Thaçi lobbies for the amendment of Kosovo Criminal Code

(KTV)

President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi continues to lobby for the amendment of Kosovo Criminal Code.  President Thaçi received on Monday, the newly appointed Minister of Justice, Dhurata Hoxha, who started her political carrier as advisor to Thaçi when he was Prime Minister of Kosovo, KTV reported.

Without providing details on the amendments, President Thaçi announced the amendment of Kosovo Criminal code.

“No one can flee justice”, President Thaçi said, expressing his support for the work being done on amending and supplementing the Criminal Code and encouraged the commitment to a faster conclusion to this initiative.

“Kosovo has the best Criminal Code in the region. However, if any deficiencies identified, it is necessary to fill these gaps as soon as possible”, President Thaçi said.

On the other hand, through press release issued by the Office of the President on Monday, Minister Hoxha confirmed her commitment to reforming the legislation in force.

Hoxha emphasized that she will be committed to the principle that nobody is above the law and that there will be no double standards because all shall be equal before the law.

Despite the fact that Kosovo has recently been criticized by the EU for lacking final convictions for high officials, Thaçi and Hoxha concluded that there has been great progress in Kosovo in establishing the rule of law, KTV reported.

Representative of civil society recently have expressed their stance against the initiative to amend the Criminal Code while Kosovo Judicial Council (KJC) expressed its support to the initiative.

Tahiri announces four conditions for the establishment of the Association

(RTK1)

Kosovo Minister for Dialogue, in an interview with RTK1, said that the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities will not be established if Serbia does not implement the agreements.

Tahiri said that Kosovo’s conditions for Serbia are: Unblocking the telephony code for Kosovo; initiating the work of the independent transmission system – KOSTT; removal of the barricade at the main bridge of Ibër River and, as she said, the fourth condition is that the statute of the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities will be drafted by the Government of Kosovo and be reviewed by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo.

“We will not launch any action to draft the statute of the Associations until the agreements are implemented. One of them is the removal of the barricade over Ibër Bridge,” said Minister Tahiri, the online version of RTK reported.

Tahiri announced that on Tuesday an EU delegation will stay in Prishtinë/Pristina to discuss the removal of the barricade over Ibër Bridge, and according to her, the final date for the removal of the barricade will be announced soon.

Opposition against international arbitration for demarcation

(KTV)

While LDK continues to believe to the border demarcation with Montenegro, piloted by the experts of the Governmental Commission, PDK on the other hand, due to a number of objections, prefers also the international arbitration, but initially they want the agreement to be voted in the Assembly.

For the opposition parties, this is a new manipulation game by the ruling coalition, KTV reported. Donika Kadaj Bujupi of Vetëvendosje Movement considers as pointless to send the demarcation to arbitration after it is ratified by the Assembly.

AAK deputy chairperson, Ahmeti Isufi also says that no new steps should be undertaken without clarifying the situation and dismissing the Governmental Commission.

International law professor, Afrim Hoti, explains when an issue can be submitted to the international arbitration.

He says that initially Kosovo institutions should have a clear internal stand, because, according to him, an issue can be addressed to arbitration only if the country considers that an issue has not been fairly settled.

On the other hand, TV21 reported that the opposition party Nisma joined Vetëvendosje and AAK calls for protest against the agreement. Valdete Bajrami of Nisma said that her party supports the protest, but, as she said, they they are waiting for the outcome of the debate expected to be held on 3 August which is organized by the Assembly of Kosovo on this issue. 

Government constructs houses for Serbs who never returned

(KTV)

Kosovo Ministry for Return and Communities (MRC) considers the return of displaced Serbs to Kosovo as a success, despite the fact that in several areas in which the houses for Serb returnees have been constructed, no one has ever returned to live. The newly constructed houses have been destroyed entirely while some other houses have been sold to Albanians, KTV reported.

Ministry for Return and Communities (MRC) seems that is avoiding the reality as it regards the construction of the houses for the Serb returnees in Kosovo. This ministry, which is headed by a representative of the Serb community, has announced the construction of another 100 houses during this year for Serb returnees, despite the fact that it constructed lots of houses for this community in the past.

MRC continuously has considered such projects as successful.

“We have concluded, based in our experience so far, that the return of Serbs in the municipalities, in which the houses were built, was very successful. But I have to stress that besides the Serb community, beneficiaries of this project are also other non-majority communities in Kosovo”, reads a written statement of MRC’s Office for Communication with Media to KTV.

But in the ground, things are different. In village Maxhunaj of Vushtrri/Vucitrn, 63 houses were constructed years ago for the return of displaced Serbs, for which the Government of Kosovo paid over EUR 2 million. But no Serb ever returned to live in those houses, which latter were destroyed and damaged.   In many cases, Serbs sold the houses to Albanians.

Vushtrri/Vucitrn municipal health and social welfare director, Abdullah Klinaku, considers such projects as Government’s failure, while he expressed his concern that there are over 200 homeless Albanian families, which have requested Government’s assistance but they did never received it.

Maxhunaj villagers are not against the return of Serbs but such an attempt, according to them, seems to be pointless.

Government of Kosovo constructed houses for Serb returnees in other municipalities such as Ferizaj/Urosevac, Strpce/Shtërpcë, Klinë/Klina and Obiliq/Obilic.

Meanwhile, recently in Mitrovica/Mitrovicë north, the Government of Serbia laid the foundation stone for ‘Sunny Valley’ settlement which will accommodate around 1.500 Serbs that have left Kosovo during the conflict.

Russian Ambassador without permission of Kosovo authorities visited the north

(Klan Kosova)

Ambassador of Russia to Serbia, Aleksandar Cepurin, visited the north of Kosovo. Serb broadcaster ‘TV Most’ was the only media informed about Cepurin’s three-day visit to Kosovo. Ambassador Cepurin met with the illegal and legal mayors of the four municipalities in the north and as Klan Kosova learned, he discussed ways of cooperation between Russia and the Association of Municipalities with Serb Majority, after it gets established.

Moreover, he visited the illegal ‘Sunny Valley’ settlement which will be partially funded by the Russian Federation, too, Klan Kosova reported.

Kosovo institutions were silenced during Cepurin’s visit. Only on Monday, Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Klan Kosova that his visit was misuse of authority, considering that he used UNMIK’s Resolution 1244 to enter Kosovo thus avoiding standard procedures to ask for permission from the Kosovo authorities.

Mayors of the municipalities in the north fully support Aleksandar Vucic

(Klan Kosova)

Mayors of the municipalities in the north of Kosovo have expressed their full support to the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, nominated to form the new Government of Serbia after this year’s election.

Through a joint letter, the mayors of the northern municipalities said that they fully support Vucic, as according to them, he was the biggest supporter of the Serbs in Kosovo.