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FARTHER AND FARTHER AWAY FROM BELGRADEThe Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) agreed to demilitarize and disarm, after several days of negotiations with international community representatives and NATO's commander-in-chief in Europe, Gen. Wesley Clark, directly joining in the talks. The agreement signed with the KLA on Sept.21 envisages the formation of a "Kosovo Protection Corps" which will number about 5,000 people. About 200 men from these forces will have the right to carry arms, and the rest will have access to weapons. The former members of the KLA will be at the core of those formations, and under the command of Agim Ceku. The "Kosovo Protection Corps" will be under UN control.
The Serbian and Yugoslav authorities have fiercely criticized the decision to create these forces, and consider that it to be in violation of Security Council Resolution 1244. The Kosovo Serb leaders, who have opted for close cooperation with the international community, also voiced their fierce opposition to this decision. Two of the Serb members in the Kosovo Transitional Council, Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren, and Momcilo Trajkovich resigned from their posts on Sept.22. Heading the Transitional Council is the chief of the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Bernard Kouchner.
The Yugoslav and Serb authorities, as well as Trajkovich and Bishop Artemije, have expressed their doubts in the claims that the KLA has truly disarmed. According to the agreement the commander-in-chief of the international forces in Kosovo (Kfor), Gen. Michael Jackson, reached with that formation three months ago, the deadline for handing over the weapons was Sept.19. Till then the KLA had surrendered 10,000 pieces of various arms and Serb sources in Pristina, as well as sources in Belgrade, estimate that this is only a small portion of the weapons the KLA members have in their possession.
Belgrade
Belgrade has announced that it will try to raise the question of the KLA's transformation before the UN. The ruling circles in Serbia and Yugoslavia, which view the KLA as a terrorist organization, claim that such a development has set a precedent and that the UN, which will control the newly formed forces "will be financing terrorists". Deputy Serbian Information Minister Miodrag Popovic said on Sept. 21 that now "several thousand Albanian terrorists are on the UN payroll" and that the agreement of the transformation of the KLA was "very, very dubious".
The Yugoslav Justice Ministry has assessed that the agreement on the KLA's transformation will have "unpredictably adverse effects on peace and security in Kosovo". The signing of such an agreement, the Ministry stated, would accelerate the exodus of Serbs from Kosovo and additionally undermine the sovereignty of Serbia and Yugoslavia.
The state-run and pro-state media in Serbia also condemned the signing of the agreement with the KLA. RTS commented that the "KLA not longer exists", but that "some of the terrorists, after the agreement, have been transferred to the UN's payroll". The pro-government "Vecernje novosti" writes that NATO has made a concession to the KLA and enabled it to retain its structure and the same goals under another name, and also "a good portion of its weaponry". The newspaper considers that the "concession made to the KLA appears to be the result of America's desire to keep all options open in Kosovo, even the option of secession".
The authorities
The authorities in Serbia and Yugoslavia, essentially, are powerless to take any steps to prevent the creation and development of the "Kosovo Protection Corps". The military and political leadership in Belgrade is forced to look on helplessly as the military grouping against which it battled fiercely and unsuccessfully last and this year "is acquiring a new guise" and growing into a force that has international legitimacy. The only power backing Belgrade at present is Moscow, which maintains that the transformation of the KLA is in violation of the UN resolution on Kosovo. One should expect, however, that Russia, as on earlier occasions, will limit its opposition to a verbal level.
The authorities endeavored to take advantage of the fact that the KLA's transformation has coincided with the beginning of the massive wave of protests organized by the opposition Alliance for Change throughout Serbia. The day after the agreement with the KLA was signed, the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia accused the Alliance for Change of being "in direct collusion with the KLA and NATO" and as such was working for the break-up of Serbia and the secession of Kosovo. "The Alliance for Change has placed itself directly in the service of the Kosovo separatists and terrorists, and the American and NATO administrations", the state-run media quoted the district and municipal Socialist Party committees as saying.
The pro-government media also endeavored to link the KLA, NATO and the Alliance for Change. The pro-government "Politika Ekspres" stated on Sept. 22 that the West was "deliberately protecting the KLA", thus arousing discontent in Serbia. The Alliance for Change will make use of this discontent, the paper claims, to remove the authorities.
The assessments given by the Socialist Party, as well as the commentaries in the state and pro-state press, indicate the true order of priorities facing Milosevic now. Definitely, first on his list, is to preserve power, and only then will he deal with the other problems. Otherwise, there would not be so much emphasis on the use of the KLA's transformation, in the battle against his political opponents in the country.
Serbs in Kosovo
The representatives of the Serbs in Kosovo interpret the agreement with the KLA as an act "signed behind their backs". Momcilo Trajkovich said this after submitting his resignation to the post in Kouchner's Transitional Political Council for Kosovo. He declared the "Kosovo Protection Corps" not to be a Kosovo, but an Albanian institution, and that its creation was not in favor of a multi-ethnic, but an Albanian Kosovo. "The Serb people do not support such a platform. We remain open for cooperation and agreement on all essential things, but not as members of the Council", Trajkovich stressed. He believes the KLA's political leader Hashim Thaci and Slobodan Milosevic have reaped the biggest gains from the agreement, and that the Kosovo Serbs, the democratically oriented Albanians and the international community have lost the most.
The Serb representatives from Kosovska Mitrovica, the only large urban enclave in Kosovo where there are Serbs, have declared that they will form their own corps. One may also expect that the Kosovo Serbs, especially in the enclaves in the north where they are the majority, will start forming "parallel institutions", even forming a parallel administration. "One cannot stand by and do nothing. The Serbs must organize themselves in a variety of ways, so as to protect themselves", one of the Kosovo Serb officials from Kosovska Mitrovica told the Beta news agency, wishing to remain anonymous.
At the end of last week, Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren said he considered that the demilitarization of the KLA "probably would never be completed". "A great deal of time and effort will still be needed in the field, before one is able to speak of a complete process of demilitarization, which probably will never even end."
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