LOCAL PRESS

 

Vucic: We want best possible relations with Balkan nations (Beta/Tanjug)

“ We want the best possible relations with Balkan nations - despite the doubts about the future of the region we come from, I am confident that it is good that we are meeting and talking and that we cooperate and respect each other,” Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said at a regional EBRD investment summit in London. “The migrant crisis has convinced us that we have to cooperate even more and try to overcome problems together. The migrant crisis has resulted in growing nationalist tensions in the Balkans and everyone is turning a blind eye to this. However, we are moving on, with the intent of being part of the EU,” he said, noting that the EU has lost some of its magic power in the Balkans.Vucic added that the Nis-Pristina road should be built as soon as possible – “because if trucks wait two or three days on the administrative line with Kosovo and on the border with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia due to bad roads, there will be problems.” “This would be a highway of peace and I believe it will be the best tie between Belgrade and Pristina, and we are calling on the EBRD to help us in that,” Vucic said in his address to the Western Balkans Investment Summit in London.

 

Djuric: We advised Serb List to have their own presidential candidate (RTS)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric has stated that the Kosovo Serbs should have their candidate for the Kosovo president. “We advised the Serb List representatives to have their candidate. I think they will pass a decision in the interest of the Serbs, and if the Serbs do not have their candidate, it doesn’t seem realistic for them to support Thaqi,” says Djuric. “I think the political game for power is at issue in Pristina and this is among the clans who deal with politics in Kosovo. The Albanian parties in power and in the opposition are both playing on the card of nationalism and some chauvinism,” says Djuric. He concludes that the words used now in Pristina are not contributing to better relations in Kosovo and Metohija. He points out that the Kosovo Serbs will be able to vote at the upcoming elections in Serbia just as they did at the elections in 2014. “I expect the SNS to achieve a good result in Kosovo and Metohija,” said Djuric.

 

Health workers from Kosovo and Metohija meet with Serbian Health Ministry representatives (Danas)

Health workers from Kosovo and Metohija whose status remains unclear to this date, and who responded to the survey whether they were prepared to return to their old jobs in Kosovo, met on Friday with the Secretary General of the Serbian Health Ministry Berislav Vekic and the Head of the cabinet of the Health Minister Nikola Pandrc. The representatives of around 700 health workers presented their problems, noting that they have been harassed in the work places, that they have been told for 15 years that their status would be resolved, and that they should not rebel so their jobs would not be abolished in the healthcare center in Serbia proper. “This survey finished us off, it scared us, so that we circled ‘yes’ and now we don’t know what is next. I said we had nowhere to return, that some people’s houses were burned down, destroyed, usurped,” one of the representatives Sasa Stankovic tells Danas. “We were told that the Health Ministry, the Prime Minister, Minister and the government do not intend to dismiss us, or to make us return, but their only plan and wish is to distribute us in the institutions where we are already working, that this is not an easy or naïve job, since they need to make a new personnel plan and that Vekic expects this to be finished in the second half of this year, and that we should work until that time without fear.” Since the elections have been announced, though not slated, the representatives of the health workers asked who guarantees them anything after the elections. They were told that a new structure will deal with them following the elections, that the directors of their institutions in Kosovo must not contact them in the future.

 

Vucic proposes Zoran Djordjevic as Defense Minister (Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic proposed Zoran Djordjevic, State Secretary at the Defense Ministry, to the parliament as the new defense minister. If approved by the parliament, the new defense minister will hold the office briefly until the formation of a new government after the early parliamentary elections, the government’s press office said in a statement.

The next step is to schedule a parliamentary session so that lawmakers could discuss the election of the new minister. To be appointed, he needs to gain votes from more than a half of the total number of MPs.

 

Stefanovic: Europe needs common approach for resolving the migrant crisis (RTS)

“We need a common approach at the European level considering what expects us in the spring when it comes migrants,” Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told a press conference following the meeting with Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman in Belgrade. According to him, the police of Serbia and Sweden have excellent cooperation. “The police of the two countries had exchanged around 500 data information over the past period, seized 5.5kg of heroin in a joint operation, and cooperated in preventing arms smuggling,” said Stefanovic.

 

Serbian police stops 150 illegal migrants from crossing border to Croatia (RTS)

Serbian police stopped an attempt of 150 illegal migrants to cross the border to Croatia overnight, Radio and Television Serbia (RTS) reported. The migrants left the camp in Sid and headed to the Serbian-Croatian border by foot. They planned to cross the border close to the village of Adasevci. Close to the village the migrants were intercepted by the police. When the police tried to return them to the camp the migrants blocked the road to the border checkpoint.
According to RTS, the migrants were not from war-stricken countries, although they claimed to be citizens of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently there are around 500 refugees at the camp in Sid.

 

Protest against NATO held in Belgrade (Beta/Tanjug/B92)

Several hundred citizens protested on Saturday in front of the presidency building over the ratification of the agreement between Serbia and NATO. The gathering was organized by the Zavetnici (Patrons) organization and it passed without incidents. Following the protest in front of the presidency, the citizens passed through the main streets. In front of the Serbian government, the protesters announced that the law on cooperation with NATO was passed against the people’s will and that it was in violation of the Serbian Constitution. The Zavetnici organization announced that it would submit a request to the Serbian Constitutional Court to declare this law non-constitutional. The protestors also requested a referendum on this law and NATO accession by 27 March.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Ivanic: RS government will eventually take part in the working bodies of the Coordination Mechanism (Nezavisne)

The B&H Presidency member Mladen Ivanic has stated that in the course of the negotiations with the EU on the Coordination Mechanism B&H in negotiations nothing was done that would be against the interests of the Republika Srpska (RS) and stressed that the RS government has participated in all of the decisions and no one can impose their will on anyone else. “The B&H Council of Ministers is prepared and will always react to every invitation by the RS government to discuss anything, just as I am always prepared to respond to any invitation of the RS President,” said Ivanic. He told a press conference in Banja Luka that the political atmosphere, especially in the RS, is not good, especially over the primitive vocabulary that the authorities are using towards the representatives in the joint B&H institutions. “I responsibly claim that there has not been a single transfer of authorities from the RS to B&H over the past year,” said Ivanic.

 

Cvijanovic: RS will not participate until the Coordination Mechanism is amended (Srna)

“We will not participate in the bodies of the coordination Mechanism because we did not take part in its preparation, and everyone knows that it has been passed in a deceitful manner, it was kept in secret for 15 days, without convening a meeting at which it suggestions, comments and the positions would be considered by all levels of government,” the RS Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic said. “We will not take part until it is amended, the government has already decided this, and the RS Assembly will also pass such decision, and their problem is at the B&H level since they do not care about the RS stands. This is not our problem any longer,” said Cvijanovic in a written statement to Mladen Ivanic’s statement.

 

SDP and DF with joint candidates for mayors in this year’s local elections (Fena)

The Social Democratic Party of B&H (SDP) and the Democratic Front (DF) might have joint candidates for the positions of mayors and deputy mayors in the local elections this year, said the SDP leader Nermin Niksic.

 

Baily: At this stage conditions for elections on 24 April not in place, parliament should pass the decision (Republika)

U.S. Ambassador Jess Baily delivered late Sunday the assessment by the EU and the U.S. over the 24 April early elections in compliance with Przino agreement, saying the necessary conditions for credible elections are currently not in place. According to him, some progress has been achieved, but an agreement has not yet been reached on media reforms. Baily said that 5 June has been mentioned as a possible alternative and that the parliament should pass the decision over the change of the election date. The U.S. Ambassador said that the international community encourages all political leaders, majority and opposition alike, and institutions to remain fully committed to the June/July Agreement including the steps taken under the agreement so far. He said the political leaders have the responsibility to take the necessary steps to put their country back onto the Euro-Atlantic path. The assessment by the EU and the U.S. was presented Sunday to DUI, SDSM and DPA leaders at a joint meeting. VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski did not attend the meeting. Caretaker Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev was also presented the assessment.

 

VMRO-DPMNE breaks off cooperation with Peter Vanhoutte (Dnevnik)

The VMRO-DPMNE party decided to break off its cooperation with European mediator Peter Vanhoutte, Dnevnik reports. The measure comes over his insults against the VMRO-DPMNE and the citizens. Nikola Gruevski’s party declared it would not attend the meetings where Peter Vanhoutte was present, adding that from now on the party would consider him a tourist.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbian Fighter Given Alibi for Kosovo Massacre (BIRN, by Ivana Nikolic, 22 February 2016)

At the retrial of 11 former Yugoslav Army troops for war crimes in Kosovo, a witness testified that one of them could not have taken part in a massacre in the village of Ljubenic in 1999.

Defence witness Muhamed Hajdarpasic told the Belgrade-based special court on Monday that he saw the defendant Vladan Krstovic on the morning of April 1 - when the massacre in Ljubenic was taking place - in a cafe in the Kosovo town of Pec/Peja. “In the morning when that was happening in Ljubenic, Dzudza [Krstovic’s nickname] was there having coffee, it was around 10 or 11am,” Hajdarpasic, who worked as a police inspector in Pec/Peja at the time, told the court on Monday. “Some years later, I heard he was accused of that crime. Believe me, I just want to say that on that day he was in [cafe] Stefaneli,” the witness added. The 11 former Yugoslav Army troops have pleaded not guilty to war crimes in the Kosovo villages of Ljubenic, Cuska, Pavlan and Zahac in 1999. They are charged with killing more than 118 Kosovo Albanians as well as looting and torture in the four Kosovo villages, with the aim of permanently expelling the ethnic Albanian population from the area. The initial trial started in December 2011 when 12 men were accused of murders and looting in just one of the villages, Cuska. It later expanded to cover the crimes committed in the other three villages – Ljubenic, Pavlan and Zahac. In 2014, the prosecutor issued another indictment against three more people for the killings in Ljubenic.

In the same year, the first group of defendants was sentenced to a total of 106 years in prison.

But the Belgrade-based appeals court annulled the verdict last year, calling it “incomprehensible and contradictory”, and sent the case for retrial. At the retrial, in order to speed up the procedure, the prosecution combined the two indictments, making it into one case. At the last hearing in the trial in January, another defendant, Lazar Pavlovic, was also given an alibi. Defence witness Zoran Grujic testified that Pavlovic was in Novi Sad in Serbia when the attack on Ljubenic took place. One of the defendants who has become a protected witness also started his testimony on Monday. He said he would testify under his own name, Zoran Obradovic, instead of under a pseudonym, but asked the presiding judge to exclude the public from his testimony. The case is considered one of the largest ever relating to Kosovo war crimes in the Belgrade courts, with hearings in the initial trial lasting for several years. The attack on the four villages and the subsequent cover-up attempts attacks were explored in a recent BIRN documentary, ‘The Unidentified’. In August 2014, the Serbian war crimes prosecution also launched an investigation into Dragan Zivanovic, the former commander of the Yugoslav Army’s 125th Brigade, for allegedly doing nothing to prevent the murders of the Kosovo Albanians and the destruction of homes and property in the four villages. He is the first general in Serbia to be investigated for war crimes. So far however, no indictment has been issued.

 

‘Special humiliation’ for Serbia to be dragged into NATO after fatal US bombings – Zakharova (RT, 22 February 2016)

NATO’s promises of security and attempts to drag Serbia into the alliance are particularly humiliating for the Balkan country at a time when two of its diplomats held hostage in Libya were killed in a pin-point US airstrike, Russia’s FM spokeswoman said. On Friday, US airstrikes against positions of an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) affiliate group in Sabratha, Libya, killed more than 40 people including two Serbian nationals held hostage by the jihadists. The Serbian prime minister said the death of two embassy workers was “terrible collateral damage” and demanded explanations from Washington. On Sunday, speaking on the Rossiya 1 TV channel, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Washington keeps accusing Russia of bombing civilian targets, providing no evidence whatsoever, and at the same times behaves as if nothing has happened when their own strikes result in confirmed civilian deaths. Zakharova noted that just few days after the disinformation campaign, which accused Russia of striking an MSF-supported medical facility in Idlib province of Syria, a US anti-terrorist air raid conducted in Libya without an authorization “killed two Serbian embassy staff.” The US government should have known that two Serbian hostages were being held by IS affiliates in Libya, Zakharova said, as the Serbian government had shared their information with US intelligence agencies prior to the strikes. “The most tragic is that this information was given to the FBI and CIA. This is what the Serbian authorities said,” Zakharova noted, adding that the US is now “denying” knowledge of the hostages whereabouts. Zhakarova questioned how the US can promise Serbia security once they have joined NATO, if Washington can’t avoid doing things such as striking targets that have been red flagged ahead of time. In this case, by Serbia concerning its diplomats. “What security [guarantees]? What are you [US] talking about?” she asked rhetorically, calling the situation a “special form of humiliation.”“This is an imposition of the Stockholm syndrome [on Serbia], when they force their victims to love them and admit publicly that they want to be with them,” the spokesperson said. “This is a special kind of perversion,” Zakharova repeated. Serbia witnessed a mass wave of demonstrations on Saturday, prompted by the government signing a deal guaranteeing diplomatic immunity and free movement to NATO troops. Thousands of people across the country rejected the deal as unconstitutional and in contradiction to the will of the Serbian people. While PM Vucic has defended the decision, saying, “Serbia is maintaining its sovereignty and wants to cooperate both with NATO and with the Russian Federation,” critics from the ultra-conservative nationalist Zavet and Obraz movements promised to launch a legal appeal against the treaty.

 

Razor wire in Hungary fails as number of migrants entering the country from Serbia doubles AGAIN since last month (The Daily Mail, by Alan Hall and John Stevens, 22 February 2016)

Thousands of migrants have forced their way into Hungary in spite of a four-metre-high razor-wire fence along the entire length of its 110-mile border with Serbia. More than 1,200 people were caught after cutting through or climbing over the barrier in the first 20 days of February alone – which is four times as many as the 270 who got past in December. British celebrities including Jude Law and playwright Tom Stoppard yesterday gave performances at the ‘Jungle’ migrant camp in Calais to draw attention to the plight of migrants facing imminent eviction. Law helped organise a petition to David Cameron urging him to press France for a delay to the demolition of the southern part of the camp, which could start as early as Tuesday. Over 96,000 people, including over 150 public figures, have signed the letter, which calls for children in the Jungle with relatives in Britain to be reunited with their families while their asylum cases are heard. The demolition by French authorities is part of efforts to discourage migrants from trying to smuggle themselves to Britain via the ferries or the tunnel under the Channel. In Hungary, prime minister Viktor Orban erected the fence as part of a crackdown last September that also included introducing tough punishments of up to three years in prison for illegal immigrants who manage to cross the border or damage the fence. But increasing numbers of economic migrants from Pakistan, Iran and Morocco, have breached the defence after being stopped from making their way through Europe on other routes. The numbers of people getting past demonstrates the difficulty faced tackling the migrant crisis by even countries taking the toughest of stances.

Mr Orban had said his ‘number one job’ job’ is ‘to defend the borders and control who is coming in’. The outspoken prime minister has accused the majority of Western leaders of ‘denying the fact’ there is a connection between the rising Muslim population and terrorism. Macedonia yesterday became the latest country to limit the nationalities and numbers of those allowed through. Officials closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing entry only for Iraqis and Syrians.

MACEDONIAN-GREEK BORDER SHUT

Greek police say Macedonia has closed its southern border with Greece to Afghan migrants, allowing entry only for Iraqis and Syrians. Macedonian authorities reportedly said that Serbia has done the same on its southern border with Macedonia. Macedonian police started restricting the flow of migrants across the Greek-Macedonian border Saturday, conducting body searches and demanding passports. Earlier, they had accepted Greek police’s official documents attesting that an individual had been processed. The moves have led to a buildup of migrants waiting at the Greek side of the border. Greek police said 800 were stranded at the border Sunday and another 2,750 were waiting in 55 buses nearby. By 6am today, only 310 migrants had been allowed into Macedonia. The move will ramp up pressure on Greek authorities to stop arrivals who are not genuine refugees. More than 3,500 were today left stranded on the border. Austria announced it is beefing up its border controls with 1,450 soldiers on standby to enforce a cap introduced on Friday allowing only 80 people to claim asylum and 3,300 pass through the country per day. ‘These forces will be able to deploy all over the country and be brought into action using army helicopters at short notice as the interior ministry requires,’ the Austrian defence ministry said. A company of military police will also be deployed ‘to handle violent persons or groups of persons and prevent them crossing the border’. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann imposed the limit in an attempt to slash the number of asylum seekers this year to 37,500 in defiance of a warning from officials in Brussels that it would be illegal. Mr Faymann yesterday said he was ‘surprised’ at the criticism from the EU migration commissioner who said it was ‘plainly incompatible’ with EU and international law. ‘We know already now that we would be well above the number of migrants that we can cope with by the middle of the year at the latest [without the cap],’ Mr Faymann told the Kleine Zeitung daily. ‘It would be politically negligent not to do something against that in good time,’ he said. He stressed the plan was necessary because the EU’s efforts to deal with the crisis ‘are not having the effect that they should be’. Two people were yesterday arrested in Germany after they tried to prevent firefighters putting out a fire at a former hotel that was being converted into a refugee home.

A group of people gathered outside the building in Bautzen, in the eastern state of Saxony, to ‘celebrate’ the blaze, which police suspect was arson. Police officers pulled screaming children and teenagers from the vehicle as the neo-Nazis screamed obscenities. The police drew criticism for manhandling the 25 passengers, but they insisted it was necessary to prevent the situation from escalating.

 

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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.