Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told foundation for independent investigations. Investigative strategies were developed and issued directly from the Director of the Human Rights Division after consultation with the Head of Mission. Impartiality is at the heart of human rights work, and it was imperative to the Human Rights Division that it was seen as impartial. Despite the fact that the OSCE-KVM was perceived by the Serb authorities to be pro-Kosovo Albanian, the Human Rights Division consciously and persistently investigated allegations of human rights abuses committed by the UCK, including against other national communities. While the vast majority of complaints came from Kosovo Albanians, a substantial effort was made to investigate UCK involvement into the issue of Serb abductions. The OSCE-KVM consistently put pressure on the UCK to allow human rights officers access to UCK "trials" and to persons abducted/detained by the UCK. Reporting. Reports by the Human Rights Division served four basic functions: (i) to inform OSCE senior staff and others about the situation on the ground; (ii) to discourage authorities whose actions were being monitored and verified from committing violations; (iii) to inform governments, policy makers and OSCE participating states; and (iv) to provide a basis for interventions. The various types of reports utilized by the Human Rights Division were incident reports, initially daily reports, weekly reports, monthly reports, and special reports. Incident reports were prepared: (i) when human rights complaints/abuses were brought to the attention of the Regional Centres; (ii) when verifiers were asked to investigate human rights complaints; (iii) when OSCE-KVM representatives intervened in a human rights matter; and (iv) on other matters which a human rights officer judged to be of sufficient importance to bring to the immediate attention of OSCEKVM HQ. The senior human rights officers at the five Regional Centres were responsible for preparing 16 weekly reports. Weekly reports from the Regional Centres were collated and summarized in a consolidated HQ weekly report to the Head of Mission and the OSCE Secretariat. Monthly reports were envisaged in order to identify and analyse trends in human rights. For example, attention would be given to identifying systematic patterns of discriminatory treatment of minority groups. Due to the late start-up of the Human Rights Division and the relatively early evacuation, the Human Rights Division completed only one monthly report, for February 1999. The Human Rights Division produced a number of special reports. Among these were reports on alleged mass graves, particular violations of human rights and humanitarian law such as pillage and abductions, and a report on the killing of civilians in Racak/Racak (Stimlje/Shtime). 17 The OSCE-KVM Human Rights Division also set up a comprehensive human rights database which, if fully implemented, would have had the capacity to record and track all reported violations in Kosovo. Confidentiality and security. The OSCE-KVM Human Rights Division operated with strict security and confidentiality safeguards. Incident reports, reports on missing persons, and so on, were safely stored, with access restricted to international staff on a "need to know basis". When reports were submitted http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch2.htm (4 of 16)12/5/2003 11:48:40 AM