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LOCAL PRESS

SNS leader promises "short campaign"(B92, Tanjug, 6 January 2014)

SNS leader and First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic have said that a decision on early elections will be made in the "near future."

Speaking on Monday, he also noted that this issue was "the topic for some social groups whose interests are threatened."

"It's not exactly the most important issue on the planet, except for certain social groups who feel threatened, and they are mostly found on some other side of the law. Some people have many interests harmed, but those are not objective interests of Serbia," he was quoted as saying.
Vucic also stated that early elections were "a topic for the opposition."
The SNS leader said that his associates had demanded that the party be open for elections, but also respected his caution and restraint in this regard - so the issue would be resolved "in the coming period."
According to him, if early elections were to be called the campaign would be short, "and if not - the work will continue."
Asked by reporters whether PM Ivica Dacic's Socialists (SPS) represented an obstacle to reforms and brought with them "a negative atmosphere," Vucic said he found this atmosphere objectionable, "but could not blame the Socialists for it."
Vucic previously announced that the SNS would decide on the election issue during Christmas, January 7, but a vice president of the party, Bratislav Gasic, said that the session of the SNS presidency has not yet been scheduled.
According to the daily Blic, the final decision should me made during the meeting of the presidency that will be held on January 9 or 10.
Meanwhile, SNS official and Parliament Speaker Nebojsa Stefanovic announced that early local elections in Belgrade would be organized in the first or second week of March. There has been speculation that early parliamentary elections could be held at the same time.

Christmas message

Aleksandar Vucic on Monday congratulated Christmas to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) clergy and believers.
"I extend sincere greetings to all believers celebrating Christmas according to the Julian calendar, wishing them to spend the most joyous Christian holiday in peace and welfare, surrounded by those dearest to their heart," Vucic said in his message distributed to the media.
May Christmas bring you personal and familial happiness, health, progress, faith and hope for a better tomorrow, reads the message.

Struggle for invitations without hallmark of Kosovo (Politika, 8 January 2014)

If Pristina does not accept the statement that we sign, on which there shall not be the hallmarks of a Kosovo state, then the municipalities in northern Kosovo will remain led by provisional panels whish are functioning in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Serbia, Krstimir Pantic said.

Kosovska Mitrovica - Ceremonial sessions at which the mayors and councilors of four municipalities in northern Kosovo - North Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok – are to be sworn in, on the basis of the elections held on 3 November 2013, should be held by the end of this week, namely on the 9 or 10 January, which is the legal time limit. In the meantime, a response is expected from the representatives of the European Union, who are adamant that the invitations to the inaugural meeting should have the hallmark of the state of Kosovo, which is strongly opposed by representatives of Serbs from northern Kosovo, who note that this would violate the status neutrality of the Brussels Agreement, but the EU is taking Pristina’s side.

On one of the last meetings before the New Year, the EU representatives insisted that, on the first page of the invitation, there should be the name of the municipality, and on the second, the coat of Arms and the label of the so-called “Republic of Kosovo.” Representatives of the EU should make the final decision by 9th or 10th January, since it was indicated to them that the Serbs will not give up on the status neutrality of the agreement initialed on 19 April 2013 in Brussels and later working group agreements between Belgrade and Pristina under EU auspices.

Krstimir Pantic, Mayor of Kosovska Mitrovica, is explicit in his statement for “Politika” and states that he will not send the new invitations to inaugural meeting and will only re-notify 19 councilors, noting that the previous invitations with, "The Municipality of North Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo with an asterisk (*), which is in accordance with the International Court of Justice and UN Resolution 1244.

"There was a conversation with representatives of the EU, who demanded that the official statements bear the non-status neutral logo of the so-called ‘state of Kosovo’. We immediately refused that, and I 'm not going to send new invitations, because I act in accordance with what our state government has agreed in Brussels with the institutions in Pristina. After all, if the mayor of Pristina, Shpend Ahmeti, removed the flag of Kosovo from all institutions and replaced it with the Albanian flag, which is violation of the law, I do not see what the problem is when we strictly stick to the initialed agreement, “says Pantić for “Politika”. Asked how Serbian mayors and councilors from the North will continue to act if it is the "déjà vu" that Pristina does not accept official statements without the so-called Kosovo state logo, Pantic said "If Pristina does not accept the statements that we sign, and which, I claim, shall not have hallmarks of a Kosovo state, then we are going back to the situation from before 3 November. This means that northern Kosovo’s municipalities will again be lead by five-member provisional panels which are functioning in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Serbia.

The mayors of the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok, Dragan Jablanović and Stevan Vulović respectively, strongly oppose the use of the non-status neutral labels state of a Kosovo state on the official statements and point out that Pristina again obstructs the status neutrality of the agreement reached in Brussels, with the aim to obstruct the formation of the Union of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo, which is planned for the next month, although it is increasingly likely, as "Politika" unofficially learns, that it will not begin to operate until March.

Dragan Jablanović says for "Politika" that the sessions will be continued, with or without a response from the EU, and that it is quite certain that the invitation and the official statements, that mayors and councilors are signing after the status neutral oath, shall not contain the hallmarks of the statehood of Kosovo declared by the Kosovo Albanians.

"We were very clear in a meeting with representatives of the EU that, on the invitations, there can only be the name of the municipality and the word Kosovo with an asterisk, which is in accordance with UN Resolution 1244 and the Agreement on the representation of Kosovo in regional forums," Jablanović,  Mayor of Leposavic municipality, says for “Politika”.

Stevan Vulović, Mayor of Zubin Potok, emphasizes that Pristina, for the umpteenth time, is trying to obstruct the work of Kosovo Serb-led institutions and the initialed Brussels agreement.

"We will continue the session on 9 or 10 January, we will invite the councilors, we will not send any new invitations, because we've already sent them once, all in accordance with the agreement and the principle of status neutrality," Vulović says and, to the question of "Politika" about if they will give in, if the official Belgrade pressured the newly-elected mayors, and put the Kosovo state logo on official documents, Vulović answers: "We will not think about that because Belgrade is not going to pressure its own people. After all, if it ever comes to that, we can only agree that the official documents contain the name of the municipality, and not, as until now, at least when it comes to the municipality of Zubin Potok, the logo of the municipality, which is the Serbian folk hat, a symbol of Serbian farmers, the bridge on Brnjak, which is also a symbol of martyrdom in the Ibar Kolasin and the four S".

Elections will complicate Serbia's path to the EU (Politika, 8 January 2014)

If, after elections in Kosovo, political forces, such as the movement "Self-determination" prevail, there may be a delay in the Pristina-Belgrade-Brussels triangle.

Early parliamentary elections are always an indicator of political instability. And a lack of political stability disrupts economic recovery and makes the EU accession processes more difficult, says Dusan Reljic, bureau chief of the German Institute for International Politics and Security (SVP) in Brussels, in response to our question as to how would Germany see the eventual calling of the early parliamentary elections in Serbia in early spring.

Asked whether the parliamentary elections in Kosovo in 2014, could be a problem for the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, as well as for Serbia’s EU integration process, the analyst says that if, in Kosovo, political forces, such as the "Self-determination" movement gain strength or even prevail, then a delay in the triangle of Pristina-Belgrade-Brussels can be expected, at least for some time.

Reljic, whose work focuses on issues of international relations and security, with a focus on EU enlargement and the current problems in South East Europe, estimates, however, that the beneficial effect could come from Albania, where the new socialist government makes it clear that for her, as well as for Serbia, approaching the EU is among the most important objectives.

Andreas Schockenhoff, Deputy Chairperson of the parliamentary group of the CDU in the German Bundestag, says that it is sometimes necessary to prepare the ground for a very difficult decision. Does Berlin calculate that Serbia will, in a few years, be ready to recognize Kosovo?

It is certain that there is an expectation of key Western states that eventually there will be a majority established in Serbian society and the parliament that is prepared to vote in a new Constitution of Serbia which would legally accept that Kosovo Albanians seceded. Maybe there are expectations that the accession of Serbia into the EU, in say five to ten years time, is realistic. The assumption might be that gaining membership in the EU would compensate for the final loss of Kosovo. But these are just guesses.

If a new round of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, which is likely to be ahead of the Inter-Governmental Conference, would go bad, how would that reflect the conference?

It all depends on who would be more to blame, in the perception of key Western states, in case of an unfavorable development. It would appear, however, that the majority of EU member states, at this time, believe that Serbia should be supported in its efforts to start negotiations on joining the EU.

Will the new German government be more sympathetic to Serbia from the previous one?

In the coalition agreement of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats it is written that the partners in the government will maintain their stands that EU enlargement should proceed in strict compliance with the conditions for the admission of new members, and that the countries of the Western Balkans have the perspective of joining the EU. It is said that, for the EU accession, it is  important that the candidates has the capacity to become members of the Union as well as for the EU to be able to accept new members. The coalition agreement requires from Serbia and Kosovo to fulfill the assumed obligations.

This agreement is a policy framework in relation to the so-called Western Balkans, which is determined by the new German government. Specific policy decisions shall be taken, as always, in consultation with key partners, especially the United States, and in accordance with estimates on the developing political situation in the region.

Is the issue of future EU enlargement, due to economic problems in the EU, being pushed into the background of the political agenda in the long term?

The economic and financial crisis is affecting almost half a billion citizens of the EU. The order of magnitude is such that the concerns and interests of twenty million inhabitants of former Yugoslavia and Albania cannot be a priority for the EU.

Bearing in mind, however, the seriousness and duration of the crisis, the attention in Brussels and among the key EU states, paid to the region is higher than it could be expected, in principle. This is because it has not been forgotten that the security in the region remains fragile, especially in Macedonia and Kosovo.

After six months of the Greek presidency, in the second half of this year, Italy will be at the helm the EU. How much can the fact that the Union will be governed by countries that are very close to Serbia help?

Greece is so fraught with its own difficulties that it took enlargement off its list of important goals during the EU presidency. Italy is also not in a position to significantly influence the determination of the focus of the EU politics as long as it is itself among the major trouble spot in the economic and financial system of the EU.

In connection with the threat of suspension of visa liberalization, Serbian Prime Minister Dacic said that the government's priority is to work with Berlin so that Germany would not initiate the suspension of visa regime? What is, indeed, the possibility that Germany takes that step and what Serbia can do to forestall it?

It would be disastrous for the credibility of the EU's policy if, when starting accession negotiations with individual countries of South Eastern Europe, that great progress in their relations would be simultaneously written off, with the abolition of the visas that has recently been described in Brussels.

It would be equally devastating if the region's governments would try to implement police repression or any other form of oppression of human rights. Problems of Roma and other poor people in Serbia and elsewhere in South-Eastern Europe, whom believe that a better life awaits them if they get into the EU, can only be solved with targeted social measures, more modern school system and economic development.

REGIONAL PRESS

Orthodox cemetery in Osijek desecrated (Danas, 7 January 2014)

Osijek - Croatian police announced today that they are looking for vandals who damaged the morgue and several dozen graves in the Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Cepin, near Osijek.

Police stated that monuments, crosses, vases, statues and metal casing lanterns have been vandalized, broken or destroyed.

According to the “Morning Journal,” the offender shall be, if revealed, held criminally liable for breaching the peace of the deceased.

Split: Vandals stole Belgrade plates (FoNet, 7 January 2014)

Split - On the hood of the car with Belgrade license plates -- now owned by retired captain of the Croatian Air Force S.K. -- the Ustasha letter U, with a cross, was etched and both mirrors were broken.

Fifty-year old inhabitant, who lives in Belgrade, was visiting family in Split and claims to have the car license plates removed, according to Slobodna Dalmacija.

“I play in the famous Split band Marinko Biskic, so I put it on the vehicle the sign of his company “Nadalina”, and even had the Hajduk flag in the car, but that did not stop the vandals to do what they did. Belgrade marks are obviously taken as a trophy,” S.K. said.

His wife, M.M. said the inspector at the police station smiled when they told him that they had their Belgrade car plates stolen and vehicle hood engraved with Ustasha symbols.

The couple claimed that during the seven years of living in Belgrade, they had only one small damage to their other car, which bears Split registration plates, which they drove then in Belgrade.

Board on the building of the Council of the Serbian minority vandalized (Blic, 8 January 2014)

A board, with Cyrillic inscription, on the building of the Council of the Serbian minority in the town of Pula, on the Croatian peninsula of Istria, was sprayed-on with graffiti on Orthodox Christmas Eve, and police are looking for the perpetrators.

Police determined that this was done between 6 and 7 January, when a police officer noticed the scrawled-on board with a Cyrillic inscription on the building in Maksimijanova 10 Street, in which the Council of the Serbian minority is located.

The Istrian Police Department stated that the Croatian State Prosecutor's Office filed criminal charges for damaging another's property against an unknown perpetrator.

It's the first incident of that kind in Istria, Croatian media said.

Chair of the House of Representatives of FBiH resigned (SRNA, 6 January 2014)

Information that Fehim Skljalic submitted a written resignation to the Chair of the House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was confirmed by his cabinet Skljajic seeks the House of Representatives declaration on the resignation, which was sent to the presidents of parliamentary caucuses, as soon as possible, and the start of a procedure for the election of a new chair.

He explained that he took this decision in accordance with the acquis analogy and the decision of the Alliance for a Better Future of BiH to leave the parliamentary majority in the Federation.

RS strengthens autonomy "as it moves toward independence"(RTRS, 6 January 2014)

Milorad Dodik has said that the entity's main objective is "to strengthen the autonomy as a starting point for its further movement towards independence."

The Serb Republic (RS) is the Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the other being the Muslim-Croat Federation (FBiH).

"The RS, except for the internal issues and challenges, has persistently been exposed to a constant struggle for its existential survival through a variety of so-called reforms, which we had to carry out or had been imposed on us," said Dodik, who serves as the entity's president.
Speaking late last week at a reception organized on the occasion of Republic Day, January 9, he recalled that since it was formed, the RS had been exposed to "outside influences, more than any other community."
"At the very beginning it was the war, then the development period," he said, noting that the "world financial and economic crisis, that had a global influence" followed.
"It has not been easy, simple and without burden to lead the RS in this period of time," the president was quoted as saying by the public broadcaster RTRS.

Skopje open to Serbian "joint embassies" proposal (Vecernje Novosti, 6 January 2014)

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski stated that the ideas to divide the premises of the diplomatic facilities have no political background and that this measure simply aims to ensure financial savings.
Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said that Skopje has been conducting negotiations with the authorities of Serbia, Turkey, Slovenia, Montenegro and Croatia for a while now concerning the realization of the idea to divide the premises of diplomatic facilities the potentials of which have not been fully exploited.
The idea is not aimed at setting up joint diplomacy, there is no political background to this decision, it is simply based on financial savings and nothing more, Gruevski said.
Such a decision by Macedonia comes as a response to the initiative of Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic who made an offer to countries in the region to set up joint representative offices abroad following the Scandinavian model.
According to the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti, contacts have already been established with Skopje, Podgorica, Sarajevo and Ljubljana about possible joint diplomatic missions in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
An agreement could be reached by the end of this year. We are close to an agreement with the Macedonians and Montenegrins, Mrkic said in a statement to Novosti on Saturday.

Journalism - the most dangerous professions in Montenegro (FoNet, 7 January 2014)

In a letter to the national leadership of Montenegro, the International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) have expressed deep concern over the bomb attack on the editorial staff of the Podgorica-based daily “News” and called on the authorities to do whatever is necessary to stop journalism from being the most dangerous profession in Montenegro.

"While we appreciate the statement that you gave on this occasion, we believe that it is not enough to stop the enemies of press freedom in your country," is written in a letter addressed to the President of Montenegro Filip Vujanovic, Parliament Speaker Ranko Krivokapic and Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

Even though there was a council established for the assessment of police work, prosecutorial and judicial authorities in cases of attacks on the media, your government still ignores the increased hate speech that has become so common in the state media and remains unpunished, IFJ and EFJ noted. Those two organizations stated that the lack of a "zero tolerance" on the part of the government, for attacks on journalists and previous impunity of perpetrators are an unacceptable obstacle for negotiations between Montenegro and the European Union.

They added that the international journalists' associations will influence the EU accession negotiations on chapters 23 and 24 in pursuit of inclusion of requirements for establishing the government's responsibility for the safety of journalists and media as well as the breaking of impunity of crimes against them.

We urge the Government to act immediately and decisively, so that journalism in Montenegro stops being the most dangerous profession. Such an effort would demonstrate your commitment to promoting the values of freedom of the media in Montenegro, concludes the letter.

In a separate statement, the two organizations have condemned the attack on “Dan” journalist Lidija Nikcevic, which was beaten up in front of the newspaper's bureau in Niksic.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia Seeks Peace with Kosovo, Deputy PM (BIRN, 8 January 2014)

Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister used an Orthodox Christmas visit to Kosovo to call for more talks with Kosovo Albanians, 'no matter how painful they may be for both of us'

During his Christmas visit to Serbs in Kosovo on Tuesday, Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, said that Serbs desired peace and negotiations with Kosovo Albanians.

"I do not know what is better than talks and negotiations, no matter how difficult they may be, no matter how painful they may be for both of us," Vucic said after attending a Christmas day liturgy in the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Gracanica in Kosovo.

He said he wanted to tell Serbs in Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and elsewhere that Serbia was building good relations with all its neighbours.

However, Vucic criticised a call by the Kosovo President, Atifete Jahjaga, for the EU law and order mission, EULEX, to withdraw from Kosovo.

He said EULEX needed to remain in Kosovo, to keep the peace and promote understanding between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians.

According to him, Serbia threatened no one and did not intend to score political points by waving flags. "We need peace, prosperity and more jobs," he told Kosovo Serbs.

Bosnia Federation President Sacks Finance Minister (BIRN, by Elvira M. Jukic, 6 January 2014)

The Bosniak-Croat Federation entity’s President Zivko Budimir was accused of hobbling the government and endangering Croats’ role in it after dismissing Finance Minister Ante Krajina

Budimir sacked Krajina on Friday over a complaint by several Croat war veterans’ organisations which said that their members had not received their pensions, but the president was quickly accused of forcing him out for political reasons.

After the dismissal of Krajina, a Croat, there are now not enough Croats in the Federation entity government for it to function properly.

Budimir has also demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Nermin Niksic so that the whole entity government can be replaced.

But Niksic has accused Budimir of seeking to block the government’s work.

More than a year ago, in December 2012, Niksic sent Budimir a request to dismiss eight ministers from the government because he wanted his old coalition partner parties out of power.

But Budimir never accepted the request at the time because he was a member of one of those parties, and it was only on Friday that he moved to sack one of the ministers named on Niksic’s list, Krajina.

After the belated decision, Niksic alleged that Krajina had only been sacked now because he had not given in to Budimir’s “blackmail”.

“For some time now, Budimir has been blackmailing some ministers from the government... threatening he would dismiss them if they do not accept his demands and dictates, all based on my request to dismiss eight ministers [in 2012] which he refused at the time, stopping the reconstruction of the government,” Niksic said in a written statement.

He also accused Budimir of continuing to block the work of government and of complicating the political processes in the Federation entity.

Adding to the new row between the president and the government in the Bosniak-Croat entity, Vice-president Mirsad Kebo said he would demand a check on whether the vital ethnic interests of Croats were being endangered because one of their ministers had been removed.

Bosnia Launches First War Crimes Indictments of 2014 (BIRN, by Denis Dzidic, 8 January 2014)

The court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has confirmed two indictments against seven Bosniak ex-fighters for wartime violence against Serb prisoners in Banovici and a Croat detainee in Jablanica

The court began the year by confirming two new war crimes indictments charging four men with crimes against Serbs in Banovici in 1992 and three men with crimes against a Croat in Jablanica in 1993.

Esed Kocic, Miralem Colic, Fikret Mrkonjic and Mirza Dedic are charged with taking part in crimes against the Serb civilian population.

The prosecution alleges that Kocic, Colic, Mrkonjic and Dedic, former members of the Territorial Defence forces and the Public Safety Station in Banovici, participated in the murder of one detainee, as well as the mutilation, torture and inhumane treatment of others who were being held in a railway building in Banovici.

The crimes were committed in the period from the beginning of May to late July 1992, the court said.

In a separate case, the court confirmed an indictment against Azem Ibrovic, Enes Maksumic and Jusuf Hindic, charging them with crimes committed at a detention facility in the Battle of Neretva Museum in Jablanica.

According to the charges, Ibrovic, Maksumic and Hindic participated in the torture and inhumane treatment of a prisoner of war who was being held there, severely injuring him.

The indictment alleges that Ibrovic and Maksumic committed the crimes in their capacity as policemen with the Public Safety Station in Jablanica, and Hindic as member of the 44th Brigade of the Bosnian Army.

According to Bosnian law, all seven defendants will give their pleas to the charges within the next 15 days.

EU funds to accelerate BiH war crime prosecution (Southeast European Times, By Ana Lovaković, 6 January 2014)

The EU invested more than 7 million euros in BiH's justice system to help the country deal with war crime cases more efficiently.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) received 7.4 million euros from the EU's Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance programme to strengthen its judicial system and capacity to deal with war crimes cases.

The funds are to be used to bolster the technical and operational capacities of courts and prosecutors who work with war crimes by adding 120 new personnel -- including judges, prosecutors and legal associates -- as well as by increasing operational cost budgets for state, entity and district courts.

"The processing of war crimes cases is crucial for reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the whole region. Commitment, support and courage will be central to take this forward," said Peter Sorensen, the head of the EU Delegation to BiH.

"The outstanding cases of war crimes are important for BiH and their resolution is essential for the country to overcome the past and move toward the future," Sorensen added. "There are about 1,300 cases that should be resolved as soon as possible. These are a burden for Bosnia and Herzegovina, a legacy not only of a very painful recent past but also a risk of continued impunity and unhealed wounds. More than 18 years after the end of the war, thousands of victims and their families have not yet known justice."

From 2004 to 2013, BiH courts completed 214 war crime cases and 235 people have been convicted. There are 1,315 outstanding cases.

The EU delegation to BiH and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will monitor the programme for the next two years. The funds will be channelled through the BiH Ministry of Finance and the treasury to the relevant authorities.

BiH Justice Minister Barisa Colak said the financial injection is necessary because currently only a few courts have the capacity to adequately prosecute war crimes.

"This is a complex topic and it is very important that each segment in the prosecution of war crimes works adequately to meet the conditions set by European justice. We will start [using the funds to provide] adequate space, witness protection, audio and video equipment and defence attorneys," Colak told SETimes.

He said the prosecution of war crimes is important and the problems must be quickly solved.

"It has been a long time. Everything that has been done so far has not achieved the results that we should have by now," Colak added.

The country's National Strategy for War Crimes Prosecution, which was adopted in April 2013, states that priority cases need to be resolved by 2016, and all others by 2023. In order to meet these deadlines, cases must be accelerated, and the highest judicial standards and standards of human rights protection must be met.

Milorad Novković, president of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH, said this is the first time the EU has funded prosecutors working on war crimes cases.

"We appreciate help in solving the problems that burden the judicial institutions, and also the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina," Novkovic told SETimes.

Shaping education in Bosnia-Herzegovina

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, both teachers and students find it hard to talk about the war, which many of them experienced first-hand. German experts in designing textbooks are helping teachers find ways to address the topic.

"How can I tell students about our borders without automatically having to talk about the war?" asks Sibela Jevtic. She has taught geography and history in Banja Luka since 1993. Jevtic lived through the civil war here, in the north of what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina, and its absurdities were also apparent in her own family: Her father fought with the Serbs, her three uncles on the Croatian side.

"I tell the students about my own experiences," Jevtic says, hoping that this approach will help the young people to keep an open mind. "War is not simply black or white."

The teacher and her students alike have deep-seated, painful memories of the war. Discussing the issue in school is extremely difficult, Jevtic says. But she firmly believes that addressing it is important, which is why she decided to participate in a project offered by Germany's Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) aimed at designing new school textbooks that specifically deal with the civil war.

Encourage an understanding of the past

"We began to tackle recent history for the first time in 2008," Katarina Batarilo-Henschen explains. The teaching material doesn't deal with controversial war issues like the concentration camps and the Srebrenica massacre. Instead, it examines everyday life during that period, the GEI project coordinator says. Local authorities unanimously agree that, even today, that's as far as they can go.

Everyday life was the same for Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks during the war, so the students have shared memories. They all experienced what it was like going to school in wartime, or when food became scarce, or there was no electricity.

In cooperation with the German Foreign Ministry, the Braunschweig-based institute has been involved in the project for the past ten years, helping educators like Sibela Jevtic in Bosnia-Herzegovina to address the war in class. The institute cooperates with institutions and textbook authors worldwide to develop school books for crisis regions: for South Africa in the 1990s and, more recently, for the Baltic States, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine.

Textbooks for crisis areas

GEI experts also helped compile a joint history book for Israeli and Palestinian students. Neither side allows it to be used in schools, but "the fact that the book exists at all, and that Israelis and Palestinians worked on it together, is a success," according to Georg Stöber, who heads the institute's Textbook and Conflict Department.

It's no easy feat to provide for a common examination of history in such regions, the textbook researcher says. Both sides harbor too many prejudices and too much pain. Stöber remembers launching the project in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats sat in separate groups and wouldn't mingle even during short coffee breaks. As the workshops progressed, it was important that they "no longer debated as Serbs, Bosniaks or Croats, but as university lecturers; their professional identities came to the fore."

Different truths

Bosnia-Herzegovina initiated a textbook reform in 2003. Older teachers in particular found it difficult to allow for different perspectives of the war, Baratilo-Henschen says, adding that they were still heavily influenced by the Communist training for history teachers.

Active learning is an important element of teaching the Balkan Wars in class, says Melisa Foric. The historian and textbook author, a member of the European Association for History Educators (Euroclio), survived the four-year siege of Sarajevo as a child, and has been a part of the textbook reform team since its early beginnings.

Foric would like to see a standardized textbook for all students in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but that is not yet on the horizon. The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement split Bosnia-Herzegovina into many cantons, which led to a heterogeneous education sector with 13 education ministries.

"There is no control over what is taught in the classrooms," the textbook author warns. But at least the war is now officially part of the curriculum in every canton but one.

Shaping education in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Deutshe Welle, 8 January 2014)

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, both teachers and students find it hard to talk about the war, which many of them experienced first-hand. German experts in designing textbooks are helping teachers find ways to address the topic.

"How can I tell students about our borders without automatically having to talk about the war?" asks Sibela Jevtic. She has taught geography and history in Banja Luka since 1993. Jevtic lived through the civil war here, in the north of what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina, and its absurdities were also apparent in her own family: Her father fought with the Serbs, her three uncles on the Croatian side.

"I tell the students about my own experiences," Jevtic says, hoping that this approach will help the young people to keep an open mind. "War is not simply black or white."

The teacher and her students alike have deep-seated, painful memories of the war. Discussing the issue in school is extremely difficult, Jevtic says. But she firmly believes that addressing it is important, which is why she decided to participate in a project offered by Germany's Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) aimed at designing new school textbooks that specifically deal with the civil war.

Encourage an understanding of the past

"We began to tackle recent history for the first time in 2008," Katarina Batarilo-Henschen explains. The teaching material doesn't deal with controversial war issues like the concentration camps and the Srebrenica massacre. Instead, it examines everyday life during that period, the GEI project coordinator says. Local authorities unanimously agree that, even today, that's as far as they can go.

Everyday life was the same for Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks during the war, so the students have shared memories. They all experienced what it was like going to school in wartime, or when food became scarce, or there was no electricity.

In cooperation with the German Foreign Ministry, the Braunschweig-based institute has been involved in the project for the past ten years, helping educators like Sibela Jevtic in Bosnia-Herzegovina to address the war in class. The institute cooperates with institutions and textbook authors worldwide to develop school books for crisis regions: for South Africa in the 1990s and, more recently, for the Baltic States, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine.

Textbooks for crisis areas

GEI experts also helped compile a joint history book for Israeli and Palestinian students. Neither side allows it to be used in schools, but "the fact that the book exists at all, and that Israelis and Palestinians worked on it together, is a success," according to Georg Stöber, who heads the institute's Textbook and Conflict Department.

It's no easy feat to provide for a common examination of history in such regions, the textbook researcher says. Both sides harbor too many prejudices and too much pain. Stöber remembers launching the project in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats sat in separate groups and wouldn't mingle even during short coffee breaks. As the workshops progressed, it was important that they "no longer debated as Serbs, Bosniaks or Croats, but as university lecturers; their professional identities came to the fore."

Different truths

Bosnia-Herzegovina initiated a textbook reform in 2003. Older teachers in particular found it difficult to allow for different perspectives of the war, Baratilo-Henschen says, adding that they were still heavily influenced by the Communist training for history teachers.

Active learning is an important element of teaching the Balkan Wars in class, says Melisa Foric. The historian and textbook author, a member of the European Association for History Educators (Euroclio), survived the four-year siege of Sarajevo as a child, and has been a part of the textbook reform team since its early beginnings.

Foric would like to see a standardized textbook for all students in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but that is not yet on the horizon. The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement split Bosnia-Herzegovina into many cantons, which led to a heterogeneous education sector with 13 education ministries.

"There is no control over what is taught in the classrooms," the textbook author warns. But at least the war is now officially part of the curriculum in every canton but one.

Russia, Serbia and the New Balkan Geopolitics (New Eastern Europe, by Tony Rinna, 7 January 2014)

A great deal of discussion regarding current European geopolitics between Russia and the West has centred on recent events in Ukraine, with warnings and forecasts about Georgia and Moldova as well. In the strategically critical Balkan peninsula, however, Russia is quietly but rapidly making headway in shoring up ties with a major regional power – Serbia. Throughout 2013, Serbia made a series of pivotal steps towards closer integration with Russia in a variety of spheres, a fact that has not garnered the attention that events in the other aforementioned Eastern European states have.

One thing that distinguishes this geopolitics from the situation in Ukraine is that Serbia is not being badgered or bullied into closer ties with Russia. Russian overtures toward Serbia have been in many ways more subtle and lacking the political divisiveness witnessed in Ukraine. This is not to say that Serbia has been wholly willing and compliant to Russia, but that Russian encroachment on Serbia has been quieter and a lot less controversial.

This more favourable inclination toward Russia, however, should not come as a surprise, given a shared Eastern Orthodox religious culture. In addition to this, the Balkans, according to the late Samuel Huntington, have been a staging ground where the West, Russia and the Islamic World have converged in a clash for control of the region via proxy countries. Russia had traditionally supported Orthodox Serbia, while Bosnia and Croatia had tended to receive support from Catholic Austria and the Muslim Ottoman Empire, respectively (Huntington points to, in the more recent Balkan crisis in the 1990’s, German support for Croatia and Turkish support for Bosnia, while Orthodox Russian and Greek volunteers came to the aid of the Serbs).

Since the collapse of Yugoslavia, Serbia’s territory has slowly been whittled away, to the point that it is not only a rump state of the former Yugoslav Federation, but is even a much-reduced version of its post-Yugoslavia self. Yet Serbia today remains an important power in the Western Balkans, with the largest military and one of the strongest economies in the region. The strengthening of Russian ties with Serbia has occurred on three major fronts: military, economic and political.

Militarily, Serbia has cast its defence lot with Russia. In early 2013 Serbia became a permanent observer at the Russia-led defence alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). In November, 2013, Russia and Serbia have signed a bilateral agreement on military cooperation which was fifteen years in the making. NATO has expanded its membership deeply into the Balkans, and has three more countries—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)—as candidates. If these three countries end up joining the Atlantic Alliance, Serbia will be completely surrounded on all sides by NATO states. This means Serbia may become an Eastern island surrounded by a Western defence alliance. The likelihood of Serbia becoming a NATO member is rather remote, seeing as the alliance will not allow members that have any types of territorial disputes, and despite Štefan Füle’s praise for the progress achieved between Serbia and Kosovo, the disagreement is far from over.

Serbia’s economy is now predominantly a market economy (although the state still controls much of the country’s economic activity), and is presently the strongest in the region.  The country’s Gini coefficient has averaged at 28.9 since 2006. Although its real GDP growth for 2012 was 0.5 per cent (down 1.3 per cent from the year before), this is still more than Bosnia and Croatia. Thus, Serbia is relatively healthy and stable. In terms of trade, Serbia presently balances fairly well between Europe and Russia. Serbia’s main trading partner for exports is Italy, while Russia is Serbia’s main trading partner for imports, although Germany is only slightly behind Russia in this regard. But Russia has gained an edge over Europe vis-à-vis its ties with Serbia on two fronts- the Serbian liberalisation of trade with the Russian Customs Union and the construction of the South Stream pipeline.

The recent victory of the Russia-backed South Stream pipeline against the EU-supported Nabucco pipeline represents the economic encroachment by Russia on Serbia. According to Gazprom, the South Stream pipeline will create 2.5 thousand jobs and lead to a direct investment of 0.5 billion euros in the country. The South Stream pipeline will indeed continue into the heart of the EU – Alexei Miller, Gazprom’s CEO, stated that the next portion of the project will be undertaken in Hungary, but seeing as Serbia is not already a member of the EU or NATO it represents a major victory for Russia in this particular aspect of new Balkan geopolitics.

While much of the Balkans has gravitated toward greater integration with the West since the end of the Cold War, Serbia has been a notable exception. To be sure, Serbia is set to begin talks with the EU on accession starting January 21st 2014. But while Serbia is, at present, a candidate for EU membership, the truth of the matter is that this can be a rather hollow state of affairs. Turkey is also an EU candidate but membership seems increasingly elusive. This has prompted Turkey to search for alterative foreign policy orientations. Croatia acceded to the EU in July 2013, but this should not be taken as a reliable metric for gauging the possibility or likelihood of Serbian accession to the EU. Croatia has had a notable history of closer ties with the West as exemplified by its historic ties with Austria-Hungary, and its Catholic religion which, in line with Huntington’s thesis on the “Clash of Civilizations”, helped strengthen its ties to the West. As many observers and analysts state, the EU is experiencing “expansion fatigue” with regard to its eastward candidate states, Russia may continue to ramp up its efforts at courting Serbia politically, which it has done thus far using methods of soft power.

Aside from this, Russia has fomented territorial divisions within states on its periphery (namely Georgia and Moldova) as it hopes to prevent them from joining the West militarily and politically. A great deal of Serbia’s progress in relations with the EU has stemmed from greater flexibility on the Kosovo issue. The West should therefore take care to monitor any Russian attempts at undoing the progress and rapprochement thus far achieved between Kosovo and Serbia to prevent the latter from closer ties to the EU.

Serbia has been demonised to an extent in the West because of the actions carried out by Serbs in the Homeland War in the early 1990’s. According to Edward S. Herman of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, the Western demonization of the Serbs has aided NATO’s eastward expansion, and if the Serbs know that they have been demonized by the Western media, it is not likely that they will want to become integrated with the West, but rather sidle closer to their traditional Russian protector. Russia has seized upon the traditional ties and affinity Serbia has had with Russia and has invested in aid for Serbia. In 2011, Russia opened an emergency centre in the city of Niş, a prime example of Russian soft power appeal.

Serbia’s increasing of its ties and integration with Russia has been swift, relatively uncontroversial and seems to have been lost in the West’s geopolitical conscientiousness. In some ways similar to Armenia, which is a close ally of Russia surrounded by NATO member Turkey and the generally more pro-Western states of Azerbaijan and Georgia, Serbia appears to be becoming an important strategic lever for Russia in the Balkans, one that does not border Russia directly, but which nonetheless represents an access point for Russia in this geopolitically critical region. The West should therefore not ignore or discount the risks to its interests inherent in this grand development.

 Tony Rinna is a contributing geopolitical analyst at the US-based Center for World Conflict and Peace. His areas of focus include Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Fuele Meets Macedonian Opposition Leader (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 8 January 2014)

At their first meeting in Brussels, the EU Enlargement Commissioner and the head of main Macedonian opposition party discussed the stalled EU agenda and the need for fair elections

The leader of the main opposition Social Democrats, Zoran Zaev, who took up his post last year, on Tuesday held his first meeting with the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Stefan Fuele.

Zaev was accompanied by the party's vice-president and former Macedonian EU integration Minister, Radmila Shekerinska.

“We are more than satisfied after the meeting with Fuele. Great opportunity for exchange of thoughts on Macedonia and European Union,” Shekerinska tweeted afterwards.

Fuele’s office said they had discussed Macedonia’s accession process as well as “the most urgent reforms in the country, in particular in the area of rule of law and freedom of media”.

Ahead of the March Presidential elections, the opposition has voiced fears of possible foul play by the government of Nikola Gruevski.

Fuele stressed the need to improve the political discourse through full implementation of the EU-brokered March 1 political agreement that ended a prolonged crisis in the country.

The crisis erupted at the end of 2012 after opposition legislators, along with journalists, were expelled from parliament by security staff just minutes after the ruling parties adopted a budget.

The subsequent opposition boycott of parliament and nationwide protests threatened to derail the country’s EU agenda.

Under the March deal, both sides agreed to sign a joint declaration on the EU and coin a joint report on the crisis that would recommend mechanisms to encourage political fair play and avoid further ructions in parliament.

"As the 1 March political agreement is being implemented, the Commission will stand ready to support the reform process through the High Level Accession Dialogue, HLAD, provided the authorities remain committed to the reforms implementation and to continued improvement in good neighbourly relations," Fuele was cited as saying.

Owing to the dispute with Greece over its name, to which Athens objects, the issue of Macedonian accession did not appear on the agenda of the European Union Prime Ministers meeting in December.

Macedonia has never been offered a start date for EU accession talks, nor an invitation to join NATO, owing to a Greek blockade related to the dispute over its name.

Greece insists that Macedonia’s name implies territorial claims to its own northern province, also called Macedonia.

In the meantime, Brussels had launched the so-called HLAD, aimed at keeping the EU agenda alive in Macedonia until the name dispute is resolved.