Ultranationalists were gathering Tuesday for a rally for Radovan Karadzic amid reports that the ex-Bosnian Serb leader's appeal of his extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal had not arrived at a Serbian court.
Twenty EU states will begin welcoming Kosovo passport holders after Pristina began issuing the new documents on Wednesday. Slovakia will not allow entry however, while the six other EU countries that do not recognise Kosovo have not made their position clear.
Authorities extradited ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to the Netherlands to face genocide charges before the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Wednesday, hours after a violence-tinged protest by thousands of his supporters in downtown Belgrade.
In the second of five pieces by BBC journalists examining life in Kosovo today, Nick Thorpe meets one of the few remaining Albanian families in northern Mitrovica.
The former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic told Public Prosecutor that he had made deal with US envoy for the Balkans Richard Holbrooke that if he withdrew from political and public life, he would not be extradited to the Hague Tribunal
Natasa Kandic says that Karadzic’s extradition represents Serbia’s position towards most serious war crimes. But Kandic, who heads the Humanitarian Law Center NGO, told B92 that the reasons for his indictment were not fully discussed in public.
The European Union has once again stopped short of rewarding Serbia for the capture of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic mainly due to the Netherlands' resistance.
In the second of two pieces on organised crime accompanying his Radio 4 series How crime took on the world, Misha Glenny reveal the details of a cigarette-smuggling scam that funded many of the paramilitary killing machines in the Yugoslav wars.
The human rights in Kosovo are unsatisfactory as serious violations of human rights were registered in the past year, Kosovo's acting ombudsman Hilmi Jashari said on Monday.
In the aftermath of the Slovenian Presidency, we have seen some progress and good will of regional leaders in the Balkans to go the European way. At the same time we are still witnessing a high level of instability and uncertainty.
The Balkan area is, surprisingly, one of the safest in Europe. The report Crime and its Impact on the Balkans by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) belies enduring stereotypes of the region as a hotbed of organized crime and violence. People are as safe, or safer, on the streets and in their homes as they are in most parts of the world.
Ahead of the trip, Tadic said that it was important for Serbia to ratify the Stabilization and Association Agreement, signed in April, as soon as possible.
EU enlargement, particularly to the Western Balkan countries, is set to feature high on the agenda of the bloc's two presidencies in 2009, with Croatia seen as likely to conclude its EU membership talks next year, said the Czech Republic and Sweden - the next two member states to hold the EU's six-month rotating chairmanship after France.
Kosovo is a special case because years of United Nations-mediated negotiations took place regarding the issue, Sarkozy said at yesterday’s EU summit in Brussels.
During an interview for BBC, the Kosovo status negotiator, Marti Ahtisaari said that he is very optimistic about the future of Kosovo because Serbia’s resistance to recognizing Kosovo will change sooner or later, stressing that both countries, Kosovo and Serbia intend to become members of the European Union family.
The EU is expected to demonstrate "leadership" in assuring Bosnia and Herzegovina's transition to a viable state that could one day join the 27-member bloc, the international community's high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina said in Brussels
The two largest opposition parties in Albania - Edi Rama's Socialist Party and Ilir Meta's Movement for Social Integration - will stage massive protests on Friday.
The EU police and justice mission in Kosovo could become fully operational in early December, if it overcomes objections from local Serb minority to its deployment, according to Yves de Kermabon.
Former international mediator for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari says that Serbia must agree to Kosovo’s independence if it wants to join the EU. Ahtisaari, whose plan for Kosovo was never adopted at the UN, told that Serbia had no option but to accept this state of affairs.
Kosovo Serb leaders expressed caution towards indications of the deployment of the EU civil mission in the province, indicating that this mission was acceptable only provided that Ahtisaari’s plan on the so-called supervised independenc is not implemented
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso stated Tuesday in Brussels it is a fact that Kosovo is recognized by "a vast majority" of EU member-states, which proves that the case cannot be seen as precedent for secession of Georgian regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
British Ambassador to Belgrade Stephen Wordsworth stated that London is concerned due to expelling Montenegrin and Macedonian ambassadors by Serbia after these two countries recognise Kosovo independence adding that "every strain in relations with neighbours is bad signal for Serbia's EU integration."
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro were invited Thursday to join a group of countries seeking membership in the NATO alliance, the US State Department said Thursday.
EULEX says that it is speeding up deployment of its mission throughout the territory of Kosovo. 300 of the planned 1,800 mission members have thus far arrived in Kosovo.
Tensions between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have eased since Pristina's declaration of independence, claims a report by a local human rights group.
Kosovo is poised to open its embassies in Macedonia and Montenegro once the bills on diplomatic missions and consular services win legislative approval.
Balkan states are struggling to reduce corruption to achieve the standards needed to join the European Union, said a report by corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) released Tuesday
