PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY PERMANENT MISSION OF ALBANIA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY PERMANENT MISSION OF ALBANIA

There had been many positive developments in Kosovo, and Kosovars, in conjunction with international organizations, were working together for progress in the province, Hashim Thaci, the Albanian leader of the Democratic Party in Kosovo and a member of the Interim Administrative Council of Kosovo, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Mr. Thaci, an invited guest at the Convention of the Democratic Party of the United States, recently held in Los Angeles, was briefing correspondents at a press conference sponsored by the Albanian Mission to the United Nations.

Mr. Thaci said that while problems persisted in Mitrovica, there had been, many positive developments elsewhere in the province, including the steps taken by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led Security Force in Kosovo (KFOR) to take full control of the Trepca mines. A number of other measures were being taken to ensure that international security mechanisms would exercise full control over the province before the start of upcoming local elections.

Given those positive developments, Mr. Thaci believed that actions by Serbian “regressive elements” would end, and the tendency to establish enclaves and contain populations would be halted. He hoped more steps would be taken so that prisoners held by Serbian authorities in Serbia would be released. Hopefully some missing persons would also be located if that happened, he added. He felt that Kosovar prisoners and kidnapped people being held in Serbia were going to be released soon and begin normal lives in the province.

Mr. Thaci went on to inform correspondents that local elections would soon be held in Kosovo. Those elections would be free, democratic, honest and acceptable to the international community. He also believed that the representatives of the different minorities in Kosovo would participate fully in the process and would soon be integrated into Kosovar institutions as well.

Despite current progress, however, Mr. Thaci stressed that there were still negative elements at work in the province. He believed nevertheless that “retrogressive” incidents would soon cease and give way to more positive developments. He hoped that stability would soon be established, which would in turn pave the way for a new democratic order in which all citizens would be treated equally. After the local elections, preparations for general elections in Kosovo would then begin.

Asked to comment about the killing of ethnic Albanian politicians in Kosovo, Mr. Thaci said that a new spirit of political development was currently being pursued in the province. Those who were fighting against the aspirations of the Kosovar people were the ones committing negative acts. In spite of all that, "we are determined to organize the elections and develop new institutions", he said.

It was true that the seats of the political parties in Pristina had been attacked, Mr. Thaci continued. Those assassinations were assassinations against democracy which "we condemn". He hoped that the security mechanisms in the province would do whatever they could and strive to be firmer in their

Albania Press Conference - 2 - 21 August 2000

investigation of such actions. "I am very optimistic, however, that we will finally develop democracy in Kosovo.”

Responding to a question on why he thought things would improve in Kosovo after the upcoming elections, Mr. Thaci said that Kosavars were interested in building a society where people could both trust each other and coexist. During the last year, not everything in the province had been grounds for pessimism. Kosovars had all sat down together -- Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Bosnians and other minorities -- and discussed how best to overcome their problems.

He said Serbs in the province were represented in the Kosovo Interim Administrative Council and in all the other departments that had been established there. He fully believed that they would be integrated into the new institutions that emerged from the elections. It was in their interest, in the interest of Kosovo and in the interest of building new lives together. In Kosovo there was now a conviction that democracy could not be built if people lived separately, he added.

A correspondent asked Mr. Thaci to comment on the allegation that the takeover of the Trepca mines was a not very well-concealed attempt to push out the major employer of Serbs in the area. In response, he said Trepca was the property of Kosovars. The United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) and KFOR had undertaken only the steps necessary for controlling the whole territory of Kosovo. The takeover of the mines was not anti-Serbian -- merely only the implementation of Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).

Mr. Thaci said the Trepca mines should be administered during the transitional period by Kosovars, including Serbs, and by the international community. One thing was clear: Trepca could no longer be administered and controlled by Belgrade. It belonged to Kosovo and should be used for the economic development of the province.

A correspondent wanted to know if there was any new information on the explosion that was reported to have taken place in Pristina this morning, and whether any organization claimed responsibility for it.

Mr. Thaci said the Democratic Party of Kosovo was in contact with UNMIK, and competent bodies in the province were working very hard to investigate the attack. It was an attack against the upcoming elections and the political process. Those groups who were not interested in stability and order in the province were committing such actions. He was sure, however, that in Kosovo, democratic forces were much more powerful than the dark groups. "We believe democracy will win", he asserted.

Asked to comment on next month's election in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Mr. Thaci said his party was not practicing resistance in Belgrade, but in Kosovo. The elections in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were viewed as an election in a neighbouring country. Kosovo would have its own democratic institutions, its own parliament, and legislative, executive and judiciary branches.

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Commenting on Mr. Thaci’s reference to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as “a neighbouring country”, a correspondent asked whether that meant Mr. Thaci sought independence for Kosovo.

Mr. Thaci said that they were working very hard to build democracy and a new order in Kosovo. They were cooperating with other positive democratic forces in both the region and the world. "We are working to give our people a chance, after the transitional period, to freely express their will.” That free expression of will was a democratic right that Kosovars deserved.

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