UNMIK/PR/389

PRESS RELEASE - 12 October 2000

SRSG Opens Resource Centre on Detainees and Missing Persons
 
SRSG Bernard Kouchner today opened the Pristina Resource Centre on Detainees and Missing Persons, an effort led by UNMIK with the participation of the OSCE and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Centre is meant as a place where any  residents of Kosovo can contact offices and organizations who can assist with requests on missing or detained persons. But it is intended primarily to serve family members of missing persons, family members of detainees from Kosovo held in Serbia, former detainees who have been released from Serbia and members of family associations. 

"We are going to work together first to get information, even if the news is bad, because we have to know what happened to the missing persons, both Kosovo Albanians and Serbs," Dr. Kouchner told media and others gathered for the opening this morning in the plaza next to the UNMIK Government building. "Of course we also have to support the families, and with our Kosovar friends and with all the associations involved in the issue, we will give all the necessary support in terms of economical, psychological and human support."

The Centre will be open Monday through Friday from 10 to 1400, with UNMIK and Joint Interim Administrative Structure who can provide information and assistance to former prisoners and family members on issues related to administrative aspects and projects

The ICRC will also take reports on missing persons, provide information on prisoners' conditions and visits with family members and psychosocial referral for family members.

The UNMIK Police Missing Persons Unit will receive reports and information on missing persons and provide results of ante-mortem investigations. An OSCE representative will provide information and assistance on the identification of bodies, as well as forensic expertise

Asked the impact of the recent changes in Belgrade on the fate of detainees and missing people, Dr. Kouchner told media today that "with the coming of democracy, we'll be in a position to get much more news than what we've gotten so far, which is nothing. I've offered to Belgrade to take back all the detained persons here in Kosovo. I hope they'll offer to us a bouquet of flowers for democracy, with the liberation of all prisoners…."