UNMIK/PR/50

PRESS RELEASE

22 September 1999

COMMISSION ON MISSING AND DETAINEES MEETS

PRISTINA--The Commission on Prisoners and Detainees created by UNMIK Special Representative of the Secretary-General Bernard Kouchner met for the first time yesterday at UNMIK headquarters.

The membership includes people nominated by members of the Kosovo Transitional Council who have experience or expertise in human rights law, representatives of nongovernmental human rights organizations,  legal practitioners, and family members of detained persons.  The Commission will meet regularly under the chairmanship of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

SRSG  Kouchner welcomed the Commission meeting and expressed his support for its efforts. The Commission agreed yesterday to concern itself with those persons from Kosovo detained or missing before, during and after NATO's air campaign.

"I'm grateful to you  who made this commitment to work on this extremely important Commission," said SRSG Kouchner. "Resolving this question is vital of course to the families whose members are detained or missing. But it is also crucial to the future of Kosovo."

The Commission will seek information on the whereabouts of detained and missing persons and on the circumstances of detention in order to support interventions on behalf of the detainees. The Commission will also advocate on behalf of detainees and their families. It will also inform the public of its work and relevant developments and will seek to address public fears and concerns.

The Commission also agreed to pursue the following actions:

To use their influence as organizational representatives and individuals to ensure that media in the Albanian and Serbo-Croatian languages present equivalent information on the work of the Commission, so that information on the situation of all detainees reaches all communities.

To gather and present information on the times, places, and conditions under which persons have been detained, and by whom, in order to support interventions.

To view as its first priority the release of juveniles, elderly, ill persons and women detainees.

The Commission also discussed actions to ensure access by UNHCHR, ICRC, attorneys, advocates, and representatives to detainees and places of detention, and the need for family members and physicians to have access to detainees.

At its next meeting in two weeks, members will report on initiatives of law and advocacy that could support the Commission=s work.