Government without response for demolition of wall

(KTV) 

If the Resolution of Kosovo Assembly, which sets 31 January as deadline, will be respected, then Kosovo institutions have just one more day to demolish the wall in Mitrovica/Mitrovicë north.

However, since December last year, when the Resolution was passed at the Assembly, statements of Kosovo leaders have changed.

On the other hand, officials from Government or the Ministry of Environment did not respond how it will be acted further.

But opposition insists that Assembly resolution that was harmonised between all caucuses must be respected.

Initiators of the debate on extraordinary session of 29 December last year say that they will continue with other steps in case that Resolution will not be respected.

Lunacek: Dialogue ends with Kosovo’s recognition

(Klan Kosova, KTV) 

Vice President of the European Parliament and Rapporteur of this institution for Kosovo, Ulrike Lunacek, said that majority of people in Serbia are aware that Kosovo’s independence is irreversible.

“The perspective of Serbia and Kosovo is clear to me: reconciliation in the region and integration in EU”, Lunacek stated for Radio Free Europe, online version of KTV reported.

“Normalisation means that everything, for which it has been agreed upon, must be implemented, without exclusion. This should be done by both parties and not wait for each other,” she added.

“Majority of people in Serbia know that Kosovo will never be part of Serbia again. The Serbian Government knows this too, although its members try to ignore this fact, the European Union, after Cyprus, will not accept any single country, the borders of which have not been clearly defined,” Lunacek said.

Lunacek also said she is optimistic that dialogue will enable Serbia to normalise relations with Kosovo, and ultimately “this means recognition.”

Serwer: Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia should produce balanced results

(RTK1)

Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, according to Daniel Serwer, should produce balanced results for both sides, which has also happened in the past. He said that as far as dialogue is concerned, there are very strong feelings on both sides and it is not realistic to expect very fast results.

“I think you are facing some very difficult issues in Kosovo, such as the Agreement on Association of Serb Majority Municipalities, which is particularly difficult on the Prishtinë/Pristina side. There are other things that are difficult on the Belgrade side. The results should reasonably balanced,” said Daniel Serwer, Director of Transatlantic Relations Institute in Washington D.C.

According to Serwer, being pro dialogue means support for Kosovo state and its sovereignty.

“But some people are not interested in Kosovo’s statehood; they are interested on unification with Albania or something similar. From my point of view, if you are a Kosovar patriot then you support dialogue and if you want to melt Kosovo with a state, such as it is Albania, then you might be against dialogue. Fortunately, most Kosovars are supporting Kosovo’s sovereignty the same way as I do,” Serwer told the Kosovo public broadcaster.

According to the leader of Transatlantic Relations Institute, conditions have already been met for establishment of Kosovo Army.

Meanwhile, Daniel Serwer qualified the analogy between Kosovo and Crimea wrong. According to him, this is a policy of Russian President Vladimir Putin and it does not deserve to be paid attention.

Stojanovic: Most important thing is to calm situation down

(RTK2)

Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Branimir Stojanovic, says that future actions of Serbs depend on talks that will be held in Brussels in the coming days.

Considering that situation in Kosovo is more than difficult and that it resembles the March 2004 atmosphere, Stojanovic told Radio and Television of Serbia that the most important thing at present is to calm the situation down.

“The decisions that were made over a period of two or three months, without consultation with us, were harming us and that is why we came to the conclusion that someone pulled long rifles as an argument. I hope that talks will continue and it will contribute to unlock the issues we have blocked on,” said Stojanovic.

Rakic: Agreement achieved is collapsed with inflammatory statements 

(RTK2)

Mitrovica/Mitrovicë North Mayor, Goran Rakic, called on all sides to be constructive because, as he said, inflammatory statements will collapse the agreement achieved in Brussels.

“Respecting the recent agreement between Belgrade and Prishtinë/Pristina in Brussels, and as recommended by the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, for all sides to refrain from giving any inflammatory statements, I do not want to comment the provocative rhetoric of Mayor [Agim] Bahtiri, who is not even a member of the negotiation team,” Rakic stressed.

Ministry of Justice does not consider Anti-Mafia Law necessary

(KTV)

Government of Kosovo will not draft the Anti-Mafia Law, as the opposition parties are requesting. Ministry of Justice considers that there is no need to proceed with a particular law and that the EU and US Embassy representatives have agreed with this decision.

Minister of Justice, Dhurata Hoxha, talking to KTV Puls show, said that a number of provisions related to confiscation of illegal assets will be included in the changes of Criminal Procedure Code.

But, opposition is against this stance of Ministry of Justice. They say that the authorities are being afraid of this law. They say that Kosovo should have Anti-Mafia Law in order to confiscate illegally gained assets even without a Court decision.

National Coordinator on Combating Corruption and Organised Crime, Shqipdon Fazliu, says that confiscation of illegal assets should happen even without the court’s order for criminal offence.

In the meantime, Vetëvendosje Movement has drafted the Anti-Mafia Law, which will be proceeded to the Assembly after 6 February. 

Court of Appeals has solved 130 official corruption cases

(Klan Kosova, KTV)

The Court of Appeals has managed to solve 130 out of 174 corruptive nature cases. Out of them, 17 of them were transferred from previous years, while 157 were filed during 2016.

Most cases, 100 of them were classified as a criminal offense – abuse of official position or authority, while the rest of cases were related to embezzlement, fraud in office, receiving and giving bribes, trading in influence, unlawful judicial decisions, disclosure of official secrets, and falsification of official documents, the Court of Appeals reported.

The Serious Crimes Department of this Court has started 2017 with 44 outstanding official corruption cases.