• COVID-19: 561 new cases, 11 deaths (media)
• BIRN exposes lack of security at COVID-19 clinics (Prishtina Insight)
• Mustafa says healthcare staff needs to be treated with more respect (media)
• SHSKUK refutes BIRN report on COVID-19 (Kallxo)
• Delegations from Kosovo and Serbia to meet in Brussels today (media)
• Hoti: No date when political roundtable will take place (EO/Koha)
• Mustafa: Our goal is not to take the post of Kosovo president (T7/Kallxo)
• Haziri: President’s name goes through LDK offices (media)
• Hoxhaj: President to be decided through parliamentary cooperation (Klan)
• LVV vows to sue Serbia for genocide at ICJ (media)
• Gucati’s appeal rejected at the Specialist Chambers (media)

COVID-19: 561 new cases, 11 deaths (media)

561 new cases of COVID-19 and 17 deaths from the virus were recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo, said the National Institute for Public Health. 884 patients have recovered from the virus during this time.

There are 13,840 active cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo.

BIRN exposes lack of security at COVID-19 clinics (Prishtina Insight)

On Tuesday evening, BIRN Kosovo Director Jeta Xharra and a camera crew visited the Infectious Disease Clinic in Prishtina, where dozens of COVID-19 patients are being treated, to see if it was possible to gain access.

In an interview with BIRN on November 16, Minister of Health Armend Zemaj stated that there was “no chance” that anyone that had not tested positive for COVID-19 could enter the Clinic. The minister added that the Kosovo Police had been deployed and were operating a zero tolerance policy regarding entry.

However, Xharra and the camera crew, none of whom had authorisation, encountered no police and were easily able to enter multiple clinics treating patients with COVID-19 at the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo, including the Infectious Disease Clinic, where there were no security guards stationed outside.

There, BIRN discovered many rooms filled with visitors, some of whom told BIRN that they had not tested positive for the coronavirus. Some rooms even contained relatives asleep next to the patients.

See more at: https://bit.ly/2W0GE1e

Mustafa says healthcare staff needs to be treated with more respect (media)

Leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Isa Mustafa took to Facebook after BIRN published a report saying that unauthorised access to the facilities where COVID-19 patients were treated in Pristina was unobstructed and that the rooms of patients were filled with visitors. Mustafa said that patients treated for COVID-19 in Pristina and regional hospitals speak well about the work the healthcare staff are doing and that it is ‘a miracle’ that in the absence of facilities and human resources, the influx of patients is managed.

“When you speak to our doctors, they say they have had no private life for nine months. They have no time to take care of their own families. It is therefore low for someone from the media and the politics to try to undermine this titanic work. They have no moral right either because some of them receive several-time higher salaries than the doctors, live freely, far from the responsibilities for the sick and their families and dare to sow defeatism, in the name of free speech.”

SHSKUK refutes BIRN report on COVID-19 (Kallxo)

The Hospital and University Clinical Service of Kosovo (SHSKUK) has issued a rebuttal to the BIRN report about the treatment of COVID-19 patients at the Infectious Disease Clinic in Pristina saying that reporting team entered the institution without prior permission and without personal protective equipment, thus endangering their health and of persons whom they had contact with and hindering the work of the healthcare staff.

Furthermore, SHSKUK said, selective interview of patients and family members who only presented negative aspects cannot damage the overall image of the institution and of the staff. “Groundless allegations against health personnel were used during the show, abusing the emotional state of the escorts who lost their relatives in the fight against Covid-19.”

“Our institution was not given the opportunity to present the official version on all the issues raised, which is a principle of professional journalism,” SHSKUK concluded.

Delegations from Kosovo and Serbia to meet in Brussels today (media)

Experts from Kosovo and Serbia are scheduled to meet in Brussels today as part of the dialogue facilitated by the European Union. The talks are expected to begin with separate meetings between each delegation and the EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak followed by a tripartite meeting.

Kosovo officials have said the meeting will focus on financial claims while the Serbian side has said it will insist on tackling the issue of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities.

Hoti: No date when political roundtable will take place (EO/Koha)

Prime Minister of Kosovo Avdullah Hoti did not offer a date as to when a roundtable of political parties set to discuss the post of Kosovo president will take place and added that this is something that the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Isa Mustafa is dealing with.

Hoti reiterated that if there is no readiness to resolve the issue of the next president, elections remain the only alternative.

“If there is readiness, we will have to sit down and discuss what approach to follow. We have heard in the media different proposals from some of the political parties but we need to sit at the roundtable of parliamentary political parties to answer the fundamental question,” Hoti said yesterday after a visit to the Kosovo’s Olympic Committee.

He added that if this readiness exists, they will then set the criteria to determine a concrete name for the post. “If there is no readiness we need to agree on election date.”

Mustafa: Our goal is not to take the post of Kosovo president (T7/Kallxo)

Leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Isa Mustafa told T7 that the party is not interested in taking on the post of the president since they already have that of Kosovo prime minister. He also noted that the election of a new president should take place within the constitutionally-set timeframe, namely by January of 2021.

“We have plenty of candidates because at the Democratic League there are many who would perform this job with great responsibility… However, we have declared we are ready to agree to a solution whereby the LDK would remain at the head of the government. We will not seek two posts, both the prime minister and the president. Our insistence on the president would make a solution difficult.”

Haziri: President’s name goes through LDK offices (media)

Deputy leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Lutfi Haziri commented on the post of president of Kosovo saying that the name of the person who will get elected to the post will have to have the endorsement of the LDK.

“This is not the time of ultimatums. Or conditionings. It is time for internal dialogue about the President, for constructiveness. The name of the president goes through the LDK offices,” he wrote on Facebook.

Hoxhaj: President to be decided through parliamentary cooperation (Klan)

Acting leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Enver Hoxhaj said that they would attend a political roundtable to discuss the post of Kosovo president if the event is organised by the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Isa Mustafa and not Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti. He said the president’s post is not something that ought to be discussed by the Government but rather, the Assembly.

In an interview with Klan Kosova, Hoxhaj said: “I don’t think the PDK would go to a meeting called by Avdullah Hoti. The election of the president is a topic of political parties represented at the Assembly. Leaders of political parties need to meet, determine the representation formula, principles on how such a meeting should take place and above all, there needs to be communication on what the expectations are.”

He said the former PDK leader, Kadri Veseli, did not promise the leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj support for taking on the post of president. “If there had been such a promise, we would not have this topic at all. It would have been a done deal because the decisions that Kadri Veseli or Hashim Thaci made in the past, we as PDK MPs never questioned.”

Hoxhaj said the PDK would not vote for any candidate put forward by ruling coalition parties. “We think the President should be elected at a political party table through a parliamentary cooperation, through a spirit of communication. We think the major issue Kosovo has in 2020 is not who will be president but what the president should be like at a time when Kosovo has been given a blow by the Specialist Chambers and many other issues are at the table.”

Hoxhaj said the PDK has no red lines against any political party and commented on the no-confidence motion launched by the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) calling it ‘not serious’. “The reason why the country is not heading to elections has not much to do with PDK because we are not keeping Kosovo hostage but with the fact that as we’ve seen Vetevendosje does not want to put this motion forward. This motion is more of a bluff. LVV is afraid of governing and knows not how to govern and this is why they talk about the motion but don’t act.”

At the same time, Hoxhaj said that a possible coalition between the LVV and the AAK would be ‘natural’. “LVV and AAK had a coalition of Molotov cocktails and we have seen this play out in the Assembly. To this day, this violence at the Assembly, out at the streets, has caused us visa liberalisation.”

LVV vows to sue Serbia for genocide at ICJ (media)

On the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime, the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) issued a statement saying that once it gets to power, it will sue Serbia for genocide in Kosovo.

“Over 13,000 civilians killed, 1,643 still unaccounted for, 20,000 women raped, more than 1 million people forcibly expelled from their homes are all figures that have led many researchers declare this is the second gravest genocide after Nazism. We do not forget and nor will be remain passive waiting for Serbia one day to recognise its criminal past and apologise. The priority of our new Government will be suing Serbia for genocide with the International Court of Justice,” the party said.

In marking the occasion, yesterday Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Acting President Vjosa Osmani called on Serbia to apologise for the crimes committed in Kosovo. Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti at the same time called on the international community to increase pressure on the Serbian Government to renounce what he said were aggressor policies towards Kosovo and bring justice by convicting political and military officials responsible for crimes in Kosovo.

Gucati’s appeal rejected at the Specialist Chambers (media)

The Panel of the Court of Appeals Chamber of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers has rejected in entirety the appeal filed by Hysni Gucati against the Single Judge’s decisions in relation to the legality of his arrest and application for bail.

“Although the Panel found that the arrest warrant was incorrectly based on Article 39(3) of the Law that pertains to the powers of the Pre-Trial Judge acting upon the filing of an indictment, for the reasons developed in the decision, it considered nevertheless that the Specialist Chambers’ legal framework confirms that the Single Judge had the power to issue an arrest warrant before the filing of an indictment,” KSC said in a statement.

The Court of Appeals Panel further found that provisional release decisions are discretionary and that the Single Judge did not abuse his discretion in addressing the conditions proposed by Gucati in support of his application for bail.