Set of 30 mortal remains repatriated to Kosovo
under UN auspices
26 May 2004 –
A third group of some 30 bodies exhumed from Batajnica, Serbia,
and believed to be of missing Kosovo Albanians were repatriated
under United Nations auspices today.
The Office on Missing Persons and Forensics
(OMPF) of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
arranged the transfer in cooperation with the UN Civilian Police
Missing Persons Unit (MPU) and the Serbian authorities.
The mortal remains relate to cases exhumed from
Batajnica. The remains were identified by DNA, and once verification
procedures were completed, they were transported to the Rahovec/Orahovac
mortuary where forensic inspections will then begin.
UNMIK said family members would be the first
to be informed as soon as their loved ones are identified. Teams
consisting of an OMPF outreach officer and MPU identification
officers will visit the families affected by the transfer when
forensic inspections are complete. The mortal remains will then
be ready for release to the families.
The first two groups of bodies exhumed
from Serbia were repatriated to Kosovo in May and July of 2003.
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Kosovo: Top UN administrator
Holkeri resigns for health reasons
25 May 2004 – The top United Nations administrator of ethnically-divided
Kosovo, Harri Holkeri,
today announced his intention to resign for health reasons,
just 10 months after he was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi
Annan and two weeks after he was briefly hospitalized for fatigue.
Mr. Holkeri, a former Finnish prime minister, is expected to return
to Kosovo soon to finalize his mission and make farewell calls
on leaders of the province, which has been under UN administration
for almost five years since NATO forced the withdrawal of Yugoslav
troops after fighting between the Albanian and Serb communities.
He told a news conference in Helsinki his decision was made solely
on health reasons and was taken in consultation with Mr. Annan.
In March the deadliest ethnic violence to sweep Kosovo since the
UN administration began in 1999 left 19 people dead, nearly 1,000
injured, and hundreds of homes and centuries-old Serbian cultural
sites razed or burned.
While deploring these riots as a tremendous
step back, Mr. Holkeri said today he hoped Kosovo's problems would
be resolved and it would be dropped from the list of international
trouble spots.
“He has led the mission with dedication, commitment, and
a strong desire to assist Kosovo in overcoming the conflicts of
the past,” Principal Deputy Special Representative Charles
Brayshaw said in a statement paying tribute.
Mr. Holkeri, Finland's Prime Minister from 1987
to 1991, succeeded Michael Steiner, a senior German diplomat,
last July, becoming the fourth Special Representative and chief
of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), after
Hans Haekkerup of Denmark and Bernard Kouchner of France.
He also served as the President of the 55th
session of the UN General Assembly in 2000, and brought to the
Kosovo mission a wealth of political experience, as well as a
reputation as a skilled mediator and consensus builder.
In his last briefing to the Security Council
earlier this month he said the March violence had shaken UNMIK
"to its foundations" but it was determined to root out
and punish the perpetrators while remaining resolute in its task
to help prepare the province for self-governance.
Probe closed of police
officers connected to deadly shootings in Kosovo - UN
19 May 2004 – Finding no "reasonable
suspicion" of any misconduct, an international prosecutor
has closed separate investigations into four Jordanian police
officers arrested and questioned last month in connection with
deadly shootings that took place at a prison compound in Kosovo,
the United Nations mission in the province said today.
The investigations into the shooting incident
at Mitrovica Detention Centre, in which three officers were killed
and another 11 injured, had centred on four Jordanians from the
mission's Special Police Unit (SPU) for "refraining from
providing help," a spokesman for the police and justice sectors
of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said.
One of the officers was additionally investigated for "assistance
to commit aggravated murder" and "assistance to commit
grievous bodily harm."
The international prosecutor has concluded
there were "no reasonable suspicions" that any of the
four officers committed any offence, spokesman Neeraj Singh said.
The investigation against the four was terminated and the remaining
officer in detention has been released - the three others had
been released earlier after 15 days.
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UN mission chief reinstates
12 Kosovo officers suspected in bridge demolition
18 May 2004 – The head of the United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has reinstated 12 members of the province's
civilian protection force who had been suspended pending an investigation
into their roles in the demolition of a railway bridge in April
2003.
In a statement
released in Pristina today, UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri said the
Mission's police commissioner had advised him "that no basis
has been established for criminal prosecution' in any of the cases
against the dozen Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) officers.
"I have therefore determined that suspension
imposed in December 2003 should be lifted and that the individuals
concerned are to be reinstated as KPC members with full rights
and privileges" immediately, Mr. Holkeri said.
The officers had been suspended, with pay, while
police investigated their role in the demolition of a bridge in
the northern Kosovo town of Loziste the previous April.
At the time, Mr. Holkeri said the initial
findings against the 12 officers, following a joint inquiry by
UNMIK and the multinational Kosovo force (KFOR), were "sufficiently
serious" to warrant both a police investigation and the suspensions.
Fatigued top UN envoy
to Kosovo hospitalized in France
13 May 2004 – The top United Nations envoy to Kosovo, Harri
Holkeri, was admitted to hospital in Strasbourg, France, last
night suffering from fatigue due to his heavy work schedule.
Mr. Holkeri, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
Special Representative, is expected to remain in hospital on his
doctors' advice for a few days for further observation, the UN
Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) announced
today.
Just two days ago Mr. Holkeri told
the Security Council that a wave of violence between Kosovo's
ethnic Albanians and Serbs in March, in which 19 people were killed
and nearly 1,000 injured over days of rioting, shook the UN mission
"to its foundations" but it remained resolute in its
task to help prepare the province for self-governance.
The UN took over administration of Kosovo
nearly five years ago when NATO forced the withdrawal of Yugoslav
troops after fighting between the province's Albanian and Serb
communities.
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Recent violence in Kosovo
shook UN mission 'to its core', Security Council told
11 May 2004 – Although the recent wave of violence shook
the United Nations mission in Kosovo "to its foundations,"
it aimed to root out and punish the perpetrators while remaining
resolute in its task to help prepare the province for self-governance,
the UN's senior envoy in the province told the Security Council
today.
In his first
briefing to the Council since a spate of ethnically-motivated
violence rocked the province in mid-March, Harri Holkeri, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan's Special Representative and head of the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said that in the wake
of this "serious setback," the Mission was questioning
whether its response had been adequate, and whether it had done
enough to prevent it.
"The violence has forced us at UNMIK to take a long hard
look at ourselves," he said, recalling the incident in which
19 people were killed and nearly 1,000 injured over days of rioting.
Hundreds of homes and centuries-old Serbian cultural sites were
razed or burned, and some 4,000 people were displaced in just
two days.
The speed with which the unrest spread had overwhelmed the ability
of the Kosovo international force (KFOR) and UNMIK security forces
to respond, Mr. Holkeri said. The mission had no means to augment
its security forces, and KFOR was not reinforced until after the
violence ended. The Mission had since been reviewing operational
procedures and coordination in responding to crisis, for which
he had appointed a review board.
In the aftermath, UNMIK would do all it could to bring to justice
all those who provoked or engaged in the violence, he said, noting
that some 270 arrests already had been made. The priority now
was to target investigations on the principal organizers, as well
as on homicides and arson. Local prosecutors were handling over
130 cases directly related to the riots. Some 50 cases of a more
serious nature had been entrusted to international prosecutors.
Meanwhile, violence had obviously had a very adverse effect on
the overall returns process, and the current security environment
in Kosovo was not conducive to the forcible return of members
of minority communities to their homes, he said. Achieving any
progress on returns, including the newly displaced, would require
a substantial increase in the quality and quantity of protection
provided by KFOR and the police.
Describing Kosovo as an "open wound for Serbs, Albanians
and the entire international community," Vuk Draskovic, Foreign
Minister of Serbia and Montenegro, said that in the wake of the
"mass violence against Serbs and the barbaric destruction
of their cultural sites," the Council had adopted a Presidential
statement that had not adequately responded to the tragedy suffered
by the Serbian people in the province. He called on the body to
ensure a greater and more resolute respect for the UN Charter
and strict compliance with Security Council resolution 1244, which
gave UNMIK its original mandate.
Mr. Draskovic told the Council the international community should
not think today in terms of final status since the rights of Serbs
were being tragically violated in Kosovo, and such human suffering
could not constitute the basis for any final status. Serbia and
Montenegro called for the start of a sincere dialogue at all levels
between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, directly or through the good
offices of the international community.
Ethnic violence in March
damaged normalization process in Kosovo - Annan
5 May 2004 – In the wake of the deadly ethnic violence that
swept Kosovo in March, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
says what is now needed is concrete action by the leaders and
people of the province to not only ensure the perpetrators are
brought to justice, but to rebuild the confidence among minority
communities, and most of all, to address the root causes of the
violence.
In his latest
report to the Security Council on the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the Secretary-General says the deadly
onslaught, led by Kosovo Albanian extremists to drive out Kosovo's
Serb, Roma and Askhali communities, was "an organized widespread
and targeted campaign" which had seriously damaged the process
of normalization and reconciliation. In the end, 19 people were
killed, with nearly 1,000 injured, and hundreds of homes and centuries-old
Serbian cultural sites razed or burned.
This has threatened to destabilize the region,
and has called into question the timetable for the successful
implementation of the standards that the international community
set for Kosovo, the report says. The events had shown that the
international community's determination to ensure Kosovo's path
of coexistence and reconciliation is, on its own, not sufficient.
Mr. Annan calls for concrete action to ensure
that the violence is not repeated, and stressed the obligations
of Kosovo Albanian leaders, as representatives of province's largest
community, to protect the rights of all communities, particularly
the minorities.
"Forward momentum must be regained, and
extremism must not be tolerated," he says. "There could
be no peaceful and prosperous future for Kosovo without respect
for the diversity of its people - violence will not be rewarded."
He says politicians must be held accountable
and those civil servants who may have participated in, fomented
or did nothing to stop the violence must be disciplined. The humanitarian
consequences also need to be addressed, and the reconstruction
of and compensation for destroyed and damaged property must proceed
quickly and effectively.
Stressing that UNMIK would continue to
operate within the framework provided by the "standards before
status" policy, which provides a road map for the interim
period, Mr. Annan says finally that, in the wake of the violence,
there is more than ever a need for the leadership and society
of Kosovo to achieve the standards as a basis for a stable and
well-governed entity.
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