LOCAL PRESS

Serbian Interior Ministry members to be integrated into Kosovo police service (Tanjug)

With the signing of an agreement with 16 officers, in regional police units in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, the process of integration of former members of the Serbian Interior Ministry into the Kosovo Police Service has begun, reports Tanjug. The signing of the agreements was preceded by the verification of their identity, on the part of the Registration Agency of the provincial Interior Ministry, while their history was verified by the Kosovo police and EULEX. The process of integration of other members of the Serbian Interior Ministry, which is envisaged by the Brussels agreement, is to continue according to the planned dynamics, the procedure of recruiting and the Police Law, it was said in Pristina.

Vulin: Money going to north Kosovo (Novosti)

Collection of duties at the Jarinje and Brnjak administrative crossings is in accordance with the neutral status of the Brussels agreement, while the collected money will be exclusively spent in north Kosovo, Serbian Minister without Portfolio in charge of Kosovo and Metohija Aleksandar Vulin said. “The agreement is neutral in status, and it is very important to say that no customs are collected but duties, just as this is not a border but an administrative line,” said Vulin. He stresses that the entire money collected will be paid into the Fund for the Development of north Kosovo and will be exclusively spent in the region of north Kosovo. “Every obligation that we pay, we pay to ourselves. And every obligation we avoid, we avoid to ourselves,” said Vulin.

Zbogar: Slovenian bank had best offer (Politika)

The EU Special Representative for Kosovo, Slovenian Samuel Zbogar, is one of the three members of the Fund for north, along with the representatives from the Serb and Albanian communities.

The Serb side objects over the fact that an account was opened in the NLB Bank in Pristina, while the agreement in Brussels implied that this should not be a bank on the territory of Kosovo or Serbia proper. What is your opinion on this?

“There were no conditions regarding the location of the bank in the Brussels agreement. The conclusions of January 2013 only authorize the EU Special Representative to open an account in one of the business banks.”

Why have you specifically opted for the Slovenian NLB? Is it because it is a bank from your state of origin?

“The Office of the EU Special Representative has invited three largest banks in Kosovo that have operative units in north Mitrovica, to present their offers of banking services. The main criterion of choice was the price of domestic transactions, international transactions and offered interest rate. The offer of the NLB Bank was the best according to all criterions. As the head of the EU Office and the Special Representative of the EU, I advocate the interests of the EU and all of its members and not only of my own state.”

Official Belgrade representatives claim that it was agreed that at the integrated crossings there would be no customs officers with Kosovo state insignia. Why do Pristina customs officers have visible insignia?

“I can’t comment the agreement between Pristina and Belgrade.”

Serbia should be graded according to what it has done – Ruzic (Tanjug)

Branko Ruzic, Serbian Minister without portfolio in charge of EU integration, presented to officials in Athens Serbia’s priorities along the path toward the European Union. Greece demonstrated a high level of understanding concerning Serbia’s engagement in the activities during its EU presidency, which will start on January 1, Ruzic told Tanjug. Greece’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Kourkoulas, who will attend the meeting in Brussels on December 17, showed much understanding for Serbian arguments concerning a negotiating framework with the European Union, Ruzic said. The talks in Athens also dealt with the opening of certain negotiation chapters, Serbia’s capacities, and timeframes within which they could be closed, he noted. The minister voiced expectation that the negotiating framework would be adopted and the date set for the first Serbia-EU intergovernmental conference by the end of January. “I think that we should be graded according to what we have done, and not just be declaratively supported,” the Serbian Minister said.

Serbia needs to strengthen its asylum system, capacities (Tanjug)

Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks has said that Serbia needs to strengthen its asylum system and reception capacities in order to cope with the ever increasing number of arrivals, in particular from war-torn Syria, and promised to call on international donors to provide Serbia with assistance in relation to that. In a letter addressed to Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, the CoE Commissioner says that Serbia should first ensure that every asylum seeker is “accommodated in a place which meets international standards”. Muiznieks says that he visited the reception center in Bogovodja (55 km southwest of Belgrade) in November, witnessing on that occasion that additional efforts are needed in order to ensure that the human rights of every person in need of international protection are fully respected and protected. During the visit, he saw that all 160 places were full and, as a consequence, about 230 asylum seekers were living in the nearby forest, in basic shelters such as wooden shacks or tents, with no access to sanitation services. The Commissioner notes that Serbian law establishes that the registration of asylum seekers should be done in one of the existing two asylum centers, but a number of persons do not get registered, notably due to these centers' inadequate reception capacity. The Commissioner underlines that even registered asylum seekers who submit their application have almost no prospect of being granted refugee status or subsidiary protection. “With only three persons recognized as refugees since 2008, the recognition rate is close to zero in Serbia,” reads the letter. Muiznieks stresses in his letter that the situation is very serious and requires urgent action by the Serbian authorities, which should in particular increase the capacity of accommodation centers, establish a protection-sensitive screening mechanism able to cope with the needs of asylum seekers, improve the functioning of the Asylum Office as an independent unit within the Ministry of the Interior, and improve alignment of the processing of asylum claims with the management of accommodation. In the letter addressed to Dacic, he says that he will urge international donors, such as the European Union, to provide Serbia with assistance in resolving the issue of increasing number of asylum seekers. “However, the Serbian authorities must take the lead and demonstrate resolve in ensuring proper reception and effective protection of the human rights of all asylum seekers,” Muiznieks concludes.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

House of Peoples adopts amendments to B&H electoral law (Dnevni Avaz)

The draft amendment to the Electoral law, proposed by the Chair of the House of Peoples Stasa Koasarac (SNSD), was adopted under urgent procedure with a majority vote in the House of Peoples of the B&H Parliamentary Assembly. Of the 14 present delegates, the draft law was supported by nine delegates (SNSD, DNS, HDZ B&H, SDP, HDZ 1990, HSP), two were against (SDS, PDP) and three abstained (SDA). With the adoption of this SNSD law, two draft amendments to the electoral law are presently under parliamentary procedure - the first, which was recently adopted in the House of Representatives of the B&H Parliamentary Assembly at the proposal of the SDS, and the just adopted draft proposal of the Chair of the House of Peoples. The applicants claim for both drafts that it implies the implementation of the ruling of the B&H Constitutional Court on harmonizing names of towns and municipalities in the Republika Srpska (RS) with the RS Law on Territorial Organization.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

A new mass grave found in Serbia (World Bulletin, 14 December 2013)

The bodies were found after excavators removed the concrete pavement in the yard of a road maintenance company in Rudnica. Human remains believed to be the bodies of hundreds of Albanians killed during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo have been found just inside the Serbian border, a Kosovo official said on Friday. More than 14 years after the war ended, Kosovo officials have been pressing Serbia to continue to look for bodies on its territory that may have been moved by Serbian forces trying to cover up killings of majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. "For many years, we have cooperated with informers and they told us that there may be more than 250 bodies, they even mention there may be 400 bodies," Prenk Gjetaj, the head of Kosovo's state commission for missing persons, said.

Some 10,000 people are believed to have killed by Serbian police and army, which were halted when NATO launched air strikes against Serbia in 1999. More than 1,700 people are still missing. The investigation leading to the discovery was a joint effort by Kosovo, Serbia and the EULEX, the EU's justice and police mission in Kosovo.

Officials from Kosovo and Serbia are expected to meet soon to discuss how to proceed with further excavations. The war crimes prosecutor's office in Belgrade declined to comment.

The bodies were found after excavators removed the concrete pavement in the yard of a road maintenance company in Rudnica, just inside southern Serbia, near its border with Kosovo. Gjetaj did not say how many bodies were found but said a big office building on the site had to be destroyed during the dig. If confirmed, it would be the sixth mass grave found since 2000. The largest, containing the bodies of more than 800 Kosovo Albanians, was found in 2001 in pits at a police training ground outside Belgrade.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but relations with Serbia have only started to normalise in the past year, after the EU brokered a deal to integrate the mainly Serb north with the rest of Kosovo. In exchange, Serbia was offered talks on EU membership, expected to start in January.

Serbia Adopts 2014 Budget With Europe’s Highest Fiscal Deficit (Bloomberg, by Gordana Filipovic, 13 December 2013)

Serbia adopted 2014 overall budget framework that includes the highest deficit target in the Balkans region even as the government capped public wages and pensions and lowered subsidies for state companies. The budget, backed by 133 lawmakers in the 250-seat parliament today, sets the general government deficit at 7.1 percent of economic output, up from 6.5 percent this year. It sets 2014 spending at 1.11 trillion dinars ($13.3 billion) and revenue at 930 billion dinars. “This budget is a chance for a new start” and will ensure that the next year’s gap doesn’t rise to 9 percent of gross domestic product, Premier Ivica Dacic told lawmakers on Dec. 9.

Dacic, whose cabinet shuffle in September narrowed his majority in parliament to one, will raise taxes, push back the retirement age for women, crack down on the shadow economy and cut subsidies to state-owned companies to halt an increase in public debt by 2016, which is expected to stay within 70 percent of GDP. Serbia will raise 6 billion euros ($8.24 billion) through loans and debt issuance, including a $750 million Eurobond, to cover the gap and settle debts next year, according to the document.

Bosnian war-crimes suspect released from prison (AP, by Mike Donoghue, 13 December 2013)

Edin Sakoc released into custody of friend while awaiting trial. A Bosnian war-crimes suspect recently living in Burlington has been released from prison while he awaits his federal court trial. Edin Sakoc, 54, of Riverside Avenue is charged with lying to immigration authorities by denying involvement in war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia two decades ago. He has denied the two charges. Judge William K. Sessions III agreed to release Sakoc into the custody of a friend, Thomas Tailer, after he testified Thursday that he was willing to be responsible for Sakoc. Sakoc, a Bosnian Muslim, is accused of raping a Serb woman in July 1992, aiding in the killing of two elderly relatives she was caring for and burning down the house they were staying in, court records state. The relatives were the woman’s mother and aunt, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Sessions initially ruled July 29 that Sakoc, who was unemployed, posed a substantial risk of flight and that he was “charged with an extraordinarily serious offense." The judge overturned his earlier ruling Thursday after the defense put together a sufficient plan to ensure Sakoc’s appearance at court, while also protecting the community, according to Federal Public Defender David McColgin, who is part of the defense team. Sakoc has “tremendous support from the community. He’s a peaceful person,” McColgin said. He said the government’s case is not as strong as first thought. Co-counsel Steven Barth and McColgin filed a 19-page motion with 27 pages of supporting letters and documents. The motion, letters and documents are heavily redacted in several area to prevent the public from knowing the representations made on Sakoc’s behalf to Sessions.

Sakoc, who previously lived in Barre, became a naturalized citizen in September 2007. He later moved with his wife and six-year-old daughter to Burlington. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia A.P. Cowles in Burlington said the prosecution was still strongly opposed to any release. Sakoc’s initial lawyer, Robert Behrens of Burlington had won his client’s release on July 26, a Friday, but the defendant’s family was unable to deliver both his passports to the court before it closed for the weekend. The following Monday, before Sakoc could be released, prosecutors filed a motion to have him detained. He remained in custody until Thursday.

Sessions issued a ruling in October declaring it a “complex case,” which means both sides will get extra time to prepare for trial. Sessions has said he believes prosecutors in Vermont must prove Sakoc participated in the cited war crimes to show he lied to immigration authorities when he disavowed any involvement. The prosecution said Sakoc was interviewed in June and admitted being at the scene of the rape and murder in Bosnia in 1992. Witnesses, including the rape survivor, also placed Sakoc there, Cowles told the court during the summer. Behrens said in July the charges Sakoc were more than 20 years old. Behrens said his client has been in Vermont since 2001 with no problems except a minor case that was sent to court diversion. Behrens offered the court two letters from supporters. He also noted a family had offered to allow Sakoc, his wife and their 6-year-old daughter to move into their home, and the family promised to report any violation of conditions of release. Sessions, in his initial decision to hold Sakoc noted he owned two properties in Bosnia and faces deportation if convicted.

The government has said Sakoc had traveled to Bosnia five times since 2001. Authorities say Sakoc repeatedly lied about his past war crimes while applying to become a U.S. citizen, as well as when he applied for refugee status in March 2001.