Costett: Awake! protesting the unjust actions of politicians

Ambassador Costett declared that each citizen should seek responsibility against any politician, police, prosecutor and judge in an equal, fair and honorable manner.

There are many tools Kosovo citizens have available to challenge the decisions of the Government, which they consider unjust. Speak, assemble, demonstrate. Democracy does not mean that it is a sport you play only on election day. It's a sport where citizens have to play it every day. I speak as a friend of Kosovo, as a representative of the country, which has its own legal and political issues. I think in democracy an oligarch can only take over if people allow it. Two of the biggest dangers are if someone gives up and agrees. And when people give up this is terrible. People in Kosovo have struggled to build a democracy, a country that is believed in rule of law and the rights of all”, Costnet stressed.

Ambassador Costnet made these comments at the FOL Forum, which also spoke of employment on party grounds.

He stressed that in Kosovo there are policy appointments of disqualified leaders as if it were the case at the Kosovar Agency for Verification of Property. According to him, this way of employment does not bring progress to the country.

There are many reports in Kosovo, where people take jobs or governmental positions, not why they are the most qualified candidates, but why they are related to influential people. I know that there are some cultures that believe to enable family members and friends to do more than fulfill the abstract goal of equal opportunities. A recent poll noted that only 20 per cent of Kosovo respondents believed merits are key to opening opportunities in the country. This is not the way to progress”, he stressed.

While Ambassador Costet spoke of survivors of sexual violence in the recent war, he voiced doubts that there might be false status for survivors, as with Kosovo Liberation Army veterans.

Let's go to a law that is written with a good purpose, but there have been obstacles from politics. The change of the Law, 2014 for the status and rights of martyrs, disabled, veterans, KLA members and civilian victims has granted official status to survivors of sexual violence during the war. Through bold testimony to survivors such as Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman and others, survivors have begun reporting 20 years after the fighting and they have exceptionally creditd for turning an important idea into the law, but this amendment has been attributed to a status that denies giving status to people affected after June 1999. Organizations working with survivors have clarified this during the time this Law was adopted... could the Parliament be persuaded to change this law, to serve all victims, and to be able to give the assembly of survivors of sexual violence the same social and financial benefits as the true and false KLA veterans, whose numbers have been significantly increased by suspicion, he says.

Kosnett in this Forum also singled out the issue of failing to implement the Constitutional Court's decision on the Decani Monastery by municipal authorities, which said its implementation was being supported by Kosovo Government leaders. According to the ambassador, any decision by the justice organs must be implemented.

The constitutional court, which makes decisions in accordance with the Kosovo Constitution, has confirmed that the Orthodox Church has ownership over several parcels of land, but cadastral officials at the municipal and central level have refused to implement that decision with an implicit support of senior Kosovo Government officials”, Ambassador Costnet said.

However, Costett, in addition, had a praise for one achieved in Kosovo. He said that while Kosovo is entering the second decade of independence, there are capable institutions and sound laws that stem from its Constitution and are impressing the world as leaders in the region as regards transparency in public procurement.