Eurasia Press & News
As the UN court prepares to rule on whether the Serbian State Security Service chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic illegally controlled wartime paramilitary units, BIRN looks at how they were deployed in the Croatian and Bosnian conflicts. Asenior official from the Serbian State Security Service, Franko ‘Frenki’ Simatovic, arrived …
Read More »Kosovo War Crimes Court’s First Trial Will Set a Precedent
After a six-year wait, the first trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague will open on September 15, with former Kosovo Liberation Army officer Salih Mustafa facing charges of illegally detaining, torturing and killing prisoners. It was announced last week that the first trial at the Kosovo Special …
Read More »Stanisic and Simatovic, Belgrade’s Security Strongmen
Former Serbian state security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic will hear the judgment in The Hague this week in their retrial for masterminding the most notorious Serb combat units that fought in the Croatian and Bosnian wars. “Milosevic’s men on the ground” was the most common description of these …
Read More »DEMOCRACY DIGEST: V4 DRAGGED INTO HUNGARY’S EU GAY RIGHTS SPAT
Hungary began the week at odds with the EU and ended the week even more so, dragging in its Central European neighbours along the way. EU leaders began a two-day summit on June 24 in Brussels having to deal with the fallout from Hungary’s recently passed anti-LGBT legislation – a …
Read More »La Hongrie accusée par Bruxelles: «L’opposition entre les deux Europe est plus affirmée que jamais»
La Commission européenne prévoit d’engager une procédure pour sanctionner la Hongrie après l’adoption d’une loi interdisant la «promotion» de l’homosexualité auprès des mineurs. L’essayiste Max-Erwann Gastineau voit dans cette controverse à l’échelle européenne un nouvel épisode d’une guerre culturelle. Une fois de plus, la Hongrie est le grand théâtre de …
Read More »Ingyenbátorság
Gratismut, azaz ingyenbátorság. Ez a német közbeszéd józan részének kedvenc szava az elmúlt napokban E roppant találó kifejezést az olyan úgymond bátor kiállásokra használják, amikor az embert lényegében semmilyen kockázat, negatív következmény nem fenyegeti. A Németországot szivárványba borító hisztéria pontosan ebbe a kategóriába tartozik, nagyvállalatok, újságok, politikusok és hírességek egymás …
Read More »Biden’s Balkans Order Underscores US Concern over Region’s Direction
The threat of US sanctions hangs over those deemed to be destabilising the Western Balkans, in politics and beyond. Who does Washington have in mind? An expanded executive order issued by US President Joe Biden and which takes aim at those deemed to be destabilising the Western Balkans is a …
Read More »Serbia Doing Little to Deradicalise Foreign Fighters
As it stands, what deradicalisation programmes Serbia might pursue would only apply to people convicted of fighting in the Middle East since those who fought with pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine have all walked free. Convicted of terrorism in 2019 for fighting with Islamic State, four Serbian citizens – Senad Plojovic, …
Read More »The Carousel: How a Moscow Bank Made Big Loans to its Serbian Owners
Bank documents and a secretly made tape show how Serbian shareholders of a Moscow-based bank funnelled Serbian central bank deposits to their own companies. Three Serbian businessmen – shareholders and board members of a Moscow-based bank founded in the 1990s to help Belgrade bust international sanctions during Yugoslavia’s bloody collapse …
Read More »Hague Tribunal Archive Reveals Paramilitaries’ Violent Strategies
Records held by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia show how paramilitary units were set up and deployed to use violence to achieve political aims in the 1990s wars. It has been three-and-a-half years since the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY in The Hague closed, …
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