Saturday, October 16, 1999A Party Debuts Amid Kosovo Strife
Balkans: Ex-officials of rebel army plan to seek government offices.
Dozens are hurt, meanwhile, during protest in divided city.By DAVID HOLLEY, Times Staff Writer
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia--As international peacekeepers struggled to keep a lid on ethnic clashes in the divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica on Friday, former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders launched a new political party to participate in elections next year.
Creation of the Party for the Democratic Progress of Kosovo--formed mainly from the political wing of the separatist army and headed by guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci--marks a milestone in what the U.N. administration in the province hopes will be the development of democracy.
Joining in forming the new party were the Student Union of Kosovo, previously unaffiliated intellectuals and another party set up this summer by a group of guerrilla leaders, Jakup Krasniqi, secretary-general of the new party, told a news conference.
The party's main goals are "independence and democracy" for Kosovo, Krasniqi said, citing two ideals supported by all ethnic Albanian parties in Kosovo.
Formation of the party was also a sign of progress toward elections here sometime next spring or summer. But Friday's clash in Kosovska Mitrovica pointed up the enormous problems that face the current U.N. authorities and any future local government.
Ethnic Albanians are an overwhelming majority in Kosovo--still technically a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic--but Serbs dominate the northern side of Kosovska Mitrovica and the stretch of Kosovo from there to the province's border with the main part of Serbia. That de facto partition remains Kosovo's most dangerous flash point.
Seven North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeepers and at least 22 ethnic Albanian protesters were reported injured in Friday's clash, which came as French-led troops blocked demonstrators from crossing a bridge to the Serb-dominated side of the city. The peacekeepers used tear gas and stun grenades, while protesters hurled stones and sticks in a clash that lasted about two hours and ended only when former guerrilla fighters told the crowd to disperse.
Organizers of the protest, which drew more than 1,000 people, said it marked the beginning of daily demonstrations aimed at enabling ethnic Albanians to return to the Serb-dominated part of the city. Many Serbs have fled from other parts of Kosovo to take refuge on the north side of Kosovska Mitrovica.
French-led international peacekeepers patrol both parts of the city but are unable to guarantee the safety of anyone who enters an area dominated by a rival ethnic group.
The peacekeepers allow free passage across the bridge to individuals and small groups but have generally blocked crossings by large groups of protesters out of fear of violent clashes. During Friday's protest, hundreds of Serbs gathered on the far side of the bridge, chanting nationalistic slogans.
The issue of how to build a multiethnic society--a goal publicly supported by both ethnic Albanian and Serbian organizations in Kosovo--is a key problem for the U.N. administration.
For next year's vote, the administration is considering a two-step process in which municipal elections would be held, followed by province-wide elections some months later.
The Kosovo Democratic League--which is headed by ethnic Albanian moderate Ibrahim Rugova and is seen as the key rival to Thaci's new party--welcomed the transformation of the former KLA political structure.
"We are trying to apply a pluralist democratic system in Kosovo," said Democratic League Vice President Kole Berisha. "Of course, with this new political party, we'll have a new political rival in the election, and there is nothing bad in that. . . . We only want to have a struggle for power that is tolerant, democratic and honest."Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times
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