LOCAL PRESS

Ahead of talks, PM “not happy about violation of agreements” (RTS, Beta)

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic says that “Belgrade is going to Brussels to continue dialogue with Pristina in good faith,” and hopes for solutions. According to the Beta agency, Vucic was, however, noted that “not everything depends only on Belgrade.” “We are going to Brussels in good faith, we hope for solutions, but whether they will happen does not always depend on us,” Vucic told journalists in Ruma, RTS has been quoted as reporting. He added that “compromises are necessary during negotiations, but the other side must also understand that.” “I’m not happy about the fact they have violated all agreements, even those that we reached a week ago, not to discuss individual agreements in public,” said Vucic. He added that he was “disappointed that no decision was made on the establishment of a special court for crimes committed by the KLA.” Vucic will be joined in today’s EU-facilitated negotiations with Pristina by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and head of the Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric.

Serbia urges UN to establish court for KLA crimes (Novosti, Tanjug)

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dacic, after the news that Pristina refused to condemn the crimes against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, told Novosti daily. “Serbia will very soon ask the UN Security Council to establish the international tribunal for crimes committed on the territory of Kosovo, which could be located in The Hague. In order to do this, we expect the support of Russia, but also of the United States and other permanent members of the Security Council” said the Foreign Minister after the failure to adopt legal amendments that should lead to the formation of a special court for war crimes, at the session of the Kosovo Assembly held on Friday. Dacic added that Pristina’s failure to adopt the Law on the Special Court once again showed that in the province there is no political will to prosecute these crimes.

“Serbia, on the other hand, is committed to dialogue on the normalization of relations and it is already for the Brussels talks to continue on Monday. Marko Djuric says Serbia wants the UN to set up “a special international court or tribunal to prosecute crimes of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).” “I expect all states, and especially the UN Security Council members, to support the establishment of an international court or tribunal that would investigate the crimes committed by the KLA,” the director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo on late on Friday during an extraordinary press conference. Djuric said that he expects the UN to do its part of the job and UN member countries to support unanimously the establishment of the special court. He spoke after the assembly in Pristina failed to pass legislation that would allow the court to be established. “In less than 24 hours after the setting free of Naser Orlic, the decision of the provincial parliament to deny the establishment of a special court that would be tasked with investigating the crimes committed by the KLA came as rubbing salt into the wounds of the Serb people,” said Djuric. He said that this decision “does not contribute to the process of the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, but that nevertheless the talks in Brussels will continue on Monday.”

US Ambassador in Kosovo: US deeply disappointed by the outcome of the vote (RTS)

US Ambassador in Kosovo, Tracey Ann Jacobson, has announced that the United States is deeply disappointed with the pass the amendments that pave the way of establishment of the Special Court.

It has become clear that what has proved to Friday Assembly is an obstacle to Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. Jacobson makes again announced that the US government will not block the efforts of countries that do not recognize Kosovo to establish the UN Tribunal in the absence of its founding with the permission of the Assembly. “We are deeply disappointed by the outcome of today’s vote in the Assembly. The result is an obstacle to Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. As we noted earlier, in the absence of the establishment of the Special Court, the US government will not block the efforts of members who do not recognize Kosovo to establish UN Tribunal “

Kosovo assembly fails to set up special court for war crimes (Tanjug)

The Serb (Srpska) List says the failure to adopt the constitutional amendments on the establishment of a special court in Kosovo was “a missed opportunity.” According to Serb political representatives, it was “an opportunity to show understanding that the Serb victims are worth the investigation and judgment.” The special court should prosecute the crimes committed by the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Kosov and Metohija. “A great opportunity has been missed to form a tribunal that would prosecute criminals whose victims await justice in spite of irrefutable evidence,” reads a statement signed by Serb List President Aleksandar Jablanovic, issued after the vote on Friday. Kosovo’s parliament failed to adopt constitutional amendments that would pave the way to establishing a special court for the crimes committed by the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, since there has been no two-third majority support. A total of 75 MPs voted in favor of the amendments although the number needed was 82, seven were against and two sustained. There were 116 MPs present. In order for the constitutional amendments to be adopted, they needed to be supported by the votes of two-thirds of the Kosovo parliament members and two-thirds or at least 14 MPs of non-Albanian communities. The Srpska List members voted for the adoption of the constitutional amendments as well as other MPs of the non-Albanian communities.

Vucic, Davenport discusses Brussels dialogue, resolution on Srebrenica (Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has underscored that the Serbian government attaches great importance to the concrete agreement on the community of Serb municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija (KiM), as part of the Brussels agreement, as well as on telecommunications, energy and the Peace Park in Kosovska Mitrovica, but added that in the dialogue with Pristina it is primarily guided by Serbia’s state interests. Vucic and Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport conferred on Saturday ahead of the continuation of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels on Monday reads a statement issued by the government’s press office.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic underlined in the talks with Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport on Saturday that the United Kingdom’s move for the adoption of a resolution on Srebrenica in the UN Security Council by no means contributes to the policy of reconciliation, but rather incites nationalist tensions and creates sharper divisions between peoples in the Western Balkans. Vucic said that he will put in all the effort into the policy of reconciliation, coexistence and work in the region as a precondition for the progress of the Western Balkans.

At the same time, Vucic highlighted the commitment of the Serbian government to the European integration as its foreign policy priority, reads a statement issued by the government’s press office.

Putin’s resolution on Srebrenica (Vecernje Novosti)

The proposal of Moscow is to focus on issues that are the basis for cooperation and peaceful coexistence of countries in the region, and not on the issues that reinforce tensions. As a counterproposal to the British document on Srebrenica, the Russian delegation at the United Nations has distributed to all members of the Security Council its draft resolution on Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). The text was written with the approval of President Vladimir Putin, it condemns all war crimes and confirms the Serb victims in Srebrenica, and not only Muslim, the word genocide is replaced with a word crime. The part that mentions the rape of tens of thousands of women, in Russian declaration it says “thousands”. They believe that the Security Council has the task to agree on a text that would bring true benefit of the entire region, and Moscow’s proposal focuses on issues that forms the basis for cooperation and peaceful coexistence of countries in the region, and not on issues that reinforce tensions. The idea of Russia is that the Security Council reaffirms is support to the Dayton Agreement and strongly condemn all crimes committed in the course of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. On the other hand, Serbia is likely to send the second letter to the Council in order to highlight the harmful effects and of British resolution on Srebrenica, which would not bring any good to our country or the rest of the region.

Belgrade will inform the members of the Council that the new draft resolution by the United Kingdom is unacceptable for Serbia, because only cosmetic changes have been made in a text, practically only reducing the number of times it uses the word “genocide”. The Serbian letter would state that the British resolution draft casts a stigma on the entire Serb people, and that it would be detrimental to historically mark Serbs as a genocidal nation. Also, Belgrade is in constant diplomatic contacts, primarily with two permanent members of the Council, Romania and China, on whose help it relies in this important political, but also historic Battle at the East River. Contacts were established with non-permanent members of the SB: Venezuela, Spain, Nigeria, Chile and Angola, which could vote against the British resolution if it comes to the agenda on 7th of July.

It is almost certain that the British initiative would be additionally supported by two more permanent members, the US and France. The London trusts and that the representatives of Chad, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia and New Zealand in the Security Council would support the adoption of this document. At the Security Council the balance of power is 8:7 for the British initiative, which means that the British resolution would pass with a narrow majority. Adoption of documents at the SC requires a vote by eight out of 15 members of the Security Council, provided that none of the permanent members vetoes it.

Serbia and RS establish Remembrance Day for Serb victims (BT, Beta)

The governments of Serbia and Republika Srpska (RS) have declared August 5 „Day of Remembrance for the expelled and killed Serbs“. The decision was made during the two cabinets’ joint session held in Belgrade on Friday. Addressing a news conference, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said that the day “will be marked jointly as will be the case with Vidovdan and Jasenovac Breakthrough Day.” He stressed that “Serbia respects the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but that it is ready to be – in line with the Agreement on Special Relations with the RS – the place the RS can depend on if it has problems for any reason.” The two governments also signed a memorandum on cooperation in transport and transport infrastructure, and a protocol harmonizing positions on expert exams and licensing in the area of construction and spatial planning. The Beta news agency also quoted Vucic as saying that the meeting touched on “improving relations between Serbia and the RS,” and announced that the next joint session will be held in Bratunac.

REGIONAL PRESS

Dodik announces referendum on B&H Court and Prosecution (Srna)

President of Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik announced that he will call special session of the RS National Assembly at the beginning of the next week, which should discuss referendum on Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) Court and Prosecutor’s Office. Dodik said the referendum should be called to reject authority of those institutions on the territory of RS. “They have imposed B&H Court and Prosecutor’s Office to persecute Serb soldiers and officers, and to release criminals whose crimes are well documented. That is why I will call and demand special session of National Assembly, to call referendum and to reject authority of those institutions on the territory of RS”, Dodik told reporters.

Bosic: Nothing will come of Dodik’s once-again announced referendum (BN TV)

Mladen Bosic, leader of the SDS, does not believe that Republika Srpska (RS) will hold a referendum on the Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) Court and Prosecutor, which the RS President Milorad Dodik has announced again, saying that Dodik announced the same thing two years ago.

At the time, recalls Bosic, Catherine Ashton, the EU’s former high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, came to Banja Luka and Dodik gave up on the referendum without consulting those who then supported holding it. “I don’t believe that this time anything will come of it either,” Bosic told BN television. He added that he expects Dodik – who has a parliamentary majority to make a decision on the referendum – to explain to the citizens what will happen after the referendum, if there is one. “What is the next step? In which way does he think this will return jurisdiction to RS and does this mean a step toward dissolving and abolishing the Dayton Accord, which the enemies of RS could use very well against its interests,” wonders Bosic. He believes that “the style of leadership of adventurous politics should change,” as it could threaten both RS and the Serb people, because the Dayton Accord is a guarantor of their survival. The SDS president also considered that the situation in both RS and B&H is not going in the right direction. “We have an ever deepening political crisis at all levels and constant economic decline that still continues. The political crisis is additionally produced by stories of a resolution on Srebrenica, and the situation that happened with Naser Oric, and I think that we all together are returning two or three steps backward. Instead of turning to resolving life questions of citizens who are living ever more difficultly, we are concerned with issues that will lead in to new conflicts and disagreements and are turning the entire situation backward,” Bosic said, inter alia.

US Ambassador to UN: Dodik, Nikolic and Vucic have only discredited themselves (Dnevni avaz)

Srebrenica is with me every day, it has determined my life, said Samantha Power, US Ambassador to United Nations and closest associate of President Barack Obama. In an interview for Sarajevo’s daily Dnevni Avaz, she said “United States believes that paying tribute and remembering victims of genocide is of great importance.” “In addition, we want to remind UN Security Council and broader UN community on responsibility which international community did not take 20 years ago, and it has to take it today in other parts of the world”, Power said commenting resolution on Srebrenica in UN SC. “Not only that we think resolution on Srebrenica genocide remembrance is important, but we also believe it has a comprehensive message which is of great importance for UN SC members and broader international community.” Bosnia has a special place in the hearts of Americans. She said there is no doubt that “historic fact that genocide happened in Srebrenica will, over time, be accepted by reasonable public in Serbia and Republika Srpska (RS). That fact is already accepted worldwide.” “All one needs to do is to come to Srebrenica cemetery, where people are being buried this year as well, 20 years after the genocide, and to feel gravity of the crime,” Power said.

Asked to comment the fact that the RS President Milorad Dodik and Serbian President and Prime Minister Tomislav Nikolic and Aleksandar Vucic repeatedly deny genocide and oppose its international recognition and adoption of resolution in the UN, she replied: “They have only discredited themselves, they did not discredit genocide”. She stressed that B&H has a special place in the hearts of Americans, and that country can count on the U.S. help in the future.

HDZ leaves Serb place in HNK government to SDA (Oslobodjenje)

The name of the party or parties that should support the new convocation of the government in the Herzegovina-Neretva Cantonal Assembly (HNK) remains unknown even after yesterday’s meeting of representatives of the HDZ and SDA cantonal boards. At a short press conference held at the completion of the meeting, Edin Music, president of the SDA’s cantonal board, said that the two party delegations discussed the further dynamics of the formation of the cantonal government.

“The SDA and HDZ B&H have a quality and stable majority comprising 18 delegates that will ensure the normal functioning of the future government,” said Music, not wishing to reveal which of the other parties in the assembly would support the HDZ and SDA, which would form the next executive government after the general elections. “It is much more important that HNK finally get a government than who will raise their hand,” said Music, adding that the SDA in fact will take care of the necessary number of votes. “There is a positive disposition in the grouping of the other 12 delegates that the appointment of the government was confirmed in the interest of the canton’s citizens,” stressed Music, saying that next week, and possibly before, the agreement on establishing the cantonal government will be finalized. “Today we discussed its bases. The content of the agreement in the next few weeks will be finalized by our teams,” said Music. As he announced, then the SDA and HDZ B&H will put forward names of candidates for ministers in the government to PM-elect Nevenko Herceg, after which, with the need for analysis in a procedural sense, a session of the assembly will be called at which the government’s appointment will be confirmed.

Rafael Gagro, president of the HDZ in HNK, said that it was finally defined how many places in the new government will belong to whom. Bosniaks and Croats will get five portfolios each, Serbs one, with the prime ministership going to Nevenko Herceg from the HDZ, also a Croat. It was stressed that the SDA will propose the Serb member. “As far as who will support the government, I believe that every serious delegate in the cantonal assembly will support it,” added Gagro.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

US says Kosovo war crimes trial at mercy of Russia after parliament vote (Associated Press, 27 June 2015)

PRISTINA, Kosovo – The United States says it won’t block Russia’s attempts to establish a U.N. tribunal to investigate allegations that Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian wartime leaders killed hundreds of Serbs civilians. The country’s lawmakers rejected amendments to the constitution to allow a Western-backed court deal with the claims. The U.S. Embassy in Kosovo said in a statement on Saturday it was “deeply disappointed” by Friday’s vote. A 2010 Council of Europe report claimed former rebel leader turned politician Hashim Thaci and other Kosovo guerrillas ran a criminal ring in 1999 and that some victims were allegedly killed for their organs to be sold on the black market.

The 120-seat legislature voted 75-7 on Friday in favour of the amendments, but failed to secure a two-thirds majority to approve the changes.

ON TARGET: Ukraine could learn from Kosovo’s troubles (The Chronicle Herald, by Scott Taylor, 28 June 2015)

On June 17, Peter Szijjarto, foreign minister of Hungary’s centre-right government, made the startling declaration that his national security forces will erect a four-meter wall along the entire 175 kilometers of shared border with Serbia. Szijjarto’s rationale for resorting to such a drastic measure results from a months-long flood of asylum seekers pouring into southern Hungary. While tens of thousands of these desperate illegal immigrants have been caught, detained and returned into Serbia, the vast majority have used the processing time for their asylum applications to simply disappear into other western European countries. This, of course, explains why there is no public outcry from other members of the European Union over Hungary’s decision to fence out this wave of desperate humanity. For impoverished Serbia, staunching the flow of these refugees at its northern border has generated the opposite reaction. “I thought the Berlin Wall had fallen, but now new walls are being constructed,” stated Serbia’s foreign minister, Ivica Dacic, referring to the Cold War barrier that stood from 1961 until 1991. “We are absolutely and fiercely against (Hungary’s) decision to build a fence.” While the nationalities of those fleeing through Serbia into Hungary and beyond include Syrians, Somalis and even Afghans, the irony is that the vast majority of asylum seekers are ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. The most recent exodus began in earnest in the fall of 2014, when the Serbian government relaxed travel restrictions on Albanians entering from the declared independent state of Kosovo. Serbia has never recognized Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence and still legally considers the region to be sovereign Serbian territory. In 1999, Kosovo was ravaged by a brutal civil war between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbian security forces. The root cause of the public discontent was a severely depressed economy, overpopulation and unemployment. The Albanian underworld was able use that unrest to ignite and impassion a wave of nationalist sentiment that soon boiled over into a full-scale armed insurgency. That year was the 50th anniversary of NATO and, given the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there was a strong desire for NATO leaders to prove that the alliance was still relevant. Thus, NATO threw its full weight behind the Albanian Kosovo rebels. In the spring of 1999, NATO warplanes, including Canadian CF-18s, launched a 78-day bombing campaign — not just against Serbian military targets in the disputed territory of Kosovo but against civilian infrastructure and utilities throughout all of Serbia. With NATO combat forces, including Canadians, massed in Macedonia for a possible ground war, the Serbian government negotiated a ceasefire on June 10, 1999. Under the negotiated terms of UN Resolution 1244, Kosovo was to remain the sovereign territory of Serbia after a brief military occupation by NATO troops. Serbian security forces were to resume control of Kosovo’s border crossings and provide protection for the numerous sacred Serbian religious sites and monasteries within the disputed territory. Of course, that was never actually in the cards. NATO negotiators had never wanted to have ground troops fight their way through Kosovo’s forebodingly steep mountain passes. Therefore, they agreed to all Serbian demands, knowing full well that they would never honour the deal. In February 2008, that duplicity was formalized when the United States hastily recognized Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence and strong-armed allies such as Canada into following suit. However, the precedent of such declarations of territorial independence based upon ethnic regional majority has prevented many countries from recognizing Kosovo. For instance, Spain, with its Basque separatist movement, and Azerbaijan, with its claim over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, cannot recognize a unilaterally declared independence.

With Russia using its veto to deny Kosovo membership in the UN and Spain, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus doing likewise to keep it out of the European Union, Kosovo has remained in a strange quasi-limbo status on the international stage. What matters most, however, is that at the end of the day, you cannot subsist on flags. Despite its declared independence, unemployment, poverty, corruption and widespread crime are driving a new flood of Albanian Kosovars to seek a better life — anywhere but in Kosovo. The people of Ukraine who see their salvation in the form of a NATO intervention should take a good look at NATO’s “success” in Kosovo. Short-term military solutions do not solve long-term economic problems.

Srebrenica divided as ever as Serbs put up anti-EU posters (Associated Press, By Aida Cerkez, 28 June 2015)

People pass by posters displaying Russian President Vladimir Putin in the town of Bratunac, near Srebrenica, 150 kms north east of Sarajevo

SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Less than two weeks before the Srebrenica massacre’s 20th anniversary, Muslims and Eastern Orthodox Serbs in the Bosnian town are as divided as ever. Serbs put up anti-European Union posters on Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s portrait on them and the words “Eastern alternative” and “Republika Srpska,” or “Serb Republic.” Most of them were plastered on the bullet-riddled walls of a warehouse in the nearby village of Kravica, where Serb forces executed Muslim Bosnians during the 1995 genocide. Bosnia’s Muslims want the country to join the EU, while Serbs would like their half — called Republika Srpska — to secede and stay close to Russia as an independent country. Muslims in Srebrenica are outraged by the posters and believe the postwar division of Bosnia is a product of genocide.

“I am hurt and disappointed,” said Sabra Mujic, 50, who lost her husband in the massacre. She said the posters are taking Srebrenica backward. NATO air raids against the Serbs stopped the 1992-95 Bosnian war shortly after more than 8,000 Muslim Bosnians from Srebrenica were killed in Europe’s worse massacre since the Holocaust. More than 100,000 people died during the Bosnian war. The Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the war, divided the country into two political entities, one for the Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats, and the other for the Christian Orthodox Serbs. Each has state-like institutions, with the central government above them. The Serbs say the posters are meant as an anti-EU protest and to call for Russia to veto a British-drafted U.N. resolution that honors the Srebrenica victims and suggests July 11 should be a memorial day. The Srebrenica massacre happened on July 11-13, 1995. “Serbs expect Russian support because Russia promotes justice. The world would be much better if there were more Putins,” said Ranko Cvjetkovic, 64, from nearby Bratunac where such posters also decorate walls. Radomir Ostojic, 38, said “Europe is no good. Look at the crisis there while Russia is rich. I hope Russia will help us and I live for that day.”

Bosnian Serbs Urge U.N. to Reject Srebrenica Resolution (Naharnet, 29 June 2015)

The ethnic Serb chairman of Bosnia’s rotating presidency on Monday urged the U.N. to not adopt a resolution on the Srebrenica genocide, saying it would destabilize the country already split along ethnic lines. “I must warn you that the current (inter-ethnic) situation is bad and call on you to recognize that the adoption of this resolution would not be a good thing for the stability of Bosnia,” Mladen Ivanic wrote in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The resolution is being drafted by Britain to mark the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in July, and reflects on the U.N.’s failure to prevent genocide. About 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were slaughtered by ethnic Serb forces in July 1995 in the then U.N.-protected enclave. It was Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II and has been labeled genocide by two international courts. Ivanic, said that the presidency’s three members — Croat, Muslim and Serb — could not reach a consensus on the resolution. “Bosnian Serbs are convinced that this resolution is anti-Serb because it fails to mention in any way the Serb victims in the Srebrenica region,” he wrote in the letter.

“Its possible adoption would not have a positive effect but would instead further split Bosnia’s society.” Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik recently asked Russia to use its veto to prevent the adoption of the resolution. According to diplomats at the British mission to the United Nations, the resolution would “commemorate the victims of the genocide at Srebrenica, and those who suffered on all sides in the war.” The draft resolution was expected to come up for a vote during the first week of July as Bosnia prepares to hold commemorations at the Srebrenica memorial on July 11.

Bosnian Serbs refuse to accept that the massacre was genocide. Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war claimed some 100,000 lives and left the country split into two-semi-independent entities — the Serbs Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The two are linked by weak central institutions including the presidency.

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