UN ends 10-year peacekeeping
presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina
30 June - The United Nations liaison offices in Zagreb, Sarajevo
and Belgrade will complete their mandate and close at midnight
today, marking the end of the world body's 10-year peacekeeping
presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The offices were established following the closure
of the peacekeeping missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina (UNMIBH) and
Croatia (UNMOP) to provide continuity, disseminate information,
and facilitate contacts with local authorities.
The UN Liaison Office Belgrade will merge with
the UN Mission in Kosovo's office in Belgrade to create a new
UN office in the Serbian capital.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UN will continue
to stay actively engaged through the work of the UN family of
specialized agencies.
General Assembly adopts
$2.17 billion peacekeeping budget
19 June - The United Nations General Assembly has approved a budget
of some $2.17 billion to finance the world body’s 11 active
peacekeeping missions for the next 12 months.
Acting on the recommendations of its administrative
and budgetary committee – which drafted and approved the
proposed budget earlier this month – the UN’s 191-member
governing Assembly adopted a resolution yesterday, covering peacekeeping
finances for 2003-2004, including some $70.29 million for the
maintenance of a peacekeeping support account, and some $21.51
million for the UN Logistics Base in Brindisi, Italy.
Compared with the appropriation of some $2.6
billion for the current period, the new peacekeeping budget represents
a reduction of some $430 million, mostly due to the closing of
the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) and the downsizing
of the Organization’s operations in Kosovo, Timor-Leste,
Sierra Leone and Lebanon.
Since the financial year of peacekeeping operations
runs from 1 July to 30 June, most of the 34 draft resolutions
and decisions adopted by the Assembly yesterday centred on budgets
of individual missions and strategic deployment stocks. The Assembly
also dealt with the disposal of the assets of several closed missions,
including those in Angola, Tajikistan, Liberia, Rwanda and the
Central African Republic.
Acting on the concept of strategic deployment
stocks, which was introduced last year in order to enhance the
UN’s rapid deployment capacity, the Assembly extended to
30 June 2004 the validity period of previously-approved resources
of some $141.55 million. Creation of the stocks will allow the
Organization to deploy one complex mission per year. It also involves
expansion of the role of the Logistics Base.
As an operational arm for the strategic deployment
stocks, the Base would also become a training and conference centre,
and a support base for air operations. The Assembly requested
Secretary-General Kofi Annan to consider the merits of relocating
all Logistics Division resources to Brindisi, as well as those
related to communications and information technology services
for peacekeeping.
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Top UN Official in Kosovo
praises international security force
12 June - Speaking on the fourth anniversary of the arrival of
the international security force in Kosovo (KFOR), the top United
Nations official there today stressed the importance of continued
good cooperation between the NATO-run force and the UN Mission
in the province (UNMIK).
UNMIK chief Michael Steiner noted improvements
in the security situation over the past four years, but warned
that it was still not normal, with the threat being more complicated
and unconventional - largely internal, with organized crime and
extremism.
"As we fight the enemy in its new forms,
it is important that KFOR and UNMIK continue to work well together,"
Mr. Steiner declared. "After all, KFOR and UNMIK are two
sides of one coin. Today is your anniversary, tomorrow is ours
as we followed immediately in your footsteps four years ago.
"We are bound together. UNMIK can't do
without KFOR and KFOR can't do without UNMIK. We are totally interdependent,"
he added, paying tribute to the 101 KFOR soldiers and 26 members
of UNMIK who have been killed.
Former Chief of State
Security in Serbia transfered to UN Tribunal
11 June - A former chief of the State Security Services in the
Republic of Serbia was transferred today to the United Nations
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
detention unit where he awaits trial for crimes against humanity
and other war crimes.
Jovica Stanisic, charged on the basis of individual
criminal responsibility, faces four counts of crimes against humanity
and one count of violations of the laws or customs of war, and
he will make his initial appearance at the Tribunal
on Friday.
The indictment against Mr. Stanisic, charged
together with Franko Simatovic, was confirmed on 1 May. According
to the indictment, Mr. Stanisic was de facto Chief of the State
Security Services (the "DB") in the Republic of Serbia
throughout 1991 until his formal appointment from 31 December
1991 to 27 October 1998.
It is alleged that from no later than May 1991,
secret units, which were not legally authorized, were established
by or with the assistance of the Serbian DB for the purpose of
undertaking special military operations in the Republic of Croatia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the indictment, Mr. Stanisic and Mr. Simatovic
are accused of participating in a joint criminal enterprise, the
objective of which was the forcible and permanent removal of the
majority of non-Serbs, principally Croats, Bosnian Muslims and
Bosnian Croats, from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This joint criminal enterprise was in existence no later than
1 August 1991 and continued until at least 31 December 1995.
According to the indictment, Mr. Stanisic, acting
individually and/or in concert with other members of the joint
criminal enterprise, participated in the joint criminal enterprise
by forming, financing, supplying and supporting special units
of the Republic of Serbia DB.
They allegedly ordered, committed or otherwise
aided and abetted the planning, preparation or execution of persecutions
of Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats and other non-Serbs.
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Security Council briefed
on successes, remaining challenges of UN in Kosovo
10 June - Four years into the United Nations mission's mandate
in Kosovo, there have been some successes, but much remains to
be done in developing provisional democratic self-governing institutions
and ensuring conditions for a peaceful and normal life for all
inhabitants, a top UN official told the Security Council today.
"The successes are evident - reconstruction
of basic infrastructure, restarting of services for the public
such as schools, health care and pensions, provision of basic
civil documents, a growing professional local police and judiciary,
three successful elections and the establishment of municipal
and central level self-government bodies," Assistant Secretary-General
for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi told the Council,
which met
to consider the situation in Kosovo.
In his open briefing, Mr. Annabi noted the remaining
challenges, including freedom of movement, meaningful minority
participation and the return of displaced minorities to Kosovo.
The development of local bodies and dialogue between Belgrade
and Pristina is also a major concern, he added.
"The fact that we still have some way to
go was highlighted in the most horrific way recently - with the
tragic murder of three Kosovo Serb residents in Obilic Municipality
on 4 June," Mr. Annabi said of the 80-year-old man, his 78-year-old
wife and their 53-year-old son who were beaten to death with a
blunt instrument.
He said the UN Interim Administration Mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK) had taken a number of concrete steps to find
and bring to justice the perpetrators of that heinous crime. Representatives
of Kosovo's Provisional Institutions - Assembly, Government and
President, and Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Serb political leaders
had also condemned the murders and additional police patrols and
other security measures had subsequently been put in place.
Though UNMIK has seen many successes in Kosovo
in the last four years, political pressure on the mission has
increased, with attempts to challenge its role, Mr. Annabi noted.
The Provisional Institutions, particularly the Kosovo Assembly,
have overstepped their competencies on a number of occasions.
Security Council condemns
killing of Kosovo Serb family members
6 June - The members of the United Nations Security Council today
strongly condemned the murder of three members of a Serb family
in Kosovo, underscoring that such acts undermined international
efforts to foster ethnic reconciliation in the country.
“Members of the Security Council fully
support the efforts initiated by the Special Representative of
the Secretary-General, [Michael] Steiner, to conduct an urgent
investigation and to bring to justice the perpetrators of this
despicable crime,” the Council President for June, Ambassador
Sergey Lavrov of the Russian Federation, said in a press
statement on the killing earlier this week in Obilic of 82-year-old
Slobodan Stolic, his wife and son.
Such acts jeopardize Security Council resolutions
aimed towards “building a multi-ethnic and tolerant society
with equal security for all and necessary conditions for the safe
return of refugees and IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons],”
Ambassador Lavrov told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.
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UN envoy announces cash
reward for leads to Serb family's murderers
5 June - The top United Nations official in Kosovo today announced
a €50,000 (euro) reward to anyone who can provide information
leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for
the murder of three members of a Serb family in Obilic.
“Anyone with information is encouraged
to call an untraceable international telephone number to be released
shortly by the police,” Michael Steiner, chief of the UN
Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said.
The telephone would be manned “24 hours
a day,” Mr. Steiner said, who reassured any prospective
callers that their identities would be held in strict confidence.
The killing yesterday of three members of the
Stolic family was a “heinous crime” directed against
the efforts to create a multi-ethnic Kosovo, Mr. Steiner stated
after rushing that same day to Obilic, a few kilometres outside
Kosovo’s capital of Pristina.
UN Assembly’s administrative
committee approves $2.17 billion peacekeeping budget
5 June – As the fiscal year for United Nations peacekeeping
operations heads to a close, the world body’s administrative
and budgetary committee has approved some $2.17 billion to finance
11 active peacekeeping missions for the next 12 months.
The General Assembly’s Fifth Committee
approved the Organization’s 2003-2004 peacekeeping budget
yesterday as it concluded its second resumed session. The $2.17
billion includes some $70.29 million for the maintenance of the
peacekeeping support account, and $21.51 million for the UN Logistics
Base (UNLB) in Brindisi, Italy, which is the staging area for
most operations.
Compared with the appropriation of some $2.6
billion for the current period, the new peacekeeping budget represents
a reduction of some $430 million, mostly due to the closing of
the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) and downsizing
of the Organization’s operations in Kosovo, Timor-Leste,
Sierra Leone and Lebanon.
As the financial year of peacekeeping operations
runs from 1 July to 30 June, the Committee customarily devotes
its late spring session to assessing their budgetary and administrative
needs. Most of the 33 draft resolutions and decisions approved
yesterday centred on budgets of individual missions, disposition
of the assets of missions in liquidation, and strategic deployment
stocks.
One of the most important aspects of the UN
peacekeeping budget is the financing of the support account, established
in order to allow the UN Secretariat to plan and deploy peacekeeping
operations in a coordinated manner. The account is financed through
assessments on all active missions, according to their size, as
is the Logistics Base.
By a draft resolution approved today, the Assembly,
recognizing the importance of the Organization’s ability
to respond quickly to conflict situations and deploy peacekeeping
operations within 30 to 90 days upon their authorization by the
Security Council, would approve the support account requirements
for the coming year in the amount of some $70.29 million.
Serb family’s murder
is heinous crime against multi-ethnic society
4 June - The top United Nations official in Kosovo today denounced
the murder of a Serbian family in a town that had made “great
progress” in co-existence between the Serbian and Albanian
communities, calling it “the most despicable, barbaric and
heinous crime” against a multi-ethnic society and announcing
the establishment of a special police squad to investigate.
“This is a heinous crime directed against
our joint efforts to create a multi-ethnic Kosovo,” Michael
Steiner, chief of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK), said after rushing to Obilic, a few kilometres outside
Kosovo’s capital of Pristina as soon as he heard of the
murder of the three Serbians. “We need to find those who
are responsible.”
Announcing that there would be an international
autopsy, observed by a Serbian doctor, Mr. Steiner said security
would be strengthened in the town. “We will reinforce police
and KFOR (Kosovo international force) as requested by the community,”
he said.
“I am particularly angry because in Obilic
we had great progress in the past,” Mr. Steiner, who was
accompanied by Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi, told reporters.
“We had returns and the communities living together. It
is clear that this act is aimed directly against the communities
living together – and totally against our own intentions.”
Mr. Steiner, who met with municipality leaders,
both Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Serbian, and with members of the
Serbian community, urged all Kosovans to help police investigators
find the perpetrators. “Justice must be done. Those committing
such unspeakable crimes are acting against the future of Kosovo,”
he declared.
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