Mitrovica
Kosovo may be gearing up for polls on June 8, but there is no sign of election activity in the northern, Serbian half of the town of Mitrovica.
Days ahead of the general elections in Kosovo due on June 8, the atmosphere is quiet but tense in the divided northern town of Mitrovica.
Locals say that the northern Serbian half of the town always feels fairly tense - and a mere look at the streets reveals what they mean.
After Serb leaders in northern Kosovo said they were quitting election-related activities in a dispute over ballots, Serbia's Prime Minister has said that Kosovo Serbs should vote in the election.
BIRN Belgrade
Ahead of general elections in Kosovo on Sunday, Serbia's Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, has advised Kosovo Serbs not to boycott the elections.
At least 900 housing units are to be built over the next three years for the most vulnerable refugees, mostly Roma displaced from Kosovo in the war of the late 1990s.
Dusica Tomovic
BIRN
Podgorica
After spending more than a decade in substandard collective centres, thousands of refugees in Montenegro are to get improved accommodation over the next three years.
The Montenegrin government, with foreign donor support, has launched a programme for re-housing displaced persons, which envisages the construction of at least 900 housing units.
As elections loom on June 8, the political parties in Kosovo are outbidding each other in terms of ambitious promises that look far from reach.
Pristina
At a rally last week in the western town of Gjakova, where the jobless rate nears 60 per cent, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, leader of the ruling PDK, said the city would become so developed if it voted PDK on June that it would look like Germany.
The remains of 27 people, believed to be Kosovo Albanians killed by Belgrade’s forces during the 1990s war, were exhumed from a quarry near the south Serbian town of Raska.
Marija Ristic, Edona Peci
BIRN
Belgrade, Pristina
“So far the remains of about 27 bodies can be identified, but the number can change at any time,” Prenk Gjetaj, the head of the Kosovo government’s missing persons commission, told BIRN on Friday.
Former Kosovo Liberation Army commander Sylejman Selimi and three other ex-fighters were cleared of abusing prisoners at a KLA detention centre during the late 1990s conflict.
Edona Peci
BIRN
Pristina
Selimi, who is Pristina’s current ambassador to Tirana and Kosovo’s former security forces commander, was acquitted along with his three former comrades by a court in the northern town of Mitrovica on Thursday of war crimes during the conflict with Serbian forces.
Leaders in the Serb-run north have suspended election activities in a row about the composition of election committees and the presence of Kosovo state insignia on ballot papers.
Belgrade
Heads of four municipalities in the Serb-run north of Kosovo on Wednesday quit activities related to June 8 general elections in Kosovo until the Election Commission meets their demands about the insignia on the ballots and the composition of polling committees.
Belgrade and Pristina must keep working to implement their agreement to normalise relations, the head of the United Nations’ Kosovo mission told the Security Council in New York.
belgrade, Pristina
Kosovo’s next government will face huge challenges on the economy and corruption – but it will be stymied from the start, if the country does not stage a clean election first.
Pristina
After the campaign for the general election in Kosovo starts officially on May 28, the actual vote will take place only ten days later, on June 8.
The parties in Kosovo have launched their campaigns for the national elections on June 8, a deadline that gives them little time to get their messages across.
Pristina
Unlike in previous elections, when parties had up to a month to convince voters to cast their ballots for them, the campaign for these elections will only last ten days.