Belgrade DMH 231013

LOCAL PRESS

Vulin: You must love Serbia, but you must also listen to it (Politika)

In a grey suit and shirt and with beads in his hand, Serbian Minister without portfolio in charge of Kosovo and Metohija Aleksandar Vulin is convinced in the victory of the “Srpska” list at the local Kosovo elections on 3 November. “I still haven’t heard that someone refused some competence from Belgrade. I hear that Belgrade’s stands are rejected, but nobody refused money,” says Vulin. That is why he suggests, except for emotional, pragmatic ties between official Belgrade and the Kosovo Serbs: “If you want to get a job from the state even where there is no job, then listen to your state. It is important for Serbia to turn out for the elections. You must love the Serbian state but you must also listen to it,” the Minister tells Politika in an interview.

Is it possible for the Independent Liberal Party (SLS), which is in coalition with Hashim Thaqi, to win in three southern municipalities (Strpci, Novo Brdo, Klokot) with the help of Albanian votes?

“The Brussels agreement envisages the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities, consisting of ten municipalities where the Serbs are a majority. There is also a possibility for some other municipalities, if formed, to increase this number. What you asked is a political question and it would mean the creation of two completely opposite political concepts inside the Serbs. I believe this is impossible. I can’t imagine there is a Serb who would say he/she doesn’t want to be in the Union of Serb Municipalities but to want to be in an alliance with Pristina. I absolutely insist that the Union of Serb Municipalities must be formed and that this is in the greatest interest for the Kosovo Serbs. We’ll see how we will form it. The Government has clearly stated that it supports the list Srpska and that this list has best relations with Belgrade.”

Is it because he opposes elections that the Kosovska Mitrovica District head Radenko Nedeljkovic was dismissed?

“No, had it been because of elections we could have done that six months ago.”

But you dismissed him the day before yesterday?

“That is a matter of legal procedure in the Ministry of Justice and Local Self-Government. There is no case here. District heads are dismissed in other parts of Serbia as well. The state of Serbia functions throughout its territory. What functions in Novi Sad must also function in Kosovska Mitrovica.”

Is the following thesis true: that employees in public companies in Serb regions in Kosovo and Metohija are becoming some kind of ‘election hostages’ of both the Serbian Government, which supports the Srpska list, and the opponents of Serb participation in the elections led by the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS). Namely, while the first say – you will be left without jobs if you don’t vote, the others say – you will be left without jobs even if you vote?

“With the signing of Brussels agreement regardless of who leads the state today or tomorrow, this person will have to abide by this agreement or Serbia will drop out from the group of civilized nations. The Serbian state will continue to finance life in Kosovo and Metohija precisely because it will form the Union of Serb Municipalities. Not in any other way. And because the Union of Serb Municipalities will also become part of our constitutional-legal order.”

How will displaced persons from Kosovo vote, will they have to travel to Kosovo in order to vote?

“They will vote in Serbia proper. The polling stations have already been determined and they will vote by also submitting their ballot to the OSCE that will send their votes further on.”

Is it true that when you, or some other Belgrade official, mention list ‘Srpska’ Pristina sees Milorad Dodik?

“I don’t know who they see but I will remind that the list of the Kosovo Serbs was called Serbia. Pristina didn’t like this name so there was a mighty battle and diplomacy and then they agreed to ‘Srpska’ so they shouldn’t get additionally smart.”

Can there be manipulations with the polls? The newly appointed member of the Central Electoral Commission (CIK) Nenad Rikalo, who was appointed at Belgrade’s insisting, opposed the final poll, because there are 6,500 displaced persons on the poll, even though Rikalo thought that 32,000 of them should vote. Did the Government include Rikalo in the CIK too late?

“This is not a matter of our lateness, but a matter of Pristina’s intentional political obstruction. Everything that Pristina does is with an idea of Serbs not turning for the elections. They want the Union of Serb Municipalities to be a NGO without any competencies and without any authority among the Serbs. Pristina will try to implement as little as possible from the Brussels agreement. We are trying to implement as much as possible.”

How did you enter Kosovo the other day? By an alternative route?

“No. I entered regularly.”

Do you think you will be able to visit Gracanica again?

“There is no reason not to come. We enabled the representatives of the interim institutions in Pristina to visit Serbia normally and they have no problems with arrivals, so this speaks of something else. That the Serbs are gathering too much around us, they react too well on ‘Srpska’.”

I see that you are constantly playing with beads. Has the Government, and yourself, influenced Patriarch Irinej to nevertheless accept the Brussels agreement, whose harsh opponent was the Serbian Orthodox Church?

“The Patriarch is a far more important person and he is at the helm of a timeless institution in order to be leaning on any individual, especially not to some political or religious stands. What the Patriarch said and did was of crucial significance and the gratitude of the state to our church is immense. The Serbs didn’t stay in places where the Serbian Orthodox Church didn’t stay. We can’t allow ourselves the luxury for the Serbian Orthodox Church and the state not to think and do the same. That is why I also ask our citizens in Kosovo and Metohija: will you choose Krstimir Pantic as the Kosovska Mitrovica mayor or will you choose Adrijana Hodzic by not voting?”

 

Drecun: Presence of Serbian officials crucial for elections (Tanjug)

The Chairperson of the Serbian parliament Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun has stated that it is necessary for Aleksandar Vucic and other Serbian officials to visit Kosovo before the 3 November elections because this can crucially influence the decision.

The President of the Parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun said today that it is necessary that Aleksandar Vucic or other top Serbian officials to stay in Kosovo before the elections on 3 November, as this may critically affect the decision of the Serbs in the province to vote. Drecun told reporters in the Parliament that he expects Pristina to start behaving rationally and stops preventing Serbian officials to come to Kosovo.
" Vucic is the most influential political figure in Serbia and his message to the Serbs to vote has the greatest impact, but his presence in Kosovo shows the essential connection between Belgrade and Serbian people and may critically contribute to the success of the Serbian List" Drecun said, adding that this is clearly a problem for Pristina.

Drecun said it is unacceptable that a man who is in charge of Kosovo at the Government of Serbia cannot stay on that territory in circumstances when Pristina is, as he said, formally committed to bring as many Serbs to the elections.

Asked if there is enough time for the officials to go to Kosovo prior to the elections, Drecun said it would be possible if there is a political will not to obstruct their visits. Drecun said that Kosovo Albanians behave politically immature and do not contribute to the normalization of relations, that daily political issues should be overcome and added that Pristina manipulated voter list.

First election materials for Kosovo elections arrived to Kraljevo (Tanjug)
First election materials for the Serbs outside of Kosovo and Metohija who are eligible to vote in the local elections on 3 November arrived in Kraljevo. The first envelopes with ballot material for the Serbs outside Kosovo voting in the local elections in Kosovo and Metohija on 3 November arrived from the Central Election Commission (CIK) to the “Post Office” in Kraljevo. Commissioner for Refugees in Kraljevo Slobodan Stanisic confirmed that 327 envelopes with polling material were delivered. As of tomorrow, we will organize distribution of voting envelopes in the Kraljevo Assembly Hall  and we will invite registered people to come and take the material, vote and send it by mail, and to those who are not able to come to Kraljevo, we will send the voting material to their home addresses, Stanisic said.

DSS convention in Nis: “No to Kosovo elections” (RTS)

The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) Convention called “No to Kosovo elections” took place in Nis. The speeches were held by Sanda Raskovic Ivic, Milos Kovic and Academician Svetomir Arsic Basara, as well as by representatives of the DSS Nis Board. The message sent from the Convention was that people should not take part in the upcoming local elections in Kosovo and Metohija.”The elections are unconstitutional, illegal and unacceptable for Serbia, which has not recognized the state of Kosovo. Voting would mean that Serbs recognize the Kosovo authorities, and if they do not vote, they will remain on their own,” Basara said. “The goal of this panel is to explain to refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) why they should not participate in the elections in Kosovo. We want to say that the state forces people to do the dirty work for it,” Raskovic-Ivic said. She said that voting in the elections would mean maintaining “status quo” by the system - not to be worse even though it won’t be better. The President of the DSS City Board in Nis Milan Leposavic said that the Serbian government decision to support this election represents “the last phase in the creation of Thaqi’s state”, because, according to him, voting at the elections will mean automatic recognition of institutions of an unrecognized state.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

B&H participated in the international operation “Elenika” (Fena)

By order of the B&H Prosecutor’s Office, authorized police officers of the B&H Federation Police Administration and the Ministry of Interior of RS, participated in the international operation codenamed “Elenika”. The police searched several locations in the Una - Sana Canton and in Ugljevik. Activities carried out in B&H are part of the activities carried out in several countries as part of international operation. In this case, significant cooperation has been achieved with the police and judicial authorities of the Republic of Italy, as well as the anti-mafia department of the Italian prosecutor office, which is the holder of this investigation and also the judicial and police authorities of the countries of the region, announced the B&H Prosecutor’s Office. This investigation aimed at detecting the perpetrators of organized crime related to illicit international trafficking of large quantities of the narcotic drug heroin. In the activities in B&H, by order of the B&H Prosecutor’s Office and the order of the B&H Court, the police searched at multiple locations and interviewed five suspects. Given that this is a broader international operation, and that only one part of the activities is implemented in B&H, the Prosecutor’s Office at this moment cannot give more details about the investigative activities conducted.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Half Kosovo Serbs May Shun Elections, Report Says (Balkan Insight, 23 October 2013)

Despite calls from Serbia to vote in Kosovo's November 3 local elections, over 40 per cent Serbs in northern Kosovo seem unwilling to participate, a recent UNDP report says.

The report, published by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, says that while it is “encouraging" that 16 per cent of Serbs in northern Kosovo will definitely vote on November 3, and another 17 per cent "may" vote, 44 per cent said they would not vote.

The same survey also said that 48 per cent of the Serbs in the north of Kosovo apparently did not know which parties were running the elections, and 47 per cent did not know the names of the candidates running as mayors.

The survey was conducted in early October in North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic on the basis of 400 interviews.

The result of the poll will disappoint officials who have called for a mass turnout in the elections on November 3, which some have dubbed historic.

This is because the government of Serbia has for the first time placed its own authority behind the calling of the elections, which are designed to pave the way towards the establishment in Kosovo of an association of Serbian municipalities, entrusted with broad powers of self-government.

The political legitimacy of the association will obviously depend to a degree on the size of the turnout in the north, where most Kosovo Serbs are concentrated and where they form the majority community in four municipalities.

The November 3 polls form a crucial part of implementing an EU-mediated agreement between the governments of Kosovo and Serbia intended to "normalise" relations. [Serbia does not recognise Kosovo's independence proclaimed in 2008.]

Mytaher Haskuka, from the UNDP, said the results were not necessarily conclusive. “A lot of things may happen in the meanwhile, that’s why the number of Serbs who will vote on November 3 is unpredictable,” he said.

The last local elections in Kosovo were held in November 2009, but most people in the northern, Serb-run municipalities ignored the poll, and elected their own leaders in a separate vote organised by Serbia.

Serbia tries austerity despite warnings (SAPA, October 22 2013)
Belgrade - A new call for austerity in Serbia is a step in the right direction, but the government should do more if it wants to revive its ailing economy, analysts warn.

With a budget deficit likely to hit 7.5 percent of output and public debt to surpass 60 percent, the government has opted for an austerity programme that includes public sector wage cuts and a sales tax hike.

The International Monetary Fund, with whom Serbia hopes to strike a loan deal next year, said measures, if fully implemented in 2014, would be “an important step in the right direction.”

Abbas Ameli-Renani, analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland, said the measures “most importantly... should serve to keep the IMF engaged and willing to formalise a loan arrangement.”

An IMF loan worth one billion euros ($1.3 billion) was frozen in February 2012 because the previous government had not complied with commitments.

But austerity measures alone would not be enough to meet IMF demands and would fail to significantly fix the budget, Serbian analyst Milan Culibrk said.

“With these measures alone there is no way they can ... deliver a sustainable deficit (target),” Culibrk said.

Serbia's public sector employs almost 700,000 people out of Serbia's total work force of 1.7 million people and slashing salaries by the proposed 25 percent without cutting jobs will not be enough, he said.

Many state employees see the measures as just “another hit on our incomes,” said Irina Todorovic, a 38-year-old teacher.

“Teachers are already humiliated with the lowest salaries among those paid by the state, which apparently does not care about educating its future working force,” she said.

Culibrk, the analyst, urged the government to deal with over-indebted public companies otherwise Serbia would only continue to borrow money to cover costs.

The IMF also warned that “wide-ranging structural reforms should support fiscal adjustment.”

“Steps to improve the business climate and reduce the state's footprint in the economy are needed to provide impetus to investment, economic diversification, and sustainable private sector growth in order to create jobs,” the IMF said.

Both newly appointed Finance Minister Lazar Krstic and Economy Minister Sasa Radulovic said they planned more measures to ensure growth, which in 2013 was expected to be around 1.7 percent, according to IMF.

“We identified the grey economy, estimated to be worth 30 percent of the GDP, as an easy target that could provide first results quite fast,” Radulovic said.

Fighting the informal economy had also been the first piece of advice by ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, recently hired to advise the government.

Strauss-Kahn had no role in preparing the austerity package, but consults on mid- and long-term reforms, a government source told AFP.

“If we manage to narrow the grey economy we could get a GDP growth” worth up to 10 billion euros ($13.5 billion), Radulovic said.

By mid-2014, Serbia should also find a solution for 179

state-owned companies set to be privatised, he said.

But Culibrk warned that “all those plans look rather like a wish-list.”

“Let see what will be implemented, as even these austerity measures are a difficult sell to the unions and an army of public sector employees,” he said.

Rating agency Fitch said the government's plans to “stabilise public finances show a commitment to fiscal consolidation and structural economic reform.”

“But weak economic growth and implementation risks pose significant challenges to meeting targets,” it added.

Fitch affirmed Serbia's 'BB-' rating with a negative outlook in July.

“Failure to adopt a credible plan to reduce the deficit and stabilise debt could lead to a downgrade, while doing so in a manner that put public debt on a sustainable path would alleviate pressure on the rating,” the agency said.

Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has recently said that the measures are desperately needed as Serbia is “on the verge of bankruptcy” and faced with “rating downgrades.”

However both Culibrk and Ameli-Renani saw the warning as a way to fend off public anger.

“Undoubtedly, such wage cuts would be politically difficult to implement, especially on the backdrop of over 7 percent inflation,” Ameli-Renani said.

“By sounding the alarm of bankruptcy and rating downgrades, Vucic may be intending to soften any domestic opposition to harsh austerity measures,” Ameli-Renani said. 

Serbia's state-owned Postanska to take over assets of Privredna Banka Beograd (Reuters, 22 October 2013)

BELGRADE - Serbia's finance ministry said on Tuesday it plans to transfer assets of Privredna Banka Beograd to state-owned Postanska Stedionica, the second such takeover this year.

Serbian media reported earlier this month that Privredna Banka Beograd had a high percentage of non-performing loans.

Serbia's central bank estimates bad debts at about 20 percent of all loans in the country's financial system.

In a statement, the ministry said it would ask the government to approve the transfer of all insured and non-insured deposits and some other assets of Privredna Banka Beograd to Postanska Stedionica.

"The difference between liabilities and assets will be covered with government bonds," the statement said. "This is necessary to preserve the stability of the financial system."

Absorbing the bad loans into the state-owned bank will add to the pressures on Serbia's finances just as the government is making a fresh attempt to reverse a trend of mounting state debt.

Shares of Privredna Banka Beograd traded at 0.08 euros on Tuesday. The market capitalisation of the bank is 450,000 euros ($619,800), according to Belgrade stock exchange data.

In April, Postanska Stedionica took over the assets and liabilities of Razvojna Banka Vojvodine after it collapsed under the weight of bad loans.

Last year, Postanska Stedionica also took over assets and 260,000 clients of Agrobanka after a 2011 unaudited loss of 29.7 billion dinars was revealed.

($1 = 0.7260 euros)

Serbia and Croatia Claim They Are Mature To Leave the Past Behind. Are they?

(Euinside.eu, October 2013, By Adelina Marini)
On November 16th 2012 The Hague Tribunal pronounced the acquittals for two key Croatian generals from the war on the separation from former Yugoslavia. The way they were welcomed in Zagreb and the political reactions were the drop that put the relations between Croatia and Serbia in the freezing point. A meeting between the heads of state from the then perspective looked even more impossible than before when Croatia's President Ivo Josipovic expected his newly elected Serbian counterpart to apologise for his remark that Vukovar was a Serb city. Back then the situation looked scary. On October 16th 2013, however, in Belgrade, the two presidents were trying to smile for the cameras and to mark the beginning of normal bilateral relations.

A coincidence or not, but Josipovic's visit in the Serb capital coincided with the publication of the European Commission progress reports for the countries from the enlargement process which leave the impression that Serbia is the big score-maker this year. And although many things have changed for almost a year, the unresolved issues remain.

What has changed?

Both for Croatia and Serbia at the time was crucial to repair their relations so that the former can get a final approval to join the EU on July 1st 2013, and the latter to start accession talks. For the purpose they began talks on high and not that high level on finding a solution to all the issues that remained open after the end of the war and the break-up of former Yugoslavia. The only obstacle before the continuation of warming and normalisation of relations was precisely the summit between the presidents. Ivo Josipovic spent in Serbia two days during which he had a speech [in Croatian] in the Serb Parliament, met representatives of the Croatian minority, had a meeting with the prime minister. He was accompanied most of the time by Nikolic. The TV footage showed that this was not an easy step for Tomislav Nikolic who has still not publicly renounced his past as a Serb radical and his attempts to distribute on an equal basis the responsibility for the war on all former Yugoslav republics do not meet understanding and are often a reason for indignation.

Ivo Josipovic, for his part, was trying to demonstrate openness and played very well his role of a president of a EU member state - mature and ready to do what the EU does best - talk and seek compromises. Tomislav Nikolic looked as a man who is still not ready to make the big confession, but is aware that there is no way back. Instead, there is a way forward which was quite evident during the visit by the two leaders in a primary school of the Croatian minority in Vojvodina. Although this visit was being prepared for several months and possibly every detail was worked out, the two presidents were caught completely off guard by a simple child's question: "How were you as kids?" A question naive but at the same time not quite harmless.

Ivo Josipovic was first to recover smilingly saying that he was a good kid, passing on to Nikolic whose face radiated seriousness, preoccupation and a desire all this to end as soon as possible. This question and Josipovic's reaction, though, changed radically his expression, which shone to reveal an unforced radiant smile. He, too, said he was a good kid. And although the smiles and good mood remained on the faces of every one, without an answer remained the question whether they can also be good politicians as adults so they can make the future of children better?

A good exit from the bad history?

The biggest challenge for both countries at the moment is to find the best possible exit from the worst history that binds them. In that sense, a huge step forward was made by putting on the table the biggest issues. Ivo Josipovic presented his country's conditions for normalisation at the most important place - Serbia's national assembly. In a 15-minute long speech, which he read very carefully without affording himself not even a second of improvisation, he pointed out that "when we go back to the open issues from the past without closing them, we lose a sense of reality and perspective. We have to learn from the past, but with the corresponding respect for the past our obligation is life today and life tomorrow". In support of his words, he chose to quote a very symbolic personality in Serbia - the murdered prime minister Zoran Djindjic, with the words that "life cannot wait". The decision to quote precisely Djindjic is a very strong signal because the killed Serbian premier is a symbol of what Croatia would like Serbia to be - a democratic, reformed, predictable, Europeanised country.

This can only happen when there is political will. A will to recognise the past. Josipovic did not hesitate to name publicly in parliament what Croatia thinks of the war. "The terror that Croatia went through in the 1990s we remember as a fight for our survival, freedom and independence. We come back to the pictures of devastated towns and villages, the many crimes and the unfortunate fates. Among those who suffered and those with unfortunate fates there were, we know that, many our fellow citizens Serbs. Even if we assess some historical circumstances in a different way, we have to be united in one thing: we have to be united in condemning every crime because only then will we be able to send a message to the future generations that these crimes should never come back".

From this point of view, the most important issue for Croatia is knowing the whereabouts of 1689 missing persons from the war, of whom 953 are Croatian citizens and 736 of Serb nationality. In this regard, there is an example of good cooperation on locating mass graves - in Sotin, near Vukovar, but more is needed. In an interview with the Serb national TV Josipovic said there were people in Serbia who knew what happened to those people and where they were are buried. According to him, there is no reason why this information not to be shared so that their families can finally find peace.

The second very important question is about ensuring home and pensions for the refugees and the returnees. According to Josipovic, there are no longer political obstacles or danger for the security of the displaced if they decide to return to Croatia or for the Croats in Serbia. But in order for this to happen, it is necessary to ensure they get homes, their property and jobs returned.

Tomislav Nikolic avoided to comment on those issues, underscoring, however, the problems that are of interest to Serbia. He put a finger directly in Croatia's wound by saying that the Serbs have no right to use their language nor are they proportionately represented in the local authorities, the public administration, justice or police. And although he did not name Vukovar specifically, Nikolic said: "Often their security is endangered and lately there is a manifestation of ethnically motivated incidents and hate speech against the Serbs and Serbia. In the school textbooks the Serbs are qualified as occupiers and guerrillas. Is this the way the future generations will be taught in peace and tolerance?", Nikolic asked during their joint news conference. President Josipovic promised to check out the situation with the textbooks.

Another very important for Belgrade issue is Croatia to withdraw its complaints of genocide in the International Criminal Court against Serbia. "Friends do not sue each other, they agree outside the court", Nikolic recalled. Zagreb, however, puts as a precondition Belgrade to provide information on the missing people. And regarding the rights of the Serbs in Croatia to writing and language, Ivo Josipovic called in his interview on the Serbs to understand the reasons for the tensions specifically in Vukovar, provoked by the putting of boards in Cyrillic. "What Serbia needs to understand is that in Vukovar a horrible crime was committed. Vukovar was literally ruined and there are people who cannot outlive that, no matter that the war is over. I do not justify them but am only explaining what it is all about. This must be understood in some way. We need to talk to these people", the Croatian president said.

The European Commission has detected the progress in the bilateral relations of Serbia not only with Croatia, but with Bosnia and Herzegovina too. But it needs to be consolidated, the Commission says in its report. "Many bilateral problems remain unresolved, including as regards minorities and issues stemming from the break-up of the former Yugoslavia such as border demarcation. Fundamentally opposed views of recent history burden relations, as does the prevalence of inter-ethnic problems. Political and other leaders need to show more responsibility and take a stronger stand to condemn hate speech and other manifestations of intolerance when it occurs. More work is needed to hold perpetrators to account for war crimes, to address pending issues concerning refugees and internally displaced persons and to normalise relations on the situation of minorities. There has been insufficient progress on missing persons".

The Commission's assessment practically repeats all the open issues. The summit in Belgrade last week shows that, indeed, Serbia and Croatia are mature to start solving them one by one. The big test, however, will come with Zagreb's and Belgrade's consistency, as well as with the EU's power to demand what is necessary. Because, after all, progress in the bilateral relations is only one of many conditions for a European membership. Serbia has quite a lot of other problems to address, like corruption, organised crime and the need of reforms in every area. A road which Croatia already passed and is ready to help. This is what is important.

Bosnian soccer success sets example for healing ethnic divide (Reuters, 22 October 2013, By Daria Sito-Sucic)

SARAJEVO- Bosnia's international footballers have offered their political leaders a valuable lesson: see what you can achieve when you set aside your ethnic divisions.

Last week the national soccer side won a place at the World Cup finals for the first time, two years after Bosnia was briefly suspended from international competition for letting ethnic politics pervade the sport.

Under a reformed soccer federation, Bosnia automatically qualified for Brazil next year on the same night as some much bigger names in the European game - Spain, England and Russia.

Bosnians let off fireworks and honked car horns long into the night in Sarajevo when their team qualified, embracing a moment of joy after the horrors of a war that pitted Muslims, Croats and Serbs against each other in the early 1990s.

The victory mattered all the more because the team is a beacon of progress and unity in a country still divided between ethnic groups, mired in corruption and quarrels, and floundering on the edge of the European mainstream it wants to join.

"My message today to Bosnian politicians is: follow the example of your footballers and live up to expectations of your citizens," said European Union enlargement chief Stefan Fule the day after Bosnia qualified for the World Cup finals.

Nearly two decades after the civil war in which around 100,000 people were killed, the former Yugoslav republic's problem is not so much that the ethnic groups don't get along.

A system created by the 1995 treaty that ended the war, giving each of the three ethnic groups a share of power and rotating important posts between them, has kept the peace.

Bosnia's main problem is that this system breeds sleaze, the protecting of vested interests and paralysed decision-making. But while the politicians are still stuck in their old ways, the soccer team has shaken off the system and achieved the qualification, sealed by last Tuesday's victory over Lithuania.

DYSFUNCTIONAL SET-UP

Two years ago, Bosnia's NFSBiH soccer federation mirrored the way the state is organised. Its presidency was run by a Serb, a Croat and a Muslim who took turns in the job every 16 months, in much the same way that the state presidency works.

The system, say people involved in the sport, was dysfunctional. Officials were chosen on ethnic and political grounds rather than on competence.

Crucial decisions were fumbled. One example was the missed opportunity to recruit Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of Europe's top stars who now plays for French side Paris Saint-Germain.

Near the start of his career, his Bosnian-born father said he wanted Zlatan to play for the national side. No one from the federation pursued the possibility, former officials and local media say, and now the striker captains Sweden, the country of his birth.

The Bosnian federation was on the verge of bankruptcy. Three former officials, one of them an ex-commander of the Muslim-dominated Bosnian army during the war, were jailed last year for tax evasion and embezzlement.

Many foreign-based players and devoted soccer fans boycotted the national team, angry at political interference which they said was spoiling otherwise harmonious relations among players and coaches.

The world and European governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA demanded the federation should have a single chief. "We were in an abyss only two years ago," said NFSBiH President Elvedin Begic, who was appointed to the job in December last year.

NEW BEGINNING

The turning point came in 2011. With no sign of any progress, FIFA and UEFA briefly suspended Bosnia from competitions in April of that year. Stung by this, ethnic leaders agreed to reform the federation's set-up.

A FIFA-appointed interim committee made up of soccer professionals of all ethnicities took over from the suspended federation. It was headed by Ivica Osim, who as coach led the former Yugoslavia to the World Cup quarter-finals in 1990. A Sarajevo-born Bosnian Croat, he is married to a Muslim.

Osim signalled how things had changed last year, when matches between Bosnian clubs were marred by violence between fans from Sarajevo and the Serb-dominated city of Banja Luka.

In an act of candour unprecedented in Bosnian soccer, he said sectarian politics was behind the violence, and this had no place in sport. He banned visiting fans from the stadiums.

Last December, the federation's assembly elected its first single president for a four-year term and appointed a 15-member executive committee, comprising officials from Bosnia's two autonomous regions, the Federation of Muslim Bosniaks and Croats and the Serb Republic.

"We now have a national team which is not based on the grounds of who is who, but who is the best," Osim, who advises the new soccer federation, said last week. "If only politicians were as cohesive as this team."

BALL IN POLITICIANS' COURT

Ethnic suspicions linger. Most of Bosnia's ethnic Serbs have traditionally supported the Serbian national team and many Bosnian Croats cheer for Croatia - although this may be changing thanks to Bosnia's success.

In the Serb Republic, the Serb-dominated autonomous part of Bosnia, public television did not broadcast the match against Lithuania and reported the result only hours later, as a short news item.

"Football cannot reconcile the citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina, football cannot make them more tolerant because football was not an issue. Politicians are those who must do it," said Srdjan Puhalo, a psychologist from Banja Luka, main city in the Serb Republic.

Brussels has made reforming Bosnia's ethnically-based political system a condition of starting talks on EU accession. So far, the politicians are reluctant to change a set-up that serves their interests.

Yet at a grass-roots level, the example set by the multi-ethnic soccer team is helping heal some of Bosnia's divisions.

Sasa Zivkovic, a graphic worker from Banja Luka, watched the Bosnia-Lithuania match at home with friends by tuning into a Bosnian commercial station that carried it.

Zivkovic said many other people in the city cheered on the Bosnian team, though they don't admit it because of "strong antagonism" towards anything connected to the Bosnian state.

"But people like winners, and Bosnia's football team is a winning team, so I think that many things will change," he said. 

'9 January Bosnian Serbs Day is discrimination' (World Bulletin, 23 October 2013)

The Venice Commission, a counseling organ for European Parliament and European Commission in constitutional matters, supported the view of Bekir Izetbegovic considering the celebration of 9th of January as Bosnian Serb Republic Day as discrimination for non-Serbians.

The Venice Commission, a counseling organ for European Parliament and European Commission in constitutional matters, supported the view of Bekir Izetbegovic considering the celebration of 9th of January as Bosnian Serbian Republic Day as discrimination for non-Serbians.

The Venice Commission handled the celebration of 9th January as Bosnian Serb Republic Day in Bosnia's Serb Republic, one of the two entities in Bosnia in October 11-12 sessions.

In the report published following the sessions it was stated that the celebration of 9th of January as Bosnian Serbian Republic Day is discrimination for non-Serbians.

Bosniak member of Bosnian Tripartite Presidency Council Bekir Izetbegovic applied to the Bosnian Constitutional Court on January 7, 2013 for the celebration of 9th of January as Bosnian Serbian Republic Day to be questioned whether it complies with the national days law of Bosnian Serb Republic or not.

The Bosnian Constitutional Court applied to the Venice Commission on June 10, 2013 to handle the issue.

Croatia could be forced to take economic measures (NewEurope, 21 October 2013)

Croatia joined the EU just over three months ago and is to join the euro on January 1 2014, but analysts are now saying that it may be put under the EU's Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) after Eurostat and the Croat Statistics Service, today released the latest data on the country's economy.

According to the agencies, Croatia's deficit for 2012 was 5 percent of GDP instead of the proscribed 3 percent. Zagreb's debt stood at 55 percent of GDP.

EDP outlines the measures that member states have to take in order to bring their finances in order.

A country is give six months time - or three in cases where figures present sharp changes- to decide with the EU the measures that have to be taken to reduce the debt and deficit.

Then the EU will check how effective they are, whether the EDP should be terminated or whether more measures are required.