- No more meetings between VV and LDK, President holding them hostage (KTV)
- Vraniqi: VV hasn’t supported or opposed any nominee for President (RTKLive)
- Veseli holds Presidency meeting on Wednesday regarding constitutive session (RTKLive)
- Minister Shala physically assaults IndeksOnline journalist (RTK)
- With few justifications, outgoing Government allocates millions from state budget (KTV)
- Pacolli submitted war crime dossiers to Prosecution Office (RTKLive)
- Indictment against Kujtim Gashi filed for abusing official position (KTV)
- Lipljan Orthodox Cemetery targeted by vandals once again, Kosovo police have no information about the perpetrators? (Kossev)
News
No more meetings between VV and LDK, President holding them hostage
(KTV)
Intensification of meetings between Vetëvendosje Movement (VV) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) in reaching a co-government agreement has remained only a statement of officials of these two parties.
Furthermore, leaders of the parties have not met since Saturday, a meeting that had not yielded any results.
Even presently, LDK officials have said that they have no confirmation as to when the next meeting between Vetëvendosje chairman Albin Kurti and Isa Mustafa may take place
Vetëvendosje Movement, on the other hand, says they are coming across rigid positions by the LDK.
“There is no new development. The Movement is very interested in coalition, but are coming across rigid positions from the other side,” Vetëvendosje’s response briefly reads.
Although not with the Vetëvendosje chairman Albin Kurti, LDK has announced another meeting for Wednesday.
The progress of talks on coalition is the key topic of LDK General Council’s meeting.
Isa Mustafa, on Monday, also informed heads of LDK branches about his meetings with Vetëvendosje.
After this meeting, he said that they did not want either party to be more powerful than the other, insisting that LDK should have the President’s post.
Vraniqi: VV hasn’t supported or opposed any nominee for President
(RTKLive)
Erzen Vraniqi, an official of Vetëvendosje (VV), in a Facebook post reacted about the President’s post.
Vraniqi says that misinformation must be stopped, given that VV and Kurti has never proposed, preferred, supported or opposed any name for the President.
He said that this topic was never discussed in the VV structures, adding that the stance of VV remains that government needs to be formed as soon as possible, while the President will be discussed in due time.
Veseli holds Presidency meeting on Wednesday regarding constitutive session
(RTKLive)
The outgoing Speaker Kadri Veseli has called the meeting of Assembly Presidency on Wednesday.
According to a press release, the meeting will be held at 11:00hrs, and the topic of the agenda is preparations for the constitutive session of Assembly scheduled for December 26th.
Minister Shala physically assaults IndeksOnline journalist
(RTK)
Endrit Shala, Minister of Trade and Industry, physically hit journalist of Indeksonline portal Ensar Ramadani, IndeksOnline reported.
“As our journalist was on duty, with his official work badge displayed, Endrit Shala hit him on the face without any reason,” RTKLive quoted Indeksonline as reporting.
Ensar Ramadani was at Kosovo University Clinical Centre, closely following health condition of the other Nisma official, Luan Maloku. Endrit Shala arrived there, and asked for journalist Ramadani to hand him his phone. Being aware that Minister Shala is not a police officer, our journalist did not hand him his phone, while Shala assaulted him physically by hitting him on the face.
Moreover, the physical assault occurred at the presence of the Police, who did not react at all, but only told the journalist to leave.
Ensar Ramadani immediately went to the nearest police station, where he reported the case. In addition, the journalist is in possession of the recording where he was assaulted by a person who calls himself a Minister. Besides that, the assault was also recorded by the KUCC surveillance cameras.
Today, Endrit Shala did not hit Ensar Ramadani; rather, he hit fair reporting, he hit all the media, he hit democracy and freedom of work,” IndeksOnline writes.
During 2019, at least 17 journalists in Kosovo suffered physical assaults, were threatened or impeded while performing their duties. This is how Koha.net portal quoted the leaders of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo as stating to Radio Free Europe.
According to the Association, a pressure free work environment for journalists in Kosovo remains inadequate.
Later in the evening, RTKLive reported that the Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AGK) strongly condemned the assault against journalist of IndeksOnline, Ensar Ramadani, by the Acting Minister of Trade and Industry, Endrit Shala.
AGK has received the Kosovo Police statement regarding the incident, according to which, the journalist is currently being questioned at the South Station, and that police units are dealing with the case.
“AGK strongly condemns the physical assault by the Minister of Trade and Industry Endrit Shala against journalist Ensar Ramadani.
AGK condemns this assault, as well as any other physical and verbal assault conducted by politicians and institution leaders, and calls on the Police, Prosecution Office and the entire justice system to deal with cases of journalists with priority.
At the same time, AGK encourages fellow journalists to continue performing their duty responsibly, and not to give up before any assault or intimidation,” AGK wrote.
With few justifications, outgoing Government allocates millions from state budget
(KTV)
Five months after his resignation, Ramush Haradinaj on Tuesday chaired another meeting of the Government.
At the meeting, the Government initially allocated 2 million euro for the Kosovo Police, and then another 390,000 for the war-emerged organisations.
Prime Minister Haradinaj said he did not know the details of those allocations.
But later on, the Government explained in a press release that at the meeting on Tuesday, over 2 million and 850,000 euro was allocated for various purposes.
Over 2 million euro was allocated for extra salaries and overtime for the Police members.
For erecting statue of Senator Robert Doll, 12, 725.12 euro was allocated.
For covering medical treatment expenses for Kosovo Security Force sergeant Petrit Hasanaj, caretaker Government allocated 12,000 euro.
The Government allocated 70,000 euro to cover needs of the National Coordinator for Culture, Youth and Sport, Rexhep Hoti, and it was decided to transfer 350,000 euro from the reserve fund to the budget of the Prime Minister’s Office.
These are not the first millions that Ramush Haradinaj has allocated since he resigned his post as Prime Minister.
In November, he allocated 70,000 euro for Sami Lushtaku and three others summoned by the Specialist Chambers, while 20,000 euro was allocated for reconstruction of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Economic experts do not deem those decisions appropriate.
Naim Gashi says that allocating such amounts affects the state budget.
According to the Kosovo Law Institute (KLI), these and other decisions should have not been taken.
Ehat Miftaraj of KLI says he expects from the next government to revise all those decisions.
At the meeting on Tuesday, the caretaker Government also adopted Draft Regulation on Regulating Salaries, extra salaries and other compensations for all members of the Ministry of Defence and KSF, as well as other decisions.
Pacolli submitted war crime dossiers to Prosecution Office
(RTKLive)
Jetlir Zyberaj, advisor to the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Behgjet Pacolli, has announced that on Tuesday Pacolli transferred to the Kosovo Prosecutor’s Office the dossiers on war crimes and Serbian genocide against Albanians in Kosovo.
“These dossiers present facts and prove that Serbia had a genocidal orchestrated state policy against Kosovo which was on the ground implemented by the Yugoslav Army, MUP, Belgrade-controlled paramilitary groups and other local Serb armed groups that carried out the ethnic cleansing and mass killings,” Zyberi wrote.
Indictment against Kujtim Gashi filed for abusing official position
(KTV)
The Basic Prosecution Office in Prizren has filed an indictment against Acting Minister of Culture Kujtim Gashi, under suspicion of committing the criminal offence Abusing Official Position or Authority.
According to the indictment, during 2015-2016, in the capacity of the Prizren Municipal Assembly President, using his official position, Gashi exceeded his powers by abusing public property with the purpose of benefit for other legal persons, such as TV Besa and TV Opinion.
“The accused K.G., without any bidding procedure, signed contracts for broadcasting and rebroadcasting sessions of the Municipal Assembly in Prizren, with TV Besa 250 euro per session, while the equipment for those services were authorised in 2016, which cost 1750 euro. In addition, he signed a contract with TV Opinion for 400 euro for broadcasting sessions, while the equipment was authorised during 2015 and 2016, and it cost 6700 euro. The total amount paid to those two television stations was 8.450 euro, in contradiction with the Law on Public Procurement,” the statement says.
Lipljan Orthodox Cemetery targeted by vandals once again, Kosovo police have no information about the perpetrators?
(Kossev)
The Lipljan Orthodox Cemetery has been desecrated once again. Unknown persons destroyed and damaged nine tombstones during the past week, locals discovered during a funeral service yesterday. While Belgrade officials condemn the desecration, Kosovo police have no information on the perpetrators.
„When we went to the funeral, we saw two broken plaques and a tombstone next to there grave where our fellow citizen was buried,“ Jovica Miric, a resident of Lipljan, told KoSSev.
The residents, however, later discovered that a total of 9 tombstones had been broken in the most recent desecration of this Orthodox cemetery.
Similar incidents occurred in the past. On the night of July 12-13th, a total of 20 tombstones were broken, while the same thing happened exactly one year prior to the most recent incident, Miric confirmed for KoSSev.
„On December 15th last year, one (tombstone) was broken and two were damaged. And in exactly one year, a total of 32 were damaged,” he said.
The residents of Lipljan reported the incident to the police who came to the scene.
Miric, however, said that it is unlikely that the perpetrators of this crime will be found, because the “perpetrators of the previous two desecrations of this cemetery have still not been found.”
KoSSev contacted Kosovo Police spokesperson, Baki Kelani regarding this incident. When asked whether the Kosovo police know who the perpetrators are, Kelani directed us to the Kosovo police daily report sent to the media this morning, adding that everything the police know about this case is available in the report.
However, the police report only confirms that the cemetery in Lipljan was desecrated, that police came to the scene and that the case is being investigated.
While Kosovo officials often point out that Kosovo is an example of religious coexistence and tolerance, the destruction of primarily Orthodox tombstones, but also the tombstones in the cemeteries of other communities, is still taking place even today. The Orthodox cemetery in Lipljan has been repeatedly targeted by vandals ever since the international community took over the jurisdiction in Kosovo.
The head of the Kosovo Office, Marko Djuric condemned the latest desecration of the tombstones in Lipljan, as well as the previous one that took place in July. Djuric stressed that Serbian cemeteries have been „systematically demolished and desecrated“ over the past two decades, and that „these bouts of hatred towards the dead are treated as a minor offense and a violation of law and order.“
The outgoing Kosovo Minister of Local Government Administration, Adriana Hodzic also condemned the desecration.
In addition to the Kosovo Office, the Eparchy of Raska-Prizren, UNMIK and the OSCE Mission to Kosovo also condemned the July demolition of the tombstones.
