The mission in Kosovo/a started out noble and with good cause. However recently the new President of Kosovo has announced that he will not rest until Kosovo/a gets independence from Serbia. With the recent vote that took place in Montenegro, where they actually voted as a country to seperate from Serbia, will this leave the door open for Kosovo/a to kick it down and be allowed to go peacefully independant without all the nasty bloodshed and ethnic cleansing as what happened last time. Serbia has been rather aggressive in stating that Kosovo/a will never be independant of Serbia. They cannot allow that to happen.
If the UN tells them it is going to happen, then what choice do they have?

Another thing that I do not understand is how can Serbia get away with paying Serb teachers a salary, and those same teachers getting paid by the United Nations a salary too. Or the complex black market that is everywhere to be seen in Kosovo/a. There is so much corruption in the province that if they did become independance, there would end up being people starving in the streets. How would they be able to sustain independence also if they are not willing to pay taxes? How will the independance take place if they still cannot get along with their K-Serb neighbors? Or vice a versa how can the K-Serbs live with such hatred? This province needs to get over the past, and look to the future, they need to quit feeling bad for themselves and figure out how to make Kosovo/a a prosperous and economically self-reliant part of the world market again.

I've asked this question myself many times and I still do from time to time. The Political sitaution in Kosovo is still too complex and complicated to understand, and the demographic map of the province is generating too many security and humanitarian rights issues to be solved before the province can turn independant.

The UNMIK mission is making progress, there has been independant elections and the national system is getting better but the major drawback for the province so far has been the recruitment of former UCK members to the KPC police force. That can turn out to be a dangerous situation for the miniroties in the province, and was a problem in 2002 for the Serbes (and other minorities) in the province.

I do think we will not see scenes such as the Nis Express bombing again but the problems will still be present for a few more generations.

I have but a small insight into the workings of this little piece of real estate. In 1999 (I think, dates are getting fuzzy as I get older) a good friend of mine, Indianapolis police officer, accepted a position to go be a peace keeper for 12 months for a fat chunk of tax free change. He returned after three months and said it was pointless trying to be a cop when none of the parties there were the least bit interested in peace.

Originally Posted by bulldogg

He returned after three months and said it was pointless trying to be a cop when none of the parties there were the least bit interested in peace.

I know people who went there with tons of motivation for making a difference for the population - and left with the burning sensation of wasting their time and changed point of view on who to support. Perhaps things change after a couple of years, I don't know.

I think that the Europian uninon (EU) will go in and solwe a lot of the problems concering diffrences and crime among the people of Balkan. Sience most of the countries have economical difficulities they "all" want EU membership and therefore they have to obey EU instructions....

I hope so!

If kosovo does secede like montenegro, then i hope it's the last time another country balkanizes the balkans. I saw a map in jon stewarts book about america showing what happened to the former yugoslavia. It showed all the current states and all the states that will probably secede. The last picture had the caption that by 2012 every individual will be a sovereign republic of themselves with yugoslavia cut up into tiny little scares representing individual nations, this will happen i bet.