Albanian Language Media:

• COVID-19: 3 new cases, no deaths (media)
• Vitia: Purchased vaccines from Pfizer arrive in Kosovo by end of the month (RTK)
• 7 years on from the Berlin Process, regional disputes are still looming (euronews.al)
• Meetings in Brussels, preparations for the Kurti-Vucic meeting (RFE Albanian) 
• Kurti receives a letter from Israeli PM Naftali Benett (media)
• Albert Zogaj takes office as KJC chairman (media)
• Greek FM speaks about Kosovo’s independence (media)
• PDK accuses Gervalla of another diplomatic scandal (Koha)
• Kosovo convicts Serb ex-policeman of wartime rape (media)
• Dissatisfied with first Kurti-Vucic meeting, family members of the missing insist to be included (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• Leaders of the Western Balkans today at the Berlin Process Summit: Four agreements on the table (euronews.rs)
• Stano: Belgrade and Pristina main negotiators on Wednesday in Brussels (Tanjug, Kosovo Online)
• Petkovic: We start new round of talks with CSM (Kosovo-online)
• Youth Initiatives on Djakovica: This is nothing new, violence cannot be justified (N1)
• YIHR: End hostility towards Kosovo Serb community (KoSSev)
• UNS and its branch in Kosovo react to TV Syri reporting (Radio KIM)
• Protest in Gracanica over arrest of Risto Jovanovic (RTS)
• Pandemic: Number of addicts to psychoactive substances increased, problems due to the non-compliance with the Law on the Use of Languages (KiM radio)
• Protest in North Mitrovica due to incidents targeting the Serbian community (Kontakt plus radio)

International:

• Susanne Schütz: Political issues should be left out of the Berlin Process (DW)
• Civil society members urge EU to apply consistent conditionality to the Western Balkans (EWB)

 

 

Albanian Language Media  

 

COVID-19: 3 new cases, no deaths (media)

Three new cases with COVID-19 and no deaths from the virus were recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. Five persons have recovered from the virus during this time. 569 doses were administered in the last 24 hours. 49, 616 persons in Kosovo have received the second dose of the vaccine to date. There are 158 active cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Vitia: Purchased vaccines from Pfizer arrive in Kosovo by the end of the month (RTK)

RTK reports that as of today, mass vaccination against Covid-19 has started, throughout Kosovo. The Minister of Health, Arben Vitia during his visit to the vaccination center "October 1" said ‘from today we are entering a new phase of vaccination and this marks a momentum for return to normal.’

Vitia announced that at the end of this month a contingent of vaccines purchased by Kosovo from the Pfizer company will arrive and added that the arrival of 40 thousand doses from COVAX is expected.

He said that all the necessary preparations have already been made for the realization of this process.

Vitia said that based on the current capacity of vaccines, the aim is to vaccinate up to 350 thousand people per month, while adding that the priority is to vaccinate 60 percent of the population by the end of the year.

7 years on from the Berlin Process, regional disputes are still looming (euronews.al)

The Berlin Process is an initiative established by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2014. It aims to improve regional cooperation between the countries of the Western Balkans and consequently support their path to EU membership.

But even after seven years of periodical meetings, the process remains at a stalemate.

After Germany, several other countries have also hosted the summit, including Austria, France, the UK, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, and North Macedonia. One of the major achievements reached so far has been the adoption of the plan to have a common regional trade market, as well as building bridges to bring closer the younger generation. Another success story has been the removal of roaming tariffs between neighbor states. The main objective of the Berlin Process is the establishment of a common regional market, adopted last year in Sofia. The project seeks to achieve the four EU freedoms before the end of 2024, namely the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital. On July 5, leaders are expected to come to an agreement paving the way to travel across the region only with an ID card, as well as mutual recognition of university diplomas.

Currently, the so-called Balkan mini-Schengen also seeks to achieve the four freedoms of the EU. The initiative was initially proposed by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and has received the endorsement of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and North Macedonia’s Zoran Zaev, however, it has been widely contested by Kosovo and the other countries in the region.

So far, millions of Euros have been accorded for joint projects, however very little has been achieved.

In 2019, the EU accorded €700 million for eight infrastructure projects, where €180 million were in the form of grants. The main benefiter was North Macedonia, which has been highly regarded since the Prespa Agreement, where it reached a deal with Greece over the country’s name.

The other countries in the region have been slower in attracting these investments due to weak projecting capacities.

Just recently, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, announced a €30 billion investment package for the region, however, according to him the plan will not work out unless the region does not work as a whole.

The unresolved disputes in the region have continuously acted as impediments to the proper functioning of the initiatives that arose from the Berlin Process. As the current meeting will be the last attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel as she closes down on her political career in Fall, it remains to be seen what the fate of this initiative will be.

Meetings in Brussels, preparations for the Kurti-Vucic meeting (RFE Albanian) 

The European Union confirmed that the meeting in the framework of the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, at the level of negotiators, will take place on Wednesday, July 7.

Prior to this meeting, the delegations of both parties will have separate meetings with representatives of the European Union.

The Kosovo delegation will meet with EU representatives on July 6, while the Serbian delegation on July 7.

The meeting of the two teams will then take place, mediated by the EU.

These are the first talks at this level since the first meeting between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on June 15.

The Kosovo delegation will be led by Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi, while the Serbian delegation will be led by the Director of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, Petar Petkovic.

EU sources in Brussels did not specify what the topics of these meetings will be, but warned that they will also talk about the agreements reached so far, as well as the progress of the dialogue process for the normalization of relations.

This meeting is said to serve to prepare a new meeting between the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, which is expected to take place later this month in Brussels.

The EU continues to reiterate that the agreements reached earlier in the dialogue must be implemented, including the establishment of an Association of Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo.

For this, the EU expects Kosovo to come up with a proposal on how to implement it, as with a decision of the Assembly, it has taken over this international obligation.

Kurti - whose government was formed in March - has said that there can be no mono-ethnic association in Kosovo.

Kurti receives a letter from Israeli PM Naftali Benett (media)

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, received a response to his letter to the Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett.

In his letter, Kurti expressed the views of Kosovo on cultural heritage and the importance of its protection.

Thanking him for the letter, Prime Minister Bennett expressed his gratitude that Kurti shared his views with him and other world leaders on the important and delicate topic of cultural heritage protection.

"Israel will gladly assist you in preserving monuments of universal cultural value, as well as assist you in paying attention to them, and turning them into a tourist destination. We have a great experience with our cultural facilities in Israel, especially in Jerusalem, and we will gladly share with you what we know in this regard," the letter reads.

On behalf of the government of Israel, PM Bennett expressed his gratitude for the opening of the Kosovo Embassy in Jerusalem 

Albert Zogaj takes office as KJC chairman (media)

Media report that chairman of the Kosovo Judicial Council Skender Coqaj, handed over his duties to Albert Zogaj. The latter pledged to do his utmost to follow all the initiatives and work that is underway in the Kosovo Judicial Council, while adding that soon they will have a regulation on the norms of judges.

"The Judicial Council has recently had important initiatives in addressing important issues in the judicial system. In this context we will soon have the regulation on the norm of judges that will have a significant impact on the quality of work in the judiciary. I think that the Judicial Council in the future will aim at monitoring, oversight, and accountability in the judicial system. For this purpose, we have other initiatives where the recruitment of judges remains an important issue, a process which we think should have strong criteria "to have judges with integrity," he said.

He spoke about the vetting process, for which he said that it is not up to the Judicial Council to give an answer on this issue.

He congratulated the former chairman Skender Coqaj for his work at the head of the Judicial Council, for whom he said that he has managed the work of the council very well even during the pandemic.

Greek FM speaks about Kosovo’s independence (media)

Recognition of Kosovo's independence is one of the most heated debates between Serbia's relations with other countries.

Serbian media have recently written about a statement by Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias regarding the recognition of Kosovo's independence.

Dendias referred to the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruling on Kosovo's declaration of independence.

"Regarding the legality of possible recognition, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled in 2010 that Kosovo's declaration of independence does not constitute a violation of international law, because it is not a product of the use of illegal violence condemned by the Security Council, called the Turkish pseudo-state in Cyprus in 1983. With the fall of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, many new states were established, none of which were the result of foreign attacks," Dendias said.

Meanwhile, among other things, he said that the responsibility for the poorly formulated issue of the ICJ in The Hague about the illegality of Kosovo's declaration of independence lies with the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vuk Jeremic.

The ICJ opinion was sought by the Democratic Party government, whose foreign minister was Vuk Jeremic, and according to the court, Albanians had the right to declare independence.

PDK accuses Gervalla of another diplomatic scandal (Koha)

Betim Gjoshi from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) has accused the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Donika Gervalla, of another diplomatic scandal, as according to him, she did not directly congratulate the USA Independence Day.

Gjoshi said that "when she speaks, but also when she is silent, this minister is scandalous".

"It happened for the first time in the history of the Republic of Kosovo and it crosses the borders of the diplomatic scandal. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo, Donika Schwarz, in the government led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, did not congratulate the United States of America’s Independence Day, July 4. Donika Schwarz did not make any direct wishes for the strategic ally, but she was satisfied with a redistribution of the Twitter post of MFA Kosovo, the site that made scandalous posts," Gjoshi wrote on Facebook.

Kosovo convicts Serb ex-policeman of wartime rape (media)

The Basic Court in Prishtina found guilty a Serb former police officer of raping an Albanian woman during an attack in May 1999 in Vushtrri. Zoran Vukotic has been sentenced to ten years imprisonment. This is the first time a local court convicts someone of wartime rape.

Kosovo Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims (KRCT) has reacted saying that “although delayed justice, today marks a turning point and hope, not only for the victim who recognized her rapist and testified against him, but for all other survivors, that one day justice will be served.”

According to the indictment, Vukotic as member of Serbian reserve police forces, in violation with the rules of humanitarian law, during the war in Kosovo, on 22 May 1999, in perpetration with other members of Serbian military, police and paramilitary forces, participated in deportation of Albanian civilians in Vushtrri and used physical and psychological force and other inhuman treatment of civilians.

Vukotic was arrested in Montenegro and extradited to Kosovo in November 2016. He is serving a six-year prison sentence found guilty earlier of illegally detaining Albanian civilians being kept at the Smrekonica prison in May and June 1999. 

Dissatisfied with first Kurti-Vucic meeting, family members of the missing insist to be invited (media)

Family members are disappointed with the way the issue of missing persons was addressed in the first meeting between Prime Minister Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

The next meeting between Kosovo and Serbia will be on July 25, while a lower ranking meeting is expected to take place this week as well. The relatives insist that when the issue of the missing is discussed, they should also be part of the delegation.

Bajram Cerkini from the Missing Persons Resource Center said he was disappointed by the first meeting between Kurti and Vucic. He said the Kosovo chief executive should have insisted on the apology of the Serbian president.

"I am very disappointed because what was promised before going to dialogue, was not said or mentioned. First of all, they should have sought from that 'Balkan butcher' regret for what happened to the defenseless bodies of the Republic of Kosovo. Not only that the Prime Minister did not ask for his regret or apology, but he had set it as the fourth point which was disappointing for the family members, considering what was promised and what should have been said," Cerkini said.

Cerkini assessed that the Kosovo delegation did not go well prepared in the first meeting and expressed hope for change in the future meetings. He insisted that the missing should not be left as the fourth point.

He also said that representatives of family members should be part of the delegation whenever there is talk on the missing persons.

He added that in order to find out the whereabouts of the bodies of over 1,600 people who continue to be missing, one should talk to everyone, including Veljko Odalovic, that the Kosovo delegation asked to be removed from the position of the head of the Serbian delegation for the missing.

 

 

 

Serbian Language Media

 

Leaders of the Western Balkans today at the Berlin Process Summit: Four agreements on the table (euronews.rs)

A new Berlin Process Summit for the Western Balkans is scheduled for today in Berlin, this time in online format, due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is expected that, as the director for Southeast Europe in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Susanne Schutz, announced, four agreements will be offered for signing to the Summit participants, and the rule will be that no initials will be placed unless all countries agree, reported Euronews Serbia. .

The German official said that it would be offered to sign agreements: on free movement with ID cards, a single travel space for citizenship of third countries, but also on the recognition of professional and academic diplomas.

Ahead of the upcoming summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the initiator of the Berlin Process, held talks with the leaders of the Western Balkans. 

On the occasion, Nemanja Todorovic Stiplija, editor of the European Western Balkans portal, reminds Euronews Serbia that the Berlin Process is an initiative launched by Germany in 2014, which emerged as a special flywheel for the greatest possible rapprochement of the Western Balkans, which cannot be expected through European integration or bilateral relations between the countries of the Western Balkans.

"Accelerate integration’’

"The countries in the Western Balkans are burdened with bilateral problems, various problems they have with each other. However, the Berlin process has led to this integration, regardless of European integration, to accelerate as much as possible. The Berlin process is the only initiative in the last few years that had significant results, so one of the results are these few agreements that are part of creating a single economic space," he said.

He adds that these are concrete agreements concerning the creation of a single economic space, which has been underway since the Trieste Summit, which was the third summit of the Berlin Process. He also emphasizes that these are things that will finally be visible for the citizens of the Western Balkan countries.

However, he notes that the movement with the ID card has existed for many years, and that the only difference is that Albania will also open its borders for the citizens of Serbia and BiH.

"There is still one big problem, and that is the problem of the visa regime between BiH and Kosovo," he states.

Given that the rule will be that no initials will be placed unless all countries agree to it, Todorovic Stiplija states that Serbia undertook in the Brussels Agreement not to block Kosovo and its membership in regional initiatives.

"It remains to be seen whether, on the one hand, Serbia, on the other hand, Kosovo will be consistent with everything they signed and will not block each other," he noted.

Merkel's last meeting with the leaders of the Western Balkans

The interlocutor of Euronews Serbia notes that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Berlin process was one of the great successes during her last term.

"This is her last time she will see the leaders of the Western Balkans, and we are expecting another chancellor at the summit of the leaders of the Western Balkans and the EU leaders in October. The fact that these agreements have been harmonized and will be signed, this time talks about Germany returning the Berlin process home," he states and adds that by returning the process to Berlin, the chancellor herself and this German government want to leave some trace.

When asked about the benefits of Mini Schengen, Todorovic Stiplija states that he completely relies on all these initiatives. However, he sees the mini-Schengen move as a "PR move" by three leaders "who want to show that something is being done there, even though all those initiatives may have already been agreed at the side".

"Some countries are not interested in Mini Schengen, first we have the case of Montenegro, which says that it is too close to the EU to enter another initiative. On the other hand, Kosovo, due to its internal positions, and it concerns being an equal partner and the state as a part of any process, it does not want Mini Schengen, and the promotion of Mini Schengen through our media is not at the level that Mini Schengen really is. After Mini Schengen, apart from that declaration, we do not have any paper, we do not have any action plan, no step to make that Mini Schengen work,'' he states and adds that we do not have a precisely defined Mini Schengen.

Stano: Belgrade and Pristina main negotiators on Wednesday in Brussels (Tanjug, Kosovo Online)

A new round of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina at the level of the main negotiators will be held on Wednesday, July 7, in Brussels, EU spokesman Peter Stano told Tanjug today, portal Kosovo Online cited.

The Belgrade delegation will be led by the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic and Pristina, for the first time as the head of the negotiating team, will be led by the Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi.

The meeting of technical talks between the delegations of Belgrade and Pristina will be hosted by the EU Special Representative, Miroslav Lajcak

Although EU foreign minister Josep Borell announced a new round of high-level dialogue at the end of July, Peter Stano told Tanjug that a "possible meeting" between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti would be announced "when the time comes''. 

Diplomatic sources in Brussels state for Tanjug that the meeting at the highest level will be scheduled in relation to what was achieved during the expert talks on controversial topics.

The Serbian side announced that the issues of missing persons, energy and the ZSO, which Pristina has not implemented for 3,000 days since the signing of the agreement, will be on the table.

"If the disputed topics are not resolved at the technical level, a new meeting of experts will be scheduled. If an agreement is reached, the finalization will be at a meeting at a high political level," Tanjug was told in Brussels.

Petkovic: We start new round of talks with CSM (Kosovo-online)

Office for Kosovo and Metohija Director Petar Petkovic said the new round of technical dialogue with Pristina would start with the topic of Community of Serb-majority Municipalities (CSM), Kosovo-online portal reports.

Petkovic added tomorrow would mark 3.000 days since the Brussels agreement was signed and that Pristina didn’t fulfill its part of the agreement and first six points relating to the ZSO.

“This would certainly be the main topic for us, and we will also discuss missing persons since this is an important issue affecting both sides, and it is not only a political issue but a civilizational one”, Petkovic said.

Petkovic also said the agreement on freedom of movement would be one of the topics given that Pristina was misusing it as well as other signed agreements.

He said they would talk about security of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija and the return of displaced persons.

Petkovic assessed that current Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurit “doesn’t understand the time, reality and world political opportunities, negates all and doesn’t want to accept agreements because they were signed by Pristina representatives before him”.

“However, he must realize the history doesn’t begin with him, but there are obligations Prisitna undertook in the period before him and what has been negotiated upon must be respected today. That is what we will request in Brussels, implementation of all signed agreements. We have fulfilled everything and now Pristina must fulfill its obligations”, Petkovic underlined.

Youth Initiatives on Djakovica: This is nothing new, violence cannot be justified (N1)

Marko Milosavljevic from the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and Trina Binaku from the same organization in Pristina spoke on the N1 TV show about the case of Dragica Gasic, a returnee to Djakovica.  Milosavljevic says the violence cannot be justified by anything, while Binaku points out that "it is nothing new". 

"There are many cases of violations of the rights of the Serb community, which are dealt with only by the Serb community. It is no surprise that there was no reaction from the Government of Kosovo," she said, adding that as a civil sector they are trying to "ensure that everyone in Kosovo has the right to live where they want, to be able to move into their apartment, property ..."

Dragica Gasic from Djakovica returned to her apartment in this city on June 9 this year. And since then, she has faced threats and pressures daily. The last in a row was on June 30, when the authorities in the municipality prevented her from replacing the door on her apartment and installing an armored one instead. Her door was eventually taken away.

Milosavljevic thinks that the problem is that the Government of Kosovo and a decreasing number of international missions have not clearly and adequately reacted to the "wave of violent incidents that we have been witnessing very frequently in the last month".

As he says, speaking about the Government of Kosovo, he thinks that it is being calculated what is the national interest of the Kosovo government. 

"Nothing can justify that violence," he said.

Trina Binaku says the case became popular in the Kosovo media after the reaction of 11 NGOs, which demanded "that legal measures be taken and that a woman with Serbian citizenship who returned to live in Djakovica move out as soon as possible."

"This is nothing new, there are numerous cases of violation of the rights of the Serbian community, which are dealt with only by the Serbian community. It is no surprise that there was no reaction from the Government of Kosovo, especially if we look at all this in the light of the previous non-existence of any reaction. We as NGOs, as human rights activists, have approached this issue. We are trying to put pressure on public institutions to apply human rights standards in this case. The state is obliged to treat every citizen in the same way, and it did not do that," she says.

She pointed out that as a civil sector, they are trying to "ensure that everyone in Kosovo has the right to live where they want, to be able to move into their apartment, property".

"It means every community, not just the Serb one," she said.

She added that "all parties have a one-sided narrative about what happened".

Speaking about the previous meeting between the representatives of Belgrade and Pristina, Milosavljevic says that the messages were "quite aggressive, from both sides".

"One of the first recommendations of Working Group 35 of the National Convention for the EU, when negotiations began more than 10 years ago, was that the message of the representatives of Serbia and Kosovo must be common," he said.

YIHR: End hostility towards Kosovo Serb community (KoSSev)

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia called on the Kosovo Government and international missions in Kosovo to prevent additional violent incidents directed against the Kosovo Serb community. “End the hostility toward the Serb community“, YIHR said in a statement, KoSSev portal reports.

One of the most well-known youth organizations in Serbia and the Western Balkans reacted with a statement following a series of reports on incidents against Serbs in Kosovo.

So far, Kosovo officials, including the Kosovo Police, did not react. The KoSSev portal’s multiple inquiries with the KP Media Office in Pristina were mostly unanswered as well.

“Instead of keeping silent about the graffiti directed against Serbs at Christ the Savior Church in Pristina, the burning of the flag of the Gracanica Monastery and the lynching of the returnee Dragica Gasic in Djakovica, the Kosovo Government must clearly condemn and stop this wave of violence“, YIHR said.

They warned that if these incidents continue without prosecution and clear condemnation – it will be just another reason for violence and hatred in Kosovo, but also between Belgrade and Pristina.

They called on the Kosovo Government to respect the rights and safety of returnees, reminding them of the case of Dragica Gasic.

“Eleven associations of victims and NGOs from Djakovica joined the persecution and lynching of Gasic“, YIHR recalled.

Unprocessed war crimes and the unresolved fate of missing Albanians, as well as the political struggle for local elections in this town, must not be used as an excuse for revengeful violence against one woman, the YIHR warned.

“This type of violence and intolerance do not represent the civic values ​​that CSOs should represent, they do not contribute to the dialogue or the culture of remembrance in Kosovo society“, activists from Serbia emphasized.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3AuVxM3

UNS and its branch in Kosovo react to TV Syri reporting (Radio KIM)

Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) and its branch in Kosovo have protested over unprofessional reporting of Djakovica-based TV Syri, pointing out that journalists were obliged to report with particular attention about the topics such as return of Serb woman Dragica Gasic, Radio KIM reports. The associations added  it was unacceptable to portray in a negative context and make the correspondents of Serbian media outlets Euronews and TV Prva who were on the spot, become a topic of the (TV Syri) report.

The TV Syri journalist asked present journalists at Dragica Gasic’s doorstep what country they come from and received a response that it was about TV Prva and Euronews media outlets based in Belgrade.

“We are distressed, but also disappointed by the unprofessional act of the local journalists in Djakovica. We didn’t know they were recording, we spoke with them as with our colleagues. Given that Djakovica is a town forbidden for the Serbs, this was a direct drawing of a target on Euronews and TV Prva media teams. However, they will not stop us from doing our job. I do not believe anyone would really have the strength to protect us, but, I repeat, we would continue reporting professionally as it was the case up to now”, Andjelka Cup, Euronews reporter and a member of UNS Management Board said.

UNS and its branch in Kosovo, expect representatives of the international community and media regulatory bodies to react to the TV Syri reporting having in mind creation of an environment of ethnic tension and intolerance.

They also recalled it was about a particularly sensitive topic and the area where the least media unprofessionalism could have as a consequence endangering the safety of citizens and journalists.

Protest in Gracanica over arrest of Risto Jovanovic (RTS)

A hundred citizens took part in a protest walk in Gracanica on Saturday, over the arrest of Risto Jovanovic from Podgorica, RTS reports.

They demanded unconditional release of Jovanovic, arrested without legal grounds, they said.

The Basic Court in Pristina sent Jovanovic to 30-day detention, because as the court said “he incited religious hatred and brought members of the Albanian ethnicity into danger”.

Jovanovic is currently in detention in Mitrovica North, and his defense lawyer Jovana Filipovic said she filed a complaint to the Court of Appeals.

Jovanovic was arrested by Kosovo special police on June 28, as he attempted to point out verbally the needless search of the nun's purse at the entry of Gazimestan. 

Pandemic: Number of addicts to psychoactive substances increased, problems due to the non-compliance with the Law on the Use of Languages (KiM radio)

During the coronavirus pandemic, the number of addicts to psychoactive substances increased, said the executive director of the NGO Labyrinth, Safet Blakaj, in the show "Heroes in the age of coronavirus". According to him, at the same time, the problems within families that have addicts have increased. In the same show, lector and civil activist Sanja Vukovic spoke about the problems caused by non-compliance with the Law on the Use of Languages.

KiM radio reported that one of the main problems of the Serb community in Kosovo, especially at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, was non-compliance with the law on the use of language, which referred to unavailability of information, delays and poor translation of decisions and measures to prevent the spread of the virus, said lecturer and civil activist Sanja Vukovic

- We had a situation where we didn't have a translation of the measures for more than 24 hours, that we didn't know when we could move, that we didn't know when we could leave the house. In the beginning, it was by ID card numbers. Many ministries acted very irresponsibly during the pandemic, Vukovic said.

Seeing, as she said, how many problems the lack of respect for language rights creates for the Serbian community, the Network for Civil Activism, which brings together 13 civil society organizations from central Kosovo and Kosovo Pomoravlje, offered translators and lecturers to all ministries in the Kosovo Government, in order to provide information to citizens in the Serbian language. However, according to Vukovic, no ministry has responded or been interested in co-operation.

-This was simply not a question of religion, nation, affiliation, or anything, but it was necessary for all of us to put our capacities at our disposal in order to save human lives and to get out of this situation as well as possible. Except for the Office of the Commissioner, which accepted our invitation and forwarded it to all ministries, none of them answered affirmatively that they wanted our help, but continued to hire agencies of extremely poor quality through some tenders, and that is why we constantly had information delays, poorly translated measures, poorly translated statements, instructions, said Vukovic. 

In her opinion, the responsibility for violating the law on the use of language during the coronavirus crisis should be borne primarily by the Prime Minister, and then by all ministers in the Government of Kosovo.

"Starting with the prime minister, who is in fact the head of all ministers, to all ministers and all those who do not understand that the exclusive Albanian population does not live in Kosovo; and who must understand that everything they do, they do it for everyone. That there are other citizens here, not only Serbs, besides Albanians, but there are also Turks, Roma, Egyptians, Ashkali, Croats ...," she said. 

The executive director of the non-governmental organization "Labyrinth", which deals with prevention and treatment from drug use, Safet Blakaj, said that according to the data of this organization, there are about 2,630 registered drug addicts in Kosovo, of which 3.5 percent are Serbs. However, Blakaj points out that their number is much higher in Kosovo.

"We believe that there are about 40,000 or more people in Kosovo who use drugs. We divide it into two categories: those who use drugs and those who are addicted to drugs,'' said Blakaj

He says that since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Kosovo, there has been a problem of protection and assistance to drug addicts. The first, according to him, is that people who use drugs in a risky way are in trouble, because they need daily consumption, and it is difficult to get it in emergency conditions. And the second, as he states, is confinement due to various measures in order to suppress the virus, as a result of which there was violence within families in which there are drug addicts.

"We think that there was aggression in the family and that was two-way. Sometimes the family was more aggressive towards family members who use narcotics, and those who took narcotics were aggressive towards other family members ... I think that there were many more priorities for some other things during the pandemic than for people who use drugs," said Blakaj.

Protest in North Mitrovica due to incidents targeting the Serbian community (Kontakt plus radio)

Kontakt plus radio reported that a local resident of North Mitrovica, Aleksandar Arsenijevic, came up with an idea to organize a protest walk due to a series of incidents directed at the Serbian community, which have been recorded in Kosovo in the past period. 

In a statement to Kontakt Plus, he warned that such incidents could lead to the silent emigration of Serbs from Kosovo. 

''There are 1,000 things that scare me a lot as a citizen, and the majority don’t consider them as important, especially the government in Pristina. For example.when Risto Jovanovic was arrested, they said: “Gazimestan is there to fuel Serbian nationalism. The question is, when me and my family or one of us goes to visit one of our holy shrines in Kosovo and Metohija, will it be seen as the feeding of nationalism, and so someone will arrest me in the middle of the monastery ...” he said. 

In his Facebook post, he invited interested fellow residents to join him at the monument to Prince Lazar in North Mitrovica, at 6 pm, from where it is planned that those that would gather would walk to the main bridge. 

Radio Kontakt plus reported that a protest was announced, and those who join it will be considered the organizers. 

Arsenijevic said that because of the holiday season, he didn’t expect many people to protest, but that everyone who has a developed awareness of what was happening with the Serbian community in Kosovo, should join.

The goal of this protest is to send a message about the position of the Serbian community to the addresses of those organizations and embassies, which, as Arsenijevic said, call for democracy, human rights and liberalism. 

Radio Kontakt recalled that according to the records of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, since the beginning of the year, there have been a total of seventy attacks on Serbs, their property and the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church, while in 2020 there were a total of 80. 

 

 

International

 

Susanne Schütz: Political issues should be left out of the Berlin Process (DW)

Merkel gathers today in a video conference for the last time the leaders of the Western Balkans. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Susanne Schütz sheds light on the background of the meeting on the Berlin Process.

Deutsche Welle: Mrs. Schütz, what prompted Germany to launch the Berlin Process as a diplomatic offensive in the Western Balkans?

Susanne Schütz: The German government, in 2014, launched the Berlin Process together with the countries of the region and other partners to promote regional cooperation and at the same time to accelerate the rapprochement of the six Western Balkan countries with the European Union. As then, so it is now: The future of the Western Balkans is in the European Union, that is our conviction.

The focus of the Berlin Process is concrete improvements to the daily lives of people in the region. For example, the Agreement on the abolition of roaming tariffs from 1 July. Transport and energy infrastructure has greatly expanded over the last seven years and is connected to the EU corridors. The Regional Youth Office (RYCO), which has brought together the region's youth, is also a long-term achievement for the future. These results show that successful cooperation in the Berlin Process is possible.

See more at: https://bit.ly/3hiPx1w

Civil society members urge EU to apply consistent conditionality to the Western Balkans (EWB)

BERLIN – Inconsistent EU conditionality in the Western Balkans, where the achievements are not rewarded and problems not tackled, is creating problems for the Union, and this needs to change, highlighted the opening event of the Civil Society and Think Tank Forum II.

The Forum, taking place online on the same day as the Berlin Process Summit, is organised by Aspen Institute Germany and Southeast Europe Association. The opening of the Forum featured a video message by German Chancellor Angela Merkel who said that she saw the future of the Western Balkans in the EU, and that both sides should work on this goal.

See more at:https://bit.ly/2VaBClC