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LOCAL PRESS

 

Nikolic: Serbia committed to reaching a fair and lasting solution for Kosovo (Tanjug)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic received on Tuesday the Letter of Credence of the new Czech Ambassador to Serbia Ivana Hlavsova and said that Serbia wanted to further improve its close relations with the Czech Republic in all areas, especially the economy. Serbia values highly the Czech Republic’s active support to Serbia’s EU integration, Nikolic noted and thanked the Czech government for its assistance to the development of Serbia and the rest of the Western Balkans. As part of addressing the complex issue of Kosovo through the talks between Belgrade and Pristina, Serbia is committed to reaching a fair and lasting solution that will help protect security and stability in the region and the rest of Europe, Nikolic stated. He hopes the Czech Republic will show support and understanding for that. Hlavsova said the relations between the two countries had a long and positive tradition and that they were connected by friendship and similar histories. She promised to focus maximum efforts on improving the relations between the two countries even further and conveyed the greetings of Czech President Milos Zeman to Nikolic, adding that Zeman looked forward to seeing his colleague in Belgrade soon.

 

Interpol’s arrest warrant for Oric issued (RTS)

After the order of the Serbian Justice Ministry, the Department for Interpol Affairs in Belgrade has issued an international warrant for the arrest and extradition of war commander of the former B&H army Naser Oric and Hakija Meholjic, Tanjug was told at the Police Department. The B&H Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies has confirmed that the Belgrade Interpol had sent international warrants for Oric and Meholjic to all Interpol members. Belgrade has informed Interpol headquarters in Lyon about the issuance of arrest warrants where it will be decided whether they will receive the status of “red warrants” that are binding for all Interpol member states. Diffusion warrants, according to the B&H Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies, are not binding and each state on whose territory Oric and Meholjic would be found eventually, would decide on their own whether they will arrest and extradite them to Serbia. Oric was acquitted before the ICTY while Meholjic has never been charged. Since at issue are B&H citizens, the B&H Directorate will inform the B&H Justice Ministry that will estimate undertaking further measures and acts from its jurisdiction, reads the statement.

 

Bramertz requests revision on Perisic (B92)

The ICTY Prosecution has submitted a request to the Appeals Chamber to revise the decision on acquitting former chief of staff of the Yugoslav army Momcilo Perisic, who was charged with helping and assisting crimes committed in Sarajevo and Srebrenica from 1993 to 1995. The Prosecution notes that the request represents a direct consequence of the verdict in the case of former deputy prime minister of the FRY government Nikola Sainovic passed on 23 January 2014. In that verdict, the Appeals Chamber annulled the conclusion from the second-degree verdict in the Perisic case, according to which so-called “concrete direction” is one of the elements based on which it is established whether there is responsibility for assisting and supporting crime. The Prosecution claims that “concrete direction” doesn’t have foundation in international customary law, that it doesn’t have coherence of legal doctrine and that it brings into question the respect of international humanitarian law.

 

Office for Kosovo and Metohija condemns church robbery in Babin Most (Tanjug)

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija has condemned the robbery of the church and parish home in the village of Babin Most near Obilic, and asked the international community to prevent such incidents, because the reactions from Pristina are always lacking. The church in Babin Most is one of the oldest Orthodox sanctities in central Kosovo, built right after the Battle of Kosovo, and it has been broken into and robbed several times since 2008, reads the statement, while pointing that the perpetrators have never been found. The Office demands the international community to stop this vandalism and protect the Serb sanctities in the province. It is unacceptable to keep tolerating on the European soil of the XXI century the looting of Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries, the Office stressed.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Covic: Implementing Sejdic-Finci not a solution to Croat question (Fena)

The leader of the HDZ B&H Dragan Covic rejected claims that he is to blame for the lack of resolution in the Sejdic-Finci case and pointed out that the issue of implementing the decision is not a solution to the Croat question in B&H, which is much more complex than the B&H Presidency and the House of Peoples. Covic did not rule out the possibility of return to an indirect election of members of the B&H Presidency, which he believes was in the wake of a rapid solution to the misconceptions about some sort of drawing of maps and divisions. He confirmed that contacts with other parties, as with EU representatives, on the possibility of a new round of negotiations on implementing Sejdic-Finci are being exercised daily, although he is not optimistic that a meeting will happen soon. The EU Special Representative in B&H Peter Sorensen informed B&H party representatives that the EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule wishes to launch a new cycle of talks on the issue of implementing the Sejdic-Finci ruling.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Bosnians file 500 applications with European Court of Human Rights (Dalje.com, 3 February 2014)

Bosnia and Herzegovina's citizens file approximately 500 complaints annually against their country with the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, and following the finality of the rulings made by the Court, Bosnia and Herzegovina has so far paid over 1.8 million euros in damages, the Bosnian media reported on Monday.

The Bosnian government's legal representative at the court, Monika Mijic, told the Banja Luka-based "Nezavisne Novine" daily that the largest number of applications to that court included complaints about the non-enforcement of final rulings made by Bosnian courts in connection with war damage compensation.

Bosnians also frequently sue their country over the issue of people gone missing in the 1992-1995 war.

As for human rights, the most prominent case is the Sejdic-Finci case in which two members of ethnic minorities sued Bosnia over election legislation discriminatory against ethnic minorities.

Sarajevo Law School professor Kasim Trnka also warns that a majority of the Bosnian applicants have won their cases at the Strasbourg court, which shows that Bosnia's judiciary still does not implement European standards to a sufficient extent.

In comparison to other countries in the region, Serbia has the worst record with 11,500 complaints filed by Serbians against their country before the European Court until the mid-2013.

Croatia fared better with 118 complaints from January through October 2013.

 

FYR Macedonia's coalition split increases risk of early general election (IHS Jane's Country Risk Daily Report, 2 February 2014)

The Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia's ruling coalition partners have failed to agree a joint candidate to run in the country's upcoming presidential elections on 13 April.

The deterioration in coalition relations raises the possibility that Macedonia will call early parliamentary elections. Over the weekend the main ruling Democratic Party of Macedonian National Unity (VnatreÜna makedonska revolucionerna organizacija - Demokratska partija za makedonsko nacionalno edinstvo: VMRO DPMNE) party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski rejected demands by its junior coalition partner - the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (Demokratska unija za integracija: DUI) party - to nominate a joint presidential candidate.

 

Macedonian Editor Accused of Ethnic Hate Speech (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 4 February 2014)

A prominent pro-government news editor has angered ethnic Albanian journalists with his comments about the forthcoming elections on a national TV station.

Sinisa Jakov Marusic

The editor-in-chief of a national TV station, Sitel, Dragan Pavlovic-Latas, has been accused of using hateful language against ethnic Albanians on live TV.
On the eve of the widely anticipated early general elections, Latas said ethnic Macedonians should vote “massively” for Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his rightist VMRO DPMNE party in order to stop Albanian from becoming the second official language in the country.
Hosting the TV’s live news bulletin on Sunday, he said that if Gruevski won more than half the seats in parliament in elections that many predict will be held in April - at the same time as the presidential vote - he will be able to resist Albanian demands for a bilingual state as well as Greek pressure on the country to change its name.
“He needs more than 60 seats [in the 123-seat parliament] in order not to give way to the Greek ultimatum and the demand for bilingualism over the entire territory of Macedonia,” Latas said.
Ethnic Albanians make up about a quarter of the population of 2.1 million.
Since the 2001 armed conflict in the country with ethnic Albanian rebels, which ended with a peace accord, Albanian has become an official language - but only in municipalities where Albanians make up a significant percentage of the population.
Latas’s comments angered some journalists, ethnic Albanians especially.
“Can Latas just utter whatever he wants? Or does the Police Ministry think these are calls for coexistence, mutual acceptance and tolerance?” Muhamed Zekiri, chief editor on the Albanian-language Alsat TV, asked.
An ethnic Albanian NGO, “Wake Up”, said that Latas should be taken off air. "The State Broadcasting Council should immediately punish this pseudo-journalist and forbid him from the practice of journalism,” the NGO said, accusing Latas of “misusing the national TV to promote one political party and stir ethnic hatred”.
The Broadcasting Council did not respond to an inquirty from Balkan Insight about whether it intended to involve itself. “We may issue a statement soon,” was the brief response from the SRD.

Macedonia's main opposition party has accused Latas of being a puppet of the government of Nikola Gruevski.

The Speaker of parliament, Trajko Veljanoski, has set a date for the first round of presidential elections on April 13, with the second round due on April 27.
If general elections are duly held together with the second round of the presidential elections on April 27, the centre-right party is well placed for them. Polls show it is the favourite to win the contest and get another four-year term.