LOCAL PRESS

 

UNMIK: Kosovo without status not good for people living there (Politika/RTS/Tanjug)

UNMIK Deputy Head Jennifer Brush has stated that Kosovo, without a defined status, is not good for the people living there, regardless of whether they are Albanians or non-Albanians. Brush pointed out in the broadcast “Freely Serbian” that she hopes the dialogue in Brussels will help normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo so people can live normally, Tanjug reports. “Maybe I am wrong, but I often say that Serbia and Kosovo are mutual hostages, because Serbia’s perspectives are limited until there is a solution for Kosovo. The same applies vice versa, perspectives are limited for Kosovo until a joint path with Serbia is found,” she said. Brush stressed that she wants the dialogue to bring good results, and for Brussels not to be a theatre where there is only a big applause when Serbian and Kosovo leaders reach a solution. There must be results on the ground, said Brush. She didn’t wish to comment in detail the recent reports of the UN Advisory Panel that requested UNMIK to publicly admit responsibility and to apologize to the families because it didn’t conduct an efficient investigation in regard to the disappearance of Dragan Stevanovic and Ivan Majstorovic, as well as the case of journalist of Radio Pristina Marijan Melonasi, who disappeared in 2000 and the investigation, according to the UN Advisory Panel commenced in 2005 and closed immediately. “I am also dissatisfied, because I think that there was chaos here at the time. UNMIK did what it could then, but I personally wasn’t here at the time. There were many tragedies and every tragedy is horrible, but I can’t give you an answer for these individual cases, since these are complex cases and I don’t have all the details at the moment,” she said. Speaking about the massive departure of Albanians from Kosovo over the past months, Brush said that the possible reasons for this are the bad economic situation, but also disappointment in the path on which Kosovo is moving. “Fifteen years since the end of the conflict, one still doesn’t know where Kosovo is heading. Perhaps the people are a bit disappointed with the political perspectives, perhaps they don’t know whether Kosovo will, let’s say, become a member of the United Nations, the European Union and so forth. The people are disappointed because they fought to receive some international status, that the state will be recognized, and after so many years they still don’t have that,” Brush said.

 

Djuric: Normalization of relations has nothing to do with Kosovo status (Beta)

The Head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric has stated that the normalization of the relations with Pristina will have no impact on the status of the province, and Belgrade is opposing the strengthening of the armed forces in Kosovo and Metohija. Djuric has pointed that the pressure regarding the independence of Kosovo has been exerted since 2008, but he does not feel it is stronger than before. We have mutual interests with numerous countries that had recognized Kosovo, and they are so important that the policy of deteriorating our relations with them would not be in our best interest, Djuric explained. In comment to the formation of the Kosovo army, he has underlined that that subject is not mentioned in the Brussels agreement, but on the contrary, it is clearly envisaged that no armed forces may enter the northern part of Kosovo without the consent of the Serb community, and it is one of the underlying principles of the document.

 

Pak Stankovic: Nikolic finishing platform on Kosovo (Tanjug)

Serbian presidential advisor Stanislava Pak Stankovic has stated that the drafting of the platform on Kosovo and Metohija is coming to an end. She pointed out that Kosovo has done nothing on the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities, and asked by a journalist whether Serbia will have to recognize Kosovo before joining the EU, she said: “No, we will not do that.”

 

Gasic on a visit to CAR: Serbia continues to contribute to international peace (Tanjug)

Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic, who is on a visit to the Central African Republic, told UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for that country Babacar Gaye that Serbia will continue to actively contribute to preserving international peace and security. Gasic and Gaye discussed the political and security situation in the Central African Republic and peacekeeping activities within the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSCA), in which members of the Serbian defense system are also engaged, the Serbian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday. Gasic talked with Gaye at length about the engagement of members of the Serbian defense ministry and armed forces in 11 EU and UN multinational operations, and underscored that Serbia will continue to contribute to maintaining international peace and security. During the meeting, Gasic pointed to Serbia’s military/medical capacities involved in various peacekeeping missions, reads the release. Sixty eight people are working at a level-2 military hospital as part of MINUSCA, as well as two military observers and two staff officers, which makes this Serbia’s largest engagement after the mission in Lebanon, notes the release.
A total of 76 members of the Serbian defense ministry and armed forces are engaged in the EU and UN missions in the Central African Republic, 23 of whom are women. Increased participation of members of the Serbian Defense Ministry and Armed Forces in UN and EU peace missions around the world confirms that Serbia has become a significant exporter of security and equal partner in protecting global peace, Gasic said. He visited the Serbian troops in the Central African Republic and met with EUFOR RCA commander Brigadier General Jean-Marc Bacquet and commander of the military component of MINUSCA Major General Martin Chomu Tumenta, the Defense Ministry stated. Gasic and Bacquet discussed the political and security situation in the Central African Republic, stressing that the efforts by international organizations would help stabilize the nation, resolve the conflict and keep peace. Gasic underscored in particular the tradition, quality, skill and capabilities of the military medical personnel Serbia had sent into various international missions, adding that Serbia was the only country outside of the EU that was involved in the EU mission in Somalia, the statement says. Gasic met also with Tumenta and the MINUSCA headquarters to discuss Serbian troops’ involvement in that mission. Tumenta emphasized that the Serbian medical team was very skilled and professional. Gasic and Tumenta talked about the activities of the mission’s military hospital as well, and Gasic visited after the meeting the hospital and the location of the future campsite of the Serbian troops within MINUSCA.

 

Accounts of Kosovo municipalities still blocked; Brussels’ reaction requested (Novosti)

Belgrade will request from the international community to urgently stop the obstructions by Pristina that has been holding for days blocked accounts of four Serb municipalities in the north and threatening it would slate early local elections. Novosti was told at the Serbian government that the Serbian side would insist on resolving the issue of the budget of municipalities in the north, which is the subject of dispute between the Pristina authorities and the local self-administrations in the north, in Brussels, as agreed, within the agreement on the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities and its jurisdictions. The final move on the formation of the Union should be reached at the end of March, when the visit of the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini is planned, Novosti learns. Novosti also learns that the meeting of Prime Minister Vucic with the Kosovo Serb representatives should be held by the end of this week, when they will decide on the manner of further participation of the Serb community in the provincial institutions.

 

Courts in Serbia cannot seem to finish trials to Albanians charged with crimes (Novosti)

While EULEX wants, through Interpol, the Serbs for the alleged crimes, the courts in Serbia cannot finish trials to the already indicted Albanians. The proceedings against the Mazreku brothers, accused of participation in the abduction and shooting of Serb civilians in the Klecka village near Lipljan in the course of 1998 cannot seem to be renewed at the Nis Higher Court. The reasons are procedural. Namely, the court cannot deliver the call for the hearing to the indictees, because they were transferred in 2002 with other inmates from the Nis prison to Kosovo and Metohija. At the end of that year, the Supreme Court suspended the verdict of the Nis District Court, which convicted in April 2001 the Mazreku brothers to 20 years in prisons. The trial at the Nis Palace of Justice was supposed to be repeated, because the first degree verdict was suspended over substantial violation of criminal procedure, and it was stated in the rationale that “the verdict is incomprehensible and contradictory to the reasons of the verdict”. The Mazreku brothers were pronounced guilty by the verdict of the Nis Court for taking part, as the KLA members with several members of the terrorist group, in the attack on Orahovac between 17 and 22 July 1998, when 43 civilians were abducted and taken to Malisevo, after which they were transferred with other abducted persons to Klecka. “When I received the case and read the description of the crimes with which Luan and Bekim are charged, I was in disbelief that anyone could perpetrate such a horrible crime on behalf of any goal,” said Judge Milimir Lukic while delivering the verdict. In April 2001, 126 Albanian prisoners, members of the so-called “Djakovica group”, were released from the penal prison in Nis. They were joined by a group of 17 Albanians from other Serbian prisons, and then they all headed towards Kosovo in buses. They found themselves at liberty after the decision of the Supreme Court of Serbia to suspend the first degree verdict to a group of 143 Albanians from Djakovica and to return the case for a new trial, over “significant violations of the decrees of the criminal proceeding, wrongly and incompletely determined factual state and wrong application of material law”. The “Djakovica group” was convicted in May 2000 for the criminal act of terrorism to a total of 1,632 years in prison before the court in Pec that convened in Nis. It was stressed in the verdict rationale that the criminal offense was perpetrated during the war, which is punishable with 20 year imprisonment. Even though the Albanians stated upon release from the Nis prison that they would return for a retrial, this never occurred to this date. The leader of Albanian students Albin Kurti was among the released prisoners from the Nis penal prison in 2001, who was pardoned by the then president of Yugoslavia Vojislav Kostunica. After the verdict of the Nis District Court, which took over the jurisdiction of the Pristina District Court, Kurti was sentenced to 15 years in prison in March 2000. He was found guilty of endangering the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and of conspiracy and terrorism. Kurti is now the leader of the Self-Determination Movement.

 

Tahiri: Serbia must recognize Kosovo before joining EU (Danas, by Jelena Tasic)

“In accordance with the Kosovo laws and the Brussels agreement, the association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo will not have executive or supervisory competencies, but coordinating and advisory role. The Serbian side has known about this ever since the Brussels agreement has been signed. I am monitoring the debate among the officials in Serbia – I advise them to abandon illusions and think about what was agreed in Brussels. The Kosovo Ministry of local self-administration presented in 2013 a draft statute of the association, but talks have not started yet over the delay in the implementation of the agreement. We think that full and verifiable implementation of the agreement on the judiciary, the abolishment of ‘civil defense’ and all Serb parallel structures will ensure all necessary conditions for opening the issue of the association,” the Kosovo Minister without portfolio in charge of the dialogue with Belgrade, Edita Tahiri, tells Danas in the electronically-conducted interview.

Why does Pristina insist on discussing the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) after the implementation of all agreements and is this actually a counter-demand in relation to Belgrade’s rejected stand “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”?

“The issue of implementing the Brussels agreement is actually much more important than the agreements – its provable implementation incites progress of the dialogue and enables reaching of other agreements as well. Serbia is not only ineffective in their implementation but also violates them. Serbia also supports parallel structures in northern Kosovo, which is contrary to the Brussels agreement. With negative moves, which prevent normalization of the state-of-affairs in the northern part of Kosovo, Serbia is harming itself, because, as it is known, since January 2014 the EU is not allowing Serbia to open the accession negotiations. The time of hypocrisy is over, consistency is needed when it comes to the ‘fulfillment of what was agreed’, in accordance with the European integration system.”

Is Pristina ready to make some sort of deal with the Serb (Srpska) List – ‘ZSO for the law on the Kosovo army’, because this law can be passed by amending the Kosovo constitution and the votes of the Serb List are necessary for this in the Kosovo Assembly?

“These are two separate issues and under no conditions can they be linked. In our state, competencies and work of institutions are defined by the Kosovo constitution. The Kosovo army is a constitutional category and we are progressing in building security architecture of our state in accordance with modern NATO standards. Associations are not institutions or constitutional categories in state practice anywhere in the world.”

How correct are the announcements that the Serbian education and health care will be transferred to the Kosovo system?

“Kosovo is a sovereign and independent state that implements sovereign competencies in all segments of public life in accordance with the constitution and guarantees rights to minorities in accordance with international standards, including health care and education. One should stress that the Serbs enjoy greater rights than other minorities in Kosovo and the region. For example, they are authorized to administer more than 25 percent of Kosovo municipalities, which is five times more from their participation in the entire Kosovo population; they have the right to higher education; Serbian is the official language in Kosovo… In comparison to the rights of minorities in Serbia, especially of the Albanians in the Presevo Valley, the rights of the Kosovo Serbs are far greater. Serbia should improve the respect of the legitimate rights of Albanians and stop with discrimination, and stop asking for special rights for the Serb minority until it ensures them for minorities who live in Serbia.”

Did Belgrade, Pristina and Brussels agree, at least tentatively, a plan or dynamics of the political dialogue? Is there a deadline to end the negotiations and sign a legally binding agreement on normalization of relations?

“The last high-level political meeting between the Kosovo and Serbian prime ministers, along with the mediation of the EU high representative, gave new momentum to the future and success of the dialogue. This is especially significant since normalization of relations between the two states that used to be in war contributes to sustainable peace and stability in the region and Europe. The Brussels dialogue also serves for normalization of state-of-affairs in northern Kosovo and enables integration of Kosovo Serbs in this region into the Kosovo state system. Having in mind the agenda of the continuation of the dialogue, the Kosovo government presented its position in the bilateral meetings with the EU: demarcation of interstate borders, respect of good-neighborly relations and non-interference in sovereignty, abolishment of all Serbian parallel structures in Kosovo, establishment of bilateral cooperation in spheres of mutual interest in accordance with EU and Euro-Atlantic standards, war reparation, succession according to the principles of the breakup of Yugoslavia, in which Kosovo was one of the eight federal units, as well as for both states not to hinder each other on the EU and Euro-Atlantic path, including the UN. The dialogue in Brussels will be considered successful when its goal is achieved – for both Kosovo and Serbia to become EU members.”

How does Pristina view the fact that the Constitutional Court of Serbia declared the first Brussels agreement a political document, and now one can also hear interpretations that it is binding as such?

“Serbia can interpret the Brussels agreement however it wants, for the needs of internal political marketing, even though it is aware that this is an international obligation and EU standard. The EU has legally committed Serbia to normalization of good-neighborly relations with Kosovo and this condition is embodied in Chapter 35 in the association process for Serbia. Serbia is also aware that it must recognize the state of Kosovo before joining the EU.”

Does Pristina have international guarantees when it categorically claims that property in Kosovo will not be discussed in Brussels, even though formally this a territory of the state of Serbia, a UN member in its constitutional and internationally-recognized borders, whose property is administered by UNMIK, under the UN auspices?

“As the main Kosovo negotiator in the Brussels dialogue since its beginning, I assure you that property has never been nor will be a topic of negotiations in Brussels. Serbia’s attempts to open this issue was met with steadfast refusal by Kosovo. Sovereignty over property and funds belongs to the Kosovo state, because, I stress, the International Court of Justice confirmed in 2010 the legality of the declaration of independence of Kosovo.”

How do you comment the forecasts of many Albanian politicians in Pristina that the law on the special court for KLA war crimes will not pass in the Kosovo Assembly and what could this mean politically for the current Kosovo government, especially if the court would be under the UN auspices?

“The draft law refers to individuals, and not to the KLA. It is internationally recognized as an armed struggle of the Kosovo people aimed at the just war against the Serbian genocidal aggression. The liberating struggle was supported by NATO headed by the US, which resulted in NATO’s intervention against Serbia and brought freedom and peace in Kosovo. The process of peace-building is a very important moment. We support international justice and we are ready to cooperate so truth could prevail over unfounded accusations against our freedom fighters, even though at issue is an essentially unjust process.”

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Meeting in Sarajevo: SDA, DF claim to reach agreement on forming government (Oslobodjenje/Patria)

Last night in Sarajevo, delegations from the SDA and Democratic Front met to jointly come to an agreement on forming a government in the Federation of B&H, which will be presented to HDZ B&H leader Dragan Covic at today’s meeting, Patria reports. Zeljko Komsic, the DF leader, said after the meeting that today they succeeded in reaching a compromise solution, which is a fair proposal, but he did not wish to comment on the details until tomorrow, when it is presented to Covic. Safet Softic, member of the SDA presidency, said that he believes that in the next day or two, they can reach a final agreement on the FB&H government. The solutions that were agreed by the two parties today, according to Softic, imply a compromise in which each of the parties gives up something, but it would not be correct to go public with the details until they sit down with Covic. Bakir Izetbegovic, the Vice-President of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), in a statement before the start of the SDA’s central committee meeting in Sarajevo said that on Monday or Tuesday negotiations with representatives of the Democratic Front (DF) and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ B&H) would continue. Talks on forming a new FB&H government between the DF, HDZ B&H, and SDA leaders broke last weekend after DF leader Zeljko Komsic left them, saying that he was leaving the coalition and that the DF in the FB&H Parliament would support a minority government formed by the SDA and HDZ B&H. “We started well with the DF, and that was a historic turning point in B&H politics. However, someone deliberately ‘poisoned’ relations between the DF and SDA. The SDA did not give Komsic a reason to be mad at us. Something hurt Komsic, but it wasn’t me, someone else carried the stories,” Izetbegovic told reporters. He stressed that the SDA would do everything it can for a new round of negotiations to succeed, because as he said, the coalition has a good perspective.

 

Kutlesa: The deadline for the appointment of the Council of Ministers March 15^th (Srna)

The final deadline for the appointment of the Council of Ministers in the new convocation is March 15^th, and the Law on the Council of Ministers does not provide any sanctions in case that the appointment is not made on time, the Secretary General of the B&H Council of Ministers Zvonimir Kutlesa told Srna. He stated that, according to the Council of Ministers law, the Prime Minister has a period of 35 days from the moment of conformation of his appointment in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly, to appoint Ministers and Deputy Ministers, and to ask the House of Representatives for confirmation of their appointment.

“This means that the final deadline for the appointment of the Council of Ministers in the new convocation is March 15^th, not March 11^th, as some media claimed. Now it is unlikely that this will take place, as there is a very little time left.” He pointed out that if the appointment of Ministers and Deputy Ministers in the Council does not take place until March 15^th, it will take place later on. “The Law on the Council of Ministers does not provide any sanctions, of course it is not good to violate the deadlines, but other deadlines in the B&H have been violated, and thus the confirmation of the appointment of the Chairman of the B&H Council of Ministers Denis Zvizdic has been slightly delayed.” Kutlesa could not answer the question of which political parties have sent the lists of their candidates for Ministers and Deputy Ministers, stating that this question should be answered by the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers, who communicates with the political parties concerning the composition of the Council of Ministers. The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H has confirmed the appointment of Denis Zvizdic the Chairman of the Council of Ministers on February 11^th.

 

B&H donates ammunition to Iraq (Srna)

B&H will donate to the government of Iraq more than 500 tons of ammunition, which will contribute to the fight against the terrorist organization “Islamic state”, said the Minister of Defense of B&H Zekerijah Osmic. Donation will be consisted of 15 million 7.9 mm caliber bullets and 400,000 rounds of 14.5 mm caliber bullets, which are redundant. The decision about donation of ammunition was brought by the B&H Presidency at the request of the United States, which had asked B&H to join the coalition to fight against “Islamic state”. Osmic said that the Ministry of Defense, after the positive decision of the Presidency of B&H to donate the ammunition to Iraq, is going to contact the US Embassy in Sarajevo in order to get help for its distribution. He said that at this moment B&H currently has additional 16,000 tons of redundant weapons that have been stored for a long time and that are becoming, in a way, unstable and dangerous for keeping, which is one of the reasons the B&H is disposing these weapons.

“The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina previously made a decision that the B&H must dispose the excess weapons by the year 2020, as it gets dangerous. We are constantly reviewing the warehouses, removing the unsafe ammunition and destroy it, because it is a big threat to the citizens and members of the B&H Armed Forces,” said is Osmic.

 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Kosovars Who Fought for Land Are Now Eager to Leave (The New York Times, by Alison Smale, 7 March 2015)

STANOVC, Kosovo — The extended Cakaj family has built a few dozen homes here, along Tony Blair Street, between the Dubai supermarket and the French peacekeepers base, in a clannish faith that closeness would bring security. But recently the family of Kosovo Albanians has begun to splinter, as a disastrous economy, static politics and a newly created opening in the border with Serbia have enticed tens of thousands of Kosovars to leave their troubled land in search of opportunity and work. “My son had no choice,” said Xhevat Cakaj, but to leave their enclave for Germany with his wife and their five girls. They had only one cow, he said, whose milk they sold in a market in nearby Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, and their only other source of income was running a minibus service until the local authorities clamped down. Squinting to survey the land where his family hid from the Serbs in the 1999 war, he wept at the irony of fate. “No one leaves for pleasure,” said Mr. Cakaj, 64. Afrim Syla, 48, of Pristina, who makes pancakes for a living and recently had a son join the exodus, concurred: Once, Kosovars were laying down their lives to stay here. “Now,” he said, “we have come to a situation where we leave of our own free will.” The windows of a government building were smashed by rioters in protests against the government in January. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Sixteen years after NATO, in its only war, drove out Serbian security forces so 850,000 Kosovo Albanians expelled by the Serbs could return home, the flow of Kosovo Albanians has reversed. For months now, buses have been bringing Kosovo Albanians through Serbia to the porous land border with Hungary, in the European Union. The Albanians cross on foot, often undetected. When picked up by Hungarian officials, they have been detained only briefly. Many are enticed by the promises of a paid Serbian “guide” or have a friend or relative in Austria, Switzerland, Germany or Scandinavia and, moving freely among European Union nations, make their way toward them. But Kosovo’s Albanians, most of whom are Muslims, are not being greeted with open arms. In another twist, they are being forced back to their land, deemed too physically — if not financially — secure to warrant asylum status. The turnaround says as much about Western Europe’s struggle to handle its torrent of refugees and other immigrants seeking stability and opportunity, as it does about the isolation and deprivation of the people in the Balkans.

At Pristina’s grim bus station, the flow of buses leaving each night is down to two, from a reported 12. There, a large notice lists 10 reasons not to emigrate, first among them that the Kosovo state for which Albanians fought so hard needs people if it is to exist. But persuading people to remain and reintegrating those who are being forced to return remains a challenge.

“It’s going to be a very difficult spring,” said Samuel Zbogar, a Slovenian diplomat who heads the European Union’s mission here. No one seems to know exactly when and why the exodus started, but it has been startling in its swiftness and intensity. Officials in Austria and Germany sounded alarms in January, after registering huge increases in Kosovo Albanians seeking asylum.

The immediate trigger was a fresh opportunity at the border. Kosovars — unlike impoverished Balkan neighbors in Albania, Macedonia and Bosnia — do not have access to European visa programs, contributing to their sense of abandonment and isolation, political leaders, officials and independent researchers say. European-brokered agreements last fall — part of continuing Western efforts to foster cooperation between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs — created more entry points for Kosovars to enter neighboring Serbia and freer passage across Serbia, as well as broader mutual recognition of identity documents. The buses started to roll northward. While Kosovars felt hope in the aftermath of their brutal war with the Serbs and their declaration of independence in 2008, many — particularly the young — say they now see few prospects.

Many feel a stifling sense of uncertainty rooted, in part, in the territory’s status. Russia, a longtime ally of Serbia, does not recognize it, and some nations see its independence as a signal to their own separatists: China, which is under pressure for a free Tibet and five of the 28 members of the European Union — most notably Spain, which worries about Catalonia.

Domestically, Kosovo is reeling. Elections last June went unresolved for months, until the party of the former prime minister, Hashim Thaci, a hero of the war against Serbia lately accused by critics of being power hungry and corrupt, muscled its way into a governing coalition. Mr. Thaci is now foreign minister. Adding to this brew of troubles is the economy. In a region plagued by aging demographics, it is Europe’s youngest territory, with 27 the average age of its two million citizens. Kosovo would need an impossible 7 percent annual economic growth to offer work to the 25,000 to 30,000 youths the government says finish school each year. Direct investment from foreign sources is about $270 million a year, half what it was in 2007, said Lumir Abdixhiku, executive director of Riinvest, an independent research group. Austria registered 1,901 asylum applications from Kosovo citizens in 2014, but saw 1,029 in January alone, said Karl-Heinz Grundböck of the Interior Ministry in Vienna. By mid-February, Germany had some 18,000 applications from Kosovars since Jan. 1. Within Kosovo, the Education Ministry counts some 5,600 absent pupils. But Western Europe is already swamped with refugees from war and turbulence in the Middle East and Africa, and is struggling to integrate Muslim immigrants. Accommodation is so scarce that some Kosovo arrivals were housed in old United States Army barracks in Heidelberg, Germany. In Germany, the flood from Kosovo has now slowed to about 200 arrivals a day, from 1,400 a day in early February. Children playing in a housing estate in Pristina. More than 5,000 children have disappeared from Kosovo's schools during the recent migration of Kosovars to Hungary. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, 63, now faces the challenge of keeping Kosovo Albanians at home. A veteran of Kosovo politics, he said he hoped to ease youth discontent by spreading the city’s sports and cultural facilities across Kosovo — a region that broils in summer, but still has no public swimming pool — and improving education. “We have to free people from this isolation,” he said. Many here see the solution in a regulated flow of visas for Europe. Mr. Abdixhiku, the analyst, said providing 100,000 Kosovars opportunities in Europe could compensate for neglect. “It was not fair,” he said, “to leave Kosovo as a black hole for all these years,” limiting even business travel. But European governments are troubled by rising populism and nationalism, along with voters’ complaints about immigration from even European Union member states like Romania and Bulgaria. Germany expects 300,000 asylum applications this year after just over 200,000 in 2014. So visas are unlikely. Mr. Zbogar, the European Union diplomat, talked of an increase in European spending, to about $90 million this year, from $80 million. Germany and others are also promising more aid. Critics said corruption is rampant, undermining development. They point to new government highways recently built, linking Pristina with Albania and its coast, whose costs ballooned. Ardian Gjini, a leader of the opposition party Alliance for the Freedom of Kosovo, likened the highway project — and corruption in general — to giving one’s son a 100 euro note (about $110) and asking him to buy two glasses of wine. The son proudly returns with the wine, but cannot say where the change went, Mr. Gjini said bitterly. For the Cakaj family, the problems have prompted some reinvention. Isa Cakaj, 42, showed a visitor around his neat food store and compound, including a two-story home, cow stall and apple orchard. He has a degree in geological engineering, but Kosovo’s mineral mines are either drying up, or still untapped. So he is retraining in forensics, supporting his wife, father and five children as best he can. Opposite his home is the well-appointed but deserted compound of a cousin who works year-round in Germany and visits in summer — and is among those who send an estimated $650 million in remittances back to Kosovo each year. “If you don’t have connections and know people, there is no way for you to get a job,” said Isa Cakaj’s father, Sherif. Officials, he said angrily, “don’t care if you have a job or not; they just want you to pay the utility bills.” In his 75 years, he insisted, things had never been so bad. “The worst thing is when you are alive, but you are dead,” he said. “If I was not so old, I would leave myself.”

 

Pristina Blocks Kosovo Serb Municipalities' Accounts (BIRN, by Una Hajdari and Valerie Hopkins, 6 March 2015)

The accounts of four Serb municipalities have been blocked after they weren't able to pass budgets that conformed to the specifications of the Finance Ministry in Pristina

The accounts of the Serb-majority municipalities of North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok in north Kosovo have been blocked after they did not hand over budgets that complied with the budget circulars set out by the Kosovo government and the ministry of finance, officials said. According to Ksenija Bozovic, head of the North Mitrovica assembly, the accounts have been blocked for a week and the municipality is currently “not able to carry out any transfers”. The deadline for passing budgets that conformed with Pristina’s guidelines was February 28. But the assemblies of the Serb municipalities put forward budgets that were much higher than those foreseen by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Governance – according to the ministries, they were around 59 million euro higher. North Mitrovica budgeted around 20 million euro, although only 2.7 million euro was approved by the government. Zvecan approved around 14 million euro, as against an allocated 1.6 million; Zubin Potok approved 21.5 million while only were 1.8 million was allocated, and Leposavic approved 11.5 million while only 2.3 million was allocated. Before the February 28 deadline ran out, the government requested that the local assemblies of each municipality set new budgets, according to the budget circulars approved by the government. But the mayor of North Mitrovica, Goran Rakic, declared before the deadline that his municipality would not change its budget. “I don’t know how the work of the municipalities can be considered independent if the central government is involved. How do they wish to decentralize the power to the municipalities if they interfere in the work of the municipalities?” Rakic told Radio Kosova last week. Dragan Jablanovic, the mayor of Leposavic, said that larger budgets were promised to the municipalities by the Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, who heads the Kosovo team in the EU-facilitated dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. “Due to the fact that the respective ministries, such as the Ministry for Infrastructure and other ministries, have not invested in the northern municipalities before, Tahiri said that we could request higher budgets for capital investments for our municipalities,” said Jablanovic. The municipalities, which had operated under a parallel system in Kosovo, which was mainly run and financed by Belgrade, were promised larger budgets as a part of their integration into the Kosovo system through the creation of the Association of Serb Municipalities – a political formation within the Kosovo system which would grant these municipalities broad powers and is expected to be formed this year. Qemajl Marmullakaj, head of the Office for Strategic Planning in the office of the Prime Minister said that it is “true that the municipalities were promised 17 million, but that it would not go through the municipal budget but separately through the relevant ministries”. The money would be disbursed through national projects and not go through the municipalities themselves, Marmullakaj said. But the municipalities argue that this is the budget which will also enable the health and education sectors – which have so far mainly been financed by Belgrade – to be financed through the municipal budgets. North Mitrovica serves as a de-facto administrative center for the Serb community in Kosovo, with Serbs from all over Kosovo going there for medical check-ups and treatment, and most Serbs from Kosovo study at the University of Pristina in North Mitrovica – even those who come from municipalities that are not in the north. “The Pristina government and the municipal assemblies have different opinions about the way this budget should be managed. Pristina should understand that North Mitrovica is not just a municipality, that it serves as the administrative center for almost all the Serbs in Kosovo,” said Adrijana Hodzic, the Head of the Administrative Office for North Mitrovica. “The local assemblies believe that these competences should fall under the Association of Serb Municipalities,” Hodzic added. According to the Ministry of Finance, if the local assemblies failed to adopt and hand over a draft budget by March 1, then “no expenses should be made by or in the name of the municipality in question until the local assemblies approve and hand over the documents to the Ministry”. After a budget is approved, the minister then hands over these documents to the government, who then asks parliament to vote on whether to change the local assembly budgets and the Law for Budget Allocations. Parliament is however not obliged to vote on these changes.

 

Macedonia opposition airs new wire-taps, alleges election fraud (Reuters, by Kole Casule, 6 March 2015)

SKOPJE - Macedonia's opposition leader released a fresh batch of wire-taps on Friday that he said proved the government rigged elections, pursuing a surveillance scandal that has rocked the Balkan country since January. It was the seventh batch of what Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev - charged by police in January with plotting to bring down the government - says is evidence of a huge, illegal surveillance operation under the 9-year conservative tenure of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. Gruevski has dismissed the accusations, but the West is watching closely to see how the government handles the unfolding scandal. The former Yugoslav republic is trying to join the European Union and NATO. "We are beginning to unmask the electoral theft carried out by Nikola Gruevski and some of his associates," Zaev told a news conference. "You will hear how this group is rigging and stealing elections in Macedonia." He aired more than a dozen audio tapes and identified the voices as those of several cabinet ministers discussing issuing false identification papers, pressure on farmers, pensioners and other social groups in elections. A voice Zaev identified as Gruevski's is heard asking one of his ministers how to secure a second round in one municipality, apparently during local elections in 2013. Zaev's Social Democrats have been boycotting parliament for almost a year since alleging fraud in the last general election. Gruevski has said the wire taps are the work of a foreign spy agency, which has colluded with Zaev to publish them and destabilise the country. Zaev denied the charges and days later began to air audio tapes from what he says is a government surveillance operation targeting 20,000 people, including politicians, religious figures and journalists. Zaev has used the tapes to accuse the government so far of exerting control over the justice system and pressure on the media. (Editing by Matt Robinson and Ralph Boulton)

 

Macedonia Tapes Reveal Blatant Election Trickery (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 6 March 2015)

New batch of bugged conversations feature Interior Minister discussing how to bus in foreigners to vote in Macedonian elections, the risks of sticking dozens of these ‘little people’ in one address and how she intends to ‘drag gypsies’ to polling stations

Skopje The ruling VMRO DPMNE party has orchestrated massive electoral fraud during the past elections, using fictive voters, fake ID cards, pressure on individuals and firms and misuse of police and administration, the opposition Social Democrats claimed on Friday. Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE used systemic blackmail and other wholly unconstitutional mechanisms to rig the elections, the head of the Social Democratic Party, Zoran Zaev, declared on Friday, unveiling the latest tranche of wiretapped conversations. “From the tapes you can witness how the group in power [around Gruevski] has been rigging and stealing elections, a practice unprecedented anywhere in the world,” Zaev told reporters. At a press conference, the opposition presented several groups of wiretapped conversations from the March 2013 local election involving what appear to be the Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska, Transport Minister Mile Janakieski and other top officials. In one conversation, Interior Minister Jankuloska appears to substantiate opposition claims made during the past elections - that VMRO DPMNE bused in ethnic Macedonians from the Prespa region of neighbouring Albania, issued them with ID cards and placed them temporarily in addresses in Macedonia until election day, when escorts took them to the polls to vote for the ruling party.

However, she voices concern about one “risky” detail, which is that many of these foreign nationals issued with IDs had been placed at the same address, which might be spotted.

“There is one risky thing which we knew, and that’s why we told the [local VMRO party] committees to give us more addresses,” she says. “You know we have 50 people in a flat of 40 square meters. But it is what it is," she tells her interlocutor. “You know, when we were at the Prime Minister's, I insisted that the committees give more addresses, which they didn't do,” she adds. In another conversation, Transport Minister Janakieski can be heard telling his interlocutor about people being brought from a town in Macedonia outside the capital to vote in the Skopje municipality of Gazi Baba. “Kire, these people who are in Gazi Baba from [the town of] Sveti Nikole, are they [registered] at one address or at several?” he asks. “No, they have been dispersed,” the voice replies, to which Janakieski asks whether it is true that “about 15 of them reside at one address”. In another conversation, a female voice reports to Minister Jankuloska about the overcrowded addresses where some of the people given fake IDs are temporarily residing. The two appear to arrange the checkups demanded by election observers, but using “our policemen”, so that no fraud is detected. “They have reported 42 [voters] in one house, 44 in another one, in villages with 40 voters altogether. One house has 44, at some places there are 19, at some 22, at some 42... We are worrying if everything hits the media,” the voice tells the Interior Minister. “They say the head of the administrative service is a commie [an abusive term for the Social Democrats]... We are under observation and I fear if they could engage the OSCE,” the same voice tells Jankuloska. Jankuloska advises caution: “With every passing day, the pressure is getting bigger… We cannot have 40 people in a village of five voters... Let’s try to have more [such voters] but do it cautiously.” Another conversation, Jankuloska cracks a joke about some the “little people” they have engaged to do carry out the voting fraud. “These little people go and vote and remain silent, nodding with their heads... It's a loony bin but these little people do vote,” she can be heard saying. “The little people enter and vote holding their hands - it’s a circus, a loony bin. Some of the media recorded them. I will go out now at 7 [for a press conference after voting] and say it was all quiet, there were no reports,” Jankuloska says, laughingly. Another call portrays an alleged conversation between Prime Minister Gruevski and Transport Minister Janakieski during the first round of the 2013 local election. After Janakieski reports that the ruling party is lagging behind the opposition in the Skopje municipality of Centar, Gruevski rejoins: “If we had now these Prespans, [people from Prespa in Albania] we would have finished the job.” In another conversation, when Janakieski again reports that the ruling party is losing the election in Centar, Gruevski says: “Tell our people there to produce as many invalid ballots as they can. Wherever they can they should produce invalid ballots,” presumably so that another round is held. Gruevski also appears to order the seizure or copying of local voting records from the polling stations, “so that we can judge [the vote] later”.

In another conversation, Jankuloska tells Janakieski that it is a routine practice for the police under her control to stop buses filled with opposition members in order to reduce their numbers attending opposition party rallies. “Every time they have a rally we send their buses for technical checkups… We do this to all of them but especially to SDSM.” Jankuloska also makes a racist-sounding remark about the Roma voters the party intends to “drag” to vote. “In places where the result is tight, do not sign the electoral reports so that we can file complaints afterwards. Afterward, we will drag one gypsy after another by their ears and take them out to vote,” she says. In a conversation between Janakieski and Martin Protugjer, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, the latter issues a blood-curdling threats about the then head of the Football Federation of Macedonia, who has not helped their party in the election by issuing free tickets for a football match. “If he does not give them [the tickets] by Monday, tell him that he and his wife and his children will end up in a ditch somewhere,” Protugjer says. “I will f..k that Communist faggot’s mother!” he adds. The opposition began revealing the wiretapped conversations on February 9. Zaev alleged that the government had wiretapped over 20,000 people in the country of 2 million.

He said the eavesdropping had been orchestrated by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the secret police chief, Saso Mijalkov. Since then, the opposition has released further batches of tapped conversations, suggesting routine interference in the work of the courts, among other matters. Gruevski, in power since 2006, has accused Zaev of collaborating with an unnamed foreign secret service to obtain the material. He has also accused Zaev of trying to use the material to blackmail state officials in order to grab power. His passport has been confiscated. Zaev has denied collaborating with foreign intelligence, insisting that all the material came from sources in Macedonia's own intelligence services.

 

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