- UK and Switzerland condemn denial of events that took place in Reçak (RTK)
- OSCE delegation visits Vetëvendosje headquarters (RTK)
- Haradinaj on his brother’s murder: Albanians pulled the trigger, but the scenario was written by Serbia (Kossev)
- Indictment filed against three women that joined ISIS in Syria (Most monitored broadcasters, RTK)
- Zyberaj: We will forward 10,000 pages of evidence of Serbia’s crimes to the Prosecutor’s Office (Kossev)
- About 210 families excluded from social assistance, because they worked as commissioners on E-Day (KTV)
News
UK and Switzerland condemn denial of events that took place in Reçak
(RTK)
The UK supports the statements made by the EU, the United Nations SRSG and others in response to recent remarks denying the well-documented events that took place in Reçak in January 1999.
The Embassy calls on representatives of all sides that have responsibility, to refrain from harmful and provocative rhetoric which is disrespectful towards victims and their families, and damages prospects of reconciliation and a return to the Dialogue.
“We trust the judicial institutions in Pristina will follow due process in dealing with all cases in a transparent manner, free from ethnic bias,” statement of the UK Embassy reads
RTKLive also quoted a reaction of the Embassy of Switzerland to Kosovo and the Humanitarian Law Centre Kosovo to the denial of atrocities in Reçak by the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
OSCE delegation visits Vetëvendosje headquarters
(RTK)
On Monday, deputy chairperson of Vetëvendosje Movement Fatmire Mulhaxha-Kollçaku and chairmanship members Arben Vitia and Kreshnik Ahmeti, received at a meeting an OSCE delegation, led by representative of the High Commissioner on National Minorities Alessandro Rotta, who was accompanied by Drita Gjeli, national political officer, and Miquel Vidal Bover, assistant.
Rotta informed the Movement’s officials about the mission of the High Commissioner on National Minorities and about its projects for Kosovo, Klan Kosova reported.
“The mission of improvement of relations amongst communities in Kosovo is aimed to be achieved through projects of education and learning languages of all communities in Kosovo,” Rotta said.
In addition, Rotta enquired about the platform of new government led by Vetëvendosje Movement, in relation to minority communities in the country.
“Mulhaxha-Kollçaku briefed the delegation on internal dialogue to be run by new government, which will begin in the first week of the governance. Goal of the dialogue will be to discuss socio-economic issues of communities in the country, and to find solution for integration of all communities.
With regard to opportunities of the dialogue, Vitia shared his experience as Director of Health and Welfare in the Municipality of Prishtinë/Pristina, where many socio-economic issues of communities had not been resolved until then, due to the lack of communication and trust.
Ahmeti informed the OSCE officials that next government would evaluate all the agreements reached up to now with Serbia by previous governments before starting new dialogue, which differently from the past, will be based on clear principles and mutual relations.
In conclusion, the parties agreed to stay in touch, in order to be updated about new developments and to build a fruitful cooperation towards integration of all communities in the country,” VV press statement ends.
Haradinaj on his brother’s murder: Albanians pulled the trigger, but the scenario was written by Serbia
(Kossev)
The outgoing Kosovo Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj said that his brother, Enver, was killed by Albanians, but that this scenario was written by Serbia.
„I believe that his murder was part of that scenario, it was proven in Dukagjini. So that the families are returned to hostility. Some Albanians indeed pulled the trigger, but the scenario was Serbian,“ he told RTV Dukagjini.
The outgoing Prime Minister said that his brother Enver „was not a problematic guy“ and assessed his murder as a political assassination.
„He did not destroy anyone but Serbia during the war. He was killed just because he was my brother or one of ours. Daut and I were in prison at the time. He was killed to fuel vengeance… But no one in our family killed an Albanian. We did not order (a murder), whether from the back or the front. Our family has some codes of honor that we have preserved,“ Haradinaj stressed.
Indictment filed against three women that joined ISIS in Syria
(Most monitored broadcasters, RTK)
The Special Prosecution Office reports that the defendants M.T, V.T-D., and Sh.T., intentionally took part in the activities of the terrorist organization by going to Syria and joining the terrorist, militant, extremist organization ISIS, by supporting this organization and its activities and goals.
After the husband of the defendant M.T. was in Syria for several months and returned for a short period of time, the whole family decided to join the war for the Islamic State, although they were aware that such an act was unlawful, so the defendant V.T-D. together with her husband and little daughter, on October 05, 2014, left Kosovo through the Hani i Elezit border crossing and went to Skopje, then from Skopje Airport to Turkey and then to Syria.
The defendant M.T. together with her husband on November 04, 2014, on the same manner travelled to Syria, while the defendant Sh.T., the mother of defendant M.T, VT-D., on September 21, 2015, together with her two sons, through Prishtina International Airport, travelled to Turkey and from Turkey to Syria, where each of them, using the regular monthly amount of money from the Islamic State, provided logistical services to male family members who were active in the fighting, all the time changing their place of residence depending on the change of Islamic State’s territory, until ISIS suffered a complete defeat when they were forced to surrender to the Kurdish forces who then deported them to Kosovo on May 24, 2019.
With these actions, the defendants M.T., V.T-D., and Sh.T, committed the criminal offense of “Organizing and participating in a terrorist group,” Special Prosecution Office announced.
Zyberaj: We will forward 10,000 pages of evidence of Serbia’s crimes to the Prosecutor’s Office
(Kossev)
The Foreign Ministry’s main objective during Behgjet Pacolli’s tenure was „collecting the evidence of Serbia’s war crimes in Kosovo“, which was documented on as many as 10,000 pages, Pacolli’s advisor, Jetlir Zyberaj announced today.
„Collecting documents and other important materials that show Serbia’s barbarism was a major part of the job. About 10,000 pages of documents and evidence which have not yet been reviewed by the international judiciary have been recovered,“ Zyberaj wrote on Facebook.
According to him, these documents will be submitted to the Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office in the coming days in order to bring „Serbian war criminals to justice“.
„Bearing in mind the limits of our justice system, we will find, together with the prosecution, the right solution to bring these criminals to justice,“ he added.
About 210 families excluded from social assistance, because they worked as commissioners on E-Day
(KTV)
For 11 years, Feime Bullaku from Vushtrri/Vucitrn has been a beneficiary of 120-euro social assistance from the Ministry of Labour and Social Assistance.
However, one-day work as a polling station committee member on the Election Day on 6th October this year, made her to be excluded from the social assistance.
There are about 210 families who stopped receiving social assistance in November, because they worked as polling station committee members on the Election Day, when they were paid only 80 euro.
Adnan Rrustemi, a member of the Central Election Commission (CEC) from Vetëvendosje, thinks it is unjust that the Ministry has considered one-day work contracting as a salary.
On the other hand, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, in a written response, said that those families would continue receiving social assistance in December.
“In November 2019, concordance of data between MLSW and KTA showed that 212 families, namely their members, were found as taxpayers at KTA, with revenues from the Central Election Commission (CEC) in October 2019, and at the same time they were beneficiaries of social assistance in October 2019. Given that the revenues from CEC were one-time payment, in order not to go through the procedures of returning the money gained without legal ground and proceeding the cases to courts, the Division of Social Assistance removed those families from the list of beneficiaries in November 2019, and in cooperation with Centres for Social Work, those families will be again included to social assistance in December 2019,” response of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare says.
The social assistance scheme in Kosovo is regulated by the Law on Social Assistance Scheme.
Article 5 of the Law specifies the criteria for benefiting social assistance, and one of the key criteria is that beneficiaries may not at the same time be in a work relation.
