Secretary-General deeply saddened by fatal crash of UN plane in Kosovo.
12 NOVEMBER -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan was shocked and deeply saddened by the news of Friday's fatal air crash in Kosovo, his spokesman in New York said today.

A United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) aircraft crashed Friday morning just before it was due to land in Pristina, killing all 24 people on board. According to WFP, the flight was carrying 21 passengers - aid workers, UN staff and government representatives - and three crew members.

In a statement issued late Friday, Spokesman Fred Eckhard said the Secretary-General extended his deepest sympathy "to the loved ones they have left behind" and that the colleagues of the 24 victims "will remember them with great sorrow and affection."

"Once again men and women of many nationalities have had their lives cut short in the service of the United Nations, on a mission to bring relief to the suffering and peace to a war-torn community," the statement said.

UN Mission in Kosovo to cost $456 million.
NOVEMBER 12 -- The annual cost of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) would be some $456.4 million, according to a proposed budget for the period from its inception on 10 June 1999 to 30 June 2000, contained in a report of the Secretary-General to the General Assembly.

This amount includes the $200 million already authorized by the General Assembly and $585,500 in voluntary contributions in kind.

The UNMIK budget covers a Mission strength of 39 liaison officers, 4,719 civilian police, 1,269 international staff, 3,566 local staff, 18 National Officers and 203 United Nations Volunteers. Fifty per cent of the budget relates to civilian personnel costs and 42 per cent to operational costs.

UNMIK expenditures from inception to 31 August 1999 amount to $37,011,500.

The General Assembly had already authorized assessments totalling $125 million for the Mission. So far, Member States have paid less than three-fifths of this amount, or $74.8 million.

Humanitarian agency supplies firewood to vulnerable families in Kosovo.
NOVEMBER 12 -- The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) plans to deliver 60,000 cubic feet of firewood to vulnerable families throughout Kosovo -- enough to fill a football stadium -- and has already provided 3 cubic metres to 2,000 families, the agency said today.

It also plans to distribute 650,000 blankets out of 850,000 planned through its partner agencies, UNHCR spokesman Peter Kessler said. "These materials will be crucial in getting Kosovars through the winter, " he said.

But humanitarian aid trucks are still encountering long delays at the Macedonian border. "One truck recently reported taking eight days to get through the border, " he said.

"If this continues, many truck drivers will refuse to carry the humanitarian loads because they cannot make money with such a long wait. These delays are having an immediate impact on the distribution of materials and food in the province," Mr. Kessler added.

UN plane crashes in Kosovo with 24 people on board.
NOVEMBER 12 -- A World Food Programme (WFP) plane with 24 people on board crashed on Friday morning just before it was due to land in Pristina, Kosovo, UN officials have confirmed.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said a search and rescue operation was launched just after 12 noon Pristina time, using helicopters and airplanes, ground troops and personnel from the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, and the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

"The search by land is being hampered by the heavy presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance in the area," he said.

In Rome, WFP said in a statement that the plane carried 21 passengers - aid workers, UN staff, government representatives -- as well as three crew members.

The plane was due to land in Pristina at 11.30 a.m. but the last contact with the pilot was at 11.15 a.m. At that time the plane, an ATR-42 twin-engine turbo propeller aircraft, was near Vuciturn, some 20 kilometres northeast of Pristina.

The WFP flies daily from Rome, where its headquarters is located, to Pristina, carrying personnel of UNMIK, UN agencies and other international aid organizations.

UN war crimes prosecutor reports 2,108 bodies exhumed from gravesites in Kosovo.
NOVEMBER 10 -- Investigators have exhumed 2,108 bodies from gravesites in Kosovo, the newly appointed Prosecutor for the UN Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Ms. Carla Del Ponte said today in New York.

She told the UN Security Council that this figure did not necessarily reflect the total number of actual victims from the sites so far investigated because there was evidence of tampering with graves. There were also a significant number of sites where the precise number of bodies could not be counted.

In the sites that were examined, "steps were taken to hide the evidence" and "many bodies have been burned", Ms. Del Ponte said.

After five months of investigation by forensic specialists from 14 countries, the Tribunal has received reports of 11,334 bodies in 529 gravesites, including sites where bodies were found exposed. Approximately 195 of those sites have been examined to date.

Ms. Del Ponte also stressed the importance of the Council's support for the Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda "The effectiveness and strength of international criminal justice ultimately lies in your hands," she told the Council. "I therefore urge the Council to put its full weight behind our efforts when we ask for your assistance, and to be creative in finding ways to bring to bear the sort of pressure that will produce results."

Citing Yugoslavia's "total defiance" in surrendering indicted accused persons, Ms. Del Ponte said she feared Serbia was becoming a safe haven for indicted war criminals who have been accused of serious crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. "This situation cannot be allowed to continue," she said.

Kosovo Transitional Council demands from Yugoslavia information on the whereabouts of missing persons.
NOVEMBER 10 -- The Kosovo Transitional Council (KTC) has demanded from Yugoslavia information on the whereabouts of missing persons.

The Council said in a statement issued today, following its weekly meeting, that the KTC Commission on Prisoners, Detainees and Missing Persons would submit a list of missing persons to the authorities in Belgrade.

It also urged the release of all Kosovars held as political prisoners in Serbia, including Ms. Flora Brovina, a well-known humanitarian activist.

KTC urged the international community, in particular the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit to be held in Istanbul on 18-19 November, to call on Yugoslavia to report on the whereabouts of missing persons, stop political trials immediately and release all political prisoners.

Aid agencies in Kosovo express alarm over long delays in getting aid through Macedonia border.
NOVEMBER 10 -- Humanitarian agencies today expressed alarm on the long delays they are experiencing getting food aid and shelter supplies to Kosovo through the border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Last week the Macedonian police began requiring that all humanitarian traffic join the line of commercial trucks at the main border-crossing with Macedonia, causing lines stretching up to 10 kilometres, Mr. Peter Kessler, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today in Pristina.

The drivers are also being required to pay a fee of 200 deutsche marks on top of the 0.1 per cent fee on the cargo value. "This presents another delay at the border," Mr. Kessler said. "Normal delays at the border for trucks has been five to seven days."

He said the Head of the UN Interim Administration for Kosovo (UNMIK), Dr. Bernard Kouchner, is following the situation very closely and other diplomats are working with the Macedonian government to address these concerns.

"In the meantime, UNHCR and the World Food Programme are exploring possibilities of getting food aid in by rail. But that also will take time," he said.

A $66.5 million budget approved for Kosovo, with 70 percent coming from donors.
NOVEMBER 8 -- Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission for Kosovo (UNMIK), Dr Bernard Kouchner today approved the 1999 budget for Kosovo totaling 125 million deutsche marks (approximately $66.5 million), nearly 70 percent of which is financed by international donors.

The Central Fiscal Authority (CFA), which has been created by regulation signed by Dr Kouchner, also came into effect. The CFA gives the administration the legal right to collect revenues and make expenditures, a statement released in Pristina said.

The CFA is responsible for the overall management of the Kosovo budget and the budgets of the municipalities that together form the Kosovo Consolidated Budget. It is intended to develop a Kosovar component of the CFA, whose functions will remain long after UNMIK ends its civil administration responsibilities.

The approval of the budget makes it possible for UNMIK to use local revenues from customs, excise and sales taxes as well as donor grants to provide major public services such as health, education, police and fire services, water and assistance to the needy.

"This budget that we have produced and that we will be implementing for the remaining months of 1999 is only for the benefit of Kosovar people. There will be no money spent on UNMIK or international people from this budget," said Mr. Alan Pearson, head of the CFA.

Coordination is "decisive" for success in reconstruction, says senior UN official in Kosovo.
NOVEMBER 8 -- Coordination of efforts on the ground is "one of the most decisive" elements for success in international reconstruction said Tom Koenigs, the UN Deputy Special Representative for Interim Civil Admistration in Kosovo.

"This means the coordination of the military, the UN agencies and the NGOs," he said in an address to the media in New York on "Lessons of Kosovo for East Timor".

He said coordination, which is important for East Timor too, is basic because it will not only be the UN undertaking reconstruction on the ground but also several agencies including the non-governmental organizations.

Mr. Koenigs said it was found useful in Kosovo to have a meeting every week with all the players at the local, municipal and regional levels to ensure coordination of efforts.

He said another Kosovo experience, useful for East Timor, is that it is important to focus on the municipal level of government so as not to "create or tolerate a power and administrative vacuum at the local level".

Mr. Koenigs listed other "lessons learned" in Kosovo that would be useful for East Timor, including a decentralized structure of administration which allows qualified international personnel to do their best, a transitional strategy and capacity building involving the local people so as to avoid "staying for too long or being inefficient".

Russian Ambassador urges more consultations between UNMIK and UN Headquarters on Kosovo.
NOVEMBER 8 -- The Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr. Sergei Lavrov, today urged for more consultations between the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

"It is very difficult to act in a situation where you don't have the full consultations with the United Nations," he told the press in Pristina.

Ambassador Lavrov, who is visiting Kosovo to meet with the heads of UNMIK and local political leaders, said he would like to see UNMIK receive support from all the members of the Security Council "and we would be providing this support in all aspects".

Russia would like to make sure that UN Resolution 1244, which established UNMIK, "is fully implemented", including the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and the creation of conditions of safety and security for all people, he said.

"I would certainly be unfaithful to the facts if I would say that all these issues are being resolved. No, and nobody expects them to be solved easily. It's a very tough job."

He said some of the actions taken by the international peacekeeping force, KFOR, and UNMIK's leadership "were not entirely helpful regarding the creation of better security and safety, from the point of view of keeping the multi-ethnic nature of this place".

However, Ambassador Lavrov said he was gratified that representatives from all communities in Kosovo spoke about the same goals -- "a multi-ethnic, democratic Kosovo, which will be able to enjoy the assistance of the international community under the goals of Resolution 1244."