UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, September 4, 2023

Albanian Language Media:

Osmani begins her visit to Albania, welcomed by Begaj (media)
Begaj: Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, the only way to peace and normalization of relations (media)
Government MPs do not participate in Assembly's extraordinary session (media)
Hoti: Opponents of the Washington Agreement are bearing consequences today (media)
Three Serbian citizens arrested for entering Kosovo illegally (media)

Serbian Language Media:

FM Dacic to attend ASEAN Summit, sign Instrument of Accession (N1, RTS, Tanjug, Beta)
Grenell: Three years after the Washington Agreement, relations between Belgrade and Pristina have deteriorated (Tanjug, Blic)
Adjancic: The Prosecution Council requests the release of the building in Mitrovica, by September 8 (KiM radio, Slobodno srpski)

Opinion:

Bazdulj on the Kosovo issue: The war is not a reality, the agreement is, provide the CSM to the Serbs (KoSSev, Fonet, Danas)

International:

Three years since the Washington Agreement between Serbia and Kosovo: What has been implemented? (EWB)
Albanian-Supplied AKs Fuel Violence on Refugee Route through Serbia (Balkan Insight)
Kosovo Inspectors Search Lakes in Clampdown on Illegal Fishing (Balkan Insight)

Albanian Language Media

Osmani begins her visit to Albania, welcomed by Begaj (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani has started her official visit to Albania. She was received with a state ceremony by the Albanian president, Bajram Begaj, and the Albanian National Guard.

After the meeting with Begaj, Osmani stated that Kosovo is committed to strengthening its international position, pushing forward the goal of new recognitions and membership in international organizations.

"Kosovo's membership in NATO as a long-term goal and inclusion as soon as possible in the NATO Partnership for Peace Program guarantees peace and security in the region and our continent. The fact that Albania is already a member of NATO creates greater security in our entire region and in particular in Kosovo", stated President Osmani, the Office of the Presidency announced through a communiqué.

According to Osmani, Kosovo and Albania need increased coordination in foreign policy, "in relation to the interests of both states".

"Kosovo and Albania have a unique historical, cultural, and national connection, this connection is strong and unbreakable. In the face of challenges, we must remain united, focusing on our main goal: the integration of our countries into the Euro-Atlantic family", she emphasized.

After the meeting with Begaj, President Vjosa Osmani met the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama.

"I had a substantive conversation with Prime Minister Edi Rama about the common European aspiration of Kosovo and Albania".

"Working together, Kosovo and Albania can pave the way for a brighter and more integrated future", Osmani wrote on her Facebook account.

Begaj: Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, the only way to peace and normalization of relations (media)

The President of Albania, Bajram Begaj, in the joint press conference with Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, said that Albania and Kosovo are and must remain factors of stability in the region.

"Albania and Kosovo are and must remain factors of stability in the region and important contributing countries for security in the Western Balkans region, but not only".

"Dialogue mediated by the EU and strongly supported by the USA is the only way towards peace, normalization of relations, and Kosovo's membership in regional and international organizations, including that of the United Nations," he said.

Begaj further announced that he and President Osmani also discussed the process of recognition of Kosovo.

"I assured President Osmani of the full support and commitment of Albania to contribute with all its possibilities in a constructive way in the function of this dialogue. Regarding the process of recognition of Kosovo, we shared the opinion that better cooperation and coordination of the work between the institutions of the two countries is necessary", he said.

Government MPs do not participate in Assembly's extraordinary session (media)

Scheduled to start at 12:00 hours, the session of the Assembly of Kosovo, called to discuss the issue of school textbooks, was delayed. MPs of the opposition political parties participated at the session, while the ruling party, Vetevendosje Movement (LVV), announced that they will hold a press conference at 13:00.

Opposition MPs criticized the government on the decision on textbooks, but also for the absence from the session.

"This year, they put a new burden on the parents, to run up and down to buy books. Can the minister tell us whether she has personal financial interests, for giving €12.5 million instead of €4.8 million to the very same ones that she used to criticize, publishing houses".

"How many have applied, and are all the applications from Kosovo, or are there others who are residents here at all? Who are you running from? You are not running away from us, but from the citizens and parents. Shame", concluded the leader of the PDK, Memli Krasniqi.

LDK MP, Hykmete Bajrami, also said “Today the 51 percent government is not in the Parliament, we really do not know who you are running from", she said.

The head of the parliamentary group of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Besnik Tahiri, said that wherever this government has touched, there has been failure and crisis.

Opposition MPs however, left the Assembly Hall when Assembly Speaker Glauk Tahiri, called on the Minister of Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation Arberie Nagavci to speak at today’s session.

Vetevendosje Movement MP Ardian Gola spoke at a press conference about the reason for their decision not to participate in today's session called by the opposition.

"First of all, in the description of the issue, we have a description which is unacceptable, which reads "failure to provide books". Since it is a matter of a decision recently made by the government of Kosovo and that we are dealing with a change in the practice of distributing textbooks in schools for our children, we still do not know the implications of this decision to hold any well-informed debate and based on correctand precise information, because the process is ongoing and we have a completely normal start of the school year", he said.

Hoti: Opponents of the Washington Agreement are bearing consequences today (media)

The former prime minister of Kosovo, at the same time MP of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Avdullah Hoti, has written that the Washington Agreement, signed three years ago between Kosovo and Serbia in the White House, was opposed by the populists who are in power today.

He stated on Facebook on Monday that he was insulted and slandered for this Agreement, which he had signed when he was prime minister, while he added that it is the most important agreement for Kosovo since the declaration of independence.

"Many untruths have been told about the Washington Agreement by the then opposition. Setting an agreement that was reached in the White House as harmful and dangerous for Kosovo was a strategic mistake. They are bearing the consequences every day. I was personally insulted and slandered by the then opposition. Those populists today are in the Assembly, Government and Presidency. Today, it is clear that they deserve those epithets, not me. Today, it is clear that those people: either they are frauds, or they are naive in international relations, or they have a different orientation for Kosovo. Each of them knows in which category they fall. I know it too", Hoti wrote.

Hoti has added that after reaching this agreement with Serbia in the United States of America, he started a dialogue in Brussels for mutual recognition, "based on the principle that there is no discussion about territories nor about the constitutional organization of the state".

Three Serbian citizens arrested for entering Kosovo illegally (media)

Kosovo Police informed about the arrest of three Serbian citizens for crossing the border illegally on Sunday.

"A vehicle with Serbian license plates was stopped, in which there were three people who were suspected to have crossed the border illegally from Serbia to the Republic of Kosovo", announced the police. It is also emphasized that by the prosecutor's decision, the case will be processed in a regular investigation procedure.

Serbian Language Media

FM Dacic to attend ASEAN Summit, sign Instrument of Accession (N1, RTS, Tanjug, Beta)

Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic will attend in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and sign the “Instrument of Accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (by Serbia),” reported the Serbia state TV (RTS).

Serbia’s formal request for accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, submitted in 2013, was approved by ASEAN member countries in July this year.

ASEAN members include Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, and Myanmar.

The most important areas of ASEAN cooperation with the countries signatories of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia are, among others, economic cooperation, education and development of contacts, science, technology and innovation and sustainable development, while with certain ASEAN countries it also develops cooperation and in other specific areas.

According to the RTS, accession to the Treaty opens opportunities for Serbia “for closer dialogue, cooperation and inclusion in various ASEAN networks and platforms and additionally contributes to the promotion of essential cooperation in the economic and social and cultural areas of Serbia with this bloc.”

Dacic is to meet in Jakarta with the foreign minister of Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and with the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Kao Kim Hourn.

Grenell: Three years after the Washington Agreement, relations between Belgrade and Pristina have deteriorated (Tanjug, Blic)

The former US envoy for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Richard Grenell, said today, on the occasion of the third anniversary of the Washington Agreement, which was signed in the White House, that after the departure of Donald Trump from the post of US president, the relations between Belgrade and Pristina have deteriorated, reported Tanjug.

"In the last two and a half years, the violence between the parties has increased, the dependence on NATO troops has increased, and the economic prospects - especially in Kosovo - have weakened. President (US) Joseph Biden's decision to cede US diplomatic and economic engagement in the region to the analytical paralysis of the European Union has made things worse, not better,'' said Grenell for the Serbian Radio Chicago, reported Tanjug.

According to his assessment, more than two and a half years after Donald Trump left the White House, relations between Belgrade and Pristina are suffering due to the abandonment of diplomatic, political, and economic leadership by Biden.

Adjancic: The Prosecution Council requests the release of the building in Mitrovica, by September 8 (KiM radio, Slobodno srpski)

The deputy mayor of North Mitrovica, Katarina Adjancic, said in the show Free in Serbian (Slobodno srpski) that the request for the "liberation" of the building of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija of the Government of the Republic of Serbia in North Mitrovica, where there are three other institutions working in the Serbian system, came from the Prosecutor's Office of the Council of Kosovo, that is, it is not just about the reconstruction of the building, as previously announced, reported KiM radio.

"The officials received a warning or an invitation to vacate the facility. We have a request from the Prosecution Council of Kosovo, that the facility be handed over to the Prosecution Council for use, while a deadline of two weeks has been given to the services that are already inside the building to leave the premises and go somewhere else," said Adjancic.

The takeover of the building that houses several Serbian institutions: the Office for KiM, the PIO Fund and the Kosovo-Mitrovica District has been postponed to September 8.

Seven out of 10 municipalities with a Serbian majority are members of the Association of Kosovo Municipalities

Commenting on the decision to admit North Mitrovica to the Association of Kosovo Municipalities, Adjancic says that municipalities with a Serbian majority have been part of that organization for years.

"Municipality of North Mitrovica primarily receives through this membership in the Association an exchange of experiences or help in some deficient services or officials, such as the specific example that we have now received an official to help, from the municipality of Kamenica or an official of the municipality of Podujevo, for procurement, all this until we train our future officials. It is an inter-municipal cooperation, nothing new. Kosovo has 38 municipalities, the 35th is North Mitrovica," says Adjancic and notes that for now only Leposavic, Zvecan and Zubin Potok are outside the Association of Kosovo Municipalities.

What will happen to the Community of Serbian Municipalities does not depend on the local self-government, but on the talks in Brussels, she believes.

Pristina collects 10 percent of taxes from the north of Kosovo

She says that the collection of Kosovo tax in the north of Kosovo is carried out normally and regularly, which amounts to around 300 million euros per year.

"A total of 10% of the total annual budget is paid in taxes by the north of Kosovo, i.e. 10% of the total payment in the budget is from the northern region, not only from North Mitrovica but also from Zubina Potok, Zvecan and Leposavic... Do you know how many large businesses there are that work legally and fill that budget, which have always paid taxes and contributions, they pay, insure workers and pay their taxes and contributions on salary. Exporters, companies that have contracts with the European market," claims Adjancic, who previously worked as a tax inspector.

When the new municipal administration took over, as she says, there was money in the account of the municipality of North Mitrovica. The problem is that the planned funds in the amount of more than one and a half million euros were not used for their purpose.

"There was money in the account. Unfortunately, the budget for this year was used very little, because we only became the executive power at the end of May, and June and the budget rebalancing already followed, so that our capital investments failed from February to July. A million and a half so far. There is a request to provide us with a refund due to the absence of executive power to achieve the completion of some planned projects," says Katarina Adjancic.

Until the end of September, help for flooded households

Due to the flood damage that affected the citizens of North Mitrovica, the local self-government decided to help the affected families. Funds could not be paid to citizens earlier due to procedural reasons, because the municipality did not have a director of finance until recently.

"At the assembly, we made a decision of 2,500 euros for each flooded house or household, 1,000 euros for basements and 500 euros for some workshops or businesses, kiosks, so it will be paid out as soon as possible, before the end of September, because only now it is possible," promised the deputy mayor of North Mitrovica, Katarina Adjancic, as a guest on the show Slobodno srpski.

Opinion

Bazdulj on the Kosovo issue: The war is not a reality, the agreement is, provide the CSM to the Serbs (KoSSev, Fonet, Danas)

The risk of conflict in Kosovo is extremely small, something good in bad is a terrible demographic decline of Serbs and Albanians, because there is a thesis that all wars took place when there was a large percentage of men under the age of 25, and we are an aging society and it is not a question of whether we want but whether is anyone to go to war, writer Muharem Bazdulj told FoNet agency.

In the Kosinus series of talks on solving the Kosovo problem, Bazdulj assessed that Serbia, although it is demographically, economically, and militarily much stronger than Kosovo, knows that Kosovo is leaning on Albania, a member of NATO, and knows what it means to be in conflict with NATO.

For Bazdulj, the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina is a reality, which can be seen from the fact that both sides are dissatisfied with some parts of it.

He added that Belgrade managed to include some things that are useful for Serbia in the agreement, emphasizing that the agreement therefore is not a surrender, because the defeated have no right to set conditions.

Bazdulj said that it is much more realistic to continue the bilateral dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, because conferences and congresses take place after wars.

According to his opinion, a conference on the Kosovo problem could theoretically be possible after some regional conflict that would also include some other countries.

For him, a frozen conflict is the most realistic solution, which is essentially not bad.

Bazdulj assessed that the phrase "frozen conflict" is repulsive to people because of the word "conflict" and that they would be more comfortable if the word "hibernation" was used.

Citing the examples of Cyprus, Israel, China, and Taiwan, and North and South Korea, he pointed out that in the event of hibernation, usually the stronger side, and sometimes both, can prosper in the medium term.

He said that in the case of hibernation, solutions that are difficult to achieve now, can be moved into the indefinite future and that is why we should not necessarily run away from the frozen conflict.

Bazdulj assessed that the European Union (EU) or Kosovo is a false dilemma and emphasized that Serbia, as long as the five EU countries do not recognize the independence of Kosovo, should not be "a bigger Catholic than the Pope".

In his opinion, Kosovo should not get a seat in the UN, nor should Serbia promote and facilitate it.

"Serbia should have a red line and it cannot be expected to help the part of the territory that it considers its own to get that symbolically strongest prerogative of statehood, and in terms of marketing, it is more important that Kosovo is a member of FIFA and UEFA," Bazdulj assessed.

He points out that the Community of Serbian Municipalities (USO) is a necessary prerogative to preserve the Serbian community in Kosovo.

Bazdulj warned that there is a constant outflow of the Serbian population in Kosovo and that there is a fear that the Serbian community will be reduced to the "remnants of the remnants".

He pointed out that, in a practical sense, the CSM would make some things easier for Pristina as well, as shown by the situation with the boycott of local elections in the North of Kosovo.

Bazdulj assessed that it is paradoxical that the government of Albin Kurti neglected the part of the Brussels agreement related to the CSM, while that part of the agreement was better understood by the previous governments of Kosovo, regardless of the wartime role of Hashim Thaci and Ramush Haradinaj.

If he wanted to finally adopt an agreement, Bazdulj would always do it without a referendum, and he would organize it if he was looking for an excuse that the people would not want something, since it is much easier to make a negative campaign on a referendum.

International

Three years since the Washington Agreement between Serbia and Kosovo: What has been implemented? (EWB)

On Monday, 4 September, it will be three years since the Washington Agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, which Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and then Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti signed in the White House in the presence of US President Donald Trump. The Serbian and Kosovo leaders signed two documents, which differ only slightly – in the last provision. Although, according to the interpretations of most lawyers, it is a question of legally non-binding declarations of intentions, the implementation of the agreement, negotiated with the mediation of the USA, was assumed as a political obligation.

As in the case of numerous other agreements concluded between Belgrade and Pristina in the past 12 years, there is an obvious gap between what was signed and what was implemented. Three years later, it is clear that the implementation of the Washington Agreement has “fallen into oblivion.” Most of the provisions, out of a total of 16 in the Serbian and Kosovo declaration of intent, have not been fully fulfilled to this day.

Beyond the “economic normalization of relations” – what has been (partially) implemented?

In the agreement officially named “economic normalization of relations”, only 8 of the 16 provisions referred to economic cooperation between Serbia and Kosovo. Half of the agreed provisions concerned other (political) issues, and it was there that the most concrete results were achieved in the first year of implementation.

Provision 15 of the Washington Agreement, which at the time was considered essential for easing tensions between Belgrade and Pristina, provided for a one-year moratorium on Kosovo’s application for membership in international organizations and on the Serbian campaign to withdraw recognition of Kosovo. It was fully implemented, thanks to American engagement. Even after the formal expiration of the moratorium, the two sides indeed continued in the following months to adhere to the gist of the provisions.