|
Inner City Press
Global Inner Cities Report - February 14, 2006
Kosovo: Of Collective Punishment
and Electricity;
Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press U.N. Correspondent
UNITED
NATIONS, Feb. 14 – Following the UN Security Council meeting on the
status of Kosovo, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General’s
Special Representative for Kosovo, Soren Jessen Petersen, took brief
questions from reporters. He was asked, by Inner City Press, about the
status of electricity in Kosovo, in light of reports that some areas are
without power for up to 20 hours a day. He and then his spokeswoman said
that is not true. The spokeswoman, Marcia Poole, described a system in
which “areas” which have a record of slow or no payments for power
receive less frequent service that other, “better areas.” Prior to the
recent cold weather, the best paying areas, referred to as “A,” received
uninterrupted power (“theoretically,” the spokeswoman added). B areas
received five hours on, one hour off. The spokeswoman said proudly that
now the A areas have this five on, one off schedule, so that the
worst-paying areas, called “C,” now have two hours on, four hours off.
So rather than being without electricity for twenty hours a day, the
correct figure is sixteen…
The
allocation of electricity that an individual or family receives is not
related to the individual’s record of payment, but rather the records of
those among whom he or she lives. It is quite literally a form of
profiling – a practice that, given the history of Kosovo and the region,
one would think should be avoided. It is excused as related to the old
wiring system.
Neither Mr. Jessen Petersen nor his spokeswoman would answer questions
about the progress and transparency of the UN-overseen privatization of
Kosovar socially-owned enterprises. An early quasi-privatization inside
deal involved US AID’s creation of a bank in November 2001, and sale of
the institution in 2003 to Raiffeisen Bank. The most recent troubles
involve the conditional (and controversial) sale in November 2005 of the
Ferronikeli mines to Alferon/IMR, reportedly dominated by oligarch’s
elbow-deep in Kazakhstan. Three months later, the $40 million sales
price has yet to be paid. The reason given is the Kosovo Energetic
Corporation’s offer to Alferon, to let it import its own electric power,
has not been accepted. Close observers speculate whether Alferon is in
fact angling to buy a chunk of the Kosovar power system, Korporata
Energjetike e Kosovës, managed by the Irish company ESBI. Inner City Press will continue to report on this;
the response to its questions was a referral to
UNMIK Pillar IV in Pristina.
Developing…
  Jessen-Petersen
At the
previously scheduled noon press briefing, which Soren Jessen Petersen
had been slated to attend, the spokesman for the Secretary General, when
asked by Inner City Press about the recently screened video of British
soldiers beating Iraqi teenagers, said that such footage is “always
disturbing” but that “it is positive that the British government is
investigating.” We’ll see…
On the
Internet: http://www.unmikonline.org/
Some previous reports:
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia, Even Terror’s Haven
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Halliburton
Repays $9 Million, While Iraq’s Oil Remains Unmetered
Darfur on the
Margins: Slovenia’s President Drnovsek’s Quixotic Call for Action
Ignored
Who Pays for the
Global Bird Flu Fight? Not the Corporations, So Far - UN
Royal Bank of
Scotland Has Repeatedly Been Linked to Terrorist Finance and Money
Laundering, Not Only in the Current Brooklyn Case
From Appalachia
to Wall Street: Behind the Mining Tragedy, UBS and Lehman Brothers
Iraqis Absent
from Oil Oversight Meeting on Development Fund for Iraq, Purportedly Due
to Visa Problems
Watching the
Detectives: Oversight of the Development Fund for Iraq Will be Discussed
at the UN on December 28, 2005
From the UN
Budget, Transit Strike, to the USA Patriot Act, 2005 Ends with
Extensions
Some previous
highlights and special reports:
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
The United
Nations' Year of Microcredit: Questions & No Answers
Older Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org -
Other Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org
For more reporting about such topics as banks, predatory
lending, consumer protection, money laundering, mergers or the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), click
here for Inner
City Press's
weekly CRA Report.
Inner City Press also reports weekly concerning, among other beats, the
Federal Reserve,
environmental justice,
global inner cities, aas
well as
on the United
Nations. Follow those links
for more of Inner City Press's reporting, or, click
here
for five ways to
contact us,
with or for more information.
©opyright 2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editors [at] innercitypress.com - phone: (718) 716-3540 |
