A leader of Kosovo's minority Serbs called on the international community today to provide additional guarantees for Serbs as the province prepares to hold elections in November.
The process of killings and ethnic cleansing of Serbs has not stopped, Ms Rada Trajkovic, a Serb member of Kosovo's multi-ethnic interim administrative council, said in Vienna.
Speaking after she and Kosovo Albanian leaders addressed the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), she said Serbs were unhappy with an international blueprint for self-governing institutions in Kosovo unveiled this month.
Neverthless, they would take part in the voter registration process ahead of the November 17 election.
"We shall cooperate even before our conditions are fulfilled and then subsequently decide whether to participate in the elections", Ms Trajkovic told a news conference.
Kosovo, whose ethnic Albanian majority favours independence from Yugoslavia, was placed under UN administration in June 1999 after NATO bombing to end Serb repression of Albanians. UN governor Hans Haekkerup this month set November 17th as the date for elections to a 120-seat provincial assembly.
Ms Trajkovic said the proposals were in effect a basis for future independence for Kosovo and they contained no provisions for the province's relationship with Belgrade.
Amendments proposed by Serbian politicians had either not been accepted or had been substantially re-worded, but the proposals still had the backing of international organisations responsible for administering the Yugoslav province.