MINELRES: PER: "Albanians and Their Negjbors: Is the Status Quo Acceptable?"

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Alex Grigor'ev <alex.grigorev@per-usa.org>


A new Project on Ethnic Relations� report on the topic of Albanians and
Their Neighbors is now available at
http://www.per-usa.org/albanians_lucerne.pdf.  Below are the table of
content and the preface to the report.

Alex N. Grigor'ev
Program Officer
Project on Ethnic Relations (PER)

15 Chambers Street
Princeton, NJ 08542-3707, USA
Telephone: +1-609-683-5666
Fascimile: +1-419-858-4443
PER general e-mail: per@per-usa.org
E-mail directly to me: alex.grigorev@per-usa.org
www.per-usa.org
_______________

ALBANIANS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS: IS THE STATUS QUO ACCEPTABLE?

November 15-16, 2002
Lucerne, Switzerland 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface 1

Note on Terminology 4

Introduction 5

The Balkans: A View from Europe 6

Joining Europe 7

Improving Regional Security 9

Kosovo: What�s Next? 10

Is a Dialogue Between Pristina and Belgrade Possible? 17

Macedonia: Challenges of Building a Post-Conflict Multiethnic Democracy
22

Presevo Valley: A Successful Case of Conflict Management 29

Montenegro: The Dialogue Continues 30

Albania: Moving Closer to Europe 33

Albanians as Neighbors 35

List of Participants 39

Other PER Publications 43

 
PREFACE

The interest of the Project of Ethnic Relations (PER) in the issue of
Albanians and their neighbors goes back many years. In 1992, PER
convened its first seminar for leading Albanian intellectuals from the
region, to learn about their views on the interethnic situation in the
Balkans. It was one of several consultations PER held with major ethnic
communities in the Balkans at that time. In 1995, at a PER roundtable in
Belgrade, PER brought together vice presidents of the Socialist Party of
Serbia and the Democratic League of Kosovo, thus breaking a four-year
self-imposed boycott by Kosovar Albanians on contacts with Belgrade. In
1997, PER brought Kosovo Albanian leaders and Belgrade officials to a
landmark meeting in New York City, where they worked out a platform for
future negotiations, but this process was interrupted when armed clashes
broke out in 1998.

After the 1999 Kosovo war, PER renewed its efforts in the form of a
series of regional discussions for senior politicians from the Balkans
under the heading "Albanians and Their Neighbors." The first roundtable
was organized in April 2000 in Budapest, with the assistance of the
Government of Hungary. The second meeting took place in Athens in
December of that year with support from the Greek Government.

The third roundtable, which is the subject of this report, took place in
Lucerne in November 2003, with the support and cooperation of the Swiss
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

Since 2000, PER has also been holding regular follow-up local
roundtables in Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, with the aim of
promoting practical measures toward interethnic accord.

These roundtables, of course, are not meetings among Albanians alone. As
the list of participants appended to this report shows, they are
settings for high-level discussions between Albanians and their
neighbors�as well as key players from the international community.

Our purpose in organizing these meetings is to provide a forum where
difficult and contentious issues can be discussed in a neutral space,
separated from the immediate urgencies of daily political life.

The future stability and prosperity of South Eastern Europe will depend
in large measure on whether the peoples of the region will find peaceful
and friendly ways to accommodate their ethnic differences, especially
between Albanians and their neighbors.

Many important discussions took place at the Lucerne meeting�around the
table and during breaks and meals�but two events were particularly
noteworthy.  The first was the unexpected public apology by Serbian
Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic to the prime minister of Kosovo,
Bajram Rexhepi, for accusations that Covic had made earlier. Covic had
charged Rexhepi with participating in atrocities against Serbs during
the 1999 war, but said at the Lucerne meeting that he had been
incorrectly informed. The apology was accepted and was followed by a
handshake between the two men. This dramatic change in atmosphere led
that evening to the first, albeit brief and informal, face-to-face
meeting of Pristina and Belgrade officials at which Rexhepi, Covic,
Kosovo Assembly President Nexhat Daci and Serbian Deputy Prime Minister
and Minister of Internal Affairs Dusan Mihajlovic discussed the idea of
future dialogues. As of this writing, efforts continue to carry the
process forward.

Another important event was the first public discussion between Radmila
Sekerinska, the Macedonian deputy prime minister, Gorgi Spasov, the
general secretary of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, and Ali
Ahmeti, a Macedonian Albanian who in 2001 headed the armed action
against Macedonian government forces but who now, following the signing
of the Ohrid agreement and the subsequent elections, heads the
Democratic Union for Integration, an ethnic Albanian party that is part
of the governing coalition.

The reader will find accounts of these and other exchanges in the
report. We express our appreciation to the participants for their
stimulating discussions and for their frank analyses of the situation in
the Balkans.

PER is deeply grateful to the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign
Affairs (EDA), especially to former EDA head Federal Councilor Joseph
Deiss, Ambassador Marc-Andr� Salamin, Alexander Hoffet, Didier Chassot
and Roland Salvisberg, for their indispensable cooperation and support
in making this meeting possible.

In order to encourage frank discussion, it is PER�s practice not to
attribute remarks to specific individuals but to provide summaries of
the discussions.  However, representatives of the media were present, by
request, during the initial presentations of Albanian Prime Minister
Fatos Nano, Federal Councilor Joseph Deiss and UNMIK Head Michael
Steiner. This report quotes some of their remarks directly.

Alex N. Grigor�ev, PER Program Officer, who was also a conference
participant, was responsible for organizing the meeting and is the
author of this report. PER takes full responsibility for the report,
which has not been reviewed by the participants.


Allen H. Kassof, President
Livia B. Plaks, Executive Director

Princeton, New Jersey
May 2003