LOCAL PRESS

 

Serbia to observe three days of mourning (B92)

At the proposal of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, the Serbian government decided to declare three days of mourning in the country due to the number of victims in the disastrous flooding. The days of mourning will be observed on May 21, 22, and 23. The decision, adopted unanimously, will be published in the Official Gazette, and will be in force from midnight tonight. Vucic explained his proposal by saying that many people died in the floods, and that once the waters recede, the number will certainly be even higher. He told the cabinet that 14 people died in Obrenovac, and that some of the victims drowned, while others died of natural causes. It was announced on Monday that the total number of victims 20 - 13 of whom perished in Obrenovac. Vucic also announced that a decision will be made by Friday on whether to lift a state of emergency that is in force in the entire territory of the Republic. 

 

EU to monitor elections (Beta)

The EU will monitor the parliamentary elections in Kosovo and Metohija on 8 June, the cabinet of the EU High Representative Catherine Ashton announced. The first group of eight observers has already been sent to Pristina to monitor election preparations, and there will be more than 80 observers on the election day. Ashton appointed member of the European Parliament Roberto Gualtieri as the Head of the Observer Mission. The mission reflects the EU’s long term efforts to support credible, transparent and inclusive elections in Kosovo, the statement reads.

 

Vojackova Sollorano: UN will help in rebuilding Serbia (RTS)

UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia Irena Vojackova Sollorano has stated that the United Nations will help in rebuilding Serbia once the water withdraws from the flooded regions, and it will send an appeal for global aid from donors after an analysis. “We will certainly help by first offering support to the new Office for coordination of humanitarian aid and we will help once the real estimate is done,” Vojackova Sollorano told Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS). She says that there are seven experts of the world organization in Serbia who are estimating the damages, and who will also estimate various needs when it comes to industrial damages, damages to the environment and health. Vojackova Sollorano explained that the UN, after the estimates, will draft a plan together with the Serbian government before undertaking anything. “We will launch an appeal for global aid from donors and we will support the government in all this,” the UN representative said. In less than 24 hours, the UN sent two planes of aid for the flooded regions. “All aid that has arrived in these two planes, just as the aid that will be arriving, is handed over to the government and we have delivered this aid to the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Economy, and as aid arrives we will hand it over to other ministries,” she explained. Vojackova Sollorano said that the UN cooperates very closely with the Serbian government, and at the request of Prime Minister Vucic, it decided to help the government and support its efforts. Apart from close cooperation with the relevant ministries, the UN also cooperates closely with the EU in this situation, said Vojackova Sollorano. “It is on the EU to tell you whether you can count on their aid, but we cooperate with the EU throughout the world and we are convinced that this financing will be implemented and directed in an adequate manner,” she said. She said that the experience in other parts of the world speaks that “funds always arrive”.

 

EU: Much less than one billion Euros for Serbia (Tanjug)

Despite Monday’s announcement about 1 billion Euros in aid from the EU solidarity fund, Serbia can hardly count on more than around 10 million Euros from this fund, Tanjug learns from a source in the European Commission. The stir was caused by EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Kristalina Georgieva who said during a midday press briefing that Serbia could apply for aid from the EU solidarity fund amounting to up to 1 billion Euros for the reconstruction and repair after the floods. The Commissioner put it badly, as she mentioned the total sum that is in the fund, and Serbia could get only a small amount of that, Tanjug learns from a European Commission official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Georgieva also made a slip when she mentioned the figure from the last year’s budget for the solidarity fund, which was halved this year, and a total of 500 million Euros has been envisaged for all EU member states and candidate countries hit by natural disasters. Serbia can apply for the funds if it manages to prove that the overall damage caused by the floods exceeds 0.64 percent of the gross national income (GNI), which in Serbia’s case amounts to 175 million Euros. If within a 10-week time-frame since the first day of the floods we get from Serbia convincing and checkable data that the damage exceeds 175 million Euros, we will take your request into consideration, Tanjug’s source said.

 

Ambassadors in Obrenovac: Serbia needs aid (Tanjug)

The ambassadors who visited flood-hit Obrenovac near Belgrade, led by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, said they were shocked by what they saw in the town, adding that Serbia will be need solidarity and help from the international community to deal with the consequences of the natural disaster. The Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said that a new phase in the struggle against flooding is ahead and it is necessary to set out priorities to best channel the aid. “We will discuss ways in which Serbia as a candidate country can gain access to EU solidarity funds and it is certain that the EU member states, which have responded so quickly to Serbia’s calls for assistance, will be there for Serbia in these bad times for the country,” Davenport said. U.S. Ambassador Michael Kirby said that the states that have diplomatic offices in Serbia now have the opportunity to show humanity as the next phase in the flood protection efforts is beginning soon. “Waters are receding and people need to fix their houses and cars. They have lost their livestock and other property, but their lives must go on. This was an opportunity to show what we can do to help people back on their feet again here in Obrenovac and in other parts of Serbia. The U.S. will be doing that, and I believe that all the other ambassadors feel the same way,” said Kirby. Italian Ambassador to Serbia Giuseppe Manco said that the visit by foreign diplomats to Obrenovac brought the town 70 additional citizens who will do all to ensure the town receives aid that is necessary to normalize life in it. “We are here today to show solidarity with this town and the entire Serbia. This is a tragedy and we are grateful for the opportunity to be here so we can personally see how difficult the situation is and what we can do to help,” said the Italian Ambassador. The ambassadors of the countries of the region said that their governments quickly responded to the calls for aid by the Serbian government, in the spirit of the good neighborly relations that they have with Serbia.

 

Aid from all over the world arrives in Serbia (Radio Serbia, by Ivana Subasic and Katarina Dostanic)

UN, Russia, countries from the EU and the region have sent humanitarian aid and rescue teams to Serbia, the Serbian Interior Ministry announced. Rescue teams Russia, the EU and the region were the first to arrive and the UN, the USA, Japan and EULEX sent assistance in money. The first part of the UN aid – aggregates, water pumps and rescue boats arrived at the Belgrade airport Nikola Tesla. Forty members of rescue teams from France, specialized in defense against floods, have arrived as well. Another contingent of humanitarian aid arrived in Serbia from Russia and Belarus Deputy Minister for Emergency Situations Alexandr Nikolayevich Goncharov arrived on the very same plane. Belarus had also sent two helicopters and four rescue teams of divers. Rescue teams from 17 countries, with high capacity pumps and boats, are working continuously on the evacuation of people. Teams from Russia, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Belarus, Macedonia and Montenegro have been engaged in the rescue activities. The Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations is to send additional humanitarian aid to Serbia, said Minister Vladimir Puchkov. Two K-32 helicopters are to arrive in Serbia from Russia and to start supplying food to the regions affected by floods. Another Russian airplane Ilyushin-76, transporting humanitarian and technical aid, has landed on the Belgrade airport on Sunday. The aid included aggregates, boats, blankets and food. This was the second Ilyushin-76 that has landed in Serbia with humanitarian aid since the start of the floods. The Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations has sent another two rescue and evacuation helicopters. A EULEX helicopter landed on the Belgrade airport on Sunday and two EULEX vehicles brought humanitarian aid, which was immediately delivered to the Serbian Red Cross. Bulgaria, Germany, Slovenia and Austria responded very quickly to Serbia’s request for high capacity water pumps and operative teams, through the Emergency Reaction Coordination Centre of the European Commission. An EU Civil Protection team, of seven members, began deployment in Serbia in order to coordinate efforts with the authorities and the EU delegation and to facilitate the supplies. Kristalina Georgieva, EU commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis situations, said that, in a less than a day and a half, 14 EU member-states have responded to appeals for help from Serbia and B&H, sending boats, helicopters, pumps and rescue teams. A team of the Commission’s Bureau for Humanitarian Issues has met with Interior Ministry Emergency Sector members in order to discuss a plan for the overhaul of the damage and long-term aid to the flooded areas. A special operation unit from Macedonia Tigar is helping Serbia in the rescue operations and aid has also arrived in electricity, medicines, boats, aggregates, diesel pumps and operative teams. Montenegro as well has sent a team of rescuers with equipment and humanitarian aid and some twenty rescuers have arrived from Slovenia, with high capacity pumps, which have been used to pump out water in the Obrenovac thermal power plant. Croatia has also sent teams for cleaning and pumping out water with high capacity pumps.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Erdogan: Turkey will send most urgent aid to B&H (Oslobodjenje)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan phoned the Chairman of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic to learn more about the situation in the country and offer him the help of the Turkish government in the struggle against the catastrophic floods. At the suggestion of Chairman Izetbegovic, the Turkish government will urgently send to B&H the most important aid. Prime Minister Erdogan promised that Turkey will offer further support to B&H in mitigating the consequences of the catastrophe, care for the injured, and medicine and prepared foods, the B&H Presidency said in a statement. The Turkish Prime Minister asked Chairman Izetbegovic to convey the sympathy of the Turkish government and people to the families of the victims of the devastating floods. Izetbegovic thanked Erdogan for his expression of solidarity, care, and compassion for the people of B&H in these difficult times.

 

Livne: Future generations need to know what happened (Srna) 

“The future generations need to know what happened to the Serbs, Jews and Roma in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and today attention must be drawn to the latest occurrence of fascism in some countries in Europe,” the Head of the Republika Srpska (RS) Representative Office in Israel Arie Livne said. Opening the 6^th International Conference on Jasenovac in Banja Luka, Livne stated that the event is yet another attempt to tell the youth about the evil done against the Serbs, Jews and Roma in the concentration camp and that it should never be forgotten. He stressed the duty of preventing the latest occurrence of fascism in certain European countries. “All our thoughts and feelings go to the Serbian people affected by the floods and we are certain this catastrophe will blow over,” Livne said.  Vladimir Lukic, the Head of the Association Jasenovac-Donja Gradina, which organized the event, stated that the conference was established in order to create the truth about the crimes committed not only in Jasenovac but in other concentration camps in Croatia too. The conference will appeal to Serbia, Russia, Israel and Greece to adopt the previously prepared declaration on the crimes against Serbs, Jews and Roma, said Lukic. The Serbs are not satisfied with the museum exhibition in Jasenovac, which is why they wish to remove a deadlock in designing the camp in Donja Gradina, added Lukic. Lipljan Bishop Jovan, who spoke on behalf of His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch, said that in the history of Serbs, there had never been a greater suffering than those in Jasenovac and in Kosovo Polje. “The Serbian Church was the first to recognize that, even though everyone was silent about it for years. The time has come to describe and acknowledge the sufferings of Serbs,” Bishop Jovan said. The conference in Banja Luka drew some 150 participants from the RS, B&H, Russia, the US, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Croatia, Greece and Great Britain.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Kosovo to Ensure Smooth Elections also in North (BIRN, 20 May 2014)
The Kosovo authorities are drawing up plans to ensure that the June national elections are held across the country, the Serb-dominated northern part included.
The Kosovo state prosecution and police on Monday said they were preparing a joint action plan for the general elections due on June 8.
The prosecution system will be working with more than 100 prosecutors and 300 staff members from the time that ballot boxes open at 7am until they close at 7pm, Laura Pula, from the state prosecution, said.
Municipal prosecutors raised 232 indictments for electoral fraud against 1.456 people in connection with the last national elections in Kosovo, although it remains unclear how many people were actually convicted. Unlike the last general elections, the last local elections, held in 2013, ran smoothly.
No major incidents were reported although the process was spoiled in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo where masked men attacked three polling centers and destroyed election material.
Although it is not known how the election will proceed in Serbian areas this time, the authorities say they will not allow anyone to disrupt the process and prosecutors will also be present in the north on election day, Pula confirmed.
So far, 11 political parties, four initiatives, two coalitions and one independent candidate have applied for certificates at the Central Election Commission.
Serbia needs help to repair flood damages: FM (Xinhua, 20 May 2014)
Serbia needs help to repair the consequences of the catastrophic floods, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said after touring town of Obrenovac with ambassadors of several dozen countries.
After water started to decline in Obrenovac, the most heavily flooded town in the catastrophe that hit Serbia, representatives of about 70 embassies have toured with Dacic on May 19 across the flooded streets.
Among the diplomats that drove on top of police vehicles in Obrenovac, some 30 km southwest of Belgrade, were the head of the EU delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport, U.S. ambassador Michael Kirby, Chinese ambassador Zhang Wanxue, ambassador of Germany Heinz Wilhelm as well as many others.
After taking a tour over the flooded city with huge lakes that still cover courtyards and cars turned upside down, Dacic told journalists that he brought ambassadors there to show them the catastrophic flood, and discuss how their countries can help repair the damages.
"Serbia expects two kinds of help. One is assistance in rescuing people, but the current situation shows that this kind of help is less and less needed. On the other hand we expect help in future days and weeks to repair all this that has been damaged," said Dacic, who is also the deputy PM of Serbia.
Dacic thanked all countries that sent help to evacuated people, mentioning that the latest announcements of upcoming humanitarian aid came from Italy and Azerbaijan.
"Help is sent from across the globe -- from the Russia to EU, USA and many other countries," Dacic said, adding that Serbia actively negotiates to obtain help from the EU Solidarity Fund.
The head of the EU delegation Michael Davenport promised that the "EU and its member states will be with Serbia in this hard moment."
American ambassador Michael Kirby said that the tour across the flooded Obrenovac helped them to see what can be done to help repair the damages.
"All of us are getting here a better view of what we can do in following days, weeks and months to put the people here in Obrenovac and other parts of Serbia back on their feet," Michael Kirby said.
However, moments after ambassadors left Obrenovac, a new "urgent and total" evacuation was ordered as several damps on the Sava River near the town started to leak water, bringing a new flood wave.
According the police data, more than 25,000 people were evacuated from their homes since the emergency state was declared in Serbia on May 15, of which 7,800 come from the city of Obrenovac, where at least 13 people lost their lives in the flood.
Russian Helicopters to Fight Balkan Fires (RIA Novosti, by Dmitry Korobeinikov, 20 May 2014)
MOSCOW – Two multipurpose Kamov Ka-32 helicopters deployed by the Russian Emergencies Ministry in Serbia will be deployed to fight forest fires throughout the Balkans this season, a senior ministry official told RIA Novosti Tuesday.
“The Russia-Serbia center located in the town of Nis will be offering the services of the Ka-32s for rescue operations, fighting different fires and other operations in the mountains, plains and on the sea,” EMERCOM First Deputy Director Yuri Brazhnikov said while speaking on the sidelines of the International Security exhibition in Moscow.
EMERCOM, under the aegis of the Emergencies Ministry, is responsible for coordinating Russian participation in international humanitarian operations.
The two helicopters landed on Monday in Serbia to participate in rescue operations in regions hit by floods, which have destroyed or damaged thousands of residential buildings and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.
Floods and mudslides in the region are believed to have caused dozens of human deaths, although the exact number of victims remains unknown.
Wildfires are a common problem on the densely-forested Balkan peninsula, which cause billions of euros in damages each year.
The Ka-32 helicopters are capable of carrying over 40 types of fire-fighting equipment, including water tanks and water cannons.
Brazhnikov said the helicopters have a good track record in participating in different operations in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, adding that the agency had also received inquiries from Croatia.
He added that the Nis center could serve as a model for regional humanitarian operation centers.
Floods affect over 1 million in Balkans, destruction "terrifying" (Reuters, by Daria Sito-Sucic and Marko Djurica, 19 May 2014)
MAGLAJ, Bosnia/KRUPANJ, Serbia - Bosnia said on Monday that more than a quarter of its 4 million people had been affected by the worst floods to hit the Balkans in living memory, comparing the "terrifying" destruction to that of the country's 1992-95 war.
The extent of the devastation became apparent in Serbia too, as waters receded in some of the worst-hit areas to reveal homes toppled or submerged in mud, trees felled and villages strewn with the rotting corpses of livestock.
The regional death toll reached more than 40, after the heaviest rainfall since records began 120 years ago caused rivers to burst their banks and triggered hundreds of landslides.
"The consequences ... are terrifying," Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija told a news conference. "The physical destruction is not less than the destruction caused by the war."
Lagumdzija said more than 100,000 houses and other buildings in Bosnia were no longer fit to use and that over a million people had been cut off from clean water supplies.
"During the war, many people lost everything," he said. "Today, again they have nothing."
His remarks threw into sharp relief the extent of the challenge now facing the cash-strapped governments of both Bosnia and Serbia.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said the cost in Serbia would run to hundreds of millions of euros. President Tomislav Nikolic appealed for outside aid.
"We expect huge support, because not many countries have experienced such a catastrophe," he said.
Even as the crisis eased in some areas, a new flood wave from the swollen River Sava threatened others, notably Serbia's largest power plant, the Nikola Tesla complex, 30 km (18 miles) southwest of the capital Belgrade.
In Bosnia, Assistant Security Minister Samir Agic told Reuters that up to 35,000 people had been evacuated by helicopter, boat and truck. As many as 500,000 had left their homes of their own accord, he said, in the kind of human displacement not seen since more than a million were driven out by ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian war two decades ago.
POWER PLANT
At least 25,000 people have been evacuated in Serbia, but many more are believed to have fled the flooding.
Hundreds of volunteers in the Serbian capital filled sandbags and stacked them along the banks of the Sava. Police issued an appeal for more bags.
Soldiers and energy workers toiled through the night to build barriers of sandbags to keep the water back from the Nikola Tesla complex and from the coal-fired Kostolac power plant, east of Belgrade.
Djina Trisovic, a union spokeswoman at Serbia's EPS power utility, said some workers at the Nikola Tesla plant had worked three days with barely a break because relief teams could not reach the plant.
"The plant should be safe now," she told Reuters. "We've done all we could. Now it's in the hands of God."
The plant provides roughly half of Serbia's electricity. Parts of it had already been shut down as a precaution, but it would have to be powered down completely if the waters breached the defences.
Flooding had already caused considerable damage, estimated by the government at over 100 million euros ($140 million), to the Kolubara coal mine that supplies the plant.
Authorities in Bosnia issued a fresh warning about the danger of landmines left over from the war and now dislodged by the flooding.
In the north Bosnian region of Maglaj, barely a single house was left untouched by the waters, which receded to leave a tide of mud and debris.
In the village of Donja Polja, where Muslim Bosniaks returned in 1995 to homes burned or shelled during the war, Hatidza Muhic swept the mud from the hallway of her house. Dark lines on the walls indicated the water had reached some 3 metres high.
"I thought the war was as bad as it can get, but it can get worse," Muhic said. "I just pray to God that we can save our minds, because first we were hit by the war, and now this."
Mladic ‘never ordered me to open fire on civilians’ (AFP, Mike Corder in The Hague, 20 May 2014)

Ratko Mladic, the former commander of Serbian forces in Bosnia, is accused of atrocities.

Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic has launched the defence case in his long-
running United Nations war crimes trial in The Hague.

Judges heard from a former Serb army officer who claims he was never ordered to fire on civilians in the besieged Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.

Mile Sladoje, a former assistant commander of a Serb battalion in Sarajevo, was the first witness called by Mladic in his trial on charges including genocide.

A summary of his testimony read by one of Mladic’s lawyers made clear Mr Sladoje would deny ever being ordered by Mladic to deliberately target civilians with a sniping campaign – one of the key charges he faces.

Mladic, 72, denies 11 charges of ordering Serb atrocities throughout the 1991-95 Bosnian war. He faces a life sentence if convicted.

The indictment alleges Mladic was the military mastermind behind a deadly Serb sniping and mortar campaign in Sarajevo, and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica.

He denies the charges and insists his forces were trying to defend Serbs during the conflict that left some 100,000 people dead.

The 72-year-old saluted Mr Sladoje as he entered court at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

“All military activities were defence activities,” Mladic’s lawyer Miodrag Stojanovic told judges in a summary of Mr Sladoje’s seven-page testimony.

Mr Sladoje “never received an order from his superior command, nor did he issue an order … to attack civilian facilities,” Mr Stojanovic said.

Mr Sladoje showed judges a map of Sarajevo dotted with circles that he said were considered legitimate targets by Serb forces.

“There was no part of the city that did not have a military installation or facility,” his written statement said.

Serbs deny systematically targeting civilians with mortars and sniper rifles during the siege of Sarajevo, saying they were shooting at Bosnian Muslim forces holed up in buildings throughout the city.

Mladic was first indicted in 1995 but went into hiding after the war and was not arrested until May 2011. The former general’s trial started a year later and prosecutors wrapped up their case in February.

Mladic, now frail and grey, began by refuting charges relating to the 1992-1996 Sarajevo siege, where a large portion of about 100,000 war deaths during the Balkan wars took place.

As many as 10,000 civilians were killed, sometimes while waiting in line for bread or 
collecting firewood, by shelling and sniping in one of the longest urban sieges in modern history.

Mladic was arrested in Serbia three years ago after 16 years on the run. Alongside Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, he is accused of genocide for his role in atrocities, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, considered to be Europe’s worst atrocity since the Second World War.

Mladic’s indictment, first issued in July 1995, alleges that between May 1992 and November 1995, Mladic conducted a campaign of sniping and shelling against the civilian population “the primary purpose of which was to spread terror among the population”.

Mladic has denounced the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as “satanic”.

The defence argues that he was simply a soldier following orders. His lawyers have described him as a self-proclaimed patriot who fought to defend his people.

His legal team will also attempt to refute the prosecution’s claim that the general led a targeted campaign to ethnically cleanse parts of Bosnia of non-Serbs and make them part of a greater Serbia.

But they are expected to point out that Mladic suffers from a memory disorder that makes it hard for him to differentiate between truth and fiction.