Hashim Thaci has trouble leaving Special Court

He said recent debates are more related to the tendency of Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, to be as far away from the Special Court. In the interview given to our correspondent in Pristina, Leonat Shehu, Mr. Kurti, whose party commits to the national union of Albanians, says it is against the idea to unite Kosovo with Albania, to be forgiven Kosovo's north.

Voice of America: Mr. Kurti, in Kosovo, debates have erupted over the final agreement on normalising relations with Serbia, especially after President Hashim Thaci launched the idea of mending borders. How do you see this proposal?

Albin Kurti: Goals for correction of territories or territorial exchange are wrong goals that will have harmful consequences. Construction of the borders is done for minority reasons measured by tens or hundreds of hectares at the maximum, but by no means with an entire province such as Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanoc. Border correction falls to the demarcation registry, and this Thursday is exactly six months since President Thaci has signed agreements with his Montenegrin counterpart, Vujanovic, on border correction with Montenegro. He didn't do it with Montenegro, we have signed agreements and no step on the ground and now he's going through the next correction. To my conviction, what is going on is about his tendency to be as far away from the Special Court as it has imposed itself rather than Kosovo being closer to European statehood or integration.

Voice of America: President Thaci says his idea rules out partitioning Kosovo and included uniting the Presevo Valley with Kosovo. Why should this be rejected?

Albin Kurti: He (the president) has been two prime mandates and has had the chance for the 1992 referendum in Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanoc to put into existence with political and government steps. He didn't do that. It's now within the logic of territorial exchange. For my belief, the territorial exchange function is only the spiritual representation of Albanians from the north of Kosovo and the other side of that north from the state of Kosovo. When you say, I want territorial exchange, that's for giving up the north while the Presevo Valley doesn't give it to you. I am particularly concerned because discussions on territorial exchange from the bitter experience of the newest history of the Balkans show that it leads previously to population displacement rather than to changing borders. We know very well how the territorial dialogue is closer to war than specifically the presidents of Serbia and Yugoslavia on one side and Croatia's on the other, respectively (Slobodan) Milosevic and (Franjo) Tudjman, have been dialogueing for territorial exchanges and border changes and dialogueing for territories in general and in parallel have fought. They have then talked about Bosnia, and such dialogue about territories is in stark contrast with war. The dialogue on rights, for the interest of citizens, can be in the peace register in contrast to the war, but the dialogue on territories I don't believe is that. On the other hand, never has the public opinion in Serbia been more willing to accept Kosovo's independence than now and never has Serbia been dependent on Kosovo for European integration than now. Right now comes the president of Kosovo, Thaci, who offers Serbia northern Kosovo with Mitrovica never to mention, and triggers illusions about Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanoc. With this attitude, President Thaci is looking like me, but like the one that lays eggs in foreign nests.

Voice of America: Is this happening dangerous now?

Albin Kurti: I think it's dangerous because we need to unite Mitrovica, not do deals with territories. We need to return to education, health and employment, and especially to women and youth, and not to give up on Trepca, Wyman and enter various geopolitical games where the president takes a personal adventure without the mandate of the Kosovo Parliament when it is known that we are the parliamentary republic and I also think he is losing us a great chance since the 35th negotiating chapter of the European Union -- issues which are the name of Serbia's dependence on Kosovo, and the president of Kosovo is the one who wants to convince us that six-year-old dialogue has been more successful and must continue the same way through Kosovo's Union. I believe it's the opposite. Serbia's path to the European Union runs through Pristina, but in Pristina they are finding a man like our current president, who has helped Serbia as a few others in post-war Kosovo.

Voice of America: Mr. Kurti, currently the idea of partitioning Kosovo into ethnic lines, is being proposed by Serbian leaders. How dangerous is that?

Albin Kurti: They are wanting Kosovo's independence to be rejected. To say that there are Albanians and one of them chance to be even president who does not really mean his own country. So we have a president of the state, that the state where that president is doesn't take seriously and that's a powerful argument of Serbia, but I would say Russia's too. We now have a Russian Kaliningrad in the Balkans, it is a Banja Srpska Banja Luka, we do not need another Kaliningrad north of the city of Mitrovica. The right path is this, the union of Mitrovica is more important than the seating in the United Nations Organisation, though this one is important, but the union of Mitrovica is more important and should be the priority of our state and the second is that Kosovo Serbs are far more important than Belgrade. We cannot build a cohesive society in Kosovo if we consistently consider Belgrade more important than Kosovo Serbs. The union of Mitrovica more important than the UN seating of Kosovo Serbs more important than Belgrade, I believe we set the right priorities in our state policies.

Voice of America: How, though, would that be?

Albin Kurti: I have no hope of making the current president, and I think that just as we need a new government, a new prime minister, we also need a new president. This government has not been making any scandal for weeks, and they are usually reserved for the prime minister, but if you look at the countless ministries with endless deputy ministers, notice that there are no developmental policy planning, but there are budgetary management itself and this must be over. We need to get on the path to the developmental state, which gives priority to production, employment, social justice, the replacement of imports, export of our entrepreneurs and so on. The sooner we deepen our partnerships and our alliances, be they with the United States of America, the European Union, NATO, especially Germany and so on, but also needs to establish better relations with the countries of the region under what we could call a Balkan alliance with Croats and Bulgarians, but also with Sarajevo, Podgorica and official Skopje. Pristina and Tirana believe they should be initials and leaders of such a Balkan alliance that saves us from the Russian-Serbian hegemony. Let's not forget, in recent years we had two failed Russia's stamps in the Balkans; one in Macedonia and the other in Montenegro; and we risk continuing them with a president who went to a meeting with Serbian President Vucic a few days after he held one with Medvedev (Russian prime minister), who said he informed him of developments in Kosovo. These major changes in Kosovo's foreign policy, which is a country that has not completed sovereignty and territorial integrity while we have abandoned internal integrations and especially our Western allies, I think should alert the institutions of Kosovo, because we have a president who is not only harmful but who is also funny about his personal adventures.

Voice of America: You are engaged that the weather for uniting Kosovo with Albania, isn't it also your idea to actually change borders?

Albin Kurti: The border between Kosovo and Serbia is the border of London conference in 1913, when British Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey said we did an injustice to Albania to maintain European peace, but a year later we know that that European peace did not hold back since World War I broke out or war to end all wars, as it was called such a time and border of course is not of Albanians. But we would have to unite Kosovo through the right to self-rule expressed in the referendum by recognising the state of Kosovo. I don't believe that we should destroy the state of Kosovo to unite Albanians, I believe strengthening the state of Kosovo is in the function of its union with Albania. I am against joining Kosovo with Albania to forgive Kosovo's north, Trepca, Wyman or to accept the division of the town of Mitrovica. Strengthening the state of Kosovo, completing statehood, economic development, establishing Kosovo as such is in the function of joining Albania, and not vice versa.

Voice of America: The final phase of the Kosovo-Serbia talks has already begun, what agreement do you expect from these talks?

Albin Kurti: It is important that no team of negotiators be created around this adventurer president. Then it is very important that there are no documents from parliament that would give this president's legitimacy and immunity so that he can afford to shop for our country and let's say that the so-called grand finale is neither final nor great. It seems to me that it is an old episode of a new quarter, quarter, quarter finals, not ever small, because the president we have, survives thanks to the process of negotiations with Serbia serving as a shield, as a refuge in the office of Mrs. Moghrin in Brussels for peace crimes and peace crimes, I believe, of war not to be persecuted. It is no big finale, the result of that if they succeed and are not needed, will be Kosovo's Bosniakisation. Bosniak Bosnia's Bosnia has not happened aimed at Bosnia and Herzegovina, but at dividing and exchanging. Tudjman and Milosevic have talked about Bosnia and the exchange of territories at the expense of Bosniaks, and the result is Bosniak Bosnia. Even if we talk about partition and territorial exchange, the result will be a “zadnica” perhaps even more powerful than the past one with an internal asymmetry where Kosovo's north has a special status and you see the analogy in Bosnia, there you have Banjaluka and Pale on the outskirts of Sarajevo, and we will target Kosovo's north and Gracanica. We don't have to let go of a Scheel pingule surrounded by Milosevic's students. Serbia's foreign affairs minister is former spokesman for Milosevic's party, and Serbia's defence minister is the former spokesman for Milosevic's wife's party. The idea of territorial exchange aims for us to distance ourselves from the north, and on the other hand it is in the character of the Ottomans. The Ottoman leaders consider the state territory private property and then talk about exchange of territories as the exchange of goods they possess. But we are republic, Kosovo is a country that aspires to integrate into the European Union and NATO, democracy is worth it in Kosovo, and it is necessary not to allow such a kind of return to fedalism, where a patriarchal, authoritarian figure treats the state as its home of territory as its own land and then makes exchanges. In fact, he doesn't even treat it as his own, but rather as a usurped spoils that he's willing to put into some kind of “axham shopping”.

Voice of America: How can you prevent that from happening? The talks are already under way?

Albin Kurti: We should have new parliamentary elections as soon as possible, which means in autumn of this year. If these do not give up these adventures for personal interests, and if there are no parliamentary elections in the autumn, then powerful demonstrations become inevitable. Kosovo needs new government, new prime minister, new president, and this should be done through new parliamentary elections, yet premature, and if they do not back away from these narrow interests by putting our entire state, past and future shopping, except for the present, then certainly there should be powerful demonstrations to stop these adventurers and to be on the streets of our cities, but also in the Kosovo parliament. We are representatives of the people who, we are convinced, do not accept these compromises, continued concessions to Serbia, which may have changed its fur, but by no means its goal.

Voice of America: Do you have co-ordination with other opposition parties to lead the country to elections or other ruling parties, because their number is needed, or how can you bring the president down?

Albin Kurti: I believe that the co-ordination of opposition parties may be much better in parliament, but it is not invisible, and the president of Kosovo is desperate that he has failed to break the Democratic League of Kosovo and I believe his greatest commitment is in this very area, to produce a document that creates a negotiating team, including someone from LDK. It hasn't happened so far and I wish it wouldn't happen in the future. We co-ordinate both inside parliament and abroad and are in question nothing less than the rescue of Kosovo from this person so that the case is unfortunately president, who is pointing out, is behaving but like the she-camel that lays eggs in foreign nests.