Life Without Logic

Ethnic Albanians view as another trick, the Serbian government's proposal to annul 25 laws, including the one putting an end to the work of the assembly, presidency and government of Kosovo. The abrogation of these laws has been made conditional to the day of the constitution of the "Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija," which will be carried through after the implementation of "direct and secret elections." With regard to this, the Pristina daily BUJKU says in its commentary that the goal of the aforementioned draft law is to force Albanians weary of various maltreatment to choose between two evils: violence or agreeing to commit political suicide.

"The latest Serbian law is one in a series of Serbian affairs, and as such concerns Serbia and its policy, but not Kosovo, which held its multi-party elections in May 1992, when the Assembly and Republic of Kosovo President were elected. The Serbian elections for the so-called Assembly of Kosovo must be viewed as another, new political game played by Serbia in connection with Kosovo, said BUJKU in its commentary.

Fehmi Agani, number two in the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo (DSK) said during a recent meeting with journalists (in the absence of Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova who has been abroad for several weeks), that the "status of Kosovo was determined under the 1974 Constitution of Yugoslavia, and that the law on dismissing the assembly, presidency and government of Kosovo, brought by the Serbia, was illegal and unconstitutional."

And while local Serbs and Montenegrins can be sure that ethnic Albanians will boycott the elections again, stories are making the rounds that "all this is a farce" and that the Serbian authorities wish, thanks to international pressure, to "save face," just as they tried with elementary education in the Albanian language. Elementary education is compulsory, and ethnic Albanian pupils do attend school, but Serbia does not recognize their school reports and other documents.

The re-opening of Serbian courts attracted a great deal of attention in Kosovo last week. Apart from starting criminal proceedings against young ethnic Albanians who have refused to serve their military service, two notable university professors were targeted recently: Prof. Ejup Statovci, rector of the parallel Pristina University was sentenced by the Municipal Court to 15 days in jail and a fine of 900 dinars, because he had visited Albania from "August 29 to September 1, 1991 without a visa." Uksina Horija was sentenced to 55 days in jail because he had allegedly taken part in mass protests demanding the opening of schools in the Albanian language, and because he had spoken at a rally in the Prizren municipality in 1992 and "obstructed the police in carrying out their duty." It is interesting that Ejup Statovic's sentence was pronounced after a two-year delay, and came after the Pristina Court brought an indictment against the Serbian Orthodox Church in Pristina for "violating the land-registry and municipality land which had been given to the University, by starting to build the Orthodox Church of St. Spas."

Intentionally or not, but the atmosphere between the two conflicting sides is deteriorating. A letter by the non-party association "Postojbina" (rallying Serbs and Montenegrins) sent recently to Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic, confirms this. The letter asks that Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova's passport be confiscated and that he be treated as a foreign national, since Rugova was allegedly a member of the Albanian delegation which participated in the 49. session of the United Nations Committee for Human Rights and "probably holds a double citizenship."

In a denial, the largest party rallying ethnic Albanians refutes all the allegations against its president - one day before "Postojbina's" reaction. But the rules of logic do not hold in Kosovo any more.