LOCAL PRESS

Djuric: Guarantees for Ivanovic’s release pending trial (Tanjug, 13.08.2014)

Serbia is ready to provide all legal guarantees for Citizen Initiative Freedom, Democracy, Justice leader Oliver Ivanovic’s release pending trial, the head of the Office for Kosovo-Metohija Marko Djuric has told Tanjug.
“Our position that Ivanovic’s groundless six-month detention without an indictment is unacceptable and harmful is known, as is our position on the fact that the guarantees provided so far by the government of the Republic of Serbia have been ignored,” Djuric said.
Now that an indictment has been raised, the government will once again insist on Ivanovic’s release pending trial, and Serbia will, in a responsible manner, offer guarantees that he will remain available to judicial authorities at all times, Djuric said.
“We want to believe in the impartiality of the provincial authorities and the judiciary and in the rule of law in Kosovo-Metohija,” Djuric added.
Djuric said that he is certain that “Ivanovic will prove his innocence in any fair trial.”
Earlier on, EULEX spokesperson Dragana Nikolic Solomon told Tanjug that a prosecutor from the Office of the Kosovo Special Prosecutor raised an indictment against five people on Monday, but she could not specify the identity of the indictees.
However, she said that one of them has been accused of inciting war crimes in April 1999 and, along with another person, of inciting accessory to aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder in February 2000.
Ivanovic was suspected of these crimes when he was arrested on January 27 this year.
The Serbian government has issued guarantees that, in case Ivanovic is released from detention pending trial, the defendant will at all times be available to the court, but he has not been released in spite of the guarantees.
After Ivanovic’s hunger strike in March, the authorities transferred him from the prison in Pristina, where his safety was jeopardised, to the detention unit in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, which has a Serb majority.

Vucic:” I have no information on Brussels 2” (Vecernje Novosti, 12.08.2014)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said today that he has no information about the requirements for a new Brussels agreement, that he is always ready for Brussels and Serbia to continue the dialogue, but there is noone to negotiate with.
“I am always ready to come to Brussels, we are very committed to continuing the dialogue with the Albanians with whom we have no problem. The only problem is that they do not have their own government,” the Prime Minister told reporters and stressed that he would find it very unfair if someone from the international community would say that Serbia has not fulfilled something, because Serbia does not really have anyone to talk to.
Responding to a question whether there was any pressure to talk about “Brussels 2,” the Prime Minister said that the public would already have been informed if he had any information about it.
“I told Catherina Ashton that I am always ready to come to Brussels, and that I am committed to continuing the dialogue,” Vucic said.

The Special Court for KLA crimes awaiting the new government of Kosovo
Williamson may be the chief prosecutor (Danas, By J. Lukac, 13.08.2014)
Establishment of the Special Court for KLA crimes depends on the speed of the formation of the new government of Kosovo, which is about to sign an agreement on it, probably with the Netherlands, where a part of the court will be housed, it was unofficially related to “Danas” by informed circles. Decision on the establishment has been brought at the Kosovo Assembly at its previous session held in late April, and in international circles; the Court is expected to start working in 2015.

However, the organization, jurisdiction and operation of the Court are still in the sphere of assumptions. – Establishment of the Court should certainly be welcomed, but there are serious objections related to the time frame, the application of law and the composition of the judges, an attorney Toma Fila, who defended the proceedings before the ICTY told “Danas”.

– If the charges “cover” the period before the Kumanovo Agreement in June 1999, for example, if they refer to 1998, it overlaps with the jurisdiction of the ICTY, i.e. the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. It is known that at that time there were camps for captured Serbs and disobedient Albanians.

Another question is what kind of law will be applied and whether the rules are going to be changed ad hoc as it happened at the Tribunal. For instance, one of these rules at the beginning of the Tribunal was that the defendants make statements, and they will not be used in cases against other defendants. However, when it was noticed that the evidentiary materials are insufficiently strong, these statements have been included in the evidence against other defendants. And third, when it comes to the selection of judges, whether they will be from the states of the Western military alliance, it may call into question their neutrality with regard to the intervention of NATO, explains Fila for “Danas”.

According to earlier findings of “Danas”, the EU will fund the court with about 300 million Euros. The Court will operate in accordance with the Kosovo Constitution and laws, but with the international conducting of proceedings at the special court department in Hague, after Kosovo and Dutch governments sign the agreement. It should have about 150 staff, lawyers, judges, prosecutors, assistants and researchers. It is possible that part of the space will be taken from the ICTY, which is completing its term for trials of Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, and the appeal proceedings are in progress. In well informed circles in Belgrade, it is speculated that Clint Williamson, the chief prosecutor of the Special Investigation Team (SITF) for KLA crimes, could be the chief prosecutor of the Special Court. Williamson has presented a report on the findings of the investigation in Brussels in July, according to which, there was not enough evidence to prosecute organ trafficking of captured Serbs. Williamson’s team, according to earlier information from “Danas”, has found enough evidence to indict the “six to ten” former KLA for war crimes against non-Albanian civilians in locations: Radonić, Klecka, Zočište and Belaćevac.

PM: Serbs fight on both sides in Ukraine (B92, 12.08.2014)

Serb volunteers can be found both on the Ukrainian and pro-Russian side in the clashes in eastern Ukraine, says Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić.

They are causing damage to their country, he added on Tuesday.

Vučić said the development was “very harmful to our country,” and that “dozens of people from Serbia are fighting on both sides.”
“We are working together with all international intelligence agencies. Any involvement of Serbian citizens in the Ukrainian crisis is detrimental to Serbia,” Vučić said.
The prime minister also urged all Serbia to return to their country “and think of their homes and families instead of fighting for a few thousand dollars.”
“Serbia has no part in that conflict. Serbia has a responsible policy. We are not able to take legal action, but we pay more and more attention to the people returning from Syria and Iraq and to those involved in the conflict in Ukraine. We monitor their activities in the country,” he told reporters.
Vučić called on all the Serbian citizens fighting in Ukraine to return to their country and take care of their families, adding that it was not their job to fight a war in another country for USD 6,000 or USD 1,200, depending on how much they were paid.
These people are mercenaries in 90 percent of the cases and have links to the most important intelligence agencies, he noted, refusing to comment on how they joined the pro-Russian or other forces.
Vučić said that he had accepted the proposal of cabinet minister Rasim Ljajić to amend the Criminal Code so that fighting in wars abroad would be punishable as a serious offense.
“Serbia is pursuing a responsible policy of not participating in these conflicts. For Serbia and the Serbian people, the wars are long over. We look to a peaceful future in which we think about how to be economically most advanced country in the region in 2016,” he was quoted as saying.
Ljajić has repeatedly spoken about “the dogs of war”, while the Security Information Agency, BIA, recently said that Serbian citizens fighting abroad, especially in Islamic countries, are becoming “a security threat to Serbia and the region.”
Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported on Tuesday that a group of Serb volunteers clashed with the Ukranian army on a key highway in the east.
Military analyst Aleksandar Radić commented on the news to say that it was it was “clear” that there was no organized departure of volunteers from Serbia, and that the state was not behind their participation in the war.

Serbian Church denies patriarch was invited to Vatican (Beta, 13.08.2014)

A spokesman for the Serbian Orthodox Church has denied that Serbian Patriarch Irinej was invited to visit the Vatican and meet with the Catholic pope.

In a statement released late on Tuesday on the website of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Bishop Irinej of Bačka said this topic was publicly discussed “only because (Catholic) Bishop of Zrenjanin Ladislav Nemet in his statement for the Novi Sad daily Dnevnik misrepresented a meeting between a delegation of the SPC and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican secretary for relations with other countries.”
Bishop Irinej said that Mamberti was invited to Serbia by the state leadership, and that, “as a sign of respect towards the majority (Orthodox) Church and its head, the program of Mamberti’s visit included a courtesy encounter with Serbian Patriarch Irinej and the Holy Synod, on June 30, at the Patriarchate in Belgrade.”
“In a friendly informal discussion, both sides emphasized the need for further improvement of relations and cooperation between the two churches. They also discussed the need and usefulness of bilateral meetings on high and highest levels, but the secretary of the Holy See did not deliver any historic invitation from Pope Francis to the patriarch and members of the Holy Synod to visit the Vatican,” said the SPC bishop.
He added that “only the bishop of Zrenjanin knows how it is that Patriarch Irinej and members of the Holy Synod agreed to visit the Vatican – and what kind of diplomatic negotiations on ways to organize this visit” are now ongoing – something that Nemet also spoke about.
According to Bishop Irinej, Nemet has consistently demonstrated “his obsessive need to deal with the SPC and lecture it.”
He added that the likely real purpose of Nemet’s “excurse” was to inflict yet another insult to the SPC, its leader and the entire Serb nation – “by comparing us to kindergarten children that do everything out of spite.”
“In any case, dialogue and cooperation among the churches will not be called into question because of sensationalist public statements of Bishop Nemet, that are counterproductive exactly to what he verbally and formally stands for. At the same time, he is obviously not aware of the danger of excluding himself for a long time, perhaps permanently, from the dialogue that is ongoing despite the many challenges and obstacles,”said the bishop of Bačka.

Central bank to “strive to keep currency stable”(RTS, 13.08.2014)

The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) will strive to keep the exchange rate of the Serbian dinar (RSD) “relatively stable,” NBS Governor Jorgovanka Tabaković says.

“A major part of the economy, many Serbian citizens, as well as the state, depend on the value of the dinar and it is very significant that the NBS ensure that changes in the target inflation rate and the fluctuating exchange rate do not take place suddenly or by leaps and bounds,” Tabaković told the RTS late Tuesday.
Over the past two years it has become apparent that this kind of predictability can be ensured when it comes to planning at both personal and business level, Tabaković said.
The ongoing decline of the dinar is not about instability, but the usual impacts such as purchase of fuels or payment of dividends to foreign shareholders, Tabaković said.
“Serbia is a small, open economy that is being hit by the waves of all uncertainties coming from other markets. I can guarantee that the NBS and the team that is under my leadership will do everything to ensure that there are no sudden shocks and that the dinar’s exchange rate is relatively stable,” Tabaković noted.
I am an advocate of a precautionary agreement with the IMF, which is the least expensive and the most worthwhile, she said.
Speaking about the measures being carried out by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, Tabaković said that she, too, would recommend the same.
The NBS is doing everything “for that project to succeed,” Tabaković added.

REGIONAL PRESS

Kesić: Little chance for appointment of a Special Representative of America in BiH (Glas Srpske, 13.08.2014)

Chief Representative of Republika Srpska Obrad Kesic said that initiative was sent to the House of Representatives, which requested the appointment of a Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from the President of the United States. It is a result of Croatian lobbyists, but there is little chance of it being realized.
Kesić said that this is not the first initiative to seek such an appointment, and recalled that even in the past similar things have not been realized.

“Earlier, most of it was the result of Bosniak representatives’ lobbying, and now is the first time that it is the result of Croatian lobbyists,” said Kesic commenting initiative to President Barack Obama asking for the appointment of Special Representative for BiH because of the slowdown in its Euro-Atlantic path.

He pointed out that it is very unlikely that any significant reform will happen before the elections and the formation of the government at all levels in BiH, “Glas Srpske” writes.

SNSD MP in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH Dušanka Majkić says that any resolution from the United States is not binding for BiH and assessed that any major intervention on the Constitution of BiH would mean “dancing with an uncertain outcome.”
“No one in any way can compel the representatives of Republika Srpska to vote for things harmful to the interests of Srpska” Majkić said.
She pointed out that all initiatives on reform of BiH, which, coming from outside, are good as far as they are workable, and noted that there is the Dayton Constitution, which can only be amended with the consent of all.

Croatian court against referendum on Cyrillic (Beta, 13.08.2014)

ZAGREB — The Constitutional Court of Croatia ruled against a referendum on Cyrillic script, saying that the referendum question was not in line with the Constitution.

The Croatian parliament sent the referendum question concerning bilingualism for constitutional review. “The civic initiative, The HQ for the Defense of Croatian Vukovar called for a referendum,” the Beta news agency is reporting.

The right-wing organization bringing together veteran associations last year started organizing sometimes violent protests against Serbian Cyrillic script being used on bilingual signs on public buildings in the town of Vukovar, where Serbs enjoy this right as they make up a third of the population.
In late 20013, the group sent nearly 600,000 signatures supporting a referendum to amend the Law on Ethnic Minority Rights, that would allow a minority to officially use its language and script – only if it made up at least one half of the population in a community.
The Croatian government said several times that reducing minority rights was unacceptable and that a referendum would not take place “regardless of how many signatures are collected.”
“The HQ for the Defense of Croatian Vukovar” said they were not satisfied with the court’s decision as they will not be able to realize their idea in the whole of Croatia, but said they are pleased that the court “confirmed some of their positions.”
The group’s legal representative Vlado Iljkić told the Hina news agency that “if he understood it correctly, the Constitutional Court has sent the whole thing to the level of the Vukovar City Council.”
He added he was also pleased by the fact the court confirmed some of their positions – namely, that the issue of bilingualism “is not a basic human issue, but above all, a political one.”

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia, Montenegro to Boost Military Cooperation (BIRN, By Dusica Tomovic, 13 Aug 2014)

Ahead of the Defence Minister’s visit to Belgrade, Montenegro has outlined plans for intensified military co-operation with Serbia, as the two countries continue to patch up formerly cool relations.

Montenegro’s Defence Minister, Milica Pejanovic-Djurisic, will visit Serbia in the last week of August to discuss joint training of troops and military exercises.

According to a Ministry of Defence report, which BIRN has seen, Serbia will be offered use of the helicopter pilots training centre in the military complex in the capital, Podgorica, as well as training on the schoolship “Jadran” and training of divers.

In return, “the Montenegrin Army is interested in training test pilots, deminers, fire mechanics and special forces in Serbia”, the report said.

“The Montenegrin Army is [also] interested in developing capacities for joint responses to natural and man-made disasters,” the document said.

Since Montenegro declared independence from the former State Union with Serbia in 2006, military relations between the two countries have been distant.

The only concrete joint activity has been the education of Montenegrin officers at the Military Academy in Belgrade, because Montenegro decided not to develop its own system of officer education.

Over the past eight years, Montenegro has joined joint actions and exercises with the armed forces of several countries in the region, but without the significant participation of Serbia.

Once reason for this was the very strained political relations between Serbia and Montenegro when Boris Tadic was President of Serbia.

Another factor was Montenegro’s determination to join NATO, while Serbia has resolved to remain the only neutral military country in the region.

Since the Progressive Party took power in Serbia in 2013, however, the two Prime Ministers, Aleksandar Vucic and Milo Djukanovic, have worked to improve ties between Belgrade and Podgorica.

“During her visit to Belgrade, Defence Minister will point out Montenegro’s readiness to promote defence cooperation with Serbia in future, through a variety of activities at the bilateral and regional level,” the defence ministerial report said.

An End to Suspicions About Kosovo’s ‘Just War’? (BIRN, By Edona Peci, 13 Aug. 2014)

Human rights campaigners hope that a new special court to prosecute suspected post-war crimes against humanity by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters will finally deal with allegations about abductions and organ trafficking.

The new court, which is likely to indict former senior KLA officials for crimes allegedly committed after the conflict ended, could remove the cloud of suspicion that has hung over Kosovo since the end of 1990s, rights campaigners have suggested.

“If these cases are resolved, Kosovo will be cleared of its responsibilities and Kosovo society will finally be released from the tensions which have been holding it hostage,” Rron Gjinovci from the Center for Research, Development and Publication told BIRN.

“Internationally, this court won’t be anything good for Kosovo in the short term. But in the long term, this court and this process release the country form a burden over alleged war crimes committed in the name of liberty,” he said.

Clint Williamson, the lead prosecutor with the EU’s Special Investigative Task Force, which probed the allegations of post-war abuses, announced last week that KLA officials would be indicted over “unlawful killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, illegal detentions in camps in Kosovo and Albania, sexual violence” and other crimes.

Williamson said that the task force’s report showed that “these individuals bear responsibility for a campaign of persecution that was directed against the ethnic Serb, Roma, and other minority populations of Kosovo and toward fellow Kosovo Albanians who they labeled either to be collaborators with Serbs or, more commonly, simply to have been political opponents of the KLA leadership”.

Rights group Amnesty International expressed satisfaction that the report confirmed the “widespread and systematic nature of the abductions and murders”.

“This is hopefully a step towards justice,” Amnesty International said.

Kosovo’s parliament approved the establishment of the new special court in April, under pressure from Brussels, with most lawmakers reluctantly accepting it as necessary if the country is to make progress towards fulfilling its dream of EU membership.

But MPs voted 89-22 to back the court only after a heated debate in parliament, during which outgoing Prime Minister Hashim Thaci called it “the biggest injustice and insult which could be done to Kosovo and its people”.

“Our war was just and in line with the international norms of war,” insisted Thaci, who was the political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army during the conflict, and whose name has been linked to some of the allegations of post-war crimes, although he has strongly denied any wrongdoing.

The Kosovo government has cautiously welcomed the EU task force report, saying that it was “an important step in determining the potential responsibilities of individuals and putting an end to unfounded allegations and accusations”.

But in a sign of continuing unease in Kosovo about potential future prosecutions of former KLA commanders, the War Veterans Association described the report as “illogical, ridiculous and tendentious”, condemning it as part of a campaign to denigrate the “freedom fighters” of the KLA and their struggle for liberation from Serbian rule.

Previous prosecutions of former KLA guerrillas by the EU rule-of-law mission inside Kosovo have often sparked angry protests by war veterans who see the indicted fighters as heroes rather than criminals.

Behxhet Shala, executive director of the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms, said meanwhile that the allegations in the report were “nothing new” and the suspects should have been brought to justice “much earlier than now, some 15 years after the war”.

Shala also criticised the fact that although the Netherlands-based special court will operate according to Kosovo law, its judges and prosecutors will be internationals.

“The EU has allocated some 300 million [euro] to this court for the upcoming three years. It seems like it will be a good job opportunity for internationals, while local judges and prosecutors will be totally excluded from the court. This won’t do Kosovo good,” he said.

Nevertheless, Shala also admitted that the establishment of the new court was necessary even though it could be traumatic for society.

“Although this [the establishment of the court] is not good news for Kosovo, it is a fact Kosovo has to go through. Kosovo has to clarify its past, although it may be bad and painful for someone,” he said.

Although parliament has voted for the new court to be established, additional legal changes need to be made to put it in line with Kosovo’s constitution so it can actually start work.

Amnesty International said this must be done quickly so that prosecutions can go ahead.

“Any further delay may well lead to impunity and the further intimidation of potential witnesses,” it said.

The EU task force report said that is believed that in the aftermath of the 1998-99 conflict, up to 400 Kosovo Serbs were abducted by the KLA and subsequently taken to Albania, where they were allegedly killed.

The news that the special court will look into these cases has raised hopes amongst Serbs whose relatives disappeared during and after the war.

One of them, Milorad Trifunovic, whose brother Miroslav went missing in the divided northern town of Mitrovica during the conflict, said that he was not yet convinced that the court would make a real difference to many families whose loved ones disappeared.

“There is no political will from both sides, Kosovo and Serbia, to address this issue and disclose the truth about missing persons,” Trifunovic explained.

“We still believe in justice, but it is taking too long,” he said.

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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.