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UNMIK-KFOR-UNHCR-UNMIK Police, 18 June 2001 UN Spokeswoman Susan Manuel Susan Manuel UN Spokeswoman Health Briefing Following this briefing we will have a special briefing by the Dept. of Health and Social Services to introduce the new health policy for Kosovo. Security Council Meeting The United Nations Security Council delegation left early this morning for Belgrade, along with SRSG Hans Haekkerup. They will have meetings with President Kostunica and other officials and they will hold a press briefing this afternoon. Late last night, the Council President, Ambassador Chowdhury and the ambassadors from Colombia, Jamaica, Singapore, the UK and the US met representatives of Kosovo women's NGOs and civil society. Participants agreed on the need for greater involvement by Kosovo women in political and economic activities in the province and that it was important that women should have a place at the negotiating table and in peace-building activities There will be a press release on the meeting later today. Obviously they had a very full schedule, made more complicated with yesterday's meeting with Russian federation Vladimir Putin. The meeting with the Russian Federation president caused the Security Council to cancel the planned visit to Dubrava Prison. The Council also met earlier with representatives of the Council of former Detainees, who presented Ambassador Chowdhury with a petition demanding the release of all 245 K Albanian prisoners now in Serbian prisons. I believe the rest of their schedule is well known to you all. Hombach Visit Mr. Bodo Hombach, special coordinator for the Balkans stability pact,
arrives in Pristina Mr. Geoana Mircea, the OSCE Chairman in Office, will meet SRSG Hans Haekkerup tomorrow. Mircea is the Foreign Minister of Romania. Judicial Cases Verdict on Zoran Stanojevic case will be delivered at 1600 hours today. Trial started in January with many interruptions. A panel of two international and one Kosovo judge has been reviewing the case. Charge is murder, in connection with the Racak case. On Friday, a panel of three international judges sitting in Pristina District Court sentenced Imer Sfarqa to eight years in prison. On 20 August of last year, Mr. Sfarqa drove into a group of Kosovo Serb school children in Skolonovo near Lipjan , killing one six year old child and injuring two others. Mr. Sfarqa was convicted of committing a grave act against public safety. On Thursday, in the District Court of Prizren, the war crimes trial against Cedomir Jovanovic and Andjelko Kolasinac was completed. JOVANOVIC was convicted of war crimes against the civilian population, as described by article 143 Yugoslav Criminal Code, and sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment. KOLAŠINAC was convicted of hiding evidence, as described in article 174 of the Kosovo Criminal Code, and sentenced to five years of imprisonment. Officer Remembered We at UNMIK would like to express our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Officer Mohamed Ali, a member of UNMIK police from Bangladesh. Officer Ali died on Friday, 15 June, in his apartment, apparently of natural causes. A memorial Service was held yesterday in the UNMIK HQ building. Sqdrn. Ldr. Roy Brown KFOR Spokesman After a busy weekend for all of us due to the visit of the UN Security Council to Kosovo, the new week has started for KFOR with the re-opening of the weapons destruction furnace in Kobiliq/Obilic this morning, and COMKFOR, Lt. General Thorstein Skiaker emphasized the efforts made during the weapons amnesty due to the cooperation by the Kosovar citizens. KFOR is currently several numbers of operations in order to interdict any supply for extremists trying to operate within Kosovo or who just try to use Kosovo as a safe transit route for their illegal activities. We conduct search operations on a daily basis, as well as this we have reinforced our border troops. And we are also conducting illumination operations. This means that we light up the darkness at the borders in order to have a better view on any illegal movements or activities. Let me give you some figures to show how effective we are. During the past two weeks, since we have started robust measures toward extremists' activities. we have seized some 109 rifles, including assault rifles, 75 pistols, 48 support weapons, including machine guns, a total of 505 grenades of different types, most of them hand grenades and more than 33,5000 rounds of various small arms ammunition. Finally, we arrested 65 individuals. I'd like also to announce that KFOR will be running a claims office up
at KFOR Headquarters Main. The kind of claims that will be handled
by the KFOR claims office is: Astrid Van Genderen Stort UNHCR
Spokeswoman The total of arrivals from fYROM since 3 May including those that arrived during Feb/March/April and have not yet returned: approx. 47,892 assuming that the Feb/March/April caseload is approx.9000) Arrivals from fYROM The number of arrivals through Blace and other borders continued all through the weekend, allthough at a lower rate than earlier last week. On Friday over 1500 people crossed Blace and Jazince/Globocica border crossing, many still coming from the Skopje area ( namely Saraj, Haraqina, Nigishtan, Konov, Svilare/Sillare, Luboten, Konare, and Hasabeg) and Tetovo town, Gostivar area, Bogovin, Krcove, Goshka, Recica and Dobrosht. The majority of the refugees proceeded to Kacanik, Viti/Vitina, Ferizaj/Urosevac, and Gjilan/Gnilane municipalities. On Sunday the number of new arrivals had decreased to 557 people. With 27,000 new arrivals in less than 10 days , UNHCR Kosovo/Kosovoa remains however extremely concerned and alert and continues to watch the situation in fYROM closely. The total number of displaced people from fYROM since May is close to 39,000 people making the total since February up to 48,000. The major reasons stated were fear of further escalation. Reports of harrassement, bribery and stopping of undocumented male, continue. Among the new arrivals were also Slav Muslims (Bosniak, Gorani, Sandjak Muslims) mostly from Prilep, Lubin and Hasanbeg. These persons proceeded mostly to Rozaj area in Montenegro, with several individuals heading to Dragash, Mitrovica and Prizren. In southern Serbia over 700 Macedonian citizens of different ethnic background were reported entering at the end of last week, bringing the total of arrivals from fYROM to over 3500. UNHCR has repeatedly expressed concern about the situation in Macedonia. Derek Chappell UNMIK Police Spokesman Major Anti-Prostitution Initiative UNMIK Police in Prizren carried out one of its largest operations on Saturday night, targeting prostitution and the organized trafficking of women into Kosovo. Acting on Police and KFOR information a search warrant was obtained from the Prizren District Public Prosecutor's Office in respect of a number of bars and cafes where foreign women were allegedly working as prostitutes. At 9 pm on Saturday, June 16, a coordinated raid involving almost 150 officers took place. An area of Prizren near the Bus Station was sealed off by Argentine and Ukrainian Special Police Units and the MSU Carabinieri. 15 businesses within that area were then isolated and searched by UNMIK Police and the KPS. All occupants were questioned and identified. Each location was then searched for weapons, explosives and drugs by trained dogs from the Ukrainian Special Police Unit and German K-FOR. 34 foreign women were found working at these 15 bars and cafes. All were in contravention of Kosovo law for offences of illegal border crossing or failing to register with Police. Interviews with these women carried on throughout Sunday. Prizren Court will be informed of charges Monday, June 18. No drugs, weapons or explosives were found. Saturday's raid will be followed up with regular inspections by inspectors from Prizren Municipality. This action makes a powerful statement as to the resources we will direct against this criminal trade in human lives. It also demonstrates the high degree of co-operation between all of the Police, Military and Civil elements involved in providing security to the people of Kosovo. Over the past week there has been sustained action against prostitution throughout Kosovo, involving UNMIK Police working closely with K-FOR. In Havalia village near Pristina, a raid was carried out on a bar and an adjoining house at 0230 on Saturday morning. UNMIK Police and Swedish K-FOR recovered three females from Moldova and the Ukraine. The women had no identification documents and have been interviewed by the Prostitution Unit. Seven K-Albanian males were
arrested at the scene and In Orahovac on the 13th, three K-Albanian males were arrested for forcing a K-Albanian female into prostitution. When Police went to the local café they discovered another female, a 19 year old Bulgarian, who has also been recovered. And in Zubin Potok, on the 11th, French K-FOR and UNMIK Police acted jointly on evidence they had uncovered of prostitution at a local bar. At 2200, the 'Dollar Bar' was raided. Three females, from the Ukraine and Moldova, were rescued. They are believed to have been trafficked into Kosovo for prostitution. Police are currently seeking a male for questioning. Throughout Kosovo last week Police recovered a total of 45 women
believed to be in the service of men using them for organized sex. Ten
males have been arrested. Police have begun a murder investigation in Klina following the shooting death of a 34 year old Roma male on 16th June. Osman Kerelli was walking from the village of SCHTUPEL to KLINA at 0730 in the morning when a car overtook him. The car stopped, turned around and drove back at him. The vehicle stopped and a passenger fired a number of shots into Mr Kerelli, who was struck in the chest and legs and fatally injured. The car then drove off. No motive is known. UNMIK Police were deeply saddened by the death on June 15th of one of their officers. 42 year old Inspector Mohammed ALI of the Bangladesh Police died suddenly at his residence in the Gnjilane region on Friday. He had felt unwell during the day and his colleagues had called an ambulance, however he died before its arrival. Mohammed ALI had arrived in Kosovo on August 16, 2000 and was involved in training the Kosovo Police Service officers in the Gnjilane Region. He had just received an extension to his Mission. He leaves behind a wife, a son and a daughter. All of us in UNMIK Police extend our heartfelt sympathy to his family and to the Bangladesh Police community. We thank Mohammed ALI for his contribution to the future of Kosovo. Land Dispute Leads to Grenade Attack On Sunday, June 17th, Police responded to JANININA village, near Obilic, upon receiving a report of a shooting. On arrival three K-Albanian males and an K-Albanian female were found with injuries. All are from one family. The injuries were caused not by shooting but by a hand grenade that had been thrown at the group as they were gathering hay in a field. The female is in a critical condition from her injuries whereas the male victims are being treated for less serious wounds. Two K-Albanian males from another family have now been arrested. It
appears that the grenade attack is related to a land dispute between the
two families. Q. Considering the weapon seizure in Peja, the weapons were coming through Montenegro from Bosnia. Any idea were they were heading to ? DC : For those of you who were not here on Friday, we had a special press conference on Friday to announce the major weapon seizure by UNMIK Police, we seized 318 kalashnikovs, 605 magazines, 1008 rocket propelled grenades and 512 hand grenades, they were concealed in a truck loaded with timber in the Pec Region. The truck had Bosnian licence plates and we surmise it came from Bosnia. As to were it was heading, considering that these are military weapons, and not deterring weapons, unfortunately they did not have a shipment address on, but I suppose we can assume were they were going. We have increased our surveillance in that area, I have a note from the officers in Peja this morning that they are conducting operations in the countryside, off the main road. The KPS and UNMIK Police were also carrying on surveillance on vehicles coming through that border crossing. I think people should understand that when you come through that border crossing there isn't simply one point which your vehicle is checked , it's an ongoing process, there is the border point and then there is surveillance at vehicles, there random stops searches, so there are number of points you have to get through. Q. You mentioned the 34 foreign women in Prizren, I just wonder how many people were arrested. DC : A number of males were questioned, but until we interview women and establish who brought them into Kosovo, who kept them here, who was responsible for controlling them, until we have their statements in which the participation of the owners of the bars and their employers are clearly identified, we will not lay charges, but everybody that we interviewed has been fully identified and those charges are justified we will be going back, arrest them and take them to court.. Q : You arrested the women and detained the women, but the men who may have possibly forcibly brought them into Kosovo are free, is that correct ? DC : I don't want to use the term arrest, it has always been our policy to treat women that have been kept for the sex trade more as victims, all of the women that have committed earlier offences related to illegal entry into Kosovo, have been interviewed to determine the extent of their involvement in providing sex for men, to determine the involvement of men who may have controlled them and who may have trafficked them into Kosovo. It won't be until we have all these statements, and we look at and analyse so that we can decide who is going to be charged. But at the present time we do not have any male in custody.
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