LOCAL PRESS

Office: Prevent attacks on Serbs (RTS)

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija sharply condemned the more frequent attacks on the Serbs in the province and warned that provisional institutions of self-government in Pristina and international forces must invest additional efforts in preventing such attacks. The statement reads that the frequent attacks on the Serbs in the province are creating dangerous tension in the unstable region in terms of security and assesses that their goal is intimidation of returnees and their permanent abandoning of ancestral homes, Tanjug reports. The attacks that have occurred over the past days point to the concerning state of the security system in Kosovo and Metohija and insufficient devotion of the Pristina institutions to true normalization of relations and ensuring of sustainable conditions for co-existence in Kosovo and Metohija, reads the statement by the Office. Such and similar attacks can and must be better prevented with more efficient investigation, arrest and punishment of the culprits, who remain undetected in most cases, but also with more efficient prevention in view of activities of security structures, KFOR and police check points in Serb enclaves. The Office notes that it is encouraging that the police arrested in a short period of time one person and identified another attacker on Zoran Kostic, who was stabbed yesterday in the Pasjane village near Gnjilane, but also points out that the attackers on Vuleta Vostic in the Klina municipality have not yet been arrested. “It is especially concerning that, despite the existence of eyewitnesses, persons, who attempted to abduct a nine-year-old Serb girl in the Village of Babin Most near Obilic, have not been brought to justice,” reads the statement. It is added that the culprits of the recent attack on minor Nikola Saveljic near the Peace Park in northern Kosovska Mitrovica have not yet been arrested.

Belgrade denies division on Djuric’s and Vulin’s Serbs (Danas)

When the deputies from the ranks of the Movement of Socialists (PS) weren’t among the representatives of the Serb (Srpska) List, which returned to the Kosovo institutions following the boycott, this was explained locally with a long concealed division on “Djuric’s” and “Vulin’s” Serbs. The state leadership circles in Belgrade unofficially claim that the Serbian-Serbian dispute in Kosovo and Metohija has overcome the differences between the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric and his predecessor at this post Aleksandar Vulin, which doesn’t exclude the breaking of the Serb List caucus. According to Danas’ unofficial information, the division is so deep that six of nine deputies of the Serb List in the Kosovo Assembly could form their own caucus in the following weeks. According to Danas’ interlocutor, this could bring into question the participation of the Serbs and Serbia in the further implementation of the Brussels agreement, because, allegedly, not only certain Serb deputies, but also mayors in northern Kosovo and Metohija have abandoned the talks on the implementation of the Brussels agreements, including the Union of Serb Municipalities. Danas’ sources expect Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to resolve the problems in the Serb List, which could, as they warn, coincide with the announced possible tensions on the ground over the publication of the autopsy results of the body of Sead Alushi that was recently found in the Ibar River. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija denies that the Serbs in the Kosovo government have divided on “Djuric’s” and “Vulin’s” Serbs. The Office claims that “the Serb List, which has nine deputies in the Assembly and three government members, is united in the presentation and defense of Serb rights and interests in the Pristina institutions”. The Office points out that “nothing has changed in the political climate among the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija since the meeting with Prime Minister Vucic in mid-March and the first joint meeting in Gracanica of all Serb-majority municipal assemblies in Kosovo and Metohija, which was a demonstration of Serb power, unity and joint political activity”. “I don’t know about the divisions on Djuric’s and Vulin’s Serbs. It is true that the Serb List has a joint policy, but the mayors in northern Kosovo and Metohija are least involved in it. No one ever asked us anything about the recently appointed new Serb Minister for Return and Communities Dalibor Jevtic, or when the disbanding of the Civil Defense in northern Kosovo and Metohija was agreed in Brussels. We learned about this from the media. Northern Kosovo and Metohija is now more discussed in Gracanica – statements are given by the Gracanica Mayor Vladeta Kostic and Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Branimir Stojanovic,” Leposavic Mayor, an PS official, Dragan Jablanovic tells Danas.

Policemen win lawsuit

More than 500 Serbian policemen in Kosovo and Metohija, who were sacked south of the Ibar River over the implementation of the Brussels agreement, won the lawsuit against the former employer before the Nis Administrative Court. According to the President of the Independent Police Union Predrag Djordjevic, they “must get their jobs back until a new, final solution on their status is found,” Danas quotes kossev.info portal reports.

Jevtic: Budget for displaced halved (Novosti)

“Our Ministry is in a very precarious financial position this year, because the budget has been reduced by 50 percent. That is why I initiated the request for a rebalance of the budget and I will request additional funds for projects for the return of displaced persons,” Minister for Return and Communities in the Kosovo government Dalibor Jevtic tells Novosti.

Can you even hope for some results in such difficult conditions?

“The return process of displaced Serbs to Kosovo and Metohija has been difficult from the very beginning. The data that only 20,000 Serbs or 10 percent, of the total number, which is a little over 200,000, have returned to Kosovo and Metohija speaks that we are far from the goal when it comes to essential return.”

Is there a solution at all?

“We need to change the approach. That is why I suggested the formation of an inter-ministerial group for return that will be composed of government members who can and must help the return process in areas for which they are responsible, such as security or resolution of problems of usurped property, but also social and economic issues. Only this way can return be sustainable and more successful than it has been.”

The international community has not attempted very much to help you…

“I must point to the big role of the EU Office in Kosovo with which I signed several memorandums through which we resumed the project ‘Return and reintegration in Kosovo’ where the EU sets aside six million Euros, and our Ministry three million per year, as well as the project for closing down collective centers.”

Peace Park not to be removed (Tanjug)

The Peace Park on the main bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica, will not be removed until a mutually acceptable solution for the Serb and Albanian communities in that town is reached, said the respective mayors of Northern and Southern Mitrovica, Goran Rakic and Agim Bahtiri. They said they were in regular contact so the security situation is improved. The Peace Park was set up on 18 June 2014 by the heads of northern Mitrovica.

EU: It is upon the member-states to decide whether to recognize Kosovo (Tanjug)

The EU is mediating in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and it is upon the member-states to decide whether to recognize Kosovo, it was said in Brussels on the occasion of the writings of a Pristina portal according to which the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini “has recognized” Kosovo by including it, on her Facebook profile, among the countries she has visited. The dialogue in which the EU is the mediator refers to the normalization of relations and the issue of recognition is upon the member-states, said the spokesperson of the high representative Maja Kocijancic.

REGIONAL PRESS

Kebo: Izetbegovic does not want to fight radical Islam (Srna)

Former FB&H president Mirsad Kebo says that SDA President Bakir Izetbegovic and Bosniak politicians whom he leads do not want to fight radical Islam in B&H. “The present SDA structure has no strength for this fight since some of them are involved in the bringing of radical Islamists to B&H. They verbally and practically are creating a very strong structure which interprets religion and affiliation to a people in a very radical way,” Kebo told Srna. He warned that many political representatives of the Bosniak people are linked to radical Islamic circles. “If some Bosniaks, who wish well to their people, are criticizing radical Islam, they are immediately characterized as traitors, which is incredible,” said Kebo, who is also a former SDA official. He claims that by their story of the traitors of the nation, Bosniak politicians have suffocated the freedom of opinion. “The Islamic community in B&H and its former leader Mustafa Ceric are absolutely tolerant of radical Islam. Despite opposition from the EU and NATO, Izetbegovic had contacts with extremists, which is contrary to the interests of all the peoples in B&H,” Kebo says. He noted that the arrival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Sarajevo, on the eve of an SDA congress, is a promotion of “a personality and regime that are suffocating every freedom”.

Dodik: Referendum on independence if constitutional structure is not established (RTV)

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik said that B&H only brings harm to the RS and that they will realize their right to a referendum on independence if by the end of 2017 the respect for the constitutional structure in B&H is not established. “The RS will legalize its right, so that we are able to express our will in a referendum. We must not accept that as Serbs we do not have the right to decide, like the Scots had only a few months ago, or like the Catalans had. Why would the Serbs be the only ones who would agree that they have no right to it,” said Dodik for Radio Television of Vojvodina. The RS President pointed out that the referendum will be held after the minimum of political conditions is established. He pointed out that the constitutional structure implies the return of fundamental rights under the Dayton Agreement to the RS, including the jurisdictions in the intelligence field. “We have pulled the referendum from a complete ban on mentioning,” said Dodik and reminded that the RS has passed the Law on Referendum, to which it is entitled. Dodik pointed out that the issues of Kosovo and the RS are incomparable, because in the case of the self-proclaimed Kosovo they had “a group of people who met and declared the independence, and the powerful ones said that that is all right”, while the RS has no right to pass even the law on referendum that would be internationally legitimized.

Dodik wants international commission on Srebrenica (RTRS)

The RS President Milorad Dodik insists on the establishment of an international commission that would determine the truth about the July 1995 events in Srebrenica. The disproportion between the claims of 8,000 victims and the fact that some 4,000 have been buried says that there is a problem, Dodik said. “We are being told that it was 8,000, and there are about 4,000 buried there after so many years, while those from The Hague made their conclusions based on the story about 8,000 (victims). It is really unpleasant for me to list numbers, but there is obviously some problem in all this,” said Dodik. Stressing that this is “a painful issue”, he added that, “if everything that happened has not been presented truthfully, it will remain the subject of speculation”. To illustrate his statement, Dodik reminded of the story about Serbs “killing 300,000 Muslims” during the 1992-95 war in B&H, which he said “led the United States and other Western countries to produce concepts for a political solution in B&H based on that data”. Dodik reiterated his previous position that “Srebrenica was not a heroic act”, but said that “the story of Srebrenica is incomplete without the data on the Serb victims”. “I absolutely think that no crime is needed, and that this was in every sense an unnecessary crime from the political and national and military and every other standpoint. It was huge and difficult, it was the most massive crime in that area, but you cannot come out with the story about Srebrenica saying only that several thousand Bosniaks (Muslims) were killed there, and not saying that the same number of Serbs were also killed, in a time-frame that is a little wider and not concentrated only on two days,” said Dodik. Dodik stressed that he disagreed with the qualification of the Srebrenica crimes as genocide, pointing out that Turkey’s crime against Armenians was genocide.

CIA head: Dodik will be arrested if he tries the RS’ secession (Sarajevo365)

The current head of the US intelligence service (CIA) John O. Brennan told American WXNYC radio in New York that the RS President will be arrested if he tries the RS’ secession from Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) announced through the referendum on independence. Brennan said that he cannot reveal which security services would conduct the arrest, and pointed out that the possibility of using the infiltrated foreign agents in B&H to carry out the arrest is not excluded, if Dodik actually carry out his plan on the secession from B&H. “By doing that, Dodik would impair the Dayton Peace Agreement, and the United States are one of the guarantee holders of that Agreement, and will not allow any politician in B&H, not even Dodik, to truly realize an idea that would lead to any division of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” concludes Brennan.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Bosnia Faces New Attack Threat, Police Warn (BIRN, by Elvira M. Jukic, 4 May 2015)

Security agencies have warned that the country is facing the threat of a possible new attack by Islamist militants in the wake of the shooting of a policeman in Zvornik. The State Investigative and Protection Agency, SIPA, told Balkan Insight on Monday that it has received information from the Intelligence-Security Agency, OSA, about the possibility of new attacks by militants in the wake of last week’s shooting. “This information was forwarded to all police agencies in the country and at this moment we cannot give any further comments about this,” said SIPA spokesperson Kristina Jozic. Jozic added that SIPA was analysing the information it has received and following all available leads. On Wednesday last week, an alleged Islamic radical opened fire at a police station in the Serb-dominated eastern town of Zvornik. The attacker and one policeman was killed and two other policemen injured in the shootout. In the aftermath of the attack, SIPA and other police agencies have staged a series of raids across the country and detained two people who are believed to be involved in the attack. Both have been remanded in custody for a month. Armin Krzalic, director of the Sarajevo-based Center or Security Studies, told Balkan Insight that militant attacks are always hard to predict. “Our country is exposed [to such attacks] but not more and not less than other countries in the region,” he said. Krzalic said that European Parliament’s anti-terrorist strategy identifies poverty as a key motive that fuels violent militancy. But he added that better understanding of the threat requires deeper and more detailed analysis, which has been missing in Bosnia so far. “We have a problem, but not only here in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because we lack understanding of the motives [for such attacks],” Krzalic said. “One has to take into consideration that our country is full of illegal weapons but also it is also important to take into consideration the stress people here went through in relation to the war. This issue has to be approached as a very sensitive one,” he added. Krzalic said that Bosnia lacks good security experts who specialise in violent radicalism, and stressed the need for better coordination among Bosnia’s multiple and decentralised security and police agencies. “Society needs to trust security institutions,” he said. The authorities estimate that up to 200 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina have fought alongside militants in Syria and Iraq. Some have died on the battlefields but others have returned to Bosnia and pose a threat to country’s security, experts believe.

Bosnian Serbs protest against Labour reform (Balkan Insight, by Katarina Panic, 4 May 2015)

Trade unions staged one of the biggest protests in recent years in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska, showing that EU-proposed reforms could face problems soon. More than 5,000 people participated in protest in Republika Srpska’s administrative centre Banja Luka on Friday, urging the RS government not to adopt a new labour law which is one of the first reforms required for the continuation of Bosnia’s EU accession process. The protest was called after Republika Srpska government officials announced last week that the new labour law will be adopted by the end of 2015. “This is only a warning. There are 120,000 union members and we say on behalf of them: stop the new labour law. This is only the beginning. If the new law becomes reality, there will be a final showdown,” Ranka Misic, president of the RS Union Association, told the protesters. She said the real problem was that many workers have been working for months or even years without salaries, health insurance or the possibility of retiring and receiving normal pensions. “The IMF [International Monetary Fund] is asking the RS Government to adopt new law in order to get the money from them. They [the IMF] said to us: you have to understand capital, you have to work and you have to agree to a reduction of workers’ rights, but we said: no, we won’t,” Misic, who met IMF representatives last week, told the demonstrators. RS labour minister Milenko Savanovic has insisted however that the new law will not change the essence of the current law or reduce the existing rights of workers, but that it will only make “some technical corrections”. The protest underlined how difficult it will be to push through the reform agenda, which was prepared under the EU auspices and which Bosnia will have to implement if it wants to move closer to eventual EU membership. Political analyst Srdjan Puhalo told Balkan Insight on Monday that the protest in Banja Luka indicated that the RS Union Association, which in the past was believed to be controlled or at least influenced by the entity’s government, now seems to be flexing its muscles independently. “The trade unions next steps depend on the government’s next move because this time the union has a clear and strict position on the new labour law,” Puhalo said. “The question is whether the government will succeed in splitting the union into factions, ignoring their requests and preparing the broader public for the new labour law in the next six months,” he added. An EU diplomat told Balkan Insight on Monday that the reform of the labour law, although unpopular among trade unions, was good for workers themselves. The current labour law is too rigid and prevents investors from creating new jobs because once they hire someone they have difficulties laying them off later if necessary, the diplomat said. “By blocking the labour law reform, trade unions in Bosnia only work against the interest of workers in Bosnia,” the official said. The current labour law was adopted in RS in 2007. But Igor Ratkovic, a trade union leader in Prijedor, told Balkan Insight that it has not been fully and properly implemented yet. Ratkovic said union officials believe that if the current law’s provisions on overtime were fully applied, it would enable the creation of at least 20,000 new jobs. He added that one of the main problems is that employers are avoiding paying taxes and contributions for all their employees. According to union estimates, companies currently owe the RS administration some 410 million euro in unpaid taxes and contributions.

“This is one third of RS’s annual budget. Someone is using that money, but it is not the workers and it is not the entity,” he said.

Montenegro Vows Crackdown After Jihadist Threats (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 4 May 2015)

The government pledged tough action against suspected jihadists after a Montenegrin citizen who claimed to be a member of ISIS threatened three Muslim members of the country’s parliament. Senior Montenegrin officials have urged the prosecution to take action after the online threats against the three MPs and local religious leaders by the jihadist who claimed to be a member of ISIS, local media reported on Sunday. Dusko Markovic, deputy Prime Minister in charge of security, and Interior Minister Rasko Konjevic expressed concern that Montenegrins who join Islamist groups could endanger the state, so those who go to fight in foreign conflicts should be punished. “The reaction must be political, social and economic,” Markovic told newspaper Dnevne Novine. The threats were made on Facebook on Friday by a man called Damir Slakovic, who said he joined ISIS last year and had fought for the radical jihadi group in the Middle East. Slakovic called MPs Azra Jasavic, Rifat Rastoder and Dritan Abazovic “renegades who think they are Muslims”. He also said that jihadists would take revenge action in his hometown of Bar. “Islamic State, with Allah’s permission and help, will arrive there and will clean up this city [Bar] and Islam in it from the dirt and lies that you’re telling and practicing,” his message said. He also threatened Muslim leaders in Bar, saying that “unless they repent and turned to true Islam, followers of IS will have no mercy for them”. Suljo Mustafic, an official of the Bosniak Party, which is part of Montenegro’s governing coalition, said that Slakovic’s threats must be treated seriously. Opposition leader Nebojsa Medojevic claimed meanwhile that the unresolved Bosniak issue in Montenegro provides “ground for terrorism”.”Only a Bosniak with a national, religious and civic dignity, who is respected, will not be prey to terrorists, extremist ideology and become a threat to national security,” Medojevic said. In March, Montenegro adopted a law punishing participation in foreign conflicts with up to 10 years in jail – part of the government’s measures aimed at tackling the issue of Montenegrins heading to the Middle East and fighting for Islamist extremists. The law criminalises persons who “organize, recruit, finance, encourage, lead or train people or groups of people” with the goal of joining or participating in foreign conflict. The latest data released by the National Security Agency in October 2014 said 13 citizens from Montenegro had gone to fight alongside radical Muslim forces in Syria. Ten have since returned, one has been killed and two others are still on the battlefield, it is believed. In December, the European Parliament Rapporteur for Montenegro, Charles Tannock, said Montenegrin security agencies were monitoring over 300 people suspected of links to terrorists. The government denied this, saying the intelligence agencies were monitoring an “insignificant number”. Muslims make up about 19 per cent of the population of Montenegro. Most are Bosniaks and ethnic Albanians. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania are the main recruiting grounds in the Balkans for radical Islamists.