Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome.

As you know today the Kosova Liberation Army has committed another one of their many positive gestures and they have thrown the ball in the wSerb side. They are expected to answer this gesture in a positive manner, hopefully, by releasing the innocent arrested Albanians and open a new chapter in the communication among the two sides which will benefit not only the Albanians, but the Serbs and the world as well.

You know that, on November 19, a letter from Mr. Millan Millutinoviq was received in the offices of the Kosova Liberation Army in Prishtine. We have prepared an answer to this letter. We will make concrete attempts to maintain communication with the Serb side because our office and the Institution of the General Representative of KLA was initially established to keep the contact lines open with the enemy. It is necessary to reiterate that the Albanian nation is not in war with the Serb nation but with the Serbian regimes since 1912. We have full respect for the Serb nation. We do not believe that Albanians are better than Serbs; however they have been manipulated by their regimes, so it is our duty to inform the Serbs that our desires are for a democratized Serbia and a free Kosova; this playing an important part in the democratization of Serbia.

There will be no democratization in Serbia without freeing of Kosova so our requests for freedom and the requests of the Serb nation for democratization go in the same direction; therefore we have to support each other. We should always try to maintain contacts with the Serb officials and intellectuals. The meeting between the Albanian side with some recognized Serb intellectuals show that Albanians are ready to talk, negotiate, and agree. They are not ready for acceptance of imposed solutions, such as the one offered by Mr. Millan Millutinoviq, which give Albanians a small autonomy but only after they agree to obey the Serb Constitution; to obey a reality imposed upon them by the Serb regime since 1989 that has turned the political scene into a desert. Us Albanians will not give up on our inherited rights, our rights that we had for 15 years, and our freedom is in the interest of the Serb nation since oppression is a disease that could easily be carried over to the other side. You have seen that the Serb re

gime, in order to keep Kosova oppressed, has had to shut down most of the prestigious newspapers and radio stations in Serbia.

The Serb regime does this to keep their nation uninformed so they could be manipulated easier. Why? To maintain Kosova as its colony. This works against their attempt to persuade their nation that they are protecting the Serb heart by keeping another nation oppressed.

I would like to thank for all our contacts, all three daily newspapers that give objective news and in the name of KLA I ask the journalists not to shorten or rewrite the official communiqusreleased by the General Headquarters of the Kosova Liberation Army because they are rare, official and important for informing the Albanian, Serb and world opinion. I would like to ask this, through you, all the editors responsible since we are under difficult conditions of war. Under normal circumstances no one can tell a newspaper what to do, since they hurt themselves by giving false information, but since we are under war circumstances it would be appreciated if you do not shorten our declarations for any reasons.

Please publish them the way you receive them.

Question: The Serb president's, Mr. Millutinoviq, for tomorrow has been announced. What do you think of this, and respectively do you have a comment on the attempts of the Serb government to present solutions for Kosova problem. Also, what is the reason for their attempts since the international community, Mr. Hill respectively, has been already working on it?

Answer: The Serb side has a right to attempt to find a solution, it all depends if the Albanians bite their hook. This proposed project by the Serbs is absurd and is completely unacceptable. We do not accept Mr. Hill's Project-Proposal and we have great reservations toward it. You will be informed about our reservations, and Mr. Hill's proposition is far from being accepted, since it only offers a cultural autonomy for Kosova.

We cannot prevent the Serb side from trying but we will also attempt to get everything that can be achieved and positive for us. We do not see anything good in these attempts since they only try to fool the Albanians.

They try to give us ultimatums to accepts either the one offered by the world or the one offered by the Serbs, this way being forced to accept the one with more benefits. They try to affect and lower the standards of the agreements, this way making Albanians think what Mr. Hill is proposing is something great. Although we have some Albanians who consider Mr. Hills project semi-acceptable, I speak in the name of KLA when I say that this project is rejected but the attempt is recognized. This project needs work and has to be improved. It is an attempt by the Serb side to expunge the third factor, the international community, so they can take a few steps back in our prosperity. You all remember the Serb referendum on Kosova to show that it is an internal Serb affair and not of international community. They tried to prevent anyone else from interfering but the reality proved different. The world has come here with hundreds of inspectors and verifiers, and proves the opposite, by pulling Kosova out of the Serb ci

rcuit. If Serbia was smart, they would have not taken away the 1974 autonomy and they would have peacefully instituted the freedom for Albanians, which would have, instead of killing and massacring, persuaded Albanians to co-exits

Question: After the release of Goran Zbiliq the families of Nebojsa Radosevic and Kica Porodic have expressed worries that they might not be alive, in contrary to your statements on their safety. Answer: I can reassure their families, whose worries I completely understand, since I know how worried were my mother and sister during their monthly visits and I know what jail is, that these two journalists are safe and alive and they are being taken care of as best as possible under war conditions. I am saying this to you so you can pass it along to all of those interested. We are calling for humanity upon all prisoners since, from personal experience, I know that prison does not improve people; it destroys them. This is the reason why I have been trying, as a humanitarian person, to have an impact but this does not depend on me. We should continue our attempts since there are plenty of people who love them including their children, but as far as their lives are concerned they are fine.

Question: Since no one can agree on any peaceful agreement, I would like to ask you if you are ready to restate your idea on Balkania, for a third Republic within a country called Balkania. Are you ready to propose this as one of the possibilities for negotiations?

Answer: Since the 13th of August, when I agreed to become the General Representative of the KLA, I have taken the responsibility of fighting to achieve the realization of the desires expressed in the 1991 Referendum, which means the freedom and independence of Kosova. I have given up any kind of Balkania, and they have given up on joining all Albanian territories. As a combined goal we have the achievement of the desires expressed by the nation in the 1991 Referendum.

Question: After receiving Mr. Milutinovic's invitation for talks, you immediately released Mr. Zbilic. Does this mean that the dialogue has initially begun in the humanitarian aspect?

Answer: The release of Zbilic can be related to Mr. Milutinovic's acceptance of KLA as a significant factor in finding the solution to the Kosova problem. Even before his invitation I have worked hard in showing humanity toward people and showing that KLA is not an army that likes to kill, arrest, and terrorize but an army of people who were forced to pick up their weapons so they can protect themselves. This way we did not allow for contacts with the Serb side. We are now trying to rise this to the level needed for solving this problem. We greet Mr. Milutinovic's attempt and recognize it as the first step toward good will. Now we have to convince the Serb regime to show the same good will and not have only one side show good will since this can not be maintained one sidedly. I believe that people like Ukshin Hoti, who is innocent; Hafir Shala, considered disappeared -- although the officer who arrested him is known as Jovo Damjanovic - and when he was arrested; Xhavit Haziri disappeared on September 17th, M

r. Hafir Shala disappeared on April 10th, etc. It is absurd for a regime with established institutions to claim such a thing.

This is even more absurd knowing that KLA, a recently formed army has been able to show good will, and has responded to everyone's request for humanity, and they can not free Ukshin Hoti, Hafir Shala, a doctor who had been working in the Council for Human Rights and Liberties, so this pushes all of us to think.

Question: The international supervisors and verifiers have beentrying to establish a separating line between KLA and Serb forces in order to prevent any conflicts. At the same time the Kosova Liberation Army has demanded, through its representative, the retreat of Serb forces from four ethnically Albanian cities Malisheva, Gllogoci, Skenderaj, and Kacaniku.

Today, when the Serb inspector was released, the Serb forces and KLA were in a distance of 500 meters and the inspector's message was "The war is bad, we have to return to peace." How to you comment on this?

Answer: I was not present when Mr. Zbilic talked with you, and I did not want to be there intentionally, but I believe you on what he said. If this was the only statement he made, the agreement of the General Headquarters of KLA with me to treat these people in a humane way, has paid off hundred times. As far as the General Headquarters of the KLA is concerned, the Serb forces have no business in being in places where there are no Serbs living. So in order to achieve an agreement, the

Serb forces can not go anywhere where there is no Serb population and if they do than their intentions are to provoke. All this is in order to achieve a state of freedom, to enforce the unilateral cease-fire, to support the agreement signed by Holbrooke and Milosevic, to form peaceful conditions that will enable us to find a solution to the Kosova status. These are all attempts to avoid bloodsheds, quarrels, provoking, so we can understand that peace is the best solution and wars, provoking, and arrests do not lead us anywhere. The past hundred

years show us that this was not a solution and that people shed their blood to achieve their freedom. Today we have almost 200 free countries whose flags are placed at the United Nations, and this shows us that a nation's struggle for freedom can not be stopped. We are trying to get there with the least bloodshed and victims possible.

Question: I would like to ask you a question that has to do with a unity among the political and military subject in Kosova. Many

political analysts think that the Serb proposal is a political offensive in an area that was left open by the Albanian political subject since they have not been able to establish their united negotiating institution. What are you going to do about this in the future?

Answer: I agree with your statement and I think that the blame for not forming all the elements needed by our country, falls on the Albanians as well; which means uniting politics with the power. To form a Parliament whose decisions would be enforced. To form a General Assembly which would contain all of the subjects that participated or not in the elections of March 22nd. A government would have came out of this Assembly that would have been a real representative and not a tool of a monopolistic political party that wanted all of the say. This government would have been able to form a negotiating group, which at the same token would have been able to talk with the Serb side. This would have prevented all the confusions that the Serb regime is trying so hard to inflict. This is legitimate, but we have to, I agree with you, not allow the aggressor impose divisions upon us which would only benefit them. Question: I am interested in your prediction for the next 3-4 months,

if the diplomacy will come out victorious or what will it happen?

Answer: I am very optimistic since, like I said, the struggle for

freedom can not be stopped. The way the Serb regime is acting

discourages me and it shows that they are not ready yet to give up on

their old ways. I fear that the Serb regime with their hardheadedness

will force Albanians to win their freedom by fighting and loosing more

victims. This is why I lose my optimism about the future spring brings

but I am doing everything in my power to prevent a scene like that from

happening. I am reiterating that my optimism fades when I see that

Milosevic-Sesel duo does not know any other way. These sacrifices and

attempts to solve the Kosova problem by the Serb regime were made

because they forced to and not because they were willing. The Kosova Liberation Army is aware of the Serb ways so they are working on a peaceful solution but they are also preparing for the unwanted possibility of fighting for their right to become equal to every other nation in the Balkans.

Question: Earlier you said that you have been given the responsibility, by the General Headquarters of the Kosova Liberation Army, to form the National Survival Assembly. The results of your discussions with the political subjects are well known. It is true that during those conversations you have presented the political subjects with a list of the New Assembly and do you have a request by the KLA to release this list to the public?

Answer: No. I have not been authorized by the General Headquarters of the Kosova Liberation Army to form the Assembly, to form the Government, to from the Negotiating group. Since I am aware of the reality I tried to persuade the political factors to accept such a thing. The matter in question is not the Government, but the General Assembly of Kosova, from which the Government would be formed and then the Negotiating group

would come out of that. I do not have a list and I am not working on one since my primary concern is forming an Assembly that will unite all political and non-political factors in Kosova. These would have been the basis for forming a real Government in Kosova and that would lead to a place for the Kosova Liberation Army. This would have enabled us to join the political factor with the military and police system. This is

the only way and I hope it will come true. There is no other way. If we try to oversee the formation of such a branch, than there will be no significant results, since this Government would not be a true symbol of national unity. The representatives would be incompetent people, while the Assembly would be a true representative of the national unity, a symbol of all political and non-political unity. This is why I insist that the first step should be the formation of the Assembly, then theGovernment, and then the Negotiating group and this would finish the formation of the three imperative factors to face the world with new positions.

Question: Why have you selected a few journalists for today's trip, because yesterday when I called your office I was told that I need an invitation; however, we are all interested to go and see these people and talk with them?

Answer: You can go and visit Mr. Zbilic, since he is free and will no longer be a prisoner. We invited a few journalists and they had their colleagues join them. Until the departure time, no one in my office new where we were going, I was the only one aware of that information. We tried to invite as many journalists as possible and many of them came. However, you can go now and meet Mr. Zbilic, you and all of those not present.

Question: I wanted to go with you so I can meet the KLA freedom

fighters

Answer: With God's blessing we'll go again, for a good reason and all of you will be invited. Let's hope that this is not the first or last time, and have other opportunities because forgetting someone is not right.

Translated by: Korab R. Sejdiu

Information Service