Al-Jazeera launches Balkans broadcast

guardian
Qatar-based network hopes venture will provide objective news in a region where media is heavily influenced by politics

Associated Press in Sarajevo

guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 November 2011 17.40 GMT

The pan-Arab news network al-Jazeera is launching its Balkans operation that is expected to reconnect people divided by the wars in the former Yugoslavia and offer them new perspectives of each other....more...
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/11/al-jazeera-launches-balkans-broadcast

How Bosnia's pioneering footballers are succeeding where the politicians failed

guardian.co.uk
Inspired by the talismanic Edin Džeko, the national side is the country's first truly multi-ethnic organisation

Ed Vulliamy
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 5 November 2011 21.10 GMT
A cold autumn mist seasoned with woodsmoke hangs over the stadium on what was no man's land during Sarajevo's four-year siege – the first Serbian machine-gun post was just behind the goal where the "maniac crew" of Željeznicar Sarajevo sing and the electronic scoreboard now stands. Tonight, it shows a result of 2-0 in favour of Željeznicar against Celik Zenica in the Bosnian cup....more....
read more: guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/05/bosnia-footballers-succeeding-politicians-failed

What can Afghanistan and Bosnia teach us about Libya?

guardian.co.uk
Recently returned from Tripoli, Rory Stewart asks if the key to success is doing less, not more

Rory Stewart

The Guardian, Saturday 8 October 2011

I have spent most of my adult life working on, and in, interventions. I began as a junior diplomat with East Timor, served in the Balkans and in Iraq, then spent a few years in Afghanistan. But none of this made me feel I could predict the future of Libya as I entered Tripoli in August. There were echoes of Baghdad in the masked men holding on to truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns and shouting Allahu Akbar at an angry crowd outside the bank. Was this the prelude to a sudden flurry of looting, then, after a few months, sullen resentment, riots, roadside bombs and rockets falling into the foreign compounds? Would Libya, like the Iraq or Afghan interventions, eventually suck in billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and achieve little more than trauma, corruption and insecurity?...more...
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/08/libya-intervention-rory-stewart

Ramiz Alia

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Albania's last communist ruler and the architect of his country's perestroika

Miranda Vickers

guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 October 2011 16.49 BST

Ramiz Alia, who has died aged 85, was Albania's last communist ruler and the architect of his country's perestroika. He became leader of the tiny, impoverished Balkan state – with a population of 3 million people – following the death in 1985 of the dictator Enver Hoxha, who had been in office since the end of the second world war....more...
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/07/ramiz-alia

Former Yugoslav general Momcilo Perisic jailed for war crimes

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Tribunal jails ex-head of army for 27 years over military support to Bosnian and Croatian Serbs in massacres like Srebrenica

Associated Press in The Hague

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 September 2011 11.13 BST

A war crimes tribunal has sentenced the former chief of the Yugoslav army to 27 years imprisonment for providing crucial military aid to Bosnian Serb forces responsible for the Srebrenica massacre and deadly four-year campaign of shelling and sniping in Sarajevo....more...
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/06/yugoslav-general-momcilo-perisic-crimes

War crimes tribunal jails former Yugoslav army chief for 27 years

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Momcilo Perisic guilty of aiding Bosnian Serbs responsible for Srebrenica massacre

Associated Press in The Hague

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 September 2011 17.42 BST

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has sentenced the former chief of the Yugoslav army to 27 years in prison for providing military aid to Bosnian Serb forces responsible for the Srebrenica massacre and for a deadly four-year campaign of shelling and sniping in Sarajevo.

The verdict on General Momcilo Perisic is the first time the United Nations court has convicted a civilian or military officer from Yugoslavia of war crimes in Bosnia, and underscores the Yugoslav army's support for the Serb rebels in Bosnia and Croatia who committed the worst atrocities of the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s....more...
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/sep/06/war-crimes-jail-yugoslav-army-chief

Accused gunman admits to shooting at Frankfurt Airport

guardian

TERRORISM

31.08.2011
A Kosovan man on trial for shooting dead two US airmen at Frankfurt Airport has apologized for his actions. The 21-year-old confessed to the shooting and said he was influenced by radical Islamist propaganda.

A 21-year-old Kosovo Albanian man confessed in court on Wednesday for killing two US airmen at Frankfurt Airport in March....more...

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http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15353907,00.html

Kosovan Albanian admits killing two US airmen in Frankfurt terror attack

guardian.co.uk
Associated Press in Frankfurt

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 31 August 2011 15.50 BST

A 21-year-old Kosovan Albanian confessed on Wednesday to killing two US airmen at Frankfurt airport, saying in emotional testimony at the opening of his trial that he had been influenced by Islamist propaganda online.

Arid Uka is charged with two counts of murder for killing Nicholas J Alden, 25, from South Carolina, and Zachary R Cuddeback, 21, from Virginia on 2 March this year. He also faces three counts of attempted murder in connection with the wounding of two others....more...
read more: guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/31/kosovan-albanian-admits-killing-airmen

Kosovo PM to be investigated for alleged organ trafficking

guardian

US prosecutor will lead an investigation into claims that date back to the 1998-99 war that gave Kosovo independence

Associated Press

guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 August 2011 18.10 BST

A US prosecutor will investigate claims that Hashim Thaci, the Kosovo prime minister, led a criminal network that sold organs of prisoners during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

Dick Marty, a Council of Europe investigator, has alleged that Thaci and other rebel commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army ran detention centres where civilian captives, including Serbs, were killed and their organs sold on the black market. Thaci has denied the allegation and said he is ready to co-operate with any investigation....more...
read more: guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/29/kosovo-pm-investigated-organ-trafficking

Kosovo's recklessness has set back negotiations with Serbia

guardian
A failed Kosovan police raid on border posts between north Kosovo and Serbia has destabilised the region

Andrea Capussela

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 August 2011 14.33 BST

Last month, on the night of 25 July, special units of Kosovo's police tried to take control of the two border posts linking north Kosovo with Serbia, to enforce a trade embargo.

This was an extremely rash move, because north Kosovo is inhabited by about 60,000 ethnic Serbs, who fiercely reject Kosovo's secession from Serbia. It is a largely lawless, self-governed territory where the Pristina government has no presence and only Belgrade and Nato exercise some control....more...
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/25/north-kosovo-police-raid

Libya's besieged journalists stir memories of Sarajevo

guardian.co.uk

The journalists holed up in Tripoli's Rixos hotel will be suffering the same frustration and claustrophobia I felt in Bosnia

Janine di Giovanni

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 August 2011 15.13 BST

Sarajevo, winter 1993. The eminent New York Times reporter John Burns and the equally brave Roy Gutman of Newsday have won the Pulitzer prize – the highest award given to journalists – for their work in Bosnia. There is a good deal of gracious camaraderie, cheering and celebrating, as much as wartime allows. But the two can't go the awards ceremony back in America, because they are stuck in the besieged city of Sarajevo. More to the point, they are chained to the hotel where the journalists live: the Holiday Inn, a grim Soviet-style place smack in the middle of Sniper's Alley....more...
read more: guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/24/libya-besieged-journalists

Asylum should include witness protection

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Edmond Demiraj's testimony against an Albanian criminal put his family at risk of reprisal, yet the US still plans to deport them

Sarah Wildman

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 20 August 2011 17.00 BST

In Houston, Texas, a family is deeply worried that a mother and her son will be deported. They are even more worried about what will happen if they are sent back to Albania.

The American asylum system is dysfunctional. Should 33-year-old Rudina Demiraj and her teenage son Rediol be forced to return to Albania, they will likely be kidnapped, trafficked into prostitution, and maybe even killed. And the US authorities know it....more...
read more: guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/20/demiraj-asylum-deportation

Macedonia statue: Alexander the Great or a warrior on a horse?

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Lookalike statue reignites debate with Greece over Macedonian name as Skopje locals dismiss works as nationalistic kitsch

Helena Smith in Skopje

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 August 2011 14.50 BST

In a move that has upset the Greeks, Alexander the Great has made a huge comeback in Macedonia.

A giant statue bearing an uncanny resemblance to the warrior king – although, officially, no one dares call it that – has been erected in the heart of Skopje, Macedonia's capital. Seated upon his favourite steed, the classical hero surveys the capital from the vantage point of Plostad Makedonija, Skopje's central square. At 22 metres, or eight storeys high, the statue dwarfs its surroundings....more...
read more: guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/14/alexander-great-macedonia-warrior-horse

Goran Hadzic's prosecution: international justice at last

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The capture of the last individual indicted for war crimes in the Balkans is a milestone for the UN war crimes tribunal

Mark Vlasic

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 13 August 2011 17.00 BST

The timing couldn't have been more auspicious. Just days after International Justice Day (the anniversary of the International Criminal Court's treaty adoption), justice caught up with Goran Hadzic, the UN war crimes tribunal's last remaining indictee....more...
read more: guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/13/goran-hadzic-war-crimes

The hunt for the former Yugoslavia's war criminals: mission accomplished

guardian.co.uk
Until last month, Goran Hadžíc, once leader of Croatia's Serb minority, was the last free man on the list of 161 people indicted for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. His capture has brought an end to one of the most successful manhunts in history

Julian Borger

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 August 2011 20.00 BST

The man who walked into a forest clearing in northern Serbia did not look like a wartime leader who had spent seven years on the run. There was no face paint or camouflage – just a chubby, balding man in a sky blue T-shirt decorated with what appeared to be a modernist rendering of an ice-cream cone....more...
read more: guardian.co.uk
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/03/former-yugoslavia-war-crimes-hunt

Serbia loses faith in European future

guardian.co.uk

The country is on course to qualify for EU membership but public opinion is becoming more sceptical

John Hooper in Belgrade

guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 July 2011 18.32 BST

Magritte would have loved it – a tree growing out of the fourth floor of a towering office block at the junction of Nemanjina Street and Kneza Milosa Street.

But then, the building, which once formed part of Serbian military headquarters, is a ruin: a nine-storey heap of blackened concrete, buckled ceilings and contorted window frames. On one side is a hole that gapes open to reveal three entire floors.....more...
read more: guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/22/serbia-european-union-membership

Serbia extradites war crimes suspect Goran Hadzic for trial at The Hague

guardian
Leader of 1990s Serbian insurgency in Croatia makes no move to appeal or delay transfer after seven years on the run

Ian Traynor, Europe editor

guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 July 2011 11.27 BST

The Serbian authorities moved swiftly on Friday to rid themselves of their last international war crimes suspect and fugitive, extraditing the 1990s warlord Goran Hadzic for trial at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague only 48 hours after he was arrested.

The extradition to the Netherlands was hastened by the fact that Hadzic, a leader of the armed Serbian insurgency in Croatia in the early 1990s, did not appeal or seek to delay the transfer after seven years on the run ended with his capture in the hills north of Belgrade on Wednesday....more...
read more: guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/22/goran-hadzic-extradited-serbia-hague

Goran Hadzic's arrest has made Serbia's case for the EU overwhelming

guardian
President Tadic is now pressing for Serbia's candidacy, yet 'enlargement fatigue' means the EU is reluctant to grant his wish

Simon Tisdall

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 July 2011 18.00 BST

The capture of Goran Hadzic, the last war crimes suspect from the Yugoslav wars sought by The Hague tribunal, is a personal triumph for President Boris Tadic, who has dedicated himself to Serbia's "moral rehabilitation". But it would be wrong to assume the arrest, closely following that of Serb general Ratko Mladic, will be rewarded with a big happy smiley welcome for Serbia's EU membership bid. Significant obstacles remain....more...
read more: guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/20/goran-hadzic-serbia-eu

Goran Hadzic capture a milestone for Yugoslav war crimes tribunal

guardian
Arrest of Milosevic puppet accused over massacre of hospital patients after Vukovar siege clears obstacle to Serbia joining EU

Ian Traynor, Europe editor

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 July 2011 17.10 BST

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal crowned 18 years of operations on Wednesday with the capture of the last of 161 suspects from the wars of the 1990s when Goran Hadzic, a leader of the Serbian insurgency in Croatia, was arrested by the Serbian authorities.

The arrest, two months after Belgrade captured genocide suspect General Ratko Mladic and dispatched him for trial in The Hague, marked a turning point for Serbia in seeking to put a blood-soaked, criminalised past behind it and join the European mainstream....more...
read more: guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/20/goran-hadzic-capture-war-crimes-milestone

Yugoslav war criminals – in pictures

guardian.co.uk
Goran Hadzic, who has been arrested, was one of the leaders of the Serb insurgency in Croatia from 1991 to 1995 and the last remaining fugitive sought by the UN war crimes tribunal

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 July 2011 15.03 BST...more...

read more: guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/gallery/2011/jul/20/war-crimes-bosnia-and-herzegovina