UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, April 15, 2024

Albanian Language Media:

International Forum for Women Peace and Security starts in Prishtina (media)
Clinton: Kosovo has made “important progress” toward gender equality (RFE)
Gervalla: Vote tomorrow will pave way to Kosovo’s membership at CoE (RTK)
MFA: Serbia’s propaganda in full opposition with reached agreements (media)
Bislimi meets deputy director of European Foreign Service, emphasizes need for removal of EU measures against Kosovo (media)
Lajcak expects Bislimi and Petkovic to be “open-minded” in the following meeting (Albanian Post)
Statistics Agency: Census expected to conclude before targeted date (Kosovapress)

Serbian Language Media:

Vucic: Pristina prepared a trick with A/CSM (KoSSev, RTS)
Starovic: There is no normalization while north is occupied by Kosovo police (Kosovo Online, social media)
Lawyer files appeal over Sofronijevic’s detention (RTS)
Serbian List: Arrest of Sofronijevic and beatings of Stevanovic “new values” for CoE (Radio KIM, Danas, BETA)
Serbian Democracy: A Serb beaten by special forces in the village of Bube; KP: Case reported, PIK takes over the investigation (KiM radio, KoSSev)
Why Serbs in the north don’t want to take part in the census? (Radio KIM)

Opinion:

Dimitrijevic: Crème de la crème of journalists from Albanian community seek to glorify their values through their reporting, that’s where we differ (KoSSev)

International:

Prosecution Investigates Claims of Professor’s Sexual Harassment after BIRN Investigation (Prishtina Insight)

Albanian Language Media

International Forum for Women Peace and Security starts in Prishtina (media)

The second edition of the Forum for Women, Peace, and Security, organized by the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, and which will be held in Pristina on April 15 and 16, has started.

The PES Forum 2024 brings together leaders, experts, academics, civil society representatives, influencers, youth and other interest groups, to discuss the current global challenges presented on the PES agenda during uncertain times, and to elaborate on the importance of this agenda for sustainable peace. In this edition, participants are from more than 40 countries of the world with nearly 1,000 participants and the key topic will be sexual violence during the war.

This edition of the forum will focus exclusively on building joint efforts to address conflict-related sexual violence, as well as identifying tools and policies to help women and girls to navigate more safely in a time of ever-increasing climate security threats.

The forum's objective is to address historical threats to women's security alongside new security challenges, with the ultimate goal of joining forces to advance the agenda of the PES. As an initiative of President Osmani, this forum represents one of the commitments on the part of Kosovo's institutions for the Summit for Democracy and will serve for the exchange of best practices, as well as for the development of strategies and the design of new frameworks action in the wake of an ever-changing security and peace architecture in Europe and beyond.

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, has said that Kosovo remains the champion of the agenda of this forum.

"The selection of two key topics for this edition, on the one hand sexual violence in relation to the conflict and climate security on the other, are not coincidences and in our efforts, we have of course addressed all the trials of time, but we also need the lessons of the past in order to successfully face the future", Osmani said. "In this background of conflict, social restrictions and cultural upheavals, it is important to respond to the needs of women and girls to empower, to support them and create a safe environment for all women everywhere, once and for all," President Osmani said.

Clinton: Kosovo has made “important progress” toward gender equality (RFE)

Former U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said in her video address to the second edition of the Women, Peace, and Security Forum in Pristina, that Kosovo has made “important progress” in reaching “gender equality in the public sector and politics”. Among Kosovo’s successes in the area of women’s rights, Clinton mentioned reparations for the victims of sexual violence in conflict, saying that “you are committed to safeguarding and strengthening peace, expanding economic opportunities, and you have proved that cooperation brings more benefits than conflict”.

“Peace has not always been easy, especially now when tensions in the region of the Balkans are rising again, while Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine is continuing, and anti-democratic forces in the world are inciting division and hatred. This is why such forums are important. Women are not only victims of violence and inequality. Women are also promoters of peace and progress,” Clinton said.

Gervalla: Vote tomorrow will pave way to Kosovo’s membership at CoE (RTK)

Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Donika Gervalla, and deputy minister Kreshnik Ahmeti and ambassador Lulzim Hiseni are making final preparations one day before the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. “Tomorrow, on April 16, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe with 2/3 of the votes of all MPs present from all member states, will vote on the recommendation of the Ministerial Council for the membership of the Republic of Kosovo in the CoE. A successful vote tomorrow will pave the way for the final step, the decision of the Ministerial Council, whose first opportunity to include Kosovo’s membership on the agenda would be on May 16, when the Council of Europe marks the 75th anniversary of its formation. Kosovo is prepared and already meets, as confirmed by the report of the Council of Europe presented on May 27 by Dora Bakoyannis, officially all conditions for full membership,” Gervalla wrote in a Facebook post.

MFA: Serbia’s propaganda in full opposition with reached agreements (media)

Kosovo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a Facebook post today that “Serbia’s propaganda and campaign to prevent Kosovo’s membership at the Council of Europe is exceptionally wild and falls in full opposition with the agreements reached last year between Kosovo and Serbia. We express our conviction that member states of the Council of Europe will make their decision not based on this propaganda but based on the founding criteria and principles of the Council of Europe”.

Bislimi meets deputy director of European Foreign Service, emphasizes need for removal of EU measures against Kosovo (media)

Kosovo’s First Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Development and Dialogue, Besnik Bislimi, hosted today the Deputy Managing Director for Europe of the European External Action Service (EEAS) of the EU, Marko Makovec. During the meeting, Bislimi emphasized the need for the removal of the punitive measures of the European Union against Kosovo, as soon as possible.

He also emphasized the necessity of Kosovo’s advancement in the journey towards European integration, especially the treatment of Kosovo’s application for membership in the European Union, where it remains the only country in the Western Balkans without the status of the candidate country, despite the positive progress not only in the implementation of reforms, but also high performance in key areas such as economy, the rule of law, the fight against organized crime and corruption, human rights and media freedom.

They also discussed the latest developments in Kosovo and the region, the strengthening of regional cooperation, the vision of the Growth Plan as an instrument that should help the convergence between the states of the region, but also with the EU, and the perspective of development and prosperity in Kosovo.

Lajcak expects Bislimi and Petkovic to be “open-minded” in the following meeting (Albanian Post)

The Special Envoy of the European Union (EU) for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, through a post on "Facebook" on Monday, said that the new cycle of negotiations on the dinar is planned for the end of this week.

"At the end of this week, I will host the chief negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia for another round of talks to find a temporary solution for the people affected by the decision of the Central Bank of Kosovo (CBK). I expect both parties to come to the meeting with an open mind, flexibility and a solution-oriented approach based on the ideas presented."

Statistics Agency: Census expected to conclude before targeted date (Kosovapress)

The Kosovo Agency for Statistics (ASK) confirmed today that since the start of the census around 110,000 interviews, including 10,000 in Pristina, have been held so far. ASK chief executive officer Avni Kastrati everything is going according to plan and that the census could conclude before the targeted date of May 17. “It is going according to plan; we don’t have any major challenges. All communities are taking part. If it continues with this pace, the census is expected to conclude before the targeted date,” he said.

Serbian Language Media

Vucic: Pristina prepared a trick with A/CSM (KoSSev, RTS)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said this morning to Radio television of Serbia (RTS) that tomorrow, the draft of Kosovo for the Council of Europe will pass, the main battle is on May 16, and before that - Pristina will use a new trick, by sending the draft for the Council of Europe to the Constitutional Court, therefore give an alibi and to justify to Serbia their membership, reported portal KoSSev.

In a guest appearance on RTS, Vucic spoke about, as he said, two major diplomatic fronts facing Serbia. Tomorrow, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will vote on Pristina's request for admission to that organization, and in the coming weeks, the Resolution on Srebrenica will be presented to the United Nations Assembly.

When it comes to the first one, Vucic repeated and today that he finds it the worst, that is, the most ridiculous - that it is presented as a normal process in the international community.

And it's a normal process, as they say, because that's what it says somewhere:

"Well, it is written somewhere that the Community of Serbian Municipalities was supposed to be formed 11 years ago. You, all of you European leaders, and Scholz and Macron and Meloni said that nothing needs to be done until the Community of Serbian Municipalities is formed, so you forgot all that."

Nevertheless, he believes, thanks to, as he says, the French commitment - it will be thought once more about the postponement and other things.

"It certainly won't be easy. We sent a lot of papers, a lot of official letters, a lot of instructions to our de capes, a lot of explanations to different addresses and we will continue to do that."

They are calling him, he says, from all sides to convince him to change his mind.

"They want our relationship to change a little bit, so they are ready to discuss supposed compromise solutions. There is no compromise on these issues. Now the compromise does not seem to be written in the resolution, that it has to do with Serbia and the Serbian people. People don't play around," he points out.

He says that Pristina's initiative will pass tomorrow, but that the "main battle" is actually on May 16, if that date remains as the day for the final decision on Kosovo's membership in the CoE.

About the Pristina's trick

Vucic and today spoke to RTS about Pristina's plan to submit the draft for the A/CSM to the Constitutional Court, to assess its constitutionality. It is about an act that, he says after the Albanian Post also wrote about it, the Europeans brought them. And he thinks that it is actually a trick, just to give the impression that something has been started.

"They came up with a new trick and I want to introduce it to the citizens. On May 10, they will say that they are referring to the Constitutional Court for an evaluation of the constitutionality of the act that the Europeans brought. So, they could find Leibniz's sufficient reason to say that a process has been initiated regarding the Community of Serbian municipalities, but in fact nothing has been initiated, and to say that this is their reason to vote for Kosovo in the CoE. So, that's something that's going to happen."

He confirmed once again that he is going to New York on April 20, where this year's UNMIK report will be presented two days later, repeating and today that he thinks that the report is bad. "We have an unbalanced and bad UNMIK report. We have often had decent and good reports, but this time it does not reflect the situation in Kosovo at all," he said. Starovic: There is no normalization while north is occupied by Kosovo police (Kosovo Online, social media)

State Secretary in the Serbian Ministry of Defense, Nemanja Starovic in reaction to the yesterday’s incident in which a Serb Vladimir Stevanovic was beaten by Kosovo special police in the village of Bube, near Zubin Potok, said “it is impossible to talk about any kind of normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, while the north of Kosovo is occupied by Kosovo special police forces”, Kosovo online portal reported.

“Another day, another police brutality in #Kosovo*! Last night, Kosovo* special police thugs brutally beat a Serbian man, Vlado Stevanović in Zubin Potok, North Kosovo*. They pulled him out of his car, cocked a gun holding it against his temple and then four of them took turns beating him. Vlado ended up with 15 stitches on his head.

It's impossible to talk about any kind of normalization while North Kosovo* remains occupied by special, militarized, mono-ethnic Albanian forces of Kosovo* police”, Starovic wrote in a post on X social media platform.

Lawyer files appeal over Sofronijevic’s detention (RTS)

Lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic has filed an appeal to the court in Pristina over detention of Srecko Sofronijevic from Zvecan who was arrested on Friday, at Brnjak crossing point near Zubin Potok, RTS reported. As per prosecutor’s request, the court sent Sofronijevic to one-month detention. During the hearing, Sofronijevic’s lawyer said there was no reasonable doubt that his client committed any criminal act.

“There is no danger of him fleeing, because the entire time after the events he is accused of, he has lived in his house in Zvecan, where no one was looking for him and from where he did not attempt to flee. I am also fully convinced that he will not do it either now”, Vlajic said.

Despite his arguments, the court decided to send Sofronijevic to detention, claiming “that if he remains free, he can hide or flee so as to avoid criminal responsibility given that he is also a citizen of the Republic of Serbia”.

According to the court, Sofronijevic is accused of allegedly committing criminal acts “assault on an official person in accomplice” and “unauthorized possession of weapons”.

Kosovo police in a statement earlier alleged that he was suspected of committing criminal acts such as “aggravated attempted murder”, “call for resistance, participation in unrest and hooliganism”, “destruction or damage to properties”.

Sofronijevic, who was wounded during Kosovo special police action in 2021 in Rudare, near Zvecan, and the Office for Kosovo and Metohija presented different accounts of the incident he is accused of and his wounding at that time.

“For months, Sofronijevic was recovering from consequences of wounding, and the bullet hit him while members of ROSU (Kosovo special police unit) discharged teargas in his neighborhood, and he was trying to move his child away from it”, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija said in a statement.

It added that following the shooting and recovery, Sofronijevic continued living in his home, with his family and did not want to leave the north of Kosovo.

Serbian List: Arrest of Sofronijevic and beatings of Stevanovic “new values” for CoE (Radio KIM, Danas, BETA)

Arrest of Srecko Sofronijevic from Zvecan, and beating of Vladan Stefanovic from village of Bube near Zubin Potok are the most recent examples of violations of the rights of Serbian people, and all this before voting for Kosovo admission to the Council of Europe (CoE), Radio KIM reported. Serbian List added that ahead of the voting “Albin Kurti’s regime does all it can in order to prove and justify support it receives”.

“In this sense, Srecko Sofronijevic was arrested and without any evidence detention remanded on him, and not on those who almost killed him in 2021, and after that his (Kurti’s) phalanges had bloodily beaten up Vladan Stevanovic in the village of Bube, in Zubin Potok municipality. These are the best and the most recent examples of how the rights and freedoms of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija are respected, which at the same time reflects the best how much international representatives care about the position of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija”, Serbian List said in a statement.

They added that possible admission of Kosovo to the Council of Europe (CoE) would introduce “new values” of Pristina’s regime such as permitted disfranchisement of the Serbian people, arrests and beatings without any grounds as a regular police work, confiscation of the properties belonging to the Serbs without any legal proceedings, abolishing the right to medical treatment, food, press, sports and cultural events for people living on European soil in XXI century.

Serbian List also said that their appeals to the international representatives and organizations remain unheard. “(…) Albin Kurti with his actions accustomed them that it has been normal to disenfranchise the Serbs, and they accustomed him with their silence and approval. That is why Serbian people perceive some of the international representatives as accomplices in the persecution and endangerment of their basic human rights”.

Serbian Democracy: A Serb beaten by special forces in the village of Bube; KP: Case reported, PIK takes over the investigation (KiM radio, KoSSev)

Vladan Stevanovic from Zubin Potok municipality was beaten on Saturday night by Kosovo special police unit, ending with stitches on his head, Serbian Democracy announced last night, with information that is also spreading on social networks. The Kosovo police confirmed to KoSSev that the case was reported to them, announcing it will be taken over by Kosovo Police Inspectorate, but there is no confirmation of the information itself, reported KiM radio, citing KoSSev.

The leader of Serbian Democracy, Aleksandar Arsenijevic, stated that Stevanovic, with whom he spoke, was beaten in the village of Bube, "while being humiliated and forced to shout 'Kosovo Republika'".

He claims that this person was moving towards his village when he was stopped by a patrol of "heavily armed special units".

"At first, he was criticized for wearing a T-shirt with the inscription, 'Everybody would be a fool to kill a wolf,'" says Arsenijevic, adding that he was released after a search and half-hour detention. However, the same patrol stopped him again a little later under the suspicion that he was "following" them, the party said.

"They took his phone and searched the contents of the phone. Of course, nothing suspicious was found in the phone. However, they see that he follows some groups on Telegram that they didn't like because someone writes on them that Kosovo is Serbia. That's when the beatings and humiliating coercion to say that 'Kosovo is the Republic' begins," adds the reaction of Serbian Democracy. They also claim that Stevanovic was allegedly "threatened that he should not go to the hospital like that".

"Then he heads back to Zubin Potok, and they follow him all the time to see if he will go to the infirmary. He hides his car a few streets behind the ambulance and goes to treat his injuries. At that moment, it was noticed that the same patrol was circling and standing in front of the ambulance, to see if he had come there or not," Serbian Democracy added.

This party said that "there are a lot of cases of physical and verbal abuse by these unprofessional units and ordinary thugs", and they ask the international community, that is, international missions, what is their role on the ground in "preventing this madness".

Elshani: The case is taken over by PIK

The deputy commander of the Kosovo police for the North region, Veton Elshani, confirmed last night for KoSSev portal that Stevanovic reported to them the case of an alleged attack by special units.

"Today (Sunday) around 6 o'clock in the afternoon, he came to report the case, we took his statement," said Elshani.

Asked about Stevanovic's allegations, Elshani says that he has no official information and confirms that the case will be taken over by the Police Inspectorate of Kosovo (PIK).

"Most likely during the day PIK officers will come to take over the case, which is the information we have. The police inspectorate will be informed, and they will come to take it over," said Elshani.

Just before publishing the news, KoSSev portal contacted the Police Inspectorate of Kosovo via email.

Why Serbs in the north don’t want to take part in the census? (Radio KIM)

Ten days after the beginning of the population census in Kosovo, there is a poor response of the Serbian population, especially in the north. The Serbian List called for a boycott, but citizens and representatives of civil society cite several reasons why there are no positive stances among Serbs about this process despite announcements of fines of up to 2,000 euros, less money in the municipal budget and denial of other donations, Radio KIM writes today.

It added that on the streets of Mitrovica North, enumerators hired by the Kosovo Statistics Agency cannot be seen. Residents are not sufficiently informed about this process, but they are not too inclined to participate in it either. The reasons for this are multiple.

“I have no intention under these conditions to take part in the census that is currently underway, there are several reasons for that, and one of the first is that the special police units in Kosovo are still in the north, that the verbal decision to ban the import of Serbian goods is in force, that members of the special police are still in the municipal buildings in the north. All this still creates anxiety among residents in the north of Kosovo. I am against it and in favour of the boycott”, civic activist Dejan Nedeljkovic said.

Referring to the official statistics of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, which shows that 15% of the population in the north left Kosovo in the last two years, Nedeljkovic pointed out that the number is much higher, exceeding 30%.

“Each of us knows who has left his or her neighborhood and who no longer lives here, so there really aren’t any of us in the north, and I’m afraid that at the moment, if we were to register in the census, that number would be dramatically low as far as Serbs are concerned. I think that at the moment, this is not in our favor, at least until the situation on the ground normalizes and until potentially the Serbs who left Kosovo because they were threatened with arrest for participating in the barricades and protests return, and so that this number somehow increases in order to obtain the minimum conditions for us to be there again”, he said. The views of the citizens of North Mitrovica were similar.

“Serbs do not participate in that census, when our country of Serbia announces the census then we will participate”, Novica Vucetic said.

However, he agrees with Radio KIM’s statement that Serbs from Kosovo were not included in the census process held last year in Serbia. When asked about the announced fines, Novica said: “If they fine us all, we will all give 2,000 each. If they can fine everyone, let them fine”, he said.

“For me, it’s illegal”, another resident of Mitrovica North said. When asked about fines, he replied: “So be it, what should we do now? Everyone has the right to fight for their freedom”, said a resident who wished to remain anonymous.

Petar Đokic does not want to participate in the census. “Census? No way, I won’t. No chance, not even by accident. Why should they know how many of us are here? Why do they have to? What fines’ no way, they’re just talking about it”, he said.

Linguistic errors and intimate questions

Milica Radovanovic from the New Social Initiative has not yet decided whether she will take part in the census. “What do I know, if they come, maybe I will participate”. She said that her attention to the census process was drawn to the website of the Agency for Statistics, which also published the questions enumerators would ask citizens. She noted she was horrified by what she saw in the document when it came to the quality of the translation, listing the number of errors and linguistic nonsenses.

She also said there are questions that really have no place in the list. In the questionnaire there is a question: “Have you had an abortion during your life?”. It must never be asked as a question on the list. On the other hand, not only is that question asked, but no option is given to refuse to reply i.e. “Yes, no, I don’t want to answer”, but only “yes” or “no”. If a person says she had an abortion in her lifetime she is asked afterwards, “how many abortions have you had in your life?”, which is also scandalous”, Milica Radovanovic said.

The issue of war damage is also disputed

For the Serbian population, the question of the census on “war damage” is also controversial, which is being raised as an issue in the census process for the first time. It includes physical and material damage caused during the period of conflicts, from 1998 to June 1999. This part of the survey, Serbs believe, refers exclusively to the Albanian population.

The damage suffered by Serbs after the withdrawal of Serbian security forces from Kosovo and the arrival of KFOR is not among the questions of the enumerators of the Kosovo Statistics Agency.

Milica Radovanovic from the New Social Initiative said that the questionnaire related to the damage caused during the conflict in Kosovo is particularly problematic. “An even bigger problem than that is how the accuracy of that data will be controlled”. She noted that a person can arbitrarily assess the resulting damage. “This questionnaire is problematic not only because of the time period it covers, but the way in which the accuracy of that data will be determined, there is no control”, she added.

Opinion

Dimitrijevic: Crème de la crème of journalists from Albanian community seek to glorify their values through their reporting, that’s where we differ (KoSSev)

We live in a very dangerous time when it comes to the media when our colleagues from the big media outlets play a dangerous game with narratives, assessed the editor of Radio Gorazdevac, Darko Dimitrijevic. While noting that not all media exhibit such behavior, and that there are a large number of decent journalists, Dimitrijevic pointed out that there are large media houses in Pristina and Belgrade that abuse their influence on public opinion by contaminating public space, while producing special propaganda programs.

“It is dangerous when the media and especially journalists have a political agenda in their daily reporting,“ warned Dimitrijević in an interview with KoSSev.

“When you turn on the television, you can hear the presenters and news anchors of the so-called Belgrade media saying ‘so-called Kosovo’, ‘the so-called prime minister’, ‘the so-called the president of Kosovo’, the so-called that-this… And on the other hand, portals and media from Pristina say ‘so-called Kosovo Office’. God forbid someone mentions Metohija, even though it is included in the full name of an institution“, he added.

International

Prosecution Investigates Claims of Professor’s Sexual Harassment after BIRN Investigation (Prishtina Insight)

The Basic Prosecution of Prishtina started an investigation on allegations of sexual harassment against a professor of mathematics at the University of Prishtina, after BIRN investigation broadcasted five days prior.

The Basic Prosecution of Prishtina started investigating allegations of sexual harassment by a professor of mathematics at the University of Prishtina, Xhevat Krasniqi, after the broadcast of BIRN investigation in which several students testified about their personal experiences or what they had witnessed.

“After the publication (of the BIRN investigation in Albanian), four witnesses have been questioned” by the Kosovo Police, the chief prosecutor of Prishtina Basic Prosecutor, Zejnullah Gashi, told BIRN, adding that that the “television interviews have been included in the police file”.