LOCAL PRESS

 

Pristina waiting 12 October (Danas)

The success of Belgrade’s “difficult diplomatic battle” against Kosovo’s UNESCO membership, which was announced by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, will have the first test this week. The 197^th session of the UNESCO Executive Council commences on 7 October in Paris, whose preliminary agenda also includes Kosovo’s request to join UNESCO, which was submitted by Albania on behalf of Pristina. The session begins with the Executive Council Bureau that will examine the preliminary agenda, but the decision on the final topics for debate will be passed at the first plenary session on 12 October, one day before the announced resumption of the political dialogue in Brussels, where Belgrade will request the opening of negotiations on the status and property of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija. “The fact that the next round of the political negotiations will be scheduled precisely at a time when the UNESCO Executive Council should decide on placing Kosovo’s request on the agenda is certainly not a recommendation to fulfill this request, especially since it is expected that the Serbian Orthodox cultural heritage could also be the subject of talks in Brussels. Serbia has been insisting on the fact that political issues should not be debated in UNESCO, but primarily in Brussels, and the complex theme of the status of the Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija is certainly a political issue and not only a cultural one. From ensuring its physical protection in a hostile environment, through the legal regulation of the status – this certainly cannot be the ‘ownership of the state of Kosovo’, as the draft law on cultural heritage envisages, to property issues, since there are indications that the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church over churches and monasteries could be brought into question. All that should be discussed in the course of the negotiations in Brussels,” the Serbian Ambassador to UNESCO Darko Tanaskovic tells Danas. The Serbian Foreign Ministry states that the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Serbia to UNESCO, along with all other Serbian diplomatic-consular offices, is engaged in the diplomatic battle against Kosovo’s UNESCO membership, which is being conducted at all levels and fronts. “The activities have been additionally strengthened towards the member states of the UNESCO Executive Council having in mind that the UNESCO General Conference decides on new members based on the recommendation of this council. The highest officials are initiating this issue in all contacts with foreign officials and presenting stands against Kosovo’s UNESCO membership. This issue was also in the focus of a series of bilateral meetings when the Serbian delegation attended the general debate of the 70^th session of the UN General Assembly,” the Foreign Ministry underlined. Yet, what the Serbian Foreign Ministry doesn’t want to comment why, despite all efforts by Belgrade, Pristina has been receiving greater support for UNESCO membership. The Foreign Ministry also didn’t wish to give an answer to Danas’ question whether Serbia had sent any kind of diplomatic protest to Albania because it submitted Kosovo’s request for UNESCO membership and how this interference by Tirana will impact the relations between Serbia and Albania.

 

Miscevic: Chapter 35 does not replace dialogue (Danas)

Serbia will not have a negotiating position for Chapter 35 that deals with the normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations in the negotiations with the EU. This chapter doesn’t replace the dialogue on normalization of relations and that is why we don’t need a negotiating position. Chapter 35 will most probably open first in the Serbia-EU negotiations that should commence by the end of the year, according to all announcements from both Brussels and Belgrade. The Head of the Serbian negotiating team with the EU Tanja Miscevic tells Danas that the screening report of this chapter will be available to Belgrade when it is adopted by the member states in the European Council. “The European Commission presents the screening report to the member states in the European Council, and not to us. It will be available only once the Council adopts it. According to what we know, there are no criteria for opening Chapter 35. That chapter doesn’t replace the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, but it will monitor everything that had been agreed in the course of that dialogue. We don’t need a negotiating position for this,” said Miscevic.

 

Brussels postponing progress reports (Novosti)

The package of annual reports of the European Commission (EC) on progress of candidate states for EU membership has been postponed for one week and will be presented in the second half of October, the EC announced. According to the official EC explanation, the publishing of the report on candidates, including Serbia, which was scheduled for 14 October, has been postponed since the EU summit devoted to primarily the migrant crisis will be held on the same day, so it would not receive the public and media attention that it deserves. However, according to unofficial information, the entire package has been postponed over Ankara, i.e. the report on Turkey’s progress that is not exactly favorable and the decision on the visa liberalization for Turkish citizens has not yet been made. The EC estimates that it would not be good to “anger” Ankara at a moment when the member states are trying to make a deal for this country to take the greatest burden of caring for the refugees.

 

Miskovic: More than 1,900 refugees entered Serbia (Tanjug)

More than 1,900 refugees from the Middle East have been registered on Tuesday between midnight and 12:30 p.m. at the reception center in Presevo, southern Serbia. A large number of men, women and children from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries have been arriving in Presevo non-stop over the past several days, and the trend is expected to continue. “From midnight until now (around 12:30 p.m.), certificates have been issued to some 1,900 people, and the reception center in Presevo is now empty,” spokesman of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration Ivan Miskovic told Tanjug. The refugees at the reception center in Presevo have come from Macedonia through Miratovac, where a temporary tent camp has been set up to provide shelter and emergency medical assistance to those in need. The registration process is being conducted by activists of the Red Cross, international relief organizations, and volunteers, along with the Presevo police.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Meeting Izetbegovic -Radoncic: talks of SDA and SBB are going in a good direction (Nezavisne/Fena)

President of the SDA, Bakir Izetbegovic and the President of SBB Fahrudin Radoncic agreed during yesterday’s meeting in Sarajevo that this week the bodies of both parties will accelerate the process of forming a coalition. “We will fully support the reform agenda... whether or not the SBB is in opposition or not,” Radoncic said after a meeting with the Bosniak member of the B&H tripartite presidency Bakir Izetbegovic. Radoncic said the SBB would back the government’s reform agenda regardless of whether it becomes the official part of the ruling coalition and won positions in the Federation institutions. He added that he and Izetbegovic will continue discussing the modalities of their cooperation in the coming days. Under the agreement, the SBB will support proposed rebalance of the Federation budget which is on agenda of the Federation parliament on Friday, Radoncic added.

 

Republika Srpska set on meeting standards for Euro integration (Srna)

The Republika Srpska (RS) is firmly committed to meeting the standards in the process of European integration, acknowledging the constitutional structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) at that, which is confirmed by international treaties such as the Dayton Peace Accords, says the RS Assembly speaker Nedeljko Cubrilovic. Cubrilovic exchanged views during a meeting with the Serbian Ambassador to B&H Stanimir Vukicevic and Consul General Vladimir Nikolic in Banja Luka about the current political situation in RS, B&H and the region, the national assembly speaker’s office said. Cubrilovic and Vukicevic also spoke about improving the RS-Serbia cooperation in accordance with the Agreement on Special and Parallel Relations, particularly in terms of business, economy and trade. The officials stressed a very good cooperation in science, education and culture, reflected in the successfully organized joint scientific and professional meetings, as well as a very good cooperation between the RS and Serbian cultural institutions.

 

 

 

Witness confirms rape by HVO member Ilija Juric (Srna)

In a trial for the crimes committed against Serb women in Odzak, witness Milica Djekic confirmed she had been raped by the accused Ilija Juric. At the invitation of the B&H, Ms Djekic testified again and repeated that she had been raped by Juric and that among the soldiers who were present when she was raped in a house in Posavska Mahala in the Odzak municipality, there were Pavo Glavas, Ilija Glavas, Marijan Brnjic and Martin Barukcic. “They tore me up, there was blood all over me. It lasted half a night. Pain and suffering. At the end they threw me out, I was unable to move, I was kicked about. Two women helped me up and I went home,” recounted Djekic. She said that all the soldiers had been wearing camouflage uniforms with the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) emblems and that they had been carrying rifles, reports BIRN. Djekic said she could not recall how many times she had given statements about what she had gone through. “To the HVO I gave statements when they were supposed to take me to a doctor. I didn’t say then what had happened to me, because I didn’t want to. In 1994, I gave a statement to the Women’s Association, they made the minutes. That’s when I described what had happened to me,” Djekic said. Juric is charged with raping and sexually abusing a Serb female in a house in Posavska Mahala in the night of June 4/5, 1995, when he was a member of the HVO 102nd Brigade. The Prosecutor’s Office of B&H also charges Juric with ambushing in July 1992, together with other soldiers, and abusing two women of Serb ethnicity who were on their way, together with their children, to see their husbands incarcerated in the Elementary School in Odzak visit. Martin Barukcic, Pavo Glavas, Ilija Glavas and Marijan Brnjic are charged with crimes committed in Odzak in a separate case. The trial will resume on October 12, when the Prosecutor’s Office is expected to present its closing arguments.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Albania Tightens Security Ahead of Serbia Match (BIRN, by Fatjona Mejdini and Igor Jovanovic, 6 October 2015)

Albania is deploying hundreds of extra police ahead of Thursday's football match with Serbia, to ensure there is no repeat of what happened when the two sides met in Serbia last year.

Albanian police spokesman Gentian Mullai told BIRN on Monday that tough measures are planned to secure a potentially high-risk football match between Albania and Serbia in Elbasan on Thursday. Mullai said 1,500 state police will be deployed alongside 400 private security officers contracted by the Albanian Football Association. Another 100 additional officers will come from the Albanian National Guard. "These forces will cover every aspect of the security required for this match and more can be added if we will need to," the spokesperson told BIRN.

 

Russia-EU Relations to Recover in Near Future – Serbian Ambassador (Sputnik, 5 October 2015)

Serbian Ambassador in Moscow Slavenko Terzic said that restoration of normal relations between Russia and the European Union will be the natural course of events

MOSCOW– Restoration of normal relations between Russia and the European Union will be the natural course of events, Serbian Ambassador in Moscow Slavenko Terzic said Monday. "It seems natural to me that in the near future normal relations between Russia and the European Union should be restored," Terzic told journalists, adding that Russia is a part of European civilization. According to the Serbian diplomat, the bloc "does not act independently enough" on a number of international issues. Moscow and the European Union have seen a deterioration of relations since 2014 following an escalation of a Ukrainian internal conflict. Since 2014, the bloc has introduced several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions, accusing Moscow of fueling the Ukrainian crisis, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. Russia responded to the restrictive measures with a one-year food embargo, announced in August 2014. The ban has since been extended for another year.

 

No policy of hatred towards refugees, says Serbian PM (Anadolu Agency, 6 October 2015)

Since beginning of 2015, 172,402 migrants have entered Serbia

"I will never accept policies of hatred towards refugees," said Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic at the "Balkan Route and Refugee Crisis" conference in the capital Belgrade Monday.

He noted that the latest waves of refugees represented the greatest challenge to the policy of migration in Europe. "A large wave of population movements from crisis areas, which are at first glance [far] away from us, reminded us of how the world really is small. We are all now dependent on each other. Endangering safety and preventing development and growth anywhere in the world, sooner or later, will have consequences for us," said Vucic. Since the beginning of 2015, a total of 172,402 migrants have entered Serbia. Meanwhile, about 114,237 immigrants entered Croatia since Hungary sealed its borders and 275 of them still remain at the refugee camp built by the troops, according to the latest data from the Croatian Interior Ministry.

 

Montenegro Activists Defy ‘Unlawful Protest’ Ban (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 6 October 2015)

Opposition politicians and activists pledge to continue protests across Montenegro, despite a police ban on ‘unauthorised’ demonstrations outside the capital

Hundreds of protesters in several major towns demonstrated on Monday against Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's administration, which they accuse of widespread corruption, undemocratic practices and election fraud. The main opposition party alliance, the Democratic Front, launched daily protests in 15 towns across Montenegro after mass protests started in the capital city Podgorica on September 27. Activists organised protests in towns where the Democratic Party of Socialists – the party led by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic - holds the majority of local parliamentary seats. Democratic Front leaders have called on other opposition parties to join the rallies and support protesters’ demands for the creation of an interim government to organise what they say would be Montenegro’s “first ever free and fair elections”. At demonstrations in several major towns, including Niksic, Budva, Bijelo Polje, Bar and Herceg Novi, protesters also called for early local elections and an investigation into the alleged misuse of state resources and political corruption. "We will show resistance to decades of legal violence, injustice, humiliation and electoral fraud, guided by the will of the majority of citizens of our community," local opposition official Milan Zejak said during a protest in the town of Mojkovac. The Interior Ministry said the opposition had failed to obtain approval to stage rallies in the 15 towns, saying applications to hold demonstrations were incomplete and were not submitted at least five days in advance, as the Law on Public Gathering requires. However, opposition leaders said they would continue protests in 15 municipalities no matter what the police said. Police said that even though the protests across the country were peaceful and no violations of public order were recorded, legal proceedings against the organisers will be launched "in each town in which more than 20 people protested". According to police estimates, only about 500 people demonstrated on Monday in the 15 towns, but opposition leaders claim it received the support of several thousand people. In Podgorica, representatives of the opposition, civic bodies and student organisations addressed protesters who have been rallying in front of the national parliament building since last week, where they set up a 'tent city' for demonstrators to stay overnight. "It is essential that all young people join the protests because there is no retreat, no surrender," Nikola Goranovic, from the student organisation OSA, said. Djukanovic has been in power since 1991 and is the longest serving leader in the Balkans and Europe. The current coalition government was formed after the 2012 elections. It comprises Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists, the Social Democratic Party, and three ethnic minority parties. The next general election is not due until spring next year.

 

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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.