PRESS BRIEFING BY HEAD OF SECURITY COUNCIL MISSION TO KOSOVO

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY HEAD OF SECURITY COUNCIL MISSION TO KOSOVO

Given the problems with which it was faced, the United Nations was doing a magnificent job in Kosovo, Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh and head of the Security Council mission to Kosovo, told the media at United Nations Headquarters today during a press briefing on the findings of that mission.

He expressed his disappointment that it had not proven possible for the mission's report to be presented in an open Security Council meeting, he said, despite his request for such a meeting prior to the mission's departure from New York. It had been presented in the Council's informal consultations this morning.

Such reports should be presented openly in the future, he said. He hoped, at least, that the mission currently under way to the Democratic Republic of the Congo would be able to present its report in a formal, public Security Council meeting.

Ambassador Chowdhury invited the media to obtain copies of both the report itself, now a public document (document S/2000/363), and of the text of introductory remarks he had made on it in the Council's informal consultations.

Without seeing the United Nations operations in Kosovo, it would not have been possible for Council members to comprehend the enormity of the task the United Nations faced, he said. He was confident that when the Security Council adopted resolution 1244 -- setting up the operation -- it had no clue that the tasks the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) would have to undertake would be so wide-ranging. For all practical purposes, the United Nations was running Kosovo.

The mission also sent a message to the people in Kosovo, he said. Council members had asked Kosovars to reject violence and to try to build a secure and safe society, because a multi-ethnic society was the best and the only hope for the region's future.

The two-and-a-half day mission had visited north, south, east and west Kosovo, he said, and had many meetings with representatives of the Albanian and Serb communities. From the headquarters of the Kosovo force to the grave sites of Dakovica, it had been a very intense programme. However, that very intensity and tightness, and the presentation of its report the day following its return, meant the Council mission had yielded results. Future Council missions should be organized just as tightly and intensely, he observed.

The issue constantly raised was that of missing persons and detainees, he said. Hundreds of families had gathered with photographs of their relatives, many missing for as long as twelve months. That was a large humanitarian issue, and the Council could not maintain its credibility unless it addressed it. Something must be done regarding missing people, irrespective of their ethnicity, and he hoped the Council would act when it took up the various findings in the mission's report.

Kosovo Briefing - 2 - 1 May 2000

Each Council member had chosen which of the two current missions -- to the Democratic Republic of the Congo or to Kosovo -- it would attend, he explained in response to a question about the composition of the mission. The only rule on their composition was that no member would be allowed to attend both missions.

Asked to identify the key problems in Kosovo, he described three areas that required attention. The first was the fate of missing people and detainees, which, as he had previously stated, required immediate attention. The second was the question of security and the violence that was occurring. The third area was refugees, displaced people and returnees. Those were the challenges ahead of UNMIK as it proceeded with its broader capacity-building and institution-building role.

Those three issues affected the broader concerns of the municipal elections, economic recovery, and the building of administrative structures, he added. UNMIK was now preparing for Kosovo municipal elections expected in October. Registration was under way, but doubts had been raised about the process as many Serbs were not registering because they did not feel safe. The critical economic recovery had also been interrupted many times by outbreaks of violence.

While major challenges remained in Kosovo, he said, he had been impressed by the clear desire expressed by both communities to live peacefully together. Reconciliation was a difficult process, and wounds did not heal overnight. However, he saw the younger generation, which was hopefully looking forward to a bright future as part of Europe, as a source of hope.

The international community was there to help them, he said. A police school the Council mission visited was training 350 Kosovars every five weeks to be police officers. Fifteen per cent of graduates were Serb, and about 20 per cent were women. Human rights education formed part of the curriculum. This was an excellent example of forward-looking institution-building.

Asked about the prospective validity of elections if Kosovar Serbs did not take part, he said that if no Serbs participated, it would certainly detract from the credibility of the election exercise. Serbs must come to understand that participation was in their interest, but an improvement in the security situation would also facilitate Serb participation. Bishop Artemije of the Serb National Council told the mission that the difficulties Serbs faced in returning and registering for the election were known, but that they nonetheless intended to participate. The Serbs themselves were therefore engaged in the process of confidence building.

Voter registration would continue until July, he explained. He believed that there would be opportunities in coming weeks to build confidence. One way would be to extend UNMIK's mandate, due to expire in June. If UNMIK remained and continued its work, that would send an important message.

The law and order situation had improved tremendously, he said. Although there were still stray incidents, such incidents could occur in any stable part of the world. The KFOR and UNMIK's Civilian Police were stabilizing influences.

A proposal had been made that UNMIK extend the "confidence area" where people could move freely in Mitrovica to include a particular Serbian Orthodox church and an Albanian cemetery, he said. Travel to each of those places, across territory dominated by the other group, caused constant problems.

In addition, the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Bernard Kouchner, was planning to register Serbs in Serb localities, so they would not have to travel to centres located in areas where they felt afraid. Such things would also help.

Asked about the decision by the representatives of China and the Russian Federation on the Council mission to travel to Belgrade as well to meet the Yugoslav leadership, he explained that their visit took place outside the time- frame of the mission, and that, therefore, the delegates had a sovereign right to do what they wished.

While the mission was in Kosovo, the eight members worked together as a team, he said.

Regarding the choice by representatives from States that were also members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rather than to Kosovo, he said that every Council member had been free to choose.

Asked for details about the proposed special envoy for missing persons, he said that idea had not yet been accepted by the Council. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had recently established a special envoy for missing persons in Iraq, and that post could serve as a model if the Council so decided. But it might also decide to create its own kind of mandate. It was too early to say anything specific about the role of an envoy.

The Council currently faced four major peacekeeping operations -- Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo -- he explained in answer to a suggestion that the Kosovo operation might suffer as international attention was focused elsewhere. The Council attended to all the world's trouble spots on a regular basis, and he did not believe UNMIK or Kosovo would suffer because of attention given to other operations. The UNMIK and KFOR were well-entrenched in Kosovo, and their involvement was very focused.

Asked what more could be done for Kosovo by the international community, he explained that more civilian police were needed. The Council had approved some 4,700 civilian police, but only 3,100 were in place. He appealed to all countries to volunteer trained police personnel to the mission, and suggested that Bangladesh might even increase the size of its contingent.

In addition, there was a serious need for civilian administrators, he said. At present, only 45 per cent of UNMIK's civilian staff were in situ, and the United Nations Secretariat must find ways to speed up recruitment and deployment of much-needed staff. The Council might seek ways to address the slowness of recruitment for that mission, he suggested.

He said, in response to another question, that whilst the United Nations was responsible for the costs of the Council mission's travel to and from Kosovo, the costs of additional travel by mission members to Belgrade had not been borne by the Organization.

Measures such as the levying of customs duties and the issuing of stamps by UNMIK did not constitute breaches of the UNMIK mandate, established in

Security Council resolution 1244, but rather were part of the normalization of the situation in Kosovo that the resolution called for, he told another questioner. It was only appropriate that UNMIK be paid for services it rendered.

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