LOCAL PRESS

 

Dacic to attend UN SC meeting on Kosovo (Tanjug/Beta)

Serbian Foreign Minister Minister Ivica Dacic will attend a UN Security Council meeting on the work of UNMIK. In his address, Dacic will discuss a report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for the period between October 16, 2015 and January 15, 2016 and present Belgrade’s position on the current situation in Kosovo and Metohija and the work of UNMIK, the Serbian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

 

Dacic: Serbia’s position strengthened In Kosovo (Radio Belgrade)

“Our position is now strengthened since, amid the infighting, instability and demonstrations, the Serb List acted very constructively, which was in our interest,” he told Radio Belgrade before departing for New York. He announced that he will point to all of the problems in Kosovo, primarily as regards stability and the failure to meet the obligations undertaken by the Kosovo authorities in the Brussels dialogue - in particular the establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities - and all political problems affecting the Kosovo Serbs' position.

 

Vucic: Kosovo MPs didn’t vote for Thaqi (Beta/RTS)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said that Serb MPs in Kosovo had made decisions in accordance with their conscience, and that they did not vote to support Hashim Thaqi as Kosovo’s new president. “He was the prime minister, today he is the president. Am I happy about it? No, I am not, but that is what the Albanian majority wants,” Vucic said in Ruma.

 

Djuric: Serb List didn’t vote for Thaqi (Beta/TV Pink/RTS)

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric discarded on Sunday that the Serb List voted in the Kosovo Assembly for the election of the new Kosovo President and discarded these claims as unheard of and disgraceful accusations of DSS and Dveri. In an interview for TV Pink, Djuric said that Serb List MPs were in the Assembly because they did not want to be in the street with Self-Determination protestors, but they did not vote for Thaqi. He especially criticized DSS-Dveri coalition over the claims that Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic enabled election of Thaqi and emphasized that these accusations were presented by the party during whose rule 1.300 convicted Albanian terrorists were released and Belgrade was visited by the creator of the decision on NATO bombing Javier Solana. While speaking about the cancelled visit of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to Kosovo, which was supposed to start on Sunday, Djuric said that the Prime Minister would surely visit Kosovo in “about twenty days” and that he would visit both the northern part of the province, where majority of population were Serbs, but also enclaves to the south of Ibar River.

Djuric told RTS that the Serbs refrained from voting or cancelled their ballots during the voting in the Kosovo Assembly.

 

Stevanovic, Schodder discuss migrants (Tanjug)

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic and UNHCR Representative in Serbia Hans Friedrich Schodder discussed the latest events concerning the large influx of migrants and refugees in Europe and their transit through the Western Balkans in Belgrade on Monday. According to a statement from the Interior Ministry’s press office, Stefanovic briefed Schodder about developments since the recent signing of a joint statement of the police directors of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Austria, stressing that it was necessary to take additional steps to make joint profiling and registration of migrants and refugees come to life. The Serbian Interior Ministry has initiated a new meeting of directors of police of countries that are key players in resolving the issues of transit and are the desired destination of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe. Schodder offered technical and other necessary assistance to the Interior Ministry to help establish an efficient system of asylum and migration management in Serbia.

 

Last parliament session on Thursday (RTS)

RTS learns that the current parliament will be disbanded on 3 March, when the new defense minister will be elected as well. Vucic is expected to elaborate his proposal and take part in the work of the parliament session, devoted to this item of the agenda. Vucic will have a guest appearance on RTS on 1 March, and the company has announced the possibility that on that occasion the head of the government will announce the date of the extraordinary parliamentary elections. According to previous analyses, the most favorable date mentioned for holding the elections is April 24, or a week before that (April 17), while it is unlikely that the elections will be held a week later, because May 1 is Orthodox Easter and Labor Day.

The leader of the New Party Zoran Zivkovic didn’t support the agreement on forming the Democratic Serbia (DS-LDP-SDS) election list and called it a rotten compromise.

The New Serbia party has reached agreement with the SNS on a joint coalition at the upcoming parliamentary, provincial and local elections.

 

Ivan Karic joins SPS (RTS/Beta)

Ivan Karic, MP of the Greens of Serbia, has joined the SPS caucus, it was announced at a press conference in the parliament. The two parties expect to form a caucus SPS-Greens following the upcoming elections. Karic used to be part of the caucus of the Social-Democratic Party (SDS) led by Boris Tadic.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Lecture from History: Independence Day of B&H, March 1^st (Klix)

Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Policy informed the citizens of Federation of B&H that by the Law on proclamation of the 1st of March as the day of independence of B&H, it was determined that this day is non-working day. Independence Day is a national holiday which is celebrated on the 1st of March every year, and it is celebrating the independence of B&H from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The referendum for the independence of B&H was held on the recommendation of the Arbitration Commission of the International Conference on Yugoslavia, in the final stages of dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. It was held on the 29th of February and the 1st of March, and it marked opting of citizens on the future of the country, but it was also introduction to a bloody war. ? Independence was strongly supported by mainly Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, while a large number of Bosnian Serbs boycotted the referendum.

 

Ivanic: Serbs and RS will never recognize 1 March as the so-called National Day of B&H (Srna)

A Serb Member of the B&H Presidency, Mladen Ivanic, says that the Serbs and Republika Srpska (RS) will never recognize the 1^st of March as the so-called National Day of B&H, because both the referendum that was held against the will of the Serb people and the gruesome murder of a Serb wedding guest were a prelude to a bloody war. “For Serbs 1 March is not and never will be a bank holiday, because our national holiday is January 9, the day when RS was born based on the will of the Serb people. That day we will celebrate as long as we live, thus neither a court nor a court decision can stop us,” Ivanic told Srna. It is clear, he points out, that there are no politicians from RS, who can accept 1 March as something normal. “Therefore, that day that is celebrated as the National Day of B&H in part of B&H, simply does not exist as far as I am concerned. If there is any holiday that deeply irritates and offends both RS and the Serb people in B&H, than it is definitely 1 of March,” Ivanic stressed. On March 1, 1992 a referendum on independence of B&H was held in B&H, in which 62.7 percent of Muslim and Croat voters voted for the independence and separation from the former Yugoslavia. Federation of B&H marks 1of March as the “Independence Day”, while the Serbs in B&H perceive this date as the day when the illegitimate decision was reached between the Muslim and Croat peoples against Serbs’ interests. On this day in 1992, a Serb wedding guest Nikola Gardovic was assassinated and the Serb flag was burned outside the Old Orthodox Church in Bascarsija, Sarajevo downtown, which foreshadowed the civil war in B&H.

 

Bosniaks celebrating, Croats only as much as they have to, but Serbs are not (Srna)

The RS President Milorad Dodik has told Srna that on 1 March Bosniaks are again celebrating the so-called National Day of B&H, Croats as much as they have to but Serbs are not.  “For Serbs, 1^st of March does not exist as any important day for B&H,” said Dodik. He emphasizes that RS finds unacceptable the celebration of 1^st of March as any date related to B&H. “Ignoring by Bosniaks and part of the international community, which gives it a significance, shows that B&H has no agreement reached on important issues, including this one,” said Dodik.

 

Patriarch Irinej: RS to justify aspirations of all Serbs (Srna)

At a reception on the occasion of the RS Day and marking 24 years since the promulgation of the first RS Constitution that took place on Sunday in Belgrade, His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia wished RS to progress on the foundations it set and to justify aspirations of the entire Serb people and in particular the people in RS. He has pointed out that this date is grand and important, not only for RS, but also for the Serbs in general and Serbia, said Patriarch Irinej in the presence of numerous guests from RS and Serbia, including the presidents Milorad Dodik and Tomislav Nikolic. The Director of the RS Representative Office in Serbia, Mladjen Cicovic, stressed that respect for the international legal documents, agreements and treaties is the first and highest requirement for life in a spirit of cooperation and peace among the peoples and states, as each agreement made either within a family or among the neighbors reflects an honorable and decent life and work. He presented the book about RS, its creation and duration, and the original text of the Dayton Peace Agreement, to the reception guests.“By publishing this important document of international law in both Serbian and English languages in one book, we would like to provide the public and as big number of readers as possible with the original, signed the Dayton Agreement, and show how clear and easy to understand is the text, that broke and keeps breaking a rhetorical spears between those who advocate a “spirit of Dayton” and us, whose position is to preserve a letter of Dayton,” said Cicovic. The reception, which was organized by the RS Representative Office in Serbia on the occasion of the RS Day and marking 24 years since the promulgation of the first RS Constitution, was attended by the speakers of the National Assembles of RS and Serbia, Nedeljko Cubrilovic and Maja Gojkovic, and the ministers in the governments of RS and Serbia. The ceremony was also attended by Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Aleksandar Chepurin, Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, Ljubisa Dikovic, and representatives of the diplomatic corps and many distinguished individuals from the world of politics, economy, science, culture and art in Serbia and RS. This is the second reception on the occasion of the RS Day, which is organized by the RS Representative Office in Serbia.

 

Indictment against Milan Mandic confirmed (Srna)

The Court of B&H has confirmed the indictment against the President of the Association of the Families of Missing Persons of Sarajevo-Romanija Region, Milan Mandic, and TV house "Elta" for the criminal offense of incitement to national, racial and religious hatred, discord and intolerance. Representatives of Bosniak associations from Srebrenica filed criminal charges against Mandic and TV "Elta" for the statement he gave on February 19, 2014 regarding the public statements by Munira Subasic and Hatidza Mehmedovic, representing the women’s associations – the Mothers of Srebrenica, when he said, among the other things, that " their speeches will be reached by the justice of God." Mandic has told Srna that he is surprised by the fact that the court has brought charges against him for racial and religious hatred, as 38 members of his immediate family were killed during the war.

 

Reconstruction of Executive Power in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton on Monday? (Patria)

The Alliance for Better Future (SBB) gave a statement regarding the reconstruction of executive power in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton. “Given the numerous media inquiries related to the reconstruction of executive power in the Herzegovina-Neretva canton, the Cantonal Board of SBB HNK informs the public that the official meeting of the staff of the Cantonal Board of SBB, the Cantonal Board of SDA and the Cantonal Board of HDZ HNK is scheduled for Monday, February 29, at 11 a.m. at the City Hall in Mostar. After the meeting, the public will have accurate information regarding the implementation of coalition agreement in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton,” SBB stated.

 

Analysis: Can SBB survive without the founder? (Faktor.ba)

Fahrudin Radoncic, the founder and the President of the Alliance for a Better Future (SBB) is under house arrest, which largely makes difficult functioning of the ruling coalition SDA- SBB- HDZ, and complicates already complex political processes in B&H. Radoncic, due to the imposed prohibitive measures in the judicial process that is carried out against him, cannot normally meet with the coalition partners, go to meetings or to participate in social and political life. The situation could get even more complicated when the trial for Radoncic and his associates Bakir Dautbasic and Bilsena Sahman starts before the Court, especially if the final judgment is negative for the leader of the second strongest Bosniak party. Who would, in that case, inherit Radoncic, who in SBB has the capacity to take the lead in the party? Is it a vice president Mirsad Djonlagic, who formally led SBB in the days that Radoncic spent in detention? Or could Radoncic appoint one of the two men in which he has the biggest confidence – his son in law -Fehim Skaljic or Munib Jusufovic, who is considered to be one of the closest associates of President of SBB B&H although he is no longer the Secretary General. Certain contradictory statements that he gave in a few days that he lived as a “first in SBB”, showed that, despite a rich life experience, Djonlagic does not have political experience for the independent leading of the party. On the other hand, Skaljic is not even close showing kind of energy that Radoncic has, while Jusufovic, who is also recognized by many as a member of the Party for B&H, is not likely to impose the necessary authority. Radoncic’s long absence would probably open appetites and awakened hope within some other members of his party, but it is certain that in this case would follow fierce inter-party fight. Impressible detail happened on organized welcome for Fahrudin Radoncic in Avaz Twist Tower after he was released from prison and arrived in house arrest. After a short celebration, Radoncic headed into his room and in the elevator with him were only Skaljic and Jusufovic. Why Djonlagic was not in the elevator, remains unknown. Is “avoiding” of party’s vice president just a coincidence in this case?​

 

Macedonian-Greek border closed after 30 migrants got injured (MIA)

The Macedonian-Greek border is completely closed at the moment. Refugees are not allowed to pass through because several hundred refugees pierced through the fence Monday morning forcing the police to intervene and use tear gas to disperse them. Part of them were throwing stones and managed to enter into Macedonian territory, but they were immediately stopped.  According to Greek media, 30 refugees were wounded during the intervention. While, on the Macedonian side, one police officer was wounded in the incident. According to humanitarian workers out there in the field, the situation was well expected because it has been a few days since the cut down of the refugee inflow-coming from Greece and continuing into other countries along the route. What is concerning is that in Idomeni and the region, and especially in Polykastro, there are about 8,000 refugees who are becoming increasingly aggressive. Aside from that, the Greek Interior Ministry banned media crews from entering migrant camps. Macedonia, in coordination with Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, has limited the number of refugees it is willing to admit to 500 a day, so large groups of refugees do not have to wait at both borders. But, the countries in the region still have not figured out what to do with the Afghani citizens who have been stranded at Tabanovce for several days now because they have been banned from going to Germany and Austria. The domino effect is something to be feared because if every country returns the migrants into the country from where they came from, then they can get stranded in Macedonia because Greece does not want to admit them back. ​

 

Macedonian President is one of the most deserving people in the midst of refugee crisis (MIA)

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov is one of the most deserving people amid the efforts made to curb the refugee crisis, according to the esteemed German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel. The magazine has published an in­depth analysis dedicated particularly to the challenges Europe is faced with regarding the matter. The man who is primarily responsible for preventing refugees from continuing on their northward journey out of Greece is Gjorge Ivanov, the President of Macedonia. Ivanov says he could no longer wait for a decision to be made in Brussels, otherwise Macedonia would have been overrun by refugees. Moreover, the magazine analyzes the moves made by Brussels as regards the refugee crisis with the positions of Germany, Austria and the Visegrad Group countries also being taken into consideration.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

China’s Growing Ties With Serbia (The Diplomat, by Samuel Ramani, 29 February 2016)

Political ties have long been strong, and are now being supported by increased economic links.

On February 5, 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping made an official statement acknowledging Serbian statehood day. In the press release that followed, Xi highlighted deepened cooperation between China and Serbia in recent years, and reaffirmed China’s intentions to expand economic links with Serbia in the years to come. This statement came on the heels of announcement by Chinese ambassador to Serbia Li Manchang that Chinese companies were planning to invest heavily in the construction of an industrial park in Serbia, to attract Chinese visitors to the country. The progress of these investments has been tacitly confirmed by Xi’s acceptance of an invitation from his Serbian counterpart Tomislav Nikolic to visit Belgrade in 2016.

These diplomatic overtures confirm Serbia’s status as China’s strongest and most consistent ally in Eastern Europe. The strength of the China-Serbia partnership can be explained by two principal factors. First, China and Serbia are normatively compatible on issues of sovereignty and territorial integrity, leading to both countries’ supporting each other on Kosovo, Tibet and Xinjiang. Second, Serbia’s strategic location makes it a vital cog in China’s attempts to link its One Belt, One Road project to Central Europe, and consequently, a natural destination point for Chinese economic and infrastructure investments.

China and Serbia: Normative Partners on Sovereignty Disputes

The China-Serbia alliance was crystallized during the 1990s as both countries came under fire from the West for their refusal to grant independence to autonomous regions under their control, and for human rights abuses towards minority communities. China strongly backed Slobodan Milosevic’s regime during the Kosovo crisis, arguing that Serbian paramilitaries were intervening in Kosovo to prevent Albanian separatists from violating Yugoslavian sovereignty. Chinese support for Milosevic became especially prominent during the 1999 NATO bombings of Kosovo, as China believed that NATO had no legal right to bomb Serbian military targets.

The perceived recklessness of NATO’s military intervention in Kosovo was confirmed in the eyes of Beijing’s policymakers by the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The U.S. insisted that this bombing was the product of outdated CIA maps. But the Chinese government unofficially linked this action to America’s broader sovereignty violations in Serbia. In fact, subsequent reports alleged that the Chinese embassy was used as a backup communications center for the Yugoslav army.

Even though Milosevic’s hold on power was severely weakened by 2000 due to UN sanctions and international isolation, Chinese diplomats continued to meet publicly with the Serbian dictator and China invested $300 million into the Serbian economy in December 1999 to prevent a destabilizing financial crisis. The Chinese state media frequently depicted Milosevic as a crusader against Western imperialism and violations of international law, while virtually ignoring his regime’s ethnic cleansing against Albanians in Kosovo. Prior to his 2000 election defeat, both Belgrade and Beijing believed that recognizing Milosevic as the legitimate leader was vital to upholding Yugoslavian sovereignty and solidarity during the late 1990s provided the foundation for a durable bilateral partnership.

Even though Serbia has thawed relations with Europe in the fifteen years, since Milosevic’s demise, China and Serbia have continued to maintain their normative bonding on sovereignty born out of the Kosovo experience. China scathingly condemned Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in 2008, and warned that the West’s legitimization of this decision would destabilize the Balkans. The strength of China’s alliance with Serbia was illustrated by Beijing’s decision to enter a legal challenge to Kosovo’s secession through the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2009. This unprecedented action was aimed at providing legal legitimacy for Serbia’s right to protect its territorial integrity.

China’s hawkish response to Kosovo’s independence declaration is linked closely to its fears that international legitimization of Kosovo’s secession from Serbia will repeat itself in autonomous territories governed by Beijing. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov publicly linked Kosovo’s decision to unrest in Tibet in March 2008, and China’s support for Belgrade can be explained by its desire to avoid setting a precedent that Tibetan nationalists could exploit. Serbia’s staunch support for a One China Policy, criticism of the decision to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, and consistent emphasis on the domestic nature of the Tibet dispute, has resulted in a durable normative partnership between Belgrade and Beijing. As these norms are at odds with European values, the China-Serbia alliance has frustrated European policymakers who seek to integrate Serbia firmly into the EU fold.

Economic Foundations

The economic interests underpinning China’s expanded cooperation with Serbia, since the two countries established a strategic partnership in 2009, are multifaceted and diverse. Infrastructure investments have been a vital component of the partnership, as China seeks to construct a Belgrade-Budapest railway and smaller railways across Serbia to give its One Belt, One Road project a foothold in the Balkans. Negotiations conducted in December 2014 to facilitate the progress of this railway construction project highlighted the potential for Serbia to be a fulcrum in a trade network transporting Chinese manufactured goods from Piraeus, Greece to Central Europe.

China’s investment proposals have also attracted keen interest from other Southeastern European countries like Romania, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. This demonstrates the large potential for expanded Chinese geopolitical leverage in the region should Beijing’s relationship with Serbia continue to strengthen.

Chinese infrastructure investments have been a gateway for intensified efforts to diversify the Serbian economy. The 2010 Sino-Serbian Friendship Bridge, which was constructed by a leading Chinese state-owned enterprise and funded by Chinese creditors, resulted in expanded Chinese investment in Serbian energy, with thermal power plant construction particularly successful. Serbia’s dependency on Russian energy supplies has been exploited by Kremlin policymakers, who charge Belgrade a higher rate for Russian gas exports than other Eastern European countries like Hungary. In light of this, Serbian policymakers have understandably welcomed China’s energy infrastructure investments, as an appealing alternative.

Serbia’s manufacturing capacity has also benefited considerably from Chinese money. Li Manchang stated in March 2015 that officials from China’s Hebei province had visited Belgrade with the intention of investing in Belgrade’s automotive industry. This followed Serbia’s signing of 13 agreements with China in 2014 covering the financial, infrastructure, telecommunications, and transport sectors. The IMF’s suspension of credit to Serbia in 2012, due to the country’s failure to comply with the financial conditions it set, increased the attractiveness of Chinese manufacturing investments. The relevance of Chinese linkages with Belgrade is likely to continue to escalate as the Serbian economy grapples with budget deficits, the aftershocks of a severe recession from 2013-2015, and acute capital shortages.

While EU policymakers continue to correctly focus on Russia’s military cooperation and deep economic partnership with Serbia as a potential bulwark against Belgrade’s integration with the EU, China’s expansion of ties with Serbia threatens has added another dimension to the long-standing EU-Russia competition for influence in the Balkans. As Serbian policymakers fear sovereignty violations resulting from firmly pivoting towards Europe or Russia, China’s geographic detachment could increase its appeal as a third option partner and result in Serbia becoming a durable foothold of Chinese influence in Eastern Europe.

Samuel Ramani is an MPhil student at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford in Russian and East European Studies. He is also a journalist who is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post Politics and World Post verticals, and recently to the Kyiv Post.

 

Bosnia eyes closure of radical Islamic centers over links to Syria militants (Reuters, by Daria Sito-Sucic, 26 February 2016)

GRACANICA, Bosnia (Reuters) - Dozens of breakaway Muslim community groups in Bosnia face shutdown by police for rejecting the authority of the moderate national Islamic organization and radicalizing young men who have left to join Islamist insurgents in Syria, officials said.

Most of Bosnia's Muslims, known also as Bosniaks, are moderates well integrated in its widely secular society, which also comprises Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. But during and after Bosnia's 1990s ethnic war, some came under the sway of foreign Islamist "mujahideen" who slipped in to fight in support of Bosnian Muslims against nationalist Serbs and Croats, fostering more radical forms of Islam. Echoing the experience of other European countries with Muslim communities, more than 150 Bosnians have gone to fight alongside Islamist militants such as Islamic State in Syria and Iraq over the past few years, police say. More than 50 have returned to Bosnia and about 30 were killed in combat. Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektic said this week that police would soon shut down Muslim community groups that refuse affiliation with the state-recognized Islamic Community organization based in the capital Sarajevo. "It is correct and true that criminals who have made fascist and violent threats against us from the Middle East have been members of these illegal community groups," an editorial on the Islamic Community's website said on Friday. It was referring to death threats sent via the Internet this week to Bosnia's top Islamic cleric, Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic, by a Bosnian believed to be fighting in Syria.

The man who made the threats came from a village adjacent to a breakaway Muslim community, one of 64 in Bosnia, in the northeastern village of Gracanica, according to Bosnian media.

"NO SUPPORT FOR CALIPHATE"

Fikret Duric, the Gracanica community leader, acknowledged that it had adopted a fundamentalist form of Islam but denied any connection with radicalized men going to join Islamic State or other Islamist insurgents in Syria and Iraq. "They accuse us of organizing departures to foreign wars, which I absolutely deny," said Duric, 39, sporting a long beard and traditional Islamic robe. "We don't support the so-called (Islamic State) caliphate and will not help it in any way." The official Islamic Community organization has agreed to negotiations with dissident local groups that face having their centers of worship and study sealed by police in coming days. But it defended the crackdown as vital to restoring order and unity among its faithful - who make up almost half of Bosnia's population - and allow it to vouch for all its members. "We live in a world where radical Muslims take actions with undesirable consequences, and the Islamic Community has decided to take stock of what we have in Bosnia, start a dialogue with them and call on them to come under our roof," senior Islamic Community official Razim Colic told Reuters. But Duric said tensions had been raised by repeated police harassment of his community. He said some members had been forcibly removed by police from their mosque after they stayed on for Koranic studies following prayers. Dissident Muslims want mosques to be open 24 hours, one of their disputes with the mainstream Islamic Community.

"Going back under the Islamic Community roof would mean returning to where we started, but I fear that this time the problem may be bigger because our believers have got used to the freedom they have here," Duric said.

(Additonal reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

 

Bosnia mulls courtroom headscarf ban for Muslim women (DW, 28 February 2016)

Authorities are embroiled in an intense headscarf debate in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Muslim women who work in courts and wear headscarves for religious reasons may not be able to do so in the future. Aldina Suljagic-Piro has worn her headscarf for 20 years. The 33-year-old holds a diploma in law and lives in Tuzla, in eastern Bosnia. She is openly fighting for her right and the right of other Muslim women to wear their headscarves in courtrooms in the face of a potential ban. In October 2015, the highest judicial council of Bosnia-Herzegovina decided to ban "religious symbols" from courts and other legal institutions. It's a slap in the face for Suljagic-Piro and her headscarf-wearing colleagues, especially because no public debate on the issue took place. "I am sorry that the council did not deem it necessary before making a decision to allow for the possibility of becoming acquainted with people who wear headscarves and to convince themselves that there is no reason or cause for such a degrading act," Suljagic-Piro told DW. Though the ban covers all religious symbols, including Christianity's cross, Muslims seem the most upset by it. Suljagic-Piro said her headscarf was not a mere "symbol," but the "identity of a Muslima" and an Islamic obligation.

'Conditions of inequality'

Dzevada Susko, director of the Institute for the Bosniak Islamic Tradition, fears that women with headscarves could lose their jobs. Susko, a historian and political scientist, said she knew of at least 20 women whose jobs would be threatened by the ban. Still, she said she was glad that a discussion about headscarves had been initiated. "If we live in a democratic state, then it is important to have a public debate about an issue that obviously relates to the status of religious communities in public spaces," Susko said. She said debate over the headscarf in a plurality-Muslim country such as Bosnia-Herzegovina was distinct from such discussions in places like Germany, where many consider Islam a more recent - or even foreign - phenomenon. The debate in Bosnia-Herzegovina has an additional historical context because for several decades the country was part of socialist Yugoslavia. "In Bosnia-Herzegovina, there is an understanding that religion should not be visible in public spaces," she said. That secular view of religion's role in public society is shared by Jasna Samic, a specialist in Middle East studies who has lived between Sarajevo and Paris for decades. She supports banning religious symbols from public offices and, in particular, legal facilities. "Religion should finally be confined to private spaces," Samic said. She feels that the contemporary headscarf in Bosnia-Herzegovina is copied from Saudi fashion, is closely connected to Salafist groups and represents a "return to a system that deprives people of their freedom - or a return the dark ages." Armina Omerika, a German scholar of Islam, said banning religious symbols would not create equality in Bosnia-Herzegovina or contribute to the country's secularization. "Women have a hard time getting jobs," Omerika said. "If a group of qualified woman is marginalized explicitly for their outward appearance, then the current conditions of inequality have only deepened." Omerika noted that similar debates in Germany had shown that such bans in fact hindered equality efforts: "Young women are acquiring qualifications, they have an education, and now they are denied access to the work market." The lawyer Suljagic-Piro refuses to give up her headscarf. "I will personally not back down because of a decision made by the high judicial council, nor will I abandon my plans for my own law firm," she said. "Actually, these unpleasant events are additional motivation to justify my headscarf and to make my profession even better and more professional."