The outbreak of violence in Kosovo is a sad reminder of the unfinished business in southeast Europe. The war on terrorism and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have overshadowed the continuing struggle to build an enduring and stable peace in the war-torn province of Yugoslavia. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has sent reinforcements to the besieged peacekeeping forces. Those troops are needed, but they are at best a palliative. The foundation of peace is political reconciliation; that has not been achieved in the five years since the United Nations intervened in Kosovo.

KFOR, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, was established in June 1999, after NATO forced Yugoslav to withdraw from the province. The Yugoslav Army and the Serbian police were accused of committing widespread atrocities against ethnic Albanians during two years of savage conflict. The Albanians make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 1.9 million people, and are predominately Muslim. Their demands for independence from the government in Belgrade met with vicious reprisals and ethnic cleansing. Those crimes, and the fear that they could set off a wider regional war, prompted the U.N. and NATO to intervene, taking control of the province, as well as responsibility for the 80,000 Serbs that live in Kosovo.

The province has been quiet for the most part, although there have been sporadic outbreaks of violence. Last week, however, reports that two Albanian boys had drowned after being chased by Serbian men and dogs set off violence throughout the region. More than 30 people have been killed across the province, most of them Serbs, and hundreds more injured. Churches and mosques have been burned throughout Yugoslavia. Equally disturbing has been the targeting of U.N. forces, initially welcomed by the Albanians as saviors, but now seen as an obstacle to their dreams of independence.