WEEKLY DPI/NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION BRIEFING TO BE VIDEOCONFERENCE WITH UN IN KOSOVO

Press Release
PI/1193

WEEKLY DPI/NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION BRIEFING TO BE VIDEOCONFERENCE WITH UN IN KOSOVO

This week's Department of Public Information (DPI)/Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) briefing will be a live videoconference from Pristina, Kosovo, on the work of the United Nations in Kosovo and will take place on Thursday, 28 October, in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium, from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. (EST). United Nations and NGO representatives working in Kosovo, as well as the community of non- governmental organizations associated with the United Nations in Vienna and Geneva, will be linked by satellite live on video with the NGO participants attending the weekly DPI/NGO briefing at Headquarters in New York.

The multi-point videoconference represents an unprecedented effort to link NGO representatives in different cities for a first-hand update on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Participants will discuss the ongoing UN efforts to assist the complex recovery of that devastated province and assure its transition to a peaceful, democratic, multi-ethnic society. The UNMIK was established on 10 June 1999, as a result of Security Council Resolution 1244.

Panellists in Pristina will be Daniela Rozgonova, Deputy Spokesperson, United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK); Peter Kessler, Spokesman for the Special Envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); and Steven Rifkin, Director of the NGO Save the Children. Neil Wright, Head of the Kosovo Desk in the Southeastern Europe Division of the UNHCR, will join the panel from UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva.

Panellists in New York will include Kevin S. Kennedy, Chief, Peace and Security Section, DPI and Paul Hoeffel, Chief, NGO Section, DPI, who will moderate the briefing.

For further information please contact Helene Seligman at (212) 963-1285 or Helene Hoedl at (212) 963-7709 in New York; Elena Ponomareva at the United Nations Office in Geneva, tel: (41-22) 917-2325; Elizabeth Friedel at the United Nations Office in Vienna, tel: (43-1) 26060-5676 or Renate Henke at the United Nations Office in Vienna, tel: (43-1) 26060-3324.

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