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The Balkans Today
The Balkans Today: 8st - 14th February 2016
Our team brings you live updates of the most important events and developments in the Balkans as they happen.
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by Balkan Insight via twitter 2/8/2016 8:13:03 AM -
Two female migrants have died of cold exposure near Malko Tarnovo, in southeastern Bulgaria close to the border with Turkey, Nova TV reported on Sunday. Bulgarian border police found a group of 19 illegal migrants including 12 children in a forest area where the snow cover was more than 30 centimetres thick late on Saturday. Two women and 11 children were sent to hospital with frostbite of the second and third degree. -
The Macedonian Army started constructing a new 37km fence on its southern border with Greece to prevent refugees and migrants from entering the country illegally.
The new, longer and taller fence is being erected just five meters away from the existing one that was built last November.
Photo by: AP / Boris Grdanoski
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Top stories from the Balkans today:- Twenty-nine ethnic Albanians accused of involvement in a shootout that left 18 dead in Kumanovo face terrorism charges at a trial that starts on Tuesday in Skopje.
- Brana, a coalition of Bosnian NGOs, will release on Wednesday its report on the transparency of the recovery projects undertaken after the catastrophic floods of 2014.
- The Romanian city of Timisoara is boosting its profile by popularising the connection to local boy Johnny Weissmuller - who starred in the famous Tarzan movies of the 1930s.
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Macedonian Special Prosecution, in charge of probing illegal wiretapping cases, has launched a preliminary investigation into the high-profile case dubbed 'Monster'.
Last December, the court upheld life sentences for six ethnic Albanians convicted of terrorism for the killing of five Macedonians in 2012, a case that sparked ethnically-charged unrest.
Macedonian Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva | Photo by: MIA
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Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz has arrived in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, the first stop on his official trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro.The main agenda of his visit will be EU integration and the refugee crisis in the Balkan region.
Sebastian Kurz with Bosnia's PM Denis Zvizdic | Photo: Anadolu -
In protest of the Albanian government's decision to increase their social and health contributions, Albanian defence lawyers have boycotted today's court sessions, causing confusion and delays.The lawyers have asked the government to revoke its decision.
Photo: pixabay.com -
Twelve new criminal charges have been raised today against members of the Macedonian Special Prosecution, in what some observers see as a continuation of orchestrated attacks aimed to curb the work of this recently formed institution, tasked with probing illegality in high places.
The latest barrage of criminal charges, for alleged molestation of potential witnesses and abuse of office, takes the total number to 20 in just one week.
Macedonian special prosecutors | Photo by: MIA
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For sensible thoughts on the EU refugee challenge @ESI_eu is the by far best place to go. Inspiring Berlin. esiweb.org/index.php?lang…by Carl Bildt via twitter 2/8/2016 12:21:01 PM -
The foreign ministers of Macedonia and Kosovo, Nikola Poposki and Hashim Thaci respectively, signed a treaty today in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, that will allow people from both countries to cross the shared border using only their IDs.
Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci | Archive photo by: Kosovo Embassy in Macedonia
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Republika Srpska's president, Milorad Dodik, announced today that the proposed referendum questioning the authority of the state court and prosecution will not be organised until "there will be consensus of all parties in Republika Srpska on these issues, including parties from the opposition," reported Bosnian news agency FENA.
Milorad Dodik | Photo : SNSD -
The Vice-President of the European Commission, Kristalina Georgieva, has told the Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov that she is committed to keeping her post in the EU institution, the government’s press office announced on Monday.
Georgieva is considered a leading candidate for Bulgaria's nomination for UN Secretary-General, together with the Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova.
Borissov said last week the Bulgarian government will announce its nomination by the end of March 2016.
Kristalina Georgieva | Photo : Facebook -
Top stories from the Balkans today:
- Albanian MPs and many state officials will soon have to fill in a detailed questionnaire detailing whether they have criminal records or have had any brushes with the law in the past.
- Ameeting between Kosovo's ruling majority and its opponents was boycotted by most of the opposition and failed to make progress towards ending the political stalemate in the country.
- Transparency watchdogs claim the Serbian government has no legal grounds to keep state officials' CVs confidential - a move that directly contravenes a court ruling.
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Top stories from the Balkans today:
- Austria
is advising Balkan countries to significantly reduce the flow of
refugees, as it prepares to sharply limit the number of incomers it is
willing to receive.
- Ambassador
Greg Delawie has delivered a stark warning about Kosovo's future,
following the failure of the latest high-level attempt to resolve the
ongoing political crisis.
- Following
the success of a charity cofounded by Hollywood star Ethan Hawke's
mother, Romania is launching a drive to get more poor families to send
their children to kindergarten.
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Wartime Bosnian Serb General Zdravko Tolimir, who was sentenced to life imprisonment last year for the genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica, died late on Monday in The Hague, media have reported.Tolimir, the former intelligence chief of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Main Headquarters during the war, was a close aide to Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic.
Tolimir in court as the verdict was read in 2015 -
Prosecutors from Romania's National Anticorruption Directorate, DNA, officially started on Tuesday the criminal proceedings against former General Prosecutor Tiberiu Nitu.
Nitu is accused of complicity in abuse of office relating to an inquiry into the use of police motorcades by senior government officials.
Tiberiu Nitu | Photo: TV capture -
Direct trains will beging transporting refugees from the Macedonia-Greece border to Austria, without stopping in any countries in between, Croatian interior minister Vlaho Orepic announced today.
Fifteen Croatian police officers have been deployed to the Macedonia-Greece border, where they will now screen and register refugees from, while the migrant camp in Slavonski Brod, eastern Croatia, will be closed.
Vlaho Orepic. | Photo: Facebook -
All EU country ambassadors in Macedonia have expressed strong support for the independent work of the Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva, said the EU's ambassador to Skopje, Aivo Orav.
The show of support comes after the Special Prosecution, tasked with probing illegality in high places, was inundated with criminal charges over the past week for allegedly pressuring potential protected witnesses.
Macedonian Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva with ambassadors | twitter photo -
The first round of negotiations for the adaptation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, SAA, between Bosnia and the EU will take place on February 16 in Sarajevo, announced the head of the Bosnian delegation to the negotiations, Hamdo Tinjak.Over the past two years, Brussels has been asking Bosnia to update clauses in the SAA to take into account the traditional economic relation the country has with neighbouring Croatia.
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Zdravko Mamic, longstanding executive president of Dinamo Zagreb football club, announced his resignation today, saying he wants to "secure the future" of the club.
Mamic's resignation comes a day after Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime announced a new investigation against him, for allegedly embezzling over 9 million euro through the club.
Zdravko Mamic. | Photo: Anadolu Agency/Stipe Majic -
Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor has alarmed the Council of Europe and the European Committee on Crime Problems over not receiving an answer from the Serbian authorites on the extradition of Tsvetan Vassilev, the former boss of the Corporate Commercial Bank, CCB.
Vassilev is accused of stealing 206 million leva (around 105 million euro) from CCB, which went bankrupt in 2014, plunging Bulgaria into financial crisis.
Since then, Vassilev has been living in exile in Belgrade over fears of unjust persecution in Bulgaria. -
Bulgaria's Irina Bokova enters race for UN leadership euractiv.com/sections/globa… http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ca1cstyUcAEaak2.jpg
by euractiv via twitter 2/10/2016 8:15:12 AM -
Top stories from the Balkans today:
- Austria is advising Balkan countries to significantly reduce the flow of refugees, as it prepares to sharply limit the number of incomers it is willing to receive.
- Ambassador Greg Delawie has delivered a stark warning about Kosovo's future, following the failure of the latest high-level attempt to resolve the ongoing political crisis.
- Following the success of a charity cofounded by Hollywood star Ethan Hawke's mother, Romania is launching a drive to get more poor families to send their children to kindergarten.
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Twenty-nine Bosnian families, with a total of 70 children, are now living in Islamic State territory in Syria and Iraq, according to Bosnian television network Federalna Televizija.Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the main exporters of jihadists in the Balkans with more than 200 Bosnian citizens having travelled to the Middle East to enrol in Islamist brigades, and at least 26 having have been killed in fighting, according to Bosnian authorities.
A screenshot of a video IS made last year for recruiting Muslims of the Balkans -
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic stated again today that Dragan Lozancic, head of Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, "doesn't have her confidence."
Grabar Kitarovic, who signed the removal of Lozancic on Monday due to "breaching of the law on the security and intelligence system," did not want to disclose concrete reasons for signing his removal, due to "national security reasons."
Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic. | Photo: Beta -
Albania will get its own Bureau of Investigation, which will probe crimes under the model of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, after the government approved the idea today.The head of this special agency will be appointed by Albania's Interior Minister while the investigation will be directed by the General Prosecutor's Office.
Albania government | Photo: kryeministria.al -
Bad weather is causing chaos for boats in Albania's port cities of Durres and Vlora, with passenger ferries arriving from Italy left stranded in the Adriatic sea, unable to dock, and others having been stopped from departing.
Port of Durres | Photo: Wikimedia/Brosen -
Serbia will send a note of protest to the Hague Tribunal for the trial chamber's conduct towards the Serbian representative at a hearing regarding Belgrade's efforts to arrest three Radical Party members, said Serbia's Justice Minister, Nikola Selakovic.
Serbian minister of Justice, Nikola Selakovic | Photo: YouTube screenshot -
Mayoral elections in Romania are to take place on June 5, the government decided on Wednesday.
In recent weeks, the National Liberal Party and several civic organisations urged the technocratic government to reinstate two-round mayoral elections, a move rejected by most parties in the parliament.
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The government of Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, said it does not support the decision of the country's Council of Ministers to enact the coordination mechanism for EU integration, lamenting to have been excluded from consultations.
"This decision on the coordination mechanism for the government of RS doesn't mean anything," the RS government stated in its press release. "PM Zvizdic told some lies concerning the decision on forming a system of coordination of the process of EU integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina." -
Bulgarian public servants will have the right to protest and to join syndicates under legal amendments to the law on civil service approved upon first reading by Bulgarian MPs on Wednesday.On the other hand, high-level administrators – secretary-generals, municipal secretaries, directorate generals and heads of inspectorates - will be banned from protesting.The changes to the law will also make retirement compulsory for administrators after reaching the respective age, and will limit the opportunity for administration positions to be filled without a publically announced recruitment process.
Anti-Government protest in Sofia | Photo: KGG1951 -
Top stories from the Balkans today:
- The Kosovo President plans to start individual meetings with party leaders to find a solution to the country's deadlock after Monday’s inter-party meeting ended without result.
- Serbia's cyber-crime rate is soaring, largely because of the rapid expansion of Internet usage in the country.
- Romanian journalists are split over a proposed sweeping new anti-defamation law, aimed at combatting discrimination, on the grounds that its real target is freedom of expression.
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Bosnia's state police, SIPA, has arrested former director of Pavlovic Bank, Petar Lazic, and Ljiljana Garic, an employee in the credits department, local media in the southern town of Trebinje reported.The arrests come after SIPA searched the bank's presmises in January, a move which coincided with the decision of the main opposition party in Repulika Srpska, the Serbian Democratic Party, to accuse the entity's president, Milorad Dodik, and the bank's administration, of numerous crimes including corruption.
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Following a meeting today with the European Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, Bulgaria's Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova said the idea of erecting a wall at the Bulgaria-Greece border to halt migration “does not seem acceptable and it does not fit our vision for the way EU policies should be carried out."
In their joint media briefing, Avramopoulos stated that managing the migration flow to Europe
goes hand in hand with the fight against organised crime, as there is a convergence between smugglers and human-trafficking networks who take advantage of refugees and migrants.
Rumyana Bachvarova and Dimitris Avramopoulos in Sofia today. | Photo: EC Audiovisual Service, Nikolay Doychinov -
Nationality-based restrictions at the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are preventing asylum seekers from reaching countries where they want to lodge protection claims.
Human Rights Watch witnessed dozens of returns from Macedonia to Greece at the Idomeni border crossing during a three-day visit in late January 2016. The people are returned to a border area with poor conditions, instead of a well-equipped transit camp set up by aid agencies.
Unable to proceed legally, people are increasingly trying to cross the border informally, where they face violence from Macedonian guards.
And criminal human smuggling rings are taking advantage of the migrants and asylum seekers trapped in Greece at the border and are committing abuses against them, Human Rights Watch said. Read more.
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Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that “someone needs to answer the question about why men died in custody.”“Gentlemen, sir Orie (ICTY judge Alphons Orie) and all the others in the Hague Tribunal, learn to respect Serbia, and only then we will continue to cooperate in line with Serbian laws,” Vucic told media.On the same occasion, Serbian justice minister Selakovic also commented on the recent death of Zdravko Tolimir, the former intelligence chief of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Main Headquarters, convicted of the genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica. Read more.
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Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos dismissed Gelu Diaconu from his position as chief of the country's fiscal administration, ANAF, on Thursday.
Diaconu is under investigation in a fraud case related to misuse of EU funds intended to support underprivileged Roma communities. -
Bosnia's Islamic Community criticised the High Judicial and Prosecution Council's decision to ban religious symbols from Bosnian courts, including hijabs, as "a violation of the human rights of Muslims."In its statement, the Islamic Community also said "the State [...] is not showing the necessary responsibility towards Muslims and their religious rights," and stated "it doesn't wish anymore to talk with those who violate human rights."
Muslim women gathering in Sarajevo in support of their right to wear hijab | Photo: facebook -
The Turkish community in Macedonia held protests today after prominent news host Dragan Pavlovic accused opposition leader Zoran Zaev of "lying like a Turk" during a TV interview on Wednesday.
Macedonia’s Journalist’s Council of Ethics condemned Pavlovic’s remark, while the Turkish embassy in Skopje said it does not accept Pavlovic’s apology that he later offered. -
Republika Srpska's government asked the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina to withdraw its decision on the coordinating mechanism for the country's EU integration, and instead wants to start a negotiating process between all levels of government on the topic.The entity's government accused the Council of Ministers yesterday of having adopted the mechanism without first seeking its approval.
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A group of youths, wearing pro-Communist t-shirts, stormed the conference on United States' foreign policy in Belgrade today, shouting "NATO fascists - go away" and "NATO killers get out of Serbia".
The incident occurred during the opening speech by Serbia's former foreign minister Vuk Jeremic, who is also the founder of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, which organised the conference. -
Top stories from the Balkans today:
- Kosovo’s parliamentary commission for budget and finances discussed the need for new laws on NGO microfinance institutions - as BIRN published an investigation on the Kosovo Enterprise Program.
- Media reports say Turkey has banned Ahmed Dogan, a powerful figure in an ethnic Turkish Bulgarian party and media mogul Delyan Peevski, from the country for pro-Russian views.
- If an election was held in which only figures from the past could compete, many Romanians say they would vote for the cruel medieval prince called Vlad the Impaler - if he was still alive.
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Ranko Ostojic, former Croatian interior minister and MP of centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, was voted in as the chair of the parliamentary committee for domestic policy and national security, which is responsible for controlling security and intelligence agencies.
Although the leading centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, opposed the appointment, MPs from their ruling partner, the Bridge of the Independent lists, MOST, voted in his favour.
Ranko Ostojic. | Photo: Facebook -
Macedonia's Special Prosecution, tasked to investigate high-level crimes, is pressing ten criminal charges against individuals involved in the illegal wiretapping scandal, among other charges related to past electoral crime, it announced at a press conference today.
Macedonian special prosecutors | Photo by: MIA -
Macedonia's Special Prosecution said the interior minister, the transport minister and the secretary general of the government are the main suspects for electoral fraud.
The Special Prosecution is also investigating a number of judges and members of the State Electoral Commission in 2013.
One person has been detained while the Special Prosecution has asked for eight people to be placed in detention. -
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The mayor of Albania's Pustec municipality, Edmond Temelko, has allegedly been arrested in the Macedonian town of Resen on allegations of electoral fraud, early reports by Albanian media have stated.Temelko was elected mayor of the municipality, which has a majority Macedonian population, in 2007 and is an outspoken voice for the rights of Macedonians in Albania.
Edmond Temelko picture on a campaign poster | Photo: Facebook -
A criminal network that generated 1.1 million US dollars (approximately 890,000 euros) by trafficking Romanian children across Europe and forcing them to pickpocket at tourist hot-spots in Paris has been dismantled, Europol said on Friday.
Police in France and Romania arrested 18 people, seized 25,000 euros, and recovered jewellery, gold, luxury watches and TVs during simultaneous raids of 14 houses across both countries. -
EU gives Greece three months to fix border controls or face suspension from border-free zone for up to two years bbc.in/1TcsXVl -
Zdravko Tolimir, Bosnian Serb general jailed for life for committing genocide during the Balkans wars died of natural cases in a UN detention centre, United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals said on Friday after an autopsy. Read more.
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Around 100 environmental activists blocked a central metro station and main boulevard in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, on Thursday evening to protest against plans to enlarge the ski zone of popular Bansko ski resort.
The protesters demanded the resignation of the government over plans to allow Yulen, the concession holder for the resort, to further its investments in the Pirin National Park, and want the private company's contract cancelled immediately due to alleged unlawful exploitation of the park's protected areas.
Environmental activists protest in Sofia on 11 February | Photo
by Tihomira Metodieva -
Bosnia's state prosecution issued an indictment on Friday against Senad Kostac, a 23-year-old Bosnian citizen born in Velika Kladusa, accusing him of having tried to join a paramilitary formation that operates outside Bosnia and Herzegovina.Kostac was arrested on January 12 in Turkey while allegedly trying to reach Syria to join Islamic State.
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The verdict in the case against Serbian war crimes defendant and Serbian Radical Party boss Vojislav Seselj is set for March 31, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, announced on Friday. Seselj is accused of war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia.
Vojislav Seselj. Photo: Beta
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