PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) _ A U.N.-sponsored effort to bring Kosovo's
political leaders together faltered today when the party of Ibrahim Rugova, the
moderate ethnic Albanian leader, boycotted the first meeting of a provincial
advisory council.
Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, apparently stayed away in
protest because the rival Kosovo Liberation Army and another faction were to
have been as strongly represented at the meeting.
Elsewhere in Kosovo, sporadic violence, including a grenade explosion that
injured 30 in the sector patrolled by U.S. peacekeepers, further complicated
attempts to re-establish normality in the province.
Rugova's absence today weakened hopes for any swift and substantial step to
give the province's people control of their political affairs and foreshadowed
a possible power struggle between leading Kosovo political factions.
"I am sad that the LDK has chosen not to participate in that first meeting,"
Bernard Kouchner, the new U.N. administrator for Kosovo, said at the opening of
the session. "They are unhappy about the current composition of the council."
The council convened for three hours despite Rugova's absence. Afterward,
Kouchner said the participants had agreed to set up a joint Serb-Albanian
delegation to address ethnic tension in certain towns and deal with the issue
of prisoners held by both sides, partly with the aim of providing information
on their whereabouts.
They also agreed to jointly evaluate applications for a multiethnic,
internationally run police force.
Father Sava, a Serbian Orthodox priest participating in the Serb delegation
called the meeting a "very good beginning and important beginning."
Rugova arrived in Kosovo on Thursday to great fanfare, but quietly slipped
away in the evening with an aide, saying he went to neighboring Macedonia. His
quick departure disappointed the many supporters of a man twice chosen
president of Kosovo's mainly ethnic Albanian population in unofficial
elections.
On Thursday, he had promised to join the council providing that all
"credible" parties were represented.
Rugova resents having only two seats on the council while the rival Kosovo
Liberation Army and allied United Democratic League have four seats between
them, U.N. officials said.
Two Serb representatives did show up today, a minor victory in attempts to
bridge Kosovo's sharp ethnic divide.
The council cannot make decisions, but will serve as an intermediary with
the U.N. officials now administering the province.
Also today, about 400 Yugoslav army reservists blocked the center of Nis in
central Serbia, joining a growing number of soldiers demonstrating to demand
long-overdue back pay for their service in Kosovo.
Local media reported that the central square in Nis, Serbia's third largest
city, was blocked for about one hour as the reservists demanded back pay, free
electricity and rent.
A similar protest was staged by 200 reservists in Krusevac, 90 miles
southeast of Belgrade, the private Beta news agency reported.
The grenade attack that injured 30 happened Thursday afternoon at a crowded
market in Vitina, 25 miles southeast of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, said Lt.
Jake Kramer of the 82nd Airborne Division. He said four people suffered serious
injuries and were taken to U.S. treatment facilities.
U.S. troops also arrested 13 ethnic Albanians believed to be members of the
KLA after finding a cache of gasoline bombs, two grenades and several automatic
weapons.
"It was clear they were going to set some houses on fire," Kramer said of
the detained Albanians.
And in Pristina, unidentified gunmen shot a man and a grenade exploded
outside a building near the local headquarters of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe.
In the central city of Goric, a NATO patrol detained four KLA soldiers with
weapons. Such detentions have been continuing despite an agreement by the
militia to turn over most of their arms and demobilize.
The incidents coincided with a visit to by Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of
the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who expressed concern about violence in the
U.S. sector and attacks on American peacekeepers.
They also underscored the difficulties NATO troops face as they try to quell
violence between ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs in Kosovo more than a
month after starting the peacekeeping mission.
The peacekeeping force "needs to be augmented by local police that are there
24 hours a day, seven days a week," Shelton said. "We don't have enough to do
that."
(Copyright 1999 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APTV-07-16-99 1008MDT
