SUPPORT TO SERBIAN OPPOSITION, CRITICISM OF RUGOVA

AIM Tirana, 26 December, 1996

After the initial hesitation, the official Tirana openly declared itself in favour of the demonstrations of the Serbian opposition. At a press conference, President Sali Berisha unambiguously declared: "I cannot but support those who are making an effort, fighting, protesting by democratic means for their rights and freedoms." In the meantime, state television and major journals in Tirana used almost pathetic terminology in their commentaries about demonstrations in Belgrade.

Somewhat more restrained, but also in favour of Belgrade demonstrants was the opposition, except for some parties with nationalistic orientation. Balli Kobmetare, Legalists and the Party of National Revival, three parties which advocate national union of the Albanians in their programs, treated the crisis in Serbia after the local elections in their press as the "Serbian conflict" concerning which Albania had no reason to take sides, because "none of the parties in Serbia has shown even a minimum change in their stance, not even slightly more favourable in relation to the Albanians". However, the main opposition parties, starting from the Socialists, are not far from the official stances in favour of the Serbian opposition.

The official Tirana has immediately rejected accusations of Serbian President Milosevic stated in a Swedish newspaper, according to which "the Serbian opposition participates in the game of the Albanian Government and that of the USA". The Albanian foreign Minister, Tritan Shehu considers accusations of Albania "absurd and non-existant". "The latest movements taking place in Belgrade and major towns in Serbia", says Shehu, "are quite democratic and were initiated by students and intellectuals. Every other manipulation or attempt to attribute to them other absurd or non-existant causes conceal nothing but fear of democratic movements and fear to call that which is happening in the streets of Belgrade by its right name".

In the meantime, the vocabulary of epithets used when referring to Milosevic which had been considerably modified and mitigated after the agreement Rugova-Milosevic on schools signed last September, was resumed to old terms such as the "Balkan Sadam", "the last Stalinist dictator", which implies that Tirana is interested in weakening Milosevic, or more precisely, in favour of his defeat in the duel with the opposition.

Highly attentive of what is happening in Belgrade, Albania did not shrink from addressing spectacular criticism of the decision of OSCE to send the mission headed by Gonsales to Belgrade. In a letter addressed by foreign Minister Shehu to the Chairman of the OSCE, Cotti, it was stated that urgent sending of this mission to Belgrade was a sword that cut both ways. "Do they want this mission to save their reputation, or as a shield for somethhing else", the Albanian foreign Minister wondered.

The developments in Belgrade, with no doubt, are refracted through the prism of Kosovo. While the caution and silence in the first days can be interpreted as doubts which exist in Tirana in relation to the leaders of the Serbian opposition due to their stances concerning Kosovo, support to demonstrations which followed is based on the concept that democratization of Serbia will have positive effects on resolution of the issue of Kosovo. "We are certain that a democratic Serbia will allow resolution of the issue of Kosovo in a satisfactory manner for all, without needless tragedies", Shehu declared for the press. On the other hand, there is also the possibility that the initial silence was a specific inertia of a climate full of illusions created by the agreement Rugova-Milosevic on education, which had met with unreserved support here, as well as the fact that assumptions continued that Milosevic could be the most acceptable partner for completion of the initiated negotiatioins on Kosovo.

However, it was a great surprise when Albanian press close to the authorities used demonstrations in Belgrade as an opportunity to criticize the so-called Gandhist movement of the Kosovo Albanians. "The Albanians in Kosovo should, among other, look upon the resistance of the Serbian opposition as a new lesson to their political clan and political self-organization", it is stated in the commentary of the daily Albania known for its previous stances in favour of Rugova and for being closely linked to the office of President Berisha. After these texts in this journal, similar commentaries appeared on state Radio-Television, but there were also articles in independent and opposition press in Tirana, in which Rugova's policy was marked as outdated, amateurish, "humiliating pacifism" or as "peace of the dead". In a way, the latest stances of Tirana can be considered as yet another means of exerting pressure on the leading political elite in Kosovo, in order to stir it, activate it, and in order to use the moment when Milosevic, weakened by demonstrations in Belgrade, might give way concerning the issue of Kosovo.

The chorus of criticism was also joined by two prominent figures of Albanian life, Demaqi and Kadare, who sharply criticized Rugova's policy in their interviews on TV. Kadare who had not hesitated to criticize Rugova's variant of Gandhism on previous occasions, condemned the policy of silence of the leadership in Kosovo which had lulled the Albanians to sleep. "The people which is silent, which accepts oppression, suffering and tyranny in silence, is a people which has given up freedom", said Kadare.

Observers in the capital of Albania have not disregarded the fact and distinct differences in giving publicity to simultaneous visits of Rugova and Demaqi to Tirana. Regardless of the restrained tone of the statement after the meeting of Berisha and Rugova, the press which articulates the official stances show that Tirana is at the moment closer to Demaqi's views than to those of Rugova. Tirana insists on the demand that the parliament of Kosovo be constituted and supports all those who are in favour of this demand, primarily Demaqi. "Nobody has advised the Albanians in Kosovo to take arms and resolve their problem by war", Albania writes, "but nobody is preventing them either from preserving their dignity, from offering resistance in order to remain Albanians, partisans of their freedom, dignified citizens who are capable of building their own state".

In the meantime, an unusual "cold war" broke out between the press in Tirana and that in Pristina. Articles in some of the Albanian journals and commentaries on Albanian RTV were received with reservations if not even indignation by their colleagues in Pristina. And while the press in Pristina considered exaltation of media in Tirana with the demonstrations of the Serbian opposition unseemly accusing them of being transmitters of Serbian ideas, the press in Tirana made allusions to the "old trump cards of Milosevic in Kosovo". In fact, it seems that the reason for the disagreement were different standpoints which are primarily linked to the fact that "official" media in Pristina consider developments in Serbia as "events which are happening in another state", while official media in Tirana see developments in Serbia as a step in a desirable direction for creation of preconditions for resolution of the problem of Kosovo.

As never before, it can be said that ever since abolition of autonomy of Kosovo in 1989, policy, diplomacy and media in Tirana have put the issue of Kosovo on the agenda and the front pages. However, the man who was believed to have implemented the policy of Albania better than anyone is now criticized although his name is not being mentioned out of courteousness. After five years of support, Tirana is asking Rugova to apply Gandhism of Mahatma Gandhi and not that of Ibrahim Rugova. In other words - to go out into the streets. Will the man with the scarf be able to do that?

Remzi LANI AIM Tirana