STA, 27 June 2019 - Serbian lawyer Dušan Bratić has reportedly filed a criminal complaint against former Slovenian President Milan Kučan, accusing him of responsibility for genocide and the breakup of Yugoslavia. Kučan said the claims, published in the Serbian daily paper Politika, do not warrant a serious comment.

According to the report by Politka, Bratić, who is researching alleged crimes against members of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, filed the criminal complaint against Kučan and five more individuals with Serbia's War Crimes Prosecutor's Office.

Bratić reportedly focuses on the deaths of JNA members on the Škofije border crossing with Italy during the ten-day independence war and other alleged crimes.

The list of individuals he says are responsible for violating the Geneva Convention, also includes the commander of the Territorial Defence Janez Slapar, the head of one of the defence's units Franc Anderlič and three more persons.

"Milan Kučan was the president of Slovenia then, the de facto commander in chief of all the armed formations and is among the main war criminals responsible for the shattering of Yugoslavia," Politika quotes Bratić.

Responding to the report, Kučan wrote that the claims completely ignore the historical context of the processes that caused the breakup of Yugoslavia and the tragedies they led to.

"My comment is not necessary, since I believe that Serbian politics and society will be capable of their own objective confrontation with Serbia's politics in the 1990s, which caused resistance from practically all the peoples of the former joint state.

"This was a retrograde politics that stopped the development, primarily of Serbia but also of other republics, for a long time...Levelling accusations at others means running away from ones own responsibility. As for my responsibility, history will be the judge of it," Kučan wrote.

Meanwhile, a response also came from the first director of the Defence Ministry intelligence service Andrej Lovšin, who said no crimes whatsoever had been committed by the Slovenian side in the war.

He argued that it was in fact the JNA that used excessive force and targeted civilian targets in several cases and that the International Red Cross confirmed no violations had taken place on the Slovenian side.

Referring to wars in Yugoslavia that followed Slovenia's, Lovšin added that "war crimes and genocide is what was characteristic of the continuation of the downfall of the former joint state".

STA, 27 June 2019 - Addressing the press in the face of mounting criticism on Thursday, the management of Adria Airways said it was aware of the carrier's issues but was also working hard to resolve them. CEO Holger Kowarsch said talks with potential strategic partners were under way, but he added Adria could also survive on its own.

Adria, Slovenia's former flag carrier which is in German ownership since 2016 and has struggled with liquidity problems, will do all it can to reduce the number of cancellations and delays, Kowarsch said, but he added that these were normal for all airlines and could not be avoided entirely.

Chief operating officer Tadej Notersberg said the challenges had gotten tougher in May primarily because of an unexpected protraction of maintenance work on aircraft and staff issues.

Now, only one plane remains subject to maintenance work, while 50 pilots and 70 cabin staff members were employed in the past year, with training taking a while.

Adria rejected media reports of a high pilot turnover rate, saying staff turnover had not increased and was lower than at comparable companies in Europe.

Meanwhile, Kowarsch did not wish to talk about any names, but said Adria was in talks with several potential partners. While the company was allegedly seeking state aid recently, Kowarsch added it could also survive without a strategic partner.

Adria did not negotiate a new contract with aircraft maintenance firm Adria Tehnika after the old one expired, but it has already picked a new partner, whose name will be revealed next week. Media reports suggest a Scandinavian company will take over maintenance in September.

Notersberg said Adria parted ways with Adria Tehnika because it was not happy with it, while he said the change will definitely not affect safety.

All our stories about Adria Airways are here

June 27, 2019

On June 27, 1991, at 01:15, the Anti-Aircraft Regiment based in Karlovac, Croatia, crossed the Slovenian border and at 02:40 a column of tanks left the barracks in Vrhnika, heading for the airport at Brnik. At 14:30 the first shot was fired by an officer of the Yugoslav Army in Divača, beginning the ten-day military conflict between Slovenian Territorial Defence (Territorialna Obramba) and the Yugoslav People's Army (Jugoslovanska ljudska armada), which followed Slovenia’s declaration of independence on June 25. The conflict is hence also known as the Ten-Day War, or the Slovenian Independence War (Slovenska osamosvojitvena vojna).

A significant number of the YPA soldiers consisted of mandatory servicemen from all parts of Yugoslavia, while Slovenian sovereign troops consisted of the local police and Territorial Defence (TD), which was established in 1968 as the federation’s response to Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia: in case of the YPA’s defeat and eventual invasion, the TD would continue resistance against the occupying Soviet forces.  

Ironically, the TD eventually clashed with the YPA in the Slovenian fight for independence.

After Tito's death in 1980, the YPA became an important decision-maker at the centre of political power in Belgrade, while the country started to crumble under both increasing economic pressure and the various competing nationalisms.

Of course, the Slovenian TD was no match for the Yugoslav army, who eventually abandoned its pan-Yugoslavism in favour of a Serbian nationalism that saw little benefit in carrying out a total bombardment of a place outside the planned borders of Greater Serbia. Nevertheless, the army did seem surprised by the scope of popular resistance in the first several days of the conflict.

On 26 of December, 1990 a plebiscite was held in Slovenia, where 88.5% of all voters (94.8% of those participating), expressed their preference for Slovenia to become an independent sovereign state.

On June 25, 1991 Slovenia’s independence was declared and Yugoslavian signs and flags were removed at the border crossings and replaced with Slovenian ones.

Change of flags at the Republic Square, Ljubljana, June 25, 1991:

The federal executive council met the same night in Belgrade, adopting a decision about the “protection of the federal borders in Slovenia”, which granted a legal support for the military intervention in the republic. The operation’s first goal was to gain control over the border crossings and Brnik international airport (near Ljubljana).

On its way to their final destinations, the Yugoslav Army encountered unarmed barricades and spontaneous, sometimes very determined reaction of the civilians.

Documentation of the events that took place at the border crossing in Gornja Radgona (the eastern border crossing with Austria):

The events that took place by Trzin, where tanks headed from Vrhnika to Brnik airport were stopped:

Rožna dolina border crossing (the border with Italy, Nova Gorica):

The ten-day war ended on 7 July, 1991, when Brioni Accords were signed. Altogether 76 people lost their lives, among them 12 foreign citizens, and 326 people were wounded. The last YPA soldiers left Slovenia on 25 of October 1991.

STA, 26 June 2019 - A police investigation into an assault on a Maribor District Court judge has shown the motive for the attack was personal although it initially seemed it was work-related since the judge has been responsible for several high-profile cases.

A man has been indicted in relation to the incident and according to unofficial information, he is judge Daniela Ružič's spouse.

The motive for the attack was personal, the head of the Maribor investigators, Andrej Kolbl, told the press on Wednesday.

Ružič was attacked in the wee hours on Sunday, 16 June, in front of her house in the vicinity of Maribor.

She was severely injured with an object, and is still being treated at the UKC Maribor hospital.

The police apprehended her spouse on Friday, but released him after questioning, yet they did propose a restraining order.

Commercial broadcaster POP TV meanwhile reported this evening that the investigating judge had decided against the restraining order, which the police confirmed for the STA, but would not comment on the decision.

The police think the motive for the attack was Ružič's intention to get a divorce and claim her share of the joint assets.

The investigation of the attack, which drew strong condemnation from Ružič's peers and politicians, who perceived it as work-related, continues.

STA, 26 June 2019 - The parliamentary legal service has issued its opinion on the controversial bill on the funding of private primary schools related to a Constitutional Court decision, saying it is questionable in several places from the aspect of constitutional order, and even unconstitutional in certain points.

The nine-page opinion was issued after the bill passed first reading in the National Assembly last week and as the parliamentary Education Committee was scheduled to debate it again today, but postponed the session after the legal opinion was issued.

Under the bill, private primary schools are to get full state funding to teach publicly approved curricula, with pre-school or after-school classes, which are otherwise a normal part of daily life at school, not financed at all.

In the amendments to the act on the financing of education, which is meant to implement a 2014 Constitutional Court ruling mandating full rather than just 85% state financing of publicly approved curricula at private primaries, any curricular content considered as above-standard will be exempted.

The parliamentary legal service says in its opinion the main shortcoming of the bill is the "strict focus of the initiator on realising very narrowly defined goals".

The government proposes broader and, in certain points inconsistent, changes to the existing education system compared to those demanded by the Constitutional Court, while not providing well argued reasons for this, it added.

The legal service has also made remarks on concrete articles, including the one on the funding of private primary schools, establishing that the proposed amount of public funds for this purpose would actually be lower compared to the current amount.

"The lower amount of public funding thus encroaches upon the legal position of private primary schools," it says, adding that private schools could transfer the burden of financing on the student's parents.

According to the legal service, this worsens the legal position of students and their parents, who could not count on such an initiative from the government in the wake of the Constitutional Court's decision.

It adds that the government has failed to explain what the public interest is that justifies the worsening of the legal position of private primary schools and their students and their parents.

There is also no explanation in the bill as to why the government is abolishing the co-funding of the part of the extended programme which is uniformly specified for all primary schools in Slovenia.

The bill also opens up several questions about compliance with the general principle of equality before the law, it says, adding the proposal that the educational programme of private schools must differ from that in public schools is also disputable.

What is more, the differentiation between publicly approved curricula and curricula that have gained public validity could be disputable from the aspect of the constitutional right to the freedom of expression, and from the aspect of the constitutional prohibition of discrimination based on personal circumstances.

Following the legal service's opinion, coalition parties met to discuss the new development, opting to postpone the Education Committee's session. The committee then put the debate off by a few days.

MP Marko Koprivc of the Social Democrats (SD), who gave the initiative for the postponement, said they had only just received the legal service's opinion, so they had not had the time to study it yet.

Education Minister Jernej Pikalo welcomed the committee's decision to postpone the session, saying it was right the legal service's opinion was studied, "especially if we want to have quality legislation".

Nevertheless, he defended the solution to fund the mandatory part of publicly approved curricula 100% and not to fund any extra activities at all. He insists this is in line with the court's ruling.

However, since last week, the opposition has already filed a number of amendments. The Democrats (SDS) would not just like private primary schools which teach publicly approved curricula to get full state funding, they also propose that private music and secondary schools get 85% of its costs covered by the state.

During last week's parliamentary debate, only the parties of the minority coalition supported the bill, but some of them only under certain conditions. Some of them announced their final opinion would depend on the opinion of the parliament's legal service, so further changes during the legislative seem possible.

Other stories on this bill can be found here, while all our stories on education in Slovenia are here

Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also ollow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

A schedule of all the main events involving Slovenia this week can be found here

This summary is provided by the STA:

Huge kerosene leakage as freight train derails in tunnel

HRASTOVLJE - Six wagons of a freight train derailed on Tuesday afternoon in a tunnel near Hrastovlje in SW Slovenia, with an estimated 10,000 litres of kerosene leaking out from two cisterns. Emergency teams reacted immediately and further damage has been prevented but railway traffic, including from the Koper port, is not expected to resume before Friday. While water contamination concerns were raised, the first information by the water supply system operator in Koper suggests that the supply in the region is safe and under control. Explaining the kerosene will reach the groundwater eventually, the operator still called on users to save water. Read more on this story...

Židan, Swedish speaker urge stabilisation of W Balkans

LJUBLJANA - Parliamentary Speaker Dejan Židan and Swedish counterpart Andreas Norlen stressed after their meeting that the two countries' agreed on the the need to stabilise the Western Balkans. They also expressed support for the efforts of the countries in the region to join Euro-Atlantic alliances. Židan was critical of the EU for failing to keep the promises of continued integration for the Western Balkans, especially in light of the name dispute solution for North Macedonia. "This is worrying us," he said. Norlen also met President Borut Pahor, Prime Minister Marjan Šarec and Foreign Minister Miro Cerar.

Parliament's legal service questions primary school funding motion

LJUBLJANA - The parliamentary legal service tore apart the controversial legislative motion on the funding of private primary schools related to a Constitutional Court decision, saying it was questionable in several aspects and even unconstitutional in certain points. The opinion, which primarily notes that the motion in fact worsens the position of private school even though the top court mandated full rather than the current 85% state financing of publicly approved curricula at private primaries, was issued as the parliamentary Education Committee was scheduled to debate the motion as part of its second reading. The discussion was postponed to a later date after the coalition held a meeting on the legal service's opinion.

Visiting Ljubljana? Check out what's on this week, while all our stories on Slovenia, from newest to oldest, are here

Zajc discusses cross-border environmental issues with Italian counterpart

LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg - Environment Minister Simon Zajc raised a couple of Slovenia's environmental concerns as he met his Italian counterpart Sergio Costa on the margins of the EU Council session, expressing worry over cross-border pollution in the Trieste area. They discussed the issue of cross-border emissions of the Aquilinia-based ironworks as well as construction plans for an incinerator which would be placed in close proximity to the Slovenian-Italian border. They agreed on regular communication about the ironworks' success in meeting EU's environmental regulations. Costa will review the current situation and inform Zajc of his findings.

Maribor judge assault was not work-related, police say

MARIBOR - A police investigation into an assault on a Maribor District Court judge has shown the motive for the attack was personal although it initially seemed it was work-related since the judge has been responsible for several high-profile cases. A man has been indicted in relation to the incident and according to unofficial information, he is judge Daniela Ružič's spouse. The investigation of the attack, which drew strong condemnation from Ružič's peers and from politicians, who perceived it as work-related, continues.

Hiša Franko moving up on world's top 50 restaurants list

SINGAPORE, Singapore - Hiša Franko in the town of Kobarid, led by Slovenia's star chef Ana Roš, was declared the 38th best restaurant in the world by the British trade magazine Restaurant in Singapore on Tuesday. The list was topped by French restaurant Mirazur led by Argentinian chef Mauro Colagreco. This is the second time that Hiša Franko is on the list of the world's top 50 restaurants. It debuted last year, ranking 48th, while Roš was declared the best woman chef by the Restaurant magazine in 2017.

If you're learning Slovenian then you can find all our dual texts here

Heavy rain caused the event scheduled for 22 June to finish early, and if you couldn't attend last week, or left when the heavens opened, you're in luck - as this Saturday (29 June) the Pure Craft Beer Festival is back in action. We thus present a slightly revised version of the previous story...

If you haven’t been paying attention to the Slovenian craft beer scene over the last 18 or so months then there’s a lot for you to catch up on. There’s been an explosion, both in the number of producers and variety of brews released. The developments have been especially exciting for those drinkers who aren’t fans of IPAs, your correspondent included, with sours, saisons, wheatbeers, porters, radlers and ales of all varieties making their way into bottles, cans and glasses all over the country, and gaining increasing attention abroad.

But where can dedicated beer hunter, or casual drinker, go to learn more about the scene and sample interesting brews with likeminded folk in a non-bar setting, one that’s suitable for all the family? Or to quote Tim Earles, organiser of the Pure Craft Beer Festival: “There are a variety of events around Ljubljana where the craft brewers all come together, but the environment doesn’t always present the quality of the beers in the best light. The Open Air Museum in Rogatec is an undiscovered gem on the border between Slovenia and Croatia, which seemed like the perfect place to run a garden-party style event, where the smaller breweries could represent their beer in an atmosphere befitting their products.”

The Open Air Museum. Photo: Pure Craft

The festival will take place on Saturday 29 June (2019), and the breweries set to appear include Human Fish, Green Gold, Omnivar, Loo-Blah-Nah, Crazy Duck, Mali Grad, Maister, Barut, Lobik, Bevog, Haler, Old Franz, APE, and Clef. The event runs from 10:00 to 22:00, giving you enough time to sample many, if not all, of all the beers. What’s more, your adventures in liquid sunshine will be accompanied by gourmet delights, with a full culinary program from the highly recommended Gostišče Jurg.

The breweries and beers to enjoy 

Karikature Boris

In addition to food and drink, including some wine and even non-alcoholic beverages, there’ll be entertainment suitable for the whole family. This includes museum workshops showcasing the skills of blacksmithing, bracelet making, basket weaving and bread making; pony riding and carriage rides; dance workshops; a supervised climbing wall; a giant art wall; laser maze, a slackline and more, such as free caricatures from Karikature Boris. Music will be provided by from Jeanette & Počeni Škafi.

Tickets come with a Rogaška Crystal souvenir glass and cost €10 on the door, with the price including a museum tour. To keep things simple all the beers at the festival will be sold at the same price, €1 for a 150ml sample pour, a size that gives you a chance to safely enjoy all the brews on offer.

For more information please visit the website or Facebook page.

STA, 26 June 2019 - The only water supply system for the entire Slovenian coast may be in jeopardy after a kerosene-carrying train derailed Tuesday afternoon near one of the potable water sources. Measures have been taken to prevent the worst, but there is no doubt that the kerosene will reach the groundwater with the first strong rainfall at the latest.

The regional water system operator, Rižanski vodovod, supplies more than 87,000 residents, but the figure grows much higher during the summer season, to about 130,000 people.

Slovenia is bracing for a heatwave expected to peak in the second half of the week and the coast is a popular destination for many seeking to respite from scorching temperatures.

Following an emergency meeting this morning, called in the wake of the spill, Rižanski Vodovod urged its clients to conserve water.

The porous Kras terrain is notoriously tricky when it comes to water flow and Nataša Viršek Ravbar of the Karst Research Institute of the Research Centre of the Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) told the STA that it is only a matter of time before the oil reaches the nearest water source.

Once a pollutant is in the Karstic ground, there is nothing anybody can do, she said. As fas as she knows, the tunnel where the accident happened does not have built-in oil catchers.

Currently, efforts are under way to pump out the spilled kerosene from the tunnel near the village of Hrastovlje. It is estimated that some 10,000 litres of the fuel spilled as several wagons derailed last afternoon.

Viršek Ravbar believes that the only way to ensure quality of water is constant monitoring. The oil will likely reach the water source during the next rainfall and may remain polluted for a long time.

Rižanski Vodovod said that direct sourcing had been suspended from the jeopardised point of intake at the source of the River Rižana and that the source was being monitored.

Stressing that people's health is the most important thing, the company, owned by the four municipalities it services, also increased the intake of water from other, safe sources and scaled up pumping from the deepest water sources.

The water supplier also expressed belief that thorough clean-up works would take priority over haste to relaunch traffic. The accident halted not only passenger transport but also cargo transport to and from the port of Koper, the country's only seaport.

Environment Minister Simon Zajc, who is abroad today, is to visit the site tomorrow.

STA, 26 June 2019 - Six wagons of a freight train derailed on Tuesday afternoon in a tunnel near Hrastovlje in SW Slovenia, with a large quantity of the jet fuel kerosene leaking out from two cisterns. Transport on the railway has been suspended and there are also concerns that the leak might contaminate the local water supply system.

The response teams immediately started pumping out the remaining kerosene from the cisterns to prevent further leakage and managed to almost completely stop it by the evening.

According to Srečko Šestan, the head of the Civil Protection and Disaster Relief Administration, the problem is that the derailed wagons stand very close to the tunnel wall, which prevents the teams from accessing all leakage points.

Dušan Mes, the head of the national rail operator Slovenske Železnice, said that after the kerosene is pumped from all six derailed wagons, the would be removed from the tunnel and the work on repairing some 150 to 200 metres of damaged tracks would start.

Mes said the pumping would conclude by 2pm today and that the railway would be reopened for traffic on Friday. In the course of the day, it became clear that the cleanup effort would take a few hours longer, but relevant authorities still insisted that the track would reopen Friday.

According to Mes, the most probable cause of the accident is a damaged switch, while a damaged wagon is the less likely option. The possibility of a human error has been eliminated.

The kerosene is being pumped out by teams from the energy company Petrol and Slovenske Železnice, while firefighters are also helping out. It is estimated that some 10,000 litres of kerosene have leaked out of the cisterns.

The tracks in the tunnel are heavily damaged, which makes it difficult to get the pumped kerosene out of the tunnel, he added.

According to Mes, no one has been injured in the accident, except for one firefighter, who has sustained a light injury during the intervention.

The site of the accident is very close to the source of Rižana River, one of the water sources for the only water supply system of the entire coastal area, servicing up to 130,000 people during the summer.

The regional water supply operator and experts share the view that the kerosene is certain to reach the water source, during the first strong rainfall at the latest.

Measures have been taken to prevent the worst, the source has been cut off and monitoring has been put in place. Nataša Viršek Ravbar, a Karst researcher, said that the water source may remain polluted for a long time.

The Environment Ministry said it was closely monitoring the situation, adding that Minister Simon Zajc would inspect the site on Thursday.

Zajc, who is currently attending an EU ministerial in Luxembourg, has already agreed with his Croatian counterpart Tomislav Ćorić to stay in touch in the case that Slovenia needed Croatia's aid in drinking water supply.

As the railway has been closed for traffic, freight trains have been piling up in the port of Koper, with a total of 35 trains currently waiting in the port, the port operator Luka Koper said today.

While the the rail operator is making an effort to open the railway as soon as possible, the Luka Koper said it had advised its business partners to use cargo transport on the road in the meantime.

Luka Koper will be loading and unloading lorries in the port terminals also over the night to compensate for the closure, which means that significantly heavier cargo transport on the motorway in the coming days.

The site of the accident was also inspected yesterday by criminal police officers and forensics, as well as Infrastructure Minister Alenka Bratušek.

Giving a statement for the press today, Bratušek praised the response teams and once again underlined the need for a second rail track connecting the port to the inland hub of Divača.

Preparatory works have been launched recently for the project estimated at just over EUR 1bn, after years of back and forth. The 2TDK, the special purpose vehicle established by the government to oversee the construction, also said that the accident showed how much a new track is needed.

It added that the new, state-of-the art-track would avoid almost entirely the sensitive water supply area and that the tunnels are all planned with oil catchers, which means that any waste water would be caught in waste holdup tanks.

STA, 26 June 2019 - Hiša Franko in the town of Kobarid, led by Slovenia's star chef Ana Roš, was declared the 38th best restaurant in the world by the British trade magazine Restaurant in Singapore on Tuesday. The list was topped by French restaurant Mirazur led by Argentinian chef Mauro Colagreco.

This is the second time that Hiša Franko, standing above the picturesque Soča river, is on the list of the world's top 50 restaurants.

It debuted last year, ranking 48th, while Roš was declared the best woman chef by the Restaurant magazine in 2017.

Overall, the top 50 list included just five restaurants helmed by female chefs, the same as last year.

Mirazur is followed on the list by Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo, Spain.

Related: Winners of The Slovenia Restaurant Awards 2019 Announced