Kosovo: Reports on the general situation and on refugees
C R I S I S W E B N E W S
Friday September 4, 1998
** Please note you can now access the ICG CrisisWeb site via http://www.crisisweb.org as well as http://www.intl-crisis-group.org **
PRESS RELEASE
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ICG PUBLISHES REPORT EXAMINING MILITARY, HUMANITARIAN AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE KOSOVO CRISIS
The International Crisis Group (ICG) publishes today a briefing paper on military, humanitarian and political developments in Kosovo.
The 13-page report, entitled 'Kosovo's Long Hot Summer: Briefing on Military, Humanitarian and Political Developments in Kosovo' is the latest ICG examination of security issues in rump Yugoslavia.
During the past six months, Serbia's southern, predominantly Albanian province of Kosovo has emerged from international obscurity to become the world's most reported conflict zone.
At the beginning of the year, the Kosovo Liberation Army was an unknown underground organisation, the frequent object of exaggerated claims and misconceptions. Now, although far from a professional army, it has begun to take some shape and must be recognised as one of the actors on the Kosovo scene.
On the political front, Ibrahim Rugova - elected in 1992 as "president" of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo and viewed abroad before the outbreak of fighting as undisputed leader and sole representative of the Kosovo Albanians - is steadily losing influence, his political absolutism and pacifism increasingly irrelevant.
If productive negotiations are to take place, the new balance of forces on the internal ethnic Albanian political scene must be understood and taken into consideration.
-> See http://www.crisisweb.org for details
