Stop adopting Ahtisaari-based laws, UN chief tells Kosovo assembly
The head of the UN mission in Kosovo Joachim Rucker called on the Kosovo parliament to stop adopting laws based on the status package created by former UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, whose proposal failed to get adopted in the UN Security Council this summer.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Rucker said the laws under the Ahtisaari proposal could be proposed and adopted only in the so-called 120-day transition period after the determination of Kosovo's status.
The Kosovo parliament last week adopted the proposal of a law on citizenship and foreign affairs, based on the Ahtisaari proposal.
The Spokesman for the Kosovo parliament speaker, Skender Durmishi, confirmed that Rucker's letter had arrived to parliment, but that it did not specify to which laws he refered.
Meanwhile, Rucker argued in his regular quartely report on the situation in Kosovo drawn up for the UN Security Council that Pristina institutions continued to implement the standards set by the international community, and that the security situation in the province was stable but fragile.
The report says that a total of 28 persons were sentenced in 14 proceedings for involvement in riots which broke out in Kosovo in March 2004.
Answering criticism that Kosovo does not have an appropriate witness protection program, Rucker said that a special working group had been created to consider all relevant problems.
As regards the freedom of movement, he said that the security situation in the province was stable but fragile and that no incidents were recorded in the past three months.
He noted that the sum of 5.2 million euros earmarked in the Kosovo budget for the return of refugees was insufficient and must be increased in 2008.
Rucker's report, together with a report by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, will be presented to the ambassadors of UN SC member states on October 9 or 10.
Back in Pristina, the OSCE announced its new mission chief in Kosovo will be the Swiss Tim Guldimann.
Guldimann, a career diplomat formerly posted in Croatia and Iran, will be replacing the German diplomat Werner Wnendt, who has been the mission chief since 2005.
