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To the Contact Group governments:
The Contact
Group countries (France, Germany, Italy, Russia, U.S. and U.K), along with
NATO, and the U.N. Security Council, should increase their engagement with
Kosovo to improve the security of minorities. A thorough review and reform of
the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) and the United Nations Interim Administration
in Kosovo (UNMIK) structures is urgently needed, and will require attention and
support at the highest levels to be effective. The overlapping, and at times
competing, roles of various international institutions are hampering Kosovos
recovery, and it is important that the Contact Group acts in unity to carry out
the necessary reforms in Kosovo. Therefore, Human Rights Watch is making
recommendations to the Contact Group as a whole, rather than the individual
institutions in charge of component elements of Kosovos governance and
security.
Carry out a thorough, independent, and impartial review of the
response of KFOR, international UNMIK police, and the Kosovo Police Service
(KPS) to the March violence, focusing particularly on the failure of Kosovos
security organizations to protect minorities from ethnically motivated violence
and the shortcomings of coordination between the various security organizations
in Kosovo.
Review the command structure and make-up of KFOR, with a view to
creating a KFOR with a unified command structure able to respond quickly and
uniformly to Kosovo-wide violence, by ensuring uniformity of response to
security incidents, and being free of restrictions by national contingents of
their rules of engagementcommonly referred to as caveatson troop
deployment that hampered the KFOR response to the March 2004 violence.
Expand the size of KFOR and international UNMIK police to ensure
an adequate number of security officers to address the security situation in
Kosovo.
Ensure that KFOR troops and UNMIK civilian police deployed to
Kosovo are experienced in riot-control situations, including graduated
use-of-force response to riot situations, and have the necessary equipment to
respond to riot situations and other mass disturbances.
Together with Kosovos Provisional Institutions of
Self-Government (PISG), take immediate steps to improve the living conditions
of those still displaced from the March 2004 violence. Address the continuing
security concerns of the minorities displaced by the March 2004 violence in
full conformity with the U.N. Guiding Principles on the Internally Displaced;
ensure adequate consultation with the displaced and provide them with options,
including reconstruction of their homes or relocation if the security situation
so requires.
Take the lead in initiating and institutionalizing a dialogue
between the PISG, Kosovo Serb leaders, and the government of Serbia to improve the security of minorities in Kosovo, end discrimination in the provision
of public services, and resolve the issue of parallel institutions.
Seek accountability for ethnically motivated crimes in Kosovo, by
prioritizing the strengthening of impartial investigative and judicial
mechanisms in Kosovo.
As requested by UNMIK, increase the number of UNMIK
investigators, prosecutors, and judges to give UNMIK adequate capacity to
investigate and prosecute criminal acts committed during the March violence, in
accordance with international standards.
Continue to make clear and forceful public statements that a
multiethnic Kosovo in which the rights of all inhabitants are respected is one
of the principal objectives of the international community.
Provide international protection to ethnic minorities forced to
flee Kosovo for fear of persecution. Ensure that those fleeing to neighboring
countries or elsewhere in Western Europe have access to full and fair asylum
determination procedures and are treated humanely with full respect for their
human rights. Asylum seekers from Kosovo who had their applications rejected
prior to the March violence, or those who sought to voluntarily return to
Kosovo, should have their applications reconsidered in light of the March 2004
violence and the changed security conditions in Kosovo.
Prioritize the strengthening of a credible, professional, and
impartial Kosovo Police Service by improving training programs and ensuring
adequate equipment for KPS officers (including riot-control equipment). Salary
packages for KPS officers should be increased to professional levels to ensure
the recruitment and retention of quality personnel.
To Kosovos Provisional Institutions of
Self-Government:
Commit Kosovo to a multiethnic future, and make clear that
attacks against minorities will be vigorously prosecuted.
Take responsibility for the security of minorities in Kosovo, and
make the security of minorities in Kosovo a strategic priority for the PISG. Carry
out the necessary reforms within the PISG and KPS to ensure security for
minorities in Kosovo.
Acknowledge that Kosovos institutionspolitical leaders, the
media, and the PISGwere partly to blame for the outbreak of violence in March
2004 by initially making inflammatory statements, and institute reforms to
prevent future anti-minority violence in Kosovo.
Seek dialogue with Kosovos Serb leadership and the government of
Serbia and Montenegro to improve the security of minorities in Kosovo, end
discrimination in the provision of public services, and resolve the issue of
parallel institutions.
Seek to increase the multiethnic
nature of institutions of governance in Kosovo, and act determinedly against
discrimination in the provision of public services.
To the Government of Serbia and Montenegro:
Seek dialogue with both the PISG and the international
institutions in Kosovo to improve the security of minorities in Kosovo, end
discrimination in the provision of public services, and resolve the issue of
parallel institutions.
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