UN envoy says Kosovo Serbs
harmed their cause by not voting
30 October - Kosovo’s Serbs “shot themselves in the
foot” with their low turnout in last week’s municipal
elections, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s
Special Representative to the province said today in Belgrade.
Following meetings with senior Yugoslav officials,
Michael Steiner told reporters that the low Serb turnout “has
diminished their capacity to take part in decision-making in Kosovo.”
Based on that outcome, he said it made no sense
to go forward with a meeting he had proposed for Kosovo’s
political parties to discuss decentralization, but added “this
does not mean that the philosophy of decentralization is off the
table.”
During his talks with Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica and other senior officials, Mr. Steiner briefed them
on the current situation in Kosovo.
UN Police holds suspect
in connectin with murder of local official in Kosovo
28 October - Following a deadly attack which marred an otherwise
peaceful climate as elections were held in Kosovo over the weekend,
United Nations police in the province are holding a suspect in
connection with the murders, a spokesman for the world body announced
today.
The polling on Saturday “proceeded without
any incidents of election-related violence,” but on Sunday,
the calm was shattered when the President of the Municipal Assembly
in Suhareke/Suva Reka, Uke Bytici, and two other people were shot
dead in that municipality.
“UN Police have a suspect in custody and
are continuing their investigation into the killings,” spokesman
Fred Eckhard told reporters in New York. “At this time, it
is unclear whether the killings were politically motivated, or
whether any other people besides the suspect in custody were involved.”
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative
for Kosovo, Michael Steiner, on Sunday denounced the killings
as “an appalling act of calculated murder,” and expressed
his condolences to President Ibrahim Rugova.
Early returns from Kosovo’s municipal elections
show that an estimated 54 per cent of all registered voters, including
nearly 58 percent of people voting inside the province itself,
cast ballots. Final results are expected by 2 November.
Security Council calls
on all voters to take part in tomorrow's elections
24 October - Welcoming the progress in preparing for tomorrow’s
municipal elections in Kosovo, the Security Council today called
on province’s eligible voters, including those from minority
communities, to take part in the polls and seize the chance to
have their interests properly represented.
“The Council expresses its firm belief
that wide participation in the voting is essential to provide
the best opportunity for future progress towards the building
of a multi-ethnic and tolerant society,” the Council President,
Ambassador Martin Belinga-Eboutou of Cameroon, said in a statement
during a formal meeting of the 15-member body.
The statement also called on the Provisional
Institutions of Self-Government, local leaders and all others
concerned to cooperate fully with Michael Steiner, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan’s Special Representative for Kosovo, as well as
the commander of the international security force (KFOR) towards
the full implementation of the Council resolution that authorized
the UN presence in the province.
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UN envoy outlines concept
of decentralization
21 October - The head of the United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Michael Steiner, today invited the
leaders of the province's major political parties and coalitions
to a meeting next month in which he will present his concept
of decentralization.
Mr. Steiner outlined his plan in a statement
issued today in Pristina, saying his idea of decentralization
would establish municipal units with local council, administrative
organs and an appropriate budget for "sizeable non-majority
communities" to manage education, health care, urban and
rural planning and issues of local importance.
"They will have decision making authority
over issues of local importance, such as markets, public spaces,
cultural activities and sports," Mr. Steiner said, adding
that such units could be made up of one or more villages, settlements
and urban quarters within a municipality.
These municipal units would be established on
the basis of a request by elected assembly members or a petition
by inhabitants in those areas where there had been a sizeable
participation in the municipal election by the community concerned,
Mr. Steiner explained. He added that non-majority communities
who had participated in municipal elections on 26 October would
also be entitled to executive posts in the municipal government
in accordance with the province's Constitutional Framework.
Mr. Steiner said he would promulgate his decentralization
programme in the form of a legally binding document and that council
elections would be organized within six months after the municipal
units had been established.
Mr. Steiner said in the long run, and in line
with European standards, he would address the issues of municipal
development and how to adapt the geographical size of municipalities
to the changing number of inhabitants within them.
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Annan stresses full participation
by all groups in upcoming elections
18 October - All of Kosovo’s communities must participate
in municipal elections later this month in order to mark another
milestone in the development of democratic institutions in the
province, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in
a new report
released today.
Meaningful participation “is an important
component not only to ensure successful governance, but also to
ensure that participation brings tangible benefits to all communities,
which has not yet been demonstrated,” the Secretary-General
says in his latest report to the Security Council on the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). “Clearly, this
is a responsibility not only of minority representatives but even
more so of the representatives from majority parties.”
The Secretary-General stresses that the dismantling
of parallel structures is another key factor in achieving full
participation and calls on those concerned to support the work
of the local institutions in Kosovo and to work within them and
with UNMIK for the benefit of all residents.
“In this regard, I support the strategy
most recently outlined by my Special Representative [Michael Steiner]
for Mitrovica, which is based on election participation, co-governance
and decentralization,” he says.
The Secretary-General also calls for concrete
action following on statements of support by local officials for
the policy of tolerance, reconciliation and integration, Mr. Annan
observes. “This is particularly important in order to create
conditions conducive to the sustainable return of all individuals
who wish to return to their homes in Kosovo,” he says. “Resolving
the fate of the missing is an important factor in reconciliation
and the necessary exhumations should be completed as soon as possible.”
As for security in the province, the Secretary-General
reports that the situation has remained calm in recent months,
despite isolated incidents of unrest, and details recent efforts
to enforce the rule of law in Kosovo.
“No one is above the law and respect for
the rule of law is imperative,” Mr. Annan says, noting that
positive steps have been taken in this area, particularly in the
development of the Kosovo Police Service and in combating organized
crime.
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Attracting private, foreign
investment to Kosovo focus of upcoming UN-backed meeting.
17 October – Attracting private investment from abroad, particularly
from the roughly 500,000 Kosovo Albanians living overseas, will
be the focus of a United Nations-backed conference in New York
on boosting the province's economic future.
With the privatization of some 350 collectively-owned
businesses slated for later this year, the first wave of investors
will have a unique opportunity to take part in the new stage of
economic development being planned for the UN-administered province,
said organizers of the Kosovo Investment Conferences (KICO), which
gets underway tomorrow.
"We know that potential foreign investors
are those individuals with personal contacts and special knowledge
of and interest in Kosovo," said Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi.
"We believe that a significant number of ordinary non-residents
could play a major role in contributing to Kosovo's economy."
In addition to Mr. Rexhepi, other speakers scheduled
to address the Conference include Francesco Bastagli, the Secretary-General's
Deputy Special Representative for Kosovo, representatives of the
United States Government, and officials from the Kosovo Chamber
of Commerce and the Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA).
Kosovo currently relies primarily on trade
and imports, but needs a fresh infusion of private investment
if it hopes to have a viable economic future, the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said in a statement. "A sound base
of regulations governing private sector growth, as well as privatisation,
has been developed to provide an enabling environment to support
and sustain a free-market economy," it noted.
UN envoy, Orthodox leaders
discuss Serb participation in upcoming elections
16 October – The head of the United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Michael Steiner, today met with the
head of the Serbian Orthodox church to discuss the importance
of participation by the province’s Serb community in the
upcoming municipal elections in Belgrade.
During what UNMIK described as “warm and
intensive” talks, Mr. Steiner and senior Orthodox officials
discussed the difficulties, progress and opportunities facing
the people of Kosovo. The UNMIK chief also said he was encouraged
by the discussions, during which he received support for his recent
seven-point plan to normalize the situation in Mitrovica.
For his part, Patriarch Pavle also encouraged
Kosovo Serbs to participate in the 26 October elections, saying
he wanted a better future for the new generation in the province.
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UN environment agency
assessing depleted uranium sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina
15 October – The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
is visiting a dozen sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina that may have
been targeted by ordnance containing depleted uranium (DU) during
the conflict which engulfed the country in the 1990s, the agency
announced today.
The team, which has been operating since Saturday,
is taking soil, water, air and vegetation samples at six sites
that have been identified by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) as having been struck by weapons containing DU. Experts
will also examine six other sites that local residents believe
may have also been targeted.
The UNEP assessment, which is being carried
out at the request of the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
will run through 24 October.
At the request of the local authorities, medical
experts, led by an official from the UN World Health Organization
(WHO), are examining data on cancer rates in the main urban centres
of Sarajevo and Banja Luka. They will also visit a local hospital
in Bratunac to meet with the local medics as well as patients
who may have been exposed to DU during the conflict.
“UNEP’s aim is to determine whether
the use of depleted uranium during the conflict in Bosnia and
Herzegovina may pose health or environmental risks – either
now or in the future,” said Pekka Haavisto, Chairman of UNEP’s
Depleted Uranium Assessment Team.
The agency’s previous studies of DU in
Kosovo and Serbia recommended that governments and civilians take
precautionary action to avoid contact with the substance –
a byproduct of nuclear power which has been used for heavy tank
armour, anti-tank munitions, missiles and projectiles. DU has
60 per cent of the radioactivity of natural uranium and “significant
chemical toxicity,” according to WHO.
Kosovo: UN condemns attack
on pensioners
11 October – The top United Nations official in Kosovo, Michael
Steiner, today condemned
a mob attack on a group of Serb pensioners, calling the confrontation
"deplorable, disgraceful and disgusting."
According to the UN mission in Kosovo, in addition
to the assault, a group of Kosovo Albanians also hurled rocks
and Molotov cocktails at UN police called in to disperse the mob.
"This incident is especially unfortunate
as it goes against the general trend of improved security and
declining violence," Mr. Steiner said in a statement issued
today by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
"What could this mob possible have been
thinking it would achieve by attacking a group of elderly people
who were simply applying for their pension?" Mr. Steiner
asked. "I'll tell you what it achieved: serious damage to
Kosovo's image in the eyes of the world."
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Kosovo Serb wanted in
connection with April riot surrenders to UN mission
9 October – The United Nations Interim Administration Mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK) today confirmed that a senior Kosovo Serb official
wanted in connection with a riot in April has surrendered to the
Mission.
Milan Ivanovic, Chairman of the Serb National
Council for Northern Kosovo, turned himself in to the UNMIK Court
this morning in Mitrovica, the Mission said.
Speaking from Montpelerin, Switzerland, UNMIK
chief Michael Steiner welcomed the news and said that Mr. Ivanovic’s
putting himself at the disposition of the legitimate UNMIK court
was the "only proper way.”
Mr. Ivanovic had been declared wanted
in July for his alleged involvement in a violent demonstration
in Mitrovica, during which hand grenades and sniper attacks were
used. Twenty-two police officers were wounded in the melee.
Kosovo: UN envoy unveils
plan to return divided city of Mitrovica to normalcy
2 October – The top United Nations envoy in Kosovo has unveiled
a seven-point plan to return the ethnically divided northern city
of Mitrovica to normalcy, warning that the situation will worsen
if no action is taken.
“If we just leave things as they are, they
will slide even further. We need to stop this slide,” Michael
Steiner, the Special Representative of Secretary-General Kofi
Annan and chief of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK), said in a speech last night in Mitrovica.
Mr. Steiner promised the Serb community living
in northern Mitrovica that UN police and the international Kosovo
Force (KFOR) would keep watch to ensure that there were no incursions
from the southern part of the city, which he said was unlikely
to happen. Serbs from northern Mitrovica, meanwhile, have begun
to join the Kosovo Police Service.
The UN envoy also said that what was needed
was a new start for governing all of Mitrovica so that important
decisions in the municipality were taken jointly. Common interests
needed to be decided at the level of the municipality, while specific
interests could be dealt with at a more local level.
“I propose a coalition agreement after
the elections, under my auspices, between Serb and Albanian political
parties in the Municipal Assembly,” Mr. Steiner said. “That
agreement would ensure that, irrespective of size, the communities
would have their say on the municipal level.”
As for the upcoming elections, he urged all
Mitrovica residents to participate in the polls, warning that
without taking part, “the Serb community will have excluded
itself from political life for the next four years.”
Mr. Steiner said that he was prepared to move
an important part of UNMIK’s administration, the Kosovo Trust
Agency, to northern Mitrovica, and to organize a conference of
donors and potential investors specifically for the town.
“This is a time when the destiny
of Mitrovica is being decided,” he said. “What I have
outlined is the way to recover your future.”
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