The EULEX mission to Kosovo may fall under the auspices of the United Nations Mission, in the northern re-gion of Kosovo.

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NEIGHBOURHOOD

1Friday • June 13 • 2008 NEWSNEWS

Issue No. 1 / Friday, June 13, 2008

Lure of Tadic Alliance Splits SocialistsWhile younger Socialists support joining a new, pro-EU government, old Milosevic loyalists threaten revolt over the prospect.

EDITOR’S WORD

Political PredictabilityBy Mark R. Pullen

Many of us who have experi-enced numerous Serbian elections rate ourselves as pundits when it comes to predicting election re-sults and post-election moves.

We feel in-the-know because our experience of elections in Ser-bia has shown us that (a.) no single party or coalition will ever gain the majority required to form a govern-ment, and (b.) political negotiations will never be quickly concluded.

Even when the Democrats achieved their surprising result at last month’s general election, it quickly became clear that the re-sult was actually more-or-less the same as every other election result in Serbia, i.e. inconclusive.

This is likely to continue as long as Serbia’s politicians form new political parties every time they disagree with their current party leader (there are currently 342 reg-istered political parties in Serbia).

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

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

Costs Mounting

Economists are warning that pro-longed uncertainty over Serbia’s

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

“This year has been lost, from the standpoint of economic policy,” says Stojan Stamenkovic of the Econom-ics Institute in Belgrade.

Football Rebellion

While the football world watch-es events unfold at the Euro-

pean Championships in Austria and Switzerland, Bosnia is experiencing a soccer rebellion, led by fans, play-ers and former stars who are enraged by what they see as corrupt leaders of the country’s football association leaders.

By Rade Maroevic in Belgrade

Tense negotiations on a new gov-ernment have divided the ranks

of the Socialist Party, which holds the balance of power between the main blocs and has yet to announce which side they will support.

“It looks as if the Socialists will move towards a government led by the Democrats,” political analyst Mi-lan Nikolic, of the independent Cen-tre of Policy Studies, said. “But such a move might provoke deeper divi-sions and even split the party.”

Simultaneous negotiations held with the pro-European and national-ist blocs have drawn attention to a deep rift inside the Socialists.

This divides “old-timers” loyal

to Serbia’s late president, Slobodan Milosevic, and reformists who want the party to become a modern Euro-pean social democrat organisation.

After eight years of stagnation, the Socialists returned to centre stage after winning 20 of the 250 seats in parliament in the May 11 elections.

With the pro-European and nation-alist blocs almost evenly matched, the Socialists now have the final say on the fate of the country.

Nikolic believes the Socialists, led by Ivica Dacic, will come over to Tadic, if only out of a pragmatic de-sire to ensure their political survival.

“The group of younger Socialists gathered around Dacic seems to be in the majority”, Nikolic said, adding that these reformists believe the party

faces extinction unless it changes. However, a strong current also

flows in the opposite direction, led by party veterans enraged by the prospect of a deal with Tadic.

Mihajlo Markovic, a founder of the party, recently warned of a crisis if Dacic opts for the pro-European bloc, abandoning the Socialists’ “nat-ural” ideological partners.

Markovic, a prominent supporter of Milosevic during the 1990s, is seen as representative of the “old-timers” in the party who want to stay true to the former regime’s policies, even though these almost ruined the Socialists for good.

Some younger Socialist officials have voiced frustration over the con-tinuing impasse within their own

party over which way to turn. “The situation in the party seems

extremely complicated, as we try to convince the few remaining lag-gards that we need to move out of Milosevic’s shadow,” one Socialist Party official complained.

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

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

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

Pensioners leader, Jovan Krkoba-bic, Palma and Dacic are all pushing for a deal with the Democrats.

The reported price is the post of deputy PM, with a brief in charge of security for the Socialist leader.

In addition, the Socialists are bar-gaining for other ministries, includ-ing capital investments, Kosovo and education, Belgrade media reported.

Tadic has denied talk of horse-trading with the Socialists, maintain-ing that ministries would go only to those committed to working for the government’s “strategic goal”.

At the same time, Dacic seems re-luctant to call off negotiations with the nationalists.

“If we don’t reach an agreement with the DSS and Radicals, the par-ty leadership will decide on future steps”, Dacic announced, following the first session of country’s new par-liament on Wednesday.Source: Balkan Insight (www.balkaninsight.com)

Business Insight Neighbourhood Matters

Socialist leader Ivica Dacic remains the Serbian kingmaker

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Weekly Issue No. 10, Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

Despite the extradition of former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, to the International

Court of Justice, the conclusion of a Stability and Association Agreement, SAA, with the EU, and the election of a more stable Europe-leaning govern-ment, Serbia still has much to do on its path to EU accession.

The annual report highlights many of the same concerns in all of the featured countries, but, in addi-tion to the common problems of cor-ruption, money laundering, and judi-cial reform, is particularly critical of Serbia’s treatment of minorities, the country’s border management and its Kosovo policy.

The report praises Serbia’s ad-ministration and notes that Euro-

Serbia still has much to do, says the report Photo by FoNet

pean integration structures have strengthened.

“Serbia remains well placed to implement the SAA and the Interim agreement thanks to its good admin-istrative capacity,” the report states. However, it notes the slow progress in the implementation of the legis-lation necessary to take the process forward.

In addition, “there has been in-creased stability in government and greater consensus on European in-tegration”.

It adds that Serbia has made sig-nificant progress in cooperation with the Hague Tribunal but states that full cooperation is an international obligation and one of the key priori-ties of the European Partnership.

However, the report is strongly critical of the government’s Kos-ovo policy noting particularly, the strengthening of parallel institutions,

including the establishment of an as-sembly of municipalities and the or-ganisation of elections on Kosovo ter-ritory despite UNMIK disapproval.

The document further stresses “it is important that Serbia demonstrates a constructive attitude towards Kos-ovo’s participation in regional initia-tives and international forums”.

Serbia is further criticised for “in-sufficient attention to resolving status of refugees and internally displaced persons”. The whole issue of the treat-ment of minorities, and human rights in general, is subject to much scru-tiny. The report mentions a number of incidents involving inflammatory language and violence against civil society organizations, human rights activists and sections of the media. “No progress has been made in in-vestigations of murdered journalists dating back to the 1990s or into the attempted murder of a journalist in

April 2007,” the paper says.Incidents in Vojvodina in the af-

termath of Kosovo’s independence, and attacks on the Albanian minority in Serbia are highlighted and con-cerns over the worsening situation in Sandzak are also raised.

The government has also failed to make sufficient progress in its fight against organised crime, drug traffick-ing and money laundering, according to the report, which bemoans the gov-ernment’s failure to adopt a national strategy. Serbia is also seen as coun-try of origin, transit, and destination for trafficking in human beings.

Despite praise for Serbia’s admin-istrative capacities, the report sees reform of the independence, accounta-bility and efficiency of the judicial sys-tem as vital, and criticises the county’s efforts at implementation of its nation-al integrated border strategy, and “the absence of relevant legislation”.

EU Progress Report: Serbia’s Future Overshadowed By Kosovo

In an interview with Juliana Mojsi-lovic, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic talks about Serbia’s EU future.

Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic talks about the country going into a possible ressesion next year.

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Where do you go for fresh fruits and vegetables after hours?

Page 14

MY PICKS

Partizan victory over Real Madrid at the 13th attempt.

Page 13

SPORT

Pat Andjelkovic explores Serbia’s rich naive art scene.

Page 9

OUT & ABOUT

Autumn at Kalemegdan. We take a closer look.

Page 10

LIFE

Belgrade Insight takes a look at how Balkan countries are responding to the financial global slump.

Page 4

ECONOMICS

POLITICS

The Danube is getting cleaner, but much work on polution in the river still needs to be done, a recent study finds.

Page 6

BUSINESS

BELGRADE

Source: www.weather2umbrella.com

By Gjeraqina Tuhina in Brussels

Belgrade Insight has obtained exclusive access to a draft of the European Commission’s Progress Report on the Western Balkans.

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 20082 advert

Think you know Belgrade?Think again!

Vladimir Vukcevic

3politicsFriday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

Jeremic: ‘Yes’ to EU, ‘No’ to Independent KosovoSerbia sees itself as a future EU member but will never recognise the independence of its former province, says Vuk Jeremic.

INTERVIEWby Julijana Mojsilovic

in Belgrade

Vuk Jeremic says Belgrade will agree to work with the European Union mission in

Kosovo only if it receives UN back-ing and does not imply Serbia’s rec-ognition of its former province as an independent state.

The Foreign Minister added that Serbia had made history in terms of the way problems were dealt with in the Balkans, by moving the Kosovo case from the political to the legal arena.

European Committment

That, he argued, also demon-strated Serbia’s commitment to European values and its country’s readiness to be a part of the 27-member club. “This was the first time in the Balkans that someone used diplomacy and not force to resolve a problem of such complex-ity as the issue of Kosovo,” Jeremic told Balkan Insight.

“We were elected on a pro-Eu-ropean platform. That was our main electoral promise and we will deliv-er,” he added, insisting that the issue of Kosovo and Serbia’s integration into the EU were “two separate proc-esses both from Belgrade’s and Brus-sels’ points of view”.

Belgrade and Brussels have in-deed been at odds regarding Serbia’s reaction to the countries that have recognised Kosovo following the declaration of independence in Feb-ruary. But Jeremic does not expect the EU to make Serbia’s membership conditional on Belgrade’s own rec-ognition of Kosovo.

“You cannot ask an aspirant to do something you haven’t done your-self,” he says referring to the fact that five of the 27 EU states have not rec-

Police have mounted a major raid across Serbia arrested more than 20 people on suspi-

cion of fraud and money laundering, a senior Interior Ministry official told Balkan Insight.

“At least 26 people were detained in Belgrade, Pancevo, Novi Sad, Nis and Smederevo,” the source said on condi-tion of anonymity.

Police acted after they gathered “suf-ficient evidence that the group embez-zled at least €4 million,” through bogus companies since 2007. “Investigative judges will now take statements from the suspects and decide on further moves.”

The group allegedly “used money for racketeering, lending with unfavo-rable interest and other criminal activi-ties,” the official said.

He said that a number of people “in-volved in the group’s activities were ei-ther employed or closely related to some government bodies. One of them was a tax revenue officer,” the official said.

The source refused to elaborate fur-ther and to disclose the names of suspects pending the end of the police operation.

Serbia will seek Council of Eu-rope help to encourage Albania to allow Belgrade prosecutors

to probe allegations of the trafficking of human organs taken from Serbs during the Kosovo war.

Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said Albania’s Prosecutor General Ina Rama had rejected a request to allow an inves-tigation into the allegations made by former United Nations war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte despite evidence presented earlier this week.

“We are going to bring this issue before the Council of Europe and present evidence we have collected,” Bruno Vekaric, a spokesman for Ser-bia’s war crimes prosecutor told Bal-kan Insight.

Vukcevic said Albanian authori-ties denied him access to a house in northern Albania believed to be a makeshift clinic for harvesting or-gans from captured Kosovo Serbs. He also said that Serbian investiga-tors have evidence about suspected mass graves in the area.

In her book The Hunt the former United Nations war crimes prosecu-tor Carla Del Ponte said that that her team had investigated reports that around 300 Serbians held in Albania had had organs removed, apparently for trafficking.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha had previously dismissed Del Ponte’s charges as fiction.

In a statement released earlier this week Albanian prosecutors said that the issue had already been investi-gated by local authorities as well as by an investigator from the United Nations war crimes tribunal.

According to local media, Beri-sha also dismissed Vukcevic’s alle-gations that he had asked the secret service “to destroy important docu-ments on the instructions of Ramush Haradinaj,” a former Kosovo guer-rilla leader and later prime minister.

“It was political pressure from Kosovo,” Vukcevic said earlier in a television interview.

In 2004, UN investigators found blood stains and syringes whilst dig-

ging in an area near the river flowing below the meadow near the suspect-ed house in northern Albania.

They returned the next day with axes to open graves in a local cemetery but villagers protested they were the graves of their dead and stopped them from ex-huming them. An Albanian prosecutor also took the villagers’ side.

Source: www.BalkanInasight.com

ognised Kosovo: Romania, Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus and Spain.

He maintained that Serbia “can-not recognise Kosovo under any cir-cumstances whatsoever and maintain democratic order in the country.”

“We are not going to give up our European future just as we are not going to give up our democratic con-stitution,” Jeremic added.

He said he was convinced this ex-planation would find understanding within the international community because “in a democratic country you cannot violate laws and the con-stitution”.

European future a must

Speaking about the region, Jerem-ic said a European future was a must for the whole of the Balkans because “there is no other way to ameliorate the effects of wars, crisis, conflicts and their aftermath.

“The European Union is the most successful peace project in human history,” he continued, “and will not be completed before the whole Bal-kans becomes a part of it.”

At the same time, Jeremic reiter-ated that Belgrade would make ap-proval of the EU’s EULEX rule of law mission in Kosovo conditional on it adopting a “neutral position re-garding our province’s status”.

Ahtisaari plan not acceptable

Belgrade did not flatly oppose the so-called reconfiguration of the in-ternational presence in Kosovo, but “EULEX has to have the UN Secu-rity Council’s backing and it cannot implement the Ahtisaari plan.” This was the plan drawn up by the UN en-voy to Kosovo on the basis of which Kosovo declared independence.

The Finish diplomat’s plan envis-aged “supervised independence” for Kosovo following internationally-brokered talks between Belgrade and Pristina. Belgrade consistently opposed the plan, maintaining it

would never go further than agree-ing to a form of extensive autonomy for Kosovo.

“The UN took over in Kosovo in 1999 under Security Council resolu-tion 1244 and any change has to be endorsed by the Security Council,” he said.

Meanwhile, Belgrade was pleased with the vote at the UN General As-sembly earlier this month. This backed Serbia’s decision to seek the opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legality of Kosovo’s independence.

Jeremic said if the Court deemed Pristina’s move illegal “it is going to be very hard for those [countries] that haven’t recognised it so far to do so afterwards.”

In that case, Jeremic predicts Ko-sovo will not be able to substantiate its claim to statehood and “it will be very, very easy to block Kosovo’s accession” to other international or-ganisations.

Serbia “ready to talk”

Serbia remained “ready to talk to them [the Kosovars] at any place without any precondition, and at any time, when they come to terms with reality.

“We are trying to create a new dimension of reality, a legal reality. Once we establish that, the only con-structive way out of the situation will be to come and sit at the negotiating table,” Jeremic said.

Both the Kosovo government and its European and US allies have dis-missed the idea of returning to new talks on Kosovo after the previous rounds failed.

But Jeremic believes a Court rul-ing in favour of Serbia will make it “obvious that Kosovo cannot progress institutionally as a ‘country’ in terms of confirming its sovereign-ty, and becoming a real state.”

In the meantime, Belgrade has returned diplomats to those countries from which they were withdrawn

after they recognised Kosovo’s inde-pendence.

Serbia however expelled the am-bassadors of two countries, Macedo-nia and Montenegro, when the two neighbouring states recognised Kos-ovo one day after the vote at the UN General Assembly.

Expulsions “Political and practical”

Jeremic justified the expulsions as a necessary signal to the world that Belgrade took the defence of its sovereignty and territorial integrity seriously. “The reason [for the move] was political as well as practical.

“Political because as neighbours, they have special responsibility when it comes to maintaining peace

and stability in the region; and prac-tical because the decision to recog-nise [Kosovo] a day after the vote was a calculated decision, meant to diminish the effects of the vote,” Jeremic said.

The minister admits the expul-sions have inflicted some collateral damage, but argued that Serbia faced almost uniquely difficult problems in terms of defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“Had we failed to react harshly [to Montenegro and Macedonia], it would have sent a signal to the world that now, after the [UN] vote, we are happy and you can go out and recog-nise [Kosovo].”

Source: BalkanInsight.com

EU a priority, but no recognition for Kosovo, says Jeremic Source: MFA

Serb Police Target Crime Group

Serbia Seeks European Help In Organs Case

4 business - the global downturn

Bulgaria Cuts 2009 Growth Forecast

Albania Curbs Bank Exposure to Markets

‘Black Monday’ for Macedonia Stocks

Croatia Stock Market Plunges 50% in 2008

Bosnia Reels from Market Slump

The Silver Lining in Serbia’s Poverty

In what local media have dubbed “black Monday” Macedonia’s stock exchange, the MBI 10,

comprising the ten biggest Macedo-nian companies, fell by 8.63 per cent, the biggest fall since the index was formed in January 2005. The fall came amid concerns over the future of the country’s key industries.

In a move designed to buoy up confidence in the financial system, after banks reported an increase in deposit withdrawals, the country’s National Bank Governor Petar Go-sev said “the banking system and the banks in Macedonia are stable and there is no need for citizens to with-draw their savings”.

The country’s metal industry, which contributes nearly half of

Macedonia’s total annual exports, has also reported signs of trouble due to the global crisis.

Metal companies have already complained in public that their future export contracts may suffer as a con-sequence of declining global demand coupled with declining prices on in-ternational markets. Gloomy media reports suggest possible closures.

Macedonia’s other big export in-dustry is textiles and here too local media report falling demand as well. Larger textile companies are consid-ering cutbacks in manpower to main-tain profitability.

According to government sta-tistics, these two industries employ around 60,000 people in this country of two million.

Surprisingly enough, Serbia may be less affected by the global slump than other coun-

tries because of its relative poverty in comparison to other states.

Agriculture, industry and civil engineering in Serbia provided only a modest contribution of 6.8 per cent to the overall growth of the economy between 2000 and 2007. The other 93.2 per cent came from growth in trade, transportation, finances and fiscal revenues.

Over 80 per cent of Serbia’s eco-nomic growth has also been achieved in Belgrade and two other cities, Nis and Novi Sad, leaving 40 per cent of Serbia’s population worse off than in 2000, immediately after the ousting of former President Slobodan Milosevic.

In terms of annual income per capita, Serbia is amongst the poorest countries in Europe, ahead of only Kosovo and Moldova. Profitable industry is focused on a few dozen major private and state-owned com-panies involved in trade, finance and services with a workforce of some 80,000.

Hence, less than 5 per cent of the 2 million workforce in Serbia has seen any real growth in salaries. This number of employees can be linked to the approximately 40,000 real es-tate loans, worth a total some €1.5 billion, that have been approved over the period.

In comparison with Croatia, Hun-gary, Bulgaria, and Romania this fig-ure is tiny. And therein lies the basis for the argument that Serbia stands to be less affected by the global finan-cial crisis than most other East Euro-pean countries.

Serbia’s economy is dominated by tycoons with enviable positions in Eastern Europe. However economic losses may show up in their com-panies. Their employees could lose their jobs and the mortgaged roofs over their heads. A similar fate may befall employees in publicly owned concerns if the dinar maintains its current downward slide against the euro, because of the ongoing pullout of investers from supposedly volatile markets.

But the depreciation of the do-mestic currency mainly affects com-

panies that have borrowed abroad, prompting them to shed workers and cut down on business deals at home.

For other sectors, the looming depression, as the Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic suggested recent-ly, it will have favourable effect. Cheaper money will make Serbia more competitive for investment and production. The private sector will benefit because it will find it easier to obtain workers at lower prices. The workforce will have to become more mobile and more interested in finding what’s available, instead of daydreaming about high salaries.

If this scenario is true, and Ser-bia is less affected by the crisis than other countries, the country could get a “second chance” to restructure its growth on the basis of production and employment in the next few years.

Bulgaria will stick to its tight fiscal policy in 2009 and in-crease capital spending to

soften the impact on its fast-growing economy from the global financial crisis, the government says.

The leaders of the Socialist-led ruling coalition approved the 2009 budget draft which targets a surplus of a minimum of 3 percent of gross domestic product in response to the credit crunch, the government said in a statement.

The country has already increased its target for a fiscal surplus to 3.5 percent of GDP for the current year.

Analysts and rating agencies have warned that the global financial woes, which have already slowed the inflows of foreign cash and have lim-ited the credit expansion, will hit the country’s economic growth and may even lead to a hard landing.

The draft slashed the 2009 growth forecast to 4.7 percent from 6.5 per-cent previously and forecast that for-eign direct investments would drop to €5.3 billion from over €6 billion in

Albania’s Central Bank will limit the investments the country’s foreign owned

banks make in their parent compa-nies, in an effort to thwart the effect of the global financial crisis.

According to the new regulations, foreign banks currently operating in Albania will not be allowed to invest more than 10 per cent of their capital in parent companies.

Previously the limit was 25 per cent.

Croatia’s stock market in-dex, CROBEX, has plunged around 50 percent this year,

as the global financial crisis takes its toll on Croatia’s underdeveloped and sensitive economy.

Croatia has followed United States and European governments in guaranteeing customers’ bank depos-its to prevent a mass withdrawal of savings pushing banks to the brink of collapse.

Zagreb has raised the amount of savings it guarantees from 100,000 kunas (€14,000) to 400,000 kunas (€57,000), a level slightly above the minimum agreed by other European governments.

Experts are also worried about Croatian banks owned by foreign companies that were exposed to the US subprime mortgage crisis – leav-ing their finances reeling after accu-mulating billions in toxic debt.

Italy’s Unicredit, which owns the largest Croatian bank, Zagrebacka banka, is particularly affected by this.

Bosnia’s business environment “seriously lags behind” both Balkan and EU countries, ac-

cording to a recent World Economic Forum report, and the situation is likely to get worse.

The report looked at the business and financial environment in 16 Eu-ropean and central Asian countries, and compared their performance

recent years.The government plans to in-

crease capital spending by 20.9 percent to 5.192 billion levs (€2.7 billion) next year to partly make up for the expected slowdown in for-eign investment.

Analysts say Bulgaria’s depend-ence on foreign cash to cover its huge current account deficit of over 20 percent of GDP and foreign debt of about 100 percent of GDP makes the country extremely vulnerable as credit conditions tighten globally.

Sofia has announced a package of measures including government guarantees for interbank loans to safeguarding banks, although Bul-garian lenders have no exposure to toxic assets and do not need emer-gency funding.

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said last week the government would use its hefty fiscal reserve, expected to reach 13 billion levs (€6.5 billion) at end-2008, to maintain stability and back the banking system in times of global financial turmoil.

The move also aims to counteract economic slowdown by making sure that there is ample credit in the local market.

Foreign companies currently control 95 per cent of Albania’s banking market.

According to a recently pub-lished report, financial institutions in southeast Europe remain bullish about growth prospects, despite the global downturn.

The Balkan banking sector has registered strong growth rates over the past year despite the financial cri-sis in most of the rest of the world.

Low levels of regional exposure to international financial institutions, weak integration into international markets and the strong capitalisation of international banks operating in the region are some of the cited fac-tors behind the region’s apparent im-munity to the economic downturn.

Croatia’s Central Bank gover-nor, Zeljko Rohatinski, has sought to improve the stability of the banking system by releasing 4.5 billion kunas (€65 million) from the obligatory re-serves that Croatia’s banks have to deposit with the National bank.

By releasing this money, Rohat-inski looked to free up the credit market – which has been hit hard as banks introduce tighter lending cri-teria, while banks were also provided with the means to intervene in case of massive withdrawal of money by citizens.

Economists have praised Rohatin-ski for his swift action.

Croatia’s ship-building industry however, has suffered the most from the global slowdown.

According to local media, sev-eral of Croatia’s shipyards have seen their contracts cancelled because in-vestment banks refuse to give loans to investors, fearing that they will not be able to repay them due to the slug-gish global economy.

with EU countries and EU-accession requirements.

According to analysts and econo-mists, these results spell trouble for Bosnia, which has already been suf-fering from symptoms of the spread-ing global recession.

Two weeks ago, a sudden increase in deposit withdrawals - caused by panic among the population - caught

several commercial banks as well as country’s Central Bank, by surprise.

The Central Bank reacted swiftly, reducing obligatory cash reserves for banks from 18 to 14 per cent, which improved the banks’ liquidity. In ad-dition, Bosnia’s state government has proposed to parliament an urgent law which would increase state guaran-tees on deposits from 5,000 Konvert-ible Marks (€2,500) to 20,000 KM (€10,000).

Some economists agree that these moves - however positive - are not enough, and that local leaders - who have been caught in political dead-lock for the past two years - are com-pletely ignorant of the seriousness of the crisis.

In addition to the disturbances in the banking sector and plummet-ing bourses, Bosnia’s industry is also facing trouble. Falling prices of iron and aluminum - which make up a major part of Bosnia’s exports - threaten these industries and could also jeopardise the country’s mount-ing foreign trade deficit.

Serbia will benefit from its relative poverty to ride out the impact of the global slump.

COMMENTBy Miroslav Zdravkovic

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

Photo by Sophie CottrellSerbia’s poverty - a blessing in disguise?

The BELEX15, the index of the most traded shares in the Belgrade stock exchange, dropped 18.58 per cent in the week ending October 30th to an historical low, amid investor pullouts from emerging markets.

Thursday saw further falls, with the blue chip AIK Banka, generating more than half of the daily turnover, falling to 668.99 points.

The composite BELEXline index also fell to 1,421.42 points, while the joint SRX index of the bourses in

Belgrade and Vienna dropped 4.01 per cent to 324.29.

The BELEXline index has declined

for the past three months and is headed for a 29 per cent slump, the biggest monthly drop since September 2004.

Belgrade Stock Market Drops to All-Time Low

5business

Pension Hike To Be Delayed Until 2010

Serbia Seeks Money for New Power Plants

Serbia Faces “Recession in 2009” PM Says

Central Bank Warns of Hawala Transfers

Serbia Lowers Fuel Prices

A pensions increase due for 2009, may have to be delayed until 2010, due to the global

financial crisis, the Deputy Prime Minister Jovan Krkobabic said.

He said the government’s plans that envisaged an increase in pen-sions to 70 percent of an average wage by the end of 2009 would not materialise as Serbia was bracing for the impact of the global financial slowdown.

“As we are encountering prob-lems, we will not destabilise the state. We have to delay the project, possibly until the end of 2010,” he said.

After the May election, Serbia’s ruling coalition comprised of a pro-democratic bloc loyal to Serbian President Boris Tadic and an alliance comprised of the Socialist Party of Serbia and Krkobabic’s United Party of Pensioners, pledged to boost all pensions by 10 percent in Novem-

ber and to 70 percent of the average wage in 2009.

Krkobabic’s remarks came af-ter Serbia’s Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic warned on Monday that the country will enter what he termed a “recession” in 2009 which will slow down growth from the current 7 percent to 4 percent.

The International Monetary Fund also warned Serbia to cut spend-ing and prepare a restrictive 2009 budget.

Serbia currently has 1.63 million pensioners and an average pension amounts to 17,311 dinars (€211) al-though more than 450,000 pension-ers including 200,000 retired farm-ers are receiving as little as 9,700 dinars.

The 10 percent increase in pen-sions will raise the average value to some 19,000 dinars, Krkobabic said.

By the end of the year, Serbia’s government will invite bids to complete the development of

key thermoelectric plants, the coun-try’s Mining and Energy Minister Petar Skundric said.

Skundric said that a total of €1.65 billion will be required for the com-pletion of two new blocks in Kolu-bara B and another one at the Nikola Tesla B power plant, both just outside the capital, Belgrade.

“Tender offers will be completed by the end of the year,” he said with-out elaborating further about the de-tails.

The development of Kolubara B was initiated by the former com-munist government in 1988 but was halted in 1991 following the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and has not resumed since.

To maintain the operation of the

existing two coal-powered genera-tor blocks at Kolubara B, Serbian authorities have so far invested some €300 million but its “comple-tion to full operational status will re-quire at least another €550 million” Skundric said.

Serbia is dependant on energy im-ports “particularly in winter months “and in the last two decades, “the country has not built a single new power generation facility,” Skundric said.

“Our key goal is to secure stable energy supplies,” he said and added that the government should keep “a dominant role in the ownership of Serbia’s power sector.”

Earlier this year, the Serbian gov-ernment announced it wants to sell a minority stake in EPS and other ma-jor state-operated assets and deliver free shares to some 4 million people.

The global crisis will hit Serbia in 2009 and the impact will result in a significant drop in

gross domestic product, Prime Min-ister Mirko Cvetkovic claims.

“This will clearly be a recession as the GDP will be lowered to 4 per cent in comparison to the 7 per cent we had in recent years,” Cvetkovic said at a panel discussion in Belgrade on Monday.

Cvetkovic used the the word ‘recession’ pointedly although this is usually regarded as as two finan-cial quarters of negative economic growth.

“The wave of the crisis will hit our shores in 2009,” he said.

To combat the effects of this, Serbia must adopt more restrictive fiscal poli-cies and cut spending, while experts from the government and the Interna-tional Monetary Fund will intensify their work on the 2009 draft budget.

“Our mid-term goal is to keep the budget deficit below 2 percent of the GDP and to keep public spending be-low 44 percent of GDP,” Cvetkovic said.

Previously officials suggested that in 2008, GDP groath would be between 7 per cent and 7.5 per cent, while headline inflation will remain in single figures. Lawmakers are current-ly debating a proposed revision to the 2008 budget that will raise the budget deficit to 1.7 per cent of GDP from the previously set 0.5 percent of GDP.

Earlier Finance Minister, Dijana Dragutinovic, said the revision of the budget was prompted by expenditures of €200 million needed for the estab-lishment of a joint venture between Ser-bia’s Zastava carmaker and Italy’s Fiat, a €250 million allotment for the devel-opment of a motorway network dubbed Corridor 10 and a 10 per cent hike in pensions expected in November.

Serbia’s central bank and the country’s National Interpol Bu-reau have warned commercial

banks, exchange booths and other organisations that handle foreign cur-rency banknotes to remain vigilant over suspected money laundering and currency transfers used by organised crime groups or terrorist networks.

The bank and the Belgrade-based bureau of Interpol, a international body that liaises between police forces, said that “it is possible to rec-ognise foreign currency banknotes which were marked by persons or groups involved in ‘hawala’ money laundering and funds transfers used by (Islamic) terrorists.”

The bank and Interpol said they were “particularly interested in uncov-ering methods used by ‘hawaladari’, or people who facilitate illegal money transfers, for mutual financial gain.”

The centuries-old hawala system is based on Islamic law and it is a way of transferring cash through brokers who offer no promissory in-struments. The transactions are based on the honour system. Brokers keep no records except a running tally of the amount owed by one broker to another.

“Their symbols for marking ban-knotes are sometimes visible only under ultraviolet light,” the statement said.

Hawala is frequently used for illegal money transfer and govern-ments do not favour the system. In the past, several major probes have been launched in order to establish how much Islamic terrorist funding passes through hawala networks.The central bank and National Interpol Bureau also sent out warnings to cus-toms and border police offices.

Fuel prices in Serbia have dropped by an average of 9.45 per cent amid falling global

crude oil prices, the Ministry for Mining and Energy said.

In a statement, the ministry said that prices of unleaded 95-octane fuel and D2 diesel have dropped by 9.7 per cent and 11.6 per cent respectively.

The drop is related to a significant decrease in crude oil prices in the past two weeks, the ministry said. The move comes after a previous 5.5 per cent cut on September 23.

5business

Government To Keep Morgan Stanley For Telekom IPO

The Serbian government intends to sign a contract with Morgan Stanley as an advisor in the initial public of-fering of shares in the state-run Tel-ekom Srbija, a top official said.

“The government will not alter its intention” to sign the contract with Morgan Stanley, said Jasna Matic, the country’s Telecommunications Minister.

“That process is about to be com-pleted,” despite the United States-based investment bank’s most recent market slump, she said.

Morgan Stanley’s shares have plummeted 74 per cent this year, compared with a 42 per cent decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

In September, the Serbian Cabinet selected Morgan Stanley as the pri-vatisation advisor for Telekom Srbi-je’s IPO at the Belgrade and London stock exchanges. Under the provi-sions of the deal, Morgan Stanley will receive 1.35 per cent of the proceeds of the sale of Telekom Srbije’s shares as well as €250,000 for devising the strategy and preparing the appropri-ate documentation.

Matic said the government will delay the initial public offer of Tel-ekom Srbije initially scheduled for next year because of the global crisis. Serbia owns 80 percent of Telekom Srbije, while the Hellenic Telecom-munications firm, SA owns the re-mainder.

Government Seeks Advisor for Galenika Sale

The government plans to invite companies to bid to act as advisors for the sale of Galenika Pharmaceuti-cals, the country’s Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic says.

Bids will be invited next week, Dinkic said, without elaborating fur-ther on the details of the tender.

The minister also said that the pri-vatisation of Galenika will be com-pleted in the first half of 2009. He also said that the government still has to invite bids for 10 major publicly-owned enterprises and launch auc-tions for 209 state-owned assets by the end of 2008.

Galenika is 100 per cent owned by the state. It exports its entire pro-duction to Africa, Asia, Russia and southeastern Europe.

In 2007, Galenika’s profits recov-ered to 950 million dinars (€12.34 million), having dipped in 2006 to a low of 596 million dinars (€8 mil-lion). Net margins improved signifi-cantly from 8.1 per cent to 14.2 per cent of gross sales.

Two Bids for Prva Petoletka Holding

Two international consortia have placed bids for a 71 per cent stake in Prva Petoletka Holding, a manu-

facturer of machinery and hydraulic components, the company’s general director Radomir Milic said.

“One (consortium) is from Rus-sia and another one is a joint British and Ukrainian venture,” Milic said.

This is the third attempt to sell Prva Petoletka which in the 1980s was the key supplier of hydraulics for the now-defunct Yugoslav Asso-ciation of Weapons’ Producers.

The first attempt to privatise the company fell through in 2004 after it failed to receive a single

offer. Two subsequent bids in 2007 and earlier this year were cancelled after two Russian com-panies failed to fulfill the condi-tions of the sale.

Prva Petoletka Holding, which is comprised of more than a dozen companies, was brought to a virtual standstill in the 1990s amid the Bal-kan Wars and international isolation. It has since lost the subsidiaries in the now-independent Kosovo and neigh-boring Montenegro and shed 1,350 employees.

Companies & Markets

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

Mirko Cvetkovic Photo by FoNet

6 belgrade chronicle Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

Photo by Sophie CottrellWorkers clearing the site Photo by Sophie Cottrell

Source: www.javno.com Kovacevic is not taking the arrest well

Anyone for swimming?

Workers are finishing final preparations for the con-struction, and building of a

bridge that will connect Ada Ciganlija to New Belgrade over the Sava River. The project’s director says that exca-vation will start soon, once the site has been cleared and enclosed.

The bridge is expected to save as muchh as half an hour of traveling time betwen Old and New Belgrade and is projected to be completed in 2011. In addition, the bridge will clear up traffic on Belgrade’s other bridges and roads leading to them.

This beautiful suspension bridge will be 929 metres long, 45 metres wide and will carry six lanes of traffic and trams. Construction costs are esti-mated at €118,6 million.. No blockage to shipping is expected over the course

The US Embassy in Serbia has welcomed the detention of Miladin Kovacevic, sought

by Washington for allegedly assault-ing an American student and fleeing the country.

The United States Embassy in Belgrade also said it is cooperating with Serbia’s request to investigate the case.

The Serbian government’s press bureau said in a statement that Ko-vacevic was taken in for questioning by an investigative judge at a Bel-grade municipal court.

The statement also said Slobodan Nenadovic former Serbian Consul in New York, was also taken in for questioning.

Nenadovic was chief of the New York consulate when a temporary passport was issued to Kovacevic earlier this year, allowing the then student to leave the country and flee to his native Serbia.

Marina Klaric Zivkovic spokes-person for the Belgrade District Court, said that both Kovacevic and Nenadovic will be held in custody for 30 days, until November 29.

She added that Kovacevic has been remanded because of the risk that he may leave the country. Nenadovic, on the other hand, is being held because of the possibility that he may attempt to influence potential witnesses.

A Justice Ministry official told Bel-grade Insight that ‘in Kovacevic case as in any other case, a prosecutor may act if there’s a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed.

“The prosecutor probably asked

police to take Kovacevic into custody and question him both in connection with the incident in the United States and dealings of the Serbian diplomat in New York,” he said speaking on condition of anonymity.

He refused to elaborate whether US authorities have handed over Ko-vacevic’s case to their Serbian coun-terparts.

Temporary travel documents were issued to Kovacevic by Vice-Consul Igor Milosevic. Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic immediately suspended Milosevic and since then he has been put on trial in Serbia.

Kovacevic’s father, Petar Ko-vacevic, said his son was not taking the arrest well.

“How would you feel if you were before God accused of something

you didn’t do? How can a young per-son feel in such a situation?” Petar Kovacevic told Belgrade Insight.

Kovacevic, a former student and college basketball player at the Uni-versity of Binghamton in New York State, was allegedly involved in a brawl with another student, Bryan Steinhauer at a campus bar.

Steinhauer was left in a coma and Kovacevic was charged with assault and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

He was released on bail of US$100,000 (€77,200) and ordered to surrender his passport to US au-thorities.

Since Serbia’s constitution bans the extradition of its citizens, Belgrade said Kovacevic could go back to the US if he decided so, or he could face trial at home if the US accepted that.

An analysis from the Interna-tional Commission for the Protection of the Danube River

says that the river is cleaner than it was seven years ago but that large sections of the river are still heavily polluted. Problems are related to the discharge of raw and partially treated sewage, pesticide and fertilizer run-off and the discharges from industry throughout the length of the river.

Serious organic pollution was de-tected in the section below Pancevo and although, local inspection agen-cies say that the part of the river that runs through Belgrade is okay for fish-ing and drinking, the report notes that the section between Budapest and Bel-grade has the highest levels of bacte-rial contamination from human waste.

High levels of cadmium enter the Danube from the Tisza and Sava riv-ers and the report states that “as a result of the transport of this metal to the Danube, the impact on the Danube of SPM [suspended particulate matter] was obvious in the Danube 1000 km downstream of the confluence with the Sava River.”

Although technically not part of the remit of the ICPDR, the report also be-moans the huge amount of plastic bot-tles and other floating waste encoun-tered during the survey of the river.

Quoted in Serbian daily Politika, Miroslav Tanaskovic from city’s health agency seems seems less concerned

than the ICPDR, “Our analyses show that the Danube from Banovac to Bre-stovik can be placed in another class. We saw a difference in the microbiol-ogy parameters in this span of the riv-er. This means that swimming in this part of the river is not recommended, but it’s not summer, so there’s nothing to worry about. When you take all of this into consideration, not much has changed for the better, but we can

agree with out foreign colleagues that the Danube is in a better condition than it was a decade ago.”

However, Tenaskovic added: “In-dustries in the world are responsible to measure how much waste leaves their factories and pollutes the environ-ment. This is not the case in Serbia and our inspectors cannot determine how much waste comes from individual factories.”

of the construction. However elements of the project

remain unclear with experts advising that developers should first consider where the Jugopetrol, storage and distribution facility close to the con-struction site, will be relocated and further that the developers should consider the network of connections to the existing road and rail infra-structure before building of the ac-tual bridge.

Initial plans for the bridge were drawn up in 2006 and were finally signed off in April of this year.The bridge will be constructed by an in-ternational consortium of the follow-ing companies: POR Tecnobau und Umwelt AG from Austria, SCT d.d. from Slovenia, and DSD Bruckenbau GmbH from Germany.

Construction to Start on Ada Bridge

US Hails Detention of Serb Fugitive Student

Danube Cleaner, But More Work to Be Done

EULEX To Work Under UN in North KosovoConfusion over the EU mission will be referred to the Security Council, diplomatic sources say.

Source: www.mvr.gov.mk

The Mitrovica bridge divides the two communities Source: pbosnia.kentlaw.edu

Ivo KotevskiAndrija Mandic Source: www.daylife.com

7neighbourhood

By Krenar Gashi in Pristina

The EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, will have to operate under a UN umbrella in the

north and assume a “neutral” stance towards Kosovo’s independence, experts say.

This is the likely outcome of the UN Security Council meeting on No-vember 7, when Lamberto Zannier, head of the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, will report on develop-ments in the country.

Diplomats in Pristina and abroad say the report will also mention de-ployment of the EU’s law and order mission, EULEX.

The council is not expected to vote on any new resolution but to infor-mally nod through the deployment of EULEX. It will then be up to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to endorse the mission’s deployment.

“Considering that some coun-tries that are part of EULEX mission have not recognised Kosovo’s inde-pendence, there is no other choice but for the mission to work under UNMIK’s umbrella and be neutral as to Kosovo’s status,” a diplomatic source in Paris said.

Avni Zogiani, a Pristina-based political analyst, said if EULEX did operate under UN auspices it would have to obey UNMIK regulations.

“This would mean that once again we would have laws overriding the laws of the Kosovo Parliament,” he said. There would also be dilemmas

Podgorica _ A doctor at Montene-gro’s main clinical centre has an-nounced the leader of the opposition Serbian List Andrija Mandic was re-leased from hospital on Monday.

Mandic, was hospitalised over the weekend after nearly two weeks on hunger strike.

He launched it in the National As-sembly building to protest against the recognition of Kosovo by Podgorica on October 13. He and other oppo-nents had demanded a referendum on the issue, something Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic rejects.

Doctor Olivera Boskovic said Mandic has lost at least 8 kilogrammes in weight during his hunger strike.

She said that Mandic’s condition has now improved and he was re-leased to be cared for at home but he will have to be checked regularly.

Clashes broke out in the Mon-tenegrin capital soon after Podgor-ica’s move, in which several people – most of them police officers – were injured while dozens have been ar-rested.

Belgrade also expelled Montene-gro’s ambassador following the rec-ognition.

Last week, opposition leaders met with President Filip Vujanovic, whom they told that Montenegro was in a political crisis that could only be

Skopje _ About 40 high and low-rank-ing police officers from Macedonia’s northeast town of Kumanovo, have been relieved of their duties over sus-pected involvement in crime, accord-ing to Macedonian media reports.

They have been redeployed to other positions, the Interior Ministry spokesman, Ivo Kotevski, told media, explaining that a new set of people have been appointed to fill their posts.

Although the official explanation for the reshuffle is that the officers showed “inadequate results, lack of initiative and absence of loyalty in fulfilling duty” media linked this to the recent police arrest of Kumanovo resident Bajrush Sejdiu and his as-sociates, who are suspected of pro-ducing counterfeit tobacco products among other crimes.

Local A1 TV reported that police allegedly found a list with the police officers’ names while searching for Sejdiu’s assets.

“If the police officers were in-volved in criminal activities, they will face adequate criminal charges,” Kotevski said.

The chief of the police internal af-fairs department, the heads of crimi-nal affairs, public order and peace and traffic safety in Kumanovo are some of the highest-ranking officers who were moved to other duties.

Sejdiu, and over 30 other people believed to be his close associates, were recently arrested in a police op-eration called “ash”.

During the hearing with the in-vestigative judge, Sejdiu’s defence claimed their client was an innocent victim of the police’s fight against or-ganised crime.

Police said they made the arrests

after building and working on the case for six months. The court placed Sej-diu and some of the arrested in deten-tion after being questioned.

Sejdiu was known for owning businesses and other assets near Ku-manovo, including several motels and a soccer club called Milano. His wealth has been estimated by the Mac-edonian media to be over €30 million.

resolved by acceding to the opposi-tion’s demands.

Earlier Djukanovic said in an in-terview with The Associated Press news agency that there was no pres-sure but “expectations” from the United States and some European Union countries for Montenegro to recognise Kosovo, the former Ser-bian province which declared inde-pendence in February.

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

Montenegro, Belgrade’s tradi-tional ally, was in a loose union with Serbia up until 2006 when it voted in a referendum to become independent.

over day-to-day tasks, the judiciary, police and customs.

However, a source close to the International Civilian Office in Pris-tina said the arrangement might be less problematic than some fear.

“There will be space for interpre-tation, but so far, everything that was not clear has been interpreted in fa-vour of Kosovo”, he said.

A Balkan Insight source in EULEX in Pristina said that “since some EU members have not recog-nised Kosovo, there’s nothing wrong with EULEX being neutral on Kos-ovo’s status… This would not inter-fere with the mission of EULEX.”

Another Western diplomat in Kosovo said it was crucial for Ser-bia to accept the mission “to make the deployment possible through-out Kosovo,” including the prob-lematic north.

Although Serbia has opposed the deployment of EULEX in majority Serb areas of Kosovo, one source predicted that Belgrade would “si-lently agree on its deployment”, in exchange for a speedier path towards EU accession.

Yves de Kermabon, head of EULEX, has also confirmed that Bel-grade was sending “positive signals” regarding deployment.

The region, including the north-ern part of the divided city of Mitro-vica and the municipalities of Zve-can, Zubin Potok and Leposavic, is not currently under the control of the government in Pristina – contrary to the UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari`s plan which was taken as a basis for Kosovo`s independence and was

strongly opposed by Serbia. “Kosovo’s government considers

Ahtisaari’s plan as a whole and not modifiable,” Memli Krasniqi, a Ko-sovo government spokesman said. “Serbia cannot impose any condi-tions on EULEX,” he added.

The government, in the meantime, is trying to avoid direct confronta-tions in the north by being extremely cautious about how it extends its au-thority in the region.

Last week, it decided that the Kosovo Security Force, which was planned to be based in all the seven regions of Kosovo, would now, not be based in Mitrovica.

One senior international official said that the idea for EULEX to work under UNMIK in the northern Kos-ovo, is viable.

However, this would mean the po-lice and customs in the north operat-ing under UNMIK, in violation of the

constitution of Kosovo. According to the same official,

this might nevertheless be a better plan, because in this instance, the customs and police would be accept-able to the local Serbs.

Memli Krasniqi, the govern-ment’s spokesperson refused to comment on what he called a “hy-pothetical situation.”

Source: www.BalkanInsight.com

Montenegro Serb Leader out of Hospital

Macedonia Police Probed for ‘Criminal Links’

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

8 neighbourhood

Serbia-Bosnian Serb Soccer Match Banned

Croatia Holds 10 in Journalist Murder Probe

Sarajevo _ The international soccer body, FIFA, has banned a friendly game between Serbia’s national foot-ball team and a selection of players from Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska.

FIFA cited the “complex political situation” as a reason for its move.

Local media report that the Re-publika Srpska Football Association secretary general, Rodoljub Petkovic, has appealed against the decision and is demanding explanation from both FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations, UEFA.

Petkovic told media he still hoped that the friendly would take place, and added that another match is planned with the national team of Macedonia.

The match between Serbia and Republika Srpska was previously approved by Bosnia’s Football Asso-ciation, despite strong protests from

Croatia has arrested 10 people believed to be members of criminal gangs involved in the

car bombing which killed a newspa-per editor in Zagreb last week, police said on Thursday.

According to police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec, two of the sus-pects, Robert and Luka Matanic, were arrested in eastern Slavonia near the border with Serbia, while the police arrested others after raiding several apartments in Zagreb city centre.

The girlfriend of Robert Matanic, who was earlier charged at a Zagreb court for extortion, was also arrested in a bar in Zagreb.

Borovec also said that eight sus-pects are citizens of Croatia and two of Serbia.

The Jutarnji list daily reports that the Matanic cousins, Amir Mafalani and Slobodan Djuranovic are, from Thursday morning, official suspects in the murder of Nacional weekly boss, Ivo Pukanic and his marketing chief, Niko Franjic’s murder.

The double-murder, seen as an ar-rogant display of power by the Croatian underworld, came a few weeks after the brutal execution of a prominent lawyer’s daughter, Ivana Hodak.

According to the Index.hr news portal, the police were led to the sus-pected assassins through the iden-tification number of the motorcycle

in which they hid the explosive that killed Pukanic and Franjic.

Robert Matanic allegedly bought the motorcycle several days before the murder.

Jutarnji list reports that Robert Matanic spent two-and-a-half years in a Serbian prison for the illegal pos-session of weapons and eight months in a Bulgarian prison for taking part in mafia executions.

His cousin Luka and Amir Ma-falani were sought by the Bulgarian police in 2004, also for mafia execu-tions in Sofia.

Borovec said three suspects had resisted arrest and had to be subdued by force and two of them “suffered only minor injuries” as a result.

However the Jutarnji list quotes Zoran Filipovic, the lawyer of Rob-ert Matanic, who said that Matanic did not resist the arrest but the police nevertheless “repeatedly hit him with rifle stocks in the head” and that he “barely recognized his client because of the blood and bandages.”

Filipovic added his client “did not commit the murder of Pukanic, but circumstances could connect him to it” and that he would “fully cooperate with the police department in charge of fighting organized crime.”

Belgrade Insight was unable to obtain comment from the lawyers of other suspects before going to print.

Suspects will appear before the in-vestigating judge on Thursday, while the police intend to search “dozens

of other houses, apartments and ve-hicles during the day,” Borovec told journalists.

National police chief Vladimir Faber was due to meet his Serbian counterpart Milorad Veljovic later on Thursday, as Zagreb and Belgrade stepped up efforts to crack down on

organised crime, well-established in both countries and whose members operate across national borders.

Zagreb pledged an all-out war against organised crime after a wave of unresolved violent incidents in Croatia, which have cast a shadow over its plans to conclude European

Union accession talks next year.On Wednesday, it set up special

courts, pledged to improve witness pro-tection programmes, rebuild its police force and announced measures to con-fiscate convicted criminals’ property.

Source: www.BalkanInsight.com

some Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) of-ficials and media in the other entity of the Federation.

They claimed that staging such a match would represent another sign of Republika Srpska’s separatist drives and its disconnect from the rest of Bosnia.

These concerns have increased in Bosnia as a result of heightened tensions and animosities among lo-cal leaders and the political deadlock which has been choking the country for the past two years. This may have influenced FIFA in its decision to not allow the friendly.

However, Petkovic stressed that there are other regions in other west-ern countries - such as Catalonia and the Basque Country in Spain - who also have their own sport teams and play friendly games with other countries.

Bulgaria ‘a World Leader in Obesity’Bulgaria is among the world lead-ers for obesity, the Chair of Bulgar-ia’s Healthy Nutrition Association claims, with the problem increas-ingly starting from childhood.

Professor Svetoslav Handzhiev, speaking at a special press con-ference, explained that the main reasons for widespread obesity in the country were genetics and un-healthy lifestyle including the over consumption of fats, sugar and salt, lack of exercise and stress.

Teodora Durlenska, a nutrition-ist, stated Bulgaria ranks sixth in Europe for childhood obesity.

Five per cent of all Bulgarian children between the ages of 13 and 17 are overweight, and 22 per cent of the overweight children are considered obese. The reasons here are also lifestyle and a lack of ex-ercise.

Durlenska explained that physi-cal education was not sufficient in school curricula, there were not enough opportunities for children to practice sports, and that school din-ners were not healthy and appropri-

ate for young people.Also, many expectant mothers in

Bulgaria tend to put on many more than the recommended norm of 15 kilogrammes during the course of their pregnancy.

The Bulgarian diet is unhealthy

Forensic officers at the scene of the blast Photo by FoNet

Source: www.churchtimes.co.uk

Albania PM Under Fire over Business TiesTirana _ The Albanian opposition has restated its demands that parlia-ment hold a hearing to question the Albanian Premier Sali Berisha over his ties to Bosnian businessman Damir Fazlic.

“We won’t give up,” said the head of the Socialist parliamentary group Erion Brace.

“Berisha promised a session when he will be transparent about crime and corruption in this country and he has not shown up, or otherwise has been hiding,” Brace added.

The probe into the business activ-ities of the Bosnian businessman has uncovered an intricate web, involv-

ing the family of the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha.

Prosecutors are looking at a se-ries of transactions relating to the sale of one of Fazlic’s businesses, Crown Acquisitions. It was sold in June 2007 to a Cyprus-based com-pany, Altaria Research Limited, for €1.75 million. However, according to the prosecutor’s office, because the company had no assets, it raised suspicions of money laundering.

Fazlic worked as a consultant with a US-based company, BG & R, which designed Berisha’s Demo-cratic Party electoral campaign. The Albanian opposition has charged that

Berisha and Basha were involved in corrupt deals with Fazlic, allowing him to sell one of his companies for €1.75 million, with no assets and without paying €520,000 in VAT and income tax.

Berisha, has come under strong US and European Union criticism over al-leged attempts to put pressure on the Prosecutor General Ina Rama, who has been investigating corruption.

Last week Fazlic denied this ac-cusation. Both Basha and Berisha have also denied the accusations.

Berisha has also previously re-jected opposition accusations and in turn threatened to open the “crime

archives” of the opposition.“My family does not have any

business with Mr Fazlic,” Basha said, adding that the accusations were a “hysterical campaign.”

Rama has launched investigations into the March 15 blast in an Alba-nian army depot outside Tirana and into corruption in the construction of the new Albania-Kosovo highway, which have led her into conflict with the centre-right government.

Meanwhile, while voicing sup-port for the fight against corruption, Berisha is seeking to draft a new law that regulates the office of the Pros-ecutor General.

The law would strip prosecutors of the right to be protected from a police arrest without a formal indict-ment and limit their independence by allowing the Ministry of Justice to supervise investigations.

The bill has come under criticism from a wide range of interest groups, the opposition and the United States government, because it limits the in-dependence of the general prosecu-tor, which is currently guaranteed by the Albanian constitution.

Recently, in a joint declara-tion, the association of prosecutors, judges, lawyers and public notaries condemned the bill.

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

By Tena Erceg

9out & about

Bogosav Zivkovic: Carving from a single tree trunk

Museum of Naive Art in Jagodina

Photo by Pat Andjelkovic Dusan Jeftovic paints busy village scenes Photo by Pat Andjelkovic

Photo by Pat Andjelkovic

Simply LovelyBy Pat Andjelkovic

Long ago in Paris, I lived near an art gallery that specialised in Yugoslav naive art. I imme-

diately fell in love with the paintings’ rich colours and motifs, which re-minded me of the vibrant hues of full-length Disney cartoons. I remained a silent admirer, glimpsing the works only though the gallery window, since I couldn’t afford to pay their Parisian prices. Not long after my unrequited love affair, I travelled to Yugoslavia to attend a friend’s wedding, and since I thought I’d never venture back

The multi-ethnic villages of Vojvodina and the town of Jagodina are home to fine collections of naive art.

again, my friend, her husband and his friend took me to Kovacica so I could buy my own naive painting. I ended up having Zuzana Chalupova do a painting just for me, which the friend of my friend’s husband brought to me later that year. Both the painting and I returned the following February, and we’re both still here, 31 years later.

What does “naive art” mean? I found the following: “Artwork characterized by a simplified style, nonscientific perspective, and bold colours; an art form going back cen-turies through Chagall and Rousseau to peasant art and primitive art.”

I think the closest to the truth would be to call it an alternative to modern art. Naive painters paint the

world in which they live. By painting their houses and fields, harvests and weddings, fruits, flowers, geese, and pumpkins, they either reveal the beau-ty of this world as it is, or add to it the beauty that they wished it possessed. Nevertheless, their paintings are not so much naive as innocent, straight-forward, simple, uncomplicated.

Kovacica, widely known for its naive art, lies 47 kilometres from Bel-grade on the wide Pannonian plain in Vojvodina. It was founded in 1802, but there are records of a small set-tlement dating from 1458. It’s easily accessible by bus, train, or of course by car. The easiest way is just to drive on the old road to Pancevo, turn left at the first light, and follow the signs.

Kovacica is primarily a Slovak com-munity that has preserved its identity, language and culture. Slovaks make up one of the 19 national groups in Vojvodina, a real Europe in miniature. Well-known masters of naive art in Kovacica include Zuzana Chalupova and Martin Jonas, who have died but took on apprentices. Their works and those of other local artists can be seen in the Gallery of Naive Art and in sev-eral private galleries and studios be-side it. It’s up to you to decide wheth-er the apprentices’ style is truly naive or pseudo-naive, since some imitate the works of their mentors.

In Kovacica you may also visit the Evangelical church and the home of violin maker Jan Njemcek. Through-

out the year there are seasonal happen-ings too, such as “Kovacica October.” Kovacica people are very welcoming, and if you don’t know Serbian or Slo-vak, that shouldn’t be a barrier.

Just before you reach Kovacica on the road from Belgrade, a turn-off leads to Padina, another home to na-ive artists. Padina, the Slavic word for “slope,” was also founded by Slovak immigrants and is well worth a visit. In addition to the Gallery Mihal Bab-inka, where works by Padina’s artists are on display, there’s a church and an ethno-house. Once again, tourist info is lacking, so it’s best to practice up on sign language, take a Serbian speaker with you, or write down a few key phrases before you set out!

Just 10 kilometres to the north of Kovacica lies the ethnic Romanian community of Uzdin, a centre for Ro-manian cultural activities in Serbia, in-cluding naive painting, publication of a newspaper and other literature, and Romanian folk music and dance fes-tivals. There is a gallery here too, but it’s less organised than the one in Ko-vacica, and isn’t always open. Check the links at the end of this article for information. In Uzdin you can also visit the church and an ethno-house.

An hour and a half south from Ko-vacica, in the other direction on the highway, towards Nis, you can visit the Museum of Naive Art in Jagodina, fea-turing over 2,500 paintings, sculptures, drawings and graphics, including clas-sics of the old masters, such as Janko Brasic’s Portrait of My Mother. As in the gallery in Kovacica, a gift shop sells works from local naive artists like Dusan Jeftovic, whose work I admire, but now can’t afford, since his small, framed paintings at the gallery go for 80 to 200 euros.

Both galleries will provide names and contact information for artists who will welcome you into their homes and/or studios. Best to go with a Serbian speaker, for not all know a foreign language. On my last trip to Jagodina, I lunched at a good restaurant, featuring the standard grilled meat and salads. “Romansa” is located just near the park behind the gallery, near the town’s cultural centre. Whether you come home with a painting or just settle for a book of works by your favourite painter or some postcards, a trip to these towns will brighten your day.

Details:

Jagodina: Museum of Naive Art, Boska Djuricica 10, tel/fax: 035 223419 mnujagodina@gmail.com Open daily 10am - 5pm, except Monday, Saturdays and Sundays 11am - 3pm.

Kovacica: Gallery of Naïve Art, Marsala Tita 50, Kovacica 26210 Phone: 013/611-122 office@took.org.yu

Padina: Gallery Mihal Babinka,Trg Oslobodjenja 1, tel. 013 667235, e-mail: dkmb@panet.co.yu

Useful web sites:

Gallery/Gift Shop in Babka, Kovačica www.artgiftbabka.com/index.htmTourist organization of Kovacica: http://www.took.org.yu/indexen.php

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

It can safely be said that Belgrad-ers enjoy walks in the park. Un-less it’s raining heavily, the city

parks are filled with couples, children and pensioners.

Joining the city in this ritual one cold Saturday afternoon, we met peo-ple from all walks of life, including a man who claims he beat President Boris Tadic at chess, a writer who has come to what he calls “the end of the Balkans” for some inspiration, and children playing in the autumn leaves.

Together, these people are the fibre of this complex city.

They gather in near silence every afternoon. After all, this is a serious game. In a green cap and jacket, their leader, Vlastimir Mladenovic, sits where he’s sat in the park for the last five years, playing chess. His titles are many, but he’s most proud of hav-ing beaten President Boris Tadic in 2004. “For the past five years, I’ve been playing the best chess of my life,” he says calmly and continues his game of speed chess.

“This fortress is the end of the Balkans, and I come to this view for inspiration,” says Mirutin Milovanovic. This writer and former professor drove 150 kilome-tres from Cacak for the view.

Sladja Milosavljevic and Djordje Deric are taking an afternoon walk through Kalemegdan. They met recently and say they came to the site to share their love for each other.

Tourists from all corners of the world flock to this beautiful fortress. After their guides have finished leading them around the site, they disperse to take photos of themselves and others.

When we met Milos Radovanovic and Danijela Cirokovic, they were sitting on a park bench, laughing. They only met in person a few hours ago, but had been talking over the Internet for months.

The fact that it was a bit cold didn’t stop Anita and Doroteja from making the most of the leaves covering the ground. Their fathers went to high school together and come here often with their two youngsters.

Aca Jurisic, 29, is considered by some to be the best chess player at Kalemegdan. As he sits quietly, concentrating on his game, an onlooker comments, “He loves chess so much, he doesn’t even care about girls”.

10 life

Autumn at KalemegdanOnce the site of bloodshed, chess feuds are the most violent thing you are likely to witness in the old fortress these days.

Text by Vanja PetrovicPhotos by Sophie Cottrell

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

Not welcome in Northern Dalmatia

Compare and contrast. Pat’s not a fan.

Ornate detail is everywhere

The devil and many other creatures are in the detail

11the belgrader 11the belgrader

ism from the Soviet Union) and Post-Modernism, to name a few.

S.O.S. for Belgrade’s face

Many of Belgrade’s facades have been restored with the help of pho-tography. Old postcards have often helped architects to reconstruct an edifice’s original face. A good exam-ple of this is the House of the Soci-ety for the Beautification of Vracar, which dates from 1901.

But as I walk and admire Bel-grade’s many crumbling façades, I am saddened that more is not done to preserve these dwellings that keep memories and the scent of the past alive. The fabulous figures, caryat-ids, stone heads, tile work, that adorn them reflect much more of the city’s soul and identity than any state-of-the art glass and steel construction.

Pat Andjelkovic is a teacher, writer, and long-term expat.

been “heads up” for me as I roam Belgrade’s streets.

Architecturally speaking, facades are often the most important part of a design, as they set the tone for the rest of the building. Many facades are historic, and in many cities, local planning regulations or other laws greatly restrict or even forbid their alteration. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here, for for the most part.

Belgrade’s face is marked with scars from past wars. The city was completely destroyed many times, which is why few buildings are more than 250 years old. Though it has a long history, Belgrade is young in architectural terms, and modern Bel-grade exists only from the mid-19th century. But if you take the time to look around, you can find some strik-ing houses that have miraculously managed to avoid fire, bombs, and man’s folly.

An old modern city

In the early 1900s, Belgrade was a city that followed European trends in lifestyle and architecture, with notable families raising buildings in order to match the beauty of other notable cities such as Budapest and Prague. The capital was striving to transform itself into a European city, but never cast off the Oriental fla-vour it had imbibed during centuries of Ottoman rule. Skadarlija remained intact, as did the popular restaurant Znak pitanja (Question Mark), for example.

Belgrade, probably more than many cities, has undergone numerous architectural influences and schools: Turkish, Historicism, Art Nouveau, Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Byzantine, Functionalism, Modernism (which in the 1930s reflected Socialist Real-

Last summer, I was stuck in a seemingly interminable traf-fic jam. The up-side was that

I was a passenger, and rather than grip the steering wheel, grit my teeth, and stare at the cars surrounding me, I contented myself by gazing out the sunroof of my exasperated compan-ion’s car. As we inched along Bel-grade’s bustling boulevards, I felt like a small child who always has to look up to see just about anything of interest. Staring back down at me from Belgrade’s facades were fanta-sy creatures and disembodied heads, surrounded by demure young girls and brawny men in various states of undress. Ever since that day, it’s

The ornate - but often ne-glected - facades of Bel-grade’s older buildings are like a window into the city’s soul.

By Pat Andjelkovic

Heads Up

Always Travel Light

They say travel broadens the mind. Unless, that is, you find yourself travelling in Northern

Dalmatia in a Belgrade registered car. The covert and overt expres-sions of bigotry that the mere letters ‘BG’ provoke in some places there are more likely to deaden the soul. The post-Dayton policy of removing locality identification from car reg-istration plates in Bosnia was an in-spired move – a rare enough thing in the Balkans. The whole region would be a better place if all countries fol-lowed suite.

Having had the good fortune to have been born in Britain, I have never been subject to the shameful visa restrictions that continue to be pointlessly imposed on people here, so I have been able to follow my ca-reer wherever it has taken me; I lost count after around 30 different coun-tries. Whether this experience has

broadened my mind is for others to say. However, I think I have learned one thing – if we judge other cultures based on our own value system, we do so at our own peril.

During an early visit to the Ara-bian Gulf, I was immediately struck by the division of labour. The local Arab people had a very clear defini-tion of work. It involved (only) the men, dressed in immaculate white traditional clothes, full moustaches and expensive sunglasses. They sat in comfortable chairs, drinking tea and making endless mobile phone calls. All work demanding more activity was carried out by an army of immi-grant workers. Ex-pat Europeans ran the offices and the hotels, and every form of manual labour, from build-ing sites to taxi-drivers was done by thousands of Indian workers.

One could have been forgiven for assuming that this society was totally single-sex. Arab women were virtu-ally invisible. I recall waking after an early morning, jet-lag induced sleep at a hotel poolside in Qatar, to find the place completely packed with local weekend revellers. Having fallen soundly asleep almost alone, this was shocking enough. When my bleary eyes focused, it became clear that there was not a single woman among the hundreds of people in the pool. It was a strangely uncomfort-able experience.

My young, politically correct, Brit-ish sensibilities were outraged by what I saw all around me in Arabia. Sitting in a taxi one evening, I struck up a con-versation with my Indian driver. I fully expected him to react to my provoca-tion by railing against his Arab masters and the third-class citizenship that was the lot of the Indian immigrant popula-tion. Far from doing so, he eloquently corrected me, explaining that he was extremely grateful to be allowed to come there and work 18 hours a day as a taxi driver. He was able to send money home, and his children (well,

the boys, anyway) would go to school, he proudly told me.

Having spectacularly failed to fo-ment revolution, I retired to the 10th floor bar in my Western hotel (closed to locals) to try to reconcile my thoughts. For tragic evidence of what can happen when we ignore cultural sensitivities, we need look no further than Iraq, where the world’s most powerful military nation has de-stroyed many lives and spent trillions trying, and failing completely, to impose its cultural values on people who quite clearly do not want them.

Coming back closer to home, the EU and other Western powers contin-ue to demonstrate at every opportunity how little they understand about how the Balkans works. I certainly don’t claim to do so either, and I fully ex-pect to spend the rest of my life learn-ing. But recognition of what we don’t know, and that cultural and historical references do matter, is surely the di-rection in which we must travel.

David Dowse, is a Senior Partner at Webb Dowse Intelligent Corporate Communications.

Leave your prejudices at home.

By David Dowse

Photo by Pat Andjelkovic Photo by Pat Andjelkovic

Photo by Vanja Petrovic

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

12 the belgrader

Dining out

Violeta Kuca Stara

The Friday Night Escapade to Brodic

By “Trencherman”

By Zoran Milosavljevic

Good food, overly fussy presentation

Brodic - beware the zuta osa

Photo courtesy of www.restoranvioleta.co.yu

There is one word guaranteed to strike fear into the heart and soul of every gourmet the

world over. A word so chilling that I go out of my way to avoid it wher-ever and whenever I can. The word is … “buffet”. To me, it does not suggest variety and endless re-fills, value and choice but over-cooked meats, under-refrigerated salads, dry baked goods, greasy fried foods and deep, deep dissatisfaction. So when I saw the word as we arrived at Violeta Kuca Stara, my heart sank.

Now, I’m sure many will find the 860-dinar brunch an excellent and good value way to feed and enter-tain the family on a Sunday but I was overjoyed, however, to learn that the a la carte menu was still available.

Established four or so years ago, Violeta Stara Kuca has built up a loyal following amongst locals and expats alike. The location, on a quiet side-street in Vracar, makes the summer garden particularly popular as a place for a lazy lunch. But autumn is with us and the shadows were getting long when we arrived, so we sat indoors.

There’s nothing pretentious about the inside, but it was presentable, clean, well ordered and the tables were spaced widely enough to ensure that our fellow diners’ conversations were their own.

Despite some comical spellings (shreamps, anyone?), the menu is

It’s that time of the year when you put away your summer clothes and start preparing for a long, wet

and dour winter in a city where even a few drops of rain or snow can turn Belgrade’s chaotic traffic into a royal mess of staggering proportions.

However, Friday nights out can be as exciting and entertaining in October as they are in July and Au-gust, when revellers flock to their fa-vourite hangouts scattered across the city centre. While the summer scene comes alive in late May and early June, as blaring music engulfs the city from every outdoor night spot with a licence to torment grumpy old neighbours seeking peace and quiet, the Friday night escapade moves into the bellies of river joints lined

up along the banks of the Sava, and to more traditional nightclubs such as Plastic, Baltazar, Akademija and Magacin. October is a transitional month when outdoor joints head for a well-earned winter break, but not some imaginatively designed party rafts which offer fun and games until the early morning hours throughout the year.

Next to Lukas, a gigantic double-storey rectangular object blasting a mixture of turbo-folk and mainstream hits to its fans, lies a seemingly ram-shackle splav one might mistake for abandoned wreckage in daytime. Brodic (Little Boat), is anything but. In summer and winter alike, it is one of the most popular hangouts for the urban crowd in their thirties, seeking a relaxed yet lively night out. An-other of its beauties is that there are

no bouncers to turn you away if you haven’t got a date or a reservation. Drinks are very reasonably priced, while DJs take turns demonstrating their talents with house and drum & bass sequels as well as good old disco and rock anthems from the 1980s, de-pending on the night and the prevalent

mood on the dancefloor. Few come here before midnight as Brodic is one of those places where you go after you’ve done The Idiot, a must-see bar nicely tucked-in just above the botani-cal garden in Dalmatinska street.

Named after Dostoevsky’s fa-mous novel, its dimmed lights, red-

brick interior, a pinball machine and a slight touch of noir, provide the perfect opening to a night out seven days a week. This is where Barbara Streisand and Annie Lennox look-alikes drop in to strike conversation with ever-friendly staff and secret admirers bold enough to approach those gorgeous and equally inaccessi-ble Belgrade girls, the likes of which your regular club corespondent, Ri-chard Wordsworth spotted at Funky Buda several weeks ago. “It’s my fa-vourite joint and this is where I come to party on Fridays,” said Marija, one of the bar staff, as she downed a shot of zuta osa, a super strong spirit that will liven you up under any circum-stances. One might imagine you don’t usually turn up at the place where you work on your night off but Marija does, regularly. “There’s no place I’d rather be right now,” she added, as her friend nods approvingly.

Me too. I’ve spent many a memo-rable night out here including one of the most unforgettable New Year’s Eve parties. Whenever I am not up to making the trip across the bridge to Brodic, after The Idiot goes to sleep at around 2.30 in the morning, Plastic and The French Chamber-maid are just around the corner. But that’s another story.

serious and wide-ranging, largely “modern European” in style with a Serbian slant, and our waiter was happy to take us through it. We chose a rolled steak with a pumpkin seed sauce and penne with a black truf-fle sauce to start. The presentation was overly-fussy. The beef was set amongst a chequerboard pattern of reduced balsamic vinegar with the occasional gap in the pattern filled with a dusting of turmeric or anoth-er colourful spice. The pasta came with dots of a sweet tomato-based sauce around the rim. Both dishes however, were competently cooked. The worryingly green thick pump-kin seed sauce on the beef was fla-voursome and complemented it. The pasta was al dente, creamy and whilst not over-generous, had enough truf-fle in it for the flavour to be upfront and bring some strong savoury notes to the dish.

Mains were a mixed bag. Grilled chicken with mozzarella was generous – three large pieces of chicken breast – but it looked pale and unappetising. The lemon sauce it came with was very sweet and did not sit well with the cheese. Fillet steak was well cooked, with small chunks of equally well-prepared foie gras on top and a rich sauce made from the pan juices poured over. Altogether, there were tradi-tional takes on grilled meat but it was none-the-less successful. Both came with grilled vegetables, which were fresh, varied and colourful but a little undercooked.

To follow, a crème brulée. This was creamy with a light but crispy sugar topping, which would have benefited from some vanilla to take away the overwhelming creamy sweetness. An interesting Toberlone

mousse was chocolatey and smooth with the occasional nutty nugget.

I’m still exploring Serbian wines but I was almost tempted away with this list, which was not extensive but well chosen and representative of most key wine-growing areas. With reasonable wines for less than 2,000 dinars, prices were not too outra-geous. In the end however, I chose a Wow pinot blanc at 2,600 dinars. Wow is one of a small band of local producers that have started to focus

on product quality and the way they brand and market their product. The package looks like a quality new world product and would definitely bear comparison on a retail shelf. A €35 bottle should also taste good and this was great upfront, floral, pleas-ingly acidic, a little fuller than I’d ex-pected from a pinot. All in all, decent value for the price.

I’d come back here, particularly in the summer on a warm weekend when I could linger over food in the

garden with friends. Despite the 1980s nouvelle cuisine plate art, the food was in the main well executed, the service polished and the wine list accessible.

Details:Price Guide: 2,500 – 3,000 dinars for 3 courses with a modest wine

Violeta Kuca StaraTopolska 4Tel: 011 2431458

Forget the buffet, and stick to modern European cooking with a Serbian slant, at this unpretentious Vracar establishment.

October is a transitional month on the party circuit, but while some spots are heading into their winter snooze, there’s year-round fun to be had on the river boats.

Going out

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

13sport

Ivanovic Back With a Vengeance

Partizan Break Real Madrid Jinx TV Events

By Zoran Milosavljevic

By Zoran Milosavljevic

Ana Ivanovic endured four tor-rid months after capturing the French Open in June and just

when it seemed her deepening crisis would provide a sour ending to a season that started so brightly, Serbia’s former world number one came back in style to win a top-level tournament in the Austrian resort of Linz last weekend with an emphatic 6-2, 6-1 whitewash of Russia’s Vera Zvonareva.

Ivanovic looked a pale shadow of the player that claimed her first Grand Slam title at the Roland Gar-ros in the immediate aftermath of her success as she battled to over-come a thumb injury, poor results, a complete loss of confidence and fan resentment over her decision to pull out of the Beijing Olympics. Last Sunday, she was back to her best and took only 50 minutes to brush aside Zvonareva with a vintage perform-ance which enabled her to stay fourth in the women’s WTA rankings.

Who says 13 is an unlucky number? It was certainly lucky for

Serbian champions Partizan Bel-grade in their enthralling 81-77 Eu-roleague Group D win over Real Ma-drid, the first in 13 meetings with the Spanish giants who came to Serbia’s capital as firm favourites to collect the points. It wasn’t to be, as Partizan pulled off an upset on the back of 18 points from Aleksandar Rasic and 16 by the game’s MVP Milenko Tepic. The two back-court players steered their team through thick and thin and into a good position to reach the last 16 of Europe’s premier basketball competition featuring the continent’s top 24 clubs.

Roared on by a frenetic 7,000 home crowd, Partizan opened the game with a 17-6 run and led 31-19 midway through the second period before the visitors, whose star player Louis Bullock failed to score a single point in the opening half, rallied to cut the deficit to 44-38 at halftime.

It was a slender lead given that Par-tizan thoroughly dominated the boards, having out-rebounded the Spaniards 18-11 largely thanks to eight offensive rebounds most of which resulted in crucial second-chance points.

A dramatic second half produced a see-saw thriller in which the lead changed hands several times before twin point guards Tepic and Rasic swung the tie Partizan’s way with a

pair of three-pointers and some cool free-throw shooting, enabling Bel-grade’s Pionir to erupt in joy on the buzzer. Real had opened up a 55-47 lead early in the third period with a 17-3 run that silenced the vociferous fans but Tepic proved his worth when he needed to most, hitting crucial shots and feeding Senegalese for-ward Stephane Lasme, who chipped in 12 points and four rebounds. Pow-er forward Novica Velickovic con-tributed with another hard-working performance capped by 13 points and six rebounds, including a pair of free throws that sealed the win in the dy-ing seconds before Alex Mumbru’s final three-pointer for Real.

Real’s top players had a rather quiet evening as Bullock was held to just 9 points while playmakers Pepe Sanchez and Raul Lopez scored a miserable two between them. Quin-ton Hosley had 14 and 11 rebounds but their outstanding player of the evening was shooting guard Sergio Llull, who finished with 19 points and 8-of-9 shooting from the field. His majestic performance, however, was not enough to save the winners of 30 Spanish league titles from defeat by a young and hungry Partizan outfit ea-ger to emulate last season’s success by reaching the quarter-finals.

Elsewhere, Poland’s Asseco Prokom romped to a 91-62 white-wash of French rivals Nancy thanks to a grand effort from their U.S. guard Daniel Ewing, who led the way with 32 points on 7-of-9 shoot-ing from inside the arc and 6-of-8

from three-point range. Defending champions CSKA Moscow were just as ruthless in an 86-52 away de-struction of Greeks Panionios Athens while Turkey’s Efes Pilsen eased to an 81-71 success at AJ Milan. The Istanbul side was led by their Serbian international point guard Milos Vu-janic, who poured in 19 points, while Milan’s David Hawkins topped all scorers with 20. Partizan are at home to Milan next Wednesday in what should be another treat for basket-ball fans in Belgrade while Croatian powerhouse Cibona Zagreb entertain Olympiakos Piraeus on Thursday.

Friday, Oct 31

Tennis: Men’s ATP Masters in Paris (Sport Klub 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 7.45 p.m. to 11.45 p.m.); Soccer: Bun-desliga - Bayer Leverkusen v WFL Wolfsburg (Sport Klub + 8.30 p.m.)

Saturday, Nov 1

Tennis: Men’s ATP Masters in Paris (Sport Klub 2 p.m.); Basketball: Regional NLB League: Cibona Za-greb v Red Star Belgrade (FOX Ser-bia 4.00 p.m.); Soccer: Manchester United v Hull City (RTS 2 at 4.30 p.m. note: kick off 4 p.m.), Totten-ham Hotspur v Liverpool (RTS 2 at 6.30 p.m.), Reggina v Inter Milan (Sport Klub 6 p.m.), Malaga v Bar-celona (FOX Serbia 8 p.m.), Juven-tus Turin v Roma (Avala 8.30 p.m.), Lanus v River Plate (Sport Klub 9.20 p.m.),Valencia v Racing Santander (FOX Serbia 10 p.m.); NHL Ice Hockey: Buffalo Sabres v Washing-ton Capitals (Sport Klub 11.55 p.m.)

Sunday, Nov 2

Basketball: NBA Regular Season: LA Lakers v Denver Nuggets (OBN at 3 a.m.); Tennis: Men’s ATP Mas-ters in Paris final (Sport Klub 4 p.m.) NFL: Tennessee v Green Bay (Sport Klub 7 p.m.), New York Gi-ants v Dallas (Sport Klub 10.15 p.m.), Handball: Croatia v Hungary (HRT 2 at 1.30 p.m.); Motor Racing: Brazil Grand Prix (FOX Serbia 6 p.m.); Soccer: Bolton v Manchester

City (RTS 2 at 4.55 p.m.), Borussia Dortmund v Bochum (Sport Klub + 5 p.m.), Almeria v Real Madrid (FOX Serbia 8 p.m. note: kick off 7 p.m.), Italian League Match (Avala 3 p.m. and 8.30. p.m.)

Monday, Nov 3

Soccer: Premier League Highlights (RTS 2 at 8.00 p.m.)

Tuesday, Nov 4

Champions League Soccer: Liver-pool v Atletico Madrid (B 92 at 8.45 p.m. followed by news of the day, highlights and Roma v Chelsea de-layed)

Wednesday, Nov 5

Champions League Soccer: Real Ma-drid v Juventus Turin (B 92 at 8.45 p.m. followed by news of the day, highlights and Celtic v Manchester United delayed); Champions League Volleyball: Red Star Belgrade v Lube Marcherata (RTS 2 at 6.00 p.m.); Eu-roleague Basketball: Partizan Belgrade v AJ Milan (RTS 2 at 8.40 p.m.)

Thursday, Nov 6

Euroleague Basketball: Cibona Za-greb v Olympiakos Piraeus (HRT 2 at 6.30 p.m.); UEFA Cup Soccer: VFB Stuttgart v Partizan Belgrade (RTS 1 or 2 at 6 p.m.), Tottenham Hotspur v Dinamo Zagreb (HRT 2 at 9 p.m.), Highlights (Eurosport 11.00 p.m.)

The former world number one is looking forward to the Masters in Doha after winning her first title in four months.

“I played a perfect match and it re-ally is a great feeling to start winning again,” said a delighted Ivanovic, who will turn 21 next month when she enters the Doha Masters along with the other seven top-ranked players bidding to end the season by clinching the showcase event.

The Roland Garros title turned out to be a mixed blessing for Ivanovic, who cracked under the pressure of great expectations from her fans and subservient local media, most of which declared Ivanovic the “beauty queen” of women’s tennis and then demanded that she never let go of a throne far more difficult to hold on to: the one her infuriated rivals al-ways had every chance of snatching from her grasp. An early Wimbledon exit was followed by a seemingly innocuous thumb injury that forced her to pull out of the Olympics after she had already arrived in Beijing, a decision Ivanovic called one of the most difficult in her life.

Then came a string of first round exits against unheralded opponents and as experts and fans began to question Ivanovic’s resolve and ability to survive at the top, she got the push she needed from an unlike-ly source.

Fellow Serbian Jelena Jankovic, who openly admits she has never been best friends with Ivanovic, im-posed herself as the season’s world number one with a hat-trick of titles in Stuttgart, the China Open and the Kremlin Cup Moscow.

When nothing else could, per-haps seeing her rival sweep to vic-tory drove Ivanovic to come back with a vengeance and serve a timely reminder to the WTA circuit of what they will be up against in Doha and next season, not least when the Aus-tralian Open starts in January.

Apart from Jankovic and Ivanovic, the women’s masters will feature the Russian quartet of Dinara Safina,

Elena Dementieva, Vera Zvonareva and Svetlana Kuznetsova while the mercurial Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, carry the U.S. flag. Jank-ovic is assured of ending the season as the world number one no matter what happens in Doha but a three-way dogfight for the runners-up spot could reach boiling point in the Qatar desert as only 65 points – a gap eas-ily bridged in a Masters tournament

– separate second-placed Safina from fourth-placed Ivanovic with Serena Williams between them in third. Ser-bia’s Sport Klub and the Eurosport channel will have full live coverage of this event, a perfect ending to what has been a most entertaining season.

Zoran Milosavljevic is Belgrade In-sight’s sports writer and also a region-al sports correspondent for Reuters.

Ana Ivanovic has rediscovered her winning form

No way through for Real Madrid

Photo by FoNet

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

14 the belgrader

What’s On

My Picks

CINEMAS RODA CINEPlExPozeska 83A , tel: 011 2545260

Max Payne 18:30, 20:30 & 22:30Turneja (The Tour) 18:00, 20:15 &22:30The House Bunny 17:45, 20:00 & 22:15Wall E 16:00Journey to the Center of the Earth 16:00Star Wars: The Clone Wars 16:30

DOM SINDIKATATrg Nikole Pasica 5, tel. 011 3234849

Turneja (The Tour) 16:00 & 22:00Max Payne 16:30 & 22:30The House Bunny 18:30 & 20:30ljubav i drugi zlocini (Love and Other Crimes) 18:00 & 20:00Death Race 16:15, 18:15, 20:15 & 22:15

STER CITy CINEMADelta City, Jurija Gagarina 16 (Blok 67), tel: 011 2203400

The House Bunny 12:00, 14:10, 16:20, 18:30, 20:40 & 22:50Turneja (The Tour) 12:20, 14:30, 17:00, 19:10, 21:20 & 23:30Death Race 13:50, 16:00, 18:10, 20:20 & 22:30Tropic Thunder 12:40 & 18:50Max Payne 14:50, 16:50, 21:00 & 23:10Mirrors 21:40 & 23:50Nim’s Island 11:40, 13:40, 15:40, 17:40 & 19:40Mamma Mia! 13:10, 15:20, 17:50, 20:00 & 22:10

TUCKWOOD CINEPlExKneza Milosa 7, tel: 011 3236517

Turneja (The Tour) 15:30, 18:00, 20:30 & 22:50Max Payne 15:45, 18:00, 20:15 & 22:30The House Bunny 15:30, 17:45, 20:00 & 22:15Milos Brankovic 21:00Star Wars: The Clone Wars 17:00Nije kraj (Will Not End Here) 19:00 & 23:00Nim’s Island 17:45 & 19:15Mirrors 21:15 & 23:30

CONCERTS lAJKO FElIx

The Hungarian virtuoso violinist enter-tains with his mix of contemporary and classic pieces

REX Cultural CentreJevrejska 16October 31, 21:00Ticket available at REX ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg republike 5

TOUlOUSE CAPITOl NATIONAl ORCHESTRA One of Europe’s most travelled orchestras under the baton of Tugan Sokhiev.

Ilija M. Kolarac Foundation Hall.Studentski trg 5November 6, 20:00Tickets available at Kolarac ticket office

EVENTSSHAOlIN MONKS

This amazing spectacle mixes kung fu, dance and showmanship

Sava Center, Great HallMilentija Popivica 9November 6, 20:00Tickets available at SC ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg republike 5

OPERANATIONAl THEATRETrg republike 1a

RigolettoOpera by Giuseppe Verdi.

The hunch-backed jester and the Duke do battle in three acts

November 1, 19:30Tickets available at National Theatre ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg republike 5

TERAZIJE THEATERTerazije 29

Kiss me, KateCole Porter’s biggest hit, with a host of well remembered sing-along tunes.

November 5, 19:30Tickets available at Terazije Theatre ticket office

EXIBITIONSNIKOlA PASIC SqUARE

Silent societyThoughtful multimedia exhibition inspired by the problems of children with disabilitiesby Mladen Hrvanovic

October 23 - November 3Mon - Sun 10:00 - 22:00

MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ARTAndre Nikolica 14

Impressions, MoroccoExhibition of photographs by Marko To-dorovic

October 23 - November 23Mon - Sat 10:00 - 18:00Sunday 10:00 - 16:00

GAllERy ‘73Pozeska 83a

Terracotta Exhibit of sculptures by Kolja Milunovic

October 24 - November 6Mon - Fri 10:00 - 20:00Saturday 10:00 - 15:00

GAllERy OF THE FACUlTy OF FINE ARTSKnez Mihailova 53

Farewell to armsGraphic exhibition by Ivan Jovanovic

October 27 - November 5Mon - Fri 10:00 - 20:00 Saturday 10:00 - 14:00

CLUBBINGBOAT KOlOSSavski Kej, New Belgrade(under Branko’s Bridge)

FreemasonsDance/House/Electronica team from Eng-land

October 31, 22:00Tickets available at Bilet Service and Kolos

ClUB MAGACINKaradjordjeva 2 -4

Martin SolveigPopular French house music DJ and producer

October 31, 22:00Tickets available at Bilet Service and Magacin

ANDERGRAUNDPariska 1Terry Frances

British Tech House DJ, resident at Lon-don’s Fabric, one of the largest and most popular night clubs in the UK.

October 31, 22:00Tickets available at Bilet Service and An-dergraund

NATIONAl THEATRETrg republike 1a

The Troubadour (Il Trovatore)Opera by Giuseppe Verdi.Fabulous arias in another of Verdi’s most famous melodramas

November 5, 19:30Tickets available at National Theatre ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg repub-like 5

BALLETNATIONAl THEATRETrg republike 1a

Don QuixoteBallet based on Miguel de Cervantes fa-mous novel of the same name.

November 6, 19:30Tickets available at National Theatre ticket office and Bilet Service, Trg repub-like 5

THEATRETERAZIJE THEATERTerazije 29

CabaretThe 1966 Broadway production spawned a hugely successful movie and countless productions worldwide. Directed by Chet Walker

November 2, 19:30Tickets available at Terazije Theatre ticket office

Tomato & Co.

While Belgrade’s green mar-kets are overflowing with delicious fruits and veg-

gies, their hours often make it tough for working folk to take advantage of their bounty during the week.

The produce at the larger super-markets frankly often leaves a lot to be desired, so where does one go for the good stuff during the week?

I have come to depend on Tomato & Co. a lovely greengrocer located a stone’s throw from Kalenic market.

Tomato offers superior quality let-tuces, fruits, and vegetables all year round. Some days you can find ripe avocados, pineapples, papaya, man-go and other rare delicacies I don’t even recognise.

Tomato & Co. is on Njegoseva, at the corner of Baba Visnjina.While you’re there, you can take advantage of the recently opened branch of Hleb & Kifle, a bakery chain offering a yum-my selection of breads and pastries.

Tomato & Co. Mon - Sun8 a.m. until 10 p.m.

By Rian Harris

You know those days when you work till 9 p.m. and all you want to do is get home and cook your-self a fresh feast. But where do you go when all of Belgrade’s open markets have closed?

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

Tomato & Co. offers a great selection of fruit and vegetables Photos by Sophie Cottrell

I Have Seen the Queen!On October 29, I drove from Tuzla

to Belgrade, after work, just to spend an hour or two listening

to my favourite band – Queen. Although Queen without Freddie Mercury and John Deacon feels a bit like drinking wine mixed with water, I can’t say I was dis-appointed. On the contrary, it felt that I finally got a long lasting wish granted – I saw them live.

I was totally swept away with guitar-ist Brian May’s performance of my fa-vourite song, Love of My Life, which I even managed to record on my tiny cam-

era (smuggled in). And, when lead singer Roger Taylor did his magic on the drums, combining it with the bass of Danny Miranda, I felt the Belgrade Arena was too small to accommodate my heart. But, when the voice of Freddie Mercury, look-ing out at us from the giant video screen, broke across every corner of the stadium, I knew their mission to help the audience relive the magic was complete.

Paul Rodgers and the accompanying musicians filled the gaps left by the missing Queen members, and we can only congratu-late them for having the courage to join us

all in this moment of unique musical ex-perience.

“I have seen the Queen!”

Review by Dusica Ilic Cook

15directory

TAXI SERVICES

Beo Taxi 011 9801Blue Taxi 011 555999 Joker Taxi 011 3971174Lux Taxi 011 3033123Pink Taxi 011 9803Taxi Bell 011 9808Yellow Taxi 011 9802

BEAUTICIANS

MIOlIFT STUDIOTrg Nikole Pasica 8Tel: 011 3340554 www.centarlepote.co.yu NENATerazije 42, 1st floorTel: 011 3619115, 011 619577WEllNESS CENTAR ZORICADobracina 33, Bulevar Despota Stefana 71, 2nd floorTel: 011 3285922, 011 3243940, 063 356001 www.zorica.co.yuSPA CENTARStrahinjica Bana 5Tel: 011 3285408www.spacentar.co.yuoffice@spacentar.co.yu

BUILDERSENJUBBulevar Mihajla Pupina 20Tel: 011 2601673www.enjub.co.yuinfo@enjub.co.yu

COSMETIC & HEALTH SERVICESKOMNENUS Kraljice Natalije 19Tel: 011 3613677 www.komnenus.comoffice@komnenus.comANTI-AGING CENTARNikolaja Ostrovskog 3Tel: 011 2199645www.aacentar.com EPIlION dermatological laser centreAdmirala Geprata 13Tel: 011 3611420, 011 3615203 www.epilion.co.yu, info@epilion.co.yu

DENTISTSBIG TOOTH Mite Ruzica 10aTel: 063 8019190 www.big-tooth.comdr.ilic@beotel.yuFAMIly DENTISTBulevar Dr Zorana Djindica bbTel: 011 136437 www.familydentist.co.yuordinacija@familydentist.co.yuBElDENTBrankova 23Tel: 011 2634455APOlONIJAStevana Sremca 13, Tel: 011 3223420DUKADENTPariske Komune 11Tel: 011 3190766

ESTATE AGENTSAS-yUBC ESTATEBul. Mihajla Pupina 10aTel: 011 3118424, 063 371 879as.yubc@sbb.co.yuEURENT Dobracina 21Tel: 011 3038662 www.eurent.co.yuinfo@eurent.co.yu

EVENTS & CATERERS

VIllA CATERINGKrunska 69, BeogradTel: 011 3442656, 3835570, 063 207976www.villa-catering.comoffice@villa-catering.com

PARTy SERVICE Tel: 011 3946461GODOSavski kej bbTel: 011 2168101BUTTERFly CATERINGTel: 011 2972027, 063 7579825office@butterfly-catering.rsAlEKSANDRA-ANAIS Tel/fax: 011 4898173 063 7775889 office@aleksandra-anais.co.yu CATERING ClUB DBTel. 065 8099819Fax: 011 2980800cateringclubdb@eunet.yuCATERING PlUSPalmira Toljatija 5 Tel: 011 2608410 office@catering.co.yuDIPlOMAT CATERINGJosipa Slavenskog 10Tel: 011 3672605diplomatcatering@icomline.netEURO CATERING Prve pruge 211080 ZemunTel/fax: 011 3190469office@eurocatering.co.yu

FLORISTS

MAlA VRTNA RADIONICA Spanskih boraca 22g Tel: 011 3130300www.mvr.co.yumvr@verat.net CVET ExPRES Rajka Od Rasine 28Tel: 011 2545987 INTERFlORAVojvode Stepe 405Tel: 011 462687 TElEFlORASvetogorska 11Tel: 011 03030047/048

HAIR STYLISTSHAIR FACTORyKosovska 37/10Tel: 011 3227775www.hairfactory.co.yuvlada@hairfactory.co.yuExClUSIVE UNISEx HAIR SAlONEAlEKSANDARBulevar Despota Stefana 96Tel: 011 2087602 www.aleksandar.weebly.comfsaleksandar@gmail.com

INTERNET HOTSPOTS123 wap Vase Pelagica 48Absinthe Kralja Milutina 33 Backstage Restaurant Svetogorska 19BAR Central Kralja Petra 59Bistro Pastis Strahinjica Bana 52BBizzareZmaj Jovina 25Café bar MODA Njegoseva 61Café Biblioteka Terazije 27Café Koeficijent Terazije 15-23Café Nautilus Turgenjeva 5Café Paleta Trg Republike 5Celzijus Dzordza Vasingtona 12Coffee dream Kralja Petra 23Café Pianeta 27. Marta 141Colonial Sun Bul. Vojvode Putnika 32-34Cuba Café Kneza Viseslava 63Extreme kids Cvijiceva 1Gradski Macor Svetozara Markovica 43Ice bar Kosovska 37Idiott Dalmatinska 13Insomnia Strahinjica Bana 66AIpanema Strahinjica Bana 68Journal Kralja Milutina 21Koling Klub Neznanog junaka 23Kontra Bar Strahinjica Bana 59 langust Kosancicev venac 29Mart Caffe Krunska 6Monin Bar Dositejeva 9AMonument Admirala Geprata 14New york, New york Krunska 86Oktopus Brace Krsmanovic 3O’Polo Café Rige od Fere 15Pietro Dell Oro Trnska 2Pomodoro Hilandarska 32que pasa Kralja Petra 13Rezime Centar Cafe Kralja Petra 41Veprov dah Strahinjica Bana 52Vespa Bar Toplicin venac 6Via Del Gusto Knez Mihailova 48

GYMS, LEISURE & SPORTS CENTRES

ExTREME GyM TC ABC Cvijiceva 1Tel: 011 2768255www.x3mgym.comextremegym@x3mgym.comlPG CENTARYU BIZNIS Centre, Bulevar Mihaila Pupina 10bTel: 011 3130806lpgstosic@eunet.yu, www.lpgsalon.co.yu

RElAx PlATOBeogradjanka Tower Masarikova 5, 5th floorTel: 011 3061765www.relaxplato.comGOlF ClUB BEOGRAD Ada Ciganlija 2Tel: 063 8963816 PARTIZAN SHOOTING ClUB Tel: 011 2647942, 064 801 9900Fax: 011 2647261www.partizanshooting.rs info@partizanshooting.rsHIPPODROME BElGRADEPastroviceva 2Tel: 011 3546826

LEGAL SERVICESIlS lTD. IN ASSOCIATION WITH ClyDE & COGospodar Jevremova 47Tel: 011 3038822www.clydeco.co.ukclyde@clyde.co.yu HARRISONS SOlICITORSTerazije 34Tel: 011 3615918 www.harisons-solicitors.com KARANOVIC&NIKOlICLepenicka 7Tel: 011 3094200www.karanovic-nikolic.co.yuinfo@karanovic-nikolic.co.yu

MASSEURS

BEAUTy CENTAR Traditional Thai Massage CentreKnez Mihajlova 2-4Tel: 011 3030003www.menta.co.yumenta_bg@ptt.yu

MOVERSAllIED PICKFORDS SERBIAZarka Obreskog 23Tel: 011 8487744www.alliedpickfords.co.yumovers@alliedpickfords.co.yuAGS BElGRADENiski autoput 17Tel: 011 3472321www.agsmovers.combelgrade@agsmovers.com

OPTICIANS

EUROOPTICBulevar kralja Aleksandra 278Tel: 011 2415130www.eurooptic.co.yuOPTIKA BEOGRAD A.D.Cara Urosa 8-10Tel: 011 2629833

PRINTERSDIGITAl PRINTING CENTARCvijiceva 29Tel: 011 2078000www.dpc.co.yu office@dpc.co.yuDIGITAl ARTTel: 011 3617281

HEALTHCAREBEl MEDICViktora Igoa 1Tel. 011 3065888, 011 3066999,063 206602www.belmedic.comBEl MEDICKoste Jovanovića 87Tel. 011 3091000, 065 3091000www.belmedic.comDr. RISTIC HEAlTH CENTRENarodnih Heroja 38Tel: 011 2693287 www.dr-ristic.co.yuzcentar@dr-ristic.co.yulABOMEDICABulevar Kralja Aleksandra 193aTel: 011 3088304www.labomedica.netklinika@labomedica.netPRIVATNA PRAKSA PETROVICKralja Milutina 10Tel: 011 3460777DOM ZDRAVlJA “STARI GRAD” Obilicev venac 30Tel: 011 635236 DOM ZDRAVlJA “VRACAR” Kneginje Zorke 15Tel. 011 2441413

PLUMBERSHAUZMAJSTORFrancuska 56Tel: 011 3034034 office@hauzmajstor.co.yuHIDROTEKLjutice Bogdana 2Tel: 011 2666823kontakt@hidrotek.co.yu

SOLARIUMSSUN FACTORy MEGASUNMaksima Gorkog 82Tel: 011 3440403 sun.factory.megasun@gmail.comORNElA MEGASUNNjegoseva 56Tel: 011 2458398 ornelakbl@eunet.yuSTUDIO MIOlIFT Beograd, Trg Nikole Pašica 8 Tel: 011 3033211, 064 2351313 AlEKSANDAR TEAM Bulevar Despota Stefana 34a Tel: 011 3225632 www.aleksandar-team.co.yu SUN lOOK Makedonska 5 Tel: 011 3343810 www.sunlook-bg.com

TICKET SERVICESBIlET SERVICETrg Republike 5IPS & MAMUTMEGASTOREKnez Mihajlova 1Tel: 011 3033311www.ips.co.yu

TRANSLATORSTODOROVIC AGENCyTel: 011 2188197BElGRADE TRANSlATION CENTREDobracina 50/11Tel: 011 3287388www.btc.co.yunatasa.ralic@btc.co.yulExICA TRANSlATION AGENCyBeogradska 35Tel: 011 3222750www.lexica.co.yuoffice@lexica.co.yu

VETS&PETS

NOVAK VETERINARIAN ClINICVeselina Maslese 55Tel: 011 2851856, 011 2851923www.vetnovak.co.yunovak@ptt.yuVETERINARSKA STANICA lAZAREVIC Zrenjaninski put 30 Tel: 011 3319 015, 063 216 663Fax: +381 (0)11 2712 385OAZA Miklosiceva 11, Tel: 011 4440899

BOOKSTORES

AKADEMIJA Knez Mihailova 35 Tel: 011 2627846 ANTIKVARIJAT Knez Mihailova 35 Tel: 011 636087 BEOPOlIS Makedonska 22 Tel: 011 3229922 DERETA Dostojevskog 7 Tel: 011 3058707, 011 556-445 Kneza Mihaila 46 Tel. 011 3033503, 011 3030 514, 011 627-934 GECA KON Kneza Mihaila 12 Tel. 011 622073 IPS Mercator, Bulevar umetnosti 4 Tel: 011 132872 SUPER VERO Milutina MIlankovica 86a Tel: 011 3130640 IPS BOOK & MUSIC STORE Beoizlog, basement, Trg Republike 5 Tel: 011 3281859 PlATO Knez Mihailova 48 Tel: 011 625834 SKZ Kralja Milana 19 Tel: 011 3231593 STUBOVI KUlTURE Knez Mihailova 6 Tel: 011 3281851, 011 632384 THE OxFORD CENTER Dobracina 27 Tel. 011 631021

We welcome suggestions for inclusion in the directory.Please send details to:belgradeinsightmarketing@birn.eu.com

Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008

16 advert Friday, Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2008