• COVID-19: 398 new cases, 1 death (media)
• Prishtina Mayor: No one has moral credibility to ask for a lockdown (media)
• EU insists on resuming the dialogue (media)
• Vetevendosje Movement rules out coalition with Serbian List (Koha)
• Idea for extra-territoriality of Orthodox religious sites, a challenge (Koha)
• Hoti reacts against Belgrade’s interference in Bosniak vote (media)
• Berisha accuses Romani Initiative of being “a Srpska Lista product” (BIRN)
• 48 NGOs from non-Serb communities react (Ekonomia Online)
• Surroi: Short time to elect the new President (Koha)
• Slow pace of Balkan repatriation leaves over 100 children in Syrian camps (BIRN)

COVID-19: 398 new cases, 1 death (media)

398 new cases of COVID-19 and one death from the virus were recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. 228 persons have recovered from the virus during this time. There are 7,146 active cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Kosovo’s National Institute for Public Health said in a statement that general and specific anti-COVID measures must be implemented strictly, with special emphasis on measures against the gatherings of people and public meetings. The Institute also appealed to the citizens to leave their homes only for most necessary needs.

Indeksonline news website reports that Kosovars could start getting the first vaccines against the virus in March.

Prishtina Mayor: No one has moral credibility to ask for a lockdown (media)

Prishtina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti took to Twitter on Sunday to say that after the rallies of political parties for the February 14 parliamentary elections, no one has the moral credibility to ask for any lockdowns.

“In a hypothetical situation … when COVID cases reach over 800 a day, restrictive measures will be needed. After the campaign with rallies, how can someone have the mora credibility to ask the people for any lockdown,” Ahmeti said.

EU insists on resuming the dialogue (media)

Several news websites quote European Commission spokesperson Peter Stano as saying that Brussels expects the new government in Kosovo to be ready to resume the EU-facilitated dialogue with Serbia.

“The European Union has been very clear in the joint statement issued on Monday by the EU High Representative Josep Borrell and Commissioner Varhelyi that we are looking forward to the formation of the new government … and that the new authorities in Prishtina should be constructively committed to resuming the EU-facilitated dialogue and use the opportunity to reach a comprehensive agreement,” Stano said.

Vetevendosje Movement rules out coalition with Serbian List (Koha)

The paper reports on page three this morning that regardless of the power that the Serbian List will have in the new legislative following the support with Roma and Bosniak votes, the Kurti-led Vetevendosje Movement have said they will not form a coalition with the Serbian List for the new government. A spokesman for the Vetevendosje Movement said they will try to cooperate with other MPs from non-Serb communities in forming the new institutions. Political commentators in Prishtina meanwhile argue that the Serbian List’s objective is to become a key factor in the formation of the new institutions.

Idea for extra-territoriality of Orthodox religious sites, a challenge (Koha)

The paper reports on its front page this morning that in addition to “obligations from the past”, such as the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities, a new challenge awaits Kosovo in the process of dialogue with Serbia and this is increasingly being discussed in diplomatic circles. This namely concerns the idea of granting an even more special status, in the form of extra-territoriality, to Serb Orthodox churches in Kosovo.

Unnamed diplomats in Brussels told the paper that in the event of the formation of the Association/Community and an agreement “to increase the protection of Serb Orthodox religious sites”, Kosovo could get membership in the United Nations.

Hoti reacts against Belgrade’s interference in Bosniak vote (media)

Kosovo’s outgoing Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti reacted on Sunday against Belgrade’s alleged interference in the Bosniak vote in the February 14 parliamentary elections. He said that Albanian political parties never had any tendencies to interfere in the election of representatives of non-majority communities.

Hoti told Klan Kosova that the institutions and local and international monitors must address the issue. “Representatives of non-majority communities must be elected by their communities without any interference, as has been the case in previous legislatives and as determined by the spirit of the Constitution. The apparent interference in these elections is unacceptable because it goes against the principles and spirit of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo,” Hoti said.

Berisha accuses Romani Initiative of being “a Srpska Lista product” (BIRN)

After receiving large numbers of votes in Serb-majority municipalities, Romani Initiative has been accused of collaborating with the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista in Sunday’s elections.

Veton Berisha of the Egyptian Liberal Party, PLE, has become the latest politician seeking to represent Kosovo’s non-Serb ethnic non-majority communities to raise questions over interference by Srpska Lista in Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

Prior to the election, BIRN reported allegations that Srpska Lista was seeking to expand its parliamentary power by encouraging its supporters to vote for candidates from Kosovo’s non-Serb ethnic non-majority communities that were sympathetic to the party.

Among those identified as likely to receive support from Srpska Lista voters was ‘Romani Initiative’, a newly established citizens initiative competing for seats allocated to Kosovo’s Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities.

In a press release on Friday, the PLE, stated that the party was initially skeptical about these reports. However, they added that, following early election results published by the Kosovo Central Election Commission, “it is clear that ‘Romani Initiative’ is a product of [Srpska Lista].”

On 3,827 votes, Romani Initiative are currently placed first among the nine political entities competing for the four seats at the Kosovo Assembly reserved for Kosovo’s Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities.

As things stand, Romani Initiative is set to win two of these four seats: the one reserved for the most voted Roma candidate, and the additional seat which goes to the most voted party from among the three communities.

In PLE’s statement, the party claimed that Romani Initiative received votes in areas of the country “where the Roma community does not live at all.” Data from the Central Election Commission, CEC, support these claims, showing that Romani Initiative received a large number of votes in Serb-majority municipalities with no documented Roma communities.

In Ranilug and Partesh, the party received a total 287 votes, while according to municipal profiles conducted by the OSCE in 2018, there are no Roma residents in these municipalities. In Leposavic, Romani initiative received 244 votes while only nine residents from the Roma and Ashkali communities are documented by the OSCE.

Romani Initiative received 1,620 votes in Gracanica, nearly half of its overall total. However, the PLE’s Veton Berisha told Prishtina Insight that he believes there is a maximum of 300-400 registered voters from the Roma community in Gracanica.

Berisha added that the extra seat for the most voted entity among Kosovo’s Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities had never been won by a Roma party before. The PLE leader believes that this is largely due to demographics, as he estimates that there are around 7,000 Egyptians in Kosovo compared to around 2,000 Roma.

“It is not possible to create an initiative just before the elections and to win two seats,” Berisha said.

Speaking to Prishtina Insight, Gazmen Salijevic, a spokesperson and candidate for MP for Romani list, denied any allegations of collaboration with Srpska Lista. “We have nothing to do with Srpska Lista,” he said. “We have no agreement and no contact with Srpska Lista.”

Salijevic argued that the initiative received votes from across the country, including in 36 municipalities. “Among our voters there are Roma, Albanians, Serbs…” he said, adding that they were voted for by numerous people known to the party, including in Malisheva and Hani i Elezit. According to data from the CEC, Romani Initiative received seven votes in Malisheva and one in Hani i Elezit.

Salijevic also denied that any Roma MPs will join Srpska Lista’s parliamentary group. “No, no. I say 100 times no. We have nothing to do with Srpska Lista,” he said, adding that the initiative would work with other representatives from Kosovo non-Serb ethnic non-majority communities.

However, the PLE stated that the results represent a violation of Kosovo’s constitution, and invited diplomatic, political and justice institutions to react. The party warned that if action was not taken “this practice will become a dangerous precedent in the future.”

Berisha, who is set to lose his seat in the Kosovo Assembly to a rival party from the Egyptian community, told Prishtina Insight that Kosovo’s institutions should have monitored the voting process more closely, as there were warnings of this before the election.

“This has nothing to do with my political fate, but it will damage the future of non majority communities in Kosovo,” he said. The PLE leader added that the party would wait until preliminary results are published by the Central Election Commission before taking procedural action in line with the law.

The party’s allegations follow similar claims made by Kosovo Bosniak political entities, after another newly established citizens initiative Ujedinjena Zajednica – Adrijana Hodzic won huge numbers of votes in Serb-majority municipalities.

48 NGOs from non-Serb communities react (Ekonomia Online)

The news website reports that representatives of Kosovo Bosniak non-governmental organisations have said in a joint statement that they will not recognise as their representatives the MPs that were not elected by their votes. They argue that efforts to take Bosniak seats in the Kosovo Assembly with votes from other communities is a flagrant violation of the constitution and the rights of non-majority communities to elect their own representatives. “This primitive form of politics that is trying to be installed is unacceptable and is aimed at taking control over non-majority communities and to have greater political power in the Kosovo Assembly,” the statement notes.

Surroi: Short time to elect the new President (Koha)

Publicist Veton Surroi said in a conversation with German institute “Aspen” on Sunday that the formation of the new government in Kosovo will not be a problem but that there could be difficulties with regards to the short time for the election of a new president. “I don’t see any problems with forming the new government. Certainly the issue is that this must happen within a short period of time because the process will be extended in the next two or three weeks until the election results are certified. Even if the new government is formed easily, this may not be the case with the election of a new president,” Surroi said. He also argued that the required presence and participation of 80 MPs in the voting process, gives opposition parties the chance to block the election process.

Slow pace of Balkan repatriation leaves over 100 children in Syrian camps (BIRN)

Since the fall of the Islamic State ‘caliphate’, piecemeal efforts by Balkan states to repatriate their nationals from refugee camps in Syria means more than 100 children are still living in squalid, unsafe conditions.

With her three children, Floresha Rasha has a new home – a three-storey beachfront building ringed with a high wall, barbed wire and guard posts.

Together with a 13 year-old boy, they are the first five residents of this military-owned holiday complex near the Albanian port town of Durres, converted into a state-run rehabilitation centre for Albanian citizens repatriated from parts of Syria once held by the Islamic State.

The boys play football in the grounds, and the residents are allowed out on certain days of the week to meet relatives. They have a steady flow of visitors – social workers, psychologists, teachers, medics and Arabic translators.

“The biggest challenge that first-line practitioners face in dealing directly with returnees is their current lack of knowledge regarding the specific religious traditions that the returnees adopted during their stay in Syria or the camps there,” said Iris Luarasi, director of Counselling Line for Women and Girls, which, via the Centre for Security and Peace Albania, offers training and support to local bodies dealing with returnees and issues of extremism.

Working with their relatives outside of the centre is also important, Luarasi told BIRN, “in order to reinstate attachment and to guide family members in how they can support the process of reintegrating returnees into their communities.”

For Albania, the centre represents a first small step in repatriating its citizens, including children born under the Islamic State. But here, as in other countries in the Balkans, there is considerable political unease, leaving many would-be returnees in limbo, stuck in squalid camps in northeastern Syria where security concerns are high.

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