This Thursday’s Life in Kosovo TV show debated the preliminary results of the parliamentary and local authority elections held on November 17.

Are the political parties satisfied with the electoral campaign? Are political parties satisfied with people’s turnout at the elections? What do the parties think of the work of the Central Election Commission? And what do they make of the preliminary results? What kind of coalition might form the next government? When will the new administration be established?

NO NEGOTIATIONS
Kosova is now passing through the process of status definition. Instead of adopting universal values, particular standards have been imposed on the Kosova process. Defining Kosova as a unique case implies that experience teaches us nothing and experiment, improvisations and ad hoc measures are established as method. Earlier this year, the issue of Kosova’s status was in the UN Security Council, but was thrown back to the Contact Group. The UN Security Council does not want to deal with an issue that is not urgent, but wants a success story, and are now seeking prior reconciliation between Kosova and Serbia (and Russia).

Lëvizja VETËVENDOSJE! can talk with the Serbs of Kosova but is against negotiating our independence with Serbia. Belgrade wants to make the independence of Kosova impossible – just that. This is the exact meaning of its formula “more than autonomy, less than independence”. Negotiations with Serbia are taking us to Serbia. Through negotiations Serbia attempts to legally re-establish control of our population and territory, through internal division of Kosova.

Negotiations of 120 days are meant to paralyze people in Kosova in an endless atmosphere of ‘waiting’ – made up to pretend that something is done in order to ask people to do nothing, i.e. wait.

Likely these 120 days will be extended, and the new negotiations will result in new concessions.

Albin Kurti, who is heading the Self-Determination Movement also said that U.S. President George Bush "was telling Kosovo Albanians lies."

“I can’t take this anymore! I have simply stopped thinking about what’s around me,” says Eremire Krasniqi, a 22-yearold sociology student from Pristina. Taking another shot of rakia, a homemade brandy, in a local café, Eremire can count on the sympathy of many youthful fellow drinkers.

Her attitude is typical of young people in Kosovo today, few of whom see home as a place where they can pursue their ambitions. With no job prospects, and no end in sight for the dispute over Kosovo’s status that seems to block progress in all aspects of life, they are giving up.

Kosovo has the youngest population in Europe. Although the birth rate has fallen in recent years, half of its roughly 2-million-strong population is under the age of 25, according to a recent report of the UN Development Programme, UNDP, while over 65 per cent is under 30, according to government statistics. In Western Europe, only Ireland, where 40 per cent of the population was under 25 in 1996, comes close to matching this demographic profile.