Belgrade DMH 251013

LOCAL PRESS

Serbian Government: Erdogan’s statement a gross infringement of the international law (RTS)

The Serbian Government assessed the statement of Turkish Premier Rexhep Tayyip Erdogan that Kosovo is Turkey as a gross infringement of the international law and interference in the internal affairs of the Republic of Serbia. The government assesses such statements as directly detrimental to relations between Serbia and Turkey and to Serbia’s efforts aimed at normalizing the situation in the region and especially in Kosovo and Metohija. The Serbian Government will issue a demarche to the Turkish authorities and demand an explanation for such a statement, the announcement reads. The government also believes that the EU, through its competent authorities and in the capitals of all the member-states, will take measures towards Turkey, as it does in similar situations, as the statement represents an act disturbing the peace process in the southern Serbian province. 

Vucic: I am coming to Kosovo with Vulin (Beta)

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has promised the Kosovo Serbs that he will visit the southern province before the local elections, slated for 3 November. Before more than thousand followers of the Serbian (Srpska) Citizens Initiative, Vucic said he would come to Kosovo together with Minister Aleksandar Vulin despite the fact that Pristina banned Vulin to enter the province. “I am telling you this and let Pristina arrest whoever it likes. I will visit with Vulin all of your places in Kosovo and Metohija,” said Vucic. He criticized the statement by Turkish Premier Rexhep Taip Erdogan that Kosovo is Turkey. “Serbia, which respects the power and size of Turkey, will never allow others to humiliate and destroy it,” he said. Vucic said Serbian citizens know what kind of problems the Kosovo Serbs are facing but he asked the Serbs in the southern province to have understanding for the “difficult decisions” made by the Serbian Government.

Pantic: Elections must be neutral in status (RTS)

“All election material has to be neutral in status and should be in the spirit of the Brussels agreement or otherwise citizens in Kosovo and Metohija will not go to the polls,” the Deputy Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Krstimir Pantic has stated. He criticized representatives of the international community for not pressuring the institutions in Pristina to create conditions for Serb officials to visit Kosovo and Metohija although they claim to support freedom of movement. “The international community bears immense responsibility today and if the election process on 3 November fails, Pristina will be the one to blame rather than Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija,” Pantic said. He said that the Union of Serb Municipalities would be an entity regardless of the fact that the Albanians are trying to present the community as an NGO. “The Albanians know this very well and the fact that Serbian Minister without portfolio in charge of Kosovo and Metohija Aleksandar Vulin is banned from entering Kosovo and Metohija and that an arrest warrant has been issued against him indicate that the Albanians know that the Union of Serb Municipalities will be an insurmountable obstacle to so-called independent Kosovo,” Pantic said. He underlined that the dream of Albanians about the independence of Kosovo will disappear on 4 November the moment when the Union is formed. “This will have to be recognized by both the international community and the Albanians, and that is why they are doing everything to prevent Serbs from voting in the coming elections,” Pantic said, stressing that only around 10,000 out of 40,000 displaced persons, who have expressed the wish to cast ballots, were granted the right to vote.

REGIONAL PRESS

Dzaferovic: Sarovic’s dismissal assumes reconstruction of complete Council of Ministers (Oslobodjenje)

The B&H House of Representatives is considering an initiative by the SNSD caucus for the need to reconstruct the B&H Council of Ministers, with the dismissal of the minister and two deputy ministers from the SDS. The SDA delegate Sefik Dzaferovic said during the debate that representatives received the report from the Council of Ministers with the initiative to reconstruct the Council, in which it says that the Council of Ministers had supported the initiative to reconstruct. “According to the Constitution, the B&H Parliamentary Assembly can vote no confidence in the Council of Ministers, and that is a clear regulation from Article 5 of the Constitution, where it states that the Council of Ministers will submit its resignation if the Parliament votes no confidence. Nowhere in the Constitution does it speak of reconstruction, it only talks about voting no confidence,” said Dzaferovic. Citing the procedures of the House of Representatives, he said that the caucus of delegates or at least three delegates in the House can initiate a proposal to vote no confidence in the Council, or on the need to reconstruct the Council of Ministers. “And then this procedure goes, which is respected and goes to declaration of the Council of Ministers, and after voting, if no confidence or reconstruction is adopted, the Chair informs the House of Peoples about it, the Council of Ministers, and the B&H Presidency,” said Dzaferovic.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

IMF to consider extending, enlarging Bosnian standby deal: IMF official (Reuters, by Daria Sito-Sucic, 24 October 2013)

The International Monetary Fund will consider a request by Bosnia's authorities to extend and enlarge the Balkan country's current stand-by loan arrangement, the head of the IMF mission in Bosnia told Reuters on Thursday.

"Given the track record of the authorities under the current stand-by arrangement, the IMF is happy to consider this request in November, when its mission visits," Ruben Atoyan said, adding that the decision would depend on the strength of the government's economic policies.

Atoyan said the IMF's Executive Board will approve on October 28 the disbursement of a new 48 million euro ($66 million) tranche to Bosnia under a 385 million euro deal concluded in September 2012, because the authorities have met its terms.

Bosnia is made up of two highly autonomous regions, the Federation dominated by Muslim Bosniaks and Croats, and the Serb Republic, dominated by Bosnian Serbs.

The Serb Republic government has adjusted its 2013 budget to reflect a 3.5 percent hike in pensions, so that the consolidated budget deficit target of 2 percent of output could be met, Atoyan explained.

In the Federation, the implementation of legislation cutting military pensions and including audits of beneficiaries was progressing at a good pace, he added.

Both of Bosnia's two regions badly need the IMF cash to cover deficits in their budgets. The IMF has earlier said they had to make sure that next year's budgets are robust enough to preserve the gains made in 2013.

The lender has forecast Bosnia's economic growth in 2013 at close to 1 percent, based on an increase in industrial output and exports. It sees gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 2 percent in 2014 and at 3.5 percent in 2015.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Zoran Radosavljevic/Ruth Pitchford)

Census: Bosnia's population shrunk by 500,000 (Mina, 24 October 2013)

Preliminary results of the census conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina on October 1-15 show that the country has between 3.7 million and 3.8 million people, but their ethnic breakdown is still unknown, the Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz said on Thursday, citing unnamed sources from the national statistical office BHAS.

The country's Muslim-Croat entity, known as the Federation, has between 2.3 million and 2.4 million people, the Bosnian Serb entity, called Republika Srpska, has between 1.2 million and 1.4 million, and Brcko District has slightly less than 100,000 people.

The BHAS does not expect any significant differences between these initial and final results, in which case Bosnia and Herzegovina will have at least 500,000 people fewer than in 1991 when a census was carried out before the country's 1992-1995 war. Bosnia and Herzegovina had a population of 4.377 million then.
The official census findings are expected in January.