UNMIK-KFOR-UNHCR-OSCE-EU Press Briefing: 6 October  2000

UNMIK Spokeswoman Nadia Younes and Susan Manuel
KFOR Spokesman Major Scott Slaten
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
EU Spokesman Mike Todd
UNHCR Spokeswoman Paula Ghedini

UNMIK Spokeswoman Nadia Younes

SRSG on FRY Developments

SRSG Bernard Kouchner issued the following statement this morning, on changes in the FRY:
"I welcome with great joy and relief the news of changes in Belgrade. The people of Serbia have spoken. They have made a clear choice. They're asking for democratic rule, and the world should respect their decision. This is the realization of a dream. Finally, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia can take its place in Europe as a democracy. Finally the years of terrible conflict can end, and healing can begin.

"However, many challenges remain ahead for the people of Kosovo and for the international community working here. UNMIK will continue to implement our mandate under Security Council resolution 1244, to prepare Kosovo for substantial autonomy.

"The people of Kosovo have suffered greatly in the past, due to the former regime in Belgrade. They have not yet recovered. The attention of the international community must not be diverted from the tasks at hand here in Kosovo. Holding democratic municipal elections, rebuilding Kosovo and developing the economy remain vital projects which demand no change in the international commitment to Kosovo.

I intend to start a meaningful dialogue with the new government in Belgrade to begin work on resolving crucial issues facing Kosovo, first of all that of detainees in Serbia and the thousands of missing people. In fact, I have already established contact with the opposition in Belgrade.

Pec/Peja Outreach

Dr. Kouchner is continuing his outreach program with a visit to Peja today. He will visit a school for the blind, the museum and a vehicle registration center and will meet with the people at the Sport Hall. He is also receiving a manifesto from the youth of Kosovo on tolerance and non-violence as part of the activities of Youth Week.

Dr. Kouchner will be in Luxembourg in Monday where he will meet with EU leader Javier Solana and with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg. He will also address the General Affairs council , the 15 foreign ministers of the EU.

On 11 Oct. he is scheduled to go to Leposavic in another of his outreach initiatives.

Belgium King

His Royal Highness, The King Albert the second of Belgium will visit the Belgian Batalion in Leposavic on 12 October together with the Prime Minister of Belgium Guy Verhofstadt, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Louis Michel and the Ministry of Defense Andre Flahaut. During his visit,  King Albert will meet  Dr.  Kouchner at KFOR Main in Pristina.  A group of 45 Belgian journalists are following this visit.

A photo opportunity only will be organized for the media interested. A bus will depart from the auditorium parking at 8:45 AM on 12 October. Photographs and cameramen interested in this event are requested to register by Tuesday  10 October at the latest with Francois Charlier at the press office.

New International Judges

Two more international judges were sworn in yesterday: Jose Manuel Arias Rodrigues of Spain and Guy Van Craen of Belgium. They will serve in Peja and Gnjilane.  We now have nine international judges serving in Kosovo district courts.

UNMIK Police

Yesterday a murder was reported in Peja/Pec. The victim was Mr. Ismet Musaj, 25. He and his cousin were walking on a street in central Peja when a convoy of three vehicles drove by. Three men from one vehicle fired on the two victims, who were both taken to hospital. Mr. Ismet Musaj died while his cousin is in stable condition. UNMIK's regional police are investigating.

Also sometime Tuesday night or Wednesday morning….another safe was reported stolen, this one from the gynecology dept. of Pristina hospital. It reportedly contained 112,000 Dms.

Zvecan

UNMIK has been working hard to restore electricity to Zvecan, following the fire in the lead smelter transformers last weekend. By the end of the day, we expect 13 generators to be working. Three different entitites ware beginning their asssemsnets of the damaged transformers today. One is local Serb engineers; also the Danish Power Lines company and the Oberlich consortium experts. The ITT consortium which is currently managing the Zvecan plant will review the assements next week, when we will know whether we can re-activate any of the transformers. We are exploring the possibility of manufacturing new transformers.

Finally I would like to issue a special farewell to Ms. Paula Ghedini. For those of us who were outside Kosovo during the war and able to watch CNN or BBC, Paula Ghedini was the articulate and sympathetic moderator of the refugee crisis who was in our houses every evening and in the newspapers, reporting the refugee crisis with compassion, clarity and intelligence. I imagine journalists as well will miss very complete and frank way of delivering and assessing information. Paula, Good luck and happy trails.

KFOR Spokesman Scott Slaten

Security situation in Kosovo

All eyes have been pointed north, given the events that have transpired during the past 24-hours on the streets of Belgrade. While the people of Serbia are struggling at this very moment to overthrow a political dictatorship and replace it with a more democratically oriented government, the situation here in Kosovo has thankfully remained calm.

KFOR would like to assure the people who live in Kosovo that we will continue to work in order to ensure the security of all residents, regardless of ethnicity. KFOR elements in all MNB's have worked and trained hard throughout the summer to prepare themselves for whatever security situations that may arise in the region. Kosovar Residents can rest assured that KFOR soldiers are prepared, ready and fully capable to handle any situation that may develop.

Search Operation

Early yesterday morning in MNB Centre KFOR Task Force Pegasus conducted a search operation in the village of Gllareve / Iglarevo. The search began at 5:30 a.m. and was concluded by 8:30 a.m. A search of one home revealed one hand grenade and five 7.62mm bullets. The grenade and ammunition were confiscated and a Kosovar Albanian man was arrested.

Weapon Seized

Last night at the Malseia Club in Podujeve / Podujevo, KFOR MNB Centre troops searched a Kosovar Albanian man and discovered an illegal Walther PPK pistol with ammunition. KFOR and UNMIK Police then conducted a search of the man's home, which produced a small amount of 7.62mm ammunition. The weapon and ammunition were confiscated and the man arrested by UNMIK Police.

Grenade Attack

A hand grenade was thrown at a home near the town of Shtime / Stimlje last night by unknown assailants. A Kosovar Albanian family had recently moved into the house. The grenade landed at the bottom of the stairway and exploded causing minor damage to the home. No injuries were reported in connection with the blast. KFOR and UNMIK Police searched two homes in the vicinity but nothing suspicious was discovered. UNMIK Police is investigating.
 
Weapon Seized, Man Attempted to Escape

Early yesterday evening, a MNB West KFOR Task Force Sauro mobile check-point near the village of Isniq / Istnic stopped and searched a VW Golf. Inside the vehicle were four Kosovar Albanian passengers. During the search one of the men attempted to escape the KFOR soldiers and was immediately captured. A search of his person revealed a Zastava pistol and ammunition. The pistol and ammunition were confiscated and the man handed over to UNMIK Police for arrest.

Political Rallies

Several political rallies occurred in MNB East yesterday. All events were attended by a small number of people and no incidents of violence or damage to property were reported.  The political rally scheduled to take place in the village of Kotlina last night did not occur. Instead the residents turned the rally into a town hall meeting to discuss fundraising issues for the local cemetery and debate what to do with a new tractor donated by a NGO organization.

Update on Mineseeker

Question was posed at the last press conference about MNB (N) HQ.MNB (N) HQ would like to state that it did not forbid over flights of the Mineseeker in the MNB (N) area of operations. It was concerned about the security situation and risk posed to the airship and ground support group during the election period. That was the reason they were working closely with UNMMACC on the security of the airship itself. Operations at a future date are fully possible.

Media opportunity

Final press conference
Lt. Gen. Juan Ortuño, commander of KFOR, will host his final press conference at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, 11 October 2000 in the UNMIK Government Building. All members of the press corps are cordially invited to attend.

OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless

On behalf of the OSCE with regard to the situation in Belgrade, you find a press release outside. On behalf of OSCE ambassador Daan Everts here, I would like to add he expressed his hopes that this new era would offer an opportunity for a speedy release of all Kosovo prisoners being held in Serbia including two OSCE staff and their two Canadian companions.

On elections, I can inform you that the disbursement of money for political party support for the one batch that is allocated for campaigning. We hope that we could finish by early next week, the money that goes for the TV and radio spots.

Next Monday sees the start of the so called quick check programme, where the final voters list will be presented to the public in all 30 municipalities in Kosovo in order that voters have the possibility to check their entry. Certain corrections will be possible. We hope we can give you the final list of locations in each of the municipalities later this after. Next Monday we also see the start of the special needs voting programme. These are old people who are going to vote before election day. This is the Kosovo Police Service, the homebound people by disability of by fear, people in hospitals and people in prisons, amongst others.

The ECAC met yesterday. They decided upon cases, one of which was dismissed. Other ones were warnings and fines. Parties are being notified as we speak. We also have communicated to you the safety measures, which are going to be put in place in each polling station in order that no one can vote twice and only eligible voters can actually cast their votes. On top of that the CEC has not decided which type of identity papers, i.e. photo picture ID, are required to be brought to the polling station and the message to the voters is bring your registration slip and a picture ID of the category defined by the CEC.

I would like to highlight the issue that might be forgotten. We are training upto 600 journalists in Kosovo for the upcoming elections. In September alone we trained 125 individual Kosovo journalists.

EU Spokesman Mike Todd

Mirusha Tender Launched

The tender for the Mirusha concrete manufacturing plant in Klina, has been announced by the Department of Trade and Industry this week. The tender notice has already been advertised in local press and will be advertised again.

This is the third announced tender by UNMIK to reactivate socially owned enterprises in Kosovo. The Department of Trade and Industry announced the first tender for "Sharr" Cement plant located in Han i Elezit in June. More recently the DTI has also announced the international tender for the "Ferronikeli" company located in Drenas. A number of companies have now expressed an interest in Ferronikeli ad have requested the rules of tender. It is hoped that investment in all these enterprises will play a major role in the economic reconstruction of Kosovo.

The rules of tender for Mirusha will be available to prospective investors from next Tuesday.

Heating

Preparations for ensuring district heating in Pristina, Gjakova and Mitrovica are ongoing. A contract has been signed with Macedonian oil refinery company OCTA, that will guarantee an adequate fuel supply for the systems. Emergency repairs are underway to see that the systems will function to the best of their capacity.

Power Update

The power situation was once again stable this week. The Kosovo B1 unit is continuing production without any problems. The major overhaul of Kosovo B2 continues. The overall of the Kosovo A4 unit begins Monday.

The Public Utilities Department will shortly announce the exact power situation for the winter but Officials from the Public Utilities Department have been keen to highlight the importance of responsible use of energy. There has been a major effort to ensure an adequate supply of electricity this winter, but there is a major collective responsibility to use energy wisely and conserve it wherever possible. Huge international financial donations have helped to provide imports, which will be vital for even basic provision, but there are limits to what can be provided. Saving energy makes economic sense, environmental sense and will help make sure that electricity is guaranteed for when it is most needed. It is vital that this message is heard. Public Utilities are planning to launch an information campaign on this issue.


UNHCR Spokeswoman Paula Ghedini

Oddly enough UNHCR Special Envoy Eric Morris, just returned yesterday from Belgrade where he had meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as UNHCR colleagues there.  The issues that were raised at this auspicious occasion were especially relevant. We spoke not only about the preparations for the IDPs from Kosovo that are currently in Serbia and Montenegro, who number at about 200,000, we also talked about the possibility of different local solutions for them in Serbia—temporary durable solutions that are currently available to other refugees such as local integration and resettlement. UNHCR wants to emphasise at this point that future is quite uncertain in Serbia, but we do hope basis will be laid for the integration of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, into a stable and peaceful south eastern Europe. In this context we do need to continue to pay special attention to the victims of the conflict in this are, namely the refugees and the IDPs, who still number in a hundreds of thousands in BH, in Croatia, in Serbia and Montenegro and in Kosovo.

Inside Kosovo, UNHCR together with UNMIK, KFOR, other UN agencies, donors and NGOs, have been working together to coordinate a winter preparedness and assessment. We hold biweekly meetings in Pristina chaired by the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. But in the regional offices, we have set up structures so that UNHCR, with the assessment and preparation teams as well as the other partners are looking at the firewood issue, the shelter issue, reconstruction and possible gaps in humanitarian assistance. Just to give you an example, this summer in Peja/Pec area alone, we have distributed 469 tents, indicating that there is still a large caseload of people who do need humanitarian assistance and who may need additional assistance during the hard winter months. So we do intend to commit ourselves to continuing this endeavour under the general UNMIK structure, not only the CSWs but also the overall reconstruction effort.

Questions

Q: Do we know whether or not the man who was shot and killed in Peja, Musaj, was a member of the same Musaj family who recently came under attack by the party involving brothers Haradinaj?

NY: Yes, I understand that it is that same family.

Q: Where was Mr. Haradinaj yesterday?

NY: No, I don’t know.

Q: Relating to an arrest made by UNMIK Police in Prizren area. Apparently you arrested the regional head of the PDK. He is still under arrest. He was found with smasll amounts of ammunition and pieces to make detonators. Is it correct he is being held in connection with the three explosions that occurred in Prizren?

UNMIK Police: For the time being we can’t confirm that. It’s under investigations, but that’s one of the angles of the investigation. But no official charges have been filed.

Q: If this gentleman also a candidate, can such a person also stand for the municipal elections if he is in jail, under investigation?  

RB: First of all this gentleman is a candidate. He is number one on the PDK party list in Suva Reka. And yes he can still stand as a candidate. The only legal provision that someone cannot be a candidate and that’s really the only one, that is someone indicted by the Hague who fails to cooperate or who has been convicted by the Hague. Just indictment is not alone sufficient. 

Q: Given the rhetoric that’s been coming from the new president of Yugoslavia Mr. Kostunica that once he is in office, he would like to see NATO troops leave and send Serbian troops back. He has been quite nationalistic in his rhetoric, certainly there has been no apology for the things which happened here in Kosovo. Given the talk in the international community of normalising relations with Yugoslavia now that it is a democracy, I wonder if Mr. Kouchner’s office has a position on normalisation of relations and lifting of sanctions.

NY: We have been following everything that has been quoted to Mr. Kostunica on the Kosovo issue. I think it is much too early to draw any conclusions. I think first of all there has to be a procedure that has to be followed in Belgrade. So I think it’s premature for us to pronounce ourselves on it, including whether he has a position on lifting of sanctions, which is really not in the hands of Dr. Kouchner. It is in the hands of the international community.

Q: Could you clarify the rulings on when people are not eligible to still stand as candidates as a result of  connection with any criminal activity. When somebody is arrested tried or sentenced for a criminal act of some severity inside Kosovo by UN Police, is he or is he not eligible to continue standing as a candidate.

RB: He will not be convicted by police. He will be convicted by a court. He could still be a candidate. Now to pre-empt your next question. What happens if he or she gets elected. Then the regulation on municipal self-governance comes into play and a provisions there that if someone is convicted for a sentence of six months or more, then that person ceases to be a member of the municipal assembly. Referring to this particular case, I would like to repeat the principle everybody has to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Q: Nadia mentioned that Dr. Kouchner has had some contacts with the opposition in Belgrade. Who has he spoken to?

SM: Dr. Kouchner has spoken on the phone with close allies of Dr. Kostunica in the Democratic Party.

Q: Mr. Djindjic?

SM: Yes.

Q: This is for the UNHCR. You were here last year when that big flood of returnees had happened. I have spoken to some of the UNHCR administrators in the field. They are saying now with the second wave of returnees, those who are being sent back by the European governments in the last few month, they are actually having more problems now than they had last year because the reconstruction effort has not kept pace. There are more people living on the street and freezing on the street. Is that your assessment from the meetings you have had that this is the actual situation this year.

PG: There are two elements. Last winter was fairly mild compared to what we are used to in this region and second there was a concerted comprehensive effort that was made last winter. The focus last winter was to create one ……………….for each family, which is easier to do than to reconstruct houses all together. With regard to what facilities may be available this winter, again we are looking at the temporary community shelters that we had last winter as a kind of last option. Last winter we created spaces for approximately 20,000 persons. At the high point we had only 6,800. So people did have other options. The last component this year that wasn’t as prevalent last year was a bit of fatigue on the part of the local population. Understandably people now are less inclined to host a family indefinitely over the winter especially when supplies and assistance are limited. Last winter there was a great deal more in terms of solidarity, in terms of people wanting to help one another. We are having a difficult time to find families that will host other families, but just speaking from my own experience that ultimately if people do see other neighbours that are need they will come out and help them. Last winter there was a lot of resistance from host families but in the end pretty much everyone had a place to stay and we did see with the influx of 14,000 ethnic Albanians from southern Serbia last year that people did open their homes up to those in need. So there is a possibility for humanitarian gaps but I think ultimately it will be manageable.

Q: inaudible

PG: I don’t think it’s better. In terms of houses and reconstruction everyone agrees that we are behind schedule. In terms of temporary facilities we can go ahead and make those available. But for more permanent long term solutions, these have to be made available, so that families that have come back are not relying on host families to deal with winter accommodation.