UNMIK/PR/54

PRESS RELEASE

29 September 1999

UNMIK EXPECTS QUICK RELEASE OF STAFF DETAINED IN YUGOSLAVIA

PRISTINA-Three staff members of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo have not been seen or heard from  since they were detained Monday in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The UN expects them to be released today.

The three, who work for the UNMIK regional office in  the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica, are being held in a police station in the central Serbian town of Krajlevo, for reasons as yet unexplained to UN officials.

Monday morning, the UNMIK team had traveled in a white UN vehicle from Mitrovica westward about 20 kms to Zubin Potok to survey communications installation sites. At 7 p.m. one staff member, Dejan Santic, a Kosovo Serb from Mitrovica, telephoned his mother to inform her the group would be late in returning.

Other members of the group are Andre Teles, of Portugal, the Regional Communications Officer and Gordon Cimiratic, of Australia, the deputy Regional Security Officer.

UNMIK Police and KFOR began an intensive search for the missing staff members, and initially received unconfirmed reports that the team was in police custody in the Serbian town of Novi Pazaar, and that a white UN vehicle was seen outside the Novi Pazaar police station. UNMIK was able to confirm on Tuesday that the three were being held in custody by Serbian police and that on Tuesday night they were transferred to a police station in Krajlevo.
 
The arrest of UNMIK staff remains inexplicable, as UNMIK officials say the three were taken while performing official tasks, seeking out a repeater site inside Kosovo. Also baffling is why the three have been held incommunicado without access to the UN.