Friday, May 26, 2006

Kosovo's premier says that province's independence is inevitable

TIRANA, Albania (AP) - Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku said on Friday at the start of a two-day visit to neighboring Albania that the province's independence was inevitable.

"Montenegro's independence was an inevitable process and Kosovo's independence also is a very natural and inevitable process," Ceku told a news conference after meeting with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

Last weekend Montenegro decided in a referendum to separate from Serbia-Montenegro, which was the last union between republics of the former Yugoslavia after that federation collapsed in a series of wars in the 1990s.

Ceku said that Belgrade should understand that the "Balkans configuration has changed," adding that Albania also shared the same stand on Kosovo's future status -- full independence.

"The only solution that would guarantee peace and stability in Kosovo and the region is the one that comes out from the right of self-determination of the Kosovo people, that is, respecting the Kosovo citizens' will, which is repeated continuously, for independence," said Berisha.

U.N.-sponsored talks to determine Kosovo's future are under way in Austria. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority wants independence, while Serbs want it to remain part of Serbia.

1 comment:

Fellow Peacekeeper said...

"resisted posing any threats of acts of aggression against its neighbors" Agression? Albania couldn't organize a bar fight let alone an invasion. It did however destabilize two other countries by losing its entire army arsenals after the collapse in 97, and hosting the KLA by complete failure to control its borders.

The Albanians live and thieve peacefully in Germany because they would get stamped out if they did otherwise.

"The west"? Bill Clinton is not "the West" In any case Macedonia was given the chance (two weeks or so) to crush the insurgency a la Operation Storm / Croatia.