UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, April 6, 2022

Albanian Language Media:

Szunyog: Normalisation agreement with Serbia, first step towards EU membership (EO)
Five EU ministers seek urgent debate on Western Balkans (RFE)
Osmani begins tour of Kosovo municipalities (media)
Gara: Increased dynamics in the excavation process is expected (RTK)
Haradinaj: I invite the prosecution to look into recent electricity bills (media)
KPC nominates Blerim Isufaj to the post of chief prosecutor (media)
COVID-19: 29 new cases, no deaths (media)

Serbian Language Media:

Final elections results in Serbia postponed due to repeat voting (media)
Von Cramon, Petkovic on elections in Serbia (media)
Functions are more important than citizens (KiM radio, FoNet, N1)
Putin and Vucic by phone about Ukraine, gas, Serbia’s EU path (N1, media)
Hungarian FM: Regional stability can be secured only by Serbia’s EU membership (FoNet, N1)

Opinion:

Bieber: Rightists growth suits Vucic to present himself to West as moderate (VoA, N1)

International:

Borrell and Varhelyi joint statement on the Serbia general elections (ec.europa.eu)

Humanitarian/Development:

Employment and departure of young people problems of Serbs and Albanians in the villages of Banje and Suvo Grlo (KoSSev)
Almost everyone now breathing polluted air, warns WHO (news.un.org)

Albanian Language Media

Szunyog: Normalisation agreement with Serbia, first step towards EU membership (EO)

Head of the EU Office in Kosovo, Tomas Szunyog, said the bloc will continue to support Ukraine in all aspects calling Russia's attack "unjustifiable".

Speaking at a debate in Pristina on the impact of the war on Ukraine in the Western Balkans, Szunyog commended the Government of Kosovo for the support to the people of Ukraine. He also said that considering that Ukraine is one of the leading exporters of wheat and that Kosovo manages to cover only 30 percent of its needs, measures need to be devised to overcome the crisis.

Szunyog noted that agreement on normalisation of relations with Serbia is the first step Kosovo needs to undertake towards EU membership and that prior to applying for admission to the bloc, Kosovo should consult member states in order to reach common consensus. He said the EU also expects Serbia to align its policies to those of the EU.

“The EU wants to see regional cooperation,” Szunyog added, and that the Open Balkans initiative could work but that Kosovo is not helping the development of processes.

Five EU ministers seek urgent debate on Western Balkans (RFE)

Foreign ministers of Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Czechia have asked the EU High Representative Josep Borrelll to urgently include Western Balkans on the agenda of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In a letter, the foreign ministers said that "while it has been only several weeks since our last discussion on the Western Balkans, the geopolitical situation has experienced a major change due to the unprovoked and unjustified aggression of Russia on Ukraine."

"The EU should do everything to prevent the damaging influence of the attack on Ukraine on the Western Balkans. It is therefore more urgent than ever to give an impetus to the region's EU integration process," they argued.

Osmani begins tour of Kosovo municipalities (media)

President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani has begun a tour of Kosovo municipalities, with Gjilan as her first stop.

"It is more than necessary to sit down with mayors and discuss together the challenges they face, see how we can overcome them together," she said on her way to Gjilan where she is expected to attend several activities. "We will continue with the inauguration of works in a school to make it accessible for all pupils with special needs," Osmani said.

Gara: Increased dynamics in the excavation process is expected (RTK)

The news portal reports that Serbia continues to keep secret the fate of over 1,600 people missing during the recent war in Kosovo.

The head of the Unit of the Government Commission for Missing Persons Kushtrim Gara, told Radio Kosova that they expect a more dynamic process during this year. According to him, there are three or four locations in Serbia where the commission has already sent requests to international partners to allow excavations.

He added that this year, the commission has an increased dynamic for the intensification of evaluating excavations in all locations in Kosovo.

Gara said that the competent prosecutions and courts have already issued orders to start evaluation for at least ten excavations in Kosovo.

The head of the war crimes investigation department at the Kosovo Police Avni Vrajolli, has also confirmed that five orders from the prosecution are inherited from last year and a report is expected for another order concerning a location in the border zone with Albania, where according to Vrajolli there was open frontal fighting and the place. He said that the place is dangerous and demining tams are required to act first.

Locations in Serbia remain challenging for the Government Commission on Missing Persons, however, according to him, the government of Kosovo is constantly in cooperation with international partners to find forms of cooperation for excavations at locations in Serbia.

"Kizhevak as a location, as a point, ended on May 26 last year when nine bodies of war victims were found. Seven of them were new identifications and the other two were related to the mass grave of Rudnica," Gara said.

He did not rule out the possibility that assessment excavations could be carried out within the Raska region in the marked places, saying that they are making efforts to set the dates when the excavations can start.

Meanwhile, within a strategy, efforts are being made to be careful with families whose relatives have been identified with classical forms.

Kushtrim Gara also announced that the Kosovo Institute for Forensic Medicine has already started the re-inventory of mortal remains which have been kept in the morgue of the institute for a long time.

Haradinaj: I invite the prosecution to look into recent electricity bills (media)

Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj called on the prosecution to launch an investigation into what he said are inflated electricity bills.

Haradinaj via Facebook asked Prime Minister Albin Kurti: "Are you aware that electricity bills after the increase oftentimes are more than doubled and that there are serious suspicions that they have been inflated beyond any tariff, category, or criteria?"

KPC nominates Blerim Isufaj to the post of chief prosecutor (media)

Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPC) has voted unanimously in favour of nominating Blerim Isufaj to the post of chief negotiator, media report.

Isufaj’s nomination will now be submitted to the President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani for approval. If Osmani fails to endorse Isufaj to the post, the entire recruitment process will be repeated, Kallxo reports.

COVID-19: 29 new cases, no deaths (media)

29 new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Kosovo in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said. 36 persons recovered during this time. There are 538 active cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Serbian Language Media

Final elections results in Serbia postponed due to repeat voting (media)

Serbia’s Election Commission (RIK) said on Wednesday that the deadlines for publishing the final 2022 election results had been postponed due to repeat voting.

RIK’s statement added that in line with the Law on the Election of Deputies, local election commissions have 96 hours from the closing of polling stations to determine summary reports on voting results. The deadline should have been at 8 pm on Thursday.

However, the same Law stipulates that the deadline could be moved if local election commissions on whose territory voting is repeated. In that case, the 96-hour deadline is calculated from the closing of the polling station where the voting is repeated, i.e., after a legal process that might follow repeated voting, RIK added.

Since the decision on the annulment of the voting at some polling stations was published on the RIK’s website, the delays in result’s publishing were expected in those local self-government units.

RIK said that it could not predict when it would be able to publish the final results from the 2022 presidential, early general, Belgrade and 12 local communities' elections.

Von Cramon, Petkovic on elections in Serbia (media)

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic announced on his Twitter profile that the election process was conducted in accordance with all European standards, reacting to allegations by MEP and rapporteur for Kosovo Viola von Cramon, who said that Sunday’s elections in Serbia were neither free nor fair, reported Serbian media.

She said that the elections demonstrated positive developments as a significant number of voters was eager to participate. ''Serbia will once again have a pluralistic and diverse Parliament,'' she added in a Tweet.

"The election process in the Republic of Serbia was in line with all European guidelines and standards, but Viola von Cramon does not see that, just as she does not see that Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija have been deprived of basic human and civil rights to vote in their municipalities," Petkovic said on Twitter.

"How come you did not raise your voice for violating the rights of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija? It is clear that as an Albanian lobbyist, you cannot criticize Albin Kurti, but Aleksandar Vucic taught everyone a lesson about democracy and the multi-party system," said Petkovic, in his Twitter post.

Functions are more important than citizens (KiM radio, FoNet, N1)

Nexhat Behluli from Bujanovac, owner of TV Spektri, said that order of the MP list was more important than the interest of the citizens to Albanian politicians from southern Serbia, and that is why they were punished by voters, reported KiM Radio.

Albanians from the south of Serbia will not have any deputies in the Assembly of Serbia after these elections, according to the data of the Republic Election Commission, and in the last convocation they had three deputies.

Behluli told the Regional Information Agency JUGpress that the Albanians performed from two separate lists, although they knew that it would be difficult to pass the census due to the division of votes.

Those who participated in the parliamentary elections, he added, called on voters to boycott the presidential election to allegedly prove that they do not recognize the state of Serbia as their own.

The low turnout of Albanian voters in these elections, approximately 15% of the total number with the right to vote, is the result of empty rhetoric that has been going on for three decades in this area, said the editor of the Bujanovac portal Folonline in Albanian, Jeton Ismaili.

The vast majority of Albanians have lost confidence in their politicians due to the lack of results for all these years because the promises given in all election campaigns have never been fulfilled, Ismaili said, reported KiM radio.

Putin and Vucic by phone about Ukraine, gas, Serbia’s EU path (N1, media)

In a telephone conversation, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin congratulated his Serbia's counterpart Aleksandar Vucic on his convincing victory in the presidential elections and a very significant result of his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the parliamentary vote, Vucic's office said in a press release, reported N1.

“Putin wished Vucic luck and success in his responsible position as head of state and Serbia’s progress in the next five years,” adding he was convinced that “Serbia and Russia will preserve amicable relations”, read the press release.

It cited Vucic as saying that Serbia would continue along the European path and at the same time preserve its sincere and traditionally friendly relations with the Russian Federation.

The two analysed the economic situation and bilateral relations in energy and trade, which recorded growth in 2021 and the first two months of 2022.

Vucic briefed Putin about the difficulties Serbia was facing with importing crude oil and expressed confidence that the leadership of 'Gazpromneft' and Serbia and the EU partners would find a way out of such a situation.

At the same time, Vucic and Putin recalled that the long-term gas contract Serbia had would expire on May 31 and that it was necessary to start talks on the price, quantities, and other conditions of procurement for Serbia in the shortest possible time.

Putin briefed Vucic about the events in Ukraine and the reasons why Russia undertook, as he said, "operations in Ukraine". Vucic reiterated Serbia's known positions and its Council for National Security's conclusions and said he hoped the conflict in Ukraine would end as soon as possible, reported Serbian media.

Hungarian FM: Regional stability can be secured only by Serbia’s EU membership (FoNet, N1)

The support that Serbia and Hungary give to each other "in uncertain and not easy circumstances" is essential for the relations between the two countries, the foreign ministers of the two countries agreed in Szeged on Wednesday.

“It is clear that peace and stability are necessary for the region. That cannot be secured in any other way but with Serbia’s accession to the EU,” Peter Szijjarto told a joint news conference with his Serbia’s counterpart Nikola Selakovic.

Selakovic’s office press release said he told reporters that Serbia and Hungary would continue cooperation based on mutual understanding and support because “it is a true friendship between the two countries, as evidenced by close cooperation and concrete results in all fields”.

Szijjarto added that the two countries had done a lot in recent years to create a historical friendship between the two peoples and the states instead of historical enmity and that both Serbia and Hungary benefited from that friendship.

See at:https://bit.ly/3LKQbRT

Opinion

Bieber: Rightists growth suits Vucic to present himself to West as moderate (VoA, N1)

Balkan expert Florian Bieber said late on Tuesday that the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) contributed to the good result of right-wing parties in Serbia's Sunday elections, and it pleased its leader Aleksandar Vucic because he could present himself to Western partners as a more moderate option.

Bieber, a professor at the Graz University, told the Voice of America (VOA) that right-wing parties used the war in Ukraine basing the campaign on a pro-Russian platform, but that the SNS also played a “significant role“ in their success.

“There are two dimensions. One is certainly the war in Ukraine and the whole issue of the confrontation between the West and Russia, making right-wing and anti-Western parties active in Serbia. The SNS also has an important role. It did not send a pro-Russian message in the campaign, did not openly support Russian policy, but said it would preserve peace and stability and continue good relations with Russia and the EU,“ Bieber said.

He added “that was used by the parties of the extreme right because the pro-Russian political mood in Serbia existed even before the war in Ukraine“.

Bieber also said that "it is something the ruling party has nurtured through its media for years" and that the success of the rightists was "an essential result of an atmosphere created by the ruling party".

He believes that the new distribution of forces on the right side of the political scene corresponds to the current president of Serbia, although he has complained on election night that Serbia "moved dramatically to the right".

International

Borrell and Varhelyi joint statement on the Serbia general elections (ec.europa.eu)

On Sunday, the people of Serbia exercised their democratic right to vote. The European Union welcomes the participation of all political forces in these elections, following the engagement in the inter-party dialogue, facilitated by the European Parliament. The proper functioning of Serbia’s democratic institutions is a central pillar of Serbia’s EU accession process.

According to the preliminary findings and conclusions of the international observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Serbia’s 3 April presidential and early parliamentary elections presented diverse political options, but a number of shortcomings resulted in an uneven playing field, favouring the incumbents.

Read the full statement at: https://bit.ly/3ud0OHf

Humanitarian/Development

Employment and departure of young people problems of Serbs and Albanians in the villages of Banje and Suvo Grlo (KoSSev)

The villages of Suvo Grlo and Banje can be found at the foot of Mokra Gora in the Metohija foothills. The villages are part of the municipality of Srbica. The village of Crkolez is situated close by, however, it falls under the municipality of Istok. During troubled times and war conflicts, unlike in many other villages, not a single house here was destroyed. Today, they share everyday life, worries, and problems.