LOCAL PRESS

 

Djuric: Kosovo cannot join international organizations (Beta/RTS)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric has rejected the claims that Serbia had committed itself with the Brussels agreement to support Kosovo’s membership in international organizations. “One of the most frequent manipulations of Pristina that we have heard over the past months is that allegedly the Brussels agreement enables them membership in international organizations. On the contrary,” Djuric told Beta in an interview. He says there is no alternative to the implementation of the Brussels agreement even though Pristina is trying to postpone or suspend the implementation of the agreed, most of all the agreement on the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO). “The Brussels agreement defines their participation in regional organizations, while it doesn’t envisage membership of the province in international organizations, also stated by Pristina analysts now. The agreement must be implemented. We are talking every day with the representatives of the Brussels institutions and we do not see any justification for the fact that Pristina is postponing the implementation of this agreement,” said Djuric. “We think there is no good will to implement the agreement until acts do not prove contrary. We need acts since the agreements reached between the central and provincial governments must be implemented regardless of the political stands or manipulations of the leaders of the separatist movement,” said Djuric. Asked whether the Serbian government was thinking about giving up from some of the agreements following Pristina’s move, he said that Belgrade wished continuous normalization of relations. “We have reached agreements, but papers do not reconcile people. There needs to be much more vision and long-term thinking in the interest of the Serb and Albanian people from the Pristina side in order to create more safe and certain living conditions. This is only possible through the implementation of the agreed,” said Djuric. He adds that there have been continuous talks on the implementation of the reached agreements and voiced assurance that expert talks will be organized very soon in Brussels. “Serbia has completely fulfilled all of its obligations from the Brussels agreements. You can’t find either a representative from Pristina or the Brussels administration who will point to part of the agreement where Belgrade is behaving irresponsibly,” said Djuric. According to him, Pristina needs to implement a whole set of issues agreed in Brussels. He says this includes complete implementation of the agreement on the police since the status of around 120 former members of the Serbian Interior Ministry in Kosovo, who had passed security checks as Pristina claims, is still unresolved. “However, this is also departure from the Brussels agreement since it implies complete integration,” says Djuric. According to him, Belgrade also expects the transformation of the Civil Defense structures in northern Kosovo to be completed, since there are also delays here. “There is also the issue of the agreement on the judiciary, since the new judicial system is behind several months, but I think that the situation here is somewhat better,” he said. “I wish to convey a very important message - that the state of Serbia is the state of all citizens who live in Kosovo and Metohija – the Serbs, Muslim Bosniaks, Romas, Goranis and all those Albanians who experience Serbia as their state, but they might not be able to say over the circumstances in which they live,” said Djuric.

 

Pristina can take part in 26 organizations and initiatives (Novosti)

In reaction to Pristina’s announcement that it will object to Belgrade’s distractions on its EU path, the Serbian government states that participation of the self-declared Kosovo in international organizations is not envisaged by the Brussels agreement. “At the meetings with the EU last week, Kosovo referred to their request for UNESCO membership and presented its stands,” the EU High Representative spokesperson Maja Kocijancic told Novosti. Three years ago, the Agreement on Regional Representation was signed and it explicitly lists 26 organizations and initiatives devoted to regional cooperation in which Pristina can take part, exclusively by using the asterisk and footnote along with the name Kosovo.

 

General Dikovic in Pristina at the signing of agreement with KFOR (Politika)

“An agreement on temporary operating procedures following the full relaxation of the Air Safety Zone has been signed in Pristina in the presence of Chief of Staff of the Serbian Army General Ljubisa Dikovic and KFOR Commander Major General Guglielmo Luigi Miglietta. Deputy Commander of the Joint Operations Command Major General Slavoljub Janicijevic signed the agreement on behalf of the Serbian Army,” the Serbian Defense Ministry said in a short release on its website. On this occasion, the information was also released on KFOR’s website, stating that this decision was a result of progress and deepening of relations between Serbia and NATO. They also stress Serbia’s constructive approach in opening the upper airspace above Kosovo for civil air traffic, as well as the upcoming engagement for opening the lower layers of airspace for civil use. This will give shorter air ways in the region, along with improvement of air traffic, reads the statement. However, KFOR doesn’t speak of abolishment, but “relaxation” of the Air Safety Zone, which is the same term that was used during the “relaxation” of the Ground Safety Zone, which was in fact abolished after the conflict in southern Serbia, along with the strengthening of cooperation between the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO - the Serbian Army was allowed to arrive at the administrative line. The Serbian Defense Ministry didn’t wish to explain in detail the agreement on the Air Safety Zone, so it is unclear whether it can be re-established theoretically after a decision of the KFOR Commander, i.e. NATO. Just as the Ground Safety Zone, this zone is also regulated by the Military-Technical Agreement (known as the Kumanovo Agreement), which determines conditions under which the Yugoslav Army and the Serbian Interior Ministry left the southern province, but also cooperation of yesterday’s enemies. In this post-war period, it extended 25 kilometers from the administration line, and it banned flights of military planes and helicopters and the deployment of all anti-aircraft defense: rockets, artillery and radars. The KFOR commander, whose decision would be final in case of any disagreements of the two sides, is in charge of the ground and air safety zones, in accordance with the mentioned document. Eventually, the Air Safety Zone was narrowed, first to 10 kilometers, then to five kilometers, and it has existed in this area for years. These rules were strictly respected, so that there have been no serious incidents. Even the top leadership of Serbia, when visiting the Serbian Army and Interior Ministry members in the Ground Safety Zone couldn’t arrive directly with helicopters, but usually landed in the barracks around the perimeter of the Ground Safety Zone. The complicated procedure has also been an obstacle for sanitary evacuation, and as far as the public knows, this situation has been practiced only once with KFOR’s consent. Serbian representatives requested in 2008 the revision of the Kumanovo Agreement, in parts that relate to the air and ground safety zones.

 

House arrest for Ivanovic extended (Tanjug)

The International Trial Chamber of the Basic Court in Kosovska Mitrovica has extended the house arrest for the leader of the Civic Initiative SDP Oliver Ivanovic until 17 January 2016. Ivanovic's wife Milena Popovic told Tanjug on Monday that closing arguments should be presented next month within the period of nine working days, adding that all Ivanovic’s witnesses have been interrogated. Ivanovic is charged with war crime against civilians allegedly committed in 1999 and 2000. The indictment also covers former police chief Dragoljub Delibasic, father and son Ilija and Nebojsa Vujacic and Aleksandar Lazovic, who are charged with murder and attempted murder. Ivanovic has been kept in custody since January 2014 despite the Serbian government’s guarantees that he would be reachable and stand trial.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Valentin Inzko: Twenty years of peace (Dnevni avaz)

The Dayton Agreement ended three and a half years of war, has kept the peace for the last two decades and brought B&H to the doorstep of the EU application process. Now is a good time to look back and see what was done with those years of peace, and also to look forward to see what more can be achieved. Working with the International Community after the war, the B&H authorities established the Central Bank, launched the Convertible Mark, and set up the indirect tax system and a series of bodies necessary to regulate a modern economy. They created the B&H Armed Forces, the State Border Police and other agencies that are responsible for protecting citizens. B&H was integrated into international structures – B&H peacekeepers are today deployed in UN missions overseas. And while all of this was being done, the country’s wrecked infrastructure – schools, hospitals, roads – was repaired. A lot was achieved in that first decade of peace implementation. However, the last ten years, as we all know, have seen far less progress to say the least. Of course, there have been constructive and inclusive B&H politicians, but they have been largely sidelined in the last decade by leaders who have clung to the old ways of thinking and conducting politics. The painful failure to get things done hasn’t been caused by Dayton. The B&H constitution isn’t the simplest in the world – but it worked well enough in the decade after the war. The reason it hasn’t worked well since then is that the politicians whose job it is to make it work haven’t been doing their jobs. A renewed commitment to making Dayton work is not a minor matter; it is fundamental to the future of the people of B&H. On the twentieth anniversary of Dayton, I think a message should be sent to all B&H citizens: you must take politics into your own hands. Progress is possible. We have seen this in recent months as the authorities adopted a Reform Agenda worked out with the EU. This plan has a real chance of improving the lives of B&H citizens. It has the support of the International Community, which will provide practical help if such help is requested. If we can introduce these reforms and stop the decline in living standards, then there will be a real basis for political progress. This isn’t a dream – what seems impossible today may be possible tomorrow if we have a determination to build a new and modern B&H, and if we have a real will for change. The first decade after Dayton with its tremendous achievements has shown that it can be done!

 

Dodik: Those who were supposed to protect the agreement, undermined it (Radio RS)

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik said that those who were supposed to protect the Dayton Agreement have undermined it since the beginning and that it has been damaged by interventions of the IC and the high representatives to B&H. Dodik said that the international community now wants Serbs to change the Dayton Agreement by their own decisions and to direct B&H to centralization and a “state-nation” concept which is impossible since B&H does not have a single nation. “They could not touch us for nine years since we adhered to the letter of the Dayton Agreement. Even before the IC started to implement it, it started to change it, so quickly after it was signed a principle of the spirit and not the letter of Dayton was promoted,” Dodik told Radio RS and Radio Belgrade. He said that it is less and less certain that B&H can survive, having in mind that not the letter of the Dayton Agreement was implemented, but added that despite the efforts to undermine it, the Agreement remained the key way of decision making. “B&H lives exclusively because of the intervention of the IC and corrupt approach of promoting political elites which suit some great concepts, regardless of the fact that the world changed in the past 20 years. Europe looked promising these years, but today it does not look so and it cannot resolve any of its systemic problems,” Dodik said. He said that sometimes he ignores pressures and added that he is concerned the most about the “furiosity” of the West because of B&H’s failure. “Now they want to succeed no matter what. This is why they created this situation in which they support political forces which suit them,” Dodik said. He said that the Dayton Agreement was a compromise and a treaty which he respects, but does not think that this is the only international success of the Serbian politics since three national states were not created, which would resolve problems in these parts for good. “B&H is compulsory, and not a conscious commitment. The Dayton Agreement from the beginning was a fraud offered to the Serb national movement and the Serb people. However, it brought several important things to the RS, primarily international verification,” Dodik said. He noted that RS was created before the armed conflict started in B&H and had all elements of statehood in accordance with international standards, and that the primary national goal of Serbs was to remain in Yugoslavia, and if it is not possible, then an independent state. “But, the unilateral secession of Muslims and Croats in B&H and early recognition of this secession by the international community led to some new reality. The international conference in Dayton was the moment when the RS had already been constituted as an international factor,” Dodik said. He said that other agreements preceded the Dayton Agreement, of which the Geneva Conference was crucial as it paved the basic elements of the Dayton Agreement and where RS verified its status of an international and legal subject, which it later did by way of the Dayton Agreement. The RS President said that participation of Alija Izetbegovic, as a representative of B&H at the signing of the Agreement, speaks that something else was the intention at that time. “The intention was to preserve B&H and its continuity, which did not exist, and this was done only because great powers such as some EU member states and the US, before everyone else, recognized B&H and could not withdraw their recognition four years later,” Dodik said.

 

Zvizdic at the Summit “16+1” Mechanism in China (Novo vrijeme)

The Chairman of the B&H Council of Ministers Denis Zvizdic will be visiting China today, November 23, until November 28, where he will participate at the fourth summit of prime ministers of countries of Central and Eastern Europe with the Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China. Zvizdic said that, after the summit, he expects expansion of economic cooperation with China, especially in the fields of energetics, agriculture and tourism. Moreover, he stated that he expects from this visit to be a powerful evidence of previous good cooperation between B&H and China, and that it strengthens economic, political and cultural relations of the two countries as well. “I intend to propose a series of agreements and proposals on the export of our products. We will discuss large Chinese investments in the field of transport and energetic structure. Within the previously developed strategy of establishing regional centers in Southeastern Europe, I will recommend that B&H and Sarajevo become a center of culture, cultural-historical heritage and scientific research”, stated Zvizdic prior to the departure.

 

Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H meets US Congress delegation (Klix.ba)

The progress in the progress of B&H’s Euro-Atlantic integration was the main topic of the meeting of delegations of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H (PSB&H) and the House of Representatives of the United States Congress. Chairman of the delegation of PSB&H in the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO Nikola Lovrinovic and the member of the delegation Asim Sarajlic spoke November 20^th in Sarajevo with the members of the Delegation of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress led by the delegate and president of the PA of NATO Mike Turner. Lovrinovic said that the visit by the delegation of the USA to B&H comes at the time when B&H symbolically marks the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement which, primarily, brought peace to B&H. Furthermore, Lovrinovic assessed that the role of the USA in establishment of peace in B&H, the process of reconstruction and reconciliation, and in establishment of institutions of authority in B&H is extremely significant, and reminded of the invaluable contribution of the USA in the process of reforming the field of defense and security, establishment of unified Armed Forces of B&H, as well as the police agencies and intelligence sector. Lovrinovic highlighted that through the implementation of the Partnership for Peace Program B&H has shown to be a credible partner and that the further activation of the Membership Action Plan of NATO for B&H would sent a strong message regarding our previous efforts made on this path. Turner expressed satisfaction with the fact that he comes from Dayton, the place where permanent peace in B&H was established 20 years ago. Delegation of the US Congress expressed interest in solving perspective and non-perspective military assets, as well as in the progress of B&H the process of EU and NATO integration.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

NATO lifts airspace restrictions in Serbia (World Bulletin, 20 November 2015)

Restrictions towards Kosovo had been in place since 1999 campaign

NATO has lifted its 16-year restriction on Serbian air space, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday. The “air safety zone” had applied to the airspace 25 kilometers (15 miles) into Serbian territory from the Kosovo border or “administrative line”. Referring to NATO’s force in Kosovo, Stoltenberg said: “As of today, KFOR fully relaxed the air safety zone. This means that the restrictions that have been in place since 1999 are now lifted.” Stoltenberg was speaking at a news conference with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in Serbian capital Belgrade.

He said his visit marked a new page in NATO-Serbian relations. The 1999 intervention “was not against the Serbian people” but to stop the “unacceptable actions of the Milosevic regime”, Stoltenberg said of the NATO airstrikes against Serbia during the Serbia-Kosovo conflict.

Vucic welcomed the lifting of restrictions. “No-one has fired a shot in order to get this, no-one died because of this,” he said. Stoltenberg repeated NATO’s stance on fighting terrorism. “We must keep in mind that this is not a fight of the West against the Muslim world,” he said. “Muslims themselves are in the front line of fighting terrorism and are often the first victims of terrorism.”

 

Tusk, Vucic Discuss Serbia EU bid Border Securty After Paris Attacks (Sputnik, 21 November 2015)

Donald Tusk visited Belgrade, Saturday, for a working dinner with Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic to discuss various issues, particularly the refugee crisis, the aftermath in Europe following the Paris attacks, and the opportunity to launch negotiations on Serbia's entry into the EU.

European leaders have had sleepless nights in the wake of the Paris attacks, amid constant terrorist threats to EU nations from ISIL, so they have been looking for every possible way to tackle the problem of border insecurity. Tusk followed NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg who had paid a visit to the Serbian leader on Friday. The EU Council leader said that the massive influx of refugees crossing into EU borders is "not sustainable for Serbia, EU and ultimately the refugees," as long as Serbia is visa-free within the Schengen area.

 

Blast in Bosnia tunnel near army chief of staff's car (DW, 21 November 2015)

Bosnian police are investigating a blast in a highway tunnel after a device exploded near an army general's vehicle. The incident comes just days after a gunman killed two Bosnian soldiers.

Authorities have interrogated a person suspected of throwing the explosive device out of a moving car, police spokesman Ljudevit Maric said on Saturday. No one was injured in the incident, with the car carrying General Anto Jelec passing safely through the tunnel near the southern town of Mostar late Friday, officials claim. The blast was most likely caused by a pyrotechnic device, prosecutor Maja Cisic said, citing preliminary information. "According to the facts we have so far, I do not believe this was an attack on the General Anto Jelec, but I cannot state anything with full certainty before the end of the investigation," she added. The blast caused only minor damage to the road and the authorities have cleared the tunnel for traffic.

Terror threat

Security forces in Bosnia are on edge following a deadly terror attack earlier in the week. Then a suspected Islamist gunman killed two Bosnian soldiers and fired at a bus with an assault rifle.

The gunman killed himself after police surrounded his home at the outskirts of Sarajevo.

Most Bosniaks are moderate Muslims, although a small percentage have embraced more conservative interpretations of Islam after the bloody Bosnian war two decades ago.

Islamist groups from abroad supported Bosnian troops against both Serbian and Croatian forces during the 1992-95 conflict.

 

Bosnia becomes front in Balkan fight against terror (DW, 22 November 2015)

Five days after the November 13 attacks in Paris, a terror assault was carried out in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In it, an armed man killed two soldiers. However, the danger from the Balkan country remains minimal. Flags in Bosnia-Herzegovina flew at half mast on Friday as the country paid tribute to the two victims of an attack that took place Wednesday in Sarajevo. In the attack, Enes Omeragic, a Bosnian "Islamic State" (IS) sympathizer, targeted two soldiers, shooting them both dead. Authorities have reported that the soldiers were at a bookmaker's shop on the outskirts of the city at the time. The attacker then killed himself in his family home later that same night. According to the Bosnia-Herzegovina state prosecutor's office, the attack is being handled as an "act of terrorism." Assaults in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been announced on IS Internet channels. Vijesti ummeta (News for All Muslims), which is based in the United States and bills itself as "a Bosnian-language IS portal," glorified the Paris attacks and in the same text also declared that blood would soon flow in the Balkans. "You fools, Bosnia is awash in the blood of mujahedeen who fought to bring about a Shariah state," the site boasted. "By Allah, this blood was not spilled in vain, this blood has already brought forth fruits, and these fruits will soon make your heads roll from your necks." Paramilitary fighters - mostly from Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa - who fought alongside Bosniaks during the civil war in the 1990s are referred to as mujahedeen. Some 2,000 remained in the country after the war ended. Many married, and for that reason gained citizenship. Not much was heard from them following the war, until about 10 years ago, when Wahhabi adherents began making negative headlines in liberal Bosnia. At that point, there were more and more reports about the small village of Gornja Maoca in central Bosnia. Women there tended to wear burqas, and it was said that the place was ruled by Shariah. There were also increasing reports of bearded men with short pants harassing young couples for holding hands or kissing in public. As Bosnia-Herzegovina has traditionally been the home of a very worldly and liberal Islam, such activities were met with aversion by the majority of citizens. There have in fact been cases in which Wahhabis were run out of mosques because Bosnian Muslims are so vehemently opposed to extremist attitudes.

Poverty encourages radicalization

Though Bosnian Muslims have long emphasized their adherence to the ideals of a tolerant and peaceful Islam, there are nonetheless factors that serve to promote radicalization among some of the country's youth, the politician Dennis Gratz told DW. Above all, poverty and a lack of economic perspectives tend to be negative influences in one of Europe's poorest countries, Gratz said. Indeed, there have been a number of attacks in Bosnia-Herzegovia over the past several years. For instance, in 2010 a bomb exploded at a police station in the central Bosnian town of Bugojno, killing one officer and injuring six more. A terrorist who claimed to be fighting for the establishment of Shariah - and against Bosnian Muslims who had "lost their connection to Islam" - was convicted of the crime. One year later, a man whom police identified as a Wahhabi, began shooting at the US embassy in Sarajevo in the middle of the day. Authorities confirmed that he had been to the village of Gornja Maoca several times before the attack. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. His accused accomplice was acquitted, after which he traveled to Syria and eventually blew himself up on a suicide bombing mission in Iraq. And, in April of this year, another attack on a police station took place in the city of Zvornik, in eastern Bosnia. One officer was killed and two others were injured. The perpetrator died in the ensuing gunfight with police.

Court cases against terrorists

Meanwhile, a law has been passed in Bosnia-Herzegovina that enables judges to hand down long prison sentences for those who travel to take up arms in Syria or Iraq. The law also punishes other activities, such as the recruiting of youths to fight in Syria. It was this law that enabled authorities to sentence the Salafist hate preacher Husein Bosnic, better known as Bilal, to seven years behind bars this month for "public incitement to terrorist activity," the recruitment of fighters for IS and the "formation of a terrorist organization." According to estimates by Bosnian intelligence services, some 200 Bosnians have traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight with IS this year alone. Most Bosnian Muslims, however, have repeatedly emphasized their own repudiation of such ideology. The Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Husein Kavazovic, said that the recent attacks in Paris were a "sin against God" and that "terrorism can never be justified: not morally, not religiously and not politically." That is why experts like Armin Krzalic of the Center for Security Studies in Sarajevo say the scattered groups of radicals are not representative of any larger problem. "What we were able to ascertain with our research - and was in fact corroborated by police and intelligence services - is that there are no Islamist training camps in Bosnia-Herzegovina, contrary to media reports that claimed so," Krzalic said. "There are certain groups that security authorities are watching, and I think that with the help of additional measures, especially in the intelligence sector, these groups can be kept under control." To date there are no official statistics on the number of Salafists in the country, but media reports suggest that there are some 5,000 of them.

 

Bosnian Serb leader refutes terrorism and Muslim link (Fulton News, by David Fisher, 21 November 2015)

BELGRADE, Serbia – Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has ruled out any link between terrorism and Muslims and Islam after a gunman killed two members of the country’s armed forces in Sarajevo. “There should not be any reference to Islam and Muslims living in Bosnia and Herzegovina [when dealing with] terror and terrorism,” the president of the Republika Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina said on Saturday after he attended anti-terror exercises by Serbian Armed Forces in Belgrade. Two Bosnian soldiers were killed and three civilians were injured late Wednesday when a gunman opened fire near a barracks in Sarajevo. The level of security was increased to the highest level after the attack. Various media reports have described the gunman, Enes Omeragic, as a “radical Islamist”. The man, who was armed with an automatic rifle, later killed himself as police surrounded his home in the city’s outskirts. “What we need most is to act jointly in the fight against terror together with all the institutions of the country,” said Dodik. “For a change in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the three peoples living within its borders [Bosniaks, Serbs and Croatians] must gather under the same roof,” he added. Boris Grubesic, spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia, called the murder of two members of the Armed Forces of Bosnia an act of terrorism. Local media identified the two deceased as 26-year-old Armin Salkic, a Bosniak Muslim, and 34-year-old Nedeljko Radic, a Serbian Orthodox

In April, Bosnia declared three days of mourning after a police officer, Dragan Djuric, was shot dead at a police station in the eastern city of Zvornik. The gunman, Nerdin Ibric, wounded two other police officers before he was shot dead. Afterwards, Turkey’s then foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, backed Bosnia in what Ankara called “the fight against terrorism”.