Joachim Rucker, the current head of the economic reconstruction pillar, was appointed by Kofi Annan to be the sixth Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG - bet you always wondered what that meant!) Rucker, a German, has also worked in Bosnia-Herzegovina and has overseen much of the privatization process in Kosovo in addition to battling the high unemployment rates. Rucker believes that he will be the last SRSG to serve in the Kosovo mission and has already stated that partition of Kosovo is not an option.
In other news, the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) have taken over from international police at the borders of Kosovo this week, except for the northern border with Serbia. The northern border is still controlled by international officers and KFOR troops. Nearly 500 international police officers have been deployed to the area north of Mitrovica to do what is called "enhancement" policing. Basically it is community policing and is part of an effort to make the minority community feel safer.
The Washington Post printed an editorial about Greater Albania. While rather one-sided there is some interesting questions raised about the politics of the region.
