UNMIK/PR/36

Press Release

30 August 1999

Kouchner, Holbrooke Patrol High Risk Areas with UN International Police

Pristina - Bernard Kouchner, Special Representative of the Secretary General, and Richard Holbrooke, US Ambassador to the UN, went on patrol this morning with UN International Police officers to high risk areas in Pristina.

"We are trying to identify hot spots where minorities are being threatened the most," said UN Police Commissioner Sven Frederiksen, who accompanied Kouchner and Holbrooke. "Security, in police terms, comes from presence and visibility. The population must see that we are going to take care of them the best way we can."

UNIP has set up several police substations where minorities have been particularly subject to harassament and intimidation. The group first visited a 24-hour police substation at the Pristina Hospital.

"Minorities have been afraid to come to the hospital," Frederiksen told Kouchner and Holbrooke. "We will have staff here 24-hours a day. We’ll be here, visible, in order to respond if anything happens."

Holbrooke acknowledged that UNIP has a difficult task ahead if it is to curb such criminal activity as house burnings, vandalism and violence, but said that such police work is vital to the success of the UN mission in Kosovo.

"This is really the toughest job. If it doesn’t succeed, you don’t create the stable environment for a political process to unfold," Holbrooke said. "I intend to go back to New York and work as closely as I can with UN officials to give Commissioner Frederiksen the support we think he needs."

The group also visited an ethnically mixed apartment complex in Ulpiana, where a high number of incidents of harassment and crimes against ethic minorities, particularly Serbs, have been reported.  Another 24-hour police substation has been installed on the grounds of the complex to provide security and protection to all the inhabitants.

Kouchner and several international police officers visited one Serb woman who told them  she had been harassed and was afraid to leave her apartment. The SRSG reassured her that she could seek help from the 24-hour police service if any problems arose in the future.

Kouchner also showed reporters a chart comparing the crime rate in Kosovo to Washington, Pretoria, Berlin and other cities. The chart indicated that security has improved significantly since UNIP officers have been in the field.

"The rate of criminality is down - look at where we are and where we were just two months ago," Kouchner said. "Look at the level of murder, arson and looting, which are dropping. We are making a difference."