UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, September 11, 2020

Albanian Language Media:

COVID-19: 50 new cases, five deaths (media)
Hoti: France and Netherlands impede visa liberalization (media)
Aliu accuses Hoti for granting ownership of Ujman lake to Serbia (media)
Haxhiu: Kosovo’s Bosnianisation will not be allowed, Hoti should leave (RTK)
Kosnett: U.S. and Kosovo to strengthen partnership against terrorism (RTK)
Civil society: There was no transparency on Washington agreement (media)
The United States, Kosovo and Serbia nominated for Nobel Peace Prize (media)

Serbian Language Media:

Two new cases of Covid-19 in Serbian communities, five patients recovered (Kontakt plus radio)
Vucic says Serbia managed to open White House doors (media)
US envoy: Serbia faces many burdensome political decisions (FoNet, N1)
Moscow daily: New govt. will show if Serbia changes foreign policy (Beta, N1)
Kosovo Police: Four graves damaged in Zakovo during works on water supply (Kosovo Online)
Office for KiM: Serb cemetery desecrated in Kosovo (N1, Beta)
Vukcevic: It is very strange, unbelievable that files of the Special Prosecutor’s Office were leaked (KoSSev)

Opinion:

Hoti’s government is a sitting duck (Prishtina Insight)
Jovic: Serbia is seriously approaching the US, it could become the main partner in the Balkans (N1, KoSSev)
Non-agreement or why it takes (at least) two to reach an agreement (KoSSev)

International:

Unpacking the Serbia-Kosovo Deal (visegradsight.eu)
Kosovo and Serbia - Israel’s Balkan blunder (The Jerusalem Post)

Humanitarian/Development:

WHO acknowledges: The end of the pandemic might be ... (B92, Tanjug)

Albanian Language Media

COVID-19: 50 new cases, five deaths (media)

The National Institute for Public Health informed today that 50 people in Kosovo resulted positive with COVID-19 over the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, 117 recoveries and five deaths have been recorded over the same time period.

There are currently 2760 active cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Hoti: France and Netherlands impede visa liberalization (media)

The Prime Minister of Kosovo Avdullah Hoti gave details about his meetings at the European Parliament and spoke about the Washington agreement.

Hoti said the meetings with the President of the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs of different countries, were mainly focused on the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

Hoti told Euronews Albania that despite the European Commission’s support on visa liberalization for years, there are countries such as France and Netherlands that impede this process. Hoti said work is being done at ministerial level to convince them that conditions for illegal migration and organized crime have been fulfilled and are remaining as such.

Asked about the position that he would keep if the LDK and AAK breach coalition, he referred to this question as a hypothetical one for which he would not be able to give an answer.

“I am implementing all the points of the agreements and there is no reason for any of the parties to leave the coalition,” he said.

Hoti once again mentioned recognition of Israel, which he considered a very significant achievement and also added that he could not interfere on EU and U.S. policies.

Asked about giving Serbia access on the Adriatic Sea, Hoti said he does not consider this to be the proper way to see the situation.

He suggested another perspective saying that there are works for Prishtina-Durres railway, which however will not be used only for these two countries.

While talking about the motorway, railway and gas project, a sum of one billion U.S. dollars was mentioned.

Asked if this agreement would conclude by September 2021, the Prime Minister of Kosovo preferred to be reserved when deadlines are concerned.

Aliu accuses Hoti for granting ownership of Ujman lake to Serbia (media)

Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) has criticized the Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti for granting ownership of the Ujman Lake to Serbia.

This opposition entity claims that Washington pledges on this point are in contradiction with the Constitution of Kosovo.

LVV MP Libur Aliu said at a press conference today that the Prime Minister has opened harmful precedent for Kosovo, and encouraged Serbia to request discussions for each natural resource of Kosovo.

“According to this document, the Ujaman Lake will be shared, Serbia will take part of ownership over Ujman. Also it opens doors to discuss the natural resources of the country. This point of the agreement is in contradiction with the Constitution of Kosovo,” he said.

Haxhiu: Kosovo’s Bosnianisation will not be allowed, Hoti should leave (RTK)

Albulena Haxhiu from the leadership of the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) said the Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti is running up and down only to implement the agreement on Zajednica (Association of Serb-majority Municipalities).

“Unfortunately Kosovo has today an illegitimate Prime Minister that is enabling Serbia’s interests everywhere, by putting under question mark Kosovo’s statehood. He has to leave as soon as possible,” she wrote.

“Avdullah Hoti is completely ignoring the ruling of the Constitutional Court for the Association of the Serb-majority municipalities or Zajednica, as it really defines Serbia’s interest.

Despite the fact that the Constitutional Court found as many as 23 articles are violated with that agreement, Hoti runs up and down only to implement that harmful agreement which Bisnianisates Kosovo.

Therefore, it must be clear to Hoti that no matter how diligent he is in offering concessions to Serbia, there can be no Zajednica and the Bosnianization of Kosovo,” Haxhiu wrote.

Kosnett: U.S. and Kosovo to strengthen partnership against terrorism (RTK)

In memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Speaker of the Assembly Vjosa Osmani, together with the American Ambassador Philip Kosnett, laid wreaths on the memorial plaque of September 11.

Speaker Osmani said that this event aroused the awareness of the world in the fight against terrorism and that Kosovo will stand close to the U.S. to combat these phenomena.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Kosnnet said that the United States and Kosovo will strengthen the partnership to fight terrorism and bad phenomena.

Civil society: There was no transparency on Washington agreement (media)

Members of the civil society said they are carefully following developments with regards to the dialogue process between Kosovo and Serbia.

Despite the continuous demands for an additional role and involvement of the U.S. in the dialogue, the civil society expressed concern about lack of transparency that accompanied the process of the reach of the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia in Washington, stressing that the future steps of its implementation continue to be unknown.

“The government is following the same practice during the meetings in Brussels, where the possibility for the reach of a final agreement is announced. Nevertheless, representatives of Kosovo did not offer details with regards to the agenda, issues and position of Kosovo at these meetings in Brussels.

The government of the country, being in charge of this process, has not been transparent even to the Assembly as the highest supervising body of foreign policy. The Government's reports to the Assembly with regards to the dialogue have been only superficial so far, not providing concrete information on developments within this process. The government of Kosovo has neither shared with the MPs the state platform for dialogue with Serbia and nor has it made this document public for the citizens. The lack of information regarding the dialogue has caused confusion and uncertainty among the citizens about the expected results of this process," is said in the press release.

The United States, Kosovo and Serbia nominated for Nobel Peace Prize (media)

Washington agreement between Kosovo and Serbia on normalization of economic relations is being seen as pavement of the way for reaching a peace agreement.

This has pushed the Christian Democratic Party MP in Sweden, Magnus Jacobsson, to take the initiative to nominate the governments of the U.S., Kosovo and Serbia for the Nobel Peace Prize.

He submitted today the nomination to the Norwegian Academy of Sciences which awards the Nobel Prizes.

"Therefore, I want to nominate the Government of the United States of America, the Government of Kosovo and the Government of Serbia for the Nobel Peace Prize, as this agreement aims to eliminate the risk of new conflicts in the Balkans and is closer to peace and mutual recognition,” the submission reads.

Serbian Language Media

Two new cases of Covid-19 in Serbian communities, five patients recovered (Kontakt plus radio)

Two new cases of Covid-19 were registered in Serbian communities in Kosovo, while five persons have recovered, said Dr Desanka Novakovic, epidemiologist of the Public Health Institute of North Mitrovica, at today’s press conference.

One case was registered in Leposavic, and the other one in Strpce.

Dr. Novakovic warned of the possibility of increasing in the number of newly infected due to the numbers in the region and appealed to adhere to the basic preventive measures.

She pointed out that 46 patients are currently in home-isolation, 22 patients are hospitalized.

Vucic says Serbia managed to open White House doors (media)

President Aleksandar Vucic told the Serbian state TV (RTS) on Thursday night that Belgrade managed to open the door to the White House and added that he was shown due respect in Washington, reported Serbian media.

“I am not stupid enough to think that this was not linked to issues linked to the US, but Serbia was given respect,” he said, adding that Serbia was treated as a partner. He said that over the past 30 years, the White House had been reserved for Albanians and anyone else who was opposed to the Serbs.

According to Vucic, Serbia’s position on the European path was not at all easy with the door to the White House closed up to now. “I have been hearing for the past few years that you can’t sit on two chairs and I always said that Serbia sits on its own chair. Today there are more than four chairs – the European Union plus Germany, the US, China and Russia as well as all the big regional players and in our region that is Turkey,” he said.

The Serbian president claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had apologized for the Facebook post by ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. He said that they never apologized for anything before. “Putin told me that the Russian state is not behind the post, especially not him personally,” he said. Zakharova compared a photograph of Vucic sitting in front of US President Donald Trump with a scene from the Sharon Stone movie Basic Instinct.

Vucic also said that he was reminded by the leaders of several global powers that UN Security Council resolution 478 banned the opening of diplomatic missions in Jerusalem. “I told them to remind me when we do violate something and asked them why they violated UN Security Council resolution 1244 (on Kosovo). Two of them were shocked,” he said.

The Serbian President said that he would be talking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to tell him that Serbia had extended its hand to Israel. “I’m not saying that Israel won’t recognize Kosovo but let’s wait and see the form,” he said. “We will talk to the Palestinians, our Arab friends and if Israel recognizes Kosovo, Pristina will go before us (set up its embassy in Jerusalem) and we’ll see the attitude of the Arab countries towards Kosovo then,” he said.

Asked about the White House Agreement which oblige Serbia to diversify its fuel and energy suppliers which some see as being directed against Russia, Vucic said that natural gas was not mentioned in the document. “You thought that even though gas is not mentioned. I told the American that we will buy the cheapest gas on the market and we managed to delete the clause that said that we would buy only American LNG,” he said and added that there was also no mention of China in the document which bans Serbia from buying 5G equipment from what were termed ‘unreliable suppliers’.

Vucic said that Serbia signed a letter of intent in Washington and that it would meet its obligations unless the Kosovo Albanians fail to meet theirs.

Serbian media also reported that several dozen people gathered in front of the RTS studios in central Belgrade as a show of support for President Vucic alongside a smaller group who were there to protest.

See at:https://bit.ly/35pGqXf

US envoy: Serbia faces many burdensome political decisions (FoNet, N1)

Serbia's Government must bring many tough decisions, the US ambassador to Belgrade Antony Godfrey says on Friday, adding the most talks will be held in Brussels, while Washington is trying to focus on concrete matters which can be done immediately.

Speaking to the state RTS TV, he added the US President Donald Trump's decision to appoint the special envoy for the Belgrade – Pristina dialogue on the normalisation of relations was a clear signal that Washington wanted to accelerate things and focus on the economy and better life for people.

Godfrey said he was not happy with the current level of US – Serbia economic cooperation, and that he wanted it to be higher and better. Still, he was glad about the American developing agency DFC coming to Serbia.

"We're all planning. We work a lot, trying to get it ready to start functioning immediately. This a new page in the history of our cooperation," the ambassador said.

Godfrey recalled that a common US – Serbia story lasted for a long time and that a part of that cooperation was the Halyard Mission, in Serbian known as Operation Air Bridge, form July 1944, when the then guerilla Chetniks force rescued 417 Allied airmen who had been downed behind the Axis lines.

"I'll attend the anniversary" planned for next week, the ambassador said, adding he hoped President Trump would soon visit Serbia.

Trump faces re-election race on November 3, and the latest opinion polls show former vice-president Joe Biden, the Democratic party's nominee, polling ahead of him, though Biden has seen his lead narrow in some states since the summer, according to the London Financial Times report.

Commenting on the part of the agreement (or a letter of intent as some describe it) reached in Washington last week with Belgrade and Pristina related to the diversification of gas supplies, Godfrey described it as "important for all."

"We cannot depend on one energy source. That is an important and political topic. Russia clearly uses the dependence on a single energy source to achieve its political goals. It's vital for Serbia to have a freedom of choice based on its own interests and aims," Godfrey said.

See at: https://bit.ly/3m5IYzI

Moscow daily: New govt. will show if Serbia changes foreign policy (Beta, N1, Kommersant)

Who will head ministries in Serbia's new government will show whether the country has changed its foreign policy, the Moscow Kommersant daily said on Friday, adding the main sign will be who will get the Energy Ministry.

The particular ministry is seen to be linked with a part of the Washington agreement which includes diversification of gas supply and was seen as Serbia freeing itself from the dependence of the Russian energy only.

The daily recalls Serbia has cancelled the joint military exercise with Russia and Belarus, which has begun on Thursday. It says that happens amid a campaign led by local media and experts about Serbia turning to the West, mostly to the US, and that sources in Belgrade say the composition of a new cabinet will show if it's true.

Kommersant said the cancellation of the 'Slavic Brotherhood' military training was unexpected particularly since Serbia took part in it and organised it in 2016 and 2019 on its territory.

At the same time, the daily quoted the Belarus Defence Ministry as saying it had not received any official word from Belgrade.

Alluding the cancellation was exclusively the decision of Belgrade, the daily added that NATO said it did not plan any exercise in the next six months and that the European Union denied having anything to do with military training.

"However," Kommersant said, "President Aleksandar Vucic signed an agreement on the economic normalisation with Pristina in Washington at the end of last week. Formally, Belgrade and Pristina agreed to normalise economic relations, but that can have serious political consequences."

In its second similar article in several days, the daily cited sources in the Russian state institutions as saying that Moscow had warned Vucic in June about "a stumbling block" in that agreement.

Belgrade, however, said, its security services pass that information to the leadership.

"Belgrade did not inform Moscow about a number of points that were agreed."

"Moreover," Kommersant said, "in the last few days, a series of Serbia's pro-regime media outlets spread the campaign in favour of the country's turn toward the West, mainly the US."

It added that the immediate reason for the campaign was the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova's Facebook post about the meeting between Vucic and the US President Donald Trump. She later apologised.

However, the daily added, although Moscow said the post was misunderstood, an anti-Russian campaign in Serbia increased.

"The relations between Serbia and Russia are not as they were two or three years ago, and the Western partners remind Serbia's President that the time has come to fulfil his promises, above all the one about Kosovo," Kommersant said.

See at: https://bit.ly/35yotFU

Kosovo Police: Four graves damaged in Zakovo during works on water supply (Kosovo Online)

Kosovo police confirmed that four grave sites were damaged in the Orthodox cemetery in Zakovo near Istok.

Kosovo Police media officer for Pec region Fadil Gashi in a statement to Radio Free Europe said that four graves were damaged during works on the water supply network in the immediate vicinity of the Orthodox cemetery in Zakovo, Istok municipality.

Gashi said that police investigated immediately after the report on the damaged cemetery in Zakovo.

“The Kosovo police team went to the scene together with the municipal officials. A company which performed the works on the water supply network poured soil over four grave sites while digging the canal. We took a statement from a witness and the financial manager of the project,’’ said Gashi and added that the case was sent to the prosecutor’s office.

Office for KiM: Serb cemetery desecrated in Kosovo (N1, Beta)

An Orthodox Christian cemetery has been desecrated in a village in Kosovo, the Serbian government Office for Kosovo said in a press release on Thursday.

It said that tombstones and monuments in the graveyard in Zakovo outside the town of Istok had been vandalized and toppled, graves dug up and the remains in them removed. A vast majority of Serbs are Orthodox Christians while Albanians are mainly Moslem with some Christians (mainly Catholic).

The press release said that desecration of Serb graveyards have been very frequent and added that there are virtually no Orthodox Christian cemeteries south of the Ibar river in Kosovo which have not been vandalized over the past 20 years. “Evidently, the hatred of chauvinists is so great that they are bothered even by dead Serbs. Even though we have been saying for years that a wide-ranging political and social campaign should be launched to root out chauvinism in Kosovo, that has not been done,” the press release said.

“While Belgrade and Pristina are discussing the normalization of the situation on the ground, attacks like the one in Zakovo are painful testimony that the situation in Kosovo is far from normal,” it said.

See at: https://bit.ly/33joOJZ

Vukcevic: It is very strange, unbelievable that files of the Special Prosecutor’s Office were leaked (KoSSev)

''I find that very strange, simply unbelievable, and that’s the only thing I can say,'' the former Serbian special prosecutor for war crimes, Vladimir Vukcevic said in a brief comment for KoSSev portal in connection to the news on 4,000 files leaked from the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and delivered to the KLA War Veterans Association which announced deliver of another 7,000 files soon.

The alleged correspondence between former prosecutor Clint Williamson and Vukcevic was one of the documents presented to the media as allegedly one of the leaked documents from the Special Prosecutor’s Office.

Although refusing to comment on the fate of this court if the news turned out to be true, Vukcevic reiterated that he could not imagine that the documents were really leaked.

Little is known about the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and the Special Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes, established six years ago, except that hundreds of witnesses, former KLA members, have been questioned, that the first indictments are awaited at any moment, and that the draft of the indictment against Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli was sent for confirmation. The last information was confirmed by the prosecution itself, which went public with the indictment, while also accusing two key figures in Kosovo of obstructing the work of the court. A strong obstruction of the Court has been taking place in Kosovo for years so that international diplomats had to become involved in order to stop it.

The court was formed based on the report of the American special prosecutor Clint Williamson from 2014, which practically confirmed the findings and the previous report from 2011 by the special rapporteur of the European Commission, Dick Marty.

Vukcevic recalled the high protection measures that investigators have taken in the past, which was the reason why Clint Williamson’s headquarters were located at the premises of the NATO alliance in Brussels.

''The discretion was so high to avoid revealing who the witnesses were,'' he told KoSSev, adding:

''My deputy Bruno Vekaric and I were the only people who went in there. Nobody else. It was closed for everyone.''

Vukcevic stressed that he had excellent cooperation with Clint Williamson.

He also confirmed that at the time when Clint Williamson was working on his report, he was interrogating witnesses in the premises of the War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade.

''He did not forward any witnesses or the names of witnesses so that I could question them, nor was it possible to do so. According to the procedure, he could not have ordered me to do anything, nor could have anyone else,'' said Vukcevic.

''He would give us a list of witnesses who were of interest to them, and then I would give an order to our service to call and bring them in. This was the procedure; however, he did not send any subsequent emails and I was not the one who questioned them. They were interrogated without us. We only provided logistics.''

''We certainly did not send names by e-mail,'' Vukcevic added.

He recalled that the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office questioned its witnesses before the Specialist Chambers were formed and that these witnesses were persons who were able to help shed light on war crimes. Vukcevic also underlined that this work preceded Dick Marty’s initiative.

''Dick Marty was not the one who discovered that, we did. Since the Albanians refused to cooperate, I forwarded it to the European Commission, then Dick Marty came and determined that what we discovered was procedurally valid.''

Speculations about the case of ''4000 files of the Specialist Chambers'' – allegedly delivered to the office of the KLA War Veterans Association, the association itself had confirmed, with the announcement that another 7,000 files will be submitted in the coming days – have been running rampant in the Kosovo public for days.

Kosovo media also reported that EULEX investigators had taken the alleged files. EULEX later denied these allegations.

A number of commentators in the Kosovo media have expressed doubts about the veracity of these documents, such as the head of the INTEGRA organization, Kushtrim Koliqi. Koliqi noted that the court had not made any mistakes before, warning that if the files were leaked, it would be a ''huge scandal such as the world had never seen''. On the other hand, Sokol Dobruna, a former judge of the ''Military Court of the KLA'', expressed suspicion that Serbia was behind the submission of these alleged files of the Specialist Chambers.

See at: https://bit.ly/2GJzWYY

Opinion

Hoti’s government is a sitting duck (Prishtina Insight)

The Washington agreements have led to further tensions within Kosovo’s coalition government, which may not even survive the winter, writes Blerim Vela for Prishtina Insight.

"Recent public disputes over the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue and the lack of a joint candidate for the next President of Kosovo have exposed serious rifts in Kosovo’s governing coalition.

Following the Washington agreements, AAK leader Ramush Haradinaj has insisted that protestations by members of the delegation from his party led to alterations to the point regarding Lake Ujmani, while LDK’s Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and leader Isa Mustafa have directly contradicted these claims.

Haradinaj has also objected to a lack of representatives from his party present in Brussels, where negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia are continuing with EU facilitation, stating that “things cannot go further like this.”

Meanwhile, AAK has publicly pushed Haradinaj as a candidate for Kosovo’s next president. However, LDK has failed to back the AAK man, with the party’s deputy leader, Lutfi Haziri, stating that the decision over the next president is in LDK’s hands."

International

Unpacking the Serbia-Kosovo Deal (visegradsight.eu)

A week after Donald Trump announced a diplomatic breakthrough – this time in the Balkans – Visegrad Insight spoke with Ivan Vejvoda, Permanent Fellow in the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna. Wojciech Przybylski asked him how to read recent developments from the perspective of both the EU and the US.

Ivan Vejvoda was previously the Executive Director of GMF’s Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project dedicated to strengthening democratic institutions in South-Eastern Europe, and served a senior advisor on foreign policy and European integration to Serbian Prime Ministers Zoran Đinđić and Zoran Živković.

See at: https://bit.ly/2Rd9lpc

Kosovo and Serbia - Israel’s Balkan blunder (The Jerusalem Post)

To fully comprehend the sensitivity of the matter, just consider how important the Kosovo issue is to Belgrade, with whom Israel has been cultivating increasingly warm relations in recent years.

In a stunning reversal of policy last week, Israel yielded to American pressure and formally recognized the Serbian province of Kosovo as an independent state.

While much of the media greeted this development with excitement and even a bit of glee, we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be fooled into thinking that it was a wise decision. It most assuredly was not. By recognizing Kosovo, Israel has committed a major Balkan blunder, one that is not only an affront to history, justice and common sense, but which also undermines the Jewish state’s own national interests and is likely to boomerang against us.

See at: https://bit.ly/2Rdzc0p

Humanitarian/Development

WHO acknowledges: The end of the pandemic might be ... (B92, Tanjug)

WHO cannot foresee when the coronavirus pandemic will end, but it assumes that the disease will be brought under control within two years.

Today marks exactly six months since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, although initially the organization considered the appearance of the COVID 19 virus a pandemic with several hotspots, TASS reports.

"From this point of view, we cannot say when the pandemic will end, but it is possible that with global efforts and modern technology, it will be brought under control in a couple of years," the WHO said in a statement.

WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is easier for a virus to spread today than 100 years ago because "we are more connected now." However, he said, "At the same time, we also have the technology to stop it and the knowledge to stop it."

The states should focus on four priorities - preventing the spread of the virus, empowering people to protect themselves, the basics of public health and protecting the vulnerable, including the elderly and people with special needs.

The WHO also believes that six months after the pandemic was declared, the virus remained largely contagious in the same way.

"Human viruses can progress, becoming more or less pathogenic. Based on current records of more than 80.000 genomic samples, it has been established that the transmissibility and severity of the virus have not changed," the WHO said, adding that changes in the virus were constantly monitored.

As it is added, although COVID19 is a novel virus, a lot is already known about it.

See at: https://bit.ly/2FjLqCe