• Kosovo Deputy PM accuses Serbia of sabotaging dialogue (Koha)
• Svecla: Radoicic behind smugglers that attack the police (RFE)
• Kurti meets Swiss Ambassador Kolly, OSCE Ambassador Davenport (media)
• “AKI, Police working with KFOR to apprehend criminals in the north” (media)
• One month detention for suspect of attack against police in north (Kosovapress)
• Kosovo Cultural Heritage Sites Hit by Theft, Vandalism: OSCE Report (BIRN)
• US Judge’s Memoir Delivers Verdict on Justice in Kosovo (BIRN)
• Albania, North Macedonia, Brace for First EU Accession Talks (BIRN)

Kosovo Deputy PM accuses Serbia of sabotaging dialogue (Koha)

The daily reports on its front page that Kosovo’s Principal Deputy Prime Minister and chief negotiator in the EU-facilitated talks with Serbia in Brussels, Besnik Bislimi, said on Monday that two high-level meetings between Kosovo and Serbia failed because of Belgrade. In his report to the Kosovo Assembly’s Committee for European Integration, Bislimi said his meeting with his Serbian counterpart has failed, and so has a meeting between Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic which was scheduled for today. According to Bislimi, Serbia is sabotaging and undermining the process of dialogue. “Serbia is sabotaging the process, but nevertheless in order to prove Kosovo’s determination to be an active party in the dialogue and to work toward a final settlement, I travelled to Brussels and held two meetings with Mr. Lajcak [EU Special Representative] where we discussed the next steps,” Bislimi told the meeting.

Svecla: Radoicic behind smugglers that attack the police (RFE)

Kosovo’s Minister of Interior, Xhelal Svecla, said on Monday that persons carrying attacks on the Kosovo Police in the north are known to the law enforcement authorities as being involved in illegal activities, including smuggling, obstructing the police, and even intimidating members of the Serb community in the north of Kosovo.

“There are several groups of smugglers, but all closely coordinated by Serbia’s institutions. The leadership of Serbia has continuously used criminal groups to undermine Kosovo in that part, and as a reward they were also given opportunities to get rich, as well as unlimited immunity to these individuals,” Svecla said in an interview with Radio Free Europe. He added that Serbian List deputy leader Milan Radoicic is “one of the leaders of these structures”.

The Serbian List denied allegations of Radoicic’s involvement in criminal activities in the north. The party said Svecla made the accusations "without any evidence and no responsibility” and that such statements are aimed at “scaring the rest of the Serb population" in Kosovo. The Serbian List called on international representatives to "take clear positions against such abuses of authority" by Kosovo government officials.

Kurti meets Swiss Ambassador Kolly and OSCE Ambassador Davenport (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti met on Monday with the Ambassador of Switzerland in Kosovo, Thomas Kolly and the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Ambassador Michael Davenport, and discussed the initiative to create the Translation and Harmonization Unit, within the Office of the Prime Minister. Commissioner for Languages, Slavisa Mladenovic and the advisor to the PM on community issues, Elizabeth Gowing, also attended the meeting.

Kurti thanked Ambassador Kolly for the help of the Swiss Embassy for supporting and helping to create this Unit, through which the correct translation of laws and by-laws will be ensured, as well as previous laws that have not been translated correctly will be reviewed. the two official languages ​​of Kosovo. With the creation of the Unit, respect for the Law on the Use of Languages ​​and respect for the rights of communities is ensured, but it also contributes to the rule of law. Kurti also thanked Ambassador Davenport for the assistance of the OSCE during the drafting of the concept document of this initiative, as well as for their readiness to provide continuous support during its implementation.

“AKI, Police working with KFOR to apprehend criminals in the north” (media)

Vetevendosje MP Enver Dugolli said in an interview on Monday that the Government of Kosovo exchanges information about the north with KFOR peacekeeping troops. He said that the success of Kosovo Police in yielding sovereignty in the north is apparent. He said that it is possible that attacks against Kosovo Police in the north are being ordered by the deputy leader of the Serbian List, Milan Radoicic, who remains at large. “Our intelligence mechanisms, the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, and the police, are working on this, and there is cooperation with KFOR and NATO who are present there. I believe all this work will be crowned with the arrests of the criminals,” Dugolli said.

Commenting on a recent video published by Radoicic, Dugolli said it was a sign that Radoicic will mobilise people in the north that are involved in corruption and smuggling and that the attacks against the police could be orchestrated. “We will very soon apprehend the individuals behind these crimes,” he said.

One month detention for suspect of attack against police in north (Kosovapress)

The news agency reports that the Basic Court in Mitrovica has ordered 30 days of detention for a person suspected of three criminal offences, “attempted murder”, “unauthorized border crossing” and “smuggling of goods”. The prosecutor’s office said that on Saturday, the suspect endangered the lives of four police officers, ignoring the police orders to stop his truck at a checkpoint. While fleeing from the police, the suspect hit a police car twice causing bodily injuries to police officers.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for the suspect told the news agency on Monday that statements by politicians about the case do not contribute to justice. “Statements by politicians in Kosovo about this trial and about who should remain in detention and who should not, as well as prejudice from the very beginning, do not contribute to this process, and they put pressure on both the prosecutor's office and the court as to how they must act in the process,” the lawyer said.

Kosovo Cultural Heritage Sites Hit by Theft, Vandalism: OSCE Report (BIRN)

Incidents of theft and damage by vandals constitute the most frequent problems for cultural heritage and religious sites in Kosovo, says a report published on Monday by the OSCE Mission in Kosovo.

The report notes that an increase in reported thefts suggests an economic motivation for crimes against religious sites.

“This increased reporting also indicates greater public awareness to report such offences to the Kosovo Police. Meanwhile, KP’s specialised unit for cultural heritage has become operational and patrols 24 sites, including 22 Serb Orthodox churches and monasteries,” the report says.

The report notes that from 2014 to 2020, there were a total of 135 incidents of religious and heritage sites being targeted without any economic motivation.

Fifty-seven per cent of them targeted Serbian Orthodox sites, 27 per cent Islamic Community sites and nine per cent Catholic sites.

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

US Judge’s Memoir Delivers Verdict on Justice in Kosovo (BIRN)

In February 2011, three years after Kosovo declared independence, Dean Pineles became a judge for the EU’s rule-of-law mission in the country, EULEX.

At the time, Kosovo’s newly-established justice system was dealing with some high-profile, controversial cases that were also politically sensitive and made headlines worldwide. Pineles, from the US state of Vermont, was on the judging panel for several of them.

“I stayed for 28 months, I handled a range of criminal cases with EULEX,” Pineles told BIRN in an interview ahead of the publication this week of his new book, ‘A Judge’s Odyssey’.

Pineles worked on the notorious Medicus human organ-trafficking case as well as the trial of former Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA commander turned politician Fatmir Limaj, who served at one time as Minister of Transport and Telecommunication in the Kosovo government.

“The public followed the case of Fatmir Limaj, with nom de guerre ‘Commander Steel’, very closely,” Pineles recalled. “During the trial there were armed security guards in the courtroom. Outside the courtroom there were supporters of Limaj and other nine defendants in that case.”

Limaj had been acquitted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague in 2005, but then another indictment was filed against him and nine others in Kosovo in 2011 for war crimes that were believed to have been committed in a KLA detention facility.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3zg1Apr

Albania, North Macedonia, Brace for First EU Accession Talks (BIRN)

The European Union High Representative Joseph Borrell announced that accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia will start on Tuesday, after Saturday’s vote in North Macedonia’s parliament on a French proposal removed the final obstacle posed by Bulgaria to the start of the process.

“This is a historic moment. They have spent so many years waiting with the status of candidate, with nothing happening; the final vote in North Macedonia parliament has opened a door and an intergovernmental conference will launch the process of negotiations, a long-awaited process,” Borrell told media on Monday.

“This is a good news. We didn’t have lot of good news, this is a good one [and] I hope it is going to increase our engagement with the Balkans,” Borrell added.

On Saturday, 68 members of North Macedonia’s 120-seat parliament voted in favour of a proposal made by French President Emanuel Macron to overcome deep disagreements between Skopje and Sofia.

Since 2020, North Macedonia’s path to EU membership talks had been blocked by Bulgaria over a so-called “history dispute”. Bulgaria insists that the Macedonian identity and language are of Bulgarian origin and that Bulgarians are repressed in North Macedonia and must be included in the country’s constitutional preamble as a state-founding ethnicity.

Meantime, Albania’s own EU integration process has suffered collateral damage from the standoff, as Albania’s EU talks are bracketed in one package with North Macedonia’s.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3RIloc8