UNMIK/PR/363
PRISTINA---The Kosovo Transitional Council, which received a detailed briefing on the municipal elections today was told that the first ballots for out-of-Kosovo voters will be mailed out from today through Monday from Germany.
Briefing the KTC, DSRSG Daan Everts, with his election team from the OSCE led by Mr. Jeff Fischer, he said that he was satisfied with the progress in election preparations. He called on the Kosovo political leaders to ensure that the election campaign stayed within limits. Any violence or intimidation will be dealt with very strictly by the Central Election Commission, he added.
Mr. Fischer, head of the Election Operations in the OSCE, assured the members that everyone who registered between April-July this year would be able to vote in the elections. He said a second period of scrutiny would be provided in October for people to check that their names were there in the voters list.
The OSCE officials said shortcomings had crept into the voters list largely because of different spellings of the municipalities’ names. This was being corrected now. They also responded to queries of the KTC members about the elections. For instance, they explained the concept of conditional voting, in which a voter will be allowed to vote even though his or her eligibility as a voter can’t be determined for some reason at the polling station, on the polling day. Such votes will be counted separately after establishing the voter’s eligibility.
SRSG Bernard Kouchner informed the KTC that soon an office for detainees and the missing persons would be opened in the Government Building. He also briefed them about his visit yesterday to Dakovica/Gjakova, where, he said he once again had the opportunity to listen to the families of the missing and the detained. He said he understood their sorrow. UNMIK was doing its utmost to help them. However, not much information has been available on the missing so far. The appointment of Mr. Henrik Amneus as the UN Special Envoy on Persons Deprived of Liberty, would help to get some answers.
The KTC members suggested several initiatives to deal with the issue and help the families of the missing and the detained socially, financially and medically, to cope with the trauma caused by the members of their families going missing or being held in prisons in FRY. The Serbian member, Ms. Rada Trajkovic, urged the SRSG to also do something about the Serbs who have been missing since the end of the conflict last year.
Mr. Hedi Annabi, Assistant Secretary General in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in the UN, also attended the KTC meeting. Mr. Annabi is in Kosovo these days to see the work being done here.