Wall not demolished, Assembly Resolution forgotten

(All monitored broadcasters, RTK2&KTV)

Few more hours have remained until the expiration of deadline set with Kosovo Assembly’s Resolution for demolition of wall in the north, but situation there continues to remain the same, KTV reported on its main news edition on Tuesday evening.

There was no move in this regard by the central or Mitrovicë/Mitrovica local institutions, while President of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi went on with his call for respect of Assembly’s Resolution.

President reassured that this issue will not become part of talks in Brussels.

He also said that Kosovo institutions should finish with the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities in order to conclude the visa liberalisation process, RTK2 reported.

While the central level is expecting and agreement with Mitrovica/Mitrovicë North for demolition of the wall by Serbs themselves, Head of EU Office in Kosovo, Nataliya Apostolova, says that there is no agreement yet, but she hopes that the agreement will be found.

“Would be happy to have agreement on Mitrovica/Mitrovicë wall, but this is still not the case. Discussions continue and I hope solution will be found soon,” Apostolova wrote on her Twitter account.

Albanian municipal councillors of Mitrovica/Mitrovicë North also said they were optimistic about demolition of the wall. But, citizens have little faith that demolition of the wall will be done by Serbs.

Opposition will not remain idle. AAK caucus leader, Pal Lekaj, has sent an invitation to all caucus leaders to a meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 13:00hrs to discuss the wall issue.

Mustafa: Dialogue will contribute to easing of tensions

(RTK1)

Prime Minister of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, said that dialogue will contribute to easing of tensions between Kosovo and Serbia.

Mustafa said that dialogue must be understood as fruitful and with perspective.

“I think that this meeting will be only a continuation of the first meeting in order to set some fundamental orientations through which we will impact on easing the tensions that were raised due to Serbian provocations in Kosovo,” Mustafa told the public broadcaster.

“We must solve problems through the dialogue. Dialogue needs to be fast, succinct and not to be prolonged,” Mustafa added.

He also said that they will pledge for implementation of agreements achieved so far in talks. Mustafa stressed that dialogue needs to go on further.

RTK get 3.3 million euros for first quarter this year

(KTV)

Assembly Committee for Budget and Finance approved the request of Radio and Television of Kosovo (RTK) Management regarding the budget of public broadcaster for first quarter this year, the value of which amounts to 3 million 300 thousand and 25 euros.

Out of these funds, the public broadcaster has forecasted that 2 million and 750 thousand euros will be allocated by the state budget, while over 500 thousand euros from marketing revenues. In the meantime, total budget of 2017 for the public broadcaster amounts to 13 million and 300 thousand euros.

Much criticism and accusations were addressed by members of this Committee regarding management of funds in the public broadcaster. They requested functionalization of the Assembly investigative commission for RTK.

There were remarks regarding the big number of employees and for the amount of their salaries. However, committee members received very few responses from the Board Chairman and RTK Director General.

KIA Head did not resign, he was dismissed

(KTV)

Resignation of Agron Selimaj from the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (KIA) Director’s post is being seen as a dismissal, and not a resignation.

This is what the opposition MPs believe, according to which, this situation happened due to constant pressure of President Hashim Thaçi.

Chairperson of Kosovo Assembly KIA Oversight Committee, Haxhi Shala, says that Agron Selimaj was under pressure to leave his duty. Shala added that his resignation has nothing in common with events in the north.

On the other hand, Vetëvendosje MP Rexhep Selimi is convinced that Agron Selimaj was dismissed by President Hashim Thaçi.

Shala and Selimi think that the status of this Agency’s director, after dismissal, should be regulated with Law on KIA. In most countries of the region, upon completion of his/her mandate, Director of Intelligence is appointed as President’s advisor for security matters.

Police blocked entrance of “Grand” due to a suspicious vehicle with BG plates

(KTV)

Kosovo Police blocked entrance of “Grand” hotel in Prishtinë/Pristina, after receiving information about a suspicious vehicle with Belgrade (BG) plates.

Police Spokesperson for Prishtinë/Pristina region, Florije Ahmeti, confirmed the case to Koha.net saying that Police is dealing with the case, but she did not give any other details.

Later during the evening, KTV reported that Kosovo Police removed the vehicle after five hours of staying there. It reported that nothing was found in this car and they were waiting for its Serb owner to come from Gracanica/Graçanicë town to take it.

Non-majority communities facing many issues

(RTK2)

Unemployment in Kosovo presents a major problem, in particular among members of non-majority communities. Although the members of working groups for employment and social issues during the last mandate stressed the issue of non-implementation of the Law on employment of minority communities, this issue still has not been solved.

Deputy Chairman of the Consultative Council for Communities, Isak Meta, said that the Law on employment of minority communities stipulates that minority communities should be employed 10 per cent in public institutions. According to him, at the central level this employment is at unsatisfactory level between 6 and 7 per cent.

Dusan Radakovic, member of this Council, said that the President of Kosovo has been informed about this issue. He said that there are some data that Ministry of European Integration has not employed any person from any community in Kosovo, aside from the Albanian community.

According to Darko Dimitrijevic, one of members of the Consultative Council for Communities, situation is running out of control each day.

“You see that currently everything is somehow tense as far as relations between Serbs and Albanians are concerned, either by the arrest of Ramush Haradinaj or the case of train sent by Belgrade. For example, I live in Gorazdevac/Gorazhdec and I feel it on my skin. This can also be noted each day,” Dimitrijevic said.

RTK2 also reported that the working group for language issues has reached agreement with Kosovo with the Language Commissioner, Slavisa Mladenovic, regarding the strategy for promotion of language rights.

On the other hand, Gazmen Salijevic, Chairman of the Consultative Council for Communities, also categorised education among the burning issues.

The issues that members of non-majority communities in Kosovo face are not negligible, while President of Kosovo will be informed about them by his advisor Bratislav Nikolic, who was part of the Consultative Council’s meeting, RTK2 concluded.

Freedom House: Kosovo a partly free country

(RTK2, TV21)

Freedom House Organisation has published its report on the scale of democratic freedoms in the world where Kosovo is ranked among partly free countries, same as it was last year.

In the report dubbed “Freedom in the World 2017” it is underlined that in the last 11 years freedom has marked decline at the global level.