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MM Focus: Atrocities in Bosnia changed military man’s view of life HE was a decorated soldier in his nearly 20 years in the Malaysian Armed Forces, having won three merit awards from Britain’s acclaimed Sandhurst Military Academy. But Lt-Kol Abdul Manaf Kamsuri’s nine-month stint in Bosnia-Herzegovina as a member of the United Nations Protection Force (Unprofor) between 1993 and 1994, apparently changed his entire perspective of life. As a Unprofor senior liaison officer, serving under Lt-General Francis Briquemont and Lt-General Sir Michael Rose, he witnessed atrocities – Bosnian Muslims being tortured and killed, and the gang rape of women and...

Montenegro Drops Law After Elections Fail Associated Press PODGORICA, Serbia-Montenegro - Reeling from two failed elections, Montenegro lawmakers Thursday discarded a 50 percent voter turnout requirement that had invalidated earlier balloting. The last two presidential elections were discounted in accord with Montenegro law because less that half the registered voters went to the polls. The amended law does not set a minimum turnout. Montenegro's former prime minister Filip Vujanovic won an overwhelming majority of votes in his first bid for presidency, in December, as well as in the second vote Feb. 9. But both times, turnout fell below the required...

Senate Committee Approves Normal Trade Relations with Serbia(Hundreds of tariff provisions include one aimed at Pakistan carpets) (570) By Bruce Odessey Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- The Senate Finance Committee has approved a bill that would extend normal trade relations, otherwise known as most-favored nation status, to Serbia and Montenegro and make hundreds of non-controversial small changes to U.S. trade law. The bill approved February 27 consists mostly of more than 300 provisions for tariff suspensions on imports of goods not produced domestically and traded in small volume. Both the House of Representatives and Senate need to pass the...

KLA Stuck Heroin Needle in Europe's Armby Ralf MUTSCHKE Dnevnik, Skopje, Macedonia, November 17, 2001 Albanian organized crime groups are hybrid organizations, frequently involved both in criminal and political activities, mostly in connection with Kosovo. There is firm evidence that political and criminal activities are deeply interconnected. Similarly, it is also clear that Albanian criminal groups collaborate with other international crime groups. Several factors explain the current, relatively strong position of the Albanian organized crime. The interruption of the "pizza-connection" in 1986 allowed other ethnic crime groups to "occupy" the territory hitherto controlled by Italian Americans. Albanians found this especially...

Bosnia Raid Yields al-Qaida Donor List JOHN SOLOMON Associated Press WASHINGTON - U.S. authorities recovered a list of 20 financiers they suspect funneled money to Osama bin Laden and others extremist Muslim causes among a cache of documents that provide insight into the financing of terrorism, an unsealed court record shows. The seized documents are a "treasure trove" and among other things indicate al-Qaida military leaders were at times paid salaries from Muslim charity proceeds and purchased weapons with money from charity leaders, prosecutors said in the once-secret court filing. Other evidence seized in March 2002 from the Bosnian offices...

Corruption stalls Balkans recovery Trafficking leads crimes trumping rule of law in war-torn region AFTER SPENDING BILLIONS of dollars on military and humanitarian interventions to douse the flames of four Balkans wars, international efforts to maintain a delicate peace between warring ethnic groups are increasingly threatened by rampant corruption and the unchecked flow of guns, drugs and human smuggling through the region. Diplomats and local officials say the lack of resolve by top bureaucrats to get tough on corruption and police fears that a crackdown on crime syndicates could spark a new bloodbath along ethnic lines are preventing the region’s...

Kosovo: AIDS Fears Doctors believe prostitution may account for the growing number of HIV cases in the protectorate. By Dren Berisha in Pristina (BCR No. 394, 02-Jan-03) A Ukrainian prostitute in Pristina went to her doctor last month complaining of a cold. It turned out she had AIDS - setting alarm bells ringing across Kosovo. "She had had many contacts with Kosovar men," said Jusuf Dushaj, epidemiologist and the head of the National Institute for Public Health. "We are highly concerned." The case is significant because doctors here have long suspected that the explosion in the number of prostitutes here...

Serbia: Mladic Arrest Key to NATO Membership Belgrade's plans to join NATO's Partnership for Peace programme threatened by reluctance to surrender Mladic to The Hague. By Matthew Holliday and Daniel Sunter in Belgrade (BCR No. 394, 02-Jan-03) Belgrade will not realise its dream(?) of entering the NATO fold in 2003 because of the domestic political risk of surrendering Hague tribunal indictees, most notably the former Bosnian Serb commander, Ratko Mladic. Western diplomats and Belgrade analysts believe Mladic is living in Yugoslavia under the protection of the military's secret service. Observers say no political force in the land can countenance the...

Belgrade 'will not send more accused to war tribunal'From John Phillips in Belgrade BELGRADE will no longer hand over alleged war criminals to a United Nations tribunal because the court has reneged on guarantees for those who surrendered voluntarily, the Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, told The Times yesterday. He said that they would now be tried only in local courts and not at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which sits at The Hague. He also said that Belgrade’s co-operation with the West in the event of an attack on Iraq would be “less enthusiastic” than in other...

GLOBAL JIHAD Blond, blue-eyed Muslim terrorists? Security expert Bodansky says Bosnians put 'new face' on jihadist stereotype -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: December 5, 2002 5:00 p.m. Eastern Editor's note: WorldNetDaily is pleased to have a content-sharing agreement with Insight magazine, the bold Washington publication not afraid to ruffle establishment feathers. Subscribe to Insight at WorldNetDaily's online store and save 71 percent off the cover price. By Scott L. Wheeler © 2002 News World Communications Inc. Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, with help from Iran, have recruited and trained brigades of blond, blue-eyed Bosnians and indoctrinated them for martyrdom,...

<p>The Balkans war-crimes tribunal is investigating the United States for its assistance to military operations conducted by Croatia against rebel Serbian forces, The Washington Times has learned.</p> <p>Adm. Davor Domazet, chief of Croatia's military intelligence during the country's four-year war against secessionist Serbian guerrillas, was recently questioned in Zagreb by two investigators from the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and a representative of the prosecutor's office at The Hague.</p>

Bosnian presidential candidate jailed for war crimes A Croatian court sentenced a Bosnian Muslim candidate in October presidential polls in Bosnia to a maximum 20-year jail term for war crimes committed during the Bosnian war. Fikret Abdic was found guilty of "war crimes against the civilian population and prisoners of war" committed around the northwestern Bosnian town of Bihac during the country's 1992-95 war. He was sentenced by a court in the central Croatian town of Karlovac. Abdic was sentenced in connection with the deaths of 121 civilians and three prisoners of war and the wounding of more than 400...

Montenegro: "US Pressure" Led to Offshore Bank Blow Foreign investors and financial institutions are stunned by the authorities' decision to strip the country's offshore banking network of its privileges By Boris Darmanovic in Podgorica The Montenegrin government appears to have come under pressure from its most generous benefactor, America, to crack down on its secretive offshore banks. The move seems to have been prompted by Washington's concerns that they might be used by terrorist organisations to launder money. LOL! A six-year-old law guaranteeing the banks certain privileges until 2011 was revoked by the Montenegrin constitutional court in June, effectively outlawing...

Montenegro: Brussels U-turn on New State In a significant policy switch, Europe is demanding a federation between Montenegro and Serbia as a precondition for possible EU membership By Ines Sabalic in Brussels (BCR No 350, 12-Jul-02) The European Union has ditched its plan for a loose union between Serbia and Montenegro in favour of a federal state with strong economic links. The policy switch, confirmed earlier this month, came as a blow to Montenegro which had long campaigned for its own outright independence but grudgingly settled in March for the loose union with Serbia as prescribed by Javier Solana, EU...

Click on the link Also something from 2000 Soros opens Bank so Montenegro can be just like Kosovo

The Far East and U.S. national security in the North Pacific At the Moscow summit in late May, U.S. President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement on Russian-American economic cooperation. They committed themselves to cooperation in the field of energy "aimed at strengthening global energy security and stabilization of energy supplies" through "new projects" in "oil and gas development, transport, port development and manufacturing technology." Such cooperation must be realized in Russia's Siberia and Far East regions that are rich in energy resources. This raises the hope that the Bush administration has come to an...

Russia oils the world's wheels By John Helmer MOSCOW - As Russia's oil production continues to rise strongly, the head of the national pipeline operator, Transneft, forecasts an increase in export volumes within the next 12 months of 10 percent. Among world oil producers, Russia is second only to Saudi Arabia as a producer and exporter. The surge in oil exports will go in several new directions, including the United States, Asia, and possibly Iran. The latest government figures released this week show that Russian crude oil production jumped to 182.2 million tonnes in the first half of the year....

 Rus   Eng   Nor Nuclear powered vesselsComprehensive updates on the nuclear powered submarines and nuclear powered cruisers still in operation in the Northern Fleet. Jump to section     About Bellona           Energy               Russia        You are here:  www.bellona.no : Russia : The Russian Navy : The Russian Northern Fleet : Nuclear powered vessels : News story | Focus Search Bellona Web Site mapAdvanced Search <!- /left -->  Russia scraps TyphoonsCold war demolition machines — five Typhoon class submarines — will be scrapped. New generation subs are entering the scene. Typhoon class submarine in dry dock. photo: submarine.id.ru Igor Kudrik, 2002-06-12 19:03Severodvinsk shipyard Sevmash has started defueling a...

HEROIN HEROES Author: Peter Klebnikov When the bombs stopped falling over Yugoslavia last June, a flood of humanity swept through the Balkans as thousands of Kosovar Albanians returned home from refugee camps. But over the craggy mountains separating Yugoslavia and Albania, a far less innocent traffic returned. A fleet of Mercedes sedans without license plates lined the streets of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, and young men with hooded eyes and bulky suits checked into the top floors of showcase hotels such as the Rogner in Tirana, the Albanian capital. It was time for criminal elements with close ties to America's newest...

Hungary's 'Status Law' helping Orban By David Cronin BUDAPEST'S controversial law granting preferential treatment to ethinic Hungarians in neighbouring countries is being used to boost Viktor Orban's chances of winning a second term as prime Minister, his Slovak counterpart has claimed. Last June's decision by the Hungarian parliament to adopt the so-called Status Law has particularly incensed Romania and Slovakia. They were not consulted about a range of 'discriminatory' benefits such as teacher scholarships and exemptions from residence permits offered to ethinic Hungarians. Slovak premier Mikulas Dzurinda said he is committed to resolving his differences with Orban but feels he...