Thaçi: EU is delaying, while Russia is doing its job

(RTK1) 

In an interview with Deutsche Welle President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, said that Russian influence has grown stronger in the Balkans, in particular in the Serb inhabited regions, as a result of lack of dignified engagement of the European Union.

“While the European Union is delaying, others are doing their job, be it Russia or fundamentalist elements. Today we are witnesses that Russia has a strong presence and influence in Serbia, Republika Srpska, attempted coup in Montenegro, attempts for influence in Macedonia. However, they cannot materialise this influence in Kosovo. But, if you look at Sputnik presentations, one can see that there is a negative campaign against Kosovo. Our concern is why Kosovo media are taking so quickly this fake news for Kosovo and Albanians. Nevertheless, dialogue with Serbia has no alternative, the European future has no alternative, and I feel very good to be the president of a country, whose 90 per cent of population is pro NATO and pro-European Union,” Thaçi told Deutsche Welle. 

Vucic and BIA are attempting to manipulate elections

(RTK1)

The Serbian authority, namely the President of this neighbouring country, Aleksandar Vucic, is directly involved in manipulation of votes of Serbs in Kosovo. Through a TV story, as RTK stated, involvement of the neighbouring country [Serbia] in the serious attempt to manipulate the electoral process in Kosovo is demonstrated.

General elections in Kosovo will be held on 11 June. While the last elections were excellent, when even the international mechanisms commended them, now the Serbian side is having problem with reactions, including those of internationals.

Belgrade’s aggressive interference in Kosovo elections, by threatening and blackmailing other rival parties of Srpska in different ways has been reported by RTK over the recent days.

On Thursday, RTK managed to prove that interference is directly linked with the current President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, who, a day earlier raised his voice for the reaction of Quint in Kosovo regarding the threats made against Serbs by Belgrade.

“It was very disappointing to me to see the assessment of ambassadors of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States in Kosovo, where they implicitly speak how Serbs put pressure on some of ‘their beloved Serbs’, how they should vote, but they do not notice how someone roams with a pistol around Leposavic/Leposaviq”, Vucic stated for Serbian media.

Vucic stated this following the incident in Leposavic/Leposaviq, on the occasion of the Aleksandar Jablanovic’s arrest, stressing his release, allegedly with the political decision of Kosovar authorities.

However, RTK managed to get hold of an audio material, where one of the people involved in Kosovo elections speaks, and who testifies that it is Vucic the one who is above all directly interfering in electoral processes, with the support of Serbian Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) and criminal groups of the north.

RTK knows the person in question and the authenticity of this material has been verified by respective bodies in Kosovo.

The distorted voice aired by RTK said that Dojan Dimic is the key person of BIA for Kosovo and they are dictated by Serbia. He recalled that once Aleksandar Vulin was the Head of Office, and now it is being run by Marko Djuric. He also explained that they [BIA] come time after time and that some of them come from Raska, Serbia, while their offices are at Bisevac – a café in Mitrovica/Mitrovicë north.

“But they [BIA] cannot work against Zvonko [Veselinovic]. They are small. You cannot work against us now when we are with the head [Vucic]. How can you work against us?” he continued.

“Listen to this. When there were elections, there was [Krstimir] Pantic. Look, that Pantic had no chance against Oliver Ivanovic. Pantic, you know, people hate him. He is a monkey and that was a disaster. Then they told us from Belgrade to do it, to beat Pantic up. Nothing, he involved close protection. I do not know even why they beat him up. I have no idea why,” the speaker with distorted voice added.

“He was over already on the first round. He lost. End of story. Then Vucic called us, an urgent meeting. We stormed the ballot boxes and smashed them up. It was us and those of the anti-terrorist unit, as well some from the gendarmerie. We got divided into several units and destroyed everything,” he ended.

Major tensions between Serb political parties in Kosovo have been noted throughout the electoral campaign. Furthermore, there were also physical confrontations in the north, where Srpska List members attacked Aleksandar Jablanovic in different ways.

Very tense situations were also present in Gracanica/Graçanicë between Srpska List, which is directly controlled by Belgrade, and Independent Liberal Party (SLS) of Slobodan Petrovic.

Furthermore, according to RTK sources, many supporters of Slobodan Petrovic have been dismissed from their jobs only because they support SLS.

Security experts in Kosovo also voice Belgrade’s interference in elections that will be held on 11 June. Furthermore, according to them, this is a game of Russia in cooperation with the state of Serbia.

Petrovic: Serbs are threatened in this election process

(RTK1)

The Independent Liberal Party leader (SLS) in Kosovo, Slobodan Petrovic, said that his political party members were threatened by certain persons.

In an interview with RTK, Petrovic said that those threats have been reported to Kosovo institutions.

“Many people have been threatened and intimidated that they would lose their jobs, and we have reported those cases to the law enforcement authorities. This campaign has moved one step further, assaults occurred, some people were beaten. The case was reported to the Police; duty prosecutor released the attacker and let him free. This is a serious problem not only for the election process, but in general. I call on the authorities, and especially on the Prosecutor’s Office, to work in this respect. Until now there has not been any response, so this is an opportunity for me to call upon Serb citizens to be what they are,” Petrovic said, adding that those who threaten are cowards, and they have no good intentions.

According to him, the intimidators have names and surnames.  “The cases have been reported to the Police and to foreign embassies; therefore, this is the last moment for those who have mandate to take the appropriate actions. There are even some people in power who have been threatening. I call on people not to be afraid. In regard to the people living in Gracanica/Graçanicë and in the southern part of Ibër, they know who their representative is and who works for them,” Petrovic said.

Talking about SLS, Petrovic said that in two mandates they were part of governmental institutions, and they did a lot for Kosovo Serbs.

“We worked hard. Our policy is very clear. All what we did in seven years was destroyed in three years. Our candidacy is the work which we did, and results are obvious,” Petrovic said. 

Foreign Ministry bans Vulin from entering Kosovo

(KTV)

The Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs has banned Aleksandar Vulin, a Serbian Government official, from entering Kosovo.

The reason for banning the visit, which was announced for Friday, is that in his previous visits Vulin made provocative statements, KTV portal reported.

The Kosovo Foreign Minister Hoxhaj had stated earlier that they would ban entering Kosovo those officials who do not comply with the agreement rules on official visits reached in Brussels.

U.S. Embassy will be part of election observation

(Most monitored broadcasters, KTV) 

The U.S. Ambassador in Kosovo, Greg Delawie, said that his country is interested for free elections and without threats and that all candidates have the right to campaign without having fear from threats.

Delawie said he will join observation of 11 June elections together with the other embassies.

He made these comments during the awarding ceremony in the framework of the competition for the best video part of the campaign “Neither will I vote for the corrupt candidates” organised by Democracy in Action with the support of EU Office.

The U.S. Embassy will be part of election observation in polling stations, both in the placed it will be voted as well as in ballot counting, Ambassador Delawie stressed.

The EU Representative in Kosovo, Nataliya Apostolova, called upon citizens not to allow others to use their vote.

CEC accredits 3.873 election observers

(TV21)

The Central Election Commission (CEC) so far has accredited 3.873 observers for the early elections that will take place in Kosovo this Sunday. According to Miradije Mavriqi, Head of the Office for Political Party Registration and Certification, more observers are expected to be accredited.

In the CEC meeting, a decision for prohibiting ballot photographing was approved.

In this meeting, the Vetëvendosje representative Adnan Rrustemi requested removal of the security mechanism from the voter identification online search engine, saying that it is making the procedure more difficult.

In the same meeting it was announced that as of Friday, CEC will launch a Media Centre.

Blind people no longer trust political promises, they feel neglected

(KTV) 

Over 4.000 blind citizens will cast their ballots on the June 11 elections. They have already educated their community how to vote, and they have even assigned committee members at several polling centres, KTV reported.

Although they will take part in elections, they say they have not been able to listen to all political party programmes; however, as little as they have listened to those programmes, they found none of them suitable.

Whenever there is an election process to take place, their Association is visited by various politicians, all of them promising better conditions for the blind. Nevertheless, blind people have lost trust in politicians.

Since 2009, blind people have had the opportunity to vote independently. Two Braille templates will be sent to each of the 889 polling centres throughout Kosovo, and ballot papers can be inserted in those templates. Thus, blind and partially sighted voters can cast their ballots in the booth without any assistance.

Srpska List threatens other Kosovo Serb parties

(Summary of KTV Rubicon show)

KTV ‘Rubicon’ show hosted Slobodan Petrovic from the Independent Liberal Party (SLS), Nenad Rasic from the Serb Progressive Party (SPP), and Slavisa Petkovic from the Civic Initiative for Prosperity to discuss their electoral programs and the course of the ongoing electoral campaign. Show host explained that Srpska List representatives did not accept the invitation to attend this TV debate.

Nenad Rasic from the SPP said that the electoral campaign is very difficult and it is happening under abnormal conditions. According to him, children and their parents are being threatened with all possible methods. He spoke about polarization between Srpska List and other Serb political entities, pointing out the Srpska List’s threats against other Serb parties.

“Threats usually take the form of dismissal from jobs, or annulment of pension. I do not know how the pension can be annulled, but it happens. This is being done by people, who I thought were a bit more mature and they are using threatening tools that go beyond any possible logic. However, what concerns me most is that people in a way are getting used to it, or they consider it normal and that this should be done in this manner, because this is politics,” said Rasic.

According to him, threats are coming from Srpska List, and they are using the national interests as a pretext.

“Knowing Albanians and Serbs, when national interests are mentioned, nothing remains there to be explained, because it is in the national interests,” Rasic said.  He emphasized that from now on nothing will be same in the political life of Kosovo Serbs.

In the meantime, Petrovic from SLS stressed that threats are becoming a reality, which, as he said, have also been reported to the OSCE and EULEX.

“Many people lost their jobs, social assistance, children lost their enrollment to faculty, and yesterday we even had physical assaults in Gracanica/Graçanicë. There were some municipal officials, inspectors, who should otherwise protect the law and citizens; instead they have beaten up people and we reported this case to the Police station.  Prior to this, there were people who lost their jobs and these cases were reported to the OSCE Ambassador, EULEX, and others. I am rather concerned over the fact that institutions and bodies, which should deal and end this campaign, are keeping silent,” said Petrovic.

“Everything is clear, in fact, if they (Srpska List) are qualitative and genuinely represent the Serb community, why then the same ones are threatening citizens, dismissing them from their jobs, or beating them. I am quite sure that justice and the people who will defend the rights of Serbs and other communities in Kosovo will win in these elections,” Petrovic continued.

On the other hand, Slavisa Petkovic said that Srpska List uses force because it lacks knowledge. He said he was surprised by non-reaction of the institutions.

Petkovic said that Central Election Commission should have dismissed Srpska List because of its actions on the ground. He said that they possess footage showing people with guns beating people at the presence of Kosovo Police.

“We possess footage, and if you want we can share it with you, where people with guns in Mitrovica/Mitrovicë north, at the presence of Kosovo Police beat people up… Since 2004, I have been present in all political processes and elections here. I could never imagine, even in my worst dreams, that someone in 2017 can do this without any consequence or punishment…” said Petkovic.

He expressed his dissatisfaction with the joint statement of Quint countries, which stated that ‘violence should stop’.

“Should we wait until 11 June for someone to die? Trust me, the situation is at the point where attacks, maltreatment and dismissals of people from their jobs have become a common thing, so what is left to be done is for somebody to pull out the gun and start killing people. So, what we will do then? How will respective institutions or international community react, because when you say that you request to stop pressure and blackmailing from political entities, then tell us which political entity is doing it, tell us who is committing these crimes, because Prosecution needs to react after this. Can you believe that in the last four days in Leposavic/Leposaviq, after the incident with Jablanovic, Special Unit was sent there to patrol the town and react during the electoral process,” Petrovic emphasized, adding that 95% of Serbs do not support Srpska List.

Petrovic said that it is impossible to accept post-electoral statements of the Central Election Commission that everything had gone well.

“At the end, CEC will say well these are the results, everything went well in principle and in a good spirit. Well, when the special unit must patrol the town due to the internal tensions and election process, then we know where we’re at,” concluded Petrovic.

Establishment of the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities and Kosovo Armed Forces (KAF) were the other two topics tackled during this show.

Petkovic said that any type of Association without executive competencies is useless; taking into account the fact that Brussels has envisaged it will not have executive competencies. As far as KAF is concerned, Petkovic said that if Constitution is amended for establishment of KAF then Serbs will also request amendment of the Constitution for the interest of their community, too.

Meanwhile, Rasic said that Association was imposed to Serbs and it was adopted without the active role of Kosovo Serbs. Still, he said that both parties (Albanians and Serbs) in a way are in favour of prolonging establishment of the Association. Commenting establishment of KAF, he said that Kosovo officials did not hold any talks with Serbs about it.

Petrovic said that Belgrade should identify solutions with Prishtinë/Pristina and the international community for these issues.