Koha Ditore reports on the front page that the UN Mission in Pristina has rejected the report of the Office for Coordination of Strategy implementation for the north. Kosovo Government and the UN Mission UNMIK have started public clashes about the north of Kosovo.

One reported about the UNMIK presence in the north drafted from the Office for Coordination of Strategy implementation for the north, has raised controversy between the UN officials and those from the Kosovo Government.

The report published a day ago in Koha Ditore and which has for the purpose to give an overview about the obstacles in implementation of the Strategy for the north, drafted by the ICO and Kosovo Government, concludes that UNMIK Administration in the north of Mitrovica has turned into an obstacle of integration of this city, and is helping the survival of Serb parallel structures in that part of Kosovo.

“Instead of dissolving parallel structures, UAM the same as in the past, is keeping its authority in the north and allows to the parallel structures to continue with the governance ..., because of violating their mandate and acting in non-transparent manner, UAM in fact has helped the division between the Serb community and other communities in north Mitrovica. While increasing the mandate of parallel structures there, UAM in direct or indirect way is helping the strategy of Belgrade to control the territory in the north of Iber River, while violating Kosovo territorial integrity”, says in the report.

The head of UNMIK, Lamberto Zannier, through a press communiqué, said that the presence of the mission which he leads has helped and it is helping the lives in the north.

Zannier has rejected the main parts of the report drafted from this joint coordination office of Kosovo Government and ICO.

“I regret that the authors did not consult me or the appropriate UN officials during the preparation of this report, as in doing so they would have had the opportunity to issue an accurate report”, said the Head of UNMIK.

The Coordination Office for the Implementation of the Strategy for the north has been established by the Kosovo Government and led by coordinator Ylber Hysa.

The published report one day before is marking the most serious clash of Kosovo Government with the UN Administration as far as it concerns the north. The Head of UNMIK in its reaction said that UAM has also a special office for non Serb communities in the north, in which the staff which works there are non Serbs.

“UAM is still performing its functions, operating on Kosovo budget funds, which are used to fund the administration of northern Mitrovica. All disbursements of Kosovo budget funds are effected through the Municipality of Mitrovica (south) and cleared by the Ministry of Finance”, it says in the reaction of the Head of UNMIK.

The Head of the Office for Coordination of Strategy implementation for the north, said through a reaction after the comments of Zannier, that the report of his office is sustainable. “It is unfortunate, that UNMIK respectively UAM, is feeling so troubled after many years that has been observed from Kosovo institutions, who finances them, and not used to be monitored have reacted with such a hurry. Our office while drafting a report, only indicated registered facts and realities, built through many months of work, that except different sources, are included a circle of sources from UNMIK itself. In this case we mention also those which have been contacted from our reporters, who never wanted to be interviewed, or they were on vacations, or they did not have time for many months to talk about this issue”, said Hysa. One conclusion in the report is that the most of the staff of local Serbs have double jobs. The same according to the report work also for Serb parallel structures.
UNMIK Spokesman, Jacob Quinn, said that the staff engaged from UNMIK, work only for them, while the mission cannot be aware of other engagements. “The civilian
staff of UAM are employed only by us. If they have another engagement, they are doing it without our permission”, said Quinn. This Spokesman explained that in the framework of the UNMIK Administration in the north, there is also an office for communities; where their staff consists of non Serbs. This office, according to this Spokesman is also dealing with multi-ethnic projects in that part of Kosovo.
On pages 12 and 13 Koha Ditore published the full executive summary of the report of the Office for the Coordination of the Strategy for the north.