UN envoy unveils Kosovo
budget for next year
31 December – The senior United Nations
envoy to Kosovo today released details of the province's budget
for 2004, revealing there will be a small deficit but revenue
will be higher than expected as the UN mission there tries to
rebuild the area torn by fighting in the late 1990s.
In Pristina, the capital, Harri Holkeri promulgated
a regulation approving Kosovo's budget for next year.
The budget forecasts revenue of €619 million
(euros) and spending of €632 million, with the deficit of
€13 million to be financed from this year's surplus. A fifth
of the proposed spending will be on capital expenditure, such
as roads and buildings.
The revenue forecast is €35 million
higher than the one at this year's mid-year budget review. Value-added
tax on imported and domestic products provides almost 40 per cent
of this year's revenue, followed by excise tax revenues, customs
duties, income taxes and other sources.
UN transfers final government
responsibilities to Kosovo Institutions
30 December - The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has
transferred a final set of responsibilities to local provisional
institutions as part of its commitment to gradually introduce
self-government to Kosovo.
Harri Holkeri, the Secretary-General’s
Special Representative for Kosovo, sent a letter today to Kosovo’s
Prime Minister, Bajram Rexhepi, stating that 25 “competencies”
would now be carried out by Kosovo’s major provisional institutions
– the presidency, the government and the Kosovo assembly.
The competencies transferred include specific
powers over agriculture, the media, culture and the environment.
They are the final batch of government responsibilities to be
transferred under a process involving Kosovo’s Constitutional
Framework that began early last year. UNMIK, which has been in
place since June 1999, is trying to establish progressively greater
autonomy and more effective self-government to Kosovo.
In a statement issued today, UNMIK said “a
small number of specific responsibilities,” such as the
work of an independent media commission, would not become functional
until relevant laws are passed or the relevant administering body
is established. But every competency is now the formal responsibility
of Kosovo’s provisional institutions.
UNMIK retains certain reserve powers in Kosovo,
including control over security, foreign relations, minority rights
protection and energy, until the province’s final status
is determined.
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Bosnian Serb camp commander
sentenced to 23 years for murder, torture
18 December – The United Nations war crimes tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia today sentenced the former commander of
a Bosnian Serb detention camp to 23 years’ jail for murdering
and torturing inmates while allowing the rape of prisoners during
the Balkans conflict.
Dragan Nikolic had previously pleaded guilty
– under an agreement struck with prosecutors – to
four charges of crimes against humanity relating to his role as
commander of the Susica camp, near the town of Vlasenica in eastern
Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1992.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia, sitting in The Hague, said the prosecution’s
recommendation of a jail term of 15 years was not enough given
the “enormous brutality and…systematic sadism”
of Mr. Nikolic’s crimes.
The tribunal found that about 8,000 Muslim and
other non-Serb men, women and children were confined to a hangar
in the Susica camp between May and October 1992 as part of a campaign
of ethnic cleansing in the local area.
“The building was severely overcrowded
and the living conditions were deplorable,” the court said
in a press statement accompanying the judgement.
The 46-year old convict admitted to the murder
of nine camp inmates and the torture of five others, with the
judges noting “not one single day and night at the camp
passed by without Dragan Nikolic and others committing barbarous
acts.”
Mr. Nikolic beat detainees with such weapons
as iron bars, axe handles, rifle butts, metal knuckles, metal
pipes and truncheons. “One of the most chilling aspects
of these acts was the enjoyment he derived from the criminal conduct,”
the tribunal said.
The court also found that Mr. Nikolic personally
removed or assisted the removal of female prisoners from the camp
while knowing they would be raped or sexually abused at nearby
locations by “camp guards, special forces, local soldiers
and other men.”
In issuing its sentence, the Tribunal
gave Mr. Nikolic credit for some three years and eight months
time served in detention.
UN official says progress
towards standards could be reviewed in 2005
 |
| USG Guéhenno briefs the Security
Council |
17 December – The United Nations peacekeeping
chief today raised the prospect that Kosovo's progress towards
reaching the standards of a normal society - necessary before
its future status can be determined - could be reviewed by mid-2005.
In an open
briefing to the Security Council, Under-Secretary-General
for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno said any
decision on Kosovo's final status depends on how far its institutions
go towards achieving benchmarks set out in a recently released
10-page "standards" document.
He added that the progress made by Kosovo's
provisional institutions would now be regularly monitored, with
a general review possible by mid-2005. "Further advancement
towards the process leading to a determination of Kosovo's future
status will depend on the positive outcome of the comprehensive
review," he said.
The future status of Kosovo, which has been
under UN adThe UN Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK) in the
conflict-torn province is working to help build a multi-ethnic
society in which people can progressively enjoy substantial autonomy.
Last week the Council issued a statement supporting
the standards document, which has eight benchmark categories:
functioning democratic institutions, rule of law, freedom of movement,
returns and reintegration, economy, property rights, dialogue
with Belgrade, and the Kosovo Protection Corps.
Within those categories, the document focuses
on such achievements as fair and regular elections, an impartial
legal system and a free news media.
Mr. Guéhenno told the Council that there
has been a jump in serious crimes in Kosovo, including attacks
against Kosovo Police Service officers, in the past two months.
But he said that crimes against Kosovo Serbs, as well ethnically
motivated crimes, fell in the same period.
The Under-Secretary-General said UNMIK has also
transferred a number of its responsibilities to Kosovo's provisional
institutions, but noted some irregularities in the performance
of the Kosovo Assembly.
In the debate that followed, involving
over a dozen speakers, participants voiced support for the plan
to reach standards before determining status while noting that
the current reality is far from the ideal envisaged in the document.
At the same time, concern was expressed over continued instability
in the province, with delegates urging stepped-up measures to
prevent ethnically motivated violence.
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UN envoy urges Kosovo
to aim for standards of "normal society"
16 December - The senior United Nations envoy to Kosovo today
urged the province to reach progress towards recently elaborated
standards in order to pave the way for decisions on its future
status.
Harri Holkeri, the Special Representative of
Secretary-General Kofi Annan to Kosovo, said the standards - which
include the holding of fair and regular elections, the establishment
of an impartial legal system, and the advancement of a free media
- describe "a normal society."
The future status of Kosovo, which has been
under UN administration since June 1999, is still to be decided.
The UN Interim Mission (UNMIK) in the conflict-torn province is
supposed to help build a society under which people can progressively
enjoy substantial autonomy.
Mr Holkeri said the 10-page standards document,
launched last week with local leaders, outlines "a place
where people are free to travel, use their own languages and work
anywhere in Kosovo. A place where your ethnic identity - whether
Albanian, Serb, Turk, Bosniak, Roma, Gorani, Ashkali, Egyptian
or Croatian - has no effect on the way you are treated at work,
in the street or in a court of law."
While "every goal will not be fulfilled
at once," Mr. Holkeri urged the Government and the people
of Kosovo to work to deliver real change to the province so that
"one day [it] can fully join the European family." He
cited the examples of the transformation of post-communist countries
in Eastern Europe since 1989.
Mr. Holkeri warned that inaction could leave
Kosovo "a crippled society, perhaps for years to come,"
but voiced confidence that the province would instead attain the
standards and serve as a model to others.
Security Council backs
set of written Standards fo Kosovo
12 December - The Security Council today issued its support for
a set of written standards launched this week to prepare ethnically
divided, United Nations-administered Kosovo for final status,
including free, fair and regular elections, free media and a sound
and impartial legal system.
The Council released a presidential
statement indicating support after it received a briefing
on Kosovo from the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations,
Jean-Marie Guéhenno.
This month's Council President, Ambassador Stefan
Tafrov of Bulgaria, said the Council now awaits the creation of
an implementation plan to show how the provisional institutions
of self-government in Kosovo are progressing in meeting the standards.
The plan is expected to be finalized by the
Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Harri Holkeri.
Mr. Tafrov said the Council's further support
of the process for determining Kosovo's future status would be
shaped by a review of the institutions' progress towards meeting
the standards.
The 10-page Standards document covers eight
sections: functioning democratic institutions, rule of law, freedom
of movement, returns and reintegration, economy, property rights,
dialogue with Belgrade (Serbia and Montenegro); and the Kosovo
Protection Corps.
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UN envoy in Kosovo signs
regional statement against human trafficking
10 December - A senior United Nations envoy in Kosovo joined the
countries of South-Eastern Europe today in signing an agreement
affirming their commitment to protect the rights and dignity of
the victims and witnesses of human and child trafficking during
a ministerial meeting in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.
Jean-Christian Cady, the Deputy Special Representative
for the United Nations Secretary-General in Kosovo (Police and
Justice), signed a statement against human trafficking at the
4th Regional Ministerial Forum of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern
Europe Task Force on Trafficking in Human Beings.
Mr. Cady told the forum that “contrary
to what is sometimes said, Kosovo is not a safe haven for organized
crime and terrorism…Not only has the overall crime level
(in Kosovo) decreased by 70 per cent in the last two years, but
it is now consistent with crime levels in many Western countries.”
According to a statement issued by the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Mr. Cady added that
a coordinated approach among the countries of South-Eastern Europe
would result in a more efficient strategy against organized crime.
UN Tribunal tells Serbia
and Montenegro to produce accused general
10 December - The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia has told Serbia and Montenegro that a former Yugoslav
Army general facing charges over the 1991 siege of Dubrovnik must
be transferred to the tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands,
immediately.
A spokesman for the International Criminal Tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) told a press briefing in The
Hague that the ICTY regarded Serbia and Montenegro as having failed
to fulfil its duty of providing General Pavle Strugar at the place
and time determined.
The senior legal officer of the ICTY’s Trial Chamber sent
a letter to Serbia and Montenegro yesterday outlining its view
after an earlier letter from Serbia and Montenegro cited health
reasons as an explanation for the delay in returning General Strugar.
General Strugar was given provisional release from detention in
The Hague in 2001 on the condition that he return to face charges
of murder and attacks on civilians during the 1991 siege of the
Croatian seaside city of Dubrovnik. But he has not yet returned.
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UN launches set of standards
in preparation for final status
10 December - Senior United Nations and local officials today
launched a set of standards designed to prepare ethnically divided,
UN-administered Kosovo for final status, including free, fair
and regular elections, free media and a sound and impartial legal
system.
“A Kosovo where all – regardless
of ethnic background, race or religion – are free to live,
work and travel without fear, hostility or danger and where there
is tolerance, justice and peace for everyone,” the UN Mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK) said in a news release on the document, Standards
for Kosovo, of the land that was torn by fighting between ethnic
Albanians and Serbs in 1998-99.
The concept of the Standards was agreed upon
by the UN, the local institutions and the international community.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative Harri
Holkeri joined Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi at today’s
launching ceremony in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital. Representatives
of Kosovo’s Serbs did not attend.
“Here, in 10 pages is described in detail a society where
people of all communities are respected, whatever their ethnic
background, where they are free to travel, work and use their
own languages, where the institutions of government serve all
the people, in all of Kosovo, without discrimination, and where
there is fair justice and security for everybody,” Mr. Holkeri
declared.
“Kosovo has made enormous progress over the last four years,”
he added. “It is a more peaceful place; there is less violence.
The government, led by Bajram Rexhepi, comprises all communities
and is tackling the problems that Kosovo faces. But the standards
are not yet achieved. To achieve them means change.”
The Standards cover eight sections: Functioning Democratic Institutions;
Rule of Law; Freedom of Movement; Sustainable Returns and the
Rights of Communities and their members; Economy; Property Rights;
Dialogue; Kosovo Protection Corps.
The UN mission in Kosovo was created on 10 June 1999 when the
Security Council in resolution 1244 authorized the Secretary-General
to establish in the war-ravaged province an interim civilian administration
led by the UN under which its people could progressively enjoy
substantial autonomy.
UN mission 'strongly condemns'
attack on World Bank Delegation in Kosovo
8 December - The United Nations mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) today
strongly condemned the violent attack on the World Bank Board
of Governors over the weekend in Mitrovica, a town that has been
a flashpoint of tension between ethnic Albanians and Serbs over
the past two years.
"It is reprehensible that armed and violent
gangs are still acting in this manner in the northern part of
Mitrovica, or any area of Kosovo," the mission said in a
statement. "UNMIK calls on all to repudiate them and their
methods. They directly contradict the standards for Kosovo that
responsible leaders are working to achieve."
The incident, in which one World Bank delegation
member was slightly hurt, began when the delegation visited a
local restaurant in mainly Serb north Mitrovica where, by chance,
the ethnic Albanian Prime Minister of Kosovo, Bajram Rexhepi,
paid an unannounced visit.
Several unidentified people threw stones, damaging
the windows. Mr. Rexhepi left and was not injured, but the delegation,
while leaving by UN bus and cars, became disoriented and ended
up at the North Mitrovica Hospital "where regrettably the
incident continued," UNMIK said in a statement issued after
the incident on Saturday.
A crowd of about 150 people gathered, the UN
bus was damaged and two Kosovo police vehicles were burned. Eventually
the delegation made its way safely to Regional Police Headquarters,
where one member was treated for minor injuries.
In today's statement UNMIK reaffirmed that "the
Prime Minister is Prime Minister of all Kosovo and can travel
freely anywhere in its territory."
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UN bus damaged during
disturbance in Kosovo
6 December - One person suffered minor injuries and a number of
vehicles were damaged today when a public disturbance flared up
in Kosovo, the UN Mission in the province reported.
The incident began this afternoon when a "delegation
of an important international organization" visited a local
restaurant in north Mitrovica where, by chance, the the Prime
Minister of Kosovo paid an unannounced visit. "While the
delegation and the Prime Minister were inside, several unknown
subjects threw stones at the location, damaging the windows,"
the Mission, known as UNMIK, said.
The Prime Minister left the location and was
not injured, but the international delegation, while leaving the
scene by UN bus and cars, "became disoriented in north Mitrovica
and ended up at the North Mitrovica Hospital, where regrettably
the incident continued," UNMIK said.
With a crowd of about 150 people gathered at
the scene, the UN bus was damaged and two Kosovo police vehicles
were burned.
Eventually, the delegation made its way safely
to Regional Police Heaquarters, where one member was treated for
minor injuries.
UNMIK said it was "greatly disturbed that
a delegation of an important international organization was attacked
when their purpose was to seek ways to further the economic development
in Kosovo" and called those responsible for the inident "reprehensible."
UN Tribunal sentences
Bosnian Serb General to 20 years' jail over role in Sarajevo siege
5 December - The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia today sentenced a former Bosnian Serb general to 20
years in jail for spreading terror among Sarajevo residents during
the city's long siege with a campaign of sniping and shelling
attacks.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found General Stanislav Galic guilty
of one charge of violating the laws or customs by war by spreading
terror among a civilian population, and four charges of crimes
against humanity, for murder and inhumane acts other than murder.
Two other charges were dismissed.
In a majority judgement, the tribunal's Judge
Alphonsus Martinus Maria Orie of the Netherlands and Judge Amin
El Mahdi of Egypt found that General Galic commanded a branch
of the Army of Republika Srpska (SRK), the military wing of a
self-proclaimed area within Bosnia-Herzegovina, between September
1992 and August 1994. That branch "had virtually encircled
Sarajevo" by September 1992, the tribunal said.
The judges agreed with prosecutors that General
Galic was "criminally responsible" for many of the sniping
and shelling attacks that occurred in Sarajevo over the next two
years.
"These attacks were mostly carried out
in daylight. They were not in response to any military threat.
The attackers could for the most part easily tell that their victims
were engaged in everyday civilian activities," Judge Orie
and Judge El Mahdi stated.
Those attacks included the notorious attack
on a Sarajevo marketplace in February 1994, when a mortar shell
exploded, killing 60 people and injuring more than 100 others.
"The Trial Chamber has no doubt that the
Accused was well aware of the unlawful activities of his troops,"
the judges said.
In a separate opinion, Judge Rafael Nieto-Navia
of Colombia dissented in part with the majority judgement.
Judge Nieto-Navia found that the offence of
inflicting terror on a civilian population does not fall within
the jurisdiction of the tribunal's trial chamber. He also found
that there were reasonable doubts over some of the shelling and
sniping incidents.
But the judge did find that the SRK deliberately
or recklessly fired on civilians in Sarajevo, and that General
Galic knew or had reason to know of this. He said that given this,
he would have sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment.
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UN envoy to Kosovo orders
suspension of 12 KPC officers pending inquiry
3 December - The head of the United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has ordered that 12 Kosovo Protection
Corps officers be suspended, with pay, for six months while a
police investigation takes place into their role in the demolition
of a railway bridge in the northern Kosovo town of Loziste in
April.
Harri Holkeri, the Special Representative for
Kosovo, was not prejudging the investigation’s result or
presuming guilt, according to a joint statement by UNMIK and KFOR,
the multinational force in Kosovo, that was issued today in Pristina.
But Mr. Holkeri said the initial findings against
the 12 officers, all serving members of the Kosovo Protection
Corps (KPC), after a joint UNMIK-KFOR inquiry were “sufficiently
serious” to warrant both a police investigation and the
suspensions.
The statement said Mr. Holkeri and KFOR Commander
Holger Kammerhoff met the Commander of the KPC, Lt. Gen. Agim
Ceku, today to inform him of the suspensions.
The statement added that Mr. Holkeri “recognized
that, with a few exceptions, the KPC members act professionally
and in keeping with the standards expected of them…It is
important to ensure that the inquiry findings are followed up
to protect the good name of the KPC.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Holkeri, who is also the chairman
of the Task Force on Returns in Kosovo, said next year would be
critical for the return of people still displaced after war. The
Task Force is calling for more financial support from within and
outside Kosovo so that it can carry out its work of assisting
people to move.
In another development, UNMIK’s Missing
Persons Unit, together with Kosovo’s Office on Missing Persons
and Forensics (OMPF) and the Serbia and Montenegro authorities,
have arranged for a group of bodies to be transferred from Serbia
to Kosovo tomorrow.
The transfer of mortal remains, identified by
DNA after they were exhumed from a mass grave at Batajnica, will
be completed following verification procedures at a transfer facility
near the Serbia-Kosovo border.
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