UNMIK's Future Head in Pristina for briefing

SRSG designate Hans Haekkerup, in Pristina last week prior to formally assuming office as the Special Representative of the Secretary General, spent an intensive two days being briefed in detail on Kosovo's administrative, economic, humanitarian and political situation. By the time he returns on 15 January, he will have followed up the Kosovo discussions with visits to key capitals
  
No newcomer to the area, Mr. Haekkerup was hosted by outgoing  SRSG Dr. Bernard Kouchner who leaves on 13 January.
 
His discussions with UNMIK's political leaders, including Deputy SRSGs Tom Koenigs and Daan Everts, focussed on deve-lopments and challenges in local administration and municipal government.                

High-lights included the timing and general framework for general elections. The Office of Human Rights and Minority Affairs brought him up to date on the plight of missing and detained persons and the Mission's social welfare efforts on behalf of minority groups.
  
Deputy SRSG Andy Bearpark, Head of Reconstruction and Development, outlined the situation of trade, industry and reconstruction efforts. These include the developments and future of the Trepca complex, which remains the largest industrial enterprise in Kosovo. Its rehabilitation, the SRSG-designate learned, will have a considerable impact on Kosovo's longer-term economic prospects.
  
Haekkerup, who is well-known in NATO circles and has a strong military background-an ex-officer himself and Denmark's Defence Minister for most of the past decade-also met with the top KFOR commanders. They updated him on the situation in the Presevo valley and the progress of the Kosovo Protection Corps. A working dinner with police and judicial officials focussed on the "rule of law". In between, Mr Haekkerup acquainted himself with key departments within his own future office.
 
Although unable to fit in contacts with the media, the man who will shortly head up both the UN Mission and the Joint Interim Admini-stration is on record with several key statements. He fully agrees with his predecessor, Bernard Kouchner that, as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo will need years to overcome the horrors of war. "Hopefully we'll move to a situation where people can live amongst each other without violence," he told reporters shortly after his appointment  The path to recovery, he noted, would be to establish a provisional self-government to which departments from the interim administration would gradually be transferred. At some point, a provisional government had also to take responsibility for Kosovo's economy.

Depleted uranium, leukaemia and Kosovo

For once, Kosovo is hitting world headlines with a problem not of its own making: leukaemia and other cancers showing up in KFOR troops stationed here.

Are those levels significant? And if so, are they caused by residues from depleted uranium (DU) ammunition used by U.S. troops against Yugoslav tanks in the 1999 conflict? The jury is still out.

Is there any danger to the majority of Kosovo residents, including the temporary international residents? Almost certainly not: to be at risk, according to authorities on both sides of the argument, you have to eat it, breathe it or hold a piece of DU shrapnel in your hand, which would also have to have an open wound. That would mean you would have to be on the spot in an area in the south west of Kosovo, south of a line from Pejė/Peē through Gjakovė/Djakovica to Prizren, where most of the anti-tank weapons were used.

Certainly there is cause for concern. That is why UNMIK had to have information from NATO on where and how many DU shells were used, and why it invited a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) team of specialists in to investigate the problem last year.

As a result, we now know that American NATO forces fired 31,000 DU rounds in Kosovo. They also used between 10-20,000 such rounds in Bosnia, where most of those contracting cancer served. Together this dispersed 12 tons of uranium-a toxic metal as well as a mildly radioactive one-in the affected areas of former Yugoslavia. The amount compares to 300,000 tons used in the Gulf War.

UNEP's report on the analysis of 400 air, water, soil and weapons debris samples is expected in March.  Its preliminary findings, announced last November, showed that there was indeed some radiation at 8 of 11 sites visited-sampled from 112 sites indicated by NATO. Team leader, former Finnish environment minister Pekka Haavisto, described the levels as insignificant-"less risk than going to the dentist and having an X-ray."

Nevertheless, the team urged Kosovo residents to avoid places where these munitions were used. Reportedly, UNEP will recommend that the debris be removed, even though the radiation levels are low, and that the contaminated areas are fenced off in the meantime.

UNMIK, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the JIAS Department of Health and Social Welfare (DHSW) meanwhile continue to warn the public to avoid contact with armaments, shrapnel and other forms of weaponry. WHO's Kosovo office says that it has taken the issue of depleted uranium seriously but that its nuclear and health experts advised that DU exposure should not be ranked as a major public health concern.

Leukaemia specialists note that it takes years rather than months for the disease to develop. Consistent with that, there have been no reports of an increased number of patients with leukaemia in Kosovo hospitals since July 1999. WHO maintains that, although record-keeping here is not perfect, it would have noticed any significant increase in cancers such as leukaemia.

Nevertheless, DHSW, in close cooperation with WHO, has launched an investigation into the number of leukaemia patients in Kosovo and is interviewing doctors from the different district hospitals. Suspected leukaemia patients would normally be referred to the Pristina University Hospital-the only hospital in Kosovo with adequate facilities to diagnose the disease. UNMIK is now putting into place further mechanisms to increase its capacity to monitor any possible impact on the population all over Kosovo.

Further precautions may be taken as result of ongoing investigations by European governments with troops in Kosovo-if the levels of leukaemia and other cancers prove statistically significant. And if positive links are established with uranium residues from the use of DU weaponry.

Briefs . . . .

The JIAS Department of Democratic Governance and Civil Society will conduct an equal opportunity survey throughout the Joint Initerim Administration in two rounds, with the first round will be confined to JIAS employees and employers in Pristina. Based on the results and experiences, and amended survey will be used throughout Kosovo.

Planned renovation of temporary community shelters is nearing completion. They are about 75 per cent full, partly because of the mild weather for the time of year. Nevertheless work continues on contingency shelters that would be used for any overflow from the community shelters.

Staff from Centres for Social Work (CSWs) are being trained in management and in procedures to verify eligibility of social welfare beneficiaries. The management distribution of available power.  Meanwhile KEK is repairing Unit A1 at its own expense and may restart it before mid-January training for all CSW Directors and Finance Officers covers basic aspects of organizational development and financial management: leadership, teamwork, decision?making, monitoring, supervision and procurement using public funds. It is funded by the NGO Christian Relief Services.

UNMIK's Office of Gender Affairs (OGA) has begun promoting women's issues directly with women elected to the new municipal assemblies. The Office met recently with women elected to the Pristina Municipal Assembly to discuss strategies to ensure adequate representation of gender issues in all working aspects of the Pristina assembly.  It hopes to develop a sub?committee on gender issues where women representatives across party lines will develop mechanisms to ensure gender equity and budgetary allocation.

Preliminary employment data indicates that 43 per cent of the 200,788 Kosovars who were looking for jobs in November last year were women. Out of the 86,175 who were engaged in some form of job search throughout Kosovo, 27.3 per cent had secondary school education, 1.1 per cent had a high school education, 1.4 per cent went to university. The figures are from disaggregated data on unemployment in Kosovo being prepared by the OGA.

SRSG Bernard Kouchner extended the appointment of nearly all judges and prosecutors currently in post for a further three months ending 31 March. Six judges and one prosecutor were not extended. The Department of Judicial Affair has meanwhile investigated cases of some 20 judges and prosecutors for possible misconduct. They will be taken up by the Judicial Inspection Unit when its starts wor shortly.

The extensive space for offices in the Germia building in central Pristina is planned to house the Central Database and Processing Centre following renovations undertaken through a tender. The building is currently under UNMIK security following illegal renovations. Engineering assessments are under way to facilitate preparation of the tender.

It will be two to four weeks before Kosovo can rely on domestic power generation. Nearly all power currently consumed is imported from Bulgaria and Montenegro. At Kosovo B, the main supplier, Unit B2 (down because of a fire in the post-combustion grate) is expected to be back in operation in about 2 weeks time using parts cannibalized from B1. Repairs to the damaged switch board of B1 are under offer. Output from  Kosovo B is in any case constrained by a damaged transformer at the substation on the 400 KW line. Unit B2 will join A4, which has suffered boiler leaks. Unit A3 should also be ready by end January. Unit A5, however, is the subject of a major repair; A2 is permanently down. Until end-January, therefore, load shedding will occur whenever energy demand exceeds 590 MW, e.g. at times of peak demand (broadly from 8.00 am - 10.00 a.m. and from 7.00 p.m. - 10.00 p.m.).