[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=AB?=ALBEUROPA=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BB?=} Violence in Kosovo Down ahead of Local Elections

[Nikoll A Mirakaj]

Violence in Kosovo Down ahead of Local Elections 

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 28, 2000 -- (Reuters) Violence in Kosovo has declined substantially in the run up to municipal elections on Oct. 28, the chief UN administrator in the Yugoslav province said on Wednesday.

"The level of violence is decreasing, there is no major incident in the campaign," Bernard Kouchner, the civilian head of the UN Mission in Kosovo, known as UNMIK told reporters.

Kosovo's municipal elections, the first in more than a generation, is the first test of democracy in the province since NATO and the United Nations took over control in June last year.

Nineteen parties are fielding candidates in the elections, which are however marred by an abstention of ethnic Serbs who have not registered on electoral lists.

Kouchner said that fewer than 1,000 Serbs who had attempted to register were intimidated by fellow Serbs taking their orders from Belgrade. "It was a political mistake," he said.

Some 180,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since June 1999 when international peacekeepers took control of the province after Yugoslav forces withdrew following NATO's 11-week bombing campaign to halt Belgrade's repression of ethnic Albanians.

About 100,000 Serbs are now left living in the province. Kouchner said that even though Serbs were boycotting the municipal poll, they were still active members of administrative structures in Kosovo.

Similarly, he reported a low turnout among Serbs for parliamentary and presidential elections in Yugoslavia last Sunday.

The election outcome, pitting President Slobodan Milosevic against opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica, is still unclear. Yugoslavia's state-run electoral commission is scheduling a runoff round after reporting Kostunica beat Milosevic in the first round, but failed to get 50 percent.

Kostunica said he will not participate in a runoff because the opposition is confident that it clinched a majority in the poll.

Kouchner said it was too early to gauge a reaction from the Kosovo's ethnic Albanians to the election result. But he indicated they did not view Kostunica as a great improvement on Milosevic.

He cited reports in a Kosovo newspaper that Kostunica had his picture taken with Serb paramilitaries in Kosovo holding a Kalashnikov. "But certainly they want to see democracy in Serbia," Kouchner said.

(C)2000 Copyright Reuters Limited. 

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