Free Republic

For a long time the proponents of Kosovo’s independence have acted as if the game was up, that all that remained was for the “international community� to settle on the formula for independence—and for Serbia to sign on the dotted line under pressure. Until recently, many old Balkan hands in the world’s capitals that matter expected that by the end of 2006 it would be all over. There are recent signs, however, that “it� won’t be over that soon, and that the outcome is by no means preordained. It did not look that way when the United Nations abandoned its...

He once declared that he was God, and ordered his Serb artillery to “scorch the brains” of Bosnian Muslims in Sarajevo. General Ratko Mladic kept a goat he called Madeleine Albright, and until a few years ago, openly dined at fancy Belgrade restaurants or watched soccer matches. Now, Serbian authorities say the noose is tightening around the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander, a top UN war crimes fugitive, who’s been eluding capture for nearly a decade on charges he helped mastermind Europe’s worst massacre of civilians since the Second World War. Although Serbian police today denied reports that Mladic’s exact...