Kosovo

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.

Belgrade and Pristina’s ‘technical negotiators’ had separate meetings in Brussels with the EU’s envoy for Serbia-Kosovo dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, but did not talk to each other.

European Union and U.S. envoys urged Kosovo on Wednesday to implement a deal granting more autonomy to Serb-majority municipalities that was signed as part of a normalisation process between Pristina and Belgrade.

Five Western nations, including the United States, have welcomed Serbia’s upcoming referendum on judicial reforms but expressed regret that Kosovo will no longer allow the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to collect the ballots of eligible Serb voters living there.

Kosovo has ordered the expulsion of a Russian diplomat and member of the United Nations mission in the Balkan country on national security grounds.

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti says that talks on the normalization of ties with Serbia are stalling despite of what he called a "tectonic shift for good" in bilateral relations.

Kosovo has ordered the expulsion of two Russian diplomats, accusing Moscow of “destabilizing” activities. President Vjosa Osmani said on October 22 that the two diplomats at Russia’s liaison office to Kosovo were declared personae non gratae and ordered to leave the country.