UNMIK/PR/618
PRESS RELEASE - 25 July

UNMIK Signs MoU with ICMP for DNA Testing

PRISTINA - SRSG Hans Haekkerup today told the Kosovo Transitional Council that yesterday he had signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Committee for the Missing Persons (ICMP) to start the process of DNA testing. The ICMP has the technical means and the money to start the process, he added.

This would permit matching the DNA of members of families of the missing with the remains of the people who still remain unidentified.

Mr. Haekkerup also refuted reports of new mass grave in Suva Reka, saying the grave in Suva Reka contains the remains of those who have not been identified so far.

Responding to a question about the demonstrations by Serbs seeking information about missing persons, Mr. Haekkerup said that UNMIK and the international community is committed to finding the truth about all the missing. He said the ICTY is investigating the atrocities committed during Milosevic's time and after June 1999; UNMIK supports this effort, but it was up to the Albanians and the Serbs, who know about these, to give information to the ICTY, he stated.

Mr. Haekkerup also briefed the members about his meeting with US President George Bush yesterday in Camp Bondsteel. He said the President was keen to hear about the security situation, the preparations for the elections and the self-governing institutions after the elections. He said he expressed gratitude for the presence of US troops. Their presence, he added, was a political symbol of the international community's commitment to peace and stability in the region. Mr. Haekkerup said that President Bush urged Kosovars to fight organized crime and to show that they are ready to take responsibility for their own affairs.

The KTC was also briefed by the co-heads of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Tim O'Neill and Adem Grabovci, about commercialization and privatization of socially owned enterprises (SOEs). Mr. O'Neill said that commercialization has not been very successful. Forty eight tenders have been opened for commercialization, of which about half the number have been received with proposals. From this, successful contracts have been signed in seven cases. In six other cases the negotiations are in the final stages. Mr. O'Neill said that as a result of these tenders, there has been 180 per cent growth in jobs in these industries and nearly 85 million DM investment has been committed in these contracts.

The DTI co-heads also explained the strategy for privatization and informed the members that eventually the privatization exercise will be transferred from DTI to the Kosovo Trust Agency, which will be created to handle UNMIK's responsibilities to administer socially owned property in Kosovo.

UNMIK and KFOR also briefed the members about the security situation in Kosovo and the region. KFOR said the situation in FYROM is serious. KFOR representative said that yesterday they had intercepted 62 men with 50 mules trying to cross from FYROM to Albania via Kosovo. KFOR once again declared the allegations by the FYROM authorities that  they were helping NLA rebels as "false and most unhelpful".