Press Briefing, 09 July 2002

SRSG Michael Steiner

If you allow me today I’d like to talk about the gap between perception and reality. First some points on the reality. You know that I have been in Belgrade, we have achieved an agreement on the recognition of license plates. That means cars with UNMIK license plates from Kosovo can travel to Serbia. That’s what people want and that’s also what we will achieve with Macedonia. That is freedom of movement for the people. What we need to have on the side of Belgrade is that it has to be endorsed by the government. What we have also achieved by these very intensive talks last Saturday is the support for one, I say one multi-ethnic police force in Kosovo. We have also achieved the public support for the participation of all the Kosovans in the municipal elections. Finally, and I would recommend not to underestimate it, we have received the support with doing away with the illegal structures including the illegal courts. That’s from Belgrade.

Privatization. You know that a couple of weeks ago I signed the KTA regulation, a regulation on privatization. Meanwhile the new head of the KTA, Mr. Schmidt has arrived. I am very impressed with the knowledge of this man. He is famous in the Baltic States. He is the one who has achieved the most successful privatization in the Baltic States. He is now here in Kosovo preparing the operation. This is very good news for the economy in Kosovo and I am glad we managed to get him here.

On the arrests, you know that I have always said no one is above the law. And you know that I am serious about a policy of zero tolerance for crime and I will continue that.

A word on decentralization. Decentralization is a good thing, not a bad thing. It happens everywhere in Europe, in the EU it’s the big issue of modern administrations. It means you put as much competencies as possible, close to the people. That’s what we’re doing in Germany and that’s what is necessary in Kosovo. We have an agreement on this issue with all responsible leaders here in Kosovo. Our concept is vertical, power down. It’s not a horizontal one. It’s not about partitioning, about drawing new municipal boundaries. It’s about modern administration and participation because participation is what we want. Anyone who is against decentralization is reflecting the old way of thinking. We’re talking about the devolution of power and this is a good thing and what we need in Germany, France and Kosovo. I think we’ve had enough old thinking in the former Yugoslavia and those against decentralization and for centralization are representing nothing but old thinking.

I just met with Prime Minister Rexhepi. I think what we are doing is working closely hand in hand. We are not doing things in isolation but we are working with the government, which is working quite seriously and we’re doing this together. Now this is the reality and I could mention many other things. What is happening in contrast to this reality in the perception in the media? Lets look at some of the headlines we’ve had in the last days on the issues I’ve just mentioned. I think these headlines and reports represent nothing but old thinking. We have a headline here in Zeri which says, “Will Milosevic’s judges here in Kosovo punish again?” I mean whoever wrote this will recognize this headline. I mean what is the reality? The reality is that we need, in order to be credible and to function, a multi ethnic judiciary. Of course we need that. We have been trying to recruit Serbs now for 3 years in the judicial system. The reality of the Kosovo judicial system is that we have 365 judges and prosecutors. Four of them are Serb. This is the reality. Now if you mean it, if you want to have a multiethnic judicial system then you need to have others represented in this judicial system. The fact is that we are talking about individual applications. They have to undergo exactly the same system as any person who wants to become a judge in the judicial system created by UNMIK. The fact is also we are talking about judges coming to our courts, not the other way around. But that is exactly what we wanted, we wanted to get rid of parallel structures. We wanted to have the legitimate structures working and individually. We want Albanian and Serb and Bosniak judges in the Kosovo judicial system. They have to apply by the same rules and go through the same procedure of application. In light of that and in light of progress in this direction I think that the headline and reporting are irresponsible.

Second example, “What did Serbs tell Steiner in Belgrade?” Koha Ditore. And in it you can read that I go too often to Belgrade. Now, when I go to Belgrade I go for all the people of Kosovo to make progress on the issues as I’m requested. How do you want to get prisoners back, the goddess on the throne, the license plates, without talking? How do you think you can do that? The railways, the progress on the missing? How do you want to make progress? The funny thing is you’re not doing it, your representatives aren’t doing that, you’re demanding me to do that and if I achieve something you’re complaining that I go too often. So what do you want progress or the status quo?

Another thing I’d like to mention is the TV coverage on my visit to the collective center. Now this was not an easy visit. You have thousands of people living in these bad conditions for 3 years. What happened, I saw it on TV what was shown, that one or two drunken old men demanded some rubbish. This is all that was presented. What was not presented was what struck us internationals, what should have struck every human being. The living conditions of these guys and that they all wanted to come home. This was the main message, this is what we’re talking about. And only one side was put in the TV presentation.

Now the most outrageous thing I have seen lately was in Epoke e Re: “Fight the UN regime’s dictatorship.” In the article UNMIK’s police are compared to the Kmer Rouge. That means that the members of my mission are compared to those who committed one of the worst genocides in history. Is this professional journalism? The police did not beat children. It’s always hard for families when people are arrested. But we are talking here about potential murderers who were arrested. And now to come to the conclusion that we have a dictatorship regime by implementing the rule of law, I think this is not professional journalism. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t criticize UNMIK, this is your job. But maybe you can some times be a bit self-critical and try to present the reality. I’m saying this also because of the benchmarks. Benchmarks which are endorsed by the Security Council, the politicians here and those in the media who have commented on them. And if you look in the benchmarks for functioning, democratic institutions you see that one of the benchmarks is a responsible and professional media. And that’s for good reason because in order to develop Kosovo into a responsible society, the media must do its job. It needs to criticize, but on the basis of reality.

Let me say that my impression, and I will go tomorrow to the OSCE council and then later to the Security Council, that things in Kosovo are moving. We have movement in the north, anyone who has been there can see that, the crime rate has gone down dramatically, we have this privatization thing for the economy. This is seen and recognized by the international community and by the people of Kosovo. It is encouraging movement even if we compare it to the beginning of the year – and in some areas with unexpected speed. I don’t want to bash the press, I just want to ask you to help bring Kosovo forward by presenting the real reality. And that can be done by a professional and responsible media, and you can do it. To give people confidence, that they see the reality. It is good if we have a privatisation process, it is good if we have the murder rate going down, it is good if we have normal policing in the north and if we arrest people who are committing crimes. So I think that’s exactly what the people expect and a precondition to our support by the international community. My request is that you help us in this way. Help us and we will be open on how we think things should move forward. Do reporting that reflects the reality and which gives the people confidence