Belgrade DMH 261113

LOCAL PRESS

Dacic secretly meets member of Bitiqi family (Blic)

The cabinet of Serbian Prime Minister announced four days ago that Prime Minister Ivica Dacic met with the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hoyt Brian Yi, but it didn’t announce that U.S. citizen Fatos Bitiqi was accompanying him. According to Blic, he had requested Dacic to promise him that he will bring to justice the murderers of his brothers, who were murdered 14 years ago in Petrovo Selo. “Yi brought Fatos Bitiqi to Belgrade so Dacic would personally assure him that the murder of his brothers would be solved. The Prime Minister told him this was the state’s obligation and that those responsible would be punished, even if the survival of the government was jeopardized because of this, Blic’s source notes. Dacic didn’t wish to comment Blic’s information, nor did his close associate and State and Secretary in the Serbian Interior Ministry Vanja Vukic wish to respond to Blic’s calls. According to Blic, Fatos Bitiqi was also at an official meeting at the War Crimes Prosecution Office, together with a U. S Embassy representative. This source notes he wished to learn how the investigation regarding the murder of his brothers was progressing. The Prosecution confirmed to Blic that this meeting took place.

 

Serbia asking for EU guarantees that financing of Union will not be blocked (Novosti)

Belgrade will set aside next year almost 37 billion Dinars for Kosovo and Metohija. This amount, according to the Serbian draft budget for 2014 is planned for the functioning of state and local organs, public companies and institutions in the province. After the elections in Kosovo and Metohija and the next rounds of the trilateral dialogue between  Ivica Dacic, Hashim Thaqi and Catherine Ashton it will be known what part of these funds will go directly to the account of the Union of Serb Municipalities and whether it will also be funded by Pristina and Brussels. Novosti learns that the Serbian side will insist that the rule of a “double key” is not applied in spending of funds, i.e. that Pristina doesn’t have the possibility of eventually stopping the income of money or changing its purposes determined by Belgrade or the Union of Serb Municipalities. According to Serbian presidential advisor Marko Djuric, who is also participant in the Brussels negotiations, when regulating the financing of the Union, the first step will be the adoption of its Statute, because it will define the capacity of the institutions of the Union of Serb Municipalities. “The Brussels agreement establishes that the manner and capacity of financing of the Union will be available to the public, and as regards Serbia, the amount that was set aside in the past for Serbian institutions in Kosovo and Metohija will not be reduced, just as there will be no loss of jobs,” Djuric tells Novosti. As regard the possibility of Pristina also setting aside part of the money for the Union of Serb Municipalities, he says: “It can be assumed that the provincial budget will determine funds for this purpose, because if there are competencies for tax collecting, it is logical that part of the money returns to municipal registers.” However, according to the draft budget for 2014, presently examined by the Kosovo Assembly, there are no items that refer to the Union of Serb Municipalities. Prime Minister Dacic said different forms of financing the Union were possible: from the Kosovo budget, the Serbian register and the budget of international organizations or from income of the municipalities. Part of the income, but only for the development of municipalities in north Kosovo, will be arriving from the fund where taxes and customs payments are collected at the Brnjak and Jarinje boundary crossings. These funds are monitored and controlled by a three-member board with representatives from Belgrade, Pristina and the EU. North Kosovo can count on 15million Euros of aid promised from Brussels. According to the Constitution, Serbia also needs to adopt the constitutional law whereby the degree of autonomy of Kosovo and Metohija will be regulated, and according to Djuric, the time when this law will be placed on the agenda is a matter of “a political estimate.”

 

Ivanovic: Health Ministry has state-building relationship (Tanjug)

The Director of the Kosovska Mitrovica Health Centre Milan Ivanovic has stated that the Serbian Health Ministry has a state-building relationship towards this institution and the residents of this region. After the meeting with Serbian Health Minister Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, Ivanovic recalled that she has visited the Health Centre for the third time in a short period, which is an indicator how much the Health Ministry and the Serbian state devote attention to this center. Ivanovic recalled that 134 employees in Kosovo and Metohija have regulated statuses, 35 of whom work in the Kosovska Mitrovica Health Center. More than 100 families in Kosovo have thus ensured their existence, said Ivanovic, pointing out that priority projects are in the phase of technical realization.

 

Successful screening in Brussels (Radio Serbia, by Sandra Pekic)

Serbia is ready to enter into negotiations on accession to the EU, which is proved by the successful bilateral screening on the supervision of the spending of budget and other public funds, said the head of the Serbian negotiation team for EU integrations, Tanja Miscevic. The last round of the screening in the seat of the European Commission in Brussels is running smoothly, and Chapter 32, on financial control, will be among the first to be opened, said Miscevic in Brussels. The talks touched on the functioning of the Serbian internal financial system control, of auditor budget control and on the compliance of standards in those fields with EU ones, explained Miscevic, who, together with the State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance Nikola Corsovic is leading the Serbian expert team. EU experts are very interested in clarifications and it is my impression that everything is running smoothly and that we should open Chapter 32 as soon as possible as it is essential for Serbian citizens, said Miscevic.

According to Nikola Corsovic, financial control system compliance has been worked upon in Serbia for some time and this chapter should not be problematic. There are no political issues within this chapter, so Serbia should respond to all the EU requirements in time, he said.

The screening process is aimed at establishing compliance of the laws and regulations of a candidate state with EU ones. As for EU accession process, Miscevic believes it is clear that the process of normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations will be closely related to accession talks, but the question is how that link is to function. She added she feared that if the Kosovo issue, in addition to Chapter 35, is horizontally related to all the chapters of the negotiating process, this is going to have very negative effects. In that case, Belgrade would have to discuss all the chapters, from transport to ecology, not only with Brussels, but with Pristina as well, which is something the EU is surely against, says Miscevic, who previously attended a panel discussion in Brussels dedicated to the EU enlargement process.

 

Prosecution requests 15 years of prison for Ilija Jurisic (Politika/Tanjug)

The Serbian War Crimes Prosecution Office asked for B&H wartime police commander Ilija Jurisic to be sentenced to 15 years of prison on charges that he issued the orders for the attack on the convoy of soldiers of former Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) during the arranged withdrawal from Tuzla, north-east Bosnia. According to the indictment, the attack on the convoy in Tuzla on 15 May 1992 carried out by the Muslim police and paramilitary unit Patriotic League left at least 51 soldiers killed and 50 more were wounded, and several ambulance vehicles were also destroyed in the incident. In the closing statement at the repeated trial, the prosecution underscored that the several years’ long proceedings have demonstrated that Jurisic committed a war crime. In the first-degree ruling in September 2009, Jurisic was sentenced to 12 years of prison for use of illegal means of combat. The Appellate Court annulled the ruling in October 2010 and issued instructions for the trial to be restaged before a new trial chamber. The Appellate Court issued instructions for the first-degree court to establish why the Tuzla garrison was withdrawing and on whose orders and to examine whether Jurisic was informed about the perfidious plan of the crisis headquarters of Tuzla headed by Mehmed Bajric. On the same day, the Appellate Court revoked detention for Jurisic and released him pending trial after 2,5 years of imprisonment. In the restaged trial, Jurisic is charged with issuing instructions during his office as the commander on duty in the Tuzla security unit operative headquarters for the attack on the convoy of JNA soldiers who were withdrawing from Husinska Buna barracks. At the beginning of the restaged trial, Jurisic pleaded not guilty and said that he was not the commander and that he was not able to make any decisions independently. Members of the 92^nd JNA Motorized Brigade were withdrawing from Tuzla with 220 vehicles and 600 soldiers and their commanders as agreed between former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Muslim authorities in Sarajevo which specified that JNA was obliged to withdraw from B&H by 19 May 1992.

 

 

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Bevanda appoints minister and deputy ministers (Srna)

The Presiding of the B&H Council of Minister Vjekoslav Bevanda has appointed Boris Tucic as the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, Miladin Dragicevic as the Deputy Minister of Defense and Zivko Marjanac as the Deputy Minister of Human Rights and Refugees, the Secretary General of the Council of Minister Zvonimir Kutlesa told Srna. According to Kutlesa, after he had appointed them, Bevanda sent his decision for confirmation to the House of Representatives of the B&H Parliamentary Assembly, i.e. their commission for preparing elections of the B&H Council of Minister. “I believe the appointments of the new minister and deputy ministers will be confirmed at the session of the House of Representatives scheduled for 5 December,” said Kutlesa.

 

EP rapporteur offers positive resolution on Macedonia (MKD)

Macedonia should start the EU accession talks without any delay since not only Brussels’ authority is set at risk but also UN’s, as latter’s negotiations process brings no results, reads the draft resolution of the European Parliament (EP), worked out by European Parliament’s rapporteur on Macedonia, Richard Howitt, writes online news edition MKD. The draft resolution was presented before the Committee on Foreign Affairs. “I said two major things, which were also backed by shadow rapporteur for Macedonia, Dr. Eduard Kukan – we do not want backward development. Everyone is aware that last year’s events were a challenge for the country,” Howitt remarked.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Swiss envoy: Serbia doesn't need to join NATO (UPI, 26 November 2013)

BELGRADE, Serbia -- Serbia doesn't need to join NATO to advance its integration into Europe but EU membership is crucial, Switzerland's ambassador to the Balkan nation says.

Jean-Daniel Ruch said in an interview published Saturday by the Serbian daily Dnevnik that, like Switzerland, Serbia can eventually become fully integrated into the European economy without joining the Western military alliance.

However, he added, the country does need to continue putting its full efforts into joining the European Union, which Switzerland backs.

Ruch's comments came after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu this month asked Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic about Belgrade's commitment to its current policy of military neutrality.

Vucic assured Shoigu Serbia's intention is to remain neutral, with no desire to join either NATO or the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization.

"Personally, I see no reason why you need to be in NATO," Ruch told Dnevnik. "You can stay neutral and become a member of the EU as did Austria, Finland, Ireland and Sweden.

"We have never felt the need to be in NATO. However, when it comes to the EU, the situation is quite different. Billion of goods are exchanged daily with the European Union. Switzerland, which has 8 million people, employs a million EU citizens."

Unlike membership in NATO, though, Serbian integration with the EU is essential, the Swiss envoy said.

"We are not EU members, but we believe that the European Union is good. The EU is a factor of peace, stability and economic growth."

Switzerland, Ruch added, is "totally economically integrated into the EU, because we need them and they need us. Because of this very special relationship with the European Union, we have signed bilateral agreements which are often re-negotiated, which is good for the Europeans, but is a complicated thing for us.

"Since we are the fourth-largest trade partner of the EU, we have a common interest that the contracts are signed. But Serbia is in a different position and I do not believe that the EU will find the same interest with you to sign such contracts as it has with Switzerland."

This month's reiteration of Serbian neutrality was acceptable to Moscow, Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Chepurin told the Belgrade weekly NIN in a Nov. 21 interview.

"If your question is whether this satisfies the Russians -- the answer is yes," he said. "Yugoslavia was a neutral country for almost half a century. We think there is no sense in Serbia becoming a member of NATO."

Serbia has been a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace program since 2006, which focuses on democratic, institutional and defense reforms. While not aspiring to membership, Belgrade is in discussions with NATO on deepening cooperation through the development of an "individual partnership action plan."

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a 2011 speech Serbia has made "good progress" in implementing "peaceful cooperation with its neighbors and with the European Union and NATO."

NATO intervened militarily in 1999 to end Serbian-Albanian violence in Kosovo, subsequently deploying the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force, and has since remained there under a United Nations mandate.

 

Yugoslav Commander Denies Staging Deadly Kosovo Attacks (BIRN, by Marija Ristic, 26 November 2013)

Former Yugoslav Army commander Toplica Miladinovic pleaded not guilty to committing war crimes by ordering attacks intended to expel ethnic Albanian civilians from Kosovo villages in 1999.

Miladinovic, the former commander of the 177th squad of the Yugoslav Army, told Belgrade special court on Monday that he was not guilty of ordering attacks on Kosovo villages in April 1999 because he was not responsible for that area.

“I didn’t… order anything, nor I was there,” Miladinovic said.

“The villages of Cuska, Ljubenic, Zahac and Pavlan [where the attacks took place] were not even my part of responsibility,” he added.

Miladinovic is accused of ordering and taking part in the attacks on the four villages, all near the Kosovo town of Pec/Peja, when at least 100 Albanians were killed and thousands expelled.

A total of thirteen Serbian fighters are currently on trial for war crimes over the attacks.

Asked by a judge who was in command in that area at the time, Miladinovic declined to provide an answer.

But according to Yugoslav Army documents, the villages did fall under the responsibility of the 177th squad, which acted as part of the 125th Brigade of the Pristina corps of the Yugoslav Army.

Another fighter among those indicted for the attacks, Abdulah Sokic, also pleaded not guilty.

“These accusations are manipulation of the prosecution, as we didn’t hear any witness who will confirm the indictment. These are all claims by protected witnesses who are not reliable and are just seeking vengeance,” Sokic said.

The Serbian prosecutor based the indictment on the testimony of two protected witnesses, both of whom are former fighters with the 177th squad.

Two other fighters, Slavisa Kastratovic and Sinisa Misic, also pleaded not guilty.

 

Kosovo Parties Get Ready for Run-Off Polls (BIRN, by Edona Peci, 26 November 2013)

Parties have started campaigning for Sunday's run-off polls, which will be held in 25 municipalities, and will test the public mood ahead of next year's general election.

The campaign for Sunday's run-off elections in 25 of Kosovo's 38 municipalities started on Monday and will end on Friday at midnight.

Candidates of the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, will run again for the post of mayor in 11 of the municipalities.

Those of the coalition between the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, and the Dardania Democratic League, LDD, are competing in eight.

Behlul Beqaj, professor of politics, said if the AAK failed to do well in the western town of Djakovica, it might herald the party's unstoppable decline.

“If the AKR fails here, its end will start," he said. "It will also be a knockout blow for the PDK if it loses in Prizren,” he added, noting that the results will test the mood of the voters ahead of next year's parliamentary elections.

Seven candidates of the Serbian Citizen's Initiative, known as Srpska, are running in mainly Serbian-populated municipalities.

Dusan Janic, a political analyst, said the Serbian government-backed Srpska list was unlikely to win in more than five.

“The victory of the Srpska list is very important for the government in Belgrade, because it consists of people paid out of the Serbian budget,” he noted.

“The Serbian government has promised to resolve the problem of Kosovo... they want to prove they achieved something”, he added.

Janjic said Belgrade should not ignore other Serbian parties in Kosovo by backing only the Srpska list, because “it could cause a conflict between the Serbs that are active in Kosovo politics”.

As in the first round of the Kosovo local elections, held at earlier this month, the run-off will be monitored by thousands of local and international observers.

The US ambassador to Kosovo, Tracey Jacobson, said she expected the improvements seen in the first round of elections, compared to past polls, to be sustained this time, too.

"A flawed or fraudulent process on December 1 would render the progress made in November's first round elections meaningless," she said on Monday.

The outcome of the local elections is considered a key element for the EU-brokered deal on normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

It is especially important in the Serb-dominated municipalities, as an autonomous Association of Serbian Municipalities is due to be established once the elections are over.

 

UN tribunal's president visits Bosnian mass grave (AP, by Almir Alic, 25 November 2013)

TOMASICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — The president of the U.N. war crimes trial for the former Yugoslavia said Monday that seeing what could be Bosnia's largest mass grave was like standing "face to face with horror."Theodor Meron said during his visit to the Tomasica grave near the northwestern town of Prijedor that he hopes the perpetrators will face justice and that his tribunal will offer consolation to survivors and victims' families.The remains of 430 victims of Serb ethnic killings during the region's 1990s war have been excavated since the grave was found in September. Experts say they expect to remove hundreds more.Many of the ethnic Bosniak and Croat victims were killed in one of three concentration camps set up nearby by Serb authorities. Others were killed during house-to-house searches or brought to the site alive to be executed at Tomasica.Their remains will be identified through DNA analysis and returned to their families.The grave stretches over 5,000 square meters (53,820 sq. feet) and is 10 meters (about 30 feet) deep.For Meron, a Holocaust survivor from Kalisz, Poland, the visit was a painful experience."This place has a very, very special resonance to me personally because it looks little bit like the place in Kalisz ... where my mother was killed. So it means to me more than just international law," he said."It is very difficult for me to speak at this place, where one stands face to face with the horror a man can do to another man," he said.Authorities hope that many of the 1,200 still missing people from the area will be found in Tomasica.The area of Prijedor was a site of severe crimes against humanity committed by Christian Orthodox Serbs against Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats.

 

Macedonian Opposition Unveils Economic Goals (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 26 November 2013)

Zoran Zaev's opposition Social Democrats have unveiled a package of ambitious economic pledges, which the government has dismissed as uncosted and wildly unrealistic.

Macedonia's opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, have unveiled a package of bold economic pledges ahead of presidential elections in March and amid growing speculation about early general elections.

If they win the next general election, the SDSM promises to start construction of three stretches of highway, from the central town of Veles to Prilep and Bitola, from Stip to Kocani, and from Strumica to the border with Bulgaria.

The Social Democrats also pledge to continue construction of two other stretches of highway stretches that the government of Nikola Gruevski has promised to start.

Another measure tackles long overdue plans to bring natural gas to more companies and households.

The pledge is build a main national gas grid that will reach all main urban centres and include many smaller areas as well.

Finally, the Social Democrats promise to finance 320 business ideas a year with 10,000 euro each through 16 planned business "incubators" dotted across the country.

“These are capital investments that will employ young people who would otherwise leave the country, owing to our high unemployment,” the SDSM head, Zoran Zaev, said. “This will create more than 5,000 new jobs, above all for young people,” Zaev added.

The measures form part of a new platform that the Social Democrats says is aimed at “restoring the middle class” - the median social class that once dominated society, which was impoverished during the transition from a Socialist to a market economy in the 1990s.

The ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE party of Nikola Gruevski said the opposition promises were totally unreal.

“You either have to be ignorant about how capital investments are done or a blunt liar to arbitrarily promise investments that would take 3 billion euro to realise,” the party said.

The Social Democrats launched their new platform this autumn after Zaev took over from his predecessor, Branko Crvenkovski.

The party hopes to recuperate from a shattering defeat suffered in the local elections this spring.

Since 2006, the party has lost all seven elections to VMRO DPMNE, including general, local and presidential polls.