By DPA
Washington : The United States Sunday applauded the peaceful conduct of Saturday’s elections in Kosovo, but criticised the Serbian boycott of the vote.
“The United States deeply regrets the decision of Kosovo Serbs, encouraged by the Government of Serbia, not to participate in these elections,” Sean McCormack, spokesman for the US State Department, said in a statement.
McCormack said the boycott meant that Kosovo’s minority Serb community “can only be disadvantaged by this decision”.
The US said it remained committed to ensuring the “rights and security” of all of Kosovo’s ethnic communities and urged them to fully participate in Kosovo’s political life.
Kosovo has been administered by the UN and policed by a NATO-led peacekeeping force since 1999, when NATO ousted Belgrade’s security forces to end a bloody crackdown on rebelling Albanians.
Belgrade has since retained only a nominal sovereignty over Kosovo, though it exerts strong influence among the Serbs, particularly in the Mitrovica enclave. Ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of the 2.1 million population of the breakaway Serbian province, and want their leaders to declare independence from Serbia, possibly as early as Dec 10.
According to early unofficial results, the opposition leader, a former guerrilla politician Hashim Thaqi, was heading towards victory in parliamentary elections held Saturday amid a surprisingly low turnout of 40 to 45 percent.
The Albanian leaders are now hoping to get a clear signal from the US to go ahead with the declaration of secession from Serbia.
“We are pleased that both the pre-election campaign and the elections themselves were conducted peacefully and with respect by all parties for Kosovo’s commitments in the ongoing status determination process,” McCormack said.