The United Nations mission in Kosovo has achieved nothing in its 14-month tenure, Dr Bernard Kouchner, the province's civil administrator and de facto head of state says.
"There is no achievement in this UNMIK mission, there is some evolution, but achievement, certainly not," said Dr Kouchner, seated in his office in central Pristina's government building.
Asked to list his and the organisation's achievements to date, Dr Kouchner twice denied there had been any at all, but then went on to say that what was being attempted by the UN in Kosovo "has not been done anywhere else in the world in such a short time".
The daily grind of running Kosovo, where violence is on the increase in the run-up to municipal elections due in October, is showing on the 60-year-old politician, doctor and humanitarian.
But the burning issue in Kosovo is the increasing level of provocation from Belgrade prior to elections there on September 24th. The Yugoslav regime is trying to hijack Kosovo and the international mission for its own propaganda ends.
On Wednesday, officials from President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist party held a rally in the Kosovan Serb enclave of Gracanica. They announced that Kosovo's Serbs would be able to vote in the Yugoslav elections after 500 polling centres were set up in the disputed province.
Dr Kouchner sighs and tries not to be drawn on the issue. "This is a farce, it's not linked to democracy, but on the contrary to a provocation. This is impossible for us in such a short period of time."
Pressed as to whether Kosovo's Serbs would be able to vote, Dr Kouchner only said that if he receives a formal request, he will consider an answer.
"Let them come, why didn't they come and ask me?" he says, describing the action as "not far from" a deliberate provocation. Theoretically, he says, they could vote, but he thinks that with only three weeks to go before the elections, there will be no way that security could be assured.
Belgrade had just announced that Mr Milosevic, indicted as a war criminal by The Hague, is planning to visit Kosovo in the latest confrontation between Kosovo and Serbia, which continues more than a year after NATO troops intervened in the predominantly Albanian province.
Some international officials say Dr Kouchner is hamstrung by the complexities of UN Security Council Resolution 1,244, which seeks to promote the establishment "of substantial autonomy and self-government in Kosovo". This clause, linked to the claim that Kosovo will also remain part of Yugoslavia, makes life difficult for the UN mandate.
As violence of all sorts in the tiny province increases, the NATO presence is being reinforced.
"Everything is coming together," one senior UN police official said. "Organised crime, political violence, ethnic killings, it's a worsening situation."
In his office, Dr Kouchner sighs. Regardless of his comments, other international officials feel that much has been achieved.
"Basically," says one, "the centre of Pristina is not full anymore of Serb paramilitaries who want to kill Albanians."
Dr Kouchner smiles and says: "I did my best."
The successes of the mission will be the UN's, the failures his.