Dacic: Kosovo is not SEECP member (Tanjug)

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic denied that Kosovo had become a full-fledged member of the South-Eastern Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP) and added it had been agreed that Kosovo could take part in the work of that initiative with a view to strengthening regional stability. “It was not accepted for Kosovo to be a SEECP member, we avoided Kosovo’s membership here,” Dacic told a regular monthly press conference at the Foreign Ministry. He stressed that Serbia will prevent Kosovo’s membership in all organizations where this is possible if it is not in accordance with the Brussels agreement. “We have no reason to prevent participation of Kosovo under conditions defined by the Brussels agreement. Wherever Kosovo is marked with an asterisk is part of the Brussels agreement, which Serbia has accepted,” said Dacic. He recalled that Serbia has for years endured pressures to permit Kosovo’s membership in regional organizations and initiatives.

Belgrade claims international procedures respected, EU claims it received the request, and Pristina claims that 72 hours didn’t pass (Politika)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric was banned yesterday from crossing the Donje Jarinje integrated crossing because “he didn’t respect the procedure and didn’t announce his arrival 72 hours in advance,” Kosovo Police Minister Bajram Rexhepi told Politika. Politika learned yesterday from sources in the Office for Kosovo and Metohija that the arrival was announced to international representatives in accordance with the procedure. “Pristina sent to the administrative crossing a document on banning entrance, which the police tried to hand over to the Head of the Office, but he refused to receive it,” this source said. Politika also addressed the EU Office in Pristina and asked its spokesperson Stojan Pelko whether official Belgrade had requested an EU reaction. He said that Belgrade didn’t sent any letter, but that all issues regarding the entrance of Belgrade officials was resolved by the Kosovo government. “We have noted several times that we are some kind of postmen in this entire procedure, precisely, we forward requests to the Kosovo government,” said Pelko. Asked whether he can confirm that the Serbian government sent a letter in the specified deadline, i.e. whether it respected the 72-hour deadline, Pelko said he could not comment this. “I can only confirm that Belgrade sent a request and that we forwarded it to the Kosovo government,” said Pelko, stressing that the EU thought that these issues would be performed by the Belgrade and Pristina liaison officers, however, “it turned out that representatives of the EU Office in Pristina and Belgrade continue to perform these ‘services’”.

Road blockade ends in northern Kosovska Mitrovica (Tanjug)

Traffic is back to normal in northern Kosovska Mitrovica’s Brdjani neighborhood after Albanians ended a one-hour blockade of a local road on Wednesday. In the morning, a small group of Albanians used a truck and cars to block the road – which leads to residential buildings and houses inhabited by Serbs – requesting that they be allowed to renovate homes damaged during the 1999 armed conflicts in Kosovo and Metohija. Emir Azemi, deputy president of the North Mitrovica assembly, explained in a statement to Tanjug that the Albanians started construction works early Wednesday, only to be confronted by people who identified themselves as construction inspectors and demanded that the works be halted. Members of the Kosovo police were on the scene, while KFOR and EULEX units arrived later on, and the blockade ended without incidents. Over the past years, Brdjani has been the scene of disturbances and Serb protests against the Kosovo authorities’ plans to build 172 houses for Albanians. Serbs in northern Kosovska Mitrovica oppose the idea, and argue that the plan implies construction, rather than reconstruction, of houses for Albanians who have never lived in Brdjani. They say that the goal of Kosovo Albanian authorities is to alter the ethnic composition of the population and ethnically cleanse the Serbs from that part of North Kosovska Mitrovica.

Serbian government gives conditional guarantees for Seselj (Beta)

The Serbian government has announced they are ready to send the ICTY guarantees for provisional release of indictee Vojislav Seselj, provided that the leader of the Serbian Radical Party promises in a legally binding form that he will obey all the conditions set by the competent ICTY trial chamber. The government stressed that they had successfully implemented all the orders on the provisional release of Serbian citizens charged by the ICTY. Vojislav Seselj, who has been detained in Scheveningen since 2003, recently rejected the possibility of the Serbian government sending guarantees for his provisional release, adding he would not agree to any restrictions except that on not leaving the Serbian territory.

REGIONAL PRESS

Gratitude to the UN for assistance during floods (Srna) 

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik thanked the representative of Secretary-General for political issues in the Western Balkans Peter Due for the assistance which this organization had provided to the areas hit by catastrophic floods in the RS. At the meeting in Banja Luka, Dodik acquainted Due with current political issues in the RS and B&H, it was stated at the cabinet of the RS President. 

Floods, a big challenge for RS (Srna) 

The representative of UN Secretary-General for political issues in the Western Balkans Peter Due emphasized in his meeting with the Republika Srpska (RS) Minister of Science and Technology Jasmin Komic that the floods had brought about a great challenge for the RS and he expressed hope that the RS will receive assistance from international organizations. At the meeting in Banja Luka Due reminded the participants about the upcoming donor conference for mobilizing support to the affected by the floods in Serbia and B&H, organized by the European Commission and governments of Slovenia and France for 16 July in Brussels. “The UN, World Bank and the EU work together with the public authorities in the affected areas on preparation of report on assessment of needs. The report will be presented at the donor conference and will serve as a basis for determining the financial needs”, said Due, who is also the Head of UN Office in Belgrade. Komic acquainted Due with economic situation in the RS, the consequences of the floods and the efforts of the RS government to mitigate the damage of the floods. He reminded the participants that the catastrophic floods in May had caused the damage amounting to BAM 2.1 billion, thus reaching the amount of the republican annual budget, the RS Ministry of Science and Technology said in a press release. The RS government has taken a series of measures aimed at recovery, and one of them is foundation of the Solidarity Fund, by way of which the flood affected areas will be assisted in the coming period of 7 to 10 years, the press release reads. “Here we can still feel the consequences of the war, the unemployment rate and the social needs are high. The RS government gives priority to dealing with economic issues. We are facing great challenges, but opportunities as well. We have high potentials in the sphere of energy, agriculture, tourism and knowledge building, which can attract foreign investors”, Komic emphasized. The meeting was attended also by the RS Minister for Economic Relations and Regional Cooperation Igor Vidovic who thanked for assistance provided by the UN during the floods, and emphasized that many projects had been implemented in this region in cooperation with the UN, especially in the sphere of health. 

Lagumdzija: My dismissal not top of my priorities at the moment (Oslobodjenje)

Deputy Chair of the B&H Council of Ministers and B&H Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija has stated in Sarajevo that he is fully engaged in preparations for rebuilding and reconstruction after the catastrophic floods that befell B&H, and that he does not have time to concern himself with the issues connected with his dismissal. Commenting on a reporter’s question connected with the aforementioned initiative, Lagumdzija said that this is something that is absolutely not on his mind these days and weeks. “Naturally, when there will be debate on it in the parliament, it will be led and the right of everyone to seek and determine what they want is legitimate,” he explained. He underlined simultaneously that, since the natural disasters occurred in B&H, he is fully dedicated to preparations for rebuilding the country and preparing the donor conference, and mobilizing people and all available resources to this plan, considering that these topics are at the top of his priorities. He recalled that this is the stance he expressed earlier, noting that the SDP B&H is of the mindset that at the moment it should be absolutely engaged in preparations for rebuilding the country on all levels. He added that the electoral strategy for the SDP B&H was earlier expressed, and that this party, inter alia, had opted not to go forward with billboards in the campaign, but that those funds be directed to specific projects to help injured people. Lagumdzija further considered that preparations for the donor conference are going very well, and that he has received assurances that, despite the fact that B&H cannot count on the EU Solidarity Fund, our country can count on EU solidarity from other funds, and that B&H will not be inferior in this regard. To a reporter’s question on the recent statement by Stefan Fule, the European commissioner for enlargement, that B&H will see eliminated tariff preferences in relation to EU countries, Lagumdzija said that this is about a sufficiently “floating” position that comes from European institutions. “Our stance is unchanged, and that is that B&H, however, should have the help and understanding of the EU,” said Lagumdzija, with confidence that the question will be resolved in the appropriate manner, and remarking that “B&H should not be punished because it is poorer than the rich.”

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbian Politician Banned from Entering Kosovo (BIRN, 1 July 2014)
Marko Djuric, director of the Serbian government’s office for Kosovo, was denied entry by police at the Jarinje border crossing who said he did not have the right permit from Pristina.
Djuric told Serbian public service broadcaster RTS that Kosovo police said they were ordered by Pristina authorities not to allow him to enter Kosovo on Tuesday.
“This will cause consequences, but it will not affect the normal functioning of Serbian institutions. I am afraid [this ban] is a bad signal when it comes to the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina,” he said.
According to Djuric, the ban violates the Brussels Agreement on normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina and his own freedom of movement.
Kosovo police gave a different reason for their action.
“Marko Djuric was not allowed to enter the territory of Kosovo because he did not have a permit from the Ministry of the Interior,” Baki Kelani, a spokesperson for Kosovo police, told BIRN.
Last week, Kosovo authorities also banned Dejan Pavicevic, Belgrade’s liaison officer in Pristina, from entering Kosovo for the same reason.
US-Turkish Bechtel-Enka wins $820M deal in Kosovo (AP, 1 July 2014)
Kosovo’s Infrastructure Ministry says a $820 million deal has been signed with American-Turkish consortium Bechtel-Enka to build a 60 kilometer (37 miles) highway that will link Kosovo with Macedonia.
The ministry said Tuesday work on the new highway will start on July 2.
This is the second major contract awarded to the consortium in Kosovo after it won a $1 billion agreement in 2010 to build a highway linking Kosovo to Albania. That highway was finished in 2013.
The Bechtel-Enka consortium is made up of San Francisco, California-based Bechtel International Inc. and Istanbul-based Enka.
Kosovo is one of the poorest regions in Europe. Its 2008 secession from Serbia is fiercely rejected by Belgrade.
Kosovo to Recount Ballots in 51 Polling Stations (BIRN, 1 July 2014)
Due to irregularities during the June 8 national elections, the Central Election Commission, CEC, ordered a recount of ballots cast in 51 polling stations across Kosovo.
“The Counting and Results Center will start to recount ballots in these 51 polling stations today,” the CEC announced on Tuesday.
The decision came after the Elections Complaints and Appeals Panel ordered the CEC to do the recount.
Mul Desku, chief executive of the panel, said that “some 24 complaints have been filed by political parties and candidates for MP” during the 24 hour period after final election results were announced last week.
The recount in 38 polling stations is related to ballots cast for seven candidates for MP of the Democratic League of Kosovo, one candidate for MP of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, and one candidate from Nisma per Kosoven [Initiative for Kosovo]. The votes cast for the Alliance New Kosovo will be recounted in 13 additional polling stations.
“We expect to finalize the recount later today and then present the report to the CEC tomorrow,” Burim Ahmetaj, head of the Counting and Results Center, told BIRN.
All complaints filed at the Elections and Complaints Appeals Panel must be resolved before the election results can be certified.
Once the certification is complete, the Kosovo president will be able to nominate one candidate to form the new government in Pristina.
However, it is unclear what the decision will be. Hashim Thaci’s ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, which won most votes, insists it has the right to form the government, while AAK-Nisma-LDK, opposition parties who united in a broad coalition after elections, believe their coalition will have a majority of seats in parliament to govern the country.
The Constitutional Court is expected to offer some clarification on the matter later this week.
Hungary vows to support Serbia’s EU integration efforts (Xinhua, 2 July 2914)
The visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuseday that his country will strongly support Serbia’s EU integration efforts.
“I confirm that Hungary supports Serbia’s efforts to join EU, and nothing would impede Hungary’s support,” Orban said at a press conference after meeting with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic.
He said that the two sides also talked about the possibility of overhauling of the railway line between the two countries.
“It is unacceptable that in the 21st century travel between Belgrade and Budapest takes 8 hours by train,” he said, adding that the Hungarian side will provide all necessary help to modernize the existing line.
The two sides also agreed to boost cooperation in the fields of traffic, environment protection and policing.
Hungary to build its part of South Stream (The Associated Press, 1 July 2014)
Hungary says it will go ahead and build its part of Gazprom’s South Stream gas pipeline that bypasses Ukraine to supply Europe, despite U.S. and EU objections to the project.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday in Serbia that “those who say we shouldn’t build South Stream should make an alternative proposal about how we could live without energy.”
Orban added that “we are going to build the South Stream.”
His comments underscore divisions within the EU over the trans-European pipeline. The standoff over Ukraine has renewed calls for the 28-nation bloc to rethink its energy policies to make it less reliant on Russia.
Bulgaria last month had to freeze its South Stream construction work under orders from EU Commission, which said the country breached EU competition rules.
We find it hard to believe that Germany will blame Serbia for this’ (The Irish Times, 2 July 2014)
In our continuing series of archival reports on the build-up to the first World War, the Sarajevo correspondent of Turin daily La Stampa records increasing Serb-Croat-Bosnian tensions in the aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie leave Sarajevo City Hall on June 28th, 1914, the day of their assassination. Four days later the Turin correspondent of Italian daily La Stampa referred to fears in Serbia that Germany could attack their country in response to the murders.
AFTER THE SARAJEVO TRAGEDY
Anti-Serb demonstrations have now spread [from Sarajevo] to Mostar. As a Croat man was going into a shop in Mostar owned by a Serb, he heard the shop owner insult the memory of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. On hearing this, the Croat attacked the man with a knife and he was later arrested. Further protests and demonstrations are expected in Dubaj, Sainovac and Brodar…
Sarajevo paper Kcue Fiele Presse…has also published new details of the Sarajevo tragedy reporting, “The first bullet, as is known, hit the Duchess Sophie. The Archduke immediately leaned forward to embrace her but at that moment he too was hit…
“The Duchess lost consciousness immediately whilst the Archduke, although still conscious, could only mutter and groan. Even then, he still managed to say to the Duchess, ‘Don’t you die, you stay alive for our children’…The Archduke died on his way to hospital…The Duchess lived on a little longer but never regained consciousness…”
The Croat newspaper, Hrvatskidevnik, expresses its indignation for the assassination and says that the killing, long prepared in both Belgrade and Sarajevo, was the work of an organised band. The Muslim paper, Vocac, also expresses its profound pain and says that the killing is a matter of shame for the entire population of Sarajevo.
The [Bosnian] paper, Boniskc Post, writes, “Far be it from us to hold the Serbian people responsible for this crime. However, within the Serbian people there exist elements who have the killings of the Archduke and Duchess on their consciences because that is the logical consequence of their political line for years now…”
The Correspondenz Bureau in Sarajevo reports that “…the anti-Serb demonstrations from the day before yesterday are due to the indescribable indignation of the great majority of the Catholic and Muslim population. It is significant that no Serb has been killed whilst one Catholic and one Muslim were killed by the Serbs…The anger of the crowds was directed principally against those of a pan-Serbian tendency”.
Meanwhile, reports in the Neue Frale Presse in Prague claim that before the Archduke Franz Ferdinand departed, he had received many letters… advising him not to travel to Bosnia… Newspaper reports also speak of huge violent demonstrations in Zagreb during which the Caffe Nazionale was destroyed, demonstrations which went on long after midnight…
Official sources in Belgrade, however, report that “Serbia, like all civilized peoples, is full of indignation for the assassination of the Archduke and Duchess…We [Serbs] find it hard to believe the possibility that Germany will blame Serbia for this and consequently attack it because of the unforgiveable killing carried out by a hot-headed young man and notwithstanding all Serbia’s recent efforts to improve relations with the neighbouring [Austrian] monarchy.”
World Bank to lend Bosnia $100 mln to cope with flood damage  (Reuters, 1 July 2014)
The World Bank has approved a $100 million loan to Bosnia to help the Balkan country cope with the impact of the worst floods in over a century, the bank said on Tuesday.
The heaviest rainfall since records began 120 years ago caused rivers to burst their banks in May, triggering hundreds of landslides and claiming more than 65 lives in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia.
A preliminary estimate in Bosnia and Serbia put damage at 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) each, a huge blow to their cash-strapped economies.
The bank said the loan was designed to help Bosnia meet critical needs and restore infrastructure essential for public services and economic recovery. It will target housing, transport, agriculture and energy.
The bank said it was working on several other projects to develop a comprehensive package of support for Bosnia and was also taking part in assessing recovery needs.
The assessment will provide a basis for ensuring infrastructure and services are fully restored, it said.
The bank said it was considering reshuffling the existing projects in its portfolio for Bosnia to make sure the reconstruction needs can be met. The portfolio includes 14 projects worth some $578.6 million.
“While immediate recovery needs are the top priority of this project, the World Bank also stands ready to work with the authorities to scale up flood protection and implement early warning systems,” it said.
The International Monetary Fund’s board disbursed some 191 million euros ($260 million) to Bosnia on Monday, doubling a loan tranche, to help tackle flood damage. ($1 = 0.7331 Euros) (Reporting by Maja Zuvela; Editing by Zoran Radosavljevic and Ruth Pitchford)
Montenegro Police Vow to Prevent Attacks on Media (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 2 July 2014)
After recent attacks on reporters, a top policeman said that preventing violence against journalists was a key obligation for the country if it wants to progress towards EU accession
The head of the Montenegrin police, Slavko Stojanovic, said on Tuesday that media freedom is the basis of any democratic society, and that his force is working to protect it.
In the past few months, Montenegrin journalists working for independent media outlets, including daily newspapers Vijesti and Dan and the weekly Monitor, have been the victims of serious physical assaults. Most of the cases have not been solved.
Stojanovic was speaking at a meeting with the OSCE’s media freedom representative, Dunja Mijatovic, who has often urged the Montenegrin authorities to end the climate of apparent impunity for attacks on journalists.
Stojanovic did not give Mijatovic any information about the ongoing investigations, but told the OSCE official about preventative measures that the police officers say they are taking to protect journalists.
“One of the preventative activities is a risk assessment of the vulnerability of the employees in the media – journalists – which is out of obligation under Chapter 23 [of the EU accession document], which is currently proceeding,” Stojanovic said.
Mijatovic also noted that freedom of the media was important for EU integration.
“Acts of violence against members of the media not only threaten the victims themselves, but they also have a direct impact on media freedom in the country,” she said.
In December 2013, the government established the Interior Ministry-led Special Commission for Monitoring Investigations of Cases of Attacks on Journalists, which would probe incidents like the unsolved killing of Dan editor Dusko Jovanovic in 2004.
“I welcome the establishment of this commission and hope that it will yield results. I will continue to monitor the case of Jovanovic and all other cases in OSCE countries where journalists have been killed in relation to their work,” Mijatovic said.
Recent violent incidents include an attack on Lidija Nikcevic, a correspondent for Dan, by masked men wielding baseball bats in January. The assault occurred a week after an explosive device was detonated under the newsroom windows of Vijesti.