Kosovo's undefined status not good

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Kosovo's undefined status is not good for people's lives, be they Albanians or non-Albanians, says deputy UNMIK chief Jennifer Brush.

I hope that the Brussels dialogue will help to achieve a normalisation in the relations between Serbia and Kosovo to ensure normal life, Brush has said on a Serbian-language talk show aired by several local television channels in Kosovo.

I may be wrong, but I often say that Serbia and Kosovo are held hostage by each other because Serbia's prospects will be limited for as long as there is no solution for Kosovo - the same goes the other way around, with Kosovo's prospects to remain limited for as long as a common path is not found with Serbia, she said.

Brush noted that she wants the dialogue to produce good results, but that Brussels should not be a mere theatre where solutions reached by Serbian and Kosovo leaders are just welcomed with a loud applause.

There must be results on the ground, she noted.

Brush said that she is unable to comment in more detail on recent allegations by the UN Advisory Committee on Human Rights about Serb reporters who have been reported missing in Kosovo.

The committee urged UNMIK to publicly admit responsibility over its failure to conduct an efficient investigation into the disappearances of Dragan Stevanovic and Ivan Majstorovic and apologise to their families.

It also noted that the investigation of the case of Radio Pristina reporter Marijan Melonasi, who went missing in 2000, began as late as in 2005, ending immediately.

Brush said that she herself is dissatisfied with this, adding that UNMIK did what it could in the chaos that reigned at the time.

There have been many tragedies and every tragedy...