LOCAL PRESS

Vucic: We will request Haradinaj’s extradition (Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told a press conference in Belgrade that Serbia would request the extradition of Ramush Haradinaj, against which there is an international arrest warrant. Vucic says that he hopes that law will be above politics in this case as well. He says that the Serbian Prosecution has numerous evidence, many accusing issues and that it would be very unusual for France not to proceed in line with the law, but in line with political stands. According to Vucic, if this doesn’t occur, our state would estimate how to proceed in a reciprocal situation. He underlines that Haradinaj is a man who is charged with “so many crimes, from Glodjane to the Radonic Lake”. “We do not have the right, either me or someone else, to bring down the decision of the independent judiciary,” said Vucic.

Dacic: Something rotten in principles of Danish diplomat (Beta/RTS)

Statement by the former head of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Soren Petersen that Serbia is doing everything in order to destabilize the independence of Kosovo is “the pinnacle of hypocrisy,” the Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic assessed on Wednesday. “Something is rotten in the principles of the Danish diplomat Petersen. Let him apply them to others, for example, let him start with his own country,” Dacic said. He also posed a question what country in the world accepts unilaterally proclaimed secession of a part of its territory? Dacic added that it would be good Petersen to demand it from his country of Denmark, which has annulled unilaterally the declared independence of the Faroe Islands. “So, why his country of Denmark has been trying so hard to keep Greenland, which is 3,500 kilometers far away, or the Faroe Islands, which are 1,300 kilometers of the country,” Dacic asked. He noted that Petersen found it necessary to attack Serbia because it does not applaud to the independence of Kosovo, although he “was the head of the UN Mission, the organization whose Resolution 1244 is still in force.” Dacic also assessed that Petersen’s claim that the EU should set stronger conditions to Serbia was “particularly cynical.”

Djuric: Serbia to form Community of Serb Municipalities in February (RTS/Tanjug)

If Pristina does not form the Community of the Serb Municipalities (ZSO) until 15 February, it will be formed by Serbia, the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric announced on Wednesday. The Serbs in Kosovo have been waiting for three years for Pristina to start implementing the agreement that is crucial to our nation. Of course, it cannot wait forever, Djuric also said. “Pristina’s desire to get something in Brussels and to give nothing testifies about irresponsibility, immaturity and lack of credibility of Kosovo political factors. Of course, we cannot negotiate that way. It is the ultimate cynicism that these days the Serbs in Pristina receive threatening messages and reminders on the so-called log revolution. And I tell them that the logs and barricades are placed where there is no capacity for institutional troubleshooting. The Serbs just want to have a good institutional framework in the ZSO for organization of their lives in Kosovo, but Pristina is the one that denies them that right,” Djuric said.

Commenting on the conflict within the Serbian List, which has 11 MPs in the Kosovo parliament, Djuric said that those who attempt to undermine the unity of the Serbs in Kosovo from within would bear the consequences.

Drecun: Pristina and Brussels are now on the move (Tanjug)

The Serbian parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija will debate on 11 January the political and security situation in Kosovo and Metohija, this Committee’s Chairperson Milovan Drecun told Tanjug. He says that the expectation in the following period is for the Serb representatives in the provisional institutions to be united, noting that the interests of the Serbs need to be defended from the attempt of the Albanians to impose unilateral solutions that would be detrimental for the Serbs. Speaking about the security situation in Kosovo and Metohija, Drecun says that for the Committee’s session he had requested from the competent services to prepare information about this, especially bearing in mind the operating of radical Islamists and grouping of jihadists from the IS in the Balkan region from where they headed to fight. “We need to examine how realistic the risk is for the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as the degree of their eventual threat and to have as a committee the complete situation,” said Drecun.

He says it is unacceptable to indefinitely postpone what is the key element, the foundation of the Brussels agreement, which is the formation of the ZSO, adding that Pristina has for years been looking for various excuses for this not to happen. “If Pristina doesn’t want to form the ZSO, we want the normalization process to be maintained and to resume. Serb representatives will be forced to form it in line with the Brussels agreement, because they see it as the only systematic mechanism for survival and economic prosperity,” said Drecun. “Pristina, but also Brussels, are now on the move to create conditions and to form the ZSO, as agreed, or else the Serb representatives will have to do it,” said Drecun.

Nikolic replies to Izetbegovic: I am going to RS, I do not accept blackmail (Kurir)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic told Bosniak member of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic that he didn’t intend to give up from the visit to Banja Luka on 9 January. “Of course I will go to mark and celebrate, Serbia and RS have special ties, and I don’t accept this kind of blackmail,” Nikolic told Kurir.

REGIONAL PRESS

B&H Ministry of Defense will partially approve Dodik’s request for B&H Armed Forces participation in the RS Day ceremony; decision sparks reactions (BHT1)

B&H Ministry of Defense will partially approve the request of Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik regarding participation of members of B&H Armed Forces (AF) in a ceremony marking the RS Day – 9 January. Namely, B&H Ministry of Defense approved participation of B&H AF orchestra in the aforementioned ceremony. However, the statement issued by this Ministry on Wednesday does not read whether participation of 20 officers and 20 soldiers of BiH AF in the central ceremony marking the RS Day will be approved, as it was requested earlier by RS President Dodik.

Commenting on the decision of B&H Ministry of Defense, Igor Crnadak said that the decision is correct and in line with the law.

SDA issued a statement reading that marking of the RS Day is unconstitutional and anti-Dayton act. Also, they oppose participation of B&H AF members in the ceremonies marking this holiday. “Members of B&H AF cannot participate in any activities related to marking of the RS Day,” reads the statement of SDA, adding that all those participating in similar activities are at risk to be processed for failing to respect decisions of B&H Constitutional Court (CC). SDA also deems that participation of officials of neighboring countries in the ceremony marking unconstitutional holiday would represent disrespecting of B&H institutions.

Commenting on the issue, Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff of B&H AF Senad Masovic stressed: “The law is clear and it is up to us to fully respect it.” Deputy Speaker from the ‘Domovina’ coalition Senad Bratic reminded that the CC of B&H ruled the RS Day discriminatory, noting that CC of the RS is making legally illogical moves. Head of Bosniak Caucus in the RS Council of Peoples (RS CoP) Mujo Hadziomerovic reiterated that January 9 as the RS Day is absolutely unacceptable to Bosniaks in this entity. Minister of Defense of B&H Marina Pendes refused to comment on the matter. DF leader Zeljko Komsic said that Pendes’ decision made it clear that HDZ B&H and its personnel are in a strategic and political agreement with Dodik “when it comes to bringing down all institutions of B&H”. Komsic deems that Pendes should resign as it is possible to speak about Pendes’ “criminal responsibility in this case”. SDP B&H Political Director Damir Masic told TV1 that it is absurd that Pendes is drawing B&H AF into “a political game, primarily of the RS authorities”. Masic assessed that Pendes has practically denied BiH CC’s decision related to the RS Day.

Dodik rejects partial participation of B&H Armed Forces (Srna)

RS President Milorad Dodik rejected the stance of B&H Ministry of Defense to allow the Military Orchestra of the Armed Forces (AF) of B&H to participate in the marking of January 9 if members of the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the AF of B&H are not allowed to participate as well. “It is clear that this is a strike against the RS. It is unacceptable to have the Ministry of Defense of B&H decide on this matter and interpret regulations and laws,” Dodik stated. Dodik noted that laws in the RS are passed by delegates of the RS Assembly and added “they presented their stance on this matter and adopted the Law on the Day of Republic”. Dodik announced that if this does not happen, he will consider that the AF of B&H are acting hostile towards the RS, and called on Serb member of B&H Presidency Mladen Ivanic to issue an order for participation of the Regiment in celebration of the RS Day.

Izetbegovic calls on Nikolic to think through about his visit to Banja Luka (N1)

Member of B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic commented for N1 on Wednesday the announced attendance of Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic at celebration of 9 January, the RS Day. Izetbegovic said that Nikolic is welcome to visit B&H any time, bearing in mind deteriorated relations between the two countries caused by statements of officials in both countries. In his opinion, Nikolic has chosen the wrong moment to visit Banja Luka, bearing in mind that the other two constituent peoples in B&H find the celebration of the RS Day insulting.

“Mister Nikolic is supposed to come to Sarajevo in February. Regarding his visit to Banja Luka, I would publically ask him to reconsider it. He is always welcome, but he should reconsider the facts for the sake of better relations we all keep swearing to.”

Other reactions to announcement of Nikolic’s attendance (TV1)

The SDA issued a statement and assessed that Nikolic’s attendance at marking of the RS Day would represent contempt of B&H institutions and disrespect for the sovereignty of B&H. Speaker of B&H House of Representatives (HoR) Sefik Dzaferovic stated that attendance of Nikolic represents disrespect of B&H institutions. The RS President Milorad Dodik reacted by saying that statements coming from Dzaferovic are not relevant, bearing in mind that as wartime Chief of Public Security Center in Zenica, he did nothing to prevent crimes against Serbs. Dodik said that he is not afraid of pressures expressed in announcements of some politicians that Brussels will pressure Serbia to cool-down relations with the RS. “This is nothing new. Serbia and the RS have institutional kind of relations”, said Dodik.

Serb member of B&H Presidency Mladen Ivanic, who actually invited Nikolic for an official visit to B&H, did not comment the aforementioned developments.

Political situation would not influence integrations (RTCG)

The political situation in Montenegro will not have a negative impact on the integration into the EU and NATO, said the Head of the EU Delegation in Podgorica, Aivo Orav, saying that it is very important that the investigation of the arrests on the day of the election gives results as soon as possible. In an interview to MINA Orav said that the EU is very active in the Western Balkans, it provides support, but it cannot do the job of politicians, opposition, government or non-government sector. Asked if he believes that the solution to the political situation was to repeat elections, which the opposition wanted in order to break the boycott of parliament, he said that in Montenegro parliamentary elections were just held.

Commenting on allegations regarding forming a parliamentary committee to deal with the events on election day, he said that there are many possibilities in a democratic system for dealing with various issues and political problems. “It is not up to the EU to say to Montenegro how to deal with certain issues. For us it is important that we have the results of the investigation as soon as possible. It is up to the parties to decide how to deal with it. Parliament is the best place to deal with these issues,” said Orav.

Asked whether the situation in the political arena can have a negative impact on Montenegro’s integration into EU and NATO, Orav said that two more chapters have been opened recently and that it shows that relations between the EU and Montenegro are going usual course.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

France arrests former Kosovo PM over Serbia war crimes claim (AFP, 5 January 2016)

A former prime minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, was arrested in France on Wednesday in response to an international arrest warrant for war crimes filed by Serbia. Haradinaj — who has been twice tried and acquitted — is a former leader of paramilitaries who fought for Kosovo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian province of Serbia, to gain independence. He was arrested on his arrival from the Kosovo capital Pristina at Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg airport, located near the Swiss and German borders, sources close to the French investigation said. The French judicial authorities will now examine the Serbian request, they said. In Pristina, Kosovo’s justice minister Dhurata Hoxha, confirmed Haradinaj, 48, had been detained. “We will take every step to ensure that Haradinaj is released as soon as possible,” Hoxha said. The 1998-99 Kosovo conflict was the last war of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. It culminated in a NATO bombing campaign against Serbia and, in 2008, in Kosovo’s independence, which is still not recognised by Belgrade.

Haradinaj, a commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the war, became prime minister in 2004 but stepped down after just over three months to face 37 charges of war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He was acquitted in 2008, and again in a partial retrial in 2012. But Serbia has maintained pressure for a new trial, and issued an international arrest warrant, which led to his brief detention while transiting Slovenia in June 2015. Serbia says his unit, the so-called Black Eagles, tortured and killed dozens of Serbian civilians, whose bodies were found near Radonjic lake in the Decani region.

Haradinaj was a former comrade-in-arms of Kosovo’s current president, Hashim Thaci, but is now a political adversary, notable for opposing any attempt to normalise relations between Pristina and Belgrade.

Drecun: Not good that France first called Pristina (Sputnik, 5 January 2016)

The Chairperson of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Drecun told Sputnik that it is good that French institutions proceeded according to the Serbian warrant for Ramush Haradinaj, but that it is not good that they informed first Pristina, and not Belgrade about it. “Kosovo and Metohija, regardless of the fact that France recognized this part of our territory as some state, is still an integral part of Serbia. Crimes were committed on our territory, he was our citizen at that time and I think that France would now have to be in coordination with our institutions,” said Drecun.

Kosovo Organ-Trafficking Retrial Disappoints EU Mission (BIRN, by Die Morina, 5 January 2016)

The EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo expressed disappointment after the Supreme Court ordered a retrial of three men convicted of involvement in organ-trafficking from the Medicus clinic near Pristina.

The EU rule-of-law mission, EULEX, told BIRN that it regretted the fact that the high-profile Medicus case will be retried after a Supreme Court ruling last month overturned the verdict convicting three Kosovo men of involvement in an organ-trafficking ring that operated from the clinic near Pristina in 2008. Medicus clinic owner Lutfi Dervishi, his son Arban Dervishi and head anaesthetist Sokol Hajdini were found guilty of organised crime in connection with people-trafficking. The appeals court upheld the convictions in March 2016, jailing Lutfi Dervishi and his son for eight years and Hajdini for five, but the Supreme Court ordered a retrial last month on the basis of procedural irregularities – a ruling which the EULEX judge on the court panel opposed. “While EULEX accepts the judgment of the Supreme Court of Kosovo, the mission expresses its disappointment with the outcome of the Medicus case, where a local-majority panel annulled all previous judgments in the parts where the defendants have been convicted and returned the case to the Basic Court of Pristina for a retrial,” EULEX spokeswoman Besa Domi told BIRN.

Petrit Dushi, the lawyer for Arban Dervishi, told BIRN that the two most serious charges in the case, organised crime and people-trafficking, will be reheard at the new trial. “The Supreme Court sent back the major part of the case for retrial; only the [allegations of] illegal medical activities are left out [of the retrial],” Dushi told BIRN. The appeals ruling said found that “multiple illegal kidney transplants” took place at the clinic in 2008. Poor people from Turkey, Russia, Moldova and Kazakhstan were allegedly brought to the clinic after being assured that they would receive up to 15,000 euro for their kidneys. The EULEX prosecutor in the case said that transplant recipients, mainly Israelis, paid more than 70,000 euro for the kidneys. Police initially raided the Medicus clinic in 2008 after a Turkish man whose kidney had been removed was found seriously ill at Pristina airport. In March last year, the appeals court overturned the convictions of the clinic’s assistant anaesthetists Islam Bytyqi and Sylejman Dula, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to prove they were involved in organ-trafficking. But two foreign suspects in the case – Turkish doctor Yusuf Sonmez and Moshe Harel, an Israeli citizen – remain at large. Harel was also charged in Israel in 2015 with international organ trafficking and organising illegal transplants, alongside six others. “The accused ran a real business in trafficking organs, on dozens of occasions over the course of years, exploiting the financial distress of the donors and the health crisis of the recipients for economic gain,” the Israeli justice ministry said at the time. Both Sonmez and Harel are listed as wanted by Interpol. The Medicus clinic was also mentioned in a Council of Europe report which alleged that elements of the Kosovo Liberation Army traded the organs of prisoners during the 1999 conflict. Investigators closed down the clinic in 2008, and it has since been sold.

Race for Run Govt Heats up in Macedonia (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 5 January 2016)

As the deadline for the formation of new government after December’s election draws near, both the ruling and opposition parties have reiterated their determination to lead it.

Macedonia’s President Gjorge Ivanov has until Monday to offer a mandate for the formation of a new government to one of two would-be prime ministers, VMRO DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski or opposition Social Democrat chief Zoran Zaev. The ruling VMRO DPMNE party, which won a narrow victory in the December 11 election, hopes the President will follow normal procedure and offer them the opportunity first.”  As soon as we get a mandate, we will start negotiations and will put maximum efforts into forming a government,” VMRO DPMNE said on Monday. “Our duty is to do everything in our power to realize the platform we promised to our voters.” According to the constitution, the prime ministerial candidate has 20 days after receiving the mandate to secure a majority of 61 in the 120-seat parliament. While the ruling party won 51 seats in the election, the opposition won 49, with a difference of only some 17,000 votes.

The opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, have hinted they might inform the President from Monday onwards that they have the necessary parliamentary support, which could in theory shorten the procedures for forming a new government. “The parties that won over 600,000 votes in the elections will form the government,” the party told BIRN, referring to the total number of votes that went to the opposition parties, which surpasses the 450,000 votes for VMRO DPMNE. “Gruevski has no more political value; the majority of voters supported the opposition parties and opted for change,” the SDSM said. Both of the rivals aiming to run the new government, however, depend on the goodwill of ethnic Albanian parties, which won 20 seats in all. The support of the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, which won ten seats, could prove invaluable for any party seeking a majority. Although some DUI members have hinted they would like to break their party’s eight-year partnership with VMRO DPMNE, the party remains secretive about its intentions, saying only that its decisions will be based on the will of the voters. “I have not met a single Albanian who said, ‘Yes, we should make an alliance with Nikola Gruevski’. All Albanians I know are against such an alliance,” DUI presidency member Nevzat Bejta told TV 21 in late December, after his party won only half the number the votes it won in the elections in 2014, which was widely seen as punishment for the alliance with Gruevski. Gruevski repeats attacks on civil society, meanwhile, in his New Year interview for Republika news site, published in two parts on Sunday and Monday, Gruevski again attacked civil society groups and the opposition for allegedly working against the Macedonian people. In the interview, titled “Civil Sector Must Not Remain in the Hands of Soros,” Gruevski accused US billionaire George Soros of financing “a modern army” of corrupt NGOs in Macedonia that has plotted to topple him. “That is the reality and unfortunately that is how Soros works. Then they do what they want. They squash you and slam you. They will make you a criminal, a crook and a traitor, an idiot, incompetent and a monster – whatever they want,” he said. If he regained power, he said, he would boost government investment in a truly independent civil sector. It was Gruevski’s second attack on civil society groups in 20 days. During a speech made shortly after the December 11 election, he accused foreign ambassadors, NGOs and the opposition of plotting to steal his election victory. “By criticizing the civil society, Gruevski in fact underlines his authoritarian nature and his constant search for domestic and foreign enemies,” Bojan Maricic, head of the Macedonian Center for European Training, MCEO, an NGO, responded on Deutsche Welle. Gruevski and his party associates face several investigations at the hands of the Special Prosecution, SJO, a body formed in 2015 to investigate high-level crime. Although the ruling party initially supported the formation of the SJO, which was agreed at internationally brokered crisis talks in 2015, it has since accused the SJO of bias and of working under orders from the opposition.