UN
envoy to Kosovo says 2006 will likely see wrap up of status process
30 December 2005 – The senior United Nations envoy to Kosovo
today said the coming year will likely see the end of the process
to determine the status of the ethnically divided Serbian province
which the world body has administered since 1999.
“The past twelve months,
like every year, have had their ups and downs - their triumphs
and their tragedies,” said the Special Representative for
the Secretary General, Soren Jessen-Petersen, in a New Year’s
message. “But they have ended on a high - with the opening
of the process to determine the status of Kosovo.”
The international community,
in partnership with Kosovo’s institutions, has worked on
some of the challenges he noted a year ago – the rule of
law, the protection of minorities, freedom of movement, the return
of displaced persons and decentralization, said Mr. Jessen-Peterson,
a lawyer and journalist by training who has headed the United
Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) since June 2004.
“That there was progress
on these issues there can be no doubt – the opening of the
status process is itself evidence of that. But that there could
have – and needs to be – more progress is also plain,”
he added. “Many of those issues that were priorities a year
ago remain priorities today.”
He said the vehicle for achieving
progress remains the Standards framework - eight targets that
include building democratic institutions, enforcing minority rights,
creating a functioning economy and setting up an impartial legal
system.
Mr. Jessen-Petersen said the
Standards framework, along with economic improvements, would form
the core of the international community’s work in Kosovo
as the coming year is dominated by the status talks.
In early November, former Finnish
President Martti Ahtisaari was appointed as Secretary-General
Kofi Annan’s special envoy to lead the talks on the future
status of Kosovo.
In his statement, Mr. Jessen-Petersen
repeated that a sustainable status settlement must be based on
the desires of the majority in Kosovo and those desires –
peace, stability, security and economic prosperity - must also
be ensured for minority communities.
In a report in July, Mr. Jessen-Petersen
stressed the need for a stronger commitment by Kosovo’s
Albanian leaders to move forward on the return of Serbs who fled
their homes during the fighting as well as on the freedom of movement.
Kosovo’s Albanians outnumber Serbs and others by 9 to 1.
Serbia rejects independence for the province which the UN has
run ever since North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces
drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid grave rights abuses during
ethnic fighting.
The envoy said his hope for
Kosovo in the coming year is that everyone can live freely and
at ease with their own and each other’s culture, with no
reason to fear the future.
“Another hope for
Kosovo in 2006, then, must be that it is the year when true political
co-operation between all communities becomes a reality,”
he said. “These are earnest hopes – and they will
be difficult to realize – but in December 2004, twelve months
ago – it was equally hard to see Kosovo reaching the point
it has achieved today,” he said.
UN
envoy hopes Kosovo parties will discuss decentralization next
month
20 December 2005 – Whatever the final status of the United
Nations-administered Serbian province of Kosovo, majority Albanians
must discuss decentralization and minority Serbs must participate
in the talks, the UN special envoy on the issue said today.
“My understanding is we
will see the parties discussing decentralization in Vienna, hopefully
in the latter part of January,” former Finnish President
Martti Ahtisaari, whose UN Office of Special Envoy in Kosovo (UNOSEK)
is based in the Austrian capital, told a news conference at UN
Headquarters in New York.
Albanians outnumber Serbs and
others by 9 to 1. Serbia rejects independence for the province
which the UN has run ever since North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid grave rights
abuses in ethnic fighting.
Mr. Ahtisaari, who visited all
parties to the dispute last month, said he had set no “artificial
deadlines” for the final status talks although he would
like to see them completed within the one-year timeframe of his
contract.
He stressed the need for implementation
of the so-called Standards, eight targets that include building
democratic institutions, enforcing minority rights, creating a
functioning economy and setting up an impartial legal system.
“My message to Kosovo
Albanians in my discussions was that they should use this opportunity…
to put more effort into the implementation of standards,”
he said. “We have to realize as well that standards are
for ensuring a functioning democratic society and furthermore
they are Kosovo’s key to life and Serbia’s key to
Europe.”
It is clear that one of the
crucial issues is the protection of non-Albanian communities in
Kosovo and that everyone realizes this requires reform structure
and local self-government, he added. Kosovo Albanians must take
this into consideration and engage in talks on decentralization,
and the Serbs must participate in the process.
In a report in July, Mr. Annan's
Special Representative for Kosovo Søren Jessen-Petersen
stressed the need for stronger commitment by Kosovo’s Albanian
leaders to move forward on the return of Serbs who fled their
homes during the fighting as well as on freedom of movement.
Last month, he said far
too little had been done by Albanian leaders in terms of reaching
out to minorities and really showing that Kosovo is strongly committed
to being a multi-ethnic society.
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UN
war crimes court denies Milosevic request for more time to argue
his case
13 December 2005 – Seeking to expedite the judicial process,
the United Nations International Criminal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY)
at The Hague today decided to deny former President Slobodan Milosevic’s
request for more time to argue his case.
In a related decision, the court
also denied a request by its most notorious suspect to sever the
Kosovo indictment from the other charges, which deal with genocide,
crimes against humanity and other war crimes committed in Bosnia
and Herzegovina as well as Croatia during the Balkan wars of the
1990s.
Citing the advice of medical
experts, the ICTY also granted a request by Mr. Milosevic for
a six-week rest and adjourned his case until 23 January 2006.
In making its decisions, the
court noted that Mr. Milosevic has spent three-quarters of his
time almost entirely on Kosovo-related evidence despite being
warned that he needed to use it to address evidence in relation
to all three indictments.
Mr. Milosevic, the ICTY said,
had deliberately avoided addressing evidence on the Croatia and
Bosnia parts of the case, “thus seeking to provide a foundation
for a request for additional time.”
Anticipating that the conclusion
of his allotted time will take the trial well into March 2006,
the judges said rebuttal and rejoinder cases as well as concluding
arguments would cause the trial hearings to continue until the
middle of 2006. That would be followed by a “substantial”
period of time to draft the judgment.
“The Trial Chamber’s
fundamental obligation is to bring this trial to a fair and expeditious
conclusion,” the court said, urging the former President
of Yugoslavia to begin dealing with the Bosnia and Croatia indictments.
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Kosovo:
UN personnel come under fire as jail break is foiled
13 December 2005 – A Romanian Special Police Unit working
under the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) came under fire yesterday during an unsuccessful prison
breakout by 14 inmates in the western part of the province, which
the world body has administered since 1999.
There were no casualties, but
two vehicles were hit by gunfire, a UN spokesman said today.
Within the prison, staff managed
to reassert control after initially being overpowered. Simultaneously,
however, the Romanian Unit was shot at by unknown persons.
Police are investigating the
events both inside and outside the prison.
The UN has administered
Kosovo since North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces
drove out Yugoslav troops amid grave human rights abuses in fighting
between majority Albanians and Serbs.
Timor-Leste,
helped to independence by UN, sends police to help UN in Kosovo
9 December 2005 – Underscoring the remarkable progress it
has made since the United Nations helped it to independence in
2002, Timor-Leste, the world’s youngest country, is sending
10 police officers to serve in the UN Police unit in Kosovo, which
the world body has administered since 1999.
The officers were trained by
the UN Mission in Timor Leste (UNOTIL), the successor to earlier
missions which saw the Southeast Asian nation through independence
after it voted in a referendum to break away from Indonesia, which
took over the former Portuguese colony in 1975.
The selection of the team for
Kosovo shows the “remarkable progress and professionalism”
of the Timor Leste police, Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s
Special Representative in the country, Sukehiro Hasegawa, said.
The UN has administered
Kosovo since North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces
drove out Yugoslav troops amid grave human rights abuses in fighting
between majority Albanians and Serbs in 1999.
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Condemning
attack against bus in Kosovo, UN envoy orders stepped up security
measures
4 December 2005 – The senior United Nations official in
Kosovo has ordered stepped-up security measures, including new
checkpoints, throughout the province in response to yesterday's
failed but potentially lethal attack against a bus.
Eleven passengers – seven
Kosovo Albanians, three Kosovo Bosniaks and one Kosovo Serb –
were traveling from Dragash/Draga? to Prizren on Saturday evening
when a projectile fired from the roadside struck the middle of
their bus and entered the passenger compartment. It did not explode
and on one was injured. Explosives experts serving with the international
security forces in Kosovo (KFOR) safely removed the device.
UN envoy Søren Jessen-Petersen
directed that security measures across Kosovo be enhanced to ensure
that a safe and secure environment is maintained. These include
“vigorous police patrols and vehicle checkpoints”
throughout Kosovo, he said. Police resources are being redeployed
to ensure a visible police presence in potentially vulnerable
areas such as schools and religious establishments, according
to the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
“The security environment
in Kosovo is generally stable, however incidents such as the one
last night demonstrate that, during the status process which has
just begun, isolated individuals or groups who do not have Kosovo's
best interests in mind may attempt to disrupt Kosovo's way forward
for their own ulterior motives,” said the envoy.
“They obviously will
not care who they hurt by their misdeeds,” he added, declaring
that “such provocations must not be tolerated.”
Mr. Jessen-Petersen said he
has directed the UNMIK Police Commissioner to take “stringent
measures” to enhance the security of all people in the province.
Currently, talks are being
held on the future status of Kosovo, which the UN has administered
since 1999 when NATO forces drove out Yugoslav troops amid grave
rights abuses in ethnic fighting.
“Now that Kosovo is on
the road toward resolving its status, fringe elements in this
society will not be permitted to stand in the way of a better
future for Kosovo and its people,” Mr. Jessen-Petersen said.
“Such ill-intentioned individuals must be isolated, identified
and brought to justice.
“Working together
alongside the people of Kosovo, whom they are sworn to serve and
protect, UNMIK Police, the Kosovo Police Service and KFOR will
take every measure necessary to ensure security and progress,”
he pledged.
UN Tribunal
releases two Kosovo fighters found not guilty of war crimes
1 December 2005 – Two former members of the ethnic Albanian
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) were released today from the detention
unit of the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, after
having been cleared of war crimes during the deadly ethnic fighting
in 1998-99 that led the United Nations to take over the administration
of the Serbian province.
Fatmir Limaj and Isak Musliu
had been charged by Carla Del Ponte, prosecutor for the UN International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), on 24 January
2003 in connection with crimes at the camp in 1998 including the
torture and murder of a number of Serb, non-Albanian and Albanian
detainees.
The Tribunal found a third
former KLA member, Haradin Bala, guilty of those charges and sentenced
him to 13 years in prison.
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