• COVID – 19: 98 new cases, one death (media)
• Hoti: Association won’t be formed without a final agreement (media)
• Osmani calls for internal consensus for dialogue with Serbia (media)
• Lajcak to meet President Thaci, party leaders on Wednesday (Indeksonline)
• EU wants Association as part of comprehensive agreement (media)
• Guterres warns of Thaci, Veseli attempts to obstruct court’s work (Zeri/RTS)
• “Kosovo – Serbia final agreement must include mutual recognition” (media)
• Osmani: We are discussing formation of a civic initiative (KTV)
• Konjufca: Time is near for a landslide victory of VV in elections (media)
• Kumnova: Our loved ones were taken away by Serbs we knew (media)
• Kandic: War crimes to be simultaneously tried in The Hague and Belgrade (Koha)
• Shala: I was invited by Specialist Chambers as a murder suspect (media)

 

COVID-19: 98 new cases, one death (media)

Kosovo’s National Institute for Public Health said in a statement on Tuesday that 98 new cases of COVID-19 and one death were recorded in the last 24 hours.

37 persons have recovered from the virus during this time. The highest number of cases is from the municipality of Prishtina (37).

There are currently 1,524 active coronavirus cases in Kosovo.

Hoti: Association won’t be formed without a final agreement (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti said on Tuesday that the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities will not be formed without a final agreement between Kosovo and Serbia. “We are discussing the final agreement on mutual recognition. There is an agreed principle with our partners and with the mediator of the dialogue that we will not agree on anything until we agree on everything. Nothing will be implemented until there is a final agreement with mutual recognition and ratified in the Kosovo Assembly,” Hoti said after meeting the EU Special Representative for the Prishtina – Belgrade Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak.

Hoti also said: “we have guarantees that the Association does not have executive competencies. We have removed from the table the idea of territorial exchange, no one talks about it anymore. The unitary character of the state is not disputed.”

Hoti said Lajcak’s visit comes at the right time and that it served to evaluate the process of dialogue and to plan for the next meetings in the process.

Asked to comment on Serbian List leader Goran Rakic’s statement that they will withdraw from Kosovo institutions if the Association/Community is not formed, Hoti said his government does not accept threats from anyone. “This is a government that accepts no threats, absolutely from no one. We don’t work under anyone’s threats. We have several agreements for the coalition with all, including the Serbian List, as long as we respect our agreements,” he said.

Osmani calls for internal consensus for dialogue with Serbia (media)

Kosovo Assembly President Vjosa Osman said on Tuesday that any agreement with Serbia that is not acceptable for the Kosovo Assembly will not be ratified or implemented. Osmani made these remarks after meeting the EU Special Representative for the Prishtina – Belgrade Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak.

Osmani called for internal consensus in Kosovo for the process of dialogue with Serbia. She also said that Kosovo’s constitutional system and the unitary character of the state are inviolable and that they cannot be subject of negotiations.

Osmani said she told Lajcak that the decision of the Constitutional Court on the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities must be implemented. She also asked Lajcak for the EU to pressure Serbia into implementing the agreements reached with Kosovo so far and to reprimand the hate speech of some Serbian state officials.

Lajcak to meet President Thaci, party leaders on Wednesday (Indeksonline)

The European Union Special Representative for the Prishtina – Belgrade Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, who is visiting Kosovo, will meet today with President Hashim Thaci and leaders of the main political parties.

EU wants Association as part of comprehensive agreement (media)

European Union officials said on Tuesday that Kosovo has assumed the obligation to establish the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities and that it must be included in the comprehensive agreement between Kosovo and Serbia.

A spokesman for the External Affairs of the European Union, Peter Stano, told Koha that it is up to the Kosovo side to propose the modalities. “In 2013, Kosovo entered the agreement to establish the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities. This agreement was concluded in good faith by all included parties. It was never annulled or withdrawn. In fact, the 2013 agreement was ratified by the Kosovo Assembly with 2/3 of votes. In doing so, Kosovo assumed an international obligation to implement the agreement,” he said.

Stano also said that a decision by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo on the Association/Community is often being misinterpreted. “The Court never said that the Association/Community cannot be established. Therefore, we expect Kosovo to respect its engagements from the dialogue. The arrangements for non-majority communities – the Association/Community must be addressed as part of a Comprehensive Agreement as the leaders have agreed in the first meetings in July 2020 and then reconfirmed in the last round on September 7, 2020,” he added.

Guterres warns of Thaci, Veseli attempts to obstruct court’s work (Zeri/RTS)

Zeri news website reported on Tuesday evening citing an article from RTS that in his report on the situation in Kosovo, the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned about the attempts of Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and PDK leader Kadri Veseli to obstruct the work of the Specialist Chambers.

In the report, which will be discussed in New York on October 21, Guterres commented on the political and security situation in Kosovo, including the coronavirus pandemic. According to RTS, the UN chief said that the pandemic, the political crisis and the publication of proposed indictments against Thaci and Veseli have further aggravated the fragile political and security situation in Kosovo.

Guterres hailed the continuation of the Kosovo – Serbia dialogue saying that a new energy is apparent toward the normalisation of relations. He also called on leaders from Kosovo and Serbia to show flexibility and creativity in overcoming their differences.

SG Report in English:

https://unmik.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/s_2020_964_e.pdf

SG Report in Albanian:

https://unmik.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/raporti_i_sekretarit_te_pergjithshem_per_unmik-un_01_tetor_2020_s-2020-964_1.pdf

SG Report in Serbian:

https://unmik.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/izvestaj_generalnog_sekretara_oko_unmik-a_01_oktobar_2020_s-2020-964.pdf

“Kosovo – Serbia final agreement must include mutual recognition” (media)

The International Crisis Group argues in its latest report that the European Union must look into the possibility that the dialogue platform between Kosovo and Serbia to note that a final agreement between the two sides must include mutual recognition.

The ICG predicts in the report that a final settlement will include major concessions, including a broad autonomy for Serb municipalities or territorial exchange.

Giuseppe Fama, one of the authors of the report, said in an interview with Radio Free Europe that the European Union should impose limitations in the process of dialogue and that the United States must play a role in convincing Kosovo to resign its dialogue platform.

Fama also said that if Kosovo agrees to a broad autonomy for Serb-majority municipalities, the same should apply for the Presevo Valley in Serbia.

Osmani: We are discussing formation of a civic initiative (KTV)

Kosovo Assembly President Vjosa Osmani said in an interview with KTV on Tuesday evening that discussions are underway to form a civic initiative with people of integrity and professionalism.

“They have supported me at all times and in all circumstances, regardless of how difficult they were. We are discussing the formation of a civic initiative that will bring together people with integrity and professionalism. These are two simple criteria. We’re not considering the option of recycling current public figures, because I believe that our best people are not in politics. Our best people are in the private sector, in civil society, in the academia. These are young people, many of them with integrity, and the doors of the institutions should be open to them to give their contribution. We need to have new people with integrity and professionalism in the institutions, in the Assembly and in government. We are in the process, but these are only initial talks,” Osmani said.

Osmani also said in the interview that EU Special Representative for the Prishtina – Belgrade Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, was one of the biggest opponents of the territorial exchange idea. “At least he knows that there must be no border changes or an association resembling the Republika Srpska,” she added.

Konjufca: Time is near for a landslide victory of VV in elections (media)

Vetevendosje Movement (VV) senior member and former Foreign Minister of Kosovo, Gluak Konjufca, said on Tuesday that time is near when this party will score a landslide victory in elections. According to Konjufca, the Vetevendosje Movement will win enough votes in the new elections that it won’t need a coalition partner.

“Vetevendosje must foster its principles until it scores a victory which will make others respect these principles,” he said. “I think this is inevitable. This time is near.”

Kumnova: Our loved ones were taken away by Serbs we knew (media)

Nysrete Kumnova, from the missing persons’ association “The Cries of Mothers”, argued in a debate on TV Dukagjini on Tuesday that local Serbs in Gjakova that they knew took away their loved during the last war in Kosovo.

“We organised protests and strikes to get more information and we were adamant that our loved ones were taken away by people we knew. We know who took them away. Our loved ones were taken away by Serbs that we knew,” she said.

Kandic: War crimes to be simultaneously tried in The Hague and Belgrade (Koha)

Natasa Kandic, human rights activist from Serbia and former head of the Humanitarian Law Centre, said that the trials on war crimes should simultaneously take place both at the Specialist Chambers in The Hague and Serbia's courts.

"Until 2011 the Prosecution made attempts to try war crimes and there were families from Kosovo that followed the trials. From 2010, 2011 there has been no development compared to what was concluded by The Hague Tribunal. The Tribunal has two major trials of army and police generals. There was so much evidence and facts that it would take 100 years for them to be resolved and for the army and the police to be cleansed from all war crimes," Kandic said in an interview with KTV.

She said Kosovo is rightfully outraged with KLA members going to trial while in Serbia the prosecution of war crimes that happened in Kosovo has stopped. "These two things need to go alongside one another."

Kandic further noted that there can be no normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia without war crimes being addressed. She also said that the issue of missing persons has not been tackled seriously and is still being politicised both in Serbia and in Kosovo.

Shala: I was invited by Specialist Chambers as a murder suspect (media)

Haxhi Shala, member of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) and former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), said in an interview with Klan Kosova on Tuesday that he was invited by the Specialist Chambers as a murder suspect. “I was invited as a murder suspect. In the beginning I was concerned, but once I got there [the Hague] I saw that there was nothing to discuss at that point and I chose the right to silence,” Shala said.