‘Notable progress’
in Kosovo but more needs to be done, Security Council told
19 December 2002 - A Security Council delegation has found “notable
progress” in Kosovo but much work remains to be done in
several areas, including the rule of law and the return of minority
communities, according to a report released today at United Nations
Headquarters in New York.
The report of the Council delegation that visited
Kosovo and Belgrade, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 14 to
17 December notes that the elections for the Kosovo Assembly in
2001 and the municipal ballot earlier this year led to the formation
of the provisional institutions of self-government. Among the
other achievements recognized by the team are the improvement
in the rule of law, the high number of minority returnees, and
the progress in preparations for the privatization of the local
economy.
Nevertheless, the report points out that the
progress achieved so far in Kosovo has been driven to a large
extent by the international community. The delegation “has
the firm impression that local ownership and commitment to these
processes has been less than could have been expected,”
it says, stressing the importance of the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in making further efforts to involve
the local institutions and political leaders in the practical
formulation and implementation of political goals and strategies.
The Council team also underlines the importance
of viewing developments in Kosovo in a regional perspective. “Events
in [the province] have an impact on the surrounding region and
vice versa,” the report says. “This is linked not
only to political issues but also to security, law and order and
economic development.”
In an open briefing this afternoon to the 15-nation
body, the head of the Council delegation, Ambassador Ole Peter
Kolby of Norway, said that the formulation of benchmarks by UNMIK
for the realization of standards is a constructive approach to
the further development of Kosovo towards a democratic, multi-ethnic
society.
“The [Council] Mission hopes that the
benchmarks can be worked out with local authorities in Kosovo
in order to build local ‘ownership’ of them,”
he said. “The Mission holds the view that ‘standards
before status’ is the only viable way forward.”
Security Council mission
stresses importance of Yugoslavia's full cooperation with UN
17 December - Security Council members stressed the importance
of Belgrade's full cooperation with United Nations resolutions
on Kosovo and the UN war crimes tribunal, the head of the Council
mission said today as it concluded its visit to the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia.
Speaking at a press conference in Belgrade, Ambassador
Ole Peter Kolby of Norway said that the Council delegation had
met yesterday with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, Serbian
Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and other senior officials.
During those meetings, Ambassador Kolby said,
the Council members also emphasized that outstanding issues in
Kosovo could only be resolved by dialogue among all affected parties,
and that Kosovo Serbs should be encouraged to participate fully
in the province's provisional institutions of self-government.
"Belgrade should encourage the Kosovo Serbs
to be constructive partners in the legislative process in the
Kosovo Assembly," he added.
The Council mission is heading back to New York,
where it will report back to the full Council on its four-day
visit to the region.
In other news, the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said that the certifications for the
budgets of 24 municipalities in the province have been found to
be in order, allowing for greater authority to be devolved to
those municipalities.
At the same time, the Mission said, UNMIK chief
Michael Steiner will monitor the certified municipalities to ensure
that they comply with their obligations under the Constitutional
Framework, including the protection of the rights and legitimate
interests of all communities, such as fair-share financing.
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Testemony ends at UN Tribunal's
sentencing hearing for former Bosnian Serb President.
17 December - The final witnesses testified today at the United
Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) in
the sentencing hearing of former Bosnian Serb President Biljana
Plavsic.
In October, Mrs. Plavsic pleaded guilty to crimes
against humanity - a broad category that incorporates mass killings,
detention and mistreatment of non-Serbs and destruction of property
- and faces possible life imprisonment.
Among today's witnesses were former Secretary
of State and Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright of the United
States, who testified in support of Mrs. Plavsic, and Carl Bildt,
a former Special Envoy of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for
the Balkans and High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Earlier witnesses included Robert Frowick, former
mission head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE), Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel, former Bosnian
Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and the former deputy head of
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Alex Boraine.
Mrs. Plavsic is the only politician in the former
Yugoslavia to accept responsibility for actions during the Bosnian
wars and is the only woman to appear before the UN Tribunal.
Wrapping up trip to Kosovo,
Security Council team hails ‘substantial progress’
16 December – A Security Council delegation headed to Belgrade
today after a weekend of meetings in Kosovo, with the head of
the mission saying the group was impressed by the advances made
in the province.
Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby of Norway told the press in Pristina
that the Council found the trip to be a “very, very useful
visit” and that “compared to what we saw here 18 months
ago, there has been substantial progress.”
The establishment of institutions was a major step forward and
the security situation has improved significantly, Ambassador
Kolby noted, adding that the Council team was very impressed by
the work of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
and the NATO-led international force (KFOR), as well as the dedication
shown by local political leaders.
“It is very important that this work continue,” he
stressed. “The first steps have been taken but more remains
to be done. This is vital if Kosovo is to become a multiethnic
and democratic society.”
Over the weekend, the Council mission met with Kosovo leaders,
both from the majority and minority communities, as well as with
members of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government and
the Kosovo Assembly.
On Sunday, the delegation met the KFOR commander, Lt. Gen. Fabio
Mini, and then visited UNMIK’s new office in the northern
town of Mitrovica, where it was briefed on the problems of introducing
a market economy in Kosovo.
While in Mitrovica, the Council mission also met with representatives
of civil society from the Serb community. “We conveyed to
them the Council’s point of view, [that it] wants Kosovo
to be a multi-ethnic society,” Ambassador Kolby said afterwards.
“There should be in Kosovo room for everybody here and it
is also important that everybody tries to integrate.”
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New report by Annan names
factions that recruit child soldiers
16 December – Rebel and government forces in Burundi, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia and Somalia are
among those named in a new report by United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan that lists conflict areas where children are used as
soldiers.
In addition to the four African countries, the report lists Afghanistan
as a country where certain factions employ child soldiers. All
of the 23 parties named are involved in situations currently on
the agenda of the Security Council.
The report also highlights other conflicts not on the Council's
agenda - including Colombia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sudan,
northern Uganda and Sri Lanka - where children are recruited and
used as combatants, as well as conflicts that have recently ended
- Angola, Kosovo, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau
- where demobilization and/or reintegration programmes for child
combatants are under way.
Mr. Annan points to "impressive gains" in the global
legal regime for children, with the entry into force this year
of two landmark treaties. The Optional Protocol to the Convention
on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed
conflict sets an age limit of 18 years for compulsory recruitment
and direct participation in hostilities, and requires States parties
to raise the minimum age for voluntary recruitment to at least
16. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court classifies
conscription, enlistment or use in hostilities of children below
the age of 15 as a war crime in both international and internal
armed conflicts.
"The entry into force of these two legal instruments strengthens
the international framework for the protection of children in
situations of armed conflict," Mr. Annan writes. "The
challenge today is in ensuring their implementation on the ground."
Part of the implementation effort, the Secretary-General says,
is the published list of violators, which he calls "an important
step forward in our efforts to induce compliance by parties to
conflict with international child protection obligations."
Echoing this view, Olara A. Otunnu, Mr. Annan's Special Representative
for Children and Armed Conflict, said the report breaks new ground.
"For the first time in an official report to the Security
Council, those who violate standards for the protection of war-affected
children have been specifically named and listed," he told
a press briefing in New York.
Mr. Otunnu stressed that the list was not significant for its
comprehensiveness but rather for the political signal which it
sends. "It is the thin end of a wedge, but a particular,
fundamental and important wedge which is being put in place, which
can then be expanded."
Security Council mission
to travel to Kosovo and Belgrade
13 December- A team from the United Nations Security Council is
set to travel this evening to Kosovo and Belgrade for talks with
senior officials in both places, a UN spokesman said today in
New York.
The four-day Council mission, led by Ambassador
Ole Peter Kolby of Norway, is scheduled to arrive tomorrow in
Kosovo, where it will meet over the weekend with senior officials
of the UN Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK) and with the
province's political and civil society leaders.
On Monday, the mission will head from Pristina
to Belgrade, where it will meet with Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and other senior
officials.
The team is expected back in New York the following
day, and will brief the Council on its trip on 19 December.
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Top UN envoy in Washington
for talks with senior US
09 December - The top United Nations envoy for Kosovo, Michael
Steiner, is in Washington, D.C., today, for talks with United
States Secretary of State Colin Powell about the general situation
in the province and the region.
Mr. Steiner, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
Special Representative for Kosovo, is slated to be in New York
tomorrow for internal meetings with senior UN officials before
returning to Kosovo on Wednesday.
Meanwhile in other news, two children who died
in a grenade explosion last week in Kamenica were laid to rest
in the village graveyard on Saturday, according to the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
The funeral ceremony was attended by the UN
mission's Regional Administrator, Pasqualino Verdecchia, municipal
leaders, officials of the UN police and peacekeeping contingents,
as well as a large number of villagers, including relatives of
the victims.
The children died instantly when the grenade
they found in an abandoned house exploded after they started to
play with it. Two other boys were seriously injured while two
girls sustained minor injuries. The boys were rushed to a US medical
facility, where one still remains while the other was transferred
to Pristina.
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