Public institutions in Kosovo, including government institutions, independent agencies and justice institutions, do not have platforms properly informing the public about war crimes and transitional justice, a BIRN report launched in Kosovo on Wednesday concluded. Kreshnik Gashi, managing editor of BIRN and Internews Kosova publication in Albanian, Kallxo.com, and co-author of the report ‘The Other’, Who…
The surge in summer tourism in Kosovo, marked by the organisation of large-scale international festivals, has underscored the accommodation challenges prompting an increasing reliance on platforms such as Airbnb to fill the void left by limited hotel capacities. Rreze Cuca, from Tuz, Montenegro, was not able to find accommodation in Prishtina in 2022 when two…
Pjeter Shala was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the arbitrary detention and torture of at least 18 detainees, and the murder of one detainee, at the Kukes Metal Factory in Albania. The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Tuesday found former Kosovo Liberation Army member Pjeter Shala guilty of three war crimes…
Twenty-three members of Liridona Deliu’s family were killed in a massacre in September 1998 – but she’s facing an uphill battle to be recognised by the Kosovo government as a war victim. Survivors of the Abri e Eperme/Gornje Obrinje massacre in the Drenas area of Kosovo, in which 23 members of the Deliu family were…
Four photographers who showcased their work from the 1990s at BIRN’s Reporting House explain how difficult it was to document the hardships Kosovo faced until its liberation in 1999. Four wartime photographers recall the hardships of documenting daily life in Kosovo in the 1990s and the importance of remembrance . Their accounts, partially showcased in…
Muhamet Alidemaj, a former member of the Serbian police, was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the Prishtina Basic Court for participating in a massacre at Izbice during the Kosovo war in March 1999, when around 130 people were shot dead. The Prishtina Basic Court on Friday found Muhamet Alidemaj, a former member of the…
Kosovo has experienced a notable decline and aging of its population, according to preliminary data from the latest census conducted by the Agency of Statistics. Preliminary data from the Population and Household Census conducted by the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, ASK, reveals that the country’s resident population has decreased to 1,586,659, marking a considerable drop…
On the anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, personal possessions owned by a teacher killed in the 1995 massacres were exhibited in a commemorative display at BIRN’s Reporting House in Prishtina. An old wristwatch and a broken pair of glasses that belonged to English language teacher Rasid Fazlic, a victim of the Srebrenica massacres, were put…
In an interview with Kallxo Përnime, Emir Suljagic, head of the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, spoke about strained relations between Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina and urged Kosovo to consolidate its war memorial efforts. Emir Suljagic, a survivor of the Srebrenica genocide and the director of the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, called on Kosovo institutions to centralise…
As Kosovo’s parliament voted for a bill extending the powers of the Independent Media Commission to cover online media in the same way as TV and radio channels, the OSCE Mission and Kosovo Journalists’ Association said it does not reflect important concerns. Kosovo’s parliament on Thursday adopted a controversial law on the Independent Media Commission,…