LOCAL PRESS

 

Due on a farewell visit with Dacic (Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic talked today in Belgrade with the Head of the UN Office in Belgrade Peter Due who praised the engagement of the Republic of Serbia in the UN peacekeeping operations. Due pointed to the fact that Serbia is among seven leading European contributors to the UN military and police forces worldwide, the Foreign Ministry released in a statement. Dacic thanked Due, who came on a farewell visit, for the cooperation to date, and underlined the importance that Serbia attaches to the UN presence in Kosovo and Metohija. Dacic reiterated that Serbia stands ready to contribute through its activities to the overall peace and stability, and expressed interest in continuation of cooperation with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in which Due is scheduled to assume one of the key offices.

 

Vucic in Pasjane: We will not abandon the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija (Radio Serbia/RTS/Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said in Pasjane that Serbia will not abandon the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, announcing the opening of the Serbian government Office in Kosovo pomoravlje. Vucic opened a maternity hospital in Pasjane, whereby he started his visit to Kosovo pomoravlje. Addressing those gathered Pasjane residents, Vucic said that Serbia had always had the courage to defend and preserve what belonged to it, but it had made the most progress in times of peace and while making decisions “cool headed.” “We will succeed in preserving that peace. We do not want any conflicts with anyone, but we do want to be our own people on our own soil,” said Vucic. “We want live nicely with our Albanian neighbors,” the Prime Minister said, adding that we should look both at our own well-being and a shared future as we would be sharing the same territory for hundreds of years to come. He called on the residents of Kosovo pomoravlje to preserve their land and refrain from selling it no matter how difficult the times might be for them, as that was the only way for us to remain “our own people on our own soil”. Vucic said that Serbian institutions needed to increase their presence in Kosovo, and the province also needed investments, infrastructure projects and more maternity wards. “We plan to open our office here, and also in Gracanica and Kosovska Mitrovica. It is our obligation to provide you with new roads and new jobs,” Vucic said, observing that Kosovo was where the greatest number of births occurred in Serbia. “This is our birthplace and nobody will prevent our children from getting born here in the future,” he added. “But we have to build peace,” Vucic said, adding that full peace and stability alone could help us move forward. “Long live Serbia!” the prime minister said at the end of his speech.

 

Djuric: Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija have a future (RTS)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric told the morning news of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) that the residents of entire Kosovo pomoravlje eagerly await the visit of the Serbian Prime Minister, as well as the opening of the maternity hospital. Djuric noted that the women who have not gone to Serbia proper to give birth have mainly relied on the village clinics. Five hundred babies are born every year in Kosovo pomorvalje, and there are around 12,000 students enrolled in the University in Kosovska Mitrovica, 90 percent of whom are from Kosovo and Metohija, which shows that the Serbs have a future here, Djuric is convinced. He recalls that there are still 247,000 internally displaced people from Kosovo and Metohija in Serbia proper and that a large number of them are on the verge of existence. Once they are offered answers to some existential issues, I am sure that a large number of them will decide to return, stresses Djuric. He noted that the Serbian government, for the first time over the past fifteen years, is preparing “an encompassed concept” of settlements for returnees that will be built in northern Kosovo, in cooperation with the provincial authorities and international community. The Serbian budget for this year has set aside the sum of 7,6 million euros for returns to Kosovo and Metohija. “We are trying to open the doors to businessmen, since many of them had been in economic isolation here,” says Djuric. He reminds that the Serbian government has enabled the start of the ski season on Mt. Brezovica and that Hotel Molika has opened. In honor of the Prime Minister, a ski race will be held today. Djuric hopes that a way for reviving Mt. Sar will be found, since many people’s existence depends on it.

 

Vucic and Dodik: Serbia and RS wishing best possible relations in region (Radio Serbia, by Mladen Bijelic)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and the President of the Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik have expressed consensus on all key matters and have agreed on even closer relations between the two states, it was stressed at the joint press conference after their meeting in Belgrade. Vucic and Dodik have emphasized that the stability in the region is of key importance and pointed that Serbia and the RS will not be provoking anyone or responding to provocations. “It is not because Serbia is weak, but because it is a responsible country desiring for the best possible relations in the region,” Vucic clarified. Serbia and the RS will jointly strive to preserve the regional stability through mutual assistance, the Prime Minister said, adding that on that course the RS, as well as B&H, will have the support of Serbia. “We support the territorial integrity of B&H and the RS as its entity, so it is the obligation of Serbia to protect such position,” Vucic underlined. According to him, Serbia’s belief is that all of the countries in the region are small on their own, economically weak and without significant political impact, so only joined they can reach the bigger and more profitable market, and better results of their national economies. The Prime Minister has added that the RS President Milorad Dodik had expressed certain questions and plans in that regard, while repeating that Serbia believes it is important that all problems within B&H be solved in a peaceful manner and through the consensus of all three nations in that country. Dodik has emphasized that during the meeting in Belgrade the talks touched upon the joint projects, and he greeted the selection of the strategic partner for the steel factory in Smederevo, being that the mine in Ljubovija, in the RS, has close cooperation with it. Dodik has confirmed the support to the policy of the Serbian government, while repeating that regardless of the pressures and potential benefits, the RS will never make such moves that might be harmful to the territorial integrity of Serbia, i.e. will never recognize the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo. In response to reporters’ questions, Vucic has said that his reaction to the writing of BIRN was severe but fair and it did not endanger Serbia, since his job is to protect the country, which he will keep doing in the future. “Just like I may have reacted too harshly a year ago, when some people tried to use the biggest tragedy that ever happened to us for the political attack and abuse by deliberately blowing the number of victims out of proportion, the same thing happened now,” Vucic explained, adding that the media under the control of big tycoons are the slaves of the ideology of big business, thus not reporting objectively and truly, but rather in the interest of those tycoons. Asked about the topic of his talks with Michael Davenport earlier in the day, Vucic answered that it was a regular meeting and discussed the relevant issues of Serbia’s EU integration. “We have agreed that 2015 is a key year for the progress, not just in the European domain, but on a wider scale – pertaining to the regional political and economic stability,” he noted.

The Prime Minister has also congratulated the citizens of Croatia for electing the new president Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, and added that Serbia wishes to have excellent cooperation with that neighboring country, despite the statements from some of their high-ranking politicians, or the occasional lapses in their talks of Serbia, as he called it. “The fact that we sometimes pretend to not hear or do not react to every provocation is the reflection of Serbia’s strength and responsibility, not its weakness. It is also the reflection of our desire to have the best possible relations in the region,” Vucic concluded.

 

Zannier: Opportunity for positive mediating role (Tanjug)

Serbia, which is set to formally assume chairmanship of the OSCE on Thursday, has an opportunity to play the positive, but complex role of a fair mediator, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said in Vienna on Wednesday. Speaking to Serbian reporters who are in Vienna for the start of the Serbian chairmanship, Zannier noted the traditionally good relations between Russia and Serbia, as well as the fact that Serbia has strong European prospects. Zannier added that he will strive to help the new OSCE chair. Ukraine remains the biggest challenge for OSCE, but other issues - including relations in the Balkan region - will also be on the agenda, he said. The decision on the Swiss and Serbian consecutive chairmanships in 2014 and 2015 was taken three years ago at the OSCE headquarters in Vienna. Serbia is thus to become the first former Yugoslav state to chair the organization, with Germany to take over next year.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

FB&H will get the government (Srna/Fena)

The Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H) Edin Music scheduled for Thursday a special parliamentary session in Sarajevo, at which the MPs should comment on the election of the President and Vice-President of FB&H. “The session was scheduled because we expect all to be prepared for the sessions of the House of Representatives. This implies that the Central Election Commission (CEC) of B&H will finish the procedure about the constituting of the House of Peoples and the expiry of the period for appeal,” Music told Fena. If, as planned, constitutive session of the House of Representatives is also held, Music says that this House should suggest the President and two Vice-Presidents of FB&H, and then the House of Representatives should vote for it at the special session. “It is a well-established procedure that is defined by the Constitution,” said Music.

He stressed that the only issue on the agenda for the special session is related to the House of Peoples and that the House of Representatives is ready to hold a session and react if there are preconditions for the election of President and Vice-President of the Federation of B&H.

At the session of the House of Peoples of FB&H, at which the new convocation of the House should be constituted, according to the proposed agenda the temporary committee or to be more exact the Interim Mandate and Immunity Committee and the Interim Commission for the selection and appointment of the House, should be selected. At the session of the House of Peoples the election of delegates to the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H will be considered, as well as two proposals Draft decision on interim funding of the FB&H for the period January - March 2015 and the Draft on Amendments to the Law on budgets in the FB&H.

 

Soja DF’s candidate for the Vice-President of the Federation of B&H (Oslobodjenje)

At the consultative meeting that was held today with the Vice-Chairman of the FB&H Parliament’s House of Peoples Tomislav Martinovic, tomorrow’s constitutive session of the House of Peoples was agreed. The constitutive session should be held at noon tomorrow if the CEC B&H confirm the election of delegates to the House of Peoples tomorrow morning.

As it was confirmed to Oslobodjenje by Sifet Podzic, General Secretary and member of the DF, this party from the ranks of Serb people will suggest a long time B&H diplomat Slobodan Soja for a position of Vice-President of the Federation. By now it was already announced that the President of the Federation to be nominated is Marinko Cavara HDZ B&H, while the name of the candidate for Vice-President of the FB&H from among the Bosniak people is still unknown.

I certainly expected it to be a candidate from the ranks of the SDA, said Podzic. It is expected that the Presidency of SDA is going to make that decision this afternoon, he added.

 

Vucic: Dodik and the RS should have been consulted with regard to the joint statement (Srna)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stated on Tuesday that the RS President Milorad Dodik and the RS itself should have been consulted with regard to the joint statement of the B&H Presidency on EU integration. Commenting on the statement, Vucic said he did not want to meddle in B&H’s internal affairs, but did believe that it would have been better if President Dodik and the RS had been consulted because it would have made much more sense and would have had better chances of success. “I think B&H should be on the European path and Serbia will support that journey,” Vucic told reporters in Belgrade after a meeting with the RS President. Vucic said that they had discussed this topic and exchanged their views and that some aspects of the document were acceptable to Dodik while others were not. “I presented to Dodik my opinion on every part of the document, on three points and five parts of the second point, which I believe is the most important one. There are many undisputable things, but there are some disputable as well. I think they could be settled in the near future,” said Vucic.

 

Dodik: RS will not recognize self-declared Kosovo (Srna)

The RS will never agree to recognize the self-declared Kosovo and Metohija even though it could suffer damage because of it, President Milorad Dodik said on Tuesday. “RS will not recognize Kosovo. We know what it means to have strategic national interests,” Dodik told a press conference in Belgrade following a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic. Dodik underlined that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was a unilateral act done to the detriment of Serbia’s territorial sovereignty and an act performed bypassing the international law.

 

Vice-president of the Federation of B&H submitted another 2,200 pages of documents concerning the war crimes against Serb civilians (RTRS)

Vice President of the Federation Mirsad Kebo has received new evidence relating to war crimes against Serbs, which will presumably, lead towards expanding of the list of those responsible for the atrocities. ” I believe that radical Islam was born in Bosnia; the leader of this radicalism is member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Bakir Izetbegovic.” said Kebo. He explained that on Saturday night, one of his associates was given new evidence of crimes against Serbs. He confirmed that the B&H Chief Prosecutor Goran Salihovic submitted more than 2,000 pages of documents relating to crimes against Serbs in Vozuca and Zavidovic. “The materials I received came from the citizens who want the truth. They suggest that some high – positioned individuals in B&H Federation know a lot about war crimes, but avoid reporting it”. Mr Kebo emphasized that the submission of such evidence has no political or personal background, but is rather an act of ‘fulfillment of his constitutional obligation’. Kebo said that these documents reveal some names of the involved: the former commander of the Third Army Corps Sakib Mahmuljin and chief of the security services in Zenica Shefik Dzaferovic, who was recently elected as Chairman of the House of Representatives. “I delivered the Prosecutor’s Office photos of the secret headquarters of the Iranian intelligence service, which was active in Zenica, where a spying center for this part of Europe was placed, as well as Iranian intelligence; it was regularly visited by Bakir Izetbegovic, Sefik Dzaferovic and others,” says Kebo. However, long hidden and suppressed dark chapter of crimes against Serbs in the area of Zavidovici, Banovic and Lukavica started to open in December when on the Ozren mountain dozens of skeletal remains were discovered. Documents and evidences concerning this suffering has been collected for years by the Heritage Association of the Zavidovici in Doboj. “Through the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Operational Team of Republika Srpska for investigation of war crimes, we have provided plenty of evidence of crimes during the nearly four-year siege of Vozuca and villages in the southeast part of Ozren mountain,” says Zoran Blagojevic, chairman of the association. The documents reveal, for example, information about the murder by cutting heads off the following Serbian civilians: Momir Mitrovic, Predrag Knezevic, Gojko Vucic, as well as torture of 12 captured Serbian soldiers in the village of Livade and the Mujahideen camp Kamenica near Zavidovici which took place before the attack on Vozuca in September 1995. All this will probably concern Sefik Dzaferovic, the newly elected first parliamentarian of Bosnia, since the murders of Serbs outbreak after he became the chief policeman in the area, 1994. Some of these ethically and religiously motivated crimes were: the murder of journalist Jadranko Bozanovic on the doorstep of his home in Zavidovici, 1994. ”These documents reveal some names of the involved: the former commander of the Third Army Corps RB&H Sakib Mahmuljin and chief of the security services in Zenica Shefik Dzaferovic, who was recently elected as Chairman of the House of Representatives.” Kebo seeks responsibility for the murder of Boris Tesanovic, Goran Keler, Zeljko Dejanovic and others. The darkest past in committed, but never processed crimes against Serbs, for which were equally responsible military and civilian Muslim authorities is a crime against 64 captured Serbian soldiers and civilians in September 1995 during the fall of Vozuca. They were then taken to a Mijahedin Al Qaeda detention camp in Kamenica and brutally tortured and murdered, and at the end of the war some survivors were exchanged.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbia's prime minister in landmark Kosovo visit (Telegraph.Co.UK, by Harriet Line, 14 January 2015)

Kosovo visit of Aleksandar Vučić, Serbia's prime minister, signals a new chapter in the history of both countries

Serbia's prime minister is making a landmark visit to Kosovo on Wednesday, signifying the first step towards normalising relations between the two countries.

The first official visit by Aleksandar Vučić is "humanitarian and religious" in nature, according to Kosovo's foreign affairs minister Hashim Thaçi, but signals a new chapter in the history of both countries.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia seven years ago after almost a decade of United Nations control following the bloody conflict in the 1990s.

The country remains deeply divided and outbreaks of ethnic violence are frequent, particularly in the north of the country where a de facto split across the Ibar River separates the ethnically Serbian and Albanian populations.

The proportion of Serbians declined dramatically after Nato intervention in 1998, and now account for around five per cent of the population.

Serbia still refuses to recognise Kosovo's independence, despite the European Union insisting that the countries normalise relations in order to progress towards membership.

Mr Vučić will visit the Serbian-majority towns of Pasjane, •trpce and Gračanica, along with the country's ministers of defence, interior, justice, health and work.

The Serbian entourage will not meet with any of Kosovo's politicians, but they are expected to speak to leaders of the parallel institutions that exist in Serbian-majority areas.

Kosovo's foreign affairs minister, Hashim Thaçi, said: "We strive to intensify visits on both sides, we must not be afraid to communicate."

Last month, Mr Thaçi told the Austrian magazine Die Presse that the normalisation process had entered a new phase, but that the countries had not yet reached mutual recognition.

However, Mr Vučić told the Iranian ambassador, Majid Fahimpour, earlier this week that Serbia is on its own path towards the EU.

 

Kosovo Minister Urged to Quit for ‘Savages’ Statement (BIRN, by Petit Collaku, Marija Ristic, 13 January 2015)

Calls have increased for the resignation of Kosovo minister Aleksandar Jablanovic after he described Albanian protesters who rallied against Serb pilgrims at Orthodox Christmas as ‘savages’. The Albanian Students Union on Tuesday joined calls for Jablanovic’s dismissal as Kosovo’s minister for communities and return, accusing him of making a “fascist statement that stressed chauvinism towards Albanian people”. The union, an umbrella group for all student unions in public universities in Kosovo, also called on the state prosecution to issue a warrant for Jablanovic’s arrest for ethnic hate speech. “Such statements reopen wounds and inter-ethnic hate caused by neighbouring Serbian people,” it said in a statement. Jablanovic made his comment on the eve of Orthodox Christmas, January 6, after about 100 Kosovo Albanian protesters rallied against Serb pilgrims from Belgrade who tried to visit an Orthodox church in Gjakova/Djakovica.

Kosovo police arrested two members of the nationalist Vetevendosje Movement opposition party for throwing ice at a bus carrying the pilgrims, who decided to call off their visit after the attack.

“Savages in Djakovica have ruined the [Christmas] holiday for people who came to their houses that were burned [after the war in 1999],” Jablanovic, a member of the Srpska Lista bloc, which is part of the governing coalition in Kosovo, said in response. Gjakova/Djakovica was the scene of heavy fighting between Yugoslav forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army during the war, when the majority of Kosovo Albanians were expelled and many civilians killed. The Vetevendosje Movement accused him of insulting war victims and held a protest in Gjakova/Djakovica on Sunday, with demonstrators carrying placards with the slogan “Jablanovic Non Grata”.

The protest was attended by local mayor Mimoza Kusari-Lila, who has also asked Prime Minister Isa Mustafa for Jablanovic’s dismissal. “What happened in Kosovo in 1999 is known by the whole world and in particular by those living in Europe, not to mention the Balkans,” Kusari-Lila said.

Jablanovic responded by saying that he was only criticising the protesters who attacked the pilgrims’ bus and did not mean to offend ordinary people in Gjakova/Djakovica. “I have respect for the victims on both sides and to be honest, I didn’t know about such catastrophic losses in Djakovica during the bombardment. I have learned this after this statement from some of my Albanian friends,” he told media. Nysrete Kumnova, head of a missing persons association called Mother’s Calls, said that Jablanovic’s statement was derogatory and warned Kosovo’s premier to sack the minister or face protests. “He called us beasts,” Kumnova said. The Serbian Association of Victims however defended Jablanovic, saying that “he was not thinking of the whole Albanian nation” when he made his controversial statement. “Minister Jablanovic was revolted by the attack on a bus with pilgrims,” the association said in a statement on Tuesday. The Hague Tribunal has convicted six senior Serb officials of crimes against Kosovo Albanians in Gjakova/Djakovica - Nikola Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic, Nebojsa Pavkovic, Sreten Lukic, Vladimir Lazarevic and Vlastimir Djordjevic. Following the signing of Kumanovo agreement which ended the conflict, all Kosovo Serbs were expelled from the Gjakova/Djakovica area and their homes burned. Many Serbs who were killed in the period after July 1999 are still listed as missing.

 

EU funding for Serbia well spent, says EU budget watchdog (EUObserver, by Nikolaj Nielsen, 13 January 2015)

The EU’s budget watchdog says the €1.2 billion of EU money spent to help Serbia’s future membership with the Union was relatively well managed.

In its report out Tuesday (13 January), the Luxembourg-based European Court of Auditors said Serbia’s pre-accession assistance (IPA) for 2007 to 2013 delivered on social and economic reforms despite the poor execution of some projects.

“Learning from its past pre-accession support, the commission successfully supported Serbia in addressing key areas such as good governance, the rule of law, and the fight against corruption,” said the Court in a statement.

At the same time, the Court noted some projects suffered from “weaknesses regarding their design, implementation and sustainability” and recommended the commission improve transparency and set up better quality control checks.

It noted, for instance, that an EU project on a judiciary system had run parallel - without any coordination - to another system funded by the United States.

The Court audited 15 IPA funded projects and 'desk' reviewed 10 others. The audits focused on project results while the reviews assessed governance and fight against corruption where projects did not have good governance as a primary objective. The probes took place from May 2013 until January 2014.

Serbia received around €170 million annually from the fund. The money went to areas like justice, transport, and social development.

Around a quarter of it supported governance projects, which include fighting corruption and improving public administration.

The European Commission, in its annual package of EU hopefuls published last October, highlighted corruption in Serbia as a persistent problem.

Despite the political impetus to fight graft by Serbian leadership, corruption remains prevalent, said the commission.

Serbia’s accession negotiations started in January 2014. It faces big political challenges that require it to normalise relations with Kosovo - a pre-condition for future membership.

Full recognition of Kosovo has not been tabled.

But Latvia’s foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics, speaking on behalf of the EU presidency, told Serbian media last week that Belgrade needs to continue high-level dialogue with Pristina.

“The dialogue at a high level after the forming of the government in Kosovo should be continued in the near future, in order to accelerate implementation of existing agreements," he said, reports the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti.

The European commission, for its part, has downgraded its overall enlargement campaign.

Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has said there would be no new EU countries during his five-year term. He also changed the name of the “enlargement” portfolio to “enlargement negotiations”.

 

German, UK, Ministers Push Bosnia Reform Plan (BIRN, by Elvira M. Jukic, 14 January 2015)

The German and British Foreign Ministers are travelling to Sarajevo this week to give the stalled EU initiative on Bosnia - which they designed - a decisive push. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his British counterpart, Phillip Hammond, are due in Bosnia later this week, to kick-start the new EU plan for the country, diplomatic sources told Balkan Insight on Wednesday. The two foreign ministers are expected in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, on Thursday and Friday, where they will meet the tripartite presidency, parliament and other top officials. Steinmeier and Hammond initiated the new plan, aimed at helping Bosnia to emerge from its current crisis and get back on the EU path. Last November they outlined basic details of the initiative in a joint letter to EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, and the Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement, Johannes Hahn. It was presented then to Balkan foreign ministers in Berlin and approved by the European Foreign Affairs Council on November 17 and the General Affairs Council on December 15, thus officially becoming the new EU strategy for Bosnia. The first step requires Bosnian political leaders to agree on a declaration in which they pledge continued backing for the EU integration process. After Bosnia's parliament signs and adopts this declaration, the EU is supposed to activate Bosnia’s long delayed Stabilization and Association Agreement, SAA.

However, the new plan become stuck at the first hurdle when Milorad Dodik, President of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, on January 2 rejected the draft statement proposed by the Bosnian Presidency on December 31. A second setback has since followed after Croatia's new right-wing President elect, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, complained that the new initiative did not address problems faced by the Croatian community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

She suggested that a new international conference might have to be organized to discuss the future of the divided country. Many experts believe that the EU, together with the US – especially after the appointment of a new US ambassador to Bosnia this week – will have to be assertive in curbing local leaders and their divisive politics if the new international approach is to succeed.

 

Bosnian Party Accused of Harbouring War Criminals (BIRN, by Denis Dzidic, 13 January 2015)

The outgoing deputy president of Bosnia’s Federation entity sent thousands of documents to the prosecution about war crimes in which he alleges officials from his former Party for Democratic Action were involved. Outgoing deputy Federation president and former Party for Democratic Action (SDA) member Mirsad Kebo told BIRN on Tuesday that he sent the allegedly incriminating army and police documents to the state prosecution office with a criminal complaint about wartime crimes against Serb civilians in Vozuca, near Zavidovici. “This evidence contains information about the crimes of the Mudjahedin fighters and those who actually supported and commanded this unit,” said Kebo. He claimed that the documents mention the name of former Zenica police commander Sefik Dzaferovic, now a high-ranking current SDA official who has recently been elected as the president of the Bosnian parliament’s House of Representatives. “The documents mention people who knew about war crimes and did not report them, which they had an obligation to do,” Kebo said. He said that he also sent photographs to the prosecution which show SDA acting president Bakir Izetbegovic and Dzaferovic entering an Iranian intelligence center in Zenica and claimed that Izetbegovic is the “leader of [Islamic] radicalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. The SDA responded by accusing Kebo of spreading “lies and cheap fabrications” about prominent former commanders of the Bosnian Army. “Losing his function and power, Kebo is losing the last shreds of his human and patriotic honour, becoming instead a servant of political forces who want to stop the formation of levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, destabilise coalitions and the entire country,” the SDA said in a statement. It accused Kebo of wanting to “place the stigma of Islamic radicalism on the Bosniak people on the wave of the growing Islamophobia in the world”.

“The question should rightly be posed – who, and with what aim, gave Kebo the war archives of the Bosnian army and police and placed falsified documents within them?” it asked. Bosnian Serb officials have already announced they will ask for the removal of Dzaferovic from his position in the Bosnian parliament if the documents are verified as true. The SDA was the clear winner in the Bosnian Federation entity in the October elections last year and is expected to be part of the government on all the country’s various administrative levels.