UNMIK Press Briefing
Transcript 30 June 2000
UNMIK Spokeswoman Nadia Younes
KFOR
Spokesman Major Scott Slatten
OSCE Spokeswoman Claire Trevena
UNHCR
Spokeswoman Paula Ghedini
EU Spokesman Christian
Lindmeier
UNMIK Spokeswoman Nadia Younes
Joint Declaration in Gnjilane/Gjilan
In a very
heartening development yesterday, political parties representing Kosovo
Albanians, Kosovo Serbs and the Kosovar Turkish community signed a joint
declaration on "Building peace and prosperity" in the Gnjilane/Gjilan
municipality. The declaration was signed by the leaders of the Democraic
League of Kosovo, the Serbian National Church Council, the Turkish Democratic
Union, the Centre Liberal Party of Kosovo and the Social Democratic Party of
Kosovo. The declaration condemns all acts of violence and terrorism directed
against any inhabitants of the municipality, supports the detention, prosecution
and indictment of all criminals and terrorists without exception. Among other
things, a copy of this declaration is available outside, which you can pick up.
This is the second municipality to issue such a declaration. You may recall that
the Pristina municipality has issued something similar last week.
IAC
The IAC is meeting today. It will continue
discussion on the draft regulation on Self-Government of Municipalities in
Kosovo. The political leaders will give their written comments.
The expert group met on Thursday to discuss the draft regulation. It will again meet on Monday to continue discussing the draft at the technical level.
The IAC will also discuss the role of the local community offices in Kosovo.
Leaders to register
There is an announcement on
the registration by Kosovoar leaders. The LBD President, Mr. Rexhep Qosja will
register tomorrow and we will confirm the time later, while LDK President Dr.
Ibrahim Rugova, will register on Monday at 5 p.m.
Strpce update
Strpce has been generally calm in
the last few days, except for an incident on Wednesday evening, when three
American students, sent by NGO AGAPE, who were walking in the town, were
attacked by some young men and their cameras, passports and money was taken
away. None of them was seriously injured.
Border police
On Wednesday evening, UNMIK Border
Police and customs with the help of the Indian Special Police Unit, launched a
special operation to check incoming trucks loaded with cargo for Kosovo at the
Deneral Jankovic Border point. The SPU cordoned off the truck holding area for
the police and the customs officers to work in. This operation went on till
yesterday evening and nearly 100 trucks were checked thoroughly by the officers
of UNMIK Police and Customs. It was a useful exercise because they discovered
several cases of grossly undervalued cargo. There were other drivers who
declared fairly honestly the value of their cargo, which should result in
greater revenue for the Kosovo Consolidated Budget. This operation should have a
residual effect for the future. The cases of undervaluation are being
investigated by the police and customs officers. Such surprise checks would
continue in the future.
Announcement
There is a media event
tomorrow. SRSG Kouchner will open a playground for children in Sunny Hill One.
The playground has been built by a UK NGO War Child in cooperation with the 2nd
Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The event is at 1500
hrs.
KFOR Spokesman Major Scott
Slatten
Airfield Operations
KFOR responsibility for
airfield operations and management of the Pristina / Slatina airport will change
tomorrow from KFOR Royal Air Force to the Italian Air Force command.
General Maurizio Lodovisi of the 2nd Repaarto Operativo Autononmo will assume command of overall airfield operations. The KFOR Italian contingent will retain responsibility at the airport for the next year.
The Pristina / Slatina Airport is the only international airfield in Kosovo serving both military and civilian flights. It is a major asset in introducing normality into the province of Kosovo and contributes greatly in assisting in the peace and security of the region.
Man Arrested
KFOR MNB North mechanized battalion
soldiers participated in a joint KFOR and UNMIK Police Operation in Northern
Mitrovica early yesterday morning. A Kosovo Serb man was arrested as a suspect
in the attack on a Kosovo Albanian and the subsequent burning of the man's
vehicle.
Cordon and Search Operation
In MNB East, KFOR US
soldiers conducted a cordon and search operation last night in the town of
Gnjilane, after intelligence sources reported possible weapons were stored in a
local home.
A subsequent search of the residence revealed a high
powered rifle with scope, a pistol and assorted ammunition. Two Kosovo Albanian
men were detained in connection with the find and brought to the Camp
Bondsteel
Detention Facility for questioning.
OSCE Spokeswoman Claire
Trevena
First, I will give a registration update because there
are now just two weeks for people to get their names on the civil registry to
register
There are also going to be two weeks of promotions and events. We have street theatre, concerts and fun run plan over the next fortnight. But the message underlying all of this is that it is now time to register and if people don't register, they don't get the opportunity to vote. Some areas are doing exceedingly well. The figures reflect that the population statistics we are working on are estimates. For instance, Malisevo and Dragash have had more than 100 per cent registration. Decani is about 94%. Obilic is 93% and Istok 91%. As of Thursday evening, we had more than 799,000 registrants which means by now, by this morning, we are well over the 800,000 mark.
The Central Election Commission is meeting this afternoon. It's going to be receiving a report on political party certification. Yesterday, the Kosovo Media Policy Advisory Board met. It was the second consultative meeting this month on the draft Codes of Conduct for the Print and Broadcast Media. The Board is made up of Kosovars and the Association of Media in Kosovo was also there and its opinions were sought. The code remains under discussion and is still in the draft stage. But the only thing we wanted to point out is that they are based on existing European standards. The code of conduct for the Print Media includes rights that are set out in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That's the right of freedom of speech and expression and the right to receive and impart information and ideas. The code also includes obligations defined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. These are based on public safety, protecting the rights of others and maintaining the impartiality of the judiciary. Other sections are generally accepted norms which are contained in many European codes, including issues of fairness and accuracy. The Broadcast Code is similar but broadcasters must agree to honour the code in order to get a license. This is simply because frequencies belong to the people of the country or regions and obtaining the right to use those frequencies brings with it responsibilities.
The regulations which were signed into effect two weeks ago also provide for appeal against sanctions that may be imposed or if the codes are violated. And furthermore, the Print Regulation is explicitly temporary.
Supervisors Trained in Kosovo's Police
Service
Kosovo's Police Service School is being launched Monday. This
is for supervisors. Sixteen of the recent graduates from the school have
been chosen after an interview for the first course. It's intended
to start the creation of a pool of potential supervisors for management jobs in
the Kosovo Police Service. An estimated 900 supervisors will eventually be
needed.
UNHCR Spokeswoman Paula Ghedini
After a very busy last week I am happy to say that all I have is a little bit of information about an encyclopedia that will be available from the Humanitarian Community Information Centre, which is the office with the glass mirrored windows, right on the corner of UNHCR. This will have a full compilation of all maps including those that have been used for humanitarian aid coordination and assistance as well as background documents such as all the joint UNHCR, OSCE minority reports as well as UNMIK documents. This will be available starting Monday and you can go to the reception desk in the HCIC Centre. They are 10DM each or you can bring an empty CD and I'll just do a fair swap. Especially for the local press, we think that this may be able to give you a great deal of background information that you could use later. So, this is just another information tool that is available at the HCIC.
EU Spokesman Christian Lindmeier
Today, I have some information updates for you on waste, irrigation and the energy sector. 340,000DM have been spent for a final cleanup in Pristina by the European Agency for Reconstruction. Eighty four dumpsites have been identified by Hagina Technica and are now being cleaned. Sixty new containers, all produced locally in Kosovo, were being set up and will be integrated in the regular waste service of Hagina Technica.
Another point is that the implementation of regular household waste collection in six remaining areas in Pristina, which so far have no regular services, has taken place. Collection should be one time a week. Of course in both cases it is now necessary that the people of Pristina and Kosovo dispose of their waste in an appropriate way and of course in the appropriate places.
In order to help the irrigation companies in Kosovo to repair and rehabilitate the irrigation system, the Public Utilities Department of Pillar IV has made a loan available of 3,000,000DM.
On the energy sector, I have to be a little bit careful because last week I announced that we would have major cuts during the week and I think we all experienced quite a bit of cuts.
We have Unit A3 running again and together with Unit B1 we should have no bigger problems than normally and no further power imports will be necessary.
Questions
Q. Have the Serbian police officers from the KPS who went on strike in Strpce come back to their jobs yet?
NY. As far as I know they did not show up today. Fourteen of them resigned conditionally and the others were on some sort of rotation duty. But the nineteen that were supposed to come in today did not come in.
Q. There were people from the KPS Academy who went down to negotiate yesterday. Did those negotiations fail?
NY. I know that the discussions are still ongoing and that they did not show up for work today.
Q. Can you explain what does "neighbourhood watch" in yesterday's agreement between Dr. Kouchner and Bishop Artemije mean. This is very disturbing for the local people because of past experience. And secondly is there any information that a registration point in Zubin Potok was burned?
CT. I have checked with Operations and Registration and they have no report of any instance in the Mitrovica region for registration.
NY. On your first question, the idea behind a special security task force in yesterday's agreement which will be part of UNMIK police is to beef up security in the Serb areas. I don't think it's a secret to anyone that the protection of the Serbs has not been good. That there are still a lot of events and a lot of violence against the Serbs and the idea is, within the framework of UNMIK Police, to set up special measures to better protect the Serb community in the areas. The choice of the word neighbourhood, well, I have to check that out. But it's in that context of setting up, within UNMIK Police, a special task force that will be tasked specifically with ensuring and beefing up the protection and security of the Serbs in the areas in which they live. That was the idea behind the agreement that was reached yesterday. All the details of the Security Task Force are being worked out, as we speak, by the UNMIK Police. We have nothing to announce on the details yet.
Q. Are you going to recognize the group of Oliver Ivanovic, which was set up to protect the humanitarian agencies in the northern part of Mitrovica, as part of the Kosovo Police Service?
PG. I have already explained to all press, especially those local press that have come to see me. What we said is we have no details on any of it. What we know so far is that Mr. Ivanovic told us that he would select 50 persons from the Serb National Council as a committee to deal with security of international staff. He did not say what they would do, who they would be or what form it would take. What he told us is that he would discuss the overall improved security plan with UNMIK Police and KFOR after which he, UNMIK Police and KFOR would come back together and meet with the NGO community to tell them what had been agreed or what hasn't. So, there is no clarification on that. It's simply a measure that he said he would offer to us. He didn't say who they would be or what they would be doing. He never called them a security force. He said that it was a committee to deal with security of international staff.
Q. Were you satisfied with today's reply from Dita newspaper to the OSCE? He replied to a request for clarification on his article and he accuses OSCE very harshly.
CT. The Temporary Media Commissioner is still looking into it.
Q. So you are not going to go forward with charges?
CT. The Temporary Media Commissioner is still looking into the reply.
Q. When should we expect a result?
CT. I imagine at the beginning of next week.
Q. I'd like to come back to Ivanovic. I want to know something about the agreement between UNMIK Police and Ivanovic?
NY. I'm not sure what you mean by an agreement. There are ongoing discussions with the Serb representative in Mitrovica, Mr. Ivanovic, as well as with the Albanian representative in Mitrovica, Mr. Bajram Rexhepi on political issues. There are also measures that are continuously reviewed between UNMIK Police and KFOR on how to better protect, better increase the security in the area of Mitrovica. So you have ongoing discussions on two tracks. One with the leaders of the two communities in Mitrovica and one with UNMIK and KFOR on how to better reinforce the security in Mitrovica.
Q. So, what about the promise by the Serbs to protect the humanitarian workers in Northern Mitrovica?
NY. UNMIK and KFOR are both the ones ensuring the security of all in Northern Mitrovica.
Q. And what about the 50 Serbs from the Serban National Council?
NY. I think on the 50 Serbs from the SNC Paula Ghedini has answered what her understanding was regarding that meeting between Oliver Ivanovic and the NGO community. What I am saying is that between UNMIK and KFOR, who are tasked with security and law and order in Mitrovica, there are ongoing refinements of our plans to better secure the area of Mitrovica.
Q. Will you punish the news agency SRNA from Republica Srpska and Radio B292 because they published or broadcast the information, about the Serbs which was forwarded to you before the Dita Newspaper published that.
CT. As far as I understand, the Temporary Media Commissioner has no authority over media there. I mean SRNA is a Serb news agency. It's not published here. Radio B292 is a Serb radio station, it's coming from Belgrade. They are not under its auspices. The Temporary Media Commissioner is for media in Kosovo. Neither SRNA or B292 are media in Kosovo.
Q. How many Serbs have registered and how many other non-Albanians have registered of these 800,000. And on KPS officers: how many KPS officers do you have now and what's the breakdown?
CT. As far as minorities are concerned, we are looking at regions. We are not looking at ethnicity. There is nowhere on the form which says which ethnicity you are. However, it's fair to say that very few Serbs have registered. In the Serb areas, very few people have registered. The other ethnicities, there is progressive registration. We don't have a breakdown there. On KPS, I can find out figures for you of those who have graduated from the police school. I don't have anything at the moment.
Q. What is UNMIK's position on Oliver Ivanovic's suggestion that he offered 50 security people. Will UNMIK consider having Oliver suggest 50 people, to put them in charge or help organize security for international staff.
NY. UNMIK's position is that the security in Mitrovica is the responsibility of KFOR and UNMIK police. What we are asking Oliver Ivanovic is to make sure that his people respect UNMIK Police and KFOR and that he reigns in those elements that sometime cause trouble in northern Mitrovica.
Q. The man who was arresting for burning the Albanian's car. Did that happen on the Wednesday when they burned all those cars? And has anyone else been arrested for the violence last Wednesday.
SS. I don't have a date on when the man's vehicle was burned.
Q. Was anyone arrested in Mitrovica in connection with last week's events?
SS. I am not sure, you have to address that to UNMIK Police.
Q. We have a problem, who answers the questions. We can never find out if anyone's arrested for violence in Mitrovica. I never get an answer.
NY. Arrests are usually made by UNMIK Police and if they are made by KFOR, they are handed over to UNMIK Police. So UNMIK Police is responsible for reporting on arrests that were made and we report rather regularly when there are arrests. Unfortunately, very often we report that no arrests were made. On this particular case, Carlotta, I am going to have to check what the status is.
SS. And I'd like to say that all the arrests,
detentions that KFOR participates in, we present in our press releases.
The information that is brought to us, we present. In majority of the
cases KFOR only detains to assist UNMIK Police to later make an
arrest.