Tag: yugoslavia

Kosovo Serb politician killed in drive-by shooting

by Tanja Vujisic Agence France-PresseKOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo – Prominent Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic was shot dead in a brazen drive-by shooting on Tuesday that risked fanning ethnic tensions in the volatile region. The killers struck on the very day that Belgrade and Pristina resumed EU-moderated talks on normalising ties after a hiatus of more than a year. Both Serbian and Kosovo Albanian officials refrained from explicitly accusing each other of being behind the killing as the international […]

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Balkan pepper relish stirs appetites and pride

by Rachel O’Brien with Rusmir Smajilhodzic Agence France-Presse LESKOVAC, Serbia (AFP) – It’s a source of Balkan rivalry but one ubiquitous smell: the wood-fire roasting of peppers wafting through towns and villages each autumn as families prepare the region’s best-loved relish. Slathered on bread, nibbled with cheese or served alongside meat dishes, “ajvar” has for generations filled the shelves of winter pantries — and the rich spread’s production is a matter of no little pride. “We […]

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‘Butcher of Bosnia’ Mladic back in court as trial nears end

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) – by Jo Biddle Former Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, once dubbed “The Butcher of Bosnia”, returned to a UN court Monday as his trial for genocide and war crimes in the 1990s conflict nears an end. More than four years after Mladic’s trial opened at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, prosecutors began three days of closing arguments seeking to dismiss claims he was not […]

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UN court says neither Serbia nor Croatia committed genocide in 1990s wars

The United Nations‘ highest court ruled on Tuesday that neither Croatia nor Serbia had committed genocide against each other’s populations during the wars that accompanied the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Peter Tomka, president of the International Court of Justice, said the forces of both countries had committed crimes during the conflict, but that the intent to commit genocide — by “destroying a population in whole or in part” — had not been […]

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