UNMIK/PR/880
Friday, 29 November 2002

UNMIK Stresses Need for Greater Regional Cooperation to Fight Organised Crime

PRISTINA – UNMIK has told the ‘Ministerial Conference on Organised Crime in South Eastern Europe’ that it would seek greater cooperation in the region, raise popular and political consciousness, build local capacity to fight crime, improve infrastructure and the regulatory framework and develop and implement a comprehensive anti-corruption strategy to combat organized crime in Kosovo and the region.

PDSRSG Charles Brayshaw, participated in the conference held in London on 25 November. The conference, organised by the British government was attended by representatives from the UN, EU, OSCE, European countries, US, Canada and Japan. Representatives of countries neighbouring Kosovo also participated in it.

UNMIK laid out the areas needing particular attention in a paper presented at the conference, entitled ‘Areas for Priority Action’.

This paper stressed the importance of building on the Declaration on Cigarette Smuggling from the Pristina Conference, seeking greater cooperation between UNMIK Police and customs and neighbouring police and customs services and seeking the establishment of a regional witness protection programme.

UNMIK would also seek to create a climate conducive to combating crime through raising awareness of nature, scope and impact of organized crime and about trafficking of human beings. UNMIK would also improve indigenous capacity to prevent, investigate and prosecute criminal activity with the support of international community through allocation of additional resources in the KPS, units in UNMIK Police already specializing in surveillance and intelligence gathering and fighting trafficking in persons, the Customs Service and the judicial system.

It also emphasized the need to tighten border controls and systems and also expanding prison capacity as an important tool to check organized crime. Further, improving the regulatory framework figures as an important aspect of fighting organized crime in UNMIK’s strategy.

The day-long conference concluded with ‘the London Statement on defeating organized crime in South Eastern Europe’ (already published).