23 September
Four international
forensic medicine specialists started work together in Pristina as a
board of examiners to oversee the recruitment of medical examiners for
the new Medical Examiners' Office (MEO). The MEO will act as the central
medico-legal authority for Kosovo and will employ both ethnic Albanian
and Serb forensic doctors. Eight medical examiners are to be hired.
A thorough assessment
by the Office on Missing Persons and Forensics (OMPF) and the UNMIK
Police Missing Persons Unit has determined that there is no mass grave
near the "Balkan" factory in Suva Reka. The team, led by an
OMPF forensic archaeologist, dug nine test trenches in a rubbish dump
behind the factory and found no evidence of human remains. OMPF was
acting on allegations made in August by Rada Trajkovic, a member of
the Coordination Centre for Kosovo and Metohija, to Serbian media that
a mass grave had been photographed and that pieces of clothing and other
samples had been taken for analysis and identification of bodies.
24 September
UNMIK Police arrested two senior public officials from the Pristina
Municipality Department for Cadastre Geodesy and Property on suspicion
of corruption. Investigators suspect that employees of the agency were
illegally transferring publicly- or socially-owned property to private
individuals. This information has been presented to an international
judge, who has authorised a search of the Cadastre agency and other
locations. The cadastral offices have been closed while the search is
carried out.
SRSG Michael Steiner visited two returns projects in the Gnjilane/Gjilan
region where displaced people are rebuilding houses and benefiting from
income-generating projects and other forms of support. In Stara Kolonija,
a former mining town in Novo Brdo municipality, work is underway to
return 23 displaced families - 18 Serb and five Albanians. Also in Gnjilan
municipality, the returns of 33 Kosovo Serb familiesand 10 Kosovo Albanian
families is now underway in two neighboring villages - Donje and Gornji
Makresh.
25 September
Michael Steiner visited Skenderaj/Srbica where a photo exhibition
of clothing and personal effects of unidentified human remains is ongoing
for families of missing persons. The clothing and personal items are
from remains found in a mass grave in Petrovo Selo, Serbia. The UNMIK
Office on Missing Persons and Forensics believes these remains may be
of victims of a mass killing in Izbice (Kosovo) in March 1999.
27 September
Jose-Pablo Baraybar, Head of the UNMIK Office on Missing Persons
and Forensics gave a press briefing in which he reviewed developments
in the identification of missing persons and other achievements in his
office. He talked about the distribution of medical certificates which
began on 29 July 2002 and exhumation, which has led to the recovery
of 4,500 bodies since 1999. Mr Baraybar said that more than 200 new
individual graves remain to be exhumed and that investigations could
yield another 100 bodies.
29 September
SRSG Steiner described his visit to Slovenia on 27-28 September
as one of the most successful he has made in the region so far. There
were meetings with Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek, Foreign Minister Dmitrij
Rupel, and Minister of Economy Tea Petrin as well as Borut Pahor, President
of the Parliament, and Jelko Kacin, Chair of the Assembly Committee
on Foreign Policy. The two parties signed an agreement in principle
on mutual recognition of vehicle insurance. Recognition of Kosovo licence
plates, and negotiations on investment protection agreements for Slovenia
and Kosovo were also discussed. Slovenia agreed to give export credit
guarantees through competent institutions for exports of goods to Kosovo.
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