UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, April 7, 2023

Albanian Language Media:

QUINT expresses to Kurti full commitment to "unconditional" implementation of the agreement (Koha)
Osmani answers to PCK about nomination of chief prosecutor, accuses of illegal pressure (Koha)
Gervalla: I expect that Greece will soon move towards recognition (media)
Jablanovic on elections in the north: Serbian List silence scares me a lot (media)
The "head of the Association" - Vucic's politician who demanded Kurti's sanctioning (Albanian Post)
Kosovo ex-guerrilla ordered to pay war victims €207,000 (Prishtina Insight)

Serbian Language Media:

Vucic after meeting with representatives of Serbs from KiM: Joint platform in seven days (N1)
Vucic: Kosovo will be in Serbia during my term, ask someone else after that (Tanjug, RTS, media)
The final list of voters for the local elections in the north of Kosovo established (Beta, NMagazin, RTS)
Oathkeepers leader schedules emergency meeting of Committee on KiM (Beta, N1)
Four opposition parties demand from Serbian public broadcaster to read out European plan publicly (Radio KIM)
Vucic: Serbia to boost presence in Africa (Tanjug)
Apostolic Nuncio Gangemi: Holy See remains principled in its stance on Kosovo (RTS, Kosovo Online)
Ahmetaj: Families of missing persons should be guaranteed right to know through all domestic and international legal remedies (KoSSev)
Albanian PM: Serbia slowly surrendering to reality (FoNet, N1)

International:

Serbia urged to uphold freedom of expression while also countering hate speech (news.un.org)

Albanian Language Media

QUINT expresses to Kurti full commitment to "unconditional" implementation of the agreement (Koha)

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, together with the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Development and Dialogue, Besnik Bislimi, hosted the ambassadors and deputy ambassadors of the QUINT countries and the representative of the European Union Office in Kosovo.

According to an announcement from the Prime Minister's Office, ‘the meeting discussed the implementation process of the Basic Agreement with Serbia and the implementation plan adopted on March 18 between the two countries. Prime Minister Kurti and Deputy Prime Minister Bislimi informed the diplomatic representatives on the results of the last meeting in Brussels on April 4, and his expectations from this process in the following weeks and months.’

According to the announcement, the ambassadors have expressed their full commitment to comprehensive and unconditional implementation of the agreement. "They also requested that the process of the membership of the Republic of Kosovo in the Council of Europe and the acceptance of the application of the Republic of Kosovo to the EU should proceed quickly as two initial actions of our partners, which should derive from the agreement on the Basic Agreement and the annex of its implementation", the announcement states.

Osmani answers to PCK about nomination of chief prosecutor, accuses of illegal pressure (Koha)

The President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani has said that the Prosecutorial Council of Kosovo (PCK) is exerting "unacceptable and illegal pressure" on her, regarding the process of appointing the Chief State Prosecutor.

After the PCK demanded from her on Wednesday to urgently appoint Blerim Isufaj to the position of Chief State Prosecutor, Osmani in a letter sent to the chairman of the council, Jetish Maloku, said that she opposes the action of the PCK with the fact that as president has been constantly engaged with the PCK "providing you with answers regarding my actions that are based on the protection of the basic constitutional principle of separation of powers and respect for the independence of the justice system".

In the letter obtained by KOHA, Osmani reminded them that in an earlier meeting she informed the council that she will wait until the legal and constitutional deadlines expire, until which candidates can address their claims regarding the process.

Gervalla: I expect that Greece will soon move towards recognition (media)

The Foreign Minister of Kosovo Donika Gervalla, while reporting to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, spoke about Kosovo's relations with the five EU unrecognizing countries.

She said that with some of them, Kosovo has good commercial and cultural relations. In this regard, Gervalla said that she expects Greece to soon move from its position.

"I expect that Greece can soon move towards recognition, because I see no dilemma that Kosovo and Greece are partner states. But, of course, we cannot impose our will on any independent and sovereign state. Ours is to work in that direction and theirs is to choose the moment," Gervalla said.

Jablanovic on elections in the north: Serbian List silence scares me a lot (media)

The leader of the Kosovo Serb Party, Aleksandar Jablanovic, who will be a participant in the April 23 elections in the north, in an interview with Radio Dukagjini, spoke about the predictions about the holding of these elections and, in general, about the security situation in this part.

The minister was dismissed in the Mustafa government in February 2015 and once a member of the Serbian List, has accused this party of the tensions in the north, expressing the fear that warnings about incidents before and during the election process may come true.

"The decision to participate in the April 23 elections was complicated, due to the fact that the time of their announcement and the circumstances that led to their announcement were complicated and directed by the Serbian List," Jablanovic said.

The head of the Party of Kosovo Serbs, the only Serb that will be part of the elections, has further emphasised that the elections in this part have always been accompanied by incidents, therefore warnings about tensions should be taken with the highest seriousness.

"Knowing the Serbian List, the people who lead it and the methods they use, unfortunately, I would not rule out violence a few days before and on the day of the elections. Violence is possible, this is also being talked about in the cafeterias in the north, during the conversation with people, they are afraid of what the reaction will be from the Serbian List, but what scares me the most is that they are very silent, since when they are silent it means that they are preparing something," he continued.

Jablanovic, whose party has called the last stage of insanity the invitation to insurrection that Serbian Listmade to the population in the north, said that this list is trying to remove responsibility and blame, as he said, "an imaginary enemy from Pristina".

"Why should we invite the Serbs to revolt? Because the KM licence plates have been removed? Now one must ask: who allowed this? This was signed by our delegation in Brussels and this should be told to the Serbs, and not to be told that we in Brussels did not sign anything and now it is alleged that the Albanians are taking something from us. Now the Serbian List wants to wash its hands of all this and blame an imaginary enemy from Pristina."

He hopes that, first of all, KFOR, EULEX and the Kosovo Police will create a safe environment for the elections to take place, without the possibility that certain persons from the north or brought from Central Serbia will physically hinder the process.

The "head of the Association" - Vucic's politician who demanded Kurti's sanctioning (Albanian Post)

According to the Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi, the government of Kosovo will not participate in the drafting of the draft statute of the Association of Municipalities with a Serb Majority.

The chief negotiator of the Kosovar side, Besnik Bislimi, in an interview for Kallxo.com, indicated that the draft statute will be drawn up by the Management Team, led by the Serbian MP, Danijela Vujicic.

The Management Team, in addition to the MP of the Assembly of Serbia, will be composed of four other Serbs, who will prepare an initial draft statute on which Kosovo and Serbia will then negotiate.

The news website brings a biography of Vujicic, explaining further that she is now MP in the Assembly of Serbia, member of the Committee for Work, Social Affairs and Poverty Reduction, a deputy member of the so-called Commission for Kosovo, as well as a deputy member of the Commission for European Integration. She also represents Serbia as a deputy member of the Serbian delegation in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

“A few hours after Great Britain blacklisted Milan Radoicic and Zvonko Veselinovic, Vujicic said that instead of them, London would have to sanction the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, who according to her ‘was the most hated violator of the rights of Serbs in Kosovo’, Albanian Post reports.

Kosovo ex-guerrilla ordered to pay war victims €207,000 (Prishtina Insight)

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers said Salih Mustafa, who was convicted of war crimes including arbitrary detention, torture and murder, should pay compensation to some of the victims.

A panel of judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague decided on Thursday that Salih Mustafa, the wartime commander of one of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s operational zones should pay 207,000 euros in compensation “for the harm inflicted on the victims of the crimes for which he is convicted”.

Mustafa was found guilty in December of three war crimes charges including the arbitrary detention and torture of at least six detainees and the murder of one prisoner, and sentenced to 26 years in prison.

The court found that he committed the crimes against civilian prisoners at a KLA detention centre in the village of Zllash/Zlas while he was a commander in the KLA’s Llap Operation Zone in north-east Kosovo. The verdict can be appealed.

The compensation money will be distributed among eight victims in the case at the Specialist Chambers.

“Thirty thousand euros will be received by victim number 8, 80,000 euros to victim number 9, 60,000 thousand euros to victim number 10,” said presiding judge Mappie Veldt-Foglia.

She added that other victims would receive sums of 10,000, 5,000 and 2,000 euros.

Serbian Language Media

Vucic after meeting with representatives of Serbs from KiM: Joint platform in seven days (N1)

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, said after the meeting with representatives of the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, that all the teams will continue to work for the next seven days in order to come out with a joint statement on many issues, among them the issue of the elections on April 23 in Kosovo, in which the Serbs, as he said, will not participate.

He stated that both the people from the north and the south of Kosovo showed enormous anger and resentment towards the authorities in Pristina and the silence of the international community, reported N1.

He said that there will be a longer address on Holy Thursday and Friday.

We talked about all the problems, the security situation, which is difficult, he said.

The dissatisfaction and anger of our people due to the violation of the agreement on the plates and the arrest of people, is reaching its peak - my idea, to come to an agreement today and come out with the positions, was not possible, so I withdrew, he stated.

He stated that the next meeting will be in Raska, ministers and the Prime Minister will be invited. By then, a common platform will be agreed upon, he said.

The topic was what Serbia can do for the most vulnerable people in Kosovo - in terms of employment, economic position - and that he will come out with concrete measures in this regard as well, he stated.

They are particularly outraged by the arrest of Serbs and the attempt to make all those who offered non-violent resistance to the violent attempts that Kurti carried out in the north of Kosovo, he said adding that people will no longer tolerate it, it is an attempt to cleanse Kosovo of all those who would oppose one day. Vucic said that he had a request for peace to be preserved.

He pointed out as an example the attitude of the coach of the club from Strpce, "bullying, arresting the president and director of the club because our children are not allowed to be in the Serbian system, but in theirs, if they are in ours then they are not playing basketball or volleyball, they are terrorists", reported N1.

Vucic: Kosovo will be in Serbia during my term, ask someone else after that (Tanjug, RTS, media)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday evening Kosovo and Metohija would be in Serbia when his term ended in four years' time. "I think Kosovo will be in Serbia, and that is what I have also said in the National Assembly. After me, ask someone else", Vucic told Serbian public broadcaster RTS responding to a question whether Kosovo would be closer to Serbia at the end of his presidential tenure.

"But has it really been left in Serbia for me - not in terms of formal law, but in terms of the consequences of the policy from all of the past 20 years? Answer that question yourself but, yes, I think it will be in Serbia", Vucic told the journalist.

"I think we will suffer a lot, especially our people in Kosovo and Metohija", he added. He said Pristina's tactic was to never implement a Community of Serb Municipalities.

"They do not want to implement it and they will keep finding countless reasons and provoking the Serbs on a daily basis out of the desire that the Serbs be the cause of something", he said.

He also said that no foreign ambassador had condemned Pristina's arrests of many Serbs and burglaries targeting Serb homes in Kosovo and Metohija.

"Over the past seven days, three Serbs have gotten away from them at the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings with their hands cuffed. They are arresting guys who are the most capable of opposing their actions in the north of Kosovo and they want to leave the north of Kosovo without those who are capable of opposing them in any way so that they can make an incursion and impose their rule by force", Vucic said.

He criticised the silence of the West and recalled the statement of the American Ambassador in Pristina, Jeffrey Hovenier, who praised “democracy in Kosovo” and the attitude of the Albanians from Kosovo towards minority communities and religious and cultural heritage.

“I guess because they burned and demolished them all. Paper will endure everything. How is it possible that the West can do all this, that Pristina releases Azem Kurtaj, who shot Serbian children, and arrests Ivan Todosijevic for the truth about Racak”? he said.

Vucic also asked how the West could allow local elections in the north and said he had begged 50 times for them to be postponed. He said that Serbs will not discuss participation in those elections at all.

When asked if Serbs in the north of Kosovo would vote in upcoming local elections, he responded that they would not.

"Of course, the Serbs will not go to those elections. Should they vote for (Pristina's PM Albin) Kurti? I do not understand...", he said.

Asked what will happen after the election, he said that “Kurti will successfully rule North Mitrovica”, a city where two percent of Albanians live.

“You can imagine that legitimacy. It will be like under occupation and that’s why the Serbs are worried”, Vucic pointed out. He asked what he can do, because he cannot bring tanks into Kosovo, since we cannot defeat NATO, and our citizens will not die, he wants normal relations.

Regarding the trial in The Hague, he says that he does not expect anything.

“It is not for me to expect anything, but the question arises - did they convince us that they were all angels and wonderful people, and now they are being tried for war crimes. What did you build that place on?” he asked.

The final list of voters for the local elections in the north of Kosovo established (Beta, NMagazin, RTS)

The Central Election Commission of Kosovo (CEC) determined today the final list of voters for the extraordinary elections for mayors in four municipalities in the north of Kosovo.

There are 45,095 voters on the list, which is 1,345 more than in the 2021 local elections, reported portal NMagazin, citing Beta agency.

There are a total of 18,118 voters in the municipality of North Mitrovica, 13,318 in Leposavic, 6,661 in Zubin Potok and 6,998 in Zvecan.

Kosovo PM Albin Kurti, responding to a parliamentary question, called on citizens in the north of Kosovo to go to the polls and vote for their representatives.

"We are aware that the elections there are not the same as in the municipalities where the majority of the population is Albanian, because Serbia's obstructions are greater, both in terms of the media and in terms of the remaining parallel structures," Kurti said.

He said that the institutions of Kosovo will do everything in their power to ensure that the elections are held in order and peace.

Before March 9, the CEC officially started pre-election activities according to the operational plan for the extraordinary elections in four municipalities in the North of Kosovo, scheduled for April 23.

The elections were scheduled after the Serbs from the North, in November of last year, left the Kosovo institutions, including the municipalities, the Kosovo government, the assembly, and the municipal election commissions.

In the north of Kosovo, 10 polling stations in the next elections, in the last there were 44

At today's session, the CEC failed to determine the number of polling stations for the extraordinary elections on April 23, but the media, referring to their sources, reported that the opening of 10 polling stations is planned.

According to koha.net, based on the preliminary recommendations of the municipal election commissions, it will be possible to organise the elections in a total of 10 voting centres - 7 schools in localities mainly inhabited by Albanians and in the courtyards of three police stations Zvecan, Leposavic and North Mitrovica.

The CEC decided that the final decision will be made at the next session.

"The reason for postponing these points for the next meeting is that after the assessment of the municipal election commissions (MEC) in each municipality, a complete report will be received, which will be resolved in the CEC, because the municipal commissions did not prepare it in time," said the head of the CEC Secretariat Burim Ahmetaj.

Oathkeepers leader schedules emergency meeting of Committee on KiM (Beta, N1)

Leader of The Serbian Party Oathkeepers Milica Djurdjevic Stamenkovski announced yesterday that, as deputy chair of the Committee on Kosovo and Metohija, she has exercised her right under the Parliament Rules of Procedure and scheduled an emergency meeting of the Committee, reported N1.

Djurdjevic Stamenkovski stressed that not a single meeting of the Committee on Kosovo and Metohija has been held this year.

She said Committee chair Milovan Drecun was deliberately obstructing the work of the Committee and preventing MPs from voicing their opinion on the “consequences of accepting agreements that violate the Constitution and permanently deprive the state of Serbia of power in Kosovo and Metohija,” said Djurdjevic Stamenkovski.

She added that Drecun was refusing to apply the Rules of Procedure because he wanted to prevent “at all costs” a parliamentary debate on the most important state and national issue.

“It is my duty, as his deputy, to insist on the honouring of the Constitution and Rules of Procedure,” said the leader of the Oathkeepers.

Four opposition parties demand from Serbian public broadcaster to read out European plan publicly (Radio KIM)

Four opposition parties, New Democratic Party of Serbia (Nova DSS), Oath-keepers (Zavetnici), Movement for Renewal of the Serbian Kingdom (POKS) and Dveri Movement submitted demand to Serbian public broadcaster RTS to read provisions of the European agreement on normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina and its annex in its entirety in the main news edition and in all informative broadcasts, Radio KIM reports.

They told journalists in front of RTS premises that they will submit the same demands to Radio Television of Vojvodina (RTV) and all tv stations with national coverage.

They also carried a banner in front of the RTS saying “Important. Read what is hidden from you in the state media and assess yourself if this is a treason”, followed by the whole text of the agreement, which Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic they said verbally accepted.

Vucic: Serbia to boost presence in Africa (Tanjug)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on Thursday Serbia would boost its presence on the African continent and noted that it now had only 14 embassies there and that 12 were functional.

"We will have to change the entire strategy and become incomparably more present on the African continent", Vucic said at a press conference with Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who is on an official visit to Serbia.

It is unbelievable how quickly and easily Serbia gave up on Africa in the past - we could have had much greater influence there, Vucic said.

He announced that, in addition to Ghana and Nigeria, Serbia would open an embassy in Guinea-Bissau as well "in order to have a third embassy in the region, in view of President Embalo's reputation and his desire to help our country."

He said they had exchanged views on the geopolitical situation and the situation in Ukraine and that their positions had much in common, including regarding the issue of sanctions. Vucic also said he had accepted an invitation to visit Guinea-Bissau in October or November.

Apostolic Nuncio Gangemi: Holy See remains principled in its stance on Kosovo (RTS, Kosovo Online)

The Holy See remains principled in its stances concerning unilaterally declared Kosovo independence, Ambassador of the Holy See to Serbia, Apostolic Nuncio Santo Rocco Gangemi said in Subotica, RTS reports.

He also said the policy of the Vatican had not changed since the meeting of Pope Francis and President Aleksandar Vucic in 2019.

“The Holy See remains principled in its stance concerning unilaterally declared Kosovo independence. Of course we follow everything that happens here in the dialogue between the two sides, and also, as believers we pray for a solution to be found acceptable for both sides, peace and stability that all people dream about”, Gangemi told journalists.

Ahmetaj: Families of missing persons should be guaranteed right to know through all domestic and international legal remedies (KoSSev)

Kosovo transitional justice expert Nora Ahmetaj welcomed the recent agreement on a joint declaration on the missing between Belgrade and Pristina, saying that „it is necessary to guarantee their families the right to know, which is guaranteed by all domestic and international legal remedies, i.e. laws”, KoSSev portal reports.

Last month in Ohrid, the portal continues, the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed once again that in August, Serbia did not sign the already-prepared declaration on the missing because of the term “enforced disappearances“ that was unacceptable for Serbia.

On Tuesday this week, Belgrade and Pristina’s chief negotiators agreed on the text of the declarations on missing persons, which Vucic and Kurti will officially adopt at the next meeting, which is speculated to be held at the end of the month.

International

Serbia urged to uphold freedom of expression while also countering hate speech (news.un.org)

Legal reforms in Serbia must be accompanied by the effective implementation of laws to counter dangerous rhetoric against minorities, journalists and activists, UN independent human rights expert Irene Khan said on Thursday, concluding an official visit to the country.

The Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of expression said she was encouraged by the Government’s plans to reform media laws in line with international standards.

However, she was also alarmed by “the toxic public discourse, from politicians or public officials and amplified by tabloids, scapegoating the media, human rights defenders, ethnic minorities, LGBTI and those critical of the government.”