UN
envoy to Kosovo urges swift resolution of province’s permanent
status
13 December 2006 – Resolving Kosovo’s future status
as soon as possible would bring benefits to the entire Balkan
region, while any further delays would only raise tensions and
help the cause of extremists, the senior United Nations envoy
to the province told the Security Council today.
Joachim Rücker, the Secretary-General’s
Special Representative, told an open debate that anxieties have
risen with Kosovo since a decision last month to delay the unveiling
of a UN proposal on permanent status until after the Serbian
elections on 21 January.
“Keeping momentum in
the status process thereafter will be a key factor in heading
off a feeling of uncertainty on the way ahead, which is a potential
source of instability,” he said.
Independence and autonomy
within Serbia are among the options for the province, where
ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs and other groups by about 9
to 1. The Serbian Government opposes independence for Kosovo,
which has been run by the UN since Western forces drove out
Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid ethnic fighting.
Mr. Rücker stressed that
“delay is more than just a loss of time. Delay will raise
tension and play into the hands of extremists on all sides.
Delay will not make a solution easier; it will make it much
more difficult.”
He also reiterated that the
implementation of standards – an internationally-agreed
series of targets including building democratic institutions,
enforcing minority rights, creating a functioning economy and
setting up an impartial legal system – remains at the
heart of the work of the UN Interim Administration Mission in
Kosovo (UNMIK).
“The Government, under
the leadership of Prime Minister [Agim] Çeku, has continued
to demonstrate effective leadership of standards implementation,”
he said, noting recent laws establishing the equal status of
the Albanian and Serbian languages and others containing provisions
on religious freedom and cultural heritage.
Efforts are also being made
to repair inter-community relations following the outbreak of
violence in March 2004 in which 22 people were killed and hundreds
of others injured during attacks by ethnic Albanians on Serb,
Roma and Ashkali communities.
But Mr. Rücker said many
Kosovo Serbs have not returned to their home communities since
those riots, and called on Belgrade to encourage returns when
conditions are created.
The envoy added that Serbia’s
continuing call for the province’s Serbian population
to boycott Kosovo institutions has undermined the work done
by UNMIK and the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government
(PISG) to reach out to minority groups.
One of the most frequently
cited complaints, he said, is the inadequate security for ethnic
Serbs, but statistics indicate there has been a sharp drop in
potentially ethnically motivated incidents.
Mr. Rücker said that
UNMIK has already begun planning for what needs to be done –
“a highly complex task,” he stressed – once
a formal decision on status is made.
He said the province will
need a new constitution to replace the current framework, which
relies on the presence of UNMIK, elections, a review of all
legislation passed since UNMIK has been on operation, and a
study of what new public institutions will need to be created.
“We need to do as much
as possible – without prejudice to the status process
– before the formal transition period begins with the
passage of a resolution by this Council.”
After Mr. Rücker’s
speech, representatives of numerous countries then addressed
the Council during the open debate, with most reiterating their
support for the work of UNMIK.
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Over
half Kosovo’s missing accounted for, mostly through body
identification –UN
6 December 2006 – Over half of the more than 5,200 people
reported missing in Kosovo after the 1998-99 conflict have been
accounted for, mostly through identification of their remains,
but concerns for those still missing is one of the most pressing
issues in the ethnic Albanian-majority Serbian province, the
United Nations mission there said today.
“It is of the highest
priority to find the missing persons and identify the bodies,”
UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Director
of Justice Albert Moskowitz reported. The UN has run the province
ever since Western Forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999
amid atrocities committed in ethnic fighting.
“Up to date, there are
around 530 individuals whose remains have not yet been identified.
To clarify the fate of the missing is a long and sensitive process
and it is of special importance for the families affected. It
is also essential to find the missing in order to help stabilize
the region,” Mr. Moskowitz added.
A total of 5,206 people were
reported missing after the conflict. By the end of last month,
2,150 persons (Kosovo Albanians, Kosovo Serbs and other ethnic
minorities) where still listed missing, according to the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
From 2002, the UN Office on
Missing Persons and Forensics (OMPF) succeeded in reducing the
number by over 50 per cent. OMPF was created in 2002 as a division
in the UNMIK Department of Justice. Today, the office consists
of 55 staff members who work to clarify the fate of the missing
persons.
As of 1 December, 1,807 missing
persons have been pronounced dead and have had their remains
returned to their families. In addition, about 100 missing persons
have been identified, but the families have chosen not to accept
the bodies until other members of their families or communities
are found so that they can be buried together.
OMPF has developed a
Memory Project to create a public record of the experiences
of the families of the missing. The first initiative used theatre
to explore the painful issues facing the families and was compiled
into the publication Voices. The second, an oral histories initiative,
video-records interviews with the families to build a historical
archive.
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Departing
UN aid chief urges Security Council to never falter in defending
civilians
4 December 2006 – Although there has been a steady decline
in the number of conflicts in the past 15 years, violent attacks
against civilians have surged over the same period, the top
United Nations humanitarian official told the Security Council
today.
Jan Egeland, the departing
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency
Relief Coordinator, told a Council meeting on the protection
of civilians in armed conflict that the number of attacks leapt
by 55 per cent between 1989 and 2005 – with much of that
increase taking place in the past five years.
Mr. Egeland said the proliferation
of informal or non-State groups with access to sophisticated
weapons and the “the intentional, reckless and often times
disproportionate use of military weaponry and tactics with little
or no regard for their impact on the civilian population”
were among the key reasons for the surge. He cited recent events
in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
as examples.
Reviewing events during his
three-year tenure as Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr. Egeland
noted the “vast progress” in Liberia, Sierra Leone,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and southern Sudan,
attributing those results in part to united action by UN Member
States.
“We have not had the
same unity of purpose nor action in Darfur or in Gaza,”
he lamented. “Our readiness to act, to sanction and to
fund must be the same in Uganda, Chad or Côte d’Ivoire
as it is in Afghanistan, Kosovo or Iraq. Our responsibility
to protect must transcend singular interests and become a core
principle of humanity across all civilizations.”
Mr. Egeland added: “When
the lives and safety of civilians is at stake, regardless of
where, neither strategic, nor economic or other political interests
should deter you from acting swiftly upon your united responsibility
to protect.”
He called on the Council to
make more effective use of mechanisms of its disposal to prevent
violations of human rights and humanitarian law, pointing to
targeted sanctions as one option that could be deployed more
frequently.
The Under-Secretary-General
also called for greater guidance and support for UN peacekeeping
operations so that they have the resources to strengthen civil
order, judicial systems and the rule of law. Comprehensive and
predictable aid funding is critical, he stressed, hailing the
Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) launched earlier this
year as “a significant advance.” Mediation must
be undertaken at the earliest of opportunities so that conflicts
do not deteriorate further, he added.
Later, Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser of Qatar, which holds the Council presidency this
month, read out a press statement stressing the Council’s
commitment to translating the words of resolution 1674 (adopted
in April) – which deplored attacks on civilians during
armed conflict – into concrete action.
Mr. al-Nasser also briefed
journalists today on the Council’s programme of work for
December, forecasting that it would be a busy month, with formal
meetings, briefings and reports expected on topics ranging from
Iraq to Sudan to Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire.
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