LOCAL PRESS

 

Gasic: Vucic most endangered person, army prepared to protect him (Tanjug)

According to estimates of security services Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic is the most endangered person, and the army is absolutely prepared to protect him, SerbianDefense Minister Bratislav Gasic told Tanjug. He said that the Serbian Army was in charge of providing security to Vucic, and was absolutely prepared to respond to all threats and security risks, which may in any way endanger the Prime Minister. Speaking about security risks, and recalling the murder of prime minister Zoran Djindjic, Gasic said that the same actors are on the scene in Serbia even today. “These are political-criminal-tycoon-media actors, and they were present when that unfortunate event occurred, too,” said the Minister. He at the same time noted that the subordination of all security services provides sufficient data that is dealt with daily by a specially set up staff in the Defense Ministry, about which he cannot give more details.

 

Djuric: Kosovo Serbs have been and will be support to Vucic (RTS/FoNet)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric has announced that the Kosovo Serbs have been and will be support to Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in the fight for the rule of law, building strong institutions, re-establishment of the value system in a society that has been fundamentally undermined over the decades of decline. Djuric states in a written statement that the “banal attempt of discrediting the democratically elected leading man of the executive power in Serbia points to the danger of the domination of tabloid media over the Serbian public scene”. “Continuous increase of the membership of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Kosovo and Metohija is an indicator of the Serbs’ trust in the government policy and respect of social-political communities in the province for Serbian Prime Minister’s contribution in improving regional stability,” reads the written statement by Djuric. He notes that this is support to Prime Minister’s contribution to progress in EU integration, normalization of relations and strengthening of Serbia and the Serb community in Kosovo and Metohija, but also to the fight against corruption and crime, as well as building of healthy economic foundations for Serbia’s future.

 

SNP: Discontinue Brussels negotiations over endangerment of life of Kosovo Serbs (New Serbian Political Thought)

Following the threatening graffiti on Serb houses in Kosovo and Metohija with the message of the Islamic State that the Serbs are not welcome, and the lack of a reaction of the authorities in Pristina, the Serbian People’s Party (SNP) calls on an urgent discontinuation of the Brussels negotiations, because it is clear that there is no more protection of our citizens in the southern province. By accepting the bad “Brussels agreement”, the government in Belgrade has accepted to remove all Serbian state institutions and its legal order from Kosovo and to hand over the life and security of the Serbs to the law of the false state of Kosovo and institutions of separatists in Pristina. Everybody knows that terrorist bases of the Islamic State are present in Kosovo and Metohija and that certain structures of authorities in Pristina support them, so it is naïve to expect that the institutions of separatists will protect the lives of Serbs from this evil. Especially since it is known that they were jointly killing and expelling Serbs from Kosovo. At the same time, these same separatists refuse to implement the small gain from the “Brussels agreement”, the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities, as it was presented by the Serbian government and that was supposed to represent protection of the Serbs in Kosovo. It is the last moment to change the policy towards Kosovo. Serbia must request for its institutions and legal system to remain in our province, for our army and police to return to Kosovo, according to UNSCR 1244, over the presence of the Islamic State in Kosovo and threats to Serbs, to initiate the issue of new negotiations and to invite the international community, first of all Russia, which is leading the global fight against terrorism and the Islamic State, to join these new processes in Kosovo. The safety of the Serbs and Serbia’s interests in Kosovo cannot be sacrificed over the opening of two negotiating chapters with the EU.

 

Joksimovic: Chapter 35 is not a replacement for dialogue (RTS)

Serbian Minister in Charge of EU Integration Jadranka Joksimovic has told the morning news of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) that the opening of chapters in the EU accession talks is a significant positive signal and an acknowledgement for all the reforms undertaken by the Serbian government. “Officially, we opened the negotiations in 2014 and we have completed the screening - the opening of chapters is the next step and a significant positive signal,” Joksimovic says. “We waited a little longer, but it is not too late and we have not been wasting time. We will open Chapters 32 and 35 on 14 December,” Joksimovic said. She explains that Chapter 35 that concerns Kosovo is specific for Serbia and a novelty for the EU as well, because this chapter implied “other issues” for other candidate countries. “They were looking for a model on how to negotiate. This week they are harmonizing the negotiating position prepared by the European Commission. I think we presented our position in the right manner and that it is quite acceptable in the sense that it is not a replacement for the dialogue, but that it will monitor the implementation of the reached agreements,” said Joksimovic, pointing out that this is not a form of conditioning that would prevent the opening of next chapters.

 

Serbian peacekeepers set off to Lebanon (Tanjug)

Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic and Chief-of-Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces Ljubisa Dikovic saw off on Saturday members of the infantry brigade and the 3rd Ground Forces Brigade to the UN peacekeeping operation in Lebanon, UNIFIL. The ceremony was held at the Nis-based barrack Knjaz Mihailo for 175 Serbian soldiers who will stay in Lebanon for six months.Minister said that this rotation of peacekeepers is expected to continue the same path and to return with even better results, richer by numerous experiences, which, like their predecessors, upon returning to their units, they will share with their colleagues. “The Serbian soldier is honorable, well-trained and can respond to the most complex tasks. The Republic of Serbia will once again confirm that it is committed to the ideas and goals of the UN, honorably and fairly fulfilling the tasks that we are assigned in order to preserve peace in the world,” Defense Minister Gasic said. Company commander Captain Bosko Vasiljevic pointed out that the members of the company are ready to carry out all the tasks in the seventh rotation of the Serbian Armed Forces in the UN peacekeeping operation in Lebanon, UNIFIL, noting that past experience was integrated into the training system, so that the company is fully trained and motivated to carry out tasks. Platoon commander Lieutenant Bojan Maksimovic is extremely satisfied with the state of training and selected staff and assures that his unit will conduct all the tasks in the mission flawlessly. The members of infantry company and force protection platoon of the Third Brigade of the Army, staff officers and members of the national support element for the responsible duties in the sector “East” will set off to the Republic of Lebanon, and among them are nine women, one of whom is on the officer’s duty. The infantry company, commanded by Captain Bosko Vasiljevic, will carry out tasks as an independent unit within the Spanish contingent, while the force protection platoon, headed by Lieutenant Djordje Okolic, will act within the Italian contingent.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

RS officials reject state constitutional court ruling (Srna)

The Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik has said that the RS officials signed a joint statement late on Sunday rejecting the decision of the B&H Constitutional Court declaring certain provisions of the RS Holidays Law unconstitutional, and that they stood by the declaration recently adopted by the National Assembly. “We believe that the Constitutional Court decision was made with an intervention from international representatives and that there is a need to adopt a law on the Constitutional Court as soon as possible, not later than 120 days from now. We demand that the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina review and adopt that piece of legislation,” Dodik told a press conference after the meeting that took place in Banja Luka late on Sunday. Such a law will stipulate that a representative of the constitutive people and a representative of the entity constitute the majority for making decisions and that the foreign judges be removed from the Constitutional Court, he said. If this is not done within 120 days, political parties will take their stands on the participation in the joint institutions and sign another joint statement to reflect that. “We have agreed to organize a referendum, on the basis of the National Assembly decision, which would refer to the issue of whether the people in RS support this decision of the Constitutional Court and whether they support January 9 as the RS holiday,” said Dodik. The discussion on Sunday was constructive, Dodik said and expressed pleasure over the fact that the politicians managed to come up, under such complicated political circumstances, with a joint statement, calling on other political parties, institutions, bodies and even individuals to sign the statement as a part of the general attitude towards the Court’s ruling. “Demonstrating absolute unity in RS in this way, both of the political representatives and of the officials in RS and at the B&H state level, we have shown that we are capable and aware that we can respond to serious challenges in a very serious and united manner. Dodik said an operational plan would be drafted to implement those views. “The RS will propose a new law on the B&H Constitutional Court very soon, in the matter of weeks, to eliminate all possibilities to act, in a way, instead of the OHR, which has so far imposed decisions, and now we have the Constitutional Court which has intervened in the political system, political life and institutions in B&H with exactly the majorities that have presented themselves so far, and those are three foreigners and two Bosniaks,” noted the President. He voiced conviction that the signed statement would be executed. The meeting at the Palace of the Republic was attended by Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic, B&H Presidency member Mladen Ivanic, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Nenad Stevandic, Chairperson of the Council of Peoples Nada Tesanovic, member of the Advisory Board of the B&H House of Representatives Mladen Bosic, member of the Advisory Board of the B&H House of Peoples Ognjen Tadic, and B&H Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Mirko Sarovic. Other officials who responded to the President’s initiative were SNSD Vice-President Nebojsa Radmanovic, leaders of the Democratic People’s Alliance, Marko Pavic, Socialist Party, Petar Djokic, Party of Democratic Progress, Branislav Borenovic, and People’s Democratic Movement, Dragan Cavic.

 

RS Parliament should call a referendum on the decision of the B&H Constitutional Court (Srna)

The RS officials agreed that the RS parliament should call a referendum on the decision of the B&H Constitutional Court to abolish the RS Day, January 9. “The RS will continue to celebrate Republic Day on January 9, in keeping with the RS Law on Holidays which does not contain elements of discrimination, does not threaten the ethnic and religious identity and the equality of any of the three constituent peoples, and is fully in line with universal values and the European Acquis,” says a joint statement signed by RS officials. The statement was signed by SNSD President Milorad Dodik, the Speaker of the RS Parliament, Nedeljko Cubrilovic, Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic, the RS member of the B&H Presidency, Mladen Ivanic, the Chairman of the B&H House of Peoples, Ognjen Tadic, SDS leader Mladen Bosic, PDP leader Mladen Ivanic, DNS leader Marko Pavic, SP leader Petar Djokic, and NDP leader Dragan Cavic. The decision of the B&H Constitutional Court of November 26, which declared certain provisions of the RS Law on Holidays unconstitutional, is an unacceptable political act the aim of which is to negate the legality and legitimacy of RS and the constitutional and legal order of B&H as established by the Dayton Agreement, and as such it cannot be implemented and must be voided. “The decision was brought under the influence of foreign judges. This fact confirms that the Constitutional Court is not independent, and we reject any involvement of foreign judges in the court’s decision-making process and pressures from international representatives aimed at implementing this decision,” says the statement. The statement supports the Declaration which the RS Parliament, prompted by the request to the B&H Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality of the RS Law on Holidays, adopted on April 17. “The decision of the B&H Constitutional Court of November 26 is in the service of revision of the historical events which led to the creation of RS on January 9, 1992, which is absolutely unacceptable,” says the statement. The document calls on the RS Parliament to reject in the future all decisions of the B&H Constitutional Court brought by outvoting and which delve into RS’s status issues. The signatories to the statement ask the B&H Parliament to adopt a law on the B&H Constitutional Court within 120 days which would stipulate that decisions are brought with the participation of at least one judge from each of the constituent peoples and each of the Entities and which would stipulate that no foreign judge can sit in this court. If a new law on the B&H Constitutional Court is not passed within four months, the political parties will bring a decision if they will take part in the work of joint B&H institutions and will sign a joint statement to this effect. “We agree that an analysis of all decisions of the B&H Constitutional Court brought since 2001 be made and that the RS Parliament bring its conclusions on them, particularly on decisions brought by votes of three foreign and two Bosniak judges against the votes of other judges,” says the statement. The joint statement calls on other political parties, associations, organizations, institutions and citizens to support the stance of the signatories to this statement.

 

International conference in Belgrade: Court and Prosecutor’s Office of B&H in the context of (De)Stabilization of RS (Srna)

Participants of an international conference in Belgrade on Saturday concluded that the B&H Court and Prosecutor’s Office have failed to contribute to the establishment of justice and that they have been biased, primarily for the benefit of the Bosniak-Muslim side, which has been a source of constant tensions and further destabilized the country. Participants of the conference “Court and Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Context of (De)Stabilization of Republika Srpska” have agreed that the RS has the right to call a referendum on the performance of the two institutions. The vote would give RS citizens a chance to state their opinions in a democratic manner if no tangible or thorough judicial reforms that are guaranteed by the relevant international factors are achieved before the referendum is scheduled. ”No one has the right to deny the citizens of RS the fundamental human and civil right to publicly express their democratic will, while all efforts to that end violate the basic democratic rights founded upon the universal values and charters that have become an integral part of the European democratic structure and its values,” read the conclusions. The conference participants pointed out that the foundation of the Court and Prosecutor’s Office stood contrary to the Dayton Peace Agreement because the B&H Constitution (Annex IV) does not provide for central judicial bodies and stipulates that judiciary should remain exclusive competence of the entities. The conclusions further state: “The manner in which the centralized judicial bodies were formed was counter-constitutional too, because it was achieved by a decree of the High Representative by relying on the fictional Bonn powers, instead of relying on the manner provided for by the Constitution, through an agreement between the entities.” Eminent experts from Russia, Serbia and RS submitted that the so-called Bonn powers and their “(ab)use” by the high representatives in B&H constituted a permanent attack on the Dayton Agreement and degraded the treaty. That, along with the constant overstepping of the Dayton powers by high representatives, has been a factor of permanent destabilization of B&H, while the formation of the Court and Prosecutor’s Office was exactly the consequence of the forcibly imposed anti-Dayton situation, said the experts. “The described permanent degradation of the Dayton Agreement, primarily by the Western powers and Turkey, is meant to weaken RS and gradually drown it in a non-Dayton recognized centralized B&H, whereas the attempt to create a centralized B&H was the main reason for the breakout of war in 1992,” concluded the participants of the conference. They further stated in their conclusions that despite all odds, the leadership of RS has since 2011 demonstrated willingness for compromise in the form of a reform of the two judicial institutions, but those efforts have not led to any reforms yet, even with the EU’s mediation. Those are specifically the reasons why the RS leadership resorted to a referendum where the citizens would be provided a universal democratic right to publicly state their opinion on the issue of functionality of the B&H Court and Prosecutor’s Office, as well as the wider issue of an undemocratic and anti-Dayton way of imposing laws in the country. That would be done, the conclusions state, by answering the referendum question: “Do you support the unconstitutional and illegal imposition of laws by the High Representative and international community, particularly the imposed laws on the Court and Prosecutor’s Office of B&H, and the application of their decisions in the territory of RS?”

 

Daniel Serwer, US expert on the Balkans: If the referendum proceeds, the US government will take action against Dodik (Oslobodjenje)

Professor at the University “John Hopkins” in Washington and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations SAIS knows situation in this region very well, and he closely monitors developments in our country for more than two decades. In an interview with Oslobodjenje, he talks about B&H, advances and failures, US relations towards B&H, and he warns: 2020 is very close

During past several month there were numerous commemoration of the Dayton Peace Accord 20th Anniversary: November negotiations held in your country and the signing of the Dayton Accords in Paris on December 14th same year have, without no question, stopped the war - but it seems that we all expected different Bosnia and Herzegovina. How do you look back to these two decades of B&H?

- I see three different episodes in the post-war period. The initial one and a half to two years saw an end to the fighting but a very difficult period of peace implementation. This culminated in adoption of the Bonn powers that endowed the High Representative with authority to introduce legislation and dismiss officials. There ensued nine years or so of serious progress, especially under Wolfgang Petritsch and Paddy Ashdown. But rejection of the "April package" of constitutional amendments in 2006 ushered in a period of stagnation that continues today. So difficulty, progress and stagnation. But the peace endures. For that we should all be thankful.

You know the situation of my country very well and recently, in Washington D.C. you talked very sharply (and harshly) on possible referendum in Republika Srpska (RS). You know that Dodik has been long time very proud for his U.S. support - what do you think - what has happened and Dodik keeps threatening with breakup of B&H?

- I don't know anything about US support for Dodik today. I don't think he would be welcome even to visit the US as a tourist. I expect the referendum, if it proceeds, to precipitate serious US government action against him personally: at the very least a travel ban and freezing of assets. I hope the EU would do likewise, at a minimum. Whether or not the referendum happens, it is time for a full accounting of the wealth and property political leaders in B&H have acquired. Corruption and stripping of state assets is well-documented. It is time for it to stop.

If you were to be an advisor to the government in B&H, how would you scale the top priority tasks. What would they be?

- I would prioritize what the people of B&H want, in particular serious reforms to put the country on the path to greater prosperity and EU membership, including anti-corruption measures and constitutional revisions along the lines outlined by the Venice Commission more than a decade ago.

The world has changed significantly in past two decades. What is B&H's role in fight against terrorism?

- B&H needs to do what all the countries of the Balkans need to do: try to ensure that terrorism, in particular its Islamist variant, has no room in which to grow and recruit adherents. Economic prosperity, careful police investigations and fair judicial processes, counter-radical narratives and close cooperation with international partners all have a role to play.

You are coming to Sarajevo soon to a conference "Focus on Reforms: 2020 Vision for B&H". What will you talk about?

- I guess I’ll talk about B/H in 2020, or even further into the future. I fully expect that by 2035 B&H will be a well-established member state of the EU, one able and willing to implement the acquis communitaire and to provide livelihoods for its citizens, whatever their ethnicity. 2020 is tomorrow and therefore a first step on the way to a goal well worth achieving.

How do you see B&H in 2020?

It really isn’t far off. B&H will do well to have by then achieved a Membership Action Plan with NATO and to have begun accession negotiations with the EU. Its economy, along with that of the rest of Europe, should be in recovery and its youth returning from the EU to establish and invest in new businesses. Its military should become a model for the rest of society: respectful of ethnic differences, but fully integrated in a way that makes everyone dependent on everyone else for their prosperity and security. This will require far more Trust, based on transparency and accountability, than exists today.

Citizens of B&H would like for the country to join the EU, but they believe to reach that goal, US role is extremely important: Did the U.S. announce more active engagement with the recent visit of VP Biden to Zagreb and where is B&H in this?

- You will find the US fully supportive of EU membership for B&H, so long as it meets the requirements of the acquis communitaire. There is no substitute for that. The same will be true for NATO, if B&H decides it wants to become a member. It needs only meet the requirements of membership in order to gain US support.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Kerry's Serbia-Kosovo Tour to Focus on Security (BIRN, by Ivana Nikolic, Qendrese Mustafa, 30 November 2015)

US Secretary of State John Kerry will be visiting both Serbia and Kosovo this week – another high-profile Western visit to the region lately.

John Kerry will visit Belgrade on December 3 to take part in the annual ministerial council of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, organized by Serbia, the country chairing the organisation in 2015. Serbia’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said the main topics during the two-day meeting will be security-related in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris that left 129 people dead. “The ministerial meeting will be a great opportunity to talk about the fight against terrorism and questions concerning refugees,” Dacic said. Kerry’s is the second senior Western official to come to Serbia in two weeks. Earlier, Serbia hosted a visit by the NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, which experts said showed Serbia wants to maintain its foreign-policy balance between Russia and the West. The NATO Secretary-General's visit came shortly after the visit of the Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, to Moscow where Serbia agreed to buy Russian weapons. Bosko Jaksic, a Belgrade political analyst, told BIRN on Friday that Kerry’s visit to Serbia was mostly "ceremonial" and connected to the ongoing refugee crisis and terrorism. However, he did not exclude the likelihood of important bilateral unofficial talks. “Russian influence in the Balkans may be discussed behind the scenes, but it will not dominate [the talks] in public," he predicted. “It is obvious that the West will not initiate such a topic [in public] as it would even further damage already strained relations between the East and West," Jaksic said. Kerry’s visit comes amidst heighten tensions in the region following the Paris attacks in mid-November, which have led to Balkans countries limiting transit rights to migrants from war-torn states. Under new restrictions imposed last week, only Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis are being let through, while others from Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan and elsewhere are being blocked. A day before visiting Belgrade, Kerry will be in Kosovo, which has been in the middle of a political crisis for more than three months. The crisis centres on the government’s agreements to the formation of an autonomous Association of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo and to a border demarcation deal with Montenegro. Opposition parties in Kosovo have been blocking the work of parliament since early October and even setting off tear gas in the chamber, demanding that the government scrap its recent EU-mediated agreement with Belgrade, which they say gives Kosovo Serbs too much power. Pal Lekaj, an MP from the opposition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, told BIRN that his party does not know if the opposition will meet Kerry during his visit to Kosovo. Nevertheless, he does not believe that Kerry will urge the opposition to abandon its demands. “We still stick to those requests and we’ll continue because we have a just cause to make Kosovo a functional country, in which we’ve invested together with our international friends,” Lekaj said. Kosovar analyst Dukagjin Gorani argues that Kerry’s visit is mostly connected to security issues. “It’s ambitious of us to think that Kerry will be coming here because we have a crisis. Kerry is going to be here for regional security issues and for regional-international cooperation,” Gorani told BIRN. He thinks it far less likely that Kerry will be discussing Kosovo’s internal issues. “His messages will surely be general messages. Maybe during the meetings and discussions with his team they may mention the requests of the US government, about the special court and the agreement with Serbia on normalization,” Gorani concluded. The new special court, which is to be located in Kosovo and in The Netherlands, will deal with allegations that former fighters from the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, were involved in killings, abductions, illegal detentions and persecution in the war of independence. The formation of the court, like the municipal associaation, remains highly controversial in Kosovo.

Bosnian Serbs dismiss top court's order to change discriminatory law (Reuters, by Gordana Katana, 29 November 2015)

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia Bosnian Serb political leaders declared on Sunday they would not obey a ruling by Bosnia's top court to change a holidays law discriminating against other ethnic groups, dismissing the court as a "political body" which brings "political acts". "We are not giving up on the Republika Srpska Statehood Day, the Jan. 9, and we will continue to celebrate it," Branislav Borenovic, the head of the opposition Party of Democratic Progress (PDP), said at a news conference held with other five party leaders. Instead, they said they would ask for the creation of a law on the constitutional court that would establish a mechanism of ethnic voting to prevent judges of any ethnic group from outvoting judges of other ethnic groups. If such a law has not been passed in the national parliament in the next four months, they will organize a plebiscite on the holiday and may even walk out of state institutions, halting reforms that Bosnia needs to pursue its bid to join the European Union, said Serb Republic President Milorad Dodik. The condemnation of the court's ruling earlier this week has united otherwise rival ruling and opposition parties in Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, threatening to create a new political crisis in the volatile Balkan country. Bosnia's constitutional court was established by the Dayton peace accords that ended the Balkan country's war and its decisions are binding. Failing to implement a court decision is seen as a violation of the peace accords and the constitution. The Bosnian Serbs celebrate their Statehood Day on Jan. 9, the day when their own statelet was declared 23 years ago when Bosnia was still part of the former Yugoslavia. What followed was a bloody 1992-95 war in which over 100,000 people died. The court said the holiday violated the constitutional rights of Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats living in the region as it has been simultaneously celebrated as an Orthodox holiday. It ordered the region to find another date to mark its Statehood Day. The Serbs said the ruling, based on an appeal by Bosniak presidency member Bakir Izetbegovic three years ago, was made possible because international and Bosniak judges outvoted their Serb and Croat colleagues. They said that a future law should provide that international judges, who were included in the court after the war as balance to domestic judges elected according to their ethnicity, are absent from the court. "This is confirmation that the constitutional court has got out of its jurisdiction and turned into a political body which politically intervenes in the constitution," said Petar Djokic, head of the RS Socialist Party.

(Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

 

Migrants protest on Greece-Macedonia border (press.chronicle.com, 29 November 2015)

Some carried banners calling for the border to be opened, while others read "We are sorry for France but we are not dangerous" in an apparent reference to some of the suspects in last week's Paris attacks having used Europe's migrant crisis to slip into the continent. The official had spoken on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to publicly discuss security matters. He denied Slovenia was returning all economic migrants, but countries further down the migrant trail subsequently tightened controls for fear of new arrivals getting stuck on their territory. Ranko Ostojic, Croatian minister of home affairs, said he had "informed colleagues from Macedonia and Serbia that citizens [from Morocco, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Algeria, Liberia, Congo, Sudan, Pakistan] will no longer be able to use this route". The US State Department is helping improve border security in a handful of European countries overwhelmed with Syrian refugees, Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne Richard told Sputnik. The migrants continued to block the railway link from Greece to Macedonia. In a sign of their desperation, many had launched hunger strikes. Slovenian police spokesman Drago Menegalia said Thursday that in recent days, "there is increased number of persons who were recognized as pure economic migrants" entering the small Alpine state from Croatia. Ivanov, speaking after meeting with visiting European Council president Donald Tusk, also said "the risk of possible conflict between refugees and migrants, the migrants and police and army, and between migrants and local people is rated as high". "It is a decision made in urgency, out of desperation, they have to abandon their homes, their families". A spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) Melita Sunjic said Serbia had since Wednesday been allowing in refugees only from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq who had papers to prove their origins. And on the Croatia-Serbia border, Croats were only accepting people from those three countries plus Palestine, she said. A total of 6,000 refugees crossed into Macedonia from early Saturday through early Sunday, police say. Macedonia, together with Serbia, Croatia & Slovenia, has begun turning away migrants who usually are not from war zones reminiscent of Syria, Afghanistan & Iraq.---2 p.m. Denmark's top prosecution authority states a 41-year-old Dane shall be charged with smuggling migrants to Sweden, where they're believed to have sought asylum. A few 3,000 people are waiting at a camp nearby that provides temporary shelter for those heading north through the Balkans.

 

* * *

 

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.