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Top UN envoy in Kosovo postpones municipal elections for up to one year

Top UN envoy in Kosovo postpones municipal elections for up to one year

Jessen-Petersen
The top United Nations envoy in Kosovo today postponed municipal elections for up to 12 months so that full attention can be devoted to talks to decide the status of the Albanian-majority Serbian province, which the UN has run ever since Western forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid grave rights abuses in ethnic fighting.

“I am convinced that the decision to postpone the elections serves the best interests of all communities in Kosovo. The postponement will allow for the political focus on the status talks to be retained,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative Søren Jessen-Petersen said.

In his latest report on Kosovo released just three days ago, Mr. Annan said the parties remained far apart and compromise was crucial in the talks between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs which began in Vienna in February under the auspices of UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari and have been held about twice monthly since.

Independence and autonomy are among options that have been mentioned for the province, where Albanians outnumber Serbs and others by 9 to 1. Serbia rejects independence and Kosovo’s Serbs have been boycotting the province’s local government, the so-called ‘Provisional Institutions.’