Security Council restates
support for Kosovo ‘Standards before Status’ policy
30 April 2004 – The future status of Kosovo will only be
taken up after the province’s Provisional Institutions of
Self-Government (PISG) attain certain benchmarks – including
free, fair and regular elections, free media and a sound and impartial
legal system – outlined in a United Nations-backed plan,
the Security Council said today.
“The Security Council reaffirms its strong
support for the ‘Standards before Status’ policy that
was devised for Kosovo…in order to reach the goal of establishing
in Kosovo a multi-ethnic, stable and democratic society,”
the Council President for April, German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger,
said in statement read out at an open meeting.
He said the Kosovo Standards Implementation
Plan (KSIP)
unveiled last month should serve as a basis for assessing the
progress of the PISG in meeting the benchmarks. The Plan is a
detailed guide that sets specific goals in such areas as the building
of democratic institutions, the enforcement of rights for minorities
and the creation of a functioning economy. Its provisions also
include the holding of free and fair elections and the establishment
of an impartial legal system.
The Council statement also strongly urged the
PISG to demonstrate its full and unconditional commitment to a
multi-ethnic Kosovo, particularly with respect to the protection
and promotion of the rights of members of the minority communities,
as well as human rights, equal security, freedom of movement and
sustainable returns for all inhabitants of Kosovo.
The Council stressed that it was essential to
review the key sections of the document dealing with “sustainable
returns and the rights of communities and their members”
and “freedom of movement,” calling on the PISG to
take urgent steps on those two standards in order to reach out
to the Serb and other communities who had suffered most in the
large-scale inter-ethnic violence of 17 to 20 March that had resulted
in many dead and wounded and the destruction of personal property
and Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries.
“The Security Council, strongly condemning
those events, emphasizes that no party can be allowed to profit
or to advance a political agenda through violent measures,”
Ambassador Pleuger said. “It calls on the PISG and all political
leaders to take responsibility in the current situation and to
ensure that such acts and threats of violence are not repeated.”
Nineteen people were killed in the worst
violence seen in the province since the UN assumed administration
of Kosovo in 1999. Nearly 1,000 people were injured – including
dozens of police officers – in rioting between Albanians
and Serbs, and some 29 churches and monasteries, 800 houses and
more than 150 vehicles were destroyed or badly damaged.
Kosovo: UN envoy calls
for major effort to rebuild trust after March violence
29 April 2004 – Declaring that last month’s ethnic
violence in Kosovo, the worst since the United Nations took over
its administration five years ago, dealt “a huge setback”
to stabilization and normalization, the top UN envoy there warned
today that much more remains to be done to rebuild trust and confidence
among all communities.
“The violence put our common project of
a multiethnic Kosovo at risk,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s
Special Representative Harri Holkeri told the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, of the violence
between Albanians and Serbs, in which 19 people were killed and
hundreds injured.
“The main challenges now are bringing
to justice those responsible, reconciliation, reconstruction and
re-embarking on the political processes in place before the violence
began,” Mr. Holkeri said. The UN has administered Kosovo
since NATO forced the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops after fighting
between Albanians and Serbs.
Mr. Holkeri said the violence could make elections
in October more difficult and stressed the need to include all
communities. Many Serbs have fled.
“There can be no truly multiethnic
Kosovo without the Kosovo Serb community,” he said. “This
is why all efforts must be made by Kosovo’s leaders to reach
out to the Serbs. In return, the Kosovo Serbs must rejoin the
institutions and engage in the political process. The only way
ahead is integration, not segregation.”
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Lack of evidence stalls probe into drowning
of 3 Kosovo children, UN mission says
28 April 2004 – An investigation
by the United Nations mission in Kosovo into the alleged criminal
drowning of three children, which sparked last month's large-scale
inter-ethnic violence, has stalled because of a lack of evidence,
a spokesperson for the UN police said today.
Neeraj Singh, a spokesman for the police and
justice branches of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK), told a press conference in the capital Pristina the public
prosecutor, investigating judge and case investigator believed
the evidence did not support "a grounded suspicion of the
commission of a criminal act."
"As such, the matter can proceed no further
at this time," he said, adding that the investigation "will
be revived" should any further "credible evidence"
be uncovered.
Nearly nineteen people were killed, hundreds
more injured - including soldiers from the Kosovo international
force (KFOR) - and more than 3,200 were uprooted from their homes
last month following days of clashes between ethnic Albanians
and Serbs, the worst violence the province had seen in the five
years since the UN assumed administration. In addition to the
casualties, more than a dozen Serb churches were destroyed and
the homes of at least 100 Serbs were burned.
According to Mr. Singh, the investigation so
far determined that six children from Cabra village crossed a
bridge in the evening of 16 March and went over to the Zupce side
of the Ibar River. About 500 metres downstream from the bridge
two of the children briefly separated from the group and continued
further downstream.
The four who remained at the location then entered
the river, which was swollen and turbulent. Only one of them,
13-year-old Fitim Veseli, reached the other side of the river.
The body of Egzon Deliu, 12, was found in the night of 16 March
and that of Avni Veseli, 11, the next morning. One child, Florent
Veseli, 9, is still missing.
The only survivor, Fitim, told investigators
that two young male Serbs in their early 20's emerged, along with
a dog, from one of the houses in Zupce at the top of an escarpment
and approached the boys. Fear of the dog prompted the four boys
to enter the river.
The spokesperson said there were "very
significant" inconsistencies in the accounts given by the
child during two separate interviews, and a lack of corroboration
of his story. "In fact, it is logically at odds in several
respects with other evidence," Mr. Singh said.
Albanian president pays
first official visit to UN-administered Kosovo
22 April 2004 – The president of Albania today paid the
first official visit ever by an Albanian head of State to United
Nations-administered Kosovo just a month after tensions between
ethnic Albanians and Serbs boiled over into violence in which
19 people died and hundreds were injured.
In a joint news conference with President Alfred
Moisiu in Pristina, the capital, Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s
Special Representative Harri Holkeri said the two agreed on the
need to urge the Kosovo Albanians “to travel the extra mile
to ensure that they regain the trust and confidence of their Kosovo
Serb fellow citizens.”
Mr. Holkeri thanked President Moisiu for Albania’s
“helpful intervention” in calling for an end to the
violence that erupted in Kosovo in mid-March, the worst to hit
the province since the UN took over its administration nearly
five years ago when NATO forced the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops
after fighting between Albanians and Serbs.
Mr. Moisiu said Albania wanted Kosovo to progress on the path
of democratization and integration.
“Violence is not the path that should
be followed. The necessary and productive path is dialogue. This
absolutely requires the desire of both sides and all involved,
and I hope that this will be achieved with the support of UNMIK,”
he added, referring to the UN Interim Administration Mission in
Kosovo.
Also today, Mr. Holkeri attended a memorial
service for two United States UNMIK corrections officers killed
at the Mitrovica detention centre on Saturday when at least one
of five Jordanian UNMIK officers opened fire.
“These deaths remind us of the dangers
faced by the staff of the United Nations in the work for peace,
justice and development around the world,” he said. “We
must do everything to protect and preserve the integrity, solidarity
and trust that United Nations staff normally extend to one another.
That bond must remain inviolate. Making it so is the best tribute
we could pay to these courageous individuals, and to their fallen
comrades around the world.”
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Prisoners in Kosovo start
hunger strike in protest at alleged delays: UN mission
21 April 2004 – Some 26 inmates at a detention centre in
Kosovo have begun a hunger strike to protest delays in the hearing
of appeals of two men found guilty of war crimes, a spokesman
for the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) said today.
Spokesman Neeraj Singh said the protest, at
Mitrovica Detention Centre, began late yesterday when the prisoners
refused to take food.
Miroslav Vuckovic and Veselin Besovic have both
appealed to the Supreme Court of Kosovo against their separate
convictions for war crimes. Mr. Vuckovic, who was sentenced to
12 years' jail after a re-trial in 2002, filed his appeal last
May. The hearing is scheduled for next month. Mr. Besovic was
jailed for seven years last June and filed his appeal in November
- a date for that hearing has not yet been set.
Mr. Singh said that while the problem of case
overload in Kosovo's judicial system was a factor, "it must
be understood that these are very complex cases relating to charges
of very serious nature that take time to be processed."
Mr. Singh added that representatives of
the Penal Management Division in Kosovo and the Department of
Justice were meeting with Mr. Vuckovic and Mr. Besovic to inform
them about the status of their cases.
UN lifts immunity of police
officers connected to deadly shootings in Kosovo
19 April 2004 – The United Nations
has lifted the immunity of four police officers from Jordan detained
for questioning in connection with Saturday’s deadly shootings
of three of their international colleagues in Kosovo, a UN spokesman
said today.
Fred Eckhard told reporters the immunity of
the officers, who have been serving with the Jordanian Special
Police Unit (SPU) of the UN Interim Administration Mission in
Kosovo (UNMIK), has been lifted during the arrest, detention and
pre-trial investigation process.
The UN Police Commissioner in Kosovo, Stefan
Feller, said yesterday that an investigation has begun into Saturday’s
shootings at the Mitrovica Detention Centre, which occurred when
at least one of five officers from the SPU on guard fired at a
group of 24 correctional officers leaving the centre in a convoy
after a routine day of training. The officers in the three-car
convoy returned fire.
Two correctional officers from the United States
– Kim Bigley and Lynn Williams – and the officer from
the Jordanian SPU who opened fire were killed, and 11 others –
one Austrian and 10 US officers – were injured in the shoot-out,
which began about 3:20 p.m.
Mr. Eckhard said today Secretary-General Kofi
Annan was deeply saddened at the deaths of Ms. Bigley and Ms.
Williams, and wished to convey to the families and friends of
the victims “his profound and heartfelt sympathy at these
tragic deaths.”
The Secretary-General also expressed his
concern at the injuries to the 11 injured officers, some of whom
are in critical condition, and wished them a swift and full recovery,
the spokesman added.
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3 international officers
killed in Kosovo, UN reports
18 April 2004 – The senior United Nations envoy to Kosovo
has expressed his grave concern about a shooting incident in Mitrovica
on Saturday that left three international police dead and nearly
a dozen others injured.
Two officers from the United States and one from Jordan died while
11 who suffered gunshot wounds are now under treatment, according
to the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK). The incident
is currently under investigation.
“I am deeply shocked and dismayed at the unfortunate death
of dedicated professionals who have come such a great distance
to help Kosovo on its road to the future,” said UNMIK chief
Harri Holkeri, conveying condolences to the families of the deceased,
to their UNMIK Police contingents, and to their home countries.
On Sunday, Mr. Holkeri visited two of the wounded ? US nationals
Ronald Hicks and Elizabeth Mechler ? who are receiving treatment
in a field hospital in southern Kosovo. The envoy delivered a
message of sympathy from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and voiced
his condolences for the loss of their colleagues.
The injured include five women and five
men from the US and one Austrian national, UNMIK said.
UN peacekeeping chief
urges Kosovo to address causes of recent violence
13 April 2004 – Kosovo's leaders
and its people must take concrete steps to tackle the root causes
of the ethnic violence that continues to plague the province,
the top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security
Council today.
A month after two days of violence engulfed
the province, leaving 19 people dead, hundreds more injured and
numerous homes and religious buildings damaged or destroyed, Under-Secretary-General
for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno said international
efforts to help Kosovo stabilize and advance could only do so
much.
In an open
briefing to the 15-member Council, he called on the leaders
of Kosovo to "exercise true leadership and responsible government,
and to marginalize and hold politically accountable those among
them who may have condoned or supported the violence."
Mr. Guéhenno said senior officials must
identify and discipline politicians and civil servants who fomented
or participated in last month's events, which followed several
incidents that had raised tensions between the province's ethnic
Albanian and Serb communities.
He described the series of riots, demonstrations
and violent attacks as initially spontaneous but "quickly
taken over by organized elements with an interest in driving the
Kosovo Serbs from Kosovo and threatening the international presence
there." He said the attacks were widespread and targeted,
focusing on the province's Serb, Roma and Ashkali communities.
The head of peacekeeping said the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) had launched a probe
into the violence and noted that 183 arrests have already been
made. But he said UNMIK has requested Member States provide another
100 police investigators to fully investigate the violence and
the people behind it.
Serbia and Montenegro's representative, Roksanda
Nincic, told the Council that there has been ample opportunity
since UNMIK assumed control of the province in June 1999 to show
that ethnically-motivated violence will not be tolerated in Kosovo.
She said authorities must now prove there will be no impunity
for those who committed the attacks.
Other delegates addressing the Council stressed
the importance of bringing all the perpetrators to justice, and
said it was vital that the religious and cultural sites damaged
or destroyed last month be rebuilt.
They also said that the events indicate the
importance of implementing the standards for Kosovo plan before
the province's final status is determined. The standards plan
is a detailed guide that sets specific goals in such areas as
the building of democratic institutions, the enforcement of rights
for minorities and the creation of a functioning economy. Its
provisions include the holding of free and fair elections and
the establishment of an impartial legal system.
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UN police arrest alleged
leader of last month's deadly Kosovo riots
12 April 2004 – United Nations police officers in Kosovo
have arrested a Kosovo Albanian man for his alleged role in last
month's wave of deadly rioting that swept across the province.
A UN spokesperson told reporters today that Avdyl Mushkolaj was
detained on Saturday, following the issuing of a warrant for his
arrest by an international judge. Mr. Mushkolaj is alleged to
have led and incited riots in the town of Decani on 17 March.
Several days of rioting and violent attacks in Kosovo last month,
the worst since the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) assumed control of the province in June 1999, left 19
people dead and hundreds injured and drove thousands of people,
mostly Kosovo Serbs, from their homes. Hundreds of homes and religious
buildings, including churches and monasteries, were destroyed
or damaged as well.
In another development, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative
for the province, Harri Holkeri, has replaced the managing director
of the Kosovo Trust Agency.
In a statement Mr. Holkeri said he had decided to replace Marie
Fucci in the post "to continue the privatization process
more decisively." He thanked Ms. Fucci for her dedication
and commitment "in very difficult circumstances."
UN police in Kosovo arrest
four more suspects over murder of two colleagues
8 April 2004 – Police from the United
Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) have
arrested another four people in connection with the murder last
month of two police officers in the troubled province, a UN spokesman
announced today.
The arrests bring to seven the total number
of suspects arrested over the killings, spokesman Stephane Dujarric
told a press briefing in New York.
The police officers - one from Ghana and one
from the Kosovo Police Service - had been conducting routine work
in a marked UN car near Podujevo, in the Pristina region, on 23
March when they were shot dead. A UN language assistant was also
shot but survived the attack.
The killings occurred less than a week after
the province endured its worst violence since UNMIK assumed control
almost five years ago. Nineteen people were killed, hundreds of
other people were injured and many homes and religious buildings
were destroyed or damaged in the ethnically-based clashes.
The latest arrests followed yesterday's interception
of a vehicle carrying three people in Kosovo. When the occupants
tried to escape, police gave chase and one of the group being
pursued, a Kosovo Albanian man, received gunshot injuries.
Mr. Dujarric said the man was immediately arrested
and taken to a hospital. His condition there is said to be not
life-threatening.
A subsequent search, with the help of air support
from the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), led to the arrest of three
other Kosovo Albanians.
Two men and one woman, all Kosovo Albanians,
are already in pre-trial custody over their alleged involvement
in the murders.
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Kosovo: new criminal codes
come into force in UN-administered province
6 April 2004 – Less than three weeks after the worst unrest
to hit Kosovo since the United Nations took over its administration
nearly five years ago, the ethnically divided province today marked
what its top administrator called a “crucial milestone”
with the entry into force of two new criminal codes.
“To those who try to assert violence over
the ‘rule of law,’ this should come as a reminder
that the laws and institutions we are establishing in Kosovo are
irreversible,” said
Harri Holkeri, Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative.
“This is a significant day for Kosovo.
The entry into force of the two Codes constitutes a crucial milestone
for the inhabitants of Kosovo and for UNMIK’s efforts to
establish the rule of law in Kosovo,” Mr. Holkeri added,
referring to the UN Interim Administration Mission in the province,
where violence between ethnic Albanians and Serbs last month killed
19 people and injured hundreds more.
“We have a clear and definite agenda for
Kosovo, and that is to take it forward on the path of democratic
self-governance through legal and constitutional means in cooperation
with Kosovo’s Provisional Institutions,” he declared
in Pristina, the capital.
The two codes, the Provisional Criminal Code
and the Provisional Criminal Procedure Code, bring the law in
Kosovo into greater conformity with regional and European standards
and ensure consistency with modern principles of international
law, in particular international human rights law.
International conventions relating to terrorism,
organized crime and corruption are reflected in the texts, which
also deal with trafficking in persons among other offences.
“The enforcement of these new Codes
now provides us with a wider range of criminal offences to prosecute
and a greater range of punishments to go with it,” Mr. Holkeri
said. “This undoubtedly enhances the ability of the justice
system to deter and punish offenders.”
Iraq, Middle East top agenda in Annan's
talks with Russian leaders
5 April 2004 – Iraq and the Middle
East, as well as regional issues such as Kosovo and the conflict
in Georgia, topped the agenda as United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and
other senior officials today in Moscow.
During their nearly two-hour-long
meeting, President Putin expressed Russia's continued support
for, and confidence in, the UN, despite criticism heard in recent
days, and said he supported the Secretary-General's reform efforts,
a UN spokesman travelling with Mr. Annan reported.
The two discussed Iraq, the Middle East, Kosovo,
Afghanistan and the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, spokesman Fred Eckhard
said. The Secretary-General praised President Putin for his recent
statement to the Duma on AIDS, and thanked Russia for its efforts
to free Arjan Erkel, an aid worker abducted in Dagestan.
Earlier in the day, the Secretary-General met
with newly appointed Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, with whom
he discussed economic issues. Mr. Annan raised the issue of refugees
and displaced persons in the Northern Caucasus, and said the UN
wants to expand its activities in Chechnya, according to Mr. Eckhard.
The Secretary-General also had a working lunch
with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, discussing Iraq in detail,
and talking of how to help the Iraqis arrive at a mechanism for
the handover of sovereignty, and how they might arrange for security
after the transfer of power.
The two covered Israel's planned withdrawal
from Gaza, voter registration in Afghanistan, the situation in
Nagorny Karabakh, negotiations over the Korean peninsula and UN-Russian
relations, Mr. Eckhard said.
During a press encounter after his meeting with
the Foreign Minister, the Secretary-General was asked about the
violence in Iraq. "We will do our best to ensure that an
Iraqi Government that represents the Iraqi people, that is in
charge of its own affairs, its political and economic destiny,
is installed," he said, referring to the UN's work. Until
then, "I would want to appeal to all in Iraq to cooperate
with each other and to resist the violence that has taken innocent
civilian lives."
The Secretary-General's last appointment of
the day was with former Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, now the
Secretary of the National Security Council, for discussions on
Georgia, Iraq, Iran and the Middle East, as well as the Secretary-General's
panel on change.
Mr. Annan had met a member of that panel,
former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, last night after arriving
earlier Sunday from Vienna, where he held two days of meetings
with top-level UN officials.
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UN envoy to Kosovo holds
talks with leader of Serbia and Montenegro
2 April 2004 – The United Nations' top envoy to Kosovo met
today with the Prime Minister of Serbia and Montenegro, Vojislav
Kostunica, in Belgrade to discuss last month's wave of deadly
ethnic violence in the troubled province.
Harri Holkeri, the Secretary-General's Special
Representative for Kosovo, told
Mr. Kostunica of the measures being taken by the UN Interim Administration
Mission (UNMIK) and the international security force (KFOR) to
improve security.
Patrols have been increased in areas inhabited
by minority communities, he said, while UNMIK Police and KFOR
troops are also providing security for abandoned villages and
homes.
According to a spokesperson for the UN, Mr.
Holkeri told Mr. Kostunica that the international community is
determined to bring the organizers of the recent violence to justice,
with more than 140 people already arrested. The violence left
19 people dead, hundreds injured and many properties damaged.
Mr. Holkeri also said the UN was working
to provide humanitarian relief and to help reconstruct churches
and monasteries destroyed during the riots and attacks.
UN mission takes control
of Kosovo's main airport from military forces
1 April 2004 – The United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
today formally took control of the airport serving Pristina, the
province's capital, ending five years of military authority over
the transport hub.
At a ceremony marking the handover, the Secretary-General's
Special Representative for Kosovo, Harri Holkeri, said
the transfer to civilian control sends a positive message after
the recent wave of deadly violence in the province.
"In spite of the terrible setback caused
by the violence…we are moving forward," Mr. Holkeri
said.
The envoy said Pristina airport is expected to handle more than
800,000 civilian passengers this year, a huge increase from 1999,
when it was used mainly for military and humanitarian purposes.
Until now the airport had been controlled
by troops from the Kosovo Force (KFOR), which is led by the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Mr. Holkeri thanked KFOR
and NATO, especially some of its Member States, for their work
in "ensuring Kosovo's lifeline to the outside world."
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