Albanian premier discusses UN reform, Kosovo status, ties with Italy

BBCM, May 26, 2005 12:19 AM

Text of interview with Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano by Franco Venturini in Tirana on 24 May: "Tirana backs Italy over the United Nations, but Fini has been giving us the cold shoulder" - first three paragraphs are Corriere della Sera introduction, published by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on 25 May, subheadings inserted editorially

[Corriere della Sera] This interview with Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano was originally supposed to be about the Kosovo issue, to which Corriere della Sera has been devoting particular attention over the past few weeks. But after the initial exchange of quips, the issue of relations between Albania and Italy stole the scene from the future fate of Pristina [Kosovo] and its surrounding region, hinting at a diplomatic "mystery" between the two shores of the Adriatic, which according to the Tirana prime minister concerns also, and above all, our domestic political arena.

Italy, Albania's leading trade partner and by far its largest supplier of aid, felt betrayed last September when Fatos Nano, speaking from the podium in the glass palace [UN headquarters] in New York, said that he is in favour of increasing the number of permanent and nonpermanent seats on the UN Security Council. Even though the word "Germany" was never mentioned as such, saying what he did say was tantamount to embracing Berlin's position and to rejecting Rome's. Was it really possible that a store of political capital accumulated at such a high price should turn out to be so useless? Italy's irritation was not long in making itself felt: [Italian Foreign] Minister Gianfranco Fini failed to stop off in Tirana while touring the Balkans, and Undersecretary Roberto Antonione's recent visit to Tirana certainly did not elicit any reassuring remarks from Albania in public.

Well, Fatos Nano has now attempted to make up for this for the first time, entrusting his message to Corriere della Sera but without forgoing a few controversial remarks and comments designed to be read between the lines.

Relations with Italy, UN reform

[Venturini] So are you suggesting that our foreign minister has overdramatized a problem that does not exist?

[Nano] Listen, I enjoy excellent personal ties with [Italian Prime Minister Silvio] Berlusconi; we spoke with one another at the opening of La Scala [Milan opera house], and he promised me that he will clarify things; then I watched the soccer game between AC Milan [Berlusconi-owned club] and Juventus [Turin's first soccer team] with him, even though I am really an Inter [Milan's second soccer team] fan, and we dwelled on the issue again; now I may see him in Istanbul for the Champions' League cup final and I will address it with him yet again. I told this to Berlusconi and I will repeat it again to you: Italy's position on the reform of the Security Council is evolving as circumstances change, but when it comes to the vote Albania will vote with Italy. Is that clear?

[Venturini] Very clear indeed. But in that case, I will put the question to you once again: How do you explain Italy's irritation?

[Nano] I cannot resolve the House of Freedoms' problems. Do Berlusconi and Fini talk with one another? Was the foreign minister aware of what I had told Berlusconi when he decided not to come to Albania? Perhaps it was a trip by [German Foreign Minister] Joschka Fischer that made the Italians nervous; or else there must be someone in your country trying to make a career for himself. I cannot know that, nor is it my business to know it. We have only one vote in the United Nations, and I feel that I have been very clear over how we will use it. I hope that this will serve to improve our relations.

Kosovo status

[Corriere della Sera] A hope to which we, too, subscribe - although Fatos is now in danger of getting a phone call from Berlin! But in the fine villa where the Albanian prime minister lives amid stringent security measures, the time had come to address the issue of Kosovo.

Fatos Nano ruled out the possibility of independence for Kosovo leading to a revival of the temptation to set up a "Greater Albania". "No such prospect exists," he explained, "because it would be our ruin and the ruin of the other Albanian communities spread around the Balkans. And in any case, not a single major political force has come out in favour of the idea."

[Venturini] Does Albania back the plan outlined in the [former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano] Amato report providing for Kosovo's gradual march towards independence?

[Nano] Yes, absolutely. The work done under the guiding hand of Giuliano Amato suggests that there is no alternative to European and Atlantic integration in the Balkans; that is what the nostalgics still left in Belgrade need to take on board. I am not talking about [Serbian President Boris] Tadic, about [Serbia and Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk] Draskovic, or about [Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav] Kostunica who has recently become far more moderate; I am talking about those who still hanker after [former Yugoslav Federation President Slobodan] Milosevic. The only way out, for them too, will be a multi-ethnic form of democracy. And in view of that prospect, it would be for the best for the negotiations leading to independence for Kosovo to get off the ground as soon as possible after the planned feasibility study.

[Venturini] But does Kosovo seem ready to you, for instance in connection with safeguards for the Serb minority?

[Nano] I would not call it ready. But that is precisely why it is necessary to start negotiations at once - negotiations conditional upon the full reintegration of the Serbs in Kosovo within a framework of total security. Only thus will everyone have safeguards. The Albanian majority in Kosovo is young, too, and it is sick and tired of having to put up with a 60 per cent unemployment rate; it would be in danger of exploding unless we were to give it prospects and assistance. But with negotiations taking place, everything will be different.

[Venturini] Do you dialogue with the most important leaders in Belgrade?

[Nano] Of course; I speak with Tadic just the same way as I speak with [Kosovo President Ibrahim] Rugova. A new awareness, new mutual trust is coming into being in the Balkans after the time of wars; but we need to prove capable of giving up the policies of the past. My decision to send my foreign minister to Belgrade attracted quite a bit of criticism. But it does not matter, because that is the way forward. The Serbs, too, will realize that in the end; some people say that they are seeking major political compensation for accepting the loss of Kosovo, which is already a fact.

[Corriere della Sera] Albanian opposition leader Sali Berisha, who is going to try to take Nano's place on 3 July, has been saying basically the same thing as him where Kosovo is concerned: Kosovo today does not offer the necessary safeguards to the Serbian minority, but negotiations must get under way; everyone's common ultimate goal is Europe; and Amato's indication of a gradual path is the right one.

So much the better, although the "misunderstanding" between Italy and Albania over the United Nations does not exactly point in a reassuring direction in connection with our Balkan neighbours' future in Europe.

Source: Corriere della Sera, Milan, in Italian 25 May 05 p 16

BBC Monitoring