PRISTINA, Kosovo
-- More than two years after air strikes by the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization ended the harrowing of Kosovo by Slobodan Milosevic, Kosovo's
Serbs remain beset by anxieties. Perhaps half of all Kosovo's Serbs
have left for fear of retribution. Hundreds remain missing and unaccounted
for. Half of the Serbs still in Kosovo live in small, fortified enclaves
where they feel safe only thanks to the presence of NATO troops.
Many Serbs cite these conditions, and the fear
of Kosovar independence, as reasons for not voting, on Nov. 17, in the
first free general elections Kosovo has ever had. But they are seeing
the world upside down. These elections are the great opportunity for
them, as they are for us, Kosovo's Albanians.
As the first anniversary of my early release
from a Serbian prison approaches - I was convicted of terrorism - I
am hoping to become president of Kosovo Province as the candidate of
the Democratic Party of Kosovo. As part of this election, I would like
to challenge Serbia to a duel: not to see who is quicker on the draw,
but to see who will be faster in building democracy.
I believe Kosovars have good reason to feel optimistic
about our chances. Since being freed, one of the most heartening things
I witnessed in Kosovo was the gracious acceptance of defeat after last
year's municipal elections by my party and the Alliance for Kosovo's
Future. (The Kosovo Democratic Alliance prevailed.) I heard former fighters
say words of which any statesman could be proud: No one lost, Kosovo
won.
Many former armed fighters are in my party. They
knew they had not prepared well for the elections. Perhaps more important,
many had lived in Europe and North America and knew firsthand the beauty
of a system in which power is transferred peacefully.
Now the people of Kosovo must redouble their
efforts in fashioning a democracy. For Kosovo Albanians, the biggest
challenge will be to renewcontact with those we associate with years
of suffering - most of all, the Serbs. No measure of Kosovo's maturity
will be as important as our ability to ensure that all our people can
live in peace and dignity.
No group can do this hard work alone; our Serbian
neighbors must summon the courage to meet us halfway. The simplest and
most constructive step would be for Kosovo's Serbs, who boycotted the
last elections, to participate on Nov. 17.
They have many justified fears. But our fears
cannot guide us now; there are too many of them, and they are too common.
Everyone in Kosovo knows what it is like to live in fear. Thousands
of Kosovo Albanians remain missing, and some 250 are still in Serbian
prisons. After 19 months in one of those prisons, I know what it is
like to dread tomorrow. I also know that tomorrow comes anyway. The
only way forward is forward.
Many of Kosovo's Serbs fear that voting would
give the Assembly a legitimacy that the Albanian majority would use
to carry Kosovo to independence. No one can know what the future holds,
and it is true that many, many Kosovars cherish the desire for independence.
Most international observers, and most observers in Belgrade, admit
at least in private that Belgrade's authority will never return to Kosovo.
A boycott would not change this reality. On the contrary, by appearing
intransigent, Serbs may well make it easier for Albanians and the international
community to ignore them.
But if Serbs do vote in sufficient numbers, they
may well elect the second or third biggest party in the Assembly. The
Albanian vote is divided among three major parties; the Serb vote is
aggressively sought by just one party. Beyond that, the Serb minority
is already guaranteed, by regulation, 10 Assembly seats. If Serbs vote,
they could win an unprecedented opportunity to air their grievances
and make their arguments, both to other residents of Kosovo and to the
international community.
The hard truth is that Kosovo Serbs have just
two options: to vote and take a hand in shaping their destiny or to
mark their hopelessness by beginning a slow political decline. I hope
for Kosovo's sake that they will take the gamble of democracy.
Flora Brovina, a pediatrician and poet, is
president of the Albanian Women's League of Kosovo and a candidate for
president of Kosovo. Read her words from December 1999, when she was
sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for ´terrorism´: Trial
in Nis
National Albanian American Council
Email: naac@naac.org
Web: www.naac.org