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Podgorica, Montenegro: IT WAS a Balkan love feast!" said James Lyon, regional expert for the International Crisis Group, about Montenegro's independence celebration beginning on July 12. In a notoriously fractious part of the world, the festivities drew Slovenes, Croats, Macedonians, Albanians, and even some Serb politicians, as the Montenegrins breathed an enormous sigh of relief at their divorce from the Belgrade regime. Montenegro has fewer than 700,000 people, a tormented history, and plenty of challenges. But it also has magnificent assets: beautiful mountains and beaches, and basic amity between its Slav Orthodox majority and its Muslim Slav and Albanian minorities....

The American Council for Kosovo Protests Washington Visit of Terrorist and War Criminal Agim Ceku – Kosovo Serb spokesman: Ceku should be standing trial, “not being received with honors in the capital of any civilized democracy.” – Monday, 19 June 2006 WASHINGTON, June 19, 2006 – The American Council for Kosovo protests the official visit to Washington, DC, of Agim Ceku, an indicted war criminal and former commander of the jihad terrorist organization, the so-called “Kosovo Liberation Army.” According to the Associated Press, Mr. Ceku is scheduled to meet today with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and with officials...

PRISTINA, Serbia - Kosovo's top leaders travel to Washington next week to hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the president's office said Friday. President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku are to meet Rice on Monday, said Muhamet Hamiti, the president's adviser. Sejdiu will visit the United States for the first time since he was elected in February, succeeding Kosovo's late President Ibrahim Rugova, who died of lung cancer earlier this year. During his trip, Sejdiu will meet other officials in the State Department and the White House, the statement said. Ceku is also scheduled to...

BELGRADE, Serbia, June 8 — Seven years after Kosovo was placed under United Nations control, it appears increasingly likely that the province will be allowed to break away from Serbia formally and become an independent nation. Members of the United Nations Security Council appear to be leaning toward permitting Kosovo to go its own way. The Council is expected to vote on Kosovo's fate by the end of the year, unless the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians, who have been negotiating unsuccessfully for months, reach a resolution. But some of the world's most powerful countries are fearful the move will encourage...

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Granting independence to Serbia's southern province of Kosovo against the will of Serbia would destabilize the Balkans, Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic warned on Tuesday. The United Nations is mediating talks on Kosovo's future status, which Western diplomats say are likely to conclude with a form of independence by the end of the year. Serbia is adamantly opposed to such an outcome. "I am very afraid of the possible imposed solution against the will of Belgrade of turning Kosovo into a state," Draskovic told a news conference. "The whole region, I think, would inevitably face turbulence." The...

NOVI SAD -- Bojan Pajtiæ said that the new Serbian constitution must guarantee autonomy for Vojvodina. Pajtiæ, President of the Vojvodina Executive Council, said that the region must receive clear guarantees for a functional autonomy within the charter of the next Serbian constitution. “Vojvodina must have guarantees for a legislative government, as well as the right to its own budget and properties.” Pajtiæ said at a two-day conference regarding regionalism and the models for Vojvodina’s autonomy, held by the Vojvodina Parliament. “Serbia cannot adopt a European constitution if it continues to ignore the demands of the Vojvodina citizens. We are...

(Brussels, DTT-NET.COM)- A prestigious think-tank said that Kosovo’s independence must be imposed on Serbia, because of impossibility of reaching any agreement between Kosovan Ethnic Albanians and Serbian authorities on the future of UN administrated province. “To create a stable Kosovo, the international community must dare to impose independence rather than attempt finessing Pristina and Belgrade’s differences with an ambiguous and unstable settlement,“ International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report published on Friday. ICG says that agreement between all parties remains desirable in theory, “it is extremely unlikely that any Serbian government will voluntarily acquiesce to the kind of independence,...

http://www.petitiononline.com/21ian205/petition.html To: International romanian community and friends Dear Madam/Dear Sir, We appeal to you in order to draw your attention regarding the situation of a church built in Malainitsa (northeastern Serbia) by the local Romanian community. On January 21, the mayor of the locality submitted an official letter to the curate of the church, ordering him to destroy the belfry until January 28 and to proceed with the demolition of the church within 15 days. This order of the mayoralty is based on the pretense that the church's construction was not approved by the local authorities. The fact is that...