Albanian Language Media:

• Kosovo commemorates anniversary of NATO airstrikes (media)
• Clark: Honour of a lifetime to help in stopping ethnic cleansing (media)
• Gervalla: We need NATO, Russia through Serbia trying to destabilise Balkans (Zeri)
• Kosovo declares day of mourning to honour former U.S. secretary of state, Madeleine Albright (media)
• COVID-19: 34 new cases, no deaths (media)

Serbian Language Media:

• Serbia marks 23rd anniversary of NATO bombing (Beta, N1)
• 23rd anniversary of NATO bombing in northern Mitrovica and Gracanica marked (KiM radio, Kontakt plus radio)
• Vucic: “No excuse for NATO aggression” (Tanjug, Kosovo-online)
• REC expects information from authorities regarding possibility to vote in Kosovo (KoSSev)
• Serbian opposition on elections in Kosovo (media)
• Dusko Arsic: “I ended up in prison because of my own land” (Radio KIM)
• Vucic: Serbia will never recognize Kosovo (N1)
• Ambassador of Norway: Kosovo should ensure full civic and political rights of its people (Kosovo-online)
• All the "threats" of the Serbian List on leaving Kosovo institutions (RFE)

Opinion:

• Rada Trajkovic: Kurti wants to expel the guaranteed rights of Serbs outside Kosovo, leaving the institutions is a message (JUGpress, FoNet, Danas)

International:

• Western Diplomats Criticise Kosovo for Not Allowing Serbian Vote (Balkan Insight)
• Kosovo Mourns US Envoy and ‘Friend’ Madeleine Albright (Balkan Insight)

Humanitarian/Development:

• War in Ukraine to slow down Kosovo's economic growth (RFE)
• Germany confirms 60 million euro investment for solar energy in Kosovo (Telegrafi)

     

Albanian Language Media  

  Kosovo commemorates anniversary of NATO airstrikes (media)

Kosovo leaders are commemorating the 23rd anniversary of NATO airstrikes on Serbia's targets.

President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani said that 23 years ago, "NATO intervened to stop the ongoing genocide committed against the people of Kosovo." "We remain eternally grateful to our allies for supporting our path towards freedom and democracy," Osmani said in her message on the occasion. She noted that now more than ever, "the democratic world must remember this success story."

Prime Minister Albin Kurti told reporters today as he, alongside Assembly Speaker Glauk Konjufca, lay flowers on the memorial of Madeleine Albright who passed away yesterday, that "NATO's intervention to stop the genocide in Kosovo through bombings against Milosevic's Yugoslavia and Serbia undoubtedly bears the mark of Mrs. Albright and for this we will forever be thankful and grateful." At the session of the Kosovo Assembly Kurti said that NATO is still needed in Kosovo and that it is time for Kosovo to join it.

Leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Memli Krasniqi said as he lay a wreath of flowers at the memorial for the two fallen U.S. army pilots in Prizren that 23 years ago NATO "launched airstrikes against Serbia and Yugoslavia to end the invading and genocidal regime of Slobodan Milosevic." "The righteous war of the people of Kosovo, led by the KLA, in alliance with NATO, forced Sebia to surrender and made it possible for Kosovo to win freedom - be independent today and aspire to become part of the North Atlantic Alliance," he said.

Leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Lumir Abdixhiku said 24 March 1999 marked a new momentum for Kosovo in its struggle for freedom. "This is a day of celebration for us and the present and future generations have to observe it as such. Today, 23 years after NATO's intervention, Kosovo is an independent and sovereign country. Today Kosovo has an army which aspires to be just like those of NATO members," he said.

Clark: Honour of a lifetime to help in stopping ethnic cleansing (media)

Former NATO Commander, General Wesley Clark, delivered a video address congratulating the people and the Government of Kosovo on the 23rd anniversary of NATO intervention. "On this day in 1999, the first NATO air missions went in over Kosovo and it has changed the history of Kosovo, it's changed the history of Europe. It's given hope and light around the world," he said.

Clark said it was the honour of his lifetime to have been able to help in stopping the ethnic cleansing. "I am especially very proud for all of you in Kosovo for the democratisation that you've run, for the arduous economic development you've undertaken and especially I am grateful for the tremendous friendship you have shown for the United States of America." 

He added that while the whole focus of the world is today in Ukraine, "I am working hard to make sure we keep our focus on Kosovo."

Gervalla: We need NATO, Russia through Serbia trying to destabilise Balkans (Zeri)

Kosovo's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Donika Gervalla, told the Austrian paper Wiener Zeitung that a quicker membership path to the European Union should be offered to the Western Balkans countries. 

"In Europe nothing will be the same as it was before 24 February," she said, adding: "Since taking on the post, I have tried to make it clear to my international partners that we need to pay special attention to the Balkans. We don't have the situation we had a while ago when things seemed to be going well in the Western Balkans. In recent years, the rhetoric in Serbia has become very aggressive towards Kosovo and demands have increased."

Gervalla said that in present circumstances the five EU countries need to recognise Kosovo and Kosovo should get closer to NATO and become a member of the Council of Europe. "This is precisely what we need support for."

She argued that Serbia "needs to pay a price for supporting Russia and not clearly getting on the side of the EU, U.S., UK, and others." Gervalla further accused Russia of wanting to destabilise the region by using Serbia to this end. 

Kosovo declares day of mourning to honour former U.S. secretary of state, Madeleine Albright (media)

President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani has declared 25 March 2022 a day of mourning in honour of Madeleine Albright, the former U.S. secretary of state.

"Mrs. Albright recognized the pain of our people because she herself had experienced persecution in childhood, therefore she stood determined against Milosevic until his genocide in Kosovo was stopped," Osmani said in her decree. Osmani said Albright supported Kosovo until her last breath, "therefore the people of Kosovo will remember her forever", Osmani said. 

COVID-19: 34 new cases, no deaths (media)

34 new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Kosovo in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today. 18 persons recovered during this time. There are 666 active cases of COVID-19 in Kosovo.

     

Serbian Language Media

  Serbia marks 23rd anniversary of NATO bombing (Beta, N1)

On March 24, 23 years ago, the 11-week NATO began bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) over Belgrade policy in the then Serbia's province of Kosovo, which sought independence.

According to unofficial sources, about 2,500 civilians and about 1,000 soldiers and police officers were killed. Infrastructure, businesses, health facilities, media houses and military facilities were severely damaged in the 78-day bombing.

The central commemoration of the “Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the NATO Aggression” will be held in the central town of Kraljevo.

The FRY Government and many legal experts described the bombing as illegal aggression because it was not approved by the UN Security Council but by the General Assembly.

It followed unsuccessful negotiations held at Rambouillet, France, on resolving the Kosovo crisis, during which Pristina accepted the conditions while Belgrade rejected them.

The bombing ended on June 10, with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, followed by the withdrawal of the Belgrade army and police from Kosovo and the arrival of the NATO-led international military troops and the European legal mission.

UNHCR has said that 230,000 Serbs and Roma left Kosovo since the arrival of peacekeepers while 800,000 Albanian refugees have returned.

See at: https://bit.ly/3iwcbTR 23rd anniversary of NATO bombing in northern Mitrovica and Gracanica marked (KiM radio, Kontakt plus radio)

By commemorating, laying flowers and paying tribute to the victims, the twenty-third anniversary of the beginning of the NATO bombing was marked in Gracanica and North Mitrovica, the media report.

The celebration was attended by municipal officials, institutions, as well as citizens.

In Mitrovica North, symbolically, at 12.44, wreaths were laid at the "Monument of Truth" near the main Ibar bridge.

The president of ''SUBNOR Kosovska Mitrovica'', Slobodan Bogicevic, reminded that the bombing of the FRY lasted 78 days and assessed that ‘’it was a brutal and shameful aggression of NATO countries", and that it should not be forgotten.

The "Monument of Truth" near the Ibar bridge in Mitrovica North is dedicated to those killed in the NATO bombing and the victims of the KLA.

In Gracanica, commemoration took place in front of the cross in the yard of the Gracanica Cultural Center.

"The first bombs greeted with disbelief"

"The risk for journalists was very high, we had a case when a column of journalists was attacked near Strpce, where one person lost his life. While reporting we did not know where the bullet was waiting for us, the bomb, the rocket," RTS correspondent Andrija Igic told RTV Kim. 

He added that few believed, even reporters from the field, that there would be an attack.

"We welcomed with disbelief the first bombs that fell on Slatina Airport. Because we thought there was no need to move towards that radical solution,’’ said Igic among other things. 

Journalist and writer Zivojin Rakocevic says that the first bomb dropped in 1999 ment that the world order fell apart.

"Then we realized that international law no longer exists, but many lives are gone; our lives do not exist as they were, and since the fall of the first bomb, acctualy there is no elementary sense of security that something has been determined, that something is important, that borders can be preserved, that life can be preserved and that values can be preserved,'' said Rakocevic.

''Now, 23 years after the bombing, interethnic relations have continued to deteriorate. An even bigger gap has been created between Serbs and Albanians,’’ said Igic and added that people in Kosovo live with the feeling that someone has been damaged and someone has been rewarded, KiM radio reported.

Vucic: “No excuse for NATO aggression” (Tanjug, Kosovo-online, RTS)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said late on Wednesday “there was no excuse for the 1999 NATO aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and that the military alliance was to blame for the attack”, but added that he would have acted differently had he been in the shoes of then Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Tanjug news agency reports.

"I would have ended that after a few days, even with my own resignation or whatever. Seventy-eight days of torture is too long for a country that had no chance of defending itself and was waiting for someone else to help us - and we knew no one would help us", Vucic noted in an interview for the RTV.

Russia also voted for sanctions against Serbia and we should have known they would withdraw from Kosovo and Metohija, Vucic said, adding that Russia had been weak under then President Boris Yeltsin.

Tanjug news agency noted that “today marks the 23rd anniversary of the NATO aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which began on March 24, 1999, and lasted for 78 days”, adding that in a precedent, the order for the start of the bombing was issued to US General Wesley Clark, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe at the time, by then NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana without approval by the UN Security Council.

During the 78-day long bombing campaing RTS recalled that in addition to military targets, infrastructural and civilian objects were also damaged or destroyed, including 25.000 residential objects, 470 kilometres of roads and 595 kilometres of rail-tracks, 44 bridges, 14 airports including five civilian airports, 19 hospitals, 20 health houses, 18 kindergartens, 69 schools and 176 historical and archeological sites. Also two oil rafineries were bombed, one in Pancevo and the other in Novi Sad, as well as number of factories. NATO also used so-called graphite bombs to incapacitate electro-energy system, RTS said. 

Assistant mayor of Belgrade, Andreja Mladenovic laid the wreath at Monument “Why” dedicated to 16 media workers of the public broadcaster RTS killed in a NATO airstrike, as well as at the Monument “We were just children” dedicated to two-year old Milica Rakic and 78 other children killed during NATO bombing.  Among those present were Assistant Minister for Labour, Veterans and Social Affairs, Zoran Milosevic, representatives of the Ministry of Defence, City of Belgrade, and Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Serbia, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko. 

Tanjug news agency reported that memorial services were held at Serbian Orthodox Church temples in Republika Srpska (one of the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina) for the victims of NATO bombing. 

Chinese Ambassador to Serbia, Chen Bo wrote on Twitter regarding NATO bombing of the-then Yugoslavia “that aggressor never felt ashamed because of his deeds”. She added that “instead of extending an apology, the aggressor ruthlessly meddles into internal affairs of other states, endangers their state security and sovereignty”.

Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was also struck in the NATO bombing of Serbian capital, leaving three Chinese journalists dead and several other people wounded. 

REC expects information from authorities regarding possibility to vote in Kosovo (KoSSev)

President of the Serbian Republic Election Commission (REC) Vladimir Dimitrijevic said this body expects information from respective authorities on the possibility to vote at upcoming Serbian elections in Kosovo and Metohija, KoSSev portal reports.

Dimitrijevic told the REC session that everything relating to the voting in Kosovo, respectively that elections will not be organised in Kosovo, REC members learnt from the media.

“We have information that during the course of a day tomorrow we will receive official information from respective state authorities concerning the possibility to vote in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, and what the current situation is like”, Dimitrijevic said yesterday.

He added REC will undertake all necessary measures in line with recommendations of respective authorities.

Serbian opposition on elections in Kosovo (media)

Secretary General of the People’s Party (NS) headed by Vuk Jeremic, Stefan Jovanovic and a candidate at opposition “United for Victory of Serbia” list said yesterday “President Aleksandar Vucic was the first Serbian leader who didn’t organise Serbian elections in Kosovo and Metohija since the Balkan wars (1912 and 1912)”, KoSSev portal reports.

“So much about Kosovo policy of Vucic and SNS (Serbian Progressive Party) that they will not give Kosovo. It is clear how unprofessional and in a wrong manner they pursued the policy regarding Kosovo and Metohija and now we see devastating consequences on people”, Jovanovic told Nova S TV.

“For the first time our people in Kosovo and Metohija will not be able to use their right to vote in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija and elect members of the Assembly of Serbia and President of Serbia (…)”, Jovanovic said.

Opposition “United for Victory of Serbia” presidential candidate Zdravko Ponos commenting on National Security Council session said it “was a photo opportunity” because as he said it was impossible to imagine how the Army Headquarters Chief of Staff, director of the Security Informative Agency and others will resolve decision of Pristina not to allow Serbs to vote in Kosovo and Metohija.

He added current authorities by signing the (Brussels) agreement with Kosovo lead to the fact that Serbs may vote in Chicago, Washington, Milano or Banja Luka, but can’t do so on the territory of their own state.

He also said he, as a president, would never sign recognition of Kosovo. Ponos stressed that for him, Kosovo “is a part of our identity, and for them a matter of (election) campaign”.

The Dveri Movement said that “Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurit agreed not to organise presidential and parliamentary elections in Kosovo and Metohija, so as to enable Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) a massive theft of votes”, Danas daily reported.

Dveri Vice President Ivan Kostic in a written statement said the Belgrade authorities as it was the case with recently organised referendum on constitutional amendments “will organise voting in four municipalities outside of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija – Raska, Novi Pazar, Vranje and Kursumlija, where most of the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija will not be able to come”.

He also alleged that authorities will then stage “a vote theft”, by as he said, “putting dozens of thousands of ballots” in support of SNS and Vucic. 

Dusko Arsic: “I ended up in prison because of my own land” (Radio KIM)

A Court proceeding on usurpation of Dusko Arsic’s property and properties of his father and uncle continues today at the Basic Court in Pristina, Radio KIM reports. The case involves the property of about 132.7 square metres in the village of Maticane near Pristina. Defendants in this case are I.M., A.V., and N.M.

Responding to the prosecutor's questions, Arsic said he ended up in prison because of his property that was illegally sold. “I ended up in prison because of my own land”, Arsic said.

He added that his late father Bozidar and uncle Tomislav gave no authorization to anyone to sell the property, and that he learned about fraudulent documentation back in 2012. Criminal report on forgery of the documentation was filed in 2014.

Arsic also said that a falsified signature of his father was on the purchase-selling agreement, adding his father never used Latin alphabet for signatures (Cyrillic alphabet is commonly used), and that person on a photo of a document, part of the case, was not his father.

Arsic said that in September last year he filed a lawsuit to confirm invalidity of that agreement, and only three days after that a criminal report for alleged war crimes was filed against him.

He was arrested at Jarinje crossing point in December last year in presence of his two underage children, and remains in detention ever since then. Radio KIM recalled that although these are two separate proceedings, Arsic believes he is in jail because of the property.  

Vucic: Serbia will never recognize Kosovo (N1)

President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday that Serbia would never recognize Kosovo despite having made all kinds of compromises.

Vucic accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of abusing the Serbs, telling them they have no place in Kosovo and trying to destroy the unity of the Serbian people. “Serbian unity is not easily destroyed”, he told the state Radio TV Vojvodina (RTV).

Speaking about the April 3 elections, Vucic said that the only option to organise the vote in Kosovo is by force which would lead the authorities in Pristina to deploy their special police forces. “Is it worth it?,” he said.

Vucic said that some politicians have been making irresponsible statements. “Elections are not a game and the state is not a toy,” he said, adding that he never spoke about any of his opponents unless he was asked about them. “My answers were mild,” he added.

Ambassador of Norway: Kosovo should ensure full civic and political rights of its people (Kosovo-online)

Norwegian Ambassador to Serbia, Jorn Eugen Gjelstad said “it was important that the Kosovo Government takes necessary measures to ensure full civil and political rights of all its citizens, including minority groups, in connection with the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Serbia”, Kosovo-online portal reports. 

He added that “the Embassy is strongly supporting the joint statement by the U.S, France, Italy, Germany, and UK, regarding the need to find a pragmatic solution to allow eligible Kosovo citizens to exercise their right to participate in Serbia’s elections on April 3”. 

All the "threats" of the Serbian List on leaving Kosovo institutions (RFE)

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic once again "prevented" the representatives of Serbs from Kosovo from leaving Kosovo's institutions. This time, the reason for it, is the "terror they are going through" and because official Pristina does not allow voting in the Serbian parliamentary and presidential elections on April 3, wrote Radio Free Europe.

Vucic met Serb representatives in Belgrade on 22 March, who "not only unanimously asked him to leave the institutions immediately, but also that 435 police officers in the north leave their weapons and leave the regional police".

However, he asked them for "patience, tolerance and to count to ten", wrote RFE.

RFE recalled that this is not the first time that the Serbian List has announced that it would withdraw from Kosovo institutions and cited all similar examples in recent years. 

Political analyst from Pristina Artan Muhaxhiri opined that the Serbian List never makes decisions independently, that it lacks autonomy and subjectivity even though it has "constitutional power in establishing the government of Kosovo". 

“As such, it is not able to make important decisions. It is part of a specific network of mutual conditioning and pressure in a triangle between Kosovo, Serbia and the international community,” Muhaxhiri told RFE.

He emphasized that Serbs would leave Kosovo institutions only when Aleksandar Vucic asks for it, which now is not in his interest.

Muhaxhiri didn’t rule out the possibility of destabilization in Kosovo, but, in his view, it depends exclusively on the interests of Serbian President Vucic, because “only he has the power to create a tense situation with direct instructions”.

“Because of the situation in Ukraine, it is not a good time to do something like that. Serbian representatives were able to freeze their functions as a protest, but that was also a short-term option,” Muhaxhiri said.

Dusan Radakovic, director of the NGO Advocacy Centre for the Democratic Culture (North Mitrovica), said that relations between Serbs and the Kosovo government had never been worse, adding that the situation was “getting worse and worse”.

Radakovic said that the PM Kurti is only distancing Kosovo’s institutions from the Serbs, but still considers the request of the Serbian List to withdraw from the institutions as “reckless”.

He also noted that with such events, Kosovo and Serbia are only moving away from the negotiating table and the dialogue on the normalization of relations between the two sides.

“Some agreements were about to be signed, I primarily refer to the agreement on electricity in the north, about Valac and so on. This is just, not a minor setback, but five steps back. As I said, the decisions of the Government of Kosovo destabilize (the situation), the situation between the Serb community and the Government of Kosovo has never been worse,” Radakovic said.

He also opined that the Serbian elections should not be banned in Kosovo because it “represents a violation of human rights”, RFE wrote.

   

Opinion

  Rada Trajkovic: Kurti wants to expel the guaranteed rights of Serbs outside Kosovo, leaving the institutions is a message (JUGpress, FoNet, Danas)

Unfortunately, this is another aggressive, destabilising, and anti-European move of Kurti's government aimed at administrative expulsion of Serbian citizens from Kosovo, Serbian politician from Kosovo and Metohija Rada Trajkovic told the Regional Information Agency JUGpress when asked to comment on the fact that Serbs will not be able to vote in Kosovo again.

"Kurti's effort - which, unfortunately, is not much opposed by the Serbian authorities - is to force the Serb community in Kosovo to enjoy its Ahtisaari-guaranteed right to participate in Serbian elections only outside Kosovo. He wants to set a precedent according to which Serbs will accept the practice of going to the polls in municipalities located in the border zone around Kosovo, that is, to expel their Kosovo Constitution-guaranteed rights outside the territory of Kosovo", Trajkovic told JUGpress.

She believes that "Serbs must not allow this precedent to be set because it would have far-reaching consequences for our status in Kosovo".

"Aleksandar Vucic's proposal to vote in the border zone and to bring voters from Kosovo by organised buses must also not be accepted by either Kosovo Serbs or the Serbian opposition, because we know very well whose supporters would have seats in those buses, not to mention how many people in Kosovo have their daily responsibilities and who would go to the polls in their communities but who, for practical reasons, cannot spend extra time travelling to the polls for hours. Such elections would be neither democratic nor legitimate," Trajkovic believes. 

"I am also of the opinion that Kosovo Serbs should leave the Government of Kosovo at this time, but not local institutions such as local self-government, judiciary and police, which are vital for our community," she added.

Trajkovic believes that the departure of Serbs from the Government of Kosovo would send a strong signal, would endanger Kurti's government, and cause a crisis of institutional legitimacy.

"Unfortunately, the problem of Serbs in Kosovo is that there is blackmail at the local level. These days, we are witnessing arrests for corruption of people close to the Serbian List, which is worrying, because these people are currently more concerned about their future than the interests of the Serbian community and the defense of our right to vote in Serbian elections. As such, our local representatives are far less ready to give clear resistance to Kurti's initiatives," said Trajkovic.

Asked how it is possible for Kurti to reject the Quint countries and how sincere they were in demanding that Serbs vote in Kosovo on April 3, she said that she "believes they were sincere".

"Unfortunately, I have the impression that Kurti and Vucic initially tried to agree on the elections directly, without the mediation of the international community, but they failed. They went into those negotiations so deeply that Vucic lowered the level of the Serbian position even to the option of liaison officers - not the OSCE - being the ones responsible for organizing the elections. Unfortunately, this approach turned out to be counterproductive," she said.

Asked how the war in Ukraine could affect the situation with Kosovo, Trajkovic said that "Putin persistently mentions Kosovo as an example he follows in his aggression against Ukraine".

"He is therefore inspired by the Greater Albania project, which is obviously being implemented in the Balkans, and whose prevention is not being worked on much - if we do not count the sporadic condemnations of some diplomats. If Europe tolerates some privileged 'big' nationalisms on its territory, and allows them to succeed, Putin will try to destabilize the region and use the precedents that are set here for his sinister intentions," Trajkovic underlined.

Asked why Serbs do not demand that the Law on Local Self-Government of Kosovo be complied with and create a Community of Serb-majority municipalities already provided for in that law, instead of insisting on the Brussels Agreement, Trajkovic said that "this is simply not a topic for Kurti, who threatens our community in an existential sense”.

"It is now clear to the international community that Kurti is working on the administrative expulsion and disenfranchisement of Serbs in Kosovo. If he succeeds in that goal, it is logical to expect a phase of physical and ethnic cleansing of our community, especially in the zones below the Ibar, which 'spoil' ethnic compactness," warns Trajkovic.

She adds that "Kurti is simply working on the Greater Albania project and will not give up on that project easily".

"Therefore, it is really cynical when Kurti - who is ideologically far closer to ethnonationalist Putin than to a civic leader like Zelensky - is trying to use Russian aggression against Ukraine to gain political points and aggressive PR to his advantage in the international arena," Rada Trajkovic said.

     

International 

  Western Diplomats Criticise Kosovo for Not Allowing Serbian Vote (Balkan Insight)

Embassies of five Western countries said that Pristina is failing to uphold the rights of an ethnic minority group by refusing to allow Serbs to vote in Kosovo in the upcoming Serbian elections.

The government of Kosovo “failed to demonstrate its commitment to the principle of protecting the civil and political rights of all its citizens, including members of minority groups” by not allowing polling stations to be organised for Serbs to vote in the April 3 Serbian elections, the embassies of five Western countries said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The French, German, Italian, British and United States embassies in Pristina and Belgrade said in their statement that they have “intensely engaged with the governments of Kosovo and Serbia in the past months in order to find a pragmatic solution to allow eligible Kosovo citizens to exercise their right to participate in Serbia’s elections on April 3, 2022”.

Serbs from Kosovo with voting rights in Serbia have previously voted in municipalities in which they live, with the OSCE dealing with the logistical process.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3umESs1 Kosovo Mourns US Envoy and ‘Friend’ Madeleine Albright (Balkan Insight)

Kosovo's leaders expressed sorrow after the death of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who they see as a hero for helping to drive out Serbian forces during the 1999 war.

As the news of the death of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright broke on Wednesday evening, many Kosovo Albanians took to social media to commemorate the diplomat who is considered one of Kosovo’s greatest friends for her role during the 1998-99 conflict which saw the end of Yugoslav rule over the territory.

Read more at:https://bit.ly/3uo8u8u      

Humanitarian/Development

  War in Ukraine to slow down Kosovo's economic growth (RFE)

Increase of inflation and decrease of living standard will be some of the consequences Kosovo will experience from the Ukraine war, said University of Pristina economy professor Berim Ramosaj.

"Countries with a negative trade report, which is the case with Kosovo, will no doubt experience more serious consequences of world economic and regional developments," he said.

According to Kosovo's Central Bank projections, Kosovo's economy will shrink because of the Ukraine war. The KCB projects that the economic growth this year will drop by 3.3 percent, compared to 10.5 percent of last year. "The war in Ukraine has increased the risks for the economic forecast. The impact of this crisis is expected to be reflected in further potential increases in energy, oil and food prices, with negative effects on consumer confidence and purchasing power," BCK said in a report. 

At the same time, Isa Tahiri, economics professor in the University of Mitrovica, said the recent developments will also affect Kosovo's supply of iron and steel used in construction. This can in turn lead to higher unemployment, he warned.

Germany confirms 60 million euro investment for solar energy in Kosovo (Telegrafi)

German ambassador to Kosovo, Jorn Rohde, announced that his country would be investing 60.6 million euro for solar energy in Kosovo. 

On Twitter, Rohde said the investment will focus on innovative solar district heating and photovoltaics and is a step in support of global energy transition.