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BELGRADE -- US President George Bush announced that Vojislav Koštunica will soon make a trip to the US. Bush also called on Serbian Prime Minister Koštunica to listen to the needs of the Albanian majority in Kosovo. During a roundtable discussion with students in Vienna, Bush said that he will work with Koštunica on confirming the needs of the people of Kosovo, and that America’s politics are also interested in guaranteeing the rights of all minorities. “We believe that dialogue between Serbia and those who aspire for an independent country in Kosovo need to be ongoing, in such a way...

Government officials decided that constitutional referendum was unavoidable since they could not perform their duties due to the bureaucratic chaos in the country stemming from the tension among Bosnian Muslims, Serbians and Croatians. There are about 200 ministers, 80 political parties and 14 parliaments in Bosnia, one of the most convoluted political systems in the world. Constitutional referendum in Bosnia-Herzegovina is also a high priority for the European Union (EU). EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn had previously stated that constitutional referendum was a must for Bosnia in the path of EU membership.

A picturesque valley in the western province of Kosovo is home to the largest and most urgently preserved monastery in Serbia. The 14th century Visoki Decani monastery has not only survived the passage of time but also the ravages of war. Even though around half the Serb population fled a wave of revenge attacks after the war, the 100,000 who stayed are still targeted by sporadic violence. Stoning of police and attacks on individuals are not uncommon. In 1998, Slobodan Milosevic, who was president at the time, led troops against Albanian forces in an effort to reclaim parts of Kosovo....

A picturesque valley in the western province of Kosovo is home to the largest and most urgently preserved monastery in Serbia. The 14th century Visoki Decani monastery has not only survived the passage of time but also the ravages of war. Even though around half the Serb population fled a wave of revenge attacks after the war, the 100,000 who stayed are still targeted by sporadic violence. Stoning of police and attacks on individuals are not uncommon. In 1998, Slobodan Milosevic, who was president at the time, led troops against Albanian forces in an effort to reclaim parts of Kosovo....

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...

PRISTINA, Serbia-Two British tourists were shot at Thursday in western Kosovo, officials said. No one was injured. The shooting occurred near the western village of Babaloc, an ethnic Albanian area, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the province's capital, Pristina, Kosovo police spokesman Veton Elshani said. The circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear. Security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the incident, said the tourists' vehicle bore registration plates from Serbia's capital, Belgrade.

But Kerry may have some competition. On Memorial Day, another former Democratic presidential candidate, retired General Wesley Clark, tried to rewrite the history of the war in Kosovo in order to make himself into a great military hero. "Last week," he said, "I returned to Kosovo for the first time since I retired from military service. For me, this trip was very personal. In 1999, I commanded the NATO forces that stopped the genocide against ethnic Albanians by Slobodan Milosevic and his Serbian forces." That sounds pretty impressive-commanding the forces that stopped genocide. Too bad it's not true. Genocide is...

Sarajevo, 8 June (AKI) - Bosnian Muslim religious leader Reiss ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric has accused the country's Catholic and Orthodox Christians of undermining the country and advocating the partitioning of Bosnia. Ceric was quoted by the Sarajevo daily, Dnevni Avaz, as saying that former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic and Croatia's Franjo Tudjman deal, allegedly made in the early nineties to divide Bosnia, had been taken over by the Serbian Orthodox and Croatian Catholic Church. As a proof of an alleged conspiracy, Ceric said that the bishops of the two churches have been meeting without Muslim representatives. "It is well known...

So let's talk about Yugoslavia! Finally, after more than a decade of one-way journalistic language that in no way made sense, an opening seems to have been created in France in the press (1), and perhaps not only in France, to speak about things differently? or simply to start speaking about Yugoslavia. A debate, a discussion, a discourse, a fruitful discussion seems to have become possible, a general questioning, of reports that speak for themselves... Previously: nothing, and still more nothing? defamations instead of a debate, expressed by exclusively prefabricated words, repeated ad infinitum, used like an automatic weapon. So...

(Translation from Serbian) " ...Negotiations between Tudjman and Milosevic to devide Bosnia are nowdays held in different manner. Catolic and Ortodox bishops are holding series of meetings without inviting us. That is something problem, that is call to war." Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric said to gratuates uf Islamic school in Sarajevo that attacks on Islamic community in Bosnia must stop, also he attacked local TV station for accusing Islamic community in Bosnia that it "Builds Teheran out of Sarajevo" "

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)--Bosnian authorities, responding to media reports that they gave Canada information leading to the arrest of 17 militant suspects there, said Wednesday only that they had cooperated with intelligence services in many countries. Leader of Bosnian Muslim Wahabis, Enes Mujkanovic, calls for destruction of the West. Canada arrested the suspects Friday and Saturday and said it had foiled plans for attacks in southeast Canada. Officials said the arrests were ordered after the group acquired three tons of ammonium nitrate, which can be mixed with fuel oil to make a powerful explosive. The Bosnian daily newspaper Nezavisne Novine from...

BBC Monitoring European 5 June 2006 Serbian researchers say 5,515 Serbs killed in wartime Sarajevo Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 5 Jun 06 Text of report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA BELGRADE, June 5 (Srna) -- Milivoje Ivanisevic, director of the [Belgrade] Centre for Researching Crimes against Serbs, has pointed out that 5,515 Serbs were killed in Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995. "We have the lists of all the names of victims from all municipalities and settlements in Sarajevo. We have been patiently collecting evidence of atrocities committed by Muslims. For this reason, we have the name...

NOVI PAZAR -- Ten young men donning long beards, short pants and white hats broke up a concert of the Balkanika orchestra. The hooligans were dressed like members of the vehabit movement. They climbed up onto the stage and threw around the instruments that were set up for the musicians to play. One of the young men toko the microphone and told those attending the concert: “Brothers, go home, they are working against Islam here. This is Satan’s work.” He then threw the microphone, which was damaged, as were the speakers, mixing board and some of the lighting. Four police...

There is no evidence to suggest that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was poisoned, according to a United Nations investigation. The Hague tribunal's report said he died of a heart attack - despite claims "in some segments of the media that he was the victim of murder". Mr Milosevic died in his cell on 11 March while on trial for war crimes. The report said security breaches did allow him to self-medicate but said he had received "proper care"... Doctors from Serbia, Russia, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, who had treated him before or during his time in detention were...

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...

Who Will Protect Kosovo’s Christians? by John Couretas, Director of Communications This week, Montenegro voted to end its union with Serbia, the last remaining alliance of the former Yugoslav federation. News accounts of the vote frequently add matter-of-factly that Kosovo, the Serb province placed under the administration of the United Nations in 1999, is next in line to gain its independence and probably by the end of the year. But anyone who cares about religious freedom, the rights of minorities, and the rule of law should be highly skeptical of an independent Kosovo. Since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign...

The former US general who commanded NATO's 1999 air war against Serbia predicted its southern province of Kosovo would become independent within months. Wesley Clark told Kosovo Albanian leaders in Pristina he had confidence in their "strong, positive and visionary proposals" to find a solution for Kosovo, which has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999. "I am confident that this issue will be solved very soon, and probably in few months, Kosovo will become independent and will respect the rights of all citizens," said Clark. "I believe that Kosovo will be welcomed into the family of...

Thu 25 May 2006 11:52 AM ET (Updates with U.N. statement, details) PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, May 25 (Reuters) - U.N. police in Kosovo fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of ethnic Albanians who stoned a United Nations convoy escorting Serb defence lawyers in the west of the province on Thursday. Three U.N. police officers and one translator were wounded when villagers blocked a road and lobbed stones at vehicles escorting two Serb members of a defence team accredited to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, a U.N. statement said. "Police then had to clear the crowd,...

May 24, 2006 - As controversial CIA Director Porter Goss exits the agency, NEWSWEEK has discovered new details about a purge of top agency operatives shortly after Goss's arrival in 2004. A bitter secret feud over a Clinton-era counterintelligence case was apparently a major motivation behind the loss of those seasoned intelligence veterans, sources say. Gen. Michael Hayden, President Bush's nominee to replace Goss as CIA chief, has signaled that when he is confirmed by the Senate, probably later this week, he intends to appoint one of the principal victims of the feud, former CIA operations chief Stephen Kappes, as...

Vecernje Novosti daily, Belgrade Wednesday, May 17, 2006 We torched everything! (transcripts of Kosovo Albanians) By Zeljko Pantelic, May 16, 2006 Organized Albanian criminal groups involved in the sale of drugs, people, illegal immigration, etc. were behind the March 2004 pogrom against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. This conclusion follows from taped telephone conversations between leaders of Albanian mafia organizations which since 2003 have been illegally transferring hundreds of illegal emigrants per year from Kosovo to Italy, and who were uncovered by Italian police at the beginning of this week. By wiretapping the conversations of Albanian criminals, investigating prosecutors in...