[ALBSA-Info] Serbs Denounce U.N. Elections

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Serbs Denounce U.N. Elections

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Hard-line Serb leaders insist their refusal to 
take part in Kosovo's first internationally supervised elections remains firm 
- despite a U.N. decision to give them more time to change their mind. 

Saturday had been the deadline for Kosovars of all ethnicities - Albanian, 
Serb, Turkish, Gypsies and others - to register for municipal elections in 
October. However, U.N. administrator Bernard Kouchner extended the deadline 
until the close of business Wednesday after international officials said they 
had seen the first clear signs that some Kosovo Serbs wanted to take part. 

``It was decided to give them time to see whether those indications produce 
something tangible,'' said Roland Bless, spokesman for the Organization for 
Security and Cooperation in Europe, which will supervise the balloting. 

After that decision Friday, the official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug quoted 
the hard-line Serb National Council as ruling out any possibility of Serbs 
taking part in registration and elections until Serbs who fled the province 
last year can return. 

However, U.N. sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Serb 
community in the small town of Leposavic was interested in registering. 

Tensions flared Saturday in Kosovska Mitrovica after a grenade was fired into 
the Serb sector of the city from the ethnic Albanian side, the NATO-led 
peacekeeping command said. 

No injuries were reported. But the blast prompted rumors that a Serb cafe had 
been hit, and a crowd of angry Serbs flooded into the area. They dispersed 
Friday night when peacekeepers convinced them the cafe had not been hit. 

But minutes later, another grenade was fired toward a complex of three 
apartment buildings on the Serb side, exploding in an empty apartment, NATO 
said. That brought crowds back out for an hour. 

Kosovska Mitrovica is the site of the largest Serb enclave. And the Serb 
leader there, Oliver Ivanovic, remained adamantly against any participation 
in the elections. 

He wants the United Nations to return 1,500 Serbs to Kosovo by July 25 and a 
timetable for the return of another 210,000 non-Albanians who fled the 
province when Yugoslav forces evacuated in June 1999 following the 78-day 
NATO bombing campaign. 

U.N. officials have resisted the demands, saying a premature return of Serbs 
would only worsen the already tense ethnic climate. 

``The Serbs from this region will not register nor take part in the vote 
until Serbs start returning to Kosovo in bigger numbers,'' said Dragisa 
Milovic, spokesman for Ivanovic. 

``If the international community succeeds in organizing the return of the 
Serbs, guaranteeing their safety, we will change our minds,'' Milovic added. 
``For now, we have absolutely no security in Kosovo, nor are we able to move 
around. Under those conditions, any election would be absurd.'' 

Some leaders of the 15,000-strong Turkish minority were also boycotting. Only 
about 1,000 ethnic Turks had registered by late Friday, the OSCE said. 

Without minority participation, U.N. officials would be forced to decide 
whether to go ahead with a multiethnic election even if only the majority 
Albanians agree to participate in significant numbers. 

Ethnic Albanians are believed to comprise more than 90 percent of Kosovo's 
estimated 2 million people, although no reliable census has been taken in 
decades.