Albania Premier Visits Kosovo, Urges Dialogue

Albanian Prime Minister Ilir Meta made an unprecedented visit to Kosovo on Wednesday, urging dialogue to avoid more violence in a tense area of southern Serbia bordering the province.

Meta met local and international authorities during the first official visit by an Albanian government leader to the majority ethnic Albanian province, a de facto international protectorate still legally part of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic.

Kosovo’s U.N.-led administration issued a statement saying that Meta had told the inter-ethnic Kosovo Transitional Council that problems in Serbia’s Presevo Valley bordering Kosovo should be solved through “dialogue and democratic means” and not violence.

The boundary area just east of Kosovo saw an upsurge in ethnic Albanian guerrilla activity last month that left four Serbian police officers dead.

The guerrillas say they are protecting local ethnic Albanians from harassment by Serbian police. Yugoslavia insists that the fighters are separatists intent on fusing the Presevo Valley area with Kosovo.

Meta told reporters that the people of Kosovo should decide the province’s status. Most Kosovo Albanians want independence.

“Kosovo’s final status must be decided by its citizens because they are the ones who have to decide on their fate, today and in the future,” he said.

Rada Trajkovic, a Serbian member of the transitional council, raised objections to Meta’s visit, saying Albania and Yugoslavia should first restore diplomatic ties cut off during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s air war against Yugoslavia last year.