Albanian Language Media:

• Osmani hosted by the president of the Czech Senate (media)
• Specialist Chambers judge Mihael Bolander resigns (media)
• Thousands participate in the protest after the rape of the 11-year-old (media)
• Director for Treatment of Prisoners and Juveniles resigns (media)
• The saga of the Serbs towards the Kosovo documents (RFE, media)
• COVID-19: 191 new cases and two deaths (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• Vucic met US Congressman Turner (Tanjug)
• Belgrade, Zagreb, Pristina trade blame over missing persons (N1)
• Disclaimers on ID cards placed at administrative crossings towards Kosovo (RTS)
• KFOR: We are closely monitoring the situation, we are staying at Jarinje and Brnjak (RTS, Kosovo Online)
• Lajcak: Two months to find a solution for the vehicle plates, some ideas proposed (RTS, Tanjug) 
• Mihajlovic: Lavrov makes Serbia’s position even more difficult (NMagazin, Beta)
• Nine Covid-19 cases in Serbian areas (KiM radio)

Albanian Language Media  

Osmani hosted by the president of the Czech Senate (media)

The President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani was received in the Czech Republic by the president of the Senate there, Milos Vystrcil.

“I asked President Vystrcil for support to push forward the liberalization of visas for Kosovo during the Czech presidency of the EU, as well as support for membership in the Council of Europe and the Partnership for Peace, as a step before NATO membership,” Osmani wrote in a post on Facebook.

“I thank the president of the Czech Senate, Milos Vystrcil, for the warm welcome and conversation. The people of Kosovo and the Czech people never take their hard-won freedom for granted, that’s why we stand united now when these values ​​are endangered on our continent,” she wrote. 

Specialist Chambers judge Mihael Bolander resigns (media)

The judge of the Specialized Chambers of Kosovo in The Hague Mihael Bolander resigned today.

The Specialized Chambers announce that Judge Bolander submitted his resignation as a judge in the Register of International Judges of the Specialized Chambers of Kosovo (DHSK) to the President of the Specialized Chambers, Ekaterina Trendafilova.

The Specialized Chambers announced that Judge Bolander resigned for personal reasons, as the same, as quoted in the announcement, declared that he felt honored to have served as a judge in this institution of justice.

Thousands participate in the protest after the rape of the 11-year-old (media)

The announced protest after the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl in Pristina by five people, gathered today thousands of protesters, making it one of the largest protests that was not organized by any political party.

“Rapists in prison,” was one of the banners at the protest. Another was “Women, arm yourself”. Then another one was “Violence has no justification”. Then, “The mother did not fail, the state did!” They also chanted “We want actions, not Facebook statements.”

Protesters threw red paint at the justice facilities and the government building. Earlier, the organizers of the protests had called for political parties and institutional leaders not to participate in it. 

Director for Treatment of Prisoners and Juveniles resigns (media)

The Director of the Directorate for the Treatment of Prisoners and Minors, Ali Gashi, has resigned after the case of the rape of the 11-year-old girl.

“The resignation came as a moral act of Gashi, as one of the suspects of violence has been serving sentence in correctional institutions for several criminal offences,” the announcement of the Kosovo Correctional Service reads.

It is further announced that the resignation has been approved by the Correctional Service of Kosovo.

The saga of the Serbs towards the Kosovo documents (RFE, media)

Members of the Serbian community form the north of Kosovo will have two months, starting from September 1, to re-register their vehicles – from KM (Kosovska Mitrovica) to RKS (Republic of Kosovo) license plates.

For now, the Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti is determined to implement this decision of his government, which was supposed to come into force on August 1. However, it was postponed after some Serbs in the north of Kosovo, as a sign of dissatisfaction, rebelled and set barricades.

In practice however, there are a number of problems faced by members of the Serb community when receiving any document from Kosovo. Similar problems can also arise in the case of re-registration of vehicles.

The basic thing that a citizen must have when he wants to register the car is the Kosovo ID card. And, to issue an identity card, there must be proof of citizenship – a document called and extract. This document contains two types of data – from the birth certificate and from civil registry. And here, then, the problems arise.

Milos Subotic from Mitrovica North, say that his wife, who is originally from Peja, cannot obtain her Kosovo ID card, because she was 13 years old in 1998/99. Respective authorities requested her to submit the ID card of her mother, who has not personal document issued before 1999.

“We cannot even register the children and all our trips are complicated. I have documents from Mitrovica of Kosovo (issued by Serbian authorities) … I have the identity card of Kosovo. I do not even know what documents I have and what I give at the border. Our life is doubly ghettoized,” Subotic says.

COVID-19: 191 new cases and two deaths (media)

191 new cases with COVID-19 and two deaths were confirmed in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. There are 1,325 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Serbian Language Media 

Vucic met US Congressman Turner (Tanjug)

At a meeting with US Congressman Michael Turner, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic noted that Serbia was investing huge efforts in the EU-facilitated dialogue with Pristina as the only right path to a sustainable agreement and a resolution of crisis situations caused by unilateral moves by Pristina authorities, reported Tanjug.

Vucic noted that this was in line with Serbia’s policy of peace and stability in the region and that Belgrade was contributing to that also by respecting the Dayton Agreement and the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the integrity of Republika Srpska within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the presidential press office said in a statement.

Turner said he very much appreciated Vucic’s leadership and role in maintaining peace and stability in the region and added that he was impressed with Serbia’s economic results.

The US congressman said that every time he visited Serbia the country was visibly closer to the EU.

He also commended the Open Balkan as an initiative that was important for regional cooperation.

Vucic noted that Serbia was committed to the most substantial cooperation possible with the US administration and that advancement of Serbia-US relations was of the utmost significance, in particular in the economy.

He also said the level of bilateral goods trade was record-high and set to exceed 1.2 bln dollars for the first time in history.

Vucic expressed gratitude for Washington’s continued support on Serbia’s path to full EU membership and said the country was working on that diligently and implementing the necessary reforms.

Vucic and Turner said Serbia’s cooperation with the Ohio National Guard provided a strong impetus to overall Serbia-US ties.

Belgrade, Zagreb, Pristina trade blame over missing persons (N1)

Officials in Belgrade, Zagreb and Pristina traded blame on International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance for a lack of cooperation on missing persons, reported N1 portal yesterday.

In Belgrade on Tuesday, the head of the Serbian government missing persons commission Veljko Odalovic said the results of regional cooperation have not been satisfactory over the past two years and laid the blame on Zagreb and Pristina. According to him, the Croatian authorities have not exhumed 36 grave sites with the remains of Serbs and have refused to meet for the past two years while Pristina has been refusing any contact for more than a year. He said that the Serbian authorities have acted on every request from any country in the region.

Odalovic said that the Serbian authorities responded to every request from the countries of the region, found the remains of 924 Albanians in displaced graves in central Serbia and exhumed and identified 463 sets of remains that floated downriver from Bosnia and Croatia.

“Serbia is not cooperating in the search for the wartime missing persons,” Croatia’s Minister for War Veterans, Tomo Medved, told a commemoration in Vukovar. Medved said that Serbia was not giving up any information about Croatians who went missing in the war, “although it was completely clear that data on the whereabouts of the missing persons’ remains could be found in Serbian archives”. He called the Serbian authorities to open archives and provide information on missing persons to speed up the process.

According to Medved, Croatia is looking for 1,832 persons who went missing during the war. “Over the past six and a half years, Croatia has made significant progress in that process, having determined what happened to 221 missing persons, with exploratory exhumations being carried out on a daily basis,” he said.

Kosovo’s top officials, President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti said the missing persons issue was an open wound. Osmani told a commemoration that missing persons “are evidence of the attempt by the genocidal Serbian regime to exterminate us”, adding that there can be no lasting peace until the fate of missing persons was revealed. Kurti said that a vast majority of more than 1,600 persons who are still missing were Albanians but that his government wanted all their fates revealed regardless of ethnicity.

Osmani’s words drew a reaction from Petar Petkovic, the head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo and Metohija. He accused the authorities in Pristina of using the missing persons issue to launch attacks on official Belgrade, adding that they do not care about the fate of the missing.

The central event included a peaceful march through the center of the city to the site of the ICRC Where is He/She? Exhibition.

The EULEX mission said in a press release that 1,621 people are still missing in Kosovo. “Shedding light on the fate of missing persons is a continuing obligation; since 2009, the Mission has conducted a total of 692 field operations to locate missing persons, including 188 exhumations. The remains of 480 individuals have been identified, including 332 missing persons. From August 2021 to August 2022, EULEX experts participated in 21 field operations, including nine exhumations. This resulted in the identification of three missing persons. Currently EULEX’s experts are also working together with the Kosovo authorities on the review of all human remains stored in the Pristina mortuary as well as the associated case files.

In Bosnia, missing persons day was marked in Banja Luka by the Advisory Board of the BiH Missing Persons Institute. “That date has a special weight in our country, bearing in mind that during the 1992-1995 war in BiH some 35,000 people disappeared and that even today, 30 years after the start of the war, 7,597 missing people are still being searched for,” Institute spokeswoman Emza Fazlic told Fena news agency, reported N1.

Disclaimers on ID cards placed at administrative crossings towards Kosovo (RTS)

Radio Television of Serbia portal reported that as of this morning, disclaimers have been placed at all administrative crossings towards Kosovo with the notification that the use of identity cards issued by the authorities in Pristina was only enabled for practical reasons, that is, freedom of movement, and that this cannot be interpreted as recognition of the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo. 

Disclaimers state that the use of identity cards issued by Pristina cannot be interpreted as Belgrade’s consent to deviate from UN Security Council Resolution 1244, cited RTS.

The disclaimers were posted the day before the start of the new regime and were written in Serbian and English.

KFOR: We are closely monitoring the situation, we are staying at Jarinje and Brnjak (RTS, Kosovo Online)

The KFOR mission announced that there were no changes, that they would remain in reinforced formation near the administrative crossings of Jarinje and Brnjak, continuing to closely monitor the situation, reported RTS, citing portal Kosovo Online.

Thus, KFOR responded to the Kosovo Online portal, to the question of whether they remain in a reinforced composition in the north of Kosovo. 

“There is no change in KFOR’s visible and agile posture throughout Kosovo. NATO’s lead mission continues to closely monitor the situation, KFOR East Regional Command maintains a presence near the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings, with established traffic control points and ongoing patrols in the area together with the Multinational Carabinieri Unit and EULEX,” stated KFOR’s answer to the portal’s question. 

KFOR added that they continue to play a fundamental and neutral role in ensuring security throughout Kosovo and stability throughout the Western Balkans region.

Lajcak: Two months to find a solution for the vehicle plates, some ideas proposed (RTS, Tanjug) 

The EU’s special envoy for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Miroslav Lajcak, said that still two months were left to find a solution to the license plate issue, reported RTS.

Lajcak believed that a solution would be found, and added that they have proposed some ideas to partners.

When asked if Pristina also confirmed the two-month deadline, the EU special envoy said: “Yes, of course.”

“The registration campaign starts on September 1 and should last for two months. I do not expect any drama on September 1. There is no reason for that. We have that two-month deadline to find a solution, as we found one for the identity cards issue,” he said, and added that he must be an optimist.

“The decision of the government in Kosovo is that the process should be completed by the end of October. So, we have two months to find a solution. And we are already in that process. We already had talks with President Vucic and Prime Minister Kurti on that topic. We were at a standstill regarding ID cards and entry-exit documents. As for license plates, we have at least two months to resolve them, I believe we will find a solution,” said Lajcak from Bled, attending the strategic forum.

Mihajlovic: Lavrov makes Serbia’s position even more difficult (NMagazin, Beta)

Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic said today that the statement of the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, that Serbia, by not imposing sanctions on Russia, was supporting that country’s attack on Ukraine, was not friendly and further complicated Serbia’s position, reported NMagazin.

In an interview with the Beta agency, she said that the Russian official’s attempt to show that Serbia supported the attack on Ukraine, even though it voted for the UN resolution condemning the invasion, placed Serbia in an additional uncomfortable position.

“Serbia is under pressure and a friend should really be a friend and not make her position even more difficult,” said Mihajlovic, who is also the Minister of Mining and Energy.

During last week’s visit of Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin to Russia, Lavrov said that Moscow and Belgrade are consistently committed to the principles of indivisibility and equal security of all countries, “both in the Balkans and in the situation provoked by the West in Ukraine”.

Mihajlovic, reacting to yesterday’s announcement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, said that “in the changed geopolitical circumstances, everyone would like Serbia to be on their side, but that Serbia has its own side”.

Serbia’s independent position, according to her, was reflected in making decisions that were not independent in relation to one side, but to all sides.

“Serbia is the only country, not counting Belarus, which did not impose sanctions on Russia, and on the other hand, it voted for the UN resolution condemning the attack on the territorial integrity of Ukraine, which means that it is not for sanctions, but not for war either,” she said. 

She added that the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia showed what it thought  about her, and her statement spoke about what she thought about Russia’s attitude towards Serbia.

“Russia protects its interests, I protect the interests of Serbia. They think that Serbia can be a training ground for various confrontations, and I think that it cannot,” said Mihajlovic.

Serbia needs a government whose ministers are dedicated to their portfolios

Deputy Prime Minister Mihajlovic said that at this moment of global crisis, Serbia should have ministers in the new government who are dedicated to their portfolios, and whether that will happen depended on the mandate of Ana Brnabic.

“I hope that when the government is formed, it will be considered that the people who form it must have the energy and strength to endure. We do not know what awaits us in the energy sector in November and December, nobody knows. Energy is important, but so is agriculture, relations with Kosovo. We hope that we will get such a government,” Mihajlovic said in an interview with Beta agency, answering questions about whether she hoped that a strong, pro-European government would be elected.

She added that there were ministers in the current government who could stay, and there were also those who were more concerned with other matters instead of their department.

Every government, as she said, “has it”, stressing that there is no more time “for such things” and that everyone must work as hard as possible, and that the reasons why a certain minister was elected will be seen.

Asked if she expected to continue to lead the Ministry of Mining and Energy, Mihajlovic said that this was a matter of discussion with the new prime minister.

“I’ve been working in energy for 29 years and I’m proud of some of the things I’ve done, but we’ll see if I belong to that team,” Mihajlovic said.

When asked if she expected the negotiations with the Kosovo authorities to end successfully, without deepening the conflict, Mihajlovic said that “we all hope so”.

“Serbia’s policy all these years is like that. Nobody wants war, Serbia has suffered in previous decades, there is no house that was not directly or indirectly affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia. Our policy is clear, we want to talk, there is nothing without constant dialogue, no matter how much the other side is for it,” said Mihajlovic.

She added that the solution to that problem was not only important for the life of Serbs in Kosovo and all others, but also for the status of Serbia.

Mihajlovic said that although Serbia’s orientation was towards the EU, it was good that America has become much more involved in that process, and that “in some matters, it is quite oriented towards Serbia”.

“I think it gives some kind of strength to continue the talks. It is not easy, Serbia will never recognize Kosovo,” Mihajlovic said.

The American ambassador to Serbia, Christopher Hill, said, as she said, that the Community/Association of Serbian Municipalities was nothing terrible and that he did not see a problem for that type of community.

“It gives a certain support, not to the Serbs, nor to Kosovo, but to the dialogue, in order to find a solution to the problem in a constructive way, because the essence is that people can live normally and safely,” Mihajlovic said, reported portal NMagazin.

Nine new Covid-19 cases in Serbian areas (KiM radio)

In the Serbian areas in Kosovo nine new Covid-19 cases were registered out of 34 tested samples, said Dr. Desanka Novakovic, an epidemiology specialist from the Institute of Public Health in Kosovska Mitrovica. 

Positive cases were registered in the following municipalities: North Mitrovica – 4, Leposavic – 2, Gracanica – 2 and Zvecan – 1.