Kosovo struggles 1 year after independence
By WILLIAM J. KOLE Feruary 16, 2009 PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Giant steel letters still spell out an exultant "NEWBORN" on a downtown square in Kosovo's gritty capital. But a year after the majority Albanian territory defiantly declared independence from Serbia, the elation has given way to frustration. Bombs still explode in northern areas tensely divided between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. Crime and corruption are rampant. At least four in 10 people are jobless. And only a few dozen countries have recognized Kosovo's statehood .. At the same time, the fears that gripped the globe on Feb. 17, 2008, didn't play out. There was no mass exodus of Serbs; Kosovo didn't embolden secessionists in other corners of the world and the volatile Balkans didn't sink into fresh armed conflict. By that measure, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci contends, Kosovo's first full year as a sovereign state has been "a complete success." "We will be recognized by the entire world," he told The Associated Press in an interview Monday at his office, as workers outside decorated the capital's main boulevard with Kosovo, EU and U.S. flags. Thaci ticked off a list of accomplishments: 6 percent economic growth, thousands of new jobs, the construction of dozens of schools and thousands of miles (kilometers) of new roads, and a broader integration of the Serb minority into government and society. "We're building a homeland for all of Kosovo's people," he said, adding that President Barack Obama and other world leaders were sending congratulatory messages. Kushtrim Ahmeti, a 19-year-old street vendor, said he and his family are better off than they were a year ago despite the global economic crisis. "There's been more money and more jobs," he said. "Life has definitely improved." But Ahmeti, like 90 percent of Kosovo's people, is ethnic Albanian. Ask Serbs how they're doing, and many will complain bitterly of poverty and persecution. "There is no future for the Serbs in Kosovo, and that is the one and only truth," said Bogoljub Scepanovic, 54, who lives in the tense northern town of Mitrovica. Serbia convulsed into violence last February after Kosovo declared independence, with huge mobs rampaging through central Belgrade and setting part of the U.S. Embassy on fire. Although Serbs haven't reprised that unrest, they refuse to acknowledge Kosovo's statehood. Serbian President Boris Tadic dismissed this week's anniversary as "just a date when an illegal act was enacted, when Pristina proclaimed Kosovo a so-called state." Last weekend, someone tossed a grenade into an ethnically mixed neighborhood in the Serb-dominated north of the town. No one was hurt, but the incident underscored how violence still plagues Kosovo. More than 15,000 NATO peacekeepers remain in place, holdovers from Kosovo's 1998-99 war between independence-seeking ethnic Albanian insurgents and Serbian forces loyal to the late Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic — a conflict that killed about 10,000 people. Last year, after Kosovo's parliament enacted a new constitution, U.N. administrators handed over supervision of the fledgling country to a 2,000-member EU mission of police officers, judges and advisers. But the mission has not been able to fully deploy in the north, and Serbia has denounced it as illegal and illegitimate. Kosovo also has been hampered by the international community's weak endorsement of its independence. In the giddy days after declaring independence, Thaci predicted quick recognition from at least 100 countries. A year later, only 54 have done so. Although they include the U.S. and key European powers such as Britain, France and Germany, only 22 of the EU's 27 member states have recognized Kosovo. A few of the other nations that have recognized Kosovo have provoked derision because they're so tiny, such as Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Russia, an ally of Serbia, has blocked attempts to get the U.N. Security Council to endorse independence. Even so, there are hopes on both sides of the ethnic divide that Kosovo can find its way to healing and reconciliation. "If we tried harder and forgot about the instigators on both sides, I'm certain we could live together," said Dejan Blagojevic, 29, a salesman in Mitrovica. "It wouldn't be a life out of a fairy tale," he said. "But we lived together in the past, and we all know we can do it again." Associated Press Writers Nebi Qena in Kosovo and Dusan Stojanovic in Serbia contributed to this report. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hmo0uIR7EAe15gq9eq8qs-PJ2_ yAD96CNPFO0
