LOCAL PRESS

 

Stefanovic: Situaiton in Serbia stable, no threat to citizens (RTS)

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) that there was no threat of terrorist attacks to Serbian citizens at this time and that the situation in the country was stable. “Even after the first terrorist attacks in Zvornik and Kumanovo and everything that went on in our region we have been raising security measures so that Serbia’s citizens are maximally protected,” Stefanovic said. Commenting on the terrorist attacks in Brussels, he said that a Committee on Coordinating Security Services in Serbia session would be called and that police had intensified checks at airports, train stations and all other potential targets.

 

Stefanovic in Berlin: Serbia ready to join fight against terrorism (Beta)

Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said that Serbia was ready to join Germany and other European states in a ruthless struggle against terrorism. "I wish to express my deepest condolences to the families of victims of today's terrorist attacks in Brussels, and to make clear that we are prepared to join Germany and other European states in a ruthless fight against terrorism," Stefanovic said in Berlin, where he signed a cooperation agreement between the Serbian and German police departments. He said in Berlin that the terrorist attack in Brussels was yet another confirmation that we need to fight harder against terrorism, and to exchange information to be more efficient in the process, the Serbian Interior Ministry quoted Stefanovic as saying.

 

Selakovic: Croatia’s complaints are political, not legal (RTS)

Croatia’s complaints, which could postpone the opening of Serbia’s most complex chapters, are more political than legal and they should be resolved in bilateral relations, Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic told the morning news of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS). He says it is disputable that at one point Serbia was requested to introduce the principle of universal jurisdiction. “That is not disputable for us, this enabled us to process many who perpetrated or who were suspected of perpetrating war crimes throughout the region of former Yugoslavia during the civil wars in the 1990s,” said Selakovic. The principle of universal jurisdiction in processing war crimes is something that is also advocated by the most developed countries of the world both legally and politically so that this cannot be disputable for us, Selakovic says. The point of the whole story is that the EU accession process is a process where consensus needs to be reached, which includes one phase of opening the most complex Chapters 23 and 24, says Selakovic, stressing that this consensus implies issues of general interest and not those of bilateral importance for the relationship between the candidate state and one of the member states. “I think that we have here bilateral issues that are placed as an obstacle on the path of resolving general issues, where we have reached consensus with the other 27 member states,” said Selakovic.

Speaking about the delivering of the verdict to Radovan Karadzic, Selakovic says that he didn’t expect anything good from the ICTY, this time as well. He says that he will give himself the right to say that the trial to Radovan Karadzic has already been finalized even before it started. “The thing that will always remain as a bitter impression is that some other people who contributed, perhaps even more, or equally, but certainly contributed, and initiated the war conflict in B&H – haven’t been processed or sometimes it happened that they were acquitted before the ICTY. Based on all that, the question is raised in public what can we expect, and we all know, more or less, the answer,” says Selakovic. He says that the verdict will not contribute to reconciliation in the region.

 

Gojkovic meets with Krichbaum (Tanjug)

Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic met with Chairman of the Bundestag Committee on the Affairs of the EU Gunther Krichbaum in Belgrade on Tuesday. The Serbian parliament speaker and the German MP agreed that bilateral issues should have no place in EU integration processes, the parliament said in a release. Krichbaum voiced confidence that a consensus would be reached at European level concerning the opening of Chapters 23 and 24, and underscored that Germany would contribute to achieving a compromise and good solution. Gojkovic and Krichbaum condemned Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels, noting this was not just an attack on one state, but rather on the European style of living. They underlined the need for Europe to unite in the fight against terrorism, which implies closer cooperation between police and security services, reads the release.

 

Antic: Srbijagas will not thwart opening of chapters (Tanjug)

Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Aleksandar Antic says that the restructuring of Srbijagas will be completed by 1 July, and the Energy Community cannot slow down the opening of negotiating chapters with the EU. Antic says that the only two measures that the Energy Community could take against Serbia is deny it the right to vote in the process of adopting the budget of the Energy Community and deny it the right to reimbursement of travel-related expenses. Antic said that he was taken aback by a statement made by Director of the Energy Community Secretariat Janez Kopac that if Serbia failed to resolve issues in its energy sector it could face sanctions, such as difficulties in opening individual chapters and tightening of conditionalities attached to provision of IPA funds. “The Energy Community is not a mechanism in which sanctions as measures exist. The only possible measure is a limitation regarding the right to vote on the budget of the Energy Community and the other measure is the absence of reimbursement of travel-related expenses to contracting parties, which amounted to EUR 5,027 in 2015,” Antic told journalists. The biggest criticism from the Energy Community so far, over delays in unbundling of Serbia’s gas monopoly Srbijagas, arrived yesterday, and Antic pointed out that Serbia had been under obligation to separate transportation and supply activities in the enterprise since 2005, but the problem had started being addressed only after the current government had come to power.

 

SNS first to submit electoral list for provincial elections (Tanjug)

The SNS-led coalition submitted last night the electoral list to the provincial electoral commission. The first on the list is the member of the SNS presidency Maja Gojkovic who told journalists that she thanks the citizens of Vojvodina who enabled with their signatures this coalition to be the first to submit the candidate list with complete documentation for the Vojvodina Assembly elections. The SNS list submitted 6,844 signatures with 120 candidates for the Vojvodina MPs.

 

SPS, JS and Patriotic Movement of Serbia together at provincial elections (Beta)

The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), the United Serbia (JS) and the citizen group Patriotic Movement of Serbia (PPS) signed yesterday in Novi Sad a coalition agreement for the upcoming provincial elections in Vojvodina on 24 April, the SPS announced. The agreement was signed by the President of the SPS provincial board Dusan Bajatovic, the JS deputy president Srdjan Kruzevic and the representative of the PPS Zoran Vranesevic.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

B&H Presidency members condemned terrorist attacks in Brussels (Srna)

The B&H Presidency members most vehemently condemned the terrorist attacks in Brussels and sent their condolences to the families of the victims, Belgian King Philippe, the Government of Belgium and EU institutions. On the occasion of deaths caused by the terrorist attacks in Brussels, the head of the B&H Islamic Community, Husein Kavazovic, sent his condolences to the Belgian Ambassador to B&H, Wilhelm van De Voorde. The President of Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik sent a telegram of condolences on the occasion of the terrorist attack in the airport and metro station in Brussels where dozens of people lost their lives while a great number of people were injured. Following the attack in Brussels the Chairman of the B&H Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdic, called a meeting of the counter-terrorism task force. The B&H Ambassador to Belgium, Drasko Acimovic, told Srna that four B&H citizens are at the evacuation center at the Brussels airport. All police and security agencies in B&H will step up security measures at the higher level than normal especially at national borders, but B&H citizens have no reason for concern, said Chairman of the Council of Ministers of B&H Denis Zvizdic after the meeting of the Task Force for the fight against terrorism.

 

Mektic: B&H cannot completely exclude the possibility of a terrorist attack (Klix)

B&H cannot completely exclude the possibility of a terrorist attack, but it can also be an independent idea of some radical individual, said the Minister of Security of B&H, Dragan Mektic. Mektic demonstrated that there is a threat in the case of B&H citizens who fight on foreign battlefields and then return to B&H, and that they are doing everything to discover these groups and get them prosecuted. He repeated that there are radical groups in B&H that have adopted a kind of radicalism and violent extremism, and that these radical communities and groups are identified. Minister of Security emphasized that B&H needs a democratic and civilized values of society, and that any phenomenon of terrorism would represent a hard, unacceptable threat to its basic values and interests, and it would violate the security and the lives of its citizens. According to him, the only alternative to B&H is the EU and its perspective, and not any kind of radicalism that provokes violent extremism and returns it back into the past. He said that it is very important for B&H to develop mechanisms that will adopt some operational measures of specific treatment measures and actions in order for everyone to coordinately act in case of terroristic attack. According to him, after several terrorist attacks B&H get coordinated to some extent and in the case of such attacks coordination was agreed, especially in the case of the competence of individual security and judicial institutions for investigation of terroristic attacks. “We have achieved significant progress in the context of strike groups for fight against terrorism, including security agencies and judicial institutions. It is important to immediately determine whether it is a terrorist attack or any other criminal act and to dissolve this dilemma on the scene,” explained the Minister of Security.

 

Bosnian language portal applauds Brussels attacks, announces new ones (Hina)

The Vijesti Ummeta Internet portal in the Bosnian language, which carries the positions of Islamic State (IS) and extremist groups, has applauded Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels and threatened new attacks on “crusading states” in retaliation for attacks on IS. “We reiterate to the crusading states that they can expect black days from Islamic State because of the hostility and the fight they wage against it. And what follows, with Allah’s permission, will be even more fierce and bitter,” the portal has said. It welcomed the Brussels attacks. “By Allah’s mercy and success, a group of special operatives of the ISIL army, may Allah give it pride, carried out an attack on Belgian crusaders who haven’t stopped fighting against Islam and its people. Allah has helped our brothers and instilled fear and terror into the hearts of the crusaders in their stronghold.” The portal says that several ISIL soldiers carried out the attack in Brussels by precisely selecting the targets, that they killed dozens of crusaders and wounded over 210 citizens of “other crusading countries”, and that the gratitude for that “belongs only to Allah. Praise Allah for the precision and the success”.

 

Coordination mechanism agreed 90 % (Faktor)

In the next ten days a final agreement will be reached after about 90 percent of solutions for the Coordination mechanism have been agreed at yesterday’s meeting, it was said after the meeting of the Chairman of the B&H Council of Ministers Denis Zvizdic with the entity Prime Ministers Fadil Novalic and Zeljka Cvijanovic. Chairman Zvizdic stated that positive steps forward in terms of harmonization of documents were made and that compositions of key bodies in the Coordination mechanism were defined. According to him, the participants agreed that there is political will and readiness to harmonize the views and to achieve a functional document that will respect the constitutional jurisdiction in B&H and allow an adequate response to the requirements that are set by the Stabilization and Association Agreement. One of the participants, the Prime Minister of Federation of B&H Fadil Novalic, stated that the entire job can be completed in the next 7 to 10 days. According to him, they resolved essential things, and technical issues were left to a technical working group. The Prime Minister of the RS Zeljka Cvijanovic, also optimistically stated that they have reached “a high degree of consensus on key bodies of Coordination mechanism”. Head of the EU Delegation to B&H, the EU Special Representative in B&H Lars-Gunnar Wigemark emphasized that the meeting is on the right path, adding that the Coordination mechanism is fundamentally important in the context of enabling the appropriate representation of interests of B&H in future negotiations with the EU. The meeting was attended by Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of B&H Vjekoslav Bevanda and Mirko Sarovic as well as entity ministers of finance Jelka Milicevic and Zoran Tegeltija.

 

Bosnia divided ahead of Karadzic war crimes verdict (Hina)

While awaiting the sentencing hearing for Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian public is deeply divided and the verdict which the International Criminal Tribunal for the Yugoslavia is to deliver on Thursday has served as a new reason for disputes over the nature of the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). Radovan Karadzic, whose verdict for the gravest war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including genocide, will be handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Thursday, has reiterated that he does not feel responsible, although he does not deny that the crimes were committed.

 

Resolution condemning naming public institution after Radovan Karadzic adopted (Fena)

Deputies of the House of Representatives of the Federation of B&H adopted a resolution condemning the naming of public institutions in B&H by the names of those accused and convicted of war crimes and condemn the government’s move in Republika Srpska (RS) for naming the student dormitory in Pale after Radovan Karadzic. The Presidency of the Social Democratic Party also condemned the naming of the student dormitory in Pale after Radovan Karadzic, and stated that this represents another in a series of provocations from the leadership of the smaller B&H entity, headed by its President Milorad Dodik, said SDP.

 

Naser Oric trial (Hayat)

The trial of Naser Oric, the war commandant of “the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina” (ARB&H) in Srebrenica who is being prosecuted together with Sabahudin Muhic for the war crimes at the territory of this municipality in July 1995, continued yesterday before the B&H Court with the testimony of Milomir Lazarevic, the prosecution witness. However, the prosecution witness, who at the time of the war conflicts in Srebrenica, was a member of “the Army of Republika Srpska” (VRS), testified yesterday in favor of the accused Oric and thus exposed the lies of the protected witness 01, who testified from Serbia via video 15 days ago. Lazarevic said that, at the time of the conflicts in Zalazje, he was hiding in the attic of the house of Dragan Rakic, together with five other soldiers who hid there because their formation broke and they were left with no ammunition. Furthermore, he said he later heard, but did not see, that certain soldiers started surrendering from the other house, for which he did not even know that it serves as a hiding place for the soldiers of RS too, and allegedly Naser Oric came in front of the house. Lazarevic did not see him. The witness further said how he concluded that the person who arrived is Oric because one soldier of the ARB&H addressed him saying that among the imprisoned is also Slobodan Ilic. After that Lazarevic said he heard from the attic of the house where he was hiding that one of the soldiers wanted to beat another prisoner, Milosav Ilic, but Naser Oric did not allow that. “Oric did not allow the beating of the prisoners. He said: We are not Chetniks or Ustashas, we are the army of B&H and they will be tried before the Military Court,” testified the prosecution witness Lazarevic. Lazarevic explained to the court that he believes it was Oric because he commanded those soldiers and because he recognized Oric’s voice as the voice who previously addressed the soldiers with a megaphone four times. The witness further said that he thinks a truck arrived in front of the house where the captured soldiers were and took them away. He stated that he did not hear any shots and that around half past eight in the evening he left the hiding place and headed towards Sase. It is indicative, however, that the key protected witness of the Prosecution 01 at the hearing held 15 days ago stated that precisely Oric killed the judge Slobodan Ilic in Zalazje personally and that he fired on the prisoners who were escaping from the houses. Lazarevic, on the other side, said he did not hear or see any murder nor he heard any shots fired. Lazarevic stated that he has no knowledge of what happened to the prisoners later and that he never saw them again. Of those taken away, he said he knew only Petko Simic. The defense attorney Lejla Covic was interested in whether it is possible that the voice of the person speaking on a megaphone is distorted which the witness confirmed, but he reiterated that he did not see the trucks that came to pick up the captives, he only supposes that the trucks took the captives away. Lazarevic strictly stated that he did not see Naser Oric in Zalazje at all, but that he concluded it was Oric based on what he heard. Covic also asked the witness where the positions of the army of RS in Zalazje were. He answered that the soldiers of the RS were at the Old cemetery, Oblo brdo and Staro Zalazje and that those soldiers had mortars, PAM, a naval cannon, that they were well-armed and that fierce battles took place there. Furthermore, Covic asked the witness whether someone who claims that the members of the ARB&H were in Zalazje around 11 a.m. could be lying, which the witness confirmed. By interrogating this witness, the defense wanted to prove that the protected witness 01 lied when claiming to be present at the cemetery at 11 a.m., that the action had already been completed by 12 a.m., and that he walked around the village free afterwards. Such claims were also refuted with Lazarevic’s testimony, who said that fierce fights in Zalazje went on until 5 p.m.

 

Emin Hodzic sentenced to prison for fighting in Syria (Klix)

The B&H Court sentenced Emin Hodzic to one year in prison for fighting for ISIL, declared as a terrorist organization by the UN Security Council, at the territory of Syria and Iraq. The verdict was pronounced after the Trial Chamber accepted the plea agreement that Hodzic made with the Prosecutor’s Office of B&H last month. Sentence of up to a year in prison can be substituted with a financial penalty, i.e. 100 BAM for every day that the prisoner must spend in prison. Hodzic spent around three months in custody and the Trial Chamber extended his restrictive measure of traveling until he serves the rest of his sentence. As mitigating circumstances, the Trial Chamber stated Hodzic’s personality, his age (he is to turn 24 in October this year) and the fact that he has no prior convictions. Hodzic earlier requested the abolition of the restrictive measure so that he could travel to Serbia to visit his wife, who is pregnant. She was deported from B&H with the ban of entering the country in the next five years because it has been determined that she represents a threat to the state. According to the verdict, Hodzic departed to Istanbul and then to Syria in March 2013 from the Sarajevo International Airport. He returned from Syria after three months.

 

“Historical” non-aggression pact lasted less than 12 hours (Pobjeda)

Not a day has passed since presidents of Demos, Civic Movement URA, the Movement for Changes (PzP) and the Democratic Montenegro (DCG) signed the non-hostility agreement, proposed by DCG’s leader Aleksa Becic, and DF broke it. The first article of the agreement, which was called “historic” by some media, states that the signees would avoid any political accusations against each other or other forms of confrontation with each other, since that kind of practice is what damaged the reputation of the opposition in the eyes of the public. However, Slaven Radunovic, the deputy president of the New Serb Democracy (NOVA) and one of DF officials, said that three opposition parties, SDP, Demos and URA, would get into conflict with DF if they continued negotiating with DPS. The other official, Nebojsa Medojevic (PzP), who signed the agreement on behalf of DF, was even more explicit, calling the three parties “false opposition” in his interview with Dan daily, only a day after the agreement was signed. DF has been particularly irritated by announcements on probable agreement between the opposition troika with DPS on joining the government. Thus, Radunovic said there were only two options – with DPS against DF or with DF against DPS. “After months of fierce confrontation between DF and DPS, Montenegro has entered into its deepest political crisis since the introduction of multi-party system. The way to end it is very simple. Other parties can resolve the crisis in two ways: to enter a team with DPS and the Positive Montenegro against DF or to challenge DPS together with DF,” Radunovic post on his Facebook page. As he said, this is the essence of the political game that is currently played in Montenegro. Medojevic went a step further. He does not like the position of the three opposition parties on electronic identification. “I am sure that his ‘tripartite pact’ with the false opposition does not jeopardize the planned election fraud. With this false devices, 100,000 potential phantom voters in the electoral register and bribed lobbyists in Brussels, Djukanovic has decided to run for office in the general elections on his own for the first time after 1996, despite he is aware of the fact that his support is below 30%,” Medojevic told Dan daily, directly violating the non-aggression agreement. The Socialist People's Party (SNP) ignored the Democrats' call to sign the agreement on non-aggression. Democratic Montenegro will respect the signed agreement with the opposition, the party told Pobjeda daily. “It means not a single bad word about the signatories of the agreement will be heard from the Democrats,” the party’s spokeswoman Andjela Pekovic told Pobjeda.

 

Uyehara: The US is doing everything to help Montenegro become a NATO member state (CDM)

Montenegro’s accession to NATO will contribute to faster economic growth and security, and the influx of foreign investment will be higher, it was said at the conference Montenegro’s Membership in NATO – the Next Steps. It was pointed out that NATO represented the best political and a security framework for Montenegro because it was a small country that had gone through the transition process. The US Ambassador to Montenegro, Margaret Ann Uyehara, said that her country is doing everything to help Montenegro to become a NATO member state. “The United States expects Montenegro to make a progress in the field of the rule of law and it expects raising public support for accession to the Alliance. Both processes are very important. Montenegro has contributed to the preservation of the world peace by its results. Montenegro's accession to the Alliance will contribute to faster economic growth and security, in order for the inflow of foreign investments to be higher,” said Uyehara. German Ambassador to Montenegro, Gudrun Elisabeth Steinacker, said that Montenegro was on the right track and that a decision on membership would be made as soon as possible. “NATO is the best political and security framework for Montenegro because it is a small country that has gone through the transition process,” said Steinacker. The state secretary at the Ministry of Defense, Bojan Sarkic, said that the contribution of the United States and Germany in the process of joining NATO was priceless for Montenegro. “NATO invitation is a result of hard work and it shows that hard work brings success. While awaiting ratification by the parliaments of the Alliance member states, Montenegro will meet all its obligations on the NATO path,” Sarkic said. National Coordinator for NATO, Vesko Garcevic said that Montenegro had completed the first step on its NATO path, but added that there was still a lot of work to do. Speaking of almost majority public support to Montenegro’s membership in NATO, Garcevic said that there were at least three reasons for that. “The first reason is the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. The second one is our neighbor Serbia, which is aspiring to military neutrality. The third reason is just Montenegrin people’s perception on NATO. They should know that the accession process contributes to safety and security and that it is a politic and security organization. Joining NATO will help Montenegro become a part of the EU soon,” Garcevic concluded.

 

Vujanovic: Montenegro in NATO by early 2017 (RTCG)

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic said that he was assured through diplomatic contacts that Montenegro would become a member of NATO at the beginning of the next year. It is believed that membership in the Alliance will accelerate Montenegro’s EU path. A decade ago, the independence issue sharply divided Montenegro. Today it is a reality accepted by those who used to oppose it. President Vujanovic expects the same scenario when it comes to Montenegro’s membership in NATO, portal RTCG carried. “When the effects of membership in NATO are visible, those who are now against the membership will support it, because it will be a benefit to all people in Montenegro,” Vujanovic said. He added that Montenegro might become NATO member state next spring. “In all the contacts I had with heads of states, they estimated the ratification pace will be fast,” said Vujanovic. He believes that with NATO membership, Montenegro will regulate security issue and make its way to the EU faster and easier. “After joining NATO, I think the EU's door is absolutely and completely open for us. Then we will be able to tell all EU member states that are also members of the Alliance: ‘Well, we are together with you in NATO, why wouldn’t we be together in the EU’… We will have an opportunity to promote the need to accelerate the entry into the EU within NATO framework and to use the accession to the EU to show the part of population opposing to NATO that the membership in the Alliance brings benefits,” Vujanovic concluded.

 

Macedonian President: Institutions are successfully coping with security challenges (MIA)

Macedonia is faced with the same risks as other countries in the region and in Europe. There are threats but we are successfully coping with them both preventively and proactively. Citizens can be calm because our institutions and their counterparts have prevented every risk thus far, said President Gjorge Ivanov during Tuesday’s visit to the Intelligence Agency when quizzed about the country's state of security. Regarding the information exchange with other intelligence services, President Ivanov said Macedonia asked for access to the Frontex and Schengen databases in October of last year. “We did not get a positive response, since regulations stipulate that third countries do not have access to these databases. However, there has been increased activity among partnership agencies following my recent statements on the issue. It may emerge that those involved in the attacks in Brussels and Paris had used this route,” said Ivanov. He said the humanitarian aspect of the migrant crisis has continually been highlighted, but Macedonia has also referred to the security aspect, taking into consideration the people coming from Syria battlefields. “Let’s not be naive. There are 72 people returning from Syria battlefields in Macedonia only. Over 1,000 persons from the Balkans went to Syria and came back, along with 1,000-­3,000 returnees at the EU territory. They used the refugee routes and this is what happens now,” said Ivanov. Regarding the attacks in Brussels, he stressed that such incidents will occur. “Services must cooperate and exchange security information. Let’s not use bureaucracy as an excuse. We offer the information for the sake of the safety of the continent and the EU members, which will face terrorist attacks and threats in the future too. And not only in Europe, this is a global phenomenon,” said Ivanov. The Intelligence Agency team in charge of the migrant crisis briefed the President over experiences in their operations. “Macedonia is on one of the most frequent routes, which is used by migrants as well as those with bad intentions. There are Syria returnees, then extremists, terrorists, smugglers, all those involved in the migrant smuggling business, which is very profitable according to the latest Europol report,” added Ivanov. According to him, the Intelligence Agency has been effective in managing all challenges through its research and analysis. “Macedonia demonstrated its preparedness to cope with such challenge much better than NATO and EU members. Regardless of the current political developments, institutions must cope with all threats and risks with full capacity,” underlined Ivanov.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbia’s parliamentary elections will also take place in Kosovo (Independent Balkan News Agency, by Elton Tota, 23 March 2016)  

The North of Mitrovica has woken up on Wednesday with electoral slogans of the party of the Serb Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic. These slogans invite the Serb citizens in the north to vote the current Serb prime minister, Aleksandar Vucic in the April 24 elections. All of this electoral campaign has been organized by the representatives of the Serb List in Kosovo.

Dalibor Jevtic, minister for Communities and Returns in the government of Kosovo, who comes from the Serb List, doesn’t deny the fact that Serbs of Kosovo will vote Vucic and his party.

“On 24 April, Serbs of Kosovo will massively support the policy of Aleksandar Vucic, the policy of the government of Serbia, which since 2014, it has done a lot for us”, Jevtic said. Experts of political developments in Kosovo say that it is normal for the Serb List to demand the Serbs of Kosovo to vote Vucic’s party, due to the proximity that this political subject has with the Serb PM and his party. But they have different opinions in relation to the way Serbs of Kosovo will vote. Petar Miletic, former deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Kosovo, says that there are no accurate figures as to how the Serbs of Kosovo will vote, but he believes that the Serb majority will back the Serb Progressive Party, which is led by the current Serb Prime Minister. Rangjel Nojkic, expert of political developments, says that he’s unsure who the Serbs of Kosovo will vote, although their votes are not comparable in number to the ones that will be cast by Serb voters. “We’re not sure how much the Serbs of Kosovo will vote the Serb List, because this party has disappointed Serbs a lot”, Nojkic said. However, he believes that the majority of the Serbs of Kosovo will vote for the Serb Progressive Party, but not to the extent that they voted it in the previous elections.

 

Radovan Karadzic: ‘I Expect to be Acquitted’ (BIRN, by Denis Dzidic, 23 March 2016)

In a defiant interview before his trial verdict, wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic insists that ‘no reasonable court’ would convict him of genocide and war crimes, despite the evidence against him.

“I know what I wanted, what I did, even what I dreamed of, and there is no reasonable court that would convict me, no matter how many high-ranking Bosnian Serb officials have been convicted,” Radovan Karadzic told BIRN in this interview before the verdict in his trial for genocide and war crimes is delivered on Thursday at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. In the interview, which was conducted via email, Karadzic seeks to portray himself as a peacemaker, not the orchestrator of mass murder which he is accused of being by the prosecution at his trial. He says he does not approve of the unlawful killings during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but does not take responsibility for them, arguing that there was no official command ordering atrocities like the Srebrenica massacres. He insists instead that his “permanent fight to preserve the peace, prevent the war and decrease the sufferings of everyone regardless of religion” should be praised, not prosecuted. It is an argument that is likely to be met with contempt by Bosniak survivors of the 1992-95 war, but Karadzic insists that he was not responsible for the horrific crimes that were committed during the conflict. The Karadzic judgement will be one of the most important war crimes verdicts ever delivered, and his responses to BIRN’s questions, however unacceptable they may be to Bosniak victims, offer an insight into the thinking of the former Bosnian Serb leader as he awaits the decision from the judges at the UN court which may put him behind bars for the rest of his life.

BIRN: What are your expectations for the judgement on Thursday, considering there have already been many verdicts convicting high-ranking Bosnian Serb officials of the crimes with which you are charged?

Karadzic: “My expectations are the same [as they always were]. I know what I wanted, what I did, even what I dreamed of, and there is no reasonable court that would convict me, no matter how many ‘high-ranking Bosnian Serb officials’ have been convicted. This did not just convict them, but also convicted the attempt to achieve international justice itself, sentencing chances for a shared, fruitful life for our communities. Many of those sentences are going to be discussed longer than Dreyfus’s sentence was commented upon. Apart from that, many of those high-ranking Serb officials were not used to this judicial system, and couldn't prepare their defences properly. “Why would their sentences influence my judgement? The chamber in my case will have only have evidence from my case in front of it, not from other cases. Or are you probably assuming that some factors from outside my case might be influential in my case? If the previous trials have any influence, let alone a decisive one, all the trials subsequent to them would have been unnecessary. And if politics has an influence, then the Goddess Justice is not blind at all.” Some people have criticised the evidence you put forward, suggesting that some of the claims you made had already been heard and rejected during other trials in The Hague, especially about the deadly attacks on the Markale market in Sarajevo and about Srebrenica. How do you respond?

“The truth can be rejected as many times as one wants, it will still be the truth. Do you remember the 80,000 rapes, the 300,000 Muslims who were killed, cannibalism in the enclaves, the implantation of dog embryos in women’s uteruses and all of the crap brought up by our opponents’ highest officials during the war? Where did that all disappear to? Nobody dared to bring it before the court, but we sustained horrible damage because of those ‘truths’. “Even so, a lot of mere war propaganda has been brought before the chambers here. To be fair towards those chambers, many of those accused couldn’t defend themselves because of many circumstances: insufficient time and resources, no investigating judge as in our previous system [the former Yugoslav criminal code] dependence on the prosecution’s investigation and its good will to disclose the exculpatory evidence in a timely manner, prejudices, demonisation in the media, the bias of all the Western powers, organisations and public and so on. And the likely opportunism of some chambers. For instance, had the Markale incidents been judged in this UN court on the basis of UN documents, none of the Serbs would have been convicted of the Markale incidents. “With Srebrenica, even what happened in reality is bad enough, so that no exaggeration can help us to reach understanding and peace among us. The unnecessary killing of a single man is horrifying, let alone certainly several hundred at least, who are undisputed victims with ligatures [Srebrenica victims executed with their hands tied behind their backs], for instance. Those who did it are the enemies of the Serbs first, then enemies of those families [of the victims], then of the Muslim community. The same with the 3,500 Serb victims in the same area. “Now, we could compete to say who was more cruel, who killed more women, children and elderly people, who cut more throats, ears and genitals, but it shouldn’t be for the media, but for a consensus in a just and competent Serb-Muslim commission for truth, when the time comes. Anything else will only worsen the matter.”

Do you honestly hold out much hope that you will be acquitted of the Srebrenica charges after so many verdicts convicting others have already been handed down by courts in The Hague and Bosnia and Herzegovina?

“It is not matter of hope, but of law and justice. The trial is not only about whether something happened at all, but also about possible liability of other people more or less remote from the direct perpetrators. For the very merit [of the charges], I denied many allegations of crimes throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of several instances: one, whether it really happened in reality at all; two, in what circumstances something happened, who started it and how; three, was it avoidable?; four, was the outcome of it as alleged?; five, who did it, and on whose order?; and six, was it part of the wider policy and so on, and at the very end - whether or not the highest officials were liable. “I strongly contest [the idea] that the police or the army committed some [crime] because it was committed by a member of the army or police. It has to be established whether someone committed a crime on his own, or was tasked to do so by his command. The direct perpetrators mainly hid their misdeeds from their immediate superiors at all costs, thus avoiding punishment, and in such cases it wasn’t perpetrated by the official force at all. “With Srebrenica, unfortunately, I cannot deny everything that is alleged, but I have to contest the extent and background of what happened. Again, it wasn’t an army unit that was tasked to do the misdeed; rather it was a sort of patchwork, a random collection of guys summoned to do the killings, to their surprise, against their own will and interest, and it was so clandestine that the perpetrators hid it from their most immediate commander. But nobody is going to benefit from any exaggeration pertaining to Srebrenica or any other battlefield in our - let’s hope -last civil war. Let us establish the truth!”

Bosnian Serb police and military officials have been sentenced to more than 1,000 years in prison. As supreme commander of these forces, how do you rate your chances in your own verdict?

“Many of the officials mentioned shouldn’t have even been indicted. There is a big misunderstanding and misconception about our armies and other armed forces. In other military and judicial practices, known in the countries where the Tribunal judges come from, there wasn’t Tito’s doctrine of the armed people [compulsory conscription], but instead there were well-trained professional armies and police forces, easy to command and control. Apart from that, this civil war was a continuum from our fratricidal wars, with lot of vengeful feelings, resentments, old hatreds and new ambitions to dominate neighbours. “Whenever one party claims something it doesn’t have the right to claim, the stage is set for disaster. Can you imagine how fellow Muslims would react if Serbs demanded that the whole of Bosnia became a part of a unitary Serbia, without even any autonomy? The Serbs wouldn’t have any right to demand that, let alone to impose that by force. But what was demanded from the Serbs concerning the unitary Bosnia and Herzegovina is of the same nature as the aforementioned hypothetic Serb demand towards the Muslims. If we are not able to put ourselves in the shoes of the other party, we will pay a horrible price. “My chances in the verdict should be as the chances of any state president in the modern world - no more, no less. The courts should be aware of all presidential duties, abilities and limitations, and be devoted to the truth and justice. It is very simple to see from all the evidence that the president in such circumstances couldn’t do any more, and that my permanent fight to preserve the peace, prevent the war and decrease the sufferings of everyone regardless of religion were an exemplary effort deserving respect rather than persecution.”

Some observers believe that at several points during your trial and in the trial of Ratko Mladic, the defence teams have attempted to gain advantage by shifting blame from the police to the army and vice versa. Is this true, and do you expect your verdict to be detrimental for Mladic’s case?

“First, it was the prosecution’s duty to specify its charges and disclose which unit of what formation committed some deeds. The prosecution took a very comfortable position, generally naming any perpetrators as phantom ‘Serb forces’, without any obligation to specify what force it meant. “Various paramilitaries who I disowned at the beginning of the war, and persecuted throughout the entire war, cannot be considered ‘Serb forces’. There was no evidence and no complete and documented charges with the real perpetrators named by the prosecution. That was why the defence were ‘casting about in the dark’ in order to establish who did what. “There were legitimate actions by the army and the police, and that all was well documented. It comprised the planning, organising, preparatory orders, executive orders and follow-up. There was no evidence that official Serb forces, acting in an official manner, committed any crime. But there was evidence that crimes were committed by some members of official formations, which is completely different from the actions of the units. “I don’t think any defence tried to redirect liability or shift blame onto others. First of all, there was no use for it, and ultimately, I do not think that the judges would appreciate that kind of defence. I had many objections to General Mladic and other old-fashioned officers, but none of them could have been blamed for crimes. If I could, I would have removed some of them that I tried to do much more easily, because I would not cover for anyone. I do not believe that my judgment will have any impact on Mladic's case. It was my obligation to summon everyone who could have known anything to testify, and it was their right to testify or not.”

Your verdict is likely to cause controversy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whichever way it goes. How do you see your importance in the country now, after two decades of absence from its political life?

“If there had been no foreign interference in our crisis, I would have achieved a constructive and compromising solution with Mr. [Alija] Izetbegovic. We were on a very fruitful road. In my opinion, it would have been much better for the Muslims to stay inside Yugoslavia, where they would even have been a majority one day, but the Croats didn’t want it in any case. Mr. Izetbegovic was very ambivalent. Mr. Izetbegovic wanted a specific political and religious arrangement for his Muslim community, which couldn’t have been implemented for the Serbs and Croats, and I didn’t oppose it in any way. “But Mr. Izetbegovic assumed he needed independence for the project. So Mr. Izetbegovic proposed what we have now, a division of Bosnia and Herzegovina into sort of cantons, or constituent units. Had it been the Lisbon agreement [proposed pre-war in 1992, suggesting ethnic power-sharing and devolution to local ethnic communities] instead of the Dayton agreement [which ended the war in 1995], we all would be much happier. “As far as my importance for the country is concerned, I believe I am as important as the average citizen, except to my family and friends. The new generation, which is now as old as I was in 1990, is coming onto the stage, and what they would need me for? If someone needs any advice, it doesn’t cost much. “As far as any possible commotion in the country is concerned, I think there shouldn’t be any, and I do hope that there won’t be any. No individual should be so important, and let us keep our feelings inside, rather than on the streets. “Many protagonists of the changes in 1990 are not with us any longer. Many people much younger and much more handsome than us died on all sides. Let the new generations preserve the country and region from any trouble, and build their future without the burden of the past. But in the first place - forget about achieving any kind of domination over each other and keeping each other in a state arrangement that is unacceptable to one of the sides. Let us finally come to our senses. And there is more risk because of the actions of the Bosnian courts, than of this one. Such flagrant bias must be stopped immediately. It has never been the case that ‘bad delivered good’.

If you were cleared and released, what would you do? Go into politics again?

“I hope not into politics again, and even if I wanted to, the new generation would rightfully prevent it. I even didn’t want it then, in 1990, because I had a very pleasant life, family, profession, friends and literature. If there hadn’t been a war, I was going to withdraw from politics soon. “While I was on ‘standby’ in the mountains [while evading arrest], I wrote a novel (The Miraculous Chronicle of the Night) and a comedy, Sitovacija, and some verses for minors. Politics took me 25 years away from me, which means at least five to eight books. Why would I want to sustain more of these losses? I would spend my precious time with my family and my writing