Balkans

Chief mufti of the Islamic Community in Serbia, Muamer Zukorlić, has told EP Rapporteur Jelko Kacin that the rights of Serbian Muslims are in danger. Zukorlić met with Kacin in Slovenia to gave him a detailed report on the state of religious rights in Serbia, especially the “unlawful behavior of …

The Humanitarian Law Center will present to victims’ families the results of their census of dead and missing persons in Kosovo from January 1998 to Dec. 2000. According to the center, 13,321 individuals were killed, wounded or went missing during the armed conflicts in Kosovo in the period from January …

Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki will take part today at the meeting of the Visegrad Group foreign ministers, upon invitation of his Hungarian counterpart Peter Balash. The meeting will be attended by the ministers of the Visegrad Group – Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia, of the next two presiding …

Greek socialist leader George Papandreou was sworn in as prime minister on Tuesday and was expected to announce within hours a leaner cabinet focused on taking Greece out of an economic crisis. With his hand on the Bible, the PASOK leader was sworn in by Greece’s archbishop Ieronymos in a …

The chief of the EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, Peter Feith said that the EU planned to strengthen its presence in Northern Kosovo, Serbian B92 radio reports. He noted that the number of EULEX officials would be increased and a commission would be set up to better notify the citizens …

The Presevo Valley should be a separate region inside Serbia, since existing administrative divisions do not protect minority rights, the president of Bujanovac municipality, Shaip Kamberi, tells daily Politika. “Even though the Serbian government disagrees, we consider that a region, which would recognise language, religious and other diversity, would be …

The International Steering Group for Kosovo, ISG, has praised the work done by the Kosovo government but says much more needs to be done. The ninth meeting of the group was chaired by the EU representative for Kosovo, Pieter Feith, who commended the authorities for their efforts to demarcate the …

Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha arrived in Pristina today for a two-day visit, his first since Kosovo’s declaration of independence. Berisha will meet Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, President Fatmir Sejdiu, Assembly Speaker Jakup Krasniqi and other political party heads, as well as leading business figures.

Their countries’ strong bilateral ties will be further enhanced by the upcoming visit to Belgrade of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, the Serbian and Russian foreign ministers say. Serbia’s Vuk Jeremic and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov agreed in Moscow that mutual relations have never been better.

Critics say there is indeed something fishy going on in the Adriatic, as a sudden and unexpected deal between Croatia and Slovenia hopes to solve an ongoing territorial dispute and unblock Croatia’s EU accession talks. The positive atmosphere is not likely to last, Anes Alic writes for ISN Security Watch. …