Briefing Notes, 03 September 2002

UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
KFOR Spokesperson Tony Adams
Police Spokesperson Barry Fletcher
OSCE Deputy Spokesperson Sven Lindholm
Spokesperson of EU Monique De Groot

UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel

SRSG Michael Steiner is today in Decan/Decani. First he will attend a football match between the Decan league and a KFOR/UNMIK team (1240-1300). Then he visits the Besa Women’s Centre. From their he goest o Isniq/c village and to the NGO Agimi also to visit some old village houses, or Kullas. Finally he will visit the Decani Monastery from 1515 to 1600.

The Energy Committee will meet for the third time tomorrow at 3 p.m. There will be a photo opportunity at 3, a stand-up outside the front door when the meeting ends (approximately 4 p.m.) and then a press conference by Mr. Steiner here following that.

Judiciary

From the Judiciary, after a long investigation, a Pristina international prosecutor filed an indictment last week against 5 Kosovo Albanian businessmen for plunder, fraud and tax evasion. The suspects are accused of altering invoice receipts presented to customs in order to avoid paying duty of at least 1 million euros on oil and oil products brought in from fYROM during the period between April and September 2001

This is part of the same investigation that briefly involved the Customs Director, who was arrested but later cleared of all charges.

I won’t name them here but the names are in the briefing notes: (suspects are Shefki KAYSERLI - 38 from Prizren, Nexhat MAZREKU - 41 from Mamusha (Prizren), Xhevet and Lulzim KRASNIQI and ,Kemajl REJHAN.) The first two suspects were arrested last October and will remain detained throughout the trial period: the other three (from Prizren and Malishevo) are free pending trial

On another case, Mr. ALUSH SHALA of Prizren was also indicted last week by a Prizren international prosecutor for abuse of office (conducting unauthorized investigations and interrogations) and tax evasion. He is in detention

On the Martin Almer (the Austrian police officer) case, the indictment has been transmitted to the Austrian liaison Office for service to Mr Almer in Austria.

Barry Fletcher, UNMIK Police

Murders: Four homicides were recorded during this past week:

On 02-09-02, in Mitrovica South, a 22 year-old K-Albanian man apparently interrupted a group of men who were stealing building materials from the garden of his residence. The criminals fled, but one halted a short distance away and shot the victim, who died later.

On 01-09-02, in Pec Region, two K-Albanian men (ages 22 & 17) were shot while at a restaurant, and one later died. The suspect has been arrested and the murder weapon recovered. The motive apparently involved a dispute.

On 27-08-02, in Pristina, two K-Albanian women who are sisters went to a café-bar to confront the former friend of one of them. He was a man named Naser Berisha. A verbal confrontation occurred and the two women then exited the café-bar. Berisha followed, and an altercation occurred outside. One of the women fired a pistol at Berisha, mortally wounding him and also striking her sister in the shoulder. The Investigative Judge supervising the case has ordered the suspect held on a charge of Murder, pending further enquiries.

On 27-08-02, in Gnjilane Region, a 68 year-old K-Albanian man was shot in the head and died. His son (age 17) is wanted for the crime. The motive is apparently a family dispute.

Escapee Arrested

On 27-08-02, an escapee from Dubrava Prison was located in Pristina and arrested. Burim Basha was one of three men who escaped in May and is believed to have committed numerous armed robberies and other crimes since. Bujar BASHA (age 23) and Anton ALLAKAJ (age 26) are still at large.

Contact Information

The telephone numbers have changed for the Border Police and KPS press offices. The Border Police number is now ext. 5211, and 5799 for the KPS. A new contact sheet is outside.

OSCE Deputy Spokesperson Sven Lindholm

Next week, on Tuesday, September 10th, the official 45-day campaign period begins. While some political parties have already begun what is called electioneering, letting voters know what they would do if elected, this is the time when a number of rights and responsibilities
kicks in. These ground rules of the Central Election Commission (CEC) guide the behavior of political entities during this period. Its aim is to prevent violence, intimidation and corruption from marring the election campaign. The Code prohibits the use of language aimed at provoking violence. It outlaws the use of bribery and intimidation to gain support. It bars any display of weapons at campaign rallies. It also warns against interfering with campaign materials, such as posters, distributed by rival political entities. However the OSCE does need to remind entities that according to the code of conduct they are also for the conduct of their supporters. Any violations of the code or other electoral rules will be subject to remedial or financial penalties imposed by the Election Complaints and Appeals sub-Commission (ECAC).

The media will also have special obligations during this period to provide fair access to all political entities running in the campaign. This includes exposure through playing political spots and coverage of their activities, whether through interviews, debates, articles, or
reporting on rallies. Fair and equitable coverage does not mean equal time for every entity but balanced coverage. During this period, media will continue to be held to their respective codes of conduct to ensure the right to freedom of expression, as well as fairness and impartiality in all reporting. Complaints regarding the media are to be dealt with by the Temporary Media Commissioner.

Monique De Groot, EU

Power Situation

The domestic generation of electricity has remained minimal last week. An import contract was agreed with Bulgaria for the provision of 100 MW. This contract had to be increased by another 100 MW for a three-day period because unit A3 had to be withdrawn from service due to mechanical failure. This import contract ensured that the daily load shedding schedule remained at 3 ON: 3 OFF.

The schedule of three hours on and three hours off is maintained as far as possible for the upcoming week.

The daily energy update report can now be found on the UNMIK web page:
http://www. unmikonline.org.

We continue to urge the citizens of Kosovo to save energy as much as possible and not to leave electric appliances switched on when not in use.

Central Fiscal Authority / Tax Administration

The tax administration has started a broad enforced collection campaign against delinquent taxpayers and non-compliant taxpayers.
This includes:

a. A list of 200 delinquent tax payers has been sent to the Customs Service in order to stop them from importing and exporting goods until they have fulfilled their obligations. This list includes names of companies that have registered with false names, false addresses and that have never filed a tax return.
b. A second list of non-compliant taxpayers has been produced including those taxpayers who owe taxes, penalties and interest to the tax administration. For most of them the 60 days period for filing an appeal has expired. The tax administration has prepared a detailed action plan based on which the owners’ rights to use the assets will be restricted, assets will be seized and sold by public auction. Their premises will be shut down and their activities will be stopped until they pay their liabilities

The CFA will soon organise a detailed press briefing on this matter.

Kosovo Tuned into Europe

The European awareness project ‘Kosovo Tuned into Europe’ will be held in the sports center in Peja today. Please find the press release outside.

QUESTIONS

Q: Question both for KFOR and UNMIK Police. Do you have an update on the incident in the Peja area; what happened and what was the cause of KFOR and police being stopped for two hours and how many people are arrested?

UNMIK Police: We are obviously trying to identify the men – we believe they are men, who were shooting at police and KFOR. We did have one person in custody and I believe he is still in custody; we are trying to determine whether or not he was involved. For an example taken some samples for laboratory testing to determine if he had fired a weapon recently. As to why – we were pinned down for two hours – the information we have is that our officers responded to a call with shots fired. When they got to the location they were fired on from at least three different directions locations by men who were armed with rifles. Some KFOR troops arrived but they were also pinned down. Our officers were armed with pistols the men who were shooting at them were to far away for the pistol to be effective. I don’t know exactly what KFOR did, but it was a difficult position and I think that we were fortunate as far as I can tell there are no casualties on either side in this incident. Now thing to say pinned down for two hours is probably slightly a motive. It was a case of trying to get the operation completed as safely as possible and that took an element of planning to get the right troops into the right place. When we were able to do that then we were able to finish the operation quite quickly and as we said we detained one individual.

Q: How many attackers were there? KFOR needed even helicopters and APCs …

KFOR: It wasn’t the situation of the number of attackers; it was the areas they were in, and it was difficult to find out exactly where they were. Obviously KFOR doesn’t want to cause unnecessary injury so it is better to take the time to actually isolate the individuals so when we do go forward with operation we do it as safely as possible.

Q: Do president and prime misters can take part in the election campaigns for their parties?

OSCE: I don’t see anything that would bar them from supporting the party which they represent. In rallies I don’t see any reason why not.

Q: The 10th of September was announced as the day for mass return of Serbs, I think, and if that won’t be possible they will close the borders from Serbia to Kosovo. Can you comment on that – I mean it is question for Susan but she is not here?

UNMIK Police: I will comment from the police perspective. We will be prepared for whatever we believe is actually going to occur. There have been many reports of mass returns of Serbs in the past – none of them materialized. At this point it is probably still too early for us to know if this one is real. We do take position that return is an individual decision that individual people need to make based on an evaluation of their situation back here, and how realistic it is that there will be that kind of return I don’t know. If there is illegal activity, if for example the border or boundary crossing points are illegally closed or obstructed then we will take appropriate action.