Global Policy Forum

by Katarina Kratovac

Yugoslavia's new democratic leadership and the U.N. mission in Kosovo signed an agreement Monday aiming to improve security and living conditions for minority Serbs in Kosovo.

The document - signed in Belgrade in the presence of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica - is meant to encourage Kosovo Serbs to vote in elections next week in the ethnic Albanian-majority province.

Nebojsa Covic, the top Serb official for Kosovo, described the agreement as the ``start of Yugoslavia's return to Kosovo. It is proof that we are not giving up on Kosovo.''

``Considering all the past violence and terrorism in Kosovo, this day is a landmark,'' Covic said, adding the ``task ahead now is to get Kosovo Serbs to show up at the polls in as large numbers as possible.''

The head of the U.N. mission in Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup, said the agreement did not mean that Yugoslav rule was being reintroduced in the province.

``The idea of this document is to get the support of Belgrade for Serb participation in Kosovo institutions,'' said Haekkerup, who signed the document after returning to Pristina, Kosovo's capital.

The United Nations and NATO took charge of Kosovo - a province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia - after a 1999 NATO bombing campaign ended Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on its ethnic Albanians, in which thousands were killed.

Since then, up to 200,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo, fearing revenge attacks at the hands of ethnic Albanians. Dozens of Serbs have been killed and 1,300 are missing. About 100,000 Serbs still live in the province, which has a population of 2 million.

Voters in the Nov. 17 elections, the first province-wide poll, will choose lawmakers to govern the region together with U.N. officials and NATO-led peacekeepers.

Kosovo Serb political leaders issued a statement calling the agreement ``unacceptable since it failed to provide conditions for our participation in the elections and it separates Kosovo from Serbia and Yugoslavia.''

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