UNEP/HABITAT BALKANS TASK FORCE TO BEGIN WORK IN KOSOVO

7 July 1999

Press Release
UNEP/38

UNEP/HABITAT BALKANS TASK FORCE TO BEGIN WORK IN KOSOVO

19990707 GENEVA/NAIROBI, 7 July (UNEP/Habitat) -- The joint United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) Balkans Task Force on Environment and Human Settlements (BTF) has established working relationships with the principal United Nations authorities in Kosovo, and the KFOR leadership, in order to share information and coordinate activities related to environment and human settlements, Pekka Haavisto, BTF Chairman, announced here today. He said that a BTF team would soon begin work with the Interim Civil Administration component of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

Mr. Haavisto, who was in Kosovo and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia last weekend, said that, following agreement with the acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and the Regional Coordinator for United Nations Assistance in the Balkans, Martin Griffiths, a BTF (Habitat-led) team of experts will design strategies for local authorities and communities so that they can effectively participate in the reconstruction efforts. The team will concentrate on creating mechanisms for land title registration, resolving tenancy and property disputes, and strengthening municipal administration and leadership. It was agreed that UNEP be involved in the areas of the establishment of an "environmental administration" (in the framework of general civil administration) and environmental education and training, said Mr. Haavisto.

In Pristina last weekend, the BTF team also met with commanders from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. The KFOR has started an assessment of the damage to human settlements and infrastructure (that is, water availability) in Kosovo, and agreed to fully cooperate, and share their findings, with the planned BTF mission.

Early preparatory BTF missions to the Balkans region have included visits to Serbia (which included trips to Pancevo and Novi Sad oil refinery) and Montenegro. Mr. Haavisto has also discussed cooperation with the Danube Commission and other partner organizations.

The upcoming mission to Kosovo is part of the full-scale BTF environmental assessment mission that is preparing to travel to the region this month. This mission, encompassing multidisciplinary teams of scientific experts, will assess the impact of the Balkans conflict on the environment and human health, and make

- 2 - Press Release UNEP/38 7 July 1999

specific recommendations. The experts will concentrate their work at identified "hot-spots" of environmental risk at locations in Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and along the Danube River in Romania/Bulgaria.

"The need for a neutral, objective and scientifically credible comprehensive report on the environmental and human settlement situation in the Balkans region is of paramount important", said Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP and Acting Executive Director of Habitat.

An earlier United Nations inter-agency mission to the region recommended that UNEP, together with Habitat and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), carry out a detailed assessment of the environmental situation with the aim of identifying specific needs for targeted assistance. This recommendation was echoed by European Union Environment ministers at the Council Meeting on the Environment in Luxembourg last month (23-24 June). Welcoming the efforts of UNEP/Habitat, the ministers said it was now necessary to immediately start obtaining reliable and verifiable information for assessing the type and extent of environmental consequences of the conflict.

The European Union Council also concluded that it is important to rapidly move from an assessment of the environmental problems to establishing what remediation efforts are necessary, and that particular urgency must be given to tackling environmental damages that pose a threat to human health and thus require humanitarian aid. And, that addressing the environmental damage and preventing further damage is an integral part of the reconstruction efforts.

The latest information on the work of the BTF can be accessed from the World Wide Web at http://www.grid.unep.ch/btf -- the site contains information that was not previously in the public domain, such as detailed situation reports and maps. The site also contains general information on the task force, the latest news, developments and contacts, and links to United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other important partner sites.

Mr. Toepfer established the joint UNEP/Habitat BTF in May to look at the direct environmental and human settlements impacts of the conflict in the Balkans and to the wider consequences to countries of the region, including Bulgaria and Romania.

For more information contact: Tore J. Brevik, UNEP spokesman on tel: (254-2) 623292, e-mail: tore.brevik@unep.org; or Robert Bisset, Office of the Spokesman, UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya, on tel: (254 2) 623084, fax: 623692, e-mail: robert.bisset@unep.org.

* *** *