NEWSWEEK: Can Serbs and Albanians ever live together again in Kosovo KOUCHNER: I believe so. Today, for example, we formed a joint committee that included Serbs and Albanians for the return of Serb refugees, something that would have been unimaginable just three months ago. All Albanian and Serb leaders are agreed that it’s important for the Serbs to return. But we have to watch [the process] carefully. Should war criminals come back? Of course not.

Is a “multiethnic society” possible in Kosovo? People should be mixed, they should be talking to each other, they should eventually have the chance to work together. But it’s a long process. Even the words “multiethnic society” don’t appear in the United Nations resolution [that established a U.N. presence in Kosovo]. Building a tolerant society will take a huge number of years.

There have been a lot of reports that suggest that progress here has been negligible. What successes can you point to? The record is mixed. Tax collection is beginning, regulations are in place and businesses are starting to pay. The health and social- welfare system is a success, but education so far has been a failure. We simply couldn’t get the U.N. and Albanian coheads of the department to work together, so we have to start again.

How about the justice system? Is it possible to have fair trials in Kosovo given the ethnic animosity? The judicial system is not functioning. I have just one international judge and one prosecutor–what can I do with that? We need unbiased prosecutors, but not just that. We need secretaries, translators… Our biggest problems are in [the divided city of] Mitrovica. I postponed the trial of alleged Serb war criminals there because the situation is just too volatile. If you deliver these people to the Albanian judges, they’ll impose severe sentences. If you deliver them to the Serbs, they’ll go free.

Has the crime rate stabilized? There’s been progress, but it’s not perfect. Apparently a Serb has a 20 times greater chance of being the victim of a crime than an Albanian does. The murder rate is going down, but the percentage of victims who are minorities has not fallen.

What can you do about it? Four thousand Kosovars will be trained at the Police Academy between February and July 2001. We have close to 500 people, including some Serbs, and some women, who’ve been trained so far. It’s impressive.

Will Albanians settle for any thing less than independence? The Albanians want independence. But you have to explain to them that the international community has endorsed the idea of “substantial autonomy.” They will accept that. They remember the autonomy Kosovo enjoyed under [Yugoslav President Josip] Tito. It was a good time.

Some members of the Security Council visited here late last month. What was their reaction? They were supportive. They discovered the reality, the difficulty of our work. Everything is political here, every decision, every detail. It slows down the process, but this is Kosovo. This is the Balkans.

What do you mean? How can you solve the problems of this region in eight months? Serbs, Albanians and Turks have been fighting one another in this area for centuries.

Is it fruitless to try to resolve them? OK, so then what? Lebanon had worse suffering, and now it’s united. What about Cambodia? Mozambique? Fifty years ago it was unimaginable that my own country and Germany would ever cooperate. It’s always the same story, so why are we so impatient here?

Municipal elections are planned for mid-October. Do you expect them to proceed as scheduled? It all depends on the registration of voters. The process has already started. But Belgrade is not happy about it, and they’re not cooperating with the registration of Kosovar Serbs who now live as refugees in Serbia.

How much longer do you intend to stay in Kosovo? I’ll certainly be here through the elections. But after that–I don’t know.