LOCAL PRESS

 

Djuric: Pristina should punish the attackers (Novosti)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric called on Pristina authorities and the EU to take serious measures to punish those who mounted an attack on a bus transporting passengers of Serb nationality, from Belgrade to Strpce and to prevent any similar incidents from happening again. If they will not do that, it means that they are giving reticent support to hatred and violence, underlined Djuric. At the moment when the Serbian government is investing maximal efforts to have life in Kosovo normalized, the other side shows no will or capacity to do that, he stressed. A woman was injured last night when, in Banjica, Kacanik municipality stones were thrown on a bus transporting passengers. We call on the Kosovo Police Service and EULEX to act within their very extensive mandate and finally solve at least one incident that caused jeopardy to human lives and Serb property, such as the blast that hit Kosovska Mitrovica at dawn and caused damage to nine cars and 11 shops, and the stoning of the bus, the Office stated in the release. The Office recalled that EULEX said on Friday that the Kosovo police have matured enough to live up to international tasks, noting that it expects the identification of the attackers on the bus and the individual who threw the hand grenade in downtown Kosovska Mitrovica to prove this.

 

Office for Kosovo and Metohija on Pristina’s spinning (Politika/Beta)

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija assessed yesterday as “media spinning” the statement by the Kosovo Prime Minister’s Advisor Valon Murtezaj that Pristina will not accept new topics in the dialogue with Pristina. Deputy Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Dusan Kozarev told Beta that he considers Murtezaj’s statement part of the “spiral of lies that the Albanian politicians entered by communicating insincerely with their own public and disguising the scope of the Brussels dialogue”. “It seems that Pristina wishes to escape the dialogue because it thinks it will escape this way from the obligations that it assumed in Brussels. By deceiving its own public, Pristina actually hampers itself the implementation of the agreed,” said Kozarev. He points out Serbia wants not only progress of the dialogue, buts also its acceleration. “Problems in Kosovo and Metohija must be resolved simultaneously and any conditioning of opening new topics with the realization of some other topics is actually the same as making the process pointless,” stressed Kozarev.

 

Vulin: Recognition of Kosovo out of question (RTS)

In his comment to the statement by the Special Rapporteur of the European Parliament on Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek - that normalization of relations and recognition of Kosovo would be a condition for Serbia’s accession to the EU - Serbian Minister for Labor Aleksandar Vulin told the press in the Serbian parliament that Serbia will not recognize independence of Kosovo that was unilaterally declared by Albanians. “That is a form of putting pressure, it is a personal stand, not an official stand of the European institutions. We will not recognize Kosovo and Metohija, period!” said Vulin, pointing out that the stance was a result of a consensus reached during the setting up of the current government and that nothing has changed, nor will it change in that respect. He said that Serbia’s path towards the EU is not via Kosovo and Metohija, but via 35 chapters, one of which refers to Kosovo and Metohija.

 

Ker-Lindsay: I doubt Blair’s efficiency (Danas)

“Like most other observers, I was very surprised when I heard the news on the engagement of Tony Blair in Serbia. Blair is a completely discredited figure in Great Britain. It is hard to believe that anyone would wish to seek advice from him, and it seems even stranger that Serbia would wish that, considering his role in the NATO bombardment in 1999,” Senior Research Fellow on the politics of South East Europe at the London School of Economics, James Ker-Lindsay told Danas in comment to the activities of the former British premier in Serbia. Danas’ interlocutor notes that one should say that Blair has a lot of experience and that “he obviously maintains very good contacts”. “But, I am skeptical about what kind of results he can bring. One finds it hard to believe that he will devote himself with all his heart to the task having in mind numerous other consulting activities and roles that he has,” points Lindsay. Asked whether he expects the first negotiating chapters to open soon, he points out that Kosovo is still the key problem, which partly refers to the process of normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations, and partly to the fact that “there is still no clear idea how the association process will flow while Serbia considers Kosovo part of its territory as according to the Constitution”. “That is a very complex legal and political issue. Generally speaking, it is important for the EU to find a way of managing this process. For example, the EU has managed to find a way of concluding the Stabilization and Association Agreement with Kosovo, despite the fact that five EU member states don’t recognize it. I am certain that they can find, with appropriate political will, an innovative solution for Serbia’s membership negotiations. Considering what is happening, it is important for Belgrade to be included as soon as possible in true negotiations with the EU,” concludes Lindsay.

 

Chauprade: Independence of Kosovo historical mistake (Novosti)

“Paris has made an historical mistake for recognizing Kosovo. It is a Serbian province, the heart of the Serbian entity. That would be the same if one day Saint Denis, where the famous Basilica with the necropolis of French kings is located, and where at present the Muslim population is a majority, would separate from France along with the explanation that there is a population that replaced the natives,” European Parliament member Aymeric Chauprade tells Novosti. He had recently publicly spoken at the European Parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee on the suffering of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. This official of the Front National conveys that Kosovo will never be able to become an EU member because it is “a hotbed of crime and bears the responsibility for the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and other non-Albanians”.
In whose interest is disappearance of the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija?

“Unfortunately, everything is the continuation of what was happening in 1999, from the time of the illegal NATO war against Serbia, whose goal was to confirm the separatism of the Albanians in Kosovo, which have become, for demographic reasons, a majority in this territory. The EU has followed the US policy.”

Who is profiting from this?

“Mostly the US. Serbia is an Orthodox country, historically close to Russia, a regional power. Breaking up Yugoslavia was aimed at weakening the Serbian nation in favor of other nations. Strategic interests, American, but also German, were hiding behind the rights of minorities.”

How does one position itself towards the events in Kosovo?

“The rights of Serbs should be defended. They are on their land. There is no reason for them to be treated as second-class citizens.”

What is the solution for Kosovo and Metohija?

“There are many different models, as is, for example, the strong autonomy of Western Sahara in sovereign Morocco. In any case, Kosovo and Metohija, with its specific features, should remain a province inside Serbia. The logic of independence leads to hopelessness. Especially since the Kosovo Albanians have a mafia economy that they mostly maintain with smuggling, which I saw several years ago during the visit there. This is very dangerous, both for the local population and for the EU, if it wants to integrate this region.”

How much were the Western services involved in the break-up of Serbia?

“It is known that the BND supported the KLA at the time. They transferred from the cultural to the political ground, to separatism. I understand completely the fact that Serbia opposes this. Today they continue with the confirmation of that illegal independence. Kosovo was recognized by many countries, primarily out of opportunism, following the US, but it also wasn’t recognized by many important states in the world.”

 

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

No agreement, SDA & HDZ to meet again Tuesday (Srna)

The HDZ leader Dragan Covic and SDA Deputy-President Bakir Izetbegovic have concluded that the parties’ bodies should meet today to agree the future steps in the formation of the FB&H Government, which should prepare the two parties for another meeting on Tuesday, March 3.

Covic told reporters in Sarajevo on Sunday that a meeting between the SDA and HDZ representatives would take place on Tuesday. Democratic Front leader Zeljko Komsic walked out 30 minutes into the meeting, saying that he would no longer take part in the talks on this topic because the SDA had made some concessions to the HDZ. “We were unable to reach an agreement. The SDA agreed to have six ministers and prime minister, while the HDZ was supposed to have six ministries, and the DF four, which we found unacceptable. The DF had made enough concessions about the B&H Council of Ministers. That way we wouldn’t have adhered to the election results the DF achieved,” Komsic said after walking out of the meeting. “The DF will back the formation of a ‘minority government’ just so the FB&H government can be formed. The DF will remain part of the Council of Ministers but if they say the DF is redundant, we will withdraw from the Council,” said Komsic.

Suljagic: With his behavior, Izetbegovic knocked DF from the executive government (Oslobodjenje/Patria)

“Bakir Izetbegovic did what enemies of this country wanted. With his behavior and stances, he knocked the Democratic Front from the executive government and embarked on a political adventure with Dragan Covic in which he will pay a high price, and which will cost this country, which is a far greater problem,” Emir Suljagic, member of the DF presidency, told Patria.

He says that as soon as they sat at the table, Izetbegovic said to Dragan Covic, leader of the HDZ B&H, that he was giving him everything he wants. “Six ministries, including immediately finance, agriculture – all the strongest positions. After he told Covic that he’s giving him everything he wants, he turned to break the DF. No problem that that's four ministries and that we were offered literally those in which you ask the least and where you can do the least to benefit this country. “The problem is in Bakir’s relation to the DF. We are a party that won more votes than the HDZ, but he in an agreement with Covic wants to cheapen us. We don't want to participate in his deals like that and certainly Izetbegovic is not aware of what Covic is pulling him into. Unfortunately, this isn't his mind, but the mind of Aljosa Campara, Asim Sarajlic, and Amir Zukic,” says Suljagic.

 

Dodik: Stop insulting Serbs (Srna)

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik has said there is no “independence day of B&H” and told the politicians in Sarajevo to address their greetings to the citizens of the Federation of B&H and stop insulting the Serbs because their imaginary united B&H in which every Serb, Croat or Bosniak is actually a Bosnian exists and will exist only as part of their wishful thinking. “Never have the joint B&H bodies made a decision to celebrate March 1 as a state holiday of all three peoples in the country. I have nothing against the Federation observing its holidays, just like the RS celebrates January 9.” “Every Serb associates March 1 with a painful date that is remembered by the murder of a Serb who was guest at a wedding in Sarajevo. This is very well known to those who, 23 years on, ruthlessly and arrogantly keep trying to impose their own will by talking about the unity and compatibility of B&H, which simply doesn’t exist. By acting this way, they are furthering the situation in which the people of the RS will never put a modicum of trust in the ‘Sarajevo’s intentions’ with Serbs. Quite the opposite, every March 1 they regularly remind us how much they care for the Serb people in these parts,” stated the RS President.

 

Bosnian political parties strongly criticized HDZ leader Karamarko (Dalje)

The leader of Croatia’s opposition Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, Tomislav Karamarko, has been strongly criticized by several political parties in B&H which have accused him of making war-mongering statements, encroaching on the country’s sovereignty and supporting attempts to organize the country entirely in line with ethnic principles. The Croatian National Congress of B&H (HNS B&H), which brings together most Croat parties in the country, led by the HDZ B&H and the HDZ 1990, on Saturday held a conference in Mostar focusing on the situation in the country and the status of the local Croat community, and it adopted a declaration calling for organizing the country into four federal units to replace the existing two entities, the Serb entity and the Bosniak-Croat entity. Karamarko sent the HNS B&H a letter of support which was met with fierce criticism from the Democratic Front (DF), a member of the country’s ruling coalition, and the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP). In a statement signed by its president Zeljko Komsic, the DF said that Karamarko’s positions entirely corresponded with the HNS’ goals and were nothing but yet another attempt to achieve war goals in a peaceful way. “Attempts to change the country’s constitutional and legal order through non-institutional pressures from neighboring countries and their satellites will not be tolerated,” the DF said. The DF believes that the declaration adopted by the HNS is an attempt to introduce and legalize apartheid in B&H. The opposition SDP party condemned Karamarko’s statements as well, albeit using less strong words. SDP leader Nermin Niksic said Karamarko’s letter to the HNS B&H was an attempt to regulate internal political issue in Bosnia and Herzegovina from outside. “It is a repetition of a policy that in the mid-1990s was pursued by Zagreb and Belgrade and that resulted in the current abnormal constitutional structure of B&H, which is why the country has been in a state of permanent political crisis since the end of the war,” Niksic said in a statement, calling on the country's institutions to openly state their position on attacks on its sovereignty. In a comment on the declaration adopted by the HNS B&H, the speaker of the House of Representatives of the state parliament and senior official of the predominantly Bosniak (Muslim) Party of Democratic Action, Sefik Dzaferovic, said that calls for a territorial rearrangement of the country were unacceptable and that talks were possible on changes to the middle level of government. The HNS declaration calls for holding a new international conference on B&H and for changing the country’s constitution to create a symmetric federal state in relation to its three constituent peoples. In his letter to the HNS, Karamarko said that B&H could be organized only as a decentralized, law-based and social state made up of federal units with equal rights and responsibilities. The Croatian opposition leader said that Croatia had a legitimate interest in maintaining the stability of B&H and was entitled to state its position on the status of the Croat community in that country because Croatia’s stability depended on it too. He called on legitimate political representatives of Bosnia’s three constituent peoples to finally hold serious talks on the constitutional and legal order of B&H as a multiethnic state.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Serbia pins hopes on Turkish Stream (Vestnik Kavkaza, 28 February 2015)

Serbia hopes to get Russian gas if the gas pipeline connecting Russia with Turkey via the Black Sea is built, the vice president of the Democratic Party of Serbia, Milan Lapčević said.

The Turkish Stream project is being regarded as an alternative to South Stream. The plans for the construction of the latter were abandoned by Russia in December 2014. Lapčević said that Belgrade set high hopes on the South Stream which responded to the economic, political and geo-strategic interests of Serbia. "So that South Stream would be implemented, we began the process of expropriation of land and already started the process of construction. And for us, the news of the project stopping was very sudden, and it was a big disappointment," he said.

According to Lapčević, "this example shows that pressure from America and European countries is being directed towards Russia. It is really a desire for Russia to be completely jammed in their framework, so that it stops developing economically, even if it hurts European businesses, the European economy, even if it goes against the interests of buying gas from South Stream. And this pressure on Russia will continue, no doubt." Belgrade is interested in the Turkish Stream as well. "This route through Turkey, Greece and Serbia will also bring gas to Hungary and other countries of southern Europe. Serbia could become an important strategic and energy factor of this project. And the Democratic Party of Serbia is also interested in this. The Democratic Party of Serbia supports Russia. The head of the party, Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, believes that the Democratic Party of Serbia has to become the "backbone of the patriotic bloc" and an alternative government which would find support in Russia. "We are the only party in Serbia which has a committee for cooperation with the Russian Federation... Nowadays we have a lot of pressure to impose sanctions against Russia... I would like to express my concern about the conduct of the authorities, and the possibility that the government would agree to these pressures, yield to this pressure. Nevertheless, we have a patriotic bloc of parties, and the Serbian people, who are unanimously against the imposition of sanctions against Russia. We believe that the imposition of sanctions against Russia would be morally and economically and politically suicidal for Serbia. According to Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, "Crimea is Russian, and Kosovo is Serbian... Russia is ready to defend their right to Crimea by diplomatic means, Serbia, too, must be ready to defend their right by diplomatic means to their cradle in Kosovo and Metohija. Serbia was baptized in Kosovo and Metohija, and Russia was baptized in Crimea, where we are baptized is our homeland... We were very concerned when the South Stream project was closed down. We expect and believe that nevertheless the Russian presence will preserve, that maybe an alternative to South Stream can be found via Turkey, and it will find its place in Serbia."

 

Collapse of Bosnia’s Ruling Coalition Deepens Crisis (BIRN, by Srecko Latal, 2 March 2015)

Talks about the formation of the new government in the Bosniak-Croat Federation hit a dead-end, threatening a previous agreement on the distribution of seats in the state administration

Bosnia’s ruling coalition has effectively collapsed after the three main parties in the Federation failed to agree on the makeup of the entity's new government on Sunday.

This development puts in question the recent agreement on the formation of the new state government, and threatens to push the country deeper into political chaos five months after the elections. Talks were held in Sarajevo on Sunday aimed at finding an agreement on how to distribute eight Bosniak, five Croat and three Serb ministerial positions in the new Federation government. Zeljko Komsic, from the predominately Bosniak party of Democratic Front, DF, walked out of the meeting after only half an hour, leaving his two other counterparts, Bakir Izetbegovic from the Bosnian national Party of Democratic Action, and Dragan Covic from the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ. Komsic told journalists that the negotiations had failed and that the DF will not be a part of the new Federation government, but that his party was willing to support the reform programmes of a minority government in order to avoid further political crisis. "The Democratic Front will have no ministers in the new Federation government," Komsic confirmed. “They have our support to form the government [without the DF] and how will they agree further on, I do not know," he added. Later on Sunday, another senior DF leader, Sifet Podzic warned that the party was also ready to abandon its positions in the state government, the Council of Ministers. At a previous meeting, Covic insisted on all five Croat and one Serb positions, Komsic doubled his initial request from three to six ministerial positions, while Izetbegovic, who previously wanted all eight Bosniak seats, offered one of those positions to the DF but this still proved insufficient for an agreement. After Komsic walked out, the other two party leaders continued their meeting for more than an hour. Afterwards they told media that they will consult with other senior members of their respective parties on Monday and then reconvene on Tuesday to discuss how to move on. Talking to journalists after the meeting, Izetbegovic did not hide his dismay. He said he thought that he and Komsic had agreed on a compromise at their informal meeting the day before, but when he proposed this, Komsic rejected it and left. Failure to agree on the new Federation government also jeopardizes the recent agreement on the state government. Covic has repeatedly stressed that the two governments must be formed in parallel and that without an agreement in the Federation, the state-level government will not get approved. The SDA and HDZ now have couple of days to hope for Kosmic to change his mind, or ponder two of the equally bad remaining options. They could proceed and establish a minority government, but it would probably be dysfunctional and unstable as it would depend on other parties’ whims. The other option would mean completely overhauling the ruling coalition on both the state and Federation level, which would cause new tensions and delays. Further delays would leave the Federation without financing and could end up with the new Federation President, Marinko Cavara from HDZ, dismissing the Federation parliament and calling for early elections at that administrative level.

 

Fears for Macedonia's fragile democracy amid 'coup' and wiretap claims (The Guardian, by Andrew MacDowall, 27 February 2015)

EU envoy to Balkan applicant state warns of rising tensions as ruling party accused of mass surveillance, and undermining judiciary and free media

Macedonia, which is a candidate to join the European Union, faces an escalating political crisis amid allegations of a planned “coup”, a mass wiretapping scandal, and claims that the government and the secret service conspired to undermine the judiciary and rig media coverage.

On Friday, the Macedonian opposition leader, Zoran Zaev, released the latest of what he has called information “bombs” against the government – a series of allegedly wiretapped conversations of the prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, the head of the secret service and other senior officials, in which they apparently discuss interference in the judiciary, media and urban-planning process. One of the major protagonists is Saso Mijalkov, Gruevski’s first cousin and head of the shady security and counterintelligence agency, the UBK. The opposition claims that the government and UBK have been running a massive wiretapping programme, monitoring the telephone conversations of 20,000 Macedonians, including journalists, politicians and religious figures – a larger number than were bugged under communism. Ivo Vajgl, a Slovenian politician and the European parliament’s rapporteur on Macedonia, told the Guardian the situation in the country was “very serious”. “I don’t want to be a prophet of catastrophic scenarios, but you have to take into account that there are many open problems, harsh words and even hate speech,” he said. “We have seen this before in the Balkans, everything starts like this. The situation should not be underestimated,” he said. “It is very serious – we have to help Macedonia.” Macedonia has been an official candidate for EU membership since 2005, but negotiations have repeatedly been blocked by Greece due to a dispute over the country’s name. (Athens objects to the name Republic of Macedonia as it believes this name implies a claim to the northern Greek province of Macedonia and has vetoed Skopje’s participation in international organisations, including the EU, until the issue is resolved.) While EU officials have repeatedly recommended that talks begin, there have been growing concerns that Macedonia is backsliding on its commitment to European values such as freedom of the press and an independent judiciary. These have been amplified by Zaev’s “bombs”. The Social Democrat leader has released five since he was charged by police for allegedly conspiring with an unnamed foreign spy agency to bring down the government on 31 January, having threatened the government with revelations for several months, apparently in an attempt to force Gruevski to accept a government of national unity. The opposition leader has backed away from his initial claims that the wiretaps were obtained with the help of a foreign country. Zaev claims that forthcoming tapes will expose Gruevski’s suspected machinations over the “name issue” and the closure of an opposition television station. He has also said that future revelations may include an ethnic element. In 2001, Macedonia fought one of Europe’s most recent wars, between the government and ethnic Albanian guerrillas – about a quarter of the population are Albanian. The government accuses Zaev of espionage and plotting a coup, attacking the means by which the opposition obtained the tapes, but equivocating on the veracity of the content. “As the prime minister has said, some of the material is true, some is half-true and some is false,” said Antonio Milošoski, deputy speaker of parliament and a former foreign minister. “The content of the material will be taken seriously by institutions, but we must wait for the legal process to end to see whether we can be confident in the authenticity of these conversations that have been selectively leaked to the public as part of Zaev’s attempt to blackmail the prime minister into giving him power he lost in the election.” Tensions in Macedonia have been mounting since a disputed election in April 2014, in which the ruling conservative VMRO-DPMNE party of Gruevski defeated Zaev’s ex-communist Social Democrats (SDSM) for a fourth consecutive occasion. Zaev claimed that the elections had been fraudulent and accused Gruevski of operating a “dictatorship”. The SDSM has boycotted parliament ever since, despite EU pressure to return to the assembly. Supporters of the government and the opposition have become ever-more polarised, to the extent that people from opposing camps who have been neighbours for years no longer talk to one another. Claims of creeping government authoritarianism, manipulation of independent institutions and even “Putinisation” have been on the rise in central and eastern Europe in recent years. Concerns about the removal of checks and balances and limited freedom for opposition media have been raised in the EU member states of Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, and in candidate countries including Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. Florian Bieber, a political scientist focusing on south-east Europe, said: “The Macedonian government has been behaving in a rather authoritarian manner, and there is a sense that judges and journalists are influenced by the government, so the wiretapping is not a huge surprise. “I wouldn’t use the word ‘Putinisation’,” he said, “but weak state and democratic institutions can be undermined by democratically elected governments and supplemented by informal networks centring on leaders like Gruevski. The model is more Turkey than Russia.” Government officials admit that Macedonia has shortcomings, but insist that the EU accession process will help build a more transparent, functional system in the country. Support for EU membership is high, at about three-quarters of the population, and Vajgl repeated his recommendation to the EU that talks commence. Despite growing concerns in Brussels and elsewhere about Macedonia’s political crisis, a descent into conflict is seen as unlikely. Chris Deliso, the Macedonia-based director of independent news website Balkanalysis.com, said: “Macedonia’s current political drama is being intensified by local media according to a partisan discourse. “Presently, we can only speculate about the veracity of any allegations – we simply don’t know the facts, and all the protagonists in this drama modify, add to or even contradict their claims on a daily basis. While the foreign media tends to emphasise an alleged ethnic divide in Macedonia, there are no real ‘ethnic tensions’ – people have lived and will continue together in peace.”

 

Macedonia reels over evidence of Orwellian surveillance (DW, 27 February 2015)

Opposition allegations of massive wiretapping of more than 20,000 people imply that a small group linked to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski controls Macedonia's institutions, judiciary and media.

Prime Minister Gruevski's handling of journalists has come into focus, and mobilized satirists

A large group of journalists gathered this week at the headquarters of the biggest opposition party in Macedonian capital Skopje. They were personally invited to pick up folders and documents - filled with transcripts of their telephone conversations over the past couple of years.

"Over a hundred Macedonian journalists were wiretapped in the past years," opposition Social Democrat (SDSM) leader Zoran Zaev announced at minutes later. "These conversations show the link between the prime minister, the secret police and the media." The journalists' phone transcripts were the fourth batch of such material released by Zaev's SDSM this year. The opposition leader claims there is evidence that over 20,000 people were wiretapped as part of a system of media surveillance implemented by the prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, his cousin, the secret service chief, Saso Mijalkov, and a few other close associates.

'Climate of fear, self-censorship'

In recent weeks Zaev published a series of wire-tapped conversations between government ministers, the chief of secret police, state prosecutor, journalists and media owners showing political control over institutions, judiciary and media.

"This violation of privacy directly affects press freedom in Macedonia, fueling a climate of fear and self-censorship", said Mogens Blicher Bjerregard, president of the European Federation of Journalists this week. After the disclosure, Macedonia's Association of Journalists called for resignations from the PM Gruevski, Mijalkov and the Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska.

The Macedonian government has not denied the existence or the authenticity of the wiretaps. Instead, it has responded with a counter claim: Conservative Prime Minister Gruevski alleges that the wire-tapping was ordered by an unidentified "foreign intelligence service" in collaboration with the country's former secret service chief, who is in custody with five intelligence service officials charged by police with espionage. Gruevski on Wednesday said that opposition leader Zaev was "just an instrument" in the case, saying "the game is big, too big for him." Police charged Zaev with preparing a coup and prevented him from leaving the country, but did not arrest him. Zaev, meanwhile, says that he received the wiretaps from "patriots" working for Macedonia's secret service, who "couldn't take it anymore."

Police, prosecutor, prime minister?

Speaking during a nation-wide televised press-conference on Wednesday, Gruevski read aloud from police reports and parts of the indictment, declaring that all suspects would face justice. Asked by a reporter why was he taking the role of both the police and the state prosecutor by announcing such actions he replied: "Because I decided that way." Prime Minister Gruevski and his VMRO-DPMNE party has been in power since 2006, has often been accused by the opposition of authoritarian rule. In the past eight years various international organizations have reported a sharp decline in Macedonia's democratic standards and the freedom of the press. As Florian Bieber, Professor of Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, Austria, recently told DW, the latest developments in Macedonia are "part of an increasing move towards authoritarianism." "I see the roots in the authoritarian regime of Gruevski, who has systematically moved Macedonia away from democratic rules in the past nine years," says Bieber.

EU ambitions cooling in Skopje

Macedonia has been an EU candidate country since December 2005, but has not been able to start negotiations for membership, partly because of Greece's objections, and lately because of its own democratic deficiencies. In 2008, Athens also vetoed Macedonia's bid to join NATO, insisting that the use of the name Macedonia implies territorial aspirations towards a region in northern Greece with the same name. Since 2008, Gruevski's government has practically abandoned the pro-EU course, instead promoting nationalistic sentiments and flexing its muscle against anyone in the country holding a different opinion. Opposition party officials have been jailed, while critical media have been marginalized, or simply shut down. As the former EU ambassador in the country, Erwan Fuere, wrote in his opinion peace for the regional news site Balkan Insight: "The ruling party does not tolerate any minority or dissenting views, and uses fear and intimidation to exercise its repressive authority over society." The reactions from the EU and Western government officials have until now been mild. However, since the emergence of the wiretapping scandal their behavior is changing. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday canceled a previously-arranged meeting with Gruevski, while EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn expressed "serious concern" over political developments in Macedonia. Media reports quoted an anonymous source at the US Embassy in Skopje, suggesting possible US plans to restrict visas and freeze the assets of Macedonian "human rights abusers" in a fresh blow to Gruevski's government.

Coordinated coverage on opposition arrests

Details from the wiretaps published by the opposition Social Democrats suggest that a tight circle of top officials influenced everything in society from media coverage to the appointment of judges. In one of the conversations, purportedly between the secret service chief Mijalkov and the editor Macedonia's largest TV station, the two men coordinate on media coverage of the arrest of an opposition politician, former Interior Minister Ljube Boskoski, after the elections in 2011. "I told you I was going to start arresting people from Monday [June 6, 2011]," Mijalkov tells the journalist and adds that Boskoski will get eight years in prison. Boskoski was later sentenced to seven years. In another conversation, Mijalkov then asks the owner of another TV station not to blur the footage of Boskoski's arrest, in order to "show him laying on the floor like a bull" and to humiliate him.

'That's great, but we have to make a list'

In another leaked conversation, Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska and Gruevski's chief of staff, Martin Protuger, allegedly contemplate "cleansing" the state administration of opposition members. After Protuger informs Jankulovska that he is planning to "destroy" Boskoski's party, she replies: "That's great, but we have to make a list, Martin. We have to annihilate them all."

Gruevski and former secret service head Mijalkov are at the center of the scandal

Other conversations published earlier appear to show how the government routinely interferes with the judiciary. The political situation in Macedonia has been unstable since the parliamentary elections held in April 2014. Opposition Social Democrats have been boycotting parliament, saying that the elections were rigged by the ruling conservative VMRO-DPMNE. This, coupled with the wiretapping allegations, has plunged the country into its worst crisis since the ethnic conflict in 2001 that ended with a peace agreement to provide greater rights for ethnic Albanians. "Back in 2001, only a part of Macedonia's citizenry did not trust the institutions. Today, no one trusts them. Our state is clinically dead, in a deep coma and needs a [fresh] impulse that must come from outside," Nazim Rashidi, a Macedonian-Albanian analyst, told DW.

 

Montenegro Police Chided Over Organized Crime Wave (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 27 February 2015)

Montenegro's parliament urged the police to do more to tackle crime gangs a day after a European Commission official said more progress needed to be seen in the drive against organized crime

Parliament's Committee for Security and Defence on Friday said police and prosecutors need to be more efficient in the fight against organized crime after increased activity by members of organized criminal groups was registered. At a closed session attended by senior police, prosecutors and intelligence service officials, the committee discussed the security situation following a series of criminals showdowns, unsolved murders and car bombs in the last few months. The chair of the committee, Melvudin Nuhodzic, said: "Rising activity of members of organized criminal groups poses an increased threat to society". The European Commission's top official in Montenegro, Dirke Lange, on Thursday said Montenegro blamed failures to achieve expected results in the fight against corruption and organised crime on delays in adopting important regulations. What had been outlined in the government's action plans a year-and-a-half ago had not been carried out, he said. Lange, who heads the Montenegro unit at the European Commission's Enlargement Directorate, said that even when appropriate laws and institutions were in place, that in itself did not guarantee progress. "Progress that is visible in reality is what is credible - and that's what we are looking for. Such progress is needed especially in the area of fighting corruption and crime," he said. Montenegro obtained EU candidate status in December 2010. In June 2012, accession negotiations formally opened at the first Intergovernmental Conference and a year later the screening process was completed. In December 2013, Montenegro started negotiation talks with the EU on Chapters 23 and 24, which represent the most challenging phase of the country's accession talks as they deal with the key issues of organized crime and corruption. The EU's new approach to membership negotiations, which is being implemented for the first time with Montenegro, means that Chapters 23 and 24 are to be kept open until the negotiations end. The EU's 2014 Progress Report on Montenegro, released in October, contained critical words on Podgorica's performance in the fight against organised crime and corruption.