LOCAL PRESS

Djuric: Pristina to use recent unrest as an excuse for non-implementation of Brussels agreements (Radio Belgrade)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said today that one could expect Albanian representatives in Brussels to use the unrest in Pristina as an excuse for less flexibility or inability to implement some agreement, like the jurisdiction of the Union of Serb Municipalities. If the Serb members of the provincial government do not fulfill what is expected from them for the Serb community, perhaps we will be the ones requesting their dismissal, Djuric told a Radio Belgrade broadcast. According to him, it is very important to be sincere with ourselves and say that we cannot expect any Albanian party to be sympathetic towards the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. Unless the international community tells them this is in the interest of other goals. All of them still see Serbs through war glasses and most of the leaders are from those war ranks, he notes. In his opinion, the biggest source of instability has always been the passing and implementing of solutions about which the public had not been informed. “I can confirm on behalf of the Serbian government that we will inform clearly and fully our people in Kosovo and Metohija about all agreements, but I cannot guarantee that the Albanian side will again give after the meetings in Brussels completely different statements from what was agreed,” stressed Djuric.

Obradovic: Rights of Serbs and other non-Albanians are not respected in Kosovo and Metohija (RTS/Radio Serbia)

Belgrade is devoted to talks with Pristina and the implementation of the Brussels agreement despite numerous open issues, such as the issue of non-respect of human and minority rights of Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija, said member of the Permanent Parliament Delegation of Serbia in the Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE (PACE) Zarko Obradovic. In the debate on the situation in Kosovo and Metohija in the PACE Political Committee, Obradovic pointed out that in the past 16 years human and minority rights of Serbs, Roma, Goranis and other non-Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija have not been respected, despite the presence of representatives of international organizations. Obradovic noted that not a single court for resolving crimes committed against Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija has been established since the middle of 1999, and that the province during that time has become an almost ethnically clean space.

Trifunovic: We expect light to be shed on the fate of the missing (Tanjug)

The Coordinator of the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing Persons in Kosovo and Metohija Milorad Trifunovic stated that he expected light to be shed on the fate of missing persons from Kosovo in the course of the year. He said that the bodies of only four Serbs had been identified in the past four years and that not a single location containing the mortal remains of missing and kidnapped Serbs had been found. We have specified nine potential locations of the graves of kidnapped and missing people, he said, but we have had no information yet whether one has tried to check if the sites contain graves, said Trifunovic. He recalled that the authorities are looking for 1,667 persons in Kosovo, 536 of whom are Serbs and other non-Albanians, and added that their families are aware that none of their loved ones gone missing in Kosovo is alive, which is why they are hoping that exhumation and identification of remains will be carried out soon. Trifunovic said that the commissions on missing persons of EULEX and the Kosovo government did not present the plan of work, which is why they decided to include one of their members in the work of the Pristina Commission on Missing Persons. We have decided that our representative should have a seat in the Pristina Commission on Missing Persons where he will have to do something and exert influence on people to have the truth told about Serbs and other non-Albanians who were loyal to Serbia and who went missing, Trifunovic said. He recalled that promises were made by Belgrade and Pristina that the issue of the fate of kidnapped and missing Serbs would be included in the agenda of the talks in Brussels, but this has not been realized yet. We will demand that this matter be the first topic of the talks between the delegations of Pristina and Belgrade in Brussels, Trifunovic said.

Humanitarian Law Center: Dikovic involved in war crimes (B92/Beta)
The Humanitarian Law Center (FHP) NGO says it possess documents which indicate that Army chief General Ljubisa Dikovic is “directly responsible for war crimes”.As was announced at a press conference to present Dossier Rudnica, Dikovic is responsible for the crimes committed in the villages of Rezala and Staro Cikatovo and for hiding bodies in a mass grave in Raska.

The dossier, among other things, provides insight into the data and evidence on the four crimes of the Yugoslav Army and Serbian Interior Ministry committed in April and May 1999 in Kosovo, in which civilians were killed – Kosovo Albanians whose bodies were exhumed from a mass grave in Rudnica in 2014, and the process of “sanitation of the battlefield” in which the bodies of the victims had been taken from the crime scene, and then hidden for 15 years. The FHP stated that the document was created on the basis of authentic military and police documents, statements by survivors of the crime, family members of victims, forensic reports, testimonies of the Yugoslav Army and Serbian Interior Ministry’s officials before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and other relevant material. Executive Director of the FHP Sandra Orlovic urged the prosecution for war crimes to as soon as possible launch an investigation into war crimes in Kosovo which are associated with the mass grave near Raska where the bodies were found of 52 civilians. She added that it is important to find out who the people who were killed are, who is responsible for these crimes, who and in what way transported and hid the bodies in mass graves in Serbia and characterized the act as “an extended crime toward the victims and their families”. As stated, the FHP has obtained data that clearly indicate involvement in the crimes committed in Kosovo in the villages Rezala, Staro Cikatovo, Donja Zabela and Gladno Selo of members of the 37^th Motorized Brigade of the Yugoslav Army, headed by Dikovic. Orlovic said that the testimony of survivors and written and publicly available documents indicate that parts of the 37^th Brigade were present in the four villages during the crime in April and May 1999. Orlovic stated that the documents show official institutions and military and police authorities of Serbia were involved in the transportation and hiding of the bodies after the crime. Representative of the NGO Milica Kostic said that the crimes in the four villages in Kosovo took place according to the established “principle of the Yugoslav Army” and that the army entered the village early in the morning, expelling women and children to Albania and killing the men.

Ker-Lindsay: Nikolic’s platform will be ignored in Brussels (Danas)

When it comes to Kosovo, I don’t expect changes in Athens’ policy. The newly elected Greek Prime Minister Aleksis Tsipras also said during his visit to Belgrade at the beginning of last month that nothing will change here, James Ker-Lindsay, a Senior Research Fellow focusing on the Politics and International Relations of South East Europe at the London School of Economics and Political Science, told Danas. Danas’ interlocutor notes that one should not expect other big changes in the Greek foreign policy in the Balkans. “I know there have been indications that Siriza could assume a different approach in regard to the dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia regarding the name issue, but I don’t think this will happen partly because the new prime minister doesn’t want to be accused of selling Greek national personalities. At the same time, his new coalition partners from the ranks of the nationalistic right wing almost certainly will demand that Greece remains with the present course,” he opines. On the occasion of the announcement of Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic that he will formulate a new platform on Kosovo, the British Balkan expert claims this step “will not have an effect”. “If this doesn’t imply an invitation for Serbia to recognize Kosovo as an independent state, it will be simply ignored in Brussels. The stand of the majority of EU member states is that the time of examining the status of Kosovo has passed. Undoubtedly, there is no interest to examine now any other options for Kosovo, like division. The EU considers that Serbia accepted with the agreement of April 2013 that Kosovo must remain united and that the Kosovo Serbs should be integrated into Kosovo political structures. There is a widespread view in the EU that Serbia had the opportunity to try to present an alternative, but that this moment represents the past,” Danas’ interlocutor stresses. Commenting the tasks on Serbia’s EU path this year, Ker-Lindsay notes there are numerous steps that should be undertaken, which primarily implies finding ways how to treat the Kosovo issue within Chapter 35. “It turned out that this is very complicated and requires an approach that would be acceptable for Serbia, but which, at the same time, doesn’t bring into question the fact that 23 of 28 EU member states recognized independence of Kosovo. Nobody is quite sure how to achieve this in the best possible way. It is also necessary to accelerate the process of implementing reforms, especially in the domains of the judiciary and rule of law, which represents a priority for the EU,” concluded Ker-Lindsay.

REGIONAL PRESS

Dodik: RS preparing set of laws as response to EU suggestions (Oslobodjenje)

Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska (RS), informed Ambassador Claire Bodonyi of France of the activities the RS is undertaking concerning preparations and adoption of a set of reform laws as a practical response to suggestions by the European Union that arrived in B&H through the recent European initiative. At the meeting in Banja Luka, Dodik reiterated that he supports the recent EU initiative to accelerate B&H’s progress into European integrations, the president’s office said in a statement. He also informed the French Ambassador that he presented his stance on this to the foreign ministers of Germany and Great Britain, who understood efforts to, as the statement reads, incorporate respect for the B&H constitution, the Dayton Agreement, and the arrangement of B&H in the statement that should be signed by leaders from B&H.

The entity president “warned of the fact that certain politicians in B&H are trying to abuse this initiative in order to achieve their party objectives”. Dodik and the French ambassador also talked about the recent terrorist attacks in France, pointing out that “French society and the state, despite great challenges that faced them, responded in an appropriate manner, demonstrating stability and the democratic nature of French society and the state”.

B&H makes progress in economic freedom (Oslobodjenje)

B&H is ranked 97^th on the Index of Economic Freedom, traditionally published by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, Indikator.ba reports. Our country has achieved its best progress yet in the past year, shifting four places in relation to the previous report, highest in the field of freedom from corruption, but in the report we are still treated as a “mostly unfree” country. The economic freedom score for B&H is 59, which puts us as the 97^th freest global economy among 178 countries. The total result is growth of 0.6 percent, with improvements in freedom from corruption, monetary freedom, and labor freedom, partially experiencing a decline in investment and business freedom. B&H is ranked 38^th of 43 countries in Europe, and the result is below the global and regional average. “Over the past five years, B&H’s economic freedom has advanced by 1.5 points, registering its highest score ever in the 2015 Index. Reforms have led to improvements in half of the 10 factors, including government spending and labor, monetary, and trade freedoms, with an especially notable 12-point gain in freedom from corruption,” the report states. It also adds that despite a decade of concerted effort to improve economic prospects through broad, gradual institutional improvements, the B&H economy still remains in the “mostly unfree” category, and needs deep structural and institutional reforms. Concretely, the complete eradication of corruption, which would be guaranteed by an independent judiciary and consistent enforcement of property rights, are of vital importance to raising the country to higher levels of economic freedom and prosperity. Of the countries in the region, Macedonia is ranked 53^rd, Albania is 63^rd, Montenegro 66^th, Croatia 81^st, and Slovenia 88^th, dropping 15 places. Ahead of B&H on the ranking is Serbia in 90^th place, while North Korea comes last in the global rankings

Boris Tucic: Pitiful to treat arms exports as political issue (Srna)

The core of the problem, which the media has neglected completely, is its legal dimension, i.e. the fact that some institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), by this I mean the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have not adequately taken into account the provisions of the Act on the Control of International Trade in Goods of Strategic Importance for State Security. The former minister of foreign trade and economic relations of B&H says it is sad that exports of arms and military equipment to any region with an ongoing armed conflict are treated as a political issue only, because by their inherent nature that’s not what they are, regardless of the fact that many are trying to portray them as political when it comes to the specific case of exporting to Ukraine. Former minister Boris Tucic told Srna in an interview on Wednesday: “The core of the problem, which the media has neglected completely, is its legal dimension, i.e. the fact that some institutions in B&H, by this I mean the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have not adequately taken into account the provisions of the Act on the Control of International Trade in Goods of Strategic Importance for B&H Security, which clearly prescribes the criteria that the ministry should have considered on giving its approval from its jurisdiction.” The fact is, he went on, that Ukraine is not a subject of sanctions of the UN Security Council, EU or OSCE, but that imposing sanctions is a result of a political decision, while it is common knowledge how decisions are made within the UN SC and what role its permanent members, the Russian Federation included, have in that context. “However, the law precisely states that the B&H Foreign Ministry should have taken strict care of some other criteria as well while giving its approval, which it didn’t do. It was the Ministry’s duty, for instance, to take into account the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s foreign policy interests, and particularly, as the law stipulates, the relations with its strategic foreign partners, which include the Russian Federation, the country that is one of our most significant partners in international trade and one of the leading investors here,” said Tucic. He emphasized that, in line with the legal solutions, the Foreign Ministry should have taken into account the practice of other OSCE members exercised on this issue in the recent past, which had not been done either, because it if had, the ministry would have easily determined that a number of members of the OSCE as well as the EU do not export arms or military equipment to Ukraine, at least not directly. “Furthermore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should have taken into consideration the Council of Europe’s decision, which was published in the B&H Official Gazette in 2010, i.e. incorporated in the B&H legal system, which does not allow the sale of arms and military equipment to the countries, i.e. areas with ongoing armed conflicts,” Tucic noted. Another, impossible to neglect fact should be added to this: the previous export approvals were given by the personnel of the Social Democratic Party – ministers of defense and foreign affairs, and deputy minister of security, he said. In his opinion, this is where the political or any other dimension to the whole story should be sought, not in his appeal to take into account all the criteria or requirements prescribed by the law. “If the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations is the body giving a final approval for trade in arms and military equipment, then you’ll allow me to say I have the right to point to certain omissions and the fact that the Foreign Ministry did not take into account all the requirements prescribed by the law when it gave its approval. “Anyway, the Foreign Ministry’s giving approval lasted more than a weird and inappropriate 80+ days, which implies that the Ministry themselves did not have a unanimous stance on this issue. Why did some highly-ranking officials initial the approval in the end and under what pressure, you should ask them,” said Tucic. As regards the B&H Presidency, Tucic voiced concern about the explanation of the current chairman of the institution Mladen Ivanic that the Presidency was not competent for international trade in weapons, qualifying the statement as not credible. “If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not taken into account all the statutory requirements on giving its approval, and if that will lead to more than serious consequences for B&H foreign policy, as indicated by an official stance of the Russian Federation, the B&H Presidency will have to present its view on this issue, specifically taking into account that, pursuant to Article 5 of the B&H Constitution, it is the Presidency, not the Foreign Ministry, that is the leading authority when it comes to the country’s foreign policy. Especially given the fact that the Presidency was informed about this in detail – both by the domestic and foreign institutions in early January. The Presidency and Foreign Ministry have been notified that the B&H Ambassador in Moscow had received an urgent call for a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry and what he was told there and in what manner, because ambassador himself informed them of this, Tucic said. Besides, says Tucic, they had all received a memo from the Russian Federation expressing a clear warning about the issue. “If the B&H Presidency does not have the power to declare its view on the issues that, by the way, have more than indicative implications on the country’s foreign policy, specifically the issue of international trade in weapons, how come that not so long ago the very same Presidency presented its stance in that same context? Some other countries were in question then, truth be told, but in my opinion, the Presidency should be principled and keep the same stance regardless of who may be in question. If the Presidency does not have the power on these issues, why did its chairman Mladen Ivanic tell the foreign minister, as he himself told the media, to wait and that he would deal with it?” asked Tucic. Perhaps, Tucic said, all members of the B&H Presidency and its chairman Mladen Ivanic in particular, need to be reminded that, according to the general objectives and priorities of B&H’s foreign policy, the platform built by the Presidency itself, one of the priorities is actually to maintain and build relations with the Peace Implementation Council members, and everyone knows who the permanent PIC members are. “Therefore, accusations on my account for tendering my resignation and appealing to the authorities to take into account all aspects and consequences that B&H might face are dirty, to say the least. I am only trying to point out the pretty unusual approach to this issue by those who were obliged by the law to take everything into consideration in a proper manner. It may seem surreal to the people at the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) that someone, unlike their boss (Mladen Ivanic), does not want to be anybody’s errand boy and execute their tasks, but rather appeals to all competent institutions, by insisting on the law, to do their job correctly. The PDP may find it strange to see someone who isn’t ready to agree, for the sake of some position, to things that have very little to do with the law or ethics. Or, they just may be panicking, because his (Ivanic’s) personal behavior clearly confirms how he got hold of the position of the presidency chairman from the ranks of Serbs. That’s their problem. “But, if they feel the need to speak in public, they should possess some elementary knowledge of the law, or at least know how the Council of Ministers works and how the issue of governing a ministry in case of a minister’s resignation or inability to perform their duty is solved. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad,” stated Tucic.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Montenegro PM: Bosnia Claim to Coast Destructive (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 28 January 2015)

Ruling out international arbitration on the issue, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said Bosnian attempts to revise border issues would get nowhere – but were damaging the image of the region. Montenegrin leader Milo Djukanovic on Tuesday has condemned attempts by academics and some politicians in Bosnia to revive a dispute over the two countries’ borders.

The row erupted after a number of Bosnian academics claimed that a short stretch of the Montenegrin coast belonged by right to Bosnia. The Prime Minister said that reopening questions over the Sutorina issue was destructive and unwise. “Bosnia is making open territorial claims to a neighbouring country and this could have consequences for perceptions of the region. It is not a good message to investors,” Djukanovic told the public radio broadcaster RCG.

Referring to Bosnian calls for international arbitration over Sutorina, a part of the Adriatic coast near the Montenegrin town of Herceg Novi, Djuaknovic said international arbitration was impossible without the consent of both countries concerned. “No one should assume that Montenegro will gave its consent to discuss it,” he said. The dispute dates back to the time when both countries were republics in the former Yugoslav federation, when Sutorina belonged to a municipality that lies inside Bosnia. Several Bosnian intellectuals and NGOs have presented documentation, which they say shows Sutorina belonged to the newly formed Yugoslav republic Bosnia shortly after the Second World War as well. The area in dispute comprises 75 square kilometers and includes five villages and the river Sutorina. If it was given to Bosnia, it would give the largely landlocked country a second access point to the Adriatic Sea, aside from small stretch of coast around Neum of around 24 kilometers. Montenegro’s stance is that the demarcation of the border with Bosnia is complete and cannot be revised at this stage.

After six years of negotiation, the two former Yugoslav republics finished the technical process of determining their border in May 2014, and the two governments adopted the agreement in November.

Moscow Calls on Bosnia and Herzegovina Not to Deliver Weaponry to Kiev (Sputnik, 29 January 2015)

Moscow is concerned over the weaponry delivery by Bosnia and Herzegovina to Ukraine as the conflict in Ukraine’s southeast has recently escalated.

MOSCOW– Moscow has called on Bosnia and Herzegovina not to deliver weaponry to Kiev that could be used to kill civilians, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday. “With great concern we have been paying attention to information on the alleged delivery of weaponry from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Ukraine,” Lukashevich said.

“Attempts like these can do nothing but bring about condemnation and bewilderment, especially because these deliveries are planned to come from a country that experienced all of the horror of the fratricidal war of 1992-1995,” Lukashevich said. The diplomat added that these weapons “would be used by Kiev authorities to continue firing at populated areas and murdering civilians.” A week ago, Bosnian Foreign Trade Minister Boris Tucic resigned, citing pressure to give consent to the sale of arms and ammunition to Ukraine. His resignation put at jeopardy a $6-million sale the Bosnian arms manufacturer UNIS reportedly has with Kiev. The situation in Ukraine’s southeastern regions, where Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters last spring, has deteriorated in the past weeks. At least 30 people were killed Saturday in shelling in Ukraine’s southeastern port city of Mariupol.

Freedom House Moves Kosovo up – Bosnia, Macedonia Down (BIRN, by Gjergj Erebara, 28 January 2015)

The latest report of the US-based watchdog Freedom House on global political rights and civil liberties has moved Kosovo up a notch – and Macedonia and Bosnia down.

In the latest report by Freedom House on global political rights and civil liberties, Macedonia and Bosnia lost ground in the ratings index while Kosovo improved its standing.

Turning to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the report says its rating fell from 3 to 4 because the government had largely ignored a significant civic movement protesting against corruption and had “proved generally unresponsive to the population’s concerns”. Freedom House rates countries from 1 (most free) to 7 (least free). Macedonia’s rating also declined from 3 to 4 due to serious shortcomings in the April 2015 general elections and a related legislative boycott by the opposition. Kosovo showed an improvement as a result of the conduct of June 2014 general elections, which were considered “comparatively successful”. Albania showed no change and remains ranked partly free. Other Balkan countries are ranked as free in terms of rights and freedoms. A separate report specifically on Freedom of the Press is not yet published. In the last report, covering events up to the start of 2014, all Balkan countries were ranked partly free.

Of 195 countries assessed for 2014, 89 were rated as free. About 55 countries were rated partly free and 51 considered not free. In Europe, the report noted Hungary and Turkey as countries where freedom is losing ground to authoritarian rulers. Freedom House reported that freedom generally had declined around the world in 2014 for the ninth year. “Acceptance of democracy as the world’s dominant form of government—and of an international system built on democratic ideals—is under greater threat than at any other point in the last 25 years,” Arch Puddington, vice president for research at Freedom House, said. “Until recently, most authoritarian regimes claimed to respect international agreements and paid lip service to the norms of competitive elections and human rights,” Puddington added. “Today they argue for the superiority of what amounts to one-party rule, and seek to throw off the constraints of fundamental diplomatic principles.” On a more positive note, Tunisia become the first Arab country to be ranked as free in more than 40 years – the only success story of the Arab Spring.

Karadzic Demands Internet Access in Detention (BIRN, 29 January 2015)

Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic asked the Hague Tribunal to allow him to access the internet while he is in detention so he can pursue his career as a writer.

Karadzic told a hearing on Wednesday that he was a writer as well as a medical doctor, so he needed the internet and an audio recording device in the Hague detention centre because he wanted to work on the correct pronunciation of the Serbian language. “If I spend 12 years here, like [recently-released Serbian war crimes defendant Vojislav] Seselj did, without the possibility of being professionally alive, that would impose egregious punitive measures that should not be applied in the civilised world,” Karadzic said. Karadzic, who is accused of genocide and other wartime crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is currently awaiting his verdict, which is expected to be delivered in October this year. He has been in custody since July 2008, following his arrest in Belgrade. A psychiatrist by profession, Karadzic has published several volumes of poetry from the 1960s onwards, some of them during the war years and others while he was on the run.

Karadzic also warned the court that his health had deteriorated. He complained of “an increase in blood glucose levels” but said that so far the problem was not worsening. He claimed that “the UN’s detention system produces illness in many people”, alleging “an explosion of malignant diseases” that could possibly be caused by construction material used in the Tribunal buildings, and called for an investigation. Presiding judge O-gon Kwon instructed Karadzic to address all his questions to the management of the Hague Tribunal’s detention unit in Scheveningen, adding that the trial chamber would deal with them if it was proved that his rights had been violated.

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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.