LOCAL PRESS

Djordjevic takes over defense minister’s office from Vujovic (Tanjug)

The newly-appointed Defense minister Zoran Djordjevic took over the office from Minister Dusan Vujovic, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The parliament elected Djordjevic as defense minister on Wednesday.

Gojkovic: Parliament to be disbanded, followed by slating of elections (RTS)

Serbian parliament speaker Maja Gojkovic has told the morning news of Radio and Television of Serbia that today’s voting on several legal documents will last several hours, so the Prime Minister is expected to forward his elaboration to the President later during the day. She is certain that this is the last session of this parliament convocation, after which we can expect elections to be slated soon. She points out that the President has 72 hours to decide when he will slate elections and when he will announce this to the public, while this is expected to be over the weekend, and the Prime Minister is expected to send his elaboration to the President in the course of the day. Gojkovic says that Vojvodina Assembly speaker Istvan Pastor called her yesterday and asked to have talks with her this morning, before the last Vojvodina Assembly session, towards setting a date for slating elections and whether it would be best to hold local and parliament elections in Vojvodina on the same day when elections will be held for the Serbian parliament. She is convinced that she will agree with Pastor that it is both economic and efficient for this to be 24 April, as already announced, and that President Nikolic will listen to Prime Minister’s suggestion. Speaking on whether she will slate local elections on the same day when the President slates elections, Gojkovic says: “I will follow absolutely the decision of President Nikolic on the date.” The parliament will have a technical mandate once the elections are slated. She says the parliament can operate in the sense of representing the state in international organizations.

Nikolic to call elections on Friday; Vojvodina elections also on 24 April (Novosti)

The Serbian government will send today the elaborated proposal for disbanding the parliament to the President Tomislav Nikolic, and he will call the early elections on Friday, the government’s representatives told Novostion Thursday.During the day, Vucic will schedule an urgent meeting of the main board of the SNS, which the party’s election ticket will definitely be confirmed at. Already on Sunday the SNS will officially hand over the ticket and the signatures to the Republic Electoral Commission, so it will probably take a number 1 on the ballot paper, Novosti wrote.

Regular parliamentary elections for the Vojvodina Assembly will also take place on 24 April, which will coincide with the early parliamentary elections at the republican level, Vojvodina Assembly speaker Istvan Pastor confirmed. He announced that he will slate provincial elections on 22 March, which is 90 days before the current mandate of the Vojvodina Assembly expires. One month is the minimum for the election campaign and collection of documents, so elections on 24 April will also have a legal foundation.

Djuric: No one will abolish Serbian institutions in Kosovo (RTS/Tanjug)

The Kosovo Serbs should be certain that no one will abolish Serbian institutions in the province, and Kosovo minister for dialogue Edita Tahiri will definitely not do that either, the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric says. The first Brussels agreement and the principles of establishing the Community of Serb Municipalities do not make implementation of agreements conditional on abolishing the institutions of the Republic of Serbia, he told Tanjug.
Djuric was reacting to Tahiri’s statement that, by failing to implement the Brussels agreements, Belgrade is slowing down the start of work of a tripartite group set up to abolish “parallel structures” in Kosovo, which she said will impact the start of work on the Community statute.
Serbian institutions in Kosovo – including the health and education systems in Serb communities – have never been on the agenda of the Brussels dialogue, he noted.

Vucic not to sign agreement with Russia similar to the one with NATO (Danas)

Vucic will not sign an agreement with Russia by which the Russian-Serbian Humanitarian

Center in Nis is granted a similar status that NATO received recently, Danascites the sources close to the prime minister. As Danaswas told in the Serbian government, the date of Medvedev’s visit to Serbia was not yet known. However, it was earlier announced by the Russian side that Medvedev’s visit should take place in spring, and the sources of Danashave speculated that Prime Minister of Russia will come in the midst of the election campaign in Serbia, in mid-April.

Pavel: NATO respects Serbia as a sovereign state (B92)

Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Petr Pavel has told B92 that Serbia and NATO relations have been constantly developing over the past decade. “We respect Serbia as a sovereign state. Serbia has the interest to remain militarily neutral and we respect this and do not intend to push Serbia towards any side,” said Pavel.Having an agreement on freedom of movement is a standard that NATO has with every partner country with which it has a trust fund and joint activities, Pavel said. The agreement is necessary to implement the trust fund, he said, adding that Jordan and Austria have similar agreements.

Arrest of three people suspected of establishing IS organization in Kosovo (RTS)

Kosovo police arrested three jihadists on suspicion of establishing “cells” of the Islamic State (IS) in Kosovo, Radio Television of Serbia(RTS)reported. Criminal reports were filed against three returnees from Syria for their involvement with IS. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo said that jihadists were arrested on the basis of operational information that Turkey and one more state delivered to Pristina. They were arrested on suspicion of involvement in recruiting new members.

REGIONAL PRESS

Zvizdic claims the Council of Ministers has not received any official replies (Srna)

B&H Council of Ministers Chairman Denis Zvizdic claims that the Council of Ministers has still not received any official replies to the offered text on the Coordination mechanism and pointed out that the “Council is very interested in discussing all disputed issues with the Government of Republika Srpska (RS).” Meanwhile, Admir Katica, the deputy chief of staff of the B&H High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) presidency said that the inclusion of the HJPC in the Coordination mechanism is a necessity from the point of view of the interests of B&H and its seriousness in the negotiation process, and from the point of view of the Council whose role is necessary for further institutional development.

Cormack and Waser: To improve cooperation between B&H and NATO (Akta.ba)

B&H Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak received the US Ambassador to B&H Maureen Cormack and Chief of the Political Section of the Mission of the United States to NATO in Brussels Tamir Waser. They discussed the current situation in B&H with an emphasis on activities on getting closer to European integration, the promotion of cooperation with NATO and the upcoming NATO Summit, that will be held in Warsaw on the 8th and 9th of July 2016. Minister Crnadak informed the guests that B&H is continuing with the implementation of the adopted reform agenda and that a part of these activities is leading towards reaching the standards of the Alliance. They expressed the expectation for B&H to actively continue to work on fulfilling the conditions in Tallinn, primarily on accounting the perspective immobile military property. Participation of B&H in the NATO led mission Resolute Support in Afghanistan was positively rated and they expressed hope that the cooperation between B&H and NATO will be continued through existing programs.​

Official: No migrants passing through B&H (Klix)

The situation at the border crossings of B&H remains calm and there were no recorded attempts of entry of larger or smaller groups of refugees from the Middle East, as well as their passage through B&H to the EU, said the spokeswoman of the Border Police of B&H Sanela Dujkovic. Regarding the new migrant routes where B&H is mentioned as well, especially the illegal ones, Dujkovic said that the Border Police draws attention to the fact that the northeast and east of B&H border with Serbia along the Drina River and that these routes are not an accessible terrain for passing of migrants. On the other side, when it comes to the south of the country, there are several places of possible crossing of the state border apart from the border crossings, but that those are places barred with concrete bulkheads and ramps and regularly controlled by patrols, along with the use of modern technical means. Dujkovic commented on the claims of one German television, according to which B&H is on the map of the new migrant route. According to this television, the refugees will travel from Greece, over Albania and Montenegro and through B&H, towards Croatia. Commenting on the allegations of possible massive influx of refugees to the border of B&H, the spokeswoman Dujkovic said that, based on the state action plan, the Border Police of B&H made local and regional plans for conduct and a framework plan of conduct on a central level in 2015. According to Dujkovic, citizens of Syria have entered B&H but in legitimate ways, and there were 726 such entrances in 2015. In the same period, 6.871 citizens of Afghanistan and 2.243 citizens of Iraq entered B&H. Regarding the statistical data in 2015, statistics on attempts of illegal crossing of the state border do not differ significantly from previous years. Thus in this period there are 179 registered attempts of illegal crossing of the state border, among whom are four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Iraq, and no citizens of Syria.​

Dialogue has no alternative (RTCG)

President of Positive Montenegro, Darko Pajovic during a meeting with B&H Ambassador, Djordje Latinovic, said that he expected the parliamentary dialogue to be continued because the agreement between the political parties must be a priority. Pajovic and Latinovic discussed the current political situation in Montenegro. “During the conversation, Pajovic stressed that all participants in the dialogue, whether in government or in opposition, should be aware that the agreement is the ultimate goal. The agreement will provide the opposition to be part of the government for the first time in 27 years and thus take responsibility and establish control of state resources, as well as the entire electoral process with the aim to democratize society,” it was said in a statement of the Positive Montenegro. For this reason, as it was stated, the President considers that the continuation of positive parliamentary dialogue has no alternative. At the meeting, Pajovic and Latinovic stressed the role and importance of Montenegro and B&H on the strengthening of cooperation and good neighborly relations

Montenegro on the new migrant route (RTCG)

The German N-TV announced that new routes of migrants who want to go Western Europe pass through Montenegro. Because of the closed Greek-Macedonian border refugees will reportedly go to the West via Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. According to media reports, on the Macedonian border in Idomeni the number of migrants is increased and now nearly 10,000 of them are waiting to enter Macedonia from Greece. The authorities in Skopje have stepped up the presence of security forces. We recall that Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said earlier that Montenegro will close the border for migrants if the other neighboring countries do so. “If European countries, which are struggling against migrant crisis, decided to open the border, then Montenegro has no other option but to do the same. But if Macedonia closes the border with Greece, and Montenegro would do the same,” Djukanovic said.

‘Diva Naselba’ Hearing: Three attorneys who will boycott trial are penalized (Tekegraf.mk)

The attorneys in the legal process known in the public as the ‘Diva Naselba’ case have expressed dissatisfaction with the hearing being held at a small courtroom and left the trial, Telegraf.mk reports. The court then penalized them with fines amounting to EUR 1,200, whereas two of the legal representatives are obliged to cover all the expenses for the Wednesday hearing, which costs tens of thousands of euros. The attorneys announced they will boycott the proceedings if ‘the conditions for a fair trial’ are not met.  At the very start of the Wednesday-scheduled hearing on the events that took place in Kumanovo last year, and the case in which 29 individuals are charged for terrorism and participation in a terrorist organization, the attorneys expressed dissatisfaction with the courtroom where the three previous hearings were held. They say the room is too small and that the relatives of the defendants were disabled to attend the trial. As a sign of protest, several attorneys left the courtroom, after which the court called for a half-an-hour recess. Lawyer Naser Raufi said that all the attorneys have passed a unanimous decision to leave the proceedings.

Donald Tusk from Zagreb pointed out Macedonia has problem with refugees (Telegraf.mk)

The head of the European Council Donald Tusk at Wednesday’s blitz visit to Macedonia did not give any statements to reporters. He sent his message from Zagreb, where he said that Macedonia has a huge problem with refugees while “forgetting” that on our territory there are only a few hundred refugees and the larger number is in a Member State of the European Union, in this case Greece. After the meeting a press release came from the Cabinet of President Gjorge Ivanov. “We demand and expect a decision by European Council and we do not have the slightest interest the entire burden to be put only on Greece, but we will not allow realization of one sided solutions that will be at our peril. Furthermore, the Republic of Macedonia will cooperate with its southern neighbor to overcome the challenges of the migrant crisis,” Ivanov said. At the meeting with Tusk, the President warned that attempts to force entry into Macedonia are increasing, as well as the use of forged passports and documents of FRONTEX, and violence against the security forces on the border, which calls into question not only national security but also the regional stability. Ivanov made clear that in case of closure of the Balkan migration corridor, the Republic of Macedonia will take all measures and activities for the humane treatment of migrants in transit, and protection of state borders and the preservation of the national security. “Macedonia has shown it is ready for all scenarios and will not allow increasing security risks of the migrant crisis,” the President said. Ivanov reaffirmed that the Republic of Macedonia will not allow construction of refugee camps.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Heroin Crossing Balkans to Europe, US Report (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 3 March 2016)

US State Department report released on Wednesday says that the Balkan countries remain major transit points for Afghan heroin and other illegal drugs.

The latest annual report by the US State Department’s International Strategy for Narcotics Control says drugs traffickers are using Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia to transport heroin from Afghanistan and Central Asia to Western Europe. Albania remains a major source country for marijuana, as well as a transit route for the shipment of cocaine and heroin destined for European markets, it adds. The report commends Albania for an “impressive string of arrests and seizures” against drug production and the trafficking networks operating in the country in 2015, continuing a trend that began in 2014. “This success can be attributed to continuing regional cooperation with Italian police surveillance units and greater commitment by political and police leadership to prioritize counter-drug enforcement,” the report reads. According to the report, Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a major producer or consumer of illegal narcotics and is primarily a transit country. “Narcotics control capabilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina are limited. Law enforcement and security institutions still need to develop further capacity,” the State Department says. Croatia is also a transit point for illegal drugs trafficked along Balkan smuggling routes. Heroin and high-quality marijuana are trafficked westwards, while precursor chemicals and synthetic drugs originating in Europe are smuggled eastwards.  In Kosovo, the newest state to emerge from the former Yugoslavia, estimating the extent to which corruption influences drug trafficking in Kosovo is difficult, the report said. “Laws prohibit narcotics-related corruption but allegations persist that narcotics move across Kosovo’s borders, sometimes with the acquiescence of officials,” the report notes. Apart from being an important transit country for Afghan heroin, there is growing evidence that Montenegrin traffickers are directly involved in smuggling cocaine from South America to Europe, the report says. It estimates that approximately 15 per cent of the drugs trafficked through Montenegro are consumed locally. Serbia, like other Balkan countries, is not a significant source country or market for illegal drugs but remains a transit country for drugs smuggled to other European markets. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, between 50 and 60 metric tons of heroin originating from Afghanistan transit Serbia annually along Balkan smuggling routes controlled by multinational criminal organizations. Though the local narcotics market in the region is small, the report notes that domestic consumption of drugs is growing and that drugs transited through the region are fueling growth.

EU Rightists Slate ‘Double Standard’ on Montenegro (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 2 March 2016)

The right-wing Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, AECR, has accused the EU of double standards in its dealings with the crises in Montenegro and Macedonia.

The righting alliance comprising 50 MEPs and one European Commissioner on Tuesday said the EU’s latest resolution on Montenegro last week demonstrated double standards and has ignored the “corruption of Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic”. Last week, the European Parliament’s Committee for Foreign Affairs adopted a resolution on the political and institutional crisis in Montenegro, but the AECR said it revealed a “politically inconsistent attitude towards Balkan countries”. After the crisis erupted in Macedonia in the spring of 2015, the EU effectively supported the opposition’s rallies and boycott of the Macedonian parliament, the group claimed, even demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. “However, since late 2015, the EU has acted completely differently with respect to Montenegro’s democratic protests,” the alliance said.  Since the cases of Macedonia and Montenegro are similar, the group said, it is hard to explain why the EU treats the two Balkan countries differently. In both cases, opposition protesters have demanded that their Prime Ministers resign and the formation of transitional governments to organize free and fair elections. In the case of Montenegro, however, the EU has declined to play the role of mediator and has indirectly supported the regime in power and the marginalization of the opposition, it added. “For instance, the EU has ignored the brutal riots and actions of special operation forces against peaceful protesters in Podgorica,” the alliance said. While praising the “parliamentary dialogue” in Montenegro, the AECR said the EU had in fact neglected the absence of the main opposition leaders from the dialogue. “Moreover, it has ignored the political corruption of Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic. Protesters of the Movement for Change argue that the recent EU resolution confuses cause and effect: that the resolution falsely implies that the political crisis in Montenegro is the result of protests, rather than their cause,” the statement reads. The Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists is a pan-European party with members in 17 countries, 12 of which are EU member states.

British Conservatives, led by the Prime Minister David Cameron, are the dominant political force in the group, as is the Czech Civic Democratic Party, ODS, and the Polish Law and Justice Party, PiS. In 2013, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, also has joined the alliance. Montenegro’s opposition Movement for Change, PZP, joined the conservative alliance in May 2015. The Movement, together with the three opposition parties, began 24-hour demonstrations in September, demanding the creation of an interim government and Djukanovic’s resignation. The protest first turned violent on October 17, when police fired tear gas to disband the crowds. More violence broke out on Saturday 24, after opposition MPs attempted to enter the parliament but were prevented from doing so by police. In October 2015, the AECR expressed its concerns about the actions of the Montenegrin police in an open letter to the government of Montenegro.