LOCAL PRESS

Dacic: We are not signing peace agreement with government in Pristina (Danas)

Serbia will not sign an international peace agreement with Kosovo, Serbian First Deputy Prime and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic is categorical in a statement to Danas. On the other side, outgoing Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaqi is announcing the signing of this agreement, as an introduction for the beginning of the second phase of the dialogue. Experts of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue assess for Danas that this agreement will have to be signed despite the denials in Serbia, but not any time soon, as Thaqi claims. “Hashim Thaqi has in mind mutual recognition of Serbia and Kosovo. Serbia will not sign that agreement,” Dacic told Danas. Last week in Brussels Kosovo prime minister told German Chancellor Angela Merkel and all the present at the conference in Western Balkans that “Kosovo was ready to continue the second phase of the dialogue” that should, as he put it, end with “an international agreement on peace between Kosovo and Serbia”. “This was mentioned by the Kosovo foreign minister before the United Nations Security Council, which is a reflection of his blindness. They think that everything has been resolved already as regards the status and only pressure should be exerted on us. We haven’t changed our stand and all answers that had been reached are neutral in status,” Dacic was explicit.

Joksimovic: No peace agreement between Kosovo and Serbia (Tanjug)

Serbian Minister without Portfolio in charge of EU integration Jadranka Joksimovic has stated that the result of the Brussels dialogue will not be a peace agreement between Serbia and Kosovo. She assessed that the statement by Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaqi that Kosovo and Serbia should soon sign an inter-state peace agreement was intended for the Kosovo public. A peace agreement is not a form that is envisaged in any way, said Joksimovic. She pointed out that for Belgrade the Brussels agreement is the most acceptable form as an attempt to find a solution that will primarily satisfy the interests of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. The most important thing for us is to protect and promote core issues of the lives of our citizens, said Joksimovic.

North preparing protest over latest EULEX decisions (Novosti)

The north Kosovo Serbs will organize in the following days mass peace protests against the self-will of EULEX, after this international mission issued the arrest warrants for former and present Zubin Potok mayors Slavisa Ristic and Stevan Vulovic. Leposavic Mayor Dragan Jablanovic told Novosti that the latest events are forcing them to organize an urgent mass citizen gathering: “We will launch protests against the self-will of EULEX, and there are also other forms of civil disobedience. The Serbs are concerned and they will not agree with this.” He points out that the manner in which EULEX issues warrants and calls people for interviews doesn’t fit a mission whose task is rule of law: “The mission’s decisions are directed against the Serbs!” North Mitrovica Mayor Goran Rakic says that EULEX representatives know very well that Vulovic’s and Ristic’s only guilt is that they supported their people at certain moments: “The arrest warrants for legal Serb representatives are directed at ethnically cleansing the Serbs, primarily from the north of the province. The Brussels agreement agreed on “political amnesty” but EULEX is now placing itself above its mandate. After the new “arrest warrants” northern Kosovo and Metohija is unofficially thinking of placing new barricades towards EULEX. Jablanovic tells Novosti that Serb political representatives are still trying to prevent this.

Farina: More patrols after murder of Serbian gendarme (Beta/Tanjug)

KFOR Commander Salvatore Farina has stated in Pristina that the number of that mission’s patrols and of the Serbian Army in the land security zone has been tripled after the murder of Serbian gendarme Stevan Sindjelic last week. Farina has pointed that on the administrative line at Merdare there is no threat to the citizens who are not breaking the law. The departing KFOR commander has specified during the farewell press conference in the NATO command in Pristina that the presence of KFOR troops along the administrative line has been reinforced as part of the synchronized actions with the Serbian Army. On Wednesday, General Salvatore Farina will turn over his duty to major general Francesco Paolo Figliuolo.

Mogherini: EU enlargement policy should continue (RTS)

The EU enlargement policy in the Western Balkans should be continued, but concrete steps in that process depend on reforms in the candidate-states, said the newly-appointed EU High Representative Federica Mogherini. Addressing members of the European Parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee, she said there were few places in Europe where the EU plays such an important role as in the Western Balkans. She said that recently she had visited all the capitals in the region in order to confirm that enlargement is a priority of the Italian presidency of the EU.

Kosovo at the crossroads (Radio Serbia, by Vukomir Petric)

The political crisis in Kosovo has been going on for more than two months due to severe political disagreements and inability to elect legislative and executive powers. Parties that entered the Assembly after the June elections have become divided and entrenched in the three camps, none of which has a majority. It causes great damage to the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina and delays the implementation of already achieved solutions, primarily the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities. The Kosovo Constitutional Court ordered the election of the Assembly leadership to resume and dismissed the possibility of new elections.

In all likelihood, new early parliamentary elections will not be held in Kosovo and Metohija, and after the decision of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, a possibility to resolve the serious political crisis can be discerned. Whether this opportunity created by the decision of the Court, which is essentially a formalized wish list of powerful Kosovo’s political mentor from the West, would be used, or Kosovo will fall deeper into political crisis will be known when the continuation of the inaugural session of the Kosovo Assembly is to be held.
The winner of the election nearly three months ago, the current Kosovo Prime Minister, Hashim Thaqi, was not able to gather a parliamentary majority, and at the 17 July session, the coalition, made up ad hoc and led by the opposition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo headed by Ramush Haradinaj, elected parliamentary leadership. The Constitutional Court, however, ruled that it was unconstitutional and ordered the constituent session of the Assembly of Kosovo to be continued, with Thaqi’s party proposing the speaker. Possible non-election of Thaqi’s candidate, however, according to the Court’s ruling, cannot be the reason for extraordinary elections, which gives a chance to the opposition to secure a majority for its own candidate. Many in Kosovo, Thaqi himself included, expected and hoped for a more radical decision of the Constitutional Court, the elections to be annulled and the new one to be scheduled. Such a decision, according to the Constitution and laws, would be without any doubt justified. But new elections would not solve anything, valuable time and energy would be wasted, the negotiation process with Belgrade would still be halted, implementation of the already reached agreements delayed, mostly at the expense of the Serbian people and other Kosovo residents. And most importantly, this is something that the West does not want.
The Constitutional Court made the decision that had been in a way announced by the U.S. and British diplomats serving the interests of Pristina and that leaves the possibility of honorable “withdrawal” from the unenviable situation and serious crisis. The causes that led to the crisis, however, have not been eliminated. Nobody wants to be in a coalition with Thaqi, while Thaqi, on the other hand, wants to stay in power at all costs. The West would like to get rid of him elegantly without arousing the anger of his supporters with unpredictable consequences. Although it is rarely talked about in Kosovo, it is obvious that the report of the Special EU investigator of the crimes committed by the KLA in Kosovo Clint Williamson has seriously shaken the main actors on the Kosovo political stage. Due to further consequences of this report, as far as political stability in Kosovo is concerned, the prognosis is not good at all. On the contrary. The crisis in the southern Serbian province is more serious than many assume and it will require a lot of attention of international public as well as Serbia.

REGIONAL PRESS

SDA convention: Goal is 1,000 new jobs monthly (Dnevni avaz)

The convention of the Party for Democratic Action (SDA) was held at the Summer Theater in Ilidza where the leaders of electoral lists and the party’s electoral platform for the October elections were presented. The convention was opened by Halid Genjac, SDA board president, who after the intonation of the wartime anthem of BiH called to the stage the SDA candidate for the B&H Presidency and current member of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic. On the SDA lists are 471 candidates, and on the Homeland coalition lists, in which the SDA also participates, there are another 56 candidates. Genjac stressed that the list includes lawyers, engineers, workers, disabled and decorated war veterans, military commanders, and successful business leaders. The list is 40 percent women and 30 percent youth. “At the elections in 2006 and 2010 some other parties succeeded. They promised much, and the people unfortunately believed them. In the end, instead of promises fulfilled, we have a political stalemate, a halt to reforms, enormous debt and general decline of the country. All that the SDA built over the years, they sold off easily, sometimes even ministerial portfolios. The people in the elections will measure their work and they will leave,” said Izetbegovic, certain of political victory in October. The priority of the state of B&H should be stabilization, development and employment, and accelerated Euro-Atlantic integration. Speaking of the electoral platform, he said that it largely relates to implementing reforms and resolving the most important state-political issues. “Our goal is an annual GDP growth of 2.5 percent, which would enable employment, especially to youth. With our program of measures it is planned to open 1,000 new jobs monthly,” said Izetbegovic, who commented on the accusations of certain political parties that the SDA had brought 20 years of bad governance to the country. “I can give them the message that the SDA from its founding to today has been a leader and bearer of all the key historical processes and decisions for B&H, Bosniaks, and all Bosnian patriots. We renewed B&H’s statehood, fought for independence, preserved the country’s territory, saved it from aggression,” said Izetbegovic.
Asim Sarajlic, leader of the SDA list for the state parliament and president of the SDA electoral board, said that the party, if it wins, would primarily work on creating a new political environment. “This must be done after eight years of stagnation. Only with a strong electoral result can the SDA create an ambience like that we had from 2002 to 2006, when President Tihic was a member of the Presidency and when the SDA was the strongest party in the two houses of the state parliament,” said Sarajlic. Ramiz Salkic, candidate for the RS vice presidency, expressed satisfaction that Bosniaks and Croats in the Republika Srpska (RS) showed unity when it comes to the October elections. “Victory will open for us a series of possibilities when it comes to executive and legislative government. It is time that Bosniaks and Croats are no longer victims of discrimination in the RS,” said Salkic.

Dodik: Pressure in political negotiations unacceptable (Srna)

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik said that pressure of any sort – from anyone, including the U.S. and the EU – is not acceptable within political negotiations in B&iH. Commenting on the statement by B&H Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija that the EU will put pressure for amendment of the Constitution in order to strengthen B&H, Dodik said on Mount Jahorina that this is but a dream of Bosniak politicians, including Lagumdzija. “We want to talk and we will, and our views on B&H have legitimacy. Some think that B&H should be strengthened and centralized, but we think that B&H may need to be dissolved,” said Dodik. He stressed that solutions of a local character can be found, but that no pressure of any kind can be considered.

South Sudan: Senka Sojkic proposed as best police officer on UN peace mission (Oslobodjenje)

Senka Sojkic, member of the B&H police contingent in South Sudan, was proposed as the best police officer on the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Senka Sojkic, together with another UNMISS member, was nominated for this worthy honor by the UNMISS Police Commissioner for exceptional performance of duty and results achieved in the UN Mission in South Sudan, the B&H Ministry of Security said in a statement. Selection and bestowal of the award will be held at the end of the month in Canada. On the occasion of nomination for this exceptional recognition, congratulations to Officer Sojkic, a member of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) were sent by the B&H Security Minister Mladen Cavar, highlighting that this is yet another confirmation of the high professionalism and training of police officers in B&H, who through their contribution to preserving peace in crisis areas, their work and efforts, present B&H in the best light. On behalf of the members of the B&H contingent in South Sudan, Commander Zlatan Mitic congratulated Sojkic on the deserved nomination for the award.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia Locates Alleged Organ Trafficking Doctor (BIRN, by Marija Ristic, 2 September 2014)
The Serbian authorities say they have located Yusuf Sonmez – who the EU rule of law of mission in Kosovo, EULEX, has accused of people trafficking and organised crime – in Amsterdam.
Serbia’s office for war crimes prosecution said on Tuesday that suspected organ trafficker Sonmez, originally from Turkey, had been located in Amsterdam in The Netherlands last week.
“This information was passed to the EU chief prosecutor, Jonathan Ratel,” the Serbian prosecution office said.
Sonmez and an Israeli national, Moshe Harel, are accused of people trafficking and organised crime by EULEX and are listed as fugitives wanted by Interpol.
They have been on the run since the indictment in the case was issued in June 2011.
EULEX says Sonmez was a key figure involved in trafficking in human organs in the Medicus clinic in Pristina. He was arrested in Istanbul in January 2011 but released on bail.
EULEX prosecutor Allen Cansick last year said EULEX believed that Harel was in Israel, while “the mission has information that Sonmez is travelling around the world”.
Last April, a Kosovo court convicted the owner of the Medicus clinic and four others of participating in an illegal organ-trading ring that harvested and sold human kidneys.
The verdict said that around 30 illegal kidney transplants took place at the clinic in 2008.
Poor people from Turkey, Russia, Moldova and Kazakhstan were brought to the clinic after being assured that they would receive up to 15,000 euro for their kidneys.
The EULEX prosecutor in the case said that transplant recipients, mainly Israelis, paid more than 70,000 euro for the kidneys.
Sonmez and Harel, both suspected of collaborating with the convicted men, had already absconded and have not been seen in Kosovo since.
The Serbian prosecution claims Sonmez was also part of a group that Serbia says harvested organs of Serbs abducted during the Kosovo conflict in the so-called “Yellow house” in Albania in 1999.
The Medicus clinic was also mentioned in a 2011 Council of Europe report, which alleged that former fighters in the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, some now high-ranking politicians, traded in the organs of prisoners during the 1999 conflict.
An EU task force set up to investigate the Council of Europe report allegations in July said that its findings were consistent with what was said in 2011.
“There are compelling indications that this practice did occur on a very limited scale and that a small number of individuals were killed for the purpose of extracting and trafficking their organs,” the chief prosecutor of the EU task force, Clint Williamson, said.
It is not yet clear whether anyone will be indicted on these charges before a special new court dealing with war crimes in Kosovo which will be established next year in The Netherlands.
‘Trial’ Dashes Hope of End to Balkan Church Feud (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 2 September 2014)
The Serbian Orthodox Church decision to ‘try’ the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church as a secessionist has dampened hopes of an end to the dispute between the two churches.
Moves by the Serbian Orthodox Church to put the head of the Church in Macedonia on “trial” before an ecclesiastical court in Serbia will set back recent attempts to renew dialogue between the churches, observers say.
Last week, the governing body of the Serbian Orthodox Church, SPC, the Holy Synod, said it would bring the head of the Macedonian church, Archbishop Stefan, before the Church court for violating ecclesiastical laws, known as canons.
“The SPC has no grounds to put anyone from the Macedonian Church on trial,” Macedonian theology professor Kosta Milkovski said. “At the very least the move of the Serbian clergy is questionable because it leads us further away from unification,” he added.The Serbian Church accuses Archbishop Stefan of “persistently remaining in schism [secession from the Orthodox churches], non-Christian  participation in the prosecution against Archbishop Jovan …the canonical head of the Ohrid Archdiocese and his priests, monks and faithful followers, as well as for many other activities”.
The words about Archbishop Jovan refer to Jovan Vransikovski, a former cleric of the Macedonian Church who attempted to establish a separate archdiocese loyal to the Serbian Church. He is now in jail in Macedonia for financial offences.
For almost a decade, the case of the priest has been a source of dispute between the Macedonian and Serbian Churches.
The Macedonian Orthodox Church broke away unilaterally from the Serbian Church during the Communist era in Yugoslavia.
The Serbian Church has always claimed that the move was politically driven, broke church law, and should not be recognised.
It has been supported by the Orthodox world and the Macedonian Church remains unrecognised by any other Orthodox church.
After years spent abroad as a fugitive from the Macedonian legal system, in July 2013 Vraniskovski was jailed for three years for embezzling 250,000 euro.
The Skopje court said Vraniskovski pocketed the money from the Macedonian Church in 2002 before he defected to set up the so-called Ohrid Archdiocese.
A spokesperson for the Macedonian Church, Bishop Timotej, said the “trial” meant nothing in Macedonia. “SPC decisions have no validity in Macedonia,” he said.
“This is how kinsmanship and religious brotherhood are being shown in the Balkans,” the Macedonian journalist Daut Dauti noted ironically in the daily newspaper, Dnevnik.
“It is the peak of those ‘brotherly’ relations that follow the futile statement by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic that he would help normalize relations between the churches,” he added.
In October 2012, President Nikolic raised hopes of a breakthrough in the dispute, saying he was ready to engage in finding a solution.
Another spark of hope emerged in May, when prominent Macedonian clerics called for Vraniskovski to be pardoned. They said releasing him early would improve the Macedonian Church’s bargaining position ahead of a major Orthodox summit in Istanbul in 2016.
The ecumenical council will be the first in over 1,200 years to gather Orthodox church leaders from all around the world and the Macedonian side was hoping to be able to solve the dispute by then.
The Macedonian Church’s position is complex owing to repeated shifts in Balkan boundaries. In the 19th century, most of the dioceses it now covers formed part of what was known as the Bulgarian Exarchate.
After Serbia conquered much of Ottoman Macedonia in 1912-13, the dioceses were placed under the control of the Serbian Church.
Matters rested there until the end of WW2, when Macedonia gained a degree of political independence as a separate republic in the new Yugoslav federation, after which pressure gathered for the local Church to gain independence as well.
This culminated in 1967 when the Macedonian dioceses in Yugoslavia proclaimed independence – known as autocephaly. The Serbian Church declared this move non-canonical.
Macedonia detains more than 100 illegal immigrants from Syria, Iraq (Reuters, 1 September 2014)
SKOPJE – Macedonian authorities have detained more than 100 illegal immigrants, mostly from Syria and Iraq, who were found hiding in a train carrying coal from neighbouring Greece, the interior ministry said on Monday.
The immigrants were discovered late on Sunday in Veles, a town in central Macedonia.
“It was difficult to communicate with most of them, they didn’t know where they are, where they are coming from or where they were going,” said interior ministry spokesman Ivo Koteski.
He said information police had managed to gather suggested they had crossed into Turkey from neighbouring Syria and Iraq and were then smuggled into Greece. From there they were supposed to travel through Macedonia into Serbia before continuing towards Western Europe.
Koteski said the group was being held at a centre for illegal immigrants near the capital Skopje and that Macedonia plans to repatriate the immigrants to Greece.
Police said the immigrants had paid around 3,000 euros apiece to be smuggled into Greece, and additional 800-900 euros to go on to Serbia.
Macedonia, a small Balkan country of two million people, is rarely the final destination for illegal immigrants, but is a main crossroad on the route to Western Europe.
Three million Syrian refugees are registered in neighbouring countries, but many remain trapped by the advance of Islamist militants or are having difficulty in reaching open border crossings, the United Nations said on Friday.
Syrians desperate to leave their homeland after more than three years of civil war are forced to pay hefty bribes at armed checkpoints proliferating along Syria’s borders, or to smugglers, the U.N. refugee agency said. (Reporting by Kole Casule; Editing by Ivana Sekularac and Catherine Evans)
Islamic Jihadists Transiting Croatia, Report Warns (BIRN, by Sven Milekic, 2 September 2014)
Members of radical Islamic groups are crossing Croatian territory to fight in Iraq and Syria, a report by Croatia’s Security and Intelligence Agency, the SOA, said.
Croatia’s Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, on Sunday warned that Islamist jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq are using Croatia as a “transit area on their way to and back from” the war zones of the Middle East.
The report states that “no persons living in the Republic of Croatia who have fought or who are still fighting in jihadist units have been identified”, but adds that those transiting the country still pose a security risk.
The report notes that several hundred people from countries in the region went to Syria and Iraq to fight since 2012.
The returning jihadists represent a direct security risk to their countries of origin, since these persons are “additionally radicalized, traumatized by war experiences and trained for armed combat,” the report said.
It said that the extremists use the internet and social networks to spread their views and recruit supporters.
The SOA said it had made the document public as part of moves to make itself more transparent and build trust in the eyes of the public.