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UN in Kosovo Erred in Using Force, Withheld Report
Says, Passports Passed to Zim's Printer
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
July 31 -- The UN Mission in
Kovoso's actions were called into question on two fronts on Thursday,
involving
UNMIK's use of force and its discontinuance
this week from producing passports
and travel documents.
In a confidential
briefing by UN Assistant
Secretary General Edmond Mullet, the text of which Inner City Press has
seen,
UNMIK's decision to use force in clearing a courthouse occupied by
Kosovar
Serbs on March 17 was called "inadvisable" and based on unverified
intelligence. The Mission's actions in
the run-up to March 17 "lacked balance," and on the day in question,
insufficient arrangements were made by UNMIK for medical assistance,
according
to the briefing notes, which also claimed that UNMIK despite all this
was
acting within its mandate.
Why,
however, is this report being withheld not only from the press and
public but
from the member states?
Why, too, did
UNMIK quietly stop printing
passports and travel documents? When Inner City Press asked UN
spokesperson
Michele Montas how this would impact travel to countries which do not
accept
the new Kosovo passports, Ms. Montas read out a prepared statement that
Kosovo's
institutions have "re-tooled" the machines used to produce the UNMIK
passports to shift to the Republic of Kosovo documents. Video here.
UNMIK and then-Council member Verbeke, about
whom we have asked and will soon report
This seems a strange way
for the UN to make
decisions, all the more so in light of reports that the German
firm
Giesecke & Devrient prints the Kosovo passports, click here for
that, and here for a story about the
firm printing Zimbabwe's money, too. Inner City Press
asked Russian Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin, on
and off camera,
for his view on this UNMIK move. "We could be
in for trouble," he said, linking the discontinuance to what he called
"aggressive" moves by the European Union's EULEX to undermine
previous agreements and resolutions on Kosovo.
While the
U.S. let Giesecke & Devrient off the hook for its work with
Mugabe
-- in exchange for its discontinuance -- how Russia will approach
Giesecke
& Devrient's Kosovo passport work remains to be seen.
About the March 17 report,
Amb. Churkin called for "personal accountability," seemingly directed
at Larry Rossin, in charge of UNMIK that day. Inner City Press asked
what such accountability would mean, and whether Rossin has immunity.
Amb. Churkin said no, but this remains unclear.
Wag-note: Mr. Rossin might want
to avoid eating sushi, quipped one wag.
Watch this site.
And
this --
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