Briefing Notes, 25 February 2003

UNMIK DPI Director Simon Haselock
KFOR Spokesperson Wg Cdr Tony Adams
UNMIK Police Spokesperson Derek Chappell
OSCE Spokesperson
EU Spokeswoman Monique De Groot

UNMIK DPI Director Simon Haselock

Certain press over the last few days talked about events in Bujanovac who said who to what, when, why? So we want to address that issue this morning and I think we should see what the chain of events were and if I can just ask Derek to explain the police’s position.

UNMIK Police Spokesperson Derek Chappell

Unsubstantiated Claims

On Sunday, one Serbian police officer was murdered and two others were wounded in a land mine explosion in Southern Serbia. Within hours of the incident, Nebojsa Covic publicly claimed to know the identities of the people responsible for the attack, stated they had fled into Kosovo, and demanded that UNMIK Police arrest the suspects.

At the time these claims were made via the Serbian news media, no information had been provided to UNMIK Police regarding the allegations. UNMIK Police subsequently made an official request for information to the Serbian authorities regarding the allegations but they were unable to provide any evidence to substantiate the claims.

We have an excellent working relationship with the police in all of the surrounding areas and are ready to fulfill our responsibilities under the various mutual cooperation agreements in effect. However, our actions will be based on substantive evidence that is the result of legitimate police investigations.

UNMIK DPI Director Simon Haselock

So to turn to the incident itself… Clearly we condemn the attack, there is no question of that, and clearly we alongside with our KFOR and Police colleagues will continue to monitor the situation very carefully. But as you know form Mr. Steiner’s remarks yesterday it is very important that from what we say publicly we do not say things which are likely to inflate or stir the situation unnecessarily. If Mr. Covic did say what he is quoted as saying on B-92 yesterday, really, I think, to be frank, disqualifies him form being taken seriously on this issue. There is remark about conversations between Pillar heads and other members of the Serbian senior police service. If you look at the timing that any conversation could take place it is my understanding that any conversation that may have taken place, took place because Mr. Cadi actually contacted them to ask what they were talking about and was provided with no substantive information to verify what they have been alleging and certainly they were no documents or written evidence produced whatsoever.

Thank you very much.

UNMIK Police Spokesperson Derek Chappell

Murder

On 23-02-03 in Pec region, a K-Albanian man was found inside his residence, dead from an apparent single gunshot wound. The motive has not been confirmed and no suspect has been identified.

Shooting

On 22/02/03 in Gnjilane Region, unknown suspects fired numerous shots at a K-Serbian owned shop. A Serbian man was wounded and was transported to a hospital inside Serbia. The motive has not been confirmed and no suspects have been identified.

Anti-Drug Operations

On 23-02-03, a search of a vehicle in Mitrovica North discovered a large quantity of pharmaceutical drugs. Five suspects were arrested.

On 22-02-03, the Regional Drug Squad conducted a search of a café-bar in Mitrovica North. No disturbances resulted from the action.

On 19-02-03 in Pec Region, a search of a house discovered approximately 850 grams of cocaine, 900 grams of hashish, and several illegal weapons. Two suspects were arrested at the time and a third suspect was arrested on 20-02-03.

Arrest For Attempted Murder

On 27-12-02 in Gnjilane Region, police went to the home of a local man to serve a court order. The man resisted by firing at the police and he was also able to escape. On 23-02-03, police located and arrested the suspect, who was hiding in a house in a village. A search of the house after the arrest discovered a hand grenade and also found property taken in a burglary earlier this month. The suspect has been charged with the burglary, and investigators believe they will be able to link him to numerous other crimes committed in the area.

Please contact the appropriate Regional Police Press Officer for additional information concerning the incidents inside Kosovo.

EU Spokeswoman Monique De Groot

UNMIK DPI Director Simon Haselock

I also have one announcement quickly before we move on to questions; there will be a press conference this afternoon in Mitrovica at 15:00 hrs lead by the SRSG. It will be in the regional administrator’s office.

Questions:

Q: Simon what do you think is the reason behind these unsubstantiated reports by Mr. Covic? Derek, does the excellent working relationship you were speaking of include, or did it produce any result in finding some 14-15 Serb prisoners accused of war crimes who escaped form Mitrovica prison?

UNMIK: I know what you driving at but you won’t get me to say it. I mean…

Q: Do you know what Covic is driving at?

UNMIK: You know exactly what he is driving at.

UNMIK Police: I will answer the second part of your question. When I say we have an excellent working relationship, we have formal agreements on cooperation with all of the police of the neighboring areas and that includes Serbia. We regularly meet; we discuss criminal matters that affect people and police on both sides of the boundary or border depending where we are talking. I can’t comment on specific cases that might have been solved as a result of those ongoing discussions but I can refer you back to last week when I announced that the Albanian police has handed back the suspects to us for crime they have committed, I believe, in Prizren, and we have been looking for this person for some time. And that is an excellent example of how this cooperation works.

Q: Did you bring this issue up with the Serbian police – the issue of prison escapees from Mitrovica prison?

UNMIK Police: I am not privy to the workings and consultations between the representatives of the agencies. I don’t know what particular cases they have discussed.

Q: Simon, can you comment on the possibility of creation of Union of the Serb municipalities today in northern Mitrovica and if you can give us general position of UNMIK with regard to this union. And the second issues is, in the press statement by police, Derek you say that the regional drug squad conducted search of premises of a bar in northern Mitrovica and funny enough it says that some disturbances that should have happened did not happen. Why not having disturbances is the news for you?

UNMIK Police: I would have thought that the opposite of that is fairly obvious. The point in mentioning that that we did 2 searches in northern part of Mitrovica for drugs is to indicate that we are doing de facto normal policing in the north, and I think most of us, certainly all of you in the audience, have been here long enough to know that not that long ago to do normal policing in the north has not been possible. I think is an achievement that we can conduct normal policing with the consent of the population and we achieve results.

Q: Can I follow up on that one... As a police spokesperson are you disturbed, unhappy by the fact that Milan Ivanovic is still continuing his political activity?

UNMIK Police: That is an ongoing trial, I can’t comment on something that is under investigation. This is a case of the independent justice system. I think you know that. It is provocative question.

UNMIK: Regarding to Milan Ivanovic’s trial, this trial per say ….there are court proceedings going on in the District court in Mitrovica now on this very issue, to establish, I think my understanding is that they have to get the defense to agree to the new indictment in a way that you do in all cases and that is what is going on at the moment. I think witness have been called to, in a preliminary period similar to the Latif Gashi and Remi case when they had to decide whether the defense were content to the inducement as it was presented as exchange. So this court case in that context, is actually ongoing at the moment. So it is not that we are waiting for it to happen, it is actually in process, but it is still in preliminary hearings at the moment.

As far as we have to I will deal with this union in the north, although I don’t know why because nobody takes it very seriously in the sense that it has no legal significance as we said before. We will mostly say more about it when we know what they in fact do as a consequence of the meeting they have today, but our position is that it has no legal relevance and anything that purports to be move towards what Mr. Djindjic was saying in The Times is clearly unacceptable, it is clearly counter 1244, and as such has no legal basis and clearly mono ethnic rather then multiethnic solution to any of the problem is against international consensus and against what the Security Council has specifically said and not only against what Americans have argued, which is what Mr. Djindjic refers to in his Times speech but also against what the Russian foreign minister has said as well. They are (the Serbs) are on their own, and I think there in no breaking in the international consensus which is why you will note from the letter which I think was leaked to the press.