Belgrade DMH 291013

LOCAL PRESS

Dacic: London and Berlin do not intend to set new conditions (RTS/Beta)

Great Britain supports Serbia’s EU integration, and official London and Berlin do not want to set new conditions, stated Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic after the meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in London. According to Dacic, Hague stated that Germany and Britain do not intend to set new conditions but they want to be sure that Serbia will implement everything outlined in the April Agreement reached between Belgrade and Pristina. Pointing that additional complication of the position on the negotiating framework would be counterproductive, Dacic said that the official opening of the technical negotiations by the end of January the latest would greatly encourage the implementation of the Brussels agreement as well as overall implementation of reforms in Serbia. He said he had been informed by Hague that the verification of the European Council’s decision on the first intergovernmental conference was now merely a technical matter. Dacic said, however, that Serbia could not influence EU decisions and that Brussels was still discussing the continuation of Serbia’s EU integrations. Most of the EU member-states believe nothing should be changed in relation to what has already been proposed, said the Prime Minister. Much will depend on the local elections in Kosovo, he said, after which he said he would meet with the EU High Representative Catherine Ashton. In talks with Hague, it was emphasized that Serbian-British relations had entered a new stage and that intensification of bilateral cooperation in all the spheres should ensue.

Elections in Kosovo, campaign and anti-campaign (RTS)

Candidate for mayor of the Serbian (Srpska) Civil Initiative Krtismir Pantic and the head of the list SDP Civil Initiative Oliver Ivanovic have agreed that calls for boycotting elections in Kosovo and Metohija pose a big problem and that these calls have been going on for too long. In a Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) evening broadcast, Pantic said the problem is that those who have been calling for boycott had a lot of time to convince people not to vote. He is of the opinion that the electoral rolls should be united and all citizens should be given the right to vote. However, the problem is that Pristina doesn’t want everyone to vote, he says. Pantic claims that the Serbian Government had fulfilled all agreed conditions in Brussels and the international community must pressure Pristina to fulfill everything that was agreed. Ivanovic agrees that the call for the boycott poses a big problem and considers that the government’s reaction came too late. He says that a big problem at the upcoming elections will be electoral rolls where, as he puts it, there are a lot of non-living people. He opines that this could have been corrected several months ago but that it is too late now. Ivanovic thinks it is theoretically possible for an Albanian to win at the elections in north Kosovo but that this would lead to great tensions. He claims that foreign representatives also know this and that this is unworkable in practice. Both agree that the best option for the Serbs is high turnout at the elections regardless of who wins.

Request for election material to be without Kosovo coat of arms (Politika)

The President of the Central Election Commission (CIK) in Pristina Valdeta Daka rejected yesterday the possibility for the logo of the republic of Kosovo to be removed from the election material. She said no compromise was possible any more regarding the election material. Reacting to this, Nenad Riklalo, Serb member in the CIK, says it will be known in the course of the day whether the election material for the 3 November elections will be neutral in status as envisaged by the Brussels agreement, adding that the Serbian delegation, headed by Serbian presidential advisor Marko Djuric, will attempt to reach agreement in Brussels on all unresolved issues regarding the elections. “The EU and OSCE representatives have taken on themselves to resolve the irregularities forced by Pristina, thus flagrantly violating the Brussels agreement. It is unfair for Pristina to take this position, because all members of the negotiating team know what had been agreed in Brussels. Apart from the logo and coat of arms of the state of Kosovo being on election material, there are also big problems in electoral rolls, while more than 30,000 applications of displaced Serbs with the right to vote had been rejected,” Rikalo tells Politika.

Inquiry Board for Kosovo and Metohija established numerous abuses (B92)

The Inquiry Board for Kosovo and Metohija has established numerous abuses but the details will be examined following the local elections, says the Chair of the Board Momir Stojanovic. He says there is already division in Kosovo so that this report would only additionally divide the Serb population. “The most important thing is for the elections to pass peacefully and to have a high turnout. The Inquiry Board examined facts on spending over the past 12 years in Kosovo. We have taken two key parameters at the meetings of the Board, the first one being the level of budget funds and the second being the application of Kosovo residents concerning spending,” says Stojanovic. He notes that employees in healthcare or pre-school institutions were receiving wages both from Belgrade and Pristina. He notes the situation is that some receive 150-percent higher wages while those who are unemployed live in complete poverty. He says that, initially, he opposed the formation of the Inquiry Board since this was discussed at a moment when the Brussels negotiations were underway. He says he had believed this would only complicate additionally negotiations. He says this report can create additional division among the Kosovo residents. “We don’t want to create division. The Inquiry Board will recommend to the parliament concrete measures in view of launching investigations for budget spending. No one will be protected, the entire report will be transparent following the elections. This will be sent to the parliament session and then the government. All bodies will have to investigate abuses and if there is criminal responsibility they will have to also process this,” says Stojanovic. He says that no candidate at the elections had been the subject of the investigation of the Inquiry Board. He adds that he is of the opinion that preparations for the elections in Kosovo are late and believes the Serbian Government is responsible for this. He says that some people imposed themselves as heads of lists, even though many disagreed, giving as an example the candidates in Novo Brdo and Ranilovo. “The candidate in Novo Brdo Svetislav Ivanovic is unacceptable for most of the population because he was the deputy in an Albanian municipality. His brother was the Novo Brdo mayor. Thus, the distrust of citizens that this man cannot represent them,” says Stojanovic. He adds that no list should be favored but all those that consider Belgrade to be their capital and not Pristina. He says Kosovo must be a national and not a party issue. “We will have problems in Kosovo and Metohija as long as we consider it a party issue. The Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija should be given to choose on their own their leaders and representatives, so they can have contact with Belgrade,” says Stojanovic. He adds that people in Kosovo have the obligation to vote at the elections: “You can’t receive money from the state but when you have to vote, you say this doesn’t interest you.”

Metropolitan Amfilohije to Kosovo Serbs: Do not turn out for elections that legalize violence (NSPM)

The Montenegrin-Littoral Metropolitan Amfilohije has addressed the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija regarding the upcoming Kosovo elections. He told them to be guided by the fact that no one in the world would vote for accepting violence of seizure of state territory of a state that is recognized with this territory as the member of the United Nations. “According to UNSCR 1244, Serbia is inside the United Nations with Kosovo and Metohija as an inalienable part of its territory. Therefore, any voting would mean acceptance of violence and violent seizure from Serbia of its non-deductible part which is the heart of its overall history and being,” the Metropolitan told the Kosovo Serbs in a statement to Radio Gorazdevac. He says that no one in the world would vote for such authorities and state.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

Greece offers name solution in New York (Dnevnik)

During the last round of negotiations in New York, the Greek negotiator in the name dispute between Skopje and Athens Adamantios Vasilakis proposed the name “Slavic-Albanian Macedonia” for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Dnevnik reports. At the meeting with the UN mediator in the name dispute Matthew Nimetz, Vasilakis requested that the new name to be on all documents, regardless of whether they are for external or internal use. The last round of negotiations was held late last week in New York with the mediation of Nimetz, and ended without progress. Following the meeting with the FYROM negotiator Zoran Jolevski and Greek negotiator Adamantios Vasilakis, Nimetz said differences of the two sides were still present.

Covic: Final linkage of two HDZs possible (Oslobodjenje)

The leadership of the two HDZ parties, led by Dragan Covic and Martin Raguz, concluded in Mostar that in the next month they will agree on a further modality for cooperation between the two parties, of which one of the possibilities is the final binding of the two parties.

According to Covic, they discussed three possible forms of cooperation. “One is that the two parties are finally linked, another is that we work together as partners through the Croatian National Parliament (Sabor), and the third is that we work as two political parties that are not linked by anything but the codex of behavior that should be present on the political scene in B&H,” said Covic. Raguz reiterated that they discussed three possible modalities of relations between the two parties, from – as he said – approaching one another, to an independent approach that will be arranged in the next month. “Every modality that we are choosing from, for me as the HDZ 1990 leader it means not calling into question the national strategy and relations toward the priorities that B&H, the Croat people, and all its citizens face. I think that here we should show additional responsibility to speed up the processes that are in the interest of everyone in B&H, where Croats are key to the solution,” said Raguz, adding that everything else is open. “All models are open, with mutual respect, and it is clear that each party has ambitions and political goals for the upcoming elections. Of course, which modality is approved in the end should be decided by each party in their highest bodies,” stressed Raguz. “We are not in favor of any negative energy, but at the same time it is clear that these are two political subjects, of course the most responsible when it comes to Croats in B&H, but at the same time it is clear that each party has its own particular goals that should not call into question the national goals,” the HDZ 1990 leader concluded.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia Defence Minister Aleksandar Vucic visits UAE (WAM, 28 October 2013)

Abu Dhabi: General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on Monday received Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s first Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence.

Shaikh Mohammad welcomed the Serbian minister and his delegation and discussed bilateral relations and ways to develop them.

The two leaders discussed avenues of cooperation and friendship between their nations and explored possible means to strengthen them to further serve mutual interests.

They also exchanged views on regional and international issues as well as a number of topics of mutual concern.

Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, other shaikhs and senior officials were present.

In Bosnia, the ghosts still have no resting place (Mercatornet.com, by Mishka Gora, 29 October 2013)

Twenty years after fighting ceased, many people are still caught up in a culture of denial.

In 1991 and 1992, the democratic secession of the Republics of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina from the Yugoslav socialist federation was met with military action by the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) in conjunction with local Serb forces.  The JNA and Serb authorities set up concentration camps for thousands of Bosniak and Croat civilians, the most infamous ones being Omarska, Trnopolje, and Manjača.  These camps played a major role in the Bosnian genocide (known as ethnic cleansing) in which civilians were the deliberate targets of systematic military action, forcible removal, and mass murder.  In 1995, the armed conflict ended with the Dayton peace agreement, which divided Bosnia into a Bosniak-Croat Federation and a Serb Republic.

Almost two decades after the end of the war in Bosnia, a few courageous souls are battling against denial to remember the victims of war crimes. Armed conflict may have ceased with the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, but the fight for a Bosnia free of discrimination, segregation, and war crimes denial continues.

Under the cover of darkness early last Saturday, three ‘guerrilla memorials’ to the dead were erected in the towns of Foča, Bugojno, and Konjic.  Unlike in Trnopolje, for example, where there is a monument to Serb soldiers but none to the civilians whom they rounded up into concentration camps and slaughtered, these monuments were not partisan.  They were for all the victims of war crimes, regardless of ethnicity, and the three towns chosen were symbolic of the three constituent peoples of Bosnia.  However, the next day, all the memorials were gone, the one in Foča removed by police.

In the Serb Republic, where the right of refugees to return to their homes is actively hampered by the local authorities, most of the population live in denial about the war.  The Prijedor area was (and remains) particularly infamous for the most notable concentration camps as well as various massacres.  These genocidal acts were supplemented by mass rape and summary execution of Bosniaks, Croats, and dissenting Serbs. In the Prijedor region alone, approximately 14,000 were killed or went missing during the war.

Returnees, however, are chipping away at the façade of denial.  The United Nations calls them returnees, but I think of them as revenants, those who have ‘come back’, as if from the dead.  They have survived ethnic cleansing to return to haunt those who tried to wipe them out.  Their existence and their presence in the Serb Republic is a challenge to the perpetrators who remain at large.  They are ghosts of the past who will not go away until the truth is acknowledged and attempts made to achieve at least a semblance of justice.

It isn’t just the survivors who keep turning up either.  In the last three weeks, the remains of 268 people have been exhumed (so far) after a tip-off from a former Bosnian Serb soldier.  According to witness statements, the grave at Tomašica probably once held around 1,000 bodies, but the relocation of remains from mass graves all over Bosnia (by perpetrators to conceal evidence) has frustrated the work of the International Commission on Missing Persons.  This latest grave will slowly but surely augment the 17,000 DNA identifications that constitute roughly half of those missing.  It is a painstaking process, but a necessary one for the sake of war crimes investigations and closure for the families of those killed.

This campaign for justice is personified by Kemal Pervanić who travelled back to his former home in Bosnia to witness the exhumations.  He wants to know where all the bodies of the missing are, and he wants his old neighbours to face the truth.  The likelihood of this happening seems remote, however, as the people in the area remain in denial and refuse to allow a memorial, even after the discovery of several hundred bodies buried near their homes in 2004.  It is always traumatic for Kemal and his fellow survivors to return, but this newest grave nevertheless gives them hope that the “forgotten people” of the village may be laid to rest.

At the nearby Omarska concentration camp, which he visits every year, Kemal said “I spent two and a half months in here which was like 250 years, and people are trying to deny that part of my past.”  He echoed others who spoke of the sense of dispossession, their thirst for justice, and the need for some sort of recognition of the truth to be able to move on.   One survivor, speaking of the ‘White House’ where most of those who were killed were first tortured, said  “it hurt then… when they were torturing us, but somehow it now hurts more when they say it didn’t happen.”

“There’s been no remorse,” said Kemal. “No one has ever apologised.  They deny the existence of camps.”

Satko Mujagić, another survivor of Omarska who is campaigning for a memorial there, has been hindered by the passive resistance of local authorities and the mining company ArcelorMittal which now owns the property.  “In this situation,” he said, “being neutral is choosing a side.”

“We are begging for a piece of land [for a memorial],” said Satko.  “You can’t bring back the dead but you can show them respect.”  Kemal added that this resistance to a memorial “is creating a new conflict”.

Even the gentlest reminders of the past elicit rejection.  Last year, Kemal and Satko joined others - such as the reporter Ed Vulliamy who broke the story of the Bosnian concentration camps in 1992 - in a demonstration in Prijedor. It commemorated the 102 children from Prijedor murdered during the war.  People holding schoolbags labelled with the children’s names and ages walked to the main square and used the bags to form the word genocide on the ground.  “This is one of the worst places when it comes to genocide denial,” Kemal said.  As if to prove his point, the campaign office was damaged in an attack that morning and, despite the demonstration being without incident, one of the organisers was detained by police for questioning.

The experiences of Kemal and Satko are among thousands that beg for recognition.  As they struggle to understand what happened 21 years ago, there are others who try to pretend it never happened, making reconciliation impossible.  However, to quote William Faulkner, the past is never dead, it is not even past.  For those who are still waiting to lay their dead to rest, they remain in limbo and there is no closure… but there is always tomorrow.

Mishka Gora is a writer and photographer based in Tasmania. She has worked as a humanitarian aid worker, resettlement assistant, and English tutor with refugees and displaced persons in the former Yugoslavia, the United States, and Australia. 

Macedonian Reporter's Trial Worries EU, Howitt Says (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 29 October 2013)

The European Parliament rapporteur on Macedonia said Brussels was following the recent jailing of journalist Tomislav Kezarovski with concern.

Richard Howitt, who is on a three-day visit to Macedonia, told the country’s National Euro-Integration Council that there was a “high level of concern” in Brussels over media freedom and selective justice in the aftermath of the Kezarovski case.
The EU was “closely following the Kezarovski case", Howitt told his hosts on Monday at the start of his visit.
Tomislav Kezarovski was jailed last week for four-and-a-half years for revealing the identity of a protected witness in a murder trial.

The length of the prison sentence shocked many, and raised new concerns about freedom of the media in Macedonia.
The criminal court in Skopje found Kezarovski guilty of revealing the identity of the murder witness in an article he wrote in 2008 for Reporter 92 magazine.
Howitt said the jailing of Kezarovski left an impression in Brussels of selective justice.

The conviction of the journalist came against a background of closures of several media outlets that had been critical of the government.
The government of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski insists it played no role in the reporter's trial, and says it is not targeting critical media outlets and journalists.
But it has rebuffed calls to urge the President of Macedonia to pardon Kezarovski, insisting that the whole matter lies in the hands of the court.
Last week, ahead of his visit, Howitt said he would be focusing more on freedom of expression, including talks with government officials and journalists' associations.
Earlier in October Macedonia received its fifth recommendation in a row for a start to EU membership talks.

However, in the area of media freedom, the European Commission report noted that dialogue between journalists and the government had broken down following last’s year’s dispute in parliament. It also said freedom of the media was becoming more limited.
Journalists left EU-chaired talks with the government in protest, after the events of December 24, 2012, in parliament.
That day, government parties passed a budget for 2013 in the space of a few minutes, after opposition MPs and journalists were expelled from the chamber by police.
This caused a lengthy political crisis, which only ended in March with a deal agreed between the government and the opposition, which was brokered by the EU.

Croatia Confirms Ex-Minister’s WWII Killing Charges (BIRN, by Boris Pavelic, 29 October 2013)

Former interior minister Josip Boljkovac faces trial over the killings of 21 civilian prisoners in 1945 when he was a secret service officer with Tito’s Partisan forces.

The court in Zagreb on Monday confirmed the indictment against Boljkovac, aged 93, who was Croatia’s first interior minister after the country gained independence in 1991.

He is charged with ordering the killings of 21 civilians from the Duga Resa region of Croatia, who were accused of collaborating with the country’s WWII-era, Nazi-affiliated Ustasha regime.

Boljkovac, who has announced that he is going to defend himself, was brought to court in a wheelchair for Monday’s hearing.

He has denied the charges, calling the indictment politically motivated, and his lawyer Anto Nobilo told journalists that there was no evidence to prove his guilt

“We will present documents t the court which will reconstruct in detail what happened, and prove that Boljkovac didn’t perpetrate the crime,” Nobilo said.

He added that only three or four witnesses, “out of 40” who are set to testify against Boljkovac, could have any relevant evidence.

“The others were kids at the time of the crime,” Nobilo said.

At the time of the murders in May and June 1945, Boljkovac was a local official with the Partisans’ secret service, the Department for the Protection of the People, OZNA. He later became a top police official in post-WWII Yugoslavia.

Boljkovac was arrested for the same crime in November 2011, but the constitutional court ordered his release because of procedural errors.

A new case was opened after Croatia changed its criminal law in January last year.

Aleksandar Tijanic, ex-Serbian government minister who headed state TV, dies at 63 (AP, 28 October 2013)

Serbia's state television says its general manager, Aleksandar Tijanic, an influential journalist and a former information minister under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, has died. He was 63.

RTS television did not reveal the cause of death.

Emergency services spokeswoman Nada Macura says Tijanic collapsed and died outside his home in Belgrade on Monday.

Tijanic was a controversial figure with a long journalism career.

He wrote for prominent Serbian newspapers, worked as a columnist and headed two local television stations before becoming head of state TV in 2004.

Tijanic was information minister under Milosevic in 1994-96, but turned against the former Yugoslav president in the late 1990s to become an adviser to Milosevic's successor after 2000.

Tijanic had a wife and two children. Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.