Kosovo: UN police arrest
270 people over deadly riots in March
17 June 2004 – United Nations police in Kosovo have now
arrested about 270 people in relation to the two days of deadly
riots and ethnically-motivated violence that roiled the province
in mid-March, a UN spokesman said today.
International prosecutors have begun handling
52 of the most serious cases, spokesman Stephane Dujarric told
the daily press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York.
In two days of violence following the drowning
deaths of three Albanian children, 19 people were killed, hundreds
injured and many homes and Serbian cultural or religious sites
were damaged or destroyed. At least 3,000 Serbs were also driven
from their homes.
Last week Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed
Ambassador Kai Eide of Norway to investigate the violence and
its political implications, and to recommend how the ethnic Albanian
and Serbian communities in Kosovo can live together again peacefully.
Mr. Dujarric said the 52 cases involve
26 defendants, of whom 18 are already in detention.
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UN war crimes tribunal
dismisses bid to acquit Miloševic
16 June 2004 – The United Nations war crimes tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia today dismissed a legal motion to acquit
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Miloševic of charges of
genocide and other crimes against humanity after finding there
is enough evidence for him to answer.
In a decision handed down in The Hague, the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
ruled that Mr. Miloševic must answer charges relating to
events in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo during the
Balkan wars of the 1990s.
The decision was not unanimous: Presiding Judge
Patrick Robinson of Jamaica and Judge Iain Bonomy of the United
Kingdom ruled separately against Mr. Miloševic, while Judge
O-Gon Kwon of the Republic of Korea issued a dissenting judgment
on some of the questions.
The ICTY also granted several challenges in
favour of Mr. Miloševic, finding there was insufficient evidence
to support certain allegations relating to some of the charges.
The legal motions for acquittal had been filed
by so-called Friends of the Court, lawyers appointed by the ICTY
to help ensure Mr. Miloševic receives a fair trial, at the
conclusion of the prosecution case in February. The former Yugoslav
leader does not recognize the court.
In dismissing the motion for acquittal, the
ICTY rejected several submissions regarding Bosnia. The judges
found there is enough evidence to show that there was a joint
criminal enterprise – which included members of the Bosnian
Serb leadership – to destroy part of Bosnia’s Muslims
as a group; that Mr. Miloševic was part of the enterprise;
and that the enterprise committed genocide.
The court ruled there is enough evidence to
show that there was an armed conflict in Kosovo before the bombing
campaign by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
began in March 1999.
The judges also ruled against a submission that
some of the charges regarding Croatia should be dismissed because
Croatia was not an independent state before early 1992 and therefore
the conflict before then was not international.
But the ICTY found that some of the allegations
relating to charges in Croatia and Bosnia could not be sustained
by the evidence, and granted the motions confined to them.
Mr. Miloševic faces charges of genocide,
crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs
of war. He is expected to begin his defence case next month.
Danish civil servant appointed
new UN envoy for Kosovo
16 June 2004 – Secretary-General Kofi Annan has informed
the Security Council that he intends to appoint Søren Jessen-Petersen
of Denmark as his new Special Representative for Kosovo and the
head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK),
a UN spokesman said today.
In both posts, Mr. Jessen-Petersen would replace
Harri Holkeri, who resigned last month for health reasons.
“The Secretary-General would like to take
this opportunity to express his deep appreciation for the dedicated
service and leadership provided by Harri Holkeri in often very
difficult circumstances,” spokesman Stephan Dujarric said.
The Council is expected to respond to Mr. Annan’s
move in the next few days, Mr. Dujarric added.
In mid-March, 19 people were killed, hundreds
injured, and numerous homes and Serbian cultural and religious
sites destroyed or damaged during two days of rioting and violence
between ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs.
In a farewell press conference last week, Mr.
Holkeri described those events as “a big setback,”
and urged the people of Kosovo to reject extremism and ethnic
division.
UNMIK took over administration of the province
in June 1999, after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
drove Yugoslav troops out amid fighting between the Albanian and
Serbian communities. Kosovo’s permanent future status remains
yet to be determined.
Since February Mr. Jessen-Petersen has served
as the European Union’s Special Representative in Skopje,
the capital of the neighbouring former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
(FYROM). Previously he worked in various senior roles with the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Secretariat.
Mr. Jessen-Petersen, who is married with
four children, is a lawyer and journalist by training.
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Kosovo: Norwegian envoy
to head UN probe into March violence
11 June 2004 – United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan has appointed Ambassador Kai Eide of Norway to investigate
the wave of ethnic violence that roiled Kosovo in mid-March, leaving
19 people dead, hundreds injured and many homes and Serbian religious
and cultural sites damaged or destroyed.
Ambassador Eide has been tasked with probing
the political implications of the violence between ethnic Albanians
and Serbs and recommending ways in which the province’s
residents can live together again peacefully.
The appointment of an investigator follows a
pledge made in April by Mr. Annan in his regular report to the
Security Council on the work of the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
In that report, Mr. Annan said “the onslaught
led by Kosovo Albanian extremists against the Serb, Roma and Ashkali
communities of Kosovo was an organized, widespread, and targeted
campaign.”
At least 3,000 people, mostly Serbs, were driven
from their homes or had to evacuate them during two days of riots
and attacks starting 17 March. The violence followed the drowning
deaths of three Albanian children a day earlier.
UNMIK described the violence as some of the
worst since it took control of the province in June 1999, when
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) drove Yugoslav troops
out amid fighting between the Albanian and Serbian communities.
Kosovo’s permanent future status remains yet to be determined.
Ambassador Eide and a team of aides are expected
to begin work on the inquiry in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina,
next week.
Meanwhile, Harri Holkeri, the outgoing head
of UNMIK and Special Representative of the Secretary-General,
yesterday described the March violence as “a big setback”
as he looked back on his 10 months of service in the province.
In a farewell press conference following his
resignation last month, Mr. Holkeri warned “there may still
be difficult days ahead” as some people try to undermine
peace efforts and called on the people of Kosovo to “reject
extremism, reject division, and listen to their responsible leaders.”
At the same time, he noted that much progress
had been achieved before the recent clashes. “Kosovo had
no functioning institutions when the UN arrived here [in 1999],
but, since then, three elections have been organized and Kosovo
now has a functioning government and an elected assembly.”
UN mission spotlights Kosovo’s gender
gap in employment and education
8 June 2004 – Kosovo suffers from a serious gender gap,
with the United Nations mission’s first comprehensive survey
of gender data in the province showing that women are severely
under-represented in the workforce and girls’ attendance
at secondary school is much lower than that of boys.
Women comprise just 30 per cent of the workforce,
according to statistics released today from the Office of Gender
Affairs of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
In rural areas they make up even less of the overall total –
just 21 per cent.
Females are also disadvantaged in education.
The figures indicate 91 per cent of girls attend primary school,
while only 54 per cent go to secondary school.
UNMIK’s Office of Gender Affairs conducted
the survey to provide Kosovo’s policy-makers with gender-disaggregated
data to help them try to close the gender gap in the employment,
education, health and social welfare fields.
In a statement, UNMIK said the province
generally lacked much gender-specific data, citing the absence
of any statistics about women’s average income or access
to financial resources.
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Kosovo: UN envoy expresses
distress at murder of Serb teenager
7 June 2004 – Describing his deep distress at learning of
the murder of a Serbian teenager in Kosovo on Friday night, the
head of the United Nations mission in Kosovo has warned that any
attempts to spark ethnic tensions in the troubled province will
not be tolerated.
Harri Holkeri, the head of the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Secretary-General’s Special
Representative, issued a statement yesterday deploring the killing.
In his statement, Mr. Holkeri said he was sending
his deputy, Jean-Christian Cady, to represent him at the funeral
of Dimitrije Popovic today. He also thanked UNMIK Police and the
Kosovo Police Service (KPS) for their response to the crime.
Mr. Popovic was shot dead while standing with
friends in the town of Gracanica. Two suspects were arrested Saturday.
In March, Kosovo was rocked by several days
of ethnic violence between Serbs and Albanians that left 19 people
dead, hundreds injured and homes and Serbian religious and cultural
sites damaged or destroyed.
Referring to those events in his statement,
Mr. Holkeri said, “I had hoped that everyone has learned
the lessons of the events of 17 and 18 March: violence will only
set Kosovo back. Any provocation with the aim to once more flare
up ethnic tensions will be firmly countered.”
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