Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek addressed the protection and promotion of minority rights in Kosovo. Once he noted his neutral position on Kosovo’s legal status, he described the tense inter-ethnic relations and poor minority rights implementation that persist in the society.

Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.) of the Helsinki Commission was in full agreement of Vollebaek’s assessment of the minority conditions, referring to them as “plain appalling.” (more…)