UNMIK-KFOR- EU-OSCE-
Press Briefing: 11 Aug 2000
UNMIK Spokeswoman Claire Trevena
KFOR
Spokesman Major Craig Snow
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
EU
Spokeswoman Irene Mingasson
UNMIK Spokeswoman Claire Trevena
SRSG
The SRSG, Dr Bernard Kouchner, has been hosting meetings with Kosovo. s non-Serb Minorities. On Wednesday he was with Bosniac leaders, yesterday with Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians and this afternoon he. ll be meeting with the Turks.
It. s a chance to review issues of specific concern for each community and so far they appear to have been productive. These meetings will be followed by further talks on just how to tackle issues which are of concern.
Among the areas which are likely to be addressed are access to services, education - particularly for the Roma, freedom of movement and access to jobs in the JIAS structure.
Tomorrow, the SRSG is holding a town hall meeting with the people of Vucitrn/Vushtrri. He sees it as a chance to talk with Kosovars about where we - UNMIK and Kosovo . stand now and what we hope to achieve. He. s hoping for a wide-ranging discussion with local residents about the development of Kosovo.
The media is welcome to attend the town hall, but it is a chance for local people to ask questions to the SRSG. If you want to come a bus will leave from the back of this building at 12:30. If you are going on your own the event starts at 2 pm at the Municipal building. Would you register with Sylvana if you are planning to attend and also if you want to go on the bus.
Another town hall meeting is scheduled to be held in Suva
Reka on Monday. We. ll give you details of that in due
course.
IAC
The IAC is meeting today, it. s discussing a number of regulations . including on the import of drugs and the establishment of the public utilities department. It. s also receiving a briefing on the preparation for the local elections by the DSRSG Institution Building, Ambassador Daan Everts . it. s likely to cover such technical issues as the design of the ballot.
Judges
A number of the new judges appointed by the SRSG on Wednesday will be sworn in in Mitrovica today. 139 additional judges and prosecutors and 309 lay judges were appointed. The first ones were sworn in in Gjilan/Gniljane on Wednesday. There will be swearing in ceremonies in Pristina next Tuesday, Pec/Peja Wednesday and Prizren Thursday. This brings to 405 the number of local judges and prosecutors in Kosovo.
Civpol
Police have completed their investigation into the explosion in Dragas which killed the wife of a prominent LDK politician in the area. The politician . Avni Saliu - and his son were not injured. They have no reason to believe that explosives were planted. The explosion occurred in the kitchen.
In Gllogoc/glogovce UNMIK police are investigating the discovery of an unidentified male body; the body, which was found at 7 o. clock yesterday morning, was badly burned. And in the Pec/Peja region . in Duganjive . police are investigating the discovery of a Kosovo Albanian man who was found dead early yesterday morning along the roadside. There was a gunshot wound to his upper body.
Culture
I. d just like to clarify what. s been happening with the Hadum Xhamia complex in Gjakove/Djakovica.
2 parts of the mosque there were destroyed . apparently the construction company contracted by the Saudi Joint Relief Committee went further than the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of Kosovo had authorised and they had not sought the advice of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of Gjakove.
The Department of Culture has now stopped all work on the mosque.
A . Commission on the Cultural Heritage of Gjakove. has been established and will be reviewing the project, and assessing what to do now. The Department of Culture is concerned that valuable examples of the Islamic tradition of Kosovo have been destroyed.
KFOR Spokesman Major Craig
Snow
COMKFOR. s Consultations with Political Parties
As part of his normal duties and exchange of views with key political representatives in Kosovo, COMKFOR has been meeting with leaders of different parties in the run-up to the election campaign for the municipal elections. In his discussions, COMKFOR underscored the importance of the electoral process as a milestone for the peaceful, democratic development of Kosovo society. COMKFOR has said, . It is important for all political parties to follow democratic principles and to work with the international community to make the election process a success.. At the same time, COMKFOR remains concerned about recent incidents of possible political harassment and violence. KFOR will continue to provide its full support to the OSCE and other organisations and ensure that the elections will be carried out in a safe and peaceful environment.
POWER
In Multi-National Brigade East, in a joint effort,
soldiers of Tactical Support Team 7 of the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion
and Special Forces Liaison Team acquired an electrical transformer to
provide a constant power source to the Serbian village of Kllokot/Klokot,
on Monday, August 7.
On a good day their previous power
generator might only run three hours on, three hours off. Plus, they
had numerous problems with delivering electricity to all the homes in the
village. There are some 250 houses in this region, but the transformer
that they had was only able to power approximately 100 to 150
houses.
The transformer was acquired through ElectraKosova,
the main electric company in Kosovo.
. This
changes a lot for us,.
said Krsta Stoykovic, the head electrician for the village who will install
the transformer. . We have always had good co-operation with KFOR,
and I hope we are going to have co-operation in the future. I say thank
you in the name of the whole village..
OSCE Spokesman Roland
Bless
Access to detained in Montenegro
First on the four detained people in FRY, two of them being OSCE staff members, as you know. We are satisfied that finally counsellor access has been granted to the four detained. We are not satisfied, however, how long this took and this is once more proof of a international law violation by FRY authorities to which OSCE strongly objects. Under the Vienna convention counsellor access has to be granted immediately, which didn. t happen.
Clothes exhibit
The second piece is on the clothes exhibit of victims being held at the BBC No. 3 warehouse on the way from here to Kosovo Polje. It. s still open for viewing till Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Families or friends of missing person are invited to go and view the exhibit in order to help with the identification.
Graduation of police officers
On the police school, tomorrow is another graduation, 380 cadets will graduate. The figures of graduation so far are till the end of July, not including the batch tomorrow. Totally 1384 police cadets have graduated with 16 per cent of them being women. The break up on the basis of ethnic background is as follows: 6.2 per cent are Serb, Turkish, Roma, Bosniac, Muslim Slav and & together make 5.5 per cent, and Albanians are 88.3 per cent.
CAC
As part of the finalization process of the voters list, the so called CAC period is starting on the 21 August. CAC stands for confirmation, additions and challenges. Everybody who has registered, has a blue registration slip, is asked to go back to the registration centres where they originally registered and present their registration slip. If the name on the registration list matches with the name on registration slip, that is a confirmation. If someone has a registration slip and the name doesn. t show on the list because we have a mistake and the data entry was somehow done wrong or because the person went to a different registration site and so forth, then we have an addition. So addition does not mean additional entries, it just means tidying up the list. If someone is registered in a municipality successfully, that person is entitled to view the voters list of the entire municipality. If a registered voter finds that someone is on the list and shouldn. t be there or has died in the meantime or whatever, this can be challenged. There we have the challenge. So three basic rights are covered in the CAC period. For confirmation and addition we have 448 centres open. For challenges to view the list is only one centre in each municipality. The CAC period will last from the 21 August till 30 August. It. s including Sunday but there is a public holiday on 28 August, when the sites are closed.
CEC
This afternoon the Central Election Commission is going to meet again. Most probably there will be a final discussion on the municipal election commissions. You know that each municipality will get its municipal election commission.
The last pieces of the electoral rules are going to be debated, i.e. on polling and counting, all the procedures at the polling station, on how the votes are going to be counted and ballot design and the ballot lottery are going to be the other topics. The ballot lottery is important to know on which position a party on the ballot because usually parties refer to that position in their public information activities. In order to determine this without any bias and in a fair manner, the lottery is being held, where political party representatives and members of the CEC and OSCE ambassador Daan Everts will draw from the lottery in order to determine this order on the ballot paper. The lottery is going to be held next Tuesday afternoon at 2.30 p.m. and media are invited.
Misleading title
My last point is Koha Ditore saying that the OSCE is not ready for elections. I must say that OSCE is right on target, and Koha Ditore with its title is not on target and the target is October. The only thing the date hasn't been decided yet. This decision will be taken by Dr. Kouchner and as soon as this is decided, it will be announced not via Koha Ditore, not via a leak, not via speculative headline, it will be announced by UNMIK Press Office. I cannot quite understand how a newspaper that takes itself seriously can put such a title and quote me in the same article as saying we are still aiming for October.
EU Spokeswoman Irene
Mingasson
Electricity update
Today domestic production is about 100 MW, with A3 and A1 running, as well as Gazivode station. Imports agreements are confirmed on a daily basis, and we are receiving 100 MW from Greece today. Therefore the load-shedding schedule for today is based on a 4 hours ON and 2 hours OFF regime, rotating among three groups (on screen).
A leak on the boiler of unit A3 has occurred, which
will make it necessary to stop this unit tonight at midnight; it should be
restarted on Monday morning.
In the meantime we have secured 200 MW
imports, again from Greece, for the whole weekend, so the basic
load-shedding schedule will remain the same as today.
Please note that this schedule reflects a situation where all available power is consumed in a worst case scenario; this means that at any given time, if consumption drops below the level of available power, there might be some spare megawatts, which allows the Dispatch Centre of the electricity company to adjust the schedule, so one or the other groups are supplied with power a little longer. So for instance, as electricity consumption normally decreases in the afternoon, it is likely that the power-cut regime will not be as strict as you see it on this schedule.
As regards imports in the coming weeks, 50 MW from Greece have already been agreed for each day between 15 August and 1 September.
Water
There is a big donor conference in Hannover in Germany today, organised by KfW, which is a follow-up to the donor conference in Frankfurt last May. Discussions focus on co-ordination and implementation of donors technical and physical assistance programmes in the water sanitation sector. There will be a press release on the outcome of the conference tomorrow.
Housing
Next week, on Tuesday, Mehmet Hajrizi, co-head of the Department for Reconstruction, will give a briefing on progress of the housing reconstruction programme, with particular focus on the beneficiary selection process.
Road Programme of the EAR
The
EAR (European Agency for Reconstruction) has launched
its road repair programme, which is aimed at bringing Kosovo. s
roads up to European standards. This year, the Agency is providing 30
million DM for the reconstruction of approximately 220 km of road on three
of the main axes in Kosovo: Pristina-Blace, the Tetovo road and
Pristina-Peya. Contracts for the implementation of all these road repairs
have been signed and work is already well underway in some areas, in
particular on the Tetovo road. Further resurfacing equipment will arrive
in a few days. The works will be finished by the end of November. The
assistance includes also essential safety road equipment such as
horizontal and vertical road signs or marking, etc.
There will be a
media opportunity next week for the official inauguration of this
programme. Details in a few days.
The objective of this programme is obviously to improve the transport network in Kosovo, which is essential to develop regional co-operation and trade. It is also aimed at improving safety on the roads in Kosovo. Needless to say, increased safety also requires participation of the drivers and I seize this opportunity to invite car drivers to adopt prudent and responsible behaviour on the road.
Questions:
Q: Is KFOR going to meet with Serbian leaders in northern Mitrovica? And for UNMIK; what caused the explosion in the kitchen of Mr. Saliu. s house?
CS: I don. t know of any planned talks.
CT: There were explosives in the kitchen, and it exploded. When the oven was turned on, the kitchen exploded.
Q: When will we see the result of the blood-test of Mr. Ivanovic, Mr. Nash and Mr. Rexhepi from yesterday in Mitrovica?
CT: I do not know. I. ll check for
you.