[Info-tech] Kosovo telecom head accuses UN mission of corruption: report (fwd)

[Xhemil Meco]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 5:50:18 PST
From: AFP <C-afp at clari.net>
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.balkans, clari.world.organizations.un,
    clari.tw.telecom.phone_service, clari.hot.a, biz.clarinet.sample
Followup-To: biz.clarinet.sample
Subject: Kosovo telecom head accuses UN mission of corruption: report

  	  				 
   PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Dec 20 (AFP) - The ousted head of Kosovo's  
telecom firm has accused the UN administration here of corruption 
following the signing of a deal to provide the Yugoslav province 
with a new mobile phone network. 
   "It is quite credible that there are corrupt people at UNMIK (UN  
mission in Kosovo)," Agron Dida told the daily Koha Ditore in an 
interview Monday about the deal which was signed last week. 
   But he did not level his charges against any individual.  
   Dida was suspended from his post by UNMIK head Bernard Kouchner  
earlier this month for "lack of cooperation" and replaced by UNMIK 
economic director Gerard Fischer. 
   Dida had staunchly opposed the signing of a mobile phone  
contract with the French firm Alcatel, arguing that a rival offer 
from German telecoms giant Siemens provided a better financial 
package. 
   He threatened to resign if the deal went ahead, adding that the  
whole of  Kosovo telecoms company PTK could walk out too. 
   Fischer on Friday signed the Alcatel contract in Paris as PTK's  
acting head. 
   "We tried for three months to bring Dida on board," Fischer told  
AFP on Monday, adding that Alcatel's was the only offer that would 
"actually allow people to make phone calls." 
   He said Dida wanted to buy Siemens equipment and have PTK  
operate the network itself, which would mean applying for a separate 
area code for Kosovo. Such licences generally take a year to arrive, 
Fischer said. 
   Under the UN resolution that ended NATO's air war against  
Belgrade in June, Kosovo remains a Yugoslav province, not an 
independent country. 
   Fischer said Alcatel's partner, Monaco Telecom, came with more  
than 120 roaming agreements, which allow an operator to charge other 
mobile firms for using their network and which he said are the 
financial mainstay of operations. 
   "We need a system to make money for the Kosovo budget, that is  
the final issue, not to satisfy Mr Dida's desire to run his 
company," said Fischer. 
   PTK would start operating with no roaming agreements, and it  
could take up to a year to sign just 40, Fischer said. 
   He was also dismissive of the corruption charges.  
   "In the normal world you have to prove corruption charges,  
otherwise they are just rumours," said Fischer. Asked why Dida might 
have made such charges, Fischer said: "Maybe he is instructed by 
certain people," but did not elaborate."