LOCAL PRESS

Dacic: ZSO to be formed very quickly (TV Pink/Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has assessed that the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO), which is the first political authority of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija after 1999, should be formed very quickly. Asked whether the ZSO is the first step towards division of Kosovo, Dacic told TV Pink that this is not being discussed at the moment. “This is the first autonomous form that is lower than what we call a province,” said Dacic. Speaking about the negotiations with the EU, Dacic assessed that the EU is lagging behind since Serbia prepared all chapters for opening last year, which was also concluded by the European Council. “We have been waiting for the political decision for which, I think, conditions had been provided in order to be passed,” said Dacic. He said he expected the most realistic thing the holding of the Second Conference by the end of the year, since the first one was held in January last year. He confirmed that Serbia’s strategic determination is the path towards the EU.

Djuric: Agreements turning point, more responsibility (RTS)

Reaching the agreement in Brussels represents a turning point when it comes to the position of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, and this turning point implies an incomparably higher degree of responsibility for those who represent our people in Kosovo and Metohija, said the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric. “Since the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO), the greatest responsibility for the fate of the Serbs and Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija will be on you, as the Serb representatives, much more than in the past period,” said Djuric in talks with the mayors of ten Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija, the Serb MPs, members of the interim institutions in Pristina and representatives of the Serb (Srpska) List. Djuric said that the first steps towards the implementation of the agreements reached in Brussels will be taken as early as Monday. He told a press conference that this is when the Serbian Electric Power Industry (EPS) will submit the required documentation for the formation of a company in Kosovo and Metohija, and Telekom Srbija will file a request for registration in the province. He added that the drafting of the statute of the ZSO will start immediately as well, and take into account the best local and international practices. “Our team is working day and night and that is how we will continue,” said Djuric, noting that the agreement envisages a four-month period for the drafting and presentation of the ZSO statute. They also discussed the ongoing issues, the case of Oliver Ivanovic, while Djuric said they had agreed concrete steps, without specifying which. He also conveyed to the Serb representatives the support from the Republika Srpska regarding the agreement. Commenting the incident in Djakovica, Djuric said the attacks on Serb returnees were not stopping, especially in Metohija, and announced that Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will visit Metohija in September and offer support to the Serbs there.

Maric: I expect problems in implementation of agreement (TV Pink/Danas)

The Minister of Administration of the Local Self-Government in the Kosovo government Ljubomir Maric has announced that the preparation of the statute for the ZSO will commence today in cooperation with lawyers and an international expert team and that the first version will be completed very soon. He told TV Pink that he expects problems from Pristina in the process of statute harmonization and estimates that the preparation will not take four months, as envisaged by the Brussels agreement. Maric recalls that several drafts of this statute were submitted in Brussels in June. He announces that EPS will commence today the formation of two daughter companies in northern Kosovo and expects the approval of one of these requests for electricity trade within seven days, and the other for delivery of electricity by October. When it comes to the registration of Telekom Srbija in Kosovo, he says they submitted a request for this registration and the approval should be received today with a three-month deadline for establishing a functional company by 15 December. According to him, there will certainly be problems with the implementation of the agreements reached in Brussels. He voiced readiness not to allow, in agreement with the international community, the entire process to stop.

Office for Kosovo and Metohija: Fate of missing persons in Kosovo and Metohija still unknown (Tanjug)

On the occasion of the International Day of Missing Persons, the Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija regrets to observe that over 16 years no progress has been made in resolving the fate of the 1,711 missing persons in Kosovo and Metohija, or in shedding light on the crimes and punishing the perpetrators, and appeals to the international institutions to help in this matter. “Considering that the bodies of the interim self-government institutions in Pristina obviously do not want or have no capacities to address this issue, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija once again appeals to the authorized international institutions in the province to use their authority to resolve the fate of the missing persons, because that is the debt of all of us to the victims and their families, and the foundation for a true normalization of relations in Kosovo and Metohija,“ the Office said in a statement. The Office also finds that, on the other side, the Serbian government treats the issue of missing in a responsible manner. It states that there is no unchecked location on the territory of Serbia proper, which is also proved by the recent examination of the location near Novi Pazar, conducted at Pristina’s request. The Office points out that Serbian will invest maximal effort to give answers to the families of 532 missing persons of Serb nationality from Kosovo and Metohija in regard to the fate of their dearest ones. The Office believes that the formation of the court for war crimes committed by KLA members will lead to shedding of light and sanctioning of many crimes, and to new data on the victims and missing.

Vucic in Bled: We need a comprehensive plan (Tanjug)

“It is obvious that we will face a bigger crisis than we expected. We expect a single, unified response, rather than particular ones, made by only certain countries,” Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told Tanjug after being asked if Austria’s decision to introduce controls on their eastern border, following Hungary’s erecting a wall along their border with Serbia, would negatively affect Serbia. Vucic said that he believed that a comprehensive plan, asked for Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the recently held Western Balkans Summit in Vienna, would be adopted and that everyone in the EU would accept it and adhere to it. “That is the only solution, as no separate, individual solutions can bring us any improvement,” he said.

Hungary commences wooden barrier construction (RTS)

The Hungarian Army has started the construction of an additional four-meter high wooden barrier at its Serbian border, Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) reports. The three-row barbwire fence, which is 175 km long, has already been set on the Serbian crossing and it will soon be enhanced by the wooden one. Hungarian government announced the formation of several transit zones with one set in a village called Roszke, near the Serbian border, reports RTS.

REGIONAL PRESS

Dodik, Djuric: Agreement important, pursue normalization (Srna/Tanjug)

The agreement on constitution of the Union of Serb municipalities (ZSO) in Kosovo and Metohija is positive and important national document, and normalization of relations and policy of regional reconciliation needs to be pursued, RS President Milorad Dodik and the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said in Banja Luka on Friday. After the meeting, Dodik told reporters that ZSO constitution sets a good and serious foundation for affirmation of Serb interests, values and rights, primarily the right to use the resources in Kosovo and Metohija and direct their lives in the way that suits Serbs most. According to him, the agreement on ZSO is an important document and everyone should work toward ensuring that it strengthens the potentials it holds. The RS is ready to join the affirmation of the document which is, as Dodik said, important for all Serbs. It is important for the agreement to take root in full capacity and for the Serb community in Kosovo and Metohija to use ZSO without hesitation and show its aspirations and wish for development and peaceful life in Kosovo and Metohija, Dodik said.

Izetbegovic: Covic and Radoncic discussed the entry of SBB party into the government, I don’t know the details of it (klix.ba)

Following the meeting with the leader of the Party for B&H (SB&H) Amer Jerlagic, the member of the B&H Presidency and the leader of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Bakir Izetbegovic said that the agreement with the SB&H had not been violated, therefore the coalition was not put into the question. Izetbegovic stated that the temporary distribution of some positions had not violated the agreement with the SB&H. He confirmed that the SB&H will get the position of the Minister of Energy, Industry and Mining as well as some other positions, but not the whole sector. Also, Izetbegovic said that every party entering the government would get one ministerial position. He added that it would be good if the coalition would be expanded with the Croatian Democratic Party 1990 (HDZ 1990) because they had had an agreement signed with that national party even before the elections. When it comes to the Party for a Better Future of B&H (SBB) and its entry into the government, Izetbegovic said that Covic had discussed that topic with Radoncic, but doesn’t know the details of the discussion. “Whoever supports the reform agenda is welcome”, Izetbegovic pointed out, expressing skepticism about the functionality of that numerous coalition. Considering the reconstruction of the Council of Ministers of B&H, Izetbegovic said that the SDA would not support the removal of the Alliance for Change from the Council of Ministers and added that Covic hadn’t directly announced the reconstruction of the Council of Ministers of B&H. “This new coalition in the FB&H will support the current composition of the Council of Ministers of B&H and I can’t see the Alliance for Change alternative”, Izetbegovic said. He also briefly commented the announcement of the group of representatives of the SDA in the House of Representatives of B&H that they were going to create some “Better SDA”. He considers that they are mature people with the positions in the SDA and they will not make that move.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia and Kosovo Make Nice to Win Invitation to the EU (Newsweek, by Judy Dempsey, 30 August 2015)

Good news is in short supply in the Western Balkans. But this could change after Kosovo and Serbia signed a landmark accord on August 25 that could bring these two neighbors closer to the EU. The accord, shepherded by Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, was overshadowed by the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the wars in Syria and Iraq. The refugees have made the Western Balkans—which consist of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia—into a conduit to reach EU countries, especially Germany. It is not only people from the Middle East and parts of Africa who are seeking asylum in Europe, as EU leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will discuss with their counterparts from the Western Balkans during their summit in Vienna on August 27. The German government reckons that 40 percent of those applying for asylum in the country come from Serbia or Kosovo. Forty percent! “You can’t imagine how serious it has become in the Western Balkans,” said Sonja Licht, the indefatigable president of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, an independent think tank. “The poor and the vulnerable, most of whom are Roma, are leaving in order to escape the abject poverty,” Licht told Carnegie Europe. Not only that. “There is also a brain drain taking place among the youth,” added Licht. “There’s little to keep them here. Youth unemployment is around 50 percent in Serbia and over 70 percent in Kosovo.” One of Licht’s biggest worries is the radicalization of the region that will feed growing anti-EU sentiments. Such a pessimistic scenario will do nothing to stem growing corruption or encourage much-needed foreign investment—let alone spur attempts to introduce economic, political and social reforms, which have all but stopped across the region. Moreover, prospects for joining the EU, to which all countries in the region aspire, would fade, hampering long-term stability and the consolidation of democracy in this part of Europe. That is why the summit in Vienna, the second of its kind at the initiative of Germany, cannot ignore the potential combustibility of the Western Balkans. The meeting must also revive the region’s European perspective instead of just concentrating on the migration crisis, which is dominating the Vienna agenda. Such a perspective received a fillip on August 25 after the accord signed in Brussels between Aleksandar Vučić, the prime minister of Serbia, and Isa Mustafa, his counterpart from Kosovo. The accord will have immense political and psychological implications for the region. In essence, it moves Serbia and Kosovo another step toward normalizing their relations and, as a result, it is hoped, closer to beginning EU accession negotiations. For the two neighbors, which were plunged into a bloody war in 1998–1999 that ended with the intervention of NATO against Serbia, the importance of the agreement cannot be overestimated. The Serb community in northern Kosovo, long at loggerheads with Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority, will be granted considerable autonomy over judicial and budgetary affairs and will be able to receive financial assistance from Belgrade. The community will also have its own official symbols such as a coat of arms or a flag, subject to Kosovar law. As for Kosovo as a whole, which declared its independence in 2008 but which Serbia and several EU countries have yet to recognize, it will get its own telephone country code, a big concession by Serbia. Ivan Knežević, deputy secretary general of the pro-EU European Movement in Serbia, has no doubt that the attraction of joining the EU one day was the main incentive for reaching an accord. “The European perspective is just so important to Serbia and Kosovo,” Knežević told Carnegie Europe. “This accord is very encouraging. It will contribute to the normalization of relations. I hope that Brussels can now open one of the chapters with Belgrade,” he added, referring to the list of topics that are negotiated between the European Commission and a candidate country. The breakthrough says much too about the commitment by Mogherini and her predecessor, Catherine Ashton, to establishing a rapprochement between Belgrade and Prishtina. Both have invested much time in mending those ties. Of course, Brussels has a big interest in closing this long chapter of violence and animosity. Only with closure and substantial reforms will foreign investors return to the region and will prospects for joining the EU rise. Merkel made those points a year ago during a summit with Western Balkan leaders in Berlin and again when she visited Belgrade in July 2015. “Merkel’s visit to Belgrade was crucial. Germany’s support for supporting the rapprochement between Serbia and Kosovo and the region’s integration to the EU is just so important,” Licht said. The hope now is that the European Commission will begin accession talks with Serbia. “The signing of the accord just before the Vienna summit is no coincidence,” said István Gyarmati, president of the International Center for Democratic Transition. “It sends a clear message to the leaders there about the political will of Serbia and Kosovo to normalize relations. The EU should open a few chapters with Serbia.”

Now that would be good news.

Judy Dempsey is a nonresident senior associate at Carnegie Europe and editor in chief of Strategic Europe

Inside Kacanik, Kosovo’s jihadist capital (The Telegraph, by Colin Freeman, Chief Foreign Correspondent, 23 August 2015)

Tiny town boasts only 30,000 people, yet two dozen local men have gone to fight jihad in Iraq and Syria

Nestling in a wooded valley that its citizens laid their lives down to defend, the town of Kacanik in southern Kosovo is fiercely proud of its war dead. Well-kept cemeteries include nearly 100 victims of Serb-led ethnic cleansing in 1999, while in the town centre, a statue clutching an RPG honours fallen members of Brigade 162 of the Kosovo Liberation Army. But a decade and a half on from the war that brought about Kosovo’s independence, there is rather less pride in Kacanik’s new crop of warriors. In the last three years, some 24 local menfolk have gone to fight for jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, giving the town of just 30,000 people an unwanted reputation as the jihadist capital of the Balkans. To add to the sense of shame, one of them, a 25-year-old recruiter named Lavdrim Muhaxheri, has committed atrocities as gruesome as any of those carried out in Kacanik in 1999, when British troops unearthed a mass grave containing 81 bodies. Last summer, in an act that sent shockwaves across Kosovo, Muhaxheri posted Facebook pictures of himself apparently beheading another man suspected of spying against the Islamic State. Another shows him executing a Syrian man using an RPG. “Muhaxheri has given Kacanic a name as the most radical city in Kosovo, if not the whole Balkans,” said Musli Verbani, a local imam, who claims that hardliners forced him from Kacanik’s Islamic Association four years ago. “I warned that this kind of thing was coming, but no-one listened.” Kosovo, of course, is not alone among European nations in acquiring its own equivalent to Britain’s Jihadi John. But for a nation of just 1.8 million people, it now punches well above its weight in terms of the number of citizens joining Isil. The interior ministry estimates that some 300 Kosovans have followed in Muhaxheri’s’ footsteps, making Kosovo Europe’s biggest contributor per capita. Along with neighbouring Albania, which has fielded around 200, and nearby Bosnia, which around 160, it is now seen as a potential launch pad for Isil in its bid to establish a new front against Europe in the Balkans. What also alarms Western security officials, though, is why any Kosovans would join Isil’s fanatics at all. After all, back in 1999, it was the West that rescued Kosovo’s mainly Muslim population, with Nato bombing raids that halted the campaign of ethnic cleansing by Serb extremists. Since then it has been staunchly pro-Western, with the capital, Pristina, boasting both a statue of Bill Clinton and a road named after George W Bush, who was president when Kosovo formally gained independence in 2008. There are even young Kosovans named “Tony” in honour of Tony Blair. Most Kosovans also follow moderate Islam that allows bars on the same street as mosques, and which is enshrined in a new constitution promoting the diversity suppressed during Communism. Yet those same liberal values have also allowed less tolerant voices to flourish, including hardline Islamic charities that arrived during the chaotic post-civil war years. Such is the foothold of radicalism in towns like Kacanik that last week, its modest town hall received a personal visit from Kosovo’s interior minister, Skender Hyseni. “Kosovo is a multi-cultural state, not a terrorist one,” he told assembled officials, speaking at a conference table decked out with the American and Kosovan flags. “Those going overseas are joining groups that spread violence and terror.” In its defence, the Kosovan government argues that other European nations actually have higher rates of radicalisation if it is counted per head of Muslim population.

But since Muhaxheri’s shocking Facebook post last summer, Mr Hyseni has backed words with action, arresting around 100 suspected extremists, including the grand mufti of the main central mosque in Pristina. Prosecutions are already pending of various recruiting networks, including one that passed messages via go-betweens at a kebab shop near the Bill Clinton statue. It is, however, already too late, according to Mr Verbani, the Kacanik imam. A former KLA fighter, he personifies the moderate face of Kosovan Islam. He studied in Cairo and speaks fluent Arabic, yet looked just like another drinker in the cafe bar where he met The Telegraph, wearing neither a beard nor robes. It was precisely that secular outlook that he found himself having to defend as far back as 2006, when a confrontation with a young local radical named Jeton Raka turned violent. “At first Jeton was just another good Kacanik kid, but he became more extremist by the day,” said Mr Verbani. “He said the government of Kosovo was against faith, and that school taught children to be unbelievers. I told him he couldn’t speak like that at my mosque, and eventually he came to my house, saying ‘I will burn you and your family’, and petrol bombed my car. Even then, though, the municipality and the police didn’t help me.” Raka is now believed to be in Syria along with Muhaxheri, while the government crackdown has largely driven the rest of Kacanik’s radical fringe out of town. Even so, locals remain reluctant to talk about the town’s most infamous son, although in such a small community, most know someone now fighting abroad. Among them is Sadek Dema whose nextdoor neighbour, Hetem Dema, 41, was killed in January after apparently going to fight with Isil’s rival al-Qaeda faction Jabat al-Nusra. “He fought in the KLA and was always a good and religious man, although he never showed signs of being radical,” said Mr Dema, as Hetem’s five year-old son, Harith, cycled past on his bicycle. “Nobody is my father now,” Harith shouted out, before Mr Dema could usher him out of earshot. “Now my uncles look after me.” Quite why Kacanik in particular has become such a hotbed of radicalism is unclear. Some cite its closeness to the border with Macedonia, where they say hardline preachers remain unchecked. Others blame the same lack of prospects that blight everywhere in Kosovo, where the annual GDP is only £2,500 and where youth unemployment is up to 60 per cent. That same poverty, they also point out, has made Kosovo fertile ground for Islamic charities from the likes of Saudi Arabia, which offer education and welfare programs but also peddle a hardline vision. Arbana Xharra, a Kosovan journalist who has investigated their activities, says that anyone who speaks ill of them can find themselves denounced and threatened as “Islamophobic”. “I’ve had to change my kids’ school after I got messages online from people saying they would cut my children’s throats – they even knew what time they went to class,” she said. Like many moderate Kosovans, she also points the finger at Turkey, whose Islamist government has funded networks of mosques across its Ottoman-era provinces of Kosovo, Bosnia and Albania. And while the Turkish government has denied recent claims that has offered tacit support for Isil in Syria, Kosovans are not the only ones to voice concerns. One senior diplomat from a moderate Arab regime recently told The Telegraph that radicalism would foster in the Balkans as long as Turkey’s influence remained unchecked. “The EU’s best chance s to get countries Kosovo and Albania into its club,” he warned. That is a view echoed by Ramadan Ilazi, Kosovo’s 30-year-old deputy minister for EU integration, who says the EU is being too slow in accepting Kosovo’s membership bid. Kosovo’s constitution, he says, is everything that a liberal EU bureaucrat could want, complete with a national anthem that has only music rather than words so “as not to offend anyone”. Yet to this day, Kosovans cannot even travel to Europe without visa, giving small town youth in places like Kacanik little chance to broaden their horizons. “Kosovo was built as an antidote to nationalism and the causes of the war,” said Mr Ilazi, who has a picture on his office wall of him shaking President Clinton’s hand as a 14-year-old boy. “But when people don’t see tangible results of their desire to become part of Europe, that allows radicals to suggest that Europe doesn’t want us.” Still, with Kosovo still also suffering problems with corruption and organised crime, and with Brussels suffering enlargement fatigue, most estimates are that it may be another decade before Pristina enters the Brussels club. That, gives the radicals plenty more time to urge men in towns like Kacanik to head East rather than West.

Bosnian Serb Leader Slams Naser Oric Indictment (BIRN, by Denis Dzidic, 31 August 2015)

The president of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska has called the war crimes indictment of former Bosnian Army general Naser Oric “a farce” that will inevitably end in acquittal. Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik told reporters in Banja Luka on Sunday that Oric was only charged now after so many years because of the impending referendum planned by the Republika Srpska parliament that will question the powers of state-level judiciary in the entity. Oric, who led Bosniak forces in battles against Serb troops in Srebrenica, was arrested in June on the French-Swiss border at the request of the Serbian prosecution, which suspects him of involvement in war crimes, but was ultimately extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina, not to Serbia. He was charged on Thursday with killing three Serb prisoners of war in 1992. But Dodik said Oric should have been prosecuted in Belgrade. “If all the state-level judiciary cares about is justice, then why didn’t they let Serbia prosecute Oric, instead of this case we have now, where in the end he will be set free because there will be no evidence and no witnesses, since they have all died,” Dodik said. Oric has already been acquitted of war crimes against Serbs in the Srebrenica area by the Hague Tribunal in 2008, when the UN-backed court ruled that he did not have control over the Bosnian Army which committed the crimes. The former commander told Bosnia’s biggest-selling newspaper Dnevni Avaz last week that he “believes in justice”, but refused to speak about the indictment itself. His lawyer Vasvija Vidovic told BIRN after the indictment was raised that she will seek to overthrow the charges on the grounds that the case has already been heard by the Hague Tribunal. “I think this is illegal, because he was already acquitted of these crimes by the Tribunal. This is a double prosecution and we will try to get this case rejected on these grounds,” said Vidovic. The new indictment has been strongly criticised by Srebrenica’s Bosniak mayor Camil Durakovic, who described the former general as a “hero”. But Serbia’s chief war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told media that his office has very strong evidence against Oric, and that he will cooperate in any way possible with his Bosnian colleagues to make sure that the former commander is ultimately convicted. “All victims of war crimes must receive satisfaction through criminal proceedings,” said Vukcevic. Stasa Kosarac, a Serb lawmaker in the Bosnian parliament, told media at the weekend that Republika Srpska would follow Oric’s case intently. “Every hearing in this process will be closely monitored because no one in Republika Srpska, in particular the families of war victims, can be satisfied with the scope of the indictment, which covers three victims from three different villages instead of more than 3,500 Serb victims and more than 100 burned Serb villages in the Podrinje municipalities,” Kosarac said. Oric’s alleged crimes took place three years before the 1995 attack on Srebrenica by the Bosnian Serb army, when more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in massacres later defined as genocide by international and domestic courts.