United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo - Definition

The United Nations Mission in Kosovo or UNMIK is an interim civilian administration of the Serbian province (as part of Serbia and Montenegro) called Kosovo (officially Kosovo and Metohia), under the authority of the United Nations. The current head of UNMIK is the Danish diplomat Soren Jessen-Petersen. The mission was established on June 10, 1999 by Security Council Resolution 1244.

According to resolution 1244, UNMIK is to:

• perform basic civilian administrative functions;
• promote the establishment of substantial autonomy and self-government in Kosovo;
• facilitate a political process to determine Kosovo's future status;
• coordinate humanitarian and disaster relief of all international agencies;
• support the reconstruction of key infrastructure;
• maintain civil law and order;
• promote human rights; and
• assure the safe and unimpeded return of all refugees and displaced persons to their homes in Kosovo.

After five years of work (As of 2004), UNMIK has failed in most of these tasks:

• Establishment of substantial autonomy and self-government in Kosovo is not promoted; rather, all key political factors maintain that full independence of Kosovo as their immediate goal;[1] (http://web.archive.org/web/20020215054649/http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/kosovo011116.html)
• A political process to determine Kosovo's future status is not facilitated;
• Key infrastructure is not reconstructed; specifically, electric distribution is still very problematic;
• Civil law and order is not maintained;
• Human rights are not being promoted;
• There are 260,000 refugees from Kosovo, the vast majority of whom are Serbs, who still can't return to their homes.[2] (http://web.archive.org/web/20040203102745/http://www.serbia.sr.gov.yu/coordination_centre/index.html)[3] (http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/+hwwBmUe+DapwwwwkwwwwwwwmFqAIRERfIRfgIhFqAIRERfIRfgItFqA5BwBo5Boq5AFqAIRERfIRfgIcFqt5nGxowDzmxwwwwwww/opendoc.pdf)

UNMIK is divided into four sections which it calls "pillars". These are:

• Pillar I: Police and justice (United Nations-led)
• Pillar II: Civil Administration (United Nations-led)
• Pillar III: Democratization and institution building (led by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe)
• Pillar IV: Reconstruction and economic development (European Union-led)

A NATO-led force called KFOR provides an international security presence in support of UNMIK's work.

See also

• KFOR

External links

• The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (http://www.unmikonline.org/)
• Full text of Security Council resolution 1244 (pdf) (http://www.unmikonline.org/press/reports/N9917289.pdf)