Press Briefing of 18 February 2000

UNMIK Spokeswoman Ms Susan Manuel

I would like to introduce our guest today. UNMIK Police Officer Douglas Madden is Chief of Recruitment of the Kosovo Police School (KPS). He will be describing tomorrow's graduation of the second class of Kosovo Police Service cadets. He will speak following the presentation by Mr. Roland Bless of OSCE.

From UNMIK Police, we have the following. On February 16, the bodies of a 30-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman were found shot dead in a vehicle near Gracanica lake. There have been several peaceful demonstrations held in Kosovo over the past several days, mostly concerned with the situation in Mitrovica, but also about missing persons and the university. An estimated 30 international police have been arriving in Mitrovica every day this week, starting Monday. The cooperation between the new regional commander Sven Larsen and KFOR general staff is excellent. Daily meetings are held between UNMIK Police, KFOR and the Regional Administrator. Altogether 342 UNMIK Police are now in Mitrovica region, of which 150 are in the town of Mitrovica. Yesterday Tom Koenigs, DSRSG, signed a contract with Thomson ISR company for telecommunications equipment for the Kosovo Protection Corps. This will be a communication system of telephone and radio contact for the KPC in Pristina, Srbica, Prizren, Pec, Mitrovica and Gnjilane. The system is paid for by a 2 million deutsche mark grant from the government of France. There's been a slight improvement in the power situation recently. The repairs of Kosovo B were successfully completed when Unit 1 went on yesterday. It is currently producing 240 megawatts of power. Kosovo A is also running two units, producing a total of 175 megawatts, but both these units will have to be taken out of operation soon for repairs. We are importing a total of 114 megawatts, mostly from Serbia. The regime of restrictions is currently four hours on and two hours off. For those who experienced water problems yesterday, this may have been due to an accident two days ago when a de-mining team accidentally cut the water pipeline between the Gracanica water plant, treating water from Maticane reservoir, and Pristina. We understand this has been repaired but are awaiting full confirmation.

KFOR Spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Henning Philipp

Question and answers

Q: A question for KFOR. Have you found out what happened to the two wounded snipers? Where they are?

HP: We have found out that the French patrol was engaged with the fire after the French soldiers were shot at. About 45-60 minutes later, there was another incident. The French soldiers were shot at from a group of shooters. The French returned fire, and one of the men in that group was injured. He was immediately taken away by his comrades to the hospital and was released afterwards to his family. He was dead and he was buried immediately the day after.

Q: So, that means that there were no other snipers?

HP: I cannot speculate at this moment about other incidents of that day. We are still researching that, it is still the subject of investigation. I cannot give any further details right now.

Q: Is the new generation of police going to have guns? Has anybody been arrested with regard to the attack on lawyers in Mitrovica and with regard to those who were killed in northern Mitrovica? Is UNHCR doing about those people in northern Mitrovica who are not going out of their homes?

DN: With respect to the weapons, within the next two weeks the first class of the KPS will receive their weapons. There are weapons on order for the second class.

HP: So far, no one was arrested in that incident, but we are trying to get the facts.

Q: How many people have died since the war in Kosovo? How many of these are Albanians and how many are Serbs?

HP: These statistics are available. You should contact me outside.