South Mitrovice buildings 17: this abandoned industrial complex appears to be a coal mine, though I'm not certain; the waste in the foreground seems to have been dumped on a similarly large scale, though smaller scale dumping within residential and other public places is common throughout Kosova/Kosovo.

[Updated on the 10th of February 2008.]

Kosova/Kosovo's economic situation is still dire. The BBC's Mark Mardell recently met Trepqa/Trepça mine manager Nazmi Mikullovci, who observed:

"If I get rid of these old workers, they would get 40 euros a month. That's pretty close to a death sentence. We have no social insurance, no medical insurance.

So tell me what I should do about our rather elderly workers. They are willing to work, they want to work but they are very limited in what they can actually do. It's another set of handcuffs."