Belgrade DMH 101013

LOCAL PRESS

Dacic to visit Gracanica on 19 October (Politika)

Politika learns that Prime Minister Ivica Dacic will visit Gracanica during the election campaign for the local elections in Kosovo and Metohija and call the Serbs to go to the polls on 3 November. He will not take part in classic party gatherings in Kosovo, but will use the opportunity to support party comrades who are on the electoral list “Srpksa.” Dacic said, probably alluding to the various interpretations of the last agreement in Brussels, that one should separate what is spoken in public and what serves “for internal use” and what will occur. He recalled that it was clearly stated in Brussels that he had the right to travel to Kosovo during the election campaign and that no one can deny him this right. Politika’s source close to Dacic claims that everything Hashim Thaqi was saying after the Brussels agreement (including his statement that Serbian officials can only visit monasteries south of the Ibar River) is only an election campaign. He proves this with the fact that the Prime Minister will first visit Gracanica that is located south of the Ibar River, but which is also the headquarters of the famous Orthodox monastery that Dacic will most probably visit. Otherwise, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaqi appointed yesterday Milan Zdravkovic as the minister without portfolio who will be in charge of youth and innovations. The new minister is part of the newly formed group in the Kosovo Assembly ‘Joint Future” that has recently separated from the caucus of the Independent Liberal Party. This move may be interpreted as an attempt by official Pristina to help those Serb parties that are loyal to it and in competition with the joint list “Srpska.”

Dacic: Low number of returnees to Kosovo concerning (Radio Serbia)

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said in talks with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons Chaloka Beyani that the low number of returnees to Kosovo and Metohija was very concerning. Since 1999, 18,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have returned to Kosovo and Metohija, but less than 4,000 of them have realized sustainable return, said Dacic. In the first trimester of this year, only 47 IDPs returned, he said. He pointed out that the provisional Kosovo authorities were trying to exclude a large number of IDPs from electoral rolls pending the forthcoming local elections in Kosovo and Metohija. As announced by the Office for Media Relations, Dacic emphasized that what is the most important in the return process is that usurped property and torn down houses and flats be restored. The process is being obstructed by lengthy court procedures and privatizations in Kosovo, in which damage has been inflicted on IDPs who were employed in the companies that have been privatized meanwhile, stressed Dacic.

Mrkic: Without elementary conditions for returns to Kosovo (Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic discussed with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons Chaloka Beyani the long-standing problem of the IDPs from Kosovo, and pointed there were no elementary conditions for their return to the province. Mrkic informed Beyani about the efforts the Serbian Government, despite the budget restrictions, to solve the issue, reads the Foreign Ministry’s statement on its website. Mrkic voiced expectation that Beyani would recommend lasting solutions for the IDPs, both in terms of enabling their return to Kosovo and improving their life in places of their displacement. That requires significant funding and engagement of the international community, he pointed out. Beyani underlined the importance of seeing the situation on the ground and agreed that efforts were needed to find lasting solutions. He said Serbia had his support for those efforts and that he would send appropriate recommendations to the international forces in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as that he would approach potential donors. Mrkic and Beyani agreed to continue cooperation on that issue, reads the statement.

Vucic : Serbia respects all agreements (Tanjug)

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia adhered to all the reached agreements and that he was proud of the fact that Serbia’s word is respected all over the world. Commenting on various announcements of Pristina on the occasion of the agreement on the visits of Serbian officials during the local Kosovo election campaign, Vucic said that the actions of the Kosovo Albanian side should not be discussed. Serbia, for its part, will respect everything agreed upon in Brussels, with no intention of provoking anyone or showing power, he emphasized. We respect all the Serbian laws, all the norms and rules of EULEX, said Vucic, adding that, after the agreement in Brussels, it is not realistic for Pristina to use force.

Parliamentary Committee for EU Integration (Radio Serbia, by Sandra Pekic)

Serbia has fulfilled the main objective in 2013 in the field of European integration - it got the EU accession talks start date, Minister without portfolio in charge of the European integration Branko Ruzic said while addressing the Parliamentary Committee for European Integration.

Ruzic said that the explanatory screening for Chapters 23 and 24 in Brussels represents, both symbolically and technically, a new phase in relations between Serbia and the EU. Chapter 32 should be also presented soon, Ruzic said. He added that these are the three negotiating chapters which are of the greatest interest for European partners and on which the dynamics of EU accession will depend mostly. As he said, European officials assessed that administratively speaking, Serbia is more than ready for the start of negotiations on the EU membership.

“I expect the text of the negotiating framework to be adopted on 20 December, and that after that, an intergovernmental conference will be scheduled by the end of January the latest, to symbolically mark the start of negotiations,” Ruzic said, adding that the implementation of the Brussels agreement will define the dynamics of the negotiations, where the first point will be the November 3 local elections in Kosovo.

Presenting the second and third reports on the implementation of the Action Plan for the realization of recommendations contained in the European Commission’s annual report on Serbia's progress on its European integration course, Ruzic said that about 84 % of Europe's recommendations have been realized either partially or completely. As for the report on the implementation of the National Program for the Adoption of the Acquis for the first and second quarters of the year 2013, Minister Ruzic specified that the Government has covered 69% of the plan. Next week, according to him, Serbia expects the European Commission’s annual report on progress, and, as he stated, the document should be made more specific and easier to follow.

At the meeting of the Serbian Parliamentary Committee for European Integration, head negotiator with the EU, Tanja Miscevic informed the MPs about the structure for negotiations on Serbia’s EU accession.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

B&H political leaders without agreement to travel to Brussels (Politika’s correspondent in Sarajevo)

There is still no agreement in B&H regarding the implementation of the Sejdic-Finci ruling, i.e. the election of the B&H Presidency members, even though political leaders firmly promised on 1 October in Brussels they would come up with an agreed solution with the EU officials at yesterday’s meeting. They additionally guaranteed this with the signing of the principles for implementing the ruling, previously agreed, thus motivating EU representatives to postpone the announced sanctions to B&H. According to these principles, the B&H Presidency would still have three members who would be elected directly - one from the Republika Srpska (RS), and two from the B&H Federation where the RS and B&H Federation are separate electoral units. The responsibility for not fulfilling the given promise is with the five strongest parties in the B&H Federation (SDP, SBB, SDA, HDZ and HDZ 1990) that didn’t manage to agree the model according to which two members of the B&H Presidency will be elected from the B&H Federation. They took off for Brussels with completely riveted stands that they frantically defended the previous day, for a whole of eight hours of the meeting with the head of the EU Delegation and the EU Special Representative Peter Sorensen in Sarajevo. After the exhausting talks, they told journalists that there were five models on the table and that they didn’t agree on a single one and that they would continue in Brussels and try to reach a compromise. “Following the presented models and combinations, a joint estimate is to try to head in a good direction and continue talks in Brussels in an attempt to draw closer the stands on the principles signed on 1 October in Brussels,” said the HDZ leader Dragan Covic, noting that they also discussed the model harmonized by the two HDZ parties, according to which the B&H Federation would be one electoral unit and cantons sub-constituencies. The leader of the HDZ 1990 Martin Raguz and the leader of the SBB Fahrudin Radoncic also retained a dose of optimism. The SDP leader Zlatko Lagumdzija said none of the offered models could be accepted by the SDP. “The best model was offered by the European Commission that can serve for drawing stands closer,” said Lagumdzija, noting his party had two goals – to move B&H from a stalemate on its European path and, by implementing the Sejdic-Finci decision, to open the road towards reconciling the civil and national.

Dacic: Cooperation with RS remains political priority (Srna)

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic has stated that cooperation with the RS remains Serbia’s political priority, despite the austerity measures. Asked by Srna whether the economic measures of the Serbian Government will influence the joint projects with the RS, Dacic said that during the planning of the budget for next year they would take care that spending is as much as earning, and that in case of spending above the earned they do not enter the debt crisis. The Serbian Prime Minister said that, at the same time, relations with B&H on the whole were very important for Serbia, as well as region’s stability. He assessed as positive the fact that a joint session of the Serbian Government and the B&H Council of Ministers would be held at the end of next month. “Joint relations in the region are at a high level for which Serbia certainly deserves credit,” he stressed, adding that Serbia also wishes good relations with Albania and expects the visit by the Albanian Prime Minister to Belgrade.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbian police question ex-finance minister over bank sale (Reuters, 9 October 2013)

Serbian police questioned on Wednesday ex-finance minister and central bank governor Mladjan Dinkic as part of an investigation into the disputed sale of Nacionalna Stedionica bank.

Dinkic's Ujedinjeni Regioni Srbije (URS) party confirmed to Reuters he had been questioned for four hours. Dinkic denied any wrongdoing and said Nacionalna Stedionica had been one of the most successful projects in Serbia.

Dinkic is one of the highest ranking former state officials questioned so far as part of what the government says is a drive to root out organized crime and corruption as the former Yugoslav republic seeks to join the European Union.

The authorities are investigating allegations that the sale of a majority stake of Nacionalna Stedionica, held by private companies, to Greece's EFG bank was damaging for the state and blames it on top state officials, including Dinkic.

The government founded Nacionalna Stedionica in 2001 but over the next few years gradually lost the majority to private companies due to several capital boosts.

However, although privately owned, the bank continued to enjoy privileged treatment from the state and was given top assignments, which helped boost its value before the sale.

"The government profited on this sale, but private companies profited much more," said Radojka Nikolic, an editor at Biznis business magazine.

Since 2000, Dinkic has been central bank governor, finance minister and deputy prime minister in several successive governments. He was economy and finance minister in the current government until he was ousted in July.

No results after 8 hrs of negotiations among Bosnian politicians (Hina, 9 October 2013)

The leaders of the five major Croat and Bosniak political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday held eight-hour long negotiations on possible solutions to the implementation of the Sejdic-Finci verdict and only agreed that the negotiations would continue on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning in Brussels, only several hours before the expiration of the deadline, set by the Europe Commission.

The Bosnian political leaders reached in Brussels last week regarding the principles for the implementation of a European Court of Human Rights ruling preventing the members of one constituent people from electing the state presidency member from another.They agreed that by October 10 they would agree the election models that will satisfy the legitimate interests of the three constituent peoples and 'others', while at the same time conforming to international standards, according to the conclusions from a meeting chaired by European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele.

Census irregularities in Bosnia (World Bulletin, 10 October 2013)

No single Bosniak in the Republika Srpska should remain unlisted, said Sejfudin Tokic, President of the Bosniak Movement for Equality of People.

The first post-war census in Bosnia and Herzegovina is being conducted irregularly and obstructed especially in the Republika Srpska, said a representative of the Foundation "Census 2013" Senadin Lavic at a press conference on Wednesday in Banja Luka.

Lavic said that the obstructions are mostly evident in areas such as Prijedor, Osmaci and Srebrenica, mainly occupied by post-war returnees. Lavic claimed that the census procedures are irregular, especially the way census lists are filled.

Addressing the journalists, Lavic called on all employees who are engaged in the census procedure to work in accordance with the Law on Census which actually means to fill in the census lists exactly as they are told while examining the citizens instead of filling it on their own will.

One of the main issues in census irregularities is disabling Bosniaks to fill the census lists in the Republika Srpska where they lived before the war.

"We urge on the Bosniaks and Serbs to fill in the census lists in the areas of their pre-war residence without fear," said Lavic.

Sejfudin Tokic, President of the Bosniak Movement for Equality of People, pointed out that no single Bosniak should remain unlisted in the Republika Srpska.

"After the genocide committed against the Bosnian people in the Republika Srpska, we will not allow any single Bosniak to remain unlisted", Tokic stressed.

Tokic called on the President of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik to "give up threating non-Serbian citizens because of the way they identify themselves during the census."

Dodik could be prosecuted for such behaviour, concluded Tokic.

The 2013 census in Bosnia and Herzegovina held from October 1 to October 15, is the first one conducted after 22 years. Due to the huge number of people who were killed or fled the country during and after the Bosnian war, there is still no accurate data on the percentages of Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats and others living in the country.

Bosnia to retry three war crimes convicts after European court ruling (Reuters, 9 October 2013)

Bosnia's war crimes court has ordered retrials for three convicted men, including an Iraqi-born Islamic militant, after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Bosnian legal procedures had violated their rights.

The decisions related to two separate cases and could set a precedent for more retrials in the Balkan country, the site of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War Two.

The Strasbourg-based ECHR ruled in July in favor of two men who had appealed against their prison terms for crimes committed in Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Bosnia's war crimes court in the capital Sarajevo acted on the ruling this month and extended the retrial decision to a third convicted man.

The two men, a Bosnian Serb and Iraqi-born Abduladhim Maktouf, complained that they had been tried under a more stringent criminal code than the one that was in force when the crimes were committed.

The Sarajevo court on Wednesday ordered a retrial for Maktouf, whose five-year sentence for atrocities against Croat civilians in central Bosnia in 1993 was upheld on appeal in 2006. Maktouf fought on the side of Bosnian Muslim forces during the war.

"Bearing in mind that the ECHR's ruling from July 18 found the violation of ... human rights in the case of convicted Abduladhim Maktouf, ... the court found that conditions for a retrial have been fulfilled," the court said in a statement.

Last week, the Sarajevo court ordered a retrial for Bosnian Serb Goran Damjanovic, sentenced to 11 years in 2007 for war crimes against Bosnian Muslim civilians in Sarajevo in 1992.

It also ordered a retrial for another Bosnian Serb who was jailed along with Damjanovic but filed no appeal to Strasbourg.

The three were tried under a criminal code that took force in 2003, when the war crimes court was set up, and not under the 1976 code that was still in effect during the 1990s.

The Strasbourg court said Damjanovic and Maktouf could have received lighter sentences if the 1976 code, which Bosnia inherited from when it was part of federal Yugoslavia, had been applied. It concluded that "they had not been afforded effective safeguards against the imposition of a heavier penalty".

NATO Parliamentary Assembly Talks Security in Dubrovnik (Balkan Insight, by Boris Pavelic, 10 October 13)

NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly holds its annual session this year in the Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik, where it will discuss pressing global security issues.

The 59th annual NATO Parliamentary Assembly session, which runs from Friday until Monday in Dubrovnik, is one of the biggest political events ever to be held in Croatia.

It brings together about 360 parliamentarians from NATO member states and associated countries to discuss the situations in Syria, the Middle East and Kosovo, as well as future of Afghanistan after international forces withdraw in 2014.

About 800 officials in total are expected, among them NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Croatian President Ivo Josipovic.

The Parliamentary Assembly was formed in 1995, and although it is institutionally separate from NATO, it serves as a link between the Western military alliance and its member states’ parliamentarians.

Croatia is the youngest NATO member, having joined in 2009.

Serbia has a five-member associate delegation of MPs while Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia have associate delegations consisting of three parliamentarians each.