New
UN report paints mixed picture of Kosovo's Provisional Institutions
30 January 2004 – The
record of achievements by Kosovo's Provisional Institutions is
mixed, with progress apparently stalled in some areas, United
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new document made
public today.
In a report to the Security Council on the activities of
the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Mr. Annan
calls for Kosovo's leaders and institutions to uphold the values
of multi-ethnicity, tolerance and equal rights for all communities.
The Secretary-General notes that not all ethnic communities meaningfully
participate in the Provisional Institutions - the presidency,
the government and the Kosovo Assembly. He voices concern that
the Assembly "is once again refusing to take into account
legitimate minority concerns in the legislative process, [and
is] over-stepping its competencies."
But Mr. Annan says he was encouraged by some progress, including
the preparation and adoption of laws at the central and local
levels of self-government.
Established in June 1999 following war in the
province, UNMIK is an interim civilian administration led by the
UN under which Kosovans can progressively enjoy greater autonomy.
UNMIK retains certain reserved powers in Kosovo,
including control over security, foreign relations, minority rights
protection and energy, until the province's final status is determined.
Mr. Annan observed that in November a mechanism
was set up to review and measure the progress made by the Provisional
Institutions towards the benchmarks required before any final
decision on Kosovo's status can be made.
In another development, UNMIK customs officers
today detected a large quantity of what is suspected to be heroin
in the boot of a car leaving Kosovo for Albania.
The seized goods - the latest in a series
of discoveries by UNMIK customs officers - have been transferred
to the border police, with laboratory analysts set to determine
the precise nature of the substance.
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Kosovo is good lesson in international action
against ethnic conflict – UN official
28 January 2004 – The inter-ethnic
conflict in Kosovo provides good lessons about both the successes
and pitfalls of international action in halting ethnic cleansing
and preventing it from occurring again, a senior United Nations
official told a conference on genocide today.
These include the need to establish a peacekeeping presence as
soon as possible in the area of conflict to prevent retaliation
and the difficulty of ensuring the return of all refugees, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan's Deputy Special Representative in Kosovo, Jean-Christian
Cady, told the Stockholm International Forum on preventing genocide.
“Kosovo is a good
example of what the international community and the United Nations
can achieve to stop ethnic cleansing and build policy instruments
that will prevent it from occurring again,” Mr. Cady said
of the province that has been under UN administration since June
1999 following fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
He stressed that prerequisites included a clear
and common will of the international community to stop an ethnic
cleansing as well as the deployment as soon as possible of an
international mission with a military component and a robust mandate.
“One of the shortcomings we had in Kosovo
was that during the time it took to establish the full peacekeeping
presence, in the summer and autumn of 1999, numerous interethnic
retaliation actions took place and the victims became the perpetrators,”
he said.
The second difficulty is the return of refugees.
In Kosovo practically all ethnic Albanians went back in a matter
of weeks, but more than four years later most Serbs who fled have
not returned despite the efforts of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
“Even though some of them do return,
many Serbs feel that the interethnic security situation is too
fragile and the unemployment too high, to allow them to settle
again in Kosovo,” Mr. Cady said.
Before reconciliation can occur, effective
justice must be delivered, so that no crime is left unpunished,
whoever the victim or perpetrator, he added.
“The main challenge of UNMIK is
to create stable conditions for a multiethnic Kosovo, not only
to prevent ethnic cleansing from occurring again when the mandate
of the international mission comes to an end but also to ensure
a normal development and prosperity of all communities, free from
harassment and with equal access to institutions, an impartial
police and justice system,” he declared.
Rising demand for peacekeeping stretches
UN's resources, Fréchette says
27 January 2004 – Poorer countries are providing the greatest
contribution to United Nations peacekeeping operations but even
this support is insufficient to meet rising demands, Deputy Secretary-General
Louise Fréchette said today in India.
"Already there has been a marked shift in the composition
of our peacekeeping forces, with the share provided by OECD [Organization
for Economic Cooperation for Development] countries declining
and that of developing countries rising," she said in her
keynote address to the Sixth Institute for Defence Studies and
Analyses Asian Security Conference, hailing India's longstanding
support.
While acknowledging that "it certainly makes sense for Europeans
to take the lead in peace operations in the Balkans," the
Deputy Secretary-General pointed to existing inequities. "There
is a manifest imbalance between the 30,000 NATO peacekeepers deployed
in tiny Kosovo and the 10,000 UN peacekeepers deployed in [the
Democratic Republic of the] Congo, which is the size of Western
Europe, and where some 3.5 million people may have died as a result
of fighting since 1998."
Solidarity is not only a matter of peacekeeping, she added, pointing
out that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - a set of global
antipoverty targets agreed to at a 2000 UN summit - remain out
of reach. "Unhappily," she said, "the commitment
to follow through on these Goals has been uneven, resulting in
a loss of momentum in the drive to attain them."
Ms. Fréchette also said the current security paradigm -
the "Post 9-11 context" - has raised a number of questions
which must be resolved in order to strengthen the system of collective
security. Among these is the perception by countries that they
have the right to unilaterally use pre-emptive force without agreement
by the Security Council.
"This logic represents a fundamental challenge to the principles
on which, however imperfectly, world peace and stability have
rested for nearly six decades, and could easily lead to a proliferation
of the unilateral and lawless use of force, with or without justification,"
she warned.
The UN Charter, she emphasized, is not "a suicide pact."
But she added that States would not adhere to it unless they had
confidence that threats would be dealt with through collective
action. The Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges
and Change, she said, would seek to tackle these issues as part
of the "enormous effort of will" needed to forge a common,
multilateral strategy.
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Annan mourns former senior
UN peacekeeper who helped the Balkans
26 January 2004 – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi
Annan mourned the death earlier today of Sven Frederiksen, head
of the European Union's police mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Mr. Frederiksen "made a significant contribution
to the efforts of the UN to bring peace and stability to the Balkans,"
a spokesman for the Secretary-General said in a statement, which
also conveyed condolences to Mr. Frederiksen's family.
A Danish national, Mr. Frederiksen first served
with the UN as sector commander of the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR)
in Croatia in 1992. He returned to UNPROFOR in 1994 as Police
Commissioner before helping prepare the Dayton Peace Accords for
the former Yugoslavia.
Mr. Frederiksen, who had been a distinguished
officer with the Danish police service, became Police Commissioner
for the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in
1999 before becoming Commissioner of the UN International Police
Task Force (IPTF) in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2002.
UN envoy urges Kosovo
to take the high road towards peace in 2004
13 January – Declaring that Kosovo is at a crossroads in
its history, the senior United Nations envoy to the province today
urged its people to choose the peaceful, democratic path taken
by the nations of Central and Eastern Europe after the end of
the Cold War.
Harri Holkeri, the Secretary-General's Special Representative
for Kosovo, told an Orthodox New Year reception in Kosovo's capital,
Pristina, that the alternative is "the low road of perpetual
conflict, corruption and organized crime."
The envoy cited the examples of many of Kosovo's regional neighbours
as the model for the province to follow.
"Fifteen years after the largely peaceful revolutions that
ended totalitarian rule, these societies now are on the verge
of joining the European Union," he said.
Mr. Holkeri said that while Kosovo is clearly a safer place than
it was a year ago, anger and intolerance continue to simmer just
below the surface - noting a drive-by shooting at the weekend
that prompted clashes between Serb and Albanian villagers.
The envoy said the task of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is
to help locals prepare the province, which has been under UN administration
since June 1999, for the resolution of its future status - and
then to leave.
But he said this would not work unless Kosovo meets many challenges
during 2004, including holding fair parliamentary elections, ensuring
the rule of law, promoting multi-ethnicity, encouraging dialogue
between Pristina and Belgrade, and establishing an effective market
economy.
"The minority communities must feel safe and secure,"
he added. "Returnees must not feel threatened."
Mr. Holkeri also reiterated the importance of implementing and
adhering to the province's recently elaborated set of formal standards,
designed to prepare Kosovo for the eventual decision on its future
status.
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