As the UN court prepares to rule on whether the Serbian State Security Service chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic illegally controlled wartime paramilitary units, BIRN looks at how they were deployed in the Croatian and Bosnian conflicts. Asenior official from the Serbian State Security Service, Franko ‘Frenki’ Simatovic, arrived …

After a six-year wait, the first trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague will open on September 15, with former Kosovo Liberation Army officer Salih Mustafa facing charges of illegally detaining, torturing and killing prisoners. It was announced last week that the first trial at the Kosovo Special …

With foreign influences and the pandemic undermining democracy in the V4 and the Western Balkans, external security – delivered via NATO – is fundamental, Kurt Volker argues. After a meeting-heavy June that saw the leaders of the international community converge on several stages and fora, it appears as though China …

Pakistan’s stakes in Afghanistan are rising as U.S. and NATO troops prepare to leave. All-out war after the withdrawal could push more Afghan refugees across the border and strengthen Pakistani militants. Islamabad should ratchet up pressure on the Taliban to engage in peace talks. What’s new? The fast-paced withdrawal of foreign …

Hungary began the week at odds with the EU and ended the week even more so, dragging in its Central European neighbours along the way. EU leaders began a two-day summit on June 24 in Brussels having to deal with the fallout from Hungary’s recently passed anti-LGBT legislation – a …

Former Serbian state security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic will hear the judgment in The Hague this week in their retrial for masterminding the most notorious Serb combat units that fought in the Croatian and Bosnian wars. “Milosevic’s men on the ground” was the most common description of these …

ETHIOPIA Federal troops left Mekelle, capital of the northern Tigray region, as Tigrayan forces advanced on Monday. Interim administrators appointed by Addis Ababa after its soldiers ousted Tigray’s regional government in November had already departed over the weekend. Crisis Group expert Will Davison says these stunning developments sink the federal …

Real rapprochement between the US and Turkey may have to wait the result of Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections in 2023. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had his first face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden on June 14 on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels. Since Washington …

What a kidnapping in Albania reveals about Europe’s growing cocaine habit. There are two ways of interpreting the fact that the annual recorded seizures of cocaine in Europe have been hitting all-time highs every year for the last three years. The record-breaking hauls may, on the one hand, be taken …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held talks on Wednesday with King Abdullah before the Jordanian monarch’s key visit to Washington. The king will be the first Arab leader to meet at the White House with President Joe Biden and his team. Two Jordanian army helicopters flew to Ramallah to transport Abbas …