Petition to the State Department

Kosovo Albanians sent Belgrade to three points

Yesterday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice received a delegation of Albanians from Kosovo in Washington. It was headed by the regional president Fatmir Sejdiu, prime minister Agim Ceku and parliament speaker Kol Berisha. The Albanian separatist leaders also spoke with Deputy Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, State Department employee Rosemary Di Carlo, President George W. Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley, and White House special envoy for Kosovo settlement Frank Wisner.

According to Kosovo news agencies, the delegation presented a three-point action program to the Americans for consideration. First of all, the process of determining the status of Kosovo must be accelerated without regard to the UN Security Council, where, due to Russian resistance, the United States and the EU were unable to pass a resolution on the independent status of Kosovo. Since the UN Secretary General's special envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan for Kosovo's supervised independence in the Security Council failed to be adopted, the local parliament must take on this mission. With the permission of the Americans, the Kosovo Assembly is ready to adopt a status resolution based on the Ahtisaari plan and declare November 28 as independence day. The third point for consultation with the State Department is the development of Kosovo's partnership with the international community. In addition, Kosovo Albanians told their American interlocutors that the division of Kosovo into Serbian and Albanian parts was unacceptable.

As an argument in favor of granting Kosovo independence as quickly as possible , Albanian leaders cited the threat of an aggravation of the situation in the region if the Albanians do not get what they want . Yesterday there were demonstrations in Pristina organized by radical supporters of immediate self-determination for Kosovo. Their participants demanded that the regional authorities officially set the day when the region would become independent, and threatened otherwise to move on to mass protests.

On Thursday, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic is expected to visit Washington. He will present Condoleezza Rice's arguments against Kosovo's independence. It is expected that after this the White House will issue a detailed statement on Kosovo.

Petr ISKENDEROV