Status for Kosovo - The International Herald Tribune

International Herald Tribune
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2005

Soren Jessen-Petersen's comments on Kosovo ("For Kosovo, only one way forward," Views, Oct. 24) are both coherent and kind. The legal limbo, of course, was never sustainable, but its long life has become institutionalized in the public life of Kosovo.
Success on final status talks now depends on whether the peoples of Kosovo, through their leaders, create the final architecture. The international community has not, in that society at least, favored local ownership and empowerment, but must now accept these principles and allow them to be implemented if final status talks are to have any hope of success.
This will depend primarily, although not exclusively, on the dialogue between the Albanians and Serbs of Kosovo. There is no doubt that they can do it - critical elements of their leadership want to make it work - if we support them rather than lead them. Those of us who have lived and worked in Kosovo know the strength, courage and deep intelligence that is everywhere in that land. Our thoughts and hopes will be there as the process unfolds.

Carolyn McCool, Vancouver Former director of the OSCE mission in Kosovo, 1999-2002