• Svecla: Serbia violated agreement on license plates (Klan)
• Police on reports for assassination plans against LDK and PDK MPs (media)
• PM Kurti meets Croatian counterpart in Davos (media)
• Bislimi meets Swiss Ambassador - support of 83 million francs, confirmed (Klan)
• The shooting in Shterpce: an eye-witness’s words (Prishtina Insight)
• Bitter rhetoric: Politicisation of missing persons in post-conflict Kosovo (BIRN)
• Supreme Court suspends licences to build power plants on Lumbardh (BIRN)
• Begaj: We are sensitive but cautious about recent tensions in Kosovo (Klan)
• Vucic: 2023, one of most difficult years in Serbia’s modern history (media)
• Serbia in 2023: Against backdrop of war, pressure for deal on Kosovo (BIRN)

Svecla: Serbia violated agreement on license plates (Klan)

Kosovo’s Minister of Interior Affairs Xhelal Svecla said on Wednesday that Serbia has violated the agreement on license plates. According to him, the Kosovo Police, specifically the Border Directorate, has identified at several border points vehicles with illegal "KM" license plates, re-registered in December 2022.

"Based on the agreement between the Republic of Kosovo and Serbia in Brussels in November 2022, Serbia has agreed to stop the production of illegal license plates and the re-registration of existing ones. Based on the cases presented at our border points, Serbia has completely violated this agreement."

"In compliance with our legislation and the agreement reached in Brussels, the Kosovo Police did not allow the entry of these vehicles into the territory of the Republic of Kosovo."

He added that similar cases of cars with the license plates in question will not be allowed to enter or operate within the territory of Kosovo, considering that they are illegal and there is an agreement on the cessation of production or their re-registration.

"We invite all citizens, owners of cars with such license plates, to appear at civil registration centers anywhere in the Republic of Kosovo in order to register their cars with official license plates of the Republic of Kosovo," Svecla said.

Police on reports for assassination plans against LDK and PDK MPs (media)

Gazeta Express reported on Wednesday evening that "an assassination attempt is being planned against LDK leader Lumir Abdixiku and some MPs of this political party. Kosovo Police in a response to Sinjali, said that all the necessary actions were taken, describing the case as a threat.

"The Kosovo Police, in this case the competent Directorate of the KP, has undertaken all the necessary police actions related to the case/threat in question. All further police actions will be undertaken in cooperation and coordination with the justice bodies," says the Police's response.

According to the news website, one of the MPs, whose name is mentioned as the target of the possible attack, filed his statement at one of the police stations in Pristina.

Citing unnamed sources, Sinjali news website reported that in addition to Abdxhiku, Arben Gashi, Armend Zemaj and Avdullah Hoti were also reportedly targets of the assassination attempt.

LDK’s deputy leader Kujtim Shala said they received the information on Wednesday.

"I can confirm that there was some kind of planning in Kosovo and some EU countries and outside the territory of Europe. Individuals were intercepted in their communication by an EU country. From what we have been told, there was a structured plan to assassinate Abdixiku and three LDK MPs".

Shala, on TV Dukagjini, said that the assassination was planned for political reasons and that two organizations were involved in the assassination plan.

"One organization is claimed to be operating in Kosovo while the other is outside Kosovo. That which operates outside Kosovo has undertaken to finance the execution of this plan," Shala said.

Nacionale news website learned from its sources that Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) leader Memli Krasniqi and PDK MP Ganimete Musliu were also targeted. According to the source, an official from the German Ministry of Internal Affairs shared confidential materials with Kosovo politicians, who then shared this information with the Kosovo police. "The suspect is believed to be a Kosovo Albanian living in Belgium. He was being investigated by the German authorities for other crimes, and by chance he was intercepted for his crazy ideas to commit political crimes in Kosovo," said the source. According to the same source, there is no doubt that the motive is political. "It is impossible to affirm that someone gave him an order to kill a political rival, but the intercepts show that the motive is purely political," said the source.

The source also said that it remains to be seen what actions the Kosovo police will take, and what actions the government will take. The source said that in the interceptions, in addition to the Albanian citizen in Belgium, a connection from Turkey was also mentioned, as well as a well-known organization in Kosovo, but that due to the ongoing investigations, this source did not want to mention it.

PM Kurti meets Croatian counterpart in Davos (media)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti met on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, with the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, during the World Economic Forum. Kurti wrote in a Twitter post: “With Croatia we share a common past and a future within the EU and NATO. Glad to exchange views with PM Andrej Plenkovic during World Economic Forum 2023. I thanked him for his steady support for our country”.

Bislimi meets Swiss Ambassador - support of 83 million francs, confirmed (Klan)

Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Development and Dialogue, Besnik Bislimi, hosted the Swiss Ambassador to Kosovo, Thomas Kolly. According to him, Switzerland has confirmed support of 83 million francs for Kosovo.

"The strong support to the government in the fight against organized crime and corruption, in the rule of law, development of democracy and good governance was reaffirmed."

The topics of discussion at this meeting were Kosovo's applications for membership in the Council of Europe and the European Union.

The shooting in Shterpce: an eye-witness’s words (Prishtina Insight)

The wounding of two young Serbs in Shterpce has raised new concerns about ethnic tensions in Kosovo. Prishtina Insight’s editor brings her own perspective as a passer-by, a few minutes before the shooting.

The attack on two young Serbs in Shtërpcë by an off-duty member of the Kosovo Security Force, KSF, on January 6 came as another shock for the public in Kosovo.

At a time when ethnic tensions in the north had been high since December, due to the barricades erected there, an attack that was suspected of being ethnically motivated risked escalating the situation to another level.

While politicians in Belgrade rushed to consider it an ethnically motivated attack, the defence lawyer of the suspect stated that the attack was in self-defence.

The fact that the suspected attacker was a member of the KSF made the situation even more complex.

It rarely happens that one witnesses such events in the first person, but it so happened to me that day.

This is my reflection of the experiences of that day, and intentionally comes after the fog and the initial hecticness of the situation have passed.

What is the truth of the January 6 incident?

Read more at: http://bit.ly/3ZO8qgY

Bitter rhetoric: Politicisation of missing persons in post-conflict Kosovo (BIRN)

Leaders in Belgrade and Pristina are perpetuating distrust by using the issue of the remaining missing persons from the Kosovo conflict for political purposes, ethnic Albanians and Serbs told researcher Nina Kaufmann.

During the Kosovo conflict and its aftermath, men, women and children from all communities in Kosovo were forcibly disappeared. While some were found alive in prisons in early 2000, most were found in mass graves.

Today, 1,621 people remain missing, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC. While resolving every one of the open cases is not possible because of how the disappearances happened, there is still a lot hope that – if information is received about potential grave sites and the issue of previously misidentified cases is resolved – hundreds of families could receive answers to the question of what happened to their loved ones in the war.

The families’ ‘right to know’ is granted by international humanitarian and human rights law and receiving the remains of missing family members is, for many, an important step in moving forward.

While the number of missing persons being identified has stagnated in recent years, the issue is increasingly hitting the headlines in both Kosovo and Serbia. There have been claims that the missing persons issue has been politicised and that the focus is no longer on increased humanitarian collaboration between Pristina and Belgrade to find those who are still missing, but that the issue is simply being used as a tool in a blame game between the capitals.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3wb55v0

Supreme Court suspends licences to build power plants on Lumbardh (BIRN)

Permits to construct hydropower plants on the Lumbardh River in Kosovo have been suspended again, this time by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court of Kosovo has suspended permits and licenses to construct hydropower plants on the Lumbardh river of Decan.

The court approved the request for an extraordinary review of the court decision of the plaintiffs Faton Selmanaj, Xhavit Kuqi and Muharrem Lulaj.

On this issue, the Constitutional Court, which had made some remarks, returned it to the Supreme Court for review.

On January 16, the court, acting according to the remarks of the Constitutional Court, decided against the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal, which had decided in favour of the Ministry of Economy and Environment, MEE.

Faton Selmanaj, Xhavit Kuqi and Muharrem Lulaj had opened an administrative dispute against the MEE and the Energy Regulatory Office, ERO. They had asked the court to annul the decision of the ministry.

Initially, the Basic Court decided on the temporary suspension of the permits and licenses of Kelkos Energy, but the Court of Appeal, following the appeal of the MEE and the ERO, had returned the case to the Basic Court.

Read more at: http://bit.ly/3CWHL81

Begaj: We are sensitive but cautious about recent tensions in Kosovo (Klan)

The President of the Republic of Albania, Bajram Begaj, held on Wednesday the reception ceremony for the representatives of the Diplomatic corps in Albania.

Speaking about the situation in the region, Begaj said that the organization of the Western Balkans summit is an example of gratitude and appreciation. He stated that Albanians will always remain factors of peace in the Balkans and promoters of the image of a passionate, but non-conflicting Balkans.

"And while we are talking about conflict, I do not intend to pass silently on the danger that threatened the Balkans until a few days ago, from provocations with barricades in the north of Kosovo. I cannot say whether the provocation with barricades set up by elements with a criminal past and attempts to actively intervene in the territory of Kosovo on the part of Serbia has to do with a logic of aggression similar to the scenario in Ukraine. But one thing is clear, any aggrevation in the Balkans serves the distribution of Euro-Atlantic attention and strength. So it serves the aggressor. Under these conditions, Albania will be sensitive, but prudent, in support of the dialogue, but very careful towards the integrity of the Kosovar state. We strongly support the Serbia-Kosovo dialogue, but we have not forgotten who is the aggressor and whom it has aggressed. We do not forget the sufferings and sacrifices of the Kosovar people. It is more difficult for the government of the attacked people, which has never even heard an apology from the other side, to sit at the dialogue table," Begaj said.

Vucic: 2023, one of most difficult years in Serbia’s modern history (media)

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said in Davos that the agreement intended by international factors between Kosovo and Serbia can be reached "the day after tomorrow."

Answering the journalists' questions regarding the statements of the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, that he expects an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia in the coming months, Vucic said that this is possible if Kurti gives up, as he stated, separatist ideas.

When asked how he sees the Resolution of the European Parliament on the harmonization of foreign policy, Vucic said that he is less interested in this and more interested in the part where it says that independent Kosovo is an irreversible process.

Vucic has stated that 2023 will be one of the most difficult years in modern history for Serbia, in the economic and political sense.

Serbia in 2023: Against backdrop of war, pressure for deal on Kosovo (BIRN)

Russia’s war in Ukraine will continue to cast a long shadow over Serbia well into 2023.

Still wrestling with the collective memory of being bombed by NATO in 1999, the predominantly Orthodox country has found itself squeezed between traditional ties to Russia and an official policy of pursuing European integration.

Now a decade in power, Aleksandar Vucic as president is treading a fine line between the two, voting at the United Nations to condemn Russia’s February 24 invasion but refusing to join Western sanctions on the Kremlin.

Experts expect the balancing act to continue into 2023, but pressure will build on other fronts, notably Kosovo and the cost-of-living crisis, both issues driven of late by events in Ukraine.

“The war has changed the way this part of the world is perceived,” said Dusan Spasojevic, a professor at the Faculty of Political Science in Belgrade. “The West is now pushing for a quicker resolution on Kosovo because of the war in Ukraine. And because of that there is a chance an agreement can be reached.”

In terms of everyday life for the average Serb, “the situation will be bad for most,” said economist Ljubomir Savic.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3ZP60Pa