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Kosovo's constitution went into force Sunday, handing the newly independent nation's ethnic Albanian government power after nine years of U.N. administration. The charter - a milestone that comes four months after leaders declared independence from Serbia - gives the government in Pristina sole decision-making authority.
But it threatens to worsen ethnic tensions between Kosovo's Albanians and Serbs. Security in the divided northern town of Mitrovica was high a day after a gunman attacked a police station, wounding one officer.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders are to mark the constitution in a low-key ceremony in Pristina later Sunday that will open with Kosovo's newly approved, instrumental anthem.
- but without playing the words to the country's newly approved anthem to avoid offending Serbs.
Serbs, who make up less than 5 percent of Kosovo's population of 2 million, strongly opposed the ethnic Albanian leadership's decision to declare independence from Serbia after U.N.-mediated talks fell through last year.
The U.S., Japan, Britain and other nations swiftly recognized Kosovo's move, but Serbia, its ally Russia and others have called the move illegal under international law. Serbia - which considers Kosovo its historic and religious heartland - insists it still belongs to Belgrade.
"Serbia views Kosovo as its southern province," Serbian President Boris Tadic said Sunday. "It will defend its integrity by peaceful means, using diplomacy, without resorting to force."
In an attempt to undermine Kosovo's independence and the ceremony in Pristina, Serbia's top official for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, shunned the ceremony in Pristina, instead visiting the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica.
Samardzic is expected to promise an assembly for the Serb-dominated north, the region of Kosovo bordering Serbia - a move that would bring Kosovo closer to a partition along ethnic lines.
Tadic said his government will insist on a new round of internationally mediated talks on Kosovo.
"This will be our strategy and our response to the proclamation of an illegal state in Kosovo," he told reporters Sunday.
The plan to shift Kosovo to government control envisaged a European Union team acting as overseers and taking over from the U.N. administration, which stepped in following a 78-day, NATO-led air war in 1999 to stop former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists
An estimated 10,000 people died in the Serb crackdown, mainly ethnic Albanians.
However, Russia blocked the EU from taking on the role, prompting the U.N. to stay in charge of Serb areas while gradually handing areas over to the EU's police officers, judges and advisers.
Russia said it considers the 2,200-strong EU mission illegal because it has not been approved by the U.N. Security Council.
Since 1999, Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs have struggled to bridge their differences. Many Serbs lead isolated lives and have often endured attacked by vengeful ethnic Albanians. Most of Kosovo's 100,000 remaining Serbs live in Kosovo's north in a region separated by a river from the Albanians.
Having two international missions on the ground - the U.N. dealing with Serbs and the EU with ethnic Albanians - will only widen the ethnic divide, said Agron Bajrami, editor-in-chief of the ethnic Albanian daily newspaper Koha Ditore.
"We are entering a process that is a very risky one in terms of having two international missions, with two different realities ... one as perceived by the Albanian community and one as perceived by the Serbian community," Bajrami said. "That could lead to the division of Kosovo."
The disagreements over Kosovo's statehood have sparked fears of tensions spilling over into the rest of the Balkans. NATO has deployed 600 more British troops to the Serb-dominated north to join some 16,000 peacekeepers already safeguarding Kosovo.
Kosovo's independence has been recognized by 43 U.N. member nations. But holdouts from other nations put U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a tough spot.
Ban said he intended to "reconfigure the international civil presence" in Kosovo "in keeping with the European Union's expressed willingness to play an enhanced operational role in Kosovo in the area of the rule of law."
Written By NEBI QENA
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