• G7 call on Kosovo and Serbia to continue dialogue without delays (Zeri)
• Lajcak: Western Balkans integration in EU, the only alternative (media)
• Gervalla in London: Serbia is threatening, we must act quickly if we want to save the peace (media)
• Why is the north of Kosovo a haven for criminal groups? (RFE Albanian)
• HLC's Blakaj: Missing persons ought not be a condition to agreement with Serbia (Koha)
• Movie Puts Spotlight on Forced Marriage in Kosovo (BIRN)
• Assembly adopts draft law for deployment of KSF abroad (media)
• North Macedonian president to pay official visit to Kosovo (Indeksonline)
• Kosovo connecting to Serbian IPs, businesses and opposition raise the alarm (euronews.al)
• Serbian Minister requests visa liberalisation for Kosovo (RTK)
• COVID-19: 8 new cases, no deaths (media)

G7 call on Kosovo and Serbia to continue dialogue without delays (Zeri)

Foreign Ministers of the seven most developed world countries, G7, that met this last weekend in Liverpool, pledged to strongly engage on issues that relate to the Western Balkans.

"We underlined the importance of supporting the European perspective, stability and security in the Western Balkans," said in a statement Elizabeth Truss, the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, in her capacity as Chair of the G7 Foreign and Development Ministers’ Meeting. "We urged Kosovo and Serbia to engage constructively in the EU-facilitated dialogue on normalisation of their relations and make progress without further delay," Truss added.

Lajcak: Western Balkans integration in EU, the only alternative (media)

European Union envoy for Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue Miroslav Lajcak said that today's meeting between Great Britain, the EU, the U.S. and the Western Balkans was useful.

He wrote in a Twitter post that there is no alternative for the region other than EU integration. "A very useful meeting between Great Britain, the European Union, the United States plus the Western Balkans in London today. There is no alternative for the region other than EU integration. It is good that this was emphasized by all participants," Lajcak wrote.

Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla also participated in the meeting.

Gervalla in London: Serbia is threatening, we must act quickly if we want to save the peace (media)

Kosovo's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Donika Gervalla said at the Western Balkans Foreign Ministers' Summit being held in London, that Kosovo has faced threats of war from Serbia.

She added that the government of Serbia has formally adopted a strategy which uses a reformulated version of the ideology of "Greater Serbia" which led to the catastrophe in the Balkans in the 1990s.

“In 2021, a government official calls for a "Serbian world" and again Serbian nationalism says that all Serbs in the region should live under Serbian rule, as Mr. Vulin in the summer of this year said in the presence of Mr. Vucic," Gervalla said.

"But a fast and immediate action is needed, as well as clear communication with those who are threatening peace not only in Ukraine but also in our region," Gervalla said.

"If we want to save the peace, we must act wisely and quickly," she noted, stating that ‘the United Kingdom is on our side wherever it is.’

Why is the north of Kosovo a haven for criminal groups? (RFE Albanian)

Eight years after Kosovo and Serbia agreed on the integration of Serbian justice and security institutions from the north of Kosovo into the central system, the " blacklist " of the United States includes names from this part of Kosovo.

Being on a "blacklist" means applying U.S. sanctions against him. Sanctions block the property of individuals, while prohibiting U.S. citizens from cooperating with them.

People from northern Kosovo have been blacklisted by the United States because, as it was said, they have participated in corrupt networks linked to transnational organized crime.

Northern Kosovo consists of four Serb-majority municipalities, territorially linked: North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok.

They started functioning in the Kosovo system in 2013, after the signing of the Brussels Agreement for the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Veselinovic and people around him

Ehat Miftaraj, from the Kosovo Law Institute, believes that Kosovo institutions have not done their job properly, which, as he says, has been confirmed by the blacklist of the U.S. Treasury Department, published on December 8.

Speaking to Radio Free Europe, Miftaraj said that the criminal group, which is included in the U.S. blacklist, is known throughout Kosovo.

According to him, he "does business very easily", because "he has the protection of politicians and justice institutions".

"The message that the U.S. wanted to send to Kosovo institutions is that they are not doing their job, they have not investigated or prosecuted [members of the criminal group]," Miftaraj said.

He added that countries that are unable to fight corruption are under the control of criminal groups.

The United States has identified businessman Zvonko Veselinovic as the leader of a criminal group from northern Kosovo and has sanctioned dozens of other names linked to him.

In 2011, the NATO mission in Kosovo, KFOR, identified Veselinovic as one of the organizers of the riots in the north.

Cooperation of criminal and political groups

Verolub Petronic, a security expert from North Mitrovica, who is also the head of the Human Center Mitrovica organization, told Radio Free Europe that criminal groups from northern Kosovo have become much stronger.

For a long time, he said, they "have crossed borders". Their co-operation with political interest groups is widely known, Petronic said.

"The crime-related business has grown so much in terms of money that now both Serbia and the Balkans are small for it," he added.

A U.S. Treasury Department statement issued on December 8 states that the organized crime group has conspired with various politicians for mutual favors, including bribing Kosovo security officials, to allow smuggling operations between Serbia and Kosovo in early 2019 and bribing Kosovo border officials to allow smugglers a safe passage at the end of 2017.

Petronic believes that Serbian and Albanian criminal groups are cooperating and adds that justice institutions in Kosovo have had to react and enforce the law in northern Kosovo.

One way to "decriminalize the north," Petronic said, is through the Serbian List - the leading Kosovo Serb political party, which was formed with the support of Belgrade and incumbent Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Petronic emphasized political will is needed for such a thing.

Response from the Serbian List

Given that the deputy leader of the Serbian List Milan Radoicic is on the U.S. blacklist, his party said on December 9 that "ungrounded allegations against Serbs from the north are a coordinated campaign," which according to them, aims to "weaken the unity and protection of our people in these areas."

Radoicic became deputy leader of the Serbian List in 2018, a few months after the assassination of North Mitrovica opposition politician Oliver Ivanovic.

Milan Radoicic and Zvonko Veselinovic are mentioned in documents of justice institutions in Kosovo, regarding the murder of Ivanovic.

In the indictment, they are mentioned as "leaders of a criminal group", which has repeatedly tried to bring North Mitrovica under its control.

However, charges have never been filed against them because they were not available to the judiciary.

An arrest warrant was issued for Radoicic, but it was withdrawn in March this year, without any explanation.

Veselinovic and Radoicic have also been known to the Serbian judiciary since 2011, when they were indicted for embezzling 32 trucks from Hypo Alpe Adria Leasing.

The indictment was filed in the Special Court in Belgrade, at the time when the dialogue for the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia began.

Both were acquitted in 2016.

Bojana Pavlovic, from the Crime and Corruption Investigation Network in Serbia - KRIK, says that Kosovo has not managed to extend its control in the north and that Serbia, in order to maintain its control in that part, has cooperated with "people with dubious biographies.”

She says these people have a big influence on the Serbian List, which is close to Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party.

Pavlovic says that the former Prime Minister of Kosovo Ramush Haradinaj met with Milan Radoicic and that the KRIC has also published photos, in which Radoicic appears in the company of the Kosovar politician, Behgjet Pacolli.

"Money does the job, some things in this sense are done behind closed doors, outside institutions," Pavlovic told Radio Free Europe.

According to her, Kosovo institutions do not have the will to resolve the crime issue.

Northern Kosovo as a source of instability

The U.S. blacklist also includes the former chief of operations of the Kosovo Police in the north, Zeljko Bojic, due to his connections with Zvonko Veselinovic.

Bojic has been on the run for some time, as the Kosovo Prosecution has linked him to the murder of Oliver Ivanovic.

Besa Ramaj, a security expert, says that the north of Kosovo, in the post-war period, has always been a source of instability.

She believes that all this is related to the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia for the normalization of relations. According to her, the final agreement between the two parties is necessary for the stability of the region.

Ramaj sees the U.S. sanctions as a positive step, which means that destabilization of the situation will no longer be tolerated.

"The Serbian government still has a lot of influence there [in the north] and uses this as an advantage to advance its agenda. I feel sorry for the citizens who live in that part. We need a more aggressive campaign for the European path of Kosovo and Serbia, so that the dialogue leads to a conclusion and mutual recognition is achieved," Ramaj said.

Kosovo officials have welcomed U.S. sanctions against a group of Serbs from northern Kosovo, while Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said his country's competent authorities will investigate whether there are "serious allegations".

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, announced on December 10 mobilization in the fight against criminal groups, "regardless of ethnicity".

HLC's Blakaj: Missing persons ought not be a condition to agreement with Serbia (Koha)

Bekim Blakaj, head of Humanitarian Law Centre in Kosovo, said that the issue of missing persons should not be used as a condition to reaching a final agreement between Kosovo and Serbia. He also said there is no political will to resolve the fate of the missing persons.

In an interview with KTV, Blakaj said: "We at the HLC are happy the missing persons issue is in the agenda of the dialogue, this is what we have been recommending for years. However, we are not sure we have seen political will for determining the fate of all the missing. At the same time it is illusionary to expect this issue will be resolved in a short period of time, say 2, 3, or 5 years. I don't believe an agreement should be waited for such a long time."

Blakaj also spoke about the recent statements coming from Belgrade in denial war crimes, saying that there is a continuous campaign on the part of Serb institutions to distort facts. "They try to present the massacres carried out by Serb forces as fabricated. It is an impossible mission to change the international narration about what happened in Kosovo. It is difficult to change it. They are successful in this in Serbia but not on the international level."

Movie Puts Spotlight on Forced Marriage in Kosovo (BIRN)

A new film highlights the plight of girls from Kosovo’s Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities forced into teen marriages – and how they can say ‘No’.

Romni, a short film made in Kosovo, focuses on the life of a Roma girl who runs away from early marriage to pursue her dreams.

Faced with an early, forced marriage, on her wedding day Shpresa flees her home to avoid the fate of so many of her peers.

This film shows how families “bargain” over girls’ marriages, the socio-economic conditions in which these families find themselves, the despair in the eyes of the mothers that have to marry off their young daughters to save them from poverty – mothers who are unaware of the rights that belong to them.

To complete the mosaic, Shpresa runs away from a marriage what she does not reject with words, but, symbolically, cuts off her hair to express her dissatisfaction.

The same issue is the subject of a documentary Like a Real Woman, which focuses on the stories of community activists dealing with early marriages, and their struggle to eliminate the phenomenon.

The film was screened at the Armata Cinema in Pristina on International Human Rights Day as part of the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” program, with the support of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK.

‘Like a real woman’

Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities activist, Sadete Nanoja Gashnjani, told a discussion panel organised after the screening of the film that she had had many problems with her parents when she categorically refused marriage at the age of 14.

“Parents think we should marry early and start a family. I told my parents that if I get married at 14, I could not make a family the way I wanted to because I was too young,” she said.

“If we get married so young, we become workers in our husband’s household, and stay on our feet day and night. How can you give birth at 14, when you are still a child?”

Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian girls in Kosovo are more often forced into early marriages than men in their communities, or girls from other communities.

Data from the world organisation Save the Children show that about 12 per cent of girls from these communities get married before the age of 15, compared to only 1 per cent of boys from these communities, and less than 1 per cent of girls from other communities.

Shpresa Agushi, from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Women’s Network, stressed that when a girl leaves school and gets married young, she will remain uneducated, and be financially dependent and economically powerless; her rights will be violated, rights which she does not even know about.

“We have worked to give these women their voice. We have been speaking on their behalf for years and will continue to speak on their behalf, but we will be much stronger if we speak all together. They must have the strength to speak for themselves,” she said.

Barrie Freeman, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, said that the COVID-19 pandemic had led to a 10-per-cent increase in early marriages worldwide.

Driton Berisha, from the Fund for Roma Education, emphasized that if you ask the parents of children from these communities, many of them see the boy child as the future support of the family.

“When they talk about the girl, they consider her as a husband’s partner, where she also contributes financially to his family,” he says. According to him, for both genders there is a lack of employees who serve as examples of hope of empowerment.

Muhamet Arifi, director of the Balkan Sunflower an NGO that builds activist lives for social change, blamed early marriages also on the government, which he said does not employ enough young people from the minorities who are instead forced to get married or migrate outside Kosovo.

“Institutions should imprison those who rape a 14-year-old girl and force her to have children. Once others see that someone is in prison for this issue, they will see that prison is waiting for them also for this crime,” he said.

He encouraged all foreign missions in Kosovo, such as the UNMIK and OSCE, to employ more citizens from these communities, because, according to him, these missions are currently not hiring these citizens.

This challenge was accepted by the Chief of the UNMIK Support Mission in Kosovo, Sandi Arnold, who asked Arifi to find the best students for internships in her office.

Assembly adopts draft law for deployment of KSF abroad (media)

Kosovo legislators adopted yesterday, at the second reading, the draft law for deployment of Kosovo Security Forces (KSF) abroad. The legislative act was passed with 68 votes in favour.

Kosovo's Defence Minister Armend Mehaj said that the participation of KSF troops in international operations carries a significant importance for the Force's aspiration to join NATO. "With regards to progress towards NATO, we are building all the necessary capacities, we have a transition plan and we are fulfilling it in cooperation with our partners, but participation in international operations is also very significant," he said.

North Macedonian president to pay official visit to Kosovo (Indeksonline)

President of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, is expected to pay an official visit to Kosovo on 15 December, the news website reports quoting sources.

Pendarovski is set to meet Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani and other institutional leaders.

Kosovo connecting to Serbian IPs, businesses and opposition raise the alarm (euronews.al)

After almost 14 years of having fully established its institutions, the nation of Kosovo is still using Serbian IP addresses.

According to several local businesses, this has become a cause for huge concern due to outer interventions in the market and damages that are coming from their competition, causing many unfavourable consequences.

“This concern has been brought up by businesses and the media sector, who have complained because, with the use of Serbian IP addresses, ads showing up in the different portals and on web pages are in the same language as their IP address. When using Serbian IPs, the language isn’t Albanian, but Serbian. This is, in turn, hurting businesses but also the country because it’s identifying us with another country that is in reality also hurting the sovereignty of the Republic of Kosovo,” – emphasized the head of the Board of Kosovo’s Transactions Chamber, Skender Krasniqi MP of AAK, who is also a member of the parliamentary commission on the economy, Pal Lekaj told KosovaPress that he has made an urgent request to have the issue of Serbian IPs addressed immediately, because their use from Serbia, risks the security and privacy of the citizens of Kosovo.

Serbian Minister requests visa liberalisation for Kosovo (RTK)

The Minister of Human and Community Rights and Internal Dialogue Gordana Comic, in an interview with EURACTIV, a media network specializing in EU policies, spoke about Serbia's relations with its neighbours and internal dialogue in Serbia.

She also spoke about Kosovo, inviting the European Union to approve visa liberalisation for Kosovo and to open membership negotiations with Albania and Northern Macedonia.

"It does not cost anything (to the EU), but it sends the message that the EU stands behind that the peace project is the basic idea on which the union is built," Comic said.

COVID-19: 8 new cases, no deaths (media)

Eight new cases with COVID-19 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo.  Six persons recovered from the virus during this time.

There are 323 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Kosovo’s Ministry of Health said in a statement yesterday that 1,435 persons died of COVID-19 in the period between August 1 and December 1 in Kosovo, and that 1,280 of them were not vaccinated (89 percent). The Ministry appealed to the citizens that vaccines play a crucial role in preventing infection, fatalities and hospitalizations from COVID-19.