PRISTINA, June 13 (Hina) - The road to Europe does not include ethnic divisions but only mutual tolerance, the United Nations civil administrator in Kosovo, Hans Hakkerup, said in Pristina on Wednesday. Speaking at a press conference
marking two years of UN mandate in the southern Yugoslav province, Hakkerup said stability in Kosovo would lead to a solution regarding its final status. Big changes have been made in the two years of UN activity in the province, in the establishment of civil administration, the peace-keeping activity, and the creation of normal living conditions, he said. The security situation is becoming more stable, even though the violence and crime rate continues to be unacceptable, said Hakkerup. Signs indicating the situation will improve include the establishment of a security department, a police force numbering more than 3,500, and the expansion of international police. The UN
PRISTINA, June 13 (Hina) - The road to Europe does not include
ethnic divisions but only mutual tolerance, the United Nations
civil administrator in Kosovo, Hans Hakkerup, said in Pristina on
Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference marking two years of UN mandate in
the southern Yugoslav province, Hakkerup said stability in Kosovo
would lead to a solution regarding its final status.
Big changes have been made in the two years of UN activity in the
province, in the establishment of civil administration, the peace-
keeping activity, and the creation of normal living conditions, he
said.
The security situation is becoming more stable, even though the
violence and crime rate continues to be unacceptable, said
Hakkerup. Signs indicating the situation will improve include the
establishment of a security department, a police force numbering
more than 3,500, and the expansion of international police.
The UN civil administrator singled out the return of almost 800,000
people who had moved out early in 1999 in the wake of former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic's violent regime. He also mentioned
as significant the abolishment of parallel structures of
authority, the holding of general elections, and the creation of
infrastructure.
One of the priorities in the coming period is the creation of other
institutions of authority as prerequisites for the return of people
who fled the province.
Speaking at the same news conference, the head of the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission to Kosovo,
Ambassador Daan Everts, said the establishment of law and order,
the creation of a Kosovo police force and the creation of free media
represented the most important results of international presence
in the province.
He thinks the general election scheduled for November will be
another step forward.
As spectacular news Everts mentioned the fact that the central
electoral commission had decided that 30 percent of candidates for
the Kosovo parliament should be women.
(hina) ha