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JAMES APPATHURAI (NATOSpokesman): Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Sorry forour slight delay. The Secretary General and the SRSG will each makebrief opening statements and will be happy to take questions. SecretaryGeneral.
JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER (NATOSecretary General): Well thank you. Let me start by welcoming also hereMr. Soren Jessen-Petersen who just briefed us on his work and let mestart by saying that NATO, once again the NATO ambassadors and myselfhave expressed strong support- strong support for the work he's doingand appreciation for the work Mr. Jessen-Petersen and Général deKermabon as Commander KFOR, who was also our guest, are doing inKosovo.
Of course appreciation for the way Mr.Jessen-Petersen and the Commander KFOR showed professionalism anddiplomacy during the difficult moments on the indictment of the formerPrime Minister Haradinaj.
It's of course importantthat Mr. Jessen-Petersen is here today. Kosovo is of course entering avery crucial period because the decision has to be made on thecomprehensive review as you all know this.
Let memention a number of important elements in this respect which werediscussed and which we consider important and I know Mr.Jessen-Petersen, the SRSG considers important; those are for instancethe freedom of movements, the return process, the protection ofminorities, the whole discussion on decentralization and of courselast, but certainly not least, the participation of the Kosovo Serbs inthe process.
We have of course the very importantelement of the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue but it is important as Mr.Jessen-Petersen has also told the Council, plus the troop contributorsto KFOR, that it is of course of the utmost importance that the KosovoSerbs themselves play an important part and fully participate in thepolitical process in the Assembly and in all the rest.
It goes without saying that if I mention a few standards that also goesfor the full cooperation with the ICTY. I think we saw a good exampleindeed two weeks ago when the former Prime Minister and two otherpersons were indicted, we saw what it can mean, full cooperation withthe ICTY and I sincerely hope that this cooperation will send a signalto the wider region on this important, important aspect.
Let me finish by saying- by making two remarks. First remark, that KFORis there to stay in Kosovo and KFOR will maintain, as I have said manytimes before and I will repeat this here today, KFOR will maintain itsoperational capability.
And finally that NATO, as Isaid when I started my brief remarks in commending the SRSG, NATO ofcourse plays a role as far as KFOR is concerned with a considerablestrength necessary in what still of course is a fragile situation inKosovo.
We saw positive developments- we see positivedevelopments in the building of a new government but let's not pretendthat we are there or that Kosovo is there- far from it. NATO will stayinvolved as far as KFOR is concerned and NATO of course through itsparticipation in the extended contact group wants to be and is also ofcourse involved in the political process.
Let me stophere by saying that I ended the meeting just a moment ago by saying'Bon courage' to Soren Jessen-Petersen. NATO is fully behind him,strongly supports him and I say Général de Kermabon and it's alwaysgood to have you here.
Thank you very much.
SOREN JESSEN-PETERSEN(Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Kosovo): Thankyou very much Secretary General and indeed it's very good to be here. Iwelcome this opportunity that I had today to brief the North AtlanticCouncil, to contributing nations, and also the talk that I had with youSecretary General.
And I want first, as I did in themeeting right now, I want first also again to reiterate my thanks toNATO, to you Secretary General and to KFOR for the extraordinarycontributions that we are receiving in our efforts- joint efforts tomaintain a safe and secure environment in Kosovo--a safe and secureenvironment which is the essential basis that will allow all of us tomove forward on the political agenda.
This is acontribution by NATO, by KFOR, that have been tested over the last twoweeks as the Secretary General referred to. I think Kosovo over thelast two weeks has been exposed to an unprecedented set of challengesthat many independent states would have difficulties in coping with butKosovo did it.
With the indictment of the former PrimeMinister, his immediate resignation, his immediate departure for TheHague Tribunal which (inaudible), the formation of a new government,inclusive consultations among all political parties--which has just acouple of minutes ago by the way--resulted in the election of the newgovernment with 71 votes in the Assembly. In other words, a formationof a government that has taken place in full respect of democratic andconstitutional principles; another sign of a growing political maturityin Kosovo.
Now we are moving forward again. We have anew government but it is a continuation of the old government with anew leader, Bajram Kosumi. I mentioned to the Council that we havethree main challenges over the next six months.
Firstof all, the new government knows very well what it has to do. It has tocontinue even more determinedly to implement the priority standards sothat I can report on positive developments to the Security Council--endof May--so that a decision can be taken to launch a comprehensivereview this summer and again hopefully a comprehensive review with apositive outcome that can trigger status talks. So the government has avery clear agenda. Implementation of the priority standards, most ofthem linked to an improvement of the living conditions of theminorities as the Secretary General said.
Secondly, itis important that Kosovo remains united as we move forward. Indemocracies you have a government, you have an opposition; but when itcomes to larger issues of vital importance for Kosovo's future, that isdecentralization and preparation for status talks, the government mustnow show maturity in reaching out to and bringing into a consensusprogress on decentralization and preparation of status talks. Allpolitical parties, all leaders, have a role to play there and this willbe a major challenge and again I have no doubt that it will be met.
And thirdly, as mentioned by the Secretary General, this government andPrime Minister Bajram Kosumi must continue what the previous governmentdid, that is, redouble or- they now must redouble their efforts inmoving on some of the minority issues; reaching out to the KosovoSerbs; engage in a direct dialogue with Belgrade and implementing allthe priority standards linked to minorities. I have already discussedit with the Prime Minister elect, I have urged him to continue theexample shown by the previous Prime Minister in really working hard onthe minority issues and again I have confidence that the government andthe opposition is aware of that.
So let me sum up andsay, we were concerned when the indictment happened. We were concernedon how that would impact on stability, on our political agenda forward,I can now say with a degree of relief but also being impressed by theresponse of the institution and the citizens in Kosovo, I can sayKosovo is on track, we are moving forward and we just have to work evenharder to get us to the goal that I believe is of interest not just toKosovo but to the entire region.
Settling Kosovo willhelp to normalize and stabilize the entire region of Western Balkansand this is now our challenge over the next several months.
Thank you.
Q: Ihave a question for the Secretary General. Tomorrow is the 6thanniversary of NATO intervention to liberate Kosovo. Looking back sixyears, really the situation in Kosovo seems much better but still forsome Kosovars it took too long and still the status of Kosovo is notclear. We hear that the status talks might start this year or later butthere are no indications that- what the final status will be. Was thisdiscussed today in the NAC and what is your position on that? And if Imay just a question- if ICTY asked for the guarantee from KFOR andUNMIK for Mr. Haradinaj to be provisionally released, is NATO and theUNMIK - are they ready to do so? Thanks.
DE HOOP SCHEFFER:I'm usually not good in answering 'iffy' questions so let's wait andsee. That's up to the ICTY and not up to NATO. On your first question,you have heard the SRSG, NATO as such of course does not have anopinion on status but let's take the things one by one as Mr.Jessen-Petersen has said. Let's first focus on, let's say the start ofthe comprehensive review and then of course, and Mr. SorenJessen-Petersen has to report of course to the Security Council givenhis mandate- and then let's see if status talks can start as he wassaying.
Of course I hope that that at a certain stagecan be the case but you know the comprehensive review comes first. WhatI can say on behalf of NATO is that KFOR is there to stay, to see thatstability and security is maintained. We did that during a period a fewweeks ago which was of course tense. Let me repeat once again that weare not there yet, that the situation of course in Kosovo is a fragilesituation in need of KFOR to maintain its presence and NATO followsquite closely the political process under the competent and ableleadership of Mr. Jessen-Petersen.
JESSEN-PETERSEN:Yes I would just add very briefly, I have already informed theprovisional government because I was requested on this issue that ifthere was a request on provisional release I have made it clear that isa matter for the ICTY and we will, if there is such a request, we willlook at the content and what we are requested to do, acting in fullaccordance with the procedures.
All I can say, andI'll not go further than that, as always we will be looking positivelyat any request that we get for cooperating and we will also be lookingpositively but it is depending on a request forthcoming, the contentsof that request, and indeed whether the conditions are such that theycan be met.
Q:Question for Mr. Petersen. Boris Tadic just said that he is not happywith the process of decentralization. He said Belgrade is not involvedenough in this process. Do you feel that the institution of Kosovo hasdone enough for this process? And a second question if I may. We havebefore us two months, you mentioned the end of May, so do you believethat there is enough time for progress for in the standards in Kosovo-for the (inaudible).
JESSEN-PETERSEN:On the second question there's enough time if the government now setsabout really working 24 hours a day, the municipal authorities as well,the citizens of Kosovo, they know what needs to be done. If they allwork hard on it and are totally committed to it there is enough time.
On the first question, I have discussed this many times with Tadic, Mr.Kostunica and others. We have said that decentralization in Kosovo is aKosovo-driven process, the principle (inaudible) for that must be theKosovo Serbs. They must participate in that. I have said Belgrade iswelcome to send advisors to that and we are also prepared to pursueother dialogues on decentralization directly with Belgrade for examplethe way we did it last September when under the chairmanship of thecontact group we met to discuss the Belgrade plan.
Sothere are various channels for discussing this directly. Again, wedon't have a lot of time here. We want to proceed on decentralization,that's what Mr. Tadic asked for when the previous government wasestablished in November, he said I will 90 days to decide whether toencourage Kosovo Serb participation to see progress on pilot projects.Within those 90 days we produced an idea of five pilot projects ofwhich two are of direct interest to the Kosovo Serbs. So, we have tomove forward on that issue as well, there are various ways of KosovoSerbs and Belgrade to being part of that and I will discuss thatfurther in Belgrade on Monday with all the leaders in Belgrade.
Q: (AgenceFrance-Presse) Just a follow-up question to that. Since your report isin May, could you tell us in concrete terms what- is there one decisionthat they should, that the Kosovars should take that would help you inthis? I mean because- could you be more precise?
JESSEN-PETERSEN:Yes I can be very precise. We have, together with the Kosovogovernment, agreed on 61 priority standards. Some of those prioritystandards are related to specific action in areas mentioned by theSecretary General, I mentioned to the Council, for example freedom ofmovement and returns of displaced persons, there are other areas linkedto dialogue.
So what is required are very specificaction points. We have already in previous technical assessments tickedoff positively implementation in a number of those areas but there areother areas where there has either not been enough progress or noprogress so in our daily meetings and working groups, et cetera, we arenow focusing very concretely with the authorities on what exactly needsto be done between now and the end of May and it is mainly linked tofreedom of movement, to return of displaced and also issue of propertyrights.
So they're very concrete and therefore it's not a matterof a general discussion, concrete action, and very easy to monitor forthe same reason.