Speech by SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen at the inaugural session of the two-day workshop on the Strategy and Action Plan on Communities and Returns- Pristina, 10 April 2006 -
Prime Minister Çeku, Deputy Prime Minister Haziri, Minister Gjini, President of the Pristina Municipality Beqiri, representatives of Associations of Displaced Persons, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. Let me first of all extend a very warm welcome to all of you.
The return of Kosovars, of all ethnicities, to their homes in Kosovo is the goal we all strive to achieve. There are still hundreds of thousands of Kosovars in the region and Europe who are in need of durable solutions to their displacement and they are looking to us for help. Together, we must update our policies and plans to include the voices of the displaced themselves. It is after all, the rights of each individual refugee and displaced person that we are here to protect. As Prime Minister Ceku just said, the painful chapter of displacement must be closed for the families, for the society, for Kosovo and for the region in order to move forward.
For this reason, I would especially like to welcome the participation of IDP associations from Serbia, Kosovo and throughout the region to this workshop and thank you for your most constructive and critical involvement in the process so far. We trust you will raise your voices in this workshop as you have done in the working groups.
Prime Minister Çeku, we thank you for the unequivocal support you have given to the need to solve the plight of displaced Kosovars, particularly the special needs of displaced minorities who want to return to a peaceful life in Kosovo. You demonstrated Kosovo’s commitment and direct support to minority returns when you commanded the Kosovo Protection Corp. Successful confidence building measures were undertaken by the KPC with minority groups and I am pleased to see they continue. I am confident that under your new PISG leadership, the conditions for returns will improve and the return process will gather steam.
And with Deputy Prime Minister Haziri by your side, given his very strong involvement on returns and issues of displaced persons from the very beginning, we now know that we have a very strong government leadership on this crucial matter.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As I’ve said before, numbers alone cannot tell the success of a returns strategy in Kosovo. We already agree that the number of Kosovars still displaced from their homes, and minority numbers in particular, are too high - and numbers of returns too low. We must do much more to improve the conditions for return. This means looking not just at the numbers but also the factors of importance to the displaced including: their own personal and family security, housing – many people have no homes to return to in Kosovo – access to commercial and agricultural property, jobs, education, health care and access to water and electricity. The same things each of us wants to have, so we can live in peace and prosper. All parts of PISG, UNMIK, the European Union, OSCE, UNDP, UNHCR and other international and national partners work to improve these conditions for all people of Kosovo – whether displaced or here.
Every displaced person has the right to make their own free decision to return. Displaced persons have the absolute right under international law and Constitutional Framework of Kosovo to return to their homes of origin. This is always the preferred durable solution for displaced persons. We must recognize however that some displaced people do not want to return to their homes of origin and instead, they want to integrate into the communities where some have lived for the past almost seven years and others want to move to another part of Kosovo.
In other words, in Kosovo, as elsewhere in the world, it is for the individual displaced persons to make a free and informed choice about the return options available to them. Such a free choice must be based on the principle that persons are free to choose their own future, and this requires that all conditions are in place for the choice to be truly voluntary and free.
This workshop provides an opportunity to bring together the work of the six working groups that have met over the past 8 months to review the post-conflict policies governing returns to Kosovo, the mechanisms for supporting returns in Kosovo, and the assistance criteria for voluntary returnees to Kosovo. I urge you all to consider policies and processes that promote a “rights based approach” and which allow free and informed decisions for all displaced populations of Kosovo.
Area of ConcernsThe agenda for this workshop includes a comprehensive review of the entire returns framework – from policy to service delivery. I would urge you to carefully look at current beneficiary selection criteria and current decision-making processes to see how things can be made simpler and more efficient for each displaced person. The problems we all know. Please provide concrete ideas, ways forward and solutions not for UNMIK, but for the PISG and for all people of Kosovo – those who are here and those who wish to return.
Problems with the security situation in Kosovo for minority returns continue to be very localized. Certainly, freedom of movement has improved in many parts of Kosovo as evidenced among other things by the low number of KFOR and KPS checkpoints. Still, many minorities have the perception that they are not safe in Kosovo. We continue to work with the security systems to improve conditions on the ground and that will get stronger as the Kosovo Police Service grows. But the responsibility for ensuring a secure environment for the whole community lies with every single resident of Kosovo, and begins with neighbours as well as the local administration and ends with good governance by the central institutions. Tolerance for the other and acceptance of the difference, recognizing the need for diversity are key principles of an open and modern society.
Housing and property rights are often identified as essential components for the return process as are economic development and the rule of law. I am happy to note that the newly established Kosovo Property Agency has already started accepting claims with regard to commercial and agricultural property. More that 29,000 residential property claims have final decisions and we must now work together to ensure that all these residents can safely and freely reoccupy their homes. Of course not all these problems can be solved in the next two days, so we must stay focused on the agenda presented.
I urge the participants here today and tomorrow to identify clear policy recommendations that the PISG can endorse, recommendations that can be supported by the international community but, most importantly recommendations that address the needs of the displaced persons themselves.
All our actions and initiatives must aim at building confidence so that each and every person, irrespective of ethnicity, feel that they can remain in Kosovo or return to Kosovo in safety and in dignity. In this connection, I am deeply disturbed by Belgrade’s continued policy to urge Kosovo Serbs to boycott and now to leave the institutions in Kosovo. We are here today to lay the foundation for return. Belgrade’s policies work in the opposite direction. I appeal to Belgrade to act in the interest of the people of Kosovo.
We are expecting the outcomes of this workshop to include a comprehensive document that describes updated policies, that identifies ways to streamline the services needed by returnees and clarity to update the “Manual on Sustainable Returns.” These are big tasks, and serious tasks. Many of you here today have been working on this updated framework for many months. We thank you for your commitment and for your continued participation as we enter the finalization stage. I wish you a successful workshop.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank my colleague and friend Kilian Kleinschmidt for creating and driving this difficult process to this conclusion. Kilian will be leaving UNMIK next week to rejoin UNHCR. Kilian, we thank you for your dynamic service and we wish all the best for your new assignment.
Participants, I look forward to rejoining you tomorrow to hear the conclusion of your work.
Thank you.