• Kosovo Assembly to hold extraordinary session to discuss electricity crisis (media)
• Haradinaj blames Vetevendosje, Kurti for electricity crisis (media)
• Kosovars Protest Against Electricity Cuts, Demand Sackings (BIRN)
• Turkish minister to visit Kosovo today (Koha)
• Serbian official not permitted entry to Kosovo (Koha)
• Borrell: 2021, a year of transitions (RTK)
• Russia Is Playing With Fire in the Balkans (FA/Klan)
• Kosovo: Guerrillas’ Trials Begin at Hague War Crimes Court (BIRN)
• COVID-19: Four new cases, no deaths (media)

 

 

Kosovo Assembly to hold extraordinary session to discuss electricity crisis (media)

The Assembly of Kosovo is scheduled to hold an extraordinary session today to discuss the recent situation concerning power supply.

The request for a special session was signed by over 40 MPs and will start at 12 o'clock.

Haradinaj blames Vetevendosje, Kurti for electricity crisis (media)

Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj has accused the Vetevendosje Movement and its leader Albin Kurti for, as he said, opposing every project that would provide Kosovo with energy supply.

"They demonised Kosova C, which was supposed to begin being constructed in 2008, and would provide Kosovo with 2,200 mega watts of energy. They demonised and made it clear they do not support Kosova e Re either, which would give Kosovo 500 mega watts next year," Haradinaj wrote on Facebook. He added that Kosovo "is the only country in the world with energy resources but with energy crisis too."

Kosovars Protest Against Electricity Cuts, Demand Sackings (BIRN)

Kosovars protested in front of the Electricity Distribution Company, KEDS, and the government building in Prishtina on Monday over frequent reductions and power cuts.

Protesters demanded electricity supply 24 hours a day, state ownership of KEDS and the dismissal of the Minister of Economy, Artane Rizvanolli.

The protest started in front of KEDS, where one of the organisers, Dibran Hoxha, recalled that KEDS and the government started with two hours of power cuts, but that in some places there is now no electricity for up to 24 hours at a time.

Hoxha, who symbolically threw an electric light at the KEDS building, said that the power shortages discriminate most against people living in villages and  non-majority communities.

“KEDS was sold in 2012 and since 2013 has started to generate profits. Do you know how much profit it has declared over eight years? The spokesman of this company has declared 140 million euros of profits for eight years,” he said.

“Now they have started to reduce the electricity. This should not be accepted at all,” Hoxha added.

“Turn on the electricity, turn on the network, fire KEDS”, “Rizvanolli must go”, “I don’t pay for electricity for the [Serb-run] North”, “Government of the people and not of the private sector” and “Return KEDS to Kosovo”, were just some of the calls made and slogans shown in front of the KEDS building.

Kosovo has been facing worsening energy problems for days. On Friday, the government declared a 60-days energy emergency. For almost a week the country has been facing regular energy cuts as a result of a crisis with both production and supply.

KEDS has announced eight-hour reductions and 2 hours outages, but the decision does not affect all the country equally. Many citizens have complained about interruptions lasting up to 20 hours.

Activist Liridona Sijarina said the protests will continue until their grievances are dealt with by the government.

“We should have electricity 24 hours a day for each of us, without distinction; the other request is to dismiss Minister Rizvanolli, as his approach is offensive, and the third and fundamental request is for KEDS to be returned to the country [state ownership] because KEDS belongs to the state and not to the private sector,” Sijarina said in front of the government building.

Minister of Economy Rizvanolli wrote on Saturday that a file is being made to submit to the Police concerning complaints about power outages. Rizvanolli has also presented an email where people can complain about long power cuts.

KEDS spokesman Viktor Buzhala on Saturday said the energy situation was improving, as the price of power in the international market has fallen.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti in an interview for VOA said that it had not been possible to buy electricity earlier to avoid an energy crisis, as electricity cannot just be stored in a refrigerator.

His government has already allocated 20 million euros for the import of extra electricity, which according to Kurti was some seven times more than was spent in the same period last year when the price of one MW/h was about 60 euros.

Turkish minister to visit Kosovo today (Koha)

Kosovo's Ministry of Defence has announced that Turkish Defence Minister, Hulusi Akbar, will visit Kosovo today.

Akbar will have separate meetings with Defence Minister Armend Mehaj, President Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

Serbian official not permitted entry to Kosovo (Koha)

Veljko Odalovic, head of the Serbian Government's committee on missing persons, has not been allowed entry into Kosovo yesterday, Koha reports quoting Kossev news portal.

Odalovic, whose dismissal was demanded by Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti during a meeting with Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic, was scheduled to meet families of missing Serbs in Kosovo.

Kurti has said that Odalovic has a "criminal past" and "no moral right to advocate for missing persons." Koha notes that Odalovic was "senior official of the Kosovo District" during 1997-99 and one of the founding members of the Socialist Party of Serbia, led by Slobodan Milosevic.

Borrell: 2021, a year of transitions (RTK)

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, highlighted the major political developments across the world in 2021 in an editorial piece.

RTK notes that Borrell made no mention of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue in his post while the Western Balkans is mentioned once: "The rise in divisive rhetoric and actions across the Western Balkans especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina have also hampered efforts to bring the six countries closer to their European future."

Borrell concluded however that the overview he presented is by no means exhaustive, but that he wanted to recall "some of the most salient issues." "In 2021, we have worked to defend EU interests and values and strengthen a rules-based global order in this year of transitions. That work must continue in 2022 with all the determination we can muster," he said.

Russia Is Playing With Fire in the Balkans (FA/Klan)

Klan Kosova has published an article from the U.S.-based Foreign Affairs magazine saying that as Moscow continues its military buildup near the Ukrainian border, its influence campaign in the Balkans serves as another theater to challenge the West.

"Russia’s efforts have been helped immeasurably by the EU’s weak response. Despite the many years and billions of euros spent preparing the Balkans for EU integration, the effort has stalled. The EU has not expanded since its absorption of Croatia in 2013, and despite promises of membership for the 'western Balkans six'—Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia—for all practical purposes talks have frozen. Marred by challenges as varied as Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of far-right groups, and Europe’s migrant crisis, expansion appears to be on indefinite hold. This failure has made the Balkans an obvious target for Putin," Foreign Affairs writes.

It adds that Serbia's loyalty to Russia is reciprocated through support for the Serbian and that the Balkans’ “most explosive tinderboxes are Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.” “Although Kosovo’s population is more than 90 percent ethnic Albanian, Serbs see the country as an ancestral homeland that contains some of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s holiest sites. Just as a civil war exploded out of tensions between different religious and ethnic groups in the early 1990s, the Kremlin is now using the Orthodox Church to destabilize the country and the broader region. Russia’s Orthodox Church has escalated recurring disputes over religious sites, most recently expressing concern for the “destiny of Christian shrines in Kosovo” after tensions flared between Kosovo and Serbia.”

Read more at: https://fam.ag/3pubxuu

Kosovo: Guerrillas’ Trials Begin at Hague War Crimes Court (BIRN)

After years of preparation, the first trials of former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters accused of war crimes and witness intimidation opened at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in 2021 – but the Hague-based court remained highly controversial.

Today marks a milestone for this institution and our work,” prosecutor Jack Smith said in his opening statement as Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA unit commander Salih Mustafa went on trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in September this year.

Mustafa is charged with involvement in murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detentions of people of collaborating with enemy Serbs during the Kosovo war in April 1999. He has pleaded not guilty.

“You will see the victims of Mr. Mustafa were fellow Kosovo Albanians… They were not enemies of the state of Kosovo,” prosecutor Smith told the court.

The long-awaited opening of the first war crimes trial at the Hague-based court was followed by the start of the trial of the leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans’ Association, Hysni Gucati and his deputy Nasim Haradinaj, at the Specialist Chambers in October.

Gucati and Haradinaj are accused of obstruction of justice and witness intimidation related to caches of leaked documents from war crimes cases at the Specialist Chambers, which the two men received and urged media to publish. They have pleaded not guilty.

Although the Specialist Chambers are part of Kosovo’s justice system, established under pressure from the country’s Western allies, the so-called ‘Special Court’ is are highly unpopular among Kosovo Albanians, who see it as an attempt to tarnish the KLA’s struggle for freedom from Serbian repression.

When the Specialist Chambers’ president Ekaterina Trendafilova visited Pristina in September, she was targeted by protesters, seven of whom were arrested. Opposition to the court could intensify even further next year, when high-profile figures including Kosovo’s ex-president Hashim Thaci are due to go on trial for war crimes and crimes and humanity.

Witness protection remains a key concern for the Specialist Chambers after previous trials of KLA ex-guerrillas at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia were marred by intimidation.

Trendafilova warned in a confidential briefing to European diplomats in February that there have been increasing efforts from within Kosovo to hinder legal proceedings at the Specialist Chambers, which could “put at stake the life, safety and security of people who have or will be willing to cooperate with us”.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3EwxRb5

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

Four new cases with COVID-19 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. 10 persons recovered from the virus during this time.

There are 343 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.