Belgrade tells Kosovo Serbs to boycott vote

Belgrade tells Kosovo Serbs' to boycott vote
Agence France Presse - July 29, 2004

BELGRADE, July 29 - The Serb minority in troubled Kosovo should boycott forthcoming parliamentary elections in the province, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Thursday.

"The Serbian government has recommended that Serbs in Kosovo do not to take part in the legislative elections" due to be held in the province on October 23, Kostunica told reporters here.

The recommendation was made after a plan drawn up by Kosovo's UN mission (UNMIK) and the ethnic Albanian government to reform local institutions failed to provide adequate protection for Serbs and other minorities, the prime minister added.

"The plan has no element of protection for Serbs and other non-Albanians," Kostunica said.

The decision came after consultations with newly elected President Boris Tadic and Kosovo Serb representatives.

Following the violence which rocked the UN-run southern Serbian province in March when mobs from the ethnic Albanian majority went on the rampage against the Serb minority for two days, the Serbian parliament adopted a plan on decentralization and the protection of Serbs in Kosovo.

Nineteen people were killed, over 900 were injured and more than 4,000 others, mostly Serbs, were driven from their homes in the worst trouble since the end of the 1998-99 war between Serbian forces and Kosovo's separatist Albanians.

"By non-participation in the elections we will fight for our plan," Kostunica said, adding that "Serbs have no interest in taking part in the elections."

Ahead of previous Kosovo elections in 2002 Kostunica, who was then federal president, had appealed to Serbs to take part in the vote following an accord with UNMIK to improve security situation for Serbs.

"Nothing has been done since... and the result was the March 17 violence," Kostunica said.

More than 200,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo fearing ethnically-motivated violence since NATO troops and UNMIK took control over the province in June 1999.

Some 100,000 Serbs who have decided to stay in Kosovo have a limited freedom of movement and live mainly in enclaves protected by NATO troops.

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