Security Council members today expressed
their concern over continuing violent incidents in Kosovo and urged the
communities there to "take a different approach to reconciliation,"
Council President Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom said
after a private formal meeting.
Council members condemned the latest
such incident -- the throwing of a grenade into a Serb café in the northern
town of Vitina, he told journalists after the meeting.
"The majority of Council members are firmly in support of what UNMIK and KFOR are doing in trying to bring Kosovo back to normal life," he added.
The Council was briefed on Kosovo by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hédi Annabi, who highlighted several positive developments, according to the spokesman for the Secretary-General.
These included an agreement on an UNMIK-Kosovo Joint Interim Administration Structure, and the complete demilitarization of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
"UNMIK has also made impressive gains in normalizing life," the spokesman quoted Mr. Annabi as telling the Council, noting the distribution of more than 57,000 emergency repair kits, the resumption of limited railway services, the restoration of power supplies and telecommunications and the opening of schools.
However, he had also underscored the challenge of developing an effective social system in Kosovo, where an estimated 50 per cent of the population is expected to be unemployed for the foreseeable future.