UNMIK-KFOR-OSCE-EU Press Briefing: 13 October 2000
UNMIK Spokeswoman Claire Trevena
KFOR Spokesman Major Steven
R. Shappell
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
EU Spokesman Mike
Todd
UNMIK Spokeswoman Claire Trevena
IAC
The SRSG Dr Kouchner has been meeting with Albanian and Serbian leaders individually over the last few days to learn their views on developments in Serbia. He met the 3 Albanian IAC leaders – as well as Father Sava and Oliver Ivanovic as representatives of the Serbs. He’s also met with Naim Maloku. He is still to meet with Ramush Haradinaj.
The IAC has been holding a special session to discuss these political changes in Belgrade so all points of view can be discussed among the full membership.
It has issued the following statement:
The IAC expresses its hope that the changes that are currently taking
place in Belgrade will be the first step of a democratization process that
will contribute to the stabilization of the entire region.
The IAC
underlines that many challenges remain ahead for the people of Kosovo and
for the international community working here. The fate of the detained
persons in Serbia and of the missing persons of all communities remains
the most pressing problem. The IAC also calls for the hand-over of all
indicted war criminals to the ICTY in The Hague.
The IAC welcomes the
statement by the SRSG that Security Council resolution 1244 will continue
to be fully implemented. In this respect, the successful conduct of free
and fair democratic municipal elections on 28 October mark a major step in
building genuine Kosovo institutions. The IAC is dedicated to work on
creating the necessary conditions to hold Kosovo-wide elections as soon as
possible.
The IAC will also endorsing the draft regulation on residential property claims and the rules of procedure of the Housing and Property Claims Commission.
Crime
There has been another attack on a Roma house in Mali Alas village in Lipjan; this is the third on the house over the last couple of months. In one attack two family members were killed. The SRSG strongly condemns such attacks on Kosovo’s minority communities and families. A rocket launcher was used in the attack on the three storey house. Fortunately, no-one was injured, as the rocket was fired at the third storey while the family was on the first floor.
UNMIK police have arrested a person in relation with the robbery of a cash delivery van earlier this month. The Kosovo Albanian driver of the van died of injuries he sustained in the attack. The arrested individual has not yet been charged. This might be a time to update you on the clear up rates from the police. There have been 19, 114 crimes. 4,867 people arrested. Of this 1,478 are serious crimes and of these 432 people have been arrested. Of the serious crimes, if you don’t count arson where there is a very low clear up rate, there has been a 40 per cent clear up rate. If you want more details on these you should be talking to Derek Chappell of UNMIK Police.
And on policing – new set of traffic laws has gone into effect in Kosovo. The codes include penalties for not wearing seat belts, improper passing and abusing signaling devices such as car horns. There are two types of ticket – one carries fines of between 50 and 80 DM and can be paid at the municipality. The other tickets will lead to a court appearance and a possible jail term.
Laura Scotti/Town Hall
Tomorrow the SRSG will inaugurate the Laura Scotti elementary school in Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje. The school – formerly the Zenel Salihu school – was destroyed in March 1998. It was rebuilt by the Italian NGO Aimici de Bambini. Laura Scotti was a psychologist and volunteer with the NGO who worked with children in the village; she died in the WFP plane crash in November last year.
After the inauguration, Dr Kouchner will go to Prizren for a Town Hall meeting – the last in this present series. He will also meet with municipal leaders and tour the League of Prizren House – and he will be presiding over a wedding of a Kosovo Albanian staff member. The Town Hall meeting itself is at ten to four in the Culture House. A media bus will depart from the back of this building at 11 tomorrow morning.
Culture
The Department of Culture is holding its official
opening on Tuesday 17th October. That’s at 6pm in the Qafa Gallery.
There will be traditional music and dance from the Shota Ensemble,
classical music and jazz. The opening coincides with the opening of two
exhibitions in the Department’s Gallery. One is of the Archaeology,
Ethnology and Culture of Kosovo. The other is an exhibition of works
by Muslim Mulliqi.
There will be a press briefing before the opening at
5.15pm. All media are also invited to attend the opening itself.
And a note: there will be no briefing on Monday because of the KFOR
handover.
KFOR Spokesman Major Steven R. Shappell
Gunfight Ensues; One Man Dead, One Injured
Yesterday afternoon in Multinational Brigade West, it was reported to KFOR Task Force Sauro that a gunfight had occurred in the village of Batuse / Batusa. Initial reports indicate that one Kosovar Albanian man was killed in the fight, and one Kosovar Albanian man was injured. The injured man was taken to the Gjakove / Djakovica civilian hospital for treatment of his wounds. A Kosovar Albanian man believed to be the shooter approached a Task Force Sauro checkpoint near Ponoshec / Ponosevac, and turned in a rifle and nine rounds of ammunition. He was immediately arrested. UNMIK Police is investigating.
Illegal Woodcutters Shot At
Yesterday evening in Multinational Brigade East, KFOR 503rd Military Police reported that three Kosovo Serb men illegally cutting wood northeast of the village of Gadish / Gadis had been shot at. One of the men was injured in the shoulder, and was subsequently taken to the Camp Monteith hospital for treatment. Initial reports indicate that the three illegal woodcutters may have accidentally encountered another group of illegal woodcutters. There are no suspects in custody at this time. UNMIK Police has secured the scene and is investigating.
House Fired Upon
Early last night in Multinational Brigade Centre, unknown assailants fired an RPG-7 rocket at the upper floor of a house in Hallac i Vogel / Mali Alas. There were no injuries in connection with the incident. KFOR Explosive Ordnance Disposal experts were dispatched to the scene to assist UNMIK Police in their investigation. No further information on possible structural damage to the house is unavailable at the time of this report.
Media Opportunities
KFOR Change of Command Ceremony
On Monday, October 16, 2000 at 11 a.m., Lt. Gen. Carlo Cabigiosu will take command of the KFOR from Lt. Gen. Juan Ortuño. Lt. Gen. Ortuño has commanded operations in Kosovo for the past six months.
The KFOR Change of command ceremony will be held at the KFOR headquarters in Pristina. SACEUR Gen. Joseph W. Ralston will host the ceremony. CINCSOUTH Adm. James O. Ellis Jr. will also attend.
Members of the media are cordially invited to attend this ceremony and the subsequent press conference with Gen. Ralston and the Lt. Gen. Cabigiosu. Transportation will be provided from the Press Center. Parking will not be available at KFOR headquarters.
Please note that the regular UNMIK-OSCE-KFOR press conference scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Monday is canceled.
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
Today afternoon at 4:00 P.M., there will be a presentation of the political parties guide, at the Political Parties Centre on Mother Teresa Street to mark one year of existence of this parties centre along with a few others throughout Kosovo. Media are invited to attend. You can get a copy of the political Parties guide. There will be refreshments.
Tomorrow there will be the graduation of Class 9 of the Police school at the usual venue at 10:30 A.M. at the Sport Centre at the University of Pristina. Media are invited. This graduation will bring the total of local trained police to 2,250, with 14% of minority representation and 18% of women.
The polling station list has been published. It’s available on Internet. It’s a quite comprehensive document with 380 polling centres, subdivided into 1,464 polling stations. Each one is designed to handle up to 700 voters. On the elections day on 28 October, polling stations will be open from 7a.m. to 7 p.m.
I have an update on the Elections Complains and Appeals
Sub-Commission’s decision. One decision was taken concerning Mr. Skendeb
Habibi, vice-president and candidate for the PDK in Vitina. Mr. Habibi was
alleged to have made statement that might incite supporters to use
violence. That is in contradiction to the rule. Mr. Habibi has been asked
to sign a public statement that he denounces such practice:
“I hereby
state that I fully denounce violence or intimidation of any form during
the campaign period. More over, I will use my full ability to support for
a non-violent peaceful campaign conducted in congenial atmosphere”, signed
in presence of ECAC members this week.
An update on other outstanding sanctions. Parties usually comply with fines. We have one fine which has not been paid yet. It is 5,000 DM fined for no compliance with a prohibited rally. That was a candidate of PDK in Lipljian. It was decided to strike candidate number 10 of the candidates list. As you know the special needs voting starts. It’s referring to people in prison, hospitalized people and Kosovo police services polling staff who have to work on elections day and would therefore be able to vote prior to the elections. There is a handout describing you this programme outside.
EU Spokesman Mike Todd
New Fleet of Trucks
The Public Utilities Department (PUD) has secured the use of 71 trucks
for use throughout Kosovo. Over forty trucks will be dispatched on Monday
to go straight to work throughout the province, helping deliver water,
remove waste and clean up the sewage system.
The fleet of trucks
includes three types of vehicle, for water, for sewage and for solid
waste. The dispatch of the fleet to public utilities companies throughout
Kosovo will help guarantee an adequate supply of drinking water and
improved removal of garbage. The sewage trucks, will ensure the badly
needed cleaning of sewage systems.
Of the 46 public utilities companies, thirty two will be receiving use of these trucks. Their use has been donated to the Public Utilities Departmentby UNHCR. With the help of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), PUD have repaired, revamped and insured the vehicles and made them ready for use.
There has been a media event organized to recognize this important development. Following a short briefing on the impact these trucks will have, the forty five strong convoy will depart in unison to go to work for winter. The event will take place at the International Rescue Committee Workshop, Pristina.
Transport will be provided. A bus will depart from the Government Building, to the event, at 1.45pm. It is expected to return by 3.00pm. Those interested should register with Sylvana in the press office. Information is available outside.
Problems over Subsidy Payments
Subsidy payments by the Public Utilities Department (PUD) to some of Kosovo’s public utilities companies, are being delayed because the companies are not following the procedures that make the payments possible.
Designed as a temporary measure, subsidy payments are helping to ease the transition of public utility companies into modern self-sufficient enterprises. In the near future, they will operate independently from finance generated by revenue collection.
The Public Utilities Department relies upon complete and accurate reports from the utilities companies, in order to make the subsidy payments. Many companies are failing to provide these, which makes the payments impossible. A press release on this will be issued this afternoon.
Power situation
The power situation again remained stable. Imports paid for by international donations continue, mainly from Bulgaria and Greece.
The last interconnection power line of Kosovo, connecting to Montenegro, has been energized, following the completion of its repair. This has further stabilized the network and now allows electricity imports from Montenegro. A short term trial contract for electricity import of 20 MW has been signed. Preparations for district heating are ongoing, with heavy oil arriving from Macedonia.
Senior Officials from the Public Utilities Department will give a briefing next week on the exact preparations, and expected situation, for winter.
Customs
Last week the Customs Service collected over 6 million DMs. This takes the total collected since January this year to 163million DMs which was the Services’ target for the year 2000. It is now anticipated that by the end of the year Customs will collect over 200 million DMs.
Continuing Support for Reconstruction
The Governing Board for the European Agency of Reconstruction met yesterday and broadly agreed proposals for Reconstruction Assistance in Kosovo for 2001. Specific budget figures will now be drawn up. The proposals, reflect the Department of Reconstruction’s ‘Public Reconstruction and Investment Programme’ document.
Next year, the money from that the European Union will provide for the European Agency here in Kosovo, will be 285m Euro, around 560m DM. This amount is greater than the amount received this year.
Questions:
Q: I understand that this is a very long-term question to be decided at very high levels, but at the level you could speak about it here: with the recent changes in Belgrade, and looking into the future of the KFOR presence here, I would like both UNMIK and KFOR to comment on the possibility of reductions in the size of the KFOR force. Especially for UNMIK whether the Kosovo police have any prospect of becoming strong enough that KFOR policing duties can be reduced, and for KFOR whether elimination of the threat of a sudden attack by the Yugoslav army into Kosovo would free up a certain number of troops whose job now is to be prepared to resist such an attack.
SS: It is too early to tell what effect events in Serbia will have upon Kosovo, so for the time being the KFOR mission remains the same and I have no plans for reductions.
CT: The UNMIK answer is pretty much the same. The Kosovo Police force is going to be a civil police force. What KFOR Police are doing is in many cases quite specialized with patrolling largely in areas that are high risk.
Q: Could you explain the decision that was published yesterday that the Albanian flag can not be used in the voting locations. I have information that most of the Albanian political parties will not agree with that decision because they weren’t informed before on it. They are very surprised about that decision.
RB: First about the information: we now stand three weeks before the elections, so everybody who says he’s not informed about it – I think that is the answer to that. For the flags as such: these are elections organized under international supervision by an international body. Exactly to mark this impartiality and neutrality – that’s why it was decided to only fly flags of international organizations at the polling stations.
Q: Did you think about how that would influence the emotional reactions of the people? Do you think that because of this some will abstain from voting?
RB: No, we don’t believe that people will abstain from voting because of the flag.
Q: Yesterday some inspectors from the UN arrived in Kosovo to inspect the work of UNMIK and some allegations to the UNMIK job of some particular people. Can you say what kind of criminal activities the UNMIK people have done during these 15 months, and how many people are involved in this inspection?
CT: What you are talking about in the Office of Internal Investigation that we invited in in August. UNMIK invited them because there is not fully efficient law enforcement here and a possibility of fraud exists. UNMIK decided that it was wise to invite this body, which is a newer body in, as a pilot project. There are similar bodies working in the UN operation in Nairobi, another is going to be set up in East Timor. They investigate allegations of fraud, misuse of authority, misuse of funds, any allegations on this basis. So far there has been only one arrest of a UN staff member.
Q: Following the recent security incidents that have taken place in the Middle East: have American troops in Multinational Brigade East or indeed anywhere they serve in Kosovo decided to take additional security measures in the light of what’s happened in the last 48 hours?
SS: I can only speak for KFOR as a whole, I can’t talk about specific American force protection measures, you have to ask them. We have not assessed any difference in our security situation for KFOR as a whole. We’ve not changed our security posture. We can work with the American LNO to ask specifically about the Americans.
Q: If Mr. Habibi, having signed this declaration, doesn’t stick to it: what’s the next stage of sanctions for him?
RB: I can’t pre-empty the decision of the ECAC. There’s the usual range at their disposal: striking candidates, fines, whatever. No withheld decision has been taken.
Q: The European Agency for Reconstruction looked to be setting up an office in Belgrade shortly?
MK: Those are questions for Brussels.
Q: About the internal investigation for fraud and misuse of resources being carried out into UNMIK. We know that there is one Nigerian who has been investigated to (..) municipality for taking bribes for dealing with building licenses and the issue thereof. What do the other 26 cases involve?
CT: I honestly don’t know how many other cases there are. It can be anything: it can be misuse of authority, fraud, taking bribes – it is very wide. This is why there has only been one case where it has got to the stage where there has been an investigation and an arrest.
Susan Manuel, UNMIK Spokeswoman: As I said earlier: there was only one case. The rest are all allegations.
CT: To sum it up There are a number of allegations. There is one case that has lead to the arrest of a UN staff member.
Q: Is the UNMIK Police and some other UN humanitarian organizations included in this internal investigation?
CT: They would just be working with the UN structure. UN Civpol are included.
Q: Would you like to comment on the increasing reports in the local media on problems being faced by people who are going through the quick-check process? Apparently a very significant percentage, I dare say 80-90 per cent of the people who are going to go and check if they are on the voters list, are facing a lot problems. It’s either that their name is seriously spelled wrong, their address is wrong, their birthday is wrong..
RB: This is not the information I was given. What I knew in terms of problems was that they had difficulties with the search engines, you know the computers they used were having difficulties with finding entries of people who wanted to check their entry, and it took up to 15 minutes for an entry to pop up. In terms of statistics: we have had a sample of about 4,000 people having their names checked. We found about 2.5 per cent emissions which is within the predicted range. In contrast to the expectations the misspelling hoovers around five per cent. I do admit, however, that 4,000 is too small a sample to come to a conclusion. You can expect the statistical update on the turnout figures and the quality assessment element of the quick-check programme probably next Tuesday at the next background briefing.
Q: Do you happen to know what the maximum jail sentence might be for a traffic ticket?
UNMIK Police: 60 days.
Q: About Dr. Kouchner’s replacement: it seems that Mr. Paddy Ashdown was in town, and he’s a regular visitor. Has UNMIK spoken to him? Has he maybe voiced his interest in the job?
CT: This would be a decision for the Secretary General. It wouldn’t come through UNMIK?
Q: What do you do with the confiscated cigarettes?
CT: I’ll find out for you and tell you after the press conference.