UNMIK/PR/335
SRSG Bernard Kouchner reacted with outrage to last night's escape of 13 detainees from the Mitrovica Detention Center and vowed to bring to justice both the fugitives and anyone found to have been involved in their flight.
"UNMIK is taking its responsibility very seriously in this incident," Dr. Kouchner said today. "A full and vigorous investigation is underway, and UNMIK Police and KFOR continue their intensive search for the escapees."
UNMIK Police reported that at about 20:45 last night, an UNMIK Police officer on duty in the detention center returned a detainee to his cell after the prisoner had made a telephone call. At that point, the officer was assaulted by other detainees, one of whom possessed a gun which had been smuggled into the cell. The police officer was beaten and tied up. Taking keys from the officer, the inmates then released detainees from other cells, located three other UNMIK Police officers and bound and gagged them in a detention center office.
As the group of 15 were making their way out of the detention center compound, the police officers managed to free themselves, alerting KFOR troops outside the compound who recaptured two of the inmates.
UNMIK Police and KFOR immediately launched search operations in nearby apartment blocks and a forest. KFOR set up road blockades searching vehicles, and police and KFOR troops at boundary crossings with Serbia were alerted. Flyers depicting the escapees were circulated.
The search continued throughout the day today, while Dr. Kouchner announced a full investigation into the circumstances of the escape.
"To have smuggled a gun into the detention center and to have in any way assisted the escape of these prisoners is itself a grave crime that will not go unpunished," he said.
He vowed to administer severe sanctions "should any UNMIK personnel be found negligent." And he ordered an immediate review into the administration of detention facilities in Kosovo.
The 13 escapees, all Serbs, had been in detention since the summer and fall of 1999 when they were arrested by KFOR, mostly on war crime-related charges. Five had been formally indicted by the Kosovo judicial system, with trials scheduled, and one had been convicted of murder.
"The wheels of justice were turning," Dr. Kouchner said. "We had appointed international judges to the courts specifically to ensure these men had fair trials, and that justice for the crimes committed in Kosovo during the recent war would be served.
"We will spare no effort to ensure that the crimes of the past are adjudicated and that anyone involved in this escape will also pay a price for threatening the democratic process underway in Kosovo."