LOCAL PRESS

Mihajlovic: Goal of protest in Pristina is not to form the war crimes court (RTS)

On the occasion of last night’s events in Sarajevo, the Director of Radio Belgrade Milivoje Mihajlovic has told the morning news of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) that fear from terrorist attacks in the Balkans is always present. “There are hundreds of people in this region who are fighting in Syria as members of the Islamic State or El Nusra. That is why we need serious regional cooperation and Belgrade has commenced the cooperation process,” notes Mihajlovic. Commenting the protests in Pristina, Mihajlovic, a longtime reporter from Kosovo and Metohija, thinks that they are not an alibi for non-implementing the Brussels agreement. “I think that at issue is an attempt to create controlled chaos, and the main goal is to prevent the formation of the special war crimes court. The people who organized this think they will be able to provoke incidents in the town,” says Mihajlovic. He adds that this gives an alibi to Thaqi and the people in the top leadership in Pristina. “This is an already seen scenario when it comes to Pristina,” says Mihajlovic. He says that the cycle of talks in Brussels, if the Kosovo Constitutional Court decides that the Community of Serb Municipalities is not in line with the Constitution, can go back several steps. “From the very beginning, Pristina has not wanted to implement what doesn’t suit it, while Belgrade wants lasting peace,” explains Mihajlovic. He says that the Community of Serb Municipalities will be formed in one way or another, regardless of the Court’s decision. “I am sure that the dialogue will resume, since Europe has invested in it a great deal,” said Mihajlovic.

Drecun: Serbia has good cooperation with NATO (Beta)

Serbia has good cooperation with NATO even without membership in this organization, member of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Defense and Interior Affairs Milovan Drecun said on the occasion of the visit of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “My stand is that we should not change the position of military neutrality, but we want cooperation with all organizations, and NATO is a priority due to our surroundings,” Drecun told Beta. According to him, even if there was will for Serbia to join this military alliance, it could not be admitted because it is treated as a country that has an unresolved territorial issue over Kosovo’s status. Drecun voiced assurance that international security topics would also be examined during Stoltenberg’s visit. He says that this visit is within the framework of regular consultations and activities of the Secretary General towards partner countries, but international terrorism and the migrant crisis will be certainly examined. He notes that Serbia is a NATO partner country that reached the highest form of cooperation without membership in the alliance. Drecun notes that KFOR in Kosovo is NATO’s largest contingent, adding that KFOR presently represents the most important protection mechanism of the Serb people in Kosovo.

Serbia-EU inter-government conference planned for 15 December (Novosti)

Consensus has been reached among the EU member states to open the first negotiating chapters with Belgrade, and 15 December has been set as the initial date of an inter-government conference where this will be made official. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic confirmed to Novosti that a meeting between the Serbian and EU leadership is planned for mid-December, and the exact date for opening the first chapters will be known in the next several days. Dacic says that Serbia will most probably start negotiations with the EU with Chapters 35 and 32 that refer to normalization of relations with Pristina and financial control. According to Novosti, Jean Asselborn, the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, which chairs the EU by the end of the year, plans to organize the inter-government conference on the margins of the meeting of the European Council Foreign Affairs Council, scheduled to take place in Brussels on 14, 15 December.

Vulin: Economic migrants cannot enter Serbia (RTS/Tanjug)

Economic migrants coming from the direction of Macedonia cannot enter Serbia, Serbian Minister of Social Affairs Aleksandar Vulin stated on Thursday. Croatia and Slovenia have decided not to offer hospitality to these people because the countries they come from are not ravaged by war, he explained. “We have to protect our own country and therefore we have introduced reciprocal measures,” Vulin told reporters. He warned that the problem has to be solved along the entire migrant route, stressing that any unilateral moves could be harmful and cause problems. He said that at this point there are around 1,000 migrants in Sid, northwestern Serbia, who are waiting for transport.

NSPM: Euro-enthusiasm dropping, support to Russia growing (Politika)

The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) continues to have the greatest support of voters in Serbia, which is followed by the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and the Democratic Party (DS), the latest survey conducted by the New Serbian Political Thought (NSPM) has shown. If elections were to be held on Sunday, 63.4 percent of voters would turn out for them. If the votes of the undecided would be proportionally distributed, the survey shows that the SNS would receive 45.8 percent, the SPS 10.4 percent, the DS 9.4 percent and the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) 5.8 percent. No other party would cross the census, while the Dveri Movement would be close to this threshold with 4.5 percent. Djordje Vukadinovic, NSPM editor-in-chief, explains the “relative leap of the SNS” (small leap compared to the drop noted in September) as “result of strengthened rhetoric and debate with Brussels regarding Kosovo, exchange of fire with Zagreb regarding migrants and the debate with Brussels regarding Chapter 35”. Vukadinovic says that the survey had been conducted mostly by telephone, and Serbian citizens are not prone to give low grades this way and are less critical towards the authorities than when the survey is conducted in the field. Citizens most trust Aleksandar Vucic (34.6 percent), then Ivica Dacic (4.5), Vojislav Seselj (3.5), Dragan Markovic Palma (3.1)…When it comes to support to the EU, the survey has shown that Euro-enthusiasm is dropping. Asked whether they support Serbia’s EU membership, 46.8 percent of the polled had given a positive reply, while 41.5 percent said they didn’t support EU membership, and 11.7 percent didn’t have a stand on this, based on which Vukadinovic concludes that “Euro-skepticism is seriously and continuously increasing, since the number of those supporting and opposing EU membership has practically evened”. Asked whether independence of Kosovo should be recognized if this is a condition for EU membership, 76.3 percent of the polled said this should not be accepted, while 14.9 percent said this possible condition should be accepted. Still, 68.2 percent of the polled had given support to a possible alliance between Serbia and Russia, 18.9 percent opposed such an alliance, and 12.9 didn’t present their stand. Vukadinovic points out that this shows that a positive attitude towards Russia has increased, which had been otherwise high. “This is probably a result of Brussels’ pressures regarding Kosovo, and probably the increased enthusiasm over the beginning of Moscow’s operation in Syria, as well as Russia’s support regarding UNESCO,” says Politika’s interlocutor. Serbia’s NATO membership is opposed by 80.1 percent of the polled, 8.7 percent supports this, and 11.2 percent either do not have a stand or do not offer a reply. On the other side, Vukadinovic points out that, despite the campaign by the authorities, there is still great opposition to selling “Telekom”, while there is growing concern over the migrant wave. According to the survey, 71.9 percent of the polled think that the migrant wave through Serbia is an organized one, while 14.3 percent think it is spontaneous.

REGIONAL PRESS

Man kills 2 soldiers in Sarajevo, commits suicide; PM says Bosnia will protect itself (Hina)

A man opened fire at and killed two members of the B&H Army in Sarajevo on Wednesday night, after which he committed suicide, Security Minister Dragan Mektic confirmed to the local media. The killer, identified as Enes Omeragic, opened fire from a machine gun and killed two soldiers who were in a betting booth in the city’s neighborhood of Rajlovac around 8 pm, after which he opened fire at a city bus, injuring lightly three persons. The scene of the attack is close to an army barracks. The victims were identified as 26-year-old Armin Salkic and 34-year-old Nedeljko Radic, a Bosniak and a Serb. Both were drivers in a military police unit stationed at the barracks in Rajlovac. After the shooting, Omeragic escaped and hid in his house in the nearby neighborhood of Sokolje where the police located and surrounded him, after which he committed suicide just after midnight. An investigation is under way to establish if the attack was motivated by terrorism. An emergency session of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of B&H was held late on Wednesday night, with Deputy Defense Minister Boris Jerinic saying that the attack appeared to be a terrorist one. “Judging by available information, this is a terrorist attack on state institutions and the armed forces,” Jerinic told the local media. Defense Minister Marina Pendes was away on business outside the country and was being replaced by Jerinic and her other deputy, Emir Suljagic, who described the murders as a horrible crime. A coordination meeting of representatives of the country’s security services was held in the evening, but the Interior Minister of the Federation, Aljosa Campara, and Federation Police Director Dragan Lukac were adamant that the police were in charge of the situation and called on citizens to remain calm. B&H is capable of dealing with security challenges and will not allow anyone to threaten it, B&H Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic said early on Thursday morning. He added that the nature of the attack would be known after the investigation was completed. Zvizdic confirmed that the level of alert had been raised throughout the country after last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris but that additional measures would be taken to guarantee full safety to citizens. Zvizdic added that regardless of the attack, the country’s army would continue with its activities as planned. “We will not discontinue our activities,” said Zvizdic.

B&H Prosecution: Shooting in Sarajevo qualified as an act of terrorism (Klix.ba)

Yesterday’s shooting in Sarajevo in which two B&H  soldiers were killed is qualified as an act of terrorism, and further investigation will determine all circumstances relating to the perpetrator of this crime, his potential supporters, as well as the motive, B&H Prosecutor’s Office has stated.

“Prosecutor of B&H Prosecutor’s Office, together with colleagues from the Cantonal Prosecution Sarajevo, spent more than eight hours last night at the crime scene and coordinated investigative activities carried out by members of the police and security agencies,” B&H Prosecution said in the statement. B&H State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) will take over the investigation into the case of a double murder that happened in Rajlovac, Sarajevo. The investigation and all other activities are carried out on the instructions of the B&H Prosecutor’s Office. “The facts that we have collected so far indicate that there are certain elements of the crime of terrorism in this case. The police officers of SIPA, in cooperation with other police agencies, are taking all the necessary measures and actions within their competence to shed light on the whole incident,” said SIPA spokeswomen Kristina Jozic.

Jerinic: Everything alludes to a terrorist attack (Srna)

Two members of the B&H Armed Forces, one Bosniak and one Serb, were killed last night in a shootout in Rajlovac, Sarajevo, and one soldier was slightly wounded, Boris Jerinic, Deputy Minister of Defense, told Srna. “Everything alludes to this being a terrorist attack on an institution, on the state, on the Armed Forces,” said Jerinic. He added that police have located the attacker, an investigation is ongoing, and the cantonal prosecutor, members of the cantonal and Federation of B&H ministries of internal affairs, and the State Investigation and Protection Agency are on site. “We have no authority, nor can we execute any kind of investigation through our locations. We are waiting for the prosecutors and inspectors to do their job for us to have more information,” said Jerinic. He said that an emergency session of the joint staff of the Armed Forces and the Defense Ministry was underway, and additional information was expected.

Dodik: Radical Islam motivated attack in Sarajevo (Srna)

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik has said that the Wednesday attack in Sarajevo was an act of terrorism that should be condemned by everyone and that it is obvious that it was motivated by radical Islam, and that the target was accidental, not chosen. On the sidelines of the conference in Belgrade dubbed “Dayton Agreement – Two Decades of Peace and Lesson for the World,” Dodik told reporters that it was very clear that the previous warnings referring to a group of individuals in B&H that the intelligence community claims has around 3,400 members prepared to commit individual acts of terrorism, had not been taken seriously. “When we know that the so-called warriors of the self-declared Islamic State return to B&H and bring instability to the country, and that the authorities are unwilling to accept the law that provides punishment for those going to foreign battlefields, then it is clear that B&H is definitely one of the most pressing areas that is exposed to individual acts of terrorism,” said the RS president.

NATO and OSCE B&H express their condolences to the families of killed solders (Fena)

NATO Headquarters Sarajevo expressed their condolences to the families of Corporal Nedeljko Radic and the soldier of the 1st class Armin Salkic. “We are fully committed to continue to assist institutions in their efforts,” reads the statement from the NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo.

OSCE Mission to B&H also expressed condolences to the families of killed members of the B&H Armed Forces. “The representatives of the OSCE Mission in B&H will visit the Ministry of Defense today after the terrorist attack in which Armin Salkic and Nedeljko Radic, members of the B&H Armed Forces, were killed and several others were wounded,” reads the statement of the OSCE B&H. “We are deeply shocked and saddened by this attack and we express our condolences to the families of soldiers who have served their country,” said Ambassador Jonathan Moore, head of the OSCE Mission in B&H. “We call on all citizens of B&H to be calm and tolerant. We are closely following the situation and we praise the quick response by the authorities. We expect further information, while they carry out their investigation of this terrorist attack,” added Moore, announced the OSCE Mission to B&H.

Zvizdic launching the procedure of dismissal of DF ministers (Klix.ba)

The Chairman of the B&H Council of Ministers Denis Zvizdic will launch on Monday the procedure of dismissal of ministers and deputy ministers from the Democratic Front (DF), who are to be replaced by ministers from the Alliance for Better Future (SBB) in the B&H Council of Ministers. Secretary General of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Amir Zukic confirmed this information, saying that it is also being negotiated with the SBB about reconstruction of cantonal governments in the B&H Federation. After the reconstruction of executive authority at the state level, the SBB should also get ministerial and deputy ministerial posts in the Council of Ministers currently belonging to the DF. Zukic said that the reconstruction of the Council of Ministers will be completed by the end of this year. It is still not known in which way the SDA intends to execute appointments of the SBB ministers, given that the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ B&H) and Alliance for Changes also hold the state authority besides the SDA.

Serb community pays its respect to Vukovar’s innocent victims (Hina)

Representatives of the Serb National Council (SNV) and Serb organizations on Wednesday lit candles to pay their respects to all the innocents killed in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar during the 1991-95 war, with SNV president Milorad Pupovac saying it was necessary to overcome the war legacy and remember every victim. The candles were lit at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Zagreb. Zagreb-Ljubljana Metropolitan Porfirije was also present. “Here we lit candles for all the innocent victims of Vukovar, independently of nationality. Remembering the victims makes us better because with this act we don’t want to create divisions in society,” Pupovac said. “Today we paid our respects to the victims at this place and we will do it elsewhere too because every victim and innocent killed deserves to be remembered and commemorated. Nowadays, unfortunately, we treat victims differently, so some victims from the 90s war are forgotten, which certainly isn’t conducive to reconciliation,” he added.

Constitutional and legislative amendments must be done in spirit with the Ohrid Framework Agreement (Mkd.mk)

Constitutional and legislative amendments must be done to maintain the “spirit of the Ohrid Framework Agreement” provides the recommendations of the Agreement analysis. According to these recommendations, it provides formalization of Albanian as second official language and the uplifting of the Albanian community over others, reports the portal Mkd.mk. It should be prescribed guaranteed communication in the mother tongue for the Albanian community with central ministries regardless of place of residence and untreated criterion of “20% of the population at the local level.” The “smaller” communities should anticipate changes in the Law on languages ​​that communicate with the regional units ministries and will bind with the formal language of the local self-government, rejecting the criterion “20% of the population at the local level.” Thus, would be ensured consistency in the use of language to “smaller communities” between central and local levels. These are some of the recommendations made in the analysis worth 200,000 euro by the European Institute of Peace led by mediator in the conflict in 2001, Pieter Feith. Agreement for this analysis is signed by the Deputy Prime Minister for implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement Musa Xhaferi. In December, this analysis will be officially presented. The main theme of this analysis was the Law on Languages, Recommended changes in the Constitution and in some laws, mainly relating to the use of the languages ​​of the communities. For example, one of the recommendations is to amend Articles 29-30 of the Law on Languages ​​, which stipulates “personal request” in the process of issuing personal documents. That part of the provision should be deleted in process of legislative changes. For proper implementation of these recommended changes to their real application is recommended establishing translation center for the local unit, stimulating education of many translators, establishing new inspection service for the implementation of the language law, campaigns advantage of multilingualism etc. Recommendation to abolish the criterion of 20% is based on the following explanation: “this wording was contested by two aspects: 1) that the numerical criterion of 20% implies that the formal language is conditional and can be revoked (if the criterion is not realized); 2) that the failure to sign the language was “offensive” for the identity of the Albanian community in Macedonia.” Therefore, according to the analysis, it is necessary change of paragraph 2 of the amendment to Article V 7 in the Constitution. The current solution is as follows (paragraph 1 and paragraph 2): “The whole territory of the Republic of Macedonia and in its international relations the official language is the Macedonian language and the Cyrillic alphabet. Any other language spoken by at least 20% of the population is also official language and its alphabet, as specified below. ” This recommendation proposes the following solution: “The whole territory of the Republic of Macedonia and in its international relations the official language is the Macedonian language and the Cyrillic alphabet. Albanian is also official language and its alphabet, as specified below. ” Vice Prime Minister Xhaferi two years ago announced qualitative analysis, which should give detailed insight how far are we with the decentralization, equitable representation, non-discrimination, the use of language, education and representation of smaller communities and recommendations further in the implementation of the document. Since this summer, Xhaferi said that such analysis has already been done and will cost 200,000 euro. Responsible person for this analysis is the American diplomat Peter Feith, one of the mediators in the conflict in Macedonia in 2001. According to Xhaferi, there is lack of will to implement Albanian as the second official language in Macedonia and the responsibility for this lies with everyone. He believes that the issue of the use of the Albanian language should be regulated by law as lighter mechanism than changing the Constitution.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Riots in Kosovo deepen crisis over Serbia accord (Reuters, by Fatos Bytyci, 18 November 2015)

PRISTINA – Riots erupted in Kosovo on Wednesday in a deepening crisis over relations with former ruler Serbia, with protesters setting fire to garbage containers and government vehicles in the capital Pristina. A hardcore of several hundred protesters fought running battles with police, who used tear gas and armored vehicles to try to disperse them. Almost eight years after Kosovo won its independence from Serbia, the European Union is trying to smooth relations between the Balkan neighbors, but many among Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority are opposed to concessions made to Belgrade. An opposition bloc headed by prominent protest leader-turned politician Albin Kurti has repeatedly disrupted the work of parliament with tear gas and pepper spray, demanding that the government scrap an EU-brokered accord offering minority ethnic Serbs greater local powers and the possibility of some financing from Belgrade. The young country’s Constitutional Court is due to rule on the constitutionality of the accord, but on Wednesday the court was surrounded by police and bomb squad officers after a hand grenade was lobbed into its grounds. Police detonated the grenade in a controlled explosion. Hours later, when news broke that a parliamentary ally of Kurti had been ordered detained for 30 days for setting off tear gas in the chamber on Tuesday, protesters converged on the government building, lobbing rocks, bottles and petrol bombs. Police also tried to arrest Kurti at his home but he was not there. He later turned up during the protests, which as dusk fell escalated into riots. Rioters stopped government cars in the streets of Pristina, smashing and setting them alight. There was no immediate word from the government or the president. The EU, which has police officers, judges and prosecutors in Kosovo under a mandate to promote the rule of law, called for calm. “EU mission in Kosovo calls on the opposition to show respect for the institutions of the Kosovo people,” it said on Twitter. Majority-Albanian Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 1999 when NATO carried out 11 weeks of air strikes to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces trying to crush a guerrilla insurgency. It declared independence in 2008 and has been recognized by more than 100 states, including the major Western powers. Serbia, backed by its ally Russia, rejects Kosovo’s independence. Both Serbia and Kosovo aspire to join the EU eventually.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Balkan states start filtering migrant flow to Europe (Reuters, by Branko Filipovic and Kole Casule, 19 November 2015)

SID, Serbia/SKOPJE Balkan countries have begun filtering the flow of migrants to Europe, granting passage to those fleeing conflict in the Middle East and Afghanistan but turning back others from Africa and Asia, the United Nations and Reuters witnesses said on Thursday.

The move left hundreds of people stranded on borders. On Serbia’s frontier with European Union-member Croatia about 400 were denied access to a train and were halted by Croatian police as they tried to cross the border through fields, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), said. Others were stuck in no-man’s land between Macedonia and Greece, where Macedonia closed off access to all migrants regardless of nationality until a deal could be reached with Greece on how to filter them. What has become the greatest migration of people on the European continent since World War Two has deeply divided the 28-nation EU and fuelled anti-immigration sentiment across the continent. Calls by some right-wing European politicians to stop the influx have been fuelled by indications that one of the perpetrators of last week’s attacks in Paris by Islamist militants, in which 129 people died, reached Europe by infiltrating the chaotic and often unchecked flow of migrants reaching Greek shores by boat and dinghy from Turkey and heading north through the Balkans. UNHCR spokeswoman Melita Sunjic said Serbia had implemented a new approach from Wednesday: “As of 6 p.m. yesterday evening, Serbia started turning back (to Macedonia) all but Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans.” Those three nationalities make up the majority of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have trekked across the Balkans this year in the hope of reaching western and northern Europe, mainly Germany and Sweden. However, Reuters reporters on Serbia’s border with Croatia said others from Iran, Libya and Lebanon were also crossing. Migrants arrived by bus at a petrol station near the Serbian border town of Sid, where police checked their papers. A police officer said they had been told not to let those from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Somalia board trains to Croatia. Those denied further passage were taken to a nearby camp. Officials in Macedonia and Serbia said they acted after Slovenia informed them it would no longer grant access to those deemed to be “economic migrants”. “We won’t allow anyone to enter Serbia who cannot continue their journey,” Serbia’s pointman for the migration crisis, Aleksandar Vulin, told reporters. “We must protect our country and that is why we have undertaken reciprocal measures towards those for whom Slovenia and Croatia consider there is no place,” he said. A police spokesman in EU-member Slovenia confirmed Ljubljana would start returning “economic migrants” arriving through neighbouring Croatia, saying it could only grant passage to those “from countries where there are armed battles”. The Slovenian Defence Ministry said it planned to call up about 200 of a total of 914 army reservists to help control the influx. Croatia warned of a fresh risk of bottlenecks. “The problem is not big at the moment, but may increase unless tackled at the source,” Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic told reporters at a refugee transit camp in eastern Croatia.

(Additional reporting by Alexandros Avramidis in IDOMENI, Greece, Igor Ilic in ZAGREB, Ivana Sekularac in BELGRADE and Marja Novak in LJUBLJANA; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

EU Membership No Longer Attractive for Serbs (Sputnik, 19 November 2015)

The president of Republika Srpska, one of the two administrative entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, claims that EU membership might not be the best path for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

MOSCOW – EU membership might not be the best path for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the president of Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two administrative entities in BiH, told Sputnik Serbia. “Europe of regions and open borders is a lie,” Milorad Dodik said, explaining that “There was not a single reform on BiH’s path to the European Union that would not imply that RS should give up its powers.” Dodik stressed that RS should strengthen its autonomy on the path towards EU membership, although overall, Europe does not look as tempting to Serbs as it used to a couple of years ago. “I did not say that joining the European Union is completely out of question. But Europe, which is not ready to solve problems to such a high extent, is becoming less and less attractive,” the RS president said, adding that doubts regarding EU future are becoming stronger across Europe. “It’s a big question, how Europe will look like in the future,” Dodik said. The European Commission presented its annual progress reports on candidate countries for EU membership last week. The report estimated that Serbian preparation for EU accession was moderate in the majority of areas, including foreign policy. Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two autonomous entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. According to Dodik, Serbs in BiH are mostly opposed to EU membership, while Bosniaks and Croats are in favour of it.