Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Albanian leader fails to attend first meeting of advisory council

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Saturday, July 17, 1999

Albanian leader fails to attend first meeting of advisory council
Rugova says his party was allotted unfair number of seats
By Daniel J. Wakin
Associated Press

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - One day after the triumphant and long-awaited homecoming of Ibrahim Rugova, the influential moderate ethnic Albanian leader failed to show up for the first meeting of a U.N.-backed provincial advisory council Friday. He reportedly felt the number of seats his party was allotted was unfair.
   But the United Nations pressed ahead without Rugova or any representatives of his Democratic Party of Kosovo, convening the council's first session and promising to try to bring him to the table.
   Rugova's absence underscored the difficulties the United Nations will have in bridging Kosovo's ethnic divide. He has twice been chosen president of Kosovo's mainly ethnic Albanian population in unofficial elections.
   In a minor victory, two Serbs showed up Friday for the council meeting and sat for three hours with representatives of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army - which has been struggling with Rugova for control of Kosovo - and other Albanians. The group worked to hammer out the first steps toward returning political power to Kosovo's population, five weeks after the end of NATO air strikes against Serb forces.
   The participants agreed to set up a delegation to visit three Kosovo towns that continue to be plagued by ethnic tensions, despite the presence of NATO soldiers.
   The group, which is strictly advisory and has no real powers, will also address the issue of prisoners being held by both sides and evaluate candidates for a new U.N.-run police force, said Bernard Kouchner, the U.N. administrator for Kosovo.
   A key goal for the U.N.'s plan to restore order to Kosovo is the establishment of a multiethnic police force that will function under the direction of international police officers. NATO troops and U.N. officials have started handing out applications - printed in both Serbian and Albanian.
   But there are concerns that divisions within the ethnic Albanian leadership could hamper progress toward setting up a representative government.
   Upon his return Thursday to Kosovo after a self-imposed exile, Rugova promised to cooperate with all parties and international agencies in Kosovo and to attend Friday's meeting of the interim council - provided only "credible" parties were included. Hours later, however, he headed for neighboring Macedonia.

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