Documenti
PROBLEM OF SPONTANEITY
Albin Kurti, Member of the Independent Union of Students of Kosovo and Member of the Organizational Committee of the Protests, is a native of Pristina. He is the official Spokesman for the Students of Pristina. Born in 1975, he is a fourth year Electrical Engineering student at the parallel university. We spoke with him one day before the protests. He wore a U2 shirt, and was full of impressions from the group's recent concert in Sarajevo.VREME: When Rugova told you last week that he did not agree with the date set for the demonstrations, you told him that you would go ahead on the appointed day all the same. You went up against Rugova, which until now was unthinkable...
KURTI: Preparations for the protest have already been going on for a month and a half. Nobody can tell us two-three days before they begin: ``You'll have to postpone them.'' We decided on August 15. We talked with the President and he gave us his approval. We are no longer an Independent Union of Students, but a University. The University Senate unanimously supported the protest. Right now the only one authorized to make decisions about the protest is its nine-member Organizational Committee, in which students have a majority. All others can merely advise us. If at some faculties, the Dean has become a member of the Organizational Committee, he is, for us, first and foremost a member of the Committee.
VREME: Such an attitude has produced considerable political unrest. Are your goals political?
KURTI: We only want university buildings. All we are interested in is the University. All organizations of Kosovo Albanians have offered support to us, (it has become fashionable) and many of them also wish to join us. We refuse that. If the protest broadened out, it would become something completely different. Then the protest could escalate. This way we have control.
VREME: Why then are the demonstrations so important to everyone?
KURTI: Since '92 there have been no demonstrations. Nothing was happening. Albanians were helpless and in fear of the police. Because of this, all parties lost credibility. People thought that we want to deal with the issue of Kosovo. Such expectations from the citizens are the result of passivity of politicians.
VREME: Has any political party offered you support?
KURTI: All political parties are giving us support, as I said, it has become fashionable.
VREME: There are rumors that Adem Demaci stands behind you.
KURTI: Adem Demaci spent 28 years in prison, and he's not like the rest. He thinks what he says. Therefore, he's bigger than his party, but he is still in the party, while our protest is apolitical.
VREME: Do you support the demand submitted to Rugovi by a group of students half a year ago?
KURTI: This summer's demands submitted to Rugovi was signed by 550 students and those demands are strictly theirs. None of those students are part of our Union.
VREME: What does it feel like to be studying at an unrecognized University?
KURTI: Lectures at the University are held under very poor conditions. Studying in private houses was supposed to be only a temporary solution, but has dragged on for six years. Because of all that, fewer and fewer freshmen register with our University every year. A growing number of our students are studying abroad, in Austria, Germany, Switzerland. Since 1991, approximately 300,000 Albanians left Kosovo, the majority of them being young people.
VREME: There are opinions that the University was not even part of the agreement between Milosevic and Rugova.
KURTI: In the text of the Milosevic-Rugova Agreement, the issue of the University was never resolved. The Organization, Saint Edjidio, which brokered the negotiation of the agreement and still continues to support its implementation, is not a pressure factor. Slobodan Milosevic does not respect even the Dayton Agreement, let alone some agreement on education. The text of the Agreement is unclear, but we chose to believe in the good will of Slobodan Milosevic. We thought that his signature meant something.
VREME: Did you ask for the support of the world public?
KURTI: We informed European university centers. We received support from the World Students' Union and from student organizations in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden...
VREME: Your enthusiasm is reminiscent of the enthusiasm that gripped Belgrade students last winter. Do you think your protest might have a similar conclusion?
KURTI: I have sympathies for the protests of Belgrade's students. But they, having allowed the interference of political parties, were subject to manipulation. Our protest is not political and we do not have anything in common with political parties, so that no one can kick us around. What happened with the student protest in Belgrade is extremely shameful for Coalition Zajedno.
VREME: Did you try to establish contacts with the students of the local state university?
KURTI: One of them recently stated in Koha Ditore that there are no Albanian students in Pristina. Here, Serb students think the same way their parents do. There have been no contacts.
VREME: What are your plans after finishing at the university? Will you stay here?
KURTI: I won't stay here, I only wish to achieve something right now. I had an opportunity to get a scholarship abroad, but I did not want to spend a year studying the language only to be able to study in Vienna. I felt more secure here. But I intend to go abroad for graduate studies.
VREME: What are your marks like?
KURTI: I only have one A, in electronics. The rest are all A+.
VREME: What will happen when you confront the police?
KURTI: We will all sit and wait for the time intended for the protest to pass, let's say two to three hours. Even if they tell us, ``In five minutes we will begin shooting,'' we will not budge.
VREME: You will wait for them to shoot at you?
KURTI: They won't shoot.
VREME: And how will you react if they do?
KURTI: I don't know, because reactions will be spontaneous.
To the question of whether they have considered the possibility of arrests of their leaders, Albin Kurti said that in case of such an event they have already appointed replacements. On Wednesday, Kurti was the first to be led to the police wagon, as he was brutally beaten in front of all journalists.
Dejan Anastasijevic and Zoran B. Nikolic
(taken from "Vreme", October 6, 1997)