Ethnic Albanians returning
from Kosovo to FYR of Macedonia: UNHCR
31 JULY – The number of ethnic Albanians returning from
Kosovo to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has risen
sharply over the past few days as more and more people decide
to return to the now open Aracinovo village outside of Skopje,
the United Nations refugee agency said today.
Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), said in Geneva that the return movement to Aracinovo
had begun last Sunday, as the authorities reopened the area More
than 200 people were believed to be staying overnight in the village,
the spokesman said, and several thousand had been seen cleaning
up their homes during the day. The village -- which saw some of
the heaviest fighting to date -- had been virtually deserted by
its overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian population, and subsequently
sealed off by the Macedonian authorities, according to UNHCR.
Meanwhile, ethnic Macedonians continued to make
brief go-and-see visits to villages in the Tetovo area from which
they had been driven last week, Mr. Janowski said. Over the weekend,
UNHCR accompanied several hundred people to villages in the area
to enable them to see their homes. Most of those going back, however,
were too nervous to stay.
"UNHCR deems it absolutely crucial that
civilians displaced by the conflict be allowed to return as soon
as possible to avoid an even deeper division between the FYR of
Macedonia's ethnic communities," Mr. Janowski said.
In another development, the UN Children's Fund
(UNICEF) announced today that about 300,000 euros ($262,000) from
a European Union grant for the FYR of Macedonia would go to a
programme to vaccinate 12,000 children and provide emergency equipment
for maternity services.
UN official welcomes decision by
Kosovo Serb parties to engage in elections
26 JULY – Briefing the Security Council today on efforts
to engage Kosovo Serbs in the forthcoming province-wide elections,
a senior United Nations official welcomed the decision by four
Kosovo Serb parties to submit certification applications for the
ballot.
Addressing an open meeting of the Council, Jean-Marie Guéhenno,
the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, urged
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to "unequivocally encourage"
Serb participation in the elections. This would help "undercut
extremism, reduce inter-ethnic tensions and stake the rightful
claim of the Kosovo Serb community to participate in the political
process," he said.
Noting efforts by the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to reduce the influence of ethnic Albanian
armed groups operating from Kosovo, Mr. Guéhenno said that
the situation in the neighbouring former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia continued to be of great concern to the mission. He
said the number of refugees arriving in Kosovo from that country
outweighed the number of those returning.
Referring to the border closure by the FYR of
Macedonia, he said UNMIK was making representations to the country's
authorities, as the decision was severely restricting the mission's
work.
Earlier today, UNMIK chief Hans Haekkerup had
called the border closure "unacceptable and unreasonable,"
according to a mission spokeswoman in Pristina.
Mr. Guéhenno also discussed preparations
for the 17 November elections and the handover to provisional
self-government institutions, as well as efforts to improve law
and order, engage minority communities in public life and undertake
confidence-building measures to bridge the gap among different
communities.
In the ensuing Council debate, in which 16 countries
took part, speakers stressed the importance for all ethnic groups
to participate in the elections, and underscored the need to ensure
the return of refugees, guarantee security, disarm illegal armed
groups, and halt cross-border activities of Albanian extremists.
UN mission in Kosovo signs
agreement on DNA testing for missing persons
25 JULY – The top United Nations official in Kosovo today
signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Committee
for the Missing Persons (ICMP) which will pave the way for DNA
testing to match relatives of the missing with unidentified remains.
Hans Haekkerup, head of the UN Interim Administration Mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK), said the ICMP has the technical means and money
to start the process.
Referring to recent demonstrations by Serbs
seeking information about missing persons, the UNMIK chief also
stressed that the international community is committed to finding
the truth about the missing.
Mr. Haekkerup emphasized that UNMIK supported
the efforts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia, which is currently investigating the atrocities committed
in Kosovo. At the same time, he pointed out that the Albanians
and the Serbs who know about the atrocities must provide information
to the Tribunal.
Meanwhile, the border between Kosovo and the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia remained closed, with a
UN agency reporting refugee flows in both directions.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), more than 200 people returned to Skopje from Kosovo on
Tuesday and more than 130 left the FYR of Macedonia for Kosovo.
The agency has urged all parties to avoid confrontation in a conflict
that has already displaced tens of thousands of people.
In Kosovo, President Bush backs UN efforts
to pave way for self-government
24 JULY – Visiting Kosovo today, United States President
George W. Bush endorsed the efforts of the United Nations mission
in the province to prepare Kosovars for taking on greater responsibility
in "running their own affairs."
During a 40-minute meeting with Hans Haekkerup, the head of the
UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), President Bush was
briefed on preparations for elections and plans for self-governing
institutions to be established after the elections. According
to UNMIK, President Bush was eager to know Mr. Haekkerup's ideas
on when the international community would be able to reduce its
presence in Kosovo.
Mr. Haekkerup underscored that a strong police
and judiciary were essential to building democracy and self-government
in Kosovo and that by the year 2002 the Kosovo Police Service
would number 6,000. He noted, however, that ultimately a police
force should total 8,000 to 10,000, which would require outside
support.
Inquiring about efforts by UNMIK and KFOR, the
international force in Kosovo, to contain extremism and prevent
the export of violence into the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
President Bush urged UNMIK to do its utmost to deter and detain
extremists. He also expressed interest in UNMIK's efforts to combat
organized crime.
Mr. Haekkerup expressed his gratitude for the
presence and activities of US troops in Kosovo, and said UNMIK
was doing its part to restrain suspected extremists in the region.
He said that UNMIK, KFOR and the Kosovo Police Service were working
hard to prevent cross-border movement of extremists.
President Bush assured UNMIK and KFOR officials
that the US troops had entered Kosovo together and would leave
Kosovo together with other NATO forces based there.
No new mass graves found
in Kosovo, UN mission says
20 JULY – Reacting to reports in the Belgrade media, the
United Nations mission in Kosovo said today that there were no
new mass graves in Suva Reka or anywhere else in the province.
The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) said in a statement that remarks by Monique Fienberg,
an official reviewing the situation of missing persons in Kosovo
with the Belgrade press, had been distorted in the media yesterday.
According to UNMIK, Ms. Fienberg said that of
the approximately 1,200 unidentified bodies in Kosovo known to
the UN Mission, some 900 had been buried in the Suva Reka area.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) conducted exhumations in Kosovo in 1999
and 2000. Of about 4,000 bodies exhumed, 1,256 could not be identified
and were reburied - some in the municipalities where they had
been found, others in the Suva Reka area.
"UNMIK has no way of determining the ethnicity
of the unidentified bodies," the statement said. "Such
distortions in the media have increased the anxiety and grief
of all families of the missing in Kosovo."
The Mission said that its police was about to
begin work on individual gravesites not exhumed by the ICTY, while
UNMIK was "negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding with
the International Commission on Missing Persons to begin DNA testing
on the unidentified bodies, and with the families."
UN official in Kosovo
urges approval of draft on inter-ethnic property sales
17 JULY – A top United Nations official in Kosovo today
stressed the need to adopt a draft regulation seeking to limit
the flow of minorities from mixed neighbourhoods as well as the
forced sale of minority properties.
Tom Koenigs, the acting head of the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), urged the Kosovo Interim Administrative
Council to approve the draft regulation, which he said would introduce
a review mechanism to monitor inter-ethnic sales in areas where
minorities are most vulnerable.
The regulation would allow the head of UNMIK
to designate specific areas -- particularly in multi-ethnic locales
-- where people selling property would be required to register
any contract with the municipal administrator's office before
it could be validated by the municipal court.
The aim, Mr. Koenigs stressed, is to ensure
that irregular sales that are detrimental to minority rights or
the multi-ethnic character of Kosovo are not registered or validated
by the courts.
The Council will study the draft regulation,
which will be discussed at its meeting next week.
FYR of Macedonia: refugee
flows reflect peace uncertainties, UNHCR says
17 JULY – Reflecting continuing uncertainty over peace prospects,
some 300 people have returned to the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia from Kosovo while close to 200 left the country for
the province, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.
Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), said in Geneva that nearly 1,000 new arrivals from the
FYR of Macedonia had been reported from Friday through Sunday.
Coming mostly from the Skopje area, they said they had left as
a precautionary measure while awaiting the outcome of negotiations.
Meanwhile, UNHCR Special Envoy Eric Morris was
in the FYR of Macedonia, urging the sides to ensure humanitarian
access to affected towns and villages as a first step towards
aiding civilian victims and ensuring the return of refugees and
displaced people.
About 62,000 refugees from the FYR of Macedonia
remain in Kosovo while some 12,000 have returned to their home
country, according to UNHCR.
UN mission in Kosovo helps
Serbian convoy to deliver aid
16 JULY – Despite a lack of timely notification, the United
Nations mission in Kosovo and the Kosovo international force have
helped a large Serbian convoy to deliver humanitarian aid to various
Serbian enclaves, a UN official in Pristina reported today.
The large convoy, consisting of 10 buses with more than 300 people
and five trucks of humanitarian supplies, officially notified
UNMIK of its arrival only on 12 July -- too short a time in terms
of required notification, according to Susan Manuel, a spokeswoman
for the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
As the security could not be arranged in time,
UNMIK decided that the convoy could not travel through Kosovo,
Ms. Manuel said. A compromise was found on 13 July for a smaller
convoy to come on 15 July, but the convoy organizers chose to
attempt entrance on 14 July with the full entourage.
KFOR, the international security force in Kosovo,
stopped the convoy to prevent possible incidents. Because of some
protest among the population against the convoy, KFOR transferred
all supplies onto KFOR lorries and allowed some Serb representatives
to monitor delivery. Five small convoys then delivered the supplies
to several enclaves, completing the operation on Sunday.
"We do not oppose such visits," the
spokeswoman said, "but we have a clear policy on notification
in order to make the needed security arrangements."
Calm along Kosovo-FRY of Macedonia border
slows flow of refugees: UNCHR
3 JULY – Thanks to relative calm along the border between
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo, fewer people
are fleeing their native lands and some are returning home, the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported
today.
UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told the press in Geneva that the
rate of arrivals in Kosovo has slowed "to a trickle"
after a record 25,000 new arrivals over a 10-day period beginning
22 June.
At the same time, renewed peace talks and reports
that reservists were disarming in Skopje have prompted the return
of refugees to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Mr.
Redmond said, estimating that some 3,500 refugees went back over
the weekend. "While these returns are regarded as a positive
development, UNHCR and its partners remain extremely cautious
and continue to be on alert," he said.
Also over the weekend, 500 people from the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia crossed the border into Kosovo,
according to UNHCR. Since fighting began in February, 73,818 people
from the country have arrived in Kosovo, while another 34,546
people have been displaced within the country.
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