SERBIA LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO STIMULATE KOSOVO SERBS TO TAKE PART IN VOTE

BELGRADE, Nov 8 (Hina) - A campaign aimed at stimulating Kosovo Serbs to participate in Kosovo's November 17 general election starts in Kosovo and refugee camps in Serbia and Montenegro on Friday, Yugoslavia's Minister for National Minorities, Rasim Ljajic, told Belgrade's news agency Beta Thursday. The Yugoslav-Serbian ruling DOS coalition's presidency on Wednesday decided that Gojko Savic, Pristina University Chancellor, should head the Kosovo Serb electoral slate titled Coalition "Return". For the time being, the list includes 60 of 80 required candidates. Most candidates are from the Democratic Party of Serbia, led by Yugoslavia's President Vojislav Kostunica, followed by the Democratic Alternative, with the president of the Yugoslav state coordinating body for Kosovo, Nebojsa Covic, at the party's helm. The roster also includes members of the Democratic Party of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, the New Democracy party, and several other parties from the DOS coalition, as well a few independent candidates. Covic told Belgrade's Borba daily he believed the US would provide "concrete support" regarding the collective rights of Kosovo Serbs, "which means that wherever Serbs are in a majority, they should have the right to self-government, courts and police." Covic stressed Serbs had to participate in the elections because "the struggle for Kosovo has begun". According to him, Serbia was on the way to lose Kosovo, but now there is room to make the region compact and safe through democratisation and homogenisation. There is a completely defined state policy for the period after the Kosovo elections, but it is not public because it is of national and state interest, Covic said. (hina) np