LOCAL PRESS

 

Djuric: Nikolic soon with Ban about floods in Serbia (Beta/RTS)

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic will soon meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the modes of help to Serbia after the disastrous floods, stated President’s advisor Marko Djuric. He has announced that the Serbian authorities will ask for additional assistance and for an international conference to collect the aid in the sanitation of damage from the floods. Djuric has said that between the Serbian President and the government all political activities are being coordinated, relating to extending help to the flooded areas.

 

Dacic, Hahn: Serbia can count on EU help (Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has stated in Brussels, following the meeting with the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn, that the main message is that the EU will help Serbia after the disastrous floods. Hahn said the EU would also help in making the application for the help, because as a candidate-country we are for the first time in the situation to use those assets, Dacic underlined. He added that the information about the sum of half a billion or even the entire billion euros was untrue, but significant amount is at issue, nevertheless. Dacic has emphasized that Serbia will soon apply for the help with the assistance from Hahn and the European Commission, which is in charge of the EU Solidarity Fund.

 

Varso: Slovakia not to change stand on Kosovo (Tanjug)

Slovak Ambassador in Belgrade Jan Varso has stated that Bratislava’s position on non-recognizing the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo remains unchanged, although many have speculated about this. Varso recalled that during his recent visit to Belgrade Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak confirmed that Slovakia is not changing the position in relation to the recognition of the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo. “That is all I can say to you about this,” the Slovak Ambassador said.

 

Chepurin: Help in several stages (Beta)

Russian Ambassador in Belgrade Aleksandr Chepurin has confirmed that the representatives of that country will take part in tomorrow’s donors’ conference in Belgrade, with the aim of collecting the aid for the flooded areas in Serbia. There are several steps in extending the help, Chepurin said in Sabac, where along with Chief of the Serbian Army General Staff Ljubisa Dikovic he visited the members of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, who are deployed in that city. He has explained that the first phase is the quick response, in order to avoid having more victims, the next is the humanitarian aid, and the third step is the renovation of everything that had been destroyed.

 

Georgieva: Serbia has complete support from EU (RTS)

EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva has said Serbia has full support from the EU concerning the difficult situation caused by catastrophic floods, adding that humanitarian aid has already started arriving. Resources from the EU Solidarity Fund and the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) will arrive in Serbia once the required procedure is completed, and that will take some time, Georgieva said at a news conference after a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade. “It usually takes around 10 weeks to apply for money from the Solidarity Fund and another 2-3 months to decide on the application. The application, however, has to be based on precise needs. Through this assistance, the EU will try to help alleviate the damage suffered by Serbia, but it will definitely be insufficient to cover all the damage from the floods. The good news is that Serbia will be able to get funds from the IPA that was available before, but which Serbia did not use. Those funds will be made available as part of the aid to Serbia,” says Georgieva, adding that two large generators will arrive in Serbia on Wednesday as help for those without electricity, which is only one of the items on the list of the EU humanitarian aid to Serbia. Twelve EU countries have deployed special equipment and expert teams in Serbia, and the European Commission got a request for high-capacity pumps on Monday, which has already been granted, said Georgieva. She stresses that the EU treats Serbia as it would an EU member when it comes to responding to natural disasters, since membership candidates have the same rights as full members. She invited Serbia to join the Mechanism for Civil Protection before becoming a member, as it would provide the country with new experiences and knowledge.

 

Donors’ conference to be held on Thursday (Tanjug)

A meeting of international donors focused on collecting aid and repairing the damage from the catastrophic floods that have hit Serbia will be held in Belgrade on Thursday. According to a release from the Serbian government, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will inform the participants about the scale of the floods in order to discuss the options of providing help in repairing the damage as soon as possible. The participants will also review further steps meant to ensure the efforts by the government and international donors are coordinated efficiently to get the maximum effect. The meeting will be attended by officials of embassies from 27 countries of Europe, North America and Asia, as well as from the EU Delegation to Serbia, Council of Europe, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, World Bank, Office of the UN Resident Coordinator and German Development Bank. The meeting is organized by the office of Minister without Portfolio in charge of EU integration Jadranka Joksimovic and the Serbian government office for EU integration, which coordinates international development aid and is tasked with setting the priorities for funds from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the release says.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Rasmussen visiting the region (Beta)
The Montenegrin government has announced that NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is arriving in Montenegro after visiting B&H. Official talks are announced for 22 May, when he will talk with Montenegrin parliament speaker Ranko Krivokapic, Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, Foreign Minister Igor Luksic and Justice Minister Dusko Markovic. Montenegro is expecting invitation for NATO membership in September this year at the NATO summit in Great Britain, and the recommendation should be passed in June at the NATO Ministerial meeting. The Montenegrin authorities have been on a diplomatic offensive over the past months in order to receive support of the NATO member-states for membership invitation, while they have also intensified the campaign in the country towards receiving support of the public for this goal. This support is around 42 percent at the moment. Before Montenegro, Rasmussen is visiting Sarajevo today, where he will meet with the B&H Presidency members, the Chairman of the B&H Council of Minister Vjekoslav Bevanda, international community representatives in B&H and leaders of the leading political parties. Apart from the topic of floods, the topics of discussion will also be conditions for activating B&H’s membership in the Membership Action Plan (MAP), primarily the resolution of the issue of immovable property, and the engagement of B&H Armed Forces in the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

 

Unrest in Skopje over murder of teenager (Dnevnik)

Macedonia police detained 27 people. Overturned vehicles and dustbins, broken and set ablaze stores, a high number of police officers could be seen in the capital Skopje as a 19-year-old youth was killed last night and large-scale protests were staged. A 19-year-old school leaver was killed after a theft of a bicycle. While on their way back home, the youth and his father saw a thief steal a bicycle. They ran after him and caught up with him. The thief, who turned out to be an Albanian person, took out a knife and stabbed the victim. After the killing the residents of Gjorce Petrov gathered for a protest, which could turn into an ethnic conflict, as the demonstrators attempted to go to Saraj Municipality, where mostly Albanian people live. The police managed to stop the attempt. A person named Naser E. has been detained for the killing. The Interior Ministry announced they had detained the killer. He is a 19-year-old man who has a criminal record. The police has not yet found the weapon used in the killing. The authorities have said there is information fresh demonstrations may be organized.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Kosovo Ex-Guerrillas Escape From Detention (BIRN, by Arben Sylejmani, 20 May 2014)

Three former Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas accused of war crimes during the 1990s conflict have gone on the run after escaping from a clinic in Pristina where they were being treated.

Former fighters Sami Lushtaku, Ismet Haxha and Sahit Jashari absconded from the University Clinic Centre in Pristina on Tuesday after refusing to be transferred to a prison in the northern city of Mitrovica.

“The defendants are on the run,” confirmed Shemsi Hajrizi, the head of Kosovo’s prison service.

Lushtaku, the mayor of Skenderaj/Srbice, and the two other men, all KLA fighters from the wartime guerrilla cell known as the Drenica Group, are charged with torturing and mistreating prisoners at a KLA detention centre in Likovc/Likovac in 1998.

They had been in detention on remand since May last year and were initially held in the Dubrava Prison in the Peja/Pec region before being transferred to the Pristina clinic for treatment several weeks ago.

On Monday, a judge from the EU rule-of-law mission decided to transfer them to a jail in Mitrovica.

But Hajrizi warned that it could be dangerous to move them to the Mitrovica prison because two high-profile Serbs are being held there.

“We want guarantees for their lives,” Hajrizi said.

Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic and retired police colonel Dragoljub Delibasic are in custody in the Mitrovica jail over allegations of involvement in alleged war crimes during the fighting between ethnic Albanian rebels and Belgrade’s forces in 1999, as well as killings that took place after the Kosovo conflict ended.

Tahir Rrecaj, the defence lawyer for Jashari, said he had not been informed that his client is on the run.

The Kosovo police declined to comment.

 

Macedonia: Political parties keep silence about incidents and protests in Skopje (Focus Information Agency, 21 May 2014)

Skopje. Political parties in Macedonia, both ruling and oppositional ones, continue to remain silent about the incidents and protests in Skopje, Zoran Talevski, a correspondent of FOCUS News Agency in the capital city, reported.

No views have so far been expressed on the events following the killing of 18-year-old Angel Petkovski from Gjorce Petrov Municipality.

There is an official reaction only on the part of the largest oppositional party, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), which called for cautiousness and moderateness [in actions].

Stojanco Angelov, chairperson of the Dignity party, recommended through the social networks the killer is punished in a severe way but the killing is not ascribed to all Albanian people.

Artan Grubi, head of the cabinet of the largest Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, also called through the social networks on the Macedonian police to arrest the perpetrator of the killing, a 19-year-old Albanian called Naser, and now to arrest the members of the criminal groups driving the country towards a deep ethnic crisis.

 

Balkans on alert as swollen rivers due to hit new peaks – Floods, landslides claim at least 49 lives (AFP, 21 May 2014)

BELGRADE: The Balkans were on alert yesterday as swollen rivers were due to reach new peaks after days of devastating floods and landslides that have claimed at least 49 lives. More than 1.6 million people have been affected by flooding of the river Sava and its tributaries while tens of thousands of hectares of farmland have been inundated and many houses and buildings destroyed or damaged. These are the worst floods the central European region has suffered in a century. In Bosnia, where more than 100,000 people have been evacuated in the worst exodus since its 1992-1995 war, thousands of volunteers were struggling to reinforce dikes along the Sava river. Bosnia declared a day of mourning for the country’s 24 dead while health authorities began disinfecting flooded areas as temperatures rise above 22 degrees Celsius (71.6 Fahrenheit) in a bid to prevent diseases from spreading. “We will face a major fight against epidemics and infectious diseases which are inevitable after such floods,” said top Bosnian official Nermin Niksic. Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija said more than a quarter of the country’s population of 3.8 million “has been affected by the floods” after the heaviest rainfalls on record began last week. “Right now, more than one million people have no (clean) water,” he said. In Serbia, where the Sava has already caused unprecedented havoc in the northwestern region bordering Bosnia and Croatia, thousands of volunteers were putting up fresh dykes along its banks.

Threat of more floods

Weather officials warned the Sava would rise further today, threatening higher levels of the massive Danube as the Sava flows into it in the Serbian capital Belgrade. In Belgrade, volunteers have placed some 12 kilometers of sandbags to prevent flooding of the Serbian capital. In Obrenovac, one of the most affected towns in Serbia, rescuers have managed to contain the waters around the Nikola Tesla power plant which produces 50 percent of the country’s electricity. In Serbia, more than 30,000 people have been evacuated so far from the areas affected by floods, including nearly 13,600 in the region of Obrenovac, or half its population. Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told a government meeting that so far 14 deaths have been registered in Obrenovac alone, with autopsy results showing half of them drowned. “We have been affected ten times more than the other countries in the region, but I hope the toll would not show that,” Vucic said. The death toll from the floods in the region rose to at least 49 yesterday, with Vucic saying the latest two victims were found in Obrenovac. Landslides claimed at least one victim in Serbia and one in Bosnia. Health authorities have ordered inhabitants not to return to their homes until the areas are cleared from debris and safe from disease. “We have to react properly to avoid an even worse catastrophe, to avoid infectious diseases,” Serbian Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar told state TV RTS. Tons of dead animal carcasses have already been taken from farms for destruction, but muddy areas and landslides have slowed down their collection. Dozens of towns and villages have been cut off and over 2,000 landslides already reported, with water levels expected to continue rising in the coming days. Neighboring Croatia has also evacuated thousands of people from along the river Sava.

Threat of mines

In a potentially deadly side-effect, officials in Bosnia warned on Monday that some 120,000 unexploded mines left over from the Balkan war of the 1990s could be dislodged and moved. “Water and landslides have possibly moved some mines and taken away mine warning signs,” Sasa Obradovic, an official of Bosnia’s Mine Action Centre said. He warned residents to be “extremely cautious when they start cleaning their houses, land or gardens as the remaining mud could hide mines and other explosive devices brought by rivers.” — AFP

 

Thousands of wartime explosives dislodged as Balkans flooding leads to landslides (RT, 19 May 2014)

Russian cargo planes and rescue teams from around Europe on Sunday joined huge volunteer aid efforts in swathes of Serbia and Bosnia where at least 24 people have died in the worst floods in over a century

While dozens of people have died as a result of massive floods sweeping the Balkans, leaving tens of thousands displaced, a new risk has been posed by unexploded wartime landmines that are now being exposed by 3,000 landslides.

“The consequences...are terrifying,” Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija told a news conference on Monday. “The physical destruction is not less than the destruction caused by the war.”

Bosnia’s Mine Action Center warned on Monday that: “Water and landslides have possibly moved some mines and taken away mine warning signs,” Sasa Obradovic, a center official, told AFP. Teams have been assessing the threat and have issued a warning to residents.

Some 120,000 unexploded landmines were left buried in Bosnia after the 1992-1995 Bosnian War – approximately 2.4 percent of the Yugoslav republic is covered with both unexploded mines and similar devices.

“They must be extremely cautious when they start cleaning their houses, land, or gardens, as the remaining mud could hide mines and other explosive devices brought by rivers,” Obradovic said.

Since the war ended, around 600 people have been killed in landmine blasts.

Record rainfall has caused catastrophic floods in Bosnia, Serbia and parts of Croatia, killing at least 47 people. More than one-quarter of Bosnia’s four million people have been affected. Some 2,100 landslides were set off in Bosnia by the heavy rainfall, while Serbia documented approximately 1,000.

While as many as 500,000 have had to evacuate their homes in Bosnia, at least 25,000 people have left their residences in Serbia.

"We have some indications that a half a million Bosnians have either been evacuated or have left their homes because of flooding or landslides," said Fahrudin Solak, the acting head of the civil defence service in Bosnia's autonomous Federation.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic announced an urgent and complete evacuation of the Serbian town of Obrenovac, located some 30 kilometers from Belgrade.

The warning came after a sharp rise in the water level of the River Sava.

The number of deaths in the town has now risen to 13, stated Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, as reported by Itar-Tass. “It's hard to talk about the amount of flood damage,” he said, “but it could cost...hundreds of millions of euros...and some say about a billion.”

Rescue services have been urging people to head to their balconies or roofs wearing bright clothes to make themselves visible.

“The situation is catastrophic,” Bosnia's refugee minister, Adil Osmanovic, said on Monday as more casualties were anticipated.

 

Bosnia’s Other Calamity (The New York Times, by Edward P. Joseph and Srecko Latalmay, 20 May 2014)

Bosnia and Herzegovina is drowning. Torrential rains have unleashed roaring funnels of water and mudslides that have consumed entire villages and taken more than 30 lives, according to official Bosnian counts. Almost a million are reported displaced; many more remain at risk. The economic toll will reach into billions of dollars in a small country with a tragic history. As one Bosnian remarked, “We were already struggling, now we are sinking.”

But Bosnia is drowning for another reason, too, this one no act of God. It has been eight years since a painstaking effort, started in 1995, to establish efficient, shared institutions began to steadily unravel under a fresh onslaught of nationalism, corruption, cronyism and international neglect — a stagnation that seeped slowly but overwhelmingly into Bosnia’s political, economic and even spiritual life. Even before the torrents began, few Bosnians, whether Serbs, Croats or Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), saw much future for their country. Many young people simply hope to leave.

Indeed, the abysmal response by Bosnia’s leaders and institutions to the current crisis reflects the country’s pervasive dysfunction. Layers of unnecessary bureaucracy and cumbersome decision-making mechanisms, nominally intended to respect group sensitivities, have been exploited by self-serving politicians who pander to ethnic fears, dispense patronage and fund party coffers, while avoiding accountability.

In the wake of the flooding, Bosnians have used social media to lash out at government ineptitude — for example, a decision by public television stations to broadcast Turkish soap operas instead of emergency information. Furious flood victims say bureaucrats and officials at all levels of government have ignored their cries for help.

Neighboring Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro have been far quicker to offer flood relief to both Bosnia and Serbia, and do so without considering recipients’ ethnic backgrounds. Likewise, the cataclysmic flooding has forced many Bosnians out of their ethnic isolation to help one another, rekindling a long-missing sense of solidarity across ethnic lines.

One might have hoped that the politicians of the country’s two ethnically divided regional units would have put aside their polarizing tactics now. Alas, the flood has become another way to score political points for elections next October. The divisive Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik used an emergency meeting with Serbia’s prime minister, Aleksandar Vucic, to restate his disdain for any policies emanating from Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital, which in his estimation serves only Bosniak interests. Among Bosniak politicians, the federal premier, Nermin Niksic, and the recently dismissed state minister of security, Fahrudin Radoncic, have focused on trading political accusations against each other rather than delivering disaster relief.

In short, Bosnia needs urgent international assistance not only to deal with the floods, but also to end the country’s political paralysis. Hands-on international supervision kept Bosnia functioning for a decade after war ended in 1995, but that supervision gave way, in 2006, to a new policy of “local ownership.” When the new international high representative surrendered his powers to break local political deadlocks, he gave the fractious parties a green light to paralyze governance while Bosnian civil society and outside powers looked on passively.

Meanwhile, the prospect of European Union membership, which was prompting reform in neighboring Croatia and Serbia, had little effect in Bosnia, whose polarizing leaders remained satisfied to cling to power through corruption, cronyism and appeals to ethnic loyalties. Angry public protests earlier this year momentarily caught the political establishment’s attention. But the protests then petered out, and with them went hopes for a sustained, indigenous movement for change, or for an international initiative to jump-start reforms.

The floods provide a fresh opportunity for all to get serious about making Bosnia governable. Even the protesters, who embraced unrealistic notions of “citizens’ democracy,” need to recalibrate their approach by acknowledging that there is no substitute for properly functioning institutions led by elected leaders. Their next campaign should focus on electoral victories in October, when they will have a chance to throw out leaders whose performance disgusted them, in favor of politicians who will meet their responsibilities. Maybe that prospect could force Bosnia’s cynical and complacent leaders to change their approach.

Enduring change can come only from within, but it will not come without a strong catalyst from the United States and the European Union. Re-creating full-throated outside oversight is not an option. Instead, the outside powers should devise new ways to make joining the European Union a practical possibility, so long as Bosnia’s institutions function well for its citizens. Good ideas for reforming Bosnia’s Constitution, curbing corruption and changing election rules abound, both abroad and in Bosnian civil society. What’s lacking are inducements to adopt those reforms.

The full challenge posed by the floods will not just be getting relief assistance to flood victims, but also generating the will in Washington and Brussels to help Bosnia move forward politically. A failure to act boldly now could well produce a resurgence of the calamity of interethnic violence in the not-too-distant future.

Edward P. Joseph is a senior fellow and lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. Srecko Latal is an editor at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.