UN says OSCE Kosovo report 'unrealistic'

The joint head of Kosovo's UN-run justice system, Sylvie Pantz, has reacted angrily to a report by the European security body, the OSCE.

Mrs Pantz said the document was too ambitious and unrealistic, and failed to take into account Kosovo's legacy of poor training, destroyed infrastructure and ethnic hatred.

She said local judges shouldn't be censored by the international community, or asked to act like heroes.

But Mrs Pantz stressed that she would nevertheless heed the OSCE's recommendations.

The report -- which was published on Wednesday -- said Kosovo's courts were biased against minority Serb defendants; it also criticised the UN administration for failing to enforce international human rights legislation.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service