LOCAL PRESS

Normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina continues (RTS/Beta)

Agreement on mutual recognition of certificates for transportation of gas and petroleum (ADR), reached in Brussels seven days ago by delegations of Belgrade and Pristina, has come into power on Tuesday, and has resulted in an unimpeded transportation of dangerous chemicals between Central Serbia and Kosovo as of Tuesday. On the basis of the agreement reached in Brussels, delegations from Belgrade and Pristina have committed themselves to allowing free movement of merchandise, including dangerous materials, without obstacles, and in line with European standards. The agreement is mutual acceptance of all documentation in line with the ADR convention – driver’s and traffic license.

Vucic: SVM may be only coalition partner (RTS/Tanjug)

SNS leader Aleksandar Vucic said today that other than the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM), his party may not have other partners in the republic parliament.A coalition with the SVM would give the SNS a majority of 135 deputies, Vucic said in Indjija. That is the only certain thing for now, the prime minister of the outgoing government said, adding that the rest remains to be seen. He added that Serbia will get a new government at the latest 15 days after the parliament has been constituted. As for the assembly of the province of Vojvodina, Vucic said the SNS would undoubtedly try to create an even broader coalition, he said, adding – I don’t claim the same when it comes to Serbia.

RIK processed less material on Tuesday than the day before (Beta/B92)

Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) resumed its bizarre behavior with regard to publishing election results, by releasing data after processing 98.04 percent of polling stations, despite the fact that it released data on Monday, after processing the larger sample of 98.56 polling stations.

According to the latest, though “reduced” results when compared to ones from Monday, SNS has won 48.26 percent of votes, SPS 10.97, SRS 8.11, DS 6.06, The Enough Is Enough movement 6.05 percent, coalition SDS-LDP-LSV 5.04%, and coalition DSS-Dveri five percent of votes.

Chairperson of RIK, and also official of Vucic’s SNS, Dejan Djurdjevic, refused to confirm that the seven aforementioned lists would surely access the Parliament, stating that counting of all ballots needs to be completed before giving such definite statements.

RIK: We will not recount ballots (Tanjug)

RIK deputy president Miladin Kovacevic said that the commission should not be expected to recount the election. He also told reporters he was not familiar with the SNS request for an election recount, adding this was possible under the established procedure. Anyone who files a request will be allowed access to the election material, including a recount, Kovacevic explained. “RIK cannot control itself, nor is there anyone with RIK who could do that. Only the National Assembly of Serbia could do that,” Kovacevic said. He noted that RIK will on Tuesday determine which polling stations will have to repeat elections due to irregularities on Sunday. So far, he said, it is known this will happen in Vranje, and in Ribnik, near Jagodina, but added that several other places will probably pop up.

Obradovic, Raskovic Ivic: SNS plans to retailor electoral will (New Serbian Political Thought)

A press conference of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS)-Dveri coalition was held at the DSS premises in regard to the fact that RIK has not only not finished processing data after 72 hours, but has even withdrawn published results by half percent. “RIK counted 98 percent of ballots for 12 hours, yet it cannot count 2 percent for 72 hours. It is clear that fraud and theft are being prepared,” said Dveri leader Bosko Obradovic. The SNS is contemplating how to manipulate with the ballots. They are planning to reject the polling stations where the results of our coalition are stronger as invalid and incorrect records, and to include and accept only polling stations where our results are weaker, said Obradovic. We will simply not allow this. We will not allow the SNS to determine how the counting will unfold. The Constitutional Court decided that there is no repeating of elections at places where there had been no objections. He assessed that the elections in Kosovo and Metohija is a special topic, because obvious electoral theft had occurred there. Opposition representatives were not allowed to be at polling stations, and to count votes in Raska and Vranje. Raskovic Ivic claims they had requested to see the copies of electoral polls in Kosovo and Metohija. According to her, there were 30,000 people on this list in 2014 in Kosovo and Metohija, but now there are 47,500. Asked by a journalist whether this conference was “pressure on RIK”, they responded that this was absurd since they, even if they wanted, would not be able to exert pressure on RIK where the SNS has overwhelming majority. If somebody is exerting pressure on RIK, then it is Vucic and the SNS. Asked to comment Vojislav Seselj’s statements that this coalition doesn’t have census and that the U.S. Embassy is pushing it, DSS leader Sanda Raskovic Ivic says that Seselj proved to be a favorite oppositionist of every government, and that his service to the regime has been definitely revealed with the latest statements. Obradovic says that Seselj first of all needs to explain why did the DSS-Dveri coalition win 6.6 percent of the voters in his results during the electoral night, and why did the SRS deny its own electoral results, for whose sake and why? Another RIK session ended just now, without a conclusion, i.e. without the final election results, which goes to say that underway is a huge electoral manipulation, whereby the SNS wishes to tailor election results as it suits it, said Obradovic. We will not allow a new electoral theft and for the SNS to tailor the electoral will. Should RIK succumb to SNS pressure, you can count on having civil protests in front of RIK and protests throughout Serbia. We will hold an extraordinary press conference tomorrow at 11 a.m. where we will present new information on preparations for an electoral theft.

PIK: Nine lists in Vojvodina Assembly (Novosti/Politika)

Provincial Electorate Commission (PIK) has counted 97.7 percent of all ballots, thus determining that nine parties and coalitions are to access the parliament of Vojvodina. According to the hitherto results, SNS has won 63 out of the total of 120 seats, coalition gathered around the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) 12 seats, Serbian Radical Party (SRS) 10, Democratic

Party (DS) 10, League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) 9, the “Enough is Enough” movement 7, Alliance of Vojodina Hungarians (SVM) 6, coalition between the Hungarian Movement for Autonomy and Democratic Association of Vojvodina Hungarians 2, and one seat for the Green Party.

Djordjevic: Serbia committed to staying militarily neutral (Tanjug)

Serbia is committed to remaining militarily neutral, Defense Minister Zoran Djordjevic said in a conversation with Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (ODKB) Nikolai Bordyuzha in Moscow on Tuesday. Djordjevic and Bordyuzha met on the sidelines of the 5th Moscow Conference on International Security, the government’s press office said in a release. They discussed the issues of participation in peacekeeping operations, the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking which constitutes a serious global threat. Serbia cooperates with NATO within the Partnership for Peace program, but the country would like to remain militarily neutral. “Serbia has no aspirations for full membership in NATO and this enables us, as well as ODKB members, to be an active regional and global security actor,” Djordjevic said.

Goal to bring legislation fully in line with acquis by 2018 (RTS/Tanjug)

It is Serbia’s objective to fully harmonize its legislation with the EU’s acquis by 2018, it was said at a third plenary session of the National Convention on the EU, pointing to the clear role and involvement of the civil society in all phases of the negotiation process. The Head of the EU Integration Office Ksenija Milenkovic described the Convention as an excellent format for the cooperation between the Office and NGOs, presenting several proposals for its strengthening.

At the 12 April meeting of the Stabilization and Association Committee in Brussels, no open issues were noted in the implementation of the agreement, Milenkovic said. She also said the Office had done a review of the National Program for the Adoption of the Acquis, voicing hope that a new government would adopt it soon. The third plenary session of the Convention was also attended by Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport and Serbian parliament speaker Maja Gojkovic who said the result of the snap parliamentary elections clearly confirmed citizens’ commitment to further EU integration and the government’s reform processes.

REGIONAL PRESS

OHR: The time has come for parliamentarians to enable Mostarians to elect their own local representatives (Nezavisne)

Today’s session of the B&H Parliamentary Assembly provides a long awaited opportunity to finally enable Mostarians to enjoy the basic right to elect their own local representatives, it was conveyed by the Office of the High Representative. “With the upcoming local elections about to be announced, it is now time to finally take a decision that will enable local elections to go ahead in Mostar this year. I urge and expect all the delegates and political parties represented in the B&H Parliamentary Assembly to play a constructive role so that amendments to the B&H Election Law that implement the B&H Constitutional Court’s ruling on Mostar are finally adopted. I would like to stress how important it is that Mostar is resolved in a manner that is consistent with the Court’s decision and is legally sound, but also that does not divide the city, particularly not along the former confrontation line. Mostarians cannot be expected to wait any longer to vote, nor should Mostar be linked to any other issue. It is time to recommit to reintegration and to put Mostar back on a positive path,” the High Representative said. The High Representative also noted that “The International Community is closely watching how the parties engage in the run up to tomorrow’s session. The leadership’s ability to resolve issues such as Mostar’s electoral system is an important indicator of B&H’s progress.”

Popovic: 24,911 children killed in Jasenovac (Srna)

Nikola Popovic, a member of the Republika Srpska Academy of Science and Arts, said that it was determined that hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp, of whom 24,911 were children. Popovic said that the Jasenovac concentration camp and all camps in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) have been the subject of historical science for a long time, but that unfortunately, the wider public knows a little about it. “Jasenovac is often mentioned as one of the major killing grounds in the history of WWII, having in mind that it is ‘a competition’ to concentration camps in Germany such as Auschwitz and Mauthauzen,” said Popovic, who attended a meeting in the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Jasenovac concentration camp in the the NDH. Popovic said that with the assistance of some quasi-scientists, the Croatian authorities as of late have tried to revise the truth about Jasenovac, its essence and nature, which is irresponsible from the scientific point of view, but is obviously the consequence of politics. He said that there is often word about how many people were killed in Jasenovac, stressing that crime is always a crime, regardless of the number of those killed. “The system of destruction was horrific, just like in German concentration camps, only they did not have gas chambers and incinerators,” he said. He said that “auctioning the number of victims is disgusting from the point of view of victims and their descendants”. “We do not have the exact data on all this because the Croatian authorities destroyed them,” he said. Popovic said that Belgrade journalist Dragoje Lukic, who hails from Kozara, investigated the killings of children in Jasenovac and the whole Bosanska Krajina, and that he arrived at a true figure of 24,191 children killed in Jasenovac alone. “This is the most accurate figure. Others are but estimates,” he said. Popovic reminded of an estimate of a total number of victims in WWII in Yugoslavia which was made by two scientists from the former SFRY, the Serb Bogoljub Kocovic and the Croat Vladimir Zerjavic. “It seems that they worked very honestly from the scientific point of view and arrived at first results. Their demographic approach shows that hundreds of thousands of people were killed in Jasenovac,” Popovic said. Asked why records of investigations in Jasenovac have never been published, Popovic said that this is a direct consequence of the politics of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and Josip Broz Tito that all Yugoslav peoples should be “equal” in both good and evil. “Every counting would be detrimental to a certain nation, in this case, the Croats. Then people believed that this can only spread ethnic hatred and resistance towards the Ustashe and their nationalistic movements. This was the politics of not making a fuss, of oblivion,” Popovic said. He said that the best and the most objective reports of state commissions tasked with conducting a census of victims in WWII were at the very beginning, while the later reports, from the 1960s, were largely forgeries.

SDSM leader meets Head of PACE delegation (Independent.mk)

SDSM president Zoran Zaev held talks on Wednesday with Stefan Schennach, head of a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that is paying a pre-­electoral visit to Macedonia. The interlocutors discussed the current political crisis in Macedonia following the breakdown to meet conditions for fair and democratic elections and the decision made by President Gjorge Ivanov to pardon 56 individuals, SDSM said in a press release. “The three key conditions for democratic elections haven’t been met, which is quite obvious to the public at home and abroad. The electoral roll hasn’t been edited, media reforms haven’t been implemented and there is no separation from the party and the state. The Przino Agreement, which is not respected by the government, was further undermined by the shameful decision of the ‘acting’ president, Ivanov, to pardon individuals, which has prompted the citizens to take to the streets to express their dissatisfaction. The situation can be solved with Ivanov withdrawing his illegal decision and by organizing fair and well­-administered elections in which a credible government will be elected, Zaev said at the meeting,” SDSM informed. According to the press release, it was concluded that further deepening of the political crisis could contribute to instability in the country. Zaev noted that SDSM was supporting non­violent and peaceful civil protests and urged key pre­conditions for fair elections to be met and all political stakeholders in the country to be part of well­-administered elections ‘in the interest of Macedonia’. In addition to representatives of the political parties running in the elections, the PACE delegation will also meet the chairman and members of the State Election Commission, the Public Prosecutor, as well as with members of the diplomatic community and representatives of international organizations, civil society and the media.

Protesters burn photos of President Ivanov, throw paint at his Office (MIA)

Protesters, organized by the civic association ‘Protestiram’ and supported by opposition SDSM, took Tuesday to the streets of Skopje for the 13th day in a row to voice their revolt against the President’s pardoning of top political figures involved in a wire-tapping scandal. Starting their march in front of the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO), the protesters headed to the Parliament building. The protest ended as every evening since 12 April in front of the Government building. The Ministry of Justice building and the President’s People’s Office were once again victims of fresh paint. Some protesters also burned photographs of President Gjorge Ivanov.

Schinas urges migrants waiting at the Macedonian border to move to other Greek camps (MIA)

The European Commission has encouraged the large group of migrants camping on the Greek side of the border with Macedonia near Gevgelija to follow advice from the authorities and move to some more orderly camp. MIA correspondent in Brussels reports that this call came from Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas on Tuesday, after being asked what is the EU doing regarding the more than 10.000 migrants at the makeshift camp in Sehovo/Idomeni. Schinas said that the EU has provided 83 million EUR in assistance that is being used to improve living conditions for the migrants. He added that the EU is “actively encouraging” the people there to relocate. The camp was created following the agreement between EU and Turkey to close the Balkan refugee route, which left over 50.000 people stranded in Greece, with additional smaller groups all along the Balkans. The group waiting at the very border remains hopeful that movement will resume, even as Greece is deporting some of the migrants back to Turkey. Schinas said that he hopes this camp will be the final chapter of a sad story that nobody wants to see repeated. On a number of occasions large groups of migrants attempted to break through the double border fence Macedonia built to control the movement of the migrants. In one mass attempt organized by open borders activists that operate in the camp, several thousand migrants by-passed the fence into Macedonia, only to have three of them drown in a swollen river, and the rest returned to Greece.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia election: EU grasping at straws (EUobserver, by Srdjan Cvijic, 27 April 2016)

Europe’s electoral calendar is gathering pace but not enough scrutiny has been placed on Serbia’s recent general election. Prime minister Aleksandar Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party emerged victorious from the 24 April vote.

Many analysts compared this election to a de facto referendum on EU membership. In a recent interview with Vucic, Politico described Serbia’s vote as a battle between extremist nationalist and pro-European forces. Indeed, this is how the Serbian PM would present these elections to the outside world: it is not just a victory for Vucic, it is a victory for Europe. At best this is wishful thinking, at worst willful denial. In reality these elections were about affirming Vucic as the undisputed leader of the country. Serbia’s EU membership is an issue that is largely distant from the concerns of large parts of the population. It is enough to review the official slogans of the political parties running in the election. Unlike previous ballots, not a single one had the EU as the main motto of their electoral campaign. When Vucic called for these unnecessary snap elections earlier this year, he had multiple objectives in mind. Primarily, he hoped to remove the Socialist Party from his government coalition at the national level and still be able to allow to his own party to run most municipalities around the country, including the northern province of Vojvodina. Next, he hoped to isolate members still loyal to the president of Serbia and founder of his party Tomislav Nikolic and win his inter-party battle. Finally, Vucic counted that the Democratic Party and many of the smaller parties established out of a popular movement against Milosevic – would not be able to reach the 5 percent parliament entry threshold. In those terms, Vucic’s victory is less than convincing. While he won more popular votes than in previous elections, the number of parliamentarians coming from his party dropped significantly (from 158 seats after the 2014 elections to 131 now). As many as seven political parties or coalitions managed to enter the parliament, without even counting the minority parties to which the 5 percent threshold does not apply. Despite a serious erosion of credibility and legitimacy since they came to power in 2000, the Democratic Party (the only member of the Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists from Serbia) will remain in the parliament and will most probably lead the opposition. The lethargic political scene will hopefully be invigorated by the new “It’s Enough” movement. On election night, while almost the entire opposition was engaged in assessing a worrying delay in the vote count, European officials, mainly from or close to the centre-right family of the European People’s Parties, rushed to congratulate the Serbian PM on his victory. Despite serious allegations of electoral irregularities, some of these well-wishers even visited the electoral headquarters of the ruling party. Such support was pre-emptive and misguided. Zoran Djindjic, leader of the Democratic Party, the man who defeated Milosevic to then be brutally assassinated in 2003, could only have dreamt of such support. Unconditional backing of Vucic might seem a logical choice for the European Union. His political transformation almost completely marginalised the anti-European right and reduced them to a convenient sideshow. Vucic has maintained the EU-backed policies of his predecessors to gradually allow Kosovo an independent existence. He ensured a much-appreciated and responsible stance during the refugee crisis. Yet, for large parts of the Serbian population these EU accolades do not really matter. On several issues of crucial importance for Serbs, such as economic growth, rule of law, social justice, media freedoms, Vucic’s government has failed to achieve any meaningful progress. Instead of focusing on the over-wrought and over-loaded dichotomy ‘for’ or ‘against’ Europe, the EU should pay serious attention to the declining performance against the political criteria for EU membership across the Western Balkans.

Deteriorating media freedoms, political clientelism and cheap populism all over the region do not create the conditions for free and fair elections. The EU is becoming predictable in its simple interpretations that belie the complicated political context in each of the Western Balkan countries – troubling details are glossed over if the EU stance is positive. The political crisis in Macedonia is a telling example that once exemplary pupils may turn into troubling autocrats. Despite the congratulatory exaltations for Vucic, this election in no way guarantees that Serbia may not follow a similar path.

Srdjan Cvijic is a senior analyst at the Open Society European Policy Institute, a think tank in Brussels

‘Genocide Denial’ Row to Dominate Srebrenica Election (BIRN, by Denis Dzidic, 27 April 2016)

The issue of whether or not the Srebrenica massacres constituted genocide is set to dominate the upcoming mayoral vote in the area after Serb parties put forward a joint candidate who has rejected the term. This week’s decision by political parties from Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska to back a joint candidate in October’s mayoral election in Srebrenica – Mladen Grujicic, the president of the Families of the Captured, Killed Fighters and Missing Civilians of Republika Srpska association – has been described as an unacceptable insult by genocide survivors and organisations representing post-war returnees to the area. Bosniak victims’ associations, as well as the current mayor of Srebrenica, Camil Durakovic, who is standing for re-election, accuse Grujicic of being a ‘genocide denier’ because he once said that he believes that the massacres of more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 did not amount to genocide. Grujicic has not responded to questions about whether or not that is still his position on the genocide issue, but he insists that he would make a great mayor for all the residents of Srebrenica, regardless of their ethnicity. “I have been working with victims for the past eight years and I can relate to all victims. I have never heard a bad word said about me,” Grujicic told BIRN. In order to ensure that Durakovic retains the mayoralty at October’s elections, a campaign group called March 1, which works with people who have returned to Srebrenica after being displaced by the war, told BIRN that it will attempt to register Bosniak voters who are now living in the Federation entity and abroad to vote in the municipal poll.

Bosniaks want a Bosniak mayor

The president of the Mothers of Srebrenica victims’ association, Hatidza Mehmedovic, said that she believes that because of the nature of the crimes committed in Srebrenica in 1995, the mayor should be a Bosniak; a Bosniak has held the position for over 15 years so far. “We must make sure that a Bosniak is mayor until we have new generations [of people living here], so that we do not get genocide deniers,” Mehmedovic told BIRN. “That would be the worst insult to victims, and we will boycott the results of the election if this Serb man wins,” she added. Mehmedovic also argued that the elections are intrinsically unjust because Bosniaks who should be voting are buried at the memorial centre in Potocari near Srebrenica, or have been expelled by the Bosnian Serb army. But Grujicic, who for the past eight years has been the president of the local branch of the Families of the Captured, Killed Fighters and Missing Civilians of Republika Srpska, said he was proud that his candidacy is being supported by all the Serb parties, who often quarrel amongst themselves. “Their support says that I do not have a stain on my career and everyone believes that I will be the best, and work with everyone, to lead this municipality to a better life,” he said. He said that his policies will be oriented towards creating a better future in the impoverished municipality in order to stop young and educated people leaving. “We are seeing that life is bad here and Serbs and Bosniaks are leaving. I will fight for a better life… The only way forward is the future, but not by hurting one another. If I am elected, no Bosniak should feel threatened,” he insisted. Asked how he viewed the debate about the Srebrenica genocide, Grujicic said he was a boy in the early 1990s so didn’t have the experience to comment. But he added that he did lose his father in the war and so can relate to all victims. “People want to project a situation in which Serbs and Bosniaks hate each other here, and that is not true,” he said.

Nationalist rhetoric expected

The current Srebrenica mayor, Camil Durakovic, who will run again in the autumn, said he did not mind the Serb parties having a joint candidate – explaining that they also had one at the last elections four years ago – but that he was disappointed by the nomination of Grujicic.

“We see that he is someone connected to the war [through his job as president of the Families of the Captured, Killed Fighters and Missing Civilians in Srebrenica], someone who has a controversial opinion that denies genocide, and it is clear that his nomination is a premeditated manipulation intended to minimise the crimes,” said Durakovic. “I wish the Serb parties would come together with a new economic development platform, but this is sad,” he added. Political analysts believe that the fact that both Bosniak and Serb parties will present a joint mayoral candidate for Srebrenica means that the campaign will be characterised by nationalist rhetoric and focus on issues related to the genocide. Analyst Srdjan Puhalo noted that Bosniak and Serb parties often have disagreements amongst themselves but manage to unite as an ethnic bloc when they feel their community is threatened. “When they have an outside opponent, they change the approach and we see an easy nationalist consensus [emerge],” said Puhalo.

Croatia convicts five former Serb policemen, relations with Serbia still stalled (New Europe, by Dan Alexe, 27 April 2016)

The county court in the coastal city of Rijeka on Tuesday convicted in absentia five former Serb policemen for physically abusing and killing two Bosniak civilians in the Udbina municipality in the Lika region of Croatia in August 1991. They five convicted men were convicted in absentia, as they are no longer in Croatia. The court found that their crime was used to intimidate and expel the Bosnian and Croat population from of the Udbina region. Croatian Serbs started their armed rebellion against the Croatian state in 1991, setting up the Republic of Serbian Krajina, which encompassed around 30 % of Croatia’s territory. It was officially dissolved in November 1995 under the Erdut Peace Agreement signed by Serbia with the Croatian authorities. Last week, Montenegro extradited a Serbian army officer, Pavle Pantic, to Croatia, on a warrant issued by Zagreb in 1994 accusing him of shelling the Croatian city of Split, causing the deaths of four people and injuries to several dozen others. Serbia and Croatia, as well as Bosnia, fought brutal wars two decades ago after the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Crimes committed during those wars are tried by the U.N. war crimes tribunal and the sides perceive the verdicts differently. The court recently sentenced Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to 40 years for crimes including genocide against Muslim Bosniaks and Croats, committed during his campaign of creating a territory within Bosnia exclusively for Serbs. Serbia’s prime minister Aleksandar Vucic angered Bosnian Muslims afterward by saying nobody should use the verdict to try to dismantle the Serb republic within Bosnia. They saw this as defending Karadzic’s genocidal legacy. Muslim Bosnian leader Bakir Izetbegovic then angered the Serbs by saying he may renew a lawsuit against Serbia for aggression at the World Court. Relations between Serbia and Croatia also cooled recently after Croatia vetoed the start of EU talks with Serbia about judicial and human rights reforms — a key chapter in the process of EU accession. Croatia insisted Belgrade should first improve the status of the Croatian minority in Serbia, cooperate better with the U.N. war crimes tribunal and change its criminal law so it stops claiming the jurisdiction of Serbian courts over war crimes committed outside of its national borders.

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Media summaries are produced for the internal use of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, UNMIK and UNHQ.  The contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership.