Balkan News

GENEVA, Switzerland The latest UN-mediated round of talks between Macedonia and Greece on their name dispute ended Monday (June 22nd) in Geneva without progress, media reported.

TIRANA, Albania Sweden, which assumes the rotating EU presidency on July 1st, urged the European Commission on Monday (June 22nd) to offer an opinion on Albania’s application for EU candidate status during the second half of the year.

ATHENS, Greece Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis expressed concern Monday (June 22nd) about the growing number of violations in Greek air space over the Aegean Sea by Turkish military aircrafts. These incidents threaten to significantly raise tensions in bilateral relations, she warned.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Former Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik arrived in Pale on Monday (June 22nd) to see his family. The Hague war crimes tribunal granted him three days to visit his ill mother. In March, Krajisnik was sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes committed …

The recent visit of Serbian President Boris Tadic to Banja Luka, the seat of the Bosnian Serb leadership, continues to draw strong criticism from other Bosnian leaders. “Tadic is reneging on the Dayton agreement,” leader of the strongest Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) Party of Democratic Action, SDA, Sulejman Tihic, said in …

The EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo has condemned the use of roadblocks by local Serbs, who are attempting to stop EULEX custom officers from working in the north of the country. Roadblocks were erected on Monday and Tuesday on the roads leading to Gates 1 and 31 in northern Kosovo, …

in Croatia’s EU accession negotiations, leaving Zagreb with a total of 13 blocked chapters. Slovenia failed to give Croatia the green light for closing a chapter on statistics, citing the two countries’ unresolved territorial disputes, Croatia’s HINA news agency reported.

Serbia’s war Crimes Court on Tuesday sentenced a Croatian Serb to 20 years in prison for killing Croat prisoners of war in the eastern Croatian city of Vukovar in 1991. Damir Sireta, alias Sico, was indicted for taking part in the killing of some 200 Croatian soldiers and civilians at …

Former Yugoslav Army general and convicted war criminal Mile Mrksic has concluded his five-day-long testimony as a witness for the defence of Croatian General Ante Gotovina, accused of deporting Serbs from Knin Krajina in 1995 under Operation Storm. Mrksic had initially refused to testify, but was subpoenaed by the court, …

The first Japanese ambassador to Kosovo, Akio Tanaka, is preparing to take up his post in the newly independent nation. In a Wednesday letter to Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu, Japanese diplomat Akio Tanaka said he was honored to assume the post and vowed Japan’s continued support. Serbia’s Beta news agency …