The new SRSG of UNMIK, Lamberto Zannier, has announced that the reconfiguration of the mission has been delayed and will not be completed until late November or early December.
Last week in the Security Council meeting, Zannier conceded that his powers have been drastically reduced following the Kosovo constitution going into effect. Meanwhile the UN Security Council has continued to be deadlocked on the issue of changing the mission's mandate to allow the EULEX mission to take over police and justice from UNMIK. Increasingly there is tension between the two organizations as highlighted by the recent disagreement over the sacking of the Head of Customs by the Kosovo Government.
The Kosovo Government has started issuing Kosovo passports to its citizens and UNMIK has acknowledged that it has stopped printing the travel documents previously given out. Some countries, such as Slovakia, have stated that they will not recognize the new Kosovo documents but will continue to accept those issued by UNMIK. Kosovo travelers may still face problems in Europe as it is not yet fully clear how countries who have not recognized independence will deal with the new documents. Problems were reported at the Macedonian border but Macedonians officials have denied the media reports that Kosovars were denied entrance based on travel with the Kosovo passports. Serbia said that they will negate Kosovo entry stamps in passports and crossing the border from Kosovo into Serbia will continue to be an issue in which travelers will most likely be forced to continue travel via Kumanova to have a Serbian entry stamp in their passports.
The power situation of late has for lack of better description "sucked big time" with most of Pristina being provided 3:3 (3 on, 3 off) although KEK's website says that the situation is supposed to be better (24/7 my behind!). It does make me wonder what the winter will be like if there isn't enough electricity supply for the summertime.
