UNMIK-KFOR-OSCE Press Briefing: 04 October 2000
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
KFOR Spokesman Scott
Slaten
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
MACC Director John
Flanagan
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
Following our briefing of Monday, John Flanagan, Coordinator of MACC will tell you about the mine seeker flying into Kosovo today.
Also after the briefing, Father Sava Janjic of the Serb National Council Gracanica will continue his regular press briefings here today following our briefing.
KTC
The Kosovo Transitional Council is currently meeting. They're being briefed on the security situation, elections preparations, and a report by the Working group on Education. That group is led by Jonuz Salihaj of the PPK, Feriz Kraniqi, the former rector of Pristina University and Mr. Dragan Velic of the Serb National Council, Gracanica.
Podujevo
Afterwards, SRSG Bernard Kouchner continues his town hall meetings today in Podujevo. The media bus leaves here at 12:30. Dr. Kouchner will visit the Kuwaiti camp for widows and orphans at 13:45. There he will tour the housing project, health centre and school. At 14:15 he goes to the Ashkali neighbourhood and meets with local leaders. AT 1500 he meets with Podujevo municipal leaders and the town hall meeting will take place at 15:55 in the cinema.
IAC
The Interim Administrative Council yesterday issued the following statement: "All IAC members strongly support the Instruction no. 11 of the Department of Education and Science in which any kind of political campaigning in schools, any kind of instructions to take part in political activities and any suspension of classes for the purpose of political activities were prohibited. The IAC calls for strict realization of the instruction."
Dr. Kouchner briefed the IAC on his visit to the Security Council and his participation in a peacekeeping seminar in New York. He also spoke about the establishment of the UNMIK Detained and Missing Persons Bureau, set to open on 12 October, with its main office just behind this building. The bureau will be closely linked with the IAC and the KTC. It will be staffed initially by UNMIK, with participation from OSCE, UNMIK Police and the ICRC. However, local experts will be appointed to the bureau, and members of the local community will eventually take over full responsibility for its work. There will be resource centres around Kosovo, but initially in Gracanica and Pristina. There will be two sections: one on detainees held in Serbia proper and one for missing persons. The KTC Working Group on Missing and Detained Persons will act as the advisory board.
After the IAC meeting, he met for nearly two hours with a delegation of the Dubrava Hunger Strike Committee. The delegation has been requesting a department devoted to the issue of missing and detained persons, an option that remains open.
The IAC also had a brief discussion on the Yugoslav elections. Regarding the proposed run-off scheduled for this Sunday, we have not yet taken a decision on whether to repeat the witness project that we implemented in the first round held on 24 September. We are prepared to witness a second round, but the decision has not yet been taken.
The IAC also endorsed draft regulations that would amend current regulations on excise taxes and customs. This stems from a decision by the Central Fiscal Authority to change the customs and sales tax rates to make more equal the taxation on local producers in relation to importers. Previous regulations gave an advantage to importers. The results of these changes should be more jobs and greater self-sufficiency in food production for Kosovo. Pillar IV will have a press release this afternoon detailing the changes. The CFA will also announce new excise duties on alcohol, tobacco and petroleum. The purpose is to discourage smuggling. Again there will be a press release from Pillar IV on that.
UNMIK Police
A Kosovo Albanian male was shot to death last night in the Calabera Restaurant in Gromovo village near Vitina. Someone sprayed gunfire into the restaurant. The victim who was injured by gunfire was rushed to Gnjiliane hospital where he died.
In Verbestica, in the Strpce area, a Serb shepherd was found dead in the hills, with multiple gunshot wounds, apparently from an AK 47. The family identified the body and indicated he must have been killed quite recently as he had just recently disappeared.
In northern Mitrovica yesterday afternoon, a UN bus carrying 12 Serb Kosovo Police Service officers and 10 language assistants was attacked by 40-50 people throwing rocks at the bus. Three officers were slightly injured and the bus windows broken.
House fenced
An operation was conducted yesterday morning to fence off a third illegal construction in Pristina, this is a housing structure just across the street from here. It was conducted by a local company under the orders of UNMIK officials, and with help from British KFOR and UNMIK Police.
ICTY
ICTY Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte will give a press briefing here on Friday at 1 p.m. Ms. Del Ponte is touring the former Yugoslavia. She will be in Kosovo for one day only, meeting with Dr. Kouchner, COMKFOR and ICTY staff as part of her tour of this ongoing matter of former Yugoslavia.
KPC
Yesterday the Kosovo Protection Corps began repairing a gravesite in Istok where dozens of prisoners from the Dubrava prison were killed after the air strikes began. They were buried there but the gravesite had been disturbed by various exhumations and insufficient reburials so they are restoring it and as I said last week to a dignified and safe condition.
Tomorrow the KTC and the IOM will select the best English language student from each KPC regional task group who have been taking English courses. There will be a written and oral competition at 10 a.m. and a presentation of a grand prize by General Ceku and the IOM Chief of mission. This takes place at noon in the Victoria restaurant next to the KPC Headquarters in Pristina.
KFOR Spokesman Major Scott Slaten
Combined Search Operation
Yesterday morning a combined search operation was conducted by KFOR Russian battalion and KFOR French mechanized battalion soldiers in MNB North. The search targeted numerous homes owned by both Kosovo Serbs and Kosovar Albanians. The search netted two machine guns, three pistols, 1.5 kg of explosive TNT, three mortar shells, one anti-personnel mine, several thousand rounds of ammunition and assorted military equipment. The operation was concluded by noon.
KFOR MNB South Celebration Held
Yesterday afternoon, KFOR MNB South headquarters in Prizren celebrated the 10th anniversary of the "Tag der Deutsche Einheit (German Unification Day). Numerous high-ranking military, civilian and religious dignitaries from Germany, KFOR HQ, local community and the KPC attended the celebration. KFOR soldiers from Germany, Switzerland, Russia and Turkey participated in the ceremonies.
Explosives Reported
Last night in MNB West, KFOR Task Force Falcon reported that a KPC member in the village of Jabllanice / Jablanica discovered explosive items in his well. He reported the find to KFOR elements and a KFOR Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team was dispatched to the site and checked the well. The search revealed five hand grenades, two anti-tank rockets, three 60mm-mortar rounds and one detonator. The EOD disposed of the detonator and transported the other material safely to a KFOR compound for future destruction.
Weapon Seized, Man Arrested
KFOR MNB West, Task Force Pegasus reported that just after midnight a patrol stopped a resident from the village of Jashanice / Josanica for questioning. A search revealed a Zastava pistol and ammunition. KFOR elements later conducted a search of the man's home, however nothing additional was discovered. The pistol and ammunition were confiscated and the man handed over to UNMIK Police for arrest.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal On-Call
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Teams were called out several times during the past 24 hours in MNB Centre to provide their expertise in identification and destruction of explosive devices. Fortunately, the majority of items investigated later proved not to be dangerous. In several cases local residents discovered suspicious items and took the proper action by directly notifying KFOR soldiers who then dispatched EOD teams to investigate.
In Lipjan yesterday morning a Kosovo Serb man returned home after taking a holiday and discovered that his home was broken into. UNMIK Police and KFOR Finnish battalion EOD experts were notified and searched the home for suspicious devices. Fortunately, nothing was discovered.
Later in the day a suspected mine was reported in the KPC building in Pristina / Pristina. A KFOR British Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team was notified and upon investigation discovered the device to be a training mine.
A KFOR US soldier later reported a possible mine to the KFOR MNB Centre Finnish battalion. KFOR Finnish EOD experts responded and discovered the item was the filter of a respirator and not an anti-personnel mine as initially thought.
Residents of Kosovo are encouraged to report all suspected devices or unusual items to KFOR soldiers or UNMIK Police for investigation. It is better to have KFOR or UNMIK Police respond and discover that a suspected item is harmless, than to take the risk and investigate yourself, which could have tragic consequences.
Operation Trojan II
KFOR MNB Centre is starting phase two of Operation Trojan to increase
security and services provided to the Kosovo Serb communities in Kosovo.
Thursday 5 October 2000 will see the launch of Operation Trojan II at
Preoce School in the Serb Crescent area near Pristina / Pristina in
Kosovo. Multinational Brigade (Centre) is keen to invite members of the
press and local inhabitants to the opening. Here they will witness a
public announcement by the Commander of MNB Centre, Brigadier Robert Fry
MBE and a representative of the Serb National Council. There will be
displays of the elements of Operation Trojan II that will include the
areas of health, education, transport, security and roads.
For further information please see the KFOR press release for today.
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
Elections
The final voters' list has been finished. It stands at 901,000 voters made up of 863,000 of voters from inside of Kosovo and 38, 000 outside. Last quality control checks have indicated that 3 to 4 % of the electorate are not correctly represented on the final voters' list. This conforms to international standards. As Daan Everts stated yesterday, a voters' list can never be 100% perfect. People die, people move, there are human errors in data entry so if we stand at 96 percent which is the estimate of our technical experts this is a good voters' list. Voters' list is now being printed in Vienna. It will then be made available to the public for the so-called quick check programme so that everybody can go and verify to see whether they are entered on the voters' list. Final figures can be checked municipality by municipality. We will inform the public in greater detail on this issue next Monday. It will be starting on the same day, from 9 to 20 October. I have a press release for you outside wrapping up Ambassador Everts. statement yesterday on the final voters' list.
Central Election Commission (CEC)
Yesterday also the Central Election Commission (CEC) met. They had a lengthy discussion on the topic of using or instrumentalising children for the sake of campaign purposes. The CEC voiced strong concern at some practices that have been witnessed throughout Kosovo. It calls upon all parties to refrain from such practices and it was also decided to include a very general word clause into the electoral rules that no one holding public office or having access to public utilities or being in a public office employee position should use that position for the benefit of campaigning or for the benefit of one party including for instance a teacher not calling upon their pupils to go and participate in campaign rallies. It was also stated that it remains an ethical and a moral issue to what degree that party wants to associate children presenting flowers to guest speakers, this is not the type of operation we are talking about but the massive and systematic use of children at campaign rallies must be discouraged and a legal provision has been decided upon so that could be sanctioned if there are repetitions of this.
The CEC yesterday also finalized a candidates' list. Final figures now stand at 5,546 candidates. We have three candidates more than the provisional candidates' list that was sent out of Kosovo voters. Among this figure are 1361 women that is a representation of 24.5 percent. The alterations with respect to the provisional candidates' list that was sent out are touching upon 16 municipalities, 14 municipalities had no alterations whatsoever. If someone now votes for a candidate in or outside of Kosovo that has been taken off the final list, that votes still counts towards the party, coalition or citizens' initiative but it does not count for the individual candidate any longer.
Yesterday we also had decisions taken by the Elections Complaints and Appeals
Sub-commission. You have a press release on that outside. We have summarized
that very briefly for you. We are going to see dozens if not hundreds
of such decisions in the next weeks to come. It is our aim to make
them available to you as fast as possible in the three languages and therefore
please bears with us if we are not able to issue an extended and elaborate
press release each time. We just wrap up the decisions. Let me refer
to the ones that were decided by the ECAC. Democratic League of Kosovo
in Kajanic submitted a complaint that LDK supporters spray-painted party
slogans on public buildings. ECAC decided LDK should desist and to clean
up the graffiti. s from public areas in that municipality. Supporters
of the Democratic Party of Kosova (PDK) disrupted second case, a political
rally of the LDK in the Lipljan. The complaint was decided as follows: The
ECAC decided that one candidate from the PDK list of Lipjan should be
struck from the municipal candidate's list. The candidate to be struck out
should be one of the first 10 candidates of the list and the choice has
been given to the PDK to decide which candidate it wants struck out. This
decision does exclude the possibility to remove a female candidate. It has
to be a man. The third case is covering up posters. The ECAC found that
LDK complaint has no standing for a complaint of actions of the PDK as
they have originally placed the placards on a public building. Both
parties are to ensure that placards are removed within 24 hours.
Last
week the Kosovo Polje (Fush Kosova) political rally that was prohibited
last week went on, nonetheless, which is a clear violation of the
electoral rule. PDK in Fushe Kosovo is fined DM 5, 000 (five thousand
Deutsche Marks) for that and if they do not comply they risk losing a
candidate on their list. Coming back to the cases of last week, I
explained to you that three fines were handed out by the ECAC. Two times a
thousand Deutsche Marks to the PDK, which was paid on time, DM 500 to the
AAK, which we are still waiting for. Deadline has expired. The AAK risks
losing a candidate on their list. There was another taken regarding
electoral campaign behaviour. This time from the Chairman of the Central
Election Commission, Ambassador Daan Everts. He has notified all
broadcasters in Kosovo not to air a spot that was produced by the
USD(Social Democratic Union). The spot uses pictures of the KPC (TMK).
This is against the spirit of the law. TMK has to be a neutral body. It
should refrain from being seen at political rallies. It can therefore not
be used for pictures just as TMK members cannot be present in uniform at
political rallies as it was explained to you before. By the same token the
KFOR made it clear that the same principle applies to the pictures being
used. KFOR also emphasizes its strict neutrality in the campaign and no
KFOR pictures can be used. In case TV spots that have already been
produced have to be changed or altered, there is money available for that
through party support funds. If I may recap, an identical amount of money
to the middle range parties, the three bigger ones are not going to get
any money and the smaller parties will get smaller amounts. There is also
money for TV and radio spot productions where everybody is getting the
same amount of money including the 3 bigger parties. I just have to add
one element that the decision not to include the 3 bigger parties for
party funding was instigated by one of the donors. It is not a decision
taken by the OSCE.
MACC Director John Flanagan
Arrival of mine seeker
For those already aware, UNMIK has been operating a very successful mine clearance programme here in Kosovo since June last year. As an example, this week we have just cleared up12,000 landmines from Kosovo. Work is proceeding extremely well. We also cleared this week 5,500 cluster bombs, so we are working extremely quickly in terms of eradicating landmines and cluster bombs from Kosovo. This week we expect the arrival of the latest technology in terms of mine action. That is the mine seeker airship and as Susan mentioned before, we are expecting the arrival of the mine seeker sometime today or possibility tomorrow. I am not going to go into a detail briefing about the mine seeker today because on Friday you will have the opportunity to travel up to Podujevo to see and take photos of the airship and we will come back and give a more detailed at the 11.30 a.m. press briefing. For those who would like to sign up to go to Podujevo, please go to the media office downstairs and register with the media personnel and we will have buses that will depart from in front of UNMIK Headquarters here at 8 o'clock on Friday morning to go up Podujevo to look at the airship, to get a quick briefing there and then to come back here for a more detailed briefing. Essentially the airship carries the latest in radar technology and will be used to try and detect various landmines and cluster bombs as it flies over the suspected areas. We will also use the camera systems on board to take photographs of areas that we know to be contaminated with mines to get a more detailed understanding of the areas that we have to clear. As I mentioned before, the work in terms of mine clearance and cluster bomb clearance is proceeding extremely well, and we expect that the mine seeker will enhance our capabilities to clear Kosovo of mines and Unexploded Ordinance (UXO's) and we hope that we will achieve this by December next year. We would to see Kosovo declared as free of landmines and UXO. s. It would be a similar situation that exists in most parts of Europe whereby we expect to continue finding mines and UXO. s for some years to come but the immediate threat would have been removed. And so the mine seeker will greatly assist us in achieving our objective. We expect it to be operating here for about a month so throughout the month of October, it will be flying over areas particularly in the west and in the south and it will be taking, as I said, using the radar and photographic systems on board, to take photographs and look at the ground that we will be clearing in the near future. And as I mentioned, you are most welcome to come at 8 a.m. on Friday to go and view the mine seeker for yourself. It is quite an impressive airship. It is the first time it is being used in an operational environment such as this and so we expect to see some great results.
Questions
Q: Why was no one punished for the posters of Milosevic put in the Serbian enclaves? Milosevic is indicted as a war criminal. It can offend the people who suffered from him or from his forces. It can also offend UNMIK and KFOR.
SM: Any poster that was put on any public building was taken down, but I don. t think we have a policy on posters on private buildings.
RB: If you are actually referring to the actual rule of the Municipal elections, there is a reference to pictures or emblems of people indicted by The Hague, but this legal framework does not apply to FRY elections. The rule that coincides is the 96 hours notification period, but this is a decision that was taken by UNMIK and KFOR for the last FRY elections.
SS: KFOR did not receive any specific order to remove posters.
Q: Is it democratic to deny people the right to vote because for technical reasons, they are not on the list? Do you feel guilty about it or do you consider this as . normal. ?
RB: I do not feel guilty about it, because there is the option of a conditional ballot. People who are not correctly represented on the list will still cast their ballot. This is a conditional ballot. The ambition from the very beginning is to minimize the amount of conditional ballots. From a technical margin of error, we are looking a 3 to 4% of people who will not be on the voters. list. On top of that, there is a human margin of error on the election day: people going to the wrong polling station, or people who have registered outside of Kosovo who were not assigned a municipality where to cast their ballots. It is not shown on their registration slip. These two components together . technical and human margin of error, make the total amount of the conditional ballots. Yet they are valid as any other ballot. They are just harder to count and will be counted in Pristina with full transparency.
Q: Are you going to use the notorious model of Albania with two voters. list, or just one official?
RB: The possibility of adding a voters' list - which comes out of the . quick check. process that would diminish further the 3 to 4% - is being envisaged. It depends on how the quick check program is going. But every additional piece of information that we can get between the 9th and the 28th of October to further reduce the possibility of conditional ballots will be used. Again, conditional ballot, it is not, as you are insinuating, a denial of a democratic right. So people who have registered can cast their ballot.
Q: 38,000 are eligible to vote from outside Kosovo. 180,000 were registered. Can you explain why 142,000 are not eligible?
RB: Outside of Kosovo, 142,000 did not meet the conditions, especially the cut off date of 1.1.1998 where they had to live in Kosovo and reside in Kosovo. That. s the explanation.
Q: How OSCE can strike a candidate from a list?
RB: I refer here to the exact wording in the press release regarding the specific case I mentioned earlier. It was decided that the candidate must be removed from the batch of the first ten and that it cannot be a woman, giving the party some discretion to decide. But this formula can alter from case to case.
Q: Given that the Serbs have said they are going to vote on Sunday and the ballot boxes are already starting to arrive, given the NATO troops across two Multinational Brigade areas have already their plans in position, given that international witnesses have been asked to go out on Sunday, why there is a delay with UNMIK. s decision and more importantly to let us know about it?
SM: The decision has not been made. We are not keeping anything from you, and we have prepared to witness a run-off. But if the second round is boycotted by the opposition and is then condemned by the international community as illegitimate, then we would follow the lead of the international community. Things are changing in Belgrade every day. So we are prepared, but not committed to do the witnessing pending what goes on in the next few days.
Q: When do you think there might be a decision?
SM: It could be any day, as late as Sunday morning I imagine.
Q: In the last two or three weeks, was there any intimidation of OSCE staff members both international and local employed staff, by members of PDK, particularly in the area of Gllogoc?
RB: Not to my knowledge
Q: You are going to use your blimp pretty close to the Administrative boundaries near Podujevo. What would you do if your aircraft crosses accidentally the boundaries, becoming a target practice for the Yugoslav Air Defense?
UN-MACC: First, the airship as a mine detector will fly at a very low altitude. This type of airship has over 100,000 hours of operation without any major failure or false at all. It has two engines on board and if we have a failure with one, it would be able to pull itself out of problem with the other engine. In Podujevo, we will just fly over known areas, so we can evaluate the quality of information we. ll get back from it. Actually, we envisaged that a lot of the work would be done in the western and Southern parts of Kosovo. So the initial period in Podujevo is just to work the system up and to get used to it. There is always a risk that we end up in the wrong territory. We have quite sophisticated equipment on board to keep us on track and in the right place. We hope it will go without a hitch.
Q: The French in MNB North have refused access for your blimp in that area. What reason was given for that?
UNMACC: They did not provide any reason. I believe they did not want us to fly over areas where there was a possibility that the blimp could incite protests. Anyway, we are still talking with the French on that matter, because they have also requested information on the airship as well.
Q: Does Com KFOR have the power to order the French to let operate the blimp in their area? Or, he can just try to convince them by some . please, please, please. ?
SS: It varies by what issue you are dealing with. In this case, yes he can give a direct order to an MNB in order to provide a service in that sector. However, as it is a security issue, it would come under the review of that MNB commander. If the information or concern he has in that sector justify limiting or banning the use of the airship, then it becomes part of negotiation between UNMIK and KFOR and that would have to be fully justified.
Q: So, is it up to each MNB commander to decide what the security risk in his area is and that COM KFOR cannot overrule him on that?
SS: No, it is not what I have stated. From the information I could collect from this brief dialogue here, it is a security issue. Each MNB Commander has the ability to assess the situation in his MNB and make recommendation to the Com KFOR about what kind of security measures should be used in his MNB. If the Com KFOR came back and said yes it is fully justified. So, it is up to the Com KFOR and then, it will be a decision he will make.
Q: Obviously, the approach of MNB North is not to upset the sensibilities of the local population but, perhaps, can you explain us what possible security risk a mine clearing blimp could possibly pose to the local population, given its presence there is specifically designed to enhance their well-being by finding mines?
SS: I have to ask MNB North and I will get back to you.
UNMACC: The MNB North is completely cleared of mines and there are only a few areas where one can find NATO cluster bombs. So there is not a great deal of work here to do. The think with the mine ship is that it does carry some rather sophisticated surveillance equipment. It is not going to be used as a law enforcement tool, targeting illegal activities. It will be solely used to look at mine fields, cluster bomb areas and enhance our ability to clear those. The message must be very clear: we are not going to spy on people. We are here to clear land mines and turn the land back into productive use to keep people safe.
SS: As it has been stated earlier, the majority of work will be conducted in MNB West and in MNB South where the extensive mine fields still exist along the borders.
Q: Who gave you the information that the suspicion that you could be spying on illegal activities could be one of the reasons why they would not let you work in MNB North?
UNMACC: The French are just reluctant to have the airship flying over their airspace. They have given us some mixed signals so we have to work it out with them in the next couple of days, to know exactly what they would like. With the surveillance system on board, we don. t want people, who are conducting illegal activities, to believe that we are spying on them. I don. t want the airship being shot at. I don. t want people. lives being endangered. In reality, the airship will be flying at a relatively low level and, if people don. t understand what it is here for, it could be putting people. lives at risk and I don. t want to do that. I want to send a very clear message: this system is being used solely for humanitarian mine clearance purposes.