Secretary-General appoints Bernard Kouchner of France to head UN mission in Kosovo.
JULY 2 -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday chose Bernard Kouchner of France to oversee the massive international effort to turn war-devastated Kosovo into a functioning, democratic society.

As the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Mr. Kouchner will head the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and be the highest-ranking civilian authority in the province.

Mr. Kouchner, a Minister in the French Government who is a medical doctor by education, is widely known for his humanitarian activities, in part as the founder of the non-profit relief organization "Medecins sans Frontieres". A winner of the "Dag Hammarskjold" prize for human rights, Mr. Kouchner is also the author of numerous books and screenplays.

Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters after meeting with Mr. Kouchner, the Secretary- General said that Mr. Kouchner came with "leadership, with management, with energy and is going not only to be a good leader but a wonderful advocate for what we are trying to do in the region."

Two other appointments on Friday completed UNMIK's top management team. The Secretary- General named James P. Covey of the United States to the newly created post of Principle Deputy Special Representative, and Daan Everts of the Netherlands as Deputy Special Representative for Institution Building.

Mr. Everts joins three other Deputy Special Representatives who will each head one of the Mission's four components. Dennis McNamara of New Zealand will oversee humanitarian operations, Dominique Vian of France will be in charge of the Interim Civil Administration and Jolly Dixon of the United Kingdom will head Reconstruction.

UN envoy warns of deteriorating security situation and spiral of violence in Kosovo.
JULY 2 -- The acting head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo warned on Friday that despite the efforts of KFOR, the international military force, the security situation was deteriorating and the spiral of violence widening, affecting increasing numbers of people, particularly Serbs.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General's acting Special Representative who has been setting up the UN operations in the province, brought together Albanian and Serb community leaders to focus on the pressing issue of security for all people.

In a joint statement after the meeting, the community leaders called for restraint and respect for human life. The two sides also agreed to form a crisis group to respond rapidly to security emergencies and to set up a hotline linking all parties.

The UN mission in Kosovo is broadcasting the joint statement over Pristina's radio and television stations which have been brought back on the air to publicize the message. The local network had been shut down for days because of a standoff between Serb and Albanian staff.

Meanwhile, as the number of returning refugees topped 530,000, the UN Mine Action Program has received thousands of requests for mine experts to inspect homes suspected of being mined or booby trapped. So far, 425 mine fields have been reported to the Programme's Pristina office. The UN hopes to clear key areas before winter when the ground freezes and de-mining becomes more difficult.

In other developments, a UN spokesman said on Friday that the number of civilian police pledged for the UN Mission in Kosovo now stood at 2,486. UN estimates that some 3,000 police officers are needed to establish law and order in the province.

UN refugee agency "dismayed" by dearth of government funding to ensure safe return of Kosovars.
JULY 2 -- A senior official of the United Nations refugee agency expressed dismay on Friday that while governments had spent billions of dollars on military operations in Kosovo, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had virtually no money to ensure the safe return of Kosovars.

"I find it incredible that after a hugely expensive conflict in Europe, UNHCR has to keep saying 'we have no money' to help hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people produced by the crisis," UNHCR Special Envoy Dennis McNamara told a news conference in Geneva.

The UN refugee agency has budgeted a "modest" $10 million a week for its Kosovo operation and still needed $234 million for its activities in the region in 1999.

Mr. McNamara, who heads the humanitarian arm of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), described the coming back of an estimated 523,000 refugees over the past two weeks as one of the most dramatic spontaneous returns in recent history. He said a dangerous gap was developing between immediate relief operations, and long-term programmes such as reconstruction and the establishment of civil structures, including a functioning court system, police force and prisons.

The Special Envoy described the plight of Serbs and Roma (Gypsies) as "precarious and extremely difficult". They were under constant attack despite the efforts by KFOR, the international security force, to protect them, he said. UNHCR would help at least some of the 5,000 ethnic Serbs refugees from Croatia who came to Kosovo after being expelled from the Krajina region several years ago, to leave Kosovo if they wished.

UN moves to set up judicial system in Kosovo.
JULY 1 -- The top United Nations official in Kosovo has made the first step to establish the beginnings of a new judicial system in the province by appointing on Thursday the first group of judges, prosecutors and investigators.

Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello, who is in charge of setting up the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), appointed nine judicial officials who will serve on "a kind of itinerant court", according to a UN spokesman. The court will provide due process throughout Kosovo to people arrested and held by the KFOR international security forces, which up to now have been releasing suspects in accordance with European Commission guidelines requiring detainees to be brought before a judge or court within 48 hours of arrest.

Meanwhile, Mr. Vieira de Mello, continued to discuss reintegration problems and the maintenance of essential services with ethnic Albanian political leaders. In his latest meeting with them in Pristina on Wednesday, he also addressed the need for Albanian leaders to call on their supporters to reject extremism and violence.

Mr. Vieira de Mello said he would consult separately with the various parties before making a final decision on his proposed high-level transitional council. The council, which would include representatives from the Albanian and Serb communities, would act as a consultative body on Kosovo-wide issues.

In an attempt to ease tensions between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, Mr. Vieira de Mello and his UNMIK team also travelled to the towns of Mitrovica, Orahovac, Pec and Prizren to meet with community leaders.

Kosovo refugees returning home with "lightning speed", says UNHCR.
JULY 1 -- Refugees are returning to Kosovo with lightning speed and most were expected to be home by winter, Soren Jessen Petersen, the Assistant United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Petersen said over half a million people had flooded back in the last two weeks. While UNHCR was pleased that people were able to return home, reclaim their property and prepare for what would be a difficult winter, the agency was at the same time concerned that the refugees were returning to a security, political and economic vacuum.

Mr. Petersen said UNHCR and its humanitarian partners could help with immediate relief by providing food and emergency shelter, but they did not have the resources to engage in the larger reconstruction which was "absolutely essential to consolidate the returns".

One of UNHCR's main concerns in Kosovo was protection, said the Assistant Commissioner. An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 Serbs had left in the last two or three weeks and the UN agency was urging all sides to exercise restraint so as not to provoke a new refugee exodus of Serbs who were not involved in atrocities and who wanted to stay but were "dead scared".

The UN agency was particularly concerned about some 5,000 Krajina Serbs who were "under immediate and direct threat", said Mr. Petersen. These people were sheltering in collective centres and many would have to be evacuated for their own safety. Belgrade had been forcing some Serbs who had fled Kosovo back against their will, he added.

Mr. Petersen said UNHCR had also appealed to the international community not to forget the impact the refugee crisis had on Montenegro and the asylum countries -- Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which together had taken in about 850,000 people. He also urged third countries who had taken in refugees as part of the emergency evacuation programme not to rush to send them back until conditions in Kosovo improved.

Secretary-General holds high-level "Friends of Kosovo" meeting on UN efforts to rebuild shattered province.
JUNE 30 -- Bringing together ministers and high-ranking officials from 16 countries and three key international organizations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday briefed the group on the initial deployment of the UN mission in Kosovo and the resources it would need to rebuild the devastated province.

The group, known as Friends of Kosovo, was initiated by Mr. Annan as part of his efforts to consult regularly with Governments and organizations that can help him implement the mandate of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

"Our collective objective is a multi-ethnic Kosovo in which the people -- all the people, regardless of ethnicity can live their lives in peace and hope," the Secretary-General told a packed news conference after the meeting at UN Headquarters in New York. He said there was general agreement on the complexity of the task ahead, and there was consensus on several issues.

The participants of the ministerial-level meeting were briefed about the immediate challenges facing the UN Mission as it sets up its operations. Those included the massive daily flow of returning refugees, the need to establish law and order and to engage the various political groups in a process of rehabilitation and reconciliation.

Everyone agreed that UNMIK should assume policing responsibilities from KFOR, the international military force, but that would depend on how quickly countries provided civilian police, Mr. Annan said. The UN needed 3,110 police and so far had received pledges for 1,938 officers. "We cannot deploy and distribute what we do not have," he added.

On the issue of economic reconstruction, the Secretary-General said there was a sense that one should take a broader view and that for Kosovo to really succeed, the region itself must be brought back to health. There was also a suggestion that water and electricity should be considered humanitarian and also a sense that priority should be given to re-establishing conditions for the use of the Danube because of its importance to the region, said Mr. Annan.

The 16 countries making up Friends of Kosovo include Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Union (EU), the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) are also a part of the group.

UN urges returning Kosovars to halt retaliatory attacks against Serb and Roma minorities.
JUNE 30-- Alarmed by a wave of reprisals against Serb and Roma minorities in Kosovo, a senior United Nations official on Wednesday called on returning refugees to prevent retaliatory attacks.

Dennis McNamara, the Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in Kosovo, also called on KFOR, the international military force in the province, to continue to step up security measures to protect these people.

"Over the past two weeks, there have been increasing reports of intimidation and violent attacks directed against the Serb and Roma minorities in Kosovo," said Mr. McNamara. "Many of those targeted are elderly people who do not present a threat to anyone."

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that in just one Pristina neighbourhood, seven houses were burned down on Tuesday night as Serbs and other minorities fled their homes. Reports from several other areas describe instances of returnees evicting Serb and Roma tenants from their houses and then settling there themselves.

Mr. McNamara said some 5,000 Serbs who fled to Kosovo from earlier conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia were being targeted by such attacks and the humanitarian agencies could not ensure their physical security. "We need a continued robust response from KFOR as well as the re-establishment of the key institutions for law and order," he stressed.

Serbs were leaving Kosovo because they felt insecure, the Deputy Special Representative emphasized. "It is imperative that we do not solve one refugee problem and create another one. The refugee cycle in the Balkans must be ended."

United Nations food agency expands Kosovo operation to aid 2.5 million people in Balkans.
JUNE 30-- The United Nations food agency on Tuesday announced a dramatic expansion of its emergency aid operation in the Balkans to assist 2.5 million people who have suffered form the Kosovo crisis and previous strife in the region.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that the six-month $224 million operation, to be launched on 1 July, will help refugees, internally displaced and war-affected people in five territories -- the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, its province of Kosovo, the neighbouring countries of Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Rome-based WFP, the world's largest food aid agency, will supply a "food basket" of wheat flour, rice, cooking oil, canned meat or fish, beans, sugar and salt, as well as several kinds of ready-to-eat food.

According to WFP estimates, the UN agency will feed 1.5 million Kosovar refugees and internally displaced persons throughout the Balkan region, as well as 500,000 war-affected people in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and 500,00 refugees from Bosnia and Croatia conflicts in FRY.

Eighteen countries pledge to send police contingents for UN mission in Kosovo.
JUNE 29 -- Eighteen countries have agreed to send police contingents to serve with the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.

So far, the UN has received commitments of more than 900 civilian police and is hoping to bring in large contingents of 150 to 200 officers every five days from the beginning of July. UNMIK estimates it will need a force of 3,000 international officers to maintain law and order until a multi-ethnic Kosovo Police Force is set up.

Meanwhile, five teams of UN police officers were sent to KFOR brigade headquarters in the Kosovo capital of Pristina, as well as Mitrovica, Prizren, Pec and Urosevac, to provide advice on civilian police functions. The rest of the 35-member contingent, on loan from the UN mission in Bosnia, will fan out to the 29 municipalities and the border points.

Pace of spontaneous returns to Kosovo slowing, UN refugee agency reports.
JUNE 29 -- The United Nations refugee agency reported on Tuesday that the pace of spontaneous returns to Kosovo was beginning to slow, with a 30 per cent decline recorded on Monday as compared with the high of 41,700 Kosovars streaming back to the province last Saturday.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that while it was too early to say if the trend would continue, the decline might have reflected the fact that most refugees who have the means to arrange their own trip and a place to go to, have already returned.

Earlier today, UNHCR and International Organization for Migration organized a second repatriation of around 320 refugees to Pristina and Urosevac from camps in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Yesterday, more than 300 people went back to Kosovo in the first organized return.

On arrival in Kosovo, refugees from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia receive food assistance provided by the UN World Food Programme, as well as blankets, mattresses, hygienic kits and plastic sheeting.

Meanwhile, UN staff in northern Kosovo, especially in the Pec area, has reported that lack of shelter continues to be the biggest problem. An estimated 45,000 houses in Kosovo are uninhabitable and UNHCR has been distributing family-sized tents to returnees.

A sudden increase in spending for shelter materials, repair of damaged buildings and transport for refugees has further strained the UN agency's resources. UNHCR says it has only $2.4 million left for the Kosovo operation for July unless it receives fresh funding.

UN Mission in Kosovo moves to re-establish judicial system and deploy international police contingent.
JUNE 28 -- With more than half of the 800,000 Kosovo refugees now back in the province, the United Nations is moving to defuse tensions between Serbs and ethnic Albanians, re-establish the judicial system and deploy international police.

On Monday, the Secretary-General's Acting Special Representative in Kosovo, Sergio Vieira de Mello, swore in a panel of seven legal experts to advise him on the appointment of new judges for Kosovo. First appointments of interim judges are expected within the week.

"The appointments are an important step forward towards building an independent and multi- ethnic judiciary for Kosovo," said Mr. Vieira de Mello who is in charge of setting up the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Ultimately, the UN is looking for judges and prosecutors for 29 first district courts and five second district courts.

Five members of the panel were selected from a list of jurists compiled by the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe.

Judges are needed quickly to deal with people arrested and held by KFOR, the international military force. According to European Commission standards, detainees must be brought before a judge within 48 hours and, since there are none, KFOR has been releasing people it has arrested, a UN spokesman said on Monday.

To help with policing, 35 international police from the UN mission in Bosnia arrived on Sunday and will be deployed tomorrow, Spokesman Fred Eckhard said. The UN estimates it needs about 3,000 international police officers to maintain law and order. Although several countries have indicated their willingness to supply police, so far there had been no substantive commitments.

Meanwhile, in the wake of tensions in the main hospital in Pristina between Serb and ethnic Albanian medical staff, a UN-chaired joint civilian commission made up of representatives from both communities, will meet on Tuesday to address health issues. UNMIK has set up several civilian commissions to deal with such matters as education, health, public utilities, justice, the economy and the media.

UNHCR begins organized repatriation of refugees to three towns in Kosovo.
JUNE 28 -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday began the organized repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Kosovar refugees, taking more than 300 from camps in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to their homes in Pristina.

The refugees from two camps north of Skopje made their trip aboard 10 buses organized by UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration. Some of the returnees had been in the camps since early April.

The organized returns are to Kosovo's capital Pristina, Prizren and Urosevac. The three towns are secure, relatively undamaged and easily accessible from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Organized returns from Albania are expected to begin on Tuesday.

In one of the fastest spontaneous returns in decades, over 400,000 refugees have already gone back to Kosovo on their own despite warnings of uncertain security, heavy damage in many areas and the lack of an international support system. Dozens have been wounded or killed by mines and many have found their towns and villages destroyed.

Meanwhile, UNHCR is looking into the condition of Serbs who remain in Kosovo. The UN agency is also examining the situation of the 5,000 to 7,000 Krajina Serb refugees who were in Kosovo before the NATO action. Many are believed to have left and others have asked for help to leave Kosovo. UNHCR plans to transport them to Serbia from where they can decide whether to repatriate to Croatia, stay in Serbia or resettle in a third country.