UNMIK/PR/414

PRESS RELEASE - 13 November 2000

SRSG To Raise the Issue of Missing and Detained in Security Council

PRISTINA---SRSG Dr. Bernard Kouchner, who is in New York to address the UN Security Council this week, has said that he shares the sorrow of the families of the detained and the missing Kosovars, who are presently demonstrating throughout Kosovo. He said he has already raised the issue of the release of prisoners and information on the fate of the missing with leaders of several Western governments. Dr. Kouchner said he would once again raise this issue when he addresses the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Dr. Kouchner expressed satisfaction that the situation in the Serbian prisons was calming down thus ensuring the safety and well being of the Kosovo Albanian prisoners held there.

He said that UNMIK welcomes the declaration by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica at the Council of Europe last week that his government would initiate a process to resolve the problem of the detained and the missing. SRSG said that UNMIK was prepared to work with the Yugoslav authorities to resolve this grim issue.