Democracy in Yugoslavia: Milosevic´s Final Defeat - Page 5
© Peter Weber
Even more complicated appears the Yugoslav position in Kosovo. As a formerly autonomous region inside the Serbian Republic, the Kosovar Albanians have never had the status of a republic like the other Yugoslav nations and therefore they have little hope to gain international recognition as an independent state. But after last years occupation by an international force (Kfor) as a reaction to Serbian atrocities against the population, Belgrade´s sovereignty in the region mostly inhabited by Muslims appears badly damaged. The possibilities of reestablishing the Serbian rule appear at least remote and the region will most probably remain for many years under a UN administration.
The new reality of a democratic regime in Belgrade is certainly a negative circumstance for the Kosovar nationalists, who will find it now much more difficult to convince the Western nations of the necessity of an independent Kosovar state. The Albanian population and leadership are categorically against a return under Serbian sovereignty, but as their international support is already ebbing away over continuing revenge attacks on the remaining Serbs in the province, they will find it harder to refuse Kostunica´s invitation on loyal talks.
Most Kosovar leaders however remind Kostunica as a nationalist Serb threatening with his gun in an early photograph. Most Albanians therefore distrust the new president and many had wished that Milosevic would have succeeded in staying on. In his first declaration on the Kosovar question Kostunica has in fact declared that the autonomous region will, no doubt, remain a part of the Serbian Republic inside Yugoslavia. The moderate Kosovar leader Ibrahim Rugova, whose Democrat League is the most popular party in the region, has replied that he has nothing to discuss with the new Yugoslav president.
In talks the Serbs would surely ask that the remaining Serbs in Mitrovica and other towns, as well as their Orthodox churches, be protected by some thousand policemen returning to the region. Moreover they will demand that their refugees flown last year be allowed a safe return to their houses in Kosovo. Similar questions could soon be raised even in Bosnia and Croatia. During his first ice-breaking visits to Montenegro, Bosnia and Macedonia, Kostunica has however been able to represent a new Serbian leadership, ready at last to respect the neighboring populations. At the United Nations in New York he has even admitted that the Serbs under Milosevic have committed genocide, saying that he was ready to take the responsibility for these awful deeds.
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