Source: http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990419/V000773-041999-idx.html
Accessed 19 April 1999

NATO, Belgrade Compete for Rugova

By Robert H. Reid
Associated Press Writer
Monday, April 19, 1999; 1:12 a.m. EDT

Dismissed months ago as a political ``has been,'' ethnic Albanian leader
Ibrahim Rugova is back in the spotlight as the Yugoslav leadership seeks
to exploit his prestige to undercut the NATO bombing campaign.

Since NATO launched attacks March 24, the 54-year-old president of
the self-styled Republic of Kosovo has appeared three times on Serbian
television -- once to refute rumors he was dead and twice for meetings in
Belgrade with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Serbian
President Milan Milutinovic.

After both meetings, the most recent on Friday, the Yugoslav leadership
released statements claiming Rugova opposes the bombings and implying
that he and Milosevic are working together to resolve the ethnic conflict
on Belgrade's terms.

``It was mutually concluded that the cessation of bombings of our country
is a precondition without which the political process cannot move
forward,'' the Yugoslav government said after Friday's meeting.
``President Milutinovic and Dr. Rugova agreed that the dialogue affirmed
a strengthening of mutual trust.''

If that was true, it would severely undermine NATO's claim that the
bombing campaign is necessary to save the Kosovo Albanian community
and force Milosevic to accept a Western-dictated peace plan.

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea claims Rugova is under house arrest in
Pristina. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin suggested Friday
that Rugova's meetings have come under duress.

German and French leaders have urged Milosevic to allow Rugova to
leave the country so he can freely express his views.

Rugova became head of the biggest Kosovo Albanian party, the League
of Democratic Kosovo, in 1989, when Milosevic revoked the province's
nearly two decades of autonomy.

After his party proclaimed the self-styled Republic of Kosovo, Rugova
was overwhelmingly elected its president in 1992 and again in March
1998. Although Serbian authorities outlawed the new republic and
government, Rugova organized an unusual parallel state with separate
schools, medical and civic institutions to challenge the validity of
Belgrade's rule.

Germany's newsmagazine Der Spiegel has supported Western claims that
Rugova is being forced into the appearance of collaboration.

A Der Spiegel reporter, Renate Flottaus, claims she was in Rugova's
home when the Serbs placed him under house arrest March 31, and that
she stayed with him four more days.

In her diary, which Der Spiegel published this week, Flottaus described
how Serb police broke down the doors of Rugova's home and ordered
him to travel to Belgrade to meet Milosevic.

Throughout his political life, Rugova has warned that violence could not
achieve his community's goals. The inability of the Kosovo Liberation
Army to defend civilians against Serb reprisals and prevent mass
expulsions has no doubt reaffirmed his conviction.

Before the NATO bombings and the Serb reprisals, Rugova had been
written off as a player in Kosovo Albanian struggle. His policy of
non-violent resistance to Serb rule won him the admiration in Europe and
the United States.

It had, however, failed to achieve the goal of restoring self-rule.

During failed peace talks in France, Rugova was sidelined as chairman of
the ethnic Albanian delegation, taking a subordinate role to the KLA's
youthful Hashim Thaci.

© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press