November 16, 2000
The UN administrator of Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, said Thursday that parliamentary elections should be held early next year to speed up the process of autonomy. He told a public session of the Security Council that "this is even more pressing following the municipal elections" organised by the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) on October 28. "We now have to accelerate the process of defining substantial autonomy and develop institutions of self-government, with the Kosovars sharing more and more responsibility in the administration of Kosovo," Kouchner said. "I would suggest that those central elections be held early next year, possibly in the spring," he said.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, endorsed his remarks and denounced what he called "foot-dragging" by some other countries which wanted to delay the poll for 12 months. "A one-year delay would be a tremendous mistake. The idea that you need a year to prepare them is ridiculous," Holbrooke said.
Kosovo, a province of Serbia, has been under UN administration since June 1999, when NATO warplanes forced the Serbian armed forces out of the territory to halt the oppression of the ethnic Albanian majority. Security Council Resolution 1244, which set up UNMIK, called for "substantial autonomy and meaningful self-administration for Kosovo." At the same time, it reaffirmed "the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", which is dominated by Serbia.
The representative of the government of newly democratic Yugoslavia, Vladislav Mladenovic, told the council "we are ready and will work towards achieving substantial autonomy for Kosovo." He did not respond to Kouchner's call for parliamentary elections in the province.
