PRESS BRIEFING BY KOSOVO SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY KOSOVO SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE

"My goal is to get Kosovo away from the headlines, but at the same time to keep the international community interested in what is going on in there", Hans Haekkerup, recently appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Kosovo told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

Mr. Haekkerup, who is the current Defence Minister of Denmark, will take up his new duties on 15 January 2001, replacing Dr. Bernard Kouchner.

The biggest problem in Kosovo was the violence, said Mr. Haekkerup. While there were some means to address it now, in the long-term the precondition for effectively reducing it would be a political solution. A final settlement was also not around the corner and it would take some to get there. "What I intend to do is to implement Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) in a way that will move the province towards what we describe as provisional self-government", he said. That, of course, meant elections.

"I would like to call elections as soon as possible, with the stress on the 'as possible'", said Mr. Haekkerup. There were some technical questions that had to be solved, but those could be resolved. When calling Kosovo-wide elections, however, first and foremost Kosovars had to know what they were electing -- an assembly and a government -- and the potential competence of those institutions.

"First we have to find or define the legal framework for provisional self- government", Mr. Haekkerup went on to say. While that would take some months, he intended to speed up the work that had already been started on that. When provisional self-government was established he would start transferring some departments and gradually transfer more and more when that provisional government was ready to take over. It was all part of taking over responsibilities, including the economic running of the province, so that decisions went hand-in-hand. That was a very important part of the whole political process.

Mr. Haekkerup said he would also do some restructuring to the way the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) was put together. "We are now one and half years into the mission and some of the pillars or organizations which played a big part in the start up now had a smaller role mainly because the problems they had addressed were solved or at least partly resolved. When we hand over departments to provisional self-government this means that some of the work of the other pillars will be changed", he said. He would report on that to the United Nations in a few months, after he had looked at it closely. Hopefully, all of those efforts would prepare the way for a final political settlement.

Mr. Haekkerup said that there were other questions and, in the longer term, the economy and property rights were very important issues in solving the problems of the province. The goal for the future, however, would be for Kosovo to have self-sustained growth, so that Kosovars could sustain themselves. "What

Haekkerup Briefing - 2 - 20 December 2000

I hope for is the cooperation of the international community and the people of Kosovo in this process", he said.

When asked whether he would consider the Belgrade proposal to have more Yugoslav troops in the Ground Safety Zone, Mr. Haekkerup said the Military Technical Agreement was the responsibility of KFOR, not UNMIK. He would, however, consult with the former on that matter.

Asked whether change to the military agreement was something that should be looked at seriously as a way to calm the situation, Mr. Haekkerup said that it was very important to consider all the options, but he would like to go to the area first to get his own impressions before he spoke more on the matter.

A correspondent also wanted to know what Mr. Haekkerup thought was the main obstacle to progress in the Kosovo process. He responded that the main factor was time. Generally speaking, during the term of the outgoing Special Representative, shortcomings had been corrected. "We are now much closer to having the organization, the force and the numbers that are necessary for carrying out our task", he said. "But the time factor here is important." The changes in Belgrade were a very good step in the right direction and hopefully the outcome of the elections in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 23 December would move things even further in the right direction.

He went on to say that the short-term effect on things in Kosovo was negative, because some Kosovars felt frustrated, fearing that the international community was now focusing more on Belgrade, rather than their province.

How would local Kosovar Serbs be engaged in the local self-government process? a correspondent asked. Mr. Haekkerup said that group had an interest in participating in the process because it would impact on their day-to-day lives. He would also develop his contacts with Kosovo's Serbs, to ensure that they were part of the process.

When asked whether he had any approximate figure for the resolution of Kosovo, Mr. Haekkerup said he would address the legal framework first by consulting with interested parties and countries and trying to get as much consensus as possible. In the areas where there was no consensus, he would have to make the final decisions. That would take some months, but that was the time frame he envisaged. A lot would, however, depend on the Kosovars themselves and other interested parties.

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