Kosovo: A fiasco

The Albanians are unable to form a government in Kosovo, a province which never has been theirs, as the bickering and political in-fighting among the ex-terrorists continues.

The only candidate for the Presidency of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, (Democratic League of Kosovo) has three times failed to receive enough votes to form a government. In last Thursday s count, he failed even to reach a simple majority.

The Albanians have so far refused to negotiate with the Serb coalition Return , which received 10% of the vote but has not been invited to form part of a coalition government.

The UN mission in Kosovo itself is still without a leader, after the abrupt departure of Hans Haekkerup. The question of Kosovo, like the unbelievable NATO-led attack on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was combating international terrorism, backed in part by Osama Bin Laden s Al-Qaeda, is a fiasco. That Slobodan Milosevic should have been bundled out of the country in an act of kidnapping for fighting terrorist extremists in Bosnia and Kosovo is unacceptable.

Now Hashim Thaci, the ex-leader of the terrorist organisation UCK (Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves, or Kosovo Liberation Army) and as such a former terrorist, view for a spot in the more acceptable political limelight as Prime Minister of Kosovo , as if such a position ever existed.

Rugova will not allow this and for this reason, the destiny of the province of Kosovo as an independent state, a notion created by NATO and a grave mistake which will produce strong political ripples in the Balkan lake in the future, lies in the hands of a former terrorist (Thaci) and a political opportunist (Rugova).

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru