LOCAL PRESS

Kocijancic: Preparations for new round of dialogue underway (Tanjug)

It was confirmed in Brussels on Monday that a new round of the top-level dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina would be held in late January, with the preparations being underway. “The new round of the dialogue will be held in late January. The preparations are under way, Spokeswoman for the EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Maja Kocijancic told Tanjug. An agenda is being worked out, she added. However, she could not go into details concerning the preparations or topics. As far as the date of the meeting is concerned, Brussels will make it public later in the month. Last week, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said that the Belgrade-Pristina talks would be resumed in Brussels on January 27.

If Croatia drops plans to buy weapons, so will Serbia – PM (Tanjug)

Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday Serbia will give up on buying defensive weapons “the minute Croatia says they will give up on buying offensive ones.” The Prime Minister was touring the Belgrade Waterfront project site when reporters asked “why it was announced Serbia would be buying Russian S-300 missiles rather than investing in the economy.” Vucic said Serbia was “investing its money in the economy, while it will invest nothing, or not much, in weapons if Croatia decides not to arm itself with missiles.” Vucic said that this policy will continue “for as long as he serves as Prime Minister.” Asked how much money Serbia would pay for the S-300s, he said he did not wish to comment on that, adding that the country “can solve its problems favorably – but our aim is to care for the region and peace in the region, both with the Croatians and with others.” Vucic was also asked about two Serbian nationals kidnapped in Libya in November to say they were alive, and that “citizens can expect, as soon as tomorrow, good news about the case.” A driver and a clerk of the Serbian embassy in Libya, Jovica Stepic and Sladjana Stankovic, were kidnapped by terrorists when a convoy of vehicles they were traveling in was ambushed.

Journalists protest, ask that Defense Minister be sacked (B92)

Journalists on Monday evening once again gathered to demand the dismissal of Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic over a sexist remark he made. Gasic’s offensive remark was made at B92 journalist Zlatija Labovic in early December, shortly after which Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said that the minister would be replaced. However, he still remains in office. The rallies were held yesterday for the third time in Belgrade and several other towns. Media professionals gathered in front of the government building protesting under the slogan, “Journalists don’t kneel/Prime Minister, who is Minister of Defense?” Journalist Antonela Riha read a proclamation that demanded Gasic’s dismissal, and equal treatment of women by those holding important political office, securing conditions for reporting in the interest of the public. Culture and Information Minister Ivan Tasovac has also been called to “explain what he has been doing during his mandate.” Equality Commissioner Brankica Jankovic was urged to make a statement on this issue, while Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic was asked to “say where he learned who NUNS President Vukasin Obradovic is meeting with, what he is discussing – and whether he is being followed.”

The proclamation wants owners, managers, and editors of media outlets to “resist political pressure and provide at least the minimum working rights to journalists.” Riha also announced that protests organizers do not support participation of political parties, and advised them to instead “work in the public interest and respond to questions from journalists.” About 100 and 150 people gathered for similar protests in Novi Sad and Nis, respectively. Similarly sized rallies were also held in Subotica, Sabac, Cacak, and Novi Pazar. Some of these gatherings were also attended by citizens and artists.

Dodik talks about referendum, terrorist threat (TV Pink)

RS President Milorad Dodik has said the Serb entity will hold a referendum on the work of the Court and the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). He told Belgrade-based broadcaster Pink that this topic had not been discussed during his most recent meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic. Dodik said that he on previous occasions spoke about the planned referendum with representatives of the authorities in Belgrade, “and received suggestions that it should not be held.” “We have the best relations with Serbia, whose government, unlike in previous periods, is not saying we must do something, but is instead providing suggestions and their views and is saying we should do as we think is best,” Dodik said. This particular suggestion from Belgrade, he admitted, “was one of the strongest he received” – describing at the same time “those coming from Europe” as a stereotype he will not accept. “The referendum will be held. All procedural activities have been completed, we are choosing the best day, either in March or April,” Dodik said, and added that the Serb Republic (RS) has been “the target for a long time, with persistent attempts to undermine the authority of the people who run its institutions, and the institutions themselves” – all with the aim of destabilizing the RS and making B&H a unitary state. This, according to him, is best demonstrated by the decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina to declare RS Day unconstitutional. “The dismantling of the RS had never been abandoned, it was only a question of when it will be on the agenda.” He recalled that the Republika Srpska (RS) Assembly has already said it would not implement the decision of the Constitutional Court, “because if the (RS Day) date is changed, the character of the RS would be changed as well.” The opposition in the entity, according to its president, “is against the referendum on the B&H Court and Prosecution that have been set up through unconstitutional decisions of the high representative, as they succumbed to an atmosphere created by foreigners.” Dodik also spoke about the threat of terrorism in B&H to say it was “very real” in a country with a growing number of Wahhabis. He presented data coming from “the intelligence community – and not just B&H data”- that said 3,400 inhabitants of B&H are estimated to be capable of carrying out terrorist acts. About 500 people, according to him, have already joined Islamic State, and some of them are now returning to B&H. Dodik pointed out that “many people have tried to hide the fact the killing of a policeman in Zvornik was a terrorist act.” He also stated that since the 1990s war in Bosnia 1,100 mosques have been built, with their number in Sarajevo “dramatically increased.” “In the new part of Sarajevo we have a mosque built by a prince from Saudi Arabia, where the Wahhabis gather,” Dodik said, adding: “In Ilidza and in other parts of Sarajevo Saudi investors are building apartments for people from the Arab world, and if they come, that will change the character of B&H.” The RS leader pointed out that “many Wahhabis can already be seen in public services, and one can never be sure how they will act.” According to Dodik, “these sleepers are the most dangerous story that exists in this region.”

Kosovo: Home Of Serb returnees broken, Orthodox Church ransacked (Tanjug)

A Serb home in Osojane, Istok municipality, Kosovo, has been broken into and robbed. House belongs to the Repanovic family, and it was robbed while they were away for the Christmas holidays, Kosovo’s Minister for Communities and Returns Dalibor Jevtic told Tanjug. Jevtic said that the house has been rummaged and that the police are investigating the scene. The home of the village priest was also broken into and robbed in mid-December. Jevtic vehemently condemned the perpetrators of the latest incident in the returnee village, urging the police to find those responsible. Meantime, unknown perpetrators ransacked the Church of St. Demetrios in the village of Susica near Pristina, taking the donation box with the money in it, on Monday. This is the second time since the beginning of last year that the Church of St. Demetrius in Susica has been the target of robbers. It was first pillaged on February 13 last year.

REGIONAL PRESS

Covic: Vucic sending messages of B&H’s future (Srna, Vijesti)

The messages that Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic is sending, including those he sent from Banja Luka during the Republika Srpska (RS) Day celebrations, are messages of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (B&H) future, says the Chairman of the B&H Presidency Dragan Covic. Enough room needs to be left for us to be able to continue together, and that is the only way – from Vucic’s messages from Banja Luka, I read just one: the B&H has integrity, it has its European and Euro-Atlantic future and we must use that to the full, Covic said in an interview. Asked if B&H-Serbia relations will become colder in the wake of the January 9 RS Day celebrations in Banja Luka, attended by Vucic and his cabinet, Covic replied: “I believe not.”

Izetbegovic and Radoncic met after the arrest of SBB officials (Srna)

President of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Bakir Izetbegovic and President of the Alliance for Better Future (SBB) Fahrudin Radoncic met yesterday at the premises of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), after two high officials of SBB were arrested. Izetbegovic and Radoncic met after the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) arrested Bakir Dautbasic, the long-term secretary of the Ministry of Security of B&H and the SBB candidate for the position of the minister of transportation and communications of B&H, on suspicion of obstruction of justice in criminal proceedings led by the Prosecutor’s Office of B&H and the Primary Court in Pristina against Naser Keljmendi. In the same action by the police, another member of SBB and a candidate of this political party for the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Federation of B&H on General elections 2014, Bilsena Sahman was also arrested. It is still not known what the presidents of coalition parties were talking about at the meeting which ended at 1:45 p.m. Radoncic stated yesterday that he proposed Dautbasic as the only candidate of SBB for the Minister of Transportation and Communications of B&H to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of B&H Denis Zvizdic. However, analytics warn that Dautbasic will most probably not satisfy security checks for the ministerial post, given the existence of grounds for suspicion of involvement in the obstruction of a criminal investigation.

More arrests on Islamic terrorism charges (Nezavisne)

Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) has placed three persons under arrest on suspicion of having links with radical Islamic terrorism. The arrests took place in the area of the town of Velika Kladusa on Monday. Weapons and an Islamic State flag were also discovered. The agency said three locations were searched in order to find and temporarily confiscate objects that could be used as evidence in further proceedings, and that the raids came as part of Operation Damask (Damascus). The suspects, named with their initials and year of birth – N.S. (1988), A.M. (1960) and Dz.V. (1989) – are held on suspicion that they committed the crime of illegally forming and joining foreign paramilitary or parapolice formations. SIPA said they found hand grenades, a rifle grenade, anti-personnel mines, and a large amount of ammunition, a machete, an Islamic State flag, and a plastic pattern used for painting Islamic State symbols. The operation was carried out on the order of the B&H Court and the Prosecution, in cooperation with the Una-Sana Canton police

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

‘Closed’ Serbian news agency with ties to government still publishing (EurActiv)

Tanjug, the state-owned news agency in Serbia, is still publishing two months after it should have closed down, in line with EU-backed media reforms. According to critics, the case is a blatant example of inconsistent implementation of the law by Belgrade, but also reveals a lack of transparency about the state’s influence in national media. In fact, not only is Tanjug still supplying news to the majority of the media in Serbia (and a number of other media outlets across the Balkans), but it still conducts interviews with government officials – the very people who in November backed the decision to shutter Tanjug. “My opinion is that it is possible to engage employees on contract only for (the) finalization of the tasks related to the cease of functioning of Tanjug, and not for the regular production,” media attorney Slobodan Kremenjak told FoNet.

Tanjug is close to the government, and critics fear its survival is a tactic to keep the outlet alive, whilst new state funding is found. “This means financing from the budget and (a) privileged position on the market,” Vukasin Obradovic, head of the Independent Journalist’s Association of Serbia (JAS), said in November, when it became clear that there would no attempt to regulate Tanjug. Tanjug should have closed down on 5 November, officially, following two failed rounds of privatisation aimed at all Serbian media bar the TV public broadcaster Radio Television Serbia (RTS) and Radio Television Vojvodina (RTV). Until November, Tanjug received some two million euros a year in state aid, and was close to the authorities. It also is a brand from the Communist era, with a rich archive. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stated that month that he was against the closure, saying another solution would be found. Since November, the government has injected 94.25 million dinars (766.000 Euros) into Tanjug. Tanjug, and other Serbian media, were originally given 15 months for privatization, but the Tanjug management kept a low profile during that time, neither strongly opposing privatization in public, nor undergoing serious preparations for privatization – such as decreasing the number of employees to achieve profitability. Tanjug employees were not even offered the possibility of taking shares in their company – the preferred solution in the regulations for media that did not find private investors. The authorities blamed the Tanjug management for not filing this request, but so far there have been no consequences. Now, two months after the supposed shutdown, there is no indication of a deadline for the privatization process, nor of the legal grounds for Tanjug’s current operations. “Nobody mentions the main issue, which is that Tanjug can’t pay the salaries of such a large number of employees. if they became private company they would also have to pay for the rent in a building in which they currently operate”, Blic director Veselin Simonovic said. Serbia’s national business register said last week that Tanjug was still on its Register of Companies, with 90 employees. The culture ministry referred questions about when it might be erased from the register back to Tanjug’s director, Branka Dukic. Serbia’s Directorate of Property merely said an inventory of Tanjug’s property was ongoing, and the government would decide what happens with it. Djukic herself told the Journalists’ Association of Serbia that there were numerous tasks to finalize prior to closure, such as an inventory and the financial report for 2015. She also slammed the JAS for not advocating on Tanjug’s behalf, although Tanjug itself did not speak out when other Serbian media closed down after failed privatizations.

Publish 2013 Census Data, EU Urges Bosnia (BIRN)

EU officials have told Bosnia and Herzegovina that it urgently needs to publish the final results of the census it conducted in 2013, after claims by local politicians that Sarajevo could soon apply for membership. “The European Commission attaches crucial importance to the census not only because of its relevance in the context of the EU integration process but also as an instrument to perform economic and social planning,” European Commission spokesperson Maja Kocijancic told BIRN. “The Commission deeply regrets that the final results of the census have not yet been disseminated and urges [Bosnia and Herzegovina] to complete this statistical operation with no further delay,” Kocijancic said. In recent weeks, several prominent Bosnian politicians have claimed that the country’s Council of Ministers will deliver its application for EU membership soon. “We’re presenting our application for European membership in the coming months,” Bosnian Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic told local media last week.

Zvizdic said this would happen before the end of the Netherlands’ stint as the holder of the EU’s revolving presidency ends on June 30. But the application could lack credibility if the Bosnian authorities have not published the results of the census, giving a genuine picture of the country’s current population. The Bosnian authorities conducted their first census since independence in October 2013. After more the two years however, the results have yet not been published due to a methodological disagreement between the statistical agencies in the country’s two entities, Republika Srpska and the Federation. The ethnic sensitivity of the headcount has led to an impasse meaning that so far the authorities have only been able to share some preliminary results showing the geographical distribution of the population. Mirsada Adembegovic, the spokesperson of the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told BIRN that progress was expected soon, allowing the full data to be published. “A new session of the commission which is in charge of the publication of the result of the census will be organised at the end of January and we expect that the problems concerning the methodology will be resolved,” Adembegovic said. “The law on the census clearly says that the final date for the publication of the results of the census is July 1, 2016,” she added. In order to present a successful application for EU membership, the Bosnian Council of Ministers will also have to update its Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Brussels to take into account economic relations with neighbouring Croatia in light of Zagreb’s membership of the European club. But the Bosnian government has so far refused to update the agreement, claiming that this would hurt the country’s agricultural production. As a consequence, the EU on January 1 suspended its liberalization deal with Bosnia and Herzegovina, reintroducing fees for Bosnian products sold on the European market.

Euro MPs Check Implementation of Macedonia Crisis Deal (BIRN)

The three MEPs – Ivo Vajgl, Eduard Kukan and Richard Howitt – are to arrive on Monday and have separate meetings with representatives of the four main political parties in Macedonia, aimed at ensuring that the crisis deal struck last summer is properly implemented. They are expected to highlight areas that need more work ahead of the early general elections in April which are designed to get the country out of the deep political crisis. “Their mission will be to pinpoint areas [of the agreement] where more work needs to be done. These include the cleaning up of the electoral roll [to eradicate fake voters], the freeing of media from the government’s grip, allowing the special prosecutor [tasked with investigating wiretapping cases] to work freely, the judiciary and other things,” a well-informed source close to one of the MEPs told BIRN. The MEPs are expected to prepare the ground for a visit by EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who is to arrive in Macedonia in Friday, European Commission spokesperson Maja Kocijancic told media. Hahn’s visit coincides with the January 15 deadline for Macedonia’s embattled Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to step down ahead of the April polls. It has been agreed that Gruevski will step down and allow his ruling VMRO DPMNE party to nominate an interim prime minister by January 15 as an additional guarantee that he does not interfere in the elections. The MEPs’ and Hahn’s visits are also expected to clear up uncertainty over the exact date of the elections, which were initially set for April 24. In December, speculation multiplied about a possible postponement for one or even several months because of the unfulfilled tasks from the summer crisis accord. The ruling VMRO DPMNE party said that if the elections were postponed, its leader Gruevski would also reconsider his scheduled exit from office. The crisis in Macedonia revolves around opposition claims that covertly recorded tapes, which it has been releasing since February 2015, show Gruevski was behind the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people, including ministers. They insist that the tapes contain incriminating evidence against many senior officials. Gruevski, who has held power since 2006, insists the tapes were “fabricated” by unnamed foreign intelligence services and given to the opposition to destabilize the country. The EU crisis agreement last summer was designed to end the standoff. Meanwhile, Gruevski is out of the country on Monday, as he was summoned for a previously unannounced visit to the United States.

While in Washington, he is expected to visit US Vice-President Joe Biden, the Macedonian Information Agency, MIA reported. According to the MIA, the two men will discuss “deepening mutual relations and cooperation, reforms in Macedonia and democratic processes” as well as the economy, trade and Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

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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.