UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
KFOR Spokesman Major Steve Shappell
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
UNMIK Spokeswoman Susan Manuel
SRSG Bernard Kouchner addresses the Security Council this afternoon, New York time. So we will try to get you his remarks as soon as possible but they will probably be tomorrow morning.
KTC-IAC
The Kosovo Transitional Council is meeting now. They are getting a briefing on the security situation. They will also get a briefing from the new Temporary Media Commissioner Simon Haselock.
The draft regulation on the rules of procedure and evidence for that Housing and Property Commission was discussed yesterday in the Interim Administrative Council (IAC).
Yesterday the IAC also named Mr.Sabri Kicmari of the PDK as the new Kosovo co-head for Local Administration following the resignation of Mr. Rame Buja.
The IAC was also informed that Dr. Kouchner signed the 'Rexhep Luci Regulation on Construction' before he left for NY. There's a press release outside on that regulation, which requires that all building done since 10 June 1999 have a construction permit from the municipalities and it says that in order to get permits for proposed buildings or any changes to buildings, the building must meet environmental, technical and safety standards and fit with municipal urban plan. The regulation authorizes municipal authorities to take any action necessary to protect health, safety or security in the case of unlicensed buildings, that action could include demolition. There are some demolition orders pending in Pristina as you probably know.
Hunger strike
Yesterday and today UNMIK officials have been visiting with the former prisoners of Dubrava who are on hunger strike, and today Dr. Kouchner's senior adviser Eric Chevalier is going with the medical assessment team to review the condition of some of the prisoners who seem to be ill probably from their prior imprisonment.
Department of Youth
Tomorrow the Department of Youth co-heads will do their briefing at 10 a.m. in room C.301 upstairs. They will be talking about the activities of their Departments and about Youth week which begins on 1 October. They are Bernard Cocco and Driton Lajci.
Concert
Tonight the Department of Culture holds the premiere of the Kosovo Philharmonic Orchestra. It will be in the Centre for Culture, Youth and Sport (Boro-Ramiz Center) at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the door from 7 p.m. The program includes works by Mozart, Bach, Albinoni and Mendi Mengjiqi.
KPC
Fifteen members of the Kosovo Protection Corps who have participated in a radiation-monitoring course in Ukraine for fourteen days, as part of the IOM/KPC training programme, are flying back to Kosovo tomorrow. They will be arriving at 9:15 a.m. at Slatina Airport, where they will be available for interviews on their training on radiation monitoring.
KFOR Spokesman Major Steve Shappell
Multinational Held Exercise
Yesterday, KFOR soldiers in Multinational Brigade East conducted a Multinational training exercise. The aim of the exercise was to increase the interoperability of KFOR forces.
The KFOR Commander, Lt. Gen. Juan Ortuño attended the exercise and upon its conclusion offered this assessment.
"Yesterday I observed, together with KFOR Russian contingent commander Lt. Gen. Valerii Yevtukhovich and Multinational Brigade East commander Brig. Gen. Dennis E. Hardy, the KFOR training exercise in Multinational Brigade East which included major participation by soldiers from the United States and Russia. I was truly impressed by the dedication, hard work and professionalism of all the participating soldiers. This force-on-force exercise was highly successful, and shows the ability of KFOR multinational troops to effectively work together to counter any level of threat to security of Kosovo."
Remains Found
Yesterday morning while digging a hole near Multinational Brigade North's Serment de Koufra barracks, soldiers assigned to the Headquarters, Multinational Brigade North uncovered what appeared to be some human remains. After an initial investigation by the French Gendarmerie, a criminal investigation expert was called in and discovered additional remains. UNMIK Police and ICTY have been informed and are investigating.
KFOR Vehicle Hits Teenager
Early yesterday evening in Multinational Brigade West, KFOR Task Force Sauro reported that during a funeral procession near Strellc i Eperm / Gornj Streoc a truck driven by a KFOR soldier accidentally struck a 14 year old child who had been running beside the truck. The slightly injured child was transported to the Peja / Pec civilian hospital for treatment of his cuts and bruises. According to UNMIK Police who witnessed the incident, the KFOR driver was not at fault. KFOR regrets the accident.
And finally we have two up-coming media opportunities. The first is in MNB East where members of the media will have the opportunity Saturday 30 Sept to photograph and video tape a combined MNB East team humanitarian assistance efforts as the two groups finish rebuilding a fence around one of the few Serbian-Albanian school grounds in Kosovo. Second Gen. Fawzen the MNB North commander will hold his first press conference on Friday 29 Sept at 11 o'clock in Mitrovica. If you want to go to any of these opportunities or you want further information please see the Brigadier or one of those in the Press Center.
OSCE Spokesman Roland Bless
It was with great sadness that the OSCE was informed of the untimely of Mr. Ramadan Vranici. Mr. Ramadan Vranici was a member of the newly appointed Media Appeals Board. He was also a well-respected and distinguished lawyer and the former President of the Supreme Court of Yugoslavia. We regret having lost this national member of the Media Appeals Board and the OSCE extends its deepest condolences to his wife and family.
On Friday I informed you that three political parties were fined for violations of the political party code of conduct. I have some details today. The first case refers to the PDK. On 20 September, the Democratic Party of Kosovo held a rally in Glogovac and some supporters of the party were seen firing shots in the air. KFOR tape-recorded this incident and recovered at least five empty cartridges from the scene. First, the Election Complaints and Appeals Sub-commission (ECAC) and the PO sub-commission have been made aware that prior to the said rally, PDK supporters spray-painted PDK and Thaci pictures on several public buildings at the rally site. The decision is that the PDK Glogovac is fined DM 1,000 for this violation.
The second case refers to the AAK. The AAK held a rally in Gjakova- Dukagini Novoselo location on 16 September. Three KPC/TMK persons were placed near the stage in uniform at this rally. This is being attested by international monitors present at the rally. UNMIK regulation stipulates that the Kosovo Protection Corps shall not take part in any political activity. The AAK Gjakova is fined DM 500 for this incident.
The third one refers to the PDK Glogovac once more. On 16 September, an OSCE public information sponsored event was held in Glogovac in order to promote the upcoming municipal elections. Following this event at approximately 10 p.m., the Democratic Party of Kosova held a gathering in the centre of the town. At this gathering cars displaying PDK posters started driving up and down the main street of Glogovac. These cars included the ambulance of the Glogovac Health Center, which is public property. It used its sirens and displayed PDK posters. The demonstration lasted for about half an hour. For this incident the party is fined DM 1,000.
All three parties are given five days to pay the fine towards the Party Support fund. These fines will be deductible for them or from the overall spending limits and if the fine is not paid within five days, the ECAC Sub-commission considers recommending to the Central Election Commission that a candidate of each party is taken off the candidates' list. You will get a detailed press release on these cases this afternoon including the full decision. I cannot give this to you right now because the deadline for the legal hearing expired at 11.20 this morning so it's only about half an hour old.
Questions
Q: What will change in your relationship with Serbia if the opposition candidate Kostunica wins the Yugoslav elections?
SM: I don't see what that will change. Nothing will change the mandate of UNMIK, which is Security Council resolution 1244. I understand your question and it is more of a political nature and at this point I can't predict.
Q: I am wondering if Dr. Kouchner in his meetings in New York will discuss the Yugoslav elections and the results and if there will be any kind of change here?
SM: Again we can't judge that until it happens. His scheduled discussion is supposed to be on the work of UNMIK in Kosovo over the last several months. Undoubtedly, I would think the topic might come up but it is not an official point of his discussions.
Q: What about the results of the Yugoslav elections. It seems that there is real tension in Serbia now which might have some influence on Kosovo. What is the actual position of KFOR troops here? Are they in a state of alert, do you have any kind of plans if something happens in the north with Montenegro?
SS: KFOR will continue to do what it has been doing ever since it got here providing safe and secure and environment. Every commander in KFOR constantly assesses the security situation in his area and will respond to whatever threats to Kosovo that there are.
Q: Inaudible
SS: Each threat is looked at on a case by case basis. If a threat arises, that commander will assess what he needs to do to counter that threat.
Q: Inaudible
SS: We are assessing every threat on a case by case basis.
Q: Tanjug, the official news agency of Yugoslavia, has announced that there will be a run-off on 8 October. Can we safely assume, given Mr. Kouchner's statements last week that UNMIK is now preparing to witness these run-off elections as well?
SM: At this point we are not really pre-judging the outcome of the elections despite Tanjug's announcement. Obvioulsy if there is a legitimate second round we would be prepared to re-run the same witness project but we are not at this point pre-judging the outcome of the Yugoslav elections.
Q: Presumably you are going to wait for the outcome of the elections until Dr. Kouchner announces the conditions under which Kosovo Serbs might vote in the second round.
SM: The elections are currently in dispute in Yugoslavia and we are waiting to see how that plays out.
Q: Is the regulation on demolition going to take effect retroactively to affect buildings that are suspected of being illegal but have already been constructed or this is simply coming into force for buildings which are yet to be built and will people be physically sent around to the illegal constructions in Pristina to verify documents on such constructions?
SM: The regulation is retroactive to I believe 10 June 1999. What kind of action will actually be taken is not spelled out in the regulation and the sanctions have to be developed. I know that there are currently three demolition orders that have been issued for buildings in Pristina but obviously as you know there are thousands of unlicensed structures. The sanctions have not yet been defined.
Q: The orchestra that you just mentioned, are there any minorities representation in its ranks or is only a purely Kosovo Albanian orchestra?
SM: I would have to consult the Department of Culture.
Q: Is the Novasela family house going to be demolished as was planned? Secondly, what state of alert is KFOR in, and lastly, could you say more about the human remains, do you know how many bodies there were?
SM: I know that the house you are referring to received notification that it was illegal. I have to confirm whether it is one of the houses for which demolition orders were issued and I believe that it is. Yes.
Q: Inaudible
SM: Yes, and it is in Dragodan.
SS: Regarding the remains at this point it looks that there are two sets of remains. I don't have any more information. Investigation will be made to see who they were and how they died but right now it looks like there are two sets of remains.
Q: Inaudible
SS: I don't have any information and as I said it changes so often. Each commander assesses threats and responds to them so I am not going to give any information now.
Q: Inaudible
SS: Again, it depends on the situation. When there is a situation they respond to it.
Q: Roland, do you now have the definite figures, how many people have registered for the elections in Kosovo and how many polling stations will you have for the local elections in Kosovo?
RB: Just to get your question right, I understand you are asking how many people there are on the voters' list rather than how many people have registered. No I don't have the definite figure yet. The voters' list is being finalized. The date for going in to print is beginning of October. We have around 920,000 right now and for instance last Friday, I announced that 16,000 appeal cases were added to that so it changes and has to be included and of course the remaining erroneous data has to be corrected to a possible minimum of below five percent. Our database experts are confident that they can finalize this work by the end of this week.
The polling stations depend a little bit on the final total in the voters' list. The design is the following: we will have roughly 1,200 polling stations and each has a designed capacity of 700 voters a day which makes for a 12-hour period from 7 in the morning to 7 at night. People will go to the registration sites where they registered and from there they will be assigned to different polling stations. Why this? The registration was meant to last for 10 weeks so they were handling a capacity of may be 150 to 200 registrants a day. On election day, there is only one day so the capacity has to be massively increased so we have 400 of polling centres which are then subdivided usually into several polling stations with a holding capacity of 700 voters on an average each.
Q: Apparently yesterday there was a meeting of small parties, specifically the Turkish minority party. There seems to have been a bit of a dispute between two Turkish parties. Can you give me some idea because one of the reasons why the Turkish parties are still reluctant to participate, at least one party of the Turkish community is the issue of identity cards. Can you tell me if the issue of the Turkish language during the elections has been resolved definitely now?
RB: On language we follow the UNMIK policy. Second the language issue as such has not been solved. You remember the compromise between Dr. Kouchner and the Turkish Foreign Minister was not acceptable to some of the Turkish groups here in Kosovo and therefore they still abstained from registering and consequently voting. The formula by which we work is that no official documents are printed in Turkish language but we accommodate Turkish in our information material as much as possible especially in those regions where Turks number a significant portion of the overall population. I have presented to you a few of these examples here, these in our handouts, leaflets or if an official document is not printed in Turkish, at least the explanatory sheet is or if you have the abstract for the political party there is a little print in the Turkish language on the Turkish Party, the one that is participating.
SM: ID cards are going to be in Turkish. That is part of the agreement they made in Ankara.
RB: Let us be precise here. The Turkish alphabet with its specific characters is going to be used. It has been used for registration and voting purposes and I think travel documents production as well.
Q: I would like to know whether you are going to fine parties who are using children in the election campaign? Children are leaving school to take part in these rallies. Are you going to fine these parties?
RB: I don't know. I cannot pre-empt the decision of the Election Complaints and Appeals Commission. I know that there are cases pending and they have to take a decision on.
Q: Inaudible
RB: Yes, there were rare cases where we were informed that children were used to spray graffiti. That is being looked into.