• Osmani: Process to confirm KLA led liberation war, protecting defenseless (media) 
• Kurti to report to MPs today on two years of his government (media) 
• Osmani: Kosovo will soon host Defender-Europe ’23 (media) 
• Bislimi: Lajcak proposed sequencing (Kallxo) 
• Konjufca: Term ‘forcibly disappeared’ will be used in agreement (Koha) 
• DiA: Current circumstances don’t allow for elections in the north (RFE) 
• Osmani meets Guerot, discuss situation in north of Kosovo (Klan Kosova)  
• Basha: Serb civilians are being trained in Raska to use firearms (Blic)
• Kosovo to probe prosecutor for neglecting case of murdered woman (BIRN) 

Osmani: Process to confirm KLA led liberation war, protecting defenseless (media) 

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, in an interview for Die Presse, commented on the trial of former KLA leaders in the Hague, saying that the process will confirm that the KLA led a liberation war and that it protected the defenseless population. “I am certain that justice will triumph … The KLA protected the country and their people against the genocidal regime of Slobodan Milosevic,” Osmani said.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3nRL0ZT

Kurti to report to MPs today on two years of his government (media)  

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti will report to the Kosovo Assembly today on the first two years of his government. The assembly session is scheduled to start at 10:00.

Osmani: Kosovo will soon host Defender-Europe ’23 (media) 

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani visited the headquarters of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) on Wednesday. “Kosovo will soon be a host country for Defender-Europe’23, with 1300 Kosovo soldiers alongside US & other allies. Today, at KSF Headquarters, I was briefed on preparations being made for this exercise of strategic importance for our country,” Osmani tweeted after the visit.

Bislimi: Lajcak proposed sequencing (Kallxo) 

Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister and chief negotiator in talks with Serbia, Besnik Bislimi, in an interview with Kallxo on Wednesday, commented on his latest meeting in Brussels with his Serbian counterpart Petar Petkovic and EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak. He said that meeting on Tuesday focused on two points: discussions on the implementation of the annex agreed in Ohrid and talks on current matters. “In the first part, the discussion mainly focused on the steps we need to make in the coming days, and which derive from the Basic Agreement and the implementation annex. We discussed sequencing. A principle was proposed according to which we cannot talk about the implementation of all points immediately because it would create a disbalance where one party gets a lot and is not obliged to offer something, and Lajcak’s idea was to have a sequencing, namely one party does something and then is followed by the other party,” he said. Bislimi said that the parties will send their comments on the sequencing by Friday. “Here we cannot say that Kosovo is doing something, or that Serbia is doing something, but both parties. We have agreed that by Friday we will send our comments about the sequencing and then based on these comments there will be another draft, and we will meet again and agree.”

Bislimi also talked about the agreement on missing persons and said that there was almost an agreement since August last year. “At the end of the talks, Kurti had signed the document, and only then did we notice Vucic backing away and saying that he is not ready to sign it. Then Lajcak brought a modified document in September and yesterday we discussed about this document, and we proposed something that would bring us to August 18, and it was accepted by Serbia and we agreed that this document should be signed,” he said.

Konjufca: Term ‘forcibly disappeared’ will be used in agreement (Koha) 

Kosovo Assembly President, Glauk Konjufca, said on Wednesday that according to the information he has, the term ‘forcibly disappeared’ will be used in the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, same as it is used in international conventions.

According to Konjufca, Serbia tried to avoid such terms. “Kosovo has achieved this. Serbia always tried to use a different terminology to avoid the responsibility for all that were forcibly disappeared. Because when you say ‘forcibly disappeared’ it means that they were disappeared by someone, and this was Serbia with its state apparatus, police, army and other state mechanisms,” he said.

DiA: Current circumstances don’t allow for elections in the north (RFE) 

Democracy in Action, a non-governmental organisation, said on Wednesday that “the current circumstances don’t allow for the organisation and holding of elections in the north of Kosovo” in line with standards for free elections. According to the DiA, the situation in the northern municipalities of Mitrovica North, Leposavic, Zvecan and Zubin Potok, is fragile.

“In Mitrovica North and Zubin Potok, where the Serb community makes up over 90 percent of the population, no candidate has registered from the Serb community. Democracy in Action believes that this situation can threaten the legitimacy of the institutions that will derive from these elections, because it does not guarantee a fair representation of the Serb community,” the NGO said in a public statement.

The NGO also argued that the Central Election Commission is faced with challenges to make the necessary preparations as a result of the resignations of election officers from the Serb community.

Osmani meets Guerot, discuss situation in north of Kosovo (Klan Kosova)  

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani met with French Ambassador Olivier Guerot on Wednesday and discussed recent developments in Kosovo and the region, the accord on the Basic Agreement and the implementation plan between, as well as security developments in the north of Kosovo. Osmani said Kosovo remains constructively engaged in the dialogue and to contribute to long-term peace in the region in full coordination with its international allies. She highlighted the importance of speeding up Kosovo’s membership in international organisations, including the Council of Europe. Osmani also said that Kosovo’s institutions are committed to ensuring law and order throughout the territory.

Basha: Serb civilians are being trained in Raska to use firearms (Blic)

MP from the Vetevendosje Movement, Dimal Basha, said on Wednesday that Serb civilians are being trained in Raska to use firearms. He claimed that the information is coming from the Kosovo Intelligence Agency and that there are indications of preparations to cause tensions when elections will be held in the north of Kosovo. “There are reports too but we don’t want to make them public. But it is important that KFOR undertakes measures. We don’t believe there will be any conflict, but it is important to stress that there are Serbs with criminal backgrounds and who have ties with criminal groups and are close with Vucic,” he was quoted as saying.

Kosovo to probe prosecutor for neglecting case of murdered woman (BIRN) 

Two women’s rights organisations on Wednesday called for action by the Prosecution and Police after a court ruling said relevant institutions failed to protect a woman, Sebahate Morina, who was killed by her husband in March 2021 in Pristina.

The Constitutional Court ruled that the Police and Prosecution ”failed in their positive obligations” to protect Morina’s life. As part of the protest event, activists hung pages of the verdict in front of the Prosecutorial Council’s entrance.

Morina was killed in March 2021, 11 days after her daughter reported her mother’s physical abuse to the police.

Days after the murder, two local NGOs, the Kosovo Democratic Institute, KDI, and the Kosovo Womens Network, KWN, found that Morina’s ex- husband had been reported for domestic violence in 2019 as well, when he was held in custody, and when the now deceased woman received police protection.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/413sxHN