Posted on 12/10/2001 11:14:26 AM PST by Pericles
Monday December 10 1:58 PM ET
First Kosovo Assembly Session Marred by Walkout
By Fredrik Dahl
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Kosovo's vaunted new multi-ethnic assembly held its inaugural session on Monday, only to see a walkout by the second largest party and the delay of a presidential election.
The 120 deputies from across the Yugoslav province's ethnic divide, hailed by the United Nations as its first democratically elected legislature, were chosen last month in Kosovo's first general election since NATO bombs ended harsh Serb rule in 1999.
But the message of reconciliation was overshadowed when members of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) briefly left the renovated socialist-era assembly hall in protest at their proposals being ignored and after their leader Hashim Thaci found the microphone switched off when he wanted to speak.
The legislature also put off the election of a president for Kosovo, reflecting a failure of the main Albanian parties to reach a deal on power sharing. The next assembly session is set for December 13.
``One can hardly say it was a great day for Kosovo democracy,'' said Peter Palmer, Kosovo Project Director of the International Crisis Group think-tank.
``It confirms just how difficult it is going to be to make these institutions function effectively,'' he told Reuters.
The West hopes the new Kosovo assembly will help overcome years of hatred and conflict by encouraging majority Albanians and minority Serbs to work together on basic issues like the economy and the environment.
``For the first time in history, we are now participating in the opening of a truly democratically elected assembly, representing the people of Kosovo,'' Kosovo's U.N. governor, Hans Haekkerup, told the deputies.
KOSOVO SELF-RULE UNDER UN UMBRELLA
The assembly, dominated by independence-minded Albanian parties, was designed to give Kosovo substantial self-rule. A U.N. mission retains overall authority.
Kosovo was placed under U.N.-led administration in June 1999 after 11 weeks of NATO air strikes to halt Belgrade-directed repression of the Albanian majority when Slobodan Milosevic was still Yugoslav president.
Numerous revenge attacks have since targeted Serbs and other Kosovo minorities, and Serb deputies were driven to the assembly session in Pristina in U.N. armored vehicles.
The West's message of cooperation was, at least temporarily, overshadowed by the PDK walkout.
Thaci, a former leader of the guerrilla force that fought Serb rule in the late 1990s, at one point rose to address the session to find the microphone switched off. He and his party members then marched out before returning after a break.
He was allowed to speak later but the microphone again went off after he accused Haekkerup of denying him free speech.
The PDK had argued that the presidency of the assembly should not be elected until an overall governing coalition deal has been worked out among Kosovo's political parties.
But the assembly, under Haekkerup's temporary chairmanship, chose members nonetheless, including two Serb representatives.
Nexhat Daci, candidate of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), led by veteran pacifist Ibrahim Rugova, was chosen as head of the presidency, the legislature's de facto speaker.
Rugova's party won the November 17 election but he will need outside support to be elected Kosovo president.
Rada Trajkovic, who heads the 22-strong Serb assembly group, said it was ready to cooperate in the new assembly.
But she also made clear Serb deputies would not compromise on Kosovo's future. ``All our efforts will be aimed at what is and always has been the essence of Kosovo -- Kosovo in Serbia and Yugoslavia.''
One more little victory in the reconquista of Kosovo that all good Americans support (or should if they new about it-I try to work on that as much as I can).
Besides, Mr Soros wants this pipeline...
Bravo to Mr Thaci for standing up against UN thuggery and the sham that has become EU hegemonism in Kosovo. He must only keep this so called elective body in harmony with the Kosovo Liberation Army's fight in Macedonia to ensure the ascension of Greater Albania to that of regional juggernaut.
Unhappily, Mr Thaci's job to be much easier once "Allah's Suitcase" is opened and the West is stunned by multiple Islamic entente strikes. "Accidental" deaths of UN flunkies in Kosovo will be hardly noticed after such catastrophic events usher in the new Dark Ages...
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Humanitarian warrior
I see on the other thread you posted the cover of the August 21, 2000 issue of Maclean's magazine where Mr D is quoted. I guess it would have been a little too much for you to post one of your famous links to the article -- or perhaps offer this forum an apology for your accusations about the "fictional" Mr D that you have mentioned so many times as being a "fictional" source.
Then again perhaps not...
The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.
These articles are usually picked up on other sites and I try and post them here first. Hopefully when I repost the article with a URL from an American site you will feel better about things -- and perhaps even offer an apology.
The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.
?? What article ??
I was listening to the BBC News last night about this 'event'. A mand from ICG was being interviewed about it and was asked about Thaci being and 'extremist'. His response was that you couldn't apply standard meanings of extremist and that Rugova's party had an 'extremist' line. I laughed so much that I fell off my chair, after all isn't it Rugova's party that has been the sole target of all past political assasinations?
VRN
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