October 26, 2001
The United Nations administrator of Kosovo failed to win a pledge yesterday from Yugoslav authorities that Kosovo's Serbs will take part in the province's general election.
Yugoslav officials demanded that Hans Haekkerup guarantee security and better living conditions for the Serbs before they agree to participate in the vote. In a sign of frustration, about 100 relatives of Serbs who have disappeared in Kosovo attacked Haekkerup's motorcade in Belgrade, breaking through police lines and pounding on the cars with fists and sticks.
No damage or injuries were reported.
While in the Yugoslav capital, Haekkerup met with President Vojislav Kostunica and other officials to discuss the Nov. 17 election in Kosovo and conditions for Serb participation in the vote.
International officials want the Yugoslav government to persuade Serbs living in Kosovo to vote. It has been reluctant to do that, fearing that their participation could be interpreted as an endorsement of what they see as a movement toward Kosovo's independence from Yugoslavia.
A statement from Kostunica's office issued after the meeting said "big differences" existed between the Yugoslav president and Haekkerup on the issue but added that the two will work together in the next several days to overcome them.
Hundreds of Kosovo Serbs died or disappeared in Kosovo after NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, which helped prompt President Slobodan Milosevic to end his crackdown on the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo and withdraw his forces.
Tens of thousands of Serbs and other non-Albanians have fled Kosovo, fearing they will be attacked by ethnic Albanians seeking revenge for the crackdown, in which thousands were killed. About 100,000 Serbs still live in Kosovo, which has a population of 2 million.
Kosovo remains a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's larger republic, but it has been run by the United Nations and NATO since Milosevic's forces were ousted. In the elections, voters are to choose lawmakers who will govern Kosovo together with U.N. officials and NATO-led peacekeepers.
Haekkerup said the elections will not pave the way for the province's independence, but merely for self-rule. He said the best way for Kosovo's Serbs to return home and improve their security was by taking part in the elections.
"The elections are an opportunity for the Kosovo Serbs to send a message to the international community and other ethnic communities in Kosovo," Haekkerup was quoted as saying by the official Yugoslav Tanjug news agency.
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