United Nations Office in Belgrade

 

Daily Media Highlights

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 4 May 2015

 

 

LOCAL PRESS

 

Platform on Kosovo to be forwarded to government by Friday (Novosti)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic should forward the draft platform for Kosovo and Metohija to Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic by 8 May at the latest, before he departs for Moscow, Novosti has learned. After the government presents its opinion on this document, along with possible amendments, the next step will be the parliament where the deputies will present their opinions. The big question is whether the platform will receive support from the opposition, which awaits the President’s proposal with great skepticism. The caucus whip of the Democratic Party (DS) Borislav Stefanovic, who was also the former negotiator for Kosovo and Metohija, expects that the President and government will put on paper the de facto situation in Kosovo and Metohija, which would be a preparation for amending the Constitution. “We had more than ten plans and platforms for Kosovo and Metohija, which were of no value as they had been greatly separated from the reality. That is why it would be good for the new document to keep pace with the state on the ground and to be one step ahead in relation to what awaits us in regard to the Kosovo issue. The DS will consider eventual support for the new platform once it sees the offered solutions,” notes Stefanovic. Former minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanovic (Social-Democratic Party) tells Novosti that this party is ready to work on the new document, but doubts that anything can be changed or stopped with this document, since there has already been advancement in accepting Kosovo’s independence. “If the document lists our wishes, this will not be a usable document. Our red line should have been northern Kosovo and Metohija, but since it has also been integrated into the Kosovo system, it seems to me that it is too late for any kind of initiative.” Member of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Zvonimir Stevic (Socialist Party of Serbia) opines that it would be of great importance at present if the government and opposition unite and if the Kosovo issue would not be abused for political points. “We need national consensus, because this issue cannot be resolved in one day. The entire state leadership – the President, government and parliament – must look at the situation and what is in sight in order to reach a compromise solution that will be guarantee for the future of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. This implies a step towards the international community that needs to persuade the Albanian side not to obstruct the reached agreements, along with another assurance that no government in Serbia will recognize Kosovo’s independence.”

 

Dacic to open annual meeting of OSCE mission heads (Beta)

The OSCE Chair and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic accepted the invitation to open an annual meeting of the heads of the OSCE missions in South Eastern Europe in Belgrade, on 21 May, the Foreign Ministry announced. In his capacity of the OSCE chair, Dacic met with the Head of the OSCE Mission in Serbia Peter Burkhart. The two said they were satisfied with their mutual cooperation during Serbia’s OSCE presidency so far.

 

Only one Serb family returned to Kosovo (RTS/Tanjug)

Minister for Communities and Return in the Kosovo government Dalibor Jevtic stated that only one Serb family has returned to Kosovo since Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa’s government has been formed.The only return officially recorded in the past five months is the return of one Serb family to the village of Crkolez in Istok Municipality, Jevtic told Radio Kontakt Plus. Jevtic, who was appointed Minister for Communities and Return after leader of the Serb List Aleksandar Jablanovic was dismissed, said that he initiated a proposal for the establishment of an inter-ministerial group of the Kosovo government for the return of displaced persons so that other ministries and institutions would deal with the issue as well. He pointed to the important role the Serbian government has in the process of return of displaced persons to Kosovo and Metohija. “Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric are in regular contact with representatives of Serbs in Kosovo, which is very important,” Jevtic said.

 

Serbian political scene – Constitutional amendments barely within reach (Radio Serbia, by Sladjana Pavic)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has announced the political reforms that would entail the reduction of the number of MPs in the Serbian parliament form the current 250 down to 125 or 150. Being that the number of MPs is set by the Constitution, professor of the Faculty of Political Science Zoran Stojiljkovic interprets the Prime Minister’s statement as a possibility of justifying the changes to the Serbian Constitution. Stojiljkovic said that the changes to the Constitution ought to touch upon the sector of human rights, but also the subject of Kosovo, which is in the preamble of the highest legal act. He believes that the change of the number of MPs on its own would not mean the democratization of Serbia, since it would require the changes of the election system so that the citizens are enabled to have a more direct impact on the appointment of their representatives in the parliament. Also necessary is the more radical control of the financing of the political parties and election campaigns. Deputy Prime Minister Rasim Ljajic has assessed that the diminished number of MPs would lead to the national political scene becoming more serious, while also achieving the annual savings of two million euro in the state budget, being that one delegate costs 20 thousand euro each year. Therefore, even if it is not a negligible sum for a small and poverty stricken country like Serbia, it would be even more important if that would reinstate credibility of this institution. Still, the concept of the election system is more important that the number of MPs. The current system is such that it makes no difference if there are 100 of 200 delegates sitting in the parliament, since they vote in line with the decision of the party leadership. According to the existing constitution and election law, Serbia is a single electoral unit and the system of elections is proportionate, which means that any single delegate represents all the citizens. The votes are casted for the election tickets and not individual candidates. In order to achieve a more direct election of the MPs, the law needs to enable some sort of the mixed election system, such as in Hungary, for example. The key issue is the degree, since the majority system entails the curbing of minority interests, and not just the national minorities at that. So, the changes to the Constitution are sought for the reasons of democratization and savings, or maybe due to the pressure from the West regarding the status of Kosovo, but it will require exquisite political support. Besides the two thirds of the delegates in the national assembly, the changes will need to be approved in the referendum, and while the former is realistic at the moment, the latter seems rather uncertain. In any case, starting the very complicated procedure of changing the constitution just for the number of delegates appears to be unrealistic. The Prime Minister did mention, though, that it should be done over the next two or three years, which means that the reduction of the number of MPs would not apply to next election cycle. Also, the constellation of power in the next assembly composition would have to be assessed, along with the direction of the winds blowing from Brussels, providing that Serbia perseveres on the path of European integrations. In that regards, it is unlikely that something will change notably in the next few years.

 

Hahn: First chapters in EU accession talks to be opened soon (Tanjug)

The EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn is paying a visit to Serbia on 7 May, with a view to having the first chapters in Serbia’s EU accession talks be opened as soon as possible. When I was in Serbia last November, I undertook to work hard in order to help your country become and EU member-state, he told Tanjug.

 

Yee: Serbia is bright spot on Western Balkans’ map (Tanjug)

Serbia is a bright spot on the map of the Western Balkans, and what is most encouraging is its commitment to the Brussels dialogue it has with Pristina, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Hoyt Brian Yee said in the US Congress.The result of this dialogue lies in normalized relations and intensified regional security and understanding, Yee said at a discussion on the Western Balkans at the Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia in the House of Representatives. He added that Serbia has taken steps towards maintaining constructive relations with its neighbors and hosted Albanian Prime Minister last October, which is the first visit at such a level in the last 68 years, the Voice of America reported. With the exception of Croatia, progress in the Balkans is not as quick as everybody would like it to be, but it certainly has been made. Actually, Serbia is a bright spot on the Western Balkans’ map, he stressed.

We continue to support Serbia’s aspirations to join the European Union and commend its progress on the path, Yee said.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Fifty people blocked Islamic Community building in Skoplje (Tanjug Skopje correspondent)

A group of some 50 worshipers on Monday blocked the seat of the Islamic Community in Skopje, FYROM and Albanian language media are reporting. Previously, reports from the FYROM capital said that a group of 50 armed persons had seized the building. The FYROM daily Vesti is reporting that the people gathered there today are “dissatisfied because of the dismissal of the Skopje mufti”, Ibrahim Shabani. Shabani and his supporters seized the Islamic Community headquarters on Monday, announcing they would “temporarily manage the organization”. All this comes after Islamic Religious Community in FYROM head Sulejman Rexhepi on Wednesday, after he was reelected to this post, sacked Shabani. According to reports, “he did not wish to explain why he held a secret session in Kondovo where he was unlawfully reelected”. According to media reports, the whereabouts of Rexhepi are unknown. A message posted on his Facebook account suggested that he was “abducted by armed persons who are holding him in an unknown location”. The FYROM Interior Ministry, which is tasked with providing security to state and religious institutions, has not yet officially come out with a statement. According to Skopje-based media, the incident happened as a 48-hour ultimatum, that Mufti Ibrahim Shabani gave to the head of the Islamic Religious Community in FYROM Sulejman Rexhepito to apologize for his insults, is about to expire. The daily Dnevnik recently wrote that Rexhepi and Shabani recently engaged in verbal then physical altercation in front of the Opera House in Skopje. The fight came after a dinner organized by the Community, and after Rexhepi referred to Shabani’s associates as criminals, reported the paper.

 

Mektic: We have information on possible new terrorist attacks on B&H (Oslobodjenje/ATV)

Dragan Mektic, B&H Minister of Security, confirmed that security services in B&H have received a tip about new threats of terrorist attack on B&H, and that all measures have been undertaken to the “building” that could be the subject of attack. Minister Merkic told Banja Luka’s ATV that they received this information from a partner service from the region that there “are indications and intelligence about the possibility of a new terrorist attack on B&H”. He stressed that every security agency in B&H has seriously understood and reacted to this information, which, he is certain, will contribute to shedding light on it. Mektic said that all measures have been taken connected with security toward property for which there exists certain information that it could be the subject of attack. He reiterated that several days before the terrorist attack on the police station in Zvornik, there was certain information that was distributed to all security agencies in B&H, and pointed to the fact that there could be some kind of terrorist attack. The B&H Minister of Security also said that it is essential that every security agency in B&H, in the framework of its duties and responsibilities, should perform an analysis whether they acted in any way with this security data and whether they undertook measures and actions to prevent such an event.

 

Three persons arrested over Zvornik attack (Glas Srpske)

Three persons were arrested and questioned by the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) in connection with the Zvornik attack. The terrorist attack on a police station in this town took place on 27 April. Kasim Mehidic (30) and Avdulah Hasanovic (24) were brought in for questioning as they have been identified as belonging to a group of radical Islamists- Wahhabists, of which Ibric was also a member. Hasanovic was recently in Syria, where he fought on the side of the Islamic State and the third arrestee is Mughamed Demirovic, Hasanovic’s relative. As Glas Srpske reported, the attacker got the training in the Wahhabi camp in the village of Cerska near Zvornik. This camp, as well as those near Osmaci and Potocari in the area of Srebrenica, will be included in the further investigation, because of the suspicion that the attacker and instigator of the crime had accomplices in these camps.

 

EP: RS has no right to secede from B&H (Oslobodjenje)

The European Parliament called on political elites in B&H to show unambiguous and clear commitment and engagement in continuing reform processes and approaching the EU, states the adopted progress report on B&H and Albania for 2014. “The European Parliament approved a new approach for the EU toward B&H that was approved by the Council of Ministers in December of last year. Serious challenges lie before B&H, which should now start reforms,” said Cristian Dan Preda, rapporteur for B&H, adding: “We are all committed to the goal of the country moving toward EU membership. However, to achieve this, it falls to the government to show courage in implementing reforms.” Welcoming the written commitment to EU integration adopted by the B&H Presidency and signed by leaders of all political parties and supported by parliament, the European delegates pointed to the efficient implementation of the same as key, and sought an action plan with a broad and inclusive agenda of reforms that will advance B&H on its path to the EU. The EP “expresses great concern over the statement adopted on 25 April 2015 by the congress of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) in which, inter alia, they call for a referendum on the independence of the RS in 2018,” and stresses the fact that “according to the Dayton Agreement, the RS dos not have the right to secede”. They also remind that by adopting the obligations in written form, all political forces, which includes the SNSD, are obliged to respect the “sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of B&H”.

The European Commission should pay particular attention to the implementation of the ruling in the case of Sejdic-Finci, the EP delegates added, welcoming the entry into force of the Stabilization and Association Agreement scheduled for 1 June of this year.

 

High Representative in B&H Valentin Inzko on political and security situation in B&H (Vijesti)

Vijesti.ba: After the terrorist attack against a police station in Zvornik, security levels have been increased in B&H. Is there a threat of destabilization of the political and security situation in the country?

Inzko: I am confident that all competent authorities, responsible security agencies and judicial institutions will, in close coordination and cooperation, conduct a swift and thorough investigation as to what happened during this tragic event. What is important now it to keep a clear head. I want to appeal to every citizen in B&H to have faith in their institutions and show the necessary restraint in their reactions to prevent a rise in tensions. Moments like this are no time for divisions or accusations, they require everyone to come together and fight all the grave challenges ahead, such as consequences of this mindless attack in Zvornik.

Vijesti.ba: At their recent 5th Convention, SNSD have adopted a declaration on free and independent future of the RS. Given that this is a party document, to what extent does it jeopardize the sovereignty and integrity of B&H as an internationally recognized state? What is your general view on this declaration?

Inzko: Neither this nor any other paper adopted by any political party can change a very simple fact: B&H is an internationally recognized state whose sovereignty and territorial integrity is guaranteed under international law and by the Dayton Peace Agreement(DPA). Period. I said it many times before, and I'll say it again: under the DPA, the entities have no rights to secede from B&H and only exist by virtue of the Constitution of B&H. The constitutional structure of B&H can only be changed in accordance with the amendment procedure prescribed in the Constitution of B&H. Therefore, unless the Constitutional Court (CC) decides otherwise or the Parliamentary Assembly decides to amend the Constitution, all institutions at all levels of government are bound to respect the current arrangement and the decisions of the Institutions of B&H.

Vijesti.ba: Apart from the aforementioned declaration, a public outcry was also caused by the declaration on to the petition before the B&H CC to assess whether the RS Law on Holidays is in line with the Constitution. It was announced that the RS would not respect rulings of the B&H CC. In the OHR’s view, is this an acceptable document? Does this declaration in some way jeopardize the Dayton Agreement, having in mind that the B&H CC is a genuine Dayton category?

Inzko: The Declaration goes against the Constitution of B&H, which states explicitly that decisions of the B&H CC are “final and binding.” It also raises serious questions about the commitment of the RS authorities to the basic principle of the Rule of Law, which is at the core of the B&H Constitution and the DPA. The CC is the only B&H institution that has the capacity to resolve disputes between B&H institutions and the different levels of government and has contributed greatly to the implementation of the DPA and the advancement of the rule of law in B&H. This declaration can also be interpreted as an attempt of the RS National Assembly to exert political pressure on a Court in its deliberations on a particular case. The international community has repeatedly reminded authorities at all levels of their constitutional obligation to implement all decisions of the CC. We are closely monitoring this issue.

Vijesti.ba: Last year you said that progress is possible in all areas if the elected leaders focus on practical governance. Do you believe that the newly formed authorities will succeed in implementing constructive and real politics in the interests of citizens? You said that, if they do so, they will have willing partners in the international community.

Inzko: Absolutely, they will. It is our sincere intention to see this country move forward and our door is wide open to everyone and everything that can lead B&H closer to its long-term goal – membership in the EU. However, in order for the overall situation to improve, a significant change has to occur in the way politics is being conducted in this country. All energy has to focus on concrete measures that would improve lives of ordinary citizens. My message to all the new authorities is very simple and very clear: fix the economy and entrench the rule of law. These are the paramount priorities. Promises were made, now it is time to turn them into reality, it is time to create new jobs and focus on economic stability.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Extremists worry the Balkans, Europe’s Muslim heartland (The News Tribune, by Jonathan S. Landay, 1 May 2015)

GORNJA MAOCA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — One day in early February, the black flag of the Islamic State appeared on the roof of a dilapidated home in Gornja Maoca, an isolated hamlet in northern Bosnia-Herzegovina. The flag was gone when the police arrived, and whoever hoisted it was never found. But the episode reaffirmed to Bosnian officials and Western intelligence agencies that the settlement, peopled by followers of Saudi Arabia’s puritanical brand of Islam, known as Wahhabism, has ties to the networks that have recruited hundreds of Muslim men from across the Balkans to fight in Syria and Iraq. “It is fair to say that it (Gorjna Maoca) is perhaps the biggest center of extremism in Bosnia,” said a Western intelligence official. He spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss sensitive information with a journalist. While the region hasn’t seen the kinds of mass terrorist attacks that have shocked France, they wouldn’t be a surprise, the official said: “We’ve seen aspirational plotting.”

Most of the men who’ve left the Balkans to fight in the Middle East come from Bosnia and Kosovo, parts of former Yugoslavia whose independence was secured by U.S.-led military interventions in the 1990s. Nearly half of Bosnia’s 3.8 million people are Muslim. Kosovo, whose 1.8 million population is 95 percent Muslim, arguably is Europe’s most pro-American country. A statue and massive portrait of former President Bill Clinton overlook a thoroughfare named after him in the capital, Pristina, where there’s also a street named for George W. Bush and a boutique named for Hillary Clinton. Since the wars, the United States and its European partners have spent billions of dollars and years of diplomacy trying to help build the two nations into stable democracies. Yet both countries are mired in dysfunctional governance, pervasive corruption, ethnic divisions and poverty-fueled despair, conditions that have boosted the appeal of hard-line Islam, the seeds of which were planted, ironically, with the help of some of America’s closest Arab allies. And even as Balkan men fight in Syria and Iraq, mostly with the Islamic State, fundamentalists at home are intensifying attacks on the legitimacy of the liberal version of Islam that’s evolved in the Balkans over centuries. The result is mounting fears that the assault on traditional Islam will intensify, fueling insecurity, and that Bosnia and Kosovo could become pathways to the West for deeply radicalized jihadis. “For these conservative radical groups, their first purpose is to take over the Muslim community of Kosovo,” said Ramadan Ilazi, the country’s deputy minister for European integration and an expert on political Islam. “It’s a real challenge.” Even if they don’t indulge themselves, most Balkan Muslims tolerate drinking and smoking. They eschew Islamic-style beards and veils and rarely – if ever – attend mosque. They freely mix with the opposite sex and members of other faiths, and marry non-Muslims. Some traditional clerics who’ve spoken out against extremism have been harassed, assaulted and forced out of their mosques. They’ve had their sermons disrupted and have been denounced as infidels on videos and radical websites that condemn traditional Islam as apostasy. On Monday in Bosnia, an alleged Islamist extremist died in an attack on a police station that killed a Bosnian Serb officer. In November in Kosovo, two American women serving as Mormon missionaries were assaulted by suspected extremists, two of whom were later charged, along with five others, with plotting terrorist attacks. An expatriate Kosovar was convicted of raking a bus with gunfire in 2011 at Frankfurt Airport, killing two U.S. soldiers, Germany’s first fatal attack by an Islamist. In 2013, a Bosnian court convicted a Wahhabi of planting a bomb that killed a Bosnian Croat police officer. Reporters who’ve investigated Islamist groups and the recruitment of fighters, and politicians who’ve sounded alarms about creeping fundamentalism, have received death threats. “Anyone who is not like them is (considered) a nonbeliever,” said Alma Lama, a Kosovo Assembly member who’s sought police protection for herself and her family because of “thousands” of threats triggered by her denunciations of hard-line Islam and its denial of women’s rights. “These guys are inciting hatred between religious groups and gender hatred.” “The radicals are threats to us traditional Muslims, not to Serbs and not to Croats,” said Shaykh Edin Kukavica, a Bosnian cleric of Islam’s mystical Sufi branch who recently received a text message warning him that “The arrow is on its way.” While the number of hard-line Islamists in both countries is very small, officials agree that just a few who acquire combat skills in the Middle East is too many. “Even if only one person had gone, it would be a problem, and we are taking this problem very seriously,” said Amir Veiz, the director of counterterrorism for the State Investigation and Protection Agency, the Bosnian state police. Both countries have stepped up crackdowns on extremists, officials say, and are coordinating closely with U.S. and European intelligence agencies to throttle the flow of men and women to Iraq and Syria, where as many as 160 Bosnians and some 300 Kosovars, some with their families, are said to be fighting. A few joined the Nusra Front, al Qaida’s Syrian wing, but the bulk enlisted with the Islamic State. Still, Kosovo, with its small population, remains the largest per-capita European contributor of fighters to the Islamic State, and some experts say both governments initially minimized the problem to cover up their failures to act earlier and to avoid alienating powerful religious conservatives. “I had information that 150 to 200 people were fighting, but the government said there were only 10,” said Vehbi Kajtazi, a journalist at Kosovo’s main independent newspaper, Koha Ditore, who charged that he was pressured to stop writing about the issue. “The government was trying to suppress this, but they couldn’t because the problem is a big issue for Kosovo.” “We are already a bit late, I think, and this is why this is an emergency situation in terms of the need for a response, a response that is comprehensive economically speaking, socially, politically,” said Ilazi, Kosovo’s deputy minister for European integration.

Hard-line Islam was carried to the Balkans by hundreds of mostly Arab foreign fighters who helped Bosnia’s Muslim-led government, hamstrung by a U.N. arms embargo, resist the country’s dismemberment by Serbia and Croatia in a war that lasted from 1992 to 1995. A much smaller number joined the ethnic Albanian rebels who fought for Kosovo’s independence from Serbia. The foreigners – many of whom later are thought to have joined al Qaida – were Takfiris, radicals who embrace violence in rejecting secular politics, culture and other faiths, and seek to return to the “pure” Islamic rule that they believe was founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh-century Arabian Peninsula. They were backed by funds from Saudi Arabia and other U.S. Arab allies, and their proselytizing was reinforced by a flood of Islamist charities offering money, food and educational training in return for devotion to their hard-line practices. Virtually all the foreigners eventually left – a few married Bosnian women – but the charities stayed. Flush with cash in struggling, war-damaged societies, they won devotees by expanding aid programs, rebuilding mosques and constructing new ones, supported by officials who welcomed the money and the patronage of powerful Muslim countries, experts said. The charities “found a fertile place here,” said Denis Hadzovic, the head of the Center for Strategic Studies, a Sarajevo policy institute. “They began to be more aggressive in their behavior and their efforts to promote another approach to Islam.” While the Bosnian and Kosovar governments shuttered more than a dozen Islamist charities during crackdowns last year, the organizations’ influence is widely apparent. Skullcapped men wearing Islamic-style beards and Arabic dress now are a common sight in the villages and cities of Kosovo and Bosnia, where their baggy, calf-length trousers are derided as “floodwater pants.” Young local clerics trained in fundamentalist seminaries in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are running mosques. Stores selling Islamic women’s garb – including veils and head-to-toe coverings – religious texts and videos, halal food and other Arabic goods are clustered around Pristina’s Ottoman-era mosques, sharing streets with Western-style boutiques and bars offering martinis and mojitos. In Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital, sidewalk vendors hawk the same wares outside the Saudi-built King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud Cultural Center, the largest of its kind in the Balkans. The center – with its Saudi-style mosque – is run by Saudis with diplomatic status, adding to the discomfort of many Sarajevans unnerved by the Gulf-funded mosque-building and Arab property investments such as the Hotel Bristol, where alcohol is banned. “I try not to have any contact with these radical people in mosques or elsewhere,” said Adnan Talic, 54, a cobbler whose tiny shop in Sarajevo’s centuries-old Ottoman market is thick with the sweet scent of newly tanned leather. “We are afraid of them, but ignoring them is my way of fighting radical Islam.” Several men in Gorjna Maoca denied any ties between the village and violent groups. “We are good Muslims. We are true believers, and just as we don’t want anything bad to happen to us, we don’t want anything bad for anyone else,” said a bearded, skullcapped man working in his driveway. Like the others, he declined to give his name during a recent visit by McClatchy. “More attention is being given to the way we look than is warranted. More attention was given by the media to that flag, and it represented nothing. Maybe the children put it there,” the man replied when asked about the display of the Islamic State flag, pictures of which were published by local media. Current and former Bosnian security officials tell a different story, saying the hamlet is linked to extremist networks that run from Western Europe through the Balkans into the Middle East. More than a dozen men associated with the village are among the Bosnians who’ve gone to fight in Syria and Iraq, they said. One of them, Emrah Fojnica, 23, blew himself up last August, killing 23 people in Baghdad. In 2011, the settlement hosted a Muslim from Serbia who’s now serving an 18-year jail term for spraying more than 100 bullets at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. Possible U.S. ties to the extremist networks were highlighted in February, when a federal grand jury in Kentucky indicted six Bosnian immigrants on charges of sending money, military uniforms, combat boots and other military goods to Bosnians fighting in Syria and Iraq. Political analysts, moderate clerics and other experts in Bosnia and Kosovo blame senior political and religious leaders, charging they ignored the creeping extremism for years. The leaders were happy to let Islamist charities reconstruct war-damaged mosques, build new ones, and provide aid and educational programs in return for devotion to their brands of Islam. The few Bosnians who spoke out were publicly denounced by some political and religious leaders as “Islamophobes,” said Senad Pecanin, a co-founder of Dani, a crusading investigative magazine that he left in 2010 to practice law. “For years they were attacking anyone who was warning about the threat.” In Kosovo, moderate clerics and political experts charged that the official Islamic Community, the independent body that oversees Islamic affairs, had been taken over by conservatives who’ve been replacing moderate imams with fundamentalists in a bid to appease radical elements and ensure continued financial support from the Middle East. “I saw that I couldn’t get help from anyone, from the government, from the Islamic Community,” said Musli Verbani, 49, a moderate cleric whose car was fire-bombed in 2006 in what he charged was an intimidation campaign that led to his 2011 replacement by a hard-liner as imam of the main mosque in the southern Kosovo town of Kacanik. Vedat Sahiti, an adviser to Kosovo’s chief Islamic cleric, Naim Ternava, denied that the Islamic Community had succumbed to Islamist influence and said the organization didn’t accept foreign aid. “We don’t take money from the Middle East,” said Sahiti, shortly before proudly pronouncing that the organization’s new headquarters and seminary were built with funds from the Saudi and Qatari governments. Critics noted that 15 clerics, including the then-grand mufti of Pristina’s main mosque, were among 55 people detained in August and September crackdowns for allegedly promoting violent extremism and recruiting fighters for Syria and Iraq. Shpend Kursani, a senior researcher at the Kosovar Center for Security Studies, a policy institute in Pristina, said the crackdowns last year had slowed the flight of young men to Syria and Iraq but that now he was seeing whole families going. As part of an in-depth study, Kursani has been interviewing young Kosovars who’ve returned from Syria and Iraq. One has a master’s degree in international relations, while 37 percent had police records before they embraced radical Islam, he said. What they all shared, he said, was little hope of a better future and bitter disillusionment with the corruption and nepotism that infect all levels of Kosovo’s political system. Even the anti-corruption mission in Kosovo run by the European Union is under investigation on suspicion of corruption. Another factor contributing to radicalization, experts and officials said, is that many Kosovars feel betrayed and isolated by the West. The country’s 2008 declaration of independence still hasn’t been recognized by the United Nations or all 28 EU members, making Kosovo the only Balkan country whose citizens need visas to travel to EU countries. They can, however, travel without visas to nearby Turkey, the crossing point to fight in Syria and Iraq. Meanwhile, Serbia refuses to renounce its claim to its former province, and it continues to exert enormous political influence through Kosovo’s tiny Serbian minority and its representatives in the legislature. “We have all the elements of a failed state,” said Kursani. “The state cannot provide security to its citizens.”

 

When a Turkish businessman becomes adviser to a Bosnian president (Hurriyet Daily News, by Hamdi Fırat Büyük*, 4 May 2015)

Muzaffer Çilek, who currently sits as the Honorary Consulate of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Bursa and acts as the CEO of the furniture company, Çilek, has been appointed as a senior advisor to Bakir Izetbegovic, the Bosniak member of the Presidential Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Çilek, who comes from a family of Bosniak origin, is also the founder of the BİGMEV Foundation, an organization that aims to promote a rise in trade and the establishment of stronger financial links between Turkey and Bosnia. Çilek has continued to invest in several sectors in Bosnia since 2009. Up until now, under Çilek’s leadership, BİGMEV has facilitated several Turkish investments in Bosnia and created hundreds of jobs in Bosnia, (mostly aimed at employing the Muslim Bosniak population), through the arrangement of trade forums and meetings and the development of various projects funded by ministries, as well as through regional and international institutions. Furthermore, Çilek’s close links with Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are no secret. In 2013, he was appointed as a member of the Advisory Board for Turkish Citizens and Relatives Abroad, on Turkey’s Prime Ministry for Turks Abroad Committee. Izetbegovic, to whom Çilek has now been appointed a senior advisor, also shares very close ties with the AKP, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Turkish Prime Minister Davutoğlu. It is known that Izetbegovic, as the most experienced of the three members of the Bosnian Presidency and as the only son of the country’s founder, Alija Izetbegovic, offered his full support to Erdoğan during his presidential campaign. Last year in a public meeting, as part of Erdoğan’s presidential campaign, Izetbegovic took part in a teleconference with Erdoğan, during which he stated that if Erdoğan were elected president, he would not only act as president of Turkey but also as president of Bosnia. Public in the square and AKP supporters cheered for his statements but at home in Bosnia, Izetbegovic met with harsh criticism from many circles, including his own party, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA). In return, the AKP and Erdoğan himself threw their full support behind Izetbegovic’s second run for the Bosniak seat of Bosnia’s Presidential Council, with the help of Turkish state institutions known to be very active in Bosnia and the Balkans in general. These institutions included Turkish International Development Agency (TİKA), Turkish state-owned Ziraat Bank, with its Bosnia branch, and Turkish state-owned media outlet Anadolu Agency, with its Balkans service based in Sarajevo. For instance, the historic library of Bosnia’s Presidential Building, which was burned during last year’s mass protests in Sarajevo, was restored by TİKA and (re)inaugurated by Izetbegovic himself. Also, just before the Bosnian general elections of 2014, the Bosnia branch of Turkey’s state-owned Ziraat Bank granted the state of Bosnia with a loan of $50 million and, sure enough, Izetbegovic was there to receive the new line of credit with all the pomp and circumstance that can be expected to accompany such a lofty transaction. Moreover, the Balkans service of Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu Agency offered its full support to Izetbegovic during his presidential campaign. Various opponents, academics and researchers both in Turkey and Bosnia have strongly condemned what they see as a blatant display of favoritism developing between the AKP government and President Erdoğan and Izetbegovic. They claim that in Turkey, Izetbegovic has only Erdoğan and the AKP, and in Bosnia, the AKP and Erdoğan have only Izetbegovic. According to these critics, this display of full and clear mutual support is very risky for these two brother nations, for if one of the parties loses its power, Turkish-Bosnian relations could greatly suffer. Ultimately, the reasons behind and possible consequences of the appointment of an important Turkish businessman as Izetbegovic’s senior advisor deserve greater attention. While his investments in Bosnia, success in the business world and personal determination may have helped him attain this post, Çilek’s assumption of the position must also be read as a significant success story of the risky foreign policy pursued by Turkey in Bosnia and the Balkans under Erdoğan and Davutoğlu.

*Hamdi Fırat Büyük is a researcher at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization’s (USAK) Center for European Studies, Balkans Section.

 

A new war in the Balkans? (Hurriyet Daily News, 2 May 2015)

On the one hand, violence is re-erupting in Bosnia. On the other hand, Albania and Serbia seem to be at odds. And Serbia still doesn’t accept Kosovo’s independence. What is happening in the Balkans? Are we on the brink of a new war in Bosnia and Kosovo? I asked these questions to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama who I recently had the chance to have a tête–à–tête with. Rama is “one of a kind,” with his extraordinary leadership profile. For many years, he played basketball on the national team of Albania. He is also a painter, having lectured as professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, and an author, having written many books on politics and arts. Rama entered politics at a grassroots level. During his years at the Art Academy, he was leading demonstrations against the communist regime in Albania. After the fall of communism in 1990, with the first wave of democratization in the country, he became more involved in politics. In 1998 he became the Minister of Culture, and between 2000 and 2011 he served as the mayor of the capital Tirana. In 2005, Rama took over the leadership of the Socialist Party and was already prime minister by 2013. Yet he didn’t even accept that he was a politician until he became prime minister. Rama is still first and foremost a painter - as he makes politics through colors. He believes that colors make change possible, and he made this true when he multi-colored many public and residential buildings in Tirana. Green is the color that he has used most since he has generated many new green spaces in the city. Rama is still so imbedded with art and civil society that he is opening the first floor of the government building to these activities, enabling demonstrations against the government to take place in the space right below his office. This also says a lot about his perception of democracy. He was in Istanbul as a guest speaker during the brainstorming sessions called “Table of Ideas.” I started our conversation by asking, “is a new war in Balkans on the horizon?” “In the Balkans, it is the best time ever because for the first time in our history, we meet and sit at the same table all together,” Rama replied, recounting that last year, upon the invitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the “Western Balkan Countries Summit” took place in Berlin, where for the first time after 100 years of conflict, they talked not about the past but about the future. Last fall he visited Serbia in the first official meeting between the two countries in 68 years. Rama’s Serbian counterpart is coming to Tirana at the end of May, which will be the first such visit in 102 years. He also drew attention to vulnerabilities in the region and emphasized the importance of Europe: “People in the Balkans are still dreaming about being part of Europe. And Europe is the only dream for Balkans. If this dream were to fade away, what remains? Problems would start again. Integration into Europe is the only chance to have lasting peace in the Balkans.” “But this dream cannot last forever. The role that Europe will play and how Europe will approach the Balkan process of integration is very important,” he added. Rama sees non-integration also as a risk with regard to radical Islam: “We have the most pro-European and pro-Euro-Atlantic Muslims in the world. This is connected with the European dream. As long as this dream is vivid, the Balkans will have no trouble. But if this dream fades away, trouble will come.” Albania recognizes Kosovo’s independence, whereas Serbia argues that Kosovo is part of Serbia. How does this affect their bilateral relations? He said that Serbia needs to face and recognize the reality and “not continue to live with a myth that no longer exists anymore.” Yet he also stressed that “this does not impede us working together, creating partnership, and trying to do what Germany and France did after World War II.” Rama strongly believes that all Balkan countries should become part of Europe, which would then pave the way for the erosion of borders. “In the end, European integration will make barriers invisible for freedom of movement, work force, communication and information,” he said. Why is it so difficult to sustain peace in Bosnia? “Because it’s a very complex project. Many things have happened. And many challenges are in front of them. Overcoming what has happened and facing the challenges by acting like one united country is not easy,” he replied. Last but not least, Rama thinks that the challenges for Albania are very similar to the ones Turkey went through in its past. Turkey is an outstanding example of how a country can change in a generation,” he said, adding that he is closely following Turkey’s reforms. The Albanian prime minister approaches the Kurdish question and the ongoing peace process in Turkey through the Balkan prism. “When I see the prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo sitting together and agreeing on the peace process after what has happened between them, I see that anything can happen where there is the will."

 

Macedonia Opposition Braces for May Showdown (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 4 May 2015)

With the announcement of mass protests in the capital in May, the crisis in Macedonia appears to be approaching its climax. Against the background of the illegal surveillance allegations and mounting civil unrest over government policies, Macedonia's opposition intends to harness the mood of discontent into the service of a wider anti-government front. The opposition has announced plans for mass protests in May in the capital, Skopje, with the goal of toppling the regime of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski who - despite serious accusations of abuse related to covertly recorded tapes - refuses to resign. “This will not be a protest where we gather, express discontent and go home. We will stay until Gruevski quits,” Zoran Zaev, the leader of the Social Democrats, SDSM, told a recent press conference. Three months after the opposition party started releasing secretly recorded tapes of official conversations, which it says proves that government has gravely and routinely misused its power, observers see momentum gathering for change. “The sheer number of different protests seen in these past few months points to growing discontent, which may result in the formation of a wider, unified anti-government front,” communications science professor Vesna Shopar told BIRN. “The number of people who are truly unhappy about what is happening and who are prepared to go out and publicly protest appears to be growing,” Shopar added. Despite the opposition’s insistence that protests will be peaceful, however, some fear that mass rallies could be used by provocateurs to stage violent incidents.

Protests on many fronts

Since the year started, students and high school pupils have been protesting over educational reforms in their tens of thousands, and in rallies of a scale that has not been seen in the recent history of Macedonia. Thousands of contract workers, backed by rights movements and some unions, have meanwhile been protesting against tax hikes. Journalists are demanding a halt to the threats and hate speech that they say are inspired by government intolerance of criticism. For two months, people have been gathering in front of the state broadcaster, Macedonian Radio and Television, demanding that it start to air the contents of the covertly recorded tapes that the opposition has obtained. The protesters, led by former police general Stojance Angelov, also regularly rally in front of the State Prosecution, calling on the authorities to start subjecting the many allegations of crimes contained in the tapes to a court process. As warm-up to the planned protests in the capital in May, the opposition recently staged a series of protest marches in smaller Macedonian towns. These are usually preceded by open-air press conferences where more incriminating tapes of official conversations were played. “What unites all these people is their common discontent with the government and the lack of transparency, corruption, clientelism, the lack of rule of law and non-inclusiveness whereby decisions are made and laws passed in short procedure and between closed circles of only a few people,” political analyst Suad Misini told BIRN. He says the success of the opposition plan to call people on to the streets will depend on whether it can harness the energy of the many groups and civil sector organisations that are already their own waging battles against the government. During the recent rallies of students, pupils and other groups, the wider social and political context of the crisis in Macedonia was apparent. Youthful protesters carried banners mocking Gruevski in relation to the content of the tapes, called for unified action and made speeches that were bitterly critical of the government’s perceived authoritarianism. Stefan Vidikov, an activist from the Students’ Plenum, the informal movement that organized the student protests, says that despite winning their battle for the rescindment of the planned new law on higher education, the struggle is not over. “The Students’ Plenum and all the other groups must continue their struggle,” he said.

“We have come across an adversary [the government] that shows no sign of changing, so we must again join hands with all the underprivileged in their fight with the authorities - this time more seriously and with more radical demands,” Vidikov said. Misini says that this process of “unification or expression of solidarity may be formalized or not - but it will happen”. Macedonia’s current crisis began in February, when the Social Democrats first accused Gruevski and his cousin, the secret police chief, Saso Mijalkov, of orchestrating the illegal surveillance of over 20,000 people over several years, including journalists, judges, prosecutors, mayors and even government ministers. Tapes of ministers’ conversations have since provided powerful support to its earlier claims that the Prime Minister’s team pays scant respect to the law.

The recordings suggest that state institutions have been more or less hijacked by Gruevski’s VMRO DPMNE party and routinely misused for political or even criminal purposes. After nine years in power, largely unchallenged, the crisis threatens to overshadow and discredit Gruevski’s time in office. However, Gruevski's counter-claim is that Zaev is “a traitor” who works for unnamed “foreign centres” to destabilize the country. Zaev told a recent press conference that they intend to up the ante. They will apparently start to publish revealing data on several high-profile but sensitive cases, including the 2012 murder of five males near Skopje attributed to “Islamic Terrorists”, the 2013 death of the journalist Nikola Mladenov in a car crash and the death in 2011 of a young man called Martin Neskovski at a ruling party celebration. Observers say this will form part of a strategy to additionally boost discontent ahead of May protests. “It was to be expected that they would leave the crescendo for last,” Misini noted.

Bridging the ethnic divide

Some observers say the political crisis is starting also to unite the country's often divided ethnic communities, the Macedonian majority and the ethnic Albanians who make up about a quarter of the population. Joint protests between Macedonians and Albanians are not usual in Macedonia. However, they “are not only possible but becoming necessary because the problems are equal and shared”, Misini opined. He added that, paradoxically, the current political crisis “holds the greatest potential seen so far for transforming the ethnic divide into a civil platform”.

Traditionally, governments have played on Macedonia’s ethnic tensions, which date back generations. In 2001, armed hostilities broke out between Albanian insurgents and the security forces. The conflict only ended with the internationally brokered Ohrid accord, which offered more rights to the Albanian community. In return for the deal, the militants disbanded and formed a political party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, which now sits in government. However, ethnic relations remain fragile. “Gruevski knows the danger if the ethnic groups unite against him and will probably do whatever he can to keep that from happening,” Misini predicted. “We should look the latest incident on the border with Kosovo in that light,” he added. On April 21, police claimed 40 armed men wearing the markings of a long disbanded Albanian paramilitary unit, the National Liberation Army, NLA, had stormed a police post the previous night. Police Spokesperson Ivo Kotevski said a “terrorist attack” had taken place and that the attackers, who appeared to be from Kosovo, spoke Albanian and took four policemen who were manning the border post hostage, before later releasing them.

Protests could turn violent

Sociology Professor Ilija Aceski fears violence may emerge at the May protests, arguing that masses of people are hard to control. “I appeal for protests that incorporate the principle of passive resistance in the style of Gandhi. If they can convince enough people to join them, the opposition should camp in front of the government for months if they wish, but they must not incite violence,” Aceski warns. Aceski also said the opposition may have a problem in bringing out a critical mass of people on the streets because “the people are tired of politics and protests. For at least three hours a day all they hear on TV and in media is politics”. Misini meanwhile fears that pro-government provocateurs may incite violence to discredit the idea of protests.

“If you take the protests alone, I see no explosive potential, unless some people are sent to provoke violence or if the police use excessive force,” he said. Observers say that scenes of violence could be a two-edged sword for Gruevski because the rage caused by such incidents could bring even more people on to the streets. "There are other, more civilized ways out of this crisis but so far the government is not budging,” Misini said. “The opposition has no choice but to persevere, if they wish to settle this in peaceful way,” he added.  “Zaev knows that there's no way back."

 

Macedonia indicts opposition leader Zoran Zaev over wiretapping scandal (AP/AFP/Reuters, 1 May 2015)

Opposition leader Zaev and four others have been charged over a wiretapping scandal that threatens the ruling party's reign. But with leaks linking the prime minister to widespread corruption, who's to be believed? Macedonia's state prosecutor on Thursday evening officially charged Zoran Zaev, the leader of Macedonia's center-left Social Democrat party, with espionage, illegal wiretapping, and "violence against representatives of the highest state bodies."

But four others, including a former intelligence chief and his wife, were accused of espionage and illegal wiretapping of government officials. Zaev and his party immediately dismissed the accusations in a statement. "We have published evidence and arguments that the whole system in Macedonia is under the control of the government," the statement said.

Leaks or fabrications?

The indictment comes on the heels of published recordings implicating Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Grueyski in illegally wiretapping 20,000 people, including politicians, journalists, and community leaders. 0:00

Mudslinging in Macedonia

The recorded materials detail widespread corruption and abuse of power by Grueyski's governing VMRO-DPMNE party. However, Grueyski denies the allegations, accusing foreign spies of fabricating the recordings. But the opposition leader denies this, saying he accessed the material thanks to "patriots" in Macedonia's intelligence services. Grueyski has also accused Zaev of plotting a coup against his rule.

EU concerned

The EU has expressed concerns over the wiretapping scandal and suggested an independent investigation into the matter.

The opposition leader faces a minimum of four years in prison if found guilty. A senior judicial body is set to determine whether the five will stand trial. Macedonia is trying to join the EU after gaining candidate status in 2005, though membership talks have yet to begin.

 

Explosion Rocks Office of Macedonia's Largest Albanian Party (Novinite, 4 May 2015)

A blast occurred late on Sunday near the office of Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), the largest Albanian political party in Macedonia. The attack took place in Mala Recica, a village populated by over 8000 people located in Western Macedonia, near its border with Albania. No injuries were reported, but police immediately sealed off the region, according to Macedonian daily Utrinski vesnik. A hand grenade was evidently thrown by an unnamed attacked riding a motorcycle, local news outlets report. Mala Recica's population is almost entirely Albanian. It is part of Tetovo, a municipality where Albanians constitute some 80 percent of the population. DUI has often been criticized in Macedonia over its de facto support for the government of PM Nikola Gruevski which, for its part, is accused by the opposition of applying pressure on the judiciary and the media and adding to the discrimination of ethnic minorities (in a country where ethnic Albanians constitute at least a quarter of the population).

 

Balkan Countries in Tight Spot Over Moscow V-Day Commemoration (Sputnik, 1 May 2015)

The presidents of Macedonia and Serbia will be in Moscow on May 9, while the other Balkan leaders have bowed to pressure from Washington and Brussels to skip the commemoration.

While Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Macedonian President Georgy Ivanov have accepted the invitation from Moscow to attend the May 9 commemoration of 70 years since the victory over fascism, the leaders of other countries in the region won't be attending, having bowed to pressure from Washington and the European Union to miss the event. Earlier this week, Ivanov announced he would be joining Nikolic at the celebrations in Moscow, defying instructions from US and European Union representatives to snub the event. "Ivanov has always pursued the politics of openness to all, so the decision to attend the commemoration in Moscow is not in any way contradictory to the strategic priorities of Macedonia – membership in the EU and NATO," read a statement from the President's office, according to local news agency Tanjug. In addition to Ivanov, in late April the leader of Republika Srpska, one of two autonomous entities which constitute the federation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzogovina, also confirmed that he would attend. When asked if he was going to the parade, Milorad Dodik replied categorically, "Yes. And no-one is going to stop me. I got the invitation and I'm going." In March Serbian President Nikolic upbraided EU representative Eduard Kukan for trying to dissuade Serbia from attending the parade: "Mr. Kukan is trying in vain to pressure Serbia to make a decision which is not in the interests of the citizens of Serbia," said Nikolic in a statement. "It is impolite to give advice to someone who never asked for it," continued the President, who later confirmed that the Serbian armed forces will also take part in the military parade. "The opinion of the vast majority of [our] citizens is that our country needs to nurture well the best relations with everyone, including the Russian Federation." At the beginning of April, the Croatian newspaper Vecernji List observed that "nerves are visible in the Union," when it reported that newly elected Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic would not be attending the commemoration, and cited Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics' attempt to get the EU to issue directive across the Union for heads of state not to attend. Earlier this month, one of Grabar-Kitarovic's predecessors criticized the decision from western leaders not to attend the May 9 parade, writing that, rather than being an opportunity for political point-scoring, the significance of the event lies in its historical importance: "May 8 is celebrated as a victory over an order which, had there not been huge Soviet sacrifices, would have ruled over a large part of the world, despite the bravery and steadfastness of Churchill, de Gaulle and their supporters," wrote former Croatian President Stjepan Mesic. After reports earlier in April that Slovenian President Borut Pahor was still undecided about whether to attend or to bow to political pressure from EU and US representatives, news came from the presidents' office on Thursday that he had made the decision not to attend, instead leaving his country's representation to his Minister of Foreign Affairs Karl Erjavec. Rather than come to Moscow, Pahor relayed in a statement, he would take part in celebrations taking place in Ljubljana the same day. Pahor follows the President of Montenegro Filip Vujanovic, who announced on April 7 that he had decided not to attend, which was met with a furious reaction from the political opposition. "With the decision from the president not to go to Moscow to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory over fascism, the Montenegrin government has again displayed subservient inferiority," said leader of DEMOS Miodrag Lekic, adding that "those who have made this decision in place of Vujanovic have said more about Montenegro today, than about Russia, which made the greatest sacrifices in the battle against Nazism and fascism during the Second World War."

 

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