2/8/2002
Slow Progress In Kosovo

Michael Steiner, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo and the head of the local UN Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK), briefed the Security Council this week bout developments in the province. Reporting that while Kosovo had made progress over the past few months, Mr Steiner said that the province still had a way to go in meeting the benchmarks set to help it to begin the process of determining its future status.

"Kosovo has not yet achieved the standards that either the international community or its own people demand," he added. "But we can see progress. Our message is: standards before status."

While it was difficult to say what Kosovo's future status would be, Mr. Steiner stressed that there would be no partition, no cantonisation and no return to the status quo ante of 1999. "The outcome cannot be mono-ethnic but must be multi-ethnic. It must be a democratic, safe and respectable Kosovo on the way to Europe," he said.

Mr. Steiner told the meeting, which also heard statements by representatives from some 20 countries, that Kosovo finally had in place a multi-ethnic government with Serb participation. However, the pace at which UNMIK could transfer further authority to the Provisional Institutions depended on their readiness to assume real responsibilities, he noted.

Meanwhile, the UN Mission and the Kosovo police have been cracking down on organised crime by conducting several successful anti-smuggling operations. "Our policy is zero tolerance for crime and corruption," Mr. Steiner said, adding that a Financial Inspection Unit consisting of a highly experienced team from Italy's Guardia di Finanza has been created to expand the Mission's efforts in this direction.

UNMIK has also been trying to establish its authority in northern Mitrovica, with the core of its strategy for that city based on effective policing, Mr. Steiner said. He called on Belgrade to stop financing "parallel structures" in the city, stressing that they must be replaced by legitimate institutions.

On the economic front, the UNMIK chief noted a recent lightning strike on one of the province's two main power plants had resulted in a disastrous fire. This would lead to power shortages in the months ahead. "Together with the Kosovans we will manage through a number of measures," he said. "But the real problem will come this winter."

As for inter-ethnic relations, Mr. Steiner said that the number of minority returns to Kosovo now exceeded the outflow from it, although he cautioned that the returns process has been too slow.