|
UNMIK-KFOR-OSCE-EU-UNHCR Press Briefing, 16 August 2001 UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel Susan Manuel Covic meeting As you know Mr. Haekkerup met yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia Nebojsa Covic, who also met with COMKFOR General Skiaker in a separate meeting in Merdare at Gate 3. It was a long hot meeting with a very constructive dialogue that covered a range of issues. Mr. Haekkeup's principle message to Dr. Covic was that all of Kosovo must fall under 1244 and that no parallel administrative or security structures should be allowed. He also asked for Covic's help in ensuring that Mitrovica and Northern Kosovo participate in the administration of Kosovo as led by UNMIK and the joint structures.. He also encouraged Mr. Covic to do more to convince Kosovo Serbs to register and to vote in November. In the previous meeting with KFOR, Southern Serbia was discussed and you have seen the read-out from that in the media. Mr. Haekkerup and Mr. Covic plan to meet with representatives of the association of missing person in Gracanica, probably late next week. Mr. Covic also plans to meet with the 16 Kosovo Serb prisoners who are on hunger strike currently at the Mitrovica Detention Center. Mitrovica hunger strike Regarding those prisoners, who are now entering their second week on a hunger strike, the department of Penal Management of the DJA are examining some of their demands which involve quality of life in the detention center. However we will not discuss or address the fifth issue, which is their claim that they are political prisoners. Most of these prisoners are either serving sentences or are somewhere in the judicial process of being tried. A few of the 24 Serb prisoners have not been indicted and the DJA are working to speed up the procedure. Following the escapes last year of prisoners from the detention center, the jail was refurbished and measures were put into place to prevent further escapes. This means the inmates have few amenities. Also, the detention center is not a prison, but a detention center designed as a temporary holding facility. Prisoners are to serve sentences in a real prison, for example Dubrava. But because we still lack the resources to house Serb inmates in Dubrava, they are serving their sentences in the detention center, which was not designed for such long term incarceration. However, as I said, the Judicial affairs department is looking into how to make some improvements in the conditions there. As far as medical attention, the ICRC visits the hunger strikers regularly. For your information, there are 24 Serbs and 28 Albanians currently in the detention center. Cady arrival Today the new head of Pillar I, Police and Justice, is due to arrive. He is Jean-Christian Cady, of France, 57. He comes here most recently from the United Nations Mission in East Timor, which has a similar mandate to UNMIK's in that there the UN have been the administration of the territory. In East Timor Mr. Cady was the DSRSG and cabinet member for Police and Emergency. Previously he was a French prefect and the Inspector General of Administration in the French Ministry of Interior. Sewage Deaths There was a tragic accident yesterday in Shtimlje where two people died and one was injured at a sewage canalization site. Apparently a large amount of sand and debris collapsed on them, burying them. Two men killed were from Ferizaj and Pristina. They were working on a sewage canalization project. The men were working for a private company which was approved by the municipality. Police are investigating the case. Property Tax As Mike Todd has said earlier, UNMIK is in the process of preparing a
property tax regulation which will be promulgated in the near future. In
order to prepare for its implementation, a pilot project has been
ongoing in Obilic, where the municipal assembly voted to go ahead with a
property tax proposal to raise money for community needs… There all
properties have been being surveyed. The first tax bills are expected in
October. Water Several Serb communities around Pristina have been experiencing severe water cuts lately. Particularly the communities of Kisnica, Susica and Caglavica were affected. These were all technical failures, which were compounded by the fact that the Serb workers at Batlava have no means of direct communication with the Water company headquarters and could not report the problem immediately. The problem has been resolved for now, but the utility companies are now to set up technical units in Gracanica as soon as possible to deal more urgently with such problems. In an unrelated water problem, Before he left recently, PDSRSG Gary Matthews instructed UNMIK Police to look into the issue of illegal water connections to various villages around Pristina, along with transmission pipe from the Albanic water treatment plant. KPS Tomorrow six KPS officers will be promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel in a ceremony tomorrow at the Grand Hotel at 10:30 a.m. the Media is invited. There were two grenade attacks on the 14th-one in Urosevac thrown into
the house of a Russian woman. In Livoc village, Gjnilane area,
unknown suspects threw a grenade which exploded in the yard of a Kosovo
Serb residence. No injuries were reported in either
incident. On 16 August, the Department of Education and Science will launch a Public Awareness Campaign on Education. A press conference will be held today at 1500 hrs in the Rectorate office of the University of Pristina. The campaign will involve a series of presentations to increase public awareness of the work in all sectors of education. Key issues will include: draft regulations on general and vocational education, and higher education; minority issues; achievements by agencies; teacher training, budget problems; and an outlook on the new academic year beginning on 3rd September for schools and on 1st October for the university. Howard Rhoades Reports that KFOR solidiers from MNB Center were called to deactivate a huge bomb in the center of Lipjan were not correct, KFOR can confirm today. Initial reports indicating that the KFOR bomb disposal teams from MNB Center dealt with a bomb which had been thrown from a car are incorrect. It is important that the people of Lipjan are aware that there was no bomb. The KFOR soldiers who dealt with the suspect package discovered it to be a rusty can. KFOR takes the security of the people of Lipjan very seriously and that is why soldiers cordoned off the area and mounted a detailed search. At the time more that 300 Serb children had just arrived in Lipjan for a special holiday and the bomb scare caused great concern for the parents. KFOR also takes the security of Serbs very seriously indeed. The fact that this patrol spotted something they were suspicious of demonstrated their vigilance and awareness. Claire Trevena We are near the end of the third week of the voters service procedure, the updating of the voters list. So far we have had quite a low turnout. So if I can ask you to remind your viewers, listeners, and readers that if you don't know where to vote, you can go to he Voters Service Center or if you voted last year and had a problem, you should go to the Voters Service Center or if you didn't vote last year but are now eligible to vote, you should also go to a Voters Service Center. This will save confusion on election day. It only takes about 5 minutes to update the voters list and it will save about 5 hours of waiting in line on election day if people go now. The pace is pretty similar at the combined Registration and Voters Service Center. These are the ones where the communities boycotted the elections last year. But outside of Kosovo we are very heartened by both the vocal support of the Serbian authorities and by the figures, which are still low but are going up steadily. Meanwhile the CEC (Central Election Commission) is continuing to prepare the rules for the election. It is again meeting this afternoon where there are more political entities up for certification. Just to clarify, the reason the CEC is taking this approach of certifying in batches, they did 10 last week and 5 this week, is purely administrative. The first one were certifies were largely those that had the rule on submission of 1000 signatures for certification waived because they got more than 1000 votes in the last election. This obviously saved the CEC time processing them because they didn't have to verify 1000 signatures. Finally a Media Appeals Board is meeting today under the auspices of the Temporary Media Commissioner. It is hearing an appeal by Epoka e Re on the sanctioned decision by the Temporary Media Commissioner in February. At that time, Epoka e Re was fined 5000 DM. Betty Dawson Rehabilitation of power units at K-A A financial agreement has been signed between, the financial arm of the German Government, KfW and KEK, for rehabilitation work to be carried out on the power plant Kosovo A. This work is part of the emergency measures necessary for the future stability of the units. The total amount of the project is 23 Million DM, KfW contributing 12 Million DM and KEK providing 11 Million DM. The funds will pay for the supply of spare parts and auxiliary equipment from qualified suppliers for the refurbishment of essential parts of units 3 and 4 as well as of cross-units parts of the power plant such as pumps, air systems, system of lignite supply and ash removal,, cooling system, insulators. The measures include environmental measures such as the repair and/or partial replacement of electrical filters and the related ash removal systems as well as sanitation works to reduce the pollution of water and soil by oil and chemicals. The funding also provides for consultancy work by the consortium of VEAG Power Consult/STEAG Encotec (Consultant). It is anticipated that the project will start immediately, as all preparatory works have already been completed, and be completed by mid December when electricity demand normally starts growing rapidly. Unit A4 went down on Sunday 12th due to leaks in the boiler system. It was synchronised at 8.00 and is now producing 70 MW increasing to 120 MW later today. Unit A3 has developed a problem with economizer. The unit will be shut down over the weekend for repair. A contract for imports is in place but as the demand exceeds expectation we will have loadshedding, 3 hours with and 3 hours without electricity. Improvement to water supply in Sunny Hill area The installation of 600 metres of a new 450 mm diameter pipeline in the Sunny Hill area of Pristina has just been completed. The new pipeline, which is directly connected to the Albanic Water Treatment Plant, will provide an improved pressure and flow to a previously poorly supplied part of the city located on high ground. The funding for the project, total cost 160,000 DM, was provided by CDF to the amount of 95,000 DM, with Batllava Water Company contributing the remaining 65,000 DM from their own resources. Mr. Caush Barushi, Director of Batllava Water Company, on the completion of the project, expressing his sincere thanks to CDF for their contribution, also thanked the customers of Batllava for the high level of revenue collected, saying that "the project would not have been possible if Batllava customers had not paid their bills for water consumed". Anthony Land Figures Total Number of Arrivals Since the Beginning of the
Conflict: 81,187 Estimated number of returnees
approximately
25,371 Estimated Total remaining 56,816 The traffic at the border was rather quiet today. Despite the positive developments in the last couple of days in FYROM, some people were still coming into Kosovo, while the number of returnees was not as high as one would expect. Hani I Elezit/Blace Arrivals mostly come from Kumanovo and the neighbourhood of Skopje. They came to Kosovo as a precautionary measure. One arrival reported that he was asked to buy beer for the Macedonian police at Stankovac checkpoint to proceed to Kosovo. The German border police told us that the Macedonian border officials allowed 2-3 Yugoslav passport holders with Swiss residence permit to cross into Kosovo last night. The Macedonian handling of Yugoslav passport holders apparently differs from one official to another. One refugee currently staying in Pristina municipality approached us at the border to find out whether his four children, completely undocumented, could go back to Macedonia through Brace border. Another man, a holder of a Convention Travel Document issued by the UK, was rejected by the Macedonian border officials. A majority of returnees were headed to Skopje area (Racale), Haracino and Hasanbeg. A small number of people went back to Kumanovo and Cerkez. OXFAM from Pristina office visited the border to check the site for setting up water system (toilets, drinking water) in anticipation of mass return in the near future. Globocica Arrivals come from Tetovo area (Odri) and Jazince (those men from Jazince came to pick up their families). Almost all returnees went back to Jazince: They (the majority women and children) had escaped to Kosovo last Friday. The road from Jazince to Tetovo remains closed. Questions: Q: Betty, how much electricity does Kosovo need? You said you
produced 70 megawatts but you didn't say how much Kosovo actually
needs. Q: So are you going to buy everyone in Kosovo a
generator? Q: I have to follow up on this one. KEK has been getting millions of DM here since the beginning. Are we talking about corruption, or is anything really being done on Kosova A and B? BD: I can assure you that a lot of work is being done. I was here last year after the overhaul of B2, which we couldn't complete in the time available and we had to bring the unit up before the work was completed. There has been talk about corruption and I can't really make any comment because there are various investigations going on. But it costs a lot of money, there's a lot of work going on and will continue to go on because we do have a strategy plan for essential needs for KEK until 2004. Q: Do you have some figures about registration? Q: Expected numbers around 200,000 I think? Is it still possible
to make this kind of figure? Q: There are more than 400 people arrested for illegally crossing
the border into Macedonia or Albania. What happened with these people? Are
they in prison or around? Q: I wanted to follow up about the power supply. I think we all
accept the reasons we have power reductions, but we're bothered by not
knowing when it is going to cut off and come back on on a daily basis. Is
there a way we can know this? Secondly, the winter. With the
explosion of building, the houses are not being equipped with central
heating and the people are relying on fan operated, central space heaters.
We know these pull a lot of electricity, like air conditioners. When
you've predicted the need over the winter has that been factored
in? Q: Can you tell us how much is turnout of paying bills for entire
Kosovo? Q: What is the UNMIK Administration doing to work with KEK? What
measures are being taken to collect these bills? Q: What is the turnout for Turkish minority in Prizren for voter
registration? Q: Given that we have a peace deal in Macedonia and 400 rebels in
prison, will there be an amnesty for them?
|