• New PDK chairmanship elected (media)
• Chief state prosecutor: To my information, wiretaps are unauthorised (media)
• KJC forms commission to review disciplinary liability of judge (media)
• Chief state prosecutor expected to be sacked, sources say (Arbresh.info)
• US diplomat: Talk of early elections in Kosovo (media)
• Kosovo hope trials in absentia will boost war crimes convictions (BIRN)
• Serb defies town’s opposition to return to Kosovo home (AFP)
• “Kosovo aligns left; conservative views on abortion and religion” (Exitnews.al)
• COVID-19: 195 new cases, two deaths (media)

New PDK chairmanship elected (media)

All news websites reported on Thursday that the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) has elected its new chairmanship. PDK leader Memli Krasniqi said the new leadership marks the beginning of reforms in this party. The party's deputy leaders now include: Vlora Citaku, Enver Hoxhaj, Uran Ismaili and Rame Buja. The new Secretary General of the party is Bajrush Xhemajli. Members of the party’s presidency include: Bernard Nikaj, Donika Shahini, Jakup Nura, Bekim Qollaku, Nexhat Demaku, Evgjeni Thaci-Dragusha, Sokol Bashota, Besa Kabashi Ramaj, Adri Nurellari, Rashit Qalaj, Zenun Pajaziti, Valdete Idrizi, Betim Gjoshi, Fehmi Mujota, Petrit Hajdari, Luljeta Veselaj-Gutaj, Blerand Stavileci, Muzafer Shala, Muhamet Haliti, Kujtimi Gashi, Safete Hadergjonaj and Donjet Bislimi is leader of the Democratic Youth of Kosovo.

Chief state prosecutor: To my information, wiretaps are unauthorised (media)

Kosovo’s Chief State Prosecutor, Aleksandar Lumezi, said on Thursday evening that according to his information, the leaked wiretaps involving the now former Financial Intelligence Unit chief, a prosecutor with the Serious Crimes Department in Prishtina and a judge for Serious Crimes at the Court of Appeals who is also a member of the Kosovo Judicial Council, were unauthorised. Lumezi said the prosecution has launched investigations into the wiretaps in order to see if a criminal act was conducted. Lumezi confirmed that Halit Sahitaj was behind the wiretaps.

KJC forms commission to review disciplinary liability of judge (media)

The Kosovo Judicial Council held an extraordinary meeting on Thursday after its member who is also an Appeals Court judge was included in the leaked wiretaps published recently by Shqip.com. The Council decided to form an ad hoc commission to review disciplinary liability against its member, based on the Law for the Judicial Council and the article about “the disciplinary proceedings against members of the Council”.

Chief state prosecutor expected to be sacked, sources say (Arbresh.info)

Citing an unnamed source, the news website reported on Thursday that Kosovo Chief State Prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi, and the two heads of the Central Bank of Kosovo, Fehmi Mehmeti and Sokol Havolli, are expected to be sacked soon. “Lumezi’s name was mentioned in some wiretaps published recently in the media and measures are expected to be taken. In the next couple of days there will also be changes at the Central Bank because of the performance,” the source said.

US diplomat: Talk of early elections in Kosovo (media)

Former U.S. envoy to the Balkans, James O’Brien, said on Thursday that there is talk of early general elections in Kosovo. During a discussion on the New Transatlantic Policy Approach to the Western Balkans, O’Brien said: “ … with the new elections next year in Serbia and the possibility of early elections in Kosovo, that I am hearing rumors about, I am skeptical there will be any results [in Kosovo – Serbia talks].”

Kosovo hope trials in absentia will boost war crimes convictions (BIRN)

In the absence of legal cooperation with Serbia, Kosovo has changed its legislation to make it easier to try suspects in their absence - but sceptics say this doesn’t necessarily mean that more war criminals will go to jail.

Lulzim Ademi, an ethnic Albanian from the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica, was charged in 1999 with committing war crimes against civilians while he was a paramilitary fighter, acting in collaboration with Yugoslav Army troops, Serbian police and Serb paramilitaries.

Ademi was accused of involvement in forcing ethnic Albanian citizens from their homes and killing at least 12 people. He was arrested and kept in custody until February 2000, when he escaped.

The court decided to try him in absentia. After an appeal against the ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that the trial could proceed in the defendant’s absence, and Ademi was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In another case dating from 1999, Bozur Bisevac, a Serb from Mitrovica, was charged with setting fire to houses, shooting at villagers and forcing them to flee their homes. In August 2000, Bisevac also escaped from jail, but the court continued to try him in absentia.

But then in January 2001, the head of the UN’s mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, which at that time had executive and legislative power in the country, adopted a regulation prohibiting trials in absentia “for serious violations of international humanitarian law”. After it came into force, the court abandoned the prosecution of Bisevac.

Ademi was jailed, and Bisevac was never arrested again.

UNMIK Regulation 2001/1 stated that “no person may be tried in absentia as defined in the applicable Yugoslav Criminal Code or the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court” that was issued in July 1998.

After 2009, almost all of UNMIK’s regulations were repealed or superseded by proper laws, but trials in absentia were not included in Kosovo’s legal framework.

Read full story here: https://bit.ly/2VDTh5y

Serb defies town’s opposition to return to Kosovo home (AFP)

When Dragica Gasic tried to buy groceries in a local store, the Albanian owner barred her from entering. Her offence? Being the first and only Serb to return to this Kosovar town, which still bears the scars of a decades-old conflict.

More than 20 years ago, Gasic and her two young sons were among tens of thousands of Serbs who fled Kosovo after a bloody conflict between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian pro-independence fighters.

After the guns went silent, some 13,000 Serbs gradually returned to their ancestral homes in several enclaves, but none returned to Gjakova -- or Djakovica, as Serbs call the southwestern town.

That was until June, when 59-year-old Gasic, who worked as a cleaner during her exile in Serbia, decided it was time to go home.

"All my life I thought and I dreamed of my apartment and returning to Gjakova... I gave birth to two children here, I had the best years of my life here," Gasic told AFP while sitting inside a bare flat where a cardboard box serves as a temporary table.

"I was happy here, living alongside my Albanian neighbours and colleagues. Then the war came and everything went upside down."

Her return stirred uproar in the town.

Gjakova is still healing the wounds left over after the late-1990s war. The town of some 40,000 was ravaged by Serb forces, suffering "the most intense violence committed against civilians of all the major cities in Kosovo," according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Some 1,500 locals were killed -- around 12 percent of the total number of victims during the conflict in Kosovo. Around 200 residents of the town are still listed as missing.

Atrocities included the massacre of 20 people in a single home, aged between two and 73, according to HRW.

Survivors claimed local members of the Serb community helped Serbian forces carry out the slaughter.

Majority ethnic-Albanian Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move still not recognised by Belgrade and its allies China and Russia. Kosovo's independence has been recognised by about 100 countries.

- Constant hostility -

Gasic had faced constant hostility from neighbours. They curse at her in the street, throw rocks at her balcony and relentlessly bang on her front door, she says.

Her food and diabetes medicine were stolen during a break-in at her home. Police, now providing round-the-clock protection at her home, have arrested a suspect.

AFP reporters witnessed the incident at the grocery store, when the owner barred her from entering.

"I was happy here, living alongside my Albanian neighbours and colleagues. Then the war came and everything went upside down," Gasic says

"I was happy here, living alongside my Albanian neighbours and colleagues. Then the war came and everything went upside down," Gasic says.

"Customers started boycotting me because of you!" the man told Gasic.

Neighbours made it clear they don't want Gasic living there.

"Every Serb who returns is a criminal, because every one committed crimes," Avni Ajdini, 46, who works as a bank security guard, told AFP.

"Her hands are dirty, too," said Ferdonije Qerkezi, 68, whose husband and four sons were killed by Serbian forces.

She and others say Gasic "worked for the interior ministry."

But Gasic said she merely worked as a cleaner in the local police station.

"I know that I did not do any harm to anyone", she said.

Read full story here: https://bit.ly/3CpbYKQ

“Kosovo aligns left; conservative views on abortion and religion” (Exitnews.al)

Almost half of the citizens of Kosovo consider themselves left-leaning, while 30% say they are right-leaning, and almost a quarter are centrists.

According to the “Citizens Mindset on Political Questions” survey, published by the Prishtina Institute for Political Studies (PIPS) in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. The survey aims to create “credible results” that will empower decision-makers and politicians to make better decisions.

The study was divided into two parts: the state’s relationship with the economy and individual freedoms and politics and participation.

Over three-quarters of Kosovo citizens believe it’s the government’s responsibility to regulate the economy, and more than 88% say the state should help the poor because they have a hard life due to inaction.

Kosovo citizens believe overwhelmingly that the government should intervene to regulate businesses for the sake of the public good. They also believe the state should intervene to uphold good labor conditions and wages and exercise control over the private sector to protect the consumer. Respondents said that large businesses operate with “excess profit” and that the rich should pay more taxes.

The majority of citizens also said the government must provide a “basic standard of living” for everyone, including health insurance. Many of those surveyed said that all people should have an equal income.

But despite a majority holding left-leaning attitudes towards the economy, Kosovo Citizens were more conservative when it came to social issues. For example, 79% were anti-choice and believed that abortion should be prohibited under any circumstances. Almost 60% said that the country would be a better place if people practiced their religion more.

On the other hand, around half said they don’t have any knowledge of ideological beliefs.

73.3% said they disagreed with euthanasia or assisted suicide in the case of terminal or serious sickness.

When asked about ensuring peace in the country, over three quarters said that diplomacy and international relations were the best way to do it. Less than 24% said a strong army was required for this situation.

Corruption was also highlighted as a widespread issue.

On political engagement, 52.6% said they always vote, 46.8% said they vote sometimes, and 0.6 refused to answer the question. Around half said they had an interest in politics, while just under half said they were uninterested in varying degrees.

When asked whether Kosovo’s nine political parties belonging to the right or left-wing, in all cases, around half of the respondents had no idea.

The report collected responses from Albanian, Serbian, Turkish, Roma, Egyptian, Ashkali, Gorani, and Bosniak, the main ethnicities represented in the country. The sample was then weighted to reflect the ethnic structure of the population. They then conducted the survey with respondents throughout each Municipality, including rural and urban areas. A total of 800 citizens were surveyed, and the survey’s confidence level is reported as 95%, with a margin of error of +- 4%.

COVID-19: 195 new cases, two deaths (media)

Kosovo has recorded 195 new cases of COVID-19 and two deaths from the virus in the last 24 hours. 16 persons recovered from the virus during this time. There are 1,065 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo. The Ministry of Health said in a statement that 9,537 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours. To date, 469,857 vaccines were administered in Kosovo.