UNMIK Headlines 1 August
Implementation of agreement suspended (Tribuna)
The paper reports on the front page that implementation of Brussels agreement has been temporarily suspended and as a result, there will be no efforts to dissolve parallel security structures or to create new courts, at least not before September. Reasons that led to the stalemate in the implementation process include the government crisis in Serbia, summer holidays and problems in Kosovo with promulgation of Amnesty Law.
Dialogue facilitators expect to learn by 8 August whether the parties wish to meet at the technical level once again before the prime ministers of Kosovo and Serbia are scheduled to meet on the 28th.
Zbogar: Agreement producing results (dailies)
EU Special Representative to Kosovo Samuel Zbogar is quoted as having said that agreement for normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia has started to yield its first concrete results such as integration of judiciary and police into the Kosovo system and agreement on holding local elections on 3 November. He also said that decision to open Stabilisation and Association Agreement negotiations with Kosovo is an encouraging step. “I think that only after November elections this will have an impact on the process of reconciliation between Serbs and Albanians in the north but we have to admit it is a lengthy process,” said Zbogar in an interview for Radio Kosova.
Serbs could become leading political force (Koha Ditore)
Koha Ditore reports that if Kosovo Serbs agree to participate in local elections with one joint political entity they could win the most votes and rank the first. Their electoral body consists of almost 300,000 voters that include those who are inside Kosovo but also those displaced outside for which authorities in Pristina agreed to have the right of participation in elections. The largest ruling party, Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), in latest elections received 224,339 votes. Election experts express doubts of a possible electoral influx organized by Serbia which could produce a result that would not reflect demographic circumstances on the ground.
Veselinovic 30 days in detention, Repic freed (dailies)
Zarko Veselinovic, on Wednesday was ordered into detention for 30 days by the basic court in Mitrovica with the request of an EULEX prosecutor, while Slobodan Repic has been released. Both of them are accused for attempted murder and unlawful use of firearms in connection with the incident of December 2012 where they are alleged to have attempted to murder an official of Administrative Office in north Mitrovica. Veselinovic is also accused of illegal possession of firearms.
EULEX said in a communiqué that the court considered that there was suspicion but this did not reach the level of grounded suspicion that the defendants committed the criminal offences of co-perpetration in attempted aggravated murder of which they were suspected, taking into account the early stage of investigation. “However, there is grounded suspicion Zarko Veselinovic was in possession of a weapon when he was arrested on 29 July 2013”, reads the statement.
Krasniqi: Assets to be declared as in the rest of Europe (Zëri)
Kosovo Assembly Speaker Jakup Krasniqi said he believed declaration of assets of public officials could be removed from the website of the anti-corruption agency but that they should be available for scrutiny from judicial authorities. He said publication of officials’ wealth is a European standard and should remain applicable in Kosovo. “For me it is not important if they are public or not but what matters is if authorities tasked with scrutinizing the assets of public officials are up to their job or not,” said Krasniqi.