UNMIK Headlines 1 September
Constitutional Court to review legality of Association/Community (Zeri)
The Office of Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa is getting ready to submit to the Constitutional Court agreement on establishment of Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities agreed with Belgrade on 25 August in Brussels. PM Mustafa’s advisor Valon Murtezaj said all agreements signed with Belgrade are constitutional but the Court is expected to confirm their legality. He said the documents will be submitted as soon as the government issues a decree or administrative instruction on the principles of the agreements.
Jablanovic: Association/Community not special autonomy (Zeri)
The leader of the Serbian List Aleksandar Jablanovic said in an interview with Radio Free Europe that the Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities will have executive powers but not special autonomy within Kosovo. He said the Association/Community will be exclusively focused on improving the living conditions in the municipalities with Serb majority and will also have certain competencies in the public life in accordance to the statute which is still to be drafted.
Aleksandar Jablanovic cannot lead the Association (Epoka e Re)
Former Minister for Returns and Communities at the government of Kosovo, Aleksandar Jablanovic, cannot lead the Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities. The news was confirmed for this daily by a government official who preferred to remain anonymous. The same source said that the Brussels agreement between Pristina and Belgrade, point 6, paragraph b, also points out clearly that no one except for the members of the municipal assemblies and their leaders can become the leader of the Association/Community.
Government of Kosovo still with no reply on Vucic’s visit (Koha Ditore)
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has announced he will visit Kosovo to explain to local Serbs the contents of the recent agreements reached in Brussels but the government of Kosovo has not yet come out with a stance on whether it will permit Vucic’s visit. Prime Minister Isa Mustafa’s advisor Besnik Berisha said he is unable to answer the question while government spokesperson Arban Abrashi was unavailable for comment.
Law on special court to enter into force on 15 September (Koha Ditore)
The paper reports that the law on specialist chambers and the office of the specialist prosecutor has been published in the Official Gazette yesterday. Kosovo law stipulates that legislation enters into force fifteen days after being published in the Official Gazette. However, the law on financial and legal support for the possible special court indictees will only enter into force ten months after being published. Legal experts think that the law should not enter into force before the decision of the Constitutional Court which is still reviewing the opposition’s request about the law’s legality.
Thaci: We will not allow being equated with Milosevic’s acts (Zeri)
In an opinion piece for the British paper The Independent, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci said he would not stand by and allow the special court equating the acts of the former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic to the “acts of desperate or criminal individuals committed during or after the war.” “Serbia’s war against Kosovo was conducted with the involvement of the army, police, and paramilitary units and backed by Serbian intellectuals. It was fascism, pure and simple. We, in Kosovo, will not allow our history to be rewritten to blur the differences between the hunter and the prey. We will protect the legitimacy and the legacy of our just war and Kosovo's freedom and independence,” wrote Thaci.
Conference for relaxation of Albanian-Serb relations (Epoka e Re)
Radio Television Mitrovica in cooperation with the Dutch Embassy in Kosovo will organize on 3 September a conference for “Building the relations between Serbs and Albanians.” The conference which will be held in Mitrovica at RTV Mitrovica facilities will be broadcasted live on RTK and RTK2. Organizer of this conference, Nexhmedin Spahiu, told this daily that the intention of the conference is relaxation of the relations between Albanians and Serbs and Kosovo and Serbia at the same time.