Roksanda Nincic of the Belgrade weekly "Vreme" looks at the negotiation prospects in the March 21, 1998, issue of this magazine.

Actually, the regime in Serbia did not enter the negotiations with any concrete proposals about what is to be done with the rebellious province. This was then done by the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) in ten points. The key positions of the SPO presidency are that "the demands for independent Kosovo or Kosova as a republic are unrealistic and dangerous calls to war for the break up of Serbia and Yugoslavia" and that "Kosovo and Metohia should receive the widest autonomy status within the borders of Serbia, in accordance with the highest democratic standards in Europe." According to this, "the Republic of Serbia and the federal state are the guarantors of the respect and protection of human, civic, and ethnic rights of all citizens of Kosovo and Metohia", "all shortcomings in the legislative norms will be removed in the shortest time possible," " any breach of authority of officials and institutions will be strictly punished." The SPO platform also includes the well known proposal of this party concerning two house municipal assemblies, the goal of which would be to prevent outvoting on "any and anybody's " national rights and the change of the law on local self ­ governing, which would " significantly strengthen the authority of local governments."

The Serbian Radical party is of the opinion that the highest level of self-governing that the Albanians could count upon is ­ cultural autonomy. This would include the right to independently govern their education, health, culture, information, social insurance and pensions (which they already enjoy by the letter of the current Serbian constitution). The taxes would go to the state, while a percentage would be allocated to the municipalities, which would be determined by the law. Vojislav Seselj, the president of this party says that he has nothing against the possibility that Kosovo Albanians be relieved of the obligation to serve the Army if they do not want to. As well as the SPO, the Radicals also insist on the two house municipal assemblies, although there is no indication in either party what would be achieved with this proposal.

The Democratic Part is not far removed from these ideas. There they are of the opinion that "the solution of the Kosovo problem has to be searched within the solution of the question of national minorities in FRY"., while the Albanians have to be secured of "all minority rights in the form of regional and local self ­ government."

Of all of the above, nothing is of interest to Kosovo Albanians who want independence, while the transitional solutions that they would possibly accept are far above what Serbia is offering.

Although the Ibrahim Rugova, the leader of the Kosovo Albanians has on many occasion stressed the willingness for " an unconditional dialogue," for him "unconditional" means the following: "For us the only acceptable thing is an independent Kosovo, and not some form of autonomy." He said that he would accept, as a transitional solution "civil protectorate," while as far back as January he said that this international protectorate would last up to two years, during which a referendum on the status of Kosovo would be held. The "Kosovo Liberation Army?(OVK) is stating that it demands from the international community the recognition of Kosovo as a state, and is warning the Votact Group, the EU and the UN that it is "determined to continue the fight for the freedom of Kosovo."

After he stated in an interview to "Feral Tribune" that Kosovo will "neve be under Serbia, or with Serbia again," Bujar Bukosi, the president of the self-proclaimed Kosovo government in exile, explained to Belgrade daily "Dnevni Telegraf" that the Albanians are ready to talk about all possibilities for the solution of the Kosovo problem, not excluding the possibility of Kosovo within FRY.

All in all, the world would probably be satisfied of the return of the autonomy Kosovo enjoyed according to the SFRY Constitution of 1974, the autonomy Slobodan Milosevic took away, not offering anything else which would make the life in this state more acceptable to the Albanians. But, there is very little possibility that the Serbs and Albanians will come quickly to an agreement to start negotiations about all this, at least not until the deadline set by the Contact group.

Source: Belgrade weekly "Vreme," March 21, 1998