UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, August 27, 2024

Albanian Language Media:

Kurti: Meeting with CIA chief proves U.S. commitment to Kosovo security (media)
Selimi: CIA director’s visit seems to have had an effect in Kosovo (media)
COMKFOR meets Commander of Allied Joint Force Command Naples (media)
Kosovo Post Office expected to open in ‘Car Llazar’ square in Mitrovica North (Reporteri)
After entry into force of law on minimum wages, salaries increase from 6.8 euros (media)

Serbian Language Media:

Vucic denies Macron wants nuclear waste storage agreement (N1)
"They want to suppress and expel us, what else?"- Does Pristina want to change ethnic structure in north with new projects (Euronews in Serbian)
Ristanovic: Fear from ‘albanization’ of north justified, aim at expulsion of Serbs (Kosovo Online)
New Kosovo Post Office emerges in North Mitrovica after Serbian branches were closed down (KoSSev)
Media: Kurti avoided questions about Ibar Bridge (Kosovo Online)

Opinion:

For Serbia’s govt, law to ‘protect constitutional order’ is an anti-protest weapon (BIRN)

International:

Skepticism surrounds revived truth and reconciliation initiative in Kosovo (BIRN)
Kosovo’s capital expands tourism potential (Prishtina Insight)

Humanitarian/Development:

Why is the employment rate among women in Kosovo so low? (RFE)

Albanian Language Media

Kurti: Meeting with CIA chief proves U.S. commitment to Kosovo security (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said today that the visit by CIA Director William Burns to Kosovo is proof of the U.S. commitment for security and for preventing any threat to Kosovo’s security. “The meeting [with Burns] went very well and we certainly have cooperation with the United States of America and with this highly important institution of intelligence and security, primarily through the Kosovo Intelligence Agency. I thank the CIA chief who visited our country … [The visit] is another proof of the commitment of the United States of America for security and for preventing any security threat to our Republic, bilateral relations with the United States and America, and to peace and stability and regional security in the Western Balkans,” Kurti told reporters today.

Selimi: CIA director’s visit seems to have had an effect in Kosovo (media)

Several news websites report that Kosovo’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Petrit Selimi, wrote in a post on X on Monday that the visit by CIA director William Burns seems to have had an effect in Kosovo. “He brought the very same message the US Ambassador had: work with us, don’t escalate. All of the sudden, no daily barrage of plans to open the bridge anymore. Seems the issue is dusted & we can focus on other stuff,” he argued.

COMKFOR meets Commander of Allied Joint Force Command Naples (media)

Commander of the NATO-led KFOR mission, Major General Ozkan Ulutas, met with the Commander of the Allied Joint Force Command Naples, Admiral Stuart B. Munsch, at KFOR Headquarters, in Camp Film City, in Pristina. KFOR said in a Facebook post that Ulutas illustrated FOR's activities in support of lasting security across Kosovo and its support to the EU-facilitated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. “KFOR continues to implement its mandate - based on UN Security Council Resolution 1244 of 1999 - to contribute to a safe and secure environment for all people and communities living in Kosovo, and freedom of movement at all times and impartially. KFOR acts as the third security responder, in close coordination with the Kosovo Police and the European Union Rule of Law (EULEX) mission, which are the first and second security responders, respectively,” the post notes.

Kosovo Post Office expected to open in "Car Llazar" square in Mitrovica North (Reporteri)

The works for the functionalization of the Kosovo Post branches in North Mitrovica, have been completed and it is expected that the Post office branch will be opened in "Car Llazar" square.

As Kossev reports, an advertisement of the Post of Kosovo has been placed in a bar on the promenade near the main bridge of Iber and in the store itself workers can be seen working on preparing the facility for opening.At the beginning of July, the Post of Kosovo announced that it will open branches in the north of Kosovo.

After entry into force of law on minimum wages, salaries increase from 6.8 euros (media)

Media widely reported today that from the month of September, each employee in Kosovo must receive 6.8 euros more in salary, as the Tax Administration of Kosovo announced on August 23, the Law on the minimum wage and tax rates on annual personal income came into force.

The law that defines the minimum net salary of 250 euros also foresees changes in the tax rates.

Until now, salaries were taxed according to tax scales from 0 to 10 percent for primary work, while secondary ones with over 10 percent. In addition to the pension contribution, five percent from the employee and five percent from the employer, each worker contributes tax on salary to the state.

Until now, anyone who had a salary over 250 euros, up to this amount paid 6.8 euros in tax. With tax changes, there will be no tax up to this value and salaries will consequently increase.

Serbian Language Media

Vucic denies Macron wants nuclear waste storage agreement (N1)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied media reports that his French counterpart Emanuel Macron was coming to Belgrade for an agreement to store nuclear waste, N1 reported.

No one is naive enough to believe the nonsense in certain media that the French President is coming to Serbia to secure an agreement on storing nuclear waste in the country, Vucic told TV Pink. He recalled Serbia has a law preventing nuclear waste storage, adding that the issue was never discussed in Belgrade.

Vucic said that discussing nuclear capacities with Macron is extremely important adding that he sees no other solution for Serbia’s power supplies. A number of agreements will be discussed, including one with the French power company to prevent Serbia from being a country without electricity in a few years, he said. According to him, Serbia would have no electricity if it had not kept its coal-powered plants in operation.

“We are trying to find a solution to prevent us becoming a country without electricity in 8-10 years. A lot of countries will have electricity problems”, he said, adding that Serbia will face power problems.

"They want to suppress and expel us, what else?": Does Pristina want to change ethnic structure in north with new projects (Euronews in Serbian)

The Kosovo Ministry of Local Government Administration and the NGO “Orphans of the Balkans”, whose website states that it provides humanitarian aid in “all Albanian countries”, signed a memorandum on the construction of 200 houses in municipalities in the north of Kosovo. Serbs are excluded as beneficiaries in this project. In the past two years, the Kosovo Government allocated seven million euros for the construction of houses for Albanian returnees in the municipalities in the north. Euronews in Serbian said it wanted to check if such projects could influence the change in the structure of the population in municipalities where Serbs have always been the majority?

“Well, that’s just saying, they intend to suppress us as much as possible, not to mention expel us, what else”, one of the residents of North Mitrovica said.

His fellow resident also noted the same, who emphasizes the role of the USA and the EU in the process of intimidation, marginalization and expulsion of Serbs from Kosovo. “It’s big politics, it’s America, the European Union. We can’t do anything besides that.... Kurti goes his own way and that’s it. It’s his”, he said.

“Kosovo government is doing some things to change the situation on the ground”

The only returnee settlement in the north, built with the funds of Serbian Government Sunny Valley in Zvecan, is considered illegal by Pristina institutions, so they even stopped the construction of a road in it.

“The fact that the return of Albanians to the North is being planned should be welcomed as the fact that someone has decided to return to his home from where he was expelled. And the same question should be asked for Serbian returnees. Why is there no return to urban areas? I think that the Kosovo Government is very aware of this and is simply doing some things in order to change the situation on the ground”, journalist Ana Marija Ivkovic noted.

South of the Ibar River, there are almost no Serbs in the cities, and the return is minimal.

“People who tried to return to their homes, that is, to the houses that have been owned by them for decades, centuries, experienced being detained. So, first of all, I’m afraid, this is a message that tries to somewhat change the ethnic structure in the North”, she added.

On the other hand, Skender Sadiku, councilor of North Mitrovica Municipal Assembly, opined that the right to property and inheritance must be given to the Serbian majority community as well.

“Again, we are talking about one right, one sacred right, the property, the inheritance, as it was called, must be given to the Serbian majority community as well as other communities. And in this whole commotion, we should not forget that we have other communities that also pay the price”, Sadiku said.

Shops in the north are allocated to Albanians

The owners of shops and business premises in the north, again Serbs, also suffer, because more and more of them are allocated to Albanians. At the same time, for a Serb to start a business in a predominantly Albanian area is an impossible mission.

“First of all, the question should be asked why no Kosovo Serb was able to obtain/lease those premises. When those tenders were announced, how transparent and visible were those tenders for citizens of Serbian nationality... This is not necessarily bad, but it is bad if someone did it deliberately and in such a way that it was not transparent and not visible to other communities”, Ivkovic said.

“All this is viewed from the point of view of business, some companies are coming that will reduce prices and that there will be competition for citizens, but my God, it should be a very, very economic issue, not a national issue, because business is business at the end of the day”, Sadiku said.

Fuels stations, whose owners were Serbs until recently, are now guarded by Kosovo police, until the arrival of new Albanian owners. Rajska Banja health and tourist spa complex in Banjska is closed. Works on the construction of a University that was expelled from Pristina to Mitrovica North, schools for the education of Roma, apartments for socially vulnerable Serbs have also been suspended by current Mitrovica North municipal authorities, and the closure of Serbian institutions is slowly coming to an end. What remains are health and educational institutions - Euronews concluded.

Ristanovic: Fear from ‘albanization’ of north justified, aim at expulsion of Serbs (Kosovo Online)

An Associate Expert at the Institute of Serbian Culture in Leposavic, PhD. Petar Ristanovic told Kosovo Online portal that there is justified fear among the Serbs in the north because of Kosovo Government plan to build 200 houses for non-Serb communities there and privatization of business premises until recently used by the Serbian community, in particular within the context of current tensions.

"I think there is a reason for fear among Serbs if you look at everything in the context of wider events. If the situation in that area was normal, if there were no tensions, the construction of houses for the poor and members of minority communities or the privatization of the premises of failed companies would be something completely normal and expected (…)”, he said.

“However, in the context of current events and current de facto attempts to force Serbs to emigrate, i.e. to create such living conditions that an increasing number of Serbs decide to emigrate from parts of Kosovo that are still majority populated by Serbs, then these events are part of one broader policy that is not official, but we are all witnesses that it exists on the ground", Ristanovic added.

He also said most of the problems targeting the Serbs in the north started once Albin Kurti came to power. “The situation was far from ideal also before, but there were negotiations and there was understanding of all three involved parties – Pristina, Belgrade and the international community. Any long-term agreement and normalization of the situation in Kosovo were not possible without the consent of the Serbian sides – both Serbs in Kosovo and Serbs in Belgrade”, he said, adding that now Kurti with the policy of force has changed that, wanting to bring the situation to ‘a fait accompli’ so the future final agreement would only accept the changed situation on the gorund created by force, formal and informal pressures against the Serb community.

New Kosovo Post Office emerges in North Mitrovica after Serbian branches were closed down (KoSSev)

Less than a month after the closure of Serbian Post offices in North Kosovo, a new branch of Kosovo Post is being established on the main promenade in North Mitrovica. The installation of the Kosovo Post’s yellow logo is a clear sign that the facility is on the verge of opening, KoSSev portal reported today.

On-site observations confirm that construction work is actively ongoing. The Kosovo Post sign has been erected, and efforts are now focused on refurbishing the building’s exterior. Simultaneously, a sign for the mobile operator Vala is also being installed at the same location, suggesting that both services might share the facility.

However, the exact date when this new postal branch will begin operations remains uncertain. Although the Kosovo media outlet Kallxo suggested that the branch could open today, no official confirmation has been provided. The initial announcement of Kosovo Post’s expansion into North Kosovo was made by Minister of Local Government Administration, Elbert Krasniqi, immediately after the Serbian Post facilities were shuttered.

Minister Krasniqi had stated that Kosovo Post would begin offering services in the region, but so far, the only visibly operational Kosovo Post office in North Kosovo is in the village of Banjska, located in the Zvecan municipality. This facility, situated on the ground floor of the Rajska Banja health and tourism spa complex, was officially opened in June 2024, more than seven months after the Kosovo Privatization Agency took control of the property.

The closure of the Serbian Post offices earlier this month affected nine facilities across North Kosovo. This included three post offices in Mitrovica, two in the Zvecan municipality, one in Zubin Potok, and three in the Leposavic municipality. These closures have left the local Serbian community with limited postal services, highlighting the ongoing tensions in the region.

Media: Kurti avoided questions about Ibar Bridge (Kosovo Online)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti avoided responding to the journalist’s question related to the opening of the Ibar River Bridge during the visit to the renovated part of the Emergency Clinic, part of the University Clinical Centre in Pristina, Kosovo Online portal reported.

The portal further said citing Pristina-based Ekonomia Online after being asked about the Ibar River Bridge, Kurti turned his back to the journalist and started leaving the room surrounded by bodyguards. As the video shows Kurti wanted to use one exit, and then passed by journalists again and left to the other side.

A few weeks ago, Kurti announced the opening of the Ibar River bridge connecting North and South Mitrovica, which was met with sharp criticism from the US and the EU with the message that the issue must be resolved within the dialogue in Brussels.

The portal recalled the recent visit of CIA chief Willian Burns in Kosovo and his meeting with Kurti, with many believing that he came because of the situation in the north and announcements of the bridge opening.

Opinion

For Serbia’s govt, law to ‘protect constitutional order’ is an anti-protest weapon (BIRN)

Opinion piece by Milena Vasic, a lawyer at the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, YUCOM in Belgrade.

The anti-lithium mining activists arrested recently in Serbia are the latest victims of a law barring ‘calls for a violent change in the constitutional order’ that the authorities have used regularly against peaceful protesters.

In mid-August it was reported that, days after a series of anti-lithium mining protests in Serbia, ending with a mass protest in Belgrade, Serbian police took away numerous citizens, most of them connected to environmental organisations, for interrogation.

These activists were intercepted in some cases while attempting to go on vacation, their homes were searched, and they were questioned in pre-investigative proceedings for criminal offences.

At the time of writing, the exact number of those who have suffered legal consequences for their engagement in this way is unknown, but it is clear that the cases number several dozen.

This was just the latest in a series of government campaigns that involve people being detained for questioning due to their alleged calls for a violent change in the constitutional order.

The immediate trigger for such a harsh reaction from state agencies was the participation of citizens in protests against lithium mining, with consequences also affecting the administrators of the Facebook page “Activism”.

The past five years have witnessed various attempts by the Serbian state to prevent citizens from exercising their right to peaceful assembly