UNMIK-KFOR- EU-OSCE-UNHCR Press Briefing: 4 Aug 2000
UNMIK Spokeswoman Claire Trevena
KFOR Spokesman
Major Craig Snow
EU Spokeswoman Irene Mingasson
UNHCR Spokeswoman
Paula Ghedini
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
UNMIK Spokeswoman Claire Trevena
Murders
The IAC, which is meeting this morning, is discussing a statement to condemn recent violence which claimed the lives of six people . three Romas and three Kosovar Albanians . Wednesday night . as well as an attack on an LDK leader.
Contrary to statements in one of today. s papers, we are extremely concerned about political violence now and as we approach the elections. These elections and the campaign should be free of crime and carried out in a peaceful manner. A cell has been established under the auspices of the SRSG to look into political violence and try to find ways to contain it. The cell. s made up of representatives of OSCE, UNMIK, ECMM and KFOR.
The IAC
As I mentioned, the IAC is meeting now. Other issues
on the agenda are:
- a regulation on the use of langages in proceedings
where an international judge or prosecutor is participating
- and a
technical review of the JIAS departments . looking at how they are
working, staffing issues and so forth.
Crime
Police are investigating an apparent armed robbery. a customs officers team was stopped by masked men driving the Gjakova/Djakovica. A substantial amount of money was taken.
Three
Serb prisoners have escaped from hospital in North Mitrovica.
They. d been transferred there from the detention centre. They.
d been checked on about one this morning and appeared to be sleeping;
when they were next checked on they had escaped.
- Vlastimir
Aleksic and Dragan Javanovic were charged with genocide
- Dragisa
Peica was charged with war crimes.
The men were all in one room and there were police in the hallway and outside the building. The Regional Administrator William Nash has called a meeting with the police commissioner of the region to review the security and there is now an internal investigation into this.
Media House
Just to update some of you on the Media House, there was a meeting between OSCE, UNMIK and the tenants of the media house. It. s been given a reprieve of 10 days while certain work is carried out. Tenants are being asked to remove garbage from the house, remove garbage and remove generators. Fire doors are going to be installed, emergency lighting in the staircases needs to be installed and the standpipe that. s causing problems needs to be repaired. These are conditions which have to be met before the Media House can be reopened . or rather a decision on its future be made. The fire marshall has put three men on permanent duty outside the house and a second assesment will be made in about 10 days to see if these recommendations have been met.
KFOR Spokesman Major Craig
Snow
Medical Care
Doctors and medical specialists assigned to the KFOR
French, Moroccan and United Arab Emirates military field hospitals in
Multi-National Brigade North carried out more than 3000 consultations and
operations last week.
The hospitals are
opened to civilians in all the neighboring communities.
Media Opportunities
Brig. Gen. Maurizio Lodovisi, commander of the Italian Second Operational detachment, which operates KFOR military airport in Pristina will transfer authority to Col. Luca Goretti during a 6.40 pm ceremony which will take place at the airport. Journalists are invited. For more information contact the MNB (E) media liaison officer.
EU Spokeswoman Irene
Mingasson
At its last meeting the Government Board of the Baniking and Payments Authority of Kosovo (BPK), has approved the opening of two new branches of the Micro Enterprise Bank (MEB) in Djakova and Gnjilane.
Last week the revenues on custom and sales taxes reached the level of 6.2 million DM. This result is due to the increased duty clearance for cars for registration.
Electricity
This weekend unit 2 of Kosovo B will be opened for repairs and maintenance work, which should be completed by the end of November. Repairs and replacement of parts will be conducted mainly on the boiler, turbine and auxiliary systems. The overhaul is a major one, and a very costly operation, which can be carried out thanks to the support of the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR). It will improve the availability and reliability of one of the big power production units, thus constitute a major part of the Winter Programme for Energy which was presented to you last week by the co-heads for the Public Utilities Department and KEK.
Let me give you some details about the situation in
the coming days, as new factors have occurred. Today, A1 and B2 are
running. B2 will be stopped during the night on Saturday (instead of
tonight). A3 will be restarted on Saturday or Sunday, as soon as the
diesel we are expecting, and which has been delayed, arrives.
A1 will
be running. We will have imports of about 100 MW from Greece, so over the
weekend power supply should be stable.
Yesterday, an oil leak was found on the main transformer of B1. This means that the restart of B1 will take a few days longer than the 48 hours originally planned, because a thorough diagnosis of this new problem is required before the restart. We expect B1 to be back late Wednesday or Thursday.
The consequence is that in the beginning of the week, only A1 and A3 will be running (providing around 150 MW for a peak load of 300 MW). Imports from Greece are more difficult during the week, but are being negotiated actively. Greece has already agreed to imports for Monday, so load-shedding will be low (4 hours on, 2 hours off during the day, and no cuts during the night). We hope to reach similar agreement for Tuesday and Wednesday. Should this not succeed, a detailed load-shedding will be published.
UNHCR Spokeswoman Paula Ghedini
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Eric Morris, together with the newly arrived Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator, (..) has set up a meeting with the different UN agencies to do an exercise called Humanitarian Accounting. With this we will be reviewing all the humanitarian activities that have been performed in the last year, and reveal what possible gaps might be existent during the winter months in Kosovo. this way we can better assess where we might assess where we have some small gaps between the humanitarian activities and those of the longer-term reconstruction and development framework. We can sit together with UNMIK and decide who will be responsible for what tasks. One note that is quite important is that humanitarians have significantly limited capacity and resources available as to compared to last year, but we are working together with UNMIK to try to make sure that the transition is a smooth one. Mr. Morris has met individually with all three of the ethnic Albanian leaders; Dr. Qosja, Dr. Rugova and Mr. Thachi to ensure that any specific communities needing assistance will be assessed and evaluated.
We are extremely concerned with a deportation that occurred yesterday from Germany of three Romas who were forced out from lower Saxony. These three persons have been living out of Kosovo since 1992, do not speak any Albanian, and have come back where they have no family member, no house, no accommodation of any form at this point. They did explain them that they did have identification that was given to them in Germany, indicating that they are Roma. We have raised this through our Berlin office, because they are extremely frightened, and considered the recent attack involving the mine on Wednesday evening of the three Romas in Maljalac, and the time has created even more fear among the Roma and Ashkali communities that are living abroad. In April Dr. Kouchner had sent an open letter to European states, asking clearly that any return of ethnic minorities not to proceed at this point because of the ongoing security situation here, and also with regard to ethnic Albanians from the southern Serbia area, Presevo and Bujanovac. UNHCR does again appeal to all asylum countries to please refrain from returning ethnic minorities from the southern Serbia area as well as non-Albanian ethnic minorities to Kosovo.
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
First, on the missing persons reported to have been arrested by Yugoslav authorities - we are talking four people here . two British OSCE staff members and two Canadian nationals. So far we haven. t been able to receive any confirmation from the Yugoslav authorities that they have been detained, nor about their whereabouts. The two OSCE staff members are 41-year-old Sgt Adrian Prangnell and 31-year-old constable John Yore. The names are matching with the press release that was issued yesterday, basing themselves on information given to the press by the Yugoslav authorities. The OSCE mission in Kosovo joins the chair person in office in Vienna, that. s the Austrian Foreign Minister, in (..) the Yugoslav authorities to grand immediate access to all of those detained, and honour its obligation to the Vienna convention. Yugoslav authorities are asked to give access to the diplomatic representation of the nationalities detained.
My second point is the Central Election Commission-meeting of yesterday. The CEC decided on almost all of the municipal elections commissions, so we can expect these municipal elections commissions to be installed in the not too distant future. They adopted a very important rule on campaign finance; parties or any contender in the upcoming municipal elections have to disclose their finance donations (..), and there is a tax on spending, on how much their parties, coalitions or independent candidates can spend in each municipality for their campaign.
Registration issues; Dr. Kouchner went to Ankara on Monday. An agreement was reached that an attempt should be made to try to include the members of the Turkish community into the voter. s registry. The Joint Registration Task Force was asked by Dr. Kouchner to look into that matter. Up until now the Turkish community has not yet decided whether they want to accept the agreement reached in Ankara, and therefore their request to be registered can not be accommodated any further. It has been decided that there is no registration for the Turkish community, it would simply delay too much, and it would endanger the election.
Zeri published a leaked internal document of the OSCE. I was quoted as having said that this document had nothing to do with the OSCE: that is not correct. I said that this is not an OSCE press release, and most of all the title printed by Zeri was a fabrication and put into the OSCE. s mouth. It is a practice to which we object.
Questions:
Q. How did the Serb prisoners escape Mitrovica Hospital?
CT: Unfortunately I don't know how they escaped. They were checked on at 1 a.m. and again at 1:15. The next time they weren't there.
Q. Did they climb out a window or walk out the door?
CT: I don't know. There were police officers in the hallway and outside the building.
Q. For KFOR. The substantial reinforcements leading up to elections. Can you give us any details?
CS:: With the elections, KFOR and OSCE (UNMIK) will be staffing a memorandum of understanding. It's been announced that a British battalion will come over during that timeframe. KFOR has requested four battalions to come over. That request is being managed at NATO and that's where we stand at this point.
Q. For UNHCR: Do you get the feeling that the German interior ministries are taking notice of UNHCR and the SRSG's requests that minorities not be returned to Kosovo?
PG: We have seen a progressive response to the different (pleas) that we've made. It is right now a matter of certain regions where we're having the most difficulties with. Some are the ones who've been housing the most refugees, not only from Kosovo, for the past 10 years, but also from the different conflicts of the former Yugoslavia. We've seen a very good response from Switzerland to all the requests that we've made. We hope in the next few months we'll see a change from these last municipal areas.
Q. You say that you're concerned about political violence. Can you tell me the kind of political violence you are so extremely concerned about. What kind of information do you have and what do you plan to do to contain it in the election period& .
CT: As I mentioned we are setting up under the SRSG's office, the OSCE and KFOR a cell to try and prevent political violence.
Q. You didn't answer my question& If you are so concerned what are your reasons? What kind of information do you have and what do you intend to do about it?
CT. The concerns are essentially related to the recent attacks on LDK members, and any attack on any politician, particularly when we are heading towards elections, is of great concern. You can't have attacks on politicians. Whoever is attacking politicians is attacking democratic elections.
CS: KFOR is concerned not just with political violence as with all violence. We'll continue to do what is necessary to maintain that control. Since KFOR has been in Kosovo for the past year, the level of violence has decreased dramatically. It's largely due to a combination of efforts on everyone's part, but also to the commitment by KFOR soldiers. KFOR can't be everywhere. That's a reality. The violence of the past two days is not an indication of an escalation of violence. It's simply needless acts of violencewhich can have a destabilizing effect& It also detracts from the progress taking place in Kosovo.
Q. Can you give us names and details of charges of
those who escaped from prisons.
CT: They are Vlastimir Aleksic and
Dragan Javanovic, charged with genocide and Dragica Peica, charged with
war crimes..I don't know any further details on what constitutes war
crimes.
Q. In arrests of two British and two Canadians, are you going to issue an advisory on travel to Montenegro. Are there recommendations on traveling to Montenegro internnaly and is it considered dangerous now.
CT: The OSCE had issued a travel advisory.
RB: We did reiterate that policy, which was issued in April. It's not known how widely know it was. UNMIK was advising their own staff. It's still open whether there will be a general advisory, which would have to come from UNMIK.
Q. How many detainees have escaped since last year and how many have been re-arrested.
CT. I don't know. I'd have to get back to you.
Q. You mentioned the Turkish minority will not come to register. It's too late. What is the election date? And will there be a deal with the Serb community on registration for voting, and then what will happen with elections?
RB: Regarding the Turkish question, it has no impact on the agreement reached in Ankara, simply because the Turkish community can't make up its mind to accept it. There is no delay on this. On the Serbs, Dr. Kuochner has the authority to add someone to the registry. So far he hasn't done that.
Q. Major Snow, you said you are signing an agreement with the OSCE just before the elections. Why? Does this mean you're afraid of an increase in tensions in Kosovo before the elections?
CS. The Memorandum of Understanding will outline how KFOR will support OSCE during that process.
RB. The MOU is an ordinary procedure. It's an agreement on how to cooperate. Elections related violence is not the only scope of this agreement. It will include much more, i.e. general elections security and safety, such as guarding election sites, access, transport of ballot boxes, counting centers as with parts of the registration process. We don't have those elements as the OSCE despite our name.
Q. Have you received any complaints on the recent violence by LDK members that they were intimidated by supporters of the PDK?
CT. Specific complaints? I'm not certain. We would be aware through our regional officers and police..
RB: I can confirm that these would be investigated by our human rights, but I can't disclose that and I will not in the future. We have confidentiality in our investigations of these issues, in view of preparing documentation for the Central Elections Commission and its subcommittees and these are the bodies which will issue sanctions directly against parties. So the mechanism is any elections-related violence that is found by the CEC will actually have a sanction mechanism against the party, in terms of fines, candidates taken off the lists, or entire parties or individuals being banned from running..or seeking future elective office for up to six years. These are the sanctions at hand. But the sanctions are going to be given out by the CEC. At this point, these are the procedures.
Q. Can you give us details on measures taken by KFOR in MNB North to contain parallel security services in northern Mitrovica.
CS. We do what we do everywhere in terms of supporting UNMIK Police in that area. We have checkpoints, security patrols& So they're on the lookout. That's what we do every day& .There are more details I will ask.
Q. On the missing Canadians, our understanding is that they are KFOR contractors working for Meridien& But KFOR up to now & Can KFOR explain their position?
CS: I spent a lot of yesterday inquiring. We can not confirm that the two Canadians are KFOR-contractors. We received this information from reporters, but can. t confirm that.
Q: Yesterday was the deadline for the Turkish community to register for elections (..)?
RB: If we have the elections on a given date, for the voters. list you need a cut-off date. And by that date the voters. list has to be definitely closed. Civil registration can go on for as long as takes, but we have to close the voter. s list. Because the ballotts have to be printed, and they have to be distributed, and you get a timeline unless you are willing to jeopardise the date you have set. That was the decision. Any further delay would pose a to great risk for the election. s timetable. Therefore it was decided not to pursue this issue any further.
Q: Can you tell the recent activities that have been taken by French KFOR in Mitrovica to discourage illegal, parallel, security structures, i.e. the last week?
CS: I think I answered a similar question on violence in general. We keep on maintaining control in general, and I don. t think I. ve got more to add.