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UNMIK- KFOR-UNHCR-OSCE-EU Press Briefing, 17 May 2001 UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel We are going to start off today's briefing by Mr. Andy Bearpark on the Value Added Tax. Please after he is finished ask him questions and then we will go on with the regular briefing. DSRSG Andy Bearpark Taxes are boring. I know you want to talk about far more exciting things like security, etc. But taxes aren't really boring. They can actually be quite interesting and I wasn't to enthuse you a bit today with the VAT, which will not be an easy task, but I will do it. At Tuesday in the IAC it was a historic day because that was the day that the SRSG was able to sign the Constitutional Framework and we can now move forward to the Kosovo wide elections in November. I know that is historic and I know it is very important, but I do believe that the agreement in the IAC on Tuesday on the VAT, the Value Added Tax regulation, was equally historic in its own way. The reason is that taxes are an essential part of our lives, we know that. Nobody likes to pay them but the fact is that we in Kosovo need to raise revenue, need to collect taxes to provide essential services like doctors, nurses, teachers, mending the roads as in any society. Now when the international community first arrived in Kosovo at the end of the bombing there was nothing. That was understandable and so systems had to be put in place very quickly to enable money to be collected to spend on these essential services. However there was a balance to be struck. Speed was essential and that meant that some of the taxes that had to be put in place were slightly tricky ones, they ha some slightly unusual or adverse effects. That was inevitable and the right decision to put them there. But now we are a long way on from there. The Kosovo of today is not the Kosovo of 20 months ago and so we can do things slightly differently. The reason that I am so enthused about the Value Added Tax is that the future of Kosovo lies in Europe. There is no doubt about that. There is no doubt in the minds of the people of the European Union and I hope that there is no doubt in the mind of the people of Kosovo. So now what we have been able to do is say we will move to a truly European standard. The Value Added Tax is the prime method of tax collection on consumption. Don't worry about these stupid technical terms; it is what you buy in the shops. That is the prime method of tax collection on what you buy in the shops throughout the European Union and what we are now doing is introducing exactly the same system here in Kosovo. For the first time Kosovo will put its hand up and say we really are part of Europe in terms of the way things work. They do not have value added tax in North America. They do things differently there. But you in Kosovo are doing it in the European way. So I really am excited that we have reached this stage because it has taken an awful lot of hard work, hard work on behalf of the Kosovars working in the Central Fiscal Authority, hard work on the part of the various advisors and hard work on the part of the European Commission. The IAC agreed to the regulation on Tuesday and now we are doing all the preparatory work to introduce the Value Added Tax on the first of July this year. There will be lots of briefings from the CFA in the weeks and months to come to explain to the traders and firms how it works. I want to emphasize two aspects of it. 1 - very much like the
Euro, the introduction of the Value Added Tax does not immediately hurt
the man on the street. The rate of tax at the moment is 15%, that is the
rate of the sales tax we have. So when you are or readers or
colleagues go into the shops you won't even know that it has
happened. You will pay the same thing as before. The second
point is that it gets rid of a lot of things that are actually
disadvantaging Kosovar businesses and it means that these businesses will
now be able to compete much better in terms of exports on the same playing
field as European nations are already doing. It is about the future
of Kosovo. This is not a new tax. This is replacing the taxes
and bringing us in line with the European
nations. Q: What is the tax going to be?
SRSG in Tirana Yesterday, SRSG Hans Haekkerup was in Tirana participating in the Southeast European Cooperation Process meeting, along with foreign ministers of eight Balkans nations. UNMIK Pillar I On Monday, Gary Matthews will give a presentation on the new UNMIK Pillar I, which will be concerned with law and order: UNMIK police, KPS and the Department of Judicial Affairs will fall under this pillar, which has been established to concentrate more energy and efforts on law enforcement and the justice system. Mr. Matthews, who is the Principal Deputy special representative of the Secretary General, will head the new UNMIK Pillar. KPS Report From the police today, members of the Kosovo Police Service arrested three Kosovo Albanian suspects in connection with the murder of a Kosovo Albanian man yesterday in Vitina. He had been shot several times in a petrol station. Also yesterday, KPS officers arrested one suspect after he shot at someone in front of the Grand Hotel. He will be charged with attempted murder. There was a confrontation yesterday evening between Serbs and Albanians in Northern Mitrovica. There were shots exchanged. UNMIK Police and KFOR eventually stabilized the situation.
Good Morning. And it is a good morning for KFOR after the good news day yesterday. UCPMB By late last night, the total number of ethnic Albanians that have given themselves up to KFOR troops had risen to almost 100. All of them entered Kosovo at the same checkpoint near the village of Zemurska Mahala. Weapons Found Yesterday afternoon, KFOR soldiers stopped and searched a truck near Mucibaba. The truck, which was heading towards the Ground Safety Zone, contained 175 rocket propelled grenades, other assorted grenades and small arms ammunition, three rifles, two machine guns and military uniforms. The truck and its cargo was taken to Camp Bondsteel and the driver detained. Also last evening, a joint US and Russian KFOR patrol, acting on information received, discovered an arms cache near the village of Vela Glava. As the patrol approached, they came under fire from armed extremists defending the weapons cache. This was met with a robust response, the patrol returning fire with a variety of weapons, injuring one man. He and five others were later detained and a significant quantity of arms ammunition and other military equipment was recovered, including eight mortars. Sector B These incidents characterize KFOR's policy in the run up to the
re-entry of FRY forces to Sector Bravo of the Ground Safety Zone. We
will continue our aggressive patrolling of the boundary and intercept both
men and materials destined for the ethnic Albanian armed groups
there. If attacked, we will respond in a robust manner and with
appropriate force. But, for those that heed our message, to turn
their backs on extremism and violence and lay down their weapons, we will
be true to our word. As COMKFOR said yesterday; "With the
exception of persons suspected of having committed serious crimes, members
of armed groups who lay down their weapons and cross that boundary will be
released after a screening procedure". Media Event Finally, a media advisory. General Quinlan, the Commander of Multinational Brigade East will hold a press conference at Camp Montieth on Sunday 20th May at 1630. Further details on that from our Media Ops team. UNHCR
Spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort Table 1: Internally Displaced
(IDP’s) from Preshevo Valley
Total arrivals from
Preshevo Valley
3028 Table 2: Arrivals from FYROM
Date Blace
border (official border
crossing) Blace
border (unofficial bordercrossing (*1) Jazince
Border (official border
crossing) Jazince
unofficial border crossing (hills/
mountains around
Jazince into Gni.AOR) Mountains into
Dragash and Zhupa Valley (Prizren AOR From
fYROM through Preshevo Valley-Muchibaba border crossing into
Kosovo Total 3
May
209
209 4
May
342 200
542 5
May
200 100 13
313 6
May
1022
85 150 900(*2) 20 2177 7 May
1500 1300 330 580(*3)
4 3714 8 May
301
229 240
9
4 783
9
May
132 180
88
400 10
May
112
195
50
357 11
May
78
67
30 18 193
12
May
90
58
12 28 188 13
May
13
41
4 58
14
May
22
46
4
2
74 15
May
16
15
31 16
May
25
25 Total
4037 2216 1104 100 1541
41 9064
The
total of arrivals from fYROM since 3 May including those that arrived
during February and March and have not yet returned: approx. 18,064 (assuming that the
Feb/March caseload is approx.9000) (*1)Please note that
for Blace border those with passports can cross the official border crossing ; those
without passport have so far had to revert to taking the mountain route
which leads straight into Hani I Elezit/Deneral Jankovic (the so called
unofficial border crossing) (*2) of these 900, 650
went to Dragash area (Opoja) and 250 to Prizren town. All were from Brodec
village near Tetovo (*3)The 580 were
mainly from Vesale (500 went to Opoja, 80 to Prizren. Two families were
reported from Shipkovica village Total displaced from
FYROM and Preshevo Valley since February and March
21,088T Arrivals from Preshevo Valley While the influx from fYROM was decreasing to an average of 30-50 a day (of which over 50% reverted once again to the unofficial border crossing due to lack of documents), a new wave of displaced people entered Kosovo. Following renewed fighting in Preshevo Valley just outside the GSZ, people started to move since Sunday night (13 May) into Kosovo. As of today, Thursday 17 May over 3000 people have entered Kosovo from Preshevo valley, crossing through both official and unoffical border crossings. The movement is ongoing as we speak. The rate of new arrivals has however slightly decreased as of Wednesday when fighting in Oraovica reportedly stopped. Only yesterday until this morning over 650 people entered, who still fear the military build up and high potential for clashes in the area. Most of the new arrivals were coming mainly from Preshevo town and Orahovici, where most of the fighting took place during the past week. Today there were also new arrivals from Kurbalija village. A number of new arrivals coming from Southern Serbia were interviewed at the Mucibaba crossing point while they were waiting in a queue. The delay was caused by KFOR who had embarked on intensive checking procedures before the displaced could be allowed to cross the border. People from Preshevo Town consistently report that
there is a visible VJ military build-up inside the town UNHCR has increased its presence in the critical reception areas with teams, tents and/or and reception centres (both at the official and unofficial border crossings) and is continuously monitoring and assisting the new arrivals. In cooperation with other organisations, busses and trucks are on standby that transports the displaced to their final destination. UNHCR in cooperation with ICRC has so far succeeded in putting up all displaced- even those without any contacts in Kosovo- with host families. From time to time a family will overnight in the dormitory, but so far all families were transferred the same or following day to family homes. The cooperation with other agencies and KFOR is ongoing and very good. FYROM People continued to arrive from fYROM throughout the week though in limited numbers. The total of arrivals from fYROM, including those displaced during the initial fighting in February/March is over 18,000. Eric Morris Statement The Special Envoy Mr.Eric Morris was present in
Lucane on Wednesday where NATO together with Albanian and Serbian
representatives continued efforts to implement a process of
demilitarisation of Lucane. Following is a statement of Mr.
Morris: UNHCR remains extremely concerned about the expeditious return of Sector B to the Serbian forces and wants to stress the humanitarian consequences that could be a result of this decision. UNHCR has continuously and continues to do so, called on all parties to show constraint and focus on moving forward in a peaceful manner. In a statement earlier this week Mr. Eric Morris said: " We very much believe that this matter can be resolved in a peaceful and political manner and therefore believe that the coming days are crucial in addressing and making significant steps forward with the most critical confidence building measures, in particular a multi-ethnic police force, that have been under discussion for many months now. We call on the authorities of the Federal Government and the Republic of Serbia to show maximum constraint. We have been most concerned that confidence-building measures have yet to convince the population that their well-being is taken into consideration. In addition we want to urge the Albanian leaders to understand that their actions in the next few days will have severe consequences in terms of the well-being of the civilian population"
Election Preparations On Monday, as you know, the SRSG announced that elections for a Kosovo-wide assembly will take place on November 17th this year and, on Tuesday, he signed the framework document which outlines the make-up of that assembly and the electoral system which will be employed to elect it. The OSCE, which will be responsible for organizing the poll, welcomes both decisions. We now have a clearly defined goal to work towards and a clearly defined timeframe in which to make the necessary preparations. The timeline - exactly six months - is tight. But we will be working flat out between now and November 17th to ensure that these elections reach the highest possible international standards. A lot of preparatory work has already been done since the beginning of the year. The foundations have already been laid. The Central Election Commission, for example, has been meeting over the past month. And we expect them to start issuing the rules, which will govern the conduct of the elections, very soon. We've also been working closely with our partners - Pillar 2 here in Kosovo as well as IOM - on the business of updating the voters' list. That operation will get underway - both in Kosovo and outside - later this summer. Human Rights Training Members of Kosovo's municipal Communities Committees will be taking part in the first of a series of training courses on human rights this week. The workshops have being organised by the OSCE-run Institute of Civil Administration and the OSCE Department of Human Rights and Rule of Law, with the cooperation of the JIAS Department of Local Administration. The Communities Committees are responsible for ensuring that the basic fundamental rights, which everyone is entitled to, are respected in their municipalities. The workshop will take place in Prizren tomorrow. It will then be held at different locations around Kosovo over the coming weeks. We will be issuing a press release on that event shortly. Democratic Governance and Civil Society Press Conference Next Tuesday, May 22nd, the OSCE-supported Depart |