LOCAL PRESS

Dacic: KFOR – guarantee of implementation of Brussels agreement (Radio Serbia/Politika/Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic had talks with the NATO Assistant Secretary General for political affairs and security policy, Ambassador Trasivoulos Stamatopoulos about the improvement of cooperation through the Partnership for Peace Program, as well as the implementation of the Individual Partnership Action Plan between Serbia and NATO. While pointing that the adoption of the IPAP was the most significant qualitative step in the relations of Serbia and NATO since the admission to the Partnership for Peace, Dacic has said that Belgrade is committed to its implementation. He has added that Serbia remains on the position of military neutrality, but recognizes the possibility of the further development of cooperation and has an important role in the preservation of the regional stability. In view of the security situation in this geographical area, Dacic has pledged for the same presence of KFOR in Kosovo and Metohija, while particularly stressing the role of NATO/KFOR as the guarantee of security and the implementation of the Brussels agreement.

Gasic and Stamatopoulos on NATO, Serbia cooperation (Tanjug)

Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic and NATO Assistant Secretary General for political affairs and security policy, Ambassador Trasivoulos Stamatopoulos, assessed on Thursday that the military collaboration based on mechanisms and programs of the Partnership for Peace between Serbia and NATO is satisfactory and of quality, the Defense Ministry stated. Bearing in mind that EU membership is Serbia’s primary goal, Gasic stressed that further cooperation with NATO should reflect the needs of the country to build the capacities necessary for engaging in UN and EU operations through active participation in the Partnership for Peace, the statement reads. At the same time, all these contribute to the development of Common Security and Defense Policy of the EU. Gasic pointed out that active participation in the activities of the Partnership for Peace program represents an optimal frame for the completion of security objectives and advancement of defensive capacities while retaining the proclaimed policy of military neutrality.

Return of Serbs to Kosovo-Metohija, most expensive and least successful in the world (Radio Serbia, by Djuro Malobabic)

The international community must not allow the process of legalizing the looted and usurped property in Kosovo and Metohija to go on unimpeded, while the displaced Serbs and other non-Albanians are forced to integrate in the central Serbia, it was assessed at the conference on the legal assistance to the refugees and displaced persons. The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric has asked for the continuation of all projects of pro bono legal assistance, because, according to him, Pristina is not stimulating the return of the displaced, and he expressed hope that once the Serb judges take the duty and the usurped and destroyed property is restituted, the conditions for the more massive return will be created. At the round table discussion after the completion of the project “Support to the strategy for the internally displaced people, refugees and returnees – legal assistance”, Marko Djuric has reminded that at issue was the project of two and a half years, which was financed by the EU, and it entailed the legal assistance in 5,587 cases, of which 1,856 have been closed, while the rest are in the processing phase. He has pointed to the importance of the further financing of this project, in order to help the displaced people from Kosovo and Metohija, being that 90% of the cases that the project dealt with were about them. According to Djuric, the internally displaced persons had primarily received assistance in the cases of compensation for the destroyed or illegally usurped property, but also about the unpaid wages for the work in the companies in Kosovo and Metohija. “The number of the cases that were taken is huge, but at the same time, the number of people who have found justice in the Kosovo judiciary bodies is very small. More than 34 thousand completely destroyed facilities had been reported, and the process of unpunished destruction is continuing to this day in Kosovo, thus preventing the return. The pseudo-legal processes are even obstructing the restitution, while legalizing the usurpation of the property,” emphasized Djuric. He has added that Serbia will be an ally to the international community and self-governing institutions in Pristina, which are expected to exert strong effort in the upcoming period, in order to establish the multiculturalism, tolerance and inclusion in the province. The Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport has said that the EU financed this project with 2.3 million Euros, aiming to help in solving the problems of the refugees and displaced persons by offering the free legal assistance. “This is the 4th project in a row that we have been realizing since 2008, and the total value of the donations in that sector is over 6 million euro. The legal team had successfully run cases before all courts in Kosovo and Metohija, so in this project only, more than 1800 cases were solved, and since 2008 the EU has helped in solving more than 2400 cases,” Davenport underlined. He has assessed there is still a great need for this type of assistance, since there are still 3,572 unsolved cases, and added that the EU decided to finance another similar project, to start in the second half of this year.

Serbian Commissioner for Refugees and Migrations Vladimir Cucic has pointed that 16 years ago 210 thousand people came from Kosovo and Metohija to Serbia proper, and mentioned the fact that out of 42 thousand Serbs who once lived in Pristina, nowadays there are only 26; in Prizren there is around 20, while in Pec, Urosevac, Djakovica and Vucitrn there no returnees whatsoever. “This is the most expensive and most unsuccessful return in the world, judging by the number of unresolved court proceedings, the amount of usurped property, and the number of attacks,” he assessed. According to Cucic, Serbia gave its best in trying to normalize the relations with Pristina, and even made some painful concessions, all with the goal of providing better life for all citizens of Kosovo and Metohija. However, he added, the lacking effect suits only those who had usurped the rights of those citizens, since Pristina is hindering the implementation of what was agreed long ago. One of the benefactors of the legal assistance Draga Jovanovic, who fled from Pristina in 1999, describes her case, and points that only this year, with the legal assistance of the EU, she has been able to get the right of having her apartment returned, but even after the verdict before the court instances in Kosovo and Metohija, it has not been carried out. “According to the verdict, I can say justice won, but we are still in the limbo and a burden to the state of Serbia,” Jovanovic stated, and noted that since the passing of the verdict she has sent 13 letters to the embassies of the USA and Great Britain in Belgrade and Pristina, as well as to Kosovo officials, but so far without any response on why the court order is not put into practice.

Dacic thanks Kazakhstan for principled position in not recognizing Kosovo (Tanjug)

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic met with Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Alexey Volkov Thursday to discuss development of bilateral relations, with special emphasis on economic cooperation. Dacic thanked Kazakhstan for its principled position in not recognizing the unilateral independence of Kosovo and Metohija, the Serbian Foreign Ministry said in a release. Dacic confirmed visiting Kazakhstan in his capacity as the OSCE Chair and as Foreign Minister in August this year and Serbia’s taking part in EXPO 2017. Minister Dacic has extended invitations to the president and foreign minister of Kazakhstan to visit Serbia, the release said.

REGIONAL PRESS

DF Presidency: As of today, there is no parliamentary majority (Oslobodjenje)

The presidency of the Democratic Front (DF) held a session at which they determined the further steps after it became clear that the SDA-HDZ and DF coalition no longer exists, with the repeated outvoting of the DF ministers. “As of today, there is no parliamentary majority in the Federation of B&H. Prime Minister of the Federation Fadil Novalic does not have the support of the DF. Our ministers will remain in government because of their regular work for some time further. I call on Novalic to initiate the procedure to dismiss our ministers and let them form a new majority,” said Zeljko Komsic, leader of the DF, after the session. When it comes to the parliamentary majority at other levels of government, Komsic added that “things should not change where they are functioning”. “We think that things are functioning there, and we shouldn’t touch it. If the partners think that we will bother them there, that is okay. We are not married such that we can’t split up, even if things differ,” said Komsic. “Criminal charges will follow, and this is our obligation, because the law was broken,” said Komsic in regard to the adoption of the regulation of the method of appointment in public enterprises, which Democratic Front ministers sharply opposed and were then outvoted by ministers from the SDA and HDZ.

Dragan Covic: Partnership with SDA, DF is over (Oslobodjenje/Srna)

Dragan Covic, President of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) B&H, said that for him, the HDZ B&H-SDA-Democratic Front partnership is over. “I get the sense that someone wants to play a floating mine, which is constantly on a mission to break up what we’re trying to do. I think that this is the end of the partnership of these three parties,” said Covic. He told Federal TV that, in his opinion, the FB&H government has not been working for two and a half months since it was established. “I would like to know really what the DF’s plan is and what the statements they are making mean,” said Covic. The HDZ B&H in general is not interested in the decision made by the Democratic Front (DF) on leaving the coalition and denying the trust to the FB&H government in the Federation parliament, Deputy President of the HDZ B&H Borjana Kristo told Srna. “I did not follow and I’m not interested in the views of the party that changes its opinion on daily basis,” said Kristo. Asked whether the HDZ B&H would look for new partners in the Federation of B&H, Kristo stated: “Why would we look for partners? The election results are clear.” She said that the instability, greater than it is at the moment, cannot be caused over the possible decisions of the DF. President of the DF, Zeljko Komsic, stated that the party is leaving the coalition in the B&H Federation and the government of Fadil Novalic no longer has a parliamentary majority. The DF has taken such decision after the SDA and the HDZ outvoted the DF in yesterday’s session of the FB&H government, and passed the regulation by which the dismissals and appointments in the public enterprises are exempted from the line ministries and are transferred to the government. Actually, in the background of the story on the adoption of this regulation lies a fight between the coalition partners over the control of public companies, primarily over two power companies, which have so far been within the competence of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, headed by Reuf Bajrovic (DF). Zeljko Komsic said that PM Fadil Novalic no longer has the support of the DF and, as far as he is concerned, the parliamentary majority in FB&H no longer exists.

Recognize RS ministries’ positions in preliminary drafts (Srna)

Republika Srpska (RS) government has concluded that the positions and suggestions of the relevant ministries in the RS government must be fully recognized during development of the final version of the preliminary draft reform agenda for B&H. Reviewing this document, the government has pointed out that prior to signing the document, it is necessary that the B&H Parliamentary Assembly reconsiders and assesses the decision and ratification of the Agreement on loan for business environment development policy between B&H and the World Bank, given the fact that the underlying loan funds are intended to be used to support the reform processes that the governments of the RS and the Federation of B&H have already implemented. The government has stated this is a prerequisite to unblock funds belonging to the budget, i.e. the citizens of RS, in the amount of BAM 35 million, based on the business registration reform implemented by the government. The government has concluded in a session that the establishment of a new working group to create a coordination mechanism without prior statement of the Council of Ministers on a previous Proposal, still to date, made by the Working Group established by the Council of Ministers in October 2012, is unacceptable. The government has noted that the existing proposal on coordination mechanism was supported by the RS government and Assembly on two occasions. Also, the RS government requests the Council of Ministers to inform it on the reasons for the possible rejection of the current proposal on coordination mechanism in the field of European integration of B&H. The RS Government considers unilateral action of the Council of Ministers unacceptable when it comes to development of integration program and repeats its commitment to a partnership atmosphere with all levels of government in B&H, works to meet the requirements of the European agenda and calls on the partnership, agreement, consultations and cooperation regarding the next steps to be taken on European path.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbian PM Promises ‘Justice’ In 1999 Slaying Of U.S. Brothers (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, by Carl Schreck, 4 June 2015)

WASHINGTON — Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic promised to deliver “justice” in the case of three U.S. citizens whose bodies were discovered in a mass grave in eastern Serbia in 2001 after they went to Kosovo to fight alongside ethnic Albanian rebels against Belgrade’s rule.

Vucic said on June 4 that Serbia “will do its job” to bring resolution to the 1999 slaying of Albanian-American brothers Illy, Mehmet, and Agron Bytyqi, a case that has remained a sticking point in U.S.-Serbian ties as Belgrade pushes for greater integration with the West.

“We’ll deliver on that issue, not because it’s a huge bilateral issue for us and [the] U.S., or a big stumbling block in front of us, but because that would be a very just solution,” Vucic said following a prepared speech in Washington. “Don’t worry, we’ll resolve it, and I think that it’s our job, it’s our duty to do it,” Vucic said, adding that a resolution “would happen very soon or much sooner than anybody might expect.” The Bytyqi were all in their 20s when they traveled to Kosovo from New York in 1999 to join Kosovo rebels fighting the forces of then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. They were arrested after crossing an administrative border into Serbia on June 23, 1999, two weeks after hostilities in the Kosovo War had ended. They were later shot dead execution-style while in the custody of a special Serbian police unit. Less than a year after Milosevic’s ouster in October 2000, the brothers’ remains were discovered in a mass grave on the site of a special-police-unit base in the village of Petrovo Selo in eastern Serbia. No one has been convicted in connection with the slaying of the Chicago-born brothers. In 2012, a Serbian war crime court acquitted two former policemen of involvement in their deaths, citing insufficient evidence to convict. U.S. officials have continued to pressure Belgrade over the case, including during talks with Vucic this week that also addressed Serbia’s EU aspirations and reducing its reliance on Russian gas, which the West accuses Moscow of using to exert political pressure throughout Europe. A State Department official told RFE/RL that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken “pressed for resolution of the Bytyqi brothers case” during a June 4 meeting with the Serbian prime minister. U.S. Representative Eliot Engel of New York, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told RFE/RL that he and Vucic discussed the case during a “very productive meeting” on June 4. “The prime minister and I covered a wide range of shared concerns, including the murder of the three Bytyqi brothers in Serbia,” Engel said in an e-mailed comment. “I look forward to seeing justice for this American family that’s waited nearly two decades for closure.” Engel is a co-sponsor of a new resolution introduced in the House last week calling for those responsible for the Bytyqi brothers’ deaths to be brought to justice, and for Serbian authorities’ progress in the case to “remain a significant factor” in Belgrade’s ties with Washington. Fatos Bytyqi, a brother of the slain men, has accused Goran Radosavljevic, a former senior Serbian police official who served as a commander at the camp where the three men were held, of ordering their killings. Radosavljevic, a political ally of Vucic, has denied involvement in the slayings.

Fatos Bytyqi told RFE/RL’s Balkan Service this week that the case can be solved once Vucic gives the “green light.” “Authorities in Serbia know who the murderers of my brothers are,” he said.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Balkan Service, AP, AFP, and B92.net

Serbia Reaffirms Neutrality Regarding NATO Membership – PM Vucic (Sputnik, 5 June 2015) 

Serbia has affirmed its policy of military neutrality regarding NATO membership, but remains a participant of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program for bilateral cooperation.

WASHINGTON — Serbia has no intentions to join NATO in the near future, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said in a speech at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC on Thursday. “We have no aspirations to join NATO so far, and I don’t know what will happen in the future,” Vucic stated. Serbia has affirmed its policy of military neutrality regarding NATO membership, but remains a participant of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program for bilateral cooperation. The people of Serbia “need to be very cautious” on the issue of NATO membership “because of our past, because of 1999,” Vucic said of NATO’s bombing campaign in Serbia as well as Montenegro. “You need time, we need time,” he added. Serbia is currently seeking accession to the European Union, but has taken a firm stance against joining NATO. In January 2015, Serbia deepened cooperation with NATO through an Individual Partnership Action Plan.

On Thursday, NATO’s Ambassador Thrasyvoulos Terry Stamatopoulos visited Serbia at the invitation of the Serbian Ministry of Defense.

Macedonia Mischief (The Weekly Standard, by Stephen Schwartz, 5 June 2015)

Nothing good ever came from rivalry and hatred.

Skopje

In Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell described, on his return to Barcelona after serving in the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, “an unmistakable and horrible feeling of political rivalry and hatred” in the Catalan capital. During a late-May visit to Skopje, capital of the independent Republic of Macedonia, something similar was in the air.  In April and May, Macedonia was in upheaval. Forty armed men raided a police station in Gošince, on the border with Kosovo, April 21. That event was blamed on a marginal group calling itself the National Liberation Army, organized from among Macedonia’s Albanian minority. On May 8, in the northern city of Kumanovo, an outbreak of fighting left 8 police officers and 14 rebels dead. Macedonian authorities arrested 30 in the affair—18 from Kosovo, 2 Macedonian Albanians living in Kosovo, 9 citizens of Macedonia, and 1 Albanian citizen living in Germany. The complex nature of the Republic of Macedonia makes the convolutions of the Spanish Civil War look simple by comparison. The country is often called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) because Greece asserts that the name “Macedonia” can only be applied to the territory Athens governs south of the previous Yugoslav-Greek frontier. Although their common border is extensive, Greece boycotts Macedonia. The Republic of Macedonia replies to this gesture of contempt by claiming Alexander the Great, who came from ancient Macedonia and lived in the fourth century b.c., as its historical ancestor—notwithstanding the fact that most present-day citizens of the Republic of Macedonia are Slavs whose forebears did not appear in the region until at least the sixth century a.d. Alexander the Great was definitely not a Slav. Neither are a large minority of the citizens of independent Macedonia. While the population is estimated at 2 million, no census figures have been released since 2002, when Slavs made up 64 percent, Albanians 25 percent, and others (Turks, Roma, Serbs, and unspecified) 11 percent. Albanians claim their share is closer to half. Slav Macedonians are mainly Orthodox Christians, though some are Muslims. Macedonian Albanians are mostly Muslims, with significant Catholic and Orthodox minorities. Mother Teresa was an Albanian Catholic born in Skopje, although the Slav authorities try to claim her along with Alexander. The mischief in Macedonia is mysterious. The recent outbreaks of violence occurred under the government of Nikola Gruevski, leader of a formerly leftist, now ultranationalist party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party of Macedonian National Unity. Gruevski rules in tandem with a previously insurgent Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration. Gruevski has faced a growing challenge since Zoran Zaev, the Slav leader of the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, an ex-Communist party, accused the prime minister of wiretapping tens of thousands of members of the country’s political and intellectual elite—and released the transcripts. Gruevski had already been branded as profoundly corrupt. Some veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) who are now affiliated with the militantly nationalist Alliance for the Advancement of Kosovo (AAK) were involved in the Kumanovo clash. A KLA combatant and AAK representative, Xhafer Zymberi, was reported killed. The AAK, an opposition party in Kosovo, expressed its dismay at the Kumanovo incident. AAK leader Ramush Haradinaj fretted that Albanians throughout the Balkans had never been in a better position than now. “Albania is in NATO, Kosovo is independent, and Albanians in Macedonia have progressed,” he told a Kosovo radio station on May 11. Numerous Macedonians believe that Gruevski was responsible for the April and May bloodshed. His motive, they claim, was to divert attention from the popular discontent with his government. Blogger Ivana Jordanovska described the chaos on the night of May 8 as follows: The police forces of Macedonia entered Divo Naselje, a neighborhood of .  .  . Kumanovo. According to official sources, the police had information about a terrorist group hiding in some of the houses in this ethnically mixed part of town that was planning to carry out attacks on state institutions. Throughout the night and following day, sounds of grenades and gunshots could be heard, while several buildings were burned and civilians evacuated. As I drove into the city from the airport, there was one thought I couldn’t get rid of: Who would benefit from this crisis? .  .  . The narrative being spread made no sense. .  .  . The terrorists could not have expected support from the local Albanians. Jordanovska noted that if, as the Macedonian police declared, foreign terrorists had infiltrated the country and engaged in a skirmish, “the government would have to declare a state of emergency. A state of emergency allows for special measures, such as introducing a curfew or revoking the right to protest. And what’s been happening in Macedonia lately? Protests.” Mobilizations against Gruevski did not begin with the wiretapping controversy. His critics charged him with fraud in last year’s national elections. The anti-Gruevski forces have targeted, additionally, an unpopular education law, a new tax regulation, reform of secondary schools, the imprisonment of a journalist, and the death of a young female denied medical attention because of bu-reaucracy. But most crucially, a Gruevski supporter, Martin Neskosi, was beaten to death by state police after Gruevski’s electoral victory in 2011. The wiretapped conversations released by Zaev include discussions of the Neskosi case by Gruevski and his closest cronies. Bigger protest rallies began on May 5 and culminated on May 17. Thousands of Slav Macedonians, Albanians, and Macedonian Turks assembled to call for Gruevski’s removal. The next day, a pro-Gruevski countereffort brought together Slav Macedonians and Serbs. Officials loyal to Gruevski blamed the Kumanovo carnage on Kosovo. Kosovo leaders responded by calling for a “credible and transparent” investigation of the massacre. With the positive identification of 18 Kosovar Albanians involved in the assault, Kosovo police raided their homes in search of evidence. In the Kosovo journal of record, Koha Ditore (Daily Times), the respected commentator Enver Robelli demanded to know “who are these people, these Albanians who gave themselves a mandate to fight?” Robelli called on Albanians in Macedonia to gain their legitimate rights while removing Albanian criminals from politics. Alternating between fantastic conspiracy theories, Serbian sources claim that “the West” supports an attempt to create a “Greater Albania” uniting Albania proper, Kosovo, and Albanian ethnic areas of Macedonia, south Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. Serbian president Tomislav Nikolic, during a visit to Italy, invoked this specter. Meanwhile, a frenzied Serbian academic, Ljubodrag Dimic, argued that “Greater Albania” is an Islamic State (ISIS) project, supposedly aimed at holy war against Balkan Christians, with the purported complicity of Catholic Croatia. Further, the Kumanovo tragedy coincided with the indictment of 32 people by the Kosovo authorities for participation in and recruitment to ISIS forces in Syria and Iraq. Under a recent Kosovo law, anybody convicted of fighting abroad faces a prison sentence of up to 15 years. Kosovo officials say more than 200 people from the republic have joined ISIS, with at least 40 already killed. Kosovo deputy foreign minister Petrit Selimi has specified that 50-60 are still serving the terrorist entity. Dimic spun his fantasies to include an attempt to block a new Russian energy pipeline, the Turkish Stream, from passing through Macedonia. But with high mountains, that country would be impenetrable for such an engineering project. The Serbian “expert” even foresaw a Chinese scheme to build a high-speed railway that would link the Balkans to the Far East. Chaos has been revived in the region, where the hand of Vladimir Putin is detected even beyond talk about the Turkish Stream pipeline. On May 15, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov visited Belgrade, capital of Serbia, to support the gas pipeline project through Turkey, Greece, and Serbia, while “helping stabilize” Macedonia. To anyone walking through Skopje, a city of at least half a million, the physical evidence of mischief is eloquent. The city has only a façade of modernity—in contrast with Pristina, the Kosovo capital, where economic progress is real. In Skopje, new bridges across the Vardar River, which formerly divided the Slav and Albanian districts, empty into giant plazas that have pushed Albanian shopkeepers and cafe owners further northeast. The city has been transformed in pseudo-Roman, neofascist style, with huge statues to the heroes of an invented history, beginning with Alexander. A Holocaust Museum has opened, although the members of the ancient Jewish community of Macedonia were handed over to the Nazis during World War II. But Slav Macedonia has a short memory: In the main square, stickers are for sale depicting Tito, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and Hitler.

Stephen Schwartz is a frequent contributor to The Weekly Standard.