Finnish Ambassador to UN Says Kosovo More Needed UNMIK

The Secretary General's report on developments in the country from January 16th to May 15th is expected to be discussed at the meeting. The purpose of the UN mission in Kosovo, U n NMIC, 20 years after its creation, security, stability and human rights remain.

The current role of the UN, with mission U. NMIC in Kosovo, it is controversial. Kosovo and Western countries themselves think the time has come for UNMIK to end. While Serbia and supporting countries say role of UNMIK in Kosovo continues to be necessary. Decisions on the future of UNMIK are not thought to be made at Monday's meeting.

Finland's ambassador to the UN, Kai Suer, thinks the UN's presence in Kosovo is no longer necessary. Kosovo needs economic development, and for that there are other organisations capable of escorting it to this” road.

In an interview given to the “Institute East West” in New York, on the role the UN should play in the future, he says the UN should focus on other regions rather than the Western Balkans.

Today, 20 years after UNMIK's establishment, Suer says that “Kosovo is a kind of microcosm of international policy and its development”. International policy has not worked since the beginning, there have been tensions between Russia and Western powers, which has exacerbated the situation, having directly impacted it. This led Kosovars and Serbs to advance with their policies and parties worked against each other”, he recalls.

UN failed to coordinate actors

Kai Suer has had long engagement in the Balkan region. Kosovo has been a special operation, a pioneer operation at the time, because it combined several international organisations, the UN, in its centre, the European Union that dealt with the economy as the main pillar, O The OSCE, which deals with democratisation and NATO, KFOR, which deals with security”.

He thinks co-ordination among these actors has been very bad -- a mess that started in 1999 that lasted until 2003. And the UN has failed to coordinate these active actors in Kosovo. “The UN has in Kosovo the special representative of the Secretary General, in charge of defining all these functions, but in fact organisations were independent, the work has been very bureaucratic”, he says.

However, he estimates that the desire to do good work has been very great, and the <x0th> many things have been achieved, the situation stabilised, we helped Kosovo get up on its feet, at least up to half of the” road.

Before leaving the UN, because it completes its task as Finland's permanent representative, Kai Sauer says that Kosovo's “Aspirata and other countries in the region are to join the EU, and the EU is the best partner to help these countries accession. The main partnership of these countries must be with the European Union”.