Balkans

Bernard Rabatel, the deputy head of justice of EULEX, the newly deployed EU rule of law mission in Kosovo, says his mission will move fast in going through Kosovo’s war crimes cases because ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. The UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, has handed over to EULEX all …

Italy will be donating 2 million euros to the newly formed Kosovo Security Force, a NATO sponsored army established as part of Kosovo’s status arrangements for its declaration of independence of last year. Kosovo’s deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuci announced the grant after meeting with Italy’s ambassador to Kosovo, Michael …

United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has reconfirmed Washington’s support for Kosovo during a visit of Kosovo’s senior leaders to the US.. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 17, 2008 and has since been recognized by 55 states, including the majority of EU members. “We support the new …

Serbia, and especially its northern province of Vojvodina, has the highest rate of suicides in Europe, with 19 out of 100,000 people opting to kill themselves compared to a European average of 13 per 100,000. In Vojvodina the rate is the highest – 28.5 per 100,000. Between 1,300 and 1,400 …

The Appellate Chamber of the Hague Tribunal is due to pronounce a second-instance verdict in the case of Momcilo Krajisnik, a former Republika Srpska senior official, in mid March. In September 2006 Krajisnik, former President of the Republika Srpska Assembly, was sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment for crimes against humanity, …

The United Nations war crimes court in The Hague found five senior Serb officials guilty on Thursday of orchestrating the murder, torture and deportation of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, acquitting former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic. This is the first verdict on atrocities committed by Serb forces in the 1998-99 crackdown …

Albania’s Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha appeared in front of the Supreme Court in Tirana on Friday on charges of abuse of power related to a mammoth highway project linking Albania’s Adriatic coast with Kosovo. The charges relate to the time when Basha served as Albania’s Minister of Transportation and Public …

Albania’s Minister of Finance accused the World Bank on Friday of damaging their excellent relations with a probe by an independent investigative panel on a coastal management project that has embarrassed the conservative government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha. “We regret to note that Bank’s internal issues are being transposed …

International human rights group Front Line accused Kosovo’s public telecoms company of harrassing civil society group COHU!, and called for a prompt investigation into the matter. The managing director of Kosovo’s Post and Telecommunications Kosovo, PTK, Shyqyri Haxhaj, accused the wife of COHU! director Avni Zogjani, a PTK employee, of …

Macroeconomic indicators over the past three months confirm that the global financial and economic crisis is spreading to the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the World Bank said, suggesting a list of immediate and medium-term countermeasures. This World Bank statement, carried out by local media on Friday, came only a …