- OSCE to facilitate elections in north, parties haven’t applied yet (KTV)
- The Independent: Specialist Chambers is also investigating Hashim Thaçi (Klan Kosova)
- German plan on Kosovo: Dual sovereignty (GazetaExpress)
- Serbia to retaliate to Kosovo’s tariffs after May 6 if they still in place (N1)
- Veseli’s idea of Tribunal not feasible, experts believe (KTV)
- UN report on sexual violence in conflict excludes Kosovo (RTK1)
News
OSCE to facilitate elections in north, parties haven’t applied yet
(KTV)
The OSCE will once again provide its support to the extraordinary elections that will be held in four northern municipalities.
But the OSCE is expected to have only an advisory role in the election process, which will be held in Mitrovica/Mitrovicë North, Leposavic/Leposaviq, Zubin Potok, and Zvecan/Zveçan.
Given that the situation in that area of Kosovo is more peculiar, chairperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Valdete Daka says that she considered legitimate this time again to ask for technical support for polling station committees on the Election Day.
“It has no role in organising the elections, but only in providing advice to Municipal Election Commissions and Polling Station Committees,” Daka highlighted.
Nevertheless, Daka expects that the elections will happen without problems.
“Now we already have some sort of experience in organising elections in these four municipalities. So far we have not had any problems in organising them. Everything is happening in accordance with the operational plan, and I hope that the Election Day and the remaining part to the Election Day will happen in this spirit,” Daka said.
In a written response, the OSCE Mission confirmed that it is ready to provide technical support in this election process.
“The role of the OSCE will be to have personnel embedded with the Municipal Election Commissions and then on Election Day with Polling Station Committees in order to provide technical advice and assistance as they conduct the election process. This is not an observation/monitoring mission, but rather technical on-spot assistance to these key CEC-appointed bodies conducting the administration of elections,” the OSCE response states.
Meanwhile, at the meeting on Tuesday, CEC appointed members of the municipal election commissions for the extraordinary elections in northern municipalities.
The elections will be held on 19th May, following resignation of Serb mayors, who resigned because of the Government’s decision to impose tariff on Serbian goods.
The Independent: Specialist Chambers is also investigating Hashim Thaçi
(Klan Kosova)
British newspaper The Independent conducted an interview with Kosovar President Hashim Thaçi.
In the article, The Independent says that the President is facing his own problems as well, Klan Kosova reported.
“The Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, set up in the Hague in 2017, is investigating allegations of war crimes against a number of senior figures in the KLA, including the Kosovar president,” The Independent writes.
Thaçi insists he has nothing to fear.
“As always, we will not run away, we will not shy away, we will face it and I am convinced we will overcome it with dignity and integrity,” Thaçi told the British newspaper.
“I am personally very proud that I was one of the leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army. There will always be voices that try to denigrate Kosovo or accuse Kosovo, smear Kosovo and me personally. But this doesn’t mean that I have any hesitation on what’s our way forward and how we should proceed forward. I believe in justice. What we should not allow to happen is for the history to be rewritten,” he went on.
The Kosovar president accuses the international community of double standards:
“We still didn’t even see trials, convictions for the genocide in Serbia carried out in Kosovo. And for us, it is a matter of concern, this silence of the international community towards these crimes. We have had as many as 15,000 civilians killed. Up to 20,000, it’s estimated, victims of sexual violence. There were around 200 massacres against civilians in Kosovo, all around Kosovo. International justice has failed to convict those responsible for these crimes.”
Thaçi’s full interview with The Independent is available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/kosovo-eu-brexit-nato-serbia-hashim-thaci-european-union-a8872846.html
German plan on Kosovo: Dual sovereignty
(GazetaExpress)
Gazeta Express has learned that France and Germany will present on 29 April a draft agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, which to a certain degree would accommodate demands of Belgrade, but excludes partition of Kosovo.
A source told Gazeta Express that during the meeting of Western Balkan leaders set to be held in Berlin on 29 April, hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia will be offered a draft of the final agreement between the two countries.
“Reportedly it will be proposed the dual sovereignty. Kosovo will keep its territorial integrity intact, whereas Serbia will enjoy a kind of sovereignty over Serbs in Kosovo and Serbian orthodox churches,” a source told Gazeta Express.
According to the source, as the English edition of GazetaExpress reported, despite sounding “aggressive,” it is likely that Kosovo transfer a part of its sovereignty to Brussels, who then will transfer it to Serbia.
Serbia to retaliate to Kosovo’s tariffs after May 6 if they still in place
(N1)
Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s President, said on Tuesday his country was facing a “terribly difficult” period concerning Kosovo and that Belgrade was only asked to recognise its independence,” adding his party would decide on countermeasures unless Pristina did not revoke the taxes on goods from Serbia,” before May 6, the Beta news agency reported.
He referred to the 100 percent import duties on goods from Serbia and Bosnia which Pristina introduced last November and refused to lift or suspend them despite pressure from the US and the European Union.
So far, Belgrade refrained from any countermeasure.
However, on Tuesday, Vucic said his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) Main Board would wait until May 6 for the abolishment of the taxes and then would decide how to retaliate.
Addressing the meeting of the SNS Executive and Main Boards, Vucic said the pressure on Serbia to acknowledge Kosovo as an independent state would be ever increasing and that the only thing Belgrade was asked to do was to recognise Kosovo independence.
“The pressures will be stronger for full independence without division (of Kosovo), and we should be happy if they don’t introduce a special tribunal for the Serbs,” Vucic said.
He added that in the last few weeks many officials insisted with him that Serbia “hearten the Albanians to abolish the taxes.”
Vucic told his party officials he would talk to world leaders, but that Serbia “cannot expect anything good” at the Berlin meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“I only expect them to ask for a new beginning and to demand a new format of the dialogue which should end in recognition of Kosovo while the Serbs would get nothing. They will ask us to resume talks with the Albanians with taxes still in place,” Vucic said about the forthcoming meeting.
However, he said he would not discuss anything before the taxes were lifted.
“I won’t accept to resume any dialogue without the abolishment of the taxes whatever happens and whatever the pressures may be at any personal cost, not the one Serbia might pay,” Vucic promised his party officials.
The SNS discussed preparations for a rally “Stop Violence” supposed to be held in Belgrade on April 19 within Vucic’s campaign “The future of Serbia,” situation in Kosovo, the current political circumstances and new general elections.
Veseli’s idea of Tribunal not feasible, experts believe
(KTV)
It is expected that Kosovo will soon address a request to the international community to establish a special international tribunal which would try Serbian crimes and genocide committed in Kosovo.
The request will be drafted by seven representatives of political parties in the Assembly, who, since Monday, are members of the special committee on this issue.
However, those who are outside the institutions believe that this initiative is not feasible.
Bekim Blakaj of the Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) in Kosovo thinks that there is nothing serious concerning this matter.
He says that one cannot expect with a resolution to compel the international community to establish a tribunal for Serbian crimes committed in Kosovo.
On the other hand, Ehat Miftaraj of the Kosovo Law Institute (KLI) says that such ideas provide false hope to families of the war victims.
According to him, this is the best way how the institutions are trying to cover their systemic failure for 20 years.
Both Miftaraj and Blakaj say that there is a substantial difference between the Resolution adopted by the European Parliament to condemn genocide in Srebrenica, and what is intended to happen in Kosovo.
Blakaj says that in the Srebrenica case, genocide got a judicial stamp; whereas in the Kosovo case there has not been any judgment on genocide, but only for war crimes.
KTV asked the Office of the Assembly Speaker how they are planning to accomplish this idea, but they said they will wait for the Committee to draft the Resolution, and then it will be forwarded as a request to the international community.
UN report on sexual violence in conflict excludes Kosovo
(RTK1)
Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (KRCT) has expressed its deepest concern that Kosovo was not included in the report of the UN Secretary General on sexual violence in conflict.
Bearing in mind recent progress of the Kosovo state institutions in verification and documentation of rape survivors, KRCT strongly believes that data representation in this report regarding sexual violence crimes in Kosovo, would contribute to a broader understanding of the situation of survivors in the region.
It would have a particular impact on fighting prejudice and stigmatisation that surrounds this social category.