UNMIK-KFOR-OSCE-UNHCR-LDK-PDK Press Briefing: 10 November 2000

SRSG Bernard Kouchner
Lt-Gen Carlo Cabigiosu, COMKFOR
Eric Morris,  UNHCR
Stefan Feller, UNMIK Police
Craig Gennes, OSCE
Kole Berisha, LDK
Ramadan Avdiu, PDK

SRSG Bernard Kouchner

Hajzer Ahmeti, Ibush Ahmeti, Istret Bajrami and Agron Mehmeti, murdered somewhere in Kosovo. Some people want to undermine the process of peace and reconciliation. Somewhere in Kosovo extremists want to undermine the return of the brave decent people of all the communities to their villages, to their place. Here the people from COMKFOR to the representatives of the LDK and the PDK, we do not accept that and we are strongly determined to stop these murders and to arrest these people. For us these murders are the worst attempt to the process of peace after the big success of the elections. After the discovery of the two weapons cache, it is not by chance and it has always been the case, when we were getting better, the murders have been committed to undermine the process.

There were four Ashkali members of a community, settled in Dosevac/Dashevc for years and Eric Morris will tell you in what circumstances they came back to their proper village. This is an attempt of extremists to destabilise the democratic process, to destroy progress made in the past year, but particularly in the recent past. This is the worst that might happen, so to stop any measure of coexistence between the communities, they are ready to kill and kill. So we, with General Cabigiosu, we are ready to take some particular measures to coordinate our supervision, particular measures to coordinate measures of UNMIK Police and KFOR. We will find them, but sometimes to find criminals you have to bear in mind that it takes weeks, months, and years. But we will find them.

Lt-Gen Carlo Cabigiosu, COMKFOR

It is easy to get emotional on these kinds of things, especially if you have seen what happened. I am deeply sorry for the families but I am also determined to support in any possible way the attempt that the SRSG just spoke about. We will establish a special organization to try to achieve the capture of those perpetrators. I already stressed that maybe we are disturbed, disappointed, but certainly not demoralised, because the process will go on even against these kinds of events. There is no way this attempt could hamper our will to achieve what is the peaceful and prosperous future for this country. Our determination in fighting against these kinds of cases is sttrong as before.

Eric Morris, Special Envoy, UNHCR

I would want to share with you first just some information on the circumstances of this tragic case and then I would like to take just a few moments to put this tragedy in broader perspective, the rights of the displaced to return to their homes.

Some of the Ashkalia families from the village had been displaced in Kosovo Polje. And the four who were murdered had been in Kosovo Polje for quite sometime. Now some of these families had spontaneously visited their homes since the end of the war, and among them were those who were executed last night. These individuals had approached UNHCR and OSCE in Pristina and requested assistance in their return some three to four months ago. Since then several meetings took place with Ashkalia and several of the key leaders of the municipality and discussed their plan of returning. They were strongly supported in their desire to return by local neighbours and the municipal leaders. An NGO called Scottish Charity had committed itself to reconstruction of their homes and also reconstruction of some Kosovar Albanian homes in the village as well. The Ashkalia said the reconstruction assistance were their only concerns. They refused to have any KFOR patrol around their houses, where they felt very safe. On Tuesday, 7 November, the four heads of families returned to the village on their own. We provided them some assistance on the spot and reconstruction aid was coming in. The returnees had the intention of encouraging the other Ashkalia families of Kosovo Polje to return and to bring back their families once the reconstruction had started.

We strongly condemn this obviously as a threat to efforts to people to return to their homes. We have been assisting and protecting large number of displaced people in Kosovo, going back to the crisis of 1998. And we demanded at that time that those people be allowed to go home. Hundreds of thousands were assisted in this region during the crisis in 1999 on the principle that everybody has the right to go home. We have been making progress in building confidence between Albanian leaders and Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities. But yesterday’s incidents show clearly that such efforts are far from being sufficient. We need to see the commitments to tolerance and peace put into action now. I think time has come to say that we can no longer live with the culture of impunity.

Stefan Feller, Deputy Commissioner, UNMIK Police

UNMIK Police Station of Skenderaj and Mitrovica Regional Investigation Unit for Severe Crime Cases received information of four dead bodies found in the village of Dosevac/Dashevc, situated south east of Skenderaj, late on the morning of 9 November. The officers of the police station and the RIU immediately responded to the crime scene, assisted by French KFOR which secured the crime scene. We found the dead bodies of four male Ashkalis outside two tents in the vicinity of houses of the local inhabitants of Dosevac/Dashevc. The forensic examination of the crime scene began yesterday immediately with all available resources. Due to the complexity of the forensic examination and the darkness, the crime scene was secured and work has continued today. All investigations are being done by specialists of the RIU, Mitrovica, the Central Investigation Unit of UNMIK Police HQ in Pristina and forensic laboratory capacity of my HQ. The four bodies have been moved to the Pristina Hospital where a postmortem examination can be expected today. We have also started to collect witness statements. This work is difficult as the people in this difficult situation are quite afraid. We ask you, the press and media, not to interfere with our attempts to take interviews simply because this would severely decrease our chances to get evidence. The people must be convinced to cooperate with us. So we ask you not to disturb this process.

What we have so far now is: Four male Ashkali, all living in Kosovo Polje, were found dead outside their tents where they had stayed for some days during the process to resettle in that area from where they originally came from. All victims received multiple gunshots. We found several rounds and we believe due to this and the first information that we have that the shots may have been fired by an automatic rifle and this may have taken place in the darkness of 8 November. Preliminary information about suspects has to be confirmed before we are ready to say anything and without any further information about suspects, weapons, used cars or anything else, our activities have to concentrate right now on the best assets UNMIK Police and KFOR can provide to this case to collect evidence and witness statements and to use our intelligence capacity. So we ask everyone who may have further information to tell the police and we will guarantee confidentiality.

SRSG Bernard Kouchner

Yesterday when we received the news, I went to the scene of crime with General Cabigiosu. Before going we asked the two main parties, LDK and PDK, to come with us and they immediately accepted. So Mr. Kole Berisha and Mr. Ramadan Avdiu were with us.

But the four bodies lying on the piece of land, that miserable piece of land in between the two rings of their former houses, in the middle of nowhere, are difficult to forget. This is obviously either some kind of mad ……….able to do that or someone with real political determination. These poor people, their bodies riddled with bullets, they weren’t either rich or important people. All the people, Ashkali, Serb or the Albanian, are the same for us, they are all the citizens of Kosovo.

Kole Berisha, Vice-president, LDK

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the LDK I feel very sorry for what happened in  Dashevc. We are in favour of democracy and tolerance and we feel that Kosovo needs peace. We condemn every act of violence, no matter where it comes from or against whom it is directed. Kosovo needs peace, law and order. Every act of violence affects the process of development and progress of Kosovo. We are determined that we are with KFOR and UNMIK and other forces in Kosovo, with KPS and KPC, and to build other mechanism to prevent such acts and …………of such cases. Once again let me say we are very sorry and we condemn such acts of violence.

Ramadan Avdiu, Member, PDK Presidency

The PDK considers the murders in Dashevc in Drenica as seeking to destabilise the achievements and situation in Kosovo. All the people who predicted that during the election campaign and during the elections there would be acts of violence were wrong. But now other steps have been taken after the elections. Now we consider that through this act the Drenica region might be blamed. But even during the war civilians were never killed in that region. Now we heard that UNMIK Police, KFOR and KPS will do their utmost to find the perpetrators of the crime. We think KPS should conduct the investigations to prevent crimes beginning to take place in Kosovo. The sorrow of the families of the victims will be our sorrow too and therefore we express our condolence to the families of the victims.

Craig Gennes, OSCE

I am here just to present a united front. You see everyone here condemns what is obviously a brutal and cowardly act. The murder will have a chilling effect on return and reconciliation and negatively impact on the international reputation of Kosovo. We express our deepest condolences to the families as well and we call on all Kosovars who might have any information cooperate fully with the police investigations and to assist in bringing the perpetrators to justice. Kosovars or ourselves can’t allow extremists and criminals to destroy the process of return, reconciliation and peace.

SRSG Bernard Kouchner

I fully support what has been said. These stupid criminals must know that this crime was also against them, not just Ashkali or any particular community, but against all Kosovars, against all people living in the Balkans. This is exactly what was expected from the worst extremists all over the place and all over the boundaries and borders. Exactly this was expected after the success of the elections.

Questions

Q: First question is for the two political party representatives. Will you be using your network of contact in the area to find out the people who carried out these killings and the people who gave the order for these killings to be carried out and if you come across the information, will you be giving it to UNMIK Police?

PDK: As far as the Democratic Party of Kosovo is concerned, we will certainly do that and we will encourage the people living in that area that if they have this information to pass it on to the UNMIK Police.

LDK: Not only in this case, but even before we have urged citizens and our members and all Kosovars to cooperate in all situations with UNMIK Police, KFOR or KPS and all other structures of Kosovo. Now I use the opportunity to appeal to all the people of Kosovo, who want Kosovo to be free and independent to refrain from acts of violence.

Q: The question is for Mr. Morris. What message do you think these killings are going to give and what effect they will have to the movement of minorities to their home place in Kosovo and for the eventual hopeful return of Serb IDPs from Serbia.

UNHCR: To a degree that is has a chilling effect on returns, I am afraid that’s precisely the outcome the gunmen wanted. This is certainly a time for reflection. As to deal with the issue of returns, this is also very much the time for total recommitment to the principle of return. But it’s a recommitment to the principle of justice and the role of law because after all the conditions for return are not simply avoiding being slaughtered. The conditions for return must also include that if you have instance like this, justice is done. It is very difficult in a complex situation like this to find a balance between necessary caution and hope, but the hope for the right to return, the hope that people will return must be reconfirmed.

Q: The question is for Eric Morris. What changes are you making to your returns programme. How is it actually affected it in a practical way, what you are doing is different from two days ago?

SRSG: I just want to mention that we have the joint committee for return session this afternoon, we will maintain the committee and we will still work in the same direction.

UNHCR: The answer to that is the one I just tried to give that as such we will need to do some reflection on some modalities and this particularly relates to the return of the Roma, Ashkalia and Egyptians. But to even to suggest that we would change from a plan of action that embodies the principle of return, is what the gunmen exactly want. I would repeat also that there is got to be a emphasis at all time on security. What all of this makes this case particularly sadly ironic is that in the minds of the returnees themselves security seemed not to have been the issue. But going beyond security, in terms of staying alive, this case would be so crucial in establishing a precedent for justice and rule of law and that’s how important I see it to be.

Q: OSCE in its report on the minorities assessed that the situation of minorities was not safe enough. Then why was this family brought back when your assessment was that the situation of the minorities is not safe enough?

SRSG: It was the end of a long process over months. UNHCR people were working with this particular family for the return of these people to their particular village. It started four or five months ago or maybe more.

UNHCR: The family themselves started the process to return by themselves. About four months ago they visited the village and the place of origin. They approached the UNHCR about two months ago to see if we could help them return. All the process with them lasted about two months, to see all the authorities, the village leaders, the inhabitants and everything was conducive for this return and I have to say that regularly the people went there and one night with the neighbours………Albanian neighbourhood. So it is not for the first time that they went back to the place of origin.

OSCE: I would just add a general point. People have the right to return and people want to return. This incident will not stop people from wanting to return and we cannot as Eric has said fall victim to the intentions of the gunmen here. Yes there are places where the security is not right, but we have to work to make sure that people, where possible, can return.

Q: Mr. Feller you told journalists not to interfere in the investigations. But can we get what did UNMIK Police and KFOR found in the place where the incident occurred. Have you spoken to the witnesses, the villagers and what do they say?

UNMIK Police: I tried to deliver that information that we can give to the public. It’s known that we should not tell what only the perpetrator knows. So you can be assured that right now not only the forensic examination of the crime scene, area searches and all other investigations are being done, but also we will attempt to reach everyone in the municipality and gain additional witness statements or further information to put into the overall picture. What I tried to say is that the people in this small village never expected that an incident like this would ever happen and so as far as we know, yesterday when some of them heard gunshots, they were scared to go out. They are quite scared. This is understandable, especially because they don’t know what happened. It’s our experience that if anyone then tries to get additional information from possible witnesses, those persons are afraid to give known information again. So if anyone were to do it in this case, he would decrease our chances of getting information that we urgently need.

Q: Mr. Avdiu said that some people predicted that there will be violence during the elections to destablise the country. Is it possible that the same people committed these crimes?

PDK:  The people who predicted that violence will take place during the elections were disappointed that it didn’t happen like that and therefore they might have committed this kind of act.

Q: Were these people from inside or outside Kosovo?

PDK: There are people in certain circles within the country and possibly abroad.

Q: This question is for the political parties’ representatives. Do the local parties support the opinion expressed here by Mr. Morris and Mr. Gennes that all the displaced people have the right to return, when they want to return, including the 210,000 members of Kosovo’s minorities who are now in Montenegro and Serbia proper.

LDK: Of course we agree that everyone who wants to come back and return to Kosovo, they have to return but first we have to create conditions for them.

PDK: The Democratic Party of Kosovo was always in favour of the return of its citizens apart from those who committed crimes and massacres during the wear in Kosovo. Regarding the case that I mentioned of the criminals, their place is not here, their place is in The Hague.