NOTE: THIS IS ONLY A  selection of comments regarding UNMIK Police duties from UNMIK AND KFOR  Press Briefing (NOT THE WHOLE SUMMARY)

It has been a rather violent weekend, with four murders and several cases of arson and explosive attacks.

There was a double murder yesterday involving an alleged dispute between two families in Dobrosevac, near Glogovac. Two suspects have been arrested (Kosovo Albanians).

Yesterday, a Serb was found murdered in the Pec/Peja region, shot in the head in Kulina.

On Saturday at 4:30 in the afternoon, a Serb man was found shot dead in his field, 3 kms north of Pristina (Donja Brnjca). UNMIK police are investigating.

Several arson fires were reported over the weekend in Pristina, Kosovo Polje and in Gnjilane--mostly involving minority-owned property. In Vitina an Albanian-owned building was damaged by an explosion. Also in Prizren at 2 a.m. Saturday a hand grenade was thrown into a café, ownership unclear. Grenade attacks were also reported in the Serb and Roma quarters of the town over Saturday night. In Pec/Peja on Friday, six mortar bombs exploded at 3:15 in the morning near the Roma village of Fidaje. No damage or injuries were reported.

An UNMIK Police officer was assaulted Friday by a crowd after he stopped a vehicle in northern Mitrovica.

In Mitrivoca, there was a question regarding arrests and detentions since the 3 February outbreak of violence. As of today, we have one man in custody. Charges were to have been filed today. UNMIK and KFOR have detained temporarily, questioned and interviewed dozens of other people in connection with the violence in northern Mitrovica of 3 February, the shooting of the French soldiers on 13 February, and the grenade attacks of last Tuesday, 7 March. Investigations are ongoing and regarding the 3 February events, the police investigation is nearly closed. Once the international judiciary which we are setting up in Mitrovica is operating, more arrests will undoubtedly be forthcoming.

Yesterday, KFOR again arrested several thousands for illegal possession of weapons and confiscated a number of rifles, pistols and a huge amount of ammunition. Details of those incidents you may find, as usual, in our press release outside, after this briefing.

Q: How are you going to conduct registration in Serbian enclaves in Kosovo, when Serbs boycott the whole process?

DE: We are not anticipating a boycott, because it’s so clearly in the interests of the Serb community to participate. And we have in fact received some encouraging signals, but they are not unanimous, I must admit. We are pleased now to confirm the official approval by the Russian Federation of the elections and the registration process. This hopefully will help Belgrade to be cognizant of the need to have the Serb displaced persons—and Roma, by the way—in Serbia to register. It would be adding insult to injury if they would be disenfranchised by Milosevic. So, we hope there will be strong international and Serb community pressures to enable the participation. This afternoon, in fact, they are having a meeting in Liposavic with all the Serb parties that are in the northern part of Kosovo to discuss the elections, registration and their participation. And we are very, very keen to encourage it. We are also making sure, and Mr. Koenigs can elaborate on this, that in the municipal structures there would be certain guarantees, assurances for an effective minority representation. On our side, on the UNMIK/OSCE side, there is a very clear determination to do the maximum to make it not only possible, but also attractive for ethnic minorities to participate.

Q: Is the postponement of the general elections connected with the fact that the final political status of Kosovo is not defined? Will several thousands Albanian refugees who are outside of Kosovo participate in the registration?

DE: There are technical reasons. If you want to have elections in 2000, which we want and many Kosovars want, then for the reason that I have explained—credibility—we can only organize municipal elections. It would be too much in terms of the registration and verification efforts to include the whole world of Kosovars, as should be done for central elections. Municipal elections are the only possible elections to be held this year. But there is another reason why holding of the central elections is not an attractive proposition at this point, because there isn’t a legal framework to relate the elections to. And that is an issue which Dr. Kouchner raised in the Security Council. They are asking for more clarity on the legal framework in this interim period. And that’s another reason why we cannot go forward, even if we could do so technically, for premature central elections. So, there’s actually no postponement—it just has to be at a later date. But our first goal is the municipal elections, because they can be related to a municipal framework.

On the refugees, if you don’t mean the recent refugees from the Presevo Valley who have been moving into Kosovo, because they are not, of course, a part of a municipal framework and cannot vote in municipal elections here… If you are referring to those who left before 1998, the answer is that they can return, there is no impediment for their return to Kosovo, take their residence and participate. We have, however, included in the legislation a provision that if they are special categories of people who are, for whatever reasons, not in the position to return, we can try to seek them out and enable them to forward their mail.

TK: If they are out of Kosovo registration, there will be a voter registration. And it will be done by IOM. And the provision has been made that all those who are, say, in Germany or Switzerland can take part in this

Q: What about those who left Kosovo since 1990, most of them young boys who had refused to join the VJ, and for other political reasons, and travelling all around they see that most of the villages are still empty, where this population is? I suppose that most of them have been somewhere abroad… It’s not just the question of the refugees who left Kosovo in 1998.

DE: Well, the same answer applies. To the extent that there is a category that cannot return yet to Kosovo to re-establish the link with the municipality, they can be included in voters’ list. There is a provision for that. Those who left and have no link whatsoever with the municipality and do not intend to return, they cannot participate in municipal elections, obviously. They would be very much eligible for central elections, but not for municipal elections where you have to have a direct link between the resident and the municipality.

Q: If registration of minorities displaced in recent months, the Serb minority, will be organized either in Serbia and in Kosovo, is there a technical possibility to organize the registration of the population abroad, for example in Germany?

TK: I didn’t get your point properly. Because for those who are in Serbia to register, we will try to register them for elections. Those who are in Germany can certainly be registered by IOM, so the full right of election granted, if I’ve got your question right. If a person is a refugee and cannot return, he can register abroad. There is a firm definition of a refugee by the UNHCR. And those who are registered as refugees by the UNHCR and if they cannot return, they can certainly be registered, there is a special provision on this in the regulation.

Q: Many Kosovars do not want to get Yugoslav passports, because they do not consider themselves Yugoslav citizens. Are you, by giving them these registration and travel documents, giving them another reason not to get a Yugoslav passport?

TK: We don’t care whether somebody has a Yugoslav passport or not and whether he likes it or not, or whether he uses it or not. But we do care that all Kosovars, especially those who for several reasons did not get a Yugoslav passport or don’t have it, could have a right to travel. This is very essential. For this we have the agreement of the United Nations to issue these documents to all those who want to travel and have their habitual residence in Kosovo. If a person is registered legally as habitual resident, he has a right to get this travel document which is not a passport, because he cannot carry simultaneously two passports. And for these reasons, we have the agreement of those countries where holders of such documents may wish to travel.