Kosovo: St. Vitus Day dance

On Saturday -- or St Vitus' Day (Vidovdan) in the Orthodox Church's Gregorian calendar -- Serbs in Kosovo hold the first meeting of their own parallel assembly, which was elected in spite of Kosovo's Albanian majority and the international community concurrently with the Serbian elections on May 11. Vidovdan is a significant date, being the anniversary of 1389 battle of Kosovo Polje against the Ottomans.

Kosovo declared independence in February and promulgated its constitution earlier this month. The UN mission is winding down, and the EU's EULEX law-and-order authority is coming in to replace it. The Serb-dominated north, across the Ibar, carries on as if Belgrade still governs. Yet the 60% of Serbs who live south of the river must deal with the new authorities day-to-day. For example, the police have been imposing a 50-euro fine on drivers without the proper documents.

The assembly is seriously flawed. It is the creation of those Serbian anti-EU parties that lost the May 11 elections. Few of its deputies come from the parties forming the next government in Belgrade, which will be more pragmatic and less inclined towards heroic gestures. It will therefore become the mouthpiece of stubborn resistance to independence. However, as a body representing all of Kosovo's Serbs, it will not bring partition any nearer. Deputies from below the Ibar will not abandon the south and such important religious sites as Gracanica monastery near Pristina.