• 'We can't be blackmailed': Kosovo PM not giving in against Serbia (AFP)
• Kosovo leader says ethnic Serb association isn't a priority (AP)
• Krasniqi: Association should be created as part of general agreement (VoA)
• Rasic: Work on a special project called “House of Albanian-Serb friendship” (Klan)
• UNMIK remains steadfast in pursuit of its mandate and service to people of Kosovo (Nacionale/TeVe1)
• Blinken thanks Vucic for “constructive engagement” with U.S.-EU team (RFE)
• Hill: Serbia has turned toward the West (media)
• Kosovo miners’ underground strike of 1989 inspires exhibition (BIRN)

'We can't be blackmailed': Kosovo PM not giving in against Serbia (AFP)

With pressure mounting from US and European allies to strike a deal with arch-rival Serbia, Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti vowed on Wednesday to resist any attempt at "blackmail" in the face of a looming deadline from the West to reach an agreement.

For months, Western envoys have been shuttling between the Serbian and Kosovo capitals in a fresh diplomatic thrust to resolve long-simmering tensions nearly 25 years after the war between ethnic Albanian insurgents and Serb forces triggered a NATO bombing campaign that ended the fighting.

But more than two decades on, Belgrade still refuses to recognise its former Albanian-majority province's government, and with the backing of powerful ally Russia has prevented the territory from entering an array of international institutions, including the United Nations.

With war in Ukraine unleashing new uncertainty in Europe, the US and EU appear determined to iron out an arrangement between Kosovo and Serbia to end years of crisis in the Balkans.

According to Kurti, Kosovo is now facing a March deadline to come to some sort of agreement with Serbia, despite a mountain of hurdles and basic disagreements poisoning even the semblance of relations between the adversaries.

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Kosovo leader says ethnic Serb association isn't a priority (AP)

Kosovo prime minister said Wednesday that creating an association of the country's five Serb-majority municipalities was not a priority for his Cabinet even though the U.S. has argued the issue is important to an eventual normalization of ties between Kosovo and Serbia.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti repeated concerns that such an organization could evolve into a ministate and said resuming European Union-led negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo would be more productive.

“A monoethnic association in a multiethnic Kosovo is not possible,” Kurti told journalists.

Washington has increased pressure on Pristina to implement a 2013 agreement to establish the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities, which would coordinate work on education, health care, land planning and economic development at the local level. Kosovo’s Constitutional Court later declared the plan unconstitutional, ruling it wasn’t inclusive of other ethnicities and could entail the use of executive powers.

Diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Pristina met this week with a group of civil society leaders, government officials and political leaders to discuss the steps Kosovo's government needs to take to authorize the association. U.S. and European Union envoy s also visited Kosovo and Serbia last month to encourage the two countries to accept a new proposal for normalizing their relations and furthering their candidacies for EU membership.

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Krasniqi: Association should be created as part of general agreement (VoA)

Leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Memli Krasniqi, said in an interview with Voice of America that the PDK stands behind the position that the Association of Serb-majority municipalities should be created as part of a general agreement between Kosovo and Serbia. The agreement, he said, must also include mutual recognition, otherwise it does not bring stability to Kosovo.

During the interview, Krasniqi criticised Prime Minister Albin Kurti for lack of coordination with the United States, and added that Kurti’s position on the Association is a false cause with which he came to power.

Rasic: Work on a special project called “House of Albanian-Serb friendship” (Klan)

Kosovo’s Minister for Returns and Communities, Nenad Rasic, told reporters on Wednesday that this ministry was working on a special project called “The house of Albanian-Serb friendship” aimed at improving relations between the two communities.

Rasic did not further details where the house would be located and said that the idea came from Prime Minister Albin Kurti and was related to the return of Serbs to Kosovo towns. He also argued that if implemented, the project would be one of his and the Kosovo government’s biggest achievements.

UNMIK remains steadfast in pursuit of its mandate and service to people of Kosovo (Nacionale/TeVe1)

The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) issued a statement on Wednesday saying that it remains steadfast in pursuit of its mandate and service to the people of Kosovo, the news websites report. “UNMIK’s mandate is to ensure conditions for a peaceful and normal life for all inhabitants. In furtherance of this, UNMIK’s Mitrovica Regional Office, led by Mr. Danilo Rosales Diaz, works to facilitate peaceful inter-community relations through regular outreach with rule of law, political, and municipal interlocutors as well as members of civil society,” the statement notes.

The statement also notes that “in connection with recent unsubstantiated allegations, UNMIK calls for diligence and responsible reporting. UNMIK staff members are held to the United Nations’ highest professional standards of integrity, impartiality, and neutrality.”

Blinken thanks Vucic for “constructive engagement” with U.S.-EU team (RFE)

U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said he spoke with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and “thanked him for his constructive engagement with the U.S.-EU team last week and for his openness to the EU proposal for securing peace and stability in the region, which is essential for securing Serbia’s European future”.

A press release issued by Vucic’s office notes that they talked about the situation in Kosovo, Serbia’s European path and bilateral relations between Serbia and the United States. “The officials exchanged opinions about the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and President Vucic said that peace and stability throughout the region and our economic future are key objectives for all those living in the Western Balkans,” the statement notes.

Hill: Serbia has turned toward the West (media)

U.S. Ambassador to Belgrade, Christopher Hill, said in an interview with N1, that Serbia has decided to turn toward the West “and I think it is frustrating for many Serbs that the process is taking a long time”.

Hill said it was important for Serbia how it will approach the plan for an agreement with Kosovo as this could impact its speed on the path toward the West.

Asked how is more cooperative Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti or Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Hill said: “If I would think that my answer would help in the negotiations, I would say it, but I will leave it to your imagination”.

Talking about the Association of Serb-majority municipalities, Hill said that when a party agrees to implement something, it should do that.

Kosovo miners’ underground strike of 1989 inspires exhibition (BIRN)

An exhibition opening on Wednesday evening at the National Museum of Kosovo presents pictures and interviews with mineworkers from the Trepca mining complex in northern Kosovo who staged a historic underground strike in 1989 against the revocation of Kosovo’s autonomy by the Serbian authorities.

After proposals to revoke Kosovo’s autonomy as a province of Yugoslav were put forward by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s regime, a series of protests erupted including an eight-day hunger strike by 1,200 Kosovo miners at the Trepca lead and zinc mines in February 1989, the month before the vote on the proposals.

The hunger strike was a crucial moment that inspired political resistance, stoked ethnic unrest, and set the course toward armed conflict between Milosevic’s forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army in the 1990s.

This first-of-its-kind exhibition, entitled ‘A Site of Political Struggle: Trepca Mine 1989’, organised by Oral History Kosovo in partnership with ForumZFD Kosovo, includes around 25 interviews along with pictures selected by curator Ermire Krasniqi.

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