United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo - UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT

Press Briefing Notes, 1 April 2003

UNMIK Spokesperson Sunil Narula
KFOR Spokesperson Gary Bannister-Green
UNMIK Police Spokesperson Derek Chappell
OSCE Spokesperson Edita Buçaj
EU Spokeswoman Monique De Groot
UNMIK Legal Advisor Alexander Borg-Olivier

UNMIK Spokesperson Sunil Narula

Today we have a regular press conference with a special flavor. We have SRSG Legal Advisor Alexander Borg-Olivier and his colleague Phyllis Hwang here to speak about the two criminal laws. We start with Derek, then Gary, Edita and Monique and then I take it on and basically hand it over to Mr. Borg-Olivier.

UNMIK Police Spokesperson Derek Chappell

Major Crimes

No homicides were recorded during the past week.

On 30-03-03 in Mitrovica Region (South), an 18 year-old K-Albanian female was kidnapped by a 37 year-old K-Albanian male and another K-Albanian man who has not yet been identified. The victim was taken into the forest and the suspects were forcibly disrobing her when one of the suspect’s mobile phone rang. He answered it and was advised that the police were looking for him. The suspects fled without completing the rape. One suspect was located and arrested. Police are seeking the second suspect.

KPS K-9 Unit

You may have noticed the police dogs and their handlers outside. They are with the newly-formed KPS K-9 Unit, currently based in Ferizaj/Urosevac. The unit has six police officers and seven German Shepards donated by the Austrian government. They recently completed a one-month training program in England where drug detection, explosives detection, and tracking were taught. The unit is on 24 hour call and able to respond anywhere in Kosovo using special vehicles. We plan to eventually have three K-9 units to provide better coverage: one each assigned to the northern, central, and southern areas of Kosovo.

Suspect Returned to Albania

Police in Pec/Peja investigating an armed robbery in Djakova identified and arrested a male suspect on the 26th of March. Investigators subsequently learned the suspect is from Albania, where he is wanted for Murder.

On the 31st of March, the suspect was taken to Court in Pec/Peja, and then transported to the border and returned to Albania. Albanian authorities arrested him.

KFOR Spokesman Gary Bannister-Green

Announcement

There have been several forest fires and fires in open land over the past week in which KFOR has supported the local fire services and KPC in firefighting activities. Some of these fires were preventable, being caused by carelessness such as discarded cigarettes or unguarded campfires. We ask that people think and take care in there areas, properly extinguishing cigarettes and not lighting campfires as the forests and grasslands are very dry at the moment.

Over the past week KFOR patrols and operations have confiscated the following illegal weapons and ammunition:

· 26 Rifles
· 7 Pistols
· 2 Support Weapons
· 1 Anti Tank weapon
· 59 grenades/mines
· 2909 rounds of small arms ammunition

KFOR still remains fully committed to the security of Kosovo and the removal of these weapons from circulation is another positive step forward in support of that aim.

The KFOR spokesman mobile telephone number will now be 044 310 192, please amend your records and numbers on your telephones as the previous number will be discontinued. We would also like to announce the Major Hans Lampalzer, the Deputy Spokesman has now returned to Austria after completing his tour in Kosovo, we would like to pass on our gratitude for the excellent work he did over the past 6 months. The new Deputy Spokesman will be Captain Roberto Mascia, who joins us from the Italian Army.

EU Spokeswoman Monique De Groot

Macroeconomic seminar
In their series of seminars MoFE, Riinvest and the SOK organise a seminar entitled “Kosovo Pension Savings Trust. Investing for your Future: Principles for Prudent Investment”. As usual, the seminar will take in the Statistical Office of Kosovo on Friday from 10:00 to 11:30. (April 4, 2003)

UNMIK Legal Advisor Alexander Borg-Olivier

Drafting History of the Codes

· Involvement of Kosovo experts throughout the process: Professor Ismet Salihu and Professor Ejup Sahiti.

General comments

· New Codes will bring Kosovo into greater conformity with international and European standards.

· In drafting the Codes, the applicable criminal law was taken as the starting-point. Many of the provisions in the applicable law have been maintained without change.

· At the same time, important modifications have been introduced in the Codes taking into account:

q Criminal law reforms in Slovenia, Croatia and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

q Modern principles of international law and, in particular, international human rights law.

· The Codes will clarify the body of criminal law applicable in Kosovo in two comprehensive legislative texts, incorporating various UNMIK Regulations and Administrative Directions, where appropriate.

Draft Provisional Criminal Code of Kosovo

· The main changes:

q Incorporate criminal offences defined in UNMIK Regulations such as the regulations on terrorism and on trafficking in persons.

q Incorporate criminal offences defined in international conventions, including the Statute for the International Criminal Court, the Convention Against Torture and international and regional conventions relating to terrorism, organized crime and corruption.

· For example:

q The chapter on Criminal Offences Against International Law has modified the definitions of war crimes and introduced new offences such as crimes against humanity and smuggling of migrants.

q The chapter on sexual offences has been substantially revised.

q The chapter on Punishments introduces significant reforms to broaden the regime of alternative punishments such as imposing suspended sentence with an order for community service.

Draft Provisional Criminal Procedure Code of Kosovo

· The reforms introduced by the draft Provisional Criminal Procedure Code of Kosovo have two major aims:

q To strengthen powers of prosecutors.

q To enhance the protection of defendants and injured parties.

· The following changes have been made in the draft Criminal Procedure Code to strengthen prosecutorial capacity.

q Public prosecutor has the authority to open, conduct and supervise investigations. Current system is for the investigating judge to conduct investigations.

q Investigating judge has been replaced by a pre-trial judge whose primary function will be to make determine whether a person should be detained, searched or subject to other restrictions of their rights.

q The draft Criminal Procedure Code incorporates three significant UNMIK Regulations relating to injured parties and witnesses, cooperative witnesses and covert and technical measures of surveillance and investigation.

· Other changes have been made to protect defendants and injured parties:

q Defence counsel will be appointed at public expense in a wider range of circumstances than envisaged under the current applicable law.

q The UNMIK Regulation on the Rights of Persons Arrested by Law Enforcement Authorities, including the right to defence counsel, has been incorporated and will extend throughout detention.

q Judicial supervision of pre-trial detention has been strengthened. A procedure has been introduced which allows a detainee or his or her defence counsel to petition a judge at any time to determine the lawfulness of his or her pre-trial detention.

q Recognizing that pre-trial detention should be ordered only when it is strictly necessary, the draft Criminal Procedure Code now provides for house arrest and other measures as alternatives to pre-trial detention.

q A new chapter (Chapter VII) has been added to address the protection of injured parties during criminal proceedings.

In cases involving less than three years of imprisonment, the new code provides for referral of such cases to mediation.

Questions

Q: Why do you call it provisional code?
ABO: It is a good question. We also have Provisional Institution of Self Government. Everything we do is provisional and we have to bear in mind that we are operating within the context of resolution 1244 of the SC, so we have to make sure in providing separate codes, criminal codes and criminal procedure codes for Kosovo, we are not in any way overstepping and calling it to question the final status. There are some who might argue that the criminal code and the criminal procedure code are integral part of a country’s legislation and legislative framework. We are maybe departing from the existing framework. So to avoid this and to address this concern we thought it would be best to refer to the codes as provisional codes and provisional procedure codes so that it is clear that it is without prejudice to what will happen on final status and at the same time Kosovo will be able to benefit with its owns codes and move forward.

Q: Does this means that it is a temporary code and that it will change after UNMIK leaves?
ABO: That’s another good question. Let us not really forecast what the final status will be, but eventually if there is a new resolution which defines the status of Kosovo, one outcome could be that the words provisional will be dropped and they will become criminal codes of Kosovo.

Q: Who is going to promulgate this law?
ABO: That is an easy one, Mr Steiner.

Q: But is the parliament going to have a vote on it?
ABO: We always operate on the basis that there are certain areas of legislation that are clearly reserved and definition for the criminal code for Kosovo is clearly a reserved area, in the area of the administration of justice and law enforcement. But as I said earlier a criminal code and a criminal procedure code is the reflection of the culture and history of the people and affects peoples lives, so there is no question that this is an exercise that requires full engagement and full involvement of the Kosovo institutions, but the final promulgation will have to be done by the SRSG in the form of an UNMIK regulation at this time. Subsequently all that may change in the future but at this time and under 1244 it must be done this way. We expect that the government will coordinate a comprehensive review as will also the assembly with the involvement of its committee on legislative matters and thereafter those comments and observations would be taken into account to the extent possible and incorporated into the legislation. Once there is an agreement we move forward with the promulgation. But I think one should recognize that the assembly and the government will have full opportunity to give observations, and I should emphasize that these two documents are the result of very lengthy process which has a lot of local input, local input from the academic side, from the legal side and from various parts of the judiciary. So they are comprehensive codes, professional codes which we hope will make important contribution to Kosovo legislation.

Q: What are the legal implications for Kosovo, bearing in mind claims and accusations of General Mini that enclaves in Kosovo are concentrations camps. Do people from these areas apply for material compensation, which would be natural. What does the legal advisor say to this, where do we stand here; I mean is that a political statement or is that a legal statement for you?
ABO: I would rather not comment on that, I am only here to provide some information on the two codes and I would rather not move outside from that framework today.

Q: Has the police seen signs of concentrations camps in Kosovo.
DC: Again you are asking us to comment on something that is not related to the police. If you have questions or comments that General Mini made, then the issue should be directed to General Mini. He has to account for his statements and I am not going to give explanations.

Q: I wanted to ask KFOR regarding the concentration camps, where do you stand then?
GB: I don’t want to comment on what General Mini said. I think what we have to look at are the issues and the fact is that there still are enclaves in Kosovo where people don’t feel safe, where we are trying to encourage returns to those areas and you people are getting involved in petty politics trying to pick a phrase and trying to focus on that rather than the real issue that people don’t feel safe in those areas. We in the international community are trying to encourage and trying to make a better environment there. But it is really up to the people of Kosovo to actually be more tolerant and actually be more understanding and try to look to the future so you are not a monoethnic society.

Q: But still, just keep it to the concentration camps. It’s a term that Mr Mini used to explain the enclaves. I am wondering, what signs, what are those characteristics that make it look like a concentration camp?
GB: I don’t want to make any further comment. I have given you what our view is and on what we should be looking at.

Q: But this is different from your commander’s view obviously?
GB: You have seen the correspondences going on there, and I don’t want to go in to it anymore.

Q: For me it is a little bit hard to understand now, you saying that you want to encourage people to come back. Do you think you can encourage people to come back by defining the area where you want them back as a concentration camp, no matter for what purpose it was? Do you think that is clever? Strategically, tactically or whatever way you want to look at it?
GB: Like I said, I don’t want to comment directly on those comments, it’s really, let me just say that we are trying to encourage an environment where we have security and where people feel safe and at the moment people are not feeling safe.

Q: One question for Derek: We received yesterday a press release from UNMIK Police, that said that 31 March was the last day for validation of driving documentation. The last paragraph there was that documents or driving license which are issued somewhere else are still valid. I have a question: driving licenses which are issued in Gracanica with MUP stamp, are they valid?
DC: Midnight, last night was the end of the period of grace and as from midnight last night, it was intended that every vehicle in Kosovo owned by a resident of Kosovo would have Kosovo registration and that all residents of Kosovo will be driving with Kosovo driving licenses. I understand that there have been difficulties within civil administration, that is not something that police is involved in, because we do not issue the driving licenses and questions about those delays should be directed to, for example, the Ministry of Transportation. And because it is physically impossible for people to actually comply with that requirement, because they cannot get those driving licenses, it would be patently unfair for us to enforce the law that will make criminals of people who can not legally comply with the requirements of driving. For that reason the police are attempting to be fair and we recognize the driving licenses from jurisdictions whether they will be former Yugoslav driving licenses or licenses from other jurisdictions within Europe. We are recognizing those as valid driving licenses here for people to operate motor vehicles on Kosovo roads, provisionally.

Q: Even for residents of Kosovo?
DC: Yes temporarily, this is not a permanent measure, bear in mind the problems with issuing licenses and registration plates are not with the police. We are attempting to be fair in the way we enforce the law, and as they said it would be very unfair of us to start issuing tickets, arresting people, seizing vehicles from people who might want to comply with the law but simply cannot do so at this time.

Q: Has the Serb National Council from northern Mitrovica sought permission for protests? If they haven’t will it be allowed to hold such protests and what measures would you take?
DC: I have read the public statement that there will be a protest in some way on Thursday. I don’t know on what that protest will be, will it mean by gathering in a building or a march in the street or a gathering in the park to listen to speeches. There are different types of protests, not all of them require consent from the police if they are in private property. Application for permission to hold a demonstration is something that is dealt regionally, that every regional police station deals with, and if an application has been made or notice has been given it will appear in the northern Mitrovica regional police station. I am not aware of whether or not an application has been received.