PRESS BRIEFING ON KOSOVO BY HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS MARY ROBINSON

High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson told correspondents gathered for a 'press opportunity' at the Palais des Nations this afternoon that she had found it necessary to brief the Commission on Human Rights about the very serious situation in Kosovo, the desperate plight of people there and the serious allegations of violations of human rights. She would brief the Commission weekly for the remainder of the current session. It was important that there be reporting of the situation. Her Office had been requested to furnish the verified accounts and the names of direct potential witnesses to violations to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; she had just responded to the Tribunal to say that the Office would pass on any relevant information.

It was important that the Commission be aware while it was in session of the extent of the human tragedy unfolding and which had violations of human rights at its heart, said Mrs. Robinson. "We are deeply concerned about those who have been required to return from the borders back into Kosovo and about whom we cannot find first-hand information. That was a cause of really grave concern".

Asked whether the Commission would be voting on draft resolutions on Kosovo today, Mrs. Robinson said that was a matter for the members of the Commission. She knew they were considering drafts. She thought it was very important that this, the primary intergovernmental body of the United Nations on human rights, addressed this huge human rights problem.

Asked whether she had already had feedback from the monitors in the region, the High Commissioner said the Special Rapporteur on the situation in the former Yugoslavia, Jiri Dientsbier, and her personal envoy, Michel Moussali, had arrived in Skopje and had begun their investigation and direct inquiries. They had linked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as the primary agency, as well as with other humanitarian agencies and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Responding to another question, the High Commissioner said she had made it clear that as they had just arrived, the monitors would not be in a position to give direct reports for today's briefing, although by next week she hoped to have factual updates.

A correspondent asked whether based on the current evidence President Slobodan Milosevic could be indicted for war crimes, Mrs. Robinson said that was a matter for the prosecutor of the ICTY, but there was a need to have accountability for gross human rights violations. The scale of the violations was very serious as they were being alleged in report after report and by a very significant number of those who were fleeing from the situation. Ultimately, the responsibility must be borne at the highest level.

In response to another question, Mrs. Robinson said she was aware of the importance of the Commission looking at the situation in Kosovo, as it concerned the very issue that she had addressed the Commission on at the opening of the current session: how does the Commission deal with situations of conflict and of gross violations of human rights? It was a dilemma that was unresolved at the end of this century and millenium. The current Commission must look very seriously at its capacity to address such serious situations. Kosovo was not the only example of such a situation, but it was one that represented terrible human suffering and trauma. She certainly found it very hard to get out of her mind the face of those who had been queuing in their cars and tractors and lorries at the border having been probably on the move for days without food before disappearing. "The situation was an offence to our sense of human rights and it was happening during the session of the Commission on Human Rights. Therefore, it's so important that the Commission bear in mind what is happening so near us".

Asked whether she would be going to the region, Mrs. Robinson said yes. She had planned to go the each of her Office's field presences in the former Yugoslavia, but now she would go in early May to where the Office had recently deployed monitors, namely to Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro. She would also visit Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, because she wanted to get an overall sense of the human rights situation in the region.