A delegation from the Committee of Former Detainees has urged SRSG Hans Haekkerup to do all he could to ensure the quick release and return of some 245 Kosovo Albanians remaining in Serbian prisons. Mr Haekkerup told the four-person delegation that he had once again raised the issue of detainees and missing persons when he was in Belgrade last time. During his tenure as head of UNMIK, several hundred detainees had been released. Of those who remain incarcerated, some were political prisoners and others had been sentenced as common criminals. According to Belgrade officials, the political prisoners were being processed by the Serbian judicial system and the cases should be finalized soon.  The SRSG had proposed that the common criminals be returned to Kosovo for a review of their cases, and if appropriate they would serve the rest of their sentences here. Belgrade authorities expressed readiness to consider the proposal. As for the missing, some 3,600 persons-mostly Kosovo Albanians, but also more than 1,000 Kosovo Serbs and people from other ethnic communities-were unaccounted for. Mr Haekkerup expressed hope that some light might be shed when DNA testing on unidentified remanis begins.

The Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) has carried out its first two evictions. Both were executed in the Obiliq/Obilic Municipality with the assistance of UNMIK Police and KFOR, without resistance from the illegal occupants. The apartments were then allocated by HPD to families needing temporary accommodation on humanitarian grounds. One was given to a widower with five children for a six-month period, which can be extended. The second was also allocated to a family in need after first being rejected by another applicant. HPD, which plans further evictions, sees them as a necessary step to regularize the housing sector. A decision to evict someone is based on the result of careful verification and evaluation of all available facts in each individual case. All illegal occupants, when evicted, have either alternative housing or financial means to rent or buy alternative accommodation.

Fire services are benefiting from a surge of donor interest mobilized by the Department of Civil Security and Emergency Preparedness. The Somerset Fire Brigade in the United Kingdom sent three engines which have already been equipped. Next month French KFOR will begin refurbishing the Mitrovica-South Fire Station at its own expense. The Municipality of Vushtrri/Vucitrn has received a donation of 80,000 euros to build a fire station. In addition, United States KFOR will donate two fire engines to Gjilan/Gnjilane and Ferizaj/Urosevac. The City of Barcelona will donate two more engines to the Department.

UNMIK's attention to several deficiencies in the legislative process is being recommended by the Department of Democratic Governance and Civil Society. A report by the Department cites lack of systematic and comprehensive human rights review of legislation, no public debate and civil society involvement in the drafting process, and inadequate dissemination of information on the new legislation once signed into force. The recommendations refer to both UNMIK and the provisional institutions of self-government to be developed following the November 2001 elections.

Early results from an employment survey of the JIAS departments undertaken by the Department of Democratic Governance and Civil Society reveal considerable gender and ethnic imbalances. Overall, the Kosovo Consolidated Budget supports twice as many male public servants at the professional level as females. More than 94 per cent of those employed in the central JIAS departments are Kosovo Albanians, 1.7 Kosovo Turks, 1.5 per cent Kosovo Bosniacs and 1 per cent Kosovo Serbs. In response, the Department and the international NGO Star Network of World Learning have developed a training module that addresses JIAS ethnicity, gender and disability inequalities.

Many people are not registering themselves when they are unemployed, according to a study of employment levels by regions, conducted by the Department of Labour and Emplo-yment. In Mitrovica-South, for example, there were only 18,142 unemployed registered in the municipal employment office at the end of May 2001. According to UNMIK estimates,  the area has a population of about 120,000 of which approximately 45 per cent are employable, i. e. some 54,000 people. Of these, 8,464 are employed, 27,400 unemployed who did not register themselves as such.

The first Doctors' Commission to complete its assessment of social welfare applications, in Pejė/Pec, has approved 44 per cent of the 2,363 backlogged applications. Commissions were created by the Department of Health and Social Welfare (DHSW) in each region to assess social welfare applications on the basis of medical need. In other regions, the process is being slowed by the variable quality of the records, necessitating requests for additional information. The DHSW is meanwhile co-operating with the Department of Reconstruction (DOR) to develop guidelines for determining eligibility for housing through a social assessment of the candidates for a social housing pilot scheme. Field visits to prospective sites for the programme have already been conducted. DOR has the lead in identifying and negotiating with potential donors.

An Association of Kosovo Municipalities will be inaugurated on 30 June, hopefully with the three northern Serb municipalities participating. In preparation, UNMIK's Institution-Building Pillar (OSCE) has been organizing preliminary meetings to further the organization and political planning. This brought together Albanian and Serb Municipal Assembly Presidents for their first substantive meeting since UNMIK and KFOR arrived.

To learn about a more professional approach to the complex work of running a Municipal Assembly from Norwegian experts, 25 municipalities, including the three northern ones, have sent their chief executive officers (CEOs), presidents and vice-presidents to a three-day seminar, organized by the Institute of Civil Administration. The topics-establishment and development of a professional municipal administration, municipal planning and participatory processes, and establishing a network of CEOs for legal control and auditing-were aimed at improving the relationship between municipal bodies in the administration and decision-making processes. The foreign expertise was provided by the Norwegian Association of Municipalities.

With the number of refugees from FYROM approaching 50,000, the UNHCR has made contingency plans should there be a large influx of displaced persons into Kosovo. Since most refugees are being accommodated with host families, the agency is about to implement a programme of a DM 40 per month subsidy for each host family and provide limited construction materials where this will directly improve the available accommodation, according to UNHCR Special Envoy Eric Morris. All refugees are being given blankets, mattresses and hygiene materials and, in some cases, cooking utensils and stoves. The WFP is providing food directly to the refugees.