UNMIK-KFOR Press Briefing: 23 October 2000
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
KFOR Spokesman Major Steven
R. Shappell
UNMIK Police Spokesman Derek Chappell
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
Following this briefing, OSCE chief of Mission Ambassador Daan Everts and UNHCR Special Envoy Eric Morris will present their sixth joint report on the situation of minorities in Kosovo.
UNMIK Police Officer Derek Chappell will be here from now on Mondays to update you on UNMIK Police activities.
US Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke meets SRSG Kouchner tomorrow. There will be a photo opportunity and press conference and we will let you know the times later today.
Regarding the power cuts today, this is due to a leak in the 'economizer' of plant A3 which occurred last Thursday. The unit should be back on line today.
There will be an OSCE press brief for new journalists at 6 p.m. tonight in the Media Center.
KFOR Spokesman Major Steven R. Shappell
Update on French Soldier
French authorities have concluded their investigation into the death of
one of their soldiers in Mitrovice / Mitrovica Thursday night. The
investigation, conducted by the French Gendarmerie, has ruled the
soldier's
death a suicide. The soldier, Geoffroy Simonnet, was 23
years old, and had arrived in Kosovo in September. KFOR extends its
deepest sympathies to Geoffroy Simonnet's family and friends.
KFOR Multinational Slingload Exercise
KFOR US and Russian elements will conduct a joint slingload operation
Tuesday at Camp Monteith. An U.S. Army Chinook helicopter will be
rigged to carry tactical vehicles, and will then conduct a tactical air
insertion
mission.
Media wishing to attend the training should report to Camp Monteith
Gate 1 no later than 4:00 p.m. Tuesday. Special concerns should be
addressed to SSG McGuire at the KFOR Press Information Center no later
that
4:00 p.m. Monday. KFOR press passes are required for both
events. An Albanian interpreter will be available.
UNMIK Police Spokesman Derek Chappell
Damaged vehicles
Last night at 15 minutes after midnight, four UNMIK Police vehicles and one vehicle belonging to the Council of Europe were damaged while they were parked in the front of the UNMIK Police Headquarters. Three suspects were found and arrested: all were brought to Police Station 1 where it was confirmed that they were responsible. All three are international civilians working with mine clearing activities.
Illegal weapons possession
On 21 October at 5:20 p.m., British KFOR stopped a vehicle at a checkpoint and searched the occupants and the car. The car contained (Bardel Mahmuti) of the KPC and his bodyguard. Two pistols and a Scorpion machine pistol were found. Both persons had weapons cards that were expired. No one had authority for the machine pistol, which Mr. Mahmuti admitted owning. He was detained by UNMIK Police at station nr. 3 and taken to the Pristina Detention Centre where he was later released after being processed.
Kidnapping
At 2 o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday 2 October, Kacanik Police Station were informed of a kidnapping in which an Albanian male took another male at gunpoint and was holding him hostage. Police and KFOR responded, and the situation was resolved without injury. The reasons for this incident are unclear at the moment.
Threatening letter
In Glogovac and LDK candidate reported that a threatening letter
written by unknown persons had been left at his home. KFOR and OSCE were
notified. There are no suspects. The investigation is continuing.
Shots at night club
At approximately four o’clock in the morning on 22 October a dispute developed at the Miami Beach nightclub. This dispute became violent and resulted in a number of shots being fired outside the club. No one was injured but one vehicle was damaged by the gunfire.
Hand grenade attacks
In Djakovica town, a Kosovo Albanian member of the LDK reported that an unknown person threw a hand grenade at his home. Minor damage was reported.
Also in Djakovica town, another Kosovo Albanian male reported that an unknown person threw a hand grenade at his home causing minor damage only. There is no known political context for the second attack.
Customs and penalties on weapons possession
I’d like to follow on two questions that were given to UNMIK Police within the last week. One related to customs: there is a question as to what happen to items the customs seize for non-payment of duty. I’d like to clarify that now. These items are taken to a customs depot and the persons are given a chance to pay the duty. If they do pay that duty the items are released back to them. If not those items will be destroyed.
There was a second question last week to weapons possession: what is the penalty for possession of weapons. I can tell you that whomever without permission possesses up to two weapons can face up to one year in prison. With more than two weapons or explosives it’s one to ten years potential imprisonment.
Crime and Police overview
When I’m here on Monday I would like to give you an overview of crime in Kosovo in the past week. Overall the crime situation throughout Kosovo is stable right now. We are seeing a steady decline in the more serious offenses such as murder, kidnapping, grievous assault and arson. Last week, for example, we recorded four murders in Kosovo, compared to five six months ago. Attempted murders – we had five last week as opposed to 14 six months ago. We had four kidnappings last week as opposed to twelve six months ago. Three arsons as opposed to nine six months ago.
This is a pattern we have seen developing for the past twelve months. We believe it is indicative, partially of more policing, but also more confidence by the public, who actually are reporting more things to us. Good evidence of that is the fact that people are prepared to report crimes such as rape and domestic violence to the police now. These are crimes that we have always known were happening, but there has been a great reluctance to talk to the civil police. We are now getting those reports.
Last week we had 4,098 international police in Kosovo. 2,238 KPS on patrol. 767 of those were on independent patrol. I’d like to inform you of a major public information campaign this week around the issue of driving. As you know we now have a traffic law within Kosovo, and we are publicizing the traffic law, and in particular the dangers of impaired driving with a major public relations campaign starting this week.
We are also carrying out intensive traffic projects to enforce compliance with the new traffic act. As an example of that in one day last week here in Pristina in one eight hour operation traffic police wrote tickets to the value of over 300,000 DM and confiscated over 400 vehicles. We believe that traffic laws are an important and highly visible mean of establishing a climate of civil law and order.
Questions:
Q: Is UNMIK Police still guarding or protecting the Musaj family
premises in Decan Municipality and is anyone from this family under
investigation?
DC: I am aware of an incident that took place
recently, involving that family. That incident is under investigation. I
am not aware of a guard that’s on the family. But, as I said, that
incident did take place and generated a police investigation some few days
ago. Whether or not it will result in charges is too early to say.
Q: Have you got recently any tape or videotape from the Musaj family where you can see the person beaten up by members of the Musaj family and forced to admit he committed the crimes in the Decan area?
DC: I have not personally received or seen such a tape. I can’t confirm that we have it.
Q: Can we have more details about Mr. Richard Holbrooke’s
agenda?
SM: No, we will have his agenda this afternoon, after
I meet with people from the US office. It has been put off for a day, so
the times that we already had scheduled may be changing.
Q: Can KFOR and UNMIK make any assessment about the security
situation surrounding the elections? Do you hope that we will have like
normal elections or do you think we will face major problems in the coming
days and at the day of elections itself?
SS: From the KFOR
point of view, it is calm and you have just heard Derek (from UNMIK
Police) talk about the decrease in crimes
SM: I don’t think our assessment has changed. There is a lively political campaign going on. There have been dozens of political rallies that have gone without incident. I think we had only one incident that we reported last week. We look forward to the elections happening on Saturday without a hitch basically.
Q: Will UNMIK police intervene in the polling stations in case of incidents? Will the policemen enter the polling station and take some measure or will just the local people solve the problem?
DC: The police are responsible for the security. The elections cannot happen without a climate of law and order, peace and security. We will be present at the polling stations. If an incident happens, we will take whatever measures are needed to ensure the people can vote safely, peacefully. We will not tolerate intimidation or violence at these locations.
SM: I believe there will be a briefing on security at the OSCE Media Centre this week by KFOR and UNMIK Police.
Q: The Foreign Policy Adviser of the Presidential candidate George W. Bush said that he would be likely to scale down the American commitment to NATO Peace-Keeping in the Balkans. Can we have a reaction from UNMIK on this, presumably you have advised them not to?
SM: Dr. Kouchner has said, as recently as a week ago that it was not the time to reduce the military strength in Kosovo.
Q: Has anybody actually been convicted for illegal possession of a weapon, and is Mr. Mahmuti going to be facing any charges in this specific case for carrying an illegal weapon?
DC: The persons that we arrest; we prepare criminal charges against them, and we present the case to the judicial system. I don’t have statistics on the conviction rate and how many are found guilty or are released without a conviction. But whenever we arrest somebody for a criminal offense, we follow it up with an investigation with a set of court papers and a presentation to the prosecutor. What happens at court is really out of our hands.
SM: Yes, we have to check with the Judicial Department, but there is
the famous case of the Moncilovics who were convicted on weapons
possession.
Q: Does UNMIK have any policy on the issue of
flags? Will you prevent the flags from being put up on the polling
stations or it is going to be prohibited to put it in the polling
stations? As such, would it be a violation of some sort of agreement?
SM: We do have a policy that says that no flags other than UN flags should be on polling stations, but this issue is a very hot issue, as you know. It is still being discussed and will be discussed in the Interim Administrative Council’s meeting tomorrow.
Q: If you see a person wrapped up in a flag – like a member of PDK has said (he would do) entering a polling station, will you prevent him from doing so? And the second question: why were these Mine Action people destroying UN cars?
DC: The first question is easier to answer than the second. If there is an issue around the display or the use of the flag, I think we have to be practical; we have to apply common sense. I don’t think it will be appropriate for me to give you a black and white line that we are going to take in every case right now. We want to ensure peace and stability at the voting centres. So, I think this is very much an issue that will be dealt by the officers at the scene. So there is some flexibility. As to why the people were damaging the police vehicles, I would think that mine clearance is one of the more demanding jobs that any of us would do. So, I can only speculate on the time of night and what they were doing before they were damaging the cars.
Q: On the issue of the Musaj family and the alleged incidents, is it your information that there was a certain senior member of the TMK involved in that latest incident whose family name is quite well-known and has had previous dealings or problems with the Musaj family?
DC: I am aware of allegations to that effect. What I am not aware of is any direct connection to that person. I am aware of the incident in great details. To the best of my knowledge, there is no direct connection between those two individuals, but as I said this is still under investigation and that might change.
Q: On the flag issue, why is this flag not allowed to be displayed on polling stations? Is it because it can provoke someone here in Kosovo, the international community or the Serbs or the other ethnic minorities?
SM: Perhaps Ambassador Everts would give the best answer, but there is no national flag permitted. Kosovo is not yet a nation. In order not to prejudice the case or the elections, there are not to be national or any kind of flags other than those of the International Administration on polling stations or on public buildings. You know that policy has been into effect since we have been here.
Q: Does UNMIK Police have access to Interpol files for the criminals who are in Kosovo right now?
DC: The answer to that is yes. We have close contacts with Interpol.
Q: What is now the exact position after the frictions you had with the Kosovo Police Service on these Traffic Yugoslav law who was simply translated from Serbian to English and to Albanian?
DC: As you are probably aware, there was a dispute last week involving the new Kosovo Police Service. It arose over the issue of the new traffic tickets. Officers are required to enter the section number of the offense and the title of the statute and the statute was SFRY, the “y” referring to Yugoslavia. There was a protest by some KPS officers who objected to having to write anything relating to Yugoslavia. That was a fairly low-key protest. It was confined to the Pristina area, to several stations in particular. As a result of that, negotiations were conducted to try to resolve the problem. My understanding is that the officers have been back on the streets, doing their full range of duties, writing tickets from the day after that incident. There was a 24 hour period which we had a problem. Since then, it has been business as usual. Individual KPS officer may decide not to write a ticket, but we are not aware of any pre-planned or organised activity not to write, based on the title of the statute.
Q: If all Kosovars are going to polling stations with the Albanian flag, as you know Kosovars and Albanians they have the same flag, what practical measures will be taken?
SM: The flag issue is still under discussion with the Kosovo political parties as to what extent we will enforce that policy.
Q: Are there any plans to introduce any form of curfew, specifically in Multi National Brigade Centre over the period of elections or to change the timings of the curfews anywhere else in Kosovo?
SM: Not that I know of.
SS: Not that I know of.
Q: Until now is there any political party or candidate who requested security for themselves or during the rallies?
SM: Several weeks ago, we did a risk/threat assessment study of vulnerable candidates. I believe it was 120 some candidates and they were evaluated as to the level of risk to which we believe there were exposed to. Out of that evaluation, there are some few dozens of candidates who get special UNMIK police services. Of those, there are three who are considered as highest risk and they get more intense UNMIK police escorts and guarding of their premises and their offices.
Q: Do you know their names?
SM: I don’t think it is a good idea to give their names.