UNMIK-KFOR Press Briefing: 19 June 2000

UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
KFOR Spokesman Major Scott Slaten

UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel

Yesterday at 11:25 a.m., UNMIK Police received a bomb threat by telephone on the 92 number indicating there was a car bomb across the street from the Grand hotel. The information given was that a bomb had been placed in a red car across from the hotel and would go off in a matter of minutes.  Two suspect vehicles were identified and KFOR set off five controlled explosions.  There were no bombs found.

SRSG Bernard Kouchner yesterday visited the site of the weapons found in Drenica. He said that the find would help save Kosovo lives and was a success, if not a surprise.  He will have no other public statement at this time on the matter.

Dr. Kouchner leaves Wednesday for Brussels where he will address an EU meeting on external action and the Balkans. He will speak on the distribution of EU aid in Kosovo.

There was an incident over the weekend.  On 16 June, according to UNMIK Police, a railway engineer was severely beaten inside the KPC base near the BBC club. He reported this to UNMIK police after having been released from the hospital.  UNMIK police is investigating.

Tomorrow, the Department of Sport will officially open its office in what is left of the Bora and Ramiz sport stadium.  Co-heads Jean Selim Kanaan and Zenun Pajaziti will be on hand, it is at 6.00 p.m. and media is invited.

Also tomorrow at 7 p.m there will be the opening of a photo exhibition in the Pristina Municipal Building, City Hall, called Pristina through Old Photographs.  It is organized by the Pristina Museum and the Institution of Protection of Monuments, the UNMIK office of Culture and Patrimoines san Frontieres (Heritage without Borders).  The photographs range from the beginning of 20 the century to 1960. The exhibit will be there for one month and then transferred to the Pristina Museum.

A reminder to media that today at 15.00 you're invited to meet at Pristina City Hall and proceed to the Ashkalia-Roma camp in Plementina-Obilic.  This was upon invitation from the Roma Camp Representative.  He would like the Council to view the camp where some 800 people are living in dire conditions.

Two press buses will leave here on Wednesday morning for the Civil Defence Day in Prizren, to be held by UNMIK Police, KFOR and the Kosovo Protection Corps.  One bus leaves at 7 a.m. and will arrive in time for the seminar. A second leaves at 10 a.m. arriving in time for the demonstration of the staged burning school.

From the OSCE, as Roland mentioned last week, there are 22 political parties and one coalition of six parties preparing to run in the municipal elections in the fall.  More details on the certification of the parties, which are planning to contest at the elections, will be provided at the OSCE weekly briefing on registration and the elections.  Mr. David de Beer will be speaking, Head of Political Party Services (Details).

KFOR Spokesman Major Scott Slaten

Weapon and Ammunition Seizure

The largest cache of illegal weapons and ammunition since NATO forces entered Kosovo last year, was discovered by KFOR MNB Centre soldiers on Friday 16th June, near to the village of Klecka / Klecke.

KFOR elements from Britain, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany and Russia participated in the search operation. The discovery of four bunkers, containing hundreds of weapons, came as the soldiers neared the end of their second day searching the Drenica valley for weapons and
ammunition.

British Major Simon Marr and Sergeant Wayne Toon of the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, discovered the bunkers. "I was looking through my binoculars, trying to spot our soldiers, who were searching in the nearby fields, when I saw what looked like the front edge of a bunker," explained Toon.

The Fusiliers' patrol immediately cordoned off the area and reported the find to MNB Centre Headquarters. KFOR Engineer search and Royal Military Police weapons experts were soon on the scene to assess the extent of the find. They were soon joined by KFOR Finnish troops, in whose area the find took place.

The four bunkers were emptied yesterday and the weapons and ammunition transported to a secure location for destruction.  Later in the afternoon, several small controlled explosions destroyed the bunkers.

Six large truckloads of explosives and ammunition estimated to be over half a million rounds were removed from the facility. KFOR explosive and weapons experts have been working around the clock to inventory and prepare the items for destruction.

The yield of the first two bunkers has been estimated to be large enough to fully outfit two heavy-infantry companies, eliminate the entire population of Pristina and destroy 900 - 1,000 tanks. A preliminary inventory of the first two bunkers revealed the following items:

* One sniper rifle and two regular rifles.
* Assorted parts of various military uniforms and body armor.
* Four heavy 12.7 mm machine guns and tripods.
* 11 long barreled recoilless rifles with ammunition.
* One 40mm and seven 120mm mortars.
* 175 blocks of TNT explosives with 17 electronic detonators and seven timer units.
* 16 anti-tank projectiles.
* 160 Boxes of Rocket Propelled Grenades for various anti-tank weapons and one box of RPG propelling charges.
* Five M80 reloadable anti-tank weapons.
* 65 High Explosive Anti-tank (HEAT) projectiles.
* Three 90mm M79 shoulder fired reloadable grenade launchers.
* 204 mines of various types.
* 48 mine fuses.
* 340 Boxes of ammunition of various caliber's.
* 4000 rounds of 40 mm High Explosive ammunition
* 14,000 flash detonators.
* 349 boxes of grenades.
* Five boxes of mortar ammunition, 35 ejection charges

Brigadier Richard Shirreff, Commander of MNB Centre, is delighted with the success of this operation. He stated earlier, "The discovery of this cache of weapons has removed dangerous tools of aggression from the hands of extremists. This is one more step that we are attempting to stop violent activity by any ethnic group operating in Kosovo".

At an earlier meeting on the site, KFOR Commander Lt. Gen. Juan Ortuno congratulated the troops participating in "Operation Leatherman" for the discovery.

"While KFOR troops are engaged in continuous operations to search for such weaponry and munitions, today's find is the largest since KFOR's arrival in Kosovo.  As such, it represents a major success in the on-going battle of ridding Kosovo of illegal weapons.  It is in the interest of all
Kosovar citizens to come forward with information that might lead to further discoveries of weapons.  Eliminating the tools of violence can only help to stabilize Kosovo, and assist in building a peaceful and prosperous future."

"Operation Leatherman" is currently continuing throughout the region to search for additional caches of illegal weapons. More information will follow once the operation is completed.

Administrative Notes

A weapons and ammunition cache, discovered by KFOR MNB Centre troops on Friday will be displayed for journalists to view. The arsenal from four separate bunkers will be displayed form 2 p.m. The press is welcome to view the extensive array of weapons and KFOR MNB experts will be available to answer questions regarding weapons and ammunition on display. Transport will depart after the press briefing from the CPIC building at 1:15 p.m.

Guest: Major Deborrah Allen, MNB East PIO

I am here to renew our invitation to attend the transfer of authority tomorrow.  MNB East will transfer authority of the US sector from Brigadier General Ricardo Sanchez to Brigadier General Juan Ortiz.  The assembly is at 9.00 a.m. … (details). 

We also have some good news to share with the media community.  The officials of Task Force Falcon, MNB East, arranged for a four-year-old Kosovar Albanian boy to fly to a hospital in Germany for urgently needed medical care. 

On June 8th sustained injuries in a constructions area near his home.  Pipes fell in his mid-section, injuring his pancreas, liver, and perforating his stomach, leaving him with life threatening injuries.  The child was brought to the Camp Bondsteel medical facility that night and was operated on immediately.  Since he was admitted, he was in intensive care and his condition was critical but stable.  The doctors identified that the child needed more extensive medical care than could be received in a military civilian hospital in Kosovo or FYROM, and made arrangements for the child to go to Germany - to a state of the art Paediatric Intensive Care Centre. 

The attending physician from Camp Bondsteel is optimistic and said that with proper treatment, the child should make a full recovery. 

I would like to thank all the people in MNB East hospital as well as those out of KFOR main, who have made this possible.

Questions:

Q:  Do you have any more information about the bunkers found by KFOR troops… (inaudible).  Is there any other response so far to the statement made by General Ceku… that these are not in any way linked the KLA?  Have you looked into the fact that these could have been built since the war?

SS:  I don't have any further information on additional sights.  I do know that additional sights have been discovered during this operation.  More information will follow on that.  As far as how long they have been there, I know that initial reports reported that pad-locks that locked the doors were fairly new.  Aside from that, until the investigation is complete we will not know exactly when the cache was put together.  It has been discussed briefly with COM KFOR this morning.  As far as the association with General Ceku, I am unclear at this time.  It was a very unstable situation last year, with various groups operating independently, in semi-autonomous nature in Kosovo. 

Q:  Are you talking to the local former KLA commander in the area?

SS:  I have not talked with anybody personally and do not know if any talks have occurred. 

Q:  Will KFOR consult him?

SS:  I'm sure.  As part of the ongoing investigation, first we are trying to assess what exactly we have found.  It has been a very difficult time and as I mentioned the experts have been working around-the-clock to make sure that the weapons are rendered safe before they can be destroyed.  Our intelligence assets will be evaluating what has been discovered in the bunkers and will then hand them over to investigators for further analysis. 

Q:  Given the size of the stash, it must have been a well-organized individual/s leaving these things there?

SS:  It would be difficult for a single individual to have filled the whole room with explosives.  We have a wide variety of weapons systems - both heavy and light.  It has been mentioned that there were a lot of small arms' ammunition and we are looking for those.  The ammunition was there, so we can assume that there are still small weapons and arms out there.  We will continue to search until we find them.

Q:  Have there been any more attempts by the local population to immobilize KFOR as it moves around the area?  Do you have the final toll on how many vehicles actually have their wheels spiked?

SS:  There have been reports that some of the local population was not happy with our presence there.  One of the comments from the villagers was that the soldiers were scaring her children.  At the same time, a significant number of explosives were found in the bunkers and there is a greater danger in these unstable explosives being stored in these sights than KFOR soldiers searching the area.  It's inconvenient and unfortunate, but if there weren't weapons stored in the area then it would not be necessary for us to patrol and search. 

Q:  You said that this was an operation of MNB Centre.  At the same time, you are considering it a success for all of KFOR.  Is it like it was in the beginning… when you started the operation throughout Kosovo to find weapons, or is it just an operation of MNB Centre… and would this be the end of this operation?
SS:   No… this is not the end.  We will continue every day to conduct operations throughout Kosovo in order to eliminate the weapons of war that are existing here.  The Headquarters of MNB Centre was the lead Headquarters in planning and executing this mission.  However, elements from the different MNBs have participated jointly in this operation, in conjunction with MNB Centre soldiers.  In this regard, it benefits all of KFOR as well as all the citizens of Kosovo, because these weapons were eliminated from possible harmful use.

Q:  Is this the beginning of (inaudible) operation or is it only for MNB Centre?

SS:  The start of this mission was when KFOR entered Kosovo a year ago and it will be completed once the UN says that we are done.  It is a daily operation.  What you see and when this operation will be over is when the Commander determines that he has met his mission requirements.  I cannot comment on when the next operation will occur.

Q:  (Inaudible)

SS:  I cannot comment on our future operations.  I can tell you that we use a variety of techniques to search for weapons, including house and vehicle searches, stopping people in the streets, etc. to track down these illegal weapons of war.   You can expect to see these again.

Q:  We were told yesterday at the sight that you found documents… possibly in the bunkers.  Have you gone through those documents and do they show where these weapons came from and who they belong to?

SS:  One of the problems that we face, with the large quantity of evidence and weapons and ammunition that are in the bunkers, is the processing of that information.  The analysis is ongoing at this time and we are working on gathering the documents, trying to track weapon-lot numbers, see if there are any connections with past crimes… there is a lot involved in assessing what is there and it is ongoing as we speak.

Q:  It does not say "property of KLA"?

SS:  No.  I was told that majority of the documents were in Albanian.

Q:  You said before that other bunkers have been found?

SS:   It has been reported that other caches of some type have been found.  More information will follow on those.

Q:  Do you know when the information will follow?

SS:  In the next day or so… maybe today.  Once the operation is complete, we will do an assessment of the operation and put out a total listing of the findings. 

Q:  The MNB Center Commander said that those weapons belonged to the KLA.  Who do they belong to?

SS:  I personally don't know whom they belong to.  I could assume that they are a bi-product of the war that was fought here a year ago.  Someone for some reason or association that they may have went through elaborate steps to construct these bunkers and took a lot of efforts to store the weapons.  More will follow as far as who owns them… I hope we can track them down.

Q:  So, you are not supporting the Commander's statement?

SS:  No, I'm not 'unsupporting' the Commander's statement.  I am saying that I don't personally know whom they belong to.  More will follow.  I know that the landowner has been taken into custody and I am sure that further arrests will be made in the future.

Q:  Just to clear up the other two bunkers… you said that all weapons came out from only two bunkers.  There were initial reports saying that the other two bunkers were just empty holes in the ground.  Is there any evidence that weapons have been removed from there… or does it look like weapons will be brought in or out of there?

SS:  What was reported to me was that only one of the bunkers was exposed and that is how the Sergeant identified that there was a bunker system there.  The search operation is still ongoing at the site and in the region.

Q:  Were the bunkers blown up yesterday?

SS:  (Inaudible)

Q:  (Inaudible)

SS:  I know from past experience that this type of investigation could take a long time to do.  I know that bomb explosive experts can trace certain compounds and whether those match terrorist attacks that have occurred here in the past.  I do not know how long that will take.

Q:  (Inaudible)

SS: I'm not sure at this time.  They are still assessing what they found.  It is a very elaborate process to make connections like that.  It takes a lot of scientific laboratory work… when this will be done, I don't know.

Q:  (Inaudible)

SS:  They are experts and I'm sure that they will make all the necessary precautions to gather the evidence for future prosecution of the people who put the weapons and ammunitions in the bunker.

SM:  I would like to remind you that Carla del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY, will have her press briefing here on Wednesday at 10.15 a.m.  The regular KFOR-UNMIK briefing will follow at 11.15.

Q:  You mentioned the railroad worker who was beaten up.  What was his nationality?

SM:  Kosovo Albanian

Q:  When did the incident occur?

SM:  On the 16th

Q:  Has this find caused KFOR to reassess its original or earlier statements that the KLA has complied with the demilitarization agreement?

SS:  Once again, we have not made the connection definitively.  They are still investigating and evaluating the evidence.  At that time, during the demobilization of the UCK, there were regional bands.  I'm not sure if this is an overall reflection of the operation.

Q:  Are you saying that some of the former KLA disarmed and some did not?

SS:  Obviously someone put the weapons in the ground.  At what point and by whom… it will be determined later, once the investigation is complete.  More than likely it was gathered a year ago… but this is speculation at this time.