THE ONE-DAY AND "UNANIMOUS" DSK ASSEMBLY

Summary: The Democratic Union of Kosovo held, after having announced it several times, its second regular electoral Assembly. It again elected the leader of the Kosovo Albanians, Ibrahim Rugova, president of the party with, this time, a four-year term of office. However, at this gathering, which lasted one day,the members did not make a critical review of the hitherto work of this most influential party in Kosovo. Accordingly, those well-versed in the conditions here consider that the DSK activists have a debt towards their citizens, in respect of the further concretization of the implementation of political aims, which they opted for at their referendum and elections, not only by this party, but by the Albanian movement in general.

The second electoral Assembly of the Democratic Union of Kosovo was announced as a gathering of consolidation of the hitherto policy and reaffirmation of the procalimed political objectives. That was confirmed by documents as well as in the short keynote speech of the president of this dominant political party of the Kosovo Albanians, Ibrahim Rugova. He repeated some of the well-known basic points of the past successes and future engagement of this party in the implementation of the political aims, expressed at the referendum which was, let us recall, held in 1991, when the Kosovo Albanians opted for an independent and autonomous Kosovo.

The discussions, however, mainly observed an agreement which was, it appears, reached previously, namely for the Assembly itself not to open, before the Albanian public, dilemmas and problems which have been present for a long time and which are increasingly burdening Kosovo and the Albanians, for the resolution of which, due to its dominant political position and influence, the DSK shoulders the greatest responsibility. This, conditionally said, reduction of the subject of discussion, if understandable at all, is a bit strange, because these problems, which can be called both essential and crucial,have for some time been the subject of debate in the Kosovo Albanian public. It is noticeable that in such discussions, the DSK and its leaders, stood apart, like so far. And unfavourable assessments of the situation, and the prospects of the Albanian movement, which is trying to ensure space for its survival and activity given the continuous and almost daily Serbian repression are in question. Some local parties and renowned individuals of public life in Kosovo assess that the Albanian movement has at least for the past year and a half been experiencing, to put it mildly, a state of political stagnation.

Deliberations on the causes of such a situation try to define that as a general crisis of inventiveness and the non/existence or impossibility of the emergence of new dynamic forces on the political scene. At the DSK Assembly, on the other hand, no serious attempt was made at least to indicate the essential issues of the instituionalization of the Albanian movement under conditions in which the action of the organs elected at the 1992 elections is very restricted. This is, we could say, a question of whether to be or not to be for the Albanian movement in its present form. This has for a long time been the subject of friction within not, not so much in repsect of the assessment of the situation and the necessity of institutionalization as in respect of ways for achieving the optimum forms of institutionalization. By the way, in the past years there have been a number of initiatives for the rallying of all Albanian potentials with a view to finding a mode for jointly surmounting the problem.

In the last days of June, the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo launched an initiative along those lines, proposing to the other Albanian parties in Kosovo the convening of an all-Albanian Symposium "to discuss all the essential problems, situation and prospects of the movement". The initiative among other things assesses that the "non-acceptance of the will of the Albanians on the part of world centres of decision-making would cause great divisions and erosion with grave consquences for the Albanians themselves. Albanian divergence, encouraged by these world centres, could topple the politifal positions of the Kosovo Albanians". Such a Symposium, believes the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo, would create the prerequisites for the "unification of the stances of the Albanian political forces in terms of national demands and the strengthening of a joint action strategy".

In the past few weeks, however, the issue of negotiating with the official representatives of Serbia has become very topical. It has been shown that there is no dilemma in rewspet of acepting such negotiations. That is, at least it seems so, a general Albanian decision. The minimum requests made are the equality of the partners and the active mediation of a third party. But if clear, final political objectives of the Kosovo Albanians can be spoken of and relaively clearly defined mininum conditions for the commencement of negotiations, there are also opinions that there is no elaborated strategy of the concept and approach of the future Albanian-Serbian negotiations. Recently, in an article carried by the BUJKU, the only paper in the Albanian language, Mahmuh Bakali, unequivoqally said that the "Kosovo Albanians were not prepared for negotiatons with Serbia". However interesting it was that such an assessment was for the first time so clearly voiced to the Albanian public, it was even more suprising that the mentioned paper published such a critical opinion.

High Albanian political circles, however, say that everything concerning the possible Serbian-Albanian dialogue has been solved, and that is it not disputable, but that possible international mediators will have to make guarantees that there will be "no games" which could lead to its failure. The reductivist approach to the problems at the one/day DSK Assembly is understandable for the standpoint of the rationality of the work of the gathering. In addition, it has been proven that large gatherings are not very conducive for opening issues, let along giving answers, especially when thy are decisive for the fate of a people. But, it is certain thgat the issues remain and the new leadership will not be able to avoid them. In any cae, analysis of the new leadership, i.e. of the Main Committee of the Party, elected by the Assembly, are pending. The fact that Ibrahim Rugova will continue in the DSK is not insignificant.

An important novelty, and we could say surprise, at the Assembly was the attempt, which was, truth to tell in low tones announced in the preparations for this gathering and expressly confirmed in the Political Declaration, to present the DSK as an organization with a civic orientation and as the representative of all the citizens of Kosovo. If that is a serious intention, it will become inevitable to solve the long/standing dilemma of whether the DSK is a movement or a party. It isclear that in the Kosovo circumstances, the DSK with a civic orientation, can exist only if it restructures itself as such, and as a movement it can exist only as a movement of the Albanians. In the political declaration, which annnouces the civic orientation of the DSK, it is interesting that this is the clearest formulation, in a political document of such importance,of the stance that in Kosovo, no national community will have the status of a national minority.

Fehim REXHEPI

AIM Pristina