Headlines - 18.09.2013 Fatmir Limaj cleared of war crimes (dailies) All daily newspapers report on the front pages that former KLA commander Fatmir Limaj has been cleared for the second time of war crimes charges, including giving orders for the killing of two Serb policemen in Kleçka in April 1999. Limaj and ten of his former fellow combatants were found innocent by a court in Pristina on charges for the murder of six people and torture of tens of others. The prosecution did not say it would appeal to the court’s ruling. The court panel did not believe the testimony of Agim Zogaj, a witness who passed away two years ago in Germany. The panel deemed Zogaj’s accusations as unfounded. Government welcomes Limaj’s release (dailies) Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi has welcomed the court’s ruling on Limaj and his associates. Thaçi said in a statement that the ruling once again proved that the fight of the Kosovo Liberation Army was pure. “Since the start of the trial, the Kosovo Government was confident about the innocence of Fatmir Limaj and other KLA members and in the fair war of the Kosovo Liberation Army,” Thaçi said. Jahjaga invites presidents of Serbia and Bosnia to Kosovo summit (dailies) At the closing of the fifth summit of regional presidents held this time in Durrës, Albania, President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga as next year’s host of the event invited presidents of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to join counterparts from Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro. The focus of the summit is regional cooperation and Jahjaga noted that participation of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina would boost cooperation and improve lives of citizens in respective countries. Serbia jeopardizes Kosovo elections (Tribuna) The paper reports on the front page that Serbia aims for Serb MPs to make up one third of the next parliament in Kosovo. This will be possible if all applications for voters from Serbia, which have been received for the upcoming November local elections, will also be accepted for the next parliamentary elections. The process that was aimed at enabling Kosovo Serbs living in Serbia to vote in the Kosovo elections has been misused by the Government of Belgrade, namely its office for Kosovo. Unnamed sources told the paper that the OSCE mission in Pristina on Tuesday received a very large number of applications from Serbs pretending to have the right to vote in Kosovo. The same sources said applications were filled by officials of the Serbian Government’s office for Kosovo and that the data presented are contested. Though the OSCE believes such a large number of applications are unrealistic, it prefers not to be involved in an eventual conflict over the validity of the applications. Other officials meanwhile told the paper that by registering as much as Serbs as possible for the local elections, Serbia aims to create a big electorate for Serb parties for Kosovo’s parliamentary elections scheduled to be held next year. Anti-election headquarters in the north (Tribuna) The so-called Serb parliament of Kosovo, established by certain Serb representatives in the north, has decided to create an anti-election headquarters and has called on Serb citizens to boycott the upcoming local elections. Belgrade-based B92 reported on Tuesday that a rally will be held in northern Mitrovica on September 25^th against local elections. The representatives also called on Serbian Government’s minister for Kosovo, Aleksandar Vulin, to submit his resignation “because of his anti-constitutional and illegal behaviour”. Jakup Krasniqi starts campaign against PDK in Drenas (Koha Ditore) The paper reports that on Monday evening, Kosovo Parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi participated in the activity of the Civic Initiative in Drenas, during which he expressed support for this initiative and called on people not to vote for the PDK in the upcoming local elections. Krasniqi said he would express the same support for the Civic Initiative in Malisheva. The ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) didn’t know about Krasniqi’s activity and said it would comment on the matter on Wednesday. PDK officials in Drenas said Krasniqi’s support would not translate into votes for the civic initiative. List “Srbija” certified as the Serb Civic Initiative (Koha Ditore) Kosovo’s Election Committee (CEC) has certified the Serb Civic Initiative, which initially applied under the name List “Srbija”. The denomination “Srbija” was also removed from Oliver Ivanovic’s Civic Initiative. CEC has finalized on Tuesday the certification of 103 political subjects and 7 thousand and 932 candidates for the November local elections.