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UNMIK--KFOR-UNHCR-UNMIK Police Press Briefing, 2 April 2001 UNMIK Spokesman Michael Keats UNMIK Spokesman Michael Keats Good morning everyone, USG for Peacekeeping Operations The United Nations Under-Secretary General in charge of Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Jean Marie Guehenno, is currently visiting Kosovo. He has been having talks with the top UNMIK and KFOR officials and yesterday visited Mitrovica. Tomorrow he will be meeting the leaders of the three main Albanian political parties - the LDK, PDK and AAK. The French Defense Minister The French Defense Minister Mr. Alain Richard will be visiting Pristina tomorrow and will call on the SRSG in the afternoon. NATO visit On Wednesday will be a visit by the North Atlantic Council together
with NATO chief Lord Robertson. The NAC members will be visiting their
various national contingents and Lord Robertson will meet the press. The
time at present is at 1630 hours. The project on Ethnic Relations is today holding a press conference in the OSCE Headquarters in Pristina at 1800 hours. The project on Ethnic Relations has been holding a series of meetings on Albanians and their neighbors. A region wide conference was held in Greece last year; today's meeting at the OSCE is a follow on that conference. The press conference will take place in the OSCE's conference room on the Third Floor of OSCE Headquarters in Pristina. Registration for Pristina International Marathon The registration for the Pristina International Marathon began this
morning, with DSRSG Ambassador Daan Everts, signing up as the first
runner. IOM Programme The IOM, in cooperation with the Swedish Migration Board and the University Hospital, Linkoping, Sweden, is sending two youngsters to the University Hospital, for pediatric cardiac surgery tomorrow. Before they leave for Sweden, IOM has arranged a meeting with the families of the two children at its headquarters in Dragodan at 11.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 3 April 2001. All journalists are invited. KTC this week KTC will have a session on Wednesday only from 11:30 -11:45 AM. It will be a special meeting attended by the North Atlantic Council members. KFOR Spokesman Richard Heffer Good morning everyone. Weapons Found Just firstly to give you further details that have emerged from the major weapons find in Krivenik. As you probably know a KFOR patrol from the Polish/Ukrainian battalion had discovered this large cache of weapons, ammunition and explosives close to the border. The size this cache was such that it took 4 trucks to transport all of the material to Camp Bondsteel. To give you the details: the cache included 2 rifle caliber machine guns, one large caliber machine gun, a shoulder launch anti tank rocket, more than 12,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition, some 160 mortar bombs, 3 anti -tank missiles, some 60 rocket propelled grenades some 70 other grenades and also some 70 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. This major weapons and ammunitions find demonstrates that KFOR continues to work hard and successfully in the border area. Media Meeting Today at 5p, Lt General Carlo Cabigiosu is pleased to hold an informal meeting with media. All accredited media representatives are invited to attend. Refreshments will be provided. Pristina University Tomorrow, Com KFOR will meet with students of Pristina University at 1130a in the auditorium of the University. NATO Visit To follow up on Mr. Keats' announcement, on the 4th of April Lord Robertson should hold a press conference in Film City, i.e. KFOR Main. Interested media representatives should contact Media Ops to coordinate transport. Heffer Replacement Finally, KFOR does not normally comment on troop movements for security reasons however I can say on Thursday that squadron leader Richard Heffer will be flying to the U.K. Therefore, I would like to introduce my replacement Squadron Leader Roy Brown. UNHCR Spokesman Tony Land New Arrivals The five UNHCR Field Offices reporter on the caseload in their
respective areas, according to information received from various
organizations: This total is slightly higher than those recorded on the caseload into Kosovo, which could be due to the fact that either not everyone was noticed when crossing into Kosovo and/or some moved to another address in Kosovo without de-registering. It is hoped that the UNMIK/UNHCR registration exercise will clarify the number of persons arrived. 8483 persons have arrived in Kosovo since 16 February 2001. Interviewing of caseload Three extra Protection Interview teams were sent to Prizren for a few days to assist in interviewing of the new arrivals. This will provide more comprehensive information on the background and reasons for departure. The first initial report is expected to be finalized in the course of Monday 2, April. Krivenik village As reported previously, after the attack on the village on 28 March, resulting in the deaths of 3 civilians, the population left the village. KFOR reported today that they located the weapons cache in the border area couth of the village. Amongst other items, a large quantity of ammunition was seized, and a number of mines, hand grenades, explosives, and three anti-tank missiles were discovered and removed from the scene. Humanitarian Assistance UNHCR continued to distribute Non Food Items such as blankets, mattresses, hygienic kits and jerry cans to the new arrivals on an as needed basis. In the Prizren area, CRS distributed food items (bread, flour, oil and food rations) while additionally other humanitarian organizations also distributed food and non-food items to the new arrivals. UNMIK Police Spokesman Dmitri Kaportsev Crime Update The weekly crime index indicates that number of major crimes remains on a stable level with 92 crimes registered in comparison with 97 last weeks. One murder was reported in Pec/Peja Region. The victim has not yet been identified three people were killed in the incident in Krivenik village. Two aggravated assaults were reported in Gnjilane (1) and in Pec (1). Two kidnappings were reported as compared to (6) cases last week and the facts occurred in Gnjilane (1), Prizren (1). The victims were both Kosovo-Albanians. Twelve cases of arson were reported in the Province compared to (4) last week. A total of 127 persons were arrested during the week including (6) arrests for major crimes. An overview of the total crime activity in Kosovo indicates that crime situation remains stable. This week the total number of crimes has increased to 549 cases in comparison with 518 cases last week. Questions: Q: We all know the borders are tight with increased presence. There was a seizure of weapons recently. Were they brought by KFOR after the shelling or were they brought there earlier? H: The short answer to that is that, I am afraid that, I don't know when these weapons were located in that area. Q: Can the people of Kosovo be sure that the 40,000 KFOR soldiers of 39 nations are keeping them safe so that they can live free and be sure that someone will not kill them from the other side of the border? H: KFOR's mission, as you well know, is to ensure a return to a peaceful life for all of the people of Kosovo and for a return to normalization within Kosovo. Obviously the amount of troops that we have along the border area has increased recently and will continue to help with our heightened operations and to ensure that there is peaceful life for all of the people of the border area with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Q: Have we had any concrete results in the investigation of the mortar shell last week from the Macedonian side into Kosovo? H: The investigations that have been set up by KFOR, and will be reporting back to our higher authorities, i.e. AF South and NATO, are ongoing and it would be wrong of me to actually say what those investigations are until they have been fully looked at and announced by NATO or AF South. Q: Do you know if the border with Macedonia is opened today as it was promised? MK: It wasn't promised. As you recall the word was "it will be open within a few days" and that was two days ago. At the moment it is still closed. Q: Do you expect the border to be opened today? MK: No. I don't know is what I mean. Q: Can you tell us who knows about it and who we can ask about it? MK: The Macedonian authorities have closed the border. Following talks between the SRSG, the Macedonian President, the Macedonian Prime Minister, the Macedonian Foreign Minister, the Macedonian line was, that if the security situation was improved, the borders would be opened within a few days. That is where we stand. Q: Mr. Haekkerup said in Skopje several days ago that KFOR apprehended 44 Albanian men who are believed to be in the UCK in Macedonia. Can you tell us some details about those 44 men and how do you define who is a UCK member and who is not? H: The simple question…I don't want to go into figures at the moment simply because I don't have any up to date figures. I am afraid, that we detained a considerable number of people along the border area. Those people were detained and suspected on reasonable suspicion of being involved in violent activities in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. They are obviously processing them and we are looking at our individual cases where they will be dealt with according to international and local laws. DK: Let me follow up. You mentioned 44 people. The only information that I can marry up with this information is that 44 people were handed over to UNMIK police in the Prizren area and they have been formally charged with illegal possession of weapons and possible illegal border crossing. So, our investigation is ongoing so I can't comment on this. But they have been kept in UNMIK detention facilities and investigators are working with them as they are also working with the evidence that has been given to UNMIK police including the weapons. Q: The Macedonian Government was supposed to give an answer in two days as to who shot in Krivenik. It has been three days. Do you know who shot in Krivenik? What can you do if someone shoots into Kosovo? You are in charge of security here. What can you do to protect the civilians in Kosovo? H: I think if you would have listened to the answer I gave earlier, I actually covered that. Our investigations are ongoing. We do not know where the mortar was fired from, exactly the mortar locations, we do not know who fired them, so obviously these questions should be addressed when the investigation comes up with concrete results and these are announced. As I said, both KFOR and Multi National Brigade East have been tasked with the investigation which they will report to AF South and to NATO. Q: Why has the import of electricity stopped? MK: I don't know about the importing of electricity being stopped but I do have a note from the European Union here that says that A3 is producing 130 MG and B2 is producing 70 MG. The contract for imports, which were to cover the winter period, ended on April 1st. The cold weather has caused the high demand so there was some load shedding yesterday and that apparently from tomorrow forward, everything should be ok. Q: How long does it take for one professional army to investigate where the mortars came from and what kind of weapons they are? And do you have any information if the UCK possessed these kinds of mortars? H: I don't have any information of what type of weapons may have been used in the mortar attack. As I have said now on a couple of occasions, the result of the investigation will be given by Multi National Brigade East, our chain of command. They will then look at those results and they will then comment and produce results of that investigation,. So it is wrong of me even to consider talking about the investigation until it is fully completed. Q: We all know that there was a videotape made by an Apache helicopter the day and time the mortar shells started. Can we get more details than this on this specific issue? Also how much is UNMIK concerned that the Kosovo territory was violated? MK: Of course we are very concerned and these concerns were relayed to the Macedonian authorities by Mr. Haekkerup on Friday. H: I am not aware of any video surveillance footage made by any of our KFOR U.S. helicopters in the area. I would need to speak to Multi National Brigade East about that. Q: When can we expect the results of the investigation? It seems like in every big issue you talk less and less. I think the people are very worried about what happened days ago in Kosovo. H: You are obviously entitled to your opinion and equally yes I understand that the people of Kosovo are very concerned about it and equally KFOR is very concerned about it and I think I can speak on this occasion for UNMIK that they are equally concerned, the international community is very concerned. This is why this investigation shouldn't be jumping to any conclusions prematurely. This investigation should be detailed and therefore I am unable to say how long that will take. Q: Does KFOR believe that the weapons found in Krivenik on Saturday night were in a base for the NRA? Also, in the press release it just says that the Polish soldiers just happened upon this. Why were they going to that are and what intelligence did they have that there might be some kind of base there? H: It would be wrong of me to talk about what kind of intelligence was used in such an operation. Obviously again for the details of this operation, you would need to talk to Multi National Brigade East to find out exactly what happened and why that happened. Q: Was it believed to be some sort of base for the NRA or some supply area? H: I am afraid that I don't know. Q: Is the NLA active inside the Kosovo territory? And where exactly are they active? H: As I stated previously, KFOR has worked over the past few weeks to make sure that the border is closed as securely as possible. We have a large amount of troops in the area, they are conducting robust patrolling measures, we have aerial surveillance measures, we also have high technology surveillance along the border. With all the surveillance and all of the personnel along the border, when we find evidence of illegal activity, as per this weapons cache, we deal with that as quickly and efficiently as possible. Looking at the reports that I have been looking at and also have been putting out to yourselves over the last 2 to 3 weeks, yes there is some small level of illegal activity. When we have seen it, we have dealt with it. Q: Was KFOR in Krivenik before all of this started? H: Again I have to point you to Multi National Brigade East about such detailed information about troop movements and positions. I am afraid that I always don't have such information.
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