Albanian president asks U.N. speed up granting independence to Kosova

TIRANA, Jan. 30 – Albanian President Alfred Moisiu on Tuesday asked new U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to speed up efforts to grant independence to Kosovo which he called the last puzzle of former Yugoslavia. In a letter sent to the new Secretary General Moisiu said that Kosovo’s status should be “in accordance with the will of Kosovo’s majority of the population and also reflect the efforts and commitment of the international community for a calm and stabilized Balkan area. This would finally get rid of the Cold War inheritance and fevers of an aggressive nationalism.” “It is our conviction that the Western Balkans will have its future in the Euro-Atlantic integration with Kosovo and Serbia as two neighboring countries along each other,” said Moisiu.
U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari will present ethnic Albanians with his proposal on Friday. His plan is widely expected to call for conditional independence for the province of 2 million, despite Belgrade’s insistence that Kosovo remain within Serb borders. Albania supports Ahtisaari “in his project which embodies those principles that realized the project of a free Kosovo, with citizens being equal to the law and fully respecting the minority rights, an independent and European Kosovo,” Prime Minister Sali Berisha said Monday after meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart in Tirana. Albania has been the strongest supporter of independence for Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of its population. Tirana has, however, always said it has no territorial claims and does not intend to change its borders.