NATO HQ Brussels 17 May 2006

Transcript Joint Press Conference with the United Nations Secretary General Envoy to Kosovo, Mr. Martti Ahtisaari MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary General and the President will each make a brief opening statements. And we have time for questions, Secretary General. JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER (Secretary General, NATO): Let me start, good morning, by warmly welcoming President Ahtisaari who came this morning to brief the Council after he and myself had a brief bilateral meeting. It's very important indeed that we had this briefing. The messages from President Ahtisaari... you know, the Council was in Kosovo last week. And the basic points are clear. KFOR is there to support this process. NATO supports the process led by President AHTISAARI: first important notion. Second important notion, KFOR and the men and women of KFOR are there on the ground in Kosovo to protect majority, minority alike including patrimonial and religious sites, to prevent spoilers misusing the situation, misusing the difficult process led by President Ahtisaari. We are there. And NATO is there to stay. The Allies realised that a number of important things have to be done that is implementation of standards, that is participation of the Serb minority in the institutions in Kosovo, that is working together with Søren Jessen-Petersen as of course with President Ahtisaari. So the key messages are clear. NATO is there and KFOR is there in the supporting role linked to the contact group as you know and the meetings of the contact group. On the basis of this briefing, NATO will go on playing its role, play its role that was also underlined strongly by President Ahtisaari of course in coordination with other international organizations like the European Union, like the OSCE, of course the United Nations first and foremost. And in this respect, it was very useful. I ended the meeting by saying that President Ahtisaari has a standing invitation to come to the NATO Council to brief the Allies and to present his messages. KFOR is there to create a climate in which I hope President Ahtisaari can do his difficult work. Thank you very much. MARTII AHTISAARI (United Nations Secretary General Envoy to Kosovo): Thank you Secretary General. I'm delighted to be here. I have, of course, been seeing the Secretary General earlier. But this was the first time I had the opportunity to address the North Atlantic Council and brief them of what we're talking in Vienna , what we attempt to achieve with these talks, technical discussions that have been going there for a few months and continue another month, perhaps a bit longer. We have been talking on decentralization issues, how to create.... The aim of these discussions I would like to put it very briefly is to create through these talks a secure living and working conditions for minorities and particularly for Serb minority in Kosovo. We have been taking new topics last time for a number of new municipalities. So it is not surprising as I have said earlier that we can't see eye-to-eye with the parties immediately. My colleagues are travelling at the moment. My deputy Albert Rohan was yesterday in Belgrade and today in Priština, next week on the 23rd we will have a meeting in Vienna on cultural heritage and religious sites which has been prepared by my colleagues who have been travelling in the region. The important thing to be here is that first of all I want to thank NATO for the liaison arrangement that has been established with my team and NATO. We have one military and one civilian who are working closely with us in Vienna and visiting Vienna in the case of the military one when we have been in need of that. Because the whole security sector is a very important one. Whatever the status in the end of this exercise is going to be, it's going to be international precepts. And NATO will be there. And NATO's presence is vital. And I think it's both parties see the importance of NATO's presence because we need the protection of the minorities. We need the protection from NATO, for the cultural heritage and religious sites. So there are many elements. And then not only that but also the training of the local expertise in the security area. So this was the reason why I'm here. I was very pleased with the active participation in the discussion. And I'm going from here to Strasbourg , to the Council of Europe. Then, I'm heading to Prague and I hope to be in the region soon. I will be travelling to my part of the world in the beginning of next week and then the following week to Moscow and the following week after to China to brief the political leadership there. I hope that come June we have gone through all these different meetings. Then we will see special representatives Søren Petersen reporting to the Security Council on the 22nd of June. After that, I will have to brief the Council, the Secretary General. And then hopefully we can create conditions that will facilitate the move to the actual status talks. MODERATOR: Questions? Hugo here. Q: President Ahtisaari, a year ago, we spoke in your office in Helsinki , when you were preparing the Aceh Peace Talks... AHTISAARI: Yes. Q: One question on Aceh, do you think the peace process is going well in Aceh? And the second question is can Aceh serve as some sort of possible model for solution for Kosovo. AHTISAARI: First of all, I'm delighted that they succeeded in getting the full cooperation of European Union in fielding the Aceh monitoring mission. And a very competent official, my friend Peter Feith who has been heading that. And many governments put their expertise available. I think it has come... I have to be very candid and say that I think it has gone better than I expected. When you are the creator of the agreement, I know how difficult it is to implement. There have been... there still are issues. The law has not been passed yet in the Parliament. But the government is working on that, on Aceh. There are still some amnesty cases that need to be looked into. But all I know, the parties are working well together. And I think there are attempts to create also the participation of the civil society in a more constructive manner in the future, moulding the future of the society. And I hope that one of the organizations where I'm still a chairman of the governing board it's called War-Torn Societies Project International, a Swiss NGO or international NGO situated in Geneva . Its name by the way will soon be changed to Into Peace in the middle of June. That date can be (INAUDIBLE) in facilitating partly that process. So I'm pleased. And I think it is a good issue. And I'm sometimes worried EU doesn't get enough credit of what it does. We all of us prepared to be critical but there an opportunity to say praises for the EU's quick reaction first of all and very good work that the different experts have there done, this is missed. And it also represents a very interesting model for cooperation between regional organizations. I don't think there is any model for Kosovo. We have a different situation there. Q: Augustin Palokaj, Koha Ditore. Mister Ahtisaari, you are called on BBC saying that you hope for agreement. But if there will be no agreement, certainly there will be a solution for Kosovo. Are you inclining... implying that if Belgrade refuse agreement, international community will impose a status of Kosovo. AHTISAARI: I'm not implying anything of the sort. But let's go back to the time when ambassador Kai Eide, Norwegian ambassador to NATO when he did his report. It was critical about the standards implimentation. But at the end he said that international communities would move forward. That the present status quo in Kosovo can't continue forever that therefore it is important to start the Status Negotiations. The contact group that has done remarkable work and shown remarkable unity among the six nations with their guiding principles, their statements in London, their bilateral messages to different parties here. Everyone... that included also their statement that we should try to find a solution during this year. So in other words, international communities is moving forward. I said in one press conference that in my life there is also something in between agreed solution and imposed solution. That life is a much more greater variety of solutions. These two are extremes. But then you have a grey area there in between. So let's not talk how we get to the end game. But I think my responsibility is try to see that we can solve this problem. If it doesn't happen on the 31st of December and it goes a week over to next year, then we have to live with that. But there is no other timeframe except the one given by the Contact Group. MODERATOR: Mark. Q: Mark John for Reuters, a question for the Secretary General. Has the Alliance formed a united view yet on whether it could help in the creation of a Kosovo Defence Force. And if so, what sort of support could it offer? DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Well, what I said before is that the Alliance was certainly not run away and shut the door behind it as soon as there is a solution, and soon as the Status Talks have been finalised. There will be the need. I think the Allies agree for a security presence in any form. And it quite certain and quite sure and that's why I mentioned other international organizations as well that the Allies are going to discuss this of course. But we do this, and that's one of the reason that President Ahtisaari is here. We do this, of course, with the one who is leading the process. I mean, we're not going to act on our own. But let me say again, KFOR is there to say, the Alliance will not run away and close the door behind it and it is sure and certain that some form to be decided of security presence also will be necessary in Kosovo after the status process. And this is certainly a matter the Allies will discuss. What exactly will be the result and how that would like and what NATO's role would look like, I think that's a bit early to say. MODERATOR: Last question is there. Q: Gil Kovantelić (?) Novosti, Belgrade . Mister Ahtisaari, yesterday, in fact this morning, some journal reported yesterday you said in Slovenia that you have hope that the report of Mr. Petersen will be positive on standard implementation. If it is true, on which information did you based your opinion. And second question for General Secretary, you were last week in Kosovo and what do you think now with the implementation of standards. AHTISAARI: No, actually, I base it on your competitor's information. Because I read Reuters (INAUDIBLE). It quoted... they said they had read a draft. But I don't think it's a final document. But even if the first drafts are saying positive things, I think it's a positive development. I have no other documentation available at the moment. I hope that in due course it will come. But I'm travelling the whole of this week. And I won't be in Vienna before Saturday. DE HOOP SCHEFFER: There's still a lot to do on standards implementation on decentralization, on many aspects. There's still a lot to do for the majority, for the minority. There's still a lot to do as far as the approach by Belgrade is concerned. As you know, you have seen that I had a telephone conversation with President Tadić the night we came back from Kosovo. That was also the message I could give to him. I appreciate this form of contact. There's still a lot to do and that includes, of course, the standards of implementation. That's crystal clear as I said in my brief introductory words I would very much like to see... and you know the Council also spoke with the Serb community in Kosovo... that I would hope to see the moment the Serb community is going to actively participate in the institutions and that Belgrade stimulates that participation. I think that's important. MODERATOR: Sir, we have one last... Q: President Ahtisaari, could you please tell us...? Do you think a possible a pro-independance outcome of the referendum in Montenegro next week, this week, will have any influence on the Kosovo process? AHTISAARI: I dealt with the question of Namibia from 1977 to 1990 and every year I was said, somebody passed me the same question: "Will the elections in one country or another have an influence?" I said: "Look, we have known for a long time this is coming. I don't think that it should have any effect in our work. It is a separate issue... (END OF RECORDING)