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Press Briefing held on 3 October 2001 at the NATO Press Centre in Skopje Statement of Major Tim Dunne: Good morning ladies and gentlemen. To begin with, I will start will the shots reports from overnight: In the area of Lipkovo, there were 4 single shots, we have no indications of any targets so, we presume that this is not politically motivated. In the Tetovo area, there was an explosion and according to our investigation, grenades fuse parts were found at the scene of the explosion which took place in an ethnically mixed street. The site of the explosion was a roof on a ethnically Macedonian house on an ethnically mixed street. Most of the damage was done to the Macedonian house but several Albanian houses were also damaged. Also, in the area of Tetovo, we have reported 7 high velocity rounds but we have no indication of targeting or any motivation for those firings. In the area of Sipkovica, there were 6 bursts pf automatic shots, again, we have no indication of any targets, and therefore we have no indication that it was politically motivated. There were also media reports of shots fired at a KFOR helicopter on Blace, but we have received no reports of any shootings at KFOR aircraft. If there is any change to that, I will, of course, let you know at our next briefing. Departures for today: We have only 15 Canadians departing at 15:30 today from Skopje airport. The total of people remaining in Macedonia now for TFH: Belgians - 2; Canadians - 56; Check - 122; Denmark - 6; France - 565, some of these will remain for TFF as well; Germany - 234, some of these will also remain for TFF; Greece - 422; Hungary - 34; Iceland - 1; Italy - 795, and, again, some of these will remain behind for TFF; Norway - 8; Portugal - 5; Spain - 1; Turkey - 141; UK - 897; US - 4; and that gives us a grand total - 3293. A large bulk of these will be gone by 8 October, with the remainder leaving on 12 and 13 October. I wasn't able to get a total for TFF personnel who are here now, but I can tell you that two German companies for TFF are on the ground, and that is a total of 220 people, and they will be replaced by mid-November by change-over of troops. And the final point for this morning from me is just to remind you that tomorrow there will be a ceremony for turn over of authority from TFH to TFF at 11 o'clock. And you should arrive no later than 10:15 to clear security. And that concludes my comments for this morning. Statement of Mark Laity: The hand over ceremony is at the Free Trade Center at the Brigade HQ near the airport. And, of course, because it starts at 11 o'clock, then, quite logically, there will be no press briefing tomorrow. I don't have much for you this morning, but could I start with some additional information on what I said yesterday. I gave you some figures which were supplied by the ICRC yesterday about missing people. Those figures were correct at the time, but the Red Cross has continued its analysis and investigation and has modified those figures. And you should speak to them about details, but I will give you the figures, so that my own comments will be seen as correct. They now assess that on their list they have 20 missing people, 12 of these are Macedonian and the figure of 14 has been modified, this is due to one of the missing people having returned to his family but the Red Cross were not immediately notified, and another one, there has been a procedure error and they have been double-counted. So, there are 12 missing Macedonians according to the Red Cross. The number of Macedonian citizens of Albanian origin missing is now 8. I believe that yesterday I said 5, but the ICRC reviewed their own figures. But for any further information please speak to the Red Cross, but I will just add that on issues like this we do not do any independent work, we rely on figures of the Red Cross. Because, as we all know, they have international reputation, and we regard them as totally authoritative, and we rely on them absolutely. With regard to other matters, I have very little to add, other then to say that we had further meetings yesterday between the international community and the Macedonian authorities over the plan of returning to the villages. These meetings were useful, and we continue to emphasize the philosophy of gradualism and step-by-step approach, and we expect further meetings. I am afraid that is all I have for you, but I am open to questions, if you have any. Question 1: (Voice of America- Albanian Service): Gentlemen, there were some reports some days ago that the Macedonian police was hunting Albanian rebels or UCK members, do you have any kind of information on that? Mark Laity: I would ask you to be more specific but in the general terms we don't have those reports. Obviously, at the moment we are urging for an amnesty. But as of now, we have not seen any active police searches for former members of the NLA.