Çitaku: Establishment of KAF will not be negotiated with Serbia

(All monitored broadcasters, KTV)

Ambassador of Kosovo to the United States, Vlora Çitaku, considered the arrest of former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj in France based on an arrest warrant issued by Serbia as persecution.

In her address to the United Nations Security Council’s meeting, she said that Haradinaj’s arrest is not justice, is not legal prosecution, it is persecution and victimization.

Ambassador Çitaku said that the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities (ASMM) in Kosovo will be established in harmony with country’s Constitution and without any executive functions.

She also added that establishment of Kosovo Armed Force (KAF) will not be negotiated with Serbia.

On the other hand, Serbia was represented by President Tomislav Nikolic, who said that establishment of ASMM deserves greater attention of the UN Secretary General.

As far as establishment of the Kosovo Armed Force is concerned, Nikolic said that this would destabilize the region.

The US representative, David Pressman, expressed support toward Kosovo for membership in all the international organisations.

Special Representative of the Secretary General in Kosovo, Zahir Tanin, said that there is no alternative to dialogue and stressed that continuation of dialogue at the highest levels between Belgrade and Prishtinë/Pristina is a vital step in the efforts to build trust, TV21 reported. 

Votes of minority MPs needed to pass demarcation

(KTV) 

MPs of the majority at the Assembly of Kosovo are waiting for a copy of final report that commission of experts for measurement of territory submitted to Government on Friday.

However, the Prime Minister himself did not accept to say a word during the day for this issue and explain the next steps of the Government now when the whole responsibility for demarcation has fallen on him.

A day earlier, the Prime Minister said on Facebook that everything has been clarified now and that it must be proceeded further, but the issue of votes still has not been resolved.

LDK does not hide the lack of votes to pass demarcation or the support that it unavoidably needs from the minority MPS.

“Since we unfortunately are not managing to achieve a national consensus for this issue, I am speaking about the Albanian political entities, then whether we wanted or not, in one or the other way, we also depend on the votes of non-Albanian MPs and this the reality” said LDK caucus leader Ismet Beqiri.

Contradiction of the opposition goes on, while they request an inter-parliamentary commission for this issue.

Freedom of media in Western Balkans not at satisfactory level

(RTK1)

Freedom of the Media in the Western Balkans was discussed in Vienna. In a conference held it was concluded that freedom of the media in the Western Balkan countries still is not at the satisfactory level.

Foreign Ministers and media representatives from all the Western Balkans countries took part in this conference.

Austrian Foreign Minister, Sebastian Kurz, said at this time it is being noted that threats to peace and security, as well as rise of radicalism and terrorism are all over the place.

According to him, the journalists are those that throw light on violent incidents, discrimination, corruption, abuse of power and many other phenomena. Media, according to him, are the driving force of democracy and essential element for democracy development.

According to Kurz, independent media and freedom of the media are vital to guaranteeing the rights of civilians. Kurz also said that media can help the political stabilisation of a country.

Kosovo media representatives took part in Western Balkans conference

(RTK1)

Representatives of media and journalists organisations from Kosovo were also present in the Freedom of the Media in the Western Balkans conference, which was held in Vienna. They presented the situation that media in Kosovo are in.

“I think that the main problem in a society is when violence against journalists turns into a political discourse, or it becomes everyday vocabulary of political parties. Unfortunately, this has started to become a practice in Kosovo when certain political parties use language of hatred, create the climate, use threatening and lynching language. Sometimes they even indirectly call for liquidation of journalists, which in fact presents a very high risk. In this case, the Prosecution would need to be the one to treat these things in the most independent manner possible and protect journalists,” RTK Director General Mentor Shala stated.

“2016 was one of the years that marked an extremely big number of threats against journalists, when we also take into account the bomb that was thrown at the public broadcaster same as the bomb at the house of RTK Director General, as well as a number of other cases which were of a quite serious character. Irrespective of the fact that figures are the same with one of previous years, justice institutions normally carry the main burden due to non-investigation and non-resolution of some cases which are under proceeding,” said Shkëlqim Hysenaj, Head of Kosovo Journalists Association.

“In Kosovo there is freedom of speech, a freedom which was gained by the journalists themselves with their work. It is not that it was given to us by institutions, or anyone else; therefore, it is very important for the whole journalist community, the journalist associations, and the society overall to protect and extend this freedom of speech if we really want to have good media, if we want to have a country with established democracy,” Imer Mushkolaj, chairman of the Press Council of Kosovo, told RTK1. 

RTK management initiates procedures against Trade Union chairman

(KTV)

Radio and Television of Kosovo Independent Trade Union of Workers (SPERTK) strongly reacted against the decision of management to initiate disciplinary procedures against the RTK Independent Trade Union chairman, Fadil Hoxha.

The Trade Union considers that this action is revengeful and taken only few days after the RTK Director Mentor Shala publically threatened and insulted employees through Facebook calling them as ‘bacteria that he has antibiotics for’ and ‘as poor as a church mouse.”

The Trade Union has denounced this threat at the Police after Union leaders met with representatives of all caucuses and the OSCE to discuss regarding the Law on RTK and inform them about misuses, abuses with the Law, the debts of millions, and lack of basic working conditions.

Opposition demands constitutional changes

(KTV)

The draft law on religious freedoms, which cannot be adopted as such without the votes of 11 MPs from Serb community, is included in almost every plenary session agenda.

It is specifically the absence of these MPs that has left non-adoption of this law hostage, which has been removed from the agenda for several times in a row. Srpska List is also keeping hostage the adoption of Law on High Education and the one on Cultural Heritage.

Opposition says that Kosovo is losing a lot from this situation which has been created Srpska List with its conditioning, including membership in UNESCO.

AAK MP Teuta Haxhiu calls on Assembly to change the Constitution, namely amendment D on the Article 81, paragraph 1, according to which in order to adopt the Law on Religious Freedoms and several other laws, 11 votes of non-majority communities are required.

“My personal opinion is that the Constitution should be changed,” Haxhiu stated.

On the other hand, asked why the draft law on religious freedoms is being brought for approval in each session knowing that seats of Srpska List MPs are vacant, Secretary of Kosovo Assembly Ismet Krasniqi responded by emphasizing that they cannot prejudge whether MPs will be at the Assembly chamber, or not.

Two Vetëvendosje resolutions not voted due to lack of quorum

(Most monitored broadcasters, KTV)

Assembly of Kosovo continued on Monday the plenary session with points of the agenda that remained from the last session, but Prime Minister and most of the ministers did not take part in it. As a result, many questions of MPs went unanswered.

In this session it was not managed to secure the necessary votes to pass the draft resolution regarding the arrests of Vetëvendosje Movement activists since there was no quorum.

The other resolution proposed for the situation created in Mitrovica/Mitrovicë north also failed to pass, since it did not get more than 29 votes of MPs.

Lawmakers did not vote in favour of establishment of the ad hoc commission for selection of a member of RTK Board either.

In this session, due to lack of quorum, a number of draft laws were postponed to Thursday’s session.