a representative of Kosovo's Serbs outlined plans for some 20,000 Serbs to return to villages across the province that before the war had all-Serb populations and are not near ethnic Albanian settlements.
The Serbs are expected to decide within three months whether to rejoin the interim council as full members.
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