UNMIK Media Observer, Morning Edition, March 23, 2022

Prime Minister Kurti’s interview with RTK
Bislimi: Serbia has not officially requested holding elections in Kosovo (Express)
“Internationals asked us not to make Serbian elections a political issue” (Express)
Montenegro prime minister reacts to Kurti's statement on demarcation (media)
Ukrainian crisis revived Kosovo’s long-standing NATO aspirations (EWB)
Kosovo’s ‘Commander Cali’ didn’t murder prisoners, lawyer says (BIRN)
COVID-19: 41 new cases, three deaths (media)

Prime Minister Kurti’s interview with RTK

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in an interview with RTK on Tuesday that he will travel to the United States in May and that relations between the two sides are very good, but that Kosovo needs more investments. “I believe I will go there in May. I will have meetings with the Biden administration, our diaspora, and many other meetings,” he said.

“We need to strengthen bilateral cooperation. I don’t have to go there over the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, but rather to strengthen bilateral relations between Kosovo and the United States … Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, said he wants an independent and sovereign Kosovo, full stop! We must love Kosovo as much as we love our own lives.”

Kurti said that the compromise happened in the past and that the focus now is on mutual recognition. “Why should we talk about compromises instead of talking about mutual recognition? Biden talks about mutual recognition. What are we asking for,” he added.

Kurti said that membership in NATO is more possible at this time and that it is easier than membership in the European Union. “Integration in NATO is easier than integration in the EU. Given the invasion and the aggression in Ukraine, it becomes even clearer that it is urgent for us to advance toward NATO membership as soon as possible. I believe we will meet the membership criteria fast. The Partnership for Peace Program is the first station toward NATO,” he said.

“It is reasonless for the most democratic and most pro-Western country in the Balkans to be left so far from Euro-Atlantic integration. They are seeing this, but I also believe there is another reason why NATO member states want Kosovo to move faster in Euro-Atlantic integration. NATO is in Kosovo, it protects Kosovo, but Kosovo too defends the story that the NATO intervention in Kosovo was successful. Putin wants to claim that Iraq and Afghanistan failed, and that Kosovo is a temporary success. By joining NATO, we protect NATO and show that we are a success story,” Kurti said.

Kurti said he regrets that an agreement was not reached between Kosovo and Serbia on holding Serbian elections in Kosovo’s territory too. “In all meetings, be it in Brussels or through the EU and Quint, who mediated on this matter, I was committed to an agreement. I was constructive in my approach and creative with ideas. We called for an agreement based on which those elections could be held in the Republic of Kosovo too. I understand that citizens of Kosovo that have Serbian nationality too want to vote in Serbian elections, but this is possible only through an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia. In order to reach that agreement, we the government of the Republic of Kosovo expected a letter from the government of the Republic of Serbia. If they were interested, they would have made the request … We said that the liaison offices in Prishtina and Belgrade could be used as logistical channels of communication but that the normal communication should be between the two governments. Instead of this, they tried for the communication to be between the two liaison officers.”

Kurti said he is ready for new meetings in the EU-facilitated dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, if EU High Representative Borrell and Lajcak invite him. “But I don’t know how they [Borrell and Lajcak] will receive a Serbia that has sided with Russia. Serbia’s destructiveness is very big. On the one hand they want excessive rights for Serbs in Kosovo, but they deny the basic rights of Albanians living in Serbia,” he said.

Kurti further argued that the Association of Serb-majority municipalities is mentioned more by reporters in Kosovo than by Belgrade officials. “It is an imposed question in a way. It did not pass the resolution. The Constitutional Court has rejected it,” he added.

Bislimi: Serbia has not officially requested holding elections in Kosovo (Express)

Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi said Tuesday that the Government of Kosovo has not taken any decision on organising Serbian parliamentary and presidential elections in Kosovo territory. This because, as Bislimi says, the Government of Serbia has not officially requested Kosovo authorities on organising its elections on 3 April, Gazeta Express reports.

Bislimi said Tuesday that representatives of QUINT and the OSCE have proposed several modalities on organising Serbian elections in Kosovo. “The Government of Kosovo was ready and remains ready to assist the Government of Serbia enabling Kosovo citizens with dual citizenship to vote in Serbian parliamentary and presidential elections by applying best practices of the EU and OSCE member states, practices which we have already seen in elections that Bulgaria and Romania held in other EU member states,” Bislimi told members of the Assembly Committee on Foreign Affairs. He said that Kosovo authorities are waiting for the official request of Serbian side enabling organising of its elections in Kosovo. “We have seen no readiness of Srbian side to respect these practices,” he said.

Bislimi has commented also the statement of the EU spokesperson Peter Stano who said Tuesday that the European Union regrets the Kosovo decision to reject a QUINT proposal enabling Kosovo Serbs vote in the territory of Kosovo for the 3 April elections of Serbia. Bislimi said Stano’s statement is inaccurate in its qualification. He said that the Government of Kosovo has stated that holding of Serbian elections in Kosovo without approval is unconstitutional. Commenting the model proposed by QUINT, Bislimi said that their proposal was to find a modality which would prevent constitutional violations which happened in previous election processes.

“Internationals asked us not to make Serbian elections a political issue” (Express)

Leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Lumir Abdixhiku, said in a debate on T7 on Tuesday that representatives of the international community called on political leaders in Kosovo not to turn the holding of Serbian elections in Kosovo into a political issue.

He said that maintaining good relations with the allies is of great importance. “We were told not to turn the holding of Serbian elections into a political issue, not to turn it into an issue of internal clashes. We have bigger issues to address,” he added.

Montenegro prime minister reacts to Kurti's statement on demarcation (media)

The Prime Minister of Montenegro Zdravko Krivokapic has reacted to the statement of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti that he was waiting for the new government in Podgorica to be formed in order to address the border demarcation issue. Krivokapic called the statement a 'provocation'.

"I consider the statement of Mr. Kurti to be an unacceptable provocation which demonstrates dangerous aspirations against the territorial integrity of Montenegro," Krivokapic said.

Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti said that a discussion on the border demarcation issue was not possible with the previous government of Montenegro, which he described as having had pro-Russian elements inside. “We hope there will be conditions with the new Government, to address this issue, for which of course the fault and responsibility lies with the then Government which unjustly, mistakenly, very harmfully gave Montenegro 8,200 hectares of the territory of Kosovo,” Kurti said.

Ukrainian crisis revived Kosovo’s long-standing NATO aspirations (EWB)

According to media reports, the United States welcomes Kosovo’s aspirations for NATO membership and recalls that this is a complex process that requires a long-term and prudent approach. “The best way for Kosovo to show its readiness for the responsibilities of NATO membership is by continuing to actively implement the long-term transition of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) and not deviating from it,” Radio Free Europe reported.

This message from the State Department came after the letter of the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani to the President of US Joe Biden. Osmani asked him to „use leadership and influence, to support and actively promote Kosovo’s NATO membership process“.

“Since we share the common goal of global security, Kosovo’s membership in NATO has become necessary,” Osmani said in the letter.

She assessed that at the time when all eyes of the world are on Ukraine, „we must not forget the fragile situation“ that region is facing. In a letter to US President Osmani added that Kosovo is exposed to Russia’s constant efforts to destabilize the country and the entire Western Balkans region.

Since Russia started the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Kosovo officials have called on Kosovo’s urgent accession to NATO. In early March, the Government decided to establish an inter-institutional working group for Kosovo’s NATO membership.

Read full article here: https://bit.ly/3D5uGbt

Kosovo’s ‘Commander Cali’ didn’t murder prisoners, lawyer says (BIRN)

The lawyer for former Kosovo Liberation Army unit commander Salih Mustafa told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Tuesday that his client could not have been responsible for the crimes listed in the indictment because he did not have control over the area in which they allegedly happened.

“Salih Mustafa never stopped any person, never mistreated any person, never killed any person and did not order someone to do such a thing. He, like many others, is a patriot and fought for the liberation of his own country,” said Mustafa’s lawyer Julius von Bone.

Mustafa, a commander in the KLA’s wartime Llap Operational Zone in north-eastern Kosovo who was known by the nom de guerre ‘Commander Cali’, has pleaded not guilty.

The indictment charges Mustafa, who led the KLA’s BIA unit, with arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, torture and murder of civilians between “approximately April 1, 1999 and around the end of April 1999”.

The indictment claims that detainees were held at a KLA compound in the village of Zllash/Zlas and deprived of food, water, sanitation, hygiene, bedding and medical care, and were subjected to “beatings with various instruments, burning and the administration of electric shocks”.