NATO BACKS DOWN FROM ITS THREATS, THE KLA IS IRRITATED AND TAKES FIVE SERBIAN CIVILIANS HOSTAGE The US deploys its arsenal in Durrës On pages 5-7

The accusation over the Vlora diver fades. There are no witnesses

OPINION Çerçiz Loloçi If Rugova also accepts President Meidani’s invitation to visit Albania, we can say that the cycle of meetings between Albanian politicians in the motherland and in Kosovo has been completed. The haste of Albanian politicians to formulate the Single Voice comes as a reaction to the advice of the international community and, in particular, the US administration, which also has its own proposed solution to the Albanian question. Thus, it can be said that Albania’s highest institutions, Kosovo’s self-proclaimed institutions, and even the radical political leaders represented by Demaçi and Qosja are of one mind. So, all in line: Meidani-Majko, Rugova, the KLA, and even the Albanian parties in Kosovo that do not accept the legitimacy of the parliamentary elections. Regardless of political affiliations, programmatic divisions or governing visions, political parties in the West both have a longstanding practice and an institutional obligation to act in unison on major issues. This simple truth has, unfortunately, been missing from the Albanian political class for a long time, especially throughout this century. Viewed from another angle, in the current context of developments, the Single Voice seems justified by the acceptance of an international plan for resolving the Kosovo question. This solution, whose details are not yet known, is regarded by various analysts as a solution that preserves the status quo, since even the most far-reaching (international) plan does not start from independence, but from status, autonomy and other similar terms. First comes war and aggression. After the massacres in Bosnia, the Serbian military machine managed to carry out extraordinary terror unimpeded, ethnically cleansing hundreds of thousands of displaced Albanians. Second comes Serbian propaganda and diplomacy, which, unfortunately, has been and remains far superior in its visible and invisible strategic alliances compared with our “weather vane” of diplomacy. Third, Serbia is also playing its final card: the partition of Kosovo, as can also be explained by the reappearance in the media of the Serbian army in territories rich by European standards. Alongside the Single Voice, another new element in Albanian politics stands out: NATO intervention to stop the shedding of innocent blood. But everyone knows full well that this Kosovo tragedy is unlikely to receive the support of this powerful military alliance.