LOCAL PRESS

First post-war Serbian-Albanian dialogue south of the Ibar (Politika)

The time has come for us to forgive each other, we are mature and responsible enough for each of us to be able to preserve its own truth and identity, the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said yesterday at a gathering devoted to building Serbian-Albanian relations held in the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica. His Albanian collocutors, including the Kosovo Assembly speaker Kadri Veseli, former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj and deputy of the opposition movement Self-Determination Ilir Deda, were not so openly conciliatory minded. Veseli complained about lack of communication with the Serbs in the north, while Haradinaj reiterated that Serbs must recognize Kosovo. The conference that gathered seven Serb representatives, seven Albanian politicians and public figures, and seven foreign diplomatic representatives form four countries – Russia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Croatia – was a very unusual gathering for Kosovo circumstances. By taking part in this gathering, Djuric has become the first official from Belgrade who arrived in southern Kosovska Mitrovica after 16 years. Only two weeks ago, as a reminder, he was banned to enter Kosovo, so some Albanian journalists asked how it was possible for Djuric to arrive in southern Mitrovica despite this ban. The conference was held in the premises of TV Mitrovica, owned by the famous Kosovo analyst Nexhmedin Spahiu, with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Pristina. According to Djuric, neither Serbs nor Albanians will be successful if there is no reconciliation. “The time has come for us to talk but not by constantly pointing out – you that you are a republic, and we that you are a province, because we will never agree on this,” said Djuric. Veseli stated that “everybody knows that no major inter-ethnic incident has been recorded since 2008 in Kosovo”. He stressed that Serbia’s presence is not a problem, but lack of communication with the Serbs in the north. The Kosovo government will have enough money in the budget for all Serbs who wish to return, he said. The representative of the British Embassy Ruairi O’Connell stressed that the people are interested in the bridge in Mitrovica and the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO). The Head of the Russian Office in Pristina Andrey Lisovoy thinks that the reconciliation process will depend on how minority rights, i.e. Serbs’ rights will be protected. “The movements of the Serbs in the assembly should not be undermined, attacks on displaced, and on the Decani Monastery should not occur. We have high hopes for the ZSO,” said the Russian envoy. Haradinaj and Deda pointed out that relations between Serbs and Albanians are in transition and that the EU is very unsuccessful in the Balkans. Deda even noted that relations between Serbs and Albanians are unfriendly, which is also confirmed in politics.

Political murders before court? (Novosti)

Apart from the cases linked to war crimes in Kosovo and Metohija from the report of the former Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty, the special court in Kosovo will also examine political murders in the province. According to announcements from Kosovo political circles, UNMIK and EULEX have prepared all files related to political murders after 1999, which will be investigated by the special court. The Albanian media in Pristina also quoted the names of murdered officials of the DSK, which was founded by Ibrahim Rugova. According to sources close to judicial organs, many of the names from the Albanian leadership in Kosovo that are mentioned in Marty’s report, are also in the files related to political murders, i.e. liquidation of prominent public figures in Kosovo.

Montgomery speaks about Yellow House at international conference “Media Freedom” (Novosti)

Newsweek’s first international conference dubbed “Media Freedom” started in Belgrade. The conference started with an introductory note by the Newsweek editor-in-chief Milorad Ivanovic. The stand was also taken by US journalist Michael Montgomery, who is also a producer at the Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco, thanks to whose reporting the public learned about the horrible murders of Serbs and extraction of their organs in the Yellow House in northern Albania. Montgomery told how he discovered this, how the details of the entire case reached the public, but also The Hague, how the identity of Albanian witnesses was disclosed, but also how the evidence was destroyed.

Serbia, Austria, Hungary, Macedonia sign memorandum on border protection (Tanjug)

The ministers of foreign affairs of Serbia, Austria, Hungary and Macedonia signed in Ohrid on Friday the memorandum of understanding and cooperation in the sector of border protection which envisages setup of mixed patrols and investigative police teams of signatory countries. The memorandum envisages that the mixed patrol should be deployed on the borders between Serbia and Hungary, Serbia and Macedonia and Macedonia and Greece, and the aim of this measure is to counter criminal acts of human trafficking and illegal border crossing through improved border control, states the release. “This is a clear step which shows that signatories want to do all they can to become a part of the global and purposeful solution for the dramatic increase of the number of refugees,” Serbian Foreign Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said after the signing of the memorandum. He noted that the EU needs to find a comprehensive solution as soon as possible and that it is not realistic to expect Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary as exclusively transit countries, to withstand the greatest burden of migrations. This is a problem of Europe, not only its member countries, but also of the entire Europe, Stefanovic said.

REGIONAL PRESS

Tegeltija: Access to war crimes files provided to OSCE (Nezavisne)

The B&H High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (VSTS) issued a conclusion allowing the OSCE Mission the access to war crimes cases in order to conduct the independent analysis, stated the President of the VSTS Milan Tegeltija. He pointed out that this conclusion corresponds with the opinion of HJPC from 2006. Tegeltija explained to the journalists that they have received two letters of which the first is of the Collegium of the B&H Prosecutor’s Office and the other from the OSCE Mission to B&H. “Our position on the request of the OSCE Mission to B&H for war crimes approach for the implementation of independent analysis corresponded with the opinion of HJPC since 2006 and the B&H should act in accordance with this opinion,” said Tegeltija. Commenting on the position of the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina that they remain of the opinion that the statements of this judicial institution circulated to the media yesterday, Tegeltija pointed out that all judicial institutions are independent and autonomous in their work. “This is an expert analysis and I suppose that it will make an overview of the situation, and draw the attention to what is possibly good and what is bad. The OSCE will present its opinion, but what will happen after that is hard to predict,” added Tegeltija. Members of the VSTS considered that the request of the OSCE to conduct an independent analysis of war crimes cases trialed by the Prosecutor and the Court is in accordance with the opinion of the Court of B&H, under which the OSCE is allowed the access to the files. However, the Collegium of the Prosecutor recently announced that the access to the documents at the request of the OSCE should not be granted, reminded on the independence of the judiciary and pointed out the consequences that this act might have for the future work of this institution in war crimes cases.

The entire B&H joined the help to Syrian refugees in Serbia (novo vrijeme)

Pomozi.ba collected around 700 tons of help, which will be sent to Syrian refugees who are currently in Serbia. Action “Once we, now they” was launched on 1st September and now the entire country is involved in it. Elvir Karalic from the Association Pomozi.ba said that a large influx of refugees to B&H is not expected, so association will distribute the entire help to Serbia.

“What is happening to refugees from the countries of the Middle East we consider as a human tragedy that, in one way, provokes our moral and dignity, this is an attack on the humanity“, as said from Pomozi.ba. “As citizens of a country that passed through a very similar period in its recent history, we have to be sensitive at this category of displaced persons, we are currently dealing with consequences of the tragedy, and unfortunately we are not able to solve the cause. Our focus is on the basic life necessities. We are planning to visit Subotica, Belgrade, Presevo and Kanjiza at the end of September, because according to field information, the largest number of people is concentrated in those places.” Action was joined by associations Nahla from Sarajevo and Tuzla, ABC and skippers from Una, Humanitarian guard of the Salt city Tuzla, and in the next few days, cooperation with other cities as well is expected. The funds raised in this campaign will be used for the purchase of the necessary articles from domestic companies.

Markert: Dodik’s referendum is against European standards (factor.ba)

Secretary of the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe for constitutional issues, Thomas Markert said that the Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik is not right when claiming that the referendum issue related to the status of the Court and Prosecutor’s Office of B&H is in accordance with the European standards. Contrary, emphasized he, it is completely inconsistent with the European standards, as well as the Venice Commission. “The most important element of the referendum is that the referendum question has to be neutral and must not suggest an answer. But, the referendum question formulated by Dodik suggests only one answer, thus it is neither objective nor neutral“, emphasized Markert. He emphasized that they do not agree with the opinion that the Law on the Court of B&H is not constitutional, because, reminded he, the Venice Commission said that it is necessary to have a court on the state level. In this regard, he emphasized that the state based on the rule of law cannot exists if there is no court at the state level, i.e. the court that can make decisions on whether certain acts concerning citizens are legal or not. Although, added he, it is not directly stated in the Constitution, it is necessary to have a court at the state level. Venice Commission, he said, it is not generally against the referendum but, he reminded that consequences of the referendum have to be clear, as well as the referendum question, which means that it must be clear for people who are voting, for which outcome they are voting. “Besides that, this referendum question is something that should be solved at the state, not entity level“, said Markert. Also, he added that there is a Code of a good practice on referendums of the Venice commissions and stated a passage by which “the questions for which t is being voted has to be clear, must not be misleading, must not suggest an answer, and voters have to be informed on effects, i.e. consequences of the referendum. Also, voters should answer on the questions with simple answers, yes, no or to leave the free space, i.e. empty vote”.

Ferguson: Republika Srpska it’s here to stay, so can we move on now? (Nezavisne)

(Article written by the British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Edward Ferguson)

During my first year here, I have been struck by just how much political energy in the RS is spent on worrying about imagined threats to its continued existence. Political speeches have little to say about the really serious problems facing ordinary people in Republika Srpska (RS), and across Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), with a struggling economy, high unemployment and rampant corruption. Instead, a picture is painted of an RS beset by enemies, domestic or foreign. This is the politics of insecurity, not of hope. But this insecurity is at least excessive and, in my view, needless.

The reality is that there is no threat to the continued existence of the RS. Yes, there are occasional calls by Bosniaks, Croats or others for its abolition. But these are just as unacceptable as Serb attempts to undermine the State judicial institutions or to promote secession. Under Dayton, B&H is a country of two Entities and, with the UK and our partners as guarantors of the Peace Agreement, that’s how it will stay. Ok, so it’s true that, in the past, we have seen the transfer of some competences from the Entities to the State, with the support of the international community. There were, and there remain, good reasons for that, which is why these changes were endorsed at the time by the B&H Parliament, and the Serb representatives in it. Objectively speaking, there are still strong arguments in favour of more centralization in certain areas. Done well, it would strengthen coherence, raise standards and improve efficiency. It would reduce the focus on ethnicity, and increase the focus on effective service delivery. But – and this is the important bit – we, together with our EU and US partners, have said very clearly that we are not going to impose a centralizing agenda. We are prepared to work with the system as it is, not as we might like it to be. If you don’t believe me, look at our actions. Through the UK/German initiative, now the EU strategy, we have been absolutely consistent and clear that reforms should be implemented by the appropriate levels of government, in line with their constitutional competences. And the lion’s share of the work falls to the Entities, not to the State. I was there when the British and German Foreign Ministers gave this assurance very clearly to leading politicians on all sides. And it’s there, repeatedly, in the Written Commitment – signed by political leaders, and endorsed by Parliament. It’s also quite clear from the Reform Agenda itself, which was finally agreed by the RS Government on 24 July. The State and Federation Governments had been ready and waiting since June, and the Federation Government was quick to respond, successfully passing the long-awaited new labour law. We hope and expect that the RS Government will now follow suit as quickly as possible, which will open the door to over a billion euros of financial support to B&H from the EU and the IMF. It is fantastic that we now have an ambitious and positive reform agenda on the table. They won’t be easy or pain-free, but these reforms are desperately needed to stabilize the economy, to create new jobs, particularly for young people, and to strengthen the justice system. Implementing the reforms will take leadership, courage and focus. That’s good, because hopefully there will be less time and energy for the political rivalries that have held this country back, while its neighbours have moved ahead towards the EU and NATO. The reform agenda holds out the prospect of a new, more cooperative and constructive politics in B&H. Its successful implementation will need everyone to realize that the only secure, prosperous and European future for the citizens of the RS lies within a secure, prosperous and European B&H. And, by the same token, that the only way that B&H can succeed is if all its citizens are working together, for the benefit of everyone – whether they live in the Federation or in the RS. Let’s be clear. Accepting the entity structure in B&H doesn’t mean that nothing will change. Costs must be cut because the public sector is unaffordable. And if B&H is to join the EU, as we all hope it will, then change is inevitable. At some point, that will include constitutional change, just as it has done for other recent EU members like Croatia. Dayton was never designed to be set in stone. But the point is that these changes can only be made by constitutional means. This means that the RS has not just a vote, but a veto – albeit one that I hope will in future be used more sparingly and responsibly. In other words, the RS will endure unless it decides to vote itself out of existence. I for one can’t see that happening in the foreseeable future, so perhaps everyone can afford to relax a bit. The RS President Dodik said recently that the international community should accept reality. That we should stop denying the RS. And that in return the RS will not deny B&H. Fine. We accept reality. We support the right of the RS to exist, as we have said many times before. More than that, we want it to succeed and to thrive, together with the rest of B&H, and we’re ready to help it to do so. So I sincerely hope that the RS will now drop this unnecessary and unconstitutional referendum. And that we can get on and work constructively together on the reforms, including in the justice sector, which we all agree are so urgently needed.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Kosovo Organ-Trafficking: How the Claims were Exposed (BIRN, by Marija Ristic, 4 September 2015)

A memo written in 1999 by journalist Michael Montgomery, who investigated alleged organ-trafficking by Kosovo guerrillas after the war, ultimately led to the establishment of a new war crimes court.

Seaking at a conference on freedom of the media in Belgrade on Thursday, American investigative journalist Michael Montgomery recalled how his investigation into wartime crimes by Serbian fighters in 1999 led him to uncover allegations about the trafficking of the organ of prisoners who had been abducted by the Kosovo Liberation Army. Fifteen years later, these allegations led to the establishment of a new internationally-backed special court which will be set up in the coming months by the Kosovo authorities, to be based both in the former Serbian province and in the Netherlands. As Balkans correspondent for the London-based Daily Telegraph, Montgomery covered the conflicts in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, then returned to Kosovo after the war in July 1999 to co-produce a major radio documentary, ‘Massacre at Cuska’, which documented the killings of Kosovo Albanian villagers by Serbian forces. “At that time we heard that there were people – Serbs, Roma, some Kosovo Albanians – killed by Kosovo Liberation Army, and they simply vanished and it was very strange and we started looking into that,” Montgomery told the conference in Belgrade organised by US magazine Newsweek. “And because of our work in Cuska, we got very good sources on the Kosovo Albanian side and we started talking with low levels of the KLA and they started telling us these stories of captured civilians being moved across the border to Albania,” he continued. “My sources were low-level KLA guys who were drivers or were in vehicles when these people were driven. But as these were the low-level guys they didn’t know the whole picture.” According to Montgomery, he and his team didn’t have enough corroboration to publish a story, but they did produce a memo which they sent to UN Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, which was the administrative authority in Kosovo after the war ended in June 1999. “We had multiple sources but not everything lined up. We had people who heard that people have been taken away for their kidneys. There were couple of houses we were able to locate where these things allegedly happened, but we decided we didn’t have enough information to publish and that at the time our evidence didn’t support the allegations,” he said. The memo they sent to UNMIK went to the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, which was then investigating crimes committed during the Kosovo war. In 2004, Montgomery accompanied a joint team of investigators from the ICTY and UNMIK on a visit to a farmhouse near the Albanian town of Burrel. It was alleged that Serb prisoners were taken by KLA fighters to the farmhouse, now widely known as the ‘Yellow House’, to have their organs harvested for sale. The team found medical equipment, including syringes, intravenous drip bags, and stomach tranquilisers at the Yellow House. However, this evidence was later destroyed by the ICTY after the investigation was dropped because there was not enough proof to mount prosecutions. Montgomery’s initial investigation only become public when the ICTY’s former prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, published his original memo in her memoirs in 2009. “It doesn’t name us but says the information came from reliable journalists. Carla del Ponte was very frustrated with the failure of the ICTY to prosecute KLA leaders and there was a lot of intimidation of witnesses. I think she put information in the book because she wanted to spark an investigation, and it did,” Montgomery explained.

The EU investigates

After Del Ponte published her book, the Council of Europe set up a team lead by rapporteur Dick Marty, who in 2011 published a report saying that evidence was mounting that groups including senior KLA guerrillas had been part of an organ-harvesting and trafficking network operating from a villa in the town of Fushe Kruje, Albania, which was part of an established network.

Some ethnic Serbs and Albanians were killed there, the report alleges, after which their kidneys were removed. The report also details other alleged human rights abuses by elements connected to the KLA, as well as “a nexus” between KLA elements and organised crime. After the report, the EU set up a task force which conducted a three-year investigation into the allegations and a released its own report which said there was evidence to prosecute unnamed senior Kosovo Liberation Army officials for crimes against humanity including abductions and murders committed after the 1999 conflict. It also said that there were “compelling” indications that KLA fighters had been involved in organ-trafficking, although only on a very limited scale with a few individuals involved. “A small number of individuals were killed for the purpose of extracting and trafficking their organs,” the task force report said. These findings provided the basis for prosecutions at the new war crimes court. The new ‘specialist chambers’, as they are diplomatically described in the legislation adopted by Kosovo MPs last month, are expected to be up and running and to take on their first cases in the first half of next year. They are due to try former KLA fighters for their alleged involvement in the killings, abductions, illegal detentions and persecution of Serbs, Roma and Kosovo Albanians believed to be collaborators with the Serbian regime or political opponents of the KLA leadership. Organ trafficking is not directly mentioned in the legislation passed by the Kosovo parliament enabling the new court to be established. But it does say that people can be prosecuted for “subjecting persons who are in the power of an adverse party to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are neither justified by medical, dental or hospital treatment”. Montgomery said that the Serbian public broadcaster RTS did a lot of harm to the investigation by publishing the names of two of the witnesses in a report that was broadcast and published online in 2009. “The RTS article appeared right after the book and it names them, two confidential witnesses, two Albanians who witnessed the events in the Albanian town of Kukes, and I don’t know why the media outlet would name two confidential witnesses, and in a story which is about Serbia and Serbian victims,” Montgomery said. “I don’t know why they did it, but they did and put people at risk, and at that point the stories exploded,” he added. According to Montgomery, the UN and NATO should take some responsibility for what happened after the Kosovo war because “this happened on their watch”. “They are not responsible for the killings but they had legal authority over the areas where this happened,” he said.

Serbia PM demands EU finds solution to migrant crisis (euronews, 3 September 2015)

Serbia’s prime minister had warned of “huge problems” with migrants once Hungary deploys its military on its border with Serbia. Aleksandar Vucic spoke during a visit with Bavarian Minister for European Affairs Beate Merk to a reception centre for migrants in northern Serbia, near the border with Hungary. Vucic said Serbia is ready to share its part of the burden, but wants a comprehensive solution from the EU. He has urged the European Union to come up with a plan before and new measures take effect on September 15. “Their dream is to cross the border with Hungary, and then, they don’t know what might happen, but it doesn’t matter — that’s their dream. But after that, after 15th of September, when Hungarians change their bills on — I don’t know what will be the name of that bill — when they are going to ban entrance for all these refugees, what are we going to do with this situation?,” Vucic said. Merk warned that the German state of Bavaria will not allow economic migrants in, only those seeking refugee status. “…we are also calling on all European countries – we have 28 member states – to be prepared to take in refugees, and not to leave it to just a few countries as has been the case so far,” said Merk. Meanwhile hundreds of migrants boarded a train in the Macedonian border town of Gevgelija to continue their journeys further north to Serbia and onwards to Western Europe.

EU-hopeful Serbia says ready discuss taking quota of migrants (Reuters, 4 September 2015)

Serbia said on Friday it was ready to discuss taking in a quota of migrants, sharing the burden with the European Union that it wants to join. Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said Serbia was “prepared to speak about” taking in a quota of migrants, as per a tentative EU plan between the bloc’s 28 members. “As a country that wants to be a member of the EU, this is a good time to show we are prepared for that task,” he said, speaking in English. Stefanovic expressed concern at the effects of planned Hungarian measures to effectively seal Hungary’s border to migrants crossing from Serbia as of Sept. 15. “This is not helpful in terms of stopping migration,” he told Reuters in the Macedonian lakeside town of Ohrid. “The only question is how we deal with this and how we are prepared to accept them.” (Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Louise Ireland)