LOCAL PRESS

Vucic: Serbia can count on U.S. support (RTS)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said after Wednesday’s meeting with U.S. Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Susan Rice that Serbia can count on U.S. support.
Susan Rice expressed unequivocal support for the opening of the first chapters in Serbia’s negotiations with the EU, and I believe the signal from Washington to the EU will be a signal of support for Serbia. When you have the support of the United States, then everything is much easier, and that is important for Serbia, Vucic told Radio and Television of Serbia. He said that the meeting with Rice was good and useful, adding she expressed a very high opinion on the economic and political reforms undertaken by Serbia, as well as on the preservation of political stability in Serbia and in the region. Serbia can count on the support of the United States, the Prime Minister stressed. Vucic has said that he also discussed the necessity that Serbia diversifies its gas supply sources. I reiterated what I always say, and that is that Serbia needs to secure gas supplies from various sources – I spoke about the visit to Azerbaijan, the relations with Russia and the possibility of getting gas supplies from Krk, Croatia, Vucic told reporters late Wednesday after the White House meeting. The topic was extensively discussed with US gas experts, he said. My job as the prime minister of Serbia is to secure enough gas for 2019 and 2020, and I am doing that here as well, the prime minister said. Hopefully we will have ample support from the US, not only as regards our path to the EU, but also as regards gas diversification for Serbia and the Balkans, Vucic said.

Vucic offered what Milosevic refused (Blic)

The U.S. is offering Serbia an opportunity to join the West, but the entry ticket is not free and there are a series of concrete conditions, Blic learns. The American requests and expectations from Serbia are well-known to the authorities in Belgrade. Certain conditions should not be a problem, but are also implied without the U.S., and part of it includes a big turnaround in Serbia’s policy. In order to check whether Serbia is heading in the offered course or not, Victoria Nuland and Evelyn Farkas, who are in charge of the Balkans in the State Department and Defense Department, will visit Belgrade in mid-July, while a large part of tests will be conducted during Vucic’s current visit to Washington D.C. “Serbia received an historical opportunity to join the Western world, just as Slobodan Milosevic had that opportunity in talks with James Baker, but he missed it. Serbia in exchange receives political support of the U.S. for the EU, significant economic assistance, access to funds, modernization of the army,” Blic’s diplomatic source says, adding that the State Department considers that Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo and B&H are on “the line of fire”. America doesn’t insist on complete severance of relations with Russia, but it requests that Serbia clearly distances itself from the Russian intentions to create crisis hotbeds in the Balkans in order to divert the attention from Ukraine. “The only potential allies of Russia are Serbia, Milorad Dodik and Macedonia. Thus, Serbia is expected to follow the joint foreign policy of the EU and to have a clear stand towards the conflict in Ukraine,” Blic’s source says.

Dikovic and Figliulo discuss security situation in Kosovo and Metohija (Politika/Tanjug)

The Chief of Staff of the Serbian Army General Ljubisa Dikovic and KFOR Commander Major General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo on Wednesday discussed the current security situation in Kosovo and Metohija and along the administrative line. At the meeting in Nis, Dikovic and Figliuolo discussed the cooperation between the Serbian Army and KFOR to date, as well as directions of future cooperation. The Serbian Defense Ministry said in a statement that it was a high-level meeting of the joint commission on implementing the Military Technical Agreement.
The joint commission’s meetings have been held regularly at various levels since 1999 for the purpose of implementing the Military Technical Agreement.

Djuric: Pristina is not encouraging return of displaced persons (Radio Serbia)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric says that Pristina is not encouraging the return of displaced persons and voiced hope that conditions will be created for a more massive return when Serb judges assume their posts and when usurped and destroyed property is returned. At the round table on the occasion of the completion of the project “Support to implementing strategies for internally displaced persons, refugees and returnees – legal assistance”, Djuric said that this project has been completed after two-and-a-half years and was financed from EU pre-accession funds, within which legal assistance was offered in 5,587 cases, 1,856 of which were closed. He pointed out that it is important to continue the financing of the project, in order to assist displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija.

Brammertz: First degree verdicts to Seselj and Karadzic this year (Danas)

The ICTY Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz has stated before the UN Security Council that the first degree verdicts in the cases of Vojislav Seselj and Radovan Karadzic will be issued by the end of this year. When it comes to the case of the war commander of the Republika Srpska Army Ratko Mladic, Brammertz has announced that the prosecution will again open its evidence procedure for a while this month, in order to present some new evidence about the mass grave Tomasica, near Prijedor in the RS. In the UN Security Council Brammertz presented his report on the implementation of the strategy to finalize the work of the International Court for Former Yugoslavia. He has said that the states emerged in the territory of the former Yugoslavia are continuing the cooperation with the Prosecution with timely responses to the demands for assistance.

REGIONAL PRESS

Izetbegovic: Government can be formed without SDA, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone (N1)

You could form a government without the HDZ, and theoretically without the SDA too, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, said Bakir Izetbegovic, member of the B&H Presidency and President of the SDA, in an interview with N1. Izetbegovic said the SDA strives to reconcile the sides, but on the shots to the coalition, “you must ask who is threatened”. Regarding “threats” by HDZ president Dragan Covic that the SDA-HDZ coalition would collapse, Izetbegovic said that those who threaten the collapse of the coalition and accusations should be asked. “The SDA is trying to sort things out and defuse anger. We will work and we will never refuse to go to a session. We will focus on Novalic’s agenda and Hahn’s agenda which we will put into focus,” said Izetbegovic. To the comment that he is the politically strongest Bosniak in the country, leading the party and representing the people in the country’s leadership, the B&H Presidency member said that with these loads and circumstances, it is a very stressful and risky job he has accepted. “I have many experienced people around me. The SDA’s backbone comprises people who for decades have led the political life in B&H,” said Izetbegovic. He also said that Bosniaks are threatened by aggressive atheists, but now the attack from absolutely the other side is in the name of religion. “This is a shot at the people and at B&H. Bosniaks must defend their faith, religion, politically and institutionally. They can’t leave B&H, lead a war somewhere and return. To kill people in the name of religion is the worst. There is nothing worse for Islam that can be done than this,” Izetbegovic told N1.

Dragan Covic: SDA-HDZ -DF not truly a partnership, reconstruction of the government needed (Fena)

B&H Presidency member and the President of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of B&H Dragan Covic paid a working visit to the town of Tuzla, where he met with representatives of the HDZ Tuzla. The aim of his visit, as it is said, is to get informed about the problems that the Croats in Tuzla are facing and to consider the possibility to assist and facilitate the life of people in Tuzla and Tuzla Canton, especially the Croats as the minority people. When asked by journalists about a third entity, Covic said that he “advocates the homeland of Bosnia and Herzegovina in which the Croats, Bosniaks, Serbs and all those who do not identify themselves as so would live in the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, relieved to be members of one, second or third nations”. “This can be done through three entities, through four federal units, the five regions, in five counties, it is a matter of a skill of the partners who want to build Bosnia and Herzegovina, and if we want to disintegrate it than there is a different way, I’m not for disintegration,” Covic stressed. About the current political situation and relations between the coalition partners, he said that “the policy where you only adapt to one department minister, whoever he is, cannot be led”, and added that “if such policy is led, that leads to disintegration of B&H”. “I’m afraid that we haven’t truly entered into this partnership, the truth is that the HDZ has negotiated a partnership with the SDA and we will continue to do so. The SDA for itself copartner chose the DF, I accepted, the HDZ also, as one of the possibilities to soon as possible create the power to go in the stabilization of B&H. Now we have entered the sixth month, the elections were held in mid-October month, and I claim that we haven’t started we have should of. It is better to day that today than say it in a year. We must re-examine our partnership, because this doesn’t work,” concluded Covic. He points out that “this situation is not in the interest of the, we are now letting our voters down, because the situation has not changed.” The key thing was, to create, within the first sixth month, a clear strategy of social and economic policies, to build a single economic space”, and we are still dealing with the issue of public companies”. “Ms. Merkel is coming soon, what do we have to offer her now, and we have promised in a statement at the end of December, everything that we will do.  I do not want to stand in front of someone and say it is someone else’s fault. It is our fault, because we do not know to do our jobs, because we’re not partners, if it is like that, we will have to go towards the reconstruction of the government,” said Covic.

HDZ and SDA ministers outvoted DF (Nezavisne)

At the session of the Federal government, which is in progress, the SDA and HDZ ministers outvoted the DF and adopted the disputed decree, by which the jurisdiction for a dismissal or appointment of public companies supervisory boards is transferred from the relevant ministries to the government of FB&H. Decree has received the support of 13 ministers and three ministers have voted against it. Earlier, Alexander Remetic, Deputy Prime Minister of FB&H, stated that if the government of FB&H at its session adopts a decree on the appointment and dismissal of the supervisory board’s members, it is clear that it is a violation of the law and of the Constitution. “’This action would represent an economic coup against the Federation of B&H,” said Remetic to reporters. He announced that the DF will not participate in, as he says, “violation of the law and the delivery of all public enterprises in to the hands of two political parties”.

Rametic announced the holding of the DF Presidency session at which the further steps will be decided. Asked whether this means a possible exit from the authorities at the federation and the state level, Remetic said that only the presidency of the party can decide that. Also, he stated that he does not exclude that possibility.

Gratitude to the UNDP for assisting the institutions and citizens of the RS (Srna)

The Prime Minister of Republika Srpska (RS) Zeljka Cvijanovic, during the farewell visit of the UN Resident Coordinator in B&H Yuri Afanasiev, expressed her gratitude for the assistance the UNDP and Afanasiev personally, for supporting the governmental institutions and citizens of the RS, through various UN programs. “Especially emphasized is the assistance that the UNDP provided after the floods in the RS, with particular emphasis on successful cooperation established with the UNDP Office in Banja Luka and their engagement,” reads the release from the Bureau for Public Relations of the RS Government. The statement added that Cvijanovic wished Ambassador Afanasyev, a lot of success in professional and personal life, and expressed confidence that the successful cooperation between the RS and the UNDP will be continued in the future. The meeting of Cvijanovic and Afanasiev was also attended by the Interior Minister Dragan Lukac and the Head of UNDP Office in Banja Luka, Goran Vukmir. The President of the RS Milorad Dodik thanked the UN Resident Coordinator in B&H Yuri Afanasiev for cooperation, highlighting the help and understanding that this organization has shown during last year’s devastating floods. Dodik and Afanasiev stressed that cooperation of the RS and the UN was very good and they expect that such cooperation will be continued. During the farewell visits Afanasiev also discussed the future joint projects of the RS institutions and UN.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia Under Pressure Over US Albanians’ Murders (BIRN, by Marija Ristic, Milka Domanovic, 4 June 2015)

Serbia is being urged to prosecute senior police commanders for the 1999 murder of three Albanian-Americans, as evidence suggests the suspected perpetrators have been known to the authorities for years. During his official visit to the US this week, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was pressed by US White House officials about why Serbia still hasn’t resolved the 16-year-old murder of three American citizens of Albanian origin who fought alongside the Kosovo Liberation Army during the late 1990s war. Ahead of Vucic’s visit, Serbian police claimed to have new evidence that could finally bring to justice the killers of the three brothers, Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bytyqi. Last week, it was also announced that a new special commission that will be formed to resolve the murder, led by the prominent Serbian editor and journalist Veran Matic. But the family of the Bytyqi brothers, who were killed at a Serbian police training centre in Petrovo Selo in July 1999 in Serbia, say they have been receiving promises from Serbian institutions for years, but so far without any tangible results.

“Yesterday a commission, today new evidence, what distraction will come tomorrow? Prime Minister Vucic cannot evade his central and active role in preventing a credible investigation,” Praveen Madhiraju, an attorney and pro bono advisor to the Bytyqi family, told BIRN.

Madhiraju said the evidence that his team has gathered, the evidence of the Serbian courts and an FBI investigation into the killings has linked a top special police general, Goran Radosavljevic, also known by the nickname Guri, to the deaths in Petrovo Selo. Radosavljevic, now retired, is a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, and Madhiraju alleges that he remains protected by the Serbian prime minister, who is from the same party. Despite the evidence against Radosavljevic, Madhiraju said, Serbia has created “a safe place” for him, due to his powerful connections within the party and the police force. “By continuing to protect Goran ‘Guri’ Radosavljevic and allowing a toxic environment for witnesses to fester, no amount of evidence will be able to overcome the challenges in this case,” Madhiraju alleged. According to the BIRN’s sources, Serbian military security agency is currently checking Radosavljevic’s whereabouts at the time of the killing, as many witnesses said that he was in Petrovo Selo, despite the fact that he claimed he was on vacation when the murder occurred. The same sources said that the initial investigation showed that he was receiving calls on special wartime lines related to the murder, but for further legal proceedings, the Serbian prosecution demanded a confirmation that he was present at the time of killing at the police training centre. Madhiraju said meanwhile that his team’s investigation showed that most of the evidence that police are now allegedly examining already existed before.

The ‘Rock’ of the Kosovo War

Radosavljevic, who now runs several security companies in Belgrade, served with the Serbian police since leaving sports academy. For most of this time, he was in charge of training police units, but he became famous during the Kosovo war. This is when he got the nickname Guri, which in Albanian means Rock. In 1998, he was one of the Serbian police commanders who led the attack on the family compound of former Kosovo Liberation Army leader Adem Jashari, when about 40 people were killed, including members of his family, women and children. Although many rights groups classified the attack as a war crime, Radosavljevic claimed Jashari was using his family as a shield. Radosavljevic also led another controversial attack during the Kosovo war – in January 1999, Serbian police raided the Kosovo village of Racak, where 44 people were killed. The attack triggered the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia as the OSCE considered the victims were civilians, although Radosavljevic and the Serbian interior ministry claimed the action was against ‘terrorists’. Later, the massacre in Racak was part of the indictment against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Radosvljevic was also considered a man to be highly trusted by the Belgrade authorities and during the Kosovo war he also served as an assistant to the state headquarters for Kosovo, which was headed by Sreten Lukic, who was later convicted of war crimes during the conflict. During 1998 and 1999, Radosavljevic also acted as one of the commanders of Serbia’s special police units, known as the PJP. In 1999, he was appointed as the commander of the special police operations group, known as the OPG.

The units were the best equipped and trained among Yugoslav forces that operated during the war, and in Serbia they are still perceived heroic despite the serious allegations made against them at the UN-backed court in The Hague. Sandra Orlovic, the director of Belgrade’s Humanitarian Law Centre, said many of the PJP and OPG’s crimes remain unpunished, because the documents of the units are still classified as secret. “The Hague Tribunal determined that some crimes were committed by these units and police formations. It is certain that the documentation is poor…but what is also certain is that those documents exist in police archives,” Orlovic told BIRN. Several requests to the police from BIRN about the PJP and the wartime activities of the unit were rejected. Police also declined to reveal to BIRN the names of the commanders of the unit, claiming they don’t have this information.

Covering up the crimes

The PJP unit is not only alleged to have actively taken part in some of the Kosovo attacks which were later considered war crimes by international and Serbian courts, but also in the removal of the bodies and in cover-up operations. In 2001, Radomir Markovic, the former chief of Serbian state security, in a statement given to police, provided details about the advance plan for what he called “clearing up the terrain”, which was agreed at the highest possible level, in former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic’s office, aimed at concealing potential evidence from the Hague Tribunal. Markovic said that the task was given directly to police generals Dragan Ilic and Vlastimir Djordjevic, and that Radosavljevic also provided “significant assistance” by helping another top Serbian police official in the process of removing corpses of killed Albanians. “Ilic told me that police colonel Goran Radosavljevic helped him significantly with his men, who helped him directly to implement this task,” said Markovic. According to numerous witnesses, Radosavljevic was present in spring 1999 when the bodies were brought from Kosovo to the Petrovo Selo police training centre and buried in a nearby pit. Police driver Bozidar Protic, who transported bodies from Kosovo to several sites in Serbia in April and May 1999, including Petrovo Selo, told the Serbian special court in 2007 that Radosavljevic himself was at the police training centre when a truck full of corpses arrived. Protic said Radosavljevic was in a caravan with his daughter next to the training centre entrance. “I stopped next to him… and showed him the truck parked down the road [with the bodies that were inside] and told Guri what was it about and he said ,‘Don’t worry,’”Protic said. Another police officer from Petrovo Selo, Radomir Djeric, who was an instructor at the centre and Radosavljevic’s deputy, also told the Serbian court in 2007 that “the boss knew everything” about the bodies. Djeric said he asked: “‘Guri, are you familiar with this?’ He said yes, all this is known to me… The boss knew what had just arrived there.” Radosavljevic, however, denied taking part in or being informed about the removal of the bodies. “I found out about these events and managed to get a clear picture only after a certain time when at an interior ministry meeting I found out that bodies were found, mass graves, and that on top of one of these mass graves, three corpses of American citizens were found,” he told a Serbian court in 2008.

Shot from behind

The three bodies were identified as those of the Bytyqi brothers in 2002, and Radosavljevic was briefly investigated by the Serbian prosecution but never indicted. The brothers had joined a volunteer branch of the Kosovo Liberation Army called the Atlantic Brigade, which was active during the conflict with Belgrade’s forces in 1999. Alongside other members of the Atlantic Brigade, who mainly came from the US, the brothers travelled to Kosovo to fight against Serbia. After the June 1999 peace agreement that ended the war, they then agreed to escort several Roma neighbours to Serbia. But when they strayed over an unmarked boundary line between Serbia and Kosovo near Merdare, they were arrested by Serbian police for illegally entering what was then Yugoslavia. After serving their sentences, as they were leaving the district prison in the town of Prokuplje in southern Serbia, they were re-arrested, taken to the police training centre in Petrovo Selo, and detained in a warehouse there. During the evening of July 9, 1999, they were tied up with wire by unknown persons and driven to a garbage disposal pit, where they were executed with shots to the back of the neck.

The fall of Milosevic

Radosavljevic played an important role in the overthrow of Milosevic in October 2000, when he decided not to use police force against protesters who were demonstrating for the resignation of the Yugoslav leader, and chose what turned out to be the winning side. He became a prominent figure in Serbian police and state institutions – shifting from one of the closest servants of Milosevic’s regime to the one of the police generals of the newly-established democratic government led by Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Several months after Milosevic was ousted, Radosavljevic was appointed commander of the special police units and in 2001 he became the first commander of an interior ministry force called the Gendarmerie. He was also commended for his role in leading police forces during a brief conflict with Albanian insurgents in southern Serbia the same year. Following the assassination of former Prime Minister Djindjic in March 2003, Serbia declared a state of emergency and launched a massive police operation, codenamed Sablja (Sabre). Radosavljevic and his unit had a pivotal role in the operation which saw more than 11,000 people arrested, and he was further promoted for his contribution. A year later, in May 2004, Radosavljevic was the one who arrested the former leader of Serbia’s special operations unit, Milorad Ulemek, known as Legija, who was later sentenced to 40 years in jail for his role in Djindjic’s assassination. His arrest might have been the reason for the end of Radosavljevic’s police career a year later, because after Legija surrendered, Radosavljevic took him to the interior ministry instead of to a police station, which was against the law. While Radosavljevic said he resigned, claiming that he was only following orders the night he arrested Legija, others believe he was retired for political reasons. After quitting the police in 2005, he started a security business and went abroad to train foreign troops in places like Libya and Afghanistan. Many told BIRN that he left the country and the police at due to his fear that he would be indicted as US pressure over the Bytyqi murders grew.

The first Bytyqi prosecution

The first legalcase connected to the murders was launched in 2006, when the Serbian war crimes prosecution indicted two police officers, Sreten Popovic and Milos Stojanovic, for allegedly transporting the brothers from Prokuplje to Petrovo Selo where they were killed. In 2012, both men were acquitted. During the trial, Stojanovic and Popovic claimed that they received the order to drive the brothers to Petrovo Selo from Vlastimir Djordjevic, who at the time was Serbia’s assistant interior minister and who was sentenced to 18 years in jail by the Hague Tribunal for wartime crimes in Kosovo. Documents presented during the trial showed that Radosavljevic was signing permissions for food and supplies for the Petrovo Selo training centre at the time brothers were there. But he denied being aware of what he was signing or that there were prisoners at Petrovo Selo. He also claimed that at that time, he only visited the centre occasionally, while at the time of the murders, he claimed to have been on vacation and was not aware of what happened to the three brothers. But Orlovic of the Humanitarian Law Centre said this was impossible. “Simply because of the police hierarchy, it is not possible that something like that happens at a police centre and that the commander of that centre is not [made] aware [of it],” she said. A US diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks said that in 2006, Serbian interior minister Dragan Jocic “believed the government had an unfinished, but broadly accurate, picture of what had happened, but needed more compelling evidence to be able to make prosecutions and convictions stick”. It said that “one outstanding problem, [Jocic] noted, was that the orders for the killing appear to have come from ‘the top’” – from Djordjevic and Radosavljevic. Both Djordjevic and Radosavljevic were not in Serbia at the time, and the case never progressed. Data obtained from the Serbian police by US FBI investigators said that at the time of the murders, a group of approximately nine police special operations unitinstructors were conducting training sessions at Petrovo Selo. According to the US investigators, Serbian police said that “ballistics analysis of a bullet found in one of the brothers’ bodies confirmed that it was from the same type of weapon commonly used by the [police special operations unit] instructors”. The ballistics analysis identified the type of weapon used in the killings as a Heckler & Koch semi-automatic pistol with an integrated silencer. According to the Serbian police, this was a fairly rare weapon. But the owner of the gun has still not been identified, and only this week the current Serbian interior minister Nebojsa Stefanovic admitted that the “ballistics were not properly done”. “We came into possession of that weapon and a new examination is ongoing,” Stefanovic said.

Prosecutors hit a ‘wall of silence

’During the trial of police officers Stojanovic and Popovic, several witnesses were threatened by people believed to be linked to some of the PJP’s members. According to the leaked US diplomatic cable, Serbian chief prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic met with “a wall of silence” when examining witnesses. At the time, Vukcevic said that his office “was convinced that Goran Radosavljevic ‘Guri’ knew of or approved the murder [of the brothers] and that he had instructed and intimidated witnesses in this case”. According to the US cable, “Vukcevic implied that the forces around Guri might be behind threat letters sent to the prosecutor”. The source in the prosecutor’s office told BIRN that many witnesses in the case refused to testify, mostly for two reasons – the concern that they might incriminate themselves and fears for their safety, as Radosavljevic is still a powerful figure in the country. Orlovic agreed that the main issue with the case is that witnesses are scared. “One of the key figures related to the murder [Radosavljevic] is still in a high political position in the most powerful political party in Serbia, and Guri often appears on TV shoulder-to-shoulder with the most powerful man in the country, next to the PM Vucic,” she said. Madhiraju, who represents the Bytyqi brothers’ family, said witnesses have also told his team that they do not dare to appear in court. “Witnesses have expressed that they are under threat. Under these circumstances, they won’t testify. The documents and other hard evidence is relatively good, but without an environment where witnesses feel safe to testify truthfully, there cannot be a credible prosecution,” Madhiraju said.

“This is where Prime Minister Vucic has failed. He should be creating a safe space for witnesses, not for Radosavljevic,” he added. Radosavljevic could not be reached for comment about the latest developments in the case, but when asked about the allegations by BIRN last year, he denied any involvement. “I trust Serbian institutions. If they want to prosecute me, they can,” he said.

Serbian PM’s US trip: Drifting away from Russia? (RT, 3 June 2015)

Al Gurnov is an award-winning Russian journalist and political analyst, and won Best Interviewer of 2014 (RSPP). He has hosted his own show on RT since 2005.

Belgrade insists that the Serbian prime minister’s visit to Washington, complete with gas-related discussions, would strengthen cooperation with the US and not distance Serbia from Russia. Should Moscow be concerned? Originally, Serbian Prime Minister PM Aleksandar Vučić was planning to visit the US in autumn this year. But something came up – specifically a refusal by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić to obey Washington’s orders and extend anti-Russian sanctions to Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on the 70th anniversary of the victory over fascism. Literally hours after Nikolić announced his intention to attend the VE parade in Moscow, Europe began sending signals to Washington regarding Russia’s efforts to ‘Putinize’ Serbia by exerting undue pressure on Belgrade. Washington saw this as a sign of deepening Russian and Serbian relations, which, from their point of view, was a worrying tendency. So they called on the young prime minister to expedite his visit to Washington to report on what was behind Nikolić’s symbolic gesture, and give guarantees that the historic cultural link that still bonds Russia-Serbia relations will amount to nothing aside from some context for Belgrade’s drift towards Euro-integration. Vučić had to prove, of course, that Washington made the right choice in naming him their “best boy” on the Balkans. So, he made the only move that would be easily understood by the Yanks and frustrate the Russians: in an interview with the Associated Press before his visit, Vučić said that Serbia intends to participate in the US pipeline that will deliver gas to Europe from Azerbaijan, rather than participate in a new project that will bring Russian gas to the Balkans through Turkey. “We are willing to diversify the sources of gas for Serbia, which is also very important for our American friends,” Vučić said. For people who have been following international politics for quite a long time, this confession may have sounded strange, and more so for Russians, but not for me. I have been reporting from different parts of former Yugoslavia since the tragedy of the Bosnian city of Mostar, much of which was razed to the ground in 1993. But the most instructive experience was my assignment to Kosovo six years later. We arrived in Belgrade just in time to witness the impact of NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia, launched in retaliation for Serbia’s refusal to sign a Kosovo peace plan. NATO flew over 35,000 combat missions over Yugoslavia. “More than 20,000 laser or satellite-guided weapons were launched and over 79,000 tons of explosives dropped, including 152 containers with 35,450 cluster bombs, thermo-visual and graphite weapons, which are prohibited under international conventions,” the International Action Center reported. Later, NATO admitted the bombing of civilian targets, justifying it as either “mistakes” or essential to the destruction of the Yugoslav Army. From March 24 to June 11, 1999 at least 1,000 civilians were killed, over 800 have been reported missing and more than 6,000 sustained serious injuries. Many thousands of Yugoslavian “children have been victims of the sprinkle cluster bombs, with delayed effects, and continued to be victimized until all parks, play[ing] fields and open areas have been made safe from the remaining unexploded bombs scattered throughout Yugoslavia,” IAC said. This is not to mention warheads with depleted uranium also tested by NATO on the Serbs. In those less than three months, the UNHCR reported 400,000 refugees. Finally, in the aftermath of the Kosovo War, a column of about 30 Russian armored vehicles carrying 250 Russian troops, who were part of the international peacekeeping force in Bosnia, moved into Serbia and on June 12, 1999 the Russians occupied Pristina International Airport ahead of a NATO deployment. The move was part of a sincere effort to save the Serbs massacred by the hundreds in Kosovo, and it caused a tense stand-off between the NATO contingent and Russian forces over the airport. It was resolved peacefully, although Moscow had to make serious concessions in return for its sympathy to the Serbs. The Russian officers, deployed in Pristina for another four years, would rather take me to dinner at Albanian inns. “Why ignore our Serbian brothers?” I asked. “Wait until you get to know them better,” came the response. When did this idea of Serbian and Russian brotherhood appear? The two countries share the Orthodox faith and a common Slavic culture which has made them traditional allies for ages, and this cultural bond still holds them together. However, examining centuries of Russian and Serbian relations, and especially their ties over the last hundred years, demonstrates the instrumental nature of their relations rather than any primitive cultural compassion. Leading up to and during the two World Wars, Russia served as the guardian of Serbian independence and autonomy. However, while the rhetoric of pan-Slavism may have been used, what Russia was really interested in was strengthening the security of its own borders and preserving the balance of power between the empires, which could be upset with Serbia’s reduced position in Europe. By the way, in peaceful times, between the wars and during the Cold War, relations between Yugoslavia and the USSR were rather tepid. They did cooperate on some issues, but with Belgrade remaining nonaligned. As a matter of fact, even for Soviet tourists heading abroad, Yugoslavia was considered a “capitalist” country. In the 1990s, after the breakup of both the Soviet Union and the Yugoslavian Federation, the idea of Russian and Serbian natural ties resurfaced. In the 1999 crisis, Russia – diplomatically and even militarily – tried to protect Serbia from US and NATO action in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. But these days it is presented to the world as part of Moscow’s nationalist narrative, which is now used to justify Serbia turning its back on the Kremlin in the current crisis. In the wake of Putin’s reaction to the dramatic events in Ukraine, discussions of the dangerous revival of Russian nationalism and the Russian Orthodox Church have come into vogue. Russia’s effort to return to its historically earned place in Europe is now considered nothing less than the revival of the Russian Empire. Nobody seemed to care that in reality Russia’s geopolitical ambitions weren’t leading Putin to influence Serbia, much as it was the case historically. For more than a year, Brussels, by means of the media and politicians, have been trying to persuade Serbia to join the US-initiated sanctions against Russia. Belgrade’s hesitation to take sides in the conflict on the issue of Ukraine, however, didn’t look good from the West. But a recent trend in Serbia’s working relationship with both Russia and the EU indicates that it views modern political intercourse in instrumental rather than ethical terms. In the wake of the Victory Parade in Red Square, the South Stream pipeline debacle, Putin’s visit to Belgrade, and increasing calls for Serbia to support a side in Ukraine, it appears that Serbia is continuing its own tradition of attempting to stand between the East and the West, and between great powers. Serbia seeks to capitalize on all opportunities by simply not working against either Russia or the EU. Serbia initially refused to join the Western sanctions against Russia, but then refused to participate in the Russian pipeline project in Southern Europe. Belgrade has openly stated that good relations with Washington are important for Serbia as their path to the EU. Yes, Russia and Serbia have an ancient fondness for each other, and their cultural similarities drive each state toward friendly relations. But examining Russia-Serbia relations in an instrumental light will lead to fewer misguided attempts to build foreign policy on historical misconceptions. Russia-Serbia relations could be problematic for the EU-oriented future of Serbia. But it’s Serbia’s own people who will determine their choice, rather than any predestined cultural teleology pushing Belgrade toward Brussels.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

Bosnia awaits pope’s message of peace two decades after war (The Irish Times, 4 June 2015)

Bosnians prepare to welcome Pope Francis to a country still scarred by war

A dark-green military helicopter swept low over Sarajevo yesterday, the clatter of its rotor blades bouncing off the stone roofs of the city’s old town, and between minarets and church spires that stretch into the blue sky of a Bosnian summer. “Don’t worry,” said Nenad, a waiter serving Turkish coffee at a busy cafe, smiling. “It’s nothing bad this time – they’re just getting ready for the pope.” Twenty years after Serb forces were besieging and bombing Sarajevo, and bearing down on what was then the little-known town of Srebrenica, Bosnians are preparing to welcome Pope Francis to a capital and a country still scarred by war. He will spend Saturday in Sarajevo, bringing what the Vatican says will be a message of peace and reconciliation, one month before Bosnia and the world mark two decades since some 8,000 Muslims were massacred 130km away at Srebrenica.

Inter-religious dialogue

In a video message released this week, the pope said he was coming to Bosnia “as a fellow messenger of peace . . . to confirm the faith of Catholics, to support ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue, and especially to encourage peaceful co- existence in your country.”

Bosnia is now peaceful, but the country is still struggling to overcome the legacy of a 1992-1995 war that killed more than 100,000 people and displaced about two million. The Dayton agreement that ended fighting in late 1995 divided Bosnia into a Muslim-Croat federation and Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, which are supposed – but often fail – to co-operate on a national level. Corruption, poverty and the cumbersome bureaucracy of the political system compound lingering suspicion between Bosnia’s Muslim majority (46 per cent of the population), Orthodox Serbs (about 38 per cent) and the Catholic Croat minority (15 per cent). Tension between the communities has been cranked up in recent months by a series of police raids on suspected radical Islamists, which have resulted in a number of arrests and warnings that young Bosnians are being recruited by Islamic State. Security will be tight for the pope’s 11-hour stay in Sarajevo, but local and Vatican officials say they have no knowledge of any specific threats to the pontiff’s safety. All major political and religious figures in Bosnia have welcomed the visit of the pope, who is due to meet officials and diplomats, Catholic, Muslim and Orthodox leaders and to say Mass for some 60,000 people at Sarajevo’s Olympic stadium. He will celebrate Mass from a specially made chair, fashioned from walnut by a Muslim wood carver, Edin Hajderovac.

Children’s choir

The pope is also expected to visit a youth centre dedicated to Pope St John Paul II, and to listen to the Superar choir, which brings together children from all Bosnia’s communities and includes some children from Srebrenica who lost relatives in what was Europe’s worst massacre since the second World War. “This choir is a multi-ethnic project of reconciliation . . . Friendships were born here, I hope lifelong ones.” Srebrenica-born Ismar Poric, who heads the choir of 220 children, said recently. “This kind of mix is what we need in Bosnia . . . These children are a model.”