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Kosovo Charges Seven With Islamist Terrorism (Balkan Insight)

Seven Kosovars have been indicted on terrorism charges for planning to take up arms with the Islamic State or for recruiting fighters in Kosovo, the first such indictment to be raised in the country since more than 50 people were arrested last year.

The indictment, which names the seven defendants, says they “agreed to go to war in Syria and join a group of Albanians fighting for the terrorist organization ISIL,” the Kosovo prosecutor's office said.

UN Raps Serbia Over Wartime Missing Persons (Balkan Insight)

The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances told Serbia that it was still failing to meet its international commitment to resolve the fate of missing persons from the 1990s wars.

The UN committee admonished Belgrade for not doing enough to uphold the rights of people who disappeared and their relatives, who it said “are still waiting for justice and reparations for the war crimes and crimes against humanity during the wars of the 1990s”.

Kosovo War Veterans Threaten Protests Over Pensions (Balkan Insight)

Anxious for the payment of significant pensions, Kosovo war veterans threatened street protests next week if government does not publish a final list of former fighters in the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA. The head of the a Kosovo war veterans group, the Council for the Protection of the Rights of KLA Fighters, on Monday warned of streets demonstrations on February 10 if the government does not publish a final and complete list of war veterans. The row concerns the payment of pensions to fighters for the country's independence.

Kosovo Politicians Trade Accusations After Unrest (Balkan insight)

Kosovo’s government accused opposition leaders of trying to seize power using violence after protest clashes in Pristina that left over 170 people injured, while the opposition blamed the police. Government and opposition have blamed each other for six hours of unrest near the government building during protests in central Pristina on Tuesday which resulted in 120 arrests. Pristina’s main hospital said that 107 policemen, 53 protesters and 10 others were injured amid violent scenes which saw demonstrators throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at riot police, who fired rounds of tear gas and

Serbian PM Readies for Kosovo Visit (Balkan Insight)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will meet local Serbian political representatives this week on his first visit to Kosovo since taking up the premier's post last year. Serbian officials said that Vucic will pay his first visit to Kosovo this week since becoming Prime Minister of Serbia in April 2014, most likely on Wednesday. Marko Djuric, head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, said Vucic planned to visit Gracanica, a large Serbian enclave near Pristina, as well as Serb-run municipalities in central Kosovo, Pasjane and Strpce. “For our people who live there, the Prime Mini

Serbian President Demands Kosovo Referendum (Balkan Insight)

In a sign of growing tension between him and the government, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic on Sunday declared that any major decisions made on Kosovo must go to a referendum. Serbia's President on Sunday said that if the government makes key decisions on future relations with the former province of Kosovo under pressure from the EU, the issue must be put to the public in a referendum. The people have a right to decide on whether to accept the EU's conditions, Tomislav Nikolic told the TV show “Teska Rec” ("Hard Word") on TV Pink on December 28. “There must be a referendum.

Kosovo War Veterans Threaten Pension Protests (Balkan Insight)

Kosovo Liberation Army veterans vowed to protest if their war pensions don’t start in January, but the authorities said that a verified headcount of ex-guerrillas still needs to be finished. The head of the Council for the Protection of the Rights of KLA Fighters, Xhevdet Qeriqi, warned on Tuesday that veterans would take to the streets in protest if the authorities don’t start paying the ex-guerrillas’ pensions at the beginning of 2015. Qeriqi said that many war veterans were living in harsh conditions and complained that the authorities had taken two years to complete a headcount of former

Albania Aiding EULEX Bribery Probe in Kosovo (Balkan Insight)

Albania prosecutors are helping their Kosovo counterparts investigate corruption allegations against EULEX judge Francesco Florit, BIRN can reveal. Documents obtained by BIRN show that Tirana District Court on September 19 approved a prosecutor’s office request to assist the Kosovo judicial authorities in investigating an Italian EULEX judge and two others suspected of corruption. According to the legal assistance request presented by the prosecutor’s office to the Tirana District Court, Kosovo authorities believe that between 2009 and 2011 Francesco Florit accepted promises of bribes 750,00

EU Urged to Widen Kosovo Mission Graft Probe (Balkan Insight)

An independent expert appointed to investigate allegations of corruption inside the EU’s rule-of-law mission in Kosovo only has a ‘limited’ role, warned Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, to give more powers to the expert tasked with probing the corruption allegations, made by an EU prosecutor, which caused a scandal in Kosovo in October. In the letter which was made public on Monday, HRW’s EU director Lotte Leicht said that legal expert Jean Paul Jacqué’s brief should be wider in order to ensure that the allegations