UNMIK-KFOR-OSCE Press Briefing: 23 August 2000

UNMIK Spokeswoman, Susan Manuel
KFOR Spokesperson, Scott Slaten
OSCE Spokesperson, Roland Bless

UNMIK Spokeswoman, Susan Manuel

Announcements

There will be no briefing by Father Sava today, so next Wednesday.
Tomorrow at 11 a.m., the Co-heads of the Department Reconstruction will give a briefing on housing reconstruction at the New Economics Faculty building. This will be followed by a field visit to Istok and Klina. Please check with Christian Lindmeier here in the auditorium for those who want to go.

UNMIK Police

UNMIK Police reported that a body was found in Llapashtica, Podujevo yesterday, but KFOR experts are demining the area, which is a heavily mined area before they can retrieve the body.
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Regulation

A regulation has been signed on the privileges and immunities accorded to KFOR and UNMIK personnel in Kosovo. That regulation is available outside. Basically, it exempts KFOR and UNMIK personnel from arrest and detention, other than by UNMIK and KFOR authorities.

Dragodan Cemetery

There has been a series of articles in the newspaper Blic and in other media that I’d like to clarify regarding the Dragodan cemetery.
This summer, ICTY forensics investigators from the UK have been exhuming gravesites around Kosovo, including at the Dragodan cemetery. This was not technically a mass grave. The ICTY forensic people exhumed 176 remains mostly from individual graves.

Dragodan is the city cemetery. The bodies were buried by the city mortuary, part of the Pristina hospital, just before, during and after the war. These bodies had either not been identified or had not been collected, because their families were unable to get here or had fled. So, not all of them were war related deaths. The abnormal aspect here was that the bodies were unidentified or were unable to be collected, which of course is one of the tragic aspects to war. Shortly after the exhumations were completed in late July, the OSCE held an exhibit of clothes and other artefacts found with the bodies so that the families could come and try to identify their loved ones.
This exhibit included also artefacts from remains found in Djakova. Gravesites.
So far, the OSCE and Victim Recovery and Identification Commission have positively identified 44 of the remains. Most of these bodies are known or believed to be Kosovar Albanians. However, there are five cases where we presume or assume that the bodies are Serbs. There might be other bodies that turned out to be Serbs, but these have some kind of documentary evidence that indicates this classification.
It was assumed that the Serbs and other minorities might not be able to come to this clothing and artefacts exhibit, so a book of photographs of the clothing and the artefacts is being assembled and will be distributed to minority communities and to organisations that might represent families of the missing. That should be together in a couple of weeks.
So, I don’t know if you are familiar with the stories in Blic, but Dragodan cemetery is not a new mass gravesite. It is a known graveyard related with war related victims in it.  The exhumations will go on this summer. Primarily, we believe they were Albanians, but they are some minorities’ bodies, including some Serbs.
In the audience today we have Professor Derrick Pounder who is the Senior Forensic Adviser to the OSCE. If you have further questions about this issue, he is available to come up and answer them.

Scott Slaten, KFOR Spokesperson

Update on Shooting Incident

An update on the two men were shot Monday night at a KFOR United Arab Emirate checkpoint near the village of Frasheri I Madh / Svinjare, five kilometres south of Mitrovice / Mitrovica. 
The 21 year-old Kosovar Albanian man who was transported to KFOR French field hospital in Mitrovice / Mitrovica died yesterday afternoon at 2 p.m. despite the best efforts of KFOR doctors. UNMIK and KFOR are continuing to investigate the shooting.

Man Attacked; Suspects Questioned

Yesterday afternoon in MNB North, a Kosovar Serb man was attacked and stabbed in the back by a group of five men, in the village of Gojbuje / Gojbulja. The group fled the scene and the man was transported to the KFOR French Military Hospital in Mitrovice / Mitrovica.
Two hours later, five Kosovar Albanian men were detained by KFOR Belgian Battalion troops because they matched the description of the five men who had participated in the attack. During a search of the suspects, a knife was discovered and the men where then handed over to a UNMIK Police patrol for questioning. UNMIK is investigating.

Man Arrested for Weapons

A Kosovo Serb man was stopped last night at a Belgian Battalion checkpoint near Mitrovice / Mitrovica. The KFOR soldiers manning the checkpoint man observed that the man was drunk. A search of the vehicle revealed an AK-47 Assault Rifle and ammunition. The man was then detained while UNMIK Police conducted a search of the man’s home.
During the search of the house, which is located in the village of Leposaviq / Leposavic, one additional gun, a pistol, optical sight, bayonet and assorted ammunition were discovered. UNMIK Police then arrested the man and his brother for illegal detention of war weapons and ammunition.
Body Found

Yesterday afternoon at 5 :25 p.m. UNMIK Police discovered the body of a man in MNB Centre,located four kilometers southwest of the town of Podujeve / Podujevo. The 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales Royal Regiment were notified and an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team dispatched to the area. The EOD team arrived at the scene but decided to wait until this morning to start the dangerous clearing operation because of inadequate light. As soon as the area is cleared and access to the body is provided, UNMIK Police and KFOR will start the investigation.

Woman Shot

In MNB West, a Kosovar Albanian man shot a Kosovar Albanian woman in the chest last night in the town of Gjakova / Djakovica. After the shooting the woman was immediately transported to the civilian hospital for treatment.
At 11 p.m. UNMIK Police and German and Italian Military Police arrested the man at his home in the village of Zrce. A search was then conducted of the home which revealed one AK-47 Assault Rifle and ammunition. The investigation is ongoing.

Explosion Reported

In MNB East, KFOR US Task Force 1-187 reported a large explosion early this morning in the village of Pozharan / Pozaranje.  KFOR Patrols, Military Police and UNMIK Police were on the scene within twenty minutes and started an investigation into the blast.
An Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team was dispatched to the site. A preliminary report stated that the explosion occurred in a trailer owned by a Kosovar Albanian man. The trailer was parked outside of a local gas station. Fortunately, the blast did not injure anyone in the area and no structural damage to nearby buildings or the gas station was reported.
 EOD conducted a search of the area and stated it was cleared as of 4:50 this morning.
The cause of the blast is still undetermined and KFOR is continuing to investigate.

Announcement

The French Ministry of Defence will make a short visit to the French Troops in Mitrovica this afternoon, from 14.00 to 17.00 hours.

Roland Bless, Spokesperson, OSCE

I would like to invite you to a press briefing tomorrow afternoon at 3.30 p.m. Doctor Conrad, the coordinator of the stability pact task force on trafficking in human beings, will give you a briefing focusing especially on trafficking in women around South East Asia and in Kosovo particularly. You will get a press advisory on that this afternoon. Apart from that, I am here to take your elections questions if they are any.

Questions

Q:  Can we get some details on these two people who were shot by these soldiers from the United Arab Emirates? According to some newspapers, these KFOR soldiers would have shot directly towards these people. The main thing is that these two men were only in a verbal dispute with the KFOR soldiers

SS: The details of the incident I don’t have at this point. I know the investigation is currently ongoing. General Bowet who is standing in for General Ortuno has gone up to speak with the United Arab Emirates commander in connection with this. Specialists are investigating the incident and as soon as we determine the causes, that information will be released.

Q: Our reporter was yesterday at the checkpoint where the incident occurred. He was denied access to officials on duty that evening. No one was ready to make any comment to the press, not even to AP or Reuters. In the evening when we broadcast that news, some United Arab Emirates came to RTK studio to tell us that our story was not true, even the comments from KFOR. They also wanted to talk to somebody, but unfortunately, it was too late. What is your comment?

SS: First of all, the information that was reported to you on the initial investigation is what was given to us. Further follow-up information has not been provided because the investigation is still ongoing at this time. That could have been the reasons why the access was denied to the reporters at the scenes and that they were stopped from questioning people that were present at the scene during the incident.

Q: They told us that we could not broadcast the material that was shot, the checkpoint and the soldiers. That’s why they came to RTK studios later on in order to prevent the broadcasting but it was too late when they arrive as I mentioned earlier.

SS:  We have a policy throughout Kosovo that we cannot film checkpoints. That could also have been part of their instructions at the scene. I am not aware of their specific instructions in reference to journalists at the scene. I could enquiry through MNB North PAO and find out what they were told.

Q:  Major, where these two guys are from?

SS: I don’t have the information on the individuals. I was told that a notification was being conducted. I have not received any information whether that has been concluded at this time.
To make things clear. I put out all the informations that I have received on this incident.

Q: Can you give us any more information about the four men of UCPMB detained by MNB East? What can they be charged with? Anything more about the database, which holds alleged details of UCPMB members?

SS: First of all, KFOR is detaining these individuals on UNMIK Police’s request while UNMIK police is still conducting their investigation. I know they are coming up to the time limit.  By law, they are supposed to be either charged or released. We will have to wait and see what they would be charged with if they were charged.

Q: Do you expect any charges within the next twelve hours; otherwise they have to be released pretty shortly?
 
SS: Correct. If the evidence does not substantiate charges, they will probably be released, but the investigation is still ongoing and as soon as we are told what the situation is, we will proceed as noticed.

Q: And about the database held by MNB East about the members of UCPMB?
 
SS: One of the problems we had here when we first moved in to Kosovo was that many people were being detained and questioned for specific acts in the short period of time, say for example in connection with a hit and run accident few hours before. They were not only questioned about hit and run accident but also about murders and other crimes that have been committed previously in Kosovo.  So they have started the database in order to list people who have had prior arrests or incidents or are wanted for other incidents of criminal nature here in Kosovo.

Q: Just coming back to the question: how many people from this database are allegedly members of UCPMB and are they any of them cross matching those wanted for murder or any other criminal activities?

SS: I don’t have any details on the database as far as how many UCPMB members are listed. To my understanding, these four people were not detained because of their association with UCPMB, but because of other criminal activities that they wanted for questioning.

Q: Is UNMIK aware of a complaint that Father Sava has made about the trial relating to the attack on Father Dragan Kojic, a Serb Orthodox priest. According to Father Sava’s complaint, the trial went ahead without any statement from any of the three people who were attacked and who could positively identify the attackers, at least two of these people. Do you have any details about that and can provide any response to it?

 
SM: We are very aware of Father Sava’s complaint and we are looking into how to pursue the case. I did understand that the full trial was conducted already and I understand that the suspects were released. We are looking into whether they were released prematurely.

Q: Any conclusion yet about whether everything was done properly on this case?

SM: No, we are just looking into it now. This has just been received yesterday.

Q: If someone is shot in the back, how can that person attack KFOR soldiers?

SS: The investigation is still ongoing. As soon as the details are released and the investigation concluded, then we can make a statement at the time. But, at this stage, it is too early in the investigation to draw a conclusion from whatever information has been provided, from the questioning (inaudible).

Q:  So you don’t even know how and where they were shot?

SS: At this point of the investigation, I have revealed everything that I know at this point. Because of the sensitivity of this case, they try to be very exact in finding what transpired during the event.

Q: May be they are trying to investigate the causes that lead to the event, but event is event, an act is an act. It is pretty obvious.

SS:  I don’t have any informations on the number of wounds the individual sustained, the manner in which they sustained them, other than the fact that there were gun shots, I don’t have any information on the nature, on entry and exit points, any of that information at this time.

Q: Can you tell us what is the status of payments or non-payments of the public workers in the mining, medical and education sectors? These payments would have been blocked under the instructions of Mr. Salome. I have raised that question fifteen days ago and I am still waiting for an answer?

SM:  As far as I know, there are 66.000 public employees who are being paid regularly, but for these three specific sectors, I will look into it.

Q: These two guys who been shot dead by the KFOR soldiers, were they armed by the time the conflict started?

SS: Once the incident occurred, I have heard conflicting informations on this. That’s why I have been very limited in the informations that I have released. I do not have further details about this incident.

Q: You don’t even have the preliminary investigation results?

SS: No, I do not. I know the incident occurred. The men were shot and later died of their wounds. That’s about it at this point. Where they were located at that time, whether they were in the vehicle or outside, entrance and exit wounds? That type of information has not been provided to me at this point.

Q: Yesterday, the agency Beta released that UNMIK Police did not allow three Serbs from the Milosevic party and the former manager of Trepca to enter Kosovo. What is the reason? We also have heard that there is a list of some 30 Serbs who would not be allowed to enter Kosovo. Is it linked to a big list of undesirable Serbs in Europe, or it is specific to Kosovo?

SM:  There is no such list of 30 persons. This was some story put out by the SPS in Serbia. Secondly, we dove the regulation 2, which was signed in July 1999. It allows us to detain or keep out of an area someone that UNMIK or KFOR perceives to be a threat to the public order or safety. And it can be for a matter of days and it can be for a certain area.  We have used that regulation recently in the case of Mr Bielic who is the manager of the Zvecan plant. When he tried to return to Kosovo in the last two weeks, he was not permitted to do so largely he had been very uncooperative with UNMIK’s efforts to invest in the plant, to get the air pollution under control. So, it was thought that for the time being, he would be very disruptive to this take over of the Zvecan plant that was, as you know, quite smooth. We have only used this regulation in the current situation in one case. There are a few other people that may face similar orders, but it’s only one case so far.

Q: If Mr. Milosevic decides to come to Kosovo, will he be welcomed?

SM: As an indicted war criminal, I believe he will not be welcomed here.

SS: Definitively, he would be detained.