LOCAL PRESS

 

Nikolic and Dikovic discuss security situation in region (RTS/Tanjug)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic discussed with the Chief of Staff of the Serbian Army, General Ljubisa Dikovic, the security situation in the region and the readiness of the Serbian Army to adequately act and prevent any possibility of unfortunate events as the recent events in Macedonia. Nikolic pointed out that the constitutional responsibility of the Serbian Army is to prevent at any cost any attempt of destabilization of Serbia and undermining of security of its citizens, and at the same time to protect the security of every Army member. Nikolic said that Serbia has been warning EU partners for a long time that it was only a matter of time when the greater-Albanian terrorist groups, encouraged with the promotion of the so-called independent Kosovo, would try to implement their plans on creating a ‘greater Albania’, pointing out that the latest events confirmed this. It is still not too late for the EU to unequivocally and unconditionally condemn the greater-Albanian terrorism, and protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states in the region, it was stressed in the talks.

 

Nikolic’s platform for Kosovo: north a province, the rest a republic (Politika)

President Tomislav Nikolic’s new platform for Kosovo and Metohija should be on the table of Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic within two-three days, Politika has learned. According to Politika’s interlocutor, the President will recommend to the government for northern Kosovo to be treated in accordance with the Serbian Constitution, while the territory outside the Union of Serb Municipalities would have a treatment “that the Albanians had in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)”. The President will be moving within the framework that the Constitution permits him, but with the intention to reach a long-term agreement with the Albanians. The idea is for Kosovo, even though it has the status of a province according to the Constitution, to receive a very broad autonomy as republics in a federation have, with many jurisdictions, but without violating the Constitution. This proposal should fill in many things that have not been encompassed by the Brussels agreement, because the intention of the President is not to derogate this document. However, the issue is, if the President actually sends the platform that will have these elements, whether it can survive parallel to the Brussels agreement, especially the part that refers to northern Kosovo. Pristina has not been ready for two years now to accept the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities, despite the agreement in Brussels, because it fears that this would imply autonomy with enormous jurisdictions for the Serbs in the north and eventual division of Kosovo.

 

Vucic: Belgrade not responsible for suspension of dialogue with Pristina (Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stated today that the Serbian side is not responsible for the suspension of yesterday’s round of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, adding that it takes two for an agreement. Vucic said at the Banjica 2 barracks answering reporters’ question when the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will continue that Serbia is not running away from the dialogue, adding that it will always be ready to work toward realistic solutions. He underlined that the Serbian government wants to preserve peace and stability at all times, but that it also wants to protect its national and state interests. In reaction to the reports by Pristina journalists that yesterday’s talks were suspended because Belgrade presented new requests, Vucic said that Pristina always makes such claims. “I still haven’t heard that Edita Tahiri had said something positive. I don’t have this manner and I will not speak in this way, because we must talk with these people, but it is obvious that some are always using this for some internal matters,” said Vucic.

 

Djuric: No agreement on energy (Tanjug)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said after the talks with the Pristina delegation in Brussels that no agreement on energy was reached, as Pristina refused to meet the obligations assumed earlier. “Pristina did not accept for the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) and the Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) to establish a new company that would deal with distribution of electricity in the northern Kosovo and Metohija and they bear the responsibility for not having much success today,” he told the press in Brussels. “We could not accept that Serbia's considerable property in Kosovo be pulled out of our framework,” he noted. Djuric stated that Pristina has violated the agreement on civil defense in northern Kosovo, as members of the Civil Defense have not got the positions Pristina promised them. “I believe that the normalization process has been jeopardized the moment Pristina refused to discuss the ZSO, despite it being the first element of the Brussels agreement and the first point of the Action Plan,” Djuric said.

 

Mihajlovic: Talks on ZSO by end of May? (RTS)

The Head of the Media Relations Office Milivoje Mihajlovic told the morning broadcast of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) that the topic of the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) is unavoidable and that it will be on the agenda this month, in the following round of the talks in Brussels. Mihajlovic says that Pristina is trying in every way to avoid an agreement and to implement all the hitherto reached agreements in Brussels. “At this moment Brussels should finally have its say and finally include the topic on the agenda, for the ZSO to be formed and for this Serb political, in a way, ship to head towards more peaceful waters when it comes to Kosovo and Metohija,” said Mihajlovic. Talking about the clashes in Kumanovo in Macedonia, Mihajlovic warns that at issue is a security threat for the entire region, because of which a joint action of all countries in the region is necessary in order to remove this threat, adding this action cannot be conducted without a strong EU influence. Mihajlovic assesses that the main problem is in the region of Kosovo and Metohija, where the terrorist base is located. He says it is important for the international administration in Kosovo and Metohija to deal with this issue in the following days so this incident would remain isolated and wouldn’t spread. “The political basis for such actions is the story on ‘Greater Albania’,” said Mihajlovic.

 

Preamble to be tested by the people (Novosti)

Even if Serbian citizens would opt at a referendum for eventual amendments to the preamble of the Constitution, this would not endanger the country’s territorial integrity, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) tells Novosti, explaining that amending the preamble is not a priority in the upcoming comprehensive reform of the political system. The Chairman of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun (SNS) tells Novosti that the preamble in itself is no guarantee for Kosovo to remain within Serbia. “It is important to envisage with the Constitution and constitutional law the status of the Union of Serb Municipalities and to constitutionally determine Kosovo’s status within Serbia, in accordance with the future final agreement between Belgrade and Pristina. If we reach a historical agreement, this might imply the amendment to the preamble, but not a single solution will encroach on Serbia’s internationally recognized borders.” Dijana Vukomanovic, the caucus whip of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), opines that issues of constitutional significance should be opened very carefully along with consultations with politicians and experts: “It is necessary to transparently inform citizens on the state’s strategic interests in these turbulent geopolitical circumstances in Europe and the Balkans. The SPS is ready to talk and assume responsibility for challenges.” The leader of the Social-Democratic Party (SDS) Boris Tadic opines that the signing of the Brussels agreement has made the preamble inadequate and that this should be taken into account within the upcoming constitutional amendments. The Democratic Party stresses that the amendment of the Constitution is a serious topic and that one should not shoot out ideas partially but that it is important to launch concrete talks on solution. The Democratic Party of Serbia, Dveri and State-building Movement harshly condemned the possible amendment of the Constitution. “With the rhetoric of amending the Constitution at present, Vucic is sending a signal of Serbian weakness and yielding, and raises the motivation to the same terrorist groups, which headed towards Kumanovo, to also head towards south-east Serbia,” Dveri announced. When Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic handed over the mandate to Vucic to form the government, he said: “The preamble completely binds me, and not only the preamble, but two more articles of the Constitution. Do not expect me to violate the Constitution, especially not the part on Kosovo!”

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Ban Ki-moon calls for restraint after Kumanovo incident (Republika)

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated that he is alarmed by the recent violence in Kumanovo and extends his condolences to the families of those killed and injured. “He strongly supports the calls by the European Union and other members of the international community urging the state authorities and all political and community leaders to cooperate to restore calm and to fully investigate the events in an objective and transparent manner,” reads Ban Ki­-moon’s statement. Furthermore, ‘at this sensitive time’, the Secretary­General calls on all actors to exercise maximum restraint and to refrain from any rhetoric and/or actions that may escalate tensions further. “He also encourages the country’s authorities to address the concerns voiced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on 17 March 2015 and to reaffirm their commitment to fundamental human rights and the rule of law by fostering an environment in which opposing views can be expressed freely,” reads the statement.

 

Dodik: I would have voted for Bosic too (Oslobodjenje)

Milorad Dodik, leader of the SNSD, said that the reelection of Mladen Bosic as president of the SDS means that the SNSD will win the maximum in all following elections. “I am now very optimistic for both the local and the general elections. Bosic is undoubtedly one of the leaders who suit us best, and he was our great favorite. If we were able to vote in a certain way, we would have voted for him,” said Dodik this evening on RTRS. He said that he had not read the SDS's declaration, but he had heard that in their declaration they said that they oppose the alleged story of a referendum that could raise security problems in B&H. “Bosniaks also say this. Our declaration does not call for war, but calls for a political solution,” says Dodik. He also stresses that these are serious topics on the agenda, as well as the question of the fate of the EU itself. “In Britain, the winners were Conservatives who said that in 2017 we're going to have a referendum. But do you think that someone is stupid if on our side they wrote, if you don't return our powers by 2017, we're going to go in 2018,” said Dodik. “What will we do in the EU? If Scotland leaves, why do we not have the right to a referendum? Why do all peoples have the right to express their political will in a referendum, and Serbs don’t, and why is the SDS so shortsighted to not allow this. We mustn’t say that we don’t have this right, we’ve just never used it. And we mustn’t say that we reject this as they said, but it shows how they are traitors,” says Dodik.

 

Events in FYROM result of unfinished break-up of Yugoslavia (Srna)

Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik claims that the events in FYROM are the result of an unfinished disintegration of the former Yugoslavia which started over two decades ago.

“Some thought that the Albanian issue in these parts ended with the formation of the so-called independent state of Kosovo, but it has obviously become an exporter of terrorism to Macedonia,” Dodik told reporters in Banja Luka on Monday. He pointed out that several media outlets had reported that extremists arrived to FYROM from Kosovo and that the issue in FYROM is a political battle carried out through terrorism. Dodik does not believe that terrorism could spill over from FYROM to the territory of the RS or B&H and is certain that the RS and the B&H are stable enough. “A bigger problem here is that some high-ranking Bosniak politicians protect those with close ties to organized crime and terrorism and that can be a bad message to everyone that the struggle against terrorism is waged in some other way here,” said the RS President. He does not trust the top Bosniak politicians like Bakir Izetbegovic because he has not given any assurances that he is willing to fight against radical Islam in B&H. “Perhaps it would be good if we in B&H could all sit down and commit to fighting terrorism because it’s obvious that it doesn’t jeopardize just one people in B&H, but all of them,” said Dodik. The RS and its police remain committed to the struggle against terrorism, that it, the struggle for their own freedom, he said. “RS unquestionably is and has to be a part of an anti-terrorist coalition,” said Dodik. He recalled that the RS had directed all its potential and institutes against such struggle. “I am specifically proud of the RS police, which has proved to be a capable agency, maybe even the best in B&H, for fighting the evil that has obviously engulfed the whole world and appears in different parts of the world,” said Dodik. There are no organized terrorist groups in RS that are backed by the policy of RS, he said, adding: “We are determined to confront terrorism.” The RS is fully stable and prepared to tackle any occurrences of terrorism, he concluded.

 

Ivanic-Sultanoglu: UN supports B&H on European path (Oslobodjenje)

Mladen Ivanic, Chair of the B&H Presidency, welcomed Cihan Sultanoglu, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations for Europe and the CIS, with whom he spoke of the UN’s support for B&H’s European path, among other topics. During the meeting, Ivanic expressed gratitude for the significant role the UN and its member states have played in B&H during the post-war period, especially in the period after last year’s floods that befell the region. He also pointed to the Dialogue for the Future as a good example of the UN’s role in B&H, which is being realized in cooperation with the B&H Presidency. Speaking of the current political situation in B&H, Ivanic said that there are significant challenges connected with implementing reforms in the framework of the new European initiative for B&H facing governing structures. Sultanoglu said that the UN supports the European path of the countries of the region, including B&H. According to her, the UN is carefully monitoring the development of events in the region. She expressed special satisfaction with the cooperation that the UN has with institutions inside B&H. At the meeting they also discussed priority areas for continuing cooperation and jointly concluded that one of the most important topics that should be dealt with in the future is issues connected with the position of young people.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Exclusive: unrest in FYR Macedonia could hit other Balkan countries warns Serbian PM

(EuroNews, 12 May 2015)

Violence and tensions between ethnic Albanian groups and the authorities in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are threatening other countries in the region, Serbia’s prime minister has warned. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Euronews, Aleksander Vučić said his country was ready to offer assistance to help address the situation. “We’ll invest everything needed to help them out, to overcome these bumps on the road, create a stable environment in their country and whatever they think might be helpful, we’ll deliver on it,” he told Isabelle Kumar. “Because that is the most important issue for all of us. Because if we have riots and unrest in Macedonia, it might easily spill over to other areas of the western Balkans.” The United Nations has also expressed concern at the events of recent days which saw security forces involved in gun battles on the streets of the northern town of Kumanovo. People from a range of ethnic groups have gathered in Skopje to remember the eight police officers killed in in the clashes. Fourteen suspected ethnic Albanian militants died in the clashes in the northern town. A further 30 people have been detained on terrorism-related charges. Over half of those detained are from Kosovo, the government claims, although the reason for the attack is unclear. Militants of mainly ethnic Albanian origin, fought Serbian forces in Kosovo during the late 1990s. The province secured its independence in 2008. Aleksander Donev, from the FYROM capital Skopje, spoke about his reasons for attending the memorial: “We are here with our Albanian friends and those from other ethnic communities, and we are all united, together,” he said. “That is what we want to show and to fight for the freedom and democracy that we deserve.” As calm was restored to the Divo Naselje area of Kumanovo town, FYROM’s interior ministry released a video purporting to show some of the arrests made during the clashes. Zoran Zaev, the opposition Social Democrat leader, says he suspects authorities of stirring up unrest to draw attention away from a political crisis in the country. Heightened political tension has provoked widespread demonstrations.

 

Political storm brews in Macedonia (Reuters, by Matt Robinson, 12 May 2015)

Kumanovo, Macedonia - Pero Ilievski Street looked on Monday like it had been struck by a tsunami, cobblestones torn up and walls crushed by armoured vehicles of a special anti-terrorist unit of the Macedonian police. Ethnic Albanian residents of this north Macedonian town stepped gingerly through shattered glass and roof tiles, crushed cars and dirt smeared with blood - damage wrought by a weekend operation that left 22 people dead and heralds a new phase of uncertainty in a country deep in crisis. Details about the raid remain hazy, but the conservative government of Nikola Gruevski faced immediate calls from NATO and the European Union for a “transparent investigation” of what went on. Gruevski's credibility with the West has already been called into question by months of opposition allegations of illegal wire-tapping and widespread abuse of power, leaving his government on the ropes with an opposition mass rally planned for May 17. The Albanian residents of Pero Ilievski Street in ethnically-mixed Kumanovo, as well as Gruevski's political opponents, accused the government of trying to create a diversion and blunt the bid to unseat him. “The timing is too suspicious to not consider a connection,” said Florian Bieber, a Balkans expert at the University of Graz, Austria. “This does not mean that it was not a terrorist attack, but it suggests that the government might have had a hand. The only obvious beneficiary of the violence is the ruling party.” The tiny, impoverished ex-Yugoslav republic, where ethnic Albanians account for 30 percent of the two million-strong population, flirted with all-out civil war in 2001 when ethnic Albanian guerrillas fought with government security forces before NATO brokered a peace deal. Integration has been piecemeal, but Western diplomats say that while grievances remain, Macedonia is not on the brink of ethnic conflict. A bigger threat to stability lies in the political stand-off over Gruevski's nine-year-rule, fed by frustration among Macedonians and Albanians alike over poverty, high unemployment, pervasive corruption and a stalled progress of integration with the West. “Several distinct problems are joining up into a perfect storm,” Balkan analyst Marko Prelec wrote on his Facebook page. Gruevski said police had wiped out “one of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the Balkans”, led by ethnic Albanians from neighbouring Kosovo and bent on attacking police stations, shopping malls and sports events. Authorities said 14 “terrorists” were dead, dozens arrested and eight police officers killed. Ethnic Albanian detainees were hauled before judges in handcuffs and white jump-suits. The destruction on Pero Ilievski Street spoke to the ferocity of the violence. “I don't know what the purpose of this was,” said Ramadan Baftiu, sitting on the toppled front wall of his two-storey home, gutted by fire and strafed with bullets. Baftiu said he and his family had spent 12 hours in their basement before escaping during a lull in the fighting. “The house has to be demolished,” he said. He and his neighbours said they had seen no gunmen in the area, an assertion that was impossible to verify in a climate of claim and counter-claim, intrigue and manipulation in Macedonia. Apart from the police dead, the other casualties have not been named. Despite the bloodshed, Western envoys to Macedonia pulled no punches following talks with Gruevski on Monday, questioning his government's “commitment” to democracy and European values given its failure to investigate “many allegations of government wrongdoing” arising from a flurry of leaked wire taps. Zoran Zaev, leader of the main Macedonian opposition party, the Social Democrats, says he has a treasure-trove of audiotapes, leaked to him by a whistleblower and exposing tight government control over judges, journalists and the conduct of elections. Protesters have already clashed once with police, and the scandal has added to a wider political malaise rooted in Macedonia's failure to join the EU and NATO, its bids blocked by a long-running dispute with neighbouring Greece over the country's name. On Monday, hundreds turned out for the latest in days of small protests in front of the government, this time laying flowers and candles for the weekend's dead. “The citizens of Macedonia are coming together,” said protester Jasmina Golubovska, “instead of giving in to the propaganda working to pull us apart.”

 

Macedonia Violence Touches a Nerve in Unstable Bosnia (BIRN, by Srecko Latal and Elvira M. Jukic, 12 May 2015)

Political tensions simmering across Bosnia since the terrorist attack in Zvornik two weeks ago have increased a notch since the more recent violence in nearby Macedonia

Recent violence in Macedonia has sent a wave of anxiety across the volatile Balkan region - and the ripple effect seems greatest in Bosnia, which remains troubled by its own recent terrorist attack. Less than two weeks before violence erupted in Kumanovo, Macedonia, a radical Islamist attacked a police station in the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik. “Although these are separate and unrelated developments, they are a part of the same trend: things are getting more and more complicated in the Balkans,” Mumahed Jusic, a Balkans and Middle East analyst, told Balkan Insight on Tuesday. The authorities in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska – in which Zvornik is located – then launched mass arrests, which have only exacerbated political and ethnic tensions. Police raided 32 locations across the entity, seized weapons, ammunition and other military equipment, and arrested 30 Bosniaks [Muslims], 19 of whom they since released while 11 were handed over to prosecutors. Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said in Banja Luka on Monday that the violence in Macedonia was “a consequence of the unfinished process of the break-up of former Yugoslavia”. More ominously, in reference to Bosnia, he accused Bosniak political leaders of “protecting those who are close to the organized crime and terrorism”. Bosniak political representatives have meanwhile accused the Bosnian Serb government of using "anti-terrorist" activities as a cover to launch another intimidation campaign against its own non-Serb population. Experts warned that the Bosnian Serb police operation carried a separate danger. By undertaking the operation without informing, let alone cooperating with, Bosnia's own state institutions, the Republika Srpska government had encroached on the prime competences of state security, police and prosecutorial authorities. “This was a dangerous violation of police and security protocols,” an EU diplomat told Balkan Insight. He added that this could be the first step towards the implementation of Dodik’s recently declared plan to set up Republika Srpska security and intelligence agencies. That would be perceived as a major step towards the effective dissolution of Bosnia, another international official told Balkan Insight. The police operation also triggered harsh nationalistic duels on Bosnia’s social networks, which had started to calm down following the incident in Zvornik. An editor of a web portal in the town of Prijedor, in northwestern Republika Srpska, told Balkan Insight that after the police operation was launched, he had difficulty in keeping control of readers' ferocious comments. “I erased nearly 100 comments.... from both Bosniaks and Serbs. They wrote about killing, rape, and about finishing the job which was started in 1942 or in 1992,” he recalled. However, he also said that the news about the violence in Macedonia had not evoked the same anger. Part of the reason for this may be different views which Bosnia’s citizens have on whether any real similarities exist between recent events in Macedonia and Zvornik. Twenty-seven-year old Sanda from Sarajevo say there are some similarities. “We can draw a parallel between recent events in Zvornik and in Macedonia,” she said, adding that groups operate in both countries whose basic aims are to cause instability. “Such events are used to create animosities among people and trigger ethnic conflict,” she added. “People are afraid of 1992 [when the war in Bosnia began] repeating itself and this fear is being fuelled by the authorities who use these situations for their own benefit.” Zoran, a Serb from Eastern Sarajevo, had a different view. He said that while the violence in Macedonia was caused by a large group of insurgents, the Zvornik attack “was an act of an individual”. Mumahed Jusic, the Balkans and Middle East analyst, blamed the international community in part for the growing crisis in the Balkans, by allowing problems to run for too long while showing no initiative on how to help fix them. “Although these are still random cases, they could escalate into something much bigger,” he speculated. “The status quo has lasted for too long and when things do not move forward, they start rolling backwards,” he added.

 

Soros-owned media in Serbia goes Nuts with Propaganda surrounding Kumanovo incident (Mina, by Gorazd Velkovski, 12 May 2015)

You think Soros owned media in Macedonia is the only propaganda around? Our neighbours to the north are flooded with Soros owned newsportals whose only aim is to spread false information, fear and outright propaganda. The Soros owned media in Macedonia, Serbia and elsewhere have all had identical articles with the same propaganda when reporting on the Kumanovo incident. They each feverishly begun reporting on non-existent battles in multiple cities, on police leaving border checkpoints... none of it was actually true, but some people actually believed in the nonsense. It was only when people took to social media to state none of the reports are true that people realized they need to be a bit more careful where they get their information. The Soros (Serbian) propaganda begun when Srgjan Popovic and Chedomir Jovanovic visited Skopje. He met with Zaev where the entire coordination happen, not just on the propaganda piece (15 Soros owned newsportals in Macedonia and Serbia constantly run the same propaganda, synchronized since May 5th - still ongoing). But that wasn't the entire deal. Srgjan Popovic promised Zaev he would send around 30-40 professional "protesters" from Bosnia, Serbia and few from Montenegro (you see them in photos wearing balaclavas, are extremely violent - may be ordered to fire on policemen). Journalist Milenko Nedelkovski, in an interview with InfoMaks stated Srgjan Popovic is a gun for hire, was connected to Kiev's killing of both protesters and policemen. All snipers brought in Kiev were in direct communication with Popovich - stated Milenko in his interview. The Serb brought the snipers, but all were hired by a third party. Srgjan Popovic has had two meetings with Zaev thus far.

 

Montenegro Debt Level Hits New Record (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 12 May 2015)

Montenegro's government debt has reached a new peak over the past 12 months, rising by 25 per cent to almost 70 per cent of GDP - following regular hikes in public spending

The state debt of Montenegro at the end of the first quarter of 2015 reached 2.44 billion euros, almost 69 percent of gross domestic product, GPD, according to data from the Ministry of Finance. The debt has risen by almost 500 million euros, or 25 per cent, in one year. The state debt includes money owed by central government, municipalities, many public enterprises companies in central and local ownership and the central bank. Montenegro's state debt back in 2007 amounted to only 27.5 percent of its GDP, or 737 million euros. In terms of the debt, Montenegro owes most for the issue of Eurobonds - about 1.14 billion euros. The debt to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD, at the end of the first quarter amounted to 231.3 million euros. Credit Suisse was owed another 204 million and the European Investment Bank 103.1 million euro. The size of the overall government debt, which includes external debt and money owed to domestic creditors, has long been a source of contention. The opposition has accused the government of concealing the real figure. Zarko Rakcevic, a former Deputy Prime Minister and now leader of the opposition URA movement said that intensive consumer borrowing was the main factor responsible. He claimed the size of the state debt was now almost 70 per cent of GDP, as the government maintained, but 72.7 per cent, adding in the 130 million euro owed by local governments. "In the past two years alone, the state debt has increased from 50.91 per cent to over 72 per cent of GDP," Rakcevic warned. In April, the International Monetary Fund, IMF, predicted that the state debt could rise to 75 percent of GDP in the next four years.

 

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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.