UNMIK/PR/294
PRISTINA—SRSG Bernard Kouchner has signed a regulation establishing the administrative Department of Sports, which will be responsible for the overall management of all matters relating to sports in Kosovo.
The department, co-headed by Jean-Selim Kanaan and Zemun Pajaziti, will produce a strategy for the development of sports; define the regulatory framework for organized sport activities and develop ways to make them accessible to a broad range of Kosovo society.
UNMIK regulation 2000/41 also tasks the department with promoting sports as a life-long activity available without discrimination;, encouraging and overseeing the widespread use of sports facilities; promoting and supervising the formation of sports associations; coordinating the activities of international, government, non-governmental and private organizations to promote coherent development of the sector; formulating and implementing a budget for sports; designing and implementing an information and data system; promoting coordinated private and public initiatives and promoting democratic decision-making in the sector.
Located in the Boro and Ramiz Sports Centre, the Department of Sport has already been active. Beginning last week it launched a 330,000 DM project to start 74 sports camps--including 10 minority camps--around Kosovo. The camps will run during July and August with sessions lasting two to four weeks and serving 5,000 young people.
This Friday, the Department of Sport will re-open the completely refurbished
public swimming pool in the Germija valley. Currently lifeguards are undergoing training.
The department is also preparing to assist sports federations and clubs in receiving grants-in-aid to finance their activities, as well as preparing a directive for a complete overhaul of the sports system. A request was sent to UN headquarters in New York for a $1 million grant to refurbish some of the sports infrastructure.