- Rrustemi: Srpska Lista must prove it respects Kosovo’s sovereignty to participate in elections (KTV)
- EU seeks details about operation on repatriation of Kosovars from Syria (KTV)
- Veseli writes to European Parliament and Quint about Serbian crimes in Kosovo (RTK1)
- Pacolli: EU willing to liberalise visas for Kosovo (Gazeta Express)
- Hoxha: Rosic and Spasojevic’s custody extended for another two months (KoSSev)
News
Rrustemi: Srpska Lista must prove it respects Kosovo’s sovereignty to participate in elections
(KTV)
In an interview with KTV’s Express Intervista show, Central Election Commission (CEC) member from Vetëvendosje Adnan Rrustemi mentioned several reasons why Vetëvendosje has opposed candidates of Srpska Lista for the elections in north.
Rrustemi says that Vetëvendosje has objected certification of the Srpska Lista candidates, since the party has aggravated its discourse to Kosovo’s statehood. Moreover, he emphasised that Srpska Lista had no symbol of Kosovo’s statehood on the occasion of resignation of north mayors in November 2018.
“We have asked for the Srpska Lista file to be checked into details, given that their way of resignation was not a common one. In addition, we have asked for their statements to be checked into details,” Rrustemi said.
Rrustemi added that Srpska Lista should prove that it respects Kosovo’s sovereignty, and he called for the party to distance itself from Belgrade directives.
“Srpska Lista should prove by additional documents whether it respects sovereignty of the Republic, and that it will not run any broader campaign for undermining Kosovo’s sovereignty. In this particular case, the three candidates resigned while fighting Kosovo’s integrity and sovereignty. In their resignation letters, they refer to Kosovo as Kosovo and Metohija. Those three candidates cannot be legitimate to run for these elections, because they have denied Kosovo’s statehood,” Rrustemi added.
According to him, their letters did not contain any symbol of the Republic of Kosovo.
“Their resignations happened in November. Only when we asked for the letters, we saw that the resignation letters did not contain anything of the Republic of Kosovo. All the four letters have the same content,” he said.
Rrustemi explains that the first point of their resignation letter says that it happened because of the tariff on North Serbia.
“They still consider Kosovo as part of Serbia. Those are not statements to the media, but letters submitted to the institutions of the country. Besides those letters, we need to bring to attention their statements and their collaboration with Aleksandar Vucic,” Rrustemi highlighted.
Vetëvendosje says that this case can be sent to the Constitutional Court, whereas Srpska Lista says that it has 24 hours available to file a complaint to the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP).
“I think that ECAP will make its verdict that those three candidates may not run for elections. Srpska Lista has more and more degraded its stance against Kosovo’s statehood. Srpska Lista should have represented Serbs in Kosovo, and recognise Kosovo’s independence. Srpska Lista is simply a product of the Brussels dialogue. Srpska Lista has more and more aggravated its discourse against Kosovo. It called for allegedly annexation of the north. It was against Kosovo’s army, and it was one of its members that denied Serbian crimes in Kosovo,” Rrustemi stated.
Talking about electoral reform, Rrustemi said:
“CEC has no role in regard to the electoral reform, because we only enforce it. That is defined by the Assembly. We have no role in the general term of the reform.”
EU seeks details about operation on repatriation of Kosovars from Syria
(KTV)
The European Union has enquired about the action of Kosovo authorities to return Kosovars from Syria.
Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has asked for the returnees to be dealt with seriously, and said that the number of those who have remained in Syria is not very large.
Minister of Justice Abelard Tahiri, along with Deputy Prime Minister Enver Hoxhaj, are preparing the letter with details of the action, which will be subsequently submitted to representatives of the EU Member Countries.
Meanwhile, monitored broadcasters reported that on Tuesday, the Kosovo Special Prosecution Office requested house arrest for eleven women repatriated from Syria, who are suspected of participation in the conflict in Syria. The request was objected by defence lawyers.
Talking to Klan Kosova’s Zona e Debatit, Minister of Justice Abelard Tahiri stated that criminals will face justice, whilst victims will be rehabilitated.
On the other hand, Skënder Perteshi of the Kosovo Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) said in an interview with Klan Kosova’s Zona B that there is a potential risk for terrorist attacks by the returnees from Syria.
”They may state that they have repented or that they have willingly returned to Kosovo, but those statements must be constantly observed, they can be verified based on their behaviour,” he said.
Later in the evening, monitored broadcasters reported that the Prishtinë/Pristina Basic Court, Special Department, decided in relation to the request of the Kosovo Special Prosecution Office to put in house arrest the women defendants who joined the war in Syria.
Veseli writes to European Parliament and Quint about Serbian crimes in Kosovo
(RTK1)
The Kosovo Assembly Speaker Kadri Veseli has sent a letter to the European Parliament and Quint countries about crimes and genocide committed by Serbia in Kosovo during the war of 1998-1999.
Veseli mentioned the large number of massacres and crimes that Serbia committed in Kosovo, saying that it is internationally known that under the brutal regime of Slobodan Milosevic, Albanians in Kosovo was victims and subject to systemic violence. Consequently, around one million Kosovars, more than half of the population, were forced to leave Kosovo, with the rest half million internally displaced persons,” Veseli wrote.
“In total, about 90 per cent of ethnic Albanian population became refugees or displaced persons. 13,535 were killed. Amongst them, 1,230 were children, including babies and other small children,” Veseli’s letter says.
He also mentioned the still unresolved issue of thousands of missing persons.
“Over the course of ten years of its existence, Kosovo has demonstrated that it is a peace-loving country which actively seeks positive relations with all its neighbours, including Serbia. Nevertheless, I must say that still a lot needs to be done in order to allow healing, and one part of the healing is admitting the truth,” Veseli’s letter adds.
Veseli has called for all friendly countries to draw up individual resolutions that would confirm the truth of Serbian crimes in Kosovo.
“On behalf of the Kosovo Assembly, I would like to call upon you and your colleagues to make possible formal recognition of the historic injustice that happened against my people. This can be done through a resolution that points out and condemns crimes against humanity that happened in Kosovo,” Veseli’s letter states.
Recently, Veseli sent the same letter to the US Congress, as well.
Pacolli: EU willing to liberalise visas for Kosovo
(Gazeta Express)
Kosovo’s deputy prime minister and minister of Foreign Affairs, Behgjet Pacolli, says the EU is willing to liberalise visas for Kosovo citizens.
Reporting on Tuesday before Parliament’s Committee on EU Integration, Pacolli said that it is up to the EU member countries to decide on lifting visas for Kosovo. “The responsibility for lifting visas is with the EU member countries,” Pacolli said. Talking on his lobbying activities on visas, Pacolli informed members of the Committee on his frequent meetings with the German foreign minister, Heiko Mass, adding that there is a willingness in lifting visas, especially from Germany. Pacolli said that France and Netherlands are sceptical when it comes to liberalising visas with the EU Schengen arena. According to Pacolli, 2019 would be crucial when it comes to visa liberalisation process.
Hoxha: Rosic and Spasojevic’s custody extended for another two months
(Kossev)
The custody of Nedeljko Spasojevic and Marko Rosic, suspected of involvement in the murder of Oliver Ivanovic, has been extended by another two months, the special Kosovo prosecutor, Syle Hoxha, confirmed for KoSSev. Spasojevic and Rosic were arrested on November 23rd of last year.
The prosecutor in charge of Ivanovic’s murder case, Syle Hoxha, recently confirmed for KoSSev that he submitted a request to the court to extend the custody of two Serbs from North Mitrovica who were arrested in November on suspicion of involvement in Ivanovic’s murder.
Hoxha stated today that their custody was extended by another two months.
Rosic and Spasojevic have been in custody since November 23rd of last year, when they were arrested in the early morning hours in North Mitrovica in an action by the special Kosovo police units. In addition to Nedeljko Spasojevic and Marko Rosic, Dragisa Markovic was also arrested, while Milan Radoicic was named as the fourth suspect.
Spasojevic, who is a police investigator in the north of Kosovo, is suspected of helping the perpetrator flee from the scene of the crime in an official police vehicle.
Rosic, whose custody was also extended today, is under investigation because of a letter found in Ivanovic’s pocket containing the registration number of a jeep owned by Rosic’s family.
The third suspect, Dragisa Markovic, also a member of the Kosovo Police, was released from detention on February 22nd and was ordered, as Radio Kontakt Plus reported at the time, to report at the police station.
Vice-President of Srpska Lista, Milan Radoicic avoided arrest and has been on the run since then. Radoicic has since been seen attending meetings with the state leading officials, along with representatives of his party, in Belgrade on several occasions. The Serbian President, the Head of the Kosovo Office, as well as Srpska Lista and Radoicic himself, claim that the action of the special Kosovo police units was an attempt to liquidate him.