Complete UN Kosovo Coverage

Secretary-General forms "group of Friends" to consult on UN operations in Kosovo.
JUNE 25 -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan has formed a "group of Friends" for Kosovo to consult on issues facing the United Nations mission as it sets up operations in the province, a UN spokesman said on Friday.
The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is leading the massive international effort to rebuild Kosovo into a functioning, democratic society.
Mr. Annan has invited 13 countries and three international organizations to come to New York next Wednesday. The provisional list of Friends includes Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the European Union (EU), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
In a preliminary report outlining UNMIK's structure and role, the Secretary-General said he would consult regularly with Governments and organizations that could help him implement the Security Council resolution authorizing the UN Mission.
Meanwhile, the Secretary-General's two Special Envoys for the Balkans are attending meetings over the weekend as part of the international bid to find solutions to the fallout from the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
Special Envoy Eduard Kukan will chair a plenary on the future of the Balkans at the annual International Economic and Political Forum in Crans Montana, Switzerland. Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russia's Special Envoy for Kosovo and Jesse Jackson, the US Special Envoy for the Promotion of Democracy and Human Rights, will also address the Forum.
Other speakers will include Kiro Gligorov, President of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; Montenegro's Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic; Slovenia's President Milan Kucan; Bosnia and Herzegovina's Presidium member Alija Izetbagovic; and Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova.
Carl Bildt, the Secretary-General's other Special Envoy is in Greece where he will participate in an international Seminar titled "Developing a Network of Young Leaders from Southeastern Europe".

Tensions run high between Albanian and Serb communities in Kosovo amid violence and lawlessness.
JUNE 25 -- Tensions gripped parts of Kosovo on Friday amid reports of shootings, sporadic arson attacks and the worst violence in the provincial capital Pristina since the arrival of KFOR troops earlier this month, said a United Nations spokesman.
Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General's Acting Special Representative, who is in charge of setting up the UN operation in Kosovo, went to Mitrovica, where tensions are running high between the Albanian and Serb communities who live on the opposite sides of the river running through the town. A UN refugee agency team which went to Mitrovica on Thursday to open a regional office described the town as "a ticking time bomb".
Meanwhile, in Pristina, the stand-off between Serb and Albanian medical staff at the main city hospital deteriorated further on Friday when negotiations between the two sides under the auspices of the UN and KFOR broke off. UN staff described the atmosphere at the hospital as a microcosm of the problems and challenges elsewhere in the war-torn province.
According to KFOR, 247 Kalishnakov rifles and a similar number of pistols and knives have been seized in the hospital over the past few days. Serb doctors and staff have been confronting Albanian medical staff wanting their jobs back and there has also been violence among patients. A man brought in with a gunshot wound pulled a pistol on a person he claimed was his assailant, triggering an exchange of gunfire.
On the political front, Mr. Vieira de Mello is scheduled to meet in Pristina on Saturday with the four Albanian signatories of the Rambouillet accords, said the spokesman.

Aid workers struggle to find shelter for tens of thousands of refugees flooding back to Kosovo.
JUNE 25 -- As tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians streamed back into Kosovo on Friday, aid workers struggled to find shelter for them in war- devastated villages and to help victims of landmine incidents, said a UN spokesman.
In a huge spontaneous movement, over 300,000 Kosovars have flooded into Kosovo in the last 10 days, with a record high of nearly 50,000 crossing back on Friday, according to the latest figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
But, even as returnees crossed into Kosovo from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonian, Serbian houses burned in Pec. According to UNHCR, it was unclear who was doing the burning -- the scores of Serbians leaving each day because they are afraid of an uncertain future or Kosovo Albanians seeking revenge.
Meanwhile, the aid convoy and relief operation is gathering momentum with dozens of trucks reaching those in need on a daily basis. UNHCR convoys from the Macedonian capital of Skopje carried blankets, mattresses, tents, plastic sheeting and hygienic kits to Pec, Pristina and Prizren.
In other developments, UNHCR announced on Friday that the humanitarian evacuation programme will be suspended at the end of June, with the exception of refugees in need of special medical care. Nearly 90,000 refugees were evacuated to 29 countries under the programme which began in early April to relieve the pressure caused by the flood of refugees into the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Under a repatriation plan, the first organized return of Kosovar refugees, initially to Pristina, Prizren and Urosevac, is scheduled to leave from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on Monday.

Head of UN mission in Kosovo appeals to NATO countries to send administrators and civilian police.
JUNE 24 -- The Secretary-General's Acting Special Representative in Kosovo has appealed to NATO countries to provide civilian police and administrators for swift deployment in the province, a UN spokesman said on Thursday.
Sergio Vieira de Mello, who is in charge of setting up the UN operations in Kosovo, appealed for police contingents during a meeting on Thursday in Pristina with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana and the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General Wesley Clark. He made a similar appeal on Wednesday when he met the foreign Ministers of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) needs 3,000 international police officers, said UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard. Although several countries had indicated their willingness to supply police, the offers had not yet been confirmed. "We need policing capacity now, before lawlessness prevails, after which it will be very hard to introduce order," added Mr. Eckhard.
In other developments in Kosovo, a group of Albanian and Serb leaders, met separately with Mr. Solana and General Clark, and then had their first public encounter at UNMIK headquarters. Serb Archbishop Artemije and Kosovo Liberation Army leader Thaci shook hands and exchanged a few words, the Spokesman said.
Meanwhile, at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, Carl Bildt, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Balkans, said UNMIK was moving quickly to set up its administrative authority. A lot of attention was centered on the power vacuum as it was important to prevent any one group from assuming functions and powers they did not have. Attention would turn to economic conditions as there was a desperate need for food, jobs and economic regulation, he said.

UNHCR set to begin organized return of refugees to safe areas in Kosovo.
JUNE 24 -- The United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is set to begin organized returns of people to areas in Kosovo considered safe by KFOR, the international military force.
UNHCR Special Envoy Dennis McNamara, said on Thursday that organized returns to Urosevac, Prizren and Pristina could begin as early as next week from camps in neighbouring Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Organized movements to other areas will follow as soon as basic requirements for safe and sustainable return are met. These include a secure environment, established international presence by UNHCR and its non-governmental organization partners, and the availability of shelter, food and other assistance.
Despite the dangers posed by landmines and other security threats and the very difficult conditions in their towns and villages, more than 250,000 refugees have returned spontaneously to their homes.

UNICEF to school all Kosovo children; steps up mine-awareness efforts.
JUNE 24 -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday pledged to give every primary school age child in Kosovo the opportunity to be back in school by the start of the academic year in September.
According to UNICEF, Kosovo's education system has been devastated, with many schools vandalized or destroyed and an unknown number of teachers injured or killed. A rapid UNICEF assessment of 13 schools west and south of the provincial capital, found only three considered safe.
Plans are underway to make temporary repairs to moderately damaged primary schools to prepare them for winter, said UNICEF. But many schoolrooms will have to be housed in alternative structures such as the tents used in refugee camps in Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Secretary-General urges patience by Kosovar Albanians while UN readies war-torn province for their return.
JUNE 24 -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday once again urged patience by refugees anxious to go home to Kosovo while the United Nations readies the war-torn province for their return.
"We need the time to be able to prepare the ground, to be able to prepare shelter, to be able to preposition food, for us to be able to look after them when they get back," the Secretary-General said to reporters following wide-ranging talks in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The Secretary-General said the UN had originally planned for 400,000 Kosovar Albanians to go back before the winter, but with the recent spate of spontaneous returns, "the number may be much higher than that."
Mr. Annan is in London for an unofficial visit, where he is scheduled to make two major speeches Friday and Monday. Before departing Moscow, the Secretary-General met with Russian President Boris Yeltsin and had a broad review of the international agenda, including Kosovo.

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JUNE 23 -- Sergio Vieira De Mello, the Secretary-General's Acting Special Representative in Kosovo, briefed European foreign ministers in Pristina on Wednesday about United Nations operations in the battered province.
The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is leading the massive international effort to restore Kosovo with assistance from the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE).
Mr. Vieira De Mello, who is currently heading the UN mission, met with the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy at the new UNMIK headquarters. The top military official in Kosovo, KFOR Commander Lieutenant General Michael Jackson, also attended the meeting. The group then met separately with KLA representatives, ethnic Albanian community leaders and Serbian Archbishop Artemije.
Meanwhile, work is underway to appoint UN-chaired joint civilian commissions that will bring together Serb and ethnic Albanians to address immediate reintegration issues. At least seven commissions will deal with such issues as education, health, public utilities, justice, the economy, finance, communications, and the media.
According to a UN spokesman, the issue of funding for UNMIK's work is a top concern. Trust funds have been set up but so far remain empty. Money is urgently needed to meet the salaries of civil servants, many of whom have not been paid for more than two months. Another priority is funding for small-scale projects including repairs to damaged water supplies, mosques and churches.

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JUNE 23 -- During meetings with top officials in Moscow on Wednesday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan discussed a wide range of issues, including the restoration of Kosovo, global developments and the role of the United Nations.
On day two of his official visit, Mr. Annan met with Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, the Speaker of the Duma, Gennadi Seleznyov, and Alexander Bessmertnykh, who heads a 120-member International Council of Former Foreign Ministers.
The Secretary-General told reporters after his meeting with Mr. Ivanov that he had taken the opportunity to thank the Foreign Minister for the "absolutely essential role" the Russian Federation played in resolving the Kosovo crisis. "Without the Russian leadership and the Russian role we probably would not have an agreement today," Mr. Annan said.
"I am also very grateful for the strong support that the United Nations has received from the Russian Federation," said Mr. Annan. "Without the United Nations, without a strengthened and active United Nations, the world would be a much messier place than it is."
The Secretary-General's meeting with Mr. Stepashin focused almost exclusively on Kosovo, while discussions with Foreign Minister Ivanov touched on Kosovo, Iraq, the Middle East, Afghanistan, India-Pakistan relations and conflicts within the Commonwealth of Independent States.
During their meeting, the Secretary-General and Mr. Seleznev also touched on the situation in Kosovo and the plight of Kosovar Serb refugees.

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JUNE 23 -- As United Nations aid convoys and assessment teams move out to rural areas from Kosovo's capital Pristina, the UN's refugee agency is consolidating relief distribution networks and health services in the war-devastated province.
Under an aid network designed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP), various private aid agencies will be responsible for the delivery of relief to different villages and towns.
The networks will target internally displaced persons, returning refugees and vulnerable Serbs as well as people who have never left their homes, but have had little access to food, water and other supplies during the past three months.
Four WFP helicopter flights a day are distributing emergency supplies to areas inaccessible because of landmines. UNHCR and WHO are also assessing the health care infrastructure and drawing up plans to revitalize it.
Meanwhile, despite heavy rains and huge traffic jams, more than 23,000 refugees in Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia headed home on Tuesday, UNHCR reports. Close to 220,000 people have streamed back to Kosovo in just over a week.
According to a UN spokesman, UNHCR again voiced "mixed feelings" about the rush to return. While agency staff are happy to see the refugees going home, they are very anxious about the threat of landmines and security issues confronting the refugees inside Kosovo, said the spokesman. Four people, including two British soldiers and a child have been killed by landmines.

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JUNE 23 -- Forensic experts from around the world are arriving daily in Kosovo to investigate alleged war crimes sites on behalf of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
According to a UN spokesman, Dutch forensic investigators and an FBI team from the United States were deployed on Wednesday, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are sending a team on the weekend. A British team is expected to finish its work in Velika Krusa by end of weekend, before going onto another site.
Graham Blewitt, the Tribunal's Deputy Prosecutor, told reporters in the Hague that the investigators had to be careful as the situation was still dangerous and booby traps had been found.
In response to a question, Mr. Blewitt said there was some evidence of sites being destroyed. As far as possible, the destruction of sites would be documented as it could be valuable in cases where an accused claimed victims were killed in the course of a battle, in which case, any moved or changed evidence would dispute that, he said.

UNHCR stresses need to provide shelter for refugees streaming back to Kosovo.
JUNE 22 -- The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday that providing shelter in Kosovo is becoming a priority as hundreds of thousands of people flood back to the province only to find their homes and villages destroyed.
The number of people who have returned to Kosovo since the deployment of first KFOR troops is expected to top 200,000 by the end of Tuesday and the stream showed no signs of abating, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Camps in the northern Albanian town of Kukes that housed 35,000 refugees just a week ago are now practically empty.
UNHCR and other aid agencies are rapidly expanding their operations in Kosovo to keep up with what is turning out to be the Balkan's fastest spontaneous return movement during the 1990s wars. Two UNHCR convoys carrying tents, plastic sheeting, blankets and hygiene kits travelled to Podujevo on the strategic road between Kosovo's capital Pristina and Belgrade.
From Prizren, UNHCR teams went to look at conditions in the Suva Reka region and reported severe damage in many villages. In the village of Studencane, for example, only 20 of 500 houses were intact and hundreds of returnees were trying to rebuild their homes. Another team reported that in Prizren's Bogoslavija Monastery, KFOR troops were protecting 50 mainly elderly people. They included Serbs suspected by ethnic Albanians of being collaborators, and other minorities.
The UN refugee agency also opened a supply line on Tuesday between Skopje in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Pec in Western Kosovo, to deliver urgently needed tents. A UN aerial survey last week found that up to 50 per cent of the houses in the heavily devastated area were uninhabitable.
The crucial task of demining was another priority following an explosion which resulted in the first KFOR casualties, said a UN spokesman. The United Nations has deployed demining experts as part of its current 40-strong advance team and expects to have between 50 and 70 deminers on the ground next week.

UN officials in Kosovo confer with ethnic Albanian leaders on future political arrangements.
JUNE 22 -- The acting head of the United Nations mission in Kosovo plans to bring together ethnic Albanian signatories to the Rambouillet Agreement and a local Serb political leader to discuss interim political arrangements for the province, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.
The Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General Sergio Vieira De Mello has been meeting over the last two days with a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leader Thaci, who goes only by his nom de guerre, said Spokesman Fred Eckhard. The Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Balkans, Carl Bildt, joined Monday's meeting.
Within the next few days, the three other ethnic Albanian signatories to the Rambouillet Agreement will be in Pristina and Mr. Vieira De Mello plans to ask them to be part of an advisory council he is forming to discuss interim political arrangements.
Meanwhile, the growing tide of returning Kosovo refugees has swelled the population of the provincial capital Pristina, which now stands at approximately half its normal size. The return has been accompanied by a rise in the crime rate, according to UN reports.
Troops from the international military force, know as KFOR, are responsible for maintaining security, including law and order, until the UN Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) re-establishes a civilian police force and installs international police monitors to oversee their work.

United Nations faces unprecedented tasks in Kosovo, says head of UN mission.
JUNE 21 -- Describing the United Nations role in Kosovo as its greatest challenge since the concept of peacekeeping began in the 1940s, the acting head of the UN mission in the battered province said the world body had never before undertaken such broad and far-reaching executive tasks.
"The UN has been assigned the enormous task of rebuilding Kosovo into a functioning, democratic, tolerant and autonomous society," said Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General's interim Special Representative in Kosovo. He was speaking at a press conference in Pristina on Sunday, after making a public announcement spelling out the authority of the head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
Mr. Vieira de Mello said he would perform the executive functions of government until new legitimate authorities were established. In the next few days, he would appoint international interim administrators at the district and municipal level, deploy an international civilian police force and take steps to re-establish a multi-ethnic and democratic judicial system.
International organizations such as the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) would help to implement these and other responsibilities, said Mr. Vieira de Mello. The international military force, known as KFOR, would ensure public safety and order until UNMIK could assume full responsibility for that task, he added.
Leading an advance team, Mr. Vieira de Mello arrived in Pristina on 13 June, three days after the Security Council had adopted a landmark resolution authorizing the UN mission. His team had already formed close working relations with local authorities to maintain and develop civil administration, utilities, justice and media, he said.
"We have already met with a broad range of political figures in Kosovo. In the coming days we will establish proper consultative mechanisms to fully engage them and the local population in our work. The full participation of the people of Kosovo will be essential to our joint success," he said.
Meanwhile, Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday appointed senior officials who will be responsible for two major components of the UN mission. Dominique Vian was named Deputy Special Representative for the interim civil administration, while Dennis McNamara, UNHCR's Special Envoy for the region, was appointed Deputy Special Representative in charge of refugee return and humanitarian assistance.

Kosovo refugees return home in growing numbers -- UNHCR.
JUNE 21 -- Ever-growing waves of refugees are abandoning camps in Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and returning to their homes in Kosovo, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Monday.
More than 60,000 refugees in the two neighbouring countries returned to the battered province over the weekend, UNHCR said, bringing the total number of returnees so far to nearly 140,000. Most of those going back have been travelling in their own cars and tractors, while others have hired taxis or minivans.
According to UNHCR, fewer than 35,000 of 112,000 refugees remain in Kukes, Albania, near the Kosovo border, while less than 5,000 are still in camps. In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, more than 27,000 refugees headed for home, bringing the total to 49,500 that have already returned.
Meanwhile, UNHCR said truck convoys delivering food and other relief supplies continued to fan out from the Kosovo capital of Pristina, reaching as far west as Pec. Aid agencies are also drawing up plans to use helicopters for airlifting urgently needed relief supplies to remote and inaccessible areas.
In a related development, UNHCR reported that some 150 medical personnel who had been seeking refuge in Montenegro volunteered to return to Kosovo to begin work in hospitals as doctors, nurses and aides.
The UN agency also launched an effort to assist an estimated 50,000 displaced Kosovo Serbs. On Saturday, UNHCR dispatched a relief convoy with 140 metric tonnes of aid to ten municipalities in central Serbia which have the largest concentrations of displaced Serb Kosovars.

Head of UN mission in Kosovo welcomes KLA's agreement to disarm.
JUNE 21 -- The acting head of the UN mission in Kosovo on Monday welcomed the announcement that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had signed an agreement with KFOR, the international military force, to disarm.
Speaking to the press in Pristina, after an announcement that the agreement had been signed on Sunday night, the Secretary-General's acting Special Representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello, described the KLA's undertaking as "a very good news". It meant that armed people would no longer be roaming Kosovo's streets, he said.
Mr. Vieira de Mello also said the agreement would facilitate the work of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), particularly in the deployment of police.
The signing of this document is very important since it means that UN police will be deployed by the end of the week and take possession of police stations currently controlled by the KLA, the Special Representative said. "They can then play the traditional role of civilian police, in urban centres and elsewhere in the province, side-by-side, with the international military force."

UN war crimes tribunal's investigative teams start probes in Kosovo.
JUNE 21 -- Investigative teams from the United Kingdom and the United States are in Kosovo working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a UN spokesman said on Monday.
The teams, which have been in the Yugoslav province for four days, have begun investigating war crime scenes at seven sites mentioned in the Tribunal's indictment of President Slobodan Milosevic, said the spokesman.
On 27 May the Tribunal indicted President Milosevic and four other senior Yugoslav and Serb officials for crimes against humanity in Kosovo and issued warrants for their arrest.
The US and UK teams, which started their investigations at Velika Krusa, will be joined by investigators from other nations this week to help with additional sites at Racak, where there was a massacre in January, as well as Blavo Crkva, Djakovica, Crkolez and Izbitza.