The second anniversary of the international presence here in Kosovo is a time both to take stock and to look forward.
Certainly, it is salutary to remind ourselves what life was like when UNMIK and KFOR arrived in June 1999-when Kosovars were returning from enforced exile, when internationals came to help return life to normal as quickly as possible. Since then we have achieved much together. It was thanks, above all, to the efforts of the Kosovo people and their willingness to work with the realities they found.
It was also thanks to the efforts and the cooperation with many others outside UNMIK. I refer particularly to KFOR, the other United Nations and international organizations, several hundred NGOs, and, last but not least, the donor communities behind them. Hopefully, UNMIK at Two will be a snapshot reminder for donors, giving them a consolidated view of some of what their contributions and support have achieved.
One of the early accomplishments was the rapid return to near normality for most people. The world admired the industry with which people quickly rebuilt their homes. The people of Kosovo recognize that, today, most public things now work. The courts, schools, hospitals and health clinics, tax collection systems, railways, roads, radio and television, the postal system, the cadastre and offices issuing public documents have long been up and running.
But this is not only because we joined hands to rebuild the physical infrastructure. Crucial also were the new systems that make them run better-the modern approach to local government, healthcare provision, education, elections, law and order, and so on. These are the direct result of partnership, consultation and sharing of responsibility within the Joint Interim Administrative Structure.
But we must also look honestly and dispassionately at what yet remains for us to achieve. This booklet highlights the outstanding challenges in ensuring human rights for all-what many believed was the UN Mission raison d'être. It acknowledges that the joint administrative structure was but the beginning of in-depth Kosovar involvement in the administration, that building a functioning democracy involves much more than running a free and fair election, and that the step from the tangible benefits of reconstruction to mechanisms for economic development is major and complex.
Looking forward, one really major change is still to come-the Provisional Self-Government, for which we promulgated the Constitutional Framework in May 2001. This was a capacity-building exercise in itself and the cornerstone of Kosovo's foreseeable future. It will be the last formal step towards the substantive autonomy promised in Security Council Resolution 1244 and the final settlement of Kosovo's status that should follow.
Meanwhile the way forward, as the final pages here note, is crucially also through Kosovo's acceptance of law and order, and its practice of democracy. UNMIK's part has been to partner the people of all of Kosovo's communities. Through the joint structure and soon through new institutions of self-government we have been sustainably transferring responsibility. What is left is for all the new institutions to earn the trust of the people they serve-and for the people to be willing, without prejudice, to trust them.
In other words, there is still much to do to lay the groundwork for lasting peace and prosperity for current and future generations in this troubled part of Europe.

Hans Haekkerup
Pristina, June 2001