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“We’ve earned our independence”

Transcript of my reaction for France 24 observer regarding Kosovo’s Republic Independence

We had a great party last night. People never stopped singing. Many were crying with joy, thinking about all we lost in the war. We have fought hard for this independence and we deserve it. Of course, Kosovo’s economy is not brilliant at the moment. But I’m confident about the future because we have many young people; more than 50% of the country is under 35. They generally speak English, because we’ve lived eight years under the mandate of the UN, and they’re well trained in the domain of new technologies and the internet – 23% of Albanians have Internet access and development is quick. So Albania is an ideal place for industries to use for some of their activities. That’s what happened in Estonia, which became quite powerful in the new-technology domain after its independence. We can do that too.

The foreign media worries a lot about the Serbs in Kosovo being persecuted, but there’s no chance that will happen. Firstly because we’re not naïve. We haven’t waited all this time for our independence to throw it all away now, especially when the Serb minority doesn’t even pose a problem. Secondly, we signed the Ahtisaari agreement, from the ex-president of Finland that was posted to Kosovo by the UN to protect the Serbian minority. Most of the Serbs over here are much better treated than the Kosovars over there. In fact, they’re even privileged.

I’d say that more than 90% of the population is waiting for EU integration. I don’t think our independence will start any new wars. Problems in Yugoslavia were started in Kosovo, and they’ll end with Kosovo too.”

Read full story at France 24 observers