Freezing the Parliament

Ibrahim Rugova, president of the unrecognized "Republic of Kosovo" issued a decree on extending the mandate of members of "the parliament of Kosovo" for another year.

Rugova made the decision to practically freeze political life within the parallel, pseudo-state system which ethnic Albanians invented in Kosovo on May 24 the day the MPs mandates expired. He explained his decision with overall conditions in Kosovo; police repression and a tense political and security situation in the province giving his decree a dimension of political opportunism.

His decision was expected. The only thing that wasn't expected was that he would personally speak up. About 10 days ago an Albanian opposition member voiced doubts that new elections would be held because Rugova and Kosovo Democratic Alliance (LDK) want to stay in power as long as possible. But that is just one of the lesser dimensions of Rugova's decision.

Kosovo Social Democrat Party (SDPK) leader Llulleta Pulla Beqiri told VREME that the decree extends the mandates of members of a parliament that was never constituted. She agreed that conditions weren't right for elections but demanded that the decree be made conditional on an inter-party consensus on the date to constitute the parliament within six months. Her main complaint is the insufficient dynamics of the entire Albanian national movement. "There were opportunities to constitute the parliament in the past four years," she said and added that "extending the mandate in this way can only serve to legalize another year of waiting and doing nothing with the risk of losing credibility and making the situation more radical".

Her reaction recalls the constant inter-Balkan differences on methods of achieving national goals. Rugova is criticized for two things in his movement: making it passive and creating a monopoly for himself and his party in political decisions. One of the latest efforts to make thing more dynamic was a proposal to make Adem Demaqi, the best known Kosovo Albanian dissident, an MP without elections.

Rugova's decision was explained by his closest associate Fehmi Agani with the wish to not interrupt the continuity in political activities. In a situation when the president's mandate is five years and MPs' four, there is a danger of an institutional vacuum, Agani told VREME. He denied that the decree was motivated by the wish to avoid worsening the conflict with the Serbian authorities and added that it wouldn't be too rational to organize elections when the parliament stood little chance of being constituted. He also rejected suggestions that Rugova's decision was forced by outside elements.

Judging by Rugova's decision, this is a time of political passivism practically and verbally with the phrase "independent Kosovo" as the minimum goal. That phrase is in conflict with the insisting of high ranking visitors, representatives of the international community, who see Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia with some autonomy. It's understandable that some in the Albanian block are saying that Rugova's decree is a suggestion by the international community. Observers wonder how the situation today is different from 1992 when Albanian elections were held or what is so dramatically different today from 1991 when Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population voted on independence in a referendum.

With the referendum results as a basis, the coordinating committee of Albanian parties in Yugoslavia (chaired by Rugova) adopted a political declaration which said that if Yugoslavia's outer borders are changed "Albanians will decide to unite with Albania and create an Albanian state along ethnic borders in the Balkans".

The Albanian nationalist dream of Greater Albania melted down when it ran up against the international community's will. No serious politician in the world accepted the Kosovo Albanian national project. Every high ranking official who came to see Albanian national leaders said the Kosovo problem can only be solved within Serbia while Rugova kept saying he was happy with the way things were going in building an independent Kosovo. He told German weekly Der Spiegel that autonomy was a thing of the past. German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said a few days later in Belgrade that he discussed Kosovo with the Serbian president. "I stressed that we do not support separatist interests in Kosovo," he said.

The plans of the international community in solving the Kosovo problem are much less painful to Belgrade than the Albanians wanted. Martin Lutz, a German diplomat in Bildt's team in charge of Kosovo, cast doubts on internationalizing the problem as the Albanian leaders wanted when he said "an international protectorate is impossible to impose in Kosovo without Serbia's consent".

Rugova's decree shows that he isn't ignoring the stands of the international community. New elections would raise tension after the series of killings and armed attacks and could easily cause unrest which would provoke the Serbian authorities and be turned against Rugova. They would also open unimaginable levels of conflict which could spill over outside Serbia. In that situation, the best thing was to freeze the parliament which was never constituted.

Parliament

A statement from the LDK information center in Pristina said the parliament has 96 members.

The Kosovo Parliamentary Party - 13;

Kosovo Farmers Party - 7;

Albanian Christian-Democrat Party - 7;

Independent candidates - 2.

Moslems were given seats according to their percentage in the population and one Moslem won his seat in elections.

The 14 empty seats should go to Serbs and Montenegrins according to their percentage in the population.