LOCAL PRESS

 

Sixteen years since the beginning of NATO bombing (Radio Serbia, by Mladen Bijelic)

The NATO aggression against Serbia and Montenegro, the members of the then Federal Republic Yugoslavia, started on 24 March 1999, allegedly for the reason of preventing the humanitarian disaster in Kosovo-Metohija. The aggression of NATO, i.e. 19 member-countries and 8 allies), was the most unbalanced war ever waged in history, being that the ration of the population between the FR Yugoslavia and NATO was 1:70. If the allied countries are taken into account, then it was 1:75, while the ratio of the economic power was 1:676. That event also served to promote the new kid of war at distance, which entails the minimum of victims among the ranks of the attackers. Besides that, the aggression was an opportunity for the military commanders and headquarters to test and train the complex command systems over the armed forces of 19 member-states. Kosovo and the FR Yugoslavia came in handy as the testing ground for the new weapons that had not been used before, or at least not on such a scale (long distance missiles, cluster bombs, missiles with depleted uranium, so-called graphite bombs for the disabling of the power systems), and the population is feeling the consequences to this day. The destruction of the transportation and power network had the population kept in place, without electricity and water supply for days. By devastating the national economy, which has not recovered to this day, NATO left many people without jobs and means of existence. The aggression against the FR Yugoslavia represented the violation of numerous international conventions, including the Resolution of the First UN General Assembly, in which the principle of the freedom of information is defined as one of the main human rights and foundation of the freedoms upheld by the UN. Through the mass destruction of antenna systems, and even the building of the Serbian national broadcasting service, in which 16 of its employees were killed, the only version of the events was the one presented by NATO. Once the armed aggression ended, the media war was continued, with the goal to accuse the Serbian, i.e. Yugoslav leadership of the time of causing the bombing in the first place! By accepting such stand and with the political and media support around the world and even in Serbia, as well as through the court trials in The Hague Tribunal to the entire political and military leadership of that time, the NATO commanders were effectively excused of all guilt for the lives lost and the country obliterated. In those circumstances, the demand for the war reparation that was submitted by the government of the FR Yugoslavia immediately after the aggression was rendered meaningless.

The aggression caused the condemnation all around the world and raised a number of issues pertinent for the international relations and their future. US congressman Lester Manson once said that if the international law and justice had not been governed by the big powers, NATO would have responded for the damage inflicted during the aggression against the FR Yugoslavia. However, he also noted laconically that “NATO does not obey the international law – it is the international law”.

 

Nikolic: By defending territorial integrity, Serbia defended international law (RTS)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic laid a wreath at the monument to the victims of NATO bombing in Aleksinac, and stressed that by defending itself in 1999, Serbia also defended the law and justice, the international laws and institutions. “Sixteen years have passed since the first NATO bombs fell on our cities and villages. By defending our territorial integrity, we defended the international principle of integrity of every sovereign country and we defended international laws and institutions, on the basis of which we should all be equal. It was even then that Serbia warned that such a precedent, of which Serbia was a victim, opened Pandora’s Box, with terrible consequences for the international community. The whole world feels the consequences of the arrogant decisions made 16 years ago. Serbia remembers its innocent victims, but those who have neither apologized nor faced the consequences of their lethal decisions and deeds and whom not a single court has brought to justice do not deserve either remembrance or forgiveness. If they ever utter the words of apology or demand apology from us, they will hear the words our patriarchs have always said while paying homage to victims – we always forgive, but we must never forget,” underlined Nikolic.

 

Initiative launched to seek compensation from NATO (Tanjug/B92)

A gathering held in Belgrade has launched an initiative to seek compensation over NATO’s 1999 campaign of air strikes against Serbia. The event, held on the eve of the anniversary of the start of the war, under the slogan “In order not to forget - No to NATO”, was organized by the Belgrade Forum for the World of Equals and the Club of Generals and Admirals. The participants described NATO’s aggression as a violation of all international law norms, due to which Serbia, then a part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, suffered massive material damage and loss of lives. Retired General Jovo Milanovic proposed that the demand for war reparations and the legal proceedings against 14 leading NATO figures of the time should both be reinitiated. Aleksey Chagin of the Russian Association of Heroes took part in the event and announced that a group of young people from Serbia would travel to Russia for the marking of the 70^th anniversary of victory over fascism. The goal of the trip, he said, was to share their experiences about NATO’s aggression against Serbia. The gathering in Belgrade was also attended by university students from Kosovska Mitrovica, Banja Luka and Podgorica, who strongly criticized NATO and the Unites States over the 1999 war. Earlier in the day, an exhibition was opened at the Sava Center conference hall in Belgrade, showcasing photographs and books published by the Belgrade Forum for the World of Equals, and marking its 15^th anniversary. 

 

SRS marks anniversary of NATO bombardment (Blic/Beta)

Several hundred supporters of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) gathered today in front of the General Staff building in order to mark the anniversary of the beginning of NATO bombardment of Serbia. They burned the flags of NATO, the EU, US and Kosovo. The flag of the Movement of Socialists’ party was also burned. The SRS deputy leader Nemanja Sarovic told Blic that this gathering didn’t receive the approval of the Serbian Interior Ministry. Addressing the gathered, SRS leader Vojislav Seselj said that Serbia must never become a member of NATO or the EU, even though the “traitorous regime of Aleksandar Vucic is working on this”. “We wanted symbolically to mark the beginning of the aggression and the regime banned this rally. Vucic’s regime is a toothless hag, it would like to bite but has no teeth, so that is why there are no policemen today, though we were ready to be arrested and beaten,” said Seselj. He assessed that every regime in Serbia since 5 October 2000 represented “NATO infantry that has been looting the country, and when they ran out of power, NATO sent the traitors Progressives to finish what was commenced with the bombardment”. Seselj reiterated that the SRS would “never” reconcile with the “invented independence” of Kosovo and Metohija. “Sooner or later we will liberate Kosovo and Metohija and our army will come out at the border with Albania. One day we will also liberate the Republika Srpska Krajina, we will save at any cost the Republika Srpska and Montenegro, which was taken away by the West, with the help of Milo Djukanovic, and we will return it to the united Serbian state,” said Seselj.

 

Russian Foreign Ministry: Message should be drawn from the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia (Tanjug)

The countries that took part in the NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia in 1999 or that supported the aggression must realize that messages should be drawn from the past, announced the Russian Foreign Ministry on the occasion of 16 years since the NATO bombing. That act represented a blatant infringement on the UN Charter, the Final Act of Helsinki, the international law and the UN resolution on Kosovo and Metohija, said the Ministry. It is essential to abandon the practice of double standards and the unilateral and selective interpretation of the international law, states the Russian Foreign Ministry.

 

Djuric: Pristina’s illusion that Serbia will recognize Kosovo and Metohija (Tanjug)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric stated that people in Kosovo and Metohija said that people should not be fed with illusions that Serbia will recognize independence of Kosovo, but that does not mean that Kosovo residents, regardless of their ethnicity, should not live better, he added. Commenting on a statement of Kosovo Premier Hashim Thaqi, who said he was certain that Serbia will recognize independence of Kosovo in the near future, Djuric said that fantasizing about Serbia’s recognition of Kosovo reflected political immaturity and a concerning lack of focus on real problems in Kosovo and Metohija, such as unemployment, corruption and poor interethnic relations, for which Thaqi himself is responsible as well.

 

Reactions to Edi Rama’s statement (RTS/Tanjug)

Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic has stated that Serbia cannot and will not be silent in regard to the creation of a “greater Albania” and called the EU to oppose this, not to remain silent and look at this favorably. Selakovic told Tanjug that Serbia wished good and best relations with Albania, and that both the Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija live in peace but that he will not be silent in regard to the creation of a “greater Albania”. The Kosovo and Albanian Premiers Isa Mustafa and Edi Rama signed yesterday the inter-state agreement on cooperation in different fields, after which Rama said that this confirmed “national unification through the EU”.

The Serb (Srpska) List requested the EU to harshly condemn Rama’s, as they stated, nationalistic statements, noting that they do not lead towards reconciliation of nations in the Balkans. The Serb List notes in a statement that the joint session of the Albanian government and the interim government in Pristina, instead of improving the situation in the region, clearly shows the nationalistic aspirations of Albanians and non-respect of UNSCR 1244 that is the highest legal document in Kosovo and Metohija.

 

Dacic and Mihajlovic to attend ministerial meeting in Pristina (Novosti)

Belgrade has received Brussels’ guarantees that the ministerial meeting in Pristina under EU auspices will be organized without any state symbols. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic will find themselves at the same table with Hashim Thaqi, but without flags and other symbols. Dacic says this is not a bilateral visit, nor does it imply change of Serbia’s stand when it comes to non-recognition of the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo and Metohija. He says he will also use the visit to Pristina to visit the OSCE Mission in Kosovo as the OSCE Chairperson. The ministerial conference of the regional countries, dubbed “Western Balkans 6”, is the continuation of the Berlin initiative of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in August last year, aimed at promoting economic cooperation among the countries of the region. This conference will be attended by representatives from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and B&H.

 

Formation of Union of Serb Municipalities “raised to higher political level” (Danas)

Even though the Serbian government announced last week’s joint urgent meeting of all ten Serb majority municipalities in the Kosovo system of local self-government as “the beginning of creating political unity and institutions in Kosovo and Metohija”, Serb mayors are now announcing that “the initiative for the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) has been raised to a higher political level”. “Higher political level is the negotiating table in Brussels, where Belgrade and Pristina should agree on the ZSO. The meeting in Gracanica had a consultative and not constitutive feature,” Goran Rakic, the North Mitrovica Mayor in the Kosovo system of local self-government, explains for Danas. He says that the meeting in Gracanica didn’t specify the deadline within which the deputies should be presented with the draft statute of the ZSO, which is one of the requests of this meeting. According to Rakic, “this document, for whose drafting the Management Team, appointed by the Serbian government, is in charge of, first needs to be harmonized with Pristina”. “Belgrade and Pristina should present and harmonize their drafts and agree, and only then the deputies of ten Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija should give their suggestions. The problem is the ZSO executive jurisdictions, with which Pristina disagrees,” says Rakic. His colleague from Gracanica Vladeta Kostic told RTK2 that “the process of the formation of the ZSO has not yet commenced in the formal legal sense, because the legal requirements have not been fulfilled, nor was the statute of the ZSO adopted. Danas was unofficially told at the Serbian government that only the head of the Management Team for the formation of the ZSO Ljubomir Maric can speak about the draft statute. Maric attended last week’s meeting in Gracanica, but hasn’t been answering phone calls for days.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Five candidates without confirmation by CIK (Fena)

Based on the report on conducted examinations, the B&H Central Election Commission (CIK) has issued certificates that 14 proposed candidates for ministers and deputy ministers in the B&H Council of Ministers meet the requirements of Article 10 of the Law on the B&H Council of Ministers for appointment of ministers and their deputies. The certificates were issued for Adil Osmanovic, Semiha Borovac, Mirko Sarovic, Dragan Mektic, Slavko Matanovic, Vjekoslav Bevanda, Marina Pendes, Josip Grubes, Nezir Pivic, Predrag Jovic, Djordje Milicevic, Predrag Kozul, Mate Franjicevic and Josip Brkic.

 

B&H Presidency members in Slovenia: Pahor expresses support to B&H on path to EU (Oslobodjenje)

The official visit by members of the B&H Presidency to Slovenia started in Kongresni Trg in Ljubljana with a ceremony of welcome with full state honors. The members of the B&H Presidency were greeted by Borut Pahor, president of Slovenia. After the welcome ceremony, in the presidential palace they held a tete-a-tete meeting of the two presidencies, and then a meeting of delegations of the two countries, the B&H Presidency said in a statement. President Pahor expressed satisfaction with the BiH Presidency’s visit, saying that it is a great honor, especially as, for their first foreign visit in this new session, the Presidency selected Slovenia. He expressed his support to B&H on the path to the European Union and confirmed the willingness of Slovenia to help B&H hasten its path to integration in the EU. The members of the Presidency during the meeting with President Pahor said that B&H and Slovenia are friendly countries that do not have open political issues. They said that economic and commercial cooperation is at a high level, although there are opportunities for improvement. They also discussed possibilities for joint entry into third markets. The B&H Presidency members expressed their gratitude to President Pahor and the Slovenian people for the assistance received during last year’s floods in our country.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Albania PM's 'One Nation' Talk Alarms Serbia (BIRN, by Gordana Andric, 24 March 2015)

A joint session of the Albanian and Kosovo governments in Tirana has upset Belgrade, which has urged the EU to react to the ‘nationalistic’ remarks of the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama. Nikola Selakovic, Serbian Justice Minister, said Serbia would not “keep quiet” over the potential creation of a "Greater Albania", which Selakovic said Edi Rama, the Albanian Prime Minister had endorsed on Monday. “Serbia cannot and will not keep quiet over the creation of a Greater Albania and they [Albania and Kosovo] do not have to pretend, as it was clear what this is about,” Selakovic told the Serbian state news agency Tanjug on Monday. The comments came after Rama hosted a joint meeting of the Kosovo and Albanian governments in Tirana on Monday under the slogan "one land, one people, one dream", where 11 agreements between the two countries were signed. What upset Belgrade was Rama's reference to “our dream, national unification through the European Union", which he called a joint "permanent inspiration”. The Serbian Justice Minister said Brussels should rein in Albania for making such statements. "We urge the EU to oppose it, and not to remain silent and look at this benevolently,” Selakovic said. The Serbian List, the ruling Belgrade-backed party in mainly Serbian northern Kosovo, on Monday said that Rama’s comments posed a threat to Serbs and non-Albanians in Kosovo. “The joint session of the Albanian and Pristina interim governments unfortunately clearly shows the nationalistic aspirations of the Albanians,” the party wrote. The eventual union of Albania with Kosovo, which used to be part of Serbia but is mainly Albanian in ethnicity, has long been a nightmare scenario for Serbian governments. For the two countries concerned, both small and poor, forging closer cultural and economic ties makes sense, however. Albania's main political parties have all played the card of nationalism at some time or other, causing disquiet among European Union and US diplomats. Before the 2013 general election, a small nationalistic party called the Black and Red Alliance polled strongly, although this was not translated into lasting gains in the ballot boxes. Albania's former Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, flirted with nationalist ideas, accusing unnamed groups who opposed unification of Albanians of “Albano-phobia”. Relations between Serbia and Albania have traditionally been dire, and worsened during the conflict in Kosovo in the 1990s when Serbia used brute force to repress separatist agitation. Tensions between the two countries plunged again during and after the Albania-Serbia Euro 2016 qualifier in October 2014. The match was abandoned when scuffles erupted after a drone bearing a map of Greater Albania was flown over the stadium. Fighting erupted on the pitch and some Albanian players were assaulted by Serbian fans who had invaded the field. Serbian officials accused Rama’s brother, Olsi Rama, of holding the remote control for the drone, but he strongly denied such this. The concept of a Greater Albania is rooted in the aftermath of the Balkans wars of 1912-1913, which redrew the borders in the region. The new settlement saw the creation of an independent Albania - but it was shorn of many regions that Albanians expected would form part of the new state. Lands considered by some Albanians as their national homeland include Albania, Kosovo, the southernmost part of Serbia, western Macedonia and bits of Montenegro and Greece.

 

An EU vision for Bosnia (Financial Times, by Tony Barber, 23 March 2015)

Two decades after the Dayton peace agreement that ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war, EU governments have finally approved an association agreement with Bosnia-Herzegovina that puts the troubled state on track for eventual membership of the 28-nation union.

This is unambiguously good news for everyone who takes the view that democracy, prosperity and ethnic harmony will only take lasting roots in former Yugoslavia once all the states that emerged from its collapse, as well as neighbouring Albania, are full EU members.

But the EU’s decision to approve Bosnia’s association accord, taken on March 16, must be seen against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis. With Russian-western relations in their worst shape since the end of communism, the Kremlin has made clear over the past year that it intends to ramp up its influence in the Balkans. The EU initiative is a signal that European governments are pushing back. Naturally, it will be a long time before Bosnia will be in a position, in terms of economic performance and administrative capacity, to join the EU. Besides, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, has ruled out any EU enlargement at all over his five-year term, which will end in 2019. But if there is to be long-term progress in Bosnia towards political and ethnic reconciliation among Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats, the prospect of EU membership must seem real, not an ever-receding mirage, to people of all three nationalities. When announcing his pause on enlargement, Juncker should have done more to emphasise a positive EU vision for Bosnia. In the event, it fell to the British and German governments to lead the effort to persuade Bosnia’s factious politicians to commit themselves to a reform package that would allow the EU to approve the association accord. (This was a sign, by the way, that British diplomacy in Europe is not quite as paralysed as some critics make out.) The Bosnian reforms cover areas such as anti-corruption measures, government efficiency, reconciliation among wartime enemies, economic stabilisation and job creation. Inevitably, there will be doubts about how sincere some of Bosnia’s politicians are about implementing these reforms. As Edward Ferguson, the British ambassador to Sarajevo, wrote last week in a blog: “I’m not naïve. I know that there have been many initiatives in the past that have failed. Some people are heavily invested in the status quo.” I would submit that this point applies with particular force to Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb leader. He has devoted many years to the cause of discrediting the complex system of decentralised government, balancing the interests of the three nationalities, that was set up under the Dayton accord. Let us not forget that Dodik was quick last year to welcome Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. In much the same way, Dodik dreams of arranging the secession of Republika Srpska (the Bosnian Serb entity) from Bosnia. No government in Belgrade with EU membership ambitions could support such a step. The present Serbian government, though reluctant to join the EU in imposing sanctions on Russia for its intervention in Ukraine, seems strongly committed to its EU accession talks. As for Russia, it will no doubt do its best to put obstacles on the EU entry route for Bosnia, Serbia and other states in the region, such as Macedonia and Montenegro. But, if that doesn’t work, Moscow’s Plan B is surely to deploy Russian influence in these states in such a way that, once they are EU members, at least some of them will act, sometimes, in a pro-Moscow manner. For this, there are precedents – Cyprus and Greece.