UNMIK Media Observer, Morning Edition, November 24, 2021

Lajcak announces developments in the dialogue process (RTK)
Kurti: Serbia behaving in Balkans according to Russian Federation model (Koha)
Kurti received by Austrian Chancellor Schallenberg (media)
“We will allow no individual to be stronger than the rule of law” (media)
Trudeau confirms Canada’s strong commitment to support Kosovo (media)
Krasniqi: People are disappointed by Kurti government (RTK)
AAK announces elections in the party (Ekonomia Online)
Kosovo to end free energy supplies to Serb-majority municipalities (BIRN)
Ivanovic murder trial witness avoids naming ‘threatening’ Serb criminals (BIRN)
'Pawns': Serbs in north Kosovo stuck in simmering dispute (AFP, France 24)
COVID-19: 15 new cases, no deaths (media)
Albania-Kosovo intergovernmental meeting set for November 26 (euronews.al)
Kosovo declares day of mourning for victims in Bulgaria bus crash (euronews.al)

Lajcak announces developments in the dialogue process (RTK)

The European Union Special Representative for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue Miroslav Lajcak met on Tuesday with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade. Lajcak wrote on Twitter after the meeting that he had a long and detailed meeting with President Vucic. “In continuation of my discussions on the way forward in the EU-facilitated Dialogue, I had a long and detailed conversation with President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic. A lot to follow up on after my meetings this week,” Lajcak wrote.

Kurti: Serbia behaving in Balkans according to Russian Federation model (Koha)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, in an interview with Vecernji List, expressed his concern that Serbia is spending more on the army than the five other countries of the Western Balkans combined. He accused Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic for trying to make Kosovo a dysfunctional state through an autonomous Serb entity. He also argued that Serbia is behaving in the Balkans according to the model of the Russian Federation.

“The situation in the Western Balkans is a situation in miniature of circumstances in the Russian Federation. It is increasingly evident that Serbia is behaving in the Western Balkans like the Russian Federation, by trying to duplicate the situation in Belarus to the Republika Srpska in Bosnia , and the situation in Montenegro similar to that in Ukraine. The essence is that Serbia does not accept as real countries the states that are not in the European Union, namely Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo and even North Macedonia, because Serbia views them as temporary states and uses all its capacities to weaken and destroy them,” Kurti argued.

Kurti received by Austrian Chancellor Schallenberg (media)

The Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti was welcomed at the residence of the Federal Chancellery of Austria by the Chancellor of Austria, Alexander Schallenberg.

Prime Minister Kurti congratulated Chancellor Schallenberg on his new duty and responsibility as Chancellor and stressed his and Kosovo's readiness to continue the very good relations with Austria. “He spoke about the unprecedented economic revival and growth that Kosovo is experiencing since the post-war period, which this year is projected to be 9.9 percent, and about the government's commitment to fighting corruption and organized crime. Prime Minister Kurti also informed Chancellor Schallenberg about the marked increase in foreign direct investment, which this year is 89 percent higher than their average over the last decade and the highest since the declaration of independence.

Chancellor Schallenberg underlined the importance of Austrian investments, which ranks fifth in terms of direct investments in Kosovo. The possibilities of increasing Austrian investments in Kosovo were discussed and it was agreed that in the service of this during the next year the Economic Summit in Kosovo will be organized.

Regarding the issue of visa liberalization for the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo today is 3 years, 4 months and 5 days since the European Commission has recommended for the second time visa liberalization.

The Austrian Chancellor gave his full support regarding visa liberalization and said that Austria stands by Kosovo and supports it in the process of European integration.

The dialogue process between Kosovo and Serbia was also discussed, and Prime Minister Kurti reiterated the government's commitment to a comprehensive agreement that focuses on mutual recognition and benefits the peoples and citizens of both countries,” reads a press release issued by the Office of the Prime Minister of Kosovo.

“We will allow no individual to be stronger than the rule of law” (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, during his stay in Vienna, met the chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party, Pamela Rendi-Wagner. Kurti talked about the vaccination against COVID-19 in Kosovo, highlighting that over 64 percent of the population have received one dose and that 56 percent of the population have received two doses of the vaccine.

Commenting on measures against crime and corruption, Kurti said Kosovo Police this year carried out 500 operations and around 900 raids and that it managed to destroy 41 criminal groups. “We will not allow any individual or group to be stronger than the rule of law,” he added.

Trudeau confirms Canada’s strong commitment to support Kosovo (media)

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani‑Sadriu, on Tuesday, to discuss the relationship between their two countries and current global issues. Trudeau thanked Osmani for her participation in the Halifax International Security Forum as well as for awarding the Canadian Armed Forces with the Presidential Military Medal for their more than two decades of service in Kosovo. The Prime Minister reaffirmed Canada’s strong commitment to Kosovo and support for its full Euro-Atlantic integration. He indicated that Canada continues to advocate for the recognition of Kosovo and its membership in international organizations. The President thanked Canada for its position and expressed hope for Kosovo’s future.

The two leaders discussed their shared priorities, including women’s empowerment, environmental protection and climate change, and respect for diversity, rule of law, and democracy. President Osmani also discussed internal reforms in Kosovo, highlighting anti-corruption initiatives and economic growth as her key priorities. The two leaders agreed to explore mutually beneficial economic opportunities as both countries work to create green economies.

The Prime Minister and President spoke about the stability of the Western Balkans that is currently threatened and exchanged views on resolving local tensions through strategic dialogue and cooperation.

Krasniqi: People are disappointed by Kurti government (RTK)

Memli Krasniqi, leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), argued in an interview with the TV station on Tuesday that people are disappointed with the Kurti-led government. “I believe that in these months of governance, the people have rightfully felt ignored and they are disappointed with Albin Kurti’s government,” he said. “He has another three years in office. He can change his mindset and approach and I believe the country needs this.”

AAK announces elections in the party (Ekonomia Online)

The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) has announced through a press release that it has started the internal elections in the party.

"The election process ends on June 1, 2022 and will be held at all levels and forums of the AAK," the statement said. Also, the leader of this party Ramush Haradinaj, giving the news of the announcement of the elections has expressed his conviction that "after these elections the Alliance will be more organized and more consolidated than ever before." Haradinaj wished good elections and success to all AAK members and structures. "Congratulations Alliance!" - Haradinaj wrote.

Kosovo to end free energy supplies to Serb-majority municipalities (BIRN)

Kosovo’s electricity network system operator, KOSTT, said that it will stop subsidising free power supplies for consumers in four Serb-majority municipalities, which had been costing millions of euros a year.

Electricity network system operator KOSTT announced on Tuesday that it will no longer supply consumers with power free of charge in four Serb-dominated municipalities of northern Kosovo – Mitrovica North, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic.

The head of KOSTT’s board, Jeton Mehmeti, told a parliamentary hearing that an agreement between the company and the Kosovo government to provide 11 million euros to subsidise electricity bills for these municipalities expired this month.

Mehmeti said that since 2017, when KOSTT started subsidising the four municipalities, it has spent more than 17 million euros, while the government contributed an additional 10 million euros.

“If we continue [to pay the municipalities’ bills] in December, the company will have a loss of around 10 million euros. If we continue with paying the bills for the next year, then we cannot implement our plans. We will have difficulties operating next year if we do not get the money back,” Mehmeti said.

Mimoza Kusari-Lila, an MP from the ruling Vetevendosje party said that “it is a matter of weeks” until consumers in northern start paying their own bills for the first time since the war ended in Kosovo in June 1999.

“Vetevendosje has not agreed to pay for electricity bills in the north. We have given the government a six-month deadline and it is important that the government deals with this issue intensively,” Kusari-Lila said.

Last month, Pristina Basic Court said it had annulled a decision by Kosovo’s Energy Regulation Office, ERO to pay the electricity bills for consumers from the four Serb-dominated municipalities for a previous period from 2012 to 2017.

Since 2017, electricity bills for consumers from the four municipalities have been paid by the Kosovo government.

In May this year, the government agreed to cover another six months of electricity for consumers in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo, while pushing for a final resolution of the problem.

Serb consumers in the four northern municipalities have not paid for their electricity since 1999. According to Radio Free Europe, the total cost of the energy used in the Serb-majority municipalities is around 12 million euros per year.

The energy issue has been one of the topics discussed during the European Union-facilitated dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia aimed at normalising relations.

Serbia and Kosovo made an initial agreement in 2015 that a Belgrade-backed company should apply to the Kosovo authorities to supply energy to the four northern municipalities

But this was then blocked by Serbia because the agreement stipulated that Serbian-controlled companies offering power supplies would have to register with Kosovo’s ERO.

Serbia refuses to acknowledge any symbol of the statehood of its former province whose independence it does not recognise.

Because of this, it was then agreed that the Kosovo operator KOSTT would be recognised as a supplier for the entire territory of Kosovo while Serbia’s EMS would provide support for the Kosovo operator to become a member of the European network of transmission system operators, ENTSO-E.

KOSTT began to operate independently from EMS across the whole of Kosovo in December 2020, and then became part of ENTSO-E in a joint energy bloc with Albania.

Ivanovic murder trial witness avoids naming ‘threatening’ Serb criminals (BIRN)

The vice-president of murdered Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic’s political party declined to name the organised criminal groups that he warned about before he was shot dead in 2018.

Ksenija Bozovic, who was the vice-president of Oliver Ivanovic’s Freedom, Democracy, Justice party, declined on Tuesday to tell Pristina Basic Court the names of organised criminal groups which the slain politician warned her about before his murder in Mitrovica in Kosovo in January 2018.

“If someone tells you to be afraid of organised criminal groups, they should have told you who. You could not have been cautious of every citizen in the north [of Mitrovica],” presiding judge Valon Kurtaj told Bozovic.

However, Bozovic told the court: “I was never told [by Ivanovic] specifically who he was in danger from.”

She insisted that she “was not pressured” and did not know most of the people in Serb-majority North Mitrovica despite having been born there and having lived there for the past 30 years.

Faruk Korenica, the lawyer for one of the defendants in the trial, Nedeljko Spasojevic, told media after the hearing that he believes that Bozovic was frightened.

“The witness in my opinion is very scared and is not telling the truth,” Korenica said.

“For peripheral things, she has been able to tell what happened at every second and for the main things of this criminal case she says she has forgotten, she does not remember, which is not acceptable,” he added.

He called on the special prosecutor in the case to “read the statements she had given in advance and show why she is now changing her words”.

Bozovic testified on Monday that Ivanovic had said publicly that he was being threatened, particularly during the 2017 municipal elections in Kosovo, when he was a candidate for mayor of the Serb-dominated North Mitrovica municipality.

Bozovic was asked on Tuesday about advertisements for the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb political party, Srpska Lista, which showed Ivanovic with a target on him, and which caused him to give up his candidacy for the mayor of North Mitrovica in the 2017 elections.

“The advertisement was on TV and was paid for by Srpska Lista,” she confirmed.

Four of the defendants in the trial – Marko Rosic, Silvana Arsovic, Rade Basara and Nedeljko Spasojevic – are accused of being members of a joint criminal enterprise that murdered Ivanovic outside his political party’s office in Mitrovica in January 2018.

Two police officers, Dragisa Markovic and Zarko Jovanovic, are also on trial, accused of evidence-tampering in the case. All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Kosovo Serb businessmen Milan Radojicic and Zvonko Veselinovic have been accused of being the leaders of the organised criminal group that killed Ivanovic.

Radoicic, who is also the vice-president of Srpska Lista, is widely seen as the real power-holder in Serb-majority northern Kosovo. He has denied involvement in Ivanovic’s murder.

Once seen as a hardline nationalist, Ivanovic had evolved into a political moderate who advocated coexistence between Kosovo’s Serb minority and Albanian majority.

He had also become increasingly vocal in his criticism of the Belgrade government.

At the time of his death, he was being retried for ordering the murder of Kosovo Albanians during the war in Kosovo in 1999. He pleaded not guilty.

'Pawns': Serbs in north Kosovo stuck in simmering dispute (AFP, France 24)

In Kosovo's Mitrovica, Serbian flags and nationalist murals blanket the streets of its Serb enclave -- where the community effectively oversees a state within a divided city that is a symbolic flashpoint.

For the past two decades, Mitrovica in northern Kosovo has straddled a simmering fault line between Serbs in the north and ethnic Albanians in the south.

NATO underwrites the uneasy peace and the Ibar River effectively partitions the two communities.

The city is a microcosm of tensions, with Belgrade refusing to acknowledge Kosovo's 2008 independence declaration and rioting last month reigniting fears that clashes in the hotspot could inflame relations.

"There is a general opinion that a conflict is imminent," Jovana Radosavljevic, the director of local non-profit the New Social Initiative told AFP, saying tensions were at their highest levels in a decade.

The 33-year-old activist blames the rising temperature on populist rhetoric from Kosovo's new government led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti as well as distrust sown by officials in Belgrade.