Complete UN Kosovo Coverage

Kosovo Interim Administrative Council sets out civil service recruitment policy
FEBRUARY 25 -- The Kosovo Interim Administrative Council (IAC) today agreed to create a professional civil service that will remain when the administration is handed over to Kosovo's people after international administrators leave.
The IAC guidelines lay out an objective and transparent recruitment policy aimed at hiring the best experts in the field, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said in a statement. It said the staff would be paid out of the Kosovo Consolidated Budget and the staffing tables were being worked out.
The new Interim Joint Administrative Structure, launched on 15 December, has 19 departments, four of which became operation on 22 February.
The Council also heard a briefing by the head of UNMIK, Dr. Bernard Kouchner, on his meeting yesterday with Serb community leaders in the first of a series of encounters aimed at working out a strategy for improving security in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica. Dr. Kouchner, who was accompanied by the commander of the international peacekeeping force (KFOR), General Klaus Reinhardt, met with the delegation led by the president of the Serb National Council for Kosovska Mitrovica (SNC), Mr. Oliver Ivanovic.
The meeting, which lasted for over one hour, was described by UNMIK as tough but positive, with both Dr. Kouchner and Mr. Ivanovic qualifying it as beginning of negotiations towards restoring normality in Mitrovica.
In his remarks to the media following the meeting on Thursday, Dr. Kouchner said it was "the first millimetre on the way to co-existence and a very important starting point," adding that another meeting was planned for next week.

Kosovo Transitional Council calls for urgent action on missing and detained persons
FEBRUARY 23 -- The Kosovo Transitional Council (KTC) today urged the international community, and the UN Security Council in particular, to put maximum pressure on Belgrade authorities to release all detainees from Kosovo held unlawfully in Yugoslav prisons.
The KTC said in a statement issued following its regular meeting that Belgrade should also be pressured to cooperate with international authorities in clarifying the destiny of a large number of missing persons. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), some 3,000 other people, mostly Kosovo Albanians, remain unaccounted for.
The head of the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), Dr. Bernard Kouchner promised to deliver the statement and raise the issue when he briefs the Security Council on Kosovo in early March.
The KTC called on the Security Council to demand the Belgrade government immediately grant the ICRC unconditional access to all detention facilities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to verify the number of detainees from Kosovo, estimated at some 1,600.
The KTC also urged the Security Council to demand that Belgrade stop all ongoing trials against detainees from Kosovo and hand over all those detainees to UNMIK, acting on behalf of the Joint Interim Administration, for their release or trial, as appropriate. So-called political prisoners should be released immediately without preconditions, the KTC said.
The KTC also called on political leaders from Kosovo to assist in the clarification of the whereabouts of missing persons from the non-Albanian communities, including 346 Serbs, most of whom disappeared after 10 June 1999, according to the ICRC.
The KTC also called for the creation of a 'United City' of Mitrovica and underlined the crucial need to find a political solution to the situation in the ethnically divided city.
The KTC demanded that expulsions be prevented, that freedom of movement be facilitated and that all those who fled their homes, including Albanians and Serbs, be enabled to return safely.
The KTC urged representatives of the Kosovo Serb community to join the Joint Interim Administrative Structure as soon as possible, as a political solution could be achieved only through a "joint effort of the representatives of the international community in Kosovo and of political forces from Kosovo."

Kosovo gets a new mobile telephone network
FEBRUARY 23 -- A new mobile telephone network begun operations in Pristina today and will be extended to cover the rest of the province by September, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) announced.
The network, launched by the local telecommunications company, PTK, and Alcatel-Monaco Telecom, has significantly more channels available than the existing system, which, however, will continue to operate for the time being.
Mr. Gerard Fischer, director of the Department of Economic Affairs and Natural Resources in UNMIK's civil administration pillar, said another significant advantage of the new system was that all the income will stay inside Kosovo. The cost of a local call will be 0.40 deutsche marks (about 20 US cents) per unit during the first phase.
The service is available not only in Pristina but also at the airport and is expected to cover Gracanica, Mr. Fischer said. The service will be extended to seven major cities "not later than six or seven weeks from now," he added. Coverage should extend to all of Kosovo by September.
Mr. Fischer also announced that third-party liability car insurance would now be available following the approval of a licence for the Insurance Institute of Albania.

Kosovo's Administrative Council pledges to work for a united Mitrovica
FEBRUARY 22 -- Kosovo's Interim Administrative Council (IAC) has pledged to work to unite the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica.
In a statement issued after its regular meeting today, the IAC said it was committed to transforming Mitrovica into "a 'United City' without any dividing lines", prevent any further expulsions from the city and protect the property of those displaced. "A political solution to the situation in Mitrovica is of utmost importance," the statement said.
The IAC will facilitate freedom of movement in the city and enable the safe return of all those who have fled their homes, including Serbs from the southern sector, according to the statement read by the head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Dr. Bernard Kouchner.
The IAC said it wanted to enable the Serb population in Mitrovica to stay and lead a normal and peaceful life. "A united city can only be achieved through a gradual process in which the rights and the security of all national communities have to be respected," the Council said.
Addressing tens of thousands of demonstrators in Mitrovica yesterday, Dr. Kouchner, along with the commander of the international peacekeeping force, KFOR, General Klaus Reinhardt, promised to work hard for a united city.
After today's Council meeting, Dr. Kouchner said UNMIK plans to establish a joint administration in Mitrovica under a special administrator, as one of the first steps in restoring co-existence. Serb and Albanian leaders in Mitrovica had agreed in principle but not yet on the numbers of representatives from each community, he said, acknowledging that the process would take "a long time."
Dr. Kouchner said the scheme implied abolishing the 'parallel structures' set up by Serbs in northern Mitrovica, and said UNMIK was working on a "Mitrovica appeal" to donors to fund recovery efforts in the region. "We have to work on building their [ethnic Serb] confidence," he said. "This means not only protection, but the start of resettlement, and also business, work, jobs."

UN envoy tries to calm demonstrators in Mitrovica
FEBRUARY 21 -- In what was reported to be a "very tense and very volatile" situation, the head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Dr. Bernard Kouchner, today addressed a crowd of several thousand demonstrators in the ethnically divided Kosovo city of Mitrovica.
Joining Dr. Kouchner in his attempt to calm the demonstrators were the commander of the international peacekeeping force (KFOR), General Klaus Reinhardt, and the leader of the Kosovo Protection Corps, Mr. Agim Ceku, a UN spokesman said in New York.
The crowd, which had gathered at the bridge over the Ibar River, which divides the south of the city from the largely Serb-populated north, later dispersed, UNMIK said. The incident followed a march of some 20,000 Kosovar Albanian men, women and children from Pristina to Mitrovica.
Earlier, KFOR troops supported by UNMIK police conducted a second day of searches for illegal weapons in several neighbourhoods in Mitrovica. Eleven people were arrested during yesterday's searches and a quantity of arms was confiscated.
KFOR spokesman Lieutenant Commander Philip Anido said that the operation will continue until General Reinhardt is satisfied that illegal activities have been stopped, and dangerous weapons banned from Mitrovica. Approximately 2,500 KFOR soldiers from 12 nations are taking part in the operation.
Before travelling to Mitrovica, Dr. Kouchner discussed the security measures being taken in the city with the Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, General Wesley Clark, who was on a visit to Kosovo.