A Bosnian court sentenced Bozidar Kuvelja to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the massacres in 1995.Kuvelja was found guilty of expelling the Bosniak population and participating in the murder of men who were being held in agricultural warehouses in Kravica after being brought from Srebrenica. …
Read More »Wartime Paramilitary Camps ‘Under Belgrade’s Control’
Training centres where Serbs were taught to fight during the 1990s conflict in Croatia had links to officials in Belgrade, a Hague Tribunal trial is told.The paramilitary centres were under the effective control of the Belgrade authorities, said historian Christian Nielsen, an expert witness at the trial of former Croatian …
Read More »Controversial Albanian Monument Dispute Hits Deadlock
Serbian and ethnic Albanian representatives have failed to cut a deal to remove a memorial to ethnic Albanian fighters in south Serbia.Internationally-mediated talks on Thursday ended without a deal on the future of the monument in the town of Presevo which Belgrade wants to be demolished, seeing it as a …
Read More »Kosovo Serbs Denounce Serbian Govt’s Resolution
Leaders of Serb-run northern Kosovo have sent a protest letter to Belgrade, complaining that Serbia is inching towards indirect recognition of Kosovo’s independence.Local leaders in Serb-run northern Kosovo sent an open letter to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic on Thursday, expressing dissatisfaction with the government’s recently adopted resolution on Kosovo and …
Read More »Emirates Pledge Major Investments in Serbia
On a visit to Belgrade, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi announced major investments in Serbia, ranging from the defence industry and agriculture to banking sector and aviation.Representatives of the United Arab Emirates and Serbia agreed in Belgrade on Wednesday to put into action business deals made last October, when …
Read More »Mladic’s Trial: Sarajevo Civilians ‘Targeted By Snipers’
An expert witness told the Hague Tribunal trial of Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic that Sarajevo residents could have been shot from his troops’ positions.The prosecution’s expert witness on snipers, Patrick van der Weijden, concluded that in 17 incidents in which residents of the Bosnian capital were targeted during the …
Read More »Problems with Albania’s Electoral Lists Alarm Watchdog
A watchdog group of NGOs on Wednesday warned that Albania’s institution have already missed the legal deadline to publish voting lists ahead of the June parliamentary elections.“The process of preparing and announcing preliminary electoral rolls, based residence and voting centres, has not respected the legal deadline,” the Coalition of Local …
Read More »Hadzic ‘Plotted to Consolidate Serb-Held Territory’
Former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic collaborated with Bosnian Serb chiefs to maximise military advantage, a witness at his trial said.“The relationship between the Bosnian Serb leadership and the Croatian Serb leadership was quite consistently good,” historian Christian Nielsen testified at Hadzic’s trial at the Hague Tribunal on Thursday. He …
Read More »Bosnian Croat Fighter ‘Extorted Cash From Deportees’
Witnesses said that a serviceman on trial for wartime abuses threatened to kill Bosniak villagers unless they gave him their money.Two separate witnesses said that Zeljko Jukic, a former Croatian Defence Council fighter, had demanded cash with menaces while forcing Bosniaks out of the village of Visnjani, near Prozor, in …
Read More »Slovenia Pressured Not to Delay Croatia’s EU Accession
Brussels officials say they expect Slovenia to ratify Croatia’s EU accession agreement on time, so that it can become a member state on July 1, Croatian and Slovenian media report.”Barrosso expects Slovenia to meet the deadline and ratify Croatia’s accession agreement by July 1,” the Slovenian daily Delo’s Brussels correspondent …
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