LOCAL PRESS

 

Dacic: International forces key for safety in Kosovo and Metohija (RTS/Tanjug/Radio Serbia/B92)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic met with NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow on the margins of the 69^th UN General Assembly session in New York. On that occasion, Dacic stressed that the presence of international forces was key for stability and safety in Kosovo and Metohija. He pointed to the importance of good communication with NATO and consultations related to Serbia’s forthcoming OSCE presidency. He announced that, within Serbia’s and NATO’s cooperation within Partnership for Peace, he expected the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) program to be signed soon. That program is the highest form of cooperation with NATO which does not entail membership and envisages dialogue on political, security, military, defense, administrative, diplomatic, scientific and emergency situation issues. Dacic also said Serbia was ready to contribute to the battle against terrorism.

 

No peace agreement with Pristina (Danas)

Danas’ headline that quotes the interview in Koha Ditore does not correspond to the content of the conducted conversation or to the stands of Marko Djuric, of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and of the Serbian government. Belgrade wishes peace in Kosovo and Metohija and normalization between Serbs and Albanians through new agreements like the first Brussels agreement, but there can be no discussion of a formal peace agreement, because it implies two states and two internationally recognized states that are in war. The future of Serbs and Albanians in the province lies in the normalization of mutual relations, and not in circumvention of status issues in newspaper headlines, reads the written reaction of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija following the quoted part of the interview given by Marko Djuric to the Pristina daily Koha Ditore. The same reaction was sent yesterday to the editorial staff of the Pristina daily.

 

Danas’ Question-Answer

Why does Marko Djuric tell the Serbian public that there is no peace agreement with Pristina, but tells the Kosovo public that everything is possible?

Milovan Drecun, the Chairperson of the Serbian parliament Committee for Kosovo and Metohija: “That is a question for Marko Djuric. There is no peace agreement. Terrorism and a violent attempt of secession occurred in Kosovo and Metohija and there cannot be any signing of a peace agreement. There is Resolution 1244. Kosovo and Metohija is part of Serbia and that is how it will stay. We are discussing normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations in a status neutral framework.”

Borislav Stefanovic, the vice president of the Democratic Party: “That is another proof of his principled policy that they are saying the same things in Brussels, Belgrade and Pristina. They underline this as one of the key good features of this government. However, it happens that they slip and what they are really doing comes out in the open.”

 

Serbian state leadership warns Ugljanin (Tanjug)

The Serbian state leadership has warned the Bosniak political leader Sulejman Ugljanin, whose party is calling for autonomy of Sandzak within the campaign for the elections for the national councils of this minority community, that he is not working in the interest of his people. The Bureau for Coordination of Security Services held a session today where the security situation in the Raska region was discussed. Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic has stated that “Serbia and all of its security services will engage in preserving peace, constitutional order, safety of all citizens on the territory of all municipalities, including the territory of six Sandzak municipalities”. “Our job is to preserve peace and stability in the region, despite all challenges,” said Stefanovic.

 

DSS: Serbia pulled into NATO (Beta)

The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) has accused the Serbian government of slowly “pulling” the state into NATO against the will of citizens. “Thus, indirectly, citizens found out from the talks of Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic with NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow that Serbia will soon sign the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with NATO. Preparations for the IPAP accession were commenced in 2011 by the government led by the Democratic Party, and the present government completed them,” reads the statement. It is added that the IPAP is the highest, intensive form of institutional cooperation with NATO that precedes the signing of the Membership Action Plan (MAP) and that transfers Serbia’s cooperation with NATO from the Defense Ministry to the government level. The DSS states that citizens must know that it is pointed out in the declarations of the last four NATO summits that NATO “welcomes the voiced commitment of the Serbian government to Euro-Atlantic integration”, and that the Alliance “welcomes Serbia’s progress in building stronger partnership with NATO and encouraged Belgrade to continue on this path”. “It is more than obvious that Serbian officials are saying one thing abroad, and another to the Serbian public and that they are pulling Serbia into NATO in a shameful way, against the will of citizens, step by step,” reads the DSS statement.

 

Serbia-B&H cooperation (Radio Serbia, by Biljana Blanusa)

Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) is Serbia’s fourth top foreign trade partner and the two countries are ready to intensify cooperation in order to improve their bilateral economic relations, Serbian Trade, Telecommunications and Tourism Minister Rasim Ljajic said after signing an agreement on joint participation on third markets. On that occasion, B&H Minister of Trade and Economic Relations Boris Tucic pointed to the importance of the connection between the two countries’ economies in the context of joint projects. The Serbia-B&H trade exchange in 2013 amounted to 1.3 billion euros and there is potential for promoting economic cooperation, stressed Ljajic. In the aforesaid period, Serbian exports to the B&H market amounted to 890 million euros and this year they are expected to exceed one billion euros. Considering those results, B&H represents the third top market for Serbian exports. The signing of this Agreement creates conditions for strengthening regional cooperation, which contributes to regional stability and makes the region attractive for foreign investors. The Agreement also creates a legal framework for joint participation on the most important markets. The process of work of an action plan for the project’s realization should involve business associations and big companies. As for cooperation fields, Ljajic stressed tourism, where emphasis should be laid on tourists from remote countries, such as Japan or Korea, Russia and ex-Soviet countries. Cooperation is also possible in the sphere of construction, where Serbian and B&H companies can participate in tenders together, which would increase their chances of success, and also in the fields of agriculture, food industry, energy, specialized and car industries.

B&H Minister of Trade and Economic Relations Boris Tucic said that B&H was very interested in the association of the economies of the regional countries with a view to joint participation in third markets. All ex-Yugoslav states are undergoing a transition period and are facing numerous problems, he said. Considering the fact that their economies are complementary, such association would enable the best presentation of potentials in third markets, such as China and Russia, and creates an opportunity for creating significant deals. Tucic stressed that Serbia was an important foreign trade partner for B&H and added that the two countries were resolved to continue strengthening their bilateral economic relations.

Regional cooperation also forms part of the EU accession process, which is a strategic goal Serbia and B&H have in common and the two countries have already been engaged in the realization of joint projects, especially in infrastructure. That will contribute to a faster integration of the Western Balkan region into the European family of nations and, at the same time, to the region’s economic progress.

 

 

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Sulejman Tihic passes away (Dnevni avaz)

The leader of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Sulejman Tihic passed away last night in Sarajevo at the age of 63, after being seriously ill. For months, Tihic has been absent from political life due to the serious illness, and over the past period he has been recovering in his house in Bosanski Samac. During this period, the party leadership was taken over by Tihic’s deputy, member of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic. Tihic graduated from the Sarajevo Faculty of Law in 1975. From 1975 to 1983 he was the judge and public prosecutor in Bosanski Samac, and then a lawyer until 1992. He was a member of the SDA B&H since its establishment in 1990. From May to August 1992 he was a prisoner in the camps in Bosanski Samac, Brcko, Bijeljina, Batajnica (Belgrade, Serbia), and Sremska Mitrovica (Serbia). Following liberation, he was the head of the consular section in the B&H Embassy in Germany from 1994 to 1996. From 1996 to 1999 he was the minister advisor in the B&H Foreign Ministry. From 1996 until 2000, Tihic was the Republika Srpska MP and the vice president in the RS parliament from 2000 until 2002. He was elected member of the B&H Presidency at the general elections in October 1992. In 2011, Tihic was elected the Chairman of the House of Peoples of the B&H Parliamentary Assembly. He was an honorary citizen of Bihac and Odzak. He left behind a wife and three children.

 

Bevanda: Tihic left a mark in building a more just society (Fena)

The Chairman of the B&H Council of Minister Vjekoslav Bevanda expressed his condolences to the SDA leadership and membership on the occasion of the death of the SDA leader Sulejman Tihic. “I feel great pain over the death of a great man and a dear friend. He was a person of extraordinary political erudition and completely committed to preservation of B&H and its international integrity. We will miss his peace, principality and courage in passing important decisions. He left a deep mark in building a better and more just society and all of B&H lost a great deal with his departure,” reads the telegram.

“I am deeply shaken by the news of the death of Sulejman Tihic, I express my sincere condolences to his family, friends and party colleagues. B&H lost a great man and peacemaker who worked in difficult historical times on establishing democracy and reconciliation in B&H, as well as the entire region,” reads the telegram sent by the President of the Federation B&H Zivko Budimir.

The First Deputy of the Chairperson of the House of Representatives of the B&H Parliamentary Assembly Denis Becirovic also sent a telegram: “I received with sadness the news of the death of our colleague Sulejman Tihic and I express my sincere condolences to his family, relatives and friends. Mr. Tihic was a politician of compromises and reconciliation, and above all a humane person, as I had been convinced many times while working with him over the past several years in the leadership of the B&H Parliamentary Assembly. May he have eternal peace.”

 

Radmanovic: Donor funds from Brussels lacking (Srna)

Member of the B&H Presidency from the Republika Srpska (RS) Nebojsa Radmanovic has conveyed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that B&H is dealing very hard but courageously with the consequences of the floods, because funds promised at the Brussels donor’s conference are lacking. The interlocutors voiced hope that the promise from Brussels will be realized in the near future as they could repair, at least partially, the situation caused by this natural disaster, the cabinet of the RS member of the B&H Presidency stated. Discussing the current situation in B&H and the upcoming elections, Radmanovic and Ban determined that the election process is unfolding in line with democratic principles that are the heritage of the EU, as the strategic goal of B&H. At the end of the meeting, held within the session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the interlocutors supported the UN Peacebuilding Fund and other UN initiatives aimed at promoting peace throughout the world.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbia Says Gay Pride March May go Ahead (BIRN, by Gordana Andric, 26 September 2014)

Officials says Sunday's Gay Pride Parade may proceed as planned - although the march could still be banned if current security assessments change

Serbia’s Office for the Coordination of Security Services on Friday said the Belgrade Gay Pride march, scheduled for September 28, may proceed as planned.

However, Nebojsa Stefanovic, the Interior Minister, stated that the match could still be called off if the security situation changes in the meantime.

“The Office reserves the right to do so if, in the coming days, the authorities estimate that the safety of the citizens would be endangered,” Stefanovic said on Friday.

He also urged people opposed to the march to refrain from violence.

"Do not destroy our country or our city, and do not attack those in charge of security, because they are here to ensure the right of everyone to live freely,” Stefanovic said.

Some far-right and religious organisations have already announced that they will hold protests against the march.

The nationalist movement Dver has scheduled a protest for September 27 in defence of “family values.” Another group, Istinoljublje, led by a former Orthodox Church cleric, Dragan Davidovic, has scheduled a protest for the same day.

In 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013, the authorities banned the parade altogether just days before it was scheduled to take place, after police declared they could not safeguard marchers from right-wing violence.

Serbia's first Pride march was brought to a halt in Belgrade in June 2001, when protesters clashed with police.

The march went ahead only in 2010, but several thousand young people, including football fans and members of right-wing organisations, caused mayhem on the streets of the capital, throwing stones and missiles, injuring police and setting buildings and vehicles on fire.

 

Kosovo shuts down TİKA-backed NGOs for supporting terrorism (Today’s Zaman, 25 September 2014)

A main opposition party deputy has asked a parliamentary question demanding to know if the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) and the Yunus Emre Foundation ever offered financial support to any of the nongovernmental organizations in Kosovo that were recently closed down due to their links with terrorism.

“To which nongovernmental organizations in Kosovo have TİKA and the Yunus Emre Foundation offered [financial] support? Is AKEA [the Association for Culture, Education and School], which was shut down for supporting ISIL [the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant] and the al-Nusra Front, among the institutions that have been supported?” asked Turgut Dibek, a deputy of the Republican People's Party (CHP), on Thursday.

The Taraf daily reported the same day that most of the associations backed by TİKA and the Yunus Emre Foundation in Kosovo have been closed down for allegedly offering support to ISIL and the al-Nusra Front.

“One of the biggest of these [associations that have been closed down] is AKEA, which [Prime Minister] Ahmet Davutoğlu particularly likes,” the report said. “How much [financial] aid has AKEA been provided with so far?” Dibek demanded to know in his question.

According to the Taraf report, TİKA has offered substantial financial aid to AKEA, with which the Yunus Emre Institute, founded by the Yunus Emre Foundation, has also ties.

Kosovo police reportedly closed down 16 foundations and associations several days ago, in an operation conducted as part of a fight against radical Islamists. “Thirty imams who were claimed to be dispatching jihadists to Syria and Iraq were taken under custody. Most of them were arrested,” the Taraf report said.

Local media also reported that the foundations were closed down for their alleged links with terrorism.

According to the daily, Turkish police and military officials based in Kosovo cautioned Turkish officials about the risks of entertaining ties with radical Islamist groups.

Noting that AKEA was established in 2004 by Husamedin Abazi, who was trained in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the report said: “The leading figures linked with this association [AKEA] are Behar Avdiu, Nhari Toska, Bashkim Mehani, Ilir Xhoxhaj and Ilir Gashi. All of them are connected in some way or other to Turkey's [ruling] AKP [another way of referring to the AK Party] or affiliated organizations. Many observers have defined AKEA as the Kosovo branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. But the significant majority of imams who were arrested on charges of aiding and abetting ISIL are ‘volunteer members' of AKEA.”

 

Montenegro Parliament to Mull Islamist Threats (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 26 September 2014)

Parliament on Monday is to consider an intelligence agency report on the threat posed by radical Islamist groups in the country

Parliament's Committee for Security and Defence on Monday will consider a report from the Agency for National Security on potential threats to the country from Islamist extremists and members of the Wahhabi movement.

The chair of the committee, Mevludin Nuhodzic, said the authorities needed to be more effective in countering extreme Islamist groups in Montenegro, saying that action against radical Wahhabism had to involve everyone, from families to the media.

"No one can violate the law by hiding behind faith," Nuhodzic said last week.

He added that the Committee will consider the report in order to get a clearer idea about the activities of these groups in recruiting people for the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, and their links to radical groups in the region.

In August, media reports said that the national security agency had stepped up surveillance of radical Muslims suspected of links with Wahabbi movement in the region. Police have been authorised to tap the phones of alleged members of a group based in several towns, reports said.

Some 100 to 120 Wahhabis are in the small Balkan country, according to the national security agency, believed to be financed by various Islamic charities.

The towns in Montenegro that secret police have placed under surveillance include Plav, Gusinje, Rozaje and Bijelo Polje.

 

Macedonia President Voices 'Balkan Caliphate' Fears (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 26 September 2014)

The Balkan countries could become an arena for Islamist militants if they are not speedily integrated into European and Atlantic structures, President Ivanov of Macedonia told the UN

In his first address to the UN Security Council on Thursday, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov called for the speedier integration of the region into EU and NATO, warning of the risk of a "vacuum" that Islamic radicals will try to fill.

“Sooner or later, a vacuum tends to be filled. The European Union must not forget that the Balkans are part of Europe,” he said.

By postponing the integration of the countries of the region, Europe was “creating a problem on its own territory”, President Ivanov added.

“There is no more time or excuses to block European and Euro-Atlantic integration and initiatives. Our region is vulnerable,” Ivanov continued, raising the spectre of the potential formation of a “Balkan Caliphate”.

Ivanov mentioned Greece's blockade of Macedonia’s EU and NATO membership hopes as an issue that had to be overcome soon.

Greece prevented Macedonia's accession to NATO in 2008 and it is currently blocking Macedonia's attempts to join the EU in connection with the dispute over Macedonia's name, to which Athens objects.

This is despite the fact that Macedonia obtained EU candidate status in 2005 and although European Commission reports have recommended a start to Macedonian membership talks since 2009.

In the emergency session of the Security Council, dedicated to the threat posed by radical Islamists and chaired by US President Barak Obama, the US leader noted that 50 heads of delegations chosen to address the session come from countries that are directly or indirectly exposed to the threat of the so-called Islamic State.

The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that backed making joining such radical terrorist groups illegal.

Macedonia is one of several countries that have recently changed laws to introduce jail terms for citizens caught joining or supporting foreign paramilitary organizations.

Media reports in the country say at least 11 ethnic Albanians from Macedonia have been killed in the fighting in Syria and Iraq, after joining Islamic militant groups there.

 

Ethnic cleansing and war crimes, 1991-1995 – part eleven (TransConflict, by Marie-Janine Calic, 26 September 2014)

TransConflict is pleased to present part eleven of a chapter of “Confronting the Yugoslav controversies – a scholars’ initiative”, entitled “Ethnic cleansing and war crimes, 1991-1995″, which “aims at describing causes, features, and consequences of ethnic cleansing as a policy in Bosnia-Hercegovina during the war”

During the Trial against Momčilo Perišić, the JNA Chief of the General Staff from August 1993 until November 1998, more than 100 witnesses were heard and thousands of documents provided. On this basis it could be proved that the Yugoslav Army provided extensive logistic assistance to the Serb armed forces in BiH and Croatia, by arming, supplying, and reinforcing it periodically and by paying the salaries of thousands of its officers. These officers were drawn from the ranks of the Yugoslav Army and remained members of it even as they were fighting for the armies of the Bosnian or Croatian Serbs. The General Staff exercised effective control over these officers through the JNA’s Personnel Centers. [68] Altogether, some 4,800 VRS military personnel were paid by the VJ, including General Ratko Mladić.[69] In December 1994 the latter informed the RS Assembly that 47.2% of infantry ammunition, 34.4% of artillery munitions, and 52.4% of anti-aircraft ammunition came from the JNA.[70]

The Supreme Defense Council of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia granted General Perišić and the Yugoslav Army the authority to provide logistic assistance to the Croat Serb and Bosnian Serb armies. The General Staff also held monthly meetings with representatives from the VRS and SVK in Belgrade in order to coordinate equipment, economic and technical assistance.[71] Both Banja Luka and Belgrade treated the issue of military support “with the highest level of secrecy”.[72]

On 8 November 1993, the political and military leadership of the FRY, RS and RSK, including Perišić, Mladić, and Slobodan Milošević met in Belgrade, to agree on the “Drina Plan”. The core of the subsequent directive was to coordinate war efforts by all three armies (JNA, VRS and SVK). The war plan was signed on 14 November 1993 by the President of the Supreme Defense Council, Zoran Lilić as the “Directive for Use of the Yugoslav Army, the Republika Srpska Army, and the Serb Army of Krajina”. The so-called “Drina Plan” aimed to:

defend the territorial integrity of the Serbian states west of the Drina and Danube rivers and the FRY, protect Serbian people from genocide, liberate parts of Serbian territories with Serbian majorities, create conditions for the establishment of a single state of the Serbian people, prevent creation of Greater Croatia and a compact Islamic state on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.[73]

Belgrade’s political and military leadership was well aware that the Bosnian Serb armed forces made no clear distinction between military action against Bosnian Muslim troops and attacks against Muslim civilians, and that crimes were committed systematically on a large scale. Also the International Court of Justice (ICJ) established that “the FRY was in a position of influence over the Bosnian Serbs who devised and implemented the genocide in Srebrenica.”[74]

The same charge of command responsibility has been leveled against Belgrade’s political leadership. Former president of Serbia and of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević was charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions, and violations of the laws or customs of war.[75] Together with officials of the Bosnian Serb leadership, he was accused of having participated in a “joint criminal enterprise,” the purpose of which was “the forcible and permanent removal of the majority of non-Serbs, principally Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, from large areas of the Republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina.”[76] Charges of genocide and complicity to commit genocide include the mass killings in Srebrenica and the murder or mistreatment of Bosnian Muslims in detention facilities. The ICTY notes, “The detention of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in detention facilities within Bosnia-Hercegovina, including those situated within the territories listed above, under conditions of life calculated to bring about the partial physical destruction of those groups, namely through starvation, contaminated water, forced labor, inadequate medical care and constant physical and psychological assault.”[77] Milošević’s death brought a sudden end to his trial and left open the question of whether he was guilty of the charge of genocide.

Regarding the intentional removal of the Serb population from the Croatian Krajina, the ICTY, in its judgment against General Gotovina et al., found that “certain members of the Croatian political and military leadership shared the common objective of the permanent removal of the Serb civilian transfer, and persecution through the imposition of restrictive and discriminatory measures, unlawful attacks against civilians and civilian objects, deportation, and population from the Krajina by force or threat of force, which amounted to and involved deportation and forcible transfer.” According to the ICTY, President Franjo Tudjman, Minister of Defense Gojko Šušak, and Zvonimir Červenko, the Chief of the Croatian army Main Staff, were key members of this “joint criminal enterprise.” At the Brioni meeting of 31 July 1995, a few days before launching of Operation Storm, President Tudjman had met with high-ranking military officials to discuss the military operation, including the importance of the Krajina Serbs leaving as a result and part of the imminent attack. General Gotovina was sentenced to 24 years of imprisonment.[78]

‘Ethnic cleansing and war crimes, 1991-1995′ is a component of the larger Scholars’ Initiative ‘Confronting Yugoslav Controversies’ (Second Edition), extracts of which will be published on TransConflict.com every Friday.

 

 

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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.