UNMIK/PR/385

PRESS RELEASE - 10 October 2000

Attack on KPC Minority Recruiter Condemned

Top officials in the Department of Civil Security and Emergency Preparedness,  KFOR and the Kosovo Protection Corps joined in condemning the attack which took place Monday against an official whose job was to help recruit minorities into the KPC.

UNMIK Police reported that Ahmet Sijariq, a staff member of the administrative Department of Civil Security and Emergency Preparedness and a member of the Bosniak community in Peja/Pec, was badly beaten by four unidentified men in Klina. The attack occurred as Mr. Sijariq was traveling to Pristina from Peja, where he had been arranging testing for candidates to the KPC from non-Albanian communities.  

Mr. Sijariq is the Department's coordinating officer, serving as a liaison between the minority communities and the KPC, and facilitating the application of those candidates who find it difficult to approach the emergency response agency directly. He has extensive links with the non-Albanian communities around Kosovo which he visits to assist the KPC in finding new recruits.

"Whatever the police investigation will add, we will not tolerate incidents such as this," said a joint statement issued by Roland Nilsson and Bislim Zyrapi --co-heads of the Department of Civil Security and Emergency Preparedness,  KFOR Commander Gen. Juan Ortuno and KPC commander Gen. Agim Ceku.

 "The KPC, UNMIK and KFOR  made a genuine commitment that the Kosovo Protection Corps be a multi-ethnic organization. An attack on that effort is an attack on the KPC and all of Kosovo. We continue to encourage eligible members of all communities to apply to the KPC, and we will do all we can to ensure their full acceptance, participation and security."

The 5,000-member Kosovo Protection Corps includes 500 posts reserved for members of minority communities. So far approximately 100 of those posts have been filled.