Unmik to start drastic cuts of staff
The U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said Monday that it would start this week its biggest staff reduction, nine years after its deployment.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Tuesday, August 12, 2008
"In the next few days UNMIK staff will be downsized and receive notifications that their contracts are terminated," UNMIK spokesman Alexander Ivanko said in a statement.
Ivanko said the process will start with those already at the end of the contract. It is not known how many U.N. personnel will leave Kosovo in the first phase.
The "U.N. Mission in Kosovo will be cut down by about 70 percent," he said.
It is estimated in Pristina that the process of the reconfiguration of UNMIK, accompanied by the adequate reduction in the number of staff, should be completed by December this year.
UNMIK is the biggest civil U.N. Mission deployed in a territory.
UNMIK had a passive position concerning Pristina's unilateral declaration of independence in February, but it is still operating on the ground according to the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 in 1999.
