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Serbs to hold elections in Kosovo, defying independence SULEJMAN KLLOKOQIAssociated Press Writer Released : Monday, March 31, 2008 10:57 AM LAPLJE SELO, Kosovo-Serbia will organize elections in the Serb-dominated parts of Kosovo in defiance of Kosovo's declared independence, a government official said Monday. Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said Serbia's May 11 parliamentary and local vote will also be held in the Serb regions of Kosovo. "Kosovo is part of Serbia and parliamentary and local elections will be held in this territory," Samardzic said after meeting local Serb leaders in the village of Laplje Selo, just south of the capital, Pristina. Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu branded the move an attempt to challenge Kosovo's statehood and said Serbia would not be allowed to use the poll to set up government structures. "These elections cannot serve as the basis for building Serbia's state structures in Kosovo. Absolutely not," Sejdiu told reporters in the capital Pristina. Kosovo's U.N. authorities, who have run the province since the 1999 Serb-Kosovo Albanian war, oppose such a vote, saying they are the only ones who can organize elections in Kosovo. Kosovo Serbs, who comprise about 10 percent of Kosovo's two million people, have voted in all Serbia's elections since 1999, when Belgrade lost control of the province. The May vote would be the first in Kosovo since it split from Serbia on Feb. 17. EU and U.N. officials have criticized Samardzic and other Serb leaders for trying to divide Kosovo between Albanians and Serbs following the Feb. 17 declaration of independence. On Monday, Samardzic repeated his call for splitting Kosovo along ethnic lines, but according to population rather than territory, with Belgrade in control of various areas where Serbs live. "The Serbs will continue to work with Serb institutions and the Serb government and that is the functional division of Kosovo," Samardzic said. "There will not be any territorial division of Kosovo." He also said Belgrade would pay Serbs who have followed Belgrade's instructions to boycott the new country's institutions. "Now our people are without financial incomes, and we as a state we have to take financial care of their lives," he said. Meanwhile, Serbian Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac accused Samardzic and other allies of Serbia's nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica of "coordinating" riots by Serbian nationalists in Belgrade and Kosovo after Kosovo declared independence. The rioters have attacked Western embassies in Belgrade and torched a part of the U.S. embassy on Feb. 21. Earlier this month, deadly clashes between Kosovo Serbs and international forces in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica left one U.N. policemen dead and several injured. Sutanovac, an ally of Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic, told the Belgrade Blic daily that the riots were "coordinated and led ... in an agreement between Samardzic and the prime minister." The nationalists could win power in the May parliamentary vote in Serbia, when they face off against pro-Western parties. The election was called after the government collapsed in disputes over Kosovo's independence and Serbia's future in the European Union. The nationalists have gained strength from growing frustration over Western recognition of the independence of Kosovo. Serbia, which considers Kosovo its historic and religious heartland, says Kosovo's statehood is illegal under international law. Kosovo Serbs are staunchly opposed to European Union efforts to replace the U.N. mission in Kosovo. Yves de Kermabon, who heads the 1,800-strong EU mission in Kosovo, said Monday the deployment of EU policemen, judges and prosecutors in the Serb-controlled areas "will need some time." Associated Press Writers Dusan Stojanovic from Belgrade Serbia and Nebi Qena from Pristina, Kosovo contributed to this report. __._,_.___
