Serbia

SERBIA IMF representatives believe that increasing VAT is the only adequate measure the Serbian government can take to address its budget deficit, but are willing to accept other propositions, daily Blic reports. The IMF officials argue that public sector cuts proposed by the Serbian government, while laudable, are only a …

SERBIA Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic has expressed hope that the remaining war crimes fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, will be arrested by the end of the year, daily Vecernje Novosti reported Tuesday. “The action team, and the state’s top officials work hard every day on realisation of …

KOSOVO Several people have been injured after around 100 Serbs and 20 Albanians threw stones at each other in the troubled Kroi i Vitakut//Brdjani neighbourhood of Mitrovica, northern Kosovo. Serbs were protesting on Tuesday against the resumption of reconstruction work on homes in Mitrovica, which has long been a flashpoint. …

SERBIA Voting in the local parliamentary elections for the municipalities of Priština and Peć was repeated at two polling stations on Sunday. Coordinator of the Election Commission (RIK) Veljko Odalović told Tanjug news agency that both stations closed last night without any noticeable irregularities. Some 80 percent of the resident …

KOSOVO Newly-appointed U.S. Ambassador in Priština Christopher Dell says his country’s policy towards Kosovo “remains unchanged”. According to the diplomat, “Kosovo’s independence is irreversible”. Upon presenting Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdui with his credentials, Dell pointed out that the basis of the American policy towards Kosovo is “simple and unambiguous”. 

SERBIA Defense Minister Dragan Šutanovac said that cooperation between Serbian military officials and the Ohio National Guard is important. After visiting an elementary school near Soko Banja, which Serbian military members and members of the Ohio National Guard are working to help reconstruct, Šutanovac said that they had been cooperating …

MONTENEGRO Montenegrin FM Milan Roćen has welcomed the initiative of his Serbian counterpart for a meeting of the foreign ministers of all former Yugoslav countries. They would discuss prospects for Serbia to host the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in 2011, on the 50th anniversary of the organization.

MONTENEGRO Former chief of the Montenegrin trade mission in Washington, Ratko Knežević, said that he can prove his allegations regarding cigarette smuggling activities. “My publicly stated claims in the media will once again be confirmed officials, and the material evidence which I have will be submitted,” Knežević said regarding the …

SERBIA An IMF mission arrives in Belgrade on Monday to review whether Serbia has met the requirements of a €2.92 billion IMF standby loan approved in April. The IMF delegation, headed by Albert Jaeger, is set to meet Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, Finance Minister Diana Dragutinovic and Labour and …

BELGRADE The government has appointed Branislav Milinković as Serbia’s ambassador to NATO. The Belgrade newspaper explains that this was done on Monday, and that Milinković has been Serbia’s special envoy to the western military alliance since 2004. Milinković was sent to Brussels five years ago as representative of the then …