PRISTINA, Kosovo — Five years after the United Nations took over the administration of Kosovo, the southern province of Serbia, the residents will vote this weekend in an election that may be crucial in determining whether it becomes an independent state.
The election for the 120-seat parliament is the second since NATO troops forced Serbian security forces responsible for widespread atrocities out of the province in June 1999, making Kosovo an international protectorate. Half a decade later, Kosovo remains home to NATO's largest peacekeeping force, and the election has focused the minds of the ethnic Albanian majority, who make up over 90 percent of the 1.8 million people, most of whom are impatient for change and an end to the international control.
But hopes for a successful vote appeared marred from the outset, with the region's Serbian minority likely to boycott the balloting. Serbs want Kosovo to remain a part of Serbia.
Leading figures, including Serbia's prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, and the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, have called on the Serbs not to vote, believing that support for the parliament might bolster moves toward independence. Only Serbia's Western-oriented president, Boris Tadic, has supported international calls for Serbs to take part. The attacks took place despite the presence of more than 17,000 peacekeepers.
Unemployment has mounted, and growth has slowed markedly since with the departure of aid agencies in the past two years. Albanian politicians complain that without resolving the province's status, Kosovo, the poorest region in the former Yugoslavia, cannot borrow money and find investors.