A milestone on the road to democracy.

• Author: Vinogradov, Sergei
• Position: Kosovo - Newly-elected Assembly - Brief Article

It was on a crisp, sunny December morning, as if the freshness of the air outside symbolized a new beginning for Kosovo, that all 120 members of the newly-elected Assembly, which for the first time in history truly represented the people of this province, gathered in the refurbished Conference Hall of the Government Building in Pristina. As the moment of the opening was approaching, everybody present felt more and more agitated. No surprise: the Assembly was to take upon it the very important and demanding task of actually running Kosovo, as well as the lead in a journey to ethnic reconciliation, tolerance and democracy.

It was also highly symbolic that the inaugural session was held on 10 December--Human Rights Day and the day when Secretary-General Kofi Annan received the Nobel Peace Prize as recognition of the enduring efforts of the United Nations to make the world a more peaceful and better place.

In declaring the session open, the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Hans Haekkerup, stated that the international community had invested huge efforts to ensure peace and stability in Kosovo and the region. It was, therefore, the Assembly's responsibility to supplement and develop those efforts, thus securing continued support for Kosovo from the world outside. All communities should enjoy equal rights and responsibilities, free from any form of discrimination; only on that basis could the men and women of Kosovo become an integral part of European and world development, he added.

The Secretary-General, in a personal message delivered by Mr. Haekkerup to Kosovo's parliamentarians, said the inauguration of the Assembly marked the beginning of the transfer of authority from the United Nations to the provisional institutions of self-government. "This is an important step towards the implementation of Security Council resolution 1244, adopted thirty months ago. It is also a milestone on the road to democracy and peaceful development in Kosovo", he declared. The Assembly faced the challenge of achieving efficient daily government and had an "important task in overcoming the legacy of the past and establishing a political culture of tolerance, mutual respect and constructive compromise. No one must suffer discrimination by virtue of her or his ethnic origin", the Secretary-General stressed.

The Assembly then moved on to elect its seven-member Presidency. Under the Constitutional Framework, the first two political entities having obtained...