The UN's chief administrator in Kosovo, Dr Bernard Kouchner, yesterday condemned Yugoslav plans to hold federal presidential and parliamentary elections in the province, but admitted he was obliged to accept their taking place.
"Yes, they will have the right to vote, as UNMIK are in charge, we will offer security, and UNMIK and KFOR are in agreement in offering security," Dr Kouchner told a packed and chaotic press conference in an often contradictory statement.
Dr Kouchner added that the Yugoslav elections called by President Slobodan Milosevic were going to be neither free, fair, democratic nor non-violent, and did not meet international standards.
While he described the idea of Belgrade holding elections in the UN-run province as a "provocation" and a "farce", he said Yugoslavia had a legal right to hold the poll and he had a duty to ensure security.
"I am sorry to repeat this but under 1244 Kosovo is part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," he said, referring to the UN Security Council resolution that gave him his mandate to run Kosovo.
Dr Kouchner said the UN mission would not participate in organising the September 24th poll but would limit itself to providing general security.
"We are in charge of elections and administration in Kosovo," he said. "We are organising a very good and fair election for October 28th. We are not going to be involved in some kind of provocation, but we'll prevent violence and take care of the people as much as possible."
Mr Ibrahim Rugova, head of the leading ethnic Albanian political party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), said he understood Dr Kouchner's position and did not recognise any elections but the UN-run October municipal poll.
"There cannot be other elections in Kosovo, not with Serbia," he said sitting alongside the UN leader.
Mr Hashim Thaci, former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army and now head of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, said at the same meeting: "We will not recognise any kind of election which Serbs intend to hold in Kosovo."
Dr Kouchner would not say whether Serb officials from President Milosevic's Socialist Party would be allowed to campaign in Kosovo, how polling stations might be set up or protected, and whether the war-torn province's estimated 105,000 Serbs would only be able to vote in certain areas.
"We have no time to achieve in 15 days what it has taken us all 15 months," he said, referring to the time it had taken the international community to prepare for the municipal elections.
Controversy has surrounded the issue since Serb officials from Belgrade arrived unannounced last week in the Kosovan Serb enclave of Gracanica, five miles outside Pristina.
Officials from Mr Milosevic's party announced that Serbs would be able to vote in an estimated 500 polling centres to be set up around the province, a claim immediately derided by Dr Kouchner as "farcical and a provocation".
Around one million Albanians have registered to vote in Kosovo's municipal elections, though as few as 1,000 Kosovan Serbs have registered.
Reuters adds: The head of Kosovo's UN administration said he had suspended the director of the prison where Serb war crimes suspects staged a mass breakout at the weekend. Mr Kouchner said he felt "humiliated, frustrated and guilty" over the jailbreak by 13 Serbs in the city of Mitrovica on Saturday night. A relative of one fugitive said they had all escaped into Serbia proper - out of reach of the UN and NATO.