Three political parties hand over their comments on Forum

All dailies give wide coverage to the developments regarding the idea of the SRSG to create a Kosovo Forum.

Under a front-page headline, I hope we will agree some other time, Thaçi tells SRSG, Koha Ditore reports that three parties; PDK, AAK and ORA already confirmed that they sent their comments to the SRSG about the establishment of the Kosovo Forum. The paper says it could not contact LDK officials to determine whether they had done so.

Express writes that the four biggest parties, LDK, PDK, AAK and ORA have handed over their comments. According to the paper the biggest political party in the country, LDK supports the formation of the Forum only if it has an advisory role, while PDK has not changed its stance.

Koha Ditore claims it has managed to obtain comments the PDK sent to UNMIK. They want the forum to be a political decision-making body, especially for issues connected with the process leading to the political status of Kosovo. PDK first requires that the platform and decisions of the forum need to be confirmed by the Kosovo Parliament. Secondly, the PDK wants representation at the Forum to be at the level of four party leaders -- LDK, PDK, AAK, ORA. Among other conditions, PDK would also like to have the Forum gather once a week.

Also, according to Koha Ditore, AAK agreed during a meeting on Monday to support the idea of the Forum, but requested that it only be an advisory body and not trespass on the work of other institutions. ORA officials repeated their chief’s position that they ‘support the idea in principle’.

Epoka e Re reports that PDK leader Hashim Thaçi has already handed over his written remarks on the Kosovo Forum and carries a scanned copy of the letter. The paper quotes its international sources as saying that LDK rejected Jessen-Petersen’s idea for the Forum.

Kosova Sot carries an editorial on the issue which states that Thaçi is going to come around eventually and join the Forum as pressure on him is increasing.

Express reports on the front page that because of different comments being sent to the UNMIK chief regarding the Kosovo Forum the creation of this mechanism is put into question.