LOCAL PRESS

 

Serbian elections in Kosovo with the help of OSCE (Novosti)

The early parliamentary elections which will be held this spring will also be held in Kosovo, with the help of the OSCE, according to the model which was used for the previous elections in 2014, Novostiwrites. Even though the Kosovo representatives were against such a decision, an agreement has been reached at the last round of the Brussels negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, Novosti writes citing an unnamed source acquainted with the details of the negotiations. At the 2014 elections, the Republic Election Commission (RIK) planned 90 polling stations in Kosovo, with a total of 107,476 registered voters, out of whom 33% turned out for the elections. Election material was submitted at the polling boards in Raska and Vranje, from where the OSCE took care of its safety. The OSCE Office in Kosovo did not either confirm or deny this news, but it did announce that, so far, no one had contacted them regarding this matter.

 

Verdict to KLA terrorists to be delivered on 17 February (Politika, by Toma Todorovic)

He final hearing in the repeated court trial against terrorists, KLA members who are charged with armed attacks on members of the Yugoslav Army at the end of the summer and beginning of the fall of 1998, was held yesterday before the Judicial Higher Court in Nis. They are tried in absentia. Judge Nebojsa Zikic announced that he will deliver the verdict on 17 February. This trail was repeated after the decision of the Appeals Chamber in Nis to abolish the previous verdict to the accused terrorists that was appealed by a defense counsel ex officio, which was delivered on 15 November 2011 at the Higher Court in Kosovska Mitrovica and the decision of the Court of Cassation of Serbia for a new trial to be held at the Higher Court in Nis. At the previous trial, all defendants were found guilty and were sentenced to 15 years in prison. In the repeated court trial in Nis, the proceeding was conducted against Sicer Maljoku (1967) from Junik near Decani, Jager Gashi (1970) from Donja Krusica near Suva Reka, Demush Gatsaferi (1972) from Junik, Demaj Maljoku (1978) from Djocaj near Decani, Agron Isufi (1971) from Stimlje, Anton Cuni (1967) from Djakovica and Alia Rabit (1955) from Crnotica near Presevo. The indictment charges seven terrorists with having planted anti-tank mines in September 1998 at the Yugoslav-Albanian border, between the “Maja coban” and “Morina” watch towers. The terrorists were illegally entering the territory of Yugoslavia via the “Kamenica” watch tower on the Albanian side, and their commander was Agim Ramadani. From an ambush set on 30 September 1998, the KLA terrorists attacked a Yugoslav Army patrol that was passing and activated the mines that blew up the vehicle with Yugoslav soldiers, border guards. Yugoslav Army patrol leader Milan Bundalo was heavily wounded from the explosion in the military vehicle, and died two hours after that, while soldiers, border guards, Boban Mihajlovic, Sladjan Jovanovic, Sasa Kostic and Goran Jovanovic sustained serious injuries. When a Yugoslav Army helicopter began to fly over the terrain where the explosion occurred with the intention of taking care of the wounded soldiers, the terrorists opened rocket fire and fire from small arms on the helicopter. Several hours later the same group of terrorists attacked from ambush with bombs and rocket launchers another patrol vehicle with Yugoslav Army members. In this attack the following soldiers, border guards, were killed: Vladimir Radoicic, Miladin Gobeljic, Ilija Pavlovic, Miroslav Jocic and Milos Pavlovic. Border patrol leader captain Goran Loznica and soldier Goran Simic were heavily wounded in the same attack, while sergeant major Dobrosav Drazic remained unwounded and managed to escape the terrorists.

 

ICTY: Serbia is not cooperating and making effort to arrest three SRS members (RTS/Beta)

The ICTY has once again called the Serbian authorities to promptly arrest and extradite to The Hague three members of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) Vjerica Radeta, Petar Jojic and Jovo Ostojic for contempt of the court. “The Trial Chamber is seriously concerned over the lack of efforts of the Serbian government and its omission to cooperate” in the arrest of the indictees, said Presiding Judge Alfonso Ori at the debate that was attended Serbian government legal representative Sasa Obradovic. Judge Ori has on several occasions underlined, in a harsh tone, that the Serbian authorities have the legal obligation to implement “without delay” the ICTY order for arresting three indictees. Ori said that if Serbia doesn’t do so, the UN Security Council, where the ICTY reported Serbia for failing to cooperate, could undertake further measures. The Presiding Judge insisted that Obradovic answers what meaningful action had Serbia undertaken to arrest the indictees. Obradovic said that if he is allowed to speak only about the arrest, then he wouldn’t have anything to say and he could sit down, but that the government was active concerning the ICTY orders. “Thus, your answer is: We didn’t do anything, and your primary obligation was to arrest the indictees,” said Judge Ori. Obradovic replied that the Serbian government must pay attention to the “political-security aspects” of cooperation with the ICTY, since it opines that the “situation since the end of 2014 has not been simple at all”, about which it had informed the court in detail in confidential reports. The Serbian government “didn’t understand the need of the ICTY Presiding to report Serbia to the UN SC in October 2015 for contempt of the court”, said Obradovic. He recalled that this kind of report has never been submitted against France, which refused to extradite former ICTY spokesperson Florence Hartmann in a similar trial for contempt of the court. France hasn’t implemented the order of arresting Hartmann since 2011. “For the people in Serbia, this is proof that not all UN member states are equal before the ICTY,” said Obradovic.

 

Investigation into Tomilir’s death ordered (Politika, by Dorotea Carnic)

The ICTY announced that judge Theodor Meron, president of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, has ordered an investigation on Zdravko Tolimir’s death, which is obligatory according to the national legislature. Tolimir died while waiting to be transferred to a state where he was supposed to serve his sentence. His name is now on the list, which is becoming longer, of those who didn’t make it from the prison to which they had been sent by the ICTY. Mile Mrksic (68), former commander of the Army of the Republika Srpska Krajina (RSK), died last summer while serving the sentence in Portugal, one month before the expiry of two-thirds of the sentence. There are many Serbian citizens who were very ill in Scheveningen and had complaints to doctors’ treatments, but the Tribunal keeps all the information on the health of detainees as “confidential”. This is how it was also in the cases of Slobodan Milosevic, Vojislav Seselj, Ratko Mladic and others. There has frequently been a contradiction between what was claimed by ICTY doctors and the opinion of special teams. The Tribunal would always dismiss charges and attribute the worsening of the health of detainees to bad eating habits, smoking, stress or age. Milan Kovacevic, former head of the hospital in Prijedor, upon arrival in The Hague, suffered several strokes and a heart attack, while he died after a month following a night spent in agony to which nobody reacted. Slavko Dokmanovic hanged himself in the ICTY cell. He was previously telling the judges that he was in a difficult psychological state, while his attorney was warning about his crisis only two days before the tragic event. Psychiatric assistance was also withheld to Milan Babic, who committed suicide. Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic died from a heart attack on 11 March 2006. The claims of his family and followers that he was killed with a wrong therapy have never been proved. Djordje Djukic was released from the Tribunal in April 1996 over cancer at an advanced stage. He died only after a month. Momir Talic died from lung cancer at the Military Medical Hospital in Belgrade when the Tribunal released him for home treatment. Two years after the imposition of a final ten-year prison sentence, Miroslav Deronjic died in Sweden. Goran Hadzic is also in a difficult health condition. He has cancer at an advanced stage and he was released pending trial for humanitarian reasons. Vojislav Seselj was released after nearly 12 years of detention, allegedly for humanitarian reasons, when it was established that he had cancer with metastases. He claimed he was being poisoned in prison and that his state of liver improved when he stopped taking prison food, while doctors used to say he was obese. Ratko Mladic requested a report of Russian doctors. He suffered several strokes and his entire right side of the body is paralytic.

 

Djurovic: Austria’s decision will affect Serbia (Tanjug)

After Austria’s announcement that it will admit up to 40,000 refugees this year, the question arises as to what to do with the people arriving after the country has reached its asylum limit, Director of the Asylum Protection Center Rados Djurovic said on Tuesday. “It is evident that Austria is preparing to seal off its borders, and this will have a successive effect on all countries along the Balkan route for refugees, including Serbia,” he told Tanjug. “However, this decision will certainly slow down the movement of people. On one side, Serbia has the EU member states - Croatia and Slovenia, and on the other - Macedonia; and this makes its position even more complex,” Djurovic explained. Commenting on the new regime for refugees in Croatia, Djurovic said that Croatia took the move after the Austrian minister’s visit, showing that everything had been agreed.

 

Parliament committee approves agreement with NATO (RTS/Tanjug)

The Serbian parliamentary Committee for Defense and Internal Affairs has approved signing an agreement between Serbia and NATO Support and Procurement Organization (NSPO) on cooperation in the field of logistical support. The agreement represents a legal basis for the establishment of relations in the field of logistics, the Committee said at a meeting it held on Wednesday. Zoran Djordjevic, Secretary of State at the Defense Ministry, said that Serbia had expressed interest in participating in multinational operations by joining the Partnership for Peace program, and the agreement would, among other things, reduce the expenses generated Serbia’s participation in those operations.

 

The Kosovo-Nigerian connection (RTS/Blic)

The Nigerian Medical Association in Imo State has accused billionaire and governor Rochas Okrocha of trafficking human organs. He is accused of doing so with officials of Turkey and Croatia, and with Hashim Thaqi. Blic writes that the association's president Philip Njemanze spoke about this after an emergency meeting of the association in Owerri, the state capital.
Nigeria’s newswirengr.com website quoted Njemanze as saying, “For the first time in human history, a government has declared itself an organ trafficking cartel - Imo State government is using the state health facilities to facilitate organ trafficking network,” and adding: “Foreign collaborators of the state government from Turkey, Kosovo, Croatia and others are already here in Imo to perfect creation of the network. It is an international network with Rochas as its local head. A former prime minister of Kosovo is the head of organ trafficking in Europe and he is a friend of Okorocha.” RTS is reporting that a government office has stated that the accusations are an old story that Nigeria's security services dealt with in the past. It is also stated that Okrocha visited Kosovo in March 2012 when he met with then Thaqi’s deputy Behgjet Pacolli and Trade Minister Mimoza Kusari Lila.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

B&H Council of Ministers secretly adopted a coordination mechanism (Nezavisne)

The B&H Council of Ministers adopted at its session on 26 January 2016 the decision on the system of coordination of the European integration process in B&H. In simple terms, the Council of Ministers has adopted a coordination mechanism which is one of two major requirements that make the B&H application for the EU membership credible. The second condition is the adaptation of the Stabilization and Association agreement which is already being negotiated with the EU. At yesterday's session, the Council of Ministers has adopted a negotiating position of B&H, and the continuation of negotiations is scheduled for 16 February. However, it remains unclear why the public was not informed that the coordination mechanism was adopted. Namely, the Official Gazette states that the coordination mechanism was adopted at the session held on 26 January, but the public was not informed, prior to this, that the Council of Ministers held a meeting on that day at all. On the official website of the Council of Ministers we could see that in January five sessions were held, but none of them was on the 26th of January. Chairman of the Council of Ministers of B&H Denis Zvizdic announced the press conference for today at 11 o’clock, and refused to comment the issue before the press conference.

 

Secret document surfaces: Why did Covic and Zvizdic hide Coordination mechanism from the public? (Patria)

Dragan Covic, President of the B&H Presidency and Denis Zvizdic, Chair of the Council of Ministers will announce later today that the Coordination mechanism, as one of the key conditions for the EU application to be accepted, has been established. The fact that the document was adopted at the Council of Ministers meeting on 26 January, and that the public was not informed, proves that negotiations were conducted at the political instead of institutional level, and that, for the reasons known to them only, everything was done in secret. According to our source, the main part of negotiations was conducted between Dragan Covic and Bakir Izetbegovic, under supervision by Germany and Great Britain. The issue of cantons was disputed yet it seems that Covic proposed a concession – the Mechanism states that 'in the case the Committee is unable to reach consensus of the present permanent members (and the members are the cantons), the Chair of the Committee will request relevant ministerial conference to seek an agreement upon the dispute’. This way, a higher level has been created which will solve problems if one or two cantons fail to agree with the majority. “It is shameful for a democratic society to work in a non-institutional manner, however, we expect all of this to come before parliaments. The Republika Srpska (RS) finished with the Mechanism long time ago. The dispute was between SDA and HDZ, and Covic has obviously made some concessions so we shall see what he gets in return,” the source says. Izetbegovic and Covic will have to explain why everything was done in secret. Also, reaction by SBB, a coalition partner of SDA and HDZ which was excluded from the process, will be interesting. A modality which presumes that one or two cantons cannot decide different from others was being looked for. It is obvious that they found a way out, but it is certain that it could not pass without institutional support. That’s why I expect all of this to be presented at the Joint Committee for EU integrations, the source adds.

 

Secret adoption of the Coordination Mechanism is radical example of closed government (Patria)

The secretly adopted coordination mechanism at the Council of Ministers meeting held on 26 January also took by surprise the non-governmental sector, as well as people who have been following EU integrations for years. Tijana Cvjeticanin, the member of the Initiative for monitoring the EU integrations of B&H says: “This is another case of the EU integration related processes being run outside of the public. However, this has been the most radical example so far because nobody knew that the Council of Ministers has even met to discuss the issue and adopt the document. This is particularly relevant now because it concerns the Coordination Mechanism that has presented one of the biggest problems which the public has to be aware of, if not involved in, which has not been the case. That said, whatever is in that document is to be condemned”, says Cvjeticanin. She further added that the document has been adopted, publicly announced in the Official Gazette and therefore effective. Should the Parliament have any suggestions or proposals to change something, that document would have to be terminated and then re-adopted, which would prove unacceptable for a document of such high importance. The Reform Agenda has been adopted in the same manner; nobody, including parliaments, had any knowledge about it until the moment it was adopted and officially announced. We constantly see the processes in which only representatives of the executive power and their EU counterparts take part, while nobody else has any access to it and nobody is invited to make suggestions. If you look at the Reform Agenda, what have we gained so far? It was created as a document that was supposed to establish the Agreement for Growth and Employment, and which has been eventually created as the document in which people had too many requests that were brought out during demonstrations. “However, now that all of it has been filtered, we have got something that is not even related to the social problems that brought people to the streets at the time, and now we have Labor Laws at the entity level, both adopted in urgent procedures, without agreement of syndicates. All of that runs in the direction opposite of what is supposed to be at the core of the reform agenda. Generally speaking, it (the agenda) is rather plain and as such it does not include the sectors which should be reformed” says Cvjeticanin.​

 

B&H Council of Ministers supports Action Plan for implementation of priorities from EC report (Fena)

The B&H Council of Ministers supported at yesterday’s session the Action Plan for the implementation of the priorities of the European Commission’s recommendations on B&H for 2015 relating to the Council of Ministers and will be incorporated into the work of the program of the Council of Ministers B&H for 2016, as well as recommendations relating to lower levels of government, announced after the session.

 

Novic: Consensus needed; Tadic: We are not Dodik’s scapegoat (Nezavisne)

Sredoje Novic, (SNSD) delegate in the B&H House of Peoples, said that the things regarding the issue of a referendum in Republika Srpska (RS) are clear, and that there should be an absolute political will of all structures within the RS. Commenting on the announcement of the RS President, Milorad Dodik that the referendum will be held when they get the support of the Alliance for Change, Novic said that this is the only way to guarantee a success of the referendum. Ognjen Tadic (SDS), Chairman of the B&H House of Peoples, said that behind that lays the fact that Dodik has opened too many political issues with which he does not know what to do. “Dodik is trying to place the responsibility for resolving the political issues on others, who didn’t have to do anything with the opening of those issues. This is nothing new. So many problems RS took on its back, problems which are not benefiting her, or that she even made, Dodik made them. We are not the scapegoat for his policies. He needs to stand behind his own decisions,” Tadic said.

 

Vidovic invited as a witness and excluded from Radoncic’s defense team? (Nezavisne)

The attorney Vasvija Vidovic was excluded from the Defense Team of the President of the Alliance for Better Future (SBB) and the former B&H Minister of Security Fahrudin Radoncic due to receiving the status of witness in the process of Radoncic before the Court of B&H. Vidovic highlighted that, in this same way, she was prevented from represent the accused Bilsena Sahman, the unmarried wife of Bakir Dautbasic. Vidovic said that Radoncic and Sahman were notified about her being invited to witness, after which they were given a list with suggestions of new attorneys. “I was not notified about that, which surprises me. The Court notified them that I cannot represent them, given that I was invited as a witness at the main search,” Vidovic said. Vidovic added that she knows nothing about and has no connection with the items in Radoncic’s and Sahman’s indictments, except for the things they told her. “The fact is that I represented Radoncic regarding his status since the moment his name appeared in the indictment in Kosovo. That was also known to the Prosecutor’s Office of B&H and the Court of B&H; given that I submitted various memorials regarding that and I also appointed an investigator to assist me,” Vidovic said. Vidovic said that at the hearing she requested the exemption of all materials gathered by the Prosecutor’s Office of B&H and which represent privileged documentation of the defense that has nothing to do with this case, but with the case being led before the judicial institutions in Kosovo. “The Prosecutor’s Office of B&H knew that I am an attorney, but I was still invited to shed light on those facts and hand over power of attorney. That’s what I did. My testimony and my actions have nothing to do with the alleged perpetration of criminal offenses that Sahman and Radoncic are being charged with, except for the fact that I am their attorney, nor I have witnessed anything,” Vidovic said. She believes this is an unfair and unlawful procedure preventing the preparation of defense of Radoncic and Sahman. “I am profoundly stricken with what happened. I informed the attorney regional and federal chamber and chambers dealing with these activities that lead international projects regarding advocacy and protection of attorneys. I will fight this to the end, because this is not the first time,” Vidovic said.

 

At least seventy children from B&H taken to Syria by their parents (Nezavisne/FTV)

At least seventy children from B&H in the last two years were taken to Syria by their parents who went there to join the terrorists, reports FTV. The program titled “Network” on Tuesday published the data that among the hundreds of radical Islamists in Syria, since 2014, 29 couples from B&H went to this journey with no return and brought their children with them, at least seventy children, among whom some of them are only three years old. As evidence they presented numerous recordings of armed people in camouflage uniforms in the desert landscape indicating that they are fighting in Syria, and are coming from B&H. Some of them appeared in the video, calling the Muslims from B&H to join the jihad. A person identified as Mehdin Delic in addition asked Muslims in B&H to commit the suicide attacks in B&H and kill the infidels.

A kind of “recorder” is Muharem Dzinic who went to the Syrian hell with his wife whom he married according to the Sharia and took their nine children with them. Before his departure to Syria, he was a member of a radical Islamist community in the village of Osve. FTV labels as the second most important center for recruiting members of the Islamic State from B&H the village of Gornja Maoca near Brcko. In addition to Gornja Maoca, people from Livno and Kakanj also joined this terrorist organization. A significant number of men who went to Syria have died there, but there is no information of what happened to their children after that, reports FTV.​

 

EU Ministers want Macedonia to serve as barricade to refugees (MIA)

The Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek, is expected to present his country’s plan on boosting the control on the Macedonian-Greek border in a bid to tackle the refugee influx on Wednesday in Skopje, Telegraf.mk reads. The number of EU member states, including the Czech Republic, which want to push the plan on making Macedonia a barrier for Europe from the refugee surge is increasing. Such positions were voiced by the bulk of the block's members after it became clear that Greece cannot control the arrivals of the huge number of migrants and refugees coming from Turkey. The countries that comprise the Visegrad Group, such as the Czech Republic, are deploying their police officers on Macedonia's southern border with Greece,, who together with the Macedonian security forces, are securing the frontier. They are equipped with the most sophisticated gear for border monitoring, such as thermal cameras, as well as night vision devices. The European Union is frightened by the announcements that up to 70,000 new refugees are expected to arrive in Greece. This is the reason why a plan has been put forward to issue refugees in Macedonia biometric documents that they would be able to use on their journey to their final destinations, which most often are Germany and Austria. On Friday, the Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz will arrive in Macedonia. He has decisively said that closing the borders will only overwhelm the Western Balkans and that Vienna opposes the idea. Kurz reiterated in Belgrade on Tuesday that Austria has so far received 90,000 asylum seekers. “This year, we cannot accept such a high number and that is why our government has limited the acceptance of refugees. We are aware that this decision could produce consequences in the countries along the Balkan route,” the Austrian first diplomat said. Everyone needs to fulfill their obligations. We will provide accommodation and everything else we are obliged to provide on an international level for each asylum seeker in Macedonia, said Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki, in response to a journalist question after meeting Czech FM Ljubomir Zaoralek in Skopje. However, Macedonian authorities will not allow this country to be transformed into a refugee camp, because none of the migrants have landed here by a parachute, but rather entered the country through a European Union member state, Poposki underlined. “We will provide humane and safe transit for all, we will apply all decisions made on a European level, cooperate with Greece and all member-states helping us as we have been so far, including Czech Republic,” Poposki said. He stressed that a part from the migrant crisis, the meeting with Zaoralek also focused on Macedonia’s EU and NATO integration, and the economic collaboration between Czech Republic and Macedonia. The Czech foreign minister pointed that Prague still believes Macedonia should join EU and NATO, and pointed that the country is in the group of friends of Macedonia.

​

Montenegro to decide independently on NATO membership (RTCG)

As a candidate for NATO membership, a country has sovereign right to decide on the way to do it, announced NATO Public Diplomacy Division. Regarding the initiative of the Socialist People’s Party to organize a referendum on NATO membership before the Member States and Montenegro itself ratified the Protocol of Accession, the Alliance told RTCG that NATO together with Montenegro is working on reforms to ensure that our country is ready to play its role as a member. “NATO respects the sovereign right of states to decide on their own security arrangements. NATO also respects the right of countries to choose by themselves how to make these decisions. Most NATO countries did not decide to confirm the membership in a referendum. In accordance with Montenegro’s application for membership in NATO, we together worked on reforms in order to ensure that Montenegro is ready to play its role as a NATO member,” they said. NATO reminds that only Hungary and Slovenia confirmed membership in a referendum.​

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Inflation, volatile dinar, to keep Serbian interest rate on hold – Reuters poll (Reuters, 9 February 2016)

BELGRADE – Serbia’s central bank is expected to keep its benchmark rate unchanged this week for the fourth straight month due to modest inflation, a volatile dinar and uncertainties in global markets, a Reuters poll showed. Last year the bank cut rates by a total 350 basis points to a record low 4.5 percent. In January it also kept the rate <RSDREPO=> <RSCBIR=ECI> unchanged, citing uncertainties on international markets, especially the United States and China.

Further policy easing is also unlikely after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. That could slow down placements in riskier emerging markets including Serbia’s, the poll showed. Of 18 dealers and analysts polled by Reuters <ECONALLRS>, 15 expected the bank to keep rates on hold when it meets on Thursday. Three saw a 25 basis point cut. “Potential effects of a rate cut on the dinar’s exchange rate to the euro could be bigger than on borrowing costs, therefore we believe that the central bank will keep the rate unchanged this month,” Srdjan Tomasevic, a director in charge of trading with the Serbian arm of Erste bank, said in an email. China’s economic slowdown and weak oil prices suggest “a rate cut may be expected in the future, but the central bank will not make further moves before it sees reactions of the Fed and the European Central Bank,” he said. While Serbian inflation is far below the 2.5 to 5.5 percent target band, it rose in December to 1.5 percent, from 1.3 percent a month earlier. The Statistics Office is due to announce January inflation data on Feb. 23.

The dinar has lost around 0.8 percent versus the euro so far this year, mainly due to external pressures and a weak interbank market, prompting the central bank to sell 290 million euros ($325 million) to bolster the domestic currency. The dinar rallied this week before planned sales of dinar-denominated state debt and the bank on Monday purchased 10 million euros to stem excessive gains. Serbia holds snap elections this spring and the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is seen as a front runner. Although the vote will probably put a brake on the economy as businesses defer investment pending the outcome, it is unlikely to affect Serbia’s 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) standby loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or its progress towards European Union accession.

($1 = 0.8864 euros)

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

 

Bosnians Stunned by Secret Adoption of EU Legislation (BIRN, by Srecko Latal, 10 February 2016)

Bosnians were surprised to discover that ministers adopted a crucial legal mechanism for coordinating the country’s EU integration process two weeks ago, without telling anyone.

Bosnians expressed surprise on Tuesday evening after local media and web portals reported that the agreement on the coordinating mechanism - a key issue for the country to make a credible application for EU membership - was published earlier that day by the country’s Official Gazette, signifying that it had become law. "The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina secretly adopts the coordination mechanism," reported Banja Luka newspaper Nezavisne Novine on Wednesday. Almost all other local media gave the same or similar titles to their reports. The agreement had been blocked for years by political quarrels, but Western diplomatic sources told BIRN that Bosnian and EU officials had been engaged in intensive negotiations about it over the past few weeks so that Sarajevo can submit its EU membership application as planned on February 15. According to the Gazette, the mechanism was agreed by Bosnia's state government, the Council of Ministers, at a session on January 26, more than two weeks before the decision became public. However, according to the government's web site, no session took place on January 26. According to its own official calendar, the government only held sessions on January 20, 28 and 29. In a brief statement to Sarajevo newspaper Faktor, the chairman of the Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdic, insisted that there was no "secret adoption" of the mechanism. He said that his government was waiting for the publication in the Official Gazette to be finalized and for the governments of Bosnia's two entities to agree to it. Zvizdic said the two entity governments have indicated that the legislation was acceptable, and promised to provide more details at a press conference later on Wednesday. However Bosnian social networks were full of jokes and angry comments about the incident, while some commentators described it as a major blunder by the authorities. "What is happening in this country?" asked Adnan Huskic, a Sarajevo-based political analyst. "How come such important decisions get adopted secretly, at sessions that no one knew about?" Huskic told BIRN. Huskic and other commentators said it showed the growing detachment of Bosnia's political elites from the general public and their complete disregard for democratic and transparent decision-making processes.

"They [the state government] wanted to surprise us and make us happy," said a mocking comment on local web portal Klix.ba.

 

Macedonia's refugee dilemma (DW, 10 February 2016)

As Greece continues to struggle with the influx of refugees, some EU countries hope that its northern neighbor Macedonia can deter them. Amid a deep political crisis, the Balkan country is a questionable choice. Macedonia has been the main transit point for almost 700,000 migrants heading from Greece to Western and Northern Europe on the so-called Balkan route since the beginning of 2015. Macedonian authorities are finalizing the construction of a new barbed-wire fence at the border with Greece. It is not clear when exactly Macedonia might close its border to refugees, but once the fence is up, and when the signal from the EU comes, it could happen anytime, Macedonian officials told DW on condition of anonymity. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said he expected the Visegrad countries - Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - to approve the plan for strengthened border protection in Macedonia at their meeting in Prague on February 15. "Then it won't matter whether Greece will or will not be a part of Schengen, [the EU's passport-free travel zone] because we will be able to stop the migrants," Fico said. For Gerald Knaus, chairman of the European Stability Initiative (ESI), the notion of using "the weakest states in the region" to build a wall against a Schengen member state is "crazy."

Two conflicting European concepts

He talks about "a race in Europe between two very different concepts" in the refugee crisis. The concept of the Visegrad countries - which Knaus calls "the brainchild of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban" - proposes blocking refugees by constructing a new wall across the Southern Balkans along the green borders between Greece and all of its northern neighbors - Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria. The other concept, backed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, aims at resettling hundreds of thousands of refugees from Turkey to a group of EU member states and ending the "Balkan route" by controlling the Aegean through a close cooperation between Greece and Turkey. However, the idea of turning Macedonia, which is not a member state of the EU, into a wall against refugees has also gained support from Brussels. In late January, Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission, wrote to Slovenia's Prime Minister, Miro Cerar, assuring him that the Commission supported his plan for all EU countries to "provide assistance [to Macedonia] to support controls on the border with Greece through the secondment of police/law enforcement officers and the provision of equipment."

Just a matter of time?

German daily "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" wrote this week that "the border between Macedonia and Greece will be completely closed in the next weeks" - also affecting refugees fleeing from war-torn countries.

Thousands stranded at Greece-Macedonia border

Macedonian officials told DW there were no plans to shut the border in the coming days or weeks. "Macedonia is a transit country and will act in accordance with the EU and the EU member states," said Ivica Bocevski, Special Advisor for Foreign Affairs to the Macedonian President. Speaking on condition of anonymity, another high-ranking Macedonian government official told DW any decision to close the border would be made in Brussels or Berlin, not in Skopje. "There is no deadline on February 15 or any other date," he added, "but once the decision is made, we will respect it."

Deep political crisis

The political crisis in Macedonia further complicates the situation. Facing accusations of widespread corruption, election manipulation and illegal wiretapping, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski resigned in mid-January. But his nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party is still in control of the government and actively supports the project of building the wall on the southern border. Therefore, Gruevski and his party receive strong support from the Visegrad countries that regard him as a reliable partner. While the Visegrad group sees the new wall as a symbol of stability and a road to opening EU accession talks with Skopje, Michael Roth, minister for Europe at the German Foreign Ministry, told DW after a visit to Macedonia that "there will be no political concessions" in return for the country's cooperation on the migration issue. Political concessions aside, the best hope for a small and poor country like Macedonia is a solution that keeps the refugees and migrants in Turkey or in their home countries, a high-ranking official in the Macedonian police told DW. "Unfortunately, we don't have the resources to solve such a crisis", he said. In his opinion, building a wall cannot be the solution. It would not stop the migrants, but only strengthen smuggling networks. "Imagine a situation in which we have to stop 50,000 or 100,000 people trying to cross our border from Greece by force," he added. "What are we going to do? Shoot at them?"

 

Lavrov: Montenegrins have not forgotten NATO bombs (Moskovsky Komsomolets/AP, 10 February 2016)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Montenegro's NATO membership decision was "artificial" - and one that will not add to the security of the alliance. In an interview with Russian daily Moskovsky Komsomolets Lavrov said the mere fact NATO is brazenly expanding to the East speaks about "a complete disregard of the obligations undertaken during the disintegration of the Soviet Union" - namely, that such an enlargement would not happen. When the interviewer said that "some of Russia's closest foreign policy partners are NATO members" and asked "why Russia reacted so nervously to the desire of Montenegro to join the alliance," Lavrov stated that Moscow did not respond to the desire of Montenegro and that that he would not characterize this reaction as "nervous." "We were convinced, as all those who conceived it, that this was an artificial decision. No security will be added to NATO members. The explanation that the Montenegrin people want this breaks down against this argument: if this is so, then why not hold a referendum," said Lavrov.  He then noted that Podgorica "categorically does not want a referendum." "They know that most likely the people whom NATO bombarded a couple of decades ago have not forgotten it, and that will be difficult to accept with enthusiasm the idea of their leadership to forget many things by joining NATO," Lavrov said. He accused the western military alliance of manipulating small countries, telling them that they would be guaranteed safety if they join. The minister added there was a push to promote "the Russian threat - an artificial, needless fear" - based on which the alliance is trying to gain geopolitical space ever closer to Russia's borders. "It's not about Montenegro. It's about NATO's attitude toward the development of relations not only with Russia, but also in ensuring global security. NATO is responsible for its own territory, and as it was written in the Washington Agreement, provides collective defense. Well in that case, sit within your borders, and no one will touch you," said Lavrov.​

 

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