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Press Briefing Notes, 25 March 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 Spokesperson Sunil Narula
UNMIK Debate on Returns
Good afternoon everybody, I am sorry for this delay.
Yesterday UNMIK organized the returns debate. Among the panelists were the former NATO spokesman Jamie Shea, Prime Minster Bajram Rexhepi, Head of the US Office in Prishtina Reno Harnish, the Head of KPC Lt. General Agim Çeku, head of the Office of Returns and Community Affairs Peggy Hicks, Catholic Priest Don Lush Gjergji and Nenad Radosavljevic, from the of office of Returns and Community Affairs. This debate will be shown tomorrow evening in all the three television channels at 8 o’clock.
Shea Visiting Returns Site
Today Mr. Shea is visiting a returns site, this is in Pristina called Murafka Street up in the Sunny Hill, and he is attending there with the President of the Pristina Municipality as well as some representatives of Romans.
Decision in Drini case
The big news from yesterday was that the Commander Drini case was decided.
The judgement that followed was that Mr Sali Veseli was sentenced to 10
years for attempt to incite another individual to assassinate the victim.
Mr. Abit Haziraj, indicated for murder, was found not guilty. The two
other defendants Xhemal Beqiraj, was found guilty of unlawful possession
of weapons, but he was not found guilty of complicity and not guilty of
complicity, aiding and attempted incitement in murder because lack of
evidence. He got one year. Halil Qadraku also got one year for unlawful
of possession of a big quantity of weapons and explosives and not guilty
of complicity and aiding in murder.
UNMIK Police Spokesperson Derek Chappell
Major Crimes
No homicides were recorded during the past week.
On 18-03-03 in Prizren Region, a 10 year-old girl was raped. The victim
told her schoolteacher about the crime and the teacher told the parents,
who reported the incident to the police. Police arrested the suspect on
22-03-03.
Other Notable Incidents
On 23-03-03 in Pec and Pristina Regions, police detained two Tax Inspectors
on suspicion of falsifying documents concerning imports of diesel fuel.
Investigators believe the two suspects allowed private companies to evade
import taxes estimated at more than 500,000 Euros.
On 21-03-03 in Pec, police conducted an unannounced inspection of the driving test office. Four officials were subsequently arrested for issuing driving licenses after receiving bribes from applicants who did not actually take the test.
On 18-03-03 at about 22:30h, KPS officers observed a suspicious boat
on the lake near Zubin Potok (Northern Mitrovica Region). The boat was
found to contain 223 boxes of illegal alcohol (valued at 10,000 Euro)
being smuggled from Serbia to Kosovo.
Sensationalism
There have been numerous recent reports in the Kosovo news media that
cross the line between legitimate journalism and sensationalism. Most
recent are claims that “Islamic terrorists” were responsible
for Friday’s grenade attacks on two police stations. Other examples
include: Reports of “hundreds of uniformed Serbian police patrolling
in North Mitrovica”, UNMIK Police offered “100,000 Euros”
to a witness for their testimony, “The security situation in Pristina
is far worse than some years ago. Statistics…cannot refute this”
and “UNMIK Police confirm the AKSH (guerrilla army) is operating
in Kosovo”.
In reality, there is no evidence Friday’s attacks had any political motive or “terrorist” involvement. The story about the Serb police is silly. The story about the offer of 100,000 Euros is a lie. Kosovo, including Pristina, is safer than anytime since June of 1999 and the statistics DO confirm this. UNMIK Police have never confirmed the existence of any guerrilla army currently operating in Kosovo and we have no evidence that one does exist.
The news media regularly reports that people in Kosovo are afraid. If that is true, if people are afraid, it is because of these types of sensational stories. Journalists are free to report whatever they want, but that freedom comes with a responsibility to report the facts. This responsibility is not being upheld.
OSCE Spokesperson Edita Buçaj
Kosovo Judicial Institute Sponsors Judges’ Visit to Slovenia
Nine judges from across Kosovo have been selected by the OSCE-established
KJI (Kosovo Judicial Institute) to visit Slovenia for study purposes throughout
this week.
Participants will have an opportunity to visit the Ministry of Justice of Slovenia, as well as to interact with members of the Slovenian Judiciary. This event will allow them discuss common problems and potential solutions.
The visit is of particular interest to local judges as Slovenia has managed a successful transition to a democratic system of government. Great strides have been made in the development of the judicial system of Slovenia. The event is another opportunity for the Kosovo judges to become closely acquainted with the achievements of their Slovenian counterparts.
The KJI was set up by OSCE to strengthen the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law in Kosovo. It provides legal education for judges and prosecutors in international human rights law and other subjects crucial to the development of a professional judiciary in Kosovo.
These include international standards of human rights, judicial practice,
pre-trial detention proceedings, property and standards for the prosecution
of war crimes. Local judges and prosecutors work closely with the KJI
to assist in programme development and training future judges.
EU Spokeswoman Monique De Groot
EFC
The 10th regular meeting of the Economic and Fiscal Council (EFC), planned
for last week has been postponed and will now take place this coming Thursday
March 27th at 14:00 hrs. On the agenda will be among others the FTA Agreement
with FYRM and Budget Development Issues.
· As usual there will be a photo opportunity at the start of the
meeting
· A press release on the outcome will be send afterwards.
KTA
The Kosovo Trust Agency is organizing a second series of seminars on Privatization,
which will be held all over Kosovo. The first seminar is taking place
as we speak in the Grand Hotel in Pristina. All media are invited to attend.
I have the schedule here for the coming weeks for those of you who are
interested.
Designated Air Carrier
Also on Thursday the 27th, the public opening of the tender for the Designated
Air Carrier will take place. Media are invited to attend, details on location
and timing will be send out tomorrow.
Questions
Q: Sunil, you never mentioned anything about the municipal union, which is formed in Anamorava. Simon said that it is not a big risk, but this is the second such Union and you are doing nothing to stop that?
SN: I agree with Simon. It is not very serious if you look at the level of representation, the people who attended that conference, who formed this group, this organization, it is not very high level, and it comes from the municipalities, which are basically dominated by Albanians, most of them, except Novo Brdo. As you know when the Union was formed in the northern municipalities, we said there is no legal basis for that and we don’t recognize such unions or organizations which are based on mono-ethnicity. That defeats the whole purpose we are here for. We are not going to encourage organizations like that and we are not going to support them, we are not going to give them any legitimacy.
Q: Derek, the suspicious boat on the lake near Zubin Potok, have you arrested
anyone, and what nationality are they?
DC: Yes, we did make an arrest; we arrested two K-Serbian men with the
boat and the confiscated liqueur that was handed to customs.
Q: You mentioned the free trade agreement with FYROM, the deadline was
today. Do you have any information on it?
MG: Indeed today was the deadline, meaning that FYROM customs officials have said at the last meeting that we had with them and as of today they would honor the agreement that we had with them. So we are closely monitoring that, I don’t obviously have any report from today, but I do expect definitely that at the EFC this Thursday, when we report on the progress, it will be initiated and reported on.
Q: A follow up on the union formed in Anamorava, are the UNMIK and UNHCR afraid that these unions are endangering the return of the Serbs to Kosovo? Because now, the opinion is that if Serbs return in some areas then they may form unions all across Kosovo.
SN: Not really, I don’t think that the returns program they way that it is going will be affected. I think it is going on very satisfactorily and I don’t think these kinds of unions would really impact on our returns program. We are not afraid of these guys forming these unions, as I said. We don’t even recognize them, there is no legal basis for these unions, and we are continuing our work on returns, the Municipal Working Groups in most municipalities are quite active.
DC: Ladies and gentleman could I announce that we have organized a special press conference tomorrow morning at 9.30am at police headquarters in our press conference room. Police commissioner Stefan Feller and Colonel Sheremet Ahmeti will be there and we will be talking about security in policing matter, and you have an opportunity to put questions to them. Everybody is invited to attend 9.30 am third floor conference room at the police main headquarters tomorrow.
Q: Two question, one for KFOR and one for UNMIK police. Derek the two attacks on Friday that happened in the police stations, which was not very well lit up. Do you think KEK is partly responsible for creating conditions and is KEK part of your investigation, and would you think that that would be sort of bringing the problem down to earth? And the second question would be. Why would a suicide bomber want to operate in Kosovo?
DC: I have been here long enough that I am susceptible of conspiracy theories, but I think that it is going a bit far. To think that somebody at KEK pulled the switch so that somebody could throw a hand grenade. I accept dark streets in a built up area create a feeling of insecurity. There are cities in North America and Europe where we have had blackouts and crimes have occurred, people feel afraid to go out at night if the streets are not well lit, and certainly dark streets and built up area create a feeling of insecurity. I think it’s a very good point, if we had full time electricity and full time street lighting, it would probably do a lot to improve peoples ability to walk around safely.
GB: I have only been here a month, maybe you would be in a better place to answer that than me. I mean we sort of reported it in the press that there were speculations about that, but all I see is purely speculation. And again like Derek said it’s irresponsible speculation that makes people to feel insecure.
Q: What happened with the first privatization tenders for the first six companies?
MG: They are still waiting to be announced, because it is still held up because the land use regulation has not been signed.
Q. A follow up on what Derek said on the street lighting. What’s happening to the electricity situation, and why did we have all these problems with it last week?
MG: For technical details I will have to refer you to KEK. All I could say is that with the current conditions and shape this can happen all the time and they are trying to repair them as soon as possible. For the last week and the weeks before ask the technical experts, they are not in optimal conditions unfortunately. And as long as there are not sufficient money flood into the budget of KEK, it will be difficult times for the time being.
Q: Derek you mentioned that there were no Serb Gendarmerie in Northern Mitrovica, that it’s only media speculation. But yesterday in a TV report there were several witnesses who claim to have seen them and located them and they have shown some evidence of the existence of some, I don’t know what to call it, paramilitary or military organization or governmental organization who operate in the northern Mitrovica.
DC: First, there were reports that the Serb Gendarmerie were operating
from a village in the Mitrovica region, resulted in the police going to
that village and inspecting it, looking for evidence such as tyre tracks
or vehicles, looking in houses, talking to people, looking for any evidence
of food supplies, generators, any thing that would indicate the existence
of people other than the normal residents. There was no evidence. It was
not a true report. The second report I have seen, the evidence that is
quoted is a rock, I believe on which is written SRG and death to Albanians.
If that constitutes conclusive evidence to you, it certainly doesn’t
to us.