Oliver Ivanovic arrested
(All monitored broadcasters, KTV)
EULEX arrested Oliver Ivanovic, who ran for north Mitrovicë/Mitrovica mayor in the recent local elections. He is suspected of killing ten Albanians in north Mitrovicë/Mitrovica after the war in Kosovo.
EULEX confirmed that Mr Ivanovic is suspected of killings that happened after the Kosovo conflict in the period 1999-2000.
Ivanovic was interrogated by EULEX for six hours. Reportedly, the interrogation has ended, but Ivanovic is still kept at the EULEX Headquarters in Mitrovicë/Mitrovica.
In the later news editions, TV broadcasters reported that a number of local residents protested in front of the court in north Mitrovicë/Mitrovica against Ivanovic’s arrest.
No agreement on courts between Thaçi and Dacic
(All monitored broadcasters, KTV&RTK1)
With mediation of Baroness Catherine Ashton, a new round of dialogue between Kosovo Prime Ministers Hashim Thaçi and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic started in Brussels on Monday.
Topics of discussion in this meeting will be justice system, implementation of the agreements reached, particularly the agreements dealing with local elections that were held at the end of last year in Kosovo, and Association of Serb Municipalities.
Prime Minister Thaçi announced that an agreement on functionalising justice system would happen. Thaçi is open to discuss issues on concluding local elections since four Serb municipalities have been inaugurated. Thaçi hopes that his Serbian counterpart will positively change is approach. He believes that the accession negotiation process implies that the time when Serbia should recognise Kosovo’s independence is approaching.
In its 23:00hrs news edition, KTV reported that no agreement was reached in Brussels between Thaçi and Dacic. The parties did not agree about functioning of courts in the north. Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi confirmed this in a brief statement given following the meeting.
In the meantime, Dacic said that Albanians are insisting that the court should be regional and include the southern part of Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, which is being opposed by Belgrade who wants a court only for Serb municipalities in the north.
Electoral Reform Committee to report to Assembly
(Most monitored broadcasters, KTV)
The Electoral Reform Committee on Thursday will report to the Kosovo Assembly, and further steps in this process will be defined. After reporting of the Committee members, whose mandate expired two years ago, it is expected that MPs will have their say with regard to the future of electoral reform.
The PDK caucus chief Adem Grabovci stated that the election reform cannot be completed without a preliminary agreement amongst political leaders.
According to the LDK caucus Chief Ismet Beqiri, the remainder of the electoral reform work should be transferred to the Legislation Committee. Beqiri did not rule out the possibility that elections may be held even without the electoral reform.
The Assembly Speaker Jakup Krasniqi is looking forward to hearing the Committee’s report. According to him, fate of the reform depends on the political will.
Vetëvendosje Movement calls for a detailed comprehensive report, which specifies barriers that occurred in this process.
These statements were made following the Assembly Presidency meeting, where political representatives also commented on Prime Minister Thaçi’s position on including Croat and Montenegrin community in the Constitution. LDK and Vetëvendosje once again presented their views against changing the Kosovo Constitution.
Zbogar calls on Krasniqi to make SAA laws a priority
(Most monitored broadcasters, TV21)
The European Union Special Representative (EUSR) in Kosovo Samuel Zbogar requested from Kosovo Assembly Speaker Jakup Krasniqi to pass laws related to European integration process, namely with the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), a priority of Assembly’s work during the first part of this year.
The election reform was one of the issues discussed between Zbogar and Krasniqi. It was considered that eventual changes in the law should be at the function of free and fair elections.
In this meeting, the EULEX strategic revision which is expected to happen in the coming months was also discussed, as well as the role that the Assembly will have in this process.
Parallel structures still operational
(Klan Kosova)
In a building in Gracanica/Graçanicë, for several years the parallel Municipality of Pristina has been operating. While Prishtinë/Pristina considers those structures as parallel, Serbia continues funding and maintaining them, despite the Brussels agreements. Even some Albanian residents receive services at this parallel institution.
However, it seems that the Kosovo side has no concrete plan for dissolving those structures. The Ministry of Local Government Administration officials say that besides establishment of local governments that derived from the recent local elections, parallel municipalities will be dissolved as well. But there is still no response on what will happen with the employees.
Serb District in Kosovo, also an illegal institution, has a plan for this administration. They think that the current employees of parallel structures should be employed by the Association of Serb Municipalities to be established.
Rasic: We will not impede Serbia’s elections in Kosovo
(Klan Kosova)
Serb minister of the Kosovo government Nenad Rasic envisages that the executive he is part of will not impede holding of Serbia’s elections in Kosovo.
Minister of labour and social welfare Rasic said that this will happen despite refusal of the opposition parties. However, according to him, votes of Kosovo Serbs unfortunately will not influence on the overall result of elections in Serbia.
Anticorruption Agency facing pressure
(Klan Kosova, KTV)
Kosovo Anticorruption Agency (KACA) complained that it is facing various kinds of pressure in the efforts of this institution established to implement laws related to fighting and preventing corruption in Kosovo.
In a press release, the Agency reported that its officials received phone calls, private e-mails, letters, and even visits to their offices within a short period of time.
“All these actions contained ‘demands’ for certain criminal reports or cases that are in the investigation process, and the Agency may not reveal any information related to them, because it is prohibited by law,” states the Agency’s release.
KACA considers that the recent actions that demand from the Agency to report on certain cases is a form of pressure and tendency to intimidate its officers for the work they have been doing.
EULEX prosecution requests one to eight years imprisonment for Muja and others
(Most monitored broadcasters, KTV)
The EULEX Prosecutor’s Office has requested sentence of one to eight years imprisonment for the Prizren mayor Ramadan Muja and his five directors. In her final remark, Natasha Vikeri, prosecutor, accused Muja and others of abusing official position. She said that besides committing criminal offence of abusing official position, Muja also violated trust of the people.
Due to the limited time in the session, the prosecutor presented her final remarks only on counts one and two of the indictment, while counts three and four will be read in the next session scheduled for 10th February.
After the session, Muja’s lawyer Ruzhdi Berisha refuted all counts that his client is charged with. According to Berisha, Muja’s actions do not represent criminal offence, but only a procedural violation.
