Headlines - 21.11.2016

• Justice Minister seeks Scotland Yard’s help in Dehari’s death (Zeri)
• Tahiri: The new company is temporary and minor (Epoka e Re)
• Political situation “unsuitable” for Association/Community statute (Koha)
• Serbian List conditions return to institutions (Kosova Sot)
• Mustafa claims that Kosovo is succeeding during his governance (Epoka)
• Veseli: We must combat also “corruptive culture” (Telegrafi)
• Demarcation encourages destabilization (Zeri)
• Explosion in front of Mitrovica north prison gate (Epoka e Re)

Kosovo Media Highlights

Justice Minister seeks help Scotland Yard’s help in Dehari’s death (Zeri)

Kosovo’s Justice Minister, Dhurata Hoxha, sent a letter to the British Ambassador to Kosovo, Ruairi O’Connell, seeking involvement in the additional investigation of the death of Vetevendosje activist Astrit Dehari. In the letter that the paper claims to possess, Hoxhaj invited the Metropolitan Police Service (Scotland Yard) to separately carry out an investigation in connection with this case. This is because, according to her, a part of the public opinion has expressed doubts about the integrity and impartiality of the investigative process. However, opposition parties’ representatives say that the Interior Ministry must dismiss several people and the Interior Minister and Justice Minister must resign in connection to Dehari’s case, in order to leave room for an independent investigation. The paper also quotes several doctors from Kosovo saying that it was impossible for Dehari to commit suicide in the way it was described in the autopsy report. 

Tahiri: The new company is temporary and minor (Epoka e Re)

Kosovo’s Minister without portfolio, engaged in the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, said that based on the agreement for telephone prefix, Kosovo will receive its own code 383 from the UN specialized organization for telecommunication (ITU) on 15 December 2016. “383 is Kosovo’s code and property and Kosovo will manage its own code in an independent manner through the state authority ARKEP” Tahiri stressed. She informed that mobile operators in Kosovo, “Vala” and “IPKO” will have over one million and 800 thousand numbers that are in use by costumers, while the new Serbian company will only have six thousand numbers. “So, we are dealing with a temporary and completely minor company that can be seen in official data, and not as the Serbian party is propagating, by misshaping the agreement,” Tahiri said. 

Political situation “unsuitable” for Association/Community statute (Koha)

The paper reports on its front page that the agreement on telecommunication has paved way for resumption of efforts regarding the establishment of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities. Kosovo’s minister without portfolio and chief negotiator, Edita Tahiri, said however that the implementation of the agreement on the Association/Community will not begin before 15 December, namely before Kosovo is officially granted the dialing prefix. At the same time, political analysts consider that the current political situation is “unsuitable” to begin drafting the Association/Community statute. This, according to analysts, is not only because of the government’s powerlessness to ratify the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro but also because it is increasingly losing acting ability on issues much less relevant than the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities.

Serbian List conditions return to institutions (Kosova Sot)

Serbian List leaders, Ljubomir Maric and Dalibor Jevtic, said they would return to the work of Kosovo institutions, but not before the establishment of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities. According to Serbian news agency Tanjug, Maric said the Serbian List has always insisted on implementation of Brussels agreements. 

Mustafa claims that Kosovo is succeeding during his governance (Epoka)

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, wrote on Sunday on his Facebook profile that Kosovo is ranked the first in the region and Europe for economic growth and the thirteenth in the world for investment incentives. He based his claims on a publication of the IFO Institute of Munich University on the economic growth in Europe and an article in Business Insider.

Veseli: We must also combat “corruptive culture” (Telegrafi)

Kosovo Assembly President and leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Kadri Veseli, told the news site that in order to combat corruption, is very important to build institutional structures that minimize the opportunities and punish the abusers of state positions. He said that several times he proposed to the opposition to start a legislative initiative to draft a law that would prohibit all those who have problems with the law to run for senior state positions. To prevent corruption, Veseli said that “we must also combat the corruptive culture, because also those who give bribes are committing crimes, not only those who take bribes.” 

Demarcation encourages destabilization (Zeri)

The paper reports that government officials announced that they would return the border demarcation agreement to the Assembly next month, while opposition representatives say they will not allow for this agreement to pass and that they will organize protests to object this bill. Kosovo’s Deputy Minister of Local Government Administration, Bajram Gecaj, told the paper that “December is the last time for us to be able to secure visa liberalization,” adding that if the agreement does not pass in December, then blame for failing to obtain visa liberalisation falls to the opposition together with Serbian List.

Explosion in front of Mitrovica north prison gate (Epoka e Re)

A powerful explosion was heard at the early hours on Sunday in front of the main gate of the prison in northern Mitrovica. Kosovo Police spokesperson, Besim Hoti, said that no casualties or damages were caused. He explained that the explosion was caused by a M75 hand grenade, and that they do not have any suspects so far.