The two main ethnic Albanian parties in southern Serbia prepared Tuesday to join forces in a bid to strengthen their political influence two-months after a NATO-backed peace deal ended a budding separatist war in the region.
Behlul Nasufi, a senior figure in the Party of Demcratic action (PDD), said his grouping planned to form a "national assembly" together with the United Democratic Party of Albanians and other ethnic Albanian politicians in the southern Serbian towns of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, where the ethnic community is strong.
"It will be a joint and legitimate body with an aim to represent the interests of the Albanians in the region" in their relations with the central authority in Belgrade, Nasufi told AFP late Monday.
The move was greeted warily by Yugoslav authorities, who warned that creation of an Albanian assembly could undermine efforts at ethnic reconciliation.
The region of southern Serbia, with a strong ethnic Albanian population, borders the UN-administrated Yugoslav province of Kosovo, which is predominantly Albanian.
The working groups of the future assembly "will discuss with Belgrade officials all the social, education and political problems" facing the local populations, Nasufi said.
It will also "ensure continuity" with an assembly that was formed after a referendum organised in southern Serbia's Presovo Valley region in 1992 on the eve of the break up of the former Yugoslavia.
In the referendum, never recognized by Belgrade or the international community, ethnic Albanians who make some 70 percent of the 100,000-strong local population voted to attach the Presevo valley to Kosovo in the event that the borders of the former communist federation were changed.
Before World War II, Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac were part of Kosovo, which has been administered by the United Nations and guarded by NATO-led peacekeepers since a NATO bombing campaign forced Yugoslav troops out of the province in June 1999.
The area was wracked by months of clashes between ethnic Albanian rebels and Belgrade government forces until late May, when the guerrillas disarmed under a peace plan sponsored by NATO.
The accord notably called for the integration of the Albanian population in political and social institutions which they had boycotted for years.
The move to create a new Albanian political body followed the first serious violation of the three-month old truce on Saturday when gunmen killed two Serbian policemen in the Albanian-populated village of Muhovac.
On Monday a hitherto unknown organization, the Albanian National Army, claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed to launch a new war for a "unified Albania."
In Bujanovac, where Belgrade has set up its main administrative body for the region, the government press center said the creation of a "national assembly" by the ethnic Albanians would be "counter-productive."
"It will only make it more difficult to build a multi-ethnic society and will not contribute to establishing confidence in federal and republic institutions," the center said in a statement quoted by Tanjug news agency.
A former member of the political wing of the southern Serbian rebels who took part in the ceasefire negotiations, Halil Selimi, also expressed opposition to the proposal.
"Such an assembly is not necessary," he said, calling the plan "an attempt to eliminate nationalist and resistance ideas." -- PRESEVO, Yugoslavia (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
