LOCAL PRESS

 

Germany firmly adheres to seven demands to Serbia (B92)

German MPs, led by Andreas Schockenhoff, deputy caucus whip of the CDU/CSU, said in Belgrade that Germany adheres to its seven demands to Serbia. “We asked when the opening of the first negotiating chapter is expected, and we received the answer that they remain with the seven demands. They are requesting full implementation of the Brussels agreement and especially the condemnation of the instigators of the burning of the German Embassy in 2008,” the MP of the New Democratic Party (NDS) Aleksandar Senic says. He said that German MPs in talks with the Serbian colleagues imposed the topic of EU integration and that Serbia’s EU perspective was the topic in the course of the entire meeting. Apart from the mentioned conditions, the German demands also include the reform of the judiciary and battle against corruption, as well as the signing of some sort of agreement on good-neighborly relations with Kosovo. Senic assessed that frequent diplomatic activity after two months since the formation of the new government in Serbia may mean support, but also agreeing on deadlines within which certain conditions will be fulfilled.

 

 

Schockenhoff: Parliament role in EU integration important (Tanjug)

Serbian parliament speaker Maja Gojkovic conferred in Belgrade with German Bundestag MP Andreas Schockenhoff who pointed to the importance of the role of the parliament in European integration and inter-parliamentary cooperation, especially in the reform processes. Schockenhoff said that representatives of the Bundestag, as a body that has an important role in the EU enlargement, visited Serbia in order to show that cooperation is important both before the adoption of major decisions and during the entire European integration process, the parliament speaker’s cabinet released. Gojkovic said that the parliament is due to complete a lot of work this summer as reform laws need to be adopted soon, and added that the National Assembly is ready to follow the dynamics of the Serbian government. She expressed the satisfaction over the intense top-level contacts between the two countries and underscored the importance of inter-parliamentary cooperation. The meeting was attended by CDU/CSU caucus advisor for foreign policy Hans-Joachim Falenski, Director of the Conrad Adenauer Stifung Foundation in Serbia Henri Bohnet and caucus whip of the Serbian Progressive Party Zoran Babic, the release states.

 

Ten Serbs, four parties (Novosti)

The entire municipal board of the Independent Liberal Party (SLS) in Strpce left this party yesterday. Among the, now already former, members are also three future MPs of the Serb (Srpska) list in the Kosovo Assembly – Jelena Bontic, Jasmina Zivkovic and Sasa Milosavljevic. Since they won the mandates “on their names” and as the candidates of the joint list, their departure from the SLS will not influence entrance into the Assembly where there will be Serbs from four political sides. Namely, the SLS leader Slobodan Petrovic is also in the Serb deputy set-up, but also one more former member of this party – Nenad Rasic, now the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party. He didn’t join the Serb list at the 8 June elections and received one of the ten guaranteed mandates for the Serb community. The remaining five Serb deputies are from Vulin’s Movement of Socialists. The SLS board in Strpce explained their dissatisfaction with the situation in a “disoriented and non-democratic” party where the goals around which they gathered are not realized anymore. Sasa Milosavljevic tells Novosti that there has been no cooperation with the SLS leader for some time now: “Everything is how he decides, without consultations with the party organs – when it comes to personnel policy and when it comes to initiatives. We have tried to influence the work of the party in accordance with the statute, but there was no good will from the other side.”

 

Davenport: Harmonize foreign policy with the EU (Novosti)

“Further progress in the negotiations with the EU will require for reforms to gain new momentum. This refers primarily to the economy, rule of law, human rights, media reforms and the fight against corruption. The dialogue with Pristina needs to resume as soon as possible, and, of course, the sides need to implement the agreements reached so far, and continue working toward the full normalization of relations,” the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport told Novosti in an interview. He notes that, up to this point, the screening has been done for 18 out of 35 chapters, with some chapters yet to be analyzed by the end of the year. This, according to him, is an impressive result.
Chapter 35 is in the focus of interest and it refers to Kosovo, among other things…

“Chapter 35 will be a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the Brussels agreement between Belgrade and Pristina. However, it also includes some specific areas, such as Serbia’s membership in the European Investment Bank, and numerous EU agencies and bodies. Thus, this is not a ‘Kosovo chapter’; it contains a lot of other issues.”

The situation in Ukraine is obviously on the agenda between Belgrade and Brussels. Where is Serbia when it comes to harmonization with the foreign policy?

“Both the Serbian prime minister and president share the EU’s concerns and insist on the territorial integrity of Ukraine. In that respect, Serbia will have a big responsibility next year when it is to assume the OSCE chairmanship. As a candidate country, Serbia should gradually harmonize its foreign policy positions with those of the EU, and that is also a part of the obligations from Chapter 31. The screening of that chapter will be done by the end of this month.”
Base South to become international training center by 2017 (Tanjug)

Base South in Bujanovac, southern Serbia, will become an international training center for soldiers from around the world for participation in peacekeeping operations, Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic and U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Michael Kirby announced on Thursday, attending the Platinum Wolf 2014 exercise. Gasic specified that 50 hectares of land around the base would be purchased in the next two years and that a sports hall will be built in the base, as well as additional capacities for accommodation of a larger number of international soldiers. Ambassador Kirby confirmed that the U.S. will continue providing expert and financial assistance for refurbishment of Base South so that it may become a multinational center for soldier training. The multinational tactical exercise Platinum Wolf 2014 began on 30 June and will end on Friday. The exercise gathers 272 servicemen from Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Azerbaijan, FYROM, Croatia and the United States. The objective of the exercise is experience-sharing and training in handling non-lethal weapons, as well as training in activities required for peacekeeping missions.

 

ICTY confirms: Seselj to remain in custody (B92)

The leader of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) Vojislav Seselj will remain in the custody of the ICTY, it has been announced.The UN-operated tribunal’s judges decided to suspend further consideration of the possibility of granting him temporary release, it was reported on Thursday. The decision was made after Seselj refused to state whether he would comply with conditions set for his provisional release. He has been accused of war crimes and detained by the court for over 11 years. The judges noted that they launched the procedure for the provisional release of Seselj when they asked the governments of Serbia and the Netherlands take on obligations in connection with that process. This step was taken after a new member of the panel, Judge Mandiaye Niang, informed the Tribunal that he was unable to join his colleagues in the deliberations on Seselj’s verdict, as he needed more than the six months he already spent to learn about the case. Earlier this week, it was reported that Seselj did not make any statement on the ICTY terms. Lawyer Toma Fila said that if there was no answer from the defendant, it would be considered that he did not agree to the conditions. Seselj surrendered to the ICTY on 23 February 2003 and pleaded not guilty to all counts of the indictment charging him with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war he allegedly committed in Croatia, Bosnia, and Vojvodina, from 1991 until 1993. He has since been detained in Scheveningen, near The Hague in the Netherlands. The trial began in 2007, and is still ongoing. The prosecution completed presenting its evidence in late 2010, while Seselj, who is representing himself, did not want to make any defense arguments.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Radmanovic requests extraordinary session over Turkish ships (Nezavisne novine)

Member of the B&H Presidency Nebojsa Radmanovic has requested an extraordinary session of the collective head of state that should take a final stand in regard to the announcement of the entrance of the Turkish Armed Forces’ ships into the Neum Bay on 14 July. Radmanovic requested the session based on Article 23 item 3 of the Rules of Procedure of the B&H Presidency, but it is unknown whether it will be held. However, in this case, the final stand of the B&H Presidency, which manages the foreign policy and defense, will be binding for all state institutions since at issue are military issues and bilateral relations of two states. What may be an additional problem only five days prior to the announced visit of the Turkish ships is the fact that this and all similar issues are not regulated with a single B&H law.

 

New EU call: Everyone has the right to protest, but not violently (MIA)

The EU appealed again on Thursday to all FYROM citizens to remain calm and abstain from violence, MIA’s Brussels correspondent informs. Maja Kocijancic, Spokesperson of the European Commission, on the occasion of the announced protest and counter-protests on Friday due to the court verdict in the “Monster” case, on behalf of Brussels institutions, urges all FYROM citizens and political leaders in the country “to join in the spirit of constructive dialogue for resolving issues that undermine mutual understanding and cooperative interethnic relations”.

“All citizens are entitled to protesting and expressing their position in a peaceful manner, but they are not entitled to joining in destructive or violent acts”, says Kocijancic in the statement for MIA. Brussels is concerned by the possibility of new acts of violence and disruption of interethnic relations in Macedonia on Friday, since except for protesters on the “Monster” verdict, both supporters of the verdict for life imprisonment sentence for the murders of four young men and one adult on Easter in 2012 have announced counter-protests.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbia to Avoid Sides in Ukraine Crisis, Nikolic Says (Bloomberg, by Gordana Filipovic, 10 July 2014)
Serbia will strive to remain on the sidelines of the Ukrainian crisis that has put the European Union, which it wants to join, at odds with Russia, its longtime ally from Soviet times.
The largest ex-Yugoslav republic, whose $40 billion economy is facing a third recession since 2009, will seek to become a bridge for investment between east and west, President Tomislav Nikolic said in an interview in his Belgrade office yesterday. Serbia needs trade and investment after devastating floods in May caused $2 billion in damage.
“It would be very unpleasant if we were forced to take sides,” Nikolic said. “That would even divide Serbia. Many people in Serbia are Russophiles, while others accept western civilization as a better foundation for their life.”
Serbia started EU membership talks six months ago and plans to be able to join the 28-nation bloc by 2019. Foreign direct investments dropped to 201 million euros ($286 million) in the four months through April, or 8.6 percent less than in the same period last year, according to the central bank. Recovery from the floods will fuel the budget deficit to more than 8 percent of economic output, the highest in Europe.
A prolonged European-Russian dispute over Ukraine may prompt “many EU investors to urgently transfer their investments to Serbia because it seems that Europe will impose sanctions that could negatively affect small and medium-sized EU companies that do good business with Russia,” he said.
Donors’ Aid
Nikolic and his counterpart in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, will meet international donors at a conference in Brussels next week to drum up loans for the flood-affected areas. Assistance may be needed to identify new locations for some villages, he said.
“It appears we can expect hundreds of millions of euros from that conference, although the grants we receive won’t cover the entire damage,” Nikolic said.
The conference is open to all countries, not just EU members. The country will also apply for EU funds that remained unspent in previous years.
“People are getting impatient because August is close and they are still not sleeping in their homes,” Nikolic said. “The government is facing a crisis, but they will have to borrow to finance post-flood recovery.”
IMF Talks
The government should work to resume loan talks with the International Monetary Fund as a stamp of approval for its policies, Nikolic said. The IMF said it will visit Serbia after the government has revised the budget to ensure spending on floods recovery, in two or three months. The cabinet postponed talks with the IMF to access damages from the floods.
“Serbia is not in a situation, like some other countries, to proceed without the IMF,” Nikolic said.
The yield on Serbia’s dollar bonds maturing in 2021 were flat at 5 percent at 9:27 a.m. in Belgrade today and the dinar gained almost 0.3 percent to trade at 115.4659 per euro, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Nikolic, who founded the Serbian Progressive Party in 2008, was once a prominent member of the Radical party led by Vojislav Seselj. Seselj is a former associate of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic and is awaiting a Hague court verdict on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Progressive Party dominates the ruling coalition after March 16 general elections.
East, West
Nikolic said his east-west orientation follows one pursued by former Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.
“Nowadays, Tito’s foreign policy concept is the only right choice,” he said.
The conflict between the EU and Russia over Ukraine won’t affect Serbia’s plans to build its arm of the South Stream pipeline, which is designed to ship Russian natural gas via the Black Sea and the Balkans to the EU. The South Stream project is meant to avoid “insecure and unstable” shipments through Ukraine, he said.
“Serbia has friends both in the West and in the East and they must not tear us apart, pulling us one way or the other,” Nikolic said. “I don’t expect Serbia to be in a position to make a choice between the two because Serbia would not be able to choose.”

Serbia expects EU's support on construction of south stream: media (Xinhua, 10 July 2014)
Serbia expects that the EU will welcome the agreement for the construction of the Serbian part of South Stream pipeline, local media reported Wednesday.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was quoted as saying that the construction of the South Stream is a guarantee of country's energy security, and that he expects that all issues related to the construction of the gas pipeline will be resolved.

"We will engage our own capacities, and Serbian companies will thus earn at least 350 million euros (477 million U.S. dollars),"  Vucic said, adding that the pipeline will also make his country's natural gas supplies more resilient.

Directors of the company South Stream Serbia Dusan Bajatovic and Alexander Siromyatin and Director General of Centar Gas Stanislav Anikeyev on Tuesday evening signed the Agreement on construction of the section of the South Stream gas pipeline through Serbia, which is worth 2.1 billion euros.

The signing took place only hours after Vucic finished his visit to Russia on July 8.

Once finished, South Stream will transport Russian natural gas across the Black Sea to Bulgaria and through Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia and further to Austria.

 

Serbian Mayor Accused of Copying Thesis (BIRN, by Gordana Andric, 9 July 2014)

After the mayor of Belgrade became the centre of the latest plagiarism row, the Conference of Universities of Serbia declared it had no jurisdiction to assess earlier claims of plagiarism concerning the Interior Minister.

The Serbian website Pescanik on Wednesday published a study alleging that over 30 per cent of the thesis of the Mayor of Belgrade was lifted from other people's work.

Some 33 per cent of Sinisa Mali's university thesis was copied from other people’s work, it said, and the content of numerous pages was copied almost completely, it added.

Mali obtained his PhD title at Belgrade University’s Faculty of Organisational Sciences in June 2013.

His PhD thesis entitled Value creation through the process of restructuring and privatisation - theoretical concepts and Serbian experience, is publicly available.

The unnamed author of Pescanik, who analysed the work, wrote that the copied parts of the thesis were not just minor bits, but also crucial conclusions that Mali presented as his own.

BIRN could not reach Mali to comment the claims about his PhD thesis by the time of publication.

The author of the analysis urged Mali, and other officials accused of plagiarising their theses to resign, and called on Belgrade University to investigate plagiarism in their midst.

“Belgrade University now must prove it is different from Megatrend,” the author wrote, referring to the private college from which Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic graduated, and who was earlier accused of plagiarism.

The Conference of Universities of Serbia, comprised of both state and private universities, on July 9 declared it had no jurisdiction to review claims about Stefanovic's diploma.

Around 3, 000 professors, lecturers, and PhD students in Serbia earlier signed an online petition demanding an investigation of claims that he copied his doctoral thesis.

Vladimir Bumbasirevic, rector of Belgrade University, said that the Conference could only recommend to a member university to re-examine a PhD.

He added that Megatrend, where Stefanovic obtained his title, has already decided to take all necessary steps and set up an independent expert committee to check Stefanovic’s thesis.

Slobodan Pajovic, rector of Megatrend University, announced on July 9 that the committee will be compiled by the experts that are not from Megatrend.

Stefanovic has denied the claims. Both Stefanovic and Mali belong to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party.

In late June, Pescanik also analysed the thesis of Aleksandar Sapic, president of the municipality of New Belgrade and found that parts of his thesis were also copied from other people's work. Sapic is a member of the opposition Democrats.

The Education Ministry is pushing for legal changes to enable the verification of officials' diplomas. Ministry’s Centre for Checking Diplomas will be given powers to verify all new state officials’ diplomas under the planned legislative changes, BIRN has learned earlier from a ministry source.

 

Aid to flooded Balkans is a model of EU solidarity (EurActiv, 10 July 2014)

The recent devastating floods in Bosnia and Serbia have proved exactly what the EU can achieve on aid when its member states work together, writes Nicholas Rutherford.

Nicholas Rutherford is event director for AidEx, the leading forum for the international aid and development community to meet, discuss, share experiences and source solutions to improve the efficiency of aid delivery. The main event takes place in Brussels every November, with a satellite AidEx Africa event in Nairobi, Kenya.

Less than two months ago, Bosnia and Serbia suffered from their worst ever floods. Over half a million people were affected and the damage is estimated to be in the billions of euros. But while the headlines may have moved on from this latest natural disaster, Europe has not.

While EU leaders continue to deal with the aftermath of the European elections, wrangling over high-level appointments and dissecting the latest allegiances and alliances, the EU institutions have been rolling up their sleeves and working to address a different aftermath.

Next week, representatives from major donor countries, international financial institutions and civil organisations will meet in Brussels for a high-level conference hosted by the European Commission, to discuss how best to mobilise further support for the region, and to encourage additional financial aid towards the relief efforts from EU member states.

The EU has already donated over €65 million in emergency aid to Bosnia and Serbia. €3 million was sent directly to those worst affected people needing immediate food, medicine, clean water, first aid, and shelter. These funds will be channelled through the Red Cross/Red Crescent and other partner organisations who know how to operate effectively and compassionately on the ground to assist those most in need.

Within weeks of the disaster, most EU member states offered to help out through the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism. This uninspiring moniker fails to capture fully what is essentially an excellent coordinating service for participating countries to help each other out during an emergency. 22 EU countries contributed skills, manpower and in-kind support and sent more than 600 specialists to Bosnia and Serbia. The different teams brought with them motorised boats, helicopters, pumping equipment, water purification tablets and plenty of other humanitarian staples.

Now the focus will begin to turn to reconstruction efforts. This is where the Commission’s additional €62 million comes in, to be channelled through trusted partners who know how to create economies of scale, speed and efficiency.

These recent efforts constituted the largest European civil protection intervention in Europe ever. Along with an ongoing determination to help Bosnia and Serbia recover, we can see exactly what the EU can achieve when its members work together. You don’t need a history lesson to understand that the EU and the rest of the world have a vested interest in helping to keep these two neighbours – one of whom is an EU candidate country – safe, secure and socially integrated.

And yet, there are those who believe that the EU shouldn’t be reaching out a helping hand at all.

This is wrong. Collective action matters because climate change, population growth and dwindling natural resources mean we will see far more flooding and food insecurity in years to come. This isn’t just a developing world problem – it’s a European one too. Pulling up the drawbridge and retreating from scary problems won’t keep them at bay, because natural disasters don’t care about politics or borders. The needy and vulnerable will be forced to resort to even more desperate measures; while the populations of richer countries will not escape the effects either.

Arguing for European unity during a time of resurgent nationalism may be unfashionable. But it’s hubris to think individual countries can go it alone. The EU is not just a talking shop to promote exports and jobs – and more than just the market matters to Europeans. David Cameron advocates "nation states where possible, Europe only where necessary". But we need to think hard about what our definition of necessary means when it comes to the EU. From my perspective, our common humanity makes it necessary for us to work together and help each other out.

History has taught us that much at least.
Bosnians pay respect to 175 Srebrenica victims (Associated Press, by Aida Cerkez, 9 July 2014)
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Hundreds of people turned out in Sarajevo's main street on Wednesday to pay respect to 175 victims of the Srebrenica massacre — Europe's worst since World War II — as a truck carried their coffins to a final resting place.

The remains of the men and boys, found in mass graves and identified through DNA analysis, will be buried in Srebrenica on Friday, the 19th anniversary of the massacre, next to 6,066 previously found victims.

As the coffins passed by, shielded by a canvas cloth, some tucked flowers in or caressed the canvas. Others silently prayed as the truck stopped briefly in front of Bosnia's presidency.

The eastern town of Srebrenica was a United Nations-protected area that was besieged by Serb forces throughout the 1992-95 war for Serb domination in Bosnia. But U.N. troops offered no resistance when the Serbs overran the majority Muslim town on July 11, 1995, rounding up Srebrenica's Muslims and killing over 8,000 men and boys. An international court later labeled the killings as genocide.

Workers are still excavating the victims' bodies from hidden mass graves, and their job is made harder because those responsible often retrieved the bodies and relocated them elsewhere to hide the crimes. Many of the remains were torn apart or mixed up by bulldozers, and experts have had to use DNA analysis to put a body together from bones found in locations miles from each other.

Dzevada Halilovic, 45, came from Australia to bury her father's remains, which were found in three different mass graves.

The day Srebrenica fell, she ran with her baby in her arms but the soldiers caught up with her family and separated men from women.

"I screamed. They pushed me with rifles into a bus. Then I became quiet because I remembered I was carrying my baby and it was a boy," Halilovic remembers.

She never again saw her father, brother and five uncles. Fortunately, her husband was taken to a prison and was released after six months.

"Since then we were wandering the world for years and finally settled in Australia," she said.

 

Djukanovic Denies Russian Moles Active in Montenegro (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 9 July 2014)

Prime Minister dismisses reports that NATO rebuffed the country because Russian spies are over-active in the intelligence service.

Montenegro’s leader has rebutted claims, reported in Associated Press, that NATO postponed a decision to invite Montenegro to join the alliance because of the large-scale penetration of Montenegro’s intelligence service by the Russians.
Late in June, NATO ministers decided against offering membership of the military alliance this year, saying they would reconsider Montenegro’s bid in 2015.
According to AP, faced with a newly assertive Russia, NATO has been mulling how to react, but has ruled out the option of rapid expansion for now.
Four would-be members, Montenegro, Georgia, Ukraine and Macedona, have been told that admission to NATO is not on the cards anytime soon.  In Montenegro’s case, "Russian ties were “the sticking point”, an anonymous NATO official told AP.
He estimated the number of Montenegrin intelligence agents with close links to Russia at between 25 and 50. Steps are underway to neutralize their activities, he added, but “it will take some time to manage”.
However, Djukanovic on Tuesday said the story held no water. He said that during talks with officials from the Alliance, no one had informed him of any suspicions that Montenegro’s intelligence services was full of Russian agents.
“I want to assure you, the Montenegrin public, that during all my interviews so far, it was never mentioned that there was a single such person,” Djukanovic said.
The Prime Minister said he was convinced that after another year of results in the field, Montenegro would become a full member of the Alliance by the end of 2015.
Opposition parties have warned in the past about Russian influence in the intelligence sector.
Main opposition leader Nebojsa Medojevic has accused the government of retaining pro-Russian officials in military structures and in key state posts that deal with NATO.
Medojevic has called the group “the Red Orchestra”.
Commenting on the AP report, Medojevic said the Deputy Prime Minister, Dusko Markovic, and the former head of the Agency for National Security, Vladan Jokovic, knew that NATO was worried about the presence of “suspicious” agents in the country.
“I believe Djukanovic when he says that no one in NATO told him anything about the Russian agents in the security services in Montenegro [but] it is a question of elementary safety standards that confidential data should not be given to unreliable and risky parties,” Medojevic told BIRN on Wednesday.
Montenegro’s ties to Russia date back to the 19th century and beyond. But in recent years the small Adriatic state has swung westwards, irritating Russia in the process.
In March, the government backed EU sanctions imposed on Moscow as a result of the Ukraine conflict, hoping it would bring the country closer to its NATO goal.
Political analyst Aleksandar Dedovic said it was difficult to separate out the economic and political influences that stemmed from the complex and multifaceted relations between Russia and Montenegro.
In all former Socialist countries that become part of NATO, Dedovic added, traces of the so-called Russian intelligence school remain active.
“I would not speculate on the numbers [in Montenegro],” he said. “But forming a trustworthy intelligence service is the task of any state that seriously intends to be part of NATO,” Dedovic added.
For Podgorica, news of the delay is a setback. It has pushed to join the Atlantic alliance ever since it split from a loose state union with Serbia in 2006.
It obtained a Membership Action Plan in 2009, which is regarded as a final step before joining.
Despite the apparent success of its security reforms, public support in Montenegro for NATO membership remains low, according to opinion polls.
Djukanovic’s government claims 46 per cent of Montenegrins now support membership, but opposition parties and NGOs believe the figure is much lower, around 35 per cent.

 

 

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Media summaries are produced for the internal use of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, UNMIK and UNHQ. The contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership.