The long road to reconciliation in Kosovo focus 08/09/2010

The long road to reconciliation in Kosovo

focus

08/09/2010
PRISTINA — Kosovo Albanians, their confidence boosted by a UN court opinion backing independence, want to reach out to the territory’s Serb minority but ingrained distrust is hampering efforts at reconciliation.

“Without reconciliation... we will not be able to improve our lives as citizens and people who want clear perspectives for themselves and their children,” said Veton Nurkollari, the Kosovo Albanian organizer of Doku Fest, an international documentary film festival, aiming to use culture to bridge differences.

“There is a need for reconciliation, an urgency even,” he told AFP.

Nearly 95 percent of Kosovo’s population of two million are ethnic Albanians, who feel empowered by the recent International Court of Justice’s verdict that its unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February 2008 — opposed by Belgrade — was not illegal..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100809com6.html