Belgrade DMH 211013

LOCAL PRESS

Drecun on Dacic’s visit to Kosovo (Tanjug)

The Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun stated that the visit of Prime Minister Ivica Dacic to Kosovo and Metohija represents a strong message that Serbia has stood and will keep standing by the Serb people in the province and that he will encourage representatives of the Serb people to go to the polls on 3 November en masse. “Serbian Prime Minister has certainly not gone to Kosovo just to pray. It is a strong message that the state of Serbia has always stood by its people in Kosovo and it will continue to do so in the future,” Drecun said.

Pantic: Serbs have no other choice (B92)

The forms for the upcoming elections in Kosovo are without symbols of the Kosovo republic, in the Serbian language, but in Latin script, Deputy Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Krstimir Pantic told B92’s evening broadcast “Impression of the Week.” He said he had received assurances from the EU High Representative Catherine Ashton that these elections were neutral in status. Pantic, who is also the candidate for the Kosovska Mitrovica mayor, agreed with the candidate for the SDP list Oliver Ivanovic that the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija had no other choice but to turn out for the 3 November elections. “The Serbs have no other choice but to turn out for the elections since these elections will not be only local and the Serbs will not recognize independence of Kosovo. On the contrary. They will finally receive institutions recognized by the international community, but also institutions that the Albanians will have to respect. For us these institutions were the only legitimate and legal institutions, but not for the international community and the Albanians,” said Pantic. He said these institutions would have full legitimacy not to let forceful introduction of independence or anything that would even indirectly imply recognition. He adds that the Serbian Government will do everything for the agreed in Brussels to be fulfilled. Ivanovic told B92 that the Kosovo Serbs must remain with the Belgrade institutions. “They agreed and they will not step away from that. We are left with maintaining good relations with Serbia or to remain all alone. We have no relations with Pristina, we haven’t had them with Brussels for a long time, in case we refuse to turn out for elections we will remain alone, and this is bad,” said Ivanovic. Speaking about the formation of the Serbian list, Pantic notes that everybody can join the list, while many parties rushed with registration of lists without waiting for the stand of the Serbian Government. Ivanovic says the Government should treat all Serbs equally. Pantic says Ivanovic could have been part of the “Srpska” list if he wanted to, but Ivanovic said this was untrue. “Nobody asked, and if they had, I wouldn’t have accepted, because I think this is wrong. With what goal did they form a joint list?” asked Ivanovic. He opines that citizens should vote for him since only he can manage Mitrovica and advocates truly good relations with Belgrade, compared to those who have quarreled with Belgrade. He rejected Pantic’s allegations that he had already made agreement with the Director of the Albanian Office in northern Mitrovica Adrijana Hodzic.

Nedeljkovic dismissed by Serbian Government (B92)

The Kosovska Mitrovica District Managing Head Radenko Nedeljkovic was dismissed at today’s Serbian Government session. The new Kosovska Mitrovica Managing Head is Vaso Jelic. The Serbian Government has also dismissed Vuk Antonijevic as the acting director of the Public Health Institute with headquarters in Kosovska Mitrovica.

Kostic: World to prevent election theft (Novosti)

“The Union of Serb Municipalities, which will be formed following the 3 November elections, should be woven into the Serbian Constitution. The state will view it as its own institution and it will have all legal powers to finance it. The significance of the Union is immense for all of us who live here, because this institution will offer us guarantees for a normal life,” Kosovo District head Vladeta Kostic, who is also the head of the Serbian (Srpska) Civil Initiative,  told Novosti. He stressed that Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic’s visit to the province was of immense importance and he will convince the Serbs that they need to go to the polls.

Election conditions are not most favorable for the Serbs. How much will this influence the result and turnout?

“Conditions for participation of Serbs in the local elections had been acquired with the signing of the Brussels agreement. Elections are its essence, while the final goal is the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities. Despite all irregularities in polls and sabotage of elections by Pristina, it is necessary for the Serbs to turn out for the elections and choose their real representatives.”

Will some of these irregularities be corrected?

“Pristina has subsequently corrected the promised in Brussels to appoint, before the NGO sector, a neutral member in the Central Electoral Commission (CIK), in this case Nenad Rikalo.”

It is still unclear how many displaced people have the right to vote.

“The CIK is coming forward with different data. It happens that they first announce one number, and the following day this number increases by several thousand. Thus, we are still uncertain regarding that, we are waiting for the CIK to revise final polls so we can determine the exact number of voters. There is no logic in the CIK’s assertions that there are more than 1.7 million voters in Kosovo and Metohija, while they claim there is a total of around 2.5 million inhabitants. It is impossible that 80 percent of the inhabitants have the right to vote. All that shows that the CIK is in chaos and that it isn’t doing a good job.”

Is there a threat of an election theft?

“Obscurities regarding polls and illogical number of voters are a clear indicator that a theft is being prepared. Still, I think that Pristina will have a problem with the international community that is very much interested for these elections to pass in a fair atmosphere. I hope they will not allow them to steal the elections.”

 

REGIONAL PRESS

EU seriously concerned with situation in B&H (Dnevni Avaz)

EU foreign ministers have voiced serious concern over the failure of political leaders in B&H to implement the Sejdic-Finci ruling of the European Court of Human Rights. The EU Ministerial Council, which is convening today in Luxembourg, supported the efforts of the European Commission to mediate, through a high-level dialogue, in the dialogue among B&H leaders.

“The Council voices full support to the efforts invested in alleviating work on this issue, headed by the EU special representative and the head of the EU Delegation and the European Commission. It is on B&H political leaders to achieve necessary progress. Lack of  a solution in the Sejdic-Finci case prevents B&H from achieving further progress towards the EU. The Council will discuss this issue at a meeting in November,” states the draft proposal. 

Radoncic: I think we are very close to a solution (Srna)

The leaders of parties with headquarters in the B&H Federation are intensively holding bilateral negotiations, so that it remains to be seen in the following days whether certain progress has been achieved regarding the implementation of the Sejdic-Finci decision, the SBB leader Fahrudin Radoncic told Srna. “I think we are very close to a solution, under the condition that this also suits Croat parties and other participants to the negotiations on the decision of the Strasbourg Court,” says Radoncic. He opines that if the domestic politicians do not reach agreement, even without Brussels’ help, on one of some ten options, i.e. models of direct election of the B&H Presidency members, they will have to return to the indirect manner of elections. Radoncic says he, as well as other participants of this process, still haven’t received any paper from EU representatives that should be a resume of the last meeting in Brussels. “The agreement is also that we will not inform the public of the details of the negotiations for the time being,” Radoncic says. The main board of the SBB fully supported yesterday the party leadership that rejected the proposal for the Sejdic-Finci decision to be resolved in the manner of creating two “mathematical” units in the B&H Federation. The statement following the main board says that this party will remain part of the solution and support strongly any acceptable to them proposal, even though it considers that the easiest way of implementing this decision is with a single decision at the B&H level, i.e. with the indirect manner of electing members of the B&H Presidency.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Will Serbia be next? (New Europe, by Theodoros Benakis, 20 October 2013)

As reported by CNN a few days ago, Serbia’s prime minister, Ivica Dacic, has publicly declared his “certainty” that his country will be the next member of the European Union. If this is true, Serbia will become the third country of the former Yugoslavia to join the European family after Slovenia (2004) and Croatia (July).

But Dacic’s optimism might be short lived because his certainty is not shared by many of the EU members.

Serbia still has plenty of unresolved issues it needs first to address. The issues include the country’s economic infrastructure, a high level of corruption, minority rights and the Kosovo question. This is why it is still hard to picture Serbia in the EU. Its future in the bloc remains rather blurry.

However, one only has to visit Serbia to see the major changes especially in the northern part of the country which borders Hungary. The changes are striking if one hasn’t been to Serbia recently and especially since it was still a part of Yugoslavia some 20 years ago.

One of these changes is the main motorway that connects the southern part of the country with Belgrade and that runs in the direction of Croatia and Hungary. It meets European standards. Even the petrol stations along the way do not remind you that you are travelling in the heart of the Balkans. Belgrade too. The city’s buildings that were originally designed in Orwell fashion have undergone a transformation and the landscape is now that of a modern city. Also, the park grounds around the Sava River in the summer are not that much different that what you can find in most other European cities.

What is more, encircling the capital is a newly-constructed ring road and the middle class neighbourhoods of Belgrade. There is also the city of Novi Sad where consumers can spend their time and money at the Indija Shop Village that is located in the fields between Belgrade and Novi Sad.

As regards the country’s political landscape, it is now more evident than ever before that parties and politicians have swapped their extreme nationalist rhetoric for something more moderate and peaceful.

But is all this enough to reward Serbia with the coveted membership to the EU? Probably not.

On the other hand, Serbia’s situation is very similar to Croatia’s accession to the EU.

It is well-known that while Croatia’s entry to the EU was celebrated with great feasts, not everyone was happy to welcome Croatia. Its membership provoked many negative comments in the media.

After all, Croatia still had an extremely low credit rating and a political class blamed for years of corruption when it pushed open the heavy doors of the EU.

Serbia is not all that different from Croatia. In fact, both countries are facing a jobs crisis with a rising rate of unemployment. According to official data, Serbia’s rate of unemployment reached an all-time high of 25% (though this is not such a big deal if you compare it to the situation in Greece and in Spain at the moment).

What is more, Serbia has amassed a foreign debt of €19bn and a budget deficit to GDP ratio of 6.5%.

Another issue to consider is that of reforms. According to Serbian officials, however, these reforms can only be completed if and when their country joins the EU.

“These foreign investments will not happen if Serbia is not a part of the modern world,” Dacic told CNN.

What is more, Serbia’s economy has contracted 1.7% in 2012, due to its close ties with the Eurozone. Serbia, which has a very low minimum wage - even lower than China’s, is also struggling to stop a mass exodus of skilled workers who are emigrating in search of more and better career opportunities.  As regards the corruption that characterises the country’s elite politicians and businessmen, this is something that has yet to be resolved. According to Radio Free Europe, many Serbian companies were destroyed by offshore firms. This is a sign that the country’s wealth is being kept safely away from taxation in Serbia.

Last but definately not least is Kosovo. Serbia does not recognise Kosovo’s independence which was declared in 2008. Now, the EU is in the middle of this conflict, trying to broker an agreement between the two sides. The Kosovo question is an old one in Serbian society and during the past decades has cost both countries much bloodshed.

As for the EU, it already has one negative experience with the Turkish occupation of the northern part of Cyprus.

Meanwhile, Serbia’s government announced a series of austerity measures to cut public sector wages and increase taxes in order to reduce public debt and avoid bankruptcy, as reported by the Associated Press last week.

As regards taxation, Serbia has announced plans to introduce a so-called Solidarity Tax that will range from 10% to 25% on salaries in the public sector that are above 60,000 dinars. This is about €500 a month. The measure will affect up to 350,000 state employees in Serbia, a country with a total population of 7.3m.

Other measures include a major crackdown against corruption and working closely with the police’s fraud squad to combat tax evasion which is reportedly rife in both the public and the private sectors. The budget also foresees an unpopular increase in the value-added tax (VAT) from 8% to 10% on food items beginning in 2014.

Also, the increase of the retirement age has been finalised by the government. Women, for instance, will be retiring three years later at the age of 63 years. Another measure is the reduction of state subsidies for loss-making businesses and more cuts to government spending.

The aim of all these measures is to save €1.5bn and reduce the budget deficit to GDP ratio to 2% by 2017.

Despite Serbia’s EU dreams, accession can be a very slow process. Croatia for example joined the EU after eight years of negotiations. Peter Stano, the spokesperson of Štefan Füle, who is a member of the European Commission in charge of enlargement, told CNN, however, that Serbia has met the economic and political criteria needed to become candidate status.

But at a time when the EU is actually struggling to resolve some difficult issues of its own and when the future of the bloc is at stake, it is probably not such a good idea to bring in any new members.

Some analysts believe Croatia had friends in the “right places” and that this is what got them into the EU. If this is indeed the case, it is one more reason that further enlargement of the EU will not solve any of the problems – not for Serbia and definitely not for the EU.

Croatia Opposition Accused of Stirring Up Intolerance (BIRN, by Boris Pavelic, 21 October 2013)

A Croatian Serb MP has accused the main opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union, of helping to stoke up unrest over the installation of bilingual signs on some state buildings.

Lawmaker Milorad Pupovac said on Saturday that parts of the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, were destabilising the country in an attempt to restore right-wing rule by supporting war veterans who have been protesting against the adoption of Serbian as a second official language in areas of the country with large Serb minorities.

Pupovac accused the HDZ’s leader in the wartime flashpoint city of Vukovar, Ivan Penava, of “openly agitating with very radical political groups, on the verge of tolerance”.

“That’s dangerous for Croatia and for the HDZ, which, as a main centre-right party, suddenly creates the foundations for the total destabilisation of constitutionalism in Croatia,” he said.

Pupovac said that he was “not sure to what extent HDZ president Tomislav Karamarko is participating in that campaign”.

But he claimed that “during the past year, imaginary enemies have been produced in order to restore right-wing conservative ideologies which want to limit freedom in Croatia”.

Vukovar was besieged and destroyed by Serb forces in wartime and has been the focus for recent anti-Cyrillic protests.

In the latest incident, bilingual signs were again torn down from state buildings by unknown assailants on Friday night.

Last week Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic met some of the war veterans who have been resisting the introduction of bilingualism – the so-called Headquarters for the Defence of Croatian Vukovar.

They agreed that police who have been guarding the bilingual signs in the city would be removed from the streets.

Milanovic said after the meeting that “now everybody has to behave according to his own conscience”.

However the signs were ripped down again just two days after the meeting.

The Headquarters for the Defence of Croatian Vukovar said however that it “hadn’t agreed that the signs would not be pulled down”.

Since the beginning of this year, the war veterans, supported by the HDZ and the Catholic church, have been opposing the introduction of bilingualism in Vukovar, arguing that wartime memories are still too painful.

Bilingualism is being introduced for official purposes in areas where Serbs make up more than a third of the population, in line with Croatia’s minority rights law.

Visa-free agreement between Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina comes into force (Voice of Russia/Interfax/TASS, 20 October 2013)

An agreement on mutual visa-free travel for citizens of Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina comes into force on Sunday.

An agreement on mutual visa-free travel for citizens of Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina comes into force on Sunday.

 The document replaces the agreement on mutual travel for citizens of the two countries’ from September 24, 2007.

 Under the new treaty, people from either country can stay in the other for 30 days within each 60 day period from the date of first entry, the Russian foreign ministry said.

 The duration of stay for holders of diplomatic and business passports remains 90 days. Employees of diplomatic institutions, consular offices and international organisations’ missions and members of their families can stay within the whole period of their accreditation, the ministry said.

 "Other categories of citizen, including job seekers, need a visa," the ministry said.

 The agreement was signed in Moscow on May 31.

 A visa-free travel agreement between Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will come into force on October 20, the Russian Foreign Ministry website said.

 "The agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina on terms of reciprocal travel for citizens of the Russian Federation and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was signed in Moscow on May 31, 2013, will come into effect on October 20," the report said.

 External passport holders qualify for 30 days of visa-free travel within each 60-day period  from the day of their first arrival.

 90 days of visa-free travel will remain valid for holders of diplomatic and official passports.

 Employees of diplomatic missions, consular missions and missions to international organizations and the accompanying family members will enjoy visa-free travel throughout the period of their accreditation.

 "Other categories of citizens, including persons seeking employment, will need a visa," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

 The state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is located at the center of the Balkan Peninsula.

 The capital city of Sarajevo and the towns of Jajce, Trebinje and Mostar, home to Ottoman and Byzantine monuments, are popular tourist destinations.

Bosnian police arrest 8 war crimes suspects (AP, 19 October 2013)

Police in Bosnia have detained eight Serb men suspected of taking part in looting, expulsions and killing of civilians during the country's 1992-95 war.

The prosecutor's office in Bosnia said Thursday the men were arrested in the eastern town of Rogatica where the alleged crimes were committed in September 1992.

One of the arrested men is suspected of gunning down 20 Muslim civilians, including women and children, in a barn where they had been hiding from the Serb soldiers.

Some 100,000 people were killed in the Bosnia's 1992-1995 that broke out when the country joined several republics of former Yugoslavia and declared independence. Well-armed Bosnian Serb minority opposed the move and took up arms in its attempt to carve out parts of the country by expelling and killing non-Serbs.