Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is president and

commander-in-chief of her country, and she's not yet 40. A remarkable feat, even more remarkable

when you consider that as a teenager in 1999, Vyosa Osmani was forced to flee her home at gunpoint with her family. She was just one of thousands of

Muslim Kosovo's caught up in Slobodan Milosevic's desperate and violent attempt to subdue Kosovovon

resistance at the tail end of the protracted war in the former Yugoslavia.

NATO ultimately intervened.

Serbian forces were pushed out of Kosovo, and a decade later, in 2008,

Kosovo formally declared itself an independent nation.

Recognition from the US and a host of Western countries came quickly, but it still hasn't come from

Belgrade or indeed from Moscow or Beijing. Vyosa Osmani managed to complete her education, even gaining a

master's in international law in the US before returning to build a political career in Pristina.

She is now acting president,

but her position as head of state is likely to be formalized

by the recently elected Kosovo and Parliament in just a few weeks' time.

She is one of a new generation of politicians proclaiming a commitment

to give the country a bright European future.

But can Kosovo banish the ghosts from its recent past?

Well, President Vyosa Osmani joins me now from Pristina.

Welcome to Hard Talk.

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

A pleasure to be talking to you.

It is a pleasure to have you on the

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