CorD Magazine No.46

OUR AIM: EU MEMBERSHIP Tanja Miščević Director of the European Integration Office

CONSISTENT INVESTOR Hebert Preclik Commercial Counsellor of the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade

SERBIA’S THREATS WRONG Vojin Dimitrijević Director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights

interviews opinions news comments events www.cordmagazine.com

February 2008 / Issue No. 46 / Price 170 RSD

Into the Unknown

CorD, February 2008

32 POLITICS & DIPLOMACY

FIRST ROUND AS EXPECTED, SECOND UNCERTAIN

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Cvijetin Milivojević, director of the Pragma Agency

AIMING FOR EU MEMBERSHIP

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Interview: Dr. Tanja Miščević, Director of the European Integration Office

NATION UNDECIDED

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CorD’s Vojislava Vignjević covers the presidential elections

RISKY YEAR AHEAD

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This month CorD and The Economist look at what the year has in store for Serbia and the rest of the world.

CONSISTENT INVESTOR

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Interview: Hebert Preclik, Commercial Counsellor of the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade

40 BUSINESS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

OECD AWARDS INVESTORS

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CorD’s Tanja Ostojić looks into the country’s investment climate

A GOOD COMPOUND

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Corporate Women interview: Efstratia Fountoukou, Chief Financial Officer, Vojvođanska banka

Interview: Vojin Dimitrijević, Director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights

MANAGING DIRECTOR Ana Isaković, a.isakovic@cma.co.yu EDITOR IN CHIEF Mark Pullen, m.pullen@cma.co.yu CORPORATE EDITOR Tatjana Ostojić, t.ostojic@cma.co.yu ART DIRECTOR Zlatko Jovanović, z.jovanovic@cma.co.yu EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Ivica Petrović, Vojislava Vignjević, Sonja Ćirić, Žarka Radoja PHOTO Stanislav Milojković, Časlav Vukojičić, Jelena Seferin, CorD Archive, Tanjug TRANSLATORS Dejan Zubac, Milica Kuburović, Momčilo Drakulić EDITORIAL MANAGER Ivana Novaković, i.novakovic@cma.co.yu SUBSCRIPTION & WEB Ivan Lakatoš, i.lakatos@cma.co,yu

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SOCIETY

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Faces & Places – images of the key happenings of the past month

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Lifting the Barriers for Literature – CorD interviews Vladimir Arsenijević

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TANJUG’S TRANSFORMATION

Tales from the Big Plum – Pat Anđelković’s latest insights on the Serbian psyche

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70

CorD investigates changes to the way state-owned media are funded

Ivica’s Edge – An alternative look at trends, fads and phenomena

MEDIA WATCHDOG

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CULTURE

Interview: Sergej Petković Santos Carvalho, Director of ABC Srbija

ELECTIONS TO TEST REFERENDUM & FUTURE

40 Ilija Despotović looks ahead to the Montenegrins presidential elections, scheduled for April 2008 CORD CLUB & B2B

SERBIA’S THREATS WRONG

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46

Business news summary and CorD Club news

SALES MANAGER Marija Urošević, m.urosevic@cma.co.yu GENERAL MANAGER Ivan Novčić, i.novcic@cma.co.yu FINANCIAL DIRECTOR Ana Besedić, a.besedic@cma.co.yu PRINTING Politika AD CorD is published by: alliancemedia Knjeginje Zorke 11b, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia Phone: +(381 11) 308 99 77, 308 99 88 Fascimile: +(381 11) 244 81 27 E-mail: cordeditorial@cma.co.yu www.cordmagazine.com ISSN no: 1451-7833 All rights reserved alliancemedia 2007

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Parallel worlds of China – Žarka Radoja on the “China - Parallel Worlds” exhibition.

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Value of painful memories – a look at Zagreb’s Museum of Broken Relationships

LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

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A Trip to the Three Ks – CorD & TOS invite you to visit Kruševac, Kragujevac & Kraljevo

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Techno Talk – A look at the latest gadgets and style items on the market

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Fashion review – Escada

COMMENT

Cvijetin Milivojević, expert in political communication, director of the Pragma Agency

First Round as Expected, Second Uncertain According to Cvijetin Milivojević, an expert in political communication and director of the Pragma Agency, the results of the first round of the presidential elections were not a surprise, but rather a logical series of events.

“Characteristic of the first round of the presidential elections was the success of DS and SRS, who convinced the voters that Boris Tadić and Tomislav Nikolić are the only solutions, with the system implied being ‘either, or’. One has the impression that they worked for each other by minimising the impact of the other candidates, which was in their mutual interest,” says Milivojević.

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fter the ‘90s – with the marked exception of the year 2000, when 70 per cent of registered voters took part in the elections – 2008 recorded the highest voter turnout to date, which is also another thing specific to these elections. “Tadić and Nikolić ‘swept’ the rest of the competition aside, and I think that scared both of them, because the turnout was ten per cent higher. The undecided voters, whom no one knew or will know who they would vote for, also voted in these elections,” Milivojević emphasizes.

The first round of the presidential elections, according to Milivojević, was marked by two questions – ‘European Union at all costs’ and ‘join the EU, but only with Kosovo’. All other questions – better standards, higher salaries, investments – that is, everything of vital importance, mattered less, thinks CorD’s interlocutor.

As the president of Serbia, Tadić will have the ability between the two rounds to negotiate and make agreements in the name of the state, so there are at least three ways in which it is possible for Tadić to score some points. “The first is the signing of the energy agreement with the Russians, and that is a clear message to the voters – the pro-Russian ones who mostly gravitate towards Nikolić. The second is the possible signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU on 28th January, and the third is the implementation of the Visa Facilitation Agreement.

I think that this would cause a section of undecided or confused voters to turn towards Tadić”.

Milivojević is of the opinion that the good turnout and the orientation of the voters in the first round were also influenced by the story about free shares. A certain number of less informed citizens took it that unless they vote, they won’t get free shares. “For the next round, I think that we have a very clear situation. On one side, we have the very disciplined voters of Nikolić, voters who will go out and vote for him in the second round. On the other side, Tadić has somewhat less disciplined voters. In the first round, Tadic had 200,000 or maybe more voters who otherwise don’t vote, and it is not certain if they’ll show up in the second round. Apart from 6 CorD / February 2008

that, it is an inconvenient situation that Nikolić’s advantage over Tadić is as much as 4.5%. Therefore, apart from the support of the Hungarian Coalition and Istvan Pastor, who gained 2.5% of votes in the first round and has already offered his support to Tadić, he will need support from LDP too. However, in return for this support, LDP will exert great pressure on Tadić to bring down the government that PM Koštunica is in control of after the presidential elections. That is LDP’s biggest request. However, the voting body of LDP is rigid, and if Čeda Jovanović encourages them to vote for Tadić, it will be a question of whether they would answer the call, because it is not to be forgotten that LDP was formed as a faction within DS and has personal animosity towards Tadić, whom they consider as the second Koštunica.

“Besides that, in order to win in the second round Tadić must not only attracts the voters of LDP, but also the diametrically opposed voters who supported Velja Ilić’s Nova Srbija (Vojislav Koštunica’s DSS) and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) – all of whom have opposing views on how we should join the EU. What is that magical sentence that Tadić should say to gain the support of all sides? I think that it almost certainly doesn’t exist.”

According to Milivojević, the other possibility for Tadić to win in the second round is for Velja Ilić and PM Koštunica to publicly call for their voters to support Tadić and not Nikolić.

“However, I think that they’re not party leaders of such a calibre who would be obeyed without question by their sympathisers.

Besides, the national rhetoric of Velja Ilić is much closer to the Radicals than to DS, according to the voters”. Milivojević adds that the support of SPS voters shouldn’t be expected either, because they are more like the Radicals’ voters in terms of their social structure and, there, should be expected to vote for Nikolić.

Milivojević is of the opinion that before the second round, Tadić should deal with the mathematical combinations that will bring him the largest number of votes in the second round and in so doing gain him an unlikely victory over Nikolić.

POLITICS

INTERVIEW: Dr Tanja Miščević, Director of the European Integration Office

OUR AIM:

EU membership “I am not a political researcher, but our public opinion research shows that 70 per cent of the citizens of Serbia are in favour of EU membership. Even the fact that we initialled the SAA had a positive influence on public opinion.”

BY TATJANA OSTOJIĆ; PHOTO: ČASLAV UKOJIČIĆ he potential signing of the Stabilisation and Accession Agreement (SAA) and the effects of this Agreement were the reasons CorD took time between the two rounds of the presidential elections in Serbia to speak to Dr. Tanja Miščević, Director of the European Integration Office.

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In December last year the decision was made to rename the Office for Association with the EU to be renamed as the European Integration Office.

What was the reason for the change of 8 CorD / February 2008

name and have any essential changes taken place in the Office’s work?

No essential changes were made in either the structure or leadership of the Office. We submitted the proposal to the Serbian Government to amend the Decree on the Office. Namely, by initialling the SAA we technically penetrated the phase of our association with the EU, which is the most preferential treatment which a third country can have with regard to the EU without actually being a member. We were thinking about the huge task of submitting the application for candidacy, the candidacy itself and opening the negotiations, which is much more than accession itself. We proposed a completely new

structure within the Serbian Government, which would co-ordinate the process.

The key political body is the European Integration Council, led by the Serbian Prime Minister and comprising all ministers as well as representatives of civil society, non-governmental organisations, universities, labour unions, then representatives of national minority councils, the president of the Serbian Parliament’s European Integration Committee and the President of of the Executive Council of Vojvodina.

The second key body is the office of the Deputy Serbian Prime Minister, who is in charge of European integration. The deputy PM’s role is political, but he is technically responsible for the whole co-ordination and the Office is directly responsible to him. His position in this structure is supplemented by the administrative Coordinating body consisting – in addition to the Deputy PM – of key ministers, such as the Foreign Minister, the Interior Minister, the Minister of Agriculture, the Economy and Regional Development Minister, the Trade Minister and similar. As such, it is those fields which are currently at the centre of our focus.

Subordinated to the co-ordinating body is the expert group, made up of state secretaries within the relevant ministries.

The head of this body is the director of

the Office, and that is the most operative body co-ordinating the whole process of European integration. The structure itself is compatible for the implementation of the SAA, but also for future membership negotiations. Therefore this structure will remain in existence until our admittance to the EU. Can we expect that the SAA to be signed on 28th January?

The decision to sign such an agreement has to be a unanimous decision of all 27 members. This agreement belongs to the European Union’s First Pillar in the field of economic integration, so there has to be unanimity.

So far we have failed to gain any clear indication as to whether that will happen on 28th January. Namely, it will be the 28th in a few days time, and some of the member countries are very clearly insisting on the fulfilment of the only remaining condition, i.e. full co-operation with The Hague Tribunal. Technically, we are absolutely ready to sign.

On 6th December 2007 the Government adopted the proposal of the agreement, which means that all ministries checked the agreement. They participated in negotiations regarding the signing of the SAA, but we had to harmonise the translation.

The Government adopted the proposal for the agreement, both the basic and transitional agreements, authorised the deputy Prime Minister to sign it, and now we have to wait to receive the appraisal and authorisation of the Council of Ministers.

I certainly think that we are not far away the moment when the Agreement will be signed. The key condition which remains, and which was never neglected, is one of the main reasons why Minister Rasim Ljajić is right now, as we speak, in Brussels to present the action team for

The Serbian Government’s priorities

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s regards the process of European integration, the Serbian Government has three key priorities: liberalisation of the visa regime by 2008; the achievement of candidate status for Serbia by the end of 2008, and, of vital importance, implementing the DIS system.

The DIS system is the decentralised managing of funds coming from the EU. In the next five years we have access to EU funds for the development of institutions, regional co-operation and the improvement of capacities up to the level of a billion euros. Our main task, once we get the status of candidate, will be to already have a system in place to properly manage those funds. co-operation with The Hague Tribunal, and all those people included in it. They are there to show that they are absolutely doing their jobs; that there are no political uncertainties regarding the fact that cooperation with the ICTY has to be finalised. To remind you, concluding co-operation is one of the Serbian Government’s five priorities, apart from the Kosovo issue, European Integration, employment and regional development.

The extradition of Slobodan Milošević did not show sufficient readiness on the part of Serbia to co-operate with the ICTY in The Hague?

Let me remind you that the Tribunal itself was not established for one or two men only, but because of everything that happened in the 1990s. The Tribunal was authorised by the UN Security Council to gather information and, on that basis, to make indictments for various acts.

According to their insights, or indictments, Serbia bares responsibility for some more people, and that list was very long until

2005, when the policy of voluntary surrender proved to be very efficient. Good co-operation with the Tribunal was established and resulted in the opening of new negotiations regarding the SAA. However, the Tribunal then concluded that the level of co-operation no longer corresponded to the level achieved at the beginning of 2005, though we were trying to explain that the technical part of job had not reduced, but had rather increased.

We can only expect to complete our cooperation with the Tribunal, and thus see its end, when all of the people from the list of indictees who are considered the responsibility of Serbia find their way to The Hague, or we provide very clear proof that they are really beyond the reach of Serbian authorities.

Political analysts claim that the signing of this Agreement would have a significant influence on the voters’ decision to support Boris Tadić in the second round of the presidential election.

Do you agree?

We can only expect to complete our co-operation with the Tribunal, and thus see its end, when all of the people from the list of indictees who are considered the responsibility of Serbia find their way to The Hague, or we provide very clear proof that they are really beyond the reach of Serbian authorities.

CorD / February 2008 9

POLITICS

Visa-free for the EU

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itizens of the former SFR Yugoslavia did not need visas to travel abroad. Visas were gradually introduced for all countries in this region, which we today call the Western Balkans. These visas were not the Schengen ones – because that system was introduced in 1995 – but individual ones. Visas were not introduced for Croatia, because that country had very strong support from certain EU member countries. In 2006 Serbia started negotiations with the European Union regarding the facilitation of issuing visas.

That agreement, together with the Agreement on Readmission, came into force on 1st January this year. It refers to the faster issuing of long-term visas for most categories, and it is free of charge for professional and vocational trips. However, this was only an interim step. The real task, and our key goal, is to see the revoking of visas for all of our citizens travelling to EU countries.

Mr. Fratini, vice president of the commission for visa issues, announced that fresh negotiations will commence on 30th January. Therefore, we have already received the announcement that on 30th January a delegation led by Jan de Brauer, European director for visas, migration and asylum – who has already held talks with us regarding the liberalisation of the visa regime – will come to Belgrade so we can start those technical talks.

I am not a political researcher, but our research of public opinion shows that 70 per cent of citizens in Serbia are in favour of the EU. Even the fact that we initialled the Agreement had a positive influence on public opinion. I think that this would be good news for all citizens, allowing them to have a much more relaxed approach when they decide who to vote for.

I think that the other important news is the opening of negotiations regarding the visa liberalisation on 30th January – not merely because of the fact that citizens now have to get a visa in order to travel virtually anywhere, but simply as a feeling of belonging to the EU. What does the signing of the SAA mean to Serbia?

The first and basic point is the fact that when Serbia is not a member of the World Trade Organisation, at least being a signatory of the SAA is a guarantee for foreign direct investments that the business conditions in Serbia are the same as in any country of the EU. The second important thing is the liberalisation of trade. Namely, on the basis of the Agreement, custom taxes on goods coming from the EU will be reciprocally removed. That would mean increased competition for our producers, but would al-

We never talk about the year of our entry, but what we do talk about is readiness… our main aim – not only that of the Office but also of the Government and all ministries – is to do most of the jobs by the key year, and that is 2012.We want to do all we can to ensure that we are very close to membership by then.

10 CorD / February 2008

so mean that they would have to be much more efficient and progressive, as well as accepting EU standards. For consumers, that means that they will have greater choice.

The third element is that by signing the Agreement, EU standards become our contractual obligation; the state will gradually introduce those standards into domestic production, the domestic legal system and the economy, which are a very important element of the legal security of every individual in Serbia.

The Agreement is also the first step towards our main goal – membership of the EU – because after that there is only one more act to be signed, and that is the Agreement on Entry to Membership.

If the signing of the Agreement does take place, when can Serbia expect membership of the EU? We never talk about the year of our entry, but what we do talk about is readiness.

This is because the decision of a state’s membership is always a political deci-

sion of the EU member states. However, that political decision is made much more easily if the state fulfils a large number of criteria. Because of that, our main aim – not only that of the Office but also of the Government and all ministries – is to do most of the jobs by the key year, and that is 2012.We want to do all we can to ensure that we are very close to membership by then.

It would be ideal to become a member, but that decision will always be on the EU’s side. We have to be prepared at that moment to withstand market competition, to be able to get involved in the work of all bodies within the EU and, thirdly and most importantly, be ready to get involved in the compilation of the new budget perspective, which will, at that time, be made for the next seven-year period. Moreover, 2012 will be the year of new elections for the European Parliament, followed by the establishment of the new European Commission. As such, it is very important for Serbia to be a part of the EU by then.

POLITICS

Nation Undecided

As was predicted, the citizens of Serbia did not elect the president in the first round of the elections held on 20th January.The decision will be made, the same as in the last elections four years ago, in the second round – to take place on 3rd February. Citizens will choose between two of the nine candidates who ran in those elections; the deputy president of the Serbian Radical Party,Tomislav Nikolić, who won 1,635, 666 votes i.e. 39.9%, and the current Serbian President and leader of the Democratic Party, Boris Tadić, who won 1,443,353 votes, i.e. 35. 4 %.

BY VOJISLAVA VIGNJEVIĆ hough the result of the 1st round of the presidential elections was predictable, the high turn out of 61% of voters, i.e. 4.06 million citizens, was completely unexpected. This was the highest turn out since the parliamentary elections of 2000, and that proves that citizens view these elections, rightly so, as a sort of referendum about the crucial question being asked of the nation: in which direction will Serbia go in the future – towards the European Union, i.e. the modern route (set out as far back as 5th October 2000, when Milosevic was brought down) or in the opposite direction.

It is in the question of future direction that the specificity of these elections lies, because the two candidates personify those two directions: the current President is considered as a pro-European politician and the Radicals’ man is viewed as a former Milošević collaborator who advocates Serbia’s movement to the east, i.e. Russia.

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“We will certainly win in the second round, because in the first round we had a big dispersion of votes. We have never won as many votes as now. We managed to gather around one and a half million people around one European idea, and this time we will gather more than two million”

12 CorD / February 2008

Some analysts think that Nikolić, with a large number of votes, is closer to capitalising on his electoral result this time, particularly because of the unexpectedly high turnout which has decreased the possibility of major turbulence and manipulation with the votes in the second round.

Such a perception of the two competitors was not decisive in the presidential elections in 2004, with the turnout in those elections reaching only 47.75%.

The question, then, is what motivated citizens to vote in such large numbers this time? The majority of analysts think that the election of the president will be even more important than the next parliamentary elections, because it will definitely determine the direction in which Serbia will go, which voters obviously estimated when they decided to head for the polls in force as an expression of their desire for change, i.e. a more precise and clear policy and goal.

Vladimir Goati, analyst of Transparency Serbia, estimates that the importance of the presidential elections had an influence on the high turn out. “It seems that we underestimated the voters, thinking that they would not be able to realise that those elections are crucial and that Serbia is supposed to choose between two systems of values,” says Goati.

Srbobran Branković, from Media Gallup, thinks that the reason for the high turnout was the fact that the elections are taking place at a time of an important process – resolving the status of Kosovo. According to him, the short electoral campaigns probably also had an influence on the turnout, because long campaigns often have a contra effect.

Since public opinion poll agencies failed to predict such a big turn out in the first round, they have become more cautious in estimations for the second one. The majority think that there is a small possibility of the turnout in the second round being much above 61%, considering the constant part of the electoral body who does not vote and who also ‘missed’ the first round this time. That is particularly why it is important which party, whose candidates lost in the first round, will support Tadić and which Nikolić.

It is particularly important whether the ‘populist’ coalition (the Democratic Party of Serbia and New Serbia) will support their coalition partner in the Government, i.e. whether Prime Minister Koštunica will support the current Serbian President. Namely, if the turnout in the second round is the same as in the first one, Tadić will need around

600,000 votes, while Nikolić will need 400,000. Therefore, the key to the electoral mathematics lies in to whom the votes of the ‘populist’ coalition will go. Their candidate, Velimir Ilić, won 298,295 votes, i.e. 7.3 %.

Well informed sources claim that Koštunica is more inclined to support Tadić than Nikolić, but they do not exclude the possibility that this support will be ‘quiet’.

One of the conditions for support, according to this scenario, is already fulfilled – the Government has adopted the decision on the Agreement with Russia regarding the gas, which could not have happened if DS was against it, i.e. if the Ministers from DS in the Government did not support it.

What is left is to establish the rules of the game between the coalition partners for the local and provincial elections, i.e. to reach agreement about the campaign for those elections and the division of the cake at local and provincial level. If the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Serbia agree about those issues they will estimate whether Koštunica’s support for Tadić should be public or ‘quiet’.

According to the second scenario, the ‘electoral trade’ between those two parties will be as follows: DSS will demand that Tadić does not support the sending of the EU mission to Kosovo without the United Nations Security Councils’ new resolution, and in return Tadić will demand a clear position regarding the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU. However, neither of those two possible scenarios was confirmed by the time we wrote this text (23rd January). Neither the Democratic Party of Serbia nor New Serbia, i.e. their leaders Vojislav Koštunica and Velimir Ilić, have made any public comment about the first round of the elections.

If open or quiet support from the ‘populist’ coalition comes to Tadić, then Nikolić

could lose the second round again, as was the case the last time, when he also won the first round of the elections. Some analysts, however, think that Nikolić, with a large number of votes, is closer to capitalising on his electoral result this time, particularly because of the unexpectedly high turnout which has decreased the possibility of major turbulence and manipulation with the votes in the second round.

The chances of Tadić doing what he managed in the second round of the elections in 2004, when he doubled the number of votes between the two rounds and defeated Nikolić at the finish, are this time significantly reduced. The way things stand now, Nikolić could seek new votes only in two places - from Milutin Mrkonjić, the candidate for the Socialist Party of Serbia who won 241, 246 votes or 5.9%, or from Velimir Ilić. Among Ilić’s voters – who in the first round were comprised of New Serbia supporters and supporters of the Democratic Party of Serbia, Sulejman Ugljanin’s SDA and SPO – there is a large number of people who will, in spite of their leader’s call to vote for Tadić, vote for Nikolić.

Analyst Zoran Stoiljković thinks that support from the European Union could bring the advantage to Tadić. Signing the SAA and beginning negotiations regarding the non-visa regime could be Tadić’s trump card for which Nikolić would not have any answer. However, Stoiljković emphasised that the result of these elections will be uncertain until the very end, that the photo-finish will establish the winner and the turnout in the second round will be repeated, because that will be some sort of plebiscite for one or another future of Serbia, said Stoiljković.

Apart from the populist coalition, Tadić could also gain a reservoir of additional votes for the second round from supporters of Čedomir Jovanović’s Liberal Democratic CorD / February 2008 13

POLITICS

Party. Jovanović gained 218,555 votes, or 5.4%, in the first round. Tadić can also count on support from the Hungarian national minority and their leader, Istvan Pastor, who had 92,899 votes, or 2.3%.

Jovanović, however, is not going to give ‘blanc’ support to Tadić. He has stated that he will request talks with Tadić and demand that the Serbian President promise to demand early parliamentary elections if the Government continues to jeopardise Serbia’s European perspective. “I want to talk to Tadić in order to enable the active participation of LDP in the second phase of the campaign, and the subject of discussion will be the unconditional implementation of further European integrations, dropping the policy of conditioning the European future of Serbia with Kosovo and the continuation of co-operation with The Hague Tribunal”. Jovanović said that he will not call for a boycott, but will also not call on his voters to support Tadić if these talks do not take place, because “LDP is aware that the consequences of Nikolić’s victory would be dramatic”.

Tadić can also count on part of the electoral body who voted for the Socialist Mrkonjić, considering that this candidate emphasised the European direction for Serbia as prima-

ry in his campaign. However, this party has stated that SPS is yet to decide whether it will support anybody.

If we add up the votes of Tadić, Ilić and Jovanović, we come to the number of over two million voters which served as the basis for Tadić’s optimistic announcement for the second round campaign that the number of his voters will come close to that figure, which he counts are made up of pro-European and pro-democratic forces – the same voters who ensured victory back in 2000.

Tadić’s aim on 3rd February is to gather more than two million people around the idea of “Serbia in the European Union”.

Tadić said that all parties and citizens will be deciding between two clear directions – European and non-European. “Everybody will be able to decide these days between two concepts – for Europe and against Europe. There is no third way,” said Tadić, adding that his aim is to unite the interests of all democratic forces, but before anything else the interests of the citizens of Serbia.

“You will see. We will certainly win in the second round, because in the first round we had a big dispersion of votes. We have never won as many votes as now. We managed to gather around one and a half million people around one European idea, and

this time we will gather more than two million, that is our goal”, said Tadić.

When we analyse the total results of the first round of the presidential elections, we can notice several things. Firstly, the ‘populist’ coalition achieved worse results than in the last presidential elections, but their capacity and room for manoeuvre for influencing the governing coalition and the wider electoral body is exceptionally high, while the Socialists and Jovanović’s Liberals also improved their results from the last elections.

It is interesting to note that Jovanović’s party was third in Serbia’s big cities, straight after the Democrats and the Radicals.

That was the case in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Subotica and Niš. On the other side, Tadić had more votes in Novi Sad, even though the Radicals are in power in that town, and, vice versa, in Belgrade Nikolić had more votes in spite of the Democrats running the city administration.

According to Minister without portfolio Dragan Ðilas, who is president of the Democratic Party’s Local Committee in Belgrade, the difference in those two cities is minimal. Ðilas emphasised that what was important was that citizens saw these election as the referendum between two policies

Political Stability Dictates Investments “The economic consequences of Tomislav Nikolić being elected president might not be visible in the first few months, but they would directly affect the number of direct foreign investments, which are in decline in Serbia anyway.”

BY TATJANA OSTOJIĆ ragomir Jankovic, Executive Director of the European Economic Institute in Brussels, belives that the political consequences of the second round of the presidential elections in Serbia, in the case of Tomislav Nikolić’s victory, would not be too important for the citizens of Serbia, but the economic consequences of such a decision by the citizens would be far-reaching.

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14 CorD / February 2008

Dragomir Janković, Executive Director of the European Economic Institute

– the policy of stability, European integration and a better life, and on the other side an anti-European policy, negation and constant criticising of everything that was done for citizens’ well-being.

“I think that the fact that the Democrats are in power in Belgrade and the Radicals in Novi Sad did not have much to do with the results, since the issues which dominate in these elections are much more important than the political parties themselves.

In Belgrade, Tadić had only 0.9% fewer votes then Nikolić. If it was the other way round, would that be a reason for celebration? According to that logic, we could say that if Čedomir Jovanović decided not to run in those elections, because he did not have any realistic chances of success, Boris Tadić would have gained more votes in the first round than Tomislav Nikolić,” said Ðilas.

Responding to the election results, the EU’s High Foreign Policy and Security Representative, Javier Solana, said that he hopes voters in Serbia will choose to come closer to the European Union. He stated that Serbia is a country which Brussels would like to see coming closer to the EU, and that he believes that the majority of citizens want the same.

“It seems that we underestimated the voters, thinking that they would not be able to realise that those elections are crucial and that Serbia is supposed to choose between two systems of values,” “We strongly hope that there is the mood to come closer to the EU. We have very good relations with Serbia and we would love Serbia to come closer to the EU,” said Solana, adding that he cannot say at this stage whether the Foreign Ministers will sign the SAA with Serbia on 28th January.

Kristina Nadj, spokeswoman for EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, stated that the European Commission is familiar with the results from the first round of the presidential elections in Serbia and that they are pleased with the number of voters: “We welcome the high turn out, which shows that the citizens of Serbia carry out their democratic rights,” said Nadj.

Germany believes that Serbia belongs in the European family, and that this is the

Nikolić lacks the trust of the EU

J

anković doesn’t believe that anyone in Europe would dispute the election of Tomislav Nikolić for president. “For the EU, it’s important that the elections are democratic. However, no one can force EU officials to talk to the man who represents certain views which are unacceptable for them. The distrust of that democratic world is deep and great, and that one sentence from Nikolić, saying that he’s ready to co-operate with Europe if Serbian territorial sovereignty is recognised, is not enough”.

“Capital reacts in a much more sensitive way than politics. As soon as there is a degree of instability, or a political structure that is leading a market in an unstable period, major investors tend to pull out. I think that Nikolić’s election would also affect the process of privatisation, regardless of the fact that from a political point of view it is of little importance who the president is. Namely, for the economy this means a change of certain courses and some economic instability, even giving a chance to the radicals in some possible parliamentary elections. In such conditions, why would any of foreign investor risk their capital, because risking money is one thing, while risking a political career is another?”

According to Janković, the economic consequences of such a choice might not be visible in the first few months, but would directly affect the level of foreign direct investments. “Serbia is currently the country with the smallest number of direct foreign investments in the region. For example, Croatia has three or four times more direct investments than Serbia,” says Janković, adding that electing Nikolić president would affect the privatisation process and thereby increase the unemployment rate. “I’m not talking

choice now awaiting citizens. “We believe that the future of Serbia is in the EU. We will support Serbia on that path. The choice as to whether they want to follow that path is now left to the citizens of Serbia,” said Martin Jeger, spokesman for the German Foreign Affairs Ministry.

It remains to be seen what the results will be on 3rd February, the grand finale of this electoral race, but it is certain that the result of those elections will fix the seal on the results of the local and provincial elections scheduled for 11th May.

about investment funds here, because they acquire money, most often, in a risky way, so they like risky businesses. I’m rather referring to serious foreign companies, Greenfield Investments which offer the very valuable commodity of ‘clean, new’ employment”.

One of the short-term consequences would be some disturbances on the stock exchange, because the stock market is always the most sensitive to changes of this kind. At the same time, Janković thinks, there would be certain restrictions on loan businesses for banks and other financial institutions in Serbia.

“The long-term consequences would be the complete absence of large foreign companies from the public sector privatization process. All other interested companies planning to invest in Serbia can find a different location of interest, such as Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, or Bulgaria and Romania. As soon as you’re a member of the EU, you are stable.

The EU has no destabilising factors in its system, so these countries would be a very good region for investing, and that would mean a permanent loss of these investments for Serbia. That is the strategic consequence of electing Nikolić president. I even believe deeply that Serbia would not sustain much damage in a political sense, but economically it would really have both shortterm and mid-term consequences, and some of them would even be felt by our children,” Jankovic insists.

The companies that are already doing business in Serbia, according to Janković, would wait for the development of the situation. “Those companies that are already present would stay where they are, but they would try to protect their capital, and they would certainly not make additional investments until the political situation is more stable, i.e. clearer. Any kind of economic repression or political instability reduces the chances of companies accomplishing their goals,” says Janković.

CorD / February 2008 15

SERBIA & THE WORLD IN 2008

Risky Year AHEAD This month CorD and The Economist look at what the year has in store for Serbia and the rest of the world.

BY CORD & THE ECONOMIST his year the world will be marked by two major events: the U.S. presidential elections and the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. However, 2008 will by no means be a quiet year for Serbia, with the country looking forward to its own presidential elections (currently underway), local elections, the possible signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU, the almost certain unilateral declaration of independence by the breakaway province of Kosovo and the

T

staging of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Two political uncertainties cloud the European picture in 2008: the future of Serbia’s province of Kosovo and relations with a resurgent Russia that is supporting Serbia’s stance on Kosovo while using oil and gas supplies to pick European allies.

This year sees the energy security con-

tinue to be a central concern for the EU, as it is for the U.S., China and India, too. In Europe, energy issues are simultaneously driving the effort to reduce fossil fuel consumption and invest in renewable energy, and to find alternative suppliers to Russia.

The temptation is for each member state to forge its own bilateral deal, though this will surely serve only to undermine EU solidarity.

On the domestic economic scene in Serbia, the outlook is surprisingly bright, despite potential pitfalls posed by elections, the Kosovo issue and relations with the West.

According to Serbian Finance Minister, Mirko Cvetković, Serbia’s 2008 budget envisages state revenues of RSD639.6billion, expenditure of RSD654.4billion and a deficit of RSD14.8billion.

Cvetkovic expects revenues and expenditure for 2008 to be nominally higher by 9.9% than 2007’s, and that the projected

Diary for 2008 JANUARY Slovenia assumes the presidency of the European Union, while Cyprus and Malta both join the EU’s euro zone.

The 1st round of Serbia’s presidential election is held, while the U.S.’s presidential hopefuls take their chances with the voters in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Movers and shakers from politics, business and the media meet at the World 16 CorD / February 2008

Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Smoking is banned in France’s bars and restaurants, adding to the restrictions already in place in offices and public buildings.

Africa starts its Cup of Nations football tournament in Ghana, depriving European clubs of many of their top players.

U.S. President George W. Bush delivers his final stateof-the-union address.

FEBRUARY Chinese around the world begin the Year of the Rat: supposedly clever, charming and quick-witted.

The 2nd round of Serbia’s presidential election is held, with diametrically opposed run-off candidates Tomislav Nikolić (Radicals) and Boris Tadić (Democrats) vying for

the post of Serbia’s head of state.

Brazilians and foreigners alike dance to hedonistic excess at the Rio de Janeiro carnival.

For the 80th time, Hollywood hands out the Oscars to the film world’s finest – one day after the Golden Raspberries for the film world’s direst offerings.

On the 5th, Super Tuesday sees a score of U.S. states hold primaries that could ultimate decide which candidates get their parties’ presidential nominees.

MARCH The Iditarod dog-sled race, in which moochers drive their huskies across more than 1,000 miles of snow-covered Alaskan wilderness takes place.

Russians elect a president to succeed term-limited Vladimir Putin.

Zimbabwe holds its presidential election. The country’s last, in 2002, led to charges of fraud and intimidation.

The fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq is marked.

Western Christianity celebrates Easter on the 23rd, the earliest date since 1913.

APRIL Environmentalists celebrate Earth Day, to encourage energy efficiency and deplore ecological waste.

International Children’s Book Day will be celebrated on the 23rd, despite no more Harry Potter books being published.

deficit will go up by around 8.5%.

The basic parameters of the Serbian government’s macroeconomic policy for 2008 will be an inflation rate of six per cent, GDP growth of six per cent, and reduction of the foreign trade deficit from 20.2% to 18.9% of GDP. Cvetković warns that this year will see the government lead a restrictive policy regarding salaries, with salaries in the public sector only increasing in line with inflation.

The greatest expenditure of Serbia’s 2008 budget will be the portion set aside for the budgeting of local self-governments and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, as well as for the Pension and Disability Fund.

The government’s essential aims in 2008 will be the preservation of macroeconomic stability, dynamic economic growth, increased employment rate and better standard of citizens, as well as acceleration of the stabilisation and association process with the EU, explained the Minister.

Around RSD46.6billion has been earmarked for the National Investment Plan for this year, for which RSD 34.6 billion will be set aside from the budget and RSD 12 billion will be provided through loans.

The QE2, destined to become a floating hotel in Dubai, completes its final round-theworld cruise.

MAY Workers around the world celebrate May Day. Crucial local elections are held in Serbia on the 11th.

Showbiz folks gather for the Cannes film festival.

Serbia hosts the kitsch extravaganza that is the Eurovision Song Contest at

TWIN TRACK Looking at global economic fortunes in the year ahead, Robin Bew, editorial director of the Economist Intelligence Unit, writes: the past few years rivalled the champagne days of the late 1980s. Equity prices surged. Interest rates were low, borrowing was easy. For many, it was a time for splashing out on a second home. The lucky few were buying a second Picasso. But the party modd ended abruptly in mid-2007.

Suddenly, the economic future looks a lot less bubbly.

For years America has been the engine of the global economy. Many a job elsewhere is reliant – directly of indirectly – on American consumers’ willingness to spend with abandon. But the double whammy of an ailing housing market and tighter credit means the odds of recession have risen.

Since a slump in America would spell trouble for the global economy, this is something the world needs to worry about.

Yet an American recession is not inevitable. Indeed, the most likely scenario is that America pulls through. If so, 2008 looks set to be a reasonable year for the world economy as a whole. Lay-offs will go up a bit, but most people will keep their jobs. Pay will still rise, if more slowly. Business will

the Belgrade Arena.

Israel throws a party to mark its 60 th anniversary, while Palestinians mourn the nakba (catastrophe).

London’s mayoral elections are held, with incumbent Labour Party Mayor Ken Livingston pitted against the Tories’ eccentric candidate Boris Johnson.

JUNE

Mirko Cvetković: Serbia’s 2008 budget envisages state revenues of RSD639.6bln, expenditure of RSD654.4bln and a deficit of RSD14.8bln. Revenues and expenditure for 2008 are expected to be nominally higher by 9.9% than 2007’s, while the deficit will go up by around 8.5%.

which sees free live music in the open air provided for the whole nation.

America celebrates Gay & Lesbian Pride Month.

UEFA’s Euro 2008 football tournament takes place in Austria and Swtizerland.

The hurricane season officially begins in the North Atlantic, threatening the Caribbean region in particular.

rants.

France takes over the EU presidency from Slovenia.

Japan hosts the G8 summit in Toyako, Hokkaido.

Cycling’s Tour de France – three weeks of drama and drug-testing, starts in Brittany.

AUGUST

JULY

Roger Federer sets out to win the final of the only grand-slam tournament to have eluded him to date – the French Open.

France delights in the famous Fête de la Musique,

Serbia’s EXIT Festival, officially the greatest music festival in Europe, takes place at Novi Sad’s Petrovaradin Fortress.

All but the most minimal amounts of trans fats are banned in New York restau-

China plays host to the Beijing Olympics.

After an exhausting primary season, the Democratic Party gathers in Denver to anoint its presidential candidate and lambaste the Republicans.

Scholars, journalists, geeks and other fans of Wikipedia meet in Taipei for Wikimania 2008.

CorD / February 2008 17

SERBIA & THE WORLD IN 2008

keep investing, especially in the emerging world.

But the sun will not be shining on everyone. The wine bars of Mayfair and Connecticut – and other haunts of brokers and buy-out merchants – will be a little quieter. Homeowners in many countries face difficult times. Those who borrowed heavily in the belief that house prices would move ever upwards will discover that the laws of gravity, as well as economics, apply to property markets. Home builders, too, can expect a tough year.

House prices in America began to slip in some metropolitan areas in 2006, and that downwards pressure went nationwide in 2007. As low-income borrowers defaulted on their debts, the supreme crisis rocked the global financial system.

In 2008 these housing-related problems are set to worsen. Many low-income borrowers took out loans in 2005 at “teaser rates” which started to move to a more normal level in 2007. More defaults will follow in 2008, prompting a further round of home sales. The construction industry will take another hit. And consumers, seeing the value of their homes decline, will spend less. Bruised financial institutions will push up lending rates – meaning even

Knock-on effect

A

merica’s Federal Reserve will be anxious to prevent economic rout, and lower interest rates will mean that, though housing, construction and finance will look sickly, other sectors will keep growing... Europe and Japan will feel America’s woes. The euro and yen will rise as the dollar sinks, hurting exports. Banks will be stingier with credit.

But if America avoids an outright recession, both Europe and Japan should be able to keep their economies growing at a decent, if slower, rate. good borrowers will pay more, and businesses invest less. But America’s Federal Reserve will be anxious to prevent economic rout, and lower interest rates will mean that, though housing, construction and finance will look sickly, other sectors will keep growing.

Europe and Japan will feel America’s woes. The euro and yen will rise as the dollar sinks, hurting exports. Banks will be stingier with credit. But if America avoids an outright recession, both Europe and Japan should be able to keep their

economies growing at a decent, if slower, rate.

Meanwhile, emerging markets will be buzzing. If the U.S. Federal Reserve succeeds in keeping the American economy afloat, the chances of their being hurt by financial turbulence are low. Indeed, many emerging economies are now suppliers of capital to the rest of the world, not borrowers. China is a case in point: far from experiencing a credit crunch, it has more liquidity than it knows what to do with. Exports will slow modestly, as America’s appetite for foreign goods wanes. But domestic spending, on investment but also on consumer goods, will continue to soar. India and Russia will also remain hot, thanks respectively to a strong service sector and high oil prices, while most other emerging markets will do well.

The risks are high – higher than for many years. The global economy could take a pummelling. But it seems more likely that this year will sharpen the shift in world growth. Developing economies will surge ahead, expanding by about 7.6%, leaving the rich countries’ 1.8% growth looking distinctly sluggish. After America’s decade, 2008 will be the year of the emerging markets. RB.

Diary for 2008 Guča, the world’s biggest trumpet festival, takes place in Serbia.

OCTOBER

SEPTEMBER The Republican Party holds its pre-election convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul to anoint its candidate to suc-

ceed President Bush – and to lambaste the Democrats.

Some 4,000 disabled athletes from around the world meet in Beijing for the Paralympics.

The UN General Assembly meets in New York.

Hong Kong elects a new 60-seat Legislative Council – half by direct popular vote and half indirectly.

18 CorD / February 2008

Azerbaijan holds a presidential election, while Belarus holds its parliamentary elections.

Lithuanian voters choose a new, four-year parliament.

The Rugby League World Cup, featuring ten national teams of the toughest and best code of rugby, gets underway in Australia.

The International Salon of Taste opens in Turin, organised by Italy’s Slow Food Movement – a group founded in 1986 to protest against the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna.

The French-speaking

world, boasting 200 million people in some 68 countries, celebrates la Francophonie in Quebec.

NOVEMBER America chooses a new president. Voters also elect 435 members of the House of Representatives and a third of the 100-seat Senate, while several states also elect governors.

The world’s tobacco industry meets in Macau for World Tobacco Asia 2008 – recognition that while the West persecutes smokers, China – with 350 million smokers already – remains a growth market for the industry.

Wal-Mart opens its first supermarket in India, in a

joint venture with Bharti Enterprises.

DECEMBER Signatories to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (in force since 1997) meet in The Hague:188 countries have signed the convention, and 182 have ratified it.

Leaded fuel for cars and lorries, already eliminated from developed countries, is due to disappear worldwide, following a programme begun in 2006 to phase out leaded petrol in less developed countries.

End-of-year deadline, after four years, for European Union nations to recover or incinerate 60% by weight of their packaging waste.

DIPLOMACY

Interview: Herbert Preclik, Commercial Counsellor of the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade

Consistent

investor

Austria has been one of the most consistent investors in Serbia since the 5th October 2000 changes set the country on the road to reform and integration. Overseeing this extremely active period of Austrian investment has been Herbert Preclik, Commercial Counsellor of the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade, who is now entering his eighth year in the Serbian capital. This month Preclik talks to CorD about Austrian business activities in Serbia to date, and the prospects for their future activity.

BY TANJA OSTOJIĆ & MARK R. PULLEN reaking down Austrian investment activities in Serbia to date, Preclik begins by telling CorD: “Besides the service sector – with banks, insurance companies, law firms, head-hunters, consultants and so on – Austria also has a considerable number of production companies operating in Serbia. After just a few years of investments, we have now reached the level where 17,000 Serbian citizens are employed by Austrian companies here, and so far Austrian companies have invested a total of over €1.8billion here.

“The latest big investment was made by the company Moeller, which makes electrical switchboards. Their investment initiative started two years ago in Sremska Mitrovica, and now they have opened a new factory and have 550 employees. As you know Sremska Mitrovica has relatively high levels of unemployment, which makes this investment even more important to the local economy. Another example is the world´s biggest brick producer Wienerberger, which bought the brickplant Bačka Nova in Mali Iđoš and plans to invest €12million.”

B

It’s difficult to compile an accurate list of the origins of all investments because, for instance, some companies here are coming from Germany, but we find the capital is coming from Austria.

20 CorD / February 2008

How do you define your lists?

I agree that it can be confusing when the capital appears untraceable, but we do it like this: all companies that have their head offices registered in Austria are considered as Austrian investments. Of course, Porsche Salzburg is the daughter company of Porsche Germany, but the activities for Southeast Europe are co-ordinated from Porsche Salzburg and, as such, Porsche investments in this region are considered Austrian. Take Henkel as another example.

It could be said that Henkel is a German company, but Henkel CEE, headquartered in Vienna, controls the company’s activities in Southeast European. UniCredit Bank is undoubtedly an Italian bank, but their activities for Southeast Europe are still held at Bank Austria Creditanstalt in Vienna. Nowadays company make-up is all like this, but virtually all of these multinationals have offices in Vienna.

So, how many Austrian companies are operating here?

As far as we know, 280 Austrian

companies are registered as having operations here in Serbia.

Do you still consider Austria as being the number one investment country in Serbia?

Yes, according to our calculations, we are. However, we count more companies than the Serbian authorities do, as they only include Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). For instance, once an Austrian company forms a domestic subsidiary, like OMV Serbia d.o.o. or Mueller d.o.o., then the Serbian authorities cease to class it as an Austrian investment because it is now a domestic company. We, on the other hand, continue to class it as Austrian if the capital used to increase their capacities continues to come from Austria.

What do you think Serbia needs to do in order to become even more interesting to Austrian or other companies?

First of all, we can be thankful that Austrian companies have not paid too much attention to the test of political sta-

EMPLOYMENT

REFORM PATH

FDI OPTIONS

After just a few years of investments, we have reached the level where 17,000 Serbian citizens are employed

by Austrian companies

All international players coming here are continuing to insist that major economic reforms are imminent and must be tackled.

If you wanted to invest €100million in real estate in neighbouring Romania, you would find many more options than in Serbia.

After just a few years of speculative investments, we have now reached the level where 17,000 Serbian citizens are employed by Austrian companies here, and so far Austrian companies have invested a total of over €1.8billion here. bility when choosing to invest in Serbia.

Last year was a tough one for Serbia politically – it took a long time to form the government after elections and since then all efforts have been concentrated on the Kosovo issue, which has blocked a lot of political reforms… That said, we can be happy that Serbia achieved good economic growth of over six per cent again, and Governor Jelašić, of the country’s central

bank, has managed to keep inflation below 10 per cent.

Do you feel that the investment climate has continued to improve in the last few years?

As I mentioned, the inactivity of the government on the reform front is disheartening. All major international players who are coming here, be they political players

from Brussels or business leaders, are continuing to insist that major economic reforms are imminent and must be tackled.

I wouldn’t say that the situation has worsened – over the last year we’ve managed to bring some leading Austrian companies; this year we’ll see the entrance on the market of home-based construction company OBI and retailer InterSpar. These companies, which are coming on our initiCorD / February 2008 21

A problem needing to be remedied is local administrative fees in municipalities, which are terribly high. Excess fees on land can be as high as €700 per square-metre, which is too much. If these charges were lowered then we could bring more companies here to tackle, for instance, the lack of sufficient hotels or office buildings.

ative, operate in sectors that we do not consider as being fully covered yet in Serbia.

When we look at individual sectors, we determine what is already flooded and where there is further room. For instance, we could not bring another bank or insurance company to this market, because there is no room. But some sectors are totally empty – such as the D.I.Y. and retail sectors.

The economy works in a circular way.

First come banks, leasing houses, insurers, law firms; then there are trading companies, infrastructure & environment firms, then companies in sections I’ve mentioned like retail and home-based DIY. Lots of companies are here, but many more aren’t coming.

And why do you think they aren’t coming?

Certain local companies have a very strong monopoly in some sectors, but I still think there’s enough potential volume for everybody.

I would like to note that all the Austrian companies that are operating here are doing very, very well. For instance, ATB Sever Subotica [a member of business system ATB Austria] has made an annual turnover of some €60million and is working to full capacity. Mueller, which I mentioned before, just increased activities enormously. Last year, Austrian company Frauenthal, manufacturer of shock absorbers and leaf springs for cars and trains, bought Gibnjara Kraljevo, and another of our companies, which makes parts for Caterpillars, has also invested in that area, near Kragujevac.

I’m very happy that we are now covering this large consumer-goods sector where we were not so strong previously.

Do you co-operate well with the Serbian Government and local chambers of commerce and industry?

Yes. In the time that I’ve been here, and this is the now my eighth year, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know most of the important players very well. The current privatisation minister, Mr. Cvetković, for example, was previously the deputy privatisation minister, and then was working with a consultancy dealing with many Austrian companies – so I know him well.

Another is the current minister for agricul22 CorD / February 2008

ture, Mr. Milosavljević, a qualified economist with whom we worked very well while he was president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Parivodić was also very effective in his work in areas where we are working to improve the investment climate, and there are many more individuals. Over all, I can say that our relations with the authorities have been friction-free and very good, and satisfactory.

Could you tell us about any other Austrian companies planning to invest in 2008?

In terms of privatisation, A-Tec is interested in purchasing the mining company RTB Bor, OMV is still interested in the oil sector – with the latest information suggesting that after elections we may see a fresh public tender for NIS Petrol. Another company is Boxmark. They are one of the top makers of leather seats and seat parts for vehicles and are looking to set up a company to start producing car seats in the Vojvodina area.

Other than that we have no concrete plans for now, but we are here to support any Austrian company seeking to invest here.

Many current and potential investors are concerned about the timeconsuming bureaucracy in Serbia, the many permits required, etc. How much of a problem is this factor in your opinion?

This is still a problem. The companies that are here are now finally able to work with this level of bureaucracy, but when you bring a new investor here you again see how difficult the administrative framework remains. It is better and faster than it was, but it is still a problem in some areas. For instance, obtaining a construction licence still requires many permits, and we recommend that any Austrian company seeking to construct here first has a

local partner that knows how to manage with the procedures.

Another problem needing to be remedied is local administrative fees in municipalities, which are terribly high. Excess fees on land can be as high as €700 per squaremetre, which is too much. If these charges were lowered then we could bring more companies here to tackle, for instance, the lack of sufficient hotels or office buildings.

Currently, though, it’s too expensive and there’s not enough on the market. If you wanted to invest €100million in real estate in neighbouring Romania, you would find many more options than in Serbia.

Is the leisure area one where you see potential?

In the next year I’d like to work a lot in the hotel business area. Now they’re opening the Holiday Inn in New Belgrade, but we are still nowhere near the potential capacity of the city in terms of short-stay beds.

How would you assess the political situation in the country?

I don’t want to make any political statement, because of the presidential elections, but I hope the political situation that has been slowing down Serbia’s progress for over a year will soon be solved, allowing Serbia to concentrate on urgent economic reforms that will allow the country to return to its rightful place in Europe, where the country has always belonged.

If you’d have told me back in 1995 that Bulgaria and Romania would become EU countries before Serbia, I wouldn’t have taken you seriously.

What advantages, if any, does Serbia have over Bulgaria and Romania nowadays?

The main advantage was always that Serbia had the dual system. While they were trapped and poor behind the iron curtain with only state-owned companies, here you had companies owned by the workers and you were able to travel freely. At that time your incomes were much higher than those of neighbouring countries – it is certainly a factor that many people here now have lower wages than they had in 1990.

But I am convinced that Serbia can again surpass its neighbours with the right leadership.

I don’t want to make any political statement, because of the presidential elections, but I hope the political situation that has been blocking Serbia’s progress for over a year will soon be solved, allowing Serbia to concentrate on urgent economic reforms that will allow the country to return to its rightful place in Europe, where the country has always belonged.

INVESTMENTS

OECD AWARDS TOP INVESTORS In the reckoning: Investors in Serbia...

“There are several reasons to invest in Serbia.The major ones are the potential of the Serbian market, then accessibility to the Southeast Europe markets, customs-free exports to Russia, which is truly not used enough, then privileged exports to EU countries and also customs-free exports for most products to the United States of America” – so says advisor for research and marketing in SIEPA, Dragan Pejčić, speaking to CorD. According to him, other key investment benefits include competitive corporate taxes, skilled workforce, various tax and financial incentives, as well as Serbia’s strategic geographic location.

By TATJANA OSTOJIĆ t the OECD ministerial conference – to take place in Belgrade this year – the annual awards for the top investors in Southeast Europe will be bestowed upon a lucky few. The Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA) has, the same as in the last three years, nominated companies which have invested in Serbia for the OECD annual award.

“Awards are granted in four categories. The first is the award for the biggest Greenfield investment in Southeast Europe, which considers the total size of the investment, then the biggest investment according to the number of staff and the biggest privatisation/acquisition/ concession in Southeast Europe. Since last year there has also been an award for the most innovative domestic investor,” says SIEPA’s Dragan Pejčić.

SIEPA’s former candidates for the biggest Greenfield investment for 2003, 2004 and 2005 all received awards. The first year that was Ball Packaging, then Metro Cash and Carry and Airport City Belgrade. “Last year’s awards were sup-

A

Dragan Pejčić: SIEPA research and marketing advisor

INVESTORS’ WORD In the supplement to the Greenfield Investment in Serbia Study, the representatives of Rolan Haidner, the Vip Mobile management board member, Nenad Ðurđević, Ball Packaging’s director of marketing and sales, and the corporate manager of Raif24 CorD / February 2008

feisenbanka, Roland Wass, emphasised that FDI facilitates the integration of Serbia to the international market, its accession into rapidly progressing globalisation trends, and also creates a whole chain of production connections with local entre-

preneurs. In that way, the growth of one part of the economy (direct effects) reflects on the production and employment growth of many other companies – producers (indirect effects), which significantly speed up the total economic growth in the country.

posed to be given at the OECD ministry conference in Belgrade but, since there were delays in the establishment of the Government, we agreed that the Conference would take place this year, and the awards will be given out for both years: 2006 and 2007.”

The awards will be given on the first day of the ministerial conference. The former Yugoslav states, except Slovenia, will be present, as will Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Albania.

“Those awards are great recognition for companies; they show that they really invested significant funds. At the same time, they are also significant for the Agency too, because those awards are later the argument for advertising Serbia as a ‘desirable’ investment location and we use those awards in our marketing material,” says Pejčić.

According to Pejčić, a great deal of research regarding what is lacking in order for Serbia to become even more attractive for foreign investments has been carried out. One such study is done regularly by the World Bank. According to that research, which considers ten parameters, after the implementation of business reforms in 2005 Serbia was in 95th place, but it had reached 68th position by 2006 – mostly thanks to the legislature which sped up the export/import procedures.

“Last year we were in 86th place, but the only reason for that was that the Serbian Parliament did not introduce fresh reform regulations. Then the research was done by OECD in nine countries and eight parameters were considered. In this research the level of corruption was highlighted as one of the biggest problems, and the quality of labour as the second.” Pejčić elaborates: “Namely, we need further educational reforms in order for local labour supply to better respond to the new business structure.”

The third research study is done by the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) and published annually in the form of The White Book. The FIC’s main objection refers to the field of land regulations. Namely, the Constitution predicts the private ownership of construction land, but legal acts do not regulate that at the moment. At the same time, Serbia is lacking a package of laws governing denationalisation and restitution, as well as a new or amended law on construction and planning. At the same time, a clear and defined division of competences between the local and other bodies of power is required.

In December last year the Centre for Liberal-Democratic Studies presented the first results of the Greenfield Investments in Serbia Study, carried out in co-operation with the Vip Mobile company, the biggest Greenfield investment in Serbia in 2007, Ball Packaging and Raiffeisenbanka, also big Greenfield investments on this market. This study initially investigates the influence of Greenfield investments – the mechanisms, the direct and indirect effects which occur following the arrival of foreign investors. The study also researches the preconditions necessary to speed up the inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI), as well as the factors which present serious obstacles to their arrival.

The first phase of the research into the effects of Greenfield investments in Serbia showed that, in spite of very dynamic trends and high expectations regarding the future growth of FDI in Europe and worldwide, each country wanting to increase the presence of Greenfield investors must work hard to achieve it.

The authors of the research, Danica Popović PhD. and Boris Begović PhD., think that the host country gains much more than it loses through the arrival of foreign investors, while the alternative mechanisms for rapid development – self investment with self saving or the taking of loans from international financial institutions – are almost impossible due to the lack of domestic savings or because of high debts which limit any eventual crediting lines to facilitate rapid development.

The authors of this study also note that the state – as the only one able to take out such loans – has shown itself to be a bad investor, thus they think that it would be better if the state were to withdraw from production activities and start to deal exclusively with the shaping of a good business climate. On the other side, for-

WHY INVEST IN SERBIA “There are several reasons to invest in Serbia. The first is the potential of the Serbian market, then accessibility to the Southeast Europe markets, customs-free exports to Russia, which is truly not used enough, then privileged exports to EU countries and also customs-free exports for certain products to the United States of America. The tax system in Serbia is also relatively satisfactory if we consider the tax on profit, wages and added value.

“In comparison with Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, manpower is 50% cheaper. It is true that it is more expensive than in Bulgaria and Romania, but there are big tax exemptions, even compensations through packages which are given to investors, as well as SIEPA support of between €2,000 and €10,000 for each employee.

“In general, Serbia is perceived as being cheap for investing in certain branches, such as textiles, the footwear industry, work intensive branches. Regardless of that, the majority of investments have come through privatisation and the take over of cement factories, breweries, telecommunications and the tobacco industry. The improvement of the quality of the infrastructure, transport, telecommunications, manpower quality, as well as simplifying administrative procedures, are some of the preconditions for the arrival of a greater number of investors. Of course, we should add to this the promotion of Serbia as an investment destination,” emphasises SIEPA’s Dragan Pejčić.

DEKOR CENTAR BABIĆ

FINAL PHASE CONSTRUCTION WORKS DANILA BOJOVIĆA 19a BEOGRAD tel/fax: 011 39 71 547 e-mail: dekorcentar@beotel.net

INVESTMENTS

Participants of the Greenfield Investments in Serbia Study, organised by the Centre for Liberal Democratic Studies in conjunction with several major investors

eign investors are expected to modernise current production and increase domestic productivity and competition on the domestic and foreign market.

The study states that FDI in countries in transition represents the skeleton of the economic development strategy, but also showcases international practices which show how FDI can have a negative influence on the domestic economy when allowed to squeeze out domestic investments, increase the balance of payments deficit, increase pollution, exhaust domestic resources and fail to provide appropriate business or health protection for workers.

The second phase of this research will encompass the analysis of Greenfield investments in Serbia, and those factors which proved to be efficient in the country’s case.

Aleksandar Sperl, president of Vip Mobile Serbia’s management board, thinks that the liberalisation of the market and the harmonisation of legal regulations – not only in the country, but also in line

with its harmonisation with European Union practices and standards – are of great importance for Serbia.

“It is up to us to give our opinion and to support that process. We hope that many things will be implemented in the forthcoming years, because open market surroundings are better for both beneficiaries and investors who are subsequently encouraged to invest. Vip paid €320million for its licence and we plan to invest a further €250million. Since this is not a small investment, but rather one of the biggest Greenfield investments in Serbia, we need to know whether we will be able to invest as we planned and whether we can justify our investments. It is precisely because of that that we have to be sure that the local environment is friendly, that the market is open, that it is predictable. All this is important if we talk about investments of these magnitudes. Therefore, I think that this market is moving in a good direction, but a great deal more has to be done in order to get it to where everybody says it should be,” says Sperl.

Top investors Company

Country

Industry

Investment Type

Investment Value (EUR mn)

Telenor

Norway

Telecommunications

Privatisation

1,602

Philip Morris

USA

Tobacco

Privatisation

611

Mobilkom

Austria

Telecommunications

Greenfield

570

Banca Intesa

Italy

Banking

Acquisition

508

Stada

Germany

Pharmaceuticals

Acquisition

475

InBev

Belgium

Beverages

Acquisition

462

NBG

Greece

Banking

Privatisation

425

Fondiaria SAI

Italy

Insurance

Privatisation

264

Mercator

Slovenia

Retailing

Greenfield

240

Lukoil

Russia

Energy

Privatisation

210

Source: SIEPA Legal disclaimer Given the lack of official data, the figures in the table are based on SIEPA research, comprising both completed and planned investment, where available. While SIEPA is making every effort to provide as comprehensive and accurate information as possible, we cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions therein.

26 CorD / February 2008

INTERVIEW

Prof.Vojin Dimitrijević, director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights

SERBIA’s

threats wrong

Belgrade’ Centre for Human Rights was established in 1995 with the aim of spreading knowledge of human rights and changing their image as something subversive – and not only during Milošević’s time.The intention was to improve the understanding of human rights, particularly among those in the legal profession: because anyone studying law in Serbia more than 15 years ago did not learn a single lesson on human rights.

BY VOJISLAVA VIGNJEVIĆ “Human Rights was introduced to legal studies in the country only after 1990, and only then as an optional subject. This perhaps explains why Serbian judges who graduated prior to 1994 have little understanding of the issues which should permeate all subjects in legal studies,” says Professor Vojin Dimitrijević, Director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and Serbia’s most eminent expert in international, speaking to CorD this month.

According to Dimitrijević, the original intention of the centre was to establish an institute for human rights. However, the communist legislator was wise and set the condition that no institution could be called an institute if it did not have five doctors of science, which requires a great deal of money. That rule remained in effect during Milošević’s time, and so the centre was established as a non-governmental organisation with all the risks which that implies, and has remained so because the law on NGOs was not passed after 5th October either.

Explaining the specific position in which the centre now finds itself, Dimitrijević notes that governmental organisations here are subject to attacks, particularly those which deal with democracy and human rights, in contrast to organisations like Dveri, Novokanon, Stroj, which nobody touches and which are not even registered.

“We were prepared for that risk,” says Dimitrijević, “and the difference between the time when we were established and the present is that at this time they tolerate us 28 CorD / February 2008

more and there is no chicanery like we experienced before – when it was usual for six inspectors, under the auspices of financial inspections, to come; five of them being policemen who even found it suspicious that we had books in foreign languages.

However, it is not always easy today either: we had graffiti on our walls a few days ago accusing us of being Bush’s servants.”

Highlighting the centre’s activities, Dimitrijević notes that they have published over 70 translations of professional literature, particularly books from the domain of European Court for Human Rights practices, which was not accessible to local judges before the centre was established.

By going through the Centre, many

young people have been educated about human rights issues and many of them today work as judges, state officials or in other positions carrying the kind of perception which is an inseparable part of a modern state and modern society.

Kosovo has been the number one issue in our political and social life for a long time. How do you explain that?

Kosovo has an internal political aspect which is very emotional and in some way mythical for our society. By saying that this is irrational, I might have convinced somebody in the intellectual discussion. However, it is political reality. Here it is very easy to provoke strong emotions re-

garding Kosovo. Why does one event from the 14th century live on here as a subject, when similar ones in other countries are not so significant and not the subject of everyday discussion? That was stirred up as far back as the era of Romanticism, in the 19th century, and now theatre troupes are performing plays about Kosovo and no actor wants to play Murat. We can bitterly laugh at that, but it is a fact. Of course, this is the ideal chance for every political adventurer to clamber to power on the issue of Kosovo.

Milošević did that and many others want to do that now. Kosovo is an infallible subject which works all the time and which simply cannot be repulsed with rational reasons.

Public opinion polls which show that our ordinary citizens are more affected by issues of unemployment, the standard of living and corruption than Kosovo are right, but as soon as Kosovo is mentioned that is in fact the way to gain legitimacy and it is a fact that is being misused. This explains the fact that the current political elite, instead of clearly saying that Kosovo was lost during Milošević’s era and that SPS and the Radicals lost it, has allowed the Socialists and the Radicals to present themselves as the defenders of Kosovo and those who saved Kosovo.

Those who removed SPS & the Radicals from power in 2000 all originate from DOS and have nothing to do with the loss of Kosovo at all, though think that they will sign something now. There is no signing to be done now. Kosovo was handed over, by Resolution 1244, to the administration of the United Nations.

Resolution 1244 was the resolution of the Security Council which is an extremely powerful body. That which was once said about the British Parliament – that it could do anything but transform a man into a woman – could now be said about the Security Council. There is no judicial control over its work; nobody can press charges against the Security Council, i.e. its decisions, so the simplest solution would be for the Security Council to adopt some other resolution instead of Resolution 1244.

However, Russia declared a veto?

Passing the new resolution is not likely to happen, because Russia has the privileged position of being permanent member of the Security Council and can therefore veto any decisions without any explanation. If we look at that extremely cynically, we see that this is a unique position which Russia has and which has no need for support by military or economic force. On the other side, if we consider Russia’s global interests, the same as every major power, we see that in other issues Russia is in a different position. For instance, regarding Georgia, Russia supports separatist move-

ments and is not so consistent. Of course, Russia does not allow Chechnya to separate, that is clear, but in other issues Russia is on the side of separatist movements.

Therefore, if Russia’s actions were based on principle, their support would be brought under suspicion. However, if Russia has such an ideal position that in return for some Security Council decision they have to gain some big ransom, then everything comes down to the point of what the U.S. will give them to agree with Kosovo’s independence, thus a deal between them is possible.

Our side insists on the strict implementation of international law in the case of Kosovo.

Our insistence on our rights does not depend only on us. Secondly, our interpretation of international law is somewhat archaic: it originates from the time when territorial integrity was all-powerful.

However, after the Second World War, the UN Charter has as many guarantees for territorial integrity as guarantees for the selfdetermination of nations. Therefore, you have the situation which is in law called antinomy, two laws which are opposed to

KOSOVO HARMONISATION HAMPERED FROM WITHIN If you listened to Boris Tadić’s very intelligent speech at the last UN Security Council session, you would have heard that the notion of Kosovo as a harmonised multiethnic society did not succeed mostly because of the Albanians. And that stain, a big burden on their arguments, is 17th March 2004, when it was shown that only a slight relaxation results in pogrom, destruction, the cruellest excesses against minorities, especially against the Serbian minority.

CorD / February 2008 29

INTERVIEW

Here it is very easy to provoke strong emotions regarding Kosovo.Why does one event from the 14th century live on here as a subject, when similar ones in other countries are not so significant and not the subject of every-day discussion? That was stirred up as far back as the era of Romanticism, in the 19th century, and now theatre troupes are performing plays about Kosovo and no actor wants to play Murat. one another. And in the case of antinomy, the one who is politically stronger, who has greater support, wins. The one who is consistent wins. In that sense we were inconsistent, if you count Milošević’s regime, because Milošević insisted on the possibility of moving borders, on self-determination for Serbs in Croatia, so the Serbs in Croatia could separate.

All this shows that our position is difficult, the same as in some other cases, the same as in front of the International Court of Justice. It is difficult to say, we now have a different Government, thus different international law. International law is the same for all countries and you will have to pay off dictators’ burdens, you will not be able to say – we do not have that anymore.

If you listened to Boris Tadić’s very intelligent speech at the last UN Security Council session, you would have heard that the notion of Kosovo as a harmonised multiethnic society did not succeed mostly because of the Albanians. And that stain, a big burden on their arguments, is 17th March 2004, when it was shown that only a slight relaxation results in pogrom, destruction, the cruellest excesses against minorities, especially against the Serbian minority. Therefore, Kosovo has become a conglomerate of issues where you have to convince the international community that this is such a conflict for which we have to find solutions which are acceptable to everybody and to postpone the solutions for some time.

Threats from our side to the international community, such as Koštunica’s ultimatum to the EU (either the Stabilisation and Association Agreement or the mission to Kosovo) are frequent.

That reminds me so much of Milošević, of those statements – we will not bend.., but is also a reminder of the constant inventing of reasons not to sign the Agreement, i.e.

Koštunica’s opposition to joining the EU. Those interests coincide with some powerful economic interests of our new tycoons who do not want a regime in which it will be much more difficult to acquire easy money.

This threatening not to join the EU is 30 CorD / February 2008

wrong in Serbian politics, as is coming closer to Russia – threatening to cause harm when in fact we’re only damaging our own cause. That is completely wrong.

However, nobody in the European Union wants permanent chaos; nobody wants Serbia to become a hole in Europe surrounded by EU countries.

If you look at the debates regarding the Southern Stream gas pipeline, where does this pipeline come from? From Bulgaria – an EU member state. Therefore, there is no way we can get that gas through ways which go around the EU. That is not explained to our public and then, of course, on the pail of emotions appears something that has always existed in Serbia, some fear of the West, some abhorrence of the West.

How do you see the Government’s refusal of the EU sending its mission to Kosovo?

Whether we will interpret the UN administration in the way that everything the UN does the Security Council has to do, which is the Government’s view, or if the administration has already been handed to the UN, the UN Secretary General can decide who to give what, which is the opinion of some EU members.

However, because one part of our Government seeks any excuse not to sign the Agreement with the EU, that argumentation is – when we negotiated regarding the Agreement, the voices which mentioned the recognition of independence for Kosovo were rare, while now those voices are stronger. Such an argument is not very strong.

Our arguments about sending the mission are formal and reduced to who will make the decision on sending the mission, i.e. reduced to the respect for procedures, and the Russians are helping us in that. The basic arguments are, however, on the other side.

However, the question remains as to

whether the Russian veto is such a serious reality or just formal. Because of that they are tempted to remove the whole issue from the Security Council, which will at the same time deprive the Russians of such a favourable position within the Security Council.

Is the Russian support for the Serbs more because of Russian global interests or Serbian interests?

Counting on eternal love from Russia, and not seeing that this love is conditioned by its interests, is really stupid. Russia is a great power. But an older man like me, who has a longer memory of the times of the Soviet Union and an enormous love towards the USSR and a slightly better insight into history, cannot fall into any pro-Russian passion.

Just take that meeting with Putin in Sofia, which was planned to take place on the day of the celebration of the San-Stefan Peace, when in 1878 Russia crippled Serbia in its wish to create a strong Bulgaria. If it weren’t for the Berlin Congress, when European powers, again because of their own interests, gave more to us, we would still be waiting for Pirot to be a part of Serbia.

There are also people who remember mixed Yugoslavian-Soviet companies, which were under the full control of the Soviet Union and forced the Informbureau Yugoslavia to struggle to get out of that subordinated position. Or take the example of this fascination regarding the gas arrangement, this running to give the Russians some advantages in order to get some promise which is hanging in the air in return, that is not good for us and at the end of the story the route will go in the direction which the Russians and Italians agree.

That former love towards Russia was explained by socialism, and the current one is explained by our being Slavs and Orthodox.

BULLETIN . . . BULLETIN . . . BULLETIN . . . BULLETIN . . . BULLETIN . . . BULLETIN . . . BULLETIN . . . BULLETIN . . . BULLETIN . . . BULLETIN . . . BULLETIN . . .

NGOS OPPOSE ANTI-WESTERN POLICIES

NATO INCREASES TROOP STRENGTH IN KOSOVO

L

N

ate January saw a group of NGOs begin protesting against the change in Serbia’s foreign policy, manifested by the recent formation of antiWestern political sentiment. The European Project and a group of 17 NGOs sent an open letter to President Boris Tadić, Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, Parliamentary Speaker Oliver Dulić and all parliamentary parties. President of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, Sonja Liht, who signed the letter, said that the change in relations with the EU was unnecessary and brought Serbia’s European future into question.The foreign political course agreed on by the ruling coalition would also be brought into doubt, Liht said, adding: “whether we move towards Europe or not is a key question, this is definitely a referendum-like question, 70 per cent of citizens stated that they wanted Serbia to move towards Europe and see Serbia in the EU.” “Some actions these days are going against the wishes of the citizens, and in some way are bringing Serbia’s entire European prospects into question. So we’re wondering– and I believe many people in this country are wondering – what is left for us?” the letter asks. Without serious support, co-operation and further European integration, Serbia would very quickly enter a financial crisis and begin to have serious difficulties in paying off foreign debt, the letter states.

Source: B92

LAVROV: KOSOVO RECOGNITION COSTLY peaking at a press conference in Moscow in late January, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, insisted that recognition of Kosovo’s unilateral independence would set a precedent for some 200 territories. He stressed that the Russian leadership never made statements that, in the event of the recognition of the independence of Kosovo, it would recognise Abhazia and South Ossetia. According to Lavrov, a precedent would not be created because Russia “wants or does not want that,” rather, such development would be objectively created for various disputed regions around the world. “A precedent is objectively created not just for South Ossetia and Abhazia, but also for an estimated 200 territories around the world. If someone is allowed to do something, many others will expect similar treatment,” Lavrov said. Asked what Russia would do if Kosovo became independent, Lavrov said it was a “defeatist position.” He added that everything should be done to resolve the status of Kosovo within the framework of international law and on the basis of OSCE principles of inviolability of borders, accompanied by a mutual agreement of the interested sides.

“Everything else is illegal and we cannot accept that,” Lavrov explained. The Russian MFA said that Russia “understood very well the destabilising effect of all separatist processes” and that it was in its interest to preserve stability, not to allow separatism and the violation of international law.

Source: B92 / Tanjug

S

ato has started deploying extra troops in Kosovo as the province’s ethnic Albanian leaders move to declare independence from Serbia.

The Italian battalion of 560 soldiers had “started its deployment” for a mission that would run for a month until early March, a spokesman for the Nato-led KFOR peacekeeping force, Bertrand Bonneau, told reporters. Leaders of Kosovo’s 90 per cent Albanian population are expected to unilaterally declare independence in the coming weeks after negotiations between Belgrade and Priština on the province’s future status failed.Such a move is likely to be backed by the U.S. and a number of European countries, but faces strong opposition from Serbia and its ally Russia. Some observers believe the additional troops were sent in because of fears of violence. Bonneau said the mission was made up of regulars who would “operate and train in Kosovo as part of routine operations” but it also served to “demonstrate Nato’s ability to reinforce in-theatre Nato forces at very short notice”. Separately, Kosovo’s police force confirmed yesterday that it has prepared a special plan for the day when Kosovo is expected to declare independence. “The code name of the operation plan is ‘Status’,” said police spokesman Veton Elshani. “The main goal of the plan is protection of life and property of the citizens as well as of public order and peace,” he added, refusing to disclose further details.Kosovo newspapers said the plan envisages an increased police presence at Serb-populated enclaves.“This plan has been prepared by the police and it is not military. KFOR surely has its own plans,” they quoted senior police official Reshat Maliqi as saying.Kosovo has been under UN administration since 1999 after a Nato bombing campaign forced Belgrade-backed forces to end a crackdown on Albanians.

Nato has some 17,000 soldiers in the province.

Source: AFP

CorD / February 2008 31

CORPORATE WOMEN

Efstratia Fountoukou, Chief Financial Officer,Vojvođanska banka

A good compound of knowledge and experience “If I had to single out some characteristic, I could say that people here are generally adoptive and open to new ideas.”

BY TATJANA OSTOJIĆ; PHOTO: KATARINA LAZUKIĆ fter almost one year of living and working in Novi Sad, the Chief Financial Officer of Vojvođanska banka, Efstratia Fountoukou, has nothing but words of praise for Serbia, Novi Sad and her colleagues in Vojvođanska Banka and NBG Belgrade.

As the National Bank of Greece has transferred the knowledge of the group whilst respecting the experience of Vojvođanska Banka, so Efstratia Fountoukou has gained the support and trust of her colleagues in Novi Sad.

A

Today, when you think back to your arrival in Serbia, what was your first impression?

I came to Serbia a year ago. The first thing which impressed me was Novi Sad itself , a very charming city. Its center, with the historical buildings and the cathedral represents the welcome to everybody who comes here.

You come from Athens, don’t you?

Yes, I come from Athens. Athens and Novi Sad have certain cultural links, as far as I know, and also what is very interesting is that the first thing people from here told me was that Novi Sad is known as the Serbian Athens.

In a business sense, how did Serbia seem a year ago?

Serbia is currently in a phase of development and constant changes, and this is apparent in many aspects of the business operations as well. In such phase of 32 CorD / February 2008

My personal experience is that people here are generally adoptive and open to new ideas; they are not xenophobic nor negative in communication, which is probably conditioned by the fact that the region incorporates many cultures. an economy it is always difficult to isolate specific differences, but it is meaningful to consider the overall trends, which in this case are encouraging.

Did you have the chance to work in other countries apart from Greece before coming to Serbia?

I’ve worked in many projects most-

ly in South-eastern Europe, (Romania, Turkey and other countries, mostly in the Balkans). One could say that there are lots of similarities, but also lots of differences, between business operations in those countries. In the markets where we are active, the Group is oriented in operating on the basis of accumulated experience from those countries, in order to support qualitative development. I think that it is great to be open to different cultures. We have positive results with all our partners having people with good will and open to cooperation, and when business is based on an exchange of ideas and experiences. We think that this is the way to integrate our activities and bring mutual benefits.

We learn a great deal every day, and at the same time we are trying hard to globally transfer know-how and develop through synthesis. In my opinion, the effect of globalisation is a matter of approach. The most fruitful approach is to adopt the key standards of an organisation, but you also operate with respect to the differences of each country. I think that the best results are achieved through our positive interaction.

Are there any differences between the employees in Serbia and the other countries you have worked in?

My idea is that there are no standards ruling the behaviour of Serbs, Greeks, Turks etc. My personal experience is that people here are generally adoptive and open to new ideas; they are neither xenophobic nor negative in their communication, which is probably conditioned by the fact that the region incorporates many cultures. To be honest, I did not notice any kind of discrimination and that is excellent.

Was the National Bank of Greece your first job?

Before NBG I worked for a long period in an international audit and consulting company, where I became familiar with various aspects of business. That was a valuable experience, which also helped me later in approaching and operating within different people and environments.

I saw my current professional path in NBG as a challenging next step.

One year after your arrival, what has changed in Serbia in the sense of the investment climate and what else should be done in order for the country to become more attractive to foreign investors?

In my opinion it is obvious that Serbia is underway on establishing greater stability and growth and I think there are conditions for further development. Thus

Vojvođanska banka’s Novi Sad headquarters

foreign investors’ interest is increasing, as the statistics prove.

How is it to be a business woman operating in Serbia, and how does it compare to Greece?

I think that being a woman is not, and should not be, a burden. I have never encountered discrimination in that sense, neither here nor in Greece. It is a fact that men and women are just different in some aspects. We may differ in the way we communicate, we differ biologically, but what is important is that we are treated as equal when it comes to respect in the business environment in particular. This is something that you CorD / Januar 2008 33

CORPORATE WOMEN

normally gain through your attitude and performance as well.

On the other side, the market is exceptionally demanding. The challenges are numerous, but I strongly believe that there is always a need to find the right way to communicate with other people. The challenges I have faced have mostly been constructive.

Have the other female employees in the Bank complained about anything?

The fact is that in addition to their career, a lot of women are also mothers and wives. Because of that a woman may need to expend greater effort to balance and fulfil her tasks at work on one side, and at home on the other.

However, that is not the case only in Serbia, but for business women in general.

What I have heard from other colleagues were not complaints, but these simple facts. The Group is trying to support women in both aspects, private and professional. The family itself cannot be treated as a burden.. The whole concept is that the work is based on team spirit and through this approach we can ensure that our people, men and women, are adequately supported.

In previous Corporate Women interviews we have had business women who either married Serbs or came here together with their husbands to live in Serbia. At this moment, does it seem to you that it would be possible to stay in Serbia permanently and could your heart’s chosen one be a Serb?

I think that Serbia is a beautiful country. I can see no reason why I could not stay to live and work here.

Which places in the area have you managed to visit in the past year and what did you like the most?

Honestly, because of the volume of work, I did not manage to see a lot so far. I’ve only managed to see parts of Belgrade and to get to know Novi Sad. I would like to visit the whole country, to get to know it better. However, I went to the Guča and Exit Festival. I think that, regardless of divided opinions regarding Guča in Serbia, this was an interesting experience. Exit, on the other hand, is also an important social and cultural event, which takes place at a site, Petrovaradinska Fortress, that should be visited regardless of the Festival. I’ve also noticed that people here are inclined to the arts, they like painting, music and literature. Apart from that there are lots of musical bands who really put their hearts into their music. That kind of dedication is sometimes impressive.

34 CorD / February 2008

In my opinion it is obvious that Serbia is underway on establishing greater stability and growth and I think there are conditions for further development.

Does Novi Sad offer any fun opportunities for a business woman of your age?

That depends on the personal taste.

In comparison with Athens, which is very loud, Novi Sad is a pleasant change for me. What I like in Novi Sad are the small venues,, places where you can have a nice time with your friends. That is the kind of evening out which I enjoy with my friends and colleagues. Also Belgrade is only one hour’s drive away, offering an easy alternative.

Do you miss anything from home?

People cannot be replaced: my fam-

ily and best friends. But even though nobody can replace them, the friends I’ve made in Serbia somehow complement for them.

I also miss the sea and the sea view, which always relaxed me.

How would you sum up your Serbian experience so far?

As a conclusion I would like to thank the people here. It is very nice when you feel welcome in a country. This mostly refers to my colleagues, but also to other people I communicate with. Such help and support is essential in my opinion in order to succeed in a demanding task.

MEDIA

TANJUG’s

transformation No sooner had the new year started than the hunt for profit proved divisive for Assistant Minister of Culture responsible for media affairs, Dragan Janjić, and the top management of state news agency Tanjug, and private domestic news agencies Beta and Fonet.

BY ŽARKA RADOJA mong the tasks awaiting the state’s completion by year’s end 2008 is the transformation of four public media companies: Radio Jugoslavija, Filmske Novosti, Jugoslovenski Pregled and state news agency Tanjug. The completion of these transformations should mark the finalisation of the privatisation of Serbia’s media scene. However, mediabased conflicts that have arisen with the start of the year lead one to conclude that these transformations – particularly that of Tanjug – will not be completed without major fall-out.

The catalyst for the quarrel came in the form of an interview given to agency Beta by assistant minister Janjić – who, coincidentally, is a former co-owner of Beta – in which the reduction of the state’s budget allocation for Tanjug was discussed.

Subsequently, Tanjug’s director, Luka Miceta, publicly accused Janjić of being in a conflict of interests (due to his former co-ownership of Beta) and of seeking to destroy Tanjug in order to directly advantage Beta. Following Janjić’s denial, the two largest private news agencies in Serbia – Beta and Fonet – sent a joint letter to the Government, demanding fair market competition for all in the field.

In the text entitled Tanjug Should be Transformed, Janjić explained how the transformation of the oldest news agency in Serbia would be completed. According to the assistant minister, RSD132million has been earmarked from the state budget to finance Tanjug. However, he added that the Serbian Parliament’s Culture and Information Committee has concluded that Tanjug should remain a public company, but must be transformed to adapt to market conditions.

“That would mean that Tanjug stays

A

36 CorD / Febuary 2008

an agency owned by the state, but that it would only receive funds from the budget for news relating to the activities of state agencies. For everything else, it will have to fight on the market,” Janjić tells CorD. Responding to this news in a public letter to Culture Minister Vojislav Brajović, Tanjug general director, Luka Miceta, attacked Janjić by accusing him of being in a conflict of interests due to the fact that, prior to taking his posting as Assistant Minister of Culture for Media Affairs, he worked as editor-in-chief of Beta and owned a founder’s share of 12.5%.

In the letter to Brajović, the enraged Miceta writes: “because of the budget reduction in 2008, 33 per cent of employees in Tanjug won’t receive their full salary in January. This move has disabled the development of the state agency. You are to blame for that, as well as that vermin Janjić. We will complain to the Speaker of the Parliament, the President and Prime Minister of Serbia”. Continuing by noting that the founder of Tanjug is the Serbian Parliament and that only it can make decisions on the transformation of Tanjug, Miceta noted: “As it is known, the Parliament didn’t discuss that. Janjić, therefore, first wants to destroy Tanjug by draconian budget cuts, and then to transform us,” concludes Miceta.

In a statement to popular daily Politika, Miceta explained that Tanjug had sought

RSD218.5million from the state last year, but had only received RSD196.2million.

“For 2008, Dragan Janjić has reduced that amount further and, according to his order, we are supposed to get RSD132 million, which is about 33per cent less than last year.

We have many projects. We are the first in the history of Serbian journalism to have started a Webcast. It’s TV over the internet, which requires new specialised personnel and new people, because no one’s done this before. We also have the International Press Centre in Banja Luka, which is connected to the Belgrade Press Centre by special links, as well as other projects, and yet our resources have been reduced by a third.

The reduction of resources has not been explained in any way.

“Janjić represents the interests of Beta and, since they can’t dispute our professionalism – because we are the most sourced agency in Serbia – he has decided, along with a certain interest group in the Government, and we know who that is and we’ll go public with it when it becomes necessary, to financially destroy Tanjug and make it impossible for us to work, while securing a better position for Beta,” Miceta accuses.

In the official denial from assistant minister Janjić which followed, he explained in short that he did not have a conflict of interest and denied the accusations that the Ministry and he himself were harming the

Joint Beta / Fonet statement: “After 2000, the state wrote off Tanjug’s debts from the ‘90s, and afterwards provided resources for the social plan. In 2008, besides the RSD11million a month provided for regular business operations, they are again announcing resources for a social plan in the amount of RSD30 to 40million. So, just the resources for Tanjug’s daily operations during this year should be RSD132 million, plus 40 million for the social plan, plus privileged access to the market. Even so, according to statements of the officials of that agency, even all that won’t be enough.”

Assistant Minister of Culture responsible for media affairs, Dragan Janjić work of this agency.

“Before I took the job in the Ministry, I irrevocably transferred my share [of Beta] to the other owners of the agency. I could have frozen my status, but I didn’t do that,” Janjić said, adding: “in the middle of last year, the Culture and Information Committee of the Serbian Parliament discussed the transformation of public companies inherited from the State Union of Serbia & Montenegro and concluded that Tanjug should remain a public company, but that it must transform and adapt to a market economy.

“According to the state budget for 2008, RSD1million a month is earmarked for Tanjug and RSD40million for the company’s social programme for 70 employees who will leave the agency. Their leaving will save several million that would be available for wages, so Tanjug will have almost the same amount of money as last year. Tanjug requested RSD32million per month and did not react to requests to adapt to budget plans. Their only response was that their Administrative Board accepted the financial plan made by the management of Tanjug,” added Janjić.

As well as providing clarity, Janjić’s statement also provided fuel for further arguments. A joint statement issued by private agencies Beta and Fonet insists: “The Government of Serbia is compromising the principle of media equality by financing the

operation of the agency Tanjug from the budget, while not defining the services that are provided for that money nor publicly posting an offer for those services, in which case other media could compete for it too.”

According to the two agencies, the way that Tanjug is financed from the state budget and subscriptions is a legacy of the singleparty system which, as they say, survives only thanks to the absence of a willingness to finalise the reform of the media, over which influence can be exerted in an unstable political situation through taxpayers’ money.

“After 2000, the state wrote off Tanjug’s debts from the ‘90s, and afterwards provided resources for the social plan. In 2008, besides the RSD11million a month provided for regular business operations, they are again announcing resources for a social plan in the amount of RSD30 to 40million. So, just the resources for Tanjug’s daily operations during this year should be RSD132 million, plus 40 million for the social plan, plus privileged access to the market. Even so, according to statements of the officials of that agency, even all that won’t be enough.”

The joint statement continues: “The budget resources meant for the operation of the state agency are greater than the resources that both agencies, Beta and Fonet, are realising on the market – after 14 years of quality public operating to fulfil their role of informing the public”.

According to the senior management of Beta and Fonet, there is no economic or political justification for the existence of a state owned agency and such a practice contradicts the transformation from a command economy into a market economy, and from a party state into a parliamentary democracy.

The story about the transformation of Tanjug has only just begun. How and in what direction it will develop remains to be seen.

The other three state media scheduled for privatisation – Filmske Novosti, Jugoslovenski Pregled and Radio Jugoslavija – will also go through a transformation, according to the words of assistant minister Janjić.

“The archive of Filmske Novosti is precious, which is why that company will be transferred into the protection sector.

The part that won’t be looked after by the state will go on the market. Jugoslovenski Pregled earns as much as the state gives it.

Its transformation is yet to be discussed, but there is an idea to make an Internet Portal of Serbia in which Radio Jugoslavija would be included,” explains Janjić.

According to media experts, in order to transform these media, the Public Information Law and the Law on Radio Television need to be changed. We’ll see what happens of all this by the end of 2008.

CorD / Febuary 2008 37

MEDIA

Interview: Sergej Petković Santos Carvalho, Director of ABC Srbija

MEDIA Watchdog

“AnABC Certificate demonstrates a media owner’s integrity, through their willingness to be audited and to conform to industry standards. It is through the application and monitoring of these standards that ABC acts as an industry watchdog” – so says ABC Srbija’s director.

BY CORD; PHOTO: ČASLAV VUKOJIČIĆ ince its inception in november 2006, ABC Srbija has endeavoured to fulfil its mission of becoming the print media watchdog in Serbia and Montenegro.

This month we speak to Sergej Petković

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38 CorD / February 2008

Today, in the former Yugoslav republics and now independent states, only Serbia has self-regulated organisation - ABC Serbia.

Santos Carvalho, Director of ABC Srbija, about the organisation’s progress in terms of re-educating both media houses and advertiser companies about the notion of media auditing and associated transparency.

What is the mission and ultimate goal of ABC Srbija, and how much progress has been made since its inception?

The main aim of every ABC organisation is to verify and report facts about the circulations of publications and related data. ABC Srbija is an industry watchdog, providing valuable information for media buyers and media owners. It offers both accurate and comparable data, for use in buying decisions, and provides an effective sales tool for attracting advertising.

An ABC Certificate also demonstrates a media owner’s integrity, through their willingness to be audited and to conform to industry standards. It is through the application and monitoring of these standards that ABC acts as an industry watchdog.

The integrity of ABC data is what makes it so valuable to media buyers.

There are formal Audit Rules for all the markets served by ABC, as well as bylaws governing the ways in which media owners may use and quote ABC data, to ensure buyers are not misled.

At this stage, ABC Srbija has 33 members, among them are publishers of the largest newspapers and magazines. In this year we are starting with web audit and event audit. In the last year we audited 31

Members of the ABC Srbija Board

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ranislav Novčić (ABC Srbija), President of the Board - Robert Čoban (Color Press) President of the Publishers’ Committee; vice-president of the Board - Milka Forcan (Delta Holding), President of the Advertisers’ Committee; vice-president of the Board - Ivan Stanković (Communis), President of the Agencies’ Committee, vice-president of the Board - Ana Isaković (CMA), President of the Associated Members’ Committee - Sergej Petković Santos Carvalho (ABC Srbija),Director of ABC Srbija. Jadranka Drinić (Direct Media), Board Member - Srđan Janićijević (Politika), Board Member - Igor Jecl (Telekom Serbia), Board Member - Atila Mihok (Blic), Board Member - Zoran Papić (Serbian Media Association), Board Member - Aleksandar Radosavljević (Carlsberg Srbija), Board Member Slavica Šimić (Media House), Board Member.

titles, and in this year we are planning to enlarge this number.

In the 1960s and ‘70s in the former Yugoslavia, we had an organisation which controlled circulation data of newspapers and magazines. Publishers were obliged to deliver circulation data in quarterly periods. Today, in the former Yugoslav republics and now independent states, only Serbia has self-regulated organisation - ABC Srbija.

We are expecting that in this year we will start auditing more newspapers and magazines which are interesting for advertisers and media buyers. The main problem is that advertisers and media buyers don’t demand ABC data from publishers, and therefore they are losing a lot of money by paying for advertising space without knowing the real circulation levels.

We launched several initiatives in 2007 aimed at achieving better transparency with-

etc., to maintain their circulation rates..

Do you think that corporate compa Similar such organisations are opnies in Serbia are sufficiently aware of erating elsewhere in the region, most the importance of media auditing?

There are companies like Telekom Sernotably in Hungary and Romania. Are bia, Carlsberg, Delta, Piraeus Bank… or you in contact with them and do you main media-buying agencies like Direct seek to draw on their experiences in orMedia, Media House, Media Pool or OMD der to improve your own levels of penand Grey, which all certainly recognise that etration?

IFABC member bureaus differ in organimportance. However, some corporate comisational structure and in operational propanies are not interested in print auditing, cedures, the bylaws provide that each bumainly because the employees aren’t aware reau elected to membership shall meet the of the importance of circulation data, and following qualifications: 1. Have tripartite how one can increase the efficiency of budgsponsorship - by advertisers, advertising et spending with that knowledge. That’s why agencies and publishers; 2. Use standardin 2007 we organised several seminars for ised terms and definitions for reporting publishers, advertisers and media buyers, at circulation within the sphere of their own which we provided detailed explanations of activities; 3. Issue facts about circulation, the advantages of print auditing. without opinion; 4. Encour Does the work of ABC Srbage active participation by “…some corporate companies are not interested ija complement, or clash with, all eligible advertisers, adin print auditing, mainly because the employees the work of other companies vertising agencies and publishers. aren’t aware of the importance of circulation data, compiling media ratings in ABC Srbija is constantly and how one can increase the efficiency of budget Serbia?

Well, you don’t have any comin contact with other organspending with that knowledge.” pany in Serbia working and pubisations in the region. ABC lishing circulation data in the way Hungary is a member of the Executive Committee of the International in the print media scene. ABC Srbija pro- that ABC Srbija does. There are companies Federation of ABC, and BRAT in Romania posed that the Ministry of Culture’s new which are monitoring awareness of radio and TV stations, but ABC doesn’t do that is the largest ABC organisation in the re- Media Concentration Bill should include a sort of awareness. However, here people gion. The experience of these two organi- clause whereby publishers who have more sations is important for the further devel- than 20% income from adverts in their titles often think that we are a research agency, opment of ABC Srbija. have to be audited. The proposition of the which is also an wrong. Our reports are essential for every research, but we are only I have to mention that before we applied new bill will enter public debate in March. for membership in IFABC, and we became We are also organising a roundtable providing these reports for our members. a member after three years of preparation, on the topic of advertising rates. In 2008. Research agencies can use our data for their we had help from ABC organisations of there are estimates that more than 100 mil- projects. Without circulation data you canthe UK, Germany and Switzerland. We are lion euros will be invested in print advertis- not accurately undertake any research realso today in contact with them as we en- ing. This means that the publisher are go- garding readership or readership per copy deavour to improve our work here. ing to raise advert rates in 2008 and 2009. data. For the first time in the history of In Serbia the advertising rates are the low- ABC, last year several organisations started How close are we to achieving an ac- est in the region, but we think that only au- to make a synergy of their data with the data ceptable degree of transparency within dited newspapers and magazines should of research agencies. That’s why we signed the print media scene in Serbia, and raise these rates. The reason is that they a contract with one research agency here in why has that transparency been lack- are investing more money in paper quality, Serbia, which is using our reports for the ing to date? design, reporters, foreign correspondents, NRS research methodology.

CorD / February 2008 39

REGION

Montenegro elects the head of state in April

Elections to test referendum & future

This year the citizens of Montenegro will have to go to the polling stations again, only two years after the referendum and one year after the parliamentary elections.This time they will be heading to the polls to elect the president.

BY ILIJA DESPOTOVIĆ ontenegro’s presidential elections are scheduled for 6th April and will be monitored by domestic and international organisations – the Republic will not deprive anybody of that right. Whilst scheduling the elections, Speaker of the Montenegrin Parliament, Ranko Krivokapić, called on all citizens to participate in the presidential elections and, thus, contribute to the culture of dialogue, tolerance and communal living; all the values of the multiethnic, multicultural and multi-religious Montenegrin society.

Krivokapić addressed the presidential candidates, inviting them to affirm those values and that code of honour. He expressed his hope that Montenegro will come out of these elections, the first of their kind since the tiny coastal republic become independent, as a more democratic country. “And the winner is already

M

Call for contribution

Speaker of the Montenegrin Parliament, Ranko Krivokapić, called on all citizens to participate in the presidential elections and, thus, contribute to the culture of dialogue, tolerance and communal living; all the values of the multiethnic, multicultural and multi-religious Montenegrin society.

40 CorD / February 2008

The opposition, particularly the part represented in the Serbian List coalition, has certainly not abandoned notions of revenge.To beat the governing coalition candidate would, for this political bloc, provide total satisfaction after two years of mourning the referendum results. known,” said Krivokapić, explaining that the winner will be the freely expressed democratic will of Montenegrin citizens.

The presidential elections in Montenegro are politically much more exciting than they are important. The president of Montenegro is a representative figurehead and here, regardless of the capacity of his power, that is a very important function. Nobody has ever been indifferent towards the act of the election of the first man of the nation. However, those elections will have some other political importance as they will reflect the political mood of citizens regarding the results of the country’s independence referendum, which had the character of a political ‘volcanic eruption’ or ‘earthquake’. Because of that, all elections in the initial post-referendum years have the significance of ‘detecting’ whether the referendum on independence was really mature; whether it is still stable, or whether there are tendencies for its ‘correction’ in favour of unionist forces which did not prove to be so weak on 21st May 2006.

The parliamentary elections of 2006 strengthened the referendum result through the absolute victory of the sovereign coalition that fought in favour of independence.

But there were only three months between the referendum and those elections. The presidential elections in April will take place almost two years to the day after the referendum – enough time for referendum fervour to have calmed down and for citi-

zens to make decision regarding the president without connecting those facts with the referendum itself. Both sovereigns and unionists have had sufficient time to overcome the emotions, be they celebratory or vengeful, linked to the referendum and to show that they are thinking more about the future.

The opposition, particularly the part represented in the Serbian List coalition, has certainly not abandoned notions of revenge. To beat the governing coalition candidate would, for this political bloc, provide total satisfaction after two years of mourning the referendum results.

However, their candidate, Andrija Mandić, the leader of the Serbian National Party, was not as sharp as was expected in his promotion, and appeared as the candidate acting on behalf of all the citizens of Montenegro.

The second opposition candidate for the presidency, the leader of the Movement for Change, Nebojša Medojević, however, does not have the problem of vanity because of the referendum, because his party accepts Montenegrin sovereignty. However, he carries in himself a very strong political ambition to become the head of state and, of course, to defeat the candidate of the Democratic party of Socialists and the Social Democratic Party coalition, which he claims have still not managed to rid themselves of the identity of the communist government. Medojević has reproached his opposition colleagues

on several occasions, claiming that he is the most successful opposition leader and that they should all support him.

However, the opposition has failed to agree on a joint candidate because of betrayed agreements in former and recent political situations. The presidential candidates will be able to put forward their candidacies until 20 days prior to the election date. The opposition Socialist Peoples Party has offered the candidacy of former Yugoslavian Ambassador to Italy, Miodrag Lekić, and he has shown interest in the post of head of the Montenegrin nation for some considerable time. The Peoples Party have mentioned Miodrag Jovanović, the brother of Duško Jovanović – the murdered director of daily Dan – and there is still time to complete the list of candidates.

Of course, the opposition remains without the ‘pleasure’ of participating in this election with any great passion, largely due to the fact that the former president and prime minister, Milo Ðukanović, did not put forward his candidacy for the presidency. Because of the role he played in the referendum and his unquestionable charisma, Ðukanović’s candidacy could have been the strongest “fuse” for the charge for the opposition in the forthcoming presidential elections. However, Ðukanović himself, as the president of the Democratic Party of Socialists, proposed the current Montenegrin President, Filip Vujanović, as a candidate. Djukanović even plans to personally head Vujanović’s campaign team.

Analysts give Vujanović the greatest chance of victory, as they say, because of his current position as President and because the strongest party in Montenegro – and, of course, Ðukanović himself - is behind him. Their coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party, has yet to agree with this candidacy. This party has periodically criticised Vujanović for not having sufficiently clear positions regarding the status of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

Apart from Vujanović, Medojević and Mandić, two non-party members have also announced their participation in the presidential elections: the ecologist and professor of physics, Dragan Hajduković, who lives in Switzerland, and professor of the Podgorica Law Faculty and former president of the Montenegrin Constitutional Court, Blagota Mitrić. Hajduković, who is attributed the idea of Montenegro as an ecological state and who for years opposed the wars between the former Yugoslav states, has tried to become the president of the state three times so far, but Montenegrins do not share his modern ideas. The participation of Mitrić, known as a gambler, poet, writer and excellent ora-

Milo Ðukanović, the president of the Democratic Party of Socialists, will head the presidential campaign of current Montenegrin President, Filip Vujanović. (Pictured)

tor, can probably make this campaign less stereotypical.

There is no doubt that the main ‘battle’ will be led on the basis of the referendum, i.e. between the voters of the two leading ‘nations’ in Montenegro – Montenegrins and Serbs. On one occasion Vujanović said that the fact that he is a citizen of Montenegro was more important to him than being a Montenegrin.

Medojević is proud of being Montenegrin, but has on several occasions tried to play on the ‘Serbian’ card in Montenegro, and he will not avoid doing the same this time too. Mandić does not hide the fact that he is a Serb, and during the debate on the new Constitution he advocated the protection of Serbs in Montenegro. When the Constitution was adopted, he claimed that Serbs in Montenegro had become ‘a discriminated nation”.

Voters will probably measure ‘Montenegrinship’ and ‘Serbianship’ by those co-ordinates, especially if the second round occurs, when they are left to choose between the two top candidates . Vujanović may be damaged by orthodox sovereigns,

which do not see him as a Montenegrin of ‘Ðukanović’s calibre’, but moderate Serbs, who consider only Montenegro as their country, may compensate for that.

Medojević may gain and lose on both sides, Montenegrins and Serbs, and his advantage is that he is young and politically very energetic. Mandić has nothing to hope for from Montenegrins, but Serbian voters could gather around him if he, eventually, gets into the second round against Vujanović.

Of course, election mathematics have many political unknowns. However, the presidential elections in Montenegro will show not only how the referendum result on independence ‘stands’, but also whether Montenegro is going to go down the path of radical political change, i.e. whether a change of administration is possible in the next parliamentary elections, predicted to take place at the end of 2009. That is why the administration and the opposition might be more interested in the presidential elections scheduled for April, rather than in who is going to be the new head of state.

CorD / February 2008 41

NGO SECTOR

Leading INTERVIEW:Tim Bainbridge, SEE Programme Director of Save the Children UK

by EXAMPLE

Early February will see the British Embassy host a charitable Burns’ Supper event at Belgrade’s Hotel Hyatt, to raise funds that will support the local work of Save the Children. It was with this event in mind that we spoke to Tim Bainbridge, South East Europe Programme Director of Save the Children UK, about the work of this renowned organisation.

BY MARK R. PULLEN im Bainbridge, Save the Children UK’s Programme Director for Southeast Europe, first became interested in international development and humanitarian relief while studying for a degree in agriculture. When he realised that he was learning much more about maximising EU subsidies and government grants than producing food, he came to the conclusion that his interest lay not so much in the agro industry of the UK, but rather in helping people provide enough food for themselves and their families. It was this realisation that kick-started his career.

After completing his bachelor studies and working overseas on agriculture and rural development projects in such far flung destinations as Zambia and Papua New Guinea, Bainbridge returned to the UK to work as a rural development advisor and programme management in NGOs, before completing an MBA. He tells CorD: “What becomes apparent once you’ve worked in programmes overseas is that the technical aspects are quite simple and well understood by farmers. The biggest weakness that most organisations face is in managing projects and programmes – and I think that’s the same whether you’re talking about NGOs running projects, or even governments running ministries.”

Bainbridge moved to Save the Children six years ago and took up a head office

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42 CorD / February 2008

“It’s important for an organisation like Save the Children to be seen to be doing things.

Nobody would take us seriously if we were just telling everybody else what we think they should do if we weren’t getting involved ourselves.”

position as a planning manager in the International Operations Department, and then when the chance to go back overseas came up, he chose to move to Belgrade.

What did you think of this region before you came and after you arrived?

I’d worked in the region before, on and off: I worked in Albania after the collapse of the pyramid schemes and I’d also worked in Kosovo on a number of occasions.

This is an interesting region that I’ve always enjoyed coming to and found easy to work in. It’s fascinating in that there are a

lot of changes going in and the people you meet are friendly are very hospitable, politically though it can be very frustrating – particularly when one’s trying to work with governments to find durable solutions to the problems faced by children.

Kosovo was similar to other places where I’ve worked in “post-conflict humanitarian situations” – like Sierra Leone, Liberia and Burundi, infrastructure was damaged, people were displaced and government systems had broken down – but, to be honest, it proved a lot easier to work here than in some of the other countries I was working in at the time Could you tell us something about the projects you have ongoing here in the region?

We work in the areas of education and child protection. We run a regional programme and have projects based here, in Bosnia, in Montenegro; we’ve got an independent programme down in Kosovo.

Within the education system, it’s really about looking at inclusive education; trying to get more children into schools, working with the government and civil society to advocate the placing of children into schools.

Our three main target groups are disabled children, Roma children, and displaced children. Interesting statistics from last year’s Millennium Development Goals report for Serbia. If you look at children who complete primary school the national average is about 95.5% , but if you go to rural areas it immediately drops to 72%. Looking at Roma somewhere between 21 and 37% complete primary school. Disabled children aren’t even counted. What does that say about societies’ attitude to people living with disabilities.

How can a country provide education for all children if they don’t even have the basic statistics. This isn’t an issue only in Serbia, but is rather a problem common throughout Southeast Europe; the whole region suffers

“What becomes apparent once you’ve worked in programmes overseas is that the agriculture is technically quite simple.

The biggest weakness that most organisations face is in management – and I think that’s the same whether you’re talking about NGOs running projects, or even governments running ministries.”

…primary school enrolment is about 98% in Serbian towns, but if you go to rural areas it immediately drops to 75%. Looking at Roma, enrolment level statistics range from 30 to 50 per cent. Disabled kids aren’t even counted, which means that you can’t even develop policies because you don’t know how many disabled kids there are.” from a lack of comprehensive statistics.

Regarding the education systems, they tend to be slow to reform, and still tend to be ‘teacher-focused’ not ‘child focused’. This means that, to a large extent, teaching is by ‘rote learning’ of facts aimed at the average or high achieving children,. Though teachers are committed and many of them try to address the individual learning needs of children, the system doesn’t always support them as so many children don’t get the education most of us take for granted In the area of child protection, we are looking at social welfare systems and how to make them more responsive to the needs of kids. For instance, an MDRI [Mental Disability Rights International] Report came out at the end of last year and in response we went to an institution called Skambica with Minister Ljajić and members of the press corps. Even though the building was well painted and the facility looked to be reasonably well equipped, it was in the middle of nowhere. According to the Director there were 450 residents ranging from the ages of 2 to 82. The director was very proud of this, but – though I’m not saying it happens – this increases the risk of cradle-to-grave institutionalisation. According to emerging global standards, no children under three should be in institutions; if parents can’t look after them, they should where possible be in a family based situation, which is why we are developing specialised foster care, which is one of the projects we’re implementing. There are people who will foster disabled children, but first they need support from the relevant ministries and service providers, as well as the broader community – which are

the very issues we’re trying to tackle.

We talk in nice terms about ‘transformation of institutions’, but in all honesty what we’re really looking for is the closure of these massive institutions and using the resources, the experienced staff and the finances to provide family and community-based care. One must ask what kind of a life it is for a child in an institution like Skambica, which is miles from anywhere and, despite the best intentions of the carers, does not provide anything like a family-type situation.

One of the slogans on the Save the Children site reads “persuading governments and campaigning for change”.

How have you found the government here as interlocutors?

International Non Government Organisations often have an ambiguous relationship with governments, I would say that is the same in the UK and here in Serbia. On one side we support governments in improving services for children but equally we hold them to account when we believe they can do better, we try to play the role of ‘critical supporter’.

I would have to say that the Minister of Labour and Social Policy here is very good to work with, Mr. Ljajić and his team have a clear vision of what they want to achieve and are always open discuss new ideas and approaches. But are also very clear in letting us know the constraints they face and their own priorities, it feels to be a very open and productive relationship and I have to say that that particular ministry is a pleasure to work with.

We’ve had a long working relationship with the ministry of education, and CorD / February 2008 43

NGO SECTOR

as with any relationship it has its ups and downs. We would like to improve our relationship with the Ministry of Education as their support is currently not as strong as it’s been in the past, but we’d like to think that it’ll get better.

would all achieve more if we could improve our co-ordination and collaboration. We have recently been working with a coalition of NGOs and UNICEF on a campaign to ban all forms of violence against children, which has been successful.

In what ways do you co-operate in programmes and fund-raising with other major organisations, like UNICEF, and the wider NGO sector?

With UNICEF it’s a case that we have such similar missions and ways of working that, like with any family, there can sometimes be a degree of rivalry. That said, I would say that here in Southeast Europe our relations with UNICEF are very good and getting stronger by the day. We tend not to joint fund-raise because they are a UN family member and we’re an NGO – therefore we have different policies, procedures and even funding mechanisms. However, we do try to co-ordinate our programming and we have some joint projects in the region. Our relationship with other Non Government Organisations is OK, though I think we

Can you tell us more about your funding and how it could be relevant to CorD readers?

Historically our programme has been funded mainly by our own funds and funds we can secure from international institutions such as the European Union, British Government, the Irish Government and the Duchy of Luxemburg. But increasingly we are looking to raise funds locally.

Here in Serbia there is economic growth of over six per cent per year; there are strong domestic and international companies operating here, at the same time the concept of corporate social responsibility [CSR] is really starting to get off the ground. As such, its a good time for us to look to business and individuals here to support our work, it’s a very tangible way for people to

be involved in contributing to the future of Serbia’s children.

On the 2nd of February the British Ambassador’s wife is arranging a Burns night Ceilidh, the funds raised will go to support our fostering work for children with special needs, which is also being funded by a European Commission grant.

Fundraising is more than simply raising funds for the work, though that is important. It’s about achieving local ownership.

Save the Children is an NGO, and, though we are advocating for change it’s not our responsibility to make sure that all Serbian children have an education or that there are adequate child protection mechanisms.

Our mission, mandate and very reason for existing is to lobby for the development of these, but it’s the responsibility of governments who have signed international agreements such as the UN conventions on the rights of a child to deliver these services.

Democratic governments respond to voter pressure. So it comes down to what kind of society people want, and involving the corporate world, as well as individuals, is a way in which people can express the kind of society they want to live in.

Do you think there’s a general a lack of public involvement in charitable activities here; perhaps a lack of the culture of involvement?

You may say that, but I often hear that in the former Yugoslavia there was a lot stronger sense of social solidarity. This is something you tend to find in a lot of transition countries. Whether it’s Southeast Europe or Central Asia, the financial pressures that people are under ensures that the philanthropic approach tends to be diminished while people are worrying about how to feed and clothe their own kids.

One of the key issues is reinvigorating the culture of social involvement. There are quite a few local initiatives on the go, and I think it’s a trend that’s growing again. That said, I think it’s something that you always need to encourage more of.

“…just looking at the cars and some of the residences, it’s obvious that there are some incredibly rich people here with huge amounts of disposable income. However, more significantly, a lot of those people have given up on political processes and are either protecting their own families or are just not convinced that their donations would be doing good.”

44 CorD / February 2008

Burns’ Supper supporting Save the Children

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urns’ Night is a traditional Scottish event, which celebrates the life and works of famous poet Robert Burns. This year the British Embassy and Save the Children UK will be holding a Burns’ Supper in the Crystal Ballroom of Belgrade’s Hyatt Regency Hotel on 2nd February. The event promises to be a wonderful evening of entertainment and dinner, with Scottish music and dancing. There will be an auction, a silent auction and a raffle.

The event, to be attended by 330 guests including 10-15 ambassadors and several Serbian ministers, will be hosted by British Ambassador Stephen Wordsworth and Mrs. Nichole Wordsworth. All funds raised will go to support the local work of Save the Children.

Among the events numerous sponsors, special mention should be given to ‘Platinum Sponsors’ Harrisons Solicitors, Grand Motors, Lush, KPMG and Delta Holding.

Surely this is simply a case of increased disposable income leading to increased local fundraising?

When it comes to fundraising, the two issues are money, disposable income, and political involvement. I think this second element is a particularly big issue in Serbia at the moment. There are more people with disposable income here and, just looking at the cars and some of the residences, it’s obvious that there are some incredibly rich people here with huge amounts of disposable income. However, more significantly, a lot of those people have given up on political processes and are either protecting their own families or are just not convinced that their donations would be doing good.

I don’t know if that’s a recent development or a side-effect of recent history and the turmoil of the transition process, but I suspect it’s a bit of both – with many people still of the mindset that the state takes care of everything and, therefore, people don’t need to get involved and others who simply prioritise their own interests.

You’ve participated in local marathons (Belgrade, Priština & Sarajevo).

How important is it for someone in your position to lead by example?

I think it’s critically important. It’s important for an organisation like Save the Children to be seen to be doing things. Nobody would take us seriously if we were just telling everybody else what we think they should do if we weren’t getting involved ourselves. I think that’s the key role of an INGO, and those working in Interna-

“BURNS WAS A HUMANITARIAN AND HIS SYMPATHIES WERE WITH THE POOR AND UNDERPRIVILEGED. HE WOULD HAVE APPROVED OF A CELEBRATION OF HIS LIFE BEING PUT TO GOOD USE TO RAISE MONEY FOR THE GREAT CHARITY SAVE THE CHILDREN” – NICHOLE WORDSWORTH.

According to Nichole Wordsworth, the British Embassy has chosen to help local children through this event “because there are still too many children in Serbia who do not go to school, who go to bed hungry or who live in institutions. Children, who because of their circumstances, risk being marginalised and not having the opportu-

tional Non-Governmental Organisations to lead by example. Indeed, that’s the way we take it with programmes: we raise funds, we run pilot projects that, for instance, allow us to say “guess what? You can include disabled children Roma children and others into mainstream schools and, with a little support, they can perform as well as all the other children.” And you have a more diverse school population which sets a positive example for life. Once we’ve demonstrated this by successfully running pilot projects, then the real challenge is to get the government, ministries and local education boards to take this on – this is

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nities that most of us take for granted. Save the Children is working to ensure all children in Serbia receive an education and are protected from neglect, violence and exploitation. But the charity cannot achieve this alone. In order to bring about these changes for children they need our support.

“The money raised at the Ball will help develop services for children with special needs, such as specialised fostering and support to families. These services will help ensure that children with special needs who are currently in institutions or at risk of being institutionalised can be cared for in a family environment.”

about generating political will, which can’t be done by standing on the sidelines.

Finally, what message would you send to CorD’s readers; how can they get involved and why should they?

Just get involved, whether supporting the work of. Save the Children or other NGOs. If you don’t feel comfortable supporting a big international organisation like Save the Children, there are some good, strong, local NGOs in Serbia and some incredibly committed people. Supporting them is a way to get involved in the future of Serbia.

Real estate Rent and sale

YBC Bulevar Mihaila Pupina 10 l, lokal VP 47, tel: 011 / 2143 576, 062 / 440 169, 064 / 676 72 99

www.triumph011.com office@ triumph011.com CorD / February 2008 45

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RECORD QUARTERLY LOSS

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merican investment bank Citigroup suffered the biggest quarterly loss in its history in the fourth quarter of 2007.

At the beginning of last year, Citigroup decreased its number of employees by around five per cent.

Citigroup has published net losses in the fourth quarter of ’07 amounting to $9.83billion, or $1.99 per share. As a comparison, in the same period of 2006, the biggest American bank recorded profit of $5.1billion.

Citigroup has also decreased its dividend by 41 per cent, ’cut’ 4,200 jobs and insured 14.5 billion foreign investments in order to support basic capital. Throughout the whole of last year, Citigroup made profit amounting to $3.62billion, which is 83 percents less than in 2006.

Source: Poslovni.hr

NIS PLANS TO PROFIT his year, Serbia’s national petroleum company, NIS (Naftna industrija Srbije), plans to realise total revenue that will be 34 per cent up on 2007’s results.

The company also plans to achieve profit of RSD9billion -- 12 per cent up on the 2007 result, while more intensive investment activity has also been planned, as well as increasing scope of all operation segments. Bearing in mind that 2008 is the key year for reaching the European standards, NIS shall intensify investment activities in the planned amount of €275million, which is three times higher than the investment value of 2007.

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SWEDES TO INVEST IN ZRENJANIN

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wedish company LK Armatur has announced that it will begin production in Zrenjanin in February, as part of an investment valued at €1.5million.

According to LK Armatur, which manufactures regulation equipment for thermal machinery, the company is to sign a contract with the Zrenjanin Municipal authorities on 28th January.

In the initial production phase, which has been announced for February, around 30 workers will gain employment.

The Swedish company will not construct its own production plants, but shall use rented space near the plant of the Slovenian Kolpa, which is one of the first business partners of Zrenjanin municipality.

Source: Beta FOREIGN TOURISTS IN SERBIA rom January to November 2007, around 2.1 million tourists visited Serbia, which marks a 15 per cent increase on the same period in 2006. According to data of the Republic Statistics Bureau, out of the total number 1.5 million are domestic tourists, while 30 per cent, i.e. 648,410, were foreigners. During that period 6.8 million overnight stays were arranged, with domestic tourists accounting for 5.5 million overnight stays, and foreigners accounting for 1.3 million.

Domestic guests have spent their time mostly in spas (39 per cent), followed by mountain resorts (30 per cent), while around 64 per cent of foreign visitors to Serbia mostly visited big cities. Foreigners visited Belgrade the most, where 779,067 overnight stays were enjoyed – marking a six per cent rise on the same period in 2006. The next most visited location for foreigners was Novi Sad, Kopaonik, then Zlatibor. The greatest number of tourists came from Montenegro, then from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Slovenia, Germany and Italy.

Source: Beta

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PROFIT OF TWO MILLION EUROS ompany Voda Vrnjci has increased its profit in 2007 by 30 per cent, to two million euros.

Radovan Simović, Company Manager of Voda Vrnjci, said that production of water and juices has increased in the last year by 35 per cent and totalled 90 million litres, while company revenue increased by a third and is now €17million. The biggest contributor to production growth has been investments of €3.5million in the last year, and by opening three new wells with quality water, capacity of which is sufficient for ten times greater production levels.

C NIS funds will be directed towards modernisation of refinery processing, environmental protection, gas pumps’ modernisation, continuation of the operational enhancement programme and development of an information system.

Source: Tanjug 46 CorD / February 2008

Last year’s exports increased by 34 per cent, as Vrnjci exported its products to the markets of the region, the European Union, Canada and the U.S. This year the company plans to achieve growth of around ten per cent. Source: B92 ROBOTS FROM VALJEVO ROBOTAKT aljevo Robotakt last year sold nine robots for an average price of €27,000 per unit.

“One of the world’s biggest manufacturers of robots, ABB, sends robots to Robotakt, the only Serbian company assembling robots for the Serbian industry, and experts from the Valjevo-based company adjust them by installing software and other necessary equipment to the needs of the market,” said Željko Krstivojević, Manager of Robotakt.

“One should expect more massive robotisation of Serbian industry,” stated Krstivojević, “in the next four to five years, bearing in mind that the working hour of a robot costs less than €2.5, when one calculates the price of the robot, his working life, maintenance costs and energy consumption.”

Source: Beta

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ATEK PROVIDES FUNDS FOR RTB BOR ustrian industrial businessman and owner of ’Atek’ company, Mirko Kovač, reiterated that the financing of RTB ’Bor’ has been secured.

Chairman of Labour Union ’Nezavisnost’ (Independence) of RTB ’Bor’ Smelting works and Refinery, Dragan Jankucić, stated that negotiations regarding investments and the social programme with Austrian ’Atek’ are going well and that he expects them to complete the latest round by the end of January.

Kovač said that his company plans to play a greater role in the copper market, and that it intends to increase the concern’s turnover in 2008 by over €3billion.

Co-owner of ’Atek’ company, Christian Schmitt, announced that negotiations about RTB Bor’s acquisition could be completed Source: B92, Tanjug by 8th February.

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BEST ANNUAL SALES IN COMPANY HISTORY

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n 2007 the Mercedes-Benz Cars division increased sales of Mercedes-Benz, AMG, Maybach, and smart passenger vehicles worldwide, with sales totalling 1,285,900 vehicles (2006: 1,260,600 units). With this two percent growth, the division set a new sales record.

Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, said: “Our current models are drawing a very positive customer response. In 2007 we succeeded in laying the groundwork for sustainable, profitable growth, particularly with the market launches of the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class and the new smart fortwo.“ The basis for achieving the sales record was the most successful year in the history of the Mercedes-Benz brand: world-

wide sales of passenger vehicles were up more than three per cent, reaching a record 1,185,300 units (2006: 1,148,500). Thus, Mercedes-Benz registered even stronger growth in 2007 than the global automobile market overall.

Daimler AG ended 2007 very successfully, with a new sales record in Mercedes-Benz Vans as well, having sold 289,076 vans worldwide (2006: 256,895 units). Almost all the markets contributed to this new sales record in 2007, and all products contributed high sales levels to produce this result.

CROATIAN AGROKOR VIES FOR TURKISH MIGROS

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KEMPINSKI HOTEL FOR MONTENEGRO

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n March, in Smokvica not far from Sveti Stefan, construction of a five(+)star hotel carrying the brand Kempinski will commence.

The construction project will see the complete cove of Smokvica transformed into a town-hotel with luxurious villas.

Representatives of Russian company Vas Invest have signed an agreement with one of the leading global hotel chains, Kempinski. The Russian investors have purchased around 20 hectares of land in Smokvica, for a price of €30million.

The complex will encompass sports terrains, spa and wellness centres, and there is also a conference and culture centre with large cinema halls, and the total value of construction shall surpass the projected €100million.

Source: Vijesti (News)

roatian retail chain Agrokor and Private Capital Fund Blackstone have submitted an offer for a majority share in Turkish trade chain Migros, for which some more offers of trading companies have been received.

It was earlier reported that Agrokor became the favourite to purchase Migros following the withdrawal of French Carrefour.

Offers have also been submitted by Dutch trader Royal Ahold, Swedish chain ICA AB in consortium with Russian group Alfa, with another two financial consortia offers.

The market capitalisation of Migros is $3.41billion, and Turkish media expect 51 per cent of shares, offers above their market price, that is, in excess of $1.8 billion dollars for a majority share only.

CITY RING ROAD BY OCTOBER he new Belgrade bypass, in the section from Ostružnica Bridge to the Ibarska arterial road, will be completed by 15th October 2008 at the very latest.

On behalf of the Government of Serbia, Minister in charge of the National Investment Plan (NIP), Dragan Đilas, has guaranteed contractors regular payments, and the contractors obliged themselves to complete the

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works by the specified deadline.

According to Minister Đilas, upon completion of this section works on reconstruction of the Gazelle Bridge will commence. Minister Đilas pointed out that for that section of the bypass a total of 4.5 billion dinars shall be set aside – 2.5 billion from the NIP and two billion dinars from the Belgrade City budget.

Representatives of companies ’Mostogradnja’ and ’Planum’ have confirmed that total debts for works from the last year are 180 million dinars (RSD40million to ’Mostogradnja’ and RSD140million to ’Planum’).

Source: Beta

MOBILKOM USERS UP ustrian telecommunications group (Mobilkom), owner of Vip Mobile, has increased the number of its subscribers to 14.8 million.

In 2007 Mobilkom marked growth in the number of subscribers by 44.6%. The company increased the number of users in Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia, while data relating to Serbia and Macedonia will be published by the end of February.

Source: Beta

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PRIVATISATION OF SHIPYARD IN MONTENEGRO ypriot consortium C&S and Mercury Distribution are the first ranked in the privatisation tender for Shipyard Bijela. The first ranked company offered €7.1million and the biggest total invest-

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CorD / February 2008 47

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PIRAEUS IN MOSCOW

Piraeus Bank Group Network Growth Piraeus Bank has obtained a license from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to open its representative office in Russia. Being present in Moscow, Piraeus Bank will be able easily spot and take advantage of business opportunities on the Russian market, and create significant synergy of income with Piraeus Bank (Cyprus) Ltd. Piraeus Bank Group is the fastest growing financial Group in Greece.

It has a growing international presence, focused mainly in Southeast Europe, but also in the financial centres of London and New York. Piraeus Bank Group has a particular know-how in the areas of retail banking, SMEs, capital markets, investment banking, leasing and shipping.

The main strategic goal of the Group is to increase its market share, improve quality of services and client satisfaction,

ments of €40million for investments, as well as €1.6million for environmental protection.

They have announced that €30million would be earmarked for production of yachts and mega yachts, while ten million has been earmarked for repair and reconstruction of the existing facilities. Source: B92, Beta GNP GROWTH IN B&H he economy of Bosnia & Herzegovina achieved growth in 2007 on the level of countries from the region, and that trend could continue in 2008.

Head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Office in B&H, Giulio Moreno, stated that the GNP of B&H grew in 2007 by between six and seven per cent. According to the EBRD’s evaluation, it could grow by a further five per cent in 2008.

“Recent fluctuations in international markets didn’t influence the B&H economy at all,” pointed out Peter Sampli, Economist of the EBRD’s Headquarters, during his presentation of the EBRD’s Transition Report for 2007.

According to the EBRD’s data, during the last year the EBRD, through several projects, has invested €150million into B&H economy and public sector, making it the biggest foreign creditor.

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48 CorD / February 2008

place a wide range of products, strengthen the group in the area of assets management and strengthen profitability with the constant increase of shareholders roles.

The Piraeus Group has been present in the U.S. through a network of 14 branches, in Romania through 90 branches, in Bulgaria 73, Albania 38, Egypt 40 and Ukraine through 86 branches.

The Piraeus Bank Branch Network on the territory of Serbia has 45 branches, and by the end of 2008 it plans to expand its business by 11 per cent.

The bank employs 520 banking experts, and in 2008 the staff base is planned to be enlarged by 26%.

In the course of 2007, the Bank opened two new companies – Piraeus Leasing and Piraeus Rent – dealing in financial and operations leasing.

In late 2007, company Piraeus Real Estate started operating in order to boost the Bank’s presence on the Serbian Market and expand its offer and service quality.

The biggest project, worth €75million, pertains to the renewal of roads in both the B&H Federation and Republika Srpska.

The EBRD have announced that they plan numerous projects in B&H this year, amongst which are the financing of construction of part of Corridor 5c; modernisation of the electric energy transfer system in the area of Banjaluka’s “Elektrokrajina”, and investment in airports in Tuzla, Mostar and Banjaluka. Source: Nezavisne novine SLOVENIANS TAKEOVER MONTENEGRIN ZETATRANS

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lovenian company Interevropa has taken over Montenegrin shipper Zetatrans. “The aim Interevropa is to transform shipping company Zetatrans into a complete supplier of logistical services and to strengthen its leading position in Montenegro,” said Vado Keranović, Chairman of the Management Board of Zetatrans.

Andrej Lovšin, Chairman of Interevropa, evaluated that the purchase of Zetatrans marks the return of Slovenia to the Montenegrin market and a step in expansion of operations in the region.

Source: Beta

25,000 FOREIGNERS TO ATTEND EXIT ’08

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he EXIT TEAM expects over 25,000 foreigners to visit Exit Festival 2008.

They also expect all all tickets for the Festival to be sold within the next few months.

We hereby remind you that the respected British daily The Guardian has listed Serbia and Exit in the list of the 12 most exciting tourist destinations and events one should absolutely visit in 2008. The popular daily suggested the most desired destinations for each month of the year, and for July Serbia has been suggested, or more precisely, Novi Sad, because Exit Festival is held there.

The Guardian recommends “one of the most attractive festivals in Europe” and “a winner of the prize of The Best European Festival”, and “Exit, as alternative to Glastonbury, the greatest festival in the world.”

The Guardian’s ranking lists represent the most eminent lists of this kind in the world, and that newspaper traditionally ranks the best universities, restaurants, hotels, destinations and other most important products and services.

Exit tim d.o.o. (Exit Team Limited Liability Company) shall for this year’s Exit, besides else, exclusively organize and promote activities pertaining to the tourist aspect of the Festival, and for that purpose it shall for the first time entirely cover that segment. Transport shall be organized, both from Belgrade and Budapest, as well as two other destinations where the biggest number of foreign tourists land, a series of attractive tourist contents shall be offered for sightseeing before and after the Festival, as well as during the day, and 24hour service shall be provided for taking care of foreign guests. Source: EXIT PR RAILWAY MODERNISATION Milanko Saranic, general director of Serbian Railways, said that there will be 180 million euros invested in railways this year. Around 60 million euros and 60 million Swiss franks will be invested in transportation, while 80 million euros will be invested in infrastructure over this and the coming year, Saranic pointed out. He also added that modernisation and the purchase of new sleeping cars and passenger cars will begin, which means that there will be a lot less criticism from passengers by the end of the year.

Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE FAIR ON OFFER

RAUCH SERBIA

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tender for the privatisation of Belgrade Fair will be opened at the end of February this year. “So far, around 95 per cent of the documentation has been acquired, while the conditions for the tender sale are in the final process. Regarding the deadline for applying, it will be around 60 days, and a new owner of the Fair will be revealed in the summer�, Director of “Belgrade Fair�, Andjelko Trpkovic said. 70 per cent of the capital will be offered for tender. The other 30 per cent will be split in halves; 15 per cent will belong to the employees and former employees, while the other 15 per cent will go to the Privatisation registry and will be split among Serbian citizens, Trpkovic added. The estimated price of the Fair still remains a secret. So far three companies are interested in purchasing the Fair - “Ried exhibition� located in London, which organises around 460 fairs around the world every year. Then “bdq uo Rimini Fiera SPA�, the third biggest fair in Italy and one of the most beautiful in Europe, and the French company “GL Event� seated in Leone, which manages 25 fair locations and organises around 120 fair shows.

Source: Blic

he Rauch Serbia Company sold 1.6 million litres of juice during 2007. “We have come to Serbia to show that we can make juice of the best quality in the world with Serbian goods and Serbian employees. We also received great help from the local government dealing with problems such as water and energy supplies�, Ditmar Rauch, the production director of the Rauch Serbia factory stated. Rauch bought Kocoljevo’s factory for fruit and vegetables processing called “Vocar� for 106 million dinars at auction on July 31st 2006. “Vocar� was sold from insolvency, which it had fallen into since 2005. According to the company’s director, Rauch will modernise “Vocar�’s 4000 tonnes cold storage facility to bring it up to world standards this year. Source: Beta

SERBIAN COMPANIES WRITE-OFF IRAQI DEBT ccording to the news, 2.48 billion dollars of Iraqi debt has been written off.

The Serbian government has stated that it wasn’t state but commercially owned debt.

The Ministry of Finance said that Iraq’s debt has been serviced by the public company “JugoimportSDPR� in the name of its commercial trusties and that they had all

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agreed on writing the debt off for Iraq. This agreement has nothing to do with Serbia as a state, or its ministries of defence and finance, the Serbian government said. �Serbia has written off Iraq’s debts after two months of negotiations�, the Iraqi Minister of Finance, Bakir Djabr Al-Zubaidi stated.

More countries have done the same thing; 92.5 billion dollars have been written off so far, out of 140 billion that the state owes.

According to the Iraqi minister, 90 per cent of the absolved debt has been written off by the rules of the Paris Club. There was however an agreement for the export of guns and military equipment from Serbia to Iraq, worth 230 million dollars signed in December.

Source: B92 SLOVENIAN BUSINESSMEN ADVISE CAUTION anagers of the top Slovenian companies advised Slovenia to be cautious when it comes to the question of Kosovo’s status. During a meeting between the Minister of Economy and managers of the most successful and biggest companies in Slovenia, Slovenian businessmen have warned the Minister of Economy, Andrej Bajuk, about the sensitive topic of Kosovo, as the Minister introduced Slovenia’s priorities as EU chairman. As chairman of the

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CorD / February 2008 49

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board of “Gorenje”, Franjo Bobinac reminded everyone of the problems which could occur with Slovenia presiding over the EU, and the political risk to the West Balkans.

Therefore he asked that Slovenia remain cautious regarding the question of Kosovo’s status, because the country’s whole economy dependent upon the West Balkans.

Minister Bajuk guaranteed the businessmen that the Slovenian government is aware of the importance of Serbia and other west Balkans countries to the country’s economy. He added that the government is also aware of harmful moves that can jeopardise Slovenian economy.

Source: B92

305,000 COMPANIES IN SERBIA

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vonko Obradovic, the Agency for economy registries (APR) director said that there are 305.000 companies registered in Serbia in this moment. There are 97.000 companies and 208.000 contractors registered, said Obradovic on oneday international conference of European Commerce Registers’ Forum – ECRF held in Belgrade. There were 53 representatives from the US, and 16 European and Serbian representatives on the conference in Belgrade.

Source: Beta

BELGRADE: A REGIONAL CENTRE OF DHL?

SUCCESS OF BIESSE IN SERBIA he Italian company Biesse has reported sales of equipment worth a million euros to the Serbian furniture industry. Zeljko Studen, commercial director of Biesse for Eastern Europe has stated recently that monthly sales in Italy, with a population eight times that of Serbia, are 4 million euros. Studen also added that there are more then 400 machines of their brand that are used in 97 furniture companies in Serbia. Commenting on the present state of Serbia’s wood industry, he predicted that furniture export from Serbia will triple in the next two years.

Source: B92, Beta

of their new investment fund – “Delta Dynamics”. Signing up for fund access and buying investment units starts on Friday, January 11th, and will end on 25th of January 2008. The starting price for the unit is 1000 dinars during the public appeal, and in this period the society will not be charging an investment units payment fee, apart from the fixed 300 dinars administrative fee. By founding of new fund, “Delta Investments” will become first society in Serbia that operates with two funds of a different kind. Unlike the present balanced “Delta Plus” fund, “Delta Dynamics” is a property developing fund and most of its property (75 per cent minimal) will be invested in shares. Investment

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16 MILLION EURO INVESTMENT harmaceutical company ZdravljeAktavis has invested around 16 million euros in complete modernisation of production process. The investments have been implemented according to the tough demands of the “good manufacture practice” highest standards (GMP). “By implementing the highest standards of GMP, a new opportunity has occurred for export of “Atkavis” goods on more then 60 markets in Europe, Asia and Africa, where the company is already present”, Goran Stojilkovic, general director of pharmaceutical company “Zdravlje-Aktavis” has stated. “We are capable of exporting up to 75 per cent of whole production instead of 16 per cent exported so far. Therefore, thanks to the “Aktavis” company, markets all over the world are opened for us, which gives us great challenge and motivation”, Stojilkovic added.

Source: Tanjug

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50 CorD / February 2008

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HL is planning on Belgrade to become company’s regional centre for west Balkans from October, said Darko Babic, general director of DHL Belgrade.

DHL is planning on introducing the direct flight from Belgrade to DHL’s sorting centre in Leipzig, what could make Serbia’s capitol a regional centre. Babic has emphasised that there is an everyday shipment transported by DHL plains with capacity of up to 5 tons to Belgrade. From October onwards, the plan is for “Erbas 300”, which can carry from 25 up to 40 tons of shipment, to arrive in the capitol every morning. This could mean that Belgrade would become a centre where all DHL express shipment would arrive to be delivered to the customers in Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, return shipments from these four countries would be provided via this line.

Source: B92, Tanjug

DELTA DYNAMICS - A NEW FUND he management society “Delta Investments” has announced a public appeal to register and invest in shares

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units can be bought in “Delta Investments” in Belgrade, 7b Milentija Popovica Street, as well as through agents: “Univerzal banka”, “Komercijalna banka”, “Volks Bank” and brokers and dealers’ societies “Jorgic Broker”, “MMK Group”, “SBD Broker” and “Ilirika Investments”. Detailed list with all point of sale addresses is available on the internet address www.deltainvestments.co.yu.

GOVERNMENT ADOPTS AGREEMENT WITH RUSSIA he Government of Serbia has adopted the text of an Energy Agreement with the Russian Government, envisaging the sale of NIS to Russian Gazprom Nefta.

Serbian Energy & Mining Minister, Aleksandar Popović confirmed that the Agreement at first contained Russian offer for 400 million euros in return for 50 percents plus one share of Oil Industry of Serbia. Also, Popović says that 500 million

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euros have also been envisaged for modernization of NIS’ plants. Popović however didn’t quote at which price 51 percents of Oil Industry of Serbia capital shall be sold (Naftna industrija Srbije - NIS) and what will be the investments into that company, explaining that the final price of the NIS arrangement shall be agreed at the next negotiations with the Russian side, until signing of the Agreement. Arterial gas-pipeline shall pass through Serbia, with capacity significantly exceeding 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Minister Popović evaluated that investment into gas-pipeline construction, as well as completion of gas storage in Banatski Dvor, costs around 1.5 billion euros, but that the details and exact amounts shall be known just after the new negotiations that shall follow in the next months. He says that there is also possibility for the Serbian side to use that arrangement for negotiating additional quantities of oil and gas, at prices lower than on the Stock Exchange. Amounts and division of taxes shall be also defined later, but that would depend from the agreement reached between Serbian and Russian side about participating in joint ventures, said Minister, adding that the Draft Agreement shall be signed on January 25th, and that after that public shall know details of that text. The Agreement shall be the basis for talks about concluding a Contract between Public Company Srbijagas and Russian Gazprom Export about construction of gas-pipeline and underground storage of gas “Banatski Dvor”, and Agreement between the Government of Serbia and Gazprom Nefta about sales and development of NIS, is quoted in the statement.

The Government of Serbia has authorized the Infrastructure Minister Velimir Ilić to sign, on behalf of the Government, that Agreement on January 25th in Moscow.

ALEKSEEV: AGREEMENT ENVISAGES PIPELINE THROUGH SERBIA ussian Ambassador in Belgrade, Alexander Alekseev has confirmed that the Energy Agreement of Russia and Serbia envisages construction of arterial gas-pipeline passing through the territory of Serbia and construction of gas storage in Banatski dvor. The Russian Ambassador didn’t offer precise details regarding offered price for Oil Industry of Serbia’s capital (Naftna industrija Srbije - NIS), but he pointed out that “large investments into NIS’ modernization has been envisaged”.

He added that certain questions have remained open, like the one if the gas-pipeline shall pass through Republic of Srpska, and those questions shall be discussed on the expert level. Alekseev said that thanks

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IPTV – NEW TELEVISION DIMENSION

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his year will see Telekom Srbija create a new multimedia service for its users – Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).

IPTV is interactive digital television broadcasted over broadband Internet, using IP protocol. Such a solution offers an opportunity for interactivity and represents an essential uniqueness.

Two-way communication enables a broad spectrum of interactive services: Video on Demand (VoD), exchange of content, online gaming, etc.

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to this Agreement, the political influence of Serbia shall also increase in the region, adding that he expects that it shall be signed very soon. The Russian Ambassador didn’t want to comment on the statements of certain Economy Analysts that direct sales of NIS is one of the worst sales models, pointing out that “he isn’t sure if the Analysts are right”. “I am not sure that it is about sales of NIS for a low price and evasion of tender. That is a wish to secure energy safety, because each progress and economic development is not possible without energy”, said Alekseev. He evaluated that adopting of the Cooperation Agreement in the field of oil and gas economy” is a good thing both for Serbia and Russia, but primarily for bilateral relations between two countries”. When asked whether the result of the second round of Presidential

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Elections on February 3rd shall influence the arrangement with “Gasprom”, Alekseev answered that he is “sure that Presidential Elections shall not influence this Agreement”. “I would like if our economic relations would be protected from political waves”, added the Ambassador.

EK: THE SOUTHERN FLOW IS NOT A COMPETITION TO NABUKO eran Faradeljas, Press Representative of the European Energy Commissioner Andris Pibalgs, stated that the European Commission does not consider that the project “The Southern Flow” (Juzni tok) for supplying South-Eastern Europe with Russian gas shall compete with the gaspipeline Nabuko for supplying Europe with gas from Middle Asia over Turkey.

According to the words of Faradeljas, EU representatives’ attitude is that “objectives of those two projects are different”.

He said that those are “complementing, not competing projects” and that it is up to investors if they shall invest money in the “Southern Flow”. Faradeljas said that the European Committee considers, that if Russia wants to conclude jobs in Bulgaria and Serbia “she is entitled to do so, speaking about the European laws”. “Besides that, it could help bigger diversification of the European markets for gas supply from new regions, over the “Southern Flow” gas would arrive passing through gas-pipelines, which is already supplying Europe through Ukraine, Poland and Belarus”, explained European Commission’s representative. He answered in that way the

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CorD / February 2008 51

B2B

ALPHA BANK GROUP ADVANCES TOWARDS “AGENDA 2010”

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lpha Bank, a leading banking Group with tradition of more than 100 years, at the “Capital Markets Day” held in London on January 16, 2008, informed its institutional investors about the progress made in 2007 towards “Agenda 2010” and upgraded its financial targets for 2010.

The presentation was hosted by Demetrios P. Mantzounis, Alpha Bank’s Managing Director, who was accompa-

journalists’ question regarding how the European Commission sees “centralization of the Russian energy supply in the Eastern Europe”, and especially speaking about the “Gasprom” Agreement with Bulgaria and announced Agreement with Serbia. The European Commission, as he precisely put it, “tries to unite European market of gas, oil and all the other energy sources, so that all countries of Europe shall be in a position to select their suppliers, and that not only from Russian, but also from the other parts of the world”. He added that this is also, “necessitating construction of different supply paths, and in that sense the European Commission was very active also in the case of Nabuko gaspipeline and in stimulation of energy ter52 CorD / February 2008

nied by the Group’s General Managers, the Executive General Managers for Retail and Southeastern Europe, and the Country Managers of Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Cyprus.

At the presentation Mr. Mantzounis stated: “Two years into the Agenda 2010 implementation we feel increasingly confident of Alpha Bank’s capacity to exceed its 10% market share target in Southeastern Europe and continue strengthening its leading position in the Greek market. Following strong uptake of our retail and corporate bank-

ing proposition in Southeastern Europe, which has delivered impressive new loan and deposit balances across the region in 2007, we will increase our network investment to double our current footprint and reach over 1,500 Network units by 2010. The increased distribution capacity, numerous marketing initiatives under way, and the recognized consciousness of Alpha Bank on credit quality, cost control, and quality personnel, gives us great optimism on our ability to continue creating value for our shareholders on a sustainable basis”.

minals’ construction and of other infrastructure for energy linking of Turkey and Greece, that is Greece and Italy”. Source: B92, Beta, Tanjug

ny „Knjaz Miloš“, Salford Fund. „After investment and restructuring, a modern company has been created, with a value that has been multiplied. I am assured that the new owner shall pay more than one hundred million euros, and how much more, I can not precisely say. Otherwise, there was belief that “Knjaz Miloš“ has been prepaid during privatization. Last year everything has turned for better, the current owner shall not fare bad and Salford shall surely earn well“, said Živić. General Manager of „Knjaz Miloš“ explains that, after two years of work with loss, the last year was financially the most successful in their history, both regarding production and regarding value, with net revenue of six and a half billion dinars. „When Salford in 2005

COCA COLA TO PURCHASE KNJAZ? laven Živić, General Manager of Knjaz says that visits from many buyers have already been arranged, quoting large multinationals Coca-Cola, Danone and Pepsi. Živić says that the investment funds see their purpose in profit, that is, purchase of the company in which they would invest, which they bring to fit market form, and then sell it. Živić explains that the same principle is valid also for current owner of the compa-

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took over the ownership over „Knjaz“, there were 1,800 workers, and today there are 900 employees, because the rationalization and optimization of work gave results.

Average gross salary is now around 800 euros, which is for the municipality we work for an enviable level, and besides, that is above the average pay in the Republic. We hold 33 percent of market share, regarding the quantity of sold goods, and regarding the value we’re the absolute leaders of the water market in Serbia“, says Živić. He quotes that the company plans innovations for this year for the existing trademarks, as well as completely new products. „The predominant business is water in all variants. Bottled water marks growth in use and sales, around ten percents each year.

Water has a future, because organic growth and profit has been guaranteed to it. I want to say that this development is in the state interest, because we pay one dinar for each litre for use of national resources“, underlines Slaven Živić.

Source: B92, Blic SUBSCRIPTION OF FREE SHARES inister of Economy and Regional Development of Serbia Mlađan Dinkić, says that application of citizens for free shares shall last from January 28th to July 31st this year, adding that all citizens who are of age by the end of the year and are registered as Serbian citizens till January 3rd this year are entitled to receive free shares. Condition is that they had residence in Serbia on June 30th last year. Together with that, a condition is that by the application deadline they should be enrolled into list of voters and that they didn’t receive any free shares whatsoever until now. Free shares would be also provided to the citizens displaced from Kosovo and Metohija. Minister of Economy says that the whole for acquiring the shares is free of charge and that the citizens could sell their shares already in the first half of the next year. For free distribution for the time being have been envisaged shares of six public companies, NIS, EPS, Jat, Telecom, Galenika and Airport “Nikola Tesla”. It is estimated that around four million citizens shall be entitled to have free shares, and that the shares shall be allocated to them in equal amounts, amounting in total to four million euros, meaning that each citizen shall receive shares one thousand euros worth.

Personal ID card and a card of the bank in which they have account are the only documents the citizens shall need for application. If they don’t have a bank account, the Postal Savings Bank shall open the account for them free of charge. Citizens living abroad shall submit their application in diplomatic-consular representative

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offices, and for those who can not move or are undergoing prison sentence, the registration shall be performed by a special Commission. For those who submit incorrect data during recording process, fines have been envisaged.

Source: B92 SECOND BEST ON THE MOVE

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inister of Economy and Regional Development, Mlađan Dinkić stated that after dismissal of the first ranked Tenderer for Yugoslav River Shipping Industry, Consortium Tamosa-Daxin, Agency shall collect from that Consortium a guarantee amounting to 300 thousand euros. Business Councillor of company “Palmali holding” Aleksandar Denda says that this statement of “Minister Dinkić confirms that Serbia is a legal state” and it shows that “persistence in proving legality pays out”. “Cancellation of contract signing by the Consortium of companies Tamosa and Daxin was a logical sequence and we are satisfied that we might be in a position to invest in Serbia”, said Denda, adding that his company is ready to observe all elements from its offer - offered 30 million euros for JRB’s capital (Jugoslovensko recno brodarstvo - Yugoslav River Shipping Industry) and around 15 million euros for investments. Denda mentioned that until official statement from the Privatization Agency is published, that company continues its legal fight in front of domestic courts. “In front of the Supreme Court we shall start a procedure for annulment of the Ministry of Economy decision, because that is something we can not leave to chance and we have to respect the deadlines that are given as legal remedy in all decisions until now”, said Denda, noting that the legal procedures shall be stopped at the moment when Palmali receives an invitation to sign the Contract. The Privatization Agency has announced at the beginning of

December that it has stopped the procedure for sales of Yugoslav River Shipping Industry to the first ranked Tenderer, and as explanation is quoted that it is necessary that the first ranked Tenderer should submit additional documentation. Representatives of Palmali Company have continuously claimed that the first ranked Daxin has

submitted forged documents that served as a confirmation that an agreement has been reached with two companies dealing primarily in river transport. Source: B92, Beta AFE IN ZRENJANIN epresentative Office of Alterna Fuels Europe (AFE), private company established in Denver, shall be opened in Zrenjanin business centre, Business incubator, and the company representatives shall after that consider the possibility to make business agreement with Zrenjanin municipality. Project Coordinator Nikola Nešković has after talks with the greatest corn producers in the region said that the American company is interested to come to Zrenjanin, after the contract concluded in September 2006 has been cancelled, between the municipality and American-Hungarian Consortium “Biotech Energy” about construction of bio-ethanol factory made of wheat and corn. Concluding that contract in 2006 has been proclaimed the biggest Greenfield investment in the Balkans.

“Biotech” has since then obliged itself to invest 380 million euros and to construct a factory in the industrial zone “Ečka”, but the construction hasn’t started yet, nor the investor paid to the municipality 3.6 million euros for utilization of construction land, because of which the contract has been annulled, has been confirmed in Zrenjanin municipality.

Source: Beta,

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CorD / February 2008 53

FACES & PLACES

HRH Princess Katherine Karađorđević offers guests mulled wine at the White Palace’s celebration of Orthodox Christmas on 7th January.

Joachim Rücker, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and Head of the UN Mission in Kosovo, welcomes Sonja Biserko, President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, to UNMIK’s Priština headquarters on 22nd January.

Left-to-right: Irina Valentinova Boldireva, leader of Saint Petersburg’s Saint Jovana Damaskina Children’s Choir, Russian Ambassador to Serbia, H.E. Alexander Alekseev, and Ivana Zigon, actress and president of the Serbo-Russian Friendship Society – pictured at a Media Centre conference organised on the occasion of the Day of Russian Gratitude.

Left-to-right: Director of the FEST management, Miloš Paramentić, chief of press services, Dragan Jovičević, Belgrade City Culture Secretary, Darijan Mihajlović, and Art Director of FEST, Miroljub Vučković – pictured at a 10th January City Hall press conference to present this year’s Belgrade Film Festival – FEST. 54 CorD / February 2008

Milorad Dodik, Republika Srpska Premier (centre), and members of the RS government, pictured in Banja Luka on 9th January, laying a wreath at the monument to fallen combatants on the occasion of Republika Srpska’s National Day.

Serbian Prime Minister, Vojislav Koštunica, is welcomed to Mokra Gora’s Drvengrad (wooden-town) by the ethno-village’s founder, celebrated filmmaker Emir Kusturica, for the start of the inaugural Kustendorf international film festival.

Serbian Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremić, addresses guests of his New Year’s reception in honour of members and former members of staff of the foreign ministry on 14th January.

HRH Princess Katherine and Crown-Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević welcome members of the Serbian national volleyball team’s training staff to a reception held at the Serbian Embassy in Moscow on 22nd January to mark the visit of the royal couple to the Russian capital.

A scene from the 20th December cocktail reception at the French School on Kabalrska Street, which was hosted by the school’s director, Martine Deberre, in order to thank donor companies who support the work of this, the only French nursery, primary and secondary school in Belgrade. Companies receiving the school’s gratitude included Alstom, Areva, Crédit agricole, Société Générale and Delta.

The up-and-coming talented starlets of the Children’s Philharmonic Orchestra perform at their inaugural New Year’s gala concert on 22nd December.

CorD / February 2008 55

FACES & PLACES

Guests of Madlenijanum Opera & Theatre are entertained at a 25th December celebration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of this popular theatre and opera house.

Serbian Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Slobodan Milosavljević, pictured toasting with rakia at the opening of the eighth annual “Pršutijade” Festival in Zlatibor’s Mačkat village on 11th January.

Liu Xinquan, Cultural Affairs Counsellor at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Belgrade, and Jean-Marc Tonti, vice-president of VISA International for Southeast Europe, pictured at Gallery O3one during the 17th January Serbian launch of the Visa Olympics of the Imagination.

The local winner of this international art competition (a child aged 9-13) and their parent or guardian will win an opportunity to attend the Beijing Olympic Games as guests of Visa.

◄ Tomislav Nikolić, presidential candidate of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), pictured at the SRS election HQ cutting the cake to celebrate his “victory” in the first round of the country’s presidential election on 20th January.

Boris Tadić, incumbent Serbian President and president of the Democratic Party, pictured in Kuršumlija greeting army reservists on 13th January. As part of his presidential election campaign, Tadić spent Orthodox New Year’s Eve in the southern Serbian towns of Kuršumlija, Prokuplje and Leskovac.

56 CorD / February 2008

A scene from the 23rd January meeting of the working group for internally displaced persons, which was attended by representatives of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Serbia. The meeting was chaired by the head of the UNHCR office in Belgrade, Lenart Kostalainen (pictured centre).

Boris Tadić, incumbent Serbian President and president of the Democratic Party, pictured at Belgrade’s Saborna Church ahead of Orthodox Christmas’ Midnight Mass on 7th January.

Slobodan Reljić, Chief Editor of weekly NIN, (left), presents H.E. Dragan Velikić – celebrated author and current Ambassador of Serbia in Austria – with this year’s NIN Award for literary excellence. Velikić received the award in recognition of his latest novel Ruski prozor [Russian Window].

Manojlo Vukotić, President of the Board of the Serbian Media Association, addresses attendees of the Association’s traditional annual meeting on 23rd January. The AGM, which was attended by media editors, owners and public figures, as well as Russian Ambassador, H.E. Alexander Alekseev, and Japanese Ambassador, H.E. Tadashi Nagai, saw Vukotić ask the Government, Ministry of Culture and associate members to support the activities of the Media Association in its fifth year.

Hashim Tachi, prime minister of Kosovo, is received in Brussels by Olli Rehn, European Enlargement Commissioner, on 24th January, during the Kosovo premier’s two-day visit to Brussels for talks with senior EU and Nato officials.

CorD / February 2008 57

FROM THE WORLD PRESS

SERBIANS PREPARE PLAN FOR KOSOVO BY: DUSAN STOJANOVIC, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER PUBLISHED: TUESDAY, 15TH JANUARY 2008 erbia yesterday adopted an “action plan” to be implemented if Kosovo declares independence. The plan is believed to include the downgrading of diplomatic ties with Western states and the economic blockade of the breakaway province.

The government said the measures — to be implemented when Kosovo Albanians proclaim independence from Serbia, possibly next month — were adopted at an urgent Cabinet meeting.

The “action plan” was adopted to “protect Serbia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and the constitutional order in case of the unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence,” a government statement said.

The minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said the plan was “top secret” and that no officials could provide any details.

Serbia’s Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac said the military had no special “action plan” for Kosovo but is ready to prevent any violence in the province.

Government officials have said previously that the retaliatory measures include the halting integration into the European Union and downgrading, or even cutting off, diplomatic ties with the United States and several EU countries that plan to recognize Kosovo’s independence.

They also include the imposing of an economic and travel blockade for Kosovo Albanians — a proposal that has stoked concerns of renewed ethnic unrest in the province, the officials said.

Western nations have said they would recognize Kosovo’s independence because it has not been under Serbia’s control since 1999, when NATO intervened

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58 CorD / February 2008

to stop former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s military crackdown against the separatists.

Serbia, backed by Russia, insists Kosovo — considered the cradle of Serbia’s medieval state and religion — should remain part of its territory, and has urged more negotiations with Kosovo Albanians.

AN INDEPENDENT KOSOVO CAN NEVER JOIN UN, RUSSIA WARNS BY: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, PUBLISHED: JANUARY 17, 2008 ussia has warned Kosovo’s leaders that if they declare independence, the territory will never become a member of the United Nations or other international political institutions.

The United States and Britain countered Wednesday by reaffirming their support for Kosovo’s drive for independence from Serbia, a close ally of Russia.

The status of Kosovo, a province of Serbia that has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, was not on the UN Security Council’s official agenda Wednesday.

The council was supposed to discuss a report on the UN Mission in Kosovo, but

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instead the two sides replayed their debate from last month on independence vs. autonomy for the province, and neither side budged.

With Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders expected to declare independence in late February or early March, the stakes were high, and the key players sent top leaders - President Boris Tadic of Serbia and Kosovo’s newly elected prime minister Hashim Thaci - to make their cases again to the United Nations’s most powerful body.

Tadic echoed Russia’s call for further negotiations, saying a solution that would provide self-government guaranteeing all rights to the Kosovo Albanians was “possible and attainable.” He stressed that Serbia was now a peaceful democracy and that there was no reason it should be “unjustly punished again” because of the former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists a decade ago that led to the 1999 NATO bombing campaign.

But Thaci told the council that Kosovo had laid the foundations to be a democratic state and that independence was a “first step to regional success and our integration in the European family,” according to a copy of his speech. Later, he told reporters that “very soon we will take a de-

cision,” expressing hope that soon the “international community will recognize us Washington, Britain and other states.”

After the Dec. 19 Security Council debate, the U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, declared the views of the two sides “irreconcilable,” and said it was time for an independent Kosovo - a position backed by Britain, France and most members of the European Union.

On Wednesday, Khalilzad said: “We know where we are heading. There is no change with regard to the fact that the council is blocked.”

Britain’s UN ambassador, John Sawers, agreed that “nothing’s changed.”

“I don’t think there’s any prospect of further negotiations, so we need to plan ahead, and the European Union’s made clear its approach,” he said. “There will be a further discussion among EU foreign ministers on Saturday evening.”

The Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, countered that the future of Kosovo was a Security Council issue - not an EU issue - and said council members should prepare a roadmap that would “create dynamics that in our view would lead to a negotiated outcome.”

“We are respectful of the interest of the European Union to enhance its role in Kosovo, but that should not replace an international effort to find a mutually acceptable solution,” Churkin said.

He made clear that Russia, which has veto power in the Security Council, would block any attempt by an independent Kosovo to become a member of the United Nations.

“Going down the way of unilateral moves, Kosovo is not going to join the ranks of fully recognized members of the international community,” he said. “It may get some recognitions, regrettably,” but “it’s not going to come to this building as full-fledged member of the international community. It’s not going to be able to join other political international institutions.”

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, in an article published in Bulgarian newspapers Thursday ahead of his visit there, said, “Here, our position is crystal-clear: Any solution for Kosovo must be approved by both parties.”

“It is equally clear that any solution for Kosovo must be in keeping with international precedent and practice,” he said in the Kremlin-provided text provided to Bulgarian media.

While Russia and Serbia contend that any action outside the council would be illegal, Sawers and Khalilzad insist that the 1999 UN resolution providing for Kosovo to be administered by the United Nations and NATO troops also contains the legal basis to move ahead with independence.

The United States and Europeans insist that the issue of Kosovo’s future status is unique and would not set a precedent for other separatist groups, as Russia and Serbia claim.

Russia’s Churkin said he told the council that, “legally speaking, any unilateral declaration of independence by Pristina should be declared null and void by the head of the UN mission there” because it violates the 1999 UN resolution and the UN Charter.

Tadic stressed that “Serbia will never recognize Kosovo’s independence and will preserve its territorial integrity and sovereignty by all democratic means, legal arguments and diplomacy.” He reiterated that “Serbia will not resort to violence and war.”

Despite the disagreement over Kosovo’s future status, Khalilzad said the United States and the Europeans wanted to strengthen relations with Serbia.

GERMANY AND SERBIA HOPE FOR SWIFT DEAL ON EU TRADE PACT BY: DW STAFF (JG), PUBLISHED: 11TH JANUARY 2008 he foreign ministers of Germany and Serbia said that they were hoping that the Balkan nation would soon be able to sign up to a key aid and trade pact with the European Union.

Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic said that his country had already fulfilled the EU’s conditions for the agreement, which is seen as the first formal step on the road to EU membership.

“We very much hope this is going to become the reality come January 28, and if not January 28 at the next earliest opportunity,” said Jeremic on Thursday, Jan. 10.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also agreed that the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on that date was the ideal time for signing the

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Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA).

Agreement rests on co-operation with The Hague But he said the go-ahead depended on full cooperation by Belgrade with the UN war crimes tribunal based in The Hague.

He suggested that the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, Serge Brammertz, visit Serbia before a decision is taken.

Jeremic said Belgrade would do everything possible to ensure that war criminals, most eminently ex-General Ratko Mladic, are handed over to the tribunal.

Mladic, who is accused of masterminding the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed, is believed to be hiding out in Serbia.

Germany says the pact is in Europe’s interest Steinmeier said Europe had a strong interest in seeing “that the democratic and European path taken by Serbia remains the path for the future of this country.”

Differences over the breakaway Serb province of Kosovo were not bridged at the talks. Steinmeier said the recent talks to resolve the status issue had ended in failure, but Jeremic said they had achieved progress and called for more time to reach a negotiated settlement.

The EU and the United Nations want Kosovo to assume a supervised form of statehood, but Serbia, supported by Russia, only wants to grant more autonomy to the province, which is mainly inhabited by ethnic Albanians. Kosovo has threatened to declare independence unilaterally.

KOSOVO PM AGREES INDEPENDENCE DATE BY: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, PUBLISHED: 23RD JANUARY 2008 Ethnic Albanian leaders and Western governments have agreed on a date for Kosovo to declare independence from Serbia, the province’s prime minister said.

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FROM THE WORLD PRESS

Hashim Thaci said the date had been coordinated with both Washington and Brussels, the seat of the European Union, and would be revealed shortly.

“It will be a good surprise, made fast in the coming days,” Thaci told reporters before departing for Brussels. “The date is coordinated, and it will be made public very soon.”

Thaci planned to meet EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Dutch diplomat Peter Feith, who has been chosen to lead a proposed EU mission in Kosovo.

Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders had been expected to declare independence in February or March. Serbia strongly opposes independence for the province, and the issue has caused friction between the West and Serbian ally Russia - a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Today, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice added urgency to resolving Kosovo’s status, saying that putting off resolutions “doesn’t make tough decisions easier.”

Kosovo’s independence is supported by the United States and most European Union members, including Britain and France.

Some EU nations, however, have voiced misgivings about recognising Kosovo outside the framework of the United Nations.

The EU has proposed sending an 1,800-strong police and justice mission to replace the UN administration that has run Kosovo since 1999, but a final decision as not likely before EU foreign ministers meet on Feb 18.

Belgrade opposes the EU mission, fearing it would be a prelude to Kosovo’s independence.

The UN and a NATO peacekeeping mission took control in 1999 after 78 days of NATO bombing, which forced Serbian troops to end their brutal crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians.

KOSOVO PARLIAMENT CHOOSES FORMER REBEL CHIEF FOR PREMIER BY: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, PUBLISHED: 10TH JANUARY 2008 former rebel leader was elected Kosovo’s prime minister on Wednesday, vowing that the province was only weeks away from independence and calling on Serbia to drop its claim to the

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territory.

Kosovo’s Parliament voted 85 to 22 to approve a coalition government with Hashim Thaci as prime minister. His government will try to steer the province through a declaration of independence, a course supported by the United States and some European governments but fiercely opposed by Serbia and Russia. ‘’It’s an issue of weeks, and Kosovo will be an independent, sovereign and democratic country,’’ Mr. Thaci said in an interview at his residence here in the provincial capital. ‘’Independence is everything for us. We have sacrificed. We deserve it.’’

Still, he cautioned that no move would be made without the approval of the United States and the major European nations. ‘’Kosovo will do nothing without Washington and Brussels -- no unilateral actions,’’ Mr. Thaci said, referring to the seat of the European Union in Belgium.

Kosovo, though legally part of Serbia, has been under United Nations and NATO control since NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 ended a Serbian crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians in the province.

International envoys last year failed to resolve whether Kosovo should become independent or remain part of Serbia.

Russia has previously threatened to veto any United Nations Security Council measure that allows Kosovo to become a state.

Mr. Thaci, 39, is the fifth prime minister of Kosovo, a southern Serbian province, since it came under United Nations administration. His rise is likely to cause a stir in Serbia, which has accused him of war crimes while he led the Kosovo Liberation Army against troops loyal to Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader, who died in 2006.

But Mr. Thaci sought to reassure the

province’s Serbian minority that it would be safe in an independent Kosovo, and he called anew on Belgrade to relinquish the territory. ‘’Kosovo will be a country for everybody,’’ Mr. Thaci said in the interview.

In a speech to Parliament, he appealed to the Serbian minority to consider Kosovo its home and, in a symbolic move, switched to speaking Serbian from Albanian. ‘’Kosovo is a homeland to all its people,’’ he said in Serbian.

No independence declaration is likely before Serbia’s presidential elections. The first round will be on Jan. 20, and a runoff is likely on Feb. 3.

Mr. Thaci emerged as the political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army in 1997 as it claimed responsibility for several attacks on Serbian authorities.

His Democratic Party of Kosovo won the most votes in November elections, but must govern with its main opponent, the Democratic League of Kosovo. Both parties support statehood for the province, where the population is more than 90 percent ethnic Albanian.

U.N. PROSECUTOR SAYS EX-KOSOVO PM APPROVED RAPE AND MURDER BY: REUTERS (REPORTING BY ALEXANDRA HUDSON; EDITING BY KEITH WEIR), PUBLISHED: 21ST JANUARY 2008 osovo’s former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj approved the rape, persecution and murder of Serb civilians when he led a guerrilla force in the 1990s, prosecutors at his war crimes trial said on Monday.

Haradinaj, a Kosovo Albanian who served as a regional commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the 1998-99 war with Serb forces before becoming prime minister, is charged with responsibility for torture, murder, rape and deportation.

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“There was a saying: ‘God in heaven, Haradinaj on earth’,” prosecutor David Re said, summing up his case at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

“His degree of control was such... that the murders, tortures and rapes could not have occurred without his approval,” he added.

Prosecutors are seeking a 25-yearsentence for Haradinaj, 39, and his two co-accused Idriz Balaj, the commander of the “Black Eagles”, a special unit of the KLA, and Lahi Brahimaj, Haradinaj’s uncle.

All three accused have pleaded not guilty.

Haradinaj, who once worked as a nightclub bouncer, resigned in 2005 after being indicted by the U.N. tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by forces he commanded.

Serbia has had no formal control over Kosovo, whose two-million population is 90 percent Albanian, since NATO bombing drove out Serb forces in 1999 to halt their killing and ethnic cleansing in a twoyear war against separatist rebels.

The breakaway province is now a U.N. protectorate occupied by 16,000 NATO peacekeepers, and is expected shortly to declare independence with Western backing.

Individuals on both sides of the conflict have been indicted by the U.N. tribunal.

During the trial Haradinaj’s defence lawyer said he fought an honourable war, targeting combatants not civilians.

Haradinaj is the most senior former KLA guerrilla to be indicted over the war and the first serving head of government to be indicted since former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

After closing arguments this week a panel of judges will retire to consider their verdict, although it is not known when they will deliver this.

RUSSIA DOWNPLAYS KOSOVO DOMINO EFFECT

‘The Russian leadership has never said that after the recognition of independence in Kosovo we would immediately recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,’ Lavrov told journalists.

Kosovo says it is ready to declare independence even without agreement from Serbia and several Western governments have indicated they are ready to back this.

However Moscow warns that the precedent would then encourage separatism elsewhere, particularly in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The warning has raised fears in Georgia, a Western ally, that Russia is preparing to recognise the rebel regions, which already receive substantial Russian financial and political backing.

Lavrov repeated Moscow’s position that Kosovan independence would set a ‘precedent’ for some 200 other separatist territories around the world.

H o w e v e r, he appeared to back peddle on previous statements by Russian officials that strongly linked Kosovo to Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Lavrov ‘there is nothing more untruthful’ than the idea that Moscow was waiting to use Kosovan independence as a pretext ‘to start recognising all and sundry. There could be nothing less true.’

In 2006, President Vladimir Putin said, ‘If you consider that one can grant total independence to Kosovo, why must we deprive the Ossetians and Abkhasians of it?

BY: AFP IN MOSCOW PUBLISHED: 23RD JANUARY 2008 oreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Russia would not necessarily recognise two Moscow-backed rebel regions of neighouring Georgia if the Serbian province of Kosovo declares independence.

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SOCIETY

INTERVIEW: Vladimir Arsenijević, Serbian writer and editor-in-chief of publishing house “VBZ” Belgrade

Lifting the Barriers

for Literature

We have lost the ability to communicate with the world around us, and that is evidenced by the fact that we’re unable to produce authors that would stand out even outside of the borders of our country, especially in the regions with which we don’t have a language barrier – says Valimir Arsenijević speaking to CorD this month.

With the arrival of “VBZ” on the Serbian market, writers from the surrounding republics are coming too, but also a part of the works from Serbia will start being distributed more in Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovenia.

BY ŽARKA RADOJA; PHOTO: ČASLAV VUKOJIČIĆ Serbian literature has almost completely disappeared from the bookshelves of the former republics of SFRY during the last two decades, and a similar thing happened to the literary works of those countries in Serbia. Few are those who have expressed an interest in the written word, wherever it comes from, including domestic works of literature. Many think that there are depressingly few new young and mod62 CorD / February 2008

ern writers on the Serbian market, while the marketing and selling of books beyond the borders is not even talked about.

Maybe one of the reasons is that, until recently, the Ministry of Culture helped publish books that were printed in Cyrillic.

As such, they could only go to Republika Srpska and Montenegro. But again, even that didn’t happened. Serbian writers are present in a negligible number on the markets of the former republics of SFRY. However, times have been changing in

the past years. One might say for the better. First the publishing house “Rende” started releasing the works of contemporary writers from Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia in its edition “Ledolomac” [Icebreaker], then a writing collective from Serbia published their books in Croatia – these included Marko Vidojković, David Albahari, Vladimir Arsenijević, and a few months ago Zagreb-based publishing company “VBZ” opened its first office in Belgrade, which should start a whole new

story when it comes to publishing in the entire region.

This venture is the third office that the Croatian publishers have established outside of Croatia as they strive to conquer the markets of ex-SFRY, which are very close in terms of language. Why it’s happening only now is not known, since the republics of the former Yugoslavia represent a good field for cultural exchange at least – particularly due to their undeniable linguistic connection. The publishers have many reasons, but one of the chief is the lack of reading culture and money.

With the arrival of “VBZ” on the Serbian market, writers from the surrounding republics are coming too, but also a part of the works from Serbia will start being distributed more in Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovenia. The plan, as they say in “VBZ”, is to have 10 translations, 10 works by Serbian writers and 10 authors from the region out of 30 works published per year.

Vladimir Arsenijević, a writer from Serbia and new editor-in-chief of “VBZ” for Serbia, spent seven years in the publishing house “Rende”, where he attempted to bring the regional literatures as close to the domestic reader as possible.

“The reading audience has spent 10 years without contact, not knowing what’s happening with the literatures of the nations that are close to us in terms of language. I tried to find a way to further distribute the books, especially in Croatia and B&H, because I feel that is the natural area to which we should turn. The number of mystical reasons why it wasn’t possible, in this way or the other, is incredible”, says Arsenijević, adding “VBZ, with its three offices in Ljubljana, Sarajevo and Belgrade, is ahead of other publishers in this region in is actively interested in the region of the former Serbo-Croatian language.

“I have the impression that there is still a strange lack of will on the part of those publishers who could expand their distribution to the area which they could encompass by the language in which they print their books. It is bizarre that in 2007 – and 2000 was the last moment when we

“Serbian books were supposed to be distributed there, but then a problem arose. Serbian books are three to five times cheaper than Croatian ones, and to distribute them there would be interesting if the largest bookstore owners weren’t at the same time the largest publishers too.” could justify ourselves with external circumstances – we still haven’t developed a united distribution that covers B&H, Croatia and Montenegro. VBZ has opened offices in two of those countries and gone down a different path with the idea to distribute all of the books it prints in all of the countries.

Arsenijević’s books, “Below Deck” and “Ishmail”, are among the few Serbian books that have appeared on the Croatian market. On the other hand, the books of Croatian writers have been found in Serbia’s bookshops for quite some time now. Arsenijević says that the main reason for the small number of Serbian writers on the markets outside of the country is the politics of all those involved in the production of a book, from the writer, through the publisher and up to the distributor.

“The reason for the lack of Serbian writers on the Croatian market is not resistance to Serbian writers being published there. Such resistance does exist, but not from the emancipated reading audience. It is a fact that Serbian literature is trailing in

Media Stars Vladimir Arsenijević says that there are no real literary stars in Serbia and that such an attribute could only be given to the people who are often present in the media.

“When my book got the NIN award I gave many interviews and one of the questions was whether it was going to cause a wave of new, young, talented writers – being that the door was now open for them. Soon it showed that nothing would change, that the door was opened and quickly closed. You are rarely a literary star here. I’d rather define it as a media star that does some writing. You are seldom a star in your own right. Any writer to have a one-hour show on TV would be the best-selling author in the country.”

its own wake. In the ‘70s it had the leading position among all of the former republics, because of its quality and penetration, but then came stagnation and a complete loss of direction. This state of affairs was supported by literary criticism which proved itself completely incapable of keeping up with the times. The same way that we, as a nation, decided to stray into some unexplored areas politically, so did our literature, in a similar fashion, wander off in the same direction. We have lost the ability to communicate with the world around us, and that is evidenced by the fact that we’re unable to produce authors that would stand out even outside of the borders of our country, especially in the regions with which we don’t have a language barrier,” Arsenijević explains.

He says that when Serbian literature finally got its chance to penetrate the Croatian market, advantage was not taken: “Serbian books were supposed to be distributed there, but then a problem arose.

Serbian books are three to five times cheaper than Croatian ones, and to distribute them there would be interesting if the largest bookstore owners weren’t at the same time the largest publishers too.”

In the meantime, the two sides developed a pretty big interest for each other. The edition with the symbolic title “Ledolomac” [Icebreaker] by the publishing company “Rende” made a breakthrough on the Serbian market. It turned out that it had a large number of interested people in the literary audience, and some authors, like Vedrana Rudan, became, as our interlocutor says, “instant stars”.

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SOCIETY

Soon a number of Serbian writers managed to publish their works in Croatia.

Here, apart from the already mentioned, we have also Teofil Pančić, Aleksandar Zograf, the books of the Kreativni Centar, David Albahari, Mileta Prodanović, Danilo Kiš – whose works were published posthumously by the library “Feral Tribune”.

It’s a very small number and, according to Vladimir Arsenijevic’s data, the books in general did not have a big impact on the Croatian market. However, it’s a very different story on this side.

“Croatian literature has appeared in the region since 2000 as the new punk with a strong, vital energy, and that felt very good for the audience here, which had already started believing that things were deeply unchangeable and that the strange, hidden duty of literature was to be infinitely dull.

Croatian writers have played a big part in the region and influenced a partial change of course within Serbian and Bosnian literature. Three authors have succeeded in establishing their presence on the entire territory: Vedrana Rudan, Boris Dežulović and Miljenko Jergović,” says Arsenijević, pointing out that the reaction of the audience to these authors’ books is getting better and better. “People aren’t changing their opinion, but they are getting used to the presence of something that wasn’t there before. We experienced a lot of small, spiteful insults at previous book fairs because of our publications. There are no reactions like that anymore, not even among the people whose

The importance of expansion Miljenko Jergovic, writer and journalist: “The appearance of a Croatian publishing house in Serbia, and its effort to make itself at home in Belgrade, has about the same significance as the appearance of an important, big Serbian publishing house will have in Croatia… I hope. It is most of all a cultural benefit, but is also a benefit in every other sense. For Serbian writers, VBZ will, I suppose, be less important than for the Serbian readers. Namely, it’s just another publishing company for the writers, and, thank god, there are so many publishers in Serbia that no new one can be a miracle, even if it is a Croatian publisher. Of course, I hope that this event could prove important with every next step in mutual communication between the two cultural scenes, and that the appearance of VBZ in Serbia could help in the flow of books between the two countries. It is also understood that Serbian writers will get to their Croatian publisher more easily in this way, and vice versa. negative opinions are known to me.”

The lack of a united effort from Serbian writers, publishers or distributors on the market outside of the country is just one of the problems that Serbian literature is facing today. The arrival of a big player could change the picture and enable Serbian writers to find a spot more easily for their works on those markets. However, literature in Serbia is only just trying to recover from the legacy of a part of the older generation of authors, who in the ‘90s played a key role in the “awakening of nationalism” and in keeping the regime of Slobodan Milošević in power.

“I don’t have a high opinion of domestic literature and I show it by ‘umming and ahhing’ when someone asks me to name a good domestic writer. Such a situation was aided by several simultaneous processes. First was the incredible arrogance of

“At last, the market is starting to come together. Slowly, but it’s starting. It is beyond me why it hasn’t happened yet.Those provincial mentalities are strong with us; they enjoy some kind of a reputation.”

64 CorD / February 2008

the people whose duty it was to incite new aspirations in literature, but who greeted each new author with a kind of cynicism. Then there’s the lack of true interest among the reading audience, and thirdly, there’s no creativity and the audience is more inclined towards faster forms. It’s a problem that’s present everywhere in the world. Serbian literature has fallen into the general Serbian problem of deep division, so now we have some academics with grey hair who are fans of the nationalistic politics of the ‘90s and are a disgrace for our culture… Some of them promoted death in the ‘90s. As a counter-strike, we have a more modern, younger, rock generation with some authors that stand out among them, like Srđan Valjarević, Daniel Kovač, Biljana Srbljanović, Milena Marković, Marko Vidojković, Barbara Marković, Srđan Tešin, etc.” explains Arsenijević.

He says that the idea of VBZ is to have all offices in contact with each other and publishing all books on all markets if possible. There are negotiations for some Serbian writers to be more actively presented in Croatia, like David Albahari and Srđan Valjarević – a man who’s being talked about a lot in Croatia, but whose books have not been published there.

“At last, the market is starting to come together. Slowly, but it’s starting. It is beyond me why it hasn’t happened yet. Those provincial mentalities are strong with us; they enjoy some kind of a reputation. It is an absurdity, because there is a certain closeness that cannot be ignored and, importantly for this story, it is in connection with language,” Arsenijević explains.

VBZ, according to current plans, should be publishing four times fewer books than its head office in Croatia. Apart from that, work should be intensified on practicing new habits, distributional and promotional activities on the entire territory that this publishing house covers.

In conclusion, Arsenijević notes that the wall is the hardest to break through individual activities, and that a co-ordinated and general action on a higher level, led by the Ministry of Culture, is necessary.

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SOCIETY

Warhol meets Maliqi: Dren Maliqi’s “Face to Face” pits Warhol’s interpretation of Elvis against late KLA fighter Adam Jashari

Art in Conflict

The Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad, January 22nd: the opening of the ‘Expressions’ exhibition TEXT & IMAGES BY JAMES MAY he artists and their audience, who are almost outnumbered by journalists, crowd inside the gallery, escaping the driving rain outside. All are here to witness something which in itself is not of particularly great importance, but is taking place at a time that gives it broader significance to those gathered. There is a buzz in the air. To the politically engaged artist – and any person searching for signs of change in the zeitgeist, in the unendurable conflict over Kosovo – this is what it is all about.

‘Expressions’ presents the works of young Kosovo-Albanian artists. The work is about conflict and its consequences; conflict between those who would be independent and free and those who would

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66 CorD / February 2008

Plugged: Alketa Xhafa’s “Baby Doll/the Day After”

shackle the free of spirit to a conservative past, which has lost its meaning in the present. This is art with resonance. Of its time. Contemporary. The art, and its artists, would-be pretentious, just like much in contemporary art, and like most contemporary artists, if it weren’t for the fact that they are bold without assuming selfimportance and provocative without mocking. These are the benchmarks by which modernism is measured.

The installations reflect the conflict that has shaped contemporary Kosovo society, explicitly referencing trauma coursed to society – often to the point of self-indulgence. Lulzim Zeqiri’s “White Map” video instillation shows thick red liquid, purposefully blood-like, rising around the legs of a seated folkloric musician, in a work that directly, and crudely, addresses patriotic/nationalistic obsessions and bloodshed. There is no apology for the hard questions it, or any of the other works, ask of the audience and the community in which it is presented. And this is because, in the production of these works, even in the subject matter it addresses, the wider conflict is secondary to a conflict in Art: a

conflict between a new generation of artists and the conservative artistic establishment in Priština.

Broadly representative of the Priština Contemporary Art scene, the instillations display a tangible necessity to be direct.

The art and its artists illustrate the gravity of the established art academy from which they are trying to break away. This gravity, representative and consequential of a wider system of thinking, requires a monumental effort to escape, in the case of Dren Maliqi’s “Face to Face”, literally. Maliqi’s work places Andy Warhol’s serigraph print of Elvis Presley and his own scaled reproduction of a monumental picture of the KLA fighter Adam Jashari (upper left), which hangs 50-feet-tall on the Sports Centre in Priština, on opposite walls of the gallery. The installation positions the cult of Adam Jashari – 24 members of whose family were murdered by Serbian Security Forces in 1998 – as a figure of pop culture, and whose heroic status, despite its tragic origins, is a construct no different to Elvis Presley’s. It is a brave and, frankly, damning indictment.

Dretan Hajredini’s series of paintings, parodying some of the great western-curators (below), tells his audience, “I WANT YOU FOR C.A. [contemporary art] ARMY”. There is no messing about.

Out with the old; in with the contemporary.

Time for subtly this is not. In another of his works, “Sin”, a video installation, Hajredini asks an Opus Dei priest, at Confession in Muenster, Germany, if it is a sin to be born an Albanian in Kosovo. His take on the world, and his lot in life, is clear. What exactly did he do to deserve this?

Alketa Xhafa’s “Baby Doll/the Day

Hope: Artist Dren Maliqi: “I thought the only place that hope remained was in my head, so I had to do this”

After”, showing an unknown female figure, plugged in and dressed only in Albanian national identity, seen (far lower left), hardly requires a feminist explanation of how gender is subjugated by nationalism to articulate its meaning: bold and provocative, without being self-important or mockingly modernist. However, perhaps it’s a little dull to the outside observer.

The directness with which challenging subjects are addressed – KLA fighters, blood and trauma, gender slavery, and sin as a birth right – adds value, because it speaks of a higher conflict: not just between generations of artists, or estranged and embittered neighbours, but of a broad-

Recruitment drive: Dretan Hajredini’s paintings seek fighters for the Contemporary Art Army

er ‘us’ and ‘them’. It speaks to ‘us’ about those who would crush ‘us’ in pursuit of their own interests: the art establishment, nationalist community leaders in Priština, the regime in Belgrade, global consumerism and great power politics. Albin Muja even goes to the trouble of stating this in the text accompanying his work. This art and its politics are about galvanizing us the audience and the artist - against those who value their nationalisms, their power, and their money more than they value us.

The exhibition does not tell us we can all live together happily. But it does tell us, explicitly, that we are all up to our ankles in the same foul stench. The installation ‘Hope’ - ‘Hope’ painted in glossy white on white background, (above) – is perhaps as subtle as it gets here. Its creator, Dren Maliqi, says: “I thought the only place that hope remained was in my head, so I had to do this”.

Here and now, in Serbia, where a protracted conflict between communities – Kosovo/Serbia – currently overshadows all else, the conflict between generations, a fight against conservatism, against selfcensorship based on other peoples’ ill-conceived and self-serving values, has real resonance and speaks to us as a community defined by our values.

The art may be from Kosovo, by and for Kosovo-Albanians, and bringing it to Novi Sad may only be a small step, but it is a small step, like hope, that had to be taken. This is serious stuff. p.s. I am not a politically engaged artist, and I prefer Rubin to Warhol.

You can check out ‘Expressions’ until 5 th February at the Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, 37 Dunakska Street, Novi Sad. CorD / February 2008 67

SOCIETY

TALES FROM THE BIG PLUM

Serbs in Love

19th century romantic depiction of a Serbian maiden tending an injured knight.

According to one website, there are 3,419 songs with the word “love” in the title.

That’s just songs in English. I then Googled “pesme sa reči ‘ljubav’ u svom nazivu” (songs with ‘love’ in their title), and something similar in French, but to no avail. One can only hope it’s universal. It’s said that “Love makes the world go ‘round,” however American humorist Franklin P. Jones quipped, “Love doesn’t make the world go round, but it does make the ride worthwhile.”

BY PAT ANĐELKOVIĆ 3. Tenderness: No sooner than they exit the ince our technologically-empowered world has womb, little boy Serbs are fawned over by brought Serbia Valentine’s Day, it seems fitting doting mothers and grandmothers. Naturally, that this month’s column should deal with ljubav, his woman must carry on the tradition. or love.

4. Reliability: The harder the struggle at work, What qualities do Serbian women and men seek the less time a man has for family. Women in each other, and are they so different from their are expected to be more independent and ascounterparts across the globe? sume more male domestic tasks.

A recent survey has shown that women in gen5. Patience: Men want recognition that they’re eral look for the following qualities, in no particudoing the best they can, and need understandlar order: ing and patience.

Pat Anđelković 1. Confidence: No wimps.

6. Appearance: Serbian men want their wom2. Sense of humour: Dull = boring. en to doll themselves up for the rest of their 3. Security: Financial security, and someone to love her lives, just like before they got married. No when she’s older and flabbier. going to bed with curlers.

4. Looks: Doesn’t need to be a hunk; just attentive to apSome sources say nearly every third married man cheats on pearance. his wife, but how are these statistics obtained? Questionnaires?

5. Ambition: Man with plans – for dates, for work, for life.

Personal experience? And how is cheating defined? Coffee 6. Good manners: A real man who opens the door for her. dates with a business partner? Email-flings?

7. Mental, emotional, spiritual, and oh, yes, physical satisRecently, local newspapers have written about Serbian polfaction: A guy with emotions, but not a sissy. iticians having “ljubavnice” or mistresses, which appears to be 8. Faithfulness: No talk about how he cheated on his ex, acceptable worldwide, except if you’re a government official and of course no cheating at all. in China, where it’s now a criminal offence. Serbian men can 9. Generosity: No tightwads. be extremely jealous, so watch out if you’re flirting with someIn general, men look for the following in women, in no par- one’s partner or are that partner. Almost daily newspapers anticular order: nounce stories of an enraged husband axing his beloved’s lov1.Independence: A woman who wants a man, not one who er to death – and perhaps her as well – in some remote village, needs one. or else shooting him/them here in Belgrade (quicker and neat2. Personality: Easy to talk to, fun. er; no axe at hand.)

3. Confidence: Doesn’t need constant confirmation of the For the average Serbian man, family is more important than relationship, her looks, or attributes. career. At home he finds relaxation, warmth, and calm after 4. Appearance: Must knock herself out to look good. office hassle. He happily plays with his children, and feels 5. Honesty: Doesn’t play games. fulfilled as a father. Today’s statistics show that although di6. Sincerity: Interested in him, not his bank account or car. vorce rates have risen in the last 50 years from one in 13 to 7. Supportiveness: Supports his goals and dreams. one in five, that’s still pretty low compared to say, the U.S. or Let’s see now what Serbian men want in women, again in Britain. no particular order: Research has shown that the average European man makes 1. Trust: More important than most women think. love twice a week with his WIFE. (Notice the capital letters; 2. Faithfulness: A cheating partner is bad, but the fear that and by the way, do we now count Serbia in Europe, what with “the other” could be better is worse. all this EU business?) Serbian men will boast that they’re the

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68 CorD / February 2008

1: Serbian men can be extremely jealous, so watch out if you’re flirting with someone’s partner or are that partner. Almost daily newspapers announce stories of an enraged husband axing his beloved’s lover to death – and perhaps her as well – in some remote village, or else shooting him/them here in Belgrade (quicker and neater; no axe at hand.)

2: During the crippling sanctions of the ‘90s, sponsors and sponsorettes (sponzori i sponzoruše) sprang up. Nouveau-riche, sugar daddy businessmen were both desirous of and desired by young girls out for a good time. These sugar daddies outfitted their young sponsorettes in expensive clothes, gave them pricey jewellery and perfume, and took them on exotic holidays. Since Serbian women outnumber men, there was an unlimited supply of sponzoruše, and today’s girlfriend could easily find herself cast off tomorrow. best lovers, and pity the poor neglected soul who only gets it twice a week.

Serbian women want pretty much what other women do, but also desire a man to be rich and good, although the second qualification isn’t as important as the first, since Serbian women often assume the typical role of a victim. If in addition to those two qualities he has brains, he’s an ideal Serb.

Women also fall for the readiness of a man to dedicate himself to a serious bond. Once it was that the husband was the breadwinner, and Serbian women were shy, submissive, and virtuous. Today’s not-so-submissive Serbian women, shy and virtuous or not, often bring home just as much bacon as the men, and cook it, too.

Belgrade, of course, isn’t representative of all of Serbia, since there’s a wider influence of western culture here. Only a really strong man without complexes can accept a relationship with an emancipated woman, but that’s not the average Serb, who’s patriarchal and requires his wife to make sacrifices, be docile and home-oriented. Today Serbian women look for a husband who is more a partner than a source of revenue. Still, they know a good husband doesn’t have to be born to be one; he can be trained.

During the crippling sanctions of the ‘90s, sponsors and sponsorettes (sponzori i sponzoruše) sprang up. Nouveauriche, sugar daddy businessmen were both desirous of and desired by young girls out for a good time. These sugar daddies

outfitted their younger sponsorettes in expensive clothes, gave them pricey jewellery and perfume, and took them on exotic holidays. Since Serbian women outnumber men, there was an unlimited supply of sponzoruše, and today’s girlfriend could easily find herself cast off tomorrow. Unfortunately, this trend still exists. Check out the number of young girls with older men you see in fancy places. Most likely they’re not father and daughter.

My own experience and observation tells me that most Serbs are gentlemen. Although there’s no hand kissing like in Budapest, they still open doors, carry bags, help you with your coat, and light cigarettes: in short, display behaviour that would outrage feminists. They’ll flirt with you, compliment you on your make-up, new dress, tell you outright how sexy you are, and also sometimes will surprise you by even saying something poetic. You’ll find lots of fathers with babies in parks on Sundays while mother is at home cooking lunch.

Last but certainly not least, what about the possibility of intercultural love? The best proof I have is our informal “Native English-speaking Women Married to Serbs” group that gathers monthly at someone’s apartment. We’re from all over, ranging in ages from 70-something to 25, and meet to catch up on what’s new in our lives, complain about the trials and tribulations of living in Serbia, and in doing so validate the Serbian proverb, “Ljubav i sloga nemoguće omoguće,“ or “Love and co-operation make the impossible possible.“ CorD / February 2008 69

SOCIETY

IVICA’S EDGE

Big Brother: A Big House for Small People Big brother, the planetary phenomenon, is experiencing an unenviable fate because of a combination of tragic events in Serbia. The second season of the popular Dutch-born reality show did not end in the usual way: following the tragic deaths of three former housemates in a traffic accident, the programme’s producers and TV B92 made the only possible move: they stopped the show a few days before it was officially scheduled to end and the remaining household members shared the prize money of €100,000. For the time being, the media life of this show is extremely uncertain. Be that as it may, the most sought after words on domestic web searchers in 2007 were horoscope, sex and Big Brother.

BY IVICA PETROVIĆ rangement, the same feeling of discomfort was alf certain observers are to be believed, Big so felt within B92 itself. Broadcasting times were Brother in Serbia did not achieve the popularmodest, there was little live coverage, and that was ity it enjoyed in other countries. While in some an additional argument to all those who claimed countries BB was inviolably the most watched that the natural place for BB to be aired was on TV programme, in Serbia it was only among several Pink. A particular problem arose from the fact that programmes with similar contents. It is probably B92 sees itself as the moral conscience of society, a matter of timing. but the BB ballast stands in the way of that. That Counting all the things where Serbia is lagging could be seen when B92 News directly criticised behind the world is becoming tiresome, but the the programme “48-hour wedding” (also produced BB phenomenon definitely came with a big delay.

by BB producers Emotion) several times.

Numerous countries had already had it for severA few strong words were exchanged, and many al seasons, and with that the charm of the novel- Ivica Petrović people noticed that B92 does not have the morty was lost, but it is not really clear why the same al right to give anybody moral lessons, especially hysteria was not repeated in Serbia. The first seasince after the news they broadcast BB, in which son did generate considerable attention, but the media attention all of the household members express homophobic opinions or it attracted was far below that which followed the show else- vomit after parties with alcohol. Even those inclined towards where in the world.

B92 noticed that everything negative they can see on it is in There are several explanations: even though there was no fact the price which this television station is paying in its strugBig Brother, the media scene in Serbia was already full of sim- gle for commercial ratings. ilar ‘entertainment content’: fortune-tellers, the complete turOn the other side, the appearance of BB was badly received bo-folk music scene with half naked female singers, sketches by traditional Serbia, particularly the part of the population in Grand Parada and myriad stormy political talk shows, were which sees BB as the personification of western decadency and in some way the forerunners of BB, and were sometimes more the moral failure of modern society. One famous children’s podaring and outgoing than BB itself. et stated that BB is “the worst thing, in a cultural sense, that For an audience used to watching politicians who wave pis- has happened in Serbia in the last 50 years”. It is not difficult tols around TV studios and threaten taxi drivers with weapons; to awaken anti-Western sentiment in Serbia, because those relafor an audience who have watched the horror of war crimes in tions have been rather complicated in recent years, and for many the region and police violence on the streets of Serbia, the sight people BB is the personification of everything that’s bad from of a few young people sleeping, snoozing or cleaning their teeth the West. on TV seems like a somewhat dull soap opera lacking a plot.

Anyway, the show entered its second season with great exWhat did cause considerable wonder and controversy was pectations, but at the beginning it was already clear that things the selection of the television channel which broadcast the pro- would not go smoothly. The bad selection of housemates caused gramme. To the shock of the urban intelligentsia, the show ap- weak initial reactions, and the producers, very quickly – as a peared on TV B92 – the one television channel which was con- rescue solution – threw last year’s favourite, Miki Đuričić – the sidered as a barrier to such programmes – and the debate over beekeeper from Kupinovo – into the house. As was the case that is still raging. The civil stratum of society felt cheated, and last year, Miki again left the BB house of his own volition. As this television channel has still not been forgiven for joining if this was not enough, just before the end of the season, three the promotion of such bad taste broadcasting. former housemates tragically died in a car accident, and the Even though that certainly refers to a good financial ar- show was, of course, instantly stopped.

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After this tragic event it became obvious that the motives for entering the house do not differ here from in other countries. The profile of professions is predictable; they are mostly young woman and men who in real life are eternal students, go-go dancers, waitresses, beekeepers, would-be models, or mostly people without any recognisable skills or profession.

The common motive for all them was to join BB to get “some better job” and escape the social environment they came from.

Since the majority of participants are most often from the provinces, the second big motive was to come to Belgrade, the centre of all hopes and unfulfilled wishes. After the tragic deaths of former BB housemates Zorica Lazić, Stevan Zečević and Elmir Kuduzović, all aged under 26, we could see what their so-called post-BB ‘jet set life’ was like.

the glamour which was yet awaiting them.

We could say that the critics of BB came into their own in this period. The exclusive guilt was thrown on the media, which, by spreading illusions about the fast way out of anonymity, drove three young people to their deaths. Everybody here is partly right, but that is probably not important now. What is certainly true is that all of the BB tenants tried to get the most out of their 15 minutes of fame. Without the right base in real life, and with instant popularity, aware of the arrival of a new season and new faces, they had to react quickly and grab every chance.

It is already clear that in Serbia BB has become a small employment agency for undiscovered presenters, singing talent or faces for adverts. But whatever they become after BB, they will always be followed by their new, real profession,

For an audience used to watching politicians who wave pistols around TV studios and threaten taxi drivers with weapons; for an audience who have watched the horror of war crimes in the region and police violence on the streets of Serbia, the sight of a few young people sleeping, snoozing or cleaning their teeth on TV seems like a somewhat dull soap opera lacking a plot.

Namely, they were all some kind of entertainers for the club life around Serbia; their role was, with certain fees or maybe even with no fees at all, to visit provincial discotheques, which – thanks to their ‘famous BB housemates’ – were hoping to increase their circulation and turnover.

The media were glad to participate in it: if you look at what was written about the BB tenants after their departure from the house, you will mostly find reports from various nightclubs around Serbia, in which the newly baked celebrities had wild fun with anonymous young people. Going towards one such venue, three former BB participants drove ‘faster than life’ and only succeeding in breaking their bodies and the dreams about

exactly the way they are announced on their tours in the media and disco clubs. It is not important what you used to be some time ago, but from now on your new profession is “former Big Brother tenant”. if you look at what was written about the BB tenants after their departure from the house, you will mostly find reports from various nightclubs around Serbia, in which the newly baked celebrities had wild fun with anonymous young people. Going towards one such venue, three former BB participants drove ‘faster than life’ and only succeeding in breaking their bodies and the dreams about the glamour which was yet awaiting them.

CorD / February 2008 71

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Parallel worlds of China Before I travelled there, it was for me the country from books; an almost mythical nation. That’s because here in Serbia we do not have much real contact with that world. I didn’t know what to expect, and didn’t know if that would be an exotic, underdeveloped, poor country, or a highly developed, and technologically progressive country. When I arrived there I found both those Chinas and realised that China is all that, and much more,” so says sinologist Ivana Elezović, speaking to CorD.

72 CorD / February 2008

BY ŽARKA RADOJA n order to improve their language skills and become better acquainted with the culture, traditions and life of distant China, a couple of young students from Serbia spent six months last year visitng that exotic Asian giant. They have recently passed their impressions of China on to the wider public via an exhibition of photography entitled “China - Parallel Worlds”.

“China as a whole is impossible to describe. There are only limited, subjective impressions, determined by places that were and are, as well as the people who

I

“My first meeting with China was a big shock. We had landed at Shanghai airport and I’d been transferred to the 27th floor of a towering hotel. I had a feeling that I had landed on another planet. Shanghai is a fantastic city – a city of the future – but I only realised that when I went for the third time. The first time I was completely lost.”

have left their mark on history and coloured that experience by their presence. In China there are clearly determined limits between urban expanses with life moving at dizzying speed, and the evergreen richness and poverty of rural China. In China there are also parallels between ancient and modern, spiritual and worldly. Nowadays the stark contrasts that have existed between the Chinese and Western directions are not only fading away, but are giving way to a pervading and deep intertwining of dualities. In the cracks of those processes are being created multifaceted parallel worlds,” says sinologist Jelena Guga, coauthoress of China – Parallel Worlds.

Guga co-organised the exhibition with two of her fellow sinologists - Jelena Gledić and Ivana Elezović. The whole project was realised in co-operation with the Confucius Institute and the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Serbia.

Destruction of prejudices The exhibition was unveiled by the Culture Attaché of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Liu Yonghong, and Confucius Institute Manager, Radosav Pušić.

According to co-authoress Ivana Elezović, the main reason to organise the exhibition was to attempt to present the 21st century China and bring the far away nation closer to the public here, but also to enable the au-

thors to relay their impressions of a country whose culture they have been studying for years now.

“We wanted to annihilate the prejudices that are, unfortunately, abundant, but also to show our fascination with this rich and beautiful culture. In conjunction with the Yubin Gallery of the International Culture Centre, this exhibition has been prepared for a few months, and a more narrow selection has been made from a vast number of photographs, in order to present all aspects of modern China in the best possible manner,” explains Elezović.

The organisers have succeeded in uniting the extremities that this huge and distant country hides and – besides the metropolises of Shanghai and Peking – visitors are able to see photographs of rural temples and beautiful paddy fields.

“We have illustrated different layers of modern and traditional Chinese culture, which intertwine in today’s China to create a myriad of parallel worlds that make it very difficult to talk about China as a single concept. It was with this in mind that we decided to show a piece of the extremely rich rainbow that is China; a place where old habits and values are developed and incorporated, and specific new global appearances are modelled. We often see a monotone interpretation of Chinese culture as the cradle of a magnificent ancient civilization, spirituality and beauty. However, there is also the reality of China as a country of repression and extremely poor living conditions. China represents all that, but also CorD / February 2008 73

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much more. It is a living, interactive world that you can watch from innumerable angles,” explains Elezović.

Elezović went to China as an English Language Teacher, sent by the Cambridge School of English. It is in that way that many Chinese language students from Belgrade go to the far east to perfect their Chinese language skills and become acquainted with the country’s culture.

Elezović embarked upon a six-month tour of China that would completely change her life and positively influence many decisions she would make after returning to Serbia.

“My first meeting with China was a big shock. We had landed at Shanghai airport and I’d been transferred to the 27th floor of a towering hotel. I had a feeling that I had landed on another planet. Shanghai is a fantastic city – a city of the future – but I only realised that when I went for the third time. The first time I was completely lost.

I didn’t know how to react. I saw many things for the first time in my life and everything seemed too big and too progressive for me to comprehend. I could hardly wait to see another, more traditional China,” explains Elezović.

Modern and traditional After two days in the urban jungle of Shanghai, Elezović travelled by train to the southern coastal Fujian province. There

74 CorD / February 2008

she spent five months in a town called Putian, teaching English to children of all ages and simultaneously learning Chinese.

“Thanks to the professors with whom I collaborated, I started to speak the language I had studied for four years. Before going to China, it was for me a country from books; an almost mythical nation.

That’s because we here do not have much realistic contact with that country. I didn’t know what to expect, and I didn’t know if that would be an exotic, underdeveloped, poor country, or a highly developed, technologically progressive country. In the end, I found that both of these Chinas exist; I re-

alised that China is all that and much more.

I realised that my studies to date were quite important. Everything I had learnt over four years suddenly came to life there. You

must know some codes, in order to be able do decipher them, and when you do that, a completely new world opens up to you.

After spending six months there, Chinese culture became very close to me. I discovered a really fascinating country and was able to really learn a lot from the people I met,” explains our interlocutor.

After five months in Fujian province, Ivana spent a month in Shandong province’s Qingdao town. It was a complete contrast to Putian. The city was, as she says, full of strangers, a completely different life was going on there. It is precisely that cultural opulence stemming from the same roots, but changing its shapes very quickly and successfully, that ensures or interlocutors will soon set off on the road to China again – this time to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing.

“By travelling to China I realised how big and important the historical and artistic heritage of that country is. The things that have fascinated me the most are the culture of wisdom, which is nurtured by citizens; arranged parks with a special importance and charm that appear as a special world; healthy and tasty food and, primarily, the fact that it is a country of open and cordial people,” says Elezović.

The importance of cultural exchanges is often not understood at once, but its influence remains for centuries in different

ways. When our collocutor speaks today about China, the country no longer represents a distant land from literature for her – on the contrary, it representing something mysterious but real. Elezović hopes to use all of the experiences she absorbed there in the best possible way. Besides

changing eating habits and her way of life, Elezović is also studying her Masters Degree in Artistic Management at the Belgrade Drama Faculty. She plans to dedicate her time to furthering cultural co-operation and exchange between China and Serbia.

“By travelling to China I realised how big and important the historical and artistic heritage of that country is. The things that have fascinated me the most are the culture of wisdom, which is nurtured by citizens; arranged parks with a special importance and charm that appear as a special world; healthy and tasty food and, primarily, the fact that it is a country of open and cordial people,”

CorD / February 2008 75

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VALUE OF PAINFUL MEMORIES

Zagreb is home to the intriguingly-entitled Museum of Broken Relationships, which itself is home to numerous exhibited objects of the former romantic happiness. This museum’s original exhibits will soon be arriving Belgrade.

BY SONJA ĆIRIĆ n the beginning, two people love each other. It doesn’t matter whether it is faithfully and forever, or superficially and passionately. Then one of those two leaves, and leaves behind traces in the soul and the home of the other. They leave behind sadness, but also photographs of frozen moments of happiness, a halfempty pen, a tee-shirt for sleeping, a teddy bear won at the fair, dry violets, a pile of CDs with music to which they enjoyed nights and days, candlesticks with their waxy remainder which lit their first dinner…. “What shall I do with all those things now? I am not keeping them to remind me of somebody who left me? No, never! I’ll throw them all away!” This is certainly

I

the first and understandable reaction of the abandoned half of the loving couple.

Stop! Instead of turning to a rubbish bag, better to take what reminds you the most of him or her, what was the most important, to the Museum! Not to the metaphorical museum of personal emotions, but to the real one! It’s called the Museum of Broken Relationships and has existed in Zagreb since May 2006. This March the exhibits of the Museum of Broken Relationships will come to Belgrade.

The initial information was that it would come at the beginning of February, but it turned out that before that it has to go to Skopje and then it will come to the attractive space of Kraljević Marko’s Magacin (Storehouse), and thus the latest temporary

She was the first woman that I let move in with me. All my friends thought I needed to learn to let people in more. After a few months of her moving in, I was offered to travel to the US. She could not come with me. We said goodbye tearfully at the airport with assurance she could not survive three weeks without me.

As I returned after three weeks, she said: “I fell in love with someone else. I’ve known her for four days but I know that she gives me all that you cannot give me.”

I was banal and asked about her plans regarding our life and living together. As the next day she still had no answer, I kicked her out. She went immediately with her new girlfriend on holiday while her furniture stayed with me. Not knowing what to do with my anger, I finally bought this axe to blow off some steam and to give her at least a small feeling of loss – which she obviously did not feel after losing the relationship with me.

In the 14 days of her holidays I started to axe one piece of her furniture a day.The leftovers I let stand there, as an expression of my inner condition.The more her room became filled with chopped-up furniture, and therefore looked like I was feeling, the better I felt.

Two weeks after she was kicked out, she came to take the furniture. It was neatly arranged into small heaps and fragments of wood. She took that rubbish and left my apartment for the last time.The axe was elevated to the status of a therapeutic instrument.

76 CorD / February 2008

addition to Belgrade’s cultural offer.

It is highly likely that this specific and unique Museum would never have seen the light if the artist from Zagreb, Olinka Vištica, and her colleague Dražen Grubišic had not split up after a long relationship.

“The pain which comes after a relationship break-up often awakens the strong impulse for creativity,” Vištica says, explaining how her Museum came into being. “The first impulse in all of us is to destroy everything that reminds us of a broken relationship in order to recover, but we decided to use creativity to overcome the pain and at the same time think about the happy moments which those objects connected us to before. It seemed to them that this was a good idea, because everybody can identify with it”.

EX – AXE BERLIN, 1995

In a Zagreb hospital I met a beautiful, young and ambitious social worker from the Ministry of Defence.When she helped me to get certain materials, which I, as a war invalid, needed for my underknee prosthesis, our love was born.The prosthesis endured longer than our love.

It was made of better material.

AN UNDER - KNEE PROSTHETIC LIMB, ZAGREB SPRING 1992

It was with thoughts of lost loves and emotional recovery that Olinka and Dražen established the Museum of Broken Relationships. They imagined that museum would offer every individual the possibility of overcoming their emotional disaster by getting rid of the controversial objects, the trigger of currently unwanted emotions by giving them to the Museum and transforming them into museum exhibits, artistic objects and, thus, taking part in the creation of a conserved collective emotional history. That means, welcome to the world of objects which reminds distressed ones of former loves. “This is not pretentious, it is interactive: a space where people can present their stories and compare them with others. Even if the objects seem ordinary, the stories about them are very personal and they bring the exhibition to life.

People really enjoy it,” says Dražen.

They think that in fact “broken relationships somehow exist, like archaeological

remains, somewhere deep in the memory of the former lovers. They are perceived in old photographs, if they have not ended up torn, in the rubbish bin or eliminated by the inexorable computer command, ‘delete permanently’. In the best case scenario, the compromising material remains locked away or sent to reliable friends, pushed into the deepest drawer or packed up in (Pandora) boxes under the bed or left to collect dust in the pantry.”

Even banal objects, such as coffee cups with silly messages (which once made sense) are triggers for emotional remembrance. Because of that the coffee cup in question is out of use so that simple coffee drinking does not endanger the relative and fragile peace of present life or, God forbid, the current relationship. Haven’t we all experienced at least once that ruined, depressive state of the soul when we would most gladly have recourse to some radical permanent process of erasing the

memory of the failed love, another defeat, another personal failure?

However, forget the fact that the clinical erasing of memories still exists only in the fantasy of top screen writers (and even there it is not always successful), memories and emotional inheritance feed on the most varied objects: messages, lyrics and photographs all represent priceless value and part of the individual emotional history. Later on, those subjects retain the energy of unique, endlessly happy and pleasant moments and memories, but only the newly created context of a broken relationship makes them undesirable and transforms them into the victims of affective vandalism.

The Museum of Broken Relationships is an artistic concept which, with these exhibits, creates the space for “safe memories” or “protected memories” for the preservation of the material and nonmaterial emotional inheritance of broken relationships.

At the exhibition you can see the most varied objects and find out unbelievable stories. Therefore the exhibit, the Axe, is accompanied by this confession. “She was the first girl I allowed to move into my place. When I got back from a trip, she told me that she was in love and had a new girlfriend. She went on holiday with her new girlfriend, while her furniture stayed in my place. I did not know what to do with my anger, finally I bought this axe. During the 14 days of her holiday I chopped up her furniture piece by piece on a daily basis. When she came to pick up her things, everything was nicely piled into heaps of wood. She picked up the rubbish, and the axe was promoted to the role of a therapeutic instrument”.

The exhibit has expected objects too – engagement rings and love letters, but also a Vespa, a fax machine and a wedding dress. The explanation for the Vespa is as follows: “We bought a second-hand yellow Vespa with the intention of repairing it and driving it like those characters in Italian movies. We never repaired it.”

There is also the wooden leg belonging to a war veteran from the 1990s with the story: “In the hospital in Božidarevićeva Street in Zagreb, I met a beautiful, young, CorD / February 2008 77

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We married in Greece and in Japan when we were just over 20. I wore this dress on 20th August, 1994, in Kavala, Greece.We had 800 guests.

A Greek magazine reported on the wedding of three lands. One radio even had special coverage.

Against our will we became rather known publicly there, which was followed by many nosy questions of different people that pointed their fingers at us.

Our goal was a happy home with many children.

But, Mother Nature did not deliver – and could not the idea of children wait until the end of our studies?

It was very important to him, a very happy man in the beginning, to be a young father. Finally, nothing was missing...

Slowly, the page turned: impatience tipped the scales and brought a dark grey sky over initial happiness and built a thick white wall between our fields of vision that suffocated each feeling in its embryo.

On the other hand, some things became clear on his side that moved me to separate and, after a while, return to Germany, but not to my home town of Stuttgart. Berlin won me over and I am finding more and more in this town and in the people that love me.

I started to feel at home here and even have a family: it is the best moment, as an independent grown up offering a safe thread of life to a small being and thus not being alone.

WEDDING DRESS, BERLIN, 1994 – 1997

ambitious social worker from the Defence Ministry who procured for me, as a disabled veteran, certain materials for this prosthesis, and love was born. The prosthesis lasted longer than the love; it was made of stronger stuff.”

A young woman who donated her wedding dress from her wedding to a Japanese man in 1994, stated: “I liked the idea of being able to get rid of something that was arousing painful memories”; a mobile phone which “lasted 300 days too long. He gave me his mobile so I could stop ringing him”. Or “Bakina kutija” (Grandma’s Box), memories of grandma’s tragic love.

Her fiancé Carlo drowned by accident in a river in 1926. Next to the Antique Watch from 1987 it is written: “A present from S.K. She used to love antiques. All that was important to her was that the object was old and didn’t work. That is the very reason we are not together anymore”.

After being presented for the first time in Zagreb, at the Art Salon in 2006, the Museum has held exhibitions in Split, 78 CorD / February 2008

Slovenia (Maribor and Ljubljana), then Bosnia (Sarajevo), Germany (Berlin). This February it makes its debut in Macedonia in Skopje and next month it will be in Belgrade. One of the Museum’s main postulates is that visitors from every city are obliged to donate one thing to the Museum which reminds them of a heartbreaking relationship. Because of that the Museum exhibition is renewed on a daily base, because the Museum of Broken Relationships is a project in permanent creation, conditioned by the inexorable process of relationships disappearing.

Around 300 exhibits have been gathered so far. The most, 30, were received from Berlin, so the organisers joke that Berlin seems to be the city of broken relationships.

The donors’ names are not given, even though some of them would probably increase the popularity of this museum. However, its organisers did not want to disturb the privacy of celebrity donors.

Also, they accept only objects which will

not insult or harm anybody.

One of the Museum’s projects is the virtual web page, www.brokenships.com.

Everybody can rent space and put, under his/her name, everything that reminds him/ her of a former relationship. In fact, that is the special form of this exhibition, some sort of service for digital memories which allows you, among other things, to lock away your SMS or e-mail for half a year or more so even you cannot get in before the end of the agreed time.

And, it is not bad to know, you might need it: write on any web search ‘prekinute veze’ in any international language (broken relationship, relation rompue etc.), and you will get a series of instant self-help instructions for how to get rid of your painful emotional burden as soon as possible; how to get rid of everything that reminds you of your broken relationship. In short, do that in order to make space in your heart for a new relationship which will again create a state of spiritual fulfilment, emotion which will give life meaning again.

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CULTURE NEWS

SERBIAN FOLK SINGERS TO LIGHT UP DUBAI SHOPPING FESTIVAL

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estival Park, a new addition to this year’s Dubai Shopping Festival, which opened on 24th January, will see guests entertained, among others by Serbian performers. Mohammed Abdurahman Ahli, DSF Events Co-ordinator said, “DSF has always emphasised the wide range of activities it hosts for everyone. Festival Park is a new inclusion in this year’s venues to add to the excitement of family outings.”

The main attraction of the park will be the Festival Stage where the Weekend shows will be organised. It is here that folk groups from Serbia, Turkey, Senegal, Mexico, and India will perform, while living-statue performers from Slovakia will be a lively addition to the Park atmosphere.

ic of living in a foreign land, of deliberate exile during the worst years of the Serbian society at the end of the ‘90s of the last century”.

Ruski prozor‘s plot is a description of the travels of the main character from a small town in Vojvodina, through Belgrade and Budapest to other cities of Eastern and Central Europe at the end of the 20th century. “The hero of that novel, by evasion of military service in time just before the bombing of our country, travels around Europe, performing various necessary jobs – from the writing of a travel guide, to the washing and beautification of corpses.

That is a novel which in a wide arch covers many destinies from this, at that time warring are, and offers one wide, rhapsody-like picture of the things that happened to many”, states the jury’s official explanation. Dragan Velikić was born in 1953

NIN’S AWARD GOES TO VELIKIĆ

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he most important award for literature in Serbia, traditionally announced every January and given to the novel adjudged to have been the best work of the last year, has been awarded to Belgrade author Dragan Velikić, for his work Ruski prozor (Russian Window) – published by local publishing house Stubovi kulture (Pillars of Culture).

Velikić’s Ruski prozor beat off strong challenges from other short listed works, including the novels Poljubac (Kiss) by Gordana Cirjanić - Narodna knjiga – National Book publisher, Feliks (Felix)

by Vladimir Kecmanović (Via print) and “pH” by Draško Miletić (Dereta).

Summing up their choice, the NIN jury explained that Velikić’s novel belongs to the mainstream of contemporary domestic literature, touching upon the “destiny top80 CorD / February 2008

in Belgrade and is currently Ambassador of Serbia in Vienna. Besides Ruski prozor, his works include the novels “Via Pula” – debut novel published 20 years ago, for which he won the coveted Miloš Crnjanski award - Astrakhan, Hamsin 51, Severni zid (Northern Wall), Danteov trg (Dante’s Square), then compilations of short stories including Pogrešan pokret (Wrong Move) and Staklena bašta (Glass Garden), as well as books of essays Yu- tlantida (Yutlantide), Deponija (Dump) and Stanje

stvari (The State of Things). For the novel project Severni zid, Velikić was granted a scholarship of the Borislav Pekić Fund.

The novels, stories and essays of Dragan Velikić have been translated into German, French, Italian, English, Slovenian, Czech, Hungarian, Spanish, Romanian, Polish and Dutch. In August 1993 he signed a publishing contract with Vreme knjige (Time of Book), and in September 1996 he switched his writing allegiance to Stubovi kulture. Following the official announcement of his victory in this year’s NIN award, Dragan Velikić said that he rejoices the most that NIN’s award shall also shed light on his earlier works, which although published in several editions, may not be sufficiently known to the widest public.

The formal handover of the most prestigious literature award in Serbia has been held on 24th January in the Presidential Palace of Serbia. The award consists of the NIN medallion, as well as a cheque for €10,000 (in RSD equivalent) awarded by the new exclusive sponsor of the award – Vrbas-based company Carnex.

POLITIKA’S ART AWARD FOR NEŠKOVIĆ

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olitika’s award from the Vladislav Ribnikar Fund has been awarded to Predrag Nešković on “Politika’s” Day, 25th January, in the Formal Hall of that media house. Politika’s award for painting for 2007 has been awarded to Nešković for his multimedia exhibition “New dandyism”, exhibited in Belgrade’s Gallery O3one. The award marks the recognition of Nešković’s work as a special communication with modern culture and the phenomenon of transience. According to the evaluation of the Jury – chaired by Art Historian Slavko Timotijević – Nešković’s exhibition, under the subtitle “Fashion Collection Autumn/ Winter 07/08”, represents Serbia’s highest achievement in terms of insightfully, professionally and multi-faceted genre profile developed project expanding the limits of artistic expression. From the multitude of exhibitions held last year, the Jury unanimously set aside Nešković’s exhibition, also because he dealt in the media of video, photography, objects, accessories and photo-screens in a provocative, joyful, but also ironic way with the problems of art, behaviour and fashion, as well as with universal problems of relations in the time flow context. In October last year, Gallery O3one presented Neškovic’s short fiveminute film, presented as an endless tape, a major photographic event starring the sixty-year-old Nešković himself, and the artist’s grandson Sava Nešković, as though they were of the same age. A slide show projection was also staged, presented on

monitors in one part of the gallery, training device used for shooting of the film and a big clock that underwent certain adaptations (hand for minutes goes in accelerated rhythm for hand showing seconds).

Neškovic has been prominent on the local art scene for decades. He was a leading representative of new stage production trends in the 1960s. At the 38th Biennale in Venice (1977), as an exhibitor within the Yugoslav section, he draw the attention of international critics, and his works have been marked since then as unique, with several meanings and comprehensions.

INAUGURAL KUSTENDORF FESTIVAL HELD

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n Drvengrad (Wood Town), Mećavnik, from 14 th to 21 st January, the first Kustendorf Film Festival was successfully held. The founder of the festival, which was formally opened by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, is famous local film director Emir Kusturica.

The festival’s opening was attended by Russian Film Director Nikita M i h a l k o v, Austrian Writer Peter Handke and other esteemed guests.

As a tribute to Mihalkov, a montage of his films was presented, with live singing of the members of the “Vrelo” (Spring) group. Announcing the festival, Emir Kusturica said “This is a festival without any advertisement. The focus shall be on the authors. The idea is to create an environment which has unfortunately been lost for the authors in the world, and we shall help it to return. The look of this festival shall be meetings of those who are big and those who shall become big one day.”

The festival included the presentation of short students’ films from 12 countries in the competitive section, and the guests from the authors’ film programme held workshops for their young colleagues. During the Festival, the upcoming Belgrade premiere of the opera Dom za vešanje (literally translated as Home for strangling, but formally translated as ‘Time of the Gypsies’) was announced: the opera will be staged from 15th to 30th May this year in New Belgrade’s Sava Centre.

The opera will be shown a total of 12 times in Belgrade, immediately after its guest appearance in Athens, said the authors, also announcing that negotiations are underway regarding the staging of

Dom za vešanje in some other world cities.

Speaking to press during the Kustendorf Film Festival was guest Fatih Akin, whose latest release, ‘The Edge Of Heaven’, was shown in the Contemporary Trends programme and was awarded for the best script at the last Cannes Film Festival.

After comparing Kustendorf with numerous film festivals he attended, Akin emphasised that he prefers this non-commercial, spontaneous festival on Mokra Gora, set far away from the city jam and organised by his great friend Emir Kusturica.

“Festivals are not only for fun, but also a part of my job. However, I prefer making films to promoting them. Still, festivals are a good opportunity for us to meet and to exchange our experiences. Kustendorf is so full of spirit, and that’s why am I here.

In fact, I did not come because of the film, but because of the experience. I would love to be able to organise something similar,” Akin said.

HOLLYWOOD SUPPORT FOR SERBIA GROWS

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arrying information sourced to the Frankfurt daily News, RTS reported in late January that George Clooney and Sharon Stone have been joined in their plans to protest against the secession of Kosovo from Serbia by Richard Gere and legendary Scottish actor Sir Sean Connery.

According to the Frankfurt daily, speaking in an earlier interview George Clooney said that, even though he avidly follows all the world’s events, he is given no opportunity to hear the Serbian side when it comes to solving the issue of its province’s status.

“The Serbian lobby is very weak in the States and all one can hear or read comes from the [pro-independence] Albanian lobby and lobbyists. I can’t hear the other side,” said Clooney.

Sir Sean Connery reacted similarly. To him, the situation surrounding the Serbian province can also be viewed from the perspective of his native Scotland: “During its history, Scotland has had far more grounds to be granted independence, but it was not allowed to secede.

What could possibly be the difference between my homeland and Kosovo, to

create such a precedent now?!”

According to Press Online, Serbia is also being supported by such celebrated actors as Tom Hanks, Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro and Johnny Depp.

“The Serbian position regarding Kosovo will receive support from a number of other famous Americans. This is of exceptional, vital importance for the preservation of Kosovo. The voice of George Clooney or Tom Hanks in the U.S. is heard much farther and better, and it gets far more regard than the voices of most politicians. When ordinary Americans see that some of the best and most popular Hollywood actors support the Serbian cause, they will start to view the whole problem differently,” said Washingtonbased political analyst Obrad Kesić.

The fact that Hollywood legend Robert De Niro has also joined the campaign in defence of the southern Serbian province hasn’t surprised the well-informed: back when De Niro was an unknown American student, he travelled to Serbia and spent, according to his own words, memorable days among the Serbian farmers in a small village in Šumadija.

He even named his daughter Drina, after his favourite novel, Ivo Andrić’s Nobel Prize winning “Bridge on the Drina”. De Niro is known for his high regard of the Serbian people, also reflected in his choice of staff mostly comprised of Serbs — from the nanny and gardeners, to horse-trainers and private security guards.

CorD / February 2008 81

CULTURE CALENDAR

ANNUAL EVENTS FEST

22nd February to 2nd March Annual Belgrade film festival FEST has been held in Belgrade since 1971. FEST was the only film festival held in the then socialist world that managed to attract major Hollywood stars, such as Jack Nicholson, Kirk Douglas, Robert De Niro and directors like Miloš Forman, Francis Ford Coppola etc.

Since the1990s, the significance of the festival has admittedly been in decline, however it still attracts a large number of movie buffs (98,191 tickets were sold for around 80 movies shown during last year’s edition of the Belgrade film festival.

This year’s FEST will take place at Dom Sindikata, Sava Centre, the Belgrade Cultural Centre and the Belgrade Cinematheque.

CLASSICAL MUSIC BELGRADE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Concerts in February – All concerts are held in Kolarac Foundation Hall 8th February: Mariusz Smolij, conductor; Jadwiga Rappe, contralto Programme: S. Moniuszko: Overture to the opera Paria K. Szymanowski: Three Songs to the poems of Jan Kasprowicz S. Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 22nd February: Lior Shambadal, conductor; Dimitri Ashkenazy, clarinet Programme: A. Sedlar Bogoev: Elegy W. A. Mozart: Concert for clarinet and orchestra A. Scriabin: Symphony No. 2

29th February: Nir Kabaretti, conductor; Bartek Niziol, violin Programme: C. Debussy: Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune H. Wieniawski: Concert for violin and orchestra No. 2 J. Brahms: Symphony No. 1 Concerts in Belgrade Cultural Centre Gallery (Knez Mihajilova 6) 4th February, 8pm Milena Đukić, violin; Tea Andrejić, piano Programme: Frank, Beethoven 11th February, 8pm Bogdan Đorđević, piano Programme: Bach-List, Brahms, Chopin Mina Mendelson, violin; Milica Tanasković, piano Programme: Schumann, Gluck, Kreisler 18th February, 8pm Nataša Stanojević, violin; Milica Tanasković, violin Programme: Popović, Depić, Erić, Jevtić 25th February, 8pm Nina Sofronski, piano; Milutrin Pavlović, clarinet; Mina Mendelson, violin; Isidora Mirković, violoncello Programme: Brahms, Chopin, Beethoven Ogor Lazić, horn JUGOKONCERT CONCERTS 1st February, 8pm: Yugoslav Drama Theatre Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre DESCENDANCE Ticket price RSD500 12th February, 8pm: Belgrade City Hall TRIO SINGIDUNUM: Stana Krstajić, flute; Ksenija Milošević, violin; Dejan Subotić, piano Pieces of Serbian and French composers Free entry 18th February, 8pm: Belgrade Philharmonic Hall

Belgrade Chamber Orchestra Ljubica Marić Conductor: Rade Pejčić Soloists: Borislav Čičovački, obo; Nataša Jović-Trivić, mezzo soprano; Milana Zarić, harp Programme: Caplet – The Mask of the Red Death B. Obradinović – New Piece S. Kovač-Tickmayer – Music of Times Forgotten Barber – Canzonetta for oboe and strings Eck – Temptation of St Anthony for mezzo-soprano, string quartet and string orchestra Ticket price RSD300 21st February, 8pm: Kolarac Foundation Hall Dejan Mlađenović, viola; Uki Ovaskainen, piano Programme: Marais – Suite in D V. Peričić – Sonata quasi una fantasia Enescu – Concert Piece Britten – Lachrymae Brahms – Viola Sonata in E flat Major Ticket price RSD300 24th February, 8pm: Kolarac Foundation Hall Belgrade String Orchestra Dušan Skvoran Conductor: Stanko Šepić; Soloist: Ratimir Martinović, piano Programme: A.Vrebalov – Piano and Strings Concerto (world premiere) Ticket price RSD300, 400, 500 25th February, 8pm, Belgrade Philharmonic Hall Arto Noras, cello; Danial Adni, piano Programme: Beethoven – Twelve Variations in F Major on theme from The Magic Flute Saalinen – Sonata for cello and piano op. 68 Beethoven – Twelve Variations on theme from Judas Maccabaeus Britten – Sonata in C Major Ticket price RSD300 27th February, 8pm, Belgrade Philharmonic Hall Lidija Bizjak, piano; Ognjen Popović, clarinet Programme: Devienne – Sonata nr. 2 for clarinet and piano Reissiger – Duo Brillante op. 130 Schubert – Two Impromptus op. 142, nr. 3 and 4 Françaix – Theme with Variations for clarinet and piano Ticket price RSD300 POP, ROCK, ETHNO MUSIC 1st February, 8pm: Sava Centre Great Hall, AKUD “Krsmanović” & AKUD “Španac” 2nd February, 8pm: Sava Centre Great Hall,

82 CorD / February 2008

Legende Ticket price: RSD800, 1,000, 1,200, 1,500 5th February, 8.30pm: Sava Centre Great Hall,

Live from Buena Vista - The Havana lounge.

Ticket price: RSD1,200, 1,500, 1,800 10th February, 8pm: Sava Centre Great Hall, Teresa Salgueiro /Ex Madredeus Teresa Salgueiro (vocal); Jorge Varrecoso (violin); António Figueiredo (violin); Ventzislav Grigorov (viola); Luis Clode (violoncello); Duncan Fox (piano and contrabas); Ruca Rebordăo (percussion) Ticket price: 1,500, 1,700, 1,900 (tickets can be bought in Sava Center and Bilet servis) 16th February, 8pm: Sava Centre Great Hall, Dado, Vlatko, Rambo & Big Band RTS Dado Topic (Croatia), Vlatko Stefanovski (Macedonia) and Rambo Amadeus (Serbia) are great musicians who’ll share the stage with the RTS Big Band and present themselves in a new musical light.

BALLET 14th February, 8pm, Sava Centre Great Hall,

Don Quixote The National Theatre Ballet presents its production of Don Quixote, with participation of guest stars from the UK. In the main roles, in V. Vasiliev’s new choreographic version, are David Makhateli, Principal Dancer of London’s Royal Ballet, and Daria Klimentova, Prima Ballerina of the English National Ballet. After many years, the Belgrade audience will have a chance to meet the stars of the UK’s classical ballet. The whole National Theatre Ballet Company, its soloists, as well as the National Theatre Orchestra, under the direction of Johannes Harneit, shall also perform in the production.

ART EXHIBITIONS NEW BEAUTIFUL PLACEEDO

American Corner Feature films

Every Monday at 4pm 4th, 11th, 18th February.

February is Black History Month and American Corner’s movie repertoire is dedicated to this.

Documentary films 5th February:

“African American Lives – Episode 1: Listening to Our Past” Duration: 60 minutes 6th February:

“America Beyond the Colour Line: Black Belt” “South: The Black Belt” Until 6th February, Gallery PROGRES Exhibition of Japanese graphics This exhibition, in the organisation of the Belgrade National Museum, presents part of the Museum collection Author of the exhibition and catalogue – Dragana Kovačić Santiago Calatrava by Luse Martin Until 15th February, Institute Cervantes - Gallery Exhibition of photographs by Spanish photographer Luse Martin, born in Valencia in 1970. The fields of her interest in photography are fashion, portraits, abstract images and various life scenes.

The Belgrade exhibition presents part of her work - photographs covering the work of significant Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

SERBIA - MY ARCHITECTURE

23rd February to 1st March, Dom Omladine As a part of the project BOX by Jelena Atanacković Jeličić, and the project of the British Council - Serbia My Case, which presents stories about four successful young people in Serbia, professionals in various fields - music, sport, architecture and journalism.

BOX is interactive installation made

by Jelena Atanacković Jeličić, the youngest Doctor of Architecture in Vojvodina (born ’77) and a Professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad. Anne Rochet 4th February to 22nd March, French Cultural Centre This exhibition presents watercolours and photographs about statuary

Duration: 55 minutes 7th February:

“African American Lives – Episode 2: Searching for Our Names” art of French artist Anne Rochet, who lives in Paris and teaches at the city’s Academy of Fine Arts.

Rochet is significant French artist (painter and sculptor). She will be in Belgrade as a guest and is set to lead the workshop for students of the Belgrade Faculty of Fine Arts.

LECTURES Lectures and film screenings: Andy Warhol 8th, 9th, 10th February, 9pm, Dom Omladine Andy Warhol – Flesh, Trash, Heat 16th February, 9pm, Dom Omladine Andy Warhol and his Inheritance FILM Film premieres in Belgrade Cinemas CLOVERFIELD From 14th February Directed by Matt Reeves Starring Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, Mike Vogel, Margot Farley...

Genre: Action, SF, Thriller JUMPER From 14th February Directed by Doug Liman Starring Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Bilson, Diane Lane, Jamie Bell Genre: SF, adventure

Duration: 60 minutes 12th February:

“African American Lives – Episode 3: The Promise of Freedom” Duration: 60 minutes 13th February:

“America Beyond the Colour Line: Streets of Heaven” “Chicago: Streets of Heaven”: Duration: 55 minutes 20th February:

“America Beyond the Colour Line: Ebony Towers” “East Coast: Ebony Towers” Duration: 55 minutes 25th February:

“Unchained Melodies: Readings from the Slave Narratives” Duration: 75 minutes 26th February:

27 DRESSES Premiere: Dom sindikata, 14th February On general release from 21st February Directed by Anne Fletcher Starring Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, Malin Akerman, Ed Burns Genre: romantic comedy

“African American Lives – Episode 4: Beyond the Middle Passage” 27th February:

“America Beyond the Colour Line: Black Hollywood” “Los Angeles: Black Hollywood” Duration: 55 minutes 28th February:

“The March” Directed by James Blue, The March is a film record of the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The film reflects the wide participation and the sense of responsibility of both black and white citizens.

Produced by the United States Information Agency (USIA).

ONE MISSED CALL From 28th February Directed by Eric Valette Starring Ed Burns, Shannyn Sossamon Genre: thriller

INSTITUTE CERVANTES 2nd February

Film Cycle dedicated to Fernando Fernano Gomes Mama is having her 100th birthday- directed by Carlos Saura English subtitles Entrance is free 7th February, 8pm

Anelio Rodriges Konsepsion – lecture and film screening – Los Olvidados (The Forgotten) - Luis Bunuel Belgrade guest, Spanish writer Anelio Konsepsion will have a lecture about the influence of the work of famous film director Luis Bunuel on his work. Konsepsion was born in Santa Cruz de la Palma in 1963 and started his writing career in 1980s when he published his first books of lyrics. In later work he wrote several books of short stories- La Habana y otros cuentos (1990), Ocho relatos y un diálogo (1993), El perro y los demás (2004) and León de Mr. Sabas (2004).

Film Los Olvidados is Bunuel`s masterpiece from 1950, film full of social realism and black humour.

Entrance is Free.

9th February, 8pm

Film Cycle dedicated to Fernando Fernano Gomes Do not Forget Me Directed by Patricia Ferera English subtitles Entrance is Free

CorD / February 2008 83

CULTURE NEWS

JAPANESE PERCUSSIONISTS IN ARENA

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amous Japanese drummers troupe “Za Ondekoza” will hold its percussion spectacle on 12th February in the Belgrade Arena. ‘Za Ondekoza’ first attracted global attention during the opening of the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, and at numerous fashion shows of Christian Dior. In Belgrade the troupe will present a special taiko skill (in Japanese taiko means drum) and a special way of life and philosophy with the motto – to run, play and dance in the Country.

Instruments used by members of the “Za Ondekoza” troupe are traditional Japanese percussion instruments several types of taiko drums (including the 400-kilogram big drum), shakuhachi (bamboo flute), as well as different percussion instruments and bells.

The tradition of taiko play started in the 8th century in Japan, and the “Za Ondekoza” troupe has merged tradition and history with topics of modern society, pointing out unity of spirituality and matter, as well as the necessity of man’s return to nature on one side, and openness towards influences of connections available in the world today, on the other. Teaching forms a basis for music and the stage play of this troupe is based on the notion that running and music are one and the same, and that spirituality and energy transferred by music to the spectators on all meridians, bring the Far Eastern tradition and culture closer and make it more accessible.

The troupe was founded in 1969 by Tagayasu Den on the Japanese island of Sado. Its members have lived and trained together from the very start, creating a unique show in the world, which is revolutionary regarding the linking of three attractions - running, playing drums and dancing, in so-called marathon performances.

The troupe had its world debut, after years of practice and defining its goals and mission, in 1975, when the members, after running in the Boston marathon, stepped on stage and played the drums with unbelievable energy. Such performances creat84 CorD / February 2008

ed the idea about so-called marathon tourneys.

The first such tourney started in 1990 and ended after three years, that is, after 355 performances and 14,910 kilometres run.

The first tourney around native Japan started in 2001, as a commemoration to the troupe’s late founder Tagayasu Den. His pupils and followers ran 600 kilometres, from Sado Island to Mount Fuji, where the seat of the troupe has moved, to the mountain slopes.

A special challenge for “Za Ondekoze” is far journey throughout the whole China, with a spectacular culmination that would be held in summer during Olympics in Peking.

The Belgrade concert has been organised with the support of the Toyota Company.

money, leave the country and change her life, and the whole story happens in only one day. She says goodbye to people, makes petty vengeances she has dreamed of, says what she always wanted to say, and gives away things she cannot take with her. Through that single day, the story of her life slowly materialises. However, on the same day, Stanislav – a young man from the neighbourhood ten years younger than her – expresses his love for her.

She starts to question herself, asking what she should do if that turned out to be the love of her life. The main roles in the film ’Ljubav i drugi zločini’ are played by Anica Dobra, Vuk Kostić, Milena Dravić and Feđa Stojanović.

ARSENIJEVIĆ FILM TO FEATURE IN BERLIN

GUITAR ART FESTIVAL BELGRADE

T

T

he first feature-length film of Stefan Arsenijević “Ljubav i drugi zločini” (Love and the Other Crimes) is to make its premiere performance at the upcoming 58th Berlin Festival, within the official programme “Panorama Specials” from 7th to 17th February.

Arsenijević’s film was shot in co-production of “Art & Popcorn” (Belgrade), “Coin Film” (Köln) “KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Produktion” (Vienna) and “Studio Arkadena”, Ljubljana, and the film’s implementation has been financially support-

ed by the Film Centre of Serbia, Culture Secretariat of Belgrade City Assembly and the Ministry of Culture.

Arsenijević said about his debut film that it is a story based on personal experience of growing up in New Belgrade blocks, and that his idea was to create an intimate author’s film of peculiar poetics.

The film action takes place in New Belgrade, and the film has been shot at 27 locations. The main female character of the film is a dissatisfied woman in her late thirties, who decides to steal a large sum of

he Guitar Art Festival represents a professional and expert event that gathers classical guitarists of all kinds: amateurs, primary and secondary music schools’ pupils, students, as well as their teachers and professors and eminent guests – leading world guitarists. Various festival activities provide the unique opportunity for all students and teachers to improve professionally.

MASTER CLASSES • LECTURES AND PROMOTIONS • COMPETITION • CONCERTS • EXHIBITIONS • DAILY CAFÉ WITH... • MIDNIGHT GUITAR ART CAFÉ CLUB GUITAR ART FESTIVAL PROGRAMME 29 th January, 8pm – Madlenianum, Opera & Theatre: Trio Zamfirescu (Romania) 4 th February, 8pm – Russian Cultural Centre: Shiri Coneh (Israel)

4th February, 9.30pm – Russian Cultural Centre: Dimitri Illarionov (Russia) 5th February, 8pm – Kolarac Foundation Hall: LA Guitar Quartet (U.S.) 6th February, 8pm – Russian Cultural Centre: Marcin Dylla (Poland) 6th February, 9.30pm – Russian Cultural Centre: Duo Melis - Susana Prieto and Alexis Mouzourakis (Spain, Greece) 7th February, 8pm – National Theatre: Zoran Anić (Serbia) 7th February, 9.30pm – National Theatre: Koto and Shakuhachi Quintet (Japan) 8th February, 8pm – Russian Cultural Centre: Carlo Domeniconi (Italy) 8 th February, 9.30pm – Russian Cultural Centre: Silvia Ocougne (Brazil) 9 th February, 8pm –

Sava Centre: Rosenberg Trio (Holland) 10 th February, 8pm – Kolarac Foundation Hall: Paul Galbraith (Scotland) MIDNIGHT ART CAFE CLUB 31st January – Movie bar (Kolarčeva 6): Press party; promotion of Guitar Art Festival CD 2007 4th February – Movie bar (Kolarčeva 6): Welcome party 5th February – Ellington’s club (Hyatt, Milentija Popovića 5): Quintecho party 6th February – Movie bar (Kolarčeva 6):

Hominid party 7th February – Movie bar (Kolarčeva 6): Herceg Novi Guitar Art Summer Fest party 8th February – Ellington’s club (Hyatt, Milentija Popovića 5): Japanese party 9th February – Ellington’s club (Hyatt, Milentija Popovića 5): Rosenberg party 10th February – Movie bar (Kolarčeva 6): Buy, buy party JOSE CARRERAS AT ARENA amous Spanish tenor Jose Carreras will perform on 23rd February in the Belgrade Arena, which is also the concert organiser. In October 2007 the planned guest appearance of Jose Carreras was cancelled due to shortcomings in organisation by a different organiser.

Carreras should have played in the Arena on 2nd October, in the organisation of AEG (Apple Entertainment Group), but the managers of the famous tenor stated that he shall not return to Belgrade solely due to organisational reasons. It has been stressed that Carreras, one of the world famous Three Tenors (besides Placida Domingo and the late Luciano Pavarotti), wanted to come again to Belgrade, and that arrangements are under way for that, but with another concert agency. Carreras last performed in Belgrade in 2003, when he held a humanitarian concert in the Sava Centre.

Carreras was born in Barcelona, where he studied music. He started his professional career in 1970 in Gran Teatre del Lice in Barcelona, playing operas Nabucco and Lucrezia Borgia. At the beginning of his career he played in Teatro alla Scala in Milan (“Un Ballo in Maschera”, 1975), in New York, in Metropolitan Opera House (“Tosca”, 1974), San Francisco- Opera (“La Bohème”, 1973), Vienna Staatsopera (“Rigoletto”, 1974), London Royal Opera House (“La Traviata”, 1974), Munich Opera (“Tosca”, 1974), Chicago Lyrics Opera (“Un Ballo in Maschera”, 1976)...

He also played in festivals in Salzburg (“Don Carlo”, 1976), France - Aix en Provence (“Roberto Devereux”, 1977), Edinburgh (“Verdi Requiem”, 1982) and Verona (“Carmen”, 1984).

During his long and prolific career, Carreras has co-operated with the most famous conductors, amongst whom are Herbert von Karajan (co-operation with Karajan lasted over 12 years, covering performances in Salzburg, Vienna and Berlin), Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti,

F

Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Colin Davis, Giuseppe Sinopoli, James Levine, Carlo Maria Giulini, Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta. Carreras has also cooperated with the world’s greatest Film Directors’ names – with Franc Zeffirelli, Jean Pierre Ponnello , Giorgio Strehler, Luigi Comencini, Harold Prince.

Carreras has also played at all the most important world stages, and his repertoire covers more than 60 operas. Especially important roles are the ones he played in operas Un Ballo in Maschera, La Bohème, Tosca, Werther, Don Carlo, Carmen, La Forza del Destino , and Pagliacci, L’Elisir d’Amore. In parallel with opera activities, he held frequent recitals in the most famous world halls. His rich repertoire covers more than 600 titles of the most variegated styles - from baroque to contemporary music. Carreras’ discography covers more than 150 records, 50 very attractive whole operas and arias, popular and classic recitals. In total, around 60 million copies of Carreras’ records have sold worldwide to date. He played the main roles in several operas filmed for television, cinema and video, and he also played in the film A Life Story, about his own life, that won the international Emi Award in 1993. He is a winner of numerous awards, both in Spain and in the world. Besides the other awards he won French Legion of Honour, Great Knight’s Cross of Italy and special honours from the Governments of Bavaria, Austria, Poland, Cambodia. UNESCO granted him title – Good Will Ambassador.

In 2004 he won from the Spanish Queen Sophia Golden Cross for social solidarity, and he also became holder of Decoration of Rumania and Germany. He chairs Jury for International Competition “Città di Busseto” and is honorary Chairman of the London Arts Orchestra.

Tickets for the Belgrade concert of Jose Carreras can be purchased in Belgrade Arena and in Bilet Servis (Trg Republike 5), as well as on-line, at URL www.ticketline.co.yu CorD / February 2008 85

TOS RECOMMENDS

A TRIP TO THE

THREE K’s This month, CorD and the Tourist Organisation of Serbia recommend some exceptional short-stay destinations in central Serbia’s three ‘K’s (Kruševac, Kragujevac & Kraljevo). A visit to any of these Serbian urban centres is sure to brighten up your valentine’s weekend, or any other weekend away from Belgrade.

Kruševac Useful information: Tourist Organisation of the Kruševac Municipality Miloja Zakića 3, 37000 Kruševac Tel: 037 38 388, Fax: 037/ 39 055 Hotel TRAYAL Jastrebac JASTREBAC, KRUSEVAC CRKVA LAZARICA Tel: 037 873 586, Tel/Fax: 037 26 510 Veliki Jastrebac The forest household “Rasina” JNA 18, 37000 Kruševac Tel: 037 21 519, Fax: 037 420 750 e-mail: turistks@ptt.yu

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city rich in tradition, Kruševac dates back to the middle ages and was even a medieval Serbian capital. Situated in the heart of central Serbia, the Kruševac basin contains the composite valley of Zapadna Morava and extends between Levće and Temnić to the north, Župa, Kopaonik and Jastrebac to the south, and the Kraljevo basin and Ibar Valley to the west. Kruševac is 195km from Belgrade.

In Kruševac, the capital of Prince Lazar, lies the Lazarica Monastery & St. Stefan Church, believed to have been built between 1377 and 1380. The sanctuary belongs to the first stage of the Morava school and it was a model for many later churches.

The wooded Jastrebac Mountain, with its highest peaks of Velika Đulića (1492m/

86 CorD / Febuary 2008

The rolling hills surrounding Kruševac asl), Zmajevac (1313m/asl) and Bela stena (1257m/asl) is 19km from Kruševac.

Jasterbac is known for its birch forest reservation and the great number of large game animals, including deer and wild boar.

The Jastrebac Picnic Area, situated at 480m/asl, has great accommodation capacities, as well as an artificial lake for swimming in the summer months. During this February guests will be able to enjoy the

ski-lift to Jastrebac’s 300-metre ski piste.

Considered an easy piste, it lies at an altitude of 560m/asl. At the base of Jastrebac there are numerous mineral water springs, such as Ribarska Banja, which boasts the modern rehabilitation centre, “kisela voda” of Lomnica, Belovodski kiseljaci and many others.

The greater part of Veliki Jasterbac Mountain’s territory is covered by the Veliki Jastrebac hunting ground, named after the mountain itself. It is 23km from Kruševac.

In the central part of the mountain, in the valley of the Lomnica River, there is an abundance of large game animals with a high trophy value. Here one can hunt deer, wild boar and roebuck. Within the boundaries of the Veliki Jastrebac hunting ground there is a picnic area with a lake and a restaurant, a hunting lodge and other hunting facilities that satisfy hunting tourism standards.

In the vicinity of Kopaonik, the developed road infrastructure and the clear roads make Veliki Jastrebac a hunting ground that

Kragujevac

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ragujevac is the commercial, cultural, academic and political centre of the region of Šumadija and Pomoravlje. It is situated in the centre of the Republic of Serbia and has around 180,000 inhabitants, making it the country’s fourth city. It is 140km to the south of Belgrade via highway E10.

In Kragujevac we suggest you visit “Milošev konak”, the National Museum, the high school built between 1885 and 1887, and the theatre “Joakim Vujić”, founded in 1835.

Whilst in the city, one should certainly take time out to visit the old National Assembly in the courtyard of the church that was built 1859 to 1860; the memorial park “Šumarice” dedicated to teachers and pupils executed by German occupiers in the Second World War, and the Aquarium of freshwater fish from the entire world (working hours: 10am to 6pm every day except Monday).

Useful information: Tourist Organisation of Kragujevac 98 Kralja Prvog Karadjordjevica Street 34000 KRAGUJEVAC Tel: 034 332-172, 334-686 Fax: 034 335-302 url: www.kragujevac.org.yu Šumarice Memorial Tel: 034 332 089 The National museum Tel: 034 331-782 Working hours: 10am – 5pm, weekends 10am – 2pm Hotel president Janka Veselinovica 52 Tel: 034 305 935, Fax: 034 305 936 e-mail: president@ptt.yu url: www.pansion-president.com

is attractive yearround. Kruševac and its surrounding areas provide the possibility for you to visit numerous cultural and historical monuments originating from the time when Kruševac was the capital of Serbia.

CorD / Febuary 2008 87

TOS RECOMMENDS

Kraljevo Useful information: Tourist Organisation of the Kraljevo Municipality Trg Srpskih ratnika 25, 36000 Kraljevo Tel/Fax: 036 311 192, 316 000 E-mail: jutok@org.yu url: www.jutok.org.yu THE NATIONAL MUSEUM Trg Sv.Save 2 Tel/Fax: 036 315 350, 337 960 E-mail: muzej-kraljevo@tron-inter. net Hotel ĐERDAN, Žiča (3km from Kraljevo towards the Žiča Monastery) Tel/Fax: 036 816 250, 817 417, 817 350

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eputedly one of the most beautiful towns of central Serbia, Kraljevo is situated 172km from Belgrade on the banks of the River Ibar. It is the administrative, cultural, transport and commercial centre of the Raška region. Its royal name was given by King Milan Obrenović himself back in 1882, and the blazon on the coat-of-arms of Kraljevo – seven golden royal crowns – comes from the legend of the “seven-door Žiča”, the archbishopric and coronation church of the medieval Serbian monarchs. The town has a long and interesting history that is visible in the many cultural and historical monuments of both medieval and modern times.

The stunning medieval fortress Maglič Owing to its favourable geographical and communicational position in the vicinity of the rivers Ibar, Zapadna Morava, Ribnica, Lopatnica and Studenica, the vicinity of many spa centres and mountains, the arranged beach on Ibar and many old settlements and monasteries, Kraljevo is one of the most attractive tourist towns.

The mountains Kopaonik, Goč, Čemerno, Radočelo and Golija, with rich vegetation and various game animals, are famous as great sites for hiking, skiing, hunting and fishing.

The famous Studenica area is 61km from Kraljevo, and 236km from Belgrade along the Ibar motorway. The region of Studencia is known for its pleasant climate, extraordinary beautiful natural sites, and clear water of the trout-rich River Studenica.

This spiritual and secular centre of medieval Serbia is surrounded by many monasteries: Studenica, Gradac, Pavlica, Sopoćani, Đurđevi Stupovi, Petrova Crkva, Ljubostinja, Kalenić, as well as numer-

88 CorD / Febuary 2008

ous spa centres: Vrnjačka, Gornja Trepča, Mataruška, Bogutovačka, Jošanička.

With its sanctuaries, dining rooms, towers and residencies, Studenica has kept its primary role, and as a first-class legally protected monument it was formally added to the UNESCO List of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage sites in 1986.

The Žiča Monastery, located in the village Kruševici on the road between Kraljevo and Mataruška Banja, represents an endowment of King Stefan the First Crowned. The construction of the monastery’s main church, dedicated to Christ’s Resurrection, was started around 1206 and completed before 1217, when the first donor received a crown from Rome. It was this centre of worship that Saint Sava – as the first Archbishop of the autonomous Serbian church (which obtained its autonomy in 1219) – nominated to be a centre of the Serbian church. Here St. Sava crowned his brother king and sanctified the bishops of the newly founded dioceses. The heirs of Stefan, his sons Radoslav and Vladislav, were crowned here, and the Archbishop Arsenije, the first successor of St. Sava, was nominated as patriarch of the Serbian church.

The stunning medieval fortress Maglič is situated on the right bank of the river Ibar, 16km south of Kraljevo. It is one of the finest monuments of medieval Serbian military architecture. Maglič was an important stronghold for the defence of the monasteries Žiča and Studenica. After the fall under Turkish rule, it became the centre of the large district. The town was important during both the Vienna War (1683-1699) and the Second Serbian Revolution.

Maglič fortress, as seen from the River Ibar CorD / Febuary 2008 89

TECHNO TALK

Amazon Kindle Manufacturer: Amazon Price: €270 url: www.amazon.com Introducing Kindle™ Three years ago, Amazon set out to design and build an entirely new class of device – a convenient, portable reading device with the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers. The result is Amazon Kindle.

Designed to provide an exceptional reading experience, thanks to electronic paper – a revolutionary new display technology – reading Kindle’s screen is as sharp and natural as reading ink on paper. Kindle is also easy on the fingertips. It never becomes hot and is designed for ambidextrous use so both “lefties” and “righties” can read comfortably at any angle for long periods of time.

Kindle is completely mobile, i.e. wireless, with no PC and no syncing needed.

Kindle’s paperback size and expandable memory let you travel light with your library. With the freedom to download what you want, when you want, you should never again find yourself stuck without a great read.

Sennheiser HD25 Crystal Roc Manufacturer: crystalroc Price: €400 url: www.sennheiser.com Swarovski crystals may sound like a means of powering transport in Star Trek or something Indiana Jones would have quested for, but in reality the little lead glass crystals are every gadget-maker’s must add when they want to make something glamorous – if your definition of glamour is gaudier than Girls Aloud dressed in tinfoil. But we have to admit there’s a magpie-like part of us that’s rather taken with the Crystal Roc HD25s. We like to think it’s because the HD25s are high quality studio headphones, but it’s more likely due to the pretty colours they offer.

Motorola Pebl U9 Manufacturer: Motorola Price: tba url: www.motorola.com When Henry Ford offered punters his Model T in a choice of black or black, nobody complained. But nowadays we live in a multicolour world where consumers demand indigo options with tangerine trim. When the Pebl U9 was first launched in late 2007, we were mightily impressed by its hidden 1.45-inch external screen, haptic force feedback, Bluetooth A2DP and music playing options, but we couldn’t help but think that its monotone black only option was a bit out-of-date. Thankfully, though, the boys at Motorola have finally seen the fluorescent light and are now offering the Pebl U9 in two exciting new colours: pretty pink & royal purple. Nice.

90 CorD / February 2008

Ion iCue USB mixer Manufacturer: Ion Price: €160 url: www.firebox.com If the nearest you’re likely to get to a DJ residency is sleeping over at your mate’s house party, and your mixing skills are more appropriate for cement than records, we advise that you don’t go out and blow your pay cheque on decks that’ll end up lonely and gathering dust in a corner. Instead, try Ion’s new miniature USB DJ controller. It comes with software that lets you drag and drop MP3s onto the ‘decks’ and can even beat-match for you, all backed up with a waveform display. As you fiddle with the EQ, effects and jog-wheels you’ll feel like a superstar DJ – what’s more, you should sound like one too.

Lippi Selk’Bag Manufacturer: Lippi Price: €120 url: www.selkbag.eu The Lippi Selk’Bag is a revolutionary new sleeping bag system which allows you the maximum mobility you need, whilst keeping you warm. This new concept retains the functionality of the traditional sleeping bag; it’s fun, comfortable and mobile!

Move your legs and arms apart freely; roll with your Selk’Bag, not in it; stand without any trouble, walk, cross your legs and your arms, thanks to its reversible zippers.

Lippi Selk’Bag is available in three different seasonal specifications, depending on your requirements. Whether you are trekking in the mountains, cosying on the sofa or simply desire to be the coolest cat at a music festival lippiselkbag.com have the Selk’bag for you.

Selk’bag specs: Total Weight: 1950 GSM; Filling: Polyester Hollow Fibre Bonded, 1X200g/sqm, Good Performance, Elastic; Shell / Lining: Nylon 210T / 70 Deniers, Soft Touch; Extreme Temp: -8.4 Degrees Celsius; Limit Temp: +5.5 Degrees Celsius; Comfort Temp: +9.7 Degrees Celsius; Sizes: Small / Medium, Large / Extra Large.

MSV Massage Chair Manufacturer: MSV Sportswear Price: €4,000 url: www.msvsportswear.com The massage parlour is a minefield of embarrassing intimacy issues – towel on; towel off; male or female masseuse? Sorry, I didn’t mean to touch that… Surely it’s far better to let this hi-tech leather chair deliver a full body rubdown while you recline in front of its built-in personal entertainment system. Pop in a DVD or close your eyes and drift off to the sounds of your favourite CD. But, people, do keep those pants on.

CorD / February 2008 91

TECHNO TALK

Nikon D3 & D300 Manufacturer: Nikon Price: €4,500 (D3); €1,700 (D300) url: www.nikon.com Speed, reliability and quality are of utmost importance when it comes to professional photography. The pro-standard D3 achieves the required level of speed with its 51-point auto-focus and 9fps burst shooting, while its reliability is assured thanks to its bombproof build, and its quality is made certain by its 12.1MP CMOS full-frame sensor chip, which is the same size as a 35mm film negative. For those of us who aren’t quite professional when it comes to photography, the slightly more amateur D300 offers the same 51-point autofocus, 3inch LCD and HDMI output, but a DX-size 12.3MP sensor and 6fps shooting.

Noon Logan solar bag Manufacturer: Noon Price: €280 url: www.noonsolar.org The original Logan’s Run was made in less enlightened times – the ‘70s – so sadly Michael York was denied the delights of a man bag. But in a future Hollywood remake they’ll surely provide Logan with this dyed leather solar panel satchel – how else is he meant to keep his mobile juiced up and his iPod going with all that running? This Noon bag comes with connectors for all the major brands of mobile and an iPod cable to keep the tunes on tap. As long as he keeps out of the shadows, Logan’s gadgets will be able to run and run.

LG HT762TZ Manufacturer: LG Price: €660 url: www.lge.com LG’s Design Art Home Cinema System’s compact, minimalist shape is designed specifically to maximize space without sacrificing quality. The Virtual Sound Matrix (VSM) sound system allows users to enjoy superb sound quality.

The system features champagneflute-esque tallboy speakers. These gloss black, elegant speakers come with a main unit that hosts a 1080p upscaling DVD player, 700W of power, plus USB and 3.5mm inputs.

92 CorD / February 2008

Ozone Inflatable Neutron Manufacturer: Gadgetshop Price: €35 url: www.gadgetshop.com Naturally, sailing has its hazards. One such hazard is sinking.

Should you find yourself knee deep in water, we recommend you make use of the Ozone Inflatable Neutron. Not only will it give you the buoyancy you need to float safely to shore, but it also has another desirable feature to make your time at sea more enjoyable: two speakers moulded into its lining which you can plug your i-Pod, TV, MP3 player, or CD player into - providing, that is, it didn’t go down with the boat. As you’d expect, the Ozone Inflatable Neutron is easy to inflate and deflate, and it doesn’t need batteries or power cables.

The speakers take their power straight from the device to which they’re connected. Of course, it’s exceptionally agreeable on the eye too.

Yamaha Bobby Manufacturer:Yamaha Price: tba (concept) url: www.yamaha.jp Yamah’s new concept design could mark the ultimate in city transport: a super-light electric scooter with a collapsible seat and fold-away rear wheel, handlebars and foot rest. The Bobby can even be turned on and off using a mobile with an RFID chip and has built-in Wi-Fi. In theory, the Bobby could be folded down to next to nothing and plugged into the mains to recharge. It wouldn’t be subjected to congestion charges and would be cheap to run. Though we don’t fancy its survival chances in a crash, we do think Yamaha should go for it.

Swedx Wooden TV Manufacturer: Swedx / Samsung Price: €460 url: www.swedx.com Swedx’s new 19-inch LCD-TVs feature HD Ready panels made by Samsung and come with a choice of three solid-wood finishes: ash, beech or sapele. They boast an integrated Freeview tuner, a very specific 1,001:1 contrast ratio, Nicam sound and a disappointingly lone HDMI input, along with the usual VGA Scart and AV inputs.

Embedded in real natural wood with perfect combination of form, function and convenience, these Swedx TVs come complete with advanced electronics that ensure screen images are always perfect. With HDMI, Component, TV, S-video, AV and built-in speakers, you can connect the LCD-TV to most devices to enjoy video and audio directly from the LCD-TV. The stylish unique design delivers a high level of viewing flexibility while maximizing desktop space.

CorD / February 2008 93

SPRING/SUMMER 2008 Thriving on the ESCADA collection’s 80’s heritage, a combination of Norman Parkinson’s images from the 80’s summer kissed skin, exotic surroundings and bright colouring led to the idea of the ambassador’s wife, the story behind ESCADA’s Spring/Summer 2008 collection.

The ambassador’s wife is sophisticated, cosmopolitan, sensual, darling and joyful. She leads and elegant and exotic life, filled with glamurous parties and exciting travels.

Knez Mihailova 19, 11000 Beograd The waist is a focal point. Jackets and shirts show softer shapes; with their volume often controlled by a belt which is elegantly slung around the waist. The shirt jacket, the pareo, the round shaped high-waisted trousers and strong selection of dresses deďŹ ne the silhouettes of the season. Additional must-haves are tuxedos, short skirts, jump suits and tuniques in vibrant shades. Colour blocking is crucial. The daring combination of colours and textures refer to ESCADA’s heritage.

Knez Mihailova 19, 11000 Beograd

SPRING/SUMMER 2008 The sun-kissed, strong colours of Spain paired with the nation’s relaxed sensuality, inspired the look of ESCADA Sport in Spring/Summer 2008.

The ESCADA Sport woman follows the sun as she travels from the streets of Barcelona to the vibrant towns of the Costa del Sol. Light-hearted and free, curious and fun-loving; she enjoys the Mediterranean heat throughout an endless summer.

CROSSWORD

Solve this crossword puzzle and test your Serbian – the clues may be in English, but the answers should be entered in Serbian

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 HORIZONTAL: 1.Part of Belgrade, around Technical Universety,2. Name of acter Delon-slime that drips from a nose,3.

Then, therefore-catle breeding,4.Yell of impatience-Handball Club (short)-Toward, in a direction of, 5.Car plate for LoznicaHopeless situation-Symbol of phosphorus,6.Symbol of sulphur-A big elevator (plural),7. City in Romania, 8. Town in Southern Serbia-Symbol for neutron,9. Registration plate for Romania-River which disembogue in Danube in Belgrade-Registartion plate for Valjevo,10.Fashion magazine for women from Paris-Same letteresStatue,11.Affiliation of several companies (foreign)-Town in Banat, birth place of Mihajlo Pupin,12. Kitchen dish-French harbor at Lamansh,13.”Village” which Emir Kusturica built at Mokra Gora.

VERTICAL: 1. Gas combined with butane used in the home; the inside part of a coat, 2. part of an animal’s body that wags (plural); American journalists’ association (abb.); name of a British actor …

Guinness, 3. name of American actress …. Williams; Serb holy land on Halkidiki, personal pronoun, 4. British chess player Michael … ; a thousandth of something; vehicle symbol for Tunisia, 5. movement of water along a river, Serbian positive word; hypothetical citizen of the moon, 6. plough a field; symbol for nitrous; dragon, 7. on top; decoration on the head of a rooster; area meant for building a house, 8. the name of our first actress, … Rhine; an ideal geometrical picture; to damn someone, 9. value in money; symbol for argon; mountain pass, 10. Biggest peninsula in the world; city in Pakistan Solutions - vertical: propan, postava, repovi, ap, alek, ester, atos, ono, stin, promil, tn, tok, da, selenit, oranica, na, ala, na, kresta, plac, ita, krug, kleti, cena, ar, prevoj, arabija, lahore Solution - horizontal Kamenović, Alen, bale, zatim, tov, ama, RK, ka, LO, očaj, P, S, kranovi, Krajovas, Preševo, n, R, Sava, VA, el, cc, kip, pul, Idvor, avan, Kale, Drvengrad 98 CorD / February 2008

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