• COVID-19: 260 new cases, three deaths (media)
• Kosovo hospitals take in fearful Albanian COVID-19 patients (BIRN)
• Nenad Rasic’s son beaten in Gracanica (media)
• Dialogue with Serbia – Kosovo’s key issue in foreign policy (Koha)
• Kosnett: Kurti and Osmani have vision and energy (media)
• Kosovo Serbs accused of fixing Bosniak, Roma election results (BIRN)
• Communities warn: We may refuse the reserved seats (Kallxo)
• Kryeziu: Votes for Hodzic delegitimise guaranteed seats for Bosniaks (Koha)
• Civil society calls for investigations into the Bosniak votes (media)
• Kosovo’s oldest party needs reality check after election rout (BIRN)
• Osmani meets UNDP Coordinator in Kosovo (media)
• Car of Vetevendosje MP caught fire (media)
• Von Cramon: Government officials and state-owned media in Serbia distributing disinformation and propaganda (media)

COVID-19: 260 new cases, three deaths (media)

260 new cases of COVID-19 and three deaths from the virus were recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. 190 persons have recovered from the virus during this time. There are 6,706 active cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Kosovo hospitals take in fearful Albanian COVID-19 patients (BIRN)

Countless Kosovars found refuge in northern Albania during the war in Kosovo – and now hospitals in Kosovo are returning the favour, treating Albanian COVID-19 patients who don’t trust their own health system.

Shkelzen Ibra, a pulmonologist in the town e Kruma, in northern Albania, was awarded veteran status by the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, due to his contribution as a medic in the 1999 war there.

More recently, he found himself caught up in another war, against the COVID-19 pandemic in Albania.

However, unlike in 1999, when he assisted the people of Kosovo, this time his colleagues in Kosovo, in Prizren and Gjakovë/Djakovica, two towns near the Albanian border, are coming to his aid – by taking his patients into their hospitals.

“I have sent some 14 of my patients to Gjakovë/Djakovica, two of whom are being intubated,” Dr Ibra told BIRN last week.

“I think they [the Kosovars] have more than compensated for the debt of 1999,” he added, referencing Kosovo’s independence war with Serbia of spring 1999 when Albanians- especially those who live in the cities and villages near the border with Kosovo- sheltered hundreds thousands Kosovo Albanians who flew their homes.

Data BIRN obtained from the Ministry of Health in Kosovo and from the hospitals in Gjakove/Djakovica and Prizren shows that several dozen COVID-19 patients from Albania have been treated there.

Moreover, they have all returned home alive and full of praise for the service and care they received from the hospitals in Kosovo.

“I didn’t think of going to Tirana for a second,” Emerli Caushi, from the village of Zaharisht, in Albania’s Has municipality, told BIRN after recovering from COVID-19 at the “Isa Grezda” Hospital in Gjakove/Djakovica.

While healthcare in Kosovo is far from state-of-the-art because of lack of investment, hospitals in Albania are widely perceived as corrupt, and the population from remote areas often lacks confidence in them.

“I’d preferred dying instead of going there,” Caushi added, melodramatically.

In Albania, there is a general expectation that patients should “reward” hospital staff with off-the-record, out-of-pocket payments.

Some Albanian patients apparently assumed they should so the same with the medical staff in Kosovo.

“I tried once to offer them some money but they refused it,” Caushi told BIRN, evidently puzzled. “The doctor there didn’t even think about accepting money,” he added.

Albania has had some 100,246 COVID-19 patients, according to official data. At least 1,666 people have died from the virus. The northern Kukes region of has had some 2,181 cases and 32 deaths.

Situated some 200 kilometers north of Albania’s capital, Tirana, the region’s three municipal hospitals in Kukes, Has and Tropoja are not in good shape. The hospital in Has lacks oxygenation and ventilation equipment while the hospital in Kukes faces staff shortages.

The towns of Prizren and Gjakove/Djakovica in Kosovo are only 30 to 40 km away from Kukes and Has, and so can be reached easily from northern Albania.

The “Isa Grezda” Hospital in Gjakove/Djakovica has treated 49 COVID-19 patients from Albania so far, and the Prim. Dr Daut Mustafa Hospital in Prizren has treated 21.

Elmi Shala, director of the hospital in Gjakove/Djakovica, told BIRN that while they have no legal obligation to treat patients from Albania, the staff feel a moral obligation to serve them.

“We see it as moral duty to help people from Has and Tropoja and do so willingly,” he told BIRN. Read full article at: https://bit.ly/3bueJOC

Nenad Rasic’s son beaten in Gracanica (media)

Most news websites reported on Monday evening that Nikola Rasic, the 18-year-old son of Kosovo Serb political representative Nenad Rasic was beaten by a dozen persons in front of his school in the village of Llapnasella near Gracanica. RTK reports that the suspects behind the incident have been put in 48-hour detention.

Vetevendosje Movement (VV) leader Albin Kurti took to Facebook to react to the incident saying that “the thugish crime against Nikola Rasic was organised and is related to his father who did not submit to threats and pressure from Serbia”. Kurti said in his new government they will work to provide security for all Kosovo citizens regardless of their ethnic background. “I call on law enforcement authorities to urgently resolve the case and to bring the perpetrators to justice, and I wish Nikola a speedy recovery,” he added.

The Kosovo Serbs Party issued a statement after the incident blaming Belgrade and the Serbian List for the incident. “The insanity that Belgrade and the Serbian List have brought among the Serbs in Kosovo must be stopped immediately and without condition. In any other case, Belgrade will be the biggest loser, whereas the Serbian List will have to assume responsibility for the consequences of the media lynching campaign against political opponents,” the statement noted.

Kosovo Acting President Vjosa Osmani said in her reaction that the assault is an act against democracy and the freedom of an individual and called on authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice. “It is now clear that the assault against him is in the series of numerous threats and illegal interventions by Serbia in Kosovo aimed at intimidating Serb citizens,” she said.

Kosovo’s Ambassador to the United States, Vlora Citaku said in a Twitter post: “An 18 year old boy was beaten by a gang of Serbs in #Graçanica today. His only ‘crime’ is being the son of Nenad Rasic - an independent progressive politician in Kosovo who is not controlled by Belgrade. Eight people have been arrested so far. Intimidation and violence must end.”

The Serbian List (SL) said in a statement on Facebook that authorities must investigate the incident and punish the authors. “The Serbian List strongly condemns the assault against Nikola Rasic in Gracanica. We call on the competent authorities to swiftly investigate and give the merited punishment to those responsible. Punishing those responsible is an obligation of all police and judicial structures in Gracanica, regardless of who they are. The Serbian List calls on everyone to refrain from giving political connotations to the incident until the competent authorities conclude their investigations,” the SL said in the statement.

Koha reports that several hours after the incident, SL senior member Dalibor Jevtic said in a Twitter post that Nenad Rasic is a gambler that asks for the votes of Albanians to destroy the Serbian List.

British Ambassador to Kosovo, Nicholas Abbott, reacted in a Twitter post saying that the news of an attack on the son of Nenad Rasic is sickening whatever may be the motivation. “Such violence, whether physical or verbal, is unacceptable against anyone, but is particularly shocking against a young person. I ask that the Kosovan Police investigate this incident quickly and find those who incited and took part in this incident,” he said.

Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Acting Leader Enver Hoxhaj said in a reaction: “I strongly condemn the attack against the son of Kosovo Serb politician Nenad Rasic. I encourage the police to investigate the case and to arrest those responsible”.

Sava Janjic, the Abbot of Visoki Decani Monastery, took to Twitter to react against the incident. “I am deeply shocked by the lynching of around 30 persons against the son of Kosovo Serb politician Nenad Rasic. Without going into Nenad’s positions, the child was beaten with metal sticks, his teeth were smashed, and his face was brutalised. This despicable act must be punished. These people are not Serbs, they are not human,” he wrote.

Dialogue with Serbia – Kosovo’s key issue in foreign policy (Koha)

The paper reports in its leading front-page story this morning that regardless of Vetevendosje Movement (VV) leader Albin Kurti that the dialogue with Serbia will be only the fourth priority in his new government, political commentators argue that reaching an agreement with Belgrade will be the key issue in Kosovo’s foreign policy. Meanwhile, there are increasing voices in the European Union that call for the quick resumption of negotiations, there are also calls to draft a dialogue platform and unity on the dialogue with Serbia.

Kosnett: Kurti and Osmani have vision and energy (media)

The United States Ambassador to Kosovo, Philip Kosnett, said in an interview with T7 on Monday that he was impressed with the results of the February 14 elections in Kosovo, in which the Vetevendosje Movement won with around 48 percent of votes according to the preliminary results.

Kosnett said the elections were free, fair and professional and that there is a great wish in Kosovo to give Albin Kurti and Vjosa Osmani the chance to form the new government.

“I was very impressed with the results of elections. They seem to have been free, fair and were held in a safe and professional way. Of course, there are some investigations going on and there are always lessons to be learned. I know Albin Kurti and Vjosa Osmani very well now and I think it is clear that in Kosovo there is a great wish to give them the chance to form the government and lead the country. I think they have the vision and energy and this is a very emotional time for Kosovo,” he said.

On the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, the U.S. Ambassador said that “the world does not wait” and that priority should be given to the process of talks. “The United States have invested a lot in the last 20 years. There is no doubt about this. When Mr. Kurti says the dialogue and foreign policy, we will leave it further down – my experience is that the world does not wait. A U.S. government has said this once in the past.

Sometimes they come to power and say that in the first two years, the first four years we will focus on domestic policy and then we will worry about foreign policy. This is somewhat difficult to do therefore I would not talk much about this point,” he said.

Kosnett said he has discussed the issue of dialogue with Kurti. “Yes and I have said this in private and in public that I want us to have cooperating relations. We want to listen and not only speak, but to listen to what our partners in Kosovo and Serbia have to say about issues such as dialogue, and regional economic integration. We want to move forward with an open mind and Secretary of State Blinken has said that we don’t want to throw away the work that the previous administration has done in the Balkans. We want to carefully review it, rethink and keep what is worth keeping. Therefore, I would also like to encourage others to be openminded and to jointly think what has been done in the past that is worth keeping for the future,” he said.

Kosovo Serbs accused of fixing Bosniak, Roma election results (BIRN)

Kosovo Roma and Bosniak representatives say they suspect the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party engineered the election results in seats resereved for their communities in order to maximise its voting bloc in parliament.

Some political representatives of the Roma and Bosniak communities in Kosovo as well as civil society organisations have claimed that the seats their representatives obtained in Kosovo’s parliament in the February elections were essentially arranged by the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, Srpska Lista.

Both the winning Roma and Bosniak parties received many of their votes from Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo on February 14, 2021, elections, raising suspicions that these parties collaborated with Srpska Lista to get votes.

Veton Berisha, of the Egyptian Liberal Party, PLE, is one of the minority politicians raising questions about the alleged interference of Srpska Lista in the election results.

His allegation is that Srpska Lista – certain of victory within the Serbian community – encouraged some of its supporters to donate their votes to non-Serb non-majority communities, in an attempt to gain more allies in the Kosovo parliament.

A total of 20 of the 120 seats in the Kosovo Assembly are reserved for non-Albanian communities – 10 for Serbs and 10 for other communities – Roma, Ashkali, Egyptians, Bosniaks, Turks, and Gorani.

On Friday, the PLE said the election results published by the Central Election Commission show that “it is clear that ‘Romani Initiative’ is a product of” such collaboration, as it received votes from areas “where the Roma community does not live”.

Romani Initiative, a new citizens’ initiative competing for the four seats allocated to the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities, received 3,827 votes, coming first out of nine entities competing for the seats.

It is expected to get both the seat reserved for the Roma and an additional seat that goes to the most voted party from among the three communities.

The party received 287 votes in the mainly Serbian Ranilug and Partesh municipalities even though the OSCE in 2018 estimated that these municipalities have no Roma residents at all.

Romani Initiative also received 244 votes in Serb-majority Leposavic – which is home to only nine residents from the Roma and Ashkali communities, the OSCE said.

Romani Initiative also received nearly half of its votes in Serb-majority Gracanica – 1,620. The PLE’s Berisha told BIRN’s online magazine Prishtina Insight that he believes there are no more than 300 to 400 registered Roma voters in Gracanica.

Kosovo has only around 2,000 Roma citizens in total.

The Romani Initiative has denied allegations of vote-fixing with Srpska Lista.

Members of the Bosniak community have also voiced concerns that some political entities collaborated with Srpska Lista, after a newly established citizens initiative, Ujedinjena Zajednica (United Community) – Adrijana Hodzic, won numerous votes in Serb-majority municipalities.

Around 48 Kosovo Bosniak NGOs have released a joint statement saying they will not recognize MPs elected by the votes of other communities as legitimate.

The NGOs said they consider “efforts to take Bosniak seats in the Kosovo Assembly” via votes from other communities a flagrant violation of the constitution and the rights of non-majority communities.

“This primitive form of politics that is trying to be installed is unacceptable and is aimed at taking control over non-majority communities and having greater political power in the Kosovo Assembly,” the statement reads.

In an interview for BIRN Kosovo’s show Jeta ne Kosove, Adrijana Hodzic denied the allegations, claiming she received lots of votes from the Serbian community due to her work in interethnic collaboration in Serb-run North Mitrovica, where she is a deputy mayor.

In her first run in the parliamentary elections, Hodzic received 6,379 votes, leaving former MPs from the Bosniak community far behind and out of the parliament.

Hodzic received most of her votes in Serb-majority municipalities. In Leposavic, she received 1,129 votes and 1,780 in North Mitrovica. She also received 494 votes in Shterpce/Strpce, as well as 407 and 405 respectively in Zubin Patok and Zvecan.

Hodzic received only around 225 votes in Prizren which, according to the 2011 population census, is home to over 16,000 Bosniaks.

Prior to the election, BIRN reported allegations that Srpska Lista was seeking to expand its parliamentary power by encouraging its supporters to vote for candidates from Kosovo’s non-Serb ethnic non-majority communities that were sympathetic to the party.

Duda Balje, an MP candidate for the Social Democratic Union, SDU, had told BIRN’s Debat Pernime show in January that Srpska Lista did not need around 10,000 of the votes it had received in the 2019 elections to get the 10 reserved Serbian seats. She claimed that some of these votes would go to two new established initiatives, Ujedinjena Zajednica – Adrijana Hodzic and the Romani Initiative.

Balje’s claims were supported by Nenad Rasic, leader of the Kosovo Serb opposition “Sloboda” coalition in the 2019 election. Rasic explained that a Bosniak candidate could be elected as an MP with as little as 2,500 to 3,000 votes, and a Roma candidate with as few as 1,500 votes. Communities warn: We may refuse the reserved seats (Kallxo)

Erxhan Galushi from the Progressive Movement of Kosova Roma said in a debate on Kallxo Pernime on Monday that because of the cooperation between the Serbian List and “Romani Initiative” he failed to secure a seat in the new Kosovo Assembly. “The Romani Initiative with these votes has secured two seats in the Assembly, and I have lost my right to a guaranteed seat … I am expecting reactions from diplomatic missions to put an end to this kidnapping, these votes must be totally annulled, because there is grounded doubt behind the abuse,” he said. Galushi argued that it is better not to have any guaranteed seats in the Assembly than to have them abused. “If my community cannot decide about me, what do I need the reserved seats for? If someone else can abuse with the seats, it is better that they don’t exist at all,” he added.

Emilja Rexhepi from the New Democratic Party said that although she won seats in the Assembly, she will complain at the Central Election Commission and the Elections Complaints and Appeals Panel with the other community parties. “We need to wait for the final results from the CEC and then file our complaints, I will sign them. The interests of authentic communities in Kosovo have been violated and we will together draft a complaint and send it to the CEC and ECAP and then at the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court,” she said.

Kryeziu: Votes for Hodzic delegitimise guaranteed seats for Bosniaks (Koha)

Ismet Kryeziu from the Democracy in Action said in a Facebook post on Monday that the votes for the head of the United Community leader Adrijana Hodzic delegitimise the guaranteed seats for the Bosniak community in the Kosovo Assembly.

Kryeziu said that out of 6,739 votes that Hodzic’s initiative won in the February elections, 87 percent of the votes were won in mainly Serb-inhabited settlements where there are no or very few members of the Bosniak community.

“Only in the municipality of Leposavic, she won around 1,129 votes, or in the municipality of Kllokot, where the census shows that there are no registered Bosniaks there, she won 248 votes. Whereas in municipalities like Prizren and Peja where there is the largest number of Bosniaks living there, she did not get even 1 percent of votes from this community,” he said.

Kryeziu argued that the whole process deligitimises the representation of the Bosniak community and the guaranteed seats for this community in the Kosovo Assembly. “In addition to being a violation of the spirit of the Constitution for guaranteed seats for the communities, this phenomenon also creates a precedent for the bigger political parties, which in future elections can manipulate the will of the communities, including the Serb community, through oriented votes which they will then distribute among their own satellites,” he added.

Civil society calls for investigations into the Bosniak votes (media)

Civil society organisations in Kosovo have called on local and international factors to react against what they called the flagrant violation of the political rights of the Bosniak and Roma community in Kosovo, who were denied the right to guaranteed and reserved participation in the Kosovo Assembly.

Kosovo’s oldest party needs reality check after election rout (BIRN)

After the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, crashed to shock defeat in elections on February 14, analysts say this old but weary-looking party requires a total makeover – not a couple of resignations.

Kosovo’s oldest political party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, was widely expected to pay a price for the political adventures it has undertaken within the last year – but until a few days ago, few imagined the price would be so high.

For months ahead of the February 14 legislative elections, opinion polls suggested that the LDK was not performing well among the voters – but the warnings fell on deaf ears.

“When February 14 comes, people will vote based on the works that have been done and not on Facebook polls,” Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti said cheerfully in January, asked about polls that showed the rival Vetevendoje Movement on course to outperform the LDK in the elections.

The results on the evening of February 14 proved the polls right and Hoti wrong.

After winning 47.8 per cent of votes cast, Vetevendosje scored higher in percentage terms than any other party in the history of Kosovo elections. Meanwhile, the LDK, with only 13.08 per cent, scored its lowest percentage since it was established 32 years ago.

In terms of numbers of votes, the LDK had lost half of its voters since the last parliamentary elections in 2109 when it won more than 206,000 votes. On February 14, only 103,507 voters ticked the LDK on their ballots.

“The preliminary results are totally different from what I expected,” Hoti said in the evening of February 14, by when his defeat was confirmed. “I take full responsibility for this election result,” he added.

The ground began to shake beneath the LDK in March 2020 when, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, it made the unpopular decision to table a no-confidence motion in the government led by Vetevendosje’s Albin Kurti – its own coalition partner – after only 51 day in office. Although the motion succeeded and Kurti’s government fell, it drew many hostile reactions from citizens.

Read full article at: https://bit.ly/3pTs3kR

Osmani meets UNDP Coordinator in Kosovo (media)

Most news websites cover the meeting on Monday between Kosovo Acting President Vjosa Osmani and Ulrike Richardson, the UN Kosovo Team Development Coordinator. Richardson tweeted after the meeting: “earlier today I met acting president VjosaOsmani, congratulated on calm, orderly elections with a high voter turnout. We also spoke of need for continued public compliance with COVID19 preventive measures, an inclusive recovery and exchanged views on broad spectrum of priority #SDGs.”

Car of Vetevendosje MP caught fire (media)

Most news websites reported on Monday that the car of Vetevendosje Movement (VV) MP Mefail Bajqinovci caught on fire. Bajqinovci told the media that he does not know if it was a malfunction or if someone had put something in his vehicle for it to catch fire.

Von Cramon: Government officials and state-owned media in Serbia distributing disinformation and propaganda (media)

The European Parliament’s Rapporteur for Kosovo, Viola Von Cramon said in a Twitter post on Monday “in #Serbia it is government officials and state-owned media which distributes #disinformation & #propaganda. No need for #bots when you have your own TVs, radios and newspapers.”