UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, September 24, 2021

Albanian Language Media:

Bislimi: License plates decision is unrelated to Brussels agreement (media)
Tensions following reciprocity change dialogue's course (Koha)
Court rejects SL's claims that Kosovo Government's formation was unconstitutional (media)
In Hungary, Speaker Konjufca criticises EU over visa liberalisation (media)
KSF and Kosovo Police conclude joint exercise with KFOR (media)
Committee approves national programme for implementation of SAA (Kosovapress)
COVID-19: Four deaths, 84 new cases (media)

Serbian Language Media:

Peaceful protest of Serbs in northern Kosovo continues (RTS, Kosovo-online)
One of three Serbs beaten by police in wood close to Brnjak speaks about attack; police denies local media report (KoSSev, media)
Elek: Beaten Serbs spent difficult night at hospital (Tanjug, Kosovo-online)
Serbian PM tells Belgian counterpart Pristina perpetrating violence (N1)
Brnabic to address UN General Debate of world leaders today (B92)
Washington more strongly involved with the EU in renewing the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and calming the crisis in Kosovo (NMagazin, Beta)
Kosovo police removed poster “Welcome to ZSO” in Strpce (Radio KIM)
Vulin: ''We are not negotiating with a gun pointed at the forehead'' (NMagazin, Beta, N1, TV Pink)
Former Greek ambassador: "In the end, we will recognize the so-called Kosovo" (B92)
Brnabic: We have much to lose if we fall for Pristina’s provocations (Tanjug)
Ursula von der Leyen to visit Belgrade on September 29 (Tanjug)
Commission for Missing Persons: Mortal remains of three Serbs taken over at the Merdare crossing (FoNet, Danas)
Kosovo Constitutional Court issues Decision on non-execution of its verdict which confirmed ownership of Visoki Decani Monastery (Danas)

Opinion:

The Potemkin facade of Vucic's rule (Kosovo 2.0)

Albanian Language Media

Bislimi: License plates decision is unrelated to Brussels agreement (media)

Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo Besnik Bislimi said that the decision on license plates has nothing to do with the Brussels agreement and that President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic is trying to manipulate the matter by claiming that it is a violation of the deal signed in Brussels.

Speaking before the members of the Kosovo Assembly committee on European integration, Bislimi said: "That agreement expired on 15 September. The decision for reciprocity was Kosovo's sovereign decision."

Bislimi also spoke about the natural gas project media reports saying that the pipeline in question, that delivers gas from Greece via North Macedonia is supplied by Azerbaijan and Russia. "It is foolish to say that the gas coming from Greece through North Macedonia is from America," he added.

He said that the USD 200 million allocated by the Millenium Challenge Corporation has not been pledged specifically for the gas pipeline project but dedicated to the overall energy sector.

Gervalla: Recent tensions, result of Serbia’s unilateral actions (media)

Kosovo's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Donika Gervalla, met today Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Gervalla said that the decision of the Kosovo Government on reciprocity towards Serbia regarding license plates is in accordance with the agreement signed in Brussels and that the current tensions, she noted, should be seen as Serbia's unilateral move.

Tensions following reciprocity change dialogue's course (Koha)

Koha reports that the introduction of reciprocity measures on license plates has changed the course of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue and that in addition to previous demands, media in Serbia have reported of additional demands put forth by President Aleksandar Vucic in order to return to the negotiating table.

The first demand is the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority municipalities, second is for Kosovo not to send police forces with heavy weaponry to the north without prior consent of KFOR and of the Association, the third is the establishment of two Serb companies in charge of energy distribution in the north, and the fourth is to ensure that trial chambers in the north to be in the 2:1 ratio, in favour of the Serbs, the paper adds.

It says that the Government of Kosovo has not entirely extinguished the hopes of Serba to have an association but that in the recent meetings in Brussels, Kosovo officials said they would take under serious consideration the issue of the Association when Serbia dissolves parallel structures in Kosovo.

Koha has unsuccessfully reached out to the EU Special Representative for dialogue Miroslav Lajcak's office to comment but a couple of days ago, spokesperson Peter Stani said they are focused on finding a solution to bring the parties back to the negotiating table. "We call on the two sides to use the EU facilitated dialogue as a platform to address and resolve all open issues between them, including free movement and license plates. We are ready to host a meeting in Brussel at any given time," Stano had said.

Koha notes that the parties were called to de-escalate tensions by the U.S. acting ambassador Nicholas Giacobbe, the German ambassador Jorn Rohde, as well as the head of UNMIK Zahir Tanin.

Court rejects SL's claims that Kosovo Government's formation was unconstitutional (media)

The Constitutional Court of Kosovo has rejected the case submitted by the Serbian List claiming that the Government of Kosovo was formed unconstitutionally after it failed to give the Serb community leadership over two ministries.

The Court said that the case related to the process of appointment of ministers representing non-majority communities in the Government but not that relating to the appointment of one minister from the Serb community or one minister from the other non-majority communities, but rather the appointment of the third minister from non-majority communities which the Constitution recognises in case the Government of Kosovo consists of more than 12 ministries. "The Applicants alleged that the appointment of the 'third' Minister in the Government requires consultation/approval of the majority of all MPs representing non-majority communities in the Assembly, respectively of at least eleven out of twenty MPs that represent non-majority communities," the ruling reads.

It adds that with regard to the third minister, the Constitution of Kosovo provides the candidate for Prime Minister the discretion to choose from which community the minister will be elected without stipulating that this minister would have to be nominated by MPs representing the Serb or other non-majority communities.

"In the circumstances of the case at hand, the candidate nominated for Minister was a Member of the Assembly and consequently his formal approval was not a constitutional obligation... Therefore, the Court found that the challenged decision of the Assembly of Kosovo on the election of the Government was not issued in violation of paragraphs 3 and 5 of Article 96 of the Constitution."

Slavko Simic from the Serbian List had argued that the decision on the formation of the Kosovo Government was not in accordance with Article 96 of the Constitution, because the Minister of Local Government Administration was not elected after consulting the majority of MPs representing non-majority communities in the Assembly of Kosovo.

In Hungary, Speaker Konjufca criticises EU over visa liberalisation (media)

Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly Glauk Konjufca said in an address before Hungarian MPs that the failure of the EU to grant visa liberalisation to Kosovo, despite all criteria being met, sends a negative message of the way the process is managed.

Konjufca said Kosovo is aware that the EU integration implies an internal democratic transformation. "We are therefore determined and very ready to continue faster-paced reforms and to deepen them. We have more work ahead. The Western Balkans can have a safe future only if you don't extinguish the hope that membership and enlargement depends fully from us and not from you."

Konjufca continued: "There was a time, 20 years ago, when the EU had a better understanding of the fundamental importance of the Western Balkans integration. Two decades on, we can regretfully conclude that for the first time in Europe's history, it is precisely the Western Balkans that has a better understanding than the EU of the enlargement necessity."

He also warned of the dangers if the region is left behind in European Union integration. "The space that would be created by other unfriendly projects would be fatal for the stability of this region which is already quite complicated."

KSF and Kosovo Police conclude joint exercise with KFOR (media)

On 23 September, KFOR in cooperation with the Kosovar security institutions – carried out the 2021 edition of its annual “Silver Sabre” exercise in the Gjakova air field training area and in the Ereniku factory.

The exercise featured a large-scale emergency response operation, where representatives of the Kosovo Police, Red Cross, Kosovo Security Forces, Emergency Management Agency and Gjakova/ Đakovica municipality have been tested - with support from KFOR personnel - in their efforts to save lives, alleviate the distress of the local population affected by the natural disaster, maintain security, preserve the running of essential services, and prepare for the restoration of the normal situation, KFOR said in a press statement.

It added that the Silver Sabre exercises series have been taking place since 2012 and that their aim is to train the Kosovar Security Organizations and help them develop the capacity necessary to tackle natural emergencies.

Committee approves national programme for implementation of SAA (Kosovapress)

Kosovo Assembly's committee for European integration approved the national programme for implementation of the Stabilisation and Associations Agreement (SAA) covering a period of four years, from 2021 to 2025, and the action plan for implementation of the second phase of political priorities agreed between the European Union and Kosovo - the European Reform Agenda.

Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi highlighted the importance of these two acts and the committee endorsed them with a majority of votes.

COVID-19: Four deaths, 84 new cases (media)

Four deaths from COVID-19 and 84 new infections were recorded in Kosovo in the last 24 hours. 786 persons recovered from the virus during this time.

There are 5,371 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Serbian Language Media

Peaceful protest of Serbs in northern Kosovo continues (RTS, Kosovo-online)

People dissatisfied with Pristina’s decisions, relating to the vehicle license plates and deployment of Kosovo special police ROSU units, entered the fifth consecutive day of protest at Jarinje and Brnjak crossing points in northern Kosovo, RTS reports. Kosovo special police ROSU units are still deployed in the area.

RTS said the night at Jarinje went without incident, and more than 100 Serbs spent the night there in tents and convoys. Kosovo-online portal reported that the number of people spending the night at Brnjak was the highest since the protest started. Serbian List representatives visited the people yesterday, following the tensions in the area and urged them not to fall prey to provocations and remain peaceful. They also requested police not to provoke citizens and attack barehanded people who are peacefully protesting.

Serbian List President Goran Rakic said yesterday the situation in northern Kosovo was more tense than during the previous days of protests. He called for the establishment of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities, as this is a solution to the problems such as the one causing the protests.

The traffic is still blocked, and it is possible to cross the points on foot only. Kosovo-online portal reported yesterday that Kosovo police special unit didn’t allow a local Serbian Orthodox Church priest who was going to a nearby village to serve a memorial service to cross Brnjak on foot.

One of three Serbs beaten by police in wood close to Brnjak speaks about attack; police denies local media report (KoSSev, media)

Serb sources reported yesterday that three ethnic Serbs were beaten up by the Kosovo police at Brnjak crossing point, KoSSev portal reports. Meanwhile, Kosovo police, refuted a media report of the Kosovo-online portal that the incident took place at Brnjak.

In the meantime, Kossev recorded the testimony of Dragisa Vlaskovic from a hospital bed in North Mitrovica, who testified that he was a victim of psychological and physical violence by Kosovo police (KP). Vlaskovic and two other Serbs who were with him, were reportedly attacked by the KP in the woods near the village of Kopilovice located on a hill above the main road.

KP spokesman, Baki Kelani, could neither confirm nor deny this news for Kossev by the time it was published yesterday. Kelani, however, insisted that the police have yet to verify what happened in that area.

Opinion

The Potemkin facade of Vucic's rule (Kosovo 2.0)

By Dario Hajric

For the first time ever, the Serbian school year started this September with the mandatory playing of the national anthem. The night before school started in Novi Sad, numerous building facades and public institutions were painted with the colors of the national flag. The paint job, covering dozens of meters of facade, is legally speaking a form of vandalism, but despite the many instances of such acts, the police have mysteriously failed to identify the perpetrators.

At the same time, Belgrade is working to catch up with Skopje in terms of the aesthetics of its monuments devoted to medieval rulers and other historical figures. The Serbian National Assembly has also adopted, in an accelerated process, a Law on the Protection of the Serbian Language and Cyrillic Script, which has significantly broadened the circle of institutions obligated to use Cyrillic. Now, alongside state institutions, this rule applies to economic entities with majority public funding, and the logos of cultural events with public funding must also be in Cyrillic, despite the Serbian language functioning perfectly well in both Latin and Cyrillic.

The day of the breakthrough on the Salonica Front in World War One, September 15, was recently declared a new state holiday, the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag. Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selaković has invited Serbs to display Serbian flags “wherever they live.”

Are we witnessing a new great national “awakening” of Serbia?

“The Serbian world”

The question makes sense: in the part of Europe with a chronic surplus of history and a deficit of geography, “national awakenings” often have the inconvenient trait of negatively affecting the lives and property of those who don’t fit into those identities. That is why Minister of Internal Affairs Aleksandar Vulin created many worried and angry reactions throughout the region when he started promoting the newly coined idea of the “Serbian world,” which he sees as a united “political and state area.”

Reactions from throughout the region have identified in this idea the repurposing of notions of “Greater Serbia,” seeing “a euphemism for the old ethnic-ideological-conquest policy.” Public figures in Serbia who interpreted the term favorably have, unlike Vulin, mostly stuck to the framework of culture, religion, language and identity but others are inclined to label criticism of the term as chauvinistic or domestic treason.