• COVID – 19: 17 deaths, 764 new cases (media)
• Hoti on the burned banner: We must remain calm (RTK)
• SPO session for Thaci, Veseli and the others, today (media)
• Hoti to Kurti: You know that there is legal basis for protection of the accused (RTK)
• Kosovo’s acting President tests positive for coronavirus (Express)
• Haradinaj in Berlin, seeks help on liberalization of visas for Kosovo (Express)
• Hoxhaj: Mass graves opening in Serbia, EU remains silent (RTK)
• Haxhiu: PDK is flirting to become part of the government (RTK)
• Krasniqi: Kurti is not honest while calling for protection of KLA leaders (media)
• Suspected mass grave of Kosovo war victims found in Serbia (Prishtina Insight)

 

COVID – 19: 17 deaths, 764 new cases (media)

Kosovo’s National Institute for Public Health said in a statement on Monday that 764 new cases of COVID - 19 and 17 deaths from the virus have been recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. The highest number of new cases is from the municipality of Prishtina (277). 350 patients have recovered from the virus during this time. There are 12,508 active cases of coronavirus in Kosovo.

Hoti on the burned banner: We must remain calm (RTK)

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti, commented on the burned  billboard 'Freedom has a name', in Gracanica.

“The burning of the billboard "Freedom has a name" in Gracanica, is an event that should not have happened. We must approach these developments calmly, because we are going through a sensitive period of consolidation of our statehood," Hoti told Syri TV.

Hoti also spoke about the indictments against key KLA figures.

"The indictments against the main figures of the KLA, I believe that during these weeks we have shown the necessary state maturity. The Specialized Chambers are part of Kosovo's justice system, located in The Hague for other matters. The Special Court, when it was established in 2015, also issued a law for us to provide financial support to the accused. I have all the information that a prime minister should know, from the services that have been set up with the help of our international partners," Hoti said.

SPO session for Thaci, Veseli and the others, today (media)

Lawyer Mahmut Halimi said that in today’s session against the KLA leaders in The Hague, the issue of detention and security measures will be discussed.

"To be fair, in all likelihood, a conference will be held tomorrow to discuss the issue of detention, the measures for securing the defendants in the procedure.

Several issues related to the rules of procedure of the tribunal of the Specialized Courts will be raised. It is too early to say what will happen.

The summary is this, that tomorrow is the session to discuss the issue of measures, will the detention be lifted, the proposals submitted in writing. The defenders have had time to submit their proposals," he said.

The lawyer further stated that at the hearing the former KLA leaders defended themselves professionally.

"I can say that the defense, which was presented at the hearings, was presented professionally. Professionalism can be shown later, in the confrontations of the case with the evidence, testimonies," he said.

"The issue of the mandate of the Special Court must be addressed anyway. The mandate of the Special Court has been for 5 years and has expired, in August as far as I know. That mandate has expired," he concluded.

Hoti to Kurti: You know that there is legal basis for protection of the accused (RTK)

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti, has commented on the statements of the leader of the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) Albin Kurti, that the government should financially support the former leaders of the KLA, who are being accused of war crimes by the Special Court.

Hoti, invited to an Albanian TV show, said that the support for certain persons is already on a legal basis, which has been undertaken since the establishment of the Specialized Chambers.

"Kurti should know that when the Special Court was established, the legal basis was created for us to institutionally provide financial support to the persons accused in these chambers," said Hoti.

The Chairman of the Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV), Albin Kurti has considered that Kosovo should be organized to come to the defense of former political and military leaders of the KLA who are being accused by the Specialized Prosecutor's Office in The Hague.

Kurti has said that the current government cannot do that.

Kosovo’s acting President tests positive for coronavirus (Express)

Kosovo’s acting president Vjosa Osmani said Tuesday that she tested positive for coronavirus.

Osmani in a Facebook post said that she will work from home and will hold scheduled meetings online. Osmani is also Speaker of Parliament. She assumed the President’s duties after former president Hashim Thaci resigned following an indictment confirmed by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers at the Hague. According to the Constitution the Parliament Speaker assumes President’s duties until election of the new one by Members of Parliament.

Haradinaj in Berlin, seeks help on liberalization of visas for Kosovo (Express)

Ramush Haradinaj, chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK),  is in Berlin.  On Tuesday he met Ambassador Susanne Schutz, Director for the Western Balkans at the German Foreign Office. Haradinaj asked German authorities to finalize visa liberalization for Kosovo.

“Considering the strategic partnership and excellent relations between our countries, I asked Germany to push forward visa liberalization for Kosovo during their meetings with representatives of other EU member countries,” Haradinaj wrote on Facebook. He said that during the meeting with Schutz they discussed on current political situation, rule of law, security, and cooperation between the two countries.

Hoxhaj: Mass graves opening in Serbia, EU remains silent (RTK)

The acting chairman of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Enver Hoxhaj, has published a map of the locations of the mass graves identified in Serbia.

Through a post on the social network Twitter, Hoxhaj said that Serbia has hidden the locations of mass graves.

“This is the map of Serbian mass-graves Serbia was hiding..&today another mass-graves is being opened w/murdered Kosovars, just some weeks after Dacic threatened Serbs who disclose these mass-graves, he is pushing Serbs to become witnesses at SPC. EU keeps silence on this charade,” Hoxhaj wrote.

Haxhiu: PDK is flirting to become part of the government (RTK)

Albulena Haxhiu from the Vetvendosje Movement (LVV) said that the excuses of Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) not to give signatures for the motion of no confidence are absurd.

"The behavior and justifications of the Democratic Party not to give their signatures for the motion of no confidence in the Government initiated by the Vetevendosje Movement are absurd. But only until you realize that this subject is not in fact an opposition subject. Therefore it does not behave as such. There is no other explanation. It has been more than three months since the start of the collection of signatures of the no-confidence motion against this government. Since then there are reasons, there are initiatives, there are calls, there is an address for the overthrow of the government, but there are no signatures of PDK. Instead, there are plans to become part of the government," she said.

Krasniqi: Kurti is not honest while calling for protection of KLA leaders (media)

The deputy leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Memli Krasniqi, said that the leader of Vetëvendosje Movement (LVV) Albin Kurti for years has accused the KLA leaders of establishing the Special Court to send their comrades to prison, while now making efforts for electoral benefits, appears in defense of the KLA.

"They have accused Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli that they are making the Court to save themselves. That they are making the Court to send their comrades. Those like Albin Kurti who told him to go to The Hague Hashim. Not once but about 40 times in writing he told Hashim to go to The Hague. Today Hashim is in The Hague and I do not see where he finds the credit to appear  saying now I have to protect them," Krasniqi said.

He has also harshley criticized the government led by Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti for ‘too poor response to the Special indictments.’

"I myself am scandalized by the sterility of Avdullah Hoti's government. There is a total lack of proactivity. You have the impression that nothing happened in Kosovo. We are talking about people who, in addition to the important part, the president of the country was Hashim Thaci, two former Speakers of Parliament, a member of parliament for three terms and head of the Parliamentary Group. And what the Government did is write four sentences. From that day on, they think they have fulfilled their obligation,” Krasniqi said.

Suspected mass grave of Kosovo war victims found in Serbia (Prishtina Insight)

Remains of bodies suspected to be those of ethnic Albanians who were killed in the 1998-99 Kosovo war were discovered at an open-cast mine near Raska in southern Serbia.

Forensic experts from Kosovo said they found human remains at the Kizevak open-cast mine during excavations near the Serbian town of Raska on Monday.

Arsim Gerxhaliu, director of the Kosovo Institute of Forensic Medicine, told Radio Free Europe that the next steps include “forensic medical procedures, appraisal excavations, exhumations of the remains, then identification via DNA”.

The Serbian Prosecutor’s Office said it was not possible to say how many bodies are buried at the site until an exhumation is done.

“This now falls under the jurisdiction of the High Court in Belgrade, the Department for War Crimes,” Vasilije Seratlic, a spokesperson for the Serbian Prosecutor’s Office, told BIRN on Tuesday.

The Kizevak open-cast mine near the town of Raska is not far from the Rudnica quarry, where the bodies of more than 40 Kosovo Albanians killed by Serbian forces in the 1998-99 war have already been found.

Kushtrim Gara, head of the secretariat for the Kosovo government’s Missing Persons Commission, told Kosovo TV channel KTV on Monday evening, that excavations at the Kizevak location have been ongoing since 2015, but a satellite image of the site from late 2019 had moved the process forward.

“We returned to Kizevak this year, specifically these last three weeks,” Gara said.

He added that during the latest excavations, investigators “managed to find mortal remains and to mark the exact location of the possible mass grave”.

Since 2001, the remains of over 900 Kosovo Albanian war victims have been found in four different locations in Serbia. They were killed in Kosovo and then their bodies were moved to secret grave sites in an attempt to cover up the crimes.

No one has been held responsible by the Serbian judiciary for the cover-up, but the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia convicted Serbian police general Vlastimir Djordjevic for his role in concealing the bodies as well as other wartime crimes against Kosovo Albanians.

The head of the Serbian government’s Missing Persons Commission, Veljko Odalovic, said in August that the Kosovo authorities had requested searches at Kizevak, at Kozarevo between the towns of Raska and Novi Pazar, and at the Stavalj mine near Sjenica.

In October, Serbian and Kosovo delegations along with representatives of the Red Cross visited a location near the Stavalj mine but found they needed more information to establish the location of a possible grave.