UNMIK-UNMIK Police-KFOR- Press Briefing, 20 May 2002

UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
UNMIK Police Spokesman Derek Chappell
KFOR Spokesman Drew Andersen

UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel

Returns

Tomorrow SRSG Michael Steiner will visit several Kosovo Ashkali families who recently returned to their homes in Vushtrri/Vucitrn after being displaced following the war. He will use the occasion to launch his Concept on the Right to Sustainable Returns. Media are invited. As it may be hard to locate the homes Mr. Steiner will be visiting, we suggest that media meet at the Vushtrri municipal building at 2:45 P.M. tomorrow. Mr. Steiner gives his speech at a family house at 3 p.m. From 4 to 5 p.m. he will visit the OSCE Police Academy in Vushtrii.

During the last 4 weeks 59 Ashkalis returned to their place of origin in Vushtrri/Vucitrn from Novi Sad in Vojvodina, where they were apparently living in a garbage dump. More returns are expected in the coming weeks. The Vushtrri/Vucitrn Ashkali return process was initiated by the IDPs themselves and supported by the Kosovo human rights NGO, Council for Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms headed by Mr. Adem Demaci, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on communities), as well as the UNMIK office of Returns and Communities, UNHCR and KFOR.

French Minister of Defense

This afternoon at 4:15 p.m., Mr. Steiner meets the new French Minister of Defense, Ms. Michelle Alliot –Marie. There will be a photo opportunity in his office before the meeting.

Escape

At 1:30 a.m. this morning, a group of 8 prisoners serving long-term sentences in Dubrava tried to escape. Five were stopped before they could leave the prison grounds. Three managed to flee the complex. These three are considered dangerous: one—Anton Allakaj, was serving a sentence for murder –the other two Bujra Basha and Burim Basha, were serving sentences for armed robbery. Anyone with information on the three is urged to call police. There is a press release outside giving the police numbers.

Zvecan Judiciary

Today in Zvecan, the UNMIK Department of Justice has organized an information sharing session on employment opportunities for Serb judges and prosecutors in Kosovo. Mr. Jean Cady, head of the Police and Justice Pillar, is attending the event. We will have a press release on it later today.

Also from the Judiciary, the trial against Veselin Pesovic, indicted in November 01 on war crimes charges opens in the Peja/Pec district.

The trial against Sali Veseli and three other suspects in the killing of Ekrem Rexha which opened Friday will continue on 30 May In Prizren.

G8

Representatives of the G-8 countries will meet for a working group here in Pristina tomorrow to discuss current issues affecting Kosovo, under the chairmanship of the Canadian office. They will be meeting with SRSG Steiner as well as local leaders. We will have more information on this later.

Pollution conference

The Department of Environment of the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning will hold tomorrow the "Third Conference of Environmental Health: the Case of Obiliq" in which the major environmental problems caused by the Obiliq industrial complex will be discussed. This is the third of a series of conferences of the Department of Environment (previous in Peja and Mitrovica) on environmental problems and the Department’s activities. Participants will include Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, Mr Ethem Ceku and Mr Fadil Ismaili, Acting Director of KEK. For more information call, Mr. Veri Ejupi - regional environmental co-ordinator, UNMIK extension # 6809. The conference begins at 9:30 in the KEK restaurant in Obilic.

UNMIK Police Spokesman Derek Chappell

Woman Murdered in Pristina

Last Thursday, a domestic dispute resulted in a 40 year-old K-Albanian woman being shot by her husband in the family home in Ulpiana. Gjyle Noci was shot in front of her children, ages 5 and 7. Neighbors heard the shots and cared for the children until relatives could be notified.
The husband fled but was later located and arrested by police.

Arrest for Attempted Murder

Yesterday, a K-Serbian male reported to UNMIK Police in Zubin Potok that a K-Serbian man had been shot in the head while in a restaurant. A known K-Serbian male was the suspect. The victim was taken to North Mitrovica hospital for treatment. The suspect tried to escape to Serbia. but UNMIK Police intercepted him near Leposavic. The suspect and two other K-Serbian males were arrested.

Arrest for Murder

You may recall that, on the 28th of March, a 30 year-old K-Albanian man named Sealjdin Mullabazi was murdered in the center of Orahovac. A suspect was identified and police have been searching for him since the crime occurred. I am pleased to report that the suspect was located and arrested on May 11th.

Police Raid Brothel in Prizren

A teenage Moldavian woman called UNMIK Police in Prizren last week with a plea for help. She had been “bought” by the owner of a café-bar who forced her to work as a prostitute for two months. She was able to escape and contacted the police. She was provided with shelter and support while an investigation was conducted. On the 15th of May, a raid was conducted on the café-bar and the 26 year-old K-Albanian owner was arrested. A second Moldavian woman was found and rescued from sexual slavery.

Two Suspects Arrested for Rape of Teenager

Two K-Albanian men are in custody and a teenage K-Albanian woman is receiving treatment after a brutal attack, during which she was kidnapped and raped twice while being held prisoner. The 18 year-old was forcibly abducted in Pristina by three men on May 10th. She was then driven to a location north of the city where she was held for almost 48 hours. During her captivity, two of the men raped her repeatedly.
The men released her after threatening her if she reported the crime to the Police. However, she did report the incident. Two of the suspects, K-Albanian men ages 21 and 22, have been identified and arrested by UNMIK Police.

Human Traffickers Arrested

An attempt to traffic two Ukrainian women into Kosovo for the purpose of forced prostitution was attempted last week. A car with two men and two women was stopped at an UNMIK Police vehicle checkpoint near Kamenica on May 13th. The police officers became suspicious that the women were not in the car by choice and separated them from the men for an interview. The women confirmed they were being held against their will and had been driven into Kosovo from Serbia-proper. They were to be forced into prostitution and had been beaten & raped before crossing the boundary in order to make them submit.

The two K-Albanian men, who were acting in concert with Serbian criminals, were arrested. The two women have been provided with shelter and medical & psychological care.

KFOR Spokesman Drew Andersen

Questions:

Q: The French Minster will meet Mr. Steiner today?

SM: Yes, there is a photo opportunity at 16:15 in his office and than as Drew said at 16:45 a Press Briefing here by her.

Q: Derek, can you tell us the motive of the murder of a wife by her husband?

DC: We don’t know the motive, we can only assume that is was a family dispute, and again I think this highlights very tragically the danger of having illegal weapons in your home. Our experience as Police indicates most murders are not committed as planned acts but as acts of anger in which the weapons are readily available and picked up in that anger.

Q: Susan, In the agenda of Mr. Steiner with regard to return of Serbs, did he include the return of Albanians also who fled Kosovo and who are currently not living in Kosovo?

SM: Sure, this paper that he is introducing tomorrow is called Concept on Sustainable Returns: there is no mention of ethnicity; returns applies to everyone who is out of their home and wants to return.

Q: Head of Coalition Povratak, Rada Trajkovic, in one of her statements mentioned that the condition for the return of Serbs is that the power must be decentralized in Kosovo and this means that the SRSG must have the final authority, so does this mean that the new ethnic municipalities or enclaves are to be established in Kosovo?

SM: No, first of all on returns; we believe that returns of anybody-- Serb or Albanian--, is an individual choice and no politician should put conditions on returns. This is the individual choice of the displaced person, be that person a Serb or Albanian. However, the idea of decentralization is not bad in itself: UNMIK has promoted the idea of decentralization in that the municipalities should have increasing amounts of power vis-à-vis the center, and that is enshrined in Regulation 2000/45, the regulation that established the authorities of Municipalities back in the year 2000. However we are not planning on creating any new municipalities or any ethnic municipalities. But decentralization of authority is along the lines of UNMIK’s political philosophy as well as of the PISG. However we don’t tie this to returns or to ethnicity.

Q: Rada Trajkovic further relates this to municipalities where there is no freedom of movement for Serb ethnic members.

SM: What is your question, I don’t understand.

Q: Ms. Trajkovic relates this to the fact that there is no freedom of movement of the Serbian people in these municipalities,….So, the Serbs have no access in municipal authorities as well as their freedom of movement is restricted, so they don’t have the full freedom of movement.

SM: Yes, that is true, I have to agree that they don’t have the full freedom of movement and we are always trying to improve that. That Regulation I mentioned, 2000/45, which establishes the authorities of the municipalities, also set up community offices that are adjacent, or sub offices of the municipalities in the areas where the minorities live, in order to assist them, in order that they have access to municipal services. So, we have been working on that for two years now, getting services to people who lack freedom of movement.

Q: Regarding the arrest of the Head of Customs, Koha Ditore published the story with the list of companies involved in illegal import of the fuel, and the investigating attorney who did issue the warrant for arrest of Mr. Raci said he didn’t know why the international police and KPC in Prizren have not acted according to the request of the investigating attorney. Do you have any comment to this?

DC: I followed the press coverage of this arrest over the weekend, and I think it is, to be frank irresponsible of lot of people to discuss in public who may have been involved in corruption, who may be under investigation, what companies might be involved and what the charges might be. It has always been our policy to tell you if we are doing an investigation, but not to specifically state who is it against for obvious reasons. Investigation into corruption, into fraud are very complex, they very often depend on document trails, this kind of evidence it is very easy to destroy or to conceal, so for that reason I am certainly not going to confirm or deny any stories as seen in the press suggesting that we are investigating certain individuals or organizations. I will tell you that we are actively investigating corruption.

Q: The investigating attorney says that some of the people arrested are now released?

DC: I’d make two points: first, much of what I have read in the newspapers has never been officially notified to the police, and second, if a person is released by a judge in a judicial process, the person you should question as to why that person is released is the justice system and a judge, not the police. Our job is done when we deliver a suspect and a case to a judge. What happens beyond that is for the judicial system and we cannot answer for the decision of the judge.

Q: It has been eight months since I had a story on the pipeline, and top officials in DTI told me they are carrying out some kind of investigation, and for eight months they didn’t release any information. I wonder how long the investigation goes?

DC: You said that Department of Industry is conducting an investigation so I suggest you ask DTI and not the police. Any large organization, if they suspect impropriety will first conduct their internal examination of their books. They will conduct an audit; they will conduct an internal assessment as to whether there has been a fraud. Generally once they discover that they than contact the police and our fraud squad will conduct a more detailed criminal investigation. I said to you that very often the things that I see public figures stating in the press have never been notified to UNMIK Police, and I find that very irresponsible.