Despite the fact that I haven’t been able to update that much lately, I am still alive and kicking in Kosovo 
Life has been hectic and coupled with recent events in UNMIK, work is a bit crazy.
Last week, UNMIK send letters of termination to some 450 staff members, mostly national. The sudden termination, letters issued on Thursday with a last working day of Friday, was due to a deadline set by NY for the last payment of termination indemnity which the national staff previously went on strike about last month. Despite calls for the withdrawal of UNMIK from Kosovo, the mission is currently just scaling back to approximately 500 staff members by the end of June 2009 as per UN Security Resolution 1244, the UN is required to maintain a presence in Kosovo until such time that the resolution is changed or discharged by the Security Council.
Last week EULEX announced that it had achieved 100% operational capacity. What operational capacity exactly means is still up for debate with a few letters of criticism over logistics and other difficulties faced by police officers coming out and circulated to the international EULEX staff. In other EU news, a delegation from the European Parliament has told Kosovo that they no longer need UNMIK as EULEX is now operational.
Life has been hectic and coupled with recent events in UNMIK, work is a bit crazy.Last week, UNMIK send letters of termination to some 450 staff members, mostly national. The sudden termination, letters issued on Thursday with a last working day of Friday, was due to a deadline set by NY for the last payment of termination indemnity which the national staff previously went on strike about last month. Despite calls for the withdrawal of UNMIK from Kosovo, the mission is currently just scaling back to approximately 500 staff members by the end of June 2009 as per UN Security Resolution 1244, the UN is required to maintain a presence in Kosovo until such time that the resolution is changed or discharged by the Security Council.
Last week EULEX announced that it had achieved 100% operational capacity. What operational capacity exactly means is still up for debate with a few letters of criticism over logistics and other difficulties faced by police officers coming out and circulated to the international EULEX staff. In other EU news, a delegation from the European Parliament has told Kosovo that they no longer need UNMIK as EULEX is now operational.
