UNMIK ON AIR

STEINER REBUTS COVIC CLAIMS ON BUJANOVAC

25 February 21, 2003

Zoran Culafic

The weekend’s incident in Bujanovac, when one member of the Serbian Gendarmerie was killed and two others wounded after their vehicle ran over an anti-tank mine, has raised new tensions between Belgrade and UNMIK.

Commenting on the incident Belgrade representative Nebojsa Covic publicly accused UNMIK of not doing enough to stop violence spreading from Kosovo to southern Serbia. And he asserted that UNMIK “will be an accomplice in organised crime, terrorist acts and violence” if it does not change its stance.

UNMIK head Michael Steiner strongly condemned the incident, but added that all leaders should refrain from stirring up emotions and going public with such statements as Mr. Covic’s naming, without proof, three ethnic Albanians as members of a “gang which organised that terrorist act”.

CUT 1– Of course, UNMIK condemns these acts, but I must say in the same time that we have a police cooperation agreement with Serbia, and we have not been informed yesterday, as we should have been, despite the fact that the police of UNMIK and the Serbian police have been in contact. We have then seen that Mr. Covic went public with three names. After this, our police has insisted on more information and it turned out that after this insistence the Serbian police side could not in any way substantiate what has been said publicly by Mr. Covic.

Steiner stressed that UNMIK and KFOR have reinforced security measures at the boundary line and they are ready to act on any reliable information from the Serbian side. He underlined that in recent days media have carried a lot of emotional statements from Belgrade about K-Albanian military groups preparing to cross boundary the line with Serbia, but so far there is no evidence.

CUT 2– So seeing that I would say, instead of stirring up emotions here, what we all need to do is to stick to the facts, use the professional cooperation measures and seek to calm the situation in southern Serbia.

UNMIK has no evidence of grouping of military forces at the boundary line between Kosovo and southern Serbia, nor with Macedonia, stressed Mr. Steiner. He fully dismissed Mr. Covic’s accusations that UNMIK is not doing enough to prevent destabilisation.

CUT 3– Neither has the Serbian side given us any real evidence to that, which we of course would look after if we have it, nor do we have it ourselves. We take all the reports very seriously, but let me just tell you that the Macedonian Defense Minister was here and has confirmed my impression that so far we don’t have any evidence, and I think the right way in dealing with this issue is what we have agreed with neighbouring countries and regions, we have it with Albania, we have it with Macedonia, we have it with Serbia, that is police cooperation agreements.

Steiner appealed to the political leaders in the region not to misuse such incidents to raise tensions.

CUT 4– So each time when you have information, and not just suspicions, or guessing, we need to be very responsible. Each time that we have information we look after it, but so far we don’t have confirmed that there is any trans-boundary activities, as has been pretended by some, and I think the important thing is all responsible leaders here have to weigh their words and have to do everything that we don’t have emotions stirred up, but on the contrary. We need to give the people confidence about their situation and about their future. I think this is the responsibility of every responsible leader.

But will UNMIK police will act against illegal military groups? Michael Steiner says the answer it yes… but first they must have clear evidence of illegal activities.

CUT 5– There is no substantiation to what we have heard publicly yesterday. So we can only act on the rule of law here in Kosovo, before we can act as police we need to have some substantiation. We can not act on rumours. We have to introduce the rule of law and we are determined to do this here in Kosovo … Tr 15 - so I think, if we have evidence, if we have requests from institutions underlined by legality, underlined by substantiation, we will act. But we can not and we will not act simply on rumours.

UNMIK is maintaining security in close cooperation with KFOR, said Steiner. And there will not be any hesitation to cooperate with Serbian police.

CUT 6– We have made it clear also to Macedonia that we are ready for full and transparent police cooperation, but we are not ready for stirring up emotions.

Steiner also dismissed recent a request by Serbia PM Zoran Djindjic for creating a Serb mini-state in Kosovo, if the international community does not allow return of some Serbian police and military troops to Kosovo.

CUT 7 - I think it is very clear. First of all this idea is in direct contravention of resolution 1244, which is binding for each and everyone. Secondly, I think it runs counter to the declared intention, and declared by consensus of the international community and of the Security Council. I think we should take seriously what the Security Council has said two weeks ago, that we should not instrumentalise Kosovo for internal aims.

UNMIK Chief Michael Steiner, reacting strongly to recent statements from Belgrade politicians. That’s all for today…