LOCAL PRESS

Killers of Serb youths in Kosovo can’t be found, 15 years on (B92/Tanjug)

This Monday marks 15 years since unknown persons opened fire from automatic weapons on a group of Serb youths in Kosovo. They were spending a summer day on the banks of the Bistrica River, near their homes in the Serb enclave of Gorazdevac – a village in the western part of Kosovo. 19-year-old Ivan Jovovic, and 12-year-old Pantelija Dakic were killed in the attack.

This crime that remains unsolved to this day – and that ranks among the four gravest acts of violence committed against Serb civilians in Kosovo since the arrival of international forces in the province after 1999 – also left 20-year-old Djordje Ugrenovic, 14-year-old Bogdan Bukumirovic, 12-year-old Marko Bogdanovic, and 13-year-old Dragana Srbljak seriously injured. “Any kind of normalization between Serbs and Albanians and Belgrade and Pristina cannot be built on forgetting the mass and organized crimes committed by members of the so-called KLA, and without truth and justice for the numerous Serb victims in Kosovo and Metohija,” the Serb Coordination said in a press release issued on the anniversary of the crime. The Serb Coordination added that in the intervening 15 years since the Gorazdevac massacre, nobody has been brought to justice – while an EULEX (EU rule of law mission in Kosovo) prosecutor said in 2010 that the investigation had been halted “due to lack of evidence.” “This has perpetuated the anti-civilizational practice of impunity for the crimes committed against Serbs in Kosovo, with no prospect of it changing it for the foreseeable future,” said the Serb Coordination, which gathers Serb associations representing the families of the murdered, killed, and missing Serbs from the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia. The organization also publicly called on “international factors” in Kosovo, and Serbia’s authorities, to do all they can to bring to justice the perpetrators of this, and all other crimes committed against Serbs in Kosovo. The anniversary of the crime, meanwhile, will be marked in Belgrade, and in Gorazdevac. In 2001, EULEX halted its investigation – during which the police interviewed 75 witnesses and searched 100 houses – due to lack of evidence. The parents of Ivan Jovovic and Pantelija Dakic have been expressing their disappointment each year by fact the killers of their children had not been found – adding that this was the case despite the perpetrators’ names being in fact “known.”

The killers remain free to this day despite the head of the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) police promising at the time to “leave no stone unturned” in a bid to find them. UNMIK offering a one-million-euro money reward did not help, either. In the wake of the attack, the UN Security Council held an urgent session. The Gorazdevac massacre ranks among the most serious crimes committed against Serb civilians in Kosovo after the 1999 war. Other incidents include the killing of 14 Serb farmers in Staro Gracko, the murder of the three-member Stolic family in Obilic, a town near Pristina, and the attack on a Nis Express bus near Podujevo, that killed 12 Serb passengers who were on their way to visit the graves of their loved ones on an Orthodox Christian holiday.

Zaharova: Russia will accept with respect a solution that is acceptable for the Serbian people (RTS)

The Director of the Information Service of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zaharova has told the RTS morning news that Russia’s stand regarding the Kosovo issue is consistent and strict. This stand is built on three components – international legal foundation of what is happening in Kosovo, respect of Serbia’s sovereignty, independence and internal Serbian legislature and understanding of the interests of the people and Serbia as a state, said Zaharova.

“There is UNSCR 1244 and nobody has abolished this resolution and it is in force, valid and those countries that are now shouting more than anybody about the necessity of respect of international law – they need to remember that UNSCR 1244 is on the table,” she says.

“At least when all countries are focused on democracy and respect of democracy, it is necessary to respect Serbia’s sovereignty and independence and Serbia’s legislature – that is the second bloc of elements on which our stand is built,” said Zaharova. According to her, the third element is understanding of the interests of the Serbian people and Serbia as a state and in this sense national interest of the people. “Our consistent stand is built on these three components and you can rest assure that this stand will not change,” she said. Speaking about delineation, Zaharova says that one of the elements is understanding of Serbian people’s national interests. What will be acceptable for the Serbian people in regard to this issue, this will be accepted with respect from our side, she says. “But the question is what will be useful for the Serbian people,” said Zaharova.

Commenting on some media reports that the Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump discussed Kosovo during their latest meeting in July in Helsinki, Maria Zaharova described it as fake news.

Serbia enjoys China’s unreserved support (B92)

Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin met on Friday in Belgrade with Chinese Ambassador Li Manchang. During his meeting, Vulin expressed gratitude for the principled position of China and the unreserved support of Serbia on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija at the United Nations Security Council. According to a press release published by the Serbian government, the minister also said that Serbia is conducting an independent foreign policy, while being fully committed to military neutrality. They emphasized that personal relations of friendship and mutual respect between the presidents of Serbia and China, Aleksandar Vucic and Xi Jinping, have provided great contribution and accelerated cooperation between the defense ministries of the two countries. Vulin reiterated that China is Serbia’s strategic partner and one of the most reliable friends that our country has, remarking that the Serbian Ministry of Defense gives its full contribution to the excellent level of cooperation and relations between the two friendly countries. The Minister expressed his gratitude to the Ambassador for the invitation to participate in an international security forum in China in October, that has been officially sent by the National Defense Minister of China Wei Fenghe.

Djuric: Belgrade & Pristina miles away from deal (Beta)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said that Belgrade and Pristina were miles away from reaching an agreement but that the Serbs would gain more if a deal is achieved, Beta reported. He said that under an agreement Serbia would have more territory, more rights, more property, more institutional and financial powers. “Don’t let be lied to that an agreement, which is now miles away, will leave you with less than you have now. If such agreement is eventually reached, the Serbs in Kosovo can only have more,” Djuric told reporters.

He said that any deal would have to solve the issue of Serb property, the status of the Serbian church, more rights, or there will be no agreement. Djuric did not want to comment the statements from Pristina that Serbia’s southern region of Presevo Valley should join Kosovo, describing them as nothing more than rhetoric acrobatics for the internal use. But, he added, they showed that Pristina leaders’ aspirations went beyond Kosovo and that he expected that they would soon strive for the whole Balkan peninsula.

Mihajlovic on attacks on Vucic, opposition (RTV/Beta)

Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic said that all attacks on President Aleksandar Vucic for working to solve the Kosovo issue were resistance to the country’s organization and introducing order in the state, Beta reported. Mihajlovic said that the attacks came from the so-called opposition, a part of civil society, some soccer supporters’ groups, but also from certain individuals from the Serbian Orthodox Church. She added that Vucic won a mandate to solve difficult political issues, among which was an agreement with Pristina, because, as she put it, that is the only way in which Serbia can survive. “The children we bring to this world should grow up in a better Serbia, knowing their borders. In Serbia where work, capabilities and technology will be winning tools without arms rattling. We place our trust in President Vucic because we want to make progress, not war,” she said. Mihajlovic called on the opposition to apologize to the people for “taking the economy to a bankruptcy” and for the policy that led to Kosovo “being so far from Serbia today.” She also warned a part of the Serbian Orthodox Church that was opposing Vucic’s decisions that they well know that attacks on Vucic reduce the possibility for the Serbs to remain in those territories. “Who would you hold church services for? You only harm Serbia with those attacks,” she said. Mihajlovic asked the unspecified NGOs in Serbia how was it possible that their economic interests were more important than the way the Serbs in Kosovo lived, alluding to the government’s repeated claim that the NGOs were financed from abroad to work against Serbia’s interests.

Simic: Kosovo Serbs agree with delineation if they get more rights (RTS)

Serbs in Kosovo agree with the idea of a delineation of Kosovo only if the arrangement would guarantee them more freedom and more rights than they had so far, the Vice-President of the Serb List Igor Simic told RTS. He added that the Serb List trusts Belgrade’s negotiation team unequivocally. Simic says that Serbs in Kosovo live in suspense for decades already. “When you take everything into account, should there be any chance for economic and political progress, I am certain that such a solution would be supported by Serbs,” he said.

EC: Aim is lasting and sustainable solution agreed by both sides (Beta)

Any lasting solution for Kosovo means a possible, sustainable and realistic settlement in line with the international laws agreed by both Pristina and Belgrade, a European Commission (EC) spokesperson said in Brussels on Friday, Beta reported. Carlos Martin told reporters the talks between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his Kosovo’s counterpart Hashim Thaci held on 24 June about the framework of an agreement on the overall normalization of relations were intensive and productive. Martin added that the two agreed to further intensify the dialogue in the coming weeks. He added that on 18 July Vucic and Thaci discussed the achieved progress and agreed to meet again in early September. “The EU-facilitated dialogue aims to instigate the cooperation between the two sides and help them to progress on the way to the EU and also to improve the life of the citizens,” Martin said.

Dodik: Serbia should ask for northern part of Kosovo (Blic, by Ranko Pivljanin)

The author noted that President of the RS Milorad Dodik gave the interview last Saturday, right before he attended the marking of the suffering of Serb people during Croatia’s military-police operation ‘Oluja’, which was organized in Backa Palanka. Therefore, significant part of the interview was dedicated to relations between Serbia and Croatia; Dodik said, among other things, that Croats destroyed the constitutive position of Serb people and forced them to act defensively, then carried out ‘Oluja’ with the approval of the West and after their forces were trained by Americans. “So, when we are talking about ‘Oluja’, we are primarily thinking about ethnic cleansing of civilian population and the suffering of civilians”, said Dodik, after which he agreed with the author – who said that the then regime in Serbia basically did nothing to protect Serbs in Croatia.

Commenting on relations between Serbs and Croats in B&H, Dodik said that Croats in B&H used to team up with Muslims and international community against Serbs, and work on creation of an unitarian and centralized country, until it backfired on them. “Things have changed on political scene as soon as Croats themselves realized some things”, said Dodik, adding that B&H organized as it is has “historical, ethnic and moral mistake”, as it is not moral to destroy Yugoslavia, and then insist on survival of B&H based on the same principles.

Commenting on the issue of Kosovo, Dodik said that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has managed to once impose Kosovo as a topic, adding that people were not interested in this topic before. “Now, we are in a position of being able to maybe do something after all. The ongoing flow of political processes in the EU and the US is a lucky combination of circumstances. Elites that marked the previous times are gone and if anything is true, than it is true that the Clinton team is not in the US anymore”, said Dodik. He underlined that one should first answer the question whether, hypothetically, Serbia can bear the return of Kosovo while having guaranteed quotas for the Albanian community entering political scene. “Not many think about this. In order to be legitimate before the international community, you would have to give 30 percent of seats in the parliament to Albanians, you would have to give them either the seat of the prime minister, the seat of the speaker of the parliament, or the seat of the President of the state. You would have to introduce their language, at least in the parliament. If someone believes that we can do that, let us push this (solution). I believe that there is no willingness for this”, said Dodik. He explained that he personally believes four municipalities in the northern part of Kosovo should be reintegrated with Serbia, adding that one should secure the implementation of the highest possible international standards for protection of the Serb people in Kosovo, as well as the property of the Orthodox Church. “History sometimes corrects its own mistakes, but it all depends on people”, said Dodik, adding that Serbs have to come up with the plan of their own, “which would include both short- and long-time goals of our people”. “When I told foreigners in Brussels that they could have at least demonstrated good will and have at least those four municipalities remain a part of Serbia, they told me: ‘But, no one is asking us to do so!’ So, no one has ever asked for that”, said Dodik. He explained that the RS has started asking for things, which resulted in foreigners starting to penalize the RS and him personally ending up “on some black list”, but “the RS has not lost”. Commenting on his previous announcement that he will seek a chair for the RS in the United Nations if the same thing happens for Kosovo, Dodik briefly said that he does not even try to hide the fact that his political goal is to make the RS an independent state. “I believe that our people is entitled to it. Of course that I am not an adventurer, and that any kind of violence is out of question. On the other hand, those who are preventing us from doing so are allowing the same thing to Albanians in Kosovo”, concluded Dodik.  He reiterated that the RS is an entity which has all the elements of statehood – “territory, population, effective authorities, it respects regional and international regulations and is the only self-sustainable part of B&H”. “Neither the FB&H nor B&H can function without the assistance from outside, we can”, said Dodik, adding that now many believe B&H created in Dayton was an experiment which proved to be unsuccessful. “I think that B&H will not survive and that it will peacefully dissolve”, he explained. According to Dodik, the only thing people in B&H have in common is their wish to break apart and establish their own entities. “That is the only possible option. Everything else is an empty talk”, said Dodik.

Commenting on relations between the RS and Russia, and accusations that the RS is advocating Russian interests in the region, Dodik said that Russians have been saying from the very beginning that they want territorial integrity of B&H, the Dayton Peace Agreement and an agreement among peoples in B&H to be respected. “But Russians did not want to take the side of those who had introduced the new system of governing in B&H. It means that ambassadors of western countries gather on Friday, make decisions for next week and if you do not accept that, then you are a bad guy. Russians did not want that”, said Dodik, adding that Russians are economically present in the RS “only because we have asked them to be”. President of the RS explained that Russian President Vladimir Putin is always talking about Russia’s friends in Washington and Brussels, and believes that all issues should be resolved with political means. “As far as Russia is concerned, they support any policy of agreement in this region”, Dodik concluded.

REGIONAL PRESS

Izetbegovic: Citizens should be concerned if Covic, Dodik jointly enter Presidency (Faktor)

Chairman of B&H Presidency and leader of SDA Bakir Izetbegovic told web-portal Faktor on Sunday that he resents Dragan Covic for choosing a wrong method in relation between Bosniaks and Croats in B&H. During an interview with Faktor, Izetbegovic also commented on relations with other politicians, the situation in B&H and the upcoming general elections. Asked whether citizens should be concerned if Covic and RS President and leader of SNSD Milorad Dodik jointly become members of the Presidency, Izetbegovic assessed that in this case, this will be a “difficult mandate” in the Presidency. He stated: “They (citizens) should be worried if Dodik enters (the Presidency) because he will produce deadlocks, conflicts and prove that B&H is no longer functional. Covic will use this situation to make pressures and thus, try to win solutions that will permanently alienate us from verdicts by the Sejdic-Finci appeal and thus, from the civil, i.e. European principal of democracy and organization of a modern, European state. Therefore, this will be a difficult mandate”. In the end, Izetbegovic underlined the importance to have the third member of the Presidency who will know how to deal with this situation in the right way and who will be calm, competent and an experienced Bosniak politician.

Dodik calls on political leaders for consultations re session of RS Assembly aimed to discuss information on report on Srebrenica (BNTV)

RS President Milorad Dodik invited leaders of political parties in the RS Assembly to attend on Monday consultations about the upcoming, special session of the RS Assembly scheduled for Tuesday that will be dedicated to discussion on information about the report on developments Srebrenica in July 1995 prepared by the commission established by the RS government in 2004.

Leader of SDS Vukota Govedarica underlined that the RS government needs to pass two decisions on Monday. He added that the first decision he expects the Government to pass is one putting out of force the report on Srebrenica from 2004, adding that the second one should refer to establishing of a new commission that will create the report on Srebrenica. He added that considering the fact ruling parties in the RS request a special session of the RS Assembly dedicated to the discussion on Srebrenica report and consultations dedicated to this issue only one month before elections, the RS government should conduct the abovementioned activities. Govedarica stressed that any other approach towards this issue represents “illusion and manipulation.” The leader of SDS underlined that there is no need to attend consultations organized by Dodik unless the government adopts the abovementioned decisions. He also stated that the RS Assembly should not decide about putting the report out of force, because Bosniak or Croat representatives will attempt to prevent implementation of this decision by invoking mechanism for protection of the Vital National Interest (VNI) and the Constitutional Court of the RS will be requested to decide whether it is constitutional. “Consequently, implementation of any decision (regarding this issue) passed by the RSNA is questionable. I call on the RS Government to pass such decision, i.e. to put the report out of force. In this case, Bosniak and Croat Caucuses will not have opportunity to file motion for protection of the VNI and we will have clearer situation,” explained Govedarica.

Serbs from HNC join single Serb list to enable legitimate representation of Serbs in HNC, FB&H HoP (BHT1)

For the first time after the war, representatives of Serb parties and associations from Mostar and the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNC) will jointly participate in the upcoming elections within the single Serb list. Thus, Serbs expressed discontent with previous election of representatives of the Serb people in cantonal assemblies and the FB&H House of Peoples (HoP) and said that in this way, they will try to elect legitimate representatives of Serbs from the HNC. One of candidates from the single Serb list Sonja Zarkovic, who returned to Mostar three years ago and launched her own business, said that she joined the list to make a change. Zarkovic stressed that the Serb voice was not present at the political scene in Mostar in the past years and in her opinion, the single Serb list is the only way to make their voice heard again. Reporter reminded that the single Serb list was created upon the initiative of the Coordination of Serb Associations in Mostar. Leader of the single Serb list Radoslav Tubic told BHT1 that names of 26 candidates are on this list. Reporter noted that around 5,000 Serbs returned to their pre-war homes in HNC.

Lukac: Migration crisis obvious, state-level government ignoring problem (ATV/Srna) 

RS Interior Minister Dragan Lukac says the authorities in Sarajevo are ignoring everything about the migration crisis and keep saying it is not a crisis or a big problem, and asserts he does not know why they are doing it when the crisis is obvious. “We can hear them say every day it is simply not a crisis, that it’s not a big problem for B&H, that RS especially is exaggerating it, but we here know that it’s not so because every day our police apprehend more than 100 migrants illegally entering RS and B&H. We give them over to the joint authorities, and in the end, it seems that the majority of them end up in the Una-Sana Canton, especially in Bihac and Kladusa,” Lukac pointed out. The people in the local communities know best the problems they have due to migrants, he said. “You have 5000 people who are here illegally, who you don’t know who they are, whether they are trouble; many of them have been in battlefields either in Syria or Iraq. There are others who come from other countries too – from Iran, Pakistan, etc. You simply don’t know their actual data, their real names, their background or what they have done in life,” he warned. There are trouble-makers, which one can infer from their behavior, people who create problems, commit criminal offences, robberies, thefts and similar things. There are even rape attempts, he said. Lukac told ATV that in such a situation, it is absolutely common that the local people who want to live peacefully in their estates will react against such things and seek protection from the government. He pointed out that the B&H state-level authorities simply ignore their problems and will not try to seek a systemic solution. “I don’t know what they want to create. Fence off a camp with wire to keep them in one place so they don’t make any trouble?! Those people will not lie in a tent every day and wait for something to happen, they will be in a town again, walk the streets and cause problems with the domicile population,” Lukac said commenting on the state-level authorities’ attempts to create a camp for migrants. The state-level authorities’ have to do something urgently to resolve the problem systemically because the fact is that the number of new people arriving is increasing by the day and the authorities are still doing nothing to deal with it, said the Minister.  According to Lukac, the state-level government is completely disorganized. “We can see the authorities lying on beaches, lying around, reading the news as if that doesn’t concern them at all and as if they have nothing to do with what is going on with the migration crisis. I hope it is time they open their eyes, get organized and try to do something to allow the people in B&H live normally in their estates and not have anyone threaten them,” said Lukac.

Ademi calls on expats to vote in upcoming referendum (MIA)

Diaspora Minister Edmond Ademi has called on all expats to register to vote in the upcoming referendum by submitting a request at the State Electoral Commission’s website dijaspora.sec.mk. ‘Dear compatriots from the diaspora,’ Ademi said in a public announcement Friday urging expats to exercise their civic duty and vote to contribute towards ‘a better future of our children.’ “All citizens of Macedonia may exercise their voting rights in any of our diplomatic and consular offices worldwide,” Ademi said. “It’s up to you to decide if the Republic of Macedonia will become a member of EU and NATO by accepting the agreement with Greece.

“Your vote will decide the future of our country.”

Gov’t: Three GRECO recommendations implemented in a single year (MIA)

In a press release Friday, the Government announced it has fully implemented three recommendations issued by the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) over the last year.

The announcement was issued in response to the latest report by the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body, which was released Thursday. The GRECO report found that Macedonia made no substantial progress in implementing recommendations on preventing corruption among MPs, judges, and prosecutors. Calling the country’s performance at this stage ‘clearly disappointing,’ the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption group urged the authorities to take more determined and focused action in respect of a number of recommendations issued four-and-a-half years ago.

“We are fully committed to their implementation,” the Government wrote, “proof of which are the three recommendations we have implemented over a single year, compared to the actions of the previous government, which is the root cause of the corruption situation and which over four years (2013-2016) implemented only three at the level of all national institutions.” “The situation we inherited in 2016,” the release continues, “reflected exactly the GRECO report, which then said that only 3 of the 19 recommendations had been implemented satisfactorily at the time. Of the remaining recommendations, 10 had been partially implemented, and 6 had not been implemented.” In comparison, the latest GRECO report on the compliance of the Republic of Macedonia, Fourth Round, adopted at GRECO’s 80th Plenary Meeting in Strasbourg, 18-22 June 2018), states that 6 of the 19 recommendations have been implemented satisfactorily. Of the remaining recommendations, 8 have been partially implemented, and 5 have not been implemented. The government explains that it has developed an Action Plan to implement the GRECO recommendations that remain, pointing out that of the remaining 13, only 2 pertain to the Ministry of Justice. Some of the remaining recommendations will be implemented by the adoption of the new Law on Corruption Prevention, which is being drafted. The Ministry of Justice should have the full text by the end of August, the release said. Another recommendation will be implemented by the new Law on Public Prosecution, which will be finished by December 2018.  The remaining recommendations are within the domain of parliament and independent bodies against corruption. “The return of the rule of law and the impartial fight against crime and corruption is this government’s imperative,” the release adds.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA SOURCES

Russian Diplomat’s Visit Sparks Row Among Bosnian Serbs (BIRN, by Danijel Kovacevic, 13 August 2018)

The upcoming visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has caused an argument between Bosnian Serb politicians, with both the president and a leading opposition figure claiming that they invited him.

Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina next month has caused arguments between two opposing political groups in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity because both insist they were the one that invited him. The row started when the head of Republika Srpska’s office in Moscow, Dusko Perovic, said on Friday that Lavrov is coming to the entity’s main city Banja Luka in September on the invitation of Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik.

But a day later, Bosnian Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Crndak said he invited the Russian foreign minister. “During this mandate, minister Lavrov and I have built a good, friendly relationship. We have been talking about his visit to Bosnia for a long time,” Crnadak told media on Saturday. Dodik and his ruling Alliance of the Independent Social Democrats, SNSD are known for cherishing their close ties with Russia, while Crnadak is a member of the Party of Democratic Progress, PDP, which is a member of the opposition bloc in Republika Srpska, although part of the ruling majority on the state level. Dodik did not comment on Crnadak’s statement. Since March 2011, Dodik has met Russian President Vladimir Putin nine times, the most recent in May at the World Economic Forum in St Petersburg. Although all these meetings were held behind closed doors, they were presented in Bosnian media as a significant sign of support for Dodik from the Russian president. But as Lavrov will this time meet Bosnian Serb officials in Sarajevo as well as meeting Dodik in Banja Luka, political analyst Srdjan Puhalo

said this shows that Dodik no longer has exclusive access to Moscow, if he ever had.

The change is particularly significant because elections are approaching on October 7. Before every previous election, Dodik has gone to Russia to meet Putin. “This is a serious blow to Milorad Dodik in the pre-election campaign because he has so far represented himself as the only and strongest link between Republika Srpska and Russia,” Puhalo told BIRN.

According to Crnadak, Lavrov will arrive in Sarajevo on September 16. “Upon his arrival, we will have a joint dinner, and the next day a working meeting and a joint press conference. It will be in Sarajevo. It is envisaged that Lavrov will then travel to Banja Luka, which was my suggestion,” Crnadak said. According to unconfirmed information, Lavrov will attend the laying of a cornerstone for the construction of the Russian church and cultural centre in Banja Luka.

Dodik has previously said that the idea for the church and centre initially came from Lavrov.

Political analysts have warned that this will further strengthen Moscow’s ties with Republika Srpska and its influence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Washington-based magazine Foreign Policy reported last week that “Russia has ramped up its support for Bosnia’s Serb separatists” with elections approaching in October.