UN Peacekeeping Chief Urges Kosovo To Address Causes Of Recent Violence
Kosovo's leaders and its people must take concrete steps to tackle the root causes of the ethnic violence that continues
to plague the province, the top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council today.
A month after two days of violence engulfed the province, leaving 19 people dead, hundreds more injured and numerous
homes and religious buildings damaged or destroyed, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie
Guéhenno said international efforts to help <"http://www.unmikonline.org/">Kosovo stabilize and advance could only do so much.
In an <"http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sc8056.doc.htm">open briefing to the 15-member Council, he called on the
leaders of Kosovo to "exercise true leadership and responsible government, and to marginalize and hold politically
accountable those among them who may have condoned or supported the violence."
Mr. Guéhenno said senior officials must identify and discipline politicians and civil servants who fomented or
participated in last month's events, which followed several incidents that had raised tensions between the province's
ethnic Albanian and Serb communities.
He described the series of riots, demonstrations and violent attacks as initially spontaneous but "quickly taken over by
organized elements with an interest in driving the Kosovo Serbs from Kosovo and threatening the international presence
there." He said the attacks were widespread and targeted, focusing on the province's Serb, Roma and Ashkali communities.
The head of peacekeeping said the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) had launched a probe into the
violence and noted that 183 arrests have already been made. But he said UNMIK has requested Member States provide
another 100 police investigators to fully investigate the violence and the people behind it.
Serbia and Montenegro's representative, Roksanda Nincic, told the Council that there has been ample opportunity since
UNMIK assumed control of the province in June 1999 to show that ethnically-motivated violence will not be tolerated in
Kosovo. She said authorities must now prove there will be no impunity for those who committed the attacks.
Other delegates addressing the Council stressed the importance of bringing all the perpetrators to justice, and said it
was vital that the religious and cultural sites damaged or destroyed last month be rebuilt.
They also said that the events indicate the importance of implementing the standards for Kosovo plan before the
province's final status is determined. The standards plan is a detailed guide that sets specific goals in such areas as
the building of democratic institutions, the enforcement of rights for minorities and the creation of a functioning
economy. Its provisions include the holding of free and fair elections and the establishment of an impartial legal
system.