Top UN envoy in Kosovo announces his decision to quit his post

The top United Nations envoy in Kosovo, Søren Jessen-Petersen, today announced that he will be leaving his post at the end of this month, saying his time in the province had given him “a great deal of hope for the future of Kosovo.”

“After almost two years on the job, it is time for me to rejoin my family in Washington DC. I am aware, of course, that I will be departing at an important moment in the history of Kosovo. I am confident, however, that the political process leading towards a status decision is on track,” the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) was quoted as saying in a press release.

“My frequent trips throughout Kosovo brought me into contact with many ordinary men, women, and young people of all ethnicities, and they have given me a great deal of hope for the future of Kosovo.”

The SRSG, who arrived in Kosovo on 15 August 2004, served longer than any of his predecessors in the position. During the last two years Kosovo was judged by the Security Council to have made sufficient progress for the process to determine the province’s status to be launched.

Last week, representatives of the Serbian and Kosovo Governments signed an agreement to speed up the return of people displaced by ethnic conflict in the Serbian province, which the United Nations has administered ever since Western forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid grave human rights abuses.

Mr. Jessen-Petersen, who signed the accord on behalf of the UN, said it proved that despite differences on various issues, “there is a will to cooperate to end the situation of displacement while duly respecting the right of the internally displaced to return to their homes and to freely choose their places of residence.”

The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has been seeking to foster communal harmony and promote the return of Serbs who fled ever since it started running the province after the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) military intervention. Most Albanians who had fled during the earlier fighting with the Yugoslav army have already returned.

“It has been a privilege and an honour for me to work with and for the people of Kosovo,” the SRSG said in today’s press release. “I am very grateful for the support of my partners, including the institutional leaders, party and religious leaders from all communities, local leaders, women leaders, and many, many others.”