LOCAL PRESS

Consultations on Kosovo plan to start this week (Vecernje novosti)

By the end of this week, President Nikolic and Prime Minister Vucic will start official consultations about “the final solution for the status of Kosovo.”

This has been reported by the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti, which said the confirmation about the start of the consultations “came from top state officials.”

The plan “for the solution of the status of the province” should be ready “before Brussels presents the next agreement on the normalization of relations with Pristina,” writes the newspaper.

Although top officials have lately been making statements that “sounded dissonant” – with Tomislav Nikolic saying the issue should be “immediately opened,” while Vucic said it was “too early to talk about a final solution” – the daily writes it was told “by the top levels of the government” that there were no disagreements between the two when it came to the Kosovo policy, “or in terms of the timing of the future steps.”

Vucic is, according to these sources, “very aware of everything that the president spoke about in relation to Kosovo and Metohija and the intentions of the European administration.”

“The timing of the presentation of the new platform to the public will largely depend on how Brussels sees the dynamics of the continuation of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. A clearer picture of European intentions will emerge on February 9 at a meeting called by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, where the Serbian side will be represented Aleksandar Vucic and Ivica Dacic, and the Albanian by Isa Mustafa and Hashim Thaci,” the paper writes.

As stated, Belgrade expects to hear “specific conditions for the opening of negotiating chapters with the EU,” and about the plans of Brussels related to “the signing of the next agreement between the two sides” – and whether it will suggest that Belgrade should initial a joint document “with another ‘state’ or with an autonomy.” According to earlier announcements, Belgrade and Pristina should sign a new document when they fulfill the obligations stemming from the first agreement on the principles of normalization of relations, including the formation of a community of Serb municipalities, which, it is estimated, could start functioning in the spring. Serbian president’s adviser Stanislava Pak said that Nikolic’s proposal will be “specific and not a literal copy of another model already applied elsewhere in the world.”

“But, use can be made, for example, of some elements from South Tyrol or the Republika Srpska (RS),” she was quoted as saying.

SNF wants to be included in drafting of platform on KiM (Tanjug)

The Serb National Forum (SNF) from Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) sent an open letter to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic requesting that the Forum should be included in the drafting of the platform on the southern Serbian province which was recently announced by the head of state.

All intellectual forces in the country need to be included in the drafting of the platform on KiM which anticipates the final solution for the province, SNF said.

This is why the opinions, stands and suggestions of those who are not burdened by party popularity need to be taken into account, especially if they have a good insight into the past and present and also want KiM to have a future within the framework of the Republic of Serbia, the letter states.

In its letter, SNF noted that it is not known whether any Serb or Serb organization from the province have been consulted in the drafting of the platform on KiM, save for perhaps some political party representatives.

This fact gives ground to dissatisfaction and concern among our people which was previously triggered by the unacceptable lack of transparency in the process the government is conducting in Brussels and which is directly connected to our future, the SNF letter states.

SNF was recently set up in Gracanica with the intention of gathering Serb intellectual forces from KiM so as to protect and assert Serb national interests in the southern Serbian province.

After the NATO bombing of Serbia back in 1999, the UN established an interim administration in KiM, but ethnic Albanians unilaterally declared independence on February 17, 2008, which is not recognized by Serbia.

Dacic Pristina does not know what it wants (Tanjug)

Ivica Dacic has said Hashim Thaci‘s statement shows that Pristina “does not know what it wants – dialogue or blind acceptance of what they want.”

In a situation where the Brussels dialogue is status-neutral, it is completely pointless to respond to these provocations by Thaci – said the Serbian first deputy prime minister and foreign minister, according to a statement from the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Thaci, who serves as Kosovo’s foreign minister, said on Monday that Serbia was “attempting to raise political noise with alleged plans for (a final solution of the status of) Kosovo” and in this way “demonstrates that it cannot overcome the expansionist mentality of the last century.”

Thaci, who is also a deputy prime minister of Kosovo, wrote this on Facebook, and also “expressed his disappointment” over such an approach “of a neighboring country” that aspires to join the European family. “To accuse Serbia of expansionism while trying to legalize the violent and unilateral violation of its territorial integrity, and while there is talk almost every day about a Greater Albania – which would violate the territorial integrity of several more countries – is the ultimate hypocrisy,” Dacic said, in reference to the ethnic Albanians’s unilateral declaration of independence of the province, which Serbia does not recognize. He added that Serbia “clearly opted for dialogue and stability in the region,” but that “it seems our constructive stance is interpreted as our weakness in Pristina.”

“Taci has to understand that the times when the talks with Serbia were led by the principle “take it or live it” are long gone,” Dacic said. Kosovo Minister of Foreign Affairs stated today that Serbia, by attempting to raise political noise of alleged plans for Kosovo, proves that it cannot overcome “its expansionistic mentality from the last century”.

Vulin, Jablanovic condemn attack on Serbs in Djakovica (Tanjug)

Serbian Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran Care and Social Affairs Aleksandar Vulin condemned the attack on displaced Serbs in Djakovica and stated that this and similar incidents can aggravate the process of Belgrade-Pristina negotiations in the continuation of the dialogue in Brussels. On Tuesday, Vulin and Kosovo Minister for Return and Communities Aleksandar Jablanovic spent Christmas Eve in the Monastery of Holy Doctors Cosmas and Damian in Zociste near Orahovac in Kosovo-Metohija. Vulin recalled that this is the third year in a row in which Serbs banished from Djakovica are banned from entering the city to deliver prayers in their (Orthodox) Church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The bus transporting around 40 displaced Serbs from Djakovica was stoned by ethnic Albanians from the city in south-west Kosovo-Metohija on Christmas Eve on Tuesday.

The attack occurred in front of the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Zociste and it left the bus driver with light injuries.

Minister Vulin underscored that such attacks are unacceptable as they violate the basic human right to return and profession of religion. He noted that the attacks on Serbs in Djakovica are constantly repeating because not a single individual responsible for the incidents has been punished until now, and he also underscored that this will aggravate the continuation of the dialogue on the normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations in Brussels.

The Serbian minister underscored that representatives of the international community are also responsible for this, and called on them to finally take action and bring to justice the perpetrators of the constant attacks on Serbs. Jablanovic noted that he will address the Kosovo minister of interior affairs demanding an explanation for the latest attack on Serbs in Djakovica.

UNMIK, the UN’s “Pillar of Shame” (Vesti online)

Serbia should request a special session of the United Nations Security Council, in which it would request a resolution clarifying the responsibility of UNMIK and the specific responsibilities of individuals in this mission for the failures noted by the Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP). Also, Serbia should establish a funding mechanism to compensate the victims of gross human rights violations in Kosovo and Metohija, says Dusko Celic, Vice-President of the Coordination of Serbian Associations of Families of Missing Persons from the Former Yugoslavia.

“Serbia has not taken any concrete steps on this issue, and I think there is no political interest to initiate it in the UN Security Council, since Serbia’s insistence on accountability, and the possible ensuing legal and diplomatic action, would affect the US and EU nationals who held key positions in UNMIK. I fear that our victims are ‘collateral damage’ of such a policy,” he said.

Celic pointed out that HRAP had adopted more than 100 opinions, but that none of them have been mentioned in the more than 60 reports on Kosovo that have been discussed before the Security Council. “Nobody pointed out that the reports do not mention anything that relates to UNMIK’s responsibility.” He sees an opportunity in the yet-to-be-formed special court. “But I’m afraid that it will result in nothing,“ he said.

Government preparing the response to the worst case foreign politics scenario (Vecernje novosti)

Requests for strengthening the Kosovo independence, pressure on Serbia to enforce the sanctions against Russia and attempts to weaken Republika Srpska (RS) will be the greatest political challenges of Serbia in 2015.

Based on received information and assessments   from diplomatic and analytical sources, our state top has completely sketched the worst case scenario that could be served to us during this year.

Also, leading political figures are preparing the diplomatic response to those potential traps of foreign politics that are ahead of us.  

It is estimated that the first big challenge would be the continuation of negotiations with Pristina under the EU supervision that are already scheduled for 9th of February.

It is expected that already on this meeting 12 conditions from Brussels could be a topic. The Berlin is mainly insisting on this conditions that are damaging the status of neutrality and favors independent Kosovo.

From the outcome of these negotiations depends the opening of the first chapters in negotiations between Serbia and EU. The Belgrade will insist that all the solutions are made in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia.

It is estimated that the Ukraine crises and increased military activity could escalate in early spring. Every further conflict between the Russia and the EU will aggravate the neutral position of our country that refuses to enforce the sanctions against Russia, despite the expectations of Brussels.

The Belgrade estimates that these requests by EU and USA will intensify in upcoming mounts.

During the summer top state officials expect maybe the strongest political offensive against the RS.

In July this year it is going to be 20 years since the crimes in Srebrenica and many foreign policy centers will attempt to use this moment to redefine the status of RS in regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to reinforcing the authorities of central power.

In regard to that it is expected that the West will expect that Belgrade helps in breaking the political resistance in Banja Luka.

Vucic expects Serbian president to back OSCE presidency (Tanjug, Blic)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stated on Wednesday that he expects Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic to provide considerable support to Serbia’s OSCE presidency.

“I expect everyone to engage in this major task and help Serbia improve its reputation during the OSCE presidency,” Vucic told the Belgrade-based Television Pink.

He announced that he might attend the meeting in Brussels on February 9 to resume the dialogue on normalisation of the relations with Pristina together with Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic, depending on the topics included in the agenda of the meeting.

Vucic noted that at least four chapters in the EU accession talks need to open in the first half of the year.

“We have completed all the screenings, we are adopting all laws in accord with the European Commission and the opening of certain chapters will certainly begin soon,” he said.

The opening of Chapter 23 (on the judiciary and fundamental rights) and Chapter 24 (on justice, freedom and security) will depend on the degree of orderly regulation in Serbia, Vucic said and added that the most difficult task for himself and the government is embodied in the opening of Chapter 35 on Kosovo-Metohija.

Asked whether the opening of this chapter can be politically conditioned, Vucic replied that the country will be exposed to pressures and added that it is not a secret.

“The position of our country is such that it does not allow us to circumvent pressures,” Vucic said and noted that additional talks with Pristina and results of the talks in Brussels are required for opening of Chapter 35. He explained that he is not asking anyone in the EU for any favors, nor is he interested in popularity. Vucic added that he is not guided by the prospects in the next elections and underscored that he does not want to let anything be taken from Serbia in haste if the country does not have to give it up. Serbia is the source of stability in the region, it is politically and economically stable and it is making slow but steady progress, Vucic said and underscored that people in Serbia will live better this year already, and living conditions would further improve in 2016.

PM Serbia won’t be poor man of EU (TV Pink)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told the TV Pink broadcaster that Serbia’s membership in the EU was a strategic objective.

“The strategic goal is to become a member of the EU and in this field we do everything we can to make Serbia a well-ordered country, which when it becomes a member will not be even close to the poorest countries,” said Vucic.

It was for this reason that difficult measures have been undertaken, he continued, and added that the austerity measures are the reason why “Serbia is today more respected than many countries of southern Europe.” Vucic then said he was worried “about the things that could happen, not only Ukraine, but also in the whole of southern Europe,” and pointed out that Serbia has managed to retain its position and remain neutral. “We have managed to preserve our position, although critics explained that it was impossible to do and not impose sanctions on Russia. As you can see, without clear stance and protection of national and state interests, we succeeded,” underlined Vucic. Vucic also revealed he would “deal with a government reshuffle” after “a solution” has been found for the Zelezara steel mill in Smederevo. He said he “thought that people (ministers) fought and made an effort” – but “would not deal with it until he finishes the story about Zelezara.” The prime minister pointed out that a reshuffle would not be a goal in itself, “but a way for the government to function better and more efficiently.” Vucic also said that opening chapters 23 and 24 would mean a lot in the EU membership negotiations “in terms of whether Serbia will be a well-ordered country or not,” and that the opening of chapter 35 (on Kosovo) that was “the most difficult for the government of Serbia and for him personally.”

“I cannot say that we are happy when we travel to Brussels (for Kosovo talks). There’s no flowers or cakes there,” he was quoted as saying. Vucic also announced that “several chapters” in negotiations with the EU would be opened this year – and “at least four in the first half of 2015.” He added it was “obvious that the opening of chapters was politically conditioned.”

“Everyone should know that in order to open chapter 35, they are asking for additional talks, and everyone is waiting to see what will happen on February 9, after which they could consider whether to give it to us or not,” the prime minister said. Vucic also stated that as the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue continues, Serbia will be represented by him, FM Ivica Dacic, and by other ministers, “depending on the topic.” Vucic said he expected “great support from President Tomislav Nikolic” during Serbia’s chairmanship of the OSCE in 2015, and that the country would “improve its reputation” during this period. However, the prime minister does not count himself “among those who think Serbia will now solve all the world’s problems.” According to him, there are good ties, and even friendships in international relations – “but our country’s position is not such that we can avoid being pressured.”

“We will be exposed to pressure and that is no secret,” Vucic concluded.

REGIONAL PRESS

Dodik Serb Republic is no accidental whim (Fena, Tanjug)

President of the Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), the Republika Srpska (RS), Milorad Dodik has said that the RS is “not an accidental whim.” Speaking on the occasion of January 9 – RS Day – he said the entity proved it was not “a whisper of wind brought on by the collapse of the former Yugoslavia” – but instead “the permanent choice of the people who live in that area.”

Dodik told reporters in Banja Luka that the RS institutions will “do everything” to quickly plan and carry out “very comprehensive measures” to additionally stabilize the entity, allow economic growth and create jobs. The Fena news agency quoted him as saying that “everyone in the RS needs to gather together with new energy to solve the existing problems.”

“The Republika Srpska is a synonym for freedom to the Serb people, but also a good place to live for others,” he stressed, after joining other RS officials in ceremonies honoring those who helped create the entity. RS Assembly President Nedeljko Cubrilovic took part in the ceremony, and previously said that “nobody can any longer bring into question the existence of the RS as a unified and equal part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Serb representative in the Bosnian presidency and its current chair. Mladen Ivanic, also believes that the RS has overcome its key challenges and that “nobody is any longer bringing into question” this entity. “It is now up to us to strengthen the RS economically, to deal more with the economy and secure the perspective in this way, especially for young people, because they are the foundation of RS,” he said. On Thursday, Ivanic placed wreaths at memorial sites honoring the fallen WW2-era Partisan fighters, and the fallen soldiers of the former Army of the Serb Republic (VRS).

Lagumdzija Form government in B&H ASAP (Oslobodjenje)

Zlatko Lagumdzija, foreign minister of B&H, spoke in separate meetings with the ambassadors of Germany, the Russian Federation, the Netherlands, and Switzerland – Christian Hellbach, Petr Ivantsov, Jurriaan Kraak, and Heinrich Maurer – about the current political situation in B&H, with a focus on forming a government after the general elections that were held and B&H’s accession process to the European Union. The topics of discussion were also related to the issues from the domain of bilateral relations and national cooperation on the multilateral plane, such as exchange of support for candidacies for positions in international bodies. During the discussions, Lagumdzija informed his interlocutors that the B&H Presidency had established and agreed upon a draft text of a joint statement on the commitment of B&H political leaders to undertake necessary reforms in the accession process to the European Union.

He also informed them of the present course of formation of governments at all levels in B&H, and they exchanged opinions on the next steps necessary to undertake, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. They jointly assessed that the process of forming governments at all levels should be completed as soon as possible, and that the statement on the commitment of political leaders to take necessary reforms in the framework of the EU accession process should receive irrevocable support as soon as possible from political leaders in the country, and be adopted in the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H. Lagumdzija reiterated the stance that the reforms program should be the central element of the work plan of the new governments and parliaments, based on three strategic lines of action, which are economic governance, rule of law, and reforms and strengthening of public administration in the sense of a more functional state, which is also contained in the proposed statement.

Police step up protection of French Embassy in Sarajevo (Dnevni avaz)

The French Embassy in Sarajevo has been under tighter police protection as of Wednesday and security has been stepped up around some other diplomatic offices in the Bosnian capital, the Chief of the Directorate for the Coordination of Police bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), Mirsad Vilic, has said. Police readiness was stepped up after an urgent meeting between Chief State Prosecutor Goran Salihovic and Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA) head Almir Dzuvo, held after Wednesday’s terrorist attack in Paris. Aside from confirmation that the meeting was held, there has been no explanation as to the possible existence of a specific security threat.

“We are in contact with all police agencies in B&H, including OSA. We stepped up operations in the field and are also in contact with the French police,” Vilic was quoted as saying by Dnevni Avaz on Thursday. His directorate is in charge of security of important persons, headquarters of state bodies of authority and diplomatic offices.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Opponents square up in shock battle for Croatian presidency (DPA, By Boris Babic, 08 January 2015)

Croatia’s Social Democratic (SDP) President Ivo Josipovic had expected to cruise to a second term, but instead he faces a close fight with his conservative challenger Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in Sunday’s election run-off. Encouraged by opinion polls which had been tipping him as the certain winner, Josipovic had actually hoped that he might collect more than half of all the votes cast and win in the first round on December 28. Instead, he was stunned when he only just edged ahead of the main rival, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), with 38.46 to 37.22 per cent, just 1.24 percentage points in front instead of around the 10 that surveys promised him. The other big surprise was Ivan Vilibor Sincic, a total political novice who wants to legalize marijuana and whose campaign was to attack the system: the big parties, tycoons, the EU, NATO and the banks.

Sincic came in third with a whopping 16.42 per cent of the vote, far ahead of the rightist Milan Kujundzic, with 5.05 per cent. Analysts attributed Sincic’s result to widespread discontent over Croatia’s economic woes that have stumped the political elite, entrenched in the SDP and HDZ, the only two parties that have governed since independence in 1991. Another sign that Croatians have grown fed up with the traditional political players was the that 53 per cent of the 3.8 million voters did not show up to cast ballots two weeks ago. While Grabar-Kitarovic can count on almost all of Kujundzic’s votes, those who voted for Sincic are unlikely to go for either of the two runners on Sunday, analysts predicted. Sincic’s 300,000 supporters are “a cohort of … discontents, hidden and invisible, waiting for an authentic anti-hero to appear,” the Zagreb newspaper Jutarnji List said Monday. “It is a political tribe assembled … to punish the existing political establishment,” it said, forecasting that on Sunday “many will stay at home.” The date of the run-off also disfavours Josipovic, because many of his middle-class voters will be driving home on Sunday, the last day of a school holiday, and may not bother to vote. All that gives Grabar-Kitarovic at least a 5-per-cent lead on Election Day, independent political analyst Davor Gjenero said, concurring that Sinic’s voters would abstain. “Josipovic could compensate the setbacks with a massive turnout, but in the end it will probably be lower than in the first round,” Gjenero told dpa over the phone.

The fact that Sunday is the last day of a school vacation may also dim Josipovic’s outlook, as many of those who will be returning home from skiing or a trip to the country are his middle-class supporters, he added. Josipovic and Grabar-Kitarovic are running for the post that is largely ceremonial, but prestigious. Josipovic’s campaign included the promotion of a constitutional reform plan to reduce the state administration, while the challenger vaguely promised to work for a better economy.

In a TV debate Monday, Grabar-Kitarovic accused Josipovic of doing nothing to stop economic decline during his five-year term and described his reform plan as “professorial measures.”

He was president during “the worst five years in Croatia’s history regarding the economy, poverty, bankruptcies,” she said. He retorted that her campaign was “without a single concrete measure … advocating goals we all want,” but without outlining the roadmap to them. Should Grabar-Kitarovic win, she will become the first female president of an independent Croatia and the first conservative in the office after 15 years. Gjenero said that he expects the challenger to win and also send a signal that HDZ is set to return to power in parliamentary elections later in 2015.

Analysis – ‘Captain Dragan’ case sparks Croatia-Serbia tussle (Turkish Weekly, By Ivana Nikolic, Marija Ristic, Sven Milekic, 07. January 2015)

Zagreb and Belgrade are competing for the right to put notorious former Serb paramilitary chief Dragan Vasiljkovic on trial for war crimes, as he seeks to avoid extradition from Australia.

The case of Dragan Vasiljkovic has sparked new tensions between Serbia and Croatia once again after the two countries’ justice officials traded accusations over their abilities to prosecute war crimes fairly.

Former paramilitary commander Vasiljkovic, an Australian citizen known in his adopted homeland as Daniel Snedden, was arrested on a Croatian arrest warrant in 2006, and has been fighting extradition from Australia ever since. His wartime exploits made him a popular hero in Serbia; he even had his own TV show and a comic strip was published about him and his ‘Knindze’ unit.

Tensions erupted in recent days when Serbian justice minister Nikola Selakovic asked his Australian counterpart Michael Keenan to allow Belgrade to prosecute Vasiljkovic.

According to Selakovic, Serbia is “fully prepared to conduct criminal proceedings”, arguing that Vasiljkovic would not have a fair trial in Croatia. The Serbian minister’s intervention came after an Australian court dismissed Vasiljkovic’s appeal against his extradition to Croatia, where he is accused of war crimes during the 1991-95 conflict. According to the Croatian authorities, the final decision on extradition is expected to be reached soon.

Who has the right to prosecute?

Despite Serbia’s appeal to the Australian authorities, experts believe that Croatia has priority when it comes to prosecuting the 59-year-old ex-fighter. “Croatia has indicted Captain Dragan, Serbia has not even done that,” Zarko Puhovski, a political analyst from Zagreb, told BIRN.

Croatia issued an Interpol warrant in 2006 after it was reported that Vasiljkovic was in Australia, charging him with war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war. Serbia has not indicted him, but believes it has right to prosecute its own citizens even though the alleged war crime happened in another former Yugoslav country. But Ivan Jovanovic, a Belgrade-based transitional justice expert and former head of the OSCE department for war crimes and organised crime in Serbia, agreed that Croatia has priority because the alleged offences were committed there. “In practice, priority is given to countries where the act was committed. Also, when there are competing [extradition] requests, it is important whose extradition request was filed first,” Jovanovic told BIRN. However, he added: “There are also legal grounds to prosecute him in Serbia, as it [Serbia] has jurisdiction over its nationals.”

Who can stage a fair trial?

In his letter to Keenan, Serbian justice minister Selakovic also questioned whether the Croatian judiciary had the credibility to prosecute Serbs for war crimes. According to Selakovic, the trial “would not be supported by adequate and sustainable evidence”. Responding to the accusation, Croatia’s assistant justice minister Ivan Crncec said on Saturday that Serbia was not in any position to assess Croatia’s judiciary. “Croatia went through a process of EU accession and one of the negotiating chapters it had to close was the chapter on the judiciary, where the country’s capacity to deal with war crimes trials was tested,” Crncec told Croatian media. Puhovski agreed that EU membership does give Croatia an advantage in the row. “Serbia has only started its negotiating process [to join the EU], during which its judiciary will be validated by all member states, including Croatia,” Puhovski said.

“Looking at it from the inside, it is true that the Croatian judiciary is known for its biased approach towards non-Croats; more specifically, Serbs. This has been getting better in recent years, but it is still present. Nevertheless this shouldn’t be the case of Captain Dragan,” Puhovski told BIRN.

Jovanovic also said he doubted that Serbs and Croats receive equal treatment in war crime trials before Croatian courts, with the Zagreb judiciary still favouring Croats. “The fact is that a mitigating circumstance for Croats [who are on trial] is participation in the Homeland War [Croatia’s name for the 1991-95 conflict], and for that reason the accused are getting lower sentences,” Jovanovic explained. He said he believed that Vasiljkovic could however get a fair trial in Serbia, because the case has attracted huge media attention so the Belgrade authorities would be under pressure to apply the highest judicial standards.

A problem for Serbia-Croatia relations?

“Every war crime trial about which there is a lot of attention is a potential minefield in the relations between Serbia and Croatia,” said Jovanovic. The relationship between the neighbours was damaged in 2014 by rows over the two countries’ genocide lawsuits against each other at the International Court of Justice and the controversial release of Serbian war crimes defendant Vojislav Seselj.

But Jovanovic said that he thought the Vasiljkovic case couldn’t do much more damage than has already been done. “Despite being popular in Serbia and probably hated in Croatia, Captain Dragan is not a person with the significance to further endanger relations, I think,” he said. Puhovski also said that because relations were already in such a bad state, the Captain Dragan case “won’t disrupt them any more than they already are, but it certainly won’t help”.

Serb war crimes Prosecutor: ‘We stirred up hornet’s nest’ (Associated Press, 08. January 2015)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor says his office has faced an orchestrated campaign by war criminals and nationalists – including accusations of spying for the U.S. leveled also by some officials – after it recently moved to open sensitive cases from the Balkan country’s wartime past. Vladimir Vukcevic told The Associated Press in an interview on Thursday that he, his team and their families have received death threats and faced attacks in the nationalist media that have “coincided with our work in about four cases.” In late December, two lawmakers from the ruling coalition filed espionage charges against the prosecutors for allegedly revealing sensitive information about their cases to U.S. embassy officials. Vukcevic says “we have stirred up a hornet’s nest.”

Bosnian Serb MP Charged with Srebrenica Genocide (BIRN, 08. January 2015)

Dragomir Vasic, a former police chief who is now a lawmaker in the country’s Serb-led Republika Srpska entity parliament, is charged with taking part in the 1995 genocide of Bosniaks.

The Bosnian state court on Thursday confirmed the indictment of Bosnian Serb lawmaker Vasic and two other former police officials from Zvornik for taking part in the Srebrenica genocide in July 1995. Vasic was the commander of the Zvornik police headquarters and chief of the Public Security Center in the town in the summer of 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces killed more than 7,000men and boys and forcibly removed 40,000 civilians from Srebrenica.

He was elected to the Republika Srpska People’s Assembly in last October’s general elections as a candidate of the Serb Democratic Party founded by Radovan Karadzic, who is on trial in The Hague for genocide in Srebrenica and other crimes during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The indictment against Vasic also charges Danilo Zoljic and Radomir Pantic, former commander of Special Police Units in Zvornik and former commander of the first platoon of the Special Police Units respectively, with genocide in Srebrenica. Vasic is charged with participating in a criminal enterprise, while Zoljic and Pantic are accused of aiding and abetting the genocide.

All three defendants have been charged with taking part in the planning and realisation of the genocide by ordering the use of manpower and police equipment for the capture and forcible separation of Bosniak men and boys after the fall of the UN-protected Srebrenica enclave to Serb forces in July 1995. “The defendants participated in planning and carrying out the arrest of prisoners, their transportation to sites of mass execution, as well as carrying out the executions of several thousand Bosniak men at Kozluk, Branjevo, Pilica and other places,” the indictment says.

The prosecution also charges them with burying the victims in mass graves and with exhuming and removing the bodies to secondary mass graves in order to conceal the crime. When Vasic testified in a trial at the Hague Tribunal in 2009, he said that on the evening of July 13, 1995, he met Ljubisa Beara, the security chief of the Bosnian Serb Army Main Staff, who told him that his military commander Ratko Mladic had ordered that “all prisoners [from Srebrenica] be killed”. The Tribunal sentenced Beara to life imprisonment for the Srebrenica genocide but an appeal is currently under way. Mladic is also on trial for genocide and other crimes. Maksida Piric, the spokesperson for the Bosnian Electoral Commission, told local media on Thursday that despite the indictment, there is no legal way to take away Vasic’s mandate. She explained that only people who are serving sentences or are wanted under warrants can be denied mandates according to electoral law.