16 September
SRSG Michael Steiner
sent a letter congratulating Mr Crvenkovski on his victory in Sunday's
parliamentary elections in FyROM. In a telephone call to President Trajkovski
Mr Steiner said he had been impressed by the democratic way the polls
had been organised and by the calm and dignified behaviour of the voters.
17 September
UNMIK stated that the recent series of violent protests in Gracanica
was triggered by false reports in some Serbian media that the Pristina
Municipal Administrator had signed a document inviting 15 Albanian doctors
to work at the Gracanica Health House. In a press release UNMIK said
that such a document never existed, and no discussion of such a plan
has ever taken place. The protests began on Thursday, 5 September when
about 200 people, including former health workers, entered the Health
House and threw out its current Director.
19 September
A thorough investigation conducted by a team of 17 UNMIK personnel,
including 3 forensic experts from the Office on Missing Persons and
Forensics, concluded that Serbian media reports that a cemetery in Orahovac/Rahovac
may contain a mass grave of Kosovo Serbs killed after June 1999 are
completely unfounded. The Coordinating Centre for Kosovo (CCK) coordinator
for missing and kidnapped persons, Vesna Boskovic, witnessed the investigation.
20 September
Michael Steiner signed two important Administrative Directions,
"On Disconnection of Electricity Service" and "On the
Payment of Electricity Debts". The Direction "On Disconnection"
empowers the electricity corporation KEK to cut electricity supply to
customers for non-payment of bills, fraudulent acquisition or use of
electricity services, including theft, and wrongful refusal of access
to a representative of KEK to inspect electricity equipment or read
meters. The Direction "On the Payment of Electricity Debts"
provides for the repayment of debts incurred since 1 October 1999. The
repayment schedule will be variable for each customer with a minimum
period of three years. Special provision is made in both orders for
vulnerable groups and cases of genuine hardship.
21 September
The SRSG delivered a peace message on the occasion of the United
Nations Peace Day in which he urged Kosovans to reflect with pride on
the measure of safety and justice already brought to Kosovo. The SRSG
delivered his message at a multi-ethnic gathering of artists and dancers
at UNMIK Headquarters in Pristina shortly before ringing a peace bell
at about the same time as the UN Secretary General was doing the same
at UN Headquarters in New York and other UN representatives were striking
bells in others parts of the world. The peace bell was cast from coins
contributed by children on all continents and donated by Japan. Mr Steiner
said that "Kosovo is not an island; what happens here, for better
or worse, is an integral part of the struggle to make the Balkans, Europe
and the wider world safer and more just."
22 September
A planned mass return
to Kosovo by internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Serbia failed to
materialise following high-level negotiations between Belgrade and UNMIK.
The IDPs had planned to march across the boundary at Gates Three and
Five and block them in protest at the pace of initiatives allowing for
their return. UNMIK policy has always been that mass returns were against
the interest of the returnees and that returns should be organised from
the "bottom up".
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