Three years after NATO bombed the Serbs out of their southern province of Kosovo to punish Milosevic for a brutal crackdown on Albanian rebels (and civilians) there, Kosovo remains a UN protectorate, with UNMIK delegating some powers and authority to a newly elected Assembly dominated by independance minded Albanians.

The problem however is that the UN and most in the international community have lost a lot of their enthusiasm for creating an independant nation of Kosovo. And the newly democratic Serbia has gotten rid of Milosevic, enacted many reforms, is eager to rejoin Europe, and of course wants Serbian refugees resettled in "their" province of Kosovo. The Albanians living in Kosovo however are adamant and unbending in their insistence on independance.

Meanwhile, Kosovo itself has descended into a cesspool of mafia-driven black market smuggling of guns, drugs, sex slave traffic, prostitution, etc. Organized crime is half of the economy.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/667796.asp?0dm=C369N

It's very difficult to see how the UN is going to arrive at a final settlement of the Kosovo question any time soon.