LOCAL PRESS

 

Due on a farewell visit with Dacic (Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic talked today in Belgrade with the Head of the UN Office in Belgrade Peter Due who praised the engagement of the Republic of Serbia in the UN peacekeeping operations. Due pointed to the fact that Serbia is among the seven largest contributors of UN military and police forces throughout the world, the Foreign Ministry said in a release. During Due’s farewell visit, Dacic thanked the Head of the UN Belgrade Office for the past cooperation and underlined the importance that Serbia attaches to the UN presence in Kosovo and Metohija. The Serbian Foreign Minister reiterated Serbia’s commitment to contribute with its activities to overall peace and stability and expressed interest in continuing cooperation with the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations where Due will be occupying one of the leading positions.

 

Vucic, Davenport: This year important for Serbia’s EU path (RTS)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport agreed that 2015, when it comes to EU integrations, was an important year for Serbia. Vucic stressed that the issue of preservation of political and economic stability in the region was essential for Serbia. Davenport voiced EU stands on the issue of the further Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and on other regional issues. The Serbian Prime Minister asked for EU support for consent to the Smederevo Iron Works restructuring plan and the future investor’s (US company Esmark) business, so Serbia could send state assistance. The talks between the two were the first among the regular talks this year.
OSCE: Members of the Panel known (RTS/Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister and Chairperson of the OSCE Ivica Dacic and Swiss and German Foreign Ministers Didier Burkhalter and Frank Walter Steinmeier said on Monday the composition of the Panel of Eminent Persons on European Security as a Common Project had been decided. They thanked 15 distinguished individuals who had accepted their invitation to be part of the panel, the OSCE stated. They also thanked Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger for agreeing to chair the panel. Besides continuing our efforts to bring peace back to Ukraine, it is also time to focus on the more general crisis in European security that has escalated following recent events, and this panel will help start a discussion on the issue, Dacic said. The OSCE needs to do everything possible to change the trend of growing distrust and polarization in Europe, by bringing together people from all regions of the OSCE, who come from different environments and possess a variety of experiences, Burkhalter stated, adding that the panel will provide a valuable contribution to that goal and help the OSCE in its effort to set a path to progress. In a situation when European security is at stake, the OSCE has to find a way to return to dialogue and re-establish security and cooperation in Europe, Steinmeier noted, adding that the panel can provide a valuable contribution in that sense. The first meeting of the panel will be held during the Munich Security Conference in on 8 February. The panel will adopt two reports there, one on lessons learned from the OSCE's activities in Ukraine and the other on broader issues of security in Europe and the OSCE region as a whole.

 

Gasic: We appreciate Algeria’s non-recognition of Kosovo (Tanjug)

Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic received Algerian Ambassador Abdelkader Mesdoua in a farewell visit on Monday, and discussed further cooperation in the field of defense. Gasic stressed that Serbia greatly appreciates the principled stance of Algeria not to recognize the independence of Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed by the Albanians in this Serbian province, and expressed gratitude for the assistance and donation provided by this country after the devastating May floods. Gasic and Mesdoua agreed that the military education and military economic cooperation between the two countries intensified, adding that there is room to enhance the military-to-military, military scientific and military medical cooperation as well, the Serbian Defense Ministry said in a release. Ten Algerian officers participated in courses organized at the Chemical, biological, biological, radiological and nuclear defense (ABHO) personnel training center in Krusevac in 2014. According to announcements, seven military doctors and five engineers from Algeria will arrive for training in Serbia this month. Gasic and Mesdoua also discussed the forthcoming visit by the Serbian defense minister to Algeria, which is scheduled to take place in the first quarter of 2015, the release states.

 

Hague Tribunal rejects Prosecution’s request to return Seselj to detention (Beta)

The Trial Chamber of the Hague Tribunal rejected the request of the Prosecution to return to court detention the indictee Vojislav Seselj from temporary release, it was announced in The Hague. In the decision that carries today’s date, the Trial Chamber also declared itself unauthorized for Seselj’s request to punish the Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz “over impermissible behavior”. The Trial Chamber also noted that the Prosecution has not appealed the decision for Seselj’s temporary release, and that it now requests the re-examination of this decision, which is possible only based on new facts that do not exist. Judge Mandiaye Niang, the newly appointed judge, objected to the decision of the majority.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

DNS: Joint Statement unacceptable, as it is attempt at changing constitutional order (Srna)

The Democratic People’s Union (DNS) finds unacceptable the text of the joint statement on commitment of political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) to implementing necessary reforms in the scope of the EU integrations, because this document is an attempt at changing the constitutional order of B&H, says DNS’ president Marko Pavic. Pavic assessed that the document represented an attempt at introducing the constitutional changes through a back door, instead of using the right door – the Parliament of B&H and the National Assembly of Republika Srpska (RS), and an attempt at changing the constitutional order through a statement of leaders.

At a press conference held in Prijedor, Pavic said that DNS finds the statement unacceptable, since the document does not refer to the Constitution, or any other legal act, and he emphasized that this party has material objections to the proposed text which was defined on December 31 by the Presidency of B&H. He stressed that, among other things, the statement nowhere mentions that B&H is composed of RS and the Federation of B&H (FB&H). “DNS is a Europe-oriented party and it supports European integration, and is internally organized in such way that it can accept all positive influences coming from Europe. Our commitment to European integrations is not questionable,” said Pavic. Pavic emphasized that DNS believes that the statement should represent a sign of good will for entering the process of changes, instead of being an obligation of party presidents, who, most often, are not the elements of executive political organs that are to implement the decision. “This statement should be a sign of good will of party presidents to have their party members who sit in the B&H Parliament, RS National Assembly, and the Parliament of the Federation of B&H will fight for these positions,” Pavic emphasized. He emphasized that the document reads that the listed obligations are binding. “DNS cannot accept that. The basic principle of B&H’s organization has been neglected here. The Constitution reads that B&H is made up of two parts – RS and FB&H. It is a mathematical sum of two units performing certain jobs, while the statement does not mention in a single word that B&H is a complex union. We want B&H to have the same status as all other complex members of the EU (Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland), while this is completely neglected here,” Pavic stated. Pavic is of the opinion that the statement is made “on a very broad basis”. “So, when someone comes tomorrow and says: we want to have one man – one vote, and we then say it is not possible because it is not in line with the Constitution. And then somebody will say: have you signed the statement confirming this is possible? This is why we cannot sign such a statement. Or, someone will say: there must be one president of B&H, and we will say: not possible, the Constitution says - three. That someone will say: yes, it is possible, because you have signed the statement which says - functional B&H,” said Pavic. He especially emphasized that the statement refers to the Agreement of Growth and Employment in B&H, containing six items, but all of which are under the competence of RS, and not the one of B&H. He added that DNS is of the opinion that signing such a statement would undermine the constitutional order of B&H and RS. Pavic says the statement might be acceptable if it contained at least one item stating that the Constitution of B&H, and constitutions of RS and FB&H would be observed in the process of realization of all issues listed in the document, and that the key decisions would not be made by party leaders, but by RS National Assembly. “This is the only way to say clearly which the institutions to make such decisions are. If none of the constitutions, and none of the legal acts, are referred to, then this is unacceptable for us,” Pavic stated. On December 31, 2014 the B&H Presidency harmonized a proposed wording of a joint statement on the commitment of the B&H leaders to launch necessary reforms in the process of B&H’s accession to the EU, and the statement was forwarded to leaders of B&H parliamentary political parties. The document states that the institutions of authority in B&H will implement all reforms necessary for establishing institutional functionality and efficiency on all levels of authority, and facilitate the preparation for B&H’s future EU membership, as a sovereign country meeting all conditions and obligations pertaining to the EU membership.

 

Republika Srpska not against European initiative (Srna)

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik said that the RS was not against the European initiative, which he viewed as well-intentioned, but that the B&H Presidency’s statement had political connotations. During a meeting with Charge d’affairs of the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Renzo Daviddi, Dodik expressed the view that the EU draft on pro-European reforms should clearly contain a stance on the observance of the Constitution based on the Dayton Peace Agreement, as well as clearly defined competences, obligations and responsibilities in the process of the implementation of these reforms, which mostly are under entities’ competences, and none of this is contained in the Presidency’s statement. He emphasized that the B&H Presidency’s statement did not observe in any of its segments the agreement reached by political leaders in Brussels, the Cabinet of RS President said in a statement. Dodik underlined that only clearly defined competences, deadlines, and responsibilities could lead to the success of the European initiative, which is supported also by RS. The meeting was attended by ambassadors of Germany and Great Britain, Christian Hellbach and Edward Ferguson respectively.

 

New President of Croatia: If the Croats want a third entity I will support them (FTV/Srna)

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, new president of Croatia, said that among her working priorities will be advocating for “B&H to finally be a politically emancipated country, which will strongly launch it on the path toward membership in the EU and NATO.” "But for this strong internal reforms are necessary, and one of the essential conditions is that the Croat people finally become equal, constitutively and in any sense, on the entire territory of B&H,” the newly elected president of Croatia said in an exclusive interview for FTV last night. The newly elected President of the Croatia Grabar-Kitarovic said that she will support solutions and proposals that are “put on the table” by the legitimate Croat representatives in B&H, including the requirement for the formation of a third entity in B&H. “Would it be a cantonal solution or third entity, I cannot say that at this moment, but what I can say is that I will support them in their demands,” said Kitarovic. “I would first want to see agreement among the three peoples and national minorities in B&H around the internal arrangement and direction that B&H is headed. If not, I think that Croatia as a country, as an EU and NATO member state, should use its position to trigger the international community, including the U.S., to include itself once again in this process of upgrading the Dayton Peace Accord, because it is apparent that we must change things so we can enable B&H to really function in an emancipated and independent manner,” she said. Grabar-Kitarovic said that B&H likely will be the first country she visits as president of the country. “My first concern is Croatia, as well as the position of the Croat people in B&H, as well as Croats in Serbia and Montenegro will be high on my agenda, so I believe that my first visit will be to B&H. I believe in the future of B&H, I wish it all the best,” the newly elected president said. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic was elected president of Croatia in the second round of the presidential election on Sunday, and will perform the function for the next five years.

 

Niksic: It saddens me that the new Croatian President sees nothing disputable in further dividing B&H (Oslobodjenje)

The Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) B&H Nermin Niksic said in regard to the statement made by the newly elected President of the Republic of Croatian Kohinda Grabar-Kitarovic on how she will support the establishing of a third entity in B&H, if the representatives of the Croat people would suggest it, that such initiatives are not welcomed at all. “It saddens me that the newly elected Croatian President in her first appearance stated that she sees nothing disputable in further dividing B&H. In addition to her statements about the need for some kind of ‘emancipation’ of B&H and the possibility of creating a third entity or ‘new Canton’ she showed that she knows very little about B&H. The new President of the Croatia is trying to revive the politics that we deeply believed to have belonged to the inglorious past of the Balkans,” said Niksic. Stating that the Republic of Croatia is one of the most important partners of B&H, Niksic added that the partnership cannot be built by fueling the idea that has no support of the majority of the citizens and that leads to internal political turbulence in B&H. Niksic is convinced that, unfortunately, the new Croatian President has too many problems she needs to deal within her own home country, and that none of them would be solved by creating new problems in our country. “What B&H needs is unification on the principles established by the ZAVNOB&H (1943 declaration of Bosnia and Herzegovina to be an equal community of Muslims (Bosniaks), Serbs, and Croats), not Dayton. As B&H moves away more from Dayton and closer to ZAVNOB&H, it will be better for all B&H citizens, and thus Croatia would get a stable neighbor and a strong friend,” said Niksic. “In this sense, I hope that the B&H institutions will show the necessary dose of awareness and know how to properly respond and position in regard to these politics for which all of us in B&H have paid a great price.” He emphasizes that it is incredible that after 20 years someone from outside again sends a message about how he sees nothing disputable in an additional partition of the country and its citizens. “As far as it concerns us such initiatives are not welcomed at all, it is especially worrisome when they are coming from the President of a country that is a member of the EU, whose purpose is erasing the boundaries, not drawing new ones.  That can only take us back to the dark times,” said the President of the SDP B&H, Nermin Niksic.

 

Shell casing made in B&H found at Paris Charlie Hebdo massacre site (N1/Srna)

A “controversial” shell casing found at the scene of the Charlie Hebdo office shooting in Paris last week did come from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Zivko Marjanac, B&H assistant defense minister, confirms that the shell cases found at the scene of the recent terror attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris carry the marking “IK”, which denotes the ammunition factory Igman from Konjic, adding that the ammunition was produced in 1986.

The Bosnian military makes inventories of arms and material and technical resources that should show whether the content of the depots corresponds to what is stated on paper, said the report.

Last year, N1 added, 600 shell fillings were stolen from base Krcmarice near Banja Luka, and although two members of the military were immediately suspended, the case “did not receive an official epilogue”. According to Marjanac, “there is corruption outside the Armed Forces of B&H, and Krcmarice was not the first theft case”. The military and the Ministry of Defense “cannot be outside of that”, he was quoted as saying.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Pre-accession support to Serbia is on track, say EU auditors (New Europe/AP, 13 January 2015)

A report published today by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) finds that EU support of about €1,2 billion over the 2007-2013 period has been globally effective in preparing Serbia for EU membership. The funding from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), along with other forms of support, has helped Serbia to implement social and economic reforms and to improve its public finance management. Based on experience gained in other IPA beneficiary countries, the Commission is putting increasing emphasis on governance issues when planning its financial and non-financial assistance to Serbia. "The EU-Serbia dialogue created a link between political priorities and policy formulation. Learning from its past preaccession support, the Commission successfully supported Serbia in addressing key areas such as good governance, the rule of law and the fight against corruption," commented Szabolcs Fazakas, the ECA Member responsible for the report. "Despite gradual improvement in managing the IPA, the Commission needs to further improve the second generation IPA used in the 2014-2020 period."

EU auditors found that overall the Commission is managing pre-accession support to Serbia, including the IPA projects, effectively. Programming of the IPA financial assistance is based on a coherent strategic framework and the approach to selecting projects relevant to preparing Serbia for accession is gradually improving. On the whole, the audited projects delivered their planned outputs but suffered from weaknesses regarding their design, implementation and sustainability. The Commission was effective in managing non-financial assistance to Serbia in the area of governance. It used its dialogue with Serbia effectively in addressing governance issues and the fight against corruption. It gradually improved its approach to take these issues on board in policy formulation and project design. The emphasis put on governance in the dialogue was generally not explicit in the projects' design, but most of the projects reviewed by the auditors had indirectly contributed to better governance and/or to the fight against corruption through their activities related to building administrative capacity. Regarding Serbia's preparation for the decentralised management of EU funds, the audit found that the Commission's approach was effective in supporting governance, but only in the limited sphere of the IPA management structures. Commission’s audit work on the national IPA structures was not part of a comprehensive assessment of public finance management at country level. When drawing up the latest IPA annual programmes, the Commission took steps to address the shortcomings identified by the EU auditors in the earlier IPA projects.

 

Belgrade’s Last Refugee Camp Endures Another Winter (BIRN, by Ivana Nikolic, 13 January 2015)

The New Year has not brought changes for the Serbs who fled the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo and still live in a rundown refugee centre on the capital’s outskirts. “When I came here 15 years ago, this place was packed. There were more than 700 people living at the camp,” says Budimir Maslar, who fled Kosovo with his wife and son when the war broke out. The Krnjaca Collective Centre has been his home ever since. A collection of barracks-like huts some half an hour’s drive from central Belgrade, Krnjaca is also home to almost other 200 people, refugees from Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina who escaped their homes during the bloody conflicts of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia. Collective centres, rundown temporary accommodation with poor facilities, started to be established during the first months of the war. During the 1990s conflict, more than half the population of Bosnia - around 2.2 million people - was displaced or become refugees. In Croatia, the number of displaced people was 550,000, and in Serbia, 540,000. According to the Serbian commission for refugees, 250,000 people fled from Kosovo following the war in 1999. Two decades after the war, the  issue of refuges still remains unsolved. Some 1,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees still live in collective centres in Serbia, where there are around 43,700 refugees and 200,000 IDPs in total. Back in 1996, when the refugee crises was at its peak, there were 700 collective centres in Serbia, but Krnjaca is now the only one in Belgrade and one of 14 in the country as a whole. Opened in 1993, the camp is located in a shabby neighbourhood close to a Roma settlement and a local landfill site. Even though the authorities have promised to shut down the centre by the end of 2016 and place all the residents in state-owned apartments across Belgrade, Krnjaca residents doubt they will finally leave a place they were first told was a temporary solution so many years ago.

A dog’s life

“We’ve spent 15 years in a nine-square-metre [room] - 15 years. That is a shame,” Budumir says bitterly. He lives here with his 25-year-old son, who is an engineering student. Budumir’s wife died a couple of years ago, and now he and his son live off the elderly man’s pension – a bit more than 150 euro a month. “I think someone should start paying attention to us,” Budumir says, with anger in his voice. Regimes and state officials have changed over the years, but each of them has treated refugees in the same way, promising to give the displaced proper homes, Budumir claims. “Like I fight for a roof over my head, they fight for a chair [official position]. I don’t ask for more than [a proper home], but it is incredible that they always turn a blind eye,” the 67-year-old says as he looks through the window at the one-story huts that make up the collective centre. Budumir left his family house in the village of Trebovica, close to the town of Pec/Peja in Kosovo in 1999. His property is still there, but the chances of selling it are small. Nor does he plan to return there, as he believes that he and his son wouldn’t be welcome. He tried to go back several times, but could never adjust to the new situation in Kosovo. “I would be the only Serb in 27 surrounding villages,” Budumir complains. When the war in 1999 ended, the majority of Serbs left Kosovo, fearing violence from the Kosovo Liberation Army. Most of them never returned. “We live in a ghetto. This is a dog’s life,” Budumir concludes as he leaves the room to prepare lunch in an improvised kitchen along a dark, narrow hall, which he shares with other 12 residents.

Living from hand to mouth

In yet another small room, 68-year-old Miroslava Dragojlovic is lying on her bed. She is ill and due to undergo an operation soon. Nevertheless, she says she is grateful for what she has at Krnjaca. “It is very important that we have heating here, and that we have food. We are fine,” she says. Miroslava fled the Croatian town of Daruvar back in 1991 in the midst of the war and came to Serbia with her sister and her family. First she attempted to build a new life – in Croatia she was a dental technician – but in Serbia she did all sorts of jobs in order to survive, working as a housekeeper and in a grill bar. But eight years ago, due to her dire financial situation, she was forced to come to live in the refugee camp. Life was better before the war, she recalls with melancholy. “Back in Daruvar, I had a 40-square-metre flat, I got it from the hospital where I worked,” she says. Miroslava thinks her flat has probably been sold by now - she didn’t have the chance to redeem it from the state because she had already fled Croatia. “I had neither money nor documents so I couldn’t go there [and redeem the flat], and here [in Serbia], I have lived from hand to mouth,” she explains. It wasn’t until 2003 that she finally managed to go to Croatia and visit the graves of her late mother and brother, she says. But she never found her son who died fighting during the war in Croatia. “I gave my son for this country,” she says, with tears in her eyes. Miroslava is alone at the camp and trapped in her memories, she admits, but has dreams of getting a flat from the state. She says she would be able to live there on a bit less than the 140 euro monthly pension that she receives. “I will probably get a one-room flat and for me that is enough,” she says with a grin. She will now prepare some lunch and then go back to bed. The days here are all the same, but she has become used to it, she says – and there is no other place to go. Outside hut number eight is another woman, a refugee from Zagreb in Croatia. “I am Zora Djukic and I’ve been living here for 12 years,” she says with a smile on her face. Zora fled the Croatian capital in 1991 together with her husband and children, like many other Serbs. Since then, they haven’t even tried to go back. “We don’t have a place to go [in Zagreb],” she says with a deep sigh. But she insists that her family is satisfied with the camp – they have food and they are not cold. In November last year, Belgrade mayor Sinisa Mali promised that 45 apartments would be built for the refugees by the end of 2015. “Then it will be possible to close down the collective centre in Krnjaca. In this way, we will provide the displaced with the accommodation they deserve,” he said. Like the rest of the refugees here, Zora is hoping to get one of those apartments. “We are still waiting, I don’t know. What happens to the others will happen to us as well,” she concludes optimistically as she enters her hut.

 

Montenegro Refugees to Rally Against Kosovo’s Thaci (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, Petrit Collaku, 12 January 2015)

Serbs and Montenegrins who fled Kosovo called for a protest against Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci’s visit to Montenegro, accusing him of being responsible for their relatives’ deaths.

The Association of Displaced Persons, Refugees and Exiled Persons in Montenegro announced that it will stage a rally on Friday in the capital Podgorica against Thaci, the wartime political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Thaci is due to arrive in Podgorica on a two-day visit on Thursday and will meet the country’s top officials. The head of the association, Milenko Jovanovic, accused Thaci of being responsible for the killings of civilians. “There is no displaced person from Kosovo in Montenegro without at least one member of the family who has been killed or kidnapped, or whose house was burned down by Thaci and his villainous KLA,” Jovanovic said on Sunday. Thaci has so far not responded publicly to Jovanovic’s statement.

But the Association of Montenegrins of Kosovo said that Thaci’s visit to Podgorica would contribute to peace and stability in the region. “As an association that consists of a considerable number of returnees who live and work in Kosovo, we can understand the suffering and problems of the displaced persons in Montenegro, but a solution for the problems can only be found through cooperation and dialogue,” the association’s president, Slobodan Vujicic, told Kosovo media. Estimates suggest that over 6,600 Kosovo Serbs still live in Montenegro, over 15 years after the conflict ended. The majority of them still live in temporary refugee settlements without personal identity documents.

 

U.N. judges refuse to order return of Serb war crimes defendant (Reuters, 13 January 2015) 

AMSTERDAM - Judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal on Tuesday denied a request to revoke the provisional release of a hardline Serb nationalist who was let out of prison on humanitarian grounds and has since re-entered politics at home. Vojislav Seselj, 60, who has cancer, was released in November after almost 12 years in detention. He has been ordered to return to The Hague when needed for his case and may not contact witnesses. Seselj has since rallied supporters and taken to television and radio to defend nationalism during the bloody break-up of the federal Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He also said he would never return to The Hague. Prosecutors had asked for his release to be revoked, saying that statement violated the conditions of release. But U.N. judges disagreed, saying a statement of intention was not the same as a refusal to comply. "The chamber has not ordered the accused's return to the tribunal. The accused has therefore not violated any orders," the judges said in the ruling. Serbia's government is led by Aleksandar Vucic, a former close aide to Seselj who renounced the ultra-nationalism of his old mentor in 2008 and swung behind Serbia's bid to join the European Union. Seselj is accused of inciting followers to commit murder, ethnic cleansing and other war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia. (Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Anthony Deutsch and Janet Lawrence)

 

Bosnia’s Leaders Come Together – To Attack a Media Foe (Transitions Online, by Tihomir Loza, 12 January 2015)

Officials in the country’s two entities can cooperate when their own dodgy interests are stake.

If Balkan affairs register on your radar at all, you will have heard of the country called Bosnia, where nothing works – because it can’t work. And it can’t, many argue, because Bosnia’s peculiar constitutional setup, based on two “entities” and three “constituent” ethnic groups, perpetuates discord and suspicion among the country's major, ethnically based, political groups. You may have also heard that an international tutorship over Bosnia, diminished though it is nowadays, has protected Bosnian media and civil society from the worst forms of political and special-interest interference seen elsewhere in the post-communist world. But if you ever unreservedly believed those things, a festive holiday season affair to do with media freedoms and that crazy little thing called corruption should give you pause. A general election in October produced an inconclusive result in one of the entities, the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS). Immediately rumors started about what everyone took to calling “buying members of parliament,” with the two strongest camps suspected of promising financial rewards or other favors to lawmakers in smaller parties in return for their support. Strong evidence to back up those rumors came soon in the form of an audio recording. The secretly taped conversation cast the then-outgoing prime minister, Zeljka Cvijanovic, as a provider of peculiar reassurance to a group of apprehensive allies. Cvijanovic, a member of the ruling Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) of RS President Milorad Dodik, appeared to concede to a worried colleague that two lawmakers from a small party the SNSD had counted on might have been attracted to the opposition side, “but that’s why we’ve bought two others – and I will see if this was a quality purchase – so if they [the suspected traitors] betray us, we will have two others, so there you go.” The recording was passed on to Klix.ba, a popular news and entertainment website in Sarajevo, which published it on 15 November. Were this a piece about a socially sunnier place, the expression “game-changer” might pop up here. Instead, nothing much happened when Klix published the recording. For sure, the news made a few front pages, there was some buzz on social networks, and the RS opposition made predictable noises for a few days. Dodik’s camp questioned the authenticity of the recording, though rather halfheartedly. Essentially, Cvijanovic’s apparent bribery boast was old news by 20 November. Or so everyone thought.

To grasp why Bosnians didn’t expect this potentially huge story to go anywhere you have to consider the country’s relationship with corruption. While it may not be fair to say Bosnians have totally acclimatized to corruption, perhaps they have grown blasé about it. Over the past two decades the country has endured an inflation of scandals featuring officials from the very top to small fry in the roles of embezzlers, sinister schemers, plunderers, murderers, extortionists, and so on. But when such allegations surface, nothing much happens. Prosecutors look the other way (except in rare cases when the interest group driving the scandal wishes to see a bit of prosecutorial action as well.) Any significant reactions from the media and civil society organizations soon run out of steam. Those alleged to have committed such crimes more often than not refrain from pressing charges against their accusers and limit themselves to a single denial. Often they elect to remain silent, perhaps relying on the public’s short memory span. Who will remember your scandal next week when a new affair hits the headlines?

So in late November it looked as if Cvijanovic and Dodik would simply let the MP-buying story fizzle out. Instead, they soon decided to breathe new life into it. On 5 December, the editors of Klix.ba were summoned by police in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska’s capital, to be interviewed on the case. The special prosecutor who ordered the investigation no longer seemed to question the authenticity of the recording but sought instead to find out how the editors obtained it. As the law allows them to protect their sources, the journalists remained mum. The news that the Klix editors were interrogated by police made few headlines. Traditional print outlets largely ignored it. News websites reported it together with a protest note by the journalists’ union. No one, though, seemed to be giving the case much further thought. The story again seemed barely alive, which is perhaps how those driving the affair wanted it to seem. Then on 29 December, as much of the country as well as observers abroad either prepared for, or already lulled in, the holiday mood, the news came that police from both Republika Srpska and the country’s other entity, the Federation, were searching the offices of Klix. Klix staff members were barred from leaving during the raid, which lasted for seven hours. As the news spread, a few dozen journalists from other outlets gathered in front of the offices in a show of solidarity. The Klix staff later complained of police brutality and threats. Equipment was damaged. Computers were confiscated as well as private mobile phones and storage devices. When the police officers were leaving the building, one hit a photojournalist. It soon turned out police were acting on the orders of the Sarajevo Municipal Court, which had received a search request from the Prosecutor’s Office of the Sarajevo Canton. That request was in turn prompted by a request for cooperation in the matter from the Republika Srpska’s special prosecutor for organized crime. While the legal work behind the raid seemed to be in order, a number of issues arose immediately. The court order specifically instructed the Sarajevo Canton police to conduct the search in the presence of RS police representatives, who actively took part in the raid, according to Klix journalists.

Some observers noted a further timing curiosity in the affair. The Sarajevo Canton chief prosecutor who requested the search order from the court was on her way out, possibly figuring that her successor would take the brunt of criticism for it. The new prosecutor has ordered an internal investigation into how the request was issued as well as appointed an acting prosecutor to examine media reports that the search itself was not conducted in accordance with the court order. Court officials in Sarajevo said the raid was aimed at finding evidence in relation to the criminal offense of “unauthorized tapping and audio recording.” A spokesperson for the RS special prosecutor further explained that the goal of the search was to find the “original recording.”  Yet, even if one accepted that the notion of “original recording” would be applicable in any meaningful way here, the prosecutors and judges in Sarajevo could have easily rejected the search request precisely because the RS prosecutor did not allege that Klix editors themselves conducted the recording, so therefore could not be reasonably thought to hold the “original.” It is also important to note here that the RS special prosecutor’s request was not specifically aimed at identifying the Klix source. But even if that was implicit in the request, the Sarajevo Canton prosecutors and judges could have argued that the Klix editors had already exercised their right not to reveal their source and end the matter there. The fact that they didn’t probably speaks of a Bosnia that is yet to reveal its face fully. Had someone suggested before 29 December that judicial and law enforcement agencies from the two notoriously fractious entities would cooperate this closely, complete with police from one entity raiding premises in the other, the notion would have sounded outlandish. The country’s constitution along with mistrust among the three ethnic groups would have been cited as insurmountable obstacles. The Klix case appears to suggest that where there is will there are also perfectly passable avenues through ethnic walls and even legislation passed under the convoluted constitution, which came into being as part of the Dayton peace agreement that ended the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia. The fact that such will was summoned on such a dubious case hardly speaks of an independent judiciary and police that suddenly decided to do their jobs properly. The affair rather reveals a highly emboldened ruling class that now crosses ethnic barriers with ease and no longer shies away from very daring methods when it comes to protecting its own interests. While this is by no means the first Putinesque move by the Dodik regime, it is the first that features overt collaboration from officials in the parts of the Federation entity dominated by Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims). The question is, of course, why would an operator used to far worse allegations be bothered about an affair that was bound to be forgotten? After all, it did not stop Cvijanovic from forming a new government on 18 December, with support of the two lawmakers alleged to have been bribed.

Panic is the answer, thinks Senad Pecanin, once a leading journalist and now a lawyer in Sarajevo. After nearly a decade in power with comfortable majorities, Dodik finds himself in the uncharted territory of having to govern with only a tiny majority in Republika Srpska. The parties that now form the opposition in the entity will likely be part of the governing coalition at the state level, hence Dodik feels cornered and isolated and therefore wants to know exactly what those closest to him are up to. On the recording Cvijanovic obviously confides in very close collaborators. Dodik knows that the recording could have been made and passed on to Klix only by one of them. In other words, if Pecanin’s analysis is correct, for Dodik this is primarily an exercise in smoking out traitors. It is equally intriguing why someone on the Bosniak side in Sarajevo would risk being labeled as not just a press oppressor but also a collaborator of Dodik, who has often gone out of his way to express contempt for the Bosniaks. The speculation among observers in Sarajevo is that only a very significant debt that someone owed to Dodik would have merited a favor of this order. A more charitable explanation would be that whoever called this particular tune in Sarajevo simply saw the press in general as pests who are best controlled by intimidation. On the upside, the Klix affair revealed many of Bosnia’s journalists and civil society activists as capable of solidarity and possessed of a robust sense of responsibility when it comes to their public service roles as watchdogs. It was heartening to see dozens of them at protests in both Sarajevo and Banja Luka, making determined points about press freedoms and the rule of law. Yet Boro Kontic, director of Mediacentar Sarajevo, the region’s leading media development institution, said solidarity and protest alone are not enough. He called on all media outlets to focus on what should have always been the heart of the matter: “Were the parliamentarians who later became part of the governing majority bribed in order for the election outcome in Republika Srpska to be altered? Did that happen? If it did, who did it and how much money changed hands? And what legal implications, including criminal, that may trigger.”

While a closer focus of investigative reporters on the bribery case is yet to happen, the protests from the media community over the Klix affair seem to have forced a mea culpa by the Sarajevo Municipal Court, which on 6 January ruled that the confiscated equipment should be returned to Klix. Prosecutors can appeal this ruling, but it’s a pretty safe bet that they won’t.

Tihomir Loza is deputy director of TOL.