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Weekly News Bulletin

Overview of the week's top stories
since 29 March 2003

by brian J. požun

Official referenda results released

On 1 April, the State Election Committee released the official results of the 23 March referenda on EU and Nato entry. Some 869,171 (89.64 percent) percent voted in favor of joining the EU, while 100.53 voted against; 637,882 (66.08 percent) voted in favor of Nato while 327,463 voted against. Of the 1,613,305 registered voters, 975.015 (60.44 percent) participated in the EU referendum and slightly less, 974,558, participated in the one concerning Nato (60.43 percent).

The next day, Dnevnik reported on those who voted at the polls set up at 35 diplomatic-consular sites around the world. A total of 2275 votes were cast outside of Slovenia’s borders, of which 97.5 percent voted in favor of EU entry and 76.7 percent voted in favor of Nato entry. The highest turnout rate was recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where 651 of a total 1631 registered voters participated. There, 99.5 percent voted in favor of the EU and 92.8 percent voted in favor of Nato.

Hanžek responds to US human rights critique

According to a report released this week prepared by the United States State Department, human rights were generally respected in Slovenia last year, but trafficking in human beings remains a problem.

Several other problems are also mentioned. Like the CPJ report, the Petek case is highlighted in conjunction with freedom of the press. The issue of denationalization of property formerly owned by the Catholic Church is presented under freedom of religion, as is the October 2002 arrest of Muslim cleric Mufti Osman Djogić’s wife, and the controversy surrounding plans to build Ljubljana’s first mosque.

In the 2 April edition of Večer, Ombudsman for Human Rights Matjaž Hanžek commented:

The State Department report is less sharp than it would have been if I had written it myself, however, this is probably due to the fact that the Americans do not have the moral right to teach others about human rights, since they are among those countries which clearly violate the basic provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights. From the fact that they bomb civilian populations, to the fact that they lock up people without due process. If you do such things yourself, it is difficult to show anything to another state with great authority.

Hanžek responded specifically to the section on trafficking in human beings also:

Trafficking in human beings, which they have particularly expounded upon, in fact is probably very problematic, especially because Slovene state institutions do not deal with this issue to any great extent, or at least they do too little, and even then it is only the police and non-governmental agencies that do anything. It is also true that Slovenia is more or less a transit country. Western European countries are even more "guilty" in this problem than we are. The other violations, including police violence, they mention as violations which occur more randomly, rather as isolated incidents, and so in the report they mean little to the overall situation in Slovenia. I would also rather not comment on the allegation of self-censorship in the media, since you can see self-censorship much more clearly in the American media than in ours.

The full State Department report can be found here.

US Congress fuels confusion over Slovene support for Iraq war

Confusion over whether the government is supporting the United States-led war on Iraq continued this week, as the US Congress released the text of a resolution thanking the members of the so-called "Coalition of the Willing." Contrary to Slovene government statements that they are not associated with the coalition, Slovenia in fact appears in the list.

The resolution recognizes the support of the United Kingdom, Australia, Poland and Denmark, all of which have sent troops to Iraq. It then mentions eight European countries and nine more Eastern and Southeastern European states which signed the Vilnius Declaration on 5 February supporting US policy. Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel signed that declaration for Slovenia.

According to STA, Prime Minister Anton Rop has once again confirmed that, despite the resolution and any other American statements made lately, Slovenia is not a member of the coalition.

SOPS enters into force on Croatian border

On 1 April, the Agreement on Border Cooperation and Transport (SOPS) entered into force along Slovenia’s border with Croatia. The agreement is designed to facilitate the lives of those living along both sides of the border.

SOPS actually entered in force on 1 January 2003, but the public was given a three-month grace period to prepare. The treaty establishes so-called "local" border crossings, which will allow residents of border areas to get around much more freely and easily.

In order to utilize the local crossings, residents must apply for special identification cards. However, of the 250,000 Slovene citizens eligible for them, STA reports that only about 10,000 applications have been received.

A total of 27 local border crossings are expected, though only three (Osilnica-Zamost, Rajnkovec-Mali Tabor and Stara vas-Bizeljsko-Gornji Čemehovec) have opened so far. Three more should open by the end of the month (Središče ob Dravi-Preseka, Prilišče-Žuniči and Krasinec-Pravutina), and by July, seven more should be operational.

The SOPS regime is expected to remain in place even after Slovenia introduces the Schengen border as part of its accession to the European Union. Slovenia is to become an EU member state in May, 2004.

Two black marks for freedom of the press

On Monday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its report on attacks on journalists, for the year 2002. Regarding Slovenia, the report states, "Press freedom is generally respected in Slovenia, but journalists investigating sensitive issues continue to face occasional intimidation or pressure in retaliation for their coverage." Two incidents are cited.

First, the report points out that the brutal attack on Večer correspondent Miro Petek in 2001 has not been resolved. The establishment of a parliamentary commission to investigate the case is reported as the only progress made in 2002.

The second incident concerns Blaž Zgaga, another Večer correspondent. The Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Zgaga again for allegedly revealing military secrets even though he was cleared of the charges in January 2002. The allegations relate to a June 2000 article he wrote which questioned the legality of a joint Slovene-US intelligence operation conducted during the 1999 Nato bombing of Yugoslavia.

The full report can be found here.

And in other news...

On 1 April, Croatia became an equal co-owner and co-administrator of the Krško nuclear power plant (NEK). A general meeting on Saturday is expected to see a new oversight board and two-member directorate named. Croatia cannot yet expect to utilize electricity from the plant, however. Ljubljana shut off the supply line to Croatia in 1998, after Zagreb insisted that it was a co-owner of NEK and as such did not have to pay for the electricity. Negotiations on restoring electricity from NEK to Croatia are still ongoing.

On Friday, 24 ur reported that the State Prosecutor’s Office is preparing an indictment against Koper Mayor Boris Popovič, and his company Food Party. The indictment alleges that Popovič committed several crimes, including tax evasion. The crimes were allegedly committed in 2001. State Prosecutor Zdenka Cerar told 24 ur that the office is still collecting evidence, while Popovič said that he has not yet been formally notified.

On Friday, Primorski dnevnik reported that a delegation of Lusatian Sorbs from Niederschlesischer Oberlausitz, in German Saxony arrived in Gorizia (Gorica) to discuss cooperation with regional authorities there. The two regions have much in common: they are of a similar size, both are located along a border that is slated to disappear with EU expansion, and both have minorities whose languages are protected by law. The regions are expected to cooperate in the fields of business, culture, education and youth affairs.

On 6 April, Roma in Krško will finally elect their representative to the city council. A 2001 Constitutional Court ruling required twenty town councils across the country to create a seat for a Roma representative, but by the November 2002 local elections, only fourteen had amended their statutes accordingly. One more, Trebnje, permitted the election of a Roma even though its statutes did not allow for this. The other five towns protested to the Constitutional Court, which upheld its earlier ruling. Krško is the first of the remaining five to allow the election of a Roma representative.

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