LOCAL PRESS

Vucic: Brussels to decide whether it wants Serbia in Europe (Politika)

The EU High Representative Federica Mogherini stated that the first chapters of the accession talks with Serbia could be opened this year, but the impression is that invisible barriers are being constantly placed before us?

“The opening of chapters depends on EU partners. Whatever was up to us, from the talks with Albanians to the successful completion of the screening, along with all the economic and political reforms that have been supported by Brussels, we have done it. Brussels should decide if it wants Serbia in Europe. The words of Mogherini during her visit to Belgrade were encouraging,” Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said in an interview to Politika.

It seems that nothing that the government does in the field of reforms, even though Brussels praises them, is sufficient, only the Brussels agreement is important, whereby the pressure for it to be realized is directed only at Belgrade.

“You know that I don’t like to complain, I have never cried on the shoulders of EU officials asking for Serbia something more than it deserves. However, it is true that the greatest part of the pressure in regard to the dialogue with the Albanians goes on our side. The European future is important and worth the effort of each of us, but this doesn’t mean that we are not capable of seeing and often feeling the partiality of certain European countries.”

As soon as Mogherini left Pristina, they announced the passing of a resolution on Serbia’s genocide in Kosovo and Metohija.

“I think the idea about the resolution has come out of fear of Hashim Thaqi and some other relevant political factors with regard to the constitution of a special court that should be in charge of individuals in Kosovo and Metohija who committed crimes. If they try to adopt any such document in the Kosovo Assembly and get a majority of votes by some miracle, I have no idea as to how they intend to have talks with us after that…”

But they would react if we were to try something like that…

“I posed one question to all international officials, including Ms. Mogherini, but I didn’t receive an answer. I respect Albania, I have correct relations with Mr. Rama, but I said that, if I drew the map of greater Serbia on the walls of my father’s house, this would be the breaking news on CNN. Serbia would be denounced. When it comes to the case with the map of greater Albania, there was not a single word of condemnation for what occurred in Albania. That tells me these are double standards…”

What did Mogherini tell you?

“Many European officials and some ambassadors do not have an answer to that. They say ‘you are right’. We can only smile. That is an indicator of how much more we have to work in order to have enough strength to improve Serbia’s position.”

Dacic: Even if we recognized Kosovo, EU wouldn’t want us (Sputnik/Tanjug/B92)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has said that Serbia, even if it recognized Kosovo, would not be able to join the EU. The reason for this, he told the Russian website Sputnik in an interview, is that there will always be some new conditions. Dacic added that “Serbia no longer wants to accept” this policy of moving targets and the constant setting of new conditions for its EU integration. Asked to comment on a statement made by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic that if Serbia recognized Kosovo – its southern province where ethnic Albanians unilaterally declared independence in 2008 – it would join the EU in a month, Dacic replied: “It would not. Because there will always be some new conditions. “When Mladic was arrested and extradited, a month later the question of Kosovo emerged. Before that it was not on the agenda. But, we absolutely no longer want to accept this policy of moving targets, this constant setting of new conditions… and we do not want to talk about this topic any longer, at all. We said it clearly, and we were told clearly, that there is no condition,” Dacic was quoted as saying. “Maybe someone would want that, bilaterally these countries have already recognized Kosovo, but Serbia has no intention of changing its position when it comes to the independence of Kosovo. We consider ourselves ready for dialogue, but we are not ready for the imposition of any conditions. Nor for ultimatums,” he added. When it comes to the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Dacic said that “the statute of the community of Serb municipalities has not yet been defined because Pristina thinks it should have as little jurisdiction as possible, and is constantly blocking the adoption of the statute”.  “So, the implementation of the Brussels agreement, in fact, suits Serbia, Serbia does not hinder its implementation, Pristina does,” he said and reiterated that Belgrade “will not change its position on the issue of Kosovo’s independence”.

Djuric: Rama’s statement endangering peace and stability (RTS)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric stated that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s statements on unification of Kosovo and Albania cause a disturbance of peace and constitute a gross violation of stability in the region and a dangerous call for redrawing the borders in the Balkans. He cautioned Tirana to stop beating the drums of war. Djuric underlined at an emergency press conference that such statements can do nothing except endanger the fragile stability in the region. He underlined that Serbia will never allow Albania and Kosovo unite in “a classic way”, as Rama put it. Djuric said that this is not the first time that statements are being issued implying the Albanian leadership’s wish to redraw Serbia’s borders and called on the international organizations, the EU and the UN in the first line, to react and voice their stance on Rama’s statement.

Calving of Mt. Sar (Politika, by Zivojin Rakocevic)

“If they take the mountain from us, we are done,” the Serbs keep repeating on Brezovica, Sirinicka Zupa, the municipality of Strpci, in the far south of Kosovo and Metohija. The privatization process of the “Brezovica” Ski-center is coming to an end, and the French-Andorran consortium “Company di Alpi” and their representative Pascal Rue are offering 410 million Euros of investments in the mountain that will be assigned to them by way of expropriation. Large and big interests have been shaking these people for fifteen years, and they confront them only with hope of staying and preserving life, families and the mountain. For centuries, even for the past decade and a half, their work and sense of survival has been inextricably linked to this mountain. Several weeks ago a gathering, which was presented as the final phase of giving under concession the “Brezovica” Ski-center and 3,500 hectares of this mountain, again shook every Serb family in this ghetto: they will take away the mountain from us; disassemble the ski-center; a concessioner appeared offering 410 million Euros to receive on concession 3,500 hectares of our mountain; he will manage for 99 years something that is not his, and which he acquired by way of plundering through the expropriation process.

There have been and there are several plans and options for eliminating the Serbs from Mt. Sar: chaos of 1999 and the 2004 pogrom didn’t give results; isolation of all these 15 years and purchase of land that has been going on for 40 years – has not passed even one-third of the Weekend zone; abolition of salaries and assistance from Belgrade – which didn’t occur; the only remaining option is to take away the mountain. At issue are 3,500 hectares of state and private land, and now this is being taken away with one piece of paper and one decision. This is no expropriation for a highway, hospital, school, but entire land is being taken away from one owner – old – in order to be given without any sense to a new owner, and he will build hotels, aqua-park, ski resort and make money on this. The most violent legal method of ownership change is being applied – expropriation. The authorities in Pristina pass the decision on expropriation of the land of Serbs and introduce into possession a “foreigner” who will enable investment of domestic tycoons, dealers and political-mafia strongmen in the amount of 410 million Euros. The present owners, who have received twice the decision of the Kosovo authorities on expropriation (September 2014) are not asked about their property.

Similar usurpation was planned back in 1979, when the then Urosevac municipality tried to do the same, except that the communist, mostly Albanian elite from Pristina tried to take away the mountain from its owners and municipality. Fortunately, the Constitutional Court of the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia overturned this decision declaring it unconstitutional. Who can oppose the authorities in Pristina today? Formally only, the mayor according to the Kosovo laws Bratislav Nikolic, his signature is enough for the Serbs to disappear from Mt. Sar. How great is his power and what are his options? The evening before the public, basically local, debate on the fate of Mt. Sar, the Kosovo police took him in for interrogation, for, as they put it, suspicion that he had abused office. Pascal Rue, he was the one selected at the competition, met with the mayor who arrived from prison and citizens whose life depends on the fate of the mountain. The competition eliminated Miodrag Kostic, MK Group, while ten thousand ghettoized Serbs found themselves before Rue and his money, one signature and logic contrary to any law: a Frenchman capitalist entered a system where other private owners and system are taken away property and handed over to him, without any compensation. Nobody asks anyone here how much this costs, and the first sentence of the project is “entrance into possession of 3,500 hectares and disassembling of the existing resort”.

Mayor Nikolic, who performs his duty both according to the Serbian and Kosovo systems, has three options before him: not to sign and to end up in jail in the best case, to sign and destroy the compact Serb ghetto on Mt. Sar, and to resign and escape from Strpci. He was not in a mood to talk to Politika, and Politika unofficially learns that enormous pressures from several embassies in Pristina are being exerted on him to sign the handover of Brezovica, while official Belgrade is trying to protect him.

“Nobody has consulted us, asked us and talked with us about this project. They have been drafting a Master plan for Brezovica for five years and it can be summarized in one sentence. We are entering the existing ski-resort; we are taking away everything by way of expropriation, disassembling and building a new one. Brezovica Ski-center will never allow this,” says the Director of the ski-center Sladjan Nikolcevic. Asked by Politika what should be done, he says: “We should wait for the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities, afterwards and in accordance with the interests of the Serbs, Strpci municipality and based on the jurisdictions of the Union of Serb Municipalities – which must be the guarantor of this process – we need to pass a final decision on the ski-resort on Brezovica. What is the hurry when it has been operating this way for 15 years? One of the jurisdictions of the Union is also spatial planning and economic development.”

Croatia insensitive toward victims (Blic)

Engaging Gotovina and Markac in the National Security Council shows the insensitivity of Croatia and President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic toward Serb victims, said Milorad Pupovac, the President of the Serb National Council and Croatian MP. He tells Blic that this move shows to what extent the topic of war crimes continues to be present as a political burden in the relations between Serbia and Croatia. Pupovac said that this decision also shows to what extent the topic of war crimes “pollutes inter-state and inter-political relations” of the two countries.

He says that he is certain that the appointment of the two generals as advisors would have been done with more attention “had the crimes during and after the Storm been processed and messages of responsibility sent from Zagreb”.

REGIONAL PRESS

Covic: Federal government weaker link in B&H (Oslobodjenje)

Croat member of the B&H Presidency and leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ B&H) Dragan Covic, asked by journalists to comment on the completion of the post-election government in B&H, said that he considers the new Federation government to be the “weaker link” in this setting, “because of the complexity of relations in the Federation”. The new government is expected to prioritize work on social and economic reforms, he says, adding that the period ahead will show whether it will be stable as well. “If we sincerely want to enable work, we must give them a ‘boost’,” said Covic about the new setting of the government, and as concerns the European community’s relations toward B&H today, he believes that we can be satisfied, because the doors of the community are once again open to a perspective for B&H. “If we don’t properly use it, we are once again in trouble,” said Covic.

Ivanic: Dodik, Cvijanovic invent problems to divert attention from thievery (Oslobodjenje)

The Chair of the B&H Presidency and leader of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) Mladen Ivanic says that Republika Srpska’s President Milorad Dodik and Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic completely inverted his thesis on the coordination mechanism in B&H in order to “provoke a fake problem in political life and divert attention from the real problem in RS – crime and thievery in their environment”. “Dodik and Cvijanovic’s statements that I want to take the responsibility in this field are complete abuses of the thesis. The RS and the entities in general were not the topic of my proposal on simplifying the coordination mechanism. I exclusively was speaking about cantons in the Federation and the need for the B&H Presidency or the Council of Ministers to be able to react, because each of the ten cantons in FB&H has the possibility, whenever it comes to mind, to block B&H’s European path,” says Ivanic. He explains that the problem of the entities in the coordination mechanism in B&H has never existed. In other words, if the RS decides that it opposes some decision, all organs must accept this, and he adds that the B&H Presidency never had, nor will have the intent to make decisions in opposition to entity decisions, the PDP said in a statement. “If Dodik and Cvijanovic want to reduce the RS to the level of one of the cantons, then that is their problem. They are imagining political problems and inserting the RS into a story that doesn’t concern it. However, I will never allow them to equate RS and a canton,” says Ivanic. He says that Dodik very well knows that he, as chair of the B&H Presidency, has no intention of taking an entity responsibility, but that the President and Prime Minister of the RS now welcome this story so the RS doesn’t concern itself with topics like “their friends’ crime and thievery”. “If Dodik and Cvijanovic really care so much about the RS, then let them immediately advocate to urgently resolve cases like Birac, the Balkan Investment Bank, Boarb Bank, the Boska department store… Let Dodik publicly call on his friends and advisors Milo Radisic and Dragan Vucetic to return to the RS, which will show that they respect its institutions,” stresses Ivanic. Instead of concrete moves, says Ivanic, Dodik and Cvijanovic will in the months to come invent nonexistent problems to divert attention from the obvious thievery and crime. “These affairs have gone on too long. It is obvious that Dodik and Cvijanovic owe people who they are involved with and the RS, while they are in power, will never do anything to fight crime and corruption. There is no greater damage to the RS than that done by Dodik and his team, but now, instead of concerning ourselves with that, it is easier to imagine political stories that are clearly a lie,” says Mladen Ivanic.

Gruevski grants amnesty to Albanians (Vecer)

The SDSM leader Zoran Zaev claims that Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has agreed with the DUI leader Ali Ahmeti the passing of the law on amnesty for ICTY cases from 2001. “Gruevski personally agreed with Ahmeti the closing of the ICTY cases by way of amnesty, and personally ordered for the entire procedure to be transferred to the parliament, since the new government has not been formed yet during that period,” Zaev told a press conference where he announced another in a series of audio recordings on the illegal eavesdropping within the project dubbed “The Truth about Macedonia”. Zaev said that Gruevski granted, “straight-faced” the most ungrateful role in regard to the “amnesty of war criminals from the ranks of Albanians” to the VMRO-DPMNE caucus aimed at introducing to parliament, and then passing this legal solution. The SDSM leader said that by publishing another “bomb” on illegal eavesdropping directed by Gruevski, “another prime minister’s mask has been taken down – the mask of the big patriot”. “You will see what kind of political cheat and manipulator is Gruevski, who is ready to do anything only to remain in power,” said Zaev. Nationality and political orientation is non-important, but how to raise political awareness in order to put an end to evil, he said. Zaev claims that Gruevski is not concerned with Macedonian national interests, law, associates, from ministers to deputies, and that the prime minister is ready to throw all of them into fire for political trade.

Kacin: Bosnia doesn’t need new problems concerning border with Montenegro (Dalje)

Bosnia and Herzegovina has enough problems and it does not need to create new ones by opening the issue of the border with Montenegro, Slovenian politician and former MEP Jelko Kacin said in an interview published by the Sarajevo-based daily “Dnevni Avaz” on Monday.

At this moment, Montenegro is definitely the leader of European integration processes in the region and Bosnia needs to have friendly relations and not enter conflicts with it, Kacin said commenting on attempts by some politicians and NGOs in Bosnia to raise the issue of the status of the Sutorina region which spreads between Herceg Novi and Prevlaka. The issue of the status of the Sutorina region in Montenegro has led to the cooling of relations between Sarajevo and Podgorica. The debate about it was launched by an informal group comprised of the present and retired Sarajevo university professors who started a public campaign aimed at preventing the ratification of the already defined border agreement with Montenegro in the Bosnian State Parliament. Montenegro has postponed the sending of a new ambassador to Bosnia over the debate on Sutorina and Podgorica has warned that as far as the Montenegrin government is concerned, the debate on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina has ended.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Kosovo Serbs Set Terms For Ending Boycott (BIRN, by Una Hajdari, 7 April 2015)

Srpska List MPs say they will return to the Kosovo parliament if it is guaranteed that their December coalition agreement with the ruling parties is fully respected

Serbian parliamentarians in Kosovo who have been boycotting the country’s institutions for more than two months on Monday signaled that they may call it off if a deal signed with Kosovo’s ruling parties is honoured in full. “The Serbian representatives held discussions with the Pristina authorities and their condition [for returning to parliament] is that the coalition agreement be respected,” said Dragan Jablanovic, a member of the Civic Initiative Srpska, the main Kosovo Serb party. The agreement signed in December envisages the creation of a semi-autonomous Association of Serbian Municipalities, the return of Kosovo Serb refugees and a re-examination of post-war privatisations, amongst other things. In the last general elections in Kosovo in June 2014, Srpska won nine seats in parliament and was given two ministries and the post of Deputy Prime Minister. It pulled out in early February after a Srpska minister was sacked in a row over a busload of Serbian pilgrims that was attacked in western Kosovo. Minister for Returns and Communities Aleksandar Jablanovic – Dragan Jablanovic’s son – was axed after calling the locals in Gjakova who threw stones at the bus “savages”. The stone-throwers claimed that some of the pilgrims were guilty of crimes against the local population in the Kosovo conflict of the 1990s. The minister’s description of them as “savages” sparked violent protests. “A solution regarding cooperation with the Pristina authorities has to be found, but we also need a guarantee that tomorrow someone won’t get harassed again,” Dragan Jablanovic said. “If he [Aleksandar] did something wrong, the government has to initiate some sort of measures, political or moral responsibility, and not have measures dictated by the streets,” he added. The participation of the Srpska list is crucial for the fulfillment of the 2013 EU-led Brussels Agreement, which aims at the “normalisation” of relations between between Kosovo and Serbia – which does not recognise the independence of its former province.A large part of the agreement involves the integration of Kosovo Serbs into Kosovo institutions, especially those who live in municipalities with a Serbian majority – municipalities that for a long time were allied with and financed by Belgrade rather than Pristina. The Kosovo authorities last week said that they were in contact with Srpska, and were discussing the return of the Kosovo Serb parliamentarians. “We are awaiting their nominations for the [empty] ministerial position and for the deputy ministers. Once that is confirmed, we will continue to fulfill the other parts of the [coalition] agreement,” said the Deputy Minister for Local Government, Bajram Gecaj, whose ministry is also led by a member of Srpska, Ljubomir Maric. Apart than the post left open by Jablanovic’s removal, the deputy ministerial positions that go to minority community representatives also have to be filled – a matter that has been neglected since the government was formed in December. The only Serbian MP who has continued to take part in the Kosovo parliament is the head of the smaller Progressive Democratic Party, PDS, Nenad Rasic. He has described the boycott as pointless. “We have gained nothing from the Srpska list boycott. Rather, we have lost 2015,” he said, referring to the blocking of the budgets for Serbian-majority municipalities in the north. “We will be unable to allocate funds for certain projects in the manner we foresaw initially,” he added. Rasic and the PDS are seen as competitors to the Srpska list. Unlike Srpska, which was set up in 2013 as a Belgrade-backed party, Rasic’s PDS has had a much more functional relationship with the Pristina authorities. In the last government, Rasic was the Minister for Labour and Social Welfare. “What has happened now is that the ministries they lead have transferred the leadership to the deputy ministers, and so far, the ministries are functioning well,” Rasic continued. The boycott has not only delayed the formation of the Association of Serbian Municipalities but has also postponed votes in parliament on crucial laws. Issues such as the transformation of the lightly-armed Kosovo Security Forces into a small regular army cannot pass in parliament without a “double majority”. This means that two-thirds of parliament as a whole and two-thirds of minority MPs need to vote in favour of the bill, which cannot be done without the Srpska MPs. Srpska’s participation in Kosovo politics, starting with the local elections in 2013 and then the general elections in June 2014, marked a large step towards the Serbian community’s integration. The elections saw the highest turnout of Kosovo Serbs since the conflict in the 1990s ended. However, the Srpska list has made no secret of the fact that it continues to take its cue from Belgrade, which has been a sore point for the Kosovo Albanian majority.

Serbian Army to take part in Victory Day Parade in Moscow (Sputnik, 6 April 2015)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic decided Monday that a unit representing the Serbian Army will participate in the Victory Day Parade in Moscow May 9, the country’s Ministry of Defense told Sputnik.

Sputnik Serbia has confirmed that the Serbian military will take part in the parade, after an invitation from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Commenting on the decision, Serbian military analyst Aleksandar Radic told Sputnik that the participation will be a proud first for the Serbian Army, which has never participated in military parades abroad in its modern history.

“Serbia, that is, the former Yugoslavia, fought on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition, and it would be completely unreasonable to renounce the traditions which bind us with the victor countries, with those countries which created the post-war world. Now, in a highly symbolic gesture, we are returning to our participation in the Victory Parade,” Radic noted. Serbian political scientist Aleksander Pavic added that he believes that Serbia’s participation in the parade has a tremendous symbolic significance. “We are definitely part of the coalition [of victors], considering how many Serbs were killed in the Second World War. We had not one, but two anti-fascist projects, and we have the right to say that we were the first to rebel in a Europe enslaved by Nazism.” Commenting on the Serbian government’s decision, Russian military expert Viktor Barents told Sputnik that Serbia’s involvement in the parade on Red Square will “serve as a symbol of Slavic unity, and a good foundation for the future.”

Serbia can gain access to gas supplies from Azerbaijan (Trend News Agency, by Maksim Tsurkov, 6 April 2015)

Baku, Azerbaijan

Serbia can gain an access to gas supplies from Azerbaijan via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), according to a report by Natural Gas Europe. As the report said, Serbia’s mining and energy minister, Aleksandar Antic, noted that the Serbian government would try to be part of all projects that may provide new gas supply sources and routes. Natural Gas Europe quoted Minister Antic as saying that, the first priority is the connection of Serbia and Bulgaria by a two-way pipeline. The minister said there had already been talks with the Bulgarian partners about the pipeline’s capacity and that Serbia could quickly enter a stage when it would seek sources for funding the start of construction. “The interconnection with Bulgaria could give Serbia access to gas supplies from Azerbaijan via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the construction of which began in March,” said Natural Gas Europe. “Serbia started considering gas supply alternatives after Russia abandoned the South Stream pipeline project, which for the Serbian officials opened a number of questions about future gas supply.” The report also cited Antic as saying, “We must no longer be enamored of any energy project or rely on just one supply source. That will be the Serbian government policy.” He added that the government will favor projects enabling Serbia to become a transit country for fuel supply.

The Southern Gas Corridor will allow Europe to diversify its hydrocarbon supply sources and strengthen energy security and also will allow Azerbaijan to obtain a new market in Europe.

On December 17, 2013, a final investment decision was made on the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz offshore gas and condensate field’s development. The gas produced at this field will first go to the European market (10 billion cubic meters). Around six billion cubic meters will be annually supplied to Turkey. The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996. The field’s reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas and 240 million metric tons of condensate. As part of the Stage 2 of the field’s development, gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of TANAP and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).

Bosnian Serb Party to Block ‘Illegal’ State Govt (BIRN, by Elvira M. Jukic, 7 April 2015)

Disgruntled by being kicked out of the ruling coalition on the state level, the main Bosnian Serb party is threatening to expand its blockade of the work of state institutions

The main Bosnian Serb party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, has threatened to block the work of Bosnia’s long-awaited new state government, the Council of Ministers, which is holding its first session on Tuesday. Following a meeting of the party leadership on Monday, SNSD officials pledged to expand their boycott of state institutions, which is already affecting the work of the state parliament. “We have a Council of Ministers that is illegal and against the constitution,” the head of the SNSD club in the state parliament’s House of Representatives, Stasa Kosarac, said after the meeting. The SNSD says the new Council of Ministers is unconstitutional and illegal because its chairman, Denis Zvizdic, has not yet named one of the deputy ministers who is supposed to represent Bosnia’s “others”.This is the category of citizens who do not declare themselves as belonging to one of the three main constituent ethnic groups of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. Kosarac said that SNSD will look into “modalities” of how to dispute and block the Council of Ministers’ work, and added that SNSD will continue to boycott the House of Representatives. The SNSD has been boycotting the House of Representatives since January. It claims that its chairman, Sefik Dzaferovic, who comes from the [Bosniak] Party of Democratic Action, SDA, was involved in war crimes, although prosecutors say there is no material for any investigation against him. In the past few weeks, the SNSD has also blocked the work of the state parliament’s other chamber, the House of Peoples, complaining that their candidates have not been appointed to posts on key parliamentary commissions. Experts and international officials say that the true source of the SNSD’s outrage is the fact that Bosnia’s main Bosniak and Croat parties have chosen another Serbian party as their preferred coalition partner at state level. The last general elections in October 2014 saw a tight race between two opposing Bosnian Serb political blocs. The SNSD narrowly managed to establish the government in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska. However, the opposition bloc, led by the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, and the Party of Democratic Progress, PDP, took the post of Serbian member of Bosnia’s three-member presidency. The bloc also won an equal share of seats in the state parliament to the SNSD and joined the ruling coalition at state level. This rivalry has led to new political struggles, which became evident in the growing verbal exchanges between the two opposing Serb blocs over the past few days. “This is a game of nerves,” Srdjan Puhalo, a Banja Luka-based political analyst and blogger told Balkan Insight. He said the SNSD was hurt most by having lost control of the appointment of directors and main boards in the state security agencies and other key institutions and public companies. Another problem for the party is that the engagement of the Bosnian Serb opposition bloc at state level has shown people in Republika Srpska that there is a political alternative to the SNSD, he explained. “The SNSD is taking this really hard and that’s why…they are distracting attention from those topics that really bother them in Republika Srpska, such as the constantly worsening economic situation,” Puhalo concluded.

Macedonia PM ‘Agreed Amnesty for War Crimes Suspects’ (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 6 April 2015)

The opposition alleged that wiretapped conversations reveal the premier’s direct involvement in a political deal to amnesty suspects in four war-crimes cases from Macedonia’s 2001 conflict

The opposition Social Democrats presented covertly-recorded tapes on Monday that they said proved that PM Nikola Gruevski personally agreed an amnesty in the four war-crimes cases related to alleged atrocities committed by ethnic Albanians. The Social Democrats’ leader Zoran Zaev said Gruevski had made the deal as part of negotiations for the formation of a new government with an Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, after elections in 2011. “This will tear off his [Gruevski’s] favourite mask, the one of his patriotism,” Zaev told a press conference, the opposition’s 18th in recent weeks on the subject of government wiretapping. The taped conversations purport to reveal how Gruevski first admits to his party colleague, MP Silvana Boneva, that he has just agreed an amnesty for the cases with DUI leader Ali Ahmeti and then instructs Boneva that the motion must be voted on in parliament “in one week’s time”, before the formation of the new government. “I choose to deal with it now. We should deal with the negative stuff now,” the Gruevski is apparently heard telling Boneva, adding that any ruling party statement on the amnesty must be tailored to sound suitably neutral and not damage his image as a patriot. The four cases date back to the 2001 armed conflict between the Macedonian security forces and Albanian insurgents, whose leaders later formed the DUI party. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) took over jurisdiction of five war-crimes cases from Macedonia in 2002, the year after the conflict, but returned an indictment in only one. The other four were sent back to Macedonia in 2008, and the public prosecutor’s office initially said it would re-examine them. But in a controversial move, the ruling coalition led by Gruevski’s VMRO DPMNE party voted in July 2011 to abandon the four war-crimes cases. At the time, Gruevski insisted he had nothing to do with the decision and that it was not part of a political deal with the DUI to join his government. Further tapes appear to reveal that Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska, albeit unwillingly, acts as one of the main players in the attempt to push the amnesty bill through parliament quickly. In one conversation, Gruevski’s advisor Biljana Briskovksa appears to inform Jankuloska that recommendations by the UN Committee Against Torture “exclude amnesty” for the four cases and that the ICTY has recommended that they be processed in local courts. But Jankuloska gives instructions that this fact be hidden in the vague text outlining the government’s opinion on the subject. “Let them [parliament] do it, they know what to do and let them do it. But it should not come from us,” the voice purported to be that of Jankuloska says. Further tapes apparently reveal Gruevski giving instructions that his VMRO DPMNE MPs and ministers who are still formally MPs must immediately appear for the parliament session so that there is a quorum for the amnesty bill that is bound to be highly unpopular among the ethnic Macedonian majority. They also allegedly reveal Jankuloska and Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski admitting they have made false excuses not to appear at the parliament session, despite being under immense pressure to show up and vote. Both appear to express discontent that they are being pressed to vote while some of their colleagues, including Gruevski, are probably outside the country. “[Vice Prime Minister Vladimir] Pesevski is 100 per cent somewhere on a beach in Greece,” the voice alleged to be that of Stavreski says, to which Jankuloska replies: “The same goes for the boss [Gruevski].” Zaev started releasing the tape recordings of alleged conversations of government figures in February. He claims that Gruevski and his cousin, secret police chief Saso Mijalkov, have orchestrated the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people, and insists the material comes from sources in the Macedonian secret services. But Gruevski has insisted that the tapes were created by unnamed “foreign secret services” in collaboration with the opposition in order to destabilise the country. In one of his latest addresses to his supporters, Gruevski accused Zaev of “high treason”. Gruevski’s VMRO DPMNE party said on Monday that the tapes relating to the war crimes cases were not genuine and that Zaev’s allegations were untrue. “Zoran Zaev continues to manipulate using fabricated and false materials put in a context that suits him in order to create confusion among citizens,” the party said in a statement. “With these press conferences, he is only confirming that the eavesdropping has been done by outsiders under the patronage of foreign centres. His role is to be a tool of the foreign centres that have the goal of disrupting Macedonia’s stability and harming its international reputation,” it said.