DPI/Tv&Radio
15 July 2005
Hello and welcome
to the week in review as reported by the international press and Media of
Kosovo:
UN
Special Envoy Kai Eide arrived Monday in Belgrade for a visit as part of his
fact-finding tour to the region.
Before
leaving Pristina, Kai Eide said that the biggest problems in Kosovo are
decentralization of power, freedom of movement, and the return of Internally
Displaced Persons.
Kai
Eide and the foreign minister of Serbia, Vuk Draskovic, agreed that it is
necessary to defend the rights of Serbs in Kosovo.
They
also said that Serbs should participate in the work of the institutions in the
UN administered province.
Kai
Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, is currently traveling in Kosovo and Serbia to
prepare a comprehensive review of standards implementation, at the request of
the Security Council.
The
Comprehensive Review is being undertaken, as an evaluation to the preparedness
of Kosovo for the start of status talks on the future of the province.
Status
Talks are widely expected to begin soon after the comprehensive review has been
presented.
Kosovo
Prime minister Bajram Kosumi came back from a visit to Germany on Wednesday
bringing home the message that Germany
is ‘looking into the possibilities for independence for Kosovo’ as he is
quoted as saying.
However,
News agencies also reported that the German foreign minister Joschka Fischer
said that the Kosovo authorities must demonstrate a visible progress in the
implementation of standards as set out by the international community.
He
stressed that progress is a main precondition for the timely launch of final
status talks.
Decentralization,
freedom of movement, and the return of internally displaced persons were also
key talking points when SRSG Soren Jessen –Petersen met NATO Secretary general
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels this week.
The SRSG said that
despite considerable progress, he is still concerned about the implementation
of those three key standards.
For his part, the
NATO general assured the commitment of NATO to peace and security in Kosovo.
The SRSG, who has
been traveling abroad most of the week, also met EU officials in the European
capital and made an address to the European Policy Centre.
In Srebrenica, Bosnia,
the 10th anniversary of the massacre of more than 7,500 muslim boys
and men during the war was remembered on Monday.
The day – which
included the burial of the remains of 610 victims - was marked with an
expression of profound sorrow and loss from survivors and shame from the
international community, which failed to prevent the massacre.
UN secretary general
Kofi Annan said in a statement that ‘serious errors of judgment’ in handling
the Bosnian Serb onslaught on the UN declared Safe Haven in 1995, were made.
The massacre is
considered to be the worst atrocity on European soil since World War 2.
The European
Commission in Brussels asked the EU member states this week for a mandate to
begin talks with Serbia and Montenegro on an agreement designed to prepare the
State Union for possible membership of the Union.
The member states
are expected to grant the mandate.
Already in April,
the European Commison said that Serbia-Montenegro was ready to go ahead with
talks on the so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
‘Serbia’s future
lies within the future of the European Union’, said British foreign secretary
Jack Straw, whose country now holds the rotating EU presidency.
Jack Straw described
EU membership as ‘a magnet’ to Serbia. However Belgrade’s hopes of joining the
European club depend on the extradition of war crime suspects to the UN
tribunal in the Hague.
The UN General
Assembly in New York launched a debate this week on possible changes to the
size and composition of the powerful Security Council.
Reform proposals and
reactions criss-crossed between world capitals with such intensity that the UN
secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday urged member states to quote “ calm
down”.
Four big members
states – Brazil, Germany, Japan, and India – want to be permanent members of
the Security Council, which decides on issues related to war, peace, and
international security.
This Group of Four
has proposed to expand the Security Council to 25 members, including six new
permanent members.
Apart from
themselves, they suggest two permanent members from Africa.
The African Union
has another reform proposal, also including six new permanent members and
additional non-permanent members.
However, it is
unlikely that a decision will be taken any time in the foreseeable future, as
the United States has said that changes are premature.
Currently, the
Security Council has 15 members, of which USA, Russia, France, Great Britain,
and China are permanent members holding veto powers.
The discussion of
reforming the security council has been going on behind closed doors for at
least 12 years.
This was what we
had chosen for this edition of the week in review, thank you for listening and
stay tuned to UNMIK on air.