Serbs To Conduct Separate Elections

By Merita Dhimgjoka
Associated Press Writer
Friday, Oct. 27, 2000; 7:24 p.m. EDT

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Kosovo Serb leaders on Friday denounced
upcoming U.N.-sponsored municipal elections as a "catastrophic mistake"
that would further divide ethnic Albanians and Serbs.

Serb leaders said they would hold their own ballot for local
representatives, but did not announce a date. U.N. officials said the issue
was still under discussion.

"This is proof of the disintegration of multiethnic Kosovo," Serb leader
Momcilo Trajkovic said.

Kosovo voters are to go to the polls Saturday to fill council seats in 30
municipalities in the first internationally supervised elections in the
province's history.

Serbs were given ample chance to participate in the election, U.N.
spokeswoman Susan Manuel said. But by the October deadline, only a
few hundred of the province's estimated 80,000 Serbs had registered to
vote.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, chairwoman of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, which is running the election, urged Kosovo's
people to "exercise their democratic rights" by voting Saturday.

"I am looking forward to tomorrow's Election Day being equally free of
violence," Ferrero-Waldner said Friday in Vienna.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the people of
Kosovo to take part in the elections "in a spirit of peace and tolerance"
and to respect the vote outcome.

In a statement Friday, Annan said the U.N. mission running the Yugoslav
province would begin transferring administrative responsibilities to the
elected municipal leaders once the results are certified.

U.N. civilian police and NATO-led peacekeepers will guard the 1,464
polling stations to try to ensure a peaceful ballot. About 5,500 foreign and
local observers will monitor the vote to try to prevent fraud.

More than 90 percent of the province's 2 million people are ethnic
Albanians. The rest are Serbs, Slavic Muslims, ethnic Turks and Gypsies,
who are also known as Roma.

The region's chief U.N. administrator, Bernard Kouchner, said he would
appoint Serbs to municipal councils in Serb enclaves.

But Serb leaders have rejected the plan. Serbs appointed by Kouchner
would become "instruments in the hands of the Albanians," Trajkovic said.

Serbs and other non-ethnic Albanian groups should form their own
councils with the help of Yugoslav leaders in Belgrade, said Trajkovic and
other Serb leaders after meeting in Strpce, 30 miles south of Pristina.

"We have requested that local elections for the Serbs be organized, and in
this way we can get legitimate Serb leaders," Trajkovic said.

Serbs have traditionally rejected their identification as a minority group
because they form the majority in Yugoslavia's main republic Serbia, of
which Kosovo is a province.

By calling themselves a minority, Serbs say they would in effect be
underscoring the division of Kosovo from Serbia, which they and the
United Nations insists is part of Serbia.

© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press