UN sees progress in Kosovo, Security Council
told
30 July – While Kosovo has made progress over the past few
months, the province still has a way to go in meeting the benchmarks
set to help it to begin the process of determining its future
status, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council
today.
"Our message is: standards before status,"
Michael Steiner, the Secretary-General's Special Representative
for Kosovo and the head of the UN Interim Administration Mission
(UNMIK), said in a briefing
to an open meeting of the Council.
"Kosovo has not yet achieved the standards
that either the international community or its own people demand,"
he added. "But we can see progress."
While it was difficult to say what Kosovo's
future status would be, Mr. Steiner stressed that there would
be no partition, no cantonization and no return to the status
quo ante of 1999. "The outcome cannot be mono-ethnic but
must be multi-ethnic. It must be a democratic, safe and respectable
Kosovo on the way to Europe," he said.
Mr. Steiner told the meeting, which also heard
statements by representatives from some 20 countries, that Kosovo
finally had in place a multi-ethnic government with Serb participation.
However, the pace at which UNMIK could transfer further authority
to the Provisional Institutions depended on their readiness to
assume real responsibilities, he noted.
Meanwhile, the UN Mission and the Kosovo police
have been cracking down on organized crime by conducting several
successful anti-smuggling operations. "Our policy is zero
tolerance for crime and corruption," Mr. Steiner said, adding
that a Financial Inspection Unit consisting of a highly experienced
team from Italy's Guardia di Finanza has been created o expand
the Mission's efforts to fight graft.
UNMIK has also been trying to establish its
authority in northern Mitrovica, with the core of its strategy
for that city based on effective policing, Mr. Steiner said. He
called on Belgrade to stop financing "parallel structures"
in the city, stressing that they must be replaced by legitimate
institutions.
On the economic front, the UNMIK chief noted
that Kosovo took a serious hit 10 days ago with a disastrous fire
caused by a lightning strike on one of the province's two main
power plants - ensuring power shortages in the months ahead. "Together
with the Kosovans we will manage through a number of measures,"
he said. "But the real problem will come this winter."
As for inter-ethnic relations, Mr. Steiner
said that the number of minority returns to Kosovo now exceeded
the outflow from it, although he cautioned that the returns process
has been too slow.
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Kosovo making progress in security, inter-ethnic
relations, Annan reports
26 July – While Kosovo has seen progress over the last few
months, most notably in safety and inter-ethnic relations, the
United Nations mission still needs to be able to extend its authority
throughout the province, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in
a new report released
today.
Strengthening the rule of law throughout the
province remains a high priority, the Secretary-General notes
in his latest report to the Security Council on the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
"Continued support for the Mission's fight
against crime, through criminal investigation leading to arrests
and capacity building of the local police and judiciary, will
lead Kosovo towards normalization," Mr. Annan observes. "The
UNMIK regional approach to fighting crime promises to be effective
and the initial signs of progress achieved are encouraging."
UNMIK also is committed to achieving sustainable
returns in the course of this year, creating the momentum for
increased returns over the next few years, according to the report,
which notes a modest increase in minority returns, with nearly
1,000 internally displaced people going back to Kosovo in the
first half of this year – about four times the number of
people who left the province during the same period.
The Secretary-General also says that conditions
in Mitrovica remain a challenge to the implementation of Security
Council mandates on Kosovo, with the Mission seeking to stabilize
the situation on the ground by doubling the number of UN police
in northern Mitrovica and continuing a dialogue on the matter
with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
As for the Mission, the Secretary-General says
UNMIK itself is facing demanding challenges in the coming months.
"The implementation of the budget reduction will necessitate
the transfer of responsibility and authority to the provisional
institutions earlier than planned," he says, referring to
a $61 million cut over the next two years.
The Secretary-General's Special Representative
for Kosovo, Michael Steiner, will be in New York to brief the
Security Council in an open meeting on Tuesday about recent developments
in the province.
Meanwhile, Mr. Steiner thanked Germany
today for its offer of €5 million (euros) to rehabilitate
Kosovo's energy sector after its main power plant was hit last
week by lightning strikes which caused a major fire that has cost
the province some 500 megawatts in electrical power.
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Milosevic at severe risk from heart problems,
UN tribunal told
25
July – Slobodan Milosevic, on trial at the United Nations
war crimes tribunal for genocide and other charges, is at severe
risk from heart problems and should reduce his workload, according
to a medical report on the former Yugoslav President requested
by the court.
The trial judges of the UN International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) today recommended further
treatment for Mr. Milosevic, and have requested a report from
a cardiologist before they consider further steps to ease any
stress on his health.
The Tribunal had asked for an independent report
on Mr. Milosevic’s health following concerns about his recent
illnesses, which have delayed progress in his trial for war crimes
allegedly committed in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.
Mr. Milosevic has been representing himself
during his trial at The Hague. Tomorrow marks his last scheduled
appearance before the Tribunal’s four-week summer recess.
After that, his next court date is set for 26 August.
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Italian financial investigators to help UN mission
root out crime in Kosovo
23 July – A team of investigators
from Italy will join the United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to help in the fight against financial
crime and corruption in the province, the head of the Mission
announced today.
UNMIK chief Michael Steiner said the 10 investigators
from the Guardia di Finanza would arrive as soon as possible to
join the new Financial Inspection Unit. He welcomed the fact that
such highly qualified professionals, would help to detect and
combat financial crime involving public monies in Kosovo.
“The Guardia di Finanza, who are experts
in ‘mafia-busting,’ will be working here in UNMIK to
reinforce our policy of zero tolerance for crime,” Mr. Steiner
said. “No one – Kosovans or internationals – will
be beyond the reach of our crime-fighting effort.”
Members of the new Unit will perform investigations
wherever public money is involved, conducting random inspections
to seek out misuse of funds or assets. The members of Guardia
di Finanza will investigate cases of financial corruption that
will lead to criminal prosecution.
The new Unit will have direct access to
Mr. Steiner and will be funded by the UNMIK budget.
Senior UN official nominated as next UN human
rights commissioner
22 July – Secretary-General
Kofi Annan has nominated the United Nations administrator who
helped oversee East Timor's transition to independence to be the
UN's next top human rights official, a spokesman for the world
body said today in New York.
Following consultations with the chairmen of
the five regional groups of Member States, the Secretary-General
informed the UN General Assembly this morning of his intention
to appoint Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil as the next UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Assembly is expected to approve the appointment
tomorrow.
Until May, Mr. Vieira de Mello had been the
head of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).
Prior to that, he was briefly Mr. Annan's Special Representative
for Kosovo after a stint at UN Headquarters in New York as Under-Secretary-General
for Humanitarian Affairs.
Since 1969, the bulk of his career has been
with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
where he also had considerable field experience.
Mr. Vieira de Mello, who succeeds High Commissioner
Mary Robinson, will begin his four-year term on 12 September.
Mrs. Robinson had agreed to stay on for one more year after completing
her tenure in September 2001.
The post was created by the General Assembly
in the wake of the 1993 UN Conference on Human Rights, with José
Ayala-Lasso - a key negotiator in that process - becoming the
first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on 5 April 1994.
The High Commissioner is the UN official
with principal responsibility for the Organization's human rights
activities, under the direction and authority of the Secretary-General
and within the framework of the General Assembly, the Economic
and Social Council and the Commission on Human Rights.
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Kosovo: UN mission forms energy committee to
deal with lightening hit on power plant
22 July – Following a lightening strike on a Kosovo power
plant, the head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission
(UNMIK), Michael Steiner, has announced the formation of an energy
committee to deal with the sudden power shortage.
"It makes no sense to hide the fact that
we will now have shortages. We have lost half of our capacity,"
Mr. Steiner said on Saturday in Obiliq, where he toured the damaged
Kosovo B power plant, which was struck by lightening during a
storm late Friday night.
"There is no doubt that this is a tragedy,"
he said, noting that one person had been killed. Thirty-two other
people were also wounded and we also lost nearly 500 megawatts
of power capacity, so it is a very serious situation."
Mr. Steiner said he was "very impressed"
at how the different international and local institutions managed
the incident. "Despite the seriousness of the situation,
we can overcome the hardships if we follow the example of those
on the ground who did a great job responding to the crisis,"
he said.
UN police arrests suspects in last year's murder
of Kosovo Albanian family
8 July – Police serving with the United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) have arrested several suspects in connection
with last year's murderous attack on a Kosovo Albanian family
in Glogovac.
The arrests "resulted from investigations
ongoing since the attack on 20 August 2001," UNMIK Officer
Paul Hamlin told reporters on Saturday, referring to the crime
against the Hajra family which resulted in the deaths of Mr. Hajra,
his wife and three of his four children. "We believe we have
found those responsible," he added.
UNMIK police arrested eight men, including
three members of the Kosovo Protection Corps. All those arrested
are now in detention and will be processed through the judicial
system, according to Mr. Hamlin, who said follow-on searches were
continuing in a number of locations.
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