Serbia-Montenegro's foreign minister to visit Kosovo

Associated Press, Jun 27, 2005 4:07 AM

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-Serbia-Montenegro's foreign minister will arrive in Kosovo Monday, the first visit by the union's foreign minister to the disputed province since the end of the war six years ago.

In a private visit, Vuk Draskovic is scheduled to travel to the Serb enclave of Gracanica to observe Vidovdan, or St. Vitus Day, a Serb holiday marking the 616th anniversary of an epic battle against Ottoman Turks.

During his stay in Kosovo, Draskovic will meet Larry Rossin, the deputy head of the U.N. mission which has been administering the province since mid-1999 when a NATO air war halted Serb forces crackdown on ethnic Albanians seeking independence.

Draskovic's visit follows that of Serbia's prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, who attended a Serb Orthodox mass in western Kosovo in January and the Serbia's president Boris Tadic tour in areas where Serbs live in February.

An estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians were killed during Serb forces' crackdown in 1998-1999. After the end of the war, tens of thousands of Serbs fled the province in the face of attacks and threats from ethnic Albanian extremists.

Those Serbs remaining live mainly in isolated enclaves scattered around the province and the two communities remain divided.

Talks to resolve Kosovo's status are expected later this year, if Kosovo, legally a province of the Serbia-Montenegro union that replaced Yugoslavia, meets U.N.-set standards on democracy, human rights and rights of minorities.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority demands independence, while Serbs want the province to remain within their borders.