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Support for Kosovo Crosses Left-Right Divide

02 11 2006  In politically split Albania, independence for Kosovo is one of the few issues that cause no controversy for Berisha.

By Frida Malaj in Tirana (Balkan Insight, 2 Nov 06)

Tirana is increasing pressure on the international community to act fast and impose independence on Kosovo, if it seeks to improve long-term relations between Albanians and Serbs in the Balkans.

Albania's prime minister, Sali Berisha, says independence for the majority-Albanian region offers the only route to normal relations between the two estranged nations.

"Albania is convinced that full respect for the freedom and rights of the Kosovo Serbs and this country's independence are a precondition for peace and stability in the region," he told the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly on October 3.

Status talks led by the former Finnish president, Martti Ahtisaari, started early this year but have yet to produce results, with the Serb side rejecting calls for independence outright. Ahtisaari is expected to report to the UN Security Council by the end of the year on a possible solution to Kosovo's future after warning that no negotiated deal is in sight.

While Berisha claims an independent Kosovo would - paradoxically - eventually improve relations between Tirana and Belgrade, he has put pressure on Kosovo Albanians to respect the rights of Kosovo's Serb minority.

Meanwhile, Albania's strong support for Kosovo's independence has led to frosty relations with Serbia, as Belgrade gives little credence to Tirana's claims that it will never use Kosovo's secession to change its own borders.

Berisha maintains an imposed settlement means a return to past practice in the Balkans, where borders have traditionally been settled at conferences of the big powers.

"It would be ideal if Kosovo's [final] status was achieved through a consensus but we know this conflict will see an internationally imposed solution, which is what has happened throughout the last 150 years in the region," said Berisha, referring to developments in the Balkans in the 19th century, as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated and as the Western powers carved new nation states from its territories.

Albania is also concerned that any extra delays to independence will only undercut the authority of the leadership in Kosovo, increasing the danger of instability there. "Independence is crucial to the economic and social development of Kosovo and would guarantee stability for the region," Berisha told the Council of Europe assembly in October.

While Berisha's views are regarded predictably coolly in Belgrade, there is nothing new in them. The centre-right leader has a long history of support for Kosovo's independence, which he articulated forcefully as president from 1992-1997.

Back then, he helped to internationalise the Kosovo issue, pushing several times for UN resolutions condemning Serbian violence in the territory.

Partly as a result of Berisha's agitation, in the early 1990s the international community ceased to discuss Kosovo as an internal issue of the former Yugoslavia and adopted the view that a solution needed to emerge through mediated negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade.

Berisha cultivated close ties to all the main Kosovo leaders in the 1990s and formed a particularly close relationship to the late president, Ibrahim Rugova. During the NATO bombing campaign of Serbia in 1999 and especially after Rugova's controversial televised meeting with Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, Berisha helped to shore up Rugova's dented prestige.

While Berisha never attacked the militants of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, he openly defended Rugova's non-violent strategy. He also played a crucial part in mediating between the exiled prime minister, Bujar Bukoshi, and Rugova at that difficult time.

In the West, his strong interest in Kosovo at one time aroused concern, especially after NATO troops moved into the region in the summer of 1999, when the new international authorities refused his request to visit the territory.

But in Kosovo his views have made him very popular - a fact that was evident when he visited this spring and met all the main political leaders, including some Serbs.

Nor has his stance on Kosovo created much controversy at home. In a generally bitterly divided political arena, Kosovo is one of the few issues to cross the left-right divide.

Back in 1999, Albania's permanently squabbling political parties notably dropped their feuds to hold a joint rally against Serb rule in Kosovo.

Even today, the Socialists and centre-right stand more or less together on the region - if on no other issue - uniting recently to condemn Serbia's proposed new Serbian constitution, which describes it as an integral part of its territory.

"Serbia's idea to organise a referendum on the constitution, which includes Kosovo as a part of Serbia, is an important fact that will hurt the stability of the region," the Socialist Party secretary-general, Pandeli Majko, who has been Albania`s prime minister during the Kosovo conflict, told parliament on October 13.

The left-wing opposition shares the Berisha government's opposition to any moves to delay the final solution of Kosovo's status to 2007.

So far, Albania's recent interventions on Kosovo have not incurred serious criticism from Europe, which has generally praised Tirana's moderation on the issue. This has boosted its hand in its moves to achieve speedier integration into NATO and eventually into the European Union. On a recent visit to Tirana, Ahtisaari said he was still happy with its stance on Kosovo. "Albania is handling the Kosovo situation in a prudent way," he said.

Frida Malaj is a journalist with Tema daily. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.