Security Council briefed
on gains, challenges of UN efforts in Kosovo
27 March - Meeting to review the latest
developments in Kosovo, the United Nations Security
Council today heard a report on a number of positive moves
in several priority areas, while at the same time was alerted
to the need for substantial progress this year to solidify the
recent gains.
Briefing the Council in an open meeting, UN
Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi
Annabi stressed that with the formation of the Government on 28
February, the transfer of authority from the UN Interim Administration
Mission (UNMIK) had begun and the Provisional Institutions of
Self-Government “must now get down to business.”
He also highlighted yesterday’s return
of 146 Kosovo Albanians who had been held in Serbian prisons since
June 1999, when Yugoslav forces moved approximately 2,000 detainees
from Kosovo to other facilities in Serbia following NATO air strikes.
As for other developments, Mr. Annabi drew the
Council’s attention to the efforts of UNMIK chief Michael
Steiner to encourage Kosovo Serb engagement in the new government
and the improvement in security and freedom of movement in the
province. He also noted the start of the second weapons amnesty
programme, progress against organized crime and the return of
refugees.
Following Mr. Annabi’s briefing, Nebojsa
Covic, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
stressed that the “most important point that I want to leave
with you is that we are currently in a race against time.”
Two different forces were going to be pushing harder to come to
a final settlement for Kosovo, he said: the ethnic Albanians from
Kosovo and, for separate reasons, the international community,
which was growing tired of investing resources and energies in
the Balkans.
Mr. Covic, who is also President of the Coordination
Centre of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic
of Serbia for Kosovo and Metohija, warned that unless progress
was made in 2002 among such key issues as institution building
and the transformation to a truly multi-ethnic society, troubles
lay ahead.
In the ensuing debate, representatives
of all 15 Council members took the floor, as did Ambassador Inocencio
F. Arias of Spain, who made a statement on behalf of the European
Union welcoming the formation of the Kosovo Government and other
recent developments. He also encouraged the newly formed institutions
and local authorities to work towards making the province a democratic,
multi-ethnic society and reiterated the alliance’s commitment
to providing it with economic and political support.
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UN study confirms low-level
radioactive contamination in Serbia and Montenegro
27 March - Widespread -- but low-level
-- radioactive contamination has been found at five of six sites
in Serbia and Montenegro struck by depleted uranium munitions
during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) reported today.
While the new UNEP study concludes that none
of the six sites studied present immediate radioactive or toxic
risks to the environment or human health, the agency is recommending
authorities take precautionary measures.
UNEP is most concerned about the potential for
ammunition tips made out of depleted uranium to cause future groundwater
contamination. Those tips -- called penetrators -- recovered by
the UN agency’s team were some 10-15 per cent smaller in
mass due to rapid corrosion since they were used in 1999. The
speed of the corrosion underlines the importance of monitoring
water quality at the five sites on an annual basis, UNEP says.
Modern air sampling techniques revealed airborne
depleted uranium particles at two of the five contaminated sites,
according to the agency. While the levels were below international
safety limits, these results have implications for site decontamination
and construction work -- activities that could potentially stir
up radioactive dust from the ground surface. The results also
indicate that depleted uranium dust was widely dispersed into
the environment when the ammunition exploded.
The new study -- undertaken by a team
of 14 international experts in October and November 2001 -- was
conducted in cooperation with the UN International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) with support from the World Health Organization
(WHO). Its findings are consistent with those of a previous study
of depleted uranium ammunition sites UNEP conducted in 2001 in
Kosovo.
UN reports return of all
Kosovo Albanians held in Serbian prisons
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| SRSG Steiner
briefing the press today in Kosovo |
26 March – All Kosovo
Albanians detained in Serbian prisons have now been returned to
Kosovo, the United Nations Interim Administration in the province
(UNMIK) announced today.
Welcoming the development, UNMIK head Michael
Steiner said the return “brings to closure a ainful legacy
of the war.”
The returned group included the last known Kosovo
Albanian prisoners held in Serbia since June 1999 when Yugoslav
forces moved approximately 2,000 detainees from Kosovo to other
facilities in Serbia following NATO air strikes.
Mr. Steiner said he was “extremely happy”
that after highly intensive talks in Belgrade UNMIK was able to
fulfill one of its longstanding priorities.
According to UNMIK, since the start of the UN
Mission most of the Kosovo Albanian detainees had either been
amnestied or released following the expiry of sentences or after
the charges against them were dropped. In November 2001, Yugoslavia
and Serbia committed themselves to returning all remaining detainees.
Earlier this month, Belgrade officials provided
case files on the detainees to UNMIK. International judges have
been reviewing those files for the Mission to determine whether
detainees were found guilty of committing internationally recognized
crimes, and whether they were convicted in legally acceptable
trials.
Although that review process is not quite
complete, Mr. Steiner said that on Wednesday he would order the
release of all those whose convictions had been deemed to be invalid
by UNMIK justice officials. Prisoners whose convictions are held
to be valid will serve out their sentences in Kosovo.
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Cooperation from Belgrade
‘selective and limited,’ UN war crimes prosecutor says
21 March - The Chief Prosecutor for the
United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) said today that prosecution of those charged
with war crimes was being thwarted by lack of cooperation from
the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
“Were it not for the Milosevic trial, we
would be in the same situation as last year,” Carla Del Ponte
told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York. She added
that the Tribunal faced obstruction by Yugoslav authorities and
received only limited cooperation from Serbian authorities –
and even that only after the international community put pressure
on them. What cooperation was forthcoming was both “selective
and limited,” she said.
Ms. Del Ponte explained that a key reason for
her trip to UN Headquarters was to ask the international community
to apply pressure on Yugoslavia, so that those charged with war
crimes could actually be arrested and tried – the message
she conveyed during her trip to the officials of the United States
and other permanent members of the Security Council.
About half of the Tribunal's 32 fugitive indictees
were presently in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Ms. Del
Ponte said, and she was convinced both Yugoslav and Serbian authorities
were fully aware of their whereabouts.
Until very recently, former Serbian strongman
Ratko Mladic was “enjoying” official protection from
the Yugoslav army with the blessing of the Federal Presidency,
Ms. Del Ponte added, though she had been assured that this protection
had now been removed.
Kosovo: UN Mission to
set up joint committee with Skopje on border issues
19 March - After travelling to the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the head of the United Nations
Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK), Michael Steiner, announced
that a joint committee between Pristina and Skopje would be set
up to deal with border issues.
Following his meeting with President Boris Trajkovski
on Monday, in which the two discussed regional issues and methods
of cooperation, Mr. Steiner told media that the border agreement
between the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia, signed in February 2001, must be respected.
"We both agreed on the need to take into
consideration the lives of normal people on the ground, and the
practical problems of their daily lives that need to be resolved,
notwithstanding the need to respect the agreement," he added.
The Joint Experts Committee would not deal with
demarcation of the border, Mr. Steiner said, but with practical
problems on the ground. The Committee will meet as soon as possible.
President Trajkovski and Mr. Steiner also discussed
how to implement police cooperation - particularly regarding illegal
border crossings, missing persons, intelligence, crime prevention,
processing of visas for UNMIK Travel Documents, and access to
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for vehicles registered
in Kosovo.
The UNMIK chief also praised the proposal by
President Trajkovski for an "economic spring offensive."
"If you want to boost the economy
of the region, you need stable environments in fYROM and Kosovo,"
Mr. Steiner said. "This is a man who understands the needs
of Macedonia and the region. We are in full agreement on our common
interests."
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Kosovo: UN food agency
launches first-ever inter-ethnic aid consortium
15 March - The United Nations World Food
Programme (WFP) has launched a consortium of local non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) - billed as the first-ever public agreement
by a multi-ethnic group to work together for all the province's
people - to continue providing aid after the UN agency ends its
emergency food assistance on 31 March.
The Consortium for Inter-ethnic Development
(CID) will continue to undertake key health, social welfare and
youth reconciliation projects, WFP said. Along with CARE International,
the agency will encourage donors to provide resources to support
the activities of the group, which is composed of six local organizations
that have worked with the UN agency since 1998 to distribute food
in province.
At its peak, the WFP operation fed more than
one million people in the province. However it has been scaling
down operations in light of recent socio-economic and political
improvements in Kosovo, and plans to undertake its last food distribution
on 18 March.
In preparation for its departure, WFP
has also been working with the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to
establish a permanent state-run welfare system to include local
centres charged with identifying and assisting the most vulnerable
households.
UN envoy lobbies European
Union foreign ministers for continued support to Kosovo
11 March - The head of the United Nations
Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) today lobbied
European foreign ministers to continue their countries' economic
and political support for the province.
"We must finish what we started, or a vacuum
will be created to be filled with crime that could lead to instability
in the region," Michael Steiner told journalists after speaking
to a closed-door session of the European Union's General Affairs
Council. "We must eradicate crime and export stability. For
that, Kosovo needs Europe to stay engaged."
In the meeting of EU foreign ministers, Mr.
Steiner stressed the importance of "sustainability"
in assistance to Kosovo, at the same time expressing his gratitude
for the generous and continuing support from the EU and the European
Commission.
The UNMIK chief noted that improved security,
in a broad sense, was crucial for Kosovo's success. Besides bolstering
the rule of law, it also meant that jobs must be created, he said,
noting the province's high unemployment rate and high proportion
of young people.
"We must put these young women and men
to work," Mr. Steiner said. "To do this we must attract
investment, and to attract investment, we must privatize"
within the context of Security Council Resolution 1244.
Earlier Monday, Mr. Steiner met with the Secretary-General
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, George Robertson, who
pledged NATO support for a "relentless attack" on organized
crime in cooperation with UNMIK, as well as a "strong and
robust position appropriate to the sense of security" in
Kosovo.
Lord Robertson also welcomed the announcement
of a joint month-long weapons amnesty programme by UNMIK and the
international Kosovo security force (KFOR), set to run from 15
March through 15 April.
Mr. Steiner is scheduled to travel tomorrow
to Berlin, then arrive on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., before
heading to London and Moscow on Thursday and Friday.
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Top UN official in Kosovo
welcomes weapon amnesty programme
11 March - The United Nations top official in Kosovo, Michael
Steiner, has welcomed a second round of a weapons amnesty programme
designed to encourage citizens to turn in illegal firearms and
ammunition in anonymity and without fear of punishment or prosecution.
“Kosovo is not at war anymore, so you don’t
need weapons – they are simply dangerous,” Mr. Steiner
said over the weekend in reaction to last week’s announcement
of the amnesty, which will run from 15 March to 15 April and is
a joint action of the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK)
and the international security force (KFOR).
“From the 15th on, there is one month for
handing over weapons that you still have in your homes,”
he said. “This is a golden opportunity for anyone who has
still these dangerous weapons at home to hand them over without
any prosecution, without any disciplinary actions.”
Weapons possession is banned for all residents
of Kosovo except those holding weapons authorization cards under
UNMIK Regulation 2001/7. Those found in possession of illegal
weapons can face a prison term of up to eight years or a fine
of up to €7,500.
KFOR and UNMIK will set up designated collection
points, the Mission said. However individuals may also notify
KFOR or police units to pick up weapons or ammunition that may
be risky to transport.
In other news, Mr. Steiner visited Brussels
today to meet with the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), Lord Robertson, and to address the
European Union’s General Affairs Council.
According to UNMIK, Mr. Steiner intended
to urge NATO and EU representatives to maintain their engagement
in Kosovo, as well as to stress the importance of continued international
political and economic support to Kosovo and its institutions
of new provisional self-government, according to an UNMIK spokesperson.
Kosovo: UN 'distressed'
over flight of Austrian police officer wanted for questioning
6 March - The United Nations was "very
distressed" that an Austrian police officer wanted for questioning
by the judicial authorities of Kosovo had left the area without
the permission or knowledge of the UN Interim Administration Mission
(UNMIK), a UN spokesman said today in New York.
Responding to a question about reports in today's
Washington Post that an Austrian police officer suspected of abusing
a Kosovo Albanian had escaped UN custody, spokesman Fred Eckhard
told a press briefing that the investigative judge and the prosecutor
in Kosovo were in Prizren today interviewing witnesses to the
incident.
"No charges have been filed yet,"
Mr. Eckhard said. "The case is before the court and the law
must take its course."
The United Nations is governing Kosovo
and has set up an independent judiciary in the territory, the
spokesman noted, but declined to comment further while the investigation
is going forward.
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Kosovo Assembly elects
President, Prime Minister as UN hails 'spirit of compromise'
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| Ibrahim Rugova
(left) and Dr. Bajram Rexhepi |
4 March – The Kosovo Assembly today voted
in the province's first President and government just days after
the main political parties had broken a months-long deadlock by
signing an agreement that was welcomed by the United Nations Interim
Administration Mission (UNMIK) as an important step for Kosovo's
future.
In a single, open ballot, the Assembly overwhelmingly
elected Ibrahim Rugova, head of the Democratic League of Kosovo
(LDK), as President of Kosovo, and chose Dr. Bajram Rexhepi of
the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) its Prime Minister.
Of the Assembly’s 120 members, 112 were
present at today’s session, with 88 voting in favour of the
proposed government package. Three voted against the proposal
and 15 abstained.
Nine cabinet ministers were also named, while
the candidate for the post of Minister of Agriculture, Forestry
and Rural Development, which will go to a member of the Coalition
Povratak, has not yet been confirmed.
"In the spirit of compromise, your leaders
have achieved a long-awaited Agreement. I am convinced that this
Agreement can be the foundation for a better future of Kosovo,"
UNMIK chief Michael Steiner said in a speech to the Assembly,
referring to the accord reached last Thursday on the new government.
"The Secretary-General of the United Nations
has wholeheartedly welcomed the Agreement," he said. "Kofi
Annan urges you to make good use of it, and establish a government
now."
Today's Assembly meeting, which was a
continuation of the inaugural session that last met on 10 December
2001, was convened by Assembly President Nexhat Daci, whose first
act Monday was to accept the endorsement of the PDK members of
the Assembly Presidency, Xhavit Haliti and Hydayet Hyseni.
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