Belgrade DMH 041113

LOCAL PRESS

Preliminary results (Tanjug/Politika/Novosti)

Based on the preliminary results of the Central Election Commission (CIK), in ten municipalities in Kosovo mayors were elected as early as in the first round, while in the remaining 25 municipalities there will be a second round of the elections. Mayors have been already elected in the municipalities of Glogovac, Kosovo Polje, Decani, Istok, Kacanik, Podujevo, Srbica, Stimlje, Mamusa and General Jankovic. As for the municipalities with a Serb majority, the candidates of the Independent Liberal Party and the Serbian (Srpska) Civil Initiative are running for the second election stage in Strpce, the candidates of the Serbian Civil Initiative and the Union of Kosovo Serbs will be competing in Gracanica, the candidates of the Serbian Civil Initiative and the Serb People’s Party of Kosovo are running for the elections in Ranilug, the candidates of the Serbian Civil Initiative and the Independent Liberal Party are competing in Partes and the same two parties are taking part in the second stage of the elections in Klokot. The situation in Novo Brdo is different, however, as the candidates of the Serbian Civil Initiative will be competing in the second round with a Kosovo Albanian party – the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo. Until 1999, Serbs in that municipality formed a considerable majority, but due to various schemes by Kosovo Albanians, the final result could be different. The Serbian Civil Initiative polled most of the votes in Gracanica. The party’s candidate for the mayor of Gracanica Branimir Stojanovic congratulated his supporters on the party’s victory, emphasizing that Serbs had voted for Serbia.

The CIK is late with the announcement of election of results in four municipalities in northern Kosovo – northern Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic. The candidate for the mayor of Kosovska Mitrovica of the SDP list Oliver Ivanovic assessed the incidents that marked the local elections in northern Kosovo as political vandalism and said that the best solution would be if the elections are repeated in due course. After the completed first round and the announcement of official results, the second election round is to follow.

As for Kosovo Albanian parties, unofficial results from the elections show that the Democratic Party of Kosovo of Hashim Thaqi and the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo are the strongest parties, with slightly more than 30% of votes. The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo of Ramush Haradinaj has polled some 17% of votes and is followed in the number of votes by the Self-Determination Party and by the New Kosovo Alliance, at the fourth and fifth position respectively.

Vulin: Boycott failed (RTS)

Serbian Minister without portfolio in charge of Kosovo and Metohija Aleksandar Vulin has stated that the boycott of the elections in Kosovo and Metohija has failed and that the Serbs will present their position for possible repeating of elections once the Central Election Commission in Pristina presents its position. Vulin told a press conference at the Palace of Serbia that the OSCE has a predominant role in Kosovo and that Belgrade expects their stand, adding they are in constant contact with them. Vulin said that Serbian citizens who had caused incidents and prevented elections would be held responsible according to the law as soon as enough evidence was collected. According to him, Serbian institutions are gathering information on this, they are successful and the epilogue will be in line with the law and anyone who had clashed with the law will be held responsible. Noting that the boycott failed, Vulin said that by 5p.m. over 22 percent of the voters turned out in Leposavic and Zubin Potok, and more than 12 percent in Zvecan.

Vukomanovic: Despite incidents in northern Kosovo, Union of Serb Municipalities “conceived” (RTS)

The caucus whip of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Dijana Vukomanovic condemned the incidents in northern Kosovo and Metohija during the local elections, but also stressed that despite this, the turnout of the Serbs south of the Ibar River has “conceived” the Union of Serb Municipaltiies. Vukomanovic told the press in the Serbian parliament that the Serbs turned out in large numbers, especially south of the Ibar River, for the local elections despite the pressure and threats it had been exposed to. The turnout of the Serbs south of the Ibar River entitles us to acknowledge that the local elections have succeeded. 

Stefanovic requests urgent session of Kosovo Committee (Beta)

The Democratic Party (DS) caucus whip Borislav Stefanovic has stated that the responsibility for the incidents during the voting in northern Kosovo is with those who had been calling for boycott, but also with the Serbian Government. “This is a sad picture that demonstrated that criminals rule northern Kosovo and this is absolutely unacceptable,” Stefanovic told Beta. He is concerned with the inertness of the international community and Kosovo police to prevent incidents. Stefanovic says the DS calls for an urgent session of the Committee for Kosovo and Metohija or a parliament session devoted to the events in Kosovo and Brussels agreements because the public has not been informed what was agreed in the negotiations between the Kosovo and Serbian prime ministers.

Gaon: Election material from three polling stations annulled (B92)

“The election material from three polling stations in northern Kosovska Mitrovica has been annulled and couldn’t be submitted to the CIK,” OSCE spokesperson Nikola Gaon told B92. The material from other municipalities in northern Kosovo, Leposavic, Zubin Potok and Zvecan has been submitted to the CIK. Gaon says the attack on the election process and the OSCE personnel cannot be tolerated and that the mission expects that attackers to be found and indicted.

OSCE does not want to cancel Kosovo elections (Blic)

The Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo Jean-Claude Schlumberger said that the OSCE did not want the elections in Kosovo to be cancelled, the Blic writes. “The Central Electoral Commission (CIK) responded to our request to accept the materials. The materials are from the three municipalities in north Kosovo, which were under OSCE observation, and they were handed to the CIK,” Schlumberger remarked.

Kostic: Union of Serb Municipalities to be formed as soon as possible (Radio Serbia, by Mirjana Nikolic)

The head of the Serbian (Srpska) Civil Initiative list in Gracanica Vladeta Kostic told Radio Serbia that he was optimistic when it comes to the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities and that he was satisfied with the results of his list, which was also supported by the Serbian Government. Kostic says that, a day after the elections, there is an almost festive atmosphere in Gracanica and that citizens are optimistic when it comes to the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities. The representatives of the Serbian Civil Initiative will wait for the second round of the local elections to pass as well and then they will embark on the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities. Kostic says they are working on the statute of the Union and expects 10 municipalities with a Serb majority to take part in it. He would not estimate when the formation of the Union could be expected as, in his opinion, the task should be completed thoroughly and carefully and not quickly and everything should be put on sound bases and in agreement with the Serbian Government, the Pristina authorities and the international community, with a continuation of talks in Brussels. The first moves after the elections are to bring investors from Belgrade, Kragujevac and foreign countries as well. We want investments in real jobs, the start of production to provide incomes for citizens, instead of their waiting for funds from the Serbian budget. It is all right to provide funds for education, healthcare or local administration from that source, but now we are able to open new jobs for the first time. That is why we need the Union of Serb Municipalities as that is an institution to be acknowledged by Belgrade, Pristina and Brussels alike, says Kostic. He added that he was satisfied with the results of the Serbian Civil Initiative list and that the candidate for the mayor of Gracanica Branimir Stojanovic had probably won as early as in the first election round.

REGIONAL PRESS

SIPA found 500 shells near Tesanj (Srna)

An estimated 500 84-mm artillery shells were discovered on Friday at Tresnjev Panj, Tesanj Municipality, reports the B&H State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA). The Zenica-Doboj Canton police are investigating. According to available information, the cache can be tied to the shells SIPA discovered in Kalosevici, Tesanj Municipality, last July. SIPA officers are continuing their investigation with the aim of discovering all sites where explosive devices and mines are hidden, as well as discovering the persons involved in these illegal activities. A Zenica-Doboj Canton police officer told Srna that acting on a tip, Canton police officers on Friday discovered several hundred artillery shells in the Tresnjev Panj area. “Having in mind that artillery shells were discovered on the former demarcation line, we are waiting for a demining team to investigate the scene,” he said. He added that shells were scattered in the woods, so that it is impossible at the moment to say exactly how many shells have been discovered. The police officer believes the ammunition was thrown from a truck at the former demarcation line.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Kosovo vote marred by violence, boycott (Reuters, 4 November 2013)

An election in Kosovo designed to help end years of de facto ethnic partition was marred by violence and intimidation by Serb hardliners yesterday, undermining a fragile EU-brokered pact between the Balkan country and former master Serbia.

Two hours before polls closed in the ethnically-divided town of Mitrovica, a volatile Serb pocket of northern Kosovo, masked men burst into three schools housing polling stations on the Serb side, lobbing tear gas and smashing ballot boxes.

Participation of the north Kosovo Serbs in the Kosovo-wide council and mayoral elections is central to an agreement reached in April to integrate the 40,000-50,000 Serbs living there with the rest of Kosovo, which is majority Albanian and declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Serbia had called on Serbs in northern Kosovo to take part for the first time, with the EU holding out the prospect of membership talks – slated to begin in January – as a reward for Belgrade’s support for the process.

A woman was hurt when she jumped off a window

But on the mainly Serb side of Mitrovica, a former mining town split along ethnic lines since Kosovo’s 1998-99 war, turnout was just seven per cent at 3pm, compared with 32 per cent Kosovo-wide.

The low turnout and violence was a clear indication of the scale of resistance among north Kosovo Serbs to integration with the rest of Kosovo, and underlined the challenge facing the EU in implementing the April accord.

Voting in north Mitrovica was halted after the attack at around 5pm.

Election officials fled and EU police in armoured vehicles spread out through the neighbourhood as helicopters flew over the town.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is helping manage the election, pulled out 60 of more than 200 staff from the area.

“The election will not resume tonight or tomorrow and the question is whether it will resume at all,” said Oliver Ivanovic, a candidate for mayor of north Mitrovica. He said a woman was injured when she jumped out of a window.

Violence and low turnout mar key local elections in Kosovo (AFP, 4 November 2013)

Key elections in Kosovo are overshadowed by the outbreak of violence and low turnout. The vote was watched closely by the EU over Serbia’s membership

Outbreaks of violence and a low turnout marred key local elections in Kosovo on Nov. 3, the first in which ethnic Serbs have been encouraged to vote since the country proclaimed independence in 2008.
One woman was seriously injured when masked extremists stormed a polling station, attacking voters and election commissioners and destroying ballot boxes in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica, Belgrade-backed Serb mayoral candidate Krstimir Pantic told reporters.
Polling stations in the Serb-run northern part of the town closed an hour before the official close of voting as a result of the violence.
There were also outbreaks of violence at several other polling stations, another candidate Oliver Ivanovic said.
“The vote was interrupted by violence... it is clear that the elections in northern Kosovska Mitrovica have failed and probably will be declared invalid,” Ivanovic said. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which had a key role in organizing the polls in northern Kosovo, said it was withdrawing its staff from the town.
“The security of our staff was compromised and we decided to remove all our staff,” spokesman Nikola Gaon said. The election of deputies and mayors in 36 Kosovo municipalities is being watched closely by Brussels as a test of relations between Pristina and Belgrade after a historic EU-brokered deal in April to normalize ties. Serbia rejects Kosovo’s independence, but has openly backed the polls, urging the minority Serb community in the country to vote and have their say in Pristina-run institutions.
Calls for boycott
The participation of Serb voters is seen as crucial to the poll’s success. There are some 120,000 ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo, some 40,000 of who live in the north, where they make up the majority and enjoy control over some public institutions. Serbia’s prime minister, Ivica Dacic, said participation in the election is in the interest of the Serb people in Kosovo. “Let us once do something that is in our interest and not in the interest of our enemies,” Dacic said.
“The fate of Serbs in Kosovo should be in their own hands, and not (Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim) Thaci’s or the extremists’.”
Many Serbs have expressed concern that voting in the election would give legitimacy to the Kosovo government.
Serb hardliners in the north have actively campaigned for a boycott of the polls and there were reports of voter intimidation. “Some groups are not allowing voters to cast their ballots,” said Valdete Daka
of Kosovo’s central election commission.
One supporter of the boycott, Igor Vojinovic, said refusing to vote was “the only way to save the Serb state” in northern Kosovo. “These elections serve only to implement the Brussels accord, which is a betrayal of the Serb people,” Vojinovic said.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has called the elections “a key moment in Kosovo’s future and an important element in the process of normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.” Kosovo, the territory which sparked a war between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian rebels in 1998-1999, remains the main stumbling block to Serbia’s bid to join the European Union.
The April deal with Pristina helped Serbia secure the green light to begin membership talks with Brussels, and holding up its end of the accord is vital for Belgrade. For Kosovo, a free and fair vote with a significant Serb turnout would be a positive step in its own push for negotiations on an EU membership bid.
Kosovo’s independence is recognized by most EU states. Preliminary results are expected to come out tomorrow.

Violence fails to stop first ever Kosovo-wide election (EUobserver, by Andrew Rettman, 4 November 2013)

BRUSSELS - Turnout in local elections in Kosovo was up to 22 percent in ethnic Serb areas and 60 percent overall, despite intimidation and violence by Serb hardliners.

The vote on Sunday (3 November) was the first ever Kosovo-wide poll held since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

It was also a test of EU attempts to normalise relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Three ethnic Serb municipalities in north Kosovo - Leposavic, Zubin Potok and Zvecan - have for the past five years been ruled by Serb-funded de facto structures, paramilitary groups and criminal gangs.

But in April, Serbia agreed they should elect new local rulers who would fall under Pristina's central authority.

With Serbia keen to show the EU that it merits opening accession talks, the Serbian PM and President at the weekend urged Kosovo Serbs to follow the plan.

But despite the appeal, at around 5pm local time, masked men armed with baseball bats stormed into a polling station at a primary school in a Serb enclave in north Kosovo.

They hit people, reportedly breaking one woman's leg. They also smashed up ballot boxes and threw tear gas canisters. Two similar attacks took place at a technical school and at a medical school in the area at the same time.

The assault prompted the OSCE, a Vienna-based democracy watchdog, to end voting an hour earlier than scheduled and to evacuate its staff.

The attack was the climax of a campaign to sabotage the election by Kosovo Serb hardliners, which began in September with the murder of a Lithuanian policeman serving in the EU's rule of law mission, Eulex.

Ahead of the vote, on Saturday, Krstimir Pantic, a north Kosovo mayoral candidate, was beaten up outside his home.

Pro-boycott groups - with names such as the Chetnicks of Valjevo, DSS, Dveri and Obraz - also threatened people in the street and sent men to polling stations to film and photograph "traitors."

The baseball bat attack drew widespread condemnation.

"These destructive acts of hooliganism have no place in civilized and democratic societies and their perpetrators must be urgently held to account," Farid Zarif, a UN envoy to Kosovo, said on Sunday.

"Rule by thugs must never be accepted," Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt tweeted on Monday morning.

But for his part, the OSCE mission chief, Claude Schlumberger, told press on Sunday the vote was a "success."

He noted that despite the boycott campaign, the Leposavic and Zubin Potok municipalities recorded a turnout of 22 percent, while Zvecan recorded 11.2 percent.

The boycott campaign was not entirely ineffective.

According to Kosovo's Central Election Commission (CEC), turnout among the 50,000 or so ethnic Serbs who live in the north was just 13 percent.

But the CEC noted that turnout in Kosovo's 33 other municipalities was around 60 percent.

By comparison, turnout in UK local elections in May this year was 31 percent. Turnout in the first round of French local elections in October was 33 percent.

"Overall evaluation of local elections in Kosovo: free, fair and progressive. More work to be done in north, but elsewhere Serbs voted well," Kosovo deputy foreign minister, Petrit Selimi, tweeted on Monday.

Kosovo's long goodbye to the status quo (Al Jazeera, by Idro Seferi, 4 November 2013)

Recent campaign for local election offered little hope for Kosovo's future.

During the local election campaign in Kosovo, Serbs and Albanians behaved like they weren't participating in the same elections in one country. Their flags, slogans and political statements did not match at all. The signing of the Brussels agreement in April, between Serbia and Kosovo, gave hope that there would be a normalisation of relations. However, this has not happened so far.

The only thing that has changed since the previous elections in Kosovo, is that this time, Serbia is taking part in the elections, both in campaigning and supporting, whereas the previous Serbian governments had appealed to citizens not to vote.
A realistic picture of division

At the start of the election campaign, it was clear that there would be divisions among the Serbs. There has been a public campaign organised by Serbian nationalists calling on Serbs not to vote. During previous elections in 2007, 2009, and 2010, Serbs who voted were singled out as traitors.

But what could the Serbs of Gracanica do when they are a minority in a city which is physically separated from the areas with majority Serbian population? They had been almost completely isolated until their entry into Kosovar civil institutions with the 2007 and 2009 elections. In the past, Gracanica was the scene of barricades, blocked roads and tensions. This is not the case anymore, and the citizens' needs are different now. They live and move more freely; they work and go on with their lives. What could they have done - stay as an enclave, living under the illusion that everything would sort itself out?

Strpce, a majority-Serb town, and Brezovica, once a popular winter resort, are also cut off physically from Serbia. They, too, participated in the previous elections. They could not wait for Serbia to come, and by some miracle, take Kosovo back under its control. The people there now work together and greet each other, like neighbours.

Change of consciousness

Since 1999, Kosovo has had parallel institutions for every aspect of public life. Serbia kept its pre-1999 administrative presence for the Serbian part of the population, while the Kosovo Albanians built their own institutions. This question came to the fore with the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Belgrade, where she clearly stated that the end was nigh for the situation in northern Kosovo. Serbia, as a candidate for European Union membership, had to fix its internal problems and the open conflicts with its neighbours.

There should be some honesty and real changes in this relationship. Sovereignty and territories are unimportant if people cannot live normally and move freely, if they cannot study, get jobs and start families.

When the leadership in Belgrade changed, and the Democratic Party lost the elections, it seemed as if everything would fall apart. However, the new leaders showed a willingness to cooperate, even to meet and reach agreements with those against whom they had issued warrants - like Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. This created tensions in Serbia, where the public had been used to seeing policies made under the premise, "We won't do anything so that we don't make a mistake."

However, when it comes to the elections, it is clear now that the agreement signed in Brussels, and everything that preceded it, had not made much sense. The reason for this is that, there is no real co-operation between Belgrade and Pristina. Everything was whittled down to solving technical problems, but attitudes towards political relations did not change.

Tensions were already high before the elections because of voter lists and the discovery of surplus voters - the number of registered voters turned out to be higher than the population, and included names of people who didn't live in Kosovo or were dead - which is obviously the norm for all Balkan elections. The decision to ban Serbian officials' visits to Kosovo exacerbated the situation. However, visits from Belgrade were made during the election campaign, which did not help the situation either. The Serbian officials did not, even once, address the Albanians, who, as the Serbian Constitution states, are citizens served by the government in Belgrade as well.

It is clear that Serbian officials went to Kosovo to engage in a political campaign. It is also clear that their statements [Sr/Bs/Hr] often do not contribute to the reconciliation between Albanians and Serbs.

Missed opportunities

Unfortunately, the Serbian officials missed an excellent opportunity during the election campaign to diffuse tensions in Kosovo, and to create an ambience where people could live in peace with their neighbours. Strangely and irrationally, it seems as if Serbia does not really think much about the Serbs in Kosovo. Understandably, the Kosovo Serbs are spiritually closer to Serbia, that is natural, but they need the opening of roads towards new possibilities rather than barricades.

During the election campaign, the Albanians did not talk much about the Serbs. They did so only when they had to, and then, defensively. Such lack of interest that Kosovar politicians showed was worrying. It might be the case that they were just campaigning for the local elections and trying to win as many votes as possible, which would imply that the society in Kosovo had already moved from the early stages of the country's formation. However, the Albanians should demonstrate that they are open for dialogue with Kosovar Serbs.

This aggressive election campaign which strengthened nationalism does not give much hope for the processes expected after the elections, unless, of course, Brussels becomes the capital of both Kosovo and Serbia. It looks like Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, will continuously need to keep two flags on her desk - those of Serbia and Kosovo.

It is expected that after the elections, the Serbs will form the Union of Serb Councils (as per the April 2013 agreement), which would bring together all councils where Serbs live, or at least where they win the polls. For Pristina, this will have the status of a council association. A similar one exists for all the councils in Kosovo, but it is clear that this new association will only deal with Pristina when it really has to. The Kosovo police force in northern Kosovo will mostly consist of Serbs (also provided for in the agreement) and it is very difficult to predict how that will function.

It is clear that Serbia wants to form special territories in Kosovo. Even Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said so [Sr/Bs/Hr] during his so-called religious visit to Gracanica. Dacic said he was there for religious reasons because he "believed in Serbia" [Sr/Bs/Hr] in Kosovo, and because these two regions are holy for every Serb, and visiting them is a pilgrimage.

But how can it be made to look like Republika Srpska (the majority-Serb entity) in Bosnia and Hercegovina, when not all the territories with Serbian population are linked? Or how can there be reconciliation when the mayors of Serbian councils won't recognise anything that is happening in Kosovo?
New political behaviour needed

Serbia will continue on its path towards EU integration and negotiations will continue, but they will always return to Point 35 of the agenda, which covers Kosovo as a subject under "miscellaneous themes".

Politically, this much is clear: Since EU accession won't happen soon with any country in the region, Serbia will not recognise Kosovo until then. But at some point, it will have to truly deal with Kosovo. Otherwise, it will go towards new blockades, tensions, hatred and the suffering of innocent people.

There should be some honesty and real changes in this relationship. Sovereignty and territories are unimportant if people cannot live normally and move freely, if they cannot study, get jobs and start families.

It is important to change political behaviour. The legalisation of Serb institutions in Kosovo can take place, procedures can be ended and there could be promises that something would technically happen, but as things stand, Kosovo has not yet said goodbye to the status quo - especially not in the north.

Idro Seferi is an Albanian journalist and writer from Kosovo. A journalist since 2002, he moved from Pristina to Belgrade in 2007. He covers the region of former Yugoslavia for various Kosovar and Albanian media.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Sadly, the North Kosovo election boycott worked (Trending Central.com, by Daniel Hamilton, 4 November 2013)

Yesterday, Kosovo went to the polls for the first truly national election since independence in 2008. Following an agreement struck between the Serbian and Kosovan governments, the overwhelmingly ethnic Serb areas north of the Ibar river participated in Kosovo state elections for the first time.

Participation in the elections, which were intended to boost ethnic Serb representation within Kosovo government structures, was officially encouraged by the government in Belgrade (keen to move forward with their European Union ascension bid) and influential Serb community leaders in Kosovo (keen to get their hands on increased budgets).

South of the Ibar, the elections were a success with Serbian candidates winning the mayoral races in each majority Serbian municipality. Indeed, the five municipalities with the largest Serb populations recorded the highest turnouts in the country. It seems that these isolated communities recognised that participation in the elections was crucial to ensuring the survival and vibrancy of their communities inside the Kosovan state.

Physically divided from the rest of Kosovo by the Ibar, and immediately adjoined to the Central Serbia region, the residents of North Kosovo did not share this viewpoint. Given that they have never been subject to the institutions of the Kosovo government and had instead remained a de facto part of Serbia since the end of the 1999 war, they saw no reason to alter the status quo.

As such, an active and well-organised campaign was deployed across the region calling for a “100 percent boycott” of the elections

For most part, the boycott campaign worked. Predicted turnout figures across the northern municipalities range from five to 25 percent.

During the course of the afternoon yesterday, I toured several polling stations in the Leposavi? and Zvecan regions. They were as quiet as the grave, yet there was no indication of the low participation rates being caused by anything other than unwillingness to engage with an election associated with the Kosovan – rather than Serbian – state.

Only in the ethnic flashpoint of Mitrovica, though did I detect hostility towards those Serbs opting to participate in the polls; manifested in the form of groups of leather jacket-clad, shaved-headed twenty-somethings hanging around outside polling stations “observing” goings on.

Just after 5pm, an ultra-nationalist group laid siege to a polling station in the city of North Mitrovica, firing tear gas canisters and destroying ballot boxes. Following the attack, the final two hours of polling were cancelled and observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe retreated from North Kosovo on the basis of security concerns.

With that one action, hard-liners undermined not only their own community’s peaceful boycott campaign but also cast into peril the entire, painstakingly-negotiated agreement on the status of North Kosovo agreed between Pristina and Belgrade – not that, on the latter point, local Serbs care.

A large amount of the frustration and unwillingness of local Serbs to participate in the elections comes as result of the “top down” nature of the decision-making processes that brought the elections about. It is clear that the Serbs of North Kosovo trust neither Belgrade or Pristina to negotiate about their future. They feel their own concerns are subjugated by Belgrade’s EU aspirations and Pristina’s thirst to bring all of Kosovo under central government control.

Solving the North Kosovo problem is going to require not only patience but genuine dialogue with all parties concerned with the region’s future. The people of North Kosovo must be treated as equals in the process, not political pawns.

Daniel Hamilton is a political commentator. He writes in a personal capacity

Serbia needs British model to crush hooliganism – Borovcanin (Reuters, by Zoran Milosavljevic, 4 November 2013)

BELGRADE - The Serbian government must follow in Britain's footsteps in preventing soccer hooliganism after yet another Belgrade derby was marred by fan violence, the Balkan country's senior sports official Nenad Borovcanin said.

Borovcanin, a former professional boxer, made his comments after fan riots before and during Saturday's clash between Red Star and bitter rivals Partizan.

"The response of the state must be strong like the one Britain made when they removed the fences and replaced them with severe punishment for all offenders," the 34-year old secretary of sport told state television RTS on Monday.

"If the authorities are consistent and willing to deal with this problem there is no chance that what we saw on Saturday will happen again, but the government must show that it's stronger than hooligans," he said.

The violent scenes that blighted English football in the 1970s and 1980s have largely been eradicated with the advent of all-seater stadia in the Premier League era.

Dozens of fans were arrested in the Serbian capital as rival supporters clashed on the outskirts of Belgrade before kickoff, while play was held up for 10 minutes in the second half after Partizan fans lit a massive bonfire in their section.

Seats in the south tier had been removed before the game for safety reasons but that did not stop Partizan fans from creating a billowing cloud of smoke which filled the stadium, after they used whatever flammable objects they could get to start the fire.

It was an all too familiar scene in a fixture which has a long history of crowd trouble, with Red Star supporters burning seats in Partizan's stadium and pelting their team bus with rocks before the game in May, when 92 fans were arrested after they also fought running battles in the city.

In 1999, a Red Star supporter was killed by a propelled flare launched from Partizan's end into the away fans section.

PAINSTAKING TRANSITION

Government leniency and lack of initiative to crush hooliganism has also encouraged Serbian fans to export their violence during the country's painstaking political and economic transition following the ouster of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000.

Serbia's Euro 2012 qualifier against Italy in Genoa was abandoned after just seven minutes in October 2010, when Serbian fans hurled dozens of flares on to the pitch.

The Red Star ultras among the contingent also attacked their own team bus before kick off and assaulted goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic, a former Red Star player who moved to bitter foes Partizan in 2010.

Earlier this season, a Partizan fan tore the captain's armband off the sleeve of striker Marko Scepovic, who has since moved to Olympiakos Piraeus, while the die-hard Red Star section ordered the players to hand over their jerseys after a 1-0 defeat at neighbors Vozdovac.

"Club and government officials involved in sports must show a true commitment in dealing with the issue and their action must be strong and decisive in order to deter the leaders of die-hard fan sections from carrying on with the incidents," said Borovcanin.

"Slaps on the wrist won't do because that only encourages the ringleaders, who must be isolated from true fans."

Red Star won Saturday's tepid derby 1-0 to move within one point of leaders Partizan.

(editing by Justin Palmer)

Serbs dig in and refuse to recognize Kosovan independence (insideworldfootball.com, by Andrew Warshaw, 4 November 2013)

The dispute over whether Kosovo should be given full international playing rights shows little or no sign of being resolved. FIFA President Sepp Blatter recently hosted the latest in a series of talks with Football Federation of Kosovo President Fadil Vokrri and his Serbian counterpart Tomislav Karadzic.
FIFA said afterwards that the parties agreed to meet again next month, ahead of FIFA's December 4-5 executive committee meeting in Brazil.
But Karadzic says he still totally opposes any kind of recognition for the breakaway Balkan state which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
When he got back to his own country, Karadzic told Serbia's national news agency, Tanjug, that his side had rejected all requests presented by Kosovo officials at the Zurich meeting with Blatter because they had no legal basis.
At present, only Kosovo's youth, amateur, women's and club teams can play international friendlies. Kosovo wants far greater representation, notably being allowed to organise proper official senior matches featuring its national anthem and symbols.
But according to Karadzic, Serbia, which claims Kosovo as part of its own country, will never accede to this because Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations or a FIFA member.
"I will not (accept) until they are members of the United Nations," he was quoted as saying. "Our position is clear on this issue and we will continue to stand by it."
FIFA nevertheless suggested after the latest meeting that progress of some kind might have been made.
"The FAS and FFK agreed to further discuss potential ways to promote football in Kosovo with the ultimate objective of finding a mutually beneficial solution," a statement said.
Kosovo's frustration is, in a way, understandable. A number of exiled players turn out for other national teams, notably Switzerland who have qualified for the World Cup finals.
Manchester United's teenage prodigy Adnan Januzaj, who has yet to decide which of several countries he wants to play for, would qualify for Kosovo.

Bosnian mass grave feared record size (New York Times, by Eldar Emric, 31 October 2013)

TOMASICA — Two decades after Serb soldiers conducted house-to-house searches in a campaign of ethnic killings in Bosnia, forensic scientists are digging up what could turn out to be the largest mass grave from the 1992-95 war.

So far, the remains of 360 people have been found at the Tomasica mass grave discovered in September near the northern town of Prijedor, far more than expected, authorities said Thursday.

The number is expected to rise and could one day surpass the 629 bodies found at Crni Vrh in Srebrenica.

The Missing Persons’ Institute said the Tomasica grave is linked to a secondary one found in 2003 about 10 kilometres away, where 373 bodies were extracted. Authorities believe the perpetrators of the killings moved parts of the remains from one grave to the other in a bid to hide the crime. In some cases, remains from the same person have been found in both graves.

Institute official Mujo Begic said he expects more remains to be found at the Tomasica site, and the bodies are of Bosniak and Croat men, women and children killed in their villages during the war.

“Together with the relocated ones, the number of the bodies here indicates the biggest mass grave so far found in Bosnia,” Begic said. “We have found some identification documents in the grave, so we know who these people are.”

The grave covers over 5,000 square meters and is 10 metres deep.

Tomasica is near Prijedor, which was a site of severe crimes against humanity committed by Christian Orthodox Serbs against Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats. Many of the victims were killed in one of the three Nazi-style concentration camps Serb authorities had set up near Prijedor. Authorities hope some of the 1,200 still missing from the area are now found in the Tomasica grave. The remains will be definitively identified through DNA matching from samples provided by living relatives.

Most of the victims were killed in their villages and brought to this location to be buried, but teams have also found bullets in the grave which indicates that some were brought here alive and that this was also an execution site, prosecutor Eldar Jahic said, citing evidence and witnesses.

Near the grave, Vahida Behlic, 51, was sobbing as she watched forensic experts dressed in white uniforms and rubber boots carefully lifting bones from the site, where skeletons were piled on top of each other. She came from Slovenia, where she has lived with her family since she escaped her native village of Zecovi, near Prijedor.

Behlic came with her husband and son because she thinks one of the skeletons could be of her mother Fatima who was 60 when Serb soldiers came, dragged her out of the basement and shot her in front of her house.

“I heard the story from a witness who survived because his own grandmother threw herself on him and covered him with her body,” she said.

A boy back then, the witness arrived in Slovenia injured but told her what he saw.

“He said 32 people were killed that day. Standing here, I have the feeling they are watching us from down there.”