Voinovich blasts leader of U.N. mission in Kosovo

The Plain Dealer ^ | March 24, 2004 | Plain Dealer Bureau

[joan]

Washington- Alarmed by the recent spate of violence in Kosovo, Sen. George Voinovich Tuesday urged the U.S. State Department to push for the ouster of the head of the United Nations mission in the troubled province.

"I believe the international community urgently needs new leadership in Kosovo," Voinovich said in a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Voinovich is angry about continued instability in the region and the initial reaction of U.N. Mission head Harri Holkeri to attacks by ethnic Albanians against Serbs in Kosovo - an outbreak characterized as the worst violence since the 1999 war.

Holkeri, a Finn, has been quoted as saying a NATO commander's reference to "ethnic cleansing" of Serbs was perhaps too strong and also as suggesting that only a "couple" Serbian Orthodox churches were destroyed, when 41 have been burned.

Voinovich wrote to Powell that Holkeri's remarks betrayed a "failure to grasp the severity of events that have taken place." He said Holkeri was "not up to the task" of bringing about reforms in Kosovo.

On Monday in Pristina, Kosovo, Holkeri acknowledged that 28 people have died in the mayhem.

"The media has picked up my remarks on the question of ethnic cleansing," he said in a statement. "Let us not dwell on labels. . . Every loss of life is one too many. Every house burnt is one too many."

The State Department had no immediate comment, since officials had not seen the letter as of Tuesday night. "We deal with the executive branch of the federal government and we have not heard from them about any effort to replace Mr. Holkeri," said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq in New York.

[joan]

bump

[dirtboy]

Yeah, getting the UN involved in Kosovo after Bill Clinton went in without UN approval really turned that situation around, didn't it?

How liberals can demand that Bush get the UN heavily involved in Iraq, with the long history of abject UN failure and rampant UN corruption is beyond me, other than the left hates American power so much that they are blind to the realities of what they are clamoring for to replace it.

[vooch]

The Senator is a 100% conservative who has a solid background in understanding the region.

He has done much for Ohio in promoting jobs despite the Clinton inspired Chinese onslaught.

I just hope the Senator is wise enough to ask Belgrade to assist in quelling the violence.

[Cicero]

Regretably Belgrade will never be invited back in. That would be to admit that the whole adventure was a mistake, and the Euroswine will never do that--nor I'm afraid will Bush. Even most conservatives still seem to think that our involvement in Yugoslavia was a Good Thing.

Our best hope is that the Serbs can hang on until the "peacekeepers" get tired and go home, and then the Serbs can move into the vacuum. But what the final outcome will be is hard to predict. There's no way it can be settled quietly, because the Muslims still have their vision of Greater Albania.

[FormerLib]

Our best hope is that the Serbs can hang on until the "peacekeepers" get tired and go home, and then the Serbs can move into the vacuum.

You can count on them doing exactly that...even if takes a thousand years.

[MarMema]

This is great, thanks. I just sent him an email expressing my outrage. I would suggest that we all contact him and give him some ammunition to use in his battle.

Contact Senator Voinovich here.

It only takes a few minutes to let him know you are disgusted with what has happened in Kosovo.

[MarMema]

Please see my post #7 above and consider sending a quick email.

[cyborg]

BTTT

[Tamodaleko]

>>>>>Even most conservatives still seem to think that our involvement in Yugoslavia was a Good Thing.<<<<<

I believe that's mostly because conservatives believed in what was served about the Serbian province from the liberal media, or as Rush would call them today: "partisan media".

And now "surprised" with "shocking offense" of media in united front with liberals against Bush, one wonders if conservatives are chickening out and in most cases very mild in response, because they are in fact afraid of liberal's powerful weapon: media.

[MarMema]

I have been meaning to tell you how enjoyable I found your FR page to be.

[cyborg]

Thanks :-) I'm going to put up some antiochian orthodox church icons pretty soon. I'll ping you when I am finished.

[dennisw]

Harri Holkeri
former Prime Minister, peacemaker

Written for Virtual Finland by Jaakko Iloniemi,
former Ambassador of Finland to the United States of America

Photo: Toivo G. Mäkinen

Harri Holkeri is the fourth head of UNMIK, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, since its establishment in 1999. This political portrait of the former Finnish Prime Minister was written by Finnish diplomatist Jaakko Iloniemi.

Over the years in Finland numerous political careers have begun with involvement in party politics right back in the person’s student days. But few of them have led to the very highest political posts, such as Prime Minister. Even fewer have led to someone becoming Prime Minister after retiring from politics and moving on to entirely different work. Harri Holkeri is one of this rare breed. He started to be active in politics as secretary of the youth movement of the Conservative (National Coalition) Party at the age of 22, and went on to take up other party posts. At the same time, he continued to study at Helsinki University and in 1962 gained a master's degree in political science. In 1965 he was made Party Secretary – that is, its full-time executive manager – and six years later was elected Party Chairman. In 1971 Holkeri won a seat in Parliament and remained an MP until 1978. Soon after that, however, he left politics, giving up his parliamentary seat and party chairmanship, in order to join the Board of the Bank of Finland. This is a fairly standard route by which top Finnish politicians either move entirely out of politics or form a kind of political reserve; four presidents and several prime ministers have previously worked at the Bank of Finland.

But nothing indicated that Holkeri was likely to return to politics until the Conservative Party won a major election victory in 1987, ending many years in opposition. Under the Finnish constitution in effect at that time, the President of the Republic played a key role in choosing who should form the Government and President Mauno Koivisto, elected from among the Social Democrats, gave the task to Harri Holkeri. Although the latter was a seasoned politician he had never actually been a member of the Cabinet, but this was not a problem. He was an experienced team leader both in sports administration and as chairman of Helsinki City Council. In the event, the Holkeri Government was in charge of the country’s fortunes over a particularly eventful period. The years 1987 to 1991 witnessed a major shift in Finland’s international position with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Moreover, after a spell of strong economic progress the country found itself in a deep economic crisis, making leadership of the government a particularly difficult task. Fortunately, no problems were encountered in the cooperation between the Conservative Prime Minister and the President, even though the latter had come from the Social Democratic Party, and this proved crucial for the important choices that had to be made in a politically delicate situation. Foreign policy decisions were made resolutely and Finland quickly found its place as a member of the European Union. Holkeri was able to return to the Board of the Bank of Finland, from which he retired in 1998.

Even before this point, however, Holkeri had been invited to assume a completely new role, as a member of the triumvirate led by American Senator George Mitchell seeking a solution to the complex political problems of Northern Ireland. The group’s highly sensitive and demanding work succeeded so well that they won praise from the parties involved. Thus started a process that step by step finally seems to be resolving the old conflicts.

Harri Holkeri's links with the United Nations go back a long way, to his membership of the Finnish delegation to the General Assembly in 1963 and 1965. In those days, the Finnish delegation included both civil servants and a number of politicians, the latter thus gaining experience of foreign affairs while also carrying out the required parliamentary supervision of foreign policy. Holkeri showed keen interest in the workings of the UN, both then and later.

The presidency of the UN General Assembly rotates among the organisation's regional groups. In the autumn of 2000, it was the West European group's turn to put forward a candidate for the post. There was no difficulty in reaching unanimity that Harri Holkeri was clearly the right person to propose.

Holkeri's way of handling the presidency of the General Assembly was in keeping with his characteristic pragmatism. He had personal experience of the work of the General Assembly from his time as a member of the Finnish delegation to the UN in the 1960s. He knew that among the habits of the organisation that would irritate someone from the Nordic countries were delays to the start of meetings coupled with a general disregard for timetables. This slackness placed extra expense on the world organisation, already short of money, when interpreters and other conference staff had to be in place regardless. Holkeri arranged some calculations. They showed the sizeable savings that could be made through punctuality. The result, thanks to him, was an essential improvement in the cost-effectiveness of the General Assembly.

© UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe Harri Holkeri (left), President of the 55th session of the General Assembly, making an opening statement at the fifth annual United Nations World Television Forum on November 16, 2000. Also pictured is UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (right).

© UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe Harri Holkeri (right) meeting with Yasser Arafat (left), President of the Palestine Authority, on September 8, 2000 at UN Headquarters.

The General Assembly of 2000 was exceptional for the reason that it produced the UN's Millennium Declaration, the principal aim of which was to set the clearest possible targets for the world organisation to achieve, such as halving poverty. Holkeri's clear-cut and balanced leadership was valuable in this demanding work.

Towards the end of July 2003, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, chose Harri Holkeri to take charge of the UN administration in Kosovo. The two men had worked closely together at the UN in 2000 and it was clear that Annan had learned to trust Holkeri's sense of judgement and his even-handed objectivity when he nominated him for the Kosovo assignment. None of Holkeri's predecessors had remained long in the post.

There is no doubt that it is one of the most difficult within the entire UN system. The news media worldwide noted Holkeri's appointment. It was typical of the man that whilst fully aware of the difficulties he would face, including the dangers of the job, he did not back away from it. A sense of duty has always been among Holkeri's many fine qualities.

Harri Holkeri's achievements as a politician and as a widely influential figure in Finnish society at large, plus his sense of duty and his ability as a mediator, have won him the respect of all. The art of finding common ground was in great demand during the 21 years that his party was in opposition, working to get back into coalition government. These qualities are also important factors in explaining how Holkeri has held so many positions of trust both in economic life and in sports organisations. He is himself a keen sportsman, especially fond of winter sports. He has published two books on current political themes.

Born in 1937, Harri Holkeri is married and has two children.

[dennisw]

Harri Holkeri smiles at Paleostinian Muslim terror too!

[MarMema]

Excellent. There you have it. I just read that he was jeered by the Serbs, after he told them to "be brave and hang on".

Yeah right. Hang on and get killed, he meant.

[MarMema]

The evil one's helpers are happy together.

[MarMema]

check out the posts above. (MOJO, see my posts for email requests).

[MarMema]

Israel will endure. Serbia will endure. And someday the evil islamic expansionist crud will be a paragraph in a history book.

[eleni121]

Thanks for the ping.

Your message has gone out to many Serbian Americans and their friends and emails are going out.

Enough of Islamic/communist alliances.

[Lion in Winter]

Lookie here... the guy who runs Kosovo for the UN is real friendly with a certain nasty old pali!!