UNMIK on Air

Week in Review

By Andrea Saula

 

Hello and welcome. This is UNMIK on Air’s week in review…

 

Topping the news this week:

1.    The Security Council meeting today assessed the implementation of standards in Kosovo

2.    Dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade still pending

3.    Creation of the inter party Forum will take place on June the 1st

4.    Detention centers in Prishtina and Gjilan handed over to local control

 

 - Topping this week;

 

In the afternoon UNMIK chief Soren Jessen-Petersen will report to United Nations Security Council in New York. “I will report on progress and I still hope and believe that, as a result of the debate, the secretary-General will then be in a position to recommend that the comprehensive review be launched and an envoy will be appointed”, Petersen said during his last week visit to New York.

 

In the report, to which some international and Belgrade media had access, the civilian administrator said that most of the standards have been fulfilled, or are expected to be fulfilled, by the end of the year.

 

Reuters news agency reported that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expects the supervision of standards implementation in Kosovo to begin in a few months, even though Annan is not fully satisfied with the progress Kosovo has made so far in fulfilling the required standards.

 

To oversee the implementation of standards in Kosovo, Annan is supposed to appoint a special envoy. According to diplomatic sources quoted by international media, one of the candidates for this post is Norwegian U.N. diplomat Kai Eide.

 

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi decided not to attend the UN Security Council session. Daut Dauti, the spokesman for the government, said that Kosumi rejected the invitation to attend the session, because he is not allowed to give a speech to the Security Council members on the developments in Kosovo.

 

The government of Serbia announced that their delegation is going to be headed by the chairman of the Coordinating Center for Kosovo, Nebojsa Covic. According to officials in Belgrade, the Serbian delegation will have the stand that there is no freedom of movement in Kosovo, no elementary protection of property rights and that Serbs in Kosovo are still exposed to violence.

 

-         Kosovo back to the high policy decision making spots;

 

The Security Council meeting comes after a week of vivid diplomatic activities. The Contact Group's diplomats met in London on Monday to discuss Kosovo's progress. Head of UNMIK Jessen-Petersen attended this meeting.

 

Also this week: the U.S. undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns met in Brussels with the EU high representative for foreign and security policy Javier Solana. They discussed several issues, including the United States plan for Kosovo and the western Balkans. According to reports in the Washington Post the plan envisages three scenarios: Kosovo remaining in Serbia, an independent Kosovo, or a hybrid status.


- Dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade still pending;


The premiers of Serbia and Kosovo, Vojislav Kostunica and Bajram Kosumi, expressed readiness to meet, but it is still unclear whether the meeting will take place by the end of May or early next month. The Spokesperson for Kosovo’s Government, Daut Dauti said that the Prime Minister of Serbia, Vojisllav Kostunica is taking unilateral actions in regards to this meeting. He stressed that the international community should determine the place and time of the meeting. Kosovo’s Assembly announced that a special session would be held to discuss on the possible negotiations between Prishtina and Belgrade.

 

 inter party Forum will be created on June the 1st

 

Principal Deputy to the SRSG Laurance Rossin met on Wednesday with the advisers of the four main political parties. As planned, it was decided to organize the first official meeting of the Forum on June 1st. 


Decentralization still internal dispute

 

The MPs from the parties in office and those in opposition did not reach any agreement during yesterday’s debate on decentralization. Pristina media cite that while Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi said that decentralization is in the interest of all citizens of Kosovo, the opposition parties stress that the Governmental plan is neither in the interest of Kosovo’s majority population nor in the interest of minorities.

 

 - New information on mass grave in Malisevo/ Malisheva.

UNMIK announced that eleven dead bodies were exhumed in the mass grave discovered recently in Malisevo/Malisheva. The mortal remains are believed to belong to non-Albanians. “But we are not hundred percent sure until DNA test is done,” said Marcia Pool, UNMIK’s spokesperson. Recently also a mass grave was found in the Volljaka cave near Klina.

 

 - Attorney of former Kosovo Prime minister Ramush Haradinaj pleaded for his provisional release

 

UNMIK’s deputy head of mission Laurance Rossin was present at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia and affirmed the ability and willingness of the UN Administration in Kosovo to provide various guarantees. He said he is sure Haradinaj will show in front of the Court when asked. Haradinaj, charged with 17 counts of crimes against humanity and 20 counts of violations of the laws or customs of war, surrendered voluntarily to the Tribunal this March.

 

-         Detention centers in Prishtina and Gjilan to the locals

 

Jean Doussord, Head of UNMIK Pillar I, said on Monday that Kosovo has a new correctional service, build upon modern democratic values. He made these comments during the handover of Pristina’s and Gjilan’s detention centers to local authorities.

 

-         and at the very end

 

Kosovo’s President Ibrahim Rugova has set May 24, as ‘President’s Day’, in order to mark the day when the first Kosovo presidential elections were held on May 24, 1992. This date will be marked each year through various activities.