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UNMIK-OSCE-EU-UNHCR Press Briefing, 20 Sept 2001 UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
SRSG Hans Haekkerup will give a special press briefing here at 11:30 tomorrow to discuss his recent trip to New York and presentation to the Security Council, as well as other issues. In the meantime, I urge you to pick up the press release on his address and the release by the Security Council issued after the meeting, which began with an address by Serb Deputy Prime Minister Covic. Detention review commission Police have arrested a Kosovo Albanian man from Stimle in connection with the killing of Kosovo Serb woman, Slajana Bunju, 37, in Dramiak near Ferizaj. She was found outside her home by her husband (who is not the suspect). She died of multiple axe wounds to the head and neck. Regarding the two Kosovo Serb men picked up by UNMIK Police on Monday near Podujevo: they are suspected of crimes committed during the war. It is inappropriate at this stage to name them, or to call them war criminals. Today at 1 p.m the prosecutor and police go before an international judge in Pristina District Court and that judge will decide whether further detention is warranted for further investigation, or whether or not to charge the men with anything. The Kosovo Protection Corps will give a press briefing tomorrow at 1400 hours here, regarding their staff training exercise to take place on Monday in the Klina area. Some 200 members will simulate a catastrophe and respond with the skills they've learned during the past two years of training
Kosovo B2 had to b e shut down suddenly yesterday at around 12:00
due to a leakage in the boiler. Therefore there will be substantial
loadshedding today all over Kosovo. Emergency repairs are being carried
out to get the unit working before the end of the week. There will be a joint PUD/ KEK press conference held today at 2.00pm in the KEK headquarters. BP Commence Operations
Voter Services/Registration We are still hoping that more Kosovo Albanians who have returned to Kosovo or who have moved since the last election come to the voter service centres to be allocated a polling station - otherwise - by not knowing where to vote -- they will add to confusion on election day. The whole process closes this year on Saturday at 1800. CEC/Ballot Lottery Training Insurance Regulation The regulation will create a level playing field for competitors in the industry. It will also guarantee the professionalism of the companies for consumers. In addition the new regulation will help give confidence to foreign investors seeking to invest in Kosovo. A seminar explaining the new regulation for those who wish to obtain an insurance license will be held at the BPK headquarters next Wednesday, September 26 at 9.00am. Media are welcome to attend. Property Tax Beginning as a pilot programme for those municipalities that have the capacity to administer the tax, it is planned that by the end of next year all municipalities will be participating.
The number of returnees stayed at the very low rate a day as was reported already on Monday. An average of 300 a day returned back to fYROM, mainly heading towards the big cities such as Skopje/Shkup, Kumanovo and Tetove/Tetovo. Many of these returnees do not make it home straightaway, but instead find themselves into secondary displacement. Burnt or destroyed houses and an overall insecure situation is what stops people from returning. The number of people crossing the mountains- instead of taking the "normal" road- decreased as well. UNHCR is extremely concerned about the high number of internally displaced people inside fYROM, over 74,000, both Albanians and ethnic Macedonians (40-60%). Over 70,000 are staying with host families while the rest has been accommodated in collective centers. UNHCR has warned against returns to areas regarded as extremely volatile and has called for an international arrangement that will replace NATO after its arms collection mission to prevent a security vacuum. Yesterday in a press release issued from Skopje, UNHCR called for a transitional international security presence before the departure of NATO forces to allow the safe return of all refugees and displaced people to the fYROM. "What is needed is a credible security presence that can assist the Macedonian Government in maintaining law and order in affected areas and address the legitimate security concerns for both communities", said Eric Morris, UNHCR's Special Envoy for the Balkans. While there have been significant returns to many villages in relative safety, UNHCR is deeply alarmed that some conflict areas around Kumanovo and Tetovo remain volatile and NATO's departure may create a vacuum that armed groups may exploit..(see press release) On 17 September around 300 ethnic Macedonian IDPs from the Macedonian
village of Brnjaci went home in the first government-organized return to
an area largely populated by ethnic Albanians. UNHCR believes the safe return of displaced ethnic groups in regions where they are in the minority is crucial to the peace process in the country. The government has also announced plans for the return of displaced Macedonians to some villages in the Tetovo region, 60 km northwest of Skopje. A secure environment in many areas is yet to be established.
Q: Today Rada Trajkovic announced to Bosnian Serb News Agency SRNA that IAC K. Albanian members - Thaci, Haradinaj and Ceku - are supporting bin Laden. How UNMIK stands on that? And there are investments to the Kosova A&B, especially B, for about 400 million DM. To build a new power station of that capacity is 1 billion DM. And the boiler since the very beginning has been leaking for about 2000 times. Is it possible that that boiler is that big that the leaking will continue for a little bit more and the spending will be more higher then 400 million DM. And what is it done with that kind of money? SM: She did not say those things during the IAC. I would like to know whether she said at all that before I make any kind of comments. We have a lot of trouble with SRNA in Kosovo, they have completely fabricated things that I have said and she has said in the past, so I would first like to know whether she said this before making any comment, but it does not sound likely. We do not have a stand until we can confirm that anything like this was said. MT: Well you are right, there has been a lot of money spent in the
power situation, there was a lot of investigation to know which would be
more viable, building a new station or repairing the one exists already.
And in fact the building of a new station was completely financially
unviable, and it would have cost a lot more than the donors were prepared
to pay. So yeah, the problems are ongoing, there are problems related to
the power supply to do with the nature of the equipment that is so out to
date and has been so neglected, it is a very difficult process to try and
get it work again. The money will not last forever, there will not be
ongoing investments to try and keep it operating perpetually. In fact the
donor community is unprepared to continue this sort of subsiding of the
power situation, so we will need to have a situation whether the power
company commercially viable, people pay the electricity bills and the
power station can be repaired and maintained on the basis of the income
received from the bill payments. So a lot of money has been spent, these
are not simple things. The boiler has been leaking, there are a lot of
problems with part of the machine, I do not know all the technical
details, the key is that the overhaul has been carried out and when are
complete there will be improvements, and has been improvements from two
years ago. There will be improvements for this winter. So it is not so
bleak, but it is a very difficult situation. MT: Well the investments are in equipment, in energy experts who provide direction that can try to create a substainable energy situation here. But I mean, I am not an energy expert I am just a humble spokesperson. But the key is that that a lot of research was done, this is a priority topic, the idea of getting the energy situation was from the beginning a major responsibility. So a lot of research has been carried out, there is a lot of monitoring done as to where the money goes. And if there are rumors around that the money is not spent well I would just go back to the point that there is a very complex, very difficult situation, equipment is very out date, there was sabotage when the I.C. arrived here, people don't pay the bills, we all know that. So, it will be a long term effort. Yea, the donors will not be here forever, but if anyone should be worried about where the money goes, it should be the European taxpayers, since it comes from their pockets. Q: Don't you believe that the bills are too high? MT: I am not an energy sector expert, I trust that the best contract has been selected, a very detailed tenders carried out and the best offers have been taken. So I would not think the bills are too high. Q: We know that KEK has Managing Board, mostly locals, Supervisory Board, mainly internationals and Department for Utilities. Now customers are getting punished, don't you think that it is time that somebody from this supervisors, managers or whoever is leading KEK and the Department to get punished. MT: I think that the running and the operation of the company could be better, but I suggest that if you have questions with regards to management of KEK you come to a press conference at 14:00 today. Q: I know that yesterday there was a raid and a lot of fake documents were seized by MSU. What can you say on that? RB: There was a raid conducted by MSU. A large number of passports - including Yugoslav passports - were seized, some eighty in all. There well also FYROM driving licenses, stolen or fake UNMIK and KFOR documents were involved. One man was arrested I believe has been handed over to UNMIK Police. Q: Just to follow up on something else. In the same language as Rada Trajkovic, yesterday Mr Covic in Belgrade said that election commission of OSCE should take off the list two leaders - Thaci and Haradinaj - from the election campaign because they are linked with terrorists. SM: No, I don't believe that it was those names. As far as I know it was the LPK and LCKC that was an issue in the Security Council on Tuesday. Q: Where the names of these two leaders linked wrongly with the two parties? SM: I don't know the quote, but anyway, there is not any move to take their names off the list. Why would there be? If you are an indicted war criminal you cannot run for the election in Kosovo. But there is also the question of the Bush black list and I believe that the people named in the Bush black list will not be able to run in the election either. But it's going to be a CEC decision. Q: Do you know if your organization pays electricity regularly to KEK? SM: Yes. I don't know if they pay on time but they pay. Q: Why everything UNMIK brings here is tax free? For example, I have a
small photo shop, should I pay twice just to cover UNMIK? Q: How many liters of oil does UNMIK, KFOR, OSCE, EU bring in here? SM: I don't have the numbers but I can find out MT: The key is that we are developing a sustainable budget. Taxing imports that is artificial, based on the presence of the international community would not allow for the creation of a sustainable budget that meets the demands and the capacity of Kosovo's economy to have a government budget that pays for its services. Q: To UNHCR, many of the villages are destroyed, but Macedonian and Albanian ones. Who is reconstructing the villages before the winter that is three months from now. So that they do not have to go back to the tents as the Kosovars did. AvGS: In various press conferences before I gave continuing follow up on what has been done. There are shelter assessments been done by the various agencies involved: the Swiss and other agencies and countries that are supporting. Whether reconstruction will be managed before the winter I have my doubts. There is a lot of destruction in both ethnic Macedonian and ethnic Albanian areas. The international community is trying to work as hard and as fast as possible, but certain areas are still too dangerous even to have access. The returnees cannot go themselves, we cannot go. Assessment cannot be done and work cannot be started. It's a big concern to us, in particular. We are afraid that a lot of people will not be able to return and will remain displaced throughout the winter. Q. Why is it dangerous? AvGS: There are areas where ethnic Macedonians don't dare to return because of the majority are ethnic Albanians and they do not feel safe there. At the same time there are areas where ethnic Albanians don't dare to return because of police check points and paramilitary groups. So both communities are afraid of each other and so far there has not seen way to bridge this gap. We are working toward co-existence and reconciliation. This is what we are advocating for again and again. Q: Who is controlling Muçibaba border crossing after KFOR withdrew from there? And who is in charge of controlling the border crossings? SM: I believe I was there last week and saw people. But I will look into it.
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