Headlines - 20.09.2013 Roads in the north deadly even for EU officials (Koha Ditore) The paper reports on the front page that the armed attack against EULEX in the northern part of Kosovo on Thursday morning left one customs official dead and two others injured. The attack happened four months after customs officer started using land routes to travel to the border crossing points in the north. Before they were transported there by helicopter. Meanwhile, representatives of the U.S., the European Union, Kosovo and Serbia said this attack won’t stop the implementation of the agreement for the normalization of relations between Pristina and Belgrade. The attack showed that roads in the northern part of Kosovo have become deadly even for EU officials. The armed attack, which resulted in the killing of a Lithuanian member of EULEX, was seen as an effort to damage the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade and the destabilization of northern Kosovo. They are committed not allow this to happen. Customs officials started using land routes on June 20 this year and it was seen as a big success by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton who said that it was a result of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia in Brussels. However, Thursday’s armed attack showed that the routes in northern Kosovo are dangerous not only for Kosovo customs officials but for EULEX staff too. MPs don’t adopt privatization of PTK (Zëri) The paper reports in one of the front-page stories that the ruling coalition has failed to secure the necessary votes in parliament for the privatization of 75 percent of shares of the Kosovo Post and Telecom (PTK). This marks the first time that the three opposition parties joined forces and proved that Prime Minister Thaçi’s government does not have the majority in parliament and therefore calls were made for the government to resign. The biggest surprise came from AAK MPs who abandoned the parliament hall together with LDK and Vetëvendosje MPs. The AAK is known to have supported the government’s decisions lately. “We are against this privatization because we are confident that it does not match the interest of the people. This is why we are trying to prevent the decision for selling 75 percent of PTK shares,” a senior LDK official told the paper. Hoxhaj: Kosovo to get three more recognitions soon (Zëri) Kosovo’s Foreign Affairs Minister Enver Hoxhaj said on Thursday in Pristina that Kosovo would soon get three more recognitions. “The recognitions will come from Latin America, Africa and Asia,” Hoxhaj told reporters after a farewell meeting with outgoing Italian ambassador Michael Giffoni. Hoxhaj said the three new recognitions will prove that this process is irreversible and that Kosovo officials will use the upcoming session of the United Nations General Assembly to step up the process. Gaultieri, head of EU monitoring mission for elections (dailies) Several dailies report that Roberto Gaultieri has been appointed as the head of the EU monitoring mission for the November local elections in Kosovo. The news was announced by the office of EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Catherine Ashton. “The EU monitoring mission is aimed at supporting Kosovo in fulfilling an honest and comprehensive election process, while the November 3 elections are a crucial element of the April agreement. The decision to delegate such a mission was made after a research mission confirmed that all participants involved in the process would welcome the EU monitoring mission. I believe that that under the leadership of Roberto Gaultieri, the monitoring mission will achieve its aim,” Ashton was quoted as saying. Campaign against elections in the north (Lajm) The so-called Provisional Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, established by Serb representatives in the north in the beginning of July of this year, has already started the campaign against the local elections of November in Kosovo. This was confirmed by the leader of Serbs in the north, Marko Jaksic, who stated for Radio Free Europe that this so-called assembly has decided to establish headquarters against elections and their boycott. “The campaign against elections has started seven days ago, by putting billboards. The campaign is led by the Provisional Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija and it is financed by the citizens who live in Kosovo,” said Jaksic. He added that except for the billboards they are also discussing with population and explaining what does participation in these elections mean. OSCE confirms 40 thousand Serb applications (Koha Ditore) The number of the applications of Serb voters outside of Kosovo is increasing continuously. Officials from the OSCE mission in Kosovo told this daily that they have already submitted five thousand applications to the Central Election Commission and stated that they expect another 35 thousand, however CEC officials, even only two days before the official deadline for registration of these voters, were not able to give the figures of the received applications. Members of CEC have raised suspicions regarding a bigger number of Serb applications and inability to verify them during this short time. CEC will have to verify all these applications submitted in the last day, by 24 September, which is the due date of objections and confirmation on voters lists.