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BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader on trial for alleged war crimes, was found dead in his prison cell at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Belgrade's B-92 and Serbia's state radio said Saturday. He was 65. A U.N. war crimes prosecution official in the Dutch capital, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed the report to The Associated Press.

Albania : Muslims Torch Churches , Hate Christ J. Grant Swank, Jr.      "East Timor remained largely unreported throughout the 80's and most of the 90's. A Christian land ravaged by Muslims - nobody cared. Untold crimes have been committed in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh against the Chakmas, and yet how often is the conflict reported? - never!," a believer noted in despair.Over 150 churches and monasteries in Albania have been destroyed or seriously damaged over the last 6 years. Now authorities project to turn the hull of one sanctuary into a nightclub. The Church of Christ the...

07 March 2006, 11:46 Serbian hierarch: The problem of Kosovo could become a boomerang on a European scale Moscow, March 7, Interfax - Metropolitan Amfilohy of Montenegro and Primorje thinks that independence of Kosovo would entail negative consequences for the whole Europe. ‘The problem of Kosovo could become a boomerang on an European scale’, Serbian hierarch said in an interview published by Kommersant daily on Tuesday. First, ‘new problems would arise in the Balkans because of the incorrect solution of the problem of Kosovo’ (separation of Kosovo - IF). ‘A precedent would be created, and many people in Europe and...

Kosovska Mitrovica. Destruction of Serbian houses in the Kosovo village of Svinjare, which were rebuilt after the events from March 2004, continues with the breaking into two houses, Coordination Center for Kosovo announced cited by Serbian agency BETA.The front doors of the houses are broken; the electric wiring, the water pipes and the furniture have been stolen.This is the third breaking into Serbian houses in the village in the last 20 days, Coordination Center for Kosovo announcement reads. Two weeks ago unknown perpetrators caused damages to seven houses and a week ago a Serbian house was robbed and the electric...

Released : Mar 02, 2006 2:03 PM PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-The president of Kosovo's assembly accused U.S. diplomats on Thursday of orchestrating a political reshuffle in the province which led to his dismissal. Nexhat Daci, who was also part of the team negotiating Kosovo's final status with Serbia, was replaced by his party, the governing Democratic League of Kosovo, on Wednesday. Parliament will have to choose a new leader for his dismissal to take effect. Daci was dismissed as part of a broader reshuffle within the governing coalition, which also included the resignation of Kosovo's Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi. But the parliament...

The American Spectator March 2006 SECTION: The railroading of a former U.S. ally. LENGTH: 1511 words HEADLINE: America, The Hague, and Ante Gotovina BYLINE: Robin Harris BODY: GREAT POWERS LIKE AMERICA CANNOT AFFORD to be too sentimental about foreign friends whose purpose has been served. But sometimes it pays to keep faith with individuals who collaborate successfully in one's policy goals. This is particularly so when those concerned know the inside story of U.S. covert activity and when their fate sets a precedent that jeopardizes U.S. personnel. Such is the case of the former Croatian General Ante Gotovina, arrested in...

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, March 1, 2006 (AFP) - A guerrilla group on Wednesday warned the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to leave the province, saying it was ready to fight for a "Greater Albania". The group calling itself the Albanian National Army (ANA), which is active in Kosovo, southern Serbia and Macedonia, "demands from the UN, if they are really a peace organisation, to leave Kosovo gradually," it said in a statement received by AFP. "This organisation has no democracy within itself and still governs with (the power of) veto as in the Middle Ages. It cannot build democracy anywhere," the...

Mar 1, 2006 — By Shaban Buza PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (Reuters) - Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi resigned on Wednesday following criticism of his stewardship as the province seeks independence from Serbia in U.N.-led negotiations. Citing the need to preserve a coalition majority and the cooperation of Kosovo's Western backers, Kosumi told reporters: "I find the correct and ethical action is to resign from the post of prime minister." Kosumi, 45, handed in his resignation to President Fatmir Sejdiu after word leaked that he no longer had the confidence of his own Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) party. The...

Bosnian Serbs Sullen and Defiant Bosnian Serbs talk to the BBC News website's Neil Arun of fear, faith and football, 10 years after their army lifted its siege of the capital, Sarajevo. "You must have two sides to wage war, as you have to make love," says Slavko Jovicic, stubbing out a cigarette as a snowdrift smudges the windows of his office in Pale, on the outskirts of Sarajevo. He is on a mission to show the world a side of the war he believes it ignored - the atrocities committed against the Bosnian Serbs. Slavko says he lost...

Rather than welcoming those talks, though, Mr. Kurti wants them stopped -- and he seems to have a large following. He doesn't want an internationally negotiated road map to independence, he wants a mass popular uprising -- bloody if necessary -- that will instantly free Kosovo not just from Serbia but from the UN's clutches. Dressed fashionably and surrounded by rapt followers, Mr. Kurti calmly denounced the United Nations Mission In Kosovo. "UNMIK made sense for the first two years, the postwar recovery stage, but when it came to the development stage, they failed us," he says. "And now UNMIK's...

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Lawyers representing Slobodan Milosevic have asked the U.N. war crimes tribunal to issue a subpoena to force former U.S. President Bill Clinton to testify at his trial, documents showed on Tuesday. "In his position as former president of the United States, Mr Clinton had a continuous role and unique knowledge of events relevant to the indictment," the lawyers said in a written request filed last week but only made public on Tuesday. Lawyers Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins said his evidence was needed to make sure the trial was "informed and fair". They said Milosevic had...

The first trial of a state charged with genocide has opened in The Hague, where Bosnia-Hercegovina will accuse Serbia and Montenegro of war crimes. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is hearing the case, which Bosnia first brought 13 years ago. It says Belgrade was responsible for crimes of genocide on its territory during the early 1990s Bosnian war. Belgrade denies its intention was to wipe out Muslims in eastern Bosnia and says there is no proof of the claims.

Why is a bombed mosque major news, while bombed churches are ignored? Mary Mostert February 26, 2006 The front page of my local paper last Thursday was taken up with color pictures and the Los Angeles Time article about the bombing of the Shiite Golden Dome Mosque of Samarra, Iraq and the repercussions of that bombing — presumably by radical Sunni Muslims. According to the media, this battle between Muslim sects may lead to civil war. I haven't written about it because I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why the bombing of one mosque in Iraq in...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Generals and politicians have been convicted of genocide, but the UN's highest court will consider Monday whether a country - in this case Serbia - can be guilty of humanity's worst crime. The stakes potentially include billions of dollars and history's judgment. Thirteen years after Bosnia filed the case with the International Court of Justice, its lawyers will lay out their lawsuit against Serbia and Montenegro - the successor state for the defunct Yugoslavia - charging it with a premeditated attempt to destroy Bosnia's Muslim population, in whole or part. "Not since the end...

In the talks about Kosovo's future, the former Yugoslavia is being treated as a carcass to be dissected by Western diplomats. by Philip Cunliffe This year promises to be a testing one for politics in the Balkans. Talks on the administrative devolution of Kosovo finished in Vienna earlier this week, between representatives of the Kosovo Albanians and the Serbian government. The talks, conducted under the aegis of the six-nation 'Contact Group' (composed of America, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia), are seen as stepping-stones to resolving the 'final status' of the province, since it was left in political and legal...

Albanian cartels run Afghan drugs aimed for Europe - UNTIRANA, Albania-Organized crime is becoming more entrenched in the postwar Balkans and threatens stability across a much wider region, including Central Asia, the Caucasus and other parts of the former Soviet Union, the U.N.'s anti-drug chief said. Highlighting one key problem, Antonio Maria Costa said the Balkans has become the most important route for Afghan drugs moving to the rest of Europe. The Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, which he leads, is preparing a program to help countries in the region combat the illegal drug and weapons trades, human...

The dissatisfaction of the Albanians living in the three towns of Southern Serbia, Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja does not date from yesterday. A 1946 decision by the Yugoslav government to separate these three municipalities from Kosovo and place them under direct Serbian Republic jurisdiction was the beginning of the ethnic tension. In 1974 when Kosovo had been granted autonomy the status of these three towns did not change. In March 1992, during the period of the nationalist fire igniting the former Yugoslavia, the Albanians held an unofficial referendum in which they voted nearly unanimously to re-attach the Presevo Valley to...

As someone who has been following and writing about the events in the Balkans for over a decade, the announced death in myriads of newspapers throughout the world of President Ibrahim Rugova of Kosovo, was of deep interest to me. Virtually nothing is mentioned in the media nor in Congress anymore of the dire situation for the remaining Christian Serbian population in Kosovo. It is as though the Balkan war never happened, nor the consequences of that war. While Rugova's method of achieving independence for Kosovo is described as nonviolent he often found himself allied with Hashim Thaci, the leader...

REGNUM: What parallels can be set between Kosovo and South Ossetia deriving from a possibility that Kosovo independence can be recognized? Of course, analogies can be set between the Kosovo variant and our situation, if we put Georgia on the place of Serbia and South Ossetians instead of Albanians. Each conflict is backed by forces of more powerful states. Well, it is clear that the US stands behind Kosovo, and Russia stands behind us. But in our case it is more comprehendible and grounded, as we used to live in a single country. It is natural that Russia has its...

(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,...