LOCAL PRESS

 

Dacic: In search of an acceptable formulation for Chapter 35 (Danas/RTS)

The EU negotiating position for Chapter 35 that concerns normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations, has not been completed for the time being and hasn’t reached Belgrade, Danas was told at the Serbian government. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic tells Danas that the EU member states have been harmonizing their negotiating positions among themselves. “They are searching for a new formulation that is acceptable to all,” Dacic told Danas. Radio and Television of Serbia reports that a joint negotiating position is expected to be defined in Brussels at the beginning of the week, but it will be published only at the intergovernmental conference on 14 December, when the opening of first chapters (35 and 32) has been announced. Danas was told that at present two documents are being debated in the EU Enlargement Committee – the screening report and the EU joint negotiating position. The latter document contains interim benchmarks, which are the subject of the debate of the member states.

 

EU committees support opening first chapters with Serbia (Tanjug)

The European affairs committees of EU member-states’ parliaments expressed support for further EU enlargement and opening the first negotiating chapters with Serbia, the Serbian parliament said in a release on Tuesday. Director at the EC Directorate-General for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Simon Mordue said that Serbia had made great progress over the year and that Chapters 35 and 32 would be opened at the Intergovernmental conference in December, and Chapters 23 and 24 were soon to follow. The heads of EU affairs committees took part in the 54^th plenary meeting of the COSAC Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments, held in Luxembourg on November 30 and December 1, and Serbian parliamentarians were attending.

 

Jevtic: Bomb in Gojbulja is a serious terrorist act (Beta)

Minister for Communities and Returns in the Kosovo government Dalibor Jevtic condemned the incident in the village of Gojbulja, Vucitrn municipality, assessing that at issue is a serious terrorist act. An unknown person threw last night a bomb on a shop where Serbs meet, but the bomb didn’t explode. “Those who threw the bomb on the Serbs in Gojbulja are nothing else but cowards and criminals who wish to intimidate the Serbs this way and tell them they are not welcome,” said Jevtic in a written statement. He says that those who threw the bomb were encouraged with the fact that the previous crimes and murders had not been investigated. “The responsibility for the atmosphere of fear and chaos are with those who are pointing at one nation, blaming it for everything bad that is occurring in Kosovo, without any arguments,” said Jevtic, stressing it was very important to calm tensions.

 

Criminal charges filed against Rodic? (Novosti)

The competent bodies will most probably file charges against the owner of Kurir Aleksandar Rodic and others who took part in mounting a false affair where they presented serious accusations against Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, Novosti has learned. According to this information, the political–media scandal that has been shaking the state for days will have an epilogue before judicial bodies, while Rodic was interrogated by the police yesterday, by the order of the Prosecution for Organized Crime, but over the allegations made in his own criminal charges against Miroslav Bogicevic.

 

Unrest in Djevdjelija, army on alert (RTS)

Around 300 economic migrants climbed the fence at the Greek-Macedonian border, demanding entrance into Macedonia, RTS correspondent reports. Parallel to the protest, Macedonian security forces caught a large group of those who somehow managed to get around the barbed wire and started returning them to Greece. Two police cordons are protecting the border, while a large number of special units are arriving in Djevdjelija. The army has water cannons and tear gas. There are also armored vehicles, while the military police removed journalists from the border crossing. Macedonian authorities have built a fence that is some eight kilometers longs, and the plan is for the wall towards Greece to be around 50 kilometers long.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Borenovic elected party leader (Srna)

Branislav Borenovic has been elected the new president of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP), while the previous leader Mladen Ivanic has been declared the party’s honorary president. Following a PDP electoral convention on Saturday, Borenovic said the party’s main goals would be economic recovery, struggle against corruption and crime, and attempts to stop the nation from dying away and increase the birth rate in the Republika Srpska (RS). “One of our tasks is to fight terrorism and extremism. We will do all we can to have a perfect organisation and make sure that every PDP member gives a useful suggestion so that we can create very important solutions for the future of the RS,” Borenovic told reporters in Banja Luka. The former leader Mladen Ivanic said he had chosen the right moment to let the new generation take the helm. ”It turns out the party has managed to sustain these changes without any furor, that it has got a new generation, while we, the long-term members will still be PDP’s and with our knowledge help the new leaders steer the party in the future,” said Ivanic.

 

B&H Armed Forces celebrate 10th anniversary (Bosna danas)

Armed Forces of B&H have marked today the 10th anniversary. On this occasion, the ceremony was organized at the House of Armed Forces in Sarajevo, where the achievements of B&H army were presented. Lieutenant General Anto Jelec, Chief of Joint Staff of B&H Armed Forces, and the Minister of Defense Marina Pendes, stressed that the Armed Forces are the most successful project since the end of the war, 20 years ago. Speakers said that this institution, which was created on 1^st of December 2005, by transformation of the entity armies, is an example of successful joint work and overcoming of the barriers. “The Armed Forces of B&H are the picture of B&H we want to see. They represent all three nations and different interests which work together successfully” – said Pendes. Jelec recalled that members of the Armed Forces have done all their tasks in the past year professionally and responsibly. Among other things, they have helped B&H citizens during natural disasters and have participated in peacekeeping missions.

 

NATO ambassadors recommend invitation to Montenegro (TVCG/Radio Antena)

Ambassadors of the NATO member states have recommended to the Foreign Ministers to invite Montenegro to NATO, said the Ambassador of Slovakia in the Alliance Tomas Valasek. However, as he stated, Montenegro should not celebrate yet, because the final decision is brought by the foreign ministers. Valasek said that he hopes that NATO will accept reforms that Montenegro conducted and which are impressive in his opinion. “Of course, only ministers decide. What I know at this point is that the ambassadors recommended to the ministers to invite Montenegro. But I repeat, only the ministers decide. Past practice has shown that very rarely ministers will take a decision which differs from the decision of ambassadors, but there is always a theoretical possibility, so don’t celebrate yet. Wait for the ministerial meeting, which is tomorrow, and their final decision'”, Valasek said to Radio Antena M. The decision on invitation of Montenegro to join NATO will be brought on 2 December, TVCG learns at the headquarters of the Alliance. This information will also be confirmed by the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference starting at 14 am. TVCG learns from diplomatic sources that the decision on the invitation will be positive. Official confirmation is expected after the voting of 28 member countries.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Police in Italy, Kosovo detain 4 men in terror plot (AP, by Colleen Barry and Llazar Semini, 1 December 2015)

MILAN -- Police in Italy and Kosovo detained four Kosovars with Islamic State contacts Tuesday for making threats against the pope and a U.S. diplomat. Authorities said the men were armed and prepared to act. Kosovo police arrested an ethnic Albanian south of the capital, Pristina, who authorities say was the group's leader, seizing a pistol and a rifle as well as electronic equipment. Three other men were detained in Italy as police conducted searches in four cities; one was being held while two were being expelled under anti-terrorism measures. Italy's top security official, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, said the expulsions were being carried out in cases where the evidence wasn't deemed strong enough to seek prosecution. The four are suspected of being terrorism apologists and instigating racial hatred. The ethnic Albanian arrested in Kosovo was also suspected of trying to recruit fighters to go to Syria and Iraq and promoting "terrorist" activities on social media. "We intervened during a period of propaganda and criminal apology before it could become a problem," said Giovanni De Stavola, the head of the counter-terrorism office in the northern city of Brescia, which helped conduct the investigation. "The weapons found in Kosovo demonstrate that they could have acted." Italian authorities also carried out searches in the northern cities of Vicenza and Padua and the central town of Perugia. Authorities said the suspects had posted on their Facebook pages images of themselves with weapons and "in circumstances characteristic of Islamic State fighters." All four often visited a jihadist Facebook group whose members are known to be in Syria, where a few hundred Kosovo-born volunteers have joined the Islamic State group. Police said the men's posts also included threats against the pope and a former U.S. ambassador to Kosovo, as well as celebrating the Paris attacks, saying "this is only the beginning." Chief prosecutor Tommaso Buonanno said the most alarming messages were aimed at the pope, stating, "Remember there won't be any pope after this one. This is the last. Don't forget what I am telling you."

 

Once a target, Montenegro to get NATO invitation to join (Reuters, by Petar Komnenic and Robin Emmott, 1 December 2015)

PODGORICA/BRUSSELS - Sixteen years after NATO bombed Montenegro in the Kosovo war, the Western military alliance is poised to invite the ex-Yugoslav republic to join its ranks over the opposition of Russia which sees its accession as "confrontational". NATO diplomats told Reuters the Adriatic state of 650,000 people will get the green light on Wednesday at a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Brussels. It will mark the first expansion of NATO ranks into ex-Communist eastern Europe since Montenegro's neighbours Albania and Croatia joined in 2009, and the first since relations between Russia and the West hit a post-Cold War low with the outbreak of war in Ukraine last year. The mountainous country, only slightly larger than the Falkland Islands or Puerto Rico, offers NATO a military of barely 2,000 active members. But its accession, alliance diplomats say, sends a message to Moscow that it does not have a veto on NATO's eastwards expansion. Montenegrin membership, however, is much less contentious than NATO's earlier overtures to former Soviet Georgia, whose own accession ambitions were quashed by war with Russia in 2008. All the same, the Russian foreign ministry said the accession of Montenegro, which has seen an influx of Russian private money, home buyers and tourists since splitting from a state union with Serbia in 2006, would send a "powerful confrontational message". "Not only does it not correspond to the interests of maintaining peace and stability in the Balkans and in Europe as a whole, but it has the potential to complicate even further the already difficult relations between Russia and NATO," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week. Bastian Giegerich of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said that demonstrating NATO's 'open door' policy remains in place was the key political message the decision would send, something welcomed by the United States. "Although, it is difficult to see how the open door today applies anywhere but in the Western Balkans," he added.

MONTENEGRINS DIVIDED

Montenegrins themselves remain deeply divided over the merits of joining NATO, many still angry over the alliance's 1999 bombing of Serbia to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians in Serbia's then southern province of Kosovo. NATO planes also bombed Montenegro, then part of a rump Yugoslavia with Serbia, arguing its targets were part of the war machine. While the Podgorica government resists calls from some opposition parties for a referendum on the issue, NATO diplomats point to polls that suggest public opinion is narrowly in favour of joining. "We are satisfied that the Montenegrin people and their representatives have taken this decision to join," said Washington's envoy to NATO, Douglas Lute. Whether it is decided by a plebiscite or a simple vote in parliament, the process of joining NATO may yet take months. "We risk a lot," said 24-year-old student Milos Rakovic. "Why should we be part of a military alliance whose members are targets of Islamic State? We don't need that." Fifty-two-year-old housewife Stanka Bulatovic said she was "strongly against a military machine that bombed our country in 1999." Others, however, saw little alternative. "We are a very small country and we need some kind of protection," said teacher Milka Radoman, 41. "I think it's only natural to be part of an alliance that gathers our neighbours and EU countries. We are part of Europe and we should naturally go this way." (Additional reporting by Matt Robinson in BELGRADE and Ludmila Danilova in MOSCOW; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

 

Echo of Wars: Guns Used in Paris Attacks Came From Balkans (Sputnik, 1 December 2015)

Milojko Brzakovic, head of the Serbian-based enterprise Zastava Oruzje (Zastava Arms), confirmed that some of the firearms used during the terrorist attacks in Paris were manufactured by his company before the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Brzakovic said that, two days after the attack in Paris, the Serbian Interior Ministry forwarded him the serial numbers of the firearms recovered in Paris – several Yugoslav versions of the AK-47 assault rifle. According to Brzakovic, the firearms manufactured in Yugoslavia could have been sold by any of the countries that emerged following the socialist republic’s breakup. He added that no weapon produced by Zastava Arms can be sold without the Serbian government’s permission. Andreja Savic, former head of the Serbian Security Information Agency, pointed out that it’s hardly surprising that the weapons used during the terrorist attacks in Paris both in January and in November 2015 came from the Balkans. "The Zastava Oruzje factory, located in the Serbian town of Kragujevac, the most reputable facility of its kind in the Balkans, was the chief supplier of automatic weaponry for the Yugoslav army, just as it is now the primary supplier of said weapons to the Serbian army. There were plenty of weapons at the military depots in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. And if you recall the bloody civil wars fought in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, you can easily imagine how these weapons could have been acquired by organized crime groups or terrorists," Savic told Sputnik. He singled out Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the Serbian district of Raska and Kosovo as regions especially notorious in terms of weapon smuggling. "The cult of weaponry is especially popular in Kosovo; you can find all types of firearms there, though there’s no accurate data on the total number of guns and their owners. The Raska district, a region that attracts considerable attention from the Islamic radicals due to its sizeable Bosnian population and links to Bosnia and Herzegovina, is also a potential risk zone; though there’s also no accurate information pertaining to the number of firearms possessed by the population," Savic said. "And there are many jihadists living in BiH, especially in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who either earned their right to settle there due to their past exploits or by marrying into local families," he added. Professor Milan Pasanski who works for the Belgrade-based Study of the International Terrorism Forum, shared his opinion. "The Islamic radicals have training facilities in Bosnia and they also definitely have sizeable stockpiles of weaponry there. It would be logical to assume that some of these groups sell their weapons or provide them to their fellow believers in exchange for funding and logistical support needed to carry out terrorist attacks," Pasanski told Sputnik.

 

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Media summaries are produced for the internal use of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, UNMIK and UNHQ. The contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership.