UNMIK on Air
Hello and Welcome.
Today’s edition of UNMIK on
Air brings to you extracts of the presentation and Question and Answer Session
that the UNMIK’s Head Soren
Jessen Petersen held last week with media
representatives from
The Journalists, who were
visiting Kosovo on the invitation of the of Prime
Minister’s Office, were in Kosovo to hear from both
the Prime Minister and the SRSG. At the discussion with the SRSG they were
mostly interested in status issue as well in minority questions.
The SRSG reassured them that
the launch of status talks is of interest to the entire region and that the
solution for Kosovo has to be one that assists to stabilize
the region and helps normalizing relations between the regional countries.
Actuality No. 1 I think that by settling
Kosovo, in a way that does not destabilize the region, on the contrary, that
stabilizes the region, that normalizes the region, by settling Kosovo in such a
way, we will then make it possible for states in the region and Serbia and
Montenegro included, to deepen regional integrations, to deepen regional
integration so that all states can focus on their priorities which for all of
hem is to realize the European perspective.
The SRSG stressed that the
main focus of the international community is on the implementation of the priority
standards.
“Priorities must include
improving conditions of minorities, rule of law and functioning of democratic
institutions”, Petersen explained.
Actuality No. 2 I would say further progress is
now very much up to PISG. They know exactly what they have to do. There have
been progress but there are still shortcomings and further work to be done. The
main shortcomings are in the area of freedom of movement. The freedom of
movement, for many minorities, for many of Kosovo Serbs, have improved and it
improves significantly but there are still too many K-Serbs who cannot move
freely or feel or have a conception that they cannot move freely.
The SRSG admitted that if
one looks at numbers of returnees, one should not be satisfied. However he also
said that he believes that many displaced persons decided that they are not
going to return or that they will wait for the outcome of the status talks.
Actuality No. 3 What is important
however is that the PISG does everything possible to create the conditions so
that a displaced person who wants to take a decision on whether to return or
not can look at the objective conditions; security; are the property conditions
solved; what are my economical opportunities. These are the crucial factors in
terms of creating objective conditions for return.
On the issue of security the
SRSG said that he believes that for large areas of Kosovo
security is not a problem. He said that the fact is that over last 15 month
we’ve seen a significantly improved security situation and that very few ethnic
related incidents have occurred.
Resolving Property issues is
the main
problem at the moment, Petersen said.
Actuality No. 4 Property issues,
although there have been progress in addressing ownership issues; we still need
to see much more action in implementing decisions. One of the action we need to
see much more is that illegal owners have to be evicted and that is not
happening at the pace and the extend that I would wish to see.
The economy situation was
also one of the topics. The SRSG related the problem of the economic situation
and the problem of returns to the overall issue of clarifying the status.
Actuality No. 5 Kosovo today
cannot access loans from international finance institutions. Kosovo cannot
attract private investment because private investors evidently need some
guaranties for their investment and in the absence of status they don’t have that.
(edit to) As long as we cannot improve the economy we cannot create economical
opportunities not only for the waste of population but we cannot create
economical opportunities for returnees.
Back announce: A group
of journalist from