Kosovo: Urgent Implementation of EU-Facilitated Agreements Needed

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Published Jun 22, 2024

Briefing by Caroline Ziadeh, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), on the situation in Kosovo.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and Head of UNMIK, Caroline Ziadeh, reiterated, “The full implementation of the EU-facilitated agreements has become an ever more pressing priority, in order to help alleviate the continuing series of crises that have emerged in Kosovo.”

Ziadeh today (22 Apr) in New York briefed the Security Council on the latest developments in Kosovo.

She noted that over the past year, there have been numerous setbacks in efforts to build more confidence in peaceful relations among Kosovo’s ethnic communities through political dialogue. The Secretary-General in his report, and her briefings to the Council, have previously reported on a number of these setbacks, while wider international attention was drawn by the serious security incident which occurred in the village of Banjska/Banjskë last September.

The Special Representative stressed “the importance of accountability for that extremely serious incident through a thorough, fact-based investigation and assessment of its circumstances.”

“This is both a judicial matter, and also a political necessity in order to avert any recurrence,” she said.

Across the same period, Ziadeh said that “numerous developments have caused hardship and fuelled mistrust between the communities, developments which could and should have been foreseen and avoided by good faith dialogue.”

She continued, “The Kosovo Serb community representatives have shared their feelings that they are faced with human rights challenges. These, as well as the frequent use of inflammatory and derogatory rhetoric, in both directions, demand closer attention and scrutiny, as well as responsible remedial action by those in leadership positions.”

The head of the mission in Kosovo also said, “UNMIK will continue to make full use of its resources, in partnership with the UN Kosovo team and our many implementing partners, to help the communities to overcome existing mistrust, and to find opportunities for reaping the benefits of genuine cooperation.”

She concluded, “We will continue to support work across multiple fields that creates new space for communities to work jointly to positively influence processes that affect the future of all. This remains a central pillar of our mandated work.”