• COVID-19: 1,682 new cases, 11 deaths (media)
• United States donates 500,000 Pfizer vaccines to Kosovo (Exit News)
• Haradinaj slams Kurti for poor management of COVID-19 situation (media)
• Government to opposition: You legitimised university in the north in 2015 (Koha)
• Pupovci: Kosovo law enables Mitrovica North to build university (media)
• LDK reacts against so-called “Prishtina university in Mitrovica” (Telegrafi)
• Kosovo to equip security forces with armoured vehicles (BIRN)
• Father’s wartime disappearance motivates Kosovo’s missing persons chief (BIRN)
• Cracks are emerging in Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic consensus (BIRN)
• Tear gas thrown when Goran Bregovic sang at Beer Festival in Korça (Ocnal)

COVID-19: 1,682 new cases, 11 deaths (media)

Kosovo recorded 1,682 new cases of COVID-19 and 11 deaths from the virus in the last 24 hours. 263 persons recovered from the virus during this time. There are 19,695 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo. To date 707,793 vaccine doses have been administered in Kosovo. 236,405 citizens have so far received both doses of the vaccine.

United States donates 500,000 Pfizer vaccines to Kosovo (Exit News)

The United States has donated 500,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Kosovo. According to a tweet by the US Department of State, a first batch of this donation is already en route to Kosovo.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the donation is being delivered through the COVAX scheme and “represents the shared values and unwavering bonds between our people.”

In August and July, Kosovo saw a rapid surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. In the past few days, daily cases have surpassed 2,000—some of the highest numbers since the beginning of the pandemic.

There are 18,287 active cases in the country and more than 500 people require hospital care, putting a strain on the country’s hospitals.

234,731 people have been fully vaccinated, and another 447,676 have received one dose of the vaccine.

Haradinaj slams Kurti for poor management of COVID-19 situation (media)

Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) leader Ramush Haradinaj slammed the government for its management of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that if this is the way that Prime Minister Albin Kurti will address Kosovo’s challenges then it is better for him to resign.

“This situation shows that Kurti lacks seriousness. I am hearing many people demanding the resignation of [Health Minister] Vitia and I think that the demands are legitimate but Vitia is not to blame, his superior is, because at a time of growing threats to the public health, he decides that the Health Minister should run for mayor,” Haradinaj added.

Government to opposition: You legitimised university in the north in 2015 (Koha)

The daily reports on its front page this morning that in response to claims from the opposition that by keeping silent to the foundation of the university in Mitrovica North the Kurti-led government is delegitimising the state of Kosovo, Deputy Minister of Education Dukagjin Pupovci said that the legitimisation happened in 2015 when the ruling coalition consisting of the LDK and PDK adopted Regulation 21/2015 according to which Kosovo nationals who finished studies at the Mitrovica North University were recognised their diplomas for employment opportunities.

Pupovci: Kosovo law enables Mitrovica North to build university (media)

Kosovo’s Deputy Minister of Education, Dukagjin Pupovci, said that according to Kosovo laws the university in Mitrovica North is under the administration of the municipality and that the permit and investments fall under the municipality’s responsibility.

According to Pupovci “Kosovo’s legislation, namely the Law on Education in Municipalities enables the municipality of Mitrovica North to manage this university and to build facilities. This could have been done quietly without a political performance of this nature. Building facilities is a competency of the local government; the later issues the permit and makes investments in this case. According to Kosovo legislation, the university in Mitrovica North is under the direct administration of the municipality of Mitrovica North”.

Asked if this is a parallel university, Pupovci said “based on Kosovo’s laws, the university is not parallel, but they [Serbs] call it the Prishtina University with a provisional seat in Mitrovica and this makes it unacceptable for the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, and this is why its legitimacy is not recognised”.

Pupovci said it is unreasonable to take measures against the university in Mitrovica, “because there are talks between Kosovo and Serbia to relax relations and the Kosovo Government aims to establish direct communication with Kosovo Serbs”. “This will give them the opportunity to integrate in society. Problems must be solved through a dialogue with the Kosovo Serbs. The conditions for this dialogue will be created soon,” he said.

Pupovci said that the participation of Serbian Government Office for Kosovo Director Petar Petkovic at the cornerstone laying ceremony was Serbia’s attempt to show its influence in Kosovo. “A political performance by Serbia trying to show that it doesn’t want to agree with Kosovo’s independence and trying to show its presence in the territory of the Republic of Kosovo,” he said.

LDK reacts against so-called “Prishtina university in Mitrovica” (Telegrafi)

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) reacted on Sunday against the construction of the so-called “Prishtina University in Mitrovica” and called for the dismissal of Kosovo Government Minister Goran Rakic who attended the ceremony of laying the cornerstone. The LDK said that “this action is delegitimising and degrading the state of Kosovo, and at the same time violating the identity of Prishtina University”.

The LDK also criticised the Kurti-led government saying that they should dismiss Minister Rakic and stop the construction of the building in Mitrovica North. “The Kurti government, with all its executive power and an absolute majority in parliament, is allowing its ministers to attend these activities which delegitimise our country. They [the government] have turned into spectators … Prime Minister Kurti must replace his vain statements in Brussels with concrete actions in the territory of his state. He must immediately dismiss his minister from the minority community and stop the construction of the parallel university in the north,” the statement noted.

Kosovo to equip security forces with armoured vehicles (BIRN)

The Kosovo Security Force, KSF, will soon be equipped with American-made Armoured Security Vehicles, ASVs, the country’s Defence Minister, Armend Mehaj, announced.

A total of 50 armoured vehicles will arrive in Kosovo in the coming days, while some have already been delivered, BIRN can confirm.

Mehaj said via his official Facebook account on Thursday that the lightly armed KSF will soon be equipped with Vuran-type armoured vehicles.

“One of my short-term operational objectives is to strengthen military capacity to conduct defence and international peacekeeping and stability operations,” Mehaj said, adding that the new ASVs “will be a very important system for our military capabilities”.

The vehicles, which have Mk19 grenade launchers, M2 machine guns and M240 machine guns and provide high safety levels for the crew, will be introduced formally at a ceremony at the end of the month.

A senior official who wishes to remain anonymous told BIRN the armoured vehicles will be presented by the President, Vjosa Osmani, as commander-in-chief of the army, and by Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

The Ministy of Defence confirmed to BIRN that the vehicles were purchased, not donated, but refused to answer how much they paid for them nor make mention of any procurement procedures conducted regarding the vehicles.

Mehaj announced in late June that, following a review of the budget for 2021, 7.7 million euros had been allocated for military purchases. He had also said the government had “allocated additional funding for purchases – 4.5 million euros for military purchases alone, specifically drones”.

Earlier this month, BIRN reported that although NATO does not support Kosovo’s move to upgrade the KSF into a regular army, Kosovo is doing deals with individual NATO member states to reach practically the same goal.

NATO wants the KSF to stick to its original mandate, given in 2009, as an emergency-disaster force, but Kosovo’s parliament voted to update the KSF into an army in December 2018.

NATO continues to maintain its own peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, a mission that started in June 1999 after 78 days of air strikes forced Serbia to withdraw its police and military from its then province.

The peacekeeping operation has fallen sharply in size from 50,000 troops on the ground 22 years ago to around 3,800 peacekeepers today, coming from 28 contributing nations.

Father’s wartime disappearance motivates Kosovo’s missing persons chief (BIRN)

The new head of Kosovo’s Missing Persons Commission, Andin Hoti, understands the pain of losing a loved one in wartime - his father disappeared during the Kosovo conflict in 1999 and his body has never been found.

Andin Hoti remembers it was a frosty day at the end of December 1998 when his aunt took him to the northern Serbian town of Sremska Mitrovica to pay a visit to his father, Ukshin, who was a prominent Kosovo Albanian politician.

At the time, Ukshin Hoti was the head of a party that advocated the unification of Albanians in a single state, the Party of Albanian National Union, UNIKOMB, and he was serving a prison sentence after being convicted of “endangering the constitutional order”. He had been arrested and jailed several times by the Yugoslav authorities in the 1980s and 1990s because of his activism.

“That day, the prison guardians had decided that visitors could speak only in Serbian during family visits. My father refused to speak Serbian. It was a silent and short meeting,” his son recalled.

Read full story here: https://bit.ly/3ycbxQV

Cracks are emerging in Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic consensus (BIRN)

A growing association of the ‘Euro-Atlantic consensus’ with elite corruption and Western pressure has created an opening for people to question it – and relations with the West as a whole.

Read full article here: https://bit.ly/3j6rFPF

Tear gas thrown when Goran Bregovic sang at Beer Festival in Korça (Ocnal)

Goran Bregovic’s concert started with an incident at the Beer Festival in Korça, after tear gas was thrown in the middle of the audience by unidentified persons so far. Tear gas was thrown in the VIP area and the videos provided by A2 CNN also show the Minister of Defense, Niko Peleshi.

People were seen covering their noses with handkerchiefs and crying, while at that moment they dispersed. Police escorted 8 young people for tear gas, while Goran Bregovic did not stoped singing.

Bregovic's participation in the Beer Festival in Korça was not well received by a part of the Albanian public and intellectuals, where the main reason is that Goran Bregovic with his songs inspired Serbian nationalists to commit massacres in Kosovo.