Albanian Language Media:

• Kurti says meeting in Brussels will focus on missing persons (media)
• Kurti appoints new minister of health (media)
• Konjufca: Serbian List openly blackmailing the Assembly (Klan)
• Osmani: Women in Kosovo continue to face challenges (RTK)
• State Department comments on Afghans housed at Camp Bondsteel (Telegrafi)
• COVID-19: Five new cases, no deaths (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• Covid-19: 78 new cases, one death registered in Serbian areas (KoSSev)
• Dialogue in Brussels to continue in afternoon, Belgrade insists on ZSO (Kosovo-online)
• Vucic on today’s talks in Brussels, meeting with Putin (RTS)
• Brnabic, Dacic: Serbia a militarily neutral country but seeks cooperation with NATO (Tanjug)
• Stefanovic: KFOR to prevent reckless Pristina’s acts (Tanjug)
• Serbian PM invited to Moscow International Export Forum (N1)
• Lavrov and Selakovic on Kosovo, the Balkans and bilateral relations (Tanjug, RTS)
• Lawyer Pantovic: Zoran Djokic, an innocent convict (Beta, Danas)

Opinion:

• Only room for progress on the missing persons in the Brussels talks today (Danas)

International:

• NATO Deputy Secretary General highlights 15 years of NATO-Serbia partnership (nato.int)

   

Albanian Language Media  

  Kurti says meeting in Brussels will focus on missing persons (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti said that today's meeting in Brussels as part of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue will focus on the issue of missing persons. “This is a pressing matter as the anxiousness of the families is greater than their grief and the issue of missing persons and forcibly disappeared cannot wait.”

Speaking to reporters today as he announced the appointment of the new health minister, Kurti said that his next meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will depend on the progress of this week's talks in Brussels.

Kurti also spoke about the Open Balkan initiative saying his position remains unchanged. He also said that the name of the initiative is wrong. “To prove that it is for an open Balkan, Serbia should first open to Kosovo.”

On the energy issue in the north of Kosovo, Kurti said this would be raised with the EU. "Serbia's illegal structures are to blame for the unpaid energy in the north. The licensing of the 'Elektrosever' is an issue of the regulatory office and they will decide. We will discuss with Brussels not Belgrade the issue of electricity in the north because it is a Kosovo issue.”

Kurti, as leader of the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) was also asked to comment on the local elections results saying that the party is facing internal defects. He said he met last night LVV's all twelve candidates that ran in the second round of mayoral elections. “What is clear by now is that there are structural and organisational defects in our political entity which grew exponentially in the last three-four years. We do not have structures that correspond to the size. There are internal defects. I cannot tell you today all types and the number of these defects. There was a unification of all entities against LVV. There was an opposition panic that led them team up against LVV.”

Kurti appoints new minister of health (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti announced at a press conference today the appointment of the new Minister of Health, Rifat Latifi.

Latifi, who succeeds Arben Vitia to the post, said his work will focus on improving Kosovo's health sector in the long term.

Klan reports that Latifi is a surgeon by occupation and has lived and worked in the United States. 

Konjufca: Serbian List openly blackmailing the Assembly (Klan)

In response to the Kosovo Assembly presidency meeting failing to take place due to lack of quorum, Speaker Glauk Konjufca blamed the Serbian List for the situation.

"The Serbian List is intentionally and continuously boycotting the Presidency of the Assembly of Kosovo. This is unacceptable for us and we do not accept blackmailing, even less so when the Serbian List does it so openly," Konjufca said.

Konjufca said despite the lack of quorum, in coordination with Assembly deputy speakers and heads of parliamentary groups present at the meeting, they decided to schedule the next session of the Assembly for 18 November.

Osmani: Women in Kosovo continue to face challenges (RTK)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said today that women in Kosovo continue to face challenges with discrimination regarding their participation in decision-making processes and that this remains a challenge for all society. Marking the anniversary of the adoption of the UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, Osmani pledged she will support every initiative that aims to empower the role of women in Kosovo. She said next year Kosovo will organise the summit on women, peace and security, with participants from different countries.

“Girls and women are an important axis for creating, nurturing and promoting values of society, including their role in protecting peace and defense policies. Promoting the decision-making power of women in this strategic sector also implies a level of measuring the democracy of our country. I strongly believe that empowering women in decision-making processes involves the further promotion of their role in society. Although a lot of work remains to be done, it is evident that Kosovo has marked progress in including women in decision-making processes,” Osmani said.

State Department comments on Afghans housed at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo (Telegrafi)

The U.S. State Department commented on the Afghan citizens that have been temporarily housed at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, saying that the U.S. authorities are still working on the vetting process.

“As part of the ongoing vetting process for Afghan evacuees, some of those whose cases needed additional processing have been moved to Camp Liya, located at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. Interagency teams there are taking part in work to complete processing for their eventual admission into the United States or for resettlement in a third country,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price at a press conference.

Price added that many of the Afghan evacuees in Kosovo have already departed and/or are in the process of being cleared to depart. He went to thank all the partners, including the Government of Kosovo for allowing the temporary housing of the evacuees. “And we are taking all – undertaking all necessary efforts to ensure a safe and comfortable environment at Camp Bondsteel while that processing is underway.”

COVID-19: Five new cases, no deaths (media)

Five new cases with COVID-19 were confirmed in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. 22 persons recovered from the virus during this time, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. There are 407 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

   

Serbian Language Media

  Covid-19: 78 new cases, one death registered in Serbian areas (KoSSev)

Out of 160 tested samples in the Serb-populated areas in Kosovo 78 tested positive for Covid-19, Crisis Committee of Mitrovica North announced, KoSSev portal reports. At the same time, one person passed away.

The new cases were registered as follows: 20 in Mitrovica North, 17 in Leposavic, ten in Zvecan, eight in Zubin Potok, six in Gnjilane, five in Gracanica, and one each in Kamenica, Pec and Prizren,

Currently there are 561 active cases of Covid-19 in the Serbian areas in Kosovo, while 44 persons have completed two-week isolation period.

A total of 181 persons have died in the Serb-populated areas in Kosovo since the outbreak of the pandemic. 

Dialogue in Brussels to continue in afternoon, Belgrade insists on ZSO (Kosovo-online)

The Belgrade delegation completed around noon today bilateral talks with EU Special Envoy for Belgrade-Pristina talks Miroslav Lajcak, Kosovo-online portal reports.

The talks will continue in the afternoon, however the information about the format of it and whether Belgrade and Pristina representatives will sit at the same table remains unknown yet.

As the portal further said, citing Tanjug news agency, the meeting with Lajcak lasted one hour longer than planned, and the first topic presented by the Belgrade delegation related to the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities (ZSO). At the same time, other topics, including energy, judiciary, missing persons and freedom of movement were also discussed.

“We came here to talk and we are absolutely ready to talk to Pristina. That is why we are here. It is their constructiveness at stake now, and whether there would be direct talks depends upon Pristina exclusively now. We came to Brussels led by an EU call to talk today about the establishment of the Community of the Serb-majority Municipalities, as the EU announced in its statement on September 30”, the Belgrade delegation said.

The portal reported that the Pristina delegation was meeting with the EU mediators, and depending on the outcome of those talks it will be decided whether there will be a trilateral meeting in the afternoon or bilateral meetings shall continue.

Vucic on today’s talks in Brussels, meeting with Putin (RTS)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said today he expects nothing from today’s talks in Brussels, adding that, however, any step ahead was good, RTS reports. He also termed the messages from the EU on implementation of agreements reached so far in Brussels as “reasonable”.

Talking about his upcoming meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, Vucic said that he gets prepared for that meeting every day, following on how the Russians made a deal on gas, adding there would be three topics, all related to the gas, that he will discuss with Putin.

“Considering the bigotry of the Albanian leaders one can expect nothing”, Vucic said regarding the meeting of Belgrade and Pristina chief negotiators in Brussels today. He also said the EU call to implement agreements reached so far “was a good, rational and reasonable message”, noting that however, concrete action was missing.

“This is an important message regarding the establishment of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities”, Vucic said.

Asked to comment on the statements of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti that there must be mutual recognition between Kosovo and Serbia, Vucic said he follows facts, not the acts.

“There is no problem in some legal act, but in the facts that Kurti doesn’t understand. Unlike them, I do not want to constantly take part in attacking Albanians in order to boost support in central Serbia. I have no interest in things like that”, he said.

Talking about his upcoming visit to Moscow, Vucic said he goes there to talk about gas and the price of it, given that its price has increased in Europe. He said in addition to the price, he will discuss with Putin the length of the contract and flexibility.

“To leave aside all other topics that are terribly important, and we will discuss them as well, the price of the gas will be the main topic. Whether you have a price for the gas of USD 350 or USD 950 is not the same. It is not only about people paying for it, and whether life expenses and living standard be higher or lower, it is a matter of attracting investments as well. Whom will you attract with a three times higher price of the gas? Will some consider low prices of gas while deciding on investment?”, Vucic said adding such a decision is also linked with the price of electricity.

Brnabic, Dacic: Serbia a militarily neutral country but seeks cooperation with NATO (Tanjug)

Addressing a Rose-Roth seminar hosted by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Belgrade, Serbian PM Ana Brnabic and Parliament Speaker Ivica Dacic on Monday reiterated Serbia was a militarily neutral country but noted that cooperation with NATO was important for maintaining stability in the region and worldwide, news agency Tanjug reported. 

Serbia does not aspire to membership in NATO but wants to advance its dialogue and partnership with the alliance as part of the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme to maintain security and stability, Brnabic said.

Speaking about regional cooperation and Kosovo-Metohija as a major security topic, she said Kosovo-Metohija occupied a major place in the relations with the alliance, given the presence of the NATO-led KFOR mission there.

She noted that, since the beginning of the year, there had been 115 ethnically motivated incidents targeting Serbs in the province and nine incursions by Pristina's heavily armed police troops into the north of Kosovo-Metohija.

She also spoke of the danger of a transformation of the so-called Kosovo Security Force into an armed force and added that the introduction of compulsory military service by Pristina was an additional cause of concern for Kosovo-Metohija Serbs.

Dacic said military neutrality was Serbia's principled position and that 15 years of cooperation within the PfP were a good indicator of the direction the cooperation with NATO should be heading in.

Dacic said the participation of Serbian troops in eight UN and EU international peacekeeping missions was of a particular value, stemming from the partnership and noted that Serbia was thus making a major contribution to global peace.

He said military neutrality was Serbia's principled position and added that, in addition to being a legal commitment, it reflected the sentiment of a vast majority of Serbians and "the deep feelings of our people about the NATO intervention against our country 22 years ago."

"Just like Serbia has no plans to join the NATO alliance, NATO has no secret plans to make us a member either, as I was told several years ago by a senior NATO official at the time," Dacic said, noting that membership in PfP was the optimal framework for cooperation with NATO.

Stefanovic: KFOR to prevent reckless Pristina’s acts (Tanjug)

Serbian Minister of Defense, Nebojsa Stefanovic said at Rose-Roth NATO Parliamentary Assembly seminar in Belgrade yesterday that Serbia was very pleased with results made through participation in the Partnership for Peace program, given that the country has no aspiration to become a fully-fledged member of the Alliance, Tanjug news agency reports.

Addressing the seminar, attended by numerous MPs from Switzerland, Luxembourg, Norway, Turkey, the region and former Soviet Union, Stefanovic highly assessed the cooperation with KFOR and urged the mission to use all authority it has to timely prevent any reckless, illegal and violent actions of, as he said, so-called security forces of Pristina directed against the Serbs.

“Unfortunately, our region is still the area with specific security challenges and Serbia, with all its capacities is focused to permanently resolve them”, Stefanovic said, adding that he foremost refers to Kosovo and Metohija, where Serbia undertakes enormous efforts both on political and domestic scenes, as it deems to be the only way possible to build compromise, and based on it a lasting peace, stability and better perspective for the both Serbs and Albanians.

He expressed regret that Serbia receives no adequate response from Pristina authorities, whose attitude and decisions often represent a true threat to security.

“Pristina authorities are the only and exclusive factor which keeps the Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija under constant tensions, undertakes actions bypassing all international decisions and agreements, thus jeopardizing wider security situation on a regional level”, Stefanovic said.   

Serbian PM invited to Moscow International Export Forum (N1)

Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko presented to the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic an invitation to attend the International Export Forum in Moscow, N1 reports.

The Forum, which gathers exporters, experts, officials and representatives of development institutions, will be held on December 10, the invitation from Russia Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said. The Ambassador said that Serbia will take part in this year’s event as a partner country. 

Brnabic told Botsan-Kharchenko that Serbia attaches great importance to promoting economic and overall relations with Russia as its important strategic and economic partner.

See at: https://bit.ly/3ouBl89

Lavrov and Selakovic on Kosovo, the Balkans and bilateral relations (Tanjug, RTS)

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Serbia, Sergey Lavrov and Nikola Selakovic talked on the phone on plans for further high-level contacts, the Kosovo solution and the current situation in the Balkans, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia announced, reported RTS.

The statement said that "the two sides exchanged views on the situation in the Balkans, the situation regarding the resolution of the Kosovo issue and current international issues''. It was added that the interlocutors discussed key aspects of bilateral cooperation, reported RTS, citing TASS.  The agency recalled that the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic announced earlier that he planned to raise the issue of the gas price for Serbia at the upcoming meeting with his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin. This meeting was announced for November 25.  After the meeting with Lavrov on October 10, Vucic said that he had asked Putin to provide Serbia with a favorable price for Russian gas, reported RTS. Lawyer Pantovic: Zoran Djokic, an innocent convict (Beta, Danas)

Lawyer Ljubomir Pantovic stated today that Zoran Djokic (49) from Pec was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Pristina without any evidence that he had committed any war crime, reported daily Danas, citing Beta agency

Yesterday, the Court of Appeals in Pristina confirmed the first-instance verdict sentencing Djokic to 12 years in prison for complicity in a war crime committed on March 28 and 29, 1999 in the settlement Kristal in Pec. 

Pantovic told the Beta agency that Djokic was convicted based on false statements of certain witnesses, and that the investigation and trial were conducted outside the law.

"All the evidence presented clearly showed that Djokic was not guilty," the lawyer said.

He added that he would submit a request to the Supreme Court of Kosovo for protection of legality and emphasized that "there is no justice for Serbs in the Kosovo judiciary".

"The outcome of all trials against Serbs accused of war crimes is known in advance. Kosovo politicians point out daily that genocide was committed against Albanians in 1999, thus putting pressure on judges to impose draconian punishments even without evidence. Politicians who refer to genocide need as many convicted Serbs as possible," the lawyer pointed out.

Pantovic says that the trial of Djokic was not fair and that the verdict was not based on evidence, and that the prosecution and the court selectively have chosen witnesses.

"Out of 17 examined witnesses, the court selected only eight whose statements corresponded to the prosecution. The court, contrary to the law, did not allow nine witnesses, whose statements were neutral or in favor of Djokic, to be heard at the main trial," the lawyer said.

He emphasized that no war crimes trial has been fair since UNMIK and EULEX judges left Kosovo and local judges and prosecutors took over the judiciary.

"A key prosecution witness said that Zoran Djokic was not a participant in the crime for which he was convicted. However, when the prosecutor and the lawyers of the injured parties saw that the indictment against Djokic was unfounded, they subsequently engaged new witnesses during the main trial, which was illegal," Pantovic said.

He added that Djokic was convicted based on false statements by two new witnesses.

"These witnesses have never reported to anyone in these 22 years that they are victims of war crimes, which is absurd. They openly lied in court against Zoran Djokic, claiming that they were victims of a crime allegedly committed by my client. None of the prosecution witnesses saw Djokic in uniform or with a weapon," Pantovic said.

Djokic has been in the Podujevo prison for almost three years, recalled Danas.

   

Opinion

  Only room for progress on the missing persons in the Brussels talks today (Danas)

Milica Andric Rakic, from the New Social Initiative from Kosovska Mitrovica, told Danas daily that, having in mind the very opposite expectations of the agenda of the today's talk in Brussels, i.e. Kosovo, expecting talks primarily on energy, and Serbia on the Community of Serbian Municipalities, she would not be surprised that separate meetings of Petar Petkovic and Besnik Bislimi with Miroslav Lajcak to be held. 

In the case of a trilateral meeting, she expects only progress in relation to the topic of missing persons, but added that this chapter, according to Lajcak himself, was already closed in earlier rounds with Hoti's government. 

According to Andric Rakic, Pristina's resistance towards the Community is growing and as long as that is the case, it will not be possible to open new topics within the dialogue, which means that Lajcak will be able to deal only with the part of his mandate related to implementation of already agreed, but not with draft of the comprehensive agreement on normalization.

- More concrete outcomes can be at a lower level, at a meeting of working groups for a new agreement on freedom of movement. I believe, however, that the public will still not be informed about the details if there is any progress on that issue - Andric Rakic believes. 

Darko Dimitrijevic, editor-in-chief of Radio Gorazdevac, says that his opinion is that many of the agreements remained only on paper and that during the entire Brussels dialogue, more attention was paid to political than practical issues in the process. 

''On the one hand, I think that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic cares about resolving the Kosovo issue, but in return seeks the Community of Serb Municipalities or the separation of northern Kosovo. On the other hand, we have Kurti who not only gives nothing but denies the Serbian community the opportunity to enjoy the rights guaranteed to them by law and does everything to make those laws lose their significance".

- There are a lot of mistakes on both sides and we get the impression that politicians treat citizens like small children, where "they know what is best for us", without the possibility that we ourselves say what we think about an idea. The arrival of Albin Kurti to power brought new confusion in the dialogue itself, but also in the Kosovo society itself. Kurti and his government do not even want to listen, let alone adopt any proposal that is not part of their political rhetoric. From that, one can clearly conclude the meaninglessness of all their appearances and political activities in which, for example, when it comes to the decision of the Constitutional Court on land return, it has no value, while the decision of the same court on the Community of Serbian Municipalities, has political value - Dimitrijevic points out.

In his opinion, Kurti's government has diminished the importance and value of all communities in Kosovo, diminishing the importance of respecting the laws and rights that are guaranteed to these minorities, especially when it comes to Serbs.

- In that sense, all laws that guarantee the rights of the Serbian community are less and less respected and less and less importance is given to them. That is why I can freely say that Kurti's government does not have a single interlocutor among Kosovo Serbs, because he does not view them as citizens who have Kosovo documents, which I guess guarantee them something, let alone as equals with the Albanian community. In that sense, I do not expect any progress in the dialogue as long as we have a government in Kosovo that does not treat all citizens equally - says Dimitrijevic.

Danas daily recalls that the Belgrade and Pristina negotiators, Petar Petkovic and Besnik Beslimi, are meeting today in Brussels, in order to discuss the implementation of previous agreements and open issues. The last meeting between Belgrade and Pristina negotiators took place in late September, following tensions in Kosovo over a decision by Pristina authorities to apply reciprocity to license plates.

   

International 

  NATO Deputy Secretary General highlights 15 years of NATO-Serbia partnership (nato.int)

On 15 November 2021, NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană spoke virtually at the 2021 edition of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Rose-Roth Seminar in Belgrade.

“We are here today to mark a very special milestone, 15 years of Serbia’s participation in NATO’s Partnership for Peace Programme,” the NATO Deputy Secretary General said. “Serbia’s long-standing partnership with NATO is good for the people of Serbia; it is good for the stability of the region; and it is also good for the wider transatlantic security; so this partnership matters to us all,” he pointed out.

“NATO has been committed to peace and stability in the Western Balkans for decades; this requires our continued collective effort. We all have a role to play in this. As our NATO leaders restated at the June Summit of 2021, they reconfirmed the commitment of our Alliance to this region; and this commitment is stronger than ever today,” he also said.

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