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UNMIK/PR/667
PRISTINA - After a hiatus during the election period, the Interim Administrative Council resumed meeting today to discuss three draft legal documents which SRSG Hans Haekkerup stated must be issued before the inaugural meeting of the Kosovo Assembly, slated for 10 December. An executive decision on the Provisional Rules of Procedure for the Assembly and a directive establishing the Assembly's secretariat and other administrative support services-are needed to assist the Assembly to run during its first few weeks, Mr. Haekkerup said. Once the Assembly is functioning, both instruments can be changed by a simple majority of Assembly members. Mr. Haekkerup proposed that a committee be set up in the first Assembly meeting, tasked with drafting the permanent Rules of Procedure. The issue of what flags and symbols can be present in public buildings, however, remains a reserved function for the SRSG under the Constitutional Framework and will not be within the competency of the Assembly, he noted. Still, Mr. Haekkerup has been consulting with the IAC members on implementation of a flag directive. Two options remain open: that only the UN flag be present in the Assembly hall; or that flags representing each community or ethnicity present in the Assembly be hung there. IAC members today said they would offer their opinions to the SRSG in the coming days. Mr. Haekkerup told media that the Assembly needed some rules in order to begin its work, and to start with a long discussion on flags would send the wrong signal to the international community. The issue of flags will be dealt with in the future-- and not in the Assembly--as part of the search for a final settlement, he said. The issue of Kosovo Albanian detainees was also raised in the IAC and by media after the meeting: Mr. Haekkerup responded that the subject was dealt with in the Common Document, where Yugoslav authorities committed themselves in writing for the first time to returning all those detained, after a review conducted according to international standards. He said that while Belgrade authorities had not agreed to setting a date for release, he would continue to push the issue. Mr. Haekkerup opened the IAC meeting-the first to be held in the new SRSG offices in the UNMIK 'headquarters' building-by congratulating the IAC members on successful elections. He then reminded them that the IAC would continue to meet until the transfer of powers set for 1 January 2002. After that, a successor body of representatives of entities in the Assembly and provisional self-government, will meet regularly with the SRSG to discuss regulations that he plans to promulgate under his reserved powers.
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