24 November 2009.

“Serbian state bodies are doing everything to shed the shadow of the past off the European course, and the best confirmation of the European values will be the arrest of the remaining two Hague indictees – Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic”, stated Serbian War Crime Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic. Jelena Simic prepared today’s edition of the Press Review.

In an interview to the VECERNJE NOVOSTI, Vladimir Vukcevic has explained that the full coordination of all services whose task is to locate the remaining Hague fugitives has been attained, that the teams working in a n organized fashion and that the politicians are “emitting clear willingness” to finish the international obligation at hand. He assessed that the arrest of Ratko Mladic’ aids in 2006 was a mistake, because they could have lead the investigative bodies to the war commander of the Republic of Srpska Army, if they had been left free back then. Vukcevic has added that the prosecution office he is heading works on all the cases that could lead to the remaining Hague fugitives, but also those where the so-called “Law on aids” had been definitely violated. He said that the investigation in the case of trading the organs of kidnapped Serbs in Kosmet has reached new dramatic information. “Along with the Ministry of Interior and other state institutions, we are working to discover those who were involved in that crime. We will push to the end, because we are encouraged by the support of the majority of significant international factors”, underlined Vukcevic.

“The pace of joining the EU does not depend on the procedure, so there is no some a priori deadline that we must meet”, the DANAS daily quotes Vladimir Todoric, the editor of the Serbian Legal Review and a former associate of Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic. According to him, the speed of the admission process depends on us, the pace of other countries in the region and on the political decision of EU members. “The history of association is full of precedents, which mostly show that even though some minimum of technical conditions has to be met, the issue of admission boils down to a political decision, and in case of Serbia it also involves the progress of the countries in our region”, explained Todoric.

The Serbian Orthodox Church could have the new patriarch by the end of January, and so far two possibilities are mostly pointed to as the options for scheduling the Gathering. The BLIC daily writes that the first possibility is between the Catholic and Orthodox Christmas, i.e. between December 25 and January 7. The second option is sometime between St. John’s Day, January 20, and St. Sava’s Day, January 27. The electoral gathering will be presided by the oldest episcope, Lavrentije, and the decision of the date will be made by the Holy Synod. This journal finds out in the Belgrade Patriarchy that this decision might be made as soon as this week. According to the Serbian Orthodox Church Constitution, the gathering has to be held within three months. The BLIC has it that almost certainly the way of electing the patriarch will not be changed, so the new leader will be chosen through the so-called “apostle drawing”, i.e. the same way as in the case of the late Patriarch Pavle.