President Hashim Thaci and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj may strongly disagree on ‘border correction’ – but both leaders are using the issue for their own benefits, a former adviser to Thaci says.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and the Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj, are trying to benefit politically from their dispute over potential “border corrections” as part of a deal with Serbia, Behlul Beqaj, a former adviser to Thaci told BIRN.

The Bosnian Serb leader has condemned the visit this week to Bosnia of Behgjet Pacolli, Kosovo's Foreign Minister, for a regional cooperation meeting.

Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik has said the announced visit of Kosovo Foreign Minister Pacolli to Banja Luka – for Wednesday's gathering of foreign ministers of member states of the South East European Cooperation Process, SEECP – is not acceptable.

Kosovo’s former President Fatmir Sejdiu told BIRN that redrawing the country’s borders in a deal with Serbia would contravene the constitution and could spark trouble across the Balkan region.

See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/kosovo-s-constitution-rules-out-land-swap-says-ex-president-08-28-2018

Ahead of an announced referendum on Kosovo, the former province is likely to be high on the agenda of the upcoming Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church - a staunch opponent of Kosovo's independence.

Kosovo is likely to be a hot issue at the upcoming Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which has taken a lead position in attacking talk of Kosovo's partition, or of recognising its independence, Church experts say.

As the row over the war veterans' list rumbles on, Kosovo citizens took to the streets on Wednesday to demand the dismissal the Chief Prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi – alleging that he had undermined the investigation into the issue.

A street protest joined by opposition party supporters in Pristina on Wednesday demanded the resignation of the Chief Prosecutor, Aleksander Lumezi, over claims that he was undermining the fight against corruption.

The fate of two Radio Pristina journalists is still not known, two decades since they disappeared.

Serbian journalists on Tuesday marked two decades since the unexplained disappearance of two colleagues on a road in western Kosovo during the 1998-99 war in the former southern Serbian province.

The fate of Radio Pristina journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic is not known, 20 years after they disappeared on a road between Orahovac/Rahovec and Velika Hoca/Hoca e Madhe while travelling to do a report. The men were 35 and 39 years old respectively.

A special prosecutor who was dealing with sensitive cases involving terrorism charges and Kosovo Liberation Army war veterans has resigned after allegedly being threatened.

The unexpected resignation after alleged threats of Elez Blakaj, a special prosecutor who was investigating the abuse of Kosovo Liberation Army war veterans’ lists, sparked consternation in Kosovo on Wednesday.

It is Kosovo’s fragile democracy that will pay the price of any deal struck by Hashim Thaci to partition the country. The EU should think twice.

“Who do I call if I want to call Europe?” former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger famously asked.

In 2009, Kissinger belatedly got his answer when the Treaty of Lisbon created the post ofHigh Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

But the decade since has done little to consolidate the EU’s 28 states around a coherent, united policy on Kosovo.

An exchange of territory between Kosovo and Serbia could provoke a chain reaction and cause instability across the Balkans, and the West needs to wake up to the potentially disastrous consequences.

Last year, the US Republican who has been accused of being “Putin’s favourite Congressman”, Dana Rohrabacher, sent a letter to the president of Serbia asking the Serbian leadership to consider exchanging territories with Kosovo.

Milorad Dodik says Republika Srpska will demand a UN seat if Kosovo gets one – adding that Kosovo’s partition should also be up for discussion.

If Kosovo becomes a member of the United Nations and other international institutions, Bosnia’s mainly Serbian entity, Republika Srpska, RS, will demand the same, Milorad Dodika, the RS President, told Friday’s Vecernje Novosti, a Serbian daily.