Reacting
to stabbing of Kosovo Serb youth, UN envoy urges restraint
28 March 2006 – The senior
United Nations envoy to Kosovo today voiced deep regret at the
stabbing of a Kosovo Serb juvenile in the northern part of Mitrovica
this evening and urged all concerned to exercise restraint while
the police investigate.
“I deeply regret and am shocked to learn
about this deplorable incident,” said Secretary-General
Kofi Annan’s Special Representative, Søren Jessen-Petersen,
in a statement released in Pristina.
“I have asked the police to launch a full
investigation into all of the circumstances relating to the incident.
In the meantime, while this matter is being looked into, I urge
restraint and ask all those with any information on the incident
to come forward and share that with the police.”
In a separate development, the envoy today welcomed
the call by Kosovo’s Prime Minister to the province’s
Serbs to join efforts to build a multi-ethnic society –
a step which would guarantee them their rightful place.
“The Prime Minister’s appeal is
yet another example of the earnestness of the Kosovo leadership
to fully integrate the Kosovo Serb community in the current and
future structures in Kosovo,” he said.
“It is now time for the Kosovo Serbs to
respond in kind, to take the hand that is reaching out to them
in a spirit of partnership, and work together with the Kosovo
Albanian community to build a common future in Kosovo.”
At the same time, he voiced concern about recent
developments which make it difficult for Kosovo Serbs to engage
in the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government.
“There are extremely important issues
pertaining to decentralization that are being discussed within
the framework of the status talks,” he said, adding that
Martti Ahtisaari, the envoy charged with talks on that process,
is exploring common ground on the matter.
“It is very important in this critical
phase of the process that all parties refrain from any unilateral
measures,” Mr. Jessen-Petersen cautioned.
The UN has administered Kosovo ever since
1999 when the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) drove out
Yugoslav troops amid grave rights abuses in ethnic fighting.
Top
of page
Kosovo,
Serbian delegations hold new status talks under UN chairmanship
17 March 2006 – Delegations from Kosovo and Serbia today
held their second round of direct talks on decentralization in
the Albanian-majority Serbian province, which the United Nations
has administered ever since the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance
(NATO) drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid grave rights abuses
in ethnic fighting.
The talks in Vienna, chaired
by Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Deputy Special Envoy for
the future status of Kosovo Albert Rohan, focused on local finance,
inter-municipal cooperation and cross-boundaries cooperation.
The talks are seen as an important
start in the process of determining Kosovo’s final status.
Independence and autonomy are among options that have been mentioned
for the province, where Albanians outnumber Serbs and others by
9 to 1. Serbia rejects independence and Kosovo’s Serbs have
been boycotting the province’s provisional institutions.
After the first direct talks
in Vienna last month, Mr. Annan’s special envoy for the
process, Martti Ahtisaari, said he was using “a ‘bottom-up
approach,’ in other words starting the process by dealing
with practical and ‘status-neutral’ issues.
“Apart from decentralization,
we will run parallel discussions on cultural and religious heritage,
minority rights and economy,” he added.
He has appealed to Serbian
leaders to encourage Kosovo Serb leaders to participate in the
province’s institutions. “If you people don’t
participate, it will be very difficult for any administration
to create conditions where people can live together,” Mr.
Ahtisaari told them during a visit to the province earlier this
month.
Top
of page
Kosovo
police lauded for major operation; assume increasingly important
role – UN
16 March 2006 – The Kosovo Police
Service (KPS) is playing an increasing role in all aspects of
law enforcement in the province, senior United Nations officials
said today, highlighting an operation at the start of the year
that was the largest domestic police effort since 1999, and one
which brought widespread praise for the efficiency of the reconstituted
force.
Officials from the police component
of the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said that all security and
crowd-control measures for January’s funeral of the province’s
President had been handled by local police units, based on the
training that they had received from international officers.
“This is being considered
the most successful operation conducted in Kosovo post 1999 even
though it was unfortunate that the first occasion for the KPS
to prove themselves to this degree was one of such sadness at
the loss of their President,” Kai Vittrup, UNMIK Police
Commissioner, told the UN News Service.
“It has been the largest
single operation that has ever been completed in Kosovo, and it
was led and run by KPS, albeit with some guidance, although no
international officers were involved at the street level and only
mentoring and advice was given at the command level,” he
added.
The force received similar praise
last month when the senior UN envoy to Kosovo gave his latest
briefing on the province to the Security Council, saying that
he felt “bound to salute the performance” of the 3,500
Kosovo police officers on duty at the funeral for their “professionalism
and sensitivity.”
“In Pristina, there were
officers from the North part of Mitrovica, from Gracanica and
Strpce. Neither one was differentiated from the others but all
were officers performing to the highest-level of professionalism
in this dignified ceremony,” said KPS chief Colonel Behar
Selimi, himself an ethnic Albanian, referring to Serb majority
areas.
But UN police officials say
that the success of the funeral operation is only the latest example
in the rebirth of a force built up since the United Nations took
over the running of Kosovo in 1999 when NATO drove out Yugoslav
troops amid human rights abuses in fighting between Serbs and
Albanians.
Paul Hutchings, UNMIK’s
Deputy Police Commissioner for Operations, said that the UN police
component has now handed over most of the responsibilities for
policing operations in the province to the KPS.
Mr. Hutchings stressed the extensive
training that the UN police had provided to their Kosovo counterparts,
noting in particular that almost 2,000 local officers had now
been trained in the latest and most effective methods of riot
control, while local minority police officers had been assigned
to villages that had felt neglected by the force.
Turning to the specific crime-fighting
role in the province, UNMIK’s Deputy Police Commissioner
for Crime, Bob Morrison, also said that the local force had become
more directly involved in this aspect of policing.
In particular, Mr. Morrison
said that Regional Crime Squads were now under KPS control, while
the total number of local officers involved directly or indirectly
in investigations throughout Kosovo had also increased over the
past year.
UNMIK Police Commissioner Vittrup
acknowledged that the UN police still has work to do in Kosovo
but he said that the success of local officers in mounting the
funeral operation, in addition to their other achievements, showed
that despite the difficulties things were on the right track.
“As the UNMIK police component
begins 2006, we are able to survey the achievements of the past
year and see that our work, while not complete, is approaching
its end,” Mr. Vittrup told the UN News Service.
“Our mandate at
the beginning of the mission was to provide for the safety and
security of the residents of Kosovo and to create and train a
Kosovo Police Service, which I’m proud to say is well on
its way to developing into a respected, professional law enforcement
body,” the Commissioner concluded.
Top
of page
Hailing
recent progress, UN’s Kosovo envoy urges steps to build
multiethnic society
11 March 2006 – Secretary-General
Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy to Kosovo today hailed recent
progress in the United Nations-administered province and urged
continued efforts to foster a multiethnic democracy there.
Søren Jessen-Petersen
made his comments in Salzburg, where he attended, together with
Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu, an informal meeting of the European
Union foreign ministers with representatives from countries of
the Western Balkans.
“The political landscape
of Kosovo has changed fundamentally in these last days,”
said Mr. Jessen-Petersen of the province, which recently chose
a new president and assembly. “And what is equally significant
is that this qualitative transformation has been achieved in a
democratic manner,” he added.
The envoy underscored the need
for building a multi-ethnic society with firm foundations in the
rule of law. “This can be achieved through focus on minority
issues and through the process of decentralization,” he
said.
Mr. Jessen-Petersen also briefed
the ministers on efforts underway to strengthen the cooperation
between Pristina and Belgrade. “Kosovo is committed. Now
we need Belgrade to commit to work with the Kosovo authorities
to improve the prospects for minorities, particularly the Kosovo
Serbs,” he said.
“Belgrade needs
to encourage Kosovo Serbs to engage in the Kosovo institutions
and all of us need to work together to reassure the Kosovo Serbs
about their future in a post-status Kosovo.”
Top
UN envoy in Kosovo welcomes election of new government
10 March 2006 – The United Nations
top envoy to Kosovo today welcomed the election of a new government
by the province’s Assembly.
Søren Jessen-Petersen,
Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative in
Kosovo, congratulated all parties for repeatedly upholding democratic
values in challenging circumstances.
Mr. Jessen-Petersen paid special
tribute to the new Prime Minister, Agim Ceku, who, he said, has
proved to be a good working partner for the UN Mission in Kosovo
and the international community as a whole.
The UN has run Kosovo
since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) drove out
Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid grave human rights abuses in the
fighting between Serbs and Albanians. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo
outnumber other ethnic groups, mainly Serbs, by about 9 to 1.
Top
of page
Improvements
for minorities imperative for Kosovo status talks, UN envoy says
7 March 2006 – Improvement in the lives of minorities in
Kosovo must be made immediately, a senior United Nations envoy
said today, as a prerequisite to settling the final status of
the Albanian-majority Serbian province which the United Nations
has run ever since Yugoslav troops were driven out in 1999 amid
grave rights abuses.
“There are certain standards,
like the protection of minorities and the improvement in their
lives that have to be improved now,” Martti Ahtisaari, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy for the future status of Kosovo
told members of the press after briefing the Security Council
on his consultations with Kosovar and Serb leaders following their
first round of direct talks.
Other internationally-prescribed
standards which have to be met are not as pressing, he said. “For
example, they have started the negotiation process toward membership
in the European Union, which many countries have taken years to
implement before they are ready,” he noted.
Independence and autonomy are
among the status options that have been mentioned for the province,
where Albanians outnumber Serbs and others by 9 to 1. Serbia rejects
independence and Kosovo’s Serbs have been boycotting the
province’s provisional institutions.
“There’s a healthy
recognition that this issue is not among the easiest,” Mr.
Ahtisaari said of the Council’s reaction to his briefing.
Following the first round of
talks last month in Vienna, on decentralization, Mr. Ahtisaari
visited Belgrade, Serbia and Pristina, Kosovo to urge leaders
to remain continuously engaged on the issue.
Upon returning from that
trip, Mr. Ahtisaari said that another meeting on decentralization
would be held in the Austrian capital on 17 March, focusing on
local financing and inter-municipal cooperation, adding that he
was using a ‘bottom-up approach,’ in other words starting
the process by dealing with practical and ‘status-neutral’
issues.
Top
of page
UN
envoy urges Serbia, Kosovo leaders to stay engaged in status talks
3 March 2006 – A United Nations
special envoy today completed a five-day visit to Serbia and Kosovo
following last month’s first round of direct talks between
the two sides on the final status of the Albanian-majority Serbian
province, which the UN has run ever since Yugoslav troops were
driven out in 1999 amid grave rights abuses in ethnic fighting.
“The decentralization
talks held in Vienna were a good start and I urged the leaders
I met in Belgrade and Pristina to remain continuously engaged,”
Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari
for the future status of Kosovo said in Vienna, where his office
is based.
Independence and autonomy are
among options that have been mentioned for the province, where
Albanians outnumber Serbs and others by 9 to 1. Serbia rejects
independence. Kosovo’s Serbs have been boycotting the province’s
provisional institutions.
Mr. Ahtisaari confirmed that
another meeting on decentralization would be held in the Austrian
capital on 17 March, focusing on local financing and inter-municipal
cooperation and relationships, adding that he was using “a
‘bottom-up approach,’ in other words starting the
process by dealing with practical and ‘status-neutral’
issues.
“Apart from decentralization,
we will run parallel discussions on cultural and religious heritage,
minority rights and economy,” he said.
He appealed to Serbian
leaders to encourage Kosovo Serb leaders to participate in the
province’s institutions. “If you people don’t
participate, it will be very difficult for any administration
to create conditions where people can live together,” he
told them during his visit to the province.
Top
of page
UN’s
top envoy to Kosovo urges higher profile for women in political
life
2 March 2006 – The senior United Nations envoy to Kosovo
today urged a higher profile for women in the political life of
the UN-administered province.
Søren Jessen-Petersen
made his remarks during a meeting with Kosovo women leaders at
the headquarters of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK), where he invited those present to advocate with local
decision-makers and leaders of parties to change the mindset that
has excluded women from the political arena.
“Women should play a more
significant role in the political life in Kosovo. They have a
lot to bring to the table, including to the negotiating one. Their
views should be taken into account by those who are discussing
the future of Kosovo in Vienna,” he said, referring to talks
on the province’s future status.
Mr. Jessen-Petersen also
appealed to the Kosovo women leaders to enhance reconciliation
among all Kosovo communities.
Top
of page
