UNMIK/PR/480
The Kosovo Transitional Council today discussed the Kosovo Consolidated Budget for 2001 as well as the Kosovo Albanian detainees held in Serbia. Also on the agenda was a review of developments at Radio-Television Kosovo.
SRSG Hans Haekkerup stated that UNMIK has demanded the return of all Kosovo prisoners detained in Serbia, without further delay.
Regarding the proposed amnesty which is under consideration by the Yugoslav parliament, he urged the FRY authorities to release all those covered by the law that he hoped would be adopted soon, according to the provisions of the law.
“Those prisoners who would not fall within the scope of the Amnesty Law should be returned to Kosovo and will have their cases processed through a judicial review in Kosovo conducted under the supervision of UNMIK,” he told the KTC. “UNMIK would make sure that this review would be initiated immediately, according to international human rights and judicial standards.”
The KTC also received the weekly security briefing from KFOR and UNMIK Police, who noted that the Presevo ceasefire was being maintained and that ethnic crimes were at a relatively low level. Recent violence had been aimed mainly at Serbs, with the aim of ethnic cleansing, the KFOR representative said. Police Commissioner Albiston said that major crimes had fallen from 95 the previous week to 70. No murders were reported. Police conducted 134 arrests and confiscated numerous weapons. UNMIK Police also conducted a successful operation against drug dealers in Podujevo on 18 January, confiscating 65 packets of heroin.
Regarding the Kosovo Consolidated Budget, DSRSG Andy Bearpark stressed the importance of the budget in developing Kosovo’s future. The budget permits the development of all UNMIK sectoral policies while defining the limits on what the departments can do. Bearpark warned that the resources available to the Joint Interim Administrative Structure were limited. But that economic topics in general should be taken more seriously by the KTC.
He said the budget of Kosovo was unique in that in only 18 months, the Central Fiscal Authority had made such great progress that donors had given up sovereignty over their own funding. This he said was a tribute to the CFA and to many departments involved in the Budget. However, CFA head Tony Preston-Stanley noted that capital expenditures are 100% donor-funded, and in the future, Kosovo will have to raise that money to be truly sustainable.
The CFA was enjoying a cash surplus from late 2000, due to late donor payments and customs and taxes, along with early 2001 contributions. These funds would provide two months of expenditures to all departments. He also said that during the year changes in allocations to departments would be made so that departments could better plan expenditures.
The 2001 Kosovo budget will receive 70 percent of its revenues from domestic sources, which supplied 50% of the year 2000 Budget. The increase will come from new taxes, i.e. tax collection at the boundary with Serbia, and at other border points. Subsidies to public utilities will shrink, and utility companies will have to increase revenues from customers and more efficient operations.
Top priorities for the 2001 Budget remain education, health, justice and social welfare. There will also be a reduction of staff and production costs in some of those sectors.
UNMIK will have to devote more attention to economic issues in the coming year and to develop a more active private sector. More funds will be allocated to municipalities for the new assemblies and more efforts will be made to raise money locally.
Preston-Stanley said that there was need to increase the tax base and UNMIK’s capacity to collect taxes. He announced that from 1 January 2002, a profit tax will be introduced, and an income tax will also be considered. Donors will seek to reduce their commitments. Future resources for capital investment funding will have to be from internal resources since Kosovo cannot borrow from international credit institutions and money markets.
To a comment from the KTC on the lack of Serbs in CFA institutions, Preston-Stanley said the CFA would be advertising positions for Serbs. Other members complained of the lack of support for the families of teachers killed in the conflict: UNMIK was able to assist such people only through social welfare, he responded.
Following the meeting, media asked the SRSG why pensions were not paid from the Budget, to which he replied that the idea had now been proposed, and could enter plans for the 2002 budget.
To the SRSG’s statement on detainees in Serbia, two KTC members said that all prisoners should be released unconditionally. While a Serb representative said that similar concern should be shown for the missing and killed Serbs from Kosovo.
Representatives from RTK briefed the KTC on upcoming plans to expand programming on RTK-TV from four to six hours daily in May, and that the station would be restructured according to a new regulation. A new director is being sought who will be nominated by a Board of Directors composed primarily of Kosovars who will set policy and agree on a budget for RTK.