12 April 2000

Bonn, Germany:  The Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV), Sharon Capeling-Alakija, leaves Bonn Thursday to begin a six-day tour of Kosovo and Macedonia where a large group of UN Volunteers is currently taking part in final preparations for electoral registration of the Kosovar population.

More than 250 UN Volunteers are already in Kosovo, and the number will reach 700 from 87 countries by June. Of these, 450 will help register the population with the Joint Registration Task Force of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The remaining 250 will work with UNMIK's civil administrative arm to get the region's public services back on track.

"UN Volunteers are helping a population stripped of its identity find itself again," said Capeling-Alakija. "It's real detective work."

Through the destruction of identification papers and registries throughout Kosovo, "fifty-year-olds have to produce signed receipts and anything else they can get their hands on just to prove who they are -- that they exist."

Arriving in Pristina on Friday, Capeling-Alakija will meet key UNMIK officials such as Deputy Special Representative for Interim Civil Administration, Tom Koenigs, and Deputy Special Representative for Institution-Building, Daan Everts of the OSCE.

Over the weekend, she will visit UN Volunteers already working in Peja, the devastated town of Mitrovica and Gilan. Since last August, UN Volunteers in these cities have organized decent, warm housing for residents, laid the groundwork for registration, paid teachers and public servants and found jobs for thousands of people. A pilot registration project involving 30 UN Volunteers will get underway on Monday in Gilan.

On Monday, Capeling-Alakija flies to Ohrid, Macedonia, where she will address Tuesday's opening of registration training for the 300 newly-recruited UN Volunteer registration supervisors.

In addition to their assistance to the people of Kosovo, through UNMIK and OSCE, UN Volunteers work with several agencies in the field of humanitarian assistance and reconstruction. UNV's major partners in these activities are the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Project Services (UNOPS).