Belgrade Insight, No. 7

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NEWS NEWS

Friday • June 13 • 2008

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Issue / Friday, June 13,10, 2008 Issue No.No. 7, 1Friday, October 2008

SerbiaofOverjoyed, Kosovo Calm, UN Vote Lure Tadic Alliance SplitsAfter Socialists

While younger Socialists support joining a new, pro-EU government, old Milosevic loyalists threaten revolt over the prospect.

While Serbia hailed the General Assembly vote as a major victory, Kosovo downplayed its importance.

The Serbian delegation react to the UN decision Socialist leader Ivica Dacic remains the Serbian kingmaker of independence by the Provisional

By Krenar Gashi in Pristina

By Rade Maroevic in Belgrade and Vanja Petrovic in Belgrade

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Institutions of Self-Government of to Serbia’s late president,with Slobodan Kosovo in accordance interMilosevic, and reformists who want national law?” assembly vote caused theWhile party the to become a modern Euroeuphoria Serbia,organisation.

Kosovo repean socialindemocrat mained Aftercalm. eight years of stagnation, Serbia’s Foreign Minister, Vuk the Socialists returned to centre stage Jeremic, said the UN vote was a after winning 20just of the seatsbut in big victory “not for 250 Serbia, parliament in the May 11 elections. also for international law.”

With the pro-European nation“We didn’t shy awayand from going everyalisteverywhere, blocs almosttalking evenly tomatched, one, and the result of our is the Socialists now have theefforts final say this big victory at the UN General on the fate of the country.

Assembly,” Jeremic added, after Nikolic believes the Socialists, led voting concluded. byHowever, Ivica Dacic, comecounterover to his will Kosovo Tadic, if only out of a pragmatic depart, Skender Hyseni, predicted sire to ensurewould their political survival. that Serbia gain little from the “The resolution. group of younger Socialists

ense negotiations on a new government have divided the ranks claimed diplomatic of theerbia Socialist Party,a which holds victory on Wednesday when the balance of power between the the UN General Assembly main blocsitsand has yet totoannounce supported resolution seek the which side they will support. Court opinion of the International looksonas the if the Socialists will of “It Justice legality of Kosovo’s move independence. towards a government led by 77 votespolitical in favour, 6 against theWith Democrats,” analyst Miand 74 abstentions, the chamber lan Nikolic, of the independent Cenforwarded Serbia’s request to the tre of Policy Studies, said. “But such Court in The Hague, where the a movehighest might provoke UN’s judicial deeper body diviwill sions and even split the party.” give its advisory opinion.

Simultaneous held The resolutionnegotiations ended by asking: the unilateraland declaration with “Is the pro-European nationalgathered around Dacic seems to be ist blocs have drawn attention to a in the majority”, Nikolic said, adding deep rift inside the Socialists. POLITICS that these reformists believe the party This divides “old-timers” loyal Observers question the motives behind the government’s anti-corruption drive, with some suggesting that it isTHIS little ISSUE more than OFwindow Business Insight dressing.

Belgrade Insight

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IS SUPPORTED BY:

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Costs Mounting

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conomists are warning that pro-

NEIGHBOURHOOD longed uncertainty over Serbia’s Results of the Bosnian local elections do little to encourage hopes for the arrival of effective multi-ethnic politics.

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future could scare off investors, lead to higher inflation and jeopardise prosperity for years to come.

“This year has been lost, from the standpoint of economic policy,” says Stojan Stamenkovic of the Economics Institute in Belgrade. page 5

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 is the post of “This initiative will turn into est effort of Serbian diplomacy to deputy briefof in charge of slowwith the apace recognia boomerang for Serbia itself,” stop or PM, security for the Socialist leader. faces extinction unless it changes.

Hyseni said on Wednesday. He tions. The World Court may take In two addition, are barHowever, a strong current also up to yearsthe to Socialists give its opinion described Serbia’s move as a lastthis matter. ditch to Kosovo’s indegaining for other ministries, includflowschallenge in the opposite direction, led on in Serbia claimed pendence. ingLeaders capital investments, Kosovo the and by party veterans enraged by the outcome as a coup.

Serbian PresiWhen initiating the resolution, education, Belgrade media reported. prospect of a deal with Tadic.

Jeremic said Serbia had responded dent, Boris Tadic, told the public Tadic has denied talk of horseMihajlo Markovic, a founder of to Kosovo’s unilateral declaration TV station, RTS, that the success trading with the averted Socialists, the party, recently warned of a crisis anmaintaininternaof independence with “maximum of the initiative ing that ministries would go only to if Dacic opts for the pro-European tional crisis. Arguing that Kosovo’s restraint”. those committed to working for the bloc, abandoning the Socialists’ “nat- secession set a negative precedent, Kosovo declared independence warned that other goal”. territories from on February government’s “strategic ural” Serbia ideological partners. 17, after he thesame world a two-year negotiating process that across At the time,could Dacicnow seemsfeel reMarkovic, a prominent supporter encouraged to break away. was deadlocked from the start.

So luctant to call off negotiations with of Milosevic during the 1990s, is Serbia’s former foreign minisfar, 48 countries have recognised the nationalists. seen as representative of the “oldKosovo, including most EU mem- ter, Goran Svilanovic, also hailed “If we don’t reach andiplomacy. agreement timers” theUS. party who want to stay a victory for Serbian bers andinthe with the DSS and Radicals, the partrue to the former regime’s policies, But Serbia has steadfastly op- However, Svilanovic said Belgrade ty leadership willalldecide on future even though these almost ruined the “should employ its efforts in posed Pristina’s move.

The request toSocialists seek an for ICJgood. opinion was the lat3 steps”, Dacic announced,Page following the first session of country’s new parSome younger Socialist officials liament on Wednesday. have voiced frustration over the conECONOMICS tinuing impasse within their own Source: Balkan Insight (www.balkaninsight.com) Serbia’s relative isolation from the World’s financial institutions and commitment to prudent financial manNeighbourhood agement may mitigate Matters the effects of the international financial crisis, Aleksander Vasovic argues.

Football Rebellion Page 5

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BUSINESS EDITOR’S WORD

Political Predictability The government revised its budgetary plans this week and plans a

By Mark R. Pullen slight loosening of monetary policy.

It’s income projections still, however, rely on privatisation deals that look ever more unlikely.

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OUT & ABOUT This week we take a quick trip to the shores of the Danube as we explore Zemun.

Many of us who have experienced numerous Serbian elections rate ourselves as pundits when it comes to predicting election results and post-election moves.

Page 9 We feel in-the-know because our experience of elections in SerWHAT’S ON bia has shown us that (a.) no single You weekly listing will andever guidegain to the party or coalition the arts and social scene. majority required to form a government, and (b.) political negotiations will never be quickly concluded.

Even when the Democrats 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 Page 10 in Serbia, i.e. inconclusive.

ThisBOOK is likelyREVIEW to continue as long as Serbia’s politicians form new This week we review David Norris’s political parties every time they “Belgrade, a Cultural and Literary History.

Tanner finds much disagreeMarcus with their current party toleader enjoy (there in this are thoughtful guide. currently 342 registered political parties in Serbia).

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 13 progress towards the EU and encourage investors, how come they go home at SPORT 5pm sharp and don’t With underway for 2012 we workqualifiers weekends?” take aSurely look at the the next round of situation is games. urgent enough to warrant a little overtime.

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hile the football world watchBELGRADE es events unfold at the European Championships in Austria and News from the city that impacts your Switzerland, experiencing daily life. ThisBosnia week iswe bring you a soccer rebellion, led by playenglish speaking pre-schoolfans, children, ers and former who are enraged traffic chaos, andstars farmyard smells. by what they see as corrupt leaders of the country’s football association leaders. page 10

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Source: www.weather2umbrella.com

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Friday, October 10, 2008

politics

Friday, October 10, 2008

Doubts on Serbia’s ‘Corruption War’ While officials hail the police’s detention of Knezevic as the first fruit of the government’s battle against corruption, critics dismiss it as an empty stunt.

By Vanja Petrovic and Aleksandar Vasovic

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he recent arrest of the mayor of Zrenjanin, as part of what Serbian President and leader of the Democratic Party Boris Tadic has called the fight against corruption, has split opinion on how serious the administration is on this important issue.

Some analysts are withholding judgment, waiting to see what might happen next, while others view the arrest as a largely symbolic act, designed mainly to impress the media. Sources close to Democratic Party point out also, that it might be internal ‘house cleaning.’

On September 6, at a meeting of the Democratic Party, Tadic announced a “vehement” fight against corruption, which he pledged would not exclude members of his own party. “Corruption is present in every party, including the Democratic Party”, Tadic said.

“All those who are in any way found to be involved in corruption will not be allowed into Democratic Party or any other governmental institutions,” he added.

Goran Knezevic, a Democratic Party official, serving his second term as mayor of Zrenjanin, a town in Vojvodina, northern Serbia, was arrested last week alongside ten other local public officials and businessmen.

The mayor’s lawyer, Vicentije Darijevic, refuted the allegations against his client. “Goran Knezevic has denied all the charges that have been brought against him by the Zrenjanin police and the special prosecution,” Darijevic said.

One Democratic Party politician, opposed to the party’s mainstream, who wished to remain anonymous, described the arrest as “natural”, on the grounds that Knezevic had lost favour with Tadic.

He said there might be a difference between Tadic’s words and his actions, hinting at political reasons

Tadic’s fight against corruption is called into question

behind the mayor’s arrest. “Knezevic fell out of Tadic’s favour a long time ago, so he was a natural choice,” this source claimed.

“Further purges” were likely to see the removal of all direct or potential enemies of President Tadic, he went on. Not all would be exposed or removed for alleged corruption. “Some will be members of the Cabinet who are likely to be sacked or just sidelined,” the source continued.

“Knezevic’s arrest will only be a positive move if his alleged wrongdoings are proved in a court of law.”

Dremocratic party officials were not available for comment.

Nemanja Nenadic, of the NGO, Transparency Serbia, said it was too early to tell what the arrest of the mayor really meant.

The government needed to focus attention in the meantime on providing police and prosecutors with the resources they needed.

“If Serbia wants to make the fight against corruption more effective, one way would be to let the police and prosecution do their

Ex-New York Diplomat on Trial Belgrade_The trial against the former Serbian vice consul in New York, Igor Milosevic, charged with issuing a student with temporary travel documents, which he used to flee the United States, continued on Monday.

Milan Zindovic, Milosevic’s lawyer repeated Milosevic’s claim that he had his boss Slobodan Nenadovic’s approval to issue a passport to student Miladin Kovacevic, whilst Nenadovic maintained that he never gave his approval.

Kovacevic, studying in the United States at the time, was arrested and released on bail on suspicion of causing physical injury to another student in a bar fight, which left him in a coma.

Kovacevic’s passport was taken away by United States authorities

but another temporary passport was issued to him at the Serbian embassy in New York. Kovacevic then left the US before the beginning of the trial and returned to Serbia.

Interpol has since issued a warrant for Kovacevic’s arrest.

Milosevic is accused of having misused his official position by issuing a temporary passport to Kovacevic.

Zindovic has requested that his client be released from prison, and the prosecution raised no objections.

However, the final decision on his release is yet to be made.

Last Thursday, it was decided that Milosevic should stay in detention for another month because of the possibility that he may influence the testimony of witnesses yet to testify.

job,” Nenadic suggested.

“We have too many politicians influencing the actions of the police,” he added. “It is bad to see situations where politicians are either stopping investigations, or pushing them along; they should not have any influence on investigations at all.”

Nenadic noted that Knezevic had only been arrested, not found guilty, adding that an effective corruption battle could not stop with a few roundups in one town.

Verica Barac, head of the Anticorruption Council, a government funded research organisation says that ad hoc arrests deal with the effects of corruption, while the cause remains untouched.

“When you have such drastic and systemic corruption, like that present in Serbia, a real fight against it would inherently take many years”, Barac said.

Tadic’s fight against corruption follows years of growing public disappointment with democratic institutions in Serbia.

During the wars of the 1990s, while the then Yugoslavia was un-

Photo by FoNet

der sanctions, corruption and abuse of power were widespread.

After long term leader, Slobodan Milosevic was replaced in October 2000, the public expected a quick reversal but corruption is still present, decreasing confidence in Serbia’s politicians yet further.

Zoran Djindjic, the leader of Democratic Party and Prime Minister, who was assassinated in March 2003, set up a special tribunal to counter these activities.

There has been much speculation surrounding Djindjic’s murder, throughout Serbia’s political classes.

While the nationalistic block has repeatedly lashed out at the late figure for his alleged murky dealings, pro democratic parties remember him as a leader who may well have put Serbia on the path towards a cleaner and more transparent public culture.

Since then, the fight against corruption has appeared to stall, and many are asking whether Tadic will now succeed where others have so far failed.

‘Lazy’ Serb Lawmaker Costs 200 Per Min Belgrade_A minute of work by Serbia’s laziest member of parliament costs taxpayers around 200, reports Belgrade’s daily Blic.

Each member of parliament regularly picks up his or her monthly salary of 130,000 Serbian dinars (a little under 2,000), but lawmakers have achived very little.

Members of the opposition Radical Party have blocked proceedings amid anger over the make-up of Serbia’s new pro-European government, the extradition of top war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic and later a split in the party which resulted in a smaller number of radical seats in government.

Additionally, Parliament was not in session for almost the entire month of August.

Awaiting passage are eight cru-

cial laws that would put Serbia on the white Schengen list allowing Serbians to travel visa-free to these states.

According to the report, Veran Panic from the Radical Party, spent little over half an hour in the chamber, making his per minute salary over four months 13,572 Serbian dinars (a little under 200).

The top ten ‘laziest’ members of parliament come from nationalist parties, whilst members who spent the most time at work come from the ruling coalition, led by President Boris Tadic.

The hardest working member, Radoslav Milovanovic, from the For a European Serbia coalition spent over 134 hours in the debating chamber and is paid some 230 times less per minute than Panic.

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Continued from page 1

Serbia Overjoyed, Kosovo Calm, After UN Vote

coming weeks to restore dialogue with the EU on sharing responsibilities and roles in Kosovo”, adding: “Only then I can accept this as a major success.”

Slobodan Samardzic, former minister for Kosovo and vicepresident of the nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia, went further.

“Serbia should take to court all the countries that have recognised Kosovo,” he argued.

However, Oliver Ivanovic, State Secretary in Serbia’s ministry for Kosovo, said Serbia should not exaggerate the benefits of the vote. “There should be no euphoria, no celebrations or fireworks,” Ivanovic said.

In Kosovo, leaders insisted that Serbia’s initiative had been predictable. “We cannot expect anything better from Serbia. The best answer to this will be further recognitions of the new state, which will surprise Serbia itself,” the Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, said.

Kosovo’s President, Fatmir Sejdiu, said that even if the ICJ opinion went against Kosovo, “it doesn’t have the ability to impede Kosovo’s recognition by other states, or deter the process”. The President’s comment reflected the fact that ICJ opinions are non-binding.

The Kosovo daily newspaper, Epoka e Re, meanwhile ran a cover story on Thursday that boldly claimed: “Kosovo won at the UN”. The newspaper argued that “Serbia was playing its last card against Kosovo”.

Kosovars watching the voting live on the public TV station, RTK, were disappointed over the small number of countries that voted against the resolution. “I would at least expect the UK and some other EU countries to vote against,” Astrit, a 24-year-old from Pristina, said.

However, John Sawyers, the British ambassador to the UN, outlined the reasons behind London’s decision to abstain. He said the UK had decided not to vote at all because it maintained that the “International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion cannot affect Kosovo’s independence.”

Sawyers said the UK regretted the lack of substantive debate on the draft, and noted that in the interest of fairness, Kosovo should have been allowed to present its arguments to the ICJ, an option that was ruled out.

Albania’s UN ambassador, Adrian Neritani, said Tirana disagreed with Serbia’s “logistically legal, but in essence, manipulative” attempt to stall the process of Kosovo’s recognition. “We believe the Balkans deserves to channel its energies towards building a common future for the prosperity of all,” he said.

But Mexico’s ambassador, Claude Heller, voicing fears about separatism that haunt many Third World states, said his country firmly supported the Serbian resolution.

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business

Friday, October 10, 2008

Government Re-draws 2008 Budget

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erbia’s government approved amendments of the country’s budget, setting the budget deficit at 45.8 billion dinars ( 602 million), a statement said.

The new budget set expenditure at 695.95 billion dinars and revenue

Finance Minister Dragutinovic

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to maintain the proposed figure.

Dragutinovic said she expects that the inflation target in 2009 will be set at 6 per cent and projected GDP growth at 6.5 per cent.

The International Monetary Fund has repeatedly urged Serbia to curb the government’s share of national spending which currently amounts to 44 per cent of GDP. Dragutinovic urged more belttightening through the rest of 2008 and in 2009 and announced more cuts in public sector funding. She said that the planned 70 per cent rise in all pensions in 2009 “will depend on stringent savings and team work”.

“An increase of all expenditure is impossible. If we are funding development of Corridor 10 and the rest of the infrastructure, we cannot increase pensions, wages and social benefits,” she said.

Serbia’s government also adopted the so-called National Plan for the

Serbia Hopes for FDI in South

n a push to stimulate an economic revival in southern Serbia, Serbia’s deputy prime ministers Mladjan Dinkic and Bozidar Djelic announced hopes for further foreign direct investment into the region.

Dinkic told participants of the Nis Investment Forum 2008 that the recent deal signed with Fiat for the Zastava car maker will spur a recovery in the whole Sumadija region.

“After the economic revival of Kragujevac, we must revive Nis, which will enable growth of the whole of southern Serbia,” said Dinkic.

The government has approached German company Siemens to inspect parts of Electronic Industry Nis, or consider greenfield investment in that part of Serbia.

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at 650.17 billion dinars, creating a budget deficit of some 1.8 per cent of gross domestic product, GDP, said a statement posted on the government’s official web site.

“The increase in expenditure will be covered by more revenue from taxes amounting to 10.5 billion dinars in 2008. This (the new budget) was a reasonable compromise,” Finance Minister Diana Dragutinovic said.

The gap between expenditure and revenue rose due to an additional 200 million needed to fund a joint venture between the Zastava carmaker and Fiat, another 250 million euros needed for the completion of a part of the motorway network dubbed Corridor 10 and a 10 per cent increase in pensions scheduled for November.

The previous government of Vojislav Kostunica set the budget deficit for 2008 at 0.5 per cent of GDP. After taking over in July, Mirko Cvetkovic’s Cabinet pledged it would try

“The state is offering incentives of 4,000 per newly employed worker in Sumadija, but 5,000 newly employed worker in southern Serbia,” said Dinkic.

He noted that Serbia is the only country in Europe which has both a free trade agreement with Russia and a trade deal with the EU and other countries in the region through the Central European Free Trade Agreement.

Djelic said that the French telecoms company Sagem plans considerable investments in Nis. Djelic confirmed he would meet the heads of this multinational company in early November in Paris.

“Sagem plans to invest in Nis tens, possibly even hundreds of million of euros, which could lead to the

employment of a large number of workers,” said Djelic.

Nis is the third largest city in Serbia, around 250 kilometres south of Belgrade, and in the former Yugoslavia was a centre of the electronic and machine industry.

City of Nis

Serbia to Post Surplus in Agricultural Exports

his year Serbia will export agricultural products worth as much as $2 billion ( 1.462 billion) and it should have a surplus over imports of some $600 million ( 439 million), the Chamber of Commerce says.

Serbia’s exports rose by an annual 18.6 per cent between January and August to $1.2 billion ( 878 million) but exports during the same period also increased to $969.5 million ( 706 million) or 44.2 percent.

The country had an annual export surplus between January and August of $302.7 million ( 221.3 million), the statement said.

Serbia’s main export goods between January and August were sugar, frozen strawberries, beer and flour.

Source: www.geocities.com

Development of Roads and Railroads to 2012 that envisages 2.9 billion euros worth of investments, the statement said.

The plan stipulates that Corridor 10 should be completed by 2011 and funded by the government to the tune of 1.59 billion. It also envisages the development of a separate network of regional roads that should be finalised by 2012 with an investment of 715 million.

Meanwhile, Dragutinovic announced the government has also formed a special workgroup tasked with monitoring the effects of the global financial slump.

“We have to remain vigilant and take all macroeconomic risks into account. These risks involve a huge increase in domestic demand and the possible impact of global depression,” she said.

The group will liaise with the National Bank and commercial banks.

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Italians to buy DDOR

taly’s Fondiaria-SAI SpA offered to buy the remaining16.86 per cent of shares in Serbian insurer DDOR Novi Sad, that it does not already own following its purchase of 83 per cent of the business in 2007, the Central Depository for Securities and Clearing House announced.

The Fondiaria-SAI has set its offer price for the remaining DDOR’s shares at 124.88 euros per piece and its offer will remain open until October 21, the registry said in a statement.

Fondiaria-SAI SpA, is Italy’s third largest insurer and additionally has interests in finance, banking and asset management, through its wholly owned subsidiary Banca Sai. In 2007, the DDOR Novi Sad was Serbia’s third largest insurer with 13 billion dinars in revenues and 12.8 billion dinars in expenditures. It is specialized in non-life insurance.

JAT Sees Passenger Growth

AT Airways, Serbia’s troubled flag carrier, has announced a seven per cent increase in passenger numbers in the first nine months of 2008.

In a statement, the company said it had ferried more than 1.12 million passengers, some 2,112 tonnes of cargo and 414 tonnes of mail between January and September 2008.

JAT Airways’ fleet, made up of 10 Boeing 737-300 airliners, one Boeing 737-400 and five ATR 72-200 aircraft, accumulated 30,396 flying hours in the first nine months of 2008 or 2 per cent more on the year, the statement said.

Earlier this week, government announced it wants to abandon plans to privatise JAT Airways and restructure it instead, after the company failed to

attract a single buyer amid a growing global financial slowdown.

So far JAT Airways has accumulated 209 million in debt, while its assets have been estimated at 150 million.

It recently teamed up with other carriers to maintain flights to its 40 destinations in Europe and the Middle East and laid-off some of its staff to cut costs.

On August 30 Serbia’s Privatisation Agency said it would sell a 51 to 70 per cent stake in the company, setting the starting price for the 51 per cent stake at 51 million.

Local media recently reported that Russia’s Aeroflot, a potential buyer, was no longer interested. Other reports also said that Air Iceland and Air Berlin were interested.

Serbia’s Bank Chief Confident Dinar Will Recover

The country’s key import product between January and August was raw coffee at $60 million ( 44 million), followed by bananas at $40.6 million ( 29 million) and oranges at $21.6 million ( 16 million), Stankovic said

Governor Jelasic is confident in the dinar’s stability

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erbia’s central bank governor sought earlier this week to assure the public that the exchange rate of the dinar will remain stable despite its recent slump against the euro.

“There were pressures on the dinar last week and we intervened. Our banks are safe and the central bank has as enough power to defend the exchange rate,” Governor Radovan Jelasic said, as quoted by Serbian media.

His remarks came after dinar declined to 80.198 against the euro at the beginning of the week, the most significant slump since June.

Jelasic said he was confident the central bank will soon restore the di-

nar’s exchange rate to the previous 76 or 77 dinars for one euro and said that “(commercial) banks may seek foreign currency from the National Bank should they need it.”

“Our cash currency reserves are mainly deposited with the United States’ Federal Reserve and German Bundesbank while the remainder is held by first-class banks and in securities,” he said.

Under Serbian law, one third of the cash assets of commercial banks are deposited with the National Bank.

Jelasic previously said the bank will use its 10 billion in currency reserves “to defend the dinar.”

This week Serbia’s National

Photo by FoNet Bank intervened with a total of 53 million in the currency markets to halt the depreciation of the dinar after it lost 2.5 per cent against the euro on active selling.

“That’s nothing compared what happened to other Eastern European currencies,” he said.

In a statement, the bank said it sold a total of 63 million since last Friday, to “prevent the major daily oscillations of the exchange rate and boost turnover in the currency market” and stabilize rate at 79 dinars to one euro.

Jelasic urged people to stop purchasing euros and said that “even my kids are saving in dinars.”

business

Friday, October 10, 2008

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Serbia Must Brace Itself For ‘Perfect Storm’

There is no way Serbia can escape the impact of the world economic crisis entirely, but if the government acts prudently, it may be able to mitigate the worst effects

By Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade

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he global crisis is looming over Serbia, even if it has yet to hit us with its full force. Eventually it may, however, so it would be good to be prepared.

The crisis might slow or even reverse Serbia’s recent economic gains, unless the government prepares for what it may come in 2009. First, the government must be as restrictive as possible. It must forget most of its pledges made in the May general election campaign, particularly those involving increases in public spending. It must also brace itself for social turbulence and be honest to people.

As for the people, they must hunker down and weather it out.

This year the government has been generous. It has increased pensions, boosted wages in the public sector, invested in the joint venture with Italy’s Fiat and conceived ambitious plans aimed at developing infrastructure. Together, these have blown a hole in the budget, creating a 1.2 percentage increase in the budget deficit, previously forecast at 0.5 per cent of GDP. An inflation forecast initially set at 6.5 per cent proved inaccurate and at the end of 2008 we might see it at between 8 and 9.5 per cent.

Economists initially feared it would go over 12 per cent, but it is likely to remain in single digits, mainly thanks to a global drop in oil prices and a good harvest at home.

Gloomy Prospects Since the start of the global financial downturn, Serbia’s stock market has fallen sharply. And it keeps falling. The effects of the crisis on the international currency market have led to a 2.5 per cent depreciation in the

dinar against the euro, from 76 to 80, prompting the Central Bank to step in with a 53 million intervention aimed at stabilising the rate.

Governor Radovan Jelasic, seeking to dissipate popular fears of interest rate hikes and a return to soaring inflation, has reminded people that the dinar fared much worse earlier this year amid the political turmoil following the May general elections, when it was selling at a rate of up to 85 to the euro.

He said the Bank would use its 9.5 billion of currency reserves, mainly deposited with the US Federal Reserve and Germany’s Bundesbank, to defend the exchange rate and he maintained that people should keep their savings in dinars. But it all means less cash in state coffers in 2009 and less leverage to buffer the impact of the crisis.

The Way Out The only possible outcome involves unpopular but mandatory belttightening. In 2009 Cvetkovic’s Cabinet must cut spending. If it fails, a drop in economic growth will lead to lower budget revenues, fiscal deficit, larger budget deficit, real falls in employment and social security benefits, lower investment and social turmoil.

The Central Bank could alleviate some of these effects by striking a deal with commercial banks about limiting future interest rate increases and introduce phased reduction of mandatory reserves for foreign currency loans.

The Bank should also avoid increases in its benchmark rates as a drop of liquidity in foreign markets will make loans to Serbian banks more expensive and potentially further weaken the dinar.

In 2007 and 2008, the country also failed to sell its major lossgenerating assets, including JAT Airways and the Bor copper mine in the south-east. The government recently

Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said his Cabinet will cut spending in 2009 announced it will help JAT’s restructuring but that will impose further strain on the 2009 budget. Initially, the failure to privatise all its assets was viewed poorly by the markets.

But it may not be so.

In 2009, Serbia could hold of on its bid to sell other profit-making state-operated assets. Instead of sell-

ing Telekom Srbije and the power company Elektroprivreda Srbija, the state could make use of their revenues to fund expenditures.

All this is conditional on the coalition government remaining responsible and immune to both internal and external pressures. Fortunately for the government, the opposition is

Photo by FoNet fractured after a split in the nationalist Serbian Radical Party and the demise of the conservative Democratic Party of Serbia of former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica.

That may give the ruling coalition enough room to manoeuvre and the time to lead the country though the hardship of 2009.

Companies & Markets

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Serbian Firm Negotiates Ammo Sales to US

military-industrial arm of Serbia’s Sloboda company and a Canadian-based subsidiary of General Dynamics have launched talks over the export of small-calibere artillery ammunition worth as much as $15 million ( 11 million) annually, the company’s Chief Executive said.

“The Canadians have visited Sloboda several times to talk about fiveyear exports of 40 mm artillery ammunition for the American air force and we are optimistic about the deal,” Rados Ljujic, Sloboda’s Chief Executive said, by phone.

Sloboda, based in Serbia’s southwestern city of Cacak, is a producer of home appliances and its military arm is a manufacturer of artillery ammunition, rockets and missiles, weapons systems and their components as well as explosives and propellants.

Its factory was severely damaged in 1999 during the 78-day NATO air war against the then two-republic Yugoslavia.

Ljujic added that negotiators are now “focusing on details such as ammunition types, characteristics of fuses and some other technical aspects.”

“These talks are being conducted in several stages and they should end in 2009,” he said without elaborating further.

Sloboda recovered after the ousting of former President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 and has since exported its military products to as many as twenty countries including the Philippines, Canada, Chile, Belgium, Austria and Sweden.

Metals Banka Seeks Overhaul

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erbia’s Metals Banka announced its shareholders approved a 1.04 billion dinars ( 13.7 million) rights issue, the BELEX Stock Exchange’s Web site said.

The recapitalisation will be completed through a public sale of 81,000 ordinary shares with the current nominal value of 12,850 dinars per piece. They will be offered to existing shareholders at the preferential rate of 33,500 dinars and to the public at 36,000 dinars per single share.

The funds collected through the sale will be used to increase the bank’s assets, to develop new services and boost competiveness, the statement said.

Serbia To Privatize Rad Holding

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erbia’s Privatisation Agency has announced it has invited bids for the sale of a 70 percent stake in the country’s Rad Holding construction company.

The agency will take bids from companies with at least three years of experience in the construction business and profits of at least 10 million last year. Investors and consortia with managed assets of at least 15 million will also be allowed to bid. Prospective bidders will also be required submit a 100,000 banking guarantee. In 2007, the Belgradebased Rad Holding posted a loss of 160 million dinars. It employs 307 people.

Railway Transport Company Up For Sale

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erbia’s Privatisation Agency has launched a tender offer for a 70 percent stake in the Belgrade-based Zeleznicki Integralni Transport.

The agency said prospective bidders for the Zeleznicki Integralni Transport should be companies involved in railway or road transport for at least three years and with last year’s revenues of at least 8 million.

Investors with assets of no less than 20 million or with 2007 revenues of more than 10 million will also be allowed to place their bids by November 28 on condition they provide a 200,000 bank guarantee, the Privatisation Agency said in a statement.

The Belgrade-based Zeleznicki Integralni Transport is the only Serbian company specialising in handling and transporting containers used in railway transportation. It also operates some 26,000 square metres of storage facilities at Belgrade’s central railway station.

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Friday, October 10, 2008

Serbian Police Ban Pro-Nazi Rally

Minister Dacic banned the rally

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erbian police have banned a rally to be held by far-right activists over the weekend together with a counter anti-Nazi protest.

Serbia’s Interior Minister, Ivica Dacic, said that the rallies were banned because of the possibility that they could trigger violence on Belgrade’s streets.

On Saturday, October 11, at 5pm extreme right wing and pro-nazi organisations “Blood and Honour” (Krv i Cast) and “National order” (Nacionalni stroj) planned to organise a rally they called “Serbian March 2008”. The march was due to start from the University of Philosophy, in the centre of the city.

In response, a ‘Facebook’ group

Work on 40 Streets Underway

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he city directorate for roads in Belgrade has announced that work is presently underway on 40 Belgrade streets.

Aside from Vuk Karadzic Street, none of the streets will be closed to vehicles.

Some of the affected streets include Sazonova, Juzni Bulevar (the southern boulevard, leading from the Autokomanda area towards Vracar).

The closure will also include Gospodar Vucic, Krunska, Internacionalnih Brigada in the Vracar neighbourhood, Grge Andrijanovica, Pjera Krizanica, Stanoja Glavasa and Garsije Lorke in the Palilula neighborhood.

had been created and registered several thousand members to organise what was described as an “Antifascist campaign”. This group planned to prevent the rally of Neo-Nazis, by assembling for their own rally in the same location at 4 p.m.. Had these groups met at the same place, clashes would have been inevitable.

In a further twist, other extreme right wing organisations, including 1389 and Dveri, had, prior to all of this, announced a gathering to be held on the same day in Dom Sindikata.

They have since cancelled their gathering critising the ‘Serbian March 2008’ because “one cannot be an Orthodox Serb and Neo-Nazi at the same time, as the Nazis committed genocide of Serbs during the Second World War.” To complicate things further, another right wing organisation “Obraz” announced that although they would not support the march, they would “patrol the surrounding streets” to stop the Antifascist campaign “making Belgrade streets dirty with their anti-Serb, anti-nationalist presence.”

Land Ownership Goes Online

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eginning in May of next year, the government will publish extensive information about parcels of land in Belgrade, including the ownership, the number of structures on a given parcel and whether the land or structures on it are under mortgage.

This information will be of high value to lawyers, real estate agencies, construction companies as well as to ordinary citizens who are interested in purchasing or renting property.

The information will be available from the Republic of Serbia Geodesic Institute (www.rgz.sr.gov.yu).

Property issues in Belgrade are frequently unresolved and a matter of complicated legal proceedings.

Baby Talk

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t’s seems that almost everybody in Belgrade speaks at least a little English - visitors often remark on how easy it is to get around town. But until now these skills have usually been picked up over years of study at school and university.

The practice of enrolling babies and children in special classes – once considered just another quirky story of ambitious parenting from the USA – has reached us here in Belgrade.

Children from just 3 months old are being enrolled in English classes at

the Helen Doron Early Learning Centre in the centre of town.

Ankica Vukotic, mother of seventeen-month-old Andrij Vukotic, said for the B92 News Network, that her and her husband decided to enroll their son in the course only after consulting an expert. She said that reactions from friends and family were mixed.

“The reactions were – ‘ambitious parents’, they want their child to start speaking English immediately. This is a normal reaction until you get to know how the teaching style of the school,” explained Ankica.

The goal of the course is that the child learns English through play and song. The first words in English can be expected only after the child starts speaking its native language.

Psychologists say that exposing a child to any foreign language cannot have negative consequences. They add that a thee-year-old child is completely ready to learn another language, because their basic speaking skills have been formed by then.

However, with prices starting from around 6 per hour, don’t expect to run into too many pre-teen polyglots just yet.

Human Rights First Foreigner Finishes Activist Attacked Doctorate in Serbia

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he President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights Sonja Biserko was verbally threatened by two men in front of her home this weekend. The human rights activist said the two men were dressed in black and were in their 40s.

Last week a group of extremists left a swastika in front of the Helsinki Committee building and verbally abused staff of the NGO. The Helsinki Committee views the verbal attacks as part of a larger “smear campaign” against HC’s Annual Report on Human Rights, which was published in May. The annual report represents an analysis of the most important spheres of life in Serbian society.

HC points to the fact that mainstream media such as Politika, Vecernje Novosti and NIN have devoted as much news space to cover the attack on the HC as they have to coverage of the report’s contents.

The report this year was aimed at identifying the key problems in Serbia that pose an obstacle to the country’s EU integration.

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Updated Public Transport in 2009

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akel Alvares de Flores has become the first foreigner to finish a PhD in Serbia since the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

A university professor and close confidant of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, de Flores finished her studies at Megatrend University in Belgrade.

She said that she didn’t choose Serbia to finish her PhD by accident. She believes that just because Venezuela and Serbia are far apart doesn’t mean that the two countries can’t work together.

The regional ambassador of Venezuela, Boanerhez Salazar Munos, came from Sofia to attend de Flores’ defence of her thesis. He said that diplomatic cooperation on a range of issues between Venezuela and Serbia will start soon. By the end of the year, both countries are expected to re-establish diplomatic relationships “Economic cooperation is very important, along with education and sports,” said Munos.

SP, Belgrade’s public transport company, will purchase 50 new trolleybuses and 30 trams next year, and by the end of 2008 will complete work on new tram tracks in Bulevard Vojvoda Misica (the street running in front of the Belgrade Fair).

The City will also buy a number of vehicles for the transport of the disabled.

Before any new investments can be made, however, GSP must agree its budget with the city government because it has been seriously affected by increases in the price of fuel over the past year. The public transport company uses 2.8 million litres of fuel every day, according to Radoslav Nikolic, GSP’s general director.

Consumer Watch More consumer hell from Chris Farmer Burek, bread, yoghurt, and that was it.

A 1,000 dinar note. It was all I had.

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rom behind the (apparently empty) cash register, she looked at me in utter disgust. She said: “No,” and moved on to the next guy without waiting for me to vacate the spot. I had forfeited my right to buy anything – if I understood this exchange at all – because she could not make change for 1000 dinars.

I am beginning to think that having a low tolerance for poor customer service is actually doing me a huge disservice while I live here. My instinct was to be outraged, but instead, I counted to ten.

I waited for Mr. I-Have-the-RightChange-ha-ha, behind me to receive HIS burek (mine actually) and his bright smile (clearly, NOT mine), then I tried again. By this time, howbuilt, but the animals have stayed. ever, and I did not realise it yet, I had Furthermore, difficult economic become invisible. She looked directly times for many people have made through my expectant pleading face raising livestock an invaluable to see the Bag Lady behind me, and the Newspaper-Reading Guy behind source of income.

“We are aware of the problem her. Out I walked.

But there was no option of rerelated to the unpleasant smells that spread along Vojvodjanska Street. turning home without the bag full of Unfortunately, according to a deci- grease-laden starches. So I needed sion by the city council of the Munic- a new plan. Next door, there was a ipality of New Belgrade, it is legal to small toy shop. I went inside hoping raise livestock in this part of the city. to buy my son a little something and The Municipality has prepared break the massive 1000 dinar note. an initiative to update these outdated I was immediately attacked by the regulations,” Milos Heflerovic told previously sleeping sales person who leapt to his feet and shouted IZVOBelgrade print media.

Until that happens, residents have no LITE! at me. About five centimetres choice but to endure the ‘country smells’ from my nose.

I said I was just looking, and he when venturing onto their balconies. backed off a little. I wanted to find a toy that would 1) allow me to be a hero when I brought it home, and 2) would get me the magical change to buy the burek. The sales person stationed himself exactly between me onstruction work on the Ga- and the plastic Chinese toys. Each zela bridge, which links the time I reached toward the shelf, he old and new towns and is a mirrored me. When finally his defenmajor bottleneck, has begun. In the sive actions made me start to feel like first phase, pipework is being re- the criminal he clearly took me for, I placed under the bridge and this does discovered the solution. A Spiderman not require the bridge to be closed. action figure: 502 dinars. My single The work has been planned to en- stone was about to whack two birds! sure that traffic runs freely and drinkAgain the 1000 dinar note was ing water supplies are not affected. produced. He took it handily and This project is a precursor to a returned me a crisp 500 dinar note. general reconstruction of the bridge NO! I protested! I did not have the that is scheduled to begin next year. two dinars change – he would HAVE The reconstruction of Gazela is, in to give me 498 dinars back! Little did turn, part of a sweeping set of chang- he know I would have been willing to es that will include another bridge, settle for 200 dinars if only to be able built near Ada Ciganlija with the to get the bread which was still held long-term goal of alleviating traffic firmly behind the disdainful eyes of congestion in the city centre. the baker next door.

“Get me next time,” he said affably. No change.

With low expectations, I went back to the bakery, asked again for the burek, bread, and yoghurt, and presented the 500 in trepidation. She sighed heavily, and turned to fill my order. Although I kept a poker face, I was jubilant inside! But then she turned back to me.

“No more burek,” she droned.

“Sold out.”

Smelly Animals Bother New Belgrade

he residents of large apartment buildings in Block 61 in New Belgrade are fed up with the smell of livestock wafting in through their windows.

They live in the middle of a large European capital, not on the farm, they say, and should not have to breathe in the smell of animal manure.

The zoning laws regulating where farm animals may be raised date back to the 1980s, when the neighbourhood was almost uneveloped.

Back then, the only housing development in the area was in Stara Bezanija, and the smell of livestock bothered no one, as the area was lightly populated. Since then, rows of apartment blocks have been

No Change

Work Begins on Gazela Bridge

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Friday, October 10, 2008

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Old Leaders Emerge Triumphant in Bosnia Election As traditional ethnic parties romp to victory in local poll, Bosnia gets foretaste of likely outcome of next general and presidential elections.

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By Srecko Latal in Sarajevo

osnia’s victorious parties greeted the first local election results with speeches, champagne toasts, and exuberant parties at their headquarters.

On the surface, the results suggested the political picture has remained unchanged since the 2006 general election. Initial unverified results on Monday showed most people again voted along ethnic lines and favoured the toughest and loudest politicians in their ethnic camp.

Turnout was 55 per cent, with voters more active in rural than urban areas. Four Sarajevo municipalities, and Banja Luka, Tuzla and Zenica, registered low turnouts, sometimes below 40 per cent. By contrast, in some smaller towns turnout exceeded 74 per cent. This benefited nationalist parties, whose strength is in the countryside.

The race in the 149 municipalities in the two entities, the BiH Federation and Republika Srpska, therefore solidified the ascendancy of the three strongest nationalist parties; the Party of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, representing Bosnian Serbs, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, representing Bosniaks (Muslims) and the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ. SDA recovers, HDZ holds on: The elections saw a comeback for the ruling Bosniak party, the SDA, which lost part of its old electorate in recent years to the more radical Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, SZBH. From holding 34 mayors’ positions in 2004, it jumped to 36 while the SZBH remained on four.

The SZBH leader, Haris Silajdzic, put on a brave face but soon after the first results were announced, the SZBH leadership simply left their headquarters and went home.

The outcome has reinforced the position of the SDA president, Sulejman Tihic, who may now try to re-

place another SDA member, Nedzad Brankovic, as Prime Minister of the BiH federation.

Among the Croats, the Croat Democratic Union, HDZ, remained the single strongest Croatian party, winning mayors’ posts in at least 15 municipalities, while a break away faction, the HDZ 1990, won only five – less than they expected. An opposition Croat party, the People’s Party, did well. It may end up without any mayors but with strong presence in local assemblies, which further complicates the situation among Croats, opening up many options for postelection cooperation.

Among the opposition, the Social Democrats did best. Their leader, Zlatko Lagumdzija, greeted the results as a step forward, though the figures somewhat contradicted his optimism. From 12 mayors’ posts in 2004, the party dropped to nine, though the party kept hold of two of the four Sarajevo municipalities, as well as Tuzla and Bihac.

An entirely new party, Nasa Stranka, (Our Party), led by film director Danis Tanovic, meanwhile won one mayor’s position and registered a strong showing in some urban areas.

SNSD–victory but no landslide: For the SNSD, the elections proved their continued political supremacy in the country as a whole.

The result was far beneath the 50 per cent of municipalities that the SNSD leader, Milorad Dodik, promised before the ballot.

But the SNSD did win more mayors’ posts – 42 – than any other party in Bosnia, and a majority of seats in most of these municipalities.

The Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, the main Serbian party during the 1992-5 war, fared less well.

In the 2004 local polls, it won 35 mayors’ posts. This time that fell to 15. In some ethnically mixed towns, such as Doboj, or Foca, the SDS may have, paradoxically, won thanks to the votes of local Bosniaks.

Huge SDA officials look out at a passing voter This may strike outsiders as ironic, given the SDS’s infamous role in the 1992-5 war, but the SNSD’s hardline rhetoric has since marked it out as the more radically nationalist party of the two in the Republika Srpska.

The Party of Democratic Progress, PDP – a junior partner in the SNSDrun coalition – remained the third strongest Serbian party.

Are they up to the challenge?

The new councils face new opportunities, since they now have bigger responsibilities. As a part of its EU accession process, municipal authorities will gradually assume broader control over security, schools and social security. Local councils will also get a larger share of taxes to spend. municipal authorities broader control over security, schools and social security. Local councils will also get a larger share of taxes to spend.

Most experts interpreted the results as having little to do with local municipal issues, seeing them more as a

curtain raiser for the next presidential and parliamentary elections in 2010.

“The general election campaign is starting already,” Aleksandar Trifunovic, a Banja Luka-based journalist, told an election programme on state television.

As soon as the final results of the latest polls are published, the parties will have to join a new round of negotiations aimed at changing the country’s ineffective constitutional setup.

Constitutional reforms is required as part of Bosnia’s EU accession process, which entails the closure of the Office of the High Representative, which may occur as early as 2009.

But while all parties agree that the current constitution is unfit, they have opposing views on its replacement.

Economic experts meanwhile worry that the constitutional manoeuvring will draw attention away from stalled key economic and social reforms International officials in the troubled Balkan state urged politicians to put the results behind them and focus on the legal, economic and so-

Croat Ministers Fired over ‘Mafia-style’ Murder Zagreb _ Croatia’s Prime Minister has fired the interior and justice ministers and the country’s police chief just hours after the “mafia-style” killing of a prominent lawyer’s daughter.

Ivana Hodak, 26, was shot twice in the head in the hallway of her home in downtown Zagreb on Monday, October 6, just a block away from police headquarters.

She is the daughter of Zvonimir Hodak, who is the lawyer for Vladimir Zagorec, the Croatian army general recently extradited from Austria over charges he stole $5 million ( 3.25 million) in jewels that were intended to fund Croatia’s war effort in the early 1990s.

Zagorec had appealed against his extradition to Austrian authorities claiming his life would be in danger in Croatia.

Early on Tuesday, Ivana Hodak’s killing still was under investigation and no suspects had been named.

Prime minister Ivo Sanader said the killing was an “awful tragedy that we fully condemn.”

“I am going to propose to parliament that they confirm the dismissal of the interior and justice ministers [Berislav Roncevic and Ana Lovrin respectively], as well as the chief of police [Marijan ttBenko],” Sanader said.

Ivo Sanader’s moves suggest he blames the three officials for not doing enough to fight organised crime in the country.

Croatian law requires a parliamentary vote to approve any such decision by the prime minister, but in this instance it is likely to be a formality as the opposition has been calling for such action for a long time.

The Prime Minister said his government “won’t allow organised crime to make the impression that they can do whatever they want without sanctions”.

The killing of Hodak came after a series of recent attacks in Zagreb, in which three men, journalist, Dusan Miljus, the former director of Zagreb’s communal company Zagreb Roads Igor Radjenovic and Josip Galinec, the chief executive of

Ana Lovrin’s position is under threat.

Photo by FoNet a local construction company were ing, to fight crime. badly beaten.

Croatia hopes to become a EuNo perpetrators have been found ropean Union member by 2011 but and prosecuted in those attacks, trig- Brussels insists the country does more gering mounting criticism that the to tackle deficiencies in the judiciary, authorities were incapable, or unwill- corruption and organised crime.

Photo by FoNet cial reforms that the country needs to complete as part of the EU accession process.

“The accession path… does not depend on the EU but on the candidate country,” the French ambassador, Maryse Berniau, said on Monday. “Local politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina should keep that in mind.”

“Now the elections are over, I expect everyone to focus on the key priority… full implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, which is a prerequisite for bringing BiH closer to the European Union”, Lajcak said.

But so far Bosnia has fulfilled only 13 of the EU’s 30 short-term conditions, Bosnia’s state premier, Nikola Spiric, said recently. The political infighting has also delayed the appointment of a national coordinator for the EU’s IPA funds.

Many civil society groups are as doubtful as ever that the country’s ethnically divided leadership can find a way out of the impasse.

Romanian Football Mired in Corruption Bucharest _ Romanian prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into possible corruption involving eight football club officials and players’ agents.

The alledged offences involve losses of almost 10 million to both state funds and for four first division clubs, according to the office of the anti corruption prosecutor.

The people involved, include former Romanian international Gheorghe Popescu, one of the country’s most capped players with 115 caps and who played in the 1990, 1994 and 1998 World cups.

Football agents Victor and Ioan Becali, have also been implicated in the case. All deny any financial wrongdoing.

Media reports say the anti-corruption office’s investigations are centred on the transfer of 12 players to clubs in Western Europe, with football officials allegedly invoved in fraud, tax evasion and money laundering.

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Friday, October 10, 2008

Albania PM Dismisses Laundering Charge Tirana _ Albania’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister have dismissed accusations that their family businesses laundered money in a deal with a Bosnian businessman.

Albanian media reported allegations of shady transactions and money laundering between Damir Fazlic, a Bosnian businessman and a partner of the law office of Argita Malltezi, the daughter of Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

The reports also implicate the brother-in-law of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lulzim Basha, who worked as an administrator of Fazlic’s businesses registered in Tirana.

The allegation relate to the sale of one of Fazlic’s businesses, Crown Acquisitions, a company with no assets, which was sold in June 2007 to Cyprus-based company, Altaria Research Limited, for 1.75 million.

The office of the Albanian Pros-

ecutor General Ina Rama, is currently probing the sale of Crown Acquisition and Fazlic’s other business in Albania.

In an interview in London with the Albanian private broadcaster Top Channel, Fazlic denied the accusation against him, saying that the Crown Accusations had never been sold.

“It is not true that the company was sold,” he said, while declining to give details.

The Bosnian businessman confirmed his ties to Berisha describing him as “a really good friend.”

Montenegro President Hints at Kosovo Move Podgorica _ Montenegro’s President Filip Vujanovic has indicated the country will recognise Kosovo’s independence despite bitter opposition from traditional ally Serbia.

Vujanovic said on Tuesday that a decision will have to be made soon because of Montenegro’s desire to become a European Union and NATO member. He said recognition of Kosovo was an “obvious condition” for integration.

On Friday Montenegro’s Parliament passed a resolution on “the necessity to speed up the processes of joining the European Union and NATO” which it says will “serve as a guideline for the country’s policy on the Kosovo issue.”

Speculation has been rife for weeks that Montenegro, which was in a loose union with Serbia up until 2006, is to recognise Kosovo’s secession from Belgrade imminently.

Montenegrin president Vujanovic However the issue in Montenegro is contentious and the leader of the country’s biggest ethnic Serb party has warned of mass protests if Montenegro recognises Kosovo’s independence.

A large proportion of Montenegro citizens, about a third of the population, declare themselves as Serbs, while ethnic Albanians also make up a sizeable minority in the coastal republic.

Source: www.nato.int Montenegro has said it will wait to see whether Serbia’s bid to seek the International Court of Justice’s opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s independence is actually forwarded to the court.

Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic on Monday warned Montenegro against recognizing Kosovo, which split from Serbia in February, saying it would represent “a stab in the back.”

Bosnia Considers Lyrics for National Anthem Sarajevo _ Bosnia and Herzegovina’s State Commission for the Anthem says it has received 339 proposals for lyrics to go along with the country’s national anthem.

The main preconditions for the lyrics, established by the commission which is composed of parliamentary lawmakers, were that it should be in one of the local languages (Bosnian, Serbian or Croatian) and it should be submitted by September 30.

The procedure, explained in Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje, will be that commission members will read all of the proposals, each of them will choose one, give their opinion on it, and they together will have to choose three proposals to be sent to the state Parliament.

“This will be a huge task. It is hard to choose lyrics that will satisfy all three constituent peoples in Bosnia, and it is not possible to have some neutral song since nobody will be

able to identify with the anthem,” said commission member, Slavko Jovicic.

The winner will be awarded 30,000 Bosnian marka (around 15,000).

During the 1992-1995 war, the state of Bosnia and Hezegovina had an anthem called “Jedna si jedina” (One and the only) written by Sarajevo’s famous pop lyricist, Dino Dervishalidovic. After the war, this song was proclaimed by some to be “proBosniak (Bosnian Muslim)”.

Since the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina has had a national anthem without words. The music was composed by Dragan Sestic from Banja Luka and Parliament adopted it with assistance from Office of the High Representative in 1998.

Since 2005, Bosnia has been looking for lyrics for its anthem.

That year, an initiative came from the Council of Ministers and state government bringing the commis-

Bosnians are lost for words sion into being, although it has since achieved little.

In the last couple of years, the only lyrics that have been sung to-

German ‘Kidnapped by CIA’ Sues Macedonia Skopje _ Khaled El Masri, the German citizen of Lebanese origin who claims he was kidnapped by the CIA during his stay in Skopje in 2003 has filed charges against Macedonia.

El Masri insists that Macedonian police assisted the United States’ top spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, in kidnapping and transferring him in to a secret location in Afghanistan where he was questioned about possible involvement in terrorist activities.

“Charges have been filed against unidentified perpetrators from the police. All the evidence that was previously brought up to the German Prosecution Office together with the European Parliament and the Council of Europe Legal Issues Committee reports on this case have been presented in the suit,” El Masri’s lawyer in Macedonia, Filip Medarski told local Utrinski Vesnik daily.

The charges were filed for kidnapping and torture, Medarski explained.

El Masri claims that he was kidnapped in December 2003 while he was paying a tourist visit to Macedonia and held for 21 days in a hotel in Skopje before he was transported to Afghanistan by CIA agents.

The CIA allegedly released him after five months in captivity when they realised that they had mistaken him for someone else.

El Masri is currently also suing Germany for not asking for the extradition of the suspected CIA officers to be tried in front of German courts.

This El Masri case was part of the formal investigation that the Council of Europe launched in

2005 on the possible existence of secret and illegal CIA prisons on European soil. A special Commission investigating this visited Macedonia in 2006.

In 2007 the German Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against 13 American citizens who allegedly took part in El Masti’s kidnapping and torture but Germany has never asked for their extradition.

El Masri has filed charges against the Macedonian government

Source: www.ecchr.eu

gether with the anthem are those written by Sarajevo popular radio anchor Zoran Catic which have an ironic, sarcastic twist.

Source: www.daylife.com “Forgive us our beloved country for being like this. You will stay forever, and we will go into dust,” are the lyrics from this unofficial version.

Islamic Group Banned in Bulgaria Sofia _ A Bulgarian court has banned an Islamic association from operating in the country, accusing it of fanning religious hatred.

The association Charitable Projects, which has been active in Bulgaria since the mid-1990s, was banned for “propagating religious hatred against the majority Christian Orthodox Bulgarians and the traditionally Hanif Muslims in the country”, the State Agency for National Security, DANS, said in a statement.

The ruling was made by a court in the eastern city of Burgas.

The agency added that Charitable Projects was an offshoot of the Lebanese Sunni Association of Islamic Charitable Projects, known as the Habashi Movement.

Habashi military structures participated in the 1980s civil war in Lebanon, while its members are reported to have been among the attackers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, when he was assassinated in 2005, the DANS statement said.

The Bulgarian branch of the association was “fully targeted towards conducting religious and education activities among the Roma population”.

It organised secret prayer services in homes in the central cities of Plovdiv and Pazardzhik as well as in an illegally built mosque in Burgas, the

statement added.

“The activity of the association sparked conflicts in the Muslim Roma communities in the above mentioned cities,” DANS said.

The Burgas regional court took the decision to ban the organisation and sue its Roma leader “for harming the national interest and religious rights and creating conditions for violation of the religious and ethnic peace in Bulgaria”.

No Habashi structures are any longer functioning on Bulgarian territory, DANS said.

Bulgaria, the majority of whose population is Christian Orthodox, also is 12% Muslim, largely made up of ethnic Turks and some of the Roma community which in total is estimated to form 10% of the population.

There have been no major conflicts between the two communities which often mingle in the small towns and villages in the country’s south and northeast.

The ethnic Turkish minority party, Movement for Rights and Freedoms, has been a key partner in the last two governments since 2001.

But Bulgarian authorities have recently warned that different Islamic movements try to operate in the country under cover of charitable foundations or business companies.

out & about

Friday, October 10, 2008

9

Zemun, a Slice of Old Austria-Hungary

Their town may have been swallowed up by Belgrade in recent decades but ‘Zemunci’ remain fiercely proud of their very different history and identity.

By Aleksandar Vasovic

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ne does not always have to leave Belgrade to find oneself in a completely different place. Right across from the confluence of Sava and Danube and in full view of the Kalemegdan fortress lies Zemun, or Semlin, as it was called in the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Cross the city’s Branko’s bridge and head to the right. Past the former Communist Party Central Committee tower and the sprawling compound of the former federal government and another five minutes’ drive brings you to a town within the city, which is, and isn’t, Belgrade.

In the 1970s, the rapidly expanding city of Belgrade and its conglomerate of drab apartment blocks enthusiastically called Novi Beograd swallowed up Zemun.

According to historians, there was a settlement in Zemun as far back as the 3rd Century BC. But the present name was first mentioned in the 12th century, by which time the area formed the southern frontier of medieval Hungary. As wars devastated the Balkans over the next 500 years, control of Zemun passed back and forth between the Hungarians and the Ottoman Turks. Hapsburg Austrian armies finally took over in 1717, staying for over two centuries.

Zemun grew as a border town, located in a highly strategic position, across from the Ottomans’ northern fortress of Belgrade. It was a key port and an geathering place of smugglers, rebels, insurgents, spies and politicians coming and going from Serbia. The population was mixed, comprising Serbs, Croats, Hungarians, Germans, Jews, Roma, Armenians, Turks, Slovaks and even a few Italians. “It is like that even now,” says Zdenko, a Zemun-born Croat.

“The local community is more multiethnic than any other in Belgrade and we are proud of that.”

After the collapse of AustriaHungary in 1918, Zemun became a part of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later renamed Yugoslavia. Between 1941 and 1945 it formed part of the Fascist controlled Independent State of Croatia and thousands of Jews and others perished in a nearby death camp, the Judenlager Zemlin, located at the former Belgrade Fair compound. After the Partisan victory, it again became part of Yugoslavia.

In administrative terms, Zemun is now no more than a municipality of Belgrade. But it still fights to preserve its distinct identity as a town with a very different history from that of Belgrade. Its Central European architecture and character remain strikingly different from those of its more Byzantine neighbour. Locals stubbornly insist they are “Zemunci”, not “Beogradjani”. “It is a different mentality, a different way of living,” according to Zdenko.

Sadly, Zemun became famous for altogether different reasons in the 1990s, when the town spawned an infamous underworld clan that played a key part in the 2003 assassination of prime minister Zoran Djindjic, among others.

Zemun is best explored without a car, starting from the Danube quay, which begins right after the Hotel Jugoslavija and is good for rollerblading and cycling. A sprawling marina streching more than a kilometre is lined with boats and splavs (floating restaurants and cafes) moored on the riverbank for the tired or the hungry.

Fish, often caught nearby in the Danube, is the real specialty of Zemun’s restaurants but there are always a good selection of alternatives on local menus. Venues range from more traditional Stara Carinarnica (Old Customs Depot), with its exhibition of historic photographs and artefacts, to Sent Andreja, Kod Kapetana (Captain’s Inn), Saran (Carp), Reka (River), with its live music and colourful local artwork, and Radecki , a dilapidated watering hole frequented by colourful local characters.

Past Radecki, some steep steps bring amblers to the Old Town, containing Gardos hill and Pregrevica.

With its narrow cobbled streets and Austro-Hungarian atmosphere, this old quarter is a step back in time.

Dozens of cafés such as Burence (Barrel) or Majcina (the word forms part of a famous Serbian curse), restaurants and churches dot the area.

The most striking landmark is the Millennium Tower, built in 1896 on the site of a medieval fort to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the Kingdom of Hungary. Years ago it housed a café at the top. Now it is in a state of disrepair but plans are afoot for its repair “It looks a sorry sight now but Belgrade city hall has allocated funds for renovation,” a city official said.

Downtown Zemun has a couple more interesting modern buildings, too. The Air Force headquarters is a fine an example of the pre-Second World War Bauhaus architecture, though it was badly damaged in the 1999 NATO bombing. The Magistrates’ court, near the green market, is another local landmark. Built in the 19th century, it is worth a look before taking the road back to Belgrade proper.

The Millenium tower in Zemun

A view across the Danube from Zemun

Photo by Aleksandar Vasovic

Photo by Aleksandar Vasovic

10

the belgrader

Friday, October 10, 2008

Dining out

Iguana Na Cosku

It’s been some time since the team at Iguana left their old informal settings in Neimar where they served simple but wellexecuted fresh food. 6 months or so after the merger with “na Cosku” (on the corner), Trencherman felt it would be time to see how they’ve settled in.

By “Trencherman”

T

he first thing you notice when you step through the doors in the new downtown location is that it’s all become terribly grown-up, na cosku. Gone are the ”junk-shop” tables and chairs from Iguana to be replaced with nicely upholstered bench seating and tables with all four legs the same length.

This dining room is impressive and elegant, something complemented nicely by the front of house team, smart, available, competent yet unobtrusive. In fact, the only real nod to the past is the blackboards displaying daily specials.

But whereas before the specials were the menu, the new restaurant has a large backbone of dishes alwaysavailable, to reinforce the offering.

I suppose that the menu is best described as safe “modern European” and features acquisitions from around the world, from steak tartare to curry, a turkey pasta bake to tornado Rossini. Interesting, eclectic but not really too original or inspiring.

The specials included teriyaki steak, seared fresh tuna salad, veal

cutlets with lime, honey and ginger, a range of fresh sea-fish or trout and in a reminder of past times these are available pretty much how you want them – whole, filleted, pan-fried stir fried or meuniere.

The wine list is well chosen, covering Serbia and Italy in more depth, offering one or two well selected new world offerings, and short list of French staples. Margins are however typically generous, with the phenomenally successful “Yellow Tail” Chardonnay at 2000 dinars. Yellow Tail’s producers, Casella Wines aim this product squarely at the mid/low end market across Europe and the US where it retails successfully, often priced well under 10, so it is a surprise to see it on the list at this price.

The Aleksandrovic Harisma, at 2500 dinars, which we chose, is a great local wine, rounded, smooth with bags of fruit and a big punch of alcohol up front, but it can be found retail in Belgrade for well under 1,000 dinars.

But onto the food. A rocket and tomato salad was dressed well, the lettuce crisp and the tomatoes sweet but sauteed mixed mushrooms - field, shitake and oysters – were unremarkable and would have befitted from better seasoning and frying in butter rather than olive oil. The strange accompaniments of rice and salad leaves were not necessary.

Presentation was great as always – big white plates careful placing

Elegant dining “Na Cosku”

Photo by Sophie Cottrell

of ingredients but outcomes were variable. The mix of leaves, warm whole crisp green and yellow beans and peppers in the tuna salad looked superb but the tuna should have been better seared and looked unappetising.

The veal cutlets were frankly dull.

If there was ginger used anywhere in the preparation of the dish, I certainly could not tell. Certainly there were no fresh ginger slices. Two slices of lime were placed on top of the meat and it appeared that they, along with the honey had been added to the mixture after plating. The meat, therefore, which I was hoping to be browned with caramelised honey and flavoured with citrus and the astringent twang of ginger, was therefore grey and uninteresting.

The Teriaki beef was cooked blue, exactly as we asked and although the

taste would good, it would certainly have benefited from being marinated in the teriyaki sauce before cooking to add more depth of flavour.

Turkey is an unforgiving ingredient for the commercial chef - unless perfectly cooked and served immediately when ready, it has a tendency to dry out and lose its subtle flavour and this was our experience with the baked turkey and pasta.

Desserts were however, splendid.

A chocolate souffle, nicely risen, runny with a bittersweet chocolate filling, served with a forest fruit compote and some vanilla ice cream – faultless.

A relic from the old Iguana location, the sticky date pudding was no less excellent, and the buttery creamy sauce complemented it well.

Whilst Iguana na Cosku has retained some of the old charm from the old location, many of the culinary

Ljubav & drugi zlocini (Love and Other Crimes) 15:00, 21:10 & 23:20 You Don’t Mess with the Zohan 19:30 & 21:50 Mamma Mia! 14:00, 16:10, 18:20, 20:30 & 22:40

Tickets available at Belgrade Arena ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg Republike 5

Museum of Yugoslav Film Archive October 8 - 14 Tickets available at Museum of YFA ticket office one hour before screening

Tuckwood Cineplex Kneza Miloša 7, tel: 011 3236517

Student Cultural Centre (SKC) Kralja Milana 48 October 12, 21:00 Tickets available at SKC ticket office

skills and has added a more refined level of service and certainly provides a much more elegant dining room, I rather enjoyed the more casual approach at the previous location, the old seats and rickety fittings, the hit and miss adventure of finding out what was available for dinner tonight, knowing that whatever the result, it would be fresh and wholesome.

As perhaps you’d expect, the prices do seem to have moved upmarket along with the location but overall, even given our choice of wine the final bill was not too shocking.

Price guide: approximately 2,000 – 2,500 per head for 3 courses with a modest wine.

Iguana Na Cosku Beogradska 37, Tel: 0113236470

What’s On CINEMAS Roda Cineplex Požeška 83A , tel: 011 2545260 Turneja (The Tour) 18:00, 20:15 & 22:30 Wall - E 16:00 Mirrors 20:30 & 22:30 Journey to the Center of the Earth 16:15 Mamma Mia! 18:00 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 16:30 & 18:30 Ljubav i drugi zlocini (Love and Other Crimes) 20:00 & 22:00 Dom sindikata Trg Nikole Pašića 5, tel. 011 3234849 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 16:15 & 18:15 Mirrors 20:15 & 22:15 Ljubav i drugi zlocini (Love and Other Crimes) 20:15 Turneja (The Tour) 16:00, 16:30, 18:00, 18:30, 20:00, 20:30, 22:00 & 22:30 Mamma Mia! 16:15, 18:15 & 22:30 Ster City Cinema Delta City, Jurija Gagarina 16 (Blok 67), tel: 011 2203400 Turneja (The Tour) 2:10, 12:40, 14:20, 15:20, 16:30, 18:00,18:40, 20:10 & 22:20 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 11:50, 13:50, 15:50 & 17:50 Wall - E 11:30, 13:30, 15:30 & 17:30 Tropic Thunder 19:50 & 22:00 Journey to the Center of the Earth 13:00, 17:10 & 19:00 Mirrors 20:50 & 23:00

Star Wars: The Clone Wars 15:30, 17:45 & 20:00 Mirrors 16:30, 18:50, 21:15 & 23:30 Tropic Thunder 18:00 & 22:30 Milos Brankovic 21:00 & 23:15 Ljubav i drugi zlocini (Love and Other Crimes) 15:50 & 20:15 You Don’t Mess with the Zohan 16:20 & 18:45 Turneja (The Tour) 15:40,18:00, 20:30, 22:15 & 23:00

CONCERTS

Lollobrigida Popular Croatian female electro pop band is holding a concert in Belgrade.

Student Cultural Centre (SKC) Kralja Milana 48 October 10, 20:00 Tickets available at SKC ticket office

Handsome Furs Popular indie rock band from Canada are holding a concert in Belgrade.

Paul Gilbert Famous American guitar player is coming to Belgrade on his European tour. He composes music in wide variety of styles including pop, rock, metal, blues, jazz, funk and classical.

Student Cultural Centre (SKC) Kralja Milana 48 October 16, 21:00 Tickets available at SKC ticket office

ANNUAL EVENTS DIS-PATCH Festival of cutting-edge music and related art

Alicia Keys American r’n’b star and a nine-time Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys is coming to Belgrade to promote her third studio album As I Am.

The 7th annual festival of electronic music, Dis-Patch, takes place across Belgrade, showcasing artists whose work defines modern electronic music.

Various locations October 11 - 20 Tickets available at Bilet Service, Republic Square 5 Visit: www.dis-patch.com

Belgrade Arena Arsenija Carnojevica 58 October 11, 20:00

Spanish Cinema Week Spanish film at the beginning of new millennium

BALLET National Theatre Trg Republike 1a Queen Margot Music composed by Goran Bregovic October 12, 19:30 Tickets available at National Theatre ticket office

MUSICAL Yugoslav Drama Theatre Kralja Milana 50 The Marathon (Serbian premier) Libretto based on motives of Dusan Kovacevic’s famous play „The Marathon Runners...“ October 14, 20:00 Tickets available at Yugoslav Drama Theatre ticket office Terazije Theater Trg Nikole Pasica 3 Cabaret Musical directed by Chet Walker October 12, 19:30 Tickets available at Terazije Theater ticket office

THEATRES Belgrade Drama Theatre (BDP) Milesevska 64 a CandoCo Dance Company “Still” and “Perfect human” - world premier The Candoco Dance Company from London is one of the most famous modern dance companies in the world, comprised of dancers with and without disabilities.

October 10, 20:00 Tickets available at BDP ticket office Pinocchio Puppet Theatre Karadjordjeva 9 Bastien und Bastienne Music and puttetry meet for this performance based on Mozart’s opera October 11, 11:00 & 17:00 Tickets available at Pinocchio Puppet Theatre ticket office and Billet Service, Republic Squere 5

EXHIBITIONS Museum of Applied Arts Vuka Karadzica 18 Tuesdey, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 10:00 - 17:00 Thursday. 12:00 - 20:00 Sunday 10:00 - 14:00 October 1 - 10 43. Children October Salon Collection of Children’s Art (1958 - 2008)

the belgrader

Friday, October 10, 2008

What’s In a Name?

Finding a street here can be diffiThis week, Pat Andjelkovic muses on Belgrade’s changing cult, for signs are often posted high up on the wall of a corner building street names. and obscured by trees. Often they’re

By Pat Andjelkovic

I

n 1977 it was hard to convince my French friends in Paris that I wasn’t out of my mind moving to Yugoslavia. Like true Frenchmen, they were concerned that I wouldn’t have enough to eat, or at least anything good to eat. My family “preko bara” (across the pond in America) was more worried that the Soviet Army would rush in to imprison little capitalistic me and brainwash my children.

Finally, they reluctantly conceded that Yugoslavia was non-aligned, and gave me their blessing. No email in those days, so when they saw the Bulevar Lenjina return address on my letter, I could hear their sniggers echo across the Atlantic.

How times have changed. The Soviets are gone, Yugoslavia is gone, and now I’m a resident of Serbia.

Shakespeare penned, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Regimes have changed, too.

Now Lenin’s Boulevard has been renamed in honour of the scientist Mihajlo Pupin, and most people think it does sound sweeter. Even The Bard himself has a street named for him.

only in Cyrillic. But designations are logical; boulevards are wide, often landscaped, streets usually have pavements, ”though we’re all aware they’re often full of parked cars.

In the USA, routes running eastwest are streets and those running north-south are avenues. Not so here; too many winding streets, and besides, that’s too logical! New Belgrade is laid out on a grid plan, which you’d think would make it easy to locate your friend’s apartment, but signs and even building numbers are sorely lacking.

If you manage to locate a building, then you’ll usually have to find out which entrance number you need. Locals know where certain “blokovi” (segments) are. Blok 45 is near a big glass pyramid, and the Chinese Market is in Blok 70.

To be fair, at least the streets have real names, even if you can’t find the sign. There’s nothing more dehumanizing than living on L Street or B Avenue.

In 2004 the City began to change street names, which caused many Serbs to rejoice since the old signs evoked negative communist-era connotations. Some were restored according to the former names of Serbian historical figures; others for events.

“Bulevar Osolobodjenja” (Liberation Boulevard,) pleased everybody, leaving interpretation wide open from whom the liberation was: the Turks, the Germans, a recent regime…

Unfortunately, Belgrade lacks charming street names like Paris’s “Rue du Chat Qui Pêche” (Fishing

Paper Tigers Travellers across the region need patience to deal with all the obstacles placed in their way by governments and bureaucrats.

By David Dowse

H

ave you ever noticed how much paper is created by travelling? Having spent the better part of the last three years travelling around the Balkans on business trips, I have become accustomed, even hardened, to most of the unique inconveniences this wonderful and frustrating region offers to the weary traveller. Frequent and largely pointless border checks no longer phase me. Even juggling several currencies within the span of as many hours tends more to amuse me than cause stress. I can even wish someone “bon appetit” throughout the ex-Yugoslavia, and get the local language nuance correct – most of the time.

Yet, as a stress factor, the generation of paper is surely in a class of its own. Even a short business trip to Zagreb by road, as I made last week, unavoidably produces a pile of paper large enough to turn the leaves of a small rainforest pale. To satisfy book keepers and tax inspectors, we need “proper” receipts for everything – from taxi fares to toll charges. Paying for petrol and other little luxuries by credit card produces two pieces of paper, where one would surely suffice.

However, checking out of a hotel takes the biscuit. After manually collating details of minibar misdemeanours and calculating obscure local taxes using an abacus, the receptionist brings the terminally slow process to its crawling climax with the piece de resistance – no less than four copies of the invoice, arrayed on the counter for signature. And he is not done yet – the performance ends with the ritual stapling of the fiscal receipt to one of the copies, then he carefully folds both pieces of paper together, and the whole package is handed over in a crisp, new white envelope. I almost forgot – there’s the white registration card that’s placed inside my passport, confirming where I spent the night.

In the mind of the receptionist, this Act is the single most important task with which he is entrusted. This ac-

Cat Street). The narrow street near Kalemegdan, “Zmaj od Noćaja,” (Dragon of Nocaja) was not named for a mythical dragon, but for a hero of the First Serbian Uprising. Anyway, rationality usually rules street names, no cutesy stuff.

Sometimes a street is posthumously named for a distinguished literary figure, scientist, philosopher, musician, et al. Streets named for the egocentric and powerful during their lifetime usually don’t last, which is why you don’t see streets in and around Belgrade named after Tito anymore.

In 2007 despite vociferous protests from an opposing political party, New Belgrade’s Boulevard AVNOJ was renamed Boulevard Zoran Djindjić in honour of the assassinated Prime Minister. No sooner were signs up than Ratko Mladić stickers were slapped over them, but were promptly peeled off. Nothing lasts forever.

Svetogorska Street downtown has changed names six times. Belgrade hasn’t got streets that evoke various professions like Wall Street or Fleet Street. Even “Silikonska Dolina,” or Silicon Valley, refers to an area where silicon has been put to an entirely different use than for computer chips.

Look for non-Serb names too like Theodore Dreiser, Archibald Rice, Anton Chekov, Anne Frank, Samuel Beckett, Georges Clemenceau, Patrice Lumumba, and President Kennedy. Often these people had some direct connection with Serbia, like Jacob Grimm (Brothers Grimm) who learned Serbian so he could read the country’s folklore in the original. In 2007, a decision was made for a street to be named after the late Japanese Ambassador Keisuke Oba, who had been associated with the former Yugoslavia for 30 years, and who is buried in Belgrade. An initia-

Old and new: revolutionary names give way to historical references

counts for the studied slowness of the entire check-out procedure (15 minutes), which has overtones of sado-masochistic spectacle involving a triangular love-hate relationship; the government (as represented by the receipts), abuses the hotel (as represented by the receptionist), who takes out the frustration on the international traveller (you and I). The relationship is consummated by a violent whack of the stamp, without which nothing is official. Following this forceful wielding of the stamp (the clerk taking his anger out on the government), everyone breathes a bit easier and a sense of catharsis sets

in. “Thank you.” I said. “No, thank you.”, the receptionist said.

Then there are those little incidents when a proper receipt would be appropriate, perhaps even welcome. Take for instance the cash fine, imposed on a colleague by a traffic policeman in Belgrade last week for an alleged and completely fabricated traffic offence. “Papers!” He demanded, before getting down to business. The price was reduced on negotiation from 30,000 CSD to 2,000 CSD. Cash. No receipt required.

Of course, paper is now front stage all around the world. Paper assets and paper debts, apparently suddenly re-

Needless bureaucracy and form-filling bedevil the region

11

tive is now underway for a street to be named after the legendary chess champion Bobby Fischer.

Serbs remain broad-minded and have kept most of the streets that recall former republics, like Crnogorska, Dalmatinska, Ohridska, Bohinjska, and Sarajevska. We’ll see what happens with Kosovo, but it’s probable that streets like Skadarska, for which Belgrade’s Bohemian quarter Skadarlija is named, will stay.

A book on Belgrade’s street names and history was written by Prof. Milan Leko, whose illustrious family has lived in Belgrade for generations, for whose grandfather a street is named. I’ve always felt a bit sad that Belgrade’s street signs don’t mention for whom or what they’re named. An epitaph in an English cemetery reads, “Remember, Man, as you walk by, as you are now, so once was I.” Shouldn’t we remember?

Source: www.danas.co.yu

vealed for what they really are, have provoked the biggest financial crisis since Jesus upset the moneylenders.

It is surely deeply ironic to witness the evangelists of capitalism rushing to nationalise their banks.

It is also interesting to consider the possibility that the West’s inequitable isolationist policies towards Serbia over the past decade may have the unexpected effect of cushioning the country against the worst impact of the global collapse of the tower of paper. It seems clear that nobody will be completely immune, but it appears as though Serbia is in better shape than most. On paper, at least.

Source: www.sxc.hu

12

life

Friday, October 10, 2008

Arranged Marriages Spell Disaster for Many Women Girls from traditional Albanian families are still being packed off abroad to marry total strangers.

By Fisnike Rexhepi in Bujanovac

N

ora met her husband for the first time just before their wedding ceremony.

It was a typical arranged marriage.

In traditional fashion, her family had picked the groom because he seemed well off, having worked in the West, like tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians from South Serbia, Kosovo and Western Macedonia.

After they wed the couple went to Switzerland where they stayed for a year. But the marriage quickly turned sour. Nora, 25, whose sole duty was to take care of the household and her man, had no job and did not know any of the local Swiss languages.

Soon after they got there, she claims she discovered her husband was an alcoholic and a drug addict.

He was also bored with his wife.

He sent me back to live with his parents in the village and later sent me a message saying he was a free man, she says.

Her husband said she was now free to look for another, as he had divorced her in the Islamic fashion.

Nora is among many ethnic Albanian women from the Presevo Valley, Kosovo and Western Macedonia whose lives have been caught in the clash between traditional mores and the modern world.

Hysnije Miftari, from the village of Nesalce, near Bujanovac, says she separated from her husband because it was impossible to continue living with a man “who only caused me pain.”

She described how her husband started seeing another woman and suggested Miftari leave home or agree to become his second wife in accordance with Islamic tradition.

Miftari opted to go but had to leave her son behind with her husband’s family.

“I constantly dream about my son,” she said. “Because of him I would go back to my husband but I don’t think there is any hope of that,” Miftari added.

The dilemmas facing such women are partly due to the growing interaction between what were once very isolated societies and the outside world.

The series of armed conflicts in Kosovo, Macedonia and South Serbia in the late 1990s and early 2000s created massive social disruption.

War and a chronic shortage of jobs has driven huge numbers from rural isolation to the region’s cities, from where many emigrate to the European Union, Switzerland and the United States. They often stay and work for years, many of them illegally.

The trend began in the 1950s when Albanians started migrating to Turkey. It continued in the 1970s and 1980s, when Germany and other Western countries replaced Turkey as the favoured destination.

The number has risen steadily since 1999 when the Kosovo conflict reached its climax. According to some estimates, about 30 per cent of the

Albanian villages are seeing massive emigration as men seek work overseas male population of in some areas of Kosovo, the Presevo Valley and Western Macedonia is working abroad.

Riza Halimi, president of the ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Action, describes emigration as a very serious problem in the Presevo Valley.

When the wars started in 1990s there was a massive migration of the Albanian population from these parts, he said.

The emigrants took their traditionalist ideas with them. Close knit families often insist that their young men living abroad marry women from their home villages.

The clan or family elders usually make a deal, mainly aimed at increasing or conserving the family’s wealth.

As a result, young women are packed off to unknown countries to meets husbands they have never seen.

Many are socially isolated. Often unable to speak the local language, they are put effectively at the mercy of a stranger.

Ermira, 34, from Tetovo, in Macedonia, met her husband for the first time at Munich airport, she said.

“My father simply told me one day that I was going to be sent to a man in Germany to be his wife,” she added. “He refused to listen to my arguments.”

In Albanian Muslim tradition, women are virtually the property of their husbands, while the marriage lasts. The wife may separate if she insists but the children will stay with

their husband.

“I spent a year in Germany, hardly ever leaving his apartment,” Ermira said. “But one day he came from work and told me to pack and leave. He didn’t even pay for my ticket back. I had to borrow money from a cousin.”

To be divorced in such a manner is a disgrace for these women. Frequently they have to return to their families and seek a new marriage with a single father, usually a widower or divorcee.

“I don’t think I will marry again,” Ermira said. “That’s why I came to Belgrade to look for new life.”

Xhevahire Shabani, head of the women’s organization Prosperiteti, from the village of Trnovac, outside Bujanovac, said too many women were still at the mercy of their husbands. “They don’t have the same rights ... simply because they belong to the opposite sex,” she said.

Prosperiteti is one of several citizens’ groups in the Presevo Valley that target women who need help to protect their rights. Many of the women are illiterate.

Mirvete Shabani, a high school teacher, said such organisations were needed. “Too few women take part in

Brides often travel abroad to meet their husbands for the first time.

Source: wikimedia.org courses about domestic violence, human and women’s rights, women in politics and about intercultural solidarity,” she said.

To help alleviate the problem, the authorities have set minimum quotas for the number of women in local politics. Eight of the 41 deputies in the Bujanovac assembly are now women. Five are Albanian.

But Vjollca Sadiku, director of the Vuk Karadzic cultural centre in Bujanovac, said people had only just begun to tackle the problem of women’s rights. “Action in this direction is still limited,” Sadiku said.

Source: www.sramosobriant.com

art

Friday, October 10, 2008

13

Belgrade, a Cultural and Literary History

Some cities live in the past, and like very old people, cannot stop reminiscing about their glory days. Others are at the opposite extreme. Like people who have undergone lobotomies, their actual age is almost irrelevant, because they don’t remember what happened last week, let alone a generation ago.

Review

By Marcus Tanner

B

elgrade belongs among the latter, which is why, though technically ancient, it feels curiously new and lacking in baggage. I used to think this might be down to the communist experience, for communists were good at making ‘tabulae rasa’ of the lands they inherited. But when I came a cross a description of Belgrade from the 1920s, I realised writers then had the same opinion of Belgrade as a city without a memory.

In fact, the contrast between the vanished past and the present must have been stronger and stranger then, for the Belgrade of the 1920s still contained people with living memories of the half-Turkish city of the 1860s, with its mosques, minarets and winding alleys, and its polyglot population of Serbs, Greeks, Jews, Turks and others, all of which had pretty much vanished to make way for the self-consciously modern European city of the early 20th century.

David Norris makes that lack of memory a feature of his “Belgrade, A Cultural and Literary History”, noting that throughout history, “frequent transformations of the cityscape have completely wiped out traces of older architecture,” and that because even the old street plans disappeared, it is not clear even where major landmarks such as the Ottoman caravanserai stood. As Norris writes, “there have been many different Belgrades, following one after another but with little in common. Each population brought its own language, religion and culture to bear on the territory.

Not only has there been a lack of

continuity but the memories of one community have been erased by the next.” Quoting the poet Vasko Popa, he continues: “White bone amongst the clouds... you arise out of your disappearance.”

Too true. Historical tours of Belgrade can be a dispiriting experience as the isolated relics of a forgotten past, like the one remaining mosque, fail to tell much of a story. For all the brave attempts of the city council to breathe new life into Belgrade’s history, christening one patchwork of streets the ‘Bohemian quarter’, for example, the results don’t quite come off. The city remains relentlessly ‘in the present,’ its former Ottoman and before that, Hungarian, character, obliterated.

Fortunately, the modern city contains more than enough history to fill a decent-sized book, and Norris, with his extensive knowledge of city poets, weaves together the two strands of the city’s cultural and political life very effectively. He makes interesting reflections on the condition of the capital after the Second World War, when the victorious Partisans, just ensconced in power, regarded it with ambivalence. Not yet filled with politically reliable peasants from Bosnia and Serbian areas of Croatia, it was still the capital of the ‘Great Serbian bourgeoisie’, as the communists termed it. Norris writes: “The city was not a centre of Partisan activity during the war; it was occupied and then liberated only in the latter stages. It was also a place with many physical reminders of the previous regime. The communist authorities were anxious to present their arrival as year zero and to suppress memory of what existed before them.”

When I arrived in Belgrade in 1987, there were still a few survivors

of that now ghostly pre-war royal era.

Some were public figures, like Desa Trevisan, legendary doyenne of the journalists’ corps, who held court in the restaurant of the international press centre, where she would sometimes reminisce about her childhood days as a playmate in the royal palace with the infant future king, Peter II. My own first landlady belonged to that milieu. The daughter of a pre-war government minister, she lived in a huge, dark, dilapidated flat surrounded by the antiques and silver teapots her parents had collected in Cairo.

Rarely going out, she sat for most of the day smoking furiously, underneath a vast, magnificent portrait of her great-grandmother, captured in the full court dress of Peter I. Norris’s book is weakest on the events leading up to and beyond the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The other former Yugoslav republics simply disappear, no explanation why, leaving Serbia mysteriously alone. He not quite accurately, in my view, presents the city as largely hostile to the Milosevic takeover. There is no mention of Belgraders lining the streets to throw flowers at the tanks heading off for Croatia. When it comes to the Kosovo war of 1999, Norris writes only of the Serbian government’s tactics, that “in the estimation of some foreign governments, their response was disproportionate”. [My italics]. To that extent, David Norris is rather like the city he chronicles so well, capable occasionally, of forgetting some of the more inconvenient episodes.

Belgrade, a Cultural and Literary Historyis published by Signal Books, Oxford. For more information, see: Norris takes us on an enjoyable journey through the city’s past http://www.signalbooks.co.uk

Belgrade Music Festival Celebrates 40 Years Boris Eifman Ballet Don Quixote and Russian Hamlet

BEMUS, Belgrade’s festival of classical music, is celebrating four decades in existence.

Although it may not have achieved the stature of some of its European counterparts such as the George Enescu Festival in Romania or the annual festivals in Salzburg or Budapest, BEMUS has packed houses for four decades and survived some very difficult times during the 1990s.

Since last year, the Festival’s artistic director has been the renowned violinist Stevan Krstic.

Our arts correspondent highlights the pick of this year’s Festival program.

Friday, October 10th and 11th Sava Center, 20:00 The Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg has been hailed by critics the world over as Russia’s most innovative contemporary ballet company and is the only foreign dance company to have earned a residency at the New York City Center.

Unable to tour internationally during its first decade during Soviet times, the Eifman Ballet performed to sold-out houses in Russia. Eifman first performed abroad at the Champs Elysees Theatre in Paris, a performance that immediately turned the troupe into international stars on the ballet scene.

Eifman is unique in that he rejects – or transcends – the conventions of classical ballet and continuously reinvents the art form. Everything from unpredictable lighting, unusual sound effects, and inventive choreography, to imaginative costumes contrives to permeate the mystical world of the subconscious. Eifman has created dozens of ballets for his own and other companies around the world.

screening of the Film “40 Years of BEMUS” Sunday, October 12th Kolarac Hall 11:30 Isidora Zebeljan, “The Marathon” (Premiere) Tuesday, October 14th Yugoslav Drama Theatre, 20:00 Likely to be one of the most popular performances at the festival; Isidora Zebeljan will premiere her new opera The Marathon, based on Dusan Kovacevic’s play The Marathon Family Runs the Lap of Honour. The libretto was written by Borislav Cicovacki, Milica Zebeljan and Isidora Zebeljan. An international cast of vocal soloists accompanied by Isidora Zebeljan, under conductor Premil Petrovic.

Born in Belgrade in 1967, Isidora Zebeljan is one of Serbia’s best known composer of recent years. She has written more than two dozen compositions for various vocal and instrumental arrangements, in genres that range from chamber music, to symphonies and opera. Her work has been performed in leading venues in Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, France and the United States.

Entre’acte: by Jozef Nadj Wednesday, October 15th Atelje 212 20:00 An ethnic Hungarian, Nadj is first and foremost a dancer and choreographer, yet he is also an all-around artist who has dabbled in countless genres, from film to drawing and painting.

His work has been described as dark and Kafkaesque, straddling the borders of theatre, mime, and dance, inspired by the works of many East European authors. From the moment he performed his first piece in 1987, Canard Pekinois, he has been known for the original way in which he mixes theatre and dance.

“Mr. Nadj expresses himself through the body, but he is an intensely theatrical artist with a very distinctive artistic imagination,” Vincent Baudriller, director of the French Avignon Festival, has said of Nadj’s work.

Closing: Stevan Hristic: “The Legend of Ohrid” Film version of the most famous Serbian Ballet Concert, Performance and Movie Friday, October 17th Sava Center, 20:00

The late Stevan Hristic (18851958) was the most popular Yugoslav composer of the first half of the 20th century and was the founder of the Belgrade Philharmonic. He wrote compositions in the Neoromantic style. His ballet The Legend of Ohrid is perhaps the best known Serbian ballet. The concert will be performed by the RTS Symphony Orchestra, the choir conductor will be Iskra Sukarova; the ballet was choreographed by Iskra Sukarova.

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Friday, October 10, 2008

Crunch Time For Serbia Upcoming qualifiers against Lithuania and Austria will be vital for Serbia’s bid to reach the 2010 World Cup Finals.

By Zoran Milosavljevic

E

uropean qualifiers for the World Cup finals in South Africa enter a potentially crucial stage and teams bidding to reach the 32-team tournament in 2010 need to hit top gear before the winter break.

Serbia’s chances are hanging by a threat after last month’s 2-1 defeat by France, meaning that the home match against surprise Group Seven leaders Lithuania on Saturday and the visit to Austria next Wednesday may have a huge impact on their chances.

Coach Radomir Antic knows his honeymoon period with the media is over and he is also aware that collecting maximum points from the two tricky encounters will be no easy task.

“It may be a lot to ask for but I will be disappointed if we don’t win both games,” said striker Marko Pantelic, who will need to carry his club form into the double-header to end an international goal drought. Pantelic has never scored for his country in a com-

petitive match but hopes to break the jinx against the Lithuanians. “They are very good on the break and they showed it in an impressive 3-0 away win over Romania. However, I am very optimistic about our chances because we have a lot of quality,” he said.

The Croatians are very much in the same boat as Serbia, following a 4-1 home drubbing by England and their trip to Ukraine on Saturday has the makings of a winner-takes-all cup tie. A draw would leave both sides chasing the runners-up spot with a rejuvenated England in charge after their impressive display in Zagreb.

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic will have a tough task to lift his side for the clash in Kharkhiv as the team’s top scorer Eduardo da Silva, a Brazilian-born striker who moved to Arsenal from Dinamo Zagreb last season, is still sidelined with an ankle injury.

“Eduardo is our most important player and we will be delighted to have him back around Christmas, when he is expected to make a full recovery,” Bilic said. “We will miss him in Ukraine but we need a good result there and I know the lads will play their hearts out,” he added.

Elsewhere, world champions Italy are away to Bulgaria on Saturday and entertain Montenegro next Wednes-

day. Dejan Savicevic, the Montenegrin FA President who won the European Cup as a player with Red Star Belgrade in 1991 and repeated the feat with AC Milan three years later, is cautious after the coastal republic’s opening home draws with Bulgaria and Ireland but the team’s playmaker, Simon Vukcevic believes they can stun the world champions.

“The Italians are certainly the favourites but we are capable of upsetting anyone on the day,” said Vukcevic. “I have a good feeling about the outcome and we will not play for a draw, even

though recent matches have shown we can concede a lot of goals when we throw caution to the wind,” the Sporting Lisbon playmaker added.

Germany and Russia, who were left wondering what might have been had they beaten their semi-final opponents Austria and Switzerland at EURO 2008, lock horns in Dortmund on Saturday in an eagerly awaited Group Four clash. The Germans showed unfamiliar defensive frailties in a rather unimpressive 3-3 draw with Finland and will certainly need to raise their game against the Russians.

S

uccessive victories in the China Open in Beijing and the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart have enabled Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic to climb back to the top of the women’s WTA rankings as the tennis season draws to a close.

If it is a sign of things to come, the 23-year old from Belgrade can expect an excellent campaign on the world tour in 2009 as she bids to capture her first Grand Slam event when the Australian Open starts in January.

There is more to look forward to this season though as Jankovic and compatriot Ana Ivanovic, who is looking to end her slide down the rankings, have both entered the Kremlin Cup in Moscow currently underway in Moscow.

Ivanovic briefly held the world number one spot after her majestic French Open conquest at Roland Garros in June but paid the price for a poor second half of the season, compounded by a thumb injury

Saturday, October 11: England v Kazakhstan (Sport Klub + 6.15 pm), Ukraine v Croatia (Sport Klub 7 pm), Serbia v Lithuania (RTS 1 8.10 pm), Germany v Russia (FOX Serbia 9.50 pm) Wednesday, October 15: Croatia v Andorra (HRT 2 8.15 pm), Austria v Serbia (RTS 1 8.30 pm). Check the Sport Klub television website (www.sportklub.info) for other games.

To qualify for World Cup Finals Serbia must defeat Austria and Lithuania

Partizan Among European Giants

Jankovic Back At The Summit

By Zoran Milosavljevic

World Cup qualifiers on TV

game to this level and my confidence is high after winning back-to-back tiBy Zoran Milosavljevic tles for the first time in my career,” a delighted Jankovic said after picking erbian soccer champions Partiup a $100,000 cheque. Jankovic will zan Belgrade have been drawn also be able to bolster her collection in arguably the toughest UEFA of cars with a brand new Porsche, the Cup group but the upside of being winner’s complementary prize. pitted with Sevilla, VFB Stuttgart, Sampdoria and Standard Liege is that they will draw capacity crowds for the home games against the Italians and the Belgians.

Buoyed by their recent 2-0 win over city rivals Red Star in Belgrade’s “eternal derby,” Partizan will host Sampdoria and Standard in Group C hoping to reproduce the form that has seen them rocket to the top of the Serbian first division with a maximum 21 points from seven matches.

With the top three progressing from each of the eight groups to join eight Champions League rejects in the UEFA Cup last 32, Partizan face a mammoth task of advancing to the knockout stage of the competition Jankovic: three time winner this season Photo by FoNet which features a dozen or so former winners this season. which ruled her out of the Beijing Olympics. Jankovic, on the other hand, captured her third title of the season after beating U.S. favourite Venus Williams in a semi-final classic in Stuttgart and strolling past Russia’s Nadia Petrova in the final.

“I’ve worked hard to raise my

S

“Lady luck turned its back on us in the draw but we can get past the group stage if we play above our limits,” said Partizan striker Veljko Paunovic, who has plied his trade for several Spanish clubs including one of the country’s heavyweights Atletico Madrid.

Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb were handed an intriguing meeting with struggling Premier League club Tottenham Hotpsur, whose midfielder Luka Modric and defender Vedran Corluka will face their former team mates when the two sides meet in Group D.

NLB Basketball League Starts

By Zoran Milosavljevic

T

he annual NLB basketball league comprising 14 teams from the former Yugoslavia got underway last weekend with defending champions Partizan Belgrade making heavy weather of a 74-67 home win over unfancied Slovenian rivals Krka Novo Mesto.

Trailing 14-28 after the first period, Partizan had to dig deep to come

out on top thanks to a fine performance by point guard Milenko Tepic, who poured in 20 points.

Red Star also came from behind to edge city rivals FMP 84-78 in a thrilling derby thanks to under-21 international Marko Keselj, who led the scorers with 18 points. Andre Owens added 13 points and 6 assists as Red Star turned the game around in the closing stages after falling behind in the opening half.

“There are a lot of new players here and they all have to perform

above their limits to win games until we mould into a force to be reckoned with,” said Red Star’s coach Svetislav Pesic, who a World Championship gold medal with the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 2002.

Croatian champions Zadar beat Split 81-67 in their traditional coastal derby while Cibona Zagreb went down 86-76 at Hemofarm Vrsac, whose power forward Milan Macvan excelled with 18 points and 5 rebounds.

The NLB league got underway last weekend

Photo by FoNet

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Friday, October 10, 2008

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