Vucic cancels his visit to north of Kosovo
(KTV)
Conditions set up by Prishtinë/Pristina have upset the Prime Minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic to the extent that he will cancel the granted permission to visit Kosovo’s territory.
Few hours after Kosovo Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj said that Kosovo authorities decided to allow Vucic to visit to Kosovo, Vucic in the evening hours of Tuesday, said that he will not be in Kosovo on Wednesday.
In an interview for Serbian public broadcaster, Vucic accused Thaçi, Mustafa and Hoxhaj for blackmail and pressure.
“Thaçi, Mustafa and Hoxhaj have played their own games. Something else came out in the media and something different was written to the Europeans in order to appear good in front of them, saying that we allowed Vucic to visit Kosovo,” said Vucic.
According to him Prishtinë/Pristina through media conveyed messages how they will allow Vucic to stay only for three hours and that Vucic cannot come with certain people.
“Then Europeans said let’s do something about it, and I said I will not allow Prishtinë/Pristina to put pressure and blackmail me in this way. Therefore, I will not go to Kosovo on Wednesday. The meeting will happen anyway. I hope we will receive a strong victory in Kosovo and that Kosovo Serbs will vote for stability, peace, security and for those who strive for the interests of Kosovo Serbs, said Vucic.
“I do not allow anyone to tell me how long I can stay in my own country although Prishtinë/Pristina has authority over the north as much as there is water in Sahara,” Vucic concluded.
He noted that other Serbian officials will join the electoral gathering on Wednesday in north of Kosovo.
Trajkovic: Serbian political system manipulates votes of Kosovo Serbs
(Klan Kosova)
Mitrovica/Mitrovicë north is no different at all from towns in Serbia during the presidential electoral campaign. Entire city is covered with posters of candidates for the President of Serbia, while majority of posters belong to Aleksandar Vucic, the current Prime Minister of Serbia.
Former Serb MP Momcilo Trajkovic, despite the fact that he supports holding of Serbian Presidential elections in Kosovo, considers that Serbian political system manipulates the votes of Kosovo Serbs.
“There two ways how the votes of Kosovo Serbs are manipulated. Firstly, Serbia finances Serbs in Kosovo and therefore the ordinary Serbs always vote for those who are in power. Secondly, there is room to falsify votes and to fill the boxes with ballots, because no one controls that,” said Trajkovic.
According to Trajkovic, over 70.000 Serbs in Kosovo have the right to vote. He harshly criticizes the main contender for the President’s post, Aleksandar Vucic.
“He promised protection of Serbia’s interest and that Kosovo will have strong links to Serbia. But what he has done so far, in particular with Brussels Agreement, demonstrate the opposite. Kosovo gradually is winning elements of independence. He is a master of manipulation and he will use this. He needs the votes of Kosovo Serbs to say that he has the support of Kosovo Serbs and use that in different compromises and arrangements,” said Trajkovic.
While Serbia’s presidential electoral campaign is underway, Kosovo institutions, Serbia and the OSCE have not yet, at least officially, reached an agreement about holding of elections in Kosovo and the opening of polling centres on April 2nd.
At the OSCE Mission in Kosovo said that they are ready to take over their operative role in organizing Serbia’s presidential elections in Kosovo’s territory, but that there is no final agreement yet on this issue.
Stojanovic: We have been excluded from decision-making processes
(Klan Kosova)
On Tuesday, Hoyt Brian Yee, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, visited Kosovo. During his visit in Prishtinë/Pristina, Yee was received by Assembly Speaker Kadri Veseli, Deputy Prime Minister Branimir Stojanovic, Srpska List Caucus leader Slavko Simic, and Dialogue Minister, Edita Tahiri. However, Yee did not meet with President Hashim Thaçi and Prime Minister Isa Mustafa.
After the meeting with Yee, kosovo Deputy PM Stojanovic said that they discussed main developments in Kosovo.
“We discussed about difficulties Serbs in Kosovo face, in particular the lack of security, hindrances in the return process and how difficult is for the Serbian Orthodox Church to exercise its rights. We told him that our participation in institutions quite often is senseless and that we have been excluded from the decision-making in several processes,” said Stojanovic.
On the evening hours of Tuesday, Yee met also with Vetëvendosje chairperson Visar Ymeri and Ilir Deda from the newly established party ‘Alternativa’.
All the meetings of the US Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Hoyt Brian Yee were held behind closed doors.
Constitutional Court suspends the election of the Supreme Court President
(Most monitored broadcasters, TV21)
Constitutional Court of Kosovo has suspended the election of the President of the Supreme Court of Kosovo.
The decision was taken following the complaint of the judge Valdete Daka, who contested the election of Enver Peci as Supreme Court president.
On Tuesday, Kosovo Judicial Council appointed Gyltene Sylejmani as acting president of the Supreme Court of Kosovo.
Hoxha: Fight against corruption is not impossible
(Most monitored broadcasters, KTV)
Only during 2016, over 460 unsolved corruption cases have remained in the drawers of Kosovo prosecutions, KTV reported. A corruption case in Prishtinë/Pristina Basic Court dates since 2002. Findings published by Kosovo Law Institute demonstrate that in over 60 % of corruption cases, indictments fail in courts.
United Kingdom Ambassador to Kosovo, Ruairi O’Connell requested concrete results in fighting corruption, while Kosovo Minister of Justice, Dhurata Hoxha requested more efforts to combat this phenomenon as, according to her, fight against corruption is not impossible.
Assembly to monitor implementation of the Law on digitalisation
(TV21 & KTV)
Two years after it was adopted, Kosovo Assembly will start to monitor the implementation of the Law on digitalization of terrestrial broadcasting transmissions.
Raif Qela, member of Assembly Committee for Economic Development said that although the Law has entered into force since two years, it was not monitored because of the financial cost it bears.
Government of Kosovo has not adopted the digitalisation strategy despite the fact that it promised financial support to it.
Until the frequency issues are not sorted out, analogue transmission will not be interrupted, KTV reported.
Kosovo Police officer arrested for illegal possession of weapons
(Most monitored broadcasters, TV21)
A Kosovo Police officer and a correctional officer have been arrested by Kosovo Border Police at the border crossing with Albania in Vërmica.
During a routine check of the vehicles at the border crossing, Police found a Kalashnikov and a revolver without license in their vehicle. The suspected policeman has been sentenced to 48-hours detention and has been immediately suspended from Kosovo Police.
Vllasi: I was victim of a political attack
(KTV – Summary of Rubicon show)
On Tuesday evening KTV Rubicon show hosted the former renowned politician in Yugoslavia and lawyer Azem Vllasi to discuss about his recently published autobiographic book called ‘Kosovo – the beginning that cannot be forgotten’ and developments that lead to Kosovo’s independence
Besides the book, Vllasi also spoke about the recent attack that left him wounded few weeks ago. He said that he was afraid about his life only until 1999 and that he would never believe that this would happen to him in 2017.
“Luckily the attack against me was quickly solved. My family and I have no conflicts with no one. Since 1985-1986, I have politically confronted the Serbian nationalism, Milosevic and other who are pursuing his politics. I am doing this for the interest of the country and not for my personal interest,” said Vllasi among other topics.
Vllasi said that after the attack, he received two calls on the phone application Viber with Russia dial code. He said to have tried to call back later, but they did not answer.
“The next day I saw two calls on Viber with Russia dialling code. I called back, but they did not respond. Is there someone called to prove if the job was done properly, in order to allocate money somewhere,” Vllasi said.
He said that he was victim of a political attack, although in the execution list of “People’ Eye” he was listed at the end.
