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UNMIK-OSCE-EU-KFOR Press Briefing, 1 November 2001 UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
Talks with Belgrade While nothing was concluded, we may be inching closer to an agreement on a common document by which Belgrade authorities would support Kosovo Serb participation in the 17 November elections. Mr. Haekkerup will go to Belgrade tomorrow to meet with P. Kostunica
and seek a decision on the President's endorsement of Kosovo Serb
participation. At the same time we have to express our dismay over the developments in the Pristina Municipal Assembly. We have been trying, as you can see, to convince Kosovo Serbs to take part in the institutions of provisional self-government. By participating, we argue, they can work closely with Albanian counterparts and contribute to improving the situation in all Kosovo, which should become a society functioning according to democratic principles and rule of law, rather than by intolerance and prejudice. Yesterday, the accusation by member parties of the Pristina Assembly against one of the newly appointed Serb members threatens to damage those efforts. Several parties of the Provisional Assembly have charged that their Serb colleague is a war criminal: This is not the business or the competence of an Assembly. It is a matter for the police and courts. KFOR has looked into this gentleman's credentials in the past and have no reason to believe he is a war criminal. He is not the subject of a police investigation. We will look into these allegations again, but not only in regards to the Serb Assembly member. But we will also be looking into who made the allegations and why and for what purpose. Looking at how the press has covered this, it seems that the media as well has been acting like a court and passing judgements, which in any normal country could be considered libelous. Headlines such as "remove the criminal," and "Scandal: Serb suspected for war crimes in Assembly" are irresponsible and possibly punishable under the law. Mr. Brenke will hold separate meetings with representatives of all the political parties to work out a process allowing to put the municipal activities back on track. He will postpone the Municipal Assembly until the situation is clarified. The gentleman in question is not under suspicion for war crimes by police or KFOR, who are the only authority mandated to announce, investigate or pursue suspicions of crime. Railroad On a lighter note: on Saturday a t the railroad station in Fushe Kosovo/Kosovo Polje, rail road workers and train enthusiasts will be repainting the old 1920s locomotive in preparation for going into action. You are invited to meet the workers and management and watch the painting tomorrow at 9 a.m. onwards at the station.
Elections - Special Needs Voting has now started. The first person to vote in Kosovo for the election did so yesterday in Peje/Pec. The person was homebound because of disability. This was carried out through the special needs voting programme which will run until election day. Our regular election briefing which was cancelled Tuesday is being held today at the OSCE and the subject is this special needs voting programme. That's at 1400 today in OSCE headquarters. Where/How to vote For everyone who is voting on November 17th, we are doing all we can to assist you in making sure you get to the right polling station. We are distributing this newspaper, for each municipality, which tells you where you should vote. Look out for it and look up your polling station on election day. Every household in Kosovo is also getting a guide to the election which takes people step by step from now - knowing where to vote, through the steps you will follow at the polling station, to how your vote is counted. If people read these and follow the steps set down, it will be a very smooth election day - as people will know where to vote, and what to do when they are at the polling station. CEC The CEC is meeting again next Monday. Bota Sot As you are most likely aware, the Election Complaints and Appeals Sub Commission has fined bota sot 5,500 DM for breaking electoral rule 7/2001 - that rull calls on media to give equitable coverage to all political parties. Bota Sot was found to have favoured the LDK and been biased against covering other political parties -in particular the PDK. The election and complaints appeals sub commission is not looking at journalistic standards but whether there is equitable coverage of all entities. Bota Sot will only have to pay half its fine if it abides by the
electoral rule for the rest of the campaign. And one non-election event: the OSCE is joining NGOs in Vushtrri/Vucitrn to open a women's centre. The centre will -- among other things -- be working to protect and promote the rights of women, raise awareness about those rights, assist in providing free legal counsel and work to improve the education level of women. The women's centre opens today - at 1500. It is in the Centre for Social Work building, near the UNMIK municipal building, in Vucitrn/Vushtrri.
Euro Preparations are continuing for the introduction of the Euro on 1 January, 2002. Regional seminars, which started in September with one in Pristina, are being conducted throughout Kosovo. These seminars, at this stage, are primarily targeting the retailers. Today, one of these seminars is being held in Peja and other seminars have been held in Pristina and Mitrovice. (The Mitrovice seminar was held on Tuesday). The BPK is encouraging, at an early stage, the display of dual prices, in DM and Euro, to make the consumer aware of the value of the Euro. The BPK actively involved with the Kosovo Chambers of Commerce in all activities concerning the Euro as they are the ones who are in contact with the retailers. An information campaign has already started with the release and distribution of some 300,000 leaflets - these were distributed together with the Constitutional Framework document. Posters are being prepared, some have been distributed already and there will be TV commercials and radio spots. The Euro will be introduced on the 1 January 2002 and the changeover period will last until 28 February 2002. Power Generation Today power generation is at 410 MW. There is an import contract in place with Bulgaria providing 100 MW from 08.00 - 22.00 hours and 50 MW from 22.00 hours until 08.00 hours in the morning. A schedule of load sheddding will be in place during periods of peak demand and the schedule will be 4 hours on and 2 hours off. We would ask all consumers of electricity to be more aware of how much electricity is need for each appliance they use in their homes and to turn off all unnecessary lights, TV or electric heaters. Portable electric heaters use a lot of electricity and they should be switched off when not needed. Fuel Supervisory Board The Fuel Supervisory Board is planning a press conference on 6 November at 15.30 hours in room C 301. The subject of the press briefing will be the Draft Regulations for Fuel.
Q: How do you think ………..an agreement with Belgrade to convince Serbs to participate in the elections? CT: Well as you are very well aware, we are in constant contact with Belgrade and the SRSG is talking to Belgrade himself and we are still hopeful that there will be an agreement. We haven't got an agreement yet. We need an agreement soon. We are still talking and we are hopeful that we will get an agreement. Q: What are the conditions that Belgrade is asking for. Has Belgrade asked for a co-president too and what are the other conditions? SM: While we are not going into details that both sides are looking at, there has been no request for a co-president. Basically, I think you can read in the press what Belgrade is asking for, which is greater guarantees for security, returns, missing, greater presence or influence from Belgrade in Kosovo. That's basically been outlined in the press. But there is no talk of even of a co-president. Q: What are Belgrade's conditions? CT: I think Susan just mentioned that. They are not putting any conditions to us. They are obviously talking about the same issues that have been talked about in the past. These are not conditions that …………..fulfilling. There are two weeks to the election. What we need at the OSCE is the green light to actually do the technical preparations in Serbia proper and Montenegro. Q: What I need to know is that yesterday they agreed on many things and day before yesterday, they came out without any results. I want to know what was talked about then. Can UNMIK fulfill some of those conditions………. SM: As with any negotiations process like this we are not going to do it in the press, we are not going to talk about the points under discussion. As I said before we are trying to come up with common language by which the Belgrade authorities could urge Kosovo Serb participation in the elections. And that's why Mr. Haekkerup is going to talk to president Kostunica in person about it tomorrow. We are not going to talk about the actual items in……to public at this point. It's a matter of negotiations. Q: Would it affect the election process if the Serbs come out or not? CT: We are going to have elections whether Serbs participate or not. The problem we face in holding an election in Serbia proper and Montenegro where more than 100,000 people have registered to vote and who are eligible to vote. We do need assistance and approval from Belgrade to do technical preparations there. So we need that approval to have an election in Serbia proper and Montenegro. Q: After yesterday's incident in the municipal assembly, does UNMIK still feel that Serbs will be able to freely participate in the upcoming assembly? SM: It sends a very bad signal to the Serbs who are already, as you can see, reluctant to participate. It sends a very bad signal to the outside world to how well we are doing in terms of integrating the political structures. There are other assemblies where Serbs and Albanians work pretty well in the political process. It's a very bad development and we hope that the assembly can get back on track. Q: Mr. Pllanna that he had a witness to the crimes allegedly committed by the Serb representative in some village around Pristina. But KFOR says it has done investigations and the Serb representative has not committed any crime. Can we expect some action against the Albanian representative who accused the Serb member? SM: That's what I said that we are looking both into the allegations against the Serb and we are looking into equally, intensively, into the persons who made these allegations. If he has some witness, if he has information, if he has suspicions, he should go to the police. The police has not received any such complaints. When he returned to Kosovo last year, KFOR did extensive investigations into his background and found nothing wrong. So we are looking at the accuser as well as the accused. Q: I am interested in why it came up at this time. The man has been in the region for a year and he has been investigated. Has he been out of sight, did he just appear in the municipal assembly and suddenly someone saw him and recognized him and he looked like someone who was possibly been involved in incidents, as they were described. I wonder if you could help us understand what the sequence of events was? SM: I think you need to ask that to those gentlemen who accused him. But after the municipal assembly elections last year, as you know the Serbs didn't take part and Dr. Kouchner appointed members to the assemblies, including Pristina assembly. The Serb members never took up their posts. But last month three of the Serb members decided to join and they were sworn in. It was a difficult beginning but they were sworn in and they have been coming to the assembly functions. So his name has been associated with the assembly for quite sometime and he has also come and joined the assembly recently. Q: So the member who brought the charges yesterday would have seen him at the assembly on previous occasions. SM: Right, he would have seen him last week. During the last week, it
was publicized that these three Kosovo Serb men and women, were sworn in
last month. I mean, we don't know what is going on, but you have to ask
those who made the accusation but we have to wonder at the timing because
these accusations came out just as Mr. Haekkerup was meeting with a high
level Serb delegation, just as we are expecting a decision in Belgrade on
whether to ensdorse Kosovo Serb participation any minute now. The timing
was rather strange. CT: I think Susan answered that question earlier on that it's come at a very unfortunate time. We are not link anything to anything. It's very unfortunate that this has happened at this time. Q: Do you expect to have some more meetings between UNMIK and Serbian representatives next week. For example, Serbs will say that it's impossible, the procedures needed for the organization of the elections is too short and you may say at one stage now we have to stop and not organize the elections. SM: We expect this meeting with President Kostunica should be more or less definitive. There may be further meetings but there is none scheduled other than the one with President Kostunica tomorrow. CT: Obviously there is going to be a final deadline and we are not stating at this stage what it is. It may come to a stage when we cannot organize the elections. We have just two weeks and we are already at a very worrisome stage whether we will be able to organize elections.19 Q: This is about Bota Sot. According to the election regulation, did Bota Sot sign that agreement that they would follow it, since they are an independent newspaper and write whatever they want. CT: You don't sign any agreement. These are the rules that are set down by the CEC all media in Kosovo are required to abide by them. Q: You said the power generation today is 400 MW. What is the consumption level these days and we are importing 100 MW more. The electricity is going somewhere else. I know earlier we were consuming 250 MW and now it is more than 500 MW. Why? BD: There is an increase in the population in Kosovo and consumption has increased substantially more than had been projected by previous figures. We are using about 500 MW per day. There has been extensive refurbishment of units during the summer plus and it is still being carried out in some units to bring them up to contractual obligations and it is still being finalized. One of the units is still not back on line yet. It is still under refurbishment. So we are building up to improving the generation of energy. The consumer demand is high and that is why we have made special request to people in Kosovo to conserve the use of electricity. Q: Have you estimated what will be required for the winter, if we are spending 500 MW in the present weather conditions. BD: Unfortunately, it is a technical question and I don't have the figures on my fingertips. But I know intensive planning has gone into this projection and these are the figures that have accumulated since the end of the conflict. I do know that the consumer demand is exceeding the projections but we are making attempts to bring the units into stronger operating capacity. Q: Would OSCE like to comment on the article written by Mr. Vetton Surroi and allegations that there was some pressure from Mr. Everts on Koha Ditore? CT: Yes, Ambassador Everts did talk to Koha Ditore, he did talk to Mr. Surroi after the first article appeared. The Ambassador had a friendly conversation, he said there was actually no desire or design to put pressure on Koha Ditore about this. It was a friendly conversation and the issue about whether there was pressure or not was about space in Radio Kosova Building, which is something that has been discussed with the Koha Ditore group for sometime and we have been very supportive of Koha Ditore in its claims to that space and immediately after that conversation, Ambassador sent a letter to the SRSG continuing to give our support to the Koha Ditore group. Q: I read in Koha Ditore that Mr. Everts attended the LDK rally, wearing the LDK scarf. Sometime heading the organization holding the elections, it looks a bit weird. CT: Last year, Ambassador Everts and former SRSG went to many political rallies during the election campaign. This year Ambassador Everts has gone to a couple of political events and will surely to other political events. He was an invited guest. Q: If tomorrow President Kostunica agrees with Haekkerup to urge Serbs to vote, is OSCE prepared technically to organize elections within Yugoslavia on OSCE's European standards? CT: Yes. Q: There are only two weeks to the elections? CT: It is going to be very hurried but we need ………..training staff in OSCE procedures, try to identify polling stations, we will hopefully be working with the Commissariat of Refugees for the elections as we did during the registration period, we will need to get some public information for the voters for them to know where to go to. It's going to be a lot of hard work. We have everything in place to start as soon as we have an agreement from the Serbian government. Q: I have a question for UNMIK, which is perhaps linked to the events in the Pristina assembly yesterday. Susan, how much has the security mandate of UNMIK and KFOR been fulfilled to arrest war criminals in Kosovo from both sides. SM: Any police have to be given an allegation or information leading to beginning an investigation. Someone has to make a complaint to the police. It is difficult to believe that there are major Serb war criminals left here. We have 43 Serbs in prison, but not all those for war crimes and we have 24 escapes. So as far as allegations that people or communities have brought to UNMIK Police about Serbian crimes, I think all those have been investigated. We don't get new allegations about that though you remember that a few weeks ago, somebody came across the boundary at Merdare and basically fingered by some Kosovo Albanians and that person was arrested and I believe he is still in detention. Many, many dozens of people were investigated. As far as Albanian war crimes, I think we have a couple of people. There is one guy on trial. We don't frankly many Serbs here who may have outstanding complaints against people….. have not been looked into as far as I know. Q: In yesterday's case, who did the police ask. Did they ask Serb witnesses or Albanian witnesses? How come they believe one side more than the other? SM: First of all, he has been here for a year. KFOR can talk about the kind of investigations that they did when he came back. He has been here for a year, why did somebody say yesterday that he committed war crimes. To the other part of your question. It is very difficult two or three years later to come up with material evidence for any crimes committed during the war by Serbs, Albanians, Romas or anybody else. In the trails ongoing now are heavily dependent on witness testimony. TZ: When he returned, we carried out a full investigation on all
records, whether civilian or criminal and our security people looked into
those and there is absolutely nothing. I can't say any more and we stand
by that completely. Nothing has changed to make us change our view.
SM: I don't think it was directed at UNMIK although we may have been in the bigger picture. In the assembly to be elected, there will be rules of procedure and those restrict assembly members to working on areas of their competence. Who will be the policeman, who will be the coach, that's not quite clear yet. But in the beginning it will probably be an international person. This is surely something that we hope the assembly members will have the maturity to avoid. Q: The code of conduct for the media, especially for the written media, sounds dictatorial. International journalist organizations consider it such. Why don't you change it? CT: That code isn't the one under which Bota Sot has been fined. Bota Sot has been fined under electoral rules and as far as the other codes are concerned, there will soon be an Independent Media Commissioner, a Kosovo body, which will be governing the rules and regulations for the media. So very soon, Kosovo is going to have its own body that sets up its own rules and procedures for the media. Q: On the electricity situation, you said population had increased. When did this happen and why should people buy….. BD: The population has increased ever since the end of the conflict. In addition, there have been internationals, NGOs and others. There are also a large number of returnees to Kosovo. We estimate that there is more electricity use in domestic circumstances than was anticipated. During the summer, for instance, a lot of air conditioning units that came in. Everybody had air conditioning units and they drew a lot of electricity than was usual. So these projections are made every month. We do have an extensive refurbishing programme of all the units of KEK and we are trying to build up our capacity to meet this demand. Q:: Can you tell us what sort of investigation was carried out against the Serb member against whom the allegations were made yesterday? TZ: I am not prepared to go into the specific details. Certain individuals were contacted, records were looked at. I can't stress any more than I have already said, we have absolutely no reason to doubt the investigation that was carried out. I can't stress that enough in support of what UNMIK has already said. Q: Specifically, the material that was presented yesterday, hasn't affected the conclusion that you already came to earlier. TZ: I would suggest that there is nothing in that to make us change our mind. Q: Suppose Bota Sot were to publish absolutely nothing about the election campaign or any party. Would you do the same thing? CT: No. ………..if you are favouring one political party, if you are
favouring no political party at all…….choose to ……We do monitor all media
to see what there coverage is and whether it is equitable and whether it
is fair. So it is not just about Bota Sot. Bota Sot has been found to have
broken the electoral rule. |