Belgrade Insight, No. 4

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NEWS NEWS

Friday • June 13 • 2008

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1 / Friday, June 13, 2008 Issue Issue No. 4No. / Friday, September 19, 2008

KosovoSplits CaseSocialists at UN LureCaution of Tadicon Alliance

While younger Socialists joining a country’s new, pro-EU old Kosovo’s independence to the support UN General Assembly.

But the leaders remaingovernment, cautious.

Milosevic loyalists threaten revolt over the prospect.

Belgrade has welcomed a move to forward its resolution to seek the World Court’s opinion on the legality of

Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic claimed Spanish support was pivotal Late on Wednesday, the 28-memSocialist leader IvicaMojsilovic Dacic remains the Serbian kingmaker

By Julijana

ber UN board unanimously decided toto include resolution in the Serbia’sSerbia’s late president, Slobodan agenda of the General Assembly.

Milosevic, and reformists who want resident Boris Tadic said the Jeremic said that the debate was the party become a modern Euroense negotiations on a new govdecision was a diplomatic suc- heated andto that the insistence of Spain, pean social democrat organisation. ernment ranks cess, buthave thatdivided the taskthe was not Argentina and Egypt was pivotal. done as the next would be He added thatyears thoseofopposing the After eight stagnation, of theyet, Socialist Party,step which holds more difficult.of power between the bid, “especially two very influential the Socialists returned to centre stage the balance Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said countries,” eventually changed their after winning 20 of the 250 seats in main and has yet to announce the UNblocs Committee’s decision to in- mind. Six out of 28 board members parliament in the May 11 elections. which side they will support. clude Belgrade’s resolution asking the have already recognised the indeWith the and nation“It looks as if the will pendence International Court of Socialists Justice’s opinofpro-European Kosovo. ion on whether February 17 Ahead of the General Assembly, Jeralist blocs almost evenly matched, move towards Kosovo’s a government led by declaration of independence wasMiin emic remained cautiously the Socialists now have optimistic. the final say the Democrats,” political analyst line with international law “is a great “We have a chance. We have a on theI fate of we the country. lan Nikolic, of the Cen- plan, success, but it’s too independent early to rejoice.” think can be successful, Nikolic believes Socialists, led tre“The of Policy Studies, said.

“But such victory is not final,” Jeremic but it is too early tothe start rejoicing,” said, adding thatprovoke the “crucial success

by IvicaForeign Dacic, Minister will come a move might deeper divi- Serbia’s said.over to would be even to get majority (support) Serbia’s former representaTadic, if only out oflegal a pragmatic desions and split the party.” within the General Assembly.” at ensure the International of sire to their political Court survival.

Simultaneous negotiations held tive “The group of younger Socialists with the pro-European and nationalgathered around Dacic seems to be ist blocs have drawn attention POLITICS to a in the majority”, Nikolic said, adding deep European rift inside the Socialists.

The Union’s failure to agree an interim loyal trade that these reformists believe the party Thisto implement divides “old-timers” deal with Serbia was ‘unjust’ say Serbian officials. However, they pledged to continue working on closer ties Business Insight with the THIS bloc. ISSUE OF

in Belgrade

By Rade Maroevic in Belgrade

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Belgrade Insight Page 3 IS SUPPORTED BY:

Costs Mounting

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party over which way to turn.

“The situation in the party seems extremely complicated, as we try to convince the few remaining laggards that we need to move out of Milosevic’s shadow,” one Socialist Party official complained.

“Dacic will eventually side with Tadic in a bid to guide his party into the European mainstream, but much of the membership and many officials may oppose that move.”

Nikolic agreed: “The question is will the party split or will the ‘oldtimers’ back down,” he noted.

Fearing they might not cross the 5-per-cent threshold to enter parliament, the Socialists teamed up with the Association of Pensioners and the United Serbia Party, led by businessman Dragan Markovic “Palma”.

Pensioners leader, Jovan Krkobabic, Palma and Dacic are all pushing Photo by FoNet for a deal with the Democrats.

The reported price post of International Courtisofthe Justice.

Justice, Vladimir Djeric, agreed that to the Some PM, media are speculating that the the board’s decision “is an impordeputy with a brief in charge of tant signal that Serbia’s has cer- debate on for Serbia’s bid couldleader. be held as security the Socialist faces extinction unless itbid changes. tainHowever, chances for success,current especially today (Friday September the Socialists are19). bara strong also soonInasaddition, since the Committee decision was Belgrade has been warned by the gaining for other ministries, includflows in the opposite direction, led reached unanimously.” However, he West that its initiative is not welcome. ing investments, and by warned party veterans enraged by the also that “it is still uncertain Oncapital Wednesday, FrenchKosovo ambassawhether to the UN, Jean-Maurice Ripert, education, Belgrade media reported. prospectthe of aGeneral deal withAssembly Tadic. will dor endorse Serbia’s bid.” a founder of saidTadic the European Uniontalk wasof trying to has denied horseMihajlo Markovic, Belgrade-based Professor Ivo reach a joint position on Serbia’s World trading with the Socialists, maintainthe party, recently warned of a crisis Viskovic also warned that despite Court bid on Kosovo. Six out of 27 of ingbloc’s that ministries would gonot only to if Dacic opts for the pro-European success at the first stage, “the General the member states have recthose committed to working for the bloc, abandoning Socialists’ assembly decisionthe asks for more“natpa- ognised Pristina’s independence. tience, because a battle has been won “It’s clear that the initiative government’s “strategic goal”. is not ural” ideological partners. but Markovic, we have yeta to win the war.” to time, the EU. Weseems believe At thehelp same Dacic reprominent supporter of great With the board’s approval, all UN that now, when we are committed to luctant to call off negotiations with of Milosevic during the 1990s, is member states in the General Assem- speeding up Serbia’s integration into theEU, nationalists. seen the “oldbly willasberepresentative asked if they of support Ser- the it creates turbulence which don’t reach an agreement timers” in the party who want stay does“Ifnotwecontribute bia’s move or not.

Belgrade willtoneed to the process,” atrue simple majority states to policies, back its Ripert warned. with the DSS and Radicals, the parto the formerofregime’s resolution for the case to be forwarded BalkanInsight.com ty leadership will decide on future even though these almost ruined the Source: steps”, Dacic announced, following Socialists for good.

ECONOMICS the first session of country’s new parSome younger Socialist officials liament on Wednesday. have voiced frustration over the conMarie Kingston investigates the postinuing impasse within their own Source: Balkan Insight (www.balkaninsight.com) sible ramifications of the global credit crunch for the emerging markets of the Balkans.

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By Mark R. Pullen

Pages 4-5

BOOK REVIEW

Marcus Tanner reviews Ivo Andric’s Bridge on the Many of Drina. us who have experienced numerous Serbian elections rate ourselves as pundits when it comes to predicting election results and post-election moves.

We feel in-the-know because our experience of elections in Serbia has shown us that (a.) no single Page party or coalition will ever gain9 the majority required to form a government, and (b.)&political OUT ABOUTnegotiations will never be quickly concluded.

Aleksandar Vasovic provides the lowdown Evenballoon when Democrats on hot-air trips the over Belgrade. achieved their surprising result at last month’s general election, it quickly became clear that the result was actually more-or-less the same as every other election result in Serbia, i.e. inconclusive.

This is likely to continue as long as Serbia’s politiciansPage form10new political parties every time they disagree WHAT’S with theirON current party leader (there are currently 342 regLooking for a fun time or a cultural istered political parties in Serbia). event to inspire.

Drawn-out negotiations are also the norm. One Belgrade-based Ambassador recently told me he was also alarmed by the distinct lack of urgency among Serbian politicians. “The country is at a standstill and I don’t understand their logic. If they are so eager to Page 13enprogress towards the EU and courage investors, how come they go home at SPORT 5pm sharp and don’t The UEFA Champions League gets work weekends?” underway.

Surely the situation is urgent enough to warrant a little overtime.

Neighbourhood Matters

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Football Rebellion

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NEIGHBOURHOOD

conomists are warning that prolongedproblems uncertainty over Serbia’s “Georgia’s may echo those of the Balkans in the butlead gefuture could scare off 1990s, investors, ography meansandcomparisons to higheralone inflation jeopardise between thefor Caucasus Southeast prosperity years toand come.

Europe can only be taken so far.”

“This year has commentator been lost, fromTim the Leading Balkan standpoint of economic policy,” says Judah analyses alleged parallels being drawn between Georgia and the Stojan Stamenkovic of the Economcountries of the Western Balkans. ics Institute in Belgrade.

BUSINESS EDITOR’S WORD Keep abreast of news from the Political Predictability world of business.

hile the football world watches events unfold at the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland, Bosnia is experiencing a soccer rebellion, led by fans, players and former stars who are enraged by what they see as corrupt leaders of the country’s football association leaders. page 10

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BELGRADE Despite temperatures dropping by as much as 10 degrees Celsius in recent days, Belgraders relying on city supplied central heating have been forced to find alternative ways to heat their homes.

Check out our Belgrade Chronicle page for news from the capital.

Page 8

Source: www.weather2umbrella.com

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Friday, September 19, 2008

news

Friday, September 19, 2008

Visa-Free Regime ‘by Mid-2009’

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erbia could get a visa-free regime with EU Schengen states by mid-2009, Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic says.

After meeting the European Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot, Djelic said it was agreed that the technical parts of visa liberalisation will be finished in spring.

The news came after European Union Foreign Ministers failed to agree to unblock an interim trade deal with Serbia, which is part of a key premembership deal that Brussels signed with Belgrade in April.

Earlier Belgrade had said it hoped for a visa-free regime for Serbian passport holders by the beginning of 2009, but Djelic said there still was a lot to be done.

Besides biometric passports, which are now being issued, Djelic said that it was crucial that Serbia’s parliament adopt all necessary laws for visas to be abolished in the autumn.

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he European Union’s failure to agree to implement an interim trade deal with Serbia was ‘unjust’ say Serbian officials. However, they pledged to continue working on closer ties with the bloc.

Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Bozidar Djelic, will continue talks with EU officials on further steps towards closer ties.

President Boris Tadic said his country “will continue to fulfil our legal and international obligations,” adding that cooperation with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague was one of them.

Vuk Jeremic, Serbia’s Foreign Minister, added that the EU decision should be put into perspective.

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N war crimes prosecutors at The Hague are due to file a revised indictment against wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, with a motion requesting its confirmation on Friday.

Karadzic said he had not read the current indictment, adding that he expected to get a new chance to enter his plea once he received the new indictment.

At the first pre-trial status conference Karadzic was not accompanied by his legal team or Defence attorney.

Despite Judge Ian Bonomy’s advice, he once again said that he wanted to represent himself during the course of the entire process.

“Nobody could defend me better than me, because nobody knows all the facts as well as I know them,” Karadzic said, adding that he was not defending himself alone, but also “the people, who have suffered so much, Republika Srpska and Serbia”.

They include laws on foreigners, data protection, asylum, and anti-corruption regulations.

In May, Barrot presented a “roadmap” of conditions that will eventually enable Serbian citizens to travel visa-free to EU countries.

The documents contains four elements, called “blocks”, which include requirements about document security, illegal immigration, public order and security, as well as external relations.

Deputy PM Bozidar Djelic

Ex-Radical Chief Plans ‘Forward Serbia’ Party

Editor’s Word

By Mark R Pullen Tomislav Nikolic, ex-SRS deputy leader Nikolic has said he will start forming the new party as of this week.

However, he suffered a blow when Aleksandar Vucic, who resigned as Radical Party Secretary General, declined to join forces with him. Vucic has indicated that he will withdraw from politics, at least temporarily.

Disappointment over ‘Unjust’ EU Move “This is not a big defeat, but rather the postponement of an inevitable step, and that’s the next move towards full European Union membership,” Jeremic said.

After Monday’s meeting, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn encouraged Serbia to start unilaterally implementing the key pre-membership deal called the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, which was signed between Brussels and Belgrade on April 29 and endorsed by Serbia’s parliament earlier this month.

Rehn’s advice followed his statement on Monday that “the arrest of (Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan) Karadzic in July was a milestone and that should be recognised by

the EU by starting to implement the interim agreement.”

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner agreed.

“The Presidency won’t hide the fact there is broad majority on unfreezing the agreement, but we don’t have unanimity for the moment,” he said.

The lack of unanimity among EU member states is the result of the tough stance of the government of the Netherlands, which insists that Serbia should not move forward in EU integration before it arrests the two remaining war crimes fugitives from the 1990s Balkan wars, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.

Following the talk’s outcome, Djelic accused Dutch Foreign Minis-

ter Maxime Verhagen of “taking the right to solely decide whether Serbia is cooperating enough” to be rewarded with the implementation of the trade deal.

Djelic said the move was ‘an injustice done to Serbia’, but pledged his country would not change its proEuropean orientation.

Maxime Verhagen

Karadzic to Get Fresh Hague Indictment Karadzic said, just like the first time he appeared before the Court, that he was not alone as he had “invisible allies”.

At the status conference, Karadzic discussed with the Tribunal his request to have all relevant documents translated into Serbian, using Cyrillic letters, before submitting them to him.

“Reading Cyrillic script is a family tradition in my case. It was created by my family, so I have an interest in using it,” Karadzic explained.

The Prosecution responded to his request earlier, claiming that all documents would be submitted to him in official languages of the Tribunal – English, French and BosnianCroatian-Serbian, BCS. “I do not know what BCS language is. Serbian is my mother tongue,” Karadzic said, still insisting on his original request, which will be further considered by the Tribunal.

Sensitive Censoring

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omislav Nikolic, the former deputy leader of the hard-line Serbian Radical Party, is likely to name the new party he is about to form “Forward Serbia”, a Belgrade daily has reported.

Vecernje Novosti quoted Nikolic, former deputy leader of the Radicals, as saying that “the new party name won’t go far from the name of his recently formed deputy’s club in Serbia’s parliament called Napred Srbijo (Go Serbia).”

Nikolic, whose move split the Radicals – until now the largest opposition party – said that the new party’s headquarters would be in central Belgrade, unlike the Radicals’ seat, which is on the outskirts of the capital in Zemun.

The Radicals expelled Nikolic and a number of his followers over his dispute with party leader Vojislav Seselj, who is standing trial for war crimes in The Hague.

Once again, Karadzic mentioned his agreement with US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke, claiming that this agreement guaranteed him that he would not be arrested. He added that he had opened a personal investigation on this issue.

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“I do not think that Holbrooke was speaking to me as a US Envoy only, but rather as a representative of the international Contact Group.

Therefore, I want this to be taken into consideration,” Karadzic is quoted as saying.

Radovan Karadzic has requested all documents in Cyrillic

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ne of the many shocking elements of life in Serbia that I noticed when I arrived back in 2002 was the apparent lack of any sort of state censorship covering media sex and violence.

I vividly recall being taken aback when I first spotted hardcore pornographic magazines displayed in the waist-high (i.e. small child eye-level) windows of the city’s kiosks and when I saw graphic film scenes broadcast on domestic national television in the middle of the afternoon.

Having not witnessed such shocking irresponsibility over the last few years, I’d assumed that the problem had been remedied at a national level. I was mistaken.

Last month I was enjoying a relaxing Wednesday afternoon of channel surfing at home when I came across the epic gangster film Once Upon a Time in America on FOX. This film, starring Robert De Niro and James Woods, includes strong language, sex, scenes of graphic violence and even a rape scene (which was broadcast in its entirety just after 3pm).

The tendency to broadcast films with adult content on daytime television and display hardcore porn magazines in shop windows is probably born of the same attitude that has seen the abolition of school uniforms in Serbia; in other words, a kneejerk rejection of the norms and values of the country’s communist era.

Pornography in all its forms was banned outright in the former Yugoslavia until 1989. Since then it has grown in prominence, apparently unregulated in terms of where pictures of a graphic sexual nature can be displayed.

School uniforms were worn in all Yugoslav schools until the early 1980s.

Nowadays they are only seen in a select few private schools, because the notion of uniforms is reminiscent of the rigidity of Tito’s Yugoslavia.

Though I wouldn’t like to see the country return to that period of massive social restriction, I would like to see an end to Serbia’s rejection of any rule that they consider too Titoesque.

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business

Friday, September 19, 2008

Govt Offers Mountain Resort to Bidders

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erbia’s Economy Ministry has invited bids for the development and twenty years joint management of the Stara Planina’s Jabucko Ravniste mountain resort in Serbia’s east, a statement says.

Bidders must prove they were involved in similar projects valued at no less than €150 million in the past five years. Investors who manage at least five hotels or can secure a managing contract from an international chain with at least ten four-star hotels will also be allowed to bid.

The Stara Planina Ski Resort

Austria’s Immorent AG, a subsidiary of the Erste Group, Serbia’s Energoprojekt and Germany’s Eureal have expressed interest in the Stara Planina deal, Goran Petkovic, a State Secretary with the Economy Ministry said.

The best bidder will be expected to hand over at least 14 percent of developed assets and 14 percent of profits to the government during the 20 year-long management.

The ministry said that for the 20-year period it envisaged investments of as much as €156 million in hotels and amusement facilities, an additional €50 million in ski slopes and €30 million in other infrastructure.

Under the plan, the state will retain control over the infrastructure, land, ski slopes and partial ownership over hotels.

The Stara Planina mountain is located in Serbia’s east, just outside neighbouring Bulgaria. Parts of the mountain in Serbia and Bulgaria are protected as National Parks and Protected Natural Areas.

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Delays to Zastava-Fiat Deal

he sale of a 70 %stake in carmaker Zastava to Italy’s Fiat is likely to be postponed for some weeks as the Serbian company is trying to deal with outstanding property issues, an official said.

Dejan Jovanovic, a state secretary with the Economy Ministry, the B92 network reports, said that the tentative deadline for the completion of the €800 million deal - set to expire in the first half of September - will be extended, “because of some small technical details”.

The report said that property issues between Zastava, the local Reomat scrap metal processing company and Austria’s Hodlmayr International AG transportation company were the reasons for the delay.

In 2001, Hodlmayr International AG purchased an 80 % stake in Zastava’s transportation division, Zastava Transport, to form its Serbian subsidiary, Hodlmayr-Zastava D.O.O. In April, Fiat initially said it would pay €700 million over the next three years for a 70 % stake in Zastava,

that it will overhaul the company’s plant in Kragujevac, 100 kilometres southeast of the capital Belgrade, and pay overdue salaries and benefits to the company’s 4,000 workers.

The Serbian government announced it will keep the remaining

stake and invest €200 million. Following later talks, the parties agreed to invest an additional €100 million each.

The Serbian government and Fiat also agreed on the production of as many as 200,000 cars in 2009 with an additional 100,000 in 2010.

Production of Zastava’s Yugo model will be discontinued as of 2009.

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Creditors to Approve Loans

ajor international creditors have reportedly given their initial approval for loans aimed at facilitating the development of a key motorway network in Serbia, a government official said.

The World Bank and European Union banks “have said they were interested and will likely approve loans for the development of Corridor 10,” a network of highways that will link Serbia with neighbouring Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia, the source told Balkan Insight on condition of anonymity.

The source said that loans of as much as €950 million, which are needed for the completion of the so-called Corridor 10, “will be approved by the end of 2008 or early next year.”

“However, we must define what we will develop from our own funds and what parts will be secured from lending,” he said.

Last month, the Serbian government announced it will allocate €250 million

from its 2008 budget for Corridor 10 and said that its construction should be completed within 18 months.

Meanwhile in an interview with Belgrade’s B92 network, Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, NBS Serbia’s central bank, Radovan Jelasic said that because of excessive spending the country’s authorities were forced to resort to borrowing in order to finance infrastructure projects.

He warned that in the past two years, Serbian governments have spent the €1.4 billion earned from the sale of the Mobi 63 cell phone network to Norway’s Telenor ASA, which was initially slated for infrastructure projects.

“That money was spent. It’s now long-gone and if there are no other options at hand, we will have to seek loans,” Jelasic said.

To overhaul the economy and attract investors, the Serbian government said it wants to improve infrastructure and sell major stateoperated enterprises.

Serbia Eyes Bosnian Serb Combat Jets

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erbia wants to purchase surplus military jets from Bosnia’s Republika Srpska entity to supplement its own air force, a defence official has announced.

During a recent visit to the Republika Srpska capital of Banja Luka, Dragan Sutanovac, Serbia’s Defence Minister, said that the military is interested in purchasing former Yugoslav J-22 Orao, J-21 Jastreb attack jets and G4 Super Galeb advanced trainers.

“Depending on the state of readiness of those aircraft, we might supplement our own strike and reconnaissance squadrons, which are seriously short of resources,” a Defence Ministry official said recently on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Bosnia’s federal Defence Minister, Selmo Cikotic, said that jets that are still on the runways on Banja Luka’s Mahovljani airfield “could either be sold to Serbia or scrapped.”

“We have no idea what else we could do with them,” he said in an in-

terview carried by the Bosnian media.

The Bosnian military is planning to scrap its jets in favour of tactical cargo aviation and attack helicopters. In 2005, the Bosnian Serb military grounded a total of 10 J-22 Oraos, a single G4 and seven J-21 Jastrebs after its integration into Bosnia’s federal army.

The Serbian air force is still using the J-22 Orao and G-4 Super Galeb in its 241st and 252nd fighter-bomber squadrons, as well as in the reconnaissance wing attached to its Aviation Technical and Testing Centre.

“We will negotiate the price only after verifying that those jets are repairable, as they accumulated a huge number of flight hours under combat conditions,” during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, the source said.

The J-21 Jastreb, a lightweight attack aircraft, was struck from inventories throughout former Yugoslav republics in the mid-1990s due to its obsolescence. The now-defunct Federal Republic of Yugoslavia operated 66 aircraft of the type.

business

Friday, September 19, 2008

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Balkans Cannot Avoid Global Financial Crisis Now the region’s banks are part of European networks, their economies cannot escape the effects of the international downturn.

By Marie Kingston in London

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n recent years the Balkans have seen a wave of interest from funds and foreign investors seeking to take advantage of rising markets. So, what does the global financial crisis mean for the world’s largest banks, as well as for Balkan economies and their domestic consumers?

A few months ago, Lehman Brothers was a financial behemoth, a powerful institution of 158 years standing and America’s fourth biggest investment bank. Earlier this week it made corporate history by becoming the largest ever US company to file for bankruptcy.

The world’s press are comparing this crisis to the 1929 Wall Street collapse that marked the start of the Great Depression. Increasing numbers of homes beeing repossessed, as mortgagees and borrowers alike bear the consequences of the banks’ overexposure to real estate markets and risky trading practices.

But, unlike the crisis of the last century, there has been no market crash and so far no widespread panic.

Instead, the atmosphere in the City of London and on the plazas of London’s Canary Wharf is one of forced calm. The markets are absorbing the news of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG. Receivers have been appointed to manage the Lehman insolvency, but the extent of consequential losses will remain unclear until the liquidation of the bank’s assets has begun and counter-parties can accurately quantify the extent of their exposure. In the meantime, we hold our collective breath in anticipation of what lies ahead.

London analysts estimate that worker redundancies in the City’s banking and financial services sector will exceed 100,000 over the

next year. The public’s attention is focused on bankers, but what of the fallout among the countless small businesses whose livelihood depends on the custom of workers in the financial district? Behind every banker who loses a job stands a host of couriers, waiters, cabbies, hairdressers and dry cleaners. It is these individuals who could be most vulnerable in the upcoming months.

How will job losses in New York or London affect everyday life in Belgrade? It may be that an ordinarsy bank customer in a Balkan city is unlikely to feel the direct effects of the Lehman Brothers collapse, but the longer term consequences could touch every high street in Europe.

Increasing inflation and unemployment in the US and EU, and the consequential drop in discretionary income, will affect demand for retail imports and greatly increase pressure on the struggling tourism market.

The failure of Alitalia and XL, Britain’s third largest holiday firm, made it clear that the growing insolvency risk on the world travel market is not limited to small companies that are unable to hedge against rising fuel and other operating costs. If a recent prediction by BA chief executive Willy Walsh holds true, the airline industry alone could see up to 60 bankruptcies by the end of the calendar year. Figures could be higher as holidaymakers turn away from air travel. This would be unfortunate for those Balkan countries with unspoilt beaches and country retreats, which have become popular destinations for tourists from the US and northern Europe. In economies where growth is largely fuelled by consumer credit, a downturn in tourism and foreign currency receipts could aggravate financial tremors.

How do banking authorities around the world act to restore balance in these circumstances? The

U.S. Steel to Invest $100 Million in Serbia Steel giant U.S. Steel Srbija plans to invest as much as $100 million in a new production facility in the central Serbian city of Smederevo, company CEO Richard Veitch has announced.

Smederevo’s new production line will have a 50-strong workforce and the company will initially hire another 250 people to build it.

“We expect that the works will last some 20 months, and we will start as soon as we obtain permits,” Veitch said, speaking on the 5th anniversary of the company’s arrival in Serbia.

With the new facility, U.S. Steel will be able to produce high-quality steel products for the entire former

Yugoslavia, he added.

U.S. Steel purchased the then dilapidated SARTID steel mill and foundry in 2003. Since then it has overhauled production lines and between 2005 and 2007 it restarted furnaces that had been shut down for as long as 18 years.

Veitch said that his company was ready to invest more than $50 million in environmental protection.

U.S. Steel Serbia has its production facilities in Smederevo, the western city of Sabac and Kucevo in Serbia’s East. It has a workforce of 6,000.

According to official data, it is Serbia’s single largest exporter.

The world’s press are comparing this crisis to the 1929 Wall Street collapse world markets have no experience of financial crisis management on this scale. To their credit, banking leaders in both the public and private arenas have pulled together to avert global panic. The Chinese authorities cut interest rates for the first time in six years. The Federal Reserve Bank, America’s central bank, refused a further cut and instead chose to hold the US interest rate at two percent, a sign of confidence that the dollar would ride out the storm. According to reports, the Fed’s Chairman, Ben Bernanke, made personal calls to fellow central bank governors on Sunday to warn of the pending collapse of Lehman. The private sector response was similarly pre-emptive. In an initiative

issues and, more importantly, that financial institutions take swift action to improve internal monitoring and discourage destabilising practices.

In the meantime there is a chance that the positive investment trend in Balkan countries will continue despite the current crisis. However, as the region’s banking systems have been integrated into the networks of major European banks, it is unlikely that Balkan markets can remain isolated from the effects of events taking place in New York and London.

Marie Kingston is a London-based solicitor specialising in the Balkan region.

Serbian Investor to Commit 40 Million Euros to Bakeries Serbia’s Yu Point, owned by millionaire Zoran Drakulic, wants to invest as much as €40 million in the overhaul of the country’s bakeries, local media said.

The company wants to develop a major bakery and a chain of 220 bread and pastry shops and another 50 cafes,

dubbed Point Café, Drakulic said.

The company has already secured €15 million through an undisclosed German investment fund and a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, EBRD. Under the plan, the Point Café chain will be a merger of pastry and

Former Minister ‘Jeopardising’ Russia Deal

New Serbia Leader Velimir Ilic

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US Steel Srbija is the country’s top exporter

brokered by the US Treasury Department, ten of the world’s largest banks (a still viable Merrill Lynch among them) joined efforts, pooling $70 billion in emergency funds to create a liquidity safety net to fend off another major bank insolvency.

Stopgap measures have helped defuse the financial bomb for the time being. But there is no safeguard against further damage in the weeks ahead, and the underlying absence of uniform professional standards in the trading of unregulated, high-risk financial instruments leaves an open door to future crises.

It is clear that financial authorities across the globe need to continue to act in unison to tackle regulatory

Photo by FoNet

n opposition leader has accused Serbia’s Energy Minister Mladjan Dinkic of jeopardizing a key energy deal with Russia.

Velimir Ilic, the head of the small New Serbia Party, said he would demand the dismissal of Dinkic, unless he stops obstructing a key €1.5 billion energy deal with Russian giant Gazprom.

In an interview, Ilic called on President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic to “sanction Dinkic” as “he is not respecting the parliament’s decisions.”

Serbia’s legislature ratified the energy deal earlier this month after the government backed the agreement.

Sceptics however argue the deal is largely in return for Russia’s support for Serbia in opposing the independence of its southern province of Kosovo on the world stage.

Ilic said that those saying the money offered by Gazprom was not enough disregarded the benefits of a gas pipeline which, according to the deal, will go through Serbia earning the country revenues from transit.

coffee shops. The first was opened in Belgrade earlier this week and the investor plans to open another four or five, reports said.

Drakulic was quoted as saying that he expects that the value of the new company could reach as much as €200 million within three years.

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neighbourhood

Friday, September 19, 2008

475,000 Signatures Against Bulgarian Govt Sofia _ Bulgaria’s right-wing opposition has collected more than 475,000 signatures of people seeking the resignation of the Socialist-led government, an opposition official says.

A total of 475,023 signatures have been collected across Bulgaria during the “I am an European” campaign against the ruling three-party coalition, organised by three opposition parties, according to Tsvetan Tsvetanov, the chairman of the rightist Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party.

The other two parties organising the campaign are the Democrats for a Stronger Bulgaria and the Union of Democratic Forces.

According to Tsvetanov, supporters of all political organisations in Bulgaria have signed, or are willing to sign, against the Government, including supporters and members of

the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party.

Petar Moskov, a member of the Democrats for a Stronger Bulgaria leadership, said that the signatures were a way to let people in the country express their widespread discontent.

Bulgarian PM Sergey Stanishev

Bosnian Serb PM Condemns Delic Verdict Sarajevo _ Milorad Dodik, Prime Minister of Bosnia’s entity of Republika Srpska, says The Hague Tribunal has showed again “that justice for Serbian victims in front of the Tribunal is unobtainable.”

This came after the tribunal sentenced Rasim Delic, a former general of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to three years behind bars.

Talking to Republika Srpska’s official news agency, Dodik said this verdict “ruined the slightest bit of confidence in the Tribunal, which has lost its credibility in the eyes of the Serb people.”

“We all saw the pictures of decapitated people. I call upon the world to ask the judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia if three years is enough punishment for Rasim Delic for the horrible crimes of the mujahedeen who

Fugitive Arrested in Macedonia Skopje _ Macedonian police have arrested 41-year-old Serb Nenad Vrbanovic, wanted by Interpol for crimes in Italy, local media reported.

Vrbanovic has been sentenced to life by the Italian courts. Among other offences, he was sentenced for multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, rape, kidnapping and theft.

“He was arrested in late August and is now in detention awaiting

extradition,” police spokesman Ivo Kotevski told Balkan Insight.

Vrbanovic is a member of a notorious Serbian criminal gang, Local A1 TV reported, quoting unnamed sources.

Vrbanovic and his three brothers were known in the Italian region of Lombardy as the Dalton Brothers.

The most notorious among them, Ljubisa Vrbanovic, is currently serving a 40-year sentence in Serbia.

Macedonian police during the arrest of Nenad Vrbanovic

with Albanian counterpart Jozefina Topalli.

“Albania has made giant steps and they are self-evident to all,” he added.

Fini said the Italian parliament would soon ratify Albania’s NATO accession protocol.

“I will personally push for its ratification” he said.

Italy’s Gianfranco Fini and Albania’s Jozefina Topalli

Retired General Rasim Delic, 59, was found guilty of having command responsibility.

Republika Srpska PM Milorad Dodik

Photo by FoNet

Kosovo Govt Under Pressure over Contract Pristina _ Kosovo opposition parties Pacolli’s Mabetex attained only 84 in accordance with the law. are asking the government to explain points, quotes Koha Ditore from the “No decision whatsoever is the how a politician was awarded the Commission’s report. product of political preferences,” €14 million tender to renovate a pubHowever, the government con- declared Deputy Prime Minister, lic building in Pristina. firms that everything had been done Hajredin Kuci.

Ramush Haradinaj, head of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, said the government must explain its tender procedures and choice of winner.

“The government should explain how the winner was decreed,” Haradinaj said.

Mabetex group, a company led by Behgjet Pacolli, a controversial Kosovo businessman and politician, was chosen to repair the media house, the tallest building in Kosovo.

Daily Koha Ditore reported on Saturday that there could have been political influence that dictated the government’s decision.

The Evaluation Commission reports that Pellagonia Construction, a Macedonian consortium, secured 99 points in the competition, while The Kosovo government building in Prishtina

Italy Backs Albania’s EU Bid Tirana _ The President of the Italian Parliament, Gianfranco Fini, has backed Albania’s bid to become a European Union candidate state during a visit to Tirana.

“The integration of Albania into Europe is not only your objective but also an objective of the Italian government,” said Fini during a meeting

were subordinate to the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he was in command of,” asked Dodik.

Croatia ‘Ponders Extraditions Deal’

The protocol has to be ratified by European Union member states, in a procedure which can take approximately 18 months. However, NATO officials are hopeful that this can be achieved by early next year so Albania and Croatia can participate as fully fledged NATO members at next year’s summit.

Photo by FoNet

Zagreb _ The Croatian government says it is willing to extradite its citizens to neighbouring countries if other states are prepared to do the same, a local daily reports.

Justice Minister Ana Lovrin said Croatia will have to change its constitution anyway, “in order to create the preconditions for the implementation of the Europe-wide arrest warrant that is in force in all European Union member states.”

Legal expert Ivo Josipovic, of the opposition Social Democratic Party sees, the proposal as positive, while Vesna Pusic, head of the national council that monitors accession negotiations with the EU, considers it a government bluff.

“The idea is to show Brussels that we will repair the damage done when Dr. Simic escaped,” Pusic told Jutarnji list.

Ognjen Simic is a Croatian heart surgeon with Bosnian citizenship who fled Croatia after being sentenced to nine years imprisonment for taking a bribe.

There are several high profile cases in which countries have been unable to arrest suspects for various crimes because they have dual citizenship.

Among them is Ivan Andabak, a retired Croatian Army general accused in Sarajevo of murder, and Fikret Abdic, the wartime leader of the rebel region of Western Bosnia, who is currently serving a prison sentence in Zagreb but is wanted by Bosnian authorities.

So far Bosnia has asked for the extradition of 33 of its citizens who are using their Croatian dual citizenship to seek refuge in Croatia.

Croatia, on the other hand, seeks only two of its citizens from Bosnia.

neighbourhood

Friday, September 19, 2008

7

Echoes of the Balkans in the Georgia Crisis

Georgia’s problems may echo those of the Balkans in the 1990s, but geography alone means comparisons between the Caucasus and Southeast Europe can only be taken so far.

By Tim Judah in Tbilisi

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ormally, when one talks of “diplomatic sources”, one is referring to the understood rule of thumb by which you do not identify a diplomat who is revealing something controversial or delicate.

But I think the British ambassador to Tbilisi will not be cross with me for revealing that it was he who told me: “I have noticed more and more Balkan people turning up here.”

The ambassador did not mean large numbers of Serbs or Albanians, but rather diplomats, journalists, think-tankers, spies and who knows who else? This became obvious to me on the night of September 8-9 in the café of the Tbilisi Marriot, which serves as a hub for business and diplomacy, where I was having a drink with a diplomat who spends a lot of time in Serbia and now Georgia. “You know, Ivan Vojvoda was here,” he said, talking of the head of the Balkan Trust for Democracy who is from Belgrade. At that same moment up wandered Dan Bilefsky, who covers the Balkans for the New York Times.

The diplomat suggested that the agreement hammered out that day by French President Nicholas Sarkozy in Moscow meant Georgia was taking “the Tadic option”. So, I mused, the Balkans are even seeping into the diplomatic lexicon here. What he meant was that just as Boris Tadic, the Serbian President, had pledged not to use force over Kosovo, he had also said Serbia would never renounce its claim to the territory. Meanwhile, he has made the economy and European integration the priority.

Georgia, then, is indeed taking “the Tadic option”. Substitute Tadic with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, and Kosovo with South

Ossetia and Abkhazia, and the Balkan comparison fits nicely.

An hour or so later I was at the Georgian presidency for the press conference with Messrs Saakashvili and Sarkozy. But I found myself thinking that Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief who was also there, looked much better than when I had last seen him in Pristina. Then he had appeared rather old and evasive, standing next to Hashim Thaci, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, just after Kosovo declared independence in February.

As for Bernard Kouchner, French Foreign Minister and former UN chief in Kosovo, who was also there, how does he do it? He looks almost the same age as he did in November 1991, when, under JNA shelling (and even then a French minister!) he raced into Dubrovnik. He came on a hydrofoil that had been shot at by the Yugoslav Navy and on his arm was dashingly escorting Margherita Bonniver, an Italian minister.

But enough of personalities – enough, indeed, of arguments over “Greater Serbia” and the like. What is interesting, though many people have not yet understood it, is the way Georgia is becoming part of the Greater Balkans.

In the Western Balkans every country has now received European Union Stability and Association Agreements, which are basically instruction booklets containing about 100,000 rules and regulations that need to be mastered before you can join the club.

No such luck for Georgia, though. It is connected to Brussels only through the European Neighbourhood Policy, which means exactly what it says, i.e. that Georgia is somewhere…in the neighbourhood.

But, Georgians are optimists. I went to see Tamar Beruchashvili, who is Deputy State Minister for Eu-

Can parallels be drawn between the actions of Messrs Tadic and Saakashvili? ropean integration. She said that the silver lining in the grey cloud of just having been stomped on by Russia is that people in [the rest of] Europe were finally understanding that Georgia is not just “in the neighbourhood” but actually part of Europe.

In the meantime, a few words are needed on the much-talked-about theory that Kosovo “is responsible for South Ossetia”. There are obviously some comparisons. South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Kosovo were all “sub-republican” units of republics that in turn made up bigger federations. However, the idea that Kosovo was the spark that lit the fire in Georgia is absurd. As Vladimir Putin, Russia’s Prime Minister, has said, in a clear articulation of the “Putin doctrine”, Georgia just needed a good punch “in the face”.

Serbia is now hoping to have its motion on Kosovo’s independence tabled at the UN General Assem-

Italian Car Parts Romanian Firm in Macedonia Unemployment Below 4 % Skopje _ Italian car parts manufacturer Orlandi will build a €10 million plant for the production of trucks and agricultural machine appliances outside Macedonia’s capital, Skopje.

The factory will be built in Macedonia’s most important free industrial zone near Skopje, local media said.

This will be the first big Italian investment in Macedonia, Macedonia’s Foreign Investments Agency head, Viktor Mizo, told Italian media.

The deal envisages construction of a plant with 120 employees in the first phase and introducing additional production lines and up to 500 workers in the second phase.

The company first announced its interest in investing three months ago. This would be the sixth Greenfield investment in the Skopje free industrial zone.

In the last two years the government has introduced a set of measures aimed at significantly improving the business environment by cutting taxes and easing procedures.

However, the official unemployment rate is still at a staggering 35 percent.

Bucharest _ Romania’s unemployment rate rose fractionally in August to 3.87 percent.

The number of unemployed people in August stood at 345,000, 0.01 percent more than the rate in July, according to National Employment Agency, ANOFM. The jobless rate in Romania is one of the lowest in the European Union.

One reason for the fall in recent years has been the migration to Western Europe of more than 2 million people.

However, increased foreign investment and a stronger economy have caused labour costs in Romania to rise.

Romania’s economy is expected to expand by some 8 per cent this year, while the government projects that average salaries in the country will rise by around 75 percent by 2013.

bly, which will ask the International Court of Justice in The Hague to give an advisory opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence. So, I put it to David Bakradze, the speaker of Georgia’s parliament, who is close to Saakashvili, that Georgia would have an interest in associating his country with this motion, or launching a parallel one on South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

I know certain diplomats have suggested the same thing. But the Georgian speaker thought it a bad idea. The Kosovars had come to independence, he said, though a process in which they were the victims of ethnic cleansing. In Georgia’s case, he continued, they are the ones who have been ethnically cleansed. In 1990, only 17.8 percent of the population of Abkhazia was Abkhaz.

One could answer that with the words, “Yes but the Abkhaz had been ‘cleansed’ previously by the Geor-

gians” – and Serbs argue that since 1999 and before the era of Slobodan Milosevic, it was they who were ethnically cleansed by Albanians in Kosovo. But what would be the result?

A lot of hot air. Georgia’s problem is simple. It is just in the wrong place.

Had it been the seventh Yugoslav republic, it might have lost South Ossetia or Abkahzia, or even seized them back, as Croatia’s Franjo Tudjman did with the Krajina. But it would now be heading to Brussels and not torn between Washington and Moscow, seeking salvation in the “Tadic option”.

Tim Judah is a leading Balkan commentator and the author of ‘Kosovo: War and Revenge’, ‘The Serbs, History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia’ and ‘Kosovo, What Everyone Needs to Know’. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.

Serbia ‘Can’t Cancel Kosovo’s Independence’

Pristina _ Serbia cannot annul Kosovo’s independence at the International Court of Justice, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci argues.

“Serbian politicians are trying to save face in front of domestic public opinion,” Thaci said on Monday and noted that Kosovo’s independence has been recognised by 46 countries.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister urged Serbia to stop placing diplomatic ob-

Kosovo PM Hashim Thaci

stacles to abolish the reality created on February 17 when Kosovo declared independence from Belgrade.

On the other hand, Serbian Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremic, seems determined in the diplomatic offensive to ask for the International Court of Justice’s opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s independence.

Using the norms of international law and the principles of state sovereignty

as its defence, Serbian diplomats have been voicing their arguments against Kosovo’s independence.

Jakup Krasniqi, asserts the whole political process in Kosovo led by the international community has been in total accordance with international norms.

“The only breach of international norms,” according to Krasniqi, “was the Belgrade regime’s toward Kosovo.”

8

belgrade chronicle

Copper Gang Hits National Theatre

T

he notorious copper thieves have struck again, hitting Serbia’s national Theatre and snatching its drainpipes. This is the third such case in recent months.

According to police, four lower parts of the drainpipe are missing.

Each is about two metres long and weighs around five kilograms.

D

Friday, September 19, 2008

According to a National Theatre statement, the thieves struck the part of the building overlooking Francuska Street, as well as the side facing Dositejeva Street.

The ‘loot’ is worth around a hundred euros in local scrap yards.

Thieves earlier made a similar raid on the building of Belgrade’s Hi-

No Heating Until October, Belgraders Freeze

espite temperatures dropping by as much as 10 degrees Celsius in recent days, Belgraders relying on the city’s central heating system have been forced to find alternative ways to heat their homes.

Residents have waited in vain for Belgrade Heating Services to switch on its boilers, as temperatures have plummeted to below 12 degrees Celsius.

In a formal statement, the public utility company said that “the Order on the Supply of Heating Energy specifies that the heating season starts on October 15 and ends on April 1, except in the period between October 1 and 14, and April 1 and May

3, when homes are to be heated if the forecasted average daily temperature is 12 degrees or lower.”

The Heating Service said that all preparations for the heating season should be completed by September 30, as their annual overhaul of power plants is nearing completion. They confirmed that heating will be available as of October 1.

“Besides regular repairs, power plants in Cerak, Miljakovac and Banovo Brdo are being retrofitted with modern equipment which will enable us to charge by consumption. We are also modernising the Dunav, Konjarnik and Vozdovac power plants,” the company said.

landar Foundation in Vojvode Misica Boulevard, again stealing sections of the building’s drainpipe.

Earlier this year the gang stole copper plating from the monument to Serb inventor Nikola Tesla, displayed in front of the Technical School in the Kralja Aleksandra Boulevard. Last year they hit Bel-

Belgrade’s Gazela Bridge

B

elgrade’s key Gazela Bridge is in an alarming state and if repairs do not start forthwith there is a real danger that there will be tragic consequences, experts have warned.

This longest Belgrade crossing over the river Sava, which connects New Belgrade with the old town and is a part of the M75 pan-European Corridor 10 highway, is overloaded and long overdue for reconstruction, local newspapers reported, citing experts.

Belgrade has already secured a loan worth €33million from the Eu-

grade’s New Cemetery, taking a valuable copper statue by 20th century sculptor Oto Logo.

Belgrade police said that thieves who steal copper to resell it at scrapyards have also hit the city’s power grid, water supply and sewers, the telecommunication network, railway lines and petrol stations.

Consumer Watch

By Chris Farmer

City Hall Reforms Taxis

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esides knowing a foreign language, in future Belgrade taxi drivers will have to treat their customers politely, a city hall official said.

Apart from having to pass a test on knowledge of the city streets, in the future newly hired taxi drivers will have to speak at least one foreign language, know basic facts about cultural and historical sites, accommodation and current affairs in the capital, said Stanija Visekruna, Belgrade’s Deputy Secretary for Economy.

These rules will initially only apply to drivers joining the service, with experienced taxi drivers having until 2012 to adjust to the new system, she said.

Some taxi drivers have already taken up courses in English, Italian or German, while most taxi associations have started acquiring cars with engines that comply with the Euro 3 emissions standards, which will become mandatory as of 2009.

In an attempt to impose order on Belgrade’s notoriously chaotic taxi system, all vehicles will have to

Gazela Bridge Critical, Experts Say ropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development to commence the overhaul of Gazela, but work will not start until the completion of the ring-road around the capital, reports said.

The ring road is slated for completion by October 15.

Under a tender offer launched by Belgrade City Hall, six foreign companies - including Austria’s Porr - are expected to complete bidding for Gazela’s overhaul by September 24.

Despite all of this, experts predict that the reconstruction of the bridge won’t begin before next spring.

Transport expert Milan Milosavljevic warned that “no one should dare to begin works on the bridge in winter months, because it would cause massive disruption to traffic in the city streets.”

According to estimates, the Gazela bridge is crossed on a daily basis by around 160,000 vehicles, despite having been constructed to handle as few as 38,000.

Buyer Be Damned

T

have digital taximeters that can print receipts. Customers will also be able to pay for the journey with a credit card, Visekruna said.

All taxi vehicles will have to install global positioning devices and air–conditioning by 2012, and the same set of rules will also introduce a new code of conduct under which rude drivers who barter with passengers and refuse to take rides will have their licences revoked.

Overdue works to prove costly

F

ollowing warnings from Belgrade Mayor Dragan Djilas that the Planum company would not meet its deadline, contractors have promised that Sector Four of the city’s ring-road will be finished on time.

“We were hampered by rain,” Planum said in a statement.

Contractors working on a part of the ring-road around Belgrade have “offered assurances” to Mayor Djilas that the job would be completed by the deadline of October 15.

Djilas previously warned Planum that they were behind the schedule, noting that they had refused all kinds of assistance which would make up for the omissions.

Why is it that so many people seem determined not to give you what you want? he consumer in Belgrade has a hard battle to fight. He must find what he needs; he must know exactly what he needs (no complicated questions please!); he must be ready to be pushy and insistent; and he has to live with compromise.

Before we begin this adventure, I must admit that I am a particularly cantankerous consumer. I like to think, contrary to conventional wisdom in Belgrade, that if I am planning to give someone my money, he will give me what I want. And while I have no need to be fast friends with every shopkeeper and kiosk centurion, I also expect a certain degree of friendliness in the moments leading up to my purchasing something.

After all, I could take my custom elsewhere…

Unfortunately, I have been taking my custom elsewhere now for six years. Running out of new places to acquire material goods and services, I am forced to draw my pen and raise it in defence of the hapless consumer.

This space, in subsequent weeks, is dedicated to every shopper who is importuned by aggression in walking into a shop, his right to be in the shop challenged by a resounding “Izvolite.” I will stand by the side of each consumer who looks at the item he wants to buy and is told that he cannot buy it. For anyone who sees 26 different prices for the same children’s toy on the same shelf, for anyone who is refused service because he does not have exact change, for anyone who thinks a loyalty card is worth anything in the real world, I want to be your advocate!

No one shall be spared – airlines, banks, supermarkets, cafés, or shops and shopping malls – in the effort to undo the various indignities which the consumer suffers. Your fight, dear readers, shall be mine. And if we don’t win it every time, at least we can grumble about it together.

If you have a Consumer nightmare that needs addressing, please write to me in confidence at Belgrade Insight.

Belgrade Mayor Dragan Djilas Lazar Milinkovic, Planum’s technical director, said that workers are doing their best to finish the job on time, working 12 hour shifts daily.

“We expect to be able to finish everything by October 15, although in the last few days we were hampered by rain” Milinkovic said.

He said that the company will complete the key Zeleznik tunnel by October 1, “because the works are being carried out inside, and we are not bothered by either rain or mud.”

Meanwhile, the Belgrade Land Development Agency has announced its certainty that the contractor will finish the Zeleznik tunnel in two weeks.

The tunnel is 700 metres long and its construction began in 1991.

Djilas also warned that any further delays in the construction of the ring road that will link Ostruznica Bridge and the suburb of Orlovaca “will cost an arm and a leg.”

“If the deadline is missed by a single day, the sole responsibility will lie with Planum. If, however, everything is done on time, it won’t be a success to be claimed by politicians, but by the workers,” Djilas said.

With the ring-road around Belgrade finished, the route will be connected to highways Е-70 and Е-75, as well as the regional road network, easing downtown Belgrade’s notorious traffic congestion problems.

arts

Friday, September 19, 2008

9

The Bridge on the Drina This week Marcus Tanner reviews this Nobel Prize-winning work of Bosnian-Serb author Ivo Andric.

BOOK REVIEW

By Marcus Tanner

A

vivid depiction of the suffering that history has imposed upon the people of Bosnia from the late sixteenth century to the beginning of World War I, The Bridge on the Drina earned Ivo Andric the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961 and is an important book to read for those surprised by the suddenness of the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

This great stone bridge, built five centuries ago in the heart of the Balkans by a Grand Vezir of the Ottoman Empire, dominates the setting of Ivo Andric’s novel.

Spanning generations, nationalities and creeds, the bridge stands witness to the countless lives played out upon it. From Radisav, the workman, who tries to hinder its construction and is impaled on its highest point, to the lovely Fata, who throws herself from its parapet to escape a loveless marriage. From Milan, the gambler who risks everything in one last game on the bridge with the devil his opponent, to Fedun, the young soldier, who pays for a moment of spring forgetfulness with his life. War finally destroys the span, and with it the last descendant of that family to which the Grand Vezir confided the care of his pious bequest - the bridge.

Ivo Andric was born a BosnianSerb in 1892. He grew up first in

Sarajevo, where his father was a silversmith, and later, after his father died, in Visegrad, where his mother’s father worked as a carpenter.

He grew up playing on the bridge he describes, hearing its many fables and stories, observing first-hand the town and villages around it, seeing it bridge the lives of Christians, Muslims and Jews.

In his youth, during the Austrian annexation of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Andric attended the great Habsburg centres of learning - Vienna, Zagreb, Graz and Krakow - but during WWI his nationalist political activity led to his arrest by the Austrians and he was put in an internment camp for three years. Upon his release he began contributing to a literary review advocating political union of all the Southern Slav peoples.

He earned a PhD. in the history of Ottoman Bosnia from the Univerity of Graz in 1924 - the detail in The Bridge on the Drina shows his great command over original sources and accounts of the period - and joined the diplomatic service, rising to be his government’s ambassador to Berlin.

History has shown us that Andric’s hoped-for Southern Slavic transformation did not survive Tito, and in the 1990s the Balkans slid back again, with terrible consequences, into the production of ‘more history than they could locally consume.’

Bosnia, in particular, showed medieval horrors reminiscent of the Turkish times - one of the alleged rape camps of the Bosnian Serbs was close to Visegrad - and for those surprised by the suddenness of the disintegration of Yugoslavia this is an important book to read. The book

The Drina bridge from the story, built 1566 was translated into English in 1959, and with it spread Andric’s European reputation. Ivo Andric died in 1975.

A strange work, the book goes further into the psyche of the Bosnian Muslim than others I have read. However, I got the feeling that the BosnianSerb in Andric somehow cannot go all the way to embrace the beys or hodjas or gypsies he describes so well.

The prose sings with the lyric of genuine sentiment, but a more ambitious canvas would have served Andric better - against the epic backdrop of a And Quiet Flows the Don (of which I was reminded frequently reading this), The Bridge on the Drina comes across as a set of short stories. But it offers the reader a unique history of Bosnia and an

interesting cast of characters - from the obstinately cynical Alihodja ridiculing the Austrians’ railway, to Corkan the one-eyed gypsy, unlucky in love, dancing drunk on the parapet; or Lotte, the bustling Galician Jewess, ruling over drunkards in her hotel with a heave in her bosom and a glint in her eye.

Source: BalkanInsight.com

10

out & about

Friday, September 19, 2008

Balloons over Belgrade This week Belgrade Insight’s Aleksandar Vasovic provides the lowdown on hot-air balloon trips over Belgrade.

By Aleksandar Vasovic

O

“I flew in a balloon on several occasions and we had to cancel flights twice because of unfavourable winds. I didn’t even think to question the pilots, as they know what are they doing,” said Natasa, 28, an administrative clerk from the southern city of Nis. So far, she has made the 220-kilometre trip to Belgrade four times just to experience the balloon flight.

“My salary is not large, but I save for these flights as they are such a unique experience,” she said.

Weather Permitting, the pre-flight briefing is followed by a takeoff that lasts about 20 minutes. Soon the balloon is cruising over Belgrade at an altitude of as much as 1,000 metres. The main flight lasts between 50 and 70 minutes.

The baloon usually flies above the confluence of the Sava and Danube and the Great War Island (Veliko Ratno Ostrvo) - a reservation for migratory birds and waterfowl.

Passengers may also see stunning aerial views of Belgrade’s Kalemegdan Fortress and all the way to Fruska Gora and Zrenjanin to the northwest and north.

The Avala and Kosmaj mountains are in full view, and if the weather is good, one may see as fas as Suvobor and Divcibare in the Southwest.

Pre-flight, passengers receive basic safety instructions and are secured to prevent them from falling out of the basket.

After landing at one of several touch-down locations in and around the Belgrade area, the flight crew will offer passengers chilled champagne, certificates stating they have successfully flown in a balloon, and complementary gifts. The ground crew pick up everyone by minibus and ferry them back to Belgrade.

The entire affair lasts about three to four hours.

The Balon Centar offers several arrangements, with the basic onehour Champagne Flight at €100 per person. The condition is that the group must comprise four passengers (in other words, if you want to go alone it will cost you €400).

n September 19, 1783, the French Montgolfier brothers put a sheep called Montauciel (Climb-to-the-sky), a duck and a rooster in a basket attached to a hot-air balloon named Aerostat Réveillon The flight lasted approximately eight minutes, covered two miles (3 km) and reached an altitude of about 1,500 feet (460 m). The craft landed safely.

In the following decades, the hot-air balloon became a tool for artillery observers – a role it served extensively throughout the years that have followed – and was also used by explorers and adventurers to navigate continents.

Then came pleasure trips, and after decades of rising popularity throughout the world, hot-air-ballooning is now available in Belgrade as one of the coolest pastimes possible.

A trip up where the air is light leaves you truly breathless. It is loaded with adrenaline and romance, and is both contemplative and inspiring.

“Wow. I am stunned. I have never felt such peace and silence,” said 30year-old Belgrader Zoran after completing a flight earlier this summer.

Balloon flights organised by Belgrade’s Balon Centar Agency are usually set for early mornings or late afternoons, and their schedule largely depends on seasonal weather changes. Takeoff and landing positions are in one of several open areas in and around Belgrade and Zemun, free from power lines and trees.

Unlike fixed or rotary wing aircraft, safe flying in balloons depends on a stringent set of weather conditions, such as winds of no more than 5 metres per second (9.7 knots), clear skies and high visibility.

Pilots are authorised to postpone, cancel or end the flight if the weather turns sour. They may also abort the flight only moments before takeoff and the decision is up to the pilot alone. There’s no point in arguing, as the balloon is basically a sack filled with hot air: it has no means Contacts of navigation or changing directions www.baloncentar.com other than altitude. tel: 065 8119110

Belgrade’s hot-air balloon trips last for about an hour

Balloon trips offer a whole new perspective on the city

Photo by sxc.hu

the belgrader

Friday, September 19, 2008

Going out

Freestyler

This week’s review comes from a confused place. I can’t decide whether this is because of a mild head injury I bravely sustained a few days ago, or whether it’s because since the EXIT festival wrapped up I’ve been playing host and tour guide to friends from London who, due to some genetic defect, require no sleep - only beer. Either way, it was a fortuitous time for a visit to Freestyler.

By Richard Wordsworth

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veryone has their own thing when it comes to clubs. I think it is a virtue in this wondrous job of mine that I enjoy exploring the full breadth of this spectrum. I like the underground dance clubs where the walls shake with enough bass to make your eyes bleed; I like the grimy rock club basements full of people with long hair who smell of feet.

A friend in London once took me to an S&M club where everyone was either dressed like an Anne Rice character or was chained to something. Because leather and chains make me look gay rather than dangerous I refrained from dressing up, but you know what? It was still fun, in a hope-you-don’t-run-into-anyone-you-know sort of way.

And that should be, I think, the cardinal rule for any nightclub, regardless of genre – have fun. This is

why the only places that I really feel uncomfortable in are the “posh clubs”.

This is something of a misnomer, as to my mind they aren’t really posh and they aren’t really clubs. Rather, they’re places that are expensive, in both menu and decor, where vast crowds of people gather to… well, I’m not really sure. Stand, apparently.

Freestyler is a bit like this. It’s always full of people - and I mean full to the gills - who stand in clumps, shouting at each other above the noise.

It’s ok to bash somewhere like Refresh when it’s so empty most of the time, but it seems logical to think that when a place is this popular, it’s my personal taste that’s at fault.

The root of my problem is that I don’t know how to behave. If you try to dance, everyone thinks you’re drunk; if you try to rock out everyone thinks you’re on drugs, and don’t

even ask what happens if you put on a gimp mask and ask to be punished.

You will be, but not in a sexy way.

Because of this I’m hesitant to criticise clubs like Freestyler. When we visited, we couldn’t really hear each other over the music, so instead we did a line of rakija shots at the bar. Then what? Do another? I began to feel like I’d cheated one friend in particular, who having just finished a stint working at Wimbledon had come to Serbia, convinced that all the women would look like Ana Ivanovic. And now that I’d taken him to one of the places where all the women genuinely do look like Ana Ivanovic he couldn’t talk to any of them. I felt guilty.

So if I try to put myself into the well-heeled shoes of the people who go to Freestyler, what’s going on that’s good? Well, the people are pretty, that’s certainly true. Difficult

as it may be to talk to them, I am at my core a shallow enough being to understand the desire to be surrounded by the beautiful people.

Beautiful people hang out in beautiful places, and Freestyler is far from shabby – lots of white maybe-leather and exciting spinning disco lights that make everything seem as if it’s constantly changing colour. There’s also a raised catwalk and gyrating dancing girls above the bar, who will distract you just enough to piss-off your girl friends.

There’s a pervading sense that the people at Freestyler were the cool kids when they were at school, complimented by the whiff of money, highlights and designer clothing.

So, I get it. In a scientific way.

But I also understand why people willingly apply for Veliki Brat. It’s a desperately unfair comparison – clearly the latter group are sick and

Freestyler, a haven for ‘the Beautiful People’

11

need help – but my point is that simply understanding the reasons behind the wild success of Freestyler wasn’t enough to make me enjoy it.

So that well inside of me, which usually overflows alternately with bile or sycophantic lauding, is this week left puzzlingly empty.

I guess it’s a matter of taste with clubs like Freestyler. Perhaps it’s my association of the word “club” with music and dancing that’s the cause of my confusion, or perhaps I’m just not cool enough to “get it”.

Whatever the case, I can’t shake the creeping sense I always get in clubs like this that the people – if they were being honest with themselves – are perhaps not having quite as much fun as they’re pretending to.

FREESTYLER Brodarska bb, New Belgrade 063 300 839

Photo courtesy of www. splavfree.rs

Dining out

Joy of the Heart

Fed up with all that red meat, cigarette smoke and loud music? Calm your stomach, and your nerves, in this eastern oasis where Sladjana serves up vegetarian food with a difference.

By Pat Andjelkovic

Y

ou don’t have to be in Belgrade very long before you discover that the city’s restaurants are a carnivore’s paradise.

For vegetarians, aside from the ever-present smoke and often annoyingly loud music, dining in traditional Serbian restaurants means choosing between the classic cabbage, tomato, and Serbian salads, tomato or mushroom soup, cheese pie and at best some kind of cooked vegetable dish.

For vegans, the choices are even more limited, since many dishes use animal fat or cheese. If your taste buds yearn for substantial non-meat/ dairy product fare, it’s not always easy to satisfy them. That is, until Joy of the Heart came along.

Located on Svetogorska Street, just across from the theatre Atelier 212, this little restaurant is an urban jewel, offering sanctuary from the hustle and bustle outside.

Descend a few steps from the pavement and suddenly you find yourself in a cool, peaceful setting.

Framed pastel artwork, some bearing quotes from the spiritualist Sri Chinmoy, adorns the pale blue walls.

Subtle, calming Eastern music begins to relax you, and best of all, you can actually breathe, for the entire

restaurant of seven tables (16 seats) is smoke-free!

I literally stumbled upon this little treasure, and have been back five times, and have tried nearly everything on the menu.

Joy of the Heart opened just over six months ago. Sladjana, owner and chef, learned to create her specialities working in a vegetarian/vegan restaurant in San Francisco.

She’s succeeded in finding a happy medium between recipes for the discriminating vegetarian/vegan, while still serving coffee (with sugar if you want), and some sweeter desserts.

The restaurant offers breakfast until noon and offers eggs any style (140 dinars), cheese omelettes (190 dinars), and vegetable omelettes (170 dinars), served with bread and butter.

On a recent lunchtime visit, a friend and I shared a plate of creamy humus served with homemade oldstyle bread (available from a health food store on nearby Hilandarska Street, where I later bought two loaves), washed down with two tall glasses of freshly-squeezed juice: carrot, beetroot, and apple, and apple, carrot, and orange. We could feel the vitamins kicking in.

Next, I ordered a Samosa Meal, featuring two crispy samosas (mixture of peas, potatoes, exotic spices in a crust) served with basmati rice

Joy of the Heart vegetarian & vegan restauarant, a break from the norm and two sauces: yogurt/tomato and apricot/apple chutney.

I drank two cups of Earl Grey tea, while my friend drank mineral water as she enjoyed a fresher-than-fresh avocado salad with tortilla chips, tomato, sunflower seeds, corn, and apple, with balsamic vinegar and olive oil on the side to season as she wished, and a slice of “neatloaf” (veggie version of meatloaf), a juicy blend of grains, eggs, tofu, and spices baked and served with a tangy tomato-based sauce.

On another occasion, I had the fullmeal neatloaf, served with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy. Vegetarian fare to be sure, but filling and

satisfying enough that we didn’t opt for any of the desserts, ranging from ice cream to yummy-looking French chocolate cake. Our entire bill came to only 1,380 dinarss.

Other items on the menu that I’ve sampled and liked are just-spicyenough dhal (lentil) soup, cream of carrot soup (135 dinars), the Curry Meal with chick peas and basmati rice, served with sweet and sour sauce (425 dinars.), and the Falafel Meal, with four spiced chick-pea falafel balls wrapped in a tortilla with spices, tomatoes, and cucumbers, served with a small green salad (360 dinars).

Joy of the Heart is air-conditioned, and if it isn’t cool enough for

you, just ask Sladjana or her assistant to turn it up.

They do take-aways, special orders and catering with advance notice.

English spoken. So, vegetarian or not, the next time you need a break from traditional Serbian food, drop by Joy of the Heart. It’s an oasis in the very centre of Belgrade, perfect for unwinding and calming your thoughts.

Monday to Saturday, except Wednesday, 9am-10pm.

Wednesday, 9am-5pm.

Sunday,10am-5pm.

JOY OF THE HEART Svetogorska 18 Tel: 011 334 5181, 061 152 3453

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the belgrader

Friday, September 19, 2008

Watch Your Step Sightseeing in Belgrade is fun, even if it does often feel like a mysterious, invisible army of urban imps is out to get you.

By Pat Andjelkovic

Y

ou don’t have to be in Belgrade long to realise that you’d really better watch out when you cross the street. Like many other capitals, Belgrade is jampacked with cars, motorbikes, and bicycles that whiz by at speeds Superman would envy. Getting from one pavement to another can be a harrowing experience, even when that little green man tells you it’s safe to cross.

Look before you step out, especially if you’re at a crossing where there are no lights. You even need to look both ways on one-way streets, as they are not always as ‘one-way’ as you think. (Remember the old joke about the motorist stopped by a policeman who pointed out that he was on a one-way street: “But I’m only going one-way”! (Bad joke, but true sometimes here).

Most drivers’ attitude is, “I belong on the street; you don’t.” My grandfather used to say: “When the light turns green, it only means the light is working, not that the other guy is going to stop.” Grandpa’s advice was solid, and has actually saved me a couple of times.

But this article isn’t about crossing the street, for we’ve all been warned to be careful about that. It’s about are other dangers lurking once you reach the pavement; you can almost hear their mischievous, scheming chuckles: these are the ‘Urban Imps’.

They are always watching. If you’re a tourist, say, you’ll spend much of your time gazing upward at some of the city’s eye-catching façades, especially at those with 19th-century inset statues, fancy window moldings, pilasters, or the more modern eye-catching glass/steel type. You may even glimpse elaborate but chipped tile work or balustrades through old wooden doorways and feel it’s a shame so many residences are neglected. But become too absorbed in artful contemplation, and the Pavement Imps will surely ambush you.

Despite recent attempts to repair Belgrade’s pavements, many still are unforgivingly uneven, with chipped cement, missing tiles, or erupting with giant cracks where roots have pushed through. It’s embarrassing enough to stumble or fall, but it’s even more humiliating to put your leg through one of those grids in front of a basement window. It’s doubly humiliating if, as happened to me once, you find yourself knee-deep in such an opening with a family having dinner in their basement apartment staring up your skirt.

Iron manhole covers are often stolen to be resold as scrap metal.

Fortunately, you can recognize their absence at a distance by the branches sticking out of them that Urban Danger Angels have put there to warn you…or has it been done by a thief with a guilty conscience?

“Keep your dog under control” reminders are non-existent and scoop laws have only just been imposed (not necessarily “enforced”), and like many other regulations here will probably go unheeded anyway, so stay alert. You’d do well to watch out for those dogs, especially in parks where strays are quite territorial, even if you are on the pathway.

Now forewarned and with the Pavement Imps at bay, continue your idle stroll into the centre’s older sections, where some of the luckier buildings are being renovated and not torn down. Construction sites along smaller streets are not often well marked, and once when I quickly zipped into a parking space (Oh, what joy to find one!) I was instructed to move my car lest a brick or tile from roof work above fall on it. As I reluctantly got back into my car (I would have risked the brick) I noticed that people were freely passing on the pavementjust beside my space,

blissfully unaware of the Tile and Brick Imps, and no one was warning them about the danger. Often during extreme temperature changes, sections of older buildings will expand or constrict, and the Façade Imps will gleefully hurl pieces at you.

Some dangers are seasonal. In early spring, the lofty branches of the plane trees that line Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra and other major thoroughfares are amputated, so they don’t interfere with electrical or trolleybus wires. I held my breath last March watching tree surgeons cut large sections of thicker branches, sending huge pieces crashing to a small area of a busy pavement below where another worker did little to warn passers-by. Fun to watch actually, if you’re safely standing on the other side of the street. Summer brings ripe fruit to the city pavements, especially mulberries, which not only stain your shoes, but are good for a ride, and you may find yourself suddenly seated on or skidding along the

Open manhole covers and exposed drains abound on the streets of Belgrade

Life’s a Beach One of our Serbian colleagues went on holiday recently. Just like young professionals all over Europe, she had worked hard, saved, and was looking forward to a few well-deserved days on the beach.

By David Dowse

U

nlike young professionals from any other country, though, her choice of where to spend those hard-earned Euros was severely limited.

Not for her the joys of online browsing through resorts and hotels in Spain, Italy, Greece, the French Riviera, or Portugal, looking for the perfect combination of sun, sea, sand and budget.

Not for her the appealing option of island hopping or backpacking around the continent.

Last minute bargains? Forget it.

Serbian people are required to hand over their passports to the travel agent weeks before they travel.

Their only seaside holiday options, apart from overcrowded Croatia and overpriced Montenegro, are closelycontrolled package tours. How long must the shameful inequity of this punitive visa regime continue?

But, arguably, any beach is better than no beach. So she duly arrived, along with 30 or so other Serb holidaymakers, for a package holiday on the Greek island of Rhodes, in the resort of Faliraki.

As part of the welcome introduction from their guide, the Serbian holidaymakers were briefed on which streets and bars were best avoided, those usually being the ones frequented by the notoriously badly-behaved young British tourists. The Mayor of the town, clearly an enlightened man, has publicly welcomed the arrival of more Serb tourists there as a civilising influence on his embattled community.

The problem is not a new one. I recall once sitting on a Greek beach myself, chatting with a Greek friend, a young doctor of philosophy. When I started to apologise for the yobbish activities of a group of my countrymen, my friend interrupted me.

“David, now you are insulting my intelligence. Do you not think I am

pavement. In the autumn, Chestnut Imps will roll Horse Chestnuts right under your feet with the same results.

In the winter, shopkeepers are supposed to clear the area in front of their stores, but often do not. At best, pavements are sprinkled with salt to melt the ice, which leaves lovely white rings on your shoes or boots.

Last year, several people were injured by wicked Icicle Imps, who cracked off the frozen spikes to send them hurtling down onto unsuspecting targets. Snow Imps push sections of slushy snow off roofs, and while this may be surprising and even refreshing when you’re hit, at least you’ll live to tell the tale.

Imps will also guide you to pass a puddle just as a cyclist (Yes, they’re on the pavements too, despite their newly-painted lanes), passes by.

At best, you’ll get splashed with relatively clean water. Belgrade is still definitely worth exploring. Just watch out for the Imps.

able to distinguish between you and those idiots? You are not responsible for them.”

During the disintegration of Yugoslavia, despicable crimes were committed by all sides and, sadly, some members of those communities continue to deny the facts.And the British? We also carry our own burden of shame. It was the British, for example, who developed the original concept of the concentration camp in South Africa during the 2nd Boer War. A few years later, the British Army massacred hundreds of unarmed women and children in Amritsar, India. Earlier, British policy in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century had cynically condemned thousands of innocent people to death from starvation.

Terrible things have been done by ‘my’ people, but I refuse to accept that they were done in my name.

The thugs who vomit, brawl and fornicate in the Faliraki streets, terrorising decent people are, unfortunately, mostly British. But it would be completely wrong to judge whole nations by the misdemeanours of a minority, wouldn’t it?

Come the happy day when all visa restrictions are finally lifted, Serbia can at least be confident that the vast majority of her citizens will be a great credit to their country when they go to the beach.

“Kafana” Do you speak Kafanian?

By Andrej Klemencic

B

elgrade has gone under many names in the past: Singidunum, Nandorfehervar, Beograd. But there are marks and sensations that evoke the “feel” of the city far more than any of its official names. The breeze on Kalemegdan for one; the night falling over Zemunski kej; the smell of pljeskavica in Skadarlija.

But there is one word, that does catch the spirit of the city: kafana. Not merely a café or coffee shop, as its name suggests, kafana is the essence of Belgrade being. The phrase “Let’s go to the café”, or “Let’s have a coffee”, has as strong a cultural connotation here as it does in Italy. And, if you say: “I’m off to the kafana”, there is a strong probability that both your emotional woes as well as your stomach will be fed, the first by a Roma string orchestra and the second by a plateful of substantial Serbian fare.

Serbs live, work, even die, in the kafana. A month or so ago I went to a well known traditional Serbian kafana.

In the kafana, there are two empty chairs next to a window, looking empty and deserted, as though no one will ever sit there. Zoran Radmilovic and Slobodan Aligrudic, two unforgettable Serbian actors, spent most of their lives at the table where those two chairs now stand. They would only leave in order to go to the theatre next door, perform, and then return to the table. Both are long gone but their presence remains the essence of this traditional restaurant.

Nothing is consumed in small amounts in a kafana. Words, emotions and food create a whirl that is the true kafana atmosphere. There are kafanas where bohemians think in solitude and others where hundreds of fashionably dressed youngsters listen to turbo-folk.

Try not to refuse an invitation to a kafana. After a long day’s work or simply upon meeting a colleague or friend, the kafana will become an inseparable part of your own private Belgrade. Business, friendships and love are made here, and the kafana is the beginning of many stories. You will recognize its ways soon. And once you domesticate the kafanagoing culture, there’s little possibility you won’t become a fluent speaker of kafanian, either.

the belgrader

Friday, September 19, 2008

13

What’s On Film

Opera

Sava Centre September 18 Premiere - Ljubav i drugi zlocini (Love and other crimes) Director: Stefan Arsenijević Cast: Anica Dobra, Vuk Kostić, Feđa Stojanović, Milena Dravić, Hanna Schwamborn, Ljubomir Bandović, Anita Mančić, Boris Komnenić, Zoran Cvijanović

National Theatre September 20, 7.30pm Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale opera

National Theatre September 23, 7.30pm Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco opera

Concerts

This is My City – Tasmajdan Stadium, September 18 - 21, daily from 7pm – 5am Festival of domestic hip hop and eletronica

Annual Events Club Šikara, Friday September 19, 10pm Neočekivana slia koja se iznenada pojavljuje i rešava stvar (Deus Ex Machina)

Ilije M. Kolarac Foundation Hall, Friday September 19, 8pm Canticum Novum Choir Free entry

Belgrade Air Show September 20, from noon Belgrade’s Kalamegdan Fortress will provide the venue for this year’s air show, which will include more than 40 aircraft.

At noon the festivities will get underway with skydivers, parachutists, pilots, helicopters and paragliders. Thanks to the high location of the fortress, visitors will be able to follow the show at eye-level .

As well as Kalamegdan, the show will be visible from the New Belgrade side of the confluence, the Dunav Quay and Ada Ciganlija island resort.

The 42nd Belgrade International Theatre Festival/BITEF Kolos Boat (under Branko’s Bridge) September 18, 8pm LACK OF SPACE / PLATZ MANGEL

By Christoph Marthaler Director: Christoph Marthaler Rote Fabrik (Zürich, CH) & dieproduktion GmbH (Basel, CH)

42nd Bitef ‘08 15-29 September TRAGICOMEDY – THE TRAGEDY OF OUR TIME Since its founding in 1967, the Belgrade International Theatre Festival/BITEF has continually brought audiences new and experimental trends in theatre and is one of the most important European festivals.

By Carna Manojlovic

T

ranscending political and cultural borders, BITEF has managed to keep step for over four decades, following the constant evolution of performing arts as one of the rare festivals providing an insight

into both traditional and experimental forms.

As Jovan Cirilov and Anja Susa, the selectors for the festival, said in this year’s preview, “It is clear that for a long time the political life of a country has involved more elements of the classical tragedy (pathos, catharsis, tragic error, etc) than the modern theatre. Nevertheless, theatre has survived the battle with modern media and won itself a particular space which may not affect the social order in any substantial way, but can certainly challenge, examine and criticise it.”

According to Cirilov and Susa, this year’s BITEF focuses on the

Atelje 212 September 18, 8pm; September 19, 8pm MAYBE FOREVER Production: Damaged Goods & Mumbling Fish Meg Stuart (USA) & Philipp Gehmacher (A) Duration: 1h 20’ min.

Belgrade Fair, Hall 3 September 20, 8pm; September 21, 8pm DON GIOVANNI Music: Mozart; Text: Lorenzo da Ponte Concept and Direction: Bojana Cvejić; Conductor: Premil Petrović Јugokoncert & Belgrade Fair (Belgrade, SRB) Duration: 2h 15’ min.

Yugoslav Drama Theatre September 22, 11am & 2pm; September 23, 11am & 2pm BABY DRAMA

By Ann-Sofie Bárány Director: Suzanne Osten Unga Klara (Stockholm, S) Centre for Cultural Decontamination September 22, 8pm; September 23, 8pm SONJA Director: Alvis Hermanis New Riga Theatre (Riga, LT) Based on the story of Tatyana Tolstaya Duration: 1h 40’ min.

Belgrade Drama Theatre September 24, 8pm BRECHT – THE HARDCORE MACHINE Director: András Urbán Kosztolányi Dezső Színház/Theatre „Kosztolányi Dezső“ / András Urbán’s Ensemble (Subotica, SRB) According to Bertolt Brecht’s „Buckower Elegies“ Duration: 1h 0’ min.

Sava Centre September 25, 8pm; September 26, 5pm & 8pm; September 27, 5pm & 8pm Heiner Goebbels: STIFTER’S THINGS / STIFTERS DINGE Conception, music and direction: Heiner Goebbels Théâtre Vidy - Lausanne (Lausanne, CH) Duration: 1h 20’ min.

Yugoslav Drama Theatre September 27, 8pm; September 28, 8pm Aeschylus: THE PERSIANS / DIE PERSER Director: Dimiter Gotscheff Deutsches Theatre (Berlin, DE) Duration: 1h 30’ min.

phenomenon of manipulation with the notion of tragedy in the modern world. After watching numerous world productions, the selectors arrived at a conclusion which gradually morphed into this year’s slogan, according to which the tragic quality of today’s world always turns into a tragicomedy when perceived by the theatre.

Alongside the main programme, BITEF will run its special programme (two co-production projects about truth in theatre – “Truth in Translation” USA/South Africa and “Will you ever be happy again?” a joint Serbia/Netherlands production) as well as Showcase No. 4 (the fourth edition of a number of artistically significant productions within the framework of “post-dramatic” theatre production in Serbia), BITEF Polyphony (selected domestic works chosen for the innovative elements they bring to the stage, exploring and

promoting the innovative, participative and engaged theatre of the young and for the young) and BITEF on film (projections of movies connected to theatre matters in the Yugoslav film archives).

Besides exchanges between participants and roundtable guests, presentations, workshops and productions, this year ENPARTS (European Network of Performing Arts) is also part of BITEF. ENPARTS is an international five-year project under the auspices of the European Committee. It offers support to new creations and the improvement of artistic co-production. This year ENPARTS starts work with an open workshop “Nourished Fruit”, according the story of August Strindberg and with extracts taken from the novel “The bridge on the Drina” by Ivo Andrić, directed by Nikita Milivojević, in a Serbian, Italian, German and Swedish joint production.

Exhibitions Historical Museum of Serbia September 4 – October 6 Three decades of Spanish photography Galerija Ozone, September 18, 9pm Light Identity of Belgrade A presentation of the results of a workshop attended by the students of Tokyo’s Musashino Art University, the Lighting Laboratory of Stockholm and students of the Belgrade University.

Ethnographic Museum From September 10 The dance of coloured thread – a collection of traditional rugs from Pirot, organised to mark the occasion of the 107th birthday of this institution.

Italian Culture Centre From September 22 Exhibition of Italian graphics

Other Events

Dom omladine Belgrade - Fun Time for Kids September 16, 23, 30, 5.30pm Story-telling, comics, fun and games at the Kids’ American Corner.

Hosted by Ana Torma SKC, VI international comic strip salon September 25 – 28 Special guests include David Lloyd (UK), Esad T. Ribić (Croatia), Matt Hollingsworth (USA), György Pàlfi (Hungary), Bart Nauwelaerts (Belgium)

14

sport

Friday, September 19, 2008

Usual Suspects Should Beware Europe’s big guns will take nothing for granted in this season’s Champions League.

By Zoran Milosavljevic

F

ans and pundits across Europe must have expected holders Manchester United to hit top gear as they opened their Champions League title defence against Spain’s Villarreal in midweek, while Old Trafford’s prodigal son Cristiano Ronaldo surely thought he would steal the show on his return from a 12-week lay-off following ankle surgery.

Alas, United could only manage a turgid 0-0 draw, their third in as many meetings with a team that once again proved to be tough customers, while the “stepover king” showed little more than occasional glimpses of last season’s brilliance.

Instead, it was CFR Cluj and Juan Culio who made all the headlines on the opening night of what could turn out to be a very unpredictable Champions League season.

Who!?

CFR Cluj are a Romanian outfit that played in the country’s third division only five years ago. Juan Culio, their Argentine striker, has been offered Romanian citizenship after his brace gave the Champions League debutants a memorable, come-from-behind 2-1 win at Italian giants AS Roma.

Although Cluj are unlikely to go all the way to winning Europe’s premier club competition, their fairytale start will certainly raise a few eyebrows among the usual suspects regarded as the “elite of the elite” in Europe’s club football.

The ‘stepover king’ failed to make an impact for Man. U in round one The manner of the Romanian club’s success has certainly blown a breath of fresh air and given a glimmer of hope to other underdogs that miracles, sometimes, do happen af-

ter all. Not without a helping hand though, as Cluj owners have invested €60 million over the past four years, which is a huge amount by Romanian standards, to take the club from com-

Belgrade Arena Does it For Serbia

By Zoran Milosavljevic

T

o say that Serbia’s national basketball team should thank a paradox for reaching next year’s European Championship in Poland with a match to spare would be entirely wrong, because the manner in which the Belgrade Arena became their new home is typical of a country where state-level negligence drives many of its athletes to perform above their innate standards.

The searing heat and lack of proper air conditioning in the Pionir Hall, dubbed by local fans as the temple of Serbian basketball, drove the team out into the open last month when they turned up for their first training session and the authorities duly reached out for a last-minute solution that inadvertently created a new, impregnable fortress.

The comfort of the Belgrade Arena proved to be just what the doctor ordered as Serbia, roared on in their home matches by over-capacity crowds of more than 20,000 souls eager to rekindle the nation’s former basketball glory, steamrolled to one win after another to clinch their qualifying group.

Aided by away victories over Italy and Hungary, and suffering only a single setback in Finland, Serbia celebrated their return to Europe’s basketball map with a 92-66 drubbing of

the Finns on Wednesday that made the outcome of their final outing in Bulgaria on Saturday effectively meaningless.

“It would have slipped the minds of the wisest among us to move the venue of our home matches to the Arena,” Serbia’s coach Dusan Ivkovic told reporters after the match, with a deft touch of stinging and justifiable sarcasm in his voice.

Credit to the authorities though, as they at least had the common sense to do the right thing at the eleventh hour after things reached boiling point. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The dilapidated Pionir hall, built 30-odd years ago during the former Yugoslavia’s “golden era” of subsidised

communism, has indeed become a cauldron over the years, in more ways than one: while its acoustic structure allowed the home fans to create a deafening noise from their seats and turn it into one of the most dreaded away grounds for any visiting team, it also provided the right ingredients for what could easily have been the world’s biggest weekly wet t-shirt contest.

Mercifully, the Arena – completed in time for the 2005 European Championships in which Serbia crashed out before the tournament got to the knockout stage – has all the elements required to see Serbia launch a new quest for medals in a sport the country’s fans are so proud of.

The Belgrade Arena is becoming Serbia’s new basketball fortress

Photo by FoNet

plete obscurity to their first national league title last season.

The swift and transparent privatisation of football clubs following Romania’s overall economic transition of the last decade or so has paved the way for unprecedented success as Steaua Bucharest, the country’s most renowned football team, joined Cluj in the lucrative group stage of the Champions League.

Flailing giants Red Star Belgrade, or what’s left of them as they struggle to overcome their worst crisis ever after a dreadful start to the season, should have no more doubts which way to go. And other Serbian clubs will also be well advised to follow the Romanian example sooner rather than later if they are ever to taste a fraction of the Cluj success.

Elsewhere, United’s fellow English rivals rubbed more salt into their wounds as they enjoyed a perfect start against French opposition.

Chelsea, who are in rampant form under new coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, mauled Bordeaux 4-0, while Liverpool coasted to a 2-1 victory over Olympique Marseille at the Riviera thanks to a Steven Gerrard double.

With his outfit firing on all cylinders, Scolari will be in confident mood ahead of Chelsea’s eagerly awaited Premier League clash with United at Stamford Bridge on Sunday (RTS 2, 15.00) – an encounter that his counterpart Alex Ferguson must be dreading after last weekend’s 2-1 defeat to Liverpool and a lacklustre display against Villarreal. Arsenal too will be happy with a hard-earned point at Dynamo Kiev, with their captain William Gallas securing a share of the spoils in

the dying minutes to spare the Gunners their third defeat in five matches against the Ukrainian side.

Juventus eked out a trademark 1-0 win. Not surprisingly, the win again came courtesy of an Alessandro Del Piero free kick that sank Zenit St. Petersburg, while Inter Milan also got the start they wanted under Jose Mourinho after Brazilian strikers Mancini and Adriano scored either side of halftime for a 2-0 win at Panathinaikos Athens.

Roma are of course reeling after being stunned by Cluj, while Fiorentina, the least acclaimed team from the Italian quartet, will also be kicking themselves after throwing away a 2-0 lead at Lyon to settle for a 2-2 draw against the French champions. Alberto Gilardino, back to his best after a torrid few seasons at AC Milan, sent Viola on their way with two superbly taken headers, but Frederic Piquionne and Karim Benzema were on target for Lyon to reward a late fightback by the home team.

Last but not least, Atletico Madrid proved impressive on their return to the Champions League after an 11year absence during which they were also relegated to the Spanish second division. Their diminutive Argentine striker, Sergio Aguero, also in the spotlight for dating the daughter of a certain Diego Armando Maradona, scored twice in a 3-0 win against 1988 winners PSV Eindhoven, and Portuguese midfielder Maniche added the third to make it clear that Atletico, who played in the 1974 European Cup final, will be the dark horses of this season’s competition.

Fun & Games 1

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Crossword No.4 5

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Friday, September 19, 2008

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Prize for the first correctly completed crossword to be drawn:Lunch for two in a downtown restaurant.

Send your completed crosswords to: BG Insight Fun & Games, BIRN, Kneginje Ljubice 12, 11000 Belgrade.

Or email the answers to mark@birn.eu.com

Across 1 An individual who participates in revolt, rebellion, or resistance against civil authority or an established government (15) 8 Brought to a state of peace, quiet, ease, calm or contentment (8) 9 Law: the state of a person’s mind that directs his or her actions (6) 10 Surroundings, esp. of a social or cultural nature (8) 11 A usually homeless person who wanders from place to place (6) 12 A sore on the skin or a mucous membrane (5) 13 Having a soft, smooth consistency (6) 15 An upswept hairdo (4) 16 To pour liquor over and ignite (6) 19 Pertaining to or consisting of flowers (6) 20 Inconceivably large; astronomic (8) 22 A writ for the summoning of witnesses or the submission of evidence before a court (8) 23 A set oration in honour of a deceased person (6) 24 A group or an assemblage of animals, birds, beauties, etc. (6) 25 Mocking or treating with derision; eating greedily (8) Down 2 A small piece of cloth or paper for use in wiping the lips and fingers and to protect the clothes while eating (6) 3 The quality enabling one to deal skilfully and promptly with new situations, difficulties, etc. (15) 4 A dead body, esp. a human body to be dissected (7) 5 A sweet, creamy spread for covering cakes (5) 6 Prominent, important, or distinguished people (8) 7 A word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another (9) 12 Radiography of the urinary tract (9) 13 A Spanish gentleman; horseman (9) 14 A positive expression of appreciation or approval; acclamation (8) 17 Natives of Afghanistan (7) 18 A very small amount (7) 21 A leader of an Islamic polity, regarded as a successor of Muhammad and by tradition always male (5)

Crossword No. 3: Solution

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F L I B A 8 B Y L I M 10 B A C K N 12 M 14 E I 15 E X I S E R 18 A M B U P L 21 S T O I E N 23 A D A G

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B E L N E C S T R O O T T E C S H N C I C E S

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R T I G I B B E T H E A N 9 I N C U B A T E U M K A 11 A B O B S E S S L H I 13 S E R A K I S H E A 16 17 N T I A L A H N T 19 20 E M I S S A R Y R M C I 22 S M A B A C U S O T L M 24 S H E E P I S H

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Friday, September 19, 2008