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United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT
Briefing Notes, 08 October 2002
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
KFOR Spokesperson SQ. leader Tony Adams
UNMIK Police Spokesperson Barry Fletcher
OSCE Spokesperson Poul Smidt
EU Spokeswoman Monique De Groot
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
UN SC Visit
The United Nations Security Council plan a mission to Pristina, Kosovo and Belgrade from the 25th to the 27th of this month. The mission is being led by Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby of Norway. We will have more for you shortly on the composition of the mission and its agenda while here in Kosovo.
SRSG Michael Steiner is in Montpelerin, Switzerland for a meeting of United Nations heads of missions in the region. He is to return Thursday.
Covic letter
Regarding the letter which CCK president Covic has sent to SRSG Michael Steiner outlining an 8 point plan on decentralization, …Mr. Steiner maintains that his plan is not an ultimatum, but an offer to the Serb community in response to the most crucial of their concerns which they have expressed to him in meetings since he arrived here.
This is a plan that has been presented openly and publicly and has the unequivocal support of the International Community. We believe that it also has support from many ordinary people, including many in the north of Mitrovica.
This is not a plan that is up for negotiation: There are 7 points. Only two of these will require further discussion but only after there are elected representatives to discuss those points with. Those two points are the co-governance and decentralization.
Decentralisation for example is something that requires discussion with the majority community as well as the non majority communities, as it will be implemented throughout Kosovo.
We would also like to point out that contrary to some reports, the situation for the Serb community is not like it was a year ago. It has improved and we have acted on several commitments made earlier.
A couple of examples: Security and freedom of movement…: KFOR checkpoints have been removed from most enclaves. While harassment of Serbs persists, violent crime has diminished. Of some 50 murders this year, one victim was a Kosovo Serb.
Regarding Serb prisoners, an Agreement was reached last April that accorded with the International convention on Transfer of Sentenced prisoners. Following that agreement, six Kosovo Serbs were transferred to detention in Serbia. We also agreed to review all cases of detained Serbs who had not seen an international judge during their trial procedures.
A protocol was signed on Police Cooperation, mainly to share information on combating organized crime. It is similar to the agreement UNMIK signed with Albanian authorities in September and plans to sign soon with Macedonian authorities.
We have been trying to increase the number of K. Serbs in the judiciary, beyond the current number of 4 out of a local judiciary of 341. Interviews are being conducted with a number of candidates for the existing posts. However, the fact that they may lose their pension rights is a discouraging factor for many candidates.
In the past year we have also increased the number of international judges and prosecutors to 24. These judges and prosecutors work with the five regional district courts, the Supreme Court and the office of the public prosecutor, ensuring ethnic bias does not enter into serious cases involving minorities.
Kosovo Police Service: In the past year, we've increased Serb KPS officers by 40, to 397 with 87 KPS Cadets. They are about 8 percent of the KPS.
Kosovo Serbs now make up 9 percent of the local staff in the Penal Management, and we are in the process of recruiting more for the Mitrovica detention center.
The biggest change has been Serb participation in the provisional institutions- this participation now needs to take place at the municipal level.
As the SRSG has said this participation builds trust and confidence in all the communities concerned. Participation builds participation: it goes both ways.
Clare Short
Tomorrow at 2 p.m. Clare Short, the UK Secretary of State for International Development, will give a press briefing here.
There will also be a photo opportunity for her meeting with Mr. Charles Brayshaw at 10:30 a.m. in the UNMIK HQ.
From the judiciary, the trial for Idriz Balaj and five others has been set for 28 October
KFOR Spokesperson SQ. leader Tony Adams
With any change there is always a degree of uncertainty. For many, a change of COMKFOR causes questions to be asked about stability, direction and the impact on the lives of the people of Kosovo. This short statement will outline some of Lieutenant General Mini’s priorities in the short and medium term and will show that above all, continuity in the commitment of KFOR to the people of Kosovo is unchanged.
Firstly, the mandate of UNSCR 1244 is unchanged under the command of Gen Mini, in that the main function of KFOR is to provide the safe and secure environment upon which all progress in Kosovo is being built. Further to this, KFOR will continue to maintain and develop that peace and security for the benefit of all the people of Kosovo.
KFOR will continue to build on its relationship with UNMIK. Working ‘hand in hand’ with our colleagues we will, at the appropriate time and subject to a satisfactory security environment, transfer many of our tasks to the civilian authority.
Though NATO is able to reduce the total number of troops in Kosovo as a dividend of the constantly improving security in the region, the people of Kosovo should be in no doubt that KFOR’s commitment is as strong as ever. Indeed, with so many un-fixing operations we can be more effective over a larger area with fewer soldiers. Furthermore, the concept of Over-The-Horizon-Forces and the exercising of the Strategic Reserve Force in DYNAMIC RESPONSE 2002 has proven beyond all doubt that even with reduced numbers of soldiers in Kosovo, NATO’s ability to react to a rapidly changing environment has never been so effective.
Furthermore, it is to be stressed that reductions will always be balanced against risk, and that risk will be calculated and managed commensurate with the security situation.
COMKFOR is also fully committed with our colleagues in UNMIK to fight against the scourge of crime in the towns and villages across Kosovo and to re-double our efforts against smuggling in the border areas.
Finally, General Mini is very conscious of the fact that the real tragedy of the recent History of Kosovo has been a tragedy of people, a tragedy of widows and orphans, a tragedy of refugees and displaced and separated families. It is this that has driven forward the work of KFOR in the past and under the leadership of the new COMKFOR, Lieutenant General Fabio Mini, KFOR will continue to help the people of Kosovo take on the responsibility of building a stable future.
UNMIK Police Spokesperson Barry Fletcher
Homicide
On 04-10-02 in a rural area of Pristina Region, a 57 year-old K-Albanian
male was found dead from a gunshot wound. The exact circumstances are
under investigation.
Rape Arrests
On 02-10-02 in Gnjilane Region, a 22 year-old K-Albanian woman reported that two males had raped her. She also sustained physical injuries during the crime. Police arrested one of the suspects later that day and arrested the other on 03-10-02.
Robbery Arrests
On 30-09-02, a K-Albanian and three Bulgarians transported cattle to village near Pristina in a Bulgarian-registered truck. A group of armed men approached while the cattle were being unloaded and demanded money. One of the Bulgarians was seriously injured during the incident when he was struck with a rifle. On 03-10-02, police arrested three suspects in Pristina. A rifle and three hand grenades were recovered.
Libel And Defamation
During late September, a journalist with the newspaper “Epoka E Re” came to my office to ask about an arrest. I had no knowledge of the alleged incident and turned the request over to the Pristina Region Press Officer. Specifically, the question was if a Mr. Elez Nikci, Security Officer for the Kosovo President, had been arrested. The journalist was advised by the Pristina Regional Press Officer that Mr. Nikci had NOT been arrested. The journalist returned to the Pristina Region Press Office two more times asking about Mr. Nikci and was told he had NOT been arrested. On the 30th of September, “Epoka E Re” published a front-page story claiming Mr. Nikci had been arrested and stated that I had confirmed the information. This was a lie and “Epoka E Re” knew that when it was published. We condemn this obvious attempt to assassinate the character of Mr. Nikci and a formal complaint will be made to the Temporary Media Commissioner. This is not the first occasion that “Epoka E Re” has published stories it knew to be false and which we had to deny. Therefore, our office has suspended verbal communications with “Epoka E Re” and will respond only to written questions from them so we can keep a record of the information released.
Monique De Groot, EU Spokesperson
Energy
Units A1 and A3 are currently in service. Unit A4, currently on a planned overhaul, is expected to be back in service on 11th October. The load shedding schedule continues to be 4 hours ON and 2 hours OFF and can be maintained due to the amount of imports that have been contracted with NEK in Bulgaria.
The District Heating systems in Pristina and Gjakova are making preparations for the start up of operations of the systems within the next weeks.
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.
EU Commissioner Patten issued a statement on Friday 4 October, welcoming
SRSG Steiner's seven-point plan for Mitrovica:
"I hope the people of Kosovo and its provisional institutions of self-government will support this plan, which paves the way for greater peace, stability and economic well-being.
I urge all communities to participate fully in the electoral process, to ensure they are fully involved in the design and implementation of a joint administration that can cater for the aspirations of all.
With the help of the EU and the international community, the people of Kosovo have made impressive progress in rebuilding their society. Now it is necessary to ensure those efforts benefit the whole population, not least in Mitrovica."
European Agency for Reconstruction
"As you all probably know, Richard Zink last week took up his job as the new Director of the European Agency for Reconstruction. He arrives in Pristina this afternoon, and will be meeting with the Prime Minister and members of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government over the next few days.
On Friday 11th October at 1200, there'll be a press briefing with Richard Zink at the European Agency for Reconstruction in the Museum of Kosovo, to which all media are invited. There'll be more information later in the week."
Questions:
Q: You have confirmed that Elez Nikci of president Rugova has been arrested. Actually what happened: I have seen him, Mr. Nikci myself after the arrest. Can you add something about it?
UNMIK Police: I won’t require this in writing today…When you came to our office and we talked with the Pristina region press officer about this, he confirmed that he had the information that somebody associated with LDK had possibly been arrested during an altercation. That is not the issue. The issue is that this man, who was named in the newspaper as having been arrested is someone who is not arrested. To my knowledge he was never arrested. He is certainly not now in prison. And he is not even a public official who might have an expectation of a lower right to privacy. It is one thing to simply misquote us, this happens a lot; very often we are even misquoted as saying the opposite of what we have actually said. And sometimes these misquotes reflect badly on the police. In this case the character of this man was defamed when he was not arrested, and that is the issue in this particular case. Not the other things that might have been discussed.
Q: Just the question for OSCE and Susan. For OSCE: Is the voter apathy, apart form obvious electricity bill reasons; how do you explain voter’s apathy in Kosovo? All public opinion polls show that not many people are willing to go to the polls or have you got any other figures that you can enlighten us with? And second question is for Susan; the Union that has organized the strike of primary and secondary students has challenged UN to get involved in the ongoing problem they have with the Government. Are you willing to get involved in this sort of fight and do you support their demands?
UNMIK: So far our position on the teacher strike has been that this is really the matter for the government to resolve. Education was a transferred power; the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance have a budget to work with and this point we still think this falls directly within their territory as a transferred responsibility.
OSCE: On the election issue it is our understanding that there is a lot of interest; there is a lot of rallies going on, more rallies than ever before, there is a lot of rallies with more than 500 000, you can see sometimes reported officially that more than 2000 persons participated in the rallies. So I see a trend with a big interest in the elections, in the rallies, and I also see from what I can read in the newspapers that the candidates are in fact concentrating on the local issues, so until this moment, I think that the election campaign for the political parties in Kosovo is a success. If it will turn out on Election Day as a success, it is not for me to guess about today. I hope so.
Q: So what you are saying is that according to what you know you are expecting high turn out, successful elections, Serb participation. Would this constitute a success in elections?
OSCE: A success for OSCE in these elections is that the organizing of the election is fair, well done, running smooth, presenting the election results at an early time and everything going well in the polling stations. That is what we are heading for. The people of Kosovo and the political parties in Kosovo are interested in a fair campaigns and a fair result with a high turn out. We hope as well there will be a high turn out, but it is up for the people of Kosovo to decide if 60, 70 , 80 % makes a failure or a success, it is not for me. But from what I have seen around in Kosovo it is running quite well and the people of Kosovo can be proud of the election campaigns until this moment.
Q: ………
OSCE: I have not seen any failures until this moment but should there be any failures we will take responsibility for failure. Don’t try to make me anticipating that we are making a failure because I can’t help you on that.
Q: Does OSCE have any outstanding electricity bills that they haven’t paid, possibly even dating back to 1999?
OSCE: For the time being, OSCE have no outstanding electricity bills presented to the OSCE Mission in Kosovo.
Q: There have been reports that Italians and Germans will merge into one multinational brigade in the November or December. Are Brits and French are going to do that?
KFOR: At the moment there is an ongoing plan, as you know, to look at the total structure of KFOR forces in Kosovo, with some rebrigading, with some draw down of numbers, and KFOR is currently working on the statement that we will be able to produce to the press that will give you our strategy over the next couple of years.
Q: Barry, can you please explain this whole rape case story involving two minors since there has been a lot of speculation in the press?
UNMIK Police: I spoke about it last week and I will be happy to give you what we found. On the 27 September 2 teenage girls, one 17 year old Bosniac and one 13 year old Serbian girl went to the Multi Cultural Center in Mitrovica. There they met 2 Kosovo Albanian men that at least the 17 year old had a friendship with. They left the Multi Cultural Center with them and walked around in Mitrovica for approximately an hour when they met a third man who had a car. We believe that the 13 year old was forced into the car and the group of them drove to a house in Mitrovica south. Sometimes during the next morning, at lest one of the man had sex with the 17 year old girl. They then went to Pristina where they were staying in an apartment. The next day, on 28, which is a Saturday, the girls families reported them as missing to the police. It was also known that the 2 girls had left the Multi Cultural Center with the two men, and those two men were known to the families. Also, the apartment in Pristina was known to the families. So, one of the first thing that the police did was to check the apartment in Pristina. That is when we located the two girls. It was also shortly after that that they gave us information leading to last week statement that they were raped and gang raped. That was the best information that we had at the time based on the statements that two girls had made. In the subsequent investigation we confirmed that the 13 year old was not sexually assaulted, however we do believe that she was kidnapped and falsely imprisoned. As I understand it, the investigative judge has released all but one suspect in this case, and that man is still kept on charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment.
UNMIK: Can I just say something to correct the report that was in Tanjug this morning? The Multi Cultural Mobile Center was always designed and planned to shut down on the 4th of October. This project has really been a success. It was a full house every day: there were Serbs and Albanians. It did not lead to rape or drugs: it is completely wrong to associate it with this incident and it is completely wrong that it was shut down over this incident. It was always going to be a temporary project