By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Nov 14 2001 (IPS)

More than one million registered voters go to the polls in the UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo on Nov 17.

According to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the 120-member parliament of Kosovo will be elected by some 910,000 registered ethnic Albanian voters, and by about 170,000 Serbs.

More than 13,000 OSCE staff will monitor the elections.

The province’s 1.8-million ethnic Albanians have formed three parties: the Democratic League of Kosovo (DSK) headed by Ghandi- like politician Ibrahim Rugova, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK) of former rebel leader Hashim Thaci and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), headed by another guerrilla leader Ramush Haradinaj.

On their part, Serbs have formed a coalition party called “Povratak” (Return).

Documents setting up the conditions for the elections show that Serbs and other minorities living in the province (Turks, Gypsies) could obtain up to 30 seats in parliament.

The common denominator for all the ethnic Albanian parties remains the independence of Kosovo, which looks distant now.

An agreement forbidding the proclamation of the independence of Kosovo by the new parliament was signed between the head of UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Hans Haekkerup and the leader of Serbian Coordination Team for Kosovo Nebojsa Covic earlier this month.

The UN resolution 1244 and all the other relevant documents treat Kosovo as part of Serbia, although Belgrade has not exercised any authority in the province since June 1999.

Kosovo became a virtual UN protectorate in 1999, after 11 weeks of NATO bombing campaign against Serbia.

The air campaign by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) aimed at ending ethnic violence and repression by the former regime of Slobodan Milosevic against ethnic Albanians seeking independence. Milosevic’s regime described the struggle for independence by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) as “terrorism”.

The hasty withdrawal of more than 100,000 Serb security forces from Kosovo in June 1999 was accompanied by the exodus of more than 200,000 Kosovo Serbs, who fled to Serbia fearing revenge by ethnic Albanians.

Less than 130,000 Serbs have remained in Kosovo, mostly in the northern enclaves bordering Serbia. They will vote in Kosovo, while their exiled compatriots will cast their votes in 117 polling stations set up across Serbia.

The collapse of Milosevic’s regime last year marked a new era for Kosovo and its exiled Serbs.

Unlike Milosevic, the new administration in Belgrade did not boycott UNMIK and negotiated the participation of Serbs in the Kosovo elections.

The deal sparked outrage among ethnic Albanian parties. Ramush Haradinaj, of AAK, says: “We will not recognise it, nor consider it.”

Rugova, leader of the most popular party, DSK, says “Kosovo’s independence is a fait accompli and needs only a legal endorsement to become de jure”.

An editorial in the daily “Zeri” says the 1999 NATO air raids were viewed by ethnic Albanians as contributions by the West towards “the independence of Kosovo”.

Alarmed, NATO Secretary General George Robertson last week visited the province, where he reiterated NATO’s commitment to a multiethnic Kosovo after the Nov 17 elections.

“NATO took military action of a very substantial nature in 1999 to stop the creation of a mono-ethnic Kosovo,” Robertson said.

Milosevic’s troops forced more than 800,000 ethnic Albanians to flee the province in 1999.

“NATO will not tolerate the creation of another mono-ethnic state,” he warned.

“Both ethnic Albanian separatists and Serb unionists will finally realise that the old times are gone,” political analyst Aleksandar Lojpur told IPS. “No ethnic community will be able to dominate the other.”

“Like the rest of Europe, this area will have to adhere to the principles of democracy, human rights and joint decision making for the future of both ethnic Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo,” he said.

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