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Wednesday, October 25 11:46 AM SGT

Kouchner banking on fair play as Kosovo polling day looms

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Oct 25 (AFP) -

The success or otherwise of Kosovo's historic first democratic election Saturday
will be the key test
of Bernard Kouchner's mandate as the province's UN chief, and he awaits it with
cautious optimisim.

Only 16 months after he took the war-torn region in hand, Kouchner believes
organising the poll at
all is an outstanding achievement.

"Truly, it's exceptional," he told AFP, "19 parties, some coalitions, citizens
coalitions, independent
candidates. Who would have thought it?"

Flushed with the apparent success of the poll's organisation in such a short
time, he offered a
concession to the Serb community, whose boycott turned the election into a
mono-ethnic affair.

If they show willingness to co-operate now that the threat of retaliation by
former Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic has been removed, a way could be found to hold new elections
before the two
year terms of Saturday's victors are complete.

"I believe, we could well within six months, or four months, decide to register
(Serbs) and redo the
elections," he said.

In the meantime Serbs would be nominated to the councils to prevent their
domination by ethnic
Albanian leaders, whose supporters have enthusiastically backed voter
registration and the
campaign.

After a series of apparently politically motivated killings in August, many
observers feared violence
between the ethnic Albanian parties, who all stood on an independence platform,
could mar the
election.

But since then, killings directly linked to politics have died away, Kouchner
said, giving him room to
hope that the trust he placed in local politicians in pushing for early
elections might be repaid.

"We could talk in almost psychoanalytic terms," he said, "It seems that for the
first time in their
history, there has been a real election campaign that has allowed people to
express themselves, to
express their opinions by other means than through violence."

The most important task of Kouchner's mandate under UN Security Council 1244,
which placed the
breakaway Yugoslav province under an international protectorate, is the develop
the institutions of
self-government.

His mission was under pressure from the United States and the Kosovo Albanians
themselves to
hold a swift election and from Yugoslavia, Russian and Kosovo Serbs not to hold
it all, fearing it
would dilute Belgrade's sovereignty over the province.

To the political pressure was added the fear that the ethnic Albanians, who had
grown used to the
idea of using violence for political ends as they fought Slobodan Milosevic's
war machine, would turn
once again to the bomb over the ballot box to settle their own differences.

But the former French health minister said: "The campaign has been open, no more
violent than in
France. I'm touching wood because it's not over, but I want it to be over."

Saturday's elections will be the first chance for Kosovo's voters to oust
municipal councillors who
forced their way into power as guerrillas in favour of democratically elected
moderates. If this
happens, some, including officers of Kosovo's peacekeeping force, fear a violent
reaction.

Kouchner, cheered by his success Tuesday in persuading the leaders of Kosovo's
five major parties
to sign a pledge to respect the results, played down this possibility.

"I'm prepared for trouble," he said, "I fear it, but I don't expect it."

The announcement Tuesday by ex-Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers that he had
been chosen to
become UN High Commissioner for Refugees closed off one obvious career move for
Kouchner the
humanitarian campaigner.

But he admitted that he would be one of many members of the UN mission to leave
in the months
soon after the election.

"A year and a half's a long time," he said, "This place tires you out."