Deliberations that will shape the Provisional Self-Government planned to come into effect after the Kosovo-wide elections expected this year moved outside UNMIK last week as the Joint Working Group on the  Legal Framework held its first two sessions.

The Group, which is tasked with drafting the regulations that will form the Framework's backbone, reviewed an UNMIK working paper together with a series of key principles on which drafting of the final text of the framework could be based-inputs submitted by the Group's Kosovo Albanian and Bosniac members. The Group also considered how its own consultations would proceed.

However, the work to elaborate the Legal Framework has had to proceed in the absence of the Kosovo Serb member, to the regret of Johan van Lamoen, the Dutch legal expert appointed by SRSG Hans Haekkerup to chair the Working Group. Calling for swift resumption of the Kosovo Serb community in the Group, van Lamoen urges that its membership reflect the diversity  of Kosovo's communities.

Reporting on discussions so far, van Lamoen said they centred on issues such as the structure of parliamentary democracy, the importance of provisions designed to enshrine respect for human rights, and protection for all of Kosovo's communities.

All members of the Joint Working Group accept that the Legal Framework itself should in no way prejudge issues of the final status of Kosovo, as stipulated in  Security Council Resolution 1244.

Members of the Interim Administrative Council (IAC) earlier welcomed the beginning of the joint consultations and endorsed the efforts of the Working Group. Recognizing that a date for Kosovo-wide elections could not be set until the Legal Framework is defined, the Council hoped for swift completion. The IAC PDK representative, Hashim Thaçi noted subsequently that joint consultations represented progress, and that Kosovo would have a legal framework in accordance with the "new conditions and reality". Calling for a general Kosovar debate on the framework, Thaçi commented that the final outcome depended on how active the Group proved to be.

SRSG Hans Haekkerup is encouraging all IAC members to provide their own political input into the consultations. He also stresses, however, that the Legal Framework would establish provisional self-government inside the parameters set out in Resolution 1244-it would not be a constitution.

Haekkerup underlines that UNMIK's input to the working group, the working paper in the form of a draft framework, is the starting point-but one of many contributions to the process. UNMIK fully expects, and indeed encourages, all members of the Joint Working Group to bring their own inputs to the table.

The Group itself feels that the first step should be to reach an agreement on a set of basic principles which would respect  Resolution 1244 and the powers of the SRSG.  Members also note that any final texts should be a joint product and should set out the political structures of a pluralistic and democratic society.

After the Group's inaugural session, Chairman van Lamoen told UNMIK TV that key issues were the nature and structure of the provisional institutions to be established after the elections. These would include the composition of  an Assembly and an Executive, together with the functions and responsibilities that would be transferred to them by the SRSG. In addition, "the people of Kosovo will & at least partly own the process-because we do it hand in hand with the representatives of the people of Kosovo". 

Van Lamoen, who is an expert in transitional arrangements, has worked with the United Nations mission in East Timor and has done similar work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, hopes to complete the final draft by end-March or early April.

Kosovar Albanian Detainees Released from Serbia

The nearly 150 Kosovo Albanian prisoners released from Serbian prisons this week constitute less than a quarter of total detained in Serbia, according to estimates by UNMIK's Office of Human Rights and Community Affairs (OHRCA).  Altogether, 217 are likely to be released under recent FRY and Serbian amnesty legislation designed to free, respectively, offenders against the state and those guilty of criminal activities.

The FRY amnesty law applies only to prisoners convicted under Article 136 covering "seditious conspiracy against the constitutional order." Cases tried under Article 125 for "terrorism," like the 143 men comprising the "Djakova Group," do not fall under its purview.  However, an appeal has been filed in the FRY Supreme Court, and the Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC), Belgrade, hopes those detainees will also be released in the next few weeks.  The recent selection of Leposava Karamarkovic, the first liberal appointee, as head of the Supreme Court, together with other nominations expected in the near future, could presage a more liberal orientation for the Court, hitherto dominated by Milosevic-era judges. This may result in a favourable review of the so-called "terrorist" cases, according to Natasha Rasic, HCL's, Staff Attorney.

For those coming home, the process is also by no means instantaneous. Although the long-awaited FRY law says the prisoners must be released within 72 hours of its publication in the Official Gazette, local courts have first to review each case to see if the amnesty law applies. And, the reality on the ground - the paucity of officials in the courts - means that this time-frame cannot be strictly adhered to, says Rasic. 

In the three days after the Amnesty Law was published on 5 March, only few detainees arrived from the smaller district courts, which have lighter caseloads. Not until 9 March, after a number of courts had been in session, was there a large-scale release of 99 from several detention centres.

Briefs. . . .

The Public Utilities Department has warned that power supplies will remain fragile through to at least the end of March because of insufficient coal production for Kosovo A. If the plant will not be able to produce energy in the immediate future, there will be massive load shedding in Kosovo. Adding to power difficulties, long-planned tests of networks in Bulgaria will mean interrupted supplies to its neighbours.