UNMIK-KFOR-OSCE Press Briefing: 25 September 2000
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
KFOR Spokesman Major Steve
Shapell
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
UNHCR Spokeswoman Paula
Ghedini
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
SRSG Trip
SRSG Bernard Kouchner leaves for New York today to brief the Security Council on recent developments in Kosovo. He meets with Secretary-General Kofi Annan Wednesday morning, and with the Council at 3 in the afternoon in an open session. This is a regularly quarterly meeting during which the most recent report by the Secretary-General on Kosovo will be discussed. Copies of the SG's report are available in our office. On Thursday, Dr. Kouchner goes to Washington where he will meet with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Next weekend again in New York, he will participate in a "lessons learned' meeting on Kosovo and East Timor, along with Sergio Viera de Mello, the SRSG of the UN mission in East Timor. The session is chaired by Deputy Secretary General Frechette. Dr. Kouchner returns to Kosovo on Monday.
IAC
At tomorrow's meeting of the Interim Administrative Council, a
discussion of the FRY elections is on the agenda, as well as the draft
regulation on construction. Other draft regulations to be discussed are
one on the rules of procedure and evidence for the Housing and Property
Claims Commission and one on benefits for war invalids and the next of kin
of those who died as a result of the armed conflict.
They may also
discuss the introduction of the Euro in Kosovo.
Princess in town
Tomorrow, Her Royal Highness, Princess Lalla Meryem of Morrocco, will visit Kosovo. At 11 a.m. she will inaugurate the Elina Gjika school in Southern Mitrovcia. The school was refurbished by the Moroccan Civilian Society. She will also open a computer room and distribute school material and clothes. Later, In north Mitrovica, she will lay the first stone at a new social welfare center for women and children and distribute school materials, clothes and blankets.
KPS
Members of the Kosovo Police Service begin independent patrols and police operations as of today. Some 60 officers from Station #4 in Dardania and from Gracanica begin the transition to independent operations today. This transition is planned for one additional station a week for the next eight weeks. AT the end of this period, all stations in the Pristina region will have a significant amount of law enforcement provided by the Kosovo Police Service.
Youth to Italy
The Department of Youth has sent 30 secondary school students from Prizren to Florence Italy for a one week educational visit. Upon their return, on 1 October, Kosovo will be observing Youth Week, with the theme "Tolerance, No Violence," which will include a number of events such as projects, workshops, contests and sports events all designed to remind youth of the need to enhance tolerance and respect for human rights.
The Department of Youth co-heads will give a briefing on the activities of the department on Thursday at 10 a.m. here in room C301. This is the latest in the series of JIAS briefings we are holding every two weeks.
World bank conference etc.
The World Bank is holding a conference tomorrow and Wednesday at the Grand Hotel, called Kosovo-Economic and Social Reforms for Peace and Reconciliation." Participants from UNMIK, JIAS departments and from Kosovo society will discuss a World Bank report on the principal economic and social reform policy challenges facing Kosovo.….
KFOR Spokesman Major Steven R.
Shappell
Overall Security Situation in Kosovo
In a statement made earlier this morning, Lt. Gen. Juan Ortuño reflected on the current atmosphere in Kosovo.
"I am pleased to see that the overall security situation in Kosovo over the past day remained calm, and I thank all the people of Kosovo for their good judgement and restraint. Their behavior and KFOR's coordinated presence throughout Kosovo pre-empted any unrest. I believe this truly shows the maturity of all the peoples of Kosovo."
Possible Kidnapping
Last night in Multinational Brigade West, a car was stopped by KFOR soldiers at a Task Force Falco checkpoint. The car contained two adults and seven Roma children. UNMIK Police and Italian Military Police arrested the adults on kidnapping charges. Later, a Task Force Falco patrol returned the children to their parents in Gjakove / Djakovica. UNMIK Police is investigating.
Grenade Explosion
Early last night in Multinational Brigade Centre, it was reported to KFOR that a handgrenade exploded in the parking lot of the Serbia Hotel in Fushe Kosove / Kosovo Polje. No injuries or property damage were reported in connection with the explosion. UNMIK Police is investigating.
Media Opportunity
Members of the media will have the opportunity Tuesday 26th to film
a
combined U.S. and Russian exercise aimed at improving
interoperability of
forces. Ground troops, artillery, attack and
medical evacuation helicopters
from both nations will be employed in a
combined arms training exercise.
Media wishing to attend should contact Task Force Falcon Public
Affairs
Office at Camp Bondsteel or Staff Sgt. McGuire at the KFOR
Press Information
Center. An Albanian translator will be
available for the event. Valid KFOR
press passes are
required. Members of the media are asked to report to Gate
1 at
Camp Bondsteel no later than 6:30 a.m., or Gate 1 at Camp Monteith
no
later than 8:00 a.m. for bus transportation to the event.
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
On Kosovo’s upcoming municipal elections we have had the political entities to file their first financial disclosure report. This is made available to you – you see that a lot of parties dispose of no funding what so ever. According to their statements the parties have disclosed that they were in debts and other parties have some assets and cash in hand. This is made available to you so that you can go out and check this with the campaign activities, so that you can judge for yourselves if the campaign activities do correspond with these figures.
This afternoon ambassador Dan Everts will meet the Political Party Consultative Forum. Three topics are on the agenda: one is party finance, financial support which is of course to be seen against this financial disclosure that I just talked to you about. Then the provisional voters’ list and the clean-up process of the provisional voters’ list will be on the agenda, and the conditional ballot process will be discussed and explained to parties this afternoon.
Tomorrow we will invite you to a presentation about “20 What if-scenarios”. What if a voter has no blue registration slip; what happens if the name is not on the voters’ list; and what happens if a voter turns up on the wrong polling station. About 20 of those will be explained to you tomorrow at our regular background briefing at 10 o’clock.
Questions:
Q: On the financial disclosure: Is the OSCE conducting checks on information that you receive, and how do you check that – do you send teams out to (..) offices and check the receipts?
RB: Yes, we do checks, but as I stressed we shouldn’t be alone in this. It is a task which also has its side with the general public and especially the media, so scrutinizing the activities that are going on against the financial disclosures is a double task. We do checks and we also understand that this procedure is entirely new. We also have learned that some parties simply are lagging a little bit behind. I don’t think that is necessarily of ill will. It’s probably just that the procedures are not known enough.
Q: The Times ran a story this morning that there was a stream of Muslim refugees from Montenegro into Kosovo. Is that true? Do you have any numbers?
PG: So far over the weekend there were approximately 200-400 persons from Montenegro of mixed ethnic origin: there were some that were Bosniacs, some ethnic Albanians, but also some displaced Kosovars who were currently residing in Montenegro. Most of them have come along in private vehicles and have indicated that they are here for a short visit. This is their terminology. I think they have described the situation in Montenegro as very seriously tense right now and the area they predominantly came from, Mos Borane and Usinj, and what they were saying was that the increase in the number of MUP and Yugoslav Army forces have caused them to leave the area temporarily to see whether or not things are going to escalate, and if indications show that the situation is calm, they said that they would return almost immediately.
Q: According to the BBC Belgrade during the night issued the turns from the elections in Kosovo. It showed that Mr. Milosevic had won by a small majority. What seemed interesting was that the figures more or less corresponded with the figures Dr. Kouchner gave us yesterday. That would seem to mean that Milosevic is not going to manipulate this vote. He has lost the opportunity to claim hundreds of thousands of people in Kosovo voting for his party. Do you have any comment on that?
SM: I didn’t see that report, but it would indicate that our witnessing operation was then successful, because the whole point of it was to simply watch numbers of people to establish a maximum possible number of voters, and in order verify or possibly refute any exaggeration that may have happened. It sound like that didn’t happen, so I guess we can call our operation a success then.
Q: Recently we have had four cases of UNMIK employees who made some disciplinary faults, for example two Americans who took short cut into Serbia and got arrested. What disciplinary measures is UNMIK taking against their own employees?
SM: There has been a very strong reaction to anyone who quote unquote getting lost across the border. We have looked into how to dismiss people, but that is very difficult to do. I don’t know about the last couple of cases, but sometimes people have actually gotten lost. We have put out strict instructions to people to carry maps, they are not to cross the border knowingly unless they are on official business. It’s being taken very seriously.
Q: I know that UNMIK issued, when the two Britons and two OSCE employees got arrested in Montenegro although advised not to go to Serbia or Montenegro. We have information that these two Americans had been warned by American soldiers in what direction Serbia was.
SM: I have never heard that, but I know they were trying to avoid some kind of blockage of the Blace border. I didn’t know that they knew that they went into Serbia.
Q: Major, can you tell us anything about the fighting that has occurred yesterday in the Presevo Valley – starting from nine in the morning to late last night. What is your information on that?
SS: As a matter of policy we don’t comment on matters in the Presevo Valley.
Q: But you clearly commented on the Presevo Valley a few weeks ago. Then you said that the UCPMB were provoking the Yugoslav forces. Then it was quite a long statement from KFOR. Why can’t you comment now on the Presevo Valley, which, according to Kosova Press – Albanian News Agency says, this happened only one kilometre from the Kosovo boundary to Serbia?
SS: Our policy is that we don’t comment on matters in the Presevo Valley.
Q: Could you tell us what KFOR, or specifically the US forces’ policy towards any UCPMB activity inside Kosovo? Men in arms crossing borders, coming back dropping of the wounded to local hospitals. As it happened in the last incident there were actually three bodies delivered into Kosovo. These bodies couldn’t just have carried themselves over the border.
SS: I don’t have any information about the particular bodies, but KFOR’s policy is that we provide a safe and secure environment in Kosovo, and we won’t tolerate hostile acts against UN civilians and use whatever force necessary. That’s our policy.
Q: But are you aware that there is a very strong possibility that there is an armed group active inside Kosovo, although they may not be doing anything towards the local civilians that they are active from Kosovo into the demilitarized zone inside Serbia?
SS: If we encounter hostile acts we will take whatever measures necessary to deal with them if they are inside Kosovo.
Q: What kind of measures has KFOR taken to prevent any violation of the Ground Safety Zone by the Yugoslav authorities, army or police?
SS: What happens in the Ground Safety Zone we are not going to talk about. As far as inside Kosovo I can only repeat myself saying hostile acts will be dealt with whatever force necessary.
Q: Do you have any wounded UCPMB soldiers in US run hospitals at Camp Bondsteel?
SS: I’m not aware of any. You might want to ask Camp Bondsteel Public Affairs Office.
Q: Has there been a stream of refugees coming from Presevo valley in the last 24-48 hours?
PG: I wouldn’t qualify this as a stream of refugees. They are not coming here asking for any assistance or asylum. What they are doing is temporarily visiting mainly friends and family. We saw this before last year from the Presevo valley area where people would come across when there were specific incidents, stay for a few days if not a few weeks and then return home. We have not seen any people coming in the recent days from Presevo valley. There were a few that came two weeks ago when there were the incidents in Dobrosin, but even with incidents that occurred last week we did not see any people coming across. We have spoken to people that are on the daily bus routes, and they have indicated that the situation in the villages is acceptable for the time being, and that they don’t have any plans to leave especially for the winter. From Montenegro again, I would say it is 200-300, 400 people at the most over the weekend, and they are saying that this is a temporarily visit.
Q: You said the situation is acceptable. Is that the person you talked to 24 hours ago or previously?
PG: The people that were coming from the Dobrosin area two weeks ago indicated that the situation was normal. Those who are coming from Montenegro, as I said earlier, indicating that the escalation and tension there is the reason that they have left, and they have left because of the fear of what might happen, not anything that actually has happened already.
Q: You have your people in Peja region, and you should report information about what had happened yesterday in Montenegro. What could you do if the wave of the refugees or people shortly visiting Kosova had been a little bit more significant?
SM: We certainly wouldn’t turn any people back.