Albanian Language Media:

• COVID – 19: 11 deaths, 720 new cases (media)
• Over 40,000 pages of material against former KLA leaders (Koha)
• Prosecution: Trial of KLA leaders to start in summer of the next year (RTK)
• Thaci’s lawyer: Starting trial in June is absurd (RTK)
• Veseli’s lawyer criticizes evidence work of the Special Prosecutor (RTK)
• Krasniqi’s and Selimi’s lawyers also complain, request more time for evidence (RTK)
• Emmerson: When evidence comes to light, this indictment will be called ridiculous (RTK)
• Hoxhaj: On the day Albanian mass graves are opening in Serbia, freedom fighters are being tried in The Hague (Express)
• KLA war veterans: session against Thaci and others, clearly political (Telegrafi)
• Balje reacts to Belgrade’s claims that communities are endangered (RTK) 

Serbian Language Media:

• The remains found in the quarry near Raska; Odalovic: We are on the field, awaiting the judge’s move (KoSSev)
• Braun about Biden’s statement on Thaci: Views can be changed (Tanjug, Kosovo Online)
• Enhance the presence of international security forces in Serb areas south of the Ibar, says Petkovic (Kontakt plus radio)
• Attack on a Serb in Kisnica, no injuries sustained (KiM radio, gracanicaonline.info, Kontakt plus radio, KoSSev, RTV Puls)
• YIHR: The glorification of those accused for war crimes is unacceptable always and under any circumstance (KoSSev)
• Vulin uses the derogatory term ”Shiptars” on RTS; Kamberi: Vulin violates Serb laws (KoSSev)
• Darko Tasic’s lawyer: ”My client was beaten in the prison near Podujevo” (Kontakt plus radio)
• CEC member and former Minister, Rikalo appointed Acting Assistant Director of Office for KiM (KoSSev, Kontakt plus radio)
• Ambassador Godfrey: Biden’s administration will work on strengthening relation with Serbia (FoNet, N1)
• EU Ambassador says Serbia’s military neutrality not in question (RFE, N1)
• Serbian FM Selakovic meets UN Belgrade office chief Miculescu (FoNet, N1)

International:

• Bulgaria blocks EU membership talks for North Macedonia (EWB)

Humanitarian/Development:

• Serbian teachers’ unions want schools closed (media)
• Balkans 17/11/2020: 1.430.341 recorded cases, 32.867 deaths (balkaneu.com)

Albanian Language Media 

COVID – 19: 11 deaths, 720 new cases (media)

Kosovo’s National Institute for Public Health said in a statement on Monday that 720 new cases of COVID – 19 and 11 deaths from the virus have been recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. The highest number of new cases is from the municipality of Prishtina (319). 469 patients have recovered from the virus during this time. There are 12,008 active cases of coronavirus in Kosovo.

Over 40,000 pages of material against former KLA leaders (Koha)

In order to confirm the indictment against the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Specialized Prosecution Office in The Hague has relied on 153 witnesses, and intends to rely on the majority of them again during the trial. 

The Prosecution also says that the supporting material for the indictment submitted for confirmation had over 40 thousand pages. 

A status conference will be held at the Specialized Chambers in The Hague on Wednesday in the case of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, former Democratic Party of Kosovo leader Kadri Veseli, former KLA spokesman Jakup Krasniqi and former member of the General Staff of the KLA, Rexhep Selimi.

The indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity has been confirmed against them. All are currently in custody in The Hague and have pleaded not guilty. 

The statutory conference, or conference on the progress of the case is convened by the pre-trial judge and it aims to organize exchanges between the parties. At this conference, the prosecution is expected to show what kind of evidence it has. 

According to a submission of the Specialized Prosecutor sent to the Specialized Chambers for this conference, and published on their website, the prosecution claims that for the confirmation of the indictment it has material of about 43 thousand pages, including reports, witness statements, photographs, and over 20 hours of audio-visual material.

The prosecution says that the defense intends to submit evidence such as reports, photographs, KLA documents, including orders, regulations, etc.

The Rules of Procedure and Evidence before the Specialized Chambers stipulate that the Specialized Prosecutor must notify the defense of any material and evidence in his possession, and at the request of the defense, the Specialized Prosecutor makes available any statement, document, photograph. This must happen within 30 days of the first appearance of the accused in court. However, the prosecutor must provide reasons in case of delays. 

According to the submission of the Prosecution, it provides for the detailed provision of evidence material for the defense until April 30, 2021, and adds that it will be able to provide the full list of witnesses by May 31, 2021, provided that the current proceedings preliminary hearings at the Specialized Chambers to be nearing completion and that at the same time the start of the trial is planned. 

“The prosecution is currently planning to add approximately 50 other witnesses to the list of witnesses for the trial, although the final number of witnesses may vary, depending on the outcome of the remaining investigations,” the memo said.

The Prosecution in the submission states that the editing of the materials is something that needs to be done carefully, and that the translation of the supporting material of the indictment into Albanian is in progress. 

The prosecution accuses Thaci, Veseli, Krasniqi and Selimi of committing war crimes against hundreds of civilians and persons who did not take an active part in the fighting. 

The indictment alleges that from March 1998 to September 1999, Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, Jakup Krasniqi and other members of the “joint criminal enterprise shared the same goal of gaining and exercising control throughout Kosovo by all means, including intimidation, ill-treatment, violence and the elimination of those whom they considered adversaries ”.

The prosecution alleges that the victims were mainly people who during the war were perceived as collaborators of Serbian forces, officials or state institutions or even who did not support the KLA’s intentions.

This, according to the indictment, included persons associated with the Democratic League of Kosovo – LDK and persons of Serbian ethnicity, Roma and other ethnicities.

Prosecution: Trial of KLA leaders to start in summer of the next year (RTK)

The Specialized Chambers in The Hague started the status conference in the case against the former President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, the former leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Kadri Veseli, the former Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo, Jakup Krasniqi, and the former Chief of Vetevendosje Movement Parliamentary Group, Rexhep Selimi. 

The prosecutor said that a number of materials that were confiscated during the raids on the houses of former KLA leaders remained to be investigated. 

“All these extractions of materials will be discussed later. The indictment itself contains detailed allegations about the charges. At this point, and based on the details, some edits need to be made regarding the indictments. We must follow your order for defense measures. In short, the defense has ample information to start investigations immediately. We have informed them about the deadline for the release of materials. From the information that the defense has, the issue is not a surprise for the defense because there is ample material. In the opinion of the SPO, there is no reason for the trial of this case not to start in the summer of 2021,” the prosecutor said. 

The status conference or conference on the progress of the issue aims to organize exchanges between the parties. At this conference, the prosecution is expected to show what kind of evidence it has.

According to a submission of the Specialized Prosecutor sent to the Specialized Chambers for this conference, and published on their website, the prosecution claims that it has available material of about 43 thousand pages, including reports, witness statements, photographs, and over 20 hours of audio-visual material to confirm the indictment. 

Thaci’s lawyer: Starting trial in June is absurd (RTK)

At the status conference being held in The Hague on the case against former KLA leaders, one of the lawyers of former President Thaci, David Hooper, took the floor, saying that the proposal to start the trial in June is absurd, due to the coronavirus situation that the world is currently facing.

Hooper said the trial should start a year later, not next year. 

“In my opinion the prosecution has conducted long investigations over five years and has had available materials that have been put by other investigations that were conducted many years ago. The prosecution has conducted investigations before the coronavirus situation. I think it will take us 18 months before we think about starting a trial. The proposal for the trial to start in June is absurd, this is a complicated matter, it could probably start a year later,” Hooper said. 

Hooper criticised the indictments, saying there were sentences saying on a day without specifying the day or date it occurred.

“A sentence when it says a day without a given date, this is not an adequate format, the material should be open for defence…”, he said among other things.

Veseli’s lawyer criticizes evidence work of the Specialist Prosecutor (RTK)

Kadri Veseli’s lawyer Ben Emmerson, has criticized the Special Court for the very short time given to mobilize defense in the trial of some of the former KLA leaders.

“First of all, regarding the deadlines of the prosecutor’s obligations during the initial phase and the defense investigations, of course the test for this is the insufficient time for mobilization of the defense. A reasonable approach should be undertaken using the fundamental right of Article 6 of the International Covenant on Human Rights. So it takes time for the defense to mobilize in order to conduct an effective investigation,” Emmerson said.

He also criticized the Special Prosecutor’s statements that the defense allegedly knew  in advance about the charges against their clients.

“I was surprised and we were disappointed that the prosecutor requested a written submission before the documents are issued. It is an indication of how sincere the Prosecution is in their approach. The nature of the investigations to be made by the defense are quite large. The indictment of the Prosecution is built as with patches, because many areas of Kosovo have been mentioned, many names of people and various persons who claim to have been part of the KLA have fabricated these accusations.

Emmerson also cast doubt on the genuineness of the evidence presented by the witnesses in this Court.

“There are voices that there may be false evidence that has been presented to the Prosecutor, even though they may not know it. A forensic examination of that evidence is required,” said Emmerson.

Krasniqi’s and Selimi’s lawyers also complain, request more time for evidence (RTK)

Lawyers of the former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders complained today about the way the case against their clients is being conducted in the Specialized Chambers process.

At today’s status conference, Hashim Thaci’s lawyer, David Hooper, and Kadri Veseli’s lawyer, Ben Emmerson, expressed dissatisfaction and expressed disappointment with the investigation process.

Rexhep Selimi’s and Jakup Krasniqi’s lawyers also had such remarks.

“These submissions do not take into account the right of the accused for a fair trial… We must have enough time,” said Rexhep Selimi’s lawyer.

While the lawyer of Jakup Krasniqi, mentioned also the sufficient tools required to analyse the evidence.

“We need enough time and also enough tools,” she said.

Emmerson: When evidence comes to light, this indictment will be called ridiculous (RTK)

Ben Emmerson, lawyer of the former Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo Kadri Veseli, criticized in his speech at the status conference at the Specialized Chambers in The Hague, the statement “criminal enterprise”, referring to the KLA, and noted that when the evidence of the Prosecutor comes to light, the indictment will be called ridiculous. 

“The country was engulfed in chaos and violence, the population was expelled to neighboring countries such as Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro. When the evidence that the prosecution has comes to light, this indictment will be called ridiculous,” he said.

“In this context, some individual crimes may have been committed by some members of the KLA, but these are minor individual crimes, compared to the scale of the massacre that Yugoslavia exercised against Albanians,” he added.

“The leaders who are at the dock today were like all the men and women of Kosovo who decided to join the KLA, with a common goal of protecting themselves and their community,” Emmerson added.

Hoxhaj: On the day Albanian mass graves are opening in Serbia, freedom fighters are being tried in The Hague (Express)

The acting chairman of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Enver Hoxhaj, reacted today after the status conference of the prosecution against former President Thaci, Speaker Veseli, former Speaker Krasniqi and MP Selimi. 

“In The Hague, there is an attempt to rewrite the history of Kosovo, to renegotiate our freedom and to tarnish the just war of the KLA.

On the day when the remains of Albanians, victims of the joint criminal enterprise, are being exhumed in Serbia, the freedom fighters of the joint liberation enterprise are being tried in The Hague!

On the day when the dimensions of the Serbian genocide are being displayed from four meters underground, the freedom fighters are being tried in The Hague! The struggle of the people of Kosovo for freedom cannot be changed. It cannot be judged. It cannot be punished! The war of the people of Kosovo cannot be changed, because it bears the stamp of NATO, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and the western and democratic world. President Thaci, leader Veseli and their comrades-in-arms are representatives of this war, of this freedom and of this independence, which are sacred and cannot be changed by anyone, Hoxhaj wrote.

KLA war veterans: session against Thaci and others clearly political (Telegrafi)

The acting chairman of  the association of Kosovo Liberation Army war veterans, Faton Klinaku, said today’s session of the Special Court against the former leaders of the KLA was purely political.

Klinaku wrote that this court intends to win the case without evidence.

“The clearly political prosecution in The Hague, which intends to win the case without evidence, or only with its pseudo-evidence, is forced to withdraw after the reaction of the defenders who said they would examine all the charges and all witnesses,” Klinaku wrote.

Balje reacts to Belgrade’s claims that communities are endangered (RTK) 

Kosovo Assembly MP Duda Balje reacted after Belgrade’s claims that Serbs and other communities in Kosovo are endangered after the placement of billboards “Freedom has a name”. 

Balje wrote on Facebook that Belgrade should not associate its fear with other non-Albanian communities in Kosovo. 

“We are the ones talking on behalf of the Bosniak community and not Serbian officials who do not even live in Kosovo. We are for coexistence and a joint journey with the Albanian people and other communities in our country. Freedom is for everyone and as such it should not trouble anyone except the peoples who are afraid of freedom,” she said.

Serbian Language Media

The remains found in the quarry near Raska; Odalovic: We are on the field, awaiting the judge’s move (KoSSev)

Human remains were found yesterday in a quarry in Kizevik near Raška – a location that has been the subject of an inspection for the last five years. It is assumed that it could be about the bodies of 15 people from Kosovo who have been searched for since the end of the war. Now follows the continuation of excavations and DNA analysis, reported portal KoSSev. 

President of the Commission for Missing Persons of the Government of Serbia Veljko Odalovic is present at the location which is secured by the Serbian Ministry of Interior. Odalovic confirmed this information to the portal. 

“Yesterday around noon, the remains were found next to pieces of clothing. According to the procedure, we stopped the work immediately, until the next court decision. The War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office has completed its part of the work. Now, the acting judge decides by issuing an order on the dynamics, measures, on who will attend, and we expect this decision in the next day or two,” said Odalovic, adding: “We are on the field now. We will work every day, including weekends, as long as the weather conditions allow. I talked about it with the judge,” he pointed out.

Besides the Serbian Interior Ministry, Odalovic and court representatives, forensics, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Commission on Missing Persons, EULEX, the Kosovo Working Group on Missing Persons, Kosovo forensics and experts are present.

“Our work is transparent, and we are a very competent professional team. As we acted with the location in Rudnica, so we work and with this one, in connection to which the checks of the terrain have been carried out for the last 4-5 years,” he added.

At this moment, Odalovic could not give precise information on how many bodies are at this location, considering that the works, as he repeated, have been temporarily stopped and they will continue as soon as the acting judge specifies the measures and dynamics of the work.

“For now, it is still a question of unidentified persons. Only when the DNA analysis are done, their identity is confirmed,” he said.

Excavations at the Kizevik site began in November 2015, at the initiative of Serbia, and at the previous emphasis of Kosovo officials, writes portal. 

Previously, in June 2014, 47 remains of missing persons from Kosovo were found at another location in Rudnica.

According to the latest data, 1,643 people are still listed as missing from the conflict in Kosovo. One of the points and agreements in Washington, as well as the new phase of negotiations in Brussels, which was launched this summer, is the issue of resolving the fate of missing persons. As Miroslav Lajcak, the EU special envoy for the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, confirmed in his last official visit to Pristina, the chapter of the future “comprehensive agreement on the normalization of relations” on the missing has already been concluded, recalled portal KoSSev. 

As Natasa Kandic from the Humanitarian Law Center announced yesterday, after the bodies of 47 civilians from the villages of Staro Cikatovo and Rezale were found at a nearby location in Rudnica, exactly 15 more civilians are being searched for – 10 from Rezale and 5 from Zabelj and Gladno Selo. In the same announcement, Kandic blamed Dikovic’s 37th Motorized Brigade for their deaths. 

When it comes to locations in Kosovo that are believed to contain the remains of Serbs and non-Albanians, Odalovic also expects progress in the coming period.

“At the last meeting of the working groups, we located some of those places – the Pristina delegation also informed us that they are conducting preparations for exploring some locations,” Odalovic said.

He was not willing to specify exactly which places are in question, noting that experts are now on the move and that the most important interest is the investigation, i.e. the families of the missing in order to find their members.

Braun about Biden’s statement on Thaci: Views can be changed (Tanjug, Kosovo Online)

All previous statements made by US President-elect Joe Biden about Hashim Thaci were made without knowing what is in the investigation or in the charges before the Specialized Chambers and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office, said former State Department and National Security Council official Bertram Broun in an interview for Belgrade based agency Tanjug.

“In diplomacy, we meet different people and say various commemorative things. Views and statements can always change when new information is obtained,” Brown told Tanjug, when asked how he sees Biden’s statement that Thaci is “Kosovo’s George Washington”.

As for the statements of Hashim Thaci and KLA officials in front of the Specialized Chambers and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo that this armed formation created the state of Kosovo together with the USA, NATO and the EU, Brown says that the crimes, for which Thaci and others were charged against, were “committed without knowledge and without any support from the US government.”

“War crimes and crimes against humanity are inadmissible, regardless of the political motivation of the perpetrators,” Brown emphasized.

He points out that the Specialized Chamber and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo were formed during the Obama administration, when Joe Biden was vice president, with the strong political and financial support of the American government.

“The US government, in all recent administrations, has actively supported the investigation, prosecution and punishment of war crimes, regardless of who committed them and where,” Brown pointed out in a written interview with Tanjug, reported portal Kosovo Online.

Enhance the presence of international security forces in Serb areas south of the Ibar, says Petkovic (Kontakt plus radio)

Kontakt plus radio reported that Office for KiM Director, Petar Petkovic said that the attack on Zoran Trajkovic in Kisnica was a confirmation that billboards with the emblem of the former KLA in the central part of Kosovo are not an artistic performance or an expression of reverence for someone, but a naked call for violence. 

Petkovic added that he expects the representatives of the international community in Kosovo to understand this incident as an alarm for an urgent reaction.

“A physical attack by a group of Albanians on Zoran Trajkovic with bottles and stones took place not far from a billboard celebrating KLA crimes. These days, when in the part of Albanian population emotions are high due to the indictment against former KLA commanders, it is necessary to enhance international security presence in Serbian communities south of the Ibar and stand in the way of public popularization of crimes,” Petkovic said, reads the Office for KiM statement. 

Petkovic warned the international community that “the atmosphere in Kosovo and Metohija is quite tense and flammable, and that all necessary preventive measures need to be taken to prevent even more drastic outbursts of violence against Serbs and other non-Albanians”.

Attack on a Serb in Kisnica, no injuries sustained (KiM radio, gracanicaonline.info, Kontakt plus radio, KoSSev, RTV Puls)

Gracanicaonline.info portal reported that last night around 5:30 PM, a group of eight young Albanians attacked Zoran Trajkovic in Kisnica near Gracanica. Trajkovic was not injured, RTV KiM reported.

RTV Kim reported that Trajkovic was attacked by a group of young men when he was leaving his house. They threw stones and beer bottles at him, shouting “KLA”. Trajkovic was not injured in this attack, but he is upset. The case was reported to the police and he gave a statement at the Gracanica Police Station.

This incident happened after a billboard with the KLA symbol was burned. 

Trajkovic says for RTV Kim that he expected a reaction after the ‘KLA’ billboard burning..

“I was expecting a reaction due to this morning’s situation with the burning of the billboard, so I decided to put my car in the yard. I heard the KLA shouting. I got out of the car and told them with the best intentions to go home, I tried to calm the tensions with them. A dozen bottles flew towards me, fortunately I was not injured, because I was covered by a fence,” Trajkovic told RTV KiM.

He states that after a few minutes, the young men left, and he called the police, who carried out an investigation.

“I have no doubt in anyone, I don’t know who the boys are. I think they were from fifteen to eighteen years old and there were about seven or eight of them,” said Trajkovic and added that his family was scared after this incident.

“I am scared because I have a small child, I work. I’m afraid of what will happen when the child goes out into the yard. It is very difficult for me, things like this do not lead anywhere,” says Trajkovic.

Zoran reminds that this is not the first incident in Kisnica, and that there have been more than twenty of them in the past years, and that none of them has been solved.

“I would like this to end if possible,” Trajkovic points out.

Zoran Trajkovic was visited last night by the mayor of Gracanica, Srdjan Popovic. RTV KiM reported that when a group of municipal officials with journalists and cameramen gathered in front of Trajkovic’s house, the KLA shouting was heard from the part of Kisnica inhabited by Albanians. According to RTV KIM, the people who did it, retreated by car deeper into the Albanian part of the village.

The police then arrived and talked to a group of Albanians, who followed what was happening in front of Trajkovic’s house all the time.

Popovic then said that the attack on Zoran Trajkovic, and then the ”KLA” shouting, were proof that they were right when ”they asked for a removal of the billboard with the Albanian inscription ‘Freedom has a name – KLA’ near Serb houses in Kisnica and at the entrance of Gracanica, as it would provoke new provocations and incidents.”

“We had the opportunity while we were here and talked to Trajkovic that individuals provoked and shouted the KLA. The police must do their job and we reacted to that several times and simply said that everyone should do their job. Obviously that someone here does not do the job properly,” Popovic said.

Police withdrew after talking to a group of Albanians.

“And what is most important and what we constantly insist on, that we will always work in a way that the institutions do their job and that each of the institutions in charge must do its job properly. Only in that way can we preserve peace and security and we as the municipality will always be with our citizens,” underlined Popovic.

YIHR: The glorification of those accused for war crimes is unacceptable always and under any circumstance (KoSSev)

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights sees it as a failure of the “Miredita dobar dan” festival that some of its previous participants have partook recently in a campaign aimed at glorifying those convicted of war crimes and exerting pressure on the work of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in the Hague.

“The values that gather artists from Serbia and Kosovo are in direct opposition to the values of the ‘Freedom has a name – KLA’ campaign. The festival’s mission is to connect people through the values of civil society – where there is no room for extreme nationalism; the principles of human rights – where there is no room for ethnic discrimination; and the value of justice – where there is no room for denying accountability for crimes,” YIHR said.

Still, the initiation noted, the “Miredita, dobar dan” festival does not take place in a vacuum, but in the Balkans, a place where nationalism, ethnic discrimination and hatred are deeply rooted.”

“We will always fight against that – but there is no guarantee that we will prevail.”

YIHR recalled that the recently held festival in Belgrade sent out a clear message of support for the work of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in the Hague.

“We see in these bodies a chance to determine the truth, have those responsible for crimes held accountable and prosecuted, and achieve justice for the victims who have been practically invisible to judicial systems for the past two decades,” the initiative concluded.

On the day Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli announced that the indictment issued against them by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office for KLA War Crimes had been confirmed, a group of Kosovo artists and intellectuals, two of whom participated in the Belgrade-based Merdita/Dobar dan festival, created a campaign ‘Freedom has a name – KLA.’ The campaign slogan can be seen on billboards throughout Kosovo, as well as on social networks and TV stations.

Over the weekend, one such billboard located on the highway in Gracanica caught the public eye due to the negative reaction it stirred among the Kosovo Serb community – which interpreted it as a provocation. The media have since reported that unknown perpetrators have reportedly set the same billboard on fire early this morning.

See at: https://bit.ly/2K8J7Uv

Vulin uses the derogatory term ”Shiptars” on RTS; Kamberi: Vulin violates Serb laws (KoSSev)

The Serbian Minister of Interior, Aleksandar Vulin does not respect the laws of the state or its official terminology, nor does he show concern over the reactions his hate speech could create in diverse environments inhabited by Serbs and Albanians – United Valley MP in the Serbian Parliament, Shaip Kamberi said after the new Serbian Minister of the Interior once again referred to Albanians as ”Shiptars”.

Vulin used the derogatory term this morning during a guest appearance on the Serbian public service broadcaster. He used the term two times – and both times the RTS presenter did not react in any way.

”Vulin continues to use the pejorative term ‘Shiptars’ for Albanians. The problem is not that I, as a citizen of Serbia of Albanian ethnicity, feel offended because you cannot be offended by someone who does not have dignity. The problem is that Aleksandar Vulin does not respect the Republic of Serbia and its laws. We remind Mr. Vulin that the official name ‘Albanians’ is used in all laws of the Republic of Serbia,” Shaip Kamberi wrote in a Facebook post.

Kamberi added that Vulin thus symbolically showed ”where Serbia is at”.

He recalled that such language not only represents hate speech but also that it could lead to consequences in ethnically diverse areas.

”Of course, Mr. Vulin is not interested in the fate of Slavica or Dragan who live in areas together with Albanians. He uses them only for his power, while he plays the role of a Greater Serbian patriot from luxury restaurants in Belgrade,” he concluded.

Aleksandar Vulin used the same offensive term to refer to Albanians during the time he held the post of the Minister of Defense, even though, according to a final judgment of the High Court in Serbia, the term is ”politically incorrect and offensive”.

See at: https://bit.ly/2IDE9Pv

Darko Tasic’s lawyer: ”My client was beaten in the prison near Podujevo” (Kontakt plus radio)

Darko Tasic from Mala Krusa, against whom a trial is being conducted in Prizren, was beaten in the high security prison in Grdovac near Podujevo, and was left unconscious from the blows, his lawyer Ljubomir Pantovic told RTS, reported Kontakt plus radio.

Pantovic states that yesterday during the handover, between the police officers who were transporting and the prison guards near Podujevo, Tasic received several blows to the head. He added that Tasic told him about the attack over the phone after returning to prison from the session of the Appellate Panel, at which the defense’s appeal against the first-instance verdict for the allegedly committed war crime was considered, reported Kontakt plus radio.

“Darko told me that in the room, where the members of the police in charge of transporting hand over the prisoners to the prison guards, he received several blows to the back of the head from someone while being handcuffed, from which in a moment he lost consciousness,” Pantovic said.

“When he regained consciousness, he saw that his lip was also bleeding,” Pantovic added.

He says that his client Tasic does not know and cannot recognize the person who hit him, because everyone in the group had masks, and he was hit from behind.

Tasic reported the attack to the management of the guard service, and his defense attorney Pantovic will soon ask the director of the Grdovac prison to investigate the case and take measures against the persons who committed the attack.

Kontakt plus radio recalled that Tasic was being tried in the Basic Court in Prizren for a war crime in the village of Mala Krusa. He has been in custody since November 22, 2017 and was sentenced to 22 years in prison at the end of June this year.

Pantovic stated that according to the existing legal system in Kosovo, the maximum sentence for a war crime was 15 years in prison, reported Kontakt plus radio.

CEC member and former Minister, Rikalo appointed Acting Assistant Director of Office for KiM (KoSSev, Kontakt plus radio)

Former Minister in the Kosovo government Nenad Rikalo was appointed Acting Assistant Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, it was confirmed to Tanjug in the Government of Serbia. 

Rikalo was appointed to that position at the government session on November 12, and he will perform the duty of Assistant in the Sector for Support of Economy, Agriculture and Rural Development. 

Rikalo was the former Minister of Agriculture in the Kosovo government and the current member of Kosovo Central Election Commission.

Portal KoSSev recalled that the then Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj dismissed Rikalo in early February last year. In late December 2018, the Indeksonline portal reported that the Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment against Rikalo for the criminal offense of ”abuse of office or authority ”.

Kosovo media also published numerous articles about suspicions of illegal actions of this Srpska Lista official. At the trial held in March, Rikalo pleaded not guilty, Pristina-based Koha reported at the time.

Despite the indictment filed against him, at Srpska Lista’s proposal, Rikalo was re-elected as a member of the Kosovo Central Election Commission at the beginning of the year.

With the arrival of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in power in Serbia, Nenad Rikalo was appointed a member of the CEC in Pristina, after which he became a minister in Pristina.

On the same day, the Government made another personnel change in the Kosovo Office by replacing Sladjana Markovic Stojanovic, who held the post of the assistant director for the sector for return, social issues, and human rights, with Svetlana Miladinov, reported KoSSev. 

Ambassador Godfrey: Biden’s administration will work on strengthening relation with Serbia (FoNet, N1)

The US ambassador to Serbia Antony Godfrey said late on Tuesday that Washington did not want to restrain Belgrade, but wanted the country to achieve its strategic goals, adding the administration of the President-elect Joseph Biden would have the same approach.

Godfrey said that such goals went beyond party politics and that progress was made in the US and Serbia cooperation. “The future is bright,” Godfrey told the international conference’ Belgrade NATO week – That’s Us.’

“We’re ready to strengthen the cooperation with Serbia to empower it as an exporter of security,” in the region, Godfrey said.

Lieutenant General Benjamin Hodges, former US troops commander in Europe, said that 80 percent of people in Serbia believed in “false story that the use of ammunition with depleted uranium” during the NATO’s 1999 bombing of Serbia caused a cancer epidemic and that Serbia had the largest number of breast cancer cases in Europe.

“If that were true, everyone in the air force would have been sick with cancer. The continuation of such a narrative undermines the Alliance as Belgrade’s partner, and is supported by those who don’t care about the future,” Hodges said.

He added that no one could have anything against Serbia’s economic cooperation with China. If the West is not competitive, China will fill in the gap.

Jelena Milic, the Director of the Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies, said all the problems in the Balkans were solved when the US got involved.

“The European Union’s decision-making process is so complicated that I’m losing confidence in the European integration process,” she told the conference, adding the campaign of disinformation about NATO should stop. The murder of the US citizens – Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bytyqi – in police base in (Kosovo’s) Petrovo Selo in 1999 should be solved.”

See at: https://bit.ly/2IKgI6L

EU Ambassador says Serbia’s military neutrality not in question (RFE, N1)

The European Union’s Ambassador in Serbia Sem Fabrizi said on Tuesday that the Union is not questioning the country’s military neutrality but added that political neutrality is something completely different.

Serbia is on the European path and should align with the policies of the EU, which is not politically neutral, Radio Free Europe quoted him as saying at the online Belgrade NATO Week conference.  

Fabrizi said that Serbia is free to decide who to join but if it wants into the EU it should have the same foreign policy. According to him, Brussels and Belgrade have identical interests. He added that Serbia is the first non-EU country to contribute to the Union’s security mechanism by deploying personnel in military missions and peace operations.

See at: https://bit.ly/3pB3QRc

Serbian FM Selakovic meets UN Belgrade office chief Miculescu (FoNet, N1)

Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic told the head of the UN office in Belgrade Simona-Mirela Miculescu that the UN is important because of its role in protecting Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo.

A ministry press release quoted him as saying that the role of UNESCO in protecting that heritage is huge. Selakovic stressed the importance of UNMIK and its continued presence in Kosovo to create conditions for a normal and dignified life for Serbs and other non-Albanians. According to the Foreign Minister, UNMIK should remain engaged in consistently implementing UN Security Council resolution 1244 with an unchanged mandate.  

He said that it’s important for the UN Security Council to continuously discuss the Kosovo issue and hear the Secretary General’s reports on the situation there in order to be regularly and transparently informed, especially about the position of Serbs and other non-Albanians, the rule of law, human rights and the protection of cultural and religious heritage.

See at: https://bit.ly/36OSj86

International

Bulgaria blocks EU membership talks for North Macedonia (EWB)

BRUSSELS – Bulgaria refused to approve the EU’s negotiating framework for North Macedonia, thus blocking the official start of Skopje’s accession talks with the EU on Tuesday, FoNet reports.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zakharieva said that Sofia could not support the start of long-delayed EU-Skopje accession talks for now due to open disputes over history and language.

“Bulgaria cannot support the draft negotiating framework with North Macedonia and the holding of the first intergovernmental conference at this stage,” Zakharieva said after EU ministers discussed the issue at an online meeting.

See more at: https://bit.ly/2UH5fas

Humanitarian/Development

Serbian teachers’ unions want schools closed (media)

Three Serbian teachers’ unions called for the closure of schools because of a high number of infected students and teachers.

The Education Union, Education Workers’ Union and Nezavisnost Union warned that the number of infected school children quoted by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic is much lower than the figures reported to them by teachers across the country. Brnabic said less than 100 elementary and high school children have tested positive for the coronavirus, adding that schools will not be closed because they are the safest place for children.  

The unions said that the students who display symptoms are not being tested but are being isolated and their numbers are not in official reports. They added that a large number of teachers are also infected. “If we consider that every school has an average of three infected and that there are 1,750 schools, the number of cases is around 5,000,” the press release said.  

See at: https://bit.ly/3nFHX1v

Balkans 17/11/2020: 1.430.341 recorded cases, 32.867 deaths (balkaneu.com)

Worldwide on November 17 there were 55,773,946 recorded cases, 1,339,648 deaths and 38,848,998 recoveries.

In the Balkan countries covered by the Independent Balkan News Agency IBNA there were 30,817 new cases and total 1,430,341 recorded cases, 735 new deaths and total 32,867 deaths and 910,391 recoveries.

See more at: https://bit.ly/3pDzwW7