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UNMIK-KFOR-UNHCR-OSCE-EU Press Briefing: 23 June 2000 UNMIK Spokeswoman Nadia
Younes UNMIK Spokeswoman Nadia Younes Emergency Water Measures Yesterday evening, the Municipal Council of Pristina endorsed emergency measures for water conservation. These are specifically for the summer months. These will be in force from 29 June to 31 August 2000. Violators of these instructions will be fined. Under this instruction, no legal entity or individual shall use drinking water for washing cars, hosing the streets, sidewalks, yards, stairways or for watering plants and gardens, lawns and agricultural lands from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Car washing enterprises using drinking water will have to get a special license from the municipality, which will be granted on the condition that the business is properly registered and a water meter installed. In addition, a special charge of 20 DM per cubic meter shall be imposed on car washes and collected by the Batlava Water company on a weekly basis. Municipal Inspectors will check to determine that water is not being misused. Anyone found violating the above restrictions shall be fined 50 DM. Concurrently, all persons must reduce water use and ensure that all taps and plumbing within properties and those leading to the main water supply system are fully functional. Violators shall be fined 50 DM. The Batlava Water Company shall be solely responsible for connecting building and other facilities to the public water supply and sewerage network. Any person who unilaterally connects his building or facility to this network shall be liable to a fine of 500 DM. Further no building will be allowed over or close to the municipal water supply and sewerage network in order not to endanger the water supply system or obstruct the municipal workers. Any violations will result in a fine of 1,000 DM plus all costs and their property may be subject to demolition, if the municipality so decides. All the fines shall be paid to the municipality within seven days and if a person fails to do that, he or she can be prosecuted. Municipal inspectors, supported by UNMIK Police and KFOR, shall enforce the provisions of this instruction. Pristina Municipal Council In a first of sorts, the Pristina Municipal Council at its meeting yesterday condemned inter-ethnic violence. In a statement, the Pristina Municipal Council strongly condemned all acts of inter-ethnic violence particularly the recent acts of violence in the Pristina Municipality directed against the Serb community. In addition, responding to the proposal of the Municipal Administrator, the Council could hold one of its forthcoming meetings in Gracanica. Agriculture Department We wish to draw your attention to a statement by the Administrative Departments of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development and Environmental Protection issued yesterday. They have received reports from the region of Klina, Malishevo, Skendraj and Glogovac, that farmers have expressed fears that the wheat crop to be harvested in the coming days is contaminated or poisoned. Apparently these reports say that the seeds were poisoned or contaminated. Both the departments strongly deny this and we would request you to give the widest publicity to this. It is important that you help us clarify that there was nothing wrong with the seeds, which were imported from abroad. The Agriculture department has also heard of reports that some farmers may destroy this year's crop because of these fears. The department has urged farmers not to do so since there is nothing wrong with the wheat crop, the first after the conflict last year. Spanish SPU The main element of the Spanish Special Police Unit is arriving today. They will be based in Peja. The advance team has been in the theatre for about a month. Today's batch will have about 70 to 90 people. Mitrovica update Mirtovica is tense but stable. As announced on 21 June in the UNMIK Police press release, the UNMIK Police is undertaking a thorough and vigorous investigation in the violent incidents that occurred last Wednesday. This investigation is ongoing and also involves the international prosecutor, Michael Hartman. We are concerned in the meantime of reports that international staff members living in apartments in Mitrovica North continue to be intimidated and their flats burglarized. So far the police has reported five such incidents of burglarized apartments of UNMIK staff in Mitrovica North. International Day in Support of Torture Victims After our briefing, Suzi Clark from the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, would brief the press about the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture that is being organized on Monday in the Grand Hotel. PDSRSG Jock Covey and several leaders from Kosovo Albanian political parties and civil society would participate in the function. IAC The Interim Administrative Council is meeting today. It will get an update on the judicial system.
KFOR Spokesman Scott Slaten Mortar Update In MNB West yesterday afternoon, a KFOR Task Force Sauro Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team discovered five mortar craters in the area where the explosions were heard yesterday night near Decane. The shells impacted 500 meters from the Monastery of Decane. KFOR is continuing to investigate the attack but the search is going slow due to the possible presence of mines. Operation "Leatherman" Update An update on the major weapons and ammunition cache found by KFOR MNB Centre soldiers in Drenica Valley near the village of Klecka/Klecke last week. KFOR MNB Centre is now able to confirm that the weapons discovered in the two bunkers originally belonged to the former UCK. KFOR Intelligence experts have considerable evidence to link the weapons in the bunker to UCK units operating during the war. This evidence contradicts rumors currently being circulated in the local communities that Serb military forces, prior to leaving Kosovo, stored the weapons and ammunition for later use. An investigation is still ongoing to ascertain what individuals were responsible for the storage of war munitions. Grenade Attack In MNB West early this morning a Kosovo Albanian man informed an UNMIK police patrol that a Kosovo Roma family home had been attacked. Unknown assailants stepped out of a car, threw three hand grenades and fired some shots against a house in the Roma Quarter, one kilometer north of the city of Pec/Peja. KFOR Task Force Aquila Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team and patrol assisted by Italian Military Police and UNMIK police reported to the scene. No casualties were reported as a result of the attack. Men arrested for Child Abduction In Djakovica/Gjakove last night, KFOR Italian Carabinieri investigators arrested two Albanian men for attempted abduction of minors. They were later transported to the Military Police Station in Pec/Peje. An investigation is currently ongoing. KFOR Train Service KFOR Passenger train service will resume on Monday, 26 June from Kosovo Polje to the town of Zvecan. The service being provided by KFOR is currently free of charge. The locomotive will be marked with the letters "KFOR" and each of the coaches will have UN painted on the sides. International drivers will be provided by UNMIK. Currently the town of Plemetina/Plemetine has been added to the list of stops. Additional stops will be extended to other communities in the future. Schedules will be posted in the local train stations. Media Administrative Notes There will be a Press Conference tomorrow for the Atlantic Treaty Association in the Grand Hotel Conference Room starting at 18.00.
UNHCR Spokeswoman Paula Ghedini Following the grenade attacks against international humanitarian staff and vehicles in North Mitrovica yesterday, UNHCR has begun a 48-hour initial suspension of all activities in the North. Over the past month the level and frequency of attacks on humanitarian staff, damaged vehicles, and the threat to humanitarian operations has reached an unacceptable level. To this effect, our office has been closed in North Mitrovica, and our vehicles and staff have been relocated. The suspension which began last night at midnight will be maintained for the first 48-hours, after which, we will do a review and an assessment on the ground of the security situation with UNMIK, UN police, KFOR and our field staff on the ground. UNHCR is also requesting that Mr. Oliver Ivanovic, self-proclaimed leader of North Mitrovica, publicly denounce this violence and take much more vigorous action to prevent it from occurring again. Yesterday, despite well-coordinated responses by KFOR and UNMIK police, we saw the destruction of over five vehicles. At least twenty vehicles have been damaged in six separate incidents reported against UN international staff, including the physical assault on an international aid worker. For a decade, UNHCR has worked in this region making sure that protection and assistance is given to all of those who are vulnerable and in need, regardless of ethnic lines and ethnic boundaries. We are continuing to work right now in Bosnia, Croatia, Albania and Serbia, which has the largest programme with over 500,000 refugees and displaced persons. This is the only area in this region, as well as all of our global operations, where we are facing this kind of repeated attacks on UNHCR activities and staff. The delivery of humanitarian assistance in these areas in the North will not be affected by the 48-hour suspension of activities but following this time period, we will indeed review the need for further security measures on our part or revised programme activities. Further, we have seen the arrival of approximately 103 persons from southern Serbia - villagers from the town said that they have fled after an incidents which occurred on the 21st of July, where the two remaining ethnic Serb residents of the town (96 year old male and his 63 year old daughter) were killed in their home. They had recently returned from about two to three months away in the Nis area of Serbia, and were found killed in their homes. The 103 ethnic Albanians who have arrived in the Gjilan area have said that they had fled for fear of repercussions by the Serb military and police forces that have been increasing their presence in the area. They said that they would see what the situation brings before they consider returning to their homes.
Without prejudicing the continuing UNMIK police investigation, the OSCE wants to condemn the attack on the radio contacts earlier this week. Serbian journalists who remain working in Pristina show real courage and real commitment to their profession. But there is unfortunately a high level of intimidation to journalists of all ethnicities all over Kosovo, and this undermines the attempt to build a free and democratic media. The OSCE is trying to combat this by developing programmes to help create safe environments for journalists to carry out their work properly. So, if journalists are threatened or attacked, they should contact OSCE media offices and all information gathered in this manner will be treated completely confidentially. The OSCE is committed to assisting Kosovo to build a democratic media. A large component of this is training. At present, a group of 20 journalists from all of Kosovo's ethnic groups are taking part in a three-week course in Italy. By the time of the elections in the autumn, more than 500 Kosovo journalists will have received some form of professional training, either directly by the OSCE or facilitated by the OSCE. We also have had a very successful training course called 'Kosovo's new generation of Civil Administrators', which took place in Slovenia this past week. The Institute for Civil Administration, which is established by the OSCE, took an ethnically mixed group of representatives from nearly all of Kosovo's municipalities for this weeklong course. Yesterday, the Central Elections Commission met. They passed an electoral rule on election observers, who could be nominated by NGOs, political parties, citizens' initiatives or independent parties. These observers will observe the election activities in an impartial and mutual manner, at polling stations, registration centers and counting centers. Their job is to report any irregularities they note to either the Head of the Joint Registration Task Force or the Elections Complaints and Appeals sub-commission. This is a better way of ensuring that Kosovo's elections are free, fair and democratic. Registration Up to Wednesday evening, we had more than 695,000 people registering, which means that by now we are well over the 700,000 mark. We are continuing with the campaign to encourage everyone to register with just three more weeks left. We urge everyone who has not registered to do so to avoid long line-ups in the last few days.
The head of the EU pillar in UNMIK and Deputy DSRSG, Joly Dixon, is in Brussles. Currently, the acting Pillar Head until the replacement for Jolly Dickson arrives will be Allen Pierson who is known so far known as the head of the Central Fiscal Authority. The presumptive tax will be
implemented on July 1st. This is a broad base tax affecting all
businesses in Kosova, with the intention of informing all businesses to be
affected by this tax, which is the scope of this tax, taxable base, tax rates,
books and records that should be kept, etc. This week's overall tax revenue collection from UNMIK custom services continuous to be DM 5 million per week. As far as the energy situation, this weekend should be stable if nothing unforeseen happens. We have unit A3 and unit B1 running, and unit A1 could even be set up if the need arises. As announced last week, the tariffs for electricity will increase by 25 per cent, also effective July 1st. Finally, the Commissioner for External Relations will visit Kosovo on Thursday, 29 June. The European Agency for Reconstruction is organizing a tour for the media to cover most parts of his visits. A press introductional briefing will be given on Wednesday evening. Media announcements for both these events will be out on Monday morning.
SS: Right now we do not have any evidence that general Ceku is connected with these weapons. At the time, much the UCK (KLA) was operating in disorganized groups throughout the region, not necessarily under centralized commands. Whether someone in those groups decided to do something independently, I don't know at this time, but more will follow. The main reason for the early release of this information is to stop the rumors currently existing in the local communities, where MNB center soldiers were operating, that these were Serb planted munitions in the region. Q: Have you been talking to general Ceku about this? Is somebody from KFOR or UNMIK going to talk to him about his complete denial? SS: I know that they have talked several times in the past. I do not know the nature of their independent discussions. Q. Is it militarily feasible that such a huge arm stash would not have been known about by a commander, who had his headquarters a kilometer away? SS: There is always the possibility. You have to understand that there was a large variety of people operating in UCK at that time… that some of these people possibly had other motivations, other connections outside of the pure political motivations of the UCK. So, whether they were to be used for criminal or terrorist activities by individuals or small groups of people we don't know at this time… but more should follow, once all the evidence is properly evaluated. Q: How many people have been arrested after the incident in Mitrovica? Was anyone arrested after the incident in Gracanica earlier this month? NY: I don't have the number. You will have to check with the police information officer after the briefing. Q: Could you describe the cooperation between KFOR and UNMIK concerning the incidents in Mitrovica? It sounds like there are all these troubles with UNMIK police there and their houses, but we did not hear any real stuff from KFOR, multinational brigade Center. What is the cooperation between KFOR and the UMNIK police in Northern Mitrovica? NY: I am really glad you asked this question. We got full briefings yesterday from Sven Fredriksen, the Police Commissioner, who told us that the cooperation was very good. That this was a test since we set up this joint mechanisms between KFOR and UNMIK police and that he was increasingly satisfied at the way that cooperation had functioned during these crises. SS: I fully support what she said. We have a close relationship with the UNMIK police operating in the Northern Mitrovica area. It is a very difficult job that they have. Many times they are living in these local communities. But as you see when incidents occur, both KFOR and UNMIK are responding quickly. Q: Is this the first time this mechanism has been tested? NY: For the first time I don't know, but under a critical situation of violence it did function very well. I think it has been functioning for some months now. Q: What proof did you find that proves that these are KLA weapons? SS: For exact details I have to refer you to the MNB Center. I do know that there were documents that had information on them that directly led to UCK elements. Q: It was the documents you found in the bunkers that were the proof? SS: Correct. Q: Can you tell us more about the action you took yesterday morning in the Drenica Valley? I think you confiscated large amounts of weapons yesterday at three o'clock in the morning. SS: MNB Center's operation was continuing and is still going, as far as I understand. In that area, the search of Baragovic uncovered two pistols and a small unexploded ordinance. They were both disposed of by the KFOR Finnish Explosive Ordinance Unit. There will be a consolidated report on the weapons find and it will be published at a later time. Q. There are people that came into the media building yesterday from the Lekoshani area. They were really scared because they said that there were a number of helicopters at three in the morning. The children were scared of this big action, just one year after the war. They said that KFOR had found a large amount of ammunitions, but they were scared so they wanted to tell the media. SS: KFOR operates 24-hours a day. Helicopters constantly fly over the KFOR area of operations here. We apologize if we are frightening children but the overall reason we are here is for the security of people and maybe they should sleep better at night knowing that we try to pull out these weapons… and should be more scared by the fact that there is a large number of illegal weapons out there that still need to be discovered. Q: I understand a document was found listing weapons and the KLA individuals these weapons were assigned to. Can you comment on that? Further to the UNHCR statement… many of the police reports have sighted that the bridge watchers are responsible for attacks on police and police apartments. How responsible to you hold Oliver Ivanovic for the recent violence? For the EU… do you now no longer have a Head of the EU? When are you going to appoint the next one? SS: As far as the evidence, I think it is too early right now to discuss the details of the evidence that has been gathered because it is still an ongoing investigation and criminal charges might be preferred for certain individuals. There are documents that have names on them, that have units on them and more will follow. It is still an ongoing investigation. Intelligence experts are still analyzing the documents and whether that will be handed over to UNMIK police for further investigation with criminal charges is still to be determined. PG: With regards to the incident in Mitrovica yesterday, there is a press release that is available outside. Regarding Mr. Ivanovic… Mr. McNamara had extensive meetings with Mr. Ivanovic regarding the recent incidents on the 29th of April that also caused a great deal of insecurity not only with regard to UNMIK police vehicles and others, but also with regard to humanitarian staff and vehicles. What we stressed then, and continue to stress now is that if Mr. Ivanovic does proclaim himself to be the leader of Northern Mitrovica, then he has to bear some of this responsibility. He has to do more than just to make comments after the fact. Right now there are extensive investigations ongoing to all of the incidents within the last four months - since the rocket propelled grenade attacked the UNHCR marked bus. We are waiting the results of these, to find out where accountability lies and whether the responsible persons should be held accountable for these incidents. CL: Regarding the next Head of the EU Pillar… we are looking at the beginning of September. At the moment we have no specific time or names. Until that time, Joly Dixon will be available in Brussels and sometimes in Kosovo. Q: When did the 103 refugees from Southern Serbia arrive? Did they arrive at the same time? Did they have an idea of who might have killed the two Serbs? When was that attack? PG: They claim that the attack occurred on the 21st at around three o'clock (that's when the bodies were discovered). They started leaving with cars and tractors through unofficial transit crossings shortly thereafter. By yesterday evening, the majority of them had come across. Incidentally, they are in two villages close to the boundary line. One of the villages is an area that has been largely emptied because of the ongoing activities in the Southern Serbia area. They are temporarily staying in those homes but they have said that they would eventually like to move further away from the area - following what they perceive as possible repercussions. They said that it is unclear who committed these crimes… it sounded as they were genuinely upset about this, knowing that they were the only two Serb neighbors that they have had. They do seem genuinely shocked and surprised and are scared of what might happen in reaction to the incidents. Q: (Inaudible) NY: On the political level, there have been and continue to be talks between Mr. Nash, UNMIK police, the General responsible for Northern Mitrovica and Mr. Ivanovic. These talks are ongoing and are not yet over. There is also an extensive investigation by UNMIK police to find out exactly what happened. Before that happens, we cannot draw any conclusions. SS: KFOR is always with security situation. We always keep in mind the political situation, which is ongoing. However, as stated before, we work with UNMIK police. On a daily basis we are working to assess what needs to be done to improve this security situation. Q: I believe that you are trying to make Kosovo a safe place without any weapons by having the great operations like the one in the Drenica region. Can you make such an operation in Northern Kosovo? What kind of reaction do you expect from the local Serbs in Northern Kosovo if you dared to make such an operation? SS: If you are asking whether KFOR is scared or intimidated to go in any portion of Kosovo, I would say no! We have operations that are ongoing throughout Kosovo not just in the Drenica valley. What will the reaction be? Well, what was the reaction when we went in the Drenica valley? People were upset that KFOR soldiers were in their local area, looking through their homes. It's a natural reaction. We can anticipate the same reaction from the Serbs. Q: (Inaudible) SS: What will happen and what will transpire…I'm sure that we will take care of it when the situation comes. Q: OSCE mentioned the measures it would take to protect journalists working in Kosovo. I understand that the Head of Security (in the other UNMIK building) has denied Serb journalists access to the restaurant or cafes there, and this is one of the places they feel safe to eat in Pristina. What measures are being taken by UNMIK to ensure that journalists from whatever minority can actually work in these buildings…eat in these buildings… NY: As I understand, that information is not accurate. I will double check. My understanding was that the radio contact people were living in the UNMIK Hotel, and therefore had access to the dining room. There have been intensive meetings (outside of the journalists of the radio contact) with the Serb staff that work with UNMIK. We have reinforced the security and have 'beefed up' the measures to protect them to the best of our ability… I'm talking about our security not the police security. Q: Ivanovic said that the two Serbs shot in Northern Mitrovica were actually shot by UNMIK police. Do any initial investigations back this up? NY: Initial investigations do not back this up. There is no evidence that this is the case. |