November 18

ISN - At least five people have been injured in bomb blast at crowded outdoor market in the village of Strpce in southern Kosovo, Balkan news agencies reported.

Both ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians were injured in the Thursday blast.

The Hague | November 16

ISN - The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Monday acquitted the Bosnian Muslim wartime commander of the Bosnian Army of charges relating to the 1993 massacres of Croatian civilians.

Sarajevo | Nov 12

Reuters -  Police on Saturday evacuated landmark twin business towers hosting international companies and agencies in Sarajevo after receiving a telephone call warning that a bomb had been planted in each, police said.

The call was received on the police's anonymous crime hotline in the early evening, Sarajevo canton official Jerko Budimir told Reuters.

"Both buildings have been evacuated and our teams are searching them," he said.

UPDATE

No bomb found in Sarajevo towers: police

Joe Tripician | New York | November 12

Joe Tripician - Journalist and employee at the UN war crimes tribunal Chuck Sudetic claimed after last night's panel at the New School ("Dayton Peace Accords - Ten Years On"), that late Croatian President Tudjman would have been called to The Hague had he lived:

Marek Antoni Nowicki & Jackson Allers | Pristina, Kosovo | Oct. 25, 2005

Project Syndicate - Kosovo is often held up as a test case for the concept of "humanitarian" intervention. But as Iraq spirals into chaos, diplomats and leaders everywhere are again asking themselves if it is ever appropriate for alliances of nations or the international community as a whole to intervene when a sovereign country appears unable or unwilling to defend its citizens from genocide, war crimes, or ethnic cleansing.

At the center of this debate is the so-called doctrine of the "responsibility to protect." As the United Nations-appointed Ombudsperson in Kosovo for the past five years, I have had the unique opportunity to observe the aftereffects of that doctrine following NATO's intervention in the former Yugoslavia in 1999. Kosovo has subsequently become an international experiment in society building, led by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

Experiment is the right word here. Indeed, Kosovo has become a Petri dish for international intervention. Having lived and worked long enough in Kosovo to see the outcome so far, I contend that such experiments require further research.

Nikos Zaikos and Others | Zurich | October

ISN - Relations between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) were normalized by the Interim Accord in 1995. This accord set the foundation for all-round relations between the two states. At the same time, however, it postponed a resolution to the thorny question of FYROM's final name and related cultural issues. Seven years into this accord, a group of Greek scholars assessed the entire scope of relations between Greece and FYROM.

Tim Judah  | Oct 24

The Independent -  The United Nations Security Council convenes at 10am today. By lunchtime, it is expected to have made a momentous decision, that could lead to the birth of a new state in Europe.

The 15-member council is to recommend that talks on the future status of Kosovo, a territory contested between Serbs and the majority ethnic Albanians, begin as soon as possible.

Ever since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999 the territory has been under the jurisdiction of the UN, although legally it remains a part of Serbia. The process, which will begin today, is expected to end Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo.

Nicholas Whyte | October 7

International Crisis Group - The saddest thing about the tenth anniversary of the end of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina is that it is taking place as late as 2005. During the three and a half years of the conflict, the international community's lack of political will meant that many earlier opportunities to intervene and bring the fighting to a swifter conclusion were missed. If serious pressure had been brought to bear on the warring parties in 1992 to accept the earliest peace plans, ethnic cleansing might well have been reversible, and thousands who perished in the conflict would be alive today.

So the first lesson for today's policy-makers from the tenth anniversary of the Dayton Peace Agreement is that early intervention may be more politically difficult in the short term, but is much less costly in the long run than an intervention that comes too late. It is a lesson that appeared to have been learned -- at least for European conflicts -- by the time Macedonia took centre stage in 2001.

Aug 22

Spiegel - In an interview with SPIEGEL, Vldan Batic, 56, the former Serbian Justice Minister, talks about how biased the justice system still is in his troubled nation and how the shadow of former President Slobodan Milosevic continues to hover.

Athens | August 14

MSNBC - AP - No survivors found; pilots said to be unconscious when Cypriot jet crashed

A Cypriot airliner with 121 people on board crashed north of Athens on Sunday, and rescuers said they had found no survivors. Reports said the pilots were unconscious when the plane went down, possibly because of a lack of oxygen in the cabin due to decompression.

The Helios Airways flight HCY 522 was headed from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Athens International Airport when it crashed at 12:20 p.m. near the coastal town of Grammatiko, about 25 miles north of the Greek capital, leaving flaming debris and luggage strewn across a ravine and surrounding hills.

Update

If pilots were dead, who flew plane?
Greek | August 16

Wire services -  'The F-16 pilots in their visual identification saw that the oxygen masks in the cabin were activated while in the last phase of their close approach they saw two people in the cockpit who looked like they were trying to regain control of the aircraft,' he said.

All 121 on board the Helios Airline Boeing 737 jet were killed when it slammed into a hillside near Athens.

There were 48 children on board.

Submitted by Gandalf

The Hague | July 19

AP - A former Bosnian Croat special forces soldier pleaded guilty Tuesday to war crimes at the Yugoslav tribunal as part of a deal with prosecutors.

Yana Buhrer Tavanier | Sofia | July 8

Transitions - "We are really afraid," he repeats. "Some people here have a radio at home, they listen very carefully and then we gather to discuss the news. Did you know that Ataka wants to turn us into soap? This is what their voters have been screaming, turn the gypsies into soap!"

Daria Sito-Sucic and Maja Zuvela | Srebrenica | July 12

WaPo - With shovels and bare hands, Bosnian Muslim families buried the skeletal remains of 610 victims Monday as thousands of citizens and political leaders gathered at ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the massacre that took place around this mountain town.

(time.com)

Agonist Posts •  July 7 - Serb war leader's son seized •  June 28 - Greek role in Srebrenica massacre investigated •  June 13 - A Serb's Violent Past Catches Up With Him on Television •  June 3 - Atrocity video sparks arrest drive •  June 2 - Serbia shocked by video showing Srebrenica shootings

Balkans: Ten Years After Srebrenica Massacre UN Tries To Come To Terms With Failure
Nikola Krastev | UN | July 8

RFE/RL - As part of the United Nations commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica, a group of panelists discussed in New York yesterday the chain of grave mistakes that led to the worst mass killings in Europe since the end of the World War II. Ignorance, slow action, and erroneous political calculations, the panelists said, gave Bosnian Serb paramilitary forces in July 1995 the opportunity to slay over 7,000 Muslim men and boys after they took over the town designated by the UN Security Council as a "safe area." The massacre in Srebrenica is widely considered a major fiasco in UN peacekeeping efforts.

Massacre memorial clouded by desire for bloody revenge
Anthony Loyd | July 8

Times Online - Ten years ago, the world was appalled as 8,000 Muslims were slaughtered under the UN's nose. Today, Srebrenica is still in shock and decay.

Opinion • Srebrenica: Lessons of a terrible blunder
Alexander Ivanko | Vienna | July 9

IHT - Monday is the 10th anniversary of the greatest European tragedy since World War II, the fall of a Bosnian Muslim enclave called Srebrenica to Bosnian Serbs, who went on to massacre thousands of men and boys.

Zeljko Debelnogic | Pale, Bosnia | July 8

Scotsman -  NATO snatched the son of Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect, from his home yesterday, hoping he could lead them to his father who is wanted for orchestrating the Srebrenica massacre.

Witnesses in Pale, Karadzic's wartime stronghold near Sarajevo where his wife, son and daughter live, said NATO soldiers set up a meeting with Aleksandar "Sasa" Karadzic, then handcuffed him and took him away by helicopter.

Irina Knezivic | Srebrenica | July 5

WaPo - Explosives were found planted at a memorial in Srebrenica, site of the worst massacre of the Yugoslav wars, before tens of thousands of people were expected to gather there for the 10th anniversary of the slaughter, police said Tuesday.

Nicholas Wood | Tirana | July 3

NYT - Albanians are to vote in parliamentary elections on Sunday in a closely fought race that has been marred by accusations of fraud and voter intimidation.

Pristina - Serbia | July 2

Guardian - At least two blasts rocked the center of Pristina late Saturday, and one targeted the U.N. mission headquarters.

An Associated Press reporter saw at least three U.N. vehicles set ablaze in the parking lot of the U.N. mission headquarters.

Marek Antoni Nowicki & Kata Mester | Pristina | June 15

Transitions Online - If Kosovo's refugees are to be sent back to a homeland that is no longer really home, the authorities must at least create the conditions necessary for them to build a real home.

Many people in Kosovo know what it means to be in an unfamiliar country with strange habits and an alien culture, nurturing a strong desire to return home.

But what if you were told that you were home already?

This is the fate that has befallen untold numbers of people in Kosovo - and more are to follow.

Nicholas Wood | Vukovar, Croatia | June 13

NYTimes - An ethnic Serb has been thrust into the spotlight by a video shown throughout the Balkans.

Mr. Davidovic's war caught up with him this month in the most public of ways - he appeared in a video shown on television networks throughout the Balkans. There he is, dressed in black, wearing a beret, ordering fellow soldiers around at the execution of six Muslim men and boys in Bosnia, some of the 7,000 from the town of Srebrenica killed by Serb forces in July 1995. He was identified by name by the Serbian police and by former members of his military unit.

Image from video shows shadows of Serbian paramiltary members with Muslim civilian prisoners. (photo: AP)

Atrocity video sparks arrest drive
June 3

CNNI - A graphic video showing the killings of six Muslim men by a Serbian paramilitary unit during the notorious July 1995 Srebrenica massacre led to the arrests of at least eight people suspected of participating.

The slaughter -- which symbolizes the brutal Bosnian war last decade -- led to the deaths of up to 8,000 Muslim males during the Bosnian War.

Prosecutor working the war crimes case against former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic showed the video at the Hague tribunal in the Netherlands.

Bosnia: Videotape Appears To Show Serb Murder Of Srebrenica Victims
June 3

RFE/RL - A smoking gun has come to light in the case of the 10-year-old Srebrenica massacre. Serbian authorities have obtained a videotape that shows, in graphic detail, Serbian paramilitary police torturing and killing Muslim men at Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina in July 1995. Serbian security forces killed more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in that massacre, which is said to be the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. But many Serbs deny the event took place, or claim that the perpetrators were Bosnian Serbs, not Serbian nationals. The videotape shows the faces of some of the killers, and Serbia's prime minister says that some already have been arrested.

Marek Antoni Nowicki & Kata Mester | Pristina | June 2

Transitions Online - Kosovars are being caught in a network of crime that sometimes includes members of the international forces in the province, warns the ombudsman of Kosovo.

Any driver on Kosovo's roads will be struck by the number of gas stations along the way. Observation and anecdotal evidence suggests that on many roads, our driver would pass a pump station every few minutes.

The people of Kosovo, of course, like driving as much as anyone else, but is it realistic to assume that all these gas stations have enough customers to keep them in business, given the current state of the economy and the soaring unemployment rate?

Belgrade | June 3

The Guardian - A man, several men are unloaded from a truck, marched to a wooded hillside and shot, one by one, in the back. Two prisoners are ordered to carry the bodies to a barn. They too are then executed.

A video that emerged this week during the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, has provoked a bout of soul-searching in Serbia, parts of which are still in denial over the horrors of the Bosnian war.

Jonathan Steele | May 24

The Guardian -  Serbia's attempt to ethnically cleanse Kosovo was the last bloody act in the break-up of Yugoslavia. Six years after Nato put a halt to the conflict, Jonathan Steele returns to find a province desperate to keep a lid on its divisions. As they prepare to vote on independence, can its people reach a lasting compromise?

Steven R. Weisman | Washington | May 21

NYT - The Bush administration, opening an initiative to stabilize the troubled Balkan states, is seeking to speed up talks to grant greater independence for Kosovo in return for strides by the Kosovo government to protect the rights of Serbs and other minorities, State Department officials have announced.

As part of the effort, R. Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, will travel in the coming week to Europe and to the Balkan region to meet with officials about Kosovo and various steps that the United States wants the leaders of Serbia and Bosnia to take.