SERBIA: Kosovo holds parliamentary and local elections

The breakaway province of Kosovo holds its third post-war parliamentary election on Saturday (November 17) ahead of a promised showdown with Serbia over the ethnic Albanian majority's demand for independence. The vote coincides with the climax of last-ditch negotiations between Serbia and the Kosovo Albanians, which show no sign of producing a deal on the fate of the United Nations-run territory. Kosovo Albanian voters will return a leadership united behind a promise to declare independence after mediators wrap up talks and report back to the United Nations by Dec. 10. Ex-guerrilla commander Hashim Thaci and his opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo enjoy a narrow lead in opinion polls, but will have to form a coalition, possibly with the Democratic League of Kosovo of late independence icon Ibrahim Rugova. Recently Thaci told Reuters he still believes Kosovo will gain independence. "I am entirely committed to successfully start building on independence, to attract investors and for the Western world to come here and assist our economy to build a better life, Kosovo's representation in international bodies will come step by step" he said. The northern town of Mitrovica is one of the few Serb inhabited urban areas, and partition of this part of Kosovo was not ruled out. The European Union's envoy in the new troika that manages the 120-day negotiation, Wolfgang Ischinger of Germany, was the first to "imply" earlier this year that a partition would even be considered if accepted by both Kosovo and Serbia. However, Melihate Termkolli, LDK (Kosovo Democratic League) Minster of Public Services, told his supporters at a rally in the Albanian controlled part of Mitrovica they are not prepared to give any land to Serbia. "Kosovo doesn't have a single millimetre of its land to trade with," he said. Western powers with 16,000 NATO troops on the ground see little prospect of returning Kosovo to Serb rule, and are worried Albanian frustration at their political and economic limbo could erupt in violence. New "players" joined the game in this years elections. Millionaire Behgjet Pacolli and his New Alliance of Kosovo (ARK) was third in last shown polls with 16 percent of voters. The Swiss-based construction tycoon made his fortunes in ex-Soviet republics. His election billboards boast he is "Too rich to be corrupted". "I didn't enter into politics for an armchair, I don't need it, if I wanted that I already have them all over the world," said Pacolli. Not everyone in Kosovo is looking forward to elections. The self-styled "Self-Determination" which constantly organises protests against talks with Serbia and calls the U.N. "Occupiers", is campaigning against elections. 31-year old Albin Kurti, head of "Self-Determination" is a former student leader who is under house arrest for organising a protest at which two people died early this year. "For whomever you vote in Kosovo, the elections will be won by Mr. Joachim Ruecker, because he holds all the power here" said Kurti. The election campaign has been dominated by party pledges to tackle 60 percent unemployment, minimal foreign investment and rampant corruption - if only statehood would come. But Belgrade ally Russia has so far blocked the adoption of a U.N. independence plan drafted by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari after 13 months of sterile Serb-Albanian talks. The West reluctantly agreed to another four months of talks, led by a trio of mediators from the United States, Russia and the EU. The two sides talk again on Nov. 20 in Brussels, before an expected make-or-break encounter at the end of the month. The Kosovo Albanian 'Unity' negotiating team of president, prime minister and opposition leaders will remain unchanged until talks end, regardless of the result of the election. Reluctant to give legitimacy to a parliament threatening to declare independence, Serb leaders in Belgrade and the influential Orthodox Church have told Kosovo's 120,000 remaining Serbs to again boycott the elections, both to the central parliament and local municipalities. The head of Kosovo's U.N. administration, German diplomat Joachim Ruecker, has accused Belgrade of pressuring local Serbs not to go to elections. "We hear this calls from Belgrade but they also come from some inside the Kosovo Serb community, and in addition we have clear indications of intimidation's and threats to potential candidates and voters," said Ruecker. The editor of daily newspaper "Expres" Berat Buzhala thinks that Kosovo government is responsible for Serb boycott. "I think that if we had worked more with Serbs, we would have more loyal Serbs toward Kosovo institutions, but we had a failure of Kosovo's leadership in this, and that's why we have this situation," said Buzhala. The election for the 120-seat Kosovo parliament is the third since 1999, when NATO bombed Serbia for 11 weeks in its first humanitarian war to save Kosovo Albanian civilians from a wave of ethnic cleansing.

ITN Source | November 15, 2007

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