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Tillbaka till hemsidan
July
- KOSOVSKA MITROVICA: 4 members of the Kosovo Police Service - three of Serb and one of Albanian nationality, were injured near Kosovska Mitrovica two nights ago, when five persons of Albanian nationality attacked them, said Larry Miller, UNMIK spokesman, for the TANJUG new agency.
The incident took place when the police patrol stopped a vehicle in the area of Suvi Do near Mitrovica and the driver and the 4 passengers got out of the car and attacked the policemen.
The policemen sustained slight injuries and the attackers were arrested.
"Glas javnosti", 2. 7. 2006.
- GRACANICA: The president of the Kosovo County, Srdjan Vasic, said for the TANJUG news agency yesterday, that the representatives of Serbia's Government had promised to build around 80 houses for IDPs in central Kosovo, reports the TANJUG news agency. Vasic stessed that in this way primarily the problems would be solved of the people housed in the containers in Gracanica "where they live like sardines".
"Glas javnosti", 2. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: The obstacles are numerous to disabled persons' normal life in Serbia, but the hardest to overcome are architectural barriers. According to the results of the "How to move in Serbia" research conducted by the Forum of Young People with Disability (FMI), only several public buildings in Belgrade and Novi Sad have all the necessary elements enabling the disabled to enter them and move around. So the disabled are forced to pay assistants.
For example in Novi Sad, disabled persons can't visit libraries, sports facilities, cinemas, tourist agencies and there is not one bank equipped to provide full service to a disabled person. Only a couple of restaurants and several hotels are equipped to fully accommodate the disabled.
"Glas javnosti", 3. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: Serbia's Government has formed the Human and Minority Office and appointed Petar Ladjevic as director. Ladjevic was previously on the Republic Minority Rights Council, whose chairman is Prime Minister Kostunica.
Three assistants have also been appointed to the Office, most of them previously employed in the federal Ministry of Human and Minority Rights. Around 40 persons were employed in the Ministry.
With this, the Ministry was officially dismantled. The state administration will take part of the staff and some of the Ministry's jurisdictions have been passed to other ministries. For example, the registration of citizens' associations and NGOs is taken over by the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-government; the international legal aid is taken over by the Ministry of Justice, and the readmission section is now taken over by the Ministry of Police.
"Danas", 1. - 2. 7. 2006.
- MERDARE: According to the Commission on Missing Persons of Serbia, a total of 836 bodies of Kosovo Albanians have been exhumed from three mass graves in central Serbia (Peruca, Batajnica and Petrovo Selo), of which 719 have been identified and handed over to their families.
"Danas", 1. - 2. 7. 2006.
- KRAGUJEVAC: The number of suicides has increased in Kragujevac lately. Only in the last 30 days, seven citizens of Kragujevac tried to kill themselves, and since the beginning of this year 24 citizens have committed suicide. The motives are different but in most of the cases the motive was illness.
"Danas", 1. - 2. 7. 2006.
- PODGORICA: The Serbian Popular Party will demand cultural and educational autonomy for Serbs in Montenegro, announced Andrija Mandic, president of the Party.
"Blic", 1. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: The average household in Serbia had 32.895 dinars per month at its disposal in the first quarter of this year, most of it spent on food and nonalcoholic drinks; 47,9% of the incomes in Serbia come from regular jobs and the rest are pensions.
"Blic", 1. 7. 2006.
- KOSOVO: Since the beginning of its mandate 7 years ago, UNMIK has spent around 2,6 billion euros, of which a little over 2 billion were spent on the salaries of the international administration staff, says a study by UNMIK.
"Blic", 3. 7. 2006.
- BEOGRAD: The director of the Market Research Institute, Miloje Kanjevac, says that the average salary in Serbia in May was 20.713 dinars after tax, which is 2.8% less than the previous month.
Although according to official statistics the prices in June remained about the same as May, a research conducted by the "Blic" daily newspaper in the beginning of July shows that the prices has gone up, so in May the average family of four in Serbia needed 43.959 dinars for basic necessities (food, bills, etc.), and if the prices remain as they are, the average family of four will need 45.702 dinars in July.
Just like the last 15 years, this year Serbia's citizens with average salaries haven't been able to cover the basic expenses either, so they still have to do additional jobs and think of other ways to get by, relying on the support from their relatives in the countryside or abroad.
"Blic", 4. 7. 2006.
- PRIBOJ: Priboj has around 25.000 citizens fit for work, of which every second is working this summer on the construction sites in Montenegro, on the farms in Vojvodina and Serbia, and also in Sarajevo. "Cases are numerous of engineers and truck constructors of the FAP factory in Priboj who are picking raspberries and cleaning cow stables in Arilje in central Serbia", claim workers unions in Priboj.
"Blic", 4. 7. 2006.
- CACAK: Slavica Zunjic (aged 39), mother of ten children, will sue the president of Cacak Municipality, Velimir Stanojevic, because the Town Hall security threw her out of his office when she went there to ask for help for her sick baby.
"Blic", 4. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: Statistics show that in the first four months of this year, Serbia earned 84,5 million US dollars from tourism, and that a foreign tourist stays in Serbia for 3-4 days on average, spending a total of around 570 euros.
Most tourists come from Bosnia&Herzegovina, Slovenia, Great Britain, Croatia, and also from Italy, Greece, Holland, Spain, the United States, Austria, France, Germany...
Hospitality, atmosphere, night life, restaurants, cafes, girls - this is what attracts a foreign tourist the most.
Foreign tourists have the most objections to accommodation which is often of lower category than shown in tourist catalogues. They also have objections to public toilets, bad roads, some complain about the portions in restaurants being too large, often two times larger than the restaurants in the West.
Foreign tourists mostly visit Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kopaonik, Zlatibor, Vrnjacka Banja, Nis.
"Blic", 5. 7. 2006.
- ZAGREB: The coalition that came into power in Croatia in 2000 has reduced the number of ministries from 19 to 13, but it didn't mean uprooting the accumulated bureaucracy, because now there are as many as 111 assistant ministers altogether, reports the "24 sata" daily.
"Glas javnosti", 5. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: Minimum wages for the period July-September this year will be around 8.820 dinars, instead of the current 8.050 dinars, since the Social-economic Council decided yesterday to increase the price from 44 dinars to 49 dinars per hour after tax.
"Danas", 5. 7. 2006.
- NASER ORIC: Naser Oric, high officer of the Bosniak army, directly killed or was responsible for killing 3.260 Serbs, and in his zone of responsibility (Srebrenica, Bratunac, Skelani etc.) 100 Serb houses were burnt to the ground - says Milivoje Ivanisevic, director of the Center for the Investigation of Crimes against Serbs and author of a number of studies and publications on the killings of Serbs. He says that as many as 1/3 of the above number of innocent Serb victims were torched or killed in extremely brutal ways, with cold weapons or with blunt objects.
The Hague Tribunal recently sentenced Naser Oric to two years imprisonment and immediately released him.
"Glas javnosti", 4. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: Milivoje Ivanisevic, director of the Center for Investigating Crimes against Serbs, has been working since the beginning of the war in Bosnia&Herzegovina on gathering information on killings and expulsions of Serbs. He has written a number of books on the subject, but he doesn't think his work is over yet.
He says that the Center was founded 14 years ago. Its priority is investigating the sufferings of Serbs and the perpetrators are in a second plan. The documentation gathered is authentic, modeled on the questionaires of the Jewish community in Belgrade, so each victim has a unique number, the code of the municipality where he/she lived etc.
"I have compared the data from this war with the data from Second World War. During the latest war, in many parts of Bosnia more Serbs were killed than under Pavelic's regime in Second World War. For example in Sarajevo, only in the course of 1992, more Serbs were killed than in the course of the entire Second World War. Of 5.515 Serb victims in Sarajevo, 2.700 were killed in 1992. A total of 34.000 Serbs were killed in Bosnia&Herzegovina, 8.000 in Croatia and 2.000 in Kosovo", Ivanisevic says.
He says that Serbs have been completely cleansed from 1.904 settlements in Bosnia&Herzegovina. Around 550.000 people were expelled from these settlements. 55.000 Serbs have passed through the detention camps. The scale of sufferings in 1992 was so horrific for some of the municipalities, like Gorazde, Mostar and Konjic, that in 1995 there was no more reported Serb victims - there was no one left to kill.
"One of the examples of unequal standards towards Serbs is the list of missing Muslims from Srebrenica released by the International Committee of the Red Cross in August 1995. The list contains around 11.000 names. Then on the list of persons with the right to vote from the following year, I find 3.016 names of those who were reportedly missing. So they were used twice. Once to prove Serbs' crimes, and then for bringing Muslims into power in Srebrenica", Ivanisevic says.
"Glas javnosti", 7. 7. 2006.
- BUJANOVAC: There are 4 collective centers for IDPs in Bujanovac (the daycare, the "Mladost" Motel, the old brickyard and the "Salvator") housing 463 persons for whom food is provided from the local soup-kitchen every day.
"Glas javnosti", 7. 7. 2006.
- SARAJEVO: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Bosnia&Herzegvina has identified 10.000 persons from former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia using DNA tests.
"Glas javnosti", 7. 7. 2006.
- ZAJECAR: Police have brought charges against M.Maksimovic (aged 33) from Belgrade and R.Savic (aged 43) from Knjazevac on suspicion of people trafficking.
Maksimovic sold her 14-year-old daughter to the Savic family from Knjazevac for 300 euros! Namely, she told her daughter that she was taking her to Knjazevac to see the town, and R.Savic encouraged Maksimovic to bring her daughter to Knjazevac and sell her to him so she could become his adult son's wife.
"Glas javnosti", 7. 7. 2006.
- PRISTINA: The support for IDPs return to Kosovo has increased, and a very small percentage of citizens say they avoid contact with the members of other nationalities - says the latest report on "Early Warning for Kosovo".
The report is prepared by the UN Development Program, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and nongovernmental organizations. The research shows that 61% of the citizens surveyed agree with IDPs return, 28% are against and 12% didn't give their opinion.
93% of the Serbs in Kosovo agree with IDPs return, 1% are against and 6% didn't want to give their opinion. 72% of the members of other ethnic communities are in favor of IDPs return, 15% are against and 14% didn't give their opinion.
The research also shows a significant change in inter-ethnic tolerance - 52% of the Albanians agree to work with Kosovo Serbs, which is 4% more than in December last year; 58% of the Serbs agree to work with Albanians, which is 7% more than last December.
"Danas", 7. 7. 2006.
- NOVI SAD: Several hundred inhabitants of three refugee settlements in Vojvodina - Klek near Zrenjanin, Seleus near Alibunar and Vlajkovac near Vrsac - have signed a petition requesting help from Vojvodina Parliament because under the proposed changes to the Law on refugees, refugees have to either buy or pay rent for the housing units built from foreign donations. As they claim, it was promised back then that within 5 - 10 years, the houses and apartments will become their tenants' property, and no one mentioned purchase or rent.
The refugee settlement of Klek near Zrenjanin is made up of homes built in the self-construction program (donors provided the building materials, the state provided locations, the refugees provided labor); 28 families with 120 members are housed here. The inhabitants stress that they built those homes "with great abnegation" and 90% have no incomes or jobs surviving by working on local farms and thanks to the help from their relatives.
The refugee settlement in Seleus has 72 families with 275 members and it consists of houses with two 30-square-meter apartments each. The inhabitants stress that the proposed law regulations are at a complete discrepancy with the terms presented by the donors and the Commission for Refugees before the refugees moved into the apartments and before the construction of the houses started. "We feel cheated and deceived, and even more so when we kept in mind that we were also promised farm land, i.e. that at least one household member would get a job. We thought the Commission for Refugee was the institution that took care of us, refugees, in the best way possible, but instead the Commission proposes a law obligating us to buy what someone else has built and given to these unfortunate people so they would at least have a roof over their heads", say the refugees from Seleus in their letter.
The members of the Vojvodina Parlaiment Subcommittee for Refugees, Exiled and Displaced Persons support the refugees' request to abolish the regulations forcing them to buy what is given to them as a present and what they have built themselves.
Radenko Popic, member of the Subcommittee and chairmen of the Regional Committee for Support for Refugees of Vojvodina, says that "someone wants to turn into state property something given to those unfortunate people by foreign donors". "The state is trying in an ugly way to create a housing fund for other refugees. It is small money, insufficient for anything serious, and the people who are supposed to pay the rent or buy the housing units they are using, can't afford it because they don't have the money", Popic says.
The Vojvodina Parliament has filed amendments to the proposed changes to the Law on refugees, but it is uncertain when they will enter the parliamentary procedure. The refugees have announced that they will also ask Serbia's President Boris Tadic for help.
"Danas", 7. 7. 2006.
- NOVI SAD: The officially registered unemployment rate in Vojvodina is 32%, because 280.000 persons are looking for job, said Branka Prekajski, deputy director of the Vojvodina Employment Service. Only Novi Sad has 40.000 unemployed.
"Danas", 6. 7. 2006.
- PODGORICA: More than 400 IDPs have returned from Montenegro to Kosovo, and activities are underway to ensure the return of another 50 IDPs to the municipalities of Pec and Virovitica, said Slavoljub Stijepovic yesterday, Montenegran Minister of Work and Social Care.
Around 18.000 IDPs from Kosovo are staying in Montenegro.
Ibrahim Seljmani, Kosovo Minister of Work, visited podgorica and invited the IDPs to return to Kosovo. He also expressed his gratitude to Montenegro's people and Government for the support they have been giving all these years to IDPs from Kosovo. He expressed the willingness of the provisional Kosovo institutions to guarantee IDPs safe return to Kosovo, as well as their rights.
"Danas", 8. -9. 7. 2006.
- ZAGREB: In Croatia only 5% of the persons who have jobs (or around 70.000 citizens) don't use the allowed negative balance limit on their bank accounts because they earn enough money, and the remaining 95% spend more than they earn. The total negative balance on the bank accounts of Croatia's citizens in the end of May was a little over 4,5 billion kunas (616 million euros), reports the Zagreb "Vecernji list" daily.
"Danas", 18. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: According to a report by the UNDP to be presented in Belgrade on July 18th, the Roma, refugees and IDPs in Serbia are faced with a number of problems when it comes to education, health care and employment, and the living conditions of the majority of the Roma and the IDP and refugee population are extremely bad, since 50% of the Roma and 15% of the refugees and IDPs are living in unhygienic settlements.
It says in the report that part of the members of the socially vulnerable groups don't ask for or don't get proper medical care, and when it comes to the Roma population, only very serious diseases, such as diseases that render people immobile, are "taken seriously". The lack of personal documentation and economic resources leaves serious consequences for the health of the socially vulnerable groups, much more serious than for the health of the rest of the population, says the report.
"It is alarming that among the children from refugee and IDP families who are not vaccinated, as many as 60% are not vaccinated due to the lack of medical booklets, and no such cases have been reported among the domicile non-Roma population", stresses the document.
It is added that a large percentage of the interviewed didn't know the answer to the question whether their children have been vaccinated, so there is a need to build consciousness among these communities of the importance of health care, especially for children. "The level of education and literacy of some of the socially vulnerable groups in Serbia is far below the national average, and the lack of formal education is particularly present among the Roma", says the UNDP report.
According to the report, the unemployment rate among refugees, IDPs and Roma is twice the rate among the rest of the population, and the majority of the Roma who do have jobs are unskilled workers. "This information strongly points out to the link between education and employment among the Roma and call for the improvement of their education as a starting point for other aspects of their economic and social development", stresses the report.
"Danas", 17. 7. 2006.
- PRISTINA: The most vulnerable community in Kosovo at this moment is the Serb community - stressed Hilmi Jasari, Kosovo Ombudsman, at the presentation of his annual report in Pristina yesterday. He said that Kosovo's citizens are faced with human rights violations every day, due to the legal system not functioning in the Province.
"Glas javnosti", 12. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: If they want to get the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia, Montenegro's citizens living in Serbia have to pay a total of around 12.000 dinars (more than half the average salary in Serbia) for the administration fee and the certificates required.
The most expensive item is the fee for the enrollment in the citizens register - 10.090 dinars.
"Glas javnosti", 12. 7. 2006.
- CROATIA: Croatia has lost the first lawsuit for the killing of Nikola Kosic of Serb nationality, former director of the Jugobanka outlet in Slatina. Kosic was killed in February 1992 by the military policeman Dinko Mijatovic, reports the Zagreb "Vecernji list" daily. Mijatovic took Kostic to the bank of the Drina river, shot him from a revolver and threw his body into the river. The Military Court in Osijek had sentenced him to 4,5 years imprisonment, but he only spent 4 months in prison because President Franjo Tudjman amnestied him.
"Glas javnosti", 16. 7. 2006.
- LIPLJAN: The members of KFOR and the Kosovo Police Service enabled 73 displaced Serbs from Krajiste near Lipljan to light the candles and mark the day of the village's patron-saint by gathering in the local church in Krajiste.
KFOR and the Kosovo Police Service marked the church with a yellow ribbon not allowing the Serbs to get out of the church or to move around the village, because KFOR had previously received a warning that the convoy with Serbs would be attacked.
Before the arrival of the UNMIK, 170 Serbs lived in Krajiste.
"Glas javnosti", 15. 7. 2006.
- SOMBOR: A group of 25 students aged 15-35 who have finished 6th grade of elementary school, will be formed in the beginning of September in the school for the elementary education of adults in Sombor, as part of the "Functional elementary education of adult Roma" project. The students will be trained for various professions.
Last school year, a total of 390 students (among them 163 Roma) from the municipalities of Apatin, Kula, Odzaci and Sombor attended this school.
The initiator of the project is the Institute for Pedagogy and Andragogy of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and it is implemented in cooperation with the National Employment Service, the Roma National Council, the Ministry of Education and Sports and secondary schools.
"Danas", 17. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: In order for domestic violence to be detected on time and adequately processed, it is necessary to establish efficient cooperation between the police, the shelters and the judicial system, this is the conclusion of yesterday's round table on "The protection from domestic violence among refugee and IDP population in the Republic of Serbia".
"Only when a unique data base is formed for Serbia, the so-called 'dark statistics' of rapes, i.e. the number of unreported cases", said the lieutenant, assistant director of the Criminal Police Department, Milena Zivanovic. She indicated as a reason for not reporting the cases of rape - the attitude of the environment which in most cases is of the opinion that "the victim asked for it".
Vesna Stanojevic, coordinator of the Counseling against domestic violence, has announced that besides the three existing safe houses, another one will be set up "because of the capacities being full".
"The Counseling gets around 3.000 calls on average per year but we have already had 2.000 calls this year. We take people into the safe house every day and they usually stay for 7 months. In the meanwhile the court procedures go very slowly and in these cases it is necessary to complete the procedure as soon as possible", Stanojevic stressed.
"Danas", 15.-16. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: In 2005, 9,1% of Serbia's citizens lived below the poverty line, with monthly income under 6.500 dinars - this was said at yesterday's conference on the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Aleksandra Jovic, manager of the Goverment's team for the implementation of the Strategy, said that persons living in the villages, the less educated, the unemployed, as well as the members of minorities, are more vulnerable to poverty. She said that Serbia is "somewhere in the middle" when it comes the level of poverty, compared with other countries in the region - better than Bulgaria and Albania, about the same as Romania, but worse than Croatia.
"Danas", 13. 7. 2006.
- KIKINDA: The local Red Cross in Kikinda is distributing food aid for IDPs and refugees from the collective centers of Jezero and Sumica, in accordance with last year's list of beneficiaries. Every family member will receive a package. The beneficiaries are to bring their personal documents with them.
"Danas", 14. 7. 2006.
- BUDVA: Montenegro's Ministry of Tourism had opened a special phone line for tourists' impressions and last week there were 180 calls, of which 179 complaints and only one positive impression.
76 complaints came from the area of Budva - 35 about music being too loud, 8 about fecal outpour on the beach, 5 about garbage dumps, there were also complaints about tourist guides working without license, water and electricity restrictions, mosquito invasion, about people dressing indecently, about speeding cars etc. The one positive impression was about the services of a restaurant, just like the week before last.
"Glas javnosti", 19. 7. 2006.
- SKOPJE: Macedonia's former Prime Minister Ljupco Georgijevski (1998-2002) has taken Bulgarian citizenship.
Because of Bulgaria's membership of the EU enabling its citizens free movement without a visa within the EU zone, every year thousands of people apply for Bulgarian citizenship, mostly from Macedonia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Russia and Serbia. Around 20.000 Macedonia's citizens have taken Bulgarian passports.
"Glas javnosti", 18. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: Dr Tomica Milosavljevic, Serbia's Minister of Health, commenting on the UN report stating that socially vulnerable persons in Serbia don't get good medical protection, said that this category of persons, among which there are a large number of Roma, don't get "adequate human treatment" first of all. He reminded that 19.000 Roma children had been vaccinated one of the previous years, and that the Ministry would create a strategy for the improvement of the health services for socially vulnerable persons. According to Milosavljevic, there is enough space for involving both private and public sector and the NGO sector, in the activities directed toward improving the health protection.
"Glas javnosti", 18. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: In Serbia there are around 300.000 persons from former Yugoslav republics, of which 107.000 have refugee status and 200.000 have already taken Serbian citizenship, Dragisa Dabetic, Serbia's Commissioner for Refugees, said yesterday. "The registration process included 141.000 persons and the refugee status has been confirmed for 107.000 of them", Dabetic said for the TANJUG news agency, pointing out that old refugee IDs will become invalid as of next autumn.
"Glas javnosti", 13. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: Greece has the largest number of smokers in Europe. Serbia is in second place spending 3,1, million euros on cigarettes per day, or more than a billion euros every year.
"Glas javnosti", 13. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: According to the World Bank, poverty in Serbia is increasing. Caroline Yunger, the World Bank's manager for Serbia, has stressed that, despite the estimates by Serbia's officials that the poverty trends in Serbia are at a standstill, she is convinced that social inequalities are increasing. She says that the unemployment rate among young people is very high - around 50% -, that more than 60% of the population with lower education is living below the poverty line, and the poverty is particularly pronounced in rural areas.
According to some estimates, around 600.000 people in Serbia are starving.
Yunger says that the World Bank has started working on a new support strategy for Serbia.
"Glas javnosti", 13. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: In the last 5 years, 550 mortal remains of Serbs were exhumed from individual and collective graves in Croatia, of which 375 have been identified, says a report by the "Veritas" Documentation-Information Center.
"Veritas" has a list of another 2.576 Serbs who went missing in Croatia in the period 1991-1995. This organization has reliable information of the existence of around 1.000 registered tombs with unidentified remains of Serbs, who are still waiting for exhumation although it has been 10 years since the end of the war in Croatia, says the report signed by the "Veritas" director, Savo Strbac.
"Glas javnosti", 13. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: At the border crossing of Gradina, Bulgarian police have arrested Zoran Obradovic (aged 41) based on a warrant issued by the Interpol office in Zagreb, confirmed Savo Strbac of "Veritas" yesterday.
Obradovic is a Serb from Petrinja, Croatia, and he is a citizen of Serbia.
"As a bus driver of the 'Ristic Komerc' company, Obradovic was taking tourists to a summer resort on the Black Sea and he was arrested and kept in custody based on a warrant of the Interpol office in Croatia issued this February for an alleged war crime", Strbac said.
Obradovic has been living in Serbia since 1995 and he was taking tourists to Bulgaria and many other countries, including Croatia, without any problems, but two days ago he was arrested and kept in custody.
"Glas javnosti", 13. 7. 2006.
- PRISTINA: In Kosovo there are two public Universities - the University of Pristina for classes in Albanian, Bosnian and Turkish, and the University of Kosovska Mitrovica for classes in Serbian.
UNMIK and Kosovo's Ministry of Education consider that the University of Mitrovica has been working illegally because after the replacement of the rector Gojko Savic and the appointment of Radivoje Papovic, UNMIK took away its license.
There is not one single student of Serb nationality studying at the University of Pristina. The University is willing to do anything to provide classes in Serbian and in the languages of other minorities, said Enver Hasani (rector of the Pristina University) yesterd at his meeting with Slavisa Petkovic (Kosovo's Minister of Return). Petkovic said he was an optimist and that concrete results would be achieved next year. He stressed that necessary efforts would be taken in order to achieve in Kosovo what is normal in the whole democratic world - separating university from politics.
"Danas", 18. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: At yesterday's presentation of UNDP report "Under risk: Social vulnerability of Roma, refugees and IDPs in Serbia", Serbia's Commissioner for Refugees Dragisa Dabetic said that "among IDPs there are members of 31 ethnic groups. Of the 208.000 IDPs from Kosovo 60.000 are not Serbs, and among them 22.000 Roma are officially registered. In Serbia 9.500 people are living in 109 collective centers, of which 17 are in Kosovo", Dabetic said and stressed that amendments to the law on refugees had entered the parliamentary procedure providing positive discrimination for the refugees who have decided to take Serbian citizenship.
Petar Ladjevic, director of the newly formed Human and Minority Rights Department, said that in the last year and a half, since the Roma Decade was declared, there had been no significant improvements in their situation, except in the area of education.
According to the head of the Roma Secretariat, Ljuan Koka, the situation of the Roma in Serbia is "catastrophic".
"Danas", 19. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: Nine members of the Krstic family from Kosovo have been protesting outside the Government building in Belgrade. Dragan Krstic (aged 35) and his wife Leposava (aged 34) came to Belgrade from the refugee center in Smederevo with 7 of their 9 children. They will stay outside the Government building until minimum living conditions are provided for them, Dragan says.
The family spent one day outside the Government building last year also as sign of protest.
"For breakfast we get two 30-gram packages of marmelade each. A year ago I came to the Government to complain of not getting any aid. Since I haven't received any aid to this day and less than a month ago my daughter Sanja was born, so I decided to come here again. This time we won't leave until minimum living conditions are provided for us", Dragan says.
Dragan and Leposava have been married for 17 years and they have 9 children.
"Children really are a great treasure but it is an unspeakable pain and sorrow for a parent who can't afford to buy them shampoo, books, snacks... I would do anything for them, but no one wants to pay more than 1.000 dinars a day . With that kind of money I can't build them a roof over their heads", Dragan said.
"Blic", 19. 7. 2006.
- SENTA: On the night between Monday and Tuesday graffiti in Hungarian, Serbian and German appeared on 15 locations in the center of Senta. Mirko Glisovic, municipal public defendant, has said for "Glas javnosti" that police are searching for the perpetrators of this act of inciting ethnic, religions and racial hatred and intolerance.
Some of the graffiti in Serbian read "Death to Serbs", F... Serbia", "Gypsies", "Independent Kosovo", "Go to Kosovo"; the graffiti in German read "Raus" and the ones in Hungarian read "This is a shitty country", "Free Delvidek" which was the Hungarian name for this part of Vojvodina when it was part of Hungary meaning "the Southern Region"
Atila Juhas, president of Senta Municipality, called lunatics the persons who wrote the graffiti. He thinks this provocation is not an act of a local citizen of Senta but an individual or a group from outside.
"Glas javnosti", 20. 7. 2006.
- The "Veritas" Center has found 500 Serb families whose relatives went missing during the "Storm" but they are not on any of the missing persons lists, said Savo Strbac, director of "Veritas".
This week "Veritas" will submit the list to the ICRC so they can be put on the ICRC missing persons list, which is the only official list.
"Glas javnosti", 20. 7. 2006.
- BRCKO: The Basic Court of the Brcko District has assigned a 30-day detention for six vehabits who inflicted severe injuries on Mihajlo Kisic of Serb nationality, TANJUG reports.
The suspects, three citizens of Bosnia&Herzegovina and three citizens of Austria attacked Kisic and his two travel companions on the local road Brcko-Ferik on July 15.
This severe incident committed by the vehabits, the most radical members of the Islamic community registered in the settlement of Gornja Maoca near Brcko, has brought great disquiet to the local Serbs and Croats who are afraid this might be just an introduction into future terrorist actions.
"Glas javnosti", 20. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: Every year 300-350 children in Serbia get cancer.
"Glas javnosti", 20. 7. 2006.
- PRISTINA: The head of the international police in Kosovo, Kai Vittrup, has confirmed that the mafia of Kosovo Albanians sends him death threats so his security has been stepped up. "One gets used to threats. If I was scared, I wouldn't stay in Kosovo. The threats directed to me are also the threats directed to the UN staff, so we are conducting an investigation and taking extra security measures. My wife has left Kosovo and it was a decision we have made together. No threat can cause the head of the police to leave Kosovo", Vittrup said in an interview for the first channel of the Danish national television.
"Glas javnosti", 22. 7. 2006.
- LESKOVAC: The average monthly salary in June in the service industry in Medvedja Municipality was 2.639 dinars, announced the local office of the Statistics Department in Leskovac. In the neighboring municipalities of Bojnik and Lebane the average salary in June was 3.777 and 4.529 respectively. In the municipality of Vlasotince the average salary in the manufacturing industry in June was 6.869 dinars and in Leskovac it was 11.470 dinars.
The average salary in Serbia in June was 21.216 dinars.
"Glas javnosti", 23. 7. 2006.
- PODGORICA: Montenegro only has 2 chimney-sweepers. One of them, Predrag Radicevic from Podgorica, has been in this trade for 17 years and he doesn't have a minute of spare time. He has cleaned thousands of chimneys. The price for cleaning a chimney is 10-15 euros.
"Glas javnosti", 23. 7. 2006.
- VRANJE: Several days ago criminal charges were filed against a Roma woman from Bujanovac for trying to sell her recently born baby for 200 euros to a Roma woman in Urosevac.
According to police reports, until recently the south of Serbia was only known as a transit area for people trafficking, but it is becoming more and more the area of the origin of the victims. For this reason, the Anti-trafficking Department started taking preventive measures two years ago. Four potential trafficking victims were identified in the last two months - two underage local girls who have been returned to their parents and guardians, and it is the first such attempt in Serbia. The Department warns that the engagement of the police is insufficient to stop people trafficking but other social structures must be involved, too.
According to Serbia's Ministry of Police, the Police Department of Vranje is in first place in the Republic when it comes to the results of people trafficking prevention.
"This year 15 channels for people smuggling have been cut and during these police actions 40 Albanian citizens, 10 Turkish citizens, 3 underage Serbian citizens and a newborn baby were registered as victims/.../ Criminal charges have been brought against 24 perpetrators, of which 22 are Serbian citizens, one is a Czech citizen and one is Slovakian", says Sinisa Arsenijevic, inspector of the Border Police Department.
According to this Department records, most people trafficking victims are victims of work exploitation which looks like this: the transport for a Chinese to some of the EU countries costs around 10.000 euros, the transport for a Turkish citizen costs 5.000 euros, for an Albanian citizen - 3.500 euros. Most people who want to be taken through the border often can't afford it, so they pay to the smugglers by working for free for a period of as many as 2 years. The Border Police Department has no special record on sexual trafficking victims, but it is known that a girl "bought" for such services costs 1.500-7.000 euros.
"Glas javnosti", 24. 7. 2006.
- BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA: A group of 50 Bosniaks in Konjevic Polje in Republika Srpska have attacked a group of Serbs near the local gas station, among them the employees of the gas station, the guests of the gas station cafe and members of the police.
Two nights ago a big orthodox cross in the Old Town above Srebrenica was toppled down, TANJUG reports.
"Glas javnosti", 26. 7. 2006.
- CROATIA: This year's celebration of the "Storm" will be different from the previous 10, because this time Serb representatives will take part, the Zagreb "Vecernji list" daily reports. The newly elected assistant mayor of Knin, Dragan Jerkovic, has said that on this day, August 5th, 1995, 32 Serb civilians were killed in his village of Golubic. "It is a tragic day for the village, but it is also the day when Croatia was liberated, the country we all live in. So we should all respect and celebrate this day", Jerkovic said.
"Glas javnosti", 2. 7. 2006.
- PRISTINA: The international judge has dismissed the indictment against two Albanians suspected of inflicting severe injuries on 19-year-old Milisav Ilincic on March 28th on the bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica, the UNMIK spokesman Niraj Singh confirmed yesterday. "The indictment was dismissed because the victim was refusing to appear before the international investigating judge, although he was being summoned regularly, as well as the witnesses", said Singh at a press conference in Pristina.
"Glas javnosti", 27. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: The administration fee for obtaining Serbia's citizenship has been reduced back to 1.250 dinars. When Montenegro became independent, the administration fee went up to 10.900 dinars. The Information Service of the Ministry of Police has announced that all the citizens who have paid the administration fee at this higher price, will get their money back at the same place where they have submitted their citizenship applications.
"Glas javnosti", 27. 7. 2006.
- LAJKOVAC: Yesterday the citizens of Lajkovac gathered in the center of the town, outside the only remaining confectionary, decided to protect the shop and its owner Ibrahim Mustavi of Goran nationality, from the demolition scheduled according to a court order.
"There were two confectionaries and there was never any problems with them. This man was born here, his children are here, this is what they live from, he has lost a child here, it got killed in the street, and he is a very good man. We will defend them, in other ways also if necessary", says a local woman.
Another citizen says, "It is not just about Ibrahim. It is also about us. We'll be asked what kind of persons we are and where our youth will go. Where are they supposed to go out? To the cafes? Here at least they get cheap ice cream and refreshments, as well as the best baklavas and other well known specialties".
The court order for the demolition of the "Sumadija" confectionary in Lajkovac was passed 20 years ago, and it was scheduled for yesterday, but it was avoided thanks to the great pressure by the public, a petition signed by more than 1.000 local citizens and by a citizens' protest, but also thanks to the good will of the heirs of the Krasic family to whom the municipality granted the right back in 1973 to use around 1 are of land to expend their family house but the Krasics never expended their house and this piece of land has been part of the confectionary.
"Glas javnosti", 27. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: Two nights ago unknown persons threw a bomb on the house of Rustem Agusi, former assistant commandant of the Police Department in Dragas. Great property damage was caused but none of the family was injured, TANJUG reports. The International Press Center of the Coordination Center in Kosovska Mitrovica has announced that Agusi, his wife and their underage daughter were in the house sleeping at the moment of the explosion.
"Glas javnosti", 29. 7. 2006.
- BELGRADE: The Geneva based Human Rights Committee has announced its conclusions regarding the implementation of the International pact on civil and political rights in Kosovo, expressing concern about the low level of protection of human rights. The Committee also expresses concern about the discrimination against minorities all over Kosovo, about the very small number of minority members returning to Kosovo and the impossibility for IDPs to get their properties back, announced Serbia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Glas javnosti", 29. 7. 2006.
- ZAGREB: Yesterday in Prague, Croatia's Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader, received a reward from the "Vasek and Ana Marija Polak" Foundation for promoting the values of freedom, democracy and market economy in Croatia, central and eastern Europe.
"Glas javnosti", 29. 7. 2006.
- KOVIN: Last year's budget for the "Kovin" Special Neuropsychiatric Hospital was 17 million dinars. The doctors say that this year's budget should have been at least 20 million, but instead the state has reduced it to 15 million dinars. Since psychiatric diseases are not terminal, our system does not regard them as urgent so medicines are sometimes available and sometimes not. Dr Milic, director of the hospital, says that it is not right, that the budget is too low and it doesn't stimulate new medications and keeping up with modern psychiatric medicine. "Without modern medications, there can't be any improvement in the medical state of these patients", Dr Milic says.
"Glas javnosti", 29. 7. 2006.