UN mission investigates
possible fraud by Kosovo energy company
30 April – The United Nations mission in Kosovo today said
it was investigating possible fraud by the province's energy company,
involving €4.5 million (euros) of international aid money
used to import electricity.
A senior official with the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said that after months of rumoured corruption
by the KEK, he now had evidence of possible fraud and immediately
contacted authorities at the European Anti-Fraud Office in Brussels.
"It is my firm belief that if we are to
rebuild a functioning economy in Kosovo and if we are to have
the sustainable economy that we so passionately want, corruption
cannot be tolerated," said Andy Bearpark, who heads UNMIK's
reconstruction and economic sector.
"Where we find evidence such as this we
are ready to act swiftly to bring those responsible before the
appropriate authorities," he stressed.
Meanwhile, UNMIK chief Michael Steiner visited
central Gnjilane and nearby villages affected by last week's earthquake,
in which one man was killed and dozens injured.
Mr. Steiner met members of the Gnjilane municipal
crisis committee and visited Gornja Budriga and the Albanian-inhabited
village of Zhegra, two of 17 villages that suffered serious material
damage from the trembler that shook the area on 24 April.
The earthquake, which registered 5.6 on the
Richter scale, has been followed by a series of aftershocks. Today
Mr. Steiner said he would send seismological experts to the area
to explain the phenomenon and address concerns about further earthquakes.
He also pledged that UNMIK would provide engineers
to assess the structural damage and assist local experts in their
work, and announced the establishment of a special earthquake
relief fund, to which the Mission will contribute €500,000
(euros), in order to help the communities rebuild.
Mr. Steiner noted the good cooperation
between international and local emergency services, and singled
out the Kosovo Protection Corps (TMK) for performing commendably
in carrying out the job it was established and trained to do as
a civilian emergency response agency.
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Kosovo: UN mission assists
villages damaged by earthquake
25 April – The United Nations Interim Administration Mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK) today continued to assist the population of
Gnjilane following yesterday's earthquake, in which one person
was killed and 23 hospitalized.
A command centre was set up today and better
shelter has been arranged for those who could not return home,
UNMIK said.
Meteorological centres in Tirana and Montenegro
reported that the magnitude of the earthquake was approximately
5.4 on the Richter scale, while UNMIK's Division of Emergency
Management estimated that the epicentre was near the village of
Partes. A team was dispatched to that village and others nearby,
and found about 50 damaged houses but no injuries.
In another development, the international prosecutor
for Prizren has indicted a former UNMIK police officer and two
men serving on the local police force on a series of charges related
to an alleged mistreatment of a detainee in their custody earlier
this year.
The indictment against Martin Almer, an Austrian
national, and two members of the Kosovo Police Service, Feriz
Thaqi and Isa Ulluri, accuses them in part of grave bodily injury,
extraction of a statement under duress, maltreatment in the course
of duty, abuse of office and giving a false statement in relation
to an incident that occurred on 25 February in Orahovac.
The Prosecutor has sought the issuance
of an international arrest warrant for Mr. Almer, who escaped
detention and is believed to have returned to Austria, UNMIK said.
Former top Yugoslav army
officer transferred from Serbia to UN war crimes tribunal
25 April – A former top officer in the Yugoslav army, wanted
for allegedly leading a campaign of "terror and violence"
in 1999 in Kosovo, was transferred today from Serbia to the detention
unit of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
An indictment by the ICTY issued last October
accuses General Dragoljub Ojdanic, who held the post of Chief
of General Staff, of leading Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and
Serb forces in targeting a substantial portion of Kosovo Albanian
civilians for expulsion from the province in an effort to ensure
continued Serbian control. The alleged acts occurred between 1
January and 20 June 1999.
According to the indictment, approximately 800,000
Kosovo Albanian civilians were expelled from the province by their
forced removal and subsequent looting and destruction of their
homes, or by the shelling of villages.
Surviving residents were sent to the borders
of neighbouring countries and en route many were killed, abused
or had their possessions and identification papers stolen, according
to the charges. Specific massacres were also allegedly committed
by Serb forces in a series of places listed in the indictment.
Three other suspects, Milan Milutinovic,
Nikola Sainovic and Vlajko Stojiljkovic, are also named in the
indictment against Gen. Ojdanic, who is charged with one count
of violations of the laws or customs of war and four counts of
crimes against humanity.
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Kosovo: more needs to
be done on security, economic development, Annan reports
24 April – While the formation of a government in Kosovo
earlier this year after several months of deadlock was an important
step forward, much more needs to be done to create a secure climate
in order to spur economic development, Secretary-General Kofi
Annan says in a new report on the United Nations efforts in the
province.
In the report to the Security Council on the
UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), the Secretary-General
notes that while more has been done to strengthen the rule of
law, it was clear that the Mission was entering a potentially
more dangerous phase as it implements anti-crime initiatives,
including legislation to combat organized crime and terrorism.
Nevertheless, a great deal still needs to be
done to create a climate conducive for economic growth in Kosovo,
which continues to be one of the poorest areas of Europe, Mr.
Annan observes. The high unemployment rate, particularly among
young people who form the majority of Kosovo's population, constitutes
a potential threat to the province's stability, making a key priority
the revival of the economy and creation of jobs.
Casting an eye towards the eventual exit of
UNMIK and the transfer of authority to local, elected officials,
the Secretary-General underscores that in order to consolidate
the provisional institutions of self-government and avoid undercutting
the achievements made so far, continued political, technical and
financial support would be necessary.
"It is clear that a political roadmap is
needed, both for UNMIK and for the provisional institutions of
self-government," Mr. Annan writes, noting that he has asked
his Special Representative for Kosovo and head of the Mission,
Michael Steiner, to prepare targets against which progress can
be measured in several critical areas.
This morning, Mr. Steiner told an open meeting
of the Council on Kosovo that he was embarking on a process to
develop such benchmarks for the existence of effective and functioning
institutions, enforcement of the rule of law, freedom of movement,
and respect for the right of all Kosovars to remain and return.
Other yardsticks would include the development
of a sound basis for a market economy, clarity of property title,
normalized dialogue with Belgrade and a reduction and transformation
of the Kosovo Protection Corps in line with its mandate.
"I offer this to you as an exit strategy,
which is, in reality an entry strategy into the European integration
process," Mr. Steiner said, adding that the targets complemented
the preconditions Kosovo needed to meet to qualify for the Stabilization
and Association process.
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Kosovo: UN to set up privatization
agency to help boost economy
|
|
| SRSG Michael
Steiner delivers privatization address at university |
18 April – In a
bid to support the emergence of a new economy in Kosovo, the head
of the United Nations mission in the province today announced
plans to create a new body to manage the process of privatization.
"To get a functioning economy Kosovo needs
investment," Michael Steiner, who heads the UN Interim Administration
Mission (UNMIK), said in an address to the University of Pristina.
"And to get investment Kosovo needs to privatize."
While stressing that there are no "quick
fixes" for Kosovo's economy, Steiner said that a Kosovo Trust
Agency would be established to oversee the process of privatisation.
The Agency will be run by a Board of Directors
comprised of three UNMIK and three Kosovar representatives - including
at least two from the government and at least one representing
the Serb community.
"This process will take Kosovo out
of the straightjacket that it has been bound in for so long,"
Mr. Steiner said. "It will create the conditions for the
private investor and as the market begins to function new jobs
will emerge."
Kosovo: UN refugee agency
helping Ashkali families return to their homes
16 April – In what the United Nations
has called a "major step" in Kosovo's journey to joining
a free and democratic Europe, six Ashkali, or Gypsy, families
are returning today to their homes in the province.
Some Ashkali had left when other Kosovars, whose
homes were destroyed during the 1999 conflict, occupied their
houses, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
said. European Union funding has supported the rebuilding of those
destroyed houses, and the Ashkali residents of Vushtrii have expressed
their willingness to come back.
Vushtrii municipal authorities and the local
population have also supported the return of the Ashkali families,
which was planned over the last year after the Vushtrii Municipal
Assembly adopted a motion supporting their return.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) is assisting the return of these families to Kosovo, UNMIK
said, adding that the return of refugees and displaced persons
to their homes was "an important step in leaving behind the
legacy of war and conflict."
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Citing lack of evidence,
UN tribunal releases Bosnian Serb charged with war crimes
11 April – The United Nations International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) today released
a Bosnian Serb charged with multiple counts of crimes against
humanity after the prosecution said it lacked evidence to go to
trial.
The Hague-based ICTY released from its detention
unit Nenad Banovic, who was arrested last November in Serbia,
a day after the Prosecutor's Office filed a motion asking the
court to withdraw the indictment against him.
The 32-year old Bosnian Serb was accused, along
with his twin brother, Predrag, of participating in abusing, beating,
torturing and/or killing detainees in Keraterm camp, where they
regularly performed guard duties.
"Severe beatings, torture, killings, sexual
assault, and other forms of physical and psychological abuse were
commonplace at Keraterm camp," according to the indictment.
"The camp guards and others who came to the camps used all
types of weapons and instruments to beat and otherwise physically
abuse the detainees." At a minimum, hundreds of detainees,
whose identities were known and unknown, did not survive.
Nenad Banovic faced five counts of crimes
against humanity, including persecutions on political, racial
or religious grounds, inhumane acts, murder and torture, as well
as four counts of violations of the laws or customs of war, including
outrages upon personal dignity, murder, torture and cruel treatment.
Kosovo: UN Mission chief
condemns recent attacks on UN police
9 April – The head of the United Nations
Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) today condemned Monday’s
attacks on UN police officers during a riot in Mitrovica, saying
this violence only hurt the legitimate interests of the province’s
Serb population.
Twenty-two UNMIK Police officers, including
15 Polish Special Police, were injured yesterday, some seriously
and one critically, following their altercation with a group of
Serbs. The condition of the critically injured officer has now
stabilized.
The incident began after UN police, who had
set up a regular checkpoint to inspect vehicles, were set to make
an arrest over a traffic violation when for unknown reasons shots
were fired at them, according to UNMIK. A group of Kosovo Serbs
also threw stones at the officers. Additional police officers
were called in to try to contain the crowd and some Serbs were
arrested during incident.
"These policemen were exercising their
duties under difficult circumstances," Michael Steiner told
reporters today at a press briefing in Pristina after his visit
to Mitrovica. "I condemn in the strongest terms, these unlawful
acts. These acts hurt physically police in uniform, who are doing
their duty. Politically, they hurt the legitimate interest of
the Serbs in Kosovo."
While the work of the UN police was recognized
by the majority of the people in the area, "there are others
out there, I don't know supported by whom, who play a different
game," Mr. Steiner added. "They want confrontation,
not reconciliation."
The UN Mission was not going to be bullied into
leaving the Mitrovica area, Mr. Steiner said in response to a
question. "You can count on it that we will not give in to
any pressure from the streets, we will not give in to pressure
from the criminal scene - and that is pressure from the criminal
scene," he said. "And we have made that also clear on
the other channels that that's not the way to deal with us."
The situation in Mitrovica today was described
as calm, and a meeting of Kosovo Serbs protesting the arrests
of Serbs broke up without incident, a UN spokesman said.
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