Serbian President Boris Tadic arrived in Kosovo on Saturday to observe Orthodox Easter.
Tadic attended the evening Easter Liturgy in the medieval Serb Orthodox monastery of Visoki Decani, some 90 kilometers west of the Kosovo capital Pristina.
The visit is just ahead of the May 11 parliamentary election inSerbia, which is widely seen as a contest between the pro-western force led by Tadic and the nationalists who intend to turn Serbia away from the EU and toward the traditional ally of Russia because of the EU's support of Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence on Feb. 17.
The Serbian government collapsed in March because of the divergent view within the ruling coalition towards the breakaway of its province Kosovo, seen by Serbians as their cultural cradle.
The UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) sees Tadic's visit as a private one and in line with the normal procedure, while Kosovo Albanian authorities interpreted it as a political provocation.
Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Tadic would make history as "the first president of a country to visit the independent and sovereign state of Kosovo."
Tadic will be greeted by a sign saying, "Welcome to the Republic of Kosovo," Thaci told local media.
Tadic was provided with a UN police escort once entered Kosovo by car. The Albanian language media in Pristina said that Tadic's security also included members of the Serbian police.
Kosovo police said they "cannot prevent the Serbian police escort, since the UNMIK allowed it."
However Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu on Friday slammed Tadic's visit as political propaganda, believing the move "does not contribute to the building of inter-state relations between Kosovoand Serbia."
Serbia is prepared to hold general and local elections in Kosovo next month, which the UNMIK rejected the local elections as a breach to the UN mandate.
Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic also arrived in Kosovo later Saturday to spend Orthodox Easter, which is calculated according to the Julian calendar.
Source: Xinhua
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