UNMIK/PR/61

PRESS RELEASE

1 October 1999

JAPAN DONATES $7 MILLION TO KOSOVO WINTERIZATION

PRISTINA--The Government of Japan today pledged to give the United Nations Mission in Kosovo a grant of US $ 7 million to assist UNMIK winterization and rehabilitation in Drenica and the neighboring region in central Kosovo.

The decision was conveyed to UNMIK SRSG Bernard Kouchner today by H.E. Noriaki Owada, Ambassador of Japan to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in the UNMIK headquarters.

The Government of Japan wishes to increase the shelter capacity in areas hardest hit by the recent conflict in Kosovo, according to Ambassador Owada. The gift was made in response to a request made last August by SRSG Kouchner to a delegation of the Japanese Government.

"The generosity of Japan is most appreciated at this moment while we are urgently working to provide shelter for Kosovars with damaged or destroyed homes and to rehabilitate schools, health centers and utitilites systems in time for winter, which can be particularly severe in Kosovo," SRSG Kouchner said today.