LOCAL PRESS

 

Nikolic to attend UNSC session (Danas)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic will attend the United Nations Security Council session on 27 May, the President’s cabinet announced. The report of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Kosovo will be presented at this session. Ban notes in his report that several more challenges remain in the implementation of the Brussels agreement between Belgrade and Pristina, especially when it comes to the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities in northern Kosovo.

 

Stefanovic thanks UN for aid (TV Pink)

The first shipment of UN aid, consisting of power generators, water pumps and rescue boats, arrived at the Nikola Tesla airport on late Sunday. The UN plane arrived from Brindisi and it was greeted by Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic and the UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia Irena Vojackova Sollorano. The UN has established a team within the Emergency Situations Sector to coordinate the relief effort and help Serbian authorities deal with the consequences of the floods. On behalf of the Serbian government, Stefanovic thanked for the technical aid that will make easier the rescue operation from the endangered areas. He pointed out that this aid will make possible for endangered citizens to be evacuated from all towns. “We expect soon aid in food,” said Stefanovic, stressing gratitude of Serbian citizens to the United Nations for this “really lovely gesture”. He said that the UN, through this aid, is demonstrating that Serbia is recognized as a country partner and that its citizens deserve aid that they need at this moment. He voiced expectation that cooperation will also continue in the coming months and years. Vojackova Sollorano said that the UN was helping the Serbian government at a moment when it needed it. She added that the UN received on Friday an official request from the Serbian government to help it. According to her, 38 hours after this, the first team of UN experts for assessment of needs had arrived in Serbia. She said that the first delivery of aid from the World Food Program also arrived last night. “This is the first operation of aid in a series of many operations that we will conduct and the UN agencies will work together on assisting Serbia,” she said.

 

International aid arrives in Serbia (Politika/Novosti)

Forty French rescue workers specialized in flood defense arrived late Sunday, equipped with two rescue boats, several pumps and other equipment. Rescue teams from 17 countries, equipped with high-capacity pumps and boats, are working non-stop with their Serbian colleagues to evacuate those in danger. Russian, Slovenian, Croatian, Bulgarian, German, Austrian, Hungarian, Czech, Belorussian, Macedonian and Montenegrin teams are taking part in the rescue operations. Seventy-six rescue workers of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations are in Obrenovac. Helicopters from Germany, Switzerland, Belarus and Macedonia, as well as one sent by the EULEX mission, have joined the rescue operations. Seven rescue helicopters from Slovenia and Hungary are coordinated by the helicopter unit of the Serbian Interior Ministry. Aid from the government of Azerbaijan worth over 400,000 Euros - motorboats, plastic boats, diesel generators, drainage pumps and other equipment - arrived in Belgrade early Monday by plane. Croatia and Macedonia have sent 65 and 25 tons of drinking water, respectively. Members of the Serbian diaspora are also sending food, water and baby products.

 

Russia sends another plane (Tanjug)

Another Russian airplane Ilyushin-76, transporting humanitarian and technical aid, has landed at the Belgrade airport. The aid includes aggregates, boats, blankets and food. This has been the second Ilyushin-76 that has landed in Serbia with humanitarian aid since the start of the floods. Another two Russian helicopters are expected to arrive. EULEX has sent a helicopter with humanitarian aid and trucks. Rescue teams have arrived from Russia, the EU and the region and the USA and EULEX have sent assistance in money, the Serbian Interior Ministry announced.

 

Davenport: EU is ready to set aside funds to help Serbia (Beta)

‘The overhaul of the consequences of the floods will cost a lot and the EU is ready to set aside funds to help Serbia, which has already activated a mechanism for emergency interventions,” said the Head of the EU delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport. As agreed with the Serbian Interior Ministry, a joint unit for the coordination of actions of all the EU member-states has been formed and this moment 14 of the 28 EU member-states have joined in the campaign of helping Serbia. Their emergency intervention services have been engaged in Lazarevac, Ub, Sabac and Obrenovac. Davenport said he had been impressed with the work of the national rescue services and with the solidarity of citizens collecting aid for people affected by floods.

 

Zvonimir Stevic – joint ticket for better results (Radio Serbia, by Mladen Bijelic)

The connoisseurs of the situation in Kosovo and Metohija assess that in the past nine months the Serbs in the province have gone through the process of homogenization, i.e. developing higher awareness on the need of unified approach to the issues of national interest. A delegate in the assembly, Zvonimir Stevic has told the International Radio Serbia that the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Kosovo and Metohija are a good chance to show it in practice, in the form of a joint Serb ticket. The mobilization of the Serb forces on the common task is visible both in the north and south of Kosovo, Stevic said, assessing it as an important and positive step in comparison with earlier periods. “The Serbs will have better chances to realize their rights and take active part in solving the existential problems in Kosovo if they appear as a unified ticket and with well-chosen candidates, able to successfully defend the Serb interests,” Stevic pointed. According to him, the fact that in the previous period the Serbs would partake in the elections in several tickets, lead to the unnecessary dispersal of votes and loss of several MP seats. Stevic believes that this time it will not happen, because the awareness for the need for a unified appearance has prevailed, for the benefit of the entire Serb community in Kosovo and Metohija.

He described the situation prior to the elections as complex and difficult. “It is far from the ideal, because the electorate lists are sloppy and do not reflect the real state of the affairs, being that the names of many refugee and displaced Serbs are erased. We have been pointing to that situation for 15 years, but the Kosovo authorities and the international community are ignoring the problem. Besides that, we do not have enough time for a thorough and good campaign, i.e. to decide about the candidates to be featured in the joint Serb election ticket,” Stevic specified.

Due to those issues, he expressed fear that a number of refugee and expelled Serbs, who are currently residing in Serbia proper, might be excluded from the electorate calls, due to the obstructions and manipulations of the Pristina authorities. “It is upon the state of Serbia to keep stressing these problems in the international circles, so that they could finally be solved,” Zvonimir Stevic concluded in his interview for Radio Serbia.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Dodik, Vucic press conference (Srna) 

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik expressed condolences to the families of people who died in the flooding in the RS and Serbia, saying that the RS authorities will expend every possible effort to help those most threatened and to repair the damage done by the flooding. After a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, Dodik said that the bodies of six victims of the flooding were discovered in the Doboj area by 10:00 Saturday, which area was up until now the most threatened by the flooding. He thanked the Serbian Cabinet for approving aid to the RS in form of medicines, water pumps, portable generators and food, and stressed that the RS Cabinet will continue providing Serbia with 150 Megawatt of power a day so that the Serbian electrical system might remain stable. Dodik pointed out the need for the population in threatened areas to act in harmony with the authorities, and said that even in these circumstances there are those who are spreading disinformation and creating an atmosphere accusatory of the RS authorities, even in reference to the 100-year rains leading to this disaster in the RS and B&H. He stressed the need for bringing new legislation which will stipulate behavior in emergency situations. “I appeal to all to follow the instructions of the authorities and exclude all politicization of events and to demonstrate solidarity,” Dodik said. He said that the Bosna River at Doboj is receding, and that the greatest problem at present is the rising waters of the Sava River shed, stressing that the Posavina and Lijevce Polje will be hit.

 

U.S. government allocates $50,000 in aid (Patria)

Due to the devastating floods across B&H arising from the record rain starting at the beginning of April, the U.S. government is working with institutions in B&H and the Red Cross and Red Crescent in B&H to deliver humanitarian aid to the most threatened populations, Patria reports.

Deputy Head of mission at the U.S. Embassy Nicholas Hill made a declaration of a disaster area to support urgent measures of assistance. With this, the U.S. government is able to immediately allocate $50,000 to procure necessary materials identified by the B&H Ministry of Security and the Red Cross and Red Crescent, including 13 motorboats to evacuate residents from the regions most threatened by floods. Seven boats will be allocated to the Federation, and six to the RS, the U.S. Embassy confirmed for Patria. The U.S. government continues with emergency activities to identify other possibilities for military and civil support measures of assistance, and is prepared to offer additional help, as new needs are identified.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbia: floods turn into unprecedented disaster - gov't official (Voice of Russia, 18 May 2014)

The floods that engulfed Serbia in recent days, have led to an unprecedented catastrophe, said the head of the country's Interior Ministry Emergency Situations Section, Predrag Maric to reporters on Saturday. "It amounted to a catastrophe, which has never happened in the entire history of Serbia," Maric said.

He stated that the rescuers will not going to publish the total number of victims, while some cities and towns still remain flooded.

Recent updates report five victims of the natural disaster and a few people missing. Serbia has evacuated 16,300 people from flood-stricken areas in Obrenovac, Baric, Sremska Mitrovica, and from the outskirts of Pozarevac, etc. People are being accommodated in schools, dormitories and institutes. Policemen, firefighters and a huge number of volunteers are involved in the rescue operations, the Serbian Interior Ministry reports.

About 78,000 houses in 13 municipal districts remain without electricity; 2,060 facilities have been flooded and another 1,763 are under threat of inundation. The relief aid collected by the Serbian Interior Ministry has been distributed flooded and flood threatened areas.

Most theatres and concert halls have cancelled performances and concerts until the end of the week at least in solidarity with the flood victims. Serbian museums have declined to participate in the "Night of Museums" event.

Instead, museums and theatres in Belgrade have started raising funds for flood victims. People are bringing bottles with drinking water, canned food, blankets, personal hygiene products, shoes and clothes.

The head of Serbian rescuers added that dozens of settlements in the country have been wiped off, and a number of affected areas can now be reached by helicopter only.

The lack of drinking water and food is pushing the situation towards humanitarian crisis.

Maric gave an example of Krupan, a town 120 kilometers west of Belgrade, which rescuers were able to reach only two days after the operation started.

Meanwhile, the neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is also hit by floods, officially confirmed the death of 16 people on May 17, Gojko Vasic, the head of police department in the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told a news conference in Banja Luka on Saturday.

He expected more bodies to be found when the waters started to decrease.

So far, the death toll in Doboj in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, nine people, has been highest. It was isolated from the rest of the world for three days. It is still without electricity and some of its neighborhoods can only be reached by boat. More than 6,000 people have been now evacuated in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's mining clearing center has warned that floods and mudslides could displace minefields and bring mines and shells hidden on riverbeds to the surface.

"We are closely watching the situation and asking people not to panic if they see a shell appear from the ground," Sasa Obradovic, the center's spokesperson, said, advising people to immediately turn to mine disposal experts for help.

More than 500,000 people, out of Bosnia and Herzegovina's population of almost 4 million, live in areas filled with mines left behind after the 1992-1995 Bosnian war and run the daily risk of being blowing up by the unexploded mines.

According to the Bosnian demining center, about 220,000 mines still lie beneath the country's soil.

A state of emergency was declared throughout Serbia due to the heavy rains that caused intense flooding. The Serbian government requested Thursday humanitarian and technical assistance from Russia and the European Commission.

On Friday, the Russian Emergencies Ministry sent humanitarian aid to Serbia.

 

Floods in Bosnia Trigger Landslides; Thousands Flee High Water (The Associated Press, 18 May 2014)

SARAJEVO, Bosnia - Landslides triggered by unprecedented rains in Bosnia have left hundreds of people homeless, officials said Sunday, while thousands more have fled their homes in neighboring Croatia and Serbia as Balkan countries battle the region's worst flooding since modern records began.

Throughout hilly Bosnia, floods are triggering landslides covering roads, homes and whole villages. About 300 landslides have been reported, and stranded villagers often are being rescued by helicopter.

"The situation is catastrophic," said Bosnia's refugee minister, Adil Osmanovic.

Three months' worth of rain fell on the region in a three-day burst, creating the worst floods since rainfall measurements began 120 years ago.  Observed from the air, almost a third of Bosnia chiefly in the northeast resembles a huge muddy lake, with houses, roads and rail lines submerged. Officials say about a million people — more than a quarter of the country's population — live in the worst-affected areas.

While water levels are receding in some parts of Bosnia, land flanking the Sava River remains submerged. Hundreds of people have been plucked by rescue helicopters from flooded towns and villages.

An estimated 10,000 people have been forced from their homes in flooded villages around the eastern town of Bijeljina, where the Sava River broke through defenses Saturday.

In the east of neighboring Croatia, two people are missing and hundreds have fled their homes as the Sava River also breached flood barriers there.

In Serbia, more than 20,000 people have been forced from their homes. Officials there fear more flooding later Sunday as floodwaters travel down the Sava and reach the country.

Serbian officials said that the flood wave might be lower than initially expected, because the river broke barriers upstream in Croatia and Bosnia. Experts said they expect Sava floodwaters to rise for two more days, then subside.

"What happened to us happens not once in 100 years, but once in 1,000 years," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said at a government meeting broadcast live on Serbian television.

At least 25 people have died in the Balkan floods.

 

25,000 Evacuated in Serbian Floods (novinite.com, 19 May 2014)

Serbia's Ministry of Interior says it has evacuated 25,070 people in the areas most threatened by flooding.

In the town of Obrenovac, near the capital Belgrade, 7,800 people have been evacuated, Tanjug agency reported. The town has been almost completely flooded after heavy rains poured over the past days.

Earlier, it was reported that the death toll has reached 44, around Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia. The floods have caused landslides as well, which are posing serious threats.

The Sava River, which passes through Belgrade, was rising on Sunday, but its levels are going down now, it was reported.

The EU, Russia, and Belarus have assisted with rescue helicopters and financial aid.

Over 26,000 households in Serbia have experienced power failures, while 2,260 infrastructure and commercial facilities have been flooded. Another 1,763 are in danger of suffering the same fate, the ministry stated.