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Ahtisaari said that a group of experts will visit Belgrade shortly and he hopes that they in Belgrade will show a positive attitude to these proposals. During the press conference, Ahtisaari dismissed the charges of the Serbian delegation that during his Aug 8 with them he told them that the Serbs are guilty as a nation.” Particularly, Ahtisaari said that the Belgrade authorities should understand that the Milosevic policy (historical legacy) should be taken into consideration during the determination of Kosovo status and that “each nation in the world has its guilt and must pay for it.” The Serbian side...

BELGRADE -- Milorad Dodik said that an independence referendum for the Republic of Srpska is unavoidable. According to the RS Prime Minister, the referendum is unavoidable because of the inability to keep Bosnia-Herzegovina unified in the long-term. Dodik said that one of the essential conditions for the RS remaining in Bosnia-Herzegovina is for the Federation’s government to give guarantees that it will not fall into the clutches of radical Islamic politics. Dodik said that the Kosovo discussions are being followed closely in Banja Luka. “Kosovo separating would spark people in the RS to think of having equal rights for us...

As the United Nations tackles crises around the world from North Korea to the Middle East, it cannot ignore the Balkan region -- specifically the challenges facing Serbia. Seven years have passed since the U.N. took control of the Serbian province of Kosovo, and it will soon be time to make a permanent decision concerning its indeterminate status. ... The U.N. must not force a decision on Serbia that is unacceptable to its people and democratically elected representatives. A final decision must be a workable compromise and mutually acceptable to Serbia, ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo and the minority Serbian...

2 September 2006 | 15:23 | FOCUS News Agency Belgrade. The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Serbian President Boris Tadic will sign Thursday a Status of Forces Agreement /SOFA/ in Washington between the government of the Republic of Serbia and the USA. The Agreement is connected to the protection of the status, the access and the use of the military infrastructure in the Republic of Serbia, RTS reported. It will deepen the cooperation in the sphere of defense between Serbia and the USA based on an absolute respect of the two countries’ sovereignty and the UN regulations. Besides,...

30 August 2006 | 14:52 | FOCUS News Agency Banja Luka. USA military forces started preparing for their pullout of the Eagle base near Tuzla, Serbian agency TANJUG informs citing Bosnian newspaper Oslobojdenje. The news of the pullout of the American troops has caused concern among Sarajevo political circles. Citing reliable sources the Bosnian newspaper announced the Americans will leave the base by the end of the year as they will be replaced by a Dutch battalion. The chair of the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Presidency Sulejman Tihic could not confirm definitely the news of the pullout of the US troops...

August 28, 2006 1:57 PM BELGRADE, Serbia-The Serbian Orthodox Church on Monday accused the United Nations' top two envoys for Kosovo of siding with Kosovo's ethnic Albanians in negotiations over the province's future status. The church, which wields considerable influence among Serbs, sharply criticized Joachim Ruecker, Kosovo's U.N. administrator, and Martti Ahtisaari, the U.N.'s chief envoy, saying they "have openly declared their pro-Albanian stances." They "have joined a media campaign for (Kosovo) Albanian interests and wishes. Their recent statements have triggered surprise, worry and bitterness among the Serbian people," it said in a statement. Later Monday, the Serbian government also...

Belgrade. The words of the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo Marti Ahtisaari that while deciding on the region’s status the heritage of Slobodan Milosevic’s ruling will be taken into account triggered violent political reaction in Belgrade, Serbian newspaper Politika reads today. The coordinators of the Serbian negotiations team for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic and Leon Koen pointed out that Mr. Ahtisaari’s statement is making the complex region talks even more difficult and discredits Marti Ahtisaari himself as a mediator between the two parties. On her part the chair of the Coordination Council for Kosovo and Metohija Sanda Raskovic-Ivic said that the...

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Aug. 23 — For a month usually devoid of political activity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, August has been unusually fraught, as several incidents have raised ethnic tensions to a level not seen in years. On Aug. 11, a bomb severely damaged the tomb of Alija Izetbegovic, the former Bosnian president. Last week in eastern Bosnia, a group of Muslims forced their way into a Serbian church built on the former site of a mosque. And the broadcast of a videotape showing the wartime killing of an unarmed Bosnian Serb by Muslims prompted calls for a senior...

COPENHAGEN Four Muslims charged with supplying explosives for a planned terror attack in Europe were under surveillance for two years after meeting a radical Islamic leader in London, the former intelligence chief of Denmark said Friday. The four men, aged 17 to 21, were charged Thursday in Copenhagen in connection with a Bosnian terror probe that has also yielded arrests in Britain. Bosnian investigators say the network intended to blow up a target in a European country to force foreign troops to pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq. "We became aware of the group two years ago when its members...

PRIŠTINA -- Beta has learned that the announced meeting between the Kosovo team and the UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari has been cancelled. Martti Ahtisaari (FoNet) Although a new round of talks was announced after the end of the three-hour meeting last evening, sources close to the negotiating team today said the meeting has been cancelled. The stumbling blocks seem to be the number of Serb municipalities and the decentralization talks. The Serb negotiators have in the meanwhile asked the UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari to clarify his statement that “Serbs were guilty as a people”, and warned him that claims...

TEHRAN, Aug. 25 (MNA) – The Bosnian translation of the Iranian book, “The Worship”, written by Hassan Rohaninejad was published by Iran’s cultural attaché to Bosnia & Herzegovina. The book has been translated by the Bosnian translator Ramez Lalic and published in 1,000 volumes for the Bosnian youth. A part of the series “From the viewpoints of Imam Ali (AS)”, the book studies “worship” from Imam Ali’s view and discusses the whys and wherefores of worshipping. A section of the book reads, “Worship means humble obedience to the Most High that has different degrees.” Imam Ali (AS) has divided worship...

Sarajevo, 24 August (AKI) - Bosnian Muslim leader Sulejman Tihic has told local Serbs to stop talking about a possible referendum on independence, because Bosnia was indivisible and those who don’t like it should leave the country. Tihic, who currently chairs Bosnia’s three-man rotating state presidency, has been an outspoken advocate of Muslim demands for the abolition of Bosnia’s Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS). Local Serbs for their part have threatened to hold a referendum on independence. The quarrel prompted the high representative of the international community in Bosnia, Christian Schwarz Schilling, to intervene last week demanding that politicians on...

Belgrade, 23 August (AKI) - Serbia's foreign minister, Vuk Draskovic has reacted with undiplomatic vehemence to remarks made on Tuesday by an Albanian official that Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro were "unnatural creations," and that all Albanians living in the region should unite to form a 'natural Albania' by 2013. The comments made by Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha's political adviser, Koco Danaj, to Kosovo Albanian language daily Epoka were - surprisingly - ignored by press in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. However, Draskovic’s ministry immediately issued a sharp statement upbraiding Albania for its "expansionist" aspirations. "The message was sent through the...

PRIŠTINA -- The Humanitarian Law Center has issued a press statement codemning Agim Ceku’s behavior in the case of Selim Krasniqi. The HLC Kosovo Office finds that the public support for the convicted war criminal Krasniqi was unacceptable and damanging the basic principles of democracy. "HLC Kosovo believes that this behaviour is contrary to the principles of the rule of law and independent judiciary, which are the goals of independent Kosovo. Bearing in mind the fact that, on 10 August 2006, the International Trial Chamber pronounced Selim Krasniqi, Bedri Zymberi and Agron Krasniqi guilty of war crime, illegal detention and...

Serb interior ministry and paramilitaries responsible for Meja deaths, says prosecution witness. By Caroline Tosh in The Hague (TU No 464, 18-Aug-06) A prosecution witness told the trial of six Serbian and military officials charged with war crimes in Kosovo that the Yugoslav military did not intend to kill hundreds of people during their 1999 operation in the village of Meja. Meja features in the indictment against former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic, former deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia Nikola Sainovic, former chief of staff Dragoljub Ojdanic, and police and army generals Sreten Lukic, Nebojsa Pavkovic and Vladimir Lazarevic. They are...

Forensic experts have excavated over 1,000 bodies from a mass grave in the village of Kamenica in eastern Bosnia.

The Balkans have historically been the key battlefield between Islam and European civilization since the battle at Kosovo, where the Ottoman Turks clashed with the Serbs in 1389, to the present. At its apex, the Islamic tide reached and was stopped at the gates of Vienna (1683). It was finally pushed out in the Balkan War of 1912, when the combined armies of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria were stopped at the Gates of Istanbul (Constantinople) by the intervention of the great European powers of that period. In reality we have fought on the side of our enemies. As in...

Serbias Foreighn Ministery oficialy strongly supported UN resolution on sending 15,000 peacekeepers to south Lebannon expressing hope that UN securiti councile will be as much as firm regarding future status of Kosovo and Serbias legal claims as souvereign nation. Serbias foreighn ministery said "Hezbollah millitants are eaqualy danger in their beligrance and unacceptance of existing state of Israel as are Kosovo (Muslim) Albanians in their belligrance and millitantism and unacceptance of souvereign borders of Serbia." This i sthe first time that Serbia is officialy eaqulising its own problems with problems of Israel.

A senior Serbian government official has said she would accept a partition of Kosovo if no other long-term solution can be found. The president of Serbia's Co-ordination Centre for Kosovo, Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, also said no Serb leader would ever sign a deal giving Kosovo independence. She said Belgrade's policy was for Kosovo province to have substantial autonomy within the Serbian state. Kosovo is technically part of Serbia but has been run by the UN since 1999. The vast majority of Kosovo's population are ethnic Albanian who have been pressing for independence. Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku has ruled out...

WASHINGTON DC -- 25 U.S. Senators are asking that the U.S. president supports the democratically elected Serbian government. The letter argues that Serbia’s role is of vital importance for the future of South-Eastern Europe and America’s regional interests and that Belgrade has grown into a strong U.S. regional partner. “In order to help transform Serbia, the U.S. should support the reforms in the military and the security sectors, encourage cooperation with the Serbian Army and enabling its officers to attend military colleges and courses in the U.S.”, the letter said. The Senators remind that it is Serbia’s strategic goal to...