UNMIK Media Observer, Morning Edition, November 18, 2025

Albanian Language Media:

German Foreign Minister to visit Kosovo today (media)
Osmani: Germany, Kosovo’s strategic partner (media)
Wesley Clark: Milosevic told me he would kill all Albanians (media)
Bedri Hamza elected new leader of PDK (media)
Gashi on arrest of Serbian hunters: They cannot be ordinary individuals (Koha)
Court annuls two articles of instruction for energy market liberalization (media)

Serbian Language Media:

Vucic met Wadephul: Germany one of our most important partners (Tanjug, media)
Sljuka: Expert government unlikely due to mistrust between opposition and Self-Determination (Kosovo Online)
Osmani’s claim of “900 dismantled gangs” triggers political storm in Pristina (KoSSev)
EC’s forecast: Serbia’s economy slows, growth at risk (N1)
Djedovic Handanovic: I expect solution for NIS to be found by end of week (Tanjug)
Bajatovic: We will back any Russian proposal for NIS, Serbia will not be left without gas (Tanjug)

International Media:

NATO Ex-Commander Wesley Clark testifies in defence of Kosovo’s Thaci (Balkan Insight)
Albania opens last negotiation cluster with EU (Balkan Insight)

Albanian Language Media

German Foreign Minister to visit Kosovo today (media)

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul will visit Kosovo today in the afternoon. Wadephul is visiting six Western Balkan countries. According to the announcement, his trip began on Sunday in Bosnia and Herzegovina and will continue through Montenegro, Albania, and Serbia, arriving in Kosovo on Tuesday afternoon before concluding in North Macedonia on Wednesday.

“In Kosovo, he will meet with President Vjosa Osmani and caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti, as well as with German KFOR soldiers. This trip is part of Germany’s support for the Western Balkans’ path toward the EU, to which we remain committed,” the embassy’s announcement states.

Osmani: Germany, Kosovo’s strategic partner (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani met with Germany’s Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Henning Otte, to discuss strengthening bilateral cooperation in security and advancing Kosovo’s defense capacities. Osmani expressed deep gratitude for Germany’s long-standing support to the Kosovo Security Force (KSF), especially during its ten-year transition toward becoming a modern and fully functional force.

They discussed expanding cooperation between the parliamentary commissioner institutions, focusing on professional exchange and stronger accountability and transparency mechanisms within the armed forces.

Osmani emphasized Germany’s role as one of Kosovo’s key strategic partners in peace, security, development, and Euro-Atlantic integration. She also thanked Bundeswehr troops serving in KFOR and NALT missions for their contribution to regional stability.

She highlighted that the establishment of the KSF Parliamentary Commissioner reflects Kosovo’s commitment to NATO standards, democratic values, and building a professional and responsible defense force.

Wesley Clark: Milosevic told me he would kill all Albanians (media)

Former NATO Supreme Commander Wesley Clark began his testimony at the Specialist Chambers in The Hague in the trial of Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi. Clark stated that the KLA in 1998 was made up of self-organized local groups formed in response to long-standing Serbian repression, especially after the Jashari family massacre. He said the KLA lacked a centralized command structure and that Thaci was not a military commander, but rather a political figure with limited influence over fighters.

Clark testified that he received more information about the KLA from Serbian sources than from NATO, and that Serbian forces labeled many locations as “terrorist points.” He also recounted conversations with Milosevic, including one in which Milosevic said Serbia had previously “killed all” Albanians when dealing with them. “He told me: ‘We know how to deal with these Albanians, these murderers. We’ve done this before; this is not the first time.’ I asked: ‘How have you dealt with them? What did you do?’ He replied: ‘We killed them all,’” Clark said.

Clark added he had never heard of a KLA General Staff and was unaware of incidents mentioned in the indictment.

Bedri Hamza elected new leader of PDK (media)

Bedri Hamza has been elected the new leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK). He thanked the delegates and his fellow party members for the trust, support, and new direction they have given to the PDK. “Today you have given me a great responsibility, an extraordinary honor, and a duty that I accept with full honor and commitment. Thanks to your work, sacrifice, and trust, the PDK continues to be our common home,” Hamza said after his election as the new leader of the PDK.

He said that Kosovo now needs a united PDK with a clear vision. “As the new leader, I promise that we will open our party to every citizen who wishes to contribute. We will strengthen our local and central structures. We will involve more young people in decision-making and activities. We will build the spirit of cooperation and responsibility that Kosovo needs. We will move only forward, with responsibility, with prudence, and with commitments that we will uphold to the end. The road ahead requires courage and determination, and we have it!” Hamza said.

He thanked the PDK membership and structures for their engagement and dedication to Kosovo. “I will give my political family everything I can, just as it gave me everything. We continue together, without stopping, toward new victories. Thank you, delegates. Thank you, PDK,” Hamza concluded.

Koha highlights in its coverage that Hamza said there would be no red lines for any political party when asked if there would be red lines for the Kurti-led Vetevendosje Movement. “I have never set any red lines, and as we have seen in the latest runoff elections, even those who set red lines seen them fall. In the end everyone came together. I think we must be responsible for the interests of our country and always make the right decisions and actions for the good of the country,” Hamza said.

Gashi on arrest of Serbian hunters: They cannot be ordinary individuals (Koha)

On Monday, the police announced that they had arrested four Serbian hunters who had crossed illegally into the territory of Kosovo. However, former Minister of Internal Affairs Bejtush Gashi told KTV that the prosecution must thoroughly investigate this case because they may also be members of intelligence services. “It cannot be qualified as an incident because it has an impact in three dimensions: illegal border crossing, testing of institutional response, and violation of territorial integrity. In this specific case, the prosecution must follow all protocols to investigate the reasons for the illegal entry, because they may be members of intelligence services whose mission is to test the reaction of security institutions, specifically the level and response of the responsible institutions tasked with safeguarding Kosovo’s territorial integrity. Cooperation with NATO’s mission in Kosovo is required because they may provide additional information to assess the purpose of the entry. They cannot be simple hunters or ordinary individuals, because we have had similar cases from time to time,” Gashi said.

Regarding Serbian reports about this case, Gashi described them as a strategy to create disinformation and influence the international community. According to him, it also aims to shift attention away from Serbia’s tense internal situation.

Gashi described the shooting and abduction of Milan Vukasinovic within Kosovo’s territory as a serious case, and said that part of the blame falls on NATO’s mission because it failed to prevent such an incident.

Court annuls two articles of instruction for energy market liberalization (media)

The Supreme Court of Kosovo annulled two articles of the instruction for the energy market liberalization market, saying that they have created legal and economic uncertainties for energy consumers in Kosovo. The court said in a statement that it admitted the complaint of the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce against the Energy Regulatory Office which in June ordered bigger businesses to move to the open energy market. The court annulled article 8 of the instruction for energy market liberalization from January 2015, and article 2 of the instruction for changing the instruction. The court said it found “discordance between legal provisions and the provisions of normative sublegal acts that led to the creation of an uncertain legal and economic situation for consumers of energy, making the interference of the court necessary”.

The court concluded that the line between consumers that enjoy the right of universal supply and those that were forced to move to the open market was not clearly defined. It also found that several provisions of ERO instructions were not in compliance with the law on energy in Kosovo and the energy directives of the European Union.

Serbian Language Media

Vucic met Wadephul: Germany one of our most important partners (Tanjug, media)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met yesterday with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, noting on this occasion that Germany is one of the most important and biggest Serbia’s partners, Tanjug news agency reported.

"An open and meaningful conversation with Minister Wadephul about the further strengthening of our bilateral relations, political dialogue and joint projects of strategic importance. I pointed out that Serbia attaches great importance to cooperation with Germany, which is one of our biggest and most important partners. We discussed numerous projects, especially in the field of energy and infrastructure", Vucic wrote in a post on his official Instagram account.

He also thanked FM Wadephul for support that Germany extends to Serbia’s economic development and reforms processes.

Sljuka: Expert government unlikely due to mistrust between opposition and Self-Determination (Kosovo Online)

New Social Initiative (NSI) associate Aleksandar Sljuka opined it is unlikely that idea of forming a non-partisan government led by Glauk Konjufca, composed of experts, will come to fruition, because, as he said, there is a significant mistrust between the opposition and Self-Determination due to everything that has happened over the past four years. He also pointed out opposition would be sceptical about whether the experts in such a government would act independently of Self-Determination. As he said the experts could exist on paper only, and if Self-Determination had a decisive role and Konjufca continued to “pull all the strings” as prime minister, such a scenario would be unacceptable to the opposition, Kosovo Online portal reported.

“The question is also who these experts would be. I’m not saying there aren’t experts who would act independently, but at this moment it is hard for the opposition to trust that. They would probably need to see the list of these people, and perhaps even propose some themselves in order to trust the process and vote for such a government. So far, I haven’t seen such a development, and I think it is unlikely that this idea will take hold”, he said.

In his view, the main issue in this scenario is the question of control over such a government, especially since Self-Determination has, over the past four years, created a polarized Kosovo, “waging a political war against all critically minded actors”. “I don’t believe they would hand over control to anyone, even if it were a technocratic government. People will always look with suspicion at what their role is and how they influence that government. Considering everything that has happened in the previous period and the blockade in the Assembly, it is unlikely that we will see such a development at this time”, Sljuka concluded.

Osmani’s claim of “900 dismantled gangs” triggers political storm in Pristina (KoSSev)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani has come under intense scrutiny after telling Politico that Kosovo had “dismantled more than 900 criminal gangs” in the last five years and had “cut the chain of the Balkan mafia”. Her remarks sparked a wave of reactions from opposition parties, analysts, and journalists, forcing the Presidency to issue a clarification and prompting Osmani to backtrack on her statement, KoSSev portal reported.

The controversy erupted over the weekend, ahead of the visit to Pristina by German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who is touring the region. In the interview, Osmani asserted that Kosovo had become “a country of law and order”, claiming that her government had “broken up more than 900 criminal gangs” and that no criminal groups remain active in the area.

But the claim was met with fierce criticism almost immediately. The original interview video, posted by Osmani on her Facebook page - where she typically promotes her activities - was later removed and replaced by a YouTube link. The new version omits the contested statement about “900 gangs”.

International Media

NATO Ex-Commander Wesley Clark testifies in defence of Kosovo’s Thaci (Balkan Insight)

General Wesley Clark told the court in The Hague that the Kosovo Liberation Army 'wasn't an organised military' – and that Hashim Thaci himself 'clearly wasn't in charge' of the KLA's fighters on the ground.

General Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, started his testimony at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Monday – telling the war crimes and crimes against humanity trial of Hashim Thaci and three others that the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, “wasn’t an organised military [force]”.

“As far as we knew, these were local groups that had been formed more or less in response to Serbian oppression over the years. In particular, after the murder of the Jashari family, there was a general alarm and for this reason people were increasingly forming these local groups,” Clark told the court.