UN Tribunal sentences
Bosnian Serb to life imprisonment
31 July - The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) today convicted a Bosnian Serb doctor
of extermination and persecution of Bosnian Muslims, but acquitted
him of genocide, and sentenced him to life in prison.
Milomir Stakic had faced charges of genocide
or complicity in genocide, murder as a violation of the laws or
customs of war, and murder, extermination, persecutions, deportation,
and other inhumane acts as a crime against humanity in conjunction
with events that took place in Prijedor between 30 April and 30
September 1992.
The doctor was accused of helping to set up
a series of prison camps where more than 1,500 Bosnian Muslims
were killed, women were raped and sexually assaulted, and thousands
were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, including routine
beatings and torture.
In handing down its decision, the trial chamber
explained that it could not come to the conclusion that Dr. Stakic
or other actors had the “necessary specific intent”
to characterize his conduct as genocide or complicity in genocide.
“The primary aim was to displace the non-Serb population
in order to achieve the vision of a pure Serbian state,”
presiding Judge Wolfgang Schomburg said, reading a summary of
the judgment. “This intent to displace a population cannot
be equated with an intent to destroy it as such.”
The court did find, however, that the crimes
of persecutions and extermination constituted the core element
of the criminal conduct of Dr. Stakic as alleged in the indictment.
“The trial chamber is convinced that there was a persecutorial
campaign based on the intent to discriminate against all non-Serbs
or those who did not share the plan to consolidate Serbian control
and domination of the Municipality of Prijedor,” Judge Schomburg
said. “Dr. Stakic was one of the main actors in this persecutorial
campaign and the trial chamber is satisfied that he had the requisite
intent to discriminate against non-Serbs and those affiliated
or sympathizing with them, because of their political and religious
affiliations.”
Dr. Stakic will be eligible for parole after
20 years.
40 years after Skopje
earthquake, Annan recalls global solidarity in reconstructing
city
28 July - Forty years after a massive earthquake struck Skopje
and left 1,000 dead and three-quarters of the city’s inhabitants
homeless, Secretary-General Kofi Annan recalled the resiliency
of its people and the outpouring of international support that
helped in the reconstruction of the capital of The former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia.
“It is a testament to your resilience,
and to your country's spirit of multilateralism, that you have
transformed the fortieth anniversary of this catastrophe into
an opportunity to pay tribute to the international support that
was offered at that time,” the Secretary-General said in
a message delivered on Saturday in Skopje on his behalf by Frode
Mauring, UN Resident Coordinator for The former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia.
In the days after the earthquake, 35 nations
asked the UN General Assembly to put relief for Skopje on its
agenda, and a campaign directed at national governments and international
agencies began to identify resources to assist in recovery efforts,
the Secretary-General recalled. “As the General Assembly
stated in Resolution 1882 of 14 October 1963, the spirit of international
solidarity demonstrated in the aftermath of the Skopje earthquake
transformed the reconstruction effort into a symbol of friendship
and brotherhood among peoples,” he said.
By the beginning of 1964, an international consultative
board, jointly appointed by the United Nations and the Yugoslav
Government, had been established to support national and international
reconstruction efforts. In addition, four projects were put in
place, which formed the basis of United Nations technical assistance.
“The United Nations is proud of the role
it played in shaping the reconstruction of Skopje, in particular
through the Special Fund and Skopje Urban Plan projects,”
the Secretary-General said. “I am also pleased that, following
a recommendation from the consultative board, the Institute of
Earthquake Engineering, Engineering Seismology and Urban Planning
(IZIIS) was established in 1965, and that UNESCO played a part
in assisting local authorities to bring this about. The Institute
is today recognized as a leader in earthquake research, urban
planning and disaster management.
“More recently, your country has been
affected by the fault lines of political upheaval and ethnic conflict,
both next door and at home,” the message concluded. “The
United Nations again joined hands with you to try to prevent violence,
to minimize humanitarian suffering and to promote post-conflict
stability. Your country, and the region, continues along the challenging
path of transition. The United Nations will remain engaged in
supporting you along that path.”
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Former Finish Prime Minister
appointed new head of UN Mission in Kosovo
25
July - Secretary-General Kofi Annan has named former Prime Minister
Harri Holkeri of Finland, as his new envoy and head of the United
Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
Mr. Holkeri, who also served as the President
of the fifty-fifth session of the UN General Assembly in 2000,
brings to the post a wealth of political experience, as well as
a reputation as a skilled mediator and consensus builder.
He was Finland’s Prime Minister from 1987
to 1991 and for over four decades has served his country and the
international community in several political and economic posts.
Mr. Holkeri succeeds Michael Steiner, a senior German diplomat
who is to become his country’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva.
Mr. Steiner was the third Special Representative and UNMIK chief
since it was established in 1999, following Hans Haekkerup of
Denmark and Bernard Kouchner of France.
Set of 40 mortal remains
repatriated to Kosovo under UN auspices
23 July - A second group of some 40 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.
All documentation – comprising lists,
autopsy reports, death and identification certificates –
will be checked before the mortal remains are handed over. The
OMPF/MPU team will also confirm that the label codes of the bodies
and clothing correspond to the lists provided by the Coordination
Committee for Kosovo (CCK).
After the verification procedure, the mortal
remains will be transported to the mortuary for forensic inspections.
UNMIK said family members would be the first
to be informed as soon as their loved ones are identified. The
provenance of the victims shall not be disclosed to the public
at the request of the family associations.
The first group of bodies exhumed from Serbia
were repatriated to Kosovo in early May.
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Security Council extends
Bosnia peacekeeping force for another year
11 July - The United Nations Security Council today unanimously
extended
for another 12 months the mandate of the 13,000-strong multinational
peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, set up in 1996 under
the framework of the Dayton accords that ended fierce fighting
between Serbs, Croats and Muslims.
The Council said it would to review the situation
with a view to further extensions for the Stabilization Force
(SFOR) "as necessary in the light of developments in the
implementation of the Peace Agreement and the situation in Bosnia
and Herzegovina."
It stressed that "the parties shall continue
to be held equally responsible" for compliance with the Dayton
Peace Accord's Annex I, which contains the agreement on the military
aspects of the peace settlement, and "shall be equally subject
to such enforcement action by SFOR as may be necessary to ensure
implementation of that Annex and the protection of SFOR."
The Council also recognized SFOR's right to
"take all necessary measures to defend itself from attack
or threat of attack."
In addition, it emphasized its full support
for the continued role of the High Representative in Bosnia and
Herzegovina in monitoring implementation of the peace agreement.
Troops committed to SFOR come from both NATO
and non-NATO countries.
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UN agency reports between
330,000 and 460,000 civilian firearms in Kosovo
9 July - There are between 330,000 and 460,000 firearms in civilian
hands in Kosovo, most of them unregistered and uncontrolled, according
to a United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) report launched today
in Pristina.
Entitled "Kosovo and the Gun, A Baseline
Assessment of Small Arms and Light Weapons in Kosovo," the
report is an independent research, commissioned by UNDP and written
by the Small Arms Survey.
"Illicit weapons have impeded development
in Kosovo for too long," UNDP Resident Representative in
the country, Robert Piper, said. "Kosovo and the Gun gives
us, for the first time, solid information about the prevalence
and types of weapons in the territory, who owns them, their routes
of entry into the region, and public attitudes about their presence."
The report was launched in tandem with the UN
Biennial Meeting of States on Small Arms in All their Aspects
being held in New York from 7 to 11 July.
UN Head in Kosovo ends
term
8 July - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Spercial
Representative in Kosovo, Michael Steiner, ended his assignment
today after a year and a half’s tenure, during which he
reported improvements in security in the ethnically-riven province
but warned that huge challenges still remained in bringing Albanians
and Serbs together.
Mr. Steiner, a senior German diplomat who is
to become his country’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva,
was the third Special Representative and head of the United Nations
Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) since it was
established in 1999, following Hans Haekkerup of Denmark and Bernard
Kouchner of France. His successor has not yet been officially
named and Charles Brayshaw will be the officer in charge.
In his final report to the Security Council
last week he said Kosovo was now moving towards the standards
that will define its place in Europe, and multi-ethnicity was
gradually improving, a testimony to the work UNMIK is conducting
in the country.
“When I arrived a year and a half ago,
there was no government – despite successful general elections,”
he said. “One hundred and fifty-three prisoners from the
war were still held in Serbia. In the northern part of Mitrovica,
there was a legal vacuum and turbulence. More members of minority
communities were leaving Kosovo than returning. Pristina and Belgrade
did not talk,” he added.
UNMIK had succeeded in putting together a multi-ethnic
government and police force, bringing back prisoners of war, administering
parts where there were no regular police patrols and reversing
the negative trend in returns, he said.
But he warned: “A lot more work is required
for Kosovo to become a truly multi-ethnic society. The slowness
of returns and integration remains our most serious shortcoming.”
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Top UN Official signs
free trade agreement between Kosovo and Albania
7 July - The top United Nations official in Kosovo and the Minister
for Economy of Albania today signed a trade agreement to immediately
liberalize 50 per cent of goods traded between them, while seeking
to expand the amount to 90 per cent over the next six years.
Only few industrial and some agricultural goods
will remain protected under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed
by the head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK), Michael Steiner, and Minister Arben Malaj.
The FTA will foster economic integration of
Kosovo into the region and increase opportunities for business
people on all sides. It is the first free trade agreement that
has been signed for Kosovo.
In another effort to bring Kosovo into "greater
conformity with international and European standards," Mr.
Steiner promulgated yesterday the Criminal Code, which clarifies
and modernizes definitions of offences and incorporates UNMIK
regulations and international legal conventions. It takes into
account modern principles of international law and, in particular,
human rights law.
Mr. Steiner also signed the new Criminal Procedure
Code, which strengthens the powers of prosecutors and enhances
protection of victims and defendants.
The two codes will however be implemented only
from April next year. This is to allow the training of legal professionals,
the re-organization of the judicial system where necessary and
time for a public information campaign on the new regulations.
Bosnian Serb suspect transferred
to UN War Crimes Court
5 July - Zeljko Meakic, a Bosnian Serb allegedly involved in war
crimes during the conflict that engulfed the Balkans in the 1990s,
was transferred today to the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
The 39-year old suspect formerly served as Commander
of the Omarska Police Station, where "severe beatings, killings
as well as other forms of physical and psychological abuse, including
sexual assault" were committed against thousands of non-Serb
detainees, according to the court.
Also known by the last name of "Mejakic" and "Meagic,"
the suspect faces charges of murder; inhumane acts, cruel treatment
and persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds.
UN Official reports on the new appeal by
leaders urging minority returns
 |
| Michael Steiner briefs the Council |
3 July - Stressing that huge challenges remain
in Kosovo, particularly the return of minorities, the top United
Nations official there briefed the Security Council today on a new
initiative by Kosovo Albanian leaders urging the mainly Serb refugees
to come home.
“A lot more work is required for Kosovo
to become a truly multi-ethnic society. The slowness of returns
and integration remains our most serious shortcoming,” Michael
Steiner told the Council in his last briefing as the head of the
UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
But Mr. Steiner, who leaves office next week,
welcomed an open appeal made yesterday in Pristina by Kosovo Albanian
leaders urging refugees and displaced people in Serbia, Montenegro
and FYR Macedonia to return.
Quoting excerpts from the letter, Mr. Steiner
read: “It is time for you to come home… We do not
‘invite’ you to come back to your home because Kosovo
is your home and you have the right to live here in peace. Kosovo
is your home, just as it is our home; we want and work for you
to come back and live in peace with us as neighbours, in a spirit
of mutual respect.”
“It is truly time to put the past behind
us and move on. … We are ready and willing to provide for
your needs in health, public services, and education on an equal
basis with all the other people of Kosovo. We cannot offer more
than that, but what we are able to offer, we do with sincerity,”
the appeal continued.
Mr. Steiner said Kosovo was now moving toward
the standards that will define its place in Europe, and multi-ethnicity
was gradually improving, a testimony to the work UNMIK is conducting
in the country.
“When I arrived a year and a half ago,
there was no government – despite successful general elections.
153 prisoners from the war were still held in Serbia. In the northern
part of Mitrovica there was a legal vacuum and turbulence. More
members of minority communities were leaving Kosovo than returning.
Pristina and Belgrade did not talk,” he noted.
The Mission had succeeded in putting together
a multi-ethnic government and police force, bringing back the
prisoners of war, administering parts where there were no regular
police patrols and reversing the negative trend in returns, Mr.
Steiner said. He added that Pristina and Belgrade have also agreed
to dialogue directly.
The out going official appealed to the Council
to continue supporting UNMIK and his successor, Charles Brayshaw,
who he said inherits many challenges.
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Former Colonel in Yugoslav
army transferred to UN Tribunal
2 July - A former colonel in the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA) has
been transferred 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,
including the murder of at least 200 non-Serbs.
Veselin Sljivancanin, charged on the basis of
individual criminal responsibility, faces two counts of grave
breaches of the Geneva Convention, two counts of violations of
the customs of war, and two counts of crimes against humanity.
He was transferred to ICTY custody yesterday.
The indictment against Mr. Sljivancanin, charged
along with Mile Mrksic and Mirosklav Radic, was confirmed on 7
November 1995. Slavko Dokmanovic was also added to the same list
by a second amended indictment dated 2 December 1997.
It is alleged, in August 1991, JNA surrounded
the city of Vukovar and engaged in a sustained artillery attack
on the city until it fell three months later. JNA and Serb paramilitary
soldiers, aided and abetted by Dokmanovic, and under the command
or supervision of Mrksic, Radic and Sljivancanin, removed about
400 non-Serb individuals from the Vukovar Hospital where they
had sought refuge.
They transported around 300 of them to a farm
building in Ovcara, where they beat them for several hours. Afterwards,
soldiers transported their non-Serb captives in groups of about
10 to 20 to a site between the Ovcara farm and Grabovo, where
they shot and otherwise killed at least 198 men and 2 women.
Mr. Sljivancanin was a major in the JNA in command
of a military police battalion and also served as the security
officer for the Guards Brigade. He was the operation commander
for the JNA in the later stages of the siege of Vukovar and was
then promoted to the rank of colonel and placed in command of
a JA brigade in Podgorica, Montenegro.
ICTY said Mr. Sljivancanin initial hearing will
be announced in due course.
Despite significant progress,
major challenges remain for Kosovo UN mission - Annan
1 July – Four years into the mandate of the United Nations
Mission in Kosovo, the province has made significant progress
in achieving autonomy and self-government, but firmly establishing
the rule of law and creating a sustainable foundation for economic
growth and development remain central challenges, according to
a new report
by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Released today in New York, the report covers
the activities of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK), which was established in 1999 to provide an interim civilian
administration under which the people of the war-ravaged province
could progressively enjoy substantial autonomy.
It also covers the situations in Serbia and
Montenegro and highlights positive developments since last April,
such as the ongoing transfer of responsibilities to Kosovo's provisional
institutions, decreasing crime rates, encouraging signs on the
budgetary and internal taxation front, and the Government's greater
emphasis on its responsibilities under the Constitutional Framework.
At the same time, the Secretary-General points
out that while UNMIK has moved to consolidate Kosovo's law enforcement
and judiciary structures, firmly establishing the rule of law
"remains critical." Incidents such as the 4 June murder
of three Kosovo Serbs in Obilic, and a mid-April railway bombing
in Zvecan - subsequently claimed by an Albanian ethnic extremist
group - underscore the continuing threat to the process of reconciliation
among communities.
"Such acts of violence are unacceptable,"
Mr. Annan writes, urging the Kosovo leader and people to act decisively
to ensure they do not recur. He adds that UNMIK should increasingly
focus on the fight against organized crime and terrorist activities.
The process of normalization in Kosovo also
depends on the development of a sustainable foundation for economic
growth and development. Against that, backdrop, the Secretary-General
says that UNMIK continues its efforts to create the basis for
a sustainable economy - one that is closely connected with those
of the rest of the region. "In this context, a carefully
managed and well-regulated privatisation process can provide the
solid basis for Kosovo's economic recovery and development,"
Mr. Annan writes.
He also points out that efforts to encourage
integration within the education system continue to encounter
substantial resistance from all sides. There are currently 42
mixed or shared schools, although only eight house both Kosovo
Serb and Kosovo Albanian children. No schools in the Kosovo Serb
or Roma communities offer classes in the Albanian language, and
schools in the Kosovo Albanian communities do not offer classes
in Serbian language. Further, minorities remain unable to use
their own language and alphabet freely, including in the Provisional
Institutions and other public bodies.
Mr. Annan also notes that continuing unilateral
calls, from Kosovo Serbs, Kosovo Albanians and Belgrade, for mutually
exclusive approaches to Kosovo's future have continued. These
calls, he says, not only do not contribute to reconciliation and
inter ethnic dialogue but they can have a detrimental effect on
Kosovo's progress. The Secretary-General, therefore, welcomes
the recent indications that Pristina and Belgrade are prepared
to enter into a dialogue on practical issues.
Concerning the return of minorities to Kosovo,
the Secretary-General writes of the importance of involving municipal
authorities in this area. Funding of activities relating to the
return of minorities should come from Kosovo's consolidated budget.
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UN to facilitate countrywide
discussions on attaining justice for past abuses
1 July – United Nations envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, fresh
from a two-day workshop in Baghdad on how to ensure justice for
past human rights violations by the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein,
said today the world body would facilitate nationwide discussions
throughout Iraq to identify further necessary action.
Mr. Vieira de Mello, Secretary-General Kofi
Annan's Special Representative, organized the workshop with Iraqis,
international experts and members of the United States-run interim
authority to determine how to attain justice for at least 300,000
people who disappeared in Saddam's detention centres and torture
chambers.
"The Workshop was the first step in a long
and ever-widening path in which Iraqis will participate to decide
how best they should address the human rights violations of the
past - not at the risk of prejudicing the future, but in order
to guarantee a more peaceful, prosperous and equitable future
for all the people of Iraq," his office said in a statement.
"The United Nations will now facilitate nationwide discussions
aimed at identifying further action required to address past violations."
In his closing remarks today to the workshop,
Mr. Vieira de Mello referred to a suggestion to establish a national
independent human rights commission to monitor current violations
of human rights and international humanitarian law.
"Everyone - that is the executive arm of
the Iraqi Interim Administration, interim ministers to be designated,
the (American-run Coalition Provisional Authority) CPA, the UN
- all political actors - need to know that its behaviour is being
monitored by an independent Iraqi body and that none will be above
scrutiny of the law and international norms," he said.
Of the 60 participants, the majority were Iraqi
lawyers and Iraqi human rights organizations, particularly those
focusing on the missing and mass graves. Ten international experts
attended, including representatives of the International Red Cross,
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human
Rights, International centre for Transitional Justice, the War
Torn Society, and the UN Office
on Missing Persons and Forensics in Kosovo. The CPA was represented
through the head of the Justice sector as well as staff dealing
with human rights and mass graves.
Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) Special Envoy for Iraq, Dennis McNamara, was set to arrive
in Baghdad as part of his current mission to the region. The agency
is making efforts to arrange for the early and organized returns
of small groups of Iraqi refugees from Iran. In parallel, the
return of Iranian refugees from Iraq will be resumed. The Iranian
government agreed on this approach.
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