Kosovo

Kosovo's government has postponed the implementation of new rules that would force people in majority ethnic Serb areas to swap their Serbian-issued car number plates for Kosovan-issued ones. The rules were due to come into force at midnight on Monday. But on Sunday ethnic Serbs in the north barricaded roads and armed men fired shots in protest.

Miroslav Lajcak told BIRN that he aims for a final agreement on normalised relations between Kosovo and Serbia before the EU heads into elections in 2024.

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti says his country will formally apply to become a member of the European Union by the end of 2022 despite concerns over tensions with neighboring Serbia, also an EU aspirant.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers war crimes court in The Hague extended the detention of ex-President Hashim Thaci and ex-parliamentary speaker Kadri Veseli, citing concerns that they might abscond or interfere with witnesses.

Following Kosovo’s submission of an application to the Council of Europe (CoE) on Thursday (12 May), Serbian President Aleksander Vučić called an urgent meeting of the National Security Council for Friday, claiming Pristina has violated a number of agreements.

Kosovo Liberation Army ex-leaders turned politicians Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli pleaded not guilty to additional charges filed by Hague prosecutors alleging they committed further wartime and post-war crimes against civilians.

Prosecutors in The Hague have filed an updated indictment including new charges of alleged crimes against civilians committed by wartime Kosovo Liberation Army guerrilla leaders including former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci.

A dispute over vehicle licence plates that sparked a blockade of the Kosovo-Serbia border last year is supposed to be resolved this week, but continuing tensions suggest that a deal remains difficult to achieve.

Public sector recruitment in Kosovo has long been dogged by political interference and a lack of transparency; few posts are more important for Europe’s youngest state than that of chief prosecutor, yet Blerim Isufaj’s election met with swift criticism from envoys of the United States and the European Union.

Only one indictment was filed last year for war crimes committed in the 1998-99 conflict and only two suspects were arrested, said a new report by the Humanitarian Law Centre Kosovo.