Balkans

Belgrade prosecutors and police officials working on an investigation into the wartime killings of Bosniaks said that they have been threatened by former Bosnian Serb fighters.

The international court released Ranko Cesic, an ex-policeman jailed for 18 years for ‘depraved’ crimes at a notorious detention camp near Brcko, after he served two-thirds of his sentence.

At the trial of Bosnian Serb ex-soldier Vitomir Rackovic, accused of illegally detaining Bosniaks in the Visegrad area in 1992, witnesses recalled how villagers were seized and mistreated.

Belgrade and Pristina must keep working to implement their agreement to normalise relations, the head of the United Nations’ Kosovo mission told the Security Council in New York.

Former Bosnian Army soldier Nezir Merdzic was acquitted of killing three Serb civilians in June 1992 due to a lack of evidence against him.

Leftover weapons from the 1992-5 war in Bosnia have started emerging as the flood water recedes – proving that many people kept hold of their arsenals after the conflict ended.

Despite the untroubled nature of last year’s elections, international monitors will still be a prominent force in the June 8 elections to ensure that the democratic process is followed. 

Kosovo journalists have elected a new leadership following the resignation of their previous chairwoman.

The trial of seven indictees charged with crimes in Kotor-Varos begins with the reading of indictment and presentation of introductory statements by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Defence teams.

Floods and landslides in Bosnia prompted people to put aside ethnic differences and highlighted what is widely seen as a failure of nationalist politics.