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05 05 2007 Life in Kosovo broadcast interviews with leading American and Kosovar politicians conducted at the New York conference "Creation of a strategy for the first 120 days of Kosovo" last month.
The interviewees included the former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, and members of the Kosovo Unity Team - Fatmir Sejdiu, president of Kosovo, Agim Ceku, prime minister, Hashim Thaçi, leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo - and Haki Abazi from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Albright said governing Kosovo will require "compromises.. understanding of what the population needs..transparency and accountability and a lot of hard work, steady hard work".
She also said that after final status is resolved, Kosovar leaders "have to make it clear that they welcome the presence of the Serbs. That they are part of a multi-ethnic society."
"So, I hope that the leaders of Kosovo will understand, in order to have a really functioning viable state of Kosovo, a new country..it's important to have Serbs and other minorities there."
In his interview, Sejdiu said,"Our priority is to work on the constitution of Kosovo. The main emphasis here lies on writing laws."
Ceku made clear that after the independence, the only important thing is to counter possible threats from Serbia.
"The second priority is the constitution of Kosovo, as well as the whole legislation that derives from the Ahtisaari package," said the prime minister.
According to Ceku, the third priority will be taking over all the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, competences.
Thaci insisted that Kosovo's prioroty was the "economy, offering new employment opportunities...We shouldn't wait for miracles. We have to work hard and to take on huge responsibilities.
"We have to work together, to have a clear vision of what kind of state we want Kosovo to become".
Abazi explained that in order to attract foreign investors, Kosovo has to cast itself in difference light - as part of a regional market.
At the beginning of 2010 BIRN network published Digging Deeper - A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans, written in cooperation with Sheila Coronel, Director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and professor of professional practice at Columbia University, New York.
