UNMIK/PR/1305
PRISTINA –SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen today said that UNMIK, in continuing consultation with the PISG, is working on ways to help those who are true humanitarian or social cases and so cannot pay their electricity bills. This follows the SRSG’s meeting yesterday afternoon with KEK senior management and the visits that his Senior Advisor on Minority Issues, Craig Jenness, has been paying to Batuse/Batusha and Lipljan/Lipjan town this week. A number of other initatives to address the different aspects of the energy supply problem, in the short-, medium- and long-term are also being explored.
“It is important for people to understand that KEK inherited in 1999 an old, obsolete network, a result of years and years of under-investment. The failure of many KEK customers to pay for their electricity has resulted in KEK’s insolvency. Currently they are dealing with network failures, they are not actively disconnecting people, and certainly there are no measures that single out any particular group”, said the SRSG.
At yesterday’s meetings, participants discussed the particular problems of the areas where there have been network failures and where it has not yet been possible to make the repairs because not enough customers have yet paid their bills or signed service contracts in line with KEK’s policy. These problems currently affect an estimated 3,500 households, including some 500 Kosovo Serb households. “The fastest way for all consumers to ensure that they have energy is for them to pay their bills and sign service contracts with KEK,” said the SRSG.
It has been decided that KEK will open information and customer service centres in a number of villages, including Batuse/Batusha and Lipljan/Lipjan, staffed by people who understand the communities’ circumstances and can provide residents with objective information on KEK’s policy as well as advice on how to normalise their situation.
“I am encouraged by this approach because, on the one hand, we have a technical, professional approach to help the residents understand the background to the problem, the reason why their village may be without electricity, and discuss with them ways in which they can normalise their situation, in a way that is very responsive to their needs. And on the other hand, there’ll be a truly humanitarian approach to help those in hardship”, said the SRSG, adding that inflammatory statements that politicise the issue do not help address the problem in the long-term.
Other initiatives that are to be discussed in close consultation with the PISG to address the mid- and long-term problems include, for example, the licensing of local supply companies under the umbrella of KEK and options for tackling the problem of debts owed to KEK.