UNMIK Media Observer, Morning Edition, January 3, 2023

Kurti wants more KFOR forces in Kosovo (RTK)
Bonne, Plotner and Escobar to visit Kosovo this month (Klan)
Osmani congratulates Sweden, “cooperation to get Kosovo closer to EU” (RTK)
Balkans, a priority of Sweden's EU Council Presidency (Albanian Daily News)
Svecla for the Swiss medium: We are not afraid of Serbia (Albanian Post)
Germany welcomes removal of barricades (Anadolu Agency)
NATO's highest authority to meet this month to discuss security in Kosovo (AP)
Krasniqi doesn’t expect fast agreement; “Kurti invented deadline” (Klan)
‘Life is Beautiful’: Visually Impaired Kosovo Writer Rejects Limits (BIRN)
French Museum Keeps Memory of Long-Ago Balkans Alive (BIRN)
Activists who attacked assembly building acquitted (Prishtina Insight)
Person of the Year for Prishtina Insight, Faruk Kukaj (Prishtina Insight)

Kurti wants more KFOR forces in Kosovo (RTK)

The Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti has requested an increase in KFOR forces in Kosovo. In an interview with Die Welt he said that the addition of NATO soldiers and military equipment in Kosovo would help peace in the entire Western Balkans. He said that Kosovo has increased the defense budget as well as the number of reserve soldiers.

"An increase in the number of soldiers in NATO's peacekeeping force, KFOR, would support our efforts in terms of defense,” Kurti said.

Currently, there are about 3,800 KFOR soldiers in Kosovo, about 70 Germans. According to a decision of the German Bundestag, up to 400 additional soldiers can be urgently sent to Kosovo. "German soldiers are certainly welcome in Kosovo," Kurti said.

"16 barricades in four northern communities, and men in masks and insignia of the mercenary forces 'Wagner' and 'Night Wolves' on their black uniforms, and with flags shouting 'Pray to God and hold fast to Russia,' make the need for additional NATO troops is clear, as is the accumulation of Serbian troops and artillery along the border with Kosovo and the continuous statements from the Serbian and Russian states," Kurti said.

Bonne, Plotner and Escobar to visit Kosovo this month (Klan)

The TV station reports that Emmanuel Bonne and Jens Plotner, advisors to the President of France and the President of Germany, will visit Kosovo once the New Year holidays are over. The two senior diplomats will be joined by the U.S. special envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar. Citing two diplomats, who preferred to remain anonymous, Klan Kosova reports that the visit by the EU and US officials should be taken more seriously this time and that their demands to parties in the process of dialogue are “more crystalized” compared to their first visit in September 2022 when they presented the initial draft of the EU plan on Kosovo-Serbia agreement.

Osmani congratulates Sweden, calls for cooperation to get Kosovo closer to EU (RTK)

The President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani through a post on Twitter, has congratulated Sweden on taking over the presidency of the European Union.

"I wish our Swedish partners a successful Presidency of the EU Council. We look forward to working together to fulfill our common objectives, to bring Kosovo closer to the EU and to strengthen unity against attempts to undermine our common values and interests," Osmani wrote on Twitter.

Balkans, a priority of Sweden's EU Council Presidency (Albanian Daily News)

The Balkans will be one of Sweden's priorities, which on the first day of 2023 took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from the Czech Republic, which will last until the end of June. This is the third time that this country will be at the head of this institution. A member of the EU since 1995, Sweden held the next presidency in 2000 and in 2009. Speaking about his country's priorities at the head of the European bloc, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he would work for a "safer, freer and greener Europe". In the documents that the Swedish Presidency of the EU published about its priorities, relations with the Western Balkans and the enlargement process are mentioned as important issues in terms of security for the whole of Europe.

Svecla for the Swiss medium: We are not afraid of Serbia (Albanian Post)

Kosovo’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Svecla, during an interview for the Swiss medium 20 Minutes, spoke about the latest developments in the north of Kosovo, where the local Serbs for 20 days during December had set up barricades as a sign of dissatisfaction, after the police had arrested former -policeman Dejan Pantic, who is suspected of the December 6 attack on the CEC office in the North.

However, Svecla emphasized that despite the tense situation, "he was not afraid", when he was asked that "did you expect Serbia to invade Kosovo?"

"We were and are worried, but not afraid at all," Svecla said.

"The analysis of the situation is based on existing facts and reasons. But unreasonable scenarios cannot be completely ruled out," he added.

He emphasized that "we are currently witnessing a war in Europe, in which a despot has pursued dark goals for Ukraine and the region, crossing red lines that until recently seemed unimaginable".

Germany welcomes removal of barricades (Anadolu Agency)

A German government spokeswoman on Monday expressed relief over the easing of tensions between Serbia and Kosovo following the removal of barricades blocking the main border crossing by Kosovo Serbs.

"It's a good sign that the two sides have approached each other and that the Serbian minority in northern Kosovo has lifted the roadblocks," Christiane Hoffmann told journalists in Berlin.

"It is now primarily important that the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo is further supported. The federal (German) government does that very actively and it also supports the mediation efforts of the EU,” added Hoffmann.

Neither Hoffmann nor a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry wanted to comment on Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti's call for more NATO soldiers to be sent.

Hoffmann stressed Berlin is initially focusing on supporting the dialogue.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3Q6WsL3

NATO's highest authority to meet this month to discuss security in Kosovo (AP)

On January 18 and 19, the Military Committee, or NATO's highest authority, will hold its first meeting in 2023 in Brussels.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will join the Military Committee for the first session to provide the latest policy objectives and discuss the security challenges facing the Alliance.

“The first session of the second day will see the defense chiefs meet with their Kosovo Force (KFOR) operational partners – Armenia, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Moldova, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine. The discussions will focus on the situation on the ground, the security environment and the mission of KFOR," says the announcement from the NATO media office.

Krasniqi doesn’t expect fast agreement; “Kurti invented deadline” (Klan)

Leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Memli Krasniqi, is skeptical that an agreement will be reached between Kosovo and Serbia by March of this year. He says that the deadline for the dialogue was invented by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, since even on the basis of the French-German plan, there is no deadline for the final agreement. According to him, the deadline undeclared by the internationals means the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024.

The opposition leader says that Kurti fell into Serbia's trap over the license plate issue and that his mistakes have irreparable costs for the country. He also addresses a multitude of criticisms against Kurti, calling him incapable of governing.

"The deadline was invented by Prime Minister Kurti to try to create a narrative that is acceptable to his militants. There is no deadline for international partners. The undeclared deadline means the end of 2023, the beginning of 2024 because it is a period where there are no elections in the USA, EU, Germany and France, nor in Kosovo and Serbia at least planned. Having this, they believe that there can be a breakthrough. But I personally did not expect and do not expect that there will be such a quick agreement," he said.

‘Life is Beautiful’: Visually Impaired Kosovo Writer Rejects Limits (BIRN)

Life in Kosovo for people with special needs can be extremely difficult, but visually impaired poet Fjolla Muhaxhiri Agusholli says she won’t give in. As a young woman, Fjolla Muhaxhiri Agusholli was a keen writer and a student of pharmacy. Then, aged 20, she lost her sight. “Now I am a queen of the night, immersed in the middle of the desert,” Muhaxhiri Agusholli writes in the poetry collection she self-published this year under the title Mbreteresha e Nates [Queen of the Night]. Seventeen years have passed since a complication of diabetes left Muhaxhiri Agusholli blind. She stopped going out and “felt as if my life had ended and everything was dark.”