• Bislimi: Agreement on license plates does not undermine reciprocity (Koha)
• Escobar: Kosovo was right on reciprocity but implementation caught us by surprise (media)
• NATO committed to implementation of Kosovo-Serbia agreement (media)
• Svecla: Stickers to be put on every car with Serbian license plates (media)
• PDK: License plates agreement further strengthens Serbia's position (media)
• LDK: Government made one step forwards, two steps back (media)
• Haradinaj: Brussels agreement, setback with grave consequences for Kosovo (media)
• Kosovo-Serbia: Can the EU really broker a peace deal? (Euronews)
• War victims found in Serbian mass grave repatriated to Kosovo (BIRN)
• Kosovo will not go ahead with gas project (Koha/Klan)
• Resorts or Refugee Camps: Fleeing Afghans Get Mixed Reception in Balkans (BIRN)
• COVID-19: Four deaths, 45 new cases (media)

 

Bislimi: Agreement on license plates does not undermine reciprocity (Koha)

Kosovo's Deputy Prime Minister and chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, told KTV that the agreement reached with the Serbian side on license plates does not undermine reciprocity in any of its points.

"For our part, it was important that in addition to the de-escalation, there would be no withdrawal from the principle of reciprocity that we started through the decision of 20 September," he said.

Bislimi explained that temporary license plates will continue to be issued until Monday which is when the stickers system will come into effect. "Tomorrow the group from the Ministry of Internal Affairs will have virtual meetings with the office of Mr. Lajcak to elaborate on the operationalization of this measure, to determine what the stickers will look like, what exactly will be covered, should there be a cost for implementation, what sanctions should there be in case there are persons who have removed the stickers placed at the border..."

He also noted that "KM" license plates would not be confiscated in the north of Kosovo during the transitional period, until a final agreement is reached. "It was requested not to confiscate these plates for the next six months so that parallel to the transition to the permanent system, their transition to regular license plates is enabled. This was foreseen before, but due to obstructions by Serbia, the Kosovar side failed to convince the citizens to convert the plates into 'RKS'. By switching to European standards plates, which is the goal of the working group to find a permanent solution, it will be impossible to further use the license plates issued by Serbia with denominations of Kosovo cities."

Escobar: Kosovo was right on reciprocity but implementation caught us by surprise (media)

The U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Gabriel Escobar, said it is important that Kosovo and Serbia reached agreement for de-escalation of tensions in the north of Kosovo and thanked the EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak and his team for their work.

Speaking to reporters from Brussels, Escobar said that there is still a great deal of work ahead and that further progress depends on the political will of the parties.

Asked whether they were informed by the Kosovo side about introducing reciprocity on license plates, Escobar said: "Kosovo is within its rights to apply reciprocity and this was known but we were caught by surprise by it although it was going to happen anyway."

He said the United States also expect Kosovo and Serbia to continue the moratorium period on recognitions and de-recognitions saying this would give room to dialogue to progress. Escobar also spoke about the Ujman Lake saying he sees it as having potential for generating renewable energy that would benefit the entire region.

NATO committed to implementation of Kosovo-Serbia agreement (media)

NATO has expressed commitment to implementing the agreement that Kosovo and Serbia reached yesterday on the issue of license plates.

NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said NATO welcomes the agreement and noted that its force, KFOR, will play a crucial role in the effective implementation of the accord.

NATO also announced that the Alliance's Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, will meet today EU Special Representative for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak.

Svecla: Stickers to be put on every car with Serbian license plates (media)

Kosovo's Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla took to Facebook to comment on the agreement on license plates.

"As of 4 October, we will cover the state sign of every Serbian vehicle license plate. We are not concerned about others here. There are no license plates of Serbia that are slightly better or slightly worse," he wrote adding that for as long as Serbia does not recognise Kosovo, so will Kosovo not recognise Serbia in turn.

Svecla went on to thank Kosovo Police members for their "tireless work and exemplary professionalism". "They have best represented our state and the values ​​of a society we want and aim for: equal, just and democratic. Even the reciprocity achieved today derives from these values, so we will continue it."

PDK: License plates agreement further strengthens Serbia's position (media)

The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) has reacted to the signing of the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia on license plates saying it is a setback for Kosovo and further strengthens Serbia's position.

"The withdrawal of the Kosovo Police special forces and the return of KFOR - by taking over tasks relating to public order and border control which should be performed by - is a setback for our independent state institutions and undermines the constitutional role of the Kosovo Police. This development is a stain on the international image of Kosovo as a consolidated independent and sovereign state," the party said.

It added that the Government of Kosovo, by agreeing to a synchronized withdrawal of the police and barricades, has put the roadblock protesters on the same footing with the Kosovo Police "thus insulting the special forces of the Kosovo Police which performed an excellent job." "As of today, barricades have been legitimised as an effective tool to further Serbia's interests in Kosovo," PDK added.

LDK: Government made one step forwards, two steps back (media)

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) reacted to the agreement on license plates saying that by signing it the Government of Kosovo "made one step forwards and two steps back."

LDK said it appreciates the agreement on equal treatment of license plates but that it strongly opposed the way the barricades sponsored by Serbia were set on the same footing as Kosovo Police special forces. "Instead of extending sovereignty and legality, today, the Government of Kosovo withdrew and handed over this sovereignty to a third party. Furthermore, this withdrawal was made in agreement with Serbia, which does not recognize us. This neighboring country, Serbia, as of today, has a say on the legal arrangement of the territory of Kosovo."

The party also said that it strongly opposed the legitimisation of license plates of Kosovo cities issued by authorities in Serbia and also noted that the agreement signed in Brussels yesterday is the same as that signed in 2016 which the Vetevendosje Movement had referred to as "agreement of shame" when in opposition.

Haradinaj: Brussels agreement, setback with grave consequences for Kosovo (media)

Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj criticised yesterday's reached agreement between Kosovo and Serbia in Brussels saying it would be unacceptable for the Government of Kosovo to agree to treat the north differently than the rest of Kosovo. He also called on the Government to immediately publish the entire text of the agreement on license plates and report to the Assembly.

"We are also outraged at the equalising of the Kosovo's special police with criminal groups that have blocked roads in the north," he said, adding that this is an insult to the sovereignty of Kosovo.

Haradinaj further noted that the agreement for KFOR to assume control over order in the north which, he said, is an exclusive responsibility of Kosovo law enforcement agencies "is a setback and concession to Serbia with serious consequences for Kosovo."

Kosovo-Serbia: Can the EU really broker a peace deal? (Euronews)

This week, the European Union’s impeccable sense of timing was on display when Commission President Ursula von der Leyen decided to tour the Balkans just as the ongoing dispute between Kosovo and Serbia was heating up.

Von der Leyen stopped in Pristina on Wednesday to meet with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and visit an EU-funded kindergarten.

Less than two hours away from the location of their joint press conference, hundreds of Kosovo Serbs blocked the northern border crossings of Brnjak and Jarinje in protest over the Kosovo government’s decision to institute a rule on temporary license plates.

With Kosovo’s special police forces sent to guard the two crossings in the north — where most ethnic Serbs reside — the Serbian government placed its military on alert and reshuffled some of the troops closer to the border with Kosovo. Matters were on the brink of escalation over the weekend, with tanks and jets spotted close to the border.

However, von der Leyen was all smiles as she posed with children at the kindergarten and helped them assemble miniature colour blocks.

“We are here in this beautiful kindergarten to see what we have done together. This is a living symbol of the joint cooperation,” she said.

While von der Leyen insisted on striking a positive tone and talked about economic recovery, the press conference was marked by repeat questions about the standoff.

“I must say I am very concerned about the current crisis,” von der Leyen said, calling for its swift resolution. “The only way to do that [is through] the EU-facilitated dialogue. That is the only platform to resolve the current crisis.”

Meanwhile in Brussels, representatives of the two sides held a meeting with EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Miroslav Lajčak. Serbia’s Petar Petković and Kosovo’s Besnik Bislimi lead the technical teams, and often spent hours debating the nitty-gritty of even the slightest change in policy between the two countries.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3imDvV4

War victims found in Serbian mass grave repatriated to Kosovo (BIRN)

The remains of seven Kosovo Albanian war victims were handed over on Thursday to the Kosovo authorities at the Merdare border crossing, four months after they were exhumed from a mass grave in at an open-cast mine in southern Serbia.

Relatives of the victims, who were killed in a massacre in the Kosovo village of Rezalla in April 1999, watched the handover ceremony in tears as Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti told them that “no one can understand the burden of the absence that time has added to the wounds of your soul”.

On April 5, 1999, Serbian forces entered Rezalla in the municipality of Skenderaj/Srbica and killed 98 ethnic Albanian civilians.

The day afterwards, the Serbs returned to take the bodies away, transporting many of them to mass graves near Raska in southern Serbia in an attempted cover-up operation.

Kurti alleged that the massacre was “one of the things that prove Serbia’s genocide in Kosovo”.

The mass grave where the victims’ remains were found, at the Kizevak mine, was discovered in November 2020 after aerial images indicated where the bodies might be buried.

The Kizevak mass grave is the fifth such site to be discovered in Serbia since the end of the Kosovo war 22 years ago. It is not far away from the Rudnica mine, where a mass grave was found in 2013 containing the remains of 52 Kosovo Albanians.

In 2014, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague sentenced former senior Serbian police official Vlastimir Djordjevic to 18 years in prison in part for his role in concealing the bodies of ethnic Albanians who were killed in Kosovo.

Over 900 bodies have been found in mass graves in Serbia, but no Serbian court has ever convicted anyone of involvement in the cover-up.

Around 6,000 missing persons from the Kosovo war have already been found and identified, but there are still more than 1,600, mainly ethnic Albanians but also some Serbs, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

In a separate development, the Serbian Missing Persons Commission said earlier this week that the identified remains of Serbs who died during the conflict in Kosovo were handed over at the Merdare border crossing last Friday.

“The remains of the victims were received from the Pristina delegation on behalf of the families by representatives of the Belgrade delegation of the [Red Cross-chaired] Working Group for Missing Persons,” the commission said in press release.

Kosovo will not go ahead with gas project (Koha/Klan)

Kosovo's Minister of Economy Artane Rizvanolli announced that Kosovo will not be going forward with the project for construction of gas infrastructure, funded by the U.S.'s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

Rizvanolli said Kosovo will need more information to be assured that the gas infrastructure is the best option for its energy transmission while MCC has strict timelines for signing of the grant. "We have decided to move forward and use the investment allocated for compact programme, for low-risk investments but which help Kosovo in decarbonising its energy sector and create conditions for the development of the economy and the private sector."

European Parliament rapporteur for Kosovo, Viola von Cramon, reacted to the Government's move saying it was a 'very good decision'. "Thanks for the environmental clearly friendlier decision which is better for our climate, for your citizens and in line with the European Green Deal," she posted on Twitter.

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) said that the Government of Kosovo rejected an American geostrategic project and calling the move a 'wrong strategic decision'. "Apart from the fact that, in inexplicable political paranoia, this was described the same as 'Russian gas', with this decision Kosovo rejected the $ 200 million that President Biden, a while ago, had confirmed as a grant - free funds  - to the Republic of Kosovo and the project in question," LDK said.

Meanwhile, leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj slammed the Government of Kosovo for deciding not to go ahead with gas project. "The rejection of the American gas pipeline project is a dangerous action against the interests of Kosovo and the United States of America," he wrote on Facebook.

Resorts or Refugee Camps: Fleeing Afghans Get Mixed Reception in Balkans (BIRN)

When the US and other Western troops pulled out of Afghanistan in August and evacuated thousands of Afghan civilians whose lives were under threat, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia stepped forward with offers of temporary refuge.

Each country agreed to accept some refugees and take care of them for an interim period until the US and other countries approve their journey onwards to permanent refuge in the West. Albania is currently sheltering about 700 Afghans, Kosovo has almost 1,000 and North Macedonia has provided refuge for some 200.

Some of them appear to have been relatively fortunate as they were housed in decent hotel resorts on Albania’s Adriatic coast or in similar hotels in North Macedonia, and well as receiving substantial offers of help from humanitarian activists and relative freedom of movement while waiting for their security credentials to be checked so they can continue their journey.

But others, mainly in Kosovo, were not so fortunate. They were placed in isolated camps to which media have not been given access, and scarcity of information about their situation has prompted some human rights organisations to raise concerns about their wellbeing and basic human rights.

See more at: https://bit.ly/3oCcUHF

COVID-19: Four deaths, 45 new cases (media)

Four deaths from COVID-19 and 45 new cases with the virus have been confirmed in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. 298 persons recovered from the virus during this time.

There are 2,928 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.