• Kosovo Police begins reducing presence in municipal premises in north (Koha)

• Kurti publishes calendar and plan for de-escalation of situation in north (Kallxo)

• Borrell welcomes agreement: I expect "other positive steps" from Kosovo (media)

• Gervalla explains agreement with EU on de-escalation (Euronews Albania)

• Mehaj: Initiative to conclude two agreements with Turkiye is approved (RTK)

• Svecla demands quick investigation into burning of a Serb's house in Istog (Koha)

• Indictment filed against individual suspected of war crimes in Kosovo (media)

• Acting leader of war veterans: Protests are inevitable (media)

• Three bodies missing from the war found in North Mitrovica (media)

• Media freedom groups call for Klan Kosova business certificate issue to be resolved (media)

Serbian Language Media: 

• The withdrawal of the Kosovo police from municipal buildings in the north of Kosovo begun (RTS)

• An old man from the village of Beluce raised his sajkaca (hat) to greet Kosovo policemen, they entered his yard and told him not to provoke them? (KoSSev)

• Svecla: I requested the engagement of all resources to quickly solve the case of the burning house in Veric (NMagazin, Beta)

• An indictment for war crimes against Serb S.T. (Radio Mitrovica sever, KiM radio)

• A Serb from Kosovo accused of violently changing the constitutional order released from custody (KiM radio, BIRN)

International Media:

• Kosovo to partially withdraw special police officers from northern Serb-majority municipalities (AP)

• Kosovo Announces Reduction Of Police Presence In Serb-Majority North, Fresh Elections (RFE)

• Kosovo Supreme Court Clears Serb Ex-Minister of Inciting Hate (BIRN)

• Tensions in Kosovo have led to an appalling stifling of free speech (Chicago Tribune)

• Kosovo Government and EU Agree on De-escalation Steps in the North (Prishtina Insight)

Kosovo Police begins reducing presence in municipal premises in north (Koha)

Kosovo Police have started reducing the presence of police forces in the municipal premises in the north of Kosovo, after receiving the government’s decision on Wednesday. Deputy police commander for the north, Veton Elshani, told Koha on Wednesday evening that the government decision is being implemented. “After the Police management received the government’s decision, it was sent to the ground for execution. The decision of the Kosovo Government is being implemented,” Elshani said.

Kurti publishes calendar and plan for de-escalation of situation in north (Kallxo)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, through a post on Twitter, has announced how the Bratislava agreement for the de-escalation of the situation in the north, which was reached between Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi and the EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak, will be implemented in the next two weeks.

"Our government has reached an agreement with the EU on the next steps for the de-escalation of the situation in the north and the normalization of relations with Serbia. This shows our readiness to take concrete steps to guarantee peace, security and stability in Kosovo and the region, in the service of democracy and the rule of law" Kurti wrote.

In the first week, the calendar foresees that “the government of Kosovo should publicly announce its readiness to work towards de-escalation of the situation and not to take steps that could escalate the situation in the north of the country. This includes the immediate reduction by 25% of the presence of policemen in and around municipal buildings." As a continuation of the first week, it is emphasized that the Kosovo Police regularly conduct joint security assessments with EULEX and KFOR.

"Kosovo Police to regularly carry out joint security assessments with EULEX and with KFOR according to the circumstances, to assess the further reduction of all police presence in and around municipal buildings. The Government of Kosovo will make a public statement encouraging the holding of early elections in the four municipalities, before the summer. Kosovo pledges to have the necessary legal basis to enable the organization of elections" - it is announced in Kurti's calendar.

Further, according to that schedule, in the second week the EU will invite the two chief negotiators to Brussels to finalize the implementation plan for the agreement on the road to normalization of relations. "The EU will invite the two chief negotiators in Brussels to finalize the sequencing plan or the implementation table for the agreement on the path to the normalization of relations, after which the implementation of all the provisions of the agreement will begin" - it is emphasized in the calendar.

Borrell welcomes agreement: I expect "other positive steps" from Kosovo (media)

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has welcomed the agreement between the European bloc and Kosovo for the first steps towards the de-escalation of the situation in the north of Kosovo.

"We expect that Kosovo will take other positive steps and continue progress in this direction," Borrell wrote on Twitter, adding that the work with the parties will continue in the framework of the dialogue for the normalization of relations.

Gervalla explains agreement with EU on de-escalation in north (Euronews Albania)

The Government of Kosovo announced on Tuesday it will reduce the number of police personnel in the buildings of the four Serbian-majority municipalities in the north by 25% and will hold new elections in these municipalities at the end of the summer.

These decisions were announced after a meeting in Bratislava between the EU Special Envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue Miroslav Lajcak, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo Besnik Bislimi.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora in Kosovo, Donika Gervalla, provided details on the agreement reached between Kosovo and the European Union in an exclusive interview to Euronews Albania.

When asked by Euronews Albania journalist Thimi Samarxhiu when will this agreement be implemented, the Minister shared the next steps the Government will take.

“Next week, there will be a meeting of the chief negotiators, because only the implementation of that agreement can be a long-term strategy. Crisis issues will not bring success in normalizing our relations. We are preparing to be ready after the summer break, as long as the other party cooperates, we are ready to continue with repeat elections in those municipalities. But there is a specific procedure, which we have agreed upon and which requires the necessary cooperation from the other side. If [Serbian President Aleksandar] Vučić continues with his pressure for Serbs not to participate, then it will be impossible for us to hold elections in an unbiased manner,” said Kosovo’s Foreign Minister.

Gërvalla said that accepting EU’s plan is not a withdrawal from the previous positions of the Kosovo government, but only an effort to normalize the situation.

“Finding a rational solution that unblocks the situation in our four municipalities, I do not see it as a withdrawal. Wisdom and finding dialogue with our allies, I don’t know why it is seen as a withdrawal. We need to offer a normal and suitable life to our citizens in those four municipalities, but on the other hand, Serbian President [Aleksandar] Vučić is not concerned about the four municipalities, just as the essence of the issue has not been the license plate problem. Therefore, we need a long-term strategy with our partners, because if we only solve conflicts and crises caused by Serbia, we will not make any progress,” Gërvalla further added.

When asked about the role of the EU envoy Miroslav Lajčák in facilitating the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, the Kosovo Government minister stated that the EU had opportunities to do more.

“I think there was a greater chance, with a better and concrete strategy and plan, for the dialogue to yield better results. Oftentimes, the dialogue has been merely for handshakes and photo opportunities, so we are not interested in a pseudo-dialogue. We are interested in the normalization of relations, and we believe that mutual recognition will be the element that will bring long-term peace and stability to our region,” the Minister concluded.

Mehaj: Initiative to conclude two agreements with Turkiye is approved (RTK)

Kosovo’s Minister of Defense Armend Mehaj announced that the government approved on Tuesday’s meeting the proposal of the Ministry of Defense for the conclusion of two Cooperation Agreements between Kosovo and Turkiye, in the military field of training, technology and science.

Mehaj said in a Facebook post that these agreements include the exchange of personnel, material, equipment, information and much more.

"These agreements include the exchange of personnel, material, equipment, information and experience in the field of defense, participation in joint peacekeeping operations. Education in military academies and colleges; in war academies; in the academies of military medicine and in other health institutions,” Mehaj wrote on Facebook.

Svecla demands quick investigation into burning of a Serb's house in Istog (Koha)

Kosovo’s Minister of Interior Affairs, Xhelal Svecla, visited on Wednesday the burnt house of a citizen of Serb nationality in the village of Veriq, of Istog municipality. Svecla said the case should be clarified as soon as possible, while emphasizing that Kosovo is a democratic country in which all citizens live without distinction.

"I requested that all the necessary resources be engaged so that the case is clarified as soon as possible, while once again I offered the Police full readiness to help in connection with this case. The Republic of Kosovo is and will remain democratic, a country where free and equal citizens live, without any distinction of affiliation or origin. And for these values we will be uncompromising,” Svecla said.

Indictment filed against individual suspected of war crimes in Kosovo (media)

The Special Prosecution announced that an indictment has been filed against an individual suspected of war crimes against the civilian population in Kosovo. According to the prosecution, the suspect, identified as S.T., is of Serb nationality.

He is accused of crimes committed in 1998-1999 in the village of Reznik in Vushtrri and the surrounding villages of this municipality.

According to the statement, the defendant was a member of the Serbian police and military forces and “contributed to killings, raids, beatings, mistreatment, arrests, torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, holding in conditions of slavery, expulsion of thousands of Albanian civilians, as well as acts of looting, burning, and destruction of houses belonging to the Albanian civilian population”.

Acting leader of war veterans: Protests are inevitable (media)

Acting leader of the KLA War Veterans Organisation, Faton Klinaku, commenting on the published conversation between VV parliamentary group chief Mimoza Kusari-Lila and then-SL parliamentary group chief Slavko Simic and her mentioning of the war veterans, said that protests are now inevitable because the integrity of the war veterans has been harmed. Klinaku also argued that “Kusari and Simic most probably know the whereabouts of [Milan] Radoicic”.

“Protests will be inevitable. The veterans and their dignity have been insulted. The prosecution should look into the conversation, because having contacts with a criminal [referring to Radoicic], the prosecution should deal with this, and interview both Simic and Kusari,” he said.

Three bodies missing from the war found in Mitrovica North (media)

The Governmental Commission for Missing Persons announced that on Wednesday, July 12, the remains of at least three people were found which according to forensic experts could be from the last war in Kosovo.

In addition to the excavations in various locations such as in Pristina, Podujeva and Kamenica, the teams of the IML and the Kosovo Police have continued the excavations in the location called "Vidimiriq", in the north of Kosovo. "After a more detailed examination, and after DNA confirmation, we will inform you precisely about the results of these findings."

Meanwhile, the Minister of Justice, Albulena Haxhiu, said that after receiving the DNA results, the remains will be handed over to the family members.

Media freedom groups call for Klan Kosova business certificate issue to be resolved (media)

The undersigned international media freedom organisations and journalist groups today call for the updated business certificate of Klan Kosova to be accepted by the complaint committee and that all attempts by the Kosovo government to pressure the broadcaster are halted immediately.

The latest call by our organisations comes after the unprecedented decision of the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, made on 14 June 2023, to suspend the business certificate of Klan Kosova LLC and bring criminal charges against its representatives.

While we recognise the requirement for Kosovo authorities to enforce legal obligations regarding business registration, this cannot be used to justify the closure of one of the country’s largest private national broadcasters – an extremely serious step that should only be taken in extraordinary circumstances and in full compliance with the rule of law.

Our organisations therefore welcome the step taken on June 16 by the country’s media regulator, the Independent Media Commission (IMC), to postpone any decision on Klan Kosova’s broadcast licence for one month to allow time for a reasonable solution to be found.

Since then, we note along with the Association of Journalists Kosovo (AJK) that Klan Kosova has collected the necessary documentation and sent an updated business certificate issued by North Macedonian authorities to Kosovo’s Business Registration Agency.

Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/35bkefrm

Serbian Language Media

The withdrawal of the Kosovo police from municipal buildings in the north of Kosovo begun (RTS)

Withdrawal of the Kosovo Police from the municipal buildings in the north of Kosovo began. 

The deputy director of the police for the North region, Veton Elshani, told Tanjug that the withdrawal of the police from three municipal buildings in Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic has begun.

The government in Pristina announced on Tuesday that, after the meeting between the chief negotiator Besnik Bislimi and the EU special representative Miroslav Lajcak, they agreed to immediately reduce the presence of the police in and around municipal buildings in the north of Kosovo by 25 percent, as well as to hold emergency elections in four municipalities in the north after the summer.

After an old man from the village of Beluce raised his sajkaca (hat) to greet Kosovo policemen, they entered his yard and told him not to provoke them? (KoSSev)

Kosovo policemen yesterday entered the yard of an eighty-year-old ethnic Serb farmer D.P. from the village of Beluce, in the municipality of Leposavic, accusing him of provoking them after he raised his sajkaca, a traditional Serbian cap, to greet them – as per an old Serbian custom. According to his daughter in law. N.P’s testimony two police officers entered their yard and told her father-in-law that he provoked them and that he should no longer wear the cap. The police have no information about the incident.

Read more at: https://rb.gy/hsd9o

Svecla: I requested the engagement of all resources to quickly solve the case of the burning house in Veric (NMagazin, Beta)

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Kosovo, Xhelal Svecla, yesterday asked the leadership of the Regional Police in Pec to engage all resources to solve the case of the burning of the house of a Serbian returnee and the village of Veric near Istok as quickly as possible.

Svecla, together with the leaders of the police from Pec, visited the burning house yesterday. 

"I requested that all necessary resources be engaged in order to solve the case as soon as possible, while once again I offered the full readiness of the police to help in connection with this case," Svecla emphasized in a video message shared on Facebook.

He added that ''Kosovo will be uncompromising in creating the conditions for free and equal citizens to live in it, as in a democratic country, regardless of affiliation and origin'', reported NMagazin.

An indictment for war crimes against Serb S.T. (Radio Mitrovica sever, KiM radio)

The Special Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo filed an indictment in the Basic Court in Pristina against the defendant S.T. Serbian nationality.

As stated, the indictment against S.T. was raised due to the suspicion that during the war in Kosovo in the period from 1998 to 1999 in the Vucitrn region, individually and in complicity with other persons, in serious violation of the rules of international law, as a member of the Serbian police and military forces, he contributed to murders, raids, beatings, arrests, torture, cruel and inhumane treatment, keeping in conditions of slavery, breaking into thousands of Albanian houses, looting and destroying the houses of civilians of Albanian nationality who did not directly participate in the conflict, and seriously violated the rules of international law during the war, especially Article 3, paragraph 1. and points of the Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949, and Additional Protocols.

A Serb from Kosovo accused of violently changing the constitutional order released from custody (KiM radio, BIRN)

D.T., a Serb from the north of Kosovo, who was accused by the High Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade of calling for a violent change in the constitutional order of Serbia, was released from custody on Wednesday by the decision of the Court of Appeal in Belgrade, BIRN reported.

That court overturned the decision of the High Court from July 3 of this year, which extended Tomovic's detention, which he had been in since April 10 of this year, when the Serbian police arrested him at the Brnjak administrative crossing, at the moment when he was entering central Serbia.

International Media

Kosovo to partially withdraw special police officers from northern Serb-majority municipalities (AP)

Kosovo’s government on Wednesday will reduce the number of special police officers stationed outside four municipal buildings in ethnic Serb-majority areas and hold new mayoral elections in each of the towns, in a bid to defuse tensions with neighboring Serbia that flared anew in May.

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that one-fourth of the special police forces would be moved away from the sites “taking into consideration that the situation at the municipal buildings has been comparatively much quieter in the last two weeks.” He added that more officers would be withdrawn based on the continuous evaluation of the situation.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the reductions would take place, and where the officers would be reassigned to.

Read more at: https://t.ly/Jmn2M

Kosovo Announces Reduction Of Police Presence In Serb-Majority North, Fresh Elections (RFE)

Kosovo's government has announced that it will reduce by one-quarter the number of special police deployed around administrative buildings in the ethnic Serb-majority north and organize fresh mayoral elections in four northern municipalities as part of measures to de-escalate simmering tensions with neighboring Serbia.

The steps are to be "finalized within a two-week period," the government said in a statement late on July 11.

The announcement came following an informal meeting in Slovakia's capital, Bratislava, between Kosovar Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi and the EU's special envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak.

Clashes broke out last month between international peacekeepers and ethnic Serbs after three ethnic Albanian mayors took office following a local election that Serbs boycotted.

Read more at: https://t.ly/9H6PX

Kosovo Supreme Court Clears Serb Ex-Minister of Inciting Hate (BIRN)

Kosovo’s Supreme Court said on Wednesday that it has overturned the verdict sentencing ex-minister Ivan Todosijevic to two years in prison for his comments about a January 1999 massacre of Kosovo Albanians in the village of Racak/Recak, which he claimed was staged.

Todosijevic was cleared of inciting ethnic, racial or religious intolerance with his comments.

In its verdict, the Supreme Court said that it had to face the dilemma of whether Todosijevic’s comments represented free speech or a criminal act.

“Even though it remains clear that the suspect used inappropriate vocabulary in his speech and which does not reflect the opinion of a large part of the local population, the court faced the important issue of determining the definition of the boundary between free expression of opinion and criminal liability. This aspect had not been clarified and analysed sufficiently by lower-level judicial instances,” the Supreme Court verdict says.

Read more at: https://t.ly/ylTXT

Tensions in Kosovo have led to an appalling stifling of free speech (Chicago Tribune)

In a move that predictably led to increased tensions between Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority and its ethnic Serbian minority, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti recently installed ethnic Albanian mayors in four Serbian-majority towns in northern Kosovo after the ethnic Serbians boycotted the elections.

Violence and road blockages ensued, starting at the end of May that to date have led to injuries in dozens of United Nations peacekeeping members and even more locals. As a result, NATO has increased the number of peacekeeping forces in Kosovo in an attempt to prevent further violence.

Kurti’s actions brought quick condemnation from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French President Emmanuel Macron that he had fomented an unnecessary crisis. And in the latest attempt to calm the stormy waters, former President Bill Clinton, largely credited for ending the Kosovo war nearly 25 years ago, has traveled to the Balkans once again in the hopes of restoring order.

Read more at: https://t.ly/xJvKR

Kosovo Government and EU Agree on De-escalation Steps in the North (Prishtina Insight)

The Kosovo Government and the European Union have agreed on the de-escalation steps in the northern municipalities, after the recent months' unrest.

The Kosovo government confirmed on Tuesday that it has agreed to de-escalation steps in the northern municipalities, starting with a 25 per cent reduction in police presence in and around municipal buildings in the north.

The government also supports holding early mayoral elections in four northern municipalities “after the summer season.”

“Kosovo expresses its commitment to ensuring the necessary legal basis to enable the organization of these elections,” added the government.

As announced by the government, the EU will invite the two chief negotiators to Brussels with the aim of finalizing the sequencing plan for the Agreement towards Normalization, after which the implementation of all the articles of the agreement will begin.

Read more at: https://t.ly/9XDu3