• Lajcak to visit Pristina, Belgrade on September 9 (media)
• Serbian PM says willing to compromise during landmark Kosovo visit (Reuters)
• Svecla: Vucic threatened citizens who agree to put RKS license plates (media)
• Osmani meets Malaysian ambassador Dato Abdul Malik (media)
• Bislimi: Depopulation of the Valley, concerning (media)
• LDK: Government should start dialogue with trade unionists (media)
• PDK: Government is trying to suppress citizens’ discontent through charity (RTK)
• Joseph: Kosovo feels threatened by Serbia (euronews.al)
• Kosovo Serb war crime defendant stays silent in court (BIRN)
• Serbian PM visits Kosovo Serbs as tensions still simmer (AP)

Lajcak to visit Pristina, Belgrade on September 9 (media)

The European Union’s special envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue Miroslav Lajcak, accompanied by two newly appointed advisers for the dialogue by Germany and France, will visit Prishtina and Belgrade on September 9.

The purpose of the visit is to “explore options for progress in the dialogue,” EU spokesman Peter Stano said.

“During the visit, separate meetings are planned with the Prime Minister Kurti and President Vucic,” Stano added.

He noted that the EU “wants to do as much as possible to help both sides to find the necessary compromises,” and to “bring the dialogue to an end.”

Serbian PM says willing to compromise during landmark Kosovo visit (Reuters) 

Serbia’s Ana Brnabic expressed willingness to compromise on Monday during her first visit to Kosovo since becoming prime minister almost five years ago, a day after Germany and France appealed to Serbia and Kosovo to resolve a flare-up in tension.

Unrest among Serbs in northern Kosovo over demands for them to use Kosovo documents has raised fears of conflict between the two countries, more than two decades after NATO bombed Serbia to end repression of Kosovo’s Albanian majority.

Serbia does not recognise Kosovo’s independence and around 3,700 NATO peacekeepers still patrol to prevent violence between the Albanian and Serb communities.

Dozens of U.S. NATO troops stepped up patrols in northern Kosovo at the start of the month to preserve calm after the government in Pristina set a two-month deadline to Serbs in the area, which borders Serbia, to switch to Kosovo licence plates.

Read more at: https://reut.rs/3TH00oG

Svecla: Vucic threatened citizens who agree to put RKS license plates (media)

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Kosovo Xhelal Svecla called on Monday a press conference for as he said, two relevant issues that have recently happened in Kosovo.

He initially spoke about the process of the change of the license plates in the north of Kosovo to RKS plates, that has October 31 of this year as a deadline.

“Yesterday, the president of the Republic of Serbia mentioned this process, where he actually threatened the citizens of Kosovo, who plan to be part of this process of converting license plates from illegal ones into legal license plates of the RKS,” Svecla said.

He mentioned the case of police sergeant Dragan Nikolic, ‘who was targeted by Serbian phalanxes, and whose house was burned down last night after midnight.’

“We tell the president of Serbia that this process is unstoppable, that despite the threats we will encourage and protect our citizens, especially the officials of the KP from all the criminal elements of Serbia, which are being fought on the daily basis by the Security institutions of the Republic of Kosovo,” Svecla said.

He further talked about the case of the 11-year-old minor, who was raped by five suspects on August 27 in Prishtina, saying that during the investigations, security authorities came up with the information that she was abused for more than a year.

Svecla said that he appealed to the head of the Police Inspectorate of Kosovo, that all the police investigators involved in this case should be called as witnesses, to get as much information as possible.

“All the information so far shows successive failures of the relevant institutions, to protect this minor, and to identify what happened, but also to identify all the perpetrators, since not all of them have been arrested,’ he said.

Osmani meets Malaysian ambassador Dato Abdul Malik (media)

The President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani received on Monday the Malaysian ambassador Dato Abdul Malik. They discussed about strengthening the partnership and opening new opportunities for cooperation.

“President Osmani has emphasized that Malaysia is a friendly country and an important partner in this part of Asia and that Kosovo is interested in strengthening the partnership and opening new opportunities for cooperation”, the communiqué states.

Bislimi: Depopulation of the Valley, concerning (media)

Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi said on Monday in Presheva Valley while promoting the arrival of books from Kosovo that the schools are evidence of the rapid depopulation of this part.

“As much as we are happy that we had the opportunity to cover this cost, we are equally concerned that we distributed books to only 4 thousand 10 students, knowing that a few years ago in the primary and secondary schools of the Presheva Valley more than 13 thousand Albanian students followed the lessons. The speed with which Serbia has managed to depopulate this region with its policies is a little scary,” Bislimi said.

Albanian politician and MP of the Assembly of Serbia Shaip Kamberi, has repeated the demands of the Valley that the rights of Albanians be advanced through the final agreement between Kosovo and Serbia.

LDK: Government should start dialogue with trade unionists (media)

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) has issued a press release welcoming the news about the execution of salaries for teachers and public officials.

 LDK once again calls on the government to sit down and start a social dialogue with all trade unionists and not to communicate at a distance through short statements that, in this time of crisis, apart from being an insult, it is also a mistake and further deepens the ongoing crisis.

 “The government must listen and accept their demands so that the process starts immediately, our students return to the school desks and our teachers get their dignity back,” it continues.

LDK also requests processing of the Law on Wages in the first session in the Assembly of Kosovo.

“Just as we have proposed our ten points for overcoming the energy crisis, we are ready to offer all our expertise to find solutions to the economic crisis and the problems that our citizens are facing,” the communique says.

PDK: The government, is trying to suppress citizens’ discontent through charity (RTK)

The Coordinator of the Department of Finance in the Cabinet for Good Governance of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Arben Mustafa has criticized the government for undertaking economic measures without a plan through the “Inflation Package”, in an effort to quell the discontent of the citizens, who are facing the economic and energy crisis.

Mustafa said that this new package aims to buy social peace, after the crisis created by the government with the behavior towards public sector employees.

“With such policies, the government is proving that it has blocked capital investments in order to accumulate deposits so that whenever there is a crisis of confidence among citizens or when the ruling party is not doing well on the ground, it can open the state’s purse and distribute charity to soften the pain of the citizens,” he said.

Accusing the Government of a lack of vision and transparency, Mustafa indicated that the Ministry of Finance, Labor and Transfers continues not to use the excise and VAT instruments to mitigate the increase in the general level of prices. 

Joseph: Kosovo feels threatened by Serbia (euronews.al)

Professor at John Hopkins University, Edward Joseph says that Kosovo does not take part in the Open Balkan regional initiative, as it has open issues with Serbia and feels threatened by it.

In an interview for Euronews Albania, Joseph said that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro find themselves in the same situation.

According to him, Serbia is the most authoritarian country in the Balkan region.

“Why is there skepticism? I say there are good reasons for this skepticism. The first is that the entire Open Balkans is based on a theory that is dubious and the countries that will exchange are few. In the Balkans, you have Serbia, which is undemocratic and you will have problems. Participating Albania, but also North Macedonia do not exactly have open political issues with Serbia. But Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro do.

Countries that have no open issues have no problem having relations at all. But those that have and feel threatened by Serbia, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo, do not want to participate in the Open Balkans, and in my view, they have good reasons not to”, he emphasized.

Kosovo Serb War Crime Defendant Stays Silent in Court (BIRN)

Svetomir Bacevic, who is being tried for seizing a Kosovo Albanian woman from her home and mistreating her in the Peja/Pec municipality during the war in 1998, declined to enter a plea in court.

Kosovo Serb war crime defendant Svetomir Bacevic used the right to remain silent and declined to enter any plea at Pristina Basic Court on Monday.

Bacevic, 57, who has been in detention since December 2020, did not say anything in court.

He stands accused of seizing a 60-year-old ethnic Albanian civilian from her home in the village of Bellopje/Belo Polje in Kosovo’s Peja/Pec municipality in the summer of 1998.

The crime was allegedly committed when conflict between Serbian forces and the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA erupted in the villages near Bellopje/Belo Polje in 1998.

The indictment says that Bellopoje/Belo Polje, around three kilometres from the town of Peja/Pec, was mainly inhabited by Serbs until 1999. Three ethnic Albanian families who were living there fled the village when the conflict began in 1998, and only a couple in their 60s, Rexhep and Tigje Kadrija, decided to stay.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3Bdyzf2

Serbian PM visits Kosovo Serbs as tensions still simmer (AP) 

Serbia’s prime minister on Monday visited a Serb-dominated part of neighboring Kosovo following a recent flareup in tensions between the former war foes that had sparked fears of new instability in the Balkans amid the war in Ukraine.

Kosovo authorities and NATO-led peacekeepers stepped up security as dozens of Kosovo Serbs greeted Ana Brnabic upon arrival in Mitrovica. The northern Kosovo town near the border with Serbia has been divided into Serb and ethnic Albanian-dominated parts since the conflict in 1998-99.

Brnabic is the highest-ranking Serbian official to visit Kosovo in years. As she arrived, two ministers from the Kosovo government traveled to an ethnic-Albanian-populated area in southern Serbia, in what some observers saw as a sign of efforts to ease tensions.

In 1998, Kosovo’s separatist ethnic Albanians rebelled against Serbia’s rule, prompting a brutal crackdown. In 1999, NATO bombed Serbia to force Belgrade to pull out of Kosovo. But Serbia still does not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence and tensions recently soared, prompting Western diplomatic efforts to defuse them.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3D1YlUY