Supervision of Kosovo ends

Monday marks an important milestone for tiny Kosovo, as a 25-nation group formally ends supervision of the young country it has guided since the former Serbian province declared independence after a bloody war. It is a sign of confidence that the new country has matured enough since 2008 to take its destiny into its own hands.            

But, in reality, very little will be different for the Balkan nation after the parliamentary ceremony celebrating the change. NATO-led peacekeepers will stay in charge of security and an EU mission will still have a final say in legal matters. Tensions with Serbia and ethnic Serbs living in the tense north will persist and so will the hardship of Kosovo's army of jobless people who are still waiting to see the bright future they were promised.            

Kosovo is a small, landlocked territory in southeastern Europe, squeezed between Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. About 2 million people live there, predominantly ethnic Albanians of Muslim faith, while the rest are Orthodox Christian Serbs and other ethnic communities. Kosovo has some stunning nature, particularly in the west.

The Serb-Albanian dispute over Kosovo dates back decades, if not centuries.  Serbia has sought to control the territory it views as a national heartland, while ethnic Albanians have always wanted to be on their own. In the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo was an autonomous region within Serbia until 1989 when nationalists in Belgrade revoked self-rule. Tensions simmered until 1998 and then exploded in bloody conflict.                      

After the war in 1998-99 Kosovo, freed itself from Serbia's rule, but did not immediately gain statehood. Kosovo actually declared independence almost a decade later, in 2008. It was backed by the United States and most EU nations, but not Serbia, which vowed never to recognize the split.

AP