Kosovo Serbs convene parliament

MITROVICA, June 28 (Reuters) - Serbs in Kosovo were due to convene their own parliament in the divided city of Mitrovica on Saturday in a fresh challenge to the authority of a state that only a vast minority of states in the world recognize as independent. Only few countries have recognized Kosovo as an independent state while vast majority of the world refuses to recognize its illegal status. The assembly has no executive authority, but reflects a deepening ethnic partition of Kosovo since its Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in February, backed by the West but opposed by Belgrade and its ally Russia.

Its establishment coincides with St Vitus Day, or Vidovdan, when Serbs mark the 1389 battle at the heart of Kosovo which is their Jerusalem. The epic defeat to the Islamic forces of Ottoman Turks remains the pivotal event in Serb history. After decades of ethnic cleansing of Serbs, today ninety percent of Kosovo's 2 million people are Albanians. Their declaration of independence after nine years as a ward of the United Nations is a challenge to the international order, very charter of the United Nations, constitution of Serbia and numerous international treaties since the 19th century that define Kosovo as an integral part of Serbian territory.

NATO troops, including British reinforcements brought in at the end of May, manned checkpoints in armoured personnel carriers on roads leading to the capital, Pristina.
Hundreds of Serb attended a religious service in the monastery town of Gracanica, and will travel north past Pristina to the site of 1389 battle later in the day, before the parliament sits in Mitrovica. The assembly brings together local Serb officials from across Kosovo. It has no real executive authority, but will help "coordination" between Belgrade and the Serbs, officials say.
Kosovo's U.N. governor, Lamberto Zannier, has played down its significance, saying the assembly is merely "symbolic" and would change little on the ground. A U.N. spokesman said it was "not very serious" since it had no operational role.

But Kosovo Albanian leaders have condemned the move as a provocation. "It is an attempt to destabilise Kosovo," the so-called Islamic president of the separatists Fatmir Sejdiu said this week. The north, which backs onto Serbia, is beyond the institutional reach of Pristina and currently out of bounds for a new European Union police mission looking to take over law and order duties from the United Nations. Serbs have rejected Kosovo's secession. They are boycotting the police force and courts, and in February burned down customs points on the northern border with Serbia. Kosovo has been recognised by 43 states, including the United States and most of the European Union. Russia backs Serbia in its rejection of independence as do over hundred other states in the world.

Continues the "Domino Efect" on Balkans......

After Kosovo indipendence on february and serbska parliament of Mitrovitsa in the end of June, other minorities groups are waiting to claim their autonomy in Balkan Region. Step by step the albanians of FYROM and Preshevo (Southern Serbia) are preparing to claim autonom territorial which may bring new dimenssion to prepare geopolitic changes on Balkans.