UNMIK Spokesperson Myriam Dessables
Good morning,
The SRSG has wrapped up his visit to New York. In addition to addressing the Security Council, the SRSG met with the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, with other senior UN officials and with Ambassadors from Member States. He is now on his way to Germany where he will attend a conference on Kosovo in Bad Boll on the 23rd - 24th March.
Today at 14:15, the PDSRSG Steven Schook is meeting with a delegation of the Socialist International headed by Sergej Stanishev, Prime Minister of Bulgaria and Mr. George Papandreou - President of the Socialist International and former Foreign Minister of Greece. There will be a Photo-Op at the beginning of the meeting.
We have a new KPC Coordinator. Major General Chris Steirn CBE will depart Kosovo on Friday 23 March after 14 months in post as the KPC Coordinator. He will hand over his duties to Major General Matthew Sykes, from the United Kingdom, who arrived in Kosovo on Monday 19 March. General Sykes was commissioned into the British Royal Artillery in 1976. His most recent appointment was as Director Royal Artillery and his most recent tour of duty was in 2004 when he was the last Deputy Commander of the NATO Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Let me take this opportunity to express UNMIK's sincere gratitude to General Steirn for all his hard work and significant achievements during his time as KPC Coordinator, and extend a warm welcome to General Sykes.
Mr. Philippe DOUSTE-BLAZY, French Foreign Minister will be in Pristina tomorrow. He will meet with PDSRSG Steven Schook and COMKFOR Roland Kather at 14.15. There will be a photo Op at the beginning of the meeting and a press point at 15.00 hrs here at UNMIK Main HQ.
In our countdown press release series we have today a press release on DOJ saying that the Department of Justice combines prosecutions with local capacity building. The press release says that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has made great strides in the area of prosecuting serious crime, including cases of corruption, terrorism, war crimes and March 2004 riots cases.
The DOJ has also continued the transition of responsibilities to local institutions, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Kosovo Judicial Council (KJC), and has established the Kosovo Special Prosecutors Office (KSPO) to enable local prosecutors to take on more serious cases in the future, including corruption, organized crime and crimes against public office.
The press release provides statistics on cases being currently worked on by prosecutors. It also highlights what has been accomplished in the area of capacity-building with the Kosovo institutions.