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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - Serbia still plans to hold local elections in Kosovo next month, according to a government decree published Monday — a move that would defy the United Nations and ignore Kosovo's declaration of independence.
U.N. officials have told Serbia it cannot hold the vote because it would breach the world body's mandate for Kosovo, which it has administered since 1999 when NATO airstrikes stopped Serbia's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
Since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February, some three dozen countries — including the United States and most EU states — have recognized the new nation, where 90 percent of the 2 million people are ethnic Albanians.
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