Serbia goes to the polls on Sunday. Serbs in Kosovo have also been called on to vote in their electoral districts. But those districts are now located in a different country -- Kosovo -- under UN administration. If Belgrade gets its wish, Kosovo's Serbs will be able to vote in Serbian parliamentary and local elections on Sunday, May 11. Serbian citizens who live in Kosovo -- or anywhere else for that matter -- have the right to vote just as those who live in the country do. But there's a catch: Serbia wants to hold elections in Kosovo. The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), which oversees the former Serbian administration, rejects the idea, as do Kosovar Albanians, who see Belgrade as undermining their institutions. Serbian state local elections in Kosovo would not be recognized and would even be counterproductive if they weren't organized by UNMIK, according to Oliver Ivanovic, head of the Serb List for Kosovo and Metohija, one of the main parliamentary parties in Kosovo.
If Belgrade gets its wish, Kosovo's Serbs will be able to vote in Serbian parliamentary and local elections on Sunday, May 11. Serbian citizens who live in Kosovo -- or anywhere else for that matter -- have the right to vote just as those who live in the country do. But there's a catch: Serbia wants to hold elections in Kosovo.
The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), which oversees the former Serbian administration, rejects the idea, as do Kosovar Albanians, who see Belgrade as undermining their institutions.
Serbian state local elections in Kosovo would not be recognized and would even be counterproductive if they weren't organized by UNMIK, according to Oliver Ivanovic, head of the Serb List for Kosovo and Metohija, one of the main parliamentary parties in Kosovo.
BELGRADE: As a rousing partisan battle song played and torches flared up across a giant stage, the nationalist prime minister of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, warned several thousand supporters this week they would be caving in to treason if they allowed a Serbia shorn of Kosovo to turn toward Europe and the West. "Where will we go as a nation if we don't defend Serbia as a state?" he asked the crowd, dressed in "Kosovo Is Serbia" T-shirts and gathered in Republic Square on Thursday night ahead of parliamentary elections here Sunday. "They are asking us to give up Kosovo," he said. "They are asking us to give up what we are. They say it is good for Serbia, but it is a lie. "It is treason. If we lose Kosovo, we can only be a caravan of gypsies and we are not a caravan of gypsies. We are a respected nation." Standing next to him, an emissary of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia told the crowd to stand up against the illegal occupation of Kosovo by the West with the same bravery Serbia and Russia had displayed against Hitler's Germany.
BELGRADE: As a rousing partisan battle song played and torches flared up across a giant stage, the nationalist prime minister of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, warned several thousand supporters this week they would be caving in to treason if they allowed a Serbia shorn of Kosovo to turn toward Europe and the West.
"Where will we go as a nation if we don't defend Serbia as a state?" he asked the crowd, dressed in "Kosovo Is Serbia" T-shirts and gathered in Republic Square on Thursday night ahead of parliamentary elections here Sunday.
"They are asking us to give up Kosovo," he said. "They are asking us to give up what we are. They say it is good for Serbia, but it is a lie.
"It is treason. If we lose Kosovo, we can only be a caravan of gypsies and we are not a caravan of gypsies. We are a respected nation."
Standing next to him, an emissary of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia told the crowd to stand up against the illegal occupation of Kosovo by the West with the same bravery Serbia and Russia had displayed against Hitler's Germany.
