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Dacic: Position of Serbs in Kosovo unacceptable (RTS)

The OSCE Chairperson and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic assessed that the position of Kosovo Serbs was unacceptable and below the Council of Europe (CoE) standards when human rights are concerned. Dacic said Serbia supported any CoE engagement aimed at improving its standards in Kosovo and Metohija to the benefit of all the people who live there and which, at the same time, are in line with international legally binding documents, above all UNSCR 1244. Serbia will continue being a constructive partner in the definition of such engagements, with full respect for a status neutral approach adopted within the CoE, said Dacic at the 125^th CoE ministerial meeting in Brussels.

“Friends of Serbia” in Brussels: Support to European course of Serbia (Radio Serbia, by Sandra Pekic)

“I expect the EU to reward the efforts made so far in the European integrations and let Serbia open the fir4st negotiating chapters in the accession talks by the end of the year,” Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said after the conference “Friends of Serbia” in Brussels, which gathered 20 EU foreign ministers and eight deputy foreign ministers or state secretaries. Vucic has told the press that he asked the EU heads of diplomacy to open some of the negotiating chapters with Serbia as soon as in September. “Those might be Chapters 23 and 24 – the rule of law and security – or the Chapter 32, about the financial control, as well as 35 – regarding the normalization of the relations with Pristina,” Vucic specified. He has stated that the meeting in Brussels was an opportunity for Serbia to present its arguments about everything that had been accomplished in the past year and a half. According to the Prime Minister, there is support from all EU states to the economic reforms, and Serbia has to resume the talks about the implementation of certain segments of the Brussels agreement. While stressing that it was repeated several times during the gathering that Serbia was a pillar of stability in the region, Vucic has pointed Belgrade will not interfere with the internal matters of Macedonia, but also added that the region does not need unrest and instability. Asked if there have been comments on the recent visit of Russian Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov to Belgrade, Vucic has answered that there was mention of the harmonization of the foreign policy with the European one. He has repeated that Serbia is aware of its obligations toward the EU, but also wishes to preserve the good relations with Russia.

The host of the conference was Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, who congratulated Serbia for the significant reforms, but also added it was not good that even a year and a half after the beginning of the accession talks no negotiating chapters have been opened yet. Kurz has also expressed concern over the crisis in Macedonia, while assessing that the lack of European perspective is not good for the stability of the West Balkans. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who co-hosted the gathering, has said that everybody appreciates the constructive role of Serbia in the efforts to maintain the regional stability, as well as Belgrade’s pragmatic approach in solving the problems.

The meeting in Brussels was also attended by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic. The importance of this conference is highlighted by the fact that it caused the postponing of the EU ministerial council session about the refugee crisis, and the European Commissioner for Enlargement Johannes Hahn has joined the “Friends of Serbia”.

Djuric: Trial to Jablanovic is return of verbal act (Politika)

The former minister for returns and communities in the Kosovo government Aleksandar Jablanovic will appear before the court in Djakovica, “the forbidden city for the Serbs”, on 22 May only if he receives guarantees from the provisional government of Kosovo. “I have no responsibility in view of the indictment, but I am not acquainted with the facts with which the prosecutor disposes. This has been a politically motivated case from the beginning, with the intention of discrediting my political engagement. I will appear before the prosecutor under condition that the Kosovo government gives me clear and firm guarantees that concern my personal safety,” Jablanovic tells Politika. The Basic Prosecution in Djakovica issued an indictment against Jablanovic for the criminal offense of incitement to racial, national, religious hatred and intolerance, because he called “savages” an extremist group of Albanians who stoned a bus with displaced Serbs from Djakovica. In only one and a half year the Kosovo judiciary raised indictments against two Kosovo Serb political leaders. The procedure against Oliver Ivanovic started a year and a half ago and only the 33^rd witness for the prosecution, via a video link, allegedly linked the SDP leader with the war crimes in Kosovska Mitrovica. In the best case, this procedure could end by 2017. That is why the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric opines that the indictment issued by the Basic Prosecution in Djakovica against Aleksandar Jablanovic is another in an endless series of injustices directed against the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. He adds that it is clear that “very malicious politics towards the interests of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija absolutely reign” in the judicial institutions in Kosovo and Metohija. “I don’t understand who would and for what try Jablanovic. Because he said that those who stoned a bus with expellees are savages? This would imply a return of a verbal act through the big door on the public scene in the province, suppression of freedom of thought and speech and political oppression of legal and legitimately elected Serb representatives,” Djuric tells Politika. With him also agrees the Chairperson of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Control of Security Services Momir Stojanovic, who claims that the procedure against the former minister in Isa Mustafa’s government is a deliberate strategy of the authorities in Pristina that is aimed at intimidating the Serbs so they would not return to Kosovo and Metohija. If they dared to return to their homes, then the goal would be, apart from physical assaults, to plunder their properties, adds Stojanovic. “The argumentation for writing criminal charges against Aleksandar Jablanovic is ridiculous. Neither did he insult the Albanian people nor did he make a serious criminal offense, but condemned violence against the Serbs who are disabled to visit the graves of the loved ones in Kosovo and Metohija,” Stojanovic tells Politika. “The courts in Kosovo and Metohija usually sentence to probation for this criminal offense. Based on what I have learned from the press, the sentence pronounced by Mr. Jablanovic can in no way be treated as a criminal offense, because he hasn’t mentioned with a single word a national, religious or racial community. There are also other circumstances that testify that there is no criminal offense,” says attorney Ljubomir Pantovic, adding that Jablanovic, if he decides not to respond to the prosecution, would still need a defense attorney.

Senic: Untrue that Gazivode is a condition (Danas)

“Over the past three years, the incompetent authorities have been constantly setting deadlines and goals that they cannot fulfill, thus creating unrealistic expectations of citizens. They were bidding last year that the opening of chapters in the EU negotiations will be in July, then in October, and then in December. The chapters didn’t open, while the government has always blamed the EU for that, which creates an impression with the citizens that we are constantly conditioned and blackmailed, and this also leads to a drop in support to EU integration,” Aleksandar Senic, MP of the Social-Democratic Party and the Chairperson of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for EU integration, tells Danas.

Is the opening of chapters with the EU prolonged over the Gazivode Lake, as Vucic says?

“It is untrue that Gazivode is a condition. That is an unscrupulous bluff. Gazivode is just an excuse to cover up the incompetency of the government. I met with Hahn, Mogherini, McAllister, Danielson and many other EU representatives. They never said that Gazivode is a condition for opening chapters, but only the drafting of the action plans for Chapters 23 and 24. The real and only true response why there is no opening of chapters is that the Serbian government has not done its homework and doesn’t have valid action plans, which is the main prerequisite. Once the action plans are finally completed and accepted and the chapters opened, we can expect a new media spectacle how Gazivode remained under our control, and chapters have opened.”

The Prime Minister says that the Brussels agreement and normalization of relations with Pristina are certainly no reason for not opening the chapters, because we have fulfilled everything that is up to us…

“The Brussels agreement and normalization of relations with Pristina are not the primary reason for not opening the chapters, but the reason is that the action plans for Chapters 23 and 24 have not been completed. Normalization of relations with Pristina will be discussed in the following years, within Chapter 35 and the EU primarily needs to define the criteria for this chapter, because the stands in the EU are not harmonized.”

You have recently stated that if we signed the Brussels agreement, we cannot request the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) to be formed according to the Serbian laws, but can we accept for the ZSO to be an NGO, which Pristina wants? Who bears the responsibility for the impreciseness of the Brussels agreement, is it the signatory Ivica Dacic?

“We cannot and must not allow for the ZSO to be come down to the level of an NGO, but with bad negotiating we are in a situation where we must again negotiate on what will be the jurisdictions. The decree stating that the ZSO should be formed according to the Kosovo laws is a hindering circumstance for us, because their laws do not envisage the possibility of creating any kind of autonomy inside Kosovo, nor forming some new level of authority that could gather only Serb municipalities. The Brussels agreement should have been negotiated in a different way so the Kosovo Serbs and their rights would be protected, and certainly the biggest responsibility lies with the negotiator and those who supported him in this.”

Unofficial: Nikolic sends Kosovo platform to Vucic (B92)

B92 has learned that Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic’s platform for Kosovo has been sent to Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic. Although this has not yet been officially confirmed and the prime minister’s cabinet and government say they do not know the content of the document, B92 has learned some of its provisions. One is to grant broad autonomy with many powers, but not independence to the southern Serbian province. Another is to give it autonomous judiciary. Especially interesting is the part related to northern Kosovo, which should be treated in accordance with the Constitution of Serbia, while the rest of Kosovo’s territory – that is, outside the future Union of Serb Municipalities – “should have the treatment that ethnic Albanians had during the existence of Yugoslavia (SFRY).” Regardless of this information, neither the government nor the presidency wished to comment on the text of the platform. The same is true of the ruling SNS party. “You’re very persistent, I appreciate that, but I would like you to tell me your opinion about the snow that will fall on Friday. Neither I nor you know this and I cannot talk about something until I see it in writing,” said the SNS caucus whip Zoran Babic. “It is known that Albanians want full independence of Kosovo, and that Serbia will not agree to that,” commented Goran Bogdanovic, a former minister for Kosovo. He added that this would be the 13^th declarative document adopted, while according to him, after each Serbs are worse off and fewer. “In particular this applies to the situation during the talks in Vienna where we offered more than autonomy but less than independence, and they refused. Going back to that period and the Constitution of 1974 is ridiculous and a waste of time,” said Bogdanovic. While drafting the platform, the President said that he would “not write what the government is unable to carry out”. Nikolic and the government previously had differences over Kosovo and Metohija when he in late 2012 proposed a platform that included the formulation, “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. Now that the new platform has been sent to the Prime Minister, it should be adopted by the government and then sent to parliament for adoption.

Vucic complained about Nikolic to NGOs (Blic)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic is creating serious problems for me with the platform for Kosovo, and I learned from the media what is written in it, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told NGO representatives last week, Blicreports. The Prime Minister complained that Nikolic wrote the platform without any consultations with him, and then forwarded the draft state platform on Kosovo and Metohija to some media. This document, which Nikolic wanted the government and parliament to adopt, has not arrived on Vucic’s table before some parts of it had been published from “unofficial sources”. This angered Vucic, who, in his own words, couldn’t believe what the Serbian President was doing. Vucic said that the government is also in an unpleasant position, because if it accepts the document it will be blamed by the West, and if it rejects it, it would look like it is against Kosovo in Serbia. If the government and Parliament were to ask the EU and UN to urgently start negotiation on “the final status of Kosovo”, as imagined by Nikolic, on the basis put forth by the platform, that would jeopardize the implementation of the Brussels agreement and block Serbia’s path to the EU, and simply dismissing it would allow political opponents to accuse the Serbian Progressive Party of giving up Kosovo for the EU, Blicreported Vucic’s talk with NGOs. The newspaper reported that precisely such moves on Nikolic’s part are one of the reasons that led the Prime Minister to organize meetings with pro-European NGOs, because he needs allies also in this part of society for bringing Serbia into the EU.

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Media summaries are produced for the internal use of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, UNMIK and UNHQ. The contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership.