Monday, September 19, 2005

UN defends role of international police

c) 2005 The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved

Soren Jessen-Petersen, the UN's most senior official in Kosovo, has mounted a robust defence of international policing in the Serbian breakaway province, after Kosovo's prime minister described the work of the UN police there as a "failure".

Mr Petersen called the prime minister's comments "a sweeping statement that cannot stand". He said UN police deserved enormous credit for helping to prepare Kosovo's local forces eventually to assume control of their own affairs.

Bajram Kosumi, the prime minister, issued a broad criticism of UN police's performance in Kosovo since 1999, when Nato bombing pushed Yugoslav forces out of the province to halt ethnic fighting, ushering in a period of international rule.

The UN mission run by Mr Petersen has since functioned as Kosovo's executive, overseeing the work of an elected provincial government. Mr Kosumi described UN policing as a "constant failure" that had jeopardised citizens' trust in international institutions, including the UN.

Mr Petersen also strongly countered public speculation by Avni Arifi, senior aide to Mr Kosumi, that more cases of UN police officers involved in people trafficking might yet be uncovered. Mr Arifi on Thursday told the Financial Times that the arrest of three Pakistani officers working for UN police could point toward a broader scandal.

The officers arrested three weeks ago, whose names are being protected by UN police, were later released by a local, UN-administered court after facing accusations that they had run a ring that illegally smuggled people across international borders.

Mr Petersen said a formal investigation was continuing. UN police had an "image problem" but he cautioned against undermining the reputation of the entire force in Kosovo, comprised of more than 3,700 officers.

"You will always have rotten apples, and it takes only one or two. We are trying very hard to clamp down on any misbehaviour."

He said UN police officers had arrested their colleagues in the case, calling this proof of the force's professionalism and effectiveness.

While running a major policing campaign to fight the illegal traffic in humans, especially for forced prost-itution, the UN in Kosovo has faced a slow trickle of accusations of this kind.

The UN mission has uncovered at least two cases in which UN personnel were accused of related crimes. A scathing report last year by Amnesty International said having thousands of international civilian, police and military personnel in the province was exacerbating, rather than stopping, sex slavery there.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man Neil, get off the crack dude. U seem to be trying to cope with serious som personal problems, dont come here with your stupid remarks, nato - nazi? U IDIOT!.

If you would have been someone to take seriously you would have given a thought to what you were just writting.

What ever you think, reality is what it is, KLA (organisation that was/is not considered as a terrorist one, at least not by US "also known as the nation that runs this some times stupid world of ours") won the war, because they are running the country and a country that compared to Serbia is not even close to criminality, since the serbs invented the word.

You probably are one of those crack-smoking morons that believe that Slobo was a victim of some plan that the US/NATO had to ruin the "succesful country" of Yugoslavia.

I would wish that morons, the likes of you would try not to further make a fool of yourself.

Zoti e bekoft Republiken e Kosovës
Zoti e bekoft NATO-n!

Anonymous said...

Sure, sure there's also people who are willing to give their lives on the pretense that the Holocaust never happened and that NAZIS never did anything wrong to the Jews. Same goes with these charlatans. The most developed countries in the world where democracy is solid witnessed what a dictatorial regime was doing and they decided to act. After the war you have these impostors claiming a dictatorial country (Serbia) never harmed a group of people who this country considered as their archenemy.

Anonymous said...

It is true that there is large scale corruption among internationals but I woudn't agree with the PM that the whole force is a failure.
The irony is that one of the standards for Kosova is to stop human smuggling whereas internationals are the main clientele for the young sex slaves
from Eastern Europe, as the funny incident in the north of Mitrovica
with the French soldiers a few weeks ago showed.

Anonymous said...

I dont agree with our Prime Minister that the UN police mission is a failure. I agree there are quite a few loose cannons, officers that are just unbelievably incompetent but its the bad that overshadow the professional ones (mainly German, British, US, Spanish, Dutch, Irish, Swedish, and even Swiss).

Having worked with the force for a while I can tell you that the force is as biased or as neutral (in case of Indians and Pakistanis) as the world politics with regard to Kosova.

In short, these police officers continue to work as if they were home. Germans are excellent at policing, Bangladeshis do it the Bengali way, which is inadequate for Kosova, so of course you will notice the Bangladeshi messing up :) no hard feelings my Bengali friends...this is how things are :/

Not to mention how many KPS officers have been trained first hand by UNCIVPOL, and know many young rookies that get quite an inspiration fro NYPD, Scotland Yard and Munich police officers.

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As for the sex clientele, I am not surprised. They make money, they are alone, humans are weak and needy. It is unfortunate this is like it is though.

Anonymous said...

The prime reason for tensions in Kosovo is the explosive growth of the Albanian population. Even though the Yugoslav Federation tried its best to develop the region - no investment and no industrial growth rate could match Albanian population growth. Despite the efforts, the region remained the poorest region of Yugoslavia. Extensive autonomy given to Kosovo Albanians was abused by them as they tried to cleanse the region of non-Albanians. This was to be their first step toward secession and Greater Albania.

Anonymous said...

That (above) in a nutshell is what Serbs have been brainwashed to believe...I will break it down for you (how Serbs think):

The prime reason for tensions in Kosovo is the explosive growth of the Albanian population.

In other words, Serbs believe we are animals (it was a good band and some of its members are still jamming good music), well they think we're the other kind of animals, the kind that smell and are eaten.

Even though the Yugoslav Federation tried its best to develop the region - no investment and no industrial growth rate could match Albanian population growth.

They truly believe that Albanians are so primitive that they just popup out of bushes and have six insect legs and shag like bunnies in the turf. This statement is racist.

Despite the efforts, the region remained the poorest region of Yugoslavia.

A totaly untrue statement, investments in the region were limited and mainly profited Serbs. It remained the poorest cause nothing was put into it. Only taken out. Most Albanians migrated to the West, for economic and political reasons. If so much were invested, this would not have happened.

Extensive autonomy given to Kosovo Albanians was abused by them as they tried to cleanse the region of non-Albanians. This was to be their first step toward secession and Greater Albania.

Autonomy achieved the creation of the University of Prishtina, which produced a more eduacated Albanian citizenry, which of course was not in the interest of the Serbs, thus they revoked the Autonomy in 1989.

We were becoming "too smart", and since Serbs believe animals can't be smart, it made no sense to them to allow us autonomy.

The fact is, those ruling Serbia know that Albanians are a competent nation, just like any when allowed to be, so they kept us under the thumb, disallowed the cultivation of Albanian culture, and even under these circumstances, we kept our humanity and lived alongside a nation that deemed us primitive, animalistic and insect like.

May the boss up in the heavens shed light on the ignorant ones, and wisdom on the evil ones. Serbs need a lot of this help...ICE CREAM TO SERBIA, so they coooool down ;)

Anonymous said...

"Albanians a competent nation"

Is Albania your measuring stick for competence. That is the most a$$backwards country in Europe and in a tie with some african countries. Albanians actually left Albanian to live in kosovo which is Serbian. If the Serbs have been so bad why would albanians migrate from albania and not the other way around.