LOCAL PRESS

Government lifts state of emergency (RTS/Tanjug)

At the proposal of the Republican headquarters for emergency situations, the Serbian government passed a decision on lifting the state of emergency on the territory of Serbia, which was declared over the occurrence of the natural disaster – floods. They also passed a decision on declaring the cessation of the natural disaster, the government office for media relations announced.

Mihajlovic: EU invites Serbia to open Chapters 14 and 21 (B92)

The European Union has decided to soon open chapters 14 and 21 as part of continued entry talks process with Serbia, B92 has learned. “Based on the screening reports for chapters 14 and 21 on transport policy and trans-European networks, Serbia has received an invitation from the presiding EU member state to open these chapters. Based on this decision, preparations have already begun for negotiating positions for these two chapters,” Serbian Minister of Transport Zorana Mihajlovic said, adding this also represents recognition for the ministry which she heads. “The introduction of European standards in the field of transport and transport networks means that Serbia will have roads, railways and water transport precisely like other EU countries. The final benefit from the negotiations with the EU will be felt by citizens of Serbia, who will eventually get much better and safer traffic, there will be healthy competition in this area so that citizens are able to choose to which transport operator to entrust their trust and money,” said Mihajlovic.

Stefanovic: Serbia will follow Germany concerning attitude towards migrants (RTV)

In the lack of a joint policy in the resolving of the refugee crisis, Serbia is guided by the moves of Germany, Austria and the neighboring EU countries, Serbian Interior Minister Stefanovic told Radio and Television of Vojvodina (RTV). “Serbia is still expecting from Europe to synchronize its policy on the matter of refugees, and as there is not united standpoint, until it is reached, we shall follow the policy of Germany and Austria, and if they say ‘we will no longer admit refugees’, we won’t either”, Stefanovic said. According to him, Serbia cannot admit even 20, or 500, or 1,000 refugees if they cannot continue further on.

Ljajic: Government sent report to ICTY in time (Tanjug/RTS)

It was as early as last week that the Serbian government informed the ICTY about difficulties in implementing the order to have Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader Vojislav Seselj attend the pronouncement of the verdict in his case in The Hague on 31 March, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Council for Cooperation with the ICTY Rasim Ljajic said. “The ICTY was informed about it in time, but we cannot talk about the content of that report, as it is a confidential document,” Ljajic told reporters in Belgrade. Ljajic said that the document was designated as confidential and as long as it was so, the Serbian government could not give out any information regarding the content of the letter sent to the tribunal.

Seselj: I expect draconian sentence (RTS)

“I will not go voluntarily to The Hague. Whether they’ll carry me to the airport or something else, I do not know. I understand their difficulties, I’m pretty heavy, I weigh 130 and some kilos,” the SRS leader Vojislav Seselj told reporters during a party gathering in downtown Belgrade in comment to the statement made by Deputy Prime Minister Rasim Ljajic, who said a report had been sent to the ICTY regarding the difficulties with Seselj’s extradition. He added that he had not received any new summons or information about the hearing before the Special Court regarding the request for his extradition to the ICTY. Seselj also said added that the three SRS officials wanted by the tribunal on contempt of court charges will also not go there voluntarily. Speaking about the upcoming early parliamentary election, he said the SRS slogan will be, “Serbia in Safe Hands” and that the first rally – “a rally of revolt against Vucic’s regime” – in the campaign will be held on 24 March in Belgrade’s Republic Square. Seselj added that 30 SRS rallies will be held during the election campaign, including one in Pristina and one in the Serb enclave of Gracanica in Kosovo – “while the last one will be held in Novi Sad on 20 April 20”, four days before parliamentary, local and provincial elections Vojvodina – the last of which he said was “of particular interest” to his party.

Fate of 540 Serbs who went missing in Kosovo still unknown (Politika)

“We are still searching for our dearest ones, but the results are very poor. We cannot learns abou their fates without the involvement of the international community and Albanian institutions, but even though we have talked with EULEX several times, nobody has been processed or held accountable for the crimes committed at the end of the 1990s,” the Chairperson of the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing persons from Kosovo and Metohija, which marked yesterday 16 years of existence, Verica Tomanovic told Politika. The families of 540 missing Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija have not known for 16 years what happened with their close ones, and their quest for missing parents, children, brothers, sisters has been going on for the same number of years…Nobody from the list of missing of this Association has been found alive over the past 16 years, while the earthly remains of 363 victims of Serb nationality were found and handed over to the families. The first victim of abductions in the southern Serbian province that were occurring between 1998 and the end of 2000, according to the Association’s records, was Milica Radunovic from Dasinovac near Decani, who went missing on 23 April 1998. “Our dearest ones were not protected from the attacks of extremists despite the fact that 50,000 KFOR members were in Kosovo at the time. Even today we don’t have access to lists of prisoners in 144 camps in Kosovo and Metohija that existed at that time, while over the years of our work we have learned that there were places where Serbs and other non-Albanians were killed, and where there was trade with their organs. This was also confirmed by Dick Marty’s report in the Council of Europe,” says Tomanovic. For several years, they have been waiting for an answer to the question when they will examine the region in northern Albania, where, according to some sources, possible mass graves exist. They should also check allegations of certain witnesses regarding mass graves in Kosovo and Metohija. It is also assumed that some Serb victims were buried as Albanians, because of which exhumation should be launched, but cooperation of the other side doesn’t exist for this.

REGIONAL PRESS

Agreement on census results has not been reached last night (Srna)

The B&H Central Census Bureau has not reached an agreement on a single program for B&H census data processing at last night’s meeting in Sarajevo. Director of the B&H Statistics Agency, Velimir Jukic, has expressed his hope that the consensus could be reached with the support of highly leveled authorities respectively, the B&H Council of Ministers, by the expiration date of the legal deadline for the publication of census data, i.e. July 1. Director of the Republika Srpska (RS) Statistics Institute, Radmila Cickovic has expressed regret for failing to reach an agreement at last night’s meeting, hoping that reaching the consensus will be possible in a reasonable period of time. She has reiterated the position that the question number 40 of the questionnaire should be included in the publication of results. Director of the Statistics Institute of the Federation of B&H, Emir Kremic, has said that no one can be blamed over the failure to reach consensus tonight, hoping that the census data could be published within the legal deadline. Adil Osmanovic, B&H Minister of Civil Affairs, who holds the position of the B&H Council of Ministers’ Census Coordinator, has said he cannot imagine that the census may fail, stressing that the B&H Statistics Agency should complete the work in accordance with the law.

Proponents of unitary B&H want population census results to be postponed (Srna)

Political analyst Dragomir Andjelkovic said that all processes in B&H, including the one in connection with the publishing of the results of the population census, are unfolding according to the principle of dark TV series full of frauds and manipulations whose screenwriters strive for only one thing – a unitary B&H and to maintain the lie that the Bosniaks are the greatest victims of the B&H war. Andjelkovic told Srna that those who started the war at the beginning of the 1990s are now trying by peaceful means to impose a unitary B&H and added that a dirty game regarding the publishing of results of the 2013 population census is in the service of this goal. “Stories of a population census were politically abused – it was postponed for a long time in order to maintain the division from the beginning of the 1990s with implications on the election process, and everything was done to artificially increase the number of Bosniaks in order to show that they are a majority in B&H,” Andjelkovic said. According to him, such behavior led Bosniaks, who had the support of their Western mentors, to a paradox. “On the one hand, some are trying by all forces to increase the number of Bosniaks, and on the other, to maintain the false story of genocide and persecution of Bosniaks. How can they show that there are more Bosniaks now than during the war and maintain this myth about themselves as the greatest victim? The postponement of the publishing of the population census results is stemming from such politics of paradox and abuse of the population census,” Andjelkovic said. He said that the Bosniaks do not know how to “pack this hodgepodge.” Andjelkovic says that Bosniaks are trying to link the story of the population census results with proceedings before the ICTY against the first RS president Radovan Karadzic and general Ratko Mladic. “Since the proceedings against Karadzic and Mladic are directly influencing the fate of RS, the Bosniak extremists and their Western mentors are trying to use this and link the whole thing with the population census. How they will act in the future it is difficult to say now, but it is absolutely clear that all this is connected,” Andjelkovic says. The directors of the Statistics Offices in B&H are expected to see at a meeting if they can resolve disputed issues in connection with the processing and the publishing of the population census results. At a session of the Central Census Bureau, held on March 9 in Sarajevo, no agreement was reached on a single program for the processing of data from the B&H population census. The deadline for publishing final population census results is July 1, 2016. The population census was conducted in 2013.

Chetnik gatherings in B&H must be stopped and the perpetrators punished (Fena)

Commenting on the events in Visegrad where during the gathering of members of the Ravna Gora Chetnik Movement the journalists were attacked, the Federation of B&H Minister of the Interior Aljosa Campara said: “In the 21st century we have something like this, an attack on freedom of the media, is a terrible thing. This is in the RS jurisdiction, but I would also invite SIPA and the Prosecutor’s Office to respond to everything that has happened. We all know that the roots of this group are in a fascist ideology, said Minister Campara for the TV N1. Vice President of the Federation of B&H Melika Mahmutbegovic also condemned the gathering of members of the Ravna Gora Chetnik Movement in the municipality of Visegrad, especially the attacks against journalists of N1 and the FTV. The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) issued a statement condemned the gathering ant the attack on the press crews.  Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H and the Director of the SDA Political Academy Senad Sepic is of the opinion that the attack in Visegrad shows again that “evil spirits of the past and the incompetence of state institutions are present in B&H”. The Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) B&H also condemned the Chetnik gathering and glorifying the figure and work of the war criminal Dragoljub Mihailovic in Visegrad,  as well as the attack on media workers and “hypocritical distancing of the organizers of the gathering from this attack”. The Independent Union of BHRT employees, Social Democratic Party of B&H, Delegation of the European Union to B&H, Head of the OSCE Mission to B&H, all issued the statements condemning the events in Visegrad.

Radoncic left the hospital at his own risk and returned to custody (Klix)

President of the Alliance for Better Future (SBB) Fahrudin Radoncic left the Clinical Center University of Sarajevo (KCUS) yesterday at 1:30 p.m. He was hospitalized because of heart issues. The Court of B&H confirmed that the plea hearing will be held on Wednesday at 9 a.m. Radoncic was returned to the detention unit of the B&H Court. According to Radoncic’s attorney Dragan Barbaric, Radoncic left the hospital at his own risk, allegedly because of the strong pressure on the medical council that treated Radoncic. “While he was staying at the hospital, members of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) came several times to check and make copies of medical documentation. On whose orders it was done, I do not know,” Barbaric said.

Satisfactory framework for the inclusion of Serb representatives in to Macedonia’s political life (Srna)

B&H Presidency member from the RS Mladen Ivanic met on Monday in Skopje with the delegation of the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia and discussed the position of the Serb community in Macedonia, whereby it was concluded there was a satisfactory institutional framework for the inclusion of Serb representatives in political life including the exercise of other rights and the preservation of national identity.

Lange: A dialogue among parties is the way to reach an agreement (Pobjeda)

Since the establishment of the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office in July last year, several new investigations of high corruption and organized crime have been initiated in Montenegro and this is a positive sign, the head of Unit for Montenegro within the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enlargement, Dirk Lange, has said.  In an interview with Pobjeda daily, he has said that the number of investigations, indictments and final court decisions would be an indicator of the quality of institutions’ operation. Lange points out that a decisive phase of the negotiating process has been entered now and that the EU wants to see that Montenegro is making credible progress in chapters 23 and 24. According to him, the European Commission encourages all political parties to continue political dialogue. Lange believes this is a way to reach a compromise and an agreement that are necessary in any democracy. He also says that both the government and the opposition are responsible for that. “However, the ultimate goal – and it seems to me that all the parties agree on this issue – is to ensure adequate conducting of the coming elections. This is a prerequisite for a stable government in the future”, Lange adds. He has said that currently it is crucially important for Montenegro to ensure the full implementation of the electoral legislation in all subsequent elections.

Migrants are starting to explore alternative, illegal ways to enter Macedonia (MIA)

The closing down of the Macedonian-Greek border has forced the refugees to seek alternative ways of crossing into Macedonia. There have been posts on social media showing photos of migrant groups trying to enter Macedonia through illegal passages along the border line. It has been reported that larger groups have been moving along the border being led by locals from Idomeni who are familiar with the terrain and the frequency of police patrols. There are several points of entry. One is the village Bogorodica, near the border crossing, as well as Moin which is located on the road leading to the ski center Kozuv. The refugee groups are comprised of mostly Syrian men, a few kids and some old people. It is nearly impossible to cross into Macedonia from other locations because of the mixed patrols comprised of police officers from Macedonia and EU countries and due to the big fence. Three refugees who illegally entered into Macedonia met their tragic demise Monday as they drowned in Suva Reka River near Gevgelija. Currently, there are about 11,000 refugees in Idomeni, who are refusing to leave despite the horrendous living conditions there. They are demanding to be allowed into Macedonia from where they would continue towards western European countries. Several hundreds of migrants have managed to find a new wild crossing over the Macedonian-Greek border to enter the territory of Macedonia, Greek and international media present in the border area informed. Police were on the ground and is trying to prevent further entrance.

Macedonian citizen, the UN Peacekeeper, victim of terrorists in Africa (MIA)

Anita Andreevska was a victim of the terrorist attack that took place on Sunday in Côte d’Ivoire. Anita was part of the mission of United Nations in this African country. Faction of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack on the tourist resort of Grand Bassam in Cote d’Ivoire that killed 16 people. Four of the killed were citizens of Germany, France, Burkina Faso and Cameroon. President of the country, Ouattara said that security forces have killed six of the attackers. Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet officially confirmed the information. Confirmation is expected on Tuesday. The United Macedonian Diaspora sent a public telegram of condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of Andreevska.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

2016 Serbian general election – five key observations (TransConflict, by Daniel Hamilton, 15 March 2016)

Ahead of general elections in Serbia on Sunday 24th April, it is clear that current prime minister, Aleksandar Vučic, is king of all he surveys, that the Democratic Party has a bleak future, that the Kosovo issue is an afterthought and that the hard-right are likely to make a comeback. The question remains, however, as to whether or not Vučic is promising too much.

The Serbian general election has been announced for Sunday 24th April – the eleventh such contest to take place since 1990.  Below, I offer five key observations about what the elections mean for Serbia itself, the ruling Progressive Party and its leader Aleksander Vučić, relations with Kosovo and the medium-term prospects for Serbian accession to the European Union.

1.         Prime Minister Vučic is king of all he surveys

Over the next month or so, many opinion pieces will be written about the Serbian elections. None of them will be in any doubt as to the likely result: a fresh term for the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and another four years of Aleksander Vučic as Prime Minister. The SNS is one of the most successful and intriguing political parties to emerge in Europe in the past few years – a party of reformed (and, in some cases, unreformed) radicals that has somehow managed to keep a lid of Serbia’s predilection for ultra-nationalism, a collection of individuals who did little or nothing to oppose Slobodan Milošević’s worst excesses yet have nonetheless become cheerleaders for Serbia’s new-found EU love-in and a party of the economic liberal-right who nevertheless seem to hoover up votes in working class areas. It is often said that, in Northern Ireland, it took former hard-liners like Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley to come to the table for real compromises to be thrashed out in order to secure lasting political change.  In the case of Serbia, the decision of now-President Tomislav Nikolić and Vučić to break with the Serbian Radical Party and their former ally Vojislav Šešelj and found the SNS as a new, pro-European force that was able to both simultaneously speak the language of frustrated Serbs and frustrated politicians in EU capitals. The SNS administration hasn’t been perfect – but it has delivered the opening of EU accession talks, commenced a real programme of public service reform and attracted some solid foreign investment to Serbia.  Vučić has a record of achievement on which he to run. These are, however, elections he did not actually have to call.  Given that the SNS already holds 158 of the 250 seats in the National Assembly, he could easily have ruled until 2018 without any serious challenges from either the opposition or his own MPs – most of which are personally reliant upon him for their positions. That said, his decision to call an early election isn’t a bad political call.  The opposition to Vučic and the SNS is fragmented to such an extent that is hard to identify who exactly is its “leader”. It’s clearly not the Socialist Party leader Ivica Dacić, whose decision to accept the post of Foreign Minister in an entirely unnecessary coalition between his party and the SNS, has essentially seen his ability to differentiate he and his party from Vučić neutralised.  The country’s former President Boris Tadić would like to think he had a claim to the title, yet the fact he has been forced to form a joint electoral list this year with unpopular Liberal Democrat party leader Čedomir Jovanović in order to have any hope of remaining above the 5% electoral threshold speaks volumes as to his political appeal. One can write-off ultra-nationalists such as Vojislav Šešelj who, while popular in some smoke-filled cafes in Belgrade’s working class suburbs, are widely seen as figures of a darker, poorer past.  Finally, while the Democratic Party and their leader Bojan Bajtić, the President of the northern province of Vojvodina, make the odd aggressive noise from time to time, they have essentially become a regional party. The issue of the economy is, as ever, an important one.  While hardly booming, it isn’t in disastrous shape – therefore, by the yardstick of the past twenty-five years, it appears rather robust to most Serbs.  The polls also show the SNS capturing as much as 60% of the vote, enough to hand Vučic and his party as many as 200 of the 250 seats in the National Assembly and a reinforced mandate to govern until 2020.  The election is essentially a risk-free option. Serbia claims to be a Republic – but Vučić is as close to a king as Serbs are likely to get any time soon.

2.         A bleak future for DS

Much of the credit for the recent decision to open formal European Union membership negotiations has gone to the SNS and Prime Minister Vučić himself.  It is, of course, only natural that the government of the day trumpets gains secured “on their watch”. In reality, Serbia’s modern, pro-western trajectory owes much to the work of the Democratic Party’s (DS) founders; chiefly the late Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, whose reformist efforts earned him an assassin’s bullet in the head.  In a post-Milošević landscape that could easily have been shaped and dominated by the unappealing duo of the cynical Vojislav Kostunica and downright dangerous Vojislav Šešelj, their considered and thoughtful tone on the need for regional dialogue and structural economic reforms, did much to help heal the country’s wounds. While Prime Minister Vučic and President Nikolić would likely bitterly dispute this assertion, the creation of the SNS is as much a triumph for the DS as the creation of Tony Blair and New Labour were for Margaret Thatcher. I struggle, though, to understand how the DS will remain a political force in the Serbia of 2016 – and the polls tend to agree with me.  Outside of the northern province of Vojvodina, where Bojan Bajtić governs on the basis of support from ethic Hungarian parties, it has lost much of its political support to a surging SNS party who have adopted the bulk of its pro-west and pro-reform rhetoric. Polls suggest that DS will remain in the National Assembly after April 24th – but only just.  From my perspective, the jury is very much out on whether they will be able to remain a credible political force by the time of the next parliamentary elections in 2020.

3.         For the second election running, the Kosovo issue is an afterthought

The 2014 elections were unique in recent Serbian history in that they were not, even to a limited extent, dominated by the issue of Kosovo. In the Brave New World in which Serbia is formally negotiating European Union membership, most mainstream political leaders now appear to have adopted a form of self-censorship on the topic; refusing to be drawn into the type of nationalist rhetoric on the topic that had been a political staple for much of the previous two decades.  The only mainstream politician to deviate from this line is President Nikolić himself, whose influence is seen as (at best) of tertiary importance. One could read this as a tacit acceptance of Kosovo independence among the Serbian political elite or evidence of the discipline with which the country’s leaders are approaching the country’s ongoing EU accession negotiations. Both perspectives have some merit.

4.         The hard-right are likely to make a comeback

Despite the tremendous advances towards modernity and moderation that have been made in recent years, Serbia remains a country where hard-line political rhetoric continues to have some cache.

This is born out in the latest opinion polls which show that the Vojislav Šešelj’s Radicals (SRS), who were swept out of the National Assembly in 2014, are hovering just above the 5% electoral threshold for representation.  Polls also show that a coalition between the nationalist and socially conservative Dveri party and Vojislav Kostunica’s nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia (DPP) will secure seats. In the case of Vojislav Šešelj, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is currently scheduled to issue its verdict in his Bosnian war crimes trial on March 31st; scarcely three weeks before polling day.  A “guilty” would no doubt galvanise the SRS voter base into action and may even see some of the party’s former voters who had defected to supporting Vučić in recent years returning to it. Unsurprisingly, the government have requested any verdict is postponed until May. To what extent the return of hard-line and far-right MPs to the National Assembly would actually matter is up for debate.  On one level, Serbian politics has likely now evolved to such a stage as a cordon sanitaire would prevent the Radicals and Dveri-DPP from participating in government.  Nevertheless, the absence of explicitly racist, jingoistic and revanchist rhetoric from the floor of the National Assembly over the past two years has done much to aid Serbia’s efforts to present itself as a modern, mature democracy.

Watch this space.

5.         2020 vision: is Vučic promising too much?

One of the age-old problems with politics is the tendency for leaders to over-promise and then under-deliver.  This is often because politicians take the approach of making unrealistic promises that they have no intention of following through with and sometimes because of factors entirely beyond their control.  In the case of Vučić, he is running major risks on both fronts.

The entire public premise of the election set to take place next month is to provide Serbia with a solid and stable government that can shepherd the country towards EU accession in 2020.  That, regrettably, appears to be an unrealistic expectation. The European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has been explicit that there will be no accession waves before the end of his term in late 2019. The political mood music surrounding migration from the Middle East to Western Europe – much of which has taken place via transit across Serbia, has also soured perceptions of the Schengen Agreement and further enlargement.  Elections in many EU member states, most notably France and Germany where the anti-expansion Front National and Alternative for Germany are surging, risk further eroding good will towards Serbia. The issue of Kosovo remains a significant complicating factor for its EU membership bid.  It is clear that, through the pursuit of a EU-mediated “normalisation strategy”, Belgrade is hoping to take a gradualist approach towards improving relations with Pristina.  Regrettably for Serbia, larger EU states – all of whom recognise Kosovo as an independent state – are unlikely to settle for anything other than full recognition as a precursor to accession.  While much can change in four years, it is hard to envisage domestic opinion in Serbia being ready for such a landmark shift by 2020.  Indeed, its ability to do so may also be complicated by the rise of sharply anti-Serbian movements in Kosovo such as Vetevendosje, who have vowed to violently oppose all forms of rapprochement between Pristina and Belgrade. EU membership remains a near-certainty for Serbia but it is looking less and less likely to happen in 2020 and less and less likely to happen on the terms Vučić and the SNS desire.

Daniel Hamilton is a Senior Director at FTI Consulting, a global business advisory firm and a former Conservative Party parliamentary candidate in the UK.  He writes in a personal capacity.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of TransConflict.

Foreign journalists fined for entering Macedonia together with illegal migrants (Xinhua, 15 March 2016)

SKOPJE — Total of 72 foreign journalists were fined because they entered Macedonian territory illegally, following a bigger group of migrants from the Greek transition camp Idomeni, Macedonian Ministry of Interior announced Tuesday. The journalists, most of them citizens of Greece and Germany, had to pay 500 euros (555 U.S. dollars) fine for the illegal crossing of the border and received a six-month ban to report from Macedonian territory, the Ministry of Interior confirmed to Xinhua. They were allowed to return to Greece only after they paid the fine. According to the security forces a group of 1,500 migrants from Idomeni managed to walk around the security fence and enter Macedonia illegally near the village Moin. With the intervention of the police and the army, the group was stopped and the migrants were returned to Greece. Another group of 600 migrants was stopped before they entering the country territory. The situation at the Macedonian-Greek border is escalating with an increased number of attempts for illegal crossings since the Balkan route for legal transit of the migrants is closed. The patience of almost 15,000 migrants in Idomeni is waning because they are trapped in the transition camp for days on cold and rainy weather. Additional 1,500 migrants are stuck on Macedonian territory, in the camp in Tabanovce, trying to cross from Macedonia to Serbia. Macedonian National Security Council, a body presided by the Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, will meet tonight to discuss the situation at the borders and the effects caused with the closing of the Balkan route.

* * *

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.