LOCAL PRESS

 

Dacic: Serbs to serve their sentence in Serbia (Politika/RTS)

In talks with the prosecutor of the newly founded Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals Hassan Jallow, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic advocated for as many convicted Serb citizens to serve their sentence in Serbia. Dacic pointed that the length of trial proceedings before the Hague Tribunal is unacceptable. They discussed Serbia’s cooperation with the Hague Tribunal as well as the future activities of the Mechanism, and Dacic expressed Belgrade’s readiness to continue the cooperation. The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals will gradually take over a series of tasks from the Hague Tribunal, including potential appeals in the proceedings against Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, Goran Hadzic, and Vojislav Seselj. The Mechanism will work until the UN SC decides to close it.

 

Serbia-Russia relations at a very high level (Tanjug/Radio Serbia)

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov stated in Belgrade that Serbian-Russian relations are at a high level. Dacic and Gatilov, who is on an official visit to Serbia, discussed the matters related to further promotion of cooperation within the United Nations and other international organizations.
Belgrade and Moscow opt for dialogue on all the issues of mutual interest, it was emphasized in the talks, as announced by the Serbian Foreign Ministry.

 

Belgrade strengthening activities towards preventing new recognitions of Kosovo and Metohija (Novosti)

Belgrade has prepared an extensive diplomatic activity as a “counterattack” to Pristina’s plans to bring to pass new recognitions of independence. Novosti has learned that Serbia’s lobbying is heading in three directions – via Serbian embassies, via all contacts of Serbian statesmen with foreign officials and strengthening of diplomatic activities in most influential power centers. Prevention of new recognitions and getting support for Serbia’s interests and resumption of the dialogue with Pristina, as the only way for normalization of relations, will also be the main goal of the Serbian state leadership that will be travelling to New York in two weeks. As Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has stated, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic will head the Serbian delegation in New York from 21 to 27 September. On the margins of the 69^th session of the UN General Assembly, they will have nearly 30 bilateral meetings with officials from all parts of the world. Nikolic’s advisor and former foreign minister Ivan Mrkic tells Novosti that Pristina is constantly trying to increase the number of states that have recognized their unilaterally declared independence and is sending delegations to lobby in the UN: “According to our evidence, 100 of 193 UN member states have recognized Pristina so far, though they are handling higher figures. During the time when I was the foreign minister, i.e. since 2012, 14, mostly smaller countries, have recognized them. That dynamics continues to decline. Serbian former ambassador in the UN Pavle Jevremovic opines that despite all attempts, Pristina will not receive an “entrance ticket” for the UN for a long time, i.e. an observer status or seat of a permanent member: “They can attend meetings, but only at the invitation of some permanent member, and they don’t have the right to take part in the work of the General Assembly and other UN bodies. Regardless of the political pressures with “numbers”, Pristina cannot hope for membership without the Security Council, which initiates and decides on the admission of new states to the UN. In the Security Council, Serbia has the support of two members with the right to veto – Russia and China. Mrkic explains that Belgrade is also investing great effort in all important centers, especially in the regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America, for countries that have not recognized independence to remain with this stand: “Pressure on those countries is also exerted by Pristina with powerful friends who support their independence. It is important that some large countries, including the five EU member state and the Vatican, will not change their policy and recognize Pristina.”

 

Italian media: More fighters from Kosovo in the ranks of the “Islamic state” (RTS/B92)

According to the Italian media, hundreds of fighters from Kosovo and Metohija are taking part in terrorist activities of the paramilitary formation Islamic state. Radio and Television of Serbia quotes the Italian newspaper l’Espresso as pointing out that 16 people from the territory of the southern Serbian province, who joined the troops of extreme Islamists, died; one was killed in a suicidal action while dozens were arrested in Iraq and Syria. L’Espresso gives examples of two residents of Kosovska vitina, 24-year-old Mentor Zeinulahu and eight years younger Albanian who were arrested at the airport in Tirana in an attempt to transfer to Istanbul. The newspaper calls Kosovo the youngest European republic, and as previous events “Serb crimes and NATO bombs”. “The new border is Islamic radicalism, and the new enemies are non-believers. In the region where Islam has learned how to live together with other religions and where it has always demonstrated its tolerant side, fundamentalism shows that it is deeply rooted in the ethnic mosaic created by Tito”, writes l’Espresso. The Italian daily also notes that terrorist cells are financed by NGOs from Saudi Arabia, England and Turkey, and that they are mostly comprised of former fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Evidence that there are more than 43 Albanian citizens in the Islamic state, as cited by the government in Tirana, is also the fact that certain Blerim Heta, born and raised in Germany, killed 52 policemen in a suicidal attack in Baghdad, and that the Islamic state proclamation of the Caliphate has been translated into Albanian language as well. The internet is noted as the way of recruiting, mostly teenagers, while Jihadists place evidence on crimes they commit on social networks, which was also the case with Lavdrim Muhaxheri, the alleged commander of the Balkan brigade of the Islamic state. L’Espresso cites as the biggest problem the fact that, once they return to Kosovo, jihadists cannot be held responsible for crimes since there is no adequate legal procedure. Also, the fact that Muhaxheri and Heta worked in the U.S. Bondsteel base in Kosovo is noted as a curiosity. The base is located near Urosevac, noted as the main recruiting point for jihadists, while the daily mentions that the Serbian secret service determined in 2003 that the headquarters of the Islamic NGO “Relief”, which recruited children without parents for suicidal activities, was located in the Lyon Hotel. Recently, over 40 people were arrested in Kosovo who are suspected of planning terrorist activities as members of the Islamic state.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Sorensen leaving for Geneva (Dnevni avaz)

Currently the EU Special Representative and Head of EU Delegation to B&H, Peter Sorensen, has been appointed as Head of the EU Delegation to the United Nations in Geneva. Dnevni avaz has learned that the departing EU High Representative Catherine Ashton has passed this decision and Sorensen has been informed about it. It is still unknown who will replace Sorensen at the helm of the largest mission the EU has in the world. Namely, there are as many as 155 EU officers in B&H and this is a larger office than the one, for example, in Beijing or Washington D.C. Sorensen ends his mandate in B&H nine months earlier. Until a new EU Special Representative for B&H is appointed, the Mission will be headed by Renzo Daviddi.

 

Bosniaks looking for a leader (NIN, by Sarajevo correspondent Nedim Jahic)

The elections in Bosnia-Hercegovina (B&H), the tenth since the end of the 1992-1995 war, have been slated for 12 October. Citizens will vote for representatives in legislative bodies at three levels of a complex political system, but the focus of the pre-election debate is on the elections for the members of the ethnically tripartite B&H Presidency. The Republika Srpska (RS) Entity elects one member, while two are elected from the Federacija B&H (FB&H) – a Bosniak and Croat. Considering what is on “offer”, it is already clear that the media attention in the FB&H will be directed at the race for the Bosniak representative.

Four years ago, Bakir Izetbegovic was elected as the Bosniak member of the B&H Presidency with only 160,000 votes. Then, the focus of the elections was on the Croat candidate list, where a large part of the Bosniak electorate voted for Zeljko Komsic, a candidate that thus won this position by winning over 300,000 votes, and defeating the candidates of the HDZ B&H and HDZ 1990, who enjoy much greater trust and support among the Croats in Hercegovina.

Today, Izetbegovic has his sights set on winning a second term, and the crowded list of Bosniaks on the ballot promises a hot and dirty campaign. Although it hasn’t officially kicked-off, it is already being conducted with the visits of announced candidates to places hit by floods, party stands and a real ‘war’ of statements and open letters. Numerous representatives of the Bosniak elite are also taking part in this through texts of open support to certain contenders for the throne.

Much has changed since the last elections. Komsic left the Bosniak Social-Democratic Party and formed a new political force – the Democratic Front, whose candidate for the Bosniak member of the B&H Presidency is Emir Suljagic, a surprise revealed just before the deadline for registration of the list. Suljagic, who has been heading, for the past two years, a non-party initiative “First March” in mobilizing voters in returnee communities in the RS, enjoyed much public attention among Bosniaks thanks to his open conflicts with the two largest parties in the RS—the ruling SNSD and main opposition SDS. Several days before the registration of candidates, Suljagic managed to organize a joint appearance of five Bosniak and Croat parties for the RS parliamentary elections under the coalition “Domovina” (homeland). On the wings of popularity that Komsic enjoys, and with his results, Suljagic is marking solid support in polls, and represents himself as the most serious contender. In his first addresses, Suljagic announced, in case he is elected, that Pristina would be his first destination on his list of international visits.

Even though the polls conducted by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) give Suljagic an advantage over Izetbegovic, the former is encountering, at the same time, disappointment among the conservative part of the Muslim electorate that had until now been giving him unreserved support in his hometown in the RS, but are now they are criticizing his political realignment in the FB&H. This part of the voters is fractured between the supporters of Izetbegovic and the backers of B&H’s former Reis (head of the Islamic community) Mustafa Ceric, who decided to dabble in politics after a several decades-long career as a spiritual leader. Ceric, but also Suljagic, count on disunity in the ranks of Izetbegovic’s party, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA). A similar “promenade” occurred in 2006 when the party won 70,000 more votes than Suljeman Tihic, the SDA candidate for the head of the state.

The fourth serious player is Fahrudin Radoncic, the founder of Dnevni avaz, the most influential media outlet in FB&H, and the leader of the party Alliance for a Better Future (SBB). Radoncic came out of the arena of the last elections just 20,000 votes behind Izetbegovic.

Despite all the above listed factors, there are two additional important elements. One is the significant support of the smaller part of the Bosniak electorate enjoyed by Martin Raguz, the Croat candidate of HDZ-1990, who will compete against HDZ candidate Dragan Covic in October. Another possible element could be a boycott of the presidential elections. Thus, Nasa Stranka (Our Party) refused to field a candidate due to the fact that only members of B&H’s three Constitutive Nations can run for the three seats in the Presidency. It may easily happen at one point of the campaign that there will be a call for a boycott or for a “blank ballot” action. Pushing this line are certain fractions in the FB&H’s plenums, informal citizen gatherings, which have been functioning since the protests and violence that took place in that Entity in February this year. Another problematic fact is that any kind of boycott for the Presidency could also bring on a boycott of the parliamentary elections, where the liberal fractions would lose most, and nationalist parties with loyal electoral machinery, such as the SDA, would gain.

As the elections approach, it seems the Bosniaks are once again in a search of a leader. However, not one of the candidates has managed to articulate the Bosniak stand towards the RS and the Dayton Accord, or to present a road map of a new Bosniak policy aimed towards improving the status quo in B&H. An important topic on this plane will be the resolution of issues that are hindering B&H’s NATO membership, which will undoubtedly be on the agenda for the next four years. NATO has, and will, have a deeply polarizing effect on relations between the RS and the FB&H, and essentially determine the future of their country, and their citizens will decide, in October, who will be leading the country at this crucial moment.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Belgrade Prosecutes Serbian Fighters for Deadly Kosovo Attack (BIRN, by Marija Ristic, 9 September 2014)

Three former Serbian fighters, including special police commander Vladan Krstovic, are accused of war crimes during an attack on the Kosovo village of Ljubenic that left 46 ethnic Albanians dead.

The case against Vladan Krstovic, Lazar Pavlovic and Milan Ivanovic for the attack on Ljubenic during the Kosovo war on April 1, 1999, during which 46 people were killed and 11 wounded, began on Monday at a closed pre-trial hearing at the Belgrade-based special court.

The attack took place during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia aimed at ending President Slobodan Milosevic’s offensive against the ethnic Albanian fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

The bodies of 34 of the victims from Ljubenic were later found in a mass grave in Batajnica, near Belgrade. Four victims are still listed as missing.

According to the prosecution, the three men were all Yugoslav Army troops and committed the crime together with two other servicemen, Nenad Lekic, who is currently in Sweden and for whom the prosecution has issued an extradition request, and Predrag Vukovic, who is on the run.

The prosecution claims all men were members of the reserve squad of the Yugoslav Army.

However, some of them, like Krstovic, who is now a Serbian special police commander and who testified as a witness during a previous trial of 11 Serbian fighters for war crimes in the Kosovo villages of Ljubenic, Pavlan, Zahac and Cuska, has claimed that he was always a police officer and never a Yugoslav Army serviceman.

Krstovic has said that he knew the majority of the indicted fighters, and that during 1998 when the conflict erupted in Kosovo, he was part of a special police unit alongside some of them.

“During the NATO bombing I was actively working at the police station in Pristina,” Krstovic said last year, but refused to provide more details, saying that he feared that his testimony could endanger his defence.

Krstovic was previously tried for but acquitted of the attempted murder of kickboxer Goran Kresic in 2007.

His name has been also linked to the arrest of former leader of Serbia’s special operations unit, Milorad Ulemek, known as Legija, who was sentenced to 40 years in jail for his role in the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in March 2003, although Krstovic has denied any involvement in the killing.

This is the second case related to the war crimes committed in the village of Ljubenic to be staged by Serbian war crimes prosecution. In February this year, nine former members of the Yugoslav Army’s 177th intervention squad were convicted of killing over 100 Albanian civilians during attacks on four villages, including Ljubenic.

 

Serbia Caught in Middle Over Ukraine (Associated Press, by Dusan Stojanovic, 8 September 2014)

NOVI SAD, Serbia — Radivoje Miljanic, the owner of "Putin Cafe," has no dilemma over the course Serbia should take over Ukraine: turn off the pro-Western path and forge a strong alliance with Slavic ally Russia.

"Our government cannot sit on two chairs," Miljanic said, sipping vodka in his smoky joint under a poster of Russian President Vladimir Putin, featuring Russian and Serbian flags and an onion-domed Christian Orthodox church.

Serbia finds itself caught in the middle of Moscow's row with the West over Ukraine and is suddenly being confronted with a hard choice: continue down its path toward EU membership, or give up that dream and cozy up to Russia.

Until now, Serbia could sit on the fence. Now Moscow is issuing warnings, and so is the EU. Both are basically asking: Whose side are you on?

A cartoon recently published by Belgrade's Danas daily sums up Serbia's foreign policy confusion: Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic is shown playing two pianos at the same time; German chancellor Angela Merkel is conducting on one side and Putin on the other.

Serbian officials are finding it difficult to make a clear-cut decision that could further destabilize the Balkans — the southeastern region of Europe still reeling from the bloody civil wars in the 1990s. If Serbia ditches the EU and turns to Russia, it could become an isolated island among neighbors who are either seeking EU membership, or are already part of the 28-nation bloc.

That would be economically disastrous for Serbia: Serbia exports about nine times more of its food and agricultural products to the EU than Russia. Serbian exports to Russia currently stand at a modest $170 million despite a free-trade agreement between the two countries.

Although Serbian officials say they respect Ukraine's territorial integrity and do not support Russia's annexation of Crimea, they are telling the West that being forced to impose EU-like sanctions against Russia would be disastrous for the country's stagnating economy — especially since most of its energy sector is controlled by Gazprom, the Russian energy giant.

And there are historic Slavic bonds that Serbian politicians must respect in order to please voters.

"We will not turn our backs on our Russian friends who are alone and whom everybody is against right now," said Vucic, a former pro-Russian ultra-nationalist politician recently turned pro-EU reformer.

"It is Serbia's strategic goal to become a member of the European Union," he said. "At the same time, Serbia did not and will not introduce sanctions against the Russian Federation."

That stand has the support of the nationalist electorate that brought Vucic to prominence. But many analysts believe Serbia will soon be compelled to make a strategic decision on its future.

"Serbia's maneuvering space is getting smaller as it walks a tight rope," said political analyst Jelica Minic. "The EU's message is clear: more pressure on Serbia to align itself with the bloc's foreign policies."

After the U.S. and the EU slapped sanctions on Russian state banks and major industries last month over the clashes in Ukraine, Russia responded with a wide-ranging embargo on food products imported from those countries.

Serbia is hoping to capitalize on Russia's ban by increasing its food exports and replacing some Western goods on the Russian market. But the EU has warned Serbia to refrain from "exploiting" the Russian ban by increasing the exports with state subsidies.

 

UN Says ISIS Using Children as Suicide Bombers (RIA Novosti, 9 September 2014)

MOSCOW – The UN representative is horrified by disregard to children’s lives shown by the Islamic State and other extremist groups which are using children as suicide bombers.

“I remain deeply concerned over recent reports of ISIS targeting minorities, including children and women, in the growing area under their control in Syria and Iraq. ISIS has tasked boys as young as 13 to carry weapons, guard strategic locations or arrest civilians. Other children are used as suicide bombers,” Leila Zerrougui, a senior United Nations official stated addressing the UN Security Council on the subject of children in armed conflict.

The Islamic State militants have gained control over parts of eastern Syria and Iraq’s northern and western regions, threatening all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and Izadi Kurds, and committing mass executions of civilians and armed forces in the controlled areas.

According to the UN, up to 700 children have been killed or maimed in Iraq since the beginning of the year.

In Gaza, over 500 children were killed and more than 1,300 injured.

In Nigeria, Boko Haram has attacked schools, leading to the death of at least 100 students and 70 teachers in 2013. Over 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram in April are still missing.

Boko Haram is a diffuse Islamist sect that has attacked Nigeria's police and military, rival clerics, politicians and civilians with increasing regularity since 2009. Some experts view the group as an armed revolt against government corruption, abusive security forces, and widening regional economic disparity in the country.

“We cannot afford impunity in the face of such grave violations of international law that in some cases may amount to war crimes,” said the Special Representative.

Six months ago the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched the joint campaign “Children, Not Soldiers” that works towards a goal of no children in Government forces by the end of 2016.

 

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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.