Basic services needed On the ground, daily life has little in common with a functioning democracy. The latest UN status report for Kosovo admitted that up to 600,000 people in the region were still reliant on emergency food aid and that 500,000 required proper accommodation before the onset of winter, with only basic, emergency shelter likely to be made available for many. In the capital, Pristina, western aid workers and associated staff represent 20 percent of the population. Daily life in Kosovo bears little resemblance to a functioning democracy. Although over 80 percent of Kosovo's children are presently in school, and a basic level of public transport, medical facilities, and legal services available, continued tensions between Albanians and Serbs seriously disrupt the running of the region, with regular disorder and disenchantment with UN administration rife.
Early elections are likely to be a dagger in the heart of democracy.
The UN disputes such a stance. It can get nasty. Tensions between Albanians and Serbs are well documented, but violence between rival Albanian political factions present the UN with its most challenging enemy. She says that when the UN and OSCE moved into Kosovo they endorsed such people without consulting a wider group of more moderate representatives of the community, thus setting Kosovo, and its UN administrators, on a crash course for disaster later down the line. Dealing with ethnic conflict in the Balkans has been a major headache for Western authorities trying to introduce democracy and bring stability to the region.