The head of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Hans Haekkerup, said he believes a new provisional assembly to be elected this week will help "overcome the differences of the past" in the bitterly divided Yugoslav province.
"As time goes on, people will accept that they have to live, if not together, then at least side by side..," he told AFP in an interview.
"Gradually the mood of the population is changing. Of course, there are some extremists who would like to change the agenda by violent action."
Kosovo on Saturday elects a 120-member parliament, which will have wide powers to run the province for three years, but which will remain under the ultimate authority of UNMIK.
The province in southern Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic, has been administered by the United Nations since an 11-week NATO bombing campaign brought to an end a crackdown on ethnic Albanians by then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in June 1999.
But it remains deeply divided between the ethnic Albanians, who form the overwhelming majority and who want to sever links with Belgrade, and the Serbs, who make up about five percent of the population of two million and who prefer to be under Belgrade's authority.
Almost 200,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians have fled the province since government forces were replaced by a NATO-led peacekeeping force in 1999, fearing reprisal attacks by ethnic Albanians. Most of between 80,000 to 100,000 Serbs who remain now live in NATO-guarded enclaves for their safety.
Belgrade and many Kosovo Serb leaders have urged a boycott of the election, demanding UNMIK improve security and living conditions for Serbs and aid the return of refugees.
However, following negotiations with Haekkerup, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica earlier this month appealed to the Serbs to participate.
"We have put some effort into getting the Kosovos Serbs to participate," Haekkerup said in the interview on Tuesday, adding he believed "it is in their own interest."
"There will of course be some hardliners who will not support participation, and there will be some Kosovo Serbs who will not vote. But I hope the majority of them will come out."
He said the government bodies set up after the elections will help in easing tensions between the Serbs and Albanians.
"These institutions of course will serve the purpose of bringing Serbs and other communities together, working together in the assembly. There may be also some very fierce statements at first, but gradually when they get to the day-to-day business I think this will contribute to overcoming the differences of the past."
He said this applies not just to the government, but to "municipalities and administrations. I think it's important on all levels."
Ten of the seats in the new parliament are reserved for Serbs, and 10 more for other minorities.
Haekkerup pointed to the fact that ethnically motivated crimes are down 40 percent in the past year as one indication that the tensions that have prevailed in the province are decreasing.
"Things are moving in the right direction," said the former Danish defense minister, who succeeded France's Bernard Kouchner as UNMIK chief in January. But "it takes some time to develop into a full-scale mature democracy."
He said there were many members of both communities who sought closer ties: "People who helped each other in very difficult situations. Serbs who helped Albanians, Albanians who helped Serbs in the difficult days, personal relations, friendships. This network is still there. We have to encourage these people."
However, on one issue he was less optimistic. He reaffirmed that the "existing Serb enclaves will remain", although he said UNMIK was putting in place a system to ensure that those living there were not exploited.
And "down the road, the Serbs will need less protection," he said -- AFP
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