For immediate release

Kosovo Protection Corps simulate their first

emergency operation
30 January 2001

Pristina- Crashed aircraft in an open field; fire; victims and survivors; risk of industrial pollution
threatening densely inhabited areas; important decisions to be taken to lead an emergency
operation. This is the simulated scenario the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), the indigenous
emergency civilian agency in Kosovo, will be working on throughout the current week in close
coordination with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and KFOR.

Nicknamed Eagle One, this specific training, which targets, in this first round, senior managers at
KPC Headquarters, is designed to experience the coordination and implementation of standard
operating procedures in case of an emergency operation. Scenario, sequence of events, rules of
engagement, observation forms, map, procedures and decision-making process are included in
this training exercise.

The exercise is the first of three planned in the following months as part of the second phase of
the training programme for KPC coordinated by IOM under the mandate of the Joint Commission
(UNMIK-KFOR). The other two will take place at the Regional Task Group and field members
level.

By the end of this simulation, the trainees will have converged the individual training received in a
previous phase with the collective one, being able to plan every action that has to be taken in
case of an emergency in Kosovo and to coordinate with other emergency institutions.

More than 4000 KPC members are benefiting from the IOM/KPC training programme, operating
since February 2000 and presently training them at all levels in the skills necessary to effectively
manage and organize their civil protection mandate.

For further information, please contact: Tamara Osorio, IOM Press Office.Tel: 044 122 371/ 038
549 042; tosorio@iom.ipko.org, or Shemsi Syla, KPC Press Office. 038 543 555/ 044 115 848.
IOM web : www.iom.ipko.org