Britain seeks security for Serbs

Tuesday, October 26, 2004 Posted: 7:57 PM EDT (2357 GMT)

	Elections in the ethnically tense U.N.-run province were boycotted by the Serb minority.

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) -- Britain's European affairs minister appealed to Kosovo's leadership Tuesday to improve security for the U.N.-run province's beleaguered Serb minority, which boycotted the weekend's elections.

Dennis McShane urged ethnic Albanian leaders to implement a set of standards created by U.N. officials, including progress in areas such as rule of law and protection of minorities.

U.N. officials have made improvement on such issues a prerequisite for opening talks on Kosovo's final status. Progress is to be reviewed in mid-2005.

"Please move forward on standards," McShane said. "Find a guarantee that no Serb living in Kosovo has to walk in fear, no Serb has to worry about his church being destroyed, no Serb has to worry about his house or feel to be under threat."

"Give that basic guarantee of European human rights and Kosovo can move forward very fast, very quickly. I hope it happens," he added.

McShane praised the conduct of the violence-free elections in Kosovo, saying that the voters "have shown responsibility in voting in a very mature, stable and thoroughly democratic election."

On Monday, McShane was in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, where he urged Kosovo's Serbs to take part in the elected assembly.

The Serb minority is guaranteed 10 of the assembly's 120 seats, regardless of whether Serbs voted. Partial election results released Monday showed no ethnic Albanian party won a majority to govern alone.

"The important thing now is to move on," McShane said. "I hope the Serbs, even if the problem of legitimacy is real, participate in the assembly."

The Serbs' refusal to cast ballots in the province, which is dominated by ethnic Albanians, was a blow to international efforts to forge a multiethnic society in Kosovo, which is run by the United Nations and NATO-led peacekeepers.

Hard-line Serb leaders in Kosovo and Belgrade had backed the boycott, citing security concerns after bloody attacks against Serbs earlier this year.

Belgrade also perceived the vote as a stepping stone toward Kosovo's eventual independence, something it vehemently opposes.