UNMIK/PR/227
PRISTINA: The leader of the Security Council delegation, Mr. Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, today made a strong appeal to the leaders of the various communities in the Kosovo Transitional Council to shun violence for the sake of Kosovo’s future. He was participating in a special session of the KTC along with the other members of the Security Council delegation, on the second day of their visit to Kosovo.
After hearing presentations by local political and community leaders for over an hour, Mr. Chowdhury said the only way to move ahead was by rejecting violence. “Nowhere in the world has any society progressed through violence. Take a pledge in our honour and for yourselves to reject violence, to promote peace and security in Kosovo.” He urged them to shun violence unanimously, to develop a culture of peace and to introduce peace as a subject in educational curricula, adding “please help your children to grow up in a peaceful society”.
Mr. Chowdhury said that the Security Council delegation was here to see for itself “first-hand the situation in Kosovo, the difficulties and obstacles faced by the mission, the efforts by UNMIK to implement Security Council Resolution 1244 and to see what measures we can take to help UNMIK move ahead and bring peace, prosperity and security to Kosovo.”
He said the members of the delegation believed that the KTC had the most important responsibility for the future of the people of this area. He spoke of the high level of violence, the missing persons and the return of refugees and IDPs. “All these are important elements in building a sustainable society and economy”. He paid tribute to the SRSG, Bernard Kouchner’s leadership, adding that he had been doing his work “with remarkable innovation, initiative and dynamism”.
Welcoming the delegation, Dr. Kouchner said while the past 10 months had not been easy, “We are now on the right track towards building a stable, more tolerant society”. He said the elections, which are to be held in October, will be the “first step in giving stability to a society that has a lot of fresh and deep wounds”. Therefore, it was necessary to define terms such as ‘substantial autonomy and self-government’ for the interim period, adding “let me be very clear, these are not issues related to the status of Kosovo”. He said he hoped to start a debate soon on a “contract for society”.
However, Dr. Kouchner said there were still some unsolved issues that make everyone’s task difficult. These were: the still unacceptably high level of violence; the large number of missing persons and the detainees, particularly in the Serbian prisons; the unresolved issue of the return of the refugees and IDPs from all communities and the fact that Kosovo was still not economically sustainable, being almost totally dependent on outside assistance.
In their presentations, the local political leaders expressed their hopes and concerns about the situation in Kosovo, urging the Security Council to support UNMIK and its activities.