Top UN envoy in Kosovo welcomes election of new government

The United Nations top envoy to Kosovo today welcomed the election of a new government by the province’s Assembly.

Søren Jessen-Petersen, Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative in Kosovo, congratulated all parties for repeatedly upholding democratic values in challenging circumstances.

Mr. Jessen-Petersen paid special tribute to the new Prime Minister, Agim Ceku, who, he said, has proved to be a good working partner for the UN Mission in Kosovo and the international community as a whole.

The UN has run Kosovo since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid grave human rights abuses in the fighting between Serbs and Albanians. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo outnumber other ethnic groups, mainly Serbs, by about 9 to 1.