Free Republic

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Serbian President Boris Tadic On August 23 German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Belgrade. The first leg of her trip was Zagreb where she met with Croatian leaders. In Belgrade she met with Serbian leaders including a one-on-one session with President Tadic. The upshot was her blunt dictate that Serbia must meet the following demands in order to qualify for consideration of EU membership: progress in the Belgrade-Pristina dialog, normalization of relations including abandonment of parallel structures in Kosovo; administrative and legal reforms, and satisfying the 1995 Copenhagen criteria. Merkel pointed out that Germany would like...

A prominent Serbian Orthodox bishop Thursday said the U.S. was allowing Islamic extremists to wage war on Christians in Kosovo by deciding not to oppose Kosovo's independence. Kosovo is an autonomous province in Serbia with a population of about 2 million, most who are ethnic Albanian and Muslim. It is currently administered by the United Nations Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), but negotiations which began this year are expected to eventually result in independence for the province. However, Dr. Artemije Radosavljevic on Thursday issued a warning about the prospect of and independent Kosovo. "At a time when America is...

The wife of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Dragomir Abazovic was shot to death in a gun battle as EU troops stormed the couple? house in Bosnia on Thursday (5 January). Her husband, wanted for war crimes during the 1992-95 Balkan war, and his 12 year-old son were badly injured when the soldiers stormed the house - the raid was carried out by European Union peacekeeping troops (EUfor) in Mr Abazovic's home village Kozoci, some 60 km east of Sarajevo. A spokesperson for the EUfor troops in the vicinity confirmed on Thursday that the shooting incident had taken place. "EUfor...

Texas longhorn If you ever have to “grab a bull by the horns” try a Texas longhorn. Considering that my first post was critical of SF Chronicle's depiction of USMC General Mattis – but somehow got into a vanity section – I wouldn’t be surprised that this too gets reclassified the same way. According to some members here, I invited the Wrath of Gods upon myself on account of: a) being new – not knowing the ropes b) having posted a vanity as my first article c) me being a pink, pro-communist, liberal threat to security of the United States...

The US "fabricated evidence" against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic during clashes between Serbia and Bosnia in the mid-1990s, according to a prominent and experienced international peacekeeping official who served there.Retired Swedish Brigadier General Bo Pellnas, who was head of UN Military Observers (UNMOs) in Croatia, now says that the US should not be trusted. Pellnas says that he learned to distrust US-provided evidence during peacekeeping service in the former Yugoslavia.Pellnas's misgivings are described in an article from the Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet. Here is an English-language translation of this article: In an interview with Sweden's leading news-wire TT, retired...