LOCAL PRESS

Valls: Belgrade’s key role in resolving the Ukrainian crisis (Politika)

“France will actively support a decision to open one of the chapters of the accession talks between Serbia and the EU by the end of the year, and this could be the chapter on financial control. But, you know that no country can decide on this alone, and it will have to be a unanimous decision within the EU. We are working on having this consensus,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told Politika ahead of this visit to Belgrade. “France wants Serbia to be able to see results immediately after investing an effort. A number of EU members states place particular stress on the pace of the normalization of relations with Kosovo, and the talks with Kosovo are not going as well as they could at the moment because of the political situation in Pristina. Still, Serbia should continue to move forward, in order to convince those countries of the EU that still need convincing. I am an optimist.” Asked whether France could to for Serbia what Germany had done for Croatia before it joined the EU, Valls said: “France is prepared to do everything to help Serbia’s EU integration and it has been advocating that for several years. Serbia will play a key role in 2015, when it takes over the OSCE chairmanship, he noted. As a candidate for EU membership, it will carry the values we share, and its historical ties with Russia, which remains an unavoidable partner, will certainly make its actions more efficient.”

Serbian MPs outraged that there is no justice for Serb victims (Politika)

During the debate before the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija about unresolved crimes against the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija since 1998, cooperation of state organs with EULEX, and the work of the War Crimes Prosecution, many more details were made public than what certain Prosecution officials would have liked. At issue was not the disclosing of official secrets, with which Prosecution officials and Committee members were limited, but the problem was caused by accusations that the War Crimes Prosecution was unsuccessful in proving crimes against the Serbs and other national communities in Kosovo and Metohija. The Committee Chairman Milovan Drecun (Serbian Progressive Party,SNS) posed around ten questions to the present members of the Prosecution in regard to the fact that Serbia for 16 years has almost no results in processing crimes against the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. Prosecution members defended themselves that they, nevertheless, achieved some results, as well as that the international atmosphere is unfriendly towards the Serbs. Some Committee members proposed the foundation of a special state body that would deal with this issue, since the Prosecution is not successful in this. Committee member and SNS MP Momir Stojanovic ascertained that one can see the weakness of the Prosecution from the speech by its deputy prosecutor, and asked the present representatives how come they were so diligent in cases where Serbs were accused of crimes, so they submitted everything that was requested from them, including the entire documentation in order to prove command responsibility. He called the Prosecution representatives to say who is preventing them from doing their jobs. Deputy Prosecutor Bruno Vekaric, visibly annoyed, said that “abolishment of judgments is not on the Prosecution, but a matter for the courts and that is why political qualifications should not be given”. Vekaric said that Deputy Prosecutor Dragoljub Stankovic was modest in his report and didn’t mention that Serbian Interior Ministry members analyzed the statements of 432 persons, 120 of whom talked with the investigative bodies and 30 will appear before various panels, including international, so “the voice on the crimes against the Serbs” will be heard this way.

Kosovo represented in Berlin without coat of arms (Novosti)

The German-British hosts of the Conference on the Western Balkans and Southeast Europe, which was held in Berlin, respected the Brussels agreement, so Pristina representatives were represented without any symbols of the so-called state of Kosovo, Novosti was confirmed by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic. “The Gymnich formula was applied, meaning that all participants are represented with only name and last name. Such gatherings are very important both for Serbia and the entire region, and I will use the opportunity in meetings with a series of EU officials to once again request support for Serbia’s EU path and opening of first negotiating chapters by the end of the year,” said Dacic.

Benedict: Serbia committed to negotiating process (Tanjug)

“Serbia is committed to the negotiating process and has so far demonstrated good preparedness for it,” Deputy Head of the EU Mission to Serbia Oscar Benedict said in Nis. Presenting the European Commission’s 2014 progress report on Serbia and the enlargement strategy and key challenges, he said that the reforms in the accession process must be implemented throughout the country. The EU has earmarked 1.5 billion euros for the next seven and a half years to assist the process of achieving the standards required for meeting the membership criteria, Benedict said as an exhibition of comics about EU integration opened in the Nis Fortress. He said that he does not know how long the process will take, but that Serbia leads a group of countries aspiring to become EU member states. Serbia needs to persist in regional cooperation and normalizing relations with Kosovo, as well as in economic and structural reforms and establishing a full rule of law, Benedict reiterated. Nis Mayor Zoran Perisic said that Serbia is proud of the high marks in the progress report, and echoed Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s statement that the country will not be a cause of instability in the region.

Serbia and entire Balkans important for France (Radio Serbia, by Mladen Bijelic)

The Balkan region has always been important to France as a world power, and Serbia is connected to that country with traditionally good political relations and a century of friendship. Serbia ought to take better advantage of the French affinity, believes Dragan Petrovic of the Institute of International Policy, while announcing the visit of French Prime Minister Manuel Valls to Serbia. After Germany, France is the most important country in passing the important decisions in the EU, Petrovic reminds. He underlines that the French foreign policy is, however, not fully defined and consistent, either with regards to the EU enlargement or the crisis in Ukraine, i.e. toward Russia or even the U.S. Still, Serbia should benefit from the fact that throughout history France has been traditionally fonder of Serbia than some other big powers. On the other hand, President Hollande’s socialists, with Prime Minister Valls coming out of their ranks, have been shaken after the election defeats that suffered lately, and which show the constantly growing impact of the rightist movement. Petrovic points out that the Balkan region is going through a historical process characterized by the normalization of relations with other countries and demonstrated willingness to join the EU. According to him, being a big power, France is aware of the importance of those processes for the whole Europe, thus wishing to be current with all of the events that are pertinent to those integrations. Petrovic reminds that President Hollande took part in the summit in Slovenia in July 2013, and expressed the intention of France to increase its presence in these areas. The French Ambassador to Serbia Christine Moro has assessed that the visit of Prime Minister Valls will contribute to the strengthening of cooperation between the two countries in all domains, and particularly political and economic. Besides the business forum, whose goal is to reinforce the trade relations of Serbia and France, also announced is the signing of several bilateral contracts, especially in the area of traffic and partnership between the public and private sector.

REGIONAL PRESS

Lagumdzija in Berlin: The initiative of the United Kingdom and Germany a chance for B&H’s new beginning (Oslobodjenje)

Germany and Britain announced a joined initiative to revive the EU membership candidacy of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). “Our aim is to bring B&H back on the reform track, a path that can eventually enable the country to become a member of the EU,” said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He made the remarks at the Sixth Aspen Southeast Europe Foreign Ministers’ Conference in Berlin. The think-tank, Aspen Institute, organized the conference that brought together foreign ministers of seven Balkan countries, the U.K. and Germany. The British Embassy in Berlin hosted the meeting. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond called on the B&H government to focus on the EU integration process. “We want to work with you to ensure progress. And we are prepared to act as cheerleaders for B&H candidacy within the EU once that progress is made,” said Hammond in his speech. He said the EU expected B&H to commit itself to political and institutional reforms at all levels of the state structure, to make it more functional and able to work effectively with the bloc. B&H should agree with the EU on a roadmap for a broad reform agenda that includes implementation of the Copenhagen political and economic criteria, he said. B&H Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija welcomed the initiative and underlined the need for stronger European support for the success of B&H candidacy. “If B&H is not able to become a functional, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic state, then the Western Balkans will not have a great chance to be united,” Lagumdzija said. Foreign ministers of Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia also expressed support for the U.K.-Germany initiative.

Umihanic resigned as prime minister of Tuzla Canton (Oslobodjenje)

The Prime Minister of the Tuzla Canton (TK) Bahri Umihanic resigned from the position of prime minister. He signed his resignation today at the Canton Assembly. “I accepted the duty of the Prime Minister of TK as an act of personal responsibility to contribute in calming the situation caused by social rebellion, ensuring stability and a basis for the development of the Canton. I gathered these honorable people, who – by my proposition got the trust of the Assembly to perform the duties of ministers in the TK, totally devoted to solving the accumulated problems in the TK,” said Umihanic. He adds that the work of the current composition of the government is additionally burdened with affairs of the reparation of damages caused by natural disasters in May and August, which have resulted in estimated damages of about 650 million (BAM). “Regardless of the personal belief that there are no reasonable grounds for outstanding workers’ demands, as it can be easily checked, as a responsible person who cares about stability and development of the TK, I resign from the position of the Prime Minister of Tuzla Canton,” said Umihanic in his resignation, announced the Office for General Affairs of the cantonal authorities in the TK.

Meeting of SDA and SNSD in Sarajevo (Fena)

The meeting between delegations of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) will be held today at the headquarters of SDA in Sarajevo, the SDA announced. “First we will discuss the principles of the future work program objectives and the possibilities of forming a government at all levels,” secretary of the SDA Amir Zukic told Fena. He added that there will be more of such meetings and that they will be diligently working, in compliance with the predicted legal framework on implementation of the election results. Zukic said that the principles on which the SDA holds talks are the elimination of obstacles and creation of conditions that are necessary for B&H to qualify to join the EU and NATO, then the reform process, the fight against corruption and crime, economic development and employment.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

EU’s biggest foreign mission in turmoil over corruption row (The Guardian, by Julian Borger, 5 November 2014)

Allegations of cover-up as UK prosecutor is dismissed after finding evidence of possible bribe-taking in Kosovo mission

The EU is struggling to contain its worst foreign policy crisis in recent years after a whistleblower claimed that evidence of corruption in its biggest foreign mission – which is intended to strengthen the rule of law in Kosovo – was covered up.

The whistleblower, Maria Bamieh, learned in August that she would be made redundant from the Eulex mission, despite an impressive record of convictions, after revealing evidence of possible bribe-taking at top levels in the mission.

Bamieh, a British prosecutor, claimed her dismissal followed two years of unfair treatment, including full-scale investigations into her conduct for petty misdemeanours such as parking infringements.

Eulex has cost more than €1bn (£753m) since it was established in 2009 with a promise of pursuing the “big fish” among Kosovo politicians who are alleged to be involved in graft and organised crime.

Bamieh’s claims, along with the appearance of compromising documents in the Kosovan media, have reinforced a strong impression in parts of the former Yugoslav province that Eulex has become part of the problem rather than the solution.

During Eulex’s six-year tenure, analysts in Pristina say, corruption and organised crime in the political system since independence in 2008 has worsened.

After Bamieh complained about her dismissal to Brussels and the UK Foreign Office – and raised the corruption allegations once more – she was suspended and escorted out of the Eulex headquarters in Pristina on 24 October, for “gross misconduct”.

Eulex later said she was suspected of leaking classified documents. Bamieh denies the accusation, insisting she only went to the press after being suspended.

“It’s quite shameful that an organisation that is supposed to be a rule of law organisation is not itself subject to the rule of law,” Bamieh told the Guardian. “What message is that sending to Kosovo? You are telling Kosovo that if you have whistleblowers in your organisation, you kick them in the teeth. You are sending a message that we are not serious about corruption, that the institution that is here supposedly to raise legal standards is acting in this shameful way.”

The Eulex judge and prosecutor at the heart of the crisis deny any wrongdoing. Bamieh says there is no proof of illegal behaviour but maintains there is cause to launch an investigation.

Criticism in the European parliament has also focused more on the handling of the affair by the Eulex leadership than the original allegations, amid claims of a coverup. The organisation Reporters without Borders rebuked the mission for threatening a Kosovan journalist with prosecution in an attempt to stop him reporting on the scandal.

The recently-arrived new head of the Eulex mission, Gabriele Meucci, promised that Bamieh’s claims would be thoroughly investigated. “We are taking all allegations very seriously,” Meucci said last week, but he did not explain why it had taken a year to launch an internal inquiry and why it had yet to produce any visible results.

In what was widely seen as a vote of low confidence in the Eulex inquiry, the EU’s new foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, announced in Brussels this week that she would dispatch an independent legal expert to oversee its progress.

Richard Howitt, spokesman for the Socialist and Democrat group in the European parliament welcomed the decision, saying Eulex’s own investigation “looked more like a coverup”. Howitt added that Bamieh should have been offered legal protection as a whistleblower under Kosovo and EU law, which he said “clearly hadn’t been applied”.

Bamieh described Mogherini’s move as a step in the right direction. “I hope they send an independent expert. I don’t trust them to investigate themselves,” she said.

The appointment of an outside investigator reflects growing impatience with Eulex in Brussels. The Italian judge at the centre of the case, Francesco Florit, told the Guardian he had yet to be questioned by a Finnish investigator hired by Eulex to lead the internal inquiry. Eulex only announced last week, following Bamieh’s claims, that it had asked for Florit’s diplomatic immunity to be waived.

Florit said he welcomed that move as it would allow him to clear his name. He argued that the internal Eulex investigation should never have been launched on the basis of what he dismisses as groundless claims against him.

“What is unacceptable was that the previous head of mission established a mechanism that has spun out of control,” Florit said in an interview from his home in Italy. “He should have said: ‘This is rubbish and this stops here.’”

Bamieh, who formerly worked for the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service, first raised concerns about Florit and Jaroslava Novotna, Eulex’s chief prosecutor, after their names surfaced in a corruption case she was investigating in May 2012.

The permanent secretary at the Kosovo health ministry, Ilir Tolaj, had been arrested on suspicion of manipulating tenders for the supply of medicines to the advantage of himself and his friends.

However, Bamieh learned he had a mobile phone in his cell and ordered a wiretap on the number. In the resulting intercepts, people claiming to be intermediaries told Tolaj they had meetings with Florit and Novotna in which the officials suggested they could have Bamieh removed from the case and Tolaj freed.

In the transcript of a conversation on 31 May 2012, one of the go-betweens claimed Florit had described Bamieh as very difficult to deal with and promised to talk to her Czech boss, a reference to Novotna. According to the intercept, Florit is also alleged to have promised to “do everything to help [Tolaj] because he thinks that man deserves to be helped”.

In another conversation, an intermediary also portrayed Florit and Novotna as raising the possibility of replacing Bamieh with an Italian prosecutor on the Eulex staff. One of the intermediaries said if Florit “guarantees that the matter is done, he shall tell us … what can we do for him”.

Florit admits he met one of the alleged intermediaries recorded on the wiretaps, “maybe six or seven times” in 2012, but said the Kosovan presented himself as an academic asking him to attend lectures at a private Pristina university. Florit said there was a Kosovan assistant present at most of the meetings and that when his visitor raised the Tolaj case at their last encounter, in June 2012, he asked him to leave and wrote an official report about the visit. “It was my practice to allow anyone who wanted a meeting with me into my office, but I admit I was naïve in this case,” Florit said.

Novotna also denies any impropriety. Eulex said she was not available for interview but the Czech news website, Lidovky.cz quoted her as saying: “I met no charged persons nor anybody else over penal affairs and I took no steps to influence the investigation in any way.”

Tolaj was eventually acquitted of charges of trying to obstruct justice, which had been based on the intercepts. Bamieh concedes that she herself played down the weight of the allegations in her July 2012 indictment of Tolaj, writing: “It is not suggested that Mr Florit or Mrs Novotna were involved in the attempts to obstruct justice. It is highly likely that the individuals involved were feeding Mr Tolaj inaccurate false information for their own interests.”

Bamieh now says she was trying to protect colleagues from public scandal in the mistaken belief that an internal Eulex enquiry into the intercepts would be launched. Two months before issuing her Tolaj indictment, she had taken them to the head of the Eulex justice department, saying they appeared to show serious violations and asking that “Eulex properly investigates this for my safety, for the integrity of my investigation and for the public image of Eulex”.

“This is a political time bomb and Eulex needs to deal with this ASAP,” Bamieh wrote.

However, no action was taken on her warnings.

“They should have examined everything. They should have got the telephone records for Francesco [Florit], they should have got the telephone records for Jaroslava [Novotna]. They should have seized their records. They should have taken their diaries and they should have quietly and properly investigated, and if they were guilty, dealt with it,” Bamieh said. “Instead they punished me.”

She said she was angrily rebuked by both Brussels and senior officials in Pristina. A year later, her office received a complaint from the families of two convicts in a 2009 murder trial in which she had been prosecutor and Florit had been judge. The families claimed they had contributed to a €300,000 bribe to Florit, on the understanding he would acquit or significantly reduce the sentences of all three defendants in the trial, who were accused of planting a bomb in a Pristina cafe. But they claimed he had reneged on the deal and only acquitted one.

The brother of one of the convicted men, Flurim Asani, described a trip to the Albanian port of Durres in the summer of 2009 with a lawyer, ostensibly to discuss the bribe.

“I was interested to see if the lawyer was really going to meet Florit,” Asani told the Guardian in a Skype interview from his home in Germany. “He met him outside a restaurant at the port terminal, and I walked after them for about 100 metres until they got on a yacht, a modern expensive yacht. They were gone for four hours. On the way back to Pristina later, the lawyer told me everything was fine. He said Florit would charge €10,000 per defendant per year to reduce the sentences.”

Asked if he was sure it was Florit he had seen in Durres, Asani said: “I am absolutely certain. I had seen Florit 30 times at court hearings, and close up in his office when I would come to ask permission to visit my brother in prison.”

Florit dismissed Asani’s account as “an absurd lie”, saying he never been to Durres, and had not visited Albania in the whole of 2009. “I was never offered, and I never requested any kind of bribe,” the judge said.

Florit and Bamieh traded angry accusations on Kosovo television last week, further denting public faith in Eulex as a cure for Kosovo’s ingrained corruption problems.

Shpend Ahmeti, Pristina’s reformist mayor and a longstanding Eulex critic, said: “We want to discuss with Brussels how to replace Eulex with good local investigators and prosecution and the EU helps us with advice not in executive power … This is a problem of accountability. Eulex has no accountability to the Kosovo people.”

Serbian PM discusses models of gas debt repayment with Putin (Reuters, 5 November 2014)

BELGRADE – Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday he had discussed models of debt repayment to Russian state gas giant Gazprom with Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone.

Vucic’s government said last week that the country’s gas debt of $224 million was the reason for a 28-percent reduction in gas supplies from Russia. Supplies first fell in late September.

But Vucic had said he would ask Putin for debt rescheduling as his government needs to rein in spending in its 2015 budget to get a new three-year loan deal with the International Monetary Fund.

“The two interlocutors agreed ways of cooperation regarding all issues linked to Russian gas deliveries to Serbia and models of debt repayment,” Vucic’s office said in a statement, without giving any details.

Putin has accepted Vucic’s request “to secure more favorable gas supplies to Serbia’s petrochemical complex.”

Serbia is heavily dependent on Russian gas, importing more than 80 percent of its annual consumption of 2.5 billion cubic meters via Hungary and Ukraine.

The EU candidate country put its oil and gas sector largely in the hands of Gazprom in 2008, in a deal that allowed Gazprom’s oil arm Gazprom Neft to acquire a majority stake in state-owned oil firm NIS.

Gazprom is majority shareholder in Serbia sole gas storage facility with the capacity of 450 million cubic meters.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Serbia Denies Monitoring Separatist Ukraine Polls (BIRN, by Marija Ristic, 6 November 2014)

After two Serbian MPs turned up in Donetsk, monitoring Sunday’s separatist elections in Eastern Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry has repeated that their actions in no way represent Serbian official policy.

Serbia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday denied that the country’s institutions had taken any part in monitoring and thus endorsing separatist elections in eastern Ukraine.

The furore began after two members of parliament from the ranks of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, were seen on a list of the official observers of the elections.

“Representatives of the government of Serbia or any of its institutions were not engaged as monitors, or in any other way involved in the election process in eastern Ukraine,” the ministry’s statement read.

“Serbia supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and a continuation of the peace project with the firm stance that only dialogue can lead to a solution in line with international law,” the ministry added.

Media reports on Wednesday said the Serbian ambassador in Ukraine, Rade Bulatovic, had been summoned for consultations in the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in Kiev.

The Progressive Party on Tuesday confirmed that the two MPs went to the separatist headquarters of Donetsk but said they went as private citizens and not as representatives of the Serbian parliament.

“Branislav Blazic and Vladimir Djukanovic did not have a travel order either from government or from the parliament. We will discuss their private moves during the next party meeting and make adequate decisions,” Zoran Babic from the SNS said in parliament.

The activities of the two MPs in Eastern Ukraine have caused some embarrassment in Belgrade.

While Serbia cherishes ties with Russia and has refused to join Western condemnation of Russia’s alleged interference in Ukraine, at the same time it supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Another factor is that Sunday’s elections held by pro-Russian separatists have been labelled illegal by the EU, which Serbia aims to join.

The role of international observers in the polls has been slated by the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Yuriy Sergeyev, who said they “entered Ukraine illegally and engaged in illegal activities,” the Russian news agency Tass reported on Tuesday.

Vojislav Seselj, on Trial for War Crimes, Is Offered Temporary Release (The New York Times, by Marlise Simons, 5 November 2014)

The United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague has proposed a temporary release for Vojislav Seselj, a Serb nationalist leader, whose health has seriously deteriorated while awaiting the end of his long-running trial. In a decision published Wednesday, the judge in charge of his case suggested that “to avoid the worst-case scenario,” Mr. Seselj should return to Serbia “to receive treatment in the most suitable environment.”

Mr. Seselj had surgery for colon cancer last year, but Serbian doctors who recently visited him in jail in The Hague publicly disclosed that his cancer had spread to his liver.

Mr. Seselj, a firebrand politician, surrendered in 2003, and his enduring presence in The Hague has become an embarrassment for the Yugoslavia tribunal. His case has been delayed repeatedly because of obstruction by Mr. Seselj and because of a dispute among judges that led to one of the judges’ being replaced.

Mr. Seselj was charged with inciting others to commit war crimes in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s by creating a militia and sending its members off with incendiary speeches. He was also tried for contempt of court when he was accused of disclosing the names of protected witnesses.

His judges proposed this year that he could await his verdict in Serbia, but Mr. Seselj refused, saying he would not abide by court rules to remain under house arrest and avoid political activities. Moreover, he has been demanding that the tribunal pay him 12 million euros (about $15 million) for trial costs and damages.

The Serbian government said Wednesday in a letter that it would take custody of Mr. Seselj, but only if he consented. Mr. Seselj’s consent is far from certain, a lawyer familiar with the case said.