UN Transfers Prison Authority To Local Government In Kosovo
The United Nations today handed over complete management of detention centres in Kosovo to local officials, as it
continues to prepare for final status talks on the ethnically divided province, which it has run since the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (<"http://www.nato.int/">NATO) drove out Yugoslav troops amid Albanian-Serb fighting in 1999.
“This is yet another manifestation of the SRSG’s (Special Representative of the Secretary-General) and my own commitment
to the continued transfer of responsibilities and competencies to Kosovo,” Principal Deputy Special Representative of
the Secretary-General Larry Rossin told a ceremony at UN headquarters in Pristina, the capital.
“The transition in penal management must continue in tandem with that in the police and judiciary, to ensure a balanced
growth of all three arms of justice in Kosovo,” he added, hailing this milestone achievement.
The move followed the transfer last month of some economic powers from the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (<"http://www.unmikonline.org/">UNMIK), including the chairmanship of the Economic and Fiscal Council to Prime Minister Ramush Haradina.
The centres handed over today were in Prizren and Peja/Pec. “In its quest for international standards, Kosovo has the
advantage of having a brand new correctional service that has been bred in modern democratic values and does not carry
the burden of retrograde penal management practices,” Mr. Rossin said.
Last month Special Representative Søren Jessen-Petersen announced agreement with Mr. Haradina’s government on speeding
up moves towards a multiethnic society, noting that all involved had a very tight timetable to meet by mid-2005, when
they need to show clear progress to move on to final status talks.
Both stressed then that the highest priority remained progress on the so-called Standards – eight goals in areas such as
democratic institutions, minority rights and an impartial legal system – which are seen as a crucial step on the road to
determining the final status of Kosovo, where Albanians outnumber other communities, mainly Serbs, by about 9 to 1.
Before NATO’s intervention the province was ruled from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and Montenegro.
In March the province was shaken by the worst violence in the five years of UN administration when an onslaught by
Albanians to drive out Serb, Roma and Askhali communities led to 19 people being killed, nearly 1,000 injured and
hundreds of homes and centuries-old Serbian cultural sites razed or burned.