LOCAL PRESS

 

Nikolic, Abbas: No open issues between Serbia and Palestine (RTS)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has stated in Belgrade, following the talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, that there are no open issues between the two countries, that the two states have good cooperation and will work on the further improvement of relations. Abbas, who is on the official visit to Serbia, has pointed that Palestine appreciates Serbia’s support in the UN. Nikolic said it was very important for Serbia that Palestine was supportive in the significant foreign policy priorities – European integrations and the protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity. “Palestine resolutely opposes Kosovo’s admission to UNESCO and reacts negatively to comparisons with Kosovo. On the contrary, it believes that the position of Serbia and Palestine is similar,” he said. Nikolic said that he had briefed Abbas about increased security risks in Kosovo and Metohija and the fact that the government in Pristina was faced with mass migrations, religious extremism and participation of citizens of Albanian nationality in numerous terrorist operations in crisis regions across the globe.

 

Dacic: Cooperation with Palestine in Serbia’s interest (Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has stated that Serbia has a clear political interest in developing friendly relations and cooperation with Palestine and the opening of an embassy in Ramallah is considered. After the meeting with the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, where the memorandum of understanding between the two ministries has been signed, Dacic reminded of the traditional friendship between Josip Broz Tito and Yasser Arafat, i.e. the SFR Yugoslavia and Palestine. The Serbian Minister has thanked the Palestinian authorities for their principled stance on not recognizing the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo. The visit to Belgrade is an opportunity to renew the friendship and solidarity, said al-Maliki, while thanking Serbia for its commitment to the Palestinian issue in all international forums.

 

Dacic: Pristina abuses continuation of dialogue (Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic called on the states to refrain from unilateral moves in regard to Kosovo while the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue is ongoing, assessing that the Pristina side is abusing the continuation of this dialogue. Dacic told the press in the Palace of Serbia that Pristina is abusing the dialogue by sending letters and various proposals with the explanation that Belgrade had accepted development of relations with Pristina during the dialogue and that this also means an invitation for other countries to do so. “For us this issue is of principle. In the case of Pristina and Kosovo international law has been violated and this is why we are calling all countries to refrain from unilateral moves until the dialogue ends,” said Dacic. He noted that Serbia should cherish and renew relations with traditional friends, to have pro-active cooperation and to inform them about the course of the dialogue. Dacic said that only two states recognized the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo over the past year.

 

Djuric: Pristina hiding crimes with lawsuit (Novosti)

“One of the largest bizarre ideas is that Serbia’s southern province could charge the central authorities for the crime of genocide. Those who are promoting this are not only unpunished players of the war events, but haven’t been removed from public life in Kosovo and Metohija. It is precisely because of the guilty conscience or fear that they are trying to divert the attention from the formation of a special court that should re-examine the crimes of the terrorist KLA. Serbia has high hopes in the fact that the court will contribute to the healing of the society in Kosovo and Metohija from everything that has been occurring over the past two decades,” the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric told Novosti responding to the question as to whether he is seriously taking the announcement of Kosovo’s lawsuit against Serbia for genocide.

Do you believe that the President’s platform on Kosovo and Metohija can contribute to the resolution of the Kosovo issue or is it belated?

“Many have given their opinions on this platform without having seen it. My heart is full when I see that Kosovo is discussed at the highest state level. The policy towards Kosovo must be a result of a comprehensive public debate and the widest possible political and social consensus.”

In case Romania recognizes Kosovo, do you expect the remaining EU member states that haven’t done so to follow it?

“Serbia has for years been warning with diplomatic activities about the violation of all international legal standards, as well as that recognitions of the unilaterally declared Kosovo can launch the domino effect with unforeseeable consequences in different parts of the world. The EU doesn’t have a united stand on that issue and I don’t expect anything significant to change in the following period.”

Would such a scenario pull out Belgrade’s argument that it doesn’t have to recognize Kosovo before joining the EU?

“In Serbia’s EU integration course nobody has set such a condition, and I believe that it will not be set because it is clear what would Belgrade’s response be. We don’t need additional arguments that we wouldn’t recognize the attempt of the secession of our southern province, even if the entire world recognizes the so-called republic of Kosovo. And, as we know, Pristina is very far from such support.”

Talks on the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) in Brussels started without the Albanian representatives. Do you expect in the continuation of the dialogue that Pristina will accept for the ZSO to have executive jurisdictions?
“Despite Pristina’s absence, the formation process of the ZSO has been irrevocably initiated since we have had a very meaningful exchange of opinions with the EU representatives. Pristina will not be able to invent incoherent excuses for a very long time, whereby it wishes to delay this process. The Brussels agreement lists fields where the ZSO will have essential jurisdictions: economic development, education, healthcare, urbanism and rural development. Belgrade cannot accept less than what had been agreed and signed.”

 

Trapara: Turkish policy towards Serbia will not change (Radio Serbia)

The ruling Justice and Development Party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan polled the most votes at the elections last Sunday, but, for the first time after 13 years, lost the parliamentary majority and will have to form a coalition. That, however, is not going to result in any changed policy towards Serbia, Vladimir Trapara, a fellow of the Institute for International Politics and Economy in Belgrade. Trapara emphasizes that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not in a position to form the government on its own. At the parliamentary elections on Sunday, it polled 41% of votes, so it is to have 259 MPs of the total of 550. Therefore it will require a coalition partner and, according to Vladimir Trapara, it is almost certain that the partner is going to be the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), which polled 12.5% of votes. For several years, Erdogan and his party have been conducting a policy of approximation with Kurdish leaders, which is also reflected in the Turkish foreign policy, above all towards Syria and Iraq, Turkey supporting Kurds more and more, says Trapara. He believes that the cooperation will continue although it is not known yet if the minority partner will ask for something more than they can really get. That might complicate the government formation process, but it is certain that the new Turkish government will be formed sooner or later, says Trapara. He firmly rejects the possibility of a change in Turkish policy towards Serbia. Regardless of the outcome of the talks on the new government, that is not to have any influence on Serbia, he says. He emphasizes that, this time, Erdogan’s speeches on the eve of the elections did not contain the usual inflammable rhetoric which he used when, for instance, he commented on certain events in Sandzak in Serbia or in some other places outside Turkey, thereby providing more votes for himself at elections.

 

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Niksic: SDP will not enter a coalition with the SDA and HDZ B&H, elections are the solution (Fena)

Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Nermin Niksic said at the press conference that the SDP is not going to enter a coalition with the SDA and HDZ B&H, who are the members of the ruling coalition, from which the Democratic Front has departed. “The SDP is the opposition and we will act accordingly. We are not going to be a replacement for the DF. It’s strange to me that the DF generally found itself in such coalition. Internally we were all wondering, how the DF is going to survive in this coalition, because the axis HDZ - SDA works perfectly,” says Niksic. “At the same time I cannot get over the vassal relationship of the SDA towards the HDZ. I am surprised that anyone can treat the property of the Federation as the assets of a political party. As a solution to a crisis in the FB&H Government I propose the early elections.”

On this occasion, a member of the SDP and a delegate in the House of the Federation Parliament Aner Zuljevic stressed that the situation in the House of peoples is such that it supports the urgent need for early elections in the FB&H. “At the last session of this House of peoples, the FB&H Prime Minister did not want to tell the delegates does the parliamentary majority exist in the Federation or not. The votes showed that the parliamentary majority does not exist,” said Zuljevic. The fact is, he adds, that this kind of work raises the question of whether the House of peoples is going to adopt more than 60 laws that were inherited from the previous government.

 

Ivanic: Great Britain’s resolution on Srebrenica targets RS and Dodik (Srna)

The B&H Presidency Chairman Mladen Ivanic says that a resolution on Srebrenica, which is prepared by Great Britain, carries the risk of divisions and is a potential step backwards for the B&H. Ivanic has told reporters in Belgrade that there was a similar proposal in the past which was done by lobbyists and that it was absolutely unacceptable. He believes that the new proposal will test whether international institutions will retain the sense of proportion and create a resolution that will look to the future or if the whole thing will be used to return B&H to the past. “In my opinion, this should not have been dealt with now because B&H has just entered some kind of a positive period. I’m afraid that this will bring us back,” warned Ivanic. In a few days, he said, the contents of the resolution will be known but that he is not certain whether the proponent will be able to have a balanced approach. The biggest responsibility lies on Great Britain, which has, by deciding to propose the resolution, assumed also the political responsibility on the use, that is abuse of the document, he said. “If the resolution divides us again, then the responsibility lies on those who took it upon themselves to do it. They won’t be able to find any excuse for their negative role,” said Ivanic. The media reported that Great Britain is preparing a resolution on Srebrenica before the UN Security Council and that the “main targets” of the offensive on marking 20 years since the events in Srebrenica are Republika Srpska (RS) and its President Milorad Dodik. The media also report that Great Britain has thus joined the United States and Germany, which have already launched their own actions to reduce the powers of the RS and President Dodik.

 

HDZ B&H: Resolution on Srebrenica – “adding oil to the fire” (Srna)

Today a meeting of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly is being held in Sarajevo, on whose agenda is the draft resolution on Srebrenica, proposed by Denis Becirovic and Mirsad Mesic from SDP B&H and Zaim Backovic from BPS. In the proposed resolution, the events in Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 were characterized as “genocide”. The HDZ B&H delegate, in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H, Borjana Kristo considers the proposal of the Resolution on Srebrenica “adding oil to the fire” in the parliament of B&H. She believes that the B&H parliament should adopt a resolution made by the European Parliament, and not something modified, and in this way. “The position of the HDZ B&H in regard to the proposed resolution is going to be abstaining from voting,” said Kristo.

 

RS economic policy compatible with reform agenda (Srna)

The RS Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic, stated on Wednesday in a meeting with Director General for International Development Cooperation in the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cecilia Bjorner, that the RS government actively works towards the implementation of the objectives defined by the Economic Policy for the current year and stressed that the document is compatible with the Reform Agenda. The current economic situation in RS and B&H was discussed in the meeting, with reference to the agenda of economic reforms, the Public Relations Bureau of the RS Government announced. Cvijanovic thanked for the relief that Sweden was providing in the past period through various development programs to the RS government. It has been estimated in the meeting that the cooperation between ministries in the RS government and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has been very good so far and that a commitment to the continuation of cooperation on joint projects exists. The meeting was also attended by the newly appointed Swedish Ambassador to B&H, Fredrik Schiller.

 

Preda: The crisis in the Federation - a serious problem (Srna/Dnevni avaz)

European Parliament Rapporteur for B&H Cristian Dan Preda said the political crisis that led to the collapse of a coalition of the Federation of B&H is a serious problem and a worrisome sign, which comes at a very inopportune moment. “The moment of political strife could not be worse, given the fact that everything happens on the eve of the visit of the EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn,” said Preda. He told Dnevni avaz that B&H needs stability and unity of political forces which would agree the reforms and encourage the reform steps that are essential for the European path. “Unfortunately, what we are seeing now, does not represent what the B&H needs,” added Preda. He stressed that political arguments should be set aside when one country has so much work to implement, in order to show a genuine effort based on consensus regarding the implementation of reforms. “With a renewed EU approach towards B&H, it seemed that the country would be brought back on the path towards the EU membership, your politicians must not afford the luxury of having B&H jumping out of those EU rails,” said Preda.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Berlin pressures Serbia to normalise relations with Kosovo (EurActiv, by Smiljana Vukojcic, 10 June 2015)

A leading German MEP has said that the upcoming meeting between Belgrade and Pristina on 23 June might be the key to open EU-Serbia accession negotiations. EurActiv Serbia reports.

In its efforts to open talks Serbia should now invest all its efforts in political dialogue with Pristina, beginning with the June meeting, European Parliament rapporteur for Serbia David McAllister (EPP, Germany) told an audience in Belgrade (8 June). As a well-informed European source told EurActiv Serbia, McAllister, from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, brought his message not just from the European Parliament, but also from Berlin. Apart from the political requirements, the improvement of the economy was also seen as an engine to boost Serbia’s EU integration process, McAllister said. Candidate status for EU membership was accorded to Serbia in March 2012. But negotiations have been stalled since January 2014. The complex issue of normalisation of relations with Kosovo, which unilaterally claimed independence from Serbia in 2008, is often cited as one of the key reasons for that. Speaking at the Economic Summit of Serbia, McAllister said that the upcoming meeting of prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo, Aleksandar Vučić and Isa Mustafa, could have a decisive impact on whether Serbia manages to open the first chapters in the EU accession negotiations. For tangible improvements, both sides need to be constructive. Both Belgrade and Pristina need to increase their efforts to prove their credibility and commitment, McAllister said. The 23 June meeting is part of the political dialogue between Kosovo and Belgrade. Serbian daily Danas writes that prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo could sign agreements previously reached at technical level, including one assigning an international phone code to Kosovo. For the time being, Kosovo uses the codes of other countries, such as Monaco. Resolving the open issues with Kosovo will be addressed in chapter 35 of the negotiating documents – "other issues" - which is usually the last chapter to be closed. This chapter's political implications will likely become a significant challenge for Serbia. McAllister cited Merkel several times in his address, as he stressed the importance of regional cooperation as the precondition for peace, stability and prosperity in the Western Balkans. The rapporteur also praised the mutual visits of the Albanian and Serbian prime ministers Edi Rama and Aleksandar Vučić. Rama visited Belgrade in November 2014, the first Albanian leader do so since 1946. In May 2015, Vučić became the first Serbian leader to visit Albania. Relations between Serbia and Albania tend to be tense, and Kosovo features highly among the reasons for the disputes.

Economy as a Challenge

Apart from Kosovo, Serbia’s authorities are in intense consultation with Brussels to finalise the action plans for opening chapters 23 and 24 on rule of law, justice, fundamental rights and security. Serbia finalised its screening process in March 2015. The European Commission has by now tabled 12 out of 35 screening reports, while the remaining screening reports are in preparation and planned to be presented to Belgrade by the end of the year. During his visit to Belgrade, McAllister pointed out the economy as the top priority for Serbia in the EU integration process. Vladimir Gligorov, Professor at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, said that in view of the fiscal and external imbalance, the low competitiveness, as well as presence of the state in the various aspects of the economy, adjustment periods would last from three to five to as much as ten years. This period will, as he outlined, be marked by low growth.

Montenegro ahead of the others

Discussing the importance Brussels attributed to regional cooperation, but also the enlargement fatigue in the EU, participants at the economic summit questioned whether the Western Balkans countries would be accepted in the EU as a group, as had happened in some previous enlargements. McAllister, and Head of the EU Delegation in Serbia Michael Davenport, said that this was unlikely and that every country would be assessed separately. In this respect, Montenegro is ahead of the others with negotiations already underway. The remaining Western Balkan countries are slower to advance, with Macedonia waiting whole decade for opening negotiations. This process is in large part due to its name dispute with Greece. Albania was granted candidate status in 2014 but Brussels says further progress is needed for opening the negotiations. Bosnia and Herzegovina, stalled by political divisions in the country, needs a new approach that enables delaying the needed constitutional changes in order to advance with the Stabilisation and Association Agreement. Kosovo is at the end of the line, waiting for the proposed Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) to be adopted internally by the EU before it is expected to enter into force in 2016.

 

On the chessboard of the powerful, is Serbia a pawn? (DW, 10 June 2015)

Serbia kept close to Russia until the country interfered in Ukraine. Now, the ex-Yugoslav nation has become increasingly interesting to the United States - an interest Serbia has done nothing to discourage. There aren't many top politicians today who still know the names of the entire Russian ice hockey team that flew to Lake Placid, New York, as the favorites to win the gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Nor many that were so disappointed when the United States beat the Russians 4-3 in a game that would go into the US history books as the "Miracle on Ice."

"I could barely sleep after the game," current Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said in an interview. A 9-year-old hockey fan during the 1980 Olympics, Vucic grew up to be a radical Serbian nationalist whose politics were defined by a love of Russia and a hatred of the US. But that all seems to be history now. Last week, following a three-day trip to the United States, Vucic spoke of partnership with "our American friends." Until recently, Serbia had been viewed as a Russian client state. "Gas is one of the big reasons for the revival of strategic games in the Balkans," Milan Culibrk, editor-in-chief of the Belgrade weekly newspaper NIN, told DW. Like other countries in the region, Serbia is dependent upon Russian gas, which flows along an uncertain route through Ukraine and arrives at prices that no longer evoke the countries' former solidarity. That is why, for years, Serbian power brokers have pinned their hopes on the construction of the South Stream Pipeline, a Russian project designed to deliver the much-needed gas via the Caspian Sea and Bulgaria. However, South Stream has been thwarted by EU regulations. Recently, Gazprom also announced that it would cease pumping gas through Ukraine in 2019. "Serbia is forced to look for alternatives," Culibrk said. "One option might be the planned Russian pipeline running through Turkey, if it is ever built. Another possibility might be linking into the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which is supposed to deliver gas from Azerbaijan. Or, alternatively, buying US liquid gas, which could one day be transported to the Croatian island of Krk." If you read it in the papers, it must be true: "Farewell, Comrade Putin"

Prime Minister Vucic calls this search for new gas supplies "diversification." Yet many believe that Serbia is turning away from Russia and embracing the United States. The mass-circulation newspaper Blic recently printed the headline "Farewell, Comrade Putin." Vucic didn't just return home from the United States with new energy supply alternatives. After several meetings with prominent politicians and business leaders, he spoke about more foreign investment and US support for the speedier integration of Serbia into the European Union. The country has been an official EU membership candidate for over three years. However, negotiations for accession have not yet begun. Many observers have read this as a kind of silent sanction for Serbia's continued good relations with Russia.

Comradeship and pragmatism

Despite this newly discovered partnership with the United States, the cultural and historical connections between the Serbs and the Russians - two Slavic Orthodox peoples - still run deep. A recent poll of Serbs found that over 50 percent view Russia in a positive light. Moscow is also seen as the guardian of "Serbian Kosovo." The former southern province, which declared its independence in 2008, is recognized by most countries as a state, but not by UN Security Council member Russia. On the other hand, in 1999 the United States conducted airstrikes against Serbia to end the Kosovo War - but also killed hundreds of civilians and left destruction and devastation in its wake. These days, the subject of Kosovo is mostly present as a type of ritual in Serbian politics, according to Jelica Minic from the NGO European Movement International. That is why the "goodwill gesture" by US businesses could change the mood. "The emotional connections are not insignificant, but, above all, people are pragmatic - and willing to support whoever can make the survival of the national economy possible," Minic told DW.

Experts are unanimous: Ever since Russia began interfering in Ukraine, Serbia and the rest of the Balkans have grown increasingly interesting to global powers. In February, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that these countries were "in the line of fire." Serbia plays a special role in the larger scheme of things - not only has it opposed sanctions against Russia and participated in Moscow's Victory Day military parade, but Belgrade is in possession of this year's rotating presidency of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Beyond that, Minic said, Serbia lies at the heart of the Balkans, which is not to be geopolitically underestimated: "Neither the West, nor Russia, nor Turkey - which also has a particular interest in the region - can afford to neglect their relations with Serbia. For us, that is potentially an advantage, but it also contains dangers." According to the newspaper Blic, Serbia is under tremendous pressure from both sides. "The West says that Serbia has the right to maintain its friendship with Russia; the Russians say they don't have anything against EU membership for Serbia," Blic reported. "Neither side is telling the truth." NIN's Culibrk is also worried: "The Balkans are still the place where the interests of the powerful are woven together into a giant invisible network."

And the game goes on. Immediately after his US visit, Prime Minister Vucic received an invitation to Moscow from his counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, even though Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had just visited Serbia in May. The next special guest will be visiting Belgrade in the beginning of July: German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

 

Moderate Bosnian Muslims called to join Islamic State (The Irish Times, 10 June 2015)

Radicals exploit social and economic woes of traditionally moderate Balkan Muslims

The video’s slick style is now familiar: between clips of documentary footage, and with English subtitles, young Muslim gunmen urge fellow believers to join them in Islamic State, to wreak bloody vengeance on an infidel West. But the languages the men speak are surprising: they espouse mass murder in Bosnian and Albanian and tell those who cannot come to the IS “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq to wage jihad at home, in the Balkans. The video appeared online before Pope Francis’s visit last weekend to Bosnia, where he preached peace and reconciliation a month before the 20th anniversary of the Serb slaughter of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica. The film paints Balkan history, including Bosnia’s 1992-5 inter-ethnic war, as a long tale of Muslim suffering at Christian hands and it is Islamic State’s strongest message to disaffected Muslims in Albania and former Yugoslavia. It comes as the Balkan states face growing western pressure to staunch the flow of hundreds of young men to IS and other radical groups, to monitor closely those who return from the battlefield and to find out who recruits them – and how.

Continuing tension

With its recent history of ethnic conflict and Serb genocide of Muslim Bosnians, continuing tension between its communities and dysfunctional state and security structures, Bosnia is under particular scrutiny for signs of rising radicalism. According to Vlado Azinovic, an expert on terrorism at Sarajevo University, about 156 Bosnian men and 61 women and children left the country for Syria and Iraq between December 2012 and December 2014; about 26 were killed there and about 50 have returned home. In proportion to the country’s population of 3.8 million, Bosnia has one of Europe’s highest participation rates in the Syrian conflict, which is baffling to those who cherish the moderate Islam that has prevailed here for 500 years. More radical beliefs came to Bosnia with mujahideen fighters who arrived from the Middle East and North Africa during the 1992-5 war. The areas where they settled after the war are those most commonly associated now with “rogue” Bosnian-born preachers of Wahhabi or Salafi Islam, who move from village to village holding covert, unauthorised prayer meetings. For several years, the unofficial leader of Bosnia’s Salafi community was Nusret Imamovic, whom the US has now placed on a list of “specially designated global terrorists” for allegedly joining the al-Qaeda- linked Nusra Front in Syria. He was formerly based in Gornja Maoca, a remote Bosnian village abandoned by Serbs during the war and taken over by Wahhabis, who flew the black banner of Islamic State there earlier this year. Many Bosnians now with Islamic State and Nusra spent time in Gornja Maoca, as did Mevlid Jasarevic, who is serving 18 years in jail for strafing the US embassy in Sarajevo with more than 100 bullets in 2011. Emrah Fojnica, a Bosnian who was acquitted of being Jasarevic’s accomplice and also lived for a while in Gornja Maoca, blew himself up last August at a Baghdad market, killing more than 20 people. Such cases have prompted Bosnia’s security forces to step up raids and arrests against suspected radical Islamists. Last year the country passed a law threatening citizens who fought abroad with a 10-year jail sentence on their return.

Rogue preachers

In recent weeks, Bosnian prosecutors accused 12 people of travelling to the Middle East to fight for Islamic State, while the US charged six Bosnian immigrants with sending cash and supplies to IS and similar groups. The successor to Imamovic as Bosnia’s unofficial Wahhabi leader in Bosnia, Husein Bilal Bosnic, is now on trial for inciting terrorism and recruiting for IS. Azinovic, who is an expert witness for the prosecution in the case, said Bosnia’s rogue preachers often had great sway over their congregation, and particularly those who end up with Islamic State. “In very few instances do they [recruits] have more than an elementary school education and I question their ability to grasp the ideas behind the ideology; they want simple instructions on how to live their daily lives,” he said. “They are on the fringes of society, completely marginalised geographically, socially, economically. They come from places that any individual would be desperate to leave, at any point, to go anywhere.” The co-author of a forthcoming study on Balkan fighters in the Middle East, Azinovic said Muslim anger over the 1990s war and genocide – which has provoked remarkably few revenge attacks – is less a factor in pushing Bosnians towards IS than the country’s political, economic and social problems. “This is a failing state,” he said of a country still run according to a western-designed 1995 peace deal that created a bewildering administrative system in a bid to maintain a balance of power between ethnic groups. The arrangement lumbered Bosnia with several parliaments, more than a dozen governments at various levels and 22 police agencies, which often refuse to work together and pursue their own interests, paralysing the country. “Youth unemployment is the highest in the world, around 63 per cent – worse than Gaza. All those young Bosnians have nothing to do, no prospects, and it’s a similar story in Kosovo, ” said Azinovic. With Bosnia’s politicians characteristically slow to tackle the issue of radicalisation, the country’s Islamic Community – the official Muslim organisation in Bosnia since it was part of the Habsburg Empire – has taken the lead.

Living together

The community has urged the authorities to revoke the citizenship of people who fight abroad and asked the Sarajevo embassies of Muslim states to seek its approval before allowing Bosnians to make foreign study trips. Razim Colic, the community’s director for foreign affairs, said radical Islam had come to Bosnia from outside – first with the 1990s mujahideen and now, above all, from Wahhabis in western Europe – and had little support and shallow roots in the country. “Bosnians have such a long history of co-operation, and that is coming back after the war,” he said. “I don’t think radicalisation will live long in Bosnia – our tradition of living together is much stronger than the troubles we have now.”

 

Britain preparing’ UN resolution on Srebrenica killings (Reuters, 10 June 2015)

SARAJEVO: Britain is drafting a resolution at the United Nations Security Council to mark next month’s 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, potentially piling pressure on Serbia to recognise it as genocide. On July 11, Bosnia will commemorate two decades since Bosnian Serb forces swept into a UN safe haven and killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the days that followed, dumping their bodies into pits in the surrounding forests. The Hague-based UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has ruled that the massacre — the worst mass killing on European soil since the Nazis — constituted genocide, a term the Bosnian Serbs still dispute and which Serbia studiously avoids. Britain’s ambassador to Bosnia, Edward Ferguson, said in a statement that the exact content of the resolution was still under discussion. But, he said, “we expect that it will commemorate the victims of the genocide at Srebrenica, and those who suffered on all sides in the war, and that it will encourage further steps towards reconciliation and a brighter future for Bosnia and Herzegovina.” In 2010, as it sought closer ties with the West, Serbia adopted a declaration condemning the massacre, but without describing it as genocide, and former President Boris Tadic attended the 15th anniversary commemoration. Under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia backed ethnic Serb forces in Bosnia and Croatia, where a total of some 125,000 people died as socialist Yugoslavia fell apart. It is not yet known who will represent Serbia at this year’s commemoration, but Belgrade has already expressed unease at the prospect of a UN resolution, which would require either a ‘Yes’ vote or an abstention from Serbian ally Russia.