The head of the U.N. mission in Kosovo arrived Sunday in Belgrade for talks with Serbian officials on the status of the U.N.-administered province and protection of its Serb minority. Soren Jessen-Petersen met with Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic, who rejected independence for Kosovo, according to a statement from his office. Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians want full territorial independence, while Belgrade wants the province to have autonomy within Serbia-Montenegro. Draskovic also demanded protection for the province's Serb minority, a decentralization of Kosovo's powers, and guarantees for the return of displaced persons, according to the statement. On Monday, Jessen-Petersen was to hold talks with Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. Belgrade officials recently renewed contact with Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders, their former foes, by holding a meeting on the fate of hundreds of people still missing from the 1998-99 conflict. The Kosovo war between separatist ethnic Albanian rebels and Serb security troops claimed about 10,000 lives, mostly ethnic Albanians. The war ended in 1999, after NATO intervened, launching a 78-day air war to stop a Serb onslaught against the ethnic Albanian rebellion. Kosovo remains part of Serbia-Montenegro officially, though it has been run by the U.N. and NATO since 1999. The province's final status is to be decided at talks expected to start later this year.
