PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, (AFP) - More than 1,000 extra NATO troops have poured into Kosovo to secure Saturday's election but the Serb minority is insisting on a boycott amid simmering ethnic tensions.
The Serbs are determined to ignore international pressure to participate in the general election in protest at the failure of the province's UN administration and NATO peacekeeping force to provide security following vicious ethnic riots in March.
"There's no reason and no point for the Serbs to take part in the elections," said Marko Jaksic, one of the leaders of the Serb community in the northern town Kosovska Mitrovica, the only city in Kosovo where Serbs still live in any significant number.
Five years after the end of the war between Belgrade troops and ethnic Albanian separatists, resulting in the creation of a UN protectorate, only about 80,000 Serbs remain in the southern Serbian province, compared to about 1.8 million ethnic Albanians.
Some 200,000 Serbs have left since NATO intervened to end the war in 1999, faced with reprisal attacks by Albanian extremists for more than a decade of Serbian repression under former strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
Jaksic described Saturday's vote as a "life-belt for a collapsed UN mission... under whose mandate the Serbs have suffered an exodus like they have never suffered in their history."
More than 300 French reinforcements parachuted into the province earlier this month but Serbs are unconvinced by such extravagant displays of NATO's "resolve" in the lead-up to the election.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has moved four extra battalions into Kosovo, taking its KFOR peacekeeping mission from 17,800 to 19,300 troops.
But the alliance has been widely condemned for failing to stop ethnic Albanian mobs from rampaging through Serb villages in March, in what one NATO commander described as an organised campaign of "ethnic cleansing".
Some 29 Serbian Orthodox churches and over 800 Serb houses were destroyed in the mayhem, and around 4,000 people were driven from their homes in the worst violence Kosovo had seen since the war.
Most Serbs argue that their participation in previous Kosovo elections got them nowhere and their plight "is worse than ever."
"We showed we wanted to cooperate... but we got nothing out of it," said Jaksic. "Only a fool stumbles over the same rock twice."
Leaflets warn Serbs that "by taking part in the elections, we are giving our approval for an independent Kosovo" -- reflecting the belief that the international community is backing ethnic Albanian separatism.
The vast majority of ethnic Albanians see independence as the only option. The Serbs however are just as vehement about Serbia's right to rule in Kosovo, seen as the cradle of the Serbian nation and religion.
The final status of the province is expected to be discussed at internationally supervised talks slated for mid-2005, but no one is really sure who is going to take part in those talks or what form they will take.
Even those rare Serbs who plan to vote on Saturday reject independence.
"As long as there are Serbs in Kosovo, Serbia will be present here," vowed Oliver Ivanovic, a moderate Serb politician who says he will vote.
Ethnic Albanian politicians are certain to dominate the next parliament but many see the need for Serbs to have "their own voice," one that is free of Belgrade's influence.
"I don't recognize Belgrade's interference here," said Hajrudin Kuci of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, led by former guerrilla fighter Hashim Thaci.
"Belgrade's proposals should be seen as suggestions, but Kosovo Serbs should have their own voice."
Analyst Migjen Kelmendi warned however that ethnic Albanian politicians had offered no programme to include minorities in day-to-day issues.
"If the Serbs want to become a part of this society, they have to take part in these elections," thus securing their place in the discussions over the final status of the province, Kelmendi said.
"If they are obstructive, they will be the losers."
10/22/2004 - 03:20 GMT - AFP