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PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- On a sun-drenched afternoon surrounded by thousands of supporters, former guerrilla commander Hashim Thaci promised Kosovo's ethnic Albanians that one day their will would decide the future of their homeland.
For now, though, Thaci's Kosovo Liberation Army is trying to impose its will on the Serbian province and grab as much power as it can in the postwar disorder.
As the United Nations struggles to set up a civil administration to run Kosovo and more than 35,000 NATO troops provide security, the KLA has appointed its people to fill local leadership positions throughout the province, taken over former state-run property and requisitioned apartments and vehicles.
More and more, the ambitions of the rebels come into conflict with the mission of the international community, even as the KLA disarms itself under an agreement with NATO.
Twice last week, a KLA commander serving as minister of public order in the interim ethnic Albanian leadership headed by Thaci was confronted by NATO troops. In Kosovska Mitrovica, local KLA leaders inspired a protest that sparked clashes with French troops.
In its drive for control, the KLA enjoys a newfound popularity from the war. Although fewer than 5 percent of Kosovo Albanians belong to the KLA, its struggle against a stronger Serb force has given the organization heroic status.
It has also been strengthened by the weakness of rival Ibrahim Rugova, whose popularity eroded due to his self-exile in Italy and Serb television footage showing him meeting with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's aides during the war. Rugova said fear for his family's safety forced him into those talks.
Some U.N. representatives criticize the KLA for trying to effectively take over Kosovo before a new social and political system gets set up.
``They confiscate anything they want,'' said Jiri Dienstbier, a U.N. human rights official.
According to political analyst Belul Beqaj, who has done consulting work for Thaci, neither the international community that holds formal power in Kosovo nor the KLA, which has the most influence, properly acknowledge the standing of the other.
That prolongs the void of legitimate governing structures, allowing local groups and criminal gangs from neighboring Albania to destabilize the province.
Thaci, who rose to prominence by representing the KLA at the Rambouillet talks that produced the agreement guiding the rebuilding of Kosovo, insists his rebel army now wants to make sure a purely democratic system emerges.
``Kosovo's people will decide the future in a democratic way,'' he declared Saturday at a KLA rally in the northern town of Podujevo attended by thousands of cheering ethnic Albanians. He made clear the group seeks Kosovo's independence, but only under the guidelines of Rambouillet -- after a three-year transition period and a referendum.
Others in his leadership appear to be chafing under the control of the international community. His minister of public order, Rexhep Selimi, was detained for a few hours Wednesday night for threatening British troops who questioned him for failing to show a U.N. identity card required to wear a military uniform, carry a handgun and travel with armed bodyguards.
Then on Friday night, troops acting on a tip searched a house where Selimi and other men were meeting. They found a submachine gun, ammunition, radio frequency scanners and identity cards marked ``Ministry of Public Order'' that said bearers were allowed to carry weapons, confiscate property and detain people -- all illegal acts.
A NATO statement warned against anyone assuming police powers in Kosovo, saying its troops were, for now, the only legitimate security force in the territory.
In Kosovska Mitrovica, ethnic Albanians seeking free movement in the Serb section of town across the Ibar River scuffled with French soldiers blocking their way Saturday, leaving three demonstrators injured.
``The KLA leaders are only interested in keeping up the pressure,'' complained French Lt. Meriadec Raffray. ``They want to provoke an incident.''
Throughout Kosovo, aid agency workers say they must deal with the KLA to get things done.
``We talked to the mayor's office and we had a deal with local police, but it was one and the same -- KLA,'' said Roar Henriksen, a Norwegian Church Aid worker cleaning contaminated wells in western Kosovo.
Most troubling are the crimes -- murders, beatings, forced removals -- that Serb victims often blame on men in KLA uniforms. In Pristina, KLA signs went up on former government-run shops soon after the war ended and ethnic Albanian refugees returning to Kosovo moved into Serb or empty apartments they claimed were promised to them by KLA officials.
Thaci denies the KLA breaks the law, and even political opponents give him the benefit of the doubt.
``No doubt there can be some groups, organized gangs like robbers, that maybe even use KLA uniforms,'' said Milazim Krasniqi, the spokesman for the rival League of Democratic Kosovo headed by Rugova.
U.N. spokesman Kevin Kennedy acknowledged that a KLA attempt to assume authority could be a problem, but expressed optimism that the province's international administrators would offer a better alternative.
``You're going to have in here a civil administration that draws on experience from many countries in areas that the KLA cannot match,'' he said.