Democratic League of Kosovo
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The Democratic League of Kosovo (Albanian: Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës, LDK) is the 2nd largest political party in Kosovo, It is a Liberal Conservative [1] party and the main Right-wing party in Kosovo.
At the October 24, 2004 legislative elections the party won 45.4% of the popular vote or 47 out of 120 seats (seven of which have now defected to the Nexhat Daci-led Democratic League of Dardania). One of the founding members, Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was president of the party, as well as President of Kosovo, until his death on January 21, 2006. At the last legislative elections held on 17 November 2007, the party won only 22.6% and 25 seats.
[edit] History
During the late 1980s, nationalism was on the surge throughout the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, SFRY, was a self-governed entity over which the SR Serbia had almost no factual control. In the late 1980s, civil unrest which had been striking the province for decades, suddenly erupted further in Kosovo as ethnic Albanians demanded more autonomy (in view of independence). At the same time, Serbian Communists' leader Slobodan Milošević used the situaton in Kosovo as a political means to win popularity among Serbs. In 1989, he abolished the autonomy of SAP Kosovo using amendments to the Serbian Constitution, reverting Kosovo to its pre-1974 status, thus restoring SR Serbia's control of the province. In response, a group of Albanian intellectuals gathered the same year to form the Democratic League of Kosovo which opposed these measures, as well as the ratification of Kosovo's parliament in 1990 which returned the level of Kosovo's autonomy to how it had been sixteen years earlier.
Because of its ideology, which was deemed nationalist and separatist, it was banned by the Yugoslavian authorities, together with the self-styled shadow Kosovo Parliament that opposed the ratifications of Kosovo's real assembly in July 1990. As a result, its members proclaimed in protest on the steps of the parliament building the Sovereign Republic of Kosova, independent from the SFR Yugoslavia, which drafted its own constitution. Claiming that conditions for Albanians were not addressed, the LDK successfully called for a boycott of the Kosovar Albanians of the first free elections in 1990. Following the 1991 population census, in which LDK President Rugova also called for boycott, resulting in only 9,091 Albanians recorded which composed around 2.53% of the Kosovar population, the LDK called the Albanian people to leave and boycott all state institutions until the solution of the Albanian national question. The LDK opposed the centralized control imposed by Belgrade, which reintroduced the Serbian language as the language of Kosovo as well as making other implementations; and they were growing deeply concerned about Belgrade's handling of the Albanian populace with regards to the wider group interests.
By the Spring of 1991, LDK had its basis in diaspora across Zurich, Stuttgart and Brussels and numbered a massive membership of approximately 700,000 people. In September of 1991 the LDK-constituated shadow Albanian parliament of the self-styled Republic of Kosova adopted a resolution supporting full-scale "Independence and Sovereignty of Kosovo". LDK then led the "Coordinating Committee of Albanian Political Parties in Yugoslavia" that included most ethnic Albanian political parties in the SFRY. The decision was that only two choices are viable for peace and stability of the region: 1) unification of all Albanian-populated areas in SFRY, or 2) an undivided Albanian state of all Albanians in the Balkans
LDK was one of the chief organizers of a poorly organized referendum for self-determination in 1992, on which 87% of the Albanian population in Kosovo (numbering 80% of the province's population) voted for independence, which was declared illegal and further drove the rift between the Albanians and the Serbians. In 1992 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed and the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija remained an autonomous area of the Republic of Serbia, LDK successfully called the Albanians, this time those in Central Serbia too, in the Presevo Valley, for boycott of general elections.
LDK expressed bitterness when Kosovo was ignored during the Dayton Accords in 1995 that were supposed to end all Yugoslavian conflicts. Supporting an Albanian resistance movement the "National Movement for the Liberation of Kosovo", it abandoned support of the subsequently organized Kosovo Liberation Army which used violent means to achieve its goals. After 1997, there was a change in the government of the Republic of Albania, with a first democratic cabinet formed, and most LDK members abandoned the desire to unite Kosovo with Albania. LDK's desire for a peaceful solution to the Kosovo conflict lost support among the population and was replaced by the militarist KLA when almost an all-out war erupted in late 1998 and 1999 between the KLA and the Yugoslavian and Serbian forces. Severe atrocities against the Albanian population in Kosovo met with harsh criticism from LDK. With recommendations from the United States, LDK abandoned pursuits for an independent Kosovo and sought negotiations with Belgrade about the level of substantial autonomy for Kosovo, with Ibrahim Rugova traveling to Belgrade and meeting President Milošević (now federal leader) on this matter. The act was criticized by the Albanian public and further downgraded LDK's popularity. After the NATO bombing campaign, LDK leading members were present on the signing of the Kumanovo Treaty that adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and formalized the cessation of hostilities in Kosovo. However despite signing that the future of Kosovo will be negotiated as an autonomous entity, LDK continually supported the independence of Kosovo.
While still the second largest political party in Kosovo, the LDK's support has steadily declined since Kosovo's first elections (municipal) in 2001. Other political parties, including those linked to the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) such as the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), have scored much gains at LDK's expense.
The current President of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu, and the former Chair of Assembly of Kosovo, Kolë Berisha, are members of the Democratic League of Kosovo.
The party is presided by a president and five vice-presidents. The current president of the party is Fatmir Sejdiu.
[edit] See also
- Democratic Party of Kosovo
- Democratic League of Dardania
- Alliance for the Future of Kosovo
- Reformist Party ORA
- New Kosovo Alliance
[edit] External links
- Democratic League of Kosova The official website
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