UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, August 28, 2024

Albanian Language Media:

Government decides: Minimum gross wage in Kosovo increased to €350 (media)
Haradinaj: This minimum wage is a humiliation (media)
Kurti comments on recent visits, says they are waiting for final report on Iber Bridge (Klan)
NATO's Assistant Secretary for Operations to visit Kosovo Thursday (Klan)
Over 1,600 missing; “lack of reliable information is a challenge” (RTK)
Deadline for registration of diaspora extended to December 31 (media)
2,047,148 voters in the CEC preliminary list Elections 2025 (RTK)
Rohde hikes Kosovo’s highest peak Gjeravica (media)

Serbian Language Media:

Life under ‘police protectorate’ (Radio KIM, NIN)
Velebit: Situation for Serbs in Kosovo equivalent to a humanitarian catastrophe (Kosovo Online)
Dacic with UN Coordinator in Serbia discusses cooperation, in particular with UNMIK (Tanjug)
Lawyer: Nesic is accused of war crime with direct violation of defendant’s right to defense (Kosovo Online)
Davenport pays farewell visit to Bishop Teodosije (Kosovo Online, social media)
Meeting on Jadar lithium project closed to public (N1)
Vucic with scientists on Jadar Project: The state invested in you, it’s time to give back (N1, BETA)

International:

Choked with plastic and sewage, plight of Kosovar river highlights country’s pollution crisis (RFE)
Kosovo’s fierce divas (Kosovo 2.0)

Albanian Language Media

Government decides: Minimum gross wage in Kosovo increased to €350 (media)

All news websites report that the Kosovo government decided today to increase the minimum wage to €350 for workers of all age groups. The increase comes only one day after the entering into force of the law on the minimum wage, which foresaw the increase of the minimum wage to €264 for all employers in the public and private sector. But following today’s decision of the Kurti-led government, the new level of the minimum wage will be €2 for one hour of regular work, or €350 gross a month.

Finance Minister Hekuran Murati said at the government meeting that the new minimum wage will affect around 150,000 workers who work on wages lower than €350, and mainly in the private sector. He said that the decision will enter into force on October 1 and that the government “will make sure that the law and the decision on the increase of the minimum wage will be enforced”.

Kurti said that the decision “is just another step in a series of numerous measures we have taken as a government to improve the well-being of the citizens”.

Haradinaj: This minimum wage is a humiliation (media)

Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj reacted to the Kosovo government’s decision today to increase the minimum wage to €350. “This minimum wage is a humiliation. Those that have no other concern but how to remain in power, always on the eve of elections, come out with the latest deceptions for wage increase, lowering of prices, jobs and all sorts of other miracles. As part of an election campaign, the Vetevendosje-led government has decided today to increase the minimum wage to €350. The promise for this minimum wage is humiliating,” he argued in a Facebook post.

Kurti comments on recent visits, says they are waiting for final report on Iber Bridge (Klan)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has commented on the past and subsequent visits of the last few days, where the situation of the opening of the Iber Bridge was also discussed.

“Their support is unwavering, the cooperation is broad and powerful, and the joint commitment is serious and productive in the service of peace and security, which go hand in hand with the rule of law and order, as well as democratic and economic progress,” said Kurti regarding, among others, the visit of the head of the CIA, William Burns.

“In all these meetings, of course, the issue of opening the central bridge over the Iber River in Mitrovica was also discussed, for which we are doing all the necessary consultations as well as our homework, such as, for example, handling the preliminary draft for physical stability of the bridge while we wait for the final report, until the preparations for fixing the appearance and cleaning the surrounding environment”, Kurti said at today’s meeting.

"The opening of the bridge is freedom of movement; freedom of movement is a fundamental right both in the Republic of Kosovo and in the European Union".

NATO's Assistant Secretary for Operations to visit Kosovo Thursday (Klan)

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti has announced that Thomas Goffus, Assistant Secretary General for NATO Operations, will visit Kosovo on Thursday.

He also announced a visit by two foreign ministers of two NATO member states. He said that the issue of Iber Bridge will also be discussed in these meetings, adding that they are doing their homework regarding the plan on opening the bridge over River Iber in Mitrovica.

“After the visit to the United States of America last week, within a few days, we had as guests the Chief of Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, and Admiral Stuart Munsch, who is commander of the Allied Joint Forces Command, of Nato of Naples”, Kurti said.

Over 1,600 missing; “lack of reliable information is a challenge” (RTK)

Kosovo will mark this Friday the International Day of the Disappeared, as the fate of over 1,600 missing persons from the last conflict remains unresolved. Kushtrim Gara from the Kosovo Government’s Committee for Missing Persons, said in an interview with the TV station on Tuesday that the lack of reliable information remains a challenge in the process. “For Kosovo this day has a special dimension because even 25 years after the war, the fate and location of 1,600 persons remains unknown, namely they are on the list of missing persons,” he said. “On this date we will join the calls of families of missing persons to international partners that are part of this process to apply added pressure on Belgrade to cooperate and to grant access to their archives. Based on our experience so far and the exhumation of five locations of mass graves in the territory of Serbia, but also excavations in Kosovo, it has been concluded that Serbian army and police archives have the data, sketches and information, which would help us achieve greater progress in the process”.

Deadline for registration of diaspora extended to December 31 (media)

Most news websites report that the Kosovo government decided today to extend the deadline for the registration of the diaspora to December 21. Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Donika Gervalla, said in the meeting of the government today that “the registration of the diaspora in the form that it is being done is perhaps the most important enterprise in relation to the diaspora in the last decade. The latest data will serve both the institutions of Kosovo and the diaspora”.

2,047,148 voters in the CEC preliminary list Elections 2025 (RTK)

The Central Election Commission reviewed and approved the report of the Preliminary List of Voters for the Elections for the Assembly of Kosovo, which will be held on February 9, 2025. The preliminary list of voters contains 2,047,148 voters, or 161,700 more voters compared to the 2021 Local Elections, held on October 17, 2021.

The number of the new voters who will vote for the first time in the elections is 209,878 voters, of which 124,366 voters can be considered as young voters who, after Local Elections, held on 17.10.2023, have reached the age of eighteen and will vote for the first time, while 85,512 voters can be considered as voters registered for the first time in the Central Civil Registry between two elections, voters who have been provided with documents of Kosovo, voters registered to vote outside Kosovo for the Local Elections 2021 and residents who possess certificate extract issued by Kosovo.

Rohde hikes Kosovo’s highest peak Gjeravica (media)

Several news websites cover a post on X by German Ambassador Jorn Rohde saying he had an incredible time hiking Kosovo’s highest peak, Gjeravica. “From picking fresh blueberries to taking a refreshing dip in a mountain lake and even making traditional flia, it was a great adventure with great company,” Rohde said.

See more at: https://rb.gy/rbye8d

Serbian Language Media

Life under ‘police protectorate’ (Radio KIM, NIN)

Belgrade's policy in the north of Kosovo is experiencing a complete collapse, especially after Banjska, when international pressure against Belgrade started growing. During that time, the Kosovo Serbs, under the attacks of Albin Kurti-led government and Kosovo police, stopped resisting and accepted Pristina's demands one by one - from abolishing dinars, post offices, license plates and so on, Radio KIM reports citing Belgrade-based NIN media outlet.

In the last two years, the situation in northern Kosovo has changed significantly, and thus the life of the Serbian population there. Now, if one asks them how they live, they would say - "under the police protectorate".

The presence of Kosovo special police increased enormously, and 17 police bases were built during this period. Many of these bases are located on the lands of local Serbs. In the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok, the process of expropriation, which the Serbs and the international community consider illegal, took away dozens of hectares of land in order to build these bases "for the public good". However, this is not the only problem with the presence of special forces. Others were also recorded: stopping and harassing people, searches and arrests, especially after the clashes in Zvecan on May 29 last year and Banjska armed incident in September last year.

"Despite the fact that the incident in Banjska is often used as an excuse for the presence of Kosovo special police forces, it is important to understand that their deployment began much earlier as part of preparations for what was to come: closing of post offices, usurpation of private properties, harassment of people. Banjska, for me still an inexplicable event, only validated such a policy of (Albin) Kurti. It is a policy that, under the pretext of the rule of law, introduces police terror in the north of Kosovo, and under the pretext of the integration of Kosovo Serbs ‘disintegrates’ the infrastructure that makes the lives of ordinary people tolerable", Miodrag Marinkovic, executive director of the Centre for Affirmative Social Actions (CASA) from Mitrovica North told NIN.

Problematic Serbian symbols

Albin Kurti's policy, Marinkovic further said, aims at forced integration of Serbs from Kosovo and the creation of a new reality on the ground that will make further negotiations under the auspices of the EU unnecessary, and thus the need for the formation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities.

"In the long term, I believe that Kurti's goal is to reduce the number of Kosovo Serbs in order to abolish their affirmative constitutional powers, especially the double majority mechanism (in Kosovo Assembly) that gives Serbs the right to veto changes to basic constitutional provisions, including eventual unification with Albania", Marinkovic added.

According to CASA research’s data, 40,000 Serbs left Kosovo in the last ten years. The most common reasons are the poor security situation and unemployment. Still the exact number of how many Serbs left northern Kosovo in the last two years is not entirely known, depending on the data available to the authorities in Serbia and the civil sector in northern Kosovo, the numbers range from 10 to 20 percent of the population.

Institutions lost, resistance silenced

Although they were officially integrated into the Kosovo system in 2013, the Serbs meanwhile lost power in all four northern municipalities, police and judiciary due to the decision to leave all Pristina institutions in November 2022, but also due to boycott of April 2023 local elections at the invitation of the Serbian List.

Fear of changing the ethnic structure

After gathering at barricades and the clashes in Zvecan and Banjska, numerous arrests of Serbs happened in northern Kosovo. Journalist Ana Marija Ivkovic sees this as the key reason why people no longer offer resistance. Resistance to the re-registration of vehicles from “KM” to “RKS” plates has been stifled partly by the actions of the authorities in Pristina, partly by the silence of Belgrade and decisions in Brussels.

Without too much fuss, they also accepted the abolition of the dinar, the closure of Postal Savings Bank branches and nine Post of Serbia facilities. They agreed and accepted, like the Serbs south of the Ibar, to travel to the administrative crossings and withdraw money in the containers that the Postal Savings Bank and the Serbian Government set up "to make their lives easier".

"The political infrastructure (of Belgrade) is collapsing to the ground, and (Albin) Kurti gets carte blanche for his rampage in the north of Kosovo. Belgrade thus lost real influence on events on the ground", Marinkovic said.

The Serbs in the north also lost numerous facilities important for economic development and tourism, such as the health and tourist spa complex Rajska Banja in Banjska, built with the funds of the Serbian Government and taken over by Kosovo Privatization Agency. In the part of the complex where the spa hotel and restaurant were, there is now a branch of Kosovo Post. In recent months, the Privatization Agency from Pristina has privatized and sold numerous business premises in the north, previously used by the Serbs, to Kosovo Albanians.

"The ethnic structure is changing. The Kosovo Government has announced that it will build 200 new houses for what they say are non-majority communities in the north, meaning Albanians, so the ethnic picture will change drastically. It is already changing with the construction and renovation of several hundreds of houses in the north of Kosovo, these are houses with three or four floors", Stefan Veljkovic, vice-president of the Serbian Democracy, told NIN.

Velebit: Situation for Serbs in Kosovo equivalent to a humanitarian catastrophe (Kosovo Online)

Vuk Velebit, Executive Director of the Pupin Initiative, after visiting Kosovo, pointed out that the situation faced by Serbs is worse than what can be inferred from reports in Serbian media, and he attributes it to the extremist policies of Albin Kurti. Speaking about the announcements regarding the opening of the bridge on the Ibar, Velebit emphasized that this is yet another attempt by the Pristina administration to escalate the situation.

"The situation on the ground is worse than portrayed in the media. If we talk about the position in which Serbs currently find themselves, we can speak of a humanitarian crisis. This is not just about the abolition of the dinar or the ban on importing Serbian goods. The recent announcements about the possibility of opening the bridge on the Ibar are another attempt at escalation by the Pristina administration", Velebit said in an interview with Nova S TV.

"Serbs in Kosovo are suffering from institutional and police violence. We spoke with relatives of those who are unjustly imprisoned. About 40 Serbs are staying in Kosovo prisons without any charges, including those who were arrested for a song they sang or a t-shirt they wore", Velebit pointed out. He added that a significant risk that may arise in September concerns what will happen to the healthcare and educational institutions in northern Kosovo.

Read more at: https://shorturl.at/vYmBy

Dacic with UN Coordinator in Serbia discusses cooperation, in particular with UNMIK (Tanjug)

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dacic met today with the UN Coordinator in Serbia Mathilda Mort, emphasizing on this occasion that Serbian MIA strongly supports multilateralism and principles enshrined in the UN Charter, extending full contribution in fulfilling obligations and reporting on the issues that fall within theirs authority, Tanjug news agency reported.

Dacic and UN Coordinator also discussed cooperation in the field of controlling light and small caliber weapons, managing migrations and fighting against migrants’ smuggling and human trafficking, strengthening resilience to catastrophes as well as fighting against all types of crime, MIA said in a statement.

Dacic touched upon good cooperation MIA has with many UN bodies, materialized through projects and various activities, noting in particular the importance of the cooperation and communication with the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), emphasizing the role of this Mission in preserving security of the Serbs in Kosovo.

Lawyer: Nesic is accused of war crime with direct violation of defendant’s right to defense (Kosovo Online)

Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office has filed an indictment for the alleged criminal war crimes against Zivojin Nesic arrested in Mitrovica North in March this year, his defense lawyer Milos Delevic told Kosovo Online portal.

Delevic noted that even though the indictment was filed, he, as well as his client, do not know what Nesic is accused of, because the indictment was sent for translation, and the absurdity is that neither he, as his defense lawyer, nor Nesic, were invited to the witness hearing.

According to Delevic, this is a denial of the defendant’s right to defense.

“An indictment was brought against Nesic for the criminal offense of war crimes. He has been living in North Mitrovica for 25 years and has never been summoned by the police, the prosecution or the court for any crime. After all these years, prosecution witnesses suddenly appear who allegedly claim that he committed a criminal offense. In these six months, we have not been invited to the hearing of the witness. This behavior of the Special Prosecutor's Office is a denial of the defendant's right to defend himself, and with this behavior, we have returned to the Middle Ages”, Delevic said.

He added, even now he does not know what crime Nesic is accused of, and they are waiting for the officially translated indictment.

Delevic also said that he had complained several times about the actions of the Special Prosecutor who is leading the case, but that there is no response from the court. “Believe me, I complained several times to the competent judge about the work of the Special Prosecutor, but I did not receive an answer, there is simply no answer to my complaints”, he said.

Davenport pays farewell visit to Bishop Teodosije (Kosovo Online, social media)

Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Ambassador Micheal Davenport who is concluding his mandate in Pristina, met today with Raska-Prizren Eparchy Bishop Teodosije, Kosovo Online portal reported.

In a post on X social network Davenport noted that today’s farewell visit served as an opportunity to thank Bishop Teodosije for cooperation and also review the current challenges.

“My farewell call on Bishop Teodosije, Bishop of Raška-Prizren, was an opportunity to thank him for the constructive cooperation between the Serbian Orthodox Church & @OSCEKosovo and to review current challenges #Kosovo”, Davenport wrote in a post.

Meeting on Jadar lithium project closed to public (N1)

A meeting on the Jadar lithium mining project will take place Wednesday behind closed doors, with people only hearing from the president and the mining minister, N1 reported.

Presentations from other professors and University of Belgrade deans will not be accessible to either the media or the public.

As previously announced, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will join Minister of Science, Technological Development, and Innovation Jelena Begovic in a meeting with representatives of the scientific community focused on the Jadar project. The meeting will be held at the Palace of Serbia, and the media will only be permitted to film the opening remarks.

Vucic with scientists on Jadar Project: The state invested in you, it’s time to give back (N1, BETA)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that decisions regarding lithium exploitation will not be made without input from the scientific community, emphasizing that such decisions must be based on dialogue, knowledge, and facts, N1 reported.

“I wanted to attend this meeting to call on you to fulfill your civic duty regarding the Jadar project. This doesn’t mean taking the side of those who are against or in favor a priori, but rather acting in accordance with your expertise, in accordance with what the state has been investing in you so you could give back when the country needs it the most”, Vucic told a closed-door meeting of the scientific community representatives dedicated to the Jadar project.

He urged scientists to be transparent and present fact-based opinions, stating that this is a matter of civic courage and an obligation towards the state.