UNMIK-UNMIK Police-KFOR- Press Briefing, 27 May 2002

UNMIK Director of Public Information Simon Haselock
UNMIK Police Spokesman Derek Chappell
KFOR Spokesman Drew Andersen

UNMIK Director of Public Information Simon Haselock

Good morning everybody. Standing in for Susan who is away on well-deserved leave at the moment, so you will have to put up with me today and on Thursday as well.

I haven’t got very much for you today; just a couple of meetings. Some of you may already be aware that the Deputy Prime Minster Covic, the Head of Coordination Centre will meet the SRSG, Mr. Steiner this afternoon. Two issues are essentially on the agenda; Mitrovica and returns are the two key issues to be discussed. There will be no press opportunity but we will put out a press release after the meeting.

You also may know that tomorrow there is a meeting in Peja/Pec. The UNMIK Regional Administrator in the region is organizing a meeting with both Kosovo Albanian political leaders on the issue of reconciliation. Prime Minster Rexhepi will be the keynote speaker. Hashim Thaci will also be there as well as Ramush Haradinaj, and the LDK vice-president Kole Berisha will also participate.

The SRSG will be represented by his deputy, Charles Brayshaw who will speak at the event.

You should speak to Venera in the region about the arrangements for the press, but I think there will be some press opportunities there.

Those of you who were expecting the Economic and Fiscal Council meeting to take place; it has been cancelled; there has been a technical problem and so it has been, not cancelled, but postponed and we will give you the next time which I am sure will be in the next couple of days, and so it is not anything to be concerned about, it is just that there was a technical problem this morning and they’ve asked if the meeting could be rescheduled for a next few days.

Also Mechthild who is in the back, is taking some journalists, and we have a sign up sheet, for those who want to go to Dubrava to see the arrival of new international correctional officers from Germany and there will be an opportunity to look at parts of the prison, I think, under supervision. However, there will be no cameras allowed into the prison itself, we will provide a service for stills and video pictures which will be provided as a pool to those people who might want it.

UNMIK Police Spokesman Derek Chappell
KFOR Spokesman Wing Commander Drew Andersen

Questions:

Q: Simon on the transferred prisoners. Covic said that they might review the cases, could that happen, and if it does, what will be the reaction of the UN here?

SH: I cannot answer for what Mr. Covic may say or may do, our line is completely clear. These six were transferred on a basis of an Agreement, which was established under the European Convention on the transfer of sentenced prisoners. That convention provides for certain criteria, as we said before, which have to be fulfilled for people to be transferred -- they have been legitimately convicted by internationally supervised courts, consistent with international standards of justice. We would have expected them to be transferred to prisons in Serbia in accordance with the Convention, where they will serve the remainder of their sentence and we can see no circumstances where there would be any need to review these cases.

Q: But you are not overruling the possibility that it could happen?

SH: I can’t answer for what they may choose or may not choose; I can’t answer for them. As far as we are concerned we see no reason why they should, and we don’t expect them to do that either. But I can’t speak on behalf of the Serb Justice Department.

Q: Which said they would review them…

SH: Mr. Covic said that, I don’t think that Mr. Batic has necessarily said that as yet. And he is the Serb justice minister and he is the person we dealt with on this case.

Q: For KFOR; Do you have more details about human bones that were found by Italian soldiers in Gjakova?

KFOR: Yes, as it stands at the moment we await forensic tests of these bones, and I beleive that UNMIK Police has profiling facilities…

DC: Yes, we have access to facilities for DNA testing, and those remains have been taken by the missing persons unit and they will conduct DNA test in an attempt to match it with any report on missing persons.

Q: What is the criteria for the transfer of the Serbian prisoners to Serbia?

SH: You should tell me that because we have made this clear on a number of occasions; the criteria were established some time ago on the basis of the European Convention; there are six of them; I can’t remember them all, but they are essentially that the case has to be fully finished, in other words there should no further prosecution pending, there should be no appeals pending so in other words the whole judicial process is over; there should be at least six months of the sentence remaining to be served from the time they are transferred, they need to have either family in the place or close to the place they are going to be transferred to, or their origin should be from that particular place; I don’t think it has to be both but one or the other. And I think there are a couple of others that I cannot remember off the top of my head.

Q: So those who are from Kosovo do they have they families in Serbia?

SH: Well, I would imagine as you said, the six people who have been transferred have fulfilled those criteria. They are the only ones who have and they are the only ones who do; I won’t go through every single person because I don’t have the information, but I can obviously check. But as far as I am aware those six people conform to those critieria, and either they come from Serbia proper or they have families currently in Serbia proper, that they have no appeals outstanding and that they have more than six months left to serve in prison.

Q: If the Serb judiciary decides to release them, is there something UNMIK can do to prevent it?

SH: First of all, you need to get off this; this is a transfer arrangement done under the European terms of the conventions, which I said to you before; the notion that this is quid pro quo is nonsense. We are assured that these people will be transferred to prisons in Serbia under the same terms. We have had no indication from the Serbian Justice department that that is not the case. I cannot comment on what Mr. Covic may or may not be saying. We are dealing with the Justice department and as far we are concerned, they have been transferred; there is no reason why their cases should be reviewed, and we would expect them to continue to serve their sentences in Serbia and it would be a breach of faith if they were released.

Q: Did the Serbian government participate in the drafting the regulation on privatization?

SH: Not as far as I know; as far as I am aware they objected to it. I don’t think that they would be objecting in a way that they are if they had been involved in drafting it. They don’t like the law; they made that quite clear and quite publicly.

Q: Does UNMIK have any mechanism to check if this agreement will be respected or will you rely on the good will of the Serbian Justice Department to keep them in jail?

SH: This is what diplomacy is about; if they release them against the agreement they have basically broken the terms of the agreement and the international community will know that, all the people who were involved in providing assistance in Belgrade will know that and I think it is highly unlikely. They have signed an agreement in good faith, the terms and conditions have been made quite clear. I think that it is unreasonable to think that they will renege on the terms of that agreement. We expect these people to stay in prison, we don’t see any reason why their sentences will be reviewed.

Q: You expect, but what happens if they get released?

SH: They are not going to be released; we will cross that bridge if we come to the unlikely events when it happens but we are not involved in administration in Serbia. We have gone according to convention which is of European standards, which is universally recognized throughout the Europe, it is the way prisoners are treated, it is the way prisoners are expected to serve their sentences. These six individuals have fulfilled the criteria and we expect them to remain in prison and we do not expect their sentence to be reviewed. That is what we believe we have assurance from the Serbian Government about and it would be disingenuous of me to suggest that they won’t abide by that agreement.

Thank you.