TIRANA – Mr. Zahir Tanin, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), has told the Security Council, that Kosovo needs strong leadership and political unity no more than ever, as local leaders and their international partners wage war on the “enormous challenge” posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Even as heroic efforts are being made by medical personnel, the healthcare resources of Kosovo are stretched thin”, Tanin said, during his first regular briefing to the 15-member Council conducted under the organ’s new videoconference meeting procedure, reported UN News.
The Special Representative commended last Friday the swift action taken by public health authorities to introduce measures to curtail the spread of the virus. However, he expressed concerns over internal political instability, marked by a parliamentary no-confidence vote which rebuffed Kosovo’s coalition Government on 25 March, following a dispute over whether to declare a state of emergency to combat the coronavirus.
“It is an unfortunate feature of the present circumstances in Kosovo that political divisions have distracted the attention of many leaders away from the health crisis”, said Mr. Tanin. “These divisions have served to reduce public trust in political leadership during a time of heightened public anxiety and uncertainty.”
He called for more resources for the most vulnerable in Kosovo, while welcoming new lifelines in the form of €100 million in loans from the European Union and a $56.5 million emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Mr. Tanin outlined several critical elements needed to defeat COVID-19 in Kosovo. Those include a focused Government, a mobilized population and resources driven by strong leadership.
“I urge political leaders…to focus on unifying their energy while putting personal and political agendas aside,” he stressed. Hailing several recent strides in “cross-community” and “cross-boundary” cooperation, he said those include a better working relationship between health authorities in Pristina and the Serb capital Belgrade, which facilitated the donation of testing kits from Serbia and free movement of essential goods. In another positive development, the 100 per cent tariff previously imposed on goods from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina into Kosovo was initially removed.
The Special Representative also outlined how UNMIK and the UN Kosovo Team are adapting their work during the pandemic, providing direct support to vulnerable communities and assisting local health authorities. /argumentum.al
