UNMIK/PR/56

PRESS RELEASE

30 September 1999

KOUCHNER ATTENDS KLINA SCHOOL RE-OPENING

KLINA - Bernard Kouchner, Special Representative of Secretary General, today attended the reopening of a high school school refurbished by British and Italian KFOR soldiers. 

"I am very happy to see you in your new, rebuilt school," Kouchner told students at the Luigi Garakuci High School after his visit. "It is gratifying to see young Kosovars at work looking towards the future. I hope that this  school in Klina will serve as a model for other schools in Kosovo. It is a sort of rebirth and I am happy to be here for that rebirth of Kosovo and its youth."

Dr. Kouchner visited the school with Brigadier General Guissepe Guy, the Commander of Multinational Brigade West, Lieutenant Colonel Tony Morphet, the Commanding Officer of the 38 Signals Regiment, Asilan Krasnici, the school principal, and Major Mike Dooley, the project officer.

Soldiers from the Italian Brigade and the UK Signals Brigade cleaned up debris, repainted walls and replastered classrooms at the school. International donors contributed more than 54,000 Deutsche marks used to replace more than 200 windows and 100 interior doors, rewire the electricity supply, rebuild bathrooms and repair the central heating system.

New school furniture was supplied through a charity run by the wives of HQ KFOR and headed by Mrs. Jackson, the wife of Lieutenant General Mike Jackson.
 
More than 2,000 students are expected to attend the newly renovated school.