New Leader in Kosovo Vows to Seek Tolerance

Moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova was elected president of Kosovo on Monday in a key step toward building the political structures of democratic self-rule--and perhaps toward ethnic reconciliation.

A new parliament in the southern Serbian province also elected Bajram Rexhepi as prime minister. Rexhepi, 47, is a surgeon who broke with Rugova’s party four years ago, then worked as a field doctor for the Kosovo Liberation Army. He is considered one of the most moderate leaders associated with the former guerrillas.

“We will jointly work for a free, democratic, peaceful, prosperous and independent Kosovo,” Rugova, 57, said after his victory. He cited the integration of ethnic groups as a top priority, pledging to preserve “the language, the culture and their identity, because Kosovo is comprised of its citizens and they are all Kosovars. Albanians, as the vast majority, bear the responsibility for this to happen.”

The election of Rugova and Rexhepi came under a broad power-sharing agreement reached last week among major ethnic Albanian political parties after mediation by chief U.N. administrator Michael Steiner.

Rugova’s Democratic League of Kosovo placed first in a November election. But it failed to win the majority of seats needed to govern alone, and the new parliament had been deadlocked in a three-way split among Rugova’s party, former guerrillas and Serb representatives.

Of those present in the 120-seat parliament Monday, 88 voted to approve the power-sharing deal, three opposed it and 15 abstained. The vote was celebrated with thunderous applause.

It also won international praise.

“This morning, Kosovo passed a crucial test of democracy,” said John Menzies, head of the U.S. office in Pristina, the provincial capital.

Rugova, a former writer and literary critic who led a pacifist struggle for Kosovo independence starting in 1989, is more acceptable to Kosovo Serbs than any former guerrilla leader.

Rexhepi, while associated with the guerrillas, has spoken out more strongly than most of the former fighters in favor of reconciliation with Kosovo’s Serb minority.

“This was a good day for Kosovo, and this is a great team for the future of Kosovo,” an obviously elated Steiner told a news conference. “These are men who will work for the interests of Kosovo, and I think they are united in bringing Kosovo forward.”

The agreement also named all but one minister in a 10-member, multi-party Cabinet. Under U.N.-imposed rules, one Cabinet seat is reserved for a Serb and one must go to a non-Serb minority. Serb parliament members have so far refused to fill the Serb seat, but said they might name a minister after a meeting with Steiner scheduled for Wednesday.

Rada Trajkovic, leader of the Serb parliament members, called on the new government to quickly improve treatment of Serbs in Kosovo and accept the return of those who have fled. “From this moment, we expect the process of discrimination which has been going on for 2 1/2 years to stop, making possible the return of all those who want to come back,” she said.

Kosovo came under U.N. administration after a 78-day North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing campaign in the spring of 1999 aimed at forcing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end repression of the province’s ethnic Albanian majority. Yugoslav and Serbian forces were replaced by NATO-led peacekeepers that June, and nearly 200,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians left the province, many in fear of reprisal attacks by ethnic Albanians.

About 80,000 Serbs remain in Kosovo, which now has a total population estimated at more than 2 million.

For the new government, “almost everything is a priority, starting from hostages held in the prisons of Serbia to benches in the parks for citizens to have a rest,” Rexhepi said.

Many people here believe that about 500 ethnic Albanians are still being held in Serbian prisons--and that some of the several thousand missing persons may also be imprisoned, although it is presumed that most are dead. Ethnic Albanians view almost all the prisoners as political detainees or hostages.

The Serbian government acknowledges holding more than 100 prisoners from Kosovo, most accused either of terrorism or ordinary crimes.

Under a U.N. Security Council resolution, administrative power in Kosovo remains in Steiner’s hands, but he will delegate broad authority over daily life in Kosovo to the new government as it takes shape.

Kosovo technically remains part of Serbia, the main republic in Yugoslavia. Virtually all Serbs in Kosovo oppose independence.

The United Nations views the question of whether Kosovo should become independent or be re-integrated into a democratic Yugoslavia as an issue to be dealt with in the future. The new parliament is not authorized to discuss Kosovo’s final status.

Key Western governments officially oppose independence but have appeared to move gradually toward accepting that it may be the best possible outcome for Kosovo. Virtually all ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, who constitute more than 90% of the residents, support independence and would bitterly oppose any return to control by Serbia.

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Times staff writer Holley reported from Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and special correspondent Gjoci from Pristina.