NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has issued a statement calling on "all leaders and communities to show restraint" during voting on May 6 in the Serbian elections by ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo.
Rasmussen's statement also says he's confident NATO's peacekeeping forces in Kosovo will do everything necessary to preserve a "safe and secure" environment and prevent tensions from escalating during the May 6 vote.
Under an arrangement overseen by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, some 110,000 ethnic Serbs in Serbian-dominated northern Kosovo are eligible to cast ballots in the vote for parliament and president of neighboring Serbia.
The leadership of Kosovo, which has a large ethnic Albanian majority, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia's government rejects this and says the territory is still part of Serbia.
Rasmussen's statement also says he's confident NATO's peacekeeping forces in Kosovo will do everything necessary to preserve a "safe and secure" environment and prevent tensions from escalating during the May 6 vote.
Under an arrangement overseen by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, some 110,000 ethnic Serbs in Serbian-dominated northern Kosovo are eligible to cast ballots in the vote for parliament and president of neighboring Serbia.
The leadership of Kosovo, which has a large ethnic Albanian majority, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia's government rejects this and says the territory is still part of Serbia.
