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U.N. Chief Calls for Peace, Tolerance in Kosovo Vote
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Friday called upon the people of Kosovo, a Yugoslav province, to "conduct themselves in a spirit of peace and tolerance" when they vote in their first municipal elections under the U.N. rule Saturday, and then accept the results.
"These elections represent one of the most significant steps in implementing the mandate entrusted to the U.N. Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK)," Annan said in a statement issued here through his spokesman.
"The international community will be watching these elections with great interest," he said. "Should the voting be free and fair, the people of Kosovo will have shown the world that they are politically mature and that they can express their will in a democratic manner."
In June 1999, the U.N. Security Council authorized the UNMIK, supported by the NATO-led military force, after 78-day NATO air strikes. The attacks were conducted without the authorization of the Security Council, which, under the U.N. Charter, has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of world peace and security.
The statement said that once the results of the vote were certified by his special representative in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, he and his staff would begin the gradual transfer of several administrative responsibilities from the UNMIK to the newly elected municipal leaders.
"The secretary-general urges the people of Kosovo, as well as their political leaders, to conduct themselves in a spirit of peace and tolerance tomorrow, and then to accept and respect the results of the vote," the statement said, calling such a conduct "the true spirit of democracy."
A U.N. spokesman said there were 901,000 registered voters who were expected to go to 1,464 polling stations to cast their ballots of some 5,500 candidates for 920 seats in 30 municipal assemblies.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a partner in the UNMIK, will oversee the polling, counting and certification of ballots. There will be some 4,000 observers, and security is being provided by the U.N. mission police and the international peacekeepers, called the KFOR.
The OSCE expressed regret Friday that only a fraction of Kosovo's minority Serb community--only some 1,000 of the 100,000 Serbs who have remained -- had registered for the elections.
In the October 26 statement issued in the capital Belgrade, the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry voiced its worries about the elections, saying that the condition was not ripe for the elections in Kosovo because most of the non-Albanians there were not free to express their will as their security and safety were not ensured.
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