"People of Kosovo, you have made me proud. You voted peacefully, with dignity, and tolerance and hope for the future," SRSG Bernard Kouchner announced late Saturday evening at the end of Kosovo's first post-conflict election day. "I can safely say that Kosovo has joined the world of democracy," added Daan Everts, Deputy SRSG and Head of the OSCE mission, the UNMIK arm mainly responsible for organizing the election

The official international observer organization, the Council of Europe Observation Mission (see also below) broadly agreed: "The election seems to have been carried out in accordance with international standards of democracy."

Full of praise for voters, Kouchner said there was a massive turnout, no violence, no provocations... a wonderful, positive spirit.. a fitting response to critics abroad [who had warned against elections so soon after the war]. "The people of Kosovo have taken responsibility for building their own freedom," he concluded.

Although elections are not over until the people accept the  results (candidates especially), first international reactions to Saturday's municipal elections were also universally positive. Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, praised the massive turnout and lack of violence. This illustrates, he said, that in future the people of Kosovo want to live in a democracy. British Foreign Minister Robin Cook said: "This sends a clear message that Kosovo is making further progress towards democracy and tolerance. The international community looks forward to working with the newly elected members of municipal authorities in rebuilding Kosovo". Belgrade, in contrast, dismissed the whole exercise, saying the elections were mono-ethnic and ran contrary to the objectives and responsibilities of the international community under Security Council resolution 1244.

Commenting on non-participation of Kosovo Serbs, SRSG Kouchner regretted their absence. "It was their choice not to participate... but it was a choice made under pressure of the old Milosevic regime", he said recalling Belgrade-organized voter registration boycott. This would be put right, Kouchner announced, by naming representative Serbs to the new Municipal Assemblies and with by-elections in municipalities where Kosovo Serbs are in the majority

The only voting problems, Dr. Kouchner pointed out, were problems of success. High turnout in the early hours coupled with administrative problems at some centres caused long queues to develop. At the end of the day, the last polling station (in Pristina) closed well after midnight. Counting in general began half an hour after the last voter was processed and continued, in the case of Pejė/Pec until dawn, OSCE reported.

Ballot boxes and results forms from the polling stations began arriving at the Central Counting and Results Centre at 5:00 a.m. Sunday. They joined ballots cast under the Special Needs Voting Programme and the Out-Of-Kosovo mail-in ballots that arrived from Vienna the previous day. An announcement on voting trends was expected during Monday (30 October). Official results, which will include all acceptable conditional ballots, will allocate Kosovo's first Municipal Assembly seats to candidates in a week to ten days.

The Interim Administrative Council has named Nait Babuna, an economist from the Kosovo Turk community, as Co-Head of the Department of Transport and Infrastructure. The UNMIK co-head will be Patrick Auffret, who was the acting head of transportation for UNMIK Civil Administration. With these appointments, all 40 Co-Heads have been named for the JIAS 20 administrative departments.

Kosovo's second resource centre for information on missing and detained people was opened by SRSG Bernard Kouchner in Gracanica on 27 October. The first such centre had been inaugurated in Pristina on 12 October. Located in the municipal building, the Gracanica Centre will be open to the public every Tuesday and Friday, from 10.00 to 14.00 hours. On other days, a mobile team will cover other Serb communities throughout Kosovo.

Some tertiary care services, such as liver transplantations, will not be performed in Kosovo, given the relatively small size of its population and economic viability. Instead, the Department of Health and Social Welfare is developing regional arrangements for such services. Initially, the Military Hospital in Skopje will perform cardiovascular surgery that is currently not possible in Kosovo, but medical staff from the Pristina University Hospital will participate in the actual operations. At a later stage, operational capacities will be developed in Pristina.

Democracy and human rights will be taught in primary schools. Training of some 120 teachers has started at the Teacher Training College in Gjakove/Dakovica. This will will impact on more than 5,000 primary school students in the Pejė/Pec region

Scholarships for 40 students of the Pristina University are being sponsored by the Department of Youth. Their selection involved merit assessment, academic excellence, financial status and a written essay about the main problems of youth in Kosovo. Approximately half of those selected are female. Each student will receive DM 100 per month for accommodation and food. In exchange, beneficiaries will be required to volunteer four hours of community service each week.

Kosovo Vera Vintage, Kosovo's wine company, has landed the first major contract for export of wine since the end of the war-1,590,000 litres of Merlot '97 to Japan and Germany.

Mitrovica is to have a new Regional Administrator.
Anthony Welch, a retired British Army Brigadier, replaces William L. Nash of the United States, the longest-serving head for Mitrovica, who is returning to his position at the National Democratic Institute for Foreign Affairs in Washington, D.C. When Brigadier Welch takes up his post in mid-November, he will have behind him more than five years' experience of work in the Balkans for various international organizations.

New traffic laws now applying throughout Kosovo include penalties for not wearing seat belts, improper passing, abusing signaling devices such as car horns. Police may issue two types of tickets. Drivers can pay for minor offenses, ranging from DM 50 to 80, at their local municipality. Tickets for serious offenses will require the offender to appear in court, where judges can levy fines exceeding DM 100 or sentence the offender to jail.

About DM 20 million in capital investment will be needed in 2001 for Kosovo's railway sector, of which DM 6 million are in high priority areas, according to the Department of Transport and Infrastructure. The estimate covers infrastructure, rolling stock, signaling and telecommunication equipment, loading/unloading facilities, technical assistance and training.

Municipalities will have local experts in agricultural and rural development, according to a proposal prepared by the Department of Agriculture. The Department will place one of its own staff into each municipality to provide assistance and cooperation in these fields

All employees of the JIAS Departments will soon get ID cards. Every Department has a specially designed template and each employee has a unique ID number which is fed into the payroll system. The JIAS ID Cards Production Unit has so far produced about 2,000 such cards. Some 1,500 employees of the Department of Judicial Affairs have already been issued with ID cards, including 500 staff of the Kosovo Correctional Service.