President Zoran Milanović has once again defended the Serb member of the tripartite BiH presidency, Milorad Dodik, calling any Croat voting for EU sanctions against him a traitor.
“If someone from Croatia votes for those sanctions, for me, they will be a traitor. Then I will represent Croatia in the European Council,” said Milanović, adding that he opposes the EU imposing sanctions against Dodik as the US did.
Far-right European politicians such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán have been making common cause with Serb nationalists who seek to tear Bosnia and Herzegovina apart.
In February 2018, Giorgia Meloni, a seasoned Italian right-wing politician, tweeted a photo of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán attending a roundtable meeting in his cabinet with a demographic map of Bosnia and Herzegovina directly opposite him. Shortly afterwards, another photo surfaced showing Orbán holding a book by then Associate Director of the UK’s Henry Jackson Society Douglas Murray, arguing that immigration is destroying Europe. Again, clearly in the background of Orbán was the same demographic map of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the Yugoslav wars, Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II. Although the Balkan states moved toward democratic governance and integration with NATO and the European Union in the immediate aftermath of the wars, consistent neglect on the part of the West has contributed to a dramatic backsliding in recent years. Now Russian President Vladimir Putin is seizing his opportunity and using the former Yugoslav states as the next battlefield to weaken NATO and the European Union.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the Yugoslav wars, Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II. Although the Balkan states moved toward democratic governance and integration with NATO and the European Union in the immediate aftermath of the wars, consistent neglect on the part of the West has contributed to a dramatic backsliding in recent years. Now Russian President Vladimir Putin is seizing his opportunity and using the former Yugoslav states as the next battlefield to weaken NATO and the European Union.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Prime Minister of Romania, Nicolae Ciucă, to NATO headquarters on Tuesday. The Secretary General congratulated Ciucă for his appointment as Prime Minister, as well as praising Romania’s contributions to the Alliance, including for playing an essential role in the Black Sea region. Stoltenberg also welcomed Romania’s efforts to help build stability in the Western Balkans, and its support to NATO’s partners, including to Moldova and Ukraine.
Mirko Zecevic Tadic was a member of the self-styled Croatian Defense Council during the Bosnian War. He had just reached adulthood as the fighting broke out in 1992, and eventually lost his right leg below the knee in a conflict that pitted neighbor against neighbor and majority Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats against each other in the former Yugoslav republic.
From Marcos and Soldado to Tito and Chiquito, the drug trafficking ties between Colombia and the Balkans run deep.
President Ivan Duque called it “the most severe blow” to Colombian drug trafficking in this century, comparable only to the arrest of drug lord Pablo Escobar three decades ago.
The excitement was understandable. Dairo Antonio Usuga, better known in Colombia as ‘Otoniel’, was the country’s most wanted drug trafficker, a former guerrilla turned leader of El Clan del Golfo, the biggest criminal gang in Colombia.
Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi tells BIRN that Serbia is still boosting Belgrade-run structures in Kosovo – and the EU-led dialogue won’t make progress until they are dissolved.
As the European Union-facilitated dialogue on normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo languishes in a stalemate, Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi, says the conditions are not ripe for another high-level meeting between Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic.
BIRN has identified a handful of self-proclaimed ‘expert’ security organisations in Serbia that promote the police, military and right-wing tropes while enjoying ties to the country’s ruling party.
In October, a notice was published in the obituaries section of the Serbian newspaper Politika that read, ‘Last greetings to my friend and comrade-in-arms, Stevo Djokic.’ It was signed ‘Aleksandar Vucic.’
Migrants and refugees trying to reach Western Europe are increasingly using a new route via Kosovo, aided by smugglers and local middlemen.
The last time refugees passed through the small town of Kukes in northeast Albania was 22 years ago, when hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from neighbouring Kosovo fled a brutal counter-insurgency war waged by Serbia in what was then the country’s southern province.