KOSOVO: SERIOUS CONCERNS ON STATEMENTS BY LDK PRESIDENT RUGOVA

Statement by Olivier Dupuis, Secretary General of the Transnational Radical Party and Member of the European Parliament

Brussels - Rome, 19 May 1999. Ibrahim Rugova, President of the LDK, in a statement reported in the german newspaper 'Die Woche', has openly renounced the so-called "Rambouillet-bis" agreement, that he had signed. The agreement provided for an interim government for Kosovo, with the participation of the three major Kosovar political bodies: the LDB of Rexhepi Qosja, the UCK and

the LDK, with at the UCK at the head presidency of the interim Government. By renouncing the agreement, Rugova achieves nothing but making more difficult the dramatic efforts of resistance of all the Kosovar people. The insistence by Mr. Rugova in identifying in Milosevic a necessary interlocutor to any peace

agreement is at the very least "inappropriate" while thousands of Kosovars everyday are victims of a criminal policy of the Milosevic regime - used as human shields, massacred, tortured, raped - while a million Kosovars have already been deported from their homes. At this point it is necessary for Rugova to make his position clear: we invite him to sign the international

appeal to indict Milosevic, already signed by more than 200.000 people, including the Prime Minister Pandeli Majko, Ismail Kadare e Adem Demaci. This is the line that defines those who are not willing to sacrifice justice and the fundamental human rights on the altar of appeasement.

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