LOCAL PRESS

ICTY delivers verdict to SRS leader Seselj (RTS/B92)

The leader of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) Vojislav Seselj was not found guilty and he was acquitted on all counts. “Vojislav Seselj is a free man,” Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti said as he concluded the reading of the verdict.

The ICTY has established that Seselj’s volunteers were “morally subordinated” to the SRS leader, but not under his military command at the time when they took part in combat operations.

Judge Antonetti  has pointed out that the Prosecution had not proved that the non-Serb civil population was attacked in Vukovar, Zvornik and other places in the period referred by the indictment and that it hasn’t been clearly proved that the civilians were massively targeted.

Judge Antonetti said that the evidence doesn’t prove that there was an organized attack on the Croat population in Hrtkovci, as well as that most of the Chamber members acknowledged that Seselj did not directly take part in the expulsion of Croats from Hrtkovci, as well as that the Prosecution should not demand direct, but indirect responsibility for the expulsion. “There are no legal arguments for any kind of criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity,” said Antonetti . The judge added that the Prosecution had not given enough evidence for the crimes of the murder of non-Serb prisoners near Sarajevo, torture near Zvornik, plundering of private and public property in Vukovar, as well as that most of the Chamber members do not think that they established destruction that was not justified with war.

The Prosecution has not presented in the right way the facts of the break-up of Yugoslavia and the formation of Serb entities, nor that the formation of these entities was a result of a criminal intention, said Judge Antonetti.

Sending SRS volunteers was not committing of crime but support to war efforts, but this doesn’t grant amnesty to perpetrators of crimes in certain cases, said Judge Antonetti.

The Prosecution has not presented in the right way the existence of a joint criminal enterprise, said Judge Antonetti. “I slept like a baby, because my conscience is completely at peace. I am fresh as dew, which will be seen today at the press conference,” Seselj wrote on Tweeter.

Seselj: Only possible verdict from legal aspect (Tanjug/RTS)

The SRS leader Vojislav Seselj has stated that the ICTY verdict is the only possible one from the legal aspect, and that two judges had demonstrated professionalism and honor, resisting political pressure. At a press conference in the SRS premises shortly after the verdict was delivered in the ICTY, Seselj said that he had known from the beginning that they would not be able to prove a single crime. “Afterwards, when I won, I wasn’t interested in the pronounced verdict, I passed without punishment, and perhaps I should have received some punishment so Serb enemies, both outside and inside Serbia, would not be so furious,” said Seselj. He says that the Judges in the Trial Chamber Jean-Claude Antonetti and Mandiaye Niang demonstrated professionalism above all political pressures. He voiced regret that his, as he put it, close friends Milan Martic, General Zdravko Tolimir, Radovan Karadzic and many others did not have honorable and honest judges in the Trial Chamber, noting that in that case they would have been acquitted. “My stand towards the ICTY as an anti-Serb court and instrument of the new world order has not changed one bit,” said Seselj.

Nikolic: ICTY a benchmark for a Serb (Tanjug)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said Thursday that he is indifferent to the verdict for the SRS leader Vojislav Seselj and to him as a person, but noted that the ICTY is a benchmark for a Serb. “I had not thought about what could happen, but being acquitted or convicted by the ICTY is a benchmark for a Serb,” Nikolic told reporters in Belgrade.

Obradovic: Verdict to Seselj quite unexpected in Hague (RTS)

The Head of Serbia’s legal team in The Hague Sasa Obradovic told Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) that the acquittal of Vojislav Seselj is quite unexpected in The Hague. He says that colleagues from other diplomatic offices expected condemnation of Seselj, not what we heard today, and we had a condemnation of the Prosecution for the entire work on this case. According to him, the ICTY once again demonstrated how much, in fact, it is important for overall relations in our region. “I can voice also one kind of personal satisfaction with the fact that Judge Antonetti, together with Judge Niang from Senegal, confirmed some of the arguments that our Serbian team, which I had the honor to head before the ICTY, was presenting and because of which we were fiercely attacked in one part of the domestic regional public,” said Obradovic. We can see today that these were legal arguments even though I do not doubt that these arguments will be subject to an appeal by the ICTY, added Obradovic.

More reactions to the verdict (RTS)

The League of Social-Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) has announced that it is shocked with the verdict to Vojislav Seselj. “All expelled and afflicted during the 1990s deserve justice,” reads the LSV statement signed by the leader Nenad Canak. The Serbian Movement Dveri and the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) assessed that the acquittal of Seselj “must not obscure the fact that the ICTY is a political and anti-Serb court”. In a joint statement, Dveri and the DSS noted that “it has been clear from the very start that the indictment against Seselj is political and not legal”. “The ICTY tried in this case to transfer verbal offense into an indictment for a legally dubious act of a ‘joint criminal enterprise’ and other indictments of which Seselj was acquitted today,” Dveri and DSS assessed. They recalled that Seselj spent 12 years in prison and that the Serbs must not forget “the gravest verdicts voiced against the political, military and police leadership of Serbia, the Republika Srpska and Republika Srpska Krajina with the goal of attributing to the Serbs the greatest responsibility for the civil war.

The former director of the Humanitarian Law Centre in Serbia and anti-war activist, Natasa Kandic, said that the acquittal of Seselj was surprising and that it would be difficult to sustain the ruling on appeal and added that Serbia carries the anathema of war crimes in part because of Seselj.

Vukadinovic: Wind in the back of SRS at elections (Beta)

Political analyst Djordje Vukadinovic assesses that the acquittal of the SRS leader Vojislav Seselj is unexpected, especially if one bears in mind the practice and past experience with this court. He told Beta that the acquittal has nothing to do with the court and “various conspiracy theories” that will be told in Serbia and the region, but exclusively with the process to Seselj and Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti, whom he assessed that he had seemed from the very beginning of this trial as “an unusual occurrence in the ICTY environment”. He assessed that the trial to Seselj has been problematic from the very beginning, that the indictment was “badly tackled” and the defense of Seselj and his advisors was excellent, along with, to say the least, fair and benevolent attitude of Judge Antonetti.

Nikolic: Thaqi president of non-existent state (Beta)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic told reporters in Belgrade that he cannot attend the inauguration of Kosovo President Hashim Thaqi because, for him, Kosovo and Metohija does not exist as an independent state. Nikolic said that he has not seen the invitation for the inauguration, which he said has arrived in the media, but added that he does not belong there since he is the President of Serbia. He added that an independent state of Kosovo doesn’t exist for him, that the inauguration of Thaqi is “within the provisional institutions of Pristina and according to the Kosovo Constitution”. “Even according to Resolution 1244 this is possible to happen, but not in an independent state,” said Nikolic.

Agreement on mutual verification of diplomas in effect at the beginning of April (Novosti)

Recognition of school and faculty diplomas obtained in Pristina should start throughout Serbia, the advisor to the Kosovo minister for the dialogue with Serbia Arjeta Redjaj stated. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija confirmed for Novosti that the implementation of the 2011 agreement on diplomas should begin on 4 April on the Day of Students of Serbia. “With the implementation of the 2011 agreement the use of diplomas of all accredited institutions in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, including the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, should be enabled for professional and academic purposes. Belgrade and Pristina exchanged lists of universities and accredited programs, and there are 18 universities on our list, including the University in Pristina with headquarters in Kosovska Mitrovica. The authorized institutions will intensively monitor the first steps in the implementation of this technical agreement in order to prevent until now very present forms of discrimination,” the Office for Kosovo and Metohija stated.

REGIONAL PRESS

Reactions to the ICTY’s verdict on Seselj (Srna/Hina/Fena)

B&H Council of Ministers Chairman Denis Zvizdic said on Thursday he did not understand how the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia could acquit Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, when it was clear that he was proven to have taken part in the military aggression against B&H. The Vice President of the Federation of B&H Melika Mahmutbegovic believes that today’s verdict is shocking, disappointing and disturbing for all citizens of B&H and Croatia, who experienced all the horrors of Seselj’s nationalistic rhetoric. Meanwhile, Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik told Srna that he is not surprised by the content of the judgment against Vojislav Seselj, because it was clear from the trial process that The Hague Tribunal’s Office of the Prosecutor had launched yet another unfounded and political, rather than legal process. At the same time, Croatian Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic said that the acquittal of Seselj was a defeat of the Hague war crimes tribunal’s prosecution and a disgrace for the UN court. The acquittal of Vojislav Seselj is insulting and shocking for all victims of the Greater Serbian policy and destructive for the reconciliation process, said the Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miro Kovac. The Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY Serge Brammertz said that his office had taken note of the acquittal of Vojislav Seselj and that after a careful review of the Trial Chamber’s reasoning, in a few days his office would determine whether there are grounds for an appeal.

Seselj ruling deals blow to prosecution, gives boost to Serbian Radical Party (Hina)

Foreign news agencies and media on Thursday reported on a shocking and surprising acquittal of Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj by the ICTY in The Hague, saying that the ruling dealt a heavy blow to the prosecution and victims and gave a boost to the anti-EU Serbian Radical Party ahead of Serbia’s parliamentary elections in April. European Parliament Vice President Ulrike Lunacek said in a comment on the acquittal of the Serbian Radical Party leader on Thursday that “Vojislav Seselj was the main proponent of Greater Serbia and in the current election campaign in Serbia he continues to be the main advocate of extremist Serbian nationalism so the Hague tribunal’s verdict in his case sends out a shattering message.” Italian judge Flavia Lattanzi, a member of the ICTY trial chamber that acquitted the accused Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj on Thursday on all counts of war crimes committed against Croat and Muslim civilians in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croat civilians in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, issued a partially dissenting opinion saying that the acquittal contradicted the evidence presented and was not based in international law.​

Initiative for the dismissal of Mirsad Vilic failed (Srna)

The Independent Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H failed once again on Wednesday to support the initiative for the dismissal of Director of the B&H Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies, Mirsad Vilic that was sent by the B&H Security Minister, Dragan Mektic, after the attack on Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, in Srebrenica. B&H Security Minister Dragan Mektic says it is unacceptable that it took the Independent Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly nine months to vote on its initiative for the replacement of Mirsad Vilic, head of the Directorate for Coordination of Police Agencies in B&H, in relation to the attack on Vucic in the Potocari Memorial Centre near Srebrenica on July 11, 2015.

Is there room for Serbs in Mostar? (Srna)

The Coordination Board of Serb Associations in Mostar asked all Serb representatives at all levels of government and the international community to support the Serbs in the city on Wednesday. The Coordination Board says that the Serbs find any kind of a solution that would mean a division of Mostar unacceptable. “We wonder if there would be any room for the Serbs in a divided Mostar and what their future would be like,” reads an open letter of the board. The letter underlines that the proposals for amendments to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), namely the part related to Mostar and the City Statute neglect the Serbs’ interests and that they are deprived of the little rights they have had so far, on paper at least. The Coordination Board of Serb Associations in Mostar recalls that it was formed to try to influence the protection of interests of the Serbs in the area, through joint views, but that their voice has not reached anyone. “Even though we’ve been appealing for months for the Serbs to get involved in the negotiations on Mostar and that our views be acknowledged, it has borne no fruit. Dissatisfied with the proposed solutions coming from the Croat and Bosniak parties in Mostar, we demand that the Serb representatives at all levels of government, especially in the B&H Parliamentary Assembly, urgently become involved in resolving the issue of the position of the Serbs in Mostar,” reads the open letter. The body says that they have so far had token support from the Serb politicians, but now they ask for concrete support and a clear stance of the Serb representatives towards the protection of the Serbs’ interests in the city on the Neretva River. They also want them to permit, in the Parliamentary Assembly, the Election Law to incorporate the solutions that would mean further damage to the Serbs’ position. They ask the Serb representatives to demand from the Croat and Bosniak representatives to acknowledge the views of the Coordination Board of Serb Associations in Mostar in the Statute of the City of Mostar. The association has adopted the basic principles of the structure of Mostar, basically stating that Mostar has to remain a single entity in the territorial and administrative sense. The Coordination Board believes that Mostar should be a single constituency and that the protection of national interests has to be clearly defined in the executive and legislative authorities: in the executive authorities through the institution of mayor and two deputy mayors from the ranks of the three constitutive peoples, and in the legislative authorities through the Caucus in the City Council. Given that Mostar is the Dayton Agreement-based category and that the High Representative was the creator of the present Statute of the City of Mostar, the association calls on the representatives of the international community, especially the Office of the High Representative, to not allow any kind of a solution that would not respect the Serbs’ interests in Mostar. The letter notes that the Mostar Serbs do not wish to obstruct anything, and instead want to be a part of the solution that will turn Mostar into a modern European city where there will be room for all peoples and citizens.

Ivanic and Cormack discuss resolving the outstanding issues in B&H (Fena/Srna)

The B&H Presidency member Mladen Ivanic met yesterday with the US Ambassador to B&H Maureen E. Cormack, with whom he discussed the overall political situation in B&H and the prospects for resolving some of the outstanding issues, in particular amendments to the Statute of the City of Mostar, in order to comply with the judgment of the B&H Constitutional Court. At a meeting with the US Ambassador to B&H, Ivanic also expressed his concern over the creation of a negative political atmosphere between B&H and Serbia.

B&H and Serbia sign Protocol on temporary employment agreement (Fena)

Director of the Agency for Labor and Employment of B&H Muamer Bandic and Director of the National Employment Service of the Republic of Serbia, Zoran Martinovic yesterday in Sarajevo signed a Protocol on the implementation of the agreement between the Council of Ministers and the Government of the Republic of Serbia on temporary employment of citizens of B&H in the Republic of Serbia and the citizens of the Republic of Serbia in B&H.

70 B&H citizens under investigation for terrorism (Hina)

The State Prosecutor’s Office in B&H said on Wednesday it was investigating 70 people suspected of involvement in terrorism and was taking special steps in monitoring the movement of B&H citizens fighting alongside terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq. Chief Prosecutor Goran Salihovic met in Sarajevo on Wednesday with an anti-terrorism task force consisting of representatives of all security agencies in the country. A statement issued after the meeting said that the State Prosecutor’s Office and the security agencies had opened investigations in 33 terrorism-related cases to date, covering 70 persons. The 70 people are suspected of organizing terrorist groups, public incitement to terrorist activity, recruitment for terrorism, illegal formation of and recruitment for foreign paramilitary or parapolice units, crimes of terrorism and terrorism-related activities. Charges have been brought to date against 20 persons in connection with fighting in Syria and Iraq, and two more indictments are expected to be issued soon. The statement said that several citizens of B&H currently in Syria or Iraq have contacted law enforcement authorities with the intention of returning to B&H, saying that they are willing to admit their guilt and cooperate with B&H justice authorities. A number of B&H citizens who fought in Syria or Iraq have been identified by Turkish security services. They are now in investigative custody in Turkey and will probably be extradited to B&H.

Djukanovic: Some negotiations participants are afraid of the agreement and responsibility (RTCG)

Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said that he was unconditionally ready for reaching a political agreement between the government and the opposition. The fact that some of the participants in the negotiations have recently set certain preconditions, the DPS’s leader sees as a lack of willingness to come to an agreement. Commenting on the deadline by which the Government and the opposition should take positions related to reaching agreement on the conditions for free and fair elections, Djukanovic said that his response to this issue was already known. “My willingness is not questionable. I would say that is completely unconditional. I am ready to work hard with my associates in the coming days to remove the last shades of potential misunderstanding in order to reach a political agreement, verify it in the Parliament and create the conditions for constitution of the government which will include representatives of the opposition and which will be committed to creating conditions for organizing free general elections”, Djukanovic said. Djukanovic also commented on Demos’s leader Miodrag Lekic’s statement that 9 April was the deadline for reaching an agreement. “As far as we are concerned, the deadlines are in the past. We were ready to do it a few weeks ago, but we have not come to that because of the demands that have exceeded those principled frameworks that I have mentioned. According to him, EU officials have unequivocally confirmed that Montenegro is a success story in the Western Balkans and a very successful partner of the European Union in the region – a partner which promotes European values in the Western Balkans and represents a positive example for other candidate countries.

Jahjaga: No irregularities in border demarcation between Kosovo and Montenegro (CDM)

An independent international expert group for evaluating the process of demarcation of the border line with Montenegro has found no irregularities in the process, said the president of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga. “The experts did not find irregularities in the process of demarcation in terms of legal and technical aspects”, Jahjaga said at a press conference. According to her, the committee determined that the demarcation process should have been more transparent and that the Kosovo public should have been involved in it, bearing in mind the laws in force, maps and geodesic foundlings. Member of the expert committee Fletcher Burton said that he “elaborated” his findings in an extensive report, which was submitted to the president Jahjaga. “We have concluded that the State Commission of Kosovo has set a strong foundation in their work. The process has been carried out on a strong legal basis. Therefore, we have concluded that the process and the committee’s work were legitimate from the legal aspect”, said Burton. Member of the expert committee Herbert Wilmes said he had reviewed the technical aspects of the demarcation agreement. As stated, the commissions of Kosovo and Montenegro have implemented the best techniques that have provided “a clear view of the surface up to an inch”. “This was a remarkable experience to see the impact when commissions work together. It is about commissions of two neighboring countries. This is a good example for the future, for the two countries, Kosovo and Montenegro”, he said. The demarcation of the border line and agreement on the Community of Serbian municipalities have been the reason for several month stalemate in the Parliament of Kosovo, because the opposition believes that the demarcation of the border with Montenegro cost Kosovo approximately 8,000 hectares.​

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbian politician Vojislav Seselj acquitted of war crimes (DW, 31 March 2016)

The ICTY in the Hague has found Vojislav Seselj not guilty of all charges. The Serbian ultranationalist was accused of inciting the horrors of the 1991-95 wars in Croatia and Bosnia.

Vojislav Seselj was acquitted of all charges by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague on Thursday.

Prosecutors had accused Seselj of stoking murderous ethnic tension with his fiery rhetoric at the outset of the 1990s Balkan wars that followed the collapse of federal Yugoslavia into seven successor states – costing 130,000 lives in the process.

“With this acquittal on all the nine counts of the indictment the arrest warrant issued by the appeals chamber is rendered moot,” presiding judge Jean-Claude Antonetti said on Thursday. “Vojislav Seselj is now a free man.”

Seselj, who was released in November 2014 to receive cancer treatment after almost 12 years’ imprisonment, was at home in Serbia at the time of the verdict. His provisional release had been repealed, however.

Seselj cheers judges

At the Thursday press conference in Belgrade, Seselj praised judges Jean-Claude Antonetti and Mandiaye Niangas as “honorable and honest.”

Following many trials against “innocent Serbs,” according to Seselj, the judges have “showed that professionalism, honor and dignity are above any political pressure.”

“From a legal standpoint, they have reached the only possible verdict,” he added. At the same time, Seselj said that his attitude towards the UN tribunal remains the same, and that he still viewed the court as “anti-Serbian.”

In Sarajevo, head of the Alliance of Camp Survivors in Bosnia and Herzegovina Jasmin Meskovic said that the verdict was “unbelievable.”

“The man who had his own units, logistics, who mobilized and directed people to go to war, who committed crimes – was pronounced not guilty,” Meskovic said. “It is unbelievable.”

Nationalist slogans

An ultranationalist and Greater Serbia ideologue, Seselj voluntarily appeared before the Tribunal in 2003, after the ICTY brought charges against him.

After returning to Serbia in 2014, he once again began disseminating his nationalist slogans – and suffered no political consequences for his actions. Although Seselj considers Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to be “traitors,” he has largely spared them in his criticism. Though both were close confidants in his Serbian Radical Party (SRS) in the 1990s, they unexpectedly left to form the pro-European, Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in 2008.

‘Political circus’

Though Seselj made headlines after returning to Serbia, only a few extremely radical nationalists were enthusiastic about his theatrics – such as his tirades against Croatians, or his public burning of EU-, Nato- and Croatian flags.

“What has gone on over the last 12 months has been more circus than serious politics,” as Aleksandar Popov, director of the Center for Regionalism in Novi Sad, Serbia, told DW.

“The only thing that Seselj can do is help his Radical Party clear the five-percent hurdle required to win seats in parliament. If the nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) can do the same, there will then be two political groups in parliament fighting against the European integration of Belgrade – and for closer cooperation with Russia,” Popov said.

New elections along the way to joining the EU

In early March, President Nikolic dissolved parliament and announced that early elections would be held on April 24 – two years before the end of the legislative period. Elections, he said, were necessary for the completion of reforms. Aleksandar Vucic’s government wants another four-year mandate in order to “guarantee a European standard of living.”

The economically challenged country has been an official candidate for EU membership since March 2012. The Kosovo conflict has long hindered accession talks. The first two chapters of membership negotiations were not officially opened until December of last year.

To this day, Serbia has refused to recognize the independence of its Kosovo province, but now – under pressure from Brussels – it seeks to normalize relations with Kosovo.