Serbs urged to cast Kosovo vote

The Yugoslav President fears a boycott by Serbs of Saturday's elections

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has appealed to Kosovo's minority Serbs to cast their vote in the province's weekend elections.

Making a last-ditch effort to prevent a boycott, Kostunica said on Thursday: "If we fail to make this first big step, there is great danger that the world will take (a boycott) as a message that Yugoslavia is giving up Kosovo."

The government of Yugoslavia, of which Kosovo is formally a part, has urged the Kosovo Serbs to participate in Saturday's elections for the Kosovo parliament.

But many Serbs are opposed to the vote, saying it will only legitimise independence demands by the majority Kosovo Albanians.

Serbs want international peacekeepers to investigate the disappearances of an estimated 1,300 Serbs who have been missing since the conflict in Kosovo ended in June 1999, when Yugoslav troops pulled out after 78 days of NATO airstrikes.

The bombing was launched to stop a brutal crackdown on Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population -- and its demands for independence -- by then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Voters in the first province-wide elections since the conflict will choose legislators to govern them alongside the U.N. administrators and NATO-led peacekeepers who have run Kosovo since 1999, when the West broke Milosevic's grip on the region.

After NATO took over Kosovo, as many as 200,000 Kosovo Serbs and other non-Albanians fled in fear of persecution. Hundreds of non-Albanians were killed in revenge attacks.

"This is a moment of great trial for our state and nation," Kostunica told reporters.

"No trouble and hardships can break our determination not to allow Kosovo to be cleansed of Serbs."

But in Mitrovica, the northern Kosovo Serb stronghold, the Serb Povratak (Return) coalition had to cancel its final pre-election rally because of pressure by Serbs demanding a boycott.

Mitrovica streets are covered in anti-election posters that read: "We Don't Want Albanian Government."