LOCAL PRESS
Burkhalter on a visit to Belgrade (RTS)
The President of Swiss Confederation and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Burkhalter will pay an official visit to Serbia today when he will meet with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and other top officials. During his stay in Serbia, Burkhalter, who also holds office as the OSCE chair, will meet with outgoing Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and after the meeting, the two of them should attend the opening of the Swiss-Serbian chamber of commerce which will be organized in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. The President of the Swiss Confederation and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic will sign an agreement between the Serbian government and the Swiss Federal Council on paid jobs for families of the members of the diplomatic missions, consular offices and permanent missions in international organizations, the Serbian Foreign Ministry stated. According to the release of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Burkhalter will visit Serbia, Albania and Kosovo on Thursday and Friday and meet with the leaders of the countries over the engagement of Switzerland during its presidency over OSCE. Burkhalter’s visit to the Western Balkans aims to facilitate three ongoing processes which are key for the stability in the region, including normalization of the Belgrade-Pristina relations in keeping with the provisions of the agreement reached between Belgrade and Pristina one year ago, reinforcement of regional cooperation and encouragement of regional reconciliation, and especially the search for a solution to the missing persons issue, states the release. Serbia, which is supposed to take over the OSCE chair in 2015, is Burkhalter’s first stop on his tour and the opening of the Swiss-Serbian chamber of commerce in the country where Switzerland is the third biggest investor aims to intensify the two countries’ economic ties, the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated. On his visit to Kosovo, Burkhalter will confer with young Albanians and Serbs on Friday concerning the human rights issues and he will also meet with Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga, Prime Minister Hashim Thaqi and government members. During his stay in Kosovo, the Swiss president will also visit Swiss soldiers within KFOR troops in Mitrovica and the KFOR headquarters in Pristina, the release states.
Bujanovac – university town (Novosti)
The planned construction of a Faculty of Economics building in Bujanovac, southern Serbia, will make the town a university town and create conditions for economic development and political stability in the area, the signatories of an agreement to construct the facility have said. The project will be funded by the EU and the Coordination body for the Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja municipalities, and an agreement on understanding was signed on Wednesday by Bujanovac mayor Nagib Arifi and the dean of the Faculty of Economics in Subotica Nenad Vunjak. The signing ceremony was attended by the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport, OSCE Mission head Peter Burkhard, outgoing Serbian Minister of Education Tomislav Jovanovic, the head of the Coordination body Zoran Stankovic, and Graeme Tyndall, an official of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). “The signing of the agreement will create conditions for long-term development of higher education in the area in full compliance with the relevant Serbian laws, taking into account the needs of the local self-government authorities and the citizens. The construction of the building will enable young people in Bujanovac and the entire area – Albanians, Serbs, Roma and all others – to exercise their right to education and develop their potentials, and they will be able to plan a future in their town, rather than plan to leave,” Davenport said. Burkhard pointed out that the OSCE Mission, its Bujanovac office in particular, worked on the project for years. As of today, Bujanovac can be referred to as a university town, Arifi said, adding that the higher education institution will contribute to both economic development and political stability. The construction will be funded by the EU through donations worth EUR 1.2 million, the Coordination body will set aside 30 million Dinars, while the Bujanovac municipality will provide whatever else is required, Stankovic said. Tyndall said that UNOPS supports the construction of the faculty building in Bujanovac. A department of the Faculty of Economics in Subotica has been operating in Bujanovac for the past three years. It currently has 256 students – Albanians, Serbs and Roma.
Court for KLA – step closer to the truth (Tanjug)
The decision of the Kosovo Assembly to found a special tribunal for crimes described in Dick Marty’s report represents a step closer to the truth, the spokesperson of Clint Williamson’s special investigative team Joao Souza told Tanjug. “Now we are a step closer to resolve this matter for once and all,” he said, commenting the adoption of the law that establishes a special tribunal for crimes against the civilian population perpetratred by the KLA members in 1999 and 2000.
Organ trafficking court in Pristina expected to bring criminals to justice (Tanjug)
The Head of the Centre for Regionalism Aleksandar Popov opines that the creation of a special tribunal for war crimes committed by members of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is a significant thing, adding that he hoped it would bring to justice those responsible for war crimes. There has been exceptionally strong resistance in Kosovo to taking action against those responsible for crimes during the war there, he told Tanjug. “I think that the ICTY contributed to that somewhat, since it turned into political court to an extent by allowing some war criminals to avoid punishment,” he noted, stressing that Ramus Haradinaj, a former commander in the KLA, had definitely been one of those. The ICTY acquitted Haradinaj citing lack of evidence, Popov stated, adding that Haradinaj had been released pending his trial and even allowed to be prime minister for a while after being indicted. That gave Haradinaj enough time to destroy the evidence, and a number of witnesses who should have been included in the case against him disappeared, Popov said, pointing out that it was one of the key arguments for the necessity of establishing a special tribunal. The evidence prepared for the case concerning the so called yellow house in Albania, involving organ harvesting from living people, is also a strong argument, and it is very important to settle that once and for all, particularly through such a tribunal, he underscored. “I hope the court will do what it is supposed to and those responsible for war crimes to justice,” Popov concluded.
Orahovac soon to remain without Serbs (Tanjug)
Serbs are increasingly leaving Orahovac in Kosovo and Metohija, with 15 Serb houses being sold in the upper part of the municipality in the past few days alone, and the Serbs there are very worried about it, according to the Frankfurt-based Serb Diaspora newspaper Vesti. The houses are sold at prices ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 Euros and if this continues, by the end of the year there will be none of the remaining 300 Serbs in the Serb part of Orahovac left, the remaining Serbs warn. They have appealed to the Serbian president and government to immediately take all necessary measures and come up with solutions for the remaining houses. We stayed when it was the most difficult, and now they are forcing us to leave with the use of money, Serbs from Orahovac told Vesti. Marjan Saric, former president of the Orahovac municipality, recalls that during the signing of the Brussels agreement on normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, there was a lot of talk about improving the position of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, and “a year away from the signing of the agreement, there has been no improvement in resolving everyday problems faced by people in Kosovo and Metohija.” Asked about which agreements have worked in Serbs’ favor, he said it should be borne in mind that the first of the 15 points in the Brussels agreement is forming the Union of Serb Municipalities, and this has not been carried into effect at all.
NATO supports Kosovo forces (Beta)
The Kosovo Force Commander, Major General Salvatore Farina, received Admiral Dragan Samardzic, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forced of Montenegro, for the first time in KFOR HQ in Pristina. Major Farina underlined that NATO supports the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) “within the current mandate”. “Those core capabilities make the KSF able to become an important interlocutor in Kosovo and in the Balkan area to contribute to the regional security and stability”, Farina said following the meeting with Admiral Samardzic and KSF Commander, Lieutenant General Kadri Kastrati. Farina underlined the improvement on the security situation in Kosovo after the 19 April Belgrade – Pristina agreement and confirmed the continuous effort of the NATO mission to contribute to safe and secure environment and freedom of movement creating the necessary conditions to support the dialogue and the progress for all the people in Kosovo. Farina and Samardzic spoke about the security situation in Kosovo with specific reference to the North and the area bordering with Montenegro. They gave great importance of mutual cooperation in order to enhance the security situation at regional level. General Farina thanked Admiral Samardzic for the constant efforts made by the Montenegrin Armed Forces in order to enhance the stability and the overall security through the dialogue and the cooperation with all the interlocutors in the area.
REGIONAL PRESS
Moscow preparing sanctions to Podgorica? (Beta)
Russia will introduce certain sanctions to Montenegro because Podgorica has joined the stands and measures of the EU and U.S. towards Russia in regard to the Ukranian crisis. According to the Russian media quoted by TV Montenegro, Moscow might abolish the non-visa regime in relations with Montenegro, and trade facilitations. Rossiyskaya Gazeta is quoted as having reported that “the Russians are permanently pushed out from all spheres of life in Montenegro.” In that context they note the “confiscation” of property of the Amuninum plant in Podgorica that was owned by Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, and that the Niksic Ironworks used to be owned by a Russian company that “was forced to urgently leave Montenegro while the government sold the company to an English buyer.” However, Podgorica daily Pobjeda writes that the Montenegrin Embassy in Moscow has not been delivered any document nor has it been officially told in any way that the Russian Federation will introduce sanctions to Montenegro. It is stated that the majority mood of the population in Montenegro is “pro-Russian” but that “despite this” the government of Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic is turning Montenegro towards the EU and NATO. The Russian paper says that Russia “must defend the interests and property of its citizens in the Balkans.” Some Podgorica-based analysts have recently assessed that Russia’s reaction regarding Montenegro’s stands on the Ukranian crisis contains the elements of “Informbiro intonation”, i.e. of an open threat to Montegro’s sovereignty. The Russian Foreign Ministry has recently assessed that Djukanovic had given “unfriendly statements” on Russia during his visit to the U.S. However, Djukanovic only voiced the stand that Montenegro’s national and state interest is to join NATO and the EU, Podgorica stated.
Pageant for Miss Albania in Ulcinj (Politika)
The announcement that the pageant for Miss Albania will be held this year in Ulcinj has caused fierce comments of the opposition representatives. They say that they have nothing against the holding of this event, but point out that the pageant for Miss Serbia in Montenegro would be certainly opposed by the government and part of the opposition. The leader of the Movement for Changes and MP of the most influential Democratic Front Nebojsa Medojevic has stated that it is good for Montenegro to be recognized as a state where all nations are welcome, which is also good for tourism. “It is not disputable for me when they are waving with the Serbian flag in Berane, nor when Albanians are waving with their own in Ulcinj,” said Medojevic. He added that he would like the pageant for Miss Serbia and Miss B&H to be held in Montenegro as well. “The only thing I oppose is when first grade and second grade citizens are created, so when the Serbs are doing something then it is against the state but when the Albanians are doing something then it is good,” says Medojevic. Gojko Raicevic, the editor of the IN4S portal, says it is a fact that the arrival of Albanian beauties to Montenegro will be approved by most of the citizens both in Albania and Montenegro, which is recognition for the most southern coastal town. “The time and people who would condemn such decision are behind us and represent a negligible minority that awakes usually as a reaction to expression of an identity that is not to their liking. I have in mind the recent reaction full of chauvinist décor because the residents of Berane, who are mostly Serbs, celebrated victory by displaying their national flags. Isn’t this Europe that we want? Albanians in Ulcinj and Serb in Skadar or Dubrovnik?” said Raicevic. MPs of the Socialist People’s Party didn’t want to comment the pageant for Miss Albania in Ulcinj. The spokesperson of the New Serb Democracy Jovan Vucurovic says that only the most influential Democratic Party of Socialists could answer whether the holding of this event is the promotion of the so-called Natural Albania or something else.
Radmanovic: FB&H politicians invoke anarchy in B&H (Srna)
The Serb member of the B&H Presidency Nebojsa Radmanovic said that the decision of the Republika Srpska (RS) cabinet on residence is a good move as it introduces more order in the RS, and a call for such a decision not to be adopted is a call for anarchy in B&H, which is an anti-European approach. Radmanovic said that the decision on residence is not anti-Dayton, as FB&H politicians claim, since in some parts of B&H such a decision has already been in force.
“This does not mean that we do not want to introduce order in the whole of B&H if these gentlemen want to adopt a law which would be valid in the whole of B&H, but if they don’t, then the decision of the RS government will be in force,” Radmanovic told reporters in Banjaluka. He said that FB&H politicians are wrong when it comes to the this decision as every country in Europe has the issue of residence regulated this way, so that it is known who lives where. “I don’t recall that we did anything in the RS that was not attacked by Sarajevo, regardless of what was in question, whether a decision or a law,” Radmanovic said.
Cvijanovic: Story of residence finished (Srna)
The Republika Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic has told Srna she considers the story of residence finished, and wonders why the Office of the High Representative (OHR) should react when it knows that 10 people were falsely registered to live in the OHR building in Sarajevo, and that the number is now probably much higher. “I want to believe that the High Representative Valentin Inzko does not promote such irregularities in B&H, like he would not promote similar things in his own country either,” Cvijanovic said in comment to Inzko’s statement that the OHR would react after it saw a the RS government’s decision on checking of residence. “In my opinion, the story of residence is finished. When the law is passed, the decision will no longer be valid,” Cvijanovic said.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Gojkovic elected Serbian parliament speaker (Xinhua, 23 April 2014)
BELGRADE — At a constitutive session of the Serbian parliament, newly appointed MPs elected Maja Gojkovic as the speaker on Wednesday.
At the inaugural session of the National Assembly held Wednesday, Gojkovic from the Serbian Progressive Party become the president of the parliament with 194 MPs in favor and 14 against. Nine MPs abstained from voting while 33 were absent.
Speaking to parliamentarians after the voting, Gojkovic said that she will continue the work of her predecessors in improving democracy and tolerance in the parliament.
“I promise I will persist in securing that all MPs are equal in rights and responsibilities, whether they are in the ruling majority or the opposition,” Gojkovic said.
Six deputy speakers were also elected – Veroljub Arsic and Igor Becic from SNS, Gordana Comic from the Democratic Party (DS), Ninoslav Stojadinovic from the New Democratic Party (NDS), Vladimir Marinkovic from the Social Democratic Party of Sanjak (SDPS) and Konstantin Arsenovic from the Party of United Pensioneers (PUPS).
According to the results of the March 16 elections, seven parties share 250 seats in the parliament — the Serbian Progressive Party has 158 parliament seats, the Socialist Party of Serbia 44, the Democratic Party 19, the New Democratic Party with 18, the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians 6, the Social Democratic Party of Sanjak 3, while the Movement for Democratic Action (PDD) has 2 MPs.
After Serbian parliament adopts the Law on Governement and Ministries, new PM and ministers will be sworn in front of members of parliament on April 27, as it was announced earlier by Aleksandar Vucic, leader of the Serbian Progressive Party that received a mandate from Serbian president to form a new government, and is a candidate for the position of PM.
Dacic Tipped For Foreign Ministry in Serbia (BIRN, 24 April 2014)
As the Progressives, Socialists and the Hungarian minority party prepare to sign a deal on new government, names of candidates for cabinet posts have emerged, including Ivica Dacic’s as a possible Foreign Minister.
Ivica Dacic, Serbia’s outgoing Prime and Interior Minister and leader of the Socialist Party, is likely to become Serbia’s next foreign minister.
In this post, he would be able to continue Serbia-Kosovo talks and implementation of the 2013 Brussels agreement on normalisation of relations between the two countries.
His Socialist Party is likely to get two more cabinet posts. Dijana Vukomanovic is tipped as a future education minister while Aleksandar Antic will likely remain transport minister.
Aleksandar Vucic, leader of the victorious Progressive Party, will replace Dacic as Prime Minister while Nebojsa Stefanovic, also from the Progressives, the outgoing parliamentary speaker, is tipped to replace Dacic at the Interior Ministry.
Zorana Mihajlovic, of the Progressives, the outgoing energy minister, is likely to become next Deputy Prime Minister. Rasim Ljajic, member of the Progressives’ current coalition, is set to continue chairing the Telecommunications Ministry.
The Progressives’ Aleksandar Vulin, outgoing minister without portfolio in charge of Kosovo, is likely to become the new labour minister.
Dejan Djurdjevic, head of the Electoral Commission, RIK, is likely to be the next justice minister if the outgoing Nikola Selakovic is elected Mayor of Belgrade.
The new government will also keep three non-party ministers from the last government – Finance Minister Lazar Krstic, Culture Minister Ivan Tasovac and Sports Minister Vanja Udovicic.
The Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, which is due to be part of the new government, along with the Socialists and the Progressives, will not have ministerial posts.
In the March 16 election, the Progressive Party won 158 of the 250 seats, the Socialists took 44 and the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians six.
According to Vucic, the new cabinet is due to be formed by April 27. He has pledged that it will be an efficient government with no more than 17 ministers.
Reluctant Kosovo approves war crimes court (SBS, 24 April 2014)
Kosovo has approved the creation of a war crimes court to investigate their conflict with Serbia – Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, a commander during the 1998-99 war, has opposed the creation of a war crimes court, calling it unjust and an insult
Kosovo’s parliament on Wednesday approved the creation of an international war crimes court to investigate allegations against ethnic Albanian guerillas during their conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s.
Pristina has been under pressure from the European Union to create the special court ever since a 2011 Council of Europe report alleged crimes including abductions, summary executions and, most controversially, the trafficking of prisoners’ organs by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the 1998-99 war.
The report by the Council’s special rapporteur Dick Marty said the KLA, which fought Serbian armed forces during the conflict, had abused, tortured and killed 500 prisoners, mostly ethnic Serbs and Roma.
Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, who was a commander during the war, had strongly opposed the creation of the court, calling it “unjust and the greatest insult” to Kosovo.
But he insisted it was “the only option” to prevent the establishment of a UN-sponsored external tribunal into the allegations.
Parliament approved the creation of the court by 89 votes to 22.
Marty accused Kosovo’s top political leaders, including Thaci and several of his closest allies, including current deputy parliament speaker Xhavit Haliti, of involvement in wartime crimes.
The report also implicated Fatmir Limaj, a former KLA commander who has previously been acquitted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
The claims of illegal detentions, mafia-style murders and alleged organ trafficking were first brought up by Carla Del Ponte, the lead UN war crimes prosecutor, in a book she published in 2008.
Thaci and his government have denied the accusations and condemned Del Ponte and Marty’s claims.
The new war crimes court will be seated in Pristina, but “sensitive proceedings, including hearing of witnesses, would take place outside of the country in view of the nature of the allegations,” the EU mission in Kosovo said in a statement.
No date has yet been set for the court to be created.
New Kosovo war crimes tribunal criticized (swissinfor.ch and agencies, 24 April 2014)
Carla del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor for the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has expressed her surprise at a new court to deal with alleged war crimes committed at the end of the 1990s in Kosovo, notably an illegal organ trade.
In an interview with Swiss Public Radio, SRF, on Thursday, del Ponte said a new tribunal was not needed and added she was “taken aback” that it would actually be based in Kosovo.
A report into the allegations of organ trading was published by Council of Europe envoy and ex-Swiss senator Dick Marty in December 2010. It was then adopted by the Council of Europe in 2011.
The document was controversial as it alleged that senior Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commanders, including the current prime minister, Hashim Thaci, had been involved in organised crime and organ trafficking during and after the war.
Kosovo’s parliament decided on Wednesday to set up the new tribunal, which will deal specifically with crimes allegedly committed by the KLA in the country between 1998 and 1999.
Del Ponte said that even though the existing tribunal in the Hague had existed for years, it had struggled with a lack of co-operation from Kosovo.
“Witnesses have to give testimony in court, and when the court is in Kosovo it will be even more difficult than it was in the Hague. Witnesses are threatened and put under pressure,” del Ponte told SRF.
She added that this was a major hindrance to progress.
Intervenir en Syrie ? Le mauvais exemple du Kosovo (Le Figaro, Jean-Christophe Buisson, 23 April 2014)
FIGAROVOX HUMEUR – Alors que certains appellent à une intervention armée de l’Occident en Syrie, l’écrivain et journaliste au Figaro Magazine Jean-Christophe Buisson rappelle les effets désastreux pour les Serbes du recours par les États-Unis et l’Union européenne à la guérilla albanaise en Yougoslavie.
Il y a quinze ans, en mars 1999, échaudés par les précédents croate et bosniaque, chauffés à blanc par des intellectuels hémiplégiques, les États-Unis et l’Union européenne lançaient une campagne de bombardement sur la Yougoslavie (la Serbie, en réalité) afin d’empêcher un «génocide» au Kosovo. Selon certains journalistes et les témoignages d’Albanais fuyant leur région, 100 000 victimes étaient déjà à déplorer et un exode d’une ampleur similaire à celui de la première grande épuration ethnique du XXe siècle (les Grecs orthodoxes chassés d’Anatolie par les Turcs après le traité de Lausanne) était en cours. Il y avait urgence à intervenir. Pour l’aider à combattre, l’armée yougoslave, l’Otan – qui agit là sans résolution de l’ONU – fit appel à la guérilla albanaise locale, l’UÇK (Armée de libération du Kosovo). Classée jusqu’en 1998 dans la catégorie «organisation terroriste» du département d’État américain, financée essentiellement par le trafic d’héroïne, elle devenait subitement plus que fréquentable: une alliée. Choquant? À Washington, on fit cyniquement savoir que la fin justifiait les moyens. Après tout, en d’autres temps et d’autres lieux, l’Amérique avait bien pactisé avec Ben Laden pour lutter contre le monstre russe…
Au terme de trois mois de guerre, Milosevic capitula. On compta les morts: entre 3 000 et 4 000, tout compris (Albanais, Serbes, Tziganes, civils, militaires). On admit du bout des lèvres qu’on avait un peu exagéré l’ampleur de la répression serbe, puis on passa à autre chose. Arraché à la Serbie, et ce, bien qu’il abritât les monastères qui ont vu naître la nation et l’identité serbes, le Kosovo fut mis sous tutelle de l’Otan. En 2008, il se déclara unilatéralement indépendant et l’Occident – qui hurlerait six ans plus tard quand la Crimée userait de la même méthode pour se rattacher à la Russie de Poutine -, applaudit à tout rompre. Du coup, à Pristina, la capitale, on rêve désormais tout haut d’une entrée prochaine dans l’Union européenne.
Le Milosevic local, Bachar el-Assad, ne fait-il pas pire que « le boucher des Balkans » ? Ne conviendrait-il pas de fournir des armes et des conseils aux vaillants « combattants de la liberté » qui œuvrent à sa chute en fermant les yeux sur leurs méthodes et leurs exactions ?
Tout va tellement pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes balkaniques que certaines chancelleries occidentales se demandent si elles ne devraient pas suivre cet exemple pour mettre fin à l’épouvantable guerre civile en Syrie (entre 100 000 et 150 000 morts déjà, et bien réels, eux). Le Milosevic local, Bachar el-Assad, ne fait-il pas pire que «le boucher des Balkans»? Ne conviendrait-il pas de fournir des armes et des conseils aux vaillants «combattants de la liberté» qui œuvrent à sa chute en fermant les yeux sur leurs méthodes et leurs exactions? Ne devrait-on pas, là aussi, intervenir en s’appuyant sur les milices antigouvernementales locales? Après tout, on l’a fait au Kosovo il y a quinze ans avec un mouvement qui se rendait coupable d’enlèvements, de trafics d’organes et d’exécutions sommaires. On l’ignorait à l’époque? Faux: mais ceux qui l’écrivaient ou le disaient étaient considérés comme manipulés ou stipendiés par Belgrade (l’auteur de ces lignes, par exemple). Et quand bien même on l’eût ignoré alors: en 2014, la chose est de notoriété publique* et cela n’empêche pas un des anciens leaders de la sinistre UÇK, Hashim Thaçi, d’être paisiblement assis dans le fauteuil de premier ministre du Kosovo depuis six ans. Ni Ramush Haradinaj, un de ses prédécesseurs, condamné pour crimes de guerre par le Tribunal pénal international de La Haye, de vivre aujourd’hui, libre, dans sa région natale.
Mais admettons le principe et observons juste les conséquences de son application. Le Kosovo de 2014 est-il réellement le pays enviable qui justifiait l’intervention musclée de l’Occident il y a quinze ans? Pays le plus pauvre d’Europe, État mafieux rebaptisé «République de l’héroïne» par les antistups anglais, il fournit, toujours selon les services britanniques, 70 % des dirigeants du marché du sexe pour la seule ville de Londres. La drogue à destination de l’Europe occidentale en provenance d’Afghanistan transite toujours, après la Turquie, par la vallée de la Drenica (dont est originaire Thaçi…), le taux de chômage du pays approche les 50 %, le trafic de voitures volées et d’êtres humains y est florissant, etc. Sans parler de la liberté de déplacement et la liberté de culte, qui ne sont pas respectées. Ainsi, la semaine dernière, vendredi saint, un groupe de 150 Serbes orthodoxes ont demandé aux forces de sécurité internationales basées au Kosovo d’être escortés jusqu’à Djakovica, dont ils avaient été chassés en 1999, pour fêter la Résurrection. L’Eulex et la Kfor leur ont adressé une fin de non-recevoir, arguant qu’elles ne pouvaient assurer leur sécurité. Cette ville du sud-ouest du Kosovo comptait 12 000 Serbes sur ses 100 000 habitants il y a quinze ans. Selon Djokica Stanojevic, président de l’Association des citoyens de Djakovica, ils ne sont plus aujourd’hui que quatre à y vivre. Quatre vieilles nonnes…
Le Kosovo, un exemple pour la Syrie de demain, vraiment?
Jean-Christophe Buisson est journaliste et écrivain. Il dirige les pages culture et art de vivre du Figaro Magazine. Il est notamment l’auteur d’Assassinés (Perrin, 2013)
Croatia summons Australian ambassador over MP’s speech (SBS, by Kristina Kukolja, 24 April 2014)
The Serbian Ambassador to Australia has spoken out against the commemoration of the foundation date of a pro-Nazi Croatian government, following a controversial speech from Liberal MP Craig Kelly.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly is alleged to have conveyed Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s best wishes at an event commemorating April 10, or the foundation date of a pro-Nazi Croatian government in the 1940s.
In a written statement, Mr Miroljub Petrovic said the Republic of Serbia strongly condemned the commemoration of the foundation date.
Related: Croatian PM speaks to Kristina Kukolja during his Australian visit in March
“It is discouraging to know that still persisting and acting some organizations and individuals which so brutally abuse freedom and democracy in Australia, such as ones who celebrate the day when fascist so-called Independent State of Croatia has been created, whose criminal character is undeniable,” the statement read.
“Even more, it is the tragic fact that such organizations and individuals, in their morally monstrous glorification of fascism and nazism, are trying to involve people from the current political scene in Australia, even the Prime Minister itself.”
“Such events are giving rise to deep anxiety and serious concern in the Serbian community in Australia!
“Republic of Serbia strongly condemns any occurrence of glorifying fascistic ghosts of the past, and strongly believes that there can be no justification or excuse for tolerating or – even worse – supporting such activities, no matter who are the organizers or participants!”
The event, held last week at the Croatian club ‘Sydney’ in Punchbowl, was to commemorate the date of establishment of the so-called Independent State of Croatia.
During the Second World War the so-called Independent State of Croatia was affiliated with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany – adopting their policies, including the deportation and killing of Jews and other non-Croats.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly attended the Sydney meeting, and the Croatian government is concerned about media reports that he conveyed Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s best wishes.
Mr Kelly reportedly attended the event on behalf of the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Welles.
