UNMIK Headlines 19 September
Amnesty signed, the voice of civil society ignored (dailies)
Despite the civil society organizing several protests to oppose the Amnesty Law and even gathering 12,000 signatures from citizens for the purpose, its voice was not heard enough as the president of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga on Wednesday signed the law. “Today we have handed it over to the Assembly. Now the Assembly will send it to the official gazette for publication,” said for Radio Free Europe, Selim Selimi legal advisor of president Jahjaga. The Law on amnesty was as a result of 15-point agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, which was achieved on 19 April in Brussels.
Thousands of applications swarm CEC (Koha Ditore)
On the day of the registration deadline for voters, thousands of applications from displaced Serbs in Serbia and Montenegro reached the Kosovo Central Elections Commission through the OSCE.”3,112 envelopes were sent just last night to the CEC from the OSCE. In the late hours of the evening, the OSCE physically brought it applications collected in Serbia and Montenegro amounting to over 4,000 applications,” a source told the paper.
The paper claims that a same handwriting is used on all the envelopes sent to the CEC and they have even been stamped with the address of the CEC. The paper suggests that this may constitute misuse of the institution’s stamp but doesn’t rule out the possibility of the CEC having authorized the OSCE to do the stamping.
EU to send a monitoring mission for 3 November elections (Epoka e Re)
EU Special Representative to Kosovo Samuel Zbogar stressed importance of local elections and noted that the EU will send a 100-member team to monitor them. “We will only monitor the elections. We will send in a monitoring mission with around 100 persons who will observe elections process in all municipalities. We will follow elections and election campaign, we will talk to all candidates and see ideas of different people on the development of this region,” said Zbogar while on a visit to Mitrovica.
Expecting positive evaluations for visas (Epoka e Re)
Minister of European Integrations, Vlora Çitaku and expert, Emrush Ujkani, expect positive evaluation from European Commission on the process of visa liberalization and stressed that the approval of the legislation package for this field by Kosovo Assembly is expected to have a big impact in this evaluation. In a statement for the paper, Minster Çitaku that there was no evaluation missions about this process for a year now adding that the Government rightfully expects that European Commission to recognize the achievements during this time.
Diplomatic appointments, property of PDK (Tribuna)
Tribuna reports that Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not apply the law equally for all its diplomatic staff. While one part of ambassadors, who are not closely affiliated with the ruling PDK, have been relocated to other posts even before the end of their 4-year mandate in respective countries, the other part which is considered loyal by the party in government, haven’t been affected by the moves at all. This behavior of MFA is seen as tendency to make diplomacy a property of PDK.
Tahiri: Kosovo has European vision (Epoka e Re)
In a meeting with a group of German professors, Deputy Prime Minister Edita Tahiri said that Kosovo as a new country is fully committed to Euro-Atlantic integrations and to this end it is undertaking a series of reforms in the field of rule of law and in the building of the necessary infrastructure for sustainable economic development. She also noted that independence of Kosovo has strengthened peace and stability in the region and Kosovo is now a promoter of good neighbourhood and regional cooperation.