Kosovo

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci held consultative meetings with political leaders on Wednesday as he pushes for the formation of a unity government following the March 25 no-confidence vote in the government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

Serbia has given a grudging response to the Kosovo government's decision on Tuesday to lift the 100-per-cent tariff imposed on imports from Serbia and Bosnia - fully removing the tariff for Bosnia while replacing tariffs more gradually with Serbia in line with a new principle of reciprocity.

Vucic was hardly a liberal, democratic, pro-European figure to begin with, so pronouncements about the demise of European solidarity from a man who spent most of the 1990s and 2000s in the ranks of the Serbian ultra-nationalist movement, and who was Slobodan Milosevic's Minister of Information, should be taken with a moose-sized saltlick.

Djuric urged the public not to fall for the fake news.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced tonight that the Government of Kosovo has decided to abolish

As the President Hashim Thaci on Kosovo launched talks on Monday with party leaders on the formation of a government of national unity - "to avoid an institutional vacuum", as he said - legal experts told BIRN that his hands in the formation of a new cabinet are largely tied, and success in this venture looked unlikely.

The Belgrade-funded parallel health system run by the Serbian minority in Kosovo is sending its COVID-19 test results to Serbia - with very little or no collaboration with Kosovo's own institutions.

Not only tests for COVID-19 in Serb-run municipalities in Kosovo but also the subsequent treatment of severe cases is taking place in Serbia.

It was a snowy day in December 1998 and Besnik Rustemi's family was waiting for their village of Slivove/Slivovo to come under fire.

Rustemi, then six years old, was playing in his neighbours' yard with a friend. Meanwhile, his new rubber boots were waiting for him in his bedroom, ready to be worn whenever his family decided it was time to flee.

The US Special Envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Richard Grenell, the US Ambassador to Kosovo, Philip Kosnett, and the US Special Representative for the Western Balkans, Matthew Palmer, have dismissed claims made by outgoing Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti that the Presidents of Kosovo and Serbia had reached a secret agreement on a land swap with their knowledge as part of a final deal on

In this endeavour, Thaci is believed to have secured support US President Donald Trump's envoy for Serbia-Kosovo peace negotiations, Richard Grenell. A man of many titles - he is also the acting Director of National Intelligence and the US ambassador to Germany - Grenell has denied that the partition of Kosovo has been discussed in secret as part of the rumoured peace deal.

All that remained for citizens to make their voices heard was to express their displeasure at the political tragedy by banging pots and pans from their balconies in the evening during the partial lockdown.

Good intentions, bad performance:

Ramush Haradinaj in Pristina, Kosovo, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ