LOCAL PRESS

Vucic: Austria supports opening of Chapters 5, 15, 25 и 26 (Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has stated in Belgrade that Austria supports Serbia on the EU integration path and especially the opening of Chapters 5, 15, 25 and 26 that refer to public procurement, energy, science, research, education and culture, and not only 23 and 24. At a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, Vucic assessed that the Action Plan on Cooperation between Serbia and Austria will represent further impetus to Serbia on the EU path. Vucic said that the two countries would continue dialogue at the deputy ministerial level towards having coordinated activities, while working on creating further conditions for fighting terrorism and all risks posing a threat to modern Europe. “We will work together on the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, further preservation of regional stability and development of better relations between the Western Balkan countries,” said Vucic. Concerning the migrant crisis, Kurz said his country received 90,000 asylum seekers last year.

“This year, we cannot accept the same number, and Autria can receive this year 37,500 people at the most. We are aware this could have repercussions along the Balkans route for migrants. However, I wanted to inform you that the situation could change, and that we are willing to support the governments to reduce the wave of refugees.We have informed the governments in B&H, and in Serbia today, that a change of the situation may arise, but we are ready to assist the countries in the region in reducing the influx of refugees. Austria is ready to provide personnel support to countries in the Western Balkans. Countries must take national measures, but cooperation on a broader level is also necessary. We need to act in coordination with each other and help each other,” Kurz said. Vucic said that Serbia is ready to help, but to the extent that will not jeopardize its economic future. He said he understands the difficulties that Austria faces and that its plan to limit the number of new refugees this year could mean that Slovenia and Croatia will at some point close their borders, but that Serbia will not be raising walls.

Previously, Vucic and Kurz had presented the Action Plan on Cooperation between Serbia and Austria in the current year, which envisages continuation of support of official Vienna to Belgrade on the EU path towards opening further chapters, as well as continuation of further cooperation regarding the refugee crisis. According to this plan, 2016 should be used for opening more chapters, especially Chapters 23, 24, but also 5, 15, 25 and 26. It envisages continuation of regular bilateral political consultations at the deputy foreign ministerial level. The plan envisages continuation of joint efforts in the field of de-radicalization and fight against terrorism through the implementation of the Vienna declaration in combatting violent terrorism and terrorism in March last year. Austria will support the normalization process between Belgrade and Pristina, and joint work on good neighborly relations and resolution of bilateral disputes is also envisaged.

Dacic: We will close borders if others do so (Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has stated that if some countries along the Balkan route close their borders for refugees, Serbia will be forced to apply the same decision at the border with Macedonia. At a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz; Dacic stressed that migrants cannot be stationed in Serbia. “It is important that countries inform each other and that there are no surprises but a predictable policy,” said Dacic.

Djuric: SNS to convincingly win in Kosovo and Metohija (Politika)

Member of the SNS Presidency Marko Djuric said yesterday in Leposavic that the SNS will win convincingly at the upcoming early elections in Serbia, especially in Kosovo and Metohija. A session of the SNS provincial board was held in Leposavic, which was attended by Bratislav Gasic, SNS vice president Marko Djuric, Presidency member Luka Petrovic, vice president of the SNS Executive Board Zoran Milojevic, members of the Executive Board Goran Rakic, Vladeta Kostic, Branimir Stojanovic, and many other members and supporters. “The SNS policy is directed towards a strong Serbia. Our people know and understand very well what the policy towards Kosovo and Metohija is. The elections will be held throughout the territory, and the SNS victory will be more convincing compared to the last elections,” said Djuric, noting that the SNS is the biggest guarantor of success in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and the implementation of the agreed.

Djuric: Obligation of establishing ZSO lies on Pristina (RTS)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric told RTS in Leposavic that the ZSO is the idea and goal of the Serbian policy for Kosovo and Metohija for which there is support of the international community, which resulted in the agreement, whereby Pristina committed itself to enable its formation. “Their obstruction has been going on for more than six months, as well as attempts at preventing its establishment. However, considering that the balance of power in the world and influence of the international community in Kosovo and Metohija is large and expressed, there is no doubt that this will occur; it is only a matter of time. Now, after the latest meeting, it was agreed for the Management Team for the establishment of the ZSO to commence the work on drafting the Statute and you can expect this to formally begin in the following days,” said Djuric.

Simic: ZSO will not be an NGO (Novosti)

So far, we have distanced ourselves from political disagreements between the authorities and the opposition, but if the agreement on the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) is brought into question, we will not allow that it is made into a pointless NGO, the leader of the Serb List Slavko Simic said after the meeting of Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga with leaders of political parties. He assessed that the ruling parties were ready to overcome the political crisis, while the opposition wants elections.

We collected evidence on KLA crimes during Djindjic’s government (Danas, by Zoran Mijatovic, former deputy head of State Security)

Milovan Drecun’s statement on the occasion of the collection of facts and evidence in shedding light on crimes against Serbs and other communities in Kosovo and Metohija was published on 5 February by Danas. The statement says that the Working group for Collecting Facts and Evidence has information that there are war diaries on the terrorist KLA that were confiscated by KFOR. This statement is very disputable since KFOR has never dealt with this. What corresponds to the truth is the fact that the State Security Service had access to these diaries and other evidence on KLA crimes a long time ago and forwarded them to the ICTY. Thus, Drecun is not telling the truth, or he is intentionally dosing it in line with the interests of the party that he is the member of. On the other side, it is natural for our institutions to deal with this affair. However, in order to really approach this, it is first necessary to tell the truth. Namely, this state has been dealing with this for the past 15 years and I am sure that Drecun has been acquainted with this fact.

RS Army general Tolimir dies in The Hague (Tanjug)

The Republika Srpska (RS) general Zdravko Tolimir has died in his prison cell in the ICTY detention unit, the Tribunal has confirmed for N1. In April last year, Tolimir was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killings of Muslims in Srebrenica, B&H, in the summer of 1995. During the war, Tolimir served as assistant for information and security affairs to the RS commander Ratko Mladic. Tolimir was handed the whole-life sentence in 2012, for having a command responsibility in the destruction of Muslim communities under UN protection in the towns of Srebrenica and Zepa.

Ljajic: Difficult prison conditions led to Tolimir’s death (Kurir)

The President of the National Council for Cooperation with the ICTY Rasim Ljajic told Kurir that the Serbian Embassy in the Netherlands has received official confirmation of the ICTY on the death of the RS Army general Zdravko Tolimir. “This is the procedure. The ICTY first informs our embassy, and only then they inform officials in Serbia. We have just received official confirmation and the information on the circumstances of the death.” He agrees that it is symptomatic that so many detainees have in the meantime become seriously ill, even died, but stressed that general Tolimir was ill even before he departed for The Hague. “I suppose that specific prison conditions have additionally contributed to his illness spreading and inability of its adequate treatment,” says Ljajic. He says that he was in contact with Tolimir and his attorney team at the time of his arrest and extradition to the ICTY. “We sent then a medical team to examine him,” said Ljajic.

REGIONAL PRESS

No changes, we will submit the application for EU membership on 15 February (Nezavisne)

Mladen Ivanic, member of the B&H Presidency, announced that the Presidency of B&H made a decision that the application for membership in the EU will be submitted on 15 February this year. “There will be no changes. We are aware that there will be some reserves but sooner or later we have to give Europe to choose whether to support B&H or not,” said Ivanic.

The Chairman of the B&H Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdic, said that he believes that the application for membership of B&H in the EU will be credible and that B&H needs strong support so that processes that would lead it to the official candidacy for membership in the EU would be launched. The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik said that the candidate status for membership in the EU will be the maximum B&H will achieve on its European path since it has not the capacity for something more.

Dodik: Referendum on B&H Court and Prosecutor’s Office on hold until full consensus (Fena/Srna)

The RS President Milorad Dodik confirmed that the referendum in RS on the B&H Court and the Prosecutor’s Office is put on hold, as long as there is no consensus of all political parties in RS, that is, the position and the opposition in the entity. Dodik says the referendum issue has been legalized and that the referendum on the B&H Court and the Prosecutor’s Office will be held in RS when a consensus is reached.

Dodik: B&H is not a legal state, and under the Constitution and the Dayton Peace Agreement, has no right to have the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office (Nezavisne)

The RS President Milorad Dodik said that B&H is not eligible for the B&H Court and Prosecutor’s Office, and that the RS must never give them the extra power, although, unfortunately, some do. Dodik stressed that the issue of the Court and Prosecutor’s Office was imposed as part of a strategy of the international community who came to B&H to implement the Dayton agreement by strengthening the role of the High Representative and realize their plan of unitary and centralized B&H. “The Court and the Prosecution excluded the case against Naser Oric from Bijeljina Court, froze it for seven or eight years, did nothing about it, received a video in which Atif Dudakovic ordered that everything Serb is to be burned and they should be killed and he is not prosecuted for it, of course I will ask the questions, and If you do, you are immediately, according to their criteria, the bad guy. Asked whether the indictments against the leaders of the SBB B&H Fahrudin Radoncic is a mounted political process, the President of RS stressed that B&H, by its definition, is not a Legal State, and under the Constitution and the Dayton Peace Agreement, has no right to have the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office and should not get used to it.  Dodik reiterated that the judiciary is under the exclusive jurisdiction of entities and, accordingly, B&H can never be a legal state, and is not intended to be one. According to Dodik, B&H has a caricature of the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office, which are politically motivated and misused in all processes, and probably also in this one against Radoncic. Speaking about the SDA and SBB coalition, and claims that it has never been stronger, despite the arrest of Radoncic, Dodik said that the coalition was made by foreigners (international factor) and that its destiny does not depend on the leaders of the SDA and SBB.

Dodik returned the law on police and internal affairs to the Assembly for review (Srna)

The RS President Milorad Dodik returned the law on police and internal affairs to the National Assembly for a repeated review, learns Srna. The National Assembly later on confirmed that they have received a request from the President Milorad Dodik to re-examine the law on police and internal affairs. President Dodik explained that he returned the law on police and internal affairs to the RS Parliament “because of the request of Bosniaks to include a regulation pertaining to the 1991 population census in everything, including this law”.

Karadzic’s advisor Jovan Tintor arrested (Klix)

Police officers of the Border Police Unit Bijeljina arrested J.T. (1951), citizen of the Republic of Serbia, on 8 February at 1:50 p.m. According to unofficial information, the arrested was Jovan Tintor, war-time advisor of Radovan Karadzic and a Chetnik duke. The border check-up revealed that he is being searched for by the Cantonal Court Sarajevo for criminal offenses “genocide” and “demolition of cultural and historical monuments”. Head of the Cabinet of the director of Border Police of B&H Radisa Samardzija confirmed that the arrested J.T. was accompanied by a lawyer while entering B&H. “At one moment, J.T. left the official premises and headed towards Serbia. His intentions were interrupted by the officers of the Border Police Unit Bijeljina, who applied physical force and used means of restraint. The subject was arrested and kept in the official premises until being taken over by the relevant authorities,” Samardzija said. Tintor was the first man of SDS Vogosca, Special Advisor and financier of Radovan Karadzic. According to his own statements, he originates from a Chetnik family. Jovan Tintor was the President of Crisis Staff of the Serb Municipality of Vogosca. According to his orders, the infamous camp “Kod Sonje” was established, as well as other camps on the territory of Vogosca. Tintor killed Branko Petrovic in Serbia in 2012, after a fight. For this crime he was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2015.​

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Bosnia Police ‘Not Informed’ About Pressure on Witnesses (BIRN, by Denis Dzidic, 8 February 2016)

Bosnia’s State Investigation and Protection Agency said it had no information about alleged pressures on witnesses to testify against former Bosnian Army troops in war crimes cases.

The State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) told BIRN on Monday that it has no knowledge of any attempts to pressurise witnesses, despite allegations made by Bosnian Army veterans’ unions and Bosniak politicians in recent days. “We have not been officially informed about [the alleged] pressure, nor do we have operational knowledge about any type of pressure against the Bosnian prosecution or court witnesses in war crimes cases,” SIPA spokesperson Kristina Jozic told BIRN. Over the past week, Bosniak veterans’ and victims’ associations have issued several statements claiming that there have been attempts to manipulate witnesses to testify against former Bosnian Army troops. The president of the Mothers of Srebrenica association Hatidza Mehmedovic alleged that there have been attempts to influence witnesses in the case against former Bosnian Army general Naser Oric, who is about to stand trial for crimes against Serbs in Srebrenica in 1992. “There have been attempts to pay off and influence witnesses who have no knowledge. We are bitter, the victims are bitter, because all this is being done to equalise the guilt between the Serb side, which committed genocide, and the Bosnian Army,” Mehmedovic told BIRN. She added that the victims’ group hoped that SIPA and the Bosnian prosecution would investigate the allegations. On Thursday last week, the Union of Former Bosnian Army Generals had a meeting with leading Bosniak politicians, including Bosnian residency member Bakir Izetbegovic, to raise the allegations. “We wanted to show our objection to the larger number of indictments against former Bosnian Army generals and pressures on witnesses,” said the president of the union, Vahid Karavelic. As well as Oric, the Bosnian prosecution recently indicted the former commander of the Bosnian Army’s Third Corps, Sakib Mahmuljin, for alleged war crimes, and initiated proceedings against a number of other Bosniak veterans. Izetbegovic told local media that he believed that the pressure on witnesses had resulted in more indictments. Like Mehmedovic, he also claimed there was an “attempt to equalise the guilt between Serbs and Bosniaks”. “But this will not work historically… The Bosnian Army defended territory, but other sides systematically acted against civilians and committed crimes,” Izetbegovic said. The Bosnian prosecution has refused to comment on the allegations.

At the Macedonian border, migrants know time is running out (The Economist, 9 February 2016)

Syrian refugees fear the border will close. For north Africans it already has

ON THE migrant trail at the border between Greece and Macedonia, everyone is scared. Refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are scared that Europe’s doors are closing. Economic migrants from Morocco and Algeria, trying to pass themselves off as refugees, are frightened that they will be turned back and forced to take deadly risks to evade border guards. The Greeks are worried that if the Macedonians seal the border, the refugees will be trapped in Greece. The Macedonians are frightened that the Serbs, one step further along the migrant route, will do the same to them. The point of arrival for migrants in Macedonia is a transit camp set up last year among the vineyards outside the dusty town of Gevgelija, better known before the crisis as a place where Greeks come to gamble in local casinos or have cheap dentistry work done. The Macedonians built the camp next to the railway line that comes up from the Greek port of Thessaloniki, which crosses the border fence next to a marker bearing the letters SFRJ—the initials of the long-vanished Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Nearby, a covered passage allows refugees to walk from the Idomeni transit camp, just across the fence on the Greek side, up to the checkpoint that brings them into Macedonia. Since November only Iraqis, Afghans and Syrians have been allowed through. They show the border guards the travel documents given to them by Greek authorities when they arrive in Greece. At the moment 50 to 100 migrants are rejected every day because the Macedonians say they have fake papers, or can tell (by accent or other clues) that they are not from eligible countries. In both camps everyone wants to move as fast as possible, terrified that the path to Germany could be closed any day. Already the Macedonians are building a second layer of razor-wire fencing. “You can feel the fear,” says Jesper Frovin Jensen, the UNICEF emergency coordinator in Gevgelija. But hold-ups are frequent. In January taxi drivers in Gevgelija began blocking the railway line out of the camp. Many had purchased taxi licences—at €1,500 ($1,680) each—the previous summer, hoping to profit from the refugees by taking them to the Serbian border. Then the authorities built a makeshift train platform next to the camp, cutting the cabbies out of the business.

To prevent obstacles such as the taxi drivers’ protests from creating bottlenecks, the Macedonian police report frequently to the Greek police to let them know how many migrants have been processed and sent north. The Greeks in turn delay the buses coming up from the port of Piraeus until the Macedonian camp is clear, regulating the flow. The entire system is remarkably well-organised. Nikola Poposki, Macedonia’s foreign minister, said his officials were in daily contact with their counterparts all the way up the line to Berlin. In any case, he reflected, the current migration is really nothing new: in their trek up the Vardar river valley, the migrants are following an ancient route “used by the Romans, Ottomans and Crusaders”. For those fleeing the Middle East’s war zones, getting through means everything. Sena Suleiman, 38, is a Kurdish nurse from the city of Mosul in Iraq, controlled by Islamic State (IS) since 2014. She reached Gevgelija with her husband and three children, coming the entire way with a metal walker; her legs were injured, she says, when IS fighters blew up the house of her uncle next door. Her brother was killed by crossfire in the street, and another relative was beheaded. “I will never go back,” she says through tears. Just 200 metres away, across the Greek border in Idomeni, Qamar Ahmad Noor, 34, sits on the ground with his wife Neelah, 23. She is due to give birth within ten days. They fled their home city of Lahore, in Pakistan; Mr Noor says he is a member of the persecuted Ahmadiyya religious minority, and that his wife’s brothers kidnapped her twice and might kill them if he does not convert to their brand of Islam. But Pakistan is not one of the three countries whose citizens are presumed to need asylum (such as Syria), so Mr Noor has no idea how to get across to Gevgelija. The picture is bleak for those who fail. Every day the Macedonians expel people they have caught who had crossed illegally. Yasin Tasak, A 22-year-old Moroccan economic migrant, was sent trudging back to Greece with five other Moroccans and one Algerian, after they had walked 50km (31 miles) west from the camp to circumvent the border fence. When they stopped to rest, five men approached them. “They stole our phones and everything. They had guns. Then they let us go,” says Mr Tasak. After walking another two days and reaching a railway station, they were arrested by the Macedonian police, who, he says, beat them on the legs to deter them from trying the journey again. Many of those who do not make it across congregate at the Hara hotel, down the road from the transit camp. Here they meet traffickers who promise to get them to the Serbian border, or simply congregate in groups to try the crossing again. Sami Ziad, 28, from Tunisia, says he has tried to get through five or six times. Pointing at a snow-capped mountain to the west, he says he tried to cross there with a group of twenty. “Two or three died. They could not walk anymore.” Eventually the Macedonians caught them, firing pistols in the air as they rounded them up. Asked if he might give up, he says there is nothing for him in Tunisia. “Personally I am not frightened,” he adds, “I have to go.”
Greece struggles to hit EU migrant hotspot deadline (EUobserver, by Nikolaj Nielsen, 9 February 2016)

Greece is struggling to get its refugee arrival screening zones finished by a 15 February deadline.

EU demands to have the five so-called hotspots up and running on the Aegean islands is meeting local resistance.

On Monday (8 February), Greek minister for national defence Panos Kammenos said it would deliver on “a pledge to complete the work for the centres” by the deadline. Greek daily Kathimerini reports that less than half the work at the proposed hotspots in Samos and Kos is completed. Work on the other sites in Lesbos, Leros and Chios is more advanced. Last week, the Greek government sent in the army to speed up the work. But Kos residents have slowed the work by blockading the construction site. The island’s mayor has warned that the facility would curb tourism on the island.

Racism row

The hotspots, along with others set up in Italy, are a key component in a broader EU scheme to relocate some 160,000 asylum seekers across EU states. The relocation plan has largely failed to deliver since it was launched last September. So far, only about 500 people have been relocated.

Aside from the logistical problems of chartering flights, some governments in Eastern Europe are imposing screening demands that reject Muslims and black people, reports AFP. “They [member states] ask us not to be black, they ask us not to be big families, they ask us for more security,” said Greece’s interior minister for migration Yiannis Mouzalas. Over 68,000 people have arrived seeking asylum or refuge in Greece since the start of year. Many attempt to reach mainland EU by travelling through the Western Balkans. The UN agency for refugees (UNHCR) says roughly 60 percent entering Macedonia from Greece are now women and children. Macedonia is erecting a second fence at the Gevgelija crossing on the Greek border to stem the inflow. Only people from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria are allowed to cross the border. Plans are also under way to shore up the border on the Macedonian side with extra guards and possibly troops from other EU member states. The Slovenian plan to tighten the Macedonia border was announced last month and backed by Austria. Austria’s foreign minister Sebastian Kurtz is currently touring six Western Balkan nations.