LOCAL PRESS

Anniversary of the crime in Staro Gracko (RTS)

Sixteen years ago, fourteen Serb reapers were killed in Staro Gracko near Lipljan. No one has been held accountable yet for this crime, one of the biggest ones against the Serbs that occurred after the arrival of UNMIK and KFOR.

The fourteen Serbs were killed in the field during the harvest on 23 July 1999. Four members of the Janicijevic family were killed – Slobodan, Mile, Momir and the youngest Novica who was only 17. On the scene were also killed Andrija Odalovic, brothers Jovica and Rade Zivic, Stanimir and Bosko Djekic, Sasa and Ljubisa Cvejic, then Nikola Stojanovic, Miodrag Tesic and Milovan Jovanovic. UNMIK police arrested in October 2007 Mazljum Bitici from the village of Veliki Alas near Lipljan on suspicion that he participated in this murder. Due to lack of evidence, Bitici was released from prison after two months. The Chairman of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun says that numerous people were mentioned as possible perpetrators of this horrible crime. “One of them was arrested but soon release, and then this was followed by some totally non-binding statements of international officials. I cannot help feeling that the case is being covered up by the international presence in Kosovo and Metohija. As regards the state of Serbia, the War Crimes Prosecution is the most responsible and I cannot accept the passive behavior by the Prosecution,” notes Drecun. The War Crimes Prosecution says that the case is still open and they didn’t wish to present any details in public over the investigation. On several occasions, the Albanians have mined monuments and desecrated the cemetery in Staro Gracko where the killed Serb reapers are buried. The families of the killed ones are still waiting for the criminals to be brought to justice. At present, half of the 1999 population lives in this village, and they are not safe either.

Vucic: We are ready to resume dialogue with Pristina (RTS)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has stated in Nis that Belgrade is ready to resume the dialogue with Pristina in Brussels. “I think that things will go in the direction, both in the political sense and from the EU side, so that a large part of these issues is resolved before the Vienna Conference on 27 August. I think that everybody thinks the Vienna Conference should be a big holiday,” said Vucic. When it comes to the dialogue with Pristina, he reiterated that the blame should not be shifted from one to the other side, and that the job of the Serbian side is to go and talk. These talks are always difficult, they have never been easy, sometimes polite, but sometimes on the verge of an incident, he said. “In any way we are fighting for our country, they are fighting for their people, at least that is what they say. Sometimes the things we advocate seem strange, the international community doesn’t understand, but we understand how we will defeat one another,” said Vucic.

Kosovo government disbanding Serbian Civil Protection in northern Kosovo and Metohija (Danas)

Based on the agreement in Brussels, the Kosovo government adopted yesterday the conclusion on “disbanding the so-called Civil Protection in the northern Kosovo municipalities and their integration into the Kosovo institutions”. This decision is “part of the fulfillment of the Kosovo government’s obligations deriving from the dialogue and offers a legal basis for the integration of 483 people into legitimate institutions of the Republic of Kosovo and cessation of the operation of these illegal structures”, it is explained in the statement from yesterday’s session published on the Kosovo government website. Danas didn’t receive an explanation yesterday from the Kosovo government as to how Pristina, regardless of the Brussels agreements, can “disband” state structures that were founded by the state of Serbia, which includes Kosovo and Metohija according to the Serbian Constitution and UNSCR 1244. The Serbian government didn’t wish to comment this “detail” either. Belgrade proposed in the negotiations in Brussels for 751 members of the Serbian Civil Protection to be integrated into the Kosovo institution. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija told Danas that “the largest number of employees in the Civil Protection in northern Kosovo and Metohija will be taken care of – part through integration, 80 of them through retirement, and the remaining through the system of the Republic of Serbia that is being prepared by a law that will regulate this. As Danas was explained, “the most important thing for Belgrade is a 100-percent integration of the permanently employed in the Civil Protection”, where part of the employees had been engaged with a contract. Danas’ sources recall that integration into Kosovo institutions is “voluntary”. After two years of negotiations, Belgrade and Pristina signed on 26 March 2015 the agreement on disbanding the Civil Protection in northern Kosovo and Metohija, because, as speculated, this was one of Pristina’s conditions for opening the dialogue on the Union of Serb Municipalities.

Srpska: Civil Protection in Kosovo and Metohija not a parallel structure (Tanjug)

The Serbian Civil Protection in northern Kosovo and Metohija has never been a parallel structure, but one of the few institutions acting responsibly when it comes to peoples’ lives and their safety in hazardous situations, the Serb List stated commenting on the Kosovo government’s intention to disband the units. The Pristina government’s plan to disband the Civil Protection is a clumsy attempt to set a less important issue as a priority, which should be resolved through full consensus and political agreement, reads the statement. The statement signed by the Head of the Serb (Srpska) List Aleksandar Jablanovic also says that the Civil Protection always acts responsibly in life-threatening conditions and situations when safety of the citizens is endangered, when it comes to fires, floods or road maintenance in winter. Jablanovic underlined that the Civil Protection is not organized as a security structure, nor has ever operated as such. “The future of the Civil Protection is guaranteed by the Brussels agreement, which specifies that members of this service will be sent to other institutions established by the interim authorities in Kosovo and Metohija, in order to serve the citizens using their experience and expertise,” Jablanovic pointed out.

Decani Monastery being robed off 23 hectares (Tanjug/Vesti)

Kosovo wishes to become a member of UNESCO, while at the same time the authorities in Pristina are denying the right of property to the Serb monastery of Visoki Decani, the sanctity from the XIV century, which is on the World Cultural Heritage list, and the disputable 23 hectares of monastery’s land is part of the special zone that is supposed to be protected by law in Kosovo and Metohija, reports the Vesti daily from Frankfurt. The paper writes that the court passed such a verdict on the 15-year long dispute under pressure and threats, which ended up in a vote where three local judges outvoted the two international ones. A special chamber of the Kosovo Supreme Court denied its own verdict from 2012 for the monastery, declared itself not competent, and instructed the stake holders to renew the trial before the basic court in Pec. Neither the Serbian Orthodox Church nor the Republic of Serbia have the right of complaint to the verdict. The Republic of Serbia donated the land to the monastery by a contract from 1997, but companies Apiko and Iliria claim it is their land.

REGIONAL PRESS

Meeting of the SBB, DF and the SDP leaders (Fena)

The Presidents of the Alliance for a Better Future (SBB) B&H, the Democratic Front (DF) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Fahrudin Radoncic, Zeljko Komsic and Nermin Niksic, met today in Sarajevo to talk about the political situation in B&H. As party leaders told reporters after the meeting, those were informal friendly conversations and not a word was said about any specific coalitions or taking someone out of the government. They emphasized that they have discussed ways of making a reform program that would be implemented to the benefit of all citizens of B&H regardless of who is in power and who is in the opposition. Asked by reporters whether their parties are going to support the reform agenda of B&H, Radoncic reiterated SBB’s position that anything that comes from the leader of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Bakir Izetbegovic is not going to be supported by SBB. “No one can scare us with the reform agenda so as to adopt a labor law that has not been analyzed by the union representatives. The SBB has proven to be pro-European, pro-Western and a reform party and we will not be blackmailed to accept things ad hoc,” said Radoncic. Talking about the announcements of a new parliamentary majority formation in the Federation of B&H the party leaders agree that the SDA is the election winner, that is why it has the greatest responsibility for the situation in the Federation of B&H, and therefore should find a solution for the functioning of the parliamentary majority. The leader of the DF Zeljko Komsic said that during the meeting they discussed the labor law, noting that before the adoption of such a law, the law should first be assessed by the Economic and Social Council, and only then be submitted for parliamentary procedure. “The SDA wants to send this bill for parliamentary procedure without the consent of the trade unions, where the foreigners would push all other parties to vote for it. We do not have to vote for such law,” said Komsic. Radoncic and Komsic agreed that the SDA has the legitimacy to form a new parliamentary majority, but if that does not happen, there are other democratic solutions, said Komsic. Niksic also underlined that in three of the largest opposition parties in the Federation of B&H there is no fear of the imposed legal solutions emphasizing that they would not vote for any legislative solution that is not in the best interest of the citizens. Niksic sees the solution to the problem in the amendments to the Election Law which would allow early elections in B&H. The leaders have concluded that if there is an initiative of giving a no-confidence vote to the Federation government in the House of Representatives they would absolutely support such an initiative.

Security Minister: There are no terrorist camps in B&H (Nezavisne)

The B&H Security Ministers Dragan Mektic said today that the ministry does not have information that there are camps for terrorist training in B&H. Mektic said that ministry has the information that there are certain places and local communities where persons “who practice and accept radical ideology and violent extremism” are gathering. “We keep them under surveillance and there is no information that they are undergoing training in military and terrorist sense. We have no information that there are camps in B&H where people are being trained military and other skills which could be used to carry out terrorist attacks,” Mektic told reporters. British “Sunday Mirror” published recently an article in which it said that there are suspicions that terrorists have set up training camp in B&H, in Osve village.

Map of attack on Republika Srpska appears on Internet (Nezavisne)

A map and a plan on how to “conquer” the RS “in case of the referendum” in that B&H entity have been posted on the Facebook page “Bosnjaci”. The post provides guidelines on how to defeat the RS by military means, if the RS President Milorad Dodik tries to hold independence referendum and separate the entity from B&H. Although both the map and guidelines are obviously amateurish and there is probably no organized group behind it capable of carrying out such action, they got much attention in media in RS. The guidelines say “several brave men” could go to Drina River and blow up all bridges towards Serbia. They also propose to cut corridor in Brcko and separate the RS on two halves. The plan also foresees separation of East Herzegovina from East Bosnia and attack on Mrkonjic Grad. The post was published on July 20, and yesterday had more than 300 shares and more than 1,600 likes. Facebook page “Bosnjaci” has more than 126,000 page likes. Security expert Predrag Ceranic told Nezavisne novine that posts like this present threat and security agencies should react and sanction those who publish it. Sakib Softic, professor at the University of Sarajevo, said that there are extremist groups in every nation who don’t want peace and who realize their plans only in war. He said public should not pay too much attention to those groups, because it is much more important what decision makers and majority of people, who obviously oppose conflicts, think.

Kovacevic: Decision of the B&H court is a legal absurd (Srna)

Nikola Kovacevic, a member of the State Property Commission, feels that by its decision on the real property in Han Pijesak Municipality, the B&H Court is illegally seizing the territory of the RS and granting it to B&H, and that this is a legal absurd which can happen only in B&H. Kovacevic, who is a RS member of the Commission, told Srna that it is not in the jurisdiction of the B&H Court to decide on this issue and that only an agreement that should be signed by the RS and FB&H governments and the B&H Council of Ministers can be a legal foundation for distribution of real property between the Entities and B&H. He said that if the RS arguments which it will present in its appeal are accepted, the first-instance ruling would have to be changed and that the B&H Court should declare itself not competent for this matter. “A very serious question is being raised at this moment – will the Court act in keeping with the law or will it bring a decision under pressure,” Kovacevic said. He said that it is incomprehensible that the B&H Court failed “to notice” that this particular case is about both a forest and arable land, but also a construction land which belongs to Han Pijesak Municipality. According to him, the B&H Court has “forgotten” that this particular case is about vested rights of third parties which are guaranteed by the RS Constitution, and that these persons gained these rights before the B&H Armed Forces were formed. “We are particularly surprised that the OHR supports the decision of the B&H Court, which is violating the law imposed by the High Representative. So, when necessary, the OHR is violating its own law. Had such a decision been brought by RS, where the same law was imposed, the OHR would have reacted completely differently,” Kovacevic said. He said that the question is also being raised why the OHR allowed the real property, which is under ban of disposition in both the Entities, to be transferred to the District in the Brcko District, namely, why there are double standards. Kovacevic says that it is only the RS government which is authorized to decide, on the basis of criteria stipulated by the law, which real property will be transferred to the B&H joint institutions, and that military property cannot be registered in the name of any other body until the RS accepts an agreement. The RS public defender Slobodan Radulj said that he will file an appeal of the first-instance ruling of the B&H Court which decided that real property in the area of Han Pijesak be transferred to B&H. He said that the B&H Court brought this ruling on July 3.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbian PM hosts Bosnian leaders, cools tempers after mob attack (Reuters, by Ivana Sekularac, 22 July 2015)

BELGRADE – Serbia’s prime minister said on Wednesday he had already forgotten a mob attack on him in Bosnia 11 days ago as he hosted Bosnia’s three-man presidency in a visit designed to cool tempers between the ex-Yugoslav republics. Aleksandar Vucic was hounded from a commemoration in eastern Bosnia marking the 20th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica of over 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces in the closing months of the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Immediately after the assault by an angry crowd hurling stones, bottles and insults, Vucic called on Bosnia’s tripartite presidency – part of a cumbersome power-sharing arrangement between Orthodox Serbs, Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats – to visit the Serbian capital, once capital of federal Yugoslavia. During the visit, the leaders spoke of leaving ‘history to historians’, building a brighter future for the Balkans and of strolling the streets of Belgrade after a joint lunch. But they skirted around new tensions sparked by a Bosnian Serb plan to put the authority of Bosnia’s national court to a referendum that the West says would challenge the very integrity of the state. “I have forgotten it,” Vucic said of the assault in Srebrenica. “What happened to me was unpleasant and difficult, but it was nothing compared to what had happened to many Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats during the war”, he said. “Our hand will remain outstretched. What else we can do? Fight again? Make the (river) Drina thick with blood again?” Serbia backed the Bosnian Serbs with men and money during the Bosnian war, in which 100,000 people died. A United Nations court has ruled that the Srebrenica mass killings constituted genocide, a term Serbia and many Serbs dispute. Vucic at the time was an outspoken ultranationalist. He has since rebranded himself as a pro-Western reformer dedicated to taking Serbia into the European Union. Last week, he urged Serbs in Bosnia to think again before holding a referendum on the authority of the national court over them, responding to Western warnings that the vote would represent an open threat to the integrity of the Bosnian state. “I believe we should leave history to historians,” said Dragan Covic, the Croat chairman of the Bosnian presidency, at a joint news conference, “and that on the traces of past events we can build a new road of reconciliation.” (Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Serbia, Bosnia leaders pledge to boost fragile post-war ties (AP, by Darko Vojinovic, 23 July 2015)

BELGRADE, Serbia — The leaders of former Balkan foes Serbia and Bosnia on Wednesday pledged to boost fragile post-war ties shaken earlier this month on the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. Bosnia’s three-member presidency and Serbia Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic held a hastily-called meeting in Belgrade to underscore a bid to put the past behind and work together for a warless future in the volatile region. Tensions soared after Vucic — a former extreme Serbian nationalist — was attacked during the July 11 commemoration ceremonies in the eastern town, with angry crowds throwing stones and bottles at the Serbian prime minister. Bosnian Muslims also have been angered by Serbia’s refusal to call the massacre by Bosnian Serbs of 8,000 Muslims genocide, as has been ruled by two U.N. courts. Serbia’s ally Russia has blocked a U.N. resolution that referred to the 1995 slaughter as genocide. Srebrenica was a U.N. safe haven during the conflict that pitted Bosnian Serbs, Muslims and Croats against each other. Serbia at the time backed the Bosnian Serb war effort and Vucic was an outspoken supporter of the war policies. Bosnian Muslim leader Bakir Izetbegovic said after talks that “we have agreed to do everything to improve relations so that evil will never repeat itself.” Vucic added that he has “forgotten all about” the incident in Srebrenica. He said that “what happened was hard, but it is nothing compared to what happened to Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs” during the war.” The 1992-95 conflict left more than 100,000 people dead and millions homeless.

Macedonia Govt Proposes Biggest Ever Budget (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 23 July 2015)

With opposition MPs still absent, the government has proposed a budget rebalance which will result in Macedonia’s biggest ever national budget in 25 years of independence.

Macedonia’s government proposed a rebalanced budget that enters parliament procedure on Thursday, which foresees increased spending of €85 million and increased revenue of €58 million. The total budget tops €3 billion, the biggest sum in 25 years of independence.

Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski said the rebalance was designed to boost development and added that Macedonia can afford to up spending because it collected more revenue in the first half of this year than it did last year. “The budget has surprised us with favourable revenues rising by nearly 14 per cent compared to revenue in the first six months of 2014. It is more than we expected,” Stavreski said. The revision envisages a budget deficit of €327 million and lowers economic growth projections, cut from 4 to 3.5 per cent. Government critics noted the odd timing of the rebalance, just one week after political leaders agreed to an internationally brokered deal on early elections in April 2016. The change, proposed two months before the expected return of the opposition MPs to parliament, has raised doubts about the government’s sincerity.

The opposition has boycotted parliament since last year’s elections, accusing Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of organizing fraudulent polls. A former economic analyst at the Macedonian Central Bank, Branimir Jovanovic, said that while the increase in spending might be justified by higher revenue, the way the money was allocated showed the government aimed to splash money before the elections. “What is worrying is that this budget is… a pre-election budget. Its goal is to buy as many votes it can amid a deep political crisis ahead of the elections next year,” Jovanovic told Lokalno.mk

Looked at in detail, most of the money from the budget increase will go on unproductive expenses that will not generate development, he added, such as higher pay for police, tablets for students and new additions to the grand government-funded revamp of the capital. The political crisis in Macedonia revolves around allegations that Gruevski’s government has illegally orchestrated the surveillance of over 20,000 people. Gruevski, who has been in power since 2006, denies the claims.

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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.