BORIS TADIC, the President of Serbia, began his tour of Kosovo yesterday by reasserting his country’s claim over the southern province that has been an international protectorate for more than five years.

“This is Serbia,” Mr Tadic said, immediately upon arriving in the Serb-populated village of Silovo in the eastern part of the ethnic Albanian-dominated province.

Embarking on the first tour of Kosovo by a serving president of Serbia since 1999, Mr Tadic was greeted by several hundred locals living in one of the besieged Serb enclaves under the protection of Nato peace troops and governed by a UN mission.

The mission was established in Kosovo in 1999 when a war between Serbian troops and ethnic Albanian separatists ended with the Nato bombing of Serb targets.

About 80,000 Serbs now remain in Kosovo, about one-third of their prewar population here, and face occasional attacks and harassment by ethnic Albanian militants.

“I don’t have a magic wand to fix all the problems,” Mr Tadic told the crowd, but listened patiently to their grievances and pledged to “do everything possible to make sure that you have the right to live and survive here”.

Escorted by helicopters and troops from the Nato-led Kfor peacekeepers, Mr Tadic held talks in Pristina with the head of the UN Mission in Kosovo, Soren Jessen-Petersen. Outside, a small crowd of ethnic Albanians protested, throwing eggs and snowballs at the building and at Serb journalists accompanying the Serbian President.

In Pristina, Mr Tadic also visited the charred remains of a Serbian Orthodox Christian church, which was burnt in rioting last year when ethnic Albanian mobs attacked the Serbs throughout Kosovo.

Looking at the frescoes peeling off the walls of the roofless church, Mr Tadic insisted that the Christian temples be reconstructed and protected in predominantly Muslim Kosovo.

“There’s been a long history of hatred and destruction in all of the Balkans, including Kosovo,” Mr Tadic said. “That has to stop.”

Many Serbs feel their interests and their security are threatened by the majority Albanian population. In March 2004 at least 19 people died in riots across the province as Albanian mobs targeted Serb villages and churches.

Most Serbs boycotted last October’s general election in protest at the security situation.

Mr Tadic’s visit, the first by a Serb leader since the days of former President Slobodan Milosevic, comes at a sensitive time for Kosovo. In the summer, the UN will assess whether enough progress has been made issues such as the rule of law and human rights for final-status talks to begin on the future of the province.

MINORITY REPORT

There are thought to be about 80,000 Serbs in Kosovo. They live in enclaves around the province as well as in the flashpoint city of Mitrovica.

Nearly 20,000 NATO-led Kfor troops keep the peace in the province. There are also 5,000 UN police officers and about 5,000 local police

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