On June 10, 1999, following confirmation by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of the withdrawal of security forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) from Kosovo, and subsequent suspension of NATO air operations against the FRY, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1244. This Resolution entrusted establishment of the international civilian administration in Kosovo to the Secretary-General.

The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) consists of four substantive components: interim civil administration (UN-led), humanitarian affairs (UNHCR-led), reconstruction (EU-led) and institution building (OSCE-led).

The Secretary-General named Sergio Vieira de Mello, of Brazil, and currently UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, as Special Representative for Kosovo on an interim basis.

A small team of UN humanitarian agency liaison officers accompanied the first NATO deployment, known as K-FOR, into Kosovo.

Civil Administration - Sergio Vieira de Mello, upon arrival in Pristina, held his first meeting with the NATO commander in Kosovo, British Lieutenant-General Michael Jackson. The two agreed to meet daily.

Humanitarian - Alongside de Mello's advance team to Kosovo were representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The first multi-agency convoy to Kosovo in nearly three months included 23 trucks carrying the first batch of "MREs" - meals ready to eat, pallets of bottled water, wheat flour, blankets, tents, plastic sheeting and hygienic kits.

K-FOR brought to the attention of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) the existence of various mass grave sites. K-FOR secured these sites pending arrival of (ICTY) investigators. 

The Secretary-General presented his first report to the Security Council on Kosovo, which contained a preliminary operational plan (S/1999/672).

Institution Building - De Mello traveled to Prizren, where he met with community leaders who will assist the United Nations mission to build Kosovo's democratic institutions.

Humanitarian - UNHCR began distribution of emergency aid.

Humanitarian - UNHCR opened its satellite office in Pec and Prizren. province.

The first stumbling block encountered by aid agencies was the spontaneous return of thousands of refugees crossing back into Kosovo by car, tractor trailer and on foot. UNHCR expressed deep concern about the departure of thousands of Serbian civilians in Kosovo.

Civil Administration - In Geneva, the Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Frechette, met with representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). OSCE is to lead the institution-building effort in Kosovo on behalf of the United Nations. She also met with representatives of the European Union (EU) and the European Commission. The EU, under the Secretary-General's plan, would lead the reconstruction and development of Kosovo. The Deputy Secretary-General's mission in Geneva was to refine the allocation of tasks among the UN and non-UN actors.

Civil Administration - On the second day of meetings with the UN's partners in Kosovo, the Deputy Secretary-General met with first with a NATO team, and later together with NATO, OSCE and the EU, as well as UN departments and agencies involved on the implementation of the civic aspects of the Kosovo mission.

Humanitarian - De Mello requested K-FOR to do aerial assessments of the location of internally displaced people so that WFP could deliver food to them.

On this day, according to the Yugoslav Red Cross, 24,000 Kosovar Serbs had entered Serbia, and 9,000 had gone into Montenegro. De Mello and General Michael Jackson of K-FOR appeared on local television, appealing to the Serb civilian population not to leave Kosovo.

The UN began working to restore the water supply to Pristina.

Political - Sergio Vieira de Mello and Gen. Jackson, met with the Patriarch of Belgrade, who was in Pristina to discuss the exodus of Serbs from the province.

De Mello also met with the newly-appointed head of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Committee for Cooperation and Links with the United Nations, Nubojsa Vujovic, in Pristina. He also met with all three of the Kosovo Albanian political parties, the LDK, the LDP and the UCK, who endorsed the UN Mission in Kosovo and committed their support for a multi-party democracy in the province.

Humanitarian - Spontaneous returns of refugees from Albania and FYROM had reached more than 34,000. The UN continued to stress the security dangers to these returnees.

Civil Administration -"I appeal to all parties and every citizen of Kosovo to show utmost restraint and patience as the long and hard work of peace-building and reconstruction begins," the Secretary-General said in a statement to the people of Kosovo issued at UN Headquarters.

"I urge the Kosovo Albanian population to return to their homes, but to be patient, and to do so with the assistance of KFOR and the United Nations. I urge the Serbian population of Kosovo to remain in their homes and do their part to return Kosovo to a life of peaceful co-existence among all communities, " he said.

"The United Nations and KFOR are committed to ensuring the safety and security of all the people of Kosovo, regardless of ethnic background. I urge all parties to recommit themselves to creating a life of peaceful coexistence, which is the foundation for lasting peace in Kosovo and throughout the region". See SG/SM/7037.

Humanitarian - Sergio Vieira de Mello visited by helicopter areas of reported widespread damage and displacement, the towns of Djakovica, Pec, Drnica and Orahovac. De Mello later said that 75 percent of Pec seemed to have been set on fire, and that apparently every Albanian house had been destroyed.

UNHCR reported that 50,000 refugees had returned to Kosovo spontaneously in the past three days.

Humanitarian - UNHCR sent 140 metric tons of aid to 10 different municipalities in central Serbia to aid an estimated 50,000 Serb displaced from Kosovo.

Humanitarian - Sergio Vieira de Mello told a press conference in Pristina that the UN mission in Kosovo "is probably the greatest challenge the UN has faced since the launching in the late 1940s of the concept of peacekeeping. This is truly a big challenge. Never elsewhere, even in Cambodia where I have worked, has the UN assumed such a broad, such far-reaching, such important executive tasks."

De Mello said that within three months, up to 3,000 international civilian police should have been deployed, including unarmed police monitors, "a kind of rapid reaction force" and border police monitors. The recruiting and training of Kosovar candidates for a local police force will start "as soon as possible," he said.

He also announced his intention of establishing a "quick impact projects trust fund" that would enable the UN mission to respond immediately to emergency needs in a broad spectrum of sectors affecting the local population.

Civil Administration - The Secretary-General announced the appointment of Dominique Vian of France, the Prefect of French Guyana, as the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the interim civil administration of Kosovo.

Dennis McNamara of New Zealand, the UNHCR Special Envoy for the region, was named Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in charge of refugee return and humanitarian assistance.

Sergio Vieira de Mello congratulated the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on its "strict adherence" to the military agreement to withdraw from Kosovo and said he was encouraged that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) would be assembled within seven days, noting that this would facilitate the work of the UN mission for administration, particularly in the deployment of police.

The Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Balkans, Carl Bildt, travelled by KFOR helicopter to several towns for meetings with the local population. De Mello and Bildt met with KLA leader HashimThaci.

Water was running in Pristina for the first time since the UN returned to Kosovo, in part thanks to the United Nations advance team's work in negotiating security arrangements for the technicians working on repairing and maintaining the system.

Humanitarian - Some 140,000 refugees had returned to Kosovo from Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, according to the UNHCR, and the first spontaneous returns from Montenegro -- 300 Albanians to the Pec area.

Civil Administration - As agreed upon in the so-called "Undertaking of Demilitarization and Transformation by the UCK," the first meeting of the so-called Joint Implementation Commission, chaired by the Commander of K-FOR and bringing together the UCK, K-FOR as well as the United Nations, took place to work out the sites for assembly and weapons storage. (A separate commission exists involving the implementation of the agreement with the Serbian military.)

Humanitarian - UNHCR opened an office in Gnjilane.

Civil Administration - The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) moved into its headquarters in central Pristina.

At the new UNMIK headquarters, de Mello briefed the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy on the UN mission in Kosovo. Also attending the meeting was the top military official in Kosovo, KFOR Commander Gen. Michael Jackson. De Mello urged the four visiting ministers to urgently put police contingents at the disposal of the United Nations.

Work was underway to appoint UN-chaired joint civilian commissions which would bring together representatives from the Serb and Albanian sides aimed at addressing immediate reintegration issues.

Money is most urgently needed to pay for the civil servants -- many of whom have not been paid for more than two months.

Humanitarian - UNHCR reported that close to 220,000 had returned to Kosovo in a little over a week.

WFP was making four flights a day on two helicopters from Pristina to inaccessible areas because of landmines to assess needs and distribute emergency food to the most vulnerable population. The flights are part of a massive food delivery effort being coordinated by WFP by road and air.

Reconstruction - The European Union informed the United Nations of its intention to create an agency for the reconstruction of Kosovo. The European Commission estimates the cost of reconstruction in Kosovo to be in the order of 500 to 700 million euros a year for three years.

Civil Administration - In their first public encounter at the headquarters of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) the Serb Archbishop Artemije and KLA leader Thaci shook hands and exchanged a few words.

The United Nations also began its first radio broadcast in Kosovo as part of its mass information campaign to appeal for tolerance and restraint on all sides and call upon the entire population to work with the UN mission in the province.

Humanitarian - Less than two weeks after its return to Kosovo as lead humanitarian agency, UNHCR had established offices in five of seven designated towns across Kosovo, including the three chosen for the initial organized returns.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) pledged to give every primary school age child in Kosovo the opportunity to be back in school by the start of the academic year this September, despite the huge challenges posed in the wake of widespread carnage and destruction in the province’s infrastructure.

Civil Administration - The Secretary-General formed a group of Friends for Kosovo and invited them to New York on Wednesday, 30 June, to consult on issues that have arisen during the initial implementation of the UN mission in Kosovo. "It will give the Secretary-General the chance to again appeal for what he needs in the way of people and money to advance the mission there," the spokesman said.

High tension persisted in areas of Kosovo marked by shootings, sporadic arson attacks, amid reports of the worst violence in Pristina since the deployment of the international security force in the province.

Sergio Vieira de Mello went to Mitrovica, a town in northern Kosovo where tensions were running high between the Albanian and Serb communities who live on the opposite sides of the river running through it. A team from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sent to open an office in Mitrovica the day before had reported the town was "a ticking time bomb."

Humanitarian - The numbers of returning refugees reached a record high of nearly 50,000, bringing the total to over 300,000.

Civil Administration - De Mello had received agreement on the setting up of a sectoral commission on the appointment of judges during a meeting of the embryonic political consultative council he chaired with the Kosovo Albanian leadership.

Civil Administration - The first contingent of international police -- 35 from the UN mission in Bosnia -- arrived. The police are from nine countries (Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania and the United States).

Civil Administration - Against the backdrop of the return to Kosovo of more than half of the 800,000 refugees, the United Nations continued its efforts to defuse tensions between Serb and Albanian communities. It took the first steps to re-establishing the non-existent judicial system and began to deploy the first team of international police to the field.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, named seven legal experts who will select a panel of judges which would immediately begin addressing the issue of detainees arrested and held by K-FOR throughout the province.

Humanitarian - UNHCR began its organized repatriation of refugees, taking more than 300 from camps in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to their homes in Pristina. As the number of returnees surpassed the numbers outside Kosovo, aid operations inside the province were stepped up.

Civil Administration - In Kosovo, five teams of two officers each of the international police contingent which arrived two days earlier were sent to the five brigade headquarters of K-FOR: Mitroveca, Prizren, Pec, Urosevac and Pristina. Their role would be to advise K-FOR on civilian police functions in each of the K-FOR sectors.

Many residents of Kosovo, meanwhile, had no access to television or radio as the largest broadcast outlet -- Radio-Television Pristina -- remained shut down for the second straight day following an aborted attempt to set up a new management structure aimed at power-sharing between Serb and Albanian personnel.

Humanitarian - UNHCR staff in northern Kosovo, especially in the Pec area, reported that shelter for returnees continued to be the biggest problem. UNHCR estimates that up to 45,000 houses in Kosovo are so severely damaged as to be uninhabitable. UNHCR staff distributed tents to the returnees.

In New York - The meeting of Friends of the Secretary-General on Kosovo took place as scheduled. The following countries participated (in alphabetical order): Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Representatives of the European Union (EU), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Organization for Islamic Conference (OIC) also participated, as well as the Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Frechette, Carl Bildt, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Balkans, and Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet.

At a press conference following the meeting, the Secretary-General characterized the discussions at the morning's meeting with the Group of Friends of Kosovo as "very, very useful". Consensus understanding had been reached on several issues, including the collective objective of a multi-ethnic Kosovo, in which all people could live their lives in peace. They also agreed on the difficulty and the complexity of the task ahead.

He said there was also agreement that the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) should acquire the capacity to take over responsibility for public security from K-FOR as soon as possible.

"The timing of this is entirely in the hands of Member States," the Secretary-General pointed out, "because as a Secretariat, we have no police, and we cannot deploy and distribute what we do not have." There was also a shared sense of the need to take a broader view of the issue of reconstruction. For Kosovo to succeed, the region itself must be brought back to health, he stressed.

Responding to a question, the Secretary-General said that there was wide agreement on the need for assistance to the region. Several ministers had made clear that reconstruction did not involve "just bricks and mortars" but the democratic reconstruction of institutions, the encouragement of the rule of law, and the establishment of respect for human rights.

If governments would not provide economic assistance to Belgrade as long as President Milosevic was in office, "then we are going to have a real challenge of reconstructing the economy of southeastern Europe with the big hole of Serbia in the middle."

Humanitarian needs should be defined as broadly as possible, he said, to cover electrical repairs and water systems, "because quite frankly in my judgement they are humanitarian and it is pointless to take in loads and loads of medicine if people are going to drink dirty water and fall sick." Member States were discussing the matter and would have to take the decision – "after all, it is their money and their decision" he said, adding that without a broad, long-term view, problems could occur down the line.

Asked about the timeframe for the mission, he said, "it is going to take a while." Reconstruction of the region could perhaps take 10 years. This did not imply that the United Nations would be on the ground for 10 years, but rather that reconstruction could take ten years. "It will very much depend on developments from here on." 

Civil Administration - The acting Special Representative established the embryo of Kosovo's new judicial system with the appointment of nine judges whose first task would be to serve as a kind of itinerant court to offer due process to those arrested and detained by K-FOR forces throughout the province.

Humanitarian - WFP announced that it is dramatically expanding its emergency food aid operation in the Balkans to assist 2.5 million people who have suffered from the Kosovo crisis and previous strife in the region. Among the people WFP will assist with food aid are 650,000 internally displaced in Kosovo.

Civil Administration - Dominique Vian, Deputy Special Representative for Civil Administration arrived in Pristina today. Sergio Vieira de Mello, began daily meetings today with his Deputies.

De Mello and his team continued visits to calm the atmosphere in tension filled areas of Kosovo and to meet with the Albanian and Serb leaders. Mitrovica, Orahovac, Pec and Prizren were among the stops made by senior UN officials.

The International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has over 100 personnel working in five teams, from Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland. They are now investigating several dozen sites, performing preliminary surveys. Two more teams from Denmark and Germany, and a new U.S. team, are expected next week. The Tribunal will focus on sites that are related to the existing indictments related to Kosovo and on sites important to further investigations.

Humanitarian - Soren Jessen-Petersen, Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) noted at a news conference at UN headquarters that Kosovo refugees are returning home with "lightning speed." The number topped the half million mark earlier today. Meanwhile, funding for UNHCR's activities was only at 35 per cent of the amount required for 1999.

In New York - After thorough consultation with Member States, the Secretary-General appointed Bernard Kouchner as his Special Representative in Kosovo.

He also appointed on this day James P. Covey of the United States to the newly created post of Deputy Special Representative.

In addition, the Secretary-General appointed Daan Everts of the Netherlands as the Deputy Special Representative for Institution Building.

Civil Administration - In Pristina, Sergio Vieira de Mello, called together leaders of the Albanian and Serbian communities to focus exclusively on the pressing issue of security for all people in Kosovo. This was the first time that Albanian and Serb leaders of Kosovo have sat down to discuss concrete issues. They issued a joint statement calling for restraint and respect for human life, which was broadcast on radio and television by the United Nations mission in Kosovo.

The two sides also agreed to form a "crisis group" to respond rapidly to security emergencies and a "hotline" linking all parties.

Humanitarian - As the number of refugees returning to Kosovo topped 530,000 today, the UN Mine Action Programme set up in Pristina said it has received thousands of requests from returning refugees who want mine experts to inspect their homes which they suspect have been mined or booby trapped.

UNHCR began organized repatriation from Albania.

The Food and Agriculture Organization has highlighted the need to bring fuel into the province to allow for the July harvest.

Institution Building - According to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is charged with institution building for Kosovo, recruitment of local police is a top priority and it hopes to have a police academy in place by the end of the month.

Civil Administration - As part of the UN’s process of re-establishing an independent, impartial and multi-ethnic judicial system in Kosovo, Vieira de Mello issued a statement on the right of KFOR to apprehend and detain persons suspected of having committed offenses against public safety and disorder.

Humanitarian - The High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, led a convoy of 190 returning refugees from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia into Kosovo.

In Geneva - Secretary-General Kofi Annan met on this day with his newly appointed Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, to review the responsibilities of his mission.

Civil Administration - The recently appointed team of judges and prosecutors, have begun pre-trial hearings in three areas -- Pec, Prizren and Gniljane.

The first United Nations flight arrived at Pristina airport carrying a load of communications equipment following the landing of the first Russian flight.

Humanitarian - UNHCR reported that refugee returns to Kosovo had topped 600,000.

Civil Administration - UNMIK has estimated that a total of 31 million DM (approximately $15 million) to pay salaries of roughly 50,000 public servants for a period of three months is needed.

Humanitarian - Small groups of Serb and Roma civilians have requested round-the-clock protection from KFOR, the international troops in Kosovo, or evacuation to Montenegro or to Serbia proper.

More than 400 Kosovars joined UNHCR’s first repatriation convoy to Kosovo from Montenegro.

Reconstruction - The entire city center of Pec has been gutted by fire, but signs of economic life were emerging. People were starting to sell things on the streets such as household supplies and food, and have begun repairing and rebuilding what they could.

Humanitarian - Partial and preliminary results of a UNHCR-led survey showed that out of 141 villages surveyed, 64 percent of homes were severely damaged or completely destroyed. Another 20 percent sustained moderate damage. The survey found 40 percent of water sources were contaminated, many by household garbage and human remains.

UNICEF has found in its survey of schools that between 40 to 50 percent of schools have been damaged.

A Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)/World Food Programme (WFP) food and crop assessment mission in Kosovo indicated a severe wheat deficit, an 80 percent loss in corn production, 60 percent loss of small livestock and 30-40 percent in large livestock.

The High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, said that what was needed in some of the gutted towns was immediate reconstruction not only emergency humanitarian assistance.

Institution building - The acting Special Representative met with the United Nations police commissioner and a representative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to work out details for the recruitment of local police for training. OSCE is responsible for setting up the Police Academy.

Civil Administration - De Mello also met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Julia Taft. When asked whether the United Nations was ready to receive police in Kosovo, de Mello responded yes, adding that he was keen to receive them.

De Mello also spoke with Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova and encouraged him to return to Kosovo to attend a scheduled meeting of the Kosovo Transitional Council, the highest level consultative body in Kosovo.

Two more States – Denmark and Sweden – have signed formal agreements with the United Nations in order to make national experts available to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Similar agreements have already been signed with France, Canada, the United States and Switzerland.

An agreement on cost-sharing and place allotment in the Media House in Pristina was signed. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by 16 media organizations and UNMIK. It regulates the allocation of space and cost-sharing arrangements to cover renovation and repairs.

Humanitarian - The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Jiri Dientsbier, at the end of a five-day visit to Kosovo told reporters in Pristina that there was much work for the international community toward rebuilding lives in the province.

Dientsbier stressed the importance of bringing perpetrators of crimes to justice and said that the international community could not allow acts of vengeance to continue. He said more needed to be done to establish freedom of movement and clarify the issue of property rights.

Dientsbier said that he would intervene with the authorities in Belgrade on behalf of Kosovo Albanians currently in Serbian prisons.

The refugee return figure rose to more than 660,000.

Civil Administration - In what may prove to be a model for efforts to reconstitute the workforce in Kosovo’s public institution, 58 Albanians and 54 Serbs resumed work in Pristina’s municipal building. They are the first of 400 staff who will be returning to work in the municipal building over the next 90 days under an agreement which also provides for the return to work of members of other ethnic groups.

A UNICEF survey found that out of 16 of Kosovo’s 29 municipalities, 43 percent of 394 schools were completely damaged or severely damaged. Ninety-five per cent required some form of repairs. Schools have made a request for 28,000 desks, 58,000 chairs and 2,000 blackboards.