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UNMIK-OSCE-EU-UNHCR Press Briefing, 22 November 2001 UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
Mine Action Centre destroys some of the last known mines in Kosovo The UNMIK Mine Action Coordination Centre (MACC) will tomorrow destroy some of the last known mines in Kosovo, as it prepares to hand over responsibility to the Department of Civil Security and Emergency Preparedness. The MACC was one of the first elements of UNMIK to be set up in June 1999. Its director Johan Flanagan has been here since the very beginning and will give a speech at 2 p.m. tomorrow on the "Clearance of Kosovo." The SRSG will also speak on the work of the MACC, during the ceremony that takes place at Arlijaca. A bus will take journalists to the location at Arlijaca at 1300 and all media are encouraged to use the bus, which will leave from the Mine action Center next to the main police station. 1300hr Buses depart from UNMIK MACC (transport will be provided by
UNMIK transport). The UNMIK MACC is located between the Police HQ and the detention centre, which is 300 meters from the UNMIK HQ. Assembly There is a tentative plan that the SRSG Hans Haekkerup will officially announce the election results in a press briefing here on Saturday at 1500. This will depend on the outcome of the complaints period which runs for 48 hours after the count is completed, which happened this morning. Claire will have more for you on that. Once Mr. Haekkerup has certified the results, each prospective Assembly member will be hand delivered his or her invitation to register and to attend the inaugural session. The Assembly Service Secretariat will deliver the letters. The registration period will last two days at the Government building. Also, of the 120 members to receive invitations, 27 are already serving on a Municipal Assembly. As there is no dual mandate allowed, these 27 will have 48 hours to decide whether or not to resign their municipal seats. The inaugural session of the Assembly then can be held at the end of next week, if all complaints have been resolved and all Assembly members properly registered. The first session of the Assembly will be opened by the SRSG. The three parties having obtained the most votes in the elections, as well as a representative of the Kosovo Serb community and a representative of parties representing other non-Albanian communities will nominate the seven members of the Presidency. The party having obtained the highest number of votes in the election-in other words the LDK-- will state which of its two appointees to the Presidency will serve as President of the Assembly. The Assembly will then vote to endorse the Presidency of the Assembly. From that moment on the President of the Assembly will chair the session. He or she will decide the future steps to be taken by the Assembly and set dates for those actions, such as electing the president of Kosovo. All this will go on in the auditorium of the Government building, which is being refurbished as the Assembly Hall. The Presidency of the Assembly will reside in the Government building. And temporarily, the President of Kosovo will also have offices in that building, until the President's offices are ready in the Museum building. The Assembly press office will be located in rooms adjacent to the former UNMIK press office. Mr. Haekkerup moves today to the UNMIK Headquarters building, where the political and legal offices of UNMIK will be located. Finally the Division of Public Information has moved: we are now in the shops across from Ardi, behind the UNMIK HQ/VJ building. Press briefings will begin there late next week. You must enter at the official gate of the HQ. From the police, in Prizren town, the Traffic and Prostitution unit raided a coffee bar, and recovered five Moldavian women and arrested one K. Albanian male for alleged trafficking and a K.A customer.
Election Counting of votes from Saturday's election is now complete. It finished at 9 this morning. The Central Election Commission will likely meet on Saturday at which time it will recommend certification of the result, which will be done by the SRSG. We hope to be holding a final news conference, at which seat allocation will also be announced, on Saturday at 3pm, here in the Media Centre. We will confirm that on Saturday morning. We will not be giving any further results before Saturday. Assembly Member Training Our work does not finish with the election however. A great deal of work still remains for our national and international experts in the democratization department. That starts in the first week of December when a conference for new members of the assembly will be held, jointly with the National Democratic Institute. The first day is directed to the new women members of the assembly and will look at how they can work as members of their parties as well as across party lines to be effective parliamentarians. After that the conference is dedicated to some of the practicalities of working in the Kosovo assembly - and working as an elected member of a parliament. It will address such issues as how to create a legislative agenda and how to respond to the needs of constituents. PPSC I've been getting a lot of questions about the closing of the Political Party Service Centre here in Pristina. As I've mentioned in the past, the OSCE is scaling down - and wants to put its resources in people and not buildings. As you can see from my description of the first set to training for assembly members, we are still very committed to assisting political parties. The reason political parties are having to leave at this time is because the building will be used by the presidency of Kazoo's assembly. Employment Survey Immediately after this briefing we will be launching the employment survey prepared by the former department of democratic governance and civil society - this is a lessons learned for Kosovo's new government and hopefully will be taken on board by the new assembly members.
Economic Crime Economic crime is any criminal activity with a financial focus. It involves deliberate avoidance of taxes, customs and excise duties. It involves bribery, intimidation, extortion, embezzlement, fraud, theft, the corruption of public officials and money laundering. To help tackle this problem in Kosovo the EU Pillar of UNMIK has now established an economic crime unit. The unit is beginning its work by developing an Anti-Economic Crime Strategy. Economic crime is a significant threat to Kosovo's future. Sustainable growth requires a stable and protected financial system and a culture that is not supportive of corruption or criminality. A determined strategy to tackle economic crime will help break the cycle of criminal impunity and support the process of development. Economic crime dramatically reduces the resources available to build Kosovo's institutions and infrastructure. It is impossible to determine precise losses of revenue resulting from economic crime but it is estimated that around 80% of the public revenue lost could result from deliberately targeted activity of criminal groups. The total losses run into hundreds of millions of euros. The long-term economic success of Kosovo depends upon attracting and retaining the funds of legitimate investors. Economic crime damages the reputations of institutions and frightens away investors and restricts development. During November and December, a study will be conducted by the new unit to determine the core elements of the economic crime strategy for Kosovo. Following wide internal and external consultations, the strategy will be implemented in early 2002. It will establish priorities in developing an effective anti-economic crime regime in Kosovo, provide the framework necessary to implement procedural changes and identify the means of coordinating efforts aimed at eliminating corruption, tax evasion and diversion of public revenue. A special briefing on the economic crime unit is planned for the near future. Illegal Dumping Steps are being taken to clamp down on the act of illegal dumping. According to the law it is forbidden to pollute public areas with material which pollute the human environment. Driving and parking of the vehicles (of any kind) and also the downloading and dumping of any kind of the material, in non-specified areas, is illegal. Also prohibited is the throwing of dirt, sand, stones and other materials on sidewalks and squares, roads and other free areas. The former Public Utilities Department has begun to issue flyers, through KFOR and UNMIK police, stating that offenders will be fined 600 DM and vehicles will be impounded. Gjakova Trade Fair Next week on Wednesday November 28, the privately organized Gjakova international trade fair will take place. The Ministry of Trade and Industry will be present, to promote investment in Kosovo; commercialisation and privatisation proposals will also be presented there. A well-represented delegation of Croatian businesses, organised by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, is expected to attend the event.
General The renewed tension in FYROM following the recent killings, kidnappings, attack on a police checkpoint and several bomb blasts, are reason enough to raise the concern of the UN's refugee agency. Travel for all humanitarian agencies particularly in the Tetovo area is irregular if not stopped and there are reports of renewed popular displacement. Inside Kosovo, no new arrivals were reported. Inside FYROM small scale internal movement took place, in particular from the areas around Trebos (where the three Macedonian police men were killed) and Semsovo. Others, out of precautionary measures, left the areas around Lesok and Neprosteno for fear of reprisals after the kidnappings of the 11th of November. The number of refugees has - for the time being- more or less stabilised to around 12,000 inside Kosovo. The number of displaced inside FYROM is said to be around 49,271 of which 3,398 are staying in collective centres. Inside FRY 4500 refugees have been reported remaining. UNHCR is discussing return of refugees currently residing there. While many of the refugees living with host families in Kosovo simply
cannot return because of the destruction of their houses (on which work
can only start next year), there are others that have still not even
managed to access their places of origin, ever since the first refugees
arrived in Kosovo at the beginning of this year. Reason for this lack of
access, are security, remaining fear of the presence of security forces in
the region and the lack of an all inclusive amnesty agreement. UNHCR
Kosovo and FYROM are cooperating closely in trying to facilitate the
planning for return of these disadvantaged remaining refugees. An initial
information visit is being facilitated soon, which will allow leaders of
the refugee community to discuss their return plans and present
concerns. With snow even in Pristina, winter for sure arrived in Kosovo and UNHCR is actively distributing specific winter assistance to the remaining refugees and extremely vulnerable individuals of all ethnic groups. The distribution of firewood (3 cubic metres per person) will start tomorrow and will go on throughout the winter. A total of 550 truckloads (totalling 21,000 cubic metres) of wood will be distributed all around Kosovo. Fifty percent of the rigid shelters have been erected (fifty in total). The distribution of over 1000 multi purpose stoves is ongoing, to be followed by 2500 more later this winter. Inside FYROM, UNHCR continues its various programmes of assistance to returnees and internally displaced persons returning to their homes. The shelter programme delivery continues while more than 7,000 return kits, with mattresses, blankets, tools, plastic sheeting for roofs and windows and hygienic items like soap and detergents, have now been distributed to more than 30,000 beneficiaries returning to their homes in the affected areas. UNHCR FYROM expects that all its three implementing partners (Shelter Now International, International Rescue Committee and Macedonian Centre for International Co-operation) will have finished all repairs by mid December. QIPs For Returnees in FYROM The UNHCR Quick Impact Project (QIP) funds for this year have all been
allocated, with 20 out of 107 project approved and now being implemented
in locations throughout the crisis region and in other affected
communities. Projects consist primarily of rehabilitation to schools, but
also include water and sanitation projects, repair of an ambulanta and
rehabilitation of a community civic centre. All QIP activities will be
completed by 31st December 2001. To give you an update on the situation of displaced from Southern Serbia: ever since the normalisation of the situation over 5,500 people have returned from Kosovo to Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. UNHCR has assisted in the return of about 1,000 of them this summer in 10 organized convoys. In Kosovo there are still approximately 10,000 displaced people remaining, many of whom would like to return when certain conditions are met ( reconstruction of houses etc.) UNHCR, together with other agencies, continues to provide assistance to returnees in southern Serbia. Reconstruction assistance is fully underway, providing reconstruction material or cash grants to repair damaged houses through Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation to about 250 returnee families. Other agencies are providing food an agricultural assistance that covers not just the returnees but larger population in the region, while the Serbian government is compensating damages on buildings occupied by the Yugoslav Army and police during the conflict. Returns to Medvedja has been less than the other two municipalities. UNHCR has assisted about 55 returnees to Medvedja this summer, which is still reasonable when one remembers that during the initial meetings no one showed any interest in return. To address villagers' concerns in the area, UNHCR facilitated earlier this month, a fourth meeting between the local authorities and Albanian representatives in Medvedja. Issues discussed were related to security, education and economic infrastructure. In particular, the Albanian representatives raised the issues of the government compensation of damaged properties occupied by the security forces during the conflict -- the processing of which seemed to have slowed down -- and the tighter security control in Medvedja compared to the other two municipalities. UNHCR believes that these issues can be resolved through continued dialogue between the local villagers and the Serbian authorities and will continue to facilitate it. We also recognize that the openness of the Serb authorities to allow minorities' return to southern Serbia has been quite remarkable.
Q: A question for Susan. Can you tell us how much will UNMIK be involved in these talks to establish the new government of Kosovo? SM: It is a very complicated question I have been trying to describe all along, but UNMIK is currently working on setting up the administrative structure for the Assembly. We will provide international advisors for the Prime Minister, the President and each of the 9 ministers. As you know, UNMIK retains certain reserved functions including law and order, ability to raise taxes, ability to appoint judges. There are certain sectors of some of the ministries that are also reserved functions and it is hard to describe what those are, but I would say in general the areas where we would be ensuring minority protection and other aspects implementing 1244. I think we are supplying some assistance to the Assembly as it gets going in form of the advisors or trainers. That presence will reduce, as the assembly staff -the Secretariat, the administrative staff - is build up. We have been in the process of hiring those staff members among the Kosovars, for example, there will be 4 or 3 press officers, who we are in the process of hiring. There is all other kinds of Kosovar staff being hiring now and in the coming weeks. Q: Susan, despite the administrative help, let's say for Parliament, what will be UNMIK's role in creating the Kosovo institutions, for example, the Government, Parliament, etc.? And, what if political parties disagree? SM: The Parliament, the Assembly will convene for the first time next week. The beginning of that meeting will be opened by the SRSG. As soon as the President of the Assembly is elected, the SRSG steps down and has no more function with the Assembly. The rules of procedure are: probably on of the first acts of the Assembly will be to appoint a committee to come up with the rules of procedure, because that is what anybody has to have. Beyond the first session that will be up to the Assembly. We'll structure the first session in the way I just outlined. And as I just described, there will be one international advisor, Principle Advisor it is called, in each of the 9 Ministries. But the role of the UNMIK in those Ministries will be advisory except in the certain reserved functions. And for those reserved functions - you have to look at the Constitutional Framework, where it shows. For example, the Central Civil registry remains under UNMIK, although that is part of the Ministry of the Public cervices, which is as Kosovo Ministry. So you really have to examine the Constitutional Framework to see the break down here. Q: If for example, the political parties disagree on creating the government, for example. Is Mr. Haekkerup going to intervene in this case, push things forward? SM: It is a very good question. I doubt that he would, unless it really was a stalemate for a long time. I think that, you know, there is expected to be some confusion, I think he will let the parties to play it out, unless the whole government becomes stalemated for weeks. Q: What will be UNMIK's and Mr. Haekkerup's position, if, for example, the coalition Povratak does not agree to creation of the coalitions of the Albanian political parties, the major political parties such as LDK, PDK, AAK? SM: That is really the matter of the parties. I mean the point of the coalition is to get your policy or your president to get passed by the Assembly. So that is really a political decision by the parties. That is not up to us. Q: To OSCE: I talked yesterday to some people who counted the votes in the Prizren area, and they told me that there were more ballots than voters. And OSCE insisted on counting them again and again there were more ballots than voters. My question is who added more votes there, more ballots? CT: We have a very fixed mechanism to tell you the number of ballots cast and the number of people casting them. This would have been checked several times. I heard no further reports that there had been any problem anywhere like that, but I will check out this specific instance and get back to you. Q: To UNHCR: How many Serbs have returned to Kosovo till now? AvGS: I would be happy if you could give me the number of people that have returned. It is completely impossible to know the exact numbers. There are several ways to travel into Kosovo - by convoy, by bus, etc. We think several thousand, probably, since the conflict and 1999, but it is impossible to know the exact numbers. Q: For UNMIK - Does that create some kind of small threat for the policy here - because you don't know who is coming in, who is going out? SM: We don't know how many Albanians came back either. We think something like a 100,000 came back last year from other parts of Europe. You know, if people need assistance they register, and we haven't done a census of the population. We did civil registration, but this cannot be compared. Q: But since the civil registration is almost over, especially now, since the elections, do you have kind of average information of how many are in and how many are out? CT: Yes, OSCE can clearly answer that. We have never taken ethnic data. If there are no further question, we do have another briefing which will start in a couple of minutes, which is the launch of the employment survey, which is really a lessons learnt for the new government. I think it will be very interesting to really get a perspective on what has been learnt by the government by the JIAS department.
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