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UNMIK-UNMIK POLICE - KFOR - Press Briefing, 21 January 2002 UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel Once again I would like to express our shock and horror at the brutal murder of Assembly member Ismael Hajdaraj. We urge Assembly members to support one another in this very difficult time and to continue the very crucial political process toward creating a new government. There has been another brutal attack over the weekend involving the family of TMK officer Idris Balaj. Derek will give you the details, but we are extremely concerned over the recent violence in Kosovo. The institutions of self-government under creation now must be allowed to function, or Kosovo faces an extremely bleak future. Mr. Brayshaw and several high-level staff members are attending the high level working group in Belgrade. We should have a read out on that meeting late this afternoon. Ozzie Hall who was going to brief you on drivers licenses is also there. He'll come here on Thursday. There has been much press about the new SRSG: the announcement will come from New York, at the noon briefing of the UN Spokesman. But I do not know on which day it will come. UNMIK Police Spokesman Derek Chappell Explosion in Gjakova Injures Family Last night in GJAKOVA a K-Albanian family of three were the targets of a powerful explosion that resulted in life threatening injuries to all of the victims. At about 11 pm, Mr Idriz BALA his wife and young son, were returning to their home. Mr BALA is a local official of the TMK. As they approached the front of the building there was an explosion that resulted in extensive damage to the front of the property and caused serious injury to all the family members. All were taken to GJAKOVA hospital. Mr BALA's wife is being treated at the local hospital while he and his son have been brought to Pristina for specialist care of very serious injuries. Mrs BALA was in a state of advanced pregnancy. Her condition is very
serious. There is no known motive or reason for this brutal assault on a defenceless family. The exact nature of the explosive device has not been established. Disorder in Prizren On Friday, 18th January, a protest developed in Prizren in response to a search operation conducted by KFOR at a TMK compound. UNMIK Police were present to act in support of KFOR to maintain public order. The protest developed into an angry demonstration by a crowd of over 150 persons. UNMIK Police deployed the Argentine Special Police Unit to manage the crowd. Officers were attacked and used appropriate force to defend themselves. Two of the protestors grabbed the shotgun of an officer and tried to take the weapon. This action caused two rounds of rubber bullets to be discharged accidentally. The officer protected and retained his weapon. The crowd later dispersed. The Special Police Units remained on standby ready to assist KFOR throughout the remainder of their operation, which ended peacefully at 6 pm. Arrest in Podujevo Murder At 2:25 pm on the 16th of January, Mr Idriz MURTEZI, a 38 year old K-Albanian man, was shot dead on a road in the Podujevo area. The police investigation quickly identified a suspect who was located and arrested later in the same day. Arrested is a 49 year old K-Albanian male. We are searching for one other suspect in this case. Prostitution Enforcement UNMIK Police have been forcefully acting against organized prostitution over the last week. In the past seven days we have conducted eight raids on bars across Kosovo where we believed prostitution to be taking place. Fourteen women have been recovered. Twelve persons, males and females, who are believed to be actively involved in this vile trade, have been arrested. This level of activity should serve as a warning to traffickers and customers alike that you may be the next statistic. Stashed Counterfeit Deutsche Marks Percolate Under Euro Pressure With the introduction of new currency in Kosovo there were apprehensions of a possible proliferation of counterfeit Euros with operators handing out fake currency to people yet unfamiliar with the new bank notes. While there have been some isolated attempts of that nature, more significant has been the sudden profusion of counterfeit Deutsche Marks in Kosovo. In the last week UNMIK Police recorded six separate cases where persons were found in possession of counterfeit Deutsche Marks or attempting to pass them off to shopkeepers. Our assessment is that during this intervening parallel circulation period of two months until the end of February when the Deutsche Mark seizes to be the legal tender in Kosovo, those in possession of fake DM may attempt to pass it to unsuspecting people for the obvious reason that they cannot produce it at a bank counter. These were all cases involving small amounts of money. As such there is no cause for alarm on this count, but a definite need for caution. UNMIK Police advice the people and businesses of Kosovo to be alert to the possibility of counterfeit DMs floating in the market as much as counterfeit Euros. Any person having suspicions on the genuineness of any bank notes may seek assistance from the closest police station. Questions: Q: Susan, Is there a document going to be signed in Belgrade by Mr. Brayshaw and Mr. Covic? SM: They may be some protocols, I don't have the exact titles but one
is on the exchange of bodies of the missing and one is on something to
do with how to search for hidden prisons. I don't have the exact title
but we can get that later in the afternoon. They may be signed today. Q: Derek, did you have more information about the incident in Djakova. What is the result of the investigation? Was it a mine or something else? DC: The only information I can give you is what I have given. As you said the incident happened last night at 11:00. A detailed examination of the crime scene is required to establish what kind of an explosive this was, and as you know last night was apart from being very dark very foggy. I have seen different reports from different journalists describing this as a car bomb, grenade, dynamite, booby trap, anything we are not saying. . Anything that you read about what type of explosive this is, is purely speculation and not based on any release from the police. We do not yet know and we have not gone public as to the cause of the explosion. Q: Daz, was the KPC member arrested in connection with the case of the member of the Parliament? DS: He is being detained because of the activities against KFOR that could threaten safe and secure environment. Q: Can you mention some of those activities? DS: No, I can't. Q: Will IAC take place tomorrow and what will be on the agenda? SM: Yes, I believe there will be IAC meeting tomorrow. I don't have the agenda but I imagine they will be discussing some pending regulations. If you give me your e-mail I can send it to you later. Q: Susan, why is US office and not UNMIK officials trying to resolve the problem between political parties in forming the government? SM: UNMIK's position has been to set up the structures of self-government but not to involve ourselves politically in that part of the process. And not just the US but some of the other diplomats in town have taken it on themselves to do the more ….. work. UNMIK position is not to get involved in pushing negotiations. This is really up to the parties. But we support the activities of the diplomats in town who are taking a more active role in talking with the parties and trying to get them together. Q: Inaudible… SM: There is no plan to intervene in the process. The process is ongoing and I think there will be movement. But the death of Mr. Hajdaraj is a definite blow to the democratic process and they will have to be recovery period after this. Q: Susan, you mentioned that the issue of hidden prisons would be discussed in Belgrade today. Which prisons - the ones in Kosovo or in Serbia? SM: No, they are singing some technical protocols today and you will have to wait to find out exactly what they are. The Serbian government has been pushing to assist UNMIK police, I believe, in search for alleged hidden prisons. So I think there will be some kind of protocol on what kind of assistance can be rendered, because we don not allow Serbian police to come and assist us in these searches. They have not been completely satisfied with our searching for hidden prisons. Can we just wait until we get the protocol, it will only be few hours. Q: Derek, we have seen clear pictures of Mr. Latif Morina's wound who has been injured in clashes between Argentinean SPU members and demonstrators, including some TMK members in Prizren, and it could not have been the rubber bullet. How was he injured? DC: I can only account for the injuries, that may have been sustained in the clash with the Argentina SPU. If somebody received injuries not consistent with police weapons, the only conclusion that you can draw is that somebody else in the crowd may have had a weapon that was used to inflict those injuries. But our officers were equipped with shotguns that fired rubber bullets and we freely admit that two round of these rubber bullets were discharged as a result of a protester trying to take that weapon from an officer. Q: Daz, can you say hundred percent sure to UN or UNMIK Police that there
are no hidden prisons in Kosovo? Q: Has UNMIK Police ever found any hidden prisons? DC: I am trying to think what I could say to you with one hundred percent certainty. I can't think of anything right now. Our position has been that give us the evidence and we will look for them. If you sat that there is a hidden prison, tell us where, show us the evidence, and we will go and investigate it. Every time that kind of accusation or statement has been made, we've replied the same way: we are here, we are ready to investigate, tell us where. In fact send us your evidence. It has not been done. We have looked, we have searched, we have cooperated with the Serbian authorities, we have never found any location in Kosovo, which is a hidden prison. Q: Inaudible…. DC: No, I don't think they have to come here. If they have persons within Serbia that have evidence or so called evidence of so called of illegal detention camps, they can freely take those statements, give us all of the information that those people have. They can fax it to us, they can send it to us by e-mail. There is a lot of ways to give us that information, we can carry on investigation here. They do not physically have to come into Kosovo. Q: Susan, If Mr. Covic asks for centimeter by centimeter search here in Kosovo, are you going to do it? SM: First of all, you asked me about those protocols. All I know is that one has that title. So please, lets wait until we see the protocol. Second of all, the whole issue of hidden prisons, as you know, has been a hot topic since we have been here. Police and KFOR have conducted hundreds of searches based ion information they have received. One time we were led to Electro Kosovo site. It turned out there were Serbs working very happily there. They weren't imprisoned, they were making salaries and working. I don't know what more we can do, but that will have to wait and see what kinds of suggestions come out from the High level working group meeting today. I don't want to speculate about that. Q: Daz, what are the charges against the person arrested in Prizren? DS: I can tell you that I have never made a statement that the individual detained was in the possession of documents. KFOR has confiscated a number of items that include documents that we are using in evidence while we carry out our investigations. As I have said before, we are detaining him because he is suspected of activities against KFOR that would perhaps threaten the safe and secure environment. Q: OSCE accused KFOR of violating the human rights in Kosovo in a report issued two days ago. For detaining and arresting people without any charges. Do you agree with the OSCE's accusations? DS: KFOR and OSCE have been in discussion at a number of levels since the issue of the report last November that was hardly critical of our detention policy. What I can say to you is that KFOR's detention policy is mandated under UNSR 1244. We are entirely comfortable with our powers of detention. We use them rarely, only in the extreme cases and always responsibly. The people we detain have access to legal representation, they have access to visiting rights and our detention methods are entirely in line with the international procedures. Q: KFOR should hand over the guarding of the minorities to the police and start with the new program. Where do you stand with that? DS: It is KFOR's intention in the long term to use a phrase unfix ourselves from static location points, i.e. border crossing points, the guarding of patrimonial sites and number of other non military activities. We are doing that with the intention of releasing resources to allow us to carry our extensive, military type search operations against potential extreme activities and organized criminal gangs, in support of UNMIK Police. This will be a graduate process, one that would require a careful handling and constant review. It can only be done when resources are available to be released on both sides. And the dialogue is ongoing with that and were are constantly talking with UNMIK Police. It is not a matter of UNMIK refusing to accept the responsibility or that KFOR is looking to offload the responsibility. This is a process towards normalization. It is a process that has to be completed but it will take time. DC: As Daz said, it is a process towards the normalization. And normality is having civil police provide security and protection for the civil population, not having soldiers and armored cars and machineguns. It is something that we are involved in with KFOR to plan in the early stages of UNMIK Police being here, very simply because there weren't enough officers to do that, we now have more officers, we have more KPS that are trained. In the future there will the process of transition. The type of security that we will provide may not be the same as KFOR. A static guard point is a very high visible symbol of security, but in terms of protecting somebody it is not particularly efficient. It is far better to have a roving patrol, maybe in plain clothes, maybe an observation point. There are lots of different ways of providing security. And a fixed point, in a guard tower, which is highly visible, may not be the best way to do that. DS: These actions can only be taken when the population of Kosovo allows us to and the transition form high visibility, static point to less visible roving patrols is something KFOR is addressing as well. It is normally something we would do when the security allows, and when people of Kosovo feel safe enough to allow us to do that, all communities. Q: Will the SRSG have the power to nominate technical government if this problem drama drags on forever? Is it in his powers? SM: It is described in the Constitutional Framework. The assumption is that the political process will do this in the end, so there is no reference to that in the Constitutional Framework and if this goes on for months I suppose the new SRSG will have some opinion on it but I can't have at this point. Q: If UNMIK sign protocol on hidden prisons, does it mean that you acknowledge possibility of hidden prisons existing here? SM: No. Can we please wait before you file stories to see what it is? Yes, we have both people arguing that there are hidden prisons on either side. The explanations given by UNMIK Police and KFOR have not satisfied Belgrade authorities, so please can we.. I gave you the title what they expect to have signed, please just wait and see what it is, but as these two guys have said, we have pursued reports of hidden prisons, we have not found any. But these articles keep cropping up in the Belgrade press, with specific details, so the issue remains quite alive. There is thousands of missing people on either side of the line and it is natural human emotion to hold out hope that people are alive. We will do whatever we can on this side of the boundary line to confirm. You have been addressed before by the guy in the missing persons unit who follows up every report, so, please lets just wait to see what this protocol is before jumping to conclusions. Q: Question for the police. Do you have a suspect in the murder of Mr. Hajdaraj? DC: I am very sorry to say that there have been no new developments in that case and I will take this opportunity to appeal to people. Somebody knows who did this and whoever has that information has an obligation, not just to the police but to all the people of Kosovo to come forward to give us that information. Confidentially, if you have to, we don't need a name, we don't need to know who you are, if you have that information, get it to us. Q: Are you going to take any security measures for deputies and VIPs? DC: Assembly members are able to come to the police if they feel that they are in any threat, any danger. We will conduct a threat assessment, and we will provide appropriate levels of security. We can not guard every Assembly member, and it is up to each person who feels that they re at risk possibly due to a threat made against them to come to us, tell us about that, and then we will provide appropriate security. Q: During the past two years there were some notorious killings in Kosovo. Do you think there were no apprehended suspects because these were sophisticated killings or because people did not come forward to the police or police did not do their job properly? DC: I would not characterized the high profile murders that you referred to as sophisticated, but there is a big difference in the type of murder that arises from normal criminal activity and a type of murder that is planned, executed, carried out and concealed by the persons with the very strong motif.
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