SERBIA: Kosovo Serbs vote in Serbian general elections;ethnic Albanians interviewed in the breakaway province assert Kosovo's right to independence.

Kosovo Serbs went to the polls on Sunday (January 21) in Serbian general elections. The government which emerges from the election will face two major issues of particular importance to those living in the breakaway province: the future status of Kosovo and the handover of top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have been asserting the Serbian breakaway province's right to independence. The Serbian poll coincides with the first anniversary of the death from cancer of former President Ibrahim Rugova. Kosovan President Fatmir Sejdiu and Kosovan government paid respects at his grave. Serbians in Kosovo went to the polls on Sunday (January 21) in a general election which is expected to be a tight race between ultranationalists and pro-Western reformers. Serbia is still recovering from a decade of sanctions and isolation under autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, who was ousted in 2000 and died in 2006 while on trial for war crimes. Opinion polls show the race is too close to call. The ultra-nationalist Radical Party and the pro-Western Democratic Party are polling about 30 percent, not enough to form a government alone. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia is in third place and seen as the kingmaker, equally likely to support either of its rivals in forming a government. About 6.6 million Serbs are entitled to vote. Polling stations close 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) and the first projections of the result are expected before midnight. The new government faces having to implement more painful economic changes and deal with two major international issues: the future of the breakaway Kosovo province and the handover of top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic. High turn up is expected among Serbs living in Kosovo, many perceive the election as the last chance to express their political preferences while Kosovo is still part of Serbia. "I cast my vote so that politicians I hope will make our lives better win. I voted for us not to be scattered away. I voted for number 4 (Radicals)." Zivojin Mikic, a Serbian pensioner living in Kosovo said. The United Nations is expected to rule this year on the fate of Kosovo. The West favours granting independence from Serbia to Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians as they have demanded since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces accused of killing civilians while fighting an insurgency. The major parties say they will not accept the loss of Kosovo, but the Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic -- the party favoured by the West -- has come closest to telling Serbs that it might be inevitable. Brussels froze talks on closer ties last year and said it would restart them only when Mladic, accused of genocide, was on trial. Some Western officials accuse hardline nationalists in Serbia's military and police of helping Mladic to hide and evade trial by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The Democratic Party says arresting him is a top priority. The Radicals, who consider Mladic a hero, are unlikely to deliver him. The streets of the Kosovan capital, Pristina, were quiet on Sunday as Serbs voted for a new government in the shadow of an imminent decision on the fate of the breakaway province, where the ethnic Albanian majority expects to clinch independence within months. Newspaper headlines indicated that the issue of Kosovo's future status was a major election issue in Serbia. Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces accused of atrocities and ethnic cleansing in a two-year counter-insurgency war. Interviewed on a street in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, on Sunday Kosovo Albanian Ramadan Koqinaj said the Serbian elections had nothing to do with Kosovo, which he described as being a separate country from Serbia. "These elections for us have no meaning at all. As a neighbouring country we wish them the best of luck, but we are a country, the situation on the ground is on our side. We worked hard for this - one hundred years and these elections mean nothing to us", he said. Kosovan Deputy Prime Minister, Lutfi Haziri, told Reuters he hoped it would be the last time that Serbs living in Kosovo would be voting in Serbian elections. "The Serbian elections will not affect the final status of Kosovo, it will not affect Kosovo's institutions. And fortunately Kosovo Serbs are invited to participate we believe for the last time in Serbian elections." Sunday also marked the first anniversary of the death from lung cancer of Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, who came to personify the Kosovan Albanians' drive for independence during the last 15 years of his life. Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu, Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku and members of Kosovo's cabinet paid their respects at Rugova's grave.

ITN Source | January 21, 2007