LOCAL PRESS

Vucic: Government will recommend participation in elections (Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has stated in Vienna that the Serbian government will recommend to Kosovo Serbs to take part in the Sunday parliamentary elections in Kosovo and Metohija. After talks with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, he said there are many problems but that the best thing for the Serbs is to take part in the elections. “The best choice for the Serbs is participation in elections,” stressed Vucic.

Serbian list to participate in elections after all (Politika)

After several days of boycott, the MP candidates on the Serbian list are launching again an election campaign for the parliamentary elections in Kosovo to be held on 8 June. Yet, due to the fact that the Central Election Commission (CIK) in Pristina has amended the election law to the detriment of minority communities, the mayors of four municipalities in northern Kosovo will not call the Serbs from Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic to go to the polls on 8 June, even though polling stations will be open. Asked whether this means that there is a new Serb split with the decision of the Serbs south of the Ibar River to vote and the decision of the mayors not to call Serbs to vote under such conditions, the leader of the Serbian list and Serbian MP Aleksandar Jablanovic says: “No, the Serbs in the north will not take part in the elections because they are requesting, just like the Serbs in the south, to abolish the census and for the election material to be status neutral. Jablanovic says that the Serbs south of the Ibar River from the ranks of the Serbian list will vote only so “right people would represent the Serbs in the Kosovo Assembly, and not some from minor parties”. Mathematically viewing, Jablanovic explains, only the Albanians have the right to fight for 100 mandates and this only if they cross the census of 40,000 votes they will receive five MP seats, while this is not valid for the Serbs. North Kosovska Mitrovica Mayor Goran Rakic tells Politika that the mayors in northern Kosovo will not call the Serbs from four municipalities to go to the polls. “This is blackmail from Pristina, with obvious approval of the international community. Can a law be amended during the elections process, as Pristina is doing, anywhere in the world, and all with the goal of having as less as possible Serbs in the Kosovo Assembly and erasing the Serbs from the political and social life,” Rakic told Politika.

Remains of at least 34 persons exhumed in Rudnica (Politika)

The remains of at least 34 persons have been exhumed so far from a gravesite at the Rudnica quarry in the municipality of Raska, southwestern Serbia, the Serbian government’s Commission on Missing Persons stated on Tuesday. A number of exhumed remains are undergoing forensic processes and identification by a team of forensic scientists from Serbia and EULEX experts.
The next steps will include careful extraction of the remains and their forensic processing and identification, states the release. The exhumation at the Rudnica quarry started on 23 April upon the order of the War Crimes Department of the Belgrade High Court. Based on the DNA evidence available so far, the victims are Albanian nationals killed during the conflict in Kosovo and Metohija 1999, an earlier statement reads. The field search and excavation now seek to broaden their scope so as to find other remains that are believed to be buried at this location, the Committee announced. A second location at the Rudnica quarry will also be searched in the coming period. Aside from the authorized state bodies and a team of forensic experts from Serbia, which are in charge of the forensic aspect of the exhumation, officials of EULEX, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Commission on Missing Persons and delegations of the Working Group on Missing Persons from Pristina are also present at the site in the capacity of observers.

Strong support to Western Balkan countries (Beta)

Participants in the Conference on the Western Balkans strongly supported the continuation of EU enlargement to include countries in the region and expressed readiness for further support and cooperation in the removal of consequences of the catastrophic floods. The participants in the gathering, which was held on the occasion of an annual ministerial meeting of the Central European Initiative, stressed that EU talks with Serbia represented a priority and expressed readiness for close cooperation in the implementation of the necessary reforms, the Foreign Ministry announced.

REGIONAL PRESS

Cvijanovic: EU ready to redirect funds to assist flooded areas (Srna) 

The Republika Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic has stated in Sarajevo that the EU and Great Britain expressed their readiness to quickly redirect funds from projects that were not realized to assist recovery of flooded areas of B&H. Cvijanovic told reporters that at separate meetings with the British Minister for Europe David Lidington and the Head of the EU Delegation to B&H Peter Sorensen prospects were reviewed for securing additional funds for aid to flooded areas, this in addition to loans and projects that are being implemented together with international financial organizations. “It is good that everyone has reacted very quickly, from international financial institutions to the EU, which is often burdened by procedural issues,” Cvijanovic said, stressing that this was in the focus of her talks with Sorensen. She stressed that she informed Sorensen and Lidington that infrastructure needs to be reconstructed and the economy revived in areas hit by floods. “We should do everything in our power to renew agriculture and save everything that can be saved,” Cvijanovic said and stressed that recovery was the crucial word in all her meetings with international officials.

Radmanovic not to attend concert of the Vienna Philharmonics in Sarajevo (Tanjug)

Member of the B&H Presidency from the Republika Srpska (RS) Nebojsa Radmanovic informed Austrian President Heinz Fischer that officials of the Serb entity will not be attending a concert of the Vienna Philharmonics in Sarajevo on 8 June, marking the centennial of the start of the First World War. Radmanovic explained that the organization of the jubilee was fully assumed by the Administration of the City of Sarajevo, which put the event in the context of the civil war in B&H in the 1990s and neglected the basic ideas of reconciliation, dialogue, understanding and memory of the suffered losses. That opened room for new political conflicts and daily political abuses of planned events, pointed out Radmanovic. He stressed that the presence of three members of the B&H Presidency and the Presidency of Austria at the concert of the Vienna Philharmonics in Sarajevo should send a message of peace and symbolize good and friendly relations between B&H and Austria.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Kosovo Serb Bastion Shuns Looming Election (BIRN, by Nemanja Cabric, 4 June 2014)
Kosovo may be gearing up for polls on June 8, but there is no sign of election activity in the northern, Serbian half of the town of Mitrovica
Days ahead of the general elections in Kosovo due on June 8, the atmosphere is quiet but tense in the divided northern town of Mitrovica.
Locals say that the northern Serbian half of the town always feels fairly tense – and a mere look at the streets reveals what they mean.
It is a poor, dangerous-looking place, in some ways resembling a miniature version of divided, post-war Berlin.
Drivers without any license plates on their cars hurtle along the streets, probably doing illicit business between ethnically separated parts of Kosovo.
The northern part of Mitrovica is awash with Serbian flags. One or more hang from every lamppost. On two large billboards are large-scale portraits of Serbia’s Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic.
For Serbs coming to town for the first time, the Serbian insignia signal that this a safe zone for them, where they can speak their language and air their opinions without constraint.
The Serbian flags and the nationalistic graffiti also serve as an immediate reminder that this local community powerfully resists the push to recognize Kosovo as an independence state.
The larger Albanian southern part of the town is only yards away across the bridge over the river Ibar.
Ignoring the election:
Notably, amid all the fluttering Serbian flags, not a single poster refers to the elections, approaching in less than ten days’ time.
Most of the people of northern Mitrovica who BIRN spoke to said they had no intention of voting on June 8.
For some, voting would be a betrayal of their years-long campaign against recognition of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia. Others simply feel no interest in the political situation.
Some say that the only people who will vote will be those whose jobs depend on the Serbian state.
These include employees of Serbian public companies and teachers and doctors, all of whom receive their salaries from Belgrade.
Aleksandar Kostic, 23, a student from Northern Mitrovica, said some people feel forced to take part in the elections because they work for state companies, and could otherwise lose their jobs.
“I worked for a company six months ago, on the eve of the [last local] elections, and my colleague got fired because he refused to vote,” he said.
“You must understand these people, because they live from what Serbia provides, and if it stops financing them, that is the end for them,” he told BIRN.
Kostic fears that the EU-led Brussels agreement, which Serbia and Kosovo signed in 2013, means that Serbia has now effectively recognized Kosovo as an independent country.
“The elections, the police and the military forces that are being formed” only confirm this independence, he maintains.
“Poor people do not know what to do. They cannot be against their country [Serbia] because they do not have another option,” he said.
“But for myself and for others that have nothing to do with Serbia, we will never go to vote in these elections,” he added.
Kostic said he understood the different perspective of Serbs who live in the southern parts of Kosovo, in de-facto enclaves.
They have had to accept the euro as their currency, instead of the Serbian dinar, and have had to obtain Kosovo documents as well.
But Kostic said they did so because they had no other choice. It would be a shame if the Serb-majority municipalities in the north did the same, he added, because, “there was no need to do so.
“A man must have Kosovo ID in order to be employed in the Kosovo Police, for example, and he also needs it if he wants to vote,” he noted.
“There is pressure coming from all sides, and Serbia is nowhere to be found,” Kostic added.
Miljana Bulatovic, a 28-year-old artist in Northern Mitrovica, said she had boycotted all the votes in Kosovo for the past 12 years because no election was going to change life significantly for the Serbian community.
“If I believed that after the elections there would be some kind of a positive change for the Serbian community, I would surely vote,” she said.
Bulatovic maintains that Serbs in Kosovo still lack basic rights such as physical security, freedom of movement and a fair chance of employment.
“I am sure that [change] will never be possible this way [through voting] because for a long time now we have heard the same repeated story and with no results,” she said.
“These elections demand that we recognize independent Kosovo, and accept living by their laws,” she added.
“The reality is that we do live under those laws and have done so for a long time already, but whether we recognize them fully still remains to be seen.”
Another local, 27-year-old Milena Zaporozac, who comes originally from Pristina but moved to Mitrovica back in 1999, said she would ignore the elections on June 8 because she was not at all interested in politics.
“I have nothing to do with this, and don’t know what to say. I will not pay the slightest attention to the elections; it is as if they were not being held,” she told BIRN.
Many other locals in Mitrovica did not want to talk to us at all. They just waved a hand and mumbled about not wishing to discuss anything about elections.
Others said they did not wish to give statements because it might compromise their position at work.
Always fearful that both domestic and foreign enemies are trying to trick them, the people of northern Mitrovica seem to want only one thing: to preserve the status quo, and for as long as possible.

Croatia Spends 3.7m Euro on Serbia Genocide Case (BIRN, by Josip Ivanovic, 4 June 2014)
The Croatian justice ministry has revealed the huge cost of taking the country’s genocide lawsuit against Serbia to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
“The cost of the 15-year-long claim by the Republic of Croatia against the Republic of Serbia, because of the violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide at the International Court of Justice [ICJ] in The Hague, is 28,111,589 kunas [over 3.7 million euro],” the justice ministry said in a statement on its website.
The ministry said that most of the money, more than 3.1 million euro, was spent on hiring US lawyer David Rivkin and British-based law firm Matrix Chambers, which provided the services of international legal experts Philippe Sands, James Crawford, Keir Starmer and others.
Hearings were held at the ICJ earlier this year as Zagreb and Belgrade sued each other for alleged genocide during the 1990s conflict.
Croatia filed genocide charges against Serbia in 1999, also demanding that Belgrade punish all perpetrators of war crimes during the conflict, return looted cultural property and pay for wartime damages.
In response, Serbia submitted a counter-claim in 2010, maintaining that Croatia was guilty of genocide against Serbs during and after the war.
Both Zagreb and Belgrade expressed confidence that they would win their cases, but experts suggested that neither would be able to prove genocide, and expressed concerns that the court proceedings could sour relations between the two neighbours.
Since it was established after World War II, the ICJ has only recognised one case of genocide – the Srebrenica massacres in Bosnia in 1995.
Judgements in both cases are expected next year.

Bosnia floods unearth grim wartime mass grave (Reuters, 3 June 2014)
DOBOJ Bosnia – Floods in Bosnia last month have unearthed a secret mass grave containing corpses with hands tied behind their backs, apparently Muslim Bosniak victims of the country’s 1992-1995 war, an official said on Tuesday.
“We unearthed four complete bodies whose hands were tied behind their backs and two incomplete bodies today,” said Lejla Cengic, spokeswoman of the government’s Institute for Missing Persons, adding that exhumations will continue.
Forensic experts are combing the banks of the Bosna river for another six victims still missing from a group of 16 killed by Bosnian Serb forces nearby, Cengic said. Four other victims from the group were found nearby during earlier exhumations.
Devastating floods across Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia last month struck particularly hard in the central and northern parts of impoverished Bosnia, submerging completely the central towns of Doboj and Maglaj and northern towns of Samac and Orasje.
“We assume the victims are Bosniaks from the nearby village Jablanica, the men aged from 19 to 57,” Cengic said as bulldozers removed mud from the river bank and forensic experts cleared garbage and branches from the site.
Electricity workers repairing power lines on the outskirts of the town found some victims’ remains after flood waters that reached up to three meters high in Doboj receded.
Some 35,000 people went missing in Bosnia during the war. About 8,000 are still unaccounted for while 1,000 have been found but not identified yet, Cengic said.
Doboj is located on the border demarcating Bosnia’s two autonomous regions established after the war, the Serb Republic and the Federation dominated by Bosniaks and Croats.
The town belongs to the Serb region but its southern part is in the Federation. When the Bosna river burst its banks, the first help came from the nearby towns in the Federation spared from the flooding. At least nine people drowned in the flooding.

Bosnian Serb Chief Blocks Money Laundering Laws (BIRN, by Elvira M. Jukic, 4 June 2014)
Bosnian Serb leader is poised to block parliament’s adoption of laws on money-laundering, on the grounds that the issue should have been decided by Bosnia’s entities.
Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik has told Serbian delegates to the Bosnian Parliament not to vote to adopt laws on money laundering and financing terrorism, as he believes the issue should be come under the jurisdiction of Bosnia’s entities.
The Council of Europe’s expert committee on money-laundering, Moneyval, on June 1 warned financial institutions to take precautions when conducting financial transactions with Bosnia.
This is because Bosnia’s parliament has failed to adopt laws on combatting money laundering and financing terrorism.
Some Bosnian politicians hoped the laws could be adopted on June 6. However, Dodik announced on Tuesday that delegates from his Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, would not vote for the laws on the grounds that such laws should come under the jurisdiction of the two entities.
“The country cannot be centralized with threats,”the Bosnian Serb leader said, “It is obvious that someone is trying to impose a story about alleged black lists.”
Financial transactions into and out of the country are now expected to become more complicated and will be more closely scrutinized for potential wrongdoing.
In the worst-case scenario, the country could be put on a list of problem countries alongside Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and Syria.
The legal changes have already been backed by the Bosnian government and by parliament’s House of Representatives – but not by the other chamber, the House of Peoples.

Macedonian PM Denies Role in ‘Corrupt’ Bank Sale (BIRN, 4 June 2014)
After a month of maintaining silence about the case, Prime Minister Gruevski has rejected opposition accusations that he took cash to expedite the sale of a bank.
In an interview for state run MIA news Agency, Nikola Gruevski for the first time has denied involvement in a bank sale that the opposition revealed in late April.
“I have never taken a million-and-a-half euros in cash, nor have I in any other way  taken any other sum for the sale of Makedonska Banka. All the other accusations that come out of this are also untrue,” Gruevski said.
In April, during the campaign for the general and presidential elections, the Social Democratic Party, SDSM, filed charges against the Prime Minister, accusing him of taking a bribe of €1.5 million to expedite the sale of Makedonska Banka to a Serbian businessman, Jovica Stefanovic, aka “Gazda Nini”, [“Boss Nini”], in 2004.
SDSM head Zoran Zaev presented documents of financial transactions as well as legal papers from Macedonia’s Central Bank that approved the sale of the bank’s shares in support of the claim. The SDSM said the papers contained clear evidence of wrongdoing.
Zaev’s party also released a lengthy telephone recording on which the opposition claimed that Gruevski’s voice could be heard discussing the illegal sale.
While the public prosecution says it is still examining the evidence, the ruling VMRO DPMNE party has rejected any guilt on the part of its leader. Gruevski also filed slander charges against Zaev, suing him for the sum of €500,000 in damages.
“Although the slander from Zaev refers to a non-existent act of more than ten years ago, I decided to file slander charges just in case, so that this filthy manipulation can be cleared and get a court resolution,” Gruevski said in the interview.
Zaev “will have to face the truth when he will have to prove to the court that I took those one-and-a-half million euro,” he added.
“The mere fact that now, before the court closure of the case, the SDSM and the media it controls are nervously trying to promote the topic each day, shows how low their self-esteem is regarding this case. One who feels confident does not babble, but calmly awaits the outcome of the court,” he continued.
Gruevski, who has held power since 2006, said that he had refrained from commenting about the case in person and had reduced his public appearances to a minimum as he was busy attracting foreign investors and leading talks for the formation of the new government after his party won the April election.
“Besides, it was a good thing to relieve the public from my appearances after the busy political agenda in April,” Gruevski said.
Speaking about his opponent, he said that Zaev was “politically immature” and that his policies were harmful for the country.
“The stubbornness and the [opposition’s] refusal to take up seats in parliament leads us towards losing the recommendation [for start to EU accession talks] by the European Commission, which is bad for all of us,” he said.
“But it seems that Zaev still believes that this will draw public attention to him, and that the people will recognize him as a saviour,” he added.
Gruevski dismissed opposition claims that the elections were fraudulent, noting that the OSCE/ODIHR election monitors said that polling day on April 27 went smoothly.
The Prime Minister did not comment on the part of the OSCE observations that said the election was also marred by the failure to meet key standards.
These concerned the separation of state and party activities, the existence of a level playing field between the parties, the neutrality of the media, the accuracy of the electoral roll and the possibility of gaining redress through an effective complaints procedure.
The Prime Minister said his key priorities for the future were attracting investment, boosting employment and working to enhance the country’s Euro-Atlantic perspective.

Bulgaria and FYR Macedonia are the best countries to invest in the Balkans- Source (Balkans news, 2 June 2014)
Bulgaria is 28th in the ranking of the most suitable countries for foreign investment, according to the American Journal of Policy and Finance Foreign Policy. In this edition of the ranking Bulgaria is 8 positions below, last year it was ranked 20th place.The index, compiled by economist Daniel Altman, assesses countries by eight factors: economic growth, financial stability, physical security, corruption, independence from government, cooperation with local partners, capital controls and exchange rates. The purpose of the index is to see how a factor will affect foreign direct investment for a period of 5 years. Bulgaria and (FYR) Macedonia are the best countries to invest in the Balkans, says the magazine. (FYR) Macedonia ranks 29th place, grew 5 places from last year. Greece is ranked 101 out and is described as one of the worst countries for investments in the region. Romania has 48 place, Serbia 55th. Bosnia and Herzegovina is ranked 82nd place. Because of the political crisis Turkey falls to 79 place. Foreign Policy ranking top placement countries that have great potential for economic growth. Besides Hong Kong, Taiwan and Qatar ranked first places more African countries such as Botswana and Ghana. The worst country for investment Venezuela 112 location for protests and the threat of civil war. European countries ahead in the ranking of 14th place Poland, Czech Republic 21 position, Hungary 38, the Netherlands 51, followed by Sweden, Albania, Austria 56 place. Strongly affected by the crisis, Portugal has a 64 position, and Spain is 89 place. This year Ukraine is not included in the rankings, but last year was ranked 97th place, one position ahead of Russia. U.S. ranks 26th position, China is 60th, Japan is 70 place. Russia is one of the last positions in the ranking of 108 place.

Independent Scotland Must ‘Join The EU Queue’ Behind Serbia, Macedonia, Says Cameron (The Huffington Post, 2 June 2014)
An independent Scotland would find itself in a queue behind countries including Serbia and Macedonia at the door of the European Union, David Cameron has said.
The Prime Minister said a newly independent Scotland would have to “queue up” to become a member of the EU and added that it was a “source of regret” that Scottish people living in the rest of the UK would not be able to vote in September’s independence referendum.
Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia are all categorised as candidate countries by the European Union, meaning they are in the process of integrating their laws with the EU.
Cameron warned the “risks of separation are very great” as he was asked about the Scottish issue while on the campaign trail in Newark ahead of Thursday’s by-election.
He said: “If Scotland vote for independence they are no longer members of the EU and it’s become clearer and clearer since this campaign started that they would have to reapply to join the EU and as such, as an independent country, they would have to queue up as it were behind other countries – for instance those in the western Balkans that are already on the path towards membership.
“This is yet another reason why I very much hope that the Scottish people will vote no, will vote to remain in the United Kingdom. I think we’re a successful family of nations all bringing something to this United Kingdom. Let’s hope that we’ll stay together. I think the risks of separation are very great.”
Cameron said he was “confident” that the No campaign would win and said the issue of Europe was just one of the risks.
Listing other issues he said “The risk that outside the UK you wouldn’t keep the pound, the risk that outside the UK you’ve got to reapply to the EU, the risk that outside the UK you wouldn’t have such a strong economy with so many jobs and you know, in the end, it’s a positive argument I’m making because I think the UK has been a great success story.
“We’re there for each other. You know when there was a banking crisis and a big Scottish bank goes down you’ve got the whole of the UK there to support that bank and that economy. We’re stronger and better off together.
“We obviously have great rivalry on the football field and rugby field and one or two other things but we’re a family of nations and I hope we stay together.”
All of the major UK political parties have now presented their devolution proposals following the publication of the Conservative Strathclyde Commission on the Future Governance of Scotland.
The Tories want to give Holyrood full control over income tax, the commission said, an advance on Labour’s proposal to devolve three-quarters of the basic rate and closer to the Liberal Democrats’ proposal to devolve almost all income tax powers.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he wants his party’s proposals implemented soon after the 2015 general election, but recognised the need to build consensus.
Scottish National Party deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon urged Scots to shun the “desperate bidding war from the unionist parties” and vote Yes.

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Media summaries are produced for the internal use of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, UNMIK and UNHQ. The contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership.