Dr. Bernard Kouchner, the head of the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), announced on Tuesday that the committee would identify villages where houses would be built and security conditions ensured before people resettled. "We should plan returns carefully because the recent killings remind us that the confrontation between communities is unfortunately not over," he said.

Dr. Kouchner was referring to the recent murder of four Ashkaljia males who had returned to their village in the Skenderaj area. Also on Tuesday, he spoke with members of their community at a camp for displaced Ashkaljia/Roma people located in Obilic. According to UNMIK, camp leaders voiced their concern to Dr. Kouchner about the lack of security in Kosovo. He assured them that with continuous international efforts, they would reclaim their homes and properties.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told reporters in Pristina today that fewer people were crossing into Kosovo from southern Serbia. "We estimate that no more than 400 persons entered Kosovo seeking refuge yesterday," said UNHCR spokesperson Astrid van Genderen Stort. She noted that since 20 November, some 3,400 people had gone into Kosovo.

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi briefed the Council at the request of the Russian Federation.

Meanwhile, in Pristina, the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) reported that the violence in the area had diminished in recent days but that the situation still warranted continued vigilance.

According to a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pristina, more than 2,000 people, both Albanian and Serb civilians, have fled their villages in the tense area of the Presevo Valley into Kosovo and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. UNHCR said that persons who were crossing reported that Serbian military buildup continued today and that they feared attack.

"We expect the number of IDPs [internally displaced persons] arriving to continue tomorrow and an increase in the number in need of assistance," UNHCR spokesman Astrid van Genderen Stort told reporters in Pristina. She said the agency was working with international partners "in the planning for a larger influx."

Deputy Special Representative Jock Covey, reacting to the killing of Xhemajl Mustafa, said: "This is a contemptible and cowardly act by extremists who want to undermine Kosovo's moves to democracy." He called the murder "a dark sign for Kosovo," warning that every further act of violence stands in the way of progress. Mr. Mustafa, a spokesman for Ibrahim Rugova and head of the Kosovo Information Centre, was shot and killed outside of his central Pristina apartment.

United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) police investigating the killing have tracked down a vehicle and questioned several people.

While attending the European Union Balkan summit in Zagreb, Croatia, Friday, Dr. Bernard Kouchner, the Secretary-General's Special Representative in Kosovo, also emphasized the outrage felt by the killing, adding in his statement to the summit that peace in the Balkans depends on peace in Kosovo.

In a formal statement issued through its President, Ambassador Peter van Walsum of the Netherlands, the Council expressed shock and strong condemnation in response to today's "criminal attack perpetrated on the home of the Head of the Liaison Committee of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Pristina" as well as yesterday's attack against Serbian policemen in the South of Serbia.

Noting that both attacks had resulted in several deaths and injuries, the Council called for an immediate and full investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice, according to the statement.

Fully aware of all the measures already taken to provide security for all inhabitants of the region, the Council also called on the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) and the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) to continue to "make all necessary efforts, including along the ground safety zone, to prevent further attacks," Ambassador van Walsum said.

The Council's statement, adopted in the evening, further demanded that all those concerned refrain from any act of violence, in particular against ethnic minorities, and cooperate with KFOR and UNMIK.

An investigator at site of bombing attack in Pristina.

"I am completely outraged by the contemptible attack," said Dr. Bernard Kouchner, who heads the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK). He called the explosion part of a trend of premeditated violence which appeared to be the work of extremists.

"The wave of violence is a warning to UNMIK and through UNMIK to the international community: the extremists are now ready to step up their targeting of the Serb community," said Dr. Kouchner, who traveled to the site of today's bomb attack to express his "sympathy and disgust."

According to UNMIK, one person reportedly died from injuries sustained when the residence of Yugoslav Ambassador Stanimir Vukicevic was bombed. Officials in Kosovo estimated that between five and ten kilogrammes of explosives were used to achieve the "maximum effect" against the target. Just before the explosion, police in the area saw three people at the rear of the house. They ran off as the police approached and "almost simultaneously" the bomb detonated.

While pointing out that Kosovo remained in crisis, Dr. Kouchner said the UN would not be dissuaded or deterred from its efforts to bring peace and security to the area. He pledged that UNMIK, along with the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR), would "find the perpetrators of this barbaric act."

Today's bomb attack was also condemned by the Kosovo Transition Council, which called on the citizens to reject violence and to help UNMIK identify the persons responsible for all criminal actions.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, who made the appointments, witnessed the swearing in of one Bosniac and 17 Serbs in the territory's northernmost municipality, Leposavic. Two Albanians are still to be appointed there. In nearby Zubin Potok, 14 of the 15 appointed Serbs took their oaths of office, along with two Albanians. In Zvecan, 12 of 15 Serb appointees were sworn in, but the two Albanian appointees did not attend.

Dr. Kouchner stressed that, while the appointed members would carry out much the same tasks as their elected colleagues, these three assemblies were only temporary. "We need, we want new elections," he said after the ceremony in Leposavic.

Last week, the Special Representative told the Security Council in New York that the 28 October municipal elections were a major success, and a marker of a true political transformation in Kosovo. There had been very little fraud and manipulation, he noted, and very little violence. Some 79 per cent of the electorate had voted.

Much of the Serb population did not participate, because Serbs had not registered to vote. However, in the first week of November, and subsequent to the elections and the change of regime in Belgrade, Dr. Kouchner had met with leaders of the four major Serb groups and received indications from their leaders that they were prepared to engage with the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and would participate in civil administrations in the territory.

Dr. Kouchner explained that he hoped to hold by-elections to replace the appointed municipal authorities early in 2001, and to hold national elections in Kosovo in the spring of that year.

Starting just before midnight, 30 police serving with the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and200 KFOR troops began a search and rescue raid carried out in 18 separate locations, including the Hotel Herzegovina, the Black Lady Bar and the Playboy Club.

The five-hour operation resulted in seven arrests, including four of the five primary suspects targeted by the raid. "They are being investigated for rape, kidnapping and forcing women into prostitution," UNMIK spokesperson Claire Trevena told reporters in Pristina today.

The spokesperson noted that 12 Moldovan women had been handed over to the police's new prostitution team to give statements. They would then be offered assistance and the opportunity to repatriate, she said.

According to UNMIK, information developed during the course of the investigation indicated that Serbian and Albanian criminals had been working together to promote organized crime.

Dr. Bernard Kouchner, who is Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative in Kosovo, told the Council that "the war is not over" and peacemaking was still "necessary and difficult to implement."

Dr. Kouchner called last month's municipal elections in Kosovo a "major success," underscoring the fact that all parties had pledged to work together for a unified administration. "We're very proud that during the electoral campaign, there was very little fraud, very little manipulation and above all very little violence," he said.

The Special Representative pointed out that while it is too early to discuss Kosovo's final status, there should be central, Kosovo-wide elections early next year. "Personally it is my hope that those elections will be organized in the Spring," he said.

Remarking on the recent changes in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Dr. Kouchner said UNMIK had begun a dialogue with Belgrade on economic and judicial issues. He expressed hope that Albanians who are still being detained in Serb jails could soon benefit from an amnesty law. "I'm confident relations will improve," he said.

Following Dr. Kouchner's presentation, the Security Council held an extended discussion on Kosovo, in which all 15 members of the Council as well as representatives from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Albania, took part.

The security and well-being of detainees from Kosovo, access to all prisons and prisoners and the proposed amnesty law in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were among the issues discussed between UNMIK and the delegation, which included officials from the country's Presidential Office for Refugees, Internally displaced Persons and Missing Persons and the Serbian Ministry of Justice.

The Yugoslav officials told UNMIK that a Law on Amnesty would be shortly submitted to Parliament and provided the Mission with official lists of Kosovar prisoners held in all Serbian detention facilities. The delegation also agreed to facilitate visits by international organizations to all detention centres and to facilitate prison visits by family members of detainees.

The meeting also addressed practical measures to facilitate the release of persons unjustly detained as well as measures to accelerate the resolution of all cases of persons missing from all Kosovo communities.

Calling the meeting a "beginning," the head of UNMIK, Dr. Bernard Kouchner, said "if the promises are met, it will go a long way towards healing the wounds of all parties affected by this ongoing tragedy."

In a related development, the Kosovo Transitional Council (KTC) issued a statement expressing "its deep sorrow at the continued detention of Kosovo prisoners illegally detained in Serbian jails" and calling upon the Belgrade authorities and any other party to forward to UNMIK information that could help establishing the fate of missing persons. The Council appealed to the international community and the Security Council to help secure the release of all Kosovo detainees in Serbia. Peaceful demonstrations seeking their release took place throughout Kosovo.

He said he had already raised the issue of the release of prisoners and information on the fate of the missing with leaders of several Western governments. Dr. Kouchner said he would once again raise this issue when he addresses the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Dr. Kouchner expressed satisfaction that the situation in the Serbian prisons was calming down thus ensuring the safety and well being of the Kosovo Albanian prisoners held there.

He said that UNMIK welcomes the declaration by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica at the Council of Europe last week that his government would initiate a process to resolve the problem of the detained and the missing. Dr. Kouchner said that UNMIK was prepared to work with the Yugoslav authorities to resolve this grim issue.

"We will find them," Dr. Bernard Kouchner said at a press conference in Pristina. "Sometimes to find criminals it takes weeks, months and years. But we will find them."

The four men, who belonged to Kosovo's Ashkali community (Albanian-speaking Gypsies), had returned to the village of Dosevac/Dashevc, after living for the past two years in Kosovo Polje, where they had fled during the war. Part of an advance party for a number of Ashkali and Kosovo Albanian families ready to return to the area, the men were killed on the night of 8 November. They were sleeping in tents near their homes, which had been destroyed during the war.

"For us these murders are the worst attempt to stop the process of peace after the big success of the elections," Dr. Kouchner said. "To stop any measures of coexistence between the communities, they are ready to kill and kill."

He promised that the UN operation would take measures to coordinate its work with the Mission's police and international security forces (KFOR) in finding the perpetrators of the murders.

Meanwhile, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which had helped the four men to repatriate to Dosevac, said today it was "appalled" by the murders. Urging an investigation, the agency demanded that a probe by an international prosecutor be carried out as well, to make sure the perpetrators are found and brought to justice.

According to UNHCR, the return of Ashkalis to the village had been strongly supported by local neighbours and municipal leaders. The four victims had even refused to have international forces around their homes for security purposes, because they said they "felt very safe," the agency said. "Over the past months, UNHCR has worked hard with all of Kosovo's communities to help them reconcile and live together," UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told reporters in Geneva. "But this effort has been undermined by a climate of impunity."

Dr. Kouchner, his spokeswoman Nadia Younes & KFOR Commander General Cabigiosu arrive at scene of murders.

"Whoever murdered these men, less than 48 hours after their return home, intended to destroy all the progress Kosovo has made in the past year, and particularly in the last few weeks," Dr. Bernard Kouchner, who leads the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said in a statement released in Pristina.

"We will do all we can to find the perpetrators," he stressed. "But the damage which has been done to the seeds of democracy which took root last month may be immeasurable."

The slain men - three heads of families and a 16-year-old boy - were the advance party of a group of Ashkali and Kosovo Albanian families who are ready to return to the village of Dosevac/Dashevc from Kosovo Polje, where they have been living as displaced people for the past two years. The Ashkali are Albanian-speaking members of Kosovo's Gypsy community.

On Monday, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had helped the men to return to their village of origin, where they slept in a tent because their houses had been destroyed. They were set to begin rebuilding their homes with the help of UNHCR and the Scottish Charity Kosovo Appeal. According to UNMIK, the group had been welcomed back by Albanians in the area.

"This is a contemptible crime," Dr. Kouchner said. "It is an attack not only on the Ashkali community, but on all of Kosovo. My deepest condolences go out to their families. I will join them in mourning their loved ones and this dark, dark moment for Kosovo."

The Emergency Farm Reconstruction Project aims to give poor families a chance to restart livestock production and make dairy products, which will improve nutrition and help Kosovo reduce its reliance on imports. "FAO estimates that during the war farmers in Kosovo lost about 200,000 cattle, or half of the national herd," said agency official Daniele Donati. "The FAO/World Bank project is an important contribution to the re-stocking the cattle herd."

Under the initiative, farmers will receive feed and veterinary services for the animals, which were selected because their breed is well-adapted to Kosovo's climate. Veterinary kits, including drugs and equipment for artificial insemination, will be distributed to private veterinarians on a cost recovery basis. In addition, a central veterinary laboratory will be equipped for animal disease surveillance. FAO and the World Bank will also repair and replace tractors and other farm machinery.

The $12.3 million project received $1.8 million in funding from the Government of the Netherlands.

Addressing the Kosovo Transitional Council (KTC) in Pristina, UNMIK chief Dr. Bernard Kouchner said he and his staff had been in touch since Monday with various foreign countries - Germany, France, the United States and Italy, among others - urging them to speak to Yugoslav authorities about ensuring the safety of the prisoners.

Dr. Kouchner contacted Secretary-General Kofi Annan last night to inform him of the unrest, following which Mr. Annan issued a statement through his spokesman, urging Yugoslav authorities to protect all prisoners, in particular Kosovo Albanian detainees.

According to UNMIK spokeswoman Susan Manuel, who briefed the press today in Pristina, Dr. Kouchner was also in touch last night with the team of Ambassador Henrik Amneus, the Special Envoy for Persons Deprived of Liberty due to the Kosovo Conflict. Mr. Amneus then went to Nis where he met with judicial authorities who convinced the prisoners to agree to a 24-hour moratorium on their demonstrations, Ms. Manuel said, noting that the authorities were to return tonight with a package of proposals.

"We have been informed that an amnesty law may be promulgated in the next several days," she said.

At the end of its session today, the KTC issued a statement requesting authorities in Yugoslavia and Serbia to "ensure the security and well-being of Kosovo Albanian detainees in Serb detention facilities." It also reiterated its demand for the release of all Kosovo Albanians illegally detained in Serbian prisons.

Dr. Kouchner certifies results of municipal elections

Accompanied by the Chairman of the Central Election Commission and the Deputy Commander of the International Security Forces (KFOR), Dr. Kouchner certified the election results at 4:30 p.m. local time at a ceremony in Pristina.

The Central Election Commission noted that all rules and regulations had been complied with.

The results for 27 municipalities were certified, while the results in three municipalities inhabited mostly by Kosovo Serbs - Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic - were not, due to low voter turnout, the UN Mission said. The members of those municipal assemblies will be appointed by Dr. Kouchner in the next several days pending by-elections that could be held next year.

The swearing-in for all the municipal assemblies will take place on 11 November.

Today's announcement was delayed by a bomb threat received at UNMIK headquarters at about 2:30 p.m. local time. The premises were evacuated for about an hour before staff members were permitted to return once the buildings were declared safe by ordnance experts.

Briefing reporters at the Mission's Headquarters in Pristina, UNMIK police spokesman Derek Chappel said today that the unit of 22 officers has already started operation in the Pristina region and will be working in all five regions by the end of the month. The unit will investigate the crimes of prostitution and human trafficking, separating the criminal element from the victims.

"We have been investigating these types of crimes on a continuous basis and suspects have been arrested," the spokesman said. "With the formation of this unit, we will be attacking prostitution-related crime throughout Kosovo in an organized and systematic manner."

According to UNMIK police, many of the victims of trafficking in Kosovo are young women who answer advertisements for what appear to be legitimate jobs, but find themselves forced into prostitution.

Under the new unit, victims will be offered sanctuary, medical treatment, psychological counseling, and the opportunity to return to their country of origin, while those responsible for trafficking-related crimes, as well as customers who knowingly use "trafficking victim prostitutes," will be arrested and prosecuted. Establishments engaged in the illegal activities will be publicly identified by announcements to the news media, Mr. Chappel said.

In other news, the UN Mission announced today that all counting procedures for the territory's recent municipal elections had been completed, including tabulation and seat allocations. The official results will be made public tomorrow in Pristina at a ceremony attended by UNMIK chief Dr. Bernard Kouchner.

With the activist, Dr. Flora Brovina, on her way to Kosovo, UNMIK chief Dr. Bernard Kouchner released a statement in Pristina, hailing her return. "Let me be among the first to say, 'Welcome home, dear Flora. You have been sorely missed, you have been in our hearts'."

Applauding President Kostunica for taking a "crucial step" towards healing the wounds between Serb and Albanian communities, the UN official urged the President to release all Kosovo Albanian political prisoners still in Serbia. "That would be justice," he said. "That would be a major stride towards a meaningful dialogue and a lasting peace."

Dr. Brovina had been sentenced last December to 12 years' imprisonment on terrorism charges. Calling her arrest and sentencing "absurd" and "cruel," Dr. Kouchner said she should instead receive a "medal for courage" for her work on health and children's issues, and for her commitment to peaceful alternatives to conflict.

"She is a true heroine," the UNMIK chief said. "Her dignity, her courage and her generosity of spirit have made her a symbol to people around the world."

In other news, Dr. Kouchner visited Mitrovica earlier today where he held one of a series of meetings with Kosovo Serb leaders regarding their participation in municipal assemblies.

The UN Mission, which is in the process of compiling lists of candidates to assemblies in those municipalities where Serbs are a majority, hopes to have all those people named and agreed upon by 11 November, the planned date for the swearing-in ceremonies of all municipal assemblies. "This date is of course contingent on the certification of results of the elections, which we anticipate will occur early next week, maybe on Monday," an UNMIK spokeswoman said today in Pristina.