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Press statement of Bart Staes, Member of the European Parliament .

 

The rebellion in Macedonia harms the justifiable Albanian case !

 

^{In the evening of the 24th of March 1999 the first NATO-bombs were dropped in Kosova and Serbia. So the fourth war in the Balkans came in a decisive stage. After twelve weeks, when the international peace force (KFOR) entered in Kosova, peace seemed to become a permanent viability in the Balkans. Everybody knew that the reconstruction of the Kosovarian society should require a lot of time, energy and money. But it was worth while, because an European, peaceful and democratic Kosova can be a stabilizing factor in South-East-Europe.}

^{Today Albanian rebels threaten maybe to destroy that dream from two years ago in the mountains near the Albanian town of Tetova in North-West-Macedonia. I know that Albanians in Macedonia are about one third of the population and that they are treated as second-rate citizens without equal rights with the Slav people. So I understand fully the displeasure and impatience of the Albanian community in Macedonia.}

^{Nevertheless the choice for a violent rebellion seems to me an important strategical error. This rebellion threatens not only to unchain a new war in the Balkans. It will also harm the justifiable Albanian case in an irremediable way. And the Albanian people with their tragic history are so dear for me that I have to react through this way.}

^{All the Albanian community deplores this armed jump forward in the mountains of Tetova. The internationally well-known Albanian author Ismail Kadare condemns the rebellion in the newspaper Koha Ditore as a « suicide ». He makes mention of « Fascist-Stalinist manoeuvres meant to provoke the hostility of the West against the Albanians. » Milosevic and the pro-Serbian lobby in Europe were always trying to make NATO hostile against the Albanians. Apparently the Albanian extremists bracket together with the Serbian nationalists. Good thing is that all important Albanian political leaders of Albania, Kosova and Macedonia denounce the rebellion. Former UCK-leader Hashim Thaci mentioned the violence as unacceptable. Former UCK-Commander and today president of the third political party in Kosova, Ramush Haradinaj, early in March my guest in the European Parliament, went one better and asked for a new NATO-intervention.}

^{Rejection of violence is not enough of course to create a lasting peace in Macedonia. For that purpose the origin of violent conflicts must be eliminated radically. Therefore I can only deplore that the international community and the E.U. restrict themselves to fulminate panic-stricken against « negociations with terrorists » and such rubbish. The international community must try everything to realize a political dialogue between the Slav and the Albanian leaders to create equality for both groups of the population in the Macedonian state.}

^{The discrimination of the Albanian group of the population cannot be denied. The present « democratic » constitution recognizes only Macedonian citizens, in the former « socialist » constitution on the contrary Albanian and Macedonian citizens were equal. Albanians cannot be mentioned as a minority and that’s why they want to be treated as equivalent to the Slav group of the population.}

^{Rather than to threat the Kosovarians with a stop of aid for reconstruction last week in Pristina, the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louis Michel, had better explained the federal system of Belgium to the Macedonian leaders by his visit in Skopje. Unless when the E.U.-delegation wanted to increase the Albanian frustrations and to stimulate the instability in the region.}

^{Only an independent and democratic Kosova can stabilize South-East-Europe. In this context I will quote Milo Djukanovic, President of Montenegro, by his recent visit to the European Parliament in Brussels : « If we find a solution for Kosova, the whole region will be stabilized. » But regarding the policy it rather seems that the E.U. doesn’t want stability. A few examples ?}

^{With support of the international community, some Serbian enclaves are created in Kosova. So much the worse : the mining-town Mitrovica in North-Kosova is split in two parts. One year ago the Kosovarian journalist of influence, Veton Surroi, called the ethnic split of this town a negative sign for extremists in Macedonia. Besides, the international community promised too quickly an enormous financial support to the democratic president of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, without joining to this the release of the Albanian prisoners. Finally the West seems to strive for a redress of the ex-Yugoslav statute for Kosova, rather than to strive for a lasting political solution, in spite of the collapse of former Yugoslavia.}

^{The re-installation of a Serbo-Yugoslav in Kosova will cause a new violence. Veton Surroi says rightly that only a Kosovarian independence will stabilize the region. Also the respected human rights activist dr. Flora Brovina - sentenced for twelve years imprisonment of which she spended one and half year in Serbian jail - is thinking in the same way : « I’m fighting for peace in Kosova and that means an independent Kosova. Albanians are fighting since many centuries for that ; but many people will take up arms again… Was it imaginable that the German authority should be re-established in Belgium and the Netherlands after the Second World War ? Why do you ask it to us ? »}

^{Nations in South-East-Europe are looking forward to Europe as a peacemaker. Is it necessary to say that an European community of free nations and regions, in which rights of people and nations are respected, will be an attractive alternative for hate and violence ?}

^{Bart Staes}