Berat Buzhala writes that Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama and his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, appear to agree on a very critical issue: denial of existence of Kosovo state. According to Buzhala, Edi Rama went to Serbia “to fish fools in Pristina.” He considers that Rama’s “patriotic” position in Belgrade last November was a weak spectacle. “I was convinced that Rama was acting.
Gazeta Express reported that 11 MPs from the Democratic Party of Kosovo refused to vote today in favour of the establishment of the special court. This has led to postponement of the session for an indefinite period. Sources within the PDK parliamentary group said that the decision to postpone the session came after the 11 MPs announced they would vote against the special court’s establishment. The news site has published the names of the 11 MPs.
Assessing that the special court was the issue “that has preoccupied the Security Council,” Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hashim Thaci, told the members of the Security Council that Kosovo will establish this institution on Tuesday “in order to cleanse our war and to isolate individual cases and negative actions.”
Zoran Zaev, leader of the LSDM opposition party in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, said for the German daily Die Zeit, that seven Albanians sentenced for the murder of five Macedonian citizens in Smilkovac, Skopje, are innocent. He said that making public the taping material on this case could induce turmoil of the Albanian ethnic community in FYROM. “There can be victims. Therefore we are currently having intensive discussions with Albanians in order to find ways of preventing such reaction.
Indeksonline reports that the Mitrovica Basic Court has sentenced Sami Lushtaku, the Mayor of Skenderaj/Srbica Municipality, to 12 years in prison, and Sylejman Selimi, one of the commanders of the former Kosovo Liberation Army, to six years in prison. Lushtaku and Selimi are part of a group that has been charged with committing war crimes at a detention center in the Drenica region.
Kosovo’s Minister for Interior Affairs, Skender Hyseni, is on a three-day visit to New York to meet the United Nations law enforcement representatives as well as permanent representative of different countries to the UN. Hyseni met Stefan Feller, the United Nations Police Advisor in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and briefed him on the content of Kosovo’s application for membership of Interpol. Hyseni highlighted strong arguments why Kosovo should join Interpol and called on UN agencies to support Kosovo’s bid.
The so-called National Liberation Army (NLA) through a press release stated today that “justice will severely punish the betrayal on the serious incident in Kumanovo, the gangs of Ali Ahmeti, Menduh Thaci and some Kosovo politicians, who in cooperation with Nikola Gruevski, Sasa Mihajlkov and Georgana Jankulovska organized the massacre of 9 and 10 May.”
European Union has welcomed the decision of the Kosovo Serb representatives to return to the Kosovo Assembly and the Government as an important step forward. “It confirms our strong belief that it is only through cooperation, inclusion and dialogue that the elected leaders can bring better future for all communities in Kosovo. We are committed to continue supporting such positive steps,” a press release issued by the EU states.
Kosovo’s Minister without portfolio, Edita Tahiri, said on Friday that as of last year, Serbia is blocked because it’s not respecting the agreements reached with Kosovo. She said that any agreement made with Serbia was signed on the principle of reciprocity. But, according to her, there are delays on the implementation of agreements because of the history between Kosovo and Serbia. "Sometimes it is not good to mention this but I say that Serbia committed genocide in Kosovo,” Tahiri said.
Albin Kurti, former leader of the Vetevendosje Movement is not optimistic that the requests of the protest planned for 18 April, will be fulfilled. He claims that the demands are realistic and feasible, therefore they would continue with protests even after 18 April.