The Week in Review

By Birol Urcan

Hello and welcome from UNMIK On Air, your listening to the Week in Review.

· Annan recommends the beginning of Kosovo final status talks

· ICTY allows Haradinaj a limited return to political life

· Government prohibits import of chicken from Turkey and Romania

· PISG Resolution for independent and sovereign Kosovo postponed

· No side will have everything after negotiations, says Goldberg

· Turkey promises political and economical support for Kosovo

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In an Oct. 7 letter to the Security Council U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended that the talks on Kosovo's future status should begin.

"Of course, I cannot say what kind of outcome we can expect. The question of independence has been raised. The question of autonomy has been raised. We have to talk to both Belgrade and Pristina," Annan told reporters in the Swiss Capital Bern.

The U.N. secretary-general made his recommendation to the security council based on the Standards Implementation Review in Kosovo Report developed by Kai Eide the report was delivered on Oct. 4^th to the Secretary General.

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The United Nations War Crimes Court decided Wednesday to lift some restrictions on former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, allowing him to take part in political activities to that extent UNMIK evaluates as important for a positive development of the political situation and security in Kosovo.
The Judge Carnel Agius said that Haradinaj could join the negotiations Group If UNMIK agrees with it

Haradinaj is indicted by the Hague Tribunal for his military activities at the time he was commander of the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) for the Dukagjini region.

On June 6 The Hague Tribunal granted him provisional release, in the custody of UNMIK.

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The Government announced that it has decided to prohibit the import of chicken and chicken products from Turkey and Romania

This decision was made as cases of Bird flue have been detected in these two countries

To date no case of bird flu has been detected in Kosovo.

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Kosovo’s Parliament Presidency in its meeting yesterday postponed its proposed resolution on independence.

The Parliament Presidency Members representing majority and opposition gave contradictory statements to the local media about the reason of postponement.

Members of the opposition claim that “the resolution has been postponed without any strong legal support”, whereas the members in Government say that “it has been done because there were two versions of the text”.

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The Chief of the U.S. Mission in Pristina, Philip Goldberg, said that, during the forthcoming negotiations on the status of Kosovo, both sides would have to be prepared to compromise, and that this basically meant that "nobody will have

everything they want”

"I believe this is already clear on this side, and I think it would become clear in Belgrade," Goldberg said in an interview to Radio Free Europe.

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Kosovo’s President Ibrahim Rugova and Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi said on Tuesday that they count on Turkey’s political and economic support

President Rugova and the Prime Minister Kosumi made these comments following their separate meetings with the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül, who paid one day visits to Kosovo

In relation to the beginning of Final Status Talks, Turkish Foreign Minister Gul said that “Turkey will be beside Kosovo during this important process. Also we will support the economic and social development of this country,”

This was all for today, thank you for listening and have a good day