LOCAL PRESS

Djuric: Recognition of independence will remain an unfulfilled dream (RTS)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric has stated that recognition of the unilaterally declared Kosovo independence by Serbia will “remain an unfulfilled dream of the Pristina separatists”. On the occasion of the statements made by provincial officials, including the newly elected Kosovo President Hashim Thaqi – that Serbia’s recognition of Kosovo will come in parallel with the process of Serbia’s EU integration – Djuric points out that Belgrade and Serbia wish truly good and stable relations with Pristina and all Albanians in the region, but not based on great-state Pristina fantasies, but based on joint work on implementing agreements and practical agreement that are beneficial for citizens. “Even states that had been sponsors of the secession of a part of Serbian territory increasingly more label the so-called statehood of our southern province as an unachievable state-making project, a hotbed of organized crime, a threat to regional security, and a zone of incurable political and social instability,” Djuric said in a statement. “Serbia and the Serbian people do not speak the language of ultimatums and threats, but one of reason and cooperation, and that is why the history and the future are on our side, and there is place in that future for both Serbians and Albanians, and for all others who wish to enjoy in peace and prosperity of our common state,” Djuric concluded.

Government extends Djuric’s status of acting head (Danas)

At the last five sessions prior to the calling of elections, the Serbian government extended the statuses of acting heads for nearly 75 officials. Among them is again the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric, whose status has been extended for the third time now. The government staffing statements reads that Djuric will be holding this temporary status for a total of fifteen months, i.e. until 22 June, even though the Law on state officials prescribes a maximum of nine months. Even after the second illegal extension of the status of the acting head for Djuric, the Serbian government didn’t give an answer to Danas’ question as to how is this possible, whether a general competition was announced for the head of this Office and how many more similar cases exist. The authorized government service for managing personnel responded that we should send the question directly to the government, but Danas still hasn’t received an answer from the government.

Seselj’s hearing cancelled (Tanjug)

The Higher Court in Belgrade confirmed this morning that the hearing of SRS leader Vojislav Seselj has been cancelled. “The judge for the previous procedure of the War Crimes Department in the Higher Court in Belgrade cancelled the hearing, which was scheduled for 10 March at 9 a.m., for procedural reasons, about which the accused had been informed yesterday afternoon,” reads the Court’s statement. A new date will determined afterwards. Despite this fact, Seselj showed up before the building of the Higher Court and set on fire the EU and NATO flags in the presence of his followers. According to Seselj, Serbia is not an independent country anymore after the signing of the agreement with NATO, so, in protest, he set on fire these flags.

Elections in Kosovo with OSCE assistance (FoNet)

The Electoral Commission (RIK) passed the Guidelines for the Implementation of the voting in the elections for the members of the Parliament of Serbia on April 24 within the territory of Kosovo, which includes cooperation with the OSCE Mission, FoNet reports. Polling stations in the territory of Kosovo should be determined by RIK upon proposal of the Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo, by 3 April at the latest. The OSCE will be in charge of a safe transport of the electoral materials from the administrative crossing to the polling stations. According to these instructions, RIK coordinators will hand over the electoral material to voting boards in the Raska and Vranje municipalities on 20 April. Sealed boxes will be returned to these towns after the voting, and the votes will be counted there.

Petition for slating local elections in Kosovo and Metohija (RTS/Tanjug)

Kosovo Serb representatives from the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and the Dveri Movement handed over a petition to the Serbian government and parliament with the request to slate, along with early parliamentary elections, local elections in Kosovo and Metohija, according to the Serbian laws. The president of the DSS municipal board in Kosovska Mitrovica Nemanja Jaksic said that the Kosovo Serb delegation submitted the petition with 21,124 signatures from Kosovo. “The request is to slate local elections both in the northern municipalities and in southern Kosovo and Metohija, whereby the Serbian government and parliament would respect the laws and Constitution of Serbia,” Jaksic said in front of the parliament. DSS vice president and former head of the Zubin Potok municipality Slavisa Ristic said that they will see what will be outcome of the petition, recalling that the Serbian government disbanded in 2013 four northern Kosovo municipalities, contrary to the Constitution, assessing that the government did this at the time for political reasons.

LSV, SDS, LDP agree on joint list (Novosti)

The Social Democratic Party (SDS), the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) and the People’s Movement of Serbia led by Miroslav Aleksic agreed on joint participation in the early elections, reports Novosti. It is expected that the coalition agreement will be signed by Thursday, after which the parties will start collecting signatures for an electoral ticket for the early parliamentary elections. An attempt the Democratic Party (DS) to be included in the alliance failed because the DS refused it.

RIK declares SRS list (Beta)

RIK declared the Dr Vojislav Seselj – Serbian Radical Party (SRS) electoral list for the parliamentary elections, and the party will be listed fourth in the ballot paper. The SRS electoral list was initially rejected Wednesday because the certificate of election right of one of the 250 candidates was older than six months, after which the party was given a 48-hour deadline to amend this. SRS leader Vojislav Seselj heads the list, followed by Nemanja Sarovic, Ljiljana Mihajlovic, Milorad Mircic, Zoran Krasic, Vjerica Radeta and Milan Bojic. The list also includes Natasa Jovanovic, Petar Jojic, Jovo Ostojic and Seselj’s son Aleksandar.

Momir Stojanovic to independently take part in Nis elections (Politika)

Retired general Momir Stojanovic, one of the founders of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Nis, Serbian MP and deputy in Nis, has decided to form a group of citizens that will take part in the local elections on 24 April. “I have informed the SNS leader Aleksandar Vucic about this move, and started consultations on forming a new and independent group of citizens or movement. I decided to take this step because I wish to continue what I have started several years ago – to be active and work for the city of Nis and its residents, and certainly for entire Serbia. There are many doctors, engineers, economists and other experts in Nis who have not been politically engaged, but are, just like me, dissatisfied with the performance of existing parties and political organizations – both those presently in power in Nis and those from the opposition. That is why I am firmly convinced that we will manage to contribute significantly to the development of the city and this part of Serbia,” says Stojanovic. Politika unofficially learns that this new group of citizens will be called “The Movement for Serbia and Nis”, and a similar group will be formed at the republic level with headquarters in Belgrade, where Stojanovic’s initiative was supported by a large number of former senior officers of the Army of Serbia and former Army of Yugoslavia.

REGIONAL PRESS

Izetbegovic: We have solutions for Mostar and election of the Croat member (Faktor)

Member of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic, met in Zagreb with the Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic together with the other two members of the Presidency of B&H, Dragan Covic and Mladen Ivanic. When it comes to amendments to the Election Law of B&H, Izetbegovic said that we are close “if Mr. Covic and the HDZ B&H want that”. “I am saying for the first time: we came up with a model for Mostar that would preserve the unified city, with one mayor, one budget, unified administration, and within that a one special sub-unit that would help the Bosniaks i.e. Croats to have a part of local self-government they are interested in. I believe that is acceptable for both HDZ B&H and the SDA,” Izetbegovic said, adding: “On the other hand, on the so-called Fille’s model of solving the verdict Sejdic-Finci we designed a model which does not have two constituencies, but a single constituency within the Federation of B&H, and that model almost certainly increases and we might even say guarantees the chances for Croats to elect their member for the Presidency of B&H. Therefore, that model solves the issue that has been frustrating the Croat electors and politicians”. According to Izetbegovic, if more than this is expected and demanded, it all might simply fail. “These are the two options offered by the SDA and the Bosniaks. I hope that this time we will be wise enough not to play for all or nothing, and get nothing for the third or fourth time,” said the B&H Presidency member Bakir Izetbegovic.

Radoncic hospitalized (Dnevni avaz)

President of the Association for a Better Future (SBB), Fahrudin Radoncic has been admitted to the University Clinical Centre in Sarajevo (UKCS). The Department of Public Relations of the institution has confirmed the receipt of the patient (Radoncic) to the UKCS because of health problems. According to unofficial information published in the media, Radoncic has been admitted for the examinations at a Sarajevo hospital, with acute heart problems.

Census results might never be published (Nezavisne)

B&H Central Census Bureau will try to reach an agreement on the biggest question in the census project, which jeopardizes the entire project and has brought B&H in a situation to be the only country in the world which doesn’t have a clue about the number of its citizens and much more. The dispute between Serb members of the Bureau with their colleagues from B&H Federation is so deep that results are waiting to be published for so long that experts warn that they might not be relevant anymore. The census was performed in fall 2013 and the latest deadline for its publishing is the middle of this year. In the scenario that members of Bureau fail to agree tomorrow, there are two options. The first option is they can demand the change of law and extend the deadline for the publication of the census results and second option is to declare that the entire project has ended in failure. If they declare it has failed, the data obtained from the census of population, households and apartments agencies for statistic, would be used for internal purpose, but the problem is that these data will not be able to get international verification. In the case that at the members made any progress on the session on the proposal of the B&H Ministry of Civil Affairs, the B&H Parliament would have to adopt changes to the Law on Census of Population and Housing, and the deadline for the publication of the results, which is indicated as July 1 this year, be moved for few months. The issue which caused the problem is that Serb members of Bureau disagree with Bosniaks on the determination of who is a “resident” and who is not. Serbs think that residents cannot be those persons who have an address in B&H and actually live in some other country, but Bosniaks insist that they must be considered as permanent inhabitants in B&H. Both sides justify their standpoint with international standards but, in fact, there was no similar case in recent census history in the world. “Census Offices of the Agency for Statistics of B&H agree that, if there is no agreement on this issue no later than 15 March 2016, statistical institutions in B&H will not be able to publish the results of the census within the statutory deadline for publishing the results, announced the Agency for statistics of B&H. How important is this issue for the census can be seen in the fact that the difference in population depending on which standard will be applied is about 300,000 inhabitants. For administrative purposes, B&H still uses the results of the census performed 1991, which was never verified in Parliament, due to the start of the war. Bosniak politicians still insist that all administration in B&H must be a mirror of these census results.

PM: Balkan route closed without any tension (Hina)

The Balkan migrant route was closed without any tension and today we are at zero, which is positive for Croatia and the region and is more humane for refugees, Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic said on Wednesday addressing a press conference after countries on that route began to apply tighter measures based on an agreement in Brussels. The consequences of the new regime for managing migrant flows and the closing of the Balkan migrant route are already visible and at the refugee transit centre in the eastern Croatian city of Slavonski Brod, where there have been no new arrivals of migrants since Saturday, there are currently 320 people who do not meet criteria to be let pass on to Western European countries.

We’re not saving Krivokapic (Pobjeda)

Democratic Front (DF) will initiate a question of confidence in the government only after the rest of the opposition who took part in the dialogue leave the Parliament and accept the joint organization of protest. This was confirmed to Pobjeda by the Presidency member of the Democratic Front Milan Knezevic, stating that further steps of its political group are determined by a plan of action unity, presented by Front member Strahinja Bulajic at a meeting with the President of SNP Srdjan Milic. In the action plan of DF there was no dateline on when the question of confidence in the government could be initiated, but the conditions under which the Front will submitted a formal initiative were specified. “The opposition should leave the Parliament and not participate in plenary sessions, committees, elections, dismissals, until the Government of Milo Djukanovic is dismissed. Only during the boycott of parliament and holding continued democratic protests, which was implied by the proposal of action unity, united opposition should launch an initiative to vote of no confidence in the Government and elect a transitional government in the Parliament, which will organize the first honest and fair elections,” according to the plan of action unity, offered by the Front. A similar offer to the rest of the opposition was offered by the official of Nova Milutin Djukanovic in an interview with the daily newspaper Dan. “With its clear proposal of action unity of the opposition, DF once again expressed the willingness of coordinated action by the opposition that will lead to the formation of a transitional government. We believe that this is a logical and coexistent attitude which opens great opportunities for opposition cooperation and action, which is basically the desire of the opposition public. I still consider completely irrelevant from whom an opposition proposal comes from if it contains concrete measures to overthrow the regime. We are facing great challenges and we believe that we will be worthy of them,” Knezevic said. The initiative for a vote of no confidence in the government, regardless of being disputable from the formal legal point of view, is a political maneuver to further prolong the dismissal and buy time for the President of the Parliament Ranko Krivokapic, which has become, it is clear now, the strategy of the part of the opposition before parliamentary elections. This was also confirmed by the Democratic Front, because they are concerned that some other President of the Assembly, like Milutin Simovic from DPS, would obstruct the inclusion of the initiative on confidence in the Government on the agenda. In DF they believe that this would reduce the chances of the ultimate goal – change of government. “We are ready to coordinate with the opposition all the activities that go in the direction of the fall of Djukanovic’s government,” concluded Knezevic.

SDP is the only party afraid of the elections (RTCG)

The only ones who are afraid of participating in elections are the president of SDP, Ranko Krivokapic, and his party, because independent appearance before the citizens is an adventure that SDP does not have in its political experience, said in the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). Reacting to the interview Krivokapic gave for the agency Anatolia, where he said that the DPS governs without a majority, and that the party was scared of the elections, the DPS said that Krivokapic kept forgetting to mention that the SDP entered the coalition with DPS and other parties in 1998 as a non-parliamentary party, which in next 18 years never appeared independently at the elections, and when it tried to encourage itself at the local level, it achieved vague results,” reads the statement from the DPS. “Krivokapic’s economic reasoning is not worth discussion, one tip would be sufficient, he should stick to the argument that he was the writer of the Montenegrin Constitution, the creator of the Law on the Flag and the National Anthem, so to speak, the Creator himself. Regarding participation of the DPS in the elections, Krivokapic should not be afraid, it could be held next Sunday. He personally requested to hold parliamentary elections on 16 October, which is the ultimate statutory deadline, all in order to postpone inevitable political defeat before Montenegrin citizens,” said the DPS.

Hahn: Elections on June 5th are a key for solving Macedonian political crisis (MIA)

Speaking Wednesday in Strasbourg at the European Parliament’s plenary session on Macedonia’s draft resolution, Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy & Enlargement Johannes Hahn said that the country has a relatively good level of alignment with the European legislation, which means that the right laws and strategies are more or less in place. The issue, as in all countries, is their application and implementation, he said. Hahn also pointed out that the early elections on June 5 would be vital for putting an end to long political crisis in Macedonia, MIA correspondent reports from Brussels. Hahn notified that two weeks ago, MEPs Richard Howitt, Eduard Kukan and Ivo Vajgl, together with whom he had facilitated the political agreement last summer, once again played a key role in helping Macedonia address its political challenges, keeping the political agreement alive.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

UN prosecutor urges Balkans to bury hatchet, ahead of Karadzic verdict (AFP, 10 March 2016)

The Hague – The chief prosecutor of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal Wednesday urged Balkan leaders to strive for greater reconciliation and stop using the lingering divisive rhetoric of the 1990s wars. The call came as the long-awaited verdict against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused of genocide and war crimes for his role in the Balkans conflict, is to be handed down at the UN court on March 24, after a marathon trial which opened in October 2009. Karadzic will be the highest level official to be judged by the tribunal for the worst atrocities committed in Europe since World War II. Since its creation in 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has made “a major contribution towards achieving accountability” for the bloodshed which accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia, chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said. But despite the passage of time he had been disappointed by the continuing bitter divisions between the Bosnian, Serb and Croatian communities. After nine years in office, Brammertz said “one of my biggest frustrations” was that many political leaders are “still using rhetoric which is closer to some of the (past) statements” used to prosecute war crimes suspects. That was not “what I would expect from responsible politicians who are looking forward to joining the European project,” he told reporters. To see convicted war criminals receive a “hero’s welcome” on their return home, or for some leaders in Republica Srpska to deny the Srebrenica genocide — in which almost 8,0000 Muslim men and boys were killed — happened “can only have a very negative impact on the entire reconciliation process.” Both Bosnia and Serbia are hoping to join the 28-nation European Union which is keeping a close eye on their cooperation with the court based in The Hague. While Karadzic has been behind bars in the city since his arrest in 2008, the biggest question is whether radical ultranationalist Serb leader Vojislav Seselj will return to the Netherlands from Belgrade for the verdict in his own long-running war crimes case due on March 31. ICTY judges last month also blasted Serbia for failing to arrest three suspects accused of witness-tampering, and charged Belgrade with failing to cooperate with the tribunal. While he recognised the political realities were complex, Brammertz said many people were still refusing to accept what had happened and insisted countries had an obligation to comply with the court. “A country that wants to join the European Union has to respect a number of rules. The rule of law is one of them. The respect for judicial decision is another one,” he said. “European leaders will take this into consideration,” he said. And he added that “as long as you have in Bosnia three different history books used by the Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian community with a totally different assessment about not only the wars but the last 200 years, well if a society cannot agree on a joint history, how do you want to move forward?”

Fears grow on alternative migrant routes in Europe (EUobserver, by Eszter Zalan, 9 March 2016)

Fears are growing that migrants and refugees will try to enter the EU via Albania and the Adriatic Sea after Europe on Wednesday (9 March) closed the Western Balkan corridor.

There is no sign yet of a build-up of people on the Albanian-Greek border. But Albania, a NATO member and EU aspirant with a population of less than 3 million, could be a gateway to Italy.

“We have to collectively look at all the possible consequences of the envisaged agreement between the EU and Turkey, and prepare for them, including the issue of alternative routes,” a senior EU official told press in Brussels on Wednesday, referring to an EU-Turkey deal to close the Western Balkan path. EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said: “There is always the possibility that this flow could be diverted in other directions if the Balkan route is closed. For the moment it is not the case.” “All countries in the region are well prepared even for this likelihood. But for the moment there is no sign that migratory flows are diverted towards either Albania or other countries in the region,” he said. According to Frontex, the EU’s border agency in Warsaw, just 8,932 people crossed the Greek-Albanian border illegally last year. Most of them were Albanians. Western Balkan leaders, including from Albania and Bulgaria, were expected to discuss the issue in their weekly video conference. EU home affairs ministers, who are to meet in Brussels on Thursday, are also expected to touch on the question of alternative routes. According to local media, Albanian authorities have already drawn up plans to provide reception centres for 10,000 Syrian refugees in the towns of Korca and Gjirokastra, near the border with Greece. The UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR also said it is working on contingency plans. The UNHCR, the Albanian government and local NGOs are looking at infrastructural needs and possible processing sites in Kakavia and Kapstice, also near Albania’s border with Greece. The EU official said the possibility of novel routes is not a reason to abandon plans to stop the primary “leak” through the Greek border to Macedonia. The EU is closely monitoring migrant flows, the official said. Some migrants have also begun arriving to Europe from Russia in recent months, with EU diplomats suggesting that Russia is facilitating the development. An EU source said that Russian border authorities had previously kept a tight grip on border security.

‘Sultan Erdogan’

Meanwhile, MEPs in Strasbourg on Wednesday criticised the EU-Turkey accord. International human rights organisations have also said it goes against international and EU law. Guy Verhofstadt, the head of the Liberal group in the European Parliament, said it’s “a deal in which we are giving, in fact, the entrance keys, the keys to the gates of Europe, into the hands of Turkey, of the successors of the Ottoman Empire, to Erdogan, I should even say maybe to Sultan Erdogan.” Manfred Weber, the leader of the biggest group, the centre-right European People’s Party, said that the EU should not give a “blank cheque” to Turkey. Weber also said Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s seizure of the country’s leading opposition newspaper, Zaman, last week was “unacceptable.” The Turkey deal was agreed politically by EU leaders and Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels on Monday. Home affairs ministers are to discuss details of the plan, which is to be adopted formally by EU leaders at another summit next week.

The Greek migration minister will also brief colleagues on new bilateral accords signed by Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and Davutoglu in Turkey on Tuesday.The bilateral arrangements are designed to make it easier to return migrants to Turkey. Sources said some ministers are concerned by Erdogan’s crackdown on civil liberties and could bring up the Zaman issue in Thursday’s talks.