UNMIK Press Briefing - 2 June 2, 2000
UNMIK Spokeswoman - Susan Manuel
KFOR
Spokesman - Major Scott Slater
EU Spokeswoman - Irene Mingasson
UNHCR
Spokesman - Peter Kessler
OSCE Spokesman - Roland Bless
UNMIK Spokeswoman - Susan
Manuel
There has been an extremely disturbing spate of killings of Kosovo Serbs over the past few days. The killings are cold-blooded; some appear to have been planned and they make no distinction between men, women or children. The latest incident occurred this morning, when a car carrying a family of five people hit a land mine in Ugorevo on the road from Prevoce to Kosovo Polje, southwest of Pristina, between 7 and 8 a.m. This is a road, which connects Serb villages; it is a dirt road and had been a cleared road until this morning. Two men were killed and two children along with their mother are in hospital in Kosovo Polje.
In the Gnjilane region yesterday, one Kosovar Serb woman was shot dead and two men were critically injured in Vitina in a drive-by shooting at 3 p.m. They were all working in a field when the incident occurred. The injured were taken to Camp Bondsteel. In Blinca, in the Gnjilane region yesterday, an elderly Serb woman was struck and killed by a speeding motorist as she walked along the road. The driver, a Kosovar Albanian, fled the scene and was later arrested. In Obilic, grenades were thrown at two Serb houses last night, injuring one Serb man who is now in a KFOR hospital.
These attacks come in the wake of the murder of Milutin Trajkovic, a father of three who was killed Wednesday in another drive by shooting in Babin Most.
Dr. Kouchner who is out of Kosovo learned of the latest deaths this morning. He expressed his shock and outrage. As I said, this is an extremely disturbing trend. But as we begin a second year in Kosovo, we in UNMIK are no less determined to work towards tolerance and peaceful co-existence between the communities who belong here. These killings are a fundamental threat to Kosovo's future, not only to the Serbs, but to everyone in Kosovo.
In yet another murder yesterday in Prelez in the same region, a Kosovar Albanian man was shot dead last night. KFOR has arrested a suspect, who is also Kosovar Albanian.
Meanwhile, yesterday, a third international judge was sworn in. He is Antiti Ruotsalainen of Finland. His first act will be to decide whether to extend the period of detention of the suspect in the Cernica killings. That decision should be made today. As you know there's a 72-hour detention period before the suspect is seen by an investigative judge, who decides whether he should be held further and charged.
Yesterday, the first trial for international judge Ms. Klonowiecka-Milart was postponed when the presiding judge Haki Lecij asked to exempt himself from the proceedings. The Department of Judicial Affairs has written to the presidents of the Pristina District court and Supreme Court, asking for them to reschedule the trial as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, 28 political parties have registered with UNMIK. This means the application period is over, but individual cases of unregistered parties intending to participate in municipal elections this fall will be considered up to 11 June. Other parties not running in this fall's election can register at any time.
There are currently special sessions of the KTC and IAC going on this morning to greet and brief the EU delegation. Irene Mingassen will talk more about that.
On Monday, the UN Housing and Property Directorate will begin accepting claims regarding residential property rights in the Pristina region. The housing and Property Directorate will accept claims falling into the following three categories: Claims by individuals who lost property as a result of discrimination after 1989, Claims by individuals who voluntarily purchased property at a time when this was prohibited by discriminatory laws, Claims by refugees and displaced persons who lost possession of their property in the recent conflict. The Housing and Property Claims Commission is located on Rruga e Goleshit or Goeska Ulica, 2.
Four other offices will be opened in the other regions, and one in Belgrade and Podgorica. People with property claims in those areas are advised to wait until the office opens and starts receiving applications, rather than trying to come to Pristina.
We announced recently that starting on 1 June, applications would be taken at Social Welfare offices for social assistance to needy people. Yesterday, some of the Social welfare offices were besieged by applicants. We need to emphasize the fact that people can apply at any time in the coming months. Also, the only people being considered for this current program are families in which no member is capable of working - that is families without any wage-earning member.
KFOR Spokesman - Major Scott
Slater
At approximately 2.15 p.m. yesterday in MNB(E), one woman was killed and two men were injured southeast of the community of Topesa on the road to Klokot, as a result of a drive-by shooting. The three victims were transported to Camp Bondsteel hospital for treatment. Upon arrival the woman was declared dead and the two men were treated for their injuries, later, fifteen to twenty Kosovar Serbs gathered peacefully in the vicinity of Klokot. KFOR located two possible suspect vehicles that met a description provided by witnesses - one was located in Orasovac/Ferizaj and the other in Topesa. UNMIK police and KFOR are investigating.
We have an update on the Babin Most shooting. Wednesday evening, one man was killed in a shooting at the village of Babin Most, four kilometers north of Obilic. After the shooting the father of the victim drove his son to the United Arab Emirates checkpoint in MNB(N), where the wounded man was transferred to a medical evacuation vehicle but later died as a result of his wounds. The father of the slain man later returned to the village and was seen shooting a pistol in the air - he was subsequently arrested and transported to Pristina. The uncle of the dead man was later identified as one of the violent crowd that confronted KFOR and UNMIK authorities who were attempting to investigate the crime. During the riot, a Norwegian army crowd control dog bit the man. He was later treated in the Kosovo Polje hospital before being detained in Pristina. The following morning a crowd of approximately 150 villagers assembled, demanding the return of the body and the release of the two detained men. The MNB(S) Brigade Commander met with the crowd and as a result the two men were released and the body was returned to the family that evening.
KFOR is continuing to commit energy and resources to provide protection and reassure the residents of Babin Most. The cooperation and support of the local people will enhance and ensure that our job is a success. KFOR MNB(C) is providing full support to the investigation of this crime and the pursuit of its perpetrators. The Commander of MNB(C) is personally involved and has released the following statement concerning the killings:
"I am outraged by the recent increase in violence within Kosovo and incidents within MNB(C). In particular, the senseless killing of a young man in Babin Most, on the night of 31 May. My soldiers and I are here to protect all of Kosovo's people and I will not allow this violence to go unpunished. Extra soldiers are being deployed to the affected areas and will deal severely with anyone engaging in violent criminal activity. Kosovo cannot squander its opportunity to develop into a democratic and peaceful place for all people of Kosovo. Kosovo must prove to the world that it can break free from the cycle of violence - it is time to take stock of all that has been achieved in the last year and to look ahead and work together for a better future, free of hatred and retribution".
In MNB(E) earlier this morning, KFOR US soldiers from the 709th military police company reported that a 17 year old Kosovo Albanian boy was shot in the back and killed in the town of Urosevac. A Kosovo Albanian suspect has been located. UNMIK police are continuing to investigate the shooting.
Also in MNB(E), an explosion injured four persons last night in the town of Pasane. A relative of the family reported the blast to a KFOR US patrol. A preliminary investigation reported that the elderly man stated that he had thrown or detonated a homemade bomb in his own house. Three casualties from the blast were medically evacuated to Camp Bondsteel and are listed as being in a stable condition. A fourth casualty was taken to Camp Monteeth, treated for minor injuries and released. A relative of the suspect led UNMIK police to the attic were an AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol, grenade-launcher adapter, grenades and small arms ammunition were discovered. An investigation is ongoing.
EU Spokeswoman - Irene
Mingasson
The delegation of the European Parliament is continuing its visit. Yesterday there was a briefing of UNMIK activity in the field of economic reconstruction. There have also been discussions with EU member states and implementing partners, notably NGO's. One recurrent issue is the way in which international funds are used and how the needs and terms of international investment are assessed and how the absorption capacity, through concrete reconstruction projects, is evaluated. This is very important as the EU 's budget for 2001 is now being discussed in both Brussles and Strasbourg. The European Parliament has to decide on the budget for this period and information that is tentatively in place gives a good opportunity for the European Parliament to gather information with this is mind. Today, the parliamentarians are meeting representatives of missing persons and detainees, with the Kosovar IAC members and, as we speak, there is an extraordinary meeting of the KTC taking place to which they have been invited.
On taxes, the hotel, food and beverages tax has recently been amended. Under this amendment, establishments with gross receipts in excess of 10,000 DM, rather than 15,000 DM as before, will be subject to a 30% tax. Entry into force is June 1. At this point I'd like to say that last week we reached a new record on customs collections, as revenue exceeded five million DM.
Concerning electricity, A1 and B2 units are running, generating a total of 250MW plus 40MW of imports - no power cuts are foreseen.
On the exemption program, yesterday, Thursday 1 June was the cut off date for submitting applications for this program. No more applications will be accepted beyond this date. All applications are expected to be submitted to the department of public utilities during the next week and a formal review process will then commence.
UNHCR Spokesman - Peter
Kessler
Approximately 30,000 Kosovo Albanians have returned home between January and May 2000, with approximately 1,500 being forced returns - the overwhelming number of these are from Germany. Over 11,500 persons arrive in Kosovo under these organized repatriations during the month of May alone and that was the biggest number of organized returns since September last year. We have estimated that returns in the coming months under the organized program administered by IOM will be in the range of 12,000-15,000 monthly. UNMIK as well as UNHCR has pleaded with countries to keep the pace of the returns and the forced returns manageable and to ensure that they are coordinated and undertaken in a humane way.
The returns have so far not caused major problems in terms of shelter, since most of the returnees are able to make their own arrangements. There are however, a number of secondary displacements resulting in a moderate increase in the population of the temporary community shelters.
OSCE Spokesman - Roland
Bless
You have heard from Susan that 28 political parties have registered; ongoing is the process of certification for ballot access in view of the upcoming municipal election - the deadline there is 11 June. This applies for parties, coalitions, citizen's forums and especially independent candidates. They need 100 signatures of support in each municipality they want to run in and they have to register with the OSCE political party services. I would like to stress the deadline of 11 June and experience elsewhere tells us that especially independent candidates, who do not by definition have a party structure behind them, are not well aware of these deadlines. If you [the media] could share this with your audience we would be glad.
As of the day before yesterday we have reached a total registration number of just over 400,000. Roughly 10% of these are review cases and let me elaborate a little bit on what that means. A review case is someone coming to a registration site that doesn't have sufficient documentation. These cases are then checked against surviving files and documents in the documentation centers, which exist around Kosovo. 80% of the review cases are solved in this very quick manner. There are also so called "enquiry cases", these are once again cases of people who do not have sufficient documentation and I would like to call upon the people of Kosovo who don not have documentation to register as early as possible. Related to this is our next background briefing at the OSCE HQ. The focus of this is "reaching out to young people" - why and how young people should register and become part of the political process.
Last Wednesday the Central Election Commission met and was briefed by international elections experts on the eventual formula and the pros and cons of the different systems that could be applied in the upcoming municipal elections. This will be wrapped up by the chairman of the Commission, Daan Everts, and will go in the form of a recommendation to SRSG Kouchner who will later decide on the electoral formula to be applied.
I would also like to inform you about the training of journalists. A group of ten young journalists are going to Vienna to be trained at the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. This little group is just part of a larger effort of trainings being undertaken by OSCE. Altogether over 400 journalists are being trained before elections and a fact sheet is available if you are interested in this.
Questions
Q. These attacks, they look to be targeting Serbs at random and they look very well if they could be orchestrated. What is UNMIK about to do at a political level?
SM. This has happened basically as we speak, Dr. Kouchner is out of Kosovo and the KTC and IAC are now meeting members of the European Parliament. I think that this is going to have to be developed over the next few days. I think we are going to be reaffirming our commitment to stay here and to work throughout the communities and increase the security in vulnerable and mixed communities.
Q. Susan, do you think we can talk about some neutral suspects or are there some new groups who are totally out of control and unknown?
SM I don't have any intelligence on who is doing this…if it's an organized group or several organized groups. There is a misperception within the communities that our mandate is up for renewal, when actually our mandate is continuing without any hesitation. We were anticipating some tension around this period of time but obviously we can't say for sure that is the cause of what's going on now. We also have plans to return Serbs and these were about to be implemented. There seems to be a message out there but I can't say how planned or orchestrated this is.
Q. Do you think the message is that somebody wants to the international community to leave, because basically that would be the regime in Belgrade…are you implying that the regime is behind the attacks on the Serbs?
SM. No, I didn't say that. Dr. Kouchner has said earlier that the regime in Belgrade can benefit from the violence that is going on now but there's no way to say that they are behind it. We are saying that all extremists are benefiting from this and that the common people - the average people - are the losers.
Q. Then let me say that you deal with politicians who could take control over extremists elements…are you going to talk with them and apply pressure?
SM. This is a message that Dr. Kouchner is driving home in every meeting but I do believe that when he returns, this message will be given in no uncertain terms to the local leaders. They have to speak out and they have to get out there and talk to their people. There are statements issued from the KTC and the IAC but the statements do not seem to be trickling down. I'm sure Dr. Kouchner will be asking them to go out into the communities and become more active and more vocal, as Secretary-General Robertson was saying the other day.
Q. There have been seven murders in just this last week. What sort of impact has this had on Serbs leaving Kosovo particularly in the American sector where half these have occurred?
SS. There has been an increase in some of these attacks, however, these are attacks are criminal in nature and we don't see an organized group behind it. KFOR cannot be everywhere at the same time but what we can do is go to these scenes and treat them as a criminal event….
Q. That wasn't the questions I was asking… what sort of impact has this had on Serbs leaving Kosovo?
SS. I don't have any information on that.
PK. …Obviously these attacks are despicable and they have to be called to a halt by the authorities. Right now we see some areas, especially southeastern Kosovo, where Serbs are starting to leave, they have continued to leave in the past months because the pressure they are under has not changed. In some communities every single Serb owned property is for sale - people are leaving or are trying to leave if they get the right price for their residence. In some communities it has even been noted that if the pace of departure continues there'll be no Serbs left there by the end of the year. So, the situation for the Serbian community in southeastern Kosovo is alarming, while in some areas of the region Serbs are returning and that's a good sign, particularly in some of the areas of Kosovo closer to Pristina.
Q. We seem to be getting rather contradictory statements from UNMIK and KFOR as to whether these attacks are random acts or in some way that they might be orchestrated. Does KFOR have any information to suggest that there's a reason we have seen an upsurge at this particular time?
SS. We haven't seen any organized effort to intimidate the Serbs and push them away. A lot of the times when you see a lot of these criminal activities - that's what they are, criminal in nature. It's very simple during the initial investigation to say it's a Serb-Albanian issue but when they investigate it they find there are other motives - criminal in nature - to the crime.
Q. But we are talking about planting a landmine on a road between two Serb communities…that's a random attack, not a criminally targeted attack right?
SS. Correct.
Q. So it wouldn't fall into that category then?
SS. Correct. However, whether that was organized by a group or at an individual's initiative to go out and seek revenge only once we catch that person or the group of people can we determine their motives…
Q. Concerning the question to the UNHCR my colleague made earlier. I think they were asking whether there had been an upsurge in the exodus or in the number of people leaving since these latest attacks, or is it an ongoing thing and you haven't seen and increase or decrease over the last week?
PK. In the past week we haven't recorded any permanent departures. But as I said in some communities every single residence is for sale and the factors that have caused this haven't changed. The people are very concerned for their future, their economic security and their personal security…
SM…This has happened right now, if you count the woman that was killed by the car, four of these murders have happened in the last 24 hours and I don't think we've seen the effects yet.
Q. In the last year there have been a growing number of murders, we have seen statements saying that you've picked up someone as a suspect, do you have any overall statistics to date on how many people you've arrested for murder and more importantly, how many have been released?
SM. The police have that information - I can get it for you later. We've actually had a very good arrest rate for murders. I believe about three weeks ago that it was something like 40 out of 100 arrests…about a 50% rate of arrests in murder cases, but I will check that and get back to you.
Q. Is it true that you are releasing a lot of these that you had initially arrested?
SM. No, not the serious cases, they are not being released now. There are more than 300 people in detention and as you know we have started trials all over Kosovo and the arrest rate has improved. In the last week the suspect in the Cernica killings case is now in detention as well as the driver who hit the Serb woman with a car yesterday.