Every now and again one sees an interview of such vigour, insight and directness that one wants to shake the hand of the speaker, even if one does not agree with everything said.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Major General Raul Cunha, Chief Military Liaison Officer of UNMIK, giving his views on the success and failures of EU engagement in Kosovo:

The situation here is not brilliant and we are a lot to blame. We, I mean the western international community. We have maybe invested here in the worst way and we were not very careful with the money. Each time I take a look at the numbers, I notice that 80% of the investment was made on consultancy and capacity building and, practically speaking, we didn’t build any capacities.

That money was very badly spent. Maybe if we would have invested that same money to build a proper power plant, schools and good universities we could have guaranteed a productive structure.

That pillar of reconstruction and economic development inside UNMIK was always a responsibility of the European Union and we can verify now that there is no productive structure in Kosovo.

After all, what has the famous pillar of the EU inside UNMIK done throughout all these years except to denationalize some companies and to put them in the hands of some persons who may not be very recommendable? Nothing!

European Union has spent in Kosovo 4 000 million euros, in different ways. From those 4 000 millions, 80% was spent in capacity building and consultancy, which means that 3200 millions went back to the base…

Or try this:

Mr. Solana is still saying that we are creating stability in the Balkans. I am not going to argue over the fact of Kosovo being independent, but the way this process was conducted goes in the direction of instability, and not stability.

Because when we say this is a unique case which doesn’t represent a precedent, we know we are either lying or being hypocrites.

It’s clear that no two cases are equal. It’s clear that each of them is unique, but all of them have one thing in common: the will of one group to separate from another to create their own motherland. This is the same for everybody.

The trouble with me (it is said) is that I reduce everything to first principles.

Yes. But are they not refreshing?