LOCAL PRESS

Joksimovic: We are waiting for good news from Brussels (Vecernje Novosti, 20 August 2014)
We are ready to continue the EU-facilitated dialogue with Pristina institutions, and therefore the opening of Chapter 35, if imminent, does not depend only on us
The Government’s top priority is hard work on reforms, which are the only true and objective way of getting closer to the EU. Political mitigation and aggravating circumstances are always present, but those should not be the decisive criterion. The message for Brussels is that we are on a clear European path, that, as a Government, we are working a lot on social and government reforms, and we expect the EU to recognize that.
This is how, the Minister without portfolio responsible for European integration, Jadranka Joksimovic, for “Novosti”, answers the question on what would be the message of Belgrade, if the stance of one part of the EU, which seeks delay in the opening of the first chapters, prevails.
* Although screening for Chapter 35, which applies to Kosovo and Metohija, was completed in January, the European Commission has not yet prepared a report and a list of tasks…
– Chapter 35 is specific and relates to the monitoring of progress on the Brussels dialogue. Screenings are completed, but due to its specific and political nature, this chapter has a slightly different procedure. Currently we have a stagnation in the dialogue, primarily due to the political situation in Pristina on forming a new government. We are ready to continue the dialogue, and therefore the imminent opening of the chapters, but it does not depend only on us.
* Who else besides Italy supports this “schedule”?
– We have adopted a negotiating position for Chapter 32, financial control, and we hope that, with the active support and Chairing of Italy, and some EU member states, we could open this chapter by the end of this year. This is important, because this chapter covers the control of the budget, which is an integral part of the fight against corruption.
* When could the key chapters 23 and 24 be open?
– Regarding Chapter 23, we have been diligent and the Ministry of Justice will complete an action plan by mid-September, and it is similar with Chapter 24, we believe that early next year we can open these important political chapters.
SCREENING SOON
* When will screenings continue and which chapters will be analyzed first?
– Already in the first half of September, we are continuing with screenings of individual chapters.

KIM: Representatives of the Serbs boycott Brussels Agreement? (Vecernje Novosti, 20 August 2014)
The Government is against radical measures because they endanger the interest of our people
Political representatives of Serbs from northern Kosovo-Metohija will decide today at a meeting in North Kosovska Mitrovica, whether their response to the latest moves and pressures of EULEX will be a halt in the implementation of the Brussels Agreement. Officially Belgrade counters that the Kosovo Serbs should not resort to such radical measures, because the agreements are reached with the Kosovo institutions, with the EU as a guarantor, which is the best protection of Serbian interests in the province.
After the last actions of EULEX and pressures on family members of current and former mayor of Zubin Potok, Stevan Vulović and Slavisa Ristic, tensions in the north were again raised. Mitrovica and Zubin Potok yesterday appeared plastered with posters carrying messages “EULEX, go home” (EULEX, leave) and “EULEX, the enemy of the Serbian people.”
North Kosovska Mitrovica Mayor Goran Rakic says for “Novosti” that actions taken by EULEX are interpreted by citizens as pressure on the Serbian community:
– We are not talking here about the arbitrariness of the Mayor, but about the citizens who feel anger and rage towards EULEX, which has double standards when it comes to the judicial process. While the Kosovo Albanians accused for terrorism and the most serious crimes are released on bail, Vulović and Ristic are accused of alleged obstruction of EULEX members while performing their duty. This kind of EULEX behavior could jeopardize the implementation of the Brussels Agreement in the field.
Dragan Jablanović, Mayor of Leposavic municipality, explains that if a new situation is not quickly resolved further steps will be considered at a meeting today:
– At the regular meeting with EULEX and Kosovo police, regarding the security situation, we conveyed the dissatisfaction of citizens and we expect a quick response. Our attitude will depend on EULEX’ further moves. We will consult with the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo-Metohija about everything, taking into account our national interests.
EULEX has responded yesterday, but not to the accusations of political representatives of Kosovo Serbs, but – to the posters.
– Hideous is that the EU as a long-time fighter for freedom, democracy and the rule of law, is connected with the flag of the Nazi regime – Miguel Carvalho de Faria, EULEX Head of Press and Public Information said.
Milovan Drecun, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Kosovo-Metohija, told “Novosti” that reaction of Kosovo Serbs to everything that is happening is understandable, but that the international presence in the province – is necessary:
– Cooperation with the EULEX, despite all the problems, is important for the security of the Serbian people. Discontinuation of implementation of the Brussels Agreement is not a solution, because only through dialogue and respect for the agreements can our nation and state interests in the province be protected.
PRISTINA DEMANDS PEACE AGREEMENT
The President of Kosovo-Metohija Atifete Jahjaga said yesterday that the dialogue with Serbia mediated by the EU should be continued until all mutual issues are resolved, and that the process should end with a peace agreement which will be legally binding.

REGIONAL PRESS

The leader of the Wahabi calls young men in B&H to join the jihad (Tanjug, Dnevni Avaz, 19 August 2014)
SARAJEVO – The leader of one of the largest communities of members of radical Islam in B&H, Bilal Bosnic, urged the youths of the country to join the armed groups of terrorist organization “Islamic state” (IS) and thus engage in the jihad that the organization carries out in the territory of Iraq and Syria, and in that way commit unprecedented crimes.
As reported by Sarajevo’s “Daily Avaz” Bosnić’s call to young Muslims from B&H to join the IS was evidenced in a video recording of the last lecture he gave to his followers in ​Cazinska krajina area in northwestern B&H. Bosnic has, among other things, said that “the truth and the Islamic state survive despite so many attacks by those who are confused and those who fight against the truth.”
Since the “Avaz” journalists contacted him so that he could explain why he is supporting a terrorist organization such as IS, Bosnic claimed that he never said that and that everything is the result of different interpretations of his lecture. Even the Wahabi community in B&H is divided when it comes to the relation with IS.
So Nusret Imamovic, leader of the second largest community gathering of Wahabis in Gornja Maoca near Brcko, went as a volunteer to Syria but, according to available information, he fights there within the ranks of the Džabat al-Nusra organization, which distances itself from the IS.

Džabat al-Nusra is considered close to al-Qaeda and both organizations are opposed to what IS is currently doing in Iraq and Syria, carrying out mass killings, looting and expulsion of the population that are not considered loyal. Authorities in B&H do not have accurate data on how many people of that country are currently fighting in crisis areas such as Syria. “Oslobodjenje” conveys the assessments of police agencies according to which about 50 young man from BiH have gone to war in Syria so far, and 32 have already returned to the country. B&H Parliament adopted a law in June that participation of B&H citizens in armed conflicts abroad, and even encouraging that, is treated as a criminal offense for which it is possible to get up to ten years in prison, but under that law no one has been prosecuted so far.

Montenegro: A high rate of unsolved crimes (Tanjug, 20 August 2014)
Over the last year, 1,861 criminal charges were filed against unknown offenders
Podgorica – The percentage of undetected offenders in Montenegro is high and it threatens the safety of citizens and is a serious criminogenic factor, the State Prosecution assessed.
Over last year, 1,861 charges were filed against unknown offenders, which is, compared with the period in previous years, is higher by 0.86 percent.
For crimes within the jurisdiction of the first instance state prosecution, some 1,820 charges have been filed, and within the jurisdiction of second instance state prosecution, 41- according to Radio Television of Montenegro.
In 2013, the overall criminality of unknown perpetrators showes that there was 10.8 percent of undiscovered offenders for serious and most serious crimes. In the previous period, 8,625 criminal charges were filed for offences committed by unknown perpetrators, it is specified in the Prosecution’s report.
It is alleged that, in addition to charges for unresolved crimes from the past, at the end of last year, there remained 8,891 criminal charges for crimes committed by unknown perpetrators (with senior state prosecution there were 312).
Of the overall crime with undetected offenders, 1.83 percent are those who have committed serious and the most serious crimes.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia Hunt for Kosovo War Bodies Inconclusive (BIRN, By Nektar Zogjani, 21 August 2014)
Investigators have failed to find more corpses of Kosovo Albanian victims during a renewed search at a quarry in southern Serbia where 45 bodies have already been exhumed.
The Kosovo government’s missing persons commission told BIRN that the search launched three weeks ago at the Rudnica quarry near the southern Serbian town of had failed to uncover any further human remains.
“The searches will continue until the whole location is verified. But I think that this process will end very soon. So far, we have not found bodily remains,” said the head of the commission, Preng Gjetaj.
The latest search for the remains of Albanians suspected to have been killed by Belgrade’s forces during the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo started on August 7, after the bodies of 45 victims were found buried in a mass grave elsewhere at the quarry.
Searches at the quarry first started in 2007, and were followed by exhumations in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
The Serbian war crimes prosecution has been leading the Rudnica investigation along with teams from the EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, the Red Cross, the International Commission for Missing Persons and the Kosovo missing persons commission.
There are still around 1,700 people listed as missing as a result of the Kosovo conflict.

Russian sanctions give Serbia unique chance — agriculture minister (ITAR-TASS, 21 August 2014)
On August 6, Russia imposed a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheeses, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from Australia, Canada, the EU, the United States and Norway
An opportunity to step up exports of agricultural and food products to Russia is “a unique chance Serbia should use if it is able to meet Russia’s high standards and regulations”, the Serbian agriculture and environmental protection minister said.
“The Russian side is interested in all our agricultural and food products, particularly meat, milk, fruit and vegetables. We can export as much cheese as we can produce,” Snezana Bogosavljevic-Boskovic told journalists, adding that such exports would not raise Serbian domestic market prices.
The minister said her country will “do everything possible to promote production at small enterprises as well, which is seen as a big chance by many citizens and politicians”.
Sanctions against Russia
Russian officials and companies came under Western sanctions, including visa bans and asset freezes, after Russia incorporated Crimea in mid-March because the West and Kiev refused to recognize Crimea’s reunification with Russia despite Moscow’s explanations that it was legal.
Moscow warned the West that the language of sanctions will have a boomerang effect.
The West announced new sectoral sanctions against Russia in late July over Moscow’s position on the Ukrainian events, in particular, what the West claimed was Moscow’s alleged involvement in mass protests in Ukraine’s war-torn south-east.
Russia’s imports ban
In response, Russia imposed on August 6 a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheeses, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from Australia, Canada, the EU, the United States and Norway.
Sectoral financial sanctions start to be felt in Russian economy — deputy minister
The banned products list includes cattle meat (fresh, chilled and refrigerated), pork (fresh, chilled and refrigerated), poultry meat and all poultry edible by-products, salted meat, pickled meat, dried meat, smoked meat, fish, clams and other water invertebrates, milk and dairy products, vegetables, edible roots and tuber crops.
The list also contains fruit and nuts, sausage and analogous meat products, meat by-products or blood, as well as products made of them, ready-to-eat products including cheeses and cottage-cheese based on vegetable fats.

Croatia to suffer greater damage from Russian sanction as time goes: ministers (XINHUA, 20 August 2014)
Croatian Agriculture Minister Tihomir Jakovina said on Tuesday that by now no one could tell how much Croatia would get from European Union funds intended as aid for food producers affected by Russian sanctions.
The European Commission Monday announced emergency aid amounting to 125 million Euros (166 million U.S. dollars) for fruit and vegetable producers in the EU affected by Russia’s one-year ban on the import of food products from the EU.
Croatia suffered less direct affect from the Russian sanction as it has limited food exports to Russia in the past two years, the minister said.
According to the Croatian Chamber of Economy (HGK), Croatia’s food exported to Russian market amounted to about 1.5 percent of all exported food products, with a value of 15.7 million euros in 2013.
Earlier this month, Croatian Economy Minister Ivan Vrdoljak warned that Russian sanctions could result greater damage in the future for the Croatian companies which were interested in entering the Russian market.
“I believe the damage will be greater in the coming period because the Russian market was one of the potentially new markets for our companies. The damage from not realising those plans will be greater than the damage from sanctions on current food exports to the country,” the minister said.
According to HGK data, during the first five months in 2014 the value of Croatian exports to Russia amounted to 92 million euro, 14 percent more than in the same period in 2013.

Croatian Anti-Fascist Street Name Sparks Dispute (BIRN, By Josip Ivanovic, 21 Aug 2014)
The mayor of Split’s backing for the naming of a new street after WWII anti-fascist Partisan fighters has been criticised by right-wing politicians in the Croatian coastal city.
Controversy erupted in Split after the local committee responsible for naming streets approved a proposal by the Society of Anti-Fascists and Anti-Fascist Fighters to name a street after the 1st Split Partisan Detachment, one of the Yugoslav Partisan units that fought against the Nazis and the German-allied Croatian Ustasa regime during World War II.
The small street in the suburbs of Split has yet to be built but critics claimed that the decision to name it after the Partisan fighters was wrong because it was taken when some right-wing members of the naming commission were on summer holiday.
One of them, the local president of the main opposition centre-right party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Patar Skoric, complained that such a “forced and hurried procedure” was unacceptable.
Another member of the committee, a member of the far-right Croatian Pure Party of Rights, Luka Podrug criticised the proposed name as “anachronistic”’.
“I’m not complaining about marking the victims of totalitarian regimes, but naming a street ‘Partisan’ in the 21st century is anachronistic. It will bring us back into divisions,” Podrug said.
Mayor Ivo Baldasar, from the ruling centre-left Social Democratic Party, said that the city council would decide on the issue on Monday but restated his own backing for the move.
“I don’t see what the problem is. That name was used before and its return has been wanted for years,” Baldasar told local media on Thursday.
The dispute follows a previous controversy in Split in May, when Baldasar was criticised for participating in a commemoration to honour the 9th Battalion of the Croatian Defence Forces battalion that operated during the 1990s war and was named after a notorious WWII Ustasa general, Rafael ‘Knight’ Boban.
Rights campaigners accused him of effectively endorsing hate speech.
“The mayor of Split participates in a gathering along with people who wear Ustasa symbols and chant [Ustasa slogan] ‘for the homeland’,” Vesna Terselic, from the Zagreb-based NGO, Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past, complained at the time.
But Baldasar argued on Thursday that both the Partisans and fighters in what Croatians call the ‘Homeland War’ of 1991-95 deserve commemoration.
“Both the homeland fighters and the Partisans are victims [of war], and they have a right to be revered because of their struggle for the freedom of their town and their people. This is history, not politics,” Baldasar explained.
“That is the reason why I accepted the invitation from the Croatian Defence Forces to unveil the statue of the 9th Battalion, and for the same reason I accepted the request from the Society of Anti-Fascists to name this street,” he said.
Bosnian Serb Ex-Fighter Arrested for War Crimes (BIRN, By Denis Dzidic, 20 Aug 2014)
The Bosnian State Investigation and Protection Agency arrested former Bosnian Serb fighter Dragan Glogovac on suspicion that he took part in wartime crimes against prisoners in Zavidovici.
Police arrested Glogovac in the early hours of Wednesday morning in the northern town of Bijeljina on the order of the Bosnian state prosecution which is investigating his role in wartime crimes in the village of Kamenica near Zavidovici.
The prosecution suspects Glogovac of taking part in the inhumane treatment and torture of Bosniak and Croat civilians and prisoners of war who were illegally held in the ‘Franjo Herljevic’ detention centre in Kamenica.
After questioning Glogovac, the Bosnian prosecution will determine whether to file for custody.

Bosnian Serb Prisoners Recall Beatings at Silos Camp (BIRN, By Denis Dzidic, 21 Aug 2014)
Testimonies from Bosnian Serb prisoners held at the Silos wartime detention camp in Hadzici near Sarajevo described repeated beatings by Bosniak guards and terrible conditions in the cells.
The Bosnian prosecution on Thursday read out witness statements to the Sarajevo court from two former detainees at the Silos jail camp, both of whom have since died, saying that they were beaten while they were imprisoned there in 1992.
Witness Bozidar Mrkajic said he was detained at Silos on June 16, 1992, held in terrible conditions and once beaten with a metal rod.
“The food was bad and there was not enough water. The hygiene was lousy… During the whole time in Silos, I took a shower only once,” Mrkajic said in a statement that he made in March 2011.
He said that he was held at the camp until November 1992, when he was freed as part of a prisoner exchange, and that he lost over 50 kilogrammes while he was in detention.
Mustafa Djelilovic, Fadil Covic, Mirsad Sabic, Nezir Kazic, Becir Hujic, Halid Covic, Serif Mesanovic and Nermin Kalember are on trial for crimes against Serb and Croat prisoners at the Silos camp, the Krupa barracks and the 9th of May school in Hadzici.
According to the indictment, Hujic was the warden of the Silos camp, as was Halid Covic at a later date. Mesanovic was one of the deputy wardens at the detention centre and also camp warden in the Krupa military barracks, Kalember was a guard, while the others worked for the civilian, military or police authorities.
The second witness statement on Thursday came from former prisoner Sima Lalusic, who said that at the beginning of June 1992, he was taken to Silos, where conditions in the cells were extremely bad and he was repeatedly beaten.
“There was not much food – only a small slice of bread and a little water,” Lalusic recalled.
He said that he had digestive problems because of the lack of food, and Halid Covic let him go home and take medicine.
He was held at Silos until the beginning of 1993, when he was taken to the Krupa barracks, where he was detained until February 1993 when he was freed as part of a prisoner exchange.
The trial continues on August 28.

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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.