Albanian Language Media:

• Kurti talks about meeting Serbian President Vucic on August 18 (media)
• Kurti: Option of producing neutral licence plates is out of the question (media)
• Haradinaj: Fruitful discussion with Escobar (media)
• Sources: Escobar, opposition talked flexible implementation of reciprocity and final settlement (Klan Kosova)
• What was discussed and what Escobar requested in meeting with opposition (Express)
• Haliti: Kosovo must focus on Escobar’s message (RTK)
• “The Prime Minister should have reported earlier about the dialogue” (Nacionale)
• Mustafi: No reason for Serbs in Kosovo to have greater rights than Albanians in Serbia (Kosovapress)
• COVID-19: 363 new cases, no deaths (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• Councillors in Zvecan adopted 6 conclusions, the first supporting Vucic to find a solution (KoSSev)
• Lajcak for the BBC in Serbian: Vucic and Kurti meeting in Brussels was not in vain (media)
• US Ambassador: “Washington wants Serbia, Kosovo in normal relationship” (N1)
• Vulin’s reply to Ambassador Hill: Perhaps Hill can remove me from the Government, but not the ideas of an independent Serbia (media)
• Djilas: Recognition of Kosovo cannot be a topic of any conversation (KoSSev, Nova.rs, N1)
• Selakovic receives new UNDP resident representative (Tanjug)

Opinion:

• War mongering and race baiting (Kosovo 2.0)

Humanitarian/Development:

• Srdan Keca: Suffering of Roma isn’t part of collective consciousness (Kosovo 2.0)

Albanian Language Media  

Kurti talks about meeting Serbian President Vucic on August 18 (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti at the start of the government meeting today talked about his meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on August 18. He said he did not make any statement about the meeting earlier because there was an internal agreement. “I did not make any statement after the August 18 meeting because of an internal agreement not to comment and not to further aggravate the situation due to concerns that this could have a negative impact on the course of the dialogue, but not everyone respected the agreement,” he said.

According to Kurti, the Serbian side is escalating its rhetoric and actions in the security area, by threatening Kosovo’s national security and security in the region. “I am deeply convinced that the Serbian side unnecessarily and artificially is escalating its rhetoric and actions in the security area, alongside with continuous threats against the citizens of Kosovo, and that this constitutes a direct threat against national security and security in the region. I believe these threats are aimed at creating an unjust advantage in the negotiations, by threatening the EU, the U.S. or UK with tensions in the future,” he said.

Kurti said the first point of the meeting in Brussels were the elements of a general framework of the agreement for the full normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. “We elaborated six chapters. The first chapter clearly defined the status of bilateral relations between the two countries and the international context, which implies on the one hand mutual recognition and on the other hand our path toward full membership in international organisations. The second chapter talks about dealing with the past and this includes forcefully disappeared persons, victims of sexual violence, missing persons, transitional justice, material and non-material damages during the war, the return of public documents and archaeological and ethnological artefacts. After we fully deal with the past we can talk about the future and establish cooperation between the two countries. After fully dealing with the past, we can talk about steps for the future,” he said. “In chapter four, we offered equal treatment for the respective minorities, Serbs in Kosovo, and Albanians in Serbia. In chapter five we need to look into the agreements reached so far, but not with the idea of renegotiating them, as the other party has misinformed, but to see which of the agreements will be overcome with the signing of a legally-binding agreement and which agreements will be continued to be implemented. The last chapter has to do with establishing mechanisms for the implementation of agreements and for resolving any eventual disagreements during the implementation. We expected that the first point of the agenda would take up most of the time, and this is why we were ready to stay there longer than Thursday”.

According to Kurti, there was no positive contribution from the Serbian side to his elaboration of the six chapters. “We need to talk about the framework of the legally binding agreement, and not about crisis management with small steps and eventual and potential security problems. I was there as Prime Minister of Kosovo, not as a police officer, or customs officer, or prosecutor, judge, or head of the cadaster. I went there as Prime Minister,” he argued.

Kurti further claimed that the Serbian side was not willing to sign an agreement on forcefully disappeared persons. 

Kurti said that EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak made four proposals for the agreement on freedom of movement. “Statements that there was readiness and proposals only from one party are not true. We were open for discussions, but the other side left the building. We are interested in the freedom of movement … There should be a mutual recognition of ID cards and drivers’ licences. We gave the idea for all documents to be recognised,” he said.

Kurti said that when mutual recognition is concerned, reciprocity is the spirit. “We are not negotiating the freedom of movement between Kosovo and Serbia, but we are only implementing elements that Serbia agreed upon in July 2011 and in September 2016. They want only for them to implement the agreement, and not us. Kosovo cannot make decisions that question its independence. The country’s independence means that we cannot have a different order for one part of the territory.”

Kurti said Kosovo authorities will implement reciprocity measures for Serbian nationals and issue entry/exit documents at border crossings. 

Commenting on threats that Serbs could leave Kosovo institutions, Kurti said “this is a domination of narratives of criminals like Milan Radoicic and not those who view integration as the primary option”. “I strongly believe that the representatives of Serb citizens should not represent and promote the narratives of individuals that promoted and continue to promote organised crime and who have been included in the U.S. black list,” he said.

Kurti: Option of producing neutral licence plates is out of the question (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti told a press conference after today’s government meeting that “an asymmetrical dialogue where Kosovo was seen as a topic and not as a party no longer happens in Brussels”. “There has been a tectonic change, for the better,” he said.

Kurti said he will see in his meeting today with U.S. envoy Escobar and EU Special Representative Lajcak if there are other options on the issue of reciprocity measures toward Serbia. “Options when Kosovo must produce neutral licence plates for itself are out of the question. With me as Prime Minister and with this democratic government after the elections in February last year, there can be no status-neutral production in the Republic of Kosovo. RKS are Kosovo’s licence plates, and this is in line even with Belgrade’s pledges in Brussels,” he said.

According to Kurti, the option for neutral licence plates came from Lajcak. “The options for licence plates neutral to Kosovo’s status, were options in Brussels mentioned by Lajcak. I don’t know who gave this idea to the mediator,” he said.

Koha quotes Kurti as saying, “One of the options was for Kosovo to issue neutral licence plates, to return itself to UNMIK. There was a request to postpone the deadline for the implementation of decisions, but the request came from the mediator, not from the other side. There was also a discussion for Kosovo citizens not to be treated equally.”

Haradinaj: Fruitful discussion with Escobar (media)

Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), Ramush Haradinaj, commented on the dinner that opposition leaders had with U.S. envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, on Tuesday. “During the dinner at the residence of the U.S Ambassador to Kosovo and Escobar we had a fruitful discussion on finding solutions to implement rule of law in the north of Kosovo. The United States is a trusted ally and friend and together we will uphold peace and security,” Haradinaj tweeted.

Sources: Escobar, opposition talked flexible implementation of reciprocity and final settlement (Klan Kosova)

Modalities of the implementation of the agreement on reciprocity for licence plates and travel documents as well as opinions about the details of a final settlement between Kosovo and Serbia were the key points discussed at the meeting between U.S. envoy Gabriel Escobar and heads of opposition parties in Kosovo.

Klan Kosova learns that Escobar reiterated the position that the U.S. supports reciprocity based on the Kosovo constitution and laws but that they want this to be done with flexibility in order not to have any negative effects on Serb citizens.

Sources close to the meetings in Brussels and Prishtina also told the news website that Escobar and EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak have suggested to Prime Minister Albin Kurti several versions how the implementation of the agreement on reciprocity could look like and which could not be opposed by Serbia.

What was discussed and what Escobar requested in meeting with opposition (Express)

Unnamed sources revealed to the news website details from last night’s dinner between leaders of opposition parties and the U.S. envoy Gabriel Escobar. U.S. and European envoys want an agreement between the two sides to avoid tensions that may flare up when Kosovo enforces the decision on reciprocity for documents, scheduled for September 1.

Sources told Gazeta Express that the Americans have asked for flexibility in the implementation of the agreement on documents. “In addition to the ID cards and licence plates, they are also pushing forward a roadmap for the whole process, and to reach an agreement on missing persons too,” the source said.

Opposition leaders have reportedly been asked to be constructive in terms of negotiations and an eventual agreement between Kurti and Vucic. Internationals are concerned that the situation may escalate if an agreement is not reached. 

Sources from the dinner said that it was mentioned that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accepted proposals for ID cards and licence plates but that they were rejected by Prime Minister Kurti.

Sources also said that for the first time there were talks about a final settlement between Kosovo and Serbia. “It was the first time that there were talks about what a final settlement can look like,” the source said.

Haliti: Kosovo must focus on Escobar’s message (RTK)

MP from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Xhavit Haliti, in an interview with RTK, commented on the meetings of U.S. and EU envoys with heads of opposition parties in Kosovo, saying that not all details from the meetings are revealed to the public. “This is not the first time that leaders of political parties meet at the United States Embassy and these meetings are quite normal. I believe it is best to hold these kinds of meetings now, for all opposition parties to be together, because they will be addressed at the same time,” he said.

Haliti also said that the focus should be on U.S. envoy Gabriel Escobar’s message to Kosovo institutions about the Association of Serb-majority municipalities, which should be formed in line with the Constitution of Kosovo.

“The Prime Minister should have reported earlier about the dialogue” (Nacionale)

Arber Thaci from the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) said in an interview with RTK that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti should have reported earlier about the latest round of dialogue in Brussels. “Kurti’s address [today] is a little late. Some of the actors have given key statements, whereas our Prime Minister was absent. There should have been a report earlier, in fact even before the meeting was held,” he argued.

According to Thaci, the technical agreements that were reached earlier in the EU-facilitated dialogue should be avoided and the parties must focus on a final settlement. “The next problem will be the Association [of Serb-majority municipalities]. KDI has concluded that it is best to set aside as much as possible the technical agreements, and to focus on a comprehensive final settlement,” Thaci said.

“No reason for Kosovo Serbs to have greater rights than Albanians in Serbia” (Kosovapress)

Ragmi Mustafa, head of the Albanian National Council in Serbia, said in an interview with the news agency today that an eventual final settlement between Kosovo and Serbia will have an impact on the lives of Albanians in Presevo Valley. He argues that Albanians in that region should have the same rights as Serbs in Kosovo. “There is no reason why Serbs in Kosovo should have greater rights and more equality than Albanians living in Presevo Valley. There is no reason why the same rights should be denied to Albanians here … Double standards will only create room for tensions and conflicts in the future,” he said.

Mustafi said it is of crucial importance to implement the agreements reached so far in the EU-facilitated dialogue and to reach a sustainable and binding final agreement. “So that there can finally be sustainable peace and to create more room for future generations for progress, freedom and equality and for a European future,” he added.

COVID-19: 363 new cases, no deaths (media)

363 new cases with COVID-19 were confirmed in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. There are 3,126 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Serbian Language Media 

Councillors in Zvecan adopted 6 conclusions, the first supporting Vucic to find a solution (KoSSev)

Portal KoSSev reported today that  the mayors of four northern municipalities and 62 councillors adopted six conclusions in Zvecan, adding that they repeated what was already announced by President Aleksandar Vucic and President of the Serbian List Goran Rakic a few days ago: If no compromise solution is reached, first by the end of August politicians at the central level will leave, and then, during September, prosecutors, judges and police.

“And in this way, there will be a total dismantling of the Brussels dialogue, which Pristina has made meaningless by persistently refusing to form the ZSO even after 10 years,” they said, according to KoSSev. 

There was huge media interest in the session, including international ones, as well as television crews that came from Belgrade, reported KoSSev. 

The working part of the session was closed to the public, and after the acclamation vote, the conclusions were read to the media.

The text of the declaration that was unanimously adopted today.

Declaration of the municipalities of north Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok:

”At the joint session of the assemblies of the municipalities of North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok, held on August 24, 2022, the political and security situation was discussed primarily in relation to the unilateral moves of the central authorities from Pristina, which threaten the basic human and political rights of the Serbian people, permanently violates the Brussels Agreement, prevents the formation of a Community of Serbian municipalities, violates all agreements reached, threatens the peace and tranquillity of citizens with institutional violence, rigged investigations and court processes, constant incursions by armed to the teeth Pristina special units, beating and injuring citizens of Serbian nationality, banning voting, voting at the referendum, by preventing the provision of health care by confiscating medicines, confiscating medical vehicles, preventing the process of vaccination of citizens, preventing freedom of movement by destroying rural roads, intention to confiscate personal documents, preventing sports events and manifestations, being aware that the issue of license plates and entry/exit documents is only the beginning of stronger pressure on the Serbian people with the aim of expelling Serbia and Serbs from these areas, the councillors of the municipalities of North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok made the following conclusions:

1. On behalf of the citizens of our municipalities, we offer our full support to the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, to find a compromise, sustainable and long-term solution to the problem of license plates and identity cards through dialogue in the next 7 days, in accordance with the interests of our citizens while preserving peace, stability and security.

2.We demand that the Community of Serbian Municipalities as defined by the agreements in Brussels (from 2013 and 2015) be formed as soon as possible and without any delay, because this is the need of the Serbian people in order to protect our collective rights through it. Almost ten years have passed, and our people do not accept any delay in this process, which is guaranteed by the European Union.

3. We call on KFOR and other international institutions to, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Kumanovo Military-Technical Agreement, ensure peace and security for all citizens and not allow them to be an instrument in the hands of Pristina, which seeks to use violence as a means of political struggle to resolve open issues. The main source of instability in the north comes from the direction of Pristina, and one of them is the arrival of special police units which the Serbian people do not trust. We call on the command of the KFOR mission to prevent the arrival of up to the teeth armed special units of the Kosovo police from Pristina in peaceful Serbian municipalities, and the international community to bring Pristina to reason so that unilateral and anti-Serb measures are withdrawn.
4. We invite our fellow citizens not to fall into the trap of unilateral decisions and tempting offers by Albin Kurti regarding license plates and personal documents, because this is not in accordance with the agreement in Brussels, what is more, Pristina is using this issue as the beginning of the final reckoning with the Serbian people and Serbia on these areas.
5. We, the political representatives, as before, will always be in front of our people and fight for peace, and their right to a life worthy of a human being. We assure the citizens that we have received clear, and firm guarantees from our President Aleksandar Vucic that the persecution and pogrom of our people will not be allowed, and that the Serbian people will not be alone in these difficult and challenging situations. We are determined for peace and dialogue, for compromise and long-term solutions, but for dialogue it is also necessary that the other side respects the interests of our people and respects the obligations assumed.
6. In the event that a compromise solution is not reached, we Serbian political representatives, together with all our compatriots, will begin the process of leaving all Kosovo institutions at all levels, starting from central and local institutions, up to the court, the prosecution, the police and all other institutions, which totally dismantles the Brussels process.”

Lajcak for the BBC in Serbian: Vucic and Kurti meeting in Brussels was not in vain (media)

If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain

The BBC portal in Serbian wrote that the modern version of this saying would read: if the negotiators of Serbia and Kosovo do not reach an agreement in Brussels, the European mediator Miroslav Lajcak will knock on their door.

“I came to continue where we left off on Thursday,” Lajcak, the EU mediator in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, answers with a smile, when asked what he would say first to Kosovo PM Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic when he visits them in Pristina and Belgrade.

The Brussels talks last week did not bring solutions, wrote BBC, and noted that the negotiators parted with the mediator’s note that the talks were not over. 

Lajcak told BBC that the meeting was not in vain. He agreed with all that BBC listed that followed the meeting but noted that it all emphasized the importance of the dialogue, the process that he led, and how high expectations were. 

It took more than a year and a series of crises followed by harsh words from Belgrade and Pristina for Vucic and Kurti to meet at the negotiating table in Brussels.

Lajcak said that he had reason to view the meeting positively, despite the unprecedented tensions, because the two sides discussed for the first time the ultimate goal: a comprehensive agreement to normalize relations, reported BBC in Serbian. 

“It was a significantly different round. We had a very professional, focused, and respectful discussion, but they did not fight, they respected the visions that each had and were aware of the differences.”

BBC: Does that mean they’ve had a fight before?

Lajcak: “The atmosphere at this meeting was much better, I can say that much.”

However, even in such an atmosphere, no solution was found to a much more urgent problem regarding issues around entry-exit documents and licence plates, noted BBC. 

“We always have several solutions ready, but first we encourage the parties to tell us how they see the solution,” Lajcak told BBC.

“It’s never a take-it-or-leave-it principle, but it’s professional that we always have proposals that we put on the table,” Lajcak described what the conversations looked like, wrote the BBC in Serbian. 

The EU mediator had no dilemma: the issue of entry-exit documents was currently more important due to the urgency of the approaching deadline, reported the BBC portal. 

“I can imagine any situation, including that both sides stop issuing such documents, but also much worse scenarios – and we want to avoid them.”

“We have a few proposals that are current, but it certainly wouldn’t help to talk about them publicly while we’re still discussing them.”

About the problem of license plates, Lajcak answered from the perspective of Ukraine:  

“The priority is to help Ukraine in the war and that consumes our capacities, so there is no understanding in the EU for a possible conflict in the Balkans that would be fought over things that are not painful, urgent, do not cost much, and do not endanger lives.”

“On the other hand, there is a favourable moment for the Balkans, the EU understands that it must not look like it has lost interest and turned its head to the east – that’s why we need positive examples from the region.”

BBC: But the stickers on the license plates are not a positive example from the region, it is not a European practice that is applied anywhere?

Lajcak: “Stickers are definitely better than temporary plates that people had to put on and take off. It’s a temporary measure and I haven’t heard anyone complain about it.”

BBC in Serbian wrote that while the crises are catching up with each other, topics remain on the sidelines for which the negotiators haven’t found solutions or haven’t implemented the agreed upon for a decade: from the formation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities, to the issue of the missing, to the seemingly simple payment of electricity in the north of Kosovo or complex controls over energy resources.

When asked whether the possible concessions of one of the parties in the current crises can be compensated precisely on these issues, Lajcak said: 

“Everything is connected to everything, but I don’t want it to look like we are trading – in the absence of a shared vision for the future, we would be condemned to only dealing with issues of the day.”

“That’s why it’s important to see how these issues fit into the overall agreement, which is what we had an important first conversation about.”

Community of Serbian Municipalities: ‘An Opportunity, not a threat’

Back in March 2022, Miroslav Lajcak firmly promised that the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo would not meet until there was something on which they agreed.

“You’re right, after two meetings that weren’t particularly productive, we said we wanted to have something concrete for the next conversation.”

“The missing persons issue made the most sense to be just that – the least divisive, important to both sides and we were close to finishing the document when events on the ground opened up the need for crisis management.”

In the era of crisis management, one topic for official Belgrade remains equally current – the formation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities (CSM) determined by the Brussels Agreement from 2013 and the accusation of the Kosovo authorities for not implementing it.

When asked whether the CSM was a political or legal issue, Lajcak said that there were elements of both:

“The Brussels agreement was ratified in the Kosovo parliament, and it is a legal obligation of Kosovo – the legal aspect is greater than many other agreements reached in Brussels, which were not even ratified.”

“The political aspect is all around us and prevents us from implementing the agreement,” said Lajcak.

He said that he offered a solution to the negotiating party in Pristina.

“My message to partners in Kosovo is to change the narrative – stop thinking about the issue as something you don’t want it to be and start thinking about what it can be.”

“Think of it as an opportunity, not a threat.”

On energy issue, resolved with two earlier agreements and additionally clarified with a road map in June 2022, which also goes slowly, Lajcak said: 

“Both sides agreed to it, I think both sides have reason to be satisfied and to support it – if everything had not coincided with the decisions on entry-exit documents and plates, I believe the road map would have already been implemented.”

“We’re late, but we know where we are and what the next steps are, so we expect them to be implemented.”

And it was precisely the implementation of the agreement that the EU mediator was still struggling with.

“The implementation of the agreements reached is a principle that applies to both Serbia and Kosovo.”

“It’s not a principle that someone invented to torture the negotiating parties, it’s an old principle that is the basis of international law – how will I have the credibility to reach new agreements, if I don’t implement the previous ones?”

Lajcak was still an optimist and claimed that “it is not a question of if, but when we will solve this”.

“There are no upcoming elections in Serbia or in Kosovo, until 2025, there are no big elections in Europe, and not even in the USA until 2024.”

“We have a period of two years to fully focus on work, without politics getting in the way – it would be a failure if in two years we are in the same place as we are now,” said Lajcak among other things in an interview for BBC in Serbian.

US Ambassador: “Washington wants Serbia, Kosovo in normal relationship” (N1)

US Ambassador Christopher Hill said in an interview with N1 yesterday that Washington wants to see “Serbia and Kosovo achieve a normal relationship without tension”.

“I think what we’re looking for is if Serbia and Kosovo can achieve a kind of normal relationship. That is no tension, normal trade relations, you know, there are a lot of economic issues that really need to be addressed and, while everyone focuses on the security and the political questions, they also ought to focus on the economic issues,” he said in the interview.

“Everyone would like to see an eventual status where everyone calms down and everyone recognizes everyone, but I think what we’re focused right now on is to achieve some kind of normal situation where people can get on with their lives,” he said and added that the people who feel threatened need to feel comfortable and that the rules are there to work for them not just against them. “So, they need to be reassured and I think that’s part of the task here,” the ambassador said.

Hill said that the US perspective on UN Security Council resolution 1244 is that it was overtaken by events. “How they eventually deal with that Resolution, how they eventually deal with the status questions I think will be very much up to the dialogue process … I think everyone’s familiar with what the problems are, and I hope everyone’s familiar with what needs to be done to solve this, because the elements are on the table,” he added.

The interview available at: https://bit.ly/3TavOlz

Vulin’s reply to Ambassador Hill: Perhaps Hill can remove me from the Government, but not the ideas of an independent Serbia (media)

Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs, Aleksandar Vulin said in a press release that “Ambassador Hill, may be able to remove him from the government, but that he will not be able to remove the ideas of an independent Serbia that decides for itself”, thus commented the Hill’s statement that he did not understand what Minister Vulin wanted to achieve in Moscow. 

Vulin said that “he does not even know what Ambassador Hill, a guest in Serbia, wanted to achieve by commenting on the actions of a minister in the Government of Serbia, which is his host”, but, he added, he knows that “the Serbian ambassador to the US would never comment on the actions of a minister from Washington”, reported media, citing the statement. 

“When he has already shared with us what he thinks about the ministers of Serbia, he could also say what decisions Russia is forcing us to make, which are not in our interest. Is it in our interest to recognize the fake state of Kosovo or to destroy the Dayton Agreement or to impose sanctions on Russia and run out of gas,” Vulin said, among other things, in a press release. 

Djilas: Recognition of Kosovo cannot be a topic of any conversation (KoSSev, Nova.rs, N1)

The President of the Freedom and Justice Party (SSP), Dragan Djilas, assessed that it was good that Serbia would consider the situation in Kosovo, and that it was necessary to involve representatives of the opposition in solving that problem.

As reported by the Nova portal, Djilas assessed that “it would be even better” if creation of a national consensus was possible on Kosovo and to adopt a declaration, in the preparation of which, according to him, institutions of national importance would be included such as the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Serbian Orthodox Church, university.

“The declaration would refer to resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council, our commitment to seeking a solution exclusively by peaceful means and the readiness to discuss all topics, except for the recognition of Kosovo’s independence, because that cannot be the topic of any discussions,” said the SSP leader, reported the media.

Selakovic receives new UNDP resident representative (Tanjug)

Serbian FM Nikola Selakovic received new UNDP Resident Representative in Serbia Yakup Beris on Wednesday, noting that the UN was one of the most significant multilateral organisations for Serbia when it comes to preserving its territorial integrity and sovereignty, and as a partner in ensuring the foundations for sustainable development.

Welcoming Beris, Selakovic said Serbia was taking part in joint efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals and the Sustainable Development Agenda until 2030 and to create a better, more prosperous as well as a safer, more stable world, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Selakovic noted that Serbia was investing more and more funds in the green agenda and that budget expenditures for environmental protection projects were higher than ever.

He also said Serbia’s assessment of its cooperation with UNDP in the field of technical assistance and expertise for development projects was a positive one.

He said implementing a 2021-2025 UN-Serbia Cooperation Framework for Sustainable Development was currently a priority.

Commenting on the situation in Kosovo-Metohija, Selakovic pointed to UNDP’s obligation to operate in Serbia’s southern province in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and respect the principle of status neutrality.

Serbia is trying to be the greatest promoter and guarantor of peace and stability in the region, which is also one of the ways it is fighting for continued economic development, Selakovic concluded.

Opinion 

 War Mongering and race baiting (Kosovo 2.0)

Opinion piece by Stefan Janjic 

Serbian tabloids proclaim war (almost 300 times a year).

In September 2020, the Guardian editorial board had GPT-3, artificial intelligence (AI) language software, draft an essay about how robots “come in peace” and that humans have no reason to fear them. The result was incredibly successful; GPT-3 delivered a roughly 1,000 word text that put forward some good arguments.

If an AI program were to be trained for a journalism job in Serbian, an optimal assignment would be set up differently. Instead of robots coming in peace, the software should write a text about Albanians who come to make war. There are several reasons why this, in a technical sense, would be an ideal assignment.

First, a large corpus of pieces on the matter has been building for years, so the software could extract the existing elements and combine them and retell the story. Second, the lexical range of such pieces is very narrow. The software would not need to struggle with a large number of words; common phrases, figures of speech and insults would suffice. Third, and perhaps most importantly, these media pieces are very predictable and follow a template, structured like a fairy tale. An algorithm would be able to recognize and learn the ropes of this mechanism very easily, and then independently produce front-page pieces for Serbian tabloids like Informer, Alo, Srpski Telegraf and others.

If we look at how Serbian tabloids reported on the crisis in the north of Kosovo on July 31, we’ll see this sort of thing. It’s a long-running approach to reporting: a study from 2016-2017 found that Informer and Srpski Telegraf’s front pages announced the outbreak of a total of 265 wars in a single year. In other words, five announcements of war per week with a symbolic “weekend” bringing respite from “nuclear strikes,” “terrorist attacks,” “Greater Albanian aggression,” “total assaults,” “head-on clashes,” “bloody massacres,” and so on.

How does all this affect the audience? We can think about it in two opposing ways. The first is that, owing to the long-term exposure to threats that fail to be carried out, big words are beginning to lose power, so readers become anesthetized and read about upcoming invented wars as they do about an earthquake in East Timor. At the same time, we may have a public readership that is turning militant, scared, a public that is living in constant alarm about armed conflicts.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3KfHijy

Humanitarian/Development

Srdan Keca: Suffering of Roma isn’t part of collective consciousness (Kosovo 2.0) 

Srđan Keča’s cinematographic journey, at least in the eyes of the general audience, started the moment he decided to face the fact that his father was a volunteer soldier during the 1991 war in Croatia at the battlefield of Vukovar. Keča confronted this fact during the shooting of his film “A Letter to Dad,” in which he explores how the war had changed his family.

This personal story turned into a film about an entire generation whose parents were soldiers in the countries created in the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Keča carved out a space for all of them to ask their parents about what they were doing during the war.

After “A Letter to Dad,” which was shown around the world and won multiple awards, Keča continued to grapple with difficult topics, constantly examining the world around him. The film “Mirage” came next, a story about the workers who carry the burden of building Dubai, and then “Bijeg” (The Escape), a movie centered on Roma women in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Then came “Flotel Europe,” a story about Bosnian refugees in Denmark.

This year, Keča will again be making the rounds at film festivals showing his first feature-length documentary, “Muzej revolucije” (Museum of the Revolution), a story about an incomplete museum building in Belgrade. Construction on the building began in the 1950s between what was then the Federal Executive Council (today’s Palace of Serbia) and the building of the Central Committee of the League of Communists (where today’s Ušće shopping mall stands). Decades later, only the foundations remain and hardly anyone remembers the museum.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3pCZ0nQ