UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, January 9, 2023

Albanian Language Media:

• Prime Minister Kurti to visit Austria this week (RTK)
• Sweden’s EU Presidency has started consultations for Kosovo’s bid (RFE)
• Schmitt: In Balkans only one country causes problems, Serbia (Der Standard/Koha)
• Analysts: Serbia is trying to refuse European plan; Kosovo to clarify its position (EO)
• Reka: Some wrongly hope that peace can be reached with Vucic (Nacionale)
• Serb reporter: Wounded in Strpce are misused by Vucic and Serbian List (Klan)

Serbian Language Media:

• Thousands protest over armed attack on two Serb youngsters in Strpce (N1)
• Reactions to armed attack on two Serb youngsters near Strpce (RTV, Tanjug, Kosovo Online)
• Serb young man beaten while returning from midnight Christmas liturgy in Klokot (N1)
• SOC: Patriarch will visit Pec Patriarchate in line with his program and discretion (Radio kontakt plus)
• Pristina extends house arrest of Pantic for two more months (Tanjug)
• A rally held in North Mitrovica against Serbia List and Serbian President (KoSSev)
• Vukasin Obradovic to his Albanian friends: Do what Suroi did in ’99 (KoSSev)
• Brnabic: We will request additional guarantees for Serbs in Kosovo (N1, RTS)
• US State Department: Chollet due in Belgrade on Thursday (BETA, N1)

Opinion:

• Kosovo Crisis has Underlined NATO’s Unclear Mandate in Region (BIRN)

International:

• Wider Europe Briefing: Will Kosovo And Serbia Finally Make A Deal? Plus, The Nitty-Gritty Of EU Enlargement (RFE)
• The Guardian view on problems in the western Balkans: Europe should do more
• Roma Tell Long-Neglected Stories of Kosovo War’s Enduring Impact (BIRN)

• NATO declines Serbia's request to deploy its troops in Kosovo (Reuters)
• Two Serbs injured in Christmas Eve shooting, suspect arrested (euronews)
• Kurti strongly condemns attack on two citizens in Shterpce (media)
• EU condemns shooting of two Serbs on Orthodox Christmas Eve (media)
• Hovenier condemns wounding of two young people in Shterpce (RTK)
• UNMIK chief condemns shooting of two Serbs in Shterpce (media)
• One month detention for suspect of wounding two young Serbs (media)
• Protest in Shterpce after the injury of two young Serbs (media)
• Albin Kurti: Can Kosovo bond with its ethnic Serbs? (Al Jazeera)
• Chollet to visit Kosovo on January 11 (media)
• A bus with passengers from Kosovo gets attacked in Serbia (media)
• “Kurti will resign”, analyst gives details of plan for snap elections (euronews.al)
• PDK’s Krasniqi calls Svecla’s request for expired passports shameful (media)

UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, January 5, 2023

Albanian Language Media:

• Kurti agrees to Rasic’s request for Porfirije visit to Kosovo (media)
• Peach starts the series of visits of Western emissaries to Kosovo (Koha)
• Abdixhiku: State leaders owe the people an explanation (media)
• Citaku: Kurti must explain why allies are saying time is not for recognition (media)
• Mitrovica-Jarinje road will be closed for around 2 hrs due to barricades removal (media)
• U.S. Embassy explains “like” on Vucic’s tweet (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• President Vucic in his annual address talks about Kosovo, challenges ahead (N1, media)
• Vucic: Further nine countries revoked recognition of Kosovo (media)
• Zuroff: Honours for Deva an insult to memory of his victims (Tanjug)
• US State Department: No announcements about Escobar visit to Serbia (Tanjug)
• Vasic: Trajkovic’s health deteriorates, we will request house arrest (KoSSev)
• Pristina extends detention of Miljan Adzic (Tanjug)
• Vacancies for police officers in northern Kosovo announced (N1, media)

International:

• Serbian President Claims ‘Nine More Kosovo Recognition Withdrawals’ (BIRN)

• President Osmani decrees the Law on Wages (media)
• Opposition seeks clarification about U.S. ambassador's statement (Nacionale)
• Stano: Kosovo, an example of cooperation between EU and NATO (media)
• Germany: Return of Serbian troops, completely unacceptable (Express)
• “Every mistake can cost Kosovo; should learn from North Macedonia” (media)
• Haziri: Kurti doesn’t have problems with envoys, but with the people (Reporteri)
• Weber skeptical: Unlikely agreement will be reached this year (RFE)
• North Kosovo: time to turn to civil society (Social Europe)
• Vucic: Chollet will visit Belgrade next week (Kallxo)

UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, January 4, 2023

Albanian Language Media:

• State Department: Kosovo, Serbia should create climate for reconciliation (Reporteri)
• “European” plan to intensify the dialogue in January (Koha)
• Deputy Defence Minister: Serbia’s request to deploy troops in Kosovo is absurd (KP)
• Haxhiu: Mechanism to monitor human rights implementation by Special Court (Koha)
• LDK’s Hoti: Govt to explain why now is not time for mutual recognition? (media)
• Von Cramon on how non-recognising states could vote at PACE (Koha)
• Hoti: We don’t accept Serbia’s added paragraphs in missing persons document (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• Recently detained Serbs - Pantic under house arrest, Trajkovic without therapy, and request for extending detention to Adzic (RTS)
• Slovak Ministry: Any change of position to depend on Belgrade-Pristina normalisation (Tanjug)
• Director of Museum of Genocide sent letters to ambassadors over plans to renovate Xhafer Deva’s house (Kosovo Online, N1)
• Quartet of Western envoys to visit Serbia after Orthodox Christmas (Tanjug, Novosti)
• Serbs from northern Kosovo call for protest, dissatisfied with Belgrade’s policy (Danas)

Opinion:

• After barricades: Instead of new Kosovo policy, old problems persevere in new year (KoSSev)

International:

• Soaring Air Pollution in Region Stokes Health Fears (BIRN)
• The DJ and the War Crimes (Rolling Stone)

• EC: Situation in north still very fragile; talks on Association must start (media)
• KFOR: We’re examining Serbia’s request to deploy troops in Kosovo (Express)
• Hungary plays key role in Kosovo peacekeeping (Hungary Today)
• NATO Military Chiefs of Defence Meeting - 18-19 January 2023 (nato.int)
• Will Kosovo’s war ever end? (UnHerd)
• The religious propaganda that threatens Kosovo (Kallxo)
• The Peak of the Balkans Trail: Europe's last true wilderness (BBC)

Albanian Language Media:

• German and French chief advisers expected to visit Pristina and Belgrade (Klan)
• Ahmeti: Serbia has lost the battle in the Council of Europe (Kosova Press)
• KFOR is removing the last vehicles left on the road in the north (media)
• Trajkovic asks Vucic for explanation regarding her detention in Merdare (Sinjali)
• Weber: The association was the reason the dialogue stalled (Albanian Post)
• Bugajski: Association is a ticking bomb, a recipe for discord (Klan)
• “EU should give up equalising blame, in cases when Serbia is more to blame” (Albanian Post)
• EFJ raises alarm about attack on journalists in the north of Kosovo (RTK)

Serbian Language Media:

• EU: Situation in north of Kosovo still fragile, we are continuing talks with both sides (RTS, RTV, Kosovo Online)
• KFOR: We are conducting an operation to remove vehicles from the road in the north of Kosovo (RTS)
• Dacic: Another country will soon withdraw its recognition of Kosovo and Metohija (Tanjug, RTS, media)
• Brnabic: We preserved peace in Kosovo-Metohija thanks to wise policy (Tanjug, media)
• Hill: There will be more US investments in Serbia this year (media)
• Chairman of the KJC: About the resignations of judges from the North in February (Radio Mitrovica sever)
• Kosovo Police detained, then released a physical education teacher from Kosovska Mitrovica (media)

Opinion:

• Will Kosovo’s war ever end? (UnHerd)

• Kurti wants more KFOR forces in Kosovo (RTK)
• Bonne, Plotner and Escobar to visit Kosovo this month (Klan)
• Osmani congratulates Sweden, “cooperation to get Kosovo closer to EU” (RTK)
• Balkans, a priority of Sweden's EU Council Presidency (Albanian Daily News)
• Svecla for the Swiss medium: We are not afraid of Serbia (Albanian Post)
• Germany welcomes removal of barricades (Anadolu Agency)
• NATO's highest authority to meet this month to discuss security in Kosovo (AP)
• Krasniqi doesn’t expect fast agreement; “Kurti invented deadline” (Klan)
• ‘Life is Beautiful’: Visually Impaired Kosovo Writer Rejects Limits (BIRN)
• French Museum Keeps Memory of Long-Ago Balkans Alive (BIRN)
• Activists who attacked assembly building acquitted (Prishtina Insight)
• Person of the Year for Prishtina Insight, Faruk Kukaj (Prishtina Insight)

UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, December 30, 2022

Albanian Language Media:

• Barricades removed, border crossings in the north still closed (Koha)
• Vela: Kosovo-Serbia relations can only be based on mutual recognition (media)
• Gervalla: Serbia creates artificial conflicts; no force can blackmail us (media)
• Italy welcomes the removal of barricades in northern Kosovo (Klan)
• Joseph: Barricades, proof how Vucic plays the U.S. and EU (RFE/Koha)
• Buhler: Serbia's threatening rhetoric is intolerable (DW, media)
• PDK submits the Law on Public Officials to the Constitutional Court (Telegrafi)
• Man in Leposavic reports he was attacked by two masked men (media)
• Barricade in Zupc removed, regular traffic begins (media)
• Vucic offers job in the ministry to young man sentenced to prison in Kosovo (Express)
• COVID-19 cases increasing in Kosovo (Koha)

Serbian Language Media:

• Removal of barricades in northern Kosovo (RTS, Kosovo Online)
• Visoki Decani Monastery on absence of international representatives in Kosovo reaction on Patriarch entry ban, impertinence of Pristina (Kosovo Online, social media)
• Dacic: Germany’s position on Kosovo different to others (N1)
• Opposition MP on Kosovo: Exercise badly played, we did what suits Kurti (N1)
• When journalists “guard“ barricades, but guards are nowhere to be seen (KoSSev)
• Lajcak: Tensions in Kosovo remain high, level of mistrust higher than ever (FoNet, N1)
• Dacic receives Romania's special Western Balkans envoy (Tanjug)
• Man arrested at Gazimestan to work on humanitarian issues at KiM Office (N1, KoSSev)

• Kurti: They put up barricades themselves, removing them themselves (media)
• Borrell praises leaders; “diplomacy prevailed in removing barricades” (Klan)
• EU wary of further Kosovo-Serbia tensions as it pushes final deal (Politico)
• Osmani meets Hovenier, discuss latest developments (media)
• NATO: We expect all parties to adhere to their commitments (media)
• KFOR: All parties should avoid any triggering rhetoric (media)
• Hill: Lucky that barricades are being removed, we want political solution (Klan)
• Rama on barricades: Nothing new, in the end everyone returned home (media)
• French Embassy comments on removal of barricades (Kallxo)
• Haziri on removal of barricades: Decision was neither Kurti nor Vucic’s (media)
• Fake News Spikes Amid High Tensions in the North (Prishtina Insight)
• Kosovo: Serbs agree to dismantle barricades after talks (BBC)
• Kosovo-Serbia tensions: Mood on the ground, possible scenarios (Al Jazeera)
• Kosovo Reopens Main Border Crossing With Serbia (VoA)
• In northern Kosovo, conflict is avoided, for now (Emerging Europe)
• Hoax Bomb Threats Leave Balkan Region Frustrated, Unnerved (BIRN)
• Serbia Investigates Kosovo Albanian for Alleged Arms Trafficking (BIRN)