Kosovo

Published by The Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2004

Serbian Orthodox Church Urges Kosovo Serbs Not To Vote

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

BELGRADE (AP)--Serbia's influential Orthodox Church urged Kosovo Serbs not to vote in an upcoming key election, opposing U.S. and other Western calls for their participation.

The Oct. 23 general election in the province is considered a major test for international officials trying to reconcile Kosovo's bitterly divided ethnic Albanian and Serb communities and establish a multiethnic society. But Kosovo's Serb minority has threatened a boycott, citing a lack of security.

The Orthodox Church 's Holy Synod said in a statement that the U.N. administration and North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led peacekeepers in Kosovo, as well as ethnic Albanian authorities, "have done nothing to improve a highly difficult situation for the Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo."

U.S. and European Union officials have tried to encourage Kosovo's dwindling Serb minority to participate in the elections so that they can have a say in the ethnically tense province's future.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, who visited both Belgrade and Pristina Thursday, said he hoped Kosovo's Serbs would make "a positive decision" as the elections draw nearer.

But the Serbian church argued against participation, saying the Kosovo's international administrators have "done nothing for democratic, human and civic rights of the Serbs in Kosovo."

The church said Serbian government officials must not urge Kosovo Serbs to vote until Kosovo's international administration "gives them efficient protection, including of their property, the church and cultural heritage."

Also Friday, a top adviser in the Serbian government, Slobodan Samardzic, said "there simply are no conditions for (Kosovo) Serbs to take part in the elections - so many of them haven't been allowed to even return to their (prewar) homes" in the southern province.

Kosovo, which officially remains part of Serbia-Montenegro, the successor state to Yugoslavia, has been administered by the U.N. mission and NATO-led peacekeepers since mid-1999, when a NATO air war against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic ended a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians.



Volume 6 Number 40 - Tuesday, October 4th, 2004	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY