Kosovo governor bows out, warns of extremist threat

The outgoing United Nations governor of Kosovo bowed out on Thursday with a warning that a few extremists were intent on destabilising the volatile province.
"A handful of people are trying to destroy the future of ordinary citizens here in Kosovo. Don't let them do that," Finnish diplomat Harri Holkeri said at a farewell news conference in Pristina.
"I am very much concerned because the security situation now in Kosovo is very fragile", he said, two weeks after he announced he was resigning for health reasons and before a successor has been appointed.
While Kosovo remained economically stagnant, violence would continue to be a threat, Holkeri added.
Holkeri was Kosovo's fourth UN administrator since Nato bombing in the defence of the ethnic Albanian majority forced Serbia to withdraw its forces. The Albanians want independence but Kosovo has remained more or less in limbo for five years.
Simmering discontent erupted in mid-March when Albanian mobs torched Serb homes and UN vehicles across the province. Nineteen people died and 800 Serb houses were destroyed.
Holkeri, who was heavily criticised for his handling of the unrest, warned of more "difficult days ahead" but said he was confident they would be overcome.
Touching on a common concern among international officials, he said that if people enjoy some personal wealth they will accept their neighbours, "but if people are poor, they are ready for the barricades, to kill their neighbours and follow all kinds of extremist criminals".
A World Bank report released on Thursday said gross domestic products in Kosovo was the lowest in Europe, at just $790 per capita a year. It warned that economic growth was under threat as international donations and handouts dry up.
Unemployment stands at more than 60 percent and a privatisation process seen as crucial to jump-starting an economic recovery is stalled.
Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's two million people, are impatient for independence from Serbia and increasingly see the giant UN bureaucracy as a hindrance.
As Holkeri spoke, special riot police formed a cordon around the UN compound in central Pristina, watching several hundred protesters demanding that the UN mission (UNMIK) leave.