UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Serbia defended before the U.N. Security Council its decision to hold local elections in Kosovo next month after the territory declared its independence.
Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic called the independence declaration an "illegal act" and said the May 11 elections would go on despite opposition by the United Nations.
"We believe it is important that everywhere in Kosovo, where citizens recognize the Republic of Serbia as their state, they choose in a democratic way their own municipal, as well as parliamentary, representatives," Tadic said in remarks prepared for Monday's closed council meeting.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in February and has been recognized by 38 countries.
U.N. officials have warned Serbia against holding the vote next month because it would breach the world body's mandate for Kosovo, which it has administered since 1999, when NATO airstrikes stopped Serbia's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. That warning was reiterated Monday by Kosovo's U.N. administrator, Jochim Ruecker of Germany.
Kosovo's Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, who also briefed the closed council meeting, said afterward that his government respects dual citizenship for all citizens in Kosovo, "but local elections ... are illegitimate."
He called Kosovo "a country of opportunity" whose goal is to be a member of the European Union and NATO.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said it was unacceptable that Serbia has decided to go ahead with the local elections.
"President Tadic: efforts to conduct these municipal elections are a provocation, and I call on you not to proceed with them," he said in prepared remarks sent to U.N. media.
The British government wants Serbia to reverse its decision to try to hold the "ethnically based elections" in Kosovo, Britain's U.N. Ambassador John Sawers said.
But Russia's U.N. ambassador, whose country has close ties to Serbia, backed Tadic. Vitaly Churkin criticized the U.N. mission in Kosovo, saying he told Ruecker at the closed council meeting "that his presentation and his actions were not objective."
"We believe that the Serbs have every right to conduct their parliamentary and municipal elections when they see fit," Churkin said.
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Topic: Serbia, Kosovo clash over elections before Security Council (Read 2401 times)