LOCAL PRESS

 

Parliament finishes debate in principle on budget bill (RTS/Tanjug)

 

The Serbian parliament has finished a debate in principle on the 2017 budget bill, with a debate on amendments to begin on Thursday. Nearly 300 amendments have been proposed to the budget bill, with over 30 put forward to the amended budget system bill. The proposed budget envisions total revenues of 1,092 billion Dinars, expenditures of 1,161 billion and a deficit of 1.7 percent of GDP.

 

Miscevic: I hope chapters 25, 26 to be opened next week, along with Chapter 5 (Beta/RTS)

 

The Head of Serbia's EU negotiating team Tanja Miscevic said that she hoped Chapters 25 and 26 on science, research, culture and education to be opened next week, together with Chapter 5, setting out a framework and rules for public procurement. “I am still very optimistic that this might be Serbia's first closure of two chapters, as well,” Miscevic said at the presentation of the European Commission’s Progress Report for Serbia at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, explaining that Chapters 25 and 26 would be temporarily closed, as there were no standards for their closure, which didn’t mean that Serbia would stop working on them.

 

Serbia has made progress, but much more left to do (Tanjug)

 

The European Commission's 2016 Serbia report takes note of the country's major progress in many areas, but there is much more that remains to be done, it was said at Tuesday's presentation of the report at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. The report indicates that Serbia has achieved progress in macroeconomic stability, encouraging economic growth and reforming the public administration, but that it needs to strengthen the rule of law and be more committed to fighting corruption, the conference was told. Serbia has made an ambitious start to implementation of reforms and they are already producing results, which need to be even more concrete, said the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Michael Davenport.

 

Belgrade approves 383 dialing code for Pristina (Novosti)

 

Serbia had sent a letter to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) on 3 December, as agreed by the two sides, EU spokesperson Maja Kocijancic confirmed to Novosti. According to the Brussels agreement, Belgrade was supposed to send a letter of approval to the ITU on allocating the 383 geographical code to Pristina if Telekom’s property in Kosovo and Metohija is transferred to its daughter company MTS d.o.o. and enables this company to receive a license for fixed telephony and temporary license for mobile telephony.

 

US Embassy expects “justice to be served” in the case of torching Embassy building in 2008 (Tanjug)

 

The US Embassy in Serbia is expecting that “justice will be served” in the shortest possible deadline after the Court of Appeals in Belgrade abolished the first instance verdict by which eight of the accused were sentenced to conditional prison sentences for the torching of the Embassy building in 2008, and instructed a retrial for them, Tanjug reported.

The Embassy also made an appeal for “an all-encompassing investigation of the facts” and the conclusion of the case in the shortest possible period of time, Tanjugwas told.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

PIC SB starts two-day session to discuss current situation in B&H (N1)

 

The Peace Implementation Council Steering Board (PIC SB) commenced its two-day regular session in Sarajevo on Tuesday, dedicated to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) over the past six months. N1 learns that one of the main topics of the session refers to the possible referendum announced by SDS leader Vukota Govedarica, economic issues and progress of B&H towards the EU. Former Communications Director of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) Christopher Bennett commented for N1 on Tuesday the current situation in B&H, characterizing it as obviously “paralyzed” and “pretty much dangerous”. He added: “This is obviously the topic of talks in PIC”. He reminded that stances of members of PIC are divided, which the latest case of the referendum on the Republika Srpska (RS) Day clearly showed. Among the issues included in the agenda of the session are issues of elections in Mostar and halt of election process in Stolac.

 

Yee meets B&H Presidency members, calls for reform of election system (TV1)

 

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Hoyt Brian Yee met with members of the B&H Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic and Dragan Covic in Sarajevo on Tuesday. Yee stressed the importance of constitutional reforms, including the reform of the election system in B&H. “The government in B&H does not function at the level at which it could meet the needs of citizens and it cannot ensure security and prosperity. I think the reform process will encourage the changes in the legislation, which will eventually require the changes in the Constitution,” Yee was quoted as saying. He also stated that the USA is committed to the Dayton model of sovereignty and territorial integrity of B&H, which does not mean it should not be changed. Yee and Covic discussed the reforms that need to be implemented in order to strengthen B&H institutions and improve political ambience and stability. Special emphasis was set on the reform of B&H Election Law, which refers to implementation of decisions of domestic and international judicial institutions. Yee and Izetbegovic discussed B&H's progress on the path towards the EU.

 

RS CC: RSNA’s decisions re referendum violate VNI of Bosniak people (RTRS)

 

The Council for Protection of Vital National Interest (VNI) of the Republika Srpska (RS) Constitutional Court (CC) ruled on Tuesday that Bosniak people's VNI was violated in the processes of adoption of decisions with regard to the referendum on the RS Day. The Council ruled that disputable decisions adopted in the RSNA following the referendum were published in the RS Official Gazette a day after the session of the RSNA, prior to delivery to the RS Council of Peoples (CoP) for consideration. According to the RS CC’s Council for VNI, the decisions itself are not violating interests of the Bosniaks. Speaker of the RSNA Nedeljko Cubrilovic (DNS) explained that the ruling of the RS CC refers only to procedural errors. He noted that the established violation of VNI only refers to the procedure, adding that the error lies in the fact that the decisions in question were submitted to the RS CoP and to the RS Official Gazette in parallel. Besides, Cubrilovic announced that thus, the RSNA will again discuss a report on results of the referendum. Deputy Speaker of the RSNA Senad Bratic (Coalition 'Domovina') said that they expected such outcome, adding that they only demand respecting of the Constitution of B&H, Constitution of the RS and rules of procedure. MP in the RSNA Vukota Govedarica (SDS) said that someone aims to prevent publishing results of the referendum. Head of SP Caucus in the RSNA Slobodan Protic and Viskovic criticized the aforementioned statement of Govedarica as unacceptable, saying that the referendum was legitimate. The reporter noted that thus, the four decisions related to the referendum are expected to be published in the RS Official Gazette in spring 2017.

 

Croatian President: Thousands of IS fighters returning to B&H (Hina)

 

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said on Tuesday that one should face the fact that thousands of fighters were returning from Islamic State (IS) to B&H and that the influence of other countries on B&H could not be ignored either. Grabar-Kitarovic was commenting on the statement by B&H Security Minister Dragan Mektic that reports of a growing danger of radical Islamism in B&H were false and unfounded. He was referring to an article published in the Monday issue of the Croatian Vecernji list daily which cited information provided by B&H's State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA). “I want B&H to remain integral. We fully support the sovereignty and political independence of B&H. I want it to become a member of NATO and the European Union as soon as possible.”

 

Macedonia Parliamentary Election 2016: VMRO-DPMNE rallies in Delcevo, SDSM in Kumanovo (Telegraf.mk)

 

Some four days away from the end of the election campaign, parties and coalitions resume presenting their programs to citizens all over the country. On Tuesday, the Coalition For a Better Macedonia led by VMRO-DPMNE will hold rallies in Berovo and Delcevo, while the Coalition For a Life in Macedonia will rally in Kriva Palanka and Kumanovo. The election caravan of the Coalition for Changes and Justice led by the Democratic Union will visit Kumanovo, and later in the day will rally at the Park Woman - Warrior in Skopje. Coalition Alliance of Albanians will present its program at a rally in Tetovo. Carriers of the MP candidate lists are also expected to present the election programs.

 

Dimitriev – SEC: All conditions for fair elections in place (Republika)

 

Caretaker Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev and members of the State Election Commission (SEC) discussed Tuesday on activities related to the election process and election day, the government said in a press release. The meeting attendees agreed that such discussions contributed to completion of all necessary activities related to preparation, administration of the election process. They also voiced the common goal for organizing fair, democratic and credible elections, as all conditions to that effect have been met. For the last few months, the Government and SEC have been fully dedicated to completing all activities for preparing the elections and expect successful election day, when citizens of Macedonia will freely express their will, the press release reads. SEC chair Aleksandar Cicakovski thanked the government on the constructive cooperation, saying that everything was ready for Macedonia to have fair, democratic and credible elections on 11 December.

 

Gruevski in Delcevo: On Sunday we will score another great referendum victory, victory for Macedonia (Republika)

 

On Sunday we will score another great referendum victory, a victory for Macedonia, we all went through a difficult period and the scenario conducted by SDSM, but now everything is clear and they cannot cope with the people who know to judge, who know how to say “NO” to Zaev’s scenario. Now it is already clear and we all know that he made a deal and has underestimated the people just to come into power, but the people understood the intentions of Zaev’s scenario. And that is that he wants to change the Constitution, the language and the state, VMRO-DPMNE leader and list carrier in the 4th electoral district, Nikola Gruevski said at Tuesday’s rally in Delcevo.

He lied to two million people that there are phantom voters in Macedonia, and with his scenario he has underestimated the people and the people will punish him on December 11. This nation is aware of the importance of their country and people like Zoran Zaev cannot lie the whole country, Gruevski said.

He also stressed that Zaev will seek continuation of the crisis if he doesn’t win the election and that if VMRO doesn’t win 63 MPs, DUI and DPA will want to propose the next Prime Minister of Macedonia. Winning 63 MPs is the only guarantee for peaceful country, he said.

 

Almodóbar: There is no better option than government led by Gruevski (Republika)

 

Macedonia is an extraordinary country with great potential and very promising future, but it is necessary VMRO-DPMNE to win the elections, Spanish Senator from the European People’s Party, Agustín Almodóbar said at VMRO-DPMNE’s rally in Berovo. Providing basic conditions, such as health care and education that will bring educated future generations. Supporting enterprises in sectors that have the greatest potential to contribute to opening new jobs for Macedonia to be attractive European country, such as the tourism sector. I come from a country that annually has over 70 million tourists and believe me when I say that supporting this sector means development and modernization of the country.  That’s why I know that you have a great a potential, immense tourist treasure to be a leading tourist destination and in order to succeed in that there is no better option than government led by Gruevski. But not only support for tourism or any other production sector, but also for the vision that the members of the European People’s Party have and which will bring future prosperity of Macedonia as modern and advanced country, Almodóbar said. Your success in economic growth and employment is recognized and praised by everyone, achieved in the terrible years of European crisis, he said. For Spain, Macedonia is a friendly country in which we trust, with which we have much in common, with which we maintain close relations. During these years, our ties are have strengthened and stand on a solid foundation and we share the same principles and beliefs. Spain has always supported Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic integration. Europe needs Macedonia that is strong and firm, that handles serious challenges and has beneficial policies for your citizens such as your realistic and achievable proposals that protect all citizens in the country, he said. We are a symbol that represents the whole of Europe. It’s future is guaranteed and everywhere we rule there is prosperity, as in Spain with leader Rajoy. Just as it needs to be on Sunday in Macedonia with your leader Gruevski. I have no doubt that Gruevski will be the best at carrying on to contribute for you with hard work and commitment  because there are real projects and policies for better life for all. He has our full support because he has shown that his leadership has yielded excellent results. Gruevski is a man of his word with excellent projects and committed to move Macedonia closer to NATO and EU and he is an example for many other European politicians. Therefore all vote on Sunday and win, said Almodóbar.

 

Macedonian diaspora in Switzerland: We are ready to go out to vote and protect the national interests (Voice of the People)

 

Macedonian diaspora in Switzerland in an interview with Slobodan Tomic’s “Voice of the People” responded to Zaev’s ideas for bilingualism and federalization. We, the Macedonians from Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia, the Macedonian diaspora, do not agree with the statement of Mr. Zoran Zaev to amend the Constitution, to introduce bilingualism throughout the whole territory of the Republic of Macedonia, divide the country into cantons.

The statement comes as a response to the recent forum held in Bern, Switzerland which was attended by opposition leader Zoran Zaev. “We’re sending a clear message to the public of the Republic of Macedonia for our revolt and anger over the statement of Mr. Zoran Zaev before the Albanian diaspora in the Swiss Confederation. Macedonian diaspora in Switzerland,” Macedonian diaspora in Switzerland said. The statement of Mr. Zaev before the Albanian diaspora was anti – Macedonian and with the aim to obtain Albanian votes, the Macedonian diaspora said, adding that it is ready to come out and vote in order to protect the national interests.

 

Albanian Diaspora President Lamallari to Gruevski: Zaev is our savior and a good visionary (Republika)

 

Albanian Diaspora once again reminds:

1. Macedonia to change the name;

2. Macedonia to change the flag, anthem and coat of arms;

3. Registration process of the population to begin, according to European standards and under OSCE monitoring. This was stated by the president of the Albanian diaspora Musa Lamallari in a message to VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski. Lamallari openly advocates federalization of Macedonia, and recently he repeated it several times in the media, stressing that it was the subject that he and SDSM’s Zoran Zaev discussed. Zaev, however, at the start of the election campaign in Bern, Switzerland, before the Albanian diaspora offered a concept of bilingualism and going beyond the Framework Agreement, accusing Macedonia for the outstanding disputes in the region. Lamallari now with a letter reminds Gruevski what the Albanian diaspora actually advocates for. “You are well aware that the Albanians in the diaspora dispute the election, just as the diaspora that I represent with my associates disputes it too. Also you are well aware that we as a diaspora advocate for something that is in no way different from the requirements of the European Union and NATO,” states Lamallari. In the letter to Gruevski, Lamallari describes Zaev as a savior and a good visionary, but also reminiscent of the past, which, as he said, the Albanians had with SDSM. So, you as we, the Diaspora, are aware that Zoran Zaev is a leader of a political party with civil concept, with European social-democratic principles, and its program promotes the idea of the well-being of citizens. This does not mean that in the past SDSM stuck to these principles, whose mistakes affected by the policies of Milosevic, even today, are in the memory of the Albanians and that’s why SDSM and Zoran Zaev’s option is regarded with skepticism, writes Lamallari in a written message to VMRO-DPMNE leader, Nikola Gruevski, seeking change of the name of the Republic of Macedonia and the state symbols.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Balkan War Crime Suspects Maintain Political Influence (BIRN, by Milivoje Pantovic, Denis Dzidic, Die Morina, Sven Milekic, Sinisa Jakov Marusic, Semra Musai, 7 December 2016)

 

Years after the Balkan conflicts, voters in former Yugoslav countries are still electing people who have been convicted of or charged with war crimes, showing how nationalism still distorts the political environment.

When Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj used his mobile phone to play a nationalist song hymning Donald Trump to MPs in parliament last month, it highlighted the disruptive influence that war crimes suspects can still wield in public life in the Balkans. Seselj’s war crimes case is currently on appeal at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia after he was acquitted in a first-instance ruling in March this year. But since he returned to Belgrade in 2014 after being granted temporary leave by the court for cancer treatment, he has brought his firebrand nineties-style rhetoric about creating a ‘Greater Serbia’ back to the country’s political scene. He was elected an MP in April this year and is now a member of the parliamentary board for the control of security agencies. Seselj has also announced that he will run for the Serbian presidency in 2017.

 

In almost all the countries of the former Yugoslavia, people who have been accused or convicted of committing crimes during the wars of the 1990s can still command enough public support to be elected. Politicians who have stood trial for war crimes have been elected to office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo as well as Serbia; a Hague Tribunal convict is also currently running for parliament in Macedonia’s upcoming elections. Their continued political careers are a reflection of how nationalism remains a powerful force in Balkan politics, used as a tool to rouse populist fervour and win votes at election time. It can also cause diplomatic problems between ex-Yugoslav states, as Seselj did when he publicly burned the flag of neighbouring Croatia in April last year. The fact that they are able to maintain political influence perpetuates an atmosphere in which denying that crimes were committed by ‘our side’ remains acceptable, analysts suggest. “By voting for them, we give them legitimacy, support their stances, endorse their past and their crimes and not only negate court decisions, but more importantly, negate the right of victims of those crimes to find peace and [legal] satisfaction,” argued Aleksandra Letic from the Helsinski Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska. “A society in which a number of citizens still support criminals and their political and economic power cannot even be close to being ready to face its past,” Letic said. There are no legal accusations of wartime wrongdoing against Vucic or any MPs from his party, but his coalition partners in the Serbian government, the Socialist Party, do have a war criminal on their main board.

Former Yugoslav deputy prime minister Nikola Sainovic was elected to the Socialists’ main board only a week after he returned to Belgrade after serving two-thirds of his 18-year sentence for a campaign of violence during the Kosovo war aimed at forcibly displacing the ethnic Albanian population. He was one of the closest and most trusted associates of Yugoslav president and former Socialist Party leader Slobodan Milosevic, who died during his trial in The Hague in 2006.

 

Bosniak Rebel ‘Daddy’ Makes a Comeback

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a series of politicians who are now in office have been charged with or accused of war crimes, but only one convict currently holds power - 77-year-old veteran Fikret Abdic. Abdic was elected in October’s local elections as the mayor of the north-western municipality of Velika Kladusa, where his crimes were committed. Before the war, Abdic was an executive at Agrokomerc, whose headquarters were in Velika Kladusa and which employed 13,000 people, making it one of the most prosperous agricultural firms in the former Yugoslavia. His business success won him local popularity and the nickname ‘Babo’ (‘Daddy’).

During the war, he founded the breakaway Bosniak-led Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia, which fought against fellow Bosniaks who were loyal to the Sarajevo government and cooperated with Serb and Croat forces. Abdic was convicted of responsibility for war crimes against Bosnian Army prisoners but released in March 2012 after serving two-thirds of his 15-year sentence. His election as mayor was possible because Bosnian law does not bar war criminals who have served their sentences from holding office. “I have excelled in all my positions and I will excel in this one,” he promised after the vote. Meanwhile an MP in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated political entity Republika Srpska, Dragomir Vasic, is currently standing trial for allegedly planning and implementing mass executions of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995. Vasic was elected to the Republika Srpska People’s Assembly in October 2014 as a candidate of the Serb Democratic Party founded by Radovan Karadzic, who was convicted this year of genocide and other crimes by the UN court in The Hague. Several other men who have been accused of war crimes also hold political office in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the state level, the current president of parliament’s House of Representatives, Sefik Dzaferovic - a wartime police commander in the town of Zenica - faced claims last year that he knew about war crimes by Bosniak forces against Serb civilians but did not report them. However, the state prosecution decided not to investigate Dzaferovic, sparking anger among Bosnian Serb victims’ groups and politicians who boycotted parliamentary sessions over the issue. Dzaferovic denied the claims: “These are all filthy lies,” he said. Zaim Backovic, a lawmaker in the state parliament who was a wartime member of Territorial Defence units in Sarajevo, was investigated by both the Bosnian and Serbian prosecutions over the killings of Yugoslav People’s Army troops when they were pulling out of the capital in 1992. The investigation in Sarajevo ended without an indictment, but the Serbian prosecution has continued its probe.

 

New Kosovo Court Casts a Shadow

Despite being in prison, Sami Lushtaku remains the mayor of Skenderaj/Srbica in Kosovo after being sentenced to seven years in jail for having command responsibility for the abuse of ethnic Albanian civilian prisoners at a Kosovo Liberation Army detention centre in the village of Likovc/Likovac during the war. Anyone convicted of war crimes under a final verdict in Kosovo is not allowed to hold office, but Lushtaku is taking his case to the Supreme Court in the hope of having his sentence quashed. Two other politicians recently convicted of committing war crimes during the late 1990s conflict in Kosovo have however stepped down from office after the appeals court in Pristina upheld their war crimes convictions. Fadil Demaku resigned as an MP and Nexhat Demaku quit as mayor of the Drenas municipality after their convictions was upheld. Both were jailed for three years for beating prisoners at the same KLA detention centre in Likovc/Likovac. All three politicians were all members of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s so-called ‘Drenica Group’, which has been the source of many of the country’s political leaders since the war, including President Hashim Thaci. The trial of the Drenica Group men sparked protests in Kosovo because KLA guerrillas are seen as freedom fighters who struggled for liberation against Serbian forces during the war. Many other members of Kosovo’s post-war political elite are also former KLA fighters, and have retained their influence despite the allegations against some of them, which are often seen by the public as attempts to tarnish a righteous war. Fatmir Limaj, who is currently an MP and the leader of the NISMA (Initiative for Kosovo) party, has been acquitted of war crimes by the Hague Tribunal and by courts in Kosovo.

However Limaj was charged with war crimes again last month by Kosovo’s Special Prosecution, which accused him of not preventing the murder of two Kosovo Albanian civilians in October 1998. He denies the allegation. Known as ‘Commander Steel’ during the war, Limaj headed the KLA’s 121st Brigade in the Pashtriku area. After the war, he became Kosovo’s transport minister, but his time in office was cut short by organised crime and corruption allegations.

Ramush Haradinaj - who was briefly prime minister of Kosovo in 2005 - was also acquitted of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Hague Tribunal, and given a rapturous welcome by thousands of well-wishers on his return to Pristina in 2012. He was cleared of torturing and killing Serbs and ethnic Albanians who were believed to have collaborated with Serbs at a KLA-run detention centre at Jablanica in 1998. Haradinaj now leads the opposition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK political party, although he resigned as an MP in February amid resistance to an agreement that the Kosovo government signed with Serbia in Brussels. Former KLA deputy commander Lahi Ibrahimaj, who was acquitted alongside him, remains an AAK MP. Haradinaj argued that Kosovo did its legal duty by sending suspects like himself to stand trial in The Hague: “We honoured the obligations that Kosovo and its people have to national and international law,” he told BIRN. However he also insisted that the KLA’s commanders should not have been prosecuted in The Hague: “We aspired to freedom, we fought for freedom. And the way that international justice perceived the war in Kosovo was incorrect,” he said.

But a greater challenge could still face Kosovo’s political elite when the first indictments are issued by the new Specialist Chambers in The Hague.

 

Croatian Nationalists Provoke Headlines

Retired general Branimir Glavas, the unofficial leader of a right-wing regional party, the Croatian Democratic Assembly of Slavonia and Baranja, HDSSB, was voted back into parliament at elections in September even though he is awaiting retrial for war crimes. During wartime, Glavas was the commander of the defence of the town of Osijek, and between the early 1990s and mid-2000s, he was also an influential MP with the dominant right-wing Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, as well as being the Osijek county prefect. He was convicted of war crimes in two cases - the ‘Garage’ case, in which he was accused of having command responsibility for the torture and killing of a civilian in front of a garage in 1991, and the ‘Duct Tape’ case, so named because the victims were tied up with tape and executed on a riverbank in 1991-92. Croatian law forbids people with final judgments for war crimes from holding office, but the Constitutional Court quashed Glavas’s verdict in January 2015, and he was returned to parliament in elections later that year, then re-elected in September 2016. He handed over his seat to a party colleague last month; the date for the start of his retrial is not yet known.

The popularity of his party has plunged, but Glavas’s HDSSB still makes headlines with stunts like parading a black-clad militia-style ‘youth unit’ called the Slavonic Hawk Guard at election campaign rallies last year. He also caused controversy by posing with a bottle of wine with Adolf Hitler on its label. Croatia’s HDZ-led government recently gave an important position to another retired general who was acquitted of war crimes, Ante Gotovina. Gotovina, who the UN court cleared in 2012 of the killings and deportations of Serb civilians during the Croatian Army’s Operation Storm, was appointed as a special adviser to the defence ministry to develop a national security strategy. Although not an active politician anymore, HDZ veteran Vladimir Seks, who has been accused of war crimes by Serbia, remains on the political scene, and until February was an adviser to Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic. The Serbian authorities investigated Seks, Branimir Glavas, 1990s Croatian interior minister Ivan Vekic and his assistant and police commander Tomislav Mercep for allegedly encouraging others to commit “genocide” against local Serbs in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar. Mercep meanwhile was sentenced by Zagreb county court in May to five-and-a-half years in prison for war crimes against civilians, convicted of command responsibility for the killings of 46 civilians by a reservist police battalion known as the ‘Mercepovci’ in 1991. Mercep’s political career has been unsuccessful, but he is often present at state ceremonial events and was a VIP guest at Grabar Kitarovic’s inauguration in February last year. Veteran Croatian political analyst Zarko Puhovski argued that the continued presence of people like Glavas and Mercep in public life was proof that the process of facing up the past has so far been unsuccessful. “This generation didn’t manage to do anything; maybe the next generation will,” Puhovski told BIRN.

 

‘Macedonian Hero’ Runs for Parliament

Former policeman Johan Tarculovski, the only Macedonian convicted by the Hague Tribunal of committing war crimes, is standing as a parliamentary candidate for the ruling VMRO DPMNE party at elections this month. Macedonia has no law barring war crimes convicts from holding political office. The Hague Tribunal sentenced Tarculovski to 12 years in jail for leading a police unit that killed ethnic Albanian civilians and committed other atrocities in the Albanian-populated village of Ljuboten near Skopje in 2001. The crime happened during the brief armed conflict between Macedonian security forces and a now-disbanded ethnic Albanian insurgent force called the National Liberation Army, whose leaders now run the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI party, which is part of the country’s current ruling alliance, alongside the VMRO DPMNE.

After Tarculovski’s release in 2013, the VMRO DPMNE-led government led by the VMRO DPMNE staged a hero’s welcome for him in Skopje, and since then he has become an icon for the ruling party, frequently giving patriotic speeches at party meetings and gatherings. He was also given a prominent position as the organisational secretary of the VMRO DPMNE, which portrays him as a ‘defender’ of Macedonia who fell victim to an unjust trial in The Hague.

The UN Tribunal sent four more war-crimes cases from the 2001 conflict back to Macedonia for processing by the domestic judiciary, but the ruling VMRO DPMNE/DUI coalition voted to abandon them and effectively close the books on the cases. All four cases involved alleged crimes by ethnic Albanian guerrillas, some of whom hold senior posts in the DUI. In the first case, the entire ten-person leadership of the National Liberation Army, most of whom are now in the DUI’s top ranks, was charged with command responsibility for actions that resulted in war crimes, such as a massacre of soldiers and police officers near the village of Vejce. The political leader of the insurgents, Ali Ahmeti, who is now the head of the DUI, was the most prominent figure linked to the Vejce case. The second case that was scrapped linked the insurgents with the alleged kidnapping and murder of 12 ethnic Macedonian civilians by paramilitaries near the town of Tetovo, whose bodies were later found in a mass grave. Daut Rexhepi-Leka was charged with leading the paramilitary group, but insisted he was not guilty. He was elected as an MP with the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians in 2006 while still subject to an arrest warrant, although he is now no longer politically active. Another case was opened and later closed against Sajdula Duraku, a National Liberation Army insurgent commander who became a senior DUI official. He was accused of cutting off the water supply to the town of Kumanovo during the conflict in 2001. Duraku served as agriculture minister from 2004 to 2006, then as a DUI MP, and is now the mayor of Lipkovo, the municipality next to Kumanovo. Unanswered questions about the 2001 conflict, which were never examined in court, have continued to poison relations between the country’s majority ethnic Macedonian community and ethnic Albanian minority, political analyst Ismet Ramadani, a former MP, told BIRN. “As long as the justice system is not functioning and continues to be influenced by political parties, it is very hard to go forward,” Ramadani said. “The mistrust between communities… burdens Macedonia’s path to democratisation and to ending the political crises which often risk the country’s security.”

 

Monitors: Bogus Voters Remain on Macedonia's Electoral Roll (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 7 December 2016)

 

Just days before Sunday's general elections, election monitors warned that there are still non-existent voters on Macedonia's electoral roll that the authorities have failed to delete.

The election monitoring coalition We Decide! (Nie Odlucuvame!), which is running an SOS hotline for reporting electoral irregularities and offers legal help to voters, warned at a press conference on Tuesday that the authorities have failed to fully clean up the electoral roll.

We Decide! said it had received repeated reports from voters about bogus names being listed as residents at their addresses. The initiative, launched by over 20 NGOs including the Macedonian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, the Foundation Open Society - Macedonia and the Macedonian Centre for European Training, said it had received some 30 reports of election irregularities, most of which were about non-existent voters, and all the problems it has encountered remain unaddressed.  "We are five days ahead of the early general elections. Our conclusion is that the electoral roll has not been cleared of non-existent voters, also known as phantom voters," Maja Velickova, a legal expert from the initiative, told Tuesday's press conference.  We Decide! said that the police failed to react quickly and check these reports, forcing those who reported problems to go through a complicated administrative procedure.

The State Electoral Commission, DIK, also did not react, it said. We Decide! said it could bring a criminal complaint against the DIK for allowing fake voters to cast ballots. The election monitors also said that over the previous 24 hours, they had received reports from voters who were initially registered in the electoral roll which is available online, but had disappeared after the roll was officially sealed last week. The monitors’ announcement dovetailed with a Monday report by NOVA TV, which cited an unnamed source from the main opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, who claimed that the electoral roll shown on the DIK website had been recently hacked and some names had been deleted from it. However, the SDSM source said that this was not a reason for great concern as the electoral roll was previously sealed and election materials have already been printed with the names of all the voters. "The list was locked one week ago and was sent for printing as it was, which means that these changes will in no way influence the voting," the SDSM source was cited as saying.

Responding to media inquiries about voters who complained about their recent disappearance from the list, the DIK said it was experiencing some "technical difficulties" with its website.

The head of the DIK, Aleksandar Cicakovski on Tuesday asked for more time to respond, because he said he still has no information about the voters who suspect they have been deleted.

At Tuesday's press conference, We Decide! also spoke about reports it received from employees in the public administration and in state enterprises about political party pressure to make them attend campaign rallies. "There is great fear among those who called us of revealing their identities because they are afraid the parties would find out... They don't want to take legal action against their superiors because they fear sanctions," Velickova said. The electoral roll of around 1.7 million voters has long been a matter of controversy. Despite several check-ups this year, there are still suspicions that it may contain a large number of bogus names which could be used to tip the election in favour of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party. The ruling party denies such allegations.

 

Opinion Poll: Gap Narrows Between Macedonia's Parties (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 6 December 2016)

 

Macedonia is seeing one of the tightest electoral races in its history as the gap between the ruling party and the opposition continues to narrow and the number of undecided voters remains high, the latest opinion poll suggests.

An opinion poll published on Monday suggested that the gap between the main ruling VMRO DPMNE and the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM has significantly narrowed while the number of undecided voters who could determine the outcome of the December 11 election is still high. A total of 23.3 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they would vote for the VMRO DPMNE party of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski while 19.4 per cent opted for the SDSM led by Zoran Zaev. The difference of 3.9 per cent points between the two parties is significantly lower than the 11 per cent difference at the last early general elections held in 2014.

The opinion poll was carried out by M Prospect agency and commissioned by Telma TV and the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, MCMS NGO. The survey further suggests that the junior ruling Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, enjoys 6.6 per cent support among voters while the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA has 3.3 per cent support.

2.7 per cent of the respondents opted for the newly formed Albanian Besa party while 2.5 per cent said they would vote for the right-wing opposition alliance VMRO for Macedonia. All the other parties and alliances had lower ratings on the national level which would barely guarantee them a seat in the 123-member parliament. One surprise was the 3.6 per cent score for the newly-formed ultra-leftist party Levica in the first electoral district, which includes the capital Skopje, which would make it eligible for one seat. The percentage of undecided voters and those who refused to answer the question remains high, however. 15.1 percent said they were undecided while 17.6 per cent refused to answer. Together this makes for 32.7 per cent of the voters, according to the survey. An additional 5.5 per cent said they would not vote. According to some experts, the swing voters and the habitual abstainers may hold the key to the election outcome if any party can mobilise them. The opinion poll was carried out between November 20-30 by telephone on a representative sample of 1,800 respondents during the first half of the electoral campaign.

 

Macedonia Prosecution at Risk if Ruling Party Wins Polls (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 6 December 2016)

 

The task of the Special Prosecution, SJO, to investigate high-level crime and corruption, must not remain unfinished, observers say, as Macedonia's ruling party pledges to wind it up if it wins the December elections.

Legal and political experts in Macedonia warn that if the Special Prosecution, SJO, is forced to stop raising new indictments in June 2017, as the original deadline predicts, Macedonia’s longstanding crisis will go back to square one. Without the prospect for justice being done for many alleged wrongdoings, they say the crisis will only worsen. “The SJO must not be scrapped. On the contrary, its deadline should be prolonged and it should work more intensely," former Macedonian MP Ismet Ramadani said. The main ruling VMRO DPMNE party insists that if it wins the December 11 elections, it will not prolong the June deadline for the Special Prosecution to raise indictments. “Prolonging the SJO’s deadline would mean prolongation of the political crisis,” VMRO DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski told an election rally in Probistip this weekend, repeating his old accusation that the SJO’s work has been unprofessional and biased. A former head of Macedonia’s Constitutional Court, Trendafil Ivanovski, disputed this logic, recalling that the SJO was formed to restore justice and the rule of law in a country with hopelessly dysfunctional regular institutions. “I am an optimist that the SJO, no matter who wins the elections, must get the country out of the crisis. After all ... with democracy restored, this institution will surely take on a different character. By then the regular prosecution, which has not done its job according to the law, should also resume its functionality,” Ivanovski told 21 TV.

Despite Ivanovski’s optimism, the election result will likely determine whether the allegations relating to the wiretapped recordings, on which Macedonia’s crisis revolves, are ever fully investigated, and the speed at which investigations move forward. While the ruling party opposes prolonging the SJO's deadline, the main opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, have said if they win the election they will speed up investigations and remove obstacles they claim have been imposed by the ruling party. Most of the allegations resulting from the tapes concern members of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party, including its president. Grueski is already under investigation by the SJO and has been charged in one case for allegedly ordering an attack on an opposition mayor.

The SJO has thus far raised two indictments and launched nine investigations, with many more cases in pre-investigation phase. The opposition and government critics demand a full investigation of the allegations contained in the wiretaps. Among other things, they accuse the authorities of rigging general and presidential elections in 2014, manipulating the justice system, intimidating and controlling the media and even covering up the murder of a young man by a police officer.

 

Why Macedonia’s Discredited Rulers Will Win Again (BIRN, by Roland Gjoni, Timothy Less, 5 December 2016)

 

Despite astounding revelations of corruption and malpractice, Macedonia’s two ruling parties are likely to win the early elections in December for a combination of reasons.

The latest shocker in Macedonia is that nothing is going to change. If opinion polls prove correct, elections in a week’s time will return to power the two political parties responsible for the biggest scandal in the country’s short history. However, reversion to the status quo is not necessarily what it seems because the political crisis of the last year has unleashed forces that cannot easily put back in their box. While the expected re-set is postponed, it is not cancelled.

 

Long road to elections

The back story to the early elections began in February last year when the leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party of Macedonia, SDSM, Zoran Zaev, began publishing leaked recordings of conversations, allegedly made by the then Prime Minister and leader of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party, Nikola Gruevski. For years, Gruevski had apparently spied on as many as 20,000 people, including ministers, opposition figures, civil society activists, journalists, businessmen, ambassadors and religious leaders. In the recordings, what appeared to be voices of Gruevski and his colleagues could be heard discussing how to rig elections through ballot stuffing and voter intimidation, orchestrating appointments to the judiciary and coercing media and businesses. Most disturbingly, they revealed ministers discussing ways to cover up the death of an innocent citizen who died after a police beating while participating in a VMRO DPMNE rally in 2011. The graphic evidence of abuse of power triggered unprecedented protests that unusually brought together both Macedonians and Albanians in a demand for the resignation of the two governing parties, VMRO DPMNE and its junior ethnic Albanian partner, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI. In desperation, the governing parties apparently then engineered an incident in the northern town of Kumanovo on the border with Kosovo, which pitched hired Albanian paramilitaries against the security forces. Ten guerillas and eight members of the security forces were killed in the shoot-out. It is widely believed that the intention was to inflame ethnic tensions and divert attention from the mounting corruption scandal. However, the public did not react in the way that the government had hoped. When evidence of its complicity in the events in Kumanovo came to light, Macedonian and Albanian demonstrators took the streets in even greater numbers, and the protests turned violent. At this point, international diplomats intervened by leaning on the government to submit to fresh elections. These demands were crystallized in the Przino Agreement, signed in July 2015 by all the major parties, which required Gruevski to resign and allow a transitional government to take power, comprising both government and opposition representatives. To ensure the integrity of these elections, the agreement contained a commitment to clean up the electoral roll, reform the Central Election Commission and open up the government-controlled media to the opposition. Parliament was required to appoint a new Special Prosecutor to investigate the abuses revealed in the leaked recordings. For months, the government dragged its feet over these obligations, leading the opposition to boycott proceedings and force the postponement of early elections. Last April, the VMRO DPMNE-friendly President unexpectedly issued a pardon for all politicians under investigation by the Special Prosecutor. As before, however, this only served to fuel protest on the streets. Finally, in August, under growing international pressure, the government agreed to meet its obligations. The pardons were withdrawn and the various political parties committed themselves to holding early elections in December.

 

Pillars upholding Gruevski’s power

Given the evidence of malpractice, the killings in Kumanovo, the suppression of protests and the government’s multiple tricks and deceits, it looks puzzling that the governing parties seem to be heading for victory in the elections, but only superficially so. Firstly, Gruevski’s government is not all about corruption and criminality and can hold up a track record of successes to his Macedonian voters. When Gruevski took power in 2006, Macedonia was in a state of national depression marked by tense regional relations and economic decline.Since then, he has overhauled the business environment, drawing in large inflows of investment, FDI, and has invested in infrastructure, generating steady economic growth -albeitat the price of raising the public debt. He has also championed a new national identity in which the Macedonian majority can take pride, most graphically by the rebuilding of Skopje in mock-Alexandrian style. By reaching a compact with representatives of the large Albanian minority – in effect allowing the DUI free rein in mainly Albanian western Macedonia – Gruevski has also brought political stability. These constitute real achievements in the eyes of many voters who see in Gruevski a strong hand that can secure economic growth and hold the country together. A second factor is the weakness of the main Macedonian opposition party, the SDSM. As the successor to the old League of Communists, the party comes with political baggage and its performance in office in the 1990s and 2000s was unimpressive. Its leadership is unconvincing, it offers little in the way of solutions to Macedonia’s myriad problems and it is clumsily opportunistic. Its recent attempts to cater to Albanian sentiment may have attracted some Albanians but it also has alienated many potential Macedonian supporters. Perhaps most seriously, for all its high-minded accusations, SDSM is itself seen as tainted by corruption. According to the VMRO DPMNE leader, before he began leaking the tapes, Zaev tried to use them to blackmail Gruevski to let the SDSM into government. Once the leaks began, VMRO DPMNE also presented alleged evidence that Zaev took bribes as Mayor of the town of Strumica. Zaev denies this but the charges dented his credibility. Perhaps most importantly of all, VMRO has captured the state. The party has a tight grip on the multiple organs of government such as the public administration, the judiciary, the state prosecutor, the police, the army, the intelligence services, universities, schools, cultural institutions and the many public enterprises. Employment in these is reserved for VMRO activists. It has also colonised many notionally private institutions, including businesses, the media and even NGOs, whose licenses to operate and access government funding effectively depend on promoting the party line. At the same time, the party deals ruthlessly with opponents. Those who do not endorse it risk harassment, intimidation, threats and, in the case of dissident journalists, physical attacks.

 

Paying off the Albanians

These factors are replicated on the Albanian side where the DUI maintains a similarly tight grip on power. As the political successor to a guerilla army, the National Liberation Army, the party can claim legitimacy on the basis of its achievement in securing the Ohrid Framework Agreement, the document that ended a short-lived war between the NLA and the security forces in 2001. This provides for proportional representation of Albanians in the state institutions, local autonomy and enhanced political and cultural rights. Fifteen years on, the DUI presents itself as the exclusive guarantor of Albanian interests and touts its wartime credentials when it is criticised. Like VMRO DPMNE, the DUI has nurtured a patronage network that has aligned the interests of many ordinary Albanian with those of the leadership. The party has exploited its power of recruitment within public institutions – a power enhanced by the legal requirements for ethnic quotas – to co-opt a constituency of dependent workers, many of whom are employed in well paid “no show” jobs. As the leaked recordings reveal, the DUI has also effectively captured the business community in western Macedonia, entwining the interests of the party and the economic elites. As a result, the DUI has successfully squeezed out most of its rivals, including the formerly dominant Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, winning the Albanian vote in every local and parliamentary election since its formation in 2002.

 

EU reluctant to criticize

International actors have also implicitly or explicitly contributed to VMRO DPMNE and the DUI’s stranglehold on power. Greece has dashed Macedonia’s hopes of joining the EU and NATO over the issue of Macedonia’s name, to which Athens objects. The political crisis within the EU has also seen enlargement fall on the list of European policy priorities. Faced with Europe’s indifference, with no real hope of joining the EU, the government is under little external pressure to carry out reforms that would otherwise promote a more pluralistic political system. The EU and the US have both tolerated Gruevski’s state capture, prioritizing security interests over those of democracy and the rule of law. This has become obvious during the current political crisis in Macedonia in which EU was late to get involved and then left much of the heavy lifting to powerless officials from the European Commission, around whom the government was able to run rings. Only when Germany intervened independently of the EU this summer was the combined weight of Germany, the US and the UK able to insist on the implementation of the Przino deal. Even together, their leverage remains limited because the government has little to lose from defying international partners. It has successfully obstructed the work of the Special Prosecutor and the conditions for free elections are barely in place. In some quarters of the EU, meanwhile, indifference has morphed into active support for the government. They see VMRO DPMNE and the DUI as guaranteeing the basic stability of a fragile state by keeping the lid on ethnic conflict. With all the other issues on their plate, the last thing Europe needs is a fresh eruption of ethnic conflicts in Macedonia, Kosovo or Bosnia. More recently, Macedonia’s robust determination to block migrants from entering the Schengen zone has reinforced a view that Gruevski is a reliable gatekeeper on the ground. In the meantime, non-European powers have exploited Macedonia’s inability to make inroads to the West by offering Gruevski unconditional support. Russia has propagated the notion that the protests against the government were a CIA-inspired revolution and that NATO staged the events in Kumanovo to divide Macedonia – all the while deepening its involvement in the local energy sector. China has extended Macedonia a no-strings funding line that mitigates any need for conditions-based EU funds. Together, these appear sufficient to offset efforts by Turkey to lend discrete support to the SDSM and to various new Albanian parties that are open to Turkish influence.

 

Reset on hold – but for how long?

Put together, these factors create the circumstances by which VMRO and DUI are set to be returned to power, albeit with shrinking support. In the short term, assuming the elections are declared free and fair, the EU will probably disengage, its work in Macedonia done. There will no doubt be further, limited unrest but the government will lay claim to a democratic legitimacy which, on the face of it, will be hard to deny. Many disappointed Macedonians will retreat into their private affairs or move abroad in search of a better life. However, behind the façade of political stasis, the political crisis has precipitated the most serious wave of Albanian discontent since 2001. Although their status has improved since the end of the 2001 armed conflict, Albanians remain second-class citizens in someone else’s state. They suffer from discrimination and unfair treatment, especially at the hands of the police and the courts. Their right to self-government has been stymied by the central government’s limited allocation of funding to Albanian municipalities. They still cannot use their language in most state institutions. In recent years, Albanians’ sense of alienation has further increased in proportion to VMRO’s attempts to fashion Macedonia as the national state of its Macedonian majority. Against this backdrop, Albanians have been deeply affected by the revelations in the leaked recordings, which not only prove that the state in which they are forced to live is rotten; but that their DUI representatives are part of the political establishment. Instead, the DUI is content to subordinate Albanian interests to VMRO and manipulate Albanians’ grievances to suit its leaders’ primary goal, their own self-enrichment. One of the most shocking aspects of the Kumanovo incident was the party’s apparent willingness to sacrifice old comrades from the 2001 war to sustain the ruling coalition. As a result, the patience of many Albanians has snapped, leading to street protests, defections from the DUI, the formation of new political parties and demands for new power sharing arrangements, including constitutional parity with Macedonians, a minority veto over municipal budgets and language equality. How this anger plays out remains to be seen. But in this electoral mandate, any government will come under unprecedented pressure to deliver a new deal for Albanians. If it fails, then the government will face renewed unrest and the rise of new forces which lay better claim to represent Albanian interests. Such a development not only threatens the stability of the new coalition. It also threatens the integrity of Macedonia itself. Roland Gjoni is a Researcher on Ethnic Conflict and Nationalism at University College Dublin. Timothy Less is the Director of the Nova Europa political risk agency.

The opinions expressed in the comments section are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of BIRN.