By Joshua Kucera
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia — The cheers that greeted
the arrival of NATO forces and U.N. administrators in Kosovo three years ago
have turned to anger and occasionally violent protests since the arrest of
several leaders of the former Kosovo Liberation
Army.
"I never thought that we'd come to
the stage of protesting against them," said Sadik Halitjaha, a former KLA
commander who organized several protests against the U.N. forces recently. "We
never thought we would say goodbye by throwing stones at them and we hope we
don't have to."
NATO forces brought an end to
Serbian rule over Kosovo, the Albanian-majority province of Serbia where the KLA
was fighting for independence.
"We greeted them
with flowers and we hoped we would send them off in the same way," said Mr.
Halitjaha, who is now the president of the Association of War Veterans of the
KLA.
All that changed when the U.N. forces
started arresting KLA war heroes and began a rapprochement with the Serbian
authorities.
Last month, Rrustem Mustafa, a
former top KLA commander, was arrested on charges of murder, torture and illegal
detention of Serbian captives. The next day, U.N. officials announced the
indictment of another top commander, Ramush Haradinaj, for his role in a
shootout with a rival Albanian family after the
war.
Six others, including Mr. Haradinaj's
brother, Daut, were arrested in June on the same charges, and three other former
KLA members were arrested in January.
Kosovo's
prime minister, Bajram Rexhepi, condemned the arrests and called the detainees
"political prisoners." Posters of Mr. Mustafa, posing with children and smiling,
are now all over Pristina.
Though the United
Nations says the timing of the arrests is coincidental, coming after long
investigations, many Albanians see it as a coordinated crackdown on the former
KLA.
Large protests have followed each of the
arrests, and they have become more violent. In Decani last month, a protest
ended in clashes that left 52 civilians, 11 police officers and three
peacekeeping soldiers injured.
"UNMIK is doing
the work that Serbs did before," said Mr. Halitjaha, using the acronym for the
U.N. Mission in Kosovo.
Even centrist Albanians
complain that the Kosovo government and parliament, elected last year, have no
power, their decisions subject to veto by U.N.
officials.
The overwhelming majority of
Albanians in Kosovo want independence, though the province is still nominally
part of Serbia and Yugoslavia while it is temporarily administered by the United
Nations.
Meanwhile, the government in Belgrade
has been more actively cooperating with the U.N. mission since former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic fell from power in 2000. Serbian Deputy Prime
Minister Nebojsa Covic, who is in charge of Kosovo, visits Pristina
frequently.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020921-2562970.htm
blackline-small.gif
Description: GIF image
