UNMIK/PR/37

Press Release

31 August 1999

MITROVICA - Bernard Kouchner, the Special Representative of the Secretary General and head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, appointed seven judges and two public prosecutors today. 

"Your appointment as judges and public prosecutors marks another important step forward towards building a new, independent and multi-ethnic judiciary for Kosovo," Kouchner told the jurists, six of whom are Albanian and three of whom are Serb.

Kapllan Baruti, Rifat Feratovic, Gani Rexha, Ljubomir Pantovic, Nebojsa Avramovic, Mahmut Halimi and Emine Mustafa were appointed as criminal law judges in the District Court of Mitrovica.

Jusuf Mejzini and Stojanka Kasalovic were named as public prosecutors in the Mitrovica District Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Kapllan Baruti was also appointed as President of the Mitrovica District Court.

"Let us build this judiciary together," said Kouchner to the jurists as they took their oaths of office at the courthouse in Mitrovica. "The Interim Administration, under the auspices of UNMIK, will need the expertise and experience of lawyers like you to build a credible and sustainable judiciary in Kosovo."

Kouchner said UNMIK’s Joint Advisory Council on Legislative Matters would actively work with the local legal community to promote legal reforms and establish new laws in keeping with internationally recognized human rights standards. In this way, the SRSG said, the Kosovar legal system would be transformed into a democratic and multi-ethnic judiciary.

The appointments are provisional, for initial three-month, renewable terms, until a regular judicial commission is established.