Belgrade DMH 091013

LOCAL PRESS

Dacic: I am going to Kosovo, but I will not be present at party gatherings (Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic has stated that Serbian officials will visit Kosovo during the election campaign as state officials in order to call citizens to turn out for elections and to vote for the Serbian (Srpska) list, but that they will not take part in classic party gatherings. Commenting statements from Pristina after the Brussels meeting, Dacic said that public statements that serve for “internal use” should be separated from what will occur. “I am not interested in how someone will elaborate that. I want to visit Kosovo and I must be provided this, period,” said Dacic.  “We, as a state, must call citizens to turn out for the elections so we need to take part in the campaign. State officials will not take part in classic party gatherings because they are coming as state officials,” said Dacic.

Dacic announces visit to Kosovo (Politika)

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic announced yesterday in Bajina Basta that he would most probably visit Kosovo and Metohija next week. He presented the agreement in Brussels as political victory of the Serb side, announcing that Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will also take part in the election campaign for the local elections in the southern Serbian province. Dacic says they will take part in the campaign in order to offer support to the Serbs and to make it clear that turning out for the elections is not help to Thaqi, but represents an opportunity for electing legitimate bodies that will represent Serb interests. As Tanjug reports, Dacic said he had reached agreement with Thaqi in Brussels on all disputable issues, specifying that these are electoral lists, voting of internally displaced people from Kosovo and Metohija, representation of the Serbian list in the Central Electoral Commission (CIK), as well as visits of top state officials to Kosovo in the election campaign.

Unlike Dacic, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaqi doesn’t think that the Serb side received satisfaction in Brussels. He spoke yesterday at an election gathering in Glogovac where he said that the Kosovo government would respect European standards, but that the visit of Serbian officials would be carried out by previously established procedures, and that the Kosovo institutions were autonomous in passing decisions. “If requests for Kosovo visits arrive, the Kosovo institutions will review them with utmost seriousness; however, in no case will we allow visits with election features. But, if they wish to visit some monastery, we will of course allow them,” said Thaqi. Agron Bajrami, the editor-in-chief of Koha Ditore, told Politika that none of the Albanian parties in Kosovo have commented the Brussels agreement because nobody knows what was agreed. “The document that was agreed in Brussels is partially secret and all Kosovo media report that Thaqi enabled freedom of movement in Kosovo but the problem is that nobody knows precisely what had been agreed in Brussels. It is unknown whether the Kosovo government banned some Serbian politician to take part in the campaign for the local elections and if it did, who did it refer to. That is why other Albanian parties are restrained in their comments,” says Bajrami. He expects Dacic, as well as other Serbian officials, to take part in the election campaign. “The decision to allow Dacic and other Serbian officials in the election campaign in Kosovo will hit most the Independent Liberal Party that is part of the Kosovo government and expects poor results at the local elections and far less votes than the Serbian (Srpska) list, favored by Belgrade,” says Bajrami. He says it is difficult to expect that Thaqi’s Democratic Party of Kosovo to keep power in the majority municipalities where it won at the last elections. The local elections are a test for this party since it has been weakened with the departure of several strong political figures. “If it is defeated at the local elections, this could be an announcement of changes at the helm of the Kosovo government as well, which could leade to changes of negotiators and the manner of negotiating with Belgrade,” warns Agron Bajrami. The only party in Serbia that criticized yesterday’s agreement in Brussels was the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), whose vice president Slobodan Samardzic insisted on the difference in the statements of Serb-Albanian participants. “A lot of noise was created, so this little let-up seems like success,” says Samardzic, who thinks that at issue is “manipulation” aimed at as many as possible Serbs turning out for the 3 November elections.

Inquiry Board silent on money expenditure in Kosovo and Metohija (Novosti)

Even though the public was supposed be informed in mid September about how budget money was spent in Kosovo over the past 12 years, there is no report by the Inquiry Board, which was given this task by the Serbian parliament. A group of 14 MPs who have been tasked with examining all papers have not yet presented their report. The Chairman of the Inquiry Board for Kosovo and Metohija Momir Stojanovic tells Novosti that the report has been completed: “I have informed Serbian parliament speaker Nebojsa Stefanovic that the job is done, but I don’t when the report will be placed on the agenda.” If one judges by the breaking of deadlines, the Inquiry Board could also operate as the previous boards. After 2000, seven boards were formed and only one presented a report in 2005.

Ruzic, Miscevic: Serbia on good course (Beta)

“Serbia is on a good course and intends to reform judiciary and police, where the EU could help a lot,” assessed Minister for EU Integration Branko Ruzic and head of Serbia’s negotiating team Tanja Miscevic at a panel discussion in Novi Pazar. Miscevic points out that the EU could help Serbia understand what a state with the proper rule of law should have. She stated that in recent talks in Brussels, our delegation was clearly told that Serbia is on a good course. Ruzic stated that in the continuation of the EU integration process, Serbia will have to adjust to all institutional and non-institutional mechanisms available. Assessing that Serbia is making progress in the field of rule of law, he pointed that going forward, the formatting and consistent implementation of EU laws are necessary.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

Radoncic: Proposal of two HDZ parties in principle acceptable (Fena)

The SBB leader Fahrudin Radoncic said in Mostar, after a meeting held with the leader of the HDZ B&H Dragan Covic, that the proposal of two HDZ parties, when it comes to the implementation of the Sejdic-Finci ruling, is in principle acceptable. As Radoncic told reporters, the joint proposal of HDZ B&H and HDZ 1990 of “minimal multinational representation” in the election to the Presidency is a good starting point, but warned that “the devil is in the details.” Radoncic warned that the proposed solution must be agreed by all other parties involved in the negotiations on the resolution in the Sejdic-Finci case. Covic said that after the meeting with the SBB leader he is even more optimistic. He announced a series of bilateral meetings with leaders of other political parties with which they will try to reach an agreement on the implementation of the Sejdic-Finci ruling. “It would be a great thing if we would go in Brussels on Thursday with a joint stand,” Covic concluded. The proposal by the two HDZ parties, presented at the press conference in Mostar, is a kind of combination of a majority and electoral model for the election of B&H Presidency members from the B&H Federation. Two members from the Federation would continue to be elected by direct voting, and the Federation would be one constituency with cantons as sub-constituencies. Two HDZ parties claim that this proposal takes into account most of the objections of the Bosniak political parties, and also prevents majorization of Croats.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Serbia, Kosovo settle local election dispute (EurActiv, 9 October 2013)

A deal struck this week between the prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo allowed the two Eastern European countries to overcome a bilateral deadlock, which was triggered after Pristina prohibited Serbian officials from visiting Kosovo during the forthcoming local elections.

Background

Local elections will be held in Kosovo on 3 November.

The election will also designate the officials and bodies of the Association of Serb Municipalities, the forming of which is envisaged in the agreement which the prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo reached on April 19, 2013 in Brussels, with EU mediation.

There are 103 political subjects participating in the elections, of which 50 from the Albanian community and 31 from the Serb, and the rest from other minority communities. Among the Serb candidates participating in the elections, the Serbian government supports the “Srpska” civil initiative. [A political subject is a political party, initiative or association.]

There are 224 candidates competing for the jobs of municipal mayors in Kosovo, and 7,740 candidates for seats in municipal assemblies.

According to Serbia’s Migration Profile, in 2011 there were around 209,800 displaced persons from Kosovo living in Serbia, who mostly arrived after the NATO intervention and the bombing of the FR Yugoslavia in 1999.

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Daèiæ announced that an agreement had been reached to allow all Serbian officials to travel to Kosovo – before and during the local elections that will be held on 3 November (see background).

Daèiæ made the announced on Monday evening (7 October) in Brussels, after a meeting with the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ashton, and Hashim Thaci, the prime minister of Kosovo.

Daèiæ said the border-crossing procedure for Serbian officials travelling to Kosovo will not change. This means the requests for visits will be sent to the EU's judicial and police mission in Kosovo, EULex, which will decide on the visits, explained the Serbain minister in charge of Kosovo affairs, Aleksandar Vulin.

Kosovo Premier Hashim Thaci said after the Brussels meeting that freedom of movement will be honored “without discrimination.”

Thaci told reporters that the Kosovo authorities will respond to each request by Serbian officials to visit Kosovo, if submitted to the relevant institutions and in keeping with the law.

But later, at an election rally in Glogovac on Tuesday, Thaci said that the Kosovo government would not allow visits deemed electoral in nature.

The German ambassador to Kosovo, Peter Blomeyer, said that politicians from Serbia should come to Kosovo and support the citizens in voting at the local elections, but should restrain from participating in the campaign, the Kosovo media reported yesterday (8 October).

“In principle, I believe it is good that Serbian politicians come to Kosovo to support the Serb citizens in voting at the elections. Still, they should restrain from participating in the election campaign”, the German ambassador said, as quoted by the Koha Ditore daily.

The Tribuna daily reported that it was also agreed in Brussels that, during their visits to Kosovo, Serbian officials would primarily call on the citizens to vote at the elections, but not give support to a particular party.

According to European diplomatic sources, Ashton invited Daèiæ and Thaci to Brussels in order to resolve the situation in connection with the ban on the visits of Serbian officials to Kosovo during the election campaign, and to prevent delays in the preparation of elections and secure as high a turnout as possible of the Kosovo Serbs.

An offense to Belgrade

Pristina had previously rejected, on 2 October, the Serbian prime minister’s request to visit Kosovo, citing a possible interference from Belgrade with the local election.

Daèiæ intended to visit the majority-Serb municipality of Strpce on 4 October, one day after the official start of the campaign for the Kosovo local elections. It would have been the second time that a Serbian prime minister visits Kosovo since the war in 1999.

After the Kosovo authorities’ ban, Daèiæ warned Brussels that he will no longer participate in the negotiations if Pristina does not allow Serbian officials to visit Kosovo until the end of the election campaign.

“If I, as a signatory of the Brussels agreement, and representatives of the government who supported it and worked on its implementation, cannot go to Kosovo and call on the Serbs to vote at the local elections, then the question arises about the purpose of my further participation in the dialogue,” Daèiæ then pointed out.

Daèiæ estimated that this move of Pristina also undermined the credibility of Brussels, which is hosting the dialogue between the two sides.

Voters’ list issue

Another open issue that the two prime ministers discussed in Brussels is the difference between the voters’ lists of Belgrade and Pristina.

Daèiæ said that, so far, the Central Electoral Commission in Kosovo had allowed for only 17% of potential voters from among the refugees and the displaced to participate in the elections, which he described as extremely few.

Out of almost 39,000 applications, the Central Electoral Commission of Kosovo has accepted more than 6,000 requests from Serbs who want to register as voters for the local elections.

In Brussels, Daèiæ said that an agreement was also reached for another 12,000 Kosovo Serbs to be registered as voters in the four northern municipalities of Kosovo. In return, a much greater number of displaced people and refugees from Kosovo who currently live in Serbia will be considered for registration, on the basis of new documents, he said.

And even more Serbs should be able to claim their right to vote in Kosovo as a result of additional documents and complaints filed with the Serbian Commissioner for Refugees, Daèiæ said.

The Serbian Prime Minister said he hoped all arrangements agreed in Brussels on Monday evening will be implemented by the end of this week.

The normalisation of relations with Pristina – mainly, the implementation of the Brussels agreement of19 April – is one of the conditions for Serbia’s progress towards EU accession. This issue will be covered in a separate chapter of the pre-accession negotiations with the EU.

The chief of the Serbian EU pre-accession negotiation team, Tanja Mišèeviæ, said it was normal that problems come up from time to time during the implementation of the Brussels agreement.

She told the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (RTS) that she cannot predict how long the process would take, but that the normalisation of relations with Pristina was a precondition for Serbia’s eventual admission into the EU.

Next Steps

•           9 Oct. Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Daèiæ and Serbian Minister for Kosovo Aleksandar Vulin are expected to visit Kosovo.

•           16 Oct: EU Commission to publish progress reports on all countries on their way to EU accession, including Serbia and Kosovo.

Serbian finance minister says savings needed to avert default (Reuters, by Aleksandar Vasovic, 8 October 2013)

Serbia's new Finance Minister Lazar Krstic intends to cut the government's budget deficit to 2 percent of GDP in the next 3-4 years and save 1.5 billion euros by 2017 to avert default, he said on Tuesday.

The International Monetary Fund, finishing a week-long visit to Serbia, said if the government stuck to the plan it "would be an important step in the right direction and a signal of the authorities' resolve to tackle the economic challenges."

But it warned in a statement that the 2013 deficit - including non-budgeted spending which Serbia accounts for differently - could reach 7.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The government's deficit target is 4.7 percent.

The IMF also revised down its economic growth estimate for Serbia this year to 1.5 percent.

"Inflation is set to decelerate to the National Bank of Serbia's (NBS) target tolerance band soon, but the unemployment rate at around 25 percent remains a major social concern," it said.

Krstic, a 28-year-old Yale graduate who was offered his role in a government reshuffle last month, outlined his plans at an open government session broadcast live on state television - a rare event usually intended to demonstrate a coalition government's unity.

EYES ON IMF LOAN

The Socialist-led government plans to raise value-added tax (VAT) tax on some goods to 10 percent, up from the current 8 percent, end subsidies to unprofitable state companies, cut wages in the public sector and plug revenue holes such as black markets in tobacco and oil derivatives, Krstic said.

"Without these measures we would go bankrupt in two years," Krstic told the nation.

The grey economy - transactions evading tax and other regulations - accounts for an estimated 31 percent of Serbia's total economic output.

Krstic said the government would discuss and start an overhaul of spending including on the pension system and save between 300 and 400 million euros by 2017 by cutting subsidies for loss-making industries.

He said such measures, combined with prospects for a new loan deal with IMF, could help hold down Serbia's borrowing costs.

Serbia lost a previous 1 billion euro ($1.36 billion) deal with the IMF last year over broken spending promises.

Krstic said he would seek extra 2013 revenues of about 0.6 percent of GDP and end unbudgeted support for the public sector in 2014, estimated this year as worth about 1 percent of GDP this year.

He reiterated plans to stabilise Serbia's debt, currently around 60 percent of GDP, at about 75 percent of GDP by 2017 and then to gradually lower it.

He also pledged legislative changes to encourage foreign investment.

"At face value it seems a bit short of measures to curb the deficit in 2013," Timothy Ash, head of emerging market research at Standard Bank.

The Serbian dinar fluctuated only slightly, trading at between 114.5 and 114.13 per euro at around noon (1000 GMT) on Tuesday.

8 October 2013 Last updated at 16:10 GMT

Serbia: Lazar Krstic outlines new austerity reforms

Serbia has announced plans to cut public sector wages by as much as a quarter, as part of wide-ranging austerity measures.

The reform package also includes raising taxes and slashing subsidies for loss-making companies.

Finance Minister Lazar Krstic said Serbia would be bankrupt within two years if it did not take action now.

The country is mired in a deep recession, with 25% of the workforce unemployed.

Mr Krstic unveiled the measures during an open session of government in Belgrade.

"Even though these reforms, which some people would say are 20 years overdue - I'd say they're at least 10 years overdue - we can carry them out in a responsible way," he said.

The measures should provide about 200m euros (£169m) annually, and a further 150m euros would be generated by reducing the so-called grey economy, smuggling and illegal tobacco trafficking, he said.

Painful process

The BBC's Guy DeLauney in Belgrade says the government is calling it a "solidarity tax" - but the public sector workers on the receiving end are likely to see it as a brutal wage cut.

As public sector workers' income decreases, their expenditure will rise - because of an increase in sales tax.

Jobs will go too because of a privatisation programme, with almost 200 state-run companies to be affected.

Our correspondent says the government has won plaudits for anti-corruption campaigns and a pragmatic approach to Kosovo, but restructuring Serbia's long-neglected economy will be painful for hundreds of thousands of voters.

Croatia Arrests Policeman in Vukovar Serb Signs Row (BIRN, by Boris Pavelic, 9 October 2013)

A policeman from Vukovar has been arrested because he took down a bilingual Croatian-Serbian sign from a state building in the city that has seen repeated protests over the issue.

The policeman was arrested on Sunday amid the ongoing dispute over the installation of the bilingual signs in Latin and Cyrillic script in the wartime flashpoint city – a requirement under Croatia’s minority rights law which has sparked protests by war veterans.

He was detained and charged because he personally removed a sign from the state social care building, Vukovar police spokesperson Domagoj Dzigumovic said.

Five other policemen were also suspended for failing to prevent the removal of bilingual signs from four state buildings in the city on Saturday. The other vandals have not yet been identified.

About 100 Croatian war veterans protested on Sunday night in front of Vukovar police station, where the arrested policeman was being questioned, but dispersed after he was released.

Croatia’s war veterans minister Predrag Matic, who participated in the defence of Vukovar during the 1990s conflict, criticised the latest outbreak of vandalism, saying that “the removal of bilingual signs is the wrong way of helping Vukovar”.

The Croatian authorities installed the signs in September as they began to introduce Serbian language and the Cyrillic script into official use in about 20 municipalities where Serbs make up more than a third of the population – a requirement under the country’s minority rights law.

According to the 2011 census, 34.87 per cent of the population of Vukovar is Serbian.

But war veterans strongly opposed the introduction of bilingualism in the city which has a special symbolic significance for Croatians because of its devastating wartime siege by Serbian forces.

The angry ex-soldiers ripped some of the signs down when they were first installed, although they were later replaced, with the government insisting that the minorities law must be respected.

The situation calmed and until Saturday, just one more bilingual sign was removed from a state institution, in the central Croatian village of Krnjak which is populated mostly by Serbs.

Vukovar, on the border with Serbia, was besieged and demolished by the Yugoslav Army and Serbian paramilitaries in 1991, becoming a symbol of Croatian resistance.

More than a thousand people were killed during the siege. After Serbian forces took the city, more than 200 wounded and prisoners of war were taken from Vukovar hospital to nearby farm Ovcara and executed; at that time, it was the biggest mass killing in Europe since World War II.

Bosnia Unable to Extradite Fugitive War Criminal (BIRN, 9 October 2013)

Sarajevo says it cannot extradite former Bosnian Croat fighter Dominik Ilijasevic, who absconded while serving a 15-year sentence for war crimes and fled to Croatia.

Justice Report

Bosnian justice ministry spokesperson Marina Bakic told BIRN that the authorities in Zagreb have officially confirmed that Ilijasevic, who absconded from jail in Mostar in late September, is a Croatian citizen and cannot be extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

She said however that the municipal court in Zenica, which sent Ilijasevic to prison, should send a request via the justice ministry asking Zagreb to ensure that he serves the sentence in Croatia.

However, despite the fact that he has now been on the run for several weeks, this has still not happened, amid what appeared to be confusion between various Bosnian judicial institutions.

The municipal court in Zenica said it had received no information from the justice ministry about the case but would respond if it did so.

Bakic however said that the information from Croatia had been delivered to the cantonal court in Zenica and prison in Mostar, which could have forwarded the data to the municipal court.

Ilijasevic, a former member of the Maturica special unit of the Croatian Defence Council, was jailed for 15 years in 2009 for war crimes in the Vares and Kiseljak municipalities, including the murders of civilians in an attack on the village of Stupni Do.He was serving his sentence in Mostar, but he failed to return to the prison following a period of leave granted by the governor.

He then resurfaced in Croatia where he told local media that he was on the island of Vir and was willing to give himself up but wanted to serve the rest of his sentence in the country rather than in Bosnia.

He also expressed hope that Croatia would grant him early release.

Bosnian Croat forces took control of Stupni Do in central Bosnia in October 1993 and massacred most of the Bosniaks that they captured. The confirmed number of victims is at least 35.