LOCAL PRESS

Nikolic: Balkans going backwards over Kosovo (Beta)

In talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Belgrade, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has stated that Russia’s support in the UN Security Council regarding Kosovo is immensely important for Serbia. “Your stand in the Security Council is completely clear and we are thankful for this,” said Nikolic. “After several years in which Serbia has been trying to be an oasis of peace, the Balkans has been returning several years backwards and all this are consequences of the so-called independent state of Kosovo and its wish, as well as the wish of Albania, to create a greater Albanian state that would include the borders of four surrounding states,” said Nikolic. Lavrov said that the terrorist tendencies in the Balkans are concerning for Russia, adding that this should not be ignored since there is a risk of new adversities. He said that Serbia and Russia must invest joint efforts towards preventing new retailoring of borders.
Dacic and Lavrov: Stable, friendly and fraternal relations of Serbia and Russia (Radio Serbia)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has stated that the relations of Serbia and Russia are not subject to any kind of trade with any third countries or organization, they are stable, friendly and fraternal, and such cooperation will be maintained. Our relations are far beyond the petty daily political issues, there are no disputes between our countries. We are thankful to Russia for the support in regards of Kosovo and Metohija, Dacic said after the talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Russian official has emphasized that his country highly appreciates the level of relations with Serbia. He has especially pointed to the presence of President Tomislav Nikolic at the military parade in Moscow, on May 9, and the decision of Serbia to send its army’s troops to that event. At the same time, both ministers have positively assessed the trade and economic relations of Serbia and Russia, while pointing there is still room for their improvement.

UNMIK violated human rights convention? (RTS/Tanjug/Vesti)

The UN Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP) in Kosovo opines that the UNMIK Mission has violated the European Human Rights Convention and didn’t conduct an efficient investigation in the case of the abduction and possible murder of Marko Vitosevic from Orahovac, reports the Frankfurt based Vesti. The Commission is requesting the UNMIK Head to admit responsibility and publicly apologize to the Vitosevic family for the suffering and mental pain. The authorities in Kosovo are also requested to take all the necessary steps for the criminal investigation to continue and perpetrators to be brought to justice, Tanjug reports. Marko Vitosevic was abducted on 16 June 1999 from the house in Orahovac, and the recent HRAP decision, into which Vesti had insight, is the first information that his son Zvezdan has received about the fate of his father after 16 years. The disappearance was reported immediately to KFOR, UNMIK and the Prizren District Public Prosecution, and three witnesses stated that three KLA members took Marko Vitosevic to the “fire station”, interrogated and tortured, then took him to another location, and since then he disappeared without a trace. UNMIK investigative files state that the witnesses cited as the kidnappers M.U., A.B. and three more KLA members. “Witnesses are dying, but they are not doing anything. All these years nobody has contacted me, and that is why I sued UNMIK. This HRAP decision shows that the suspects were interrogated individually, which means that somebody has kept this in a drawer all this time. In the meantime, two witnesses have died, and one witness cannot cooperate due to old age and illness. We are on our own and we are not the only ones,” says Zvezdan Vitosevic. He stresses that a special problem poses the date of disappearance of his father, 16 June, after NATO had already entered Kosovo, and the FRY army was leaving the province. Both Serbia and the UN Mission are rejecting responsibility. “From the very beginning, many families, including mine, have been in a situation where we need to do everything on our own, because nobody is doing their job. The state of Serbia has also abandoned us. We will exhaust all legal remedies here, but we will continue to seek justice before international courts. We will sue both UNMIK and Serbia,” resents Vitosevic’s family that has been surviving the agony for 16 years now. The Association of the Families of Killed in Kosovo and Metohija between 1998 and 2000 stresses that the problem is that the HRAP opinions are not binding and all the families receive from UNMIK is a scant apology letter. “UNMIK is aware of the fuss around jurisdictions, so it is not sending decisions to the families, nor recognition of liability (based on the HRAP decision), so that we cannot sue them. None of the families that are members of the Association have received information that UNMIK forwarded the documentation and recommendations to EULEX,” states the Association.

Brussels asking for weaker ties between Belgrade and Banja Luka? (Novosti)

Brussels is preparing a new list of demands for Serbia regarding Kosovo and Metohija, as well as relations with Moscow and the Republika Srpska (RS), which could soon be presented to Belgrade as conditions for opening Chapter 31 of negotiations on foreign and security policy, Novosti learns. The paper writes that they are most likely to seek revision of the National Security and Defense Strategy, adopted in 2009, on the grounds that the circumstances in the world have changed, and with one goal – that Serbia gives up Kosovo, distance itself from Russia, loosens ties with Banja Luka and “cements” the EU as the most important foreign policy goal. According to Novosti, Brussels will insist that the text of the Strategy Safety reduce the emphasis that has been placed on Kosovo, whose secession is listed as the biggest security threat to Serbia. An eyesore for the EU is that the Strategy emphasizes the commitment to develop new dimensions of special relations with Russia. The disputable thing for the EU is that, in these strategic documents, Serbia opts for development of special relations with the RS, deepening the ties with China, India and Brazil and the renewal and strengthening of cooperation with the non-aligned countries. As a conformation to their findings, Novosti uses the statement of Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, who said that “section 31 had not been particularly difficult in the previous negotiating process”. “But now we hear some humming from the European Commission that it is possible that in this case they introduce some new criteria,” Dacic told Novosti. He stressed that the alignment of foreign and security policy should not be reduced to the issue of introducing sanctions against Russia.

Terror threatens Serbia (Novosti, comment by Radomir Milasinovic, Faculty of Security)

It is very realistic for the terrorist crimes to spill over from Macedonia to Kosovo, even Serbia proper. This “shifting” will depend on the foreign structures and mentors who are “tele controlling” extremism in the region. It is completely out of the question for terrorists to activate themselves without the knowledge of those who are creating the political reality in the Balkans. We saw this scenario in its darkest essence during the 1990s in the region of former Yugoslavia. The concept of creating a ‘Greater Albania’ received its logistic momentum when the great powers favorably viewed the terrorist activities in Kosovo and Metohija who were even awarded with the creation of the non-recognized republic of Kosovo. Thus, stability in our country can largely depend on the geo-strategic and geo-political plans of the great powers, primarily the US in this historical moment. We must realize that, as a country, we will be brutally exposed, as in the past, to constant blackmail, political and economic pressures and blockades. They will treat us as a disobedient child that must be brought to reason and calmed down by scolding and beating it. This, unfortunately, is a historical reality. Thus, wise up, because we must prepare for all scenarios and for all possible events that are inevitably coming.

Lavrov: We are not changing the stand towards Kosovo regardless of Crimea (Politika, by Dragan Vukotic)

Russian President Vladimir Putin at one point counterpoised the cases of Kosovo and Crimea, speaking about the rights of nations to self-determination, whereby he indirectly provided the right to Kosovo’s independence. What is the official position of the Kreml towards independence of Kosovo, having in mind all newly created circumstances?

“President Vladimir Putin didn’t say that. We have been warning that introducing the model of declaring independence of certain territories in international use would create a precedent. We have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that the Western alliance, with the US at the helm, has been using broadly double standards, violating fundamental principles of international law, shamelessly directly interfering in internal affairs of sovereign states. The consequences of such a line were fully felt by the people of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and today Ukraine. Because of the coup supported by Washington and Brussels, power in Kiev was taken in February last year, with the help of arms, by ultranationalists, who brought the country with their actions on the brink of schism and started a bloody civil war. In comparison to this, the inhabitants of Crimea decided at a referendum to declare independence from Ukraine and to unify with Russia – in accordance with one of the fundamental principles of equality and self-determination of nations, which was established in Article 1 of the UN Charter, then according to Article 1 of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, Article 1 of the International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and in many other prominent international documents. The attempts of those who directed the separation of Kosovo from Serbia – without a referendum – to put under suspicion the free expression of the will of the inhabitants of Crimea are obviously absurd. The stand of Russia towards the Kosovo issue is absolutely clear and constant: regulating this problem is possible only based on international law and in the framework determined in UNSCR 1244. As regards Belgrade’s efforts in this direction – of course, for us are acceptable all those decisions that will satisfy Serbia. We are ready from our side to continue to offer the necessary support to Serbian partners.”

REGIONAL PRESS

Cavara: The unacceptable behavior of DF Ministers (Fena)

The President of the Federation and Vice President of the HDZ B&H Marinko Cavara said that the behavior of the DF representatives is absolutely unacceptable, for which the ministers from HDZ B&H had not taken part in the Federal Government session. All the points of the agenda have been already agreed on, for the yesterday’s session, at the Collegium of the Federation government. The Federal Minister of Energy, Industry and Mining Reuf Bajrovic (DF) has decided to withdraw the point in which they were supposed to discuss the situation in “Aluminij” Mostar, which is the reason why the ministers from the HDZ B&H left the session. On the statement made by the SDA representatives in the Federation government that they are surprised with the decision of the DF to withdraw the point concerning “Aluminij”, Cavara responded that they are not surprised that SDA is surprised. “They’re always surprised (ministers from the SDA), but they continue to work with the ministers from the Democratic Front, which clearly shows that there is some kind of a deal. I think that it is not correct that the two agree on the expense of the third,” said Cavara. He said how he hopped that the agreement is possible, but he has been proved otherwise ones again. “We will probably have to look for different solutions,” said the President of the Federation and Vice President of the HDZ B&H.

B&H: 12 indictments for terrorism (Fena)

The B&H State Prosecution filed an indictment against 12 people for crimes related to terrorism and participation in armed conflicts for the “Islamic State”. The accused, all B&H citizens, are charged for being the members of an organized terrorist group and of participating in illegal armed conflicts in Syria and Iraq, reports Fena. The accused are charged with… accepting radical ideology of the so-called Islamic State organized on the territory of Syria and Iraq, collecting means and leaving Bosnia to join terrorist organizations. It said the men had left for Turkey during 2013 and 2014 and from there illegally crossed into Syria, where they stayed for several months and took part in terrorist activities. The accused will answer for the crimes of organizing a terrorist group in relation to terrorism and illegal joining the armed forces. The State Prosecution has conducted a thorough investigation, which lasted several months, in cooperation with police and security agencies in B&H as well as partner agencies for the fight against terrorism in the region and the world. During the investigation and the police action, evidentiary materials were found, including weapons, grenades, ammunition and specialist military equipment, whose acquisition and possession under no circumstances is allowed to civilians and citizens. The B&H Prosecutors Office will prove the responsibility of the accused by presenting 25 witnesses and experts. The indictment shall be forwarded to the Court of B&H, reads the statement by the Prosecutor’s Office.

Kumanovo streets blocked (Kurir)

Several central streets in Kumanovo have been completely blocked, and it is suspected that the reason for it is the search for the terrorists who escaped police. Macedonia media report that strong police forces are in the streets leading from the police station to the post office, as part of the highway that leads out of town, the citizens are not allowed access to those parts of Kumanovo. Macedonian Interior Ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski stated that the security measures are being taken in Kumanovo, but did not give further information. However, Macedonian media reported unofficial information that the police are looking for the terrorists that was recently arrested in the police action following the terrorist attack, who escaped. They state that the terrorist was taken out of the detention in order to show to the police the place where his group has hid the weapons, but took advantage of the carelessness and managed to escape.

Vujanovic sent ambassador to B&H after the B&H PA rejected a resolution on Sutorina (RTCG)

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic has signed a decree on setting up Milan Lakic for the Ambassador of Montenegro to B&H, after the B&H Parliamentary Assembly rejected a resolution on Sutorina. It was reminded from the Cabinet of the President that the signing of this decree was delayed because of the resolution. Vujanovic also received Ambassador Lakic for the final interview before taking up the office. “The president stressed the need for further improvement of relations between the two countries on the basis of the development of good-neighborly relations and strengthening stability in the region. He also stressed the need of the two countries to jointly use natural and economic resources for the good of Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina and their citizens,” the statement said. Lakic presented to Vujanovic in detail his preparations and plans of his diplomatic engagement to further improve relations between Montenegro and B&H. Minister Rasko Konjevic has been previously asked to comment on the decision of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of B&H which did not accept the resolution on Sutorina, but Konjevic said that we should wait for the official decision in the usual communication between the two countries, i.e. through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to him, Montenegro respects regional cooperation, respects the neighbors and will respect all that is defined by treaties and agreements with its neighbors. “Competent committees of the two countries ended the issue of demarcation last year without any problems and opened internal procedures. Montenegro ended the procedures at the end of last year ended and authorized the competent minister to sign the agreement on behalf of the state,” said Konjevic.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Kosovo: No Dialogue Until Serbia Fulfils Agreements (BIRN, by Una Hajdari, 14 May 2015)

Pristina said that top-level Kosovo-Serbia dialogue in Brussels will not continue until the agreements already reached during the normalisation talks have been fulfilled

Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, said on Thursday that no meetings between Belgrade and Pristina on the prime ministerial level will be held until progress is made in the fulfilment of previous agreements. “There will not be any meetings on a political level before concrete results are achieved” or until the two sides reach similar stances on the issues, Tahiri told Balkan Insight. She said that EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini “believes that there is no reason for these meetings” unless there is progress. Working groups will continue meeting throughout May, and progress in these meetings will determine the date for a future meeting between the two prime ministers. “We will be having a series of meetings this month. The success of these meetings will determine the date of the next meeting on a political level,” said Tahiri. The meetings will focus on car insurance, aspects of the Integrated Border Management (IBM) agreement and the possible opening of two new administrative crossings. Travel to and from Kosovo and Serbia is made difficult by the hefty insurance fee requested at the border, and because cars registered in the other country need temporary licence plates to cross over, amongst other problems. Tahir said that a solution to the insurance problem has been reached, but claimed that “Serbia has been blocking the agreement for five months”. The Integrated Border Management (IBM) agreement, one of the early agreements reached in the technical dialogue that began in 2011, foresees a joint border crossing between the two countries. “We will discuss the construction of permanent infrastructure for the new implementation phase of the IBM agreement,” said Tahiri. Tahiri also mentioned the possibility of a new administrative crossing being set up, between Medvegje and Kamenica, and the legalisation of an existing route in the north which has been used for illegal border crossing and smuggling. The EU-led dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia began in March 2011, first only on a technical level, led by Tahiri on the Kosovo side and Borislav Stefanovic on the Serbian side. It became a high-level dialogue in October 2012, culminating in the April 2013 Agreement for the Normalisation of Relations, known as the Brussels Agreement. The goal of the Brussels Agreement is to deal with ongoing political and technical issues between Kosovo and Serbia, such as membership of international organisations, participation in conferences, and issues relating to the Serbian minority in Kosovo.

Macedonian party leaders meet under global pressure (AFP, 15 May 2015)

Macedonia’s prime minister held talks Thursday with opposition and ethnic Albanian party leaders, under international pressure to resolve a political crisis in the troubled Balkan country.

The meeting took place following clashes at the weekend in a northern town between ethnic Albanian rebels and Macedonian police that left 22 dead, including eight police officers.

The violence in Kumanovo was the worst in Macedonia for 14 years, and raised fears of fresh unrest similar to the country’s 2001 ethnic conflict. “We met to support democratic values including the right to peaceful protests and to condemn violence, whether it is for criminal or political purposes,” the four leaders said in a statement. They were due to resume their talks on Monday. Macedonia has seen an ongoing struggle between Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and main opposition party leader Zoran Zaev that has threatened the country’s democracy and has also sparked clashes in the streets of the capital Skopje. The conservative government and the centre-left opposition have been trading accusations including claims of wiretapping and million-euro bribes, and both sides are due to hold rallies in coming days. On Tuesday two ministers and the intelligence chief resigned. The three officials were being accused by the opposition of involvement in a wiretapping scandal. Thursday’s meeting was attended by Gruevski and Zaev and the leaders of two ethnic Albanian parties: the Democratic Union for Integration, which is a junior partner of the government, and the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians. US ambassador Jess Baily and head of the European Union mission in Skopje, Aivo Orav, also took part. Thirty alleged gunmen have been charged with terror offences after the bloody shootout in Kumanovo that erupted on Saturday at dawn when police moved in on the armed group. Eighteen of the 30 men charged were ethnic Albanians from neighbouring Kosovo, the prosecutors said. Ethnic Albanians make up around one quarter of Macedonia’s 2.1 million population. The 2001 Macedonian conflict with ethnic Albanian rebels ended with an agreement providing more rights to the minority community, but relations between ethnic Macedonians and Albanians remain strained. The weekend’s violence should not distract attention from Macedonia’s “very serious internal political situation” or be used “to introduce ethnic tensions”, EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn said Monday.

Tiny Macedonia Confronts a Supersize Scandal (New York Times, by Rick Lyman, 14 May 2015)

SKOPJE, Macedonia — An almost surreal scandal involving hundreds of thousands of secretly recorded conversations caught top government officials discussing everything from rigging votes to covering up killings. Two ministers and the head of the secret services have resigned. Thousands have taken to the streets demanding the right-wing government’s ouster. And last weekend, 25 miles north of the capital, a sudden burst of bloodshed left eight police officers and 14 “terrorists” dead and others wondering why it had happened, and why now. Macedonia, a country about the size of Vermont with two million residents, an increasingly nationalistic temperament and a history that goes back only 24 years, is on the edge of cracking. Once seen as a shining light among former Communist states, Macedonia has slowly, over the last decade, slipped into authoritarian rule under a party that has curtailed press rights, emboldened security forces, dominated the judiciary and once even ejected the opposition from Parliament. And since Macedonia, with its volatile ethnic mix, sits at the crossroads of countless Balkan conflicts, and along one possible path of a proposed Russian natural gas pipeline, Western governments are paying close attention to its turbulent swirl of events and the steady flow of rumors and conspiracy theories. “People don’t laugh much about conspiracy theories here in the Balkans,” said Marko Trosanovski, managing director of the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis,” a nongovernmental research group in Skopje, the capital. “They have learned to take them seriously.” Sweltering in a spring heat wave and ringed by mountains, some bearing the last shawls of snow, Skopje is perhaps the most idiosyncratic of European capitals. In a burst of nationalistic energy, the powerful prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, embarked on an immense building program, only now coming to completion, lining the capital’s riverfront with neo-Classical behemoths. Dozens of new statues fill nearly every public space. But his efforts to build a movie-set version of a nation in the wreckage of the Soviet Union have been undercut by the recent events. For three months, the leftist opposition has been releasing a stream of what it calls “bombs,” snippets of recordings from 670,000 conversations from more than 20,000 telephone numbers secretly recorded by the government between 2007 and 2013 and leaked to them, they say, by patriotic civil servants. The targets of the wiretaps were journalists, clerics, activists and foreign diplomats, but also some top officials in the government. Even the widely admired, and widely feared, Mr. Gruevski makes the occasional appearance, when he happens to be on the phone with one of the wiretap targets. There have been 31 such disclosures since February, and a few more are promised before a mass protest scheduled for Sunday in Skopje. So far, no one has denied that the recordings are authentic, although the government insists that some have been taken out of context and severely edited. Instead, the government has denied making the recordings, saying it was the handiwork of the “intelligence service” of some unnamed foreign country working with accomplices in the Interior Ministry to topple the government. Six people, including a former chief of the secret services, have been imprisoned and charged with making and leaking the tapes, and Zoran Zaev, the opposition leader who has been spearheading the “bombs” campaign, has been charged with threatening violence against Mr. Gruevski. But what has struck people almost as much as the content of the conversations is the tone, the callous way government ministers plot to punish their enemies. In one tape, the head of the secret police, who is also the prime minister’s cousin, gleefully talks about having a political opponent raped in prison. “They are so vulgar,” said Jabir Deralla, president of a local human rights and elections-monitoring group called Civil. “How easily they speak about human life and death.” Neither Mr. Gruevski nor any of his top aides agreed to be interviewed. But Aleksandar Pandov, a political analyst who is a former member of Parliament for the ruling party and who fervently supports the government, explained its view of the scandal. “You may hear something that is maybe vulgar, but not evidence of a crime,” he said. “There are cuts in the conversations, things taken out of context. We do not know whether some of the things they were discussing actually happened.” Mr. Pandov said the way forward was for those caught making intemperate comments to leave the government, anyone found guilty in the case to go to prison and Mr. Gruevski to remain in power. “The whole situation is trending towards its conclusion,” Mr. Pandov said. For now, the opposition is feeling emboldened. In an interview, Mr. Zaev sat behind a long conference room table, gleaming with polish, and declined to go too deeply into the tactics for Sunday’s rally — which he says will include many groups, not just his party members, and will draw around 70,000 people, maybe more. He hinted that human cordons might be used to surround important government ministries and to block bridges, and that the protests would continue. “We will use the Gandhi system,” he said. “We will make the whole process absurd.” The resignation of the ministers of transport and interior and the security service chief does not change the plan, Mr. Zaev said in a Facebook post. If anything, it confirms what the opposition has been saying and the need to proceed, he said. “It is not time to celebrate,” Mr. Zaev said. “It is only one more step towards the end of Nikola Gruevski’s rule.” Meanwhile, the first appearance of what the government is calling “Albanian terrorists” occurred last month, when a group was said to have seized a border watchtower on the Kosovo frontier and briefly taken four Macedonian officials hostage. The region had been the site of heavy fighting involving Albanian nationalists in 2001, but had calmed down since. Many critics of the government scoffed, finding it suspiciously bloodless and conveniently timed to distract from the wiretapping scandal, but government officials insisted that it was a genuine threat from a well-trained gang of ethnic Albanians. Last weekend’s episode, though, in the Diva Naselba, or “Wild Settlement,” neighborhood of Kumanovo was markedly different. The town was sealed off and gunfire could be heard through the weekend. In the end, officials said, more than 30 insurgents from Kosovo and Macedonia surrendered to the police. Mr. Gruevski said the group was plotting to attack public buildings and shopping malls in Macedonia, hoping to destabilize the government, and called for two days of national mourning. The opposition temporarily suspended the protests. But suspicions persisted that this was somehow orchestrated, or exploited, to distract attention from the scandal. In a joint statement, the United States Embassy in Skopje, NATO, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called the episode “an isolated phenomenon” and urged the government to face up to its political crisis and enact much-needed changes. Gordan Kalajdziev, president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the Republic of Macedonia, said the core problem was that Macedonians had little experience with democracy and scant understanding of notions like checks and balances. The government, he suggested, has little incentive to change course or give up power. “They will not resign because they know that if they do resign, they will be prosecuted,” he said. Mr. Pandov said the government was unconcerned about Sunday’s planned demonstration or any of the protests that have taken place. “The ruling party will have its own gathering later, and it will show whose support is greater,” he said. On one recent day, the first protesters gathered outside the main government building around 6 p.m., when the fierce sun was just losing its heat. They were a mix of ages, though predominantly young people. “Resign!” they shouted. When the police refused to allow them forward, the crowd of about 1,000 turned and began marching toward the Parliament building on the far side of the city center. “Come with us!” they shouted to pedestrians, and some did. The crowd had swelled to about 5,000 by the time it reached the Parliament building. Another line of riot police officers waited for them there. “I am not a member of any political party,” said Tashe Strezovski, 28, who works at Skopje’s airport. “Neither are many of these people. We are just ordinary citizens who love their country.” The only acceptable outcome, he said, is for Mr. Gruevski to step down. “I am not afraid,” Mr. Strezovski said. “No one is afraid anymore. This government, it is demystified.”

Ahmeti Tried to Negotiate End to Macedonian Carnage (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 15 May 2015)

Macedonian Albanian leader Ali Ahmeti reveals he maintained telephone contact with the Kumanovo gunmen who shot dead eight police last weekend, trying to convince them to surrender

Ahmeti, head of the junior party in the coalition government, said he found out about the police action as soon as it started, at 5am last Saturday – and that one of the gunmen who were by then surrounded by police called him, urging him to help negotiate a retreat from Kumanovo.

In an interview for Alsat M TV Ahmeti, head of the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, said he told the group to surrender. “I did what I had to do. I persuaded them to surrender, because otherwise it was not going to be good for anyone,” Ahmeti said. Eight police officers were killed and 37 wounded in a two-day-long shootout with a group of about 40 gunmen in the ethnically mixed northern town of Kumanovo. The gun battle shocked local residents and brought back memories of the armed conflict in Macedonia between Albanian insurgents and security forces in 2001. The battle ended with the surrender of 30 of the gunmen. Police initially said they killed 14 of the gunmen, but later corrected that number to 10. Ahmeti, who in 2001 lead the insurgents of the National Liberation Army, NLA, and later formed the DUI party, said that he immediately informed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE and the Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, about his efforts. He said that Gruevski did not believe the gunmen would surrender. Ahmeti said he had some information about why the armed group was in Kumanovo that day but was not going to reveal it until he felt sure of the complete truth. The Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloksa, who resigned two days after the police action, said the group comprised trained and well armed terrorists whose goal was attacking state and civilian targets in order to destabilize the country. Both Jankuloska and Gruevski initially insisted that the police action in Kumanovo was a success. Media reports say last night passed off peacefully in the town, but that the lack of information was creating more fears among traumatized local residents. The shootout took place against a backdrop of political crisis, revolving around opposition claims that Prime Minister Gruevski orchestrated the illegal surveillance of over 20,000 people. Gruevski has insisted that “foreign secret services” were working in collaboration with the opposition to destabilise the country. The Social Democrats started releasing their secretly recorded tapes of official conversations in February. They say the tapes confirm their allegations about government misuse of power, including electoral theft, interference in the judiciary and media, fixing tenders, racketeering and framing political opponents. They say the tapes prove the government also covered up the murder of a young man by a police officer. The opposition Social Democrats – who doubt the official version of events in Kumanovo – also say they will not cancel an anti-government rally scheduled for this Sunday. They said they will do everything to ensure a peaceful protest and prevent provocateurs from stirring up violence. Amid mounting protests in the capital, the ruling VMRO DPMNE party has scheduled a counter-rally for Monday, increasing fears of possible street violence. On Wednesday, leaders of all main political parties, with the mediation of EU ambassador Jess Baily and EU ambassador Aivo Orav, signed a declaration on non-violence and agreed to meet again on Monday. Meanwhile, the Macedonian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights said that more than 40 protesters, including students have been arrested – and that 14 are still in detention. The committee accused the police of detaining people in order to scare others from attending anti-government protests.

Bosnia indicts 12 for fighting in Syria, Iraq (Reuters, 15 May 2015)

SARAJEVO – Bosnia has indicted 12 people for forming a terrorist group and traveling to Syria and Iraq to fight for the Islamic State, the state prosecutor’s office said on Friday. The indictment follows raids and arrests across the Balkan country over the past eight months, during which weapons, bombs, ammunition and specialist military equipment had been seized, the office said in a statement. “The accused are charged with… accepting radical ideology of the so-called Islamic State organized on the territory of Syria and Iraq, collecting means and leaving Bosnia to join terrorist organizations,” it said. It said the men had left for Turkey during 2013 and 2014 and from there illegally crossed into Syria, where they stayed for several months and took part in terrorist activities. The Islamic State group has seized large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, imposing a radical interpretation of Islam and calling on Muslims to support their campaign. Most Bosnian Muslims, known as Bosnia’s, practice a moderate form of Islam. Experts say the emergence of militant strains may reflect the influence of Mujahedeen who came from Iran and Arab states during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war to fight alongside Bosnia’s against Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. Efforts to stop Bosnians fighting in the Middle East began last year when Bosnia introduced jail terms of up to 10 years for citizens who fight or recruit fighters for conflicts abroad and are seen as a security risk upon their return. The government estimates around 200 have left Bosnia, where Muslims make up 45 percent of the population, for Syria and Iraq. Several dozen have been reported killed. Hussein Bilal Bosnia, a Muslim cleric believed to be an unofficial leader of the ultra-conservative Salami movement in Bosnia, is currently on trial for publicly inciting and recruiting people to go to fight in Syria and Iraq.