UNMIK/PR/1643
PRISTINA – Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Kosovo (SRSG) Joachim Rücker today addressed a townhall meeting in Gjilan/Gnjilane municipality. The SRSG was accompanied by Prime Minister Agim Çeku, Gjilan/Gnjilane Municipal Assembly President Xhemajl Hyseni and representatives of KFOR and the Council of Europe.
Mr. Rücker said that although UNMIK is not a player in the status process in Vienna, it is a facilitator and contributes to the process to help it go as efficiently as possible. “This is why we are also happy to take part in these townhall meetings where we try to help with the explanation of the status package,” he said.
“The International Community has the Kosovo issue, which is not self-understood, high on its agenda,” the SRSG said.
On decentralization, Mr. Rücker addressed questions related to the new municipalities of Novobërdë/Novo Brdo and Partesh/Partes as envisaged in the status package and said: “This was something that, after one year of negotiations, was carefully crafted by the UNOSEK team after having listened to all sides.” He recalled that the status package provides for decentralization to be reviewed six months after the census in Kosovo.
“We all have the desire to make the minority communities, especially the Kosovo Serbs, feel at home in the present and future Kosovo,” Mr. Rücker said.
