PRESS RELEASE
NYPM 023-04
14 April 2004

UN WANTS RP TO SEND POLICE INVESTIGATORS TO KOSOVO

NEW YORK—The United Nations is requesting the Philippines to send additional police officers to Kosovo to assist in the investigation being conducted on last month’s outbreak of inter-ethnic violence that left at least 19 people dead.

Ambassador Lauro L. Baja Jr., Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations has requested the Philippines to send 10 police investigators to support the requirements of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). The request was coursed through the Philippine Mission to the United Nations this morning.

The 10 Filipino police officers will join other civilian police officers from other nations who will be assigned to five newly created task forces that will investigate the large number of cases arising from last month’s violence.

As many as 954 people were injured and 750 homes, including the quarters of the Philippine police contingent, were destroyed or damaged in riots directed by the ethnic Albanian majority against the ethnic Serb minority from 17 to 20 March 2004.

Some 126 international peacekeepers were also injured in what has been described as the worst outbreak of interethnic violence since the United Nations intervened five years ago to put an end to the persecution of the ethnic Albanian minority by the ethnic Serbian minority.

“The international community has repeatedly underscored the need to bring to justice all those responsible for the crimes perpetrated during the wave of violence that engulfed Kosovo last month,” Ambassador Baja said.

Ambassador Baja said the investigators will be in addition to the 55 other Filipino police officers presently serving under the Philippine contingent that was deployed in Kosovo shortly after the UN assumed control of the province in 1999.

Members of the Philippine contingent, presently headed by Supt. Getulio Napenas, perform various police functions all over Kosovo. Most Filipino police officers are assigned to the UNMIK Police Main Headquarters (29) while the rest are assigned to border police units (4) as well as police stations in Pristina (7), Mitrovica (5), Pec (5), and Prizren (5) regions.