Serbia to Hold Local Elections in Kosovo Despite Warning

Serbian news reports say Belgrade has officially decided to go forward with its own local elections in newly independent Kosovo, in a move the United Nations says is illegal.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence and has vowed to maintain its control in Serb parts of its former province.

Serbia's official Tanjug news agency says Belgrade's electoral commission adopted a resolution late Wednesday confirming plans to organize the May 11 vote in Serb-inhabited areas of Kosovo.

The new Kosovo government in Pristina has not responded publicly to the reports. But the head of the U.N. mission in Kosovo told British radio the world body will not recognize election results.

Local U.N. mission chief Joachim Ruecker said the Serbian decision violates the U.N. mandate for overseeing Kosovo's political and military affairs. But he said his agency will not move to stop the polls.

Kosovo and its 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia February 17. More than 30 nations have offered recognition, including the United States and many European governments. Belgrade has responded by withdrawing its ambassadors from those countries.

NATO airstrikes in 1999 drove Serb forces from Kosovo, which has since been administered by the United Nations.

Kosovo Minister Rejects Del Ponte Allegations

Allegations that Kosovo Albanians killed Kosovo Serbs and sold their organs are a "pure fabrication", Kosovo Justice Minister Nekibe Kelmendi claims.

Kelmendi was commenting on claims reportedly made by former Chief Prosecutor at the Hague Tribunal, Carla Del Ponte in her new book, The Hunt, that former Kosovo guerrillas killed dozens of Serbs to sell their organs.

Kelmendi rejected the claims, saying that they originated either with Del Ponte herself or with Serbia.

“I had four private meetings with Del Ponte before and she never raised this issue,” Kelmendi said.

Del Ponte is currently Switzerland's ambassador to Argentina. The Hunt is an account of her investigations into war crimes committed during the break-up of former Yugoslavia.

A proposed promotional event for the book in Milan was abandoned when the Swiss government ruled that promoting her book was incompatible with Del Ponte’s position as an ambassador.

In the book, Del Ponte allegedly writes that former Kosovo Albanian fighters deported Kosovo Serbs to the town of Burrel in Albania, where they killed them and sold their organs.

Officials from the international NGO Human Rights Watch have demanded that the Kosovo government, including the Justice Ministry, launch an investigation into the allegations.

“If she knew of such cases then she should be charged with withholding evidence and hiding these crimes,” Kelmendi said.

Kosovo plans to open 20 embassies abroad this year

Kosovo authorities plan to open 20 embassies abroad, the deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed state, Hajredin Kuci, told journalists on Friday.

Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence on February 17, adopting a new national flag and national emblem. The province's sovereignty has so far been formally recognized by 36 countries, including the United States and most European Union members. Russia and China have consistently backed Belgrade's position that Kosovo must remain a part of Serbia.

Kuci said that the country plans to open embassies in the U.S., Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Albania and Croatia.

On Thursday, Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said that the first three diplomatic missions will be opened in Washington, New York and Brussels immediately after the new constitution takes effect on June 15. In the meantime Kosovo's needs to establish its Foreign Ministry.

The annual staffing costs for just one diplomatic mission are expected to be around $370,000 for "the world's newest state".

The U.S, Germany and Switzerland have so far opened embassies in Kosovo. Many countries, including Russia, have sent diplomatic missions to Pristina.

U.N. cautions Serbia against local polls in Kosovo

The United Nations cautioned Serbia on Wednesday against holding its May local elections among Serbs in newly independent Kosovo, saying the results would not be considered valid.

"They are in violation of (U.N. Security Council Resolution) 1244 ... and will have no legal validity," said a spokesman for the U.N. mission that has run Kosovo since the 1998-99 war and pullout of Serb forces.

Serbia holds parliamentary and local elections on May 11, and plans to conduct both in Kosovo, its former province which declared independence with Western backing on Feb 17.

Ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people. Backed by Russia, Serbia and Kosovo's 120,000 remaining Serbs reject the secession.

The U.N. mission has indicated it has no objection to Kosovo Serbs voting in the parliamentary election as they have done before, but Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders say local polls represent a threat to the sovereignty of the new state.

U.N. spokesman Alexander Ivanko said the mission had received a request from Belgrade to hold the elections, and was drafting a response.

U.N. police and NATO peacekeepers would have difficulty preventing Serbs from voting in the local elections without resorting to force.

But U.N. officials have floated the idea of letting them vote, and refusing to recognize the results.

Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces to halt the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year counter-insurgency war.

Serbia is now strengthening a network of Kosovo Serb parallel structures, telling Serbs to boycott the new state and deepening Kosovo's de facto partition.