Hello and Welcome to Week in Review for Sept 24, 2004 - where we bring you a wrap up of some of the main news items in and around Kosovo. [I’m Jackson Allers]
1 Toping this week’s news…
The new UN administrator, SRSG Soren Jessen-Petersen visited United Nations headquarters in New York this week to discuss the stability of Kosovo. His trip coincided with the opening week of the UN General Assembly.
Jessen-Petersen met with officials from the European Union, NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE.
On Wednesday, Jessen-Petersen held high-level talks with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Political Directors of the Contact Group Countries. Secretary General Annan and the Contact Group praised the strategy report on Kosovo released by Norwegian Ambassador Kai Eide this summer – a report that has generated some controversy in the region.
The Contact Group asserted that progress on decentralization in Kosovo was imperative – lending support to the Decentralization Plan drafted by the Kosovo Government and UNMIK.
The Contact Group also stressed that the future of Kosovo relied on the institutional guarantees for the safety of Kosovo’s minorities.
One day earlier, on the United Nation annual day of promoting peace and unity, Secretary General Kofi Annan framed what he thought was the basis for moving forward in the process of stability, in Kosovo and around the world.
Kofi Annan: “Nothing can be more dangerous in our effort to develop peace and development than a world divided along religious ethnic or cultural lines.”
The major themes to the discussions between the UN administrator, SRSG Soren Jessen-Petersen and the Contact Group included – Rule of Law; Sustainable Returns, Reconstruction and Reintegration; Security and Freedom of Movement; functioning Democratic Institutions.
2
And in New York, as the Contact Group was stressing the need
for Kosovo Serbs to participate in Kosovo’s Parliamentary Elections in October…
Locally, the new election campaign season officially began
this week. The 30-day process is seen as a major test for the international
administration and for Kosovo’s local government.
This year’s election cycle is particularly important because
control of the process has been given over to local authorities – the Central
Election Commission or CEC.
UN head Jessen-Petersen says that in the coming weeks local
politicians will help determine whether Kosovo is ready to take a step forward
to becoming a respected member of the region.
Although polling results indicate that the Democratic League
of Kosova or LDK is favored to win a majority of seats in the Kosovo Assembly,
local observers say that much depends on voter turnout.
According to official count, there are thirty-two political
parties and groups competing for the 120-seat parliament of which 20 seats are
reserved for Serbs and other non-Albanian minorities.
Because of the March violence this year in Kosovo, Belgrade
has joined a chorus of international observers in calling for security measures
to be put in place.
Andan Merovci, Head of the Central Election Commission, says
that proper security measures were put into place through a memorandum of
understanding signed between the OSCE and the Central Election Commission.
“This memorandum consists of technical aspects of security
but it was mainly a public document to assure the voters and residents of
Kosovo that they can generally feel safe to perform their duties because of
the security priorities put in place. And I’m sure that this security will
prevail.”
Coinciding with the Security concerns expressed by the
Contact Group and by international election observers…
Spokesperson for the NATO forces in Kosovo, Colonel Yves Kermorvant said that KFOR was carrying out a large-scale operation in Kosovo this week. He said the aim of the operation was to assure proper cooperation between KFOR, UNMIK police and Kosovo’s Police units.
Speaking at a UN press conference, Col. Kermorvant said the operation was to take place in northwest Kosovo and was based on the concepts of flexibility and cooperation.
“It is the application of what Lieutenant General Yves de Kermabon meant on September 13 when he said, “Let me say that everything will be done in order to maintain full awareness of events and the ability to react quickly according the situation.”
Meanwhile, in Regional News
In anticipation of the upcoming November referendum on territorial decentralization in Macedonia, Macedonian Police are denying any knowledge of the targeted harassment of Albanians by their own special in the village of Kondovo.
Although these reports are unconfirmed, civil unrest from the Macedonian
And
this concludes this edition of Week in Review a production of UNMIK ON-Air.
Listen during this time every Friday for UNMIK’s Week in Review I’m Jackson
Allers…goodbye.