President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, met today the head of EU Rule of Law Mission (EULEX), Alexandra Papadopoulou. A statement issued by Thaci’s office after the meeting, notes that the two officials discussed the ending of the EU mission. Thaci and Papadopoulou agreed that the letter exchange between Kosovo and EU institutions has been finalized and that it foresees EU concluding its mission this year. Thaci also thanked Papadopoulou for constructive approach and cooperation.

A Kosovo Serb, wanted by Belgrade and the Interpol was appointed a judge at the Constitutional Court in Pristina, the independent production Insajder has reported.

Radomir Laban, convicted of taking a bribe and sentenced to six years in jail by a Belgrade court disappeared from the grid before he was due to go to prison in 2013.

He was put on the Internet fugitive list upon the request by Serbia’s Justice Ministry in 2014.

Coordinator of Missing and Kidnapped Persons Families in Kosovo, Milorad Trifunovic told Radio kontakt plus destiny of 1654 persons still remains unknown, while 562 persons belong to the Serb and non-Albanian ethnicities.

Trifunovic, whose brother was kidnapped in 1998, told the radio that any hope is lost some of the missing and kidnapped persons could be still alive.

Nearly 2 000 police officers, judges and prosecutors who worked for the EULEX mission in Kosovo in the past 10 years are withdrawing from Kosovo, and their responsibilities will be taken over by Kosovo institutions. Some Blic interlocutors point out that the gradual departure of KFOR soldiers can be expected, after which the space opens up for the formation of the Kosovo army and the completion of the Kosovo's independence.

The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) would today for the seventh time place a memorial plaque next to the Orahovac-Velika Hoca road, dedicated to the missing Radio Pristina journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, Radio kontakt plus reported.

UNS press statement reads they placed six times a plaque with the inscription – Our colleagues, journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, were kidnapped here on 21 August 1999. We are searching for them - and today they would do it again, as the previous memorial plaque has been removed.

A regular UN Security Council session on Kosovo will be held on Monday in New York. Serbia is represented by Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic.

The session will discuss the UN secretary-general's report on the work of the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, covering the period from January 17 to April 15.

As the EU Rule-of-Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX, enters the final month of its mandate, the Pristina authorities said they will allow another mission, but with a scaled-down monitoring and advisory role.

As EULEX’s ten-year mandate comes to an end in mid-June, Kosovo’s Ministry of Justice told BIRN that instead of shutting down completely, the Pristina authorities want the EU rule-of-law mission to change its mandate and designation and stay on.

By: Dean B. Pineles

Six years of efforts to deliver justice were wasted when the defendants convicted in the Medicus organ-trafficking case were inexplicably sent for retrial, says a judge who served on the original trial panel.

On April 17, the European Commission released its lengthy and detailed report on Kosovo for 2018. As a former international judge with the European Union Rule of Law Mission, EULEX, from 2011-13, I was particularly interested in the report’s analysis of the Kosovo judiciary.

Families of victims of the kidnapped and killed in Kosovo have requested from the state of Serbia and EULEX to provide them to attend the exhumation of the remains in Djakovica, reports Kontakt plus radio.

"When the exhumation of mortal remains has been done in Petrovo Selo, Batajnica, Rudnici was carried out, Albanian families of victims of the NATO aggression were present. We do not see the reason why to the families of Kosmet's victims Serbs, Roma and Gorani would not be allowed to do the same in Djakovica," the statement said.

In the village of Piskote near Djakovica, at least three people have been exhumed, and further investigation will determine whether there are still bodies buried in this place. According to the Vesti portal, the President of the Commission for missing of the Government of Serbia, Veljko Odalovic, also confirmed this information and said that most likely those were remains of the Serbs who were kidnapped or disappeared during 1999.