LOCAL PRESS

The Turks claim that they got “Gazivode” by purchasing the KEK (Politika)

No one of the officials in Belgrade would comment on whether Pristina will, at tomorrow’s continuation of the EU-facilitated dialogue in Brussels, really challenge the right of Belgrade to give the Community of Serb Municipalities the right to govern the hydro-power plant at Lake “Gazivode” and are the Kosovo provisional institutions going to remain adamant that the whole system should belong to them. According to the Serbian Government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija, the hydro system Iber-Lepenc, of which “Gazivode” Hydropower plant is a part, is not the subject of any agreement, not even of those in the energy sector, while not one act, which was agreed in the Brussels-based process of dialogue, mentions the word Gazivode. The Serbian government is ready to talk about this issue in a further dialogue, since the issue of property in the province of Kosovo is essential to Serbia. Belgrade is not going to accept the tricks like the suggestion that the Serbia should give the right to administer the plant to Pristina and resolve the property issue at a later stage.

By nature of the things, those who are making the future Community of Serb Municipalities are also interested in this issue, as it must play an active role in decision making and managing of the hydro system, states the Office for Kosovo and Metohija. Pristina, on the other hand, insists that the lake belongs solely to the interim Kosovo provincial institutions due to the fact that the local energy network “KEK” has been recently sold to a Turkish company, calming that the Serbian lake and its substations belong, to this company.  The new owner of KEK stressed that it have bought and paid for Gazivode as a part of the package when buying KEK and they are now demanding for full ownership over the Gazivode Hydro system.

Why is support of Serbia in the OSCE PA important to Russia (Politika)

Russian parliamentarians are proposing two resolutions at the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, referring to the prevention and elimination of Nazism and the abolition of sanctions against the parliamentarians.

When in January, it was announced that Russia is going to suspend its participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) by the end of the year, because of PACE’s decision to revoke the voting rights of Russian parliamentarians, the head of the Russian delegation Aleksei Puskov said that because of this, the role of other regional organizations in Europe is growing, such as one of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, where Russia has membership and which is not instituting sanctions against Russian parliamentarians. “We intend to focus on the OSCE PA,” said Puskov, who is the chair of the Russian Duma Foreign Affairs Committee. In this capacity, he visited Belgrade last week, putting in motion what was announced.

From the Serbian counterparts in the OSCE PA he has requested support for the two drafts of this resolution, which the Russian parliamentarians are going to submit at the next session, and which relates to the prevention of Nazism and the abolition of sanctions against parliamentarians in intergovernmental organizations. At the talks with the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Assembly of Serbia, Puskov pointed out that the cooperation between Serbia and Russia is very intensive at all levels, highly praising parliamentary contacts and cooperation, especially bearing in mind the reduction of Russian parliamentary contacts with their colleagues in Europe.

Member of the Committee for Foreign Affairs and head of the Serbian delegation to the OSCE PA, Dijana Vukomanovic, though, pointed out that four colleagues from the Serbian delegation in this organization are going to vote on draft resolution according to their conscience and political convictions.

This statement sounded a little bit “cold” towards the Russians, especially since they have also promised to support (at least “morally”, since they now have no right to vote) the election of Serbia’s candidate for the position on the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Svetislava Bulajic

Diana Vukmanovic explains that she just presented the principle of the OSCE PA: every parliamentarian has the right to vote as they choose. Each expresses a personal point of view and votes according to their conscience, in accordance to their ideological and political affiliation. “Our delegation, in most cases, had a unanimous position. As head of the delegation, I cannot impose any position, since I can only speak for myself. I do not know if others have read the Russian resolutions (which are actually supplements to the resolution, which are going to be added to the existing resolutions, if adopted).  I, as the head of the delegation, am going to advocate, when talking with my colleagues, that the position stays in the line with the state policy, which means taking a neutral stance and not join the sanctions against Russia at this point, “she said, and pointed out that, within the OSCE, there and no attempts for suppressing participation or the right to vote, of the members of the Russian delegation.

EP rapporteur for B&H Dan Preda: No need for Srebrenica resolution (Blic)

European Parliament Rapporteur for Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) Christian Dan Preda said that he is against the adoption of the Srebrenica resolution in the European Parliament (EP). He believes that “the commemoration of the victims is the best way to promote reconciliation and understanding”. He recalled that, a few weeks ago, the EP adopted his report on B&H in which they had already stated all the most important observations about the events in the country.

“I hope we will only have a debate in the EP to remember the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, to send a message that it must not happen again,” said Dan Preda for Blic daily.

Dan Preda believes that only by paying tribute, opportunity will not be given to rising tensions, and that “instead of big words and long texts, the two sides should exchange warm words “sorry” and “forgive me.”

Gojkovic: Serbia ready to face challenges of EU membership (Tanjug)

Serbia is strategically committed to joining the EU and ready to face challenges implied by that membership, Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic said on Monday. Addressing participants of the Third Conference of Danube Parliamentarians, Gojkovic underscored that Serbia had prepared itself very well for the start of accession negotiations, chapter by chapter. She noted that the European Commission’s report on the progress that Serbia achieved in 2014 was the most positive so far, and that screening processes for all negotiation chapters passed off very successfully, and voiced the hope that the negotiations on initial chapters would start by the end of the year. Gojkovic placed a special emphasis on the makeup of the current legislature which reflects the broadest possible support for Serbia’s membership in the EU, which is yet another indicator of the firm commitment to the reforms whose implementation, along with economic development, would speed up the country’s EU integration process. The conference has brought together parliamentary delegations from the Danube region- Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, and the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg from Germany, Hungary, Moldova, the parliament and Senate of Romania, and the parliaments of Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine.

Serbia officially requests Oric’s extradition (B92)

Serbia has officially requested the extradition of the former commander of the Muslim army in Srebrenica, Naser Oric. Oric was arrested as he was traveling to Switzerland where he was to attend the marking of the 20th anniversary of the crime in Srebrenica. Serbian Interpol office issued a warrant for his arrest in February 2014 because the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution suspects he committed crimes against Serbs in the Drina valley in 1992. It is suspected that Oric with four other suspects on July 12, 1992 committed war crimes against civilians in Zalazje, Donji Potocari, the municipality of Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Naser Oric and four other suspects are charged with killing nine civilians of Serb nationality on that occasion. In addition to Oric, international arrest warrants has been issued for wartime chief of the police station in Srebrenica Hakija Meholjic and three other Bosniaks. Oric claims that it “cannot be a coincidence” and that “Serbs, Serbian lobbies and services are not to blame, but instead the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

REGIONAL PRESS

Democratic Front tries to form a new majority (Nezavisne)

Democratic Front (DF) is, according to media reports, trying to form a new parliamentary majority in the Entity Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H), after the current governing coalition with the SDA and HDZ collapsed.  The SDA and HDZ are also trying to find new partners. According to media, the DF President Zeljko Komsic held talks with Bosnian Patriotic Party, whose leader is former general Sefer Halilovic. Kosmic also announced the talks with the Party for B&H (SZB&H), which was earlier offered the chance to join the SDA and HDZ in a new FB&H Government. Emir Suljagic, member of the DF Presidency, told Nezavisne Novine that “everyone has a right to try to form an Entity-level Government.” He could not confirm nor deny it the DF is trying to do just that. Sasa Magazinovic, member of the SDP Presidency, said that this party has decided to stay in the opposition, and it is not negotiating with anyone.

23 children from B&H taken to Syria battlefield (Dnevni Avaz)

According to new data by State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), there are currently 23 children from Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) on the Syrian battlefields. SIPA spokesperson Kristina Jozic said that this agency has information that up to 200 people from B&H were, or still are, on the battlefields in the Middle East. Foreign organizations estimate that there are around 330 B&H citizens who are fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“According to our information, there are currently 70 to 80 B&H citizens who participate in the battle, while a certain number of them returned to B&H. There are also 33 women and 23 children among them”, Jozic told Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz. As an example of children being taken to the warzone, Avaz reminded of the case of Ismar Mesinovic, originating from Tesanj, who lived in Italy. He told his wife that they would take their son Ismail Davud on a several-day trip to B&H, but they left for Syria. Mesinovic was later killed in the battle, and the child was left with the members of Islamic State (IS). The child’s whereabouts are unknown since then.

Croats and Serbs always on side of good, PM says at Anti-Fascist Struggle Day ceremony (Hina, Nezavisne)

Croats have always been on the right side – the side of good, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said in the Brezovica forest near Sisak on Monday, addressing a commemoration on the occasion of the Anti-Fascist Struggle Day and the 74th anniversary of the formation of the 1st Sisak Partisan unit.

Addressing the gathering, Milanovic said that the kind of anti-fascist uprising like the one at Brezovica on 22 June 1941 was unique, having happened even before the Communist Party of Yugoslavia organized an uprising. The 1st Sisak Partisan unit was mostly made up of Croats, as well as of a large number of Serbs. It was owing to the unity of Croatian Communists and the Serb people that the anti-fascist Partisan movement became a massive, people’s movement in the fight for freedom, said Milanovic. “That is Croatia’s history, we must look at it with our eyes open and discuss it openly, we must not indoctrinate our children and youth but teach them to think and ask questions,” said the PM. He added that these were very important things that made it possible for Croatia at the end of World War II to end up not on the side of the winners, but on the right side.

“Good had to beat evil and Croatians have always been on the right side, on the side of good, which naturally does not mean that they are born better than others because they are not. But it is a fact that they chose the more difficult path both in 1941 and in 1991. Croatia’s path has been the more difficult one in the last 100 years and everything we have achieved we have achieved on our own, with nobody cutting us any slack, and we are entitled to that. That is our justice and the Partisan movement had a historically invaluable role in that,” said Milanovic. He added that it had taken Croatians a lot of time to learn the basic lesson of history and coexistence – to live together, share the same destiny, “that this is a state of the Croatian people where all minorities, including the largest, Serb minority, have all rights, that they respect, love and build that state.”

“That this is our state, not the one from 1941. That was never our state,” he stressed.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Kosovo Pays Dear for Logjam Over Phone Code (BIRN, Una Hajdar)

The continued inability of Pristina and Belgrade to agree on a separate country dialing code for Kosovo is costing Kosovo a good deal of money

Kosovo’s inability to obtain its own international telephone prefix has cost it around 65 million euro so far, as it remains obliged to pay companies in Monaco and Slovenia to borrow use of their country codes. “Owing to the lack of a telephone code, the Post and Telecom of Kosovo, PTK, has had to pay Monaco Telecom around 48 million euro for the cellphone code, just for the numeration tax,” Arsim Bilalli, of the PTK, said. “An additional 17 million is spent yearly on technical assistance, traffic costs, roaming, signalization and top-up cards,” Halili added, bringing the total cost up to around 65 million. Monaco Telecom has been a mobile provider for Kosovo since the 1999 conflict. The network started up during the UN administration of Kosovo and continues to this day. Every time someone calls a Vala cellphone number internationally, they use +377, the dialing code of Moncao. Vala is managed by the government-owned PTK. Slovenian Telecom is the second mobile operator in the country. Kosovars with an IPKO network phone thus use +386, Slovenia’s dialing code. Under an agreement reached on September 8, 2013, Kosovo was supposed to be allocated its own three-digit code from the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, by January 2015. According to this agreement, a full license for fixed telecommunications would be issued to a subsidiary of a Serbian company, and for all operators to use the dialing the code.

Earlier this week, Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue and the head of the Kosovo technical teams in Brussels, Edita Tahiri, said Kosovo would be receiving its own country code, +383, by the end of the year. According to Tahiri, Austria would apply for Kosovo’s code at the ITU.

But the head of the Serbian Government’s Office for Kosovo, Marko Djuric, has said this is impossible without Serbia’s consent. “Kosovo cannot get an international dialing number without Serbia’s consent, according to the rules of the ITU. The ITU does not recognize Kosovo as a separate entity outside Serbia,” Djuric asserted. It remains unclear therefore when a final agreement will be reached. Telekom Srbije has only limited coverage in Kosovo, with its distributors functioning only in Serbian-majority areas and enclaves.

Macedonia Government Is Blamed for Wiretapping Scandal (New York Times, Joanna Berendtjune)

WARSAW — The national security service, acting on orders from Macedonia’s conservative and increasingly authoritarian government, was behind the wiretapping scandal that has the small nation on the edge of cracking, a new report says.

The release of the document on Friday by the European Commission followed another round of unsuccessful talks in the capital, Skopje, aimed at defusing the crisis, one of the biggest the country of two million has faced since gaining independence in 1991. Four political leaders, along with the ambassadors of the European Union and United States, failed on Friday to reach an agreement on a transitional government that would prepare the country for snap elections in April next year.

“It sounds ridiculous that the political elite of a developed European country lacks the moral integrity so much that it needs an intervention from the E.U. and the U.S. to solve its own problems,” Albert Musliu from the local Helsinki Committee, a human rights group, said in an interview on Sunday. “But unfortunately, it’s true.” Still, the negotiators — Nikola Gruevski, who has been prime minister since 2006; Zoran Zaev of the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia; and the leaders of two smaller parties representing the country’s Albanian minority — agreed to carry out, without delay, the changes pushed by Johannes Hahn, a European Union commissioner. “There is no room for compromise now,” Mr. Musliu said. “All political leaders need to act as swiftly as possible to restore the trust of the society to public institutions that has been reduced to a minimum in recent months.” The report, the results of an investigation into 670,000 illegally recorded conversations from more than 20,000 telephone numbers, exposed the creaky democratic structure in Macedonia, which is closely watched by Western governments because it is at the crossroads of the Balkans. According to the document, prepared by independent experts, the government under Mr. Gruevski misused national security services “to control top officials in the public administration, prosecutors, judges and political opponents.”

The report also points to the “apparent direct involvement of senior government and party officials in electoral fraud, corruption, abuse of power and authority, conflict of interest, blackmail, extortion, criminal damage,” as well as “unacceptable political interference in the nomination/appointment of judges.” Mr. Gruevski, who remained silent for 24 hours after the revelations, was far from apologetic when he spoke at an anniversary celebration for his party on Saturday evening. He accused an unnamed organization, probably a foreign intelligence service, of having paid “a lot of money to some people who can make numerous wiretapped recordings” with the aim of “brutally destroying” his party and “introducing fear among the people.”

“But instead of succeeding in that, they will destroy themselves, entering into the trap of early elections in which we will win,” Mr. Gruevski said. Jabir Deralla, the founder and president of Civil, a human rights organization in Macedonia, described the speech as “explosive, threatening and populist.” “Gruevski has led a government in an extremely criminal manner,” Mr. Deralla said in an interview on Sunday. “The wiretapped conversations reveal crimes for which, in a normal country, he and many members of his government would have been sent to prison for quite many years.” The deepening crisis has caused not only broad frustration, with recent protests attended by tens of thousands of Macedonians turning increasingly violent, but is damaging for Macedonia’s aspirations to join the European Union and NATO. According to news reports, Mr. Gruevski is ready to accept any solution, including the creation of a transitional government, as long as he remains in power. “Every day is critical,” Mr. Deralla said. “And Gruevski’s machinery knows that and works quite diligently to remain in power.” But Mr. Zaev said in an interview with a television station on Thursday that the opposition was determined to see a transitional government without Mr. Gruevski’s influence. If the prime minister does not announce his resignation by the end of this month, the opposition, Mr. Zaev said, would consider the “radicalization” of protest actions.

Bosnian Serb Leader Puts Hopes in Russian Loan (BIRN, Katarina Panic and Srecko Latal)

The president of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity hopes a Russian loan can save Republika Srpska from an imminent liquidity crisis, but concerns have been raised over the economic and political cost

The Republika Srpska government and Russian officials are to start working on Monday on technical details of a loan which Moscow has pledged to provide to Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, its President Milorad Dodik has told media. “There is complete confidence that Russia will help us financially,” Dodik said on Sunday after his return from the International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg.  Dodik’s pledge of Russian financial support comes as Republika Srpska, and the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, faces an imminent liquidity crisis and growing social pressure. Yet many local and international officials fear that the Russian loan and its conditions – if it is ever delivered – could make the situation even worse. The entire country is facing dire economic and social situation as a result of a prolonged political crisis which has halted all foreign investments and blocked financial support from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the EU. The IMF has offered a new programme, which would provide Bosnia with additional money from September, but under the condition that both the country’s entities adopt an unpopular labour law by the end of June. Without the new IMF funding, budgets on almost all levels will dry up as of September, government officials have told BIRN. The RS government has been working on some alternative options including the loan from Russia, which Dodik has been trying to secure for more than a year. Dodik raised this issue again during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Saint Petersburg on Friday. An RS government official told BIRN on Friday that Russia may be willing to provide a loan of up to 700 million euro, but with commercial interest rates and collateral guarantees, most likely in the form of control over the entity’s power company.

“Without a complete overhaul of the RS administration, economy and public services, this money would be spent quickly and we would soon not be able to repay it,” the official said.

Some other local and international officials also expressed their concern that the Russian loan would significantly increase Moscow’s presence in Bosnia, and would place the Kremlin in a position to effectively control the RS government. The RS government has also been contemplating increasing electricity prices to raise money, but that initiative met angry objections from the public, including many officials who are a part of the ruling coalition led by Dodik’s Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD. RS government officials on Friday met representatives of the RS power company, Elektroprivreda RS, the RS Regulatory Commission for Energy and representatives of the local business community to discuss the issue, but it is believed that no agreement was reached.  Later on Friday, RS Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic said the government would support the increase of electricity prices by up to four per cent, but stressed that the decision was the responsibility of the Regulatory Commission for Energy.

Ljubo Glamocic from the Regulatory Commission told media on Friday that a decision has already been made to increase the price of electricity by 8.76 per cent from July 1 – a statement that triggered a new wave of criticism over the weekend. “We will use every possible measure to prevent the increase in electricity prices,” Marko Pavic, leader of the Democratic People’s Union, DNS, which is also a part of the ruling political bloc in RS, told journalists in Banja Luka on Saturday. Pavic said the DNS will seek the dismissal of the RS Regulatory Commission for Energy.

“They should also have included ethical elements in their decision-making process. In this time of crisis they have made a poor assessment that electricity prices can be increased,” Pavic said.

Pavic also said that he will demand that the RS government order its representative in the RS power company to block the price increase. The final decision on the price increase depends on the RS power company but it they finally decides to raise prices, he said the DNS will seek dismissal of its management as well. RS Trade Unions also strongly criticized the government’s plan to increase electricity prices. “Any electricity price increase would complicate the difficult economic situation in Republika Srpska… As a consequence, all other costs would grow. It is unacceptable,” the RS Trade Union Association said in a statement on Saturday. The opposition bloc Union for Change announced last week that it will call for a special session of the RS National Assembly to discuss the price of electricity and the situation in the RS power company. Elektroprivreda RS officials have said a price increase is necessary to maintain stable supplies to the entire entity.

Prosecutors reopen case against Mladic to hear witnesses testify about mass grave (AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Prosecutors reopened their case Monday against former Bosnian Serb military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal to present new evidence gleaned from a mass grave discovered in Bosnia in 2013. More than 400 bodies have been recovered from the grave in Tomasica. Prosecutors say evidence gathered there demonstrates the involvement of Bosnian Serb forces under Mladic’s command in the murder and burial of non-Serbs in the Prijedor region early in the country’s 1992-95 war. Mladic, whose trial started in 2012, was in court for Monday’s hearing but did not speak. He is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his alleged role orchestrating atrocities by Bosnian Serb forces. If convicted, the 73-year-old faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Mladic insists he is innocent and claims his wartime actions were to protect Serbs in Bosnia. It was not immediately clear what evidence prosecutors were presenting to the three-judge panel. The first witness called by prosecutors testified mostly in closed session. The witness’s identity also was withheld from the public. It is unusual for the tribunal to re-open a case. Prosecutors finished presenting their evidence in February 2014 and Mladic began laying out his defence three months later. Judges allowed prosecutors to re-open their case because evidence from the Tomasica grave had not been fully analyzed at the time they closed their case. The hundreds of people buried in Tomasica were Bosnian Muslims and Croats killed in 1992 in the Prijedor region of northwest Bosnia as Serb forces attempted to carve out an ethnically pure state that was to include parts of Bosnia and Croatia. Some 10,000 Bosnians who went missing during the war still have not been found.

Mladic’s trial is one of the last still underway at the UN court. Judges are considering their verdicts against his former political master, Radovan Karadzic, who also faces genocide and other charges for allegedly masterminding Serb crimes.