Serbia Claims Kosovo Sovereignty!

Voters in Bosnia and Herzegovina took to the ballots on Sunday, early results showed that Bosnian Muslim Milorad Dodik and the most prominent Bosnian Serb politician, were expected to dominate the country’s main institutions.

Bosnian Muslims, with some support from their Roman Catholic Croat allies, seek a more unified country. They want to carry out political and economic changes that will enable Bosnia to join the European Union, but many Serbs still want the half of the country that they dominate to become independent.

It came to no surprise that the day before the elections the following news appeared in the media...

Taken from BBC News
Saturday, 30 September 2006

Serbia Claims Kosovo Sovereignty. The proposed constitution will be put to a referendum Serbia's parliament has unanimously approved a new constitution that claims sovereignty over the UN administered province of Kosovo.

The move, passed during a special session of parliament, opposes calls for the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo to be given independence.

Kosovo has been run by the UN since Nato intervened in 1999 to stop Serbia expelling the ethnic Albanian majority.

The proposed constitution will now face a referendum before it becomes valid.
Serbia's Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica, has indicated a referendum would also be followed by early elections, although he has not specified a date.

Mr Kostunica said the country's new constitution would "cement the truth that Kosovo always has been and always will be an integral part of Serbia".

He also insisted there was no need to wait for the Kosovo issue to be settled before adopting the new constitution.

The BBC's Nick Hawton says this is a controversial statement, as negotiations on the province's final status are currently under way.

The UN, which has been hosting the talks on Kosovo's status, has said the issue could be resolved this year.