Belgrade DMH 221113

LOCAL PRESS

Pristina looks for a shortcut in vain (Novosti)

Even though Pristina is strengthening the diplomatic offensive and powerful allies, it will have a hard time to achieve the ambition of receiving membership on the East River. New threats that are arriving from Kosovo and Metohija – that a strategy is being prepared for Pristina’s membership in the United Nations – are shot in the dark by the Kosovo authorities since this is impossible without the agreement of Belgrade and five permanent UN member states where Serbia can count on the veto by Russia and China. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic is convinced that Kosovo will not try seriously to receive UN membership: “Pristina is aware of its real position and incapability to achieve this ever without our consent, which will not occur,” Mrkic tells Novosti. International law professor Tibor Varadi tells Novosti that messages that are coming from Pristina are intended for internal political use and that it isn’t realistic that a debate on Kosovo membership in the UN will be launched in the near future. “There are still a lot of countries in the General Assembly that didn’t’ recognize independence of Kosovo that will hardly vote for its accession. In order for some state to become a member of this world organization it must pass as many as four steps and in the end of this road, there can be a ramp at the General Assembly session where two-thirds of 193 members must vote for accession. Independence of Kosovo, according to Pristina, is presently recognized by 106 countries that are UN members. Pavle Jevremovic, former Serbian ambassador in the UN, says that Kosovo will “hit” the first insurmountable obstacle in the Security Council. Even if it happens that the SC passes the Kosovo request, chances are small for the General Assembly to pass it: “The same case is also with the attempts at abolishing UNSCR 1244 passed by the Security Council since it can’t be suspended without its approval as well. Pristina can eventually try to “strike laterally” on the UN, i.e. to request the observer status or membership in some UN agencies or organizations. Until this happens, Pristina will be entering the East River through the small door with the help of so-called sponsors, i.e. as guest of delegations of permanent member states.

Pristina can’t take a shortcut to the UN (Politika)

Nikola Jovanovic, advisor to the former UN General Assembly president Vuk Jeremic, doesn’t see how Kosovo can become a member of the United Nations without a new Security Council resolution, on the occasion of the statement by Kosovo Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj. “Only sovereign states can become UN members, so I’m not surprised by their efforts to acquire international subjectivity precisely through the status in the UN. However, the UN receives new members based on the recommendation of the Security Council that will not give this recommendation without a new resolution on Kosovo’s status, and it is also not in perspective of the General Assembly decision, so I don’t see how Kosovo can gain membership without a new Security Council resolution,” says Jovanovic. He recalls that Kosovo doesn’t have international subjectivity according to the valid UN SC resolution nor has Serbia transferred in any way international subjectivity to Kosovo. It is not a member of one single international political organization or multilateral convention and it is important to keep this state-of-affairs so Serbia’s negotiating team would have a stronger position and broader maneuvering space in the dialogue with Pristina. Submitting the report to the assembly commission for foreign affairs, Hozhaj said it was also envisaged for Pristina to submit in the first half of 2014 the request for membership in two, three UN agencies but didn’t state which ones. Saying there are numerous UN agencies and that some of them envisage in their statutes the possibility for admitting entities that are not UN member states, albeit under conditions, Jovanovic gives UNESCO as an example where Palestine is a full-fledged member but, as he says, the Palestinian case is not identical to the Kosovo situation, because some SC resolutions envisage Palestinian subjectivity, while UNSCR 1244 doesn’t mention this for Kosovo. Namely, the example of Palestine can’t be used, because some SC resolutions envisage a final solution on the creation of two states on that territory, while UNSCR 1244 doesn’t envisage the creation of a new state on Serbia’s territory. “In any case, legal arguments are on Serbia’s side, but we must be maximally cautious and careful not to find ourselves before a fait accompli due to pressures on other states,” warns Jovanovic.

Obradovic: Croatia’s lawsuit will be rejected (Tanjug)

The head of the Serbian legal team before the International Court in The Hague Sasa Obradovic expects that the lawsuit for genocide submitted by Croatia against Serbia will be rejected, but he didn’t wish to comment what could be the court epilogue in case of Serbia’s counter lawsuit.

He said that Serbia’s strategy will essentially come down to disputing that genocide was committed against the Croat people during the armed conflict in Croatia from 1991 to 1995. “On the other hand, we will do everything to present all serious crimes that were committed during the operation Storm, as the peak of ethnic cleansing that occurred in Croatia, precisely as genocide that Croatia points out and that they would like to legally establish,” Obradovic told Tanjug.  According to him, if what Croatia claims to be genocide then the operation Storm is an outstanding example of this. This is an opportunity for Serbia to once again present before the International expert forum the issue of operation Storm and the crimes committed at the time, especially having in mind the “disastrous outcome of the proceedings before the ICTY and the fact that nobody has yet been held responsible for the operation Storm in view of the murders that were perpetrated there.” “We have good evidence for that,” stressed Obradovic. He says that the Serbian team has been preparing for the debate before the International Court of Justice and explains that the procedure has two phases, first being in written form with written submissions and documentation as evidence in proceedings. “In the present phase of the debate, we need to express ourselves verbally in regard to the matter that divides the two sides in the most important issue that is the subject of the proceeding, the subject of the complaint and counter-complaint request,” said Obradovic. He adds that during the debate, which will not last long and will be short and concentrated on basic issues that concern the Convention of preventing and punishing crimes of genocide, the public will have an opportunity to see something from this argumentation that the two sides consider to be most important. Obradovic says that it is also important that by opening the verbal debate, the previous written proceedings will become available to the public on the website of the International Court of Justice. Speaking about the composition of the Serbian legal team, Obradovic says that his associates are part of the team, with whom he has been working in the mentioned case since the beginning of 2009. Among them are professor William Schabas of the University of Leiden, professor Andreas Zimmermann and his associate Christian Tams, who are both from Germany, lawyer Novak Lukic… “That is some base of the team and there are also a lot of our associates from Belgrade who have worked with us in the dispute with B&H,” said Obradovic, saying that the decision on financing had been passed by the Serbian Government and that the funds are envisaged in the Serbian budget.

New investigation on murder of Bitiqi brothers (Blic)

Shedding light on the murder of Bitiqi brothers is high on the list of priorities of the U.S. administration. One month ago, the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress passed a resolution that says that “progress in resolving this case, or non-existence of progress, should remain a significant factor in establishing further relations between U.S. and Serbia.” The resolution, submitted by the Republicans Michael Grimm and the Albanian caucus whip in the U.S. Congress Eliot Engel, at the same time calls the authorities in Belgrade to resolve this case as a priority and to investigate and process it as soon as possible, whether at issue are “former or present officials who are believed to be responsible for their death, directly or indirectly.” In May 2012, after the acquittal in the retrial for the murder of Bitiqi brothers, the State Department requested Serbia to detain those responsible for the murders. War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic tells Blic that shedding light on the murder of Bitiqi brothers is a priority in the work of his team. “In the preliminary proceedings we have arrived at new data, but at this moment I can’t say how many people are at issue, nor can I can reveal their names. All those to whom data points that they were direct perpetrators of the murders have been or still are members of the Serbian Interior Ministry. If evidence is collected, a large number of people will be processed in the first proceeding that has ended with an acquittal,” Vukecevic tells Blic, adding that evidence is being collected in several countries. Sreten Popovic and Milos Stojanovic were accused for the murder of Bitiqi brothers. The prosecutor was claiming that Stojanovic escorted, after Popovic’s order on 8 July 1999, the brothers to Petrovo Selo and detained them, after they served penalties for illegally entering the FRY from Albania. The next day he handed them over to members of the Serbian Interior Ministry who took them. It was established that they were murdered with a bullet in the head, and their mortal remains were found in 2001 in a mass grave at this location. Popovic and Stojanovic were acquitted after two trials.  

Lost in Dayton (Danas)

Eighteen years since the signing of the Dayton Accord, all of its “interested parties” in B&H have their own interpretations of its content and implementation. For the advocators of a “strong” B&H, the Dayton Accord implies constant strengthening of state prerogatives. The supporters of a loose community insist on maintaining the entity structure and respecting its competencies. Lagging of B&H in reforms and the implying “road towards the EU” is in close connection precisely with the Dayton Accord, which, everybody agrees in principle, needs to be changed in this context. More precisely, the Constitution needs to be changed, which is the annex of Dayton, and the Constitutional law in accordance with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in 2009, which established that its decrees are discriminatory. Indeed, the war solution for the sake of establishing peace whereby it was determined that only Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats can be elected into the B&H parliament and presidency is incompatible with European values and international documents on human rights. The ruling has not yet been implemented. B&H is in permanent political crises a little short since the end of the war, which has been unsuccessfully resolved first by imposing decisions of high representatives of the international community to disobedient politicians, then by attempts for political leaders to agree themselves on the future of their country, which is going hard over polarized stands and different interests. The economic and social crises are side by side with the political one. Forbes claimed in October that B&H is “economic hell on Earth” recalling that this country has the highest unemployment rate in the region – 43.3 percent. Division of society on national and religious seams persists while the peak of the absurd is that the original document of the Dayton Accord has been lost.  The neighboring states of Serbia and Croatia – guarantors of the implementation of the Dayton Accord – insist, especially since 2000, i.e. the death of Franjo Tudjman and the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, that the territorial integrity of B&H is unquestionable for them. Still, it is occasionally brought into question with careless statements – the last crisis was in 2012 over the statement by President Nikolic that “Bosnia was disappearing.” Perhaps the only indisputable value of the agreement lies in the fact that peace was established and that it has been maintained for a full of 18 years. But, yesterday was a holiday only in the Republika Srpska.

REGIONAL PRESS

Every fifth Bosnian pays bribes (Dnevni Avaz, report by UNODC)

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) presented in Sarajevo the Report on results of its survey on business, corruption and crime in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Presentation was hosted by the EU Delegation to B&H with support of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption of B&H. The Report was funded by the EU as part of a regional project on assessing corruption in the Western Balkans. The survey of private enterprise follows UNODC’s 2011 report on bribery and other forms of corruption as experienced by private households in B&H. Renzo Daviddi, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to B&H, opened the event and said in his remarks: “The EU recognizes corruption to be a serious challenge and an obstacle to democratic and economic development of a country. We think it is high time that B&H equally recognizes the extent to which corruption harms the functioning of institutions and economy and makes the fight against corruption one of its utmost priorities at all levels of government.” In its research on corruption, UNODC adopts an evidence-based approach to quantify the extent and describe the patterns of corruption at country level. Information on experience of corruption is gathered through sample surveys on different targets - general population, business sector and civil servants - following strict methodological standards. Rather than focusing only on perceptions of corruption, this survey measures the actual experience of corruption and crime through a representative survey of businesses across B&H. Based on interviews with 2,000 companies, the survey shows that corruption plays a significant role in the daily business of many companies. On average, one in ten businesses that had contact with public officials paid bribes over a 12-month period. “The survey clearly shows that corruption is a great obstacle for businesses and has a negative effect on private enterprise. Corruption and crime have a negative impact on the business climate and deter both local and foreign investment, with serious implications for economic development and growth”, said Michael Jandl, Research Officer in the Statistics and Survey Section at UNODC, who presented the Report. Commenting on the findings from the survey, Sead Lisak Director of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption of B&H stated: “The report provides evidence of the seriousness of the problem of corruption in the private sector and the need for urgent action. The report also shows the necessity of the active involvement of all segments of society in anti-corruption efforts to make this country more attractive for investment and economic development.” The survey finds that almost half (46.6%) of all the bribes paid to public officials by businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina are paid in cash, at an average of 318 BAM. Food and drink (29%) are the next most popular form of payment, followed by the exchange of one “favor” for another (11.4%). Bribe-paying businesses pay an average of 6.6 bribes per year, or about one bribe every eight weeks. Both the prevalence and frequency of bribery by businesses is higher in the B&H Federation (13.2% and 7.4%), than in the Republika Srpska (5.5% and 4.8%). The prevalence of bribery is also higher among small (10 to 49 employees) businesses than among businesses of other sizes. Building and Construction is the sector most seriously affected, among those covered by the survey, with 15% of respondents confirming that they had paid a bribe to a public official. This is followed by businesses in Transportation and Storage (11.1%), Wholesale trade and Retail trade (9.9%), Accommodation and Food service activities (8.8%) and Manufacturing, Electricity, Gas and Water (6.2%). The public officials most at risk of bribery are health authorities (prevalence rate of 8.5%) and police officers (6.1%). The most common purposes for paying bribes are to “speed up business-related procedures” (29% of all bribes) and “making the finalization of a procedure possible” (17.4%). On the other hand, 8.6% of bribes paid serve no specific immediate purpose, but are given as “sweeteners” to public officials to “groom” them for future interactions. In addition to corruption, the survey finds that businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina are also affected by other forms of crime: around 7.1% of businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina fell victim to fraud by outsiders, 5.8% to burglary, 2.5% to vandalism and 0.8% to motor vehicle theft. Moreover, some 0.7% of all businesses fell victim to extortion over the past 12 months.
The survey highlights that corruption, together with crime, places a considerable burden on the economic development of the country. Across all economic sectors, 5.5% of businesses decided not to make a major investment in the 12 months prior to the survey due to fear of having to pay bribes, while 8.5% decided not to make a major investment due to fear of crime. “Strengthening preventive systems against corruption and crime, such as effective internal compliance policies of companies, could help to lighten that burden considerably”, stressed Michael Jandl. The perceived normality of bribery among businesses is reflected in low reporting rates – around one in sixteen (6.6%) bribes paid by businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina are reported to official authorities. The main reasons cited are that reporting is considered “pointless, as nobody would care”, or that bribes are “common practice” (17.3%). In addition, for 15.5% of affected businesses it was “not clear to whom to report”.  “Better evidence on the extent and nature of corruption and crime in Bosnia and Herzegovina are fundamental to designing better strategies and targeted measures to tackle corruption. The survey provides solid data on which to build future anti-corruption efforts in the private sector” concluded Michael Jandl. The field work for this survey was conducted by PRISM Research Agency from B&H. 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Bosnia prosecutor seeks re-arrest of war criminals (AP, 21 November 2013)

Bosnia's prosecutor has requested the re-arrest of 10 Bosnian Serb war crimes convicts who were released this week because of procedural mistakes.

The prosecutor's office said Wednesday that the men might flee before their appeals cases are reheard, and that the families of their victims are very upset by their release.

Six of the 10 have been convicted of genocide and sentenced to 28 to 33 years for having participated in the killing of more than 1,000 Muslim men during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The men were released Tuesday because the European human rights court in Strasbourg ruled that Bosnian judges violated their human rights by applying the harsher criminal code adopted in 2003 rather than the code in force when the crimes were committed.

Bosnia and IMF move closer to stand-by deal extension, final approval expected by year-end (Hispanic Business’ Finance Channel, 21 November 2013)

The IMF and Bosnia have settled on the country's medium-term policy agenda and the 2014 central state and entities budgets, an IMF mission said in a statement on November 20. The IMF team visited Sarajevo in November 6-20 for the fifth review of Bosnia's EUR 390mn stand-by arrangement and to discuss the conditions for the deal's extension which will expire in September 2014. The IMF noted that the 2014 consolidated budget deficit target of just under 2% of GDP has been based on prudent revenue assumptions while keeping expenditures broadly unchanged from this year's levels. Furthermore, continuation of budget austerity next year will place the public debt firmly on a downward path, the IMF underscored. Bosnia will face additional financial needs in late 2014, due to lower one-off revenues and high debt service obligations, the IMF also said. The new agreement will help the country avoid sharp fiscal contraction that could undermine the fragile economic recovery. It will also provide an anchor for the authorities' policies during next year's elections. The stand-by deal extension, which will be considered by the Executive Board of the IMF at the end of the year, will depend on the timely approval of the government 2014 budgets. The authorities' policy agenda for the remainder of the current stand-by program, including the period of the requested extension, will focus on continued fiscal consolidation, safeguarding financial sector stability and fostering the development of a vibrant private sector that can provide more jobs. The IMF also said Bosnia needs to implement strict expenditures control and improve tax collection in order to meet its 2013 consolidated budget gap target of 2% of GDP. The country's track record under the stand-by agreement so far has been good and authorities have taken steps in order to offset lower than expected revenue collection and to curb the budget deficit growth, the statement read. The Fund added that all end-September targets have been met. According to the IMF, Bosnia's economy will expand by close to 1.0% in 2013 after contracting a real 1.1% in 2012, thanks to rising exports and industrial production. Growth is projected to pick up further by 2% in 2014 in line with developments in Europe. Inflation will remain moderate reflecting weak domestic demand. At end-October 2013, the IMF approved the fourth review under its two-year agreement with Bosnia, which enabled the disbursement of a fifth tranche worth EUR 48mn. So far, Bosnia has received EUR 237mn, or more than half of the funds provided under the agreement.