UN RADIO IN KOSOVO

Soren Jessen-Petersen in Belgrade

By Zoran CULAFIC

Hello and welcome, from the studios of UN Radio in Kosovo…

UN Mission head, SRSG Soren Jessen-Petersen visited Belgrade last week to revive what the International Crisis Group said was a near complete breakdown in dialogue between UNMIK and the Serbian government. Instead of moving closer on topics like missing persons, and decentralization, electricity cut-offs in Serb enclaves dominated the discussions.

KEK, Kosovo’s energy provider, says the power cuts are a result of an aging network, one that cannot be repaired until payments in these areas are made. According to Jessen-Petersen, it is a policy endorsed by UNMIK, and one that should not be politicised.

Jessen-Petersen

“I made it very clear that the policy is aimed at providing electricity to all citizens living in Kosovo, and that evidently there is no policy, which aims at making it more difficult for any particular group, and certainly not aiming to make it more difficult to the Kosovo Serbs. In case that this policy is causing undue hardships to any individuals, individuals, than evidently we would be prepared to look at it and than see how to address individual hardships through the normal social security arrangements that should exist anywhere.”

Still, some Kosovo Serbs have been without electricity for over 4 weeks. A total of 500 Kosovo-Serb households have been affected by the power cuts compared to more than 3,500 Albanian families experiencing similar power outages.

Meanwhile, at a press conference in Belgrade last week, the SRSG stressed that the issue of missing persons is among his top priorities. He said the issue deserved nothing less than full cooperation from both sides.

Jessen-Petersen

“I can think of no more immediate burning humanitarian issue than the missing persons. I repeat - no more burning immediate humanitarian issue. I’ve worked very hard on getting the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina on this issue moving again. It has been suspended by Belgrade since last March.”

Aside from the issue of missing persons, the international community has been adamant about enforcing the implementation of a list of priority standards. These include: security, rule of law, freedom of movement, return of displaced persons and proof of functioning democratic institutions. The SRSG said there has been clear improvement in these areas since ethnic unrest engulfed Kosovo last March.

SRSG Jessen-Petersen defended the Kosovo Government as being fully aware of it’s responsibilities to assure safety for its minority residents, adding that freedom of movement is a major obstacle in Kosovo. In the area of returns, the SRSG said immediate changes must be made.

Jessen-Petersen

“We have not seen any kind of progress on returns. We have seen a few thousands, I think is about four-five thousands individuals who have returned … but this is not enough. We know that there are many more thousands of displaced who are still displaced. I don’t think we can talk about sufficient progress in return if return takes place only to rural areas. Return must be to rural and to urban areas, and the Kosovo authorities PISG do know that this is the area where has been least progress and if we don’t manage between now and mid 2005 to make significant progress in return, than one of the important standards will not have been met.”

A report released this week by the Brussels-based think tank, the International Crisis Group suggests there could be more ethnic unrest if the international community fails to address the issue of Kosovo’s Status in 2005. The report states that the political will for addressing status is more relevant than ever. But, UNMIK and the international community conditions status discussions on the ability of Kosovans to demonstrate concretely that Standards are being fulfilled.

With this, we end today’s program. Stay tuned tomorrow as UN Radio in Kosovo features an exclusive interview with Dusan Janjic, head of the Belgrade-based Forum for Ethnic Relations.