UN assumes administrative
control over Mitrovica.
26 November - The top United Nations envoy in Kosovo today visited
Mitrovica, the northern city which yesterday he placed under a
single municipal administration, establishing UN offices in the
previous parallel structures.
Michael Steiner, the chief of the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), toured the building
with the new head of the office and deputy Municipal Administrator,
Ramesh Abhishek, to assess the necessary refurbishment measures
to be taken there.
"Those who have worked here before can,
of course, apply again for the positions that we are opening,"
he told the people gathered outside the office. "We have
70 positions to fill, anyone who fulfils the criteria can apply."
The order signed by Mr. Steiner yesterday evening
in Kosovo is part of the effort, announced recently by the UN
envoy, to restore normalcy to the city, which has been divided
in recent years into a Serb-majority north and an Albanian-majority
south.
Speaking to the press, Mr. Steiner said that
Mitrovica had left an administrative "grey zone" and
that the new UNMIK Administration-Mitrovica would be the sole
structure providing all local government services in the northern
part of town.
During his tour of Mitrovica, Mr. Steiner walked
to the north end of the bridge that joins the town and assured
people gathered there that there would be no incursion from the
south. "My guarantee stays - this will not happen,"
he said.
Mr. Steiner was also met by a crowd on the south
side. "I think we have made an important step forward, but
everybody now must be disciplined and patient," he told those
assembled. "We have to display the friendly face of Mitrovica."
Top
of page
Four Kosovo Albanians
indicted for war crimes - UN mission
22 November – Four former members of the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) have been indicted on war crimes charges stemming from
their treatment of other Kosovo Albanian civilians in 1998 and
1999, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in the
province (UNMIK) announced today.
An international prosecutor in Pristina charged
Latif Gashi, Naim Kadriu, Nazif Mehmeti and Rrustem Mustafa (alias
Commander Remi) on Tuesday with 11 counts of illegal arrest and
detention, inhumane treatment, torture and murder.
Pursuant to a request by the prosecutor, Mr.
Gashi, Mr. Kadriu and Mr. Mehmeti were arrested on 28 January.
On 13 August, the investigating judge expanded the probe to include
the Mr. Mustafa, the KLA commander for the "Llap" Zone
in 1998 and 1999. The judge concluded the investigation on 8 November.
The defendants remain in detention pending trial,
UNMIK said.
Meanwhile in New York, the Security Council
has agreed to send a mission to Kosovo and to Belgrade next month.
The team would travel to the region from
13 to 17 December under the leadership of Ambassador Ole Peter
Kolby of Norway.
Annan lauds reform efforts
in Yugoslavia.
19 November – Continuing his official visit to the Balkans,
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today hailed efforts
by Yugoslavia to reform and strengthen its institutions, and recognized
Belgrade's burgeoning relationship with its neighbours and the
European Union.
Noting the UN's long and constructive - but
sometimes painful and difficult - ties with Yugoslavia, the Secretary-General
said both sides are ready to put the past behind them as the country
begins to rebuild and create a nation based on the rule of law,
democracy and respect for human rights.
"I think you are making progress, progress
that I think if pursued and sustained will strengthen your country
and the region," he told reporters following his meeting
with President Vojislav Kostunica. "And I am also particularly
pleased that you are taking measures to improve relations with
your immediate neighbours."
The Secretary-General said that he and the President
had discussed the country's relationship with the UN International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and ongoing
work to reconcile national law and relations with the UN court.
Turning to Kosovo, which he just visited, the
Secretary-General said he could attest to good progress there.
"But we have difficult problems that we need to tackle and
my team on the ground is working very hard to do just that,"
he said. "We are working hard to create a multi-ethnic Kosovo
where rights of minorities are respected, where their human rights
are respected and they feel secure."
Mr. Annan said that he also discussed with President
Kostunica refugees, noting that the situation in the region naturally
brings up the question of their return home, as well as the plight
of internally displaced persons, and what individual countries
or the international community is doing to help.
As for the painful issue of missing persons,
the Secretary-General stressed that the relatives all want answers.
"We will work with all concerned in these countries through
programmes that have existed and we are trying to strengthen to
get to the truth," he said. "That is essential."
Top
of page
Seeking to foster hope, UN launches $3 billion
appeal to help 50 million people in crisis.
19
November – Seeking to foster hope among people affected by
conflicts, natural disasters and other crises, the United Nations
today launched a $3 billion appeal aimed at funding relief programmes
covering 50 million people in 30 different countries and regions.
"We are here to ask for help in providing
food, shelter, medicine and other life-saving assistance,"
UN Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette said at the
appeal's official launch in Bern, Switzerland. Stressing the need
to address the root causes of humanitarian emergencies, she added,
"humanitarian assistance is not an end in itself, but must
be accompanied by efforts to build a bridge from disaster to development."
Ms. Fréchette appealed to donors to increase
their contributions, noting that last year, the UN received just
over half of what was requested. Overall levels of humanitarian
funding have remained the same for the past decade, despite increasing
levels of need.
She also called for States to fund all emergency
responses, not just those in the media spotlight. Donors, she
pointed out, "have demonstrated a real capacity to help roll
back human suffering" where the cameras are - most recently
in Afghanistan, and before that in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
and Rwanda. "But the international community has been far
less forthcoming in other cases where there is equal need, but
less publicity," she said, citing the civil conflict in Burundi
as an example of a "forgotten emergency" that has elicited
scant attention despite having claimed the lives of as many as
300,000 civilians.
The appeals cover assistance to hungry, displaced
and otherwise vulnerable people living in Afghanistan, Angola,
Burundi, Chechnya and neighbouring republics in the Russian Federation,
Cote d'Ivoire and its region, the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Other countries
and regions slated to receive aid include Eritrea, Ethiopia, the
Great Lakes Region of Africa, Guinea, Indonesia, Liberia, the
occupied Palestinian territory, the Republic of Congo, Sierra
Leone, Somalia, Southern Africa, the Sudan, Tajikistan and Uganda.
The launch of the "consolidated appeals"
- so named because they cover the combined requirements of all
concerned UN agencies - is also being held today and tomorrow
in seven other cities around the world: Washington, D.C., Brussels,
Luxembourg, New York, the Hague, Tokyo and Canberra.
In New York today, Carolyn McAskie, the UN Deputy
Emergency Relief Coordinator, noted that although the appeals
cover chronic, long-term emergencies, like that unfolding in the
Sudan, the UN was also finding cause for hope that in some cases
- such as Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Angola - the relief effort
could move from the emergency to the development and reconstruction
phase.
"These appeals are the lifeline for millions
of people around the world," she said, echoing the Deputy
Secretary-General's call for funding to countries and regions
that are not receiving media attention.
Because humanitarian crises are by nature volatile,
the UN reviews and updates its appeals throughout the year, adjusting
requirements in response to changing needs and launching new requests
in response to sudden disasters.
Top
of page
In Balkans, Annan stresses importance of multi-ethnic
Kosovo.
 |
| Mr. Annan, wife Nane & SRSG visit
Gornji Makres |
19 November – United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan wrapped up his visit to Kosovo today before heading on
to Belgrade for meetings with senior Yugoslav officials, including
President Vojislav Kostunica.
The Secretary-General started his day in the
northern town of Mitrovica, including the predominantly Serb northern
section, where the UN runs a police academy, according to a UN
spokesperson in New York.
The Secretary-General was briefed on the training
programme there and afterwards, in comments to the press, said,
"We have been discussing and reviewing developments which
are of key-importance to all of you citizens," including
the rule of law and police, and protection of individual property
human rights. "That is what our police service and the rule
of law we are trying to establish are intended to do."
Mr. Annan and his wife, Nane, then travelled
by helicopter to a pair of villages - one Serb and one Albanian
- near the Serbian border. While in a schoolyard in Gornji Makres,
he was greeted by children, who offered him traditional bread
in welcome, as well as by village leaders.
At a press encounter later, the Secretary-General
said it was good to see a village where the residents realize
they have to live together and put the past behind them. "I
think a multi-ethnic Kosovo is what we have all been working on,"
he said.
Asked about Iraqi activity in the "no-fly"
zones, the Secretary-General responded, "I don't think that
the [Security] Council will say that it is in contravention of
the resolution which was recently passed."
Mr. Annan also spoke to the press as he left
Pristina, saying that he had "a brief but full visit"
to Kosovo, and that he sees the UN Interim Administration Mission
(UNMIK) there as a success, with the province having "come
a long way" since he visited two years ago.
He also stressed the importance of the rule
of law in Kosovo, adding, "The incidents of last weekend,
where bombs were thrown in the churches, is not anything anyone
can condone." Two Serbian churches suffered damages in those
attacks.
Late yesterday, Mr. and Mrs. Annan met with
relatives of missing persons, who had been demonstrating silently
outside the UN headquarters in Pristina. He told them that the
issue of missing persons was an important one that he would raise
with Yugoslav President Kostunica. "We share your need to
know," he told them.
Top
of page
Annan in Kosovo after wrapping up trip to
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 |
| Mr. Annan & wife greeted by SRSG
Michael Steiner |
18 November – Continuing his trip to
the Balkans region, Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Kosovo
today for talks with senior officials from the province and the
United Nations.
According to a UN spokesperson in New York,
the Secretary-General was briefed by his Special Representative
for Kosovo, Michael Steiner, and afterward spoke to the staff
of the UN Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK). In the afternoon,
Mr. Annan met with President Ibrahim Rugova, Prime Minister Bajram
Rexhepi and other senior officials.
Earlier today, the Secretary-General wrapped
up his official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, meeting with
the three members of the Bosnian Presidency: Mirko Sarovic, Dragan
Covic and Sulejman Tihic.
During their talks, the Secretary-General welcomed
the leaders' common resolve to introduce a series of reforms to
bring the country into compliance with European economic and social
standards as a prelude for applying to membership in the European
Union, spokesperson Hua Jiang told a press briefing at UN Headquarters
in New York.
"He urged them to continue these efforts
after the UN mission ends its work in Bosnia next month and to
work with its neighbours to fight terrorism, human trafficking
and organized crime, and he also pledged continued UN support
to improve the economy and strengthen the rule of law," Ms.
Jiang said.
During a subsequent meeting with the Council
of Ministers, Mr. Annan reiterated his offer of UN support for
Bosnian reforms. According to Ms. Jiang, he told Council members
that, speaking from experience as a reformer, he knew that process
would take time. He also suggested that the Government consider
demilitarizing the country, as Costa Rica has done, to reduce
military spending and free up resources.
Speaking to the press after the meeting, the
Secretary-General said that rebuilding is more than bricks and
mortar. “We need to reconcile, we need to seek justice, we
need to ensure that the returnees are reintegrated peacefully,”
he said.
Before leaving Sarajevo, the Secretary-General
met with three representatives of the Mothers of Srebrenica, who
lost their children during the 1995 massacre there, and told them
he could barely imagine the pain they had experienced.
The Secretary-General had arrived in Sarajevo
yesterday, and had a working lunch with the heads of the principal
international organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including
the UN, the Office of the High Representative, the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the NATO-led
stabilization force (SFOR).
Afterwards, he dedicated a monument to UN personnel
who lost their lives in the former Yugoslavia. "This memorial
will serve to reinforce our own determination - as peacekeepers,
citizens and members of the human family - to build better lives
for succeeding generations," he said of the monument, which
stands outside the UN headquarters in Sarajevo.
The Secretary-General then met with UN staff
and the heads of UN agencies. Later he attended a concert at the
National Theatre, which is to receive a €50,000 (euro) contribution
by the UN Trust Fund to help preserve the building.
While in Sarajevo, Mrs. Annan had a programme
of her own, Ms. Jiang said. Today she visited an inclusive kindergarten
for Roma children, supported by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)
and on Sunday, she witnessed an interactive presentation by and
for young people on avoiding the dangers of AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases.
Visiting damaged Serbian church in Kosovo, UN
envoy pledges action against religious vandalism.
Top
of page
Remains of destroyed church in western Kosovo.
17
November – Visiting two Serbian Orthodox churches in Kosovo
which were damaged by vandals overnight, the senior United Nations
envoy in the province today pledged action against all forms of
religious violence.
“You see us here together,” said Michael
Steiner, the head of the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo,
who was flanked by Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi outside the Church
of All Serbian Saints in the town of Djurakovac, where three explosions
gutted the building's interior. “We're all united in condemning
these acts.”
Mr. Steiner noted that repairs to the church
will be financed from the Kosovo Consolidated Budget. “We
will start from tomorrow morning to rebuild and to express to
the public that we will not tolerate this behaviour,” he
told reporters.
Noting that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
is set to arrive in the province tomorrow, the envoy said those
responsible for the vandalism want to undermine Kosovo's success,
especially on the eve of the UN leader's visit. “They will
not achieve their aim,” he stressed.
According to the UN, some time around midnight,
a series of explosions ripped into two churches which sit about
five kilometers apart. The Church of St. Basil, built in 1939
in the village of Ljubovo, was totally destroyed, with only the
front façade still standing.
Several UNMIK officials who accompanied the
envoy to the area will remain there to launch reconstruction work
on one of the churches Monday morning.
Top
of page
Annan heads to Geneva to kick off 5-nation
European visit.
14 November – United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan today left for Geneva, where he is set to meet with the
leaders of Nigeria and Cameroon in a follow-up to the recent judgment
of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the rights to the
oil-rich Bakassi peninsula.
Mr. Annan's meeting tomorrow with Presidents
Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Paul Biya of Cameroon comes on
the heels of last month's ICJ ruling that essentially awarded
Cameroon sovereignty over Bakassi.
In a position paper issued on 24 October, Nigeria
said the judgment did not consider "fundamental facts"
about the Nigerian inhabitants of the territory, whose "ancestral
homes" the ICJ has now adjudged to be in Cameroonian territory.
The Secretary-General last met with the two
leaders in Paris on 5 September, when they agreed to respect and
implement whatever decision the ICJ might render on the case,
which Cameroon brought before the Court in 1994.
From Geneva, the Secretary-General is scheduled
to head to the Balkans, arriving on Sunday in Sarajevo. While
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Annan will hold meetings with UN
officials and staff, as well as the country's authorities. He
is then expected to proceed to Kosovo, the rest of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia and Croatia, before heading to the Netherlands
and France.
Yesterday, while in Washington, D.C., the Secretary-General
went to the White House to meet with President George W. Bush.
Vice-President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice, and Secretary of State Colin Powell, among others, were
also present during the discussion, which covered the current
changing of the guard in China, the new Security Council resolution
on Iraq, peace efforts in the Middle East and a range of African
and Latin American issues, a UN spokesperson said.
The talks also focused on the Secretary-General's
recent initiative on Cyprus, Afghanistan, international terror,
Chechnya, and the UN's Capital Master Plan for revamping the Headquarters
building.
At a press encounter after the meeting, a journalist
asked Mr. Annan a question about US involvement in the Cyprus
issue, to which the Secretary-General replied, "I do expect
the President to help. I am sure the President will do everything
he can to help us find a settlement on Cyprus - and so have other
leaders indicated. And I think we really have a chance."
UN condemns rock-throwing
incident against potential Serb returnees.
11 November – The United Nations has strongly condemned a
rock-throwing incident during a visit last week of prospective
Serb returnees to their pre-war homes.
The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), along
with the international force for Kosovo (KFOR) decried the incident,
which took place on 7 November near the town of Grmovo in the
Viti/Vitina Municipality during a United Methodist Committee on
Relief-sponsored “go-and-see” visit.
According to the UN Mission, a group of Albanian
males deliberately disrupted the convoy of vehicles by throwing
rocks and eggs, breaking windows of several vehicles and slightly
injuring a UN police officer and one male Serb returnee.
"This incident goes against the very fabric
of progress here in Kosovo and does not indicate the unwillingness
of the vast majority of the citizens to support minority returns,"
said Pasqualino Verdecchia, UNMIK regional administrator for Gjilan/Gnjilane.
UN and Kosovo police, and KFOR are investigating
the incident. Police temporarily apprehended at least one individual
for questioning.
Top
of page
All communities in Kosovo
must enjoy benefits of progress, UN envoy tells donors.
5 November - Making the right to return to Kosovo a reality
is the greatest unmet challenge the international community faces
there, the top United Nations envoy in the province told a meeting
of donors in Brussels today.
"Members of Kosovo's smaller communities have not yet returned
to their homes, and most of those who stayed in Kosovo live in
conditions that remain unacceptable," said Michael Steiner,
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative. "We
must extend the benefits of progress to all of Kosovo's communities."
At the same time, Mr. Steiner noted recent accomplishments in
Kosovo, including the rebuilding of more than 40,000 houses, the
refurbishing of more than 450 schools, and massive improvements
in the water and electrical supply systems.
Building on that success means forging a new partnership between
the donor community and the Government of Kosovo, Mr. Steiner
said, pledging his commitment to making the transfer of responsibilities
to the province's own institutions a success.
"To make further political progress in Kosovo, the Government
needs, now perhaps more than ever, your help," he told the
meeting's participants. "Your help to deliver jobs. Your
help to deliver a decent education for its young people. Your
help to create sustainable opportunities for people who wish to
return to Kosovo."
Above all, Mr. Steiner stressed, the Government of Kosovo needs
the international community's assistance to be able to reach benchmarks
which constitute "the preconditions for continuing down the
road that will allow us to resolve Kosovo's status."
Whatever Kosovo's political status will be in the future, he added,
it must be a "multi-ethnic, integrated Kosovo where all its
people can live in security and dignity."
Top
of page
UN tribunal suspends Milosevic
genocide trial for medical reasons
4 November - The genocide trial of Slobodan Milosevic was
adjourned for the rest of the week, in part due to medical reasons,
the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced today.
The Tribunal gave no further explanation, but said in a statement
that no trial proceedings would be held on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Trial Chamber is not scheduled to sit on Thursday and Friday.
Early this summer, the former Yugoslav President was found to
be at severe risk from heart problems, according to a medical
report requested by the UN court. The trial judges recommended
further treatment for Mr. Milosevic, and 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 earlier this year about his illnesses,
which have delayed progress in his trial for war crimes allegedly
committed in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.
Impact of illicit drugs on economic development focus of UN expert
panel meeting
4 November -A United Nations expert panel today began discussions
in Vienna on the impact of illicit drug cultivation, trade and
abuse on overall economic development.
"The focus is on economic development because it is a crucial
element of the process of sustainable and human development,"
explained Dr. Philip Emafo, President of the 13-member International
Narcotics Control Board (INCB).
According to the UN, the overwhelming share
of profits made from illicit drug trafficking is not spent in
the countries where crops are grown but in the countries where
the finished products are sold and abused.
"Only one per cent of the money that is
ultimately spent by drug abusers is generated as farm income in
developing countries," said Dr. Emafo. "The remaining
99 per cent of global illicit drug income are earned by drug trafficking
groups operating at various other points along the drug trafficking
chain.
" Since its last session in May, the Board
has sent missions to Afghanistan, Albania, China, the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, Guyana, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo,
Namibia, Netherlands Antilles, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Suriname,
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Trinidad and Tobago,
and Tunisia. The Board will review the report of these missions
and examine how governments and territories are implementing the
provisions of the international drug control treaties.
Through its Standing Committee on Estimates,
the Board is also expected to review the worldwide supply and
demand of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for medical
purposes and establish or confirm quotas for narcotic drugs for
every country in the world. A representative from the UN World
Health Organization (WHO) will address the Board on health-related
issues in the field of drugs during this session.
The Vienna-based Board is an independent body
established by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to
monitor governments' compliance with international drug control
treaties. Its members are elected by the UN Economic and Social
Council to serve in their individual capacities for five-year
terms.
Top
of page
UN launches task force
aimed at bolstering returns to Kosovo
1 November - Aiming to invigorate returns to Kosovo, the senior
United Nations official in the province and its Prime Minister
today announced the launch of a new
task force that will coordinate policy on the issue.
“Returns is for all of us a top priority,”
said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Kosovo,
Michael Steiner. “We want not to create a new bureaucracy,
but to have a coordinating forum to turn this priority into reality.”
Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi welcomed the initiative,
stressing that integrating non-majority communities now living
in Kosovo into the larger society is crucial to future returns.
The Task Force has already agreed on its terms
of reference and a strategy for next year.
Top
of page
