UNMIK Press Briefing Notes, 19 Oct 2005

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

UNMIK Press Briefing Notes 19 October 2005

UNMIK Spokesperson Neeraj Singh
KFOR Chief PIO Col. Pio Sabetta
OSCE Spokesperson Sven Lindholm
EU Pillar Spokesperson Mechthild Henneke

UNMIK Spokesperson Neeraj Singh

The SRSG is in Tirana today for his first meeting with the new Government in Albania. He will be meeting the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and will also address the press in Tirana.

On Friday, the SRSG will travel to Madrid to attend a conference of the Trilateral Commission (Europe). The Trilateral Commission is a gathering of leading personalities in the fields of business, the media, academia, public service, etc. The SRSG will be taking the opportunity to update them on the current state of affairs in Kosovo and on the upcoming status process.

After the conference in Madrid, the SRSG will be leaving directly for New
York for the meeting of the Security Council on Monday.

Restructuring in Civil Administration

In the process of ongoing restructuring of UNMIK, the Civil Administration Pillar that is commonly known as UNMIK's Pillar II, is transforming into the Department of Civil Administration, as it downsizes into a trimmer "new look team" that will now be part of the SRSG's Office.

Under its Director Patricia Waring, the Department will have a Central Governance Unit (CGU) dealing with issues related to the central ministries, and a Municipal Coordination and Support Unit (MCSU) that will coordinate regional/municipal matters.

As you know, in July, Pillar II's Office of Community Affairs was combined with the Office of Returns and Communities to form a new Office of Communities, Returns and Minority Affairs (OCRM) that is part of the SRSG's Office.

Before that, in April, Pillar II started withdrawing from the ministries leaving only minimal staff for the purpose of liaison.

Now, UNMIK's Civil Administration is beginning to restructure its presence in the Regions. Rather than Regional Offices overseeing many Municipal Offices as was previously the case, a new structure has been devised in which clusters of municipalities will be overseen by "Hub" locations throughout Kosovo, each with one or two small satellite offices in selected communities. Clustering of municipalities to be served from hubs will start from 1 December. The Hubs will all report to a central Municipal Coordination and Support Unit (MCSU).

So you will be seeing progressive changes in the coming days. For example, come November, the Pristina and Gjilan/Gnjilane Regional Offices will disappear as they merge to be served from MCSU teams located in the front office of the Director. Similar restructuring will follow in the South West Region and Mitrovica in the beginning of 2006. We will keep you informed as it goes.

New laws

On 14 October the SRSG signed two new laws, the Wine Law and the Law on Social and Family Services, that had earlier been adopted by the Assembly of Kosovo. You may pick up copies from the Press Office.

KFOR Chief PIO Col. Pio Sabetta

No announcement.

OSCE Spokesperson Sven Lindholm

Today I want to promote the Youth Assembly in Lipjan/Lipljan. This is a multi-ethnic group of active teenages who want to make a chance in their community; it is a group that was begun with and still has the continued support of the OSCE.

Today in Shtime/Stimlje and Friday in Lipjan/Lipljan, they will be having the Stand Parade, basically a parade for standards. What they are trying to do is raise awareness of the situation in their communities, and demonstrate that all communities can move and associate, get together, freely without fear. This is a demonstration that they are ready to engage. The parades also aim to raise awareness to people in these towns and the PISG the concerns of youth - such as the lack of sport cultural and youth facilities. Municipal officials, including Municipal Assembly members are invited for the "Stand parade" and later an open debate on youth and community issues.

The Youth Assembly of Lipjan/Lipljan are having these parades to show they are part of their towns and reminding people not to forget about the needs.

Media - please get out of Prishtine/Pristina and go to these not-so-faraway towns and give support to youth action and involvement. The "Stand Parade" will be held today in Shtime/Stimlje at 1600 and Friday in Lipjan/Lipljan starting at 1400.

EU Pillar Spokesperson Mechthild Henneke

DSRSG Ruecker is visiting UNMIK Railways tomorrow.

He has an interesting programme and you are welcome to accompany him. The DSRSG will start at 13.30 at UNMIK Railways main HQ, ride the train to Priluzhe, Mitrovica and back to Fushe Kosovo/Kosovo Polje. There he will give a statement.

Second: The Mining Journal, an internationally recognized specialized journal for the mining sector has issued a supplement dedicated to Kosovo, the Land of opportunity for European Mining and Energy. Kosovo's mining resources are presented here in detail with maps, graphics and written information. I have brought some copies that you might wish to pick up. The Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals and the Ministry for Energy and Mining have largely contributed to the supplement. It will get distributed all over the world to mining companies and potential investors.

And one more event related to ICMM: The Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals will issue licenses for KEK on Friday at 14.00. We will send out a separate media alert in due time.

Neeraj: Thanks Mechthild, any questions?

BBC: A question to KFOR: Are you aware of any activities of the illegal armed groups around Kosovo today?

Col Sabetta: There is no evidence of any kind of illegal organization. What we are investigating are just isolated incidents of illegal checkpoints.

BBC: Where was that, sorry?

Col Sabetta: In the Southwest.

BBC: So you deny that there exist the armed groups in the, let's say, Southwest.

Col Sabetta: We have no evidence of the existence of any armed group.

BBC: Are you aware, as UNMIK, of any existence of any illegal armed group in Kosovo today?

Neeraj: I think this question was addressed by the [Police] Commissioner this morning in his press conference. I understand that some of you were not present there. I will just repeat what the Commissioner said: His assessment is that the security situation in general is stable, there have been reports of some criminal groups in the western part of Kosovo and the police are taking the measures necessary to address that.

VoA: Again to KFOR, you said that you are investigating, that's how I understood it?

Col Sabetta: Yes, correct.

VoA: Where exactly are you now in the course of the investigations? What kind of information did you get for now, and how did you get to confirm that there was an illegal checkpoint, that there were people manning that illegal checkpoint, and who is investigating, who exactly?

Col Sabetta: First I answer the last question. Of course police is something that is related to UNMIK/P and KPS; the investigation is in support of their investigation, we are not investigating by ourselves. All we know about that is just report concerning this kind of stuff because any KFOR vehicle has never been involved in any contact with those people, because as you know KFOR will never tolerate any illegal activity in Kosovo. And every time we saw an illegal activity we took all the measures in coordination with UNMIK/P and KPS to avoid this kind of incident. And the location, as I said, is just Southwest Kosovo.

VoA: Just to go back to the original question: If your soldiers get in touch, by accident, with these people, will they fight back, first; and second, if these people, you just confirmed that, I mean, you got information that these people are present in that part of Kosovo?

Col Sabetta: What I am saying . could you repeat, if we would get in touch with them?

VoA: If you just get in touch with these people by accident, whatever, you just see them, in an illegal checkpoint, would you fight back? Your soldiers, would they fight back? What would be the reaction of the KFOR soldiers?

Col Sabetta: The reaction of the KFOR soldiers would be to call for reinforcement and then to involve immediately KPS and UNMIK/P, they are responsible for this kind of stuff.

VoA: Okay, if I can just have an answer in black and white: Would you fight back if you get in touch with these people or not?

Col Sabetta: We will avoid that this kind of checkpoint will be in Kosovo, yes.

VoA: So, you would fight back?

Col Sabetta: We are not fighting anyone, we are just taking the right measures.

Blic: Are you the spokesperson for the entire KFOR in Kosovo?

Col Sabetta: I am supposed to be.

Blic: This is why I am asking if one of you from that western part or the Peja/Pec area has confirmed that KFOR has officially information on the presence of armed groups in this western part of Kosovo why you as the spokesperson are not saying that you have this information, rather you are saying that you don't have such information, what is correct? The information from the KFOR command for western Kosovo or what you are saying that you don't have such information?

Col Sabetta: Well thanks for this question. I am not saying that we don't have information, I'm just saying that on the basis of those information we are investigating, we are taking all the measures and what KFOR official said is just that we have this information and we are conducting all the activity in order to stop this.

Koha Ditore: Can you tell us, what kind of information do you have? What is the information that you have?

Col Sabetta: The information we are investigating, we are operating on, is that isolated illegal checkpoints from some people were seen in Kosovo. In the Southwest.

Koha Ditore: Is there any specific place?

Col Sabetta: No, in my information no, at the moment.

RTK: A question for KFOR. COMKFOR yesterday stated that they are going to fight these groups. How are you going to do this, how are you going to fight them?

Col Sabetta: Again, we have to be careful when we use the word 'fight'.

RTK: Well, he used it yesterday. He said "combattere".

Col Sabetta: "Contrastare", combattere in the sense contrastare. But let's go back to English otherwise others here will not understand. We have to be careful when we say 'fight'. Of course KFOR is having a mission and will take all the measures till we need something to be done. Then if we need to do something, we will do it, without any problem.

Q: One question for Neeraj. The government yesterday took the decision to re-evaluate the tender of the mobile telephone in Kosova. How do you estimate the decision by the government yesterday?

Neeraj: We do not have official communication of the government's decision so I cannot comment on the decision itself. On the issue, the situation as of now is that, as you know, UNMIK requested the International Telecommunications Union for an international dialling code for Kosovo. We are still awaiting a decision from the ITU on this request and the matter relating to the second mobile operator will be taken up once we have a decision from ITU.

BBC: Colonel, have you increased your security measures in the Southwest of Kosovo?

Col Sabetta: No, in general terms we don't see any change in the situation. That was why I was stressing isolated events do not change the general assessment.

BBC: So what are you going to wait for, to wait for someone to be killed or what?

Col Sabetta: What we are doing is taking the right measures to contrast the events. We are not awaiting anything.

BBC: What are your rules of engagement in this case?

Col Sabetta: Our rules of engagement in this case, if a patrol is getting in contact with these people they have to stabilize the situation and then as soon as possible to involve the KPS and UNMIK/P.

Beta: Mr. Vittrup said that the police has raised this security level and has also said that KFOR and the police are working together. What does this imply, KFOR has not raised the security level, the police has, but they are working together. Could you please explain this to us?

Col Sabetta: Sorry, I don't make any comments on other people's statements.

Blic: Again a question for you: If you say that you have information on the presence of armed groups in the area of Pec/Peja, do you have any concrete evidence for that. If you have it I would like to ask you to answer the question for us, please. Do you have any concrete evidence on the presence of armed groups in the area of Pec/Peja?

Col Sabetta: I say again, we are not talking about armed groups, we are talking about isolated incidents, isolated persons. We have report on that, we are investigating that.

Blic: The second question would be until when will your investigation last and will you wait for some incident to occur that one of these groups intercepts a vehicle on the road, for you to react?

Col Sabetta: To answer this question: Our investigation is not done in isolation, we are investigating in support of UNMIK/P and KPS. At the same time we are not awaiting anything, we are taking all the measures that are related to KFOR to avoid any kind of incident.

Reuters: Does KFOR or UNMIK police have any information as to the motives behind the actions of these men?

Col Sabetta: We have got no information concrete in this sense.

Neeraj: Okay the problem is, all these questions we have seen, the problem is when we are talking to you in plain language you are looking for a code to decipher it, so obviously you are not listening then. As I said, there have been "reports" of criminal groups appearing in the western part of Kosovo, in that general area. There hasn't been any direct encounter between any such group and the police. The question of motive and the question of what kind of groups these are, all these are matters that will come out if first of all the police or KFOR are able to confirm and to apprehend such groups. So I think at this stage we shouldn't be going beyond that. What I would caution against particularly to the media is that, and not just related to these groups we see also some emails or communiqué being sent to the media, you should not magnify the significance of such issues. What you should rest assured about is that the security establishment is fully geared and prepared to address any threats that may be posed to the security here. The assessment, and they have clearly stated that, again and again, the assessment is that the security situation generally is stable. Wherever there is a report, the police must and will investigate, and they do investigate, and they do take measures that are necessary. At this point we should leave it at that.

VoA: Are you really cooperating with each other, I mean KFOR and UNMIK because you, Colonel, are saying that these people are individuals and you, Neeraj, are saying that you deal with criminal groups or the reports are about criminal groups. Are they individuals or are they criminal groups? First, and second, you say that you are ready and that you can react to whatever happens and that there is no change in the security situation, that's the way I understood it from what you said. If there are individuals or criminal groups, and there are reports that these people are appearing in the streets stopping people, manning an illegal checkpoint, you will still say that there are no changes in the security situation and that the situation is fully under control and that there is no challenge or threat to the overall security situation?

Neeraj: I think you are just getting into semantics: groups are constituted of individuals. There have been reports from the people to the police, there have been civilians who have reported that they have seen such groups of people and police and KFOR have stated that they are looking into it and taking all the measures necessary.

AP: I don't know what the Commissioner had to say, I was not allowed in. I just wanted to check with you on one thing. What does make you tell your staff not to travel at night in the western part of Kosovo and, at the same time, you do not say the same thing to all the people in Kosovo. I mean, you are the executive authority here, with responsibility for all the people in Kosovo and you warn your own staff not to travel in that part of Kosovo. Is that because of media reporting or because you got specific information?

Neeraj: No, you always mix up issues. What you should clearly understand is that it is the police, the KPS and UNMIK Police that are responsible for the security of the population. And there is a separate establishment, and that is the UN security, which is responsible for the security of the UN staff. If there are any internal communications by UN security, they are doing their job, it is not meant for public consumption, we will not get into that discussion. Whenever police feel any need for any public announcement, any cautionary warning to the people, they do that, and you should not mix up the two institutions.

AP: If your security thinks that your people might be at risk, why don't you feel the need to tell other people who might be travelling and face the same risk as your people may be facing in those same roads? It's simple, because you are the executive authority, not an organization here, you run the place. If you cannot travel on that road, who can?

Neeraj: First of all, I will not discuss what the UN security thinks about their assessment of staff security. The assessment of the security of staff and the assessment of public security are two separate issues, you should not mix that up. I will not get into any discussion about any internal communications, however you address it I will not get into that.

Blic: A question for Neeraj and for Mr. Pio: do you have information on the presence on the army for an independent Kosovo and are you aware of the alleged deadline until the 15th of October to declare an independent Kosovo?

Neeraj: I think I also addressed this issue in the last press conference. There are reports we see from time to time in the media of groups claiming to operate in the territory of Kosovo. And now you should not mix up with what we have been discussing before. We have no reason to believe that in all these cases these groups are indeed existing or operating in Kosovo. It doesn't take much to create the impression of a group existing and operating, so there the media should be cautious and exercise discretion so as to not enhance the credibility of a phenomenon that may or may not exist. What we certainly do is, police on their part do take all reports seriously, and they take all measures necessary to investigate and to address such kind of reports. But apart from that you should not unduly magnify the seriousness of such issues.

Reuters: One for KFOR and one for UN. Is KFOR allowed to disarm these individuals under its rules of engagement? And for Neeraj, does the UN see these individuals as a greater threat to the UN itself rather than the people of Kosovo?

Col Sabetta: In this case we have specific rules of engagement that depends on the situation and that can be also a possibility.

Neeraj: On your question to me, as we have said, as the Commissioner has said today also, there are reports of some criminal groups in the west of Kosovo. The police are looking into it, they are taking the necessary measures and at this time our assessment is that the security situation is stable and therefore we do not see any direct threat in that sense.

AP: For KFOR, have you advised your soldiers to do anything regarding the chicken flu? Are you dealing with that problem at all?

Col Sabetta: We have initiated an information campaign in KFOR concerning that problem and of course we will follow all the regulation that will be adopted for this kind of problem.

AP: [inaudible]

Col Sabetta: We have taken the normal measures that everyone is taking in this case. We are explaining to the soldiers how to behave to avoid any kind of contact with birds and this kind of stuff.

Radio Kosova: Given that now the chicken flu is present in many countries, including Greece, all the measures that have been undertaken by Kosovo and considering the limited budget, do you believe that we can do something and do you believe that we can provide vaccines or other medications, protective measures or medications that are necessary with the ministry of agriculture and the ministry of health, as you know there are many limitations with regard to the budget to provide such necessary measures?

Neeraj: The Kosovo Government has already initiated preventive actions in this regard and the measures that the Kosovo government is taking are absolutely correct. We are working very closely with the Kosovo government to support them in this initiative and on the specific questions of resources etc I would direct you to the Kosovo institutions because they are in the lead, of course with our full support.

Radio Kosova: In all our context, we know that our budget in the ministry of agriculture as well as the ministry of health these are two issues, these are initiatives that should be dealt with by these two ministries and we know their very low budget around six percent that cannot fulfill the needs and my question is what kind of support shall you provide. Shall you seek any assistance by whoever to support the Kosovars and the government in this case?

Neeraj: On the resource management you should be asking the Kosovo government. Certainly from our side we are fully in support of the government and whatever support is required will be provided. What is important is that it is indeed a serious issue but, at the same time, it is not an issue for which there should be undue alarm at this stage. The Kosovo government is already taking preventive action, I understand they are also doing regular, almost daily, press briefings by the ministry of agriculture and the ministry of health is working with them. So we have to see as it goes, at this stage there is no reason for undue alarm on that count because all the authorities are taking all the necessary measures.

Express: A follow-up on a previous question. Are UNMIK and KFOR aware of the possibility of people being angry with the way of solving final status, and are you in a better situation than March 2004?

Neeraj: To address the second part of your question first, a lot of lessons were learned from the riots in March last year and a lot of measures have since been taken by UNMIK and KFOR to improve on the security response mechanism for any public order situation. So definitely on that count I can confidently say that the security establishment is better prepared for any public order situation that may arise. The political process relating to the status talks has been going very smoothly as per the timeline that was defined more than a year back, that the SRSG talked about I think in September/October last year, everything has gone in accordance with that plan. As you know there is going to be a Security Council meeting on Monday and then we are looking forward to going into the next phase. The security situation remains stable, there have been several challenges in the past months when the Kosovo people have shown themselves very mature and willing to go ahead on the way forward through peaceful and democratic means. So there is no reason to believe that there would be any destabilization because all the indicators are very positive. At the same time, of course, the security establishment remains prepared to address any eventuality in the course of this process where there may be any groups trying to destabilize the process, but at this time all the indicators are positive and stable.

Any more questions? Thank you.