Kosovo: UN official reports on new appeal by leaders urging minority returns

Stressing that huge challenges remain in Kosovo, particularly the return of minorities, the top United Nations official there briefed the Security Council today on a new initiative by Kosovo Albanian leaders urging the mainly Serb refugees to come home.

“A lot more work is required for Kosovo to become a truly multi-ethnic society. The slowness of returns and integration remains our most serious shortcoming,” Michael Steiner told the Council in his last briefing as the head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

But Mr. Steiner, who leaves office next week, welcomed an open appeal made yesterday in Pristina by Kosovo Albanian leaders urging refugees and displaced people in Serbia, Montenegro and FYR Macedonia to return.

Quoting excerpts from the letter, Mr. Steiner read: “It is time for you to come home… We do not ‘invite’ you to come back to your home because Kosovo is your home and you have the right to live here in peace. Kosovo is your home, just as it is our home; we want and work for you to come back and live in peace with us as neighbours, in a spirit of mutual respect.”

“It is truly time to put the past behind us and move on. … We are ready and willing to provide for your needs in health, public services, and education on an equal basis with all the other people of Kosovo. We cannot offer more than that, but what we are able to offer, we do with sincerity,” the appeal continued.

Mr. Steiner said Kosovo was now moving towards the standards that will define its place in Europe, and multi-ethnicity was gradually improving, a testimony to the work UNMIK is conducting in the province.

“When I arrived a year and a half ago, there was no government – despite successful general elections. 153 prisoners from the war were still held in Serbia. In the northern part of Mitrovica, there was a legal vacuum and turbulence. More members of minority communities were leaving Kosovo than returning. Pristina and Belgrade did not talk,” he noted.

The Mission had succeeded in putting together a multi-ethnic government and police force, bringing back prisoners of war, administering parts where there are were no regular police patrols and reversing the negative trend in returns, Mr. Steiner said. He added that Pristina and Belgrade have also agreed to dialogue directly.

The outgoing official appealed to the Council to continue supporting UNMIK and his successor, Charles Brayshaw, who he said inherits many challenges.

Video of Security Council meeting