• COVID – 19: 287 new cases, six deaths (media)
• Police arrest doctors in the north in relation with COVID – 19 vaccines (media)
• Osmani to compete in elections alongside Vetevendosje (Prishtina Insight)
• Kurti: Change will happen on February 14 (Klan Kosova)
• Kurti turns down Hoxhaj’s call for debate (media)
• Hoxhaj reacts after Kurti turns down debate call (media)
• Ismaili: Kurti always wanted KLA leaders to be in the Hague (media)
• Tahiri: The wealth that must be confiscated is outside Kosovo (Kallxo)
• Kosovo massacre anniversary brings memories of missing mother (Balkan Insight)

COVID – 19: 287 new cases, six deaths (media)

287 new cases of COVID – 19 and six deaths from the virus were recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. 466 persons recovered from the virus during this time. There are 5,895 active cases of COVID – 19 in Kosovo.

Police arrest doctors in the north in relation with COVID – 19 vaccines (media)

Several news websites reported on Thursday that Kosovo Police arrested several doctors in the four northern municipalities under the suspicion that they have treated patients with COVID – 19 vaccines that have illegally entered Kosovo’s territory from Serbia. Citing unnamed sources, Kosovapress reported that the doctors were arrested following an order from the Special Prosecution of Kosovo and were interviewed in the police station in Mitrovica North.

Osmani to compete in elections alongside Vetevendosje (Prishtina Insight)

Acting President Vjosa Osmani has announced that she will compete in the elections as part of the electoral list of Vetevendosje and will seek to be elected as Kosovo president by the incoming Assembly.

In a joint press conference on Thursday, Acting Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani and Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti announced their cooperation at the upcoming parliamentary elections on February 14.

Osmani stated that an agreement had been reached that “goes beyond” her appearance in Vetevendosje’s electoral list. “For two decades our country has been led with the wrong mindset, to change this we are competing together with a list which speaks as you speak.”

The acting president added that this future can be made possible through a government led by Kurti as prime minister, and indicated that she will seek election as president.

“We will compete for Mr. Kurti as Prime Minister and the re-legitimisation of the presidency,” she said. “I will be the person who seeks to restore this legitimacy. The president represents the unity of the people and this unity is best secured if we return to the people.”

As the current Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly, Osmani has been serving as acting president since November, following former president Hashim Thaci’s resignation.

Kurti stated that he was delighted to announce the cooperation with Osmani, and stated that they will be working towards the same goal.

“2020 has told us that Kosovo needs a new prime minister and a new president,” he said. “We have a president who executed her duties with responsibility and dignity. She has expressed the integrity of the institutions and unity of the people.”

Kurti: Change will happen on February 14 (Klan Kosova)

Vetevendosje Movement (VV) leader Albin Kurti said on Thursday that change will happen on February 14. “On February 14, we will send a message to the cynics that the united citizens can do everything that is possible. They have decided that the Vetevendosje Movement will win these elections. Change will happen. The state will pave the way to infrastructure, science and technology,” he said.

“The state is our organised community where we have individual and mutual responsibilities. Our Diaspora will get the role it deserves in our society, by also making it easier for them to vote and to invest here.”

Kurti said that when he comes to power, reciprocity toward Serbia will be implemented. “Our relations with Serbia will be built on reciprocity. Everything will begin with shedding light on the fate of missing persons. The alliance with the United States of America will grow stronger. We have shared interests in strengthening democracy. Partnership with the U.S. and NATO will remain key priorities,” he added.

Kurti also said: “membership in the European Union is an unstoppable process. Everyone wants a Kosovo where the law rules and with an independent judiciary. This is the future that awaits us.”

Kurti turns down Hoxhaj’s call for debate (media)

All media reported on Thursday that Vetevendosje Movement (VV) leader Albin Kurti turned down a call for debate from Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Acting Leader Enver Hoxhaj. Kurti told a press conference that he is not in a race with the other candidates. “It is true that there is a bitter race between the two old parties. This race is for second place. In that race, neither I nor Madam President [referring to Vjosa Osmani] have no reason get involved,” he said.

Hoxhaj reacts after Kurti turns down debate call (media)

Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Acting Leader and candidate for Prime Minister, Enver Hoxhaj, reacted on Thursday after Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti turned down his invitation to a public debate.

“I invited Mr. Kurti to a public debate to compare ideas and the platforms of our two parties for the citizens, in order to give them a clear picture about the offers in these elections. But he turned it down. By doing so, he proved that he doesn’t care about the needs of the people, but rather about absolute power over them,” Hoxhaj said.

Ismaili: Kurti always wanted KLA leaders to be in the Hague (media)

Most news websites quoted Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Secretary Uran Ismaili as saying that Vetevendosje Movement (VV) leader Albin Kurti always wanted the leaders of the former Kosovo Liberation Army to go to the Hague.

“The leaders of the KLA are facing trials in the Hague over the sake of Kosovo’s history. Albin Kurti, in his political life, always wanted to the liberators to be there. Today he must feel ashamed,” Ismaili said in a Facebook post.

Tahiri: The wealth that must be confiscated is outside Kosovo (Kallxo)

Abelard Tahiri, former Minister of Justice, said in a debate on Thursday evening that the wealth that must be confiscated and investigated for different persons is outside Kosovo. He argued that Kosovo has a really good legal basis. “Kosovo has an exceptional legal basis. We need to strengthen the institutions. The problem is not with the legal basis. But rather with independent financial investigations, because most of the wealth that must be confiscated, I believe is not in Kosovo, it is outside Kosovo,” Tahiri added.

Kosovo massacre anniversary brings memories of missing mother (Balkan Insight)

It was a cold morning on January 15, 1999, and Sahide Metushi was in her kitchen cooking breakfast for her family when Serbian forces entered the village of Recak/Racak in western Kosovo.

After hearing the first gunshots, she and her husband Haki told the younger members of the sfamily to run away to safety across the stream or into the nearby forest. Sahide and Haki remained in the house until the sound of gunfire came closer.

“When they left the house, they saw that our neighbour Danush had been decapitated,” their son Hasan Metushi told BIRN in an interview at his house in Recak/Racak.

“My mother continued to walk through the village’s main street, hoping that she would get away because she was an old woman, while my father and an uncle were captured by Serb forces and taken up to the hill with their hands behind their heads,” he said.

His mother Sahide, who was 61 at the time, tried to get to her husband’s cousins’ house, but she was shot as she walked up the road. Wounded, she remained in the street for almost an hour.

“Some people who were hiding in the basement of a house saw her sitting on the roadside after being shot. It isn’t known where she was shot, they only saw she was bleeding,” Hasan Metushi said.

One woman made an attempt to get Sahide inside her house, but when she went out into the street, she saw Serbian forces approaching.

Later that day, Sahide’s husband Haki, then 62, along with his younger brothers Sabri and Arif and 41 other villagers, were found slaughtered, their bodies scattered on a hillside and heaped together in a gully above Recak/Racak.

After night fell, Hasan Metushi, who was a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA at the time, went up to the top of the hill with a group of other relatives.

“I saw the bodies of my father, my uncles and others,” he recalled. “They were close to each other and they had been executed at close range. Some of their eyes had been gouged out or their heads smashed. For a moment I felt like it was a dream. I remember I couldn’t stand up…”

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