Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's initiative for establishing a joint remembrance day for all victims of the wars of the 1990s "is a great step forward."

It is very unfortunate that "it has not been met with approval in Croatia and Kosovo," said Franco Frattini, Italy's former foreign minister and former senior official of the European Commission.

Ivica Dacic has confirmed that the United Nations on Tuesday "did not accept to forward to UNESCO Kosovo's request to join" the latter organization.

The foreign minister said this in a statement for the Belgrade-based daily Blic.
Dacic explained that this means UN's proposal to discuss Kosovo's request will not arrive at UNESCO, but warned this was "only the first step":

"It can now be expected that Kosovo will, with its request to join, turn directly to UNESCO."

Head of Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric asked the UNMIK Chief Farid Zarif and EULEX Chief Gabriel Meucci to engage on Ivanovic's case.

Djuric in an official letter addressed to EULEX and UNMIK requested to enable bail for the leader of the Citizens' Initiative SDP, Oliver Ivanovic and Dragoljub Delibasic. Also, Djuric states that it would prevent human right violations and damage of Ivanovic's health.

The Vatican has in the past shown "appropriate responsibility" when it comes to concerns over the fate of Christian heritage in Kosovo.

This is what Serbia's UNESCO ambassador Darko Tanaskovic told the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti, adding, "It would of course be very valuable if they shared that concern as actively as possible with Catholics around the world."

Tanaskovic was asked whether the Catholic Church "could stand in defense of the Serb (Orthodox) heritage in Kosovo and Metohija as Christian heritage."

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will visit Washington with new evidence in the case of the murder of the Bytyqi brothers.

Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic also told Radio Belgrade that authorities have been intensively working on the case and that the FBI has participated in the investigation since the beginning.

Vukcevic said this case should be closed along with others by the end of his mandate.

All who lost their loved ones and homes in ‘Oluja’ ask that this is never forgotten, said Kosovo Minister for Local Government Administration Ljubomir Marić.

“Like Serbs from Croatia, we will request return of our property and insist on responsibility of politicians to call on equality and condemn crimes and criminals, instead of awaking nationalism and return of the past in its darkest form, like it happens these days contrary to every European value,” said Marić.

Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Branimir Stojanovic says he is satisfied that amendments that will pave the way to establish a special court have been adopted.

"Of course we're satisfied, it was uncertain until the very end. Until the last moment we did not know whether we will have enough votes," he said.

Stojanovic told B92 late on Monday that he "hoped the law will also be adopted during the session this evening," and that "the decision (on the amendments) was significantly influenced by the international community."

Deputy Kosovo PM and ruling LDK party leader Hashim Thaci was pelted with bottles on Monday as he was walking from the assembly to the government building.

Thaci was attacked by former members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who were also chanting, "thief, thief." They were protesting for not being included in a list of KLA "veterans."

The Kosovo assembly has not accepted a proposal to consider a draft resolution on alleged genocide by Yugoslav army and police forces against ethnic Albanians.

45 deputies on Monday voted in favour of including the draft in the agenda, 55 were against, while five abstained.

The initiative to adopt such a resolution came from the Self-Determination Movement, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, and the Initiative for the Future of Kosovo.

They believe that members of Serb security forces committed genocide against Albanians in the province during the last war.

Serbia will do everything it can to make it clear to UNESCO members that allowing Kosovo to join this organization would be a harmful move.

This is what Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said in parliament on Thursday, answering questions from deputies.

"The main intention of the promoters of this initiative is to turn the Serb cultural heritage into Kosovo's," Dacic said.