UNMIK-KFOR-EU Press Briefing: 26 July 2000
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan
Manuel
KFOR Spokesman Major Scott Slaten
Acting Director of Pillar
IV, Alan Pearson
Co-head of the Department of Reconstruction Steve
Lawerne
Co-head for Public Utilities, Joan Pearce
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan
Manuel
Good Morning
Mr Alan Pearson, acting director, Pillar IV, will speak after the normal briefing on developments with the Kosovo Power Company (KEK). He will be followed by Steve Lewarne, co-head of the department of Reconstruction, who has an announcement.
Turkey
SRSG
Bernard Kouchner will fly to Ankara, Turkey on Sunday 30 July for a
meeting on Monday with the Foreign Minister Ismael Cem to discuss minority
issues, the Turkish language question and the participation of the Turkish
community in Kosovo-elections
Today UNMIK political officers are meeting with Turkish community leaders in Prizren to review once again their concerns about the language issue. These leaders will probably meet with Mr. Kouchner before he leaves for Ankara.
Arlie house
Dr. Kouchner welcomed with great
enthusiams the platform issued from the Arlie House conference in
Washington over the past week and he is looking forward to the return of
the political party leaders and others as he says he believes they will be
working with a renewed spirit of cooperation.
.
OSCE
The acting
temporary media commisioner Mr. Douglas Davidson has noted that in
response to his warning given the magazine Kosovarja, the magazine editor
has written an apology and a promise not to repeat its mistake. Mr.
Davidson commends Kosovarja for its quick action and has decided that no
action will be taken against the publication.
Courts
From the Gnjilane District court,
Judge Ante Ruotsalainen has ordered the release of Afrim Zequiri. He was
the principle suspect in the murder of three Serbs including a
four-year-old child, in Cernica in early June. Prosecutor Sabit Maliqi
recommended the release based on insufficient grounds to indict him for
the crime.
As many have reported, the international judge Patrice de Charette of the Gnjilane Court has recessed the Momcilovic trial until 7 August. The prosecutor has asked for more evidence to be submitted, and other trials were scheduled for the same court over the next few days, and that’s the reason for the delay.
Department of Democratic Governance
Last
week the administrative Department of Democratic Governance and Civil
Society was officially established by UNMIK regulation, bringing the
number of departments under the JIAS now legally established to 14.
This department comes under the auspices of the
OSCE pillar. Its co-heads Vjosa Dobruna and Robert Pulver have already
been working for several weeks. Their role is to encourage public
participation in society and minority reintegration. They act as monitors
and advisors in the drafting of regulations to ensure they comply with
international human rights standards and democratic
principles.
Mitrovica
There have been a few incidents in
Mitrovica lately with another UNMIK police officer's residence burgled.
Two other Serbs were arrested in connection with reports of an attempted
expulsion of a Kosovo Albanian from her apartment.
KFOR Spokesman Major Scott
Slaten
Woman Killed by Hit and Run
KFOR MNB Centre
soldiers, travelling through MNB East just after midnight, found a young
woman lying on the side of the road three and a half kilometres north of
the town of Ferizaj / Urosevac.
The soldiers immediately provided first aid to the woman and called for a medical evacuation helicopter. After landing near the scene, the KFOR medical specialists began cardiac pulmonary reanimation of the woman after her heart had stopped.
While continuing to work to save her life, the team transported her to the Camp Bondsteel Medical Facility. Unfortunately, the woman died upon arrival at the camp. A preliminary investigation showed that she had suffered severe internal injuries, abrasions and a head injury.
Investigators believe she was a victim of a hit and run accident while walking alongside the road. The woman is described as being in her 20’s and her identification and ethnicity are currently unknown. No suspects have been identified at this time. UNMIK Police is continuing to investigate.
Man Bared from Mitrovica
Yesterday morning,
KFOR French soldiers detained a drunken Kosovo Serb man who kicked a KFOR
soldier at a northern Mitrovice / Mitrovica checkpoint. A civilian police
patrol was dispatched to the checkpoint and arrested the man, who was then
transported to the northern Mitrovice / Mitrovica Police Station.
General Sublet, commander of MNB North, has decided to bar the man from Mitrovica for the period of two weeks. The decision was given to the man in a written document in the presence of members of the KFOR French Gendarmerie and UNMIK Police. If the man is seen in Mitrovica during this period he will be arrested and transported to the detention facility for additional charges.
Smugglers Apprehended
Yesterday morning, a
patrol assigned to KFOR Italian Task Force Falco, six kilometres south of
the town of Djakovica / Gjakove stopped a truck coming from the Prusit
border check point with expired documents and carrying 200 boxes of
cigarettes valued at over DM 80,000.
Three men were arrested and
transported to the Pec prison by the Italian Military Police after they
could not produce proper documents. The truck and cargo were confiscated
and are now under the control of Italian Military Police.
House Burned
Yesterday morning, KFOR MNB
Centre headquarters reported that a Kosovo Serb home was completely
destroyed by fire in the town of Fushe Kosove / Kosovo Polje.
Preliminary investigation states the front door of the house appears to
have been forced open and the beds set on fire. The local Kosovar Albanian
fire-fighting unit was tasked with extinguishing the blaze, but was
refused access by the two Kosovo Serb owners of the house. As a result the
structure burned to the ground. There were no injuries reported as a
result of the fire. UNMIK is continuing to investigate.
Medical Assistance
KFOR Moroccan Medical
Battalion eye specialists assigned to MNB North completed a medical
campaign yesterday to combat eye disease. The focus of the campaign was to
treat patients suffering from cataracts. Thirty people received surgical
treatment at the KFOR Moroccan hospital and are expected to regain their
sight. Another similar operation will be conducted in two
months.
Acting Director of Pillar IV, Alan
Pearson
This morning I thought it was useful in the lines of earlier comments relating to KEK to bring to your attention the press release you will find outside regarding the restructuring of the KEK management. This process of restructuring has in fact been underway and worked towards for some time, and combinated on Monday with Dr. Kouchner formally appointing the new directors. The restructuring, I must stress, has been at the forefront of their efforts to look to KEK to become a commercial activity. The commercial approach that is necessary relates to balancing the importance of production activities along with other financial management sides including with bill collections. The objective of this, of course, is to look at a financial sustainable part the KEK in to the future. We are working with donors that for the present time for the major reconstruction efforts.
The board that we have put in place is much smaller than the previous board. As I said it balances these aspects of production with commercial activity, and we expect from this that there will be much more streamline decision-making processes which was not possible with the old board. In this sense we are looking and expect the new board to react quite differently to the situation in a way that the old board simply was not able to do. This is the major issue in putting a commercial operation in place. The second thing I’d like to mention briefly is the winter programme for the provision of electricity throughout the winter. We have been working for some time now developing this programme, and the final details are being set up this week, and we will have a major presentation on Friday that sets out what we intend to do for the next 6-12 months to ensure electricity in winter. This again is of course a combination of activities between KEK and the donor community, and is an important exercise in working with them. I will mention that the first debate in this programme will probably take place early in August with the closure of B 2 for substantial work – again donor financed.
Co-head of the Department of
Reconstruction Steve Lawerne
I’d like to inform this group about the participation between the Department of Reconstruction, the EU Pillar, SHAPE (Supreme Allied Commanders’ Headquarters in Europe) for the reconstruction effort in Kosovo. We are in the process now of formulating long-term public investment programmes for each of the JIAS-departments.
We are also in the process of putting together a consolidated budget; one portion which is the capital side, and in particular the capital reconstruction side for the entire country. In order to enhance our capabilities of that, General Ortuno meet with Mr. Solana in Pristina and underlined his personal commitment to ensure that NATO contributed as full as possible in the reconstruction through the cooperation with the EU-pillar. In Brussels, SHAPE and in coordination with the European nations developed this into an operational concept. This was agreed between EU and SHAPE in Brussels and Pristina after several rounds of discussion and proper consideration. It has very quickly become reality which is going to benefit KFOR and the EU pillar of course, but above all it will benefit to the reconstruction and the capital reconstruction programme for Kosovo.
The process of the economic development and the
reconstruction of Kosovo is ongoing, and we have committed to enhance – by
joining the department of reconstruction. In order to assist with a
continual economic development and reconstruction, the Kosovo Development
Group will provide an instruction mechanism to assist the flow of
international donors funding.
The goals of the Kosovo Development
Group is to
· Identify the most present needs in terms of
investment and costs
· Planning resource allocation and guiding
donor interests and funding
· Promoting reconstruction and
development in the field in coordination with the local
administrators
· Elimination --- of efforts
Therefore lowering the risk of mismanaging
resources committed to army and the international community.
The
Kosovo Development Group will consist of five Kosovo Development cells,
centred in Gnjilane, Prizren, Peya. Mitrovica and Pristina. A central
regulation cell will also be located in Pristina. The groups are totally
integrated into the existing
European Union Pillar --. The groups will
consist of three officers and one interpreter. The coordination cell in
Pristina will be manned by two officers and one uncommisioned officer. The
officers have already met with the regional officers on July 21, and their
initial deployment will be for six months. KDG-personnel will wear
civilian clothes and will not carry weapons while working with UNMIK.
Questions.
Q: Following the donor funds and the work on B2, can the people of Kosovo be absolutely sure that the power supply this winter will be substantially better than the last one?
AP: We can’t give absolute guarantees on electricity. We are starting early enough to put every possible action in place to assure the best possibility of having a continuous supply of electricity.
Q: Is there any substantial concern that the power supply this coming winter might actually be substantially worse?
AP: No. The word substantially worse will not enter in our dialogue on that.
Q: We are not going to surprised by an announcement in October/November that the situation is going to much worse than we actually thought?
AP: We would be surprised.
Q: Why start the work on Kosovo B in August, couldn’t it be possible to start earlier?
JP: The work depend on very substantial donor funding. It’s therefore necessary to go through special procedures to spend the money correctly. It would be irresponsible in part of the donors to award a contract to the first company who came around and claimed they were able to perform the work. The contract was awarded in the end of June. (..)I think the money was awarded in March.
Q: Could you tell me a bit more about the German company that was expected to be involved in the reconstruction, and that dropped out of the process and made people surprised?
JP: Are you talking about KAW (?). They haven’t dropped out. They had planned to do some work on unit 5 on Kosovo A. Preparatory inspections in early June showed that the amount of dust needed to be cleaned out of the unit was 1,000 tons, not 100 tons as first stipulated. There were also many more leaks in the boiler than the estimated 5 – they eventually 95. This meant the amount of money to repair that unit would be perhaps 3-4 times greater than had initially been committed by the German government. It also was not clear if the unit could be safely repaired in time for this winter. A meeting if Frankfurt gave the option on the one hand increase the amount of money from the German government, and the other hand not to use it for the intended purpose, but rather to prepare to provide some spare parts for Unit 3 and 4, that would enable them to function at a higher level than otherwise would be the case. A decision will be taken by the German government in the following days.
Q: Do Susan or Scott have any information on the LDK –representative who has apparently been kidnapped in Istok?
SM: According to UNMIK Police he did not return home, but they are not calling it a kidnapping.
SS: I have no information on that.
Q: Could you explain Scott under what authority General Sublet, can expel somebody from Mitrovica, and does this man actually live in Mitrovica?
SS: From what I understand this comes under UNMIK regulation 2.
SM: We have a regulation which allows us to expel or detain people who UNMIK Police or KFOR believe will impose a significant threat to public order.
SS: I am not sure where the man is originally from.
Q: Does this mean that you can expel people from their home (if they come from Mitrovica)?
SM: (..) This is a regulation from last year. (..) We believe that people need to be away for a while to preserve public order.
Q: What are Susan’s comments to this declaration in Washington that was signed, a pact for non-violence? Comments on the SNC in Mitrovica’s reaction on this pact, who are calling the Serb representatives (in Washington) for illegitimate.
SM: We have just seen the media reports, and the statements were very good and positive and should contribute to the working relationships when they get back. I can’t comment on what the SNC said. We haven’t seen the details of it.
Q: Yesterday there was an anti-registration demonstration in Leposavic. Have these people requested for permission to do this?
SM: The registration ended last week. Generally you need permission to protest. I haven’t heard of this demonstration.
Q: Is the man that was expelled from Mitrovica the same man who was described as a bridge watcher in the police report?
SM: We think he was a bridge watcher, yes.
SS: I don’t have any information on that.
Q: If Serbs want an extra opportunity to registrate, either this year or next year, what will UNMIK do then?
SM: If you are talking about post-elections, we haven’t made any plans for that. But you can see that MR. Kouchner is making overtures with the Turk community. I think that if there is a significant political indication from the communities, then maybe there is some option. But we are talking about pre-election.
Q: Is it much cheaper to import electricity, or to build a hydro popwer plant in Kosovo?
JP: There is no way that a power plant could be constructed, it requires long planning. There has to be a mixture of import and domestic generation.
Q: There have been the fires in the coal here. What do you intend to do about it?
: The main preventiveness is to improve the daily management, and that is something that we are working on.
Q: (..) In brief: When can we expect General Sublet to do anything about clamping down on the bridge watchers?
SS: I’m scheduled to meet him this week, and I can bring that question to him.
Q: I am asking the question raised last Friday, that was specific measures that you’d be taking against bridge watchers, most specific activities they’d no longer be allow to partaken. I thought you’d ask this question when you see General Sublet.
SS: Ok. However, right now they are not currently doing anything that can be considered as illegal. Once they do something that is considered as illegal, then they will be apprehended or arrested. As you know most of these issues involving bridge watchers recently have been brought up in the press for other unrelated corps(??? ?) not related to setting on the bridge and reporting what they see. It’s usually for assaults or some other type of corps.
Q: Just to follow-up on this. Scott, you were saying that they were not doing anything illegal. Then, why this person was punished/expelled from Mitrovica?
SS: No, you made the connection with the bridge watchers. I never mentioned the fact that he was a bridge watchers. I have no information on this. My information states exactly what is in the press release and what I wrote. The man was expelled because of an assault against KFOR soldiers that was determined by the Commander. This was the punishment to be handed out to this man for this reason. I don’t have any more information on it.
Q: Can we expect any action from you about all these bridge watchers?
SS: Once again, this has nothing to do with the
fact that the man is associated with the bridge watchers, nothing
whatsoever. It has to do with other
incidents.