Listen to Kosovo's Youth

posted: February 17, 2001

The New York Times

To the Editor: Re ``Kosovo's Young Get By With a Little Help From the West" (Week in Review, Feb. 11):

International support for community youth activists in Kosovo has been money well spent. Yet despite this support, few young people of any ethnic background in Kosovo profess to feeling truly free. Indeed, many minority Serb and Gypsy youth have completely lost their freedom. International efforts to rebuild in Kosovo have excluded the active input and concerns of the young people.

Ultimately, the West's main lesson to Kosovo's youth of all ethnic backgrounds has been about war. For any possibility of long-term stability in the region, we must invest in young people as strong actors in a civil society who value tolerance and nonviolence. Otherwise, a cycle of violence will continue.

Jane Lowicki
The writer is the senior coordinator of the Children and Adolescents Project, Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Chldren.